It's a Verbum Vitae et Lumen Scientiae Thing

Dear America,

Verbum Vitae et Lumen Scientiae

Word of Life and the Light of Knowledge

 

motto,

University of Richmond

Virginia

 

 

Or,

 

Communism, Atheism, Free Love

 

motto,

 celebrated daily @ Reed College

Portland

 

Same country.

Different college.

 

 



You know, some days, I get this flash of light, a sense, a feeling deep down inside me, that I AM settled science.  And it is magnificent when I'm in it.  And then again, other days, not so much -- nothing seems settled, let alone settling.

Some days, it's just easier to feel more lost than saved; some days, it's just easier to wallow in the slop than rise to the occasion that our reality calls for, both literally and figuratively.

The thing is -- as little old gthing gets right down to it -- we must figure out how to coexist in this petri dish that we call life in America, not to mention with the rest of the world, while recognizing our individual freedom to live the lives our Maker designed.  [And hating myself for reaching out to a bumper sticker slogan so early on the day.  Consider it to be a life line thrown in on the fly. We'll just have to wait and see if anything good comes of it.]

I mean, my goodness, Reed College gets it, right?
The University of Richmond celebrates it, no?

Of course, our founders thought they thought of everything already, having set up the new world with a Republic that celebrates, honors, elevates the individual above government; in other words, limiting the hand of government by a Rule of Law that controls and binds its power and making unlimited the body, We the People, for Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Free Spirits for every one.

All exceptions to The Rule were individually divided.

And Happiness -- made or lost -- individually dedicated and obligated for life.

"Hope is a good breakfast,

but a bad supper."

Francis Bacon

At the end of the day, it is what we DO that carries the day, that justifies our existence, that settles the science, the call of duty, to apply ourselves to this thing called life, or not.

But make no mistake -- there is no guarantee of happiness just by being born in these here United States.  That is not what our founders said.

The subjective cue to the powers that be to come to the aid of the General Welfare is not a call to feed the body, in whole or in part, nor is it about providing free health care.  But I digress... we've been there and done that argument round and round and round again until we all fall down.

 [Now -- Providing for a Common Defense...

now that is spelled out, quite clearly;

as our newly appointed chief advocate of that duty,

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel says.....

Risk and liability meet the Modern Age in Military Preparedness.

Oh my, and on another front: 

 Breaking News:  No troops in Afghanistan]

If you linked in there, and there-there, we can only hope it all works out...
and oh the ironies abound, as nobody wins a war on hope.

But let's circle back around to how we began the day --

At choice -- as Americans, as students, as individuals -- we can choose a Reed College or a University of Richmond.  Have at it kids.

And now stop for one second and really get a grip of what these two colleges symbolize.

Stop.

I mean it.

Take in what these two widely different arenas for higher education offer -- and think about the umpteen individuals drawn to them and what they do once they complete their four years...


And then ask yourself, just where, oh Where, art thou --  this choice --  once we graduate, so to speak?

Where is this freedom to live and let live, choosing to commune with those we feel a certain kinship in ideals, in practice, in leading a productive life according to a mission, a motto, a stroke of genius that is our own and in accompaniment with others?

It's called the power of the states, individually --  and collectively this is only found in America.

And it seems everything from smoking pot to gay marriage, to NFL franchise names to name calling, is open season and up for discussion -- no matter how ugly it gets.

[If you linked into the "name calling" there...how hard is that going to be to put into play?  Given the n-word is thrown around liberally during the game -- and clearly being black on black because a white boy would never go there -- applying a fifteen yard penalty every time?  Is this for real?  Seriously?  Is the end game to ruin football altogether? Micromanaging people doesn't work in business or in life or in football.  So there.  Moving on.org.] 

The thing is, we are living in a season when what is undoubtedly offensive to one person is all in a day's work for another.  And yes, I meant to make light of that.  Whatever.  Shoot me with a high caliber A-15. 

Somehow colleges make it work and nobody says boo about it... 

From my view, "communism, atheism, and free love" may very well be to blame for most of our woes in America these days, as well as become fodder of a motto to hate; but having said that -- I dig it because I am not afraid of our differences! Matter of fact, I would like to think I revel in it.   Goodness gracious, who am I kidding, I make hay with it all the live long day!   What a great country this is, right, Putin?   But maybe that's just me being G. Of course, it is.

Can't we coexist --  within the confines of our differences, amidst this wave of political correctness (albeit one-sided),  and maintain the Rule of Law all at the same time -- oh, and keep our religion, too?

Currently, Arizona is wrestling with a variance of this sort of thing, read more here.

