Are you enjoying your standard of living?

With our economy in the tank a question of what will happen in the future is in the forefront of most people’s minds. We have been looking at nearly 3 years of anemic economic growth, higher prices, a devalued dollar, and what jobs there are to be had, are either working for the government or at McDonalds. In fact, it is being reported that fully half of all private sector jobs created last month were at McDonalds and I really doubt these were $40,000 a year jobs. In a nation that must have an economy that produces at least 200,000 new private sector jobs monthly to account for the population growth, this is a terrible thing that can only lead to one result. That result would be a lower standard of living for each and every one of us.

Granted, our standard of living won’t drop overnight, but if we are to deal with ever increasing budget deficits, increased taxes and growing government, should we not expect our standard of living to decline? To the point, I would ask each and every one of you the following question, “If we actually believe in doing what is right for this nation, should we not lower our expectations in regards to our standard of living”? That’s right, since we have allowed our political leaders to spend what our grandchildren have not even earned, is it not our duty as citizens to give up the luxuries that we so enjoy?

It is my belief that no matter what we think, that is exactly what will happen during the next generation. We can even see the first signs of what will become the norm of the land. Our housing prices are in a free fall; those who have respectable jobs tend to be older and not normally inclined to move too often. That means any who buy are planning to buy a home will be younger with a lower base income, as they work at McDonalds, so a bank will not lend them the amount of cash as we enjoyed during our generation.(read more here)


Redgage photo of the day----(holly plant)


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Our deteriorating school system?

As my children are no longer part of the public school system, I am now beginning to be able to lift my head from the daily grind of living. It has been a bit of fresh air as I watch them step out into life on their own and I look forward to the prospect of seeing grandchildren running around the house, breaking my wife’s most precious knickknacks. One day while contemplating what grandchildren will mean, I heard a radio report of how poorly the schools in my part of Georgia were doing and how they faced the potential of a government takeover.

So what are the benefits of a public school education in today’s world? I realize that all of us pay taxes and the cheapest method in which to educate our children, (as required by law in all 50 states), would be to send them to public school. But is that the best thing for them? In the past 100+ years we have become accustomed to the idea that there is only one option for us, and that option being public schooling, but it wasn’t always the case. In the past, people either paid individuals to educate their children or educated them at home. So why aren’t we doing so now?

The simple answer is that we have been trained and educated to believe that there is only one best option, that of public schools. But in fact, the best educated people in our nation today are those who are home schooled followed by private education and trailed distantly by that of public education. So why don’t you education your children at home? Is it because you can’t afford it? It is my contention that we have been tricked into believing that if we don’t own the latest cell phone, newest car and the biggest house, we are not living the American dream. It has caused us to take on a two-income family, send our children to others to watch and acquire debt like no generation has ever before. For what purpose do we do such things? Don’t we want the best for our children or have we become so self-centered that we no longer think that the next generation must do better than the last? Are we the last and 2^nd greatest generation, 2^nd only to our parents who lived during the middle half of the 20^th century? (read more here)

Redgage photo of the day----(hibiscus)

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Do you eat locally? How far does your food travel?

Did you know that in the United States on average a single can, bag or portion of food would travel 1500 miles before it is consumed? Amazing, but true as we become more and more globalized we are increasingly relying on a more sophisticated and complicated distribution system for our food. For example, did you realize that all the food that is consumed at your local McDonalds comes from one of 19 distributors located throughout the United States? The largest of which is located in Irvine, California. So if you just used the distance the food is shipped from one of the distributors, it would be several hundred miles, but wait! If you looked a little closer, and determined who provided that food to the distributor, that range of transport would increase. If we used chicken nuggets as an example, most chicken nuggets are made at the Tyson factory in Nashville Arkansas, so it would not be inconceivable for those nuggets to travel from Nashville to California and back to Texas, thus reaching if not exceeding the average travel distance for the food we consume. If you were to add in the total amount of food that we import, such as winter grapes and vegetables from South America, it quickly becomes easy to understand why our food travels so much before it reaches out plates.

