The Coming of Direct Democracy is Bad

The sheep were intentionally rattled. The threats of global governance and stricter monitoring of us will have the real goal realized. The people of many nations are revolting against their governments. The call goes out to take back our governments. It is said in France, Greece, England, the United States and even Iran. People who are unhappy with the current state of affairs are throwing out people from all the parties to find people that are not "professional" politicians. They will succeed, sort of.

There is a call for a international referendum coming from Europe. Most states do not have initiative or referendums. They are tools used by governments whereby the people directly vote for a law. Sounds good doesn't it? It is good to a point.

I have spent 46 of my 50 years on earth learning about government. I know a thing or two about how they work, not just my own, I studied them all and their laws. I was one of the few to take classes in comparative law and comparative government. I see government as a necessary evil. I do not believe in direct democracy. People who know me will be quite surprised to learn this.

Direct democracy (as opposed to representational democracy) and proportional legislation are systems that are incapable of reasoned change and tend to make constitutions meaningless. Jesus told us to be good slaves for a reason, the majority of people make lousy masters and are incapable of being good leaders.

The founding fathers were smart, they studied what had been done in other countries throughout history. The Constitution created representational democracy. It allowed average people to vote for people they considered the most knowledgeable and reasonable to run the country for them. It worked so long as those were the people we voted for.

The problem we face today is that people now vote their pocketbook, they vote for people who they believe will institute policies that will favor them, rather than do the right thing. They vote for people of low morals who will vote for policies that favor them. Bill Clinton is a good example, he was immoral and lied and people voted for him anyways. I feel the exact same way about George W. Bush. I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican.

We do worse than waste our votes, we vote for people we don't like and don't trust, we vote based on color or gender or association. We vote for "our guy" rather than the right guy. We don't bother to learn the law or decide what policies are best. Political discussion in this country is limited to people getting angry and taking sides. Name calling is considered appropriate, consider the use of the word tea baggers. It is depressing to see our President use the term.

Direct democracy will only make things worse. People will still vote their pocketbook; but, will have no restraint. They will still vote their bigotry. We can know the biases of the people we vote for; but, how can you know the bias of a nation, you can only speculate.

Direct democracy works well in small, homogeneous societies. I lived in the last town to have Town Hall government in the United States. We had under 6,000 people in the town and one stop light. The town, I was told, was the second town founded after Plymouth Plantation. It was named after the Earl of Sandwich.

The Town Hall system worked because everybody in those small towns understood that their lives were intertwined, they depended on each other and to harm any of them was to harm them all so they spent a lot of time talking to each other to decide what was best. You cannot duplicate that on the internet, the voters do not depend on each other in a way that they understand.

I had more to say; but, I have been interrupted so many times that I just can't hang on to my thoughts. Sorry.

Another Day, Another Post

I was talking to a friend who works with me. She and I finalized our divorces at about the same time, hers took 5 years and mine 3. Sometimes I think about my life that evaporated before my eyes. When your spouse leaves you for someone else after decades together, it effects you in strange ways.

At first you may feel confused then depressed and then angry; but, even once those feelings have passed you are still left with ghosts. I do not miss my ex-wife and I do not ever wish to see her again, this is not about her. What I am talking about are memories and hopes and habits.

The memories get redefined in light of what we know. The hopes, the hopes for our future, our plans are discarded and new ones must be determined. That takes awhile; but, you start developing new plans eventually. The last part is the habits, the things you don't even think about. Things like which side of the bed you sleep on, how the toilet paper is put on the roll, which drawers hold the utensils, the million little habits that you developed overtime with your spouse.

The reason the habits are the last to go is because we don't even recognize them until something clicks. The habits need to go too. If we are to be free and ready to have a new relationship that is complete we have to renegotiate the habits with the new person.

The last remnant of a past relationship. The last anchor to a ship that has sailed. I am in the process of removing that anchor. I didn't know it was there. When you are the person who was left you have time to grieve and remove all of these barriers from interfering with having future healthy relationships. I am not saying it is easy, I am saying you have the choice to do so. When you are the person who left for another, that chance is a lot harder to come by, maybe impossible.

From others I have known who were in my situation, many chose to never fully trust the opposite sex again. Trust is a tough one and is the first one you have to deal with. You must make a complete commitment to trusting another again, trusting them as if you had never been hurt in a relationship. If you do not do that you will never address the rest of the grieving process. It is all or nothing.

I have not know the intimate scent of any woman other than my ex-wife. Scent is a very powerful memory inducer. As the years have passed the memory begins to fade. I wonder if the scent of my future partner will seem odd to me. It is these types of things that must fade from the memory before we can totally move on.

To have your spouse leave you for another is tough; but, on the bright side, you can move on completely if you work through it. I feel bad for widows and widowers because giving up those memories and habits is much harder. They have no reason to purge their memory. It is true that they do not need to deal with the betrayal; but, they must deal with things that make having a new relationship harder. They must deal with unresolved issues that they can never address directly.

