Is this Life?

There comes a time in every person's life when they wake up in the morning and realize that "life was supposed to have been different than what it is." When we suddenly realize that "I (me) am not the sole reason this whole big evolutionary soup" was cooked up as a result of an explosion or two (and a few collisions) over the course of 4 billion years.

For many, sadly, this realization only casts its shadow across their greedy little lives when the energy in life has been expended; when, it is simply too late to reapply our energies, those granted to us by God (or, merely poured into us via the mixing and churning soup), and to affect other beings and things in, life-supporting, life-positive, life-friendly ways.

For those, who, perhaps, do not make such realizations in their youth, they struggle forward, searching, hurting, offending, imbibing, stealing, cheating, expending, hating and wasting this one, this simple and only, resource each of us have.

Some choose their path to participation by having children--the single greatest life-supporting and selfless act their truly is--but giving birth and then raising, as we know, are different uses of resources. The dedicated parent is a hero; but, this does not mean that they are free to hurt others, steal or cheat so as to make the lives of their offspring better. I, though, am not a parent...yet! So, I do write with from a place of distance, safely, securely able to comment on a parent's actions/reactions to the never-ending twists and turns which line the path of our way.

Greed is not a life-supporting emotion. Shouting out, voting against "family planning" programs (which usually try to educate the least ready to have babies as to why they might want to consider not having babies until they can safely support them), is selfish. When these babies of teens or babies of ghettoes or rural poverty grow up to commit crimes or abuse drugs, who are usually the first to deny them help; but, rather they seek to incarcerate them?

When President Obama says: "let's invest in America", he is supporting life for all Americans. When the Republicans say: "let's cut taxes", they are supporting the wealthy, the greedy, those who enjoyed happy holidays spending their fat corporate bonuses; picking out new drapes for their offices (at $11,000) or even garbage cans for $1,400. While the janitor in that same company was laid off because "hey, you know times are gettig tough...", for him and his family, $1,400 would have been the difference between a Merry Christmas; and, one where, instead, in despair, he drank too much, hit his wife on Christmas Day in front of the kids and then he too broke down and cried.

While he cried and his wife wiped the blood from her nose, a 27-year old analyst from a Wall Street company that had received billions in bailout, was marveling at his new Caddilac.

Life is worth supporting. Life in our America should be supported, made better, sounder, smarter, cleaner, better for all Americans. Nothing done by the Republicans under Bush (and they continue today) has made our nation better for all Americans.

The time has come for Republicans in Congress to wake up and to realize that they are obligated to contribute to life-friendly causes (and voting against abortion and stem-cell research are not life-supporting): life-friendly is pro-American!

Barack Obama is offering us a chance to make our nation what it could have become had we not been poisoned by greed. We are on the precipice. We can step back, light a fire in the fireplace and pass down stories to our kin of "the great almost-collapse"; or, we can step off and fall and fall and fall...and when we hit the bottom, we will be certain of one thing: taxes were cut for the wealthy.

Who do they thing they are?

Having actively supported the failed and bankrupted policies of the last 8 years, the Republicans in Congress have simply gone too far. They are, it seems, the sleeper-cell we have been searching for and my only suggestion to President Obama is: wait before you close that illegal prison down in Cuba, we may have a lot of people vying for those soon-to-be-vacant cells.

While our government was on vacation from 2000 to 2009--where were Bush and the Republicans between the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the inauguration?--the nation has been weakened from head to toe and back again. What the Soviet Union could not do, what Al Qaeda could not do, what Ronald Reagan could not do, W. and his team of mini-me's did. Despite being the sole remaining superpower in the world, we are the weakest we have ever been.

All aspects of our nation's infrastructure--and I don't mean just roads and bridges but also our financial system, military, health care, ability to regulate ourselves--have suffered the neglect of the prodigal son--whose return to the fold was certainly one of biblical proportions.

As our newly-elected and "mandated" president seeks to repair our nation, the Republicans are again calling for the uncreative and so-predictable "tax cuts"; like tossing a 5-yard screen pass when it is 3rd and 20 from your own 5 yard-line, maybe the first two times you can catch the defense off-gaurd, and even still, it is very unlikely you will get the first down (you are really only trying to get better field position for your punter), repeat this same uncreative play time and after time and very quickly the defense catches on.

