I'm not quite serious about this but... think about it.

Aliens among us?
A theory from the country filosofer

Aliens are visiting this planet to observe how civilizations always self destruct when they advance to a certain technological level. In the galactic past nearly 99% of civilizations never evolve or advance beyond our current level of technology. There are very few civilizations that learn how to cooperate on a worldwide basis to avoid destroying each other or poisoning their planet.
It is possible that we are actually the lab-rats for the aliens. We are short lived, easy to breed, and exhibit the inherent tendency to embrace self-destruction. If we ever expect to join the real citizens of the galaxy we must demonstrate that we can indeed become truly civilized. I expect however that a few samples of our race are even now being preserved to be used in the next experiment. Very few of us have the ability to see where we are headed. The Mayans could very well be correct: December 21, 2012 might be the last day for our current civilization.


Read Larry Niven’s short story: “What can you say about chocolate-covered manhole covers?” From: All the Myriad Ways

The recent crisis in the mortgage banking industry is a strong indicator of where a free-market economy can go if not over seen by a government with the willingness to reign in the organization that abuse the rights they have. Businesses exist to create wealth for the owners. Owners are for the most part shareholders with little actual influence on day-to-day operations of any company. At best they can vote their shares at stockholders meeting to influence policy with in the organization. 
With no oversight, business can approach financial anarchy where each decision is taken with consideration of maximum profit only. Hands-off government policies promote this way of doing business. The powerful business leaders have the ear of the lawmakers and can promote their own point of view on policy legislation. We have to be careful that this is not the only view the lawmakers hear. Responsible legislation promoting diverse opinions before major votes or policy decisions is one way. Stockholders should make efforts to know where their companies are headed and public disclosure must be encouraged. True Democracy depends on an informed voter and voting stockholders must be informed. 
Public interest organizations should make efforts to inform the voting stockholders and the public of views other than the business leaders’ profit-only-driven views.


Wyo_Knott

Small businesses hire the people in the lowest level of the economic structure. The person making less then $10.00 per hour does not have any income to put into economic growth. The small business owner (My definition of small business is a business with <$100000 per year net income for the owner). It is these people who most need to protection of the government to assure the businesses do not fall back on slave-like employee treatment and abuse.
 Small and medium businesses have a certain responsibility to the citizens of this country who provide them with the opportunity to be business owners. The business owner with the lawn service business and three employees is out there working hard with his crew. He doesn’t need oppressive taxation but the three employees must be protected from the tendency of business men to make maximum profit at the expense of others. The influx of Mexican-born general laborers for these low-level jobs and the hesitation of the government to control this influx serves to prove the tendency toward employee abuse and the government’s intentional blindness toward it. 
We have the minimal employee protections in place already. We must be sure the government has the means and the will to help when needed. The business owner can pay a small tax if his employees’ average income is below a certain level. This helps the government pay for the support for the people who cannot afford their own health insurance at the wage they’re paid. There is a wage level where the ability of a person to save a portion of his income into a 401-K plan does not exist. What if a business pays well enough that the employees as a group save a certain percentage into retirement plans? The company part of the Social Security tax could be reduced. A novel idea: rewarding businesses for being fair to employees.
 Even poor people have a right to a minimal level of life. They don’t have a right to a private beach house or a 55-foot yacht but they have the same rights as the business owner to pursue these things. Keeping people in their place by underpaying them for their work could be construed as a rights violation. I do not think it is but there is a very thin line that must be patrolled by socially conscious people. 
 Here’s a thought: If the annual net income of a business owner exceeds ten times the average wage and benefits package of his employees he should pay a small excess profits tax. This same rule could apply to the top executives of larger companies. It is just the cost of supporting the American Government that empowers the business to exist and grow.



Wyo_Knott

Even basic statistics cannot predict how a presidential candidate will act once in office. No pre-written and rehearsed speech will reveal the candidate’s heart and soul. No thirty-second paid ad or a 15 second sound bite from a speech shines a light on the future seen by the candidate.
In the end we know less about a presidential candidate than we know about the neighbor two doors down or the upstairs apartment. Our votes reflect our opinions that have been shaped by our experiences and colored by the political ads and sound bites of news reports.
In the voting booth, to a large part, we vote our personal, recent history. If your recent experience has been some what positive you may vote for more of the same. If you have recently lived a troubled recent history you will tend to vote for a change. How you perceive the candidates position on change is the actual guide for your vote.

