Thinking Hawaii

The Only Movement that Matters

2012-01-31T10:39:00.001-10:00

About 35 years ago, a friend working for NASA, asked me how it would be possible for astronauts in space to maintain their fitness levels, since prolonged periods of weightlessness seemed to have a deteriorative effect on the body -- since there was no resistance (weight) to keep the muscles and bones strong.

As one of the pioneers of "high intensity training," through my various experiments with "state of the art training concepts," 40 years ago, we knew definitively that as little as one five-minute workout a week could produce the stimulus and demand for the muscles to grow at a fairly dramatic rapid pace -- but the entirety of the time not training, would be spent recovering and recuperating from the crippling pain of muscle soreness -- that could be briefly ameliorated, by just attempting to produce movement during that recovery period of 7-10 days -- before experiencing normalcy again.

Otherwise, the soreness was so intense, that any movement at all, caused tremendous pain, requiring tremendous effort to produce any movement at all. The sole objective was to achieve as rapid muscle growth as possible -- with as little training time as possible -- and every other consideration was considered the cost of achieving those objectives -- even if it meant to be in a state of constant pain and recovery from such brutal workouts, that could be conducted only on the frequency of once a week, for five minutes.

That is the justification for high intensity workouts -- that if one increases the intensity to the maximum challenge, the body has to fail -- and then subsequently recover, and take a week or so of recovery time, to actually get stronger and bigger muscles.

But even if one is highly motivated enough to withstand excruciating constant pain for prolonged though predictable, controlled periods of one's conditioning in that manner, the much larger question is whether that is a sustainable life beyond short term objectives of achieving maximal growth. Invariably after 4-6 weeks of such brutally intense training, we required a longer break before starting up again, with even more people interested in such gains -- if such a thing were possible.

But training that way myself as the lead subject, as well as supervising the training of many others, was very exhausting, requiring one to break from that involvement and study, to relish once again in not being obsessed that one's entire life and energies, were not so singlemindedly focused just in producing the most intense workout experience possible, and recovering from that experience -- to attain a constantly higher normal.

Eventually, one notices beginning age 30 that one no longer has the same recovery ability -- and is prone to injury or exhaustion as a major consequence of their training -- which then becomes obviously counterproductive. Thus many fall away from their training and rigorous conditioning for the first time in their entire lives -- some never to return to those rigors, but a few adapting, or finding some greater key to the greater objective of making life truly better for themselves in all the ways, and not merely on singular measurements that could even be contraindicative to improving the health and quality of life.

So the other end of the question, once I was sure of what could maximize the pain and recovery from it, was what level of movement, could be done every day, at any time, as often as one wanted to, without producing such pain and requiring extraordinary recovery? This is the question that few think to ask -- in a culture and world that always demands "more." How much less can one do, and still get the same or even better results because of it? And what does that have to be?

The movement that makes the greatest positive difference is the movement that happens as the muscle alternately contracts and relaxes to actually move blood (cells) throughout the body -- and not the movements external to the body such as the movement of weights or even moving the body entirely from its frame of reference, such as running, jumping or swimming. That is to say, that the movement of greatest importance, cannot be seen in such traditional parameters of gross movement, but occurs entirely within the body itself, and to a great extent, in the changing of the state of the muscles from its greatest contracted state to its relaxation -- and not just one or the other, as is preferred in yoga or isometric contractions.

It's really much simpler than that -- to effect the flow of the blood -- even while watching television, sitting at a computer, or even lying down wondering if one can get up today. It's less important to run a mile if one feels like running a mile than it is just getting out of bed when one thinks he might not be able to (anymore) -- and it is such responses to such challenges, that is the conditioning one needs to overcome whatever difficulties and challenges one expects to prepare themselves for in a long life of varied experiences -- rather than the endless treadmill of doing the one same thing from the day they were born to their last, until one finally doesn't or can't.

That's what doesn't change -- even in "outer space," as long as one is still alive.

Integrating "Exercise" Into Your Daily Living (Activities)

2012-01-24T07:05:00.001-10:00

What makes "exercise" so problematical for many people, is that it is required by those who instruct it, to be something apart from their normal daily activities -- rather than as it naturally should be, that which improves one's normal daily activities. If they don't, then they don't have a lot of meaning or rationale for doing it -- other than to detract from the doing and enjoyment of one's normal (preferred) activities, and to make one miserable in the backwards thinking that the reason for doing anything, is because "it feels so good when you stop." A rational and intelligent person might then ask, "Why then, begin them at all?"

In this manner of thinking, exercise hasn't come a very long way from the days of the gladiator, in which it was said, "What doesn't kill you, will make you stronger." So one had no choice but to get stronger -- or be killed. A lot of people still use that kind of primitive psychology, motivation and reasoning -- as the hallmark of their conditioning activities (exercise) -- that if one doesn't lift the 500 lbs, it will crush them -- or if you don't batter your opponent senseless, they will do it to you -- as though that was some kind of perfectly good logic.

Every Saturday night, all across the world, some person will lose their life proving to everyone else that they are "better" than those they think they are competing against, to prove their fitness and superiority to those who are similarly impaired and impressed. It may be in showing how fast they can drive a course in that impaired state of mind and capacities -- while taking the greatest risks or even being completely oblivious to all of them.

The common feature of all those things, is that they are not the normal activities of daily living -- but activities decidedly not in the normal course of their living, so there is no way for them to get better at what they practice all the time. It unfortunately turns out to be a "one shot deal," in which if they were familiar with it, they would not be susceptible to grievous error and misjudgment.

Instead, one would approach it like an accountant who knows that "2 + 2 is going to be equal to 4 every time," -- and not that the sky is the limit because they've never done 2 + 2 before -- or while high, or impaired. Such people are addicted to living dangerously -- and out of control, fancying that that is what real living is about -- and not all that daily stuff, they could do better, much more meaningfully and productively.

It should be no secret to anybody that life now is much more sedentary than it was in primitive days when people needed to devote most of their waking lives to providing for a meager sustenance for themselves. And we should rightfully think that such a life now is better for it rather than the thinking of an invariable few that those old days and ways were so much better because the few people who did live then, were healthier -- because they had to be during their brief and hard lives.

But is simply making life hard again, what makes people healthier, or is that a non factor that invariably shortens and increases injury and death -- but we only show the pictures of those who are still alive? And conversely, much of what we know of "old sick people," is that those are the people the health care organizations "see all the time," and never those who never need to see them -- who might as well not exist -- for all practical purposes, because they are so exceptional.

But the exceptional, is where we should be heading, and not the normal -- in discussions and programming for exceptional good health, and not the normal that keeps such patients returning regularly -- as though that is now the new normal. Thus the right question is not how we can get people to give up their preferred sedentary activities, but how to make them healthful ones -- rather than requiring people to stand on their feet all day, or run around all day in the misguided notion that that will make everyone Olympic champions rather than more accurately, that will cripple even Olympic champions if they had to endure lives of such demanding and crushing workloads.

The lion is king not because it is leading every hunt and misadventure, but arrives in time, when the hunt is concluded.

The Real Price of Education

2012-01-13T08:44:00.000-10:00

The standard for collective bargaining should be the median income for all the people -- which is around $30,000 total compensation.

Teacher (government worker) salaries begin above the median -- not including nontaxable fringe benefits (health care, nonworking compensation and retirement) of another $20,000 -- which every government worker gets that is already almost as much as the median.

So with the $50,000 average salary plus other benefits that the taxpayers are paying for, you have a class of people getting twice the median Which puts them in the upper 75%-tile, for a whole class of people -- who then demand extra performance pay to actually do their job, and want guarantees that they can never be fired, and must be supported in the lifestyle they think they are entitled to all their lives -- is really the root problem of the injustices and inequities of contemporary society.

And these very privileged people have the gall to claim they are underappreciated and underpaid and even qualified for food stamps and other assistance, is the reason Hawaii's cost of living is astronomical -- because the cost of people who don't even feel they have to do their jobs because it is their entitlement for life, and not that they have to earn it, means the citizens can expect to pay a lot for nothing.

In the marketplace of ideas (education), it should be highly competitive and the least able forced out to give way to the best and the brightest creating knowledge on the cutting edge -- and not merely institutionalizing the past, as the only way it can ever be -- repeating the mistakes of history over and over again, as though that was an intelligent way to be.

Education has become the symbol of everything that is wrong in society -- defending its own status quo. It needs to be the leading example of how to do things right.

The Greatest Cause of Accidents and Misunderstandings

2012-01-07T10:00:00.001-10:00

Surely, driving requires eye-hand and eye-foot coordination more than than the skillset required to walk a tightrope -- or stand on one leg -- as though that were a prerequisite for anything.

You'd think that with modern day technology and awareness, those essential faculties is what is tested for -- and not the random metrics of a prehistoric ere -- as though that is an indication and predictor of fitness for anything.

Obviously a more appropriate measurement for driving, is likely to be the skills demonstrated by a video game -- than running a marathon, or walking a tightrope from one building to another. These days, most people, and particularly emergency responders, have a cell phone, and I'm sure some enterprising or perceptive individual has already created an "app" for better measuring eye-hand, eye-foot coordination -- and before that, assessing vision and awareness -- which is the major reason for most accidents -- people just didn't see, or were aware of the road conditions -- and not that they were perfectly aware but only temporarily impaired.

Far more likely is that their impairment has become a chronic or permanent limitation in older ages -- because the young are much more likely to be the ones getting into accidents because of alcohol and drug experimentations and impairment. Instead, what is being "measured" by the present standards, is physical condition -- which those who are limited in their movements, have the greatest reason for driving -- because they have problems walking, standing, balancing, and so the cars equalize for those increasing disabilities -- as long as their vision and hand-foot coordinations remain intact.

That's why I've long advocated that it is much more meaningful to measure the health and condition at the head, hands and feet, than all those metrics that have no idea what they're measuring, but keep doing so, because that's the way they've done it before, and is therefore the approved way of doing things.

I've faced such resistance before when I pointed out to the people teaching CPR that chest compressions is breathing also -- making mouth-mouth breathing unnecessary, because breathing (the movement of air in and out of the body) is the result of altering chest volumes resulting in pressure differentials.

So the test that really needs to be done -- is vision and awareness, which is attention and greater awareness of the conditions including the presence of others, and not the self-isolation of one who can focus only on their own inner control -- which precludes the awareness of what is going on in the greater context.

That seems to be the overriding problem of most accidents as well as misunderstandings.

The Season of Appreciation

2011-12-22T07:39:00.000-10:00

No amount of money will be adequate if one doesn't have the skill to manage it well -- not only in saving it, but more importantly, in spending it -- because that is when money can be exchanged for value even greater than money. That is the actualization of money at its exchange function -- which makes the biggest difference in individual lives.

For unfortunately many, their thinking is to get as much as possible, while giving as little as possible -- which is not a fair trade, but to exploit an inefficiency in the market -- until that becomes corrected, and those values no longer are available at such an undervalued price. But before that happens, the few who can appreciate values rightly, are the major beneficiaries of those inefficiencies at which the best are practically given away, because most people don't want them if everybody else doesn't see the value of them first, and are heavily promoted and advertised.

In this way, people who can think for themselves, and not simply chase the crowd, will experience the riches and richness of the world -- that the status quo vested interests, tell those under their sway, are not possible. That's how the world has always changed -- and not simply by giving the powers that be who always wish to remain so, "more."

When there are great disruptions in economies and societies, it is not because the world is getting worse, but is undoubtedly changing for the worse -- for a few, even as it is getting better for infinitely more. That's the situation we see in the world today, when many Americans complain that things were never so bad, because most of the world is gaining on them -- experiencing the life that only Americans used to.

Many are upset, that the great disproportions and inequities of fortune, are no longer just the privileges of Americans, but now have become the birthright of citizens all around the world. There is a certainly mentality, that derives its sense of well-being, from the knowledge that everybody else is worse off than they are -- and that is the only measure of pleasure they derive, and not the possibility that life can be good anywhere, for anybody, and ultimately, everybody. But that is not a possibility they can appreciate.

That is the conditioning (education) they've had -- to believe that in order for themselves to win, everybody else has to lose -- which is the destructive force in the world. Nature doesn't want everybody to lose so that she alone can win -- but wants as many to win as possible, which is first, realizing that possibility -- of fitness not being a competition for the survival of the fittest, but assuring it for as many as possible under all conditions and circumstances -- to enhance one's own, for the world is, one's experience of it.

It doesn't have to be a daily struggle -- but a realization of how things can be made better, beginning with one's own baseline functioning in it. Thus it is important to be firing on all cylinders, every waking moment of one's life -- beginning with the very moment of awakening as the single greatest moment for achieving that actualization.

That of course, is the moment one awakens from sleep -- and makes the transition to conscious activity, beginning at the most fundamental level -- of conscious breathing that radically changes (improves) one's operating conditions. This is a huge problem for many people as they sleepwalk their way through their day and lives -- knowing no other way of being, yet suspecting they could be functioning much better in the moment -- and not just in regrets for all the moments bungled and lost -- because one wasn't fully there, acting one's best, being one's best -- but recalling in horror, that they must have been somebody else, doing things they never would have done in their right mind and capacities.

But rather than thinking they need infinitely more capacity, the secret is the realization to do better with the capabilities they have already been gifted with -- which is to appreciate (make greater) that which one already has.

As Easy as Breathing

2011-12-14T08:14:00.000-10:00

Previously I've warned of the dangers and undesirability of stressing the heart by making it work harder and faster -- as though that was ever (always) a wise thing to do, much less doing it for its own sake.

The heart is far and away the hardest working muscle (organ) of the body -- and contracts a mind-boggling 100,000+ times a day -- just to maintain life at its most rudimentary level, and one of the noted dangers of exercise, has been an enlarging of the heart and thickening of the heart by repeated demands to accommodate high stress levels and demands -- usually leading to a premature shortening of life and/or disability caused at the weak point of the individual's systems. People are unique in that way of being prone to individual vulnerabilities -- much like Achilles' heel (tendon), many people's backs, knees, aneurysms, dementias and depressions. And so we all don't die in the same way, have the same (chronic) conditions to have to deal with all our lives, or have the same strengths as well as weaknesses.

But for all the living, the heart is an autonomic function -- which we are born with as our essential metabolic function and rate -- unique to each individual. The next step beyond though, is something much more variable, although autonomic to a great extent also yet it can be modified greatly -- and is the basis for many time-honored health regimens (practices) that have stood the test of time, and that is the breathing movement, or function. We can hold our breath -- but if we hold it too long, we pass out and it reverts to being an autonomic function as it must.

This then is the essential movement we have control over to modify -- safely and healthfully. So when we can understand that function well, we would intelligently make that the primary objective as the most valuable "activity" (practice) a person would consciously and deliberately engage in -- decidedly in preference over walking (especially in the cold/hot, rain and dark), running (with its high impact), pushups, situps, and all the other movements and activities "contrived" to make one healthier, and thus, more highly functioning as the base level for anything they might do in the course of their lives -- which makes them more fit and prone to survive, and even thrive at the highest levels, individually and/or in community.

This they naturally do because that is the consciousness and awareness of the brain functioning on the higher level in which it connects with other brains as though it is one -- rather than struggling against every other, which is obviously the brain functioning at a very low level and consciousness -- thinking even, that they have to completely reinvent the wheel, every time they want to do something, and so are easily discouraged and dissuaded not to.

In the early 50s and 60s, the most popularly performed bodybuilding movement, was not the bench press or squat, but an exercise done prior to such strenuous movements if they were done at all, that was called the Lying straight arm pullover to articulate the greatest difference between the girth of the chest and the girth of the waist moving the arms backward, and then bringing the arms and head forward to a contraction (compression) along with concurrent movement at the hands and feet to effect all the muscles as though it were just one, which is essentially breathing with the entire movement of the body.

The original Nautilus machine was also designed around this one basic and valued movement -- which was the one exercise the inventor originally thought was essential to do -- before creating machines for each bodypart at the height of the movement towards specialization in everything. That was also the time in which IBM mainframe computers, did all the data processing for every other field of activity, because that was their specialized function -- so one could not know the results of anything, until one got the results back on the IBM printouts.

There was every reason to believe that increasing specialization and fragmentation of comprehension would continue -- with everyone just knowing a tiny slice of their own world, apart from all the others. It was not thought necessary or even possible, that one should have a comprehensive understanding of the world as a whole, because in that grand scheme of things, every individual was just a mindless cog doing what they were told (expected) to do, in the assembly line society envisioned prior to "1984."

Then the world changed -- beginning ten years earlier, with the great market crash of 1974 -- signaling a great change was in the making, a movement away from uniform lives in a uniform society. The ten years from 1974-1984, culminating and symbolized by the ending of society as a machine dominated by centralized planning and determination by a few self-designated experts (technocrats), began its reversal to the present-day decentralization of all authority -- as exhibited by the present day chaotic, distinctly disorganized (random) movements.

But it is not just enough to be against the old; one has to have a better idea of how individuals and societies work -- and simply "more of the same," will not be the answer to the challenge of the times anymore. Something fundamentally and profoundly has changed -- to a higher realization of making the most out of what one already has. That is the key to why some can make it on $10,000 a year, while some cannot make do on $100,000 a year. It's no longer about the money -- but what greater values one can exchange it for. Many of those exchanges, will result in no value received, no matter how much money is given for it. It is foremost, an exchange of information -- in determining credible, verifiable, authentic and useful information, from that which is promoted merely to maximize the gain from those transactions -- while providing little or nothing in return.

That's how much the world has changed -- and what we must do now, to optimize our lives in going with that flow.

ThinkingDifferently.blogspot.com

If Everyone Tries to Get Something for Nothing

2011-12-07T04:37:00.002-10:00

It should be obvious by now, that if the dominant theme in society is to get as much as possible for giving as little as possible in exchange, that eventually, everyone will get nothing of value for all their money (transactions). That's how markets and societies work -- or don't work.

So the premise of any society, is to maximize the values one gets in these exchanges, so that one usually gets much more than they bargained for -- rather than nothing for all their money. So while money plays a part in these exchanges, the underlying values of that community (society), is people individually and collectively contributing to the abundance -- rather than just draining it, until nothing is left. That is their working capital -- the raw material upon which more can be made, so that society doesn't have to reinvent the wheel anew each time there is a need to do something, accomplish something -- so that that society can move forward from there, and not always start from zero.

Those are sustainable societies, with momentum into the future -- and not simply repeating and reliving the past, as the best of times -- that will never be equaled again. Obviously such latter societies, are on their way to extinction -- but they'll never know what hit them, what happened to them. All they know is that everybody got nothing.

The Evolution of the Information Superhighway

2011-12-01T11:02:00.002-10:00

When the World Wide Web was just getting underway (1995), the convention was that nobody ever posted under their real name, which I realized was a huge mistake because it would allow misinformation, deception, manipulation and malice to proliferate faster than legitimate and authentic information -- undermining the credibility of this brave new world, which I could recognize then would be the only publication that mattered in the future.

So when my instructor said that no serious writer would ever write on the WWW primarily or even exclusively, I titled my instructional homepage, "The World's Writer," and told my instructor who insisted I had to be anonymous like the convention, that people would just assume that I'm not who I claimed to be -- since everybody else was an alias.

Then I warned forums that I participated on that most of the abuses were caused by anonymity, and the real power of the WWW, is that it allowed anyone to become famous (well-known) as the person they really are -- rather than remaining anonymous (nobodies) they were conditioned to think they were -- all their lives by the institutions and media.

The power of the press lay in their ability to "make" or "break" anybody -- because they presumably spoke for everybody, whether they in fact did or not. But they presumed so, and were the "only game in town." But many were just not used to having the spotlight on themselves -- and having to make themselves, rather than allowing the status quo institutions determine that. That was the world in which the New York Times, or Harvard University, etc., told everybody else what to think -- as though they really knew, and were the hierarchy anointed to maintain the "political correctness" on what to think.

But now with the WWW, many people outside of those hierarchies, are the foremost experts who actually created that field of knowledge and industry -- like Steve Jobs et al, and there is no higher authority, to ask than oneself, to know oneself.

The Challnge of Our Times

2011-11-21T09:38:00.000-10:00

For the past decade or so, the main driver of the economy has been to make housing more expensive -- with those predictably disastrous consequences -- that most will not be able to keep up, of which there is no provision for addressing those real needs -- instead of the highly-contrived of union workers that they are not keeping up with their peers in the top 1% -- and so we have to pay the school teachers $100,000 a year minimum.

The median income is $27,000 -- and not the proffered $50,000 per HOUSEHOLD -- which can be two or more income earners, that the unions like to confuse the issues and justify their own massive power grab. That's the real source of the inequity in that they demand those above median incomes for life -- and even retire to double-dip, which means less for everybody else, and especially those who have very little.

So the most disturbing thing about the Occupy movement, is that it was co-opted by the unions to protect their middle class entitlements and way of life -- rather than addressing the real problems of the truly needy -- for which there is no money "left over" after paying for these incessantly increasing demands by the powerful unions -- which are substantially more than the 1%, and therefore a steady drain on community resources.

Studies on the top 1% of income earners, note that such high incomes are not guaranteed for one's entire lifetime, but that there is a high turnover such that a person can have one good year, and many bad ones -- but there is another person who will have their one good year in their place -- which is the reward of taking risks. But you can't pay a large number of people guaranteed lifetime high incomes no matter what -- as the auto/steel/education industry and the cities like Detroit have demonstrated -- without total devastation to such communities.

Jobs used to be about addressing real needs -- and not just the career/economic aspirations of highly "entitled" people -- which were what the most recent revolutions have been about. The great challenge of these times is building that lower tier society -- and not more money for the middle class to buy more houses, take more vacations, and whatever else they think they are entitled to -- to keep up with the Joneses (rich).

Every time and place has its unique challenges, and that is the challenge of these times -- to create alternatives that work marvelously now, and not just wallow in the mud like at Woodstock -- and thinking that is the Age of Aquarius, and the best of all worlds.

The Revolution in Thinking

2011-11-09T07:22:00.001-10:00

Any fool can make a simple thing seem very difficult and complicated -- not because it inherently is, but foolish people think that is what smart people do -- try to seem more intelligent (knowledgeable) than they actually are. Mainly that is achieved by simply repeating what all the people pretending to know what they are talking about -- are saying, simply because they believe that many people thinking it so, makes it so. Other variations of this social phenomenon, is that might makes right, which is usually the defense of the dominant and domineering status quo -- or the powers that be, and intend always to remain so.

And so the first thing they enforce, is the belief that everything they say, is true, just because they say it is -- and there is no greater truth and validity beyond that. That is the lesson of Columbus, Galileo, Paracelsus -- and every other heretic who ever challenged authority -- with good reason to believe that theirs was a better understanding, that conformed to the observations, rather than the insistence, that one could not trust their senses, but had to rely on the proper authorities in the hierarchies to tell them the right thing to think -- which we know today, as the political correctness insisting that "consensus" must be achieved as the highest end -- even if we are all wrong, and eventually dead-wrong.

But before that happens, there is just the general feeling that everything is not right, and nothing makes sense anymore, because all that we were taught to be true, doesn't seem to explain anything at all -- except that we need more of that kind of education (indoctrination). Eventually, as the pre-Industrial Revolution poets wrote, everything falls apart, but is replaced by a greater social order and productivity -- until the next, but always towards a greater simplicity and accessibility to all, and not just the old favored few.

That is also the disruption of these times -- when a few think life is getting worse, while for many others, they are getting better.

Yet we are still conditioned to think, that life must be hard to be noble, virtuous and good -- and only through that route, can one reached the "promised land. " This is especially true of the more primitive cultures that believe that in order for anyone to win, everybody else must lose -- and not that there is enough for everybody to win, if the resources (abundance) is managed wisely. That requires shared intelligence (information), rather than the old model, of the knowledgeable, exploiting the lesser -- and so on.

When everyone has all the information, individual actions predispose that reality and outcome for everyone -- including oneself subsequently and inevitably. Any society loses its vitality and sustainability when individuals become dependent on many others for their basic needs and survival rather than the ability to sustain and improve themselves -- all their lives.

That is the challenge of these times. How can we continue to get better all the days of our lives?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv_NEo6NzqY&feature=related

Is Hawaii Now the Worst Place to Live?

2011-10-27T06:45:00.002-10:00

It is no secret that Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the United States -- because it is not united with all the others, but an island far apart, and trying to maintain its separation as an identity -- if not badge of merit, rather than joining the rest of the human race, as the rest of the world is. That is the high cost of maintaining that distinction, in the world of standardization -- which is that conformity to the uniformity of standards that make it efficient and cost-effective.

We know that a part that can take or fit any other, is likely to be much cheaper than one that has to be custom-made for each occasion from scratch -- as though even the wheel has to be first reinvented and calculated into the cost of the finished product -- "Because we do things differently in Hawaii." Therefore, the bicycle wheel that works on the Mainland, might not hold up to Hawaii's roads with all its potholes and poorly engineered roads. And rather than simply replace a pair of cheap flip flops, we need a special glue and patch kit, to keep them going until we can't patch them anymore.

So that manner of specialization (aversion) to conform to the uniformity of standards, makes economies of scale impossible, because one is virtually always custom designing for the one, instead of being able to take advantage of the economies of mass production -- even though it turns out, the product may even be substandard at a premium price -- because that is how the market is "regulated" -- to cost as much as possible, as though that were the highest end in itself, and if one can not pay, then one should not play -- until finally, the sidewalks, parks, beaches, bus stops, are overrun, as the expression of compassion for the less fortunate in that society.

