MORALITY AND THE LAW CLXVIII
By Stephen Ellis
A FOND FAREWELL
Nobody asked me, and that’s the problem…
I’ve been writing this blog for 168 consecutive weeks. When it was published by American On Line (AOL) I had approximately 3,000 readers per week. But, a few months ago, AOL discontinued publishing blogs and I had to open a new site: moralityandthelawakanobodyaskedme.blogspot.com
The trouble is that I no longer have any readers…and it doesn’t make any sense to write a blog every week that nobody reads. So, this will be my final blog called “Morality and the Law”
For those few of you who like the way I write, I am writing another blog called Explaining Life’s Mysteries at “explaininglifesmysteries.blogspot.com” on my favorite topic, “the paranormal”.
If you really want to know what happens when you die…what UFOs are…what the mystery of “ghosts” or “communicating with the dead” is really about, I suggest you look up my blog and read it. I’ve had a number of paranormal experiences in my life and met a lot of other people who have, too. Every one of us has a one or more déjà vu experiences such as knowing, when the telephone rings, that it’s someone you haven’t seen or heard from in years…or…you have a specific dream or premonition about something happening…and it happens…or you are visited by a dead love interest or a dead family member...or you go someplace for the first time and yet you know you’ve been there before…and lots of other things that add to life’s mysteries.
What I try to do in my blog is explain these things in a very practical and logical way. I’m not a UFO freak or a ghost hunter. I simply look at things that do exist and try and give them rational explanations. In the case of religious “mysteries”, I try to document my explanations with historical records, wherever and whenever they exist.
It should be a very interesting blog to anyone who does not accept the fact that life is merely as we see it and that our scientists have explained everything there is to explain.
Insofar as “Morality and the Law” is concerned, I’ve covered a very tumultuous period of American History. The eight years of incompetence of the Bush Administration, the nomination and election of the first Black President of the United States; the near-demise of corporate giants such as Lehman Brothers, AIG, General Motors, etc.
The task facing Obama when he takes office next month are totally Herculean. I believe he will be a good president…maybe even a great one. Certainly he has amassed the most intelligent Cabinet in the years that I have been alive. How he handles the economy the jobless rate, etc. will be a matter for history to judge. But please…save your criticism of him until he has had a chance to do something. Those attacking him now, before he even takes office, are not good Americans.
Obama is going to need the help of American citizens who are fed-up with the graft and corruption that has become synonymous with American politics and corporate greed.
To anyone and everyone who reads this, I wish you a Very Happy Holiday Season. Have faith. America is strong and will survive the Bush years.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
MORALITY AND THE LAW CLXVII
By Stephen Ellis
NOBODY LOVES AN AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURER
Nobody asked me, but…
Even with the verbal support of President-Elect Obama…even with a Democratic majority in the Senate...even with the support of Republican President George W. Bush…the United States Senate again displayed the corruption and “I don’t give a damn” attitude towards the citizens of this country. How I wish I could fire some of those Senators on the spot!
The Senate turned down what is the single most important thing the Bush Administration could have accomplished in eight years of inept, sloppy, slipshod leadership of this country. Maybe…just maybe there is still hope for the American Automobile Industry to get sufficient money to follow-through on the turnaround they’ve started. But for the failure of the proposed $15 Billion in loans, we can thank the Republican members of the Senate. I may never vote Republican again!
The Republican members of the Senate voted against the loans stating that that GM, Chrysler and Ford could always file Chapter 11 under the Bankruptcy Code and work their own way out of it. Brilliant!
In the meantime, while going through the legal machinations of the Bankruptcy Court (who might well decide there is no practical reorganization possible) what’s going to happen to the million or so employees of these companies? If the “Big 3” (I use the term loosely) haven’t got the funds to pay their workers before bankruptcy, they sure aren’t going to have the money to pay them after filing bankruptcy. Oh well, what’s another million people without jobs going to mean to our Senate? Obviously, Republicans simply don’t care.
