Ed's Lessons in Life

Social Security - The U. S. Government Giveth and the Government Taketh Away

2008-03-02T18:52:00.003-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

(Editor's Note: A lot of stuff comes into my email box every day, most of it I read and delete. Sometimes I do not. Following is a bit of history that is relevant due to the current Presidential campaigns being waged. I believe the facts herein to be true and accurate; if you do not, let me know your version of the truth.)

A Social Security primer:

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary.

2) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the Program.

3) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year.

4) That the money the participants put into the independent "Trust Fund" rather than into the general Operating Fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other government program.

5) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal Government to "put away" -- you may be interested in the following:

Q : Which Political Party took Social Security from the independent "Trust Fund" and put it into the General Fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the Democratically-controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the "tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?

A: Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country , and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even if they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

And the worst part about it is, people believe it!

How Clever Thieves Are Stealing Cars Without Even Breaking Into Your Car

2008-02-23T22:49:00.002-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

(Editor's Note: A lot of advice—some good and some not so good—travels around the Internet by well meaning (in most cases) users. Here is a tidbit that is valuable enough to notice about how thieves are now beginning to steal vehicles.)

Car thieves are beginning to peer through the windshield of your car or truck, write down the VIN # from the label on the dash, go to the local car dealership and request a duplicate key based on the VIN #.

I didn't believe this e-mail, so I called Chrysler-Dodge and pretended I had lost my keys They told me to just bring in the VIN #, and they would cut me one on the spot, and I could order the keyless device if I wanted.

The Car Dealer's Parts Department will make a duplicate key from the VIN #, and collect payment from the thief who will return to your car. He does not have to break into your car or truck, do any damage to the vehicle, or draw attention to himself.

All he has to do is walk up to your car, insert the key and off he goes to a local Chop Shop with your vehicle. You don't believe it? It IS that easy.

To prevent this from happening to you, simply put some tape (electrical tape, duct tape or medical tape) across the VIN Metal Label located on the dashboard. By law, you cannot remove the VIN, but you CAN cover it so it cannot be viewed through the windshield by a car thief.

Read my other articles on football, including "Famous Quotes by Vince Lombardi, Knute Rockne and Lou Holtz During Football's Annual Bowl Season", "How to Predict When Teams Are Overrated and Due for an Unexpected Loss", "The Sagarin Ratings: What They Are, How to Read Them and What to Do With Them" and my 14 consecutive weekly wrap-up articles on the 2007 College Football Season as well as wrap-up articles on all 32 College Bowl Games.

My articles can be published with no charge by newsletters, newspapers and magazines through EzineArticles.com, the largest articles directory on the Internet with 80,000+ authors and 982,000+ articles.

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 145 Movie Reviews, 112 Sports Articles, 61 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Jobs and Careers Articles, 26 Internet Marketing Articles, 44 News and Comment Articles (406 total articles) plus 685 Famous Quotes.

Saint Martin's University - A Catholic Treasure Hidden in the Pacific NW

2008-02-22T14:41:00.003-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Hidden among the evergreens in the great Pacific Northwest is Saint Martin's College, a Benedictine university in the Catholic tradition. As a resident of Lacey, Washington (the state, not DC) I drive by this hidden treasure daily.

Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a beautiful 320-acre wooded campus, and has proven to be a magnet for students of wealthy families from Asian countries and associated families and countries around the world.

Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains.

It is amazing how many great universities there are in this country that remain relatively unknown because of their size and population. Perhaps even less known are the staff members who teach the students.

I was reminded of this the other day upon learning that Tapas Das, an adjunct faculty member of Saint Martin’s University School of Engineering, has been named the recipient of the Development Organization for Sustainable Transformation (DOST) Professor S. K. Sharma Medal and CHEMCON Distinguished Speaker Award for 2007.

The Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers recently conferred the award upon Das to recognize his contributions to the profession of chemical engineering worldwide.

Das received the award last month at the Chemical Engineering Congress (CHEMCON 2007) in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata), India, where he delivered the lecture, "Environmental Sustainability: Key Roles of Chemical Engineers" to an international audience of the world's leading chemical engineers.

Tapas Das is a doctor of philosophy and professional engineer. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Bradford University in England and a B.S. in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

He has conducted postdoctoral research at the Chemical Engineering Department of Imperial College in London, and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of Princeton University.

With an expertise in environmental sustainability, Das has managed engineering projects examining air quality, water quality, water reuse, solid waste management, life-cycle assessment and sustainable development.

Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 21 majors and 6 graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education and engineering.

Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its 5 extension campuses located at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic College, Centralia College and Tacoma Community College, all located in the State of Washington.

Additional information on Saint Martin's College is available through Jennifer Fellinger at (360) 438-4332 if you are calling within the United States.

Read my movie reviews on families: "A Christmas Story", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Secondhand Lions". You will smile, laugh, cry and feel better for the experience. Don't just experience life, live life!

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/
Discover 145 Movie Reviews, 112 Sports Articles, 61 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Jobs and Careers Articles, 26 Internet Marketing Articles, 44 News and Comment Articles (406 total articles) plus 685 Famous Quotes.

Where Rational Thought Leads - What Can Happen When a Cocksure Professor Make His Case in Class

2008-02-13T10:47:00.003-08:00

Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

(Editor's Note: Honest people recognize that at one time or another we have all tried to make a point at the expense and embarrassment of another. The following story is making the rounds on the Internet. I have decided to repeat it here and share a few thoughts after the presentation.)

The science professor begins his school year with a lecture to the students, "Let me explain the problem science has with religion." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

"You're a Christian, aren't you, son?"

"Yes sir," the student says.

"So you believe in God?"

"Absolutely."

"Is God good?"

"Sure! God's good."

"Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?"

"Yes."

"Are you good or evil?"

"The Bible says I'm evil."

The professor grins knowingly. "Aha! The Bible!" He considers for a moment.

"Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?"

"Yes sir, I would."

"So you're good...!"

"I wouldn't say that."

"But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't."

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. "He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Hmmm? Can you answer that one?"

The student remains silent.

"No, you can't, can you?" the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax."

Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?"

"Er...yes," the student says.

"Is Satan good?"

The student doesn't hesitate on this one. "No."

"Then where does Satan come from?"

The student falters. "From God"

"That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?"

"Yes, sir."

"Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make e everything, correct?"

"Yes."

"So who created evil?" The professor continued, "If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil."

Again, the student has no answer.

"Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?"

The student squirms on his feet. "Yes"

"So who created them?"

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. "Who created them?" There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized. "Tell me," he continues onto another student. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?"

The student's voice betrays him and cracks. "Yes, professor, I do."

The old man stops pacing. "Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?"

"No sir. I've never seen Him."

"Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?"

"No, sir, I have not."

"Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't."

"Yet you still believe in him?"

"Yes."

"According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?"

"Nothing," the student replies. "I only have my faith."

"Yes, faith," the professor repeats. "And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith."

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. "Professor, is there such thing as heat?"

"Yes," the professor replies. "There's heat."

"And is there such a thing as cold?"

"Yes, son, there's cold too."

"No sir, there isn't."

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet.

The student begins to explain. "You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can reach up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees."

"Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold; Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it."

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

"What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?"

"Yes," the professor replies without hesitation "What is night if it isn't darkness?"

"You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word."

"In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?"

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. "So what point are you making, young man?"

"Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed."

The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. "Flawed? Can you explain how?"

"You are working on the premise of duality," the student explains. "You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought."

"It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it."

"Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?"

"If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do."

"Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?"

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

"Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?"

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

"To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean."

The student looks around the room. "Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?" The class breaks out into laughter.

"Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain; with all due respect, sir."

"So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?"

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. "I guess you'll have to take them on faith."

"Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life," the student continues. "Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?"

Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course, there is. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light"

The professor sat down.

(Editor's Thoughts: I have long believed that you cannot prove or disprove the existence of God by rational thought. I believe that spiritual development (belief in any religion) requires a leap of faith that rational thought cannot support. I personally believe in God and consider myself a blessed person for doing so. I smiled when I read this story.)

Read my 3-Part Series On Relationships, including "Secrets Men Don't Want Women to Know: A Man's 5 Basic Jobs – Part 1", "Secrets Men Don' Want Women to Know: A Man's 5 Basic Tendencies – Part 2" and "Secrets Men Don't Want Women to Know: 4 Realities in a Man's World – Part 3". Click on my Lessons in Life link. Then click on Relationships.

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Forget Your New Year's Resolutions, Gain Peace Reading Mother Teresa - Get Real Results: Serve Others

2007-12-31T22:15:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Forget all of your New Year's resolutions you are tempted to make and not keep. If you want inspiration and real peace of mind as 2008 starts, read the thoughts and prayers of Blessed Teresa.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) was an Albanian Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity, and she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work.

At age 12 she committed herself to a religious life. She left home at 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary and never saw her mother or sister again. She took her solemn vows in 1937, while serving as a teacher at a Loreto convent school in Calcutta.

In 1946, she felt God calling her to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them in the slums of Calcutta. From this humble start she founded the Missionaries of Charity and by 1996 she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries.

Born in 1910, she died in 1997 at the age of 87. At the time of her death, her Missionaries of Charity had more than 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and more than 100,000 volunteers operating 610 missions in 123 countries. From serving just a single poor person when others would not, Mother Teresa has influenced millions of lives around the world.

Blessed Teresa (Mother Teresa of Calcutta) is not yet recognized as a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She is in the process of beatification, the second step towards possible canonization. While not yet a Saint, Blessed Teresa's thoughts and prayers bring a powerful message to God's faithful.

Here are some thoughts and prayers by Blessed Teresa with generous spacing in between for emphasis:

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."

Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.

"There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God. I’ve always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic. We believe our work should be our example to people. We have among us 475 souls - 30 families are Catholics and the rest are all Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs—all different religions. But they all come to our prayers."

"There are so many religions and each one has its different ways of following God. I follow Christ:
Jesus is my God,
Jesus is my Spouse,
Jesus is my Life,
Jesus is my only Love,
Jesus is my All in All;
Jesus is my Everything."

Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.

"I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: ‘My son did this to me.’ I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to make her say: ‘I forgive my son.’ Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand."

If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.

There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them.Love them.

Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.

"When once a chairman of a multinational company came to see me, to offer me a property in Bombay, he first asked: ‘Mother, how do you manage your budget?" I asked him who had sent him here. He replied: ‘I felt an urge inside me.’ I said: other people like you come to see me and say the same. It was clear God sent you, Mr. A, as He sends Mr. X, Mrs. Y, Miss Z, and they provide the material means we need for our work. The grace of God is what moved you. You are my budget. God sees to our needs, as Jesus promised. I accepted the property he gave and named it Asha Dan (Gift of Hope).

"Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength."

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve those people throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands, this day, their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give them peace and joy.

I heard the call to give up all and follow Christ into the slums to serve Him among the poorest of the poor. It was an order. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.

When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.

You and I, we are the Church, no? We have to share with our people. Suffering today is because people are hoarding, not giving, not sharing. Jesus made it very clear. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do it to me. Give a glass of water, you give it to me. Receive a little child, you receive me.

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.

The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy.

A clean heart is a free heart. A free heart can love Christ with an undivided love in chastity, convinced that nothing and nobody will separate it from his love. Purity, chastity, and virginity created a special beauty in Mary that attracted God’s attention. He showed his great love for the world by giving Jesus to her.

Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing.

A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace.

"Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet especially your family. Be holy – let us pray."

I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, "Love one another as I have loved you." Ask yourself "How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?" Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery.

Blessed Teresa's Prayer

May today there by peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

"Is There a Santa Claus?" Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

2007-12-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

(Editor's Note: The following editorial by Francis P. Church was first published in The New York Sun in 1897 in response to an 8-year-old girl's letter to the editor, and is arguably the most famous editorial ever written in an American newspaper. This incredible piece of writing happened when newspapers were the primary means of communication. In 1897 there was no mass communication by radio, television, computers, cell phones and the associated technical goodies we have today. Readers actually believed and trusted in newspapers. Now we do not believe and trust in newspapers anymore than we do in politicians.)

Here is how Francis P. Church responded to Virginia O'Hanlon's letter:

"We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it’s so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (in what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.

All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove?

Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal (supernal means "of exceptional quality or extent") beauty and glory beyond.

Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

About the Exchange

Francis P. Church’s editorial, "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" was an immediate sensation, and went on to became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in The New York Sun in 1897, almost a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until 1949 when the paper went out of business.

Thirty-six years after her letter was printed, Virginia O’Hanlon recalled the events that prompted her letter:

"Quite naturally I believed in Santa Claus, for he had never disappointed me. But when less fortunate little boys and girls said there wasn’t any Santa Claus, I was filled with doubts. I asked my father, and he was a little evasive on the subject.

It was a habit in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how to pronounce a word or some question of historical fact was in doubt, we wrote to the Question and Answer column in The Sun. Father would always say, 'If you see it in the The Sun, it’s so,' and that settled the matter.

'Well, I’m just going to write The Sun and find out the real truth,’ I said to father.

He said, ‘Go ahead, Virginia. I’m sure The Sun will give you the right answer, as it always does'."
And so Virginia sat down and wrote her parents’ favorite newspaper.

Her letter found its way into the hands of a veteran editor, Francis P. Church. Son of a Baptist minister, Church had covered the Civil War for The New York Times and had worked on the The New York Sun for 20 years, more recently as an anonymous editorial writer.

Church, a sardonic man, had for his personal motto, "Endeavour to clear your mind of cant." When controversial subjects had to be tackled on the editorial page, especially those dealing with theology, the assignments were usually given to Church.

Now, he had in his hands a little girl’s letter on a most controversial matter, and he was burdened with the responsibility of answering it.

"Is there a Santa Claus?" the childish scrawl in the letter asked. At once, Church knew that there was no avoiding the question. He must answer, and he must answer truthfully. And so he turned to his desk, and he began his reply that was to become one of the most memorable editorials in newspaper history.

Church married shortly after the editorial appeared. He died in 1906, leaving no children.

Virginia O’Hanlon went on to graduate from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age 21. The following year she received her Master’s from Columbia, and in 1912 she began teaching in the New York City school system, later becoming a principal. After 47 years, she retired as an educator.

Throughout her life she received a steady stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter, and to each reply she attached an attractive printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O’Hanlon Douglas died on May 13, 1971, at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie, N.Y.

Note: See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358.

Editor's Note: Read my editorial comments on key issues, including "Facts About the Second Most Controversial Topic in America – The First Is Abortion", "So Why Should I Subsidize Any Banks Because of Their Greed and Incompetence?", "A Disturbing Trend in Our Society – The Lack of Trust in Our Institutions" and "Washington's Hottest Political Issue Pits PI Attorneys and the Insurance Industry".

"Desiderata" Is a Brilliant Piece of Writing with Simplicity and Significance of Message

2007-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

(Editor's Note: When I first read "Desiderata" many years ago, I was struck by the simplicity and significance of its message. With all of the hustle and bustle at Christmas, New Year's and the holiday season, it seems more timely today than when it was written in 1692. Desiderata was found in Old Saint Paul's Church in Baltimore (MD). Imagine penning this brilliant piece of writing and never being recognized for your thought or work. The author remains unknown today. If you are wondering, desiderata is plural for desideratum (Latin), for something that is needed or wanted: integrity was a desideratum. Think about this: It was written 315+ years ago. It we assume a new generation came into being every 20 years, there have been at least 15 generations since then, and probably more. I publish this so if you have never seen or read Desiderata before, you can now.)

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.

Read my movie reviews on families, including "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Secondhand Lions", "The Chorus (Les Choristes in French)" and "Waking Ned Devine". You will smile, laugh, cry and feel better for the experience. Don't just experience life, live life!

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 140 Movie Reviews, 87 Sports Articles, 57 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Jobs and Careers Articles, 26 Internet Marketing Articles, 44 News and Comment Articles (372 total articles) plus 629 Famous Quotes.

Movie Review of "A Christmas Story" - One of the Best Movies Ever Tells of a Boy's Perfect Christmas Gift

2007-12-23T18:23:00.000-08:00

The Thought for Monday, December 24, 2007 (Christmas Eve) Comes from Ed Bagley (1944-):

Pause and be thankful tonight for all of the joys and blessings in your life. Bow down and realize your place in the universe. You did not create the environment you exist in, you merely occupy space; therefore, whatever good you can do, do it as a privilege with an open heart in loving kindness. Many are here with you on Earth that will never even sniff your good fortune.

Have a Blessed Christmas Eve

Be Still, Be Calm, and Know.

Ed's Lessons in Life:

A Christmas Story – 4 Stars (Excellent)

"A Christmas Story" is arguably the best Christmas movie ever.

There is no doubt that the 1984 version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge is a worthy contender for the honor. Since I have not seen Fanny & Alexander (1983),I remain a huge fan of A Christmas Story.

Can there be anything greater than Santa coming to your house on Christmas Eve with the perfect gift of your choice? I think not, especially if it is a genuine Red Ryder 200-Shot, Carbine-Action BB Gun for a 9-year-old named Ralphie living in Northern Indiana in the 1940s.

Imagine Ralphie's dismay when his mother, his teacher at Warren G. Harding Elementary School and ultimately even Santa Claus at Higby's Department Store tell him "you'll shoot your eye out."

A Christmas Story is about much more than whether Ralphie gets the Red Ryder BB Gun he covets. It is about a Midwest family with two boys, Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and Randy (Ian Petrella), who encounter the normal struggles of growing up.

Ralphie and his friend Schwartz (R. D. Robb) badger their friend Flick (Scott Schwartz, not to be confused with R. D. Robb who plays the role of Schwartz) into pressing his tongue against a steel post to see if it will stick.

Flick, who realizes that he might be wrong in saying his tongue will not stick, is left with no alternative when Schwartz whips a "triple dog dare" on him. To save face, Flick learns a very hard lesson and this film gets some great footage in the process.

Both the boys and the girls watching this drama unfold are horrified at the result and the boys have no problem abandoning Flick when the school bell rings. Flick is left frozen to the post. When their teacher Mrs. Shields (Tedde Moore) confronts them about who is responsible for Flick's condition, they clam up, realizing "it's always better not to get caught."

All of the boys also must deal with the terrifying Scut Farcas (Zack Ward) and Grover Dill (Yano Anaya), the schoolyard bullies. They get pummeled on a daily basis and act like cowards until Ralphie sees Santa at Higby's and gets another dose of "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."

Ralphie is so agitated with rejection over his Christmas wish that when he is next confronted by the bullies he flies into a fit of genuine rage, charging the much larger Scut knocking him down and pounding him repeatedly in the face. Scut ends up with a bloody face and 100 times the embarrassment of being beat up. This event would forever after be known as the Scut Farcas Affair.

I love A Christmas Story because the exact same thing happened to me growing up in the Midwest. I was small for my age and was constantly picked on by bullies until I learned how to fight back no matter what the odds.

When the Parker family goes out to buy their Christmas tree they encounter a flat tire on the way home. Mrs. Parker (Melinda Dillon) encourages Ralphie to help his father (Darren McGavin) fix the flat.

Ralphie manages to lose the lug nuts during the tire change, and, in fit of fright, utters the dreaded F-word to the shock of his parents. Mrs. Parker demands to know where he learned the word and Ralphie, desperate to come up with an acceptable choice shoots out a name of a friend.

Ralphie, of course, has heard his father cuss time and again, quoting that his father could "weave a tapestry of obscenities that is still hanging in space over Lake Michigan." When their furnace in the basement acts up, Ralphie says "my father dabbled in profanities like an artist dabbles in oils."

This cussing incident so resonates with me because I grew up in the same kind of environment. I often believed my stepfather had a 200-word vocabulary and at least 50 of those words were cuss words. I probably heard the F-word 10,000 times before I graduated from high school. I used to tell my friends I could speak 5 foreign languages if I got mad enough.

A Christmas Story is loaded with other real life events, including Ralphie's day-dream about being blind from having to suck on soap for cussing, his father winning a prize lamp shaped like a woman's leg that he displays in their living room window for all to see, and the secret decoder Ralphie gets by eating Ovaltine for breakfast.

There is also Aunt Clara's gift of a pink bunny costume that Ralphie is forced to model on Christmas morning, the neighbor's dogs getting into the house and eating their Christmas turkey, and the surprise on Christmas morning after all of the gifts are opened.

A Christmas Story is based on Jean Shepherd's book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd does a superb job of narrating this film about his childhood. The film is so well done, so authentic to its 1940s time period, so believable and likeable that it gets my excellent rating without qualification.

Director Bob Clark is uncanny in his ability to orchestrate this timeless story. Peter Billingsley is a 13-year-old actor playing the role of 9-year-old Ralphie and does so with incredible facial expressions. Young Billingsley is in the moment and totally professional.

A Christmas Story, a low budget film that was not expected to do well, was released just before Thanksgiving in 1983. By Christmas the film had been pulled from theaters because it was thought to have been "played out." It was only because of complaints from moviegoers that it was brought back to life.

The film celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2003 with release of a two-disc special edition. There are fans all over the world that treasure A Christmas Story and will not let it die, and I am one of them. I have lived so many parts of A Christmas Story that I feel it could also have been the story of thousands of other young boys growing up in the Midwest.

A Christmas Story is on my personal Top 10 all-time list of favorite movies because it exemplifies family values and the joy of living those few precious moments that define us for the rest of our lives.

A Christmas Story is an amazing film that teaches some of life’s great lessons, including determination, courage, patience, struggle, victory, self-esteem, love, acceptance and belonging. This is truly a classic movie that only those who have lived these experiences will appreciate the most. I am blessed to be one of those people.

(Editor's Note: Read my other movie reviews on families, including "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", "Secondhand Lions", "The Chorus (Les Choristes in French)" and "Waking Ned Devine". You will smile, laugh, cry and feel better for the experience. Don't just experience life, live life!)

Ed Bagley's articles can be published by newsletters, newspapers and magazines with no charge through EzineArticles.com, the largest Internet articles directory with 73,000+ authors and 800,000+ articles.

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 140 Movie Reviews, 87 Sports Articles, 57 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Jobs and Careers Articles, 26 Internet Marketing Articles, 44 News and Comment Articles (372 total articles) plus 629 Famous Quotes.

One Man's Opinion - Comments from Andy Rooney Designed to Make You Think

2007-12-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

Editor's Note: The following was apparently written by Andy Rooney and recently recited by him on CBS's "60 Minutes" telecast. Reading Rooney's comments caused me to think about what he says. Here it is intact as I received it:

I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.

Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.

I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, which is why there are no girls allowed.

Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE ? I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.

I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling; it is the Law of Probability.

I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!

My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.

I think the police should have every right to shoot you if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.

I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government-sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.

We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.

I don't hate the rich, I don't pity the poor.

I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.

I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.

It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say "NO!"

I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!

I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else.

And if you don't like my point of view, tough...

Humor in Our Time - One Man

2007-12-15T14:27:00.000-08:00

When everybody on Earth was dead and waiting to enter Paradise , God appeared and said, "I want the men to make two lines. One line for the men who were true heads of their household, and the other line for the men who were dominated by their women. I want all the women to report to St. Peter."

Soon, the women were gone and there were two lines of men.

The line of the men who were dominated by their wives was 100 miles long, and in the line of men who truly were heads of their household, there was only one man.

God said, "You men should be ashamed of yourselves, I created you to be the head of your household! You have been disobedient and have not fulfilled your purpose! Of all of you, only one obeyed. Learn from him."

God turned to the one man, "How did you manage to be the only one in this line?"

The man replied, "My wife told me to stand here."

No Laughing Matter - Comments from Ben Stein Designed to Make You Think

2007-12-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

Editor's Note The following was apparently written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. Reading it caused me to think about what he says. Here it is intact as I received it:

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want to do so, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW." (later than we sow, more than we sow)

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in. My Best Regards.

Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

The Biggest Scam in the Credit Reporting Industry Screams Deception and Greed

2007-12-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

What is it with some big corporations in America today? Too many of them lull you to sleep and then rip you off while acting like this is business as usual and acceptable. The latest example comes from the three big credit reporting bureaus—TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.

These three credit reporting bureaus are involved in a fight to wrest the credit scoring business away from FICO (Fair Isaac), which for years has been the leader in the marketplace.

The industry changed dramatically in 2003 when the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act required the three major credit reporting bureaus to supply each consumer with one free credit report annually.

For decades the major bureaus had denied consumers access to their credit histories, selling the data exclusively to lenders. Since then the bureaus have moved aggressively to tap the consumer market.

The result has been very profitable as domestic sales of credit data to consumers created $220 million in revenue in 2003, more than doubled to $448 million in 2006 and is projected to top $860 million by 2010, according to market researchers.

Basically, the credit reporting bureaus have generated this income by appearing to give away a free credit report when in fact they are doing no such thing. They are luring consumers to several web sites claiming to give away a free credit report but only do so if you agree to buy one of their lame services, such as credit monitoring.

Worse yet, the scores you get from two of the top three bureaus are not FICO scores at all, but rather scores concocted by two of the bureaus in question: TransUnion and Experian. These scores are generally higher than the actual FICO score, giving consumers a false idea of their true score when lenders use the actual FICO score to make lending decisions.

This amounts to not just deception on the part of the bureaus in question, but dishonesty as well, in other words, they lie, cheat and steal and get away with it under the guise of "creative marketing", which is better described as "creatively screwing the consumer out of his or her money by misrepresenting what they are actually getting for free".

In this process, the bureaus are not serving consumers honestly. There is not a shred of integrity in this process and the credit reporting bureaus know it; they do it because they can legally do it even though it does not represent how business should be conducted.

Rather than actually helping and serving consumers in a straightforward transaction, they choose to line their pockets at the consumer's expense.

America became the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth by major corporations actually serving consumers, being fair and honest in their dealings by giving consumers more value for their purchase, and actually building a reputation of being trustworthy.

Those days are long over. Too many major corporations today are raising lying, cheating and stealing to an art form and then launching their "creative marketing" plans in a fit of righteousness. They deserve my absolute contempt, and should deserve the absolute contempt of consumers in every corner of this country.

