ISIS is pathetic not fearsome

It is horrible that some black-clad wackadoos took 118 lives in Paris. How many Americans were killed by fellow Americans over the weekend? Its 30,000 a year, so from Friday through Sunday it must have been about 100 

Did we call out the troops? Curtail travel and unfettered activity? No. Timothy Mcveigh killed 168 people in 1995 by bombing a building. Did troops appear on street corners in Oklahoma City? Did. We consent to searches of our stuff? 

Why the heck are 118 deaths in a huge city in an even bigger country an ocean away making news here? Why is it making you scared? You are not under any threat. Your chance of seeing or being personally affected by a bad guy has not changed.

ISIS is a name only. It is not a meaningful threat to any American. The bigger, real, threats to Americans is that they develop diabetesor, or have a heart attack, or get in a car accident, or get shot by a police officer.  

Don't be scared. And don't let Trump or Cheney or anyone else who accumulates government power tell you to be scared. Americans don't cower. Your ancestors got on a rickety boat and sailed over rough seas for months just to get away from the overreach of the King and his power. Don't you think you have what it takes to face a graphic TV image without surrendering your liberty or dignity? 

GI Joe suicide cop was so credible. Like a politician.

The suicide cop story out of Fox Lake, Illinois shows that credibility trumps integrity, but thankfully only for a little while. Joe Gliniewicz, GI Joe, Kingpin of Corruption, the Rot that Fox built, was the poster child for honorable police officers. He was loved and respected by coworkers and the community. From a distance he was a clean shaven, tattooed knight in blue. Up close? A skittering cockroach, reeking of stolen money and cheap perfume.

He expertly cultivated a look. An appearance that villagers wanted to believe. He carefully sculpted a facade that gave him the power to rob his fans. It is a sadly familiar story. While the dullards were glorifying his veteran-cop image he was betraying their foolish trust and stealing their money to buy hookers, jewelry, and a bigger house.

As a sociopath, he was unmatched, with Ted Bundy-like charisma serving his selfish needs. He projected honesty and credibility, but he had no honor, no integrity and no moral standing. Today a news report said that he contracted to have the village manager killed. Why? Because that lady might uncover his misdeeds. This was the kind of cop that kills people, plants a gun, and makes up a story about how his life was in danger.

When a person appears too good to be true, they are. They really are. There is no purely good person. Anywhere. Those who strive to project their own perfection are usually desperate to fill the crags in their character. They smooth over their flaws, but the gaps are still there, rotting deeper under the veneer of respectability.

It is the political season and here they come dressed in pin-striped suits, wearing flag pins. The media loves the smooth, well-coiffed faces of those oh-so-credible smooth-talkers who want to  be in charge of your tax dollars, your relationships and your bodies. Remember GI Joe and be cautious. Be very cautious.

Going German

Today an excellent article reminded me that Germany is offering free college tuition to qualified international students. The article, on the BBC News website, described the program here: US Students get a uni degree for free in Germany. My life plans just changed.

My wife's family moved to the US from Greece the year before she was born. Her older sister was  born in Greece. My father in law was thirty-seven at the time. Thirty-seven! Several friends, cousins, and even an older brother had already emigrated to the U.S. by then. He saw his chance and bravely cut his tickets. He and his wife packed their scant possessions, their four-year old girl, and a few bucks they'd collected, and they got on a boat to the United States.  Talk about adventure. Talk about courage. Talk about a commitment to a better life for a family.

I admire that move, and I have a strong desire to take a similar step, but in the opposite direction. My teenagers have already been to Germany, Greece and Australia. They speak Greek decently, and have smatterings of a third (sadly not German). They have seen that the world is a big, amazing place with more opportunity than most of their peers imagine.

As they advance in their education, my kids are often asked to consider where they will go for college. I ascribe to the James Altucher idea that college is generally a waste of time and money. It makes no sense to blow four years of time to get buried in debt just to graduate to the bottom of a career salt mine, forced to take work you don't love, in order to pay off the debt. It sounds dumb that way doesn't it? That's because it is dumb. "College is for suckers" is my mantra (with exceptions). If college costs a fortune and the value of the education is dubious, then it makes no sense. On the other hand, getting an engineering or chemistry degree that will be recognized throughout the world, for no tuition cost, changes the game.

