Cliff Clarity

Yes we have a winner. And of course other winners. But like lemmings will old beliefs persist and all of us be lead off a cliff?

I am a more seasoned person I admit, but in my time I have never seen a fiscal cliff. Actually I stay away from cliffs of the real type when near them. You would never catch me at the edge of the Grand Canyon. You see I fear that even though I do not want to fall or jump, just proximity to the edge would cause me to lose my balance and I tumbling I would go. So I avoid cliffs.

My fear is the government is lot like me. They get close, but despite their best intentions, they fall - and they pull us with them. Hey they already are - have you looked at the stock market lately. The fiscal cliff looms larger as we step closer. I cannot get a good visual of it at the moment, but for some reason I am seeing related imagery in my brain - all quite unpleasant. More like something I once saw in Kenneth Anger film. 

I also do not cope well with lack of clarity. These days even after the election there is a severe lack of clarity. Cliffs and lack of clarity ahead. Golden parachutes a thing of the past (and no use when falling from the fiscal cliff by the way). Not the optimism I often felt after an election in the past. Are there are still too many tea drinking extremists out there who do not care about us? I fear so as they continue to all just try to baffle us with bullish** so we will follow.  Lest I raise the concern that it is us to blame as well? 

Place Your Bets - Its Election Time

Voting time this week. 

Do you choose who you are going to vote for the same way you pick race horses - by color or by what the jockey is wearing or if the horse gives you a knowing look while walking around in the swing states - oh I mean paddock? Or even better by name. Perhaps you do have a seemingly more sophisticated system and have one of those one dollar cards with a quick slogan telling you about the horse - candidate - "good mud runner".  

And like a horse race, if your horse comes in you win. Lower taxes or health care, or even a good war to boost the economy and some more jobs - all depending on which horse you vote for. Just a fact here - like at the horse races, most of lose, and we forget it is the horse that wins, gets the spoils, the flowers and the really big money. We are just gamblers trying to get a bit ahead and once the race is over - we do see little or no change even if we did pick the winner.

The more clever of us may see a pattern emerge over the years. I think I have in politics. Not about candidates - but about voters. They forget. We are talking brains of fish here, not elephants. We get the same old sxxx delivered to us every four years and we lap it up thinking change will come. It does about as often as you do get a longshot winner at the races. No, probably not that often.

We live in hope that this person we vote for will actually help our country and help us, and they may at first - but soon they will be tending to their winnings (and all the perks that go with them) and nurturing their own self preservation of the good life that a winning politician enjoys.

Sorry to say my race card shows very little difference among any of the candidates and a whole lot of similarities. A sad state for a reputed democracy where supposedly alternative voices can be heard. The media (those little card producers for political races) with their sound bites help assure this election after election.

So who do you vote for (assuming you have all the ID required :) ? I am going for Stewball.

Talk To The Hand

Sometimes you wonder what people are thinking. Well for some of us it may be more often than sometimes actually. I have spent some serious time trying to figure out what people mean when they say things this election season, trying to figure out if they are saying anything. I actually now wonder if the issue is what are people hearing.

I have concluded that just about everyone running for office and all their handlers are spouting rubbish. My hearing of course. Okay, this is no different than any other season, it is just louder rubbish – spawned perhaps by the thinking that if one talks louder someone is more likely to understand them. See it is a hearing thing, but by this time haven’t most people figured out that yelling does not improve comprehension? 

I think the overall increase in volume and arrogance we are seeing in society right now is simply to hide the fact that nothing is being said or that no one is listening. We just do not want to hear anything might even in the tiniest bit create any cognitive dissonance in our lives. The easiest way to do this is just not listen no matter how loud it gets. Even if they do go to eleven.

Talk to the hand. Thank you very much.

The Iceman Goes

So a few things have me pondering today. One is a concern about global warming. A consequence of which has just been pointed out to me of which I had not even considered - but it makes sense. As the ice masses at the poles melt, the size of the seas change (okay i knew this) but this then impacts the rotation and tilt of the earth. If the rotation and tilt of the earth changes I am sure a lot of ecology physics as we know it will change.

I am kind of hoping the change is acute enough that the gravitational pull that holds us here releases certain of our species - those windbags called politicians - they are full of hot air and seem most likely to fly away first. 

