Eliminate Lame Duck Sessions

Once the people have voted, it is unwise to allow their legislative bodies to convene and legislate where the political losers have nothing to lose.   We should eliminate "Lame Duck" sessions in all legislatures.

Beality

Societal Cancer

The human body succumbs when cancerous cells proliferate to compromise a critical body function. In the same way, a human society, whether it be an empire, a nation, or the entire human race, will similarly succumb when enough of its human beings consume, rather than produce, societal resources and proliferate to compromise a critical societal function.

A person normally begins as billions of cells, ALL of whom are trying their hardest to support the health and survival of the person. A rapidly developing and productive person usually results. To maintain this survival state, there are roving cells within each person whose sole function is to search for and destroy cells that have been damaged or reprogrammed so as to take resources from the person, but not give any resources back. Normally, these damaged cells are entirely removed from the person to ensure its continued health and survival.

At some point, whether through import of poisonous resources into the organism, e.g. impure water and air or “dead” food or foreign substances, or just aging, the cells responsible for cleansing the being of cancerous cells are compromised, and the cancerous cells are allowed or even encouraged to reproduce. At some point the cancer “metastasizes” and the cancerous cells proliferate to compromise a critical body function, causing the death of the person, as stated before.

Similarly, whether through import of poisonous resources into society, e.g. entitlement beliefs, rather than productive beliefs, or aging, the persons responsible for cleansing the society of nonproductive persons are compromised, and the “entitled” persons are allowed or even encouraged to reproduce through raising their children in the same beliefs, encouraging their neighbors in the same beliefs, or in recent history, being encouraged by their governments in such beliefs!

Similarly, at some point these entitled (cancerous) persons “metastasize” and they proliferate to the point they compromise a critical societal function, causing the death of the society, as stated before.

Unfortunately, this “societal cancer” has taken root with a vengeance in current times, especially with the encouragement of increasing numbers of governments, local, regional, and even international. The numbers of persons, who believe that they are entitled to societal resources, rather than charged with producing societal resources for the benefit of all persons, are exploding. Increasing numbers of societies are compromising their critical functions, e.g. Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and eventually, if not stopped soon, America.

Cancer, when it gets out of control, requires rigorous treatment to prevent death. Cancerous cells must be eliminated. In societal terms, unproductive persons must be returned to productive status. At the risk of being lynched, I am not advocating the death of unproductive persons, although theoretically this would be more efficient, but as far as humanely possible, all persons must be encouraged to produce as much as possible (through societal incentives) to support the health and survival of society, and must be discouraged (through societal disincentives) from only consuming the resources of society.

I am not advocating that persons should not be allowed to take any resources from society. Obviously, persons need resources (food, water, etc.) in order to produce resources, but receiving resources needs to be conditioned upon producing resources to guarantee survival of society. For example, as an incentive, I am advocating that welfare recipients produce societal resources (e.g. work) in return for receiving societal resources (e.g. money). As a disincentive, I am advocating that persons who riot and destroy human resources in order to obtain or maintain human resources should be arrested and institutionalized, until they are able and willing to produce, as well as consume, societal resources.

Quite frankly, failure to defeat the growing societal cancer will doom society to death.

Beality

Eliminate Professional Politicians

We pay politicians more money than we make to sit around all year and come up with more ways to take away more of our money. Something is wrong with this. Maybe we should go back to sending persons willing to volunteer their services to assemble every two years for one or two months to pass really signficant legislation in the best interests of all of us.

We need to rid ourselves of these relatively new professional politicians who seek to remain in office with larger and larger salaries and larger and larger benefits and larger and larger pensions payable until their death by legistlating larger and larger salaries and larger and larger benefits and larger and larger pensions payable until the death of those who vote to keep them in political office, persons such as government workers and labor union workers. These wonderful benefits are paid for by the decreasing numbers of the rest of us who are receiving smaller and smaller salaries and smaller and smaller benefits and smaller and smaller pensions. This cannot last.

Beality

On the Merits or Potential DUI Defense

Actually, when someone who has built up a tolerance (or dependence) for alcohol, that someone operates better (more efficiently, safely, etc.) when his or her alcohol level is within this tolerance (or dependence) range, and it is when his or her alcohol level is above this tolerance range, i.e. too much alcohol recently, or when his or her alcohol level is below this tolerance range, i.e. when no or not enough alcohol has been consumed, that he or she operates his motor vehicle less efficiently, safely, etc.

