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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION X

12/16/2008


DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION X

"THE CASE OF A PARADIGM SHIT"


So then in what else is new, "news". The name of a Bernie Madoff is grabbing the headlines. But look deeper and you find that the whole Wall Street, wealth creation, get rich at all cost, get richer than everybody else, screw the worker culture of greed is the same., and has been on going since Mr. Reagan corrupted the investment system, OK, he allowed it to be corrupted because he did not understand what his handlers sold him on.

If we are now naming names of the crooks, then why not list the boards of directors of the NYSE, the top twenty employees of the treasury department, the Board of AIG, Lehman Brothers, and a hundred top corporations, all the day traders, the options traders, and the international bankers, who created wealth.

If you are old enough and remember it started out with hostile takeovers of companies and laying off workers, you could borrow money on the cheap and buy a company , fire the workers and call it increasing productivity, and then sell the company back to the public.

Then came the globalization, the NAFTA, and the workers lost their jobs and in manufacturing. But we had a new class of the "rich" that could could hire the laid off workers to cut grass, and make five dollar cups of coffee. And of course you could go to build houses for the people who had no money.

The whole system is, and has been nothing but a fraud, from an average worker who believes that after eight hours of showing up at a job, any job, he deserves the ultimate in rest, big screen TV, cable, airconditioning and a twelve pack of beer and kids who feed and clothe and educate themsleves, to the B school graduate who thinks that he is the GOD's gift to mankind in more ways than he can count, to a whole society that believes that they deserve more than they have because they are born in AMERICA and hardships ar for the other people who happen to be not so lucky.

I have argued for years that we are on the wrong path, our expectations are way out of touch with reality. We consume more than our fair share.

As millions more lose their jobs, and join the ranks of the home less, the poor and hungry we need to name names, name the process by which we got here, I have a suggestion. Since we are so anamored of calling old things by new names like "barristas", and "human resouces", and "facilities engineers", I ahve a new name for the situation we are in , it should be called a
"Paradigm Shit", yeah that s right.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

BAILING OUT THE HOUSING

12/14/2008


POSTED ON CNN/FORTUNE

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/12/news/newsmakers/morris_bair.fortune/index.htm

No. First of all it is a punishment to those who remained sensible and stayed within their budget. People who bought over priced homes also caused the price inflation and kept reasonable people out of better homes. Now we will reward these at the expense of the ones who stayed within their budgets and means, and are still making payments and have been making payments.

Two, in the markets where the foreclosures are the highest, the jobs are also disappearing fast, there is no guarantee that the people who are refinanced will be able to keep up the new payments.

Three, if and when the prices may go up, these people will be rewarded with price appreciation, while the tax payers are shouldering the burden of bailing them out, they should not be allowed to gain ANY benefits from price appreciation, it should all be payed to the treasury.

It will be best to bring the jobs back permanently, that is in manufacturing, free trade and globalization have failed, and damage the country immensely, The foolishness must be stopped.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Comments on food

12/11/2008


http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/11/the-battle-comes-down-to-food-on-the-table/


Global warming, lack of food, polution of land and waters are all being caused by over population and the need for “some” to use way too much of the limited resuorces of the earth at the expense of the others.
It is time that we decided who gets to continue populating the earth and who must be taken out of the gene pool. Humanity can not advance and become more evolved if we allow people of the lower intelligence levels to out breed the smart ones.
Far as eating animals, who will we eat when we run out of those, may be we will be hunting each other down for a meal.We have already fished the seas dry. We must make smart and logical choices NOW.
Paying females for not having kids willbe a good start.

DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION IX

12/12/2008


DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION IX

It is not a surprise, not to me, for years I have foretold of the collapse of this economy of ours, of the world economy. I have told you step by step, what was wrong with the picture, where the money was coming from, where it was going and how the system was doomed.

I also told you how the lack of morals, values and ethics was contributing to eventual failure. Our economy has been based on the idea that everyone is buying, always buying and always spending money. Money was created by the Federal Reserve, we could have as much as we wanted.

That system failed, as you have seen. So where to next?

Looking back, the buying to run the economy, buying to bring prosperity, buying with money you don't have system failed. What is the next shoe to drop.

Remember when I told you , at the start of this series, that the computer you are reading this on may be the last computer you will ever own. The next shoe to drop will be this web based economy, the Internet age is about to go under. "Face book", "YouTube", "Google", "Yahoo", whatever, these websites are based on the income from advertising, on selling you stuff. As the economy is tanking and no one has money to buy anything these sites generate no revenue. They can no longer be free, they have to become subscription services. Meaning you have to pay to be on face book or have a g-mail address., or you poor schmuck, you have to get a real life in the "rt".
Oh you don't know how to live in the "rt".

So here it is how it goes, as you become poorer, the access to the web becomes more costly, as you need more access to the web the web becomes more inaccessible. No more free lunches. Once again , the whole model of living on the web becomes out of reach of the average person, web that was supposed to create equality and openness will kill the equality and openness.
At the same time, businesses that are providing free information content, TV channels, news papers and the news organizations, are losing money in advertising, they will also find it difficult to make money on the web and start to charge for access to their websites.