Or maybe they do care: it seems that the most vociferous voices from the Senate opposing the bailout for Detroit are Senators from States that have Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hundai and Mercedes plants in their states. Their Senators do care…but not for this country.
Granted, Detroit has some major problems to overcome, not the least of which is the Automobile Workers’ Union: Unions, for all the good they did in the days when management was virtually enslaving workers, are really a very unnecessary evil today. A simple example:
Last year, Toyota sold 9,700.000 automobiles world-wide…and netted $17 billion in profits. Coincidentally, Detroit manufacturers also sold 9,700,000 cars last year…and lost almost $70 billion. Toyota pays their factory workers (non-union) $35 per hour (not a bad wage). Detroit (strictly union) pays their factory workers a minimum of $70 per hour.
I certainly don’t have a problem with automobile workers getting a better wage…but when it impacts the American economy in a negative fashion, there are some corrections to be made. Union supported wage earners are not the only problem: Executives at Toyota make from $250,000 to $2,000,000 per year. Executives at Gm have an average wage of more than $2,000,000 per year. This, too has to be corrected. Detroit spends billions of dollars per year on experimentation and new ideas. Toyota copies those ideas at pennies on the dollar. This, too has to be corrected.
A word about our banks and insurance companies: These companies were quick to accept bail-out money…but not one of them has done anything to help ease the economic crisis our country is going through. That’s what the bailout money was for. But our inept Treasurer, Henry Paulson, just dished out the money as fast as he could without telling the banks and insurance companies how to use it.
Bank of America received almost $100 Billion. How did they thank this country for their taxpayer money? They fired 35,000 employees!
Citi Bank received almost $100 Billion of the bailout money. How did they thank this country for their taxpayer bailout? They fired 63,000 employees!
One bank even had the blatant audacity to use our taxpayer money bailout to buy a bank in China for $9 Billion. Now that’s really going to help our economy.
AIG is so thoroughly corrupt that they have been spitting in the faces of the American taxpayers since receiving their bailout money.
This entire economic recession can be squarely based on the banks and other financial institutions who packaged and sold mortgage-backed securities. For Paulson to “reward” them as he has done is nothing short of “criminal”.
I don’t know how, but I really hope an Obama administration will put an end to this bold thievery by our banks and insurance companies, and an end to incompetent people who are sitting in Cabinet positions..
As I said, nobody asked me
By Stephen Ellis
NOBODY LOVES AN AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURER
Nobody asked me, but…
Even with the verbal support of President-Elect Obama…even with a Democratic majority in the Senate...even with the support of Republican President George W. Bush…the United States Senate again displayed the corruption and “I don’t give a damn” attitude towards the citizens of this country. How I wish I could fire some of those Senators on the spot!
The Senate turned down what is the single most important thing the Bush Administration could have accomplished in eight years of inept, sloppy, slipshod leadership of this country. Maybe…just maybe there is still hope for the American Automobile Industry to get sufficient money to follow-through on the turnaround they’ve started. But for the failure of the proposed $15 Billion in loans, we can thank the Republican members of the Senate. I may never vote Republican again!
The Republican members of the Senate voted against the loans stating that that GM, Chrysler and Ford could always file Chapter 11 under the Bankruptcy Code and work their own way out of it. Brilliant!
In the meantime, while going through the legal machinations of the Bankruptcy Court (who might well decide there is no practical reorganization possible) what’s going to happen to the million or so employees of these companies? If the “Big 3” (I use the term loosely) haven’t got the funds to pay their workers before bankruptcy, they sure aren’t going to have the money to pay them after filing bankruptcy. Oh well, what’s another million people without jobs going to mean to our Senate? Obviously, Republicans simply don’t care.
Or maybe they do care: it seems that the most vociferous voices from the Senate opposing the bailout for Detroit are Senators from States that have Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hundai and Mercedes plants in their states. Their Senators do care…but not for this country.
