Ohhh a connection

The Institute for Economics and Peace just published the Global Terrorism Index last week.

According to the Index 82% of all deaths from terrorist attacks occur in just 5 countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.

40 times more people are killed by homicides than terrorist attacks.

Since the 1960s, 83% of terrorist organizations that ended, ceased to operate due to policing or politicization. Only 7% ended due to military intervention.

In the US an individual is 64 times more likely to be a victim of a homicide than terrorism.

Solar workers now outnumber coal miners nearly 2:1 according to Mother Jones.

Saw this on line somewhere...apparently liberals self identify themselves as creative, tolerant of ambiguity, flexible, and open to new ideas and experiences...while conservatives self identified themselves as persistent, orderly, moralistic and methodical...do any of you agree with these descriptions or has each side been brain washed into believing this of themselves?Personally, i know liberals and conservatives that have all the descriptors of both sides. So i ask you...why are we so willing to buy into these character traits as if they define us?

Did you know that it is illegal to ride a surfboard while on an hallucinogen in Washington DC?

Or that riding a horse under the influence is punishable with a DUI in Colorado?

Have you ever heard of the Clergy Project? Apparently there is a group of former religious preachers and professionals that no longer believe. Here's their website and some interesting stories of becoming a born again human. http://clergyproject.org

Here are a few Bible quotes to mull over. How come no one takes these literally anymore?

Kings 11:3: "He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray! That phrase is in reference to Solomon.

Peter 2:18: "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel."

Mark: 12:19: "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother."

Global Warming could create a 50% increase in lightning strikes...Yikes!

Shimizu a Japanese Corporation has proposed building an underwater city powered by sustainable energy. When i was a kid i wanted to live in an underwater city...i hope they get it built before i kick the bucket.

On a personal note...i'm in favor of President Obama addressing the illegal alien issue. 

See ya next week.

St. Croix Elections done for 2014

Elections are finally over in the Virgin Islands and some are thrilled and some are not. As usual i am not going to comment on the outcome.

Historically St. Croix has been through so many ups and downs that these cycles of boom and bust run their course no matter who is governing. “We have been fought over, colonized, bought, sold, captured, and recaptured. We have been possessed by aboriginal tribes, pirates, squatters, private owners, religious institutions and trading companies.” Florence Lewisohn

Profits have historically been drained off. At one time we were the richest sugar island in the Caribbean using slave labor almost exclusively. When the refinery was in operation some also thought they were slaves to corporate profit margins. Today we suck our teeth waiting for the next wave. To say that we will have ups and downs on island is about the only truth there is.

We have a messy combination of economic, psychological and political indicators that will make it pretty impossible to know how this will all end up. One area the new administration could focus on is understanding that our tax base has shrunk. We can no longer fund government departments based upon old revenue streams. That economic reality has passed and we need to focus on what we have not what we hope to have.

Ever the optimist i understand that St. Croix and her inhabitants will find a new niche and capitalize on it.

See ya next week

Is our political system broken?

i’ve told the tale here more than once about colonists in Africa wanting to pass out stones to be used by voters choosing representatives. The idea was to put the stones in the basket that represented the chief they wanted. The natives balked and exclaimed but what about all the people that didn’t want this new chief…what happens to their needs?

In Europe proportional representation has a long history when used to elect members of their legislatures. In the US it is winner takes all but in Europe there are election systems based upon the idea that voters deserve representation. It is also understood that political groups in society also need to be represented in the legislature based upon the number of votes they accumulated during the election.

So instead of becoming a majority party in office, if your party won 40% of say 20 seats you would get 8 seats. If the Green party won 20% of the vote they would get 4 seats, the Independents who had 30% of the vote would get 6 seats and the rest would be allocated to the two remaining seats based upon their percentage of the vote. No one is left out of office.

Our system is based upon single-winner elections which leaves a lot of the electorate feeling disenfranchised.

When 66% of the entire nations eligible voters stay home we have a problem. The majority of American voters choose not to participate in the mid-term elections. So if anyone out there thinks these newly elected politicians on both sides of the aisle actually represent the American people…think again…because the majority of eligible voters think its a waste of time to even stand in line to vote.

The majority of voters didn’t want to vote for any of them. They didn't want to vote, they didn't want to expend any energy doing something in a system they no longer believe in.

There was obscene amounts of money spent on this election cycle and the majority of voters choose to stay home.

What does this say about our nations political process? What does it say about how our politics work? 

See ya next week

Amendment 2 didn't pass in Florida

For me the saddest part of this election was that Amendment 2 didn't get 60% of the votes it needed to pass in Florida. Big money, dark money and corporate money slammed the airwaves there and ruined any hopes for medical marijuana getting a positive nod. Close personal friends that had been lobbying hard so their epileptic daughter could have a chance at a better life will have to continue this ridiculous fight for another day. i'm so sad this amendment didn't pass.

i’d like to congratulate the conservative Supreme Court and Republican strategy which focused on taking over state houses so they could gerrymander districts. i’d like to congratulate conservatives for obstruction in the House and Senate, propaganda and all that dark money that flowed at historical amounts all over the country. i guess we will all learn soon enough how “free” this country really is.

“War is Good,” will be the new motto with a Republican House and Senate.  Any hope for breakthrough negotiations with Iran, exit from Afghanistan and a winding down of the drone attacks will be put on the back burner. The arms industry must be salivating.

The uninformed electorate will just roll over and hide their heads while the rich and powerful take it all away. When the conservatives say the Dems had their chance and didn’t change anything…my response is how can you change things when your political enemy owns 100% of the media? As Jim Sleeper says at Salon “Your speech isn’t free in any republican sense if a few donors and corporate managers have megaphones while you have laryngitis from straining to be heard.”

Gary Younge said in the Guardian this morning “In the end there was no Republican wave it was barely a ripple. Democrat losses in Southern states was no great surprise and the other states that had been historically conservative were just returning to the status quo. Watching how dysfunctional Republicans have been in the House should be fun when that transfers over to the Senate as well. In some ways being the minority might be good for Democrats.

This blog post isn’t about the outcome of the election. This blog is meant to put everyone reading this on notice that for the next two years FEAR will dominate the media. FEAR of terrorists, FEAR of immigrants, FEAR of Ebola, FEAR of taxes, FEAR of government, FEAR of the Economy, FEAR of ISIS, FEAR of ????? etc. Get ready for a very FEARFUL time to come because those corporate boys want to make more money. 

See ya next week