Maybe the world should end.

I watched a debate this weekend between a Palestinian and a Israeli; during their exchange I realized that nothing will ever change in that part of the world. Watching the madness unfold in our own country, with Black Friday, and stores opening even sooner, until Thursday is the new Friday; the constant bickering of our elected officials, every religious group and organization trying to force their agenda down our throats; constant pharmaceutical company commercials trying to further medicate an already over medicated population. It all makes me sick. Makes me think this planet needs a good purge to flush out a good part of the population and get everyone to focus what is really important in life.

Christmas is a farce; a day that Jesus himself would loathe. He preached for people to turn away from greed and consumption; the very things we now embrace in his name. I am not a religious person, in fact, I dont believe in many of the things that the religious institutions of our world indoctrinate into us from birth. But I have read the Bible and even I can see that we are on a very different path than the authors intended.

A lot of people think the world will end on December 21st, 2012 because a Mayan calendar ends on that day. I say, if the Mayans were so smart, why did they make a calendar that included days five hundred years past their collapse. If they knew about the end of the world, wouldnt they also have known the end date of their own civilization?

Almost every prediction is proven false in the end. Just like the rapture a year ago: Some nutjob claims to have had a vision, everybody jumps aboard, and throws logic right out the window. The last time the world was supposed to end was in 2000, because the bible claims that Jesus said his reign would last a thousand years but not thousands before his return: Well its 2012 and he didnt show up. Most of the stuff in the new testament was made years after Jesus died and it would be really hard for something he said to be remembered verbatem after so long. I am sure like most of the Bible, it was embellished to add dramatic effect, after all, controlling the populus is its main function.

What I am trying to convey here is that people should use the one thing that we know came from God; our brain and our ability to reason. Dont be that guy or gal, pushing little kids out of the way to save a buck on something that good advertising made you think you have to have. Take a good look around you at what you do have that matters: Your health, your family (and their health), a home, food to eat because there are a lot of people in this world that have a lot less.

Division of a Nation

I know a lot of people will disagree with me when I say that the United States is about to change in a way that no one really likes. There is a rift between ideologies in this country and I am not sure compromise can be found. On one side are the living constitution crowd, liberals if you will, that feel that the constitution should change with the times. On the other side are the traditionalist, conservatives, that feel the founding fathers had it right, and the constitution should be taken literally, as written, and never changed.

Any time changes are made, there are repercussions that ripple out like a stone dropped in the water, and they get bigger with time. A good example is welfare: people that receive open ended assistance have no motivation to go back to work. That is why the number of people on welfare is at an all time high. What motivation do people have to go to work and pay for their own health care if the government is willing to provide it to them for free?

The liberals would argue that it works in European countries; why cant it work here? Well, the answer is simple. Europeans pay about half of their income in taxes and their health care system is government owned. Greece and Spain are on the edge of financial collapse right now and could pull the entire European Union down with them because their social programs, the same social programs that the liberals want to impose on our country, are draining their resources and crippling their economies.

Every Democratic country that has ever existed has ultimately failed because of entitlements. The ancient Greeks have seen this before. They were the founders of democracy and voted themselves into financial ruin by giving themselves entitlements. The Roman democracy ended when they could no longer find compromise and a dictatorship was established. Even the Roman emperors couldn't afford to keep the populous satisfied with free food and entertainment in the end, because when you start to give things to people, they always want more. They say that history repeats itself and maybe it does; if it does, we are in big trouble.

There are good arguments in both sides. Many liberal causes that protect individual rights and freedoms are a must, as well as keeping a watchful eye on government and business. Conservatives see themselves taking the moral high ground and that is good too, as long as they don't force their religious beliefs on others. We need both the fiscal responsibility, low tax, conservative stance of the right and the social, protectiveness of the left, in this country to be successful.

Right now each side has gathered behind their banners, pulled to the far side of their philosophy, and are prepared to do battle with each other. But the victims that fall in this battle will be all of us, the American people. We will pay that price in higher taxes, costly failed programs, higher debt, and a good possibility of another bad recession.

Another year older and closer to my goal

As most of my readers already know, yesterday was my 49th Birthday and even though I am a year older, I don't feel any different. Outside of a few aches and pains and a lot of gray hair, I feel about the same as I did years ago. I guess the body ages but the mind remains the same, at least for some of us. I still have the same wants and needs, and like the same things, as I did when I was in my 20's, even though I have learned patience in getting them. Patience is one of the things I can attest to that gets better with age. When we are younger passion and emotion drive us far more strongly than knowledge and understanding; I am not saying that passion fades over time, just gets put into perspective with understanding.

My desire to buy a bigger boat falls into the passion vs. understanding struggle. One part of me want to sell everything I own, buy a bigger boat and sail off to warmer tropical pastures. When I was younger I would have jumped without much thought. Now that I am older, the passion is still there, but the older man experience plays in and tells me to cool my jets and think about the logistics of such an undertaking. How much money will we have after the boat is bought, equipped, and provisioned for an extended voyage. What costs do we incur in foreign ports for moorings, marina fees and taxes. What about costs to repair and maintain the boat in harsh ocean waters?All of these questions and a million more need to be asked and researched before we launch. The old man in me is asking those questions and keeping the young man in check; at least for the time being.

For now, the young man in me will dream, look at boats, and try to find a way to go as soon as possible, while the older man, studies and plans for the future, which as of yesterday, is a year closer.