Author Archives: tedsheadco

Emotional Quotient,EQ….

We all know the intelligence quotient,IQ of a person assesses their intellectual capacities. In a perfect world it tells your ability to reason, solve problems, retain facts and correlate them. You can take the test online for free if you dare. But the Lord knows we don’t want to quantify ourselves as stupid. Let people form opinions on their own.

Emotional intelligence, EQ, is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions. Some might say it is more important than IQ and can detect the success or failure of achieving one’s goals. You not only know what is going on in your psyche but you can tell pretty much tell how someone else is receiving your message at any given time. You sense the mood of the crowd and act accordingly.

This is all very key to cognitive psychology which relies on your ability to look at your thoughts and decipher which ones are appropriate and which are the result of you distorting reality. I have been playing this game lately as that little thing in me called depression has reared its ugly head. Nothing drastic but the beginnings I know so well. Hopefully I am smart enough to nip it in the bud. Been there. Done that.

If you haven’t been there it is hard to understand. People will have pity as in feeling sorry at another’s plight but then they move on. It is the least amount of feeling you can have towards your fellow man or woman but at least it is a start. Once you have turned a caring eye you may feel sympathy for a person. Now we are getting below the surface of both you and the victim which is a good stopping off point.

A victim is a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action. I would add this can be actual or perceived. Some people have been hit between the eyes with injury or tragedy. Take this week. There are victims on all sides of the equation. But some are quick to take on the mantle of strife in the hope of getting benefits which may or may not deserved. Sometimes whole sections of a population or interest group describe themselves as victims. Seeing if they warrant the appellation makes grist for the mill of lawsuits and firebrands. But I digress.

The next step is compassion. You not only see a hurt but you want to do anything you can to help that person alleviate the problem. Whether financial or emotional you are willing to give of yourself and your time. Sooner or later that closeness gives way to empathy which is the highest form of connection. I really do feel your pain as I walk in your shoes and understand the consequences of your dire straits.

I was hit over the head this morning by an email from an old friend in Arizona. It seems a former golfing buddy of ours was shot and killed in an incident in western Arkansas on Saturday. He was going to the aid of his relative and was mowed down as she had been. A kind and gentle man is now gone. What do I feel? Shock and sadness but most of all sympathy for his lovely wife and their kids. They had worked hard and built a beautiful home in Desert Mountain. I had never heard of Horatio, Arkansas before but I have now. In a very strange way I now have a connection with violence in America. I didn’t think that would happen.

As I watched events unfold this week I really didn’t think I could see anything worse but I did the next day. And then the next. And the next. In an off the wall way you can almost understand the rage of a jilted lover or fired employee. But to fire point blank into a car or pick off cops one by one requires a certain type of callousness that is hard to comprehend. It is a detachment from any semblance of human emotion or feeling that hopefully we all should have in our hearts. Again I wonder if that is the case?

I received other emails this morning from here and there. Some were screaming that black lives matter and others were touting that all blacks were culpable for the problems of America. I guess in all the rubble I was looking for some voice of sanity and reason that could help me make sense of so much. You see the emotional quotient EQ of the best leaders in business and politics are defined by their compassion. It is the one who can appeal to all sides and truly feel people’s pain. They are in a word empathetic.

We see very little if any empathy amongst our politicians.Obama could have had it but he became professorial. The Donald is too egotistical. Hilary is too cold and scripted. The Pope has got it and that is why people love him.He touches you right in your gut. He makes you want to be a better person. You don’t have to live in a poor neighborhood but at least understand what it means. Some of us have never seen the tough side of life. Many today have never worked with their hands.We have to engage in more than a patronizing or perfunctory way.

I can’t help but feel we have to take the gloves off. We have to meet the problem of discrimination head on. We have to understand what it is like to be an honest black person who is painted with the same brush as thugs and gang members. We can’t look with pity but with empathy. We have to roll up our sleeves and roll down our rancor and one mindedness. We have to sit in a squad car and feel what it is like to not know whether you are going to live or die on the next 911 call. It is just not enough to send condolences. I don’t quite know how but in some way have to look inside our hearts and know we have not done even close to enough. We just can’t go on this way. What is our national emotional quotient,our EQ? You tell me.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids

My golfing buddy was a black man who was killed by another black man. Don had been a very successful businessman with Coors and Kraft Foods. He was visiting family in Arkansas for the summer.

A black Dallas police lieutenant was on the news tonight. He spoke of his being stopped almost a dozen times over a 4 year period for either a minor infraction or a traffic check. His blackness transcended his unfailing duty as a policeman.

On TV I was watching the forest fires running rampant through the west. It seemed an apt metaphor for what is happening in our country today.

I played golf with a friend the other day. As we sat having a drink after our game I stated the I thought this was the worst week for our country since 9/11. He looked at me with a bewildered frown. He’s good guy but incredibly I don’t he had any idea of what was going on in the world.

Defining Space….Ungrateful Bastards

Writer’s Note: I wrote a blog last week but never sent it. Thought it was just one more voice. Rethought my plan and “Ungrateful Bastards” is at the end of “Defining Space” if you dare. Take two,drink heavily and call me in the morning. TTG

It is intriguing that we all go to enormous lengths to protect our own space but as a civilization we want to go to Mars and Jupiter as if it is ours to take. Before going lunar I have to cogitate on how we have become so rabid about space and turf and walls. Be careful who you let in, either physically or emotionally.

These barriers are quite fascinating. Animals have them. One would only have to happen upon a bee hive or bear’s den to understand the concept very quickly. Some might say it harkens back to our survival instinct. Get’em before they get you. No crossbreeding lest the species be vulnerable to a fatal mutant something. In so doing, we say we are doing just what comes naturally.

Are we beings that are just meant to merely coexist or is interaction really the ultimate goal of a good life? I got to thinking about this on the Fourth. It is good to note that the forefathers were perfectly happy to be independent as long as you were white,male,heterosexual, Protestant and of means. Not trying to be unpatriotic just stating the facts maa’m.

Evolution is the growth and adaptation to one’s environment. Times change and so do we. In the early years we made blacks 2/3 of a person and then a whole human being, eventually gave women suffrage, accepted Mediterraneans and even made it okay to be Asian after World War II. Some might consider that flexibility over time and others may think we are control freaks. We give in but only under duress.

As a whole we crave constancy. Unpredictability or ambiguity are really disconcerting. They make us feel uncomfortable and cranky. I like my eggs done a certain way every day at the appointed hour. Routines and my type of people make the world a comfortable warm and fuzzy place. Inherent in this is you better see things my way. Diversity? Not in my world. One side says Kumbaya and the other says f__k ‘em. Tough finding middle ground there.

Our sentiment seems to be towards the abrasive. Not everyone is a Trumper but think about it. We protect our homes with fences and locks. We don’t want our schools test scores to be brought down by admitting dumb kids because you will then find only dumb teachers that want to be employed there. We want to gentrify poor neighborhoods because that’s where there is money to be made but please don’t ruin our neighborhood by moving here. Why should I pay for screwups like floods, hurricanes and forest fires? Do what you want but leave me alone.

