How to Encourage Racism and Hatred for Political Gain
April 18th, 2012
By Dan Miller
They are easier and more politically useful to encourage than to discourage. Despite claiming in 2008 campaign that he would unite us, President Obama and his allies are doing their best to drive us apart.
This YouTube video of our post-racial, post partisan unifying President was posted by BarackObamadotcom on January 31st of this year. Thus far, it has had 1,799,311 “views,” 1,396 “likes” and 15,505 “dislikes.”
Should We Feed the Malnourished North Koreans? – Take Two
April 16th, 2012
By Dan Miller
No again, for the same reasons and a few more.
On March 30th, I wrote an article asking that question. My answer was that we shouldn’t because the then impending but now failed long range missile launch, and probably still impending underground nuclear test (or faked nuclear test), were yet more examples of the Lucy and the football scenario: promise anything but do as you wish. However, our ever hopeful diplomatic corpse corps is still confusing words with actions and the United Nations’ North Korea sanctions committee plans to consider additional “robust” sanctions the natures of which are presently under discussion. It seems unlikely that “robust” will turn out to a good descriptor.
Negotiating with North Korea
Should Parents Raise Their Own Children?
April 16th, 2012
This is, I realize, a rather heretical question to ask given the size of the “parent-industrial complex,” the fact that the word parent has morphed from being a noun (i.e., what someone is) into a verb (i.e., what someone does), and the recent proliferation of “I am a better parent than you” genre of books (e.g., Tiger Mom
Let me preface all this by saying that I find just about all parents perfectly well-intentioned people who love their children dearly and want what’s best for them. But, as the saying goes, “the road to hell is paved with,” well, you know the rest. The problem is that parents don’t always translate those good intentions into actions that are actually in the best interests of their children. And that is where my question arises from.
Will North Korea Attempt a Nuclear Test?
April 14th, 2012
By Dan Miller
It seems rather likely, soon, although not for the reasons commonly suggested.
Motivations for a nuclear test
It has been widely speculated that a North Korean nuclear test will follow the embarrassing spectacle of its expensive ($850 million) Friday the 13th long range missile debacle. According to this article from Bloomberg,
Kim Jong Un suffered a public humiliation as North Korea’s third-generation leader unlike any his father or grandfather faced after the totalitarian state admitted a long-range rocket failed shortly after liftoff. …
Its failure may raise questions of his hereditary hold on power as he deals with the country’s impoverished economy and international condemnation of its nuclear program.
“It’s going to be destructive in North Korea,” said Bruce W. Bennett, a senior defense analyst at Rand Corp. who is visiting Seoul. “They’re going to look at this as the failure of a young guy who hasn’t shown his mettle yet. We really don’t know the strength of his grip yet.” (Emphasis added.)
North Korea, Missile Launch, and a Big Bad Bomb
April 12th, 2012
By Dan Miller
Going Once! Going Twice! Going Thrice! Gone! But don’t worry. President Obama is on the ball.
The Missile launch
After previous failures, it had been anticipated that North Korea would attempt, between April 12th and 16th, to launch a long range missile that it claimed would lift only a harmless small observation satellite into orbit. North Korea favored a launch window between between 7 a.m. and noon (2200-0300 GMT). I had expected a launch as early as the morning of April 12th but cloudy weather apparently intervened.
Here is a pre-launch interview with James Oberg, NBC “space consultant” and NASA Mission Control veteran about things at the North Korean Sohae Satellite Launch Center. Among other problems, he noted that
North Korea, Missile and Nuclear Test
April 12th, 2012
By Dan Miller
North Korea plans to launch an “Earth observation satellite” into orbit, possibly as soon as tonight New York time.
The missile launch to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung is scheduled for between April 12th and 16th. All preparations, including fueling, are nearing completion.
The final preparations at the west coast launch pad were taking place as North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party convened for a special conference. Delegates are expected to further elevate new leader Kim Jong Un by giving him new titles, including some held by his father, the late Kim Jong Il.