Granted, Detroit has some major problems to overcome, not the least of which is the Automobile Workers’ Union: Unions, for all the good they did in the days when management was virtually enslaving workers, are really a very unnecessary evil today. A simple example:
Last year, Toyota sold 9,700.000 automobiles world-wide…and netted $17 billion in profits. Coincidentally, Detroit manufacturers also sold 9,700,000 cars last year…and lost almost $70 billion. Toyota pays their factory workers (non-union) $35 per hour (not a bad wage). Detroit (strictly union) pays their factory workers a minimum of $70 per hour.
I certainly don’t have a problem with automobile workers getting a better wage…but when it impacts the American economy in a negative fashion, there are some corrections to be made. Union supported wage earners are not the only problem: Executives at Toyota make from $250,000 to $2,000,000 per year. Executives at Gm have an average wage of more than $2,000,000 per year. This, too has to be corrected. Detroit spends billions of dollars per year on experimentation and new ideas. Toyota copies those ideas at pennies on the dollar. This, too has to be corrected.
A word about our banks and insurance companies: These companies were quick to accept bail-out money…but not one of them has done anything to help ease the economic crisis our country is going through. That’s what the bailout money was for. But our inept Treasurer, Henry Paulson, just dished out the money as fast as he could without telling the banks and insurance companies how to use it.
Bank of America received almost $100 Billion. How did they thank this country for their taxpayer money? They fired 35,000 employees!
Citi Bank received almost $100 Billion of the bailout money. How did they thank this country for their taxpayer bailout? They fired 63,000 employees!
One bank even had the blatant audacity to use our taxpayer money bailout to buy a bank in China for $9 Billion. Now that’s really going to help our economy.
AIG is so thoroughly corrupt that they have been spitting in the faces of the American taxpayers since receiving their bailout money.
This entire economic recession can be squarely based on the banks and other financial institutions who packaged and sold mortgage-backed securities. For Paulson to “reward” them as he has done is nothing short of “criminal”.
I don’t know how, but I really hope an Obama administration will put an end to this bold thievery by our banks and insurance companies, and an end to incompetent people who are sitting in Cabinet positions..
As I said, nobody asked me
Monday, December 8, 2008
OUR POOR AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
MORALITY AND THE LAW CLXVI
By Stephen Ellis
OUR POOR AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Nobody asked me, but…
It is very doubtful, at this time, if anyone questions the fact that Obama plans to hit the Oval Office running. He has put together an incredibly diverse Cabinet filled with absolutely top qualifiers. In fact, the Obama Cabinet should be able to help this country get itself straightened out. Certainly it is a hundred times higher quality Cabinet than we have had in Washington for the last twenty or thirty years.
As good as this “Super-Cabinet” team is, there are very major problems facing them that need to be addressed quickly:
Let’s look at the facts concerning the automobile industry: This is America’s largest business. It used to control the world’s auto market, but its world control was interrupted by (first) the Japanese Toyota, then other Japanese cars, then the German cars, etc. The problem with the American automobile industry was that it had become stagnant. The cars they were selling were inferior to those being imported. Instead of rising to meet the new challenges, the top execs at Ford, GM and Chrysler wanted “business as usual”. The result was very foreseeable: The Japanese and German car manufacturers passed the American manufacturers and left them in their wake. By the time the American car manufacturers started to rise to meet the competition, American car sales had fallen well below the profitability mark and the U.S. auto industry was “in trouble”.
The U.S. auto manufacturers have (finally) gotten it together and started to make cars as good as…and even better than the imported competition. But they’ve run out of money. It will take years before the public confidence in American made cars starts to return.
So, what do we do?
The U.S. auto industry has come pleading to Congress for loans to give them the chance to rebuild and reestablish themselves as world leaders. Congress has been slow to act, and it’s hard to blame them for acting slowly. The automobile industry has to re-prove themselves. At least 90% of the top executives have to be set free (without golden parachutes) and the people who fought for and finally got the auto industry to start changing and catching-up should be the new leaders…but not with the multi-million dollar salaries and benefits the former executives had.
