“Don’t Make Your Failures his Success”
“But Relive His Success, As It Was Yours”
“And Then You Will Make a Perfect Bond”
“The Bond Of Parenthood, which is Lost in the Woods”

Well, don’t have Words to Start, and don’t have Feelings to Express. It seems this movie has done a ‘Balatkar‘ with words and taken me aback to the times of being an Idiot . Frens, I cannot tell how much I Laughed while watching it. It seems I haven’t had such a Great Laugh for a Long Long Time. My 36 bones shimmered all the while and are still widely stretched thinking of the movie.

So, the movie starts with a lot of manifolds in search of Mr. Ranchod. Whozzz this Ranchod is not a mystery to people, but it soon becomes one. Suddenly, it turns out to be a comedy flick with a lot of twist and turns around the college times. Some old jokes played naturally and beautifully by the 3 Idiots, and it really proved ONCE again, that Aamir really rocks.

Now, what’s that i liked the best, which i guess most of the people did enjoyed it as usual. The speech by Mr. Silencer – He really did a Balatkaar (replaced for Chamatkaar) and exposed those Sthan (replaced for Dhan). First time in Indian cinema, these words were used so decently, comically and frantically. I just luvssss that Speech.

But as in all the movies, some parts really kick out big time. One of them relates to the Delivery Circle. It was good to deliver Mr. Champ the OLD Style way (Yaad hai, who Dai ki KhushKhabri), but the ‘Aaaall Izzz Welllll‘ dialogue to wake the sleeping child was over and out. Other areas that were ‘Fucked’ up were just trivial, coz the movies credit wasn’t those silly out of the box pricks (Like Ms. Priya running from the wedding, or the scooty inside the hospital).

Lastly, and not the Leastly, if u haven’t watched this, then u really are missing something. And, this something is not Just Another Movie, but a TREAT to relive the times and the squares and the memoirs that have been left behind fading with Journey of Life. But, the real crux that came out, is a good point for our current system, coz it really badly truly and surely needs a change. A change to build up Geniuses (or Idiots) and not Geeks (or Bookworms) – See what you want, Ranchod or Silencer .

The whole movie was filled with fun and drama, but what it really conveyed to my lil Mind, was a sense of belonging to this System and a sense to Change the System. Ask this GenX what they want to do, rather than asking them to do what U wanted to do (but ofcourse, you cudn’t do). Don’t make your Failure his Success, but relive his success as it was Yours. Maybe, India gets some real kick-ass Futballers in Town (and FIFA will be ours ), and not another ‘Successful Person’ – That’s what the difference is between Excellence and Success .

Churns:
I was wondering who were the Idiots of our college, and my page returned ‘Error! Zero Results Found’. It was sad to believe, that among so Big Scholars, we did missed out a Single Idiot. Frankly, the Stupidity of thoughts has crossed all of us, but no body had the courage to show his Idiocracy. And here we are, just blinking and thinking, IF we could dump all those books and just say ALOUD and LOUD ‘Chachuuuuuuuu Aallllll Izzzzz Welllllllllllllllllllllllll‘ ——– That’s a Relief .

Fact File:
I am happy whatever transpired during those 4 Long Years, and I would really Love to go back and relive those Days Again. But this time, i did really look out for that ‘BABA‘ person, to whom we can ‘Samarpit‘ #$%^& [Pants Down] .

“We are prisoners of our culture, break free or die.” (Click on quote for meaning.) This post deals with the healthcare bill.  Our broken culture has given us the worst healthcare system of the leading developed countries, and prevents us from even considering an approach that would give us a competitive healthcare system (w.r.t. both outcomes and cost).

1^st my view on the current bill.  The house version is marginally better than the senate one, but we will end up with a version closer to the senate one.  The bill sucks, but it does have a few worthwhile attributes (e.g. providing 30M uninsured Americans with health care insurance starting in 2014), and, as such, I hold my nose, and support its passage (also see Krugman’s Op-Ed, Pass the Bill, and his blog entry, Numerical notes on health care reform).  Like Medicare Part D (the drug provision passed a few years ago), it improves the status quo, w.r.t. the suffering, but with a high cost to others, and a major boon to the insurance and drug companies .  Now, on to the culture aspects.

Our Healthcare System is Broken

First, all other developed countries provide healthcare for all their citizens.  Only in America do people die because of a lack of insurance.  As reported in a recent study, about 45,000 Americans die each year because of a lack of insurance.  The cost of covering the ~45 million uninsured Americans is about $100 Billion per year (about 3% of the Federal Budget).  In addition to the uninsured, about 25 million Americans are underinsured (a 60% increase from 2003).  62% of all personal bankruptcies are related to illness or medical bills.  About 80% of these are by families that have medical insurance.

