Wise words from President Obama

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006

Potential refugee solution

This is the tent city in Mina for all the pilgrims to Mecca (approx 8 km from Mecca). The tents are made of fire-resistant materials and all have A/C. Every tent has speakers, thermostats and fire alarm. A total of 3 million people can be accommodated. 

Would it not be the perfect city for all the Muslims fleeing their countries? And much closer?

The tapestry of diversity

So NBC is re-making the show “Hart To Hart” with gay heros. 

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/hart-to-hart-gay-remake-nbc-1201594683/

This seems to show the lack of originality and creativity in Hollywood as well as trying to be politically correct by featuring a sub-group who has been victimized thereby showing diversity.  The lack of imagination and inspiration in Hollywood is sad, but seems to be here to stay.  Not being a big fan of “Hart to Hart” I thought what if they did a gay remake of “Dirty Harry”.  You remember the great Clint Eastwood character and the first of the movies in the series.  In case you’re not familiar with “Dirty Harry” let me give you a quick synopsis: 

Harry Callahan is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When a hippie-esque psycho Scorpio goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor and Lt. Bressler admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," he opines in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again.

So what if Hollywood made a re-make of “Dirty Harry” featuring a gay hero?  It might look something like this:

Harry Callahan is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When a hippie-esque psycho Scorpio goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor and Lt. Bressler admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," he opines in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again.

In the interest of diversity perhaps Hollywood should re-make “Dirty Harry” featuring a female hero?  It might look something like this:

Heather Callahan is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish her lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with her 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When a hippie-esque psycho Scorpio goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor and Lt. Bressler admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," he opines in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again.

Diversity is great!  They should do a re-make of “Dirty Harry” featuring a black hero.  It might look something like this:

Harry Callahan is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When a hippie-esque psycho Scorpio goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor and Lt. Bressler admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," he opines in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again.

I’m sure to leave out some sub-class of Americans, but why don’t they re-make “Dirty Harry” featuring a trans-gender hero?  It might look something like this:

Harry Callahan is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When a hippie-esque psycho Scorpio goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor and Lt. Bressler admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," he opines in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again.

In doing these re-makes in a diverse manner, the great tapestry of diversity can be displayed in a politically correct fashion.

 

Just in case anyone's wondering why Greece is in poor condition

Experts mandated by the European Union to investigate the causes that led Greece to the current economic situation relate the following facts:

Greece falsified its accounts to enter the euro zone and has distorted the facts until it finally exploded. There were massive retirements at the age of 50 years. At Evangelismos hospital there were 50 drivers for officials' cars, and on average there were 45 gardeners for a small lawn with 4 bushes.

Greece has the highest population in the world of people reporting an age of 110 years. The deaths are often not registered and pensions continue to be received. The European Union had found that there are families receiving 4-5 monthly pensions which they are not supposed to get. There were still pensions paid to persons who died in 1953, 60+ years ago. 40,000 girls received monthly life pension of 1,000 euros for the simple fact that they were unmarried daughters of deceased civil servants. This, at a cost to the state coffers of €550 million euros per year. Now they will receive pensions only up to the age of 18.

The pacemakers in Greek hospitals were acquired at a price 400 times higher than in British hospitals. In Greece, many workers have benefited from early retirement, set at 50 years for women and 55 for men who belong to one of the 600 job categories identified as particularly painful among which included;

- Hairdressers (because of dyes that may be considered harmful)

- The musicians of wind instruments (blowing into a flute is exhausting)

- TV presenters (the microphones are supposed to cause damage to health).

**** This law was adopted by the Socialist government of 1978.

There are thousands of ridiculous "tricks" departments and unnecessary institutions, which many Greeks live off. For example, The Institute for the Protection of Kopais Lake, a dry lake since 1930.

In the last decade, Greece has created over 300 new public companies. Tax evasion is massive, over 25% of Greeks do not pay a penny on personal income tax. In addition, the weight of the public sector in the economy is overwhelming. There are about one million officials to 4,000,000 active people.

Greek public railways: The average salary of employees exceeds €66.000.- per year. And this includes cleaners and other non-skilled workers. The (almost free) Athens Metro delivers about 90 million tickets a year, while the total cost of this public company exceeds the 500 million needed.

The French retirees receive, on average, 51% of the last salary, the Germans 40%, North Americans 41% and Japanese 34%.

Meanwhile, Greek pensioners receive 96% of their last salary .

Greece has four times more teachers than Finland, the best situated country in the last PISA report, while the student performance in Greeece is the lowest among many European countries by comparison.

Did I already post this? If so, sorry, here it is again.

1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

Discriminatory?

The character continuum

As I was studying ethics recently I came upon the Character Continuum.  I thought it was an interesting portrayal of ethical behavior.  The Character Continuum (CC) was displayed in an obscure professional publication.  No source was attributed to it and I couldn’t find one on the internet.  If you are reading this and have any more information, please leave it in a comment.

I think I stack up pretty well in the ethical category.  My virtuousness seems to be targeted to certain others with whom I am familiar and whom I feel worthy of my time and treasure.  Societal virtuousness seems like a large undertaking for me.  I am happy to have made a difference in the lives of several others.

In contemplating the CC it occurred to me that many conservatives like myself measure themselves well in the ethical category.  Liberals seem to think that they are in the virtuous category.  Their output of virtuosity is generally rather minimal.  This is because they are generally just regular folks, not one of those evil 1 percenters.  So their main display of virtuousness is in railing against all businesses and favoring accomplishing their virtuous goals by confiscating the property of others.  Being emotional, liberals cannot do enough to make it difficult for businesses to operate.  They burden them with regulations where the benefits of the regulations are far outweighed by their costs.  Then they promote confiscatory taxes which in combination with the oppressive regulations suppress increases in hiring.  This results in more candidates for their liberal virtuousness.  Their endgame is tragic.

The liberal emotionalism also tends to make them think that all conservatives are unethical and that’s putting it mildly.  When in my experience few are unethical.  See that’s the thing about business owners and managers – when they act in an unethical manner their customers eventually find out about it.  Trust is lost and business is taken elsewhere.

But let me say this about unethical characters of either political ilk:  If they break the law they should be punished.  From what I can see there is far too much stroking a check as a fine and far too little prison time for the lawbreakers.