How to Choose an American President: A Non-Partisan Guide (Single Page Article)

How to Choose an American President:

 A Non-Partisan Guide

The next Presidency is going to be monumental, 

        for better or worse.

I cannot stress enough how important this presidential election is for our nation. We stand on the edge of moving forward into greatness once more, or sliding back into depression and hardship. It is completely possible for the United States of America to lose her place as a world power. Our next few steps are treacherous, and they may make us great or lay us low. 

We live in an era of continued conflict among our own people as well as conflict abroad. Racial and religious tension is the order of the day. Police brutality, on-going religious struggles, and immigration control are this generation's challenges. A President must be able to guide our nation to tackle these issues, all while balancing the budget and visiting foreign dignitaries. Our generation is fighting the good fight against both foreign aggression and civil unrest. The indivisibility of our nation is being tested. As things heat up, change is inevitable. The next President we choose will head our ship during this storm, for better or worse. Please choose wisely.

Choosing a Leader

First and foremost, I should establish what it is that we want in a leader. The basic answer is: We want someone in office who is good for all of America. 
 It is very tempting to simply choose the candidate that will fight for your group. Rich, poor, entrepreneur, working class, or immigrant, but as the most advanced people on the globe we must resist the easy road. What is good for America is good for her people. When businesses make more money, there are more jobs. When the poor are fed, crime goes down, and the businesses make more money. Choose a president who is going to represent the entire nation rather than pander to her own clique. It is your responsibility if you step into the voting booth to choose wisely. We cannot afford a poor leader.

With the obvious stuff out of the way:

      What should I look for in a candidate?

Objectivity, Honesty, Willpower

   A candidate should respond to questions he is asked by answering the question, directly and fully. A President needs to be concise and detailed. Many candidates will respond to a question about Taxes with a long version of, "Yes, I do love America." 
A question dodger is a deceptive person by nature, and should not be trusted with an important office. If he doesn't answer your questions before he becomes President, he certainly will not answer them afterward.  Look for a candidate that tackles the hard questions and is not ashamed of his stance. A candidate should not flip flop or "put on an accent". The American President needs to be a person of extreme virtue. A President should represent America and exalt America's ideals. We believe in honesty and hard-work, I'm fairly certain, and our leader should send that message everytime she takes the podium.

On a side note: Politicians are rarely trust-worthy, and there have been lots of Presidents that were not politicians.

All the News is so Biased! Where do I get the Straight Dope?!

Read every source you can find with an open mind. There is no one source for news or info that is completely non-biased. Humans have opinions, and news comes from humans. The only logical solution is to watch ALL the news, or at least a bunch of it. Read the internet. Trust the sources that don't exaggerate. When a source makes a statement that one candidate wants to "destroy America" or something as ridiculous, quit listening and move on to another source. Remember, the quality of your source of information is the quality of your wisdom. The US Government is not an arena that can forgive exaggeration or "misspoken" words. 
Read and watch and learn and most importantly, do not "buy in" to one source. There are few larger mistakes that a person can make than to fully trust one source of information. 

What about Network News? 

The bigger, the better, right?

A million ways to die on the television.

Watch some Republican News and watch some Democratic News. Remember that the networks exist to make money, not to inform people accurately. 
Compare what each group has to say about your candidate. There is probably a hint of truth to what your candidate's opponent's are saying. You will learn a great deal about your candidate from the way each news source portrays them.
Then look deeper. Newspapers and forums have a multitude of thoughts and opinions. Dive on in!

"I heard Honey Boo Boo is Running! WHEW!"

Ya'll ever herd a dat shit called sandwichs? They are like, the shit.

Do not listen to actors and artists simply for the fact that they are famous. Let's be honest, most of them are no more qualified than you or I. Hear what they have to say, perhaps. Just don't drink the Kool-aid. Artists are often passionate and well spoken, but for the most part they live a different life than the rest of us. It is difficult for them to understand the needs of the rest of Americans.

Sleep On It

Watch a candidate that you are following speak at several locations. Judge your candidate's commitment. Does your candidate promise or promote different things at different venues? Does your candidate even visit a wide range of listeners? The President is the leader of all Americans. Despite partisan and political ties, a President needs to hear all of the people that he will represent.

Haters.....Gonna.....Hate   

Try your very best to ignore mud slinging. Candidates commonly revert to this tactic in the later phase of campaigning, but it can take place anytime. Try to ignore the mud-slingers as well. A person who makes enemies quicker than friends is not a person we need leading our diverse culture. 