Applied to the operation of a motor vehicle, it is then possible that a person, who has a tolerance level at a blood alcohol level of .10, as measured by a breathalyzer machine, is driving his or her motor vehicle more safely at that level than when he or she has had no alcohol. Thus, due to the application of the arbitrary blood alcohol level, people could be arrested for DUI, say at a mandatory traffic stop for alcohol, when in fact, they are driving similarly to a person who has had no alcohol. Thus, the blood alcohol level is not a scientific standard of driving performance built upon the merits, especially in the case of alcohol tolerance (or dependence), and driving performance, rather than alcohol blood level, in this case, is more important for the safety and welfare of the rest of humanity.

It should not matter what causes unsafe driving, whether it is alcohol, drugs, cellphones, GPSs, razors, lipstick, cigarettes, sex, or whatever; it is unsafe driving that causes death, injury, and damage to others, and it is the objective unsafe driving that should be prevented, not solely a certain blood alcohol level. Alcohol tolerance (or dependence), once intervention is indicated, is more appropriately dealt with in the treatment context.

Beality

Who do you believe...Barack Hussein Obama or Thomas Jefferson?

Thomas Jefferson said the following:

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Our greatest enemies are amongst us...

As President George W. Bush's top speechwriter, Marc Thiessen was provided unique access to the CIA program used in interrogating top Al Qaeda terrorists, including the mastermind of the 9/11 attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM).

Now, in his riveting new book, Courting Disaster, How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack.

(Regnery),

Here is an excerpt from Courting Disaster:

Just before dawn on March 1, 2003, two dozen heavily armed Pakistani tactical assault forces move in and surround a safe house in Rawalpindi. A few hours earlier they had received a text message from an informant inside the house. It read: "I am with KSM."

Bursting in, they find the disheveled mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in his bedroom. He is taken into custody. In the safe house, they find a treasure trove of computers, documents, cell phones and other valuable "pocket litter."

Once in custody, KSM is defiant. He refuses to answer questions, informing his captors that he will tell them everything when he gets to America and sees his lawyer. But KSM is not taken to America to see a lawyer. Instead he is taken to a secret CIA "black site" in an undisclosed location.

Upon arrival, KSM finds himself in the complete control of Americans. He does not know where he is, how long he will be there, or what his fate will be.

Despite his circumstances, KSM still refuses to talk. He spews contempt at his interrogators, telling them that Americans are weak, lack resilience, and are unable to do what is necessary to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals. He has trained to resist interrogation. When he is asked for information about future attacks, he tells his questioners scornfully: "Soon, you will know."

It becomes clear he will not reveal the information using traditional interrogation techniques. So he undergoes a series of "enhanced interrogation techniques" approved for use only on the most high-value detainees. The techniques include waterboarding.

His resistance is described by one senior American official as "superhuman." Eventually, however, the techniques work, and KSM becomes cooperative-for reasons that will be described later in this book.

He begins telling his CIA de-briefers about active al Qaeda plots to launch attacks against the United States and other Western targets. He holds classes for CIA officials, using a chalkboard to draw a picture of al Qaeda's operating structure, financing, communications, and logistics. He identifies al Qaeda travel routes and safe havens, and helps intelligence officers make sense of documents and computer records seized in terrorist raids. He identifies voices in intercepted telephone calls, and helps officials understand the meaning of coded terrorist communications. He provides information that helps our intelligence community capture other high-ranking terrorists.

KSM's questioning, and that of other captured terrorists, produces more than 6,000 intelligence reports, which are shared across the intelligence community, as well as with our allies across the world.

In one of these reports, KSM describes in detail the revisions he made to his failed 1994-1995 plan known as the "Bojinka plot" to blow up a dozen airplanes carrying some 4,000 passengers over the Pacific Ocean.

Years later, an observant CIA officer notices that the activities of a cell being followed by British authorities appear to match KSM's description of his plans for a Bojinka-style attack.

