What Is Real Security?

Since the start of the economic downturn, I have been feeling a sense of anxiety and insecurity among my friends and acquaintances. Unemployment is currently around 10% and the real number is probably closer to 20%. People view their livelihood in terms of their jobs, career, and money. We have evolved into a society where our survival is dependent on very few members of society. These are the people that provide items are services that are essential to life such as water and food.

How many of us do anything or are capable of doing activities that are essential to human life? I know I don't. I sit in front of a computer and write SQL code for someone. Numbers are added electronically in some computer. I goto a store and pick up the T-bone steak that I am eating now and numbers are then deducted from the same computer. I'm fine as long as the numbers are big enough in my account and there are T-bone steaks at the store. It's an amazing if you think about it. Society has almost magically turned my SQL code into a delicious T-bone steak. But does my SQL code have anything to do with the production of steaks? It is not even remotely related! At the most basic level, there isn't anything I am doing or producing that people truly need. This is true for the vast majority of things people are doing everyday. Most of us spend our days worrying about frivolous things in life.

What if this system breaks down? This system can break down for any number of reasons. It has broken down in the past and it will break down again in the future. Perhaps people no longer want my SQL code. Or it could break down for reasons that are beyond our control such as war, economic or political crisis, or natural disasters. You hear about how the system can break down in the news everyday. Study history and you can see what happens when the civilized world breaks down. It is not pretty and it happens with alarming regularity. You do not have to go very far back in history to see the devastation that results. Some examples are Katrina, 2005, LA riots 1992, Balkan Wars in '91, and most of what happened in World War 2. It may happen again in the near future if the global financial system collapses as many intelligent people are predicting. The truth is, most of us no longer have the skills to sustain our life or the life of our loved ones for even a short period of time. The human population is too large that the Earth does not have enough resources to sustain us all of us without modern technology.

What is it that people truly need to have security? Most of us think in terms of jobs and money, but that is because we live in a world that is so far separated from what is really important for our survival. What is essential to support human life and do most of us have enough of these skills to survive? That is what real security is. Most of us are just at the mercy of the society and environment we live in.

Stop and think a minute of what is really important in life. Everything else is bullshit if you really think about it. If you have the ability to produce these things, then everything that is happening around you is irrelevant. You are self sufficient and the most secure position you can be in in life is the ability to rely on yourself for all your needs.

1. Clean water. Without a source of clean water, we are dead in 3 days. We take water for granted, but when things break down our source of water is often the most vulnerable. Do you know how to locate and treat water? This usually requires either chemicals or energy for boiling.
2. Food. Acquiring food means being able to hunt, fish, farm, or ranch. Personally, I don't know how to do any of these.
3. Shelter. Are you able to build a shelter? I have trouble pitching a tent.
4. Energy is needed for transportation. More importantly, we need energy to cook food and treat water. For most of us, the only kind of energy we can produce ourselves is to gather and burn wood.
5. Protection/Security. In normal times, we depend on law enforcement and our military to provide security and protection. When the system breaks down, we will be responsible for protecting ourselves.

Having these abilities is the only way to truly have security in life. Perhaps if we learned some of these skills we would not have the anxiety about what is happening with our jobs, and finances. We would know that no matter what happens out there, we will be able to make it.

Unfortunately for myself, I don't know how to do ANY of these things. I just write computer programs, hope the system doesn't break down, and people still want my programs....

Intelligence chief: U.S. can kill Americans abroad

I don't know why this story isn't front page news. Read it and think about the implications of what it means:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/04/killing.americans/

Our intelligence chief is saying in a public hearing, in front of Congress, that the US Government is using the MILITARY (special forces) to KILL American citizens "abroad if they present a direct threat to U.S. security." He is not talking about soldiers killing American terrorists in a battle or firefight. He is talking about doing COVERT operations to seek out and ASSASSINATE American citizens ("terrorists") they deem a threat to our security.

ARE THEY CRAZY??!! ARE WE THAT FAR GONE??!! HAS OUR ENTIRE GOVERNMENT BEEN TAKEN OVER BY RADICALS AND EXTREMISTS??!!

I guess if you are an American, living in say, Yemen, you no longer have rights. If they think you're a terrorist, you can be targeted and killed. I know we are justifying this based on our war against terrorism and keeping Americans safe, but consider this quote:

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin - 1775 

 Let's look at some of the quotes:

"We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community," Blair told lawmakers at the hearing. "If that direct action -- we think that direct action will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that."

Permission from who??!! Who in the government has the authority to give such "permission"? Whoever this person is, has the authority to first label someone as a "terrorist" and then has the power to authorize KILLING them in the name of national security!