So you ask yourself, what is the big deal? Our food does a bit of travel before we buy it, we have the best system in the world and we can afford it! In general that is true, in fact I would even stipulate that 99.9% of the time being able to buy fresh grapes, vegetables and the like during the winter months is a good thing, but it is that one in a thousand that can really ruin your day, week or even take your life.

Yes, I firmly believe that we have the best systems in the civilized world. Furthermore, I believe that we can and will do ever better things in the future, but and there is always “a but”! There are too many people in this world who simply take pleasure in pulling down those who have done better than they have. It doesn’t matter the motivation of those who are envious of those who achieve, it is best to know that they exist and when you get enough of those who fall into the trap of envy, problems will arise. These problems can be as simple as a few protests and can quickly escalate into riots, (with looting), or even active terrorism and war. No matter how or why they occur, they will occur and do so on a regular basis. Couple this with an opportunity for a particularly bad storm or natural disaster and before you know it, the food distribution system breaks down.

(read more here)

 Redgage photo of the day-----pepper plant

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Is Gold really worth zero?

Have you heard those commercials that hawk the availability of gold and how it is an urgent need of any investor in today’s market? If not, you must have been living under a rock as they are everywhere and you can’t get away from them even by listening to the radio or reading the Internet. It’s almost like scabies, something you catch, yet can’t seem to determine where it came from or how to get rid of. Unfortunately, advertising is part of our world and it will always be that way, but for any investor a word of caution, investing in gold is one of those things that simply aren’t possible. You can own gold or sell gold, but you can never invest in it. Gold has no ability to expand or contract, grow or shrink, it simply is and unlike a company that can grow, the best use of gold is that of a pretty necklace or as part of an expensive watch that you can flash before your friends. Yet, though all of those gold commercials, one aspect strikes me as particularly funny. It’s the quote where they say, “gold has never been worth nothing”.

Think about that statement for a moment. Is it really true that gold has never been worth nothing? I find that statement to be rather hard to believe, for almost anything is possible though highly improbable. So can gold always retain value or is it one of those things, that we disillusion ourselves about in order to feel good. Much like we do when we say that the United States will never default upon its debts or the US Dollar is still the best currency to hold. Ten years ago, I might have believe that, 20 years ago, I would have been convinced, but today I know that the possibility of the United States government defaulting upon its debt is a very strong possibility and the only value the US Dollar holds is that of the inertia it has from being the default currency of the world. Once the world finds a new currency that it feels has better value or stronger legs, we will see just how strong it is. If you don’t believe me, ask someone about the Roman Denarius. A currency that was once dominant in the world and(read more here)


Redgage picture of the day-----black bear




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Heron's Steam Engine!

It is the hubris of most men, who look upon to the centuries of long ago, to feel that we are the most intelligent, advanced and civilized of any that has ever been. Yet, I wonder if that is actually true? Then the idea came to me one day while I was watching a bit of cable television, actually it was the history channel and they were talking about ancient technologies that mimic that of today’s world. After a bit it occurred to me that we as men and women of the 21^st century, are probably not the best there ever was. In fact, we are probably not even in the top five if we are to be honest about the way things are today.

First, if we are to look at military technology, many of us think we were the first to think of many of the modern weapons that we use in war today. That is far from the truth; take for example the flamethrower. A fearsome weapon that was first seen during the 2^nd World War and was feared by all those who faced it, but was it first seen at that time? Actually no, Greek fire has been known about and used at least two thousand years before the advent of the modern flamethrower. For those who are unfamiliar with Greek fire, it was a weapon that used a sticky and highly flammable fluid under pressure that shot a flame as far as 50 feet into the air. This weapon was so feared that many fleets simply would not engage the enemy if they though the enemy had the “fire”. Then there was the case of hand grenades. This is again a weapon that we all associate with the 2^nd World War, but were actually used by many nations including the Chinese. The same could be said for the advent of rockets, cannons, armored cars, etc.