Something is very, very wrong there -- when they let people sink to that level of poverty and despair, and then feel they are being tolerant and compassionate, to let them live at the bus stop babbling to themselves -- unharassed. That is the very mark of a society that doesn't know the meaning of tolerance and compassion, or anything for that matter. And so everyone lives on their own private island, apart from everybody else -- without any shared vision of what life is, and can be. And so "Da Kine" could be, and does mean anything you want to think -- because it doesn't matter what you think.

Goethe once described Heaven as a place where everything is connected and related to everything else -- and Hell where nothing is connected and related to anything else. The progress and evolution of the past 50 years is largely this connection and integration to everything else -- and so one is no longer left on an island all by themselves, but literally have the collective intelligence of the human consciousness at their fingertips.

So to still be conditioned (educated) to think one has to do all one's thinking apart from this total intelligence, is operating at a decided and irrecoverable disadvantage to the basic operating conditions most people have now or desire to -- yet to convince themselves that that is their major blessing and bliss, is a tremendous handicap to overcome.

The Cold (Backache) That Just Won't Go Away

2011-10-20T07:43:00.006-10:00

Back in 2003, a Dr. St. Amand came to Hawaii and gave a presentation on his guaifenesin cure for fibromyalgia -- which I was interested in because I was familiar with guaifenesin, and thought it was a miraculous cure-all back in the mid-80s, and so I was not surprised of its curative effects -- although I had no idea what fibromyalgia was, other than some vague autoimmune disease.

So I learned about this disease and the doctor's explanation on how it "cured" fibromyalgia (FMS), but the major thing I came away with, was the doctor's assurance that guaifenesin could be taken daily, longterm with no known negative side-effects, yet plenty of well-known positive ones -- as most people have experienced taking Robitussin when they have a cold or flu, unlike the other cold remedies without it, or in addition to it.

Guaifenesin's chief property is that it thins the mucus in the lungs when one has a cold or flu (along with accompanying aches and pains), so that one can "expectorate" it out of the body. However, anything that thins the mucus in the lungs, would logically thin the mucus throughout the body, and not just in the lungs, just like aspirin doesn't just thin the blood going to the brain and heart, but thins the blood throughout the body.

As people get older, the fluids of the body tend to solidify, which is the reason daily aspirin is advised to prevent the thickening of the blood, while the other major fluid of the body (mucus), is not given similar attention unless one has acute condition of a cold, flu, bronchitis, back pain, joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome -- all the symptoms associated with FMS, including fibrofog, or fuzzy (confused) thinking.

I had often noted that when I took Robitussin, I felt very good -- but that was usually to specifically treat a cold, flu, or bronchitis that I had frequently, along with back pains -- and in fact, when I attended the doctor's lecture, my back pain had gotten so bad and persisted for so long, I thought I was on the verge of never walking again. But since the doctor said guaifenesin was such a miraculous cure for all those symptoms that I had but had never been diagnosed as FMS, I started taking guaifenesin daily since, and have never had any more colds, flu, back pain, etc., though they were a periodic, though constant plague all my life -- and getting to be a constant torment until then.

That was a major turning point in my life -- which is one of the underground pieces of information you sound like you might be very interested and motivated to know and act upon.

But the source of the autoimmune response (thickening of the mucus) is often ignored as something inconvenient, if not trivial -- such as mold, mildew, pollutants, germs, bacteria etc., rather than very real threats to one's health and well-being that can easily be addressed and eliminated by inexpensively available air purifiers -- primarily on the Internet, which ironically, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Consumer Reports have done their best to keep off the shelves of retailers -- in their confusion that possible (theoretical) risks, outweigh the well-known ones.

The hardest thing to see -- is the very air we breathe and live in. Or maybe we just don't want to see it.

Who Were (Are) the Pharisees and the Scribes?

2011-10-17T09:29:00.007-10:00

We're quickly moving into the season of the recounting and remembrance of the roots of present civilization -- culminating in "The Greatest Story Ever Told," and how it still has relevance in these present times -- or do they?

Didn't the Pharisees and Scribes only live in biblical times -- or are there still modern day equivalents, calling themselves by more innocent (noble) titles -- like "professionals" of every stripe, teachers, experts, journalists, freelance writers, lawyers, lobbyists, spokespersons et al? Such professionals have a ruthless ability to divorce their personal lives from their professional (public) ones -- with no qualms about saying one thing, and something entirely different -- from one sentence to the next, depending on what they think they can get away with -- because most people are not so unscrupulous.

However, a few are -- just like an exceptional few will be beyond the limits of the norm in every human activity and experience. Such people we know as "pathological liars," the mentally ill (deranged), the disabled, etc. Most people commonly experience such extremes in the bullying and intimidation of ruthless and ambitious people -- who think that others exist merely for their own gratification and expedience -- and so it doesn't matter if they have to be killed, manipulated or deceived in order for them to get their way -- as the only thing that matters, and is their sole consideration.

Thus we need laws to keep such people in check -- because they don't have the capacity to keep themselves in check, as most people do. That's the line one has to draw -- to distinguish the criminal from the innocent.

The Pharisees and the Scribes are the bullies, manipulators and intimidators of every age and society -- calling themselves such noble-sounding names and offices -- while insisting they should do all the thinking and talking for everybody else, and that it is the station and purpose of everybody else, to merely repeat and chant (sing), what they have proclaimed is the only way one should think and express -- and everything else is heretical, sacrilege, or as we proudly proclaim today, "politically incorrect."

Those who enforce the edicts, merely have these more "enlightened" and better sounding names -- to do the same job they've done since time immemorial -- and of course, are "entitled" to more than everybody else, and their high standing -- for life.

What's It All About?

2011-10-13T10:18:00.000-10:00

These protesters are the 1% -- and not the 99% they claim to be -- of the country they think should be run for their exclusive benefit.

First of all, 99% of the people are not struggling to get by -- but the lowest 20% probably are. But that's not what this protest is about. It is about the upper 49% using the lower 50% to protect and even increase their "middle class" entitlements -- and conning the easily misled into believing that if they are allowed to tax the mythical rich, more money can go for government (union) workers pay increases and benefits -- and not really to the actual poor. That's why the unions let these "wannabes" do all the dirty work and stick out their necks and futures, while they show up at noon to claim credit that "their" movement and support is growing -- and they have no shame and compunction at doing so.

And now their so called movement, is spreading to the college campuses, where the students are going into horrendous debt because of the demands of their university professors and administrators to be paid as much as Warren Buffett -- as proof that Americans value education at any cost, and support these (upper) middle class bureaucrats in the luxury they think they should be accustomed to -- which the protesters can only dream about, and have no idea of their role and complicity in their own exploitation.

Discrimination is NOT Prejudice (but actually its solution)

2011-10-11T07:39:00.002-10:00

"Discrimination" is not always wrong -- but is in fact, the basis of intelligence and successful adaptation (living) in one's environment. Most discriminations, in fact, are not only "right," but necessary, if one is to make one's life better for oneself, as well as the community at large. That requires every member to think for themselves (as well as for others), by discriminating the appropriate responses -- rather than not thinking for oneself (or anyone else) because they have been educated that no discriminations should ever be made.

It is not that all discriminations should not be made -- but only that discriminations should not be based on prejudice of the wrong (invalid) things -- but urinating, defecating, camping and driving everybody away from the public spaces, is a valid reason for adopting rules (laws) against those who do such things -- instead of protesting against all the rich billionaires that Occupy Honolulu, as though there was equal danger and wrong.

The peculiarity of Hawaii, is that the people are educated and conditioned not to think for themselves, but merely to repeat what their "teachers" tell them to as the only truth possible -- regardless of whether individuals can discover better ways to do things, that actually solve and eliminate the problems -- rather than just repeating history, as the only way things can be done in the future (forever) -- as though that made it paradise, because the lawmakers guarantee, that things will never change.

"Let the people die!"

2011-09-29T06:34:00.001-10:00

Beginning with their own HGEA members. If the people don't want to work and save themselves, let them all die -- or swim to the mainland where they can all get those high-paying jobs they think everybody on the mainland have.

Who do you think have made these jobs as nurses, teachers, bureaucrats so terrible and unfair? It is their own unions determining that those with more seniority have the right to exploit those with less seniority -- and get paid twice as much for doing the same work, but in fact, less or no work -- so the newcomers have to do twice as much for half as much.

That is all the union's' doing so they can point to the guy who has the least seniority and say, "Look how little she's getting -- only half the average pay -- and not the top pay they are getting elsewhere," as though the people will never see through the obvious half-truths, and the media will do their best, to fool the people -- as they've always done before because that's the way they (union) do things too.

That is the curse of Hawaii -- that all the people with any brains and cunning, use it to exploit the rest, instead of helping all the people -- and not just themselves, their union, their ohana. That's why Hawaii doesn't work anymore -- and all the money goes to pay people doing nothing, and there is just increasing hopelessness for all those who will not play along, go along to exploit the newcomers and now their own young, who have to flee for those better lives elsewhere, where the cost of living is a hlaf to a quarter of what it costs to live in "Paradise."

Never has it made more sense for the best and the brightest to leave for the better life people are creating for themselves elsewhere -- everywhere else in the world.

Behold the homeless and the future of Hawaii. It doesn't have to be that way -- and the only way the unions will force Hawaii to be. It's okay to leave that dying society behind -- and enjoy living in communities in which every faction is not trying to exploit all the others for their own, exclusive benefit -- just like in the old days. The rest of the world, have moved into the 21st century. Only Hawaii is living in the Dark Ages -- and have been brainwashed by their teachers, their government, their unions, into thinking that is the best of all possible worlds -- because assuredly, it isn't.

For All the People -- Equally

2011-09-18T08:18:00.001-10:00

The purpose of American government is to work to ensure the benefits and welfare for all the people equally -- and not just for themselves exclusively, which is the tone and tenor of government workers now. "We deserve it -- but nobody else does -- and we deserve it as lifetime permanent entitlements."

That was the reason for the American Revolution -- and the French, Russian, Chinese, etc. One group of people decided they should be the nobility (entitled) and privileged permanently -- over all the others.

Government work should be rotated as the right and responsibility among all the people -- and not just become the sinecures of a few self-designated for life -- which is primarily the unions doing, and where government went wrong in the great American experiment. Government is best when there is high turnover -- among the entire population, so that everyone is equally vested in those benefits and welfare of everyone equally -- instead of the mentality of government workers now that they are not like the workers at Walmart, McDonalds, the Star-Advertiser, etc. but are God's specially chosen few.

That is the mentality that has destroyed American society and government -- and has caused the doom of every society in which a few attempt to make that status quo permanent.

Teachers are teachers because they are first the discoverers of that truth -- and not just people who are the biggest, smartest person in the kindergarten classroom -- for life. True teachers are respected and valued because they do something other than teach; they have to first learn, and not only what their teachers teach them, etc., and that means learning how to think for and by themselves, instead of just sticking together and chanting what their union leaders tell them to chant.

And that's why government workers should leave government employment -- because those jobs (and benefits) do not belong to them personally, but to all the people -- for all the people, equally.

End of An Era

2011-09-13T06:37:00.004-10:00

For the last 50 years, one of the lifelong dreams for many, was to retire to Hawaii -- and blissfully live out the balance of one's life in carefree Paradise.

But that hasn't been the case for the last five years, after the resurgence to prosperity beginning with the War on Terror restoring safety to worldwide travel in the prior five years . The myth now, was that Hawaii was well on its way to recovery before 9/11/01 -- when the truth was, it was still bumping along at the bottom -- and when 9/11 hit, many felt that it was all over -- as the streets of Waikiki were deserted, and planes flew out of Japan bound for Hawaii, with only a dozen passengers -- while the planes going out, were overbooked.

But as the mythmakers would retell it -- the resurgence and blow-off top in 2008, was not because of President Bush's unexpected brilliant response to the plague that had been terrorism all over the world hiding in friendly regimes with the continued expectation that they would remain untouchable -- was no longer true. Terrorists would now be hunted down wherever they were. One of the first to see the handwriting on the wall, was Ghadaffi, who declared he was no longer a terrorist, or a friend of terrorists.

Fittingly that now, he should serve as the end of that chapter in which the rest of the world stood by helplessly, as the terrorists did what they wanted, with very little fear of reprisals. That was the world, pre-9/11, and the Bush Doctrine, of "Not in my backyard, not now, not ever."

And with that assurance of the new world order and reality, the world's economies took off -- even if it was to overheat and finally crash in 2008 -- which a few saw coming, even while most did not. That seemed to mark the peak and the end of
Western Civilization, and the beginning of the greater Global Civilization and consciousness -- in which the emerging nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China, play an increasingly larger part.

A large part is because of the increasing world view, and not just our provincial part of it, dominating the world consciousness -- which was especially true of such places as Hawaii, which thought of itself as the place everyone wanted to be. But because of that flush of success and prosperity that was not earned but given -- the people didn't know how to handle it, and manage it into a sustainable community and society -- but everybody grabbed for the whole pie, destroying it in the process, for everybody else, as well as themselves.

That would signal the end of that era -- and manner of thinking.

They Won't Be Able to Run A Rail System Either

2011-09-05T15:47:00.000-10:00

Oahu has 900,000 people spread out over 600 sq. miles; San Francisco has 900,000 people in 49 sq. miles, which is 12 times more people in the same area, but it is surrounded by 12 times that number in the greater Bay area, which is the kind of population where successful heavy rail projects are typically built -- justifying the need for capital intensive infrastructure spread out among a much greater population and users.

You just can't build such a system with unlimited monies these days -- because there isn't unlimited free money to go around. Hawaii, like everywhere else now, has to resort to intelligent-intensive solutions -- and particularly the use of private initiatives and funding, as longterm viable and sustainable solutions.

The fact of the matter is that the rail is being built where people are not actually even living presently -- but in the hopes that they will move out there once a rail and other infrastructure is built -- in the hopes that Oahu (Hawaii) will continue to have the population growth rates it has experienced over the last 50 years, during which time, it has become one of the most prohibitively expensive places to live.

That's not going to attract retiring Baby Boomers from all over the country to move there to build up the local real estate to the stratospheric levels required to bail out the real estate speculators -- who feed into as well as promote this wishful thinking. Even if it did play out, then the increasing congestion and crowding would deter future additional movement there -- to be at the mercy of the monopolies (unions) of Hawaii, and arbitrariness of government bureaucrats further spending their monies.

Jobs have become so far removed from actual needs and solving any problems, that Hawaii's leaders think that just creating high-paying jobs is a solution in itself -- even if it solves no real problem, because they have become so detached to any such realities (requirements) that jobs are created to solve problems -- and not so every friend of the union and political leaders can have one.

There's just not enough unlimited free money to go around. Even ask your friend, Mr. Obama. It's already the end of the line, and the end of an era of unlimited government spending -- just because we can. Meanwhile, there are people living, urinating, defecating on the sidewalks, parks, beaches, public transportation shelters, outside the police stations, etc., and the public officials are powerless to do anything about it.

They won't be able to run a rail system either.

The Uses and Abuses of Expression

2011-09-01T06:49:00.002-10:00

One of the great challenges of life is being known -- and knowing others.

That's why people want to become famous and powerful -- and so it only makes sense to be known as the person you really are, as one of the great imperatives of life -- in knowing who YOU are. And one will never find that out by pretending to be many people; in fact, that is the source of one's confusion, recognized previously as schizophrenia, multiple personalities, or the fragmented personality -- always in conflict with themselves, as well as others.

One of the amusing things about the creation of aliases, was that one of the first abuses of anonymity, was for the mainstream writers to create many "aliases" directing people to their articles, and praising themselves effusively as the greatest personages of all time -- written in their unmistakable style and perspective.

So it is just like the old manipulations of the mainstream media to proclaim that they report the "facts," and what everybody else writes is "opinion," that they are magnanimously entitled to -- rather than that ideologies, propaganda, and marketing are often presented as the "facts," that they wish us to know -- as the political correctness, consensus or conventional wisdom -- whatever they think we ought to believe as the facts -- usually that they above all, are objective, impartial and non-self-aggrandizing.

At the height of the old mainstream media dominance, publications often allowed only reader comments on the content they had previously published as the only things readers could comment on -- as though that was the limits of what could be known, often boasting that that was "all the news fit to print." That's how people learned the abuses of expression -- and suppression, manipulation and control

Labels are not a substitute for thinking things through but are reliable triggers for eliciting knee-jerk reactions that provoke one segment of society to go to war against the other -- to exercise their power and control of the others. That is a temptation very few can resist -- but that is the necessary first step to a truly enlightened society.

Being Your Best Doesn't Have to be an Extreme Sport

2011-08-30T07:00:00.002-10:00

It's obviously the intelligent thing to do -- to always be one's best, even in "retirement." Actually, there is nothing more important one should do at that stage of one's life, because that health and well-being is the criterion of how well one is doing -- when there is no "other" to tell them how well they are doing anymore.

That is a very difficult thing for those who have been raised from the cradle to nearly the grave with somebody else always telling them what to do and how to live their lives -- from the schools to the unions (trade associations), coaches, political parties, and of course, newspaper opinion writers -- on top of one's requirement to hire somebody else to tell them how to get into "shape," and "how to" live one's life, as though that could be done for any other.

So whether one is beginning kindergarten or retirement, they should ask whether what they are learning, helps them discover the truth of anything for themselves -- and not just how to follow orders of those who know best for everybody else, what they should be doing -- as though they knew, and had a right to tell them what to do, what to believe and repeat (propagate) as the political/social correctness (consensus).

The "truth" is in the discovery, and not the answer; it is a journey, and not the end of the journey, at which one no longer has to learn anything more. That is always the beginning of stagnation, deterioration, and ultimately death -- because there are no more worlds to conquer (discover).

Fortunately, we live in an age in which constant, if not endless discovery is possible -- with some great invention or innovation merely awaiting discovery because the present controlling vested interest (hegemony) has prohibited such knowing. In health and well-being, that is that one has to run the gauntlet of the health care system and sadistic personal trainers to break into the clear beyond of perfect health -- or is there simply higher walls to climb beyond that -- endlessly, until one can die in peace?

Thus many are reluctant to even begin that journey -- that merely gets harder, the better one gets. Is that how it is supposed to work?

Health is not simply being young -- and doing the same things they do, but beyond that, is doing things differently and better, so that they are no longer hard and difficult -- like with any other learning and rewarding participation. One doesn't simply do it until one is permanently disabled so one can no longer live an active life anymore -- with a good excuse for not doing so, and can place those responsibilities in the hands of the health care system from here on out.

The major function of the brain is not thought but the production of health for that individual, which is not produced by the separation of mental from physical activity, but is the integration of the entire being so that the thought conforms to the reality -- rather than superimposing one's beliefs over those realities, which is the struggle.

If one does nothing else, one should move their head, as the key to maintaining and strengthening that connection -- instead of moving every other part in preference and priority to it, because that structural and integral maintenance and improvement creates the biggest difference in change, which is why the most visible sign of deterioration of the health of the entire being, is the atrophying of the muscles of the neck. When there is optimal flow, the muscles, blood vessels and nerves show it in their appearance, as well as function -- as that sign of vital well-being.

Meanwhile the heart, on which so much attention is focused, already beats 100,000 contractions a day -- without further extraordinary effort. So the relative increment (rate of change) of moving the head 360 degrees (full contraction), is much greater doing 100 repetitions -- than working the heart even harder than it already does, while the rest do nothing -- and predictably atrophy, as the accepted norm of the aging (deterioration) process.

The Fountain of Youth (Elixir of Life)

2011-08-21T09:57:00.004-10:00

My father was a Taoist, for whom the study of good health, long life, if not immortality, is a basic objective of their studies, and so I was very disappointed to see that his knowledge failed him as he reached into his 90s.

So it was quite natural for me to take this study further in asking the more practical and achievable question of whether it was possible to live a long life without the ravages of age and its afflictions that we accept as the inevitable -- because we run out of solutions for the problems and challenges of our daily living, which we invariably attribute to the catch-all, aging process.

Until we reach that point, we think it is merely a matter of discovering a yet undiscovered secret -- and seeking the many experts, gurus, and keepers of the great truths, until we feel we have seen and heard it all -- and nothing makes a difference that matters anymore.

But through the present miracle of the Internet, we now can easily access the collective knowledge and intelligence -- if only we know how.

As a historian (archivist) by training and disposition, I like to research the beginnings of ideas, and have evolved throughout the history of thought -- which is actually my specialty. And so I have this particular and unique sense of history and time more than most -- who seem to forget or were conscious that things were not always that way. Most live and think in that temporal vacuum -- of time not being bound to any other. But for the historian, what happened ages ago, seems relevant to the present, evolved, and is manifested in the present -- as the summation of all (previous) thought.

One of the oldest themes for the justification of knowledge and thought, is the desire and belief, that there is some kind of magical potion, that conveys to its possessor, optimal good health -- the fountain of youth, or the elixir of life, and of course, life abundant and everlasting in all its versions.

In more contemporary times, for the past 80 years, that was promised in the iconic commercials promising "fast relief" for the most common afflictions of contemporary life -- which were (head)aches and pains, digestive upset, and even the general blahs -- before they were forced to cut back on their unquantifiable claims. But for most of the generation now alive, they were at least aware of the commercials that mostly ran, "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh what a relief it is." That was the last of the golden age of patent medicine home remedies -- before Big Pharma took over, and promised super cures (drugs) for highly specialized diseases and conditions -- all unrelated to one another, as though such a thing were possible. But that was the new paradigm of the 20th century of increasing specialization and fragmentation of life -- that made it easily incomprehensible to most as the norm, if not the ideal.

But as a lifelong arthritic having to take some kind of pain reliever to make it through each day, I had to accept that the accompanying digestive upset was one of the tradeoffs one had to make -- until I thought to try the old Alka-Seltzer bromide mainly out of desperation because nothing else worked anymore -- immediately or temporarily, much less indefinitely. That it worked at all, piqued my curiosity to research it further, leading me to realize it was the fountain of youth -- in a tablet.

Throughout history, people have noted the curative (restorative) effect of certain spring (mineral) waters that people have bathed as well as drank, to cure a multitude of ills and conditions. That is the basis for the notion of the fountain of youth, and the miraculous curing (restorative) waters -- that are essentially naturally occurring Alka-Seltzer. But what gives Alka-Seltzer its added potency, is that it is a way in which many who cannot tolerate aspirin (a highly effective pain reliever) in its usual forms, can actually access it -- because it is buffered, and in solution, rather than irritating, concentrated pill form. And when many more can tolerate aspirin, it obviates the need for other pain relievers, including alcohol and addicting (prescription) drugs -- which are much more costly but frequently preferred because they are covered by one's health care or drug plan -- while economical, sensible and more effective choices have to be borne by oneself, and so many will be misguided by that decision.

What Can the Teachers Do?

2011-08-08T09:31:00.002-10:00

It is the American educators (and their unions) that have created the American education system.

The reason the responsibility for its failures falls mainly on their shoulders is that they have demanded more money and benefits for those results -- which are famously worse than the third-world and emerging countries paying much lower wages under substandard conditions, yet achieving much greater results.

The American education system is a world-class failure and has to be abandoned -- and in that void, successful education enterprises will arise -- as they've always done, under the most dire conditions. Obviously, throwing money at the present education system with the same people in charge, is not the solution but the problem. These educators have no business teaching -- and have to move on to those lucrative comparable worth jobs they have sacrificed themselves for the wrong calling in life.

We need to import these teachers who can produce amazing results under adverse conditions, and let these American educators do whatever it is they think they are the experts at -- and can be successful at, rather than doing the same things over and over and over again (which is to demand ever higher pay for obvious failures), and expecting a different (successful) result.

We need to start from scratch -- but we don't have to, because there are already countless successful private schools doing a better job with less, and we just need to replicate that model, while the government does what it can do successfully -- but not education which is their proven failure. We need to move on find some other jobs for these "teachers" to do.

Maybe something in recycling.

The New "Fat is Fit" Propaganda Campaign

2011-07-31T18:18:00.003-10:00

Before the "Fat is fit" new propaganda campaign gets too far underway, most people's problem is not what they weigh, as it is that they don't know how to use their muscles to shape their fat to a pleasing shape, appearance and usefulness.

Almost all the athletes and particularly the bodybuilders, are overweight and obese by the "Body Mass Index (BMI)" assuming one should have no muscular development as the "ideal," which is like using runway models as the standard of how people should look and be -- which is hard and unhealthy even for those involved and self-selected in that profession.

But there are actually people who weigh 300 lbs who are very muscular -- in fact, many of the Mr. Olympias are normally that weight. The people who make up these arbitrary "indices," usually use some freakish population sample as the ideal -- like the Tour de France bicyclists, or the Olympic marathoners, who don't look like anybody else but their very freakish population sample.

But one notices, that the sprinters in bicycling and running have very different appearances from the ultra-distance marathoners, who are notable for their enlarged hearts in relationship to the development of any other musculature. Unfortunately, that is the ideal that has been selected instead of the more powerful sprinter/power athlete, who by the BMI, is overweight, if not obese because they have heavily developed musculature all over their bodies -- and not just the heart.

So weight is not the problem. It is the muscularity, and especially the conditioning of the muscles to shape the body into a more pleasing shape and appearance -- that has been entirely neglected as the major problem. Very few people are too muscular, or too well shaped -- at any weight. If they are, it's not a problem.

