I also endorse Barack Obama and Joseph Biden.

[This bit is added Nov 19th.]

Well we won, didn’t we? It’s about time too. I was nevertheless startled by how close the popular vote was. The world got its wish too (as I understand it the Worldwide popular support for Obama was over 70%—but I don’t have a good link, leave one in comments if you have one please).

I modified the colors on this website, and, as I did, I wondered suddenly about my allegiance. I am American again. Hmm. The Republican Administration is so far removed from my life and lifestyle that I gritted and hated, spitefully, every bit of politics in the last 8 years. Now I am vindicated.

Barack Obama and Joseph Biden won the election of President of These United States.

I am American again. My trust is renewed.

I wandered through a finance blog this morning. Right now it’s evening, and I don’t remember where or what it was. The gist was this—if Obama wins, then won’t the poor people get the rich people’s money? And what’s wrong with being rich? Oh, I shake with such idiotic ideas. So I did a little shake, leaving some gentle comments behind.

I hope you know what I mean.

25% of the nation’s wealth is owned by 1% of the population. I believe that’s up, since the Bush years, by 3 or 5%. I don’t really care about the numbers (if you know them leave accurate numbers in comments please). I care about the ideas.

The idea is that no one could ever earn $1,000 or $10,000 or $100,000 dollars an hour. No one can work that hard. Can you? No. Nobody. Somehow wealth and ideas of ownership got out of hand in this culture.

If you count Corporate Welfare: that’s stealing. It’s simple, if you don’t pay to clean up your messes, you are stealing…stealing the commonwealth of everyone. If you tear up all our tree, make toilet paper for big profits (or small profits) and leave a legacy of destruction—you did not earn riches, you earn a whipping!

Politics: Managing Wealth and Prosperity

i wish Obama would or could go about redistributing wealth, but he’s not really up to that. Just a little fairness in a wrecked economy, pilfered by Bushco Thieves. I’m not the only one eager for change….

Do More Than Rock The Vote

When Is Enough Enough?

These Librarians had an Ultimatum—and won! But it’s risky. McCain and Palin hunt for Un-American Americans, so watch your step.

If you vote for Obama and he loses, get ready to cover your tracks. It’s just a guess on my part, but spying by the US Government continues unabashedly. (And US spying implies deeper concerns.)

From Demoncracy-Now!: The Bush administration’s wiretapping program has come under new scrutiny this week. Two influential congressional committees have opened probes into allegations US intelligence spied on the phone calls of American military personnel, journalists and aid workers in Iraq.

From CounterCurrents.org: The potential for ubiquitous surveillance that emerges with Enhanced Drivers Licenses (EDLs) could only be imagined by the Stasi in Communist East Germany, but is a genuinely looming specter for contemporary North American democracies.

As it turns out, the government hunts kid-friendly folks too. The following video demonstrates the serious amazing nature of An Ultimatum.

Where’s The Ultimatum?

Government Granted Private Monopoly

The financial bailout never seemed legitimate to me. It stinks; it’s fishy. It doesn’t make sense. The 700 billion dollars given to Giant Banking Institutions is written and signed (indirectly) by you and me and our children. Who wrote it? Who signed it? The all powerful monopoly men representing the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve is not Federal; rather, it’s a privately owned bank. And it’s has very little Reserve. That much is well known. This Urgent Letter Regarding the $700 Billion Bailout explains a variety of banking concepts, very plainly. And the following video notes our various, financial concerns.

Our Not-Federal No-Reserve Bank of America

(credit: the following video)….

• Prints our money for a fee
• Lends us the money we paid them to print
• Charges us interest on the loan
• Sends that money overseas
• Controls our gold
• Have never been audited by us
• They lend in excess
• Pull cash from the economy
• Create economic crises (that’s plural)

Federal Reserve Crises and What You Can Do

These are the links offered in the video

• www.themoneymasters.com—a site selling a DVD, but they also offer various information
• www.libertyforlife.com—by look and feel, one of those gaudy, hysterical sites…information is fascinating though.
• www.campaignforliberty.com—this great site offers powerful goals and messages
• www.campaignforliberty.com/usa/UT—Locals, check here for your Represetative’s votes on the Bailout.

Last Bailout Warning

It’s not just a bailout! According to campaignforlibert.com, the Bailout Bill

• Grants the Treasury Secretary unprecedented power to use your money and future money to buyout bad mortgages and manipulate the market
• Gives new powers to the IRS to conduct undercover sting operations
• Adds billions, possibly trillions, to the national debt
• Drives down the value of the dollar (your money is worth less)

We must be intelligent enough to understand their tactics. Please share this stuff, explaining, complaining, or migraine-ing with someone who doesn’t know. That’s the first step. After that, prepare yourself.

You can, alternatively, wear blinders of hope and wish by thinking. We’ll talk about that later.

Dancing

Following Matt’s Lead

The video fascinates me. The same damn dance and music, over and over. Fascination, something to gnaw with my  beaver grin. Venture to Matt’s blog, and examine his extensive histories of travel. More eye-bugging fascinations for me, in the way that graphic images and strange news fascinate me. I took some time to realize it though.

At first, I marvelled with envy. Look at the places he’s been! And I wonder, confused: how could he afford it (really, how could I afford it). And I mumble with delight—he does the same dance with the same music, over and over. I give him humble credit though….his about page reveals a pretty nice fellow.

Then it struck me. I don’t do that because I don’t want to do that. It conflicts with my principles and with my pursuits. Shwew! I’m off the hook.

Now I can enjoy his tenacious dance a bit more.

Other Dances

If you maintain some jealousy, or Matt’s dance irritates you, the next one is for you. Enjoy.