Consumers who are taken in by their corporate greed are being misused, and frankly too many of them do not realize what a lower life form they are doing business with.

Here are some facts that you should know:

1) The one and only place you can get your free credit report annually is at:

AnnualCreditReport.com

Even at AnnualCreditReport.com you will not get your FICO scores from all of the major credit reporting bureaus. You will typically get your credit reports from the three bureaus and only one of your credit scores. You will have to buy your credit scores from the other two, and even then you may not be getting your actual FICO score which virtually all lenders use in decision-making.

Dozens of these "dummy" sites affiliated with the bureaus falsely imply that they can also distribute the government-mandated free reports. This is an absolute lie and why they are lying to consumers.

The plain truth is that the word "free" in business advertising in America is used so freely that it really has no meaning in the context of these kind of disingenuous offers by credit bureaus.

2) Any other URL that says they offer a free credit report is really a scam to relieve you of your hard-earned money. Both TransUnion and Experian are lousy with these dummy web sites and are taking advantage of the opportunity to line their pockets at the consumers expense.

3) The truth is that the only place you can get your actual FICO score is at Fair Isaac's consumer web site (myFICO.com), or at Equifax (Exquifax.com), which is the only credit reporting bureau that sells (not gives away free) FICO scores to consumers.

It is a sad commentary that in our day and time too many major corporations in America are terrible role models for anything and will do nothing to stop lining their pockets at the consumer's expense.

I am ashamed of the greedy, dishonest, disingenuous leaders of these companies. They should have to face their mother and family and explain how they failed to learn and practice some basic human traits, including honesty, integrity, trustworthiness and kindness.

This, of course, will not happen because in many cases their parents have left this place for a better one. That does not excuse their behavior or greed. What else are these so-called leaders doing in the dark of the night that we cannot see?

Editor's Note: Read my articles on Borrowing and Credit Card Companies, including "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", and my 3-part series on "Your Credit Score – How It Can Cost You Thousands More on Your Mortgage – Part 1; Six Actions You Can Take to Improve Your Contract Terms – Part 2; and FICO Plans to Eliminate Authorized Credit Card User Accounts – Part 3".

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.

Human or Nonhuman? "The Most Significant Photograph I Have Ever Seen During My Lifetime"

2007-12-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Every now and then I get an email from one of my clients or blog readers which really gets my attention. This is one of those times. The subject of this email circulating the Internet is titled "Picture of the Decade".

This photo is the most significant photograph I have ever seen during my lifetime. I have no reason to think that the story and picture are not authentic. I am going to share the email with you. Here it is as I received it:

A picture began circulating in November. It should be "The Picture of the Year," or perhaps, "Picture of the Decade." It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta.

She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr.Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger.

Dr.Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life."

Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person." Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

I am not showing the photograph on my Blog, but if you want to see it, email me at:
edbagley@comcast.net
and I will forward the email and picture to you. Give me your first and last name and put "Show Me the Picture" in the subject line of your email. What you do with the email and photograph is up to you.

Editor's Note: Read my movie reviews on families: "A Christmas Story", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Secondhand Lions". You will smile, laugh, cry and feel better for the experience. Don't just experience life, live life!

God's Greatest Gift and the "Smell of Rain"

2007-11-24T08:29:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

It seems fitting that Thanksgiving weekend is a time to reflect on God's greatest gift to us, the gift of life.

The following story has been circulating around the Internet and seems worthy of repeating here:

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.

That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.

At 12 inches and 1 pound 9 ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.

"I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10% chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived.

She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.

"No! No!" was all Diana could say.

She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter and become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, their dream was slipping away as her daughter fought for her life.

But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially "raw", the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they could not even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.

All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.

There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Dana turned 2 months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.

And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home form the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.

Five years later, Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life.

She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. She was simply everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.

As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do you smell that?"

Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."

Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"

Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain."

Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on his chest."

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.

During those long days and nights of the first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

Editor's Note: Never doubt for a moment that God is in our lives. If you hear His voice today, harden not your heart. May God bless you and your family this weekend.

Read my Lessons in Life articles on "Become a Parent and Witness a Miracle", "The Real Heroes of Our Time Are Those Who Serve Others" and "Who Has Had the Greatest Influence on Your Life and Why?"

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.

Your Billionaire Spokesperson: Warren Buffett, World's Second Richest Man, Lobbies Congress for the Average American

2007-11-22T13:09:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

If you think all of the world's richest people neglect the less fortunate, you are dead wrong.

Bill and Melinda Gates have donated billions to the help the poorest of the poor both in the United States and in underdeveloped, third world countries. Warren Buffett has pledged and given Gates billions more to help the less fortunate.

Fortune Magazine has identified Buffett as the world's second wealthiest person with a personal fortune of $52 billion as of 2007. Bill Gates is the wealthiest at $56 billion (a millionaire 56,000 times).

Buffett, the first person in the world to make a billion dollars by investing in stocks, is the creator and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the hands down most successful stock ever.

Buffett recently lobbied the U. S. Senate Finance Committee to keep the estate tax rather than repeal the measure because of a law enacted in 2001 that gradually phases the tax out after 2010.

The tax is scheduled to return with a top rate of 55% on estates worth more than $1 million. This year, estates of more than $2 million are taxed at the top rate of 45%. By 2009, estates less than $3.5 million will be exempt.

Buffett said advocates of repeal movement were "dead wrong" to call the levy a "death tax." It would be more accurate to call it a "death present."

In the last 20 years the nation's "super-rich" have gained ground by becoming even richer. "Tax-law changes have benefited this group, including me, in a huge way," said the 77-year-old stock-picking wizard, while "the average American went exactly nowhere on the economic scale."

Good for Warren Buffett. I know from first-hand experience that Ronald Reagan's "trickle down theory" of economics during his 8-year Presidency from 1981 to 1989 did not trickle down to me as the Nation enjoyed its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression.

A rising tide in the harbor may lift up all ships but the trickle down theory pretty much stops with those who are already rich. The idea of making rich people 4 times richer so they can create jobs for the great unwashed does not hold water when making $10 an hour for your labor.

Buffett urged the Senate Finance Committee to keep the estate tax in some form and to use the $24 billion it raises to give a $1,000 tax rebate to low-income households.

Warren Buffett's suggestion may clearly amount to a simple redistribution of wealth, but it seems appropriate when a fat-cat CEO of a major corporation can be paid $400 million in income a year while the average per capita personal income in the United States is $35,000 according to the U. S. Department of Commerce in 2005.

So why would Buffett come down on the side of the average Joe?

"A meaningful estate tax is needed to prevent our democracy from becoming a dynastic plutocracy," said Buffett. Heirs to vast fortunes, he said, have already won the "ovarian lottery" and should not be rewarded again.

A plutocracy, of course, is government by the wealthy, a country with an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

Being born into a wealthy family and inheriting your wealth is almost un-American. I cannot stand people born with a silver spoon in their mouth. I root for the underdog, the man who, by the honest sweat of his brow, lifts himself up by his bootstraps to become successful.

Just as something morally wrong can never be politically right, so pandering to the rich can only result in an eventual revolution by those whose backs make the investments of the rich work.

If the rich could acquire, keep and build their fortune alone, no one would be a millionaire, much less a billionaire. We are all interconnected, whether we choose to recognize it or not. The wealth of the rich is just as much a gift as an earned right.

Editor's Note: Read my articles on "Why Benjamin Franklin Was So Awesome" and "The Role of Money in America's Economy".

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.

2008 Presidential Race: "Exactly Who Is This Guy Ron Paul, and Why Should I Even Listen to Him?"

2007-11-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Every now and then something crosses my desk that makes sense and deserves my thoughtful attention.

The following address by Ron Paul, a Republican Presidential candidate, was delivered to the U. S. of House of Representatives. Paul represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was a Democrat, was the youngest person to be elected to the presidency, and was the first Catholic president.

Among the many quotable things Kennedy said was this: "Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

Here is Ron Paul's unedited address to the House of Representatives:

"Madam Speaker, for some, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. For others, it means dissent against a government's abuse of the people's rights.

I have never met a politician in Washington or any American, for that matter, who chose to be called unpatriotic. Nor have I met anyone who did not believe he wholeheartedly supported our troops, wherever they may be.

What I have heard all too frequently from various individuals are sharp accusations that, because their political opponents disagree with them on the need for foreign military entanglements, they were unpatriotic, un-American evildoers deserving contempt.

The original American patriots were those individuals brave enough to resist with force the oppressive power of King George. I accept the definition of patriotism as that effort to resist oppressive state power.

The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility and out of self-interest for himself, his family, and the future of his country to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state. Resistance need not be violent, but the civil disobedience that might be required involves confrontation with the state and invites possible imprisonment.

Peaceful, nonviolent revolutions against tyranny have been every bit as successful as those involving military confrontation. Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., achieved great political successes by practicing nonviolence, and yet they suffered physically at the hands of the state.

But whether the resistance against government tyrants is nonviolent or physically violent, the effort to overthrow state oppression qualifies as true patriotism.

True patriotism today has gotten a bad name, at least from the government and the press. Those who now challenge the unconstitutional methods of imposing an income tax on us, or force us to use a monetary system designed to serve the rich at the expense of the poor are routinely condemned.

These American patriots are sadly looked down upon by many. They are never praised as champions of liberty as Gandhi and Martin Luther King have been.

Liberals, who withhold their taxes as a protest against war, are vilified as well, especially by conservatives.

Unquestioned loyalty to the state is especially demanded in times of war. Lack of support for a war policy is said to be unpatriotic.

Arguments against a particular policy that endorses a war, once it is started, are always said to be endangering the troops in the field. This, they blatantly claim, is unpatriotic, and all dissent must stop. Yet, it is dissent from government policies that defines the true patriot and champion of liberty.

It is conveniently ignored that the only authentic way to best support the troops is to keep them out of dangerous undeclared no-win wars that are politically inspired.

Sending troops off to war for reasons that are not truly related to national security and, for that matter, may even damage our security, is hardly a way to patriotically support the troops.

Who are the true patriots, those who conform or those who protest against wars without purpose? How can it be said that blind support for a war, no matter how misdirected the policy, is the duty of a patriot?

Randolph Bourne said that, "War is the health of the state.'' With war, he argued, the state thrives. Those who believe in the powerful state see war as an opportunity.

Those who mistrust the people and the market for solving problems have no trouble promoting a "war psychology'' to justify the expansive role of the state. This includes the role the Federal Government plays in our lives, as well as in our economic transactions.

Certainly, the neoconservative belief that we have a moral obligation to spread American values worldwide through force justifies the conditions of war in order to rally support at home for the heavy hand of government. It is through this policy, it should surprise no one, that our liberties are undermined.

The economy becomes overextended, and our involvement worldwide becomes prohibited. Out of fear of being labeled unpatriotic, most of the citizens become compliant and accept the argument that some loss of liberty is required to fight the war in order to remain safe.

This is a bad trade-off, in my estimation, especially when done in the name of patriotism. Loyalty to the state and to autocratic leaders is substituted for true patriotism; that is, a willingness to challenge the state and defend the country, the people and the culture.

The more difficult the times, the stronger the admonition comes that the leaders be not criticized.

Because the crisis atmosphere of war supports the growth of the state, any problem invites an answer by declaring war, even on social and economic issues. This elicits patriotism in support of various government solutions, while enhancing the power of the state.

Faith in government coercion and a lack of understanding of how free societies operate encourages big-government liberals and big-government conservatives to manufacture a war psychology to demand political loyalty for domestic policy just as is required in foreign affairs.

The long-term cost in dollars spent and liberties lost is neglected as immediate needs are emphasized. It is for this reason that we have multiple perpetual wars going on simultaneously. Thus, the war on drugs, the war against gun ownership, the war against poverty, the war against illiteracy, the war against terrorism, as well as our foreign military entanglements are endless.

All this effort promotes the growth of statism at the expense of liberty. A government designed for a free society should do the opposite, prevent the growth of statism and preserve liberty.

Once a war of any sort is declared, the message is sent out not to object or you will be declared unpatriotic. Yet, we must not forget that the true patriot is the one who protests in spite of the consequences. Condemnation or ostracism or even imprisonment may result.

Nonviolent protesters of the Tax Code are frequently imprisoned, whether they are protesting the code's unconstitutionality or the war that the tax revenues are funding. Resisters to the military draft or even to Selective Service registration are threatened and imprisoned for challenging this threat to liberty.

Statism depends on the idea that the government owns us and citizens must obey. Confiscating the fruits of our labor through the income tax is crucial to the health of the state. The draft, or even the mere existence of the Selective Service, emphasizes that we will march off to war at the state's pleasure.

A free society rejects all notions of involuntary servitude, whether by draft or the confiscation of the fruits of our labor through the personal income tax.

A more sophisticated and less well-known technique for enhancing the state is the manipulation and transfer of wealth through the fiat monetary system operated by the secretive Federal Reserve.

Protesters against this unconstitutional system of paper money are considered unpatriotic criminals and at times are imprisoned for their beliefs. The fact that, according to the Constitution, only gold and silver are legal tender and paper money outlawed matters little. The principle of patriotism is turned on its head.

Whether it's with regard to the defense of welfare spending at home, confiscatory income tax, or an immoral monetary system or support for a war fought under false pretense without a legal declaration, the defenders of liberty and the Constitution are portrayed as unpatriotic, while those who support these programs are seen as the patriots.

If there is a war going on, supporting the state's effort to win the war is expected at all costs, no dissent. The real problem is that those who love the state too often advocate policies that lead to military action.

At home, they are quite willing to produce a crisis atmosphere and claim a war is needed to solve the problem. Under these conditions, the people are more willing to bear the burden of paying for the war and to carelessly sacrifice liberties, which they are told is necessary.

The last 6 years have been quite beneficial to the health of the state, which comes at the expense of personal liberty. Every enhanced unconstitutional power of the state can only be achieved at the expense of individual liberty.

Even though in every war in which we have been engaged civil liberties have suffered, some have been restored after the war ended, but never completely. That has resulted in a steady erosion of our liberties over the past 200 years.

Our government was originally designed to protect our liberties, but it has now, instead, become the usurper of those liberties.

We currently live in the most difficult of times for guarding against an expanding central government with a steady erosion of our freedoms. We are continually being reminded that 9/11 has changed everything.

Unfortunately, the policy that needed most to be changed, that is, our policy of foreign interventionism, has only been expanded. There is no pretense any longer that a policy of humility in foreign affairs, without being the world's policemen and engaging in nation building, is worthy of consideration.

We now live in a post-9/11 America where our government is going to make us safe no matter what it takes. We are expected to grin and bear it and adjust to every loss of our liberties in the name of patriotism and security.

Though the majority of Americans initially welcomed the declared effort to make us safe, and we are willing to sacrifice for the cause, more and more Americans are now becoming concerned about civil liberties being needlessly and dangerously sacrificed.

The problem is that the Iraq war continues to drag on, and a real danger of it spreading exists. There is no evidence that a truce will soon be signed in Iraq or in the war on terror or the war on drugs. Victory is not even definable.

If Congress is incapable of declaring an official war, it is impossible to know when it will end. We have been fully forewarned that the world conflict in which we are now engaged will last a long, long time.

The war mentality and the pervasive fear of an unidentified enemy allows for a steady erosion of our liberties, and, with this, our respect for self-reliance and confidence is lost. Just think of the self-sacrifice and the humiliation we go through at the airport screening process on a routine basis.

Though there is no scientific evidence of any likelihood of liquids and gels being mixed on an airplane to make a bomb, billions of dollars are wasted throwing away toothpaste and hair spray, and searching old women in wheelchairs.

Our enemies say boo, and we jump, we panic, and then we punish ourselves. We are worse than a child being afraid of the dark. But in a way, the fear of indefinable terrorism is based on our inability to admit the truth about why there is a desire by a small number of angry radical Islamists to kill Americans. It is certainly not because they are jealous of our wealth and freedoms.

We fail to realize that the extremists, willing to sacrifice their own lives to kill their enemies, do so out of a sense of weakness and desperation over real and perceived attacks on their way of life, their religion, their country, and their natural resources.

Without the conventional diplomatic or military means to retaliate against these attacks, and an unwillingness of their own government to address the issue, they resort to the desperation tactic of suicide terrorism.

Their anger toward their own governments, which they believe are coconspirators with the American Government, is equal to or greater than that directed toward us.

These errors in judgment in understanding the motive of the enemy and the constant fear that is generated have brought us to this crisis where our civil liberties and privacy are being steadily eroded in the name of preserving national security.

We may be the economic and the military giant of the world, but the effort to stop this war on our liberties here at home in the name of patriotism is being lost.

The erosion of our personal liberties started long before 9/11, but 9/11 accelerated the process. There are many things that motivate those who pursue this course, both well-intentioned and malevolent, but it would not happen if the people remained vigilant, understood the importance of individual rights, and were unpersuaded that a need for security justifies the sacrifice for liberty, even if it is just now and then.

The true patriot challenges the state when the state embarks on enhancing its power at the expense of the individual. Without a better understanding and a greater determination to rein in the state, the rights of Americans that resulted from the revolutionary break from the British and the writing of the Constitution will disappear.

The record since September 11th is dismal. Respect for liberty has rapidly deteriorated. Many of the new laws passed after 9/11 had, in fact, been proposed long before that attack. The political atmosphere after that attack simply made it more possible to pass such legislation.

The fear generated by 9/11 became an opportunity for those seeking to promote the power of the state domestically, just as it served to falsely justify the long-planned invasion of Iraq.

The war mentality was generated by the Iraq war in combination with the constant drumbeat of fear at home. Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, who is now likely residing in Pakistan, our supposed ally, are ignored, as our troops fight and die in Iraq and are made easier targets for the terrorists in their backyard.

While our leaders constantly use the mess we created to further justify the erosion of our constitutional rights here at home, we forget about our own borders and support the inexorable move toward global government, hardly a good plan for America.

The accelerated attacks on liberty started quickly after 9/11. Within weeks, the PATRIOT Act was overwhelmingly passed by Congress. Though the final version was unavailable up to a few hours before the vote, no Member had sufficient time to study it.

Political fear of not doing something, even something harmful, drove the Members of Congress to not question the contents, and just voted for it. A little less freedom for a little more perceived safety was considered a fair trade-off, and the majority of Americans applauded.

The PATRIOT Act, though, severely eroded the system of checks and balances by giving the government the power to spy on law-abiding citizens without judicial supervision.

The several provisions that undermine the liberties of all Americans include sneak-and-peek searches, a broadened and more vague definition of domestic terrorism, allowing the FBI access to library and bookstore records without search warrants or probable cause, easier FBI initiation of wiretaps and searches, as well as roving wiretaps, easier access to information on American citizens' use of the Internet, and easier access to e-mail and financial records of all American citizens.

The attack on privacy has not relented over the past 6 years. The Military Commissions Act is a particularly egregious piece of legislation and, if not repealed, will change America for the worse as the powers unconstitutionally granted to the executive branch are used and abused.

This act grants excessive authority to use secretive military commissions outside of places where active hostilities are going on.

The Military Commissions Act permits torture, arbitrary detention of American citizens as unlawful enemy combatants at the full discretion of the President and without the right of habeas corpus, and warrantless searches by the NSA. It also gives to the President the power to imprison individuals based on secret testimony.

Since 9/11, Presidential signing statements designating portions of legislation that the President does not intend to follow, though not legal under the Constitution, have enormously multiplied. Unconstitutional Executive Orders are numerous and mischievous and need to be curtailed.

Extraordinary rendition to secret prisons around the world have been widely engaged in, though obviously extralegal.

A growing concern in the post-9/11 environment is the Federal Government's list of potential terrorists based on secret evidence. Mistakes are made, and sometimes it is virtually impossible to get one's name removed even though the accused is totally innocent of any wrongdoing.

A national ID card is now in the process of being implemented. It is called the REAL ID card, and it is tied to our Social Security numbers and our State driver's license. If REAL ID is not stopped, it will become a national driver's license ID for all Americans. We will be required to carry our papers.

Some of the least-noticed and least-discussed changes in the law were the changes made to the Insurrection Act of 1807 and to posse comitatus by the Defense Authorization Act of 2007.

These changes pose a threat to the survival of our Republic by giving the President the power to declare martial law for as little reason as to restore public order. The 1807 act severely restricted the President in his use of the military within the United States borders, and the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 strengthened these restrictions with strict oversight by Congress.

The new law allows the President to circumvent the restrictions of both laws. The Insurrection Act has now become the "Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act.'' This is hardly a title that suggests that the authors cared about or understood the nature of a constitutional Republic.

Now, martial law can be declared not just for insurrection, but also for natural disasters, public health reasons, terrorist attacks or incidents, or for the vague reason called "other conditions.''

The President can call up the National Guard without congressional approval or the Governors' approval, and even send these State Guard troops into other States.

The American Republic is in remnant status. The stage is set for our country eventually devolving into a military dictatorship, and few seem to care. These precedent-setting changes in the law are extremely dangerous and will change American jurisprudence forever if not revised.

The beneficial results of our revolt against the King's abuses are about to be eliminated, and few Members of Congress and few Americans are aware of the seriousness of the situation.

Complacency and fear drive our legislation without any serious objection by our elected leaders. Sadly, though, those few who do object to this self-evident trend away from personal liberty and empire-building overseas are portrayed as unpatriotic and uncaring.

Though welfare and socialism always fails, opponents of them are said to lack compassion. Though opposition to totally unnecessary war should be the only moral position, the rhetoric is twisted to claim that patriots who oppose the war are not supporting the troops.

The cliché "Support the Troops'' is incessantly used as a substitute for the unacceptable notion of supporting the policy, no matter how flawed it may be.

Unsound policy can never help the troops. Keeping the troops out of harm's way and out of wars unrelated to our national security is the only real way of protecting the troops. With this understanding, just who can claim the title of "patriot''?

Before the war in the Middle East spreads and becomes a world conflict for which we will be held responsible, or the liberties of all Americans become so suppressed we can no longer resist, much has to be done.

Time is short, but our course of action should be clear. Resistance to illegal and unconstitutional usurpation of our rights is required. Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes.

But let it not be said that we did nothing. Let not those who love the power of the welfare/warfare state label the dissenters of authoritarianism as unpatriotic or uncaring.

Patriotism is more closely linked to dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security. Understanding the magnificent rewards of a free society makes us unbashful in its promotion, fully realizing that maximum wealth is created and the greatest chance for peace comes from a society respectful of individual liberty."

Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at::http://www.edbagleyblog.com/
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.

Seattle Supersonics Basketball: Hey, Clay Bennett: "Take a Flying Leap Off of a Short Pier"

2007-11-04T12:01:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

As a born and bred Midwest boy from Michigan, I think I might know something about Clay Bennett, chairman of the new investment group that bought the Seattle SuperSonics pro basketball team for $350 million in July of 2006.

To begin with, it has been my experience and observation that Midwest folks from my generation (I am 63 and have 3 grandchildren) do not naturally relate to East Coast and West Coast people.

This may be nothing more than being brought up in a different time and cultural milieu.

One thing is for sure: Midwest folks do not beat around the bush. They tend to be straightforward and direct in what they see and want, and can spot a phony a mile away. Perhaps this is who Clay Bennett really is, a Midwest boy at heart in Oklahoma.

Famous Oklahomans include baseball players Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench, multi-star athlete Jim Thorpe, actors James Garner, Jennifer Jones and Tony Randall, singers Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Woody Guthrie and Reba McEntire, director Ron Howard, evangelist Oral Roberts, journalist Bill Moyers, broadcaster Paul Harvey, and humorist Will Rogers.

Between Will Rogers and Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens), born in neighboring Missouri, you have two of America's greatest humorists.

It is here, with this Midwest approach, that we catch up with Clay Bennett on his flight to Seattle to greet the city officials. Bennett, not one to mince words, announces that the SuperSonics cannot possibly succeed in their present Key Arena facility.

Bennett, a successful businessmen who sees an opportunity and seizes it, all but demands that a newer, larger, better, $500 million edifice be built in a public-private partnership.

The Seattle City Council members took umbrage at Bennett's demand as Key Arena had been upgraded just a few years ago. They politely asked Bennett to honor his lease agreement first.

The issue is now in court, and I am not about to bore you with all the legal crap going on.

What I do want to address here is the fact that Seattle city officials are not Oklahomans and the Pacific Northwest is not Oklahoma.

Seattle residents have one of the highest educational rates of any metropolitan area in the country. If memory serves me correctly, 25% of its legal citizens have bachelor's degrees.

Seattle city officials pride themselves on their sense of righteousness, and fawn over promoting diversity and political correctness, unless, of course, it does not suit their purposes at the moment.

Seattle and many Western Washington communities include in their majority political make-up liberals, progressive-liberals, democrats with a capital D, ultra-left wing liberals, metrosexual-liberals, ubersexual-liberals, and self-proclaimed liberals who are actually socialists with associated political leanings.

Add to this the fact that Western Washington has intensive and politically-effective pockets of liberal, feminist coalitions that dominate politically and you have a state that borders on being more maternal than paternal. The governor and both senators are women. You do not yell and scream at your mother, that is just plain bad manners; you reserve any yelling and screaming for your father, who handles it a different way.

Is it any wonder that the Clay Bennett direct approach totally alienated the very officials he sought to win over? What he got was a typical Seattle answer to his blunt approach, "Hey, Clay Bennett: Take a Flying Leap Off of a Short Pier." Seattle is a water wonderland.

Bennett needed to do a lot more knee bending and sucking up in order to satisfy the Seattle officials' need for adoration. Seattle officials do not take their power base for granted. They will go to incredible lengths to keep it in place and controlled, especially from outsiders, and even more so from blunt outsiders.

The only friend Clay Bennett may have at the moment is Peter von Reichbauer, a King County Council member who helped broker a previous deal to keep the Seattle Seahawks in town.

In the meantime, Bennett has filed papers with the National Basketball Association to move the franchise to Oklahoma City.

