Sign the petition: Support Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax for the mega-wealthy: While we talk a lot about income inequality, wealth inequality is perhaps an even more serious problem.
Wealth inequality has reached truly epic proportions. The top 1% in the United States now ...
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Advice To Youth
Advice To Youth
Get out. Travel. Experience other peoples. You need to broaden your
perspectives. See other points of view. Get to know that your point
of view is only one of many. Learn that all points of view are valid.
Try to understand why that point of view exists and why it is just as
valid as yours.
Be a part of civilization or not, it is your choice. Before you decide
however, understand what civilization is.
Civilization is built on honor. Listen: Homo-Sapiens (human beings)
did not survive because we had the biggest teeth or ran the fastest
or any physical trait. We survived because we co-operated with each
other, not just in groups, but even with strainers. It is a system
of reciprocity: You do me a good and "I owe you one." "Much obliged",
meaning I am obligated to you to return a favor. The Spanish term:
Por Favor does not mean please, it means for a favor. These phrases
that pass between us are representative of civilization. The question
becomes: will you honor your word? So then, liars are anti-social
people and are not part of civilization, they are outside civilization.
They are not worth the time of day, unless of course you can put them
to use in order to benefit civilization, they can sometimes be useful,
but understand they have no honor and cannot be trusted.
Now you need to ask yourself in which group do you want to be? If you
are a liar, understand the kind of people you will be associating
yourself with. If you want to be an honorable person, understand that
the words you speak carry consequences and must be acted on or if you
do not, you will be shunned from honorable society.
It's all your choice.
What kind of person do you want to be and with what kind of people do you
want to surround yourself? Honorable, civilized, social, and dependable,
or dis-honorable, un-civilized, anti-social, and unreliable, unbelievable
people who are not to be trusted?
It's your life and it's up to you to decide.
Also understand that most people don't know this. This will be news to
many people. They don't know the rules. It is up to us to teach them.
This is how civilization works. Understand it, practice it, talk with
others about it. Decide for yourself. What is true and what is not.
Liars are due no respect. They are uncivilized and they have no
place in any civilized conversation.
A lie is not a different opinion. A lie is a knife in the back of society.
Get out. Travel. Experience other peoples. You need to broaden your
perspectives. See other points of view. Get to know that your point
of view is only one of many. Learn that all points of view are valid.
Try to understand why that point of view exists and why it is just as
valid as yours.
Be a part of civilization or not, it is your choice. Before you decide
however, understand what civilization is.
Civilization is built on honor. Listen: Homo-Sapiens (human beings)
did not survive because we had the biggest teeth or ran the fastest
or any physical trait. We survived because we co-operated with each
other, not just in groups, but even with strainers. It is a system
of reciprocity: You do me a good and "I owe you one." "Much obliged",
meaning I am obligated to you to return a favor. The Spanish term:
Por Favor does not mean please, it means for a favor. These phrases
that pass between us are representative of civilization. The question
becomes: will you honor your word? So then, liars are anti-social
people and are not part of civilization, they are outside civilization.
They are not worth the time of day, unless of course you can put them
to use in order to benefit civilization, they can sometimes be useful,
but understand they have no honor and cannot be trusted.
Now you need to ask yourself in which group do you want to be? If you
are a liar, understand the kind of people you will be associating
yourself with. If you want to be an honorable person, understand that
the words you speak carry consequences and must be acted on or if you
do not, you will be shunned from honorable society.
It's all your choice.
What kind of person do you want to be and with what kind of people do you
want to surround yourself? Honorable, civilized, social, and dependable,
or dis-honorable, un-civilized, anti-social, and unreliable, unbelievable
people who are not to be trusted?
It's your life and it's up to you to decide.
Also understand that most people don't know this. This will be news to
many people. They don't know the rules. It is up to us to teach them.
This is how civilization works. Understand it, practice it, talk with
others about it. Decide for yourself. What is true and what is not.
Liars are due no respect. They are uncivilized and they have no
place in any civilized conversation.
A lie is not a different opinion. A lie is a knife in the back of society.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
Sunday, October 9, 2011
There are no rights. There are no such things as human rights. No one has any rights. This is reality.
For every "right" there is an associated responsibility. If I have a right to healthcare, who is responsible for giving it to me? If I have a right to good food, whose responsibility is it to see that I get it? If I have a right to education, whose responsibility is it to give it to me? No one. Period.
