Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

       It's pretty clear – if Obama wins the election, the Affordable Healthcare Act is here to stay. If he loses, its future is dependent upon the makeup of Congress.         Despite the claims of its friends and foes, it is almost impossible to see how it will play out, good or bad, until we try it for awhile.         The problem is that people like most of its provisions, but the foes have managed to cloud the overall discussion. It is now up to Obama to clarify the discussion in a way that people understand.         Can he do it? His job for the next four years may depend on it. ******        My books, “There Are Only Seven Jokes” and “The Spirit Runs Through It” are available in paperback , or at the Kindle Store.

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions. - Joyce Carol Oates The short answer is: Evil does not exist! I doubt that I could find anyone who agrees with me, but please hear me out. “ Evil” is a word, a symbol of the type Ms. Oates is describing above. As a noun, it is the name of a set of activities that society deems to be “evil;” as an adjective, it is a description of certain actions of people . It does not exist by itself i.e., without people, any more than “beauty” exists without beautiful things, or for that matter, “goodness” exists without good things. Although they make wonderful adjectives, striking the nouns “evil”, “beauty”, “goodness”, etc. from the language would eliminate much misunderstanding. There is only one way to eliminate evil: Eliminate people. That's probably not a good idea. ****** My books, “There Are Only Seven Jokes” and “The Spirit Runs Thr...

As Americans, it seems as if we always need something, usually sexual, to get all worked up over. Last month it was the young lady who testified about the need to have contraceptives covered by medical insurance. It seems to me that if “ceptives” such as Viagra and Cialis are covered, it is only fair to cover their “contras.” It's fairly obvious that the healthcare law is written by men – women's needs are excluded. But this month the concern is about same-sex marriage. Now I know that the Bible says that says that homosexuality is an abomination, but it also says the same thing about eating shellfish. So I would be more impressed by the Biblical argument if those who are fighting so adamantly against same-sex marriage were to campaign just as vigorously against the crab and lobster industry. What about the argument that same-sex marriage will destroy conventional marriage? I doubt that I would love my wife any less if the couple next door to me turned out to be mar...

The Discovery Channel recently ran a series, Frozen Planet , which featured detailed and closeup pictures of life at the North and South poles. From penguins to polar bears, walruses to crabs, the persistence of life under these extremely harsh conditions was beautifully displayed. One episode focused on the life-style of humans who live at the extreme Northern areas of human habitation. (There are no areas of permanent human habitation in Antarctica.) I am not speaking about those scientists who spend years living at the poles studying various conditions – I am talking about people who live there permanently: the Inuits. And for me this episode raised a question: Why? Let me give you a few examples: In Siberia, the reindeer herdsmen have their homes built on sleds, and every few weeks when their flock has used up all the feed in a given area, they hitch the animals to the sleds and move to a new area. I realize shepherds have always had to drive their flocks to fresh ...

When one opens one's daily newspaper, one expects to find news , especially on the front page. I realize that sometimes a human interest story or a particularly curious event will be printed, but superstitious fantasy – please! Perhaps an unusual position on a particular subject might get a mention in an otherwise newsworthy story, but as a standalone story such things should be confined to the fantasy page, i.e., Letters to the Editor. An example of an unusual position in an otherwise newsworthy story appeared recently in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era. A group of seismic experts was conducting a survey to determine the extent of any faults under the area, and were touring with equipment which tamped the ground. By measuring the resulting minor earthquakes they were able to get information which would otherwise be unobtainable. Of course, they asked permission of property owners before tamping each area. Some refused to allow it because they didn't wish to...

     Job Titles I Never Grew Up With      While watching the TV show “Jeopardy,” the show which gives us questions to answers of little real interest to most people, I am often intrigued by contestants' occupations, many of which were not in existence during my working years. We all know of the “handyman” who is now the “building superintendent,” and of course the “stenographer” has evolved into the “administrative assistant.” But I am thinking of occupations which have only come into being in the last 20 or so years, such as:      Fulfillment Manager – At first glance this could cover anything from a fairy godmother to the director of the “Make A Wish” foundation, but it's neither. A fulfillment manager is required to have skills and training which, at one time, were expected of several people. The job description calls for inventory and project management skills, familiarity with computerized inventory forecasting and ...

     Words have power only as they elicit a response in those who are aware of them. They have no influence over events that are beyond human control, e.g. if someone is driving too fast, the passenger can control the car only to the extent his words can affect the driver.      Most people realize this, but I am amazed that many, perhaps most, people refuse to discuss certain subjects. It's as if they were afraid that speaking about them would make them happen. It will not.      In particular, discussing final incapacitating illness and death are subjects that most people shy away from, but these are exactly the subjects that people should talk about. It is not only unfair to expect a child, sibling or doctor to make life or death decisions with no knowledge of the patient's wishes – it is extremely irresponsible.      The situation becomes especially acute when there is more than one possible decision-ma...

