tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207414272024-03-07T16:36:40.779-08:00aethernotes_polyblogThis blog is an eclectic collection of my writings about what interests me.The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.comBlogger221125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-83923730216473706462019-05-19T10:33:00.000-07:002019-05-19T10:33:30.216-07:00What Happened to My Ads Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yesterday I asked
what had happened to the adsense ads that I used to have on this
page. Then I went and did some research. It seems, that unless I’m
getting 10,000 views per month, I won’t be getting any ads. It also
seems that I need to keep my posts longer than 500 words.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I don’t know about
any of my readers, but I think that for the most part I’m going to
have no problem meeting that word limit. Although to a poet like
myself (at least I have pretensions of being a poet at times) that
500 words is a large amount of fluff to throw at the page without
ever really saying anything.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
On any subject that
I’m familiar with I can actually get some good detail done with a
piece of that size, and as anyone can see by this post, it isn’t
really hard to stretch out what is written in a post that really
isn’t very informative.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
One other thing that
I found is that it seems that it is a good idea to link your blog to
your youtube channel. Now one thing I must admit is that I don’t
really have a youtube channel, though I do comment on items on
youtube.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But why don’t you
have a youtube channel? Simple, because I have a face for radio, and
a voice for silent movies! Or in other words I at least feel that I
don't do well at speaking, and that my audience would be in danger of
hurling if they saw my mug.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course I could
just do audio with white boards or screen shots to back the audio…
But like I said, at least in my opinion, I don’t have a very good
voice.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ah well, off to
upwork <a href="http://www.upwork.com/">www.upwork.com</a> to see if
I can’t find some sort of small gig to get my foot in the door as a
proofreader… Though what I’ve seen there is very frustrating. It
seems that everyone who wants someone to do that job is looking more
for an ‘expert’ reader than a proofreader. After all you really
don't even need a MFA to proofread effectively. At least for English
you don't need such a credential. After all what you really need is
to be familiar with written English and how it should be done. And
that familiarity can come from a variety of sources. I like to say
that my source for my knowledge of how the English language is
written is from reading a large number of both fiction and
non-fiction books, where I’ve had the displeasure of having spent
my money on something to discover that there were spelling errors in
it!</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I do believe that
I’m going to see if I can also convince another place to take me on
as an ‘extern’ that is someone who learns while they work but
from a remote location, rather than a central office. I’ll make an
offer that ought to be hard for them to refuse, that is to work for a
certain amount of money each week regardless of the work they shove
in front of me. If past experience is any guide, I get through quite
a pile of work anyway when it comes to proofreading. I guess I should
go now.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Until my next post,
read, rate, and follow my work please!</div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-19118794316067732842019-05-18T11:30:00.000-07:002019-05-18T11:30:54.870-07:00What happened to my ads?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lack of posting I think, so I'm hoping that they will come back if I put more items here more regularly...<br />
Still I tried to put up an adsense gadget here today and see no result on my main page... Oh well, research into the obtuse area of online ads is evidently required.<br />
Not that easy really, as this is one area where my ignorance is worse than usual. Still, if I would even make phenning from this (or mils) I need to discover what happened. It used to be that you could put up a tip jar, so I suppose I'll check that out next.</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-13858072816618531942019-05-18T10:07:00.000-07:002019-05-18T10:07:22.160-07:00Lesson 60 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Everything
eventually gets lost!
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Or in other words,
at some point I’ve lost my original set of these pithy observations
on life. What would have been the best solution for me? E-mail it to
myself. That is the poor man’s version of i-cloud or Carbonite<sup>®</sup>
which is in essence online, offsite storage. There are several
drop-boxes out there that offer a gigabyte or more of storage ‘free’
as well. I should have (I thought I did, but I can’t find it) taken
advantage of one of them! I have a partial novel stored as a draft
(somewhat easier to find than an actual e-mail) which also works.
