What would YOU do to fix the economy for yourself or for society? Oct 10, 2008 4:27 am 501 Views Should we rely solely on governments to make things better, or should also individuals and citizens' groups take responsibility for making things better for ourselves or for society? Is it a good idea to rely on one’s own sustainable self-sufficient ethical debt-free farm in an area not likely to suffer flood, drought, pollution, earthquake, tsunami, or takeover by corporations or the government or other bandits? If farming isn't to one's liking, is it a good idea to rely on one's own sound ethical debt-free business that provides essential needs in a safe ethical environment? Are barter and exchange of services good alternatives to always using money? What about cooperatively owned markets? What about starting self-sufficient sustainable communities in the countryside or within towns and cities? If we want to invest in the businesses of others, should we choose well-run ethical debt-free companies in safe ethical environments, providing essential needs, and should we watch them to sell them quickly if they are taken over by unscrupulous restructurers. Are precious metals, gems, art, and commodities safe investments now? Are some currently undervalued? Are some currently overvalued? Are some now in very risky bubbles that will likely burst sooner than later? Is a healthy economy based on lending, borrowing, rampant consumption, speculation, and restructuring or on production, services, frugality, savings, and responsible investments? Instead of useless wasteful bailouts and cash injections, what do you recommend to repair the economy for ourselves or for society? Should we invest taxpayers' money in education, honestly safe and effective alternative health care, infrastructure, alternative energy, and the environment, which would create meaningful jobs for millions of citizens? Should we outlaw lending of money not owned by the lender, or not affordable by the borrower? Should we limit interest rates on loans, credit cards, mortgages, etc., to 5%, and limit penalty charges? Should we outlaw speculation in essential commodities as food and fuel, which raises prices artificially, causing people to starve and freeze? Should we ban short selling, along with insider trading? Should we cap salaries, commissions, bonuses, stock options, etc., at what companies can responsibly afford? Should we redirect military spending from unnecessary equipment, activities, and experimental “health care” on troops, to necessary equipment, activities, and honest health care for troops? Should we abolish the use of privately owned for-profit banks as a government’s money source, and return to the gold standard? Should we abolish the current taxation agencies, and change to a 10% flat-rate income tax with no loopholes? What else should we do or stop doing for ourselves or for society? (Link to my group: Arts & Artists.) (Link to BegumMagnolia's group: Intuition ~ Our Inner Voice.) 0 Comments

Which artists, painters, and sculptors do you enjoy? Sep 26, 2008 7:17 am 658 Views Some artists I enjoy include: Ubaldo Bartolini Paolo Dell'Aquila Stefano Di Stasio Mario Fani Carlos Forns Bada Alberto Galvez Anna Keen John Kirby Jesus Mari Lazkano Gianluca Martucci Mauro Reggio Livio Scarpella Renny Tait Dino Valls Which other artists, painters, and sculptors do you enjoy? What about them do you like? Why? What about them could be improved? Why? How? 5 Comments

Is art important for the well-being of individuals and the advancement of humanity... Sep 24, 2008 7:38 am 792 Views ...or is art an unnecessary diversion, and a distraction from the important things in life? Does art enrich the lives of the poor, or is art the decadence of the rich? Can art inspire or degrade the dreams and visions and values and goals and lifestyles of spiritual leaders, philosophers, scientists, healers, educators, politicians, businesspersons, workers, students, and other contributors to societal advancement or decay? What other possibilities or questions should we consider? 8 Comments

Are some political, religious, scientific, and medical leaders benevolent and honest, and some not? Sep 20, 2008 2:47 am 624 Views Is it more lucrative to tell the public that cancer and AIDS are caused by viruses, though cancer is actually caused by denatured foods and environments and lifestyles, and AIDS is actually caused by drug abuse or contaminated blood products or multiple infections with traditional diseases, exacerbated by malnutrition, polluted drinking water, lack of sanitation and hygiene, and stress? Are some scientists and physicians successfully and consistently curing cancer and AIDS by correcting the above? Are greedy ruthless monopolists fighting them and trying to silence them? Are the majority of scientists, physicians, and the public merely following the herd innocently or timidly? 5 Comments

Was President Bush elected by the people, or were the elections falsified? Sep 18, 2008 3:06 am 709 Views Were polling places in liberal or poor or minority neighborhoods understaffed or undersupplied, causing long delays that many working people could not afford to wait out? Were liberal or poor or minority voters detained, harassed, abused, or intimidated? Were some ballots confusing, so that some voters recorded the wrong choices? When votes were recorded unclearly, were some of the counting staff biased in their interpreting? Also, at what level of unclearness should the ballot be discarded? Was this level consistent regardless of apparent vote? Were thousands of eligible liberal or poor or minority voters denied because their names were somewhat similar to ineligible voters? What other trumped-up excuses were used? Were all denied voters informed that their votes were not included? Were all mail-in and overseas military ballots counted, or were some discarded or even sorted, as evidence suggests? Were electronic voting machines tampered with? Were some Democratic Party votes automatically switched to Republican Party votes, as several voters claimed to have witnessed? Were some machines hacked into and programmed to distort counts in other ways? What about count retrieval, processing, storage, relay, and reporting systems? Why did the Supreme Court stop the recount? Did they decide that smooth unencumbered governance was more important than assuring that the people had chosen their president? Were there other motives? Had anyone been offered carrots or sticks behind closed doors? Was the promised later recount ever done? Were the results ever made public? In what other ways might the elections have been falsified? What are the many ways in which campaigning had been manipulated, distorted, corrupted, punished, blocked, and prevented from being free and fair. Which other elections may have been distorted or falsified? Who is behind all of this? What is their agenda? As a separate but related issue, should the Electoral College be abolished? 6 Comments