It's getting HOT in here....

Looks DO Matter

Our President will compete on a Global scale. His pose and demeanor will be the face of America. We do not want a messy or haggard person to represent our nation. We are a good and strong people,  Our President must be good and strong as well.

With great power...

  If you do choose to cast your vote, I ask you as a person and an American to give your every effort to examine your candidate honestly and without bias. Please do not simply vote for Red or Blue. If the candidate chosen by the Republicans or Democrats is not a worthy candidate, there are independents who stand a real chance with modern social media and internet. I would rather vote for myself than know I helped a fool into office.

LIKE AND SHARE THIS IF YOU ENJOYED THE ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

DGF BADGE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Dream of Iraqi Sheep

I DREAM OF IRAQI SHEEP

by Robert S. Strength

Photos taken by author. 

Panoramic of Motorpool 1-41 '04

Life with the Roadhogs 1-41 INF

    I suppose that readers will want a war story. I am a veteran and I guess I should write some of my experiences down. I'm not going to talk about the bombs or mortars, gunfire or lost heroes. Those moments are like snapshots of a movie that I wasn't paying attention to. It was all fear and confusion and ducking. Lots of ducking.

Instead, I would rather write about something that conveys the very lifestyle of a wartime convoy gunner/driver. I was a member of a support platoon. Support is not supply. They are close to the same, with one big difference; we hauled the stuff that blows up, right to the edge of the battle. We supplied the fighters with fuel and ammunition, as well as medical supplies and other wartime needs. During the invasion in '03 we stocked our trucks with gas and ammo and drifted out on the far edge of the battle. During the occupation a year later, things were different. We delivered supplies from one base to another and assisted in patrols and general operations. It was a good job, even though the enemy tried to blow us up a few times. They shot at us now and again, but mostly it was long hours riding through a foreign nation. Sometimes we would be stuck in traffic for hours, sometimes we would roll along like a road trip. During the occupation we would return at night to an astoundingly civil Camp Liberty. The Burger King Trailer was across the plaza from the Bazaar, which was filled with local merchants granted permission to ply their wares inside the gates. My home was a trailer style structure with three rooms, each with its own doorway and air conditioner. I shared my ten foot by ten foot air conditioned room with a peer and friend, Graser.

We did not run a convoy every day, but most of my time was spent on the road. I would drive large cargo trucks down the highways and compete in the snarls of traffic for a spot for my dangerously over-sized vehicle. I would sit in the gunner seat on other missions and try not to pass out from the heat. It is a full-time job, as many gunners will agree, to simply stay watchful for so many hours while staring at the radiant sands and desert roads, watching fretfully for signs of bombs or ambush, all the while soaked in the raw sun. The wind may seem as if it would provide some respite from the heat, but air temperatures as high as 135 degrees Fahrenheit do not cool your skin. The arid wind strips any precious sweat from your skin and leaves you exposed and unable to cool yourself off. There was an ever-present threat that in the midst of a 10+ hour trip, sweating still and so weak I was tempting sleep, our convoy might have found ourselves ambushed or bombed. My job as driver or gunner was to resist the rigors of the desert and be ready. With our superior firepower, training, and readiness we had such a powerful advantage that I could reliably survive. I only needed to wait, ever so patiently, for that moment to arrive.

Operation Sheep Ninja

(Not the actual name of the operation.)

The story I want to tell is about a midnight mission. I was lying in my room on a base near Sadr City, the huge slums of Baghdad. It's where most of the population lives, and it is poorer and more desperate than any ghetto in America. When we arrived in country, there was a street in Sadr City with a busted sewage line that poured the foul waste from millions of people onto the street. The people of Sadr City, unable to fix the problem, had used plywood and scrap to contain the flow to one street.
I was in my room in the barracks that we had acquired from the local college, watching Sopranos on a bootleg disk purchased from the Bazaar, and there was a knock on my door. My superiors regularly came by with news and mission changes, and so I took no special note. I answered the door in my shorts and a smile. On the other side of that door was my Company Commander. Cpt Stubenhofer was fully dressed for a mission, with a rifle in hand. He recognized me as a driver and nodded as if making a decision. He said, "Suit up. I need a Humvee driver."
One fact about the military is that your plans can change very quickly. I did as I was told. It was very unusual for the Commander to come get me directly. I rarely dealt with him, though I knew him through work as the man who's signature I needed.
I was outside as quick as I could get dressed and ready. I had no clue what to expect. We never did convoys at night, because of the added risk. This mission was different.
Outside was a group of armed and ready soldiers who I knew by name but rarely worked with directly. They were standing near Humvees in a loose circle, listening to the commander explain the mission. I came in on the briefing and learned what I would be doing that night. I was going to deliver sheep to some hungry Iraqis.
I had seen the sheep for several days in the motor pool. We had built a pin from pallets and put about 30 sheep inside. I had no clue at the time I was building the corral that I would be delivering the sheep into Sadr City. It was a worthy mission, but I couldn't help wondering why were we doing it at such a late hour. Sadr City was not a place for a midnight drive. The standard dangers of city combat were complicated by the darkness. We had spotlights and night vision, but those amenities are no substitute for the sun.
The reason for the night run was that we were delivering sheep to the people, and not to the priests who controlled food distribution. Even among the people who were happy to see America take down Saddam there was a deep sense of religious separation. The different sects of Islam were in such a state of feud that priests would horde the food for their own sect, letting the other starve. Imagine a world where neighborhoods purposefully starved each other.