My wife and I like western Europe. Its culture has developed over more than a thousand years, lending to a social climate that is both more welcoming and more private at the same time. Its style, sensibility, and connection to the world at large make it a more interesting and dynamic place than say, southwest Ohio. Language is not a barrier. Most Europeans speak English well. We can always find a few Greeks for help, and Maria and I have transferable skills.  

U.S. universities are raising fees and costs at rates far greater than incomes are rising. The inverse proportion of annual room, board and tuition costs compared to post-graduation income has reached all time highs. The gulf between what a family spends on education and what a graduate might earn is terrifying. Yet Americans, like lemmings, continue their unthinking march to the college-at-any-price beat.

But we don't have to go over the cliff. I think we can send our daughter to Germany for her first year in university. I see my wife or me joining her for the first month to six weeks, and then returning to the states after she settles in. When her academic year ends, she can extend her European experience by living with extended family in Germany or Greece, working a job, or she can come back to the states. Knowing my girl, she will opt for a little more Euro-time.   

If she decides that it will be to her benefit, and we convince her brother to do the same, and the program still exists, then we will send our son to Germany too.  We will also rent out our home here and relocate there for the next few years. Maybe we will return to the States. Maybe we will live out the rest of our lives as ex-pat Americans in Europe. Maybe we'll move to a warmer climate in Spain or Costa Rica. If nothing else, we will enjoy the German lifestyle for a couple of years. That's the plan mein freunde.

Eins, zwei, g'suffa.

U.S. Congress by random draft #DraftCongress

In the service of the United States young men over the age of eighteen were at one time called to don uniforms, carry guns, and storm hills in the face of gunfire and bombshells. They were chosen from a random pool of boys who voluntarily registered their names and Social Security numbers, knowing they could be called to die for their Congress's and President's chosen path of bloodshed and disaster.


U.S. Congressmen, holed up in their cushy offices, far from gunfire or danger, called this process fair. It wasn't fair.  There were loopholes in selection that any well connected, white, college-aged man could avail himself of. See, for example, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush.


Nonetheless, many good men whose impact on the planet, its people and its fortunes will never be known, answered the call. They got suited up, shipped out and got killed. True, many came home just fine. Many never left the US. But many came back, broken. Badly. 


But it was mostly fair. Fearsome, unimaginably violent, dubious in origin, but fair. There is a current and far better use of that kind of random selection process now.


The U.S. should adopt a public service draft, by Constitutional Amendment of course, for Congress. All representatives would be chosen by a staggered, random drawing from all U.S. citizens between the age of 35 and 65. The single term of service would be four years with half of Congress replaced every two years. All who served would get DC dormitory housing for when Congress was in session and would be paid a daily stipend for their attendance at Congressional gatherings, which, I would bet, would be a whole lot less often than they are now. I estimate a drafted congress might meet once every three to six months and only for a week or so at a time. They could get reimbursed for constituent communication and events too. But only out of their district's tax payments.


Lobbyists would be mostly powerless. Committee assignments would be loathed and not coveted. Nobody would be out hunting for re-election support, so no company, cabal, or Netanyahu could consistently buy influence. There would be no lavish pensions, no junkets to foreign lands, and probably no more military-industrial complex. There would be a continued need for career specialists and administrative employees and agencies, but no more elected official class and its grossly ignorant buffoonery.


It is quite possible that with regular Americans in office, some meaningful, humane and relevant policies would be adopted. I would imagine quite a few bad laws would be stricken too. A drafted Congress would be efficient. There would be little to none of the "we have to do something" nonsense we have now. That fluff would disappear. There would be no patience for being away from home, family and work to vote for spending on National Broccoli Day recognition or some such.


Imagine. Members of the governed, called to govern, without a promise of influence or power, who just want to go through an agenda of pressing items and go home. Certainly if it was fair enough a process to choose young men to face death for the whims of their leaders, it is fair enough to choose citizens to make far less fatal and final governance decisions.  #DraftCongress

A little kindness goes a long way.

Over dinner last night, my family was discussing ways to be better conversationalists. None in that group are wallflowers or conversation hogs, but there were areas of improvement for all of us.


Sometimes one of us goes too long on details when the conversational story should be maybe ten seconds.


Another has a penchant for topping their conversational partner's story, any story, instead of appreciating it for what it is: the other person's story.


I tend to be blunt, gruff and impatient. My entire family gustily agreed with that self-criticism. In my usual fashion I explained I was often that way because it seems everyone who talks to me, family included, wants something.