Most of the women bodybuilders, would also be classified as "overweight" or "obese," because they are muscular, when the arbitrary formulas, assumes that nobody should have any muscular body mass (and especially women) -- and presumes, that the only variable body mass is fat -- and not muscles, bones, or any other tissue, as well as the proportions. Gymnasts are gymnasts because most of their bodyweight (muscles), are disproportionately in their upper body (like monkeys), while runners are predictably disproportionately bottom heavy.

None of this is taken into account by those proposing these arbitrary indexes and ideals for what the average individual should be -- while the exceptional people, know they have to completely ignore those measurements that proclaim that their very existence is not possible.

But rather than proclaiming that there is no distinction between fat, muscle, and fit -- in the latest incarnation of political correctness (propaganda), there should be better discriminations of why they are different and how they matter.

Life is What You Make of It

2011-07-23T05:08:00.002-10:00

Many people think they are entitled to live in Paradise as the new birthright of these times.

They should be rich, famous and successful because that is what every American (citizen) is now entitled to -- and not just an equal chance for it, like everybody else. No, now they demand the greatest of wealth, because that is what another (one) person has, and think that is possible, good and sustainable for everybody else also -- when assuredly, life doesn't work that way.

Just because one person is rich, famous or successful, doesn't mean that all will be rich, famous and successful, or what would that mean?

It certainly means that "envy," or covetousness has become the predominate theme of contemporary life -- that is destroying the possibility for happiness in life no matter how much wealth, fame and success one has -- because still, somebody else has more, just as a self-sustaining motive force in that society.

That is especially true in areas that attract the rich and famous -- because it becomes a corrupting influence to the indigenous population, who then demand that quantity of life -- as what they believe has been robbed from them, even if they never had it before. But they can easily be convinced that that is what they would have had, if somebody else didn't get it first -- what is rightfully theirs.

That is the present confusion and deception of these times -- that make it very difficult, if not impossible for anybody to see things very simply and clearly anymore -- about any one thing, let alone of the comprehensive whole.

The problem of these times is not that many live in real need -- but that everyone feels they do not have all that they want -- and those wants become insatiable, no matter how much they have. The argument now, is always that they don't have as much as they think the next guy is getting -- which they believe they should have, if any other (one) person has it -- while failing to recognize that that one person, created it for themselves, and they haven't. They just demand what another has -- because they think that is what they are entitled to, and not that one has to create that abundance and happiness for themselves.

That is what each person has to create for themselves -- and no government or society can do for everyone, which has always been the case. That's why lives and fates turn out differently, no matter how equally we try to make them. Even if we all started out with the same, in a matter of seconds, that would all change.

So the proper function of government is not to assure that all have exactly the same at all times, but that there is only equal chance for that realization for everyone -- or we have the injustice and further resentment, that abilities must be destroyed, in order to favor the disabilities -- and in that way, individuals and societies become less fit to meet the challenge of these and any times.

And that is what life is about.

What Compromise?

2011-07-13T04:08:00.000-10:00

What kind of "compromise" is that? We'll pay for our health care if you give us the money (raise) to pay for it. How stupid do the unions think the the governor and the citizens of the state are?

The problem is that there is no unlimited money for the taxpayers to overpay government workers. All jobs are subject to fluctuating compensation and economic disruptions -- and not only being ratcheted upwards until the compensation far exceeds any real benefit in paying for them. That's how the unions killed all the industries -- and now they want to do it to the governments.

But the real purpose of having the government workers pay part of their medical costs is that if they don't, they have no interest in containing those costs and paying whatever the providers want them to -- which is going to be all the money they can get. And that is why the biggest problem of these times is the ever-escalating health care costs -- especially for government retirees, the elderly, and those who don't take care of their own health -- but expect that the health care system is responsible for making them healthy -- instead of themselves primarily.

Those costs are being borne by everybody else who have to pay at least partially and in many cases entirely for their own health care (insurance) -- in addition to paying for the Cadillac plans brokered by the government unions which have no cost-controls, and thus will remain the problem for the foreseeable future.

And that is why the people on welfare are the most obese and in poor health -- followed by our well-fed government workers gathering on the front steps of the capitol to protest they are not being paid enough to eat and so have to raid the welfare programs in addition to their government wages and benefits, which are overly generous already.

But the government reporter is usually spreading the union propaganda that they are the underprivileged and underserved -- when they are in fact the problem.

It's "1984" All Over Again

2011-07-06T16:04:00.007-10:00

Ronald Reagan was famous for saying, "What confounds us is not what we know we don't know, but what we know with absolute certainty -- that isn't true."

That's probably the most profound insight into the workings of the American mind and psyche -- that people who are so certain they know, never bother to find out, never bother to question, but accept what they have been told by some authority what the truth is, and never questioning that authority.

Probably the most egregious examples, are all the pronouncements by the trade associations -- that their word is the authority, and to listen to no other. And so we've come from a free market of ideas, goods, services -- to one in which, self-serving bureaucratic authoritarians, demand that one can listen to no other, consider no other, and most people think there is not the slightest wrong in that.

Thus, "education" must serve the education professionals and ensure that they have top priority for all the money available for the community welfare -- and their salaries, benefits and pensions, should be increased before any services for which they were employed for, can be delivered. In the case of the Hawaii Department of Education, providing raises to its employees and retirees, left no money available for them to actually hold classes -- because there was no money "left over" to do so.

Something is entirely wrong with these priorities -- that the government has been co-opted to serve only its own government workers -- instead of the people at large. They still say they are doing it for the children or the poor -- except that now there is no money left over to do so, after paying themselves first, whether they do any work at all. That is simply their entitlement -- and beyond that, nothing else matters.

Obviously, government as that, no longer serves the people, but has become an oligarchy to serve only a few -- in some high-sounding service of the people, which they are convinced they have "sacrificed" for everyone else. And the media will do propaganda for them -- even have those salaries paid by those trade associations to do so.

And nobody will question that authority and right to do so.

The Restoration of the Hawaiian Monarchy (It's Not What You Had in Mind)

2011-06-30T06:23:00.005-10:00

It's a good time for all those teachers (government workers) who have been "sacrificing" themselves for the keiki and everybody else -- to move on and grab those comparable worth jobs getting everything they truly deserve as...?

All government jobs were meant to be positions people served temporarily in and rotated among the full constituency -- as truly representative of that society, and not become personal fiefdoms and lifetime entitlements for those who always wish to be in charge at the top serving themselves --"for everybody else."

There should be term limits for all government workers -- as well as the politicians, otherwise we're right back where we started centuries ago, with the monarchies and empires.

Now Hawaii has gotten their wish to restore the Hawaiian monarchy -- but it is not as they had in mind.

Long live King Abercrombie!

Sure, everybody wants more for themselves as their permanent lot in life -- living happily forever after, with no problems like everybody else (the less deserving), but life doesn't play out that way. Everybody will have to make a few changes and adjustments sometimes in their lives -- and the more often they've done it, the better they become at recreating and rejuvenating their lives.

A few get crushed and lose their way in life, and even their desire to continue, the first time they are faced with the "challenge of change," and just don't know how life is possible beyond the one way they thought and taught it would always be for themselves -- because it had always been that way before.

But time and life marches on, and one day they wake up and look in that full-length mirror, and realize they are not the person they thought they were -- and would always remain so, and that was the whole role and purpose of government -- to ensure them that permanence. But life also means death too -- and being reborn into an even greater life. That is the legacy of our culture -- that there is always life beyond, and a greater one for those who venture beyond to discover it -- even if they have to create it themselves, by pioneering it.

And that's where we are today -- like every other time in history with their unique challenges of their times. In the past century, it was often just surviving wars, persecutions and purges that took hundreds of millions of lives. Before that, one could add the perils of famines, diseases, natural calamities in addition to the manmade ones.

So we are living in extraordinary times -- like every other, and not that these are the worst of times -- like no other before. In fact, even at its worst, these are still the best of times -- but not to those who believed their niches in life were secure, inviolable and sacrosanct -- and now they have to adjust to a new reality, that others have confronted all along.

The natural consequence of mandated universal education is that eventually everybody is educated who wants to be, and those who don't or can't, won't be no matter how much money society and government throws at it -- because money is not the answer. It is the proper understanding of life that is -- and not just the perpetuation of the old ignorance masquerading as the knowledge we all need to subscribe to.

In that way, the time, energy and resources can be applied to the new challenges of the present times -- which are the problems of ensuring only the well-being of government workers rather than the public at large -- at every level.

Long live King Abercrombie!

(Sadly, the Honolulu-Star-Advertiser is still "editing, censoring, suppressing" Hawaii's most influential blogger, to ensure that the people continue to be kept in the dark (ages) in Hawaii.)

Seeing the Light

2011-06-22T12:56:00.006-10:00

The people who have made a science of growing (medical) marijuana indoors, know that there are two requirements for growing (beneficial) light — range (spectrum) and intensity (power).

Usually what is referred to as “artificial” light, is Edison's original incandescent light or the original fluorescents — which if they tried to grow plants, would fail to do so either — because they lack the necessary spectrum and power. So to compare that light with sunlight, is not an equivalent — but if they start talking about halides and the latest state of the art lighting, then it approximates natural (sun)light, including those tanning bulbs — that cause tanning, while you can lie naked under a regular lightbulb all your life and not get any tanning (substantive) effect.

And particularly important is that range and intensity of light to health and growth of the eye and brain — despite optometrists (eye doctors) saying "light doesn't matter." That is what you're seeing — some people more sensitive to these differences than others, just as some people can hear ranges of sound beyond what others can, or sense anything else (taste, smell, touch).

There's a tendency among the social scientists (the politically correct) to make an equivalency of everything — so that no distinctions (and discrimination) of anything anymore, is possible.

In many cases, a person just needs to optimize the lighting, not to need glasses — as often is the case when one uses an Ott light. Another alternative technology that works is the use of a pin-hole (reading glass) instead of the polished optical glass — that many find helpful staring at computer screens all day, in reducing eye strain. Again, many optometrists (eye doctors) insist that it's not possible or doesn't make a difference when even they use a pinhole instrument to first detect whether one’s vision problem is refractive or eye disease of greater seriousness.

Other vision experts have claimed that they can correct vision defects with the proper training in how to see correctly — because all of our organs don't come with instruction manuals on how to use them properly, correctly and optimally, as most people have to discover on their own — or not.

That is often the case with one’s muscular development, as well as mental development, social, psychological, moral, spiritual, etc. Most often, we learn from those around us — but whole social strata (ghettoes) can often be dysfunctional in that way. That is a common cause of behavioral problems like obesity, addictions, codependencies and mental health (psychopathological) issues.

We need more discrimination and discernment in these matters -- and not the denial that anything, anymore, can make a difference -- and everything doesn't matter, so "why should I care?"

Quality of Life

2011-06-15T11:52:00.004-10:00

Probably the greatest predictor of future success, is present success; that is to say, if one is doing well presently, the chances of that continuing, is good, but if one isn't doing so well presently, one should have a great sense of urgency for making it work now -- as the indicator for one's chances in the future.

People who find a way to solve their problems presently, as they have done in the past previously, have a track record of success -- no matter how daunting the future may look, while those presently floundering, have obviously not solved the problems of the past, hence their present difficulties.

Undoubtedly the greatest factor, is their health and well-being as the foundation and bottom line of their successful adaptation to the challenges of their existence, which should not be a great deterrent -- but that which is the most accessible and easy to secure, and if one can't do that, then one has some serious issues and problems to overcome.

Of course there are unforeseeable and unavoidable calamitous events, but still for the most part, one's baseline health and well-being, are largely one's own doing and control, even despite the current fashion of denying accountability for any and all things. "Bad things just happen, and good things just happen -- and there's nothing one can do about it."

That is the pre-scientific, pre-industrial medieval mindset -- perpetrated by the liberal arts institutions that regard knowledge just for its own sake, because there is nothing one can actually do with that knowledge to make any difference in the world they actually live in. Their knowledge has a much higher and noble purpose of knowledge for its own sake -- and not that low-brow practical stuff of mere mortal minds -- using it for its own benefits. "The higher truths, should know and serve no masters -- and especially to reality itself."

So without that connection between thought and actuality (reality), any truth becomes totally arbitrary -- subject to whomever controls the means (media) for its dissemination. If a low quality of life is "paradise," then that's what it is -- no questions asked, and nothing can be expected.

So why should we care? -- it won't make a difference.

We Have to Get Better

2011-06-04T07:37:00.006-10:00

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time now -- that we can't simply continue to provide for the care of a population that continues to get worse, and need more enablers in that manner.

Undoubtedly, modern technology and medicine, can sustain life far beyond the point at which it would have long ago perished -- but is that the best use of that knowledge, or would it be better to apply that skill to improving the highest end of actualizations instead? Otherwise, the healthy and able are consumed entirely, in caring for the increasingly many, who merely exist -- without any quality of life anymore, including all their own most personal functions -- of eating and elimination, and little more beyond that besides exhibiting the most primitive "vital signs" -- not including any cognitive recognition of any distinctive life that identified them as human personalities.

A large part of it, is enabling those lifestyles -- as though it were still the primitive times in which the only use one had for prosperity and abundance, was its insatiable consumption -- of food, shelter, clothing, transportation (travel) -- without qualitative improvements beyond that.

And when one thoughtfully examines the great crises of these times -- those are the problems, disruptions and challenges of the modern era -- in obesity, real estate speculations and the resulting homelessness, the wastage of resources as fuel -- in highly consumptive lives. Meanwhile, there is no or little thought given, to creating more resources and reserves (capital), instead of depleting them -- ever more widely and equally. It was a bad idea when even a few could do it -- and not a better idea, when everyone else felt just as entitled to do the same.

But instead of simply answering "More," as the solution to every problem, an obviously better idea should be, "How can we do it differently?" That should be the end result of education and society (culture), and not simply, "How can we do more?" -- of what is turning out to be the problems and crises of the foreseeable future.

Of course there is an irresolvable problem as many more people keep getting worse, as many people live longer lives, and fewer die prematurely because of global wars, disease, persecutions, purges and famines -- but those are the opportunities for people also to get unprecedentedly better -- than they ever have been before -- and not just within the parameters of the old "normal."

Initially, new technologies make more possible -- but that serves to create the critical mass from which different and better, become the new imperatives -- and not just more of the old ways of doing things, whether it be education or health care in the old manner of needing it evermore. At some point, more of the old health care, has to morph into better health -- requiring less of the traditional health care. That is the difference between enabling and empowering.

"Enabling" requires more manpower and labor for problems that simply get worse -- while "empowering" means those old problems go away, because they're not enabled to continue -- and multiply out of control, and create evermore (high-paying) jobs to have to deal with them. Instead, a society awakens to realize they could do something better with those resources, time, energy and attention.

But the institutions exist primarily to defend that status quo, and its hierarchies of people who profit from it -- greatly, because they are conditioned to. They will insist that the problems are immutable and essential "human nature," that must not be violated -- all the while lamenting that more money should be funneled that way -- because the students are having a more difficult time learning than they ever had before -- because now there is so much more to learn, rather than less, or people can be sustained for longer at even more irrecoverable and hopeless conditions.

Human civilization advances when there are less rules to learn because the rules they do learn, are much more valuable, valid and versatile. Thus, one no longer has to learn a hundred or a thousand different truths (facts), but the one that implies and from which one can deduce the others -- as one really needs to -- and not just learn a thousand things for the day one will need to recall the one, which of course, is the old model (paradigm) of learning many so-called educators are still propagating as the same need as valuable as a hundred or a thousand years ago.

In fact, such people still insist that one has to learn all the old, before one can learn the new -- or the present state-of-the-art. If that were true, than one would first have to own and operate a Model T before one could board a space shuttle, had to have operated a hand-crank telephone in order to qualify for the latest iPhone/iPad, and had to attain the status of a "successful person" of the last century, in order to live life at its highest possibilities of actualization with all the knowledge and wisdom now available to everybody -- and not just the bureaucracies that controlled them for their own exclusive benefit previously.

That is the reality of these times crumbling before the eyes of the defenders of the status quo -- to their great bewilderment. Something terrible is happening to their old worldview, and something marvelous and wonderful is taking its place -- without their permission, knowledge, and control.

Too Bad, So Sad

2011-05-26T06:17:00.003-10:00

When one reads the story of a 86 year old man being hit by a car while crossing the street at 2:30 am, one has to wonder what improbable set of circumstances had to have occurred, for that to happen -- and not conclude as the newspaper despairs, "That bad shit just happens -- routinely, so what is this world coming to?"

My immediate reaction, is how many pedestrians are walking about at 2:30 am, but also, how many cars are on the road at that time also -- for a fatality to have happened, to say nothing of its inevitability?

One really has to be pressing one's luck, to have to be crossing a street precisely at the time the one car on the road, is passing -- and think that is a safe maneuver to make.

When I cross the street, I try to do it when the possibility of an "accident" is not only minimal, but virtually impossible -- even in the worst case scenario, because I'm not going to trust the driver to watch out for my safety. I'm going to have to look out for my own safety first, regardless of what the other person does -- even if their intent is to deliberately injure me. It's just not going to happen -- in the first place.

You cross the street when there are no cars -- period, or when that car comes to a complete stop, with the clear intention of letting one cross safely -- and then if there are no other cars that are not fully on board with that understanding, and intent.

But when one is totally oblivious to anyone and anything else, bad things can happen. The chances of these things happening, are not random but highly probable and likely -- both good and bad. It is very important to distinguish these differences -- rather than being non-discriminatory about these things -- because they matter and make a difference, and not that non-discrimination is a virtue in itself, at all times, and in every situation. And so bad shit happens, and one feels powerless to do anything about it, but report and editorialize how life is out of control, and there is nothing one can do about it.

That is obviously a personality and culture of despair and hopelessness -- that is promoted by the media underwritten to foster such dependencies on every other but oneself -- first and foremost, and that makes the biggest difference in living one's life, and having good or bad outcomes.

A few bad things just happen -- and a few, are at that wrong place at the wrong time, but even those events, are rare -- and not the commonplace, or "could happen to anyone" -- which is the impression given. It doesn't matter whose fault it is, or who is to blame. There is something much greater that is wrong than who was right or wrong -- because there is a fundamental lack of understanding of cause and effect, and those consequences they make tragedies almost inevitable.

And beyond that, there is not to care, and not to know any difference, and want to -- and accept the catastrophes and sadness, is the way things have always been and must be. You can't design a roadway that is entirely foolproof -- when a society only produces victims in the first place. That is what is truly disturbing.

Get Off the Rock!

2011-05-18T08:16:00.005-10:00

Those who have grown up in Hawaii and done the best, are overwhelmingly those who left the Islands -- and moved up to greater opportunities elsewhere, including countries outside of the US.

Many all over the country, are now pondering if it is possible to make it on just Social Security alone. In most places in the world, any Social Security check would go far -- already exceeding the income for the indigenous populations there. Those are not likely to be the most "advanced" societies and cultures, but the leap from where they presently are as developing countries into contemporary state of the art civilization is not that far -- as one notices when even people in "undeveloped" countries, are using cell phones and computers with same proficiency as those in the most developed countries -- where their populations may even be falling behind the leading edge, because they are satisfied with the way things are.

Not being satisfied, is a tremendous motivation, for improving one's lot, and many in the already developed countries, are prone to this complacency of merely protecting the present status quo. The emerging countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) are not so satisfied, and so have become the new engines of growth, development and progress, in the world today.

And not far behind, are the Philippines, Indonesia, Costa Rica, Panama, Thailand, etc., where people can actually live fairly comfortable lives on even the minimum Social Security benefit -- and live like rich people, on what would be a middle income, middle class life in the US. The key is how well they can adjust and adapt to a foreign culture, or at least a different one, than the one they grew up in, and were conditioned to think is the only one, if not the best.

So one has to grow out of that ethnocentrism, to consider life elsewhere, even in these United States, because the whole conditioning and culture of the Islands, is to pride themselves on their isolation, while convincing themselves, it is much worse anywhere else. That is a large handicap to overcome -- to embrace the thought that life could actually be better somewhere else, because they have convinced themselves, that nowhere could be better -- even if they are homeless and jobless without any prospects for improvement on the Islands where they are, and expect always to remain.

Most successful people have to move in order to achieve that success -- to be in the right place, whether that be Hollywood, Silicon Valley, New York City, London, Paris, Tokyo, etc., for even with their great talent, it would not be fully recognized, developed and appreciated, in the small town they grew up in. So even the great and most talented, had to move on, to improve their chances of success. That is also why immigrants anywhere, have a decided advantage among the indigenous populations anywhere. They are naturally highly motivated to improve their situation in life -- which is no small thing. It is why they are there.

That is the significant difference, between those who do well, and those who do not. That attitude, may be far more important, than where one actually moves to, or whether they actually move. One has to cultivate that mindset and mentally that they can make it anywhere else, to make it anywhere again -- which is the state of mind of the homeless people in the US, who see no prospects for improvement otherwise.

It is not enough just to demand they have to be successful at the culture they are presently floundering in; they have to know all their alternatives and best chances for their success -- and not simply trying harder, at what doesn't interest and motivate them.

We have to begin with the right understanding, to produce right action and right livelihood.

Raising the Cost of Living

2011-05-04T17:37:00.003-10:00

Many government leaders mistake raising the cost of living -- with raising the standard of living -- which are actually inversely related. That is, the higher the cost of living, the lower the standard of living -- because the cost for that standard, is too high for most people. But misunderstanding that relationship and concept, makes them think progress is making everything more expensive rather than more affordable -- which is what happens when they raise the costs of that manufacture (labor), instead of its value.

Ultimately, it is the value one receives for their expenditures that is the quality of life, and not simply the expenditure, regardless of any value received, of which the ultimate high cost, is getting nothing in any transaction. The other end of the experience, is getting unanticipated value and great satisfaction, for free or very little. Then one's cost of living, is very low.

But rather than being a generalized experience, it is also a highly individual one determined by each person's unique ability to assess the cost-to-benefit, or risk-to-reward ratios, in getting what they think they are getting, and is willing to suffer the disappointment and consequences of the possibilities presented to them.

Some people feel they have no choice -- but to buy the one thing the salesperson insists, is the only thing possible, or is the only thing they are selling, even if it ill-suits what the purchaser needs, and is in the market for -- which can usually be summed up as "value." So never being able to obtain any, makes the cost of living seem exorbitant, as it is never possible to obtain any satisfaction, in any transaction. One only expects to be less well off, by those exchanges -- until finally, all their money is gone, and they live in constant fear of that eventuality -- as the logical fate of living in that society.

Is that the actuality for many, or is it just the threat of that society's disapproval and retaliation for not conforming to the status quo and socio-political correctness that a self-designated few claim an exclusive right to dictate for everyone else? How do these misappropriations of rights, privileges and powers arise? -- and how can that sovereignty be restored to their rightful owners -- to determine the fate and enjoyment of their own lives.

Why should the people despair for the hopelessness of owning and governing their own lives? When did we reach that point of no return? When were those essential rights surrendered? -- and who did it for us?

Those are the thoughts one has, when one sees the media reports and wonders, when did I think that? -- and can I afford not to think that way? That's why it is so important for the powers that be, to continue to raise the cost of living -- so that obedience and conformity to it, is the only thing that seems feasible, and binding.

Finally, there is no other way but to leave that society for another, where the cost is not so high, and there a few more options -- than the only "choice" allowed.

The Role of a Teacher (Elder)

2011-04-27T06:49:00.007-10:00

In the time-honored Asian (and other indigenous) cultures, the title and honor of a "teacher," had a very special meaning, and not what it has become today -- to mean a person who is not a master and creator of that which he teaches, but merely "certified," because he has jumped through all the hoops of seeming to be one. But just because a trade association can determine who is certified to work in that field, doesn't necessarily mean they have those who actually created that knowledge, the masses now claim to own.

This is a very important distinction, because in the original meaning of teacher, that IS what it meant -- that the teacher learned it himself, as the originator of that knowledge -- and not merely accepting what was taught to all the other students, as the only truth they should then propagate. Such people would not know how to determine the truth of anything for themselves -- but are merely taught what the truth is, and that they should entertain no other.

And so "authority" and "authoritarianism" become very important in that institution -- rather than promoting the freedom of inquiry -- to entertain all the many ways of looking at a subject, and coming up with an idea that integrates all the old understandings, into a comprehensive, integrated better understanding that supplants the old, instead of merely teaching the old as the new -- to those who haven't heard it before, which are invariably the impressionable young, who understandably, haven't heard it all yet.

And that is why schools invariably target the young, rather than the old and wily -- who have heard it all, or at least heard a lot, to begin to suspect, that the "teacher" has no idea what they are talking about, and many of such students will actually likely know more (better).

But that is when education, or teaching, stands the test of scrutiny -- when ideas are presented to a group of peers, and not just the young and innocent (gullible) -- who don't know any better when they are being conned and coerced into believing what is not true. Obviously, many of the more able students are weeded out or persecuted in this way -- of not conforming to what the authorities demand they believe -- as the political/social correctness of the group in charge of determining that for everyone else.

Despite that indoctrination (socialization, education, institutionalization, etc.), there will always be a few who survive those pressures to conform -- and transcend the limits of the present knowledge, to discover the truth beyond the limits of that knowledge, or even its prohibitions, and the unthinkable, which often becomes the realities of the future.

