Tomorrow

Many resolutions will be made tonight. Many toasts will transpire. If you're lucky, then you'll share a nice kiss with someone you love. But what about tomorrow?

Tomorrow is tough because our hope is to make it better than today. Tomorrow is wiser for it knows what you shall...tomorrow. Tomorrow requires a skill set so unimaginable in order to overcome its uncertainty that we mere mortals simply cower and run. Alas, we cannot. What tomorrow does not have is the ability to make today all we want and more. You do.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Happy New Year!

Let the good times...roll!

As we wind down another year, 2010, I can't help but think that there are better times ahead. There is a great deal of ambition in us. There is an abundance of charity in the world. There remains those who seek peace at any cost. Perhaps there are those that seek to remedy our ills without needlessly taking a sliver of gold from us, too. I believe that times will get better, but will they ever be the best of times. What defines the best of times?

In the 1986 film The Best of Times, Robin Williams and Kurt Russell play a comedic duo hellbent on reliving a football game from their youth. It's not a great movie, but it will do for a cold, winter's night treat with you and your better half. Unlike my perspective, the movie is more retrospective, stating, it appears, that the best of times have come and have gone. What a sad way to live? Will we be defined by a bobbled pass twenty years ago?

As 2011 arrives, think not about lost opportunities, failed attempts, and the tremor of defeat. Think about progress and a plan of action to improve yourself, your family, and your community.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Please enjoy New Year's Eve and all the good things it has to offer!

The Plan: Pure Excitement

In the last installment, the notion of create-ivity managed to gain my fancy. Today, I shall speak of pure excitement. Why is it pure?

Well, I would like you to dig deep, within your creative self, and find that sense of childhood excitement - pure, innocent, and unwavering. Let your mind wander there. Don't be all adult-like and stuff. Put It out there.

We must get excited about positive change in this country. Excitement is the wind in the sails of our great creative vessel. Without it, we lack the spirit to continue in the right way. I believe much of the energy propelling change today is quite negative in its makeup. We are driving ourselves to a place called forward through casting fear, animosity, and ad hominem as our oarsmen. That's a shame. People must use the positiveness of laughter, storytelling, and scenario-building to gain energy and momentum.

With the creative spark buoyed by pure excitement, it is now time to turn our attention to more boring material such as collaboration and project management.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Oh, laugh a little why don't you.

The Plan: Create-ivity first!

Creativity seems to be running rampant these days. With all the gadgets, MFA degrees being handed out (my little brother earns one in May!), and modern art on display, it appears creativity is on the rise. I'm a little disappointed however. Though someone can piece together the image of a human being sliced up into several pieces shrouded in at least thirty different pastels, we are loathe to try anything generally considered creative in American politics. I think we've run into solution provider's block. I say it that way because we, myself included, have plenty to write and have continued to do so. We've continued to think, write about the thinking, and even televise it and cast it on a pod. But don't you wonder about the lexicon of American politics and if it has gone, well, stale?

Let's have a look:

Democrat
Republican
liberal
conservative
tax and spend
fair tax
elastic clause
forefathers
strict Constitutionalism
emancipation
class warfare
culture war
filibuster
bipartisanship
partisanship
rights
lobbyist or lobbying
progressive
regressive
caucus

inalienable

general welfare

common defence

liberty

freedom

I could go on. Someday, I just might. But, I think you get the picture. I'm sure there are some big, fancy words that I've left out. There are some names I could have used, but then I'm trying to cleanse myself of those dirty little words. But, really, don't you think we've just talked, written, and blogged ourselves into a big, empty corner, one which waits for us to seek the fetal position, hoping that somehow or some way our side wins.

I promised you that I would give you a plan of action in my last blog entry. This is that first step. We must be more creative. WE must be more creative and collaborative in seeking the ultimate solution. I listed both bipartisanship and partisanship. I'm not talking about either one here. In seeking bipartisanship, there is always a sense of compromise or quid pro quo. Our eager politicians, our representatives, are ready to trade a steak for a potato or vice versa. That just doesn't seem appropriate or ethical to me. Do what is right for the sake of doing what is right.