The White Hat

No sheep were harmed!

It was a covert mission. Our truck and one other Humvee would break away from a convoy and slink into the city in black-out drive. Black-out drive means no lights. The stars and night vision goggles would be my only source of vision. I cannot stress enough how difficult it is to drive with night vision goggles strapped to your face. You have absolutely no depth perception. Everything is a slightly blurred fog of green. It promised to be a long and arduous night.
I helped load the sheep, fitting about 15 inside each Humvee's little bed. We laid a flat slice of plywood over the bed of the Humvee and lashed it down.
With no gunner on either Humvee, we were armed only with the light weapons that each soldier was issued. We left the gate with two Bradley fighting vehicles and made our way to Sadr City. It was a short ride of thirty minutes slowly chugging along behind a tank-style tracked fighting vehicle.
The roads were strangely clear that night. I did not go out on the streets often at night, and felt an eerie dread at the stillness of the dark. Cpt Stubenhoffer was my passenger sitting shotgun, and he gave me the go ahead to break away from the Bradleys once we were deep into the slums. Sadr City is unlike any place I have ever been. Click this link for a map of Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq. The buildings seem to join and form blocks, and the alleys and pathways are unpredictable. The smell of burning tires fouled the air, and the sound of gunfire rang out in intervals through the streets.
The staccato bursts of weaponry, punctuated by explosions, would echo down the false canyons formed by the blocks of buildings, giving me the impression that the war was being fought around every corner. We slid into alleys and my commander would order me to peek around corners. We pushed across open streets, and the Humvee behind us followed closely, hugging our tail to keep our exposure low.
In the streets of Sadr City, there was fighting every night. The armored tanks and fortified positions were dangerous targets for the rpgs and light arms that the enemy was equipped with. Two little trucks without gunners was a prime target, and we knew it.
I steered the rumbling truck through the alleys in the dark. I followed every command with a pounding heart. We made it to the courtyard we had chosen to deliver the sheep. I cannot tell you the number of streets we passed. The courtyard was in the center of a complex of buildings, both businesses and homes. We pulled in and shut the trucks down. The people of Sadr City who we had come to help had been stashed away in the buildings and awnings of the courtyard, and in moments they had surrounded our vehicles. They were as eager as we were to have our business done and return to their homes. It's not safe for anyone at night in Sadr city.

The Slums of War

Blackout Drive

Cpt Stubenhofer looked at me and said, in the logical calmness that good leaders exhibit, "Keep your rifle slung, but keep it ready. Come on, let's hand out some livestock."
I opened the door and pulled my rifle from it's latch. I slung it across my back and stepped into the crowd. We had asked the people to shut off their lights to allow us the best possible shroud for the exchange, and the entire courtyard was devoid of electric light. The moon must have been slim or black, because I stood among people and could not see them. Only the whisper of black Arabic linen evidenced their presence in the dark. I walked slowly to the back of the truck. I was nervous, but they were coming up to me and touching my arms. I cannot remember the words they said, but by their tone I could tell they were saying, "Thank You."
Each sheep surely meant survival to those men and women. I pulled the plywood free of the truck and climbed up. I handed the sheep to my commander, who handed them to the heads of each household. I could hear tears and thank yous that didn't need to be spoken in my language to touch my heart.
The truck was empty quickly, and the plywood we left for whatever use they could find for it.
When we were finished, we pulled the Humvees out of the courtyard and onto the street and moved fast. Cpt Stubenhofer told me to take the larger roads and get the Humvee up to speed.
We left Sadr City a little better than we found it that night, and no worse for wear ourselves. We rejoined the Bradleys and drove back to base. Once inside the wire, I made a midnight trip to the chow hall. They always serve pancakes at midnight. It's one of life's little joys.
That night was the last time I worked with Captain Stubenhofer. I know I said I wouldn't speak of lost heroes, but I lied. My commander was shot down some time later while helping protect engineers while they fixed a gas station for the people of Sadr City. His loss is a hateful, bitter feeling. I never truly knew the man. To me he was, and always will be, the man who came and got me in the middle of the night for a crazy mission to the slums of war. He took me there to do a kindness for people we would never know. He risked my life, and I never thanked him.