I do think we would be better off without them don't you? I am not sure they serve any useful purpose unless you are into greed and war and in general taking advantage. Perhaps just a quick one time tilt and extra high spin speed (like that on my juicer) will fling them into space sooner rather later so they can hang out with those worms on Mars.

I am not a fan of global warming or politics. I am also not a fan of Teflon either - nor people coated in it or cloaked by it.  I probably should hibernate during this time of year.

Tax Time

Well it is tax time again. No not the time you have to pay them, the time to talk about them. "How much do you pay?" At least that seems to be the question on a lot of people's minds. Or maybe it is "Did you pay any taxes?" Okay the cognoscenti among you already think that I am talking about Mitt and his taxes - and I would like to, but everyone else is and I like to be a contrarion sometimes.

I pay my taxes. (I am not sure I can confirm anyone else I know who ever has. It is not something people talk about it unless they are running for office.) You all know I have because I have written  about the IRS and the challenges their requirements give some of us honest poor people who try to understand and adhere to them. The rules are elliptical and not designed for us (or me at least) to understand especially if it is something Quicken Tax does not explain - or not even provide a form for. Probably some of you have been in this situation. Did you call the IRS to get an explanation? You may have gotten one but did you understand it? I called them a couple of times and the person on the other end who worked for the IRS was each time totally baffled by my question. If that is the case how am I supposed to do deal with the issue? 

Bottom line to me is that the tax laws and codes are written specifically to be difficult to understand - and I am guessing not to benefit me. I would like in this tax season to have someone like Mitt explain the tax laws to me. If he can do that and answer the questions that the IRS cannot accurately answer for me, I will vote for him for sure. I make the same offer to Barack. Explain the laws to me and I will vote for you. Period. 

I fully expect to not be obligated to vote for anyone this year based on this offer.

My thinking on this, is that if someone is to be our leader he or she should be able to explain the laws of this country to me. Reasonable I think. Once they have answered my tax questions I'll then ask them to explain the electoral college.

A thousand million questions that I am sure I will never have adequately answered.

Pigeon Racers

Well it seems pigeon racing is in trouble. Apparently the radio waves from cell or mobile phone towers affect a certain part of their brain causing them to lose their sense of direction. This means they get lost and cannot find their home.

I empathize. I think the same has happened to me, and perhaps many others of the human species as well - the brain being affected part. We are all losing direction and no longer really know what is right. (Nor left, but that is bad but fully intentional pun). 

Think about how much this explains about the world - pigeon brains not coping, nor our own. I am not a scientist but I have always suspected some folks of being bird brained. Maybe my proof is here. 

I am sad for pigeon racers, truly. From the little I know of the sport it is not one of kings, but common people. But, in my humble opinion we common people have always been smarter than many of those kings. Maybe I have not lost direction at all but found clarity. Sadly pigon racers have lost pigeons. I can see it now ... missing pigeon posters in St. Marks Square.

On a completely different note, airlines that serve Sky vodka have a sense of humor I like.

Here I am in the sky, thinking about pigeons. 

Not Bothering to Care About US Viewers

I admit I do love to watch the Olympics. I also admit that I hate to watch on NBC. To NBC the Olympics are simply a challenge to see how much we Olympic and sport lovers will tolerate. NBC of course lives in the dark ages, well actually is there a time period older than that?

Tape delay? In this day of social media? Really? I mean we have to put up with more commercials than events anyway - and of course the delay viewing schedule means no participation in the social media discourse with the rest of the world. How isolated we are - thank you NBC for reaffirming our being out of touch. By the time NBC shows the big events, NoBody Cares.

Do not even get me started on the fact that they censored the Opening ceremony and hacked up the coverage like a bad butcher. Cutting the memorial bit to the London bombing victims - heartless, soulless. To replace it with an interview with Michael Phelps - cheap, tawdry, offensive --- but over time would we expect anything better from NBC? No, Nothing But Crap coverage from them. 

By the way please tell the hosts to try and shut up a bit while we watch - or is talking during a movie or performance now acceptable too?

As a sport lover and to let you all know I am not Mr. Negative .. the streaming and live coverage of all the events you can watch during the day is quite good - it is basically what everyone else in the world gets. Nice. I have all my evenings free to watch reruns of the Nosy Bitch Chick I so much enjoy.