Thus the role of the teacher, is to ensure that among his students, there is at least one, who go beyond the limits of the knowledge of the teacher, to discover what the teacher doesn't know or even thinks can be known -- as the great achievement and distinction, of a great teacher -- and not merely one who pumps out legions of mediocrities, who never dare to question beyond their "knowledge," as the limits of all that can be known.

Are Government Workers Underpaid?

2011-04-15T05:41:00.001-10:00

$27,000 (benefits) is already the median income for all incomes in America -- which means, half the people make more, and half make less.

So for the government workers to make $100,000 on top of that, they all represent the top half of incomes -- and are the "greedy rich" they vilify. The AP ran a story not too long ago about a couple who were both employed as government workers, and reported that the man made $60,000 (I think as a teacher), while his wife worked as a nurse (for assuredly more but her income was not disclosed to better distort), and he was "outraged" that they were living a "lower middle class existence," to further give the impression that the "average" income was what the CEOs of the major corporations were making -- and the rank and file government workers should therefore be entitled to because they had "sacrificed" themselves to serve the people -- otherwise, they would assuredly be getting the top private sector compensations.

It all doesn't make sense in actuality, but that's what the union newsletters/newspapers would have us believe -- and no local reporter/editor would dare sign their name to it, but coming from the "Associated Press," it should be regarded as the vetted truth, that most government workers are highly skilled professionals with unique expertise that they created themselves -- rather than the rank and file that demands that level of compensation, even as rank and file bureaucrats.

That's the problem with unionizing the government workers: instead of working to provide that quality of life for everyone in America, they lobby and work solely to assure that life only for themselves -- at the expense of the rest of the taxpayers and citizenry -- even going so far as to claim that they are the " poor and underprivileged" (that they are selflessly and nobly serving).

And of course they can always find some starving/willing freelance writer to write that fiction as fact, under the imprimatur of the "Associated Press.

"Why Don't You Submit Your Writing to the Publications?"

2011-04-11T15:39:00.003-10:00

Actually, I used to submit pieces to several publications, but when they realized I was so good and influential, they had to put a stop to that -- because only their writers and editors (themselves) could dictate the dialogue and shape what people thought.

That was the "old media" control and why people weren't allowed the freedom to see all the information, alternatives and options -- but only what the editors/copywriters would edit any piece to say -- what they wanted you to say, rather than what you actually wanted to say, in your own way, in your own words.

I told them that was not a wise thing to do -- because in the age of the Internet, they would lock out all the talent and brains on the other side -- just like every trade association (union) tries to define and protect their own turf, force everybody through their toll booths, and to play "their" game -- "their" way. So they could always claim you weren't writing in their proper "Associated Press" style so they could edit it to say something else entirely, or that nothing new and different could ever be said -- because you could only repeat what had been said before -- from what the AP certified writers only could say.

So rather than just have my words distorted, I just gave up submitting it to the publications -- and wrote exclusively for online forums and blogs, until all the traditional publications had to come around to allowing online discussions. Initially, they still censored (moderated) much of what I wrote, because it was too groundbreaking and radical -- this whole concept of saying what they had never allowed before. But then the participation began to outstrip their ability to "monitor" all the discussions -- and there wasn't enough manpower to maintain that control -- and so they had to presume that readers would notify them of abuses, if they got egregious enough.

But then the unions and other control freaks play their own games of "reporting abuses" just to see if they can regain control of the discussions, and suppress, repress, edit and censor those they don't want anybody else to see.

But people can make up their own minds now -- and decide for themselves what is valid and true, and not just what the publishers and editors tell us is "all the news fit to print," and like the union bosses keep insisting, "they'll do all the thinking and talking for everybody else" -- even on up through the university professors, who if they can't think, talk and represent themselves, what good are they?

So it is a credit to yourself that you can tell these differences -- and not as the old media editors insisted, "They'll never be able to tell the difference, much less appreciate it." I knew they were wrong.

(This reply was "moderated" out of existence at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.)

I guess I should be flattered to be the most censored writer in America -- but also the most read.

The Selling of Hawaii

2011-04-08T07:47:00.001-10:00

It's very typical these days, that all the news and information brought to us today, is provided by those who benefit from the distribution (marketing) of that "information," including and especially, the seemingly disinterested and objective "educators" and "experts" -- whose solution for everything, is that we need infinitely more of their "education" -- for their benefit(s) to continue to escalate.

That is the peculiarity of markets that exist to "create" a market, whether it is a real need or not. To some extent, that can be said of anything -- so one has to discriminate and decide, at what point does "need" become "greed" -- which is this insatiability beyond the actual needs for health and well-being, that distorts the sensitivities and sensibilities of everything else.

Certainly we've reached that tipping point, when houses that have outlived their usefulness and should be torn down, sell for half a million dollars or more -- and keep going up. At some point, some kind of fundamental tie with its actual usefulness and value, have to be restored to sanity, rationality and perspective -- so that people are not simply justified that everybody else have also lost their their sense of values.

Unfortunately, we might have long gone past that point -- in many arenas, because the marketing has long become its own reason for being -- as long as it sells.

There's No "Free Lunch" There

2011-04-03T07:46:00.003-10:00

You just can't create more work so that you can create more jobs -- to do things that don't need to be done, while ignoring all the things that really do need to be done, and in fact, eliminated.

The purpose of education is not to create more high-paying jobs for teachers because the schools keep getting worse -- which in the backwards world of the education indoctrination, "justifies" the need for hiring even more "educators" to make the students even worse, and more confused than they came into the schools -- often causing children to drop out as soon as they've had enough, and vow never to learn anything again, after those disastrous experiences with "education" and "educators."

People everywhere, under every condition, are naturally disposed to learn (even all animals do) -- and it is the education, and notably bad education and education professionals, that make them resistive and rebellious. We should not be then guaranteeing such people lifetime jobs as "educators," but should be letting those who actually know something, and maybe even created the knowledge, to teach such classes, instead of the field being restricted only to "education" professionals, who have been educated to "look busy," and sound like they know what they are talking about.

Let us now move from the obvious to the more subtle -- of building a rail system where nobody presently lives, because the major justification for building a rail makes sense, is where there is the greatest density of population in the world -- like a Tokyo, New York, London, Paris, Beijing -- because that makes getting anywhere possible at all, and not simply because it is an "alternative," few can avail themselves of.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure of roads, water supply and sewer, are erupting daily -- with no money available to repair and reconstruct them because no federal funding is available because that's what any population is expected to pay for themselves -- and not expect citizens everywhere else to for them. And so, in order to get the "free money," we'll do what doesn't need to be done -- while the great urgencies of life, are ignored, because there is no "free lunch" there.

That's how the government of Hawaii has been so perverted to go for the money, instead of the good of the general well-being of the greater whole -- even if it means creating more problems and failures -- because that's where the money is. You have to do what is right and good, even if it isn't -- and that's what makes a government, and a society good.

"Union's Solution is For Its Own Benefit"

2011-03-29T09:03:00.002-10:00

You're absolutely right -- that the government should not be run for the exclusive benefit of government workers -- but that's what happens when they get taken over by the unions, for permanent, guaranteed lifetime jobs, no less.

Government work should be rotated among the entire citizenry -- rather than allowing them to become the permanent, personal entitlements of a few -- for life.

That is the inherent problem -- for which this whole country was founded upon -- this notion of lifetime entitlement to govern everybody else exclusively for their own benefit.

That is the essential problem of government anywhere, anytime -- that a few, will determine that everybody else exists only for their exclusive benefit, and that there shouldn't even exist any other organizations and entities to oppose them -- as the divine right to determine the "political correctness" for everybody else. That's just the way it is because they've said so, and they should be the only one allowed to raise funds for political campaigns and buy up all the media.

It's insidious at first, then finally becomes more apparent at times like these, that their demands take precedence over the general well-being and welfare of the society at large -- even demanding that their "market returns" should be guaranteed without risks, because everybody else only exists to serve them.

And if everybody else was as smart as them, they'd all do the same.- -- as though that was an enlightened, progressive and intelligent society and way to do government. That is its long history of failures.

Ending the Cycle of Thoughtlessness

2011-03-23T09:02:00.004-10:00

It's unfortunate that the newspapers still think that articles that elicit the most outrage and offend the most sensibilities because they produce the most comments and contentiousness, have greater value than those that don't, because they are well-thought out, and don't perpetuate the war between the thoughtless.

It's the old metrics of thinking that just more -- is better, even if it is worse and the worst, that coarsens and undermines society and thought.

And so they publish the demagogues who ensure them of those knee-jerk responses of the left and the right (stereotyped thinking) and those who keep those arguments going -- rather than solving any real problems, which would be the unfamiliar ways and ideas that are the solutions. Those are the submissions that are eliminated (edited) because they don't repeat and reinforce what the mass media wants us to -- which are the "traditional" problems, and not the solutions.

When there are real solutions, those problems go away -- and are not perpetuated as the age-old arguments because they don't -- and create more work and the resultant jobs -- that keep these vicious cycles going, ie., "we need more teachers (funds), because the schools keep getting worse," or "we need more health care because the health and well-being keeps getting worse" -- as though that was some kind of solution, which should be obvious that it is not, but we are not allowed to entertain any other.

Why aren't there good writers and thinkers? Why not a Thomas Sowell rather than a Leonard Pitts/Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson as "spokesman for the black people?" But beyond that, Thomas Sowell is a good and thoughtful writer, rather than one perpetuating the stereotypes that blacks only think in black and white -- and not of the universal concerns like every expansive human does.

Because that wouldn't confirm and reinforce the old stereotypes and arguments -- but create a whole new light and ways of seeing human behaviors and attitudes -- that solve (eliminate) the problem.

Change is Not a Function of Time

2011-03-20T18:56:00.002-10:00

In an instant, everything can change -- and not as we are conditioned to think, that change is a product of time. And so we come to believe that a rudimentary education takes 12 years, and a higher education, 4 more years -- and not that an education is not a function of time, but the ending of it -- when life begins all over again, with a wholly new understanding and insight.

There are always times like these, when for a few, everything they know about life, is wiped out so totally, that they have to effectively learn life all over again. For some, that is an immense tragedy, in which a few will decide not to go on-- but for most, they will adapt to the new realities, as humans have done for countless ages now.

The ending of an epoch is near, when people think that what they know of life now, will last forever, and be a permanent thing -- just as the pharaohs and the emperors of the past, desired to achieve immortality as their ultimate quest -- rather than accept, that one day, they would be no more. That is the reconciliation of life -- that allows the next generation to take over, and carry that society further, and not just repeat what they have always done before.

So the calamities and disasters are often unavoidable and even unimaginable, except in hindsight, when people with nothing better to do, will dwell on all that could have been done otherwise -- after it is too late. There is no perfect knowledge -- of what one should have done if they knew then what they know now -- as though there was no difference. What one knows then, is what they had to work with -- and could not prepare for every contingency and possibility. But that doesn't mean one should only prepare for one -- as though that is the only reality possible.

All of life is risk -- chances, and choices, with no absolute certainty, except there are always those claiming to have that perfect knowledge and wisdom, as though they knew. But all they know -- is what they know, which is what somebody told them and not the totality of what is going on in the world -- which is far more than just the arguments between the Republicans and the Democrats, the Hatfields and the McCoys, the government and everything beyond it, that a few will desire that all of life, must conform to their wishes, and their visions of a perfect world for everybody else, and what everybody else should be doing to achieve that.

That is the illusion and delusion of the mass media hoping to control all thought -- of what it is, and what it should be, and to demand, that there is nothing else, and nothing else is possible.

Why Do We Need to Guarantee Poor Teachers (Employees) Lifetime Jobs?

2011-03-09T08:45:00.004-10:00

Lost in all the union lobbying for ever higher compensation for public service jobs, is why we should be guaranteeing any "public service" jobs at all? Serving the public is not an entitlement -- so that those who don't serve the public (well), but only their own self-interests (at the expense of the rest of the citizens), should be released at will -- to go on to pursue those interests in the greater free market.

Nobody is forced to take a government (public sector) job, with the possible exception of a military draft during wartime. So this "sacrifice" they often speak of to serve the public (which they now make a claim against), is not one at all, but having it both ways, is really a another legendary deception by the poor stable of underpaid freelance writers who are willing to say anything somebody pays them to say -- no matter how misleading, because that's what makes them "professionals," and if they serve their clients loyally, can expect ever increasing opportunities for such "promotions" (work).

The proper measure of "comparable worth," are all the factors that go into the compensation for what one does -- and doesn't have to do. All pay being equal, most college graduates would prefer not to be the janitor, but the teacher, and a few, to even be the principle instead of a classroom teacher -- because they are better suited for some positions/work than others, and not that they had to "sacrifice" being the school janitor, to teach the 3rd graders. So all these bogus arguments about "sacrifice" as being something they should be compensated for, including being the Chief Executive Officer of some leading technology company, have no basis in any reality -- and that is the reason they're teaching the 3rd grade, as the fulfillment of what they do best -- and if that doesn't prove to be true, they shouldn't be guaranteed a lifetime job doing so, and beyond that, receiving a generous pension for no longer having to go through the motions of doing something useful.

The fact of the matter is that the fair compensation for any public service job should be -- the median income for all its citizens, even regardless of occupation -- because government work doesn't require cutting edge research, development and marketing (promotion), but requires the median competency in their respective fields, of the existing options available -- provided by the free market.

Of course that is not what a lot of union workers like to think about themselves -- that in their minds they are the best in their field if they hadn't opted for the security of government work -- and that is why there is the free market to prove that fact -- and not that seniority at hanging on to the same job, is sufficient qualifications to create the next level of human actualizations and possibilities.

That is not government work, and that is not what they teach in the schools -- which in the best of schools, is what the teacher discovered themselves, and not just what some teacher told them to teach, because that was the new consensus of what everybody else had to teach (know).

That is the reason we don't pay the average the top 5%, nor the bottom 5% either -- which the creative individual, is far more likely to be -- because only a rare few will make it to the top in that way. But no society can guarantee that everybody who wishes to get to the top, should be compensated the same as those at the top -- because there just isn't enough unlimited free money to go around.

What's Wrong with Government (Society)

2011-02-27T07:47:00.002-10:00

Government in Hawaii (US), has become almost exclusively about getting more money for government workers, and not about providing public service, and the participation of the community at large -- because they realize it is about serving the career aspirations and desire for government workers to be on the top -- permanently, like the oligarchies fighting to hang onto their positions of privilege in other countries. In this, they are aided by the "Communication Workers of America," to ensure that only the "politically correct" message gets out there -- while claiming to be completely objective.

But it is a well-documented fact that government workers all substantially exceed the median income -- while claiming to be the oppressed and entitled to ever more. You can't pay the median the top 5% -- but those above the median, have to go their singular way to obtain those rewards -- and not that they become the entitlement of those who belong to the right party -- the Democrats or the Baathists.

That should disturb even liberals and progressives, but surely is a concern for every fair-minded and independent-person that is in rare supply these days.

In order to reward the creativity and innovation that will create a more perfect society, we can't simply reward those who wish to maintain the status quo of doing what has already been done before -- the same as these entrepreneurs, that do create new industries and jobs -- and not just demanding more for their own jobs -- as much as these deservingly valued risk-takers.

And then completely overlooked these days, are the truly weak and unfortunate, who are now just being exploited by those who know how to play the "government" game for their own funding, fancy titles and six-figure incomes -- "in the service of the poor." They start believing their own propaganda, and then deride the hard-working people at Walmarts or McDonalds as fools for not being smart enough to climb aboard the union/Democrat gravy train.

Understanding Liberalism

2011-02-21T19:11:00.004-10:00

Although liberals like to call themselves "progressives," hoping to infer "enlightened," and "objective," the liberal arts reached their heights in the medieval ages, as the primary defense against an emerging "scientific method" of inquiry, that allowed individuals to conduct their independent inquiries and experiments and come to their own conclusions -- rather than accepting as truth, what the hierarchy of authority, wished to act as the sole arbiter of the truth in every matter.

As such, the "liberal arts" were the ancient world's trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, buttressed by the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music -- still hoping to hold sway, in the modern world that enables and empowers every individual to do their own research and thinking, rather than accepting the authority, of those predetermined to be highly esteemed, which are invariably the people ensconced and sinecured at liberal institutions, ie., the universities (schools), church, government and media.

So not surprisingly, they wish to preserve this system of status and privilege, and use their skills in the liberal arts, to convince everyone else, that such a system should continue, as the enlightened path of society and civilization -- and not that everyone should really be equal -- but they should be "more equal" than everyone else, and entitled to everyone else's share of the pie also, because they have "sacrificed" themselves in the service of the public good to be their leaders. Otherwise, they would be gods.

But because of the superiority of their compassion, they chose to serve mankind, by serving themselves, and distinguish themselves by doing the thinking for everyone else. Thus the distinctive quality of liberalism, is the repeating of one daily mantra posted by the Democratic Underground and Daily Kos, of the talking points, every member of the liberal wing must repeat in solidarity, to combat and drown out the cacophony of many individuals thinking and speaking for themselves -- which should be proof enough, that they don't know the mandated political correctness of the day, and how it must be repeated faithfully without questioning that authority and their entitlements.

It Only Makes Sense

2011-02-16T11:23:00.001-10:00

A person either is a teacher -- or they're not.

Why should Hawaii taxpayers be supporting all these "bad" teachers for life -- because that's what the union says they must. And then they create all these arbitrary and bureaucratic rules to keep the "good" teachers out -- so that there can be more jobs and job security for all their bad teachers, who then have to become education administrators because otherwise, the students will give them a bad time because they have nothing to teach -- except how to "act" like a teacher who knows something.

Obviously, education can't continue to just be about job security for teachers who don't want to teach and aren't gifted for doing so -- and just paying them more is not going to change that.

You have to let gifted teachers teach -- and not just those who know how to play the game so that nobody else can teach.

So it makes a lot of sense, that the board of education should not be preselected by the self-serving teachers' union and their lobbyists.

Is He For Real?

2011-02-12T12:28:00.001-10:00

It looks like Hawaii finally got the governor it needs -- someone who can tell them the truth -- that government can't exist just to serve its own government employees and their lobbyists (unions), while the rest exist only to be taxed so that the public service workers can remain in the top half of society.

Any society can, and rightfully should, pay one worker $100,000 a year to lead the government. But it can't pay every rank and file worker $100,000 -- for life, whether they do anything or not. That's not a sustainable culture except in the fantasies of union labor leaders -- all making more than the governor and chief executive officers of all but a few major corporations.

The comparable peers of government workers, is the median of all the workers in society -- and not the top 5% -- of which if they were, they would certainly not be working for the government in a rank and file job, because they would be creating a new industry and more jobs for others, and not simply be doing what has always been done before.

Instead, the right compensation for government workers is the median of all those employed in comparable rank and file jobs -- which includes the Walmart and 7-11 worker and file clerks in countless small businesses -- and not the ONE who is the personal assistant to Donald Trump, etc.

It hasn't been a "sacrifice" to work for the governments of Hawaii, but a great privilege and trust that should not be abused to rob the citizens of Hawaii blind, deaf and dumb -- and buy off all media to promote their misinformation that they are the great deprived, rather than substantially above the median -- even as cleaners.

So when the governor proposes that pensions for those in the upper half of income earners should be taxed because they have lifetime, HIGH fixed incomes, it seems to be a reasonable solution in a state in which increasingly many, have no income at all, and have just given up -- so that the media can continue to publish their bogus low unemployment rates to justify the demands of the unions for even more than above the median they are already getting.

And then on top of that, they've even been reimbursing government retirees for what should be their (every individual's) own portion of Medicare -- which at least then, should be a level playing field instead of another union privilege to retain the great inequalities that now distinguish Hawaii. You can't keep on giving people with more than their fair share, more than their fair share -- without those at the bottom, of which they "claim" to be, nothing, and no chance for climbing onboard.

That's why there is no moral authority to deal with the homeless or any of the criminal activities -- because they know, that corruption of fairness, is what is required to keep them perennially at the top -- and everybody else at the bottom. Who wouldn't call that paradise -- but just for themselves?

But that's when the people start to realize it doesn't always have to be that way -- with the few favored by government, getting everything, and leaving nothing for everybody else. Very few leaders can see that, so maybe there is a reason Neil Abercrombie is governor of Hawaii, rather than anybody else.

What You Really Need to Know About the New Lighting

2011-02-06T09:28:00.004-10:00

The important thing to look for In compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL)-- is the K rating -- the higher, the better, which is often labeled as "daylight," or full-spectrum bulbs, meaning they simulate natural sunlight, and some people detect that they have more blues, and even ultra-violet. The current best standard is 6500K, although the original full-spectrum bulbs developed were 5000K.

The CFL bulbs most people are familiar with, and dislike as substandard lighting, are those with low K ratings, usually denoted as "soft-white," or "warm" light, because they have more yellow, red, and infrared and heat. They are usually 2700K.

The high K rating bulbs are usually found in stores that cater to arts and crafts -- because they allow a person to do fine-detail work with their eyes for long periods of time -- without the eyestrain, and give a true rendering of color, since it approximates natural daylight. Many with "poor vision," especially in reading, can be "cured" by using this better lighting -- which even many eye doctors claim, should not make a difference -- but it does to the millions who know this for a fact.

These full-spectrum bulbs, are often used in indoor growing operations, because plants also like them, and evolved in natural daylight, just as animals have. Without natural light stimulus, life would be nonexistent -- and the simple experiment of growing a plant in a dark closet will prove that. But if a CFL is kept on in that closet, a plant will grow and actually flourish -- just as humans will, with optimal lighting, but poor lighting, as with the old incandescents which consume a lot of electricity while producing a lot of heat, is an inappropriate choice for too warm climates.

Until recently, these full-spectrum, state-of-the-art lighting, sold at a premium, just as the newer LEDs (light emitting diodes) presently do, that are an even purer light without producing heat, except that now, they are often sold at the same price as the substandard CFLs or only a slight premium -- to the unwary, who don't think it makes a difference, or to those who prefer the yellowish-red hues, as what they are conditioned to prefer in lighting -- as substandard to real daylight.

They think that artificial light should be not as good as actual daylight. But the tanning bed lightbulbs, are these distinctly overwhelming whitish light, and the full-spectrum CFL are their weaker counterparts, that although do not have this powerful tanning effect, are important to stimulating the brain and eyes to maintain their health, since 95% of the stimulus to the brain, is light.

People deprived of this natural light when trapped in cave-ins, or those who choose to live in them, tend to be stunted in their growth, or make weird adaptations, as with the animals of the deep seas, that seem like alien life-forms. Currently, one of the popular misguided pronouncements is that one should avoid sunlight if at all possible, which has caused a whole generation to come down with osteoporosis and dementias for the lack of the proper healthful light stimulus (vitamin D), and the healthful effects on the brain and eyes.

One of the best ways of using CFLs, is to turn them on and leave them on -- especially in light-poor areas that are likely to cause accidents, like darkened interior stairways, walk-in closets, darkened interiors and exteriors after dark susceptible to criminal and suspicious aggregations and activities. There is a huge difference between no lighting, and even a little, in improving such locations and environments. Keeping the bulbs on, enables them to last longer because the CFL weakness, is the number of times it is switched on and off, and not the length of time it remains on. So it's best use, is to determine the darkest place in the environment, and keep that light on constantly, so that even if one has to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, or for any other purpose, one has light available to safely move about -- which otherwise, is a hazardous activity, in those who think it is wise to economize that way -- and often incur life-threatening injuries in that manner. Light also gives the impression that one is under observation, or is "at home," deterring casual crimes of opportunity.

These full-spectrum CFLs therefore, represent a quantum leap into superior lighting over the substandard incandescent bulbs and even the old, familiar CFLs. Even Costco sells a 75 watt equivalent "daylight" CFL, 6 bulbs at $9.99, or $1.66, a bulb, for the state-of-the-art in lighting. They actually consume 18 watts. The 60 watt equivalents seem slightly underpowered, at 13 watts, while the 100 watt equivalents (23 watts actual), may be more than one needs for ambient (base) lighting.

Why Is Hawaii Always the Last to Know?

2011-01-31T08:18:00.000-10:00

In hot, sunny (tropical) climates -- like Hawaii, Haiti, the Middle East, Africa, what has greatest value and utility, is shade, because with it, one can conduct industry, manufacturing and creativity, rather than spend all one's energy and day, just trying to get out of the direct sunlight, and trying to stay cool.

Obviously, there are whole industries that could be pioneered in this field, to benefit at least half of the world's population, most living in poverty for this reason -- instead of merely importing the existing and mostly obsolete technologies that obviously don't work so well -- in Hawaii, as well as everywhere else that doesn't create these optimal operating conditions, that further enable productive thought, activities and capacities.

That's why I suggested that the best idea for Honolulu (Hawaii), was to create an infrastructure of shade, with which, most people could then comfortably and enjoyably walk, bike, or just hang out, in these public areas -- and not have to get into the latest version of air-conditioning comfort (The Rail), that these promoters want to market to a population desperately wanting something they can't quite figure out what.

The ancient manner of creating shade was to grow trees -- which requires soil, water, and horticultural know-how to do it right, so that it doesn't also destroy one's foundation, so that everybody then decides to cut down all the trees. The modern, best way to create shade is through mesh netting, that can be suspended at a modest cost, and even attached to existing structures -- like street lamp posts. It is already used for those purposes, as temporary structures during summers in the temperate climates, with great success, to create an immediate amphitheater, banquet area, whatever. It is an open-air structure made of fabric -- which allow the cool winds in, while allowing body heat and odor out -- which creates an optimal environment for doing most things, even in war. The military has developed a lot of expertise in creating such environments -- anywhere on earth.