(Note:  all the following comparative country data is from the 2009 OECD health report.  OECD consists of the developed democratic countries – 30 in all.  Here is the spreadsheet (XLS). The data is from 2006 since later data is not yet available for some countries.)

Second, by key metrics, we have worse outcomes than other developed countries.  In life expectancy at birth, the US ranks 24^th (beating only Hungary, Turkey, Slovakia, Mexico, Poland, and Czech Republic).  In infant mortality, the US ranks 28^th (only Mexico and Turkey have a higher rate). To get into the top 10, we would have to cut our infant-mortality rate in half.  But Americans surely have better access to health care, right?  Of the 20 countries reporting on number of doctor consultations per capita per year, the US is 19^th (3.8) vs. Sweden (2.8).  Some others:  Canada (5.8), France (6.4), UK (5.1), Netherlands (5.6), Germany (7.4).  Of the 26 countries reporting (and also excluding Luxembourg, because of its size) on number of hospital beds per capita, the US is 25^th at 3.2 vs. 2.7 for Turkey.  Some others: Canada (3.4), France (7.2), UK (3.6), Netherlands (4.5), Germany (8.3).

Third, we pay much more than any other developed country.  Total healthcare expense as percent of GDP (2006) was 16% for the US.  The average of all the other OECD countries was 8.6%.  The highest was France at 11%.  The ones between 10 and 11% are: Switzerland, Germany, Belguim, Austria, and Canada.  Another way of looking at the data is the per capita healthcare expense in US$ purchasing power parity.  In 2006, the US was $6,933.  The next highest countries are Norway ($4,507), Switzerland ($4,165), Luxembourg ($4,162), Canada ($3,696), Austria ($3,608), Netherlands ($3,611), Germany ($3,464), and France ($3,423).  The rest are less, e.g. UK, Spain, Italy, and Japan are all less than $3,000.  But one factor to take into consideration is the percent of the population over 65, since they account for so much of the healthcare expense.  I just downloaded a report from the US census bureau, An Ageing World 2008.  From table B-1, the percent of the US population 65 and older in 2010 is estimated at 13%.  For the large western European Countries, it is ~18% (e.g. 20% for Germany and Italy, 16.5% for France and UK).  Japan is at 22.6%.  So, given these demographics, we should expect the US to have near the lowest healthcare expense.  Yet the exact opposite is true!

Obvious conclusion: Our healthcare system sucks.  Besides being cruel to 15-25% of our citizens, the cost/benefit is the worst in the world, and it puts our US based manufacturing at a competitive disadvantage, since employers bare most of the insurance cost.

Our Culture Inhibits Good Solutions – NIH and a Broken Political System

In the context of healthcare, NIH is the acronym for our National Institutes of Health, one of our better government funded agencies.  But in this post, I mean: Not Invented Here.  Rather than learn from the experience of others, we are more inclined to view other approaches negatively.  And, our political ideologies outweigh pragmatic, known-to-work solutions.

Ideology vs. Pragmatism.  We live in a global economy. The far-left view of “Globalization is bad for the American worker” is true to some extent, but is irrelevant – Globalization is simply the new waves in the ocean of life – you either get up on your surfboard and ride the waves, or drown.  The far-right view of no significant change to our broken healthcare system has already proven (over more than just the last decade), through increasing costs and continued suffering, to lead us into a competitive death spiral w.r.t. cost per employee.

Neither the far-left nor the far-right wants to compromise their ideals and realize: “OK, our healthcare system is totally broken.  All developed countries have a better system than we do.  What can we learn from their success to reduce our costs, improve our healthcare, and reduce the suffering of so many of our fellow citizens?”

The far-right is the biggest obstacle to change, and with the greatest NIH attitude.  All the reform proposals are labeled as an increasing step to “socialism”.  They are correct.  For 20+ years, I was registered as a Libertarian.  A Libertarian believes that the only role of government is a “monopoly of force” – e.g. police and military.  EVERYTHING else should be provided by the private sector – including roads, schools, firefighters, etc.  A Libertarian is a free-market capitalist.  There is no role for most of the taxes that we pay, especially the income tax.  There is no social security, no medicare, no medicaid, no unemployment insurance, no Federal Reserve, no FDIC, no national parks, no environmental regulations, etc.  When most of these was proposed in the last 100 years, it was rightly labeled “socialism”.