Most important: Our government has to establish a commission (not politicians, just business people) to oversee how the money is being spent! If the government just grants them the loans without oversight, the money will be flushed down the toilet with the other hundreds of billions the auto industry has wasted.
If you want to know what happens if there is no governmental oversight, just look at our banks. The “brilliant” Henry Paulson (Treasurer of the United States) gave half the $700,000,000,000 bailout money to the banks and the Wall Street firms on the theory that if the banks have a lot of money, it will ease credit and credit will be available to everyone…thus curing the recession. Paulson felt that no oversight was needed.
So what happened? Citi Bank fired 63,000 employees just before Xmas. Bank of America refused to give loans to automobile suppliers and thousands of other companies forcing them into bankruptcy with the loss of hundreds of thousands more jobs.
O.K. The banks got “fat”…but they’re keeping the money to themselves and not using it as it should be used. They’re doing absolutely nothing to help us dig our way out of the recession.
The automobile industry tells us that they don’t want a hand-out, they want “loans”. Interesting that although the banks are 200 billion richer, no bank will offer any auto manufacturer a loan. No Wall Street firm will underwrite any new financing.
Oversight is absolutely essential! Paulson is just too stupid to realize this. Of course the fact that he is a Bush appointee, makes his stupidity understandable.
If the U.S. automobile industry is allowed to collapse, not only will millions of jobs be lost; not only will all the suppliers of auto parts, auto interiors, tires, etc. collapse and be forced into bankruptcy. It is a “sure-bet” to turn our recession into a full-fledged “depression”.
Money has to be loaned to the auto industry…and the use of the funds has to be supervised.
There is still no creative or innovative factor like the American mind anyplace else in the world. The American initiative is still there. It’s going to be in Obama’s hands to give it the opportunity to re-assert itself.
By Stephen Ellis
OUR POOR AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Nobody asked me, but…
It is very doubtful, at this time, if anyone questions the fact that Obama plans to hit the Oval Office running. He has put together an incredibly diverse Cabinet filled with absolutely top qualifiers. In fact, the Obama Cabinet should be able to help this country get itself straightened out. Certainly it is a hundred times higher quality Cabinet than we have had in Washington for the last twenty or thirty years.
As good as this “Super-Cabinet” team is, there are very major problems facing them that need to be addressed quickly:
Let’s look at the facts concerning the automobile industry: This is America’s largest business. It used to control the world’s auto market, but its world control was interrupted by (first) the Japanese Toyota, then other Japanese cars, then the German cars, etc. The problem with the American automobile industry was that it had become stagnant. The cars they were selling were inferior to those being imported. Instead of rising to meet the new challenges, the top execs at Ford, GM and Chrysler wanted “business as usual”. The result was very foreseeable: The Japanese and German car manufacturers passed the American manufacturers and left them in their wake. By the time the American car manufacturers started to rise to meet the competition, American car sales had fallen well below the profitability mark and the U.S. auto industry was “in trouble”.
The U.S. auto manufacturers have (finally) gotten it together and started to make cars as good as…and even better than the imported competition. But they’ve run out of money. It will take years before the public confidence in American made cars starts to return.
So, what do we do?
The U.S. auto industry has come pleading to Congress for loans to give them the chance to rebuild and reestablish themselves as world leaders. Congress has been slow to act, and it’s hard to blame them for acting slowly. The automobile industry has to re-prove themselves. At least 90% of the top executives have to be set free (without golden parachutes) and the people who fought for and finally got the auto industry to start changing and catching-up should be the new leaders…but not with the multi-million dollar salaries and benefits the former executives had.
Most important: Our government has to establish a commission (not politicians, just business people) to oversee how the money is being spent! If the government just grants them the loans without oversight, the money will be flushed down the toilet with the other hundreds of billions the auto industry has wasted.
