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.

Freedom from war

I did not have a GI Joe when I was a child. However, I did have a battalion of those green army figures. I remember simulating battles in the "hills." The hills were made up of blankets piled high with the nooks and crannies serving as caves and various turrets for my fighters. Not very romantic, bloody, or technologically advanced, but it got me through many a night as an only child (which, by the way, was cured when I was 12 1/2 with the advent of my baby brother).

Fighting has come a long way from those hills. The fight has taken freedom away from us in every conceivable manner one can imagine. Let us explore this concept, which I imagine runs counter to many of the ideals held by the readers of this blog entry.

1. First, war leads to overspending. There is no plane, missile, or submarine cheap enough. Your funds will be confiscated. "Fine," you say. You will gladly hand over your funds so that our government can fight the bad guys. When they line up for the next hand out, what excuse do you have to offer? I should hope it would be "it's all gone." Instead, like sheep to slaughter, we continue to write the check, buoy our poor troops (which they justly deserve some buoying), and spend, spend, and spend some more. This is making me thirsty.
2. Second, it typically means that the soils of other sovereign nations will be tread upon by our very expensive troops and their machinery. I do not know about you, but I sure would not want anybody else's troops on our turf. Somehow, perhaps through the continuing fascination with manifest destiny or just the sense that we are indeed better (Can anyone say pride? Deadly sin? "How 'bout a Fresca?"), we continue to go over there when we should be working on fixing over here. Our exportation of wrath demeans us as a nation and as a people. I am all for protecting our territory. Our territory does need protecting. The hills of Afghanistan do not pass the test under my definition of our territory.
3. In most cases, it is unconstitutional. War Powers Act and all, the US continues to deny the Founding Fathers' assertion that only Congress has the ability to declare war. It is okay though. I mean who would not want to change the rules and usurp the highest law of the land. Greed, anyone? Just do it. Swoosh!
4. Finally, and I have already mentioned it, it takes the attention away from pressing issues at home: education, healthcare, and infrastructure to name but a few. Who is going to solve these issues? The Iraqis? The Turks? A teacher, a nurse, and a carpenter from Mogadishu?

As we work our way through the seven deadly sins, I must stop and take a breath. We have already committed the most dangerous one and that is pride. Many argue that from the sin of pride blossom many of the other sins. From pride, we restrict the ability of others to live their own lives because we believe our life to be so much more important and so much more redeeming. Look around you. Is it? Are we fighting the right battles? Are we clawing for the best hill on the battlefield? Is all this blood worth this way of life? Are we indeed taxing and spending our way into oblivion?

The resounding, single answer that I always hear is "yes, of course it is," to all of those questions. I am sorry. You cannot have it all because there is just no damn place to put it all (thanks, Steven Wright)! Freedom from war will in fact give us freedom from many other vices. More importantly, it will free up countless dollars that can go back to the citizens of this nation. Let us declare war dead and have its funeral as opposed to the funerals of our brothers and sisters. As Danny DeVito states in Other People's Money, "now that's a funeral worth having."

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 shortest hills I know in these parts, I bid you all a good night.

Space is a flight of fancy...well, perhaps a leap of fancy.

Several weeks ago, I watched with awe, with my wife and daughter in tow, the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis at Edwards AFB. I have seen a launch, again with the same tandem in tow, from a rooftop in Orlando. It is all quite amazing. A great deal of pride and unrestrained curiosity overcomes me when I see such things. Alas, amazement and glee are not enough to prove an item's ultimate worth to society. It is even more important given the priorities that await us.

I speak of the space program. I understand that on many fronts the space program has created a great deal of good for mankind. The following page (http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home.html) offers the many benefits gained from the space program here in the United States, which is primarily funded through NASA. I respect and honor those accomplishments. I also hope that we continue to fund the space program in such a way that enhances life on Earth and only for that purpose.