That's why a suggestion that tents and other fabric structures are ideal for Hawaii for homes, classrooms. parties, athletic events, is not being low-rent and backward, as your leaders think coming out of their own poverty experiences, but are actually today's state-of-the-art, high tech solutions that they reject -- in favor of the traditional high-cost, high-maintenance solutions like air conditioning structures that are poorly designed for these purposes, and are unus able without air conditioning, lighting, etc.

Not only could fabric structures be used alone, but if used over regular buildings, prevent those buildings from ever being touched by the heat of the sun at all -- which of course, absorbs that heat. Such netting is usually made out of recycled plastic bottles.

Finally, when the need for more ventilation is required, ionic fans, are actually superior to air conditioning because it feels like air conditioning -- at the cost of running a fan, and ionization freshens and deodorizes the air, which is a big culprit in any gathering of people in a poorly ventilated room.

But one has a difficult time getting people in Hawaii to listen to genuinely new ideas and being the first to adopt them, because with their conformist indoctrination (education), they think they have to do what everybody else does, even when there might be a better way of doing things -- because then, they'd have to be thinking for themselves, and actually be the first to know, rather than always the last.

Is Taxing Pensions Fair?

2011-01-28T09:43:00.002-10:00

You have to tax all income equally -- and not that some people are entitled not to be taxed ever again, particularly since they are making more than the median income -- which should be the great equalizer.

Those would be the pensions taxed in this proposal, just as Social Security is when a person makes more than the median income. That means, they are in the upper half of income recipients -- rather than the poverty and disadvantage they are claiming. In fact, in order to get those more than median pensions, they would have had to receive more than median salaries while they worked -- for a substantial advantage.

And because they had those higher than median incomes, they had the luxury of buying real estate, stocks, whatever else, to generate even further income and advantage, than those making less than the median income.

In fact, one of the ways to solve the Social Security imbalance is to pay every person the same payment in retirement -- while taxing all their earned income without a cap, as has been proposed, because those people earning high incomes, have a chance to sock away a substantial portion of their incomes for their retirement -- and if they don't, they are then entitled only to what everybody else receives. That would be the fair and equitable way to do it -- as well as with the Medicare, universal health coverage. It should be at the minimal base level for all.

The problem with the Obama plan, is that they want to force people who are healthy enough never to see a doctor, to be forced to buy medical insurance to subsidize the Cadillac plans of the unions -- who abuse the system as much as possible, by taking all the sick leave they can, and abuse their health so they can maximize their health care benefits -- even if that means destroying their own health.

So society is rewarding dysfunction and failure, over health and intelligent decisions and behaviors, especially causing the overprivileged, to claim that they are the underprivileged. That is why there is so much confusion and corruption in Hawaii -- because people cannot distinguish these things rightly, and think the left is right, and up is down, and same sex is the only way to go.

Who Owns the Truth (Facts)

2011-01-21T05:45:00.001-10:00

People who have no idea what they are talking about, are fond of (pro)claiming that every idea is as good as any other -- and just because they say it, makes it so, and there is no higher authority.

Nowhere is that more true than in the field of education and instruction -- because such teachers don't do their own thinking and research, but merely teach what they have been told to propagate -- because they don't know any better, and could never tell the difference, because that is not their job, but merely following the directives of so-called authorities.

That is authoritarianism and not authority. The classic example used to be the bureaucratic tyranny of the physical education (PE) instructor, who could make people do any number of insane things -- because they said so, and they were the authorities in charge, and could punish them with even further outrageous demands, no matter how unreasonable and insensible. But now that manner and methods, have spread to most instruction (education) -- which is recognized by only a few (but the most perceptive and aware), as the indoctrination (brainwashing) it is -- moving further into the mainstream because those who claim to know better, don't, and are actually the least qualified and capable of exercising such judgment, and so become one's worst enemy rather than a reliable source of information.

But that is obviously not lost by increasingly many people who have awakened to question such authorities because they prefer discovering the truth of any matter for themselves, and realize the necessity to do so, in the new world of increasing alternatives and information. This development is not unlike the movement out of the medieval age of similar totalitarian authority and information control, to the new age of challenge that could be proved by experience and experimentation that is always a challenge to the old information hierarchies that are mostly represented by the education institutions, and what is increasingly referred to as the old media institutions and their ways of expertly (professionally) manipulating public opinion.

For this, they are most easily identified by their insistence that what they say, are the "facts," and everyone else can merely express their "opinions," because they "own" the truth, and those are the facts.

And thus their readers argue endlessly and pointlessly that their side is "right" and morally superior, while never questioning, how they came to know what they do as the truth, because they never questioned the premises by which they arrived at their conclusions -- but are insistent and certain, that they are "right."

How do you know what you think you know?

The Sad State of Hawaii

2011-01-09T06:18:00.003-10:00

Teachers who don't want to teach, should feel free to do whatever else they want to do -- but not while being paid as "teachers," or in any other capacity as "public service" employees.

It used to widely be joked, "That those who can, do; those who can't teach; and of course, those who can't teach, become "educational administrators." But the real joke now is that they can't ALL be educational administrators.

Somebody actually has to do something in Hawaii (government), and everybody can't just stand around and "supervise," and note dutifully, "the job can't be done, and especially for what you pay me to do it." And so, all the money goes to pay people doing nothing, and there is no money left to hire people who really want to do the jobs -- and can do it, because all the money is reserved for those government workers, who don't want to work.

So everything gets worse -- especially the schools and the education system, which should be the highest representation of the state of Hawaii -- but has become symbolic of its ills, that people merely want to get more for doing less, and ultimately, something for nothing. Of course such a society is unsustainable and doomed -- which is not unprecedented in the history of the world. In fact, societies that continue to succeed and move ever higher, are the exceptions, and some, will even return to the great glory they once inspired -- after centuries of absence because they followed the wrong path, but re-emerged, because they reclaimed and restored the right one.

But for a society to just do as little as possible until they finally do nothing, and then subvert everybody else who wants to do something, is social suicide -- and rightfully, all those who can still see and understand that, leave for greater sanity elsewhere.

People quickly forget, that the reason there was a clamor for the Republican Linda Lingle, was that nothing made any sense anymore, and nobody was accountable for anything, and in desperation, looked to a different kind of leader, who once having restored sanity, the people thought it was now forevermore -- and quickly reverted back to their old ways -- of thinking that everyone could simply have more, without anybody having to actually produce it.

It was thought, that it would just come from the people everywhere else in the world (federal) actually producing the food, clothing and shelter, and not that they should ever have to do anything for themselves anymore. Instead, they "taught" through their institutions (schools), that one was actually a fool to think that way, because everybody else would simply let them do all the work -- while they supervised, ridiculed, and got the most pay, for doing as little as possible -- but being first in line, for all the benefits.

That was what it meant to be "smart" and "educated" -- to be utterly worthless and incapable of doing anything, and of course, being able to tell the difference anymore.

Beating the "High" Cost of Retirement

2010-12-27T15:24:00.003-10:00

Lower cost of living doesn't necessarily mean lower standard of living, but in fact, a lower cost of living, will result in a higher standard of living -- but one has to be willing to move to where the cost of living is lower, and out of places where the cost of living is high.

The surprising thing is that many places with a lower cost of living, are actually good places to live -- while invariably, the worst environments, also have a higher cost of living -- which is the case in the major cities, in which the most affordable neighborhoods, are also the most undesirable, dangerous and stressful.

But for that same money, if they move to a smaller town in the US, they could live at least a middle class existence quite easily -- in virtually all the cities of less than 250,000. The state of the art in medical care is usually fully available in such communities, as well as the financial infrastructures and consumer accessibility to all the goods and services the world has to offer.

The key factor is achieving "retirement" in good health, because if one isn't, the health care costs can suck up whatever assets one has quickly, and if one is in good health, they can still work, hold (part-time) jobs, create their own self-employment opportunities, or be meaningfully and productively engaged in any other activities, besides paying for health care as their major preoccupation.

In the world of the Internet, one doesn't have to actually live in the major metropolitan areas to have access to the global marketplace and culture; one can access it from anywhere, and then go into the big city when they really need to -- which is increasingly unnecessary to do.

Thus, this would be the undiscussed great development and migration of the 21st century -- from high cost of living areas, with their greater crime, stress, noise and pollution, to the smaller communities where the idyllic higher quality existences are fairly/relatively inexpensive.

Many Americans think they have to live abroad to find those inexpensive communities -- but they also exist in the less crowded areas of the US, like a Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virgina. A Walmart is a Walmart. If one needs a tan, look up "tanning booths."

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

2010-12-21T08:36:00.007-10:00

One of the better ways of celebrating the Christmas season is not giving or getting more than one already has -- but in being grateful for and appreciating what one already has. That has the potential to multiply one's "gifts," even if one receives nothing more -- than what they already have.

One of the great problems of Christmas and abundance in general, is that one seldom appreciates and fully/best utilizes all that one already has, and so even the most prosperous of Christmases, can often turned out to be a great disappointment as well, as the more one gets, fuels the desire for more, while doing little or nothing, to increase one's quality of life, or satisfaction with what one has -- and making the most of them.

One is inclined to believe that the solution is simply getting and having "more," rather than doing more/better, with all that one already has. Very few people actually obtain maximum use and value of all that they already have -- but think that their solution is insatiably "more" -- and not that what they already have, may be more than enough, if they simply appreciated and got better use of the humble things they have -- that they simply take for granted.

That lesson was brought home to me recently when I discovered the many uses of an ordinary household product nearly everyone is familiar with and probably have -- tucked away in the cupboard, waiting to see the light of day. In fact, most people are hard pressed to think of a good use -- for truly one of the most useful products widely available and so cheap, that most people could only wish they could think up more good uses for it -- never suspecting that it good be as close to a panacea as there is in the world.

I'm talking about baking soda -- for less than a dollar a pound box. Church & Dwight make it for practically everybody else, so even the off-brand is as good as the trademark familiar
Arm & Hammer brand, though their bulk bag (13.5 lbs.), is a marvel of industrial strength packaging that the US still leads the world -- for $5.99 at Costco. I would like to think that such a bag is a virtual lifetime supply for many, or at least a year's worth, but fortunately, the more uses one can think of for it, the better off and healthier one will be -- including drinking, washing, cleaning, bathing, brushing with it -- as the most familiar and common uses. But the surprising thing to me, was in its effectiveness at extremely dilute concentrations of one teaspoon per liter of water in a spray bottle to cure all the problems one resigns themselves to thinking that there is nothing one can do about it.

Apparently, baking soda creates the optimal internal, as well as external environment for human life and activities -- eliminating most household odors, mold, mildew, and mustiness, one thinks is just how air smells. The most difficult thing to "see," is the environment one is conditioned to.

All Is Lost

2010-12-08T08:55:00.003-10:00

New Hawaii governor, Neil Abercrombie, has already made his signature move -- in spending all the emergency (hurricane) relief funds, on what he proclaimed was the great calamity of government worker furloughs.

So one wonders, how do things get worse -- if things don't work out to the sunniest best case scenario of never having any emergencies, or unanticipated expenditures. It's probably the case that a slow slide in real estate values have to accelerate to reflect the added risk of having no insurance nor capacity to meet the challenges of living perilously on the edge -- as though nothing bad could ever happen again.

People forget that previous governor, Linda Lingle, has lived a charmed existence -- and even managed to survive unscathed in an earthquake at ground zero, which is the personal luck she brought to the office and state as the governor -- which then people took for granted that they would always be so lucky, which has not been the case, for the last 30 years, as Hawaii has lived off of its natural advantages, while building nothing to enhance and sustain them.

That would mean doing something as essential as developing the great advantage of abundant sunshine as its great natural resource -- and revitalizing the land, instead of shipping its garbage (or trying to), to somewhere else, as befitting one of the most consumption-oriented, diminishing productivity economies in the world.

So thinking people are right in asking, "What's the plan?", because it was not necessary to have one, to win the election, and since, nothing but glittering generalities and sentiments have been pronounced, while the Cabinet selections, have all been to appoint the foxes to guard the henhouse. That is to say, the lobbyists for the schools, labor, unions, strong, now lead those departments of the state.

Which leads thinking Hawaii to wonder, who provides any checks and balances to runaway government spending mainly to benefit its own government employees -- and then, those politicians they will work to elect. Something has gone horribly wrong in paradise -- but is the predictable outcome of today's self-isolating societies, as well as personalities. They just drift further away from the river of life and commerce -- because it is their choice to do so, until the final isolation of death as its only outcome, and then that pattern is repeated, even by the young people who simply become old in that familiar pattern.

Thus such societies never die, or can be reborn, and transfigured into the more appropriate present response of contemporary lives -- but is a self-isolating backwater culture and society the most dynamic have to escape from. That is quintessentially the "island" problem -- of Haiti, Nauru, Papua, Samoa, and the islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, Philippines, Indonesia -- wonderful escapes from reality, that is actually better than these socialistic-utopian fantasies in which, nobody has to do any work anymore for the rest of their lives, because their welfare is the new entitlement, but they have to give up their freedoms, choices and alternatives, to make that work.

There is no margin for error -- in a state prone to it.

The Problem of Education

2010-11-30T10:46:00.001-10:00

The most important thing to learn, is how to think for oneself, and find out for oneself -- which will never happen as long as the professional educators tell everybody what to think, instead of how to think for themselves -- which is the freedom to choose and exercise their intelligence, and not have all these decisions made for them by those who think they know better for everybody else.

That is the issue in all these discussions on "education," which is valuable in that it should make us more free, and not less free, so that we have no choice but to conform with the one political correctness a self-promoting group thinks is their exclusive turf -- which is the problem everywhere, but particularly so in Hawaii where every self-aggrandizing interest group wants to own a monopoly.

And so there is no choice -- and therefore no expression of freedom and intelligence, which is the whole purpose, and not just to provide permanent job security for a few people. If people can't teach well what their students want to know, they shouldn't be promoted to education administrators, but should have to find jobs they are more suited for (if any), leaving those positions available to those who do have something the students want to learn about -- which is always changing, and not merely the traditional curriculum of the medieval ages when everybody had to think alike.

So simply forcing the students to attend the schools they don't want to go to, with teachers who have nothing they want to learn from/about, is not going to make them more intelligent -- but simply result in a society that is less intelligent by forcing everybody to go along with a system that is a proven failure.

Got It Backwards

2010-11-19T06:46:00.004-10:00

Hawaii's problem is not the lack of money (by the elderly), but the lack of productivity (by everyone) -- which is further exacerbated by the union (government) workers wanting evermore money for less work, or no (in the case of pensions) work at all. So there is plenty of money chasing few goods and services -- like the "Graying of Hawaii" articles pointing out that the cost of care facilities being so exorbitant so that few people can afford them.

Presumably, that's because the nurses are making $100,000 a year and demanding more, because the doctors are making $250,000, etc. -- but there is nothing to buy but imported Mercedes Benzes, rail systems, real estate, and vacations off island -- where they can get value and the money goes far.

Meanwhile, back in the islands, the unions, politicians and institutions demand ever more money for doing even less -- which creates the untenable situation/competition of who can do the least, or nothing, for the most money -- which is the well-recognized Island mentality, the ultimate representation being the words of its venerable representatives to congress, claiming they can get even more than their fair share, etc.

And so industry, agriculture, innovation and invention, have disappeared, and is not supported, but endless waste (and fraud) is.

Naturally, that impacts a whole healthy outlook on life -- which is actually the usefulness and productivity, and not simply the preoccupation with gaining more money and compensation for doing nothing (the sacred mantra of something for nothing). That is ultimately reflected in the individual lives of becoming more useless and dependent as a cultural ideal, rather than the more healthy one of creating value from almost nothing. They've got it backwards, "island style."

http://www.staradvertiser.com/editorials/20101119_Address_wave_of_retirees_now.html

"We've Always Done It Before"

2010-11-16T07:44:00.003-10:00

Life is very hard, cruel and unjust in Hawaii -- because the people make it so, and their institutions rationalize and justify those injustices as how things ought to be.

The kids learn this early on in life when their teachers stand around and let a kid get beat up to "teach them a lesson" of how their future will be if they don't go along to get along.

Ultimately these people do get their own justice served back to them -- when they themselves become weak, vulnerable and isolated.

It's a cultural thing and not the way life has to be -- unless people allow it to be, which is the injustice, tyranny and violence anywhere, at any time.

Obviously in their responses, the union perpetrators (and supporters) know exactly what they're doing.

When Hawaii's institutions support and look away from these abuses and callousness, it is no wonder we so often read these stories from Hawaii, of people going after their "loved ones" with baseball bats, destroying everyone around them until finally put down themselves, and sadly remarking, "So typical, and so sad of life in Hawaii, and the misery and pain the people inflict on one another."

Because they've always done it that way before.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20101116_Worker_claims_union_harassment.html

What's Wrong with the Schools

2010-11-10T06:01:00.000-10:00

It seems lately like there's a big propaganda campaign to convince us that "higher mathematics" or doing quadratic equations are necessary to achieve success in this society.

I lived in Seattle when the personal computer boom was getting underway, and what impressed me at the time, was how all those shops and guys who used to be auto repair places, were now computer repair places and experts -- because those were the guys who liked to do things with their hands rather than learning the theory of computer science and higher mathematics.

That's really been the new model of achieving success for the past 35 years -- instead of the old education model of simply accumulating more academic (theoretical) "knowledge" -- as typified by the computer industry/revolution being founded in the proverbial garages of people learning by trial and error -- which even people acquiring and "learning" new products and technologies have to do. It's a different kind of learning -- on demand, as needed -- rather than the legacy model of education of just piling up knowledge hoping one day they'll find a use for it -- or the kind of generalized learning that astute people have noted as useless academics waiting for an inappropriate moment to exhibit itself.

You just can't learn theoretically and academically -- but have to have an actual need and application to do so. So it seems like this is one of these propaganda campaigns by the "education industry" still trying to sell more of "their" kind of education which they claim to own the monopoly on, yet at the same time, claim that parents should be responsible for its appalling failures in today's world.

Obviously we need the new learning model rather than the preservation and perpetuation of the medieval scholastic tradition of learning infinitely more for learning's (the education industry's) sake.

Recently, another reader/commenter decried the need for people to still learn the multiplication tables -- instead of just learning to operate a computer/calculator to do that -- better and unfailingly.

All Is Not Lost

2010-11-05T09:03:00.003-10:00

After another disastrous "election," the citizens of Hawaii will have another two years of complaining and realizing that nothing is being done (or done right), before repeating their history of voting for the same people again.

They seem to think that voting for the same people and policies, is all that is required to bring about change and improvement -- while everything seems to stay the same, or get worse.

When a population is young, they can get away with it for several years, until the tipping point is reached at which most of the population is old -- and not doing the jobs they are still getting paid for. Increasingly, more money just goes to pay those who are no longer working -- and so there is very little money left for those still doing the work, or for the unfortunate segment of the population, for which government aid programs were conceived and funded for -- when the government workers themselves, think that is the money intended for themselves -- which they are entitled to.

What is required at such inflection points, is for a healthy balance to be restored -- in some fashion, or all the money is being paid out, but nobody is producing any work, product or service -- and so the quality of life is limited to what one can actually do for oneself, because any exchange at that point, is to trade something for nothing in return.

While this is quite obvious and understandable on a personal level, this simple lesson seems to get lost when understanding society or the state as being the aggregate of all such individual transactions. Money has worth according to the greater good one can receive in exchange for it -- and if nobody is producing anything, but merely wishes to defraud or extort more from one another, it becomes a vicious cycle favoring the most ruthless and unconscionable. We then fully expect, that people we elect, have no intention of living up to their promises -- but their saying so, was all we wanted to hear, without further expectations, of any follow through or connection to future events and outcomes.

The early anthropologists of the last century would study and report on the difference in such societies -- of which the community good and reciprocity (mutually advantageous exchanges), was the golden rule, while in others, "getting over" on everybody else, was the more admired trait, which is the familiar getting something for nothing, or over -- until one, or a privileged few, have it all.

So these patterns are very familiar, if no longer discussed -- because elections alone, are enough to validate and justify the present order of injustices and imbalances of power. Might, or the majority, doesn't make everything right -- particularly if people just know how to win elections, or wars for that matter, as the only arbiter of right, and good, so that people can force that belief on a population, even if it is not true. This exercise of power is done everyday, in all one's transactions and exchanges with other people -- we individually and collectively know as our relationships and society.

That becomes our world view and outlook -- which is that things are getting better, or things are getting worse, and there's nothing we can do, because even and as often as we vote, the results are always the same.

What Can We Do About the Homeless?

2010-10-26T08:29:00.003-10:00

The best Idea Mufi had when he forced the homeless out of Ala Moana Park, was to allow them to camp on the grounds of the police station -- and predictably, there were few takers, and those who did, were very well behaved because there was a constant police presence. That's what you need to make one of those campgrounds work -- a police/supervisory presence, and not just allow it to devolve into a free for all, where the worst prey on the worse,etc.

And of course, one needs adequate sanitation facilities and some provision for storing/preparing food so that the rats aren't running all over the place -- as is happening now, all over the city.

The presence of the homeless would be a good and constant reminder to the lawmakers of the very real problems of Hawaii/Honolulu -- that needs to be solved, instead of creating pork barrel projects for all the rich people they hope to become -- thinking everybody else is richer than them, and so why should they "work for free" in their government jobs?

Obviously, ignoring the problem and wishing the lawless are going to be law-abiding citizens is not going to work -- and one has to devise a strategy that will, for everybody, which means a win-win attitude that has to be cultivated and taught, as something very useful in schools, and not the so-called education that creates these problems. So it is quite predictable that everyone grows up wanting something for nothing -- and thus we have the present state of Hawaii/Honolulu.

And all your government workers say, "That's not my job, and do you expect me to work for free?!!!"

Solving the problems of a society/community, is the whole reason and purpose of government, and not their own job security and advancement. Yet that is largely what government has become -- an entitlement program for government workers -- far beyond providing the median for citizens in the society as a whole.

And that is the other major part of the present social/economic crisis, of increasing these entitlements for the self-serving government workers -- with nothing left over to serve the community at large. Instead, our government workers claim they are the poor and underprivileged -- and should get the money intended for the poor and underprivileged (keiki, kupuna, whatever).

All these things are related -- but one needs to be able to see the whole picture and not just the parts, and partisanships that fragment this vision and clarity.

Whenever there is a problem, there are two basic human impulses: One is to eliminate the problem, and the second, is to exploit it for one's own gain, which is to perpetuate the problem -- and that's why we constantly need more money for the schools, sewers, roads, but the money just disappears, and there is no accounting for them -- and department heads who insist they cannot be accountable. More money is not the solution, it is the problem -- that just keeps getting worse and more dire. Sadly, it usually requires a monumental catastrophe to change that status quo -- because seldom does a society change willingly -- and then they have to.

Moving Out of the Vog (Fog)

2010-10-20T04:00:00.003-10:00

The distinguishing feature of life in America, has been its mobility, and the story of how people willing to move elsewhere to better conditions, have been richly rewarded for doing so -- rather than simply resigning themselves to a fate their ancestors lived before them that those feel is their unescapable destiny.

Those are my first impressions upon reading the story about how the fumes from the volcano on the Big Island, have made life increasingly unbearable for those who remain there thinking the forces of nature will relent -- rather than their having to move.

And as miserable as life has been on some days, "there is no conclusive scientific evidence that it does longlasting harm," when all that life has become is smelling, tasting, eating, touching, thinking the fumes and dust from the volcano -- is the only life they have known and think possible for themselves.

While it is kind of sad that a few think nothing else is possible or even permissible, that is not untypical of the personalities and culture in the Islands that make it possible for the mass majority not to see their impending doom -- even with all the warning signs that they should consider all (any) alternatives than resigning themselves to their unpleasant lives, even while calling it "paradise."

The facts just don't bear out the conclusions. If it smells like hell, looks like hell, tastes like hell, you have to get the hell out of there -- and move to a place with air that smells good and healthful, because life has become untenable there.

The same can be said for the onerous high cost of living in the state now -- that ensures a life of deprivation for all but the wealthiest who have gotten it from somewhere else, since the possibilities of generating such wealth locally, are well nigh impossible, unless one of a rare exception of self-made success. While such things are possible under all conditions, some places are more favorable to those outcomes -- and that is what one should be determining as a place to relocate, and then further enhancing as the successful adaptation of their unique lives.

Those are the realities most people are moving into now, everywhere else. It is foremost, a state of mind, and not the state determined for everybody else -- by a chosen few who know better for everyone else. That is one vision of "paradise" -- that it is created by The One, for everybody else.

That is the mentality seen so often in the pages of the newspaper in which person after person demands that all the rest of society, must change to suit them -- rather than that they should waste any of their own precious lives, adapting to the world as it is -- or finding and living in a better one. No, their vision of paradise, is that everyone has to change to suit them -- or everybody else has to live their lives in the same way to suit them, and nothing else, should be possible or permissible.

What if everybody thought their lives could be better? Wouldn't that be disastrous for society (the social order)?

More Valuable Than Gold

2010-10-11T18:51:00.001-10:00

If worse ever comes to worst, gold is not the best thing to have. The best thing to have are all the skills that enable one to provide all one's needs themselves -- which is not something, many people living in cities are used to doing anymore. For that reason, people living in those conditions, would be the most vulnerable -- and gold will just be another useless thing that can't do anything, and thus, becomes worthless. Only things that can actually do something, have value. Just having them -- even if it lasts forever, has no value.