"Gone With The Wind" is a great book and movie. It is about having your world taken from you. Everyone deals with the loss of their world differently. Some move on and others do not, they still miss the world they lost. I do not miss the world I lost anymore because I never really had that world. People around me were living dual lives not the ones I thought they were.

It is easier to come to grips with the fact that the life you were living was an illusion because you can see that it was an illusion and nothing you believed was true. The truth is easier than making up lies. It is harder to come to grips with the fact that the life you had cannot be achieved. Less hope in getting it back for a widower or widow.

And what of the cheating spouse? That is funny, they did not appreciate what they had so they must look for something different. There is nothing to mourn because they did not like what they had, they wanted more. It becomes a question of whether or not anyone will ever treat them as well. Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes the answer is no. It depends on how they were treated, life remains the same.

My ex-wife's mother is a very nice lady and I love her dearly. I have never said a bad thing about her and I never will, I have nothing bad to say about her. When she was my mother in law, in 27 years of knowing her we only ever had one disagreement and it was minor. I miss her dearly and will love her till the day I die. She left her husband, I do not believe she cheated on him and have no reason to believe so. She left because she said he did not adore her enough, that is what she told my ex-wife. Years later she never found someone who did love her as much as he did, she said leaving him was the greatest mistake she ever made.

Being with someone means hard work. The love part is great and sex is a pretty nice cherry on top of the ice cream. Problem is that we live in a world that requires much of us just to get by. Most of us must work and we cannot romance every second. That can be hard on the person who isn't doing the work to understand. My ex-father in law worked hard, I worked hard, my ex-brother in law worked hard. They all married men who worked hard to provide for their families.

My ex-father in law and I did not always get along. I did not like the way he let his new wife treat his children from his prior marriage. I would not have had that issue if his ex-wife, my ex-mother and law had still been married to him. I liked his work ethic and sense of humor.

There are few people in this world that can afford not to work. Most women will never meet one of them. While romance and excitement 24 hours a day may seem like a nice dream and can be obtained in spurts, it cannot be sustained in this world. If your fantasy involves a life of uninterrupted joy, you are in the wrong place. If you wish to be "adored" 24/7, you are not going to find it.

What do you look for in a relationship? What is achievable? What if, what if what you look for is commitment to grow together, to go through the tough spots and know that the high spots will come back? That is reality, that is life. That is the best we can hope for. Jumping from person to person to keep up the highs cannot succeed, this is not Club Med. Instead you are left with a series of relationships that never fully developed, arrested development is all you get.

I thank my co-worker for the conversation we had today, she is very insightful about some things. It caused me to think and right, this has helped me to understand myself. I believe I am ready to move past the habits and develop new ones. It is not so much about being willing to move past as it is about being open to developing new habits and new patterns. Patterns that you can only develop with a new partner. I think I am ready now.

UPDATE

I was wrong, I passed this part earlier, I just didn't know it. Scent, the scent of a woman. I had sniffed the nape of the neck of a woman I dated and had been intoxicated by her aroma. It was one of the women I dated. I did love her aroma, I was able to be excited by new women. I was able to progress in my experience of dating. I kept getting closer to what I need and what they need. I thank everyone of the women I dated for helping me to heal and see how amazing they can be as they progress.

Perhaps I have answered my own question, am I ready to move along to a new relationship? I think the answer is yes. I think it is just a matter of being patient and waiting till I meet the person who is also ready. Be well and may God keep you in his good graces.

How Strange Politics Is

I want to make sure I understand correctly. Jerry Brown is running for Governor. That much I know. He came to Los Angeles to raise money and announce his commercials were coming out. Okay. The party was attended by Public Union Leaders and John Perez. Mr. Perez is the speaker of the State Assembly and the cousin of the Mayor.

Jerry Brown filed a civil law suit against Mr. Alfred Villalobos and a former CalPers Board member named Fred Buenrostro for fraud. Now that was odd because you usually file criminal suits for bribery. It is also claimed that Mr. Villalobos gave a $300,000 condo to Mr Buenrostro when he left CalPers.

Mr. Villalobos claims that Mr. Brown knows he did nothing wrong and that he is being prevented from calling certain CalPers personnel to testify. Sounded sort of like a threat to me when I read it originally. These things often get interesting as they play out. This one is.

Mr. Villalobos then filed bankruptcy. The judge in the bankruptcy case said he would block the suit against Mr. Villalobos for bribery and fraud. How fortunate for Mr. Villalobos. The judge could not have done it if Mr. Brown had filed a CRIMINAL case against Mr. Villalobos. Why didn't good old Jerry file a criminal case? Don't you want to know?

Now another ex-Calpers member decided to invoke the fifth amendment 126 times when asked if he had received any gifts from Mr. Villalobos. In short, that means he refused to answer the questions on the grounds that it might incriminate him.

Mr. Perez is interesting, he rented an apartment from CIM Group in their Gas Company lofts, a project he voted on to subsidize. Our friends at CIM had paid Mr. Villalobos $16 million dollars for being a placement agent for CalPers.