This wicked fascination with the far reaches of the galaxy, the water molecules on Mars or wherever, and the like do not, in my opinion, merit the expenditure and the waste we have seen over the years. The Hubble Space Telescope, which is estimated to cost $7 billion dollars over its life, is, according to some, a cost-effective space vehicle. $7 BILLION...say it with me, now. Humbug.

I recently read an article that described our new ascent to the Moon. Haven't we been there already? Isn't it dusty and devoid of life? Isn't Andy Kaufman the man on the Moon? Yes, I'm sure that millions of the world's denizens are enriched by the many space-age beds we sleep on each night, but our ancestors survived just fine on bit of straw or some cotton mattresses. Can't we try to conserve the water we have HERE instead of spending countless man hours and dollars trying to find it on barren planet?

Space provides a clear shot for our enemies or perhaps to our enemies. I think our pursuit of outer space is a misplaced game of cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers. We have been robbed of many other more precious things in life because of these silly expenditures. Because of our romantic enchantment with that which we cannot have, we've completely taken for granted what we do have. Stop the madness today.

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 that little corner where sanity meets craziness, I bid you all a good night.

It's reigning religion...again

Each man or woman to his or her own, I say. It is what we are granted by our Creator and our constitution. But somehow there's this mob, this mob cloaked in tangled words and marginal prophecies that insist we give up ourselves for the church, the temple, the mosque...pick your house of worship. Leave it be already.

What's even more ludicrous is that this nation and many other nations are founded on the principle of freedom of religion. FREEDOM. I love to say that word. Freedom to worship or not worship. Freedom to write blog entries criticizing wholesale religious proselytizing. Freedom to pray for positive change in our time.

Instead, we continue to have so-called freedom lovers that demand religious hegemony play an active role in government. Our god is much better than your god - neh neh ne na neh neh. By all means, we must invoke our god's spirited catechism in each and every aspect of YOUR life. Freedom is simply, at this point, thrown out the window. One's own freewill, individuality, and even the esprit du corps are all put at risk. Much of this comes from those that want maximum freedom - freedom from socialism, freedom from taxes, and the ever interesting, freedom to bear arms (see my blog entry, The Bad Things in Life http://spotonwithtrivedi.blogspot.com/2009/03/bad-things-in-life.html.

Why then push, as a drug dealer pushes, your goods on the rest of us? What's so compelling? Why all the divisiveness? The extremism? The insane amount of PRIDE (a mortal sin in most world religions) in one's own religious dogma? Please, someone explain! Explain without quoting any sort of religious verbiage - men wrote those words. Please speaketh for thyselfeth. How does one rationalize what I see as hypocrisy - OURS is better than YOURS - with the notion that saying that, in and of itself, is also sinful.

Religious fervor is a means of dividing all of us from what it is supposed to uphold and cement - kindness, charity, and love towards others. For those that care (and based on the number of blog followers, there's not much interest), I will be over here in the corner of my flat, praying that we don't annihilate one another on the grounds of god greed. Dang! Another deadly sin rears its ugly head.

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 home office just outside the gates of the most affluent suburb in Cincinnati, I bid you well.

One measure of obscurity...coming right up?

"I've seen better days, I've seen worse."

Ah, what it was like to be a youngster. Music. Mayhem. Movies. The rhythm of each and every age changes for a reason. We skip beats, part with the harmony of nature, and misread the notes of our poets and scholars. Conversely, some of us still manage to create wonderful song - song full of direction, hope, and, in the words of Rush, mystic rhythms.

I wonder how future generations will look back and judge us. How will they measure us? Will they see the good? Will they see the generosity of those that give and give and give some more? Will they understand that we had our own demons, our own worst enemies, and our own nightmarish confrontation with war, poverty, and xenophobia. Will they tolerate us in a historical context?

The not-so-demure, and let's not forget diminutive, Napoleon Bonaparte stated that "glory is fleeting, obscurity is forever." We have lived through our own Golden Era three times since I was born. Glory giveth and glory taketh away. Divorce continues to escalate in our country. Malfeasance and corruption permeate each and every level of government and industry. Glory, as it is, rests in the hands of God, some say. I just soon keep it that way.