Captain Mark Stubenhofer

Oh, How Little We Know!

The exploration is only starting:

  Science is a method of learning. That is the only thing the word science means. It is not a collection of knowledge, and it doesn't have an opinion. A very common turn of phrase is that "Science says..." this or that. Science doesn't say anything. Science is a method to learn empirically (100% certainty), and that is all.

Oh, How Little We Know

    It is very important for modern people to understand what science is and the extents and limitations of our knowledge. The modern system of education leads us to approach science with an institutional mindset. By nature, our system of education has become standardized, and we tend to adopt a mindset that everyone is running on the same set of knowledge. When scientists prove something, we imagine it joins the collection of human knowledge and bumps out any old ignorant facts that were there before it. The truth is that each book and journal written is written by human beings, subject to mistakes and misinterpretations, if not simply bad science. Each scientist has learned from their own set of experiences and mistakes. Even two people who see the same tests can interpret the results differently.
   For every accepted theory, there are many that are wrong. We have a very rudimentary understanding of many of the aspects of our universe. Energy is one of those things.

"Magic" is merely the unknown.

  Imagine for a moment that you could cast a magical spell. It can be any spell you like, though I prefer a classic Fireball. If you were to go around and test your spell on different things (and people!) to see what different effects it had, you would be practicing science. If magic existed, Scientists would study it and test it until they knew everything they could. Magic would join the ranks of human knowledge. It's effects, purpose, reason, scope, and source would all be documented and discovered. Afterward, "magic" would no longer be magic. It would simply be an effect of the natural universe that we understood. 

   Now reverse the idea, and apply the same concepts to energy. The energy that flows through the power-lines, the signals in your computer, and even the tiny bursts of energy that form thought in an organic brain are all forms of electricity. Energy is everything.
   That same energy creates magnetic forces, gravity, and the bonds that hold Atoms together. Atoms consist of the same energy that binds them, in another form. We have a great deal of knowledge about its effects and function, but what do we know about its source?

...and we are woefully wrong...   

      

   How much can we really know about this seemingly mystical energy that is everything and makes everything happen? We know a great deal about its effect and functions. We know how to use it for our benefit, but we have no idea how it got here, or how it came to explode out of the nothingness and make everything there is. By humanity's best guess, there is about four times as much energy out there in the universe as we can even detect yet! We call that undetectable energy Dark Matter. Dark Matter might not exist, however, the term is just a stand in for our complete lack of understanding. It could be there, our measurements could be flawed, or our basic understanding of physics could be wrong. We just don't know.

There is Magic in Our World

   What test can possibly be applied to discern the origin of...well...everything. In the most accepted model of the universe's creation, there is no explanation for the source of that energy. We generally accept that there was a big bang that came from one single point. How the energy got there is anyone's guess. As far as we understand it, we'll never be able to measure anything further back than that point. The big bang acts as a barrier in science that can cause even the most tempered mind to fantasize about God.
   As far as we understand, all the energy that exists has always existed. The reason a Fireball will never fly from my finger-tips is that there is no cause for it to happen. What cause is there for energy to exist? It is here forever, changeable and fluid in it's properties, yet lossless and permanent.

Tesla Coil in Action

  Magic is defined as the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. If we do not understand the source, but only the effects of energy, it is mystical. I believe that energy can be accurately called magic.

  We use electricity, one manifestation of energy, to power our computers and our lights. We use that energy to influence the course of events every time we turn on the air conditioner.

   Without joking, I am telling you that you use a magical computer to check your email. You drive a car to work that is powered by energy released when gasoline is heated with another burst of magic....um....energy.
   Obviously no one is going to start summoning demons or seeing the future in crystal balls, but there is still magic in the world. There are so many things to discover, and we humans have so much more in store for us beyond microwave ovens and color TVs. We haven't even left the nest. We are children. My son and his son and his son after will still be children. Technology is the new frontier, and only a couple hundred years old at best.
   Go out into the world learn. Remember that magic is ignorance, and humility is the first step toward enlightenment.
   