But since retiring in 2001, I’ve switched from being a Libertarian to being a Pragmatist.  In the context of healthcare, in particular, we all need to be pragmatists.  Forget the ideologies and labels.  Almost 50% of US healthcare expenses are already paid by the government.  So are we already healthcare socialists?  So let’s get real. Since the founding of our country, we have increasingly become more socialist – we are now only debating the extent.  One example to think about: Utilities (electric, gas, water) are mostly private, but are heavily regulated.  Are you OK with your electric utility being regulated, but not your healthcare (especially given the above economics)?

The far-left makes the mistake of advocating single-payer healthcare.  And the far-right uses this to scare people, e.g. the death-panel rhetoric.

However, very few people realize that many of the healthcare systems in other developed countries are NOT single payer.  Although Canada and the UK are single payer, France, Germany, and the Netherlands are not.  In these 3 (and many others), there is a multiplicity of competing private insurance companies.  In these 3, there is significant government regulation.  But in all 3, individuals have a choice of their insurance – it is not tied to their employer.  And, all people are covered.  I am not going to describe the healthcare system of each of these countries, but here are a few links for more information:  Netherlands, France, and, Germany.

My major “culture” concern is our NIH attitude that I’ve just described.  But of equal importance is the political influence of the health-insurance and drug-companies on our political system.  The latter is obvious to even the casual observer.  But for completeness, one example is appropriate.  The Medicare Part D regulation prevented the government from negotiating drug prices.  But the Veterans Administration (VA) does negotiate drug prices in connection with VA drug benefits.  So the price paid by the VA for a drug is less than that paid for under Medicare Part D.  The current healthcare bill continues this practice.  The Senate bill also prohibits the importation of drugs from other countries.  My proposal is simple: for a drug to be approved for sale in the US by the FDA, the drug company must agree to not sell it for more than the 1.05X the lowest price it charges for the same drug in the OECD countries.  Simple, but political death to any congressman/senator who would propose it.

Summary

Our culture has resulted in a broken healthcare system.  And, our culture prevents us from fixing it.  The best we can hope for is a bill that will help many of the abused victims, but, at best only slow the system’s cost/benefit deterioration.  Depressing, isn’t it?

“Jam, Morcha, Hartaals – Enemy at the Gates“

“Ek Jam Tere Naam, Dusra Jam Satta ke Naam, Teesra Jam Mudde Ke Naam, and the story continuesss……“

It’s been a common fantasy of the ‘Unmentionable’ beings to propose things differently. One of the methods being used regressively is Morcha aka Jam. This new weapon seem to come out as the biggest Hit and Fit attack on the masses with a Bang. It’s more in fashion than the latest bikinis in town. The good thing, everyone hates it, but still is a part of it every now and then. Uknowingly, we all are prey to a system, a system debarred by the ingenuity of being disparage.

Let’s see how this Good will Hunting really helps. Well, it helps the masses and the classes a lot. For a volunteer it is a means to escape work. For the manager or the driving force it is Just Another way to promote his presence. It helps those who taketh, and it helps those who giveth (original lines from Shakespeare is for Mercy). The one’s who are just on a back seat, within the Jam, have a reason for treason – Sir, there is a Jam at the link road, and all traffic is down, “I won’t be able to make it today”. For our active police, it’s finally some Work to manage the crowd, and protect the Jammers.

Ooooh, did i say Protect. Yes Sir!!! Jam is not a crime, it is a humble protest seen as public surmise for a humble request. It’s not at all a bad idea to block the passage, as long as “The Big Shots” are behind their asses. The power to be ONE and Only comes not from within, but from the closed doors of White Laden cinema. They rightly understand the meaning, the meaning of “Great Powers and Great Responsibility”. One of these so called “Responsibilities” is to engage public in public matters of public interest in a public place with public support publicly troubling the innocent public.

So, whozzz to be blamed, is it the “Power laden Netas aka Politicians” or the “Foolish Public”. Well, the director is blamed for a movie, the writer for the script and the actors for acting. Similarly, this whole Jam is a drama of thoughts and political propaganda, with people being mere players, playing their parts. Even with so much of lush around, these Jams offer a great way to achieve Long Term Goals. The struggling Party Member gets to the front page of a leading newspaper, the driver gets a ticket to Hollywood, the actors get a car in this confusion, the cameraman  earns love of his supporting anchor, and the players get money for every show being put up here and there (Economy rises this way).

