Why We Remember

Well, it’s time for another blog entry and with Memorial Day upon us, I thought I’d provide my usual unusual spin on usual events.  Memorial Day is supposed to be a day to remember all those who have fallen in battle defending our…wait a doggone minute.  What were they defending?  I suppose it depends on who you ask and what, specifically, you ask them about.  Inevitably, we’re talking about war here.

People die in battle because someone started a war.  Yes, I said “some-one” started a war.  It’s always one asshole whose mother didn’t love him enough when he was a child that gets things rolling.  Okay, I confess that I’m no expert on war, but I’ve been in lots of meetings.  Meetings are where wars get started.  A bunch of men (and maybe one or two women) get in a room and try to answer the question, “what are we going to do about those bastards?”  Their choices:

1. Wait them out

2. Talk to them some more
3. Try to isolate them and make their lives painful
4. Kill them

Sometimes, the men have tried 1-3 and they haven’t worked...yet.  They could go back and try this “diplomatic crap” some more or they could adopt the posture of the ornery buzzard who said, “patience my ass, I’m gonna kill something.”  Usually, there’s one MF in the room that is lobbying hard for option #4.  He’s the one with the bad mother.  I’ve never met Dick Cheney’s mom, but she should be ashamed of herself.  She and Donald Rumsfeld’s mom must have shared a lot of notes.

So, I think we should remember the fallen on Memorial Day.  We should remember the fallen moms and dads whose wonderful offspring decided it was a good idea to send other parents’ offspring to some foreign country to die.  The other parents went to all the trouble to raise up dutiful good little sheep, only to have them led by bad wolves to an untimely death.

Sometimes a bad actor gets control of a war machine and the rest of us need to stop him.  But, sadly, we get the government we deserve, so any country that allows a bad actor like that come to power, probably deserves to have their cities destroyed.  We elected Cheney and we were fortunate enough to escape with the loss of only three buildings.  Sad as the event was, it probably could have been worse.  Actually, it’s not really over yet, so maybe it will be worse.  They’re still killing our people on account of the events of 9/11.

I know what you’re thinking.  “Tom, how can you possibly blame US (take it any way you want) for that?”  Answer:  our enemies hate us.  They need us to be evil in order to show their allies that we must be stopped.  When a couple evil dudes like Cheney and Rumsfeld (not to mention Rove, Crystal and Wolf) come to power, it’s like ringing the war dinner bell.  Any fool with a plan knows that any provocation is going to be responded to with plenty of bombs and troupe movements.  I’m no soothsayer, but when Cheney got elected, my very first thought was, “okay, when’s the war?”  You had to know there’d be one.  These guys live for it.

Clinton was a pot smoking hippy.  He actually stopped a war that two other madmen were waging.  If you ask me, we could use a few more pot smoking hippies in power.  Or, women.  Have you ever heard of a woman starting a war?  I’m not saying that a few didn’t get talked into it by their male advisors.  Imagine this scene:  a room full of men and one woman.  She happens to be the one in charge.  We’ll call her Margret.  All the men are saying, “Maggie, don’t do this, we haven’t exhausted all diplomatic measures yet.  Give it more time.”

Maggie: “Fuck time.  I want those sons ‘o bitches dead! Now go start a war.”

I doubt it.  Oh well, until the world is run by hippies and women, we’ll probably have plenty of new heroes to remember next year and next year and next…

Enjoy the cookout! 

Energy

I’ve been thinking a lot about energy lately.  My chronic neck pain was being more…well…chronic than usual.   I happened to be going to see my doctor anyway so I asked him what I should do.  I should explain that my doctor is no ordinary licensed drug pusher.  He is a certified homoeopathist, which means that he much more apt to offer an herbal remedy rather than a pharmaceutical one.  Moreover, he’s more likely to order some diet or lifestyle change that anything.  I think most of his patients ignore him when he does this, because he always seems a bit surprised when I follow his advice.

Back to my back.  So, I wanted to address my pain and I asked him if I should see a chiropractor, acupuncturist or a masseuse.  He suggested the masseuse, which seemed like a win for me because I love a good massage.  It so happened that of one of the two people he recommended I had already sampled the work on one of them.  She does Shiatsu massage, which (near as I can tell) means that she combines the concept of acupuncture with massage.  What the hell does that mean?

The Chinese have the theory that there are energy lines that run through the body.  These lines deliver information of a sort to the cells that control body functions.  Sometimes, these energy lines get blocked.  They can be blocked by emotional issues, physical conditions or even spiritual distress.  Basically, if your life gets out of balance in any way, you can suffer energy blockage.  When this happens, bad things happen:  illness, pain, stress, emotional discomfort.  Chiropractors, acupuncturists and masseuses all use different techniques to free trapped energy.

The western medical world has heretofore considered energy medicine quackery.  In the last 10 years, the evidence has been mounting against this view.  The tide is beginning to turn.  Energy medicine is on the rise.  What will it all mean?  People figured out how to manipulate the body’s energy along time ago, but they have never really understood what’s going on at the cellular level.  Now, for the first time, we are exploring all the scientific nuances of the nature of energy’s role in bodily function.