And if worse comes to worst, one needs to be able to produce something of value -- for their own use and consumption -- that might then be valuable and valued by others, and could be used in trade. But in a world of dire needs, gold would be the least valuable thing -- because it has no use. Most people get along fine without it -- and could conceivably, their whole lives.

In a world of survival, only those things that can sustain life immediately and directly, would have great value. So that justification for the value of gold -- is really the use of gold, which except for dentistry, has no use.

Of course that doesn't mean that a few people cannot value and hoard it, as though it was worth something, and even worth more than anything else -- which I can assure one it isn't, never has been, and never will be. In the worst case scenario, things that are usually free or cheap -- like air, water, and food, are much more valuable. And beyond that, shoes and bicycles, would be more useful than cars dependent on fuel.

Those who can care for themselves, will be much better off than those who need caregivers -- and beyond that, all the other professionals to maintain one's viability. Many in the urban areas have lost that capacity for self-sufficiency, and are almost totally dependent for survival and sustenance, on others -- which can be extremely advantageous in the best of times and conditions.

And so one does well to have that range of preparations and skills -- and not merely put all one's trust in gold, or any other one thing. That would be being able to access the knowledge of everyone else while also cultivating those skills enough to be able to be self-sustaining and self-sufficient if forced to do without that connection for an indefinite period of time.

Such an orientation is a sustainable lifestyle -- rather than the demand that others must provide those needs for them, under some kind of threat, coercion or even moral duty -- the will of the one, or even the many. And so, most people are now used to demanding that everyone else has to provide for them, rather than in first asking how they can provide for themselves -- much better.

How To Solve the Problem of Education

2010-10-01T08:12:00.002-10:00

If you want to attract talent to any field, you pay the entry level as much as those with the most seniority -- to encourage people from all walks of life to enter it.

Then, those who are naturally gifted in that profession, are rewarded by the job becoming easier and more enjoyable (rewarding) for them, and the job they would do if all jobs were paid identically (all things being equal) -- instead of merely rewarding those who can't do anything else but hang on to the one job for dear life.

The problem in education is that too many bad teachers occupy positions permanently -- so that good teachers don't have the opportunity to try it, and remain at it because they are good at it -- instead of complaining incessantly about how impossible the job is because they are not getting paid more money.

The real function of education is learning, and not teaching whether the students learn or not.

As it is, education tries to restrict those who can enter the field by requiring all these mickey mouse education courses for teachers to pretend to know about a subject rather than actually mastering any subject -- which the truly intelligent and gifted regard as an insult to their intelligence, and after dealing with the idiotic rules of the education bureaucrats/union on how they have to teach, decide they can't put up with that for the rest of their adult lives and opt out.

That's why so many teachers leave -- and not because they aren't paid enough. They don't want to be treated like children all their lives -- and have somebody else do all their thinking and talking for them.

No self-respecting individual would want to remain a part of such an association.

Another Opportunity Lost

2010-09-21T03:10:00.004-10:00

It doesn't seem to matter how good and eminently qualified a candidate is in Hawaii; the people of Hawaii won't vote for them -- because they've been conditioned not to, and prefer not leaders but followers at the top, which is the crisis of leadership in Hawaii.

The bright side is that there are 1 in 5 people who will vote intelligently and independently -- from all the special interest endorsements and campaigning -- to do what is best for all. Obviously, that is not enough to win elections, but that does not invalidate the thoughtfulness and validity of their assessments and analysis.

For many, Panos was a litmus test of whether the populace had it in them to do the right and rational thing -- in a very clearcut matter and manner, that was summed up in that one issue of the rail. The outcome was disappointing but not surprising.

The people wish to be fooled, deceived and manipulated. They've come to prefer it.

A few have come to realize that if betterment and rationality is to come to the Islands, it won't come as the result of elections, but probably has to sneak in through the back door of cultural changes -- rather than through the political process. That is the power of choice -- in a much more everyday and far-reaching impact on lives.

Politics and government has become the entertainment for the voting minority of the population who still take an interest in such things. The vast majority, have moved on, or were never enticed in the first place, that the ballot box was the instrument of power and change -- in their own lives. It is something only "lawyers" do -- and the government workers ensure their own enrichment as their "public service."

So where does that leave everyone else not aboard the gravy train? People need to seriously ask themselves that question.

Is Honolulu Really the 12th Largest City in the US?

2010-09-05T04:07:00.005-10:00

That Honolulu is the "12th largest city in the US" is used as the basis of the argument by rail proponents that it is the largest city in the US without rail.

In most standardized lists of "largest cities in the US," Honolulu is 50th, and San Francisco is 12th, which is what most would agree is the experience they feel of a truly large city. The city of San Francisco is an area of 49 sq miles, and so dividing that population of 900,000 by that area gives one a population density of 16,500 people per square mile, which is the kind of density required to make rail feasible, if not absolutely necessary. In places like Tokyo and New York, the density is double that.

The population the City and County chooses to use, is the whole population of Oahu, which is 602 sq miles of the approximately same population of San Francisco, giving it a population density of 1,650 -- or 1/10th that of San Francisco, and if one uses the Census Bureau's figures for the City of Honolulu, that would be 350,000, which places it properly at 50th, just above Wichita, Kansas, which is more the experience of the population density of Honolulu.

If we place Honolulu 12th, then it is larger than Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C, Denver, which is a tremendous distortion of reality and perception -- no matter how much one uses statistics to lie, misrepresent and distort, because those places are destination hubs for at least 5-10 million metropolitan areas.

The San Francisco Bay area also has other very large cities (San Jose, Oakland) as well as several other 100,000+ cities in their own right (Berkeley, Sunnyvale, Vallejo) and therefore draws from a metropolitan area of 10 million. In New York, it's 20 million, and not just the 350,000 population of Honolulu, in which 0% of the population presently lives where they will be building the Rail.

So we have a tremendous manmade fiasco and disaster in the making besides the natural risks of earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc., because of a egregious distortion of perception and reality perpetuated by the politicians and media of Hawaii.

And that's why Ed Case is right in saying Hannemann may be the most dangerous person in government in Hawaii because he has such a corrupting influence on everything in Hawaii, that with his election, there is no hope anymore for a meaningful existence of integrity and sanity in the Islands any longer.

An Island in the Middle of Nowhere

2010-08-29T10:22:00.002-10:00

Is obviously not the best place to be in difficult economic times unless it is greatly self-sufficient and immune from the problems tormenting the other population magnets -- because isolation limits choices.

While it is nice to have plenty of sunshine, fresh air, and water as far as the eye can see -- those are the givens of any particular environment, but not the necessities of food (including drinkable water), shelter, and clothing, which is what isolated, independent societies need to produce, rather than just the money. The basic productivity of a society, determines the value of money -- which is the medium for those exchanges, which is largely worthless otherwise.

That is the problem with any currency that is mainly a storehouse of perceived value rather than a medium of exchange -- like gold, precious stones, and illiquid real estate. You'd better enjoy it as much as it is -- because your chances of exchanging it for something of greater value and usefulness, is non-existent.

The fundamental problem of Hawaii is not any lack of money -- but the lack and diminishing opportunities for beneficial exchanges of the sort that make life better, which becomes more apparent with such ending of the illusions that they are going to successfully be able to swap trash for cash. That only happens in a "perfect world" delusions.

Not that one can't recycle trash to something more useful -- but that has to take place within a closed system, or internal economy to create greater value. Because it is the act of creating greater value from that which was fully used, or useless(worthless), that is the action of increasing wealth and prosperity -- and not just getting more money to bid the increasingly scarce goods, higher, until ultimately, all but a few, are locked out from participation in those markets of exchanges.

Implied in any "paradise," is the feeling that the best things in life are abundant and cheap, if not free, otherwise competing warm venues like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Texas, are much more compelling opportunities to take one's chances and place one's bets.

That is particularly true for the Baby Boom generation that might have been expected to fuel further real estate speculations in Hawaii -- and growth. There is a point in which even fantasies becomes "unaffordable."

The surprising thing for most newcomers to the Islands, is the realization that all the natural advantages of developing a culture that optimizes life under those advantageously mild conditions have been literally "taken for granted," and thus abused and wasted in that way. People have to appreciate what they have to make it greater, and not diminish it because it is "free," until one day, it is simply gone -- and they have no way of recreating it, or making something even better. "That's never been done before."

But that is the value of culture and societies, and not merely honoring the past by hoping they could repeat the old ways forevermore. Life doesn't work out that way for anybody. Far more likely is that even their best laid plans, come out differently -- and so the value of any "education" they get, is to prepare one adequately for those challenges of different (unexpected) outcomes, and not just the one they have all their bets on -- "happily forever after."

But frequently, the worst thing that could happen, is the best thing that ever happened -- and changed one's life in ways one could never have imagined it, which more often than not, are the truly great success stories in life, and not simply honoring and repeating the patterns, of every generation before.

The World Beyond

2010-08-18T08:15:00.002-10:00

In a previous time, the mass media was many people's primary interface with their own society and culture, and a few institutions came to be very powerful and dominant in such a world -- as dinosaurs once ruled another. But then the earth shifted, and these powers could not adapt -- as quickly and effectively as the many, though smaller entities, whose very survival depended on their ability to adapt, and not just to claim the territory exclusively for themselves, and dictate the rules by which every other had to play (obey), and acknowledge as the "only game in town."

Because was it truly -- the only game in town, the only way it could ever be? Many would like to convince us of that "fact" -- but life and progress is eternally and persistently finding a better way -- even if they have to create it themselves. But everybody begins with what all those who have gone before them did -- and that is the evolution and progress of cultures, societies and individuals -- and not merely those who always want to remain at the top of the unchanging status quo, acknowledging and defending that entrenched hierarchy with themselves at the top or in favored positions, is the "correct" and "progressive" thing to do.

Which sounds eerily like what we see today -- of the old bureaucratic institutions insisting that they have always been at the top, and always should remain so -- and then we can "talk" about change. But obviously, it is no real change -- but only talk defusing the energy and focus of that need, so everything can stay the same, for just a little while longer. And then it is hoped, the people will forget about it, and the institutions will provide more distractions, entertainment, free food, even little gifts and favors, to speed that forgetting.

And what is the punishment for not complying, not conforming to the "consensus" of what they say is the only way a right thinking person could think? It is the freedom beyond that control and coercion -- where one has to think for themselves, and comes to like it. That is the world beyond the horizon -- that at first, only a few will sail towards and beyond -- while those left behind, fearing to venture out, say their disappearance is proof that there cannot be anything beyond.

Those are the moments of discovery, as well as the death of the "old world," as we knew it. That is where we are today -- with the mass media institutions still demanding that the only paths are to the left or the right -- and not that there can be anything else beyond. But surely, that is where most of reality, and the future, lies -- and of course, they don't want you to know about it, because it is beyond their control.

You Don't Get To Be a 300 Pounder Just Eating ONE Plate Lunch a Day

2010-08-12T06:24:00.004-10:00

Liberal hypocrisy has gone beyond the turning point -- to out and out arrogance and naked greed, when the money intended for the poor, now gets diverted to "serve" the (union) government worker, because they can be reliably depended on to vote in their own self-interest -- as their "public service."

That's always been the danger of "democracies" -- that become "Democracies" by those who can control and manipulate the masses, and even create laws prohibiting their opposition from assembling and organizing against them. That's not a hard thing to do -- if one is ruthless enough because to believe that anything that serves oneself exclusively is fair and right -- and not that it should be to anyone else.

But such societies have to fail, or are failing already -- but the sanctioned observers of such things, ignore, or are in on the power grab, because it serves the other to let them -- until at least the elections are over, and then they can resume the disintegration of their credibility and usefulness. Eventually, they have to turn on each other -- but then they'll be others to take its place.

The problem of monopolies is that it gives one no choice, and no ability to exercise wise choices and become better at that -- no matter how many elections they have with no choices, because they have been conditioned (educated) to summarily dismiss every other choice (possibility) but the "right" one, and of course, that is determined by the union teacher teaching that teachers should get more pay, even while their students wonder, "What for?"

In the past, teaching has been a great calling, by people who were just recognized by others as such, and not just self-proclaimed, and certified by their own trade associations as the only ones allowed to practice that "profession." That's where teaching and especially "education," went astray, and become the self-serving interest that no longer serves the greater public interest and welfare.

When we have nothing but exclusively self-serving trade associations determining the fate of the larger society, that society has to disintegrate into battles over which faction has a right to all -- leaving nothing for the rest, which is on the verge of where present Hawaii is. And so rightly, people have to leave such societies in search of better ones -- as the original settlers and immigrants of the lands of greater opportunity had to.

It's not unfortunate that many have to leave the land where they grew up -- and have fond memories that they are reluctant to let go of, but that is absolutely necessary is one is to discover a greater life they could not have imagined as a child. That is the world disappearing and dissolving as we speak -- challenging everyone to embrace the new.

But if one limits the future to only the repetition of the past as all that is possible -- before seeing anything else, that world will be limited and shrinking daily until it is just the box one is buried in. People are doing that to themselves as their choice -- and the only way many think is possible, and that lifestyle is supported, and even encouraged by those who make a good living off of it -- knowing that the other has no choice but to depend on them exclusively, which many come to regard their government -- as the only way it can ever be.

They are encouraged by the many authoritarian personalities who prey on the vulnerabilities of people who feel they have no choice other than the dismal one controlled by these individuals who not surprisingly, delight in the helplessness of those they help to make that way. Thus, so-called teachers increase the need of their students for "more education," rather than less. That gets really bad in end of life issues, when people are taught to depend on external agencies and services as their "primary caregivers," instead of being their own -- and first line of defense.

Such people become entirely dependent on others -- early on for approval, and then the tyranny of their opinions, and their political/social correctness. That is largely what public education has become -- because many of the more gifted students, achieve the full mandatory education skills before they enter kindergarten. Such individuals are then taught to unlearn everything they have learned, for the politically correct programming -- which that it takes 12 years or more, and often never, to learn all they have already learned -- but must now discard, because the student is not allowed to know beyond what the teacher knows -- as everything that can be known, and is knowable.

Such students are trained to become the ideal bureaucrats -- who believe everything they're told, by the powers that be, who intend always to remain so.

Government Can't Solve All Your Problems

2010-08-05T16:41:00.003-10:00

Government is an instrumental part of every society -- but it is not the totality of every society, community and culture, or for that matter, the major part of individual experience. That is to say, we don't live for government, but government exists to help us live better -- and if it doesn't, needs to be adjusted to the greater purpose of living better lives, and not that lives must be diminished, for the purpose of making government more powerful.

All cultural institutions, including government, exist for that purpose, and are not what individual lives must be sacrificed for, or towards. Thus the present crisis, is that these government institutions have come to demand that all other aspects of society and individuality must not be sacrificed to the state.

We see that in a nationally famous persecution of a little girl wishing to operate a lemonade stand, and the public officials threatening to fine and otherwise intimidating her from doing so -- under the guise of protecting the public health, and their official and unofficial spokespersons rationalizing their unreasonable persecutions in saying that the public order must be maintained, and what we be the ensuing chaos if every kid wanted to run a lemonade stand without asking permission and obtaining the proper licenses to do so.

Do you see what an ugly, thoughtless bureaucratic society we've become, when people threatened by vermin and pest infestations from the abandonment of property next door, are fearful of protecting their own well-being because government claims they have been cut back and so they can do nothing -- but demand their $100,000 a year compensation to explain why they cannot do anything, or why what they do, is ineffective, but if we simply give them more, somehow that would be enough to hire more people to advocate for more money.

At times like this, one comes to the realization that government really does nothing, while demanding compensation at the highest levels possible. The story is the same throughout the communities throughout the country -- of self-serving government officials demanding and getting $400,000 salaries to oversee rural unpopulated communities while demanding compensation commensurate with mayors of the largest cities, universities and corporations, because they can and know how to "play the game."

That's basically what career government jobs are all about anymore -- self-aggrandizement, and not public service. They believe their own lies and propaganda of what great "sacrifices" they are making for everybody else -- as though they had any other talents or options. But they are convinced, that if they merely stick together, nobody can challenge the validity of what they all claim as their might to make it right -- while demanding that nobody else, has the right to assemble or organize in opposition to them.

That's no the road to tyranny; that is tyranny -- no matter how insistent one is in calling it a "Democracy." Sometimes, government is the problem -- and the right and duty of each citizen, is to recognize that.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Aloha Stadium?

2010-07-25T05:38:00.003-10:00

What Hawaii ought to consider is putting a "roof" of shade netting (they make it out of recycled plastic bottles) supported/suspended from the highest points of the stadium (nobody can kick or throw that high), and making that structure useful 24/7 -- instead of only at night, when the national television audience has gone to sleep, or is watching more entertaining infomercials.

Then you can use that structure for many other kinds of events -- and actually attract people to a pleasant environment rather than the hostile one of being baked in the sun. The whole stadium is not designed with any intelligence and practicality for use as a community resource -- as is typical of major capital projects in Hawaii (need we say "Natatorium"?), and so we spend millions, and we're up to billions now, on projects that don't make any sense from Day One, that gives us an excuse to throw more money at it in perpetuity, trying to make a half-baked idea from the start, into Hawaii's Next Great Hope -- that Hawaii's politicians promise is the only thing separating Hawaii from Paradise.

It doesn't matter how good the new seats are -- because they can't stand up to that unrelenting sun, combined with the corrosive effects of the salt air. So first, you have to change the ambient operating conditions -- so that you can have concerts, conventions, fairs, any kind of event -- because one can control those conditions to a great extent -- as the challenge for every community to focus their talents and resources in overcoming, and even exploiting, rather than the resignation, that there is never anything one can do about anything so why bother doing anything else but eating and drinking (drugging) oneself to a premature and untimely death?

Meanwhile, we'll just wait for Uncle Dan to bring in pork barrel money for senseless projects without end.

The lack is not about money, but a community's will to change what can be changed, accepting what can't be changed -- and knowing the difference.

Do We Really Need More Money For Education?

2010-07-13T04:34:00.003-10:00

"More money for education" always sounds like a good idea that can never be questioned as a solution to any problem, but it is time we asked if we are spending it on the right kind of education -- instead of just learning for learning's sake. That's not the kind of citizens we need, or is it the solution to the problem of unemployment and all the societal urgencies of these times.

Many of the employers, as well as social engineers, complain that the schools aren't providing the training and education they (enterprises) specifically need -- so maybe the funding should be given to them to do the kind of training they require to produce precisely those people they need.

The schools still think it is important to learn the medieval trivium as though that is helpful and necessary to succeeding in this day and age -- while nobody teaches the specific skills for everybody and anybody to learn what they need to know to specifically be successful at contemporary life. Instead all the money is being hoarded to prepare each succeeding generation for living in the past -- as though history will simply repeat itself if they keep obtaining more education and unemployment benefits.

That's not the way the world works. We don't simply need more money for schools and higher wages and benefits for teaching what no longer needs to be done (taught), but we need to fund the learning of what actually needs to be done. For this to happen, the learning/teaching has to be vertically integrated into the enterprises (businesses), and government should be the employer/trainer of last resort, and not permanent tenures and sinecures for people who cannot do anything else -- but teach all the useless information that has no value except in the schools.

This is long overdue, and the reason societies are falling behind the rapid pace of progress and change (improvement). The schools foremost, need to be improved, and not simply funded to do the same old things in the same way they've always done things before.

Especially for higher education, you don't need have them gather in schools. They can gather anywhere, and subsidized onsite job-training, is the only thing that makes any sense because nobody graduating from the present schools and universities, are going to be job-ready, unless they've been specifically trained for what urgently needs to be done -- no matter how much liberal arts indoctrination to always vote for the Democratic Party they've had (to vote for more money for the schools), and can recite the capitols of every state, and know the leaders of every country -- like the talk show hosts and editorial writers supposedly do.

The Evolution of Society and Culture

2010-07-02T09:06:00.004-10:00

The Internet has supplanted the postal service, libraries, schools, books and newspapers -- who have to reinvent their original meaning and purpose. Most of these institutions came into being in the 19th century -- to address a lack of communications and information -- which is no longer true, and so rather than doing what we've done before, in the past, we need to do things that really need to be done in this day and age, and not realizing that, are the problems of these times.

If one grows up in a society (culture) in which everyone is educated, informed, and can access all the information (Internet), every person doesn't have to have that ability -- but a core commitment to solving actual problems -- rather than simply perpetuating them as their own job security -- that leaves no available resources for the exigencies of these times.

Most of the education, information and education process can be supplanted by state of the art forms -- which require a lot less labor for better.

The most disturbing trend of these times is the exploding growth of the health care sector and expenditures -- to perpetuate and enable a dying way of life -- requiring increasing many others, just to keep one alive -- with no prospects for a full recovery. That's not a vision of a viable and sustainable society -- in which the majority of the resources go to increasing dependencies -- rather than increasing self-reliance and true independence, and simply calling a greatly constricted form of life "independence," because one still is living on their own, and caring for themselves primarily. That is a truly frightening portent of the future -- which more money at, is not a solution but increasing the problem.

What has to happen instead, is that people have to get healthier and stay healthier all their lives -- but is not only possible, but now made inevitable except for the cultural lag in the recognition of greater possibilities -- beyond just doing the same things faster, easier, and requiring even more personnel. That way of life, is unaffordable, as well as it should be unattractive as the meaning and purpose of any society.

Thus concepts that were introduced but quickly forgotten in the 20th century, like job-sharing, increased leisure time (not necessarily unemployment and retirement but something productive and life-enhancing), co-housing, and integrated existences, are no longer just faddish thinking, but developments that point the direction society has to go -- whenever it wants to or not.

Change has always been the creative force in American life and society which has lately become a morbid preoccupation with maintaining the status quo and entrenched hierarchies, that has brought down every civilization in the past. Some people know the words, but they really are not the real prophets of change -- but are actually the defenders of the status quo, while designating themselves as "progressives," as though saying so, was enough to make it so.

The Urgency of these Times

2010-06-28T09:17:00.002-10:00

The homeless (hopeless) situation in Hawaii is the urgent challenge of the times in Hawaii -- which is just being ignored and denied, hoping the problem will solve itself or just go away.

That is the problem resolution skills taught in the culture (schools) of Hawaii to only solve the problems of one hundred or a thousand years ago -- hoping that history will finally repeat itself and they'll know what to do, because the education is not preparing to meet the challenges of the present.

That is a totally useless education -- designed for the 19th century, when very few people were educated and informed -- which was also the great opportunity for the newspapers and book publishers of that time, who are now failing to respond to the present, and only hoping their glorious past will return, and they can once again become influential and important people.

Instead, all the money is tied up in those obsolete jobs of which the federal employee being paid over $100,000 to do what doesn't need doing, is just the most obvious example -- of which somebody (probably his lawyer or publicist) is trying to sell as his great "public service" -- like all the teachers teaching an education that is failing their students.

All that money is reserved for solving problems that should have been solved one hundred years ago -- but is just perpetuated, so there is no money available to solve actual problems of these times, and they don't want to learn anything else, because frankly, their education doesn't allow them to either.

Because obviously, the function of government is to solve the great problems of the present -- whether that be terrorism, an environmental catastrophe, homelessness, and joblessness, and the greater lack of meaning and purpose of what is worthwhile and what is just going through the motions and getting paid for a sham.

People don't know what to do except what has always been done before -- even though the world has changed so drastically as to pose a whole new set of problems that now need to be solved -- and not just perpetuating the old institutions, as they lobby for even more funds. The present reality is that many children come to school now with the education a person took a long time to acquire previously -- because they didn't have those resources of all the information, and to all the knowledgeable people in the world, as they do as a fact of growing up in these times. Not being informed, is almost an impossibility -- and one has to learn new things daily, and not just for 12 or 20 years, and then need not learn anything more but can then just teach for the rest of their lives -- and lobby for more as their primary function.

The future under those circumstances is indeed bleak -- because you need to free up all those government workers doing what no longer needs doing, to do that which is urgently needed to be done NOW -- which is best said in a previous letter to the editor in the Honolulu newspaper a few days ago (June 5, 2010) by one of the most perceptive minds in the Islands among the many who are ignored in favor of the mass media manipulators who convince people that the reality is the opposite of what you are actually experiencing.

Roxy Berlin:
"It would be reasonable to establish a temporary tent city for Hawaiians on some Hawaiian Homelands property, where people could live within the law, develop a community, share cultural values and have a center for education and social services."

Present day Hawaii is not unlike Iraq and Afghanistan -- which has to rebuild their entire countries from scratch, into the modern world, and not simply build more elaborate palaces and monuments to commemorate their great traditions of the past, which they vainly hope will return them to the heights of glory and civilization.

Bullying Is Not Leadership

2010-06-22T06:39:00.002-10:00

One of the unfortunate consequences of growing up in the Islands, is the conditioning (education) imposed that bullying and intimidation makes anything right, or might makes right, and the majority rules, no matter -- and if you can push the other guys off the Pali, that makes you king, and worthy of doing whatever you like to everybody else -- just like the wild animal programs also justify.

Most people come to think therefore, that simply voting on the "rightness," actually makes things right, regardless of whatever consequences may otherwise occur. There is nothing higher than popular (public) opinion, and who controls that thinking, rules. That's what they call "Democracy," that once you vote, you give up all further rights on the matter. And so they are very eager to force a vote as soon as possible, and have the matter done with -- so they can do whatever they want to do.