I, God - A Fictional 1st Person Story About God

I am God. I am not infinite. I have not always been, and I am ignorant of much. This is my history, and all the detail that matters to me.
I was. For a time that I cannot define, that undeveloped and unmoving fact was the extent of my being. I was. I did not think. I did not act. I did not want.
My first thought, the first of all thoughts, was profound. I considered myself. I identified myself as an entity. I considered that fact. What was I? I was thinking, therefore what was I?
Eventually, I answered that question. I am a alive.
Once I had I decided that I did exist, I also came to the conclusion that things must exist outside of myself as well. If I am, then there must be something that I am not.

I existed, and so did something else. I considered my outer limits. If I exist, and so does Else, what is the defining point between I and Else?
I decided that I was what I thought, and everything I did not think was Else.
Thus I came into being separate.

I considered time. I recognized a difference between a current thought, and one from moments ago. I considered that I exist, and time exists, and therefore I have existed for a length of time. How long have I existed? How long will I exist? How long has else existed? I could not answer these questions, not yet.

I then had my first desire. I wanted to witness else. I thought about what else there might be than I. What are the differences between one thing and another?
I thought about myself. I thought, because I am thinking my thoughts, there must be some boundary between myself and everything else. I imagined a place. Then around myself in all directions I thought of everything else.
Physical relations emerged.

I wanted to view this relationship. I wanted to understand the extent of myself, and of everything that I was not. I could not understand how to see outside of myself. I could not fathom a way to detect myself, nor something beyond myself.

I imagined then. I wanted so badly to see the place around me, imagined that moment. How would it feel to see? What could make that possible? There must be a form, or boundary between things. What were things made of?

My imagination created light. It created energy, and form. As I considered these things, the laws of the universe were written indelibly into logic and truth. I found that Else was what I made it.
I found myself enthralled with the notion of the Universe, the single all encompassing definition of else. I thought of this universe as a place. It had boundaries, like myself. It was an empty area. I saw this universe.

That space was jumbled with the energy and matter that I had imagined. It was beautiful, and for a time it satisfied me. I was, and it was.

In little time, however, I came to another desire, one that has been my quest and hardship ever since. I wanted to make Else something more. The chaos did not offend me, but if chaos was one method of existing, the other was order. I was not chaos. The Universe did not need to be chaos.

I then thought of what I wanted the universe to be. I tried many things. I created perfect art from energy and matter and light. I created vibration and sound and music. I created displays of cosmic fire and melodramas of dying stars that lasted millennia.
For a time I was amused.


After time this even became cumbersome and feeble. I needed more. I wanted to be surprised. How, though, does one become surprised? I understand everything. I know what every action is going to lead to. I see everything that exists, within myself and in Else.

I realized that in order to be surprised, I could not take the action that would surprise me. I needed someone else. I was, Else was, but there was not another I. I created another thinking being. I made it in the universe. I created it from the particles of energy I had played games with for so long. I fashioned a mind. I gave it flesh.

The creature saw the Universe around it. It heard the sounds of my vibrations. It considered its own existence. I watched. I did not interfere.

The being squirmed back and forth. It writhed in confusion and panic. I took pity, and spun the creature's being back into energy and cast it back out into Else. I considered the creature. I considered it's fear and frenzy.

A creature existing is not enough to amuse me. A being that thinks must have purpose in order to act. What action do I want to see? What purpose can a creature have in order to act?

The creation of humanity began. A creature must have a drive in order to act. Desire, like my own to view the Universe, could drive a creature.

Hunger was created, a need to consume more matter to replenish your own. Procreation would further the creation of beings, so that the exact nature of each being would be unknown to me.

I set into motion the things I had imagined. I wiped Else clean and created the Universe anew. I fashioned a place of stars and planets, on which my creatures could live. I created a world for the creatures. I made oceans and mountains. I made vast deserts and frozen lakes. I created a playing field for the creatures.

Then I made the creatures. There were many kinds, and not all of them lasted very long. The creatures lived and died. They ate and they played. They enjoyed their lives, and they suffered. They surprised me many times.

The smartest creatures thrived. The Humans became masters of the planet. They loved, they warred, and they died. They worshiped me, I believe.

