It is a glimpse. Brief but I can make out the form of a failing and dying predator laboring to strike out if not out of need then habit. Its unseen stare drills into me with a loathing that I can only call personal. And for all the years when I looked away afraid to say yes you do exist, its hatred of me grew. Now that I cannot can no longer avert my eyes, it considers me. It breathes when I do and when I look in the mirror I know that I am looking into its eyes. I know it is me.

I never imagined that I would be the lie. I was always afraid of what may be outside of my view but I never considered that I was the one to be feared. Is my life filled with love and family a deception? Am I really just this monster trapped away waiting for the moment to strike and remind everyone how insignificant their lives are when the veil separating us is lifted?

… that when we launch the first manned mission to mars that we play Space Truckin by Deep Purple. Dim the cockpit and slowly seep in purple ambient light. When the boosters light – hit play and as humans rise to the pinnacle of human accomplishment – rising higher from note to note to the bridge – we all would have a collective near climax that as the boosters pop off and the ship leaves the atmosphere – we all can look at each other and know that our species has risen to point unimaginable and hope is endless. And maybe cuddle and have a smoke.

Deep Purple – ahead of their time.

The frustrating thing about the recession aside from the great emotional pain it causes individuals and their communities is that it is clear what should be done about it. There is a growing consensus in Europe and with the US Fed that we need to raise revenue and constrain spending to fewer priorities – that it is a structural problem with the US ledger.

Tax the institutions and individuals that have the money and reduce military spending by minimally ending action in Afghanistan and Iraq and looking at strategies like means testing for medicare and medicaid. GDP will grow and deficits will decrease and eventfully debt will follow when the checkbook is balanced. Certainty will calm the markets but also allow the system that is the US civil society to feed the core markets which fuel growth.

There is no panacea or spontaneous moment of growth that is going to fix the economy. It may happen but those are unexpected events that define an era and relying upon them as a hypothetical something is very very close to being a fantasy. It will be the civil institutions that will secure the system that will allow growth to occur.

Other factors do impact the economy like the artificial devaluation of the Yuan which slows the recovery but within the government’s control is the political recognition that the income divide has increased to the point where the burden that has historically been placed on the middle class is now better directed at the wealthy. And the further income disparity widens then the further it will hurt the consumer and financial services which are the core of this economy. 400 wealthy families that have 1/2 of all wealth simply do not have same positive impact on growth than the other 300 million that share the other 1/2.

If the economy is a river than the wealth divide is a dam. Money needs to flow or the markets do not work. The logic that the wealthy, either as corporations or individuals, contribute back to society as whole is clearly not and has not happened for 20 years. Money goes to institutions and individuals and either stays there or leaves the country. What is ironic is that the growth in the middle class that made American the preeminent power is now happening in China with US dollars.

Taxes are not the only solution but they begin to fix a system that is not only unfair and unbalanced but also damaging in the long-term. It is in America’s national interest to secure its checkbook while it remains the most powerful and wealthiest nation on Earth – it needs to do what is in its own best interest.

I caught the middle of a NPR Fresh Air interview where they were talking about demons and I continued to listen as the discussion delved further into a conversation about territorial spirits and I thought …. “oh it must be a christian children’s author.”

Imagine my surprise when I discovered this was a serious conversation…

New Apostolic Reformation on NPR

“When you talk about demons over cities, we’re talking about what — sometimes what we refer to as territorial spirits, and they’re more high-ranking spirits in the hierarchy of darkness and they’re more powerful and they require different approaches, and it’s not as easy as commanding them to leave in the name of Jesus. So sometimes there has to be repentance, sometimes there has to be — there has been bloodshed in that city that needs to be repented of, there has been idolatry in the city that has ruined the land. There’s been immorality that needs to be repented of, and there are several social things that people really need to acknowledge that they’re bad and repent of them and ask forgiveness. … There are certain individuals in our whole movement that have special gifts for doing that, and they’re helping lead the way in weakening the power of the spirits. We don’t believe we can kill demons and sometimes we don’t believe we can completely get ‘em out, get ‘em away from a city, but we can reduce their power. We can bind them, and then we can move strongly with the kingdom of God into the city.”

… for when you label someone else for doing what you do?

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0911/Ryan_Buffett_Rule_class_warfare.html

That’s right – Hypocrite.

If it were not so malicious and offensive then it would not even deserve mention but when you offer a plan that effectively destroys the social safety net and disguises social engineering as financial reform then I think it is fair. Frankly, I am shocked that his own party does not hold him more accountable and actually deliver a budget proposal that is a budget proposal and not some point by point social contract or more accurately “class warfare.”

8/13/2011 – Soldier Field at half-time