Are Closed Minds Best for American?

Are Closed Minds Best for America?

We are a passionate people. Passion can be good, but unbridled passion needs to be tempered. Apathy never got anyone anywhere. But a relentless, closed minded passion can also become a great weakness, a powerful and crippling deficiency that goes misunderstood, or worse, unacknowledged by those who are drained by it.

One can be certain of their beliefs and still be wise enough to explore opposing beliefs. We can often find truth and ideas we have not considered by honestly considering opposing ideas and positions. The exact opposite is true if we only consider opinions that match our own views. Yet, this seems to be exactly what many citizens choose to do. How can a closed minded population be what is best for America?

Believing what is said on MSNBC or FOX News without even checking the facts leads to this closed mindedness. Imagine that we don’t even bother to check the facts. A disturbing question arises when considering our choice of news sources. Do we choose our source because our own beliefs, prejudices ad opinions are supported by a particular news program or talk radio show?

To a large degree, we have become a closed-minded citizenry and a polarized society. There has always been a majority and minority group in congress. For hundreds of years opposing political parties have managed to compromise and work together to pass legislation that the serving president would sign. Today, we seem to be moving into a new type of congress; one where the majority party and the minority party simply demand ‘my way or the highway’.

Congressional gridlock is one of the casualties of our closed-minds. Surely, most beliefs and opinions are not so perfect that improvement is impossible. Reasonable people can differ and can compromise. Can any relationship succeed without compromise? Imagine a marriage without compromise. Two people joined for life would have to have the exact same beliefs throughout the duration of a lifetime. (Yes, I know that most marriages do not last a lifetime. I suspect part of the problem may be a lack of compromise).

Before we can even consider compromise, we must be willing to listen with the intent of learning. Most of us only hesitate to speak until the other party finishes describing their beliefs. In other words, we are polite and do not interrupt, but instead of listening we are formulating our reply[1].

Hot button topics like illegal immigration and the Affordable Care Act bring out the worst in us. Just using the phrases ‘illegal immigration’ and the ‘Affordable Care Act’ are enough to set some people off. They insist we must use the phrases ‘illegal alien’ and ‘Obamacare’ when explaining our opinions[2].  How can we be open-minded if the use of a simple phrase or term creates such hostility? I am not writing about curse words or racist words. Everyday words and phrases should not cause such anger.

Closed minds are not in our nation’s best interest. In fact, the free exchange of ideas is a building block of our freedom. We cannot have an exchange of ideas with closed minds. This does not mean we must surrender our principles or that our ideas are wrong. It simply means that we honestly try to understand another viewpoint and consider how our ideas and opinion can merge with ideas and opinions that we don’t necessarily like.

 

 

 

 

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[1] I have been guilty of this and worsening matters by rolling my eyes.

[2] Oddly, many of these same people object to being criticized for being politically incorrect and suggest that pushing a person to speak a certain way is un-American.

Time to Wake Up! Riot at Texas Prison Story is a great Example.

The recent riot at a Texas detention facility highlights many complicated and important problems.

First, the fact that the facility mainly housed illegal immigrants, as reported by Reuters on February 21, 2015 suggests that these people were tried and convicted of being on U.S. soil without authorization. If that is the case, it brings forth something that I have personally observed during the past 14 years of people recently deported to Mexico. I spoke with hundreds of the deportees and the majority told me that they intended to return to the United States as soon as possible. However, those that said they would not try to return to the United States, them said that they were imprisoned for being in the U.S. illegally and could hardly believe that they were put into a state jail for only being in the U.S. illegally. In other words, time in prison before deportation deters future attempts to re-enter the country. While this is only my personal observation, it suggest that our government should at least examine this possibility and if empirical data supports my suspicion, we have a real tool that deters illegal immigration. (This is only one possible tool. There are many others, including addressing the root causes of illegal immigration – which probably holds the most promise).

Second, the super-rich, giant corporations and politicians all benefit every time a story ignites anger about illegal immigration.[1] The Reuters story stated that the Management and Training Corporation (MTC) ran this prison facility.

Now let us look at what Reuters did not include in the story:

·         MTC has been the subject of controversies that included rape, nonpayment of salaries and other significant issues.

·         MTC is allied with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is described by Sourcewatch.org is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wish lists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills.