Bennett has made it clear that he will move the Seattle franchise once he gets out of the Key Arena lease, either by winning his litigation against the city, negotiating a buyout, or waiting until the end of the lease term.

As a fan, I just want to see the SuperSonics in Seattle playing with newly-drafted, 6-foot-9 swingman (and 19-year-old wonder kid) Kevin Durant, and Jeff Green, the newly-drafted, 6-foot-9 versatile forward who led Georgetown's recent rise to prominence.

All of the legal battling and smack talk bores me to death, but it sure is amusing watching adults fight.

Editor's Note: Read my articles on "If You Think as a Parent that Little League Baseball Does Not Teach Important Survival Skills, Think Again", "On Cars, Baseball and the Halcyon Days of Summer" and "What Makes a Person Want to Run, and Why Few Will Ever Know the Joy of Running".

A Disturbing Trend in Our Society: The Lack of Trust in Our Institutions

2007-11-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The lack of trust for institutions in our society may be reaching epidemic levels.

This slow, eroding lack of trust has become a widespread occurrence of an undesirable phenomenon that is ripping at the very fabric of our social beliefs and habits. A recent article in USA Today (10-29-07) by Henry Brinton, a Presbyterian pastor in Virginia, addresses this social shift in attitudes.

Brinton is "convinced that the Christian faith is becoming more like Wikipedia and less like Encyclopedia Britannica. Instead of time-tested religious insights, people are now accepting 'what others are saying'," a reference to the fact that any one of 5.5 million registered users of Wikipedia online can edit the religious information.

In a real sense, sophisticated revisionists can re-write history on Wikipedia.

One national leader in an Islamic Republic is preaching that the Holocaust never happened, when in fact the Jews were among more than 6 million persecuted groups that were mass murdered under the German Nazi regime from 1941 to 1945 during World War II.

A survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago has recorded a drop in trust among social institutions since the 1970s. To wit:

Trust in banks and financial institutions dropped from 35% to 28%, major companies from 26% to 17%, the nation's press from 24% to 9%, educational institutions from 36% to 27%, and organized religion from 35% to 24%.

Apparently some mainline denominational religions that grew in the 1940s and 1950s and began to lose membership in the 1960s are today one-third smaller than they were 40 years ago.

They have been replaced by a rise in non-denominational community congregations that attempt to serve the needs of their worshippers more directly with contemporary praise music in worship and a variety of programs aimed at the needs of children, youths, college students, singles, couples, women and men.

I have attended some worship services at these New Age non-denominational community congregations and can attest to the trend.

As a converted Roman Catholic, I have noticed that many of the New Age churches are not organized in the sense of having and following a liturgical year.

A Catholic Mass is predictable anywhere in the world. There will be the same readings from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Gospel that strictly follow the liturgical year. The priest will give a homily (sermon for the Protestants) based on the liturgical readings of the week.

Most New Age congregations will hear the pastor preach on whatever strikes his or her fancy at the moment. If more money is needed for a new building or a service program, the message will be tailored to meet the perceived need of the moment.

Many of these pastors are charismatic and great speakers who easily attract a following. If the pastor were to change congregations or religions, I get the impression that many in the congregation would follow the pastor and his message.

The Catholic Church traces its origins to the Apostles and has 2,000 years of history, liturgy and tradition to follow. The unfortunate rise and treatment of pedophile priests has done a grave disservice to the religious community and its followers, and in itself is enough to erode trust in organized religion.

It is not mere conversation to say, "If you cannot trust a Catholic priest, who can you trust?" The fact that there are religious pedophiles in every Christian denomination does not excuse any instance of this abhorrent behavior.

Banks and financial institutions have no real need to fall all over themselves in a fit of righteousness. Some of these lenders have raised lying, cheating and stealing to an art form under the guise of legality.

Clearly the law favors subterfuge in financial matters, and lenders use this cover as an excuse to line their pockets at the borrower's expense. Bankers think nothing of looking you straight in the eye and telling you what a good deal they are giving you, and encourage you to worship at their feet for the privilege of their services.

What is there to trust when borrowing money from banks and financial institutions? Not much. They advertise about giving customer service and customer care but offer little evidence of doing so when put to the test.

Major corporations (big businesses) are losing the trust of consumers as well. Many score record quarterly performances on the backs of workers and then announce another round of layoffs to improve their profitability, leaving technological advances and the workers that are left to pick up the slack.

Chief executive officers who really have not improved the company get asked to leave and walk out the door with a $210 million going away compensation package. This all looks pretty unfair, not to mention stupid, to workers.

The term "corporate fat cats" represents an injustice to many workers. If the company board of directors had lost enough trust in the CEO to fire him, why pay him $210 million in compensation to leave?

Another private-equity firm paid its CEO $400 million for his services last year, more than a million dollars a day in income for every day of the year.

What can I say about the nation's press? Only that it does not even publish the news anymore. Virtually every article is now "personal journalism" with the author's views about news events, and the rest of newspapers and newscasts merely print or broadcast propaganda from their news sources.

Everyone from Hollywood publicists to politicians to the White House officials puts their own spin on all news events. There is no news reporting, only their reaction to news events based upon whatever pap they are peddling.

Politicians and presidential candidates are so caught up in carving out their own legacy and future prosperity they would not recognize or acknowledge the truth unless it served their own misguided purposes.

If you have not taken the time to notice, being a politician at the state or national level is one of the best and most lucrative jobs in America today.

There is so much carping and contentious infighting that nobody is responsible for anything that happens to the electorate.

There is also so much lying, cheating, stealing and immoral behavior going on that should anything good come from our elected officials it would be more by accident than design.

Politicians view it as a happy accident. They are too self-centered and self-absorbed in their own wonderfulness to worry about actually doing something rather than continually protecting their own power base and perceived influence.

I believe the majority of Americans are so disgusted with politicians today that they do not really give a crap about what they represent because they know that they are not representing them no matter which party they claim. Count me in that group.

Even the hallowed ivy halls of our educational institutions are taking a beating.

Too many tenured professors at many major colleges are not only practicing their liberal beliefs, they are preaching their permissive brand of liberalism. They stifle the exchange of ideas while promoting personal self-expression with little effort to recognize and teach basic, fundamental American values, including truth, integrity, responsibility, accountability and common sense.

Perhaps the only thing more important to them than actually teaching these basic, respected values is their own ego trip of self-righteousness. Many of these educated idiots believe that they can look at any major issue, decide what is right for everyone based solely on their intelligence, and then develop a social engineering program to make it happen.

Far too many of our college students are so brilliant when they graduate that they know exactly what is right for them and everyone else, what entitlements they are owed based on their continued breathing, and are quick to point out everything that is wrong everywhere.

The fact that they are not nearly as educated and literate as they think they are is just an aside. Like young people from every generation, you cannot share anything with them because they already know everything and can contribute little to the advancement of society until they grow up and embrace responsibility, accountability and integrity.

When you have tenured research professors working on health-related studies that are earning two, three and four times their salary from the same companies for whom they are doing the research, you realize there is no integrity left on campus as conflict and corruption has reached the highest levels of so-called leadership. No wonder there is little trust left in our educational institutions.

We look to our traditional churches to teach positive values, however, these churches are also losing trust among their followers.

It would appear that many of the leaders of these institutions will, like common prostitutes, sell themselves to the highest bidder. For many of these leaders, money will trump self-respect, integrity will give way to notoriety, and truth will become irrelevant to purpose.

If I sound like a social critic, I am. For any half-wit who will pay attention I am giving a clarion call to action. The good news is that you can rise above the current circumstances.

Those who would create distrust may sully the environment, but they cannot force you to follow their errant ways. You can live and act differently, and I advise you to do so.

Editor's Note: Read my articles on "Facts About the Second Most Controversial Topic in America – This First Is Abortion", "So Why Should I Subsidize Any Banks Because of Their Greed and Incompetence?" and "Self-Improvement – Here Are My Personal Favorite Quotes That I Live By, Learn By and Grow By".

Reader Wonders: Who Can We Really Trust in Today's World?

2007-10-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Editor's Note: After reading my article on the current R67 political battle in Washington State, Steve immediately wrote me the following email:

"Good morning Ed,

"I read your opinion regarding Referendum 67 and felt an obligation to add my 2 cents worth.

"I suppose that I'm dating myself when I say that there was a time when trust in people and organizations was a given.

"I remember a time when one could trust a teacher, mechanic, doctor, insurance agent, attorney etc. There was once a time when credentials, experience and position contributed to credibility.

"Somewhere along the line, the basic element of honesty was sacrificed for either convenience or money.

"There is still a desire on the part of most people to trust others and this is why identity thieves, Internet scams, sweepstakes contests, politicians, insurance companies etc. can do well for their self-serving interests.

"That is not to say that all people or organizations are inherently greedy or self-serving but in this time that we live in, we do have to be much more careful than in years past.

"It is much more difficult to find an automotive repair shop that will provide you with what you really need in terms of repairs without also handing you an estimate sheet for an additional $400 of "suggested" services.

"It is well known that insurance companies, be they companies that provide automobile insurance or medical insurance, are trying to minimize payouts for benefits while increasing premiums.

"Most insurance policies are so long and complicated to read that the insurance providers know that the average person is unlikely to read the fine print. So who can we trust?

"I don't have an answer for that question but I do know that if we really do find someone who is trustworthy, we have found something that is becoming an endangered species.

"We buy insurance policies believing that there will be someone in our corner if we need help. We believe that showing our "goodwill" by remaining with a company for years and paying premiums on time buys us the security of having some muscle in our corner when we need it.

"Unfortunately, I'm beginning to wonder if it is a lot like social security or Medicare. We have paid for it all for years, but it may not be there even though we were promised that it would be. I hope I'm wrong but how can I conclude otherwise.

"Steve"

Editor's Note: Here is my reply:

Hey Steve,

Good to read your email. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to weigh in with your reaction to my article on R67.

Reader feedback is important to me. Sometimes I feel like a voice in the wilderness when writing and publishing Internet articles and Blog entries. People are busy and while they may think about responding they generally get distracted and caught up in the moment.

I have an answer to your question: Who can we trust?

You can trust yourself. It reminds me of playing poker; trust everyone but cut the cards in the deck.

The key element of trusting yourself is judgment, which is easier said than done for many people.

We can only develop our judgment skills by making judgments, however, just because one makes more judgments does not mean one is making good judgments. Just because the chief executive officer of a company makes more decisions does not mean that he or she makes better decisions.

Herein lies the problem. Some folks simply have better judgment (and decision-making ability) than others. Automatically trusting an individual, company or organization to treat you fairly in today's world can be very dangerous.

In every important decision I make in life, I try to do so with right thinking and right motives. Doing so requires integrity, a trait that is sorely lacking in our society and culture today.

An overriding desire for revenue and profit colors the thinking and action of many people and brand-name businesses in today's economy. Many young people could not even tell you what integrity is, or what having integrity means.

The net effect of how we conduct ourselves in our everyday life defines who we really are, creates our culture and ultimately determines our values. This is an ongoing process that changes with every generation.

We either succeed or fail in passing on our behavior, thought process, habits and values to our children. The scorecard currently does not appear to be good in my judgment and experience.

Too many of our children feel they owe nothing to their country, society and parents, and demand to know what will be done for them for merely existing.

For example, they want an exciting, guaranteed job with a good income but have not stopped to ask the question, "Who was born at the same time that they were born that will guarantee their wants?"

Many of our children are all about carving out their space, announcing their rights and privileges but care little or nothing about accountability or responsibility. Many of our children, like Hollywood stars, live as if it is their world, and we just exist in it.

Scam artists as well as traditional companies routinely rip people off and fail to realize that they are hurting themselves even more than the people they are ripping off. At least the people being ripped off can distinguish the difference between right and wrong moral behavior.

What can we do about this situation? First, get ourselves right, then teach others what we have learned and done, and then hope it is passed on to future generations. I am afraid there is no other way.

Note: Read my movie reviews on families: "A Christmas Story", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Secondhand Lions". You will smile, laugh, cry and feel better for the experience.

Editor's Note: Get a Free Analysis of PIP, Empowerism and SFI for Affiliate Marketers. Email me at: edbagley@comcast.net and put "Subscribe List 2" in the Subject Line.

Washington's Hottest Political Issue Pits PI Attorneys and the Insurance Industry

2007-10-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Ink on paper hardly appears threatening so many voters in the State of Washington may pass over the significance of R67 when they vote by ballot on election day Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007.

Referendum 67 asks Washington State voters to approve or reject a law passed earlier in the year by the state legislature that authorizes filing suit against an insurer for unreasonably denying a claim for coverage or payment of benefits.

The plaintiff in the suit could recover up to three times the amount of damages sustained, plus attorney fees and litigation costs.

The insurance companies doing business in Washington have gone ballistic over R67, launching a major campaign to reject the referendum. In a fit of rage, the insurance industry has raised $8+ million to reject R67 and the personal injury attorneys have been able to come up with $800,000 to accept R67. The 10-to-1 spending ratio is probably nothing unusual.

If you have never been in an auto accident, or been a victim in an auto accident, it is difficult to imagine how traumatic it is to file an insurance claim and deal with the insurance company employees who settle your claim.

Based on my experience, it would be easier to brush the teeth of an angry alligator while sucking dirty pond water in the bayous of Louisiana. Let me share my story and perhaps you can begin to understand my frustration.

On the last day of May in 2006 myself and another driver stopped in a two-lane roundabout to allow a child on a bicycle to cross the street. A young woman entered the roundabout too fast and slammed into the rear of my vehicle, driving me forward a considerable distance.

Fortunately, the child on the bicycle had not yet progressed across the street and into the pathway of my vehicle when the driver crashed into my vehicle and pushed me forward with force and without warning.

As luck would have it, a police officer arrived at the roundabout from another street at approximately the same time. He was quickly able to direct both of us to a secure area and assess the situation and damage.

After exiting my vehicle the officer could see that I was visibly upset and perhaps injured. He asked me if I wanted him to call an ambulance. I could not answer him as I had lost my ability to speak for several minutes. I think I was about to go into shock but ended up later breaking down and sobbing uncontrollably.

When I was back in control of myself, I told him not to call an ambulance. I was sore but did not think I had broken any bones.

The woman who drove the vehicle that hit me was ticketed on the spot for failing to have her vehicle under control. I thought it strange that she was from the area but was driving a rental car. Turns out she had totaled her own vehicle a week earlier.

I was able to drive my vehicle home and did. I figured I would feel better in a few days.

I was not ready for what happened next. Because I am not used to being in accidents, I did not realize how quickly the insurance employees pop into action. To begin with, I had a PIP (personal injury protection) rider on my auto insurance policy. PIP sets aside $10,000 to pay for any personal injuries in the accident. I pay for this coverage.

Turns out that when you have PIP, it is YOUR insurance company that pays any medical claims costs up front and later recovers those payments through subrogation with the irresponsible driver's insurance carrier. The woman who did hit me had insurance and said she was sorry for hitting me.

When I did not feel better after a few days, I went to my internist and osteoarthritis specialist and was diagnosed with injuries that required treatment plans. I filed a medical claim after filing a claim for my vehicle damage.

In short order, I was dealing with several insurance adjusters from the two companies, none of whom cared whether I dropped dead or lived.

For example, I got three independent repair estimates for my vehicle damage, they ranged from $1,428 to $1,750. The adjuster for the irresponsible driver's company estimated my vehicle damage at $716, and told me "This is all you are getting. If you don't like it, that's too bad."

I was upset but not nearly as upset as I was about to become. After filing my medical claim, the irresponsible driver's insurance company wrote me with this observation: "It is our conclusion that a mechanism for extensive injury is not present in this accident."

This conclusion apparently caused my insurance carrier to write me saying, " . . . it is our understanding that your vehicle sustained minimal damages in the amount of $716," and notified me that "we (my insurance company) will be requesting that you attend an Independent Medical Evaluation (IME) to determine if your treatment and any continued care is reasonable, necessary and accident related."

A few days later I received a call from another adjuster from my own insurance company informing me that I was being investigated for medical insurance fraud. I was not only appalled but livid with this vicious accusation.

I was told over the phone that given the extent of the damage to the vehicle, there is no way I could have suffered any injuries requiring medical attention.

At this point I figured there was no way I could deal reasonably with unreasonable insurance adjusters, regardless of whose interests they represented. The next morning I hired a personal injury attorney and then refused to talk to any insurance reps from any company involved.

I did not ask to be hit by another vehicle and suffer injuries documented by board-certified licensed physicians. I went ahead with the treatment plans my physicians recommended.

From that point forward, my insurance company refused to pay any medical bills for my treatment. I believe that they were purposely trying to ruin my credit rating by not paying timely my medical bills from the accident.

My medical providers were upset with me and my insurance company for not getting timely payment for their services. They had a point. The nonpayment of bills by my insurance company went on for months.

Eventually, after many months, I was ordered to undergo an Independent Medical Evaluation. I passed my IME with flying colors, everything the irresponsible insurance companies did not want to read and hear about my medical condition, they begrudgingly were forced to accept at last.

The insurance companies reluctantly and resentfully had to shut up and pay a legitimate claim because I refused to cave into their intimidation, threats, accusations and ugly, rude, mean and inappropriate comments.

In the meantime, the irresponsible driver's insurance company had given me a take-it-or-leave-it final offer of $650 for all of my medical expenses.

When the claim was finally settled in March of 2007—more than 10 months LATER—my insurance company, the one responsible for paying my medical expenses under my PIP coverage, recovered $5,398 in subrogation.

If you ask me how I am voting on R67 in the State of Washington, I am voting to accept the law as passed by the state legislature to hold the insurance companies responsible for timely payment of all "reasonable, necessary and accident related" claims.

It is interesting to me that the insurance industry television advertising in this campaign stresses that accepting R67 will drive up insurance costs $650 million in the State of Washington, or approximately $205 per household annually. This is done to scare consumers into thinking their insurance premiums will increase dramatically.

This apparently is the amount that insurance companies will pass on to consumers in increased premiums should R67 be accepted as passed by the legislature. It will, of course, not cost the insurance industry squat.

I believe that the insurance companies will continue to line their pockets at their policyholders expense if R67 is rejected and not accepted. I will vote to accept R67.

One television ad by the opposition features an insurance adjuster who quit his job because his insurance company employer apparently no longer used real people to handle certain claims procedures.

A computer program apparently determines what the real claim compensation should be and then automatically reduces that amount by 20% before they even deal with the policyholder's claim.

When I put the phrase "insurance company fines by federal prosecutors" into my Google search engine, this is what I found:

According to a story in the New York Times (7-9-99), one of the nation's largest, best known and most advertised insurance companies was fined $20 million by the National Association of Securities Dealers for misleading customers by committing "serious violations of securities law and our rules."

The same company had already paid more than $70 million in fines to state insurance regulators for widespread deception of customers. Earlier, the same company paid $1.5 billion (billion, not million) in a settlement over improper sales of limited partnerships through one of its subsidiaries.

It was noted in the story that a class action suit against the company might cost the company as much as another $2.6 billion payout. It would appear that the petty cash fund of this insurance company could keep paying these kinds of fines and conduct their business as usual.

Is there any reason why I could not get the impression that there are major insurance companies in America which lie, cheat and steal like a common criminal?

The only difference is apparently they are not prosecuted like a common criminal but are allowed to settle and pay huge fines, and then apparently continue on with what they are doing.

I seem to recall an insurance company executive who quit and received a $4 million severance package while walking out the door.

Not to outdo itself, the same company apparently felt a need to also give him a $40 million bonus for all of the great work he had done for the company. Such is life in the fast lane when you are among the favored few.

Is there any reason why I should not ask upon whose backs that $40 million bonus happened? Perhaps from policyholders whose thousands of claims were not paid timely and fairly?

I used to have a modicum of respect for insurance companies and wondered why personal injury attorneys were able to get court settlements that seemed sizable.

Now I have no respect for insurance companies whatsoever, and see a real need for personal injury attorneys to represent policyholders who have to deal with insurance companies when placing a claim for injuries.

Just as we do not miss the water until the well runs dry, so you will find out who and what you are really dealing with when you place your first insurance claim. It would not matter a lick whether it was your own insurance company or someone else's insurance company.

I believe that insurance companies work in concert with each other, whether intentionally or unintentionally, recognizing that each wants to pay the least amount possible on any claim.

Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests" and "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)". Find these articles and more in my Lessons in Life Archive.

Editor's Note: Get a Free Analysis of PIP, Empowerism and SFI for Affiliate Marketers. Email me at: edbagley@comcast.net and put "Subscribe List 2" in the Subject Line.

"So Why Should I Subsidize Any Banks Because of Their Greed and Incompetence?"

2007-10-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Try not to read too much about your government and the current banking system in this country because if you do, you may be on the verge of getting riled up like me. Let me explain:

As I understand it from reading the bad news in the nation's most prestigious journals, the banking industry is having some serious problems.

It seems that in its unbridled greed and with the avarice of its associate mortgage brokers, bankers have taken on a bunch of residential paper that amounts to bad loans.

Specifically, loans generated by mortgage brokers who hoodwinked homebuyers into believing that ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) were an excellent way to qualify for affordable monthly payments, at least in the short term. Therein lies the problem.

The short term is apparently over, the ARM payments are now being readjusted upward, as in way upwards, and the poor, dumb borrowers are now unable to make timely payments, sending many of their homes into foreclosure for nonpayment.

"Banks made unwise business decisions and now they're scrambling to save themselves," says Steve Persky, CEO of Dalton Investments in Los Angeles, who was quoted in a USA Today (10-15-07) story.

No kidding, Steve, bankers are running around like a bunch of rats cornered in a burning barn.

Two days later, another USA Today (10-17-07) story reported Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson saying that the steep housing downturn posed the most "significant current risk" to the economy, adding that the correction was dragging on longer than expected.

Paulson told a Georgetown University law school audience that the government and lenders must move forcefully to aid millions of homeowners whose adjustable-rate subprime (as in poor credit) mortgages will reset to higher levels in the next 18 months.

Apparently delinquencies are even rising among borrowers with good credit and conventional mortgages. My, my, my, sounds like someone has a real big problem. Excuse me while I go to sleep with a clear conscience.

Treasury officials announced two days earlier that they had helped broker a deal among major banks to buy as much as $100 billion in securities, including mortgage-backed bonds, to help calm credit markets. That certainly is "mighty wide" of the Treasury Department to do so.

Now, with whose money do you think they are doing this? That is right, your tax money.

So if you are a fiscally responsible U. S. citizen, you are now being penalized for being fiscally responsible and are being asked to subsidize those who are not fiscally responsible.

I am taking this personally because I care. Maybe you do not.

Let me repeat what I said a moment ago: I am being penalized for being fiscally responsible. Why am I expected to subsidize Bank of America and the nation's next 149 largest banks?

Bank of America is the nation's largest bank since its acquisition of MBNA. In fact, Bank of America (BOA) is one of the largest companies in the world. BOA apparently was the 5th most profitable company in the world in 2006 with a net profit of more than $21 billion.

To understand how much $21 billion is, think of it this way: a billion is a million dollars 1,000 times, so 21 billion is a million dollars 21,000 times.

BOA revenue in 2006 was more than $74 billion. If BOA's net profit was $26 billion, then its net profit was 28% of its revenue, that is a pretty good business. BOA is the No. 1 online bank with 21 million active online banking customers.

Oh yeah, the total consolidated assets of BOA in its 2006 Consolidated Balance Sheet were only $1,459,737,000,000, or $1 trillion, 459 billion, 737 million. Jeez Louise, Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, is worth only $53 billion.

I am totally debt free. I live in a house I bought for $40,000 that is now worth $250,000. I have been up and down in my work life. Now I am up, once I was down. I once lost $300,000 (in today's money it would be $750,000). The only good thing I can say about that was that I had it to lose.

I am wondering where this government of mine was and where the banks were when I was in debt and financially down.

The banks I dealt with could not freeze my business accounts quick enough; they could not kick me to the curb fast enough. I had $60,000 equity in my home and not a single banker or lender would loan me a dime (in today's money it would be $150,000). I survived anyway, and I have now prospered.

Now my tax money is being used to subsidize the largest banks in the country (which made poor loans out of greed), mortgage lenders (who packaged poor loans for personal gain when they knew they were packaging bad loans out of greed), and borrowers (who knew they were getting in over their head and now are stuck financially).

How about having the banks, mortgage bankers and borrowers take responsibility for their actions, eat their losses, suck it up, and crawl their way back out like I did?

Could they be lacking in the three necessary ingredients it takes to do so: integrity, right thinking and right motives?

Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests" and "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)". Find these articles and more in my Lessons in Life Archive.

Editor's Note: Get a Free Analysis of PIP, Empowerism and SFI for Affiliate Marketers. Email me at: edbagley@comcast.net and put "Subscribe List 2" in the Subject Line.

Facts About the Second Most Controversial Topic in America - The First Is Abortion

2007-10-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Many who read the title to this article might think that the second most controversial topic in America today is whether the United States should continue its war in Iraq. Those who thought that would be, in fact, dead wrong.

This article is really about facts, not about our involvement in trying to make Iraq and its people adopt a democratic society, but to revisit the place God occupies in our public institutions and in our society.

Oliver "Buzz" Thomas explored this topic recently in USA Today (10-15-07), America's largest daily circulation newspaper. Thomas is a minister, lawyer and author of 10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can't Because He Needs the Job).

First off, we have the oldest written constitution in the world, however, the United States Constitution was not the first constitution written in this country, that distinction belongs to the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, written in 1639.

The U. S. Constitution was written in 1787, was ratified and went into effect in March 1789, exactly 150 years after Connecticut's constitution.

Very few of our citizens could tell you when our Constitution came into being, and even fewer could tell you much about God's place in our U. S. Constitution.

Thomas says many Americans do not know what our Constitution says about our first freedom: religious freedom.

Ask most Americans what the Constitution says about God, and their answer may surprise you.

"One nation under God?" No, that is in our Pledge of Allegiance.

"Endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights?" No, that is in our Declaration of Independence.