There is no thing any where that makes anyone give me good food or education or health insurance or anything. That is not the reality of life here on this planet. There are no human rights. Understand the reality of things and you will be better off.
Goals of society and civilization are another subject.
For every "right" there is an associated responsibility. If I have a right to healthcare, who is responsible for giving it to me? If I have a right to good food, whose responsibility is it to see that I get it? If I have a right to education, whose responsibility is it to give it to me? No one. Period.
There is no thing any where that makes anyone give me good food or education or health insurance or anything. That is not the reality of life here on this planet. There are no human rights. Understand the reality of things and you will be better off.
Goals of society and civilization are another subject.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Conservatism Is Bad for Your Health: “Red” States Sicker than “Blue”
Posted by Joshua Holland at 9:24 am
August 3, 2010 10 COMMENTS
Conservatism Is Bad for Your Health: “Red” States Sicker than “Blue”
Blue Texan over at Instaputz pointed to a couple of data sets, where I found an interesting correlation.
The first is Gallup’s ranking of states by ideology, according to the share of residents who self-identify as liberal or conservative. The second is this United Health Foundation ranking of states by the health of their citizens, according to a combination of 22 different metrics.
The ten least healthy states are all among the “red” states*. Five of the least healthy states are among the ten most conservative.
Nine of the ten healthiest states are among the “blue” states. Five of the healthiest states are among the ten most liberal.
Gallup tells us that in the United States, self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals by 22 points. In the ten unhealthiest states, they hold a 27-point advantage; in the ten healthiest states the gap averages less than 9.9 points.
You might be able to guess the one conservative state that has a healthy population: Utah! Mormons — 60 percent of the population — don’t drink alcohol or smoke tobacco. Utah also has the youngest population of any state, and, according to the CDC, Utahans are more likely to exercise than the residents 46 states.
Anyway, snappy headlines notwithstanding, there are obviously multiple factors in play — it’s not a causal relationship. There are demographic and cultural differences between the healthiest and least healthy states.
Having said that, there are certainly public policy components to this trend. “Blue” states have higher average incomes than “Red.” More conservative states tend to have higher rates of uninsured. Both are connected to their lower unionization rates — they’re “right to work” states. They tend to spend fewer dollars per citizen on healthcare overall, and more liberal states also tend to set eligibility for public health insurance for children at a higher point. Pregnant women in more liberal states tend to have more prenatal care. Studies show that prenatal and early childhood care has a lifelong impact on one’s health.
*I didn’t use the electoral map; I just split the 50 states down the middle and am calling the 25 that leaned furthest to the right “red.”
Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer with AlterNet.
August 3, 2010 10 COMMENTS
Conservatism Is Bad for Your Health: “Red” States Sicker than “Blue”
Blue Texan over at Instaputz pointed to a couple of data sets, where I found an interesting correlation.
The first is Gallup’s ranking of states by ideology, according to the share of residents who self-identify as liberal or conservative. The second is this United Health Foundation ranking of states by the health of their citizens, according to a combination of 22 different metrics.
The ten least healthy states are all among the “red” states*. Five of the least healthy states are among the ten most conservative.
Nine of the ten healthiest states are among the “blue” states. Five of the healthiest states are among the ten most liberal.
Gallup tells us that in the United States, self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals by 22 points. In the ten unhealthiest states, they hold a 27-point advantage; in the ten healthiest states the gap averages less than 9.9 points.
You might be able to guess the one conservative state that has a healthy population: Utah! Mormons — 60 percent of the population — don’t drink alcohol or smoke tobacco. Utah also has the youngest population of any state, and, according to the CDC, Utahans are more likely to exercise than the residents 46 states.
Anyway, snappy headlines notwithstanding, there are obviously multiple factors in play — it’s not a causal relationship. There are demographic and cultural differences between the healthiest and least healthy states.
Having said that, there are certainly public policy components to this trend. “Blue” states have higher average incomes than “Red.” More conservative states tend to have higher rates of uninsured. Both are connected to their lower unionization rates — they’re “right to work” states. They tend to spend fewer dollars per citizen on healthcare overall, and more liberal states also tend to set eligibility for public health insurance for children at a higher point. Pregnant women in more liberal states tend to have more prenatal care. Studies show that prenatal and early childhood care has a lifelong impact on one’s health.
*I didn’t use the electoral map; I just split the 50 states down the middle and am calling the 25 that leaned furthest to the right “red.”
Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer with AlterNet.
Invictus
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
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