 Most citizens have not even heard about ALEC and most believe that congress actually writes each bill that is considered for passage. In fact, ALEC hands politicians their ‘model bill’ and our representatives add their signatures. Why does all of this chicanery that feeds billions of our tax dollars into private hands? As Business Insider and others have pointed out, six corporations own 90% of the media[2]. The media pushes what I call ‘trigger word’ stories. These are stories that feed our personal biases and hatreds so we come to believe that a minority group, the conservatives, the liberals, a particular political party, the unions, etc. are the causes of our high taxes, overcrowded and underperforming schools, etc. While there is usually some truth in these beliefs, the real culprit are many of the super-rich, many of our corporations and many large banks and Wall Street manipulators.

Another reason the campaign to refocus our concern so we do not attack the true culprits of our nation’s greatest problems is that many of us feel so frustrated that we cannot do anything about the corruption (i.e. bank and corporate bail outs, Wall Street, big money controlling election outcomes). Although we may not know how to fight back, the first step is to at least recognize who and what we need to fight. If a ship is sinking, rearranging the deck chairs should not be our focus. We need to find out why and what can be done to save our own lives!

We cannot trust one news source. GOOGLE (although a giant Internet Corporation) provides very fast ways to explore stories. By entering a few words into GOOGLE it is easy and quick to examine other opinions. A simple ‘trick’ is to enter a name of a corporation, union or person and add the word ‘complaints’ to get a clearer picture. Don’t trust any single source and avoid trying to find a source that only confirms our original bias. Also, put numbers into context. This is especially true when trying to decide what changes in our budget would have a real effect. While saving a million of so by addressing welfare cheats is laudable, if every cheat was eliminated the impact on our budget would be negligible. Also remember that the biggest thieves in government and industry love to see blind patriotism.

 

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[1] For that matter, the same is true when anger is triggered by stories about welfare cheats, and anything that suggests that a minority is responsible for our trillions of dollars of debt, poor schools, etc.

[2] Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal. This does not even include Clear Channel that owns over 1,000 radio stations across the nation.

The Internet, e-mail, websites, YouTube, social media, news websites and blogs make information easily available. A few minutes of inquiry via Google should make us the most informed people on earth. The problem is that this explosion of information did not make us searchers for the truth. Instead, we search for anything that supports our beliefs and anything that is gossip or about celebrities. We engage in fantasy. We forward e-mails that are hoaxes and become offended when shown proof that those emails are hoaxes.

Here are some real facts that most people seem to have missed.

• Our Federal Government paid 2.6 million dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job[1]. By the way, the study did not involve ethnic Chinese living in the United States. The study took place in China.

• Taxpayers directly contributed $18,248,300 million to the Republican and Democratic national committees, or a total of $36.5 million, to hold their presidential nominating conventions in Election 2012. They gave similar amounts to the parties in 2008[2].
• The Department of Agriculture spent $2 million to fund an internship program. The program hired one full-time intern.

• Last year, $120 million was paid to dead federal employees. (In all fairness, sometimes it is hard to tell).

• A total of $146 million was paid for federal employees to upgrade their flights to business class.

• The government spent $2.6 million to encourage Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly.

• The Department of Health and Human Services provided an $800,000 subsidy to build and IHop in Washington, D.C. (Google it! It is absolutely true).

• The National Institutes of Health has given $1.5 million to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to study why “three-quarters” of lesbians in the United States are overweight and why most gay males are not.

• During 2012, $25,000 of federal money was spent on a promotional tour for the Alabama Watermelon Queen.

•The U.S. government spent $505,000 “to promote specialty hair and beauty products for cats and dogs” last year.

•NASA spends close to $1 million per year developing a menu of food for a manned mission to Mars even though it is being projected that a manned mission to Mars is still decades away.

•Over the past 15 years, a total of approximately $5.25 million has been spent on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.

•The U.S. government spent $27 million to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.

•During fiscal 2012, the National Science Foundation gave researchers at Purdue University $350,000. They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting.

•A total of $10,000 of U.S. taxpayer money was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes in Michigan. (What did they say? Probably, "No! Please don't do it"!

•Vice President Joe Biden and his staff stopped in Paris for one night back in February.  The hotel bill for that one night came to $585,000.

