Littlestuff Weekender-12-31-2011

Thanks to all of you for your forbearance this past week as things were a little discombobulated for me. First, FaceBook banned me from its exalted pages with no explanation or reasoning and inexplicably reinstated me one day later. Go figure. Ban little old harmless lovable me? Also, I sat in on the 1370 WSPD Morning News Show for Fred LeFebvre Tuesday through Friday so my personal writing and correspondence schedules were disrupted. I spent nearly the entire week trying to determine which foot should step forward because my internal time clock was off kilter. The good news is that the station still has its license (listeners are another issue), and my rightful place among the Face Book hoi poi has been restored. We enter 2012 with all systems “go.”

As a consequence of my political commentary, I find myself doing a great amount of economic research. Politics affect the economy, and the economy drives politics. It’s a symbiotic and seriously flawed relationship. For example common sense would tell us that the Fed’s artificially low interest rates will eventually result in the boiling pot exploding and future interest rates will zoom out of sight. However, in recent weeks the dollar has been gaining strength because other global currencies are becoming weaker as their underlying economies falter. Our strong dollar will be helpful as we import goods and services but will have the opposite effect on our export efforts. People and businesses in other countries will have to pay higher prices for our products because of the relative difference in currency values. All currency values are always relative. The good news appears to be that our national economy is viewed more favorably by global traders than the economies of most other nations. The bad news is that if our exports slide because of currency valuations, then our trade deficit will get larger and more of our “relatively strong” dollars will find new homes offshore. “Tis a complicated world we live in….surrounded by subtlety and nudged by nuance.

There are a number of uncertainties that are challenging us in the near future. Clearly we must be vigilant without losing our liberties to infiltrators and terrorist sympathizers who may wish to harm us. We have an administration whose EPA director seems committed to closing down or severely restricting some of our electrical generating plants. Our ad hoc electric grid system is but one catastrophe or terror event from being critically damaged. Add to the prospect of plants being off line the knowledge that “all knowing” government is promoting more electric vehicles which add stress to the system, and we realistically face some potential power shortages or brownouts. In my Monday column I will be addressing some my concerns about the near future and difficulties we may face. Because we are terribly unprepared for hardship (unlike our parents and grandparents who had basic skills for living), I would encourage you to check out a book by Holly Drennan Deyo, “Dare to Prepare,” which is filled with all kinds of useful information for difficult times such as weather incidents and so forth.

Now comes the time in the College Football Bowl schedule that I begin to pay attention. Previously only the Ohio University and Toledo games piqued my interest, but the weekend ahead has some promising contests. Along with a robust college basketball schedule, I’ll use this weekend for some huge doses of R&R. Not so much reading, studying or writing.

The end of one year and the emergence of another is an arbitrary event. Because of the 365.25 day orbit of our planet, we could begin or end a year on any day and repeat the process 365 days later (366 for you Sadie Hawkins fans). Nevertheless whatever the day, it is a time for reflection and for planning and goal-setting. Each year brings its challenges and surprises, its joys and sorrows. As my elders warned me during my profligate youth, the calendar turns wildly as time slips by. Some days are tortuously slow, but still the time, the days, the weeks and months seem to accelerate with each passing year. At the risk of promoting a saccharine persona that is at odds with my curmudgeonly one, I urge you to cherish each moment, to love all who will allow it, and to reignite your commitment to liberty. If time insists on speeding up as we grow older, we may as well enjoy it as a free people. May God bless your lives and your endeavors, and may you have the greatest and most wonderful Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for everything………..

Charlie

Comment:  cearlwriting@hotmail.com

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Who Cares Who Pays?

Recent revelations about preferred and legal insider trading by members of Congress ( see Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer) have led to a mini-outcry of disgust. Many citizens, rightly so, object to our $175 thousand dollar per year “public servants” enriching themselves through advance knowledge and ethical loopholes. In addition some studies have indicated that the public sector bureaucracy is paid significantly better than their private sector cohorts when their lucrative benefit packages are included. So, it would appear on the surface that our continually-growing government structure takes care of its own while expecting the rest of us to foot the bill. That is what we see “on the surface.” Their collectivist gobbling of our labor, property and wages is even worse than it appears. We taxpayers are also paying through the nose and the rectal region for government-endorsed “good works.”

Google this: List of US Federal Government Funding Programs.

You will discover an exhaustive compilation of programs, agencies, departments and bureaus in league with their NGO “partners” to provide innumerable services and outreach efforts through government-nonprofit partnerships. At first glance this would appear to be a form of privatization that most strict constitutionalists would welcome. Many of the studies and services, however, are directed in areas outside the federal constitutional mandate and constitute a cleverly disguised government intrusion. In addition because of the federal dollars that are funneled into the huge number of quasi private sector organizations, our taxes are being used for many specious illegal and unconstitutional activities.