The other pros, you don’t need a reason to skip your office, an emergency case is delayed, and the nearest hospital charges twice the pace, you don’t need a reason to say no for shopping, and your child can rest at home, a good break from the loads of school. The girl-boy pair can be free anywhere, as everyone is busy, and no one cares. Even when there is nothing to do, people sit around the TV and listen on carefully. See, the TV that was cursed for ‘Saas Bahu’ progs, is finally in use with some news. Alas, the breakdown of thoughts, and the mingling of minds, produce a result. A result, quite fragile, that was for the pulic, is only only supposed to be for it. The real motive is out of question, as we still ponder over it years later, while these Jams come every fortnight, not for a reason but to treason with our own sanctity.

Fact File
Frens, not to fall prey to this concept of Jams. The above article pictures a true aspect, but ironically. Truly, it’s a pain for us, and for all. It’s not us who benefit. It is just a weapon BY the people, OF the people, but not FOR the people. We might not come to know of it sitting at home, infront of the TV, but for whom it is an emergency, will know the PAIN of it. Even hartaals are a subset of this, so humbly try to avoid things like this, to an extent as possible, until solely necessary.

Cheers!!!

I just wrote a “heavy” post, Break Free: Afghanistan – Between a Rock and a Hard Place.  So, I thought it best to write a lighter one.  The following bit of thought-provoking humor occurred in an Andrew Sullivan blog post:

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day the farmer drove up and said, ‘Sorry Chuck, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.’

Chuck replied, ‘Well, then just give me my money back.’

The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.’

Chuck said, ‘OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’

The farmer asked, ‘What ya gonna do with a dead donkey?’

Chuck said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’

The farmer said ‘You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’

Chuck said, ‘Sure I can. Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’

Chuck said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.’

The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’

Chuck said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.’

Chuck now works for JP Morgan.

I sent this off to a wall-street financial guru, and got this thoughtful reply (with a few insignificant edits):

This reminds me of securitizations.  You take junk (dead donkey) and put it in something, you mix it up, slice and dice it into a CDO (Collaterialized Debt/Donkey Obligation) and magically, some triple A paper comes out of it. The buyers don’t complain, they just bought the crap (tickets) because it is rated AAA.  JPM was the master of this type of securitization.  So Chuck has all of the qualifications to make it big at JPM!  Wall Street has been selling dead donkeys for a long time and they paid signing bonuses to people like Chuck who could find creative ways of selling dead donkeys.  The $64K question:  was there a donkey to begin with?!  On Wall Street, in the end, they started creating securitizations from thin air.  The really sad joke is some of this crap is on the Fed’s balance sheet, as revealed in documents of the Lehman bankruptcy filings and subsequent court documents.

And to further complete the picture:  AIG sold CDSes (credit default swaps) on these CDOs, i.e. AIG was insuring that the “dead donkey” wouldn’t die.  And, by our government’s bailout of AIG, we effectively paid off on these insurance policies.

I could have made this post part of my “Break Free” series, since our financial/economic crisis was enabled by our declining culture.  But I want to leave that to a more detailed blog post on the subject.

“We are prisoners of our culture, break free or die.” (Click on quote for meaning.) This post deals with our Afghanistan strategy.  For hundreds of years, western countries have projected their culture onto native populations (e.g. in Africa in the 1800’s) with fatal consequences for all.

We have made this mistake from our invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and continue to do with Obama’s strategy.  Fundamentally, Afghanistan is roughly equivalent to a 12^th century European feudal society in a bleak landscape with insignificant natural resources, and we are trying to impose a 21^st century government/societal/economic structure.

Various facts about Afghanistan are available from the CIA.  72% of adults (age 15 and over) are illiterate.  The birth rate is the 4^th highest in the  world (6.5 children born per woman).  Life expectancy at birth is 44 years (214^th in the world out of 224).  75% of the population is in rural areas.  Key environment issues: “limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate supplies of potable water; soil degradation; overgrazing; deforestation (much of the remaining forests are being cut down for fuel and building materials); desertification; air and water pollution.”  The terrain is mainly rugged mountains.  The climate is arid to semi-arid, with hot summers and cold winters.  There are multiple ethnic groups (Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimak 4%, Turkmen 3%) and languages/dialects (Dari 50%, Pashto 35%, Turkic languages 11%, 30 minor languages 4%).  The 2008 GDP was $11.7 Billion, of which ~$3 Billion was from the illicit Opium trade.  80% of the labor force is engaged in agriculture.  The unemployment rate is 40%.

Afghanistan is a tribal society with adherence to tribal authority, and loyalty is to the tribe.  And, we are trying to impose a centralized government onto this tribal structure which has lasted for hundreds of years.  And, just to make it even more challenging, we are trying to do this with an illiterate, rural population living in a bleak landscape, with opium being the cash crop.

