Legal Purchase of Government Policy

One person, one vote.
One super-rich person, one vote, but troublingly greater influence.
Despite the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, this really isn't equal representation, IMHO.

Most folks conclude that the Super PAC use of influence is crooked as a dog's hind leg.

The 9 biggest PACs are primarily funded by just a few rich individuals, yet they have great influence in our country's governance.

Super PACs emerged from the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2011. PACs can legally raise unlimited amounts of money. They can legally spend that money on messages supporting the election or defeat of federal candidates.  This isn't money spent on research and analysis for the benefit of the nation, this is just advertising constructed to sell, to persuade, to inordinately influence.

From Forbes/Business:

"Super PACs are responsible for a new flood of secret and unlimited cash infiltrating our political system. They have become far more important and influential than the candidates themselves or the voters, and have fundamentally changed American politics. 

To date, there are 328 super PACs that have raised about $99 million and spent about $48 million in the 2012 election cycle, $42.5 million of which has been spent on the presidential race." 

The super pacs have more influence at election time than the candidates do.  That's a troubling possibility.

Update:  10/2016

2016 financial activity for super PACs

2,331	number of super PACs
$1,107,816,814	total raised by super PACs
$734,282,837	total spent by super PACs

That's money spent on advertising, smear tactics, biased recounting of history, and inaccurate representation.  There's no objectivity and no value in the actions, only detrimental misrepresentation and division in the nation.  If you're curious how it happened, this is a centerpiece.

I can see clearly now ... can't I?

World. View.

Worldview?

Every day, we are assaulted by talking heads, pushing us to accept some 'obvious' truth, or 'point of view' ... 

GenX/Yer    Millennial      Mosaic         ...?

Liberal  Conservative   Moderate    Radical       ...?        Tween  Teen   Twenty-    Thirty-something        …?

Optimist  Pessimist   Realist     Fatalist      Idealist         …?

     Do we know why we see things the way we do? 

Did we acquire our perspective from the media, the years, the culture?   From stories our father told?
Or perhaps we were dragged to it by life's circumstances.  
Do we see things clearly?   

One sociologist, for an example, describes us in terms of how we view people outside our own circle.  If we visited a dozen places, what might we see?

People as:
(1) interesting illustrations in dress and manner, or as 
(2) folks with whom you might interact as you travel and shop and eat, or as 
(3) potential friends, even extensions of your own circle of family and intimate friends.  

It's another way to describe our view, a continuum from isolation to social integration.  Does it help?  How many more such differentiations might there be?

   We hope to understand the world we see, to avoid narrow-mindedness born of ignorance.   

  We hope to make the world a better place for our having been in it.  

So what might one do for a better worldview?  
You can choose, you know.  

As a youngster, I was told with a smile ...

 Things are not as they seem.
    You were born into a world at war.
       Everything you do counts.

Perhaps a helpful beginning point.  

No mere mortal

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. 

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities… that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. 

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” 

~ C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Welcome to your world, Gabrielle Elise, and to your first sunrise, and to everlasting splendor!

All Hallows' Eve 2012

Joy Stolen

It isn't the circumstances of life that rob you of your joy, it's all the time you spend worrying about them. 

Joyce Meyer

In the back of my truck, friends in western Africa ...

There are those among us who are consistently at peace, even when times are difficult.  There are those who, when faced with life-changing distress, can respond from a joyful heart and a grateful spirit.

Then, there's the rest of us.  High-drama folks, black hole folks, sour-faced, fearful over-thinkers.  Expecting the worst seems a common state of mind for many whether the current dilemma is financial or medical or relational ...

It doesn't have to be that way, though, does it.  We do know better.


Ever notice that children usually worry less than adults do?  Ever wonder why they can spend so much time being happy?  Why even when they have little, they can be content?

Why don't children worry?  Well, first perhaps, because their needs are simple.  A family, food, shelter, and security will pretty much take care of their concerns for today.  With such simple things, they're content.  Each morning is new and exciting, and they're happy for the opportunity.  Every day is a bit of a thrill.

The fortunate ones carry such simple contentment into adult life.

Except you become like a little child ....

 ... and learn therewith to be content.

It's a practical truth, not a religious thing.

Joyce Meyer gave us the opening line, by the way.  She's a thoughtful lady and a regular encouragement to folks around the world.   (In a church service in Kenya, the sermon, translated from Swahili, reminded me of Joyce.  After the service when I told the pastor, he laughed and said he'd been reading her stuff for years.)

IMPACT! Got a target?