•The U.S. Department of Agriculture has spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar produced in Idaho.

•The National Institute of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is conducting a study on the benefits of watching reruns on television.

•The National Institute of Health also spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.

•The federal government spent $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.

•The IRS spent $60,000 on a film parody of Star Trek and a film parody of Gilligan’s Island.

•Last year, the federal government spent $96,000 to buy iPads for kindergarten students in Maine.

•The U.S. government spent $200,000 on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, Calif.

•Last year, the government spent just under $1 million posting snippets of poetry in zoos around the country.

•The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $300,000 on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.

•The federal government spent $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees and poinsettias

 

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[1] http://cnsnews.com/news/article/us-will-pay-26-million-train-chinese-prostitutes-drink-responsibly-job

[2] http://uspolitics.about.com/od/Political-Conventions/a/Taxpayers-On-The-Hook-For-Political-Conventions.htm

Taxes and Class Warfare

During the 1950s and early 1960s, the top bracket income tax rate was over 90%--and the economy, middle-class, and stock market boomed[1]. Tax rates for the super-rich are lower than they have been in 50 years.

Those that scream ‘class warfare’ whenever someone remotely suggests a higher tax rate for the media (owned by the super-rich) are duping the super-rich. Although class warfare exists, it is the rich that declared war. Hundreds and in some case, thousands of workers make a company successful, yet the bulk of the profit never reaches the people doing the real work.

Is it a redistribution of wealth to tax the super-rich so that the real producers of wealth gain some benefit? Perhaps it is nothing more than a fairer form of capitalism.

Think about this when people argue that higher taxes will take away the incentive for company owners to expand.

A person with 20 million dollars of profit nets 13 million dollars after paying 35% in taxes. If this person invests in the business and show 25-million in profit, but pays 40% in taxes, he or she nets 15 million. Why would I not want to grow my business and pick up an additional 2 million dollars? Imagine, squeaking b on 15 million dollars a year! When taxes for the super-rich were at 90% new companies and investments thrived.

Think about another truth. The average working class American wanted a Federal Income Tax. The media sold us the idea of an income tax because the wealthy would be taxed while the worker would pay a relative small amount.

Think about another truth. How many wars were fought (at huge cost of life and treasure) to protect the wealthy companies whose foreign investments were in jeopardy? The same companies that outsource jobs rely on our military to protect their foreign operations. However, do not tax them.

Look at McDonalds. The average worker earns $14,600 per year and qualifies for government assistance (at taxpayer’s expense). The top five executives collectively receive over 24 million dollars per year!

Look at Wal-Mart and other businesses that encourage employees to apply for government assistance. Our tax dollars supplement Wal-Mart!

Close every loophole and increase the tax rate on the top 2 percent. Period.

 

 

 

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[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates-2012-5

Painted Gun and Police Hero . . . more misreporting

Police arrested a man in Cincinnati who had a gun that he painted red to fool the police into thinking it is a toy. This got me to thinking. Such a gun would not be useful during a robbery, because the intended victim would think it was a toy. The only use for such a gun is to cause a police officer to hesitate during a confrontation so that the suspect could kill a police officer.

Meanwhile, a shooting near a school was misreported by the AP. Although the shooting victims were teens that either attended an alternative school (for trouble-makers) or were part of a work program sponsored by the school, and although the shooting took place outside of the school, the AP reported the incident as a school shooting. The school was described as a school for ‘at risk’ children. It should have been described as a school for children that placed teachers ‘at risk’. As usual, the media would not include the race of the shooter (a 19-22 year old black man). However, we must admit that if a white officer shot this thug the media would have made certain that race is an issue.

Protestors against police officers that were exonerated by Grand Juries continues. The media and protestors continue to push the idea that white police officers make black communities unsafe. They ignore the facts. Black males make black communities unsafe. Although black thugs also commit crimes in white neighborhoods, they primarily prey upon other blacks. The huge number of black women that are raped by black men is not important to the protestors or the media.

Protestors are not demanding that parents should raise their children to respect the law, respect teachers and they are not demanding that parents take responsibility for the education of their children. Protestors are not demanding that every looter and arsonist be prosecuted. Instead, the media and protestors embrace the idea that black rioters only want justice and fairness . . .  and that is why rioters are burning and looting businesses that did not have a damn thing to do with the police shootings. In fact, some of the businesses that were looted and burned were owned by Black citizens.