To get a sense of the hopelessness of the Afghan situation, articles by Scott Ridder (long) and Glenn Greenwald (short) are worth a read (click names for the articles).  Here is an excerpt from Ridder on Obama’s strategy:

At its heart, the strategy requires a fiercely independent people to swear fealty to a man, Hamid Karzai, whose tenure as Afghanistan’s president has been marred by inefficiencies and corruption. Trying to reverse centuries of adherence to local authority and tribal loyalty with the promise of effective central government would represent a monumental challenge for the most efficient and honest of Afghan leaders. That we are attempting to do so behind the person of Karzai represents the height of folly.

For any military-based solution to have a chance of succeeding, we would need to deploy into Afghanistan an army of social scientists capable of navigating the complex reality of intertribal and interethnic relationships. They would require not only astute diplomatic skills that would enable them to bring together Hazara Shiite and Pashtun Sunni, or Uzbek and Tadjik, or any other combination of the myriad of peoples who make up the populace of Afghanistan, but also an understanding of multiple native languages and dialects. But the reality is we are instead dispatching 20-year-old boys from Poughkeepsie whose skill set, perfected during several months of predeployment training, is more conducive to firing three rounds center mass into a human body.

The Greenwald (late October) article is interesting, because of this:

Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain with combat experience in Iraq, resigned last month from his position with the Foreign Service, where he was the the senior U.S. civilian in the Taliban-dominated Southern Afghanistan province of Zabul, because he became convinced that our war in that country will not only inevitably fail, but is fueling the very insurgency we are trying to defeat.  Hoh’s resignation is remarkable because it entails the sort of career sacrifice in the name of principle that has been so rare over the last decade.

Here are some excerpts from Hoh’s resignation (click to download the 4-page PDF) – emphasis is mine:

Next fall, the United States’ occupation will equal in length the Soviet Union’s own physical involvement in Afghanistan. Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people.

If the history of Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is no more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy that not only pits tribes, valleys, clans, villages and families against one another, but, from at least the end of King Zahir Shah’s reign, has violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modem of Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional.  It is this latter group that composes and supports the Pashtun insurgency. The Pashtun insurgency. which is composed of multiple, seemingly infinite, local groups, is fed by what is perceived by the Pashtun people as a continued and sustained assault, going back centuries, on Pashtun land, culture, traditions and religion by internal and external enemies. The U.S. and NATO presence and operations in Pashtun valleys and villages, as well as Afghan army and police units that are led and composed of non-Pashtun soldiers and police, provide an occupation force against which the insurgency is justified. In both RC East and South, I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul.

I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young men and women in Afghanistan. If.honest, our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan. Yemen, etc. . . . the September 11th attacks, as well as the Madrid and London bombings, were primarily planned and organized in Western Europe; a point that highlights the threat is not one tied to traditional geographic or political boundaries.

I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.

Although I strongly disagree with Obama’s Afghan plan, I am sympathetic with his thoughtful decision.  Even the president is a “prisoner of our culture.”  If he failed to supply the troops that General McChrystal requested, the political fall-out would have been severe.  I doubt if any of Obama’s challenging legislative plans on the myriad of other issues could be passed.  So Obama’s decision was politically pragmatic, in my view.  It is also likely that the troop surge will temporarily improve the Afghan situation.

In addition to the cultural flaws in our war strategy, the way that we are waging the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is degrading our culture.  War should always be the last resort, and when we go to war, it must be a shared sacrifice.  Instead, the sacrifice in our current wars has fallen on just 1% of our population, and the financial burden we’ve left to future generations.  Bob Herbert had a thoughtful OpEd in the NY Times on this.  An excerpt:

The air is filled with obsessive self-satisfied rhetoric about supporting the troops, giving them everything they need and not letting them down. But that rhetoric is as hollow as a jazzman’s drum because the overwhelming majority of Americans have no desire at all to share in the sacrifices that the service members and their families are making. Most Americans do not want to serve in the wars, do not want to give up their precious time to do volunteer work that would aid the nation’s warriors and their families, do not even want to fork over the taxes that are needed to pay for the wars.

To say that this is a national disgrace is to wallow in the shallowest understatement. The nation will always give lip-service to support for the troops, but for the most part Americans do not really care about the men and women we so blithely ship off to war, and the families they leave behind.

Within the context of our broken culture, the right paths for many issues (i.e. the Iraq/Afghan wars, climate change, immigration, health care, the economy) are beyond our reach.  Instead the available pragmatic paths are best described by Woody Allen: “We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness; the other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice.”

None of that

“We are prisoners of our culture, break free or die.” (Click on quote for meaning.) This post deals with the decline in the quality of mainstream news reporting and the increasing mistrust of science by Americans.  “Climategate” provides a perfect example of both.