I think being more collaboratively creative (if I may use a cornucopia of consonance) will help all of us to define what is right. It may end up that right is a little bit left and left is a little bit right. And hear me out. I'm not speaking of a centrist model, that which merely takes a little bit from each side, smooths out the edges, and throws it up on the table of political alchemy hoping that the elixir works. I'm talking about new thought and a new perspective on governance guided by the proactive document that set all this in motion years ago. Here's a term for you to chew on: collaborative republic. Let's start there (an interesting web page here). More to come.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Here's to hoping I work with you some day soon!

Regret: an ounce of prevention

When you look back on it all, does it really seem that important that you had your way? When you sit, perhaps alone and caged up in the new medical reality, will it all be worth it? Regret is a powerful antidote for doing stupid things. Unfortunately, it's often administered much later than one might desire it, setting off a chain reaction that leads down a path of, well, more regret.

As we look out over the fields of battle of American politics, we see many lost souls, strange bedfellows, and horrendous greed and thuggery. Yes, I've written about this before. But, in this context - this context of regret - can we hope to see the errors of our way and actually do something about it? Can we, in all the chaos, develop a plan of action that will keep liberty and freedom intact while raising us to new levels of learning, leadership, and charity?

I think it can, but it must start with you and with me. It must start with your family and mine. It cannot and will not start with some large enterprise, public or private. As we all face regret at some point, only we, the people, will do anything to navigate the vessel of mankind in another, truer direction. Governments and corporations do not have this sense of regret for they have a way out - tax and spend and spend taxes, respectively. I don't have these luxuries. Do you?

Next up: a preamble to this plan of action.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. With no regret for having written this, I bid you all a safe and sound Tuesday.

Spoken and heard, Mother dearest

In all of her glory, Mother Nature has spoken loudly and plainly today in the region. It's snowing and snowing. There is no doubt about her conviction. There is no play in her tone. She means to provide no compromise, but rather just her awesome wrath mixed with, to some degree, idyllic grace. Honest.

It is a pattern we see less and less of in modern society. Political and social correctness make up, it seems, the majority of our interactions, both verbal and written. There seems to be much in the way of compromise. Compromise is a good thing if it is for good things. Alas, what is good for me is not always good for you? But there is something about being just that I think stands out from what is good for you and good for me. Finding that win/win dimension does not always mean compromise. It doesn't always mean finding common ground. It always means that integrity and fairness take priority.

What is just? What is the natural law way of doing things that preserves our sense of self, community, and liberty? I'm sure there will be, as there has already been, millenniums of debate over this topic. But ask yourself this question: what would you do if you weren't afraid? You would treat others as you would like to be treated. No dispensation for hue or height. No dissimilar bag of treats for the number of wrinkles on your skin. No separate but equal clause. No difference. Everything is based on the enduring human spirit and its desire to overcome barriers and do so without just constant complaining and crowing about what you do or don't have.

Mother Nature does not treat any of us any differently as it snows outside. Why should we be any different in how we treat one another? I guess because we can. That doesn't make it right.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. From underneath Mother Nature's white blanket, I bid you safe travels on this winter's night.

Pundits-r-us

With the holiday nearly a memory and a winter storm brewing for the Northeast, all at this late hour, one wonders what to say. I know. This is the second time I've whined about what to say and how to say it. I certainly don't consider myself a pundit. Punditry, though often helpful, seems to be rampant these days, doesn't it? Pundit is a word of Indian (slushie not tepee) origin. As with many terms, we have conveniently applied to anyone in the popular, or perhaps not-so-popular, media who can wax poetic between various advertisements.

So, truly, there is not a list of requirements to be a modern day pundit. "Have mouth, will speak" pretty much covers it. It is the rate at which punditry tends to grow and take priority in our media matters today, well, that bothers me. Are we really not into the news of the day to conduct our own research or justify the decisions of our representative lawmakers? Are we that unlearned? Apathetic? Tired of the news cycle? Overwhelmed? Perhaps all, some, or none of the above may apply. Perhaps I have missed something.

One may ask: Arp, what the hell are you doing out here everyday waxing and waning? Solid question. I feel like it. I'm exercising my right to free speech. I love to see myself write (or in other terms, hear myself speak). If I've never said it before, then let me say it now: check every source and fact spouted by a "pundit" before taking their waxing and waning as gospel. That includes my rantings and ravings. Especially my stuff.

With that said, I'm going to leave a little room for some slumber today.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Happy Boxing Day!