After all I don’t know the limits of the other systems but Google<sup>®</sup>
has 15 gigabytes of storage as a ‘free’ service of their e-mail
application.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I hope today’s
lesson helps someone who thinks they can do without one of these
services. Life happens. Guard against it to the best of your ability!</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-51695829615993074002019-05-11T08:45:00.000-07:002019-05-11T08:45:02.028-07:00Flailing and Failing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I actually started
writing this piece before the last one that I posted was begun, which
is part of what goes to the title of the piece. That is that I spend
a lot of time flailing about for subjects to write about. It isn't
that there is nothing to write about, it is more that there is so
much I could write about that I often get hung up on deciding what to
write about and therefore write nothing! So with no further ado, onto
my subject for the day.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
As is probably
pretty obvious at this point, a lot of the activity in my life
amounts to flailing. Of course since flailing is undirected activity
I shortly tire and of course fail. Thus the title of today’s blog:
Flailing and Failing.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is obvious from
personal experience that undirected (without a plan) activity is
bound to fail. Yet as I’ve noted before, I don’t even have the
very basics of writing a plan. So if I can’t write a plan how can I
direct my activity that I may avoid the cycle of flailing and failing
that has been the signature of my life to this point?</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Whew! I really don’t
know how to remedy the flailing that is at least 99% of all the
problems I have with life. One thing that is pretty certain to me
(and ought to be to anyone else who may ask me later) is that if you
don’t know where you’re going, then you end up wandering in the
wilderness…! And frankly I’ve had it with wandering in the
wilderness! You’d think that reading the Bible would have given me
a clue that wandering in the wilderness means I’ve missed something
important in my life!</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
And I guess that
today’s blog is really about that. I know where my heart has been
for some time. I want to proofread, and possibly write for a living.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is obvious to me
that unless something changes drastically this blog is little better
than a hit and miss hobby, and I’m certain of this: you cannot make
a living at a hit and miss hobby. It is my hope to begin to write
regularly here; if for no other reason then for the practice that
makes me write a certain amount each week or each day.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
With that in mind
I’ll get this posted and hope that my days improve.</div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-47688417343425834962019-05-10T06:08:00.005-07:002019-05-10T06:08:48.669-07:00Bad Ideas, and Answers to Them<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have to admit I’m
a fan of some ideas and not of others. I’m not a fan of the idea of
socialism. Frankly I hold socialism to be an evil idea that holds a
lot of ideas that are inimical to human flourishing at least, and
given some of what I have heard from certain sources socialism is
against human existence.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
At its best
socialism holds being poor as a social good or a condition which may
not be remedied without government intervention. I find both of those
ideas (that being poor equaling a social good or that being poor as
something that may not be remedied except through government action)
to be reprehensible. For this reason even though my disorganization
has prevented me from implementing his ideas I’m an absolute fan of
Dave Ramsey daveramsey.com because he has done as much as any one in
modern times to explode the myth that government action helps those
who are in dire financial straits.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I’ve lately also
become a fan of Dr Alex Epstein https://industrialprogress.com/ (I
may be incorrect that Alex is a Doctor of Philosophy) but if he is
not he works with a couple of actual doctors of philosophy. But
enough of the man’s credentials, as far as I’m concerned there is
far to much concentration on credentialism these days. That is that
we first concentrate on a person’s credentials rather than his
ideas.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I’ve long been
against the ideas forwarded by the ‘green’ energy cabal. First
because they ignore or discount the obvious solutions to using less
‘fossil fuels’ and second because most of their preferred
solutions are at best not reasonable if our goal is human
flourishing. After all ethanol requires that we grow crops then turn
them into fuel for our transportation needs. And yes if our goals are
human flourishing then transportation is a basic need. I’m
convinced that at best ethanol is a net negative as far as a fuel
goes. That is that it takes more energy to produce ethanol than is
yielded in the final product.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I’m not sure I
could prove that right now, however that is my feeling, that is that
ethanol produces less energy than it uses. Therefore I leave that
argument to people willing to do the mathematical work and research
that question at this point it is only a contention of belief for me.
However be that as it may, there is another and worse effect of
concentrating on ethanol for transportation fuel. That is that at its
very best this idea changes the use of land from producing food for
humans (for humans to flourish they must have a consistent supply of
food) to using it to produce crops to be turned into fuel. Even if we
assume no net loss on the energy produced by making ethanol and using
it for transportation, repurposing land from food for people or for
food animals to producing fuel is going to interrupt the economy so
far as food production goes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I’m a fan of
nuclear energy, and two designs that I’ve seen pieces on, though I
don’t think I’ve seen the technical papers on either of them but
the overviews I’ve gotten say that either one is much safer than
current LWR (light water reactor) designs. The designs I’m speaking
of are the MSR (molten salt reactor) and the PBR (pebble bed reactor)
as far as I can understand (and if the summary pages I’ve read are
correct) both the MSR and the PBR are meltdown proof. Which
eliminates one of the major concerns when dealing with nuclear power.