It’s hard to imagine what we will ultimately learn about the body’s energy.  Is there just one type of energy in our bodies or are their multiple types?  If we manage to develop equipment that measures one or more types of energy in the body, will we be able to use it to measure that same type of energy elsewhere in the universe?  If we can, where will it show up?  Will this open the door for understanding the fundamental nature of energy any better than we do now?

Our first experience with energy was fire: fire from the Sun and fire from the Earth’s core.  Our science is pretty advanced when it comes to thermodynamics.  But, are there other, non-thermal, types of energy out there?  Our sense of touch allows us to sense thermal energy, but what if there are other types of energy that our five senses don’t offer any access to?  How can we experience anything in the universe for which we have no sensory apparatus from which to extend our perception?

Some people claim to be able to see auras around people’s bodies.  Maybe our brains have untapped sensory capabilities.  The good news is that we seem to be on the path to discovery.  Hopefully, it’s just a matter of time before we find something.  How exciting would it be to live in a time when the fundamental nature of the universe exposed and the very foundation of our beliefs were altered?  I hope I last that long.  That’s why I’m going to let energy medicine practitioners help me along – however primitive their craft.

Postscript: I am finishing this blog at 2 am in the morning because we lost energy in the house and I had to get up to switch us to our backup power.  Oh well.

Whitehall Weekend

Last weekend, we stayed at the White Swan Inn bed and breakfast in Whitehall, Michigan. It told our hostess, Cathy, that I would blog about it. I usually don’t carry on in my blog about my every day experiences because…because I want my blog to be different than all those other blogs that carry on about every day experiences. So, I’m not going to ramble on about what we did or how crappy the weather was on Saturday. It’s not my style.

Instead, I’m going to talk about passion. There is nothing finer in life than crossing paths with someone who is doing what they are passionate about. I don’t care if it’s a hardware guy, like my friend Mike at Stadium Hardware in Ann Arbor, who is the greatest hardware man I’ve ever met, or Cathy at White Swan Inn, who has spent god knows how many years collecting lamps and paintings, and umbrellas and…well whatever she can find that has a white swan on it. These people love what they do and they pour themselves into it in a way that can’t help but create some enthusiasm within the people they cross paths with.

I’m not sure that Capt’n Ron, Cathy’s husband is all that passionate about the B&B business, but he sure is passionate about boats. He’s launching a new career (pun – as usual – intended) as a charter boat captain. But, his passion for boats is clearly not new. I saw some of his handiwork making model boats around the house. They were quite remarkable. I asked him if he had ever had a commission and said as a matter of fact, he is working on one right now. He disappeared into the basement and returned with printouts and plans and the hull of an unfinished work. He explained his process and how he only builds models of real boats that have some history. He had an article about the boat he is currently building. He didn’t know if we wanted the level of detail he offered of how he makes boats or not. I don’t think he cared. As it turns out, we probably didn’t need the details, but I did enjoy his passion.

I enjoyed watching Capt’n Ron enjoy sharing his passion. I think it is infectious. As a business person, I think that companies run by leaders with passion, tend to seek out employees with passion. This creates companies like I wrote about in my Small Giants post. When I need services, I always look for people who are passionate about what they do. They just seem to do it better than people who aren’t. Even if they don’t, I still like the idea that they care more about it.

Cathy asked me if we had any dietary restrictions when I made the reservations. I told her that Susan is mostly vegan and that I need to keep an eye on my cholesterol. She made a special breakfast the first day that addressed both of our concerns. That day, Susan mentioned in passing that she likes beans for breakfast. Next morning – you guessed it – we had beans on the menu. That’s not just customer service – that’s passion.

David Sedaris, Are You Out There?

David Sedaris is one of my favorite living humorists now that Douglas Adams is dead. Good humor is like good scotch. It has a little burn and a subtle complexity that makes it great without hitting you over the head. David understands this. The first book of his that I read was “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” I had already heard his pieces on NPR and was a big fan, so when I saw the book on sale at Borders, I jumped at it. I was not disappointed.

I won’t bore you with my rendition of what is so funny about his books; just buy your own copy…if you can. Oh, for you luddites, buying a copy of Sedaris’ books should be easy. Hell, you can find them in any second rate bookstore. But, god help you if you want to get a copy for your non-Kindle ereader. I’ve got Mobi Reader on my Blackberry. I’ve read a number of books entirely on that little screen that everyone says I’m crazy for using to read books. Hey, my eyes suck and I don’t have a problem with it, so get off my back!

The Mobipocket eBookstore is very easy to use and your books are always right there (unless you delete the wrong file off your Blackberry and then you seem to be screwed). So, there I was, clicking the Buy button on When You Are Engulfed in Flames. The screen tells me that I already bought the book and that’s why they are charging my credit card $0. I’m thinking, “Bonus, a free book!” Then, it asks if I want to download it and I’m thinking, “hot damn, here it comes!” I’m thinking wrong. Nothing comes, except a message telling me the book is not actually in my library like that lying sonofabitch screen I saw before.