Prayers for peace

I'm going to keep this one short. Today is Christmas. Great day, admittedly. But then, every day is a great day for life is a great thing. Whether you are godless or very near to God, I think it is okay to pray. To ask earnestly (i.e., "to pray" in several dictionaries) for peace is all that I ask that you do. It's really not very hard and you don't really have to believe in anything or anyone except in the human spirit.

That is all.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for, you guessed it, peace. Merry Christmas!

Forgiveness is golden

Forgiveness. One of my old, dear friends writes, "everyone is a work in progress, including yourself. What a horrible place the world would be if we all just held things against each other every chance we get." Well said, Meredith.

So, why don't more of us practice what my dear friend speaks of today? I'm sure it has much to do with our own sense of mortality, deep desire for owning things, and natural biases and all things prejudice. How can we break this chain? How can we unconditionally, in an agape sense, love our neighbor and not hold every little or big thing against them? And these grudges - the unwillingness to forgive - last not days, weeks or months. They last through generations, through epochs. That's a shame. In my eyes, it's sinful and is at the center of what is wrong with the world.

Now, I don't subscribe to the view that the world is a horrible place. One might even venture that there is more forgiveness than there is systemic blame and punishment. What bothers me is that the religiosity of our peoples - the faith in a greater power and his or her written word, enshrined in your gilded book of choice - has itself become as divisive and unforgiving as the flock it leads. It is easy to say, "well, we're just humans." But it is not actually easy to be humans. With all things human that spin through our daily cycle, we're bound to leave the day just a little shaken, a little stirred, and a little less willing to cross that sometimes impassable bridge between I and We - that narrow ridge - so we just hold on to that feeling forever. It becomes ours. Again, something owned rather than given away.

What is the solution? Be human...yes. Try harder...yes. Love they neighbor...yes. Wear more absorbent socks...definitely. In my recent readings, one interesting little word comes to mind: responsibility. However, the author, Stephen Covey, spins it a little differently. He asks us to think about it as response-ability. We are all equipped with the ability to think before we respond. Wage peace before war. Whisper not shout. Chew first and then swallow. Listen and then speak.

At this time of year, think about your response-ability and reach out to those that you hold a dim candle to and fire one up. Forgive. Then, do it throughout the year just for sherry and giggles. Thanks again, Meredith.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Forgive...yes. Forget...NEVER! Just kidding. Happy Holidays!

But how much will it all cost?

I am a huge fan of David Gergen. He's intelligent, articulate, and reasonable in his approach to politics. His latest post (http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/12/22/gergen.obama.turnaround/index.html?hpt=T1) speaks mightily of the mighty lame-duck session that has just passed. I agree with him. Obama has made some great strides in the last few weeks by cutting across the grain and parting with the Democratic playbook. Plus, Mr. Gergen's writing, to me anyway, feels like writing from a bygone era - cherished, hallowed, and rare.

But how are we going to pay for all of the duck soup? Massive expenditures. Continued tax cuts, which I think are great, are nothing without trimming expenses. We are now going to raise the debt ceiling? Mr. Obama's "stunning turnaround" might be a nice way to end a year of unspeakable defeat, but it is not what will lift this country out of the mire it now finds itself entangled. I hope and pray for a different course, but look out across the great divide and just don't see it. Oh, and I'm an optimist.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. For those of you traveling for the holidays, please do so safely!

Speechless...not

Wow, I just can't think of anything to say. I've no opinion on anything. Has it come to this? I mean...there is the whole Korean thing. I could say that we should stay out of it and let them blow each other to bits. China will emerge as the true victor and they'll still be half an Earth away. Then there's the guy that molested kids in Haiti. Nice. Well done. Burn him. Twenty years is not enough.

I could comment on the whole food poisoning claim from some Al Qaeda splinter group, but then that would just play to their "hey, we're-really-bad-guys-come-get-us" routine that is, well, a bit stale. I could pierce the whole veil of secrecy surrounding Wiki Leaks. Unfortunately, there is no veil. I hate it when that happens.

As I sit here, feeling defeated and a bit cold, I recall that much of what we do in this world is about prevention. It's about planning. Getting it just right on paper so that when we get in the field, we have anticipated the potential hot spots. Unfortunately, many of our plans involve the control and domination of others' sovereignty. So do theirs, but hey, do we really need to be the copycat country when it was the United States that invented modern, blow-your-ass-back-to-the-stone-age warfare?

