Marveling at Modern Money

Let us never forget how amazing our modern world is, and what a marvel of human genius our economic system is, with its circulating paper currency, and now, plastic-electronic currency of flowing electrons. We forget how recently it was that human civilization created circulating paper currency, and all our other modern economic marvels. In america, in the eighteen twenties, nearly a half century after independence, most of the country was still relying heavily on english currency, schilling, pence, pounds, and all that. This was because there was no existing circulating national currency; each state was responsible for its own currency system, the only paper money consisted of drafted banknotes and checks, which were more widley used and accepted than any circulating currency, other than gold and silver coins. Financial transactions betwwen places like virginia and new york could, and did, get a bit tricky. The plain is that the american people, right from the git go, did not trust their own central government enough to give it the power to issue and regulate a nationwide circulating paper currency. The distrust we americans have of govermne tnow is certainly nothing new, nor, for that matter, is the political betterness and divisiveness which permeates public discourse and divides us. Humans began by bartering, food for work, land for cattle; coinage, symbolic wealth, made things easier when humans became neolithic. The original idea was that the actual coin itself was actually equal, in dollar value, to the work or commodity for which it was being exchanged, and that basic idea continue right up to the nineteen seventies, and the eliminatin of the "gold standard" as a measuremnet of the value of currency. Now, currency values, all currency values, fluctuate according to the markep, and do not remain rigid and fixed against the price of gold no matter what. Now, we have all this flexibiliby, the flexibility of instantaneous transactions over thousands of miles, computerized storage of all, meaning "all" information, and the magnificent fiction that is modern money can be used as a way to fulfill all our dreams. Its like Einstein said, the greatest invention of mankind is compound interest. The mathematics behind compound interest are inherent in nature, just a a base ten arabic numberins system, in a sense, is a "discovery", rather than an "invention", but still....to apply the mathenatical principle to real money, (real/imaginary money)...as a stroke of human genius. We can now do anything we want, economically. Maybe we should do what's needed to make us healthy and happy, rather than impoverished, angry, and miserable.

Why not tell the truth...

RUSH LIMBAUGH,the famed radio talker, has a new book out, written for children, providing a purely conservative, (meaning "hagiographic", or, history written so as to make the subject look good) pro-american version of early american history. Rush, like just about all conservatives, has somehow gotten the idea that the teaching of american history to american schoolchildren has gone to hell in a handbasket, becausse, according to said conservatives, teaches too much revisionist, negative history, and no longer tells the truth, ther truth being, namely, that american history is the great story of a great nation, pure and simple. The westward expansion of the unites states is a litany of courage, of brave, virtuous wilderness taming pioneers. Increasingly frequently, american public school history teachers make mention that this brave pioneering westward american expansion was in fact genocide visited upon the natives. Traditional hagiographic history never brought that up; presumably the student was always perfectly free to figure it out for him or her self. For a long time after the end of world war two americans taught their children that the perfidious unprovoked sneak attack at pearl harbor resulted in the atomic bombs being dropped by the united states. Nowadays, here and there, there are a few intrepid teachers who have the nerve to suggest thea FDR may have encouraged the attack on pearl harbor, and a few teachers have even pointed out that the atomics bombs were dropped after the war was already over. The most natural thing in the world is for a historian to write hagiography about his own country. We all love our country. And that's exactly what's been going on in american historiography for two hundred years, and jsut when we have started to get away from it a little tiny bit, and started telling the well balanced truth about our past, a bit, here come the neo conservatives wanting to go back to our old hagiographic ways, because it comforts them. Geez. The real american history is not sufficiently negative to make us all look bad. It a mixture, a balance, of achievement, and mistakes, like all human behavior. We are strong enough to deal with the truth. Why not tell it?