What is Climategate? A computer server at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia was hacked into and emails going back many years were stolen.  As Media Matters notes: “Since the reported theft of emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, conservative media figures have aggressively claimed that those emails undermine the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activities are causing climate change, dubbing the supposed scandal ‘Climategate.’ But these critics have largely rested their claims on outlandish distortions and misrepresentations of the contents of the stolen emails, greatly undermining their dubious smears.”

It has been fascinating to see the continuing lies in the media.  They have no interest in the facts and no interest at all in the science.  Of course, some of the biggest culprits are the expected ones: Faux Noise Channel, Washington Times, Wall-Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, et al.  And, then there are the pundits, Limbaugh, Palin, and George Will.  Perhaps most disturbing is the spread to more reputable media, e.g. ABC.

Media Matters does a thorough job of tracking the distortions and lies.  Here are but a few links to their reports on:  Palin, George Will, Faux Noise, Washington Times, ABC.  These reports also have the links to the originals.  A good succinct one is the Palin one.  For far more detailed and much longer analysis, see Climategate Exposed.

Irrespective of “Climategate”, the WSJ had a balanced article on what the Global Warming skeptics say, and what the scientists say:  What Global Warming? For a more scientific (but still brief and readable), article, see the Scientific American article: Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense.

Joe Conason had a good short opinion piece on Climategate: Fair and Balanced (and Phony) Science. His closing paragraph: “Meanwhile, the scientific consensus remains unshaken and profound. From the thousands of scientists who participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the National Academy of Scientists, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Royal Society and the hundreds of peer-reviewed studies published over the past 15 years, the findings are plain enough. Global warming is real, with serious consequences for humanity. Hiding from the truth won’t change it.”

In contrast, the Washington Times editorial provides a key example of the main point of this post.  Some key excerpts:  “Belief in global warming had long had a tinge of theology about it, a form of cultism that adherents and defenders elevated to a holy crusade.  . . . The e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit reveal systematic attempts by high priests of this religion to silence scientists who disputed their rigged findings. . . . Global warming was an academic Ponzi scheme. Its leading proponents were mini-Madoffs, peddling a vision of global catastrophe to gullible activists, bureaucrats and policymakers.  . . . The veil has been pierced, the myth revealed, the scales have fallen from the people’s eyes. The pagan priests are fleeing the temple, their sacred idols are being pulled down, their holy works renounced. Their god, finally, is dead.”

For more information on the physical science basis for global warming: IPCC 2007 report (~1000 pages). But a better and more readable piece is their FAQ (PDF format), which is just 45 pages and filled with lots of pictures and charts.

One other disappointment in the US media reporting on the Copenhagen summit is no mention of the relatively newer scientific findings that increased levels of CO2 is having the on the oceans, i.e. the problem of Ocean Acidification.  The good news is that our oceans are a big sink for CO2.  The bad news is that this increases ocean acidity.  This poses a major risk for marine life, and could have both sooner and more significant effects than Global warming.  In contrast to the US media, UK’s Guardian has had excellent coverage on this issue:  Ocean acidification rates pose disaster for marine life, major study shows (Report launched from leading marine scientists at Copenhagen summit shows seas absorbing dangerous levels of CO2).  Here is an excerpt from the article:

“The world’s oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 55m years, threatening disaster for marine life and food supplies across the globe, delegates at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen have been warned.  A report by more than 100 of Europe’s leading marine scientists, released at the climate talks this morning, states that the seas are absorbing dangerous levels of carbon dioxide as a direct result of human activity. This is already affecting marine species, for example by interfering with whale navigation and depleting planktonic species at the base of the food chain.”

The article has several good links to other articles, as well as a link to a 12-page European research report (the introductory guide).  If you would like something that is easier to digest, watch online the 20-minute NRDC documentary with Sigourney Weaver:  Acid Test.

In a recent CNN poll, the number of Americans who say that global warming is caused by humans has dropped from 54 percent last summer to 45 percent now.

Bottomline: I see the results of the degradation in our culture, but have no idea on how to change it.  Depressing, isn’t it?

I am going to start blogging again.  As the title implies, I am going in a different direction.  In the future, when you see a blog entry title “Break Free”, it will be on this theme: “We are prisoners of our culture, break free or die.” This entry will discuss what I mean by this.

Our broken political system and, to some extent, our values prevent sound long-term solutions from being implemented in education, health-care, infrastructure, immigration, energy, climate change, the economy, foreign policy, tax system, food safety, etc.  I feel about our country about the same way that I felt about Intel when I left in 2001 – in a downward spiral and powerless to stop it.