I wish I had more to say.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. In a state of misanthropic zeal...0kay...not really. I hope your holiday preparations are coming along nicely!

Resolutions abound

What are you hoping to accomplish in the New Year? The year 2011 starts in just 11 days. I bet you that next week you'll be running around, trying to figure out how much weight to lose and how to get better organized. I will, too. Did so last year and, well, it's not working the way I hoped on either front.

What I'd really like you to focus on is calling your representative or your senator and asking them to grow a set of cojones and make some tough decisions next year. Here's what I might be requesting:

1. Stop the two wars you are currently funding. Now. Oh, withdraw our troops from other foreign lands and send them the invoice.
2. Pass a bill initiating term limits. Self discipline will serve us well. Not you. US!
3. Take a pay cut. Nah. Take two pay cuts.
4. Stop the war on drugs. Uh, it's not working. Prices are too high, and well, when that happens profit occurs and folks don't typically leave a profitable enterprise. Just saying.
5. Pass a fair tax bill that phases in over the next 5 , maybe 10, years.
6. Make Lewis Black the Secretary of State.

These are the 6...scratch that...5 things I think I will whine and complain about when the 112th kicks into high gear. It's not much. I don't think it is too terribly difficult to accomplish. Alright, it might be somewhat difficult. I think there is a little money to be saved. We can redouble efforts at home to solving our homeland's issues. I know...novel idea.

Look, I know very little of this will see the light of day because of #2. Our lawmakers wouldn't/couldn't serve you if their lives depended on it; unless of course you were part of the 6,000 earmarks mentioned in the last attempt at fiscal heresy.

Ring...ring....hello, may I speak with Representative...

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. From the guard post just outside of New York City, I hope you all get two for Tuesday and it's all good!

Did you bring your dance shoes?

Are we spoiled? Is this generation too much for its britches? With all the things we have, all the places we've been, and all the money we've made, are we beyond what our parents and grandparents hoped for us? Most would answer, resoundingly, "hell no!" I'm not so sure about that. I'm also not sure if my socks match.

From my lowly perspective, I guess there is more that I want to accomplish. There is always more money to be made. I'd like to see a couple of places yet, but if I don't, then I guess that might be alright. It's not that I've given up. It's not that I'm not happy with all I've done. But there is still this small part of me that wonders whether or not too much is simply too much.

Now, for those of you hoping...pining even...that I say we should redistribute all the largess down to those less fortunate souls, I say don't hold your breath. For those of you thinking that I've given into the dark side of supply-side economics, breathe easy. It's amazing that less than 100 years ago most people were okay with just tilling the land/working at the factory, sipping a soda or having an ice cream with family, and calling it quits at 9:00 or 9:30 in the evening. My brother, almost at my insistence, reminds me that we can't go back to those days. Hence, the title of this is post is not about time travel or Barry Goldwater or even fedoras.

I just look at all the progress and ask: is it all worth it? What is the ultimate goal? Why all the complexity, painstaking analysis, and economic gymnastics? Perhaps I will never answer my own question. Perhaps we will all just dance the final dance when Iran or North Korea or some other rogue regime decides to pull the trigger. Maybe we'll dance the last dance when cancer is cured and my kid's kids live to be 100 without adding any plastic to their bodies. Either way, I think I asked for a pair of dancing shoes for Christmas. So, I guess I'm covered.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. From a post-Thai supper sense of animated suspension, I bid you all a great week ahead!

An interesting couple of weeks...no doubt

There is some sense of calm this evening. I'm not quite sure from where it stems. Perhaps it is the time of year, perhaps it is my lack of sleep, or perhaps it just is. Isn't that interesting? The thought of things being just because, well, they are.

Today, in this country, we changed some things that just are because, well, they just are, and forged a different path. I figured it would come sooner or later, but it is interesting that it comes at a time when so many deals are being made in Washington. I don't mean to take away from the striking down of such an overtly callous law such as DADT, but it does seem odd that there's been some interesting compromise going on inside the Beltway over the past few weeks.

Perhaps it's just me, but stranger bedfellows have rarely been seen. Don't forget...we let the national debt increase by some $700B (chump change?) by continuing Dubya's tax cuts and by cutting nothing (that would be political suicide for either set of loathsome creatures). Democrats and Republicans parried over a spending bill that had earmarks from both parties. We killed an immigration bill in a country made up of mostly immigrants from one era or another. I'd shake my head, but that would just be pointless.

