Archive for December, 2011

My support for Rick Santorum is not new. But based upon Robert Reich’s column in “Business Insider” today, my passion for that support is renewed.  Not that I needed any further reason to think Rick Santorum should be the Republican Presidential Nominee and the next President of The United States. I have all the reasons I need. He was an industrious United States Senator. He is a man of obvious spiritual, ethical and moral convictions. He appears to be a devoted husband and father.  He’s in favor of smaller government with less government intrusion into our personal and professional lives.  In short, Rick Santorum is type of person, and candidate, we always say we are looking for and can’t seem to find.

Robert Reich hypothesizes in his column that the Democratic ticket for 2012 will be Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, with the Secretary of State and Vice President Biden trading places for a second Obama Administration. I speak virtually no French but I can muster up one word: q’uelle nightmare!

Vice President Biden has no discernible diplomatic skills. Further, more often than not, he says things that either confound the listener or embarrass the Nation…not to mention himself.  Joe Biden as our “Best International Foot Forward?” Really? Joe Biden…whose foot seems most often to find its way into his own mouth? How unconscious would we have to be to allow Joe Biden to become Secretary of State?

As for Hillary Clinton, I don’t trust her. I don’t believe her. I think she is manipulative and ambitious to a spectacular degree.  I think she compromised herself to stay with a man who publicly and privately humiliated her for the exchange of a promise to support her insatiable need for power.  Politically, she is as pro big government as Barack Obama, misread the “Arab Spring” and Qaddafi as Secretary of State, and has been no friend to our friend Israel. She has sold her soul to George Soros and they are both Progressives who seek personal wealth and power in a “New World Order.”

So I have to thank Robert Reich (an insider himself) for posing the possibility that if I and many others aren’t awake enough to see the train wreck coming down the tracks, we could actually wind up with 4-12 more years of out of control spending, concentration of power within a select group of individuals who seek to reduce the United States to an insignificant player in a new world order of their own making.

Remember, Barack Obama is the smartest guy in the room, right? And Hilary Clinton is the smartest woman in the world, right? So much for intelligence with without core beliefs (Obama) or intelligence without ethics (Clinton).

The 2012 Presidential election isn’t about money. It’s about character. We need Rick Santorum because, yes, he’s bright. Yes, he has proven he knows how to accomplish legislation for the public good. Yes, as a Republican in a Democratic State he earned the trust of its citizens. But, mostly, we need him because he walks his talk and is someone we can trust and be proud to call “Mr. President.”

Wouldn’t that be a refreshing change?

There are are two stories out today that defy logic and call into question our humanity.

The first is about Iraqi interpreters who worked for the U.S. military.  Now that we are gone, the lives of those brave men, and their families, are in peril. They have been marked for death.  Yet, that’s not the shocking part of the story. The real shock is that bureaucrats at the U.S. Embassy, in processing applications from these individuals seeking U.S. visas (hoping to save their lives) have been dragging their feet at best… and been downright arrogant and rude at worst.

In the second, unrelated story (unless you consider the lack of humanity in both stories as common ground) farmers in Pennsylvania have been using human feces as fertilizer to grow crops. While local residents have done everything they can to stop this public health hazard (waste in their drinking water for starters), what they have been told by their local government is that it’s a Federal issue as permits for such use are issued by the EPA.

Now I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t want the EPA to be my first, or last, line of defense against harm. Did you see “Norma Rae” or “Erin Brockovich?”

Common sense…that’s what’s lacking. Common sense and respect for all living Beings. If you’re still asleep and thinking that the Federal government, or even your state government, isn’t too big or too busy to protect your wellbeing…think again.  As for how we treat our friends, look no further than these Iraqi translators…or Britain…or Israel, for that matter.

If there’s one takeaway from both of these stories it’s that we must rely upon ourselves, have compassion and concern for life wherever we find it and wake up to the fact the bureaucracies are helpful to a point…beyond which they become a breeding ground for inhumanity.

Now that we get it, let’s start curing this disease by voting out every incumbent in 2012 and starting over. In the meantime, call you Congressional Representatives, and the U.S. State Department, and advocate for those Iraqi translators.

I don’t know how to even begin to cure the EPA. So, for now, I guess we pray for those people in Pennsylvania.

I’m certain that I’m not telling you anything you don’t know… but I am most likely reminding you of something you are trying to forget.

We are in a mess.

In some of us it’s manifesting as uncertainty and fear.  In others, it’s aggression and violence. For yet others…denial and escapism via alcohol, gambling or sex. Whatever the method of choice, each is a diversion from accepting personal responsibility for how we got here.

We’re here because we have been self-absorbed, greedy and lacking in compassion. We have denied our connection to one another and to all sentient beings. Our priorities have been wrong. Our values have been lacking. Our goals have been materially focused. We have ignored our spiritual Selves. We have been unconscious in our choices, believing that irresponsible choices bear no consequences.