We want state’s rights and for the most part abhor the federal government but when it comes to the USA,we are of course #1. China wants to build Battery Park Cities in the South China Sea and Putin thinks Europe should have SSR after every nation. We have Brexit, Fraxit, and Italexit. I think we should make public urination lawful because after all that is how all animals stake out their territory.

Maybe competition is the real villain? We embrace the soccer match, bull fight or Daytona 400. There has to be winners and losers. I understand. The CAV’s have reincarnated a whole city and made Cleveland worthy again.Was that tantamount to their existence? Aah, the fighting spirit. It’s beyond “mine is bigger than yours”. People can seek improvement for a variety of reasons. But when we take it to the extremes with makeovers and facelifts and we are defined by what we have and not who we are have we really lost it?

In 71years I have seen arms races and space races. The US was in a state of depression when the Russian Sputnik was the first thing in space in 1957. That spurred us to hit the gas and we surpassed the Hammer and Sickle over time. That created incredible breakthroughs in technology. Unfortunately it also gave us rocket capability to launch ICBMs with doomsday results. There were offsetting balances then but not now the North Koreans and whom knows who has the keys to the kingdom. Competition can be great if it is healthy but we don’t always have the luxury of sanity.

Getting back to that unease thing if we are constantly keeping score there is always going to be someone with more or less. Why does it matter? If we are comfortable in our own skin we don’t have to prove anything to anybody. That goes for the rich as well as the poor. I want to get better but I also have a pretty good idea of what my limitations are. Hubris and egotism sour the broth.

I think it comes down to not your or my space but OUR space. If we are so wrought up in our own designs we will never find a way out. Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Brits, Africans, Asians, Whites, Blacks Hispanics, North and South. We all feel that we are not respected unless we shake a fist or cut each other off in cultural and global road rage. Think about the incidents that go on every day? I am not sure if people want clout or just an equal seat at the table. I guess we perceive that one must precede the other and therein lies the rub. Might is right.

We can say this whole space thing comes back to survival. Maybe it does in more ways than one. Let’s try this. We should do what’s necessary for us and our own. Ownership not stewardship will be our creed. It is a lot simpler if I don’t have to reach out to you. We will never understand each other. Good luck with whatever happens to you. I can see your pain but I don’t have to feel it. Sorry. It’s just the way the ball bounces. That’s fine but it doesn’t sound like a plan for survival but rather one for extinction.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids;

Multiculturalism definition. The view that the various cultures in a society merit equal respect and scholarly interest. It became a significant force in American society in the 1970s and 1980s as African-Americans, Latinos, and other ethnic groups explored their own history.

Nationalism definition is the belief that your own country is better than all others. Sometimes nationalism makes people not want to work with other countries to solve shared problems.Patriotism is a healthy love of country

Largest Homes in United States:
Asheville NC 175,000 sf George W Vanderbilt
Sagaponack,NY 110,000 sf Ira Rennet
Sands Point,NY 100,000 sf Jay Gould
Windermere, FL 88,198 sf David Siegel (Under Construction)

The smallest house on the San Francisco market, coming in at 363 square feet in the Mission District, sold recently for over its asking price.Landing on the market in March at $495,000, the hidden home at 444 14th Street sold for $550,000.

Small House you can order Escape Traveler
Size: 269 square feet (160-square-foot and 319-square-foot models are also available)
Cost: $66,600 (base price)

Guttenburg NJ .densest city in the US 57,116. people per sq mile

Least dense states…Alaska 1.3 people per sq mile, Wyoming 6 per and Montana 7.1 Now that is space.

Ungrateful Bastards….

The unpredictable cobra of democracy has recoiled its ugly head. The Brits left their future up to their fellow countrymen last week and it was not a pretty sight. Amazing what happens when you have an “either or” referendum. There is no such thing as a win win situation. The victor in this case takes all. In the aftermath invective is hurled and everyone has a reason why it happened and why they missed all the warning signs.

Our world is chock a block with theories and their attendant “experts.”
We crave predicability and prognosticating. It seems no matter the analyst or chartist whatever is happening in our world has been seen dozens if not hundreds of times before and we know just how to make it work. Being a practitioner of off the wall thinking I take offense to two things. The mere possibility of someone exercising their free will which may run counter to mine is exciting in a purely intellectual way. The second is the concept of elitism.

With reference to the latter I am not talking the 1% financially but rather a cadre of the cognoscenti that says just shut up and let me do the thinking. I was watching an interview with writer/psychologist Andrew Solomon and he said in a most arrogant way he liked talking to articulate people. Bully for you but the implication was that he had no use whatsoever for the unwashed masses. Here is a man who admits his bouts with depression. I think I can give him some causality.

Economics is a wonderful field of study. Sooner or later the practitioners turn out to be right. It may be a matter of years or decades but they are quick to point out we don’t look enough at the broader term and bigger picture.

My former classmate Roger Altman took them to task in the WSJ this week. At this point all the sages said we would be at an interest rate of 3-4% Oil would have a range of somewhere between $150 as a high and the absolute floor would be $85-90 per barrel. The IMF predicted a 3% growth rate worldwide. Brazil and Russia would be the leading economies in this decade. Never have so many been so wrong. He ascribed the complexity to money looking for a home. There is currently $75 trillion under management looking for the next latest and greatest investment. They love’em and leave’em. And for the most part you and I are left holding the bag for money on the move.

Now you will say this is capitalism at its best and you may be right. Reenter the 1%. We have to look for efficiencies and profit margins. The obligation to give our investors ROI can heal a multitude of guilt for laying waste to burghs and nations that are no longer profitable. Find the cheapest place to get things done and tell the governments they better pony up the incentives to keep you there…until the next political group opens the kimono a little further. Nice knowing you.

Jilted lovers feel the burn…no play on words. The town of Boston, England is one of the most vivid examples. This seaside center of shipping has existed for centuries, both physically and culturally. It also has become home to Poles, Latvians and Lithuanians who have immigrated to GB. There was a promise to the locals that they would see increased commerce and prosperity by opening their arms.

They came in droves but rather than assimilating they kept to themselves. They opened food stores that were ethnic in nature and entire neighborhoods were taken over. The foreign population is at about 15%. I am not saying that immigration is not healthy for a rapidly aging demographic. They will provide the taxes to support the pensioners and welfare states but that logic does not always get through. How do you think they voted?

It is actually one of the real paradoxes of Britain but it can be applicable in our own U S of A. The city of London has for centuries been a melting pot as those in the far flung British Empire have come to work there from India, South Africa and the like. They never ventured forth to the countryside because there was no real work there. Today overcrowding and overpricing in the urban core has caused the newcomers to seek their fortunes in the rural regions. Ergo, the rub.

Jump across the pond and the same drama is being played out on Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut in the New York metropolitan area. Go to Miami, Phoenix and even Alabama and Tennessee. They are carpetbaggers and interlopers to the locals. Economics be damned. They sense they have not gained ground but lost it. And they are probably right.

Last week a good friend chastised me for presenting problems but not solutions. Guilty as charged. Simply put, we don’t have the ability to find solutions. Those would require us not dealing in our own self interest but in the common good from our politicians to the titans of industry to the common man. Sound too lofty? Think about it.

