Process is the Punishment

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People frequently ask why bad things happen to good people. They think that good people deserve certain things and are taken aback that doing right doesn't bring justice or prosperity in many cases. Frequently, it brings ruin enough to dissuade certain among us from doing what is right or at least what is best for fear of what might happen. There is a simple answer to this age-old question: pests are not attracted to things that are already spoiled.

Things that have rusted or broken or rotted do not attract the forces that trend to those ends. It is things that are still functional and pure that are the targets of destructive entropic forces. Physics itself teaches us that everything small combines together in fusion and everything large breaks apart in fission until everything is lead. There must be another process of which we are as yet unaware, because lead is poison to everything except fictitious kryptonite!

Many of the people I meet who complain about why bad things happen to good people are amazed at my stance on the matter. I think they are simply looking at things with too short a wavelength. In their short-sightedness, they expect good karma or univeral powers or justice or goodness to rebound and redount when they think it ought to. The universe, however, frankly doesn't care what we think it ought to do. If life were about what men deserve, most people would have markedly different lives than the ones they lead, and if punishment or reward were immediate and quick and obvious, people would probably do what was best almost all the time. Where's the freedom in that?

Years ago, I was introduced to a book called, "The Process is the Punishment". In this fascinating book, the author considers the possibility that the process might actually be the punishment. Consistent with religious and philosophical principles in which I already believe, I begin to believe more and more that hell is on earth. In fact, I was once attacked by a dog in a city called Hell!

According to scripture, the devil has dominion over this world. He is its god. He is the great deceiver. He wants to bind us in the darkness. For many people, they suffer here so that they, as did Lazarus in the biblical tale, rest in Abraham's bosom at death. Some others 'enjoy' life here, which is actually hellish, because it robs them of their life, their wealth, their sensibilities, and everything that really matters. It might be part of the great mercy of God that when we come to judgment some of our punishment might already be programmed into the life we already led.

This world is an uncertain realm, filled with danger. Honor is underminded by the pursuit of power. Freedom is sacrificed when the weak are oppressed by the strong. However dark the day may be there are those who oppose these powerful forces, who dedicate their lives to truth, honor, and freedom. They take punishment now so that you may live in relative peace and prosperity, and One descended to live among them so that all might live in lasting happiness and peace. I encourage you to join them. Although the process might be the punishment, after the refiner's fire, the blade grows stronger, straighter, truer, and brighter, until the perfect day.

Casting the 2nd Stone

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We've all heard someone challenge us when we see someone do something wrong not to cast the first stone. Generally, that falls to someone who actually has the right to roast someone else because they've never done anything wrong. Of course, that means none of us should ever throw the first stone, because every one of us has sinned at least a little.

What of the second stone? What would that even mean? Does the second stone belong to people who wait for someone who is a moral authority to start throwing stones?

There is a danger in carrying stones period. Aside from the dangers we could do to ourselves and the extra baggage that weight forces us to carry around with us, if we constantly walk around carrying rocks, chances are we will throw them. Even when I was a small lad, we would throw grass. Fortunately, that doesn't hurt too much, unless you get it in your eye, which is why I stopped throwing grass at people although I still pick at it and throw it if I sit in a meadow or park.

Although Jesus never said anything about the second stone, the same rules I believe apply. It is not open season on someone even if Jesus casts a stone at him or her. Yet, I think I know many people who are poised and wait only for Jesus or someone who represents Him to toss that first stone so that they can let loose with a literal barrage of their own.

We do not know other people's circumstances. Many people are ignorant of a better way or lack the personal strength or external support to consistently choose correctly. Whereas I am sad when they choose to be less than that of which they are possibly capable, I do not condemn them. I praise them for their progress, remembering that even three steps forward and two steps backwards is still a little progress.

Leave the stones on the ground. If you do pick them up, use them to make markers along the trail for those who follow you.

Immigrants and Education

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While I'm writing my last post, a story gets posted to the news wire that College-educated immigrants outnumber the unskilled. My first reaction was "what are these people smoking?" Look at the map they provide, which I have reproduced here:

Notice that most of the immigrants in the south and southwest are unskilled. Immigration is important to this country, because we hope to attract the best and brightest from every country. Notice that skilled workers arrive at places where it's difficult to arrive without permission. It's hard to cross the Atlantic without detection, and they certainly won't be digging tunnels to get in. The problem has been and remains that out West, we end up with loads and loads of unskilled workers who do not integrate and do not respect the law because of that long and largely unprotected border with Mexico.


As usual, there is more to this story than the headline indicates. One of my favorite lines from the article is this:

The Fredericksburg resident said she has no regrets about the five additional years of study that allowed her to live and work as a doctor here.

These people paid the price. They didn't try to skirt the law. That is the immigrant attitude that we seek, honor, and welcome in America- the attitude that is willing to pay the price to reap the rewards. I also have to ask, how many of the illegal aliens, hiding in the shadows, are included in this report? I doubt very much they came out of hiding to be reported in a statistical study or that they are counted, much like the number of Americans who have stopped looking for work aren't counted in the unemployment figures.


In college, I took a statistics class. As part of our final, we had to present the results of a statistical survey conducted by our group during the semester. My instructor was impressed with our results, not because it taught him something that he didn't know, but rather because it gave him an opportunity to hammer into us something he felt important to stress. My results were that there was insufficient data to prove any correlation. Normally, students, and paid pollsters, are afraid perhaps to disappoint their patrons. Results like that don't usually get you repeat business. They are however, more than likely the rule. You can get the statistics to say whatever you like if you lie, cheat, obfuscate, or skew the polling data.


Even if the data collected is correct, there are things about which they chose not to speak. At least they gave us the figure, which shows, in the color red no less, that the problem is the border and not immigration itself.