Now why is nuclear exciting? Because the fact is that reliable access
to electricity is indicative of the ability of people to flourish, oh
and by the way improves the probability that people will move from
poverty to wealth!</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If I were to argue
at all for a ‘renewable’ fuel in the transportation sector I
would argue that we must move to CNG (compressed natural gas) natural
gas is easy (relatively) to produce, and as a bonus could be produced
in large quantities from something that we are already throwing away.
I E a ‘resource’ that we are treating as a waste product. Of what
am I speaking? I’m speaking of sewage! How easily could we change
our current sewage treatment systems to methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) I
don’t know? But I do know that as long as we have sewage, we could
produce endless supplies of natural gas (methane) if we were willing
to spend the resources necessary to do so. However at this point of
time I’m guessing that turning our waste water treatment systems
into methane breeders is not economically feasible.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
However if I were in
a place where the state has embargoed the importation of methane via
pipelines I might start asking if it was possible to build a proof of
concept plant for a small city. That though is not really my point
today. I want to go back to the beginning of my piece and note that
there is an idea (socialism) that is bad for humans as it tends to
militate against human flourishing. Once you understand this then you
can see a virulent strain of socialism is actually at the base of the
‘green’ energy movement. And that folks frightens me, and ought
to frighten anyone who has any historical perspective, for socialism
has been responsible for all sorts of human suffering in the name of
making all men equal in their outcomes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Have a good day and
resist bad ideas!</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-90832366695925886802019-04-15T08:17:00.004-07:002019-04-15T08:54:18.781-07:00Try again!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It has been a long time since I made an entry here, which I admit is
one of the problems I have with writing. And I might add most of my
ideas to improve my life. That is that they are diffuse and
intermittent, with great emphasis on being intermittent.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Therefore I have
been thinking lately on how I can take my thinking which is diffuse
(unorganized mostly but lacking concentration) and intermittent
(obviously given the length of time since I’ve posted here that is
given) and convert them to something that is both concentrated and
consistent.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Obviously, given my
lack of training in this area, most of my efforts have been at best
ineffectual. That is what some of my earlier writing on issues such
as outlining an organizational tools has dealt with. And to be honest
I still lack even those basic tools. Which makes making the next step
in the effort even more difficult for in many ways I am still in a
playpen watching everyone around me run and have fun and not only do
I have no way I can see to escape the playpen but there has been an
active effort by some to make sure I don’t leave that playpen.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some of my efforts
here have been writing about that very issue, that is leaving the
playpen, the safe space if you will. For if one were to redefine safe
spaces as playpens where you never allowed yourself (for it is my
experience that for all of the outside influences I fight the worst
enemy I have in all of my effort is myself) to experience either
victory or defeat in the hope of avoiding defeat. But I have found
this: If your focus is on defeat, that is what you experience, no
matter how hard you try to avoid it. So how do I who have all of my
life focused on avoiding defeat change my focus to achieving victory.