And from another angle, our nation's ability to honor a truly free press has recently been individually and collectively challenged on this, courtesy of our very own FCC, see more here.


At the end of the day, this day, there is plenty of Verbum Vitae et Lumen Scientiae to go around.

And to each his own.

There is simply so much, almost too much, to be up in arms about.

But go ahead.
Do business the way you want to do business. 
No Prada shoes, no Gucci shirt, no service...It's a free choice.


If it's offensive to enough people, you will soon be out of business. 

That isn't an opinion -- it's just an idealistic-free fact. 
It's how the free market is designed to work and how business gets done and un-done with plenty of unintended consequences to boot.

Risk and liability abound when speaking up for what you believe in -- while the adverse is also true when you don't. 

It's not rocket science (and not even close to being settled); it's human nature meets free will, and brought to you by Divine Providence [most days probably with eyes closed as It can't bear to watch].


Make it a Good Day, G

Courtesy of the University of G

Campus Tours Daily

Come Back Soon, or not 

xoxo

It's an EIGHT Trillion Dollar Man Thing

Dear America,

so here we are...

currently at about 14.3 Trillion.
Obama wants an additional 2.4 Trillion
(just to get him through the next election...
just one year away)

then, attaching the current deficit at 1.65 Trillion...

we come to, for all intents and purposes,
roughly an 18.35 Trillion dollar National Debt by fall of 2012.

And if John Boehner gets his way...on target to reducing deficits by only 22 billion in the next year, and pledging a promise of debt reduction by 1.2 Trillion over the next TEN years... he will play a part in setting us up in 2021 for what?  hmmm...conservatively speaking, adding maybe a trillion for each year, 28.35 Trillion in debt.

But from another angle -- because the many facets of this are just so illuminating -- taking all this into consideration, Obama is on track for bringing America to about 18 Trillion dollars in debt -- BY NEXT YEAR!

Thus -- under the Obama Administration he will have accumulated  EIGHT trillion dollars in debt, being solely responsible for the DOUBLING (and then some) of our national debt in a matter of four years [comparing him to Bush -- which Obama loves to do -- who added 4Trillion over eight].

But think about it:  it took 43 presidents to bring us to 10 Trillion -- but it just took one term under President Obama to bring America to her knees.

So, what we have then, from another angle, it took 232 years to make ten trillion -- while before this administration is through, he will have added 8.35 (trillion) in just four short stupid reckless... "brainless dickless hopeless heartless" (in an ode to Christmas Vacation on the fly) ...years. that's what I'm talkin' about.

A local talk radio young gun in the San Diego area is Mike Slater; yesterday, his topic was wrapped around the whole "compromise" thing.  And it was funny...he's like, you know, [which, if you are a Slater Crusader, you would recognize the "like" thrown in.  His reputation of over-using the word "like" is something of fascination out here...he gets dinged on the show every time he throws it around and they count them...but I digress]  anyway, he's like telling us what's with this idea of compromise?  essentially wondering how exactly does it work, when it is such that those of us who do not want the debt ceiling raised at all, are forced to give in, to the tune of trillions of dollars?  how is that right?

Posing it from another angle, he's like:  [paraphrasing] 'how about we go to the president and say we want to lower the debt by ten trillion, but we'll settle for five?  how 'bout that compromise?' or something like that, anyway....but interesting point, doncha think?   just why does the party who wants a real Cut,Cap and Balance have to compromise UP and conform to the liberal scale, clearly hellbent on government running amuck?

how is that a compromise that works, unless you are insistent on a compromise of values, let alone dollars and common sense?

"I want everybody in America to do well. I want everybody to have a chance to become a millionaire. I think the free market system is the greatest wealth generator we have ever known. This is not about punishing wealth. This is about asking people who have benefited the most over the last decade to share in the sacrifice, and I think these patriotic Americans are willing to pitch in -- if they're asked -- because they know that middle class families shouldn't have to pick up the whole tab for closing the deficit."  President Obama

does this actually reflect the real feelings and actions of this president?

...bu  bu but but but Mr. President ...thought it was the "millionaires and billionaires" who are the villains in all this -- now you are suggesting you want everybody to be one?  Oh, that's right...not one who earns it the old-fashioned way, but becomes one ....through special favor, through policy of redistribution, and foregoing a fundamental American principle built upon self-reliance, promising equal opportunity, not equal outcome -- and thus taking from one, right now, in order to give that wealth to another.

..and Mr. President...you want everybody in America to do well, except the oil companies along with any energy un-green, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies.... small business owners.... nearly everyone in the private sector, and otherwise, anyone who is not a member of a union

...everybody DOES have a chance to become one [a millionaire], Mr. President.

