Thoughts - Part III

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This is a continuation of http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2013/04/thoughts-part-ii.html

·         Your brain.  Your brain is the most deceitful entity you know.  It lies to you.  It purports truths that are false.  It convinces you are tired when you are not.  It tells you to stop when you should go; it tells you to go when you should stop.  In the words of some anonymous writer, "Don't believe everything you think."  All that said it is your adviser, your confidant, your most trusted ally.  But, your brain is just one part of you!

·         The Cheap War.  In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, we must acknowledge we are at war with Extremists, possibly of many types.  But for the perpetrators, it is a cheap war.  They, the bad guys, expend a trifling amount of money.  Estimate grossly the Tsarneav brothers (radicalized Islamic Boston bombers) spent about $25,000 on their little war.  The cost to Boston and the Federal Government now amounts into the billions of dollars.  Even at a mere one billion in public costs, this gives a conservative estimate of 40000:1, a most efficient war.  The 9/11 destruction of the twin towers was even more efficient, upwards into the trillions of dollars.  The underwear bomber in Detroit was less costly, but cost the bomber spent only pennies.  The Time Square Bomber is a similar case,  he spending pennies only.  Considering only the security, prosecution, and subsequent incarceration costs for each should prove the point.  We are talking about a financially leveraged war.  New this may be.  It matters not to these perpetrators how many are killed.  In fact the more killed the better.  This makes them vicious exponents of an ideology, beyond the understanding of most. Me too.  For those captured, what should we do with them? Due process or due diligence?
·       Hit so very hard.  Maybe not you, maybe not me, but maybe many folks live by the check.  These folks survive week-to-week on the check they receive each Friday.  With even a single day of their company's forced closure, they lose 20% of their week's pay.  This is milk on the family table, a little meat, an electric bill, a pizza, everything needed for survival.  In a certain way this eclipses the financial loses to the Boston community at large- aside from the actual victims. These are the victims upon victims.  There is no satisfactory resolution.  They are forgotten in the wake of the Tsarnaev war upon Boston.
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·         Intellectuals.  A high school grad can often make a complete sentence.  A college grad can often write a paragraph.  An intellectual appears to be anyone that than string together a page or two of paragraphs – all on the same topic, but with references. :)

·         Literacy.  The dearth of American literacy is rampant.   We know this.  Too few can even make a complete sentence, let alone a coherent thought.  Yet, there are enough that can.  Altogether too many can write and speak and demagogue with crystalline clarity no matter what side of the aisle they may be, no matter what their issue may be.  It seems the need to talk (alt. write) is endemic in American political and social discourse, and there seem to be thousands of outlets to do so.  Case in point: BLOGS.   Their words are not without effect.   If it were all evil, that would be one thing, but there is a mix of good and evil.  This makes discrimination difficult, almost impossible.  These days, for anyone with an ax to grind, an opinion to vent, or politics to expostulate, there is a place to post it.  And many are right there on board ready to read, to believe, AND to act.   

·        Critical.  Nowadays, we talk about critical thinking skills (not) being taught in the schools.  Is this but a reflection of the fact that critical thinking skills have vanished in society? 

·         Bail outs.  Only a few years ago, there was much talk and even more hope from near bankrupt states and municipalities about being bailed out by the federal government.  This chit-chat has all but disappeared.  The mounting USA debt (now near $17T) and the continuing encumbrance of all future borrowing for various extant government programs seems to have left destitute states without the “bail-out” alternative.  These agencies are on their own, to face their fiscal shortfalls without the munificence of the Feds.  On the left, there remains the slight hope of an 11^th hour bail-out.  On the right there is the reflective but  smug, “I told you this would happen.”  Nonetheless, there remain on the plane of this Zoroastrian struggle real people that must pay the debt created by previous and current though errant but well intended political  leaders. 

·         Where's the Middle?   There is no longer a middle.  So polarized we have become that the middle is now something like a vacuum.  No one is there; no one wants to be there.  The extreme is easy but effectively impossible.  But the middle is where we should be.  What’s there – in the middle?  Compromise, good will, agreement, understanding, and progress are to name just a few.