If God is infinite, then are all human concepts of God accurate but incomplete? Sep 15, 2008 3:36 am 675 Views If God is capable of being anything and everything, then is anything any of us think He* is true but incomplete? Like the blind men perceiving different parts of the elephant, does each interpretation of each religion accurately perceive part of infinite God, but does no interpretation of any religion perceive all of infinite God? * He or She or It or They or We. 6 Comments

Can anyone tell me who prefers the name Burma and who prefers the name Myanmar and why? Sep 12, 2008 2:49 am 785 Views Is it that most citizens call in Burma but the current government calls it Myanmar? What are the histories of these names? 3 Comments

Which are more reliable: unchanging morals or situational ethics? Sep 11, 2008 3:17 am Mood: contemplative, 775 Views Is it more helpful to follow rigid rules of morality or to use ethical reason to contemplate optimum survival in balance and harmony among oneself, one’s spouse or sweetheart, one’s children and family, one’s groups, our species, all living things, physical objects and energies and spaces and times, spirits and everything spiritual, and God or infinity? Are unchanging morals more helpful for some people or circumstances? Are situational ethics more helpful for other people or circumstances? 5 Comments

Should India and Other Asian Countries Be Examples for the US to Revive Its Economy... Sep 9, 2008 7:58 am 901 Views ...from the Doldrums? The US economy used to be based on production in agriculture and manufacturing. For the past fifteen or twenty years, it has shifted gradually away from production to services, trading, mergers, restructuring, investing, speculating, lending, borrowing, etc., making money from money into ever bigger bubbles over an ever shrinking foundation, which is not sustainable, and is now recessing. The US government is borrowing billions of dollars from India, China, Japan, and other countries that are focusing on production. It is using these loans to pay for its unnecessary foolish criminal monstrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many other wasteful things, instead of maintaining American schools, healthcare, roads, bridges, railroads, waterways, dikes (levees), drinking water reservoirs and pipes, waste pipes and treatment plants, etc. Which other factors are important? What solutions should we consider? I don't mean to imply that Asian countries are perfect. India and Japan are progressing more intelligently and responsibly than most countries around the world. China is expanding recklessly and destructively, toward itself and toward the world. I don't know much about Taiwan and South Korea, but they appear to be doing mostly well, though the latter seems to have abandoned much of its culture. Indonesia and Burma are often in the news. Please tell me whether it is better to call it Burma or Myanmar. Is it that most of the people call it Burma, but the current government calls it Myanmar? Can you tell me why? Russia is far from democratic or safe for dissenters, and very difficult for the majority, who are poor, but at least its development is better planned and carried out now, finally, than in some countries. Vietnam is especially beautiful to me, land and culture, and the people are amazingly resilient. I don't say this from guilt. Negative elements in my government have done terrible damage to many other countries too. Positive elements in my government have done great good around the world. It's as though there are two Americas and two worlds, one of benevolent creative people and one of oblivious or defensive parasites. South Asian countries are often in the news, but except for India, the news is mostly about politics, not the life of the people. I know very little about other Asian countries that I didn't mention here, outside the Middle East. Feel free to fill me in, if you feel like it. 23 Comments

How Can We Reduce Terrorism? Sep 5, 2008 2:17 am Mood: optimistic, 818 Views Is there any justification for terrorism? Is oppression the solution as well as the root cause? Do two wrongs make a right, on either side? Are peaceful communications and gatherings sometimes mislabeled terrorism? Is real terrorism sometimes hidden behind charity, social services, and societal-betterment work? What is the difference between a freedom fighter and a terrorist? Are benevolent peacemakers and reformers, and malevolent warmongers and destroyers, sometimes confused with each other? Are there good individuals and bad individuals on both sides? Can there be a two-pronged approach to reducing terrorism, one prong of police and military, and one prong of playing fairly and communicating and cooperating? If governments played fairly around the world, and regulated their business corporations to play fairly around the world, and honestly sought two-way communication with everyone concerned, would it reduce terrorism? If genuine grievances were sincerely listened to and truthfully remedied, would fewer people feel tempted to terrorize? What kinds of help really help in the long term? What kinds of help merely appear to help while actually undermining or corrupting? Should help be two-way cooperation for two-way benefit? What would this look like? How can we monitor and assure it is genuine and fair and actually beneficial? While governments are dragging their feet and making excuses and pretending to be taking action and pretending to be working for the best interests of all the people, can independent citizens' groups step in and do some real work? Who will inspire and lead and organize and plan and coordinate them? Will you? Will I? How will we do it? Who and what will we have to overcome? Who will help us? Will their help be effective or hindering? Will some individuals behave gently when treated fairly and respectfully? Are they the true reformers? Will other individuals always be violent, and find any excuse? Are they only pretending to be reformers? Which other factors are important? What other solutions should we consider? 11 Comments

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