Obscurity is something else altogether. Irrational actions, choices made for the sake of glory, have left our generation, and I will argue the generation before it, bereft of principle and lacking a heightened sense of intellect. Are we doomed to obscurity because of our desire to attain so much glory and indeed so much gold today at the expense of future generations? No. We will continue to be remembered, ladies and gentlemen, as the people - the society - that diminished the leadership of a once great nation. It was tough writing that sentence, folks. We have fallen so far - regardless of religion, race, or financial standing - that we have disgraced not only ourselves but all generations to come.

So, why so glum? Why all the negativism? Why so blunt? Until we wake up and "shake the tree", admit that there is something wrong with our country, and work under the rule of law, we are doomed to repeat the sins of our past. More government or less government will not solve the problem. Taxes are not the almighty terror. God will not save us again and again, indiscretion after indiscretion. Security should not be in the defense budget, but in the health and human services budget.

Our ability to manage our freewill better, to exemplify to others our genuine tolerance of others, and to pursue higher learning or vocation without abandon will, I hope, let us slip into obscurity. What I mean is human nature seldom remembers the good. As long we continue to be good people, harmonious and diligent, I'm okay with obscurity. As it stands now, it will be a tough song to write.

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. On this Memorial Day weekend, remember those that have served and those that have fallen for us, and pray fewer and fewer men and women have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

A...ahem...quickie on consumption

An interesting conversation between some bank analysts revealed an interesting factoid (probably a little more "oid" than fact, but hey, can't have everything). So, it turns out, that for the past 25 years...let me say that again...25 years...we, as a nation, have been earning $85 - $90 and spending $100.

Not only is this scary in terms of its historical precedence, but it only demands that we consider that this economic circumstance may yet again prevail. We're animals after all. Predators...shoes, shirts, houses, cars...our prey and nothing to restrain us but our freewill. Well, hell, that's no good. We're doomed. On top of it, the government is giving all sorts of entities free passes - companies, citizens, and even other government folk.

Save. Period. Buy with cash. Period. Don't let the marketers betray you and this country. In other words, don't let 'em screw you. Quickie...over and out.

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 between the thunder boomers, I bid you and your family the very best - cash and carry, of course - that life affords you.

The mirror has many faces

It's that same, shrill sound again. Crying babies? No. Screaming mothers? Maybe. Whiny politicians? Uh...no. That's right, folks, the sound emanating from your inner soul is that shrill sound you hear. There are many causes for it...babies, moms (and dads and kids...and....and), and yes the politicians (who, by the way, are laughing all the way to the offshore bank). The most central cause of it is dissatisfaction with your fellow man. That's right...mirror, please. Take a real long, hard look. See that person in the background...the one hovering over you with a big grin and a steak knife...they're the source of all of your ills. And perhaps last night's fish, but I digress.

The enlightenment came and went. The Sixties were all about love, but ultimately created nothing but the Eighties, Nineties and today. They were all about the guy, or gal, in the mirror. The person that takes and takes and takes. Rampant materialism and consumption encumbered by even more crime, corruption, and cronyism. We're all left wondering what's next? What will happen to the human race as we race and race and race. The substantive element in this entire conversation is the changing face of human nature. The de-evolution of our very nature is underway. We have little mutual respect for one another. We seemingly believe that laws are simply guidelines - follow, don't follow, it doesn't matter.

I guess this is a pretty negative post. But ultimately, it is a challenge to you and to me - don't let the mirror represent reality. Change the view. Command attention by doing the right thing. Make people nervous and angry by denying them a compromise on your values. At the same time, don't expect every person's values to be the same in terms of a given structure. If the golden rule is in effect, praise Allah/Jesus/God/Vishnu or whomever you do or do not choose and be thankful that good prevailed over evil. And don't forget, we, you and I, are not without blame. At the same time, you and I have the will and the courage to prevail and prevail we must.

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 my perch above the trees, I bid you and your family all the best.