Regardless, much was accomplished today in the name of freedom. Maybe there is more to come. Cheers.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. From the river and the woods of New Jersey, I bid you all a great weekend!

Now not later

I want it today, Da! Can't we go today, Da! I love you now, Da, but next week...yeah, I'll still love you. We all want it now not later. Our food. Our health. Our...ahem...relations. There is very little left that can't be left for later.

Is our country going down this path? I'm convinced that it is. The financial markets remain the poster children for the now movement. If you did poorly this quarter, then you're just not worth a damn. But are we doing this with our own lives? Our own communities? Our own families?

The consumption culture in the world today, I believe, represents the proof that, yes, we are wholly focused on instant gratification. Okay, so you learned nothing new. "I've known that, Arp. Tell me something I don't know!"

Stop. Just stop. Plan. Think about the future. Begin with the end in mind. Don't settle for the quick score. Now and later, life will still be precious, fleeting, and exuberant. Patience, grasshopper, patience. I feel better.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Is it me or is it bloody cold out there? Take care, everyone.

Earmarks...say it with me...E...A...R...M...A...R...K...S

6,000 earmarks. $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill. Wow! I predict that Obama will sign this bill. Why? Well, there are are many Democratic items on the menu. As it turns out, there are also some Republican items on the menu (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/14/AR2010121407208.html). In fact, Cornyn and Thune sparred with reporters today about their own earmarks (http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2010/12/15/132083977/reporters-jump-senators-for-perceived-earmark-hypocrisy). I'm sure he would love to please both parties, particularly his own after dismounting from the donkey recently by siding with Republicans and their desire to continue tax cuts (or, in my mind, continue deficit spending...either way, we're getting screwed).

Did we really change anything in November? Are we really this gullible? Stupid even? We are a nation that pays money in to get the same money back out but with less to show for it. Why? Waste. Billions of dollars of waste. Corruption. Greed. There is much to be done in this country, with the first being to rid Congress of its existing base of lame-ass, self-aggrandizing blowhards. Term limits. Cut spending. Term limits. Cut spending. Term limits. Cut SPENDING! Serenity now!

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. Waiting to see the whites of their eyes in 2012, I bid you all good tidings.

Automobile? Automobile?

Ah, yes, Sixteen Candles. What an excellent movie! Grandpappy's car ends up in some riverbed or some such place and the chinaman (no offense to anyone) laughs uncontrollably. Did he have auto insurance? Probably. Forty-nine states - New Hampshire sits this one out - mandate auto insurance. So, why is there such a big brouhaha about health insurance? I posed this earlier in a discussion group I take part in fairly regularly and there was one response: it's the first law that requires someone to do something for simply being alive. I think the gentleman's words were anyone with a pulse would be required to have health insurance. One chooses to drive. One, therefore, chooses to buy auto insurance. It is not forced upon him or her. Interesting argument to say the least.

I don't think any insurance of any kind should be forced upon any party, be it at the state level, federal level, for breathing or not for breathing. But what about the damage done to my vehicle? The loss of life? The long hours at the body shop? Insurance drives up the cost of things because in most cases it means that payment will be made and be made without any doubt being cast. There is no free market when insurance, namely third-party insurance, gets in the way of things. It also allows us to readily move forward in life without so much as a care because we know that no matter how fast we drive, how much we eat, smoke, or have unprotected sex (that was for effect :-0), our insurance will come to the rescue. But that is what it is supposed to do, right? Advance without thinking of the consequences of our advances.

Perhaps, goes the song. Perhaps it's not so bad, this insurance thing. Let the state mandate it. Let the Federal government mandate it. After all, it's only there to protect us from one another. Yes, it is. Why? Because we have lost some part of us that seeks to protect not only ourselves but the others around us. Pass the buck to the insurance agent at larger and larger premiums (read, "larger and larger profits") and let's get on with life...with abandon and with little or no responsibility to our fellow man. Amen.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. From the just west of the Big Apple, I bid you all good tidings.

adt

short hills, nj

Copyright 2010 all rights reserved arpit d. trivedi

The blindingly obvious

Fair taxation. Seems like a nimble little topic. My fellow libertarian activists have been bantering back and forth on the topic all evening. Much of the discussion is in favor of a strong fair tax, or a VAT (value-added tax). The more important matter, brought up by one of the members, was cutting expenses. I agree. It is blindingly obvious to me that we must cut expenses. Changing the tax code in advance of reducing expenses is, I think, sheer stupidity. If we think we're beholden to sovereign governments now, then I'd hate to think what would happen if we cut revenue without cutting expenses. Where to start? That's a tough one. Where does the government truly have a role to play in girding our daily lives and the daily lives of corporate citizens (ahem)?

