"Poverty consists not in the decrease of one's possessions, but in the increase of one's greed." -- Plato

My personal politics can't easily be labelled. I do not belong to any party. I have little regard for "congenital" party members of any sort or those who frame all issues around one or two that matter most to them personally -- be it "life," taxes, war or whatever. Politics -Life. For example I hold that all human life is most precious among all things -- whether considering abortion or the death penalty. The fact that these are "legal" does not in my view make them "moral" and they are just plain wrong. When calling the cause of death after an execution the doctor uses the description "legal homicide." In my view no man can take another's life and life begins at conception. This belief comes from within and not from religion, since I am agnostic. I find both liberals and conservatives to be hypocrits when one holds life so precious in one instance and not in the other. Lastly, the death penalty costs ten times more tax dollars to prosecute than it does to jail a criminal for life without any possibility of parole. I do believe in self-defense, a right I extend to countries and those states that band together for their common protection within their own borders. In my view the following wars are "moral": WWI, WWII, Korea, the first Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan. The following are not: Vietnam and the second War on Iraq.
Politics - US Government. I believe in limited federal government, much as conservatives do, and in States' rights; but I also believe that our federal government exists to handle critical functions that cannot be handled at the State level because of efficiencies of scale, such as the national defense and the basic welfare of our citizens. Like conservatives I believe matters such as education and public housing are best handled at the state level. Like liberals, I believe that our sopposedly modern and caring nation has a responsibility to provide basic health care for all citizens irrespective of their social, employment or other status.

"A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy." Benjamin Disraeli

July 26, 2011. Extracted from a conversation with a high school classmate during a discussion on the tense budget talks taking place in Washington: With the benefit of further reflection I believe both national parties are failing America in different ways. I am grateful to the Republicans for suddenly returning to their fiscally conservative roots after abandoning them under George Bush. However, I believe that they have let their hatred of the Obama administration push them to such an extreme that it might backfire strongly against them and, more importantly, against average and poor Americans at a very difficult time. The Democrats, on the other hand, wasted two years when they could have achieved a great deal. I voted for Obama because I wanted us out of the two wars and I wanted the basic human right of health care for all Americans, like every other modern country on earth. He has failed me and all Americans in this respect. I fear deeply for our country and see no emergent statesman who will lead us to greatness again. I fear that cutting so deep at our weakest time will further damage the country so much in the short term that the long term benefit will seem at the edge of infinity. What galls me the most is that most Americans do not read the legislations that get proposed and passed. The last budget cut, to which Obama agreed, contained a $750 BILLION cut for WIC (Women, Infants, Children), the poorest of the poor. Again, the poor and the elderly will take it big in the next round while we protect the wealthy's tax cuts WHO DID NOT SPEND IT TO CREATE JOBS when Bush gave it to them. We are continuing to increase the great divide between the haves and the have nots. moving us back in the direction of developing countries. I wish I could make all Americans read what they actually support or oppose. I am not a religious person. But to every "Christian Conservative" I would like to say, "read every proposed bill with WWJD in mind and see how you come out."

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Personal Manifesto
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Care to know where I stands on things? Read on...

This constantly evolving page is a slightly more extensive version of the views I share and discuss on Facebook and Twitter. These are my personal views mostly intended for my children and a few close friends and, as always, I am open to discussion.

LIFE. If we do not learn from our mistakes, the common saying goes, we are bound to repeat them. I reflected on this during 60 days of personal introspection in the summer of 2009. After an emotional and intellectual "purge," I approached my 50th birthday with a new or, in some cases, re-tooled set of core beliefs. I've called the sum of these beliefs my "personal manifesto."