But first, the people must be silence by allowing them to vote, because once they vote, they lose interest and think they have no further right to say anything. But the fact of the matter is that one doesn't relinquish their right to hold on to their own thinking -- despite what the majority has voted. That's what individual rights are -- the right to be an individual, and to hold onto what one believes to be true.

The importance of this is that many things thought at one time to be true and inviolable, turn out not to be on closer examination and the test of time. That's how truth evolves, and doesn't stay the same forever, but becomes a better truth. People in time, become more free, as well as healthier, and so they live better, longer lives. It is because they live better, that they live longer -- rather than vice-versa. One wants to live a better life longer, but doesn't care about living a worse life, longer. In Hawaii, that often means living the same day over and over again, without improvement -- thinking any change is for the worse.

People growing up outside of Hawaii, don't appreciate this mindset that is the culture of Hawaii -- but is understood by everyone growing up there, as unmistakably and indelibly true. They just don't want to talk about it, or can only talk about it in a joking manner, and never allowing themselves to take such talk seriously, about changing anything. That would be taboo -- the unthinkable. No, the old ways must be repeated in every generation henceforth. That is the unspoken, inviolable tradition of the Islands.

Why then, did Hawaii for so overwhelmingly for Obama? They knew that as a son of Hawaii, when he spoke of "Hope and change," everything would remain the same.

Why Do the Teachers Need Tenure?

2010-06-13T11:09:00.006-10:00

In the medieval ages and feudal times, people worked at one job all their lives, and everybody stayed in their place (caste).

What is distinctive about democratic societies in the truest sense of that word and not just being enchanted by the words, "Democrat," "liberal," "progressive," but with no idea of what it means to truly have freedom and choices, is that the most successful, evolve through many jobs -- often starting from the most menial and insignificant, to being the head of an entire industry -- starting from their garage.

Most of the people who are tremendously successful in that way -- didn't learn what they know in the schools, but had to leave the schools to create the knowledge that never existed before -- and not as education professionals think, that is the only things that can be known.

And children taught by such people, never learn how to learn on their own -- but only what is "taught" to them, which is the failing of the current education system, in which the students don't learn what has not been known by everyone before -- and to go no further, because they fear the unknown -- like their teachers obsessed with their own insecurities, and therefore, wanting that permanence of never having to learn any new skills, because they don't have that skill -- which is the whole significance and meaning of a worthwhile education.

Education should have a high turnover rate of everybody going through and passing on their knowledge of what they learned in the real world, on their own, and not just what somebody else told them to accept the truth, which then becomes the limits of fearing to go beyond, and so you have no creative people but just union drones wanting permanent entitlements for not doing anything.

The most important lesson a teacher can teach is learning how to find out -- and not just given the answers by someone else, in their own education (indoctrination) classes.

To learn is the most natural instinct and function of human beings, and not that they would never do it if they were not educated to do so -- and that is why the most gifted, often come into schools and then have that passion for learning, drilled out of them -- for desiring to learn on their own. And that is what the present education system does -- for the best and the brightest, who should be teaching their classmates -- just as they'll do in the real world, if they were perverted to think that is what they must not do.

Child prodigies should teach their insight into the fields of their genius much more productively than a mediocre adult will -- and then even suppressing a child who surpasses them in that understanding, instead of recognizing and honoring it. And so there is this wastage of human talent and ability, so that a few mediocre adults have their own job security and never have to learn anything new themselves.

The good teachers don't need tenure; the poor ones do.

The good teachers have something invaluable to teach, and they will always be in demand.

That's how it works.

But if one has nothing to teach, then of course such people are vulnerable, and they are tormented by the students and so they have to be promoted to educational administrators so that they don't have to go back into the classrooms. But you don't need everyone in the system to be that way.

Life in the Post-"News" Era

2010-06-11T08:35:00.002-10:00

With virtual information at our fingertips, is it necessary to have the "news" now -- or increasingly, what the powers that be, and hoped always to remain so, wish us to know? But first, they have to establish their credibility that what they offer is vital to know -- before supplementing those essentials, with what they merely want us to know (advertising and "public service" announcements).

Increasingly, that has come to be dominated by what the special interests were highly motivated to want us know to entice us to begin or continue patronage with them, particularly the political parties, government worker unions that lobby tirelessly for increased funding for their own benefit in the guise of doing it for everybody else but themselves, in addition to the overt promotions and marketing done by enterprises hoping to increase their traffic, interest and business.

The latter, would be the new, while the former, would be the old, reported as the "news." The familiarity story now would run along the lines that the school children are now doing poorly and falling behind (despite the traditional solution of being in school), so what is now needed, are even more people, at increasingly higher salaries -- because the present solution, is not working, but in fact failing.

Obviously, the simple solution would be to find a new solution to replace the old one, and not simply add on to the old one, and then when the new idea didn't work as well as hoped (any new idea will work as a novelty and the enthusiasm it generates), then more will be added onto what is not working well, and so of course, one is doing so much that doesn't work, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish what is working from what isn't any longer, and the whole process seems pointless and random, except for the frequency of our affirmations, that that is the most necessary practices to continue -- beyond questioning.

So when there is a disruption to those continuities, there are moments to reflect, what are essentials to that task, and what no longer needs doing -- and may actually be integrated into other functions implicitly, and so has become redundant and unnecessary.

In previous times, change and innovation was so slow (or at least our awareness of them was), that what we learned in those times, could usually be the truths that would serve us our entire lifetimes. Then the pace quickened with the newspapers, and then the news -- until finally, we have virtual information when something new is merely what we haven't personally learned about yet.

Not that it did not happen already -- but that those who bring us the latest, greatest thing happening, haven't themselves gotten around to discovering that, and reporting that as the valuable thing to know, but instead, tell us increasingly, what is unnecessary to know because they can no longer determine the useful from the useless, and have become victims of their own propaganda.

Don't Start Believing Your Own Lies

2010-06-03T12:49:00.003-10:00

"Can't help if good journalism favors Democrats. They are the party of the people and Republicans are the party of the rich and powerful. This is no secret and nothing new, and part of what newspapers do is balance the power. Or it's what they are supposed to do."

Who are the rich and powerful in Hawaii? When you have one party virtually controlling all the government and institutions of Hawaii -- you can't say that there is a mythical "rich and powerful" other than the Democratic Party and the unions.

And that there are no rich and powerful to create jobs, opportunities and industries, is why the economy is imploding.

But at least you're admitting the bias in the news reporting that has brought about the current situation. Why do you think the news should be even more biased against the Republicans to maintain a balance of power?

It's because of this gross imbalance that there are no employers but endless lines of unemployed employees. Don't start believing your own lies.

A large part of why the newspapers are failing, not only in Hawaii, but everywhere else in the country, is because they became an extension of the Democratic Party/unions in this country, and with stagnant and shrinking revenues, you can't keep increasing the pay for the membership, without the enterprise having to drastically reduce their numbers. It's not going to compute in any other way.

And now the unions have taken over the government, in which they've already begun to price their membership out of the market -- because the newspapers had become a quasi-government institution, or least wanted everybody to think so. In their own minds, it was the job of the newspapers (journalists) to oversee the government -- as some self-proclaimed "Fourth Estate," above and beyond the other traditional three of the Church, nobility and peasantry of feudal societies.

In the modern state, those divisions start to disappear -- as well as the division between the worker and its owner; the worker has to own their own work -- and not just think they can produce a supply without a demand. That demand is always for value -- and not just what the worker unilaterally decides they will produce -- and that the people have to buy.

The most familiar of this model, is the exploding cost of education -- in which the "professionals" in this field, determine how much everybody else (the citizenry) needs -- for endless job security and compensation to themselves -- as an end in itself. That too, is unsustainable and will persist. You can't have everybody employed to teach, and nobody to ever produce any other product; that's also true of the health care industry, in which increasingly, it requires more people and resources, just to care for people who will never be productive again.

Those models are not sustainable, and have to be supplanted by new visions of society and being, which at first seem very disruptive, to those whose major function is to perpetuate that status quo. That's what institutions do, as long as they can, until it is no longer possible.

Then things must change. That is the way of the world.

Why Is the Press So Strangely Silent Now?

2010-05-25T05:02:00.003-10:00

It should be clear to the old media columnists (soon to be the obsolete media), that individuals can and do want to think for themselves -- instead of having these phony self-anointed "brilliant" politically correct (leftist) leaders do all their thinking for them and tell them what they need to chant while marching on the Democrat/union lines.

So they can't fathom, and strongly disapprove how the the tea-partiers can actually be the authentic desire of people to maintain their independence of thought and action, in a way totally alien to the self-proclaimed "progressives" (liberals) of a previous time and age, who have become the "reactionaries" of these present times (as has always happened before), who are mindlessly and steadfastly defending the old status quo in which they were told what to repeat by the establishment demagogues -- as though they thought of it themselves.

And now, during the worst ecological disaster of all time, for which the press would have been unmerciful to President Bush for not cleaning up overnight, they are deafeningly silent as iBama goes "on vacation." They no longer have Bush to blame for everything, and so now are powerless to do anything else.

Meanwhile, we see iconic liberal institution after institution, disappear, because they have served their "usefulness," and they awake to the realization, that that inviolable Democrat/union/media unholy alliance they thought would go on in perpetuity, they are the first to be "thrown under the bus," when the left realizes, they no longer need the media to be running interference for them, but can eliminate the middlemen, and spread their propaganda directly through their own partisan spokespersons -- limited only by their own ability to communicate their message, and fake their own credibility and authenticity -- which now seems so obviously contrived and manipulative, to a generation that has had to determine these matters for themselves in every communications.

The world has gone on and forward, without them -- and left them behind, to preach to an empty choir that no longer requires them to keep them in their places. They just are the last to know -- when once, they thought they were among the first to know anything and everything. That's what real progress is -- and not just placing oneself in "first place," always, regardless.

That's how times have changed, and are changing all the time -- and how one can be the first to know that, or the last.

A Culture of Exploitation (You Are Working for Free)

2010-05-13T16:23:00.003-10:00

If working for "free" for three days enables one to make $75,000 a year in salary and benefits, then that's a very good return on their efforts.

These union/government workers need to look at the total return and value added to their communities, and not just be concerned about getting something for nothing, and ensuring that their members become "good for nothings" who will not do anything worthwhile for their community unless they can extort maximum payoffs upfront for doing as little as possible, or nothing if they can get away with it.

The unions exist to create value of their workers, and not to create the perceptions that their workers are "worthless" without their protection and bullying.

Actually, $75,000 a year is the average -- for all government workers -- and that's what the present crisis is all about, because that is twice the median for everybody -- while they claim to be the victims of poverty, and in some cases, victimizing the poor for their own benefit (jobs) -- rather than the original beneficiaries of those intended well-meaning programs.

The case in point is that the welfare workers demand the money be paid to them, so very little is left for actually funding welfare and human services benefits -- because the government (union) workers intercept those monies for their own benefit.

That is particularly true of the schools and education, in which the monies go to pay salaries and benefits of teachers rather than actually being expended on classroom instruction and the students. And so, while the number of students stay the same and their achievement stagnates, teachers and education administrators double -- and then claim they are working for "free."

Even the lowest government compensation (salary and benefits) BEGIN above the median for everybody -- which means that all government workers are in the upper half to begin, and so obviously, most people are actually below them, with a tiny few above -- that their unions like to compare as their private sector "peers," when in fact most people get far less, but a tiny few get many times more -- for market reasons, ie., not everybody creates a Microsoft or Apple equally, and gains the windfall.

In fact, most inventors and creative people, do work for free, or for much less, in order to compete for the big payoffs -- which is mainly, doing what they really love to do -- instead of resenting and blaming their work from holding them back from riches they think they would get in a free market for their services.

In the case of schoolteachers, there is no market for their services other than what the government forces people to subsidize. Real teachers often work for free, and enjoy doing so -- because that's what they are -- all the time, inherently.

The greatest thing the unions could do is pay everybody equally for doing the same job, but as it is, those with the greatest seniority get twice the pay for doing half as much.

And then those not teaching at all, but become "educational administrators," of which they are hundreds of them in Hawaii making hundred thousand dollar salaries, are getting more than their fair share of the money that should be used for learning.

Think about it, is teaching easier for the teacher fresh out of college or one who has done the same job for 20 years? But not only do those with seniority get the easiest jobs because they're allowed to choose them, but the new worker gets the worst job -- and lowest pay, and so the exploitation now, is not from the management, but from their own coworkers, who prefer it that way so they can point out how lousy the beginning salaries are in their field.

Who do you think is taking more than their fair share? Where do you think the rest of your money goes?

"Now Is Not A Good Time!"

2010-05-01T11:20:00.002-10:00

If not now, when?

There couldn't be a better time -- when the tax revenues are vastly outstripped by expenditures, particularly the exploding demands for staff and payroll so that there is little money left over, to actually serve the function these jobs were originally created for.

Of course the most renowned example is the explosion of staff, salaries and benefits for the education establishment so there's no money left over to actually hold classes for the students anymore.

Do we expect them to come in on their paid holidays and career advancement days to teach? Do we expect government workers to do the jobs they are being paid to do and solve these problems therefore eliminating or reducing their jobs?

No, the problem has to get worse to create the need for more welfare, education, government

The most empowering and transformative action one can take to help a person on welfare, is to get them to use the Internet, because once they do, it opens up the entire world of possibilities to them -- and enables them to begin to break the cycle of reliance on other people -- to do their thinking for them, and telling them the information they need.

Poverty also means social isolation for many -- and the welfare office should not be their sole interface with the rest of society, but should include the networking possibilities of the Internet. The Internet is the answer to welfare and poverty; it's made everyone who utilizes it immeasurably richer -- and that today, is the great socioeconomic divide.

The welfare workers, educators, old media (journalists) fought new communications and information as the chief defenders of the status quo which they controlled -- until it became obvious that the world had indeed changed, and in the new world order, they were the "dead man walking." administrators -- who have lost sight of the reason government was created in the first place -- to solve (eliminate) problems, and not create more, high-paying jobs for themselves.

Death By Union Agreement

2010-04-29T06:32:00.002-10:00

Defending the unions is not going to make all your jobs come back -- because that is the reason the newspapers died, as the auto industry before them, steel, airlines, etc. -- before they realized they'd just monopolize government directly.

And you ask, Why should they? Government makes the rules dictating fairness for all workers, and if they aren't going to abide by them, and actually provide that leadership, then why should anybody else? No private enterprise is going to be able to compete with government -- because government has the ability to create whatever revenues they think that society will bear, before ultimately revolting against oppressive taxes, or simply dying without a whimper when all the private enterprises have been eliminated.

Then the only "industries" become the exploitation known as real estate speculation -- and make-work government projects, like the Rail, Boat, Natatorium, Convention Center -- all promising to create unlimited economic opportunities before the next great panacea.

What do the unions do that create the ultimate doom for any society? They eliminate free competition that rewards talent and ability in favor of seniority, towing the party line, maintaining and defending the status quo as the qualities that are most unquestioningly revered. That further drives out those with talent and ability remaining in that gene pool -- which was also true of the legacy publications, like the newspapers, as well as the university book publishers, who insisted everybody had to learn to read academic jargon instead of everyday vernacular. The Associated Press style became similarly obsolete -- in the age of interactive communications and information, with editors still insisting they alone should do the thinking for the whole community -- just like in the good old days, and always.

And that's why they are stunned now to see their captured audiences shrinking, or have not been there all along, but that was the delusion everybody "subscribed" to -- as the only game in town. So even as they thought they were being as "objective" as humanly possible, their union mentality shined through, as the reason they remained in the positions they did -- and not by the individual merit they thought they would command even in a free market of ideas.

Lucky Live Hawaii, I Guess

2010-04-23T06:08:00.003-10:00

Everybody, get back in your place.

Senator Dan, will tell you when it is your turn.

Now, get back in the booths and vote for MORE OF THE SAME -- just like we told you to.

When we want your opinion, we'll ask for it, but until then, DO ONLY as we tell you to.

Vote for MORE OF THE SAME because we have to protect "loyalty" and "seniority" over everything else -- especially talent and ability.

What if everybody thought for themselves? Could we have a strong and unified Democrat Party of Hawaii and unions demanding all the money for ourselves? No, the people would want to keep the money they earn for themselves, to spend on what they want and think is important -- and not how we tell them to -- for our benefit alone.

If people want to live in Hawaii, they have to play by our rules -- which is that they have to pay five times more for everything -- to support more Democrats doing nothing -- in high paying jobs supervising that nobody steps out of line and tries to think for themselves.

OK, now let the elections continue. We wouldn't want the people to think they have no freedom and choices in Paradise.

What Killed the Newspapers?

2010-04-13T08:58:00.002-10:00

The First Amendment is the freedom OF religion (expression), and not the freedom FROM religion (expression), which of course, is suppression, oppression and censorship of only that speech they approve of.

That's the reason the newspapers (old media) died, or failed, when they no longer could exclusively impose their political correctness on everybody else -- even in the way in which they could be expressed (Associated Press style), and academia became irrelevant because they could not speak to the people directly but were reliant on the intermediaries of the media and the institutions (schools) they interpret their "brilliance" to the greater audience.

But those capabilities for direct expression were now given to everyone to speak their own truth, in their own manner of expressing them (which is integral to that truth), and so the world changed in that way that the world of thought control is still reeling from, and hopes will return to that of their own control and monopoly again.

Some people's lives are religious, and to deny that, is to deny their basic expression -- and for most of the last two thousand years, lives were essentially religious, and so to deny any reference to religion, is the denial of most of human history and the forces that made it so. As such, one doesn't have to burn books to suppress that important component that distinguished lives and explained why people moved from religious persecution to freer environments -- and not just arbitrarily so.

That is still the driving force of these times -- that people move towards more freedom and choices, and not less -- and preferring even, that a self-selected few should be allowed to continue to do all their thinking FOR them, speak FOR them, as the new improved political correctness of these times.

Of course, most of them still don't get it, and will go down to the end, trying to convince everybody else what to think -- as those outmoded syndicated columnists of another era -- still trying to get everybody in the country on the right page, discussing only what they think the world ought to think important -- and even demanding that that be so, as the only way a civilized society has ever allowed.

Fast forward to the present times.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

2010-04-06T05:04:00.003-10:00

There goes the ACLU protecting criminals and terrorists rights to "express" themselves by victimizing the majority of citizens asking for safety and security against the few who have no respect and regard for the rights of others. That's why they have to have these restrictions -- to protect the innocent, and not the guilty -- although admittedly, the latter would be the best arrangement to provide permanent job security for lawyers, emergency personnel, security, criminals, politicians.

But like so many other "professionals," they need to look beyond their own narrow self-interests to the greater good of the community -- in which safety must always trump freedom, especially when the ruthless interpret those freedoms as the right to terrorize and intimidate the weak and innocent.

I know that not discriminating between criminal activity and lawful, respectful, productive behavior is a cherished, inalienable right of Hawaii, but we need laws that make sense and protect the innocent.

Otherwise, as we're coming to realize, the good people go away (because they can), and only the criminals and weak are left -- to realize their sense of urgency and desperation, that they have to make their own stand against the personalities and forces that persecute and torment them. That is why, periodically throughout history, there is a revolt against the historical pattern, onto quite a different path -- because human civilization does not devolve, but must evolve to a higher level or it perishes, as the extinct and forgotten have done so more often than not.

Life is reserved for the winners -- who have figured out a way to make life better for themselves and as many others as their present technologies and understanding make possible. If that societal vision makes life better only for a smaller few, then its intentions and fate, have been well-established and determined to be unsustainable.

A smaller and smaller circle ensures that the greater talent and ability will be locked out -- on the other side, leading the war against them. That is the fatal mistake of every society that has failed before, and the secret of success to those civilizations that now flourish and are successful at recruiting talent and ability to their side, to their cause -- with themselves invariably at the top, and intending to remain so forever.

That realization is the awakening from innocence -- of having the world made for one and finding one's proper place in it, or establishing a new world that one assumes the responsibility of creating -- which is the act of liberation, and not just enjoying the freedoms "given" to one, as the only ones that can be. A true and greater freedom, is the liberation from even those few "freedoms" of the past -- that are now recognized as the barriers and hindrances they were.

One assumes those responsibilities when one is ready to -- and cannot before. In such a world, lawyers, judges and arbitrators determine for everyone else, what is justice and social good -- rather than everybody, doing it for themselves, and enjoying that exercise of human actualization not even thought possible before.

The Greater Reality

2010-03-26T07:30:00.002-10:00

You people still watching TV?

All the greatest performances ever recorded are now available on the Internet (YouTube) -- for free.

Last night, I thought I'd compare the various renditions of "I Dreamed a Dream," and came away feeling TV peaked and missed a magical moment in the performance of Susan Boyle, when they awarded the top prize in Britain's Got Talent, to a break-dancing team that has already gone down to obscurity.

Maybe Sarah Brightman and Kiri te Kanawa and a few others may have been just as good technically, but nobody in the history of (televised) performances ever electrified an audience as much as when Susan first stunned everyone with her rendition of that song. In that moment, the world of possibility/reality, was transformed -- and while the judges were appreciative, they missed the much greater significance of it -- that a complete nobody, could walk off the street, and "own" the world.

But the judges couldn't give her the prize because it would have been surrendering their control and power -- to arbitrarily make those decisions for everybody else, even in spite of how the rest of the world felt and recognized.

That's when the "Idols" of the world started to descend and become more and more a fraud for even the manipulated mass audiences.

This is the same reason many other mass oriented media are passing into history -- including the newspapers, who basically give us the same thing everyday, rather than the whole world now possible to discover, and when people do, they never go back. It's not a matter of price -- or even media, as much as it is the real range and diversity of the world, not just as determined by one person who has spent their entire lives in the cocoon of the protective powerful media.

The authoritarian perspective of self-designated experts, is no longer sufficient in the era of access to all the information -- and not just that controlled by any autocratic thought-enforcer.

When the people don't have the capacity to discriminate for themselves, the good from the bad, the significant from the trivial, then they get the kind of lowlife Hawaii has lately descended into and is being reported in many of the discussions -- of people camping anywhere they please, urinating and defecating anywhere they please, destroying the bathrooms and public facilities, and now, killing off each other, so that they can have the sidewalks all to themselves.

But instead, what you see on Hawaii news, is the unreality of life there -- that all the bad guys are good, and the good guys are bad, and leadership/citizenship is only about winning elections and jobs, and once they do, they never do a darn thing worth doing anymore.

Libraries of the Future

2010-03-23T07:13:00.004-10:00

Libraries are about information, communications and community.

To say that libraries are still about books, is like saying that news is still about newspapers. It's the content and not the form that is important -- for transmitting information and interactions in the best manner possible.

I think future cultural institutions will be integrated into community centers -- which are a more recent phenomenon. It used to be that the community center was the saloon, schools -- or the church. And then there was a separate building for every function and purpose, but the future is obviously the integrated community center.

The (Salvation Army) Kroc Centers are the prototype for this development -- everything under one roof but the saloon.

You can probably run most of government on an electronic bulletin board now -- but bureaucrats don't want to give up their control (and power), and to create as many high-paying jobs for their themselves and their allies, insist on doing everything the most labor intensive way -- rather than being capital-intensive, which is the one thing that can serve many, if not all, purposes.

That was the problem that eventually caused the newspapers to fail -- because they didn't want to give up their editorial and publishing control, and so the people went electronic as soon as they were given the chance -- which made many more readers and writers without even thinking about it as a separate activity anymore. Education is also the same way -- just a function along the way to some greater purpose, and not the end-all, be-all in itself -- as many career educators would have everyone believe.

If one can operate a computer and do MySpace, you have all the literacy one needs to do anything else one wants to do. We just don't have time and space to learn just for learning sake -- as though that was an intelligent to do.

If you can find the answer when you actually need it, that's all you have to do. So to revere books -- rather than the thinking it should inspire to solve today's problems, is like worshiping statues and buildings -- thinking that is God.

Should People Apply for Welfare on the Internet?

2010-03-18T07:28:00.004-10:00

People on welfare should use the Internet. Children in schools should use the Internet. As much government as possible, as well as information and communications, should use the Internet. When the Internet is used, costs go to zero.

The whole problem with Hawaii is that money that should go to the people on welfare, or students in the public schools -- instead go to government workers purportedly providing these services, instead of the programs/people that they were ostensibly designed for.

Instead, you need to provide the means with which they can do that -- for themselves as much as possible, so that those on welfare can help themselves primarily, children can learn to learn on their own -- instead of becoming more dependent on government workers to do the thinking so that they won't have to.

The purpose of government should be to increase the competence of all the citizens, and not just secure more, higher paying jobs for government workers. Students can clean the schools.

If we really rethink government (as we have to), the welfare office seems to be the logical place to staff and train welfare recipients so that they can go on to jobs in the private sector -- and even create their own jobs with that expertise. Government should play this role of being the employer of last resort -- and not a permanent job where people don't learn intimately about the problem and then go on to offer their expertise in the private sector to solve the problem -- but just enable it.

Likewise, all education does anymore, is CREATE the need for more education -- when its whole purpose, is to empower everyone to learn on their own -- and not become dependent on government workers to solve for them -- which is cost prohibitive, just like the cost of taking care of patients who won't first take care of themselves, and enabling the cost-prohibitive dependence.

First thing government has to do, is get the people to solve their own problems first -- and not never, so that the problems keep growing out of control.