If you want to know what happens if there is no governmental oversight, just look at our banks. The “brilliant” Henry Paulson (Treasurer of the United States) gave half the $700,000,000,000 bailout money to the banks and the Wall Street firms on the theory that if the banks have a lot of money, it will ease credit and credit will be available to everyone…thus curing the recession. Paulson felt that no oversight was needed.
So what happened? Citi Bank fired 63,000 employees just before Xmas. Bank of America refused to give loans to automobile suppliers and thousands of other companies forcing them into bankruptcy with the loss of hundreds of thousands more jobs.
O.K. The banks got “fat”…but they’re keeping the money to themselves and not using it as it should be used. They’re doing absolutely nothing to help us dig our way out of the recession.
The automobile industry tells us that they don’t want a hand-out, they want “loans”. Interesting that although the banks are 200 billion richer, no bank will offer any auto manufacturer a loan. No Wall Street firm will underwrite any new financing.
Oversight is absolutely essential! Paulson is just too stupid to realize this. Of course the fact that he is a Bush appointee, makes his stupidity understandable.
If the U.S. automobile industry is allowed to collapse, not only will millions of jobs be lost; not only will all the suppliers of auto parts, auto interiors, tires, etc. collapse and be forced into bankruptcy. It is a “sure-bet” to turn our recession into a full-fledged “depression”.
Money has to be loaned to the auto industry…and the use of the funds has to be supervised.
There is still no creative or innovative factor like the American mind anyplace else in the world. The American initiative is still there. It’s going to be in Obama’s hands to give it the opportunity to re-assert itself.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Killing in the Name of God
MORALITY AND THE LAW CLXVBy Stephen EllisKILLING IN THE NAME OF GODNobody asked me, but…The recent terrorist attacks in Bombay, India (now called Mumbai) were, in my opinion, a perfect example of the evils of religious beliefs.
Of course, the group behind the India attacks is still, officially, unidentified. This is a little surprising since the attacks had all the earmarks of Al Queda. This is not to suggest that there are not other radical Islamist groups that truly believe that when they get killed, they will be sent to Muhammad’s version of Heaven and be rewarded with twelve virgins to satisfy all their sexual desires and hand feed them grapes.
Don’t laugh! This what millions of radical Islamists believe. This is not written into the Koran, but it is what the radical Islamist Clerics teach their followers.
So, they kill any “infidel” in their way, and they don’t care if they get killed. By the way, an “infidel” is anyone who does not accept Allah as their one God and Muhammad as his only prophet. It is written into the Koran (the Islamic Bible) that all infidels must be exterminated. So, when scholars and other people talk about Islam as a beautiful religion, there is a deep conflict.
This is not to suggest that all followers of Islam are crazed killers. Most Muslims are family people who want their children to grow up and become doctors or lawyers, get married, have children and live at peace with their neighbors. But that’s not what their Bible tells them to do. Their Bible insists they follow every word of it, including bowing down to Mecca six times a day. Many followers of Islam have become educated and don’t take the Koran’s words literally…and sometimes they are punished for it.
The Koran directs that law be construed under Sharia Law…the most barbaric set of laws in the world. i.e. A woman who engages in any sexual relations (not just intercourse) with someone not her husband, shall be buried up to her neck, and stoned to death by her neighbors. This is still enforced in many Islamic nations.
All Bibles contain absurd rules to be followed. i.e. The Jewish Bible (the Old Testament) says that it’s OK to sell your daughter (Exodus 21:7); that anyone who does not observe the Sabbath should be put to death (Exodus 35:2); that anyone who wears glasses to correct a sight defect may not approach the Alter of God (Leviticus 21:20). There is a lot more. Fortunately, most Jews have become educated and live in the real world and not the world of 5,000 years ago. But most Muslims (followers of Islam) have not been educated.
My point is that if you accept the written scriptures of any Bible as being the word of God…you have major problems. Bibles were written by man, not by God.