...the free market system, when government gets out of the way, IS the greatest wealth generator..perhaps if you say it often enough, Mr. President, you may actually begin to believe it!

(that is like a flip on “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”  -- Joseph Goebbels.)

...this ADMINISTRATION IS about punishing wealth -- not to mention controlling it, manipulating it, stealing it, violating it, diminishing it, chastising it, eliminating /redistributing it in every way...isn't it, Mr. President.  isn't it?

When Obama was just a candidate, he made many promises -- insinuating in every possible way a firm alliance and allegiance to America, both in principles and core values, from all angles.

If we can force ourselves to look back to 2008, he promised to go LINE by LINE on the Federal Budget to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse of the the federal bureaucracy...instead, he has added 22% to the growth of government; he promised to cut the deficit BY HALF before the end of his first term...instead, he has quadrupled it; he promised to show "sausage making" on C-SPAN...ha ha hahaha; he promised he would be different, bi-partisan, reaching across the aisle, changing Washington and the status quo....ha ha hahaha; he even promised to stand by his belief that marriage is between a man and a woman...instead, he has simply decided not to defend DOMA.

The character of a man during the campaign is simply indistinguishable as president (who we have come to know as just a boy).

Another fallacy came to light in the last twenty-four hours.  Going to words of the administration press secretary, Jay Carney, when he explained the road ahead like so:

“It’s a Sophie’s Choice. Who do you save? Who do you pay?”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/27/wh-spokesman-calls-debt-decisions-sophies-choice-rejects-questions-on-wh-plan/#ixzz1TPqjpeci

So, with the audacity to contradict his president really -- a president who very recently stood firm on fear mongering and claiming that he is "unable to guarantee social security checks will go out" -- Carney admits THERE IS A CHOICE.

Well, there you go; returning to multiple angles, of course there is a choice!  As well as, a LAW, that requires Social Security to be paid; which just so happens to be the same LAW, spelling out explicit policy guaranteeing payment on our debt/interest on debt first, to prevent a default from happening at all! [Not to mention the bi-weekly payroll deductions feeding directly into the funds to pay social security checks, without disruption]

But thank you, Jay, for making it so clear.  The president has a choice -- it is also known as a duty...to God and to country....something he swore to, on the Holy (Lincoln) Bible, just two and a half years ago.

Of course, given his track record, it is awfully hard to tell if he will hold himself to it.

So here we are...just letting a little light shine upon all the angles...free will...duty...responsibility...self-reliance...law...indebtedness...prosperity...

in the end...all of us --  in equal portion -- are at CHOICE.

Make it a Good Day, G

ps. I take exception being equated to either a Hobbit or a Terrorist...and so choose not to link you to either original source of those stories.  why bother. but let's just say we "hobbits" can't wait for 2012.

It's an Allegiance to Simple Obedience Thing

"The great man knew not that he was great.  

It took a century or two 

for the fact to appear. 

What he did, he did because he must:  

he used no election : 

it was the most natural thing in the world, 

and grew out of the circumstances of the moment."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

  
Dear America,

happy thursday.

it is the Day After Opening Day at the races, marking my two year anniversary and, in total, celebrating 382 thoughtful blog posts on the state of the nation... as according to a day in the life of this American girl.

My morning ritual, usually begins with just making coffee; outside of the lazy hazy days of summer, the day demands a more stringent attention to time...making breakfast for my girl and whisking her off to school.  Aside from the natural conformity to domestic bliss, the next hour is usually catching up on emails, reading the news, spanning the headlines, and reaching into my library for inspiration; and oh, lest we forget, reading the horoscope for kicks and giggles gets squeezed in somewhere between news and headlines...

It is merely a regiment, a routine, a method of submission to what is yet to come; it allows me to take simple steps forward in hopes of BEGINNING SOMETHING that is yet to appear, even within my own mind.

It takes time to build up the momentum of my thoughts on the day; while sometimes, even after I diligently followed up on the details of the morning, I can still find myself going hmmmm, wondering just where should we go today?

But the thing is, for this day, feeling rather high on the notion that I am still showing up, two years hence and with the creation of 382 somethings out of nothings -- my heart is overfloweth. The obedience to the work makes me smile; it gives me a sense of accomplishment; it wraps the arms of the universe around me and tells me, good job girl. [besides, it's my blog and I can toot my own horn if I want to]

But it is in the spirit of this obedience that demands my humble attention in this brand new day.

