Bank of America Website Unresponsive

Maybe they failed. It's probably a technique so that I can't pay my bill and then they'll raise my interest rate... Oh no, site is back up, no such luck. 

It's Hard to Blog

I've been blogging for a short while, and I can see the difficulty in being consistent. At first, I said I'd try every day and be satisfied if I blogged 3-4 times a week. It's been a little over a week since my last post, but I've been a bit busy with a remodeling project at m house. It's mostly over, so hopefully I'll post a bit more often. There's lots to blog about, I'm just procrastinating. But there's Haiti, Massachusetts, State of the Union, the growing GDP and so much more. 

Corporate Money in Campaigns

Our conservative Supreme Court has approved corporations' right to free speech in regards to political campaigns. In a sense, they are approving the system that already exists and helping to move it forward to the next level. Most people already accept that our political system is controlled by those with financial interests and power and so the court rules in favor of the growth of the oligarchy and the plutocracy. I believe the writers of the Constitution envisioned government as a mediator and regulator, a guardian of the rights of we the people. Now the rights of the people may be diluted by the power granted to the wealthy corporations to control the substance of the debate through media. The Court has abandoned a core democratic principle and we can only hope that Congress has the will and the foresight to avert the impending disaster and manipulation of democracy. 

"What are you doing for others?"

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?" I'm dissatisfied about so many things, but I want to change what I can. I want to do for others what needs to be done in order to see my dreams, which are not that different from Dr. King's, fulfilled. In that vein, I have begun developing a website for my community. 

Remembering Dr. King

"There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers."


"This problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern man's chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of man's ethical infantilism. Each of these problems, while appearing to be separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war."


"...mankind's survival is dependent upon man's ability to solve the problems of racial injustice, poverty, and war; the solution of these problems is in turn dependent upon man squaring his moral progress with his scientific progress, and learning the practical art of living in harmony."


The dream deferred lives on in our hearts and minds. We, all of us, are indeed married to each other, to everyone in the world. Our lives are interconnected. We must solve the problems of our times, which are the problems of our forefathers and theirs before them. We must admit we have the resources to solve injustice, poverty, and war, and we should constantly endeavor to do so with passion and love for peace and humanity.   

Ripple or Tsunami? Catching the Banking Wave

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
I took almost all of my funds out of Chase and put it in local credit unions. Left a little in the account so I still receive their rules and can access their documentation as a customer (just to keep tabs on how they keep screwing us.) Move your savings and take charge of your retirement funds. Roll them over to a credit union IRA. Leave the banks holding their useless derivatives. Change the system. Remove the lever. Break the fulcrum. Force nationalization. And screw profits while your at it. It's all just exploitation of labor. I'd rather live and work for my community than die working for a capitalist.

Encouraging Genius

I'm dissatisfied with lost human potential. Whether because of poverty, unemployment, bias or complacency, there is little doubt that there is a loss of potential in our society. Measures that might increase our production and decrease lost potential include redefining production. For too long, production has been conceived as products and goods, as a measurement of economic growth. But this definition far too often overlooks the importance of ideas, of education, and social progress that contribute to better quality of life or increased efficiency in non-economic areas. I believe we should be encouraging genius throughout our society. Education should be re-tooled to empower communities to encourage genius, and the workplace should be restructured to do so as well.

Terrorism, Privacy, Civil Rights, and the National Database

Listening to Obama detail the systemic failures of the intelligence and security communities in regards to the Christmas day bombing attempt, I was delighted by his use of the phrase "connect the dots." I recently posted under a similar title regarding essentially the same subject: too much information and no algorithm to make sense it. When I connect the dots, I see the problem of terrorism challenging the concept of privacy (which leads to consideration of civil rights.) As much as I regard my privacy, I realize that it is at best illusory. Information about me is already out of my hands (and therefore in someone else's) as is the case with most Americans.

Maybe You Can

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Perhaps some fault lies in the bureaucracy of government or the intricacy of politics but I think much of the blame lies in the half-truths and lies that are perpetuated by the omission of the truth from the public discourse.

Move Your Money: A New Year's Resolution

I'm dissatisfied with the big banks, and have been advocating moving money from the big banks to credit unions. It's not that I specifically want too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banks to fail, but it seems to be the only way to shrink them back to the designation that encompasses almost every other private enterprise in this country.