     Because genealogy can be a time-consuming passion, I didn't get involved in it until I retired, and I am so sorry I waited that long. Discovering the identities of my ancestors made me hungry to know more about their lives. The records of genealogy: certificates of birth, death, marriage, etc., can provide the skeleton of family history, but it's the stories that flesh it out.      What really whetted my appetite for more knowledge was my memory of the few stories my grandfather told me. Although he may not have remembered what happened yesterday – in his last years all days were alike – he told me in great detail about the summer he “hired out” at the age of 18: the name of the farmer who hired him, what he did from sunrise to sunset, how much he was paid (a dollar a day), and just about every other detail of those three months.      Grandpa was long dead when I realized that there was so much more he could have told me...

     I have often heard it said that the Constitution of the United States is based upon the Ten Commandments, so I finally decided to check it for myself. I suggest that individuals who think this is the case should do the same. They may be in for a surprise.      But for those who do not have the time or inclination to make such a comparison, I present the following:       Commandment I - Thou shalt have no other gods before me. The only time God is mentioned in the Constitution is at the end of Article VII: Done in convention . . . in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven . . . In fact, Amendment I expressly forbids any mention of religion.      Commandment II - Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. The Constitution is silent on this Commandment.       Commandment III - Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain. Th...

     Since both the stock market and the jobs market are looking better lately, the GOP has invented a new line of BS: the high price of gasoline is the fault of President Obama. Newt Gingrich in particular is going about bragging that, if elected, he will quickly lower the price to $2.50 per gallon. He bases that figure on the fact that it was $1.13 when he was speaker of the house. Really Newt, if the president has that much control, why don't just we reelect the president from those days: Bill Clinton?      Actually Newt, along with the rest of the clowns, is figuring on lowering the price by means of their tried and true method: Drill, baby, drill. It is their claim that the Obama administration is holding back production in order to keep the price high. The theory is that by so doing, we will be forced to buy green, energy-efficient cars. Unfortunately, the record doesn't accord with this theory.      At the end of 2008,...

     I have posted several blogs in which I stated that the stimulus promoted by President Obama was too small and that another was necessary. I backed up my suggestion with data indicating that President Roosevelt's stimulus, i.e., the New Deal, was working until he tried to balance the budget in 1937.      I believe I was right in advocating a stimulus to promote jobs under the economic conditions of the past, but as far as the current situation is concerned, I am beginning to think I was wrong! The economy is vastly different from the one that prevailed during the Great Depression.      It is true that a stimulus in the form of government spending on projects for which the government is most efficient , i.e., providing a single service for many customers, will provide a limited number of jobs. Society does not need competing armies, courts and legal systems, police forces, power grids, government buildings or interstate hi...

This is the time of the year when Sunday evening's TV programming is dependent upon how long it takes the golfers to come up with a winner. It doesn't matter how long a period the network allows in the schedule – it is going to take an extra half hour or so to complete the rounds. I have been asked so often why I do not play golf, that I finally decided to write the true story of my brief career in the game. T here is a saying that only a thin line separates comedy from tragedy. The way I played golf could be classified as either one depending upon your point of view. Be that as it may, I believe the way my golfing career ended is a good example of the close relationship between the two. About 1960, at the urging of some of my fellow employees, I decided to try my hand at golf, so I bought a cheap set of clubs and went out each Saturday to develop my game. At first I thought my terrible playing was simply because I was a beginner, but as time went on and I showed little...

     I realize that the matter of Obama and the Catholic Bishops has been overworked lately, but I can't help weighing in with some thoughts on the subject.      In the first place, I can see both sides of the argument: freedom of religion vs. insurance-paid family planning.      But some columnists have been throwing around assumptions that appear to me to be a misuse of the English language. Recently I have read several columns in which the government, President Obama in particular, was accused of requiring the church to go against its “conscience.”      I do not believe that the Catholic Church or a corporation or a high school class or any other organized set of people can have a conscience, Organizations are groups of human beings; each member of the group has a unique conscience. There may be an average of individual consciences of the members, but such an average is as different from a true conscie...