For years I have questioned the values espoused by many, and certainly my first wife. That includes, most of all, the emphasis on "career" as a pillar of familial and self-worth, as well as all the attendant material possessions. To be sure, the involuntary loss of all possessions to divorce did stimulate some of this thinking. But it began when the trappings of my first marriage seemed so much more important to my spouse than our marriage itself. I have landed for the last and final time on the conclusion that this marriage was only a means to an end and the wrong end at that, save for the wonderful children it produced. To me life is now is about memories and not possessions. No longer will work and what it buys drive my life, beyond what is necessary for my children's welfare, for the welfare of those I care most deeply about, and lastly for my own. Instead I will cherish moments and memories and dedicate the balance of my life to creating as many of those memories as possible.

I do not criticize others in my life for following a different path. I believe, somewhat like in the Hindu culture, that there are many paths to the greater good and that one of them might be financial success or mind numbing work hours-- just not for me, at least not anymore. Last but not least memories can't be taken from you. Not until it matters not one bit.

Politics - separation of church and state. Like our founders, I believe that our individual right to pratice any religion or none at all is endangered when one religion attempts to co-opt the running of the country. That applies to Christians, Muslims, or any religion whatsoever.

"True religion, like our founding principles, requires that the rights of the disbeliever be equally acknowledged with those of the believer." -- A. Powell Davies

There is nothing left to interpretation in the Constitution. It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." And while the intent of the framers is often willfully misinterpreted to call our Country a "Christian" nation, this was clearly not in their minds. The term "separation of church and state" is an offshoot of the phrase, "wall of separation between church and state," as written in Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists Association in 1802. The original text reads: "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." Our founders would have surely opposed breaches in that wall such as the addition of "In God we Trust" as a motto on our currency in 1864 (long after our founders passed on), on Federal buildings and in other venues. I personally believe the law adopting this motto to be anti-constitutional. "Under God" was only added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1956 and, while adopted by law, I also consider this to be anti-constitutional. Nothing that moves us down the path from democracy, like our founders intended, to theocracy, like in Iran, is in my mind a good thing.

Myth: Our nation was founded on Christian principles. This premise, widely believed by Christian Conservatives, is incorrect. In fact we were fleeing that kind of quasy theocracy when we declared our independence. The men responsible for building the United States had little use for Christianity, and many were in fact strongly opposed to it. They were not men of Christianity. They were Deists who did not believe the bible was true. When they wrote the Constitution, they specified that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." (Article 6, section 3)  This provision gave equal rights to believers and non-believers alike.  They wanted to ensure that no single religion could claim to be the official, national religion, such as England had at the time.  Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention religion, except in exclusionary terms.  The words "Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, and God" are never mentioned in the Constitution-- not once. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that the power of the government is derived from the governed. The Declaration was a radical departure from the idea of divine authority, not an endorsement of one religion. In fact the 1796 treaty with Tripoli, a Muslim nation, written under George Washington and signed under John Adams, specifically stated that the United States was "in no sense founded on the Christian religion."

Politics: Education. Many of today's politicians, chiefly the most conservative Christian ones, succeed because many American can no longer process thoughts on their own. Their believers are primed by being "faithful." In other words they are used to believe things "just because." So contests become about how well you can deliver a message rather than how real the message might be. Twenty years ago all surveys agreed America was #1 in the world in education. Today, depending on which survey you believe, we are between 9th (the most optimistic I have found) and 29th (the most pessimistic). The OECD ranks us 18th among industrialized nations. One in five Americans are FUNCTIONALLY ILLITERATE. That means they can read enough to graduate from our low standards High Schools (they can mouth the words) but they can't process any thoughts based on the sentences. This greatly benefits the Republicans. That's because taking proven facts and disproving them in theory only works with a dumb electrorate who can't check up on the facts. One of the pillars of America's success has always been education. We dreamed and created in the United States and other countries manufactured. We were the "creme de la creme." But if we don't fix education (and immigration, a subject for another day, since we used to import many "brains:), we will see other countries pole vault past us. How do we fix this? It is remarkably cheap but politically difficult. Surveys show that if we merely allowed schools to fire the poorly performing bottom 10% of all teachers, and replaced them with only average teachers, the U.S. would quickly regain #1 status in the world ahead of the current #1, Finland. And while I am no fan of busting unions for no good reason, in this case they stand in the way. Whether it is a federal standard or busting of the unions, this is one critical remedy we need to implement now.