Knowing Thyself, and Thy World

PERFECTLY INTELLIGENT PEOPLE who don't happen to know much about history often morph instantaneously into historians when trying to prove some point or other. Then you start hearing brilliant comments like: "the american civil war was not about slavery". It was about state's rights, right? or agrarian versus manufacturing based economic systems in conflict over economic policy, or something like that. Had to have something to do with land and money, for damned sure. Do all wars have at least a little something to do with material wealth, or the currency which symbolizes it? We begin to see, perhaps, that explaining our own actions en masse can be purely subjective, so we invent sciences like sociology and psychology to accompany history, economics, and political science. Even right now, you can either say that vladimir putin is playing with barrack obama like a toy, which is what rush limbaugh says, or you can say that obama's threats and john kerry's remark about chemical weapons were cleverly designed to trap syria and russia into doing american bidding, which they now are. Your choice, and either story will fly, depending on who's doing the talking-and the listening, if anyone. Facts and dates give us a starting point of agreement, from which we rapidly go our own directions. Some interesting current facts involve minimum wage fast food workers all over america grumbling about their wages, state minimum wage arguments all over america, people talking about the huge gap between rich and poor, and in general, enhanced sound and fury concerning material wealth, the currency which symbolizes it, and how to produce and distribute it. In large numbers the people of earth are most definitely not happy with current political and economic arrangements. When the late gore vidal was riding in the back of a limosine as a small child, sitting next to his senator grandfather, watching tomatoes splatter all over the car's exterior, he said he understodd right then and there that it was quite possible in america to have a war of rich against poor. We can either say that the oppressive economic system forces millions of people into poverty through no fault of their own, or we can say that there are millions of very lazy very stupid people throughout america and the world, who need only lift themselves out of poverty through hard work and sound decision making - but really, does it much matter who says what, or what we say? Either way, the world seems to be boiling down to a few million rich folks, and a few billion poor folks, and the anger between the two groups seems to be, shall we say, growing, with the social media, with communication, with enhanced awareness of people of their own situations, and the situations of others.

The Cost of Inequality

ONE IN FIVE americans sometimes goes hungry, in a country with food overflowing. During obama's presidency the number of people on food stamps has tripled. as we recover, slowly, from the great recession, the recovery is going to the wealthy, not to the poor. the middle class continues to shrink, globally, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer and more numerous, globally. Greatest gap between the rich and the poor in human history, right here and now. a new book "Average Is Over", which is brilliant and worth reading, predicts that the great economic inequality will only get greater, as the middle class disappears, and the world polarizes between a growing ruch and a growing poor class. As if our modern society, in future years, will magnify current economic trends which create a super rich and a super poor class, globally. Not a pretty picture. and if this is true, if the future america and the future world is a place where a large wealthy class and a large poor class squeeze out the middle class altogether, then you're gonna have a war between the rich and the poor, brother, and don't doubt it for a second, and don't forget it. Because its a dead certainty. Like the american civil war, where you have two entirely different ways of life and economic systems, each seeking dominance, each wary of the other, devolving into war. The rich and the poor are going to be close to each other, in contact with each other, no matter how hard they may try not to be. And the friction, the tension, is going to build, and build...till it explodes into violence, probably on a massived scale. Consider Syria, right now, and be warned. We can either change directions, and begin to cooperate, and work together, and share, and equalize...or we can continue in the same direction we are now going,social darwinism, and end up killing each other.

Recommending Putin's Letter

HOW COOL, that the president of russia, vladimir putin, would write a letter to the american people and that the new york times would publish it. i felt like he was talking straight to me, as much as anyone. and every single word of it made perfect sense, in the september 12 opinion page of the times. every single word. which follows since american conservatives are outraged by it. american conservatives can't decide who to hate more, putin or obama. its close. the word "exceptional" can mean "unusual", or "of unusually high quality", which is a hair splitting difference that has conservative ameicans and vladimir putin both upset at obama. putin is quite right that no nation should consider itself, its government, people, or culture superior to any other. surly president obama and rush limbaugh would both agree with this. and surely both, when they call their country (america) "exceptional", they do not intend any arrogance. It just sounds arrogant to some people, myself included. american conservatives and putin also both agree that obama ought not attack syria, and i also agree with that. surely obama does too. the offer to eliminate the syrian stockpile was a brilliant stroke by bashar and putin and kerry; might as well give credit to all three. would a newspaper in russia publish a letter to the russian peoploe by barrack obama? for that matter, i could write one right here, because about half the readers of this blog are russian, for some reason. whatever the reason, thank you , dear russia, and it look slike you rleader is far more intelligent and compassionate and wise than i had thought, i who always thought he was a thug. does he perhaps have his finger on a nuclear warhead even as he talks peace? one can never be too paranoid, you know.

