Finally the truth is out

In today's edition of USA Today there was an interesting article that finally published what some of knew to be true, but nobody was saying. In this debate about jobs, especially those that are going offshore, the argument has been that sending jobs offshore will create new jobs back home. The insinuation has been that they will also be better jobs. Well the data says it is not so! The data says, yes we are creating jobs alright, but on average they are lower paying jobs, and often part time or barely permanents jobs since they are heavily in the service sector, such as food services. So this is really going to help us in the long term. As our skilled, high paying jobs go offshore to other counties to lift their economies and standard of living, we are lowering ours and creating a larger and larger very low paid underclass. The divide between the haves and havenots will keep growing. The social consequences of that are not trivial. The economic impact on the US is also significant. There may be more jobs, but since they are low paying the taxes being paid to run the country are decreasing and the overall spending power of the average American is dropping. This is not what we expect and is not the plan we want. So be careful when you are told things are getting better, do not be blinded by statistics. They may not be painting the true picture!

Now the Kurds are coming...........

So this is getting to be interesting. Before we invaded Iraq we had little problems with either Iraq or terrorists per se. The worst terrorist atrocity on US soil had been perpetrated by a white American citizen, born and bred in the heartland. Then we invaded Iraq, which was falsely justified as being a strike against. Terrorism. Instead of really attacking the terrorist links in Saudi and Pakistan, no we attacked a tin pot dictator that was himself a target of the Taliban and others. We go ahead and help the fundamentalist terrorist movement by getting rid of someone that was in their way and open up Iraq to become a hot bed of terror. Now we run around and blame the deaths of Americans on the 'terrorists' we unleashed. I have yet to hear the government point a finger at Saudi. No that would be a problem since that is where the OIL comes from,and the personal friends of the Bush's would be offended. Money would be lost by a few exclusive folks. How sad. Instead hundreds of innocent Americans must die for no reason, and thousands of middle eastern folks must die for no reason other than they are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now the Kurds are wreaking havoc in the northern regions of Iraq. What have we unfurled on the world. Definitely not peace, freedom and prosperity.

It is so, because we say so............

I grew up in a country other than the US. It was a police state and despite have 'elections', it was effectively a dictatorship, albeit well disguised at times. On of the key capabilities of the then government was to invent facts to suite their needs. Have 'security' personnel testify in court to events that did not occur using fabricated evidence. Events this week with the current incumbents of the White House grimly remind me of those days. The 9/11 Commission provides physical evidence that an someone is physically in the US, when the White Claims that he was meeting with terrorists in Europe on the same day and time. When confronted with this Dick Cheney simply dismisses the physical evidence as 'wrong' since it does not match his version of the truth. I hope Americans realize what a scary path we are on. Where the powers that be chose to believe their own lies and rhetoric in spite of overwhelming hard evidence that they plain screwed up. What happened to honor, integrity and truth. Oh, well, I forgot, these are politicians were are dealing with, and in this case money hungry, profit driven politicians.

Thinking about religion

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal there was a letter in which the author said "America is a very religious country and primarily a Christian one". While I am not affiliated with any organized religion I do not care that other people choose to do so. That is their personal choice. What I am bothered by is that statements like the one above imply that because many people are Christians, gives them the right to assume that everybody agrees with them and if someone does not agree with them, they should. This creates an intrinsic conflict and a mindset that skews all thought. It also places anybody who does not conform to this religious mindset in a position where they need to constantly consider the Christian view of everything to get things done and to not unduly offend those around them.

The founders of this great country very deliberately created a constitution that separated church and state for a very good reason. They had suffered under the rule of governments driven and directed by religious ideology instead of rational thought. This current wave of religious fervor that is constantly intruding into the daily running of our country is both troubling and very dangerous. The country must be run based on facts, rationale thought and the principles of fairness and equality, not preference for those that are part of the faith. Remember the Spanish inquisition, it was driven by irrational and blind belief, not driven by rational values that would improve the life of the citizens.

So we have been hearing a lot of different statements being made about the legacy of Ronald Reagan this week. I heard one pundit claim that he was responsible for rebuilding the US economy. I statement I find rather strange considering we had the largest deficit in history by the time he left office to be almost immediately followed by a crushing recession. What he should has said was that apparent economic prosperity was bought by mortgaging the future. What is more relevant to our current time, is the our current President is following the Reagan model. He has taken a cash surplus and created what is now the largest deficit in history (of the US at least) to buy what looks like economic strength. The question is whether it is real and if history is being repeated. We have all seen that Dubja has ignored just about every lesson of history and keeps repeating the same mistakes as many before him. Will his legacy also be that the facade of economic prosperity is immediately followed by a very real and devastating recession as we once again pay off our debts and pay for the uncontrolled ego of a man that should never have been given the change to cause this chaos in the first place.

Summer came early to Texas this year and with a vengeance. May started fairly mildly and then bang at the end of May and now into June all hell breaks loose. 106 degrees in June! What happened to easing us into the heat. Someone should tell the boys running this show that summer starts around June 20th.

Well we have had some very active weather this year, lots of tornadoes and heavy rain, droughts, you name it. It would appear that things are getting more severe all the time. Maybe that global warming thing is true after all. (Note the sarcasm!).

Hopefully more and more people in the US will notice how ignoring the environment comes back to haunt us later. The current pain unfortunately cannot be directly blamed on George DubYa, but much future pain can and should be. His record on air pollution, helping the oil companies ravage our country and environment and allowing just about any large corporation that wishes to run roughshod over us and our fragile earth is both pathetic and alarming. Lets make sure this poor excuse for man does not get to do this to us again in assigned term. He has to go. One term is too much! Just about any alternative candidate will be better. They surely no one else cause as much damage as he has in his 4 short years.