A recent survey by the First Amendment Center asserted that 55% of Americans believe the our Constitution establishes us as a "Christian nation" and while nearly all Americans say freedom of religion is important, only 56% of the survey respondents think it should apply to all religious groups.

The plain truth is that the U. S. Constitution says nothing about God. There is not a single reference to "God" in our Constitution.

The only reference to religion in our Constitution appears in Article VI which says "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Most colonies did have religious qualifications for public office at the time. The Carolinas, for example, even went so far as to require that all elected officials be Protestant. If you were a practicing Christian, but not a Protestant, you apparently did not qualify for public office in the Carolinas.

Only 2 years later, in 1791, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution—popularly known as the Bill of Rights—were ratified by the first session of the First Congress.

The first of those amendments said in part that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".

Oliver Thomas suggests that Congress likely did so because of concern about "the corrupting influence the institutions of church and state have on each other when either becomes too cozy." By cozy, one might assume powerful and dominant.

The idea is that our government is to remain neutral and no citizen should be advantaged or disadvantaged because of his or her religious faith.

The separation of church and state does not mean the separation of God and government or of religion and politics. Get that straight.

The First Amendment limits only the power of government, not the power of the people or the power of any church.

Churchgoers can establish and practice their own religion. They can also promote political issues and candidates, but they do so at the cost of potentially losing their IRS tax-exempt status since there is no tax deduction for partisan causes, only charitable causes.

People can practice freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble, and the right to petition the government to redress (remedy or set right) grievances.

This means power to the church and power to the people but no power to government to establish or use religion as a whipping tool to do its bidding.

The plain truth is that the Bill of Rights says nothing about God. There is not a single reference to "God" in our Bill of Rights.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the framers of our Constitution for limiting (as least on paper) the power of our government, and the politicians and bureaucrats who run it.

There is, of course, no limit to the lying, cheating, stealing, self-centeredness and self-righteousness of the politicians and bureaucrats who pursue their own agenda for their own personal gain at our expense while serving under the guise of serving us.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), the American journalist and literary and social critic said, "You can never underestimate the stupidity of the American people."

It would be even more difficult to underestimate the lying, cheating, stealing and lack of morality practiced by our prominent elected politicians and appointed bureaucrats.

For the record, there are references to "God" in our Declaration of Independence and also in our Pledge of Allegiance, but not in our United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.

One might conclude that given these facts, the majority of our U. S. Supreme Court justices see no problem in kicking God out of our public schools because public schools are government property of a legal entity.

This action does not preclude us from keeping God in our churches and homes.

Surf my Lessons in Life Archive to Read "What Women Should Know About Men – Four Realities in a Man's World" and "Who Has Had the Greatest Influence on Your Life and Why?"

The Only Way to Become Financially Free in America Today: Start Your Own Business

2007-10-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

I have become so sick and tired of online gurus offering scam products and opportunities that I must reveal the truth about what I have discovered. It is simply this:

In virtually every ad I have read and responded to online a sinister tactic has left me disappointed and dismayed. All of the solutions I had been promised left me unable to achieve any real success whatsoever.

And the sinister tactic being used? Let me simply call it the sin of omission in the solution being offered for my hard-earned money and time.

As strange as it might seem to a man, think about baking a cake that has 5 ingredients. What I have been getting from online gurus is generally 4 of the 5 ingredients, or 80% of the knowledge and application it takes to make the big bucks like the gurus.

Without the 5th and final ingredient the cake making process and the cake are a flop. Worse yet, the gurus know this and purposefully withhold the final ingredient, knowing that if you knew it, you would then join them in the success circle.

They nonetheless advertise and sell their information as if they are giving you all of the ingredients and the full story. In the process, I was being really cheated out of my investment in their products and opportunities.

They were literally lining their pockets at my expense while acting like successful online entrepreneurs willing to share their success information for a price.

The online business of selling information to unsuspecting prospects without giving the prospects all of the information and help they need to succeed has become a multi-million dollar industry.

These online gurus are worse than spin doctors in politics. They will literally steal you blind and act like they are doing you a real service; there is apparently no end to their righteousness and profits, not to mention their disingenuousness.

Enough is enough. I am sick and tired of all their lies and ad copy that drones on for 50-plus pages, spewing out their "exclusive" knowledge, how "easy" it is to succeed like they do, all the "evidence" of their newfound wealth, all the "testimonials" of the common folk and superstars who worship at their feet, all the "crap" you are going to get (minus the real information you need to succeed), how their information is "worth" thousands, how "you can buy it" for hundreds, and how you must "act immediately" to take advantage of their time-sensitive offer.

All of it crap. I have never had a single one of these gurus help me with sincerity at my point of need. They are only interested in selling me more of their personal and company products, books, tapes, seminar tickets, etc., all of which they make money at my expense.

Here is what I believe you need to know before you begin a journey toward becoming financially free:

1) Unless you are a famous rock star, professional athlete or chief executive officer of a major corporation, you have no chance of becoming financially free. You cannot be hired help as an average worker and become financially free in America.

You should have figured out by now that you are not going to get generous raises each year, get more time off, and get better medical, dental and associated benefits. You are an employee, not the owner of the company.

2) As long as you are hired help, you are going to pay too much of your earnings in taxes. Workers are taxed to death. You should know by now that even if your government taxed the rich three times as much, the combined middle class taxpayers still pay far more taxes.

Take the middle class out of paying taxes and the United States would collapse. There would not be enough money to pay all of bureaucrats who regulate our lives and our incomes.

3) Your government does not reward you for being financially responsible, your government punishes you. Your government taxes you on your savings. Your government restricts the amount of tax-free money you can contribute to your retirement accounts. Your government encourages you to go farther into debt by giving you a bigger mortgage interest deduction for a bigger house with a bigger mortgage payment.

4) Very few Americans can save enough for retirement because their incomes are too low, their taxes are too high, and by the time they pay their bills, too many live month-to-month, unable to save enough for retirement.

So what is the answer? Let me share with you not what I think, but what I know.

5) First, you need to go into business for yourself. Do not quit your job, simply start a part-time business on the side so you can begin to generate some income, and accumulate more legal tax deductions. The tax deductions will enable you to lower your taxable income. Then you can take the tax savings and invest in your retirement and/or expand your business.

6) Second, this is not rocket science. You do not need a college degree or special advice from your banker or financial expert, 95% of whom will lie, cheat and steal to take your money while trying to convince you that they are your best friend and helping you. If you doubt this, just start reading the real life articles I write in the Lessons in Life section of my Blog.

7) Understand that as hired help you have so few legal deductions you can count them on one hand. As a business owner, you have a minimum of 200 deductions and hundreds more if you are a major corporation. You simply cannot continue to pay the taxes you are paying as hired help and get ahead.

8) Do you know that as a business you can legally arrange your affairs so that virtually all of your business travel expenses are 100% deductible? This lowers your net taxable income, and reduces the net taxable income your business generates.

9) Do you know that if you have children ages 8 to 18 you can hire each of them to work in your business, and pay them approximately $5,000 a year? Do you know that this income for each of your children is tax free to them, and you can take the combined employment expense as a 100% business deduction?

10) Do you know you can start a legal business for a one-time investment of as little as $200, and maintain your business for as little as $20 a month? Yes you can. I do it, and I can show you how to do it.

Click on the link below to read the article I wrote about my personal experience. You can actually do something to help yourself and your situation. I know. I did. You can too. Go here for more information:

http://www.edbagleyblog.com/BusinessOpportunities.html

Self-Improvement - 3 Ways to Get Ahead Faster: 1) Focus 2) Focus 3) Focus

2007-09-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

When I focus on my training, I perform well and achieve my running goals.

When I focus on my business, I generate cash flow and achieve my financial goals.

Achieving my financial goals is no different than achieving my running goals.

Both activities are competitions, and I am good at competing. I almost always win in a competition because I focus on my objective and am willing to pay a bigger price than my competitors.

I understand getting to the top is not so much about having the will to win—everyone wants to win—but having the will to prepare to win.

Preparation is everything that will is not.

Having the will to win is a want, but preparing to win is a need.

What is opportunity without preparedness? Nothing but an opportunity wasted.

It is only when preparedness meets opportunity head on that an explosion happens and something exciting takes place.

Get physically prepared to win. A consistent exercise program will improve your health, improve your efficiency, and improve your disposition.

Get mentally prepared to win. Planning to win, working to win, and expecting to win are all prerequisites to winning.

Get emotionally prepared to win. The heart of a champion is a heart filled up with the belief that you can win. All of the work in the world will not carry you to victory, you must believe before you can achieve.

Read. Study. Prepare. Then Practice. Practice. Practice. And Practice. Then Compete and Win.

To generate revenue and build your business:

Develop financial intelligence.

Develop systems intelligence.

Develop emotional intelligence.

Then dominate and crush the competition.

Do not play to compete in sports or business, play to win.

Leave the platitudes for the losers.

Note: Read my movie reviews on "Waking Ned Devine" (arguably the greatest Irish comedy ever, and my favorite comedy film ever), and "Million Dollar Baby" (an Irish cast and flavor wherein we find Clint Eastwood playing a boxing trainer/manager who studies Irish Gaelic and promotes his woman fighter Maggie Fitzgerald—played by Best Actress Oscar winner Hillary Swank). These two films are excellent.

Self-Improvement - Here Are My Personal Favorite Quotes That I Live By, Learn By and Grow By

2007-09-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

I am an average Joe in many ways, but I draw a very quick and distinct line in the sand when it comes to issues of integrity.

When I see someone lying, cheating and stealing, then acting like they are helping me when in fact they are relieving me of my money while lining their pockets, I take umbrage.

There are no excuses for wrongdoing. I could care less whether your friends, corporate fat cats or even your grandmother is doing it. To justify wrongdoing is saying that everyone else is killing people they do not like so it must be OK for me to kill people too.

I have zero interest in becoming a millionaire at the expense of others. I do not want to be sitting in my mansion counting all of my gold coins alone because I am such a despicable person that no one wants to be around me.

I have spent a good portion of my life studying self-improvement so I can become a better person than I already am. It is as Alexander Pope has said, "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is man." If there is one person I want to be honest with, it is myself.

When I train at the YMCA on the treadmill I take with me my binder filled with personal quotes that are important to me and my growth.

Many people experience professional growth by earning degrees, attending seminars and training, and reading professional journals. I have had some professional growth, but I am more interested in personal growth, the kind of growth that challenges my thought process and belief system to encourage change for the better.

Here are some of my personal favorite quotes that help me to accommodate change. Perhaps they may be of interest to you as well:

On Advice:

Seek advice from those who are competent through their own experience and success to give it.
George Clason

On Belief:

At any given place on any given day at any given time, something magical can happen. It is called "belief".
Unknown

On Change:

If you lack the will for change, there is no one who can show you the way.
Unknown

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.
Unknown

On Character:

Just as we can learn from our mistakes, we can gain character from our disappointments.
Robert Kiyosaki

On Dreaming:

A dream is a gift you give yourself.
Unknown

On Failing:

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Tomas Edison

On Fatigue:

Fear and fatigue block the mind. Confront both, and courage and confidence will flow into you.
Unknown

On Imagination:

A mind once stretched by a new idea moves beyond its old constraints, never returning to its former, limited dimensions. It is called "imagination".
Unknown

On Integrity:

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Unknown

On Kindness:

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

On Luck:

Luck has a peculiar habit of favoring those who do not depend on it.
George Clason

Good luck waits to come to those who accept opportunity.
George Clason

On Money:

Money is like a sixth sense without which we cannot make a complete use of the other five.
W. Somerset Maugham

One may not condemn a man for succeeding financially because he knows how. Neither may one with justice take away for a man what he has fairly earned, to give to men of less ability.
George Clason

A part of all I earn is mine to keep.
George Clason

Earning money has a way of increasing financial intelligence quickly.
Robert Kiyosaki

Self-discipline is the No. 1 delineating factor between the rich, the middle class and the poor.
Robert Kiyosaki

On Preparedness:

It was apparent that no one could do for the scribe what the scribe had done for himself.
George Clason

Each man has to work out his own understanding of what needs to be done, and then prepare himself to take advantage of the opportunity to succeed in a big way.
George Clason

On Running:

When aerobic running becomes a daily habit, strength and confidence follow.
Arthur Lydiard

On Schooling:

I never let schooling interfere with my education.
Mark Twain

On Self-Control:

Yoga taught me "impulse control", the ability to feel an urge and delay acting on it.
Unknown

On Self-Image:

What you think of me is none of my business. What is most important is what I think of myself.
Robert Kiyosaki

Always remember that no matter what anyone is saying to you from the outside, the most important conversation is the one you are having with yourself on the inside.
Robert Kiyosaki

On Soul:

When the mind is controlled and still, what remains is the soul.
Unknown

On Stability:

When stability becomes a habit, maturity and clarity follow.
Unknown

On Success:

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.
Albert Schweitzer

On Thinking:

The hardest thing in the world to do is to think, and that is why people do so little of it.
Henry Ford

Your mind, more than your actions, determines your net worth.
Robert Kiyosaki

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
John F. Kennedy

Keep your thoughts positive, because thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive, because words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive, because behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive, because habits become your values. Keep your values positive, because values become your destiny.
Mahatma Gahdhi
(with editing by Ed Bagley)
(Postscript: remember t-w-b-h-v-d to remember thoughts-words-behavior-habits-values-destiny)

My own thoughts and feelings are the cause of all of my problems, not the world or the people in it. I have struggled by using my own negative thoughts and feelings to negatively influence my productive thoughts and actions. I let go of all negative thoughts and feelings by releasing them from my subconscious mind and into oblivion. I embrace all positive thoughts and feelings. My conscious mind and subconscious mind are now clear and positive. I am happy and free.
Ed Bagley

On Timing:

This time, like all times, is a very good one, when we know what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

On Training:

My most frequent admonition to athletes and coaches is: train, do not strain.
Arthur Lydiard

Note: For a treasure trove of interesting quotes simply click on my Famous Quotes section.

Never Ask an Alabama Grandma What She Knows While in Court

2007-09-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

(Editor's Note: Every once in awhile humor comes to me in an email that is worth sharing. Here is an example.)

Lawyers should never ask an Alabama grandma a question if they are not prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"

She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a young boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot, when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you."

The lawyer was stunned! Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?

She again replied, "Why, yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him."

The defense attorney almost died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice said, "If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I will send you to the electric chair."

Running - There is an Inescapable Correlation Between Your Weight and Your Cardiovascular Efficiency - Part 5

2007-09-01T21:03:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Dr. Peter D'Adamo also addresses the personality question by saying that Os carry a genetic memory of strength, endurance, self-reliance, daring, intuition and innate optimism. All of those qualities I possess as well as being a risk taker.

I would be the last person in the world to be happy working as hired help for a major corporation, or as a bureaucrat in a public service position, or in the military as a volunteer soldier. I am a Vietnam Veteran but I would never have been a career military person.

I figured out real quick in life that if you have any intelligence, talent, creativity, productivity and especially integrity, you will find it much harder to progress and prosper if you are not self-employed in your own business.

I answer to myself first, last and always. Type Os like me are stable, reliable, dependable, responsible and accountable for their actions. If I screw up, I admit it, self-correct and get on with being successful. This could be why Type Os are known as loners.

Supplements can also be important. For example, a surprising amount of chronic joint pain (especially in the lower back and knees) in Type O patients (and certainly runners) has been helped with a short period of manganese supplementation, according to Dr. D'Adamo.

Manganese supplementation should only be done under a physician's supervision, even if you can buy the supplement over the counter.

Here are some other facts that are interesting from Dr. D'Adamo about Type Os:

1) Aspirin's blood-thinning properties can be trouble as Type Os already have thin blood.

2) Type Os should avoid penicillin-class antibiotics as their immune systems are more allergically sensitive to this class of drugs. I was given penicillin as a child; when given penicillin as an adult, I developed a severe reaction to penicillin. If I am given a shot of penicillin today, it will kill me within minutes. I am told that if I took penicillin in tablet form and my stomach was pumped immediately, I might have a chance to remain alive.

If you think D'Adamo's advice on this did not get my attention, you are dead wrong.

3) Try to avoid macrolide-class antibiotics. Erythromycin and the newer macrolides Biaxin and Zithromax can aggravate bleeding tendencies in Type Os.

The bottom line from Peter D'Adamo, who is a naturopathic physician and ridiculed by some other physicians who think they are God's answer to medicine, is this: Try to avoid over-the-counter medications as there are natural alternatives that work just as well or better.

When I researched the ingredient labels on foods at the supermarket I was amazed at how many food products include wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup and simple sugars.

Do you realize how much money the wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup and simple sugar interests dole out in research grants every year to medical research laboratories to prove the value of their products for consumers? It is in the millions, if not billions.

Is it any wonder why Dr. D'Adamo's clinical and laboratory research is discredited by some major money interests? A lot of what D'Adamo is saying about O blood types runs counter to their vested interests. Dr. Atkins suffered through the same criticism before he was proven correct.

I predict Dr. D'Adamo will eventually prevail as Dr. Atkins did. It just may take a number of years to happen.

I used to drink soda pop like water and now I drink water like I used to drink soda pop. A 20-ounce bottle of soda pop or even Gatorade is loaded with sugar. Most sports drinks are loaded with sugar.

A 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola Classic has high fructose corn syrup as well as 140 calories and 39 grams of sugar (thus 39 carbohydrates). A single, 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola Classic has high fructose corn syrup as well as approximately 265 calories and 65 grams of sugar (thus 65 carbohydrates).

I used to down 4 or 5 of these 20-ounce bottles a day and could easily put away a 2-liter bottle of Classic Coke on a weekend day. I have switched to plain water and the 23.7-ounce Grape Propel, which has a total of 30 calories and 6 grams of sugar per bottle.

I suggest that you consider doing the same unless you want to float away like I did. I got to the point where it seemed that if I ingested a grain of simple cane sugar my pancreas would automatically pump out 8 ounces of insulin to regulate the amount of glucose in my blood. I am kidding but you get the point.

My hormonal balance was so screwed up with excess sugar and wheat flour products, both adding fat I did not want, that I was gaining weight faster than putting bricks on a scale.

Now all of that nonsense is over. Coca-Cola will have to find another customer for its products.

In America it seems that we have a lobby for everything and every group. There cannot be two more powerful and effective lobbies in the United States today than the sugar lobby and the wheat flour lobby. They are literally part of many foods we eat.

No wonder we are getting fatter and fatter by the meal. Well, at least most of us. I am getting skinner every time I eat and drink. I will run faster too and will be happy to do so.

Lifelong runners like myself who have been training and competing forever (47 years plus) know that there is an inescapable correlation between your weight and your cardiovascular efficiency.

Essentially, when you lose 10% of your body weight, you increase your cardiovascular efficiency 10%.

When my weight drops 65 pounds from 225 to 160, I will have lost at least 28% of my body weight, meaning my cardiovascular efficiency will increase 28%. Trust me when I say that upon reaching my ideal weight, you will know.

I will be the guy screaming the news on top of my house for everyone to hear.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 5 of a 5-Part Article.)

Note: Read my sports articles on "What Makes a Person Want to Run, and Why Few Will Ever Know the Joy of Running", "A St. Patrick's Day Toast to Irish Runners Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan" and "Millrose Games Celebrates 100th Birthday as Track's Most Prestigious Indoor Event". Find these reviews in my Blog Archive.

Running: How Popular Running Magazines Are Constantly Giving Very Poor Diet Advice - Part 4

2007-08-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Running magazines are great for recommending one-type-fits-all diets for runners, but they are dead wrong and their O blood type readers who follow their advice will not benefit from their recommendations.

I used to swear by the advice of running magazines, and now I at swear at their diet advice, especially regarding diets for runners.

Editors of popular, nationally known running magazines simply do not understand or acknowledge the correlation between blood types and their food reactions; if they did, they would amend and expand their advice to runners of different blood types about what they should be eating.

I know, I tried and I failed. All I did was gain more weight as I ran more and more miles to lose weight. No wonder I was frustrated and unhappy with my excess weight gain.

I have sworn off all wheat products and simple sugars found in cane or beet sugar (sucrose), and I am dropping weight and feeling much better. Natural complex sugars found in honey and fruits (fructose) are OK.

Because I am a Type O I also learned that Type O stomachs are more acidic than alkaline. Type Os are the only blood type that have the acid to digest and break down lean beef products because of their lower pH factor, the other blood types are alkaline and consequently should not be eating beef.

Just because O blood types have the acidic stomach to break down meat and digest it better than other blood types does not mean you should feast on 16-ounce steaks every night. Eat no more than 6 ounces of beef at any meal.

When I learned that according to Dr. D'Adamo healthy Type Os are meant to reduce stress and relax by doing intense physical exercise, I knew he was on target. I relax by running 6 miles; my wife, who has Type A blood, reduces stress and relaxes by being still and calm, clearing her mind and doing nothing.

Few people realize that it is not the stress itself that bums us out, but our reaction to the stress in our environment that depletes our immune systems and leads to illness.

Unlike our ancestors who faced intermittent acute stresses such as the threat of predators or starvation, we live in a highly pressured, fast-paced world that imposes chronic, prolonged stress. Think of your one-way, one-hour commute in rush hour traffic or the pressures of constantly meeting business deadlines.

Stress-related disorders cause 50% to 80% of all illnesses in modern life, according to D'Adamo.
A regular, intense exercise program helps Os maintain weight control, emotional balance and a strong self-image.

Here is another scary fact: Type Os who do not express their physical natures with appropriate activity in response to stress are eventually overwhelmed during the exhaustion stage of the stress response.

This exhaustion stage is characterized by a variety of psychological manifestations caused by a slower rate of metabolism, such as depression, fatigue or insomnia.

I have gone through periods where I stropped a training program, and while I seldom if ever felt depressed or fatigued, I have not slept nearly as well as when I was younger. It was common for me to wake up 3 or 4 times a night without being able to sleep through as I did in my youth.

For Type Os who are not runners, you should know that to achieve maximum cardiovascular benefits from aerobic exercise, you must elevate your heartbeat to approximately 70% of your maximum heart rate.

One rule of thumb for determining your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age from 220, thus a normal 60 year old would have a maximum heart rate of 160. A runner in good condition could easily have a higher maximum heart rate.

Once that elevated heart rate is achieved during exercise, continue exercising to maintain that rate for 30 minutes. This regimen should be repeated at least three times a week.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 4 of a 5-Part Article.)

Note: Read my sports articles on "What Makes a Person Want to Run, and Why Few Will Ever Know the Joy of Running", "A St. Patrick's Day Toast to Irish Runners Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan" and "Millrose Games Celebrates 100th Birthday as Track's Most Prestigious Indoor Event". Find these reviews in my Blog Archive.

Running: Gluten in Wheat and Other Grains Bind to the Lining of the Small Intestine and Turn to Fat - Part 3

2007-08-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Even creepier is this fact: Gluten, the most common lectin found in wheat and other grains, binds to the lining of the small intestine, causing substantial inflammation and painful irritation in some blood types—especially Type O.

Yikes! This is serious business for all O positive blood types and especially runners because what is binding to the small intestines eventually turns to fat.

Type O blood types thrive on intense physical exercise and animal protein. According to Dr. D'Adamo, the digestive tracts of all Type Os retain the memory of ancient times.

The profile of an O blood type person (know as The Hunter) is a meat eater with a hardy digestive tract who has an overactive immune system, is intolerant to dietary and environmental adaptations, responds best to stress with intense physical exercise, and requires an efficient metabolism to stay lean and energetic. This is a perfect description of me, an O positive blood type.

The high-protein hunter-gatherer diet and the enormous physical demands placed on the systems of early Type Os probably kept most primitive humans in a mild state of ketosis, says D'Adamo, a condition in which the body's metabolism is altered.

Ketosis is the result of a high-protein, high-fat diet that includes very few carbohydrates.

The body metabolizes the proteins and fats into ketones, which are used in place of sugars in an attempt to keep glucose levels steady. The combination of ketosis, calorie deprivation, and constant physical activity make for a lean, mean hunting machine.

The success of the Type O diet depends on the use of lean, chemical-free meats, poultry and fish. Thus, by restricting your consumption of grains, breads, legumes and beans, you will lose weight on the Type O diet.

Your O blood type diet will also restore your natural genetic rhythm, according to Dr. D'Adamo.

I had to learn the hard way that, contrary to what most magazine articles advocate and promote—and this advice is by nutrition experts who apparently know little about the effect of foods on different blood types—the leading factor in weight gain for Type Os is the gluten found in wheat germ and whole wheat products.

I was stunned to learn this scientific fact.

The reason this occurs in O blood types is that the gluten acts on Type O metabolisms to create the exact opposite of ketosis.

Instead of keeping you lean and in a high-energy state, the gluten lectins inhibit your insulin metabolism, interfering with the efficient use of calories for energy.

Dr. D'Adamo says that eating gluten is like putting the wrong kind of octane in your engine. Instead of fueling your engine, it clogs it up.

Ninety-five percent of the lectins we absorb are processed by our body, according to D'Adamo, but at least 5% of the lectins we eat are filtered into our bloodstream, where they react with and destroy red and white blood cells.

Type Os should avoid the most common lectins found in wheat and other grains because they can bind to the lining of the small intestine and turn to fat, causing substantial inflammation and painful irritation in O blood types. These lectins can be beneficial for other blood types but not Os.

Wheat products are a primary culprit in Type O weight gain. The glutens in wheat germ interfere with the Type O metabolic processes. This means all breads, bagels, English muffins, oat bran muffins, wheat bran muffins, sprouted wheat bread and whole wheat bread are all avoids for Type Os.

Other factors can also contribute to O positive blood type weight gain, such as corn (to a lesser degree) and thyroid regulation (Os have low levels of thyroid hormone, which can generate hypothyroidism resulting in weight gain, fluid retention, muscle loss and fatigue).

It is also important to note that food allergies are not digestive problems, but they are immune system reactions to certain foods, according to D'Adamo. Your immune system literally creates an antibody that fights the intrusion of the food into your system.