In DC the politicians know we need tax reform, heavy lifting on our infrastructure and deep cuts to our entitlement programs. Tough decisions aren’t going to sit well with the electorate and it would probably cost them their jobs. They look at politics as a growth industry not a time of service.

On the corporate side the pay for the top is obscene. I am not opting for a redistribution of wealth or socialism but a little discretion. What I am saying is a common sense approach to compensation at higher levels and a “sharing of the wealth.” Do you see this happening?

On the worker bee side there has to be dose of reality. Much of the economic woe is a result of downsizing and relocation. But also a great part of it is in what one considers a decent life. Housing, transportation and over all cost of living can be looked at as a necessity or as a symbol of success that one has made it.

All of the above require realism and a dedication to our fellow man and woman. Think not me, but us. To my friend I say therein lies the solution. For now we are all Ungrateful Bastards and that is our Achilles Heel and ultimate downfall. Too bad.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
There are no facts just theory.

The Future of Everything…..

I have just returned from Saratoga, Wyoming for the weekend. For those who are geographically challenged it is about 70 miles southwest of Laramie which surprisingly to many of you is in the United States of America. We played golf and stayed at the Old Baldy Club which we shall deem appropriate. The accommodations were dated but more than adequate and the food was plentiful. Other than that, you chill which I did with the Future of Everything supplement to the WSJ. And of course a glass of red and a cigar.

It seems somewhat incongruous to be reading of such futuristic things in Wyoming. On the way I had passed huge ranches and grimy little towns, spiffed up for the summer. As one espied a double wide on the horizon you couldn’t help but linger on what life might be like in those confines on a cold winter’s night. Do these people even know, much less care about ISIS, Brexit and the His Hairness? After these last few weeks’ fiascoes I hope the Donald is not the Future of Anything. But I digress.

The future is a bit crazy in many ways. It seems the genius millennials flock to a thing called The Burning Man in the desert outside of Las Vegas. As I understand it is sort of like a Woodstock for geeks. They drink, party and dance to rock bands literally until the sun rises. Then they speak of techno crafts and futuristic stuff, catch some well need zzz’s and do it all over again. Startups and dreamers mingle with the billionaires. Then when they leave it is with no sign they were ever there. Such is our times.

Upon return my good buddy in the now Chosen City of Cleveland in between victory parties sent me a website for a speech by the chairman of the FCC on the future 5G. It seems we are grasping at any amount of bandwidth today and they are created the true superhighway of data. Larger and faster than ever before. This really go my attention because the implications are startling.

Much of what we would like to do today is hampered by both speed and breadth. With 5G technology it would be possible for a world renowned surgeon to sit at a console at Johns Hopkins and perform intricate brain surgery robotically at the Cleveland Clinic. Then move to another and do the same at the Mayo Clinic. Ditto New York, San Fran etc. The speed required is a millisecond or 100 times faster than our speeds now. The conclusion was that there are things to be developed that have not even been imagined. Some of us might fear this capacity. I find it beyond intriguing for the hope of putting more of our brain power to good use. The talent is not in the machine but the human designing it. Fantastico.

Parsing thorough the unread newspapers I was hit by my usual overdose of our world. Startling was the time and space devoted to our election cycle, Orlando and Brexit. Page after page after page. Not that these are not news of a sort but how caught up in detail and slants can we get? Looking for that one story line or insightful bit of writing to captivate our already overly sated readerships. As the bungling and fighting and cheating and fraud unfolded in all parts of our world I couldn’t help but think that we have success in spite of ourself. We find more and more ways to get in our own way but somehow make this mess work.

Okay, this probably seems a far cry from Saratoga. I am constantly amazed by our potential and frustrated by our actuation. Before I left I had one of those truly hopeful and encouraging encounters.I was asked to be part of a volunteer program at one our local prep schools. They are in the midst of two week program for high school juniors from underprivileged families. They covered everything from picking a college to writing an essay to doing interviews. That latter is where yours truly came into play.

I had four students who were all young women. I interviewed them for fifteen minutes each but had sat in on their class prior to our meeting. People, I was simply blown away. The one young lady was from a broken home. Her mom had gone to NYU and was a translator at a local hotel and her dad lived in Texas. She wanted to go to Amherst and study political science. After that she wanted to go to law school and become an advocate for underprivileged people. Wow!

The next was born of biracial parents. She told me of the isolation that a kid like her endures. She wasn’t complaining or indignant. She was just relating to a fact of life she had to deal with. Her openness was incredible. She had two sibling brothers and the operative word was HAD. One had drowned two summers ago. She wanted to study psychology at the University of Denver and become a counselor to troubled kids. Wow again!

The other two were no less impressive. It called to mind my niece who lives in Vail. As part of a fellowship program she just returned from Morocco where they were helping out in schools. She and her cohorts had also been to Nicaragua on a similar trek. They all wrote blogs and they were nothing short of incredible. They put this writer to shame. They were open and listening and understanding. There were no prejudices to derail their altruistic thoughts. The Wows keep coming!

I guess where I come from on all this is that we tend to sensationalize and amp up the bad volume when there is so much good out there. People and especially kids have dreams that may be well beyond their reach but we can’t shoot them down. Hopefully the gains we have made in technology make this just a little more possible. The future of everything? It is right here in our minds if we decide to expand our horizons. Just like those broad vistas I saw in Wyoming. Not a bad thought

As always.
Ted The Great

Factoids:
Wyoming: 10 largest state land wise in the US. Main Industry: Energy 2015 resident population est.: 586,107 Largest cities (2010): Cheyenne, 59,011; Casper, 55,316; Laramie, 30,816;
Natives:Curt Gowdy, Harrison Ford,Jackson Pollock, Dick Cheney,Jim Savory, Alan Simson.

Mobile Generations
1G Voice 1982
2G Voice and Text 1992
3G 1998 Married Wireless and Digital
4G 2008 Completed the migration including video

Robotic surgery is best used in minimally invasive procedures. The cost of the machine is approximately $1.25 million. It is said to be more precise, less painful, quicker recovery and the doctor does not have to be on his feet for several hours. The technology is there to do remote surgery but the transmission speeds are not quick enough.

Colleges are less and less inclined to accept underprivileged kids. They have lower GPA and SAT scores thereby lowering the school’s ranking by US News and World Report. If financial aid is given it is to higher income students because the school is more assured they will stay the full four years. The situation becomes somewhat exacerbated by the malaise in the middle income bracket. More and more qualify because of low wages and that means there is less aid money to go around.

Electro Convulsive Therapy….

Electro Convulsive Therapy,(ECT) is a procedure where they attach electrodes to your head and let low voltage currents trigger brief seizures. These in turn cause a change in your brain chemistry that reverses certain mental illnesses. I think we are ready for it….as a nation.

Hopefully the outcome of this process is a return to normalcy and therein lies the true enigma. What is normal today? Who defines the standard? How do we know he or she has it right? We even have some outlying groups claiming that our definition of normal is just a ruse on our part to keep them from being part of society. I’d like to think a cottage by a babbling brook would suit most but I think somehow even that Elysian Field would come under fire from one flank or the other.