The grand story of this little planet has interested me for a very long time. The way thinking creatures interact amazes me. I could cheat, and look through the tiny bits of matter and energy and see what was going to happen next. I could look at everything in Else and see the end of my little planet, but that would ruin the amusement of this little game.

I would have to find something else to do.


                                                                                         -God

7 of the Finest Rules for Parenting

Rule 1:

Another PB&J?!?!?!?!? GAWD!!

Stay Calm

This is important. If you want to ever be an effective parent, you have to keep your cool. When you react to a child acting out by acting out, you are teaching them to act out. Even if you are screaming at them to be calm, you are showing them that the way a person reacts to stress is to lose your cool. There are few, if any, situations were losing you cool is a good thing. Why teach it to your children?
This may be the hardest of the rules to follow, but in my opinion it is the most important. Rational and successful people do not lose their cool very often. If you want your kids to be rational and successful you must teach them that.

Rule 2:

Dad, why do people hate the government?

Be Honest

I have been asked some mighty difficult questions since I have been a parent. I have tried very very hard to be honest in all ways. There are facts that I skim over, of course. I have not discussed some of the grimier sides of life with my kids. Think Requiem for a Dream. However, I am honest about many things that are difficult. My oldest, Sterling, asked me why her boyfriend grabbed her butt. Try explaining that to a 13 year old. Moral of the story: Grow up and answer the questions and address the moral issues. Don't skirt the subject because it's hard. Those are the subjects they need the most advice on. 

Rule 3:

Your little angel.

Love Them; Not Who You Want Them to be

This is pretty simple, but can be very difficult. You have to love your kid, even if he is gay or she is a stripper. That means go to your queer son's pagent and clap your hands, Dad. Go to your daughter's strip club and shove a dollar in her undies, Mom. Yeah, you might not like it, and you can approach the subject in a mature way, but Love Your Kid. Show it more than you show your disapproval. I would not be happy if my girls end up junkies, but if they do, when I see them I am going to hug them and get them a place to rest and a shower and some food. I'm going to love my junkie daughters for who they are. Yes, you wanted him to be a man's man, and you wanted her to be a lawyer. You have the child you have, so man up and love them. (Sending junkie daughters to boarding school is love too.)

Rule 4:

Kamehameha!!!!

Moderation in All Things, even Parenting

Moderation is important, and it's a lesson we all teach our kids, or should. It is also an example we need to set as parents. When one of your children break a rule, it is best to speak with them or punish them and then let it go. A 2 hour speech about table manners will also teach them not to get over their anger, and to harp on people they see doing wrong. Sometimes, when Sally throws Billy in the mud, it is important to show Billy that it's good to laugh things off and move on. It's a FINE lesson for anyone.

Rule 5:

"We put on a concert!"

Teach Them to Create

One often overlooked activity is crafts. As a father especially, I have to push myself to go fold construction paper. After a few nights of crafts, making construction paper hats and LOTS of cheap Tie-Die T-Shirts, I found that the kids got amazing amounts of experience with hand-eye coordination, logical thinking, and teamwork.

Music, sports, and video games are also all excellent ways to engage your children in activities that require organized thought and creative problem solving. 

Rule 6:

You'd kick that wall's butt, little dude.

Encourage

"I think you'd do great, Kid's Name Here." It might be very simple, and it might be a little untrue, but this phrase will mean worlds of trust and self confidence to your children. I am an anxious parent. I imagine every terrible thing that could happen to my kids at every turn. I have a fine imagination, and I have to tell myself to ignore the paranoia. If you logically think your kid will get hurt, obviously don't encourage them. However, if your kid has a chance to push themselves to win, let them. Encourage them to try even after they fail. You have to earn your wins in life by losing.

Rule 7:

I want a boyfriend! She has a boyfriend!

Actually Be Fair

If you have multiple children, you have probably run into this issue. Kids want to be treated "fairly", meaning they want to do what others do and they want to have what other's have. That concept of fairness is wrong. A lesson that is hard learned but needed is that fairness is when we are all treated depending on our actions. If my kids are mature enough to handle walking to the store, they can. If one kid is mature enough to walk to the store at 11 years old, she can. If the other is not mature enough by the time she is 11, she will not be allowed to. I treat each of my children differently depending on how they act. They need to understand this so that later in life, they see that the people who have nice things earned them, and understand that it is the fair way for things to be.

Brass Level Housing by Robert S Strength

Created and Written by a proud American and Veteran of War

Brass Level Housing

by Robert S Strength

   Our leaders are corrupt assholes. That we all know. Even the people who believe in the government and it's function will admit that the top tier is corrupt and always will be. The common phrase is, "There's just too much money involved." 