This research and observation of the effect of digesting certain foods in particular blood types is lost on popular nationally-circulated running magazines.

I have stopped reading these magazines because they always recommend eating carbohydrate rich foods immediately following an intense workout to replace the carbs you have burned. That advice may have been great for other blood types, but it could be the "kiss of death" for O blood types.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 3 of a 5-Part Article.)

Note: Read my sports articles on "What Makes a Person Want to Run, and Why Few Will Ever Know the Joy of Running", "A St. Patrick's Day Toast to Irish Runners Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan" and "Millrose Games Celebrates 100th Birthday as Track's Most Prestigious Indoor Event". Find these reviews in my Blog Archive.

Running: How Lectins (Proteins in Foods) Are Very Negative in O Positive Blood Types - Part 2

2007-08-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Unlike Dr. Robert Atkins and his low-carb diet plan, Dr. Peter D’Adamo’s clinical findings have not yet been validated and popularized on a national level, and this is why so few people are even aware of the connection between your blood type, your diet and your health.

Dr. Atkins’ research and diet plan were denounced nationally by the mainstream medical research community and physicians alike for years.

Only today do the same critics, some 30 years later, reluctantly admit that Dr. Atkins was right about his diet of eating more protein and fats and less carbohydrates.

Dr. D’Adamo’s findings are critical to understanding why Americans have become some of the most unhealthy and overweight people in the world. An inordinate amount of our children are walking about today as examples of obesity before they are even teenagers.

When you know that there are more O blood types than any other type, you can then better appreciate the extent of our problem.

This article cannot address all of the issues involved, but I will focus specifically on runners who are an O positive blood type and why is it so difficult for them to lose weight.

Despite the numerous diet fads available to us today, D'Adamo says we can no more choose the right diet for ourselves than we can choose our hair color or gender. It was already chosen for us many thousands of years ago.

We have been so busy looking at the characteristics of food that we have failed to examine the characteristics of people, says D'Adamo.

D'Adamo separates foods into 16 distinct groups and then divides them into three categories: highly beneficial (acts like a medicine for the specific blood type), neutral (acts like a food), and avoids (acts like a poison for the specific blood type).

In essence, highly beneficial foods increase your metabolism and avoid foods slow it down.

Because D'Adamo's Blood Type Diet is tailored to the cellular composition of your body, specific foods will cause weight gain or weight loss for you, even though they may have a different effect on a person of another blood type.

Here are the two important weight-loss factors involved:

As your body makes the dramatic shift of eliminating foods that are poorly digested or toxic, the first thing it does is try to flush out the toxins that are already there. Those toxins are deposited mainly in the fat tissue, so the process of eliminating toxins also means eliminating fat, therefore losing weight in the process.

The effect that specific foods have on the bodily systems that control weight.

The effect of lectins on O positive blood types is very negative, for example:

Lectins, which are abundant and diverse proteins found in foods, have agglutinating properties that can affect your blood.

Simply put, when you eat a food containing protein lectins that are incompatible with your blood type antigen, the lectins target an organ or bodily system (kidneys, liver, brain, stomach, intestines, etc.) and begin to agglutinate blood cells in that area.

This is especially true for O positive blood types.

The lectin activity of certain foods on O positive blood types may do the following:

Inflame the digestive tract lining, disrupt the digestive process, slow down the rate of food metabolism, compromise the production of insulin, and upset the hormonal balance.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a 5-Part Article.)

Note: Read my sports articles on "What Makes a Person Want to Run, and Why Few Will Ever Know the Joy of Running", "A St. Patrick's Day Toast to Irish Runners Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan" and "Millrose Games Celebrates 100th Birthday as Track's Most Prestigious Indoor Event". Find these reviews in my Blog Archive.

Running: How Wheat Products and Sugar Can Be the "Kiss of Death" When Trying to Lose Weight - Part 1

2007-08-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

As a high school, college, master’s and senior competitive runner, I used to often wonder why it was so difficult to lose extra weight as I grew older. Now I know why.

The scientific facts I am about to share with you are only intended for runners who are trying to shed extra pounds, and who are an O blood type. I know a lot about O positive blood types because I am one.

If your blood type is A, B or AB, then what I am sharing here may be the exact opposite for you, and therefore the knowledge I share should not be implemented by you unless you are an O positive or O negative blood type, and you have first consulted with your personal physician.

Believe it or not, your blood type is a more reliable measure of your identity than race, culture, or geography. It is a genetic blueprint for who you are, and a guide to how you can live most healthfully. Your blood type is older than your race and more fundamental than your ethnicity.

A single drop of blood, too small to see with the naked eye, contains the entire genetic code of a human being. The DNA blueprint is intact and replicated within us endlessly, through our blood. I was impressed to learn this fact.

More than 90% of all factors associated with your blood type are related to your primary type—O, A, B, or AB—and not whether you are positive or negative. Most of the distinctions between our blood types are found in our digestive and immune systems.

Like millions of Americans and especially those who pursue competitive running at any age, I have had trouble losing the "inner tube" around my waist.

Gaining excessive weight is a serious health risk, the details of which I do not need to mention here. Most overweight people know that the basic health risks are life threatening.

I am 5-foot-9 and my running weight in high school was 111 pounds and in college it was 118 pounds, the 7-pound weight gain was added muscle, not fat.

My weight a few months ago was 225 pounds with at least 65 pounds of that in my abdominal area, meaning a more reasonable weight for me at 63 years old would probably be 160 pounds.

That is where I am now headed since using science to develop a lifestyle plan that will shed my excess pounds in a prudent and healthy manner.

The reward for me personally is that not only will I become healthier and live longer, but I will become much more competitive as a middle distance runner in master’s and senior competitions at both the local and national level.

Any serious runner knows that you cannot compete effectively if you are carrying an extra 50 pounds. It is like strapping a 50-pound bag of dog food onto your back and trying to run a race.

Runners know what I am talking about. There is a definite correlation between your weight and your cardiovascular efficiency; the less weight the better the cardiovascular efficiency.

When you have been to the top of the mountain (become a record-setting champion) you never forget, you want to remain on top, and no one ever—and I mean ever—can take away your feeling of winning and being a winner in life.

Becoming a winner again in competition offers me a lot more of an incentive to do what it takes to lose weight than just losing weight for health reasons, even though the latter can shorten my life.

Most of the competitions I have been in as a senior runner (50 and older) have found me unable to drop weight quickly and effectively without injuring my physical condition and general health.

That is why I feel so blessed to have read Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo’s book Eat Right for Your Type which chronicles the four basic blood types, and why each thrives on a different diet, stress/exercise profile and personality type.

Dr. D’Adamo’s clinical and laboratory results are facts based on science, not theory or speculation.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a 5-Part Article.)

Note: Read my sports articles on "What Makes a Person Want to Run, and Why Few Will Ever Know the Joy of Running", "A St. Patrick's Day Toast to Irish Runners Marcus O'Sullivan and Eamonn Coghlan" and "Millrose Games Celebrates 100th Birthday as Track's Most Prestigious Indoor Event". Find these reviews in my Blog Archive.

Reader Finds My Article on Income and Education Interesting, But Wonders "Why Our World Is So Much Less Perfect Today?"

2007-08-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

(Editor's Note: Steve emailed me about my article titled "There Is No Huge Correlation Between Education and Income and Here Is Why". Enter the article title into the search feature in the upper left box and click search; this will bring up the article from the archives for you. Here is the reader's email and my response.)

"Good Morning Ed,

These were very interesting perspectives. There is much truth to the premise that financial success can be achieved without extensive educational debt.

It is unfortunate that in this day and age, many have to choose between personal fulfillment and generating a reasonable salary.

I have been dating a high school teacher who has been in her profession for many years. She genuinely enjoys her students, believes that she is able to make a difference in some lives, and she has skills that allow her to share things that will be of benefit to her students.

Unfortunately, on a teacher's salary, her lifestyle is almost Spartan.

Could she find another profession that would allow her to generate a better income? Likely. Would it be as emotionally rewarding to her? Doubtful.

We do not live in a perfect world but why is it so much less perfect than 30 years ago?"

Hi Steve,

Thanks for reading my article. Every now and then someone takes the time and effort to email me with a comment or question. I try to respond when this happens but not reveal their full identity.

As a former daily newspaper managing editor, I try to be sensitive to a reader's interest.
You pose a great question, Steve, "We do not live in a perfect world but why is it so much less perfect than 30 years ago?"

I suspect one reason, Steve, is that each generation seems to invent its own idea of what is a perfect world. As a 63-year-old father of two children and grandfather of three, I have come to accept this as a rite of passage through time.

I confess that I love 60's rock 'n roll, Motown, Nat King Cole and Broadway musicals. If this does not date me, nothing will.

It has been my observation that each generation is loyal to its music because a song can instantly remind us of an emotional moment in our life. Maybe the start of a lifelong relationship, or the ending of another.

You only have to have your heart broken once in a lifetime and a certain song playing will remind you of the experience. It matters not that you go on to marry another girl and live happily ever after. The song and the moment remain.

My son has a totally different idea of what his perfect world is compared to mine. My perfect world would bore him to death, and put him to sleep at the same time.

The lesson to be learned is that "our" world, its culture, its values, and its mores are all constantly changing, and we are too—we are getting older with the passage of time.

I suspect a second reason, Steve, is that each generation believes its own special world should be the same for everyone.

Your friend may be happy in her career choice, an outstanding high school teacher, and making a real difference in her students' lives.

Ask any successful person if there was a teacher or coach who made them feel special and turned their life around for the better, and you will likely get a very positive response.

I am one of those successful people. I consider my high school cross-country and track coach—Varnard Gay—and my journalism teacher—Vernita Knight—to be tremendous, positive influences in my life to this very day.

Varnard produced many team and individual champions during his coaching career, and I was one of them. Vernita produced many outstanding journalists who would go on to productive careers, and I was one of them. I was blessed at a time when I needed a blessing. This is the gift a teacher or coach gives.

I have never been burdened with working at a job I hated. I have done what I wanted to do and sacrificed income in doing so. I did not care. I became self-employed in the early 1970's and never looked back.

It would be years before I would realize that there is no monetary reward for doing "good" in a job or profession. People who make a lot of money, like my son, make it their business to make money. In the business of making money there can be only two outcomes: results or excuses.

I never chased money and big money never really caught me. We live in a time where making a lot of money, wearing the fad clothes of the day, and driving the hot car or truck of the time, is believed to make you look more successful.

Why do something that you do not like for more money rather than doing something you do like for less? That would be chasing someone else's dream for the perfect world.

In assessing why I am not any other person than who I am, I try to remember two things:

1) What you think about me is none of my business. What is most important is what I think about myself.

2) Always remember that no matter what anyone is saying to you from the outside, the most important conversation is the one you are having with yourself on the inside.

My son spends little time reading, and I constantly read. As I have grown older, I have come to appreciate not only the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, but his mind as well.

Here are two things Emerson has written that impress me:

1) You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

2) This time, like all times, is a very good one, when we know what to do with it.

I believe that integrity is 1,000 times more important than making a lot of money. I will grant you that having a ton of money allows you to have better health and to do more fun things.

I have found that entertaining yourself is a blessing, and the best things in life are still free, such as a sunset over the lake, a walk on the beach and the warm glow of a fireplace.

I have never believed that having a lot of money causes me to make decisions with right thinking and right motives. I make decisions with right thinking and right motives because I am at peace with myself and value my integrity.

The world may pass me by on its way to a different way of life, but when I go to sleep for the final time, I am secure in my final resting place.

Always remember that when your regrets exceed your dreams, you are truly growing older.

When all reason and logic fail to convince, remember what William Shakespeare said:
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so," or my more modern adaptation: "Nothing is either good or bad except that thinking makes it so."

Thanks again, Steve, for posing the question.

Make yourself a good day, and make your world a good world.

Ed

Note: Read my articles "Want a Six-Figure Income Without Getting a College Degree of Any Kind? Here Is How", "Who Earns the Most Based on Their Educational Level", and "Six Power Secrets of Getting Hired and Promoted".

Mortgage Lenders Act Like Your Friend in Need, But Seek to Line Their Pockets at Your Expense

2007-08-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

A client of mine received a "Smart Watch Report" from her mortgage lender the other day, and asked me to evaluate it for her.

The report was really an invitation to refinance her current mortgage loan and use her equity interest to either get cash now or sell her home and use the equity to buy a new home.

She made her original 30-year fixed rate loan for $142,000 at 5.5% interest a little more than two years ago. Her principal and interest monthly payment is $806. She has her property taxes and home insurance rolled into the loan, making her actual monthly payment $1,014, or $208 more.

Her appraisal at the time of the loan was $200,000 and her mortgage lender set the estimated current value at $253,000, giving her an estimated equity of $114,000+. Her principal owing at the time was $139,000+.

This is what I quickly observed:

1) She needed to buy a new home like she needed another hole in her head, and I told her so. Since she has a fixed income, buying a newer, better home would simply increase her debt and make it more difficult to service the increased debt.

2) While she could refinance her 30-year fixed rate to a 15-year fixed rate loan and save $55,000 over the life of the loan, it would increase her monthly payment for principal and interest to $1,193, an increase of $387 over her current $806 monthly payment.

Rolling her property taxes and home insurance into the 15-year loan would bring her new actual payment to $1,401, again an increase of $387 over her current monthly payment of $1,014.

3) The first offer her mortgage lender made was to do a "cash out " refinance wherein she could get her hands on $89,000+ in cash to fritter away on a new car, vacations and whatever else she did not need. This would be an incredibly dumb move for her to make, and I said so.

To do this her mortgage lender suggested she enter into a new 30-year fixed rate loan at 6.750%, a full 1.25% greater than her current loan. Her APR (annual percentage rate) would be 6.980%, or almost 7%.

Her new payment for principal and interest would be $1,477, or an increase of $671 over her current $806 monthly payment for principal and interest.

Rolling her property taxes and home insurance into the new 30-year loan would bring her new payment to $1,685, again an increase of $671 over her current monthly payment of $1,014.

Should my client take the lure of getting her hot hands on an extra $89,000+ in cash she would pay dearly for a really stupid financial decision.

The mortgage lender that suggested this option in their "Smart Watch Report" could really care less whether my client went into more debt and may not be able to meet the new obligations should she take the "cash out" refinance.

The mortgage lender could not care less if my client dropped dead. The lender still holds the paper on the property (they own it until the current loan is paid off in full) and could easily sell the property to recover its original $142,000 investment while still making a huge profit in the process.

Is what the mortgage lender is offering my client a responsible thing to do? You decide. I fail to see how loaning my client more money at a higher interest rate and increasing her debt is helping her. It would in fact hurt her.

Borrowers do not understand that when they take out a 30-year fixed rate mortgage loan they become an employee of the company lending the money. Teasing the lender with a "cash out" offer that could easily drive them into bankruptcy is hardly a responsible act by any lender, much less a leader in the marketplace.

This is the point and purpose of writing this article and posting it on the Internet: Since when is helping a financially desperate person—or any borrower for that matter—made better by driving them deeper into debt, leaving them as ignorant as you found them, and lining your pockets at their expense?

Note: Read my Article on "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.

Wade Cook: So What Are We to Learn From the Wade Cook Mess? - Part 2

2007-08-13T21:13:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

So what are we to learn from the Wade Cook mess?

At least three things for sure:

1) If it sounds too good to be true and is as easy as falling off a log, then it is too good to be true.

2) People who actually make money using a new market theory would never, and I mean NEVER, tell anyone unless they are brain dead or born stupid. They understand that the pie is only so big and the more pieces that are eaten, the less there is to go around.

You do not, repeat DO NOT, see Warren Buffett writing books about what stocks to invest in, how much, when to buy and when to sell. Buffett does not even tell his investors what he is doing for the obvious reason that they could not keep a secret.

Buffett, the financial mind behind Berkshire Hathaway, was the first billionaire to make his fortune investing in the stock market, hardly the place for the faint of heart or novice to try and make money.

Buffett is only the second richest person in the world, worth $52 billion at last count.
Bill Gates of Microsoft is the richest person at $56 billion, and he does not write books on investing either.

Warren Buffett is so respected and admired as an investment advisor that a California investor paid more than $620,000 on an online charity auction to have lunch with Buffett. The proceeds went to a San Francisco foundation that provides free meals and social services.

Yongping Duan, founder of a consumer electronics company in China, paid the $620,000+ under the condition that during the lunch he could query Buffett about anything EXCEPT what he is buying and selling.

Warren Buffett is not beyond gifting his time for a good purpose. He has pledged 85% of his Berkshire stock (valued then at $37 billion) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffet's holding company is worth $168 billion.

3) Because Wade Cook did not make squat on his investment theories, he wrote and sold books and tapes, and gave seminars. Any significant money Cook made was by selling his stupid, unprofitable products to unsuspecting consumers who were taken in by his hype.

Live and learn. Do not buy books and tapes and go to seminars put on by financial gurus if you want to make money.

I will give you some great financial advice for free: Buy and read Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein, and then invest in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated.

All you really need to know is that if you had invested only $10,000 with Buffett when he started in 1956 and left it with him, you would be worth more than $80 million today.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a 2-Part Series.)

Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and also "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.

Wade Cook: Feds Finally Nail Financial Guru and His Wife on IRS Tax Evasion Charges - Part 1

2007-08-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

It came as absolutely no surprise to me that so-called financial guru Wade Cook and his wife Laura were recently convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to jail, according to an Associated Press report.

Wade Cook became really annoying some years ago by seeking to peddle his financial advice on his theory and accompanying books, tapes, seminars and associated crap to me and a lot of other unsuspecting potential investors.

Crap is the right choice of word as his financial advice has proven worthless. I never bought his stuff but thousands of other investors did.

Cook was nothing more or less than a cab driver who decided to get rich by preying on people looking for an easy solution to becoming rich.

He wrote three get-rich-quick books on his "meter-drop" theory of investing: MWall Street Money Machine, Wealth 101 and Business by the Bible. Is it not amazing how hucksters always want God to endorse their business, products and shenanigans?

Cook conducted hundreds of seminars in the 1990s on asset protection, stock market investing, real estate acquisition and avoidance of income tax.

He was so good at the avoidance of income tax issue that he will now spend more than 7 years in prison for income tax evasion by defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.

U. S. District Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal court in Seattle ordered Cook to pay $3.75 million in back taxes on roughly $9.5 million of underreported income generated by sales of Cook's financial advice books, tapes and seminars.

It is one thing to render a financial judgment and another to collect it. It was not reported whether Cook ponied up the $3.75 million.

I do not know if Cook is penniless today, filed for personal bankruptcy, buried what money he had, placed his stash in a Swiss bank account or has millions in a petty cash account to pay his $3.75 million judgment for tax evasion.

I do know that he and his wife are dishonest, not to be trusted, will knowingly lie, cheat and steal to get ahead in this world, and know little about any kind of investing worth talking about. I knew all of that in the early 1990s when they started.

They apparently made millions selling their story to unsuspecting buyers and then not paying taxes on some of their revenue. Some pundits estimated Cook's net worth at more than $200 million when he was flying high.

He was convicted in February 2007 for tax evasion, filing false returns and obstructing justice. The jury was deadlocked on all counts against his wife Laura who kept his books.

In May 2007 she pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice rather than face a new trial. She was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. Laura Cook admitted that she created documents to evade taxes on income she and her husband received between 1998 and 2000.

The Associated Press reported that the Cooks said that they had loaned themselves money from a trust that was supposed to become a gift to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Government lawyers said that the couple never intended to repay the money, thus it was taxable income rather than loans.

Cook's lawyers argued that they were unable to repay the loans mostly because of the stock market collapse in 2001. Cook was apparently such a brilliant financial guru that he lost his fortune in a stock market collapse.

So much for Wade Cook's theories on investing for profit and becoming rich in the process.

Cook shut down his operations in February 2003, a month after his publicly traded company—Wade Cook Financial Corporation of Tukwila (WA)—sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Wade Cook and his wife Laura are only one of hundreds of hucksters who have traveled the country selling their crap (get-rich books, tapes and seminars) to unsuspecting investors.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a 2-Part Series.)

Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and also "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.

Part 2 of News and Comment: A Famous Author Is Always Prey for Some Undeserving Crook

2007-08-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The FBI has recovered the long-lost manuscript of Pearl Buck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Good Earth, according to an Associated Press article (6-28-07).

The daughter of one of the author's former secretaries tried to put it up for auction. Missing for four decades, the original 400-page typed manuscript turned up at a Philadelphia auction house that notified authorities. Some estimates put the manuscript's value at $150,000.

The 1931 novel, centered on village life in rural China, helped earn Buck the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938, making her the first American woman to win the honor. The Good Earth won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.

Pearl Buck died in Vermont in 1973, having long wondered what happened to the original version of her most renowned work. One suspects that Buck probably trusted those closest to her, a trust that becomes much more difficult when you are famous and what you have done has proven commercial value.

May God Bless Pear Buck, and may the authorities do their job correctly and completely.

Record Album Sales Nosedive During the Last 6 Months

Sales of record albums dropped 15% during the first six months of 2007 compared with the same period last year.

One factor in the decline is the increasing shift to track downloads, which were up 49% over the same period last year and up 659% since 2004. That is what you call a significant increase.

Another factor is the loss of nearly 1,000 outlets with the demise of the Tower and Musicland retail chains.

A third factor is the dismal release of work that has seen no album exceed weekly sales of 132,000.

Digital (online) sales now account for more than 10% of the 230 million total album sales.

Note: News and Comment is an on-going series.

Note: Read my movie reviews on families: "A Christmas Story", "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Secondhand Lions". You will smile, laugh, cry and feel better for the experience.

Part 1 of News and Comment: Teddy Roosevelt's Thoughts on Immigrants Who Become Americans

2007-07-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Here is a statement written in 1907 (exactly 100 years ago) from Theodore Roosevelt on his thoughts about being an immigrant and being an American:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.

"But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.

"We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

(Editor's Note: It seems clear that Teddy Roosevelt would not have tolerated immigrants calling themselves Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, Polish-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans or African-Americans. It also seems clear that he would not have allowed our national language to be anything but English as opposed to Spanish, ebonics or any other formal or informal language.)

Massachusetts Mandates Health Insurance Coverage

In a move that has riveted the eyes of the insurance industry on Massachusetts, legislators from one of the most liberal states in the nation have created the first law requiring people to have health insurance.

The question is now whether 375,000 or so uninsured residents will comply by buying health insurance policies.

Massachusetts, if memory serves me correctly, was the first state to have a no-fault divorce law.

The idea apparently is to get the young and healthy to buy health insurance they may not feel they need so premiums are spread out over more policyholders, thereby reducing premium increases in the future.

Increasing health insurance premiums is not only a Massachusetts problem as the nation's growing number of uninsured is now estimated at 44.8 million.

The health insurance industry is watching what happens so closely it may need eye strain care for its executives.

The reason is 44.8 million potential checks coming in each month for coverage that does not now exist if—and it is a big if—the idea started in Massachusetts catches on and spreads nationally.

Note: "News and Comment" is a new on-going series in Ed Bagley's Blog. This is the first installment of a new subsection, which features shorter articles with analysis and commentary.

Washington (the State, not DC) Is Now on the National Political Map

2007-07-29T00:06:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

If you have ever watched late night talk show host Jay Leno do his Jaywalking segment
on the tube you are aware of how ignorant recent college graduates and the general public are about Washington State.

Colleges are apparently not teaching American history these days, or students are not learning it.

Not only do these dunderheads not know where Washington State is, they do not appreciate its significance like politicians in the current Presidential Race for the White House do.

Discerning readers and viewers might wonder why Hillary and Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Rudy Guiliani and President George W. Bush spend so much time traveling from Washington, DC to Washington State.

The answer is simple—voters.

Washington State has become at least the 14th most populous state in the nation and perhaps the 13th (passing Massachusetts) with 6.5 million residents.

Few people know or realize that after California, the most populous state with 36+ million, Washington is the second most populous state among the 11 Western states.

Arizona is No. 3 at 6.1 million, followed by Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming at 515,000. Only Colorado—No. 4—has more than 3.8 million.

Washington also has some money, ranking nationally as the 16th highest in per capita income ($35,479). Among Washington's big bucks companies are Boeing, Costco Wholesale and Microsoft.

Once all but ignored during Presidential election years, candidates from both Republican and Democratic parties make frequent visits to Washington.

They come not just for fundraising among Washington's well-heeled executives and professionals, but also to impact the electorate as Washington is now a state that must be fought and won during a close campaign.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

Your Credit Score: FICO Plans to Eliminate Authorized Credit Card User Accounts - Part 3

2007-07-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Do you realize that in our country you are penalized for practicing good money management habits? Think about it.

If you paid for your own college education and refused to fall into the credit card trap that uses lenders to purposely suck the financial life out of naïve students, you might graduate debt free and have no credit history.

When you want to buy a vehicle on credit or a home with a mortgage, you could not get a loan without a credit repayment history and a decent FICO credit score.

For years young adults with no credit history, limited credit history or blemished credit history have worked around the problem by having someone with good credit—usually a parent, spouse or good friend—added as an authorized user to their credit card.

Once the authorized user is added, his or her credit card payment history is added to the account, giving the original card holder a higher credit score and access to loans and better loan terms.

All of this is about to end as Fair Isaac (the developer of the FICO credit score) will create a new scoring formula to eliminate the authorized user tactic. Learn what you can do to protect yourself.

Fair Isaac is taking the action because it estimates that 30% of the 165 million consumers with credit cards have authorized users on their accounts.

Once the new system is implemented in mid-2008, millions of authorized users will see their credit scores decline or go into free fall. Authorized users with no credit history of their own will see their credit scores disappear. Those hurt the most may be young adults and married women.

Here are some tactics these two population groups can use to fight back:

1) If married and listed on your spouse's account apply for a credit card in your own name.

2) Apply for a revolving credit card from a department store or other retailer as they are easier to get because they generally have lower credit limits and higher interest rates.