"We are not careless about endangering American lives as we try to carry out the policies to protect most of the country."

In other words he means trust them, give them the power to kill Americans they think are dangerous to our safety because they are not "careless". Do I even need to explain how dangerous this is? Hasn't everyone reading this stayed awake through enough high school history to know that this is a very, very bad idea?

Topping the list of such Americans may be Anwar al-Awlaki, currently living in Yemen. Privately, many administration officials said he is one of the next American citizens abroad with whom the U.S. intelligence community wants to deal.

So this guy is a fugitive and allegedly an al Qaeda operative. The fact that he is now outside our jurisdiction in Yemen means US Government now has the authority assassinate him covertly?! As an American citizen, he does not deserves a fair trial in front of judge, jury, due process, with an opportunity to defend himself in a court of law? Did he lose his rights when he moved to Yemen and the government labeled him a terrorist?

Is this really what we have become? I need to start looking for another country to emigrate to because there will not be a happy ending to all this if history is any guide...

Glenn Beck on Fox News...

This week, I stumbled upon Glenn Beck on Fox News. I didn't actually watch Glenn Beck until now, but I have heard mainly negative things about him. He gets attacked mainly from the political left, but even from people who are not political. I was expecting that is some right wing, Republican, religious extremist. But he is nothing like that, at least not his show.

I really am starting to wonder. Do people that attack Glenn Beck actually watch his show on Fox? After watching a week's worth of episodes, I have to say that this is one of the best political commentary I have seen on TV anywhere. Look at this 5 minute clip. It is one of my favorite because it highlights the ideological difference between the founders of the Constitution and the Progressives.



Is there anything extreme, evil, or Satanic about him or his guests? His show is against Progressivism and why it is evil and against the principles of the founders of the United States. It's not about Democrats or Republicans. His show is about the supreme law of the United States, the Constitution. I don't see how anyone can think Beck an extremist unless they think our Constitution and the Founders were extremist.

Now perhaps you believe our Constitution is fundamentally flawed. But I don't see anyone else on TV who understand it and what the founding father's intended it to be better than Glen Beck.

Political Armchair Quarterbacking...

I have always been worried that despite Obama campaigning on change, he would simply continue the policies of Bush. Why was Bush so hated by everyone? The problem with Bush is that he was fiscally liberal and socially conservative. If you want to know how to be hated by virtually everyone, what Bush did is the way to do it. Liberals hate him because of his social views. Conservatives hate him because he spends too much money. Independents really hate him because they tend to be the exact opposite of Bush. Most independents are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. The fact that John Kerry lost to him in 2004 shows how terrible a campaign he ran.

Obama's problem is that he's fiscally and socially liberal and hasn't worked with the opposition party, instead relying on party loyalty to force his agenda through. The conservatives despise him and the independents are abandoning him as well. That is most of the country.

He paid for it this week with the loss of the super majority in the Senate with the loss in Massachusetts. Looking at the election results last Tuesday, you would think that Massachusetts is a red state. This is the most Democratic, liberal, state in the country. It is suppose to be the state where any candidate with a pulse and a D next to him/her should win. This will make the rest of his agenda far more difficult since he will now be forced to engage the Republicans that he may have alienated in the past year.

Obama must move towards the center or he will plummet faster than Bush did. Let's look at the health care bill, which has become a political disaster for Obama and the Democrats:

http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

It is nearly 2,000 pages long! Does anyone besides the people who wrote it really understand what is in this bill? As busy as the politicians are, did they even get a chance to read and understand even just a fraction of what is in this monster before voting on it? Obama is trying to slay the health care beast in one massive bill. That is a terrible strategic error on his part. It is a political battle no one can win. Why didn't he go for a series of small, non controversial bills that the public can support and the Republicans dare not vote against? Out of 2,000 pages, he can't find 100 or 200 pages worth of legislation with bipartisan support? Didn't he campaign on working together and finding common ground for CHANGE? Finding common ground in a 2,000 page bill is virtually impossible. Everyone is going to hate it in some way.

Obama is now trying to get a scaled down version of his bill passed, but this is what he should have been doing from the beginning. However, he has wasted so much of his political capital and created so much animosity with independent voters and Republicans that he may get nothing for all the work he's put in on this for the last year.

Obama will pay for this politically, but it is we the people that suffer. 46 million people have no health coverage and many are under insured. Half of all bankruptcies are due to medical costs. Cost are escalating and much of the increased cost have nothing to do with health care. Health care is an issue that can bankrupt the country if it is not brought under control...