It's Friday Night, Lets Dance

YouTube - Don Mclean - Dreidel.

YouTube - Crying - Don Mclean (with lyrics)

YouTube - Rick Derringer - Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo (studio)

Thank You Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

I could not be more impressed than I am by the writing of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar about the Donald Sterling situation. He said even better than I did what I was trying to express in my last post.

Time - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Welcome to the Finger-Wagging Olympics

Aside from being one of the greatest players in history, heck, even I know who he is, he also achieved a degree in History from UCLA while leading in just about everything involving basketball. I just didn't know what a tremendous writer he was. This is a man who knows about racism; but, still understands that there are often bigger issues. To throw away all of the things we hold dear because of one issue is suicide as a nation and a people. He is also responsible for some the funniest lines in the movie "Airplane".

I don't like basketball, I am not a Muslim (Mr. Abdul-Jabbar is), I think Donald Sterling is a scum bag; but, he is an old fool scumbag and should have been kicked out of the NBA for being a scum bag and a slum lord, not for being an ignorant bigot. Mr. Abdul Jabbar nailed a really important issue that I did not; but, was at the heart of what I wrote, he just said it so much better. We take the moral high ground complaining about the government "spying" on us; but, destroy a mans life because of an illegal recording that was made in private. That is why I was outraged when the head of the NBA said that the conversation may have been private; but, it was public now.

I was asked to do something today. The person who asked me was under instruction to ask me the question. The person who had to ask me the question felt bad that they had to ask me as they knew that it would upset me. I was asked to do something that they knew would offend me. I have a moral, the moral is "do the right thing for the right reason". That is my belief and what I instruct the people who work for me to do. It may sound sappy; but, it is what I believe. Doing the right thing for the wrong reason and doing the wrong thing for the right both destroy your soul, they are sell outs and justifications for being selfish and corrupt. That is the challenge to our souls and ourselves and Mr. Abdul Jabbar knows that and could see the truth and the bigger issue.

Mr. Abdul Jabbar is never going to read this pitiful little blog' but, if he ever does I want to say something to him. Thank you. Not thank you for standing up and calling for reason; but, thank you for knowing reason and not being another media whore. Thank you for showing integrity, honesty and intelligence. Thank you for showing that we don't all have to be knee jerk, emotional morons seeking public acceptance.

A young kid, trying to make his life, trying to be the greatest basketball player ever, he also got a degree in History. My first degree is in History, you learn a lot about the world. This young man stood up and changed his name from Lewis Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He faced a lot of hate for that. It was sort of okay to be black; but, a Muslim. It seemed so anti-American at the time to many fools. It is hard for people to remember the 60s and what sort of courage that took; but, he did it and risked a career. That is impressive to me.

Crime and Punishment - Donald Sterling

I have to give a whole bunch of history for people to understand this. First off, I don't watch basketball, don't know the teams, the owners or even the players. When I was a kid I used to play it. That is my basketball knowledge. As you may also know, I don't usually write about big stories in the news that are meaningless to the bigger picture. I didn't really even know about this story, I saw something in the news about some team owner saying bad things about blacks. That was all I knew until today.

I was driving and heard on the radio that Mr. Sterling, the owner of the "Clippers" was told that he was banned from life from basketball and a couple million in fines. I didn't really care about him or the penalty he was facing, I am sure he can afford it and won't end up as homeless for being a bigot. That is the problem, I had to ask myself if the punishment fit the crime. Sorry, my doctorate in law demands it of me.

I think the thing that bothered me was that you could lose so much without even having a trial or a hearing by an impartial judge. The people that made the decision were far from impartial, they have a business interest in the NBA. I decided to read some of the news stories to understand what had happened. Funny thing, those kind of convinced me that he was being punished in a way that did not fit the crime; but, there was something even worse. He was never punished in the past for things that should have gotten him in the same position.

If the moral of this story was simple, I wouldn't write about it so play along with me while I show my logical progression. The moral of the story that the NBA, mass media and many players is that he was appropriately punished for being a bigot. Minutes after the decision the Mayor of Los Angeles came out at a press conference to declare that he supported the punishment.

Los Angeles Times - NBA's use of 'hammer' on Donald Sterling welcomed by Garcetti
Not to be outdone, a number of councilmembers also expressed their support for the decision by the NBA. I did not read one person who questioned any of this. Wow. There is a little irony in all of this for me. My popular post is about a black, female pastor who was killed in the south. 60 years ago when someone like her got killed, the little Louisiana, Mississippi and other southern state governments would not have spent hardly a minute looking into what had really occurred. Back in the day there was two types of justice, black and white. Especially in states that prohibited blacks from voting, they therefore could not be on juries.