Are we really ready to punt again? Isn't that what we have been doing for the past 8 years? Trickle-down economics does not work in our modern, American society. We are a greedy nation. How else can we explain the scorched earth business tactics of companies like Wal-Mart? Decimate small business, give it all over to China-China really only earns about .03 cents on every dollar of goods made there--for the sole reason of ensuring that your profits are increased from $8 billion to $14 billion (for example). And then, is that money reinvested in the employee? Are health benefits expanded? Hell no! It is divied up amongst the share-holders and the politicians who support the company; oh, and lest we forget, that $14 billion, becomes even more thanks to tax-cuts!

Tax-cuts only make the rich richer and thanks to the above-stated business development strategies, they end up employing the Chinese. This is all done so that Americans can buy cheaper crap from Wal-Mart and Target; which is really not cheaper because these Americans are now working at lower-paying jobs thanks to the fact that they lost their job at the "bicycle factory" which was no longer able to provide Wal-Mart with such low prices (see my November 13, 2008 blog).

Our bicycle needs repairs; it needs oil put on the chain, a new seat, perhaps new tires. By painting it fire-engine red, putting some baseball cards in the spokes and a cool light on the handle bars, it will not become a faster or better bike; it will just draw more attention to us as we struggle to pedal down the street before ultimately the tires give out, the seat falls off and the chain breaks!

President Obama has come to the White House with energy, vision, a mandate, youth and vitality. It is simply disgusting to listen to the likes of the walking-corpse John McCain, the "Newt-wanna-be" John Boehner and others as they again try to manipulate the facts (lie) and make these lies reality.

America has had enough of this kind of governing. We are lost. Our nation is staggering. The world is waiting for us to stop being so selfish, so greedy, so short-sighted and to make the right decisions for the right reasons. The rich do not deserve to get richer at this time in our history. The nation must refocus and President Obama's critique of the greed that has taken hold of the Republican party and its leaders is spot on.

As we united on inauguration day, so too should all Americans unite to say enough of the tax cuts and failed policies of the Republican Party. Today is the day to rebuild our nation and that requires investment in our infrastructure, making our nation more green-friendly, making the hard choices today for a better and stronger tomorrow.

This is our last chance on the world's stage. The world needs America to lead. Living abroad, I can say that I have not seen this kind of support for America since shortly after 9/11. The world is so happy we are back and they want us to succeed.

Why do the Republicans so want us to fail?

The Clock is Ticking

Yesterday was not about Barack Obama, to beat the drum of so many other commentators and reiterate, it was about America, all of us, and about the 44th president.

Beyond the call to service, beyond the critque of the last 8 years of Bush-Cheney rule, President Obama sent a shot across the bow of all Americans ailing sense of virtue; a virtue whose shine vanished completely under a petina of greed; a 28-year era whose dogma's main principles proclaimed that the lifestyles of the rich and famous were to be rejoiced and goals to which we all should strive.

Yes, it was greed, a frowned upon human flaw mentioned in the Bible over 200 times, that led us, a God-fearing nation to the place we are today.

Harking back to my trip to the US over the recent holiday season, I was still stunned to see how many people refuse to give up their massive vehicles. Lone drivers chug along in their massive Escalades, Expeditions and so on. Massive McMansions, vast swathes of lawn being seeded and then regularly watered, being heated and then cooled and heated and cooled all for 3 and 4 people.

Yes, it was greed that permitted the likes of Madoff to do what he is accused of having done (and he still sits free at home). It was greed that permitted our nation to vote twice for a man who was so clearly not intelligent enough to have been president; yet, his promise of tax cuts for the wealthy and big business motivated the "interests" and tickled the "dumb Christians" (who seem to forget about greed and its prominent place in the Bible) into action.

Yes, it was greed that led us away from Kyoto and let the White House to completely and totally politicize the facts about global warming by censoring reports from scientists whose sole responsibility was to warn the nation, its people, its elected officials when danger is imminent.

Greed. One single time our new president mentioned that word but, in every single word before and after it, calls for action, recriminations of the last eight years, he was really screaming at the top of his lungs: greed is tearing our nation asunder.