Yet, if we searched we could find a number of examples where our forefathers used and developed technology that we associate with modern society. The clock is an example, where ancient Chinese and Greek, used water or the sun to tell time, we use quartz. Yet, the result was the same. There is the ample evidence of robots being used as part of religious ceremonies to awe the masses. In fact, one researcher suggested that one good way to improve your membership as well as the collection plate in ancient times was through the use of technology. Since, there is no evidence of television, the good old fashion church gathering was considered an excellent method of entertainment for the masses. So the churches of the time did their best to have the latest and greatest of entertainments in order to inspire the awe of their members. Robots and mechanical technology played a significant part in this. Something we only associate with modern society.

(read more here)

Redgage picture of the day-----fountain grass

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A lack of hobbies and our disposible society!

Things have changed since we were children. When we were young we played outside, climbing trees, building forts and generally exploring the world as no one before us ever had. It was through this wonder of exploration we matured and developed until we reached the point of our early teens and began to develop our life interests, which quickly developed into hobbies. Generally, many of these hobbies were the same ones our parents enjoyed, but as with each generation they were updated to modern times. Fathers who worked on tractors and other large machinery had sons and daughters who morphed that love to one of cars and hot rods. Others enjoyed woodworking and building rockets, or other more mundane hobbies such as coin collecting or antiques. Yet today, we have children whose greatest desire in life is to play video games and hunker down before the television for days on end. What has happened to our youth today, a youth were there is no desire to see what the greater world has, but rather would be content to fill their faces with a bit of fast food chicken and be living at home until they are 35.

I realize that this is more of a rant, but where is society going? We are looking at not one but several generations in a row where each generation seems to have more book knowledge, but less ability. Every family has the desire for each generation to do better than the last and in many cases the best hope of doing better was to increase one’s education and use that increased knowledge to move forward and upward in society. (read more here)




Redgage picture of the day----Uncle Sam


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Does personal responsibility still exist?

I was watching a little television with my parents today and saw a show that normally wouldn’t even pop up on my radar screen. It was the Judge Joe Brown show where people who have a beef with each other volunteer, (with pay of course), to air their differences in front of a national television audience. Of course, we are entertained throughout the show with the snaky comments from the Judge himself, but what caught my attention was one particular episode when a man “borrowed” his girlfriend’s car and then rolled it. Since the car was basically totaled, the owner, who did not have comprehensive coverage, demanded compensation for her damaged car. The demand for compensation to the owner was quickly denied as being unreasonable and that boyfriend indicated that he was not responsible for any damages due to the accident not being his “fault”. In other words, since someone cut him off, anything that happened after that was no longer his responsibility. Though the Judge ruled that the boyfriend was responsible, it was clear that not only was the boyfriend upset, but so was the owner’s daughter, (the girlfriend). The looks on the faces of the couple made me think!  What has happened to personal responsibility in the world today?

Time was, if someone borrowed, used or otherwise took possession for an object that you owned, they always returned it not only when they said they would, but it would be clean and in as good as working order as when they borrowed it. If they stayed the night, they would clean up after themselves and even offered to help with the dishes. That doesn’t seem to happen anymore in this nation of ours. I have a friend that recently let another borrow a sander, after six months it still hadn’t been returned even though it was promised to be back within a day or two. Later the borrower confessed that he had actually lost it and since he didn’t have the money and it wasn’t his fault that his wife moved it, he shouldn’t have to pay for a new one. Needless to say, this didn’t go down well and it was agreed, (after the threat of broken knees), that the borrower would have a new sander in my friend’s hand the next day. The fact that someone would borrow something and not return it, simply floored me. I had always lived with the motto, never borrow unless you must and if you do, then treat it better than if it was your own. The fact that most people don’t live by this motto is totally alien to me.(read more here)

Redgage picture of the day-----parrot

 Enjoy!

You earn too much! Let's limit your pay!