I mean that is terrifying! If I fail badly now while not even really
crawling, what will my failures when running look and feel like.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yet I do not any
longer wish to be constrained to the prison I and others have kept me
in for all of my life. Where do I go from here?</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
First I’m going to
listen to this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxgZD6hlDy8">speach</a>
again. If you have come here from somewhere else and maybe this is
the first time you’ve thought about what is in my blog, then I urge
you to start arguing to 100 in your life rather than arguing to zero!</div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-35341189829992579332015-02-22T10:40:00.000-08:002015-02-22T10:40:32.678-08:00George<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've often said that
I would like to write every day. And further I've stated that I don't
consider writing to be too much of a chore. That is the actual act of
writing is not terribly difficult if I've got access to a computer,
and therefore a word processor. At that point the difficulty becomes,
what shall I write? And to be altogether honest it is not as if the
budding author really lacks for subject matter. Rather he or she is
always wondering if what has caught his eyes will appeal to the
general public or if he can attract an audience to his view point.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Today I thought that
I'd pause to make some observations about life. Lately I've been
homeless for one reason and another. While I've been homeless it has
been my privilege to be able to access at least some of the services
of the local rescue mission.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While taking my
meals there I've had a chance to meet some of the people who also eat
there, and to observe their behavior. Some people are like myself,
very appreciative of what we are given and respectful of the place
and its intentions (and I might say results) and others are not, they
seem to feel that the few rules that the mission imposes are a
hardship beyond bearing.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
However I shall for
a while put aside such people and concentrate on one old man. This
man's name is George. From interacting with George I've come to
suspect that he is suffering from a mild case of Alzheimer’s
disease. Certainly every day he sees me and asks my name.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The one amazing
thing about George, though is watching everyone else who eats at the
mission deal with him. I've never seen anyone treat George in a
disrespectful manner. I might add that if I ever do see anyone treat
George in a disrespectful manner I will probably no longer be able to
eat at the mission. Part of the reason for that is that the mission,
like a lot of other organizations I've seen has forgotten that there
is a difference between fighting and evil. Indeed I might venture to
say that if we fail to fight evil wherever we see it then we yield to
evil and assure that it is able to advance its rule over the world.
Indeed to fail to fight evil is in and of itself more than an
expression of cowardice, it is in fact enabling evil in its intention
to eliminate good.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But a discussion of
good and evil is only a side line to what I wanted to say about
George. You see if we believed Barack Obama we would expect to see
George disrespected, if not for the fact of his illness, then for the
fact that he is among the few men with a dark skin among a large
group of men with light skin. But fortunately, unless Barack Obama
gets his way, the world will not work the way he believes it does.
For in reality most people will not disrespect the aged, not even if
they are of a different 'race'.</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
But if Barack Obama
continues to spew his line of hatred for those who do not look like
him then the world, not just the USA may plunge into a time when
'racism' is rampant. When men with black skins kill men with white
skins for no other reason than that they look different. I hope my
fear is unfounded, but little that I've seen in the past few years
gives me reason to hope. For at every turn Barack Obama has insisted
that any opposition to his policies amounts to racism on the part of
his opponent. Indeed he is unable to grant his opposition any
intention of good, rather reserving good intentions for himself
regardless of the actual results his policies produce.</div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-62460203249055881372012-09-06T17:27:00.000-07:002012-09-06T17:27:09.698-07:00Compulsion Vs Cooperation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the big issues we as humans have
in life is the line between compulsion and cooperation. We almost
know instinctively that we must cooperate or die. Yet when we try to
compel someone to cooperate with us we get rebellion or something
worse. Still it seems that in every generation there are those who
will say that the only way to achieve cooperation is to compel people
to cooperate! It seems to me that cooperation is the exact opposite
of compulsion and that if one tries to obtain cooperation by force
(which is the definition of compulsion) then cooperation disappears.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The question remains though if we know
that cooperation is necessary to maintain society how do we obtain
the cooperation? The answer to that is persuasion. Persuasion that
the person being asked to do something will benefit from that which
he is being asked to do.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now it is possible to persuade people
that if they steal from 'the rich' it will be to their benefit. But
since theft eventually breaks down societal cooperation it does not
benefit you to listen to those who would convince you that when a group
of people does a thing it is more moral than when an individual does
a thing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-66421531161824783112012-07-29T07:40:00.000-07:002012-07-29T07:40:00.152-07:00Gun Bans are the Instruments of Tyrants<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">If you
don’t believe the title of this article then you should learn
history. After all a careful search of history will bear this out as
the following quote from the socialist dictator Adolf Hitler shows.</span><i>
This year will go down in history. For the first time a civilized
nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our
police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the
future.” —Adolf Hitler, 1935</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">I’m
certain that more research into gun control laws on a world-wide
basis would reveal that more tyrants than Hitler used this method to
obtain total control of their nation. I know that the people of the
Soviet Union were not permitted to have guns. Nor were the people of
Mao's China. In England right now they are experiencing riots
because gentlemen are no longer armed. And one very effective tool of
the would be tyrant is to allow chaos to reign until the people
demand that something, anything be done to restore order to the
society.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">I also
note this for consideration here: In our prisons all weapons are
supposed to be in the hands of the guards yet hardly a day goes by
(I’d guess that in aggregate no day goes by) without someone
(including an occasional guard) being stabbed. This of course does
not include the fact that some prisoners will be beaten by others
with fists or feet! Thus in the most controlled society that we have
we see the presence of weapons and violence without weapons.