Driven by greed, universal health care was not passed under Bill Clinton--and most Americans, thanks to millions of dollars invested in advertising against universal health care will say that Clinton's program would have been bad for people and too costly--and today, our nation's dwindling resources are filling the pockets of those who did everything they could to destroy that legislation.

Obesity is greed. Driving big cars is greed. Making and selling and living in McMansions is greed. Wal-Mart is greed. The religious right is about greed. It is greed which motivates people to be against green technologies.

Greed, hopefully, left us yesterday when W. flew off into the sunny, blue sky and Mr. Potter was driven away to suburban Virginia.

Today is D-Day and the enemy is not entrenched Germans, drinking tea and waiting, waiting for our boys to assualt the beaches; the enemy is our learned appetites for everything now. Will we win this battle? This war? The clock is ticking. The hidden mines are many but on June 6, 1944, by 11 AM, our boys had moved off of bloody Omaha.

The clock is ticking. 11 AM is not far off. Will be make it to our president and his vision of our nation?

Walking is Fundamental

One of the clearly tangible aspects of America's national wealth--and international power--is its extensive and seamless infrastructure.

Yes, there are many examples of bridges falling apart, roads pocked with potholes and many, many other blemishes do exist from shore to shining shore; however, what has always amazed Europeans is how easy (due to a lack of national boarders) and pleasant it is to travel through America.

I agree with them. Especially after having lived for so long in Russia, a country devoid of an infrastructure: their trains do run well and on-time, however. Russian cities and roads' planning reminds of the towns and roads I used to carve out with my hands in the woodchips in front of our house as a kid. Truthfully though, my town had more order to it then the towns and cities of Russia.

America's infrastructure, beginning to rot after 8 years of complete and total neglect--there simply is no money for it when it is all going for tax cuts and occuaptions of other countries--is the glue which holds our superpower together and which still, for the time being, separates us from the likes of China.

Yet, one small aspect of our infrastructure which has been screamingly overlooked--and it is indeed part of the infrastructure--is the ability to "walk" from point A to point B.

While traveling about rural Pennsylvania with my wife and in-laws, it came as such a shock to them that a person couldn't take a walk! Winding country roads, occupied by speeding cars with little or no visibility due to the hills and curves, were bordered by "private property: keep out!"

The occasional sidewalk which popped up from time to time in the small towns would suddenly give way to someone's front-lawn. In my own town of Freehold, New Jersey, walking is simply just not an option for most "white people". On a pleasant summer's eve, you can see a family strolling into town but even the tranquility of this trek will be challenged as the family of four tries to cross Park Avenue, Main or South Streets--I won't dare mention trying to cross Route 9!

The language of choice when walking in Freehold, and even in rural PA, is Spanish and in some cases Indian. God forbid should an English-speaking walker have a medical emergency! English-speakers, except myself, don't consider walking as an option for getting from one place to another unless the other place is safely on their street within their own development.

Walking is an option that exists for either the poor or those wanting to shed a few extra pounds by strolling the 1/4 of a mile to the store for a gallon of milk or the paper as opposed to driving there. Yet, in our obese and unhealthy nation, as Congress debates the needs for economic recovery via investment in our "infrastructure", not one dollar is being allocated for the construction of walking pathes, sidewalks, crossing zones, pedestrian bridges, etc.

A federal commitment to walking will not only, over the long run, make America a closer, tighter-knit nation; but, it will be a right and progressive step in the direction of combatting obesity and especially teenage obesity. If we are not willing to cover our citizenry with univeral health care, then let's at least in-put the means by which the recently-retired, the middle-aged, the young could spend 20 to 30 and even 60 minutes a day to physically moving their soft, weakened bodies.

Walking is a means of transportation. It will lower the use of fossil fuels. It will lower the costs of health care in our country. It will make us a healthier, happier and more fit nation. Walking is needed now.

Sadly, however, nobody is making money by lobbying for walking-routes and sidewalks and unless our new president, whose promise to make us all again inclusive is real, does push this enevelope then sadly, we will invest billions into the same, wrongheaded areas of the past: roads, roads and more roads.

Fast walking is the healthiest form of exercise there is; if fast-walking uphill then even better. It is time we realized this, got up from our seats and walked to the store, church, gym or bank.

PS: Why would a mall-cop need a Segue? Can't they walk around the mall?