Consequences of Travel

Voting Is Not Enough—Fight

Thanks to CandySandwich—I remember that voting is not enough. My duty is to help my culture change and evolve, help individuals find their way, and work through personal limitations and obstacles. Voting helps, but I must do more.

I teach martial arts. The internal-martial arts called Tai Chi Chuan and Baguazhang teach, at first, to fight. By fighting one begins unraveling layers of defensiveness, unreasonable self-protective reflexes, and unrealistic beliefs. As one grows competent at fighting, a shift toward healing becomes possible, and self-examination becomes necessary.

Consider This—An Attack On Ideas and Things

Here’s a peculiar idea, modified and embellished by me, that comes from Philosophy: Who Needs It? an Ayn Rand book.

Conservatives

They hate the world, physical reality, and stuff. Things don’t matter to Conservatives. They pile it up, burn it, shake it, store it, hoard it, whatever! No matter. What matters to conservatives? Ideas. They insist that laws and actions be taken against those who disagree with their ideas. Ideas are sacred and valuable to them, so valuable that, if you have your own opinions, your own beliefs or ideas, you represent an enemy (unless you agree with them). They will guard ideas. They may be inwardly kind: they look out for all of us; they’d like to stop us from thinking in ways that harm.

Liberals

They despise ideas…think whatever you want, it doesn’t matter to Liberals. Just don’t force them to think (i.e. make laws about thinking) in any particular way. They despise ideas, even their own; they just want stuff. But, because they’re fair-minded and outwardly-kind they want to distribute stuff, worldly goods, the Earth’s bounty, to everyone fairly. They want their share, and they want everyone—because stuff is valuable—to share in prosperity.

Laws or Freedom

Long-term problems build up while laws pile high. Conservatives make laws that guard ideas, while Liberals legislate things. Eventually, we will have no freedom of thought and no free place to go to think. That’s when the end is near, chaos is inevitable, collapse of a well-meaning empire is inevitable.

It’s a paraphrase, but maybe it hits home. Chances are you’re a bit conservative and a bit liberal, and I’d bet that one or the other makes you defensive. The one that riles you offers some ideas of the things to work on in your own life. It gives you some inner demons to fight, to wrestle, and to come to grips with.

My tendencies are liberal. And, because Ayn Rand riled me when I first read the above preaching, I explored…do I really not like things? Well, I do now. And—more importantly—I lean more conservative. Here’s my new attitdue: if your opinion is: let people have their own opinions then go to hell. Clearly, opinions matter or we would never have suffered through a Bush-Cheney tyranny, and some opinions, when acted upon, suck. Ideas can cause great pain and suffering, ruining great and valuable things.

It’s time to relax and fight. Crappy ideas from greedy fools got our country into war, financial ruin, and social distortion. And, if you’re liberal, then fight! fight! fight! those everything-is-equal thoughts. If you’re conservative, find a way to relax and enjoy this beautiful-and-fragile world.

Poverty—Blog Action Day Focus—October 2008

Lots of folks invite other folks to eliminate poverty in lots of ways. Here’s a quick sample right from site.blogactionday.org (there’s 78 more ideas):

1. Eat meatless meals 2x a week. Donate that grocery money to a local food bank. - TarotByArwen
2. Be homeless for a day/night. - Lex
3. Stop putting off adopting a child through an organization like Compassion International (or adopt another one). - Lex
4. Make a loan on Kiva, or buy a couple gift certificates and give them away to friends. - Lex
5. Get a group together to go door-to-door collecting canned foods for your local soup kitchen/shelter. - Lex
6. Take a homeless person to dinner and actually sit/talk with him. - Lex
7. Stop being lazy. Find a way to do your job better so that you can save an hour a day, or be that much more productive. - Alex Shalman
8. Stop buying junk to make yourself look pretty and donate it to homeless people and hungry people. - Craigsnede
9. Make flyers to stick in the local library. - Craigsnede
10. If you have a musical instrument you no longer use, donate to the still-struggling musicians and students in New Orleans, who are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. A few great organizations that will accepts musical instruments are Tipitina’s Foundation (www.tipitinasfoundation.org) and The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund (www.nomrf.org/donations.html).

Nice ideas. Folks have nice ideas.

Here’s Mine: Re-Define.

Example: hot. What does it mean? Sexy? Really warm? Ridiculously warm? Very attractive? Definitions of all words never exist in a vacuum. Definitions depend on context. The context of hot changes depending on which context one refers: attractiveness or temperature.

So it is with poverty…

The context that we—if you’re reading this on the internet then we fits—typically refer to is a capital-based, ownership-style of wealth. In this context, everyone is or eventually becomes poor, except that one really, super rich Guy (it’s an inherently sexist economic and political context). Even that Guy might believe that there’s another richer Guy. So in our world, in our context, dear Computer User, everyone tastes, experiences, and, to some degree, knows poverty.

In the context of a Global Economy, rich (read: poor in Spirit) people drive the whole world toward poverty. You saw it in the Bailouts! Poor, poverty-stricken, sick bastards, those faux leaders! So let’s beat them.

Each item above is easy. Try them out; be homeless for a day. Re-Define Wealth: that’s a difficult task, worthy of a hardy warrior. In a different context, you cannot never be homeless. In a different context, each of the 10 tasks above (or 88 tasks) are both infinitely easier (to do) and unfathomably harder (you’ll never really live in a context that let’s you do the task).

Wealth need not be defined by cash flow or number of computers. Wealth is not buckets of books or fancy cars. What is it? Hmm? How do we redefine this thing called wealth?! Tell me what you think.

The following sites use one of my custom themes, check them out—

• RealTaiji.com
• ShannonSusannaSmith.com
• StevenRobertSmith.com (this site!)
• TaiChiUtah.org