According to this article,
Do You Have ‘Complete Freedom’ in Your Life?
April 9th, 2012
My series of posts on “life inertia” has been exploring the role that it plays in where your life has been, where it is now, and where it is heading. As you consider ways to change your life inertia, it’s helpful to have a vision of the direction you want your life to go. This goal gives you a wished-for destination in your journey of personal growth and change, and helps you to map out the road you will take to get there.
Life is Simple and Complicated
Funny thing about life; it’s actually pretty simple. You are faced with a series of forks in the road. The bad road is the one that you may have been on for so long, driven by your NEEDS!; it’s a “feel bad, do bad” road. In contrast, the good road is the one you want to be on, driven by your needs; it’s a “feel good, do good” road. If you have the choice between the good road and the bad road, of course you will choose the good road. It’s simple, right?
Grant Proposal – New Renewable Energy Source
April 8th, 2012
By Dan Miller
To: United States Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
Re: Development of newly discovered renewable energy source
Synopsis:
As is well known, world supplies of fossil fuel are now at dangerously low levels and will soon be depleted. New sources of renewable energy must be found promptly. This proposal envisions research and development for a pilot project to breed and euthanize sperm whales, to render them at sea, to transport the product to nearby refining vessels and ultimately to consolidate the product for delivery to facilities in the United States. A separate Grant Proposal is being prepared expeditiously and will soon be submitted concerning such facilities to be designed and constructed in the United States.
The Librul* War on Fact and Science
April 7th, 2012
By Dan Miller
Belief can result from a desire to believe and desire to believe can result from wanting to be thought fashionable. Both can be unfortunate as to matters where objective analysis of fact is claimed as the basis.
Wars have long been waged in many ways. New ways were developed so that we could have wars on street drugs, on poverty, on obesity and on other perceived ills because traditional weapons such as bombs, guns, spears and knives did not work very well; there was an exception: smoke. Smoke is an old but still grand and glorious weapon when used against perceived but not necessarily violent evils.
Smoke can obstruct vision by causing eyes to water, by producing hallucinations or simply by creating a haze. There is another form of smoke, called “fashion.” St. Al the Gored, a.k.a. the Librul* Science Defender (LSD), and his disciples have used all four to demonstrate the calamitous consequences of anthropogenic global warming climate change.
Eyes have become blurred with tears over the sad fate of declining populations of adorable polar bears marooned on small and sinking bits of ice. However, the populations are growing:
Darwinism Is Needed
April 6th, 2012
By Dan Miller
We need social Darwinism. Without it, we are likely to become extinct like the do-do bird.
According to President Obama, the Ryan budget passed last week by the House of Representatives 228 to 191 with no Democrats supporting it is
nothing but thinly veiled social Darwinism,” Mr. Obama said. “By gutting the very thing we need to grow an economy that’s built to last — education and training, research and development — it’s a prescription for decline.” …
A separate vote on a bipartisan plan blessed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, who led a deficit commission in 2010, failed dramatically, earning just 38 votes of support.
Hugo Chávez at Mass
April 6th, 2012
By Dan Miller
Having returned on April 4th from his second round of Cuban radiation therapy for cancer of an unspecified type, Venezuelan el Presidente Chávez
wept and asked God to spare his life during a pre-Easter Mass after returning from his latest session of cancer treatment in Cuba. …
He says the latest surgery was successful, that he is recovering well and will be fit to win a new six-year term at an election in October. Yet big questions remain about his future, and on Thursday the strain appeared to show.
In a televised speech to the Catholic service in his home state of Barinas Thursday, Chavez cried and his voice broke as he eulogized Jesus, revolutionary fighter Ernesto “Che” Guevara and South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.
An Angry President May Have Ways to Tame a Disobedient Supreme Court
April 4th, 2012
By Dan Miller
None are no good ways and with only one exception none appear to have been attempted. Still, we do live in very interesting times.