I had hoped that 8-years of Bush were enough of a shock to turn our country around.  Apparently, not.

Intel was able to turn itself around, before things became too bleak.  Unfortunately, I am not hopeful on as favorable outcome for our country.  So we will likely continue on our downward spiral until we get to the point of sufficient despair which will facilitate real change.

Our downward spiral will be an uneven journey, and occur over a period of several decades.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.

But first since some of the words in this entry could be easily misinterpreted, I want to make one very clear point.  I am NOT advocating a revolution. But I suspect that the kind of changes that I will be discussing over the next month or so will probably require a constitutional convention.  In 1787, there was a constitutional convention which resulted in replacing our Articles of Confederation with our current US constitution.

There are solutions to our problems.  But we are trapped by our “culture”.  We only consider workable solutions to a problem within this context, e.g. what legislation can get passed by the congress versus the legislation that we actually need to solve the problem (which can’t get passed).  In this sense, we are prisoners of our culture.

The only path must then be to change our culture, i.e. our political system and our values.  We must break free, or we will die.  More specifically, like the Roman Empire we will suffer from the rot within.

My intent in future blog entries is to provide some examples of how broken our culture is, and sometimes directions for solutions that are impossible in the context of our current culture.

I was the only one who could save myself.

He was the one who told me that.

**

I book the thorns to come to me

When I lie in a bed of roses

And I tell the roses that I still believe in them

But the thorns provide the contours for my soul to bleed and weep and find out what oozes from within me…. what I am

**

Some impromptu thoughts out there…

Last sunday night, it happened. 22nd November, that is. All the while I wondered if I loved someone… and kept denying that. Denial mode, that is me. At least when it comes to love. And then, on that Sunday, it struck me that I never wondered if that someone ever loved me… the result for this kind of thinking is always positive. I do leave a scar on people. It is either a mark that is treasured or hated. But a mark, it is, nevertheless. A knowledge that makes the heart that yields that scar, infinitely heavy.

I don’t still know what I’ll do this time.

He asked me what was wrong with the world. Rather, my perception off it. I couldn’t really answer that question. May be because I know the answer too well. I’ve breathed in that vacuum for long. Or may be, I am just playing with my mind and the toy is melancholy with a capital M.

And suddenly, this morning, I feel like saving the world… not that I think very highly of it, but I need to keep myself going… for what, I don’t know.

A close friend Deepak Nagar, mentioned that I must believe in goodness and there are infinite poems, songs and films on hope (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), but then…. I also read some of many quotes squashing our beloved word and emotion, Hope: Hope is a lousy defense.

I still don’t know what path I shall take to.

But Today, I am fighting for some people I believe in…

Long live Migrane, long live Coffee… long live the Fight.

Dreams flash by and I see all I wish to be. I see the possibilites before me. And yet guilt overtakes me. It consumes all that I am. Confusion reigns in me. I must fight and break free to see the truth in me. What is truly right and wrong? I must fight to live the life I am truly destined to have.   I can be free. I can see. It will take time. Yet one day I will be where I am to be. Wrapped in love, wrapped in truth from God above. I will be. Dreams flash by, dreams of you  and of me…one day to be.

11-12-09  5:00 pm

This is a sketch I did at Calvary church this past Sunday. It’s about ‘breaking free;’ relying totally on God to lead and stepping out of my comfort zone in the faith that Jesus lives through me. I’m still learning how to let God lead.

We  have all heard of  the phrase ‘to stand out from the crowd’ .  If you are looking to land that job you have been after or impress some one on a date then it is quite useful to be able to ‘stand out from the crowd’. If you have ever found yourself overlooked for opportunities when other less experienced or less qualified people manage to push in front of you  then the chances are you were just not getting yourself noticed enough. Why ? the chances are because you have been too timid or shy about it.
Some people say shyness is the natural enemy of confidence and with good reason.  Now don’t get me wrong a little shyness in the form of modesty is an attractive attribute to a lot people but we are not talking about that. What we are discussing here is the type of shyness that prevents you from speaking clearly to people. The sort of shyness that prohibits you from being outward to people you don’t know. In short the type of confidence that can prevent you from achieving your full potential.

There is a common perception amongst many shy people that they are ‘the way they are’ due to genetic or other biological reasons.  Now we are not here to have a biology lesson (lets’ leave that to the scientists) but let me assure you of this fact. There is not a single shy person who can’t  get rid of  their inhibitions should they choose too no matter what their biological make up. This is because as human beings we have the ability to make ourselves be what ever we want. What is important is to have the will to change  and,  just as  importantly , the ability to stop labelling yourself as a naturally shy person.