I am astonished at how many people are still trying to avoid the reality of what is occurring. How many people are “continuing to dance in the ballroom” so to speak, as if the Titanic is not sinking? Too many.

We need to awaken now, on the eve of 2012, and accept that we are Consciousness Itself, experiencing Itself in physical form. And as such, Consciousness creates what it thinks about. We have spent much time and energy worshipping false idols…from politicians to movie stars to the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the expense of the down trodden, the children and the elderly.

We have been here before. This is a do-over. But only if we get it right this time. If not, I feel fairly certain that Consciousness will conclude that It’s experiment in trusting that humanity would awaken to Its Own Awareness of Who We Really Are was an error in thought and, in an effort to start again, will simply stop supporting the idea.

When Consciousness ceases to intend our existence any longer, humanity will cease to exist in that very instant.

Let’s us make a global New Year’s Resolution that we commit to keeping. Let us resolve to awaken to our Oneness, our Divinity and our commitment to use Free Will to choose, in every situation, the Highest Good for All Concerned.

Consciousness has been watching, and patiently awaiting, our arrival at Awareness. Time is a construct of Consciousness in matter. As Consciousness experiences us repeatedly choosing to remain unconscious…we are running out of time.

Quite literally.

The answer to why Newt Gingrich is leading in the polls is simple. It’s also dangerously short-sighted. Gingrich’s popularity is born of the frustration and impotence felt by so many Americans over the direction of this country in the past 3 years and the crony capitalism that has mushroomed out of control. People want someone to “take the hit” for our current situation and they mistakenly believe they will feel better if they watch Newt Gingrich debate Barack Obama. It’s that simple.

We humans rarely take responsibility for the world we create. We have wallowed in a victim mentality for millennia. So, when things get bad, or challenging, we look to blame someone else for our plight.

Most of us sense what a critical moment we have arrived at . Many of us think that the current President represents an impediment to moving beyond the crisis. Those who feel this way want him defeated in 2012. However, on the way to that defeat, we would like to see him no longer able to avoid being held accountable for the decisions he’s made.

It’s in that last sentence that Newt Gingrich’s popularity is rooted and so easily understood.

Gingrich is a brilliant historian and a remarkable debater. It’s almost safe to say he’s unequaled, among public figures, in being able to articulate and discuss history, government and the political process. To the contrary, Barack Obama, other than when in cheerleader mode on the campaign trail, seems unable to articulate much of anything absent detailed preparation and the assistance of a teleprompter. He is almost unintelligible at thinking on his feet.

So, in our haste to hold Barack Obama accountable, we fail to realize that we are doing business with the devil, so to speak. Substantively and policy-wise, Newt Gingrich is a Progressive just as Barack Obama is, regardless of their party affiliations. Both men believe in big government and both believe that government knows best.  In addition, Gingrich’s ethics and moral character, as exemplified by his past private and public behavior, are sorely lacking at best.

It was shortsightedness, instant gratification and a disregard for personal responsibility that got us into the current mess. Nominating Newt Gingrich would be the result of our continuing that pattern of behavior.

We must trade the thrill of seeing this President intellectually and verbally pummeled for a longer range view of things. Yes, Barack Obama needs to go. But in that process, we need to step up, decide where we want to go when he’s gone, and choose the Republican candidate who is most likely to honor our choice and lead us there. Admittedly this approach will require much more work on each of our parts than just nominating Gingrich because he’s quick on his feet. But remember, to do nothing is to choose.

I can guarantee you won’t like the end result should inaction wind up being your choice.

 

There’s a famous story about the Roman Emperor Nero dancing and playing the fiddle as Rome burned. It’s just a story because, factually, its filled with contradiction and unsubstantiated facts. However, all references to “Nero fiddling” have come to mean “to occupy oneself with unimportant matters and neglect priorities during a crisis.”

Hence, the basis for the title of this post.

There are only three possibilities why President Obama would be taking a 17-day vacation to Hawaii as the world economies are in collapse, the Middle East is on fire, and everywhere you turn our nation is in a precarious state of unrest.

1. He is clueless;
2. He is arrogant to the point of indifferent;
3. He knows something we don’t.

Being a graduate of Harvard Law School, Editor of its Law Review,  and having out maneuvered the “smartest woman in the world” (a/k/a Hilary Clinton) during the 2008 Democratic primary, I doubt the President is clueless. And while I do think he has  given us numerous instances of his arrogance, I don’t think he is indifferent to the plight of others. Which leaves the only other possibility.

He knows something we don’t.