When the next police officer is killed in the line of duty we will suspect that the officer may have hesitated because of the media reports.

Protestors in New York should be asked by the media about their thoughts concerning Police Officer Dennis Guerra.

He died when he entered a high-rise building that is home to hundreds of Black-Americans in response to a fire.

 Below is a photo of the proud suspect.

 

The suspect responsible for the death of a police officer smiles as he is escorted by two NYPD detectives. The media did not include his race as part of their stories. They only described him as a youth who did not understand the danger of starting fires.

Of course we could ask protestors about the 58-New York police officers that died as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks or about the 322 New York Officers killed by gunfire. How about a racial analysis of those suspects?

Liberals complain that any examination of crimes by race is unwarranted and racist. However, if your neighborhood was targeted by a rapist, would you not want to know about the description of the suspect? Police officers should be apprised of the typical shooter, armed robber and the typical person that assaults police officers. A break-down by race is important.

Citizens should know the race of every suspect reported in the news. We have a right to know. This is a legitimate concern that should be included in our debate about race relations in this country.

My prayer is that all police officers will continue to suppress crime and that they never hesitate to kill a perceived threat against their life or the life of others. My other prayer is that the media and general public respect and thank police officers that are doing an extremely difficult job at the risk of their lives.

 

Hate Those Cops

Police Officers were running towards the Twin Towers as the planes burned and the towers were about to collapse.

Today, those same officers are called pigs, murderers and racists.

FULL DISCLOSURE: 35-years of law enforcement experience certainly influences my thoughts about police.

Intelligent Thought #1: Take this challenge. Hold your breath. Do not breathe. Now, without breathing shout, "I can't breathe" three times. Hmmmm. Can't be done? Officers (and anyone with common sense) knows that if you can shout, you can breathe.

Intelligent Fact #1: The business owners constantly complained about the actions of this giant black man. He was harassing and scaring customers as he tried to sell cigarettes or whatever else he had to sell. He seemed to be mentally incompetent. He had previous encounters with the police. He towered over all of the officers and resisted arrest. Hint: If you are fighting the police and you find yourself in a choke hold, immediately submit to the arrest and stop all resistance.

In New York (state laws differ) a Grand Jury consists of 23-people and only 12 must agree that there is sufficient evidence for an indictment. Like all criminal laws, the burden of proof is on the State to prove that the presumably innocent person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Criminal intent is required in this type of a case. (Sorry, that is the law). So how does one prove criminal intent when the officers testify that their intent was to arrest, not kill or even harm the suspect? Where is the proof?

Regardless of opinions, the Grand Jury heard the evidence and decided not to indict the officer. This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the law.

As for Ferguson, the police are wrong when they defend themselves against a black thug. They pick on the black citizens, except when they are burning and looting. Then the media said that the police did not enforce the law.

Thousands of police officers across the country are learning a lesson. Few officers ever get into trouble by doing nothing. Drive and smile. Respond to calls and write reports. Tell the citizens to obtain an arrest warrant and only arrest those that submit to arrest. Never question a black person that appears to be following a black woman or who is a known robber and is hanging around outside of a jewelry store. Let the black officers handle all calls and investigations where there is either a black suspect or a black victim. (Of course, if a black officer kills a black suspect he will be an Uncle Tom and still get crucified).

Meanwhile the case where the black officer shot an unarmed white man continues to be ignored by the media and that is the fault of the white community. We just can't get a good riot off the ground.

If there is ever another 9/11 the media will run into the buildings with the protesters to save the people, regardless of race. Actually, that will never happen. The police will run back in. Some may die. Others will be told that they are overpaid and that their pensions need to be cut.

Why Only Sport's Figures???

Since the NFL is disciplining players that abuse women, it only makes sense that all industries should follow suit. Any industry that allows employees to abuse women or encourage abuse of women should be fired.

Let’s start with music. Opps, no more RAP or Hip-Hop! Of course Hollywood should take notice and stop all actors that abused women. Hollywood will be searching for a few good men. Law Enforcement, Fire Fighters, the military and politicians certainly don’t get a free pass.

Why only punish the NFL players?