On April 2nd, President Obama presented a political diatribe claiming that for the Supreme Court to strike down ObamaCare as unconstitutional would be “unprecedented.” Although it is true that the Supreme Court has never struck down anything called “ObamaCare,” he was in other respects wrong because the Supreme Court has held acts of Congress unconstitutional — not very often but nevertheless occasionally. The first assertion by the Supreme Court of its authority to review acts of the Congress for constitutionality was in 1803, in Marbury v. Madison. Perhaps because someone called this to his attention, constitutional scholar President Obama later backtracked a bit on his assertion. Still, according to this splendid article at the ever enjoyable Daily Beast, we should “Impeach the Supreme Court Justices If They Overturn Health-Care Law”.
I Support the Buffett Rule!
April 2nd, 2012
By Dan Miller
No, not the Warren Buffett rule, the Jimmy Buffett rule: a healthy dose of insanity is needed to save us from going insane and to help us to understand what goes on in our world.
The Warren Buffett rule was suggested by a wealthy but inexplicably noble gentleman who was offended that he paid taxes at a lower rate than his secretary. Immediately promoted by President Obama, it would require that “people earning at least $1 million annually — whether in salary or investments — … pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.” (emphasis added.) Great clarity and precision of the sort we have all come to expect when President Obama teaches us are shown there. Legislation incorporating this proposal will go before the Senate on April 16, but should it pass there it has little chance of passing the House. That is a great shame and demonstrates, conclusively, an overwhelming need for the Warren Buffett rule.
Blame Your Parents for Your Problems!
April 2nd, 2012
In my last post, I described the differences between needs, which ensure your psychological and emotional survival and growth, and NEEDS!, which arise from the neuroses, pathologies, and just plain whims of your parents and the environment and culture in which you are raised and have likely caused you considerable unhappiness and dysfunction in your life.
One of the most painful aspects of NEEDS! is that you may blame yourself for not getting your needs sufficiently met as a child, thus turning them into NEEDS! You may have come to believe that you didn’t deserve having your life-affirming needs met by your parents in a healthy way — you didn’t feel that you deserved to be loved and valued, feel safe and secure, or see yourself as a competent person. These perceptions may have created in you a profound sense of inadequacy. Through your efforts to meet those NEEDS! in childhood and into adulthood, you have been attempting to prove your worth and demonstrate that you do, indeed, deserve to have your needs met.
BREAKING NEWS: Results of Supremes’ Friday ObamaCare Deliberations
April 1st, 2012
By Dan Miller
Shocking details revealed here Fast, Furiously, Exclusively and First,
TODAY ONLY!
Last Monday through Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the constitutionality of ObamaCare and what to do if parts of it are unconstitutional. I tried to provide an instant analysis here, cautioning that we won’t know the final results until after the texts of the majority opinion and several concurring and dissenting opinions are released, possibly by the end of June. The Justices met in closed session on Friday, March 30th, to try to figure out who wants what and how to start writing it up.
Should We Feed the Malnourished North Koreans?
March 30th, 2012
By Dan Miller
No, not now.
Due to the impending launch by the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of (North) Korea (DPRK) of a “weather satellite,” the United States has “suspended” food aid recently offered in exchange for a promise by the DPRK to refrain from further nuclear and missile tests. The impending launch should come as no surprise; the DPRK has never substantially honored an expression of willingness to be nice in exchange for goodies. This time, it dishonored its promise even before it had received aid from the United States. China, the closest ally of the DPRK, seems disappointed. On March 14th, China had commenced
delivering $95 million worth of free food and other supplies that were promised last month. This is meant to help the new North Korean leader buy some more loyalty.
Pravda Frowns on Governor Romney
March 29th, 2012
By Dan Miller
He is out of touch, out of date and unelectable.
But President Obama is like a Red Red Rose.