Last year there was a great deal of news on the administration’s new plan to limit the pay of the CEOs and top officials at a number of companies. These limits were suggested and implemented, (with a new Pay Czar), with the intent of getting a handle on those companies, (primarily banks), who executive pay was out of line with their bottom lines or as we like to say, profits. Needless to say, as with many things going on today, this unconstitutional exercise of power, (see the 10^th Amendment), by the Executive Branch has gone unchallenged by the nation’s top banks. Many have speculated the reasons for the lack of contention is due to the level of power held by the Federal Reserve over the nation’s largest financial institutions. In essence, if you piss off the Federal Reserve and you are a financials institution, you will be out of business by the end of the day and new owners will be sitting in your desk. The result is a new acceptance by the people of this nation that the Federal Government has not only the power, but the right to dictate just how much pay you can receive for your labors.

Think about that for a moment, here you are working hard, spending your evenings and many a weekend so that the company you work for has a chance to expand and improve its net worth and profit levels. You have ignored your family and friends and many a pleasure with the idea that soon you can grab that brass ring of executive pay with the potential for bonuses. Your heart is overworked, blood pressure is high and your health in general is not what is should be, yet none of that matters as you have finally reached the goal you set out for a contract that will pay you millions as long as you demonstrate a continued ability to perform. Happiness is at hand. Your family is set, and all of the struggle and financial difficulties are a thing of the past, then it happens. A federal agency steps in and tells your company that they are paying you too much and it must stop. How would you react? Well that is happening to hundreds of people in this nation every year.

Those who risk nothing, but are allowed to stand in judgment are denying the rewards for those who hard work has finally yielded results. Is this the way of America and our way of life? For all of my life I have been told that you work hard and do well and you can have the opportunity to do well and finally become rich beyond you wildest dreams. I know it is easy to argue that these people are being overpaid, and in some cases they are. In fact, I would argue that in many cases they are and would go further to agree that in some cases they are using the company as a piggy bank. So what!(read more here)


Redgage photo of the day----(baby giraffe)


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We all hate them! Lawyers!

It’s pretty universally agreed, even among those who are part of this much-maligned group, people just hate lawyers. I know there are some great people who happen to be lawyers and there are even lawyers who perform acts of charity out of the goodness of their hearts, but I still find it hard to find someone who actually likes lawyers. Yes, you may consider your lawyer great and he does a good job representing you, but that does not change the fact that lawyers are generally viewed just below the bubonic plague with a touch of leprosy added in for good measure on the scale of humanity. With that being said, why do people simply hate lawyers?

As we are a nation of laws, the value of lawyers cannot be understated as an asset to functioning of our society for if we didn’t have lawyers how else could we interpret our laws and regulations? Who would represent us in the courts? The age-old piece of wisdom that “the man who represents himself has a fool for a client” is true, for how many of us could stand before a court of law with a straight face and inform the court that the true responsibility for the death of the victim was the Twinkies that were eaten in the hours before the murder? Yes, the consumption of Twinkies was used as a basis for the defense of a man who killed a councilman and the mayor of San Francisco many years ago. To be totally truthful, the defense argued that the man charged was clinically depressed and the Twinkies aggravated that depression, he was convicted despite the defense claims.

Perhaps the cause of our dislike for lawyers is the idea the laws themselves are so detailed and complicated that only someone who spends his entire life studying the law has even the slightest chance of understanding the law. The laws and regulations for just the Federal Tax Code is over 13,000 pages long. That’s just to be able to file your taxes properly. Does anyone actually know all of the rules, regulations and requirements? That’s just for the privilege of paying taxes, something that affects each and every one in this nation and a law that no one can ignore unless you actually have a desire to spend your time in jail. How can you be assured you are doing them correctly? The truth of the matter, you can’t, that is you cannot be sure unless you hire a lawyer at several hundred dollars an hour to argue your case before a judge. A situation where, you are screwed either way. If you lawyer fails to convince the judge and you go to jail, if he succeeds in arguing your case, then you will be flat broke. Sometimes it is hard to decide which is better? (read more here)

Redgage picture of the day----bottlebrush

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The new American Plague!