Don’t look back because the world is changing at warp speed. Common decency and good will towards men are in the rear view mirror. Just look at the news of the last week. Hulk Hogan sued Gawker for posting a sex video of he and his best friend’s wife. He was awarded $140 million. A young singer is gunned down as she is signing autographs after one of her first shows. A Stanford freshman is given six months for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. The parents and judge say the kid’s life is ruined for twenty minutes of stupidity. We should feel sorry for him. Not a word about the young woman except by her incredible letter to the judge.

Back here in Colorado a mother is arrested for pimping her 14 year old daughter. Several people were killed by drunk drivers,many of whom were on the road despite four or five convictions. An 18 year old kills his 11 year old brother with a gun his father had stored on a top shelf. A man is arrested for possession of child porn. Another for soliciting an 11 year old girl.In Chicago over Memorial Day weekend 64 people were shot with six dead. And on Sunday morning 50 people were gunned down in a nightclub in Orlando.
The Broncos were sporting their gigantic Super Bowl rings with over 200 gems totaling five carats per while one of their stars was recovering from a shooting in which he was so drunk he couldn’t remember whether he was shot by someone else or himself. Mayor Di Blasio wants the biggest and best Gay Pride Parade ever but please do not tape the drag queens and erotica for general viewing. We don’t want people to get the wrong idea. Please tell me what if any of this is normal?

Some of us say amp it up. Don’t close the bars at two. Leave them open till 4:00AM Let’s try bigger and crazier drugs. We have Mexican cartels for a reason. Many of our fellow Americans can’t get enough. Push the envelope on everything from paying sports figures huge salaries to what we perceive in society as acceptable and decent. Moms are paying for their thirteen year old daughters to have boob jobs. Dads want to help their sons lose their virginity.

The masses have different answers to the problem. The first reaction is to bar the door. Security systems, gates, firearms and even body guards to protect. We cower. We worry. We hunker down. Others look to government as their security blanket. Gotta have more cops, more airport security, more jails and more laws. Don’t know how we are going to pay for it but let’s get it anyway.

Lastly we think the smartest course of action is to break into sects and groups. LGBT, Hispanics, Rich. Poor, Catholics, Protestants Jews and Muslims. Sorry, Atheists too. Feminists and Chauvinists. Can’t leave any one out. It is easier to band together for protection and to feign mistreatment. Those ‘bastards” can’t be one of us. It is always the other guy or gal. And each interest group has its own spokesperson and lobby. And it all works out to be what’s best for me not us.

We crave predictability and probability. We listen to gurus tell us about the market and our chances of success whether it be our portfolio or our life or even better our ability to be happy. Do this and you have it made. Deviate and you are screwed. We do not speak out. We do not rise up. We do not question. We either quietly bitch among ourselves or just snivel in a corner. We don’t say,”ENOUGH !” We started to do it after 9/11 but our passions dulled over time.

I think we have to redefine normal. We have to establish standards that are not archaic but more specifically practical and decent. We don’t need political platforms that swing to the far left or right. We cannot cater and carve out for special interests whether they be tycoons or perverts. We can’t keep pushing envelopes but rather understand the limitations that are appropriate for growth without a tawdry existence.

We are in a world of hurt if we don’t put on the brakes and just for one moment contemplate where we are in this off the chart world in which we live. Don’t just read this amateur blogger and say, “That’s nice Ted. You make great points and I‘ll see if I can do something in the next five years when I am not busy working or playing”. Or even better that Ted is just blowing off steam. He will get over his snarkiness and then all will be right with the world. Maybe the only way this will work is if we all have an ECT. I’ll be first in line. Just tell me what normal is when I come to.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Roughly 110 million Americans (33%) own approximately 300 million guns. 40% of those purchased last year were done without a background check. We have 35,000 gun related deaths per annum. We have 4.2 percent of the world’s population and 42% of the guns. In case you are wondering there is no convenient way we are going to stop this usage and carnage.

About 8% of our population (25 million) are drug users. That results in a little over 38,000 deaths per year. Usage is lowest in Iowa(4.2%) and highest in Rhode Island and Vermont (over 13%). Drug users spend about $100 billion a year on drugs. We spend as a government $31 billion fighting it. We are the largest illegal drug economy in the world accounting for 40% of the world’s use.

16.3 million adults (over 18) have an alcoholic disorder. 680,000 youths (12-17) suffer in the same way. Alcohol is responsible for 88,000 deaths per year. In 2010 alcohol misuse cost our country $248 billion. 75% of this is related to binge drinking.

In the US there are at least 100,000 children per year who are trafficked for sex. Child pornography is a $4 billion a year business. In 2014 at the Super Bowl held in New York 45 people were arrested and 16 kids rescued as a ring of child prostitution was broken.

On all of the above markets exist because there are buyers of all sorts. Innocent pastimes? Victimless crimes? This is meant to be sobering. It is what we have become. You be the judge if it is your definition of normal?

Process Report…A New Age

While on sabbatical from Hospice I have been researching a thing called old age. I am in it so I may as well understand it before I’m off in a corner in my wheelchair drooling all over myself. What are you looking at buddy? And that is my starting point. I mention 70 or 80 or 90 and each one of us conjures up some image from out of our personal Emoticons. Preconceived notions, hangups, stereotypes and prejudices. Aren’t we all the same? I hope not.

We are looking at this entirety of 75 million grey hairs and saying one size fits all. I think there are at least 3 or 4 vectors as I will call them. They are a combination of age, wellness,gender and economic status. To start there is perceived age and actual age. I am 71 but at least mentally I feel like I am in my early forties. Physically I will give you 50 and not a day more. I am not a monk but Kathy and I eat pretty well and our health is on the up side. Not bragging but rather saying how fortunate we are.

I was at a cocktail party and asked those around me how old they felt? Some came in the same as yours truly but a large number gave me their actual age or worse. Some people are fit as a fiddle and others are chronically ill. I guess we should figure out some sort of a scoring system so we can establish a proper methodology of care and feeding. But then again someone will say I am being judgmental. Well I am. Not to take away your benefits but to better address one’s needs.

In senior housing things are split into independent living, assisted care and critical care. I refer to that as GoGo,SloGo and NoGo. How insensitive of me. AARP wants you heading for the grave as you hit 50. What started out as an advocacy group has morphed into combination voting bloc and marketing behemoth. Little do you know but they are getting a pop on most things they endorse from insurance to consumer products. Prudent politicians have suggested the retirement age be extended to 70 by the year 2040 and no one currently covered would be affected. Not a chance per AARP, one of the largest voting blocs by their own estimation. But enough of politics.

Psychologically speaking, old age can be devastating. Going back to that perceived age we make a steep reversal from being independent to dependent on others for almost everything. For some this is not a weaning process but radical surgery. Don’t go out at night. Be careful lest you fall. Get thoroughly checked out by the latest medical this or that for the tiniest of malady. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Act your age. We become risk averse. That brings us to safe and predictable but our derring do has served many of us well for decades and now you want to take it away.