3) Apply for a secured credit card because you put money into an account in advance to cover your card transactions. If you default on your payment, the lender debits your account to cover the payment.

Sometimes secured credit cards become unsecured credit cards when you pay timely over a period of time. In some cases, you may even get back the initial deposit in the secured account plus interest.

4) Try to keep your balance below 30% of your available credit as this credit utilization will improve your credit score.

You can research fees and other features of credit cards at

http://www.bankrate.com

(Note: This is the last of a 3-Part Series.)

Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests" and "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.

Your Credit Score: 6 Actions You Can Take To Improve Your Contract Terms - Part 2

2007-07-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

If any of these three agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) could "legally" lie, cheat and steal they would do it every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

All three agencies were forced to give out a free credit report to consumers annually; they did not do it willingly and never would have done it without being mandated to do so by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Another example is that the top three credit reporting bureaus agreed to $2.5 million in payments (penalties) as part of settlements negotiated by the Federal Trade Commission to resolve charges that they (each and every one) violated provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by failing to maintain a toll-free telephone number at which personnel are accessible to consumers during normal business hours.

In other words, the three top credit reporting agencies mentioned were too cheap to offer the toll-free line and better service on their own, and would not even continue to maintain the toll-free line system they were ordered to implement unless faced with prosecution by the Federal Trade Commission.

Pigs in the barnyard are more ethical, trustworthy and honest than the top three credit reporting bureaus. If it looks like a pig, walks like a pig, acts like a pig and smells like a pig, it is a swine.

These are businesses that either through their sloppy, inattentive reporting or accurate, quality reporting help determine your credit score which determines how much you will pay or not pay to fulfill your monthly mortgage contract.

Be advised that your credit score from each agency will likely vary because, whether recorded correctly or not, some lenders do not report information about borrowers to all three credit bureaus.

Here are 6 things you can do to stay abreast with your credit reports and credit scores:

1) Secure copies of your credit reports and credit scores annually, even if you have to pay to get credit scores from two of the agencies too cheap to give them to you.

2) Dispute errors that you find in the reports. The credit reporting agencies would not care if an error caused you great harm, and they would not (singly or collectively) notify you if they found an error that they knew would hurt your score.

They get paid by businesses for your report. You are nothing to them other than the fact that there would be no credit reporting business without you.

3) Pay off credit card balances as it is one of the factors used to determine your FICO score, which is your total debt relative to your available credit line, called "credit utilization".

4) Do not close unused accounts as closing these accounts reduces the amount of credit you have available. Cut up the card and do not use it but keep the account open as it can help your credit score.

5) Do not open new accounts as it could hurt rather than help your credit score even though by doing so you will increase your credit utilization.

6) Pay your bills on time because 35% of your credit score is determined by your credit payment history.

(Note: This is Part 2 of a 3-Part Series.)

Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests" and "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.

Your Credit Score: How It Can Cost You Thousands More on Your Mortgage - Part 1

2007-07-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

A sharp rise in the delinquency of subprime mortgages has caused lenders to tighten up their standards and actually reject applications.

Should you attempt to refinance your present mortgage or seek a new mortgage, your credit score has become more critical to your loan approval.

Can it make a difference? Yes, it can make a significant difference in payment.

Fair Isaac, an acronym for Fair Isaac Company which is the most recognized authority in determining your personal credit score, gives this example of how your credit score can affect your monthly payments based on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for a $300,000 home loan:

A FICO score of 760 to 850 gets an interest rate of 6.298% and a monthly payment of $1,857.

A FICO score of 700 to 759 gets an interest rate of 6.520% and a monthly payment of $1,900.

A FICO score of 660 to 699 gets an interest rate of 6.804% and a monthly payment of $1,957.

A FICO score of 620 to 659 gets an interest rate of 7.614% and a monthly payment of $2,121.

A FICO socre of 580 to 619 gets an interest rate of 8.932% and a monthly payment of $2,399.

The difference between the best rating and the worst rating increases your monthly payment by $542, you pay $2,399 rather than $1,857.

A credit score is a mathematical model that analyzes information in your credit report. Lenders use credit scores to gauge the likelihood that you will repay your debts.

So what determines your credit score? Payment history is 35%, the amount you owe is 30%, the length of credit history is 15%, new credit is 10% and the types of credit you are using is 10%.
You can obtain all three of your credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion at:

http://www.annualcreditreport.com

You are entitled to a free copy of your credit reports annually but will not receive your credit scores for free. You will be pitched to pay for the right to receive your credit scores from the agencies.

Many of the sales pitches for free credit reports at other web sites are no more than high pressure attempts to get you to pay for the report by subscribing to any number of services that you neither need nor want.

Should you type in http://www.freecreditreport.com, for example, you will be taken to an Experian web site that will give you a free credit report for their service only IF you are willing to be subscribed to a service they offer for $14.95 a month.

Experian invites you to "Join Over 20 Million Customers who have already checked their FREE Experian CREDIT REPORT."

Multiply $14.95 per 20 million per month and it adds up to $299 million in monthly revenue if the cardholders continue the service. Multiply $299 million in monthly revenue times 12 months and it adds up to $1.588 trillion in annual revenue for Experian.

There are two things very wrong with Experian's offer. First, and foremost, the credit report IS NOT FREE unless you subscribe to a service I would neither need nor want.

Experian's marketing formula for writing a sales pitch is hardly unique. Almost any marketer can open his or her e-mail tomorrow and read the same formula repeated in 100 different sales pitches for another opportunity to provide a product, service, or attend a seminar. The pitch will be in English, the language will be in doublespeak.

Second, the large headline above the button to get your report says "GET YOUR FREE CREDIT SCORE AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!" The inducement is misleading. It does not say get your free credit report, it says get your free credit score. You get your report and your credit score and some other services only by agreeing to sign up for the $14.95 a month service.

Someone eager to get their free report will hit the button for their free credit report and unwittingly subscribe to a service they neither need nor want. You must read the fine print on the page to know the difference.

This kind of inducement by Experian is hardly clear, straightforward, honest, ethical or anything else good; it is bad and wrong. The fact that advertisers can even do this legally is disturbing and obviously not regulated.

Do not, I repeat DO NOT, respond to any other online pitches for your free credit report other than http://www.annualcreditreport.com (this is the government-mandated site) or you may be ripped off by an industry that is neither helpful nor trustworthy.

Credit card reporting agencies are always giving poor, difficult customer service, making shyster offers and responding poorly when removing incorrect information from your credit report.

They are paid by businesses to only find and record any negative information about you. They could care less whether you drop dead on their front steps as long as they relieve you or your money first.

(Note: This is Part 1 of a 3-Part Series.)

Flying Into and Out of Mexico City's Airport May Be More Dangerous Than You Think

2007-07-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Thousands of Western Washington residents in the United States fly to Mexico every year for vacation.

That is why I was stunned to see an article in USA Today (7-5-07) on the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City. Five facts make Benito Juarez interesting and dangerous:

1) It serves a metropolitan area of 20 million people, more than three times the size of Washington State's 6.5 million population.

2) It is the ONLY airport in Mexico City.

3) It has two runways that are so close together that modern jets cannot use them simultaneously.

4) During peak periods as many as 62 planes take off and land per hour, which is more than the airport's official capacity of 54.

5) Plans to build another airport to serve the capital were canceled in 2002. Apparently machete-wielding residents revolted against the low price the government offered the residents in exchange for the land on the planned site.

About 763,000 Americans fly into the Mexico City airport every year, according to USA Today.

Compare the takeoff and landing conditions in Mexico City's only airport to Sea-Tac International Airport that serves the Seattle Metropolitan Area of 3.3 million residents and ranks as the 15th largest metro area in the United States. Seattle does not even rank among the top 90 metro areas in the world.

Sea-Tac International Airport has two runways.

Mexico City has experienced extraordinary growth in the last 75+ years, growing from a city of 1 million in 1929 to a metro area of 20 million today.

Mexico City ranks as the second largest metro area in the world today. Only Tokyo is a larger metro area with 35 million. New York-Newark ranks third with 18.7 million.

I have never flown to Mexico but I will avoid Mexico City's only airport when I do.

It reminds me of what President Ronald Reagan said when the press chided him for not spending more time working in the Oval Office. "People tell me that hard work never killed anyone," replied Reagan, "but I figure, why tempt fate?"

Note: Read my reviews on "Ghost", "Million Dollar Baby", "Passion of the Christ" and "National Treasure". Find these reviews in my Blog Archive.

Obama Shatters the Record for Presidential Fundraising, Leaving Hillary in Second Place

2007-07-18T00:27:00.000-07:00

Ed Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Is America ready for its first black president?

If Democratic candidate Barack Obama is elected, the answer is yes. Time will tell. We will know for sure in November 2008 when people will vote by absentee ballot and in polling booths across America.

Who knows what lies ahead?

This much we know right now: campaign contributions for Barack Obama's campaign are opening a lot of eyes and destroying a lot of expectations.

Here are the telling figures in a report from USA Today (7-2-07):

Obama, the first-term senator from Illinois, raised at least $33 million from April through June for his White House bid, shattering the record for presidential fundraising in the first six months of the year before an election year, during which time Obama collected a total of $58 million.

The prior record-holder, George W. Bush raised $37 million in his race against Al Gore in 1999. President Bush was governor of Texas at the time.

Hillary Clinton raised $27 million to Obama's $33 million. Even Hillary's hubbie Bill could not overcome Obama's take despite former President Clinton being well liked, well received and a former superstar in Democratic fundraising circles.

Obama's fundraising surge has made him not just the leader in dollars raised, he also leads the pack in number of contributors with 154,000 donors compared to Hillary who relied more heavily than any other candidate on donors who each contributed $4,600.

The $4,600 figure represents the maximum amount an individual can give to a candidate for primary and/or general elections.

In the first quarter this year, Obama had 100,000 donors while Hillary, a senator from New York, had 60,000.

Two other major candidates are slipping in the money race: Democrat Edwards and Republican McCain.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards raised $14 in the first quarter and $9 million in the second.

Senator John McCain raised $14 million in the first quarter and $11 million in the second.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney ($44 million) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani ($35 million) lead all republicans in total fundraising.

Here are 6 republican candidates who stand virtually no chance of getting elected: Sam Brownback, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson.
Here are 5 democratic candidates who also stand virtually no chance of getting elected: Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinch and Mike Gavel.

These 6 republican and 5 democratic candidates will not get elected because they cannot raise enough money to run an effective campaign.

If you add up all of the money raised so far by the 6 republican candidates you get $12 million and change. McCain has raised more than twice as much ($25) and is going nowhere about 1,000 miles an hour.

If you add up all of the money raised so far by the 5 democratic candidates you get $33 million, $10 million more than Edwards ($23 million) but far less than Obama ($26 million more) and Hillary ($33 million more).

Edwards has a chance but not much of a chance to catch Obama or Hillary. Edwards has no credible message. Obama sees himself as an agent of change. Hillary sees herself as more experienced than Obama.

At least 20 states are expected to hold primaries on Feb. 5, 2008.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

Fathering a Child and Leaving Does Not Make You a Man, Raising the Child Does

2007-07-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

When a young man is horny and looking for satisfaction, his first thought is not about getting a girl pregnant and raising the child, in or out of wedlock.

When a young girl is needy for attention and approval, her first thought is not about getting pregnant and raising her child without the father of the child.

When the needy young man meets the needy young woman a lot can happen that will forever affect the life of both parents and the child they carelessly created as emotions overruled their thought process and good sense.

This everyday occurrence is endemic and problematic in America's black community.

There are millions of black men who act responsibly in their relationships and responsibilities as a father and husband in their marriage, yet they get scant notice for their courage and commitment to do the right thing.

In far too many cases, they have been raised by a single mother who was abandoned the instant the father of the baby found out she was pregnant.

Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama is speaking out to the black community about the issue of absent fathers.

Washington Post columinist Eugene Robinson detailed Obama's straightforward message and call to accountability in a recent article.

Robinson quotes Obama as saying "there are a lot of men out there who need to stop acting like boys; who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one."

Obama also said that "Many black men simply cannot afford to raise a family—and too many have made the sad choice not to."

I personally believe that a high percentage of those same men who cannot afford to raise a family do manage to do well enough to support drinking and/or drug habits, perhaps illegally in some cases and simply as a matter of irresponsibility and neglect in other cases.

Obama's men-acting-like-boys speech was given in a black church in South Carolina, an early-primary state where half of the Democratic voters are African American.

In a telephone interview with Robinson, Obama chose his words carefully when he said "The key to having this conversation constructively is to realize that there's really no excuse for not behaving responsibly toward our children."

I believe Obama's view on absent fathers is correct, productive and healthy.

Obama should know as he grew up without his father. Obama acknowledged that his mother—struggling to raise two children as a single parent—at times needed to rely on food stamps to make it through the month.

As with any single parent, Obama's mother needed courage, determination, dedication and tremendous commitment to get the job done, all qualities that Obama's father apparently lacked.

Obama rose above his circumstances to become a United States senator and presidential candidate. No wonder his appeal is currently so great among Americans who appreciate a voice for change.

As a white American I hope Obama's message to the black community becomes a catalyst for change for those black men who most need to listen, learn and leave their errant ways behind and take responsibility for their actions.

They have only to look to the single mothers they abandoned to learn how to become a "real man" and take their rightful place in the family as a leader rather than as a worthless excuse for a father.

In doing so they will rise above a long line of absent fathers of all colors who abandon their children and responsibilities for a temporary sexual act.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

NAACP Decides to Symbolically Bury the "N" Word in a Major Move Forward

2007-07-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The NAACP put to rest a long-standing expression of racism Monday (7-9-07) by symbolically burying the "n" word in a ceremony.

The timing for the burial ceremony could not have been better as the NAACP was having its annual convention at Detroit's Cobo Center. Delegates marched about a quarter mile to Hart Plaza as two horses pulled a pine box adorned with a bouquet of black roses.

The n-word has been used as a slur against blacks for more than a century, as an Associated Press article noted.

What was different about this move by the NAACP was the recognition that the very word that was being buried is also used by blacks when referring to other blacks, especially in comedy routines, rap and hip-hop music.

I believe the stance by the NAACP could potentially do more for race relations than any single move by special interest and civil rights groups in recent years.

"While we are happy to have sent a certain radio cowboy back to his ranch," said NAACP National Board Chairman Julian Bond (referring to a racially charged comment by talk show host Don Imus which cost him his job earlier this year) "we ought to hold ourselves to the same standard."

Black leaders Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton both have also apparently challenged the entertainment industry and the American public to stop using the n-word and other racial slurs.

As a white American I applaud this move by the NAACP and such media savvy black leaders as Jackson and Sharpton.

Among the honorary pallbearers for the funeral was hip-hop legend Kurtis Blow, who apparently has been a rapper and in hip-hop music for about 35 years. Blow has said that he has never used the n-word in recording more than 150 songs.

I personally do not listen to either rap or hip-hop music and consequently have never heard of Kurtis Blow, but I most certainly admire and appreciate his not using the n-word to help sell and promote his music.

I believe using the n-word is no different than cussing. Do not be deceived by cussing. Cussing is no more or no less than a sign of a low self-image.

If you think listening to a man cussing on a recording is cute and so impressive because he is making a real statement about himself, you are wrong. It is not cute or appropriate at any time, and especially around children. Period. There are no exceptions.

Neither blacks nor whites (or people of any other color) should be using the n-word to refer to blacks or whites or anyone else. It is inappropriate and counterproductive to human relations and respect for everyone.

There are millions of educated, literate blacks who have not used the n-word under any circumstance on their way to prosperity and success in America.

These same blacks struggle as many of us do in their climb to success and yet are able to take advantage of opportunities, take responsibility for their actions and become positive role models for people of all races and ethnic groups.

These same black people do not need to use the n-word to define who they are or make a public statement about themselves or others, and every one of them deserves my respect and admiration.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

American Consumers Are Short on Discipline When it Comes to Parting With Their Income

2007-07-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Like a 4-year-old child at the checkout counter in a supermarket, American consumers want just one more impulse buy to make their buying day complete, and apparently the more expensive it is, the better.

Here is an example: A 68-year-old, semi-retired businessman shells out $600,000 for a recreational vehicle which costs about $550 to top off at the pump. He and his wife are tooling around the country in an effort to have fun while they can.

His comment on the decision is that "This isn't a dress rehearsal for life—this is it. We're curtailing nothing." Those big tears you see following his comment might well come from any children who see their inheritance fading away into the sunset with dad and mom.

Like a dog in heat, if we have it we tend to spend it in America.

All of this impulse buying is detailed in a recent USA Today article with this headline: "Spending is hotter than the 4th of July". And indeed it apparently is.

Although the median amount of credit-card debt carried by the typical American is about $6,600 (this is not a typo), 13% of respondents in a recent online poll reported balances higher than $25,000, according to CardTrack.com.

"Never have Americans, who have always liked their toys, been faced with a situation where their impulses are so hard to control," says Stuart Vyse, a professor of psychology and author of the upcoming book Going Broke: Why Americans Can't Hold on to Their Money.

The fact is that we as consumers can buy almost anything we want anytime we want on the easiest terms we want. Sellers and lenders have no compunctions about selling us what we do not need at a price we cannot afford and at a rate of payment that can eventually drive us into bankruptcy.

Sellers and lenders, especially credit card lenders, have raised this willingness to line their pockets at our expense to an art form. And yes, I understand and agree with the observation that we all need to be responsible for our actions.

What I do disagree with is this: How can doing the right thing with right thinking and right motives justify lending consumers money and credit when they do not deserve it, and then leaving them no smarter but broker and deeper in debt in the process?

All of this unmerited lending is creating and concentrating wealth among America's very rich, and the rich club in America is growing faster and farther away from America's poor and middle classes.

"For the first time in history, more than half of all earned income, specifically 50.4%, is going to 20% of the U. S. population, which amounts to $3.5 trillion in the hands of 23 million households," says Peter Francese, a demographic trends analyst for ad and marketing giant Ogilvy & Mather.

So more than half of the earned income in America is going to 20% of the population, leaving the other half to 80% of the working stiffs that are left to continue buying things they do not need at prices they cannot afford on credit.

A key component of this impulse spending happens because too many Americans think they can afford it when they cannot.

Families are less frugal today, in part because only 25% of households have married couples with children, a significant drop from 50% in 1960 and the lowest percentage in census history. We have a census procedure in this country to learn these kinds of sociological shifts.

There are more working couples without children who have more disposable income and keep spending rather than realizing their good fortune and saving. Leading the spending spree are the seniors mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Seniors have so much spendable income that a Luxury Marketing Council has been created to advise top brands on consumer trends for a growing group of seniors that have at least $1 million in liquid assets. They do not need to sell their home to buy a $125,000 Maserati, they simply write a check out of one of their accounts.

I personally would not encourage this kind of spending among any consumers, and especially on an automobile which is a decreasing asset. If you cannot control your impulse to buy, at least buy land or developed properties that might well appreciate over time.

The USA Today article carried information by Pitney Bowes MapInfo which identified the Top 20 Counties nationwide with the highest average expenditures annually per household. Here are the Top 7:

1) Marin, CA - $68,782

2) Fairfield, CT - $65,263

3) Fairfax, VA - $63,569

4) San Mateo, CA - $63,229

5) Morris, NJ - $62,995

6) Somerset, NJ - $62,345

7) Westchester, NY - $61,425

I identify these counties as "high rent districts" which are too expensive for most people to buy a home. One thing is for sure, if you do not make some major money, you are not going to be able to keep up with those earners who can.

Not all of us suffer from this apparent impulse to buy.

The answer to impulse control just might be in yoga. Yoga taught me "impulse control", the ability to feel an urge and delay acting on it. Yoga also taught me that when stability becomes a habit, maturity and clarity follow.

While earning money has a way of increasing financial intelligence quickly, I learned a long time ago that a fool and his money are some parted.

I will keep the $125,000 and you can have the Maserati. I will keep the $600,000 and you can have the recreational vehicle. Eventually, cash is king; the car and the recreational vehicle will eventually end up in the junkyard with a lot of other impulse purchases.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

Loss of Odor Perception Might Signal Alzheimer's

2007-07-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Imagine my recoil when I read the above Associated Press headline recently.

The story went on to detail the first study that linked loss of smell to Alzheimer's. Difficulty identifying odors was associated with a higher risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's.

These kinds of medical studies rarely offer a cheery report.

Lead author Robert Wilson of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center did concede that a diminishing sense of smell is not cause for panic. Thank goodness.

Perhaps I would be less interested if I had not just celebrated my 63rd birthday, and for years have had a profound loss of two very important senses: smell and taste.

A sporting accident some 40 years ago (I was playing right field and tried to catch a fly ball in the sun with my nose) and a traffic accident some 30 years ago (I was rear-ended in my VW at a stoplight in a hit-and-run accident by someone doing 50 to 70 miles per hour) left me with a deviated septum.

For years I walked around with 50% breathing capacity in one nostril and 10% in the other. The result was that I was taking up to 16 Sudafed and 16 Ibuprofen a day for some time before I came to my senses and developed suffering to an art form. I have better medications now.

Years later I was reading a health book and learned that Sudafed does a really good job of allowing you to breath and at the same time causes some folks to lose their sense of smell and taste. It happened to me. I now have virtually no sense of smell or taste.

If there was a fire in my house, I would figure it out when I saw the smoke. If there was a great tasting food I would be more sensitive to its texture than its taste. I would probably do great in England where the food is so bland.

The boyhood joy of selecting the perfect tasting candy to buy is now lost on me. There is no candy that does much for me now. The pure joy of a kid in a candy store is gone forever.

I used to love the licorice taste of Good 'n Plenty, Butterfinger and Snickers bars, spearmint hard candies, Christmas ribbon candy and peanut brittle with caramel and peanuts.

It is the same with soda (carbonated water drunk alone or with liquor or wine), pop (informal for soda pop) and soda pop (a carbonated soft drink). I find very little taste between them, or flavors among them.

Be advised. A lot of medications we take as we get older have trade-offs.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

New Study Opens Eyes on the Relative Quality of Foster Care

2007-07-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Apparently the news is in on the contentious issue of whether children are better left at home or put in foster care.

The largest study on the subject (15,000+ kids from 1990 to 2002) says children whose families are investigated for abuse or neglect are likely to do better in life if they stay with their families than if they go into foster care.

The USA Today (7-3-07) reported that kids who stayed with their families were less likely to become juvenile delinquents or teen mothers and more likely to hold jobs as young adults, according to the study by Joseph Doyle, who studies social policy as an economics professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

A sampling of the study results showed:

Only 14% of young adults were arrested at least once when staying at home and 44% were arrested when going to foster care.

Only 33% became teen mothers when staying at home and 56% became mothers when going to foster care.

At least 33% held a job for at least 3 months when staying at home and only 20% held a job for at least 3 months when going to foster care.

"The size of the effects surprised me, because all the children come from tough families," Doyle said. The National Science Foundation funded the study.

Studies, including those by Mark Courtney while at the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center, show that the 500,000 children in U. S. foster care are more likely than other kids to drop out of school, commit crimes, abuse drugs and become teen parents.

I personally know two foster children who became very successful in life as adults.

I have never cared for the foster care program because I believe far too many foster parents are in it for the money and not for the tremendous responsibility they accept. I believe adoption sends a much different message than being a foster parent.

Note: Read my sports stories "On Cars, Baseball and the Halcyon Days of Summer" and 4 stories on the 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournament detailing Florida's National Championship. Find these reviews in my Blog Archive.

Which State Has the Highest Beer Consumption Annually?

2007-07-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Apparently they do more than gamble and legally buy prostitutes in Nevada. They also drink more beer per capita than any other state.

The Beer Institute reports than folks in Nevada consume 44.2 gallons annually, more than one 12-ounce can per day per person. This information happened in Nevada but did not stay in Nevada thanks to the Beer Institute.

The second highest state in consumption? Fasten your seat belt and hold onto your chair. It was New Hampshire at 43.1 gallons. Good grief. Whoever thought of New Hampshire as being second at anything? What few people there are in New Hampshire must suffer through some long, cold winter nights.

Number 3 was North Dakota (could be a lack of pro sports franchises as well as people), 4th was Montana (very few people) and 5th was South Dakota (must have caught the bug from North Dakota).

I live in Washington (not that Washington, the one in the Pacific Northwest) and we come in at No. 42. California is No. 45 and I am not surprised.

Both Washington and California are cluttered with Democrats and Secular Progressives, folks who are worldly and sophisticated that might disdain something so common as beer drinkers. Out here on the West Coast we favor something so much more classy, like wine and cheese.

I personally do not drink beer or wine. I prefer Propel fitness water (4 grams of sugar per 16.9 ounces; drinking Gatorade is like drinking soda pop, it is loaded with unnecessary sugar in huge quantities: 59 grams of sugar per 16.9 ounces).

The state with the least consumption? Utah. Utah is the state of Mormons, Mormons do not condone drinking the last time I checked.

Coming in second with the least beer consumption was Connecticut, with the second highest per capita personal income nationally at $47,819. Another liberal state that probably feeds on wine and cheese.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

Is There Anything More Disingenuous Than a Whining, Petulant Political Party in America?

2007-07-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Presidential elections provide a lot of humor when you can recognize the joke.

Every few days some new, outrageous flap kicks another outrageous flap off of the front page of our nation's daily newspapers.

Now the Democrats are all upset that President George Bush threw out the 30-month prison sentence for former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby but stopped short of giving him a full pardon. Some first class, heartfelt whining is par for the course among Democrats.

It would be interesting to know just how many abortions-on-demand were performed in the amount of time it took for thousands of Democrats to moan and groan over this pass for Libby.

The Democratic party is all about a woman's right to abort her mistakes and feel good about it.

The Democrats appear interested in the current uproar only because Bush chose not to let Libby do time in the slammer. It seems Libby's relief killed some of the joy Democrats and Secular Progressives had in seeing the nasty Republican Libby behind bars.