Labelling is one of the main ways we affirm an identity to ourselves. This can be expressed outwardly , for instance  in the clothes we wear and the music we listen too; or inwardly in the way we affirm emotions and thoughts to our identity.  The more we affirm something the more we take it to be true and unshakeable. We fall in to the trap of acting in  a certain way simply by falling into the trap of  thinking we are that  way inclined. The power of the mind can be a double edged sword.

So if we can affirm a shy identity to ourselves then it naturally follows that we can also attach a more outward extroverted persona as well. One of the best ways to do this is by wiping the mental slate clean to turn a phrase. Appreciate yourself as a fluid being not something set in stone. Avoid directly thinking about your shyness as an individual and instead begin thinking about the situations in life  you would like to find yourself being more confident in. This could be a dinner party or even a visit to the supermarket.  Basically begin imagining our you would like to be perceived by others and yourself.
One of the most common whys people attempt to overcome shyness is through alcohol. If you enjoy a drink you will know that one of the most enjoyable (and occasionally embarrassing) aspects of a drink is that you lose previously held inhibitions. You might find yourself saying or doing things that you would not consider doing in a million years. Many shy people turn to drink as away to conquer their inhibitions. The problem is that this can lead to a dependency on drink that becomes unsustainable in day to day living. You can’t rightly go for a job interview after a few whiskeys now can you!  This type of reliance can lead to people making excuses for their shyness – “ I can only talk to people i don’t know when I have had a drink’” is a commonly heard expression from people who label themselves as shy.

You transformation from shy introvert to outgoing extrovert needs to be as organic as possible.  One of the reasons that alcohol is used by so many shy people is because it makes strangers seem less frightening. Drink emboldens us within ourselves , and this is the key point here. To develop a knack of meeting new people you must start to look at other people differently.

One of the simplest ways to start doing this is through imagination.  In the same way we discussed using your mind to  transform your own beliefs about your own identify. So to should you think about how  other people deserve the same blank slate treatment. In other words – approach other people with an open mind. After all, what have you got to lose?  

For free videos on overcoming fear and creating success visit

www.confidence4sure.com

Today I’m not drawing something. Instead, I’ll show you a random chart. A chart about you and me… Prepare to buy this stock as it is seriously undervalued (no one actually pay attention to it)!!!

Trading fact:
First, this stock is listed in worldwide stock exchange. Counter name: URLIFE

-         Daily trading volume is around current world population

-         Long term trend is upwards (+0.98 correlations to living standard)

-         Infinite amount of asset (everything your mind can conceive)

-         No dividend (No free lunch)

-         High P/E (Usually take things for granted)

The Cyan channel
Your life is governed by strict rules and regulation in society/environment. Attempts to break free will usually fail, i.e. false breakout. Watch out!

The Green bold line
In general, if you have been performing to normal expectation, your living standard should improve. This is a normal trend!

The Purple line
During life journey, you will encounter ups and downs. They are intermediate cycles and you should not fear.

The Red bold line
For those of you who prefer to do it your way and ignore everything, you have the choice. Everyone will hate you (market crash)! Bear in mind

The Orange oval
Once you make up your mind, never step back to comfort zone again (spike to test trendline).

Do you believe that you are the creator of your life? Well, you are! Every thought you think, every feeling you feel and with every action you take you are creating your reality just in the same way as every other person is creating their reality.

It is important to get real with what you want your life to look like and who you want to become. Most people stay in struggle mode and project out negativity and wonder why they are having a bad day. Remember, your thoughts are real. We live in a thought universe and what ever you choose to think about is what you will eventually manifest. 

We can get stuck in our day to day dramas and think that our present situation is all there is to life. However, what if you discovered that you are more powerful than the physical world? What if you discovered that every human being has an internal universe that is much more powerful than anything outside of them? And if this is so, do you think it would be a good idea to get to know how the power within us works? Would it be a higher idea to master ourselves and become skilled creators of goodness rather than destroying our lives with fear?

This universe is highly intelligent and is filled with creative energy and this energy is forever expanding.  When your thoughts are vibrating high you begin to spiral up in to greater experiences of life. The challenge we face is to rise up out of the illusionary worlds of pain and suffering and in to the worlds of love and freedom. The time is now to turn our attention inward and explore this inner universe instead of allowing the television to tell you a vision. It is time to prepare yourself for the big changes that are occurring on our planet.

Are you ready to let go of a superficial and mundane life and experience the beauty and the gift of each moment? Click here to break free and discover a higher reality. 

  http://www.thefreedomfrequency.com/Life_Coaching.html