There is a famous axiom: More people have been killed in the name of God than from all wars combined.
When these radical Muslims attacked the Taj and the Oberoi hotels in Mumbai, they had no purpose…no motive…other than to kill people…of course, in the name of their God. This is the same basic philosophy of Al Queda. Their God justified the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon because America is a nation of infidels…and pursuant to the Koran, all infidels must be killed. This is becoming a serious problem because the spread of Islam as a religion is growing. Muslims have just about taken over England with several areas of Great Britain now being controlled by Sharia Law and overriding the Common Law which England gave to the world. Muslims have become a major factor in Europe.
India is a predominantly Hindu population and Islam is a secondary religion… most believers in Islam moved to Pakistan when the two countries were separated in 1957: Pakistan was to be the Islamic State and India the Hindu State.
To me, it’s a shame when any religion breeds hatred for your fellow man rather than love.
As I said…nobody asked me.
Of course, the group behind the India attacks is still, officially, unidentified. This is a little surprising since the attacks had all the earmarks of Al Queda. This is not to suggest that there are not other radical Islamist groups that truly believe that when they get killed, they will be sent to Muhammad’s version of Heaven and be rewarded with twelve virgins to satisfy all their sexual desires and hand feed them grapes.
Don’t laugh! This what millions of radical Islamists believe. This is not written into the Koran, but it is what the radical Islamist Clerics teach their followers.
So, they kill any “infidel” in their way, and they don’t care if they get killed. By the way, an “infidel” is anyone who does not accept Allah as their one God and Muhammad as his only prophet. It is written into the Koran (the Islamic Bible) that all infidels must be exterminated. So, when scholars and other people talk about Islam as a beautiful religion, there is a deep conflict.
This is not to suggest that all followers of Islam are crazed killers. Most Muslims are family people who want their children to grow up and become doctors or lawyers, get married, have children and live at peace with their neighbors. But that’s not what their Bible tells them to do. Their Bible insists they follow every word of it, including bowing down to Mecca six times a day. Many followers of Islam have become educated and don’t take the Koran’s words literally…and sometimes they are punished for it.
The Koran directs that law be construed under Sharia Law…the most barbaric set of laws in the world. i.e. A woman who engages in any sexual relations (not just intercourse) with someone not her husband, shall be buried up to her neck, and stoned to death by her neighbors. This is still enforced in many Islamic nations.
All Bibles contain absurd rules to be followed. i.e. The Jewish Bible (the Old Testament) says that it’s OK to sell your daughter (Exodus 21:7); that anyone who does not observe the Sabbath should be put to death (Exodus 35:2); that anyone who wears glasses to correct a sight defect may not approach the Alter of God (Leviticus 21:20). There is a lot more. Fortunately, most Jews have become educated and live in the real world and not the world of 5,000 years ago. But most Muslims (followers of Islam) have not been educated.
My point is that if you accept the written scriptures of any Bible as being the word of God…you have major problems. Bibles were written by man, not by God.
There is a famous axiom: More people have been killed in the name of God than from all wars combined.
When these radical Muslims attacked the Taj and the Oberoi hotels in Mumbai, they had no purpose…no motive…other than to kill people…of course, in the name of their God. This is the same basic philosophy of Al Queda. Their God justified the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon because America is a nation of infidels…and pursuant to the Koran, all infidels must be killed. This is becoming a serious problem because the spread of Islam as a religion is growing. Muslims have just about taken over England with several areas of Great Britain now being controlled by Sharia Law and overriding the Common Law which England gave to the world. Muslims have become a major factor in Europe.
India is a predominantly Hindu population and Islam is a secondary religion… most believers in Islam moved to Pakistan when the two countries were separated in 1957: Pakistan was to be the Islamic State and India the Hindu State.
To me, it’s a shame when any religion breeds hatred for your fellow man rather than love.
As I said…nobody asked me.
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