No worries, I spend the 20 minutes hunting through the site for a way to complain for help and send a message to the support center. Two days later, I get a response from Amazon. Seems they bought Mobipocket eBookstore. The email says (I’m paraphrasing here), “you stupid idiot. You obviously don’t know how to use a computer or do something so simple as to log into the correct account to order a lousy ebook.” I emailed them back to tell them that I only have one account, so I don’t know how I could have gotten the wrong one, but they must not have liked my tone, because I never heard back from them. A couple weeks later, after they cooled off, I emailed again and explained in minute detail everything they needed to know to conclude that I wasn’t a stupid idiot after all. They responded that the $0 thing was their way of saying, “even though the book is listed as in stock on our site and you can download the demo to preview the book, we don’t actually sell it.” Great.

No worries, my Mobi Reader supports many bookstores. Turns out Franklin.com has When You Are Engulfed in Flames on their site. So, I bought it. It cost $20, but, hey David, you’re worth it. After an hour of struggling with some really bad instructions and unintuitive interfaces, I finally got a message on the screen telling me that that I had an Error -1: Retailer not authorized. Hmmm…they took my money…they said I bought the book, but I couldn’t download it. Maybe, in the end, I am a stupid idiot. So, I humbled myself and emailed for support. After two days (this seems to be the ebook industry’s idea of “acceptable support turnaround”) I received a reply (paraphrasing again), “geez we are so sorry, but we don’t really sell this book, but don’t worry. We’ll give you your money back in a week or two.”

So, David, I know you hate technology and you’re probably behind this evil plot to rid the world of “e” versions of your book, but c’mon, give us technogeeks a break. Some of us actually have a sense of humor – or at least appreciate a good one when we see it. Lighten up!

Goodbye Ernie

I’m sure there are a lot of folks blogging about Ernie Harwell today. Millions of people knew Ernie. Most of them thought they just knew him from his work because they had never met him in person.  They were wrong.  I started my adult life in the radio business. I did some time at WPON in Pontiac. My desk was at the front door, so I was the person who greeted anyone that showed up.

One day Ernie and George Kell came in as guests for one of our talk shows. While they were waiting to go on the air, Ernie started up a conversation with me. He asked me what I did at the station and how I liked it. He told me a story about his early days in radio. To be honest, I can’t remember the story. I was mesmerized by how exactly like the Ernie Harwell I knew from the Tiger broadcasts he was like in person. I couldn’t believe that a man could project himself so accurately while doing play by play and talking shop about baseball on the air.

If you didn’t meet him, you’ll have to take my word for it – he was the friendliest, kindest man I ever knew for five minutes. Yesterday was the bottom of the ninth of the last game of the last season for Ernie. The planet is a little darker for his passing. So long, Ernie.

One Foot Out of the Jungle

We like to think we’re a species that has evolved beyond the others in the animal kingdom.  I was watching The Day the Earth Stood Still (the remake) last night and it reminded me of the general lack of social evolution that has gone along with our incredible rise in technical progress.  Michio Kaku talks about the four stages of development that a civilization can pass through on their way towards omnipotence.  He says we’re part way through stage zero, the first.

The key measure of development, according to Kaku is the amount of power per person that is available.  By this standard, we have made great strides in the last 100 years.  But, giving people more power for personal use could result in a lot of destruction when people are not evolved enough to be nice to each other.  Fast forward another 100 years and imagine that each person has access to enough power to destroy the planet.  In our current state of development, what are the odds that some emotionally disturbed individual will take advantage of the opportunity?  Further, what are the odds that our emotional development as a species will advance significantly in the next couple generations?

Our future is pretty bleak when you look at it this way.  We still need violence.  Most people enjoy watching “other” people go at it.  There are many among us that like to “go at it” themselves.  Whether it’s a good game of tennis or a boxing match, the object is the same – to beat your opponent.  Why do we need it?  We are designed to deal with threats.  Fight or flight strategies are hardwired into our old brain.  Excluding the last couple thousand years, most of our existence has been spent dealing with daily threats.  Our ancestors had environmental, animal and competitor attacks on a continual basis.  Their adrenaline was flowing on a daily basis.

Now, we hardly ever have these types of threats.  So, we need a way to create the situations that our bodies crave.  We take our violent pleasure from video games, movies, sports or just good old fashioned beating the crap out of each other.  It’s hard to see where it ends.  Some people reject violence.  They’re in good company with people like Mohandas Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to name as comrades.  Maybe the fact that we celebrate people that have stood up against violence and hatred is a good sign.  Maybe we can pull back from the brink before our power gets the worst of us. 

Small Giants

This week, I had a chance to listen to Bo Burlingham of Inc magazine speak about his latest book, Small Giants. It’s about great companies that could have grown to be big, but decided to stay small and pursue other goals. As is so often the case when I’m confronted with a new concept, it got me to thinking. We all run a company called “me.” Me, Inc. must deal with the same issues as any business. What is the appropriate profit margin? How much debt should we take on? What sort of capital investments would be prudent? How many work hours should we expect per week?

Some people feel like these decisions are made for them, but they’re not. No matter how trapped you feel, you’re still free to do whatever you want. I know, you’re thinking, “right Bellinson, I’ll just tell my boss that I’m only going to be working 40 to 45 hours per week from now on. That’ll go over real big.”
I say, “Why not?” The worst thing that can happen is that you’d get fired. The best thing that could happen is your boss would say, “okay.” The most likely thing to happen would be that your boss would say, “quit screwing around and get back to work.”