Mixing Our Economy

A GOOD FRIEND of mine was sitting on a bar stool at the island in the kitchen of her home one fine, normal evening, taking a bite of steak. She began to choke. The noise alerted her husband, who was in another room. He hastened to her, and just as he was approaching her from behind, within a few inches of reaching her, ready to do heimlich, she bolted straight upward off the stool, and lunged backwards, and fell through the air, and hit the back of her head on the tile with what her husband later said was a sickening smack, like a gun shot. She was helicoptered to a distant, high level hospital, where she spent three miserable months, then died. They had no insurance, and her husband filed bankruptcy. He's paying for the thirty two thousand dollar helicopter ride twenty dollars a month, for as long as it takes. He gets to keep the house. The total medical bill was two point seven million american dollars. Suffice to say, he is among the millions of americans who are fortunate to have bankruptcy as an option. Even if he had had insurance, the co payments would have bankrupted him. Without bankruptcy protection, without this artificial government involvement in the free market economy, capitalism would probably collapse in a dark hole of debt. Government, through the legal system, intervenes in the free market by allowing for "incorporation" of businesses, and providing intellectual property protection in the form of patents and copyrights. Bankruptcy, incorporation, and patents, three indispensible components of a capitalist economy, all three of them government enacted and enforced, aka, socialistic. Without government involvement in the economy, there is no economy, or no organized, sane economy, it seems. Can you imagine a country without bankruptcy, corporations, or patents and copyrights? Good luck growing your business, or making any money off your invention, book, or song. The hard rough edges of free market capitalism must be smoothed and softened by cooperative economic contrivances. Here's to our mixed economy!

Moderation as a Virtue

NIGEL KENNEDY, a seriously great violin player of english origins, has engendered controversy for the usual reasons: the way he dresses, the way he talks, (his accent), and the comments he makes. Not long ago he appeared in a concert with the "palestine strings", an excellent orchestra consisteing of palestinian young folks. They too are quite accomplished musicians. At the concert, Kennedy condemned what he called israel's policy of "apartheid", referring of course to their treatement of palestinians within their borders, who, in a sense, were trapped within those newely proclaimed borders in 1948 at the advent of the state of israel. This (kennedy's comment) caused all kinds of furor, for there are two types of people on earth: those who favor israel, and those who do not. Preseumably a middle ground can be found among those who believe the existence of israel is perfectly acceptable, but who have concerns about israeli policies with regard to its palestinian inhabitants. When Kennedy sounded off, the pro israeli crowd was outraged at the very thought that anyone could even conceivably offer any negative comment about the treatment of palestinians by israel, while those who feel that the palestinians have been and are being mistreated quite naturally applauded kennedy's forthrightness. We seem to live in a world in which people of political proclivities take extreme positions, and moderation is viewed as unacceptable nothingness. Late in his life albert einstein, perhaps the most famous jew in the world during his lifetime, was offered, incredibly enough, the presidency of israel, a largely ceremonial post, by then prime minister david ben gurion. Einstein was flattered by the offer, but very intimately understood that he was no politician nor political leader by nature. Einstein suffered from the same dooming political liabilities as, for instance, davy crockett; he was just too plain honest, outspoken, and independent to make a good political leader, and he knew it. david ben gurion reportedly breathed a sigh of relief when einstein declined. As long as there is man, there will be war, lamented einstein. As long as there is a middle east, there will be extremes of opinion, might be an added axiom. Obama is threatening to entangle the united states in yet another needless foreign war, say the american conservatives, who suddenly sound a lot like yesterday's liberals. Obama's threats of force, his "red line" is bringing the syrian government, and the russian governemtn, to the table to discusee eliminating chemical weapons, say today's liberals, who suddenly sound a great deal like yesterday's conservatives.Einstein pointed that the ultimate value of the new israeli state would be determined by the manner in which the new state treated its palestinian occupants. He might not be too terribly thrilled by events of the past sixty years. Similarly, we ought not be too happy with our insistance on taking extreme attitudes about every little thing of a political nature. Wasn't there a time when moderation was considered a virtue?

