Music, Art & Engineering
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman recently opined that the global economy is in a freefall, and that it could get much worse. He also noted in his regular column that deficits be damned, the government should spend its way out of the problem: that a protracted deep recession is ultimately worse than debt.
As I wrote in my previous blog, Paulson’s bailout package was the wrong move. Today, he announced that he will scrap the “buddy bailout” plan and will do what makes sense: capitalize the banks directly. This is a good move, but I sincerely hope the treasury considers the option of matching private investment for a … Continue reading Success: Paulson Backpedals
Hindsight is 20/20, but it’s high time that Hank Paulson gets his act together or steps aside before the next administration chooses his successor. The US markets are gyrating wildly to the hastily cobbled together ‘bailout’ that was supposed to dampen things down.
If I were a head of state in a western style “free market democracy” right now, I would probably secretly resent constitutional clauses that would restrict my government’s ability to censor the media. Faith, which is the essence of our financial system, had a fighting chance before our media outlets doggedly reported that we were … Continue reading When The First Amendment Is The Poison
Hate is hate. I don’t condone it in any fashion. The Knoxville man who opened fire on a children’s playing of “Annie” at a Unitarian church was clearly a man looking for someone to blame for his hardships. His conflation of “losing his government subsidies (food stamps)” and “hating liberals” belies his misunderstanding of the … Continue reading Knoxville Tragedy Spotlights Hate In Sensationalist Media
This must be the month of government bailouts: Bear Stearns, Fannie & Freddie, and locally, a one million dollar cash infusion from our tax coffers to the STAR commuter train from Lebanon to Nashville. While many would argue that Fannie & Freddie are too big to fail, a commuter train that is losing money may … Continue reading Is Government Bailout Of Nashville STAR A Good Idea?
The future of the American energy crisis is clean electricity. With clean electricity we can power our current interstate infrastructure, keep our car culture, and continue to enjoy our transportation independence. We can move goods around the country, and actually do it cheaper than ever before.
One of the best headlines in recent memory was the Onion’s, “Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In.” The article lampoons the artificial wealth cycle of US capitalism, but also points to a more important question: what’s the next big thing that is going to pull us out of this hole? And my oh … Continue reading What We Need Is A New Bubble… A Green One
Detachment as it relates to daily practice is probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of zen discipline. People often ask, “if my goal is to reach a state of detachment, then why wouldn’t I just go hide in a cave somewhere?” After all, isn’t the lazy pot-head or drunkard on the side of the … Continue reading Detachment, Abundance, & Success: Just Another Day At The Beach
I have more or less been interested in the teachings of the Buddha since I was a teenager. I don’t recall precisely what my introduction to to the tradition was, but when I read the core concepts of Buddhists, I identified with them immediately. Throughout my life I may have gone through phases where I … Continue reading Buddhism & Christianity: Is there Compatibility?
Buddhism teaches us that suffering is caused by attachment. This idea is easy to understand, but difficult to apply in our daily lives. Suffering is caused by attachment? Simplistic? Elegant? Axiomatic? Whatever the case, the further along I go in my journey, the more this rings true. Perhaps it is just easy enough for some … Continue reading Get Happy: Let Go.
I had a blast playing with Richard and Jason at the Radio Cafe Friday night. Great crowd. Great performances also by Colin Wade Monk and Hitchcock Circus. Richard’s songs are smart pop-rock numbers with unforgettable hooks and clever storylines. The ‘Nots’ sound has quickly evolved into Uncle Tupelo meets early Replacements, with the rawness and … Continue reading Forget-Me-Nots Rock the Radio Cafe
My brother, Adam emailed me this morning about a whopping hospital bill he received for a recent visit to the ER… “Eighteen-Hundred freaking dollars for an IV and a gurney???” Absurd, isn’t it? We all know horror stories like this. A simple visit to the hospital because of a real emergency (like severe dehydration, in … Continue reading Health Care: Why is it so damn expensive?
After feeling like such a brooding nag in my last post about a cliff-notes depth look at the sacred texts in Islam, I thought I’d follow up with a nice 1-2 combo on something equally dour and that matters to you and just about everyone you know: the future of your economy. Yeah, I know, … Continue reading It’s A Bubble Bath…
Net Neutrality: there has been a lot of talk about this movement recently and an equal amount of misunderstanding. When I first heard about the NN bill, it was after it had already been voted down in the house.The same newspaper reportalso explained that the defeated bill was trying to prevent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) … Continue reading The End of Internet 1.0