Oh my luve is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
Oh my luve is like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
by Robert Burns (but not then dedicated to President Obama)
Here is an article from Pravda hinting, with great civility and no hyperbole, that Governor Romney might not be its ideal “red, red rose” candidate and that therefore, unlike President Obama, he might not be a really good President of the United States:
What Will Happen with ObamaCare?
March 28th, 2012
By Dan Miller
I don’t know and it is often foolish to predict results based on oral arguments. Still, here goes.
The Supreme Court has been hearing oral arguments this week on the constitutionality of ObamaCare. Although I have never argued a case before the Supreme Court, I have argued cases before the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and, many years ago, before the Court of Military Appeals. Although then fully familiar with what I had said in my written presentations, what others had said in theirs, and the previous positions of the various judges on related issues, I found it quite difficult to guess who would win. That said, here is a transcript of the Wednesday morning oral argument.
It appears to be a common view that the nine Supreme Court justices will ultimately break five to four on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, although there seems to be less agreement on whether the ultimate decision will be five to four for or against it. Some suggest that the arguments presented on Tuesday by the Obama team were poorly presented and that the White House was surprised by the questions asked. Could be, I don’t know. According to this article,
Do You Have Needs or NEEDS!
March 27th, 2012
Just as your basic physical needs (e.g., food, water, shelter) must be met to ensure your physical survival and growth, another set of needs must also be satisfied to guarantee your psychological and emotional survival and growth. These needs include:
- Feeling loved (“I’m worthwhile”),
- Allaying insecurity (“I’m safe”),
- Feeling competent (“I’m capable”),
- Feeling in control (“I’m in charge”), and
- Guarding against negative emotions (“I feel good”).
Every human being has these needs and they, in and of themselves, are neither healthy nor unhealthy, functional nor dysfunctional; they are simply a part of what drives us as humans. We don’t have the capabilities at a young age to satisfy these needs ourselves, so we rely on parents and other caregivers to meet these needs. What makes these needs beneficial or harmful to us—and whether our life inertia begins in a positive direction—depends on how they are satisfied by our parents and others when we were children.
Climate Change Is the Worst Peril Mother Earth Has Ever Faced
March 26th, 2012
By Dan Miller
It is everywhere and is the worst threat ever to everything. It is worse than all other horrors combined.
Demon climate change must be killed. If we don’t succeed — and Yes, We Can — the odds will soon become overwhelming to the point that even people who have never died before will die. We must prevent that at all costs.
There is no need to define climate change beyond that it is, like, you know, terrible and everywhere. And, just as Vice President Biden recently remarked that President Obama’s single-handed victory over bin Laden was the most audacious military operation in 500 years, the horrors of climate change are the greatest threat to life, Mother Earth, the Universe and everything in five billion years, at least. Those who do not accept this unquestioningly are unspeakably worse than the countless Birthers, members of the flat earth society and Republicans (please excuse the redundancy).
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Recent Posts
- Healing from War 2012
- Don’t Go “Caveman” in a Crisis
- Candidate Obama Was Prescient about Greece
- Align Your Values and Your Life
- The Marine Hymn needs to be rewritten, badly. I have tried.
- President Obama Says That Same-sex Marriage Is Way Cool
- Pride in My Bride: A Mother’s Day Tribute
- Wind Power Is Awesome
- Venezuela Has Become a Place of Great Change but Little Hope
- Your Values, Your Life
- Trust but Verify Applies Not Only to Foreign Governments
- We Continue To Be Deprived of Our Most Sacred Human Rights
- Vet Arts Profiled on PBS
- President Obama Must, Once Again as Always, Heed the Call of His Country
- Let Us Be Fair, Peaceful and Healthy
- Government and the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
- More North Korean Threats – Next Verse Same as the First
- Is Technology the New Opiate of the Masses?
- President Obama Has to Go (to Rio+20)
- President Obama Has Brought Us Out of the Dark and into the Light
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