   Well, I'm calling bullshit. We Americans have dropped the ball. This isn't a Democrat or a Republican issue. It's both. Our entire populace has allowed our politicians to become stage show attractions. They spout words like "Hope" and "Morality". Those are just power words, and we all know it. Anyone old enough to vote knows that our nation is ruled by the methods that sell us Taco Bell. We vote for nice flashy colors and good suits, rather than good thinking and proven intentions. Vague promises and lies are the fare of the debate forum that we currently use to select our leaders, given to us with the same tongue-in-cheek honesty of reality T.V. 

 I have to ask, where are the great men? Where are the Washingtons and the Lincolns? Where are the Caesars and the Oda Nobunagas? I am not naming these people the venerate them, but to ask; Can our great and powerful nation not produce better men than Reagan, Clinton, Bush, or Obama? Can we not find, among our thousands of educated and brilliant thinkers a single person that we would rather represent us than the washed up and bought out bullshitters that have led us for the past hundred years? List of U.S. Presidents and their previous careers.

   I have no delusions that the people of America will start sitting down responsibly and researching the logic and history of each person they might cast a vote for. We can change the system to work with modern America, however. And if we do not change it, we cannot expect more from it.

   The foremost issue preventing the proper function of our government is we have no ability to keep accountability of our politicians. There is no way for the people to remove a president of congress from power except Revolt. An impeachment is not sufficient. The process does not fulfill the function of the people's choosing to remove a politician. A hand cannot wash itself. The congress cannot properly expel the corruption, because that is the very section of the government that is corrupted.

   Because we cannot respond to the unwanted action of our politicians, we have thus far used the profit motive as the force that keeps American politics in line. In order to keep your office you must maintain the vote. To win the vote you play the game of politics. The politician who plays the game the best is rewarded the most, and out of that game we hope to gain proper governance. We have built our political system on the foundations of conflicted interest, between personal gain for a few politicians and the betterment of the entire nation. The profit motive has failed to produce politicians who will faithfully carry out their office. How do we remove that motivation from our policy makers? We remove the the motivation completely. We remove the money in order to remove the motivation. It is the only way.
   To remove the money, we first remove campaign funding entirely, and open a publicly run debate and forum that enables the people to view and select candidates from all political parties, with no one party or group having the advantage of mass advertising and campaigning. This provides two powerful advantages. 
   One, the politicians would receive equal coverage and representation. A vastly rich or well backed candidate would no longer have an advantage, at least within the confines of the debate system. 
   Two, without the campaign funds to attract the rich and corrupt to power, the system could produce people with the intention to govern rather than make money.
   The current politicians are not welcome at the new forums. They will finish their terms with heavy oversight and leave office no worse than it found them, for better or worse.
   In order to remove the rest of the money from the system, and ensure that no politician could be bribed or rewarded beyond his office, afterwards the upper levels of our government would not be allowed to possess money; Ever again, for the entirety of their lives. We instead would pay to build homes and a neighborhood where they could live, complete with a Mall and system for purchasing goods with a credit only system. Food and vehicles would be provided, as well as amenities befitting such high stature within our society. Which honestly, honest governors of state deserve. College would be paid for their children, and a severance would be paid to the family upon death.
   I suggest this course of action for the people of the nation. I know that some will be hurt by the changes. Some people will lose their well paying positions that they have fought hard to obtain, and many well intentioned political figures would be expelled from office unfairly. This is not meant as an attack on any person or group. There should be no arrests made, because under our current system the men and women who run our government are operating as intended. We expect them to be selling our votes out the backdoor for personal profit, and they do it belligerently. We cannot, in good conscious, act as if they are truly criminals. They found the system of government in the state that it is, and they played the game as the rules were written. No one politician can be expected to reroute the entire method of promotion and favor that is the accepted system. 

Biological corruption is known as cancer.