I Need A Helmet

My head hurts. Probably not as much as that of those members of the House who want to repeal the Healthcare bill. Did you know they have voted 33 times to repeal all or part of it? Of course it never goes anywhere does it - and they know it never will. A classic case of banging your head against the wall in my opinion. Also what colossal waste of time and money - our money - or am I the only one who thinks this. These politicians are idiots who cannot accept defeat - or reality. Bubble heads living in a surreal world with no grasp on reality. Get on with things you guys and quit wasting our time and money recreating your own version of Groundhog day. Their time would much more be better spent getting their Superpacs in line wouldn't it. I mean it is far mow important that multi-millionaires and billionaires get their views and opinions out there than that some poor or middle-class person be able to afford to keep themselves healthy and alive. Until the healthcare bill passes I have to live with the headache of this congress and government without meds. I keep banging my head against the wall too. Their heads must hurt too, no I think not ... they have no feelings. It is unfair.

Pattern Confliction

I like plaid. I am not a farmer. I think plaid goes great with stripes. I am not a fashion star. Most of all I like plaid pants and a plaid shirt that clash. I do not care. Fashion sense does not abide me. Vogue and Cosmo will not be calling me. I will wear white in winter. Okay that is lie, I never wear white. White usually clashes with the red liquid I inevitably spill on myself if I do wear white. Old age has taught me that one thing. Avoid white. I'll probably never be a lab tech then either will I? How many careers have I locked myself out of just based on my fashion sense? Is this the reason I am perennially underemployed perhaps?

I have heard all of the platitude about clothes making the man and you judge a man by his shoes, but I have to tell you I think these platitudes are those of the people who just want to perpetuate the establishment. Rebels rebel in their clothes choices until they are co-opted by the fashion industry. Rebels must constantly challenge fashion convention. That is one of my goals this summer - challenge convention, challenge authority, get all of you to think about what you wear and why.

I am not sure how important such a thing is in reality, but it makes me feel good to say and do it. That too is what we all should be comfortable doing and saying what makes us feel good. Comfortable in what we wear, who we are and what we believe and damn the fools.

Hey Henny Penny

So it seems all old people say it. "The world is falling apart". Well something like that. My parents did and my grandparents did - but with more emphasis and sincerity. As I kid I always blew these expositions off. "Whatever". Now that i am old though I see their wisdom. The world is falling apart. I am not a reactionary to modern trends, but only reading my Twitter and Facebook news feeds. The economies of most of the world are in a state of crap, the ecology of the planet is going down the toilet courtesy of our carelessness, and of course hatred between us earth inhabitants is on the rise - hey it is so even in this country. So yes I think the world is falling apart. But I could, if I was bothered provide some proof. But then again so could my parents and grandparents if I pressed them.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling ....

All Greek To Me

Well I like to drift in and out on things. Too much excitement stresses me out, so I have promised myself to keep a watchful eye on what I read during this election season.

Anyway couple of things have struck me of late. How about that NY Times article on how clever Apple is at avoiding taxes in this country. You have to admire their ingenuity, and I doubt the news will keep anyone from buying an iPad. Hey we can all pay just a little more in tax and try a little more personal austerity because we admire them so much don't you think?

Speaking of admire, how about that J.P. Morgan bank hoo hah? Last I read they said that even with the two billion dollar loss, they still should balance out by the end of the year. Seriously? They do make to much money. Where exactly did that $2 billion plus go by the way?

[As I side note, the genius who succeed at losing that much money was making $14 million a year too. (She at least got fired - not sure of what sort of bonus came with the firing though). Hey can I have that job? I would take less money and lose less I promise. Wink wink nudge nudge.]

This all leads me to think of the Greeks and how they are standing up against the new buzz trend "austerity".  I bet if old JP Morgan had given them a couple billion it might have eased some of their pain - but quite frankly I sure news like this does not encourage them. Of course it is wrong to live beyond your means, I agree with that. My quibble here is that the world does not encourage that does it? Their argument though is that "the percentage they are paying is just too high priced" and yes people are profiting from all of our dreams all of the time. What's that I hear ....

Longing for a Simpler Time

For those of you who are not aware of the fact: there were simpler times in the past. All one needed to do was to go downtown and all of your troubles would go away. Well maybe you had to live in the UK for this to be true, then again, I am not sure about that actually.