In an operation that involves unprecedented intelligence cooperation between our countries, British officials proceed to unravel the plot. On the night of Aug.9, 2006 they launch a series of raids in a northeast London suburb that lead to the arrest of two dozen al Qaeda terrorist suspects. They find a USB thumb-drive in the pocket of one of the men with security details for Heathrow airport, and information on seven trans-Atlantic flights that were scheduled to take off within hours of each other:

* United Airlines Flight 931 to San Francisco departing at 2:15 p.m.;
* Air Canada Flight 849 to Toronto departing at 3:00 p.m.;
* Air Canada Flight 865 to Montreal departing at 3:15 p.m.;
* United Airlines Flight 959 to Chicago departing at 3:40 p.m.;
* United Airlines Flight 925 to Washington departing at 4:20 p.m.;
* American Airlines Flight 131 to New York departing at 4:35 p.m;
* American Airlines Flight 91 to Chicago departing at 4:50 p.m.

They seize bomb-making equipment and hydrogen peroxide to make liquid explosives. And they find the chilling martyrdom videos the suicide bombers had prepared.

Today, if you asked an average person on the street what they know about the 2006 airlines plot, most would not be able to tell you much. Few Americans are aware of the fact that al Qaeda had planned to mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with an attack of similar scope and magnitude.

And still fewer realize that the terrorists' true intentions in this plot were uncovered thanks to critical information obtained through the interrogation of the man who conceived it: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

This is only one of the many attacks stopped with the help of the CIA interrogation program established by the Bush Administration in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Editor's Note: For other foiled terrorist plots, see page 9 of Courting Disaster.

In addition to helping break up these specific terrorist cells and plots, CIA questioning provided our intelligence community with an unparalleled body of information about al Qaeda

Until the program was temporarily suspended in 2006, intelligence officials say, well over half of the information our government had about al Qaeda-how it operates, how it moves money, how it communicates, how it recruits operatives, how it picks targets, how it plans and carries out attacks-came from the interrogation of terrorists in CIA custody.

Former CIA Director George Tenet has declared: "I know that this program has saved lives. I know we've disrupted plots. I know this program alone is worth more than what the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us."

Former CIA Director Mike Hayden has said: "The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work."

Even Barack Obama's Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, has acknowledged: "High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country."

Leon Panetta, Obama's CIA Director, has said: "Important information was gathered from these detainees. It provided information that was acted upon."

And John Brennan, Obama's Homeland Security Advisor, when asked in an interview if enhanced-interrogation techniques were necessary to keep America safe, replied :"Would the U.S. be handicapped if the CIA was not, in fact, able to carry out these types of detention and debriefing activities? I would say yes."

On Jan. 22, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13491, closing the CIA program and directing that, henceforth, all interrogations by U.S personnel must follow the techniques contained in the Army Field Manual.

The morning of the announcement, Mike Hayden was still in his post as CIA Director, He called White House Counsel Greg Craig and told him bluntly: "You didn't ask, but this is the CIA officially nonconcurring." The president went ahead anyway, overruling the objections of the agency.

A few months later, on April 16, 2009, President Obama ordered the release of four Justice Department memos that described in detail the techniques used to interrogate KSM and other high-value terrorists. This time, not just Hayden (who was now retired) but five CIA directors -- including Obama's own director, Leon Panetta -- objected. George Tenet called to urge against the memos' release. So did Porter Goss. So did John Deutch. Hayden says: "You had CIA directors in a continuous unbroken stream to 1995 calling saying, 'Don't do this.'"

In addition to objections from the men who led the agency for a collective 14 years, the President also heard objections from the agency's covert field operatives. A few weeks earlier, Panetta had arranged for the eight top officials of the Clandestine Service to meet with the President. It was highly unusual for these clandestine officers to visit the Oval Office, and they used the opportunity to warn the President that releasing the memos would put agency operatives at risk. The President reportedly listened respectfully-and then ignored their advice.

With these actions, Barack Obama arguably did more damage to America's national security in his first 100 days of office than any President in American history.

Something Worth Doing

If you think of something worth doing and you don't commence to do it as soon as possible, then it is not worth doing.

Beality

The State pretends to pay us and we pretend to work

“It's a common sight in communist Cuba. Here, nearly everyone works for the state, and official unemployment is minuscule, but pay is so low that Cubans like to joke that 'the state pretends to pay us and we pretend to work.'"