Politics - Universal Health Care. The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. 28 industrialized nations have single payer universal health care systems, while 1 (Germany) has a multipayer universal health care system like President Clinton proposed for the United States. This is shameful. Contrary to popular belief, if defined by outcomes, the United States does not have the best health care system around. We rank 23rd in infant mortality, down from 12th in 1960 and 21st in 1990. We rank 20th in life expectancy for women down from 1st in 1945 and 13th in 1960. We rank 21st in life expectancy for men down from 1st in 1945 and 17th in 1960. We ranks between 50th and 100th in immunizations depending on the immunization. Overall US is 67th, right behind Botswana. Outcome studies on a variety of diseases, such as coronary artery disease and renal failure show the United States to rank below Canada and a wide variety of industrialized nations. As a former insurance executive I know from personal experience that my clients in Canada lived longer, healthier lives than my American customers. Myth: Universal Health Care Would Be Too Expensive. The United States spends at least 40% more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country with universal health care. Federal studies by the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting office show that single payer universal health care would save 100 to 200 Billion dollars per year despite covering all the uninsured and increasing health care benefits. When Canada switched to a single payer universal system in 1971 its costs were identical to the United States. Now they are much lower. Myth: Universal Health Care Would Deprive Citizens of Needed Services. Studies reveal that citizens in universal health care systems have more doctor visits and more paid hospital days than in the US. Around 30% of Americans have problem accessing health care due to payment problems or access to care, far more than any other industrialized country. About 17% of our population is without health insurance. About 75% of ill uninsured people have trouble accessing/paying for health care. Americans have a harder time accessing health care than Canadians. There would be no waiting under a universal health care system in the United States because we have about a 30% oversupply of medical equipment and surgeons, whereas demand would increase only about 15%. Myth: Universal Health Care Would Result In Government Control And Intrusion Into Health Care Resulting In Loss Of Freedom Of Choice. There would be free choice of health care providers under a single payer universal health care system, unlike our current managed care system in which people are forced to see providers on the insurer’s panel to obtain medical benefits. There would be no management of care under a single payer system unlike the current managed care system which mandates insurer preapproval for services thus undercutting patient confidentiality and taking health care decisions away from the health care provider and consumer. Myth: The Problems With The US Health Care System Are Best Solved By Private Corporate Managed Care Medicine because they are the most efficient. Private for profit corporation are the least efficient providers of health care. They spend between 20 and 30% of premiums on administration and profits. The public sector is the most efficient. Medicare spends 3% on administration. Moreover the overall health of our citizens improves dramatically when they reach 65 and get routine healthcare reliably and predictably. Health care costs in the United States grew more in the United States under managed care in 1990 to 1996 than any other industrialized nation with single payer universal health care. Additionally, the quality of health care in the US has deteriorated under managed care. Access problems have increased and the number of uninsured has dramatically increased.

In short, the US denies access to health care based on the ability to pay. This is shameful and should our country's first priority to remedy.

RELIGION. I am an Agnostic in the purest sense of the word and in many respects a Nihilist (but not an anarchist, a movement that hijacked the word Nihilist for purposes I don't support). I do not know if there is a God and what form he, she or it might take. I have no faith. I have read about the world's largest religions. In them I have found many good thoughts but few real answers. I am still exploring.

I envy the faithful. I respect them for having found what I have not. Although their greatest comfort seems to be the promise of an afterlife, that alone is not reason enough for me to believe. I am comfortable with the likelihood that I will "pass" without knowing for sure. I do believe in everyone's right to worship as they wish as long as they cause no harm to others or to small children. The greatest problem I have with "faith" is that it requires the suspension of reason, critical thinking and common sense.

I respect other people's right to take different views but I prefer to hold mine personal. I cannot stand to be proselytized.

For more on what it means to be an agnostic, follow this link to an article by Bertrand Russell sent to me by my father.