Getting fired seems like a pretty daunting prospect, especially in these times. There are people who live on the streets by choice. They have given up material things in exchange for the right not to work. While that is certainly a long way to fall, it can be done. I’m not suggesting that you should follow suit, but if you had to work at a crap job for awhile, in order to create the space to find a job worth your full passion, maybe it would be worth it? Ultimately, the consequences of trying to build the lifestyle you want and failing might not be as bad as never trying.

It has been said that in order to rebuild a life, first the current one must be torn down. I believe there are two ways to go about it: incrementally or with a big bang. Personally, I appreciate the safety net of the incremental approach, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t fantasize about the big bang. So, what is the “incremental” approach, you ask? Always upgrade your skills. I have a variety of activities that I enjoy. In each one, I strive to be better. Some of the activities I enjoy also provide me with an income. It stands to reason that as my skills improve, I get better – and people are almost always willing to pay more for better things.
It’s not always enough to do well; you also need to know how to sell yourself. I have quite a background in sales, so I am comfortable in the lead sales position for Me, Inc. People who aren’t will need to be that much better at what they do to get noticed. Everyone should learn to sell themselves.

I could rant on incessantly about everything “I think” you should do to make yourself “better.” What would be the point? We all need to decide for ourselves what our path should be. I just think that it’s a shame when people don’t even choose their path. They just let their parents or someone else put them on a path and they float along on that path without ever examining whether it is the right one for them or not. Worse yet, those who know they are on the wrong path, but don’t have the courage to change it. I say, take the jump. You probably won’t fall near as far as you think and you are much more likely to rise in the long run. Going up?

Fair Play

Last Sunday, the weather was beautiful and I was committed to taking full advantage of it. Me and my pal Kase decided to take in some sunshine and park scenery while playing some disc golf. In case you didn't know, disc golf is similar to regular golf in strategy. However, instead of clubs and a ball, we use mini Frisbees that serve as both. And, instead of a hole, we use a basket with chains to help the disc fall into the basket. I noticed that the sport seems to be growing every year. Today, the course was quite crowded, so we had to wait out turn at many of the holes. The good news is that we were sitting around at a beautiful county park on a near perfect day.

When I got home, I didn't want to be in the house, so I turned around and headed right back out for a little bicycle ride to the store. In the Summer, I like to ride my bike to the store as much as possible. Sometimes, I even ride to work. Besides being excellent exercise, it uses zero emission green energy – me!

Too many people spend too much time sitting in front of their computer screen. Between McDonald's supersized meals of fat and sugar and home entertainment, it's no wonder we have such a serious obesity problem in this country. Summer is coming! Everyone should eat some fresh fruits and veggies grown right here in Michigan and get out and do something in the beautiful weather. I know I will.

My Reach May Surpass My Grasp

For the last couple days, I've been working on a post about "Life After Money."  I don't know yet whether I can finish it or not.  It all comes down to evolution.  Can homo sapiens survive long enough to get both feet out of the jungle?  I'm an optimist.  I think we can, but I suspect we'll wipe most of our population out at some point along the way.  We have slightly more emotional maturity than a gorilla and less than a bonobo.  However, we find ourselves in the possession of increasingly powerful forces.  We're like a child with fireworks.  Will we grow up before blowing off a limb?  It may be part luck that decides the answer.

My post about what life could be like depends on us not killing ourselves completely, but it will probably require us to blow off a leg or two.  Why?  Because people are problem solvers.  We don't like to rebuild things.  We'd rather just patch them up.  We'll keep patching up our broken way of existence until it falls completely apart.  Then, and only then, will we consider rebuilding it.  It seems like a high price to pay, but maybe it is just the nature of who we are.

Keep watching for that post.  I may just finish it, but probably not before I finish filing my dang 2009 tax returns. YUK!

The Case for Space

People really seem to like capitalism. Even relatively poor people like it. I think they feel that if others can make it big, as long as the system is in place, maybe they can too. They wouldn’t want capitalism to be replaced by something else before they got their chance at fame and fortune. Sadly, the system is stacked against them. Anyone with lots of money knows that it takes money to make money. What about good ideas, you ask? Good question. The answer is: you’re going to need to sell your “good” idea to someone with money. And guess what? They’re going to make more off your good idea than you will. Yeah, yeah, there are exceptions, but the system grows more stacked against them as the wealth and power in the world gets more and more piled in the hands of the few.

Am I bitching about rich people? No. Hell, just read my last post – I’ve got nothing but respect for rich people (in general). Nope, I’m just pointing out that capitalism is probably here to stay until the whole thing falls apart. It will fall apart, too. It’s inevitable. Okay, so I had better explain that one. Let’s look at some facts about capitalism:

1. Capitalism is based on a consumption model – people make things and other people buy them
2. The success of capitalism requires continuous growth in consumption
3. Consumption requires resources
4. This rock we call Earth has finite resources
5. When growth is no longer possible, capitalism fails

There is a solution. It’s called space. Basically, we need to get off this rock. This task will require vast amounts of resources. The more we deplete our finite resources, the less able we will be to accomplish the task. So, we had better start soon. Oh, but there’s a problem – no return on investment. The largest companies in the world are publicly held and anyone who studies those companies knows that they operate on a quarter by quarter basis. Their stockholders demand it. Hell, if a public company plans out six quarters, their stock price will probably go down. The return on space initiatives will be measured in years of not decades. So, the obvious choice to spearhead such an effort would be the government. Awe! Too bad. They’re out of friggin money. Why? They spent it bailing out an already failing capitalistic system.