A new plague has hit humanity and it is worse than anything we have ever seen. No I am not talking about some new virus or toxin with out a cure, which kills within 48 hours leaving nothing of its victims more than a pool of slush. In fact, that type of plague would be of benefit to all of mankind in comparison to the plaque that is popping up in our most populated centers. Rather this plaque tears apart the very fabric of society and turns its victims into a form of locust. We are all familiar with locusts; they have been a bane on civilizations since before the bible. Traditionally locusts are a simply grasshoppers who go about their lives eating what they can, but doing no real damage, then one day without warning their population grows and they morph into an eating machine that destroys all they touch. This is exactly what this new plaque does to the youth of our nation. It transforms what are normal teenagers who spend their time being bored with life, into a mass of flesh that seems to have one purpose, destroy everything around them.

I can see your face now you don’t believe me! But the truth of the matter is that these human locusts do exist and have been seen tearing through the cities of our nation. In fact, one of the latest cases occurred in Manhattan. In this case what was called a “flash mob” crashed into a local Dunkin Donuts and began a rampage of destruction. They took what they wanted and trashed the rest. It occurred so quickly that the employees of the store were left stunned. Fortunately this plague did not physically hurt any of the employees but such an escalation is not beyond the scope of this new scourge. An example of such an escalation occurred recently in Egypt where a mob of human locusts attacked and raped a news reporter, leaving her for dead in its wake.

As these human plagues spread throughout the nation, we must ask ourselves what can be done to counter its destructive power? To date, no one has been able to prevent the damage that these mobs create and in the case of most human endeavors, the greater the success that they achieve the bolder they feel. Mobs of these human locust have been seen from coast to coast, ranging from Las Vegas to Washington D.C. one of the most secure cities in the nation. Many could argue that if the employees were armed that these instances of barbarism could have been avoided. I ask you, just how could they have been avoided. Even with a gun, you are no better than the farmers of old, who desperately tried to prevent the destruction of their farms, yet were unable to stop the destruction due to the mass of living flesh that was brought to bear. The same applies here, even if you had a weapon with an unlimited amount of firepower, the best that you could do is simply stop a few of the individuals, while the body of the locust continued on with its destruction.(read more here)

Redgage picture of the day-----(Cooper's Hawk)

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Zombies, they actually exist!

Recently the Center for Disease Control otherwise known as the CDC has released an interesting pamphlet detailing what to do in the event of an out of control epidemic resulting in the “attack” of the zombies. Many of the news organizations, even those in which we place a great deal of trust, treated the information regarding zombies as a joke. They spent several days detailing the evolution of the zombie from the original slow and clumsy to the speedy and dangerous. In fact, you can find a pretty good analysis of what the current version of what a zombie can do in the movie “28 days”. If you want to see a really scary end of the world movie that leaves you unsettled, rent it. The first thing you need to know is that zombies are not only real, but very dangerous to you and your family. But that doesn’t answer the question as to what are zombies and where do they come from?

In a word, the zombie that the CDC refers to is none other than you and your family. If you were to look at it from their perspective a zombie is anyone who is not part of the in-group or in other words, part of the government. From a more personal point of view a zombie is anyone outside of your family, friends or neighbors with whom you have a great deal of trust. Traditionally, zombies can be classified as one of three groups. First, the looter / rapist zombie is the zombie who during a time of disaster leaves the comfort of his home and begins a rampage. They typically zero in on areas where there is no or limited government control. The recent tornados in the state of Louisiana are an example. In some cases the zombies traveled from as far as Florida to find victims to rob and rape.

Then there is the 2^nd example of a zombie, the hungry and cold zombie. The truth is that this is probably the most passive zombie of the bunch. Typically this type of zombie can also be found in places where disaster has struck, but this is not absolute. One example of a hungry zombie out of his normal environment was during the recent handout of applications for energy vouchers in Atlanta Georgia. In this case the zombies rioted in search of victims to punish for the lack of applications. You can find a few good examples of this type of zombie on youtube. Overall, the hungry zombie can be found in shelters or evacuation centers and as long as there is a steady supply of what the zombie requires, (food, water, etc.) there will be no aggressive action on part of the zombies. If by chance you think the zombie phenomenon is limited to a specific class or ethnic group, read the recent articles where a cruise liner lost power and within 24 hours the passengers were on the verge of tearing apart the crew and fellow passengers.(read more here)

Redgage photo of the day---(bunny rabbits)

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Did you know your dollar is worth less?