The other business model of late, volume merchendising, big box stores, where little profit on each sale make up for a larger profit on fewer sales will also fail as the sales go down and people have less money to spend. this will cause the Wal-Marts, Sam's club like businesses to increase prices, just when people have less money. It will take a while, like the slow death, people will sell assests, take money from their retirement funds, sell their insurance polices, second homes, rental properties, etc to pay for day to day expenses till there is nothing more left to sell.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

AN OPEN DIALOGUE IN ISLAM

12/10/2008


AN OPEN DIALOGUE IN ISLAM



http://arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=117115&d=10&m=12&y=2008

ALSO PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS THAT FOLLOW




"""""""“Today, we need a dialogue of the Ummah within itself. It is because sedition, ignorance and fanaticism are threatening the hopes of Muslims. The terrorism that threatens the entire world is attributed to Muslims alone because of the acts of a few extremists who represent none but themselves. Though they put on the guise of Islam, the religion has nothing to do with them. This is what makes the dialogue of the Ummah with itself imperative for achieving a unified stand, elimination of the causes of their disputes, strengthening their moderate middle path, and to stamp out extremism,” King Abdullah told his guests.

The guests included Sudanese President Omar Bashir, Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas, Chechen President Ramadan Kadirov and Secretary-General of the Muslim World League Abdullah Al-Turki.

“During the last Haj season, I spoke to you about the significance of interfaith dialogue. The Kingdom organized the Makkah conference for Muslim scholars and thinkers to discuss the idea of dialogue, and was welcomed by them... It was followed by the Madrid conference in which representatives of various religions and cultures endorsed the outcome of the Makkah conference. The high level meeting of the United Nations’ General Assembly on the interfaith dialogue, in which prominent international personalities participated, upheld the concept of dialogue,” King Abdullah said.

“The Kingdom with this program aims to uphold the glory of Islam and service to humanity,” the king added. King Abdullah left Mina yesterday evening and later arrived in Jeddah."""""""

MY COMMENTARY

How are we talking about an open dialogue here? Where in an Islamic country is there a freedom of thought and the freedom of press. Whose ideas are we willing to accept? Look at Iraq, look at Palestine it self, and can we say Egypt? Pakistan, and how about Saudi Arabia her self.

An open dialogue implies that anyone can have an opinion without the fear of oppression. As things stand, I can say something here from the safety of my home in the United States, but with the knowledge that my opinion in matters Islamic or political can subject me to sanctions by an Islamic government, or even a fatwa of death by some mullah or imam in an Islamic country or even a local mosque locally.

Ironically this call for an open dialogue comes from the leader of the most conservative country, not only in Islam, but in the world.

DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION VIII

12/10/2008


DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION VIII

I am not a pessimist, I have stated this before. The truth is a bitter pill to swallow. Today we have experts predicting doom, I have been predicting doom, and explaining its roots in the destruction of society. What made us, or makes us humans in the first place.

We went for the riches, money became the most important thing in out lives. Money it self would not have been so bad, but we decided that we did not need any boundaries, no morals, no ethical, no religious, not even family cohesion, money became the only God.

Go back in this blog, ( there are copies of my blog entries from Salon.com, and articles I submitted to the local papers over the past ten years, to CNN, and to the USA Today).

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we were pursuing happiness and became lost. Divorce is for the rich only, middle class loses all in a divorce, no one wanted to listen. HIV, genital herpes, cervical cancers, nothing would scare us away from a romp. We had money, we were rich, we had three million millionaires did we not.

I have been predicting a depression for ten years, asking people to reduce spending, not to take large risks, large loans. I even went thru hell, with my wife, trying to stay in the same house for the last twenty three years, I could have bought a larger house. The depression was only deferred because of the dot.com spending , and then later with the spending after 9/11 and the two wars we created. Only now it will be longer and deeper, have we not been asking for a longer and deeper for a few years, now we are about to find out what a longer and deeper really means.

I don't wish bad on anyone, but with no morals, no family, and no savings to fall back on , the catastrophe facing our nation , and the people world wide could be biblical in scope. But look at the positive side, the population will be reduced, food consumption decline, no more threat of global warming, we won't be driving cars anymore, reduced consumption will lead to cleaning up of the environment, we won't need more refineries, and power plants. No more deforestation, and threats of off shore drilling or in the ANWAR( have you even heard anyone talking about drilling lately?).

May be I am too optimistic.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

HAJJ 2008

12/07/2008

HAJJ 2008

Alhamadulillah, now Hajj is comfortable and safe, today as opposed to fourteen hundred years ago , we have five star hotels, air-conditioned tents, snack bars, cell phone towers, "crowd control?" Police and the National Guard to make sure we all do as we are told. Saai in air conditioned walk ways, and jamarat from four levels.

People in AL Haram need to be protected from each other? We buy souvenirs, and other stuff to smuggle back to our home countries, and bribe the customs officials to let us through. It makes the trip worthwhile to get some shopping and sight seeing. What experience, and what sacrifice?

What great lessons learned? ask me!