We live in interesting times. The inevitable failure of capitalism could open doors to massive initiatives like space colonization. Or, it could lead to something less positive, like war, famine and widespread poverty. Jeff Bridges played an alien being in a movie called Star Man. He was trying to understand the word “beautiful.” When he finally figured it out, he said “you humans are beautiful. You are at your very best when things are worst.” That could be good news.

The Cost of Money

Money is a burden. I know, I know, you wish you had that sort of burden. Think of money like having pets. If you have one pet, there can be great enjoyment and the care of the pet takes up a minimal amount of your time. But what if you have three pets? Now, you spend a lot more time caring for them and, the odds of one of them being sick goes up. Ok, let’s say you had 50 pets. This is a full time job. You will even need to hire people just to help you care for all those pets and now you not only have to worry about the pets, but also the people taking care of the pets. Are they doing a good job? Are they stealing the pets?

Money is just another high maintenance possession. If you own a home, you’ve probably felt the stress of the possibility that you won’t be able to pay the mortgage. Imagine that your mortgage was $50 million. If you are unable to continue earning the income you need to support that mortgage, the loss could be devastating. People at that income level can fall very fast and very far.

To me, the best situation is like I always say about pools. The best pool is your neighbor’s. Sure, you don’t get to use it any time you want (unless your neighbor is really nice), but you get to use it once in awhile and you don’t have to care for it the rest of the time. I have a few family members who have a lot of money. Every once in awhile, they let me take a dip in their pool. I am forever grateful for their generosity and also for sparing me the stress of worrying about all that money.

So, next time you come across a rich person, who is living in the lap of luxury, tell them, “I feel your pain.” Hey, rich people need love, too.

Water Water Everywhere?

A few months ago, Mike Cox, the attorney general for Michigan filed a federal lawsuit to stop the flow of water from Mississippi river tributaries into Lake Michigan. The claim is that Asian carp are migrating through these channels into the Lake. Further, once there, their affect on the Lake’s ecosystem will be devastating. Nonsense! Asian carp are filter feeders, which means they eat algae that is floating in the water. Another invasive species is the zebra mussel. They have already finished off most of the algae floating in the waters of Lake Michigan. Therefore, the large Asian carp are going to find it difficult to survive in large numbers.

It is likely that Mike Cox and other members of the Michigan’s government know this, yet they persist in their lawsuit. Why? Because this isn’t about fish, it’s about water. Great Lakes states want to control the water flowing into and out of Lakes. They know just how valuable the largest fresh water supply in the world will be in the coming years. As global climate change takes its toll on the planet, rainfall patterns will continue to shift. It is likely that some major population centers will suffer massive droughts. In order to survive, people will either need to leave (an economically devastating prospect) or purchase large amounts of water from elsewhere. Hmmm…now where might there be large amounts of “extra” water? Oh, I remember – the Great Lakes!

Welcome to world war four – the war over water. Everyone knows that large scale diversions of water from the Great Lakes will be devastating to an already suffering ecosystem, but standing on the shores of any of the lakes and looking across at a watery horizon makes it difficult to imagine that we don’t have some water to spare. If Michigan was still having an economic tough time, selling some high-priced water might be just the trick (hey, we bought Canadian garbage – don’t rule anything out).

The problem is, Great Lakes water doesn’t belong to Michigan. It belongs to Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Ontario as well. In case you hadn’t noticed, that last one makes this an international concern, which means the U.S. federal government might have something to say about it. Hell, there’s no way the federal government will stay out of this one anyway.

These early skirmishes over “fish” are just a test of power. Can individual states control access? Will the federal government step in? Can Great Lake states/provinces cooperate with each other? This may seem like minor stuff while we’re still fighting world war three (the war on terror), but make no mistake, this is the birth of world war four – maybe it won’t turn violent, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Sex, Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll

We come to the final blog of this great triumvirate. All this thanks to our friends the bonobos. I’m quite sure that if we could get bonobos to blow a dube after sex, they would appreciate some good rock ‘n roll while doing it. Who wouldn’t? As the baby boomers become the old folks, not many.

I remember when I was a kid, most of my friends’ parents listened to Elvis or Frank Sinatra or some other old crap that we thought was lame. I used wonder what our kids would listen to. We all thought that rock ‘n roll was as good as it could get. Bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC were so good in their way, we couldn’t imagine any kid not liking it.

Turns out, we were right! Rock ‘n Roll has never died. Our kids (and their kids) do like it. Oh sure, there have been other genres – hip hop, rap, and electronic that are different enough that some old folks won’t like it (I’m not one of them). But, along with thousands of new artists producing new rock music, some of the old guys still crank it out. Why just the other day, there were the remains of the Who playing at the Super Bowl. They didn’t smash their instruments or anything cool, but it was nice to see Townsend and Daltrey still standing.