I suspect that all of us awake each morning doing whatever it is we do -- whether it is with great thought or very little thought at all; whether we are fully conscious, or completely dazed and confused, or somewhere in between, we respond to the world and the world responds right back to us.  It is perfect in and of itself, because it simply is.

"Every man sees that he is that middle point whereof every thing may be affirmed and denied with equal reason.  He is old, he is young, he is very wise, he is altogether ignorant....There is no permanent wise man except in the figment of stoics."  Emerson

We constantly evolve; while life, itself, is never static. And with the ever abundant material of life in which we are surrounded, we make choices -- with the truth and consequences immediately to follow, assuredly as the moon follows the sun (or vice versa).

The consciousness of chaos within the Debt Ceiling/Deficit/Balanced Budget debate, happening right now in Washington, gives us an idea as to how far we have fallen from mastering our obedience.  From one day to the next, every time we veer from keeping up with our daily tasks -- through the reprehensible actions of those in charge of America's fundamental regiment --  we chip away at the things that bind us together.  Whatever we thought was whole and sufficiently supplied day after day, simply is not.

"A man's genius, the quality that differences him from every other, the susceptibility to one class of influences, the selection of what is fit for  him, the rejection of what is unfit, determines for him the character of the universe.  As a man thinketh so is he, and as a man chooseth so is he and so is nature.  A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him wherever he goes. He takes only his own out of the multiplicity that sweeps and circles round him...

...Human character does evermore publish itself.  It will not be concealed.  It hates darkness -- it rushes into light.  The most fugitive deed and word, the mere air of doing a thing, the intimated purpose, expresses character.  If you act you show character; if you sit still you show it; if you sleep you show it. You think because you have spoken nothing when others spoke, and have given no opinion on the times, on the church, on slavery, on the college, on parties and persons, that your verdict is still expected with curiosity as a reserved wisdom.  Far otherwise; your silence answers very loud." 

just a whole lot more of Emerson (isn't he simply the coolest!)

Silence speaks volumes, just as, in equal portion, those who choose the courage to speak.  The daily method of congress -- as according to the daily method of each man or woman in congress, as according to the daily method of nature -- both human nature and mother nature combined -- "out of the multiplicity that sweeps and circles round" -- prevails, one way or another.

The obedience, and humble attention, to this nation's debt has been long gone -- lost over decades, in various effects.  Following the "susceptibility of one class of influences" after another,  we find ourselves exhibiting the character of a nation.

It does not fit, does it?

We are at odds within ourselves, and against each other, over the natural tendencies and fundamentals this nation was made.  The routine has gone awry.  We have no idea which way is right or wrong, up or down -- we only see the chaos in between persons, while the order underneath it all is trampled upon, discredited, ridiculed, and left for dead.

My life, and your life, is left in the hands of people who continue to test character on whims of servitude, wings of desperation, flights of fancy, and feats of political posturing -- when in fact, all they really have to do, is the right thing.  And keep doing it -- one foot after the other -- as if the very universe relied.

The left makes fun of the right all the live long day, most commonly against the simplicity of our original pact (made altogether, by the way) resting upon the ideals built upon one's Common Sense; carrying with it, in equal portion, our duty and responsibility and allegiance to it, resting upon the ideals built upon one's Self-Reliance and Independence.

Seems to me, on this day, the trouble with free choice -- free will -- is that sometimes people do not choose to do the right thing; be it in the macro or the micro; be it in the individual or the collective.

We have a choice right now, as a nation, to do the right thing -- and for some odd reason, a great many in Washington either do not recognize it, or they would rather fall back to sleep.  It would seem, by the evidence left for us upon the light of day, they would rather face the truth another time; for the character required is simply not in them.

This lack of obedience is nothing new to Washington, it is just that We, the People, have only just now caught up to it.

"Our eyes are holden 

that we cannot see things 

that stare us in the face, 

until the hour arrives when the mind is ripened, 

-- then we behold them, 

and the time when we saw them not is like a dream."

and, once again... thank you, Emerson

America's success relies upon each of us to do our due diligence, to be obedient to the day and to the tasks at hand, in ways large and small, whether we wish to go there freely, easily, without dragging our feet out of bed, or not.

until right now, "when the hour arrives when the mind is ripened," this blog was nowhere to be seen or heard.


...of course, it only came after obedient, deliberate action....after the coffee, after the news, after the headlines, after the inspiration hit me upside the face and back down again...and, lest we forget, after the horoscope -- which, I kid you not -- began with this:

"It will be up to you to take action today..."(Aries, yahoo! horoscopes)

Make it a Good Day, G