Monthly Archives: July 2016

The Math of the US Senate

For all the bombast of presidential candidate supporters, they fail to admit that, unless one of the major parties has fewer than 41 senators, it’ll be a cold, cold day before there’s a new Supreme Court justice. There’s no compromise there, and given that a party with 41 or more senators can just say “filibuster” to kill a bill, halt a nomination, or spoil some other plan of the majority party.

It doesn’t matter which party has the majority in the Senate. That party needs a supermajority to get anything done. I have to admit this, as well. I’d like to see what happens if a Libertarian is in the White House, maybe he could open up negotiations… but he’d only be able to get his way if the Senate agrees. Same for either major party candidate, and they have the burden of having the other major party making it its sworn duty to oppose all the way, unless a major bank needs a bill passed. Then they all come together.

Maybe that’s what I can use to defuse effusive supporters of any candidate: without that Senate, he or she will have to rule by executive order. Obama wanted stuff done, and had to resort to executive orders. So did Bush the Second. So will the next president, if he or she wants stuff done. It’s all due to the math of the Senate.

You Want to End Islamic Terrorism? Don’t Have Another Republican President

Republican convention speakers were screaming about how Democrats won’t stop radial Islamic terrorists. Well, at least they didn’t put their organizers on jets and send them safely back to Saudi Arabia like George W. Bush did. At least they didn’t shake hands with Saddam Hussein like Donald Rumsfeld did. At least they didn’t sell arms to the Ayatollah like Ronald Reagan did. Maybe the best cure for radical Islamic terrorists is to *not* have a Republican president… I mean, didn’t Black September attack during the Nixon administration?

And before any Republicans get high and mighty and try to twist the truth to convince themselves that, somehow, a blowhard like Trump will make any difference over the status quo, the failure of intelligence and leadership in Benghazi was peanuts compared to the colossal failure of intelligence and leadership in 9/11. I agree that Syria is a huge mess, but it’s an extension of the neocon thinking that penetrated the US bureaucracy under Bush – the same thinking that brought on the nightmares of Iraq.

Trump is promising easy solutions that are also non-existent. To truly end Islamic terrorism, end US adventures overseas. To truly end racial unrest, stop engaging in practices that disenfranchise and marginalize minorities. To truly end violence against police, end the militarization of police that has some departments acting in a way that was unthinkable 20 years ago.

Even if Trump says he’s in favor of any of the above, he’s also a guy that will say anything to get what he wants. This is well known. He is everything that the Republican commentators have laid at the feet of Barack Obama, except while the accusations against Obama were overblown propaganda, this guy Trump delivers the goods. And the conservative media have done a full about-face to laud a man who is in every way like the Barack Obama they described.

I’m not going to give Clinton a pass, either. Face it, GOP, she’s so neocon, the Koch Brothers are backing her campaign. As in the Koch Brothers that bankroll everything that is holy and sacred to the Republican party. They are backing Clinton.

Either way, Trump or Clinton, we’re going to see a continuation of neocon policies. Either way, Trump or Clinton, we’re going to have a Republican president, who will do horrible things to people in the Middle East and continue to fuel radical Islamic terrorism with the twin policies of killing innocents at weddings and ignoring everything Saudi Arabia does to stoke the radicals.

This is why I support Gary Johnson and a full Libertarian ticket. Libertarians still have their ethics and principles and have the best chance of getting America on the path towards true peace. You want someone like a founding father that believes serving in government is a duty, not a chance to build a power base and then charge massive speaker fees after such service? You elect a Libertarian – it’s not a 100% guarantee, but the odds are in favor of a guy that will serve a few terms and then go home again, back to the people.

If I DON’T vote Libertarian, I’m throwing away my vote.

New Web Host

Just moved to a new web host after many great years with my friend, Dave Rolling at Infovue. The seasons change, and he is discontinuing his services. It’s sad that I won’t be getting tech support from a good friend, but life – and the Internet – goes on. Best of luck to Dave and his work, and I know I’ll always fondly remember my 17+ years with his hosting.My new host is bluehost and i got a nice deal from them trough a BlueHost Black Friday Deal.

Health: Physical and Spiritual Elements

As a Mormon, I have a health code to follow, known as “The Word of Wisdom.” It basically stipulates no consumption of tobacco, coffee, tea, and alcohol while encouraging one to be sparing in eating meat and not eating fruits out of season. While there are discussions in our community about whether or not anything should be added to the list, like caffeinated drinks or chocolate, the only official additions have been in regards to drug abuse, both illegal drugs as well as prescription medications. Still, Mormons will go on about the physical benefit of not ingesting one or more of the substances which we are told not to ingest. But what if the uniting characteristics of these forbidden substances is not their physical health implications, but their spiritual health effects?

At the time, tobacco, coffee, and tea were products of slave or forced labor. Being commanded to not partake of them may have been God’s way of initiating a “fair trade” boycott of those products. I know there’s nothing written to that effect, and I would never put this forward as official doctrine, but it’s a thought I had as I toured an exhibit on slavery in the National Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. While, to me, the physical health benefits of not ingesting tobacco are readily apparent, those of coffee and tea seem to be a bit of a reach for me. But refusing to eat of the products of slave labor? That unites them all. It unites them, and causes me to think about what I’m eating.

While I will continue to observe The Word of Wisdom regardless of a rationalization justifying it – it is a commandment from God to my faith, and that is enough for me to observe it – it makes me ponder what things do I eat that involve the exploitation of my fellow man. The list, sadly, is long and torturous. It weighs on my soul that chocolate is frequently the product of the exploited. Cashew nuts and other luxuries tend to be provided via slavish conditions. Shrimp platters come to us from enslaved families in Thailand. The list marches on and is more a comment on modern capitalism driving the cost of inputs as close to zero as possible than it is a commentary on the health benefits of the foods described.

But, spiritually speaking, I don’t want to eat the things that have been made by slaves because of the evil that went into their manufacture. I know that I can’t avoid it entirely, but I don’t like it when it happens. And although I’ll never lecture someone else on how God would ban something that He hasn’t banned – if it needs banning, He will do it when the time is right for us – I will think about what I eat and drink and what the spiritual effects on me attendant with that consumption.

To me, The Word of Wisdom is still the same proscription against certain things and encouragement towards others. But now that I’ve considered a different way of interpreting it as a means of maintaining spiritual health, I have to ask what else is in my spiritual diet that needs addressing? What do I have not enough of? What do I have too much of? What do I need to do to increase my spiritual health? Answering these questions involves a journey, and if I wish to have the following benefits…


Doctrine and Covenants, 89:18-20 (Section titled “The Word of Wisdom”)

18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

19 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;

20 And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.

… then I must start with keeping The Word of Wisdom. For, truly, as I walk on my spiritual journey, I do not want to faint, lest I be denied finding wisdom and knowledge. Spiritual health is every bit as important as is physical health.