Even more egregious is that realization that the executives and staff of the NGO’s are not direct government employees, and thus, are not subject to government classifications and pay scales. Their executives, researchers and employees can earn salaries that would make a Wall-Streeter blush with no accountability to the taxpaying public. We pay the tab, government issues the grant and the NGO’s and non-profits reap the benefits. As an example, Planned Parenthood receives $350 million in federal funds….roughly 35% of its annual revenue. It is estimated that the PP CEO receives in excess of $900,000.00 per year. We might ask: 1) Why fund Planned Parenthood?; 2) Why fund them so lavishly?;  3) Why allow their CEO to be paid so much when taxpayers are contributing such a large portion of PP’s revenue?; and 4) Why is there no publication of actual pay and benefits for Planned Parenthood executives and staff when there are so many public dollars flowing into their immoral coffers?

I’m picking on Planned Parenthood because I loathe them, but there are many other NGO’s that engage in the same type of shell game and profitable agenda setting using the sweat of your brows, the loss of your financial freedom and the siphoning of your tax dollars to feather their own nests and promote their ideologies. Their so-called “concerned leaders” are paid extraordinarily well, and their motives undermine the spirit of the Founders and the Framers. For those of us who urge that the private sector have a greater role in delivering services and goods versus direct government payment…we must insist that the enterprise be a totally private sector one and not a bogus cooperative scam. These public-private joint operations are an affront to our liberty because many of the groups promote ideals that conflict with our constitutional guarantees while allowing government influence and power to expand with so-called arms-length transactions. The bottom line is that you are by means of government force required to pay for policies, procedures and practices that are antithetical to our individual freedom.

Because government, primarily the House of Representatives, controls the purse strings, there is no justification for their funding such onerous and wasteful programs. In some respects government grants and underwriting violate the very laws that government itself implements. Partial birth abortion and some Planned Parenthood clinics illustrate the folly of using public money to subsidize private aims. Just as government should NOT be choosing winners and losers in the private sector, so too should government appropriations be forbidden for specific social policies and preferences.

Government is wasteful and has no conscience. If it or they can force you to pay money so they can give it to someone or something else, they will. We have witnessed that “right to work” is becoming an issue in many states. We must insist that the “right not to pay” for wasteful and dangerous government-NGO partnerships becomes a national movement.

Comment: cearlwriting@hotmail.com

www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

  

Knowing Everything About Nothing

Is it possible to know nothing? Or is it more likely to know much that isn’t so? Is uninformed and mistaken the same as unaware and clueless? Does certitude lead to arrogance or perhaps to inner peace? Knowledge is not a firm absolute. At one time intelligent learned people presumed the Earth was flat. At a period in our past no one knew about the atom or the human circulatory system. Knowledge changes….expands….is corrected. It seems to be a geometric process. The more we learn or discover, the faster we find newer subsequent nuggets of knowing. Wisdom, on the other hand, is the understanding and recognition of “what you do NOT know.” Wisdom has the capacity to place knowledge in context. Wisdom does not worship knowledge or information, but uses it as a tool for seeking Truth.

Knowledge can involve the intimate awareness of sophisticated concepts and theorems along with their presumptions and applications. On the other hand knowledge can be defined as a collection of “facts”….some meaningful and others trivial. Some are “true,” and others have yet to be verified. Knowledge expands as we learn more, and as others increase their knowledge and add it to the accumulation of information. One of the ironies of knowledge expansion is that it becomes increasingly more difficult for us to identify worthy or salient knowledge simply because of the sheer volume of available information. Thus we have the paradox of knowing much more but with decreasing confidence in its “true-ness.” In essence “what you know” is less important than “what does it mean?”

As was mentioned earlier, wisdom includes the ability to sift through a vast amount of information or knowledge and applying it for useful purposes. True wisdom also includes a moral component so that not only is knowledge usefully applied but is done so for moral reasons and goals. Wisdom requires discernment. One must sift knowledge for its usefulness, practicality and character. “Knowing” is not enough. A wise person will determine the best method for converting information and knowledge into useful and upright decision-making.

You have probably encountered some leaders in either the private or public sectors who would not make a decision without enough knowledge to assure a 99% certainty. Quite often this type of leader suffers from brain-freeze and inaction because that level of certitude is nearly impossible. On the flip side you may have encountered the type of leader who when the certainty meter crosses 50% surges into action….sometimes with preventable and disastrous outcomes. These two types of leaders are the indecisive and the rash. Each of us responds similarly to them depending upon our comfort level with the available information. Thus, discernment is a critical element for leaders…..and followers because we must discern whom to follow. Discernment or wisdom is greater than knowledge although knowledge is vitally important for its application. Wisdom also includes experience, trust, faith and basic understanding of human nature. Obviously an intelligent person is not always wise, but a wise person is invariably intelligent. The ultimate development of wisdom is faith. Consider that there are legions of highly intelligent people who lack wisdom because they have so little faith.