A few months ago, I saw a kid wearing what looked like an old Aerosmith tour t-shirt. I asked her if that was original. She looked at me and smiled and said “no.” I thought to myself, “sonofabitch, they’re still making old rock ‘n roll clothes.” I think bands like Rage Against the Machine, Muse and Tool breathe new life into the old girl, but Huey Lewis was wrong, the old girl is NOT barely breathin; she’s running hard. Long live rock – be dead or alive!

Legalize It

My friend Kase really liked my last blog about bonobos. It was largely about sex. Bonobos like sex – lots of sex. It seems like that blog belongs at the beginning of a three part series. This, the second part, is about drugs. You can guess what the next one will be about.

My recreational drug of choice is marijuana. I don't do it that often and never within 24 hours of working, which is more than I can say for my alcohol drinking friends.  Sadly, our “free” country has preselected alcohol as the State sanctioned drug. Ever since it was made illegal, “our” government has been discrediting marijuana as a dangerous narcotic. Meanwhile, back in alcohol-land, thousands of people die every year from alcohol related problems. Can you drink yourself to death? Yes. Can you smoke enough pot to kill yourself? No. Hmmm…very confusing.

Finally, after years of study and testing, the medicinal value of marijuana has become so conclusive that 35 states have medical use laws on the books. In my life, I have met people rich and poor, young and old who use marijuana on a regular basis. Lawyers, police officers, doctors, athletes, stock brokers, business consultants, engineers, computer programmers – apparently, there are no socioeconomic class distinctions among pot smokers.

Here we are with budget problems and there’s an estimated $35 billion industry going untaxed. I’d guess that the politicians are the only ones not smoking weed, but I know that’s not true – they’re smoking it, too. And, most of them inhale.

Lots of people blog about the stupidity of not legalizing marijuana. They talk about how cowardly our politicians are behaving. We, the people, need to have courage, too. In California, there is a petition with 700,000 signatures on it; enough to put full legalization on the ballot. That’s courage. The days of marijuana prohibition are numbered.

Now, if we could just get bonobos smoking marijuana…

Moral Decay

When you put enough rats in a confined space, they turn violent.This is also true of chimps and gorillas. Turns out, people suffer the same reaction. As a matter of fact, the only species of primate that doesn’t is the bonobo.

They are dominated by females and are obsessed with sex. Females have multiple partners, both male and female. If the males get out of hand, the females withhold sex, which causes the unruly behavior to last about 45 seconds.  Maybe we had it right in the 1960’s – make love, not war!

All war is ultimately about sex anyway.  If we modeled our society after the bonobos, we wouldn’t need war.  Okay, that sounds like a leap, but I can explain.  Pick a war, any war.  What do they all have in common?  Answer – men.  Men start wars.  Men think about sex all the time.  Some say that they don’t – they are liars.  No man has ever started a war while having sex.  It’s just not possible.  So, if women could keep men having sex all the time, they wouldn’t have time to start wars.

This would also help the obesity problem.  Sex is great exercise.  And, the drug problem – okay, maybe not that one, but Brian Ferry (Roxy Music) once pointed out that “love is the drug that I’m thinking of…”  Finally, frequent sex would eliminate the need for organized religion, the greatest cause of wars throughout history.  Why, you ask?  Because, people think about god more when they are having sex.  I’m sure if you haven’t found yourself saying “oh god, oh god, oh god” during sex, you’ve heard your partner saying it (if not, you need more practice).

Humans think we’ve got it all figured out.  We think because we make such great tools, we’re better than all the other animals.  I’d rather be a bonobo.
(photo courtesy of the Bonobo Society)

Time to Pay Up

In my last installment, I talked about “we, the people” and what we’re not getting from our friends in Washington D.C.  This time, I’d like to take that topic on a somewhat different tangent.  I spoke of courage.  I guess you can spin courage a lot of different ways.  Some might say that standing up to big spending bureaucrats it courageous.  I say “bullshit!”  Courage isn’t standing up to the other political party.  Courage is standing up to the citizens of this country and calling them out on their faulty expectations.

The last president to do this was John F. Kennedy, when he infamously said, “ask not what your country can do for you, but rather, what you can do for your country.”  He was pointing out that a great nation is made up of great citizens, not great politicians.  Americans are willing to pitch in when they are asked.  Unfortunately, nobody in Washington has earned the right to ask us to do anything.  We pay our tax bill and expect them to do everything for us.
Well all the things we expect of our government cost money.  Since Reagan, raising taxes has been political suicide.  As a matter of fact, tax cuts seem to be very popular.  Of course government isn’t getting any smaller.  When was the last time you heard of a massive layoff in the federal government?  Yeah, me either.  I don’t know how a service organization saves money without layoffs.  Well, the federal government did figure out one trick – they stopped sending money to the states.