Wyo_knott

Views on religion (this one will cause responses!)

The development of human civilization has been one product of the intelligence and instinct that are part of being human. Religion is one part of that development that has been influenced by the greater consiousness called by many names by many religions throughout the centuries. Most of these religions, inspite of their common cries to the contrary, are based on the same concept of God. The basic concept is to promote love and kindness for each other and to live in ways that allow each of us to be what we can be and to be recognized as individuals that are all equal in the eyes of each other. This concept is needed to help all of us supress the animalistic and self-centered instinctive drives that brought us to the top of the inhabitants of this world. Without some religious pressure helping us get along we could never have became civilized. We would be like roving packs of wolves ruled by the most vicious in the pack. When the pressures of religion are weakened on a strongly individualistic member of our society we get the Hitlers and the Saddam Husseins who have no real love for any other person. These persons can warp the intentions of the religious pressure in their own society to support their own self-centered goals.

I have never raised kids (another story for another column) but I believe the instinctive me-centered animal that any uneducated child is must be balanced and controlled by the education and religion that society needs. All criminals and criminal actions are in some part the result of ineffective education and faulty religious pressure. That said, I have to qualify the statement by defining my concept of criminal. Criminal activity is an extension of the way a child of, say four, will hit another child and take away something the other child has. Breaking a societal law or rule is not necessarily a criminal act in my mind. The victimless crime is an oxymoron. If there is no victim, there cannot be a crime. "Crimes" based on religious rules are certainly crimes imposed on people by the religious criminals who want to have their own way. They are just advanced forms of the uneducated 3 or 4-year-old who has not been properly instructed.

We have all lost sight of the true root message of religion and instead have become focused on the messengers and the formatting of the message. Many millions of people have died over the centuries because someone was convinced they followed the wrong god. In fact, both victims and killers were focused on their messengers and formatting and had ignored the message of God (which was the same to all).

WyoKnott

A science comment

First I have to declare my official ignorance of any form of science beyond high school physics. That said, I still have opinions on top of opinions or I wouldn't be spending time writing this.

I am convinced modern physicists have been beating their collective head on a wall for several years. There is a significant understanding of the measureable and predictable effects of gravity and the electromagnetic force. I suspect there may be a similar but not quite fully predictable understanding of the "strong" and "weak" nuclear forces. The grand unified field theory that Einstein was never able to produce is still eluding scientists even with all the technical advances in computing and all the experiments with various particle accelerators...etc. Science will be stuck in this level of understanding until some person with a bit of insight and a willingness to express it cracks the wall. I will not live to see it and with the way we humans are destroying our own environment we may loose the chance. We need to support education and science with open minds. We must not limit our support to those persons and projects that fit into the simple pigeon-holes of tradition. Support the fringes of science and personal style so that unique ideas get tested instead of supressed.

WyoKnott

Quit paying elected officials!

We are all aware that elected government officials such as senators and congressmen are constantly being "romanced" by various special interest groups and political action committees. There are always ways for these groups to influence the decisions of our lawmakers. Most of this activity happens behind the scenes, out of the public eye. I believe we need to know who our elected officials are being influenced by. Here is my proposal:

Stop paying elected officials from the public coffers. Let them freely and openly accept their pay from the groups they support. Any person running for election will be required to list all sources of their political income.  For example: Candidate Jones will announce his support for and payment by this list of organizations: The NRA,  the auto industry PAC, the right to life movement, the British conservatives group...etc. As voters we will know where his votes will fall on the issues we find important. We can choose to vote for the candidates who are supported by the organizations we agree with or against the candidates who are paid by groups we strongly disagree with. The more effective politicians will receive better pay from their support groups and we will not be  voting for candidates who promise the moon but deliver BS.

Think about it...

Welcome to Science Politics and Religion

I just created this blog and there is no content as yet. I plan to pour out my personal opinions about the three subjects in the title and I certainly expect to encounter disagreement. My only request is that your responses are not personal attacks, are reasonably literate and properly spelled (within reason).