Voting in the New

THERE IS AN ELECTION for mayor of Moscow, which may actually be about over now. It is somewhat of an extended process, like mayoral campaigns in big american cities, like the one gong on right now in new york. Most likely the people in both cities are good and ready for the damned thing to be over with. Both have been interesting campaigns. The one in new york has featured all sorts of interesting characters, including the apparent pornography addict anthony weiner, who steadfastly has refused to quit the race, and in moscow the incumbant mayor is challenged by a vigorous, wealthy, successful businessman and politician. The incumbant was appointed three years ago by his buddy dictator/president vladimar putin, and has been a good administrator, reportedly. His reelection seems certain, and by now may already have occured. The challenger evidently has a huge volunteer camgpain organization, and a lot of advertising money. Sounds a lot like like american candidates. In authoritarian countries political challengers get elected far les often than in free for all democracies, as you might guess. The best advice is usually; vote the incumbant out, vote the new candidate in. Fresh blood. IN a participatory democracry, power is dispersed widely, and nobody ever has too much power, or has power for very long. If only th epeople in russia and syria and some other countries would rise up and vote in a totally different government! In the united states, there is no need to worry; a totally new government will be voted in soon enough.

Looking Forward to the Present

FOR MY MONEY, the two most positively exciting occurances currently on this generally dreary word are the continuning discovery of planets orbiting other stars, the increasing liklihood that many of them are earth like, and the roving around on mars by the mars rover, sending us a constant movie of mars; not much happening, but still, its mars! For us baby boomers, the prospect of space exploration, space travel, was a shining beacon of hope which has never really materialized. We have no base on the moon, and we have no starships heading towards other stars. But we do have the incredible excitement of new planets and new views of mars. How boring all this must seem to those who insist that aliens are among us, interacting with the world's politics and economy, extraterrestrials are channeling messges to us through humans, and things of this nature. For people who believe all this paranormal stuff, the real world, which is to say, that which is demonstrably occuring, like discovering new planets or exploring mars with a robot,must simply seem mundane, boring. For me, alien bases on the bottom of the ocean, and aliens disguised as humans living next door are fun, fanciful possibilities, but not dead certainties, as they are for the paranormal crowd. with such an exciting world in plain sight, how can the world that the rest of us seem limited to seem anything other than dismal?I'm glad I believe in UFOs and aliens, but I'm equally glad that I don't know whether my beliefs are true, as others do, or seem to, or claim to; it means i have something really interesting to look forward to.

Will Obama Back Off?

AMERICANS, by a margin of something like two to one, are against president Obama's apparent intention of attacking syria. So is most of the rest of the world, it seems, except france, and saudi arabia, strangely enough. Americans against the plan to strike syria are spearheaded by conservative republicans, who seem to be opposing obama for the sake of opposing obama, rather than for the sake of a more peaceful world with less american military might. Some of these conservateves are asking, "where are the liberals?", and that's a good question. Liberal democrats do not seem to be vehemently and vociferously voicing their oppostion to obama's bombers, as you would expect, based on their recent opposition to all such wars. Perhaps liberal democrats simply cannot believe that the man they chose to be their leader because they thought he was a good peaceful liberal, turns out to be just another capitalistic, imperialistic, materialistic conservative corporate war mongering puppet. IN my neck of the woods, it don't take much to scare up a pretty good war protest, and the same seems to be true for most parts of america. Thus, best guess is that if and when Obama launches, the war protests will start up lickity split, with the same ole liberal hippie peace crew in strong numbers, joined by a goodly number of tea party types, making one of the strangest cases of american bedfellowship in the annals of american hagiography. The very spectre of this might just be ednough to get the president to change his mind, and to simply continue the conversation, hoping for an eventual unified world opinion against chemical warfare, bashar assad, or both. Or, you never know. Maybe the tea party conservative republicans will have separate anti obama's war rallies on the other side of town,in the up scale subdivision where the country club is located, far away from the disreputable louts. Best guess is it'll all never happen, because the "Big O" will come to his senses, and back off. IN a way, that's too bad; it would have made for a hilarious spectacle.