Friday, July 16, 2010

Jobless in Cuba? Communism faces the unthinkable
By Anne-Marie Garcia, Associated Press Writer

Let's say I break into your house...

Certain people are angry that the US might protect its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and, once here, to stay indefinitely.

Let me see if I correctly understand the thinking behind these protests.
Let's say I break into your house.
Let's say that when you discover me in your house, you insist that I leave.

But I say, 'No! I like it here. It's better than my house. I've made all the beds and washed the dishes and did the laundry and swept the floors. I've done all the things you don't like to do. I'm hard-working and honest (except for when I broke into your house).

According to the protesters:
You are Required to let me stay in your house
You are Required to feed me
You are Required to add me to your family's insurance plan
You are Required to Educate my kids
You are Required to Provide other benefits to me & to my family

My husband will do all of your yard work because he is also hard-working and honest (except for that breaking in part).

If you try to call the police or force me out, I will call my friends who will picket your house carrying signs that proclaim my RIGHT to be there.

It's only fair, after all, because you have a nicer house than I do, and I'm just trying to better myself. I'm a hard-working and honest, person, except for well, you know, I did break into your house.

And what a deal it is for me!!!

I live in your house, contributing only a fraction of the cost of my keep, and there is nothing you can do about it without being accused of cold, uncaring, selfish, prejudiced, and bigoted behavior.

Oh yeah, and I DEMAND that you learn MY LANGUAGE!!! so that you can communicate with me.

Why can't people see how ridiculous this is?!

by HillGal » Thu May 20, 2010 10:49 am, PressDemocrat.com Forums

"They should be arrested."

Police are calling a man lucky to be alive after he attempted to commit burglary in a firearm-friendly neighborhood. First he broke into a home owned by Avi Manges, who quickly got her pistol when her barking dogs alerted her to the danger. "I hollered, 'Who's there? I've got a gun!'" Manges explained. The intruder looked through a window, confirmed Manges was armed and fled.

Shortly thereafter, the suspect entered another residence; the homeowner heard a commotion and got his 9 mm pistol. He spotted the suspect, pointed the gun at him and held him for police. "If [the burglar] had threatened them, he would have been shot," police Sgt. Roderick O'Connor said. "You go busting into a house, they don't know what your intent is."

According to O'Connor, all the suspect had to say for himself was, "Those guys pointed guns at me. They should be arrested."

The only charges filed were against the suspect. (Glenwood Post, Glenwood, Colorado, 04/29/10)(further posted in America's 1st Freedom, July 2010)

The Constitution and American Sovereignty

"...the government must be strong enough to protect the people's rights, yet restrained enough not to do more than that."

Jeremy Rabkin, "The Constitution and American Sovereignty", Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College, July/August 2009, Volume 38, Number 7/8

Truly Curing the Healthcare Crisis

Further to the last post…some 16 years after writing it…with that time to contemplate on what I wrote then…but still believing that the basis is true…I submit the following:

Incentives ultimately drive behavior. If you don’t believe that, go read Human Action by B. F. Skinner. Any system that is not designed with incentives to promote its purpose will fail in its purpose. Obviously, when you pay a healthcare provider only when you are sick, there is not much financial incentive for a healthcare provider to keep you healthy. Sorry to say that, but if you were always healthy, you would never go to a healthcare provider. Healthcare providers would cease to exist.

On the other hand, I realize since writing the last post in 1994 that healthcare providers are not going to agree to such a system, when they are not completely in control, that is, the patient is almost totally in control of their lifestyle once outside of the healthcare practitioners’ office with respect to their diet, medications, risks, and so forth. Combine that with incentive for the patient not to follow their healthcare practitioners’ instructions by partying hearty and so on, that is, the healthcare practitioner pays if the patient gets sick, and the patient doesn’t. Without incentives parallel to, or in partnership with, their healthcare providers, patients are not as likely to stay healthy.

As a result, there must be a partnership between the healthcare provider and the patient, whereby the healthcare provider will make less money, and the patient will pay more money, to the extent the patient is not healthy and requires greater health care costs, and the healthcare provider will make more money, and the patient will save more money, to the extent that the patient remains healthy and doesn't require healthcare costs.