      T he discussion of determinism vs. free will has been going on since the days of the Greek philosophers, and will probably never be settled. Is it possible that both views are correct? How could that be true? Before I get into the various arguments, I want to set up the following assumptions: (a) There is a one-to-one correspondence between the state of the brain and the subjective experience occurring at any given time (b) Since the brain is not an isolated system, it must be part of a larger system – the body, sense organs, the body’s immediate surroundings, etc. - which obeys certain deterministic laws. According to determinists, every move we make is dictated by our previous experiences, situations, conditions, etc. – everything which has gone before. The feeling that we select courses of action in response to immediate circumstances is an illusion. The subject can no more change the decision than a planet can change its orbit. If all our deci...

     One of the oldest truisms(?) about old age is, “Old age is the time when your broad mind and narrow waist change places.” While it may be true in some cases, for me it's more like, “Old age is the time when your broad mind and narrow waist get closer together.” My problem is that the older I get, the more I can see both sides of many controversies; as a result, I have trouble deciding which side I agree with.      Two examples from this past week come to mind. The first is the Healthcare Act's requirement that all employers who offer health care insurance to their employees must include contraception costs for those who request it. At first reading this sounds OK to me; not surprisingly, the Catholic church disagrees, to the extent that many Catholic organizations are planning to discontinue coverage rather than comply.      Because the Catholic church is not a government organization, it seems to me that Catholic instit...

     The ideas presented here are excerpted from the book, “The Price Of Civilization” by Jeffrey D. Sachs. I highly recommend reading the entire book.       Not surprisingly, President Obama's recent State of the Union Address was his opening shot across the bow of the presidential campaign, but if examined from a high enough level of abstraction, it spelled out the requirements of a healthy economic system. I hate to think the whole thing was just campaign rhetoric, but based on his past performance I am inclined to take a “wait and see” attitude concerning progress in that direction.      Generally speaking, there are three major attributes of such a system: efficiency, fairness and sustainability.      Efficiency:      Ronald Reagan was partly right – too much government control of the economy causes problems, but he was also partly wrong – uncontrolled free markets also l...

    The Associated Press recently printed an article entitled “Positions of the Candidates” , which outlined the opinions of five Emmett Kelly understudies, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, on various campaign issues. (For younger readers, Emmett Kelly, who based his sad faced “Weary Willie” on depression era hobos, was perhaps the most famous clown in circus history.)     The issues discussed were Abortion, the Economy, Education, Energy, the Environment, Health Care, Taxes and Terrorism. No mention was made of what is probably the most important of all presidential responsibilities: Foreign Affairs. Why would that be?      Here are a few possibilities: Not even one of the greatest group of comedians in history thinks that management of foreign affairs is as important as these other “hot button” issues. Newt understands the meaning of the word “affairs” only when it is not preceded by any modif...

     On October 24, 2011, I wrote about the ridiculous decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission , “In January 2010, using a logic that defied common sense, in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission five Supreme Court Justices suddenly transformed corporations into human beings, with a power that flesh and blood humans do not have: they can spend unlimited amounts of money in order to buy elections.”      Although most of the comments I have received have been favorable, I have been taken to task by “Pennsylvania's #1 Conservative Jungle Cat,” Phil Gruber. According to him, “American law has long held that corporations should be treated as people in the eyes of the law. After all, a corporation is just a group of people who use shared capital to make a profit. Grunenberger simply feels broadsided by facts he did not know.”      While it is true that from...

     Let's imagine for a minute that scientists discovered that the Mayans got it right – the world is going to end on December 21, 2012. How would you want to spend your time until that day? The answers would probably run the gamut from “party unceasingly” to “pray unceasingly.”      As for me, I would probably come down somewhere in the middle. I am pretty happy with the way things are now, and I would want to continue as is with one addition: my immediate family is spread across the country, and I would like to get them all together for a visit – kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. If I have wronged anyone over the years, I would ask for their forgiveness, and anyone who has done me dirty, I would forgive you. There is a saying, “The best revenge is to live well.” I've done that.      Come to think about it these are good ideas, at least for me, even if the Mayans are wrong.      I think it would be a...

Although 2011 was not a very good year for planet earth, at least for the humans living there, if I am going to be truthful, it was an average year for me personally. Except for climbing stairs, or even walking uphill, I do not think my physical condition is much worse than it was a year ago. (Of course, it's definitely not any better.) But I have been warm and well fed, and the fun times have outnumbered the other kind many times over. But as with most old accountants, in order to keep from losing my balance I need to formally close the books on the old year, and set things up for the new. Literally! We keep reasonably accurate financial records throughout the year, and I like to use them to get some idea what to expect in the new year. For example, the Social Security Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) amounts to 3.6%. That's not bad, although considering there has not been an increase since 2009, it's not really a world-beater. The government said inflation was not a fa...