  The only way that a corrupted system of any kind,  economic, political, biological, or mechanical, may operate as intended is if the corrupt elements are removed and not allowed to return. Greed is the driving force behind corruption; greed for money, power, or anything that drives a person. Money is the means by which greed is achieved. The paper is meaningless. It is the idea of the fulfillment of our wants that money represents that drives our politicians, like all people. Our leaders must be brought above this consideration if we want to have the nation run by people who's motivation are true to the office they occupy.  I believe we should give the elite in our nation a wealthy lifestyle, with french wine and enough resources to continue to better themselves. I do not believe that our leaders need to be driven men, who have won a race comprised of driven men. The ranking politicians among our current leaders are the best players of the game. They are the most cunning, and the men who have won the most. The game of politics is a game of people, playing our desires against their own. When a bill comes to the floor, and the votes are cast, there is an element of corruption pulling the vote out of the people's favor. To eliminate that factor, we must eliminate the desire that causes it, and the only way to do that completely is to take the money from our leaders. Money is a fine resource for the industries and economies of the world, but it is the very root of the problem within our government.
  In order to make this a clean sweep, all of the currently affected members of our government would have to be removed and not allowed to return to office. The specifics are, of course, a matter that would be highly debated and refined. However, I believe that the system should be refined after the transition of politicians that would be required, or we run the risk of having corruption spread.
   The effort to govern our nation should be in the hands of people who's motivations are for the progress of our nation and our people. The person that our nation chooses to be our leader should be a person of impeccable character, possess a wisdom that is beyond the scope of the feral politicians, and desire above all else the progress of humanity. Until this requirement is met, there is little or no cause to discuss any other matter. 

These are my kids,(at least 2 of 4) and they are why I want change in this nation.
 I want to leave my kids with a world
 that will make them proud of our generation.

To make a difference, draw your sword.
Robert S Strength

Further reading on the subject of corruption:

Transparency.ORG

People Bleed

People Bleed

by Robert S Strength

    My very first memory occurred when I was fairly young. It was the first thoughts that construct who I am, and therefore is the beginning of any story that is a story of me. I will tell it here in the hopes that my origin story will be far removed from the classical character's opening volumes, and interesting to you because. My memory was not happy, nor sad. I do not remember emotions from the time; only the stark images and the things I learned.

    I was crib-aged, and just tall enough to reach my arms over the edge. My crib sat by the window of the Boy's Room in our little home. At some point or another I woke up quietly in my crib. I must remind you that at this point my mind consisted of very little true intellect. I knew just enough about the world that I stood in my crib and shuffled to the end, where I could look out the window and view the backyard.

I do not remember how long I stood there looking at the things in the yard, but after a little while I saw my truck. I have had it confirmed from my Father that the truck was not mine, but in my little crib-life world it was mine, and so I tell it here. The truck was a treasure in my world. I knew that there were few things more important than my truck, and standing there at the window with that firmly taking up the forefront of my mind I realized that things outside got wet and would break. My dad had told me that.

    The panic that set into my mind was berserk and all alone. Losing my truck was all there was in my world. That thought came to me so suddenly that I could not remember not knowing it the moment before. I was going to lose my truck. Gone. Forever. It was as potent as anything in an adult's life. It was real fear and emotion. Today, your most important things are people. The thought of actually losing your son or daughter forever can paralyze you. It struck me with that same force when I was losing my truck.

    So what could I have done but what I did. I threw myself with all the power my tiny legs could muster into breaking down that window so that I could save my truck. I could see the wetness on the grass and I knew that any moment it would happen.

    The crib barely contained me and I threw my hands above my head and slammed them against the windows over and over. I had no idea then, or no memory of it now, but I was screaming. I was not wailing for attention or because I was awake, the way many children will. I was screaming in terror, and my parents could hear it.

    As they ran to the door they heard the distinct shatter of glass and the screaming stopped. I can only imagine how that sounds and silence must have crippled and hurried their charge to my bedroom.

    The moment that glass broke, I stopped. 

    There was a bright color across the glass. It was red, though I did not know the word then. I felt a sting on my hand and looked, and there the red was. It was sliding down my arm, and I realized it was coming out of me. It fell onto the mattress and the sheets and my legs. I was not afraid. The blood was a strange thing, but caused no alarm at all. I had forgotten my truck entirely by this point, and it was only many years later that my dad even learned the reasoning for my shattering of the window.

    I looked up as my Dad rushed through the door into my room, and he picked me up so fast and wrapped that arm up tight. He didn't let me look at it, and we went to the bathroom and washed the red away. It stung, which scared me a little, but before long I had a bandage and we were off to the doctor. I remember my Dad explaining blood along the way. It was confusing, but eventually I understood. I do not remember the doctor's office or the bandage I surely wore after. I don't even remember the day after or the months after that. I do remember my dad telling me that if you break a stuffed bear the stuffing comes out, and a car breaks and leaks oil, and a person breaks and you get blood. Bike tires leak, and people bleed.

    I will always remember that I started thinking in this world with a burst of desperation to save something I loved, and learning forever that people bleed.