Mr. Sterling was tried by public opinion and the mass media. Shouldn't the opinions of other bigots be considered? I'm not being funny. I don't find any of this funny and have no use for Mr. Sterling; but, everybody deserves to be heard and considered when there is so much at stake. I know a woman, she is black and does not like white people very much. I used to supervise her. I have funny ways of thinking about employment. People ask me who I work for and I say myself, if I don't get paid, I don't work. I work with people that are to differing degrees willing to work with me. Anyways, I had left my organization for a few years and then returned in higher position. There were a lot of people who didn't want me back because they did not wish to compete with me. They lied about me and made many false statements. Yeah, well, the black lady that didn't like whites much, she straightened them out because in the end she was a Christian and had to tell the truth. The only reason I know this is because she told me about it and others told me what she had done.

Now, lets talk about God, I will get back to the story. Every day and every night and every moment, Satan is before God accusing us of being sinners and we are. Every second Satan is telling God what horrible things we be; but, he is deceiver and ignorant. We are born into a world blind and confused, barely able to understand our senses. Babies cannot focus on what is in front of them, they are babies. Jesus died for our sins because he knows we are human and knows what that feels like as he took human shape and then died so that we were not punished for being less than perfect. That is the essence of the bible. Maybe some of you forgot that I preach for free some of the time. I preach like I write, from the heart. I think I am a better writer; but, any audience is an audience.

Now, back to Mr. Sterling. No, wait, not Mr. Sterling the crime. Lets start with the basics. What should the penalty be for being a bigot who hides it in public and is taped by a mistress, illegally in California as far as I know as in California you have to tell someone their words are being taped. Does that bother anyone? I haven't read anyone mention it in the press and that is what got Nixon impeached and people outraged. At the time they were shocked that Nixon was secretly taping people. It is another Mel Gibson moment except government officials don't go on the papers and news talking about how it is justice that he does not get a part in a movie.

This all sort of gets us back to the question about justice and state action, crime and punishment You have a private conversation, don't know you are being recorded, your in your eighties and make a racist comment. Should you be fined over 2 million dollars and be forced to leave your industry for life? I am not asking about Mr. Sterling, read what I did ask, it is a hypothetical.

There was a post in the New York Times during the potato famine in Ireland when 1/4 of us, yes, I am Irish, died from starvation. At the time, the food from Ireland was being shipped to England. As they starved to death. The article talked about how the famine could be a good thing because it might eliminate the "Irish problem". If that would have happened, I would not be here. I think about that sometimes. I am an American first; but, am Irish in my bones. My loyalty is to the country that took my family in when my birthright and land are Ireland. I chose to die in America and have my body planted here because it is now my home because we, my family was allowed her, the miscreants that we are and I have placed allegiance with the same causes that this country tried to be founded on. Fairness, Love of God, belief in a fair chance and freedom to explore your beliefs. That is why I hold the constitution second to the bible in my heart and mind.

I do hope my readers are getting this, I will stay up until I am done writing it and it is later than I had wished. I find myself defending a person I would want to be around. I cannot get away from the bigger issue. At what point in time did we decide that we could take everything away from a person because we don't like them because they are a jerk, because they hate us for just being. I wouldn't feel that way about the jerk that wrote how all of my people should be dead by starvation. I don't have that in my heart.

The purpose of discipline is to change behavior, that is a tenet of human resource work and I have managed such a section for decades. When people do wrong you want to learn from them, to become better. Mr. Sterling was not taught to be better, he was banned for life. Not much of a chance for redemption. That is not the end of the story, as you credit all the people in the media and government and ex-players who decried Mr. Sterling and applauded his condemnation by the NBA, ask yourself why they did it. Now here is where it gets really interesting. Seems Mr. Sterling is scum bag in many ways and has been for a long time.

Los Angeles Times - Banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling--not just racist but sexist, too
. This article outlines how Mr. Sterling was a slumlord and sleazy in other ways. Yahoo - Commish Adam Silver's bold ban of Clippers owner Donald Sterling was long overdue from NBA
.

Kind of interesting that it was long overdue, why wasn't his attitude been corrected earlier? We can also get into how the NAACP is now taking back their commendation for him or how people are returning contributions to help others because he is a bigot.

They Don't Like You Knowing What They Are Stealing From Us

Los Angeles Times - Americans differ sharply on causes of income inequality, study finds. There are so many problems with this article. It states that Republicans believe that people are poor because they are lazy. It attempts to polarize people by political parties as to the cause of income inequality and implies that only Democrats believe it is because of tax laws that primarily benefit the rich. Well, follow it up with this article.

Huffington Post - The Big Fix: How Congress Rigs the Rules. Congress is about to make permanent tax breaks that it gave to the people who destroyed the financial industry and let unemployment payments expire. The thing to watch is not tax rates, it is deductions.

Huffington Post - What Problem Is Privatizing Fannie and Freddie Meant to Solve?. This is one of the only articles to talk about something I wrote about weeks or months ago. A couple of Senators want to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for pennies on the dime when they are about to provide over $200 Billion back to the taxpayers who bailed them out.

The State of Finance and Industry

The Independent - Stop moaning about our bonuses: Barclays boss slaps down investors angry at bank's pay practices.

Corporations were created to benefit the owners, the investors. They were not created to benefit just the executives. The way the laws have been changed, the owners do not benefit as much as the executives and neither does the average employee. The investors can change all of that and make American companies benefit Americans and the British and the Europeans can do the same.