Therefore we can draw the conclusion that it is not the weapons that
are the cause of the violence but rather the minds of men.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">If you
are a woman you should be even more up in arms against any attempt to
disarm you. After all the greatest indicator that you will not be
raped is your ability to defend yourself. And ladies, a black-belt
rarely trumps a weapon of any sort not even a knife.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Of
course there are lots of laws regarding the size and type of knife
you may carry as well all of which make committing a mugging easier.
Or a home invasion less risky to the criminal. I join many who ask
why it is that after a shooting spree by someone we want to blame the
gun (which has no feet) for the mayhem caused by the deranged mind
that chose to make his fellow man an object of prey.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
“<span style="font-style: normal;">After a shooting spree, they
always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it.”</span><br />
—William S. Burroughs<br />
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-68588615297800271812012-03-07T05:31:00.000-08:002012-03-07T05:31:38.229-08:00The invisible holocaust<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some people today all over the world claim to worship the
earth. These people have as a sacrament of their worship, the sacrifice of
infants. The infants they started with were the invisible ones. The ones that
had not yet been born. Now they are reaching for children who have been born. See
this column: <a href="http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2012/03/07/the_lefts_war_on_babies"><span style="color: blue;">http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2012/03/07/the_lefts_war_on_babies</span></a>
for more information. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This (abortion) has
been advanced as choice or as medical care for women. What is rarely pointed
out is that even under the circumstances of a well controlled and well
sterilized operating room an abortion (the murder of an innocent) is dangerous
to a woman.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
What also is not spoken very often is that most abortion
clinics (abattoirs for the unborn or temples to a false God of death) are far
from a well controlled and well sterilized operating room. In fact except for
the fact that they have been declared to be legal they are still almost as bad
(if not worse in some cases) as the back alley abortion doctors they were
supposed to replace. They replaced them but rather than making abortion safe it
just made it more prevalent.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
I’m certain that this piece will make some people angry. This
includes some deluded women who have bought the lie of sexual freedom. Freedom rarely
indicates the ability to do whatever you want especially without consequences. This
is because if society does not enforce consequences then nature surely will. Indeed
the only thing that women being unwise about the use of their genitals has done
is increase is the childishness of men as the men have been able to get that
which most men want most without that which men fear most.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
What I mean by that last statement is that most men will do
most anything for sexual contact with a woman. Most men when they are honest
fear commitment to one woman the most. This is because commitment to one woman
prevents them from plowing the field next door so to speak. Now we all know that
there will be some who will violate their commitment for whatever reason. This does
not invalidate the idea that we should hold up the ideal of the kept commitment
as best. Indeed the fact of violated commitment proves the necessity of
consistently pointing to what we should be doing rather than saying, ‘well no
one can possibly do that,’ we should say, ‘yes we have failed to do that, now
it is time to get busy and try for the ideal again.’ This is because if we
strive to be better people rather than settling for failure and accepting that
we will never reach the ideal we become closer to the ideal. While accepting
failure, especially saying that because we cannot reach perfection we should
not try leads to worse and worse conditions for everyone.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-24254325143001671012012-02-10T13:24:00.000-08:002012-02-10T13:24:50.846-08:00Lesson 59 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Since jealousy and greed are related closely, jealousy must obviously be a
source or root of evil.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
I am not so much interested in defining evil as identifying
the cause of evil, these I have boiled down to greed, envy and jealousy. Indeed
I believe that envy and jealousy are actually aspects of greed. Behind any
behavior that could possibly be considered evil is the root of greed and its
expression as naked greed, or greed disguised as envy or jealousy.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Sometimes of course greed is difficult to identify, for
example when many people (including BHO in my humble opinion) start to talk
about giving to the poor they rarely intend that they should give to the poor
but are somewhat more like Judas Iscariot who had his hand in the money bag of Jesus.