The True Enemy is Among Us

The enemy sleeps among us, sits in kitchens, waits, hidden in sacks in dark rooms. The enemy is celebrated in the glossy pages of places like Chili’s, McDonald’s and in every single eatery in America.

Golden tanned, secured in a crisp encasement, it is gently coaxed to a glossiness that brings it ever closer to its layouts in the menus mentioned above. Whether salted or “ketchuped”, the French-fried potato, the home-fried potato and simply “some fries” invade virtually every meal consumed in a restaurant in America today.

The size of these portions of the “enemy” grow ever larger, at a time when prices are rising on the other participants of the meal (meat, fresh fish, etc.), and the subsequent role in the meal of the potato grows in importance, drawing our attention away from healthier vegetables like broccoli, carrots, asparagus and even spinach.

Americans of all walks of life sidetrack culinary explorations, deprive themselves the luxurious strolls across their tongues of rosemary, fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, thick and cloudy olive oil the very moment they hurl a fried potato into their mouths.

Meals commence with potato skins lost in cheddar and bacon. Hamburgers, embedded in massive, white-bread buns, gets lost in mountains of “fried shoestring potatoes.” The most intellectual, most esteemed, the most classical conversationalist finds himself falling prey to the pleas of piping hot potatoes.

As if on auto-pilot, conversations not lagging for a second, bottles of Heinz snaps to life, bottoms are gently spanked, hinting at gurgling glee; and then, the ketchup, as if satisfied with its coyness, its mastery of subtly oozes out on to the fries. The audacity of the over-reaching crispiness tamed, cooling oil mixing with tomatoes, the ketchup rises in the escaping steam and taunts the lunching professional: locks and gates in the brain triggered, hands move forward in clock-like precision searching for the perfectly-coated fry.

In a whirl and a whir of hands flitting and flailing across piles and mounds of fries, both French and home, from 6 AM to 10 PM each day, 7 of them a week, and 365 of them a year, we Americans lose ourselves in oil-filled blisters of bliss, wordlessly consuming hundreds of thousands of tons of potatoes. And, the single most nutty thing about this slow-suicide is that few eaters can even recall the moment they began eating the first fry of any given meal and when the last finger-licking potato slid off the fork and down the hatch.

The French fry is the single greatest money-making item on any menu, the profit margin hovers between 90% and 98%. Like white mice, we are enticed by properly-instructed waiters and waitresses to forgo veggies and salads and to tuck into ever larger and more intriguing portions of fries.

The potato is as guilty as corn in the DNA of obese America. It is time we listened to Nancy Reagan’s advice and just said: NO MORE POTATOES.

Boycott Wal-Mart

As I meandered through the cavernous lanes (aisles are smaller) of the local Wal-Mart, dodging the not-so-occasional "scooter-for-fat-peeps", I looked around for the singing hipsters (drinking Coca-Cola) who were the heros of the really cool and even fun Wal-Mart commercials that saturated the airwaves this holiday season.

That really cool cat whose party in some million-dollar loft in NoHo was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I saw really, really gravity-challenged people (read: OBESE); slightly in-bred folk with over-sized Steeler shirts ($11.97); old folk trying to stretch their vanishing pensions by shopping at the "Mart"; and, I saw families of all sorts, young ones struggling to clothe and feed that young one whose appearance was less than planned (thank God for the Bush policies of abstinence as opposed to family planning); middle and upper middle ones that had either been dislocated or were on the brink of being so by the current economic quagmire.

My in-laws, proud Russians yet awed by America's massiveness and obvious wealth (Russians are ever comparing themselves to America and Americans), were stunned into silence by the prices.

But, they too, noticed the girth of the people who just sort of staggered through the lanes as if on autopilot, picking up highly processed foods, ugly and oversized shirts and pants, not-so-fresh vegetables and massive barrels of snacks and bottles of coke. Oh, I forgot about the pounds of processed meats and cheeses, frozen waffles with jugs of fake syrup and frisbee-sized "cinnamon" rolls.

Having woven our way past the hostile scooter-drivers to arrive at the check-out line, the wait commenced. Endless conversations about the great prices on things like the hair-dryer on lane 1,398 ($4.97) ; a check is run on a debit card that had worked "a while earlier at the fill-up station"; some wisdom is shared on the chances for the Eagles and Steelers meeting in the Super Bowl and then the purchase is bagged and the one-toothed cashier (this is totally true) smiles and says: "You be good now, Eddie." "Aa will. I learnt ma lession. I ain't gonna be getting in no more trouble (he was about 40)."