Here's a short list. It's not an end-all-be-all list, but it's a start. I'd love to hear from you on these cuts, which are presented in no particular order.

1. Defense. Stop nation building.
2. NASA. Space? Really? Movies good. Space station bad.
3. Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR. If you like it so much, then pick up a pen and a checkbook and make it happen. You can call it what you will, but fund it differently. By the way, I love NPR.
4. Tax breaks for all religious groups. Pray, worship, and proselytize all you want. Please don't do it on my nickel.
5. Home interest and home property tax deductions. Owning a home is not a God-granted right. Toil and toil some more, save up some money, and then buy.
6. Drug war. If you're going to have a drug war, then let's have an alcohol war, prostitution war, gambling war, chocolate war, salt war, gun war, and my favorite, a gay war. Let's run that tab way up. It can't be won. Period. (I love you, man, but it can't be won)
7. Federal or any funding of election campaigns.
8. Corn and all other corporate subsidies, including any and all corporate or personal bailouts.
9. Amtrak needs to survive on its own. I love train travel. It needs more than my love or my neighbor's.
10. NEA.

Those are just a few. I'm sure there are more. If we don't cut spending, we will not be able to pass on a better country to our children than the one our parents and grandparents passed down to us.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. From the wind and the snow, I bid you all good tidings.

Another year of battle

Iraq. Afghanistan. Korea? Iran? Nation building is a corrupt and pitiful way to live. Sharing our sometimes rancid, sometimes incredible culture with the rest of the world like addicts share needles in cold, dark alleyways just doesn't seem to be a very good way to live. This is especially so given that sharing said needles is illegal (sigh). Nation building illegal? Hmmm.

As we begin the second year of this decade, one must consider the culture we continue to invest in in this country. It is a culture that believes that our freedom must be exported to other countries that may not want that same freedom or us in their country. I understand the whole war-on-terror theme, no matter how truly outrageous it is, but I don't understand why there is such hypocrisy in the American bosom. How come we don't want the European way or the South American way (socialists be damned!) in our country when we are perfectly willing to sell it through our DoD, DoS, and other various and sundry extensions of our republic?

I guess I missed the day in class where they had this lesson on nation building. This long, sordid chapter has done nothing but entangle us in horrific wars and questionable economic deals, leaving much of what truly drives an economic engine, production capability, the one major export. Yes, I'm sure there is plenty of argument for us continuing to meddle ("Germany would be ruling the world by now if we hadn't"). But should we?

So, another of year of battle, on domestic and foreign lands will, undoubtedly, continue. And I will continue to moan on about less is more. Less involvement there means more involvement here.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. From the eastern front of New Jersey, I bid you all good tidings.

An Open Letter to the Congress of the United States

I wrote this some time ago on Facebook, but thought, "what the hell" and post it again, here, for your viewing pleasure.

An Open Letter to the Congress of the United States

August 2, 2009

Dear Madames and Messieurs,

It is so sad to see you go, even if it is for a month. I'm sure you will miss me as well. I'm sure you will miss my rantings and musings on your ill-gotten gains. I know you can't wait for me to submarine your zealous desire to continue to serve in a role designed to be largely volunteer in nature. I can appreciate that you will enjoy returning to my off colour comments about Czarina Pelosi and zie Fuhrer Johann Boehner. And let's not forget all my Facebook friends and sparring partners. I'm sure you will miss them and their lucid and insightful commentary on your hapless careers. So, while you enjoy luring your largely uneducated and ill-informed constituency through fear mongering and loathing of the other party into the abyss that is health care reform, energy renewal, and titillating stimulus, let me tell you what I will be doing.

First, I will be enjoying what remains of this summer with my family. You remember them right, your family and family values. I won't be committing adultery or hanging out with the pages during my time this summer. I mean, it sounds like fun, but...nah...not for me. Second, I will be working. I work as hard as the next guy and gal, and as I pointed out earlier, for $680,000 a day for 137 days per year, you folks "work" as well. During your month off, I'm sure the payola you receive from various interest groups, PACs, and foreign "dignitaries" will certainly keep you afloat. Third, I will be writing about you. That's right. For the next thirty days, I will write something every day to let people I care about know how important it is to keep your influence limited and to limit those that influence you.