And in the best advice I have received all year, my daughter said: "Maybe if you were kinder many people would want to give to you."


Yes. Best advice all year. Thanks Carrie. I will be kinder. I can and I will.


Smile first and the good stuff will follow. I know. I know.

Thinking AND feeling.

Maya Angelou said a lot of quotable things. One of my favorites is “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” At first this seems all squishy and poetic, but in practice it seems true. You won't recall exactly what your doctor gave you or what the treatment was, but you will recall feeling secure or relieved. If your plumber fixes your leaks quickly and at a fair price, you feel satisfied. You won't remember what he said or exactly what he did.

The Angelou doctrine applies to all interpersonal relationships and even to business relationships, which are, at their core, interpersonal.

Help your customers and your clients feel good about working with you by giving a little more than they bought. Help your employees to feel good about working for you, by giving them your support, respect and approval, and they will convey that to your customers.  When a customer feels valued and respected, then they will keep that sensation far longer than they will a memory of the hourly rate you charged for your services.

And I can't stress this enough, if a relationship or deal "feels" wrong to you, then it probably needs work. Our sub-conscious minds see and know more than we can articulate. That subconscious sometimes communicates with us through our emotions and our "guts". Let that feeling inform your thinking. It's there for a reason.

Amendments, Independence and Change

Proposed Constitutional Amendments

As I pondered Independence Day and saw that American approval of Congress and the Supreme Court had fallen to all time lows, I thought of some changes that may make the institutions less intolerable.  In no particular order:

Any two adults may marry as they choose and no legal benefit or privilege of that 

Marriage can be denied by any state, the federal government, or any agency.

Congress shall pass no law limiting the natural right of the People to procure, grow, cultivate manufacture or physically ingest any substance derived primarily from vegetation.

Congress may pass no law in respect of religion, and no court, judge, justice of the Supreme Court, agency, administrator, President, or Congressional body may accept any non-secular or religious belief, faith, opinion, teaching, rule or dogma as fact or evidence for any purpose whatsoever.

A person may serve as a member of congress, meaning either the House of Representatives or the senate, for no more than eight cumulative years in the member's lifetime.

Justices of the US Supreme Court may serve on the court for no more than eight cumulative years in a lifetime. 

From the effective date of this Amendment, Justices of the Supreme Court, Senators and Representatives alike shall receive from the US treasury an annual salary equal to the per capita income in the United States as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the year that member of Congress is elected to office, or the Justice is appointed.  Adjustments to the calculated pay up or down shall be made every two years during the member's or Justice's 's service. The human constituents of a representative's district, or in the case of a Senator or Justice, his or her resident state's human residents, may pay the member additional compensation, but only upon full, unlimited, contemporaneous public disclosure of the payor, the dates of payment and the amount of payment. No other payment or consideration of any kind can be made to any member of congress by any other person or corporation, and the District of Columbia shall not be considered a state. 

In response to the decisions by the US Supreme Court in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby, the People say that those decisions were wrong, are wholly rejected, and retroactively to the date of the Citizens United decision corporations are neither people nor human, and shall not be considered as such under any law, Constitutional provision or judicial decision.

No Federal or state government may expend any cash or credit of the United States or any of the several states to directly or indirectly fund any military force or the procurement of any materials that are not required to actually defend any part of the United States or any Territory thereof from an attack or invasion by foreign forces. If there is no actual attack or invasion, or imminent threat of attack or invasion of US borders by foreign forces, with imminent to mean more likely than not within twelve months, by physical, electronic or cyber forces, then no expenditure shall be made. No US citizen or assembly of US citizens, no matter where they are located, shall be considered a foreign force.

Terrorism is a tactic and not a sovereign nation or territory. From the effective date of this amendment Congress shall pass no law nor fund any action to conduct a war on terror, terrorists or terrorism.

No American citizen shall be deprived of any Constitutionally protected right. There are no exceptions to this clause. Violations of this clause by any government or police agent shall be considered acts of treason punishable by imprisonment and fines.

No person may be executed as a penalty for the commission of any crime. 

No US military force may be directly or indirectly funded, equipped, located or stationed, temporarily or otherwise, outside the United States or its territories and within the borders of any sovereign nation or territory unless it is during the conduct of a war on a sovereign nation that was declared by the President and approved by a 2/3 majority of both the House of Representatives and the senate. There are no exceptions to this clause.

A fella can dream of a Constitutional convention...