That caution affects one’s activity. You stay in more, limiting your landscapes and your relationships. Your new sedentary lifestyle creates tons of spare time. You watch TV or you watch for someone outside your home who is speeding down the street or kids who are cutting through your yard. For some reason you seek control by yelling out the window or calling the cops. People start to give you a wide berth as your cranky attitude becomes a way of life. Sad but true in oh so many cases. Your kids and your doctors make the decisions.

Older people move slower and take longer to do certain things whether it is getting dressed or hitting a golf ball. That breeds impatience from the kids and downright hostility from the outer world. So you go to a retirement community which on paper looks great. In actuality you now have a bunch of grouches living together and feeding off each other’s misery. Sounds depressing? It is.

We are all going to die whether you are eight or eighty. A great doc by the name of Bill Thomas has categorized us. There are Denialists. They are have facelifts and makeovers of every sort. They run marathons and climb mountains not for the fun of it but to prove the Grim Reaper will have to use his scythe elsewhere. The Fountain of Youth is out there. They just have to find it. Then there are the Realists who accept their lot however dire. As one of these cats said to me re Florida,”We just look at it as God’s waiting room.” Geez Louise.That is creepy.

Then there are the Enthusiasts. Sure we are going to die but if we look at the next twenty to thirty years as an opportunity to learn, grow and God forbid we might add something to the world. That in itself is a very exciting thing. There are no rules or timelines.Instead of being range bound we are as free as birds. You eat a blueberry because it tastes good not because it is good for you. You want a cigar or a martini? Go for it. Uh oh, I just shaved a year off my life. Big deal! Every day 15,000 people reach 65. 80% of them have some sort of chronic condition ranging from arthritis to type 2 diabetes. 50% have two. We cannot cure you of everything as modern medicine would have you believe. In other words deal with it but also make the most of it.

My work is leading me to a conclusion that we have to help people prepare for more than a nursing home or hospice. We have to show people how to retire from the get go. Help them write their business plan for the rest of their life. That is not just a hopeful concept but a complex and wonderful time to figure out what could be. It’s a lot more than playing golf or taking a cruise. It is learning how to live life all over again.

There may be a limited audience who want to hear what I have to say. If I hit even a small percentage of those 75 million how much better would they and our world be today? Are they an asset or a liability? Which way do you think I am voting?

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Your personality does not change in old age. If you are a grouch you have always been prone to negative thinking. If you are a nervous Nellie or control freak that won’t change. You just have more time to practice it. If you are cool and serene there is nothing but more of the same.

The average lifespan in the US is 79 years of age. That is 53rd in the world.Male 76.59 Female 81.53. The average healthy life span is 72. The implications of this for quality of life and the cost of medical care going forward is mind boggling.

By the time your heart stops it will have beaten over three billion times. “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”

Grey Thoughts

In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
Getting lucky means you find your car in the parking lot.
You wake up, looking like your driver’s license picture.
Your pacemaker raises the garage door when you see a pretty girl go by
Your try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks and discover you aren’t wearing any.
You come to the conclusion that your worst enemy is gravity.
Remember …It all Depends

I would appreciate any thoughts you might have regardless of your age. This is not just a mental exercise. I think it is beyond interesting and maybe,just maybe, beneficial to all.

Flying The Colors….

There was a picture the other day of an Iraqi soldier taking down an ISIS flag somewhere in the hinterlands. My first thought was how many times had that flagpole seen different emblems of nations, tribes and religions? From the birth of civilization in Mesopotamia to the somewhat subjective drawing of boundaries by the British after the fall of the Ottoman Empire it has seen its share of claimants. And haven’t we all?

Thus a flag can be an enduring symbol or just the sign of the times. We salute it, sing to it, burn it and drape ourselves in it. It brings a tear to our eyes and hate to our hearts. The Nazi flag of Germany or the Rising Sun of Japan is like waving a red flag in front of the bull for our WWII veterans. The French Tricolor, the British Union Jack, and the Skull and Cross Bones of old brought a sigh of relief or a sudden chill of fear when espied on the high seas in olden times.

In the past few months we have seen our Stars and Stripes raised over Havana once again much to the dismay of some and joy to others. Obama gave a joint press conference in of all places Ho Chi Minh City the other day flanked by the symbols of once warring nations. Someone asked me if it bothered me? Not really. That was a long time ago but then again we have to think of the 55,000 sheets that once draped coffins of fallen heroes. They are in a place of honor in homes all over our fair country and those families might have a different response.

The burial for a vet is impressive and deeply moving in every detail from Taps to the shocking cacophony of anywhere from a 9 to 21 gun salute depending on the rank of the warrior. No one can view the snap to folding of the colors into a tricorne that reminds us all of the hat of colonial times under George Washington or John Paul Jones. Then the presiding officer brings the tightly wrapped remembrance to the loved ones with the following words:
“On behalf of the President of the United States, the United States (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard ), and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one’s honorable and faithful service” Over the course of our history this has been replicated probably millions of times and yet it never loses its poignancy.

I think the most beautiful sight is a large mass of red white and blue unfurled from a towering spike in the ground. The bigger the better. As it slowly picks up the breeze and in that steady wavelike motion it seems to breathe life and pride into everyone who catches sight. It’s a combination of an Irish lilt or a classical interlude. Perhaps a modern dance or a Sousa march.

There’s one across the street from my aerie and it is very cool. After 9/11 we all seemed to have Old Glory hanging from an eave of our house, the back window of our car or from buildings or bridges. I guess that is only when bad times happen that we go to the well. Kind of like praying. Times are good. No need for that now.

I am going to keep it short. It is Memorial Day weekend. I think I am going to go to the closet that is rarely opened. There is a box there with the ensign that flew on my Swift Boat. I am going to hang it out on our balcony. I wonder if anyone will notice or ask why? It will be in honor of my Navy buddies and all brothers and sisters in arms. We used to have a Memorial Day parade in Manhasset when I was growing up. I hope they still do. I first marched in 1952 with the St Mary’s Elementary School band. As I think now it was seven years after the end of WWII. The embers burned hot. I hope there is more than ash today.

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the day and your family and fiends It’s great to be an American.

As always
Ted The Great.

Fun Factoid;

In the Brown Water Navy in Viet Nam we are an irreverent lot. In addition to our official burgee on board, some of us flew other colors as well. It might have been a state, team or college insignia. I wrote to the New York Mets, enclosed a check for $25 asking them to send me a Mets flag. Arthur Richman who was head of PR sent back my check saying they had no such thing. However they had contacted a manufacturer in Brooklyn and they would have one made for me. The blue and orange banner arrived at Sea Float with NY METS emblazoned on it. We had fun flying that in the face of Charlie. In addition to all sorts of Mets paraphernalia there was an invitation to Shea Stadium upon our return. I and some other veterans took him up on it and we sat right behind home plate. He came down in the seventh inning with baseballs and pens and whatever. He gave me his card and said he wanted us to be his guest in the Diamond Club after the game. We did. What a night. What a guy. Let’s Go Mets.

Going Down Life’s Highway….