In the car, as we crept away having felt like we had stolen the items because they were so cheap, my in-laws made two very true and for me disturbing comments (the curtain was slowly being pulled back and the wizard it seems has his pants at his ankles!): "everything is made in China;" and, "they are all so poorly dressed and seem so poor."

Years ago, I had defended the decisions to send low-technology labor overseas. Factories that might otherwise hurt our environment, I figured, would be better off in China; let Americans learn more intellectual labor, technologically demanding. But, we have not made the jump to that new labor market--again, probably because of the Bush Administration, big business's greed--and now, when virtually EVERYTHING we touch in a given day is "made in china" (even the frames in which the hand-painted pictures the Amish sell), our "base for national and economic strength" is so underemployed, growing into such an underclass that a leap to a higher-tech economy may soon be impossible: people will simply be too unhealthy, too stupid to make this move upwards.

As for Americans being poor, well, this is an accusation more suitable for being parried. We are not poor by any means, in comparision, and our quality of life is still among the best. Our infrastructure still has Europeans drooling.

However, many have become completely ignorant of what is needed to be happy, healthy and how to live THE RICH LIFE, not in a material way. The Bush followers have dumbed our nation down and people do dress poorly; speak as if English were a second language; mindlessly eat things that a farmer wouldn't dare feed his livestock.

American businesses should be penalized for sending jobs overseas. America is business. Always has been. If we want to progress further, then we have to force Wal-Mart to buy American-made goods--at least 50% of the things that sit on their shelves today. Why can't we make a frame for a picture?

The increased costs will be offset by the increased employment that will come about by the increased demand on small, local businesses. The increased tax dollars will help our nation and slowly but surely we will make a move to higher-tech economy and those going into these jobs will be healthy, mobile and have more than one tooth!

Action is required. Wal-Mart does not care about America. Wal-Mart is the 8th largest trading partner with China (it does more trade than most countries in the world do).

Boycott Wal-Mart now! Make them feel our pain!

Barack Obama will soon take the helm. God Bless America!

Having probably already consumed several train-wagon's worth of saltines in the "circling" tendencies of so many boring PCers (golly, "what a moment it was when He was elected), the landing back to reality already seems to be offending some of the more selfish minorities in our nation.

Educated and politically active blacks and Hispanics are finding fault that Obama has chosen so few of their kind. And, as usual, the whining and recently-wed gay community is up in arms about the lack of openly gay people occupying the nation's corridors of power.

To all of them I say: SHUT THE HELL UP!

For once, I can say that the inbred right is actually more appealing to listen to because they are not talking! They have had their asses so thoroughly handed to them that they are now sitting back and watching the selfish, boring and PC tendencies of the Democratic Party rise to the surface of the debate. Just like the "gays in the military" debacle decimated Clinton's so, so short honeymoon with the electorate, once again, the gays and other whining minorities are pushing us away from the reviving our nation and back into the dividing of our nation.

Barack Obama is an African-American! His wife was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago and is as black as the pot that called that kettle black! His grandmother dances around in cool, Nigerian dresses in a small village in...Alabama? No! Nigeria! Jesus Christmas Eve, this man is for real and not some born-again, remade, sex-addicted, flip-flopper, politician from birth with a flecks of silver in his colon. He is for real so back off and give him the chance ALL OF US NEED.

After the past 8 years of mismanagement, this nation needs to be less concerned with one's sex partners, one's religious beliefs and one's heritage and more concerned with the fact that Wall-E was not a kid's movie but a poignant glance at our nation's future. And, having spent 5 days out in the heartland over the holidays, I can say that I have visited the future and man, is it slow-moving, big, poor and speaks really poor English! (And, no, these "poor-speakers" are not the hard-working Mexican immigrants but the soon-to-be-methed-out whites!)

For the sake of us all, Americans and the rest of the world, please, reverse the decline of our nation, stop the petty and selfish infighting now, enjoy a coffee without caramel, walk to work if possible and give Barack Obama a chance. "All I am saying is..."