It seems like everybody is friends. Politicians, Union Leaders and CalPers officials. The people who have lost their retirement are the union members and the people being asked to pay more into the system are the taxpayers. Maybe they should be asking why Mr. Brown did not charge Mr. Villalobos with a criminal suit. Well, in his run for governor it looks like at least he will have union leadership support, he shall not have mine.

The Truth

Someone kept me up so I have a last word. I wrote a post yesterday and never posted it. While I was writing I had a realization. I remembered something and understood it better. I understood that I had always been right about something. It is something very personal so I did not post it. I wrote anyways just to organize my thoughts. Writing itself has value and helps us to hear our own thoughts. When you say something out loud you can hear the truth or falsity in it a little better, even more if you tell another.

And then what?

Someone on "Above Top Secret" (a website) asked what happens after we go to heaven. People's answers were interesting. Lots of talk about kicking back and enjoying. I am surprised by people's views of heaven. They view heaven as club med. I have read my bible and I know that it says in heaven all tears are wiped away; but, it does not say that we just go back to being lumps.

If heaven were just laying around having sex and food then what would the point of this experience be? Life is tough, we face many tragedies. The same question applies to hell. Non-stop torture has no value either.

Let us consider the nature of God. We are told he is a loving God who cares about us. So, why are we allowed to make each other so miserable? That question is rather easy, free will. If we did not have free will then we would not have our own personality, we would not choose who we wanted to be. Many of us do not, we give up our free will in exchange for goodies. Still, it is our choice.

Learning to manage our free will, learning to be with one another is just the beginning. It is the school that we are in. We decide what and whether or not we learn. Some choose pure selfishness, to be their own gods, to do as they will and not worry about anyone else. Their heaven is complete control. I have said before, if all you care about is yourself then eventually that is all you have. That is my definition of hell, solitary confinement.

Heaven, for me, is people caring as much about each other than about themselves. In that heaven we would seek to spend as much time with each other, continuing to learn and grow because each of us could share our unique perspectives with each other. This leaves us with the vast majority of people, cookie chasers.

I would assume that they get neither heaven nor hell, they get to try again till they define themselves. Or perhaps they do all become one having eternally given up their individuality. No conflict, to be sure; but, little variety. A group think experience of the universe.

No matter where one ended up, in my three scenarios, there is still a universe to experience. Earth is just one stop. Maybe life is just like water where we all find our own level. Free will would call for such a thing. The three strike rule might apply, you get three chances to choose, then you get your final answer.

No matter what the answer is, an eternity of rest and fulfilling urges does not make sense. I still like the story Jim Stafford told. A man died and went with St. Peter, he was taken to hell. In hell there was a beautiful table laid out, it had all the best food and everyone sat around it with three foot long forks and spoons on their hands. No matter how desperately they attempted to feed themselves, they could not. The man was then taken to heaven, he saw the exact same thing, except in heaven they were feeding each other. Who have you fed today?

Couple of videos

I am old school, especially for music. There are however some good musicians today. I would like to present some.

Travis Barker, drums. This boy can play.

Buckethead, what the f? Just found out about this guy, don't tell me he cannot play. Dude can play anything.

Eminem, this guy has a way with words. Cannot deny it.

Ladies and gentlemen there is hope for music. There are people who have talent. I do not prefer the sound; but, there is hope. Be well.

Big Man and Dinner

I mentioned that I had gone out for dinner with a friend. In fact, we had tried to invite one of his friends to go with us. He is a very big man, over 6'6", sturdy. Many find him very intimidating; but, in fact he has been nothing but calm and a pleasure to have around me. I like his ways and enjoy hearing the young man laugh when I recite some stupid stories, he likes to laugh.

I am a small man. I would not like the big guy to pound me in my head; but, just because he could would not mean that he would. In fact, I cannot imagine him intentionally hurting me. He would probably let me hit him and walk away. People see big men and get nervous, not because of the big man, because of themselves.

A few months back there was a birthday party at my house for my young friend that I went to dinner with. Someone had too much to drink and started a problem. My large friend was unhappy with the situation, he never raised his voice nor did anything. Before had a chance me and two young men had the problem person in the house and I had locked the metal door to my backyard faster than anyone could move. My large friend was locked out. We removed the problem and everything was fine.

Much later my large friend mentioned how he was surprised how quickly I had locked everyone out and removed the problem. He had intended to respect me and my house and remove the problem himself. I like him. Some young men still know how to act at a party and how to be calm and quiet.

The large man has been to my house many times and is always a pleasure. If you are a smaller man, sometimes people wish to test you. The exact same thing happens to bigger men. There are actually idiots who will tell professional boxers that they are not that tough, they are that tough. Most of them just don't feel a need to prove it.

There are some people that when they walk in the room know they own it. It is a confidence based on experience. They know they can handle anything that happens. There are other people who can handle any thing; but, don't have the confidence. They don't know their own abilities. Insecurity is developed over years. Confidence is also built over years, proven track records.

Sorry, my mind has attached to something and I cannot finish this post. Memories sometimes come to me and I must figure them out. Hope you are having a fantastic weekend, I am. Good food, good friends and peace. You don't get that every weekend. Oooohhh and I get to sleep in late. Be well.