Finally, I pray that when you return, you will avail yourself to this letter and find a conscience. A conscience that enables you to vote without regards to the influence peddlers, the special interest 'johns' that frequent your mahogany bordellos morning, noon, and night. A conscience that seeks to simplify government policy and administration should also be a broader initiative. All I see is the disruptive forces of chaos, complexity, and characterless posturing.

In closing, I am a pretty simple guy that believes in simple government. You know:

"form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty"

You have defaced this fairly simple phrase - Republicans and Democrats and many in between - to the point that its image is only a cold, distant reminder of what was intended by the people. You have ladled the lard of conscious corruption upon our Constitution for too long...too long.

Welfare is not meant to be the means by which corporations and those less learned and unwilling to work to take from the rest of us again and again.

Justice is not providing for opportunity because of difference but insisting that the difference is one's insatiable and ETHICAL pursuit of opportunity.

Common defence is meant for this land and the shores herein...not the sands of Iraq, not the mountains of Afghanistan, and not the fertile fields of Deutschland. Those are indeed sovereign nations. We need not meddle. That in turn leads us to mount a dedicated focus on domestic tranquility - less crime, higher education, and a nation inspired by an abundance mentality and not one deprived due to scarcity thinking.

The pursuit of liberty is endless. I am convinced of this. People will never truly be free unless we learn there are limitations. The respect for one another - on the road, in our schools, and in our workplaces - must be the ultimate sacrifice and does, indeed, limit our liberty. That, I guess, is why we have laws. For we, and you, cannot handle liberty. Mutual respect is a thing of the past. Until we cross that bridge - nay, gird that bridge - then no perfect union can be had.

Happy summer.

Sincerely,


Arp D. Trivedi
Cincinnati, OH

P.S. Thanks, little brother, for the inspiration.

Quickie on health care reform

It's not a right. Period. I don't see it in the Constitution and I don't believe that all the elasticity in the world can make it so. Regardless, some of us will inevitably try to assert that it is a right.

With all the talk of reform, we have completely forgotten the foundation of our health care system - the family doctor. Our self-inflicted pain comes not purely because of all the testing and legal battles that ensue, but because we have made the family doctor a poor bedfellow compared to her colleagues of specialists. The team leader is the lowest paid physician on the Hippocratic ladder. Why?

I don't really know the answer, but it all seems to stem from this painful realization that no problem or joint is small enough and specialty is required. The level of knowledge needed to eradicate even the smallest pain demands a very high price. On top of this, we seem to neglect the fact, as does this writer, that health care reform starts right here, in the mirror. This is where the family doctor is most needed. I thank God every day I have a great one.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. I shall try to do the same. From the last day of my thirties, I bid you all good tidings.

Butter is better!

I know, I know. It's been a LONG while. There are other things - family, work, self - that fill in the little capillaries between writing excursions. I guess, too, I've not been that passionate about any one thing lately.

As I write this, there is still nothing. However, I do like butter. I like freedom. I like the freedom to eat butter. Now, I'm sure people like salt. I read somewhere that there is about to be an infringement on one's ability (nay "right") to eat as much salt as they like. I think that is ill-advised. Did I mention that I like butter? I also do not eat margarine. I gave it up, cold turkey, for butter. Do I eat a lot of butter? I don't think so. But, when I desire a creamy, salty spread on my toast in the morning then it shall be butter. If I want an omelet sans olive oil, then I will use butter (it really does give it a richness that deserves more of an audience). Cakes and cookies deserve only le beurre.

I hope there is not a butter battalion that comes for my butter. That would be devilish indeed. Can you imagine it? I feel there will be hipster bureaucrats, prancing about with des stylos, adorned with oddly-shaped shoes, and lamenting their debt coming after my butter. Notepads chock full of accusations about my girth and lavish demands for butter. "Why me?" I will ask. They will stop, cold in their tracks, and exclaim, "butter is better, you damn fool!"

"Let them eat butter!" I say.

As always, be thankful for what you have, buy only what you need, and work diligently for peace. I shall try to do the same. From the other side of midnight, I bid you all a good night.