All of this whining by Democrats has little to do with any sense of justice. Democrats whine all the time; it is what they have become really good at since they cannot seem to get much else accomplished at the moment.

Democrats had no problem with Bill Clinton lying and not doing time. Democrats had no problem with Clinton pardoning some really seedy people in exchange for contributions to his Presidential Library. But Libby, now that is a different story because he is a Republican.

I do not really care if Democrats whine and complain. They might be foolish enough to think that they have some edge on Republicans in the whining and complaining department, but they have been wrong about a lot other things too.

Heck, I expect the Democrats to bawl like a 1-year-old baby with a dirty diaper that has not been fed for the past 12 hours.

What I do care about is the righteousness with which the Democrats and Republicans do whine and complain. If you are a card-carrying Democrat with a capital "D" I bet you read right over the "and Republicans" in the last sentence.

Both political parties and their politicians do everything in a fit of righteousness, that is politics in America today. There is not a shred of truth or integrity in American politics. It is more a contest of egos and righteousness that never seems to stop.

If you like nitpicking, pettiness, blinders and a rush for glory become a politician. It is a high-paying profession that ignores truth, integrity and almost everything else that made America great.

If you are a person of integrity and cannot stand to lie, cheat and steal, stay out of politics at almost any level, but especially the national level.

About a month from now some well-known Democratic politician will be caught lying, cheating, stealing or playing with his pants down, and it will be the Republicans turn to whine and complain with all the righteousness an elephant can muster.

Politics is like a three-ring circus with the executive, legislative and judicial branches all clamoring for attention with their self-centered, self-absorbed personal agendas. Somebody should tell these clowns they are supposed to be representing us rather than themselves in their quest for fame, glory and money.

Note: Read my 5-Part Series On Politics: Part 1: Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican, Part 2: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks, Part 3: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America, Part 4: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News, and Part 5: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word. Find these articles in my Blog Archive.

Remembering Father's Day

2007-06-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The following poem was sent to me by Susan Chambers, one of my readers. The author of this poem is apparently unknown, but I believe the message of the author is timeless.

When coming of age, we seem to have all of the answers to all of the problems at hand, and we cannot understand why everyone else cannot figure out the same answers as they always seem clear as a bell to the young. It is in part why the young always press for change, and why they always seem to be recruited as protestors by those who want to affect change but not be noticed.

Once I too knew all of the answers, but as a senior citizen I now recognize that the older I get the less I know. It is now possible for me to enjoy a senior moment, and reading this poem would be one:

Remembering My Father

When I was . . .

4 years old: My daddy can do anything.

5 years old: My daddy knows a whole lot.

6 years old: My dad is smarter than your dad.

8 years old: My dad doesn't know exactly everything.

10 years old: In the olden days, when my dad grew up, things were sure different.

12 years old: Oh, well, naturally, Dad doesn't know anything about that. He is too old to remember his childhood.

14 years old: Don't pay any attention to my dad. He is so old-fashioned.

21 years old: Him? My Lord, he's hopelessly out of date.

25 years old: Dad knows about it, but then he should, because he has been around so long.

30 years old: Maybe we should ask Dad what he thinks. After all, he's had a lot of experience.

35 years old: I'm not doing a single thing until I talk to Dad.

40 years old: I wonder how Dad would have handled it. He was so wise.

45 years old: I'd give anything if Dad were here now so I could talk this over with him.

50 years old: It's too bad I didn't appreciate sooner just how smart Dad really was. I could have learned a lot more from him.

Author Unknown

Is it Poetry, Prose or Free Verse? "Play What You Haven't Lived, It Will Help You Live Your Life"

2007-06-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

A client and good friend of mine is Jim Tyler of Tacoma, WA. Jim works for living like most of us, but he also writes what some readers might describe as poetry, prose or free verse. Let me know how you react to Jim's latest effort. You can email me at: edbagley@comcast.net

"Play what you haven't lived, it will help you live your life"

In all of us we have so many endless thoughts,
Dreams, hopes and aspirations of we may have or have not.
Where for moments we can extend beyond what we can only feel,
And for a time our minds eye delivers us to something unreal.
That only our heart and spirit can take hold,
Of a youthful innocence that may unfold.

Where we as ones who have added many years,
May have forgotten about the happiness of some of our tears.
In times where we learn ourselves and deliver to others what we wish them to see,
Alters their perspective of what to them is really me.
And though I am not in any play or on any stage,
In life like you I play myself every single day.
Where I try to do it with a constant flair,
In reflecting Gods desire to show my genuine care.

So like me do you play what you have not lived,
Or are you holding back to others what you dare not give?
Time as always presents to us a measure,
Of those in our life we may hold as a brief treasure.
Where their luminescence within our heart remains,
And casual thoughts will bring their memory forward again.
And remember the time where I could hold them and be thankful they are my friend.

Copyright © 2007 Jim Tyler

What Should We Do With Spammers Who Are Convicted of Being a Major Nuisance in Our Life?

2007-06-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

Ed's Lessons in Life:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The arrest of 27-year-old Robert Alan Soloway last week was an important step in trying to reduce the amount of spam mail you are receiving these days. Spam includes unsolicited crap such as:

Subprime loans with rip-off interest rates and copious hidden clauses in the contract to keep you borrowing in the future.

Herbal remedies to help your love life, and assorted unregulated, unproven concoctions to solve all of your perceived illnesses and concerns.

Get-rich-quick schemes designed to relieve you of your hard-earned money without any return on your investment; you simply help a shyster get rich while you reduce your liquid assets and continue going nowhere a thousand miles an hour.

4) Phishing spam that lures you into typing your sensitive identification and financial data on bogus web sites which then create havoc with your personal finances.

5) "Pharm" spam pitching you fake pharmaceutical drugs that can be dangerous and expensive.

6) Stock spam that dupes you into investing in underperforming or nonperforming stocks in order to drive up the stock's value, so the bad guys can then sell for more and reduce their losses or actually make money in a fraudulent stock transaction.

According to a USA Today story Friday (6-1-07), Soloway made millions from 2003 to 2005 selling crude spamming kits to newbie spammers, and providing access to zombie networks to help his customers accelerate spamming through personal computers.

Zombie networks compromise home PCs that are used by spammers to solicit unwanted e-mail without the PC user even realizing his or her computer has been infiltrated and is being used for dastardly purposes.

Soloway became somewhat known to the real world in 2005 when Microsoft won a $7.8 million civil judgment against him, but he never paid the judgment. Given his coming up on the short end of a civil judgment, we could assume Soloway was a predator as charged.

Last week a federal grand jury returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

If you think Soloway just might be a rights taker rather than a rights observer you are right.

Soloway might well be distantly related to similar butt ends who, when they think they may not make their flight while waiting in line at the airport, run through security, get caught, shut down outgoing flights, and cause thousands upon thousands of passengers to miss their flights.

Always, people like Soloway and airport security crashers are self-centered, self-absorbed, self-inflated and clearly more important than everyone else around them.

Soloway is a lower life form who thinks nothing of enriching himself at the expense of everyone else.

Soloway was able to do what he did because unwanted commercial e-mail has become big business, apparently backed by organized crime, according to the USA Today report.

Soloway has pleaded not guilty and is being held in federal detention pending a hearing this week. Another news story reported that Soloway is apparently broke (nothing like moving the money out-of-sight before they catch you) and will have to be assigned an attorney to represent him at taxpayers expense (our expense). Talk about adding insult to injury.

My guess is that Soloway's rate of recidivism probably hovers around 100%; he has clearly demonstrated that his avarice and stupidity know no bounds.

I wonder how innocent Soloway can be? He already has a civil judgment against him. Perhaps what we are talking about here is not that he is guilty or not guilty of a crime, but the degree of the crime he could well have committed.

What should we do with predators like Soloway should he be convicted on all of the counts he has been charged with?

Extermination? In a fit of anger, do not even bother yourself with the thought. Given the charges against him, he would not qualify for such a final judgment. Another reason is that some two-bit attorney would make a career and millions of dollars by getting stays of execution for years at taxpayer expense (remember, we are paying for this jerk's indiscretions and legal defense).

Lock him up and throw the key away? Not a bad idea, but our laws would prevent him from receiving a life sentence for stupidity. At the least, forget community service, forget some stupid plea bargain arrangement, and forget rehabilitation; if Soloway cannot figure out that he should not have been doing what he was doing, what makes you think he is going to be smart enough to be rehabilitated?

Lock him up? Why not? Let him do time and take at least one spammer out of our electronic communication system for a period of time.

Here is a novel idea: Upon release from prison, have Soloway write out this sentence in long hand one million times before his release from a halfway house back into the community: "I will never again use a computer to commit a crime?"

Even if Soloway never smartens up this will take him out commission for another period of time and hopefully improve his penmanship. If he screws up his writing, make him do it again until he gets it right.

If he is going to practice stupidity for the rest of his life he will at least learn to write clearly even if he cannot think clearly. That may be the best we can reasonably do with lower life forms. No one will ever be able to do for Soloway what he must do for himself.

Cindy Sheehan, a Misguided Soul, Finally Learns That Most People Do Not Care About Her Protest

2007-06-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The headline for an Associated Press story online Tuesday was very clear if you happened to miss it: "It's Up to You Now - Sheehan Quits".

Apparently Cindy Sheehan is done being the public face of the anti-war movement.

"I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," said Sheehan, "I'm going home for awhile to try and be normal." Sheehan will be flying from Texas to her home in California.

Her online diary bid goodbye to America, noting that "you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it," and then the parting words "It's up to you now."

Like most wannabe martyrs, she stopped just short of saying "drive in another nail".

Clearly Cindy Sheehan has suffered more than any other mother or family in America who has lost a loved one since the Iraqi War started, and she was willing to put her enormous sacrifice on public display for everyone to see.

Clearly Cindy Sheehan would stop at nothing to throw herself on the ground, weeping and wailing over her loss in an effort to save her beloved country.

It only took Cindy Sheehan about two years to figure how to deal with and apparently accept life's misfortunes. I would suggest that her son, a war hero who willingly joined the volunteer Army and served his country well, paid a far bigger price for his convictions than his mother. I doubt her two-year protest enhanced his sacrifice and image one iota.

I often wonder about protesters like Cindy Sheehan, and thousands of others that have preceded her in various causes.

Think about all of the people who are out to "change the world" into their idea of a better place, and never get anywhere. They want to change everyone else, but not change themselves.

Cindy Sheehan may have learned one of life's great lessons: you can only control yourself.

Some folks get the silly idea in their head that they can control what someone else is thinking, what they are doing, who they are with, where they are at, and what they are saying.

"I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey (her son) was killed and especially since I became the so-called 'face' of the American anti-war movement," said Sheehan in her diary.

Clearly Cindy Sheehan minced no words in her protesting efforts, calling President Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world" (a feat that easily topped the 9-11 terrorists who slammed into the Twin Towers and killed 3,000 Americans), a "fuhrer" (there is no record of Bush being a ruthless, tyrannical leader), an "evil maniac" (a violent and dangerous person dressed in a devil's costume on Halloween), and a "filth-spewer" (a corrupt and decadent person spewing obscene and offensive language).

In Godless: The Church of Liberalism, Ann Coulter points out that "Liberals prey on people at a time of extreme emotional vulnerability and offer them fame and fortune to be that month's purveyor of hate. Victory goes to the most hysterical."

How is it, I wonder, that an average person can go on a two-year protest around the country and not have to work or lose their job, not have to pay their mortgage or lose their home, or not have to have a source of income to pay their living expenses.

The answer, of course, is to find a sugar daddy, like the Democratic Party.

Cindy Sheehan may be one of the most sincere people in America, but she is also one of the most sequacious (unthinkingly following others).

The online story went on to say that when she had first taken on Bush, Sheehan was a darling of the liberal left."

However," says Sheehan, "when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the 'left' started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used."

Welcome to the real world, Cindy, not the world of make-believe protest.

What made Cindy Sheehan actually think the Democratic Party was not using her as a spin doctor so she could out put an unfavorable interpretation of President Bush and the Iraqi War to the media? It sure made it much easier for liberal party hacks would not have to look like an ass railing on Bush when they could pay Cindy Sheehan to do the same thing.

When her act did not serve the Democratic Party anymore, they dropped Cindy like a 100-pound sack of monkey crap. Not to worry, the Republicans are not beyond doing the same thing.

When protesting is your job and they stop paying you, you go home and look for another job. If Cindy Sheehan wants to remain in the protesting business, her resume could impressively state that "I have a proven track record of using my protesting tactics to attract national attention, and have been credited by some with starting a movement."

Author Letitia Landon said something that may help explain why protesters protest: "Whatever people in general do not understand, they are always prepared to dislike; the incomprehensible is always the obnoxious."

There are a lot of radical groups out there that could use Cindy Sheehan's help in promoting their cause, and would be willing to pay for the effort.

Many of these organizations offer free housing, free meals, free transportation, free baby-sitting services for those too young to stand up and hold a poster, free posters, and free uppers to get you buzzed up for attack on the perceived enemy at hand.

On Memorial Day, Cindy Sheehan apparently had an epiphany (no, nothing that holy, I am talking about a moment of sudden revelation or insight) and came to some "heartbreaking conclusions".

After thinking things over (this may have been one of the first times Cindy was using any thought power since starting her urge to protest), Cindy said she was "going to take whatever I have and go home."

Heck, I remember that the kid who brought his football over for the Saturday afternoon game was the same kid that left and took his football home when things were not going his way.

I am glad you have had some personal growth, Cindy. Welcome to adulthood after motherhood.

Despite appearances, we all have an amazing tendency to act in our own best self-interest. Not surprisingly, this could be one reason why America, despite its faults, is the greatest, most prosperous and most successful country on planet Earth.

No wonder foreigners and outsiders love to attack us, and might do so more often if we were not so busy attacking each other to notice.

On Politics: We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word - Part 5

2007-05-28T23:39:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

I started this piece on Rudy Giuliani's stance on abortion and I think I shall end it on abortion.

There comes a time in a person's life when you have to start thinking for yourself rather than be a lemming to politics, a political party, politicians, pundits, predators and a phony press.

I have Ann Coulter to thank for pointing out that pro-choice proponents never use the word "abortion" when talking about the "a" word. I had never really thought about this before reading Coulter's book Godless: The Church of Liberalism. Now I pay attention and realize that she is dead right.

Instead, says Coulter, we get a slew of liberal euphemisms for baby-killing, including but not limited to:

"reproductive freedom"

"a woman's right to control her own body"

"terminating a pregnancy"

"freedom of choice"

"a woman's own private medical decision"

"a procedure"

"access to health care"

"family planning"

"our bodies, our selves"

and, of course, "choice."

Coulter points out that the only other practice that was both defended and unspeakable in America was slavery. "There are three indirect references to slavery in the Constitution," says Coulter, "but the words slave and slavery never appear." I did not know that either.

One might say that our liberal culture, practices and laws have brought liberals to this point in yipping and yapping about the war in Iraq: they find 3,000+ American military deaths in Iraq unconscionable in eliminating a brutal dictator who sympathizes with our terrorist enemies, but 1.3 million abortions in America every year is something to celebrate.

Crimes against children in America are no big deal to liberal woman who need their rights protected. Crimes against a brutal dictator in Iraq is unconscionable because, well, he is a brutal dictator, favors and supports terrorists, and has a right to indiscriminately kill his own people because it is his right as a dictator and it is his country. My rights, get it?

The right of a woman to have unprotected sex in America is fundamental to protecting her right to abort the mistake if impregnated. Who said children have rights? It is even less so for unborn children. Not even God can keep us from killing our own.

It is really all about us, what does God have to do with it?

We are all about rights, and little about responsibilities. Too many of us have become self-centered, self-absorbed rights takers rather than rights observers. Rights crushed responsibilities a long time ago, and now we remain content to kill our unborn.

We are a nation divided when it comes to the "a" word. We have our U. S. Supreme Court to thank for the appallingly crafted Roe v. Wade decision. This controversial issue may never be settled.

At least I learn something when I read or listen to Krauthammer, Coulter or Morris.

I learn virtually nothing when I read or listen to presidential candidates from either party drone on about their self-proclaimed wonderfulness, and this includes Bush and his Republican lackeys, and all of the liberal, secular progressives and their lemmings on the other side of the fence.

(Editor's Note: This ends Part 5 of a 5-Part Series)

On Politics: Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News - Part 4

2007-05-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

I continue to like Charles Krauthammer, Ann Coulter and Dick Morris as smart, savvy people who have something to say worth knowing. Krauthammer is serious, Coulter can be outrageous and cutting, and Morris remains the opportunist.

It is likely that Krauthammer and Morris really need some attention and audience to be happy: I doubt Coulter cares what anyone thinks about her views, she is unwavering. I will read and listen to Morris and Coulter because they also bring humor to the conversation.

I love Morris' classic line about the reason Bill and Hillary's marriage has worked is because Hillary loves Bill and Bill loves himself. Coulter cuts up politicians like a stir-fry chef at Benihana's and is enormously entertaining, hysterically funny and right on more often than her targets would be comfortable admitting.

Despite being entertained by writers I like to read, there is probably nothing that disappoints me more than the current sad, sorry state of newspapers in America. There is more personal journalism in newspapers than news, and newspapers today try to pass off government and political propaganda as actual news.

Big time and small time wannabe journalists start off stories today with leads like this: "Beleaguered President Bush refused to answer questions again in his press conference today about the debacle that is the Iraqi War, still refusing to admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction today any more than there were when he decided to unilaterally invade Iraq four years ago."

This sort of personal journalism never would have passed muster when I was graduating from Michigan State University's College of Communication Arts with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism in 1966.

I feel plenty qualified to speak on the topic of personal journalism since I was an investigative reporter, sports editor and managing editor for a daily newspaper, and the owner/publisher of a community publishing company.

I believe that the trend toward personal journalism was jump-started in the 1960s by Time magazine which became a bastion of liberal ideas trying to influence opinion and culture in America. Time managed to sully the landscape of truth and integrity in the process, and continues to spew out its own brand of liberal personal journalism today.

Newspapers today are faced with declining readership as younger generations flock to the Internet which is no better at reporting news and is even more vitriolic. They simply pare down and reprint the same crap that is in newspapers.

Name brand newspapers that once had proud heritages with outstanding reporters have become nothing more than pandering sluts who cannot get enough of their personal journalism and politics into the news side of the paper.

Their chief contribution is to try and trick enough readers into paying for the newspaper, thereby elevating themselves to word prostitutes for hire to the political party nearest to their misguided beliefs.

I know this sounds harsh but do not think you are being misled by me. The figurative definition of a prostitute is a person who misuses their talents or who sacrifices their self-respect for the sake of personal or financial gain. That is the vast majority of newspaper reporters today.

I have no idea what our universities are teaching in journalism schools today, but it sure has nothing to do with the objective reporting of news.

Instead of being presented with the facts and letting the reader decide what is meant, we have become inundated with liberal pundits who think we are too stupid to think for ourselves.

In this process we have become surrounded by mediocre minds and mental midgets masquerading as important purveyors of the news. What we are getting is propaganda disguised as news.

Propaganda is thinking of the most outrageous lie, repeating it ad nauseam and then people will accept it as unquestioned truth and build it into an even bigger lie.

Two examples of propaganda: 1) There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq so we were wrong to invade Iraq. 2) President Bush and the United States government planned, financed and orchestrated the 9-11 attacks on America by the terrorists.

The only advantage for the reader is that we are still honoring the First Amendment to our United States Constitution, so freedom of the press does allow us to see what a degenerate press looks like when in full bloom of political hysteria.

(Editor's Note: This ends Part 4 of a 5-Part Series)

On Politics: One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America - Part 3

2007-05-26T22:55:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The truth of the matter is that being a politician in America today is one of the best paying jobs a person could have despite their supposedly low wages compared to corporate executives.

I bet there are corporate executives in America who wish they were making $16 million a year like Giuliani.

The tragedy of all of this is not that a Republican is being discovered, tried and convicted in a news report, but that the same can and will be done to a Democrat by some other news reporter hell-bent on trying to pass off their brilliance as actual news rather than accusatory garbage.

If you do not know that the vast majority of politicians lie, cheat and steal as necessary to get elected and stay elected, you do not understand much about politics in America today. It is real difficult to practice integrity when your pants are down.

The best job most national politicians do is helping themselves get rich legally at the expense of the electorate they are supposed to be representing.

It is never too soon to vote themselves another raise, perk or benefit, or cut an out-of-sight deal to line their pockets, an it is never too late to bail out on legislation that might offend a big campaign contributor.

This is politics in America today: you buy and sell votes like a common prostitute in the red light district of your city; you try to do it legally, and if you cannot, you hope to hell that you do not get caught.

Who exactly do you suppose politicians are protecting when they will not pass legislation to protect innocent children against child predators? This is the world we live in today.

No payoff is too great to not be swept under the carpet.

It is difficult to sidestep the cow pies when your are mired in a crap field.

When something good is done for the people at large it is more likely to be done today by accident than by design. Politics and the business of politics are simply that bad.

Some politicians ignore children who are innocent victims as not even being worthy of the same rights they enjoy, and then make it a badge of liberal honor to try and rehabilitate predators who are no better than yesterday's garbage. Usually it is these same politicians who do everything in a fit of righteousness (their rightness at your expense).

Man is the only animal on the face of the earth who preys on his own species.

Man is also the smartest animal on the face of the earth and the stupidest at the same time. We would rather kill each other than live in peace.

I believe Ambrose Bierce had it right when he defined politics in his Devil's Dictionary as: "Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."

Bierce first published his Devil's Dictionary in 1911, a time some would consider more genteel. Today's political parties and politicians have raised lying, cheating and stealing to an art form.

When I say cheating I mean both of money and extramarital sex. Some of our married politicians at the national level are so horny they need to be romancing their secretary or an intern young enough to be their daughter or granddaughter. A few even fancy themselves as incredibly attractive Lotharios masquerading as chick magnets. They might be able to pull this off as long as their photo-opts are straight on; the side views may be problematic in print.

Bierce was an interesting guy. He was an American editorialist, journalist, short-story writer and satirist who wrote for a number of newspapers, including the San Francisco News Letter, a financial magazine founded by Frederick Marriott in the late 1850s.

Bierce was the 10th of 13 children, all of whom had names starting with the letter "A", as in Abigail, Amelia, Ann, Addison, Aurelius, Augustus, Alameda, Andrew, Albert, Ambrose, Arthur, Adelia and Aurelia. His dad's name was Marcus Aurelius Bierce.

Ambrose Bierce fought at the Battle of Shiloh on the Union side in the Civil War. He would later write about the experience. He is most remembered for his lucid, unsentimental style that created the Devil's Dictionary which offers up reinterpretations of the English language which lampoon cant and political double-talk.

Bierce was born in Ohio in 1842, grew up in Indiana, moved West to San Francisco, worked as a writer, and died in Mexico. His actual date of death is unknown, listed only as possibly 1914 (June 24, 1842-1914?). There was no question mark about his work; his writing lives on.

If you ever find a better definition of politics than the one offered up by Ambrose Bierce, you let me know, and I will buy you lunch.

(Editor's Note: This ends Part 3 of a 5-Part Series)

On Politics: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks - Part 2

2007-05-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

When reading Charles Krauthammer, I am reminded that Henry Ford said "the hardest thing to do in the world is to think, and that is why people do so little of it." This is especially true during Presidential elections which start about a year too early and end about a year too late.

It is often hard for me to decide which is wearier, the droppings of a contentious person or a Presidential election.

We have 18 more excruciating months to go in this one and will probably be no better informed on the day we vote. This is because we are going to be inundated with lies, misrepresentations, hateful remarks, character assassination, snide remarks and insults, and there is not a nickel's worth of difference between the bickering parties and candidates.

Ann Coulter, in her book How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), points out that "When Democrats make an accusation against Republicans, newspaper headlines repeat the accusation as a fact," like "U. S. Law Chief Failed to Heed Terror Warnings," or "Bush White House Said to Have Failed to Make al-Qaida an Early Priority."

"But when Republicans make accusations against Democrats" says Coulter, "the headlines note only that Republicans are making accusations," to wit: "Ashcroft Faults Clinton in 9/11 Failures."

The second story I read on Giuliani was an Associated Press piece on May 15, 2007 with this headline: "A President Giuliani Could Face Ethical Web." Was this another example of Coulter's observation? You decide.

The boldface subhead and introduction to the story said this: "An Associated Press review of Rudy Giuliani's law and lobbying firm finds it would spell ethical trouble for him if he won the presidency." This is exactly what Coulter was pointing out.

This is the kind of crap we get for news in newspapers today: the writers weave an elaborate trail of "facts" arriving at a conclusion of wrongdoing without the reader even having to think.

The writers of this piece of tripe—Sharon Theimer and Devlin Barrett—are trying to convince me that they have uncovered some brilliant piece of investigative reporting when what they have really done is present their own prejudiced views and convicted Guiliani of some wrongdoing.

These writers are masquerading as news reporters but are actually political hacks that do not even recognize how misguided they have become. They probably think Giuliani is as stupid as they think they are smart.

It is probably true that Giuliani made more than $16 million in earned income during the past 16 months, so what is the big deal? Do they think he is a trained attorney and a former prosecuting attorney who is now pig-slopping his way though deals to make income?

Heck, virtually every candidate running for the presidency who could possibly win is at least a millionaire.

John Edwards reported $1.25 million in earned income last year and has listed assets of at least $5 million. Heck, even newcomer Barack Obama knocked down more than a half-million in royalties for one of his books and an advance on another. I believe he earned at least $900,000+ in income last year.

They could investigate Giuliani until they are blue in the face and fine nothing illegal has been happening.

You can bet that any of the presidential candidates, regardless of party affiliation, are not going to be doing illegal moneymaking deals that could ruin their shot at being elected. They would likely wait for a more opportune, less media exposure time to cut a back room deal that would line their pockets.

They may have some moral indiscretions along the way, but will likely cover their heinie in their financial dealings while running for the presidency.