This was a neat trick because it came along with something called the “unfunded mandate.”  They just told the states they had to pay for things the federal government used to pay for.  What with all the extra money the states didn’t have, it should be no problem, right?  I guess it’s no coincidence that several states are fighting bankruptcy and most of the others are trying to figure out which services they “must” keep in order to remain solvent.  You see, states don’t have something the federal government has – printing presses.  When the federal government wants to start a war or something, they just fire up the presses and sell it to the Chinese.  Kind of strange really – we’re fighting an enemy funded by the Chinese government (indirectly) with money from the Chinese.  I’m sure Dick Cheney and his pals don’t care, they’re getting all the money that isn’t going to China.

Meanwhile, back in the states, they started borrowing a trick from the federal government.  They started pushing expenses down to local governments – like education, roads, and law enforcement.  A byproduct of this is that poorer communities have bad schools, bad roads and excess crime.  Welcome to the legacy of trickle down economics.

If It’s Broken, Break It

“We, the people” are being slowly cut out of the system.  Our forefathers were revolutionaries.  They demanded change and they were willing to take to the streets to get it.  They could have never anticipated the current state of their invention.  To be sure, money has always been a part of politics in this country.  Washington, Jefferson and the Adam’s boys all had personal wealth to varying degrees.  But, back then, candidates told “the people” what they thought and if “the people” liked what they heard, they elected him.  That newly elected official owed “the people” his victory.  There was no confusion about who he served.

Today, there’s lots of confusion.  Big business has replaced “we, the people” as the primary constituents.  Spin doctors craft sound bites for major news outlets that are designed to “sell” a candidate to the electorate.  What thin veneer of integrity that was expected of candidates has been slowly stripped away by an election process that is so refined, an election team’s ability to execute is more important than the candidate’s beliefs.

Look where that has gotten us.  In 1928, approximately 25% of the gross national income was earned by the top 1% of the population.  Need I remind you what happened a year later?  The economy collapsed.  That transfer of wealth to the top was caused by the industrial revolution and the exploitation of workers, not yet protected by laws or unions.

In 2008, approximately 25% of the gross national income was earned by the top 1% of the population.  Sound familiar?  The outcome is quite different.   Back then, the government recognized that rich people’s greed was to blame for the whole thing, so they punished them by allowing them to be turned into poor people by the very market they created.  This time, our government printed money and replaced the losses, so rich people haven’t suffered.  Oh, the poor and middle class have suffered.  They have lost their jobs and their savings, respectively.  The government has no plan for them.

This current trend all started with Reagan’s “trickle-down economics.” The idea is: if the government makes it easy for rich people to get richer, they’ll carry poorer people along with them.  The problem is: it doesn’t work.  It’s what put us where we are now.  Greed is a trait we all possess.  Rich people are just better at it.  Now, they control the government.  Hell, they ARE the government.  Furthermore, with our new election process, they don’t even have to give a crap what the rest of us think.  They can just “craft a message” to lead us to believe what they’re doing is right, when they know full well that “we, the people” are getting screwed.

Which brings us back to the beginning…  The founders of this country were revolutionaries.  I fear the saviors of this country will need to be revolutionaries, too.  The current system is not conducive to repairing itself.  It will either need to fail so completely that it must be replaced (a distinct possibility, but not so good for “we, the people).  Or, it will need to be replaced by force.

How much abuse can U.S. citizens take?  If history is any judge of what citizens can take, the answer is hard to predict.  Revolutions have been started over much less abuse of power.  However, we are still the richest country in the world – for the time being.  We no longer have the best infrastructure, the best educational system, the most productive workforce, the most innovative people.  China’s military and economic powers are growing fast.  At the current rate, they will pass us soon.  Asymmetric warfare strategies have all but rendered our military strength useless. We’ve been propped up only by the U.S. dollar remaining the international currency of choice.  Once this situation changes, the dollar’s value can tumble as far as it wants, without other, more prosperous countries having a care about what happens to it.  That day may not be too far away.

What will “we, the people” think then?  How much can we take?  When will one voice, heard above the din, be enough to bring down a broken system?  I suspect that most of us will find out in our lifetimes.  It ain’t gonna be pretty – revolutions never are.

Leaders vs. Leadership

I don’t like to get into politics in this blog, but this isn’t so much a rant about current events as the likelihood that the crowd in D.C. will be able to do anything good about them.  We elect our leaders.  Our process for selecting leaders is greatly flawed.  Well, not really.  The flaw has less to do with the process itself and more to do with the ability of the people making the choice to do so effectively.

Before I explain myself, let’s back up and talk about an implied expectation: leaders will practice leadership.  On the surface, this seems to be an intrinsic truth.  How can someone whose job it is to lead be in that position and not lead?  It turns out, the answer is: easily.  You see, leadership is a skill.  To have these skills, one must be a good judge of talent, have the vision to see a good path forward and communicate effectively. 

What about politicians?  What skills do they need to get elected?  First, they need to be able to assess what the majority of the constituents want to hear.  They need to be able to say it in a compelling manner.  And, most importantly, in the age of television, they need to look and sound good.  Notice that only one of the three skills, strong communications, is in common with both jobs.  This is not to say that a politician can’t have all five attributes.  Oh, to be a politician AND a leader, one need one other attribute – courage. 