Thursday, December 04, 2008

TERROR IN INDIA, 2

Also see my comment above

This blog here is a proof that owning a computer or having access to the inter net, does not make one smarter or more educated.

Personally, I do not believe that Sonya is a REAL person but some jack ass, commenting here to agitate but then see how many of you (us) have fallen in to her trap. What should have been an enlightened discussion of the problems at hand has easily disintegrated in to a shouting match among the neighbors of any slum like street. Whether India is a second world country or better than any other country has nothing to with the fact that she was attacked, neither it has been proven that the attack was supported by the government or the general public of Pakistan. As I mentioned before, and was subsequently restated by Ms Rice, any conflict between Pakistan and India has a real possibility of turning in to a nuclear conflict. Cooler heads must prevail. The agitators and the ignorant must not be allowed to hijack, no pun intended, the discourse. If you are a proud Pakistani, or a proud Indian, bless you. You have serious problems in your own country. Focus your energies on the problems at hand in your home town, in your own home country. Blogging on here does not make life better in your country or change the facts of your country as you know them.

If your god wants to fix the problems or wants to favor one over the other let him do it on his own, surely he does not need your help, he is a BIG BOY now, you know.

DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION VII

12/04/2008

DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION VII

So who do we want to help really? There are many talking about how banks can not be allowed to fail, or the insurance companies or auto companies. So far it is estimated that already the government has spent or taken on debts to the tune of seven trillion dollars, that is 7,000,000,000,000. So where is that money, and where did it go?

The old adage is that the money always goes to the top, have we not heard, time and again, that if some one took all the money and distributed it all equally, soon some Will be richer than the others, and the rich will again be getting richer. Then why are we talking about a tax cut for the rich , but we are against helping the poor. The money spent, borrowed, distributed so far has not shown up in the economy and on the main street is because what the government has done is to buy off the worthless papers from the ultra rich and hedge funds, and they in turn are not loaning it out again to the people with poor or no credit at all.

As the government anticipates another bailout, or a stimulus package, we should realize that that money will also end up with the rich, or overseas, if the marginal tax rates are not also increased, may be even to the seventy and ninety percent range so that the money can be recycled through the economy again and again. If not then the money will evaporate fast and the resulting benefits to the economy will be short lived.

I am not for giving money to the poor, I am not for giving money to idiots for making more idiots, I am for abortions, forced or coerced, I am for paying stupid people money for NOT having children. As long as we give money away we can tie strings to it, higher taxes for the rich and social responsibility for the poor,( it is hopeless to expect the rich to be socially responsible too)

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION VI

12/02/2008

DEATH OF A CIVILIZATION VI


It is not something I have not discussed before, we are doomed, at least the life and the life style as we know it today. We failed to see how the economic crisis was developing. Even those who saw it coming did not foresee the whole picture, and the consequence and causes there off remained unexplained. I tried bit no one wanted to listen to the bad news.

When I stated that the computer in front of you may be last one you will ever own, it is not hyperbole. It is the fact that you are just not aware off, not yet.

Washington’s efforts at reforming, stabilizing, boosting the economy may work in the short run yet, but they are doomed. The fact remains as the population keeps increasing, fewer and fewer people are needed to perform the actual “work”. That is the problem today with the social security and Medicare already. It is not that we only have two workers to support each retiree, it is that more workers are not needed to perform any gainful “functions” and thus have reasonable income to base the tax on.

You can see the problem, if you can relate one to the other, in the auto industry. As the leaders of the three auto makers are in Washington again, hats in hand, their problem is not that they flew in on private jets, (the whole idea is a created distraction form the real problems) the problem is that they need fewer workers ( read automation and technology) and pay them less now , and to make less in profits, ( TO COMPETE IN THE GLOBAL MARKET), and thus the contributions to support the retiree’s pensions and health care have fallen. It is the same problem in social security, fewer workers, lower wages, and more beneficiaries. At the same time, it would be funny, were it not so ironic that the congress and the senate are accusing the auto makers of mismanagement and poor planning, is it not the kettle calling the pot black!

Their are others on the right, who want to blame the unions for all that is wrong with the American industry, auto or other wise. For one I would like to have a look in the congressional parking grages and see how many are driving small electric cars or Austin Coopers. And two I would ask them as to how much they had predicted the rise of health care costs and how much they had tried to control these or the housing costs or the education inflation. Was not Bush pushing for a social security monies to be invested in stocks? How well did any of us plan for the future, indvidually or as a nation. Of course the auto business is in the dumps, but not all of it on its own. It wonders me to hear those with perfect health benefits provided by some one else to be talking about the health care costs of the auto workers. Do we not live in a society where we want eighty year olds to be treated for cancer at a cost of millions so they can live a few months longer? Do we not want to keep those in permanent vegitative state to "live" for ever on machines? Why not advocater mercy killings. Why not shoot a few wokers a day after their shift is over, we could even have lottery, (may be Neal Boortz will agree). Or we could pay more for workers, even the useless ones, or we could vote to control population growth.

Blame it all on the advances in health care and advances in computers and robotics. What makes you live longer, and even supposedly healthier is what is killing you !