  A teen looking for the meaning of life told me, 
  
"I'm going to spend my life on something; it might as well be something that makes a difference."  


A noble thought that deserves a workable plan!

Just for fun, here's a super-quick walk-through to seeing and hitting your target.
It's an informal 'personal mission statement' sort of exercise.

• On paper, scribble answers for the questions below.  
• Quickly write the first thing you think of. No editing.
• Give 30 seconds for each, and chuckle as you write.

Fun Life Questions:

1. What makes you smile? (Activities, people, events, hobbies...)
2. What were your favorite things to do in the past? And now?
3. What makes you lose track of time?
4. What makes you feel great about yourself?
5. Who inspires you? (Family members, friends, authors, artists, leaders, heroes, etc.) Why?

6. What are you good at? (Skills, abilities, gifts etc.)
7. What do people typically ask you for help with?
8. What are your top 3 values?  Examples (right):
9. What are some challenges, difficulties and hardships you’ve overcome? How?
10. If you could get a message across, what would it be?

And now, my life's goals:

“Writing or reviewing a mission statement changes you because it forces you to think through your priorities deeply, carefully, and to align your behaviour with your beliefs”   ~Stephen Covey

From the questions above:

• What do I want to do?
• Who do I want to affect?
• What is the result I hope for? 

Now if you like, you can see a life plan with goals.

• From your answers, notice the actions; for example, teach, help, change, educate, accomplish, empower, rebuild, encourage, give, master, equip, organize, produce, promote, travel, spread, support, provide, understand, write... 
• You can see who and what you believe you can help; e.g., people, creatures, organizations, causes, groups, environment, etc. 
• In a sentence or two, you might describe your goals. How will the ‘who’ from your above answer benefit from what you ‘do’? 

You can reshape it on purpose, of course. And over the years, it will perhaps need to be adjusted a bit. Absent a plan, though, what progress might you expect?

You can be herded along by others, or you can pick your own path.

Target identified. Fire for effect.

Hero's Quest

Malala was just 14 when she was shot.  Last week, men stopped her small school bus, boarded, and shot her in the head along with her two friends.  The men are Taliban.

She was 14 when she was shot.  AND she lived through it. 

Malala Yousafzai is a student and a vocal proponent for education in northern Pakistan. When she was  eleven, she began writing an anonymous blog for the BBC about her life under the Taliban.  Later, she began speaking publicly.  She was sometimes in the media, speaking about the need for girl's education. She won the National Peace Award for her courage, one of the nations highest civilian honors.  It's now called the National Malala Peace Prize.

The Taliban position, of course, is that girls belong in the home and should not be educated outside that context.  In January '09, the Taliban issued an edict banning all girls from schools. On her blog, Malala praised her father, who was operating one of the few schools that would go on to defy that order.


The Taliban have attacked and destroyed girl's schools in northern Pakistan.  They say they targeted Malala personally because she is secular-minded and critical of the militant group. Now, they are threatening to attack media agencies and kill journalists who are reporting the matter, and they're threatening to track Malala down and kill her.  And her father.


This isn't religion, of course.  This is the same dictatorial power-thinking that Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot used to justify murdering millions. Get back in line or die!

After being attacked, Malala was finally airlifted from Pakistan to the U.K.  The U.A.E. provided the medical evacuation flight.

Pakistan Taliban

London (CNN) "-- Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai stood for the first time after her shooting Friday morning and is "communicating very freely," according to the director of the UK hospital where she is undergoing treatment."

Malala shooting ...

"Malala can't talk because she has a tracheotomy tube inserted to protect her airway, which was swollen after her gunshot injury, but she is writing coherent sentences," said Dave Rosser, director of University Hospitals Birmingham.

"The latest progress report ... could make a good recovery."  CNN

Pakistanis pray for Malala.

The bullet went through Malala's head from behind her left eye and down through her jaw.  There's some damage to her brain, but the doctors say she's thinking well and writing notes, and today she's even standing up with help.  The brain injury, doctors note, means that she is just at the beginning of a long recovery process.

Malala: A global symbol, but still just a kid

Thousands in Pakistan and thousands more around the world have joined the protest begun by this gutsy young girl.  She was just eleven years old when she took up her simple cause.  Now, perhaps Pakistan will have had enough of the Taliban and their ways.

Every hero's quest is hard.  If it was easy, we wouldn't need a hero, would we.

We wish her well, and her family and friends also.  Can you imagine how her father must feel?  Despite the blinding sorrow of seeing his daughter in pain and in danger, through tears and anguish and fear, still he knows; his daughter is a hero.  She's changed her world.