GoinFor better or worse I took an off ramp yesterday. It has been raining in Denver for four days straight and we Coloradans don’t do wet and cloudy very well. Someone sent me a bogus missive about political correctness. Funny but untrue. It got me thinking. Between political campaigns, commencements, the Queen’s comments on the Chinese and talk shows we have a fertile field to hoe. But where to start?

The phrase started almost a century ago as Karl Marx put forth Das Kapital. If you believed it, you were “politically correct” and if you didn’t it was off to the gulag. No room for maneuvering here. It lay fallow for several decades until the sixties and civil rights. For 50 years everyone stayed in line in society whether it related to gender, ethnicity,color or political thought. The civil rights movement gave a burst of hope to the downtrodden. All of a sudden it became okay to speak the unthinkable and unorthodox. People said “no more”, much to the dismay of the ruling class. Revolution is never easy.

The voices were strong and rebellious. Burning bras and burning hearts were a force of nature. The invaders were not to be repelled. With each bit of success they became more brazen and the establishment more vigilant to put these upstarts down. When people find power within themselves they are a potent force. Unfortunately the ensuing violence and vitriol creates deep gashes that are hard to heal.

I grew up in a strict but loving Irish Catholic family. My dad was a successful self made man who saw no sense in doing anything that could be construed as unconventional. My mom was the dutiful wife and mother. As number four in line I had to make my own way with a bunch of Type A’s in front of me. A lot of things didn’t sit right. Peg Kenny was a lot of the reason the Kennys were successful but I never felt she got her due. The parish where I went to school was ruled by a tyrant. I went to Nam and did my job out of sense of duty but never came to terms with our lunacy. All seeds of an irreverent soul that has finally sought to speak.

I am no angel. I have called friends Canucks,Guineas and worse. In return they have dubbed me a dumb Irish Mick. Blacks are black and I don’t know how to get over that. If I see a Muslim scarf, do I react? Yes I do. I played golf with a Hispanic on Saturday and we are good friends and we make jokes about his heritage. I have gays that have lived on our block and in our building and we socialize regularly.I just have hard time with the transsexual thing but I am trying to work at it. There are 700,000 in the US, so it is not just a fad. Does all this make me a bigot or politically incorrect? I hope not.

On this whole PC I think we have run amok. Graduation speakers are getting hard to find. Liberal professors are scared to death of their liberal students. Microagressions and trigger warnings are part of the syllabus. Euphemisms are now a major. Faculties and administrations are at odds as to who runs the place. Students are wrapped in a cocoon of false security. Universities are not forums but post natal ICU’s. The examples are too numerous and absurd to recite. Three hundred million people have different ideas on everything. You can’t go through life one without offending at least one, if not hundreds.

I am going to piss some of you off and make some of you cheer from the bleachers. I am the most sensitive son of bitch in the world and yet I can be so hurtful. We seem to be striving for perfection in everything. Our speech, our investments, our work, our play our eating,our drinking our relationships. Life is one big work in progress. No one has it right nor will they. If I spend my life listening to how you are saying something as opposed to what you are trying to get across then I won’t learn much. If you live in a closed room all you will get is your own voice echoing off the walls. If that feels good, then go for it.

Totalitarianism can reign on either side of the political spectrum. It’s their way or the highway. Liberals/progressives can be just as dogmatic and unyielding as the best John Birchers. Right now extremism on either side sets the tone and the beat of our dance. The Gloria Steinems and Malcolm X’s and MLK’s of the day had to scream to be heard. Now that we have listened to you can we just tone it down a notch? Ditto the right and whoever their spokesperson is? This isn’t a battle to the death but we are sure as hell are trying to make it that way. Just look at the wastelands we have bombed into oblivion. Really accomplished a lot didn’t we?

We are being robbed of spontaneity and creative juices if everything we do or say is put under the microscope.At some time in our lives we are all victims. But get over it and don’t make it your life’s mission to extract every last pound of flesh for your travails. I am trying and yes, I will fall. But help me up instead of stepping on me and I will do the same. Then maybe we can have coffee or beer at the next exit.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Classic Euphemisms:
Significant Other…Girlfriend. Mistress,Cousin
Dishonest…Ethically disoriented.
Body Odor…Non discretionary fragrance
Dead…Living Impaired
Stoned..Chemically inconvenienced.
Ugly…Aesthetically challenged
Lazy…motivationally challenged

A fellow from Mt. Gay,WV was thrown off Microsoft for having the word “gay” in his personal profile. No mention of the word gay is allowed. It took him a year to get back on the site.

Some kids from a choir in Waynesville, NC were visiting and performing in NYC. When they got to Ground Zero they were so moved as a group they started to sing the Star Spangled Banner.The guards stopped them because there were no political demonstrations allowed at the 9/11 memorial. They needed a permit.

A Smith College handout from the Office of Student Affairs lists 10 different kinds of oppression that can be inflicted by making judgments about people. These include “ageism — oppression of the young and old by young adults and the middle-aged”; “heterosexism — oppression of those of sexual orientations other than heterosexual . . . this can take place by not acknowledging their existence,” and “lookism . . . construction of a standard for beauty/attractiveness.” It’s not sufficient to avoid discriminating against unattractive people; you must suppress the impulse to notice the difference. I kid you not.

There are 11-12 million people that identify themselves as lesbian,bisexual,gay or transgender. Major languages spoken are English, Spanish, Chines, French, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean German. These are spoken by at least 1 million of you fellow citizens. Lesser are Arabic, Indic, Hindi,Polish, Japanese, Urdu,Greek, Hebrew, Yiddish, Laotian.Thai, Armenian, Navajo, Tamil and Sign spoken by at least 100,000. Interestingly there is no official language of the United States by law.

A New Beginning….

Whether you are running for president of your high school or the United States, the candidate will continually espouse the siren call of a new beginning. Your world is screwed up and I will lead you out of the desert. Forget about the fact that the Red Sea is staring us right in the face and you have not yet found that Godlike power to part the seas. Don’t worry. We can put all those other things on the back burner and dream of honey and Elysian fields.Trust me! What a way to run a railroad.

I have been doing research into old age. I figure I am heading for it and I might as well understand it. Most of all I am struck by the complexity of the problem. There are 75 million of us and yet we are all painted with the same brush. Just do your time TTG and shut up. We will take care of you in body and mind until Kathy’s dream comes true and you are headed either north or south for eternity. But it is not that easy.

One of the more fascinating outgrowths of my study is the psychological aspect. For all our lives we have been productive human beings. Whether you want to or not, at some point you have to give up the ghost so to speak. Whether it is to the government or family we go from being fiercely independent to dependent on some one or some thing. Will my investments hold up? If I get get sick who will take care of me? As I worry more I become more cautious and debilitated. I may fall ergo I must restrict my activity.

Caregiving takes on a whole new realm. It is not seeing your loved one through a cold or a replaced hip but treatment for this or that malady that goes on for years. You are it and there is no way to escape it. Your life changes and maybe all those things you always wanted to do are no more. The cost of a nursing home today was pegged at $92,000 per year. How is that going to work if you have limited or no means?