Have you heard about the Federal Reserve’s plan to end QE2? If not, you are not alone. For the last several years the Federal Reserve has embarked on a plan to ease the nation’s credit and economic problems though the use of a plan called “quantitative easing” or also known in short hand as QE. To date there has been a total of two phases to the program in which the Federal Reserve buys the debt of the Treasury Department. Sounds great? Not really, as the money that the Federal Reserve uses to buy the debt has nothing to back it up. It’s just simply cash that the Federal Reserve bought from the Treasury Department and then returned in exchange for bonds. Bonds that the Federal Government promises to pay back to the Federal Reserve with money it prints or receives in taxes at a later point in time? Confused yet? Well many people are. What our Federal Government is doing is nothing new and in fact has been repeated over the centuries by all nations at some point in time and generally has resulted in the death or decline in that nation.

Surely it can’t be that bad, you ask? Actually it can be much worse! A history lesson is needed, but it will demonstrate the results of a government issuing currency with promises that it has no ability to fulfill. We have all heard of World War I in which Germany tried and failed to conquer large parts of the world. Needless to say, they lost that war, but it lead to a treaty in which the winning nations, dreadfully short of hard currency, (read gold and silver), decided that Germany would be responsible for the cost of the war. Being the winners, they had no problem with a reparation program, (read taxes), that basically devastated the economy of Germany. Germany detached its currency from the gold standard and began printing money. It tried to borrow money on the open market, but that only speed up the decline in the value of it money. Does this sound familiar? Think hard! In the United States, we no longer have a gold standard; we are the largest borrower in the world by far. In fact our borrowing rate dwarfs the economies of Canada (9^th largest) or Russia (10^th largest) and is almost as large as the economies of either Italy (7^th largest) or Brazil (8^th largest). In fact, the printing and borrowing has gotten so bad that there is no chance of it being reduced anytime in the near term as we now have a whole class of people who are now dependant upon the money they receive, (entitlements) in order to survive. We have lost that many jobs in this nation.(read more here)

Redgage photo of the day----(whooping crane)

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Do you believe in Peak Oil?

The question has been around for years and as time goes by it becomes of greater importance as we look at rising gasoline prices. When will the world reach the point of “peak oil”? Peak Oil you ask? What is that? Simply said, peak oil is the point in time where we reach the maximum ability to discover, develop and produce oil throughout the world. After that point, the amount of oil that is brought to market no longer increases, but rather begins a steady decline to the zero point, or the point in which there is no longer any oil to exploit.

There are a number of points of view when it comes to peak oil, but it boils down to the following two sides. First, that we will never reach the point of peak oil as we are always discovering new sources, better technology and greater efficiency in our consumption. Though each aspect of that argument is valid, the idea that world oil is infinite is simply silly. Nothing, even the power of the sun is infinite. No matter what we do, there is always a point of diminishing returns and as the world population grows and becomes more addicted to the luxuries of life, (television, air conditioning, etc), our demand will increase as our locations in which to search declines. You could even argue that there is always more oil being produced and as we have never discovered how it is made, we can never be sure that we will ever run out. That is also true, but again if you were to run these arguments though a logic test, they would fail. They would fail for the following reasons, first the argument is that we will at some point reach our maximum of oil production and after that it will begin to fall. All things in nature, (including civilization), goes through cycles and oil production are the same. We will reach a point of where we can no longer produce ever increasing amounts, the laws of entropy would assure us of that point. Even if we drilled in every location possible for as long as possible, we would reach a maximum point of production and the decline would begin. Lastly, the argument of improvements in our efficiency of consumption are not relevant, for the whole discussion regarding peak oil is that of depleting a resource and not our use of that resource. So how fast we use our world oil is not related to how much we produce beyond the determination of rates of consumption. (read more here)

Redgage photo of the day----(komodo dragon)

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Do you have privacy??