The reason that courage is so important is because most of the politicians in government are not “leaders.”  That means they lack vision.  If most of the people we choose to lead are not leaders, those that are will need to be able to stand up against not only their peers, but also the many citizens who bought into the clever arguments those “non-leaders” made during their campaigns.  The reality is, everybody wants a great society, but nobody wants to pay for it.  People will let the situation degrade over the course of many years, but they want it fixed up right now.  Politicians that promise to do that are lying, but people don’t want to hear the truth.  Candidate Obama said that it would take time to solve the deep issues faced by our nation.  President Obama has been given less than a year, during which time his approval rating has dropped from over 70% to less than 50%.

So, people don’t know what’s good for them.  Politicians tell them what they want to hear.  Because they lack vision, the people and the politicians believe the bullshit.  Therefore, we get politicians – not leaders.  How can we get out of this?  That’s for another blog.

Mind Over Matter Matters

Humans are convinced that we have the best brains on the planet.  If tool making is any measure, there is no doubt of it.  Until we learn to speak whale or dolphin, we may never know if we’re the greatest philosophers.  Maybe it’s enough to know that we’re in the top three.

On the other hand, our bodies are nothing special.  There are lots of animals that are bigger, stronger, faster, stealthier and more adaptable.  Even our opposable digits, which are critical to our tool making, are not unique.

By this evaluation, our bodies are just a receptacle for our amazing brains.  Yet for all of our mental powers, many of us conclude that the joys of the flesh are the reason for our existence.  Why do I say this?  Just look at what we do: overeating, recreational narcotics, unhealthy lifestyles, dangerous activities, smoking, overworking, and under exercising.  We abuse our bodies in pursuit of “feeling good.”  Sometimes, we feel bad the next morning, but we do it again anyway.  The point is, the pleasures of the flesh tempt us beyond our mind’s ability to control it.

Maybe this is all part of evolution.  We are still essentially survival machines.  We’re programmed to do things that make us feel good.  It is a primitive mechanism to direct us towards “good” behavior.  The problem is – what was good behavior back in the caveman days of our existence, may not be so good now.  Eating is a good example.  Back when we were hunter-gatherers, our species ate lots of fruits and vegetables in the summer.  Our bodies made good use of the high quality sugars in the fruit.  In the winter, there wasn’t any fruit to be had, so our consumption was seasonal.  Today, we have access to unlimited, year-round highly refined sugars.  In nature, we never had the opportunity to consume so much.  Now, it’s easy and cheap.  No wonder obesity is such a pervasive problem.

Our ancient impulses still control our actions.  Some of us have begun to gain control of our impulses, but as a species, the practice is not as widespread as it should be.  Our minds may be getting stronger, but clearly we have a long way to go to take full advantage of our full potential.  For now, our bodies still rule, but one day, maybe…just maybe…

Hearts & Minds

Umar Abdulmutallab's attempted bombing of a flight over Detroit on Christmas day could have been another symbolic message from Al Qaeda.  Al Qaeda works very hard at sending the western world “messages.”  The west, on the other hand, fails miserably in sending clear messages back.  I’m not saying that our message to Al Qaeda isn’t clear.  The “we want you gone” message has been made crystal clear.  However, we know the best way to make that happen, yet we fail to send the right message to the right people.

Look, any terrorist organization that relies on suicide bombers is going to need a zealot to get the job done.  These organizations can train up a zealot, but they’ve got to get some raw material first.  Why does a young person (Abdulmutallab is 23) decide to join a terrorist organization?  There could be several reasons:

1. They don’t have any better prospects (poverty, oppression)
2. They hate Americans or westerners in general (maybe had a family member killed)
3. They have a screw loose (Timothy McVeigh)

There’s not much anyone can do about that last one except early childhood detection and treatment.  But, the first two are situations over which we have some control.  By providing aid and support to poverty stricken or oppressed people, we can let them know that we are with them.  This takes away one more reason to hate westerners.  Anyone in the know will tell you that we do this, but we do it so badly that our efforts are usually wasted.

I am reminded of something that a coworker does.  Every time he sends his grandchildren, who live across the country, a book or a gift, he attaches a picture of him and his wife (grandma) to it.  That way, whenever the grandchildren read the book or play with the toy, they are reminded of who gave it to them.  The U.S. does a crappy job of making sure that the people we help know where it is coming from.  We send millions of dollars to help impoverished people in the same countries whose residents try to blow us up.  We can do better.

Then there’s the matter of killing civilians.  We know that our enemies are going to do everything in their power to make us need to blow up civilians in order to blow them up.  It is their best recruitment tool because they know that if they use the locals as human shields, they can recruit from the survivors after westerners have dropped bombs on the neighborhood.

We are fighting an asymmetrical war.  We’re going about it the old-fashioned way and they’re using modern tactics.  We should be recruiting locals ourselves.  We don’t need a whole army to do it.  Everything could be low key special operations.  It would be a lot cheaper and we would have plausible deniability if anything goes wrong.  Bottom line: we’re fighting the war they want us to fight.  It costs too much, most of our citizens don’t like it, and we’re not winning many hearts and minds.  In this type of war, if you don’t win hearts and minds – you don’t win.