Just Some More News Articles and Nonsense

The New York Times - The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest. An interesting article and Stephen Colbert had some interesting comments about the change. Raw Story - Colbert: Canadian middle class ‘ice-holes’ bring home more bacon, and it’s that round sh*t. My favorite quote from Mr. Colbert, “How is Canada’s middle class doing so well?” he asked. “I mean, they’ve got socialized medicine, subsidized child care, and high taxes for the rich.” “There are only two possible reasons we are falling behind the ice-holes: one, America’s middle class is lazy; or two, America doesn’t have enough tax cuts for the wealthy.”
“Just think about it folks,” he continued. “How can we rich trickle down prosperity to everyone else unless we have all the money? Our cup must filleth before it runneth over.”

The Washington Times - CARSON: When government looks more like foe than friend. Oh, the hypocrisy. There is a rancher named Bundy who had his cows grazing on federally owned land and refused to pay his permit. The federal government came to take his cows and armed citizen militia came to help the rancher. He is now being called a hero by certain right wing elements. The argument is claimed to be over freedom of speech and to use open spaces. My problems with this case are many fold; but, where these same people when the Occupy movement people, who were legally using public spaces to protest, were corralled and arrested by the police? Heck, where was Mr. Bundy? Thats right, they were applauding the removal of the communist scum. Be careful what you allow to happen to your neighbor or it will happen to you. Lets not forget the Occupy people were unarmed and peaceful.

Yahoo - Soldier in battle to rid home of squatters, Florida sheriff’s office says it can’t do anything [UPDATED x2]. The story says that the police refused to remove a "squatter" from a soldiers home. Great headline, the facts don't support it and the soldier is apparently lying. The "squatters" had been allowed in the house while the soldier was away to make some repairs to the property. They claim that they were allowed to live there while he was gone and he claims they were only allowed in to make repairs. If what he is saying is true then what was he supposed to pay them and did he? That is not in the article because his allowing them to stay there while doing the work was the payment.

Yahoo - Ellen's Good News - Meet the Kid Who Received 150 College Scholarship Offers. An amazing young man who is talented in everyway is accepted to all the big schools, a nice story. Of course he was accepted to all the colleges; but, what about the other kids who don't get into college because the colleges make more by letting in foreign students?

Yahoo - Reuters - Buffett: moving oil by rail safely major industry concern. Warren Buffet bought a railway a few years back, at a time when railroads were losing money. How fortunate for him that we are now shipping oil by train rather than creating a pipeline from Canada.

Stop reading the news to see if they agree with you and try and learn that each story is bent individually rather than being connected to the bigger picture.

It is Fun to Dream - Microhomes

As I prepare to retire I have been thinking about ways that I will have to live on less, a lot less. Well, that is not quite true, I know how to make six figures when I retire; but, I think I need to take some time off completely. I always knew I would go back to being a minimalist and a hermit. My ex and kids knew it too. My siblings never real saw it.

In law school I lived in a very small studio apartment in one of the worst parts of town and I loved it. I had mini-fridge, a hot plate, a bathroom and a fold out couch. It may have been a whopping 150 square feet. I didn't own a television and only had a radio, there were no personal computers. I didn't have a phone and there were no cell phones. I read a lot and enjoyed the peace and quiet. For awhile, my-exwife, my stepchild and me all lived in it together and it worked okay.

After the divorce I lost a lot of stuff and my 2,700 square foot home. Since then I have lived in a quarter of the space and it feels very roomy. When not cooking I tend to use only a couple of hundred square feet. When you spend most of your time reading and writing, you don't really need a lot of space.

All of this has caused me to follow the tiny home movement. Basically it is people building and moving into 250 square foot spaces. It is the wave of the future as times only get harder in America. I regret to say that many children will never know the job of having the privacy of having your own room. I didn't know that privacy till I was 18, I always shared a room with my brother till then. That was okay too; but, there is something special about getting your own space.

Anyways, there is a movement called tiny homes and it looks good for me. So, I have been watching these videos about different tiny homes and evaluating what amenities do and do not matter to me. I was a cabinet maker long ago and am fantasizing about making my own tiny home and towing it to different places as I have the opportunity to do. I am even thinking of doing something very original using a compound that nobody else has considered that was created for NASA. There is a company that sought to hire me once that made such compound.

What I am doing is enjoying thinking about all the different ways I could build a tiny home for me and make it the most inventive tiny home ever. One of the problem I have with most tiny homes is that they put the beds in lofts which require you to climb a ladder. It does not seem very handicapped or elderly friendly and I am aging. I saw a Canadian guy who put his bed on the first and only floor, he said he drank a lot and didn't want to fall down. He made it a pull out bed that also functioned as a couch. There are some pretty smart people thinking about tiny homes and trying to consider as much as they can. I think I might be able to add to that conversation and might enjoy doing so.

Microhomes, my future and retirement. Questions that are on my mind. With each one of the questions, I feel freer.