The incentive theory is crystal clear and simple. Now for the hard part. How do you redesign and rebuild a complicated healthcare system to these theoretical specifications? I will continue working and writing on this, but in the meantime, I see a great pre-med senior thesis or a great doctoral thesis on this challenge. How about you? Your incentive is in curing the health care crisis, which is draining the life blood out of this nation.

Beality

Cure the Real Medical Health Care Disease

Preface: This is a copy of a real letter. Notice the date.

April 6, 1994

Mrs. Hillary Clinton
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Subject: Cure the Real Medical Health Care Disease

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

Imagine that you are a doctor. You get paid only when your patients are healthy. You do not get paid when they are diseased.

You are rewarded only if they become, and remain, healthy whether due to recommended life style changes, vitamins, or other health inducing activities, whatever proves to work. You are not rewarded when you and they engage in needless surgery, risky chemical therapies, or other therapies that do not prove to result in better health.

The new Hippocratic Oath should be, “A doctor does not charge patients when they are sick but only when they are well.”

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that if you only pay medical personnel when patients are sick, that the system then invites sickness. The incentives of the present medical establishment are completely the opposite of what they need to be to promote health. Only by reversing the incentive will health be promoted.

If doctors and other health care providers are paid only when they keep people healthy, instead of when they keep them sick, the cost of medical care will decrease dramatically and immediately, to rise as the general health of Americans increases. Americans will truly not mind paying doctors under these circumstances. The quality of medical care will, because of proper incentives, flourish.

The medical care crisis is yours to solve. By changing the incentives, instead of throwing more money at a failed system, you can not only solve the crisis, but usher in a new and enlightened era of medicine.

Sincerely yours,
/s/
The person now known as Beality

Cc: President Clinton
       Letters to the Editor, Washington Post
       Letters to the Editor, Los Angeles Times
       Letters to the Editor, Wall Street Journal
       The United States Surgeon General

***POSTSCRIPT: SEE THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST FOR AN UPDATE....

Daily Shower and Office Break Exercises

These are “isometric” exercises that can be done at least three times per day to strengthen all of your muscle groups.

Take advantage of morning showers, work breaks, long elevator rides, whatever, to perform these exercises.

The below may sound complicated at first, but add an exercise a day or so, to make learning it manageable. Make these a daily habit, and you will feel stronger and healthier within days.

Tighten and release muscles for say 10 or more counts, then contract and do not release them for 10 or more counts, unless otherwise noted, and short of any pain. Pain from a previous exercise should be allowed less forceful tightening, or temporary suspension of that particular exercise.

If you discover enhancements to the below, after your experiences with them, please advise.

1. "Back Smush": Arch the back so that lower back muscles, deltoids (upper back), triceps (back of upper arm), etc. are tightened. Stretch your head backwards, unless you feel dizziness, then move your head upwards. Continue breathing. 
2. "Front Smush": Arch forward so that abdominal, pectoral (breast), and biceps, etc. are tightened. Again, alternate your contraction focus among muscles to maximize effects to all groups. Continue breathing.

3. "Squeezer": Raise the arms straight out and contract the trapezius muscles (upper shoulder), gluteus maximus (butt), and quadriceps (top, front legs). Again, alternate your contraction focus among muscles to maximize effects to all groups. Continue breathing.

4. "Who's Behind Me?": While standing upright, slowly rotate from side to side (look straight behind, if you can) back and forth several times.

5. "Neck Clicker": Rotate, wag, and nod head and neck (not too fast or forceful) to eliminate bone clicking of the vertabrae.

6. "Shoulder Clicker": Rotate, wag, and nod shoulders and spine (not too fast or forceful) to eliminate bone clicking in the shoulder area.

7. "Right Lunge": Stretch left Achilles tendon. Stick both arms out to the side for balance and rotate both hands up and around as strongly as possible 5 times to exercise lower arm muscles, feeling all muscles contracting around the arm. Bring left leg forward and up as far as possible, as if to start a karate kick forward, or complete kick forward, if room. Rotate left leg backwards as far as possible contracting hamstring (upper back leg muscle), as if to start karate kick backward, or complete kick backward, if room.  Add rotations of the foot in both directions if you can.

8. "Wrong Lunge": Repeat Lunge exercises as above with left leg forward.