Male Power, and Ways to Make War

INSOMNIA TOO HAS its virtues. I have learned much in the middle of the night that I might not have learned elsewhere. For example, it has now been revealed, by someone, that the late libyan dictator kaddhafi (remember him?) unreservedly searched throughout this country's general population for girls he found attractive, then ordered them to the palace for his "amusement". Apparently he raped thousands. Stay tuned, surely more info is forthcoming; the american entertainment/news media sure as hell isn't gonna miss out on this...haven't most men with power throughout history done the same thing, more or less? Then too, there have been a few female autocrats who reportedly had things her way, sexually, such as catherine the great and cleopatra... Perhaps bill clinton is a bit more subtle, but still...and the problem is, the girls encourage it. young attractive women, aware of their latent sexual power, often can't resist using it to attract men with resources, recources being wealth, power, fame, and whatever. Even if kaddhafi hadn't ordered them to the palace, at least one or two of them would probably have shown up anyway. Some very powerful men, like obama, are kept in check because they have a beautiful wife who is not only beautiful, but perfectly capable of beating him up. I'd hate to think what michelle could do to barack hussein, in terms of physical violence, should circumstances warrant, which they never would. Impossible. Right?.....To actually be in control of someone who has great power, a heady experience, in terms of human nature. To draw a red line, a concept only humans can understand, and to demand that no one cross it, and that those who do will be in peril, is inherent in all human behavior, even if seldom spoken. The consequences are usually a compromise. Obama's red line against the syrian dictator he now claims was drawn by the whole world, a strategically sound security search. It becomes irrestably tempting for his enemies to accuse obama of blaming his aggressive actions on the world. The rest of us now need to ask:"do we indeed share and support obama's red line against chemical warfare?" Why not; after all, we still have plenty of other ways to make war...

Cowboy Church!

KEEP YOUR EYES open, and sooner or later you'll see something that'll amaze you, no matter how boring you think your life or the world has become. If you'll type in the phrase "cowboy church" on google, you'll see. Culture, including christianity, has changed a great deal over the past two thousand years, and the rate of change today is greater than ever before. We are witnessing an american enculturization of christianity, a rapid evolution, right before our very eyes. Membership in christendom, especially in europe and the united states, is declining. The church has had four hundred years of science competing with it for intellecutal domination, science has been slowly but steadily gaining, and science aint slowing down. Increasingly, scientific reality, the kind that is accepted by everyone, such as causal connections, is leading us to believe that if one religion contains truth, they all do, and probably none contain all of it. So all kinds of eclectic philospohical systems spring forth. But cowboy church? Isn't that a bit "parochial" right from the git go? Meaning, isn't the potential for growth within this church limited severely by this new cultural context? How many cowboys are there around the world, or in america, for that matter? Of course, a chucrh can certainly set goals for itself other than growth, but the attempt to grow seems to be inherent in all religions, not so? Cowboy church seems destined to relegation as a footnote in history, along with all the other unique sects and groups which have set themselves apart from, but still within, christianity. A "sub cult" if you will. But until it fades awqy, why not have fun with cowboy church? I hear the srmons are short, but sweet, and the barbecue is extra good. Just keep my name off the "bull Riding for Christ" list...