I say that even if they may not be stealing money for their own enrichment, for
when they use the power of the government to take money from one person to give
to another in order to appear to be generous they at minimum steal the accolade
that would go with such a gift if they had not stepped between the ‘donor’ and
the ‘recipient.’</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
However since BHO is running the money through the
government chances are that at more than one level there are people who are
diverting some of it to their own enrichment. This is on top of the fact that
government ‘charity’ rarely does anything other than to increase the dependency
of its recipient. While the increasing control this gives stokes the appetite of
the government for ever greater power (which is one objective of some strains
of greed) over all aspects of life.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-1911399722361256772012-02-06T21:37:00.000-08:002012-02-06T21:37:29.796-08:00Lesson 58 from The Hard knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Evil seems to me to be made up of three basic behaviors: greed, envy and lying.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Greed may be (I believe <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>is</u></b>)
the underlying disease for the behavior for which envy is the motivation, and most of the time greed is also the
motivation for lying. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
The only motivation I have ever seen for lying other than
greed is fear. This then brings up the question of whether or not fear motivated
lying is as evil as greed motivated lying. Another issue that muddies the all
lying is evil is the fact that at times lying can be very necessary to stop
someone from carrying out an evil act. An example of this is those people who
hid Jews from Hitler’s SS during world war two. These people obviously lied and
did good. Thus lying became not only a necessary evil at that time but became
an actual active good.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-77916910468836732892012-02-02T20:43:00.000-08:002012-02-02T20:43:25.793-08:00Lesson 57 from the Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Socialism (or communism) seems to me to be systems of government based on greed
and fueled by envy.
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Communism and its child/sibling socialism are philosophies that are often
hard to discuss rationally because people get heavily emotionally involved in
these belief systems. Perhaps the reason for this is that so many people have
invested their ‘treasure’ both in worldly goods and belief in these ideas and
if anyone refutes these ideas they are devaluing the treasure that has been
invested in them.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Yet when one takes the time to examine the idea that everyone should have
the same stuff, (goods and services) without all of the emotional baggage, it
becomes very evident that communism is childish or infantile at best and evil
at worst. The reason for this is that not everyone wants, or needs, or deserves
the same things in life. For very young children it may only seem fair that Johnny
doesn’t have a cookie when Timmy doesn’t have a cookie. But adults can easily
understand that if John works every day he has the goods and services he earns
while if Tim refuses (not cannot) to work then he should likewise have what he
has earned which is poverty.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones </div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-82897337496418856822012-01-19T20:41:00.000-08:002012-01-20T05:04:02.450-08:00Stop SOPA and PIPA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As a creator of intellectual property theft and piracy does
concern me; but as a creator of sometimes controversial content these bills
frighten me to death. I’m often amazed at the clueless person in the media who
decries the exercise of power by the government when men like Nixon (very
NAZIesque in my opinion) Reagan, G H W Bush, and Bush the younger; yet they
celebrate the increase of government power and interference in our lives by men
like L B Johnson, J E Carter III, W J Clinton and their latest hero du jour Barak
Hussein Obama. Government power is a corrupting influence no matter which party
or person is wielding it! I refuse to believe that the choice we as humans have
is between Stalin and Hitler; there must be an alternative to the bad ideas
that both of these men put forth.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
SOPA or PIPA is a bad idea, just as The Patriot Act was a
bad idea. Bad ideas know no party affiliation. They can (and are) put forward
by businesses (which despite the media [which is a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>BIG</u></b> business] bias toward Obama's weilding of power) or government functionaries. It does not
matter where (or what side of the political aisle) a bad idea comes from; all
men who wish to be free resist such ideas.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Here is an article that says more and better than I could on
this subject: <a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/jeffcarter/2012/01/19/stop_sopa_now_why_its_important_to_the_average_joe/page/full/"><span style="color: blue;">http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/jeffcarter/2012/01/19/stop_sopa_now_why_its_important_to_the_average_joe/page/full/</span></a>
I suggest strongly that you read this article and consider the implications of
this bad bill.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-58581551369325731192012-01-15T20:27:00.000-08:002012-01-15T20:27:16.952-08:00Lesson 56 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Men only dare greatly if they expect great rewards. The
government that seeks to limit the size of reward that a man may hope for or
expect is foolish at best and tyrannical at worst.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Some say that greed, or need is the mother of invention and I
would have to say that the first is closest to the truth. That is because no matter
how great the need of a people group is the only reason something new is
attempted (which is the essence of invention) is if the person who is making
the attempt believes he will reap some reward that he feels is adequate to his
effort.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
The only difficulty I have is in calling the self-interest
that inspires invention greed. This is because I do not believe that wanting a
better life in and of itself is a manifestation of greed. It seems to me that