9. "Weight Up; Window Down": Spread the feet at shoulder width apart and pretend (make it real) to lift a very heavy barbell from the floor up to the upright position,while breathing in, then push the heavy barbell above your head as far as possible, while breathing out, then move your hands as if you are going to lower a sticky window and forcefully pull the window down to your waist, while breathing in, and then forcefully push it slowly down to the floor, while breathing out. Done correctly with isometrics, it will seem all too real, but again, stop short of pain.  Perform several times, but stop short of pain.

10. "Knee Bend Arounder": Slightly bend your knees, place your hands on them, and rotate them around several times one way, then the other way. Then, gently snap the knees backwards several times.

11. "Swivel Hips": Place your hands on your hips and rotate your hips around several times one way, then the other way, slowly dipping down and slowly coming up. Do not bend your knees more than 90 degrees, or less if you experience pain or have had knee injuries. Stop this exercise with any knee pain.

12. "Brain Balancer": Here is a new one, I just discovered. Pinch your right earlobe between your left thumb and forefinger. Pinch your left earlobe between your right thumb and forefinger. Begin shallow knee bends with feet shoulder width apart, breathing in while going down and breathing out while coming up. Do not bend your knees more than 90 degrees, or less if you experience pain or have had knee injuries. Stop this exercise with any knee pain. This exercise is reported to balance both sides of your brain through acupressure, as a bonus.

Once you have done these exercises a few times and make it a daily habit, it becomes easy. and you become stronger and fitter each day you do this.

"Beality"

* * * * *

This article is not intended as medical advice and is not medical advice. This article is intended to provide only general, non-specific health information. The specific facts that apply to your health conditions may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. You should consult with your health provider familiar with your health history prior to using this information. This blog does not create any health provider/client relationship.

Never the Twain Shall Meet – Vacation and Work in the Electronic Age!

Vacations are vacations, and work is work. Right? Wrong!

The Electronic Age has changed not only the way we work, but also the way we vacate. Many commentators have portrayed it as the ruination of our vacations and an intruder into every facet of our lives. Perhaps some features of the Electronic Age will lead to that conclusion. The cellular telephone, and now the smartphone, come to mind, both of which attempt to command your attention at the most inconvenient times.

However, the Electronic Age need not necessarily be the pestilence of the vacation. It can, properly managed, be a tremendous tool in our quest to keep up with our jobs and the world.

Email is inherently that tool. Email need not be responded to at the instant it is sent. Email must await connection to the Internet, which is, of course, under your control. Email need not be responded to at all. We have the luxury to peruse incoming emails and decide which of them are of sufficient urgency to respond to immediately, and which of them are not of sufficient urgency (which will be most of them, fortunately, taking into account the importance of family and vacations) to save on the notebook hard drive to respond to later.

All right, you are now saying to yourself, “Why would I interrupt my vacation for any work-related matter?” If that is the case (and you are earning enough money), I can only congratulate you. For the rest of us, there are always matters pending, as we walk out the door for vacation that will leave us sleepless, if something comes up while we are vacating that requires our special attention, and we are out of contact.

Voila . . . email! Here is a technology that enables us to screen for these critical work matters at our convenience and allows us to respond immediately to those (hopefully) few matters that absolutely require our individual and immediate attention. The purpose of this article is not to clutter up your next vacation with electronic noise, but to give you the tool to manage your vacation in the context of the ever-increasing work speeds and loads.

Leave your cellphone off, however. Cellphones demand attention, when on, and it is a rare person who can not answer. Unless you dump everything immediately into voicemail, you cannot screen out the critical matters from the other matters at your own convenience. If you need to respond to a critical matter sent to you by email or voicemail, you can merely call from anywhere in the world using an international cellphone, or a prepaid cellphone procured at your destination, or worst case, a landline telephone and credit card, should you absolutely, positively need to immediately contact someone about a work-related or other important matter.

How often you check your email on vacation is up to you. How often you answer your cellphone is probably not up to you. Turn off your cellphone . . . better yet . . . don’t even take it! Rely instead upon the email features of either your notebook computer with modem, the hotel’s business center, or the local cyber café down the block in the town of your vacation dreams.

Beality

Who knows the answers?

Those who know the answers don’t have time to give them, while those who don’t know the answers have plenty of time to give them. Internet blogs, such as this one, really exacerbate this phenomenon.

Beality

We just might not appreciate you

Those millions, who have fought, bled, and died for the American way of life, just might not appreciate you.