The sad part of the above is not that it is going to happen but where and when have you heard the problem in specific terms from our political slates no matter which party you swing towards. When was the last time you heard about $18 trillion in debt? How about entitlement reform? Everyone wants to increase our armed forces but to what end and how are we going to pay for it? It is not so much as updating previous chapters but we want a whole new book while the other is just thrown away.

In short we have ODed on hope and change. Kiss it and make it all better. Is there really an answer? You bet. Sober Up America. When we get all wrought up we look for comfort food. How about a new car? That is always a sure fire panacea. Sure your other one is fine but you know how cool that new car smell is and besides it is 0% interest for 6 years. Cars not your thing? Then let’s binge and eat. Today we are 38% obese as a nation. We were 12% on 2007.Run up credit card debt Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we?

Sure the problems are multiple in causality. Washington is right up in front. For grins I looked at an org chart for the Whites House. There are fiefdoms of all sorts including czars of a sort for AIDS, Faith Based and Community Partnerships, Social Innovation and Civic Participation and the Public Engagement Council on Woman and Girls. I am not making this stuff up. I won’t go into the legislative branch. That would get even worse.

Washington is a cesspool. Let’s talk money. 11,500 lobbyists of all sorts spent $3.2 billion last year on swaying Congress to their line of thinking. 50% of former congress people are involved in lobbying. The top donation at $483 million was medical followed by finance insurance and real estate at $470 million. Energy comes in at $332 million and Transportation at $221 mill. It takes an average of $1,689,000 to get elected to the house and $10,500,00 to the Senate. We have let money of all sorts rape the system.

Now we can boo and hiss at the villains on the screen but aren’t we all complicit? I do research and with the internet it is fairly easy. And all this time you thought I was really smart. I try to study things not to write some crazy weekly epistle but to look for myself. You know an educated consumer.That is the way to beat big money’s bull shit. I am happy to impart anything I can but you have to do your part and at least read my drivel if not more. I am pissed off at you and myself equally for letting it get so far out of kilter. We watch the negative ads and react. We listen to a speech and never study the specifics or possible outcomes. We don’t want a gas tax although our roads are crumbling. We want the ultimate in medical care without a thought of who is going to pay for it.Face it good people, We are as guilty as everyone else .

Before we start on a new beginning let’s go fix the old end. Let’s reinforce the bulwarks before we embark on new frontiers. There is no knight in shining armor at least for a while to come. The current crop of candidates offers little solace. Sometimes if we want to get something done we have to do it ourselves. If not, then don’t bitch about the state of things.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

The Federal gas tax stands at 18.4 cents per gallon. It has remained unchanged since 1992. The Highway Trust Fund is essentially broke. People balk at raising the tax and likewise have an enmity towards tolls. What’s your solution?

The Social Security Trust Fund will be in the red starting in 2033. The public has balked at raising the retirement age to 70 gradually from now to 2050. They feel better about raising the SS tax from 6.2% to 7.2% over time. They feel real good about raising the cut off from $117,000 to $225,000

The implications of deporting 11 million illegal aliens are astronomical from enforcement costs to drastically reduced capabilities for hospitality and construction industries. Why are we talking about this ad nauseam?

Elizabeth Warren spent $42 million beating Scott Brown for senator from Massachusetts. How much did he spend? Who knows but the number for a single seat in the most exclusive club in the world is astronomical.

The average life expectancy for the US is 78.8 years. That amounts to 81.2 for women and 76.4 for men. If you want the healthy life expectancy subtract 6-7 years. Contemplate that 75 million Americans will have chronic or life threatening disabilities for 6-7 years. There is not an infinite amount of money out there for all we want.Something’s gotta give.

The Other Half….

Our hardy brand of volunteers did a fabulous job cleaning the Creek about ten days ago Our timing was good because soon thereafter weather moved in with a vengeance. Our area of attack spanned a little over a mile on either side of the stream. There was one area where I could not let the troops venture. There were two or three active homeless encampments to be dealt with. I had done this once before with one of the park rangers and it ain’t fun.

These are not your average bedroll over a steam grate domiciles. They have tents and even makeshift cooking and refrigeration arrangements. In one two man tent last year four heads popped out when the gendarmes came a calling. This particular one today had two woebegone souls as tenants. We had a Denver policemen, case worker and a park ranger to handle the formalities. They were incredibly patient and courteous. But the interlopers had to go.

The campsites are borderline disgusting when one looks at the sanitation. The area is littered with beer cans and cheap booze bottles. Needles of every sort are very much in evidence and used toilet paper designates inhabitants within.Waste of every sort finds its way into the creek and therein lies the problem. People say how can you be so cruel but the sheer reality of an unhealthy and dangerous situation hits you smack in the face.

As we wait and watch, a woman probably in her thirties makes several treks up the hill to a shopping cart with all of her and her housemate’s earthly possessions. There is a look of sad resignation on her sallow face as she knows she will have to find another place to survive. The snow is beginning to fall and you have to feel horrible if you have anything in your soul. Thoughts of them have lingered for several days. How did they get here? Where will they go?

There are about 15,000 homeless here in Denver at last count. About 25% want to get out of their rut, another 50% are addicts or psychologically unstable and 25% just prefer being homeless. These numbers are somewhat unscientific but if you check in your own home town I think you will find them pretty close to true. At best you have a different floorpan every night and you learn a lot about meteorology. A beautiful day in Denver takes on a whole new meaning for them.

On a rainy and snowy Saturday we visited our nearby Costco. Bad move. There were a lot of people who had the same idea. Doesn’t take us long. Always buy a fresh roasted chicken which are huge and delicious. My daughters tell me they inject them with brine and of course that can’t be good for me. What a way to go!

Even at top speed you can’t avoid the long lines for free samples. There was one family with parents, four kids and a grandmother who were queuing up for what had to be a late lunch or early dinner in the free sample line. That poor octogenarian with the hairnet that was doling out whatever into cups or onto crackers was having a hard time keeping up. Your eye went from one group to another. You noted their dress, their mannerisms and their foreign language. These also are my city and country mates and I don’t have a clue as to what they are all about.

Back at home I picked up Friday’s Wall Street Journal that I hadn’t finished.I love going to the “Mansions” section. My well heeled buddy who lives in one of those houses decries the paper as inciting an Arab Spring in Palm Beach or La Jolla by the unwashed masses if they ever read it. I told him he had a point but I didn’t think there was a danger unless a copy was left at the local Arby’s or KFC. Still it got me thinking.

Since my highly upscale friends are far away,I looked up luxury magazines. Straight to the Robb Report(robbreport.com) which has to rank as the most ostentatious of all. Look it up. It really is a hoot. You will be privy to what the super swells consider to be appropriate for everything from, jewelry, fitness, cars, planes, houses and yachts. Dream along with me. You can rent a yacht for one week with 6 spacious state rooms for $300,000 a week. That is not a misprint. Of course there are less expensive alternatives but if you are going to do it, go big.

Now stop and think for a moment where my physical and mental travels have taken me as far as economic diversity. And every one of my encounters has been with as LBJ used to say, “My fellow Americans.” Now you can poo poo and dismiss all you want. We in some manner are all in this together. People go nuts about the Donald or Hilary but do you think either one is capable of changing our demographics? This is the hand we are dealt and the sooner we realize it and least try to work with it, the better off we and future generations are going to be.