There are critics who believe faith to be the refuge of the unintelligent and the uninformed. Their assumption arises from their lack of discernment because they confuse faith with blind adherence. True faith is not blind and certainly not mindless. True faith springs from the well of wisdom and is flavored by the additives of knowledge. Knowledge is limited by our individual limitations, but wisdom can discern which knowledge is useful, practical and reasonable. Faith builds on wisdom by adding the moral component. Knowledge will choose the best choice for a given outcome. Wisdom will choose the better choice for a given path. Faith will choose the only moral choice.

Faith and wisdom are concerned with justifications and processes whereas knowledge is driven by results. Therefore it is not incidental or accidental that the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:1 that we are justified by faith. When you harness knowledge, wisdom and faith for moral and courageous purposes, your justification is verified through your faith. Knowledge is data. Wisdom is discernment. Faith is a decision. Choose wisely.

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Benefits from the Ban

Columns about college football are not my usual fare. Although I love the sport, I do understand that it is an entertainment and public relations tool for most colleges and universities. Football provides a minimal contribution to the solutions for the problems that vex our nation and our societies. My favorite team is The Ohio State Buckeyes although I pay rather close attention to others as well. I attended my first Buckeye game in 1954 and have avidly followed the fortunes of OSU since then. The Buckeye football program has just completed a tumultuous year. Some players traded memorabilia for tattoos, and a few of those same players were improperly compensated for questionable jobs. The head coach was forced to resign in disgrace, and the NCAA levied penalties against the school and the program for their failure to properly oversee the rules compliance aspects. The OSU football team lost 3 scholarships per year for 2012-2014 (they will be limited to 82 scholarship players per season rather than the maximum 85), were banned from any bowl participation in 2012 season and early 2013 (includes not playing in Big Ten Championship if they qualify), and the program will be on probation for five years….meaning any violation of any magnitude will result in very harsh additional sanctions.  

Without addressing the wisdom and the justice of the penalties, the entire fiasco does shed some light on big-time collegiate athletics and may be helpful for a comparison to our present operation of the federal government. There are three oversight entities at play in addition to the Buckeye athletic department: the Big Ten, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the BCS (Bowl Championship Series). Each of them is a voluntary association or organization which the Ohio State University Athletic Department has joined. Upon joining each group, OSU agreed to abide by the rules and regulations of each respective organization. As you may have noticed this past couple of years, teams have left their respective conferences to join others. The Big Ten is the conference with which Ohio State is aligned and because of OSU’s status as a member since 1912, the Buckeyes will NOT be exiting the Big Ten.  The NCAA is a voluntary association of college and university presidents plus athletic directors that was formed to establish uniform rules and standards including academic requirements for all the participating institutions. The BCS is a collection of NCAA affiliate conferences that oversees post-season bowl participation and qualifications for the representative schools. In recent years the NCAA and the BCS have encountered some opposition for a number of reasons. The difficulties arise from two major perceptions: inequity and unfairness. NCAA penalties and processes are characterized as uneven and too slow. BCS criteria are under fire for their presumed arbitrariness and capriciousness. So it is with the federal government of our United States of America.

Just as the collegiate associations have become powerful and dominant, the U.S. Government has grown so large that it is nearly impossible for one to successfully challenge its excesses. Even though the organizations are voluntary ones if the Buckeyes were to withdraw from any of them, they would probably be isolated and ostracized. A similar situation encapsulates our nation. The Federal Government is a creation of the voluntary association of the states. Each state is a sovereign unit that merged with the others to enhance their defense and ease commercial activity. As the federal behemoth has grown much larger and exceeded its constitutional mandate, the states find themselves in awkward positions.

Just as the uneven display of rule by the collegiate governing bodies has caused some to question their power, authority and relevance so too has the overreaching manipulations of the United States’ federal government caused many to question the wisdom of remaining with a constitutionally voluntary alliance that seeks to govern an ungovernable population. Smaller, more homogeneous groups might develop into more robust and peaceful entities. Individual states might reclaim their lost sovereignty or merge with other like-minded states to form new regional sovereign units that can exercise treaties and cooperative agreements with other similar state units for common purposes. The original intent of The Constitution of the United States of America would be recaptured, restored and renewed. A cluster of 50 or fewer united sovereign states would be greater and more powerful than the whole. The sum of the parts and the corresponding liberty and prosperity could usher in a new era of freedom.

In the great scheme of life on this planet college football and its governance is relatively meaningless. Distraction and entertainment are its primary contributions to our quality of life. Its current situation, though, does offer a stark parallel to that of our nation. Meaning and purpose are critical for survival and prosperity. Drifting aimlessly along without firm convictions and solid commitment is nearly impossible for the long term. Inertia and decadence assume control of the national will…..and the outcome is the death of a dream.

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www.littlestuff-minoosha.blogspot.com

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