What all this leads me to think about is how one can escape the realities of the world - then and now. I am a believer that we do too much of it these days - escaping that is. Not all of us mind you, but more of us than should. That is why we are where we are. With economic inequity, financial crisis, seemingly another war starting every time the previous one ends - it is all still around us.  We do seem so less bothered by it all than I remember us being so in the past. How can this be a good thing?

Maybe it is just that simpler times lend themselves to us thinking just a bit more.

Chip On My Couch

Like most everyone these days I really abhor waste. While my pissed off quotient at waste in government is quite high, I can really do nothing about it can I? Okay yes I can vote and hope I choose someone who stays off the pork barrel for awhile.  But I am more inclined to just accept that that is bacon, gladly eat it and deal with the ever increasing blood pressure it stimulates.

Today I want to rant about those who waste potato chips. They leave their crumbs everywhere - including in my couch, and I cannot help but remember my moms admonitions of all the starving people int he world who are now missing out on potato chips. How sad is that. This holiday think of those starving people in the whirl and put your potato chips in your mouth, not all over the house and especially not down into the cracks of my couch. Pass the salt please.

Planes and Plans

I, like I am sure all of you, enjoy a bit of a holiday once in awhile. For me it is time to begin thinking about where to go and what to do this summer.  Not being flush with cash I do seek out those great deals and of course look for cheap flights. I am thinking most of us in the 99% do this same thing - of course only to run headlong into the reality that nothing is as good as it sounds. I must say again, they do seem capable of getting blood from us turnips.Yes I know recently the airlines have had to comply with more honesty in their ads, but of course that new truth in advertising is like all ads and press releases - they do not tell the full story. Well, I know you want the truth and so I am going to give it to you. However,  I cannot say it any better or more clearly than these fine folks...

The Tiger Metaphor

Tiger Woods is probably the most known golfer in the world. He has a huge gallery following him. People line fairways and surround greens when he is hitting a shot. They yell "in the hole" every-time he hits the ball - I'll ignore this obnoxious trait for the moment. They also just yell for no reason. He does little to earn these accolades most of the time. He is pretty much living on his laurels at the moment. (Funny this really sounds like I am talking about a politician doesn't it?)

Anyway these crowds I believe give Tiger an added edge over the less well known an popular golfers. They surround him and the hole he is playing on. When he hits a bad shot that strays offline, more often than not it hits one of his fan and stops - usually in not too bad a position - usually a whole better position than if there were no fan there to stop it. So for example, rather than his ball going way past the back of the green when he hits it too long, it hits someone and stops a few feet away from the edge of the green leaving him an easy chip shot. All this leads to his having, in my opinion, a much easier round of golf than most other golfers. His throngs of admirers protect him from really bad shots, insulating him from the realities that other golfers must face. He has an advantage. He probably gains a few strokes a round from what I have seen - all for the slight expense of some of his fans (those hit by his golf ball) ending up with a bruise. Those without huge throngs of followers have no such protection. This sounds like us regular Americans - taking the bruises for the powerful to achieve what they want.

Put this all together. Those who are popular and have followers are protected. Those who go it alone or think independently are much less so - but all the stronger for it. Certainly this is true in politics and for big corporations whose followers or employees take the hits (blame) for things so the main man or woman or entity can removed ahead unscathed and can stay on the course.

I am not sure what all this means really except what I know already - those who are in a privileged position to start with are protected. Their position is protected. This makes it much harder to unseat them or evoke change. Tiger's failing was that his throngs could not protect him from himself - though if they could I am sure they would. In our world success is almost a self perpetuating fact with perhaps a high nepotistic coefficient. Not good odds for the rest of us. Good news for those in control - of us though.

While I ponder this I am thinking I may read up on how to play golf as I seek more meaning from the game and of course, my stripes.

The Land of the Fee

America is now the land of the fee. Not the free, I did not make a typing mistake, I mean fee. Have you not noticed how everything now has additional fees. The airline industry is the most notable - luggage fees, charging for meals, better seats, blankets, using toilets, pillows, and sometimes even for using credit cards to pay for your tickets. Other companies want to charge us for paying our bills online or using our debit cards. Fees to feed their ever growing coffers.

I prefer to be charged a specific price and know what I am getting. I do not want to bargain. I do not want added anxiety in my life because if I do not pay a fee I am going to to get lesser service or be treated more badly by the provider - or not know what I am getting. Why would I?