greed is when you try to prevent other people from having a better life. Or when
you desire something and steal it rather than work for it.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
The characterization of profit as evil is one of the many
ways in which the lazy and greedy rulers of a society work to make it easier
for them to steal from those who work and produce the good things they desire
but do not wish to soil their hands with the production of.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
<br />
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-29163674468471960582012-01-08T07:56:00.000-08:002012-01-08T07:56:34.728-08:00Tough Times Ahead<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I extracted the
following quotes from this article. <a href="http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/bobbeauprez/2012/01/08/obama_fails_math_portion_of_presidency_test/page/full/"><span style="color: blue;">http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/bobbeauprez/2012/01/08/obama_fails_math_portion_of_presidency_test/page/full/</span></a>
I believe that it is well worth your time to read but if you don’t feel like it
then consider these words of wisdom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i>"The history of taxation shows that taxes which are
inherently excessive are not paid. The high rates inevitably put pressure upon
the taxpayer to withdraw his capital from productive business and invest it in
tax-exempt securities or to find other lawful methods of avoiding the
realization of taxable income. The result is that the sources of taxation are
drying up; wealth is failing to carry its share of the tax burden; and capital
is being diverted into channels which yield neither revenue to the Government
nor profit to the people."</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">
Andrew Mellon Secretary of Treasury for Warren Harding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">It seems to me that
we would be very foolish not to look at history and see what has occurred at
other times from the current era to the fall of the Roman Empire which can be
traced back to policies that are very similar to those of the current president
of the USA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">For wisdom let us
look at someone from the party he says he represents though from another time:
John Kennedy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<i>"Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on
the one hand, and the avoidance of large Federal deficits on the other. It is
increasingly clear that no matter what party is in power, so long as our
national security needs keep rising, an economy hampered by restrictive tax
rates will never produce enough revenues to balance our budget just as it will
never produce enough jobs or enough profits… In short, it is a paradoxical
truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the
soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates
now."</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> John F. Kennedy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">We are spending
money we don’t have to make things better in the USA today. This is like a
family maxing out all of its credit cards. The question remains this: What will
happen when no other nation will lend us money? That I believe is a fearful day
and fast approaching. Worse yet is the day when no one will accept our money,
when it is viewed with the same disdain as the peso… indeed times are going to
get tough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">© 2012 Vic Jones</span></div>
</div>
The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-60576417439377506802012-01-07T10:11:00.000-08:002012-01-07T10:11:00.127-08:00Good Intentions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Good Intentions</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Good intentions put no food on the table</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Nor do they put money in the bank</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Good intentions do no work</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
And good intentions save no lives</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
More often than not</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Though many won’t admit</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Good intentions lead to bad ends!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-77762143451954984462012-01-01T09:36:00.000-08:002012-01-07T10:08:16.194-08:002012 Writing Challenge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Well for 2011 I missed my goal of posting at least one item
per week here. Part of the reason for that is that for most of the year I was
still posting at Author Nation with the hope that that site would help build
this site as it was a social networking site as well as a writer’s forum of
sorts.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
I’m now fairly certain that Author Nation is defunct so that
should provide me with a greater incentive to post here more frequently. There has
been one other thing that has held me up as well. That is the fact that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hard Knocks School of Life</i> is proving
harder to do than I thought it would be. Not to write the items, as I have some
600 of them, but rather to expand upon them. This is due to the fact that a
great many of the pieces of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hard
Knocks School of life</i> are only a few words long. And while I feel that a
lot of them are perfectly fine at that length I’ve felt that posting a 5 or 10
word bit once a week was a bit on the weak side when it came to writing.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
© 2012 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-71312265053115578702011-12-29T14:42:00.000-08:002011-12-29T14:42:07.632-08:00Lesson 55 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Evil breeds hate. Then hatred breeds violence.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Hatred sets men one against another. The father of evil (if you believe
the Bible) is Satan; the one thing Satan wants more than anything else is for
men to hate one another. The fact that men hating one another breeds violence and
causes men to destroy one another means that we do Satan’s work for him.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Perhaps you do not believe in Satan or in objective evil. If you insist on
disbelieving in Satan that is fine; but not believing that we can define evil
as one man stirring hatred for another for any reason seems to be lacking in