The AP story cites example after example of how Giuliani could be implicated in his lobbying and other money-making activities, and covers all of the supposed conflicts of interests arising from lobbying efforts, like every other candidate has not had any dealings with any government agency since becoming a politician.

Good grief, all politicians make money hand over fist in all kinds of dealings, hundreds of which never become a matter of public record. So what? If any politician really screws up today, he or she is likely to be found out, right down to the money in the cooler.

Virtually every politician at the national level has had their hand greased at one time or another, directly or indirectly. Almost any political candidate who takes campaign contributions of any kind could be shown, upon examination, to have rewarded the contributor with a timely vote that could be justified as legal, moral or honest.

Lyndon Johnson did not make squat when he went into the Texas legislature as a schoolteacher and was a multi-millionaire before he was a President, all on a politician's wages.

(Editor's Note: This ends Part 2 of a 5-Part Series)

On Politics: Rudy Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican - Part 1

2007-05-24T13:48:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

It is possible that Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has infuriated his Democratic rivals to the point of distraction. As a good Republican Giuliani should be pro life but he is pro choice.

Being in favor of abortion on demand makes Giuliani more dangerous politically to Democrats than actually wiping out another life so women can retain their right of choice at the expense of their potential progeny. Only Democrats are supposed to be pro choice.

You can imagine the Democrats' extreme agitation and emotional response to Giuliani horning in on their "sacred" territory. I can assure you that the exterminated unborn do not consider abortion sacred at all.

Giuliani is now under searing attack from every Democrat and flaming left-wing Democratic news organization worthy of the name.

I recently read three news stories about Giuliani's candidacy and thought I would tackle some thoughts on Giuliani, politics, politicians, pundits and predators.

My initial interest took flight when reading Charles Krauthammer's recent piece (5-13-07) titled "Giuliani's Abortion Stance Makes Sense".

If you have never read Charlie's stuff, you might want to try him on for size. Krauthammer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post (not too shabby as former Opera Man Adam Sandler used to say on Saturday Night Live).

The Financial Times named Krauthammer as America's most influential commentator in 2006. I would not go that far because I think Ann Coulter and Dick Morris are in his league in terms of discernment and thought power. Coulter is the best at identifying political posturing, and Morris is the best at identifying political strategy.

I did not purposely go looking for information on Giuliani or any other politician seeking to become the next President of the United States. I generally cannot stand politics or politicians, but more on that later.

I see Krauthammer on television occasionally and marvel at the conversation. Usually he appears with some other famous pundits on a political show and I watch intently as his fellow companions say little as they drone on about a subject. Then Krauthammer starts speaking, and I immediately realize that this is one smart intellect actually saying something that makes eminent sense.

The difference between Krauthammer and the others is the difference between night and day. I generally always agree with Krauthammer and I always respect and admire his ability to defend his point of view. Krauthammer puts together compound and complex sentences flawlessly and is totally on task.

He does not waste time spinning out political fodder like almost every other commentator does. Most commentators are so busy spewing out the typical Republican or Democratic line of crap that they have nothing to offer that would increase a person's knowledge and understanding.

Krauthammer's piece on Giuliani was interesting to me because he inadvertently reminded me that any politician's position on abortion is irrelevant "because neither presidents nor legislatures nor referendums decide this issue. Judges do."

Amen, Charlie, you are so right. I have decided to ignore what any presidential candidate's position is on abortion; it does not matter.

Sure, some unrealistic souls think a clever Republican President that nominates a new U. S. Supreme Court justice can carry the day on Roe v. Wade by appointing a real conservative judge.

Those days are long gone. The nominee will never be approved by the United States Senate. Too many conservative judges who are politically appointed do not vote as conservatively as presidents would like. Some judges flip positions, like Chief Justice William Rehnquist did after originally opposing the 1966 Miranda ruling as "legislating from the bench" but upholding it in 2000.

Giuliani's position apparently is that it would be OK to repeal Roe v. Wade and also OK if a strict constructionist judge viewed it as precedent, what legal folks like to call stare decisis (Latin), the legal principle of determining points in litigation according to precedent.

Krauthammer said "I hope for the day when Roe is overturned" and added that "Abortion is already so contaminated with legalisms, why not turn the issue into one of simple democracy? Let the people decide. Let them work it out the way everything else in this country is worked out—by political argument and legislative accommodation."

I will read anything Krauthammer writes because he is a rarity in our country, a person who actually thinks and can present a case cogently.

(Editor's Note: This ends Part 1 of a 5-Part Series)

Discover the 5 Steps to Financial Freedom

2007-05-21T01:25:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Editor's Note: The following post will provide an opportunity. I am looking for some business partners in the United States.

The opportunity meetings mentioned below are aimed at readers in the Western Washington area. When you attend any of these meetings, you will be my guest. Simply say to the representatives at the registration desk that "I am coming tonight as a guest of Ed Bagley" and you will get in free as my special guest. I would be happy to greet you personally. Just ask for Ed Bagley and someone will identify me.

While this post is aimed at readers in the Western Washington area, this company has representatives in every state nationally, so if you live in Michigan or any other state, simply call me toll free at (800) 965-6484 and I will direct you to a meeting in your area at a future date. I can also put you in direct phone contact with the CEO of the company. When you invest enough time to check out this opportunity, you will acquire some valuable information about your finances and future.

Discover the 5 Steps to Financial Freedom.

It’s Free, Fast, Concise and Compelling.

Learn What Your Employer Does Not Want You to Know.When You Know, You May Suddenly Look at Your Job Differently, Get on the Road to Financial Freedom, and Start Living Life on Your Terms.

No Time, No Money, No Knowledge? No Problem.

Listen to what a very wise man said: “This time, like all times, is a very good one, when we know what to do with it.

”Believe that “everything that belongs to me will come to me when I am ready to receive it.”

Your Presenter will be Alvin Curry, the Chief Executive Officer of myEcon, the Personal Financial Success Company.

Mr. Curry’s 5-Step Program is Outstanding! Do Not Miss This Rare Opportunity.

Here are 5 Chances to Discover the 5 Secrets of Success (with handy directions):

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the Super 8 Motel in Lacey, WA

(112 College St. SE - (360) 459-8888 – Traveling South, take I-5 to Exit 109, take a right turn off exit ramp onto Martin Way, go to the first stoplight, turn left onto College Street and the Super 8 will be near the corner on your left. Traveling North, take I-5 to Exit 109, take a left turn off exit ramp, continue to College Street and turn left.)

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the La Quinta Inn in Tacoma, WA

(1425 East 27th St. - (253) 383-0146 - Traveling North, take I-5 to Exit 134 toward Portland Ave., stay straight to go onto East 28th St., turn left onto East Portland Ave., turn left on East 27th St. Traveling South, take Exit 135 toward Portland Avenue—also called WA-167 North, Puyallup—and the ramp becomes East 27th Street.)

Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the Coast Hotel in Bellevue, WA

(625 - 116th Ave. NE - (425) 455-9444 - Traveling North, take 1-5 and merge onto I-405 North via Exit 154toward Renton/Bellevue, take the NE 8th St./NE 4th St. Exit 13B, take NE 4th St. Exit 13A on the left, keep right at the fork to go onto NE 4 St., turn left on 116th Ave. NE. Traveling South, merge onto I-405 follow same route.)

Friday, June 15, 2007 at 7 p.m. in the Double Tree Hotel Near Sea-Tac Airport in Seatac

(18740 International Blvd.—also called Pacific Ave. and Old 99 - (206) 246-8600 - Traveling North, take 1-5 to Exit 151—Military Road Exit—toward S 200th St., turn left onto Military Rd. S, turn left onto South 200th Street, turn right onto International Blvd. Traveling South, take 1-5 and merge onto WA-518 West via Exit 154B toward Burien/Sea-Tac, take the WA-99 Exit toward Sea-Tac Airport, merge onto International Blvd.)

Saturday, June 16, 2007 Marketing Seminar from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the same Double Tree

(18740 International Blvd. - (206) 246-8600. Traveling North or South on 1-5 follow above instructions.)

What Two Sentences in a Book Led Ed Bagley to Retire $269,000 and Become Debt Free?

2007-05-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

When I first thought about becoming an Internet Marketer, I thought about becoming debt free. I did not like the idea of paying hundreds of dollars a month in interest on my obligations.

I was reading one day and came across this quote from a British author that seemed to capture my feeling exactly: "Money is like a sixth sense without which we cannot make a complete use of the other five." Nothing before or since has made more sense to me.

I realized I could not reach my full potential without becoming debt free and financially independent once and for all.

But how? I was led by the myEcon business opportunity to buy a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki's book about financial intelligence.

I read the book, then read the book a second time and was impressed by Kiyosaki's personal financial advice, but I got stuck on two of his thoughts:

1) The first thought was "making more money will not solve your personal financial problems if cash flow management is the problem."

I then understood that either I needed to get in control of my personal finances, or spending, increasing debt, and paying interest on debt would be in control of me.

2) The second thought was "you really need to become debt free BEFORE you start investing."

I then understood that if I was paying 18% to 21% on my credit card debt, for example, and not earning squat on my investments, I was going backwards about a 1,000 miles an hour.

Both of these thoughts were upsetting to me because I knew he was right as right can be.

If I did what everyone else did, I would have what everyone else has, and for most people, what they have is years of hard work, unfair taxes and a lifetime of debt. And let me tell you, I had some debt.

It is not unusual today for a middle class family to have $100,000, $200,000 or $300,000 in personal debt, if for no other reason than many middle class families are making payments to the bank while owning their home.

I then understood that I needed to change my thought process about what I was doing financially, and why I was doing it.

I realized that if I lacked the will for change, there was no one who could show me the way.

So I became determined to get in control of my cash flow, and eventually retired $269,000 in debt to become a free man.

I became very thankful that I was led to Robert Kiyosaki's book by the leaders of myEcon, the very networking opportunity I had used to start my Internet Marketing business.

Getting rid of the interest I was paying on $269,000 in debt was an incredible blessing.

What is unusual about what happened to me is that the myEcon leaders were more focused on helping me improve my personal finances first, so I had a better opportunity to earn money.

MyEcon was the first networking company I have ever been exposed to where the leaders actually cared more about me than lining their own pockets at my expense by selling me a bunch of crap that I did not need or want.

I came to appreciate the myEcon leaders because of how I was treated by the company's management and its leadership example.

When presenting its "myEcon 5 Steps of Cashflow to Wealth" program, the company did not stress making money. The company talked about how to minimize my expenses, how to minimize my taxes, how I could eliminate my debt (I took them seriously on this one), and how I could invest my money in assets rather than paying taxes and debts.

Essentially, myEcon recommended that for me to get ahead in America today, I must be in business because being in business would allow me even more legal tax deductions. I even learned some new tax deductions I could take. By doing so I would lower my net taxable income even more. This allowed me to keep more of my money to reduce my debt.

Unless you have done it, you cannot imagine how off-loading $269,000 in debt feels.

For those people who have a job, myEcon recommends that you not get a second job or work overtime to meet your obligations as this would only create more income and more taxes to pay.

MyEcon advises you to create a business and then spend your available, extra time building your part-time business to create legal tax deductions and lower your taxable income.

I joined myEcon and got my own web site to help promote my new business, but I also got something more important, and that is the know-how to handle my finances in a way that actually improved my life.

I have been in opportunities where I sunk money in and got nothing out. No one, or no company, ever really cared enough to help ensure my financial future while they were lining their pockets at my expense.

I simply got sick and tired of subsidizing other opportunities while I got all of the motivation and training in the world, but no strategy to actually succeed.

To find out more facts about the myEcon opporunity, go directly to my online home page for myEcon. Just click on the "Opportunity" button at the top of the page, and view an audio/visual presentation.

When you are done, and ready to make a move, hit the "Enroll" button and you will be directed to myEcon's secure sign-up page where you can be sponsored by me (Ed Bagley) through my company, Northwest Marketing LLC.

You cannot join this company at my web site here, you must join on the web site the company has provided for me to sponsor you.

If you cannot figure out how to sign up, call me at (800) 965-6484. Leave a message, give me your name, area code and phone number and I wil return your call ASAP. I will give you the strategy I have been given. Click on the link below to be taken to my home page for myEcon:

https://edbagley.myecon.net

Ed Bagley
(800) 965-6484

Copyright 2006 Northwest Marketing LLC

If You Think Little League Baseball Does Not Teach Important Survival Skills, Think Again

2007-05-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Sometimes as parents we forget how simple and subtle the lessons in life can be.

I was reminded of this yesterday afternoon when I heard the cheering of youngsters playing a Little League baseball game in the nearby city park. It is amazing when the noise of kids at play can carry the sound a half-block away and into the open window of your living room.

Little League baseball games can get noisy. Kids are excited when the bases are loaded and their next hitter sends a screaming line drive into the outfield.

They know that the outfielder will likely boot the ball, and as it gets by him on its merry way to the fence, all three players on base will score and the hitter will probably come home safe with an inside-the-park home run and 4 ribbies (runs batted in) to his credit.

Ah, baseball, spring is in the air and summer is approaching.

The pure fun of sport is so normal and so natural to our human experience.

I read a study once that interviewed hardened criminals spending life in prison for capital crimes, such as murder. A psychologist asked inmates what they missed most now that they were spending the rest of their lives behind bars without possibility of parole.

The answer stunned me, and it should stun you too. What they missed most was not their girlfriend, or sex, or drinking, or drugging, or gambling; it was the sound of kids playing.

Perhaps the one, real, positive memory they have of their life was when they were a child playing.

These are two compelling extremes: children at play without a care in the world, and incarcerated criminals who are burdened with the reality that they will never again be free to play.

With all of the violence we are now seeing with youngsters who solve their supposed "problems" by shooting their perceived "enemies" (many times friends and family), I am reminded that some of our children today seem less able to cope with adversity, and even less so with patience.

How is it that they clearly lack coping skills and patience, two necessary traits for survival as an adult?

It will take someone a lot smarter than me to give you the right answer to this question.

I will leave that answer to what some educated professionals who study psychology think.

In the meantime, I choose not to tell you what I think, but to share with you what I know.

Here is one thing about Little League baseball that is being taught by some parents and some leaders in some organizations that is really not worth teaching, and that is this:

Certain organizations have adopted the misguided practice of rewarding every kid on each team regardless of their effort or performance. In other words, a team can lose every game all year and each kid gets a trophy for participating, a team picture and his or her own baseball card with their mug on it.

Apparently some parents do not want to hurt their child's feelings even though the child makes little effort, is clearly incompetent at improving on any skills of the game, does not understand the game, and really could care less.

I doubt the parents in the example given have a clue about the lessons they are teaching their children by insisting on this foolish practice of making their child feel like he or she has accomplished something.

First, they are encouraging mediocrity by rewarding nothingness. Practice this stupidity a few more generations and we will have our children thinking they can show up to work as an adult, do nothing and get paid for their lack of skills, effort and production.

Second, they are rewarding children for having no concept of goal-setting and achieving goals. The parents are not encouraging any concept of self-improvement and providing no incentive to do so.

Third, they are teaching no learning skills in how to cope with failure, and not providing a shred of understanding about the function of failing. Losers would be astonished to learn that successful people have failed more than losers ever thought of failing.

One of the big differences between losers and winners in the game of life is that when winners fail, they get right back up, dust themselves off, learn from the experience, and try again.

Fourth, they devalue the kids who do work hard, fail and then succeed by rewarding a bunch of kids who haul off and do nothing, learn nothing, and have no sense of real accomplishment.

I remember going door-to-door as a 9-year-old kid, looking for a sponsor for a baseball team I was putting together. I instinctively knew kids would want to be on my team if I could get them a free baseball hat and shirt; we would then look like a real team. I had played on a team that had nothing; we could not afford uniforms, we were lucky to have a glove or borrow a glove.

I found that sponsor, a business called Jewell Realty in Flint, Michigan. I found a sponsor because I was looking for a sponsor. The people that owned that business were impressed that a 9-year-old kid would have the guts to walk all over town and ask businesses to sponsor his rag-tag team. I put up with the nos and getting kicked out of places because I wanted it that bad.

The year was 1953 and we were terrible; we lost more games than we won. We were put upon, put down, slapped around and got the crap kicked out of us, but I never quit, and I made sure my teammates didn't quit either. When someone quit trying, I kicked him off the team and found someone else.

Two years later we won the league championship, and when we did, I was surrounded by winners who had become my friends. I did not need my parents to do this for me, I did not need some meddling adult or juvenile counselor to do this for me, I needed to do this for myself.

When I got the guys together and we took that trophy down to Jewell Realty, we all shared in the excitement of being winners. Later that summer I would walk by Jewell Realty, see that trophy in the window, and know who I was and what I had become: a winner. Jewell Realty did not win that trophy, I won that trophy, and I knew what it would take to win another.

Our parents never saw us play, they were too busy working.

If someone had come around after that first season and given each of us a trophy for losing, we would not have accepted it. Think about it: the message they would have been sending us was we think you are so bad that you could never win a title, so in order to sooth your precious little feelings, here is a trophy for being a loser.

I think I would have spit in their face. I was that competitive. I might have been a 9 year old but I did not need some meddling parent setting goals for me that I thought were so low I would trip on them walking across the baseball diamond.

If you think a 9-year-old child cannot have some dignity, you are dead wrong, and have probably been wrong about a lot of things in your life.

Once we won that championship and experienced our moment of victory, you could have taken that trophy away and it would not have mattered. I knew what I had sacrificed to win that trophy, and after all of the blood, sweat and tears, nothing any stupid parent or adult could do would have made me feel less about myself. I knew I was a winner, and I wasn't going to settle for anything less.

Parents, if you do not understand one thing in raising your children, understand this: if your child goes through his or her entire schooling period (kindergarten through high school graduation) and never experiences real success at anything at least one day is his or her life, your child will be handicapped for life. Nothing could be more arcane, stupid and bovine.

Don't you dare try to prevent your child from failing. Let them try and when they fail, pick them up, dust them off, and encourage them to try again. It is in failing that we learn to succeed.

If you as a parent cannot be a winner in your own pathetic life, if all you have to offer is whining and complaining about this and that, and bemoaning how your child is treated, then get the hell out of the way and let your child fail to ultimately win on his own.

Take a snapshot of two pictures.

In one a child is given a trophy, a team photo and a baseball card with his picture on it featuring a loser who accomplished nothing. In the other snapshot, a child is given only a trophy, or the team is given one trophy to admire, because they have worked their butts off, improved their skills, played their hearts out, taken risks and won a league title. Which is your child?

Any child who has worked to get to the top of the mountain, and experiences the sheer joy of competing and winning, is someone who will go much farther in life.

I can tell you from experience in hiring that there is an incredible correlation between having athletic success at the high school or college level and success later in life. The reason is simple: winners win and losers don't.

Do not misunderstand what I am sharing here. It is not that you cannot win bigger and better in life unless you are a successful athlete in your youth, it is that you need to have a sense of accomplishment and recognition doing something that takes hard work, dedication, effort and goals. It could be singing, it could be acting, it could be playing a musical instrument; suffice to say any activity that allows you to fail, learn, improve and succeed over a period of time.

It certainly helps to have a strong father in the house to help teach his children what it is to be a winner, to learn coping skills, patience, hard work, dedication, effort, improvement and success. A strong single mother can do the same.

Do not play patty-cake with your children when they are 9 years old, do not knowingly set them up in life to fail, let them struggle and succeed. If you do not do this someday they will be adult and not know how to act when they are put down, put upon, made fun of and beaten up emotionally. They will figure it out if you do not protect them and their feelings so much they become helpless and inept.

They will learn to cope and be stronger for the experience. When they reach adulthood they will be able to dismiss people around them who have mediocre minds and are mental midgets. They will be polite as they treat these losers as irrelevant (which they are) and be unaffected by their negative presence.

Then they will move on quickly to be with the winners. It is the losers who are left standing alone and wondering why.

Do not play to participate, play to win. It is not winning that is the be all to end all, it is that in the process of winning we learn important skills that make us much more effective in playing and winning in the game of life. After all, life is not a resting place; life is a testing place, it is now and will continue to be as long as you live.

A wise man said it and it bears repeating here: When everyone is somebody then no one's anybody.

At What Point Does a Student's Rights End, and the University's Rights Begin When Awarding Degrees?

2007-05-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The headline looked common enough: School Sued Over MySpace Photo Response.

It appeared affixed to an Associated Press story posted online by comcast.net recently.

Apparently a woman was denied a teaching degree on the eve of graduation because she published her picture captioned "Drunken Priate" on her MySpace.

The photo, apparently taken at a 2005 Halloween party, showed Stacy Snyder wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic "Mr. Goodbar" cup.

Jane Bray, dean of the School of Education at Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania, took exception to Snyder's photo, accusing Snyder of promoting underage drinking.

Although Snyder apologized, she learned the day before graduation that she would not be awarded an education degree or teaching certificate. Snyder was instead granted a degree in English last year.

Snyder, who is now 27 and reportedly works as a nanny, has sued Millersville University, seeking $75,000 in damages.

All of this raises some interesting questions about how this legal action will play out in court if it gets that far.

This story caught my attention because I had been chair of a board of directors for 9 years at a private school, a 20-year veteran in the news business, an editor of a daily newspaper, and a publisher of a newspaper property.

Here are some of my thoughts on the significance of this news event.

1) Was Stacy Snyder intentionally trying to promote underage drinking? I doubt it.

She did apologize for her apparent indiscretion, but it was not enough to ensure her the education degree and teaching certificate she thought she had earned.

I do not know how Pennsylvania handles its education students, but I suspect that the education degree would come from the university and the initial teaching certificate would come from the state.

To say she was looking for some attention in publishing her MySapce photo might be an understatement. As a potential teacher in a public or private school, I doubt any school board or school superintendent would be impressed by her sense of judgment, regardless of her motive.

It takes more than good intentions to be a good role model as a teacher, it takes good actions and good decisions as well. Clearly, Stacy Snyder's apparent actions were neither consequence free or well timed. The exuberance of youth is sometimes only exceeded by its stupidity.

You could say that Jane Bray, the dean of the School of Education at Millersville, might be very conservative in her views. You could also say that she has some standards of expected behavior that will be enforced.

2) I am not sure there is anything stopping Stacy Snyder from applying for an initial teaching certificate from the State of Pennsylvania, assuming that it is the state that grants teaching certificates and not the university. Perhaps Pennsylvania might be a little more forgiving of Snyder's stupidity.

3) Snyder could enroll in another qualified college or university and seek to get an education degree. Schools of higher learning love income and all schools do not have the same standards, for education or issuing degrees.

4) If Synder's suit has any legs to stand on, she should be suing for a lot more money if this incident has destroyed her teaching career. Perhaps for $750,000 or $1.75 million. As a teacher in today's public education system, it is not unreasonable to assume her income may reach one of those levels should she teach for the next 30 or 35 years. After all, inflation doubles about every 20 to 22 years.

5) Synder has perhaps learned a valuable lesson about instant communication in today's world. When someone says an insignificant story can go around the world in 8 seconds, they are not exaggerating. A significant story may even travel faster and be seen by millions more viewers.

6) It would be easy to postulate but difficult to accurately predict about how much Synder's photo might negatively influence the generations of children in the present and future.

Such speculation does remind me of Ronald Reagan's answer as to why he was not working harder as President. As I recall Reagan said I have been told that working hard will not kill you, but I figure why take chances?

7) Freedom of speech is a guaranteed right in the 1st Amendment to our United States Constitution. While this is so, freedom of speech does not allow one to yell "fire" in a crowded theater, so our freedom of speech does tend to stop when that freedom needlessly endangers our fellow citizens.

So much for Stacy Snyder.

What about Jane Bray and Millersville University?

1) Does a university have the power and the right to determine to whom it will award degrees? I think so.

Perhaps the question is, does the standards at this university include a written, published standard of behavior as well as a standard of performance in learning and testing? I not have a clue if that is the case at Millersville University, but I seriously suspect that it is so.

Otherwise, there might not be any basis for Jane Bray's decision not to award an education degree to Stacy Snyder. Perhaps Bray found Snyder's behavior to be unseemly for a professional teacher who is educated at Millersville University.

Snyder certainly has the right to post whatever pictures she wants on her MySpace website.

MySpace certainly has the right to take away her website if it does not meet the posting standards for MySpace website users. MySpace has the right to control its online business space.

Millersville University is, according to its Internet website, a public liberal arts university. The University certainly has a right to set and enforce educational standards in awarding degrees.

Does Millersville University have the right to set and enforce behavioral standards in awarding degrees? I think this a very good and pertinent question. The answer might well depend upon whether the University has written and published standards of behavior, and the evidence to show that students have agreed to and accept those standards in exchange for the right to earn a degree.

Exactly where does Synder's personal rights end and the University's rights begin?

Synder is paying for a service, the available educational training and knowledge to earn a degree by meeting the University's standards of performance. Does that standard include behavioral as well as educational performance?

Does Snyder's personal actions off campus constitute any more or less of an egregious breach of behavior than on campus? Would the University's authority in this matter carry more weight if Snyder were a student on campus rather than off campus?

A statement issued by Millersville University on its website today denied the claims alleged by Ms. Stacy Snyder and also said this:

"Due to federal student privacy restrictions, the University is unable to directly respond to media accounts related to the case. The University notes, however, that all of its educational decisions are based on a full range of academic performance issues, not solely on a student's personal website or social networking site."

Yikes! I am glad I do not have to defend Millersville University in this case. I would instantly be looking for a new attorney team.

I think I understand the University's position and why it merits some serious consideration in a court of law.

Should Snyder prevail in her suit against Millersville University, what sort of Web-published photos might we expect to see among future students?

This might play itself out in a court of law because we are a republic and not a democracy.

In a democracy, Stacy Snyder might have virtually no chance of success. Her complaint might easily be voted against by a majority interested in maintaining certain standards of credibility.

In a republic, Snyder's chances improve immensely because the law is no respecter of majority rule.

In the law are rights that exceed the limits of our imagination, and sometimes even our stupidity.