One of the reasons I became a lawyer (although not the primary one) is that I have always had an innate sense of “what’s wrong with this picture.” You know, the ability to look at a scene and see what is missing or doesn’t make sense. That innate sense is all over this Presidential vacation. The question is, “Exactly what does he know that we don’t?”

I may not have that answer yet but I suggest we all stay alert. Things are not what they seem. Trouble is coming for the uninformed (which means most of us). But for those with insider information, I suspect they are preparing in ways that escape the average citizen…for the moment, anyway.

What to do in the meantime?

Disregard the “official” word, look behind actions to motives, and hold fast to your values and your faith in a Source that has the power to intercept the ball and change the outcome of this game in a split second.

Today, on ABC’s “This Week,” Christiana Amanpour interviewed retiring U.S. Congressman Barney Frank. Frank used a Wizard of Oz analogy to compare Mitt Romney to the Tin Man, Rick Perry to the Scarecrow, and Newt Gingrich to the Wizard himself. It was good theater, however ironic.

Isn’t Frank a key player in perpetrating the illusion of “smoke and mirrors” held up before the American public to obscure the den of corruption and cronyism collectively known as Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. His analogy and his dismissive comments about his own role in the mortgage bubble that led to a collapse of the housing market (and the economy) went unchallenged.

Opposite This Week was NBC’s Face the Nation with David Gregory.  Gregory used nearly half his show to interview David Axelrod, former White House Chief of Staff and current head of the Obama Re-election Team and Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. There were the usual superficial questions and answers. It was frustrating, to put it mildly, to watch Gregory’s unbalanced approach to his guests. In short, he was easy on Axelrod and hard on Priebus. So much for journalistic neutrality or the integrity of the Fourth Estate.

I have a point.

It isn’t just politics that’s smoke and mirrors. It’s our entire culture. We have moved so far from putting our thoughts, time and energies on what really matters that we have made illusion and distraction the norm. Nowhere is this more obvious, or more egregiously practiced, than by the media. We are daily fed a soup of dirt floating in water and told its minestrone. Then, without questioning what our own perceptions tell us, we consume the dirt and wonder why we feel empty and our bellies ache.

There was another segment on This Week, just at the end of the show. It was an interview with Angelina Jolie. Jolie has just written and directed In the Land of Blood and Honey¸ a docudrama based upon the ethnic cleansing and torture that permeated the Bosnian war and the world’s failure to respond timely or adequately. Jolie made the film to show how war dehumanizes us and distances us from one another.

As between the segments with Frank, Axelrod, and Jolie there was no contest. The story that deserved the most time, and our undivided attention, was Jolie’s. There was no deception or manipulation in it and it served a higher purpose. Perhaps that’s what got it the shortest airtime.

A long as we keep eating the dirty soup, they’ll keep serving it.

 

To be right up front, I didn’t know who Adam Carolla was until this morning. I do now. His interview rant against the Occupy Wall Street crowd has gone viral. Having listened to it I can understand why. It’s a no-holds-barred-expletive-riddled diatribe on where we’ve gone wrong as a society. But for me, it’s the last line Carolla utters that’s worth a follow-up.

Allison Rosen, the interviewer, closes with the observation, “So it’s like global sibling rivalry” and Carolla responds, “That’s what it is. It’s as old as the Bible.”

Enter the consciousness, and the reference point, we need to have about where we are. I am always a bit surprised when I hear someone say that there is no “playbook” or “manual” for living life. Of course, there is. It’s just that most people don’t like some of the advice (or “rules” if you like) and so they dismiss the work in its entirety.

The Old Testament, or Torah as I know it, sets forth the problem and sets it forth early. Cain and Abel. Isaac and Ishmael. Esau and Jacob. Shoots from the same stalk yet one envious of the others portion. Envious to the point of a willingness to destroy…and greedy to boot.

Carolla is right, but for his poor choice of vocabulary. Look around and what you see, from the “99%’ers” to the Islamist terrorists, to the multinational and agri-corporations is envy and greed. More is never enough, it seems. And if someone has “more”…even if they have attained it rightfully through just means and hard work, well…then let’s just destroy them and what they have. It’s positively Biblical in origin. Fortunately, so is the solution.

Do not covert anything that is thy neighbors.

We are all born with our “portion.” It makes no sense, and is an egregious waste of time, to resent someone else for theirs. Make the best of yours. Be grateful for what you have, accepting of what is, joyful for the gift of life, and enthusiastic for possibility. Gratitude, acceptance, joy and enthusiasm negate envy and greed.

Then, with all that spare time formerly used to begrudge and destroy, go about bettering yourself and the world around you. It’s a much better strategy. By the way, that strategy is in the manual.

“Behold I have placed before you today that which is life and that which is good; that which is death and that which is evil… And you shall choose Life, in order that you and your children shall live” [Devarim/Deuteronomy 30:15-19].