The people ruled by dictatorial, tyrannical, despotic, autocratic, and arrogant regimes just might not appreciate you.

Hard-working, tax-paying people just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not want handouts, just might not appreciate you.

Law-abiding people just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that all matters should be judged on the merits, rather than on race, minority, or wealth, just might not appreciate you.

The government and the people of Israel now just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that no small elite should decide what is good for everyone, just might not appreciate you.

People, who you promise everything to, and deliver little to, in return for enslavement, just might not appreciate you.

People, who just might not appreciate Communism, just might not appreciate you.

People, who pretend to defend the US Constitution, even though they have not taken the oath to do so, just might not appreciate you.

The increasing numbers of people, who have to protect you from the increasing numbers of people who just might not appreciate you, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe people are good in nature and need no over-controlling and expensive government to control them, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that you should surround yourself with the most talented people, rather than your cronies, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that people left to their own devices can better improve the world, just might not appreciate you.

People, who provide value to the world, rather than those who can’t provide value, and instead use political power to impose what they believe to be valuable to the world, just might not appreciate you.

People, who have worked hard, been forced to join unions, and learned to work soft, just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not believe that you deserve everything in return for producing virtually nothing of value to them, just might not appreciate you.

People, who give charitably, and don't need their government telling them who needs charity, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe in fair competition, just might not appreciate you.

People, who ridicule opponents, when the arguments of their opponent cannot be refuted by logic, evidence, or argument, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that wasting enormous hard-earned resources on those who do not contribute to their society, but are otherwise able to, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that America is the world’s last great hope, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that achievement should be rewarded, and not failure, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that wasting enormous hard-earned resources on scientifically unproven climate theories and scientifically unproven mitigation measures, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that protecting Americans, rather than its enemies, just might not appreciate you.

People, who scoff at their opponents, rather than listen to what their opponents are saying, just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that allowing persons to make and maintain wealth, and give it to whom they deem worthy, rather having to give it to others by dictate, just might not appreciate you.

People who have earned their citizenship, rather than evaded laws and taxes, received free education and medical care, taken jobs from real American citizens, and then demanded citizenship, just might not appreciate you.

Non-professional politicians just might not appreciate you.

People, who believe that wasting enormous hard-earned resources outside of America without any protections or conditions attached, just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not ascribe to shady schools of "politics,” just might not appreciate you.

People, who do not believe that their ends justify any means to get there, no matter how illegal or unconstitutional, just might not appreciate you.

We, all of the above, just might not appreciate you, whoever you are, and you know who you are.

The Freedoms of Press, Speech, and Assembly are now actually becoming free!

Our wonderful Freedoms of Press, Speech, and Assembly, which certain elitists have used so effectively in pursuing their progressive agenda over the last century, ever since they had the luxury of controlling the media sources of the time (i.e. newspapers, network television, and movies), will be the complete undoing of their agenda, since they are inexorably losing control over these precious and powerful Freedoms (read the Internet, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and who knows what next ...). Going forward, a balanced range of political agenda, including possibly each one of ours, will become available for the review, analysis, and use of all.

Beality

Take what you need...

How did we drift so far from a "make what you need" society into a "take what you need" society?

Beality

There is no more middleground in America...

There is virtually no middleground in American politics any more. Pick your side wisely, because it is really going to make a difference ... soon.

Beality

Welcome to the new Serfdom...

Recent political events concern me.

To the extent we try to bring the lower class up to the level of the middle class, we actually take the middle class down to the lower class.  Oh, and by the way, due to the governmental power necessary to implement these "reforms," both classes become the new feudal serfs to the new feudal lords, a condition of bondage or modified slavery, or "Serfdom." Look it up on Wikipedia.

We now have the newly emerging, elite, professional American politicians, coming to rule by pure political force, offering greater (but soon) lesser and lesser benefits for greater (but soon) lesser and lesser protection (just like the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or Venezuela), rather than providing any true and lasting benefits to society as a whole such as the following fine following persons have: George Washington, Bill Gates, Ben Franklin, Vinton Cerf, Abraham Lincoln, Anita Roberts, or Albert Einstein, to name a very few important ones.

Which direction do you support? Pure political force? Or individual freedoms leading to true and lasting benefits to society?

Beality