We hear it all the time, “if you have nothing to hide, then you have no reason not to let me search your house, search your car, give me your cell phone records, etc” What does that really mean? For some it means that they as law a biding citizens, feel that have nothing to fear from their government. As such it is considered not only wrong, but also a sign of guilt if a citizen of this nation refuses to allow the government free access to what ever they want. For others it is simply a way to try and pressure a citizen to allow access to things that the government simply has no business having access to. Yet there is much more to this than simply a matter of guilt or innocence.

First, whenever a government official confronts you, you are a target for some reason. That reason can be as benign as mistaken identity or as serious as, well you can decide what is truly serious, but no matter what everything you say or do will be recorded and used as information for the government’s benefit and not yours. We have all seen the television shows that dramatically show a suspect being hauled in for interrogation and then arrested, charged and put on trial. Later we find that a mistake has been made and the suspect is released. Yet what is not often conveyed is that the suspects own actions of talking and allowing access that put them into that situation in the first place.(read more here)

redgage picture of the day---storks

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Privacy, GPS and mind your own business!

In this day and age of GPS, cameras on every corner, and the neighborhood watch it seems that no matter what we do there is someone there watching what we do and how we do it. In my mind that generally is not a problem, as we as good people try and blend with society and it norms, but there is a disturbing trend of people who just can’t seem to mind their own business. It can range from the simple neighborhood busybody who likes to peep out of her curtains or the local homeowner chairman demanding their rights to measure the depth of your grass and see the color of your child’s bedroom paint. Unfortunately, no matter where you believe we are on the spectrum of nosy neighbors, it just seems to be getting worse as this nation grows. Thus the question has arisen, are we truly “our brother’s keepers” and if so, what rights and responsibilities do we have as such?

First, there is no question in my mind that as members of a healthy society we do have a responsibility to be aware of our own actions and to an extent those of our fellow members of society. All societies if they are going to survive must have some sort of control mechanism if they are to remain healthy and survive more than a short period of time. Call it the human need to socialize or even the desire to be part of something greater, even the most repulsive of our society has that innate desire at some level. That brings us to the question of to what extent does this mechanism need to permeate our society to be effective? In other words, do we bear the responsibility to simply keep others from deviating from the norm or do we allow them to do what ever they wish?(read more here)

Redgage Picture of the day----dusted yellow flower

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Don't you just love that debt?

Trading and man have gone together as long as there have been two people with one having something the other wanted. In fact, you can find records of trade stamped into clay tablets going back for thousands of years. So has been the history of man, gather, hunt and create, but use the excess to trade for the things that you just couldn’t get yourself. Unfortunately, debt has probably been around almost as long as trade has. Being somewhat cynical, I would suggest that debt probably came into existence about 5 minutes after the first traders got together and discovered that one had more to trade than the other. Then again, when it comes to evil in this world, I tend to lean towards the pessimistic side of things. Never the less, though debt has been with us a long time, the fight to eliminate debt has been going on almost as long. We can find arguments against debt in the Bible and in most of the major religions of the world. Yet, we are a nation of debtors who seem to not only enjoy debt, but now view it as such an incremental part of society that anyone who lacks debt is viewed as being weird or abnormal.

How did this happen to a nation of hardworking industrious people? Though there was a time where personal debt was considered something to avoid, that really changed after the 2^nd World War. At that time, our troops were returning home after several years of war and were looking to get married, start families, and begin the life they put on hold to serve our nation. Yet, most didn’t have a dime to their name and no job on top of that. Then comes our good Uncle who offers us low down or no down loans on housing, school loans so that we could continue our education, etc. It was the beginning of our addiction. Since then, we have been bombarded with messages of how easy it was to acquire the goods and services of our dreams, all we needed was to be able to afford the payments. How many of us remember the easy lay-a-way programs that all of the major departments stores once had? Under the lay-a-way terms, you put small cash down payment and paid the rest over a 30-90 day period. Then the item was yours to take home, but things changed and money became easier to borrow. The credit card became a real moneymaker for the banks. (read more here)

Redgage picture of the day-----purple flowers

Enjoy!