Hissy fits and wrenching of hands might make your gut feel better but they are not going to solve our problems of infrastructure, education, medicine, the deficit and entitlements. I am not saying you put on a hair shirt and go quietly in the night. But at least have the tiniest inkling what the guy or gal across the street or the country is going through. Waiters,bus drivers, business moguls, cops, soldiers,tech titans are all cut from the same cloth….USA. Come out of your cocoon whether it is a gated community or a ghetto. I am pretty sure those two words have a different meaning but who knows?

I get it. All these halves total a lot more than one but somehow we have to have room for all. Maybe you are 1% or 47%. Maybe your percentage changes by color, religion and part of the country. Point being it really doesn’t matter. Sooner or later we are all going to figure out how to pull on the oars at the same time. We are in it together.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
There are 323,000,000 inhabitants of the US. Even if the Donald deports 11,000,000 there are still 312,000,000 individual human beings of every origin and sort.We are 63% white, 16% Hispanic and 12% black.

It is projected our population in 2050 will be 402 million.
There were about 125.9 million adult women in the United States in 2014. The number of men was 119.4 million. Life expectancy for men is 77 and for woman 82.

There are 22 million veterans meaning less than 10% of our populace has served in the military.

There are around 100 different religions practice with 83% of the people claiming to being one of them. 17% saying they are atheists or have no specific religion

The median income for Asians is $57,000,whites $49,000, hispanics $34,000 and blacks $30,000.

In 2010, the average man weighed 194.7 pounds the average woman 164.7 pounds The height of an American man was 5 feet 9 inches and woman 5 feet 3.8 inches .

British Humor:
My 12 year old grandson,Aiden who is living with his family in London sent me the following in a birthday card He thought they were hilarious. So do I

Warning: Random fits of laughter may occur as per my man.

A bald guy get gets a comb for his birthday He says,”Thanks I will never part with it.

Jesus says “Want an ark? I Noah guy”

Why did the scarecrow get promoted? He was outstanding in his field.

A llama says,“Want to go on a picnic? Alpaca lunch”

What does the green grape say to a purple grape? “Will you breathe please?”

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Theoretically Speaking….

Wandering through the chasms of unending chaos that are my mind I am constantly in search of the reasons for things and just maybe a hint of the meaning of life. That’s in between my new workout regimen and redesigning my golf swing for the 439th time. Now don’t laugh. There is method to my madness. You see all of the above and more rely heavily on theories. A theory is simply an idea or set of ideas that is intended to explain facts or events. Simple enough.

As I think of my life and yours we are chock a block with these little nuggets that someone has dreamed up. We have black hole theories to explain our universe, evolution to justify our existence and climate change to demonstrate how we have supposedly screwed everything up. There are whacky conspiracy theories to fill the pages of the Enquirer and highly respected ones found in a scientific journal. The latter are above my pay grade.

It is mystifying how we rely on these to dictate our day and manner of dealing with society. From the get go as infants we were subjected to either Watson or Sock as a way to be reared. Watson had little or no regard for one’s psychological well being, as kids were subjected to a very strict routine with no room for any sort of emotion. Benjamin Spock was more of a free spirit where one relied on their gut instincts and natural parenting tendencies to make Johnnie or Sue a contributing member of society.

Education is fraught with theories.Some good.Some bad but either way having an enormous effect on our lives. I have told you all of my experience as an eighth grader in the basement of Saint Mary’s church with 53 kids and Sister Mary Tabernacle to whatever. Point being we all graduated and passed the New York State Regents exams in English, Math and Social Studies.According to current theory that shouldn’t have happened.

When in New Jersey I worked with the Tri County Scholarship program in Paterson, NJ. The city was a stone’s throw from Newark and shared the same failures in public education. At Paterson Catholic we had kids with no entrance exam who excelled. At the time Paterson was spending $11,000 per kid and we were spending $2500. Their success rate was 35% and ours was !00%. I am not so much an apologist for Catholic education as saying there is a different way to achieve success in teaching that transcends religion.

The charter school is emblematic of a way to work within the system but comes under fire for a variety of reasons. If theory is based on fact then the results speak for themselves. They work. Phonics as a concept of educating can be deemed a success or failure but the future of millions of kids based on one mode of teaching or another places the responsibility of the process clearly at the feet of the proponents. The jury is still out.

We as a country and a world serve as lab rats of a sort. Socialism, capitalism, public housing projects of Jacob Riis. Social Security, welfare, desegregation, zero interest rates, the domino theory of Communism and nuclear detente are all theories of one sort or another. Vaccinations cause autism. Quackery or fact? Each of us has an opinion and its probity is often based on our credentials and authenticity. Whether it is the gravitas of the source or just a convincing and thoughtful presentation we are open to be won over or seduced as the case may be. Hey, the Rockies or Cubbies might be contenders this year.

This greatly affects our power to question and discuss. An opinion is a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. Unless you are Einstein, St Thomas Aquinas or Leonardo I will doubt the veracity of your argument. Nothing personal but I do have my standards. However I will listen. I will absorb as long as we both agree there is something to be sorted as opposed to your unconditional fiat.

Interestingly we have grown up as a highly egalitarian but more importantly independent country. We to this point have craved our individualism and creativity. Entrepreneurship and arrogance of a sort have been our bellwether. And yet today we look to everyone for help. There are coaching, meditating and self improvement gurus. The biggest selling books on Amazon are self help ones. We have consultants of every sort to tell us where we are going wrong instead of capitalizing on what we have done right. We have in essence ceded every part of our persona to someone else to tell me how I should look, dress, act and perform. I am totally subservient to their theories and not my own gut. Is this where you want to be? I don’t.

I have theories and I espouse them to you all the time. That doesn’t mean they are gospel or even coherent. It is just some schmuck throwing out his view of the world. It is neither valid nor to be ignored. It is to be considered in the overall thing we call life. The goal I most desire is to be part of your conversation not the center of it. You have so much much knowledge and wisdom in your soul that I would hope you would shout it to the rooftops and maybe somebody, somewhere will find small piece to call their own. That’s all any of us should ask.

Theories are wonderful but until they have seen the proof of time they are just conjecture. Don’t put them down but don’t blindly obey. Question everything for therein is where we will all find knowledge. You know my Jesuit training. Be wary of everything because it is when we ponder and meditate that we can really see something as worthy to be part of our lives or just another crazy theory.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
Crazy Theories.
The world is flat.
Alchemy
Astrology
Numerology.
The Donald is Presidential

Conspiracy Theories
Elvis is still alive.
Area 51 was invaded by ETS and an autopsy was done on one of the crew.
We did not land on the moon. It was all put contrived on a movie set.
The real killers of JFK got away.
Jane Fonda is the empress of an evil empire…I believe that one

Life’s enigmas
What is life?
What is happiness?
Why do we have evil?
Are things inherently evil?
Is a fetus living being
What’s your theory?
Does Trickle Down Economics Work?