understanding. For if we hate one another we can never have peace.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
© 2011 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-32858564303176851972011-12-07T07:27:00.001-08:002011-12-07T07:29:16.039-08:00Lesson 54 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Let not him who
is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and
build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from
violence when built. Abraham Lincoln<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Let us paraphrase
this for the modern era: Let not the poor man steal (whether with his own hand
or by government action) from the rich but rather let him learn to become rich
and build his own wealth thereby assuring that his wealth will be safe from the
greed of other men.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Greed is without
a doubt at the heart of wishing to have what you desire without work. But greed
always leads to everyone having less goods and less security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">© 2011 Vic Jones</span></div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-62955385023511446472011-11-08T19:36:00.000-08:002011-11-08T19:36:45.112-08:00Lesson 53 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Human nature is universal, people are individual.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Self interest is a matter of human nature. In every society no matter how
it is organized people will generally seek their own interests over everyone
else. This is one of the generalities of human nature.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
People are individual (this is also a generality of human nature) in that everyone
will express some form of individuality even in the most conformist culture. Also
even though everyone can be expected to seek his own interest it is never wise
to expect that any one person will seek his own interest even when it may seem
that he has an obvious interest.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
© 2011 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-67111914488957858742011-11-02T19:23:00.000-07:002011-11-02T19:23:49.954-07:00Lesson 52 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
Today’s lesson is a quote from Ayn Rand the author of Atlas Shrugged. “One
of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing
controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its
problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are
necessary.” —Ayn Rand, 1975<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
My first question on seeing this quote is: What is a Statist? A Statist is
a person who invests the state (government) with the ability to answer all of
life’s questions and needs. A person who believes this way is worshiping a
false god of course but since the state has become their god you cannot do much
to persuade them away from investing all of their effort into it.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
In the modern era it is wise for us to remember that the statist will do
his (her) best to destroy anyone who even begins to shake their faith.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
© 2011 Vic Jones </div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-63812104675665070202011-10-26T21:44:00.000-07:002011-10-26T21:44:15.589-07:00Lesson 51 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Self interest is not evil. Taking away people's incentive to win is evil!<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Self interest is often conflated to be greed which is then seen as evil. I
find no difficulty in identifying greed as evil. What I do find difficult is to
separate honest and reasonable self interest that is survival oriented for both
the individual and society from greed which is not survival oriented.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Perhaps the best way to define greed is as a hunger that cannot be sated
and that grows greater the more it is fed. In extreme cases this sort of hunger
destroys not only the individual but the society of which he is a part.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Taking away a person’s incentive to win <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is evil because this is an abrogation of his
self interest which as I noted above is good not only for himself but for
everyone around him.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
© 2011 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-34919930156908128852011-10-23T21:06:00.000-07:002011-10-23T21:06:26.856-07:00Lesson 50 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Jealousy and greed are interrelated; if I am jealous of my neighbor's car
I am actually practicing covetousness which is a form of greed. If I am jealous
of my wife or husband it is because I think of them as possessions rather than
as people.<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Some people think that self-interest is the same as greed I do not think
that self-interest is the same as greed nor is it (self-interest) evil. Yet because
it puts your welfare above other people’s welfare it is easy to mistake
self-interest as greed.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
Greed (and I’ll define it more in a later lesson) is insisting that you
should be the only person to have possessions. It (greed) is not wanting more
possessions than you currently have unless by having more things you seek to
deny possessions to your neighbor.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">
© 2011 Vic Jones</div>
</div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20741427.post-523478588496437112011-10-18T21:37:00.000-07:002011-10-18T21:37:57.756-07:00Lesson 49 from The Hard Knocks School of Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If you can't enforce the law then it is nothing more than empty words. <br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">I suppose that the easy thing to say about this statement is that it should need no further explanation. It seems (at least to me) to be complete without adding to it. That does not mean that there are not other principles that cannot be obtained from it nor that there are not questions that must be asked if this principle is true. The first of those questions is this: When has the law become so complex that it is impossible to know or enforce?</div><br />
<div style="margin: 0.05in 0in 12.25pt;">© 2011 Vic Jones </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><br />
</div></div>The Wordwrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09576589537931439345noreply@blogger.com0