One More War

ONE BY ONE, like sheep wanting only a moment in the sun, members of congress are coming forth and letting president obama and we the american people know that yes, after all, we do support president obama and his attack plans for syria. Even Boehner and all the far righties are hoppin' on board, now that obama cornered them and sold them on it. The world turned upside down. We knew they would all along, didn't we? Since when could a conservative republican ever say no to a good ole war? When obam made like he was going to do it no matter what, they howled like wolves, particularly john McCain, who spent six months urging obama to attack syria, including how to do it, then, the mimute obama decides to do it, began howling like a wolved, hey there, don't ignore me, you have to ask us, i am important...now, what about the rest of us? What about the american people, and what about the united nations? Don't they (we) count? You could've sworn that we did. Shouldn't obama speak at the united nations, pledging to take no action unless and until the majority of the world agrees with it? And shouldn't he speak to the american people, directly, face to face, and explain that congress now agrees with him, now that it knows what the plan is, and that we the american people should too, and that he will not take action without our approval. Shouldn't that happen? What do you think the chances are that it will? Now we wait for the fur to fly. I hope it goes the way we (the united states) wants it to, however that is. It doesn't always, in thesw wars we start. But alas, one gets confused. After all, there have been so many.

Democratic Tyranny

HOW 'BOUT THIS - everybody gets hold of an email address, telephone number, or physical address of the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA, all of which are American information gathering organizations. There are several dozen more, but, you get the point. Th epoint is to send a copy of every email, every telephone conversation, every everything - to all the above named entities, because, that is apparently what they want, and what you want is to be patriotic, and loyal to your own government, and cooperative...right? Perhaps a new holiday shoulc be proclaimed "IS", for "Information Sharing", a day when all communication with anyone is shared with everyone, primarily through the good graces of, you guessed it, the american federal government. If we all live in glass houses, none of us'll throw stomnes, and it seems we are to be grateful for thr good graces of our good american federal government for realizing that, and thus making everything public. The russians were recnelty snickering at america becaose we americans had always imagined ourselves so free from government tyranny, our privacy so wee protected and guaranteed. Well, snicker no more, brethren and sistern russkies! We americans gladly cooperatw with our own gov - call itdemocratic tyranny, or, perhaps, grass roots autocracy, but whatever you choose to call it, we like it, and , after all, its ours, and its the only one we have.

Free to be Artists, Working for Free

WITH THE ADVENT OF the internet, and CD buring, and copy pasting, and such like high techs, its become much easier to read writing or listen to music without paying for it, and this is what millions of people have been choosing to do over the last couple of decades or so. Intellectual property theft is not a crime limited to only a few criminal types with criminal minds. Intellectual property theft is what happens when the bank is left unlocked on main street and john and jane doe are allowed in at all times, unsupervised. The average american, it turns out, is a criminal. After overpaying writers, singers, and actors for years, we're finally getting even. I haven't bought a CD in years. One can imagine what a bummer it would be to make millions of dollars as a famous singer songwriter, the suddenly find your income dwindling as your recordings are stolen everywhere. One must note, however, that however henous intellectual property theft is, it, like the internet itself, is a leveling force, an ultimately democratizing force mitigating power at the top, this business of stealing from the corporations, from the wealthy. Britney Spears (selling) dance lessons, rappers workin' down at mickey dee's....yo. If artists shouldn't be fabulously wealthy, should they be paupers, or merely gainlfully employed elsewhere, with art as a hobby? In a future socialist utopia, everything will be free, prosperity will be unlimited, and nobody will care whether there's a paycheck in the mail. Think of the millions of good folks banging away in their basements, mixing those lead guitars and drums, the ones crouched over their keyboards trying to create yet another unappreciated verbal masterpiece, the thousands of painters and craftspeople unrecognized; the great unwashed masses of creationers. Welcome to the club. We'rs all starving artists at heart. Shouldn't we all have some sort of job directly related to the production and distribution of food, clothing, and or shelter? First comes the free energy, vis a vis solar radiation. Then , a litle back engineering using stolen alien technology, advances in agri and medicine, and better resource allocation, and we're off to the races. Free from material want, free to all become artists, working for free.