I learned long ago nothing is ever really free, and now it seems like everything can be better for an additional fee. Or simply paying more.

Everything costs more these days. (Bought gas lately?) Why is that? Are we all getting paid more money? I do not think so. I am thinking those who already have a lot of money are just transferring more among themselves. They skin us while skimming as much off the top as they can. The rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer, so it has to be something like that doesn't it?

 I really would like someone to explain it all to me. I know I should have studied something practical in school - economics, law, or business. but I didn't. I chose and still do prefer art. I do not prefer being subjected into a forced poverty over increasing fees and prices when there is no value added service. In fact paying more for less. Soon I'll paying a lot for nothing - though sometimes I think that is the case already here in the land of the fee.

Living In the Past

So did you watch the superbowl? Maybe just the ads huh?  The whole superbowl spectacle is just a celebration of living in the past. A big money event groomed for the most wealthy and tailored to make the rest of us pine for Doritos. "Let them eat chips"!

Face up to it football should hardly be called a game. It is a concussion inducing bunch of widely scattered moments in between which nothing happens. The greatest thing in football is the no huddle offense. It will be stopped though because it reduces the amount of time for ads. I have a lot against ads, but have been known to be persuaded by clever ones. Hmmm, none of those this year. I mean the whole idea behind advertising is to make us spend money on things we do not need to keep our economy alive. Oh yes and to help the rich get richer as we go further in debt.

When the world feels they have deluged us with enough ads, they give us celebrity. Madonna! The sound was awful and the performance akin to a badly made spaghetti gladiator film. Madonna is over and living on her laurels. I also bet we could have probably fed a few million people a nice meal for what that show cost. Priorities should endure through time and we cannot let media corrupt them.

So am I a curmudgeon of the highest order? Perhaps. Stop wasting money, stop living in the past, and stop exploiting every last second of time in an effort to persuade me that I too am living the good life. I am not. Are you?

 Okay I do live in the past a bit

.

Noise or Sound?

I had a flashback to my more youthful thinking the other day when I read the commentary of an article about cricket. In it the author stated that the goal of modern popular culture is to remove boring from our lives. So true.

Popular culture also is carefully constructed to make us feel inferior unless we have large amounts of money to spend - it does so with noise and clutter. Media and all of culture with its upbeat sensationalism is actually designed to keep us down. How can we complain when so much wonderful is all around us and so much is going on around us and battering our brains (which they have easy access to through our ears)?

Popular culture also removes individuality creating an implied consent for all that goes on to keep us fat and happy with our beer and Doritos or whatever. If we were not fat, happy and excited about the trivial we might actually start thinking. In recent years the World Wide Web has also been doing this same sort of induction. This bastion of purported freedom is now just too much information that seems too important too ignore coming at you too fast. It is mostly all just noise.

Why so much effort to have us not think about more important things than consumerism? If we did think the whole house of cards (i.e. our capitalist society) might crumble before the one percent's and their gatekeeper eyes.

I do not think cricket is boring. I enjoy a moment and embrace the sound of silence and all it offers - particularly time to think. It is through periods silence we will gain voices, realize what is important, learn to communicate with each other in meaningful ways and  create a better world.

Moral Compass

I saw an ad for a moral compass the other day. I was saddened by the fact that they were only available in specialized versions and at a very high price. I comforted myself with the thought that those who really need them could afford them.

I did wonder though how sales were. I pondered that in this economy they might be quite brisk - in the same sort of way escapist entertainment product sales tend to increase when things are, well bad. My thinking is that the morally correct decisions one must make in these times are bit more challenging - so a compass which points you in the right direction might be just the ticket. Couple that with the fact that they do not require any technical skill to operate, and it should be a winning product. The shrewd Toby in me was ready to proclaim that were I savvy or rich I would buy stock in the company that sells them. This a tip I would pass on to all of you my readers.

I then thought a bit further and realized that actually there are few if any customers for such a product. The need is there. The features are there. The benefits are there. What is not there is the willingness of the people to actually use and heed them. In fact success in this world might be better predicated on having one, reading it, and then doing the opposite. Another great disappointment, but perhaps the reason I should have one.

By the way, this post was not inspired by the upcoming election in the US, any world events, or any personal interactions with other human beings.