The Significance of the Past (and the Now)

2010-03-16T06:44:00.009-10:00

Far more important is understanding what is going on right now -- and the personalities and forces trying to influence and impose their perspective on everybody else.

I once was required to study a book written by two scholars who had used old documents (archives) to reconstruct what they thought was actually going on two hundred years ago -- as though that was the most important use of scholarship and intelligence at that time.

Even in the present moment, witnessing events as they're happening right now, it's not really clear what is actually happening, or what the observer/reporter thinks is important and significant. But then to reconstruct a culture and reality two hundred years ago, or two thousand years ago, doesn't seem to be a wise use of one's so-called intelligence because the presence always implies the past, and thus, one can learn more about the past from the present, than to imagine what it was actually like in the past.

Thus, the real work of a historian is not about explaining the past, but explaining the present -- that will come to pass. If one cannot understand the times one is living in, then obviously, they're not going to have keen insight into behavior in another time -- and so the valid history, is understanding what is going on right now, as best one can -- and writing that history as one is actually living and experiencing it, and the rest is just a fabrication.

I know the justification is that one cannot understand the present unless one first understands the past, but it is likely more true, that one cannot understand the past unless one first understands his own present because that is actual and verifiable reality -- and that present, implies not only the understanding of the past but the whole totality of reality -- including the future, as one acts with that present knowledge.

The past is always being created -- and recreated, in each present moment, and so those archives, become much less important, just as we've all gone through many personal computers now, and at first thought it was important to retain everything -- until we've evolved to realize that it's not so important what we wrote 20 or 40 years ago that is so important, as it is what we are writing right now -- which implies everything we've ever known before, and evolved us to this point.

Thus we can let go of that past because most of it is not needed, but that which is, is the DNA of the present reality -- which is not lost, but knowledge actualized in today's reality, and not just a flawed, outdated and irrelevant understanding of reality in some forgotten (contrived) past.

Is there No Hope for Hawaii?

2010-03-10T06:28:00.003-10:00

Well then, how about the notion that every person should do their own thinking and not let anybody else tell them what to think and do?

That revolution is long overdue in tribal/feudal Hawaii.

Maybe that would be the ticket to better government in Hawaii.

Obviously, the present course and system is hopeless and offers a better future for fewer and fewer people -- who think that the objective of government, is to win all the spoils for only themselves and their clan, and impose their will on the minority, or at least, a majority that is not allowed to assemble and organize for their own interests -- while allowing themselves to be victimized by those who operate as gangs.

That is the culture and society indoctrinated from the earliest days on the school grounds -- that might makes right, or that the majority rules -- even when the majority behaves with total disregard for decency and fair play. If others are being brutalized and exploited, they are taught to look away, and see nothing, do nothing, if they want to get along.

It was the same way in Nazi Germany, and how every totalitarianism came into being -- even when proclaiming themselves initially, as the "Democratic" republic -- when "Democratic," simply meant, the right to impose their will on a minority that thereupon, must surrender all their "rights" to a ruthless and dominating majority. Why else could the "Democratic" legislature of Hawaii, send their respects and Aloha to the most brutal dictator of the times -- against a US president desiring their freedom and liberation to determine their own destiny?

Don't be fooled by the words, or the clever arguments of those paid to propagate and defend that status quo -- with themselves permanently entrenched at the top of the social-political hierarchy. And so status, and not equality, is extremely important in such societies -- in which some are thought more equal than others, best exemplified by the conviction that the government employees (defenders of the status quo), are tireless, underpaid members of a rightful ruling hegemony (party -- that only they can be legitimately for the people, and the others should be summarily dismissed as all the evil in the world).

It is this manner of thinking (nonthinking) that allows the abuses and travesty of government in Hawaii to continue year after year with people wondering futility, "Why is government so bad?", presented biennially, as the best of all possible worlds -- and the only choice allowed. That's how Saddam was able to obtain 98% of the votes to continue his tyranny -- as the popularly elected leader of his "democratic" country, and the "Democratic" leaders of the US and a few others, to insist he was the duly elected choice of the people.

A democracy is more than just the rule of the majority -- but a system that allows all the voices to be heard and considered, before making a decision on the proper course for a community. But in Hawaii, that has been perverted to legitimize the tyranny of the majority, which is simply a tyranny in any time and place.

The End Is Near

2010-03-03T12:23:00.003-10:00

About ten years ago, one of the daily newspapers was about to go out of business, but survived another ten to realize that conditions weren't getting better, but probably getting worse for all but the strongest and most competitive -- in the world.

In the Internet age, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is not just competing against The Advertiser -- but every newspaper in the world, and beyond that, every publication in the world, and every book ever written. It is no longer a monopoly source of information -- and while the same can be said of the schools and universities, they usually don't have the luxury of being government institutions dedicated to providing tenures and sinecures in addition to public employee unions doing propaganda for them relentlessly -- especially in Hawaii, where the only game in town is government funded work.

Thus their representatives pride themselves on obtaining "more than their fair share" of government grants, earmarks and pork barrel, as their mark of accomplishment -- which is fine as far as the money goes -- but it is not parlayed into developing useful skills and products that would be validated in the private markets. People just learn to be government employees -- and private enterprises become gutted if they are successful enough to become big -- if the unions don't get to them first.

So the dynamics are not hopeful -- but the people remain hopeful that the real estate speculations will kick up once again and they will be able to cash out/in this time, rather than hang on through another prolonged cycle of diminishing hope. And so the newspapers proclaim hopefully from time to time, that a median price for a house of a million dollars is imminent in ten years, without considering the income required to support such prices.

The economy and society now runs on "wishful-thinking," that sometime in the future, things will become perfect again, just as they remember as a kid, when they had no such worries.

Meanwhile, many are suspecting that those who can, take the first opportunity to leave the Islands while they are still viable and not entrapped -- usually by their illusions of paradise, that are not borne out in their daily lives of now endless anxieties and preoccupation with a future with no prospects.

The difference this time, is that being on an island in the middle of the vast Pacific, is no longer isolation from what is happening everywhere else in the world -- from earthquakes to recessions, and the shift from 20th century mass (media) culture, society and economy, to 21st century individualized realities, for which the general and generalization, is not worth knowing -- which is all the mass media mind "knows."

And that is not reality -- but just what they want everybody to think -- that the mass perception is the real, and individual and actual, is false, when in truth, the only reality, is the individual -- which is the whole of each individual's actual experience and life. Thus we move closer to actual experience and end the speculations of what we think it ought to be -- or was.

The Unions Against the Union

2010-02-23T10:39:00.002-10:00

The (trade) unions want to be the only ones allowed to organize to promote and support their agenda -- and sue individuals and organizations against their own rights to organize and assemble for these same purposes -- as though that was their exclusive constitutional right.

It's not dissimilar to the newspapers interpreting freedom of speech as ONLY their right to express their opinions, which they relabeled as the much more narrow concern of the "freedom of the press," and then the other "liberal" organizations interpreting it further to be their right to suppress the opposition through the well-known intimidation tactics (of the unions), as well as the "political correctness" indoctrinations of the universities, that teach everyone is equal but the teachers and university professors are just a little more equal and so should be "entitled" to tenure, sinecures and other "seniority" rights permanently above everyone else.

The left usually attempts to monopolize these institutions so that it is no accident that the media and the schools are 90% in favor that their salaries and benefits should be raised to equal the top 2%.

That's what most of today's severe financial crises are essentially about -- that why it might be possible and wise to reward a select few above the others, to compensate entire broad classes with no criterion for merit and productivity -- instead of arbitrary seniority, is financially ruinous to every state in the union. And then beyond that, increasingly much of the budget goes to generous pensions and benefits for those who have long stopped working in any capacity -- because of merely dedicated bargaining for advantage that eventually must ruin an entity or enterprise because the terms allow no flexibility for adapting in a fast changing and challenging world.

History shows, nobody can sustain a perrmanent advantage -- permanently, even the United States of America. We have to be free to adapt -- to meet the challenges of the present times, and not just hope that everyone else will fall back in line and respect the old status quo -- with any self-coronated group of individuals permanently installed at the top of the human enterprise. That's how democracies turn into tyrannies.

Misunderestimating the Competition

2010-02-21T17:05:00.001-10:00

Wow, does the mainstream media actually think their competition and evolution is Facebook and MySpace?

A few old schoolers still like to insist that Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground are the best of the bloggers.

It is these delusions that have undermined and destroyed the mainstream media's authority and credibility -- of knowing absolutely nothing about what they are talking about anymore, and how they are still central to the old mass media model as the information/communication middle men.

The most knowledgeable people speak for themselves -- instead of being controlled and interpreted to mean whatever the reporter (intermediary) wants them to mean. That's why the old mainstream media failed -- because their reporters couldn't compete with all the knowledgeable people speaking and reading for themselves, instead of through the garbled lens and understanding of reporters trying to make a name for themselves at every opportunity.

Some people are good at seeing things clearly and communicating it to others -- that transcend the traditional monopolies on knowledge. That's why we witnessed the rise of those who created new worlds beyond the conventional wisdom that required them to learn and repeat what was known and done before -- by the experts and authorities who transmitted only the previously known.

Even mainstream media no longer consulted those authorities on what used to be thought true and is going on -- but actually self-designated/promoted themselves instead as the authoritative sources, which is fine, except they couldn't withstand the challenge of their own readership.

They were undone in their own forums -- and not in the Facebook pages, and rather than the old coming back into fashion and restoring their former glory, prominence, and jobs, information communications have evolved beyond that.

There's no going back to the days when the entire journalism profession reads the columns written in the New York Times or Washington Post, and everybody else in the countless small town newspapers, plagiarizes and reiterates the political correctness of the day as though they thought of it themselves.

The Internet is the universe of what is being thought and published -- as the cosmic/collective consciousness of these times -- and not that it is a Facebook page competing against the almighty old media hoping to be regarded as the new and the news again.

The Sad State of Hawaii

2010-02-05T08:56:00.002-10:00

What the education people fail to realize, is that the ultimate objective of education is to serve some greater purpose -- and not just be learning for learning's sake. And that's why they produce all these students, teachers, educational administrators and politicians who have no idea what they are doing, and think that everything is unconnected and disconnected to everything else, and arbitrary according to what they would like everyone else to believe.

And so they believe all they need to achieve for a successful and prosperous society in the Pacific, is to create more high paying jobs for themselves and their own family -- while the sewers, roads, buildings, homeless, vermin will take care of themselves.

No, the function of education is to serve some specific greater purpose -- like provide for the national defense, local police, and essential life and property saving objectives -- and not just to teach the students and the citizens of Hawaii that they the teachers, deserve all the money available -- because obtaining a BS degree at UH is like winning the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes combined, as the only people allowed to teach.

You don't need teachers; you need learners, and the world has changed to make that learning available and accessible at any time, anywhere, just because that's what people naturally want to do -- unless they are so corrupted to believe they cannot learn unless they pay the teachers all their money, and learn only what they want them to believe -- as the socio/poliitico correctness that they propagate for their exclusive benefit.

Any other group of people would be ashamed and embarrassed to promote themselves at the head of the line and society unceasingly every single day -- as this self-interest does, so is it anyone wonder why everything is messed up -- as is documented in the papers daily. Truly worthwhile people don't do that -- but only in Hawaii, are they taught that.

The New World Emerging (That Works!)

2010-02-03T08:26:00.003-10:00

Hawaii needs rich, successful, entrepreneurial people more than they need these countless welfare queens and kings demanding MORE for doing less -- or nothing at all as educational adminstrators and union officials.

That is Hawaii's problem -- and getting rid of the successful in order to finance the job security of "professionals" who have become redundant in a learning culture and society -- except for the indoctrination of the education establishment that demands that the people cannot learn anything except to first pay them all their "extra" money, and that they should always be paid MORE because they are the new kahunas of this age.

More than anything else in the age of the Internet, learning has become free -- and people can do it for themselves better, and even schools could be reorganized to take advantage of all the intelligence being suppressed by the teacher unions and authoritarian figures, who demand that everybody else sacrifice themselves for their exclusive benefit.

Obviously, that old world model doesn't benefit anybody but the entrenched status quo who wish to remain at the top exploiting everybody else -- but now discouraging the bright young creative people who can make Hawaii and society work -- for everybody, and not just their own narrow and perpetual self interest and self-aggrandizement.

That is what the new world that is successful is about -- and of course, the old world wants to punish and banish from becoming the dominant new paradigm in Hawaii and the world.

Those jobs are pau. We don't need self-important people anymore who think the riches of society must all be confiscated for their exclusive benefit.

More than any other group or institution now, they are the defenders and perpetuators of the old status quo, or Establishment, as the rebellious of the last century used to call them. But those "rebels" became the establishment themselves, as each generation inevitably does, and now they want to entrench and perpetuate themselves perennially at the top -- despite the fact that they have long ceased to have and serve their original purpose -- which was to provide an opportunity to learn about the world.

These days, we can do it even better and faster because of the information and communication technologies -- that have effectively supplanted the old education institutions and that way of learning, which we also know as the liberal indoctrination into the "political correctness" -- as a few self-appointed and designated few have done for everybody else in the past, as the mass media mode.

But every individual can discover the truth for themselves -- because they interface directly with that world now as was not possible previously. So we don't need layers of that bureaucracy telling everybody else what to think and do -- and often confusing, their own desires, power, and ambition, for the common greater good.

What's Going On Elsewhere (Oregon)

2010-01-29T09:01:00.001-10:00

You people are starting to believe your own lies, deceptions, manipulations and propaganda.

It was the public employee unions that were well-financed and used the fears of gutting education, public safety, and the human services safety net to instill the fears in the public, while the largest contributor to the resistance of the taxes against the "rich," were logically the grocers who have a high volume business but earn less than 5 cents on the dollar -- but now are taxed on the gross receipts.

The only other state that taxes all business activity at the gross instead of just at the retail (sales tax) is the Hawaii General Excise Tax, which largely accounts for the cost of everything being 4 times what it is everywhere else -- because every business tacks it on at every level as a multiplier effect.

Already there is talk among the public employee unions in every state that that is the "successful" tactic to use in promoting their own salary and benefit increases -- that the people won't mind if it is perceived as only a tax against the rich (a few), rather than in fact, the most entrepreneurial, and not necessarily the rich. In fact, in poor economies, they are even likely to be operating at a loss -- and then being taxed at the gross to exacerbate their woes.

Such is the case with the farmers who have to be big time players or they can't be players at all because they also have to do things on massive scale or it's not worth doing at all. That's very different from the wage earners who don't have to take a loss ever -- because they get paid upfront, before any profit is made. So there is this huge distinction, in being an enterprise (corporation), and just being a wage earner -- guaranteed their income regardless of whether they're highly productive or not.

That is particularly true of the public employee unions where the median of government workers is significantly greater (double) than the median for the population at large, and thus composing the ranks of the upper half of the socio-economic makeup, yet claiming they are the poor and underprivileged because they are not making as much as the top 2% -- as though everybody is entitled to be in that top 2%, of anything, much less income and wealth.

We don't expect that of athletic competitions, or talent contests, but somehow, a few self-designated elitists, think that their worth is comparable to Bill Gates -- if they weren't sacrificing themselves to work for practically free in a government sinecure.

And while the government does perform many essential services, it should be eliminating many problems rather than overseeing them growing out of control -- and requiring even more experts at higher guaranteed salaries while these problems become perpetual.

Good solutions invariably eliminate the problems, rather than perpetuating them, and increasing the need for more of the solution, which then becomes the problem. Education is a big one -- in which the solution shouldn't be the need for evermore education -- endlessly. At some point, the student needs to know how to be their own teacher, rather more dependent on evermore costly education to tell them the political correctness of what to do -- providing job security and wealth for a new entitled class.

When Robin Hood used to steal from the "rich" to give to the "poor," what modern liberals like to ignore, is that he was addressing the entitlement and injustice of "government" (authority) to take whatever they wanted from the people, which is also the revolt against a "taxation without representation" -- which is one group deciding that another should provide for them, which is something different from people deciding to tax themselves equally for their mutual benefit.

In such a plan, some will do better than others. But then to change the rules so that those who do, now have to pay more because they do because others will gang up on them otherwise, is very troubling.

Terminator 2010: Revolt Against the Machine

2010-01-20T07:25:00.001-10:00

You might not read about it in your newspapers, or hear about it on the broadcasts, but a funny thing happened on the way to the Senate, for a candidate that in any other time and circumstances, would have been coronated by the mainstream mass media, weeks before the election -- as they did in last year's presidential election.

What has happened since then that the lock the status quo politicians, technocrats and bureaucrats had thought they had consolidated, dissipated into Napolean's army retreating out of Russia?

It was a revolt against the party machine -- and that socioeconomic hierarchy they thought they had cemented with the election of the Ultimate Organization Man -- who owed his success not to his own merits, but the power of the old status quo machinery to determine what people thought and did. In that sense, it was the first election of the second decade of the new millennium -- when humankind fought back against the ever-increasing domination of life by the social organizational machinery designed by the technocrats to keep themselves perenially at the top -- which includes the university professors, school teachers, government bureaucrats in every walk and reach of life., when the question was asked, "How can you people get along without us (the politically correct) telling you what to do and think?"

It really signals a great awakening that maybe people don't need increasing government to run and live their lives -- and that is something, most people can better do for themselves -- if they simply are given all the information -- and not just the information determined by the public information officers and ministries lobbying for their own greater job security.

That is a direct consequence of the Information Revolution and the Age of Information -- that people come to feel confident they can make those decisions for themselves, instead of always being told what to think and do, by those who self-proclaim and designate themselves to know what is best for everyone else.

That was the Revolt Against the Machine as the year unfolded in 2010.

The Problem of the Unions and Their Domination of Hawaii

2010-01-12T08:48:00.002-10:00

As one of the first labor organizers of caregivers, I developed some rare insight into the present labor arguments -- and that is that the unions are almost wholly responsible for these injustices, and not management and business.

A writer points out the injustice of her teaching many classes and working hard, while her own mother does virtually nothing, at a high pay. That's not what any business wants -- but what union rules produce.

Many people will be surprised to know, the great inequalities produced in rewarding seniority over merit, is not at the insistence of business -- which would rightly want to reward merit.

Instead, this injustice is institutionalized so that the labor organization can exploit those at the lowest end of the hierarchy, who especially in Hawaii, will end up doing all the work, while ten others with greater seniority will do almost nothing for two to five times more.

So instead of paying all the workers for that job the same, each exploits every other according to their seniority -- so that the people most exploited, who will be the ones advocating for greater compensation and justice -- but that inequality and injustice, is the exploitation by their own "brotherhood," and not management or the public.

They would want fair and equitable treatment of all those doing the same work. The same work is actually harder work for those less experienced, so they would rightfully not get paid less, but justifiably more. And those who are more experienced, skilled and suited for that occupation, would reap greater benefits because that job is easier and enjoyable for them -- is the greatest benefit of that job -- all things being equal, why would they want to do anything else?

The problem with any occupation, is recruiting new people into that field to raise the gene pool of talent -- and not keeping those who can only do that job, and would not do another job at equal or even more pay -- because they would be ill-suited for doing so.

But many in Hawaii have observed work projects in Hawaii where nine workers are standing around supervising the one guy with least seniority doing all the work. That is caused by the union and not the preference of management -- or the taxpayers.

And then if all are compensated equally and fairly, those who want more beyond what everybody else is getting because of true collective bargaining, should obtain that in the free market, because their competence is proven in a fair market.

Why You Should Grow Your Own Food

2010-01-03T20:02:00.004-10:00

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, there wasn't one million people concentrated anywhere -- even New York, Tokyo, London.

Supporting a large population requires advanced technology -- to remove waste, for one thing -- which modern day Hawaii still hasn't figured out.

The major rationale for everybody to raise their own vegetable patch -- including turning their yards into gardens for that purpose, is that people in Hawaii have lost touch with reality and thus make the most absurd BS statements thinking they'll never be called to account -- that there was this marvelous mythical Hawaiian culture thriving in the Pacific -- that has left no traces of any enduring infrastructure -- like the aqueducts of Rome, pyramids of the Aztecs, cathedrals of Paris, Great Walls of China, etc. Their closest cousins, the inhabitants of Easter Island, have vanished from the planet, with no traces of their existence, except for identical large stone images that athropologists are at a loss to determine for what significance and purpose.

The soil in Hawaii is barren in most of the Islands because people don't know how to compost and nurture anything -- and the people think the only thing they can do is sign wave their legislators for more money -- as the only thing they can do -- which is to manipulate other people's thinking.

Thus, they need the actual experience of producing something tangible instead of BS -- which when they are caught at it, humiliates them in the company of thoughtful people.

I doubt that most people will be able to produce their own food for complete self-sufficiency-- but they learn to reconnect with the basics, of caring and nurturing something -- instead of relying on their congresspeople to "Give them more money."

Hawaii has no industry or productivity -- which has even become a bad word to the many bureaucrats and union people who insist that there is no such thing as productivity and merit -- and all that there is, is the ass-kissing and overconsumption without consequences.

It's a tribal, pre-industrial mentality -- that can't support a large population without breeding rats faster than people and homelessness. What do you do with the problems of crowding? Today there are high rises, which is something different from a million in grass shacks -- with no sewage system.

A productive society is what an education system should be producing -- instead of countless drones who think they should demand something for nothing, and are totally reliant on the productivity elsewhere.

People living in sophisticated, urban areas have also gone back to vegetable gardening as a first step to reconnecting with the basics of life. And that's the most important thing to get out of that cultivation and activity -- that relationship with cause and effect, industry and productivity -- and not just simply, who can eat the most plate lunches and get away with the greatest BS.

It is relearning the joy of doing something, and the lessons of productivity and personal responsibility instead of just going to the motions without any consequences, of making a real, tangible difference.

You're not learning the great lessons of life in the schools. You can't get something for nothing -- only demanding, and never supplying -- learning to go through the motions and look busy, as the only jobs they'll know.

Only 10%! A Dying World Reborn

2009-12-31T07:47:00.005-10:00

10% of what?

$100 or $1,000 or $1 million?

All too often, these articles leave out this vital bit of information -- which is essential context for one to read such articles with any intelligence and understanding -- which unfortunately, is the intent of the source providing the information. But the reporter should dig a little deeper at what is being unsaid as much as what is being said.

If someone is paying $100 a month for health insurance (not even health care), 10% more is probably not going to be a deal breaker, but when they are starting off at $1,000 a month, that is going to break the camel's back.

And now there is a plan afloat, that people will be required to make such payments -- or be fined $15,000 for not paying it -- for nothing.

If one has to spend more money for insurance than actual goods and services, how is anybody better off, except to indicate that the rewards to risk ratios have turned negative, and one can expect to get nothing, for a high fixed cost?

Actually, I should have used the more real world figure of $100,000 rather than the more whimsical $1 million dollars, as a more fitting illustration of such distortions.

Then we can include these "poor," starving, underpaid and undeprivileged "public service" union employees, demanding their 7% increases to continue -- just like the poor guys at the bottom who altogether are "rich," and so won't miss their plate lunches being stolen for that purpose.

I don't think it is so much that the people of Hawaii are ignorant and uneducated -- so much as they are misinformed and manipulated in this manner, to overwhelm us with everything that is irrelevant so that we cannot see the only thing that is significant.

And in the health insurance discussion, that would be, that one is no longer entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but one has to pay a premium to even remain a free citizen. And thus the premises for this society, has lost all meaning, and become the opposite.

No, the irresponsible dregs will find a way to milk the system.

What is hoped, is to spread the burden, among the many more who don't purchase health insurance but pay for medical actually received. These are among the healthiest people and so it is economic for them to do so because they are usually also, the prudent businessman, rather than the union workers who think they are not getting their moneysworth unless they take all their sick leave and run up as high a medical bills to cover the premiums they are not paying for anyway.

That's the motivation for attacking the health crisis as a health care insurance problem, and not as a much more overarching problem of this union mentality of getting something for nothing.

But some people actually have to pay the bills -- for everyone, which are your legions of small business operators just trying to get by, and needing whatever cash flow they have, to keep their businesses running -- which are taxed at gross receipts, and not profit.

That's the key concept -- personal responsibility.

The very antithesis of this, is insurance -- that spreads the risk across everyone equally -- rather than those outcomes being an indication for specific individuals to change.

Insurance is based on the "average," and not the specific, and we shouldn't be moving more in the direction of the generalized but actually in the direction of the validity of the specific.

In every activity, we're not trying to achieve the average; we're trying to achieve the exceptional, or the winning performance, and choose those activities and behaviors that enhance our chances of a favorable outcome. This is the critical failure and misunderstanding in the study of human behaviors -- this thinking that the average is the meaningful entity to consider, instead of the exceptional survival skills, and beyond that health beyond what most accept as "normal."

And what is the norm now but more resources to care for an increasing disabled and sick population.

Actually, the whole significance of the first decade of this century, has been this shift from the preoccupation with the "average" or mass -- to the individualized, just as the last ten years before this century, there was this shift from mass data processing, and mass media, into the world of the personal computer, and individually designed realities -- which are not false because they are not the average or mass (media) experience.

That world is dying, to be replaced by something entirely different -- unless we invest all our time, energy and resources to continue that dysfunctional trend into the future. But such a future has no hope and meaning -- if all we can look forward to are more vital people and resources, taking care of the dying and dysfunctional. We cannot continue on that path.

That was the society of the "More," in which the only solution for everything, was that we needed more of what we thought was the only possible. Health has to be personal responsibility.