“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'Tis dearness only that gives everything its value.” --Thomas Paine

Seal the Border

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Today, I saw this photo

of the US/Mexico border at Tijuana. Now, I'm no fan of the proximity and the shoddy mockery of a fence that runs along the highway in this picture, especially in so large and 'prosperous' a town as Tijuana.

Notice that there's quite a bit of vacant land on the other side of the border. For most of the stretch, this is true, and it leads to a very strong and clear possibility to fix things. American citizens understand law and order for the most part. Accordingly you tell them that there is a 100-200m dead zone before you reach the border and that anyone found within that area is subject to detainment without cause, warrant, or other protections and that use of deadly force is authorized.

This particular shot, taken from the movie "Coneheads" is a little extreme. However, it is rare, although it happens sometimes, that federal agents are allowed or able to return fire when they are set upon by miscreants and criminals. What good are the laws if the officers tasked with enforcing the laws are not given power to do their own jobs? Maybe you remember the CBP agents who went on trial for wounding but not killing a known Mexican drug smuggler. It took a presidential pardon to clear up that malversive management.

Many federal agencies are held responsible for standards they are not empowered to meet. The Border patrol cannot check papers or open fire. Educators are supposed to meet performance standards with their classes but cannot hold them accountable for homework. The IRS encourages us to file our taxes online and then warns that identity thieves are looking to steal our data from e-file.

If the DOE can buy shotguns to enforce against embezzlement of student loans, they can certainly arm the CBP. We have a right to defend ourselves against lawlessness, but apparently this administration only cares about the bill of rights if you're an illegal alien or a terrorist.

Points For Palin

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Although I am not a big fan of Palin per se, she's no worse than Obama on any of the things they argue, and at least what she says she endorses lines up better with what I think personally ought to be done in America. The recent scramble for who said what gaffe is illustrative of the duplicitous standard in the media and in the mind of the electorate.

Palin is not the first politician to misspeak, nor will she be the last. Forget that Revere accidentally did warn the British, having ridden up to a point at which some men on horseback took him prisoner. Any idiot who actually visits the markers in Concord National Historic Site can see the statue and read about that. They criticize Bachmann, Palin, and others, forgetting that Obama, Clinton, Biden, Reid, and a whole slieu of Democrats have done in kind.

A few examples for illustrative purposes:

Palin makes a gaff, and she's an idiot. Obama thinks there are 56 states, and he's brilliant.

Palin refuses reporters access to her bus tour and she's obscuring. Obama bans the media all the time, like every time he comes to Nevada.

Palin bows out of her gubernatorial term early and she's a quitter. Obama never finishes any elected office to which he's elected either.

Palin shops at Wal-mart and she's pandering. Obama tries to destroy Wal-mart, and he's praised for saving the economy.

Palin visits Ft McHenry, Boston, and a few related sites for Memorial Day; Obama goes golfing for the 70th time since his inauguration.

Palin doesn't strike me as the type that would wait a week or so to visit Joplin MO or who would be at home among the monarchs of Europe.

For my own part, I am grateful I visited the sites to which Palin coincidentally also happened to be visiting before she got there. I don't need the media circus or all the people her tour attracts. I don't care if she doesn't know everything. The only way you're ever going to find a politician who believes in concert with you about everything is to run for office yourself. Beware the knee-jerk reaction to regard one side as foppish due to incomplete reporting by the media about the other side. After all, it might not be newsworthy that Obama made a gaffe if he makes them all the time!

Happy D Day

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Since 2008, I have worked at the elections every time. Unlike some of the other temporary election workers, I report to different precincts every time and meet as a consequence a large array of different and interesting people. If I've told this story on my blog before, I apologize, but it's very appropriate for today.

On November election day 2008, I was assigned to a fire station in Henderson, NV. Towards the end of the day, an elderly couple came into the polling place. The wife was pushing her husband along in a wheelchair when they came up to me. At the time, I was tasked with assisting people who couldn't stand at the voting booth, and so I stepped up to the man. When I did, I noticed a specific military ribbon sewn into his hat, which bore the symbol of a specific US Army unit. I recognized them both and asked the man if he was involved in the assault on Normandy.

He had indeed. It was his first military engagement. He hit the beach in the third wave if I recall correctly, and fought his way through Europe over the next few years as an infantryman. I knelt, extended my hand, and thanked him for his service. He began to cry.

My supervisor immediately came flying over. It is of course not appropriate for poll workers to make voters cry. The man's wife explained what had happened enough to satiate her, but she shot me a stern look before returning to her post. The man proceeded to vote and then returned to speak with me briefly.

Over the course of my life, I have come to know personally several of the men involved in that. I have met a member of the 82nd Airborne, one of the bomber pilots who told me about some of their struggles, and this infantryman. My paternal grandfather served in the infantry in the pacific theater.

Too often, I think, we forget that the people who made that day happen were ordinary men. Most of them were younger then than I am now. Many of them died within hours of landing in France. Some of them left widows and children behind them.

We remember the Maine, the Alamo, and Normandy for a simple reason. They remind us to think what offering we are willing to sacrifice on the altar of freedom to vouchsafe our liberties. They remind us that some few laid the costliest sacrifice on the altar of freedom.

The previous weekend, we observed Memorial Day. I went to Valley Forge, Ft. Mifflin, Ft. McHenry, and Ellis Island to remember the sacrifices. I don't know that a lot of men are buried at those sites per se or that we know precisely where, but I thought of the thousands of men who had enough courage to do their duty.

No larger invasion force has ever been assembled and deployed. It was an incredible gamble of machines and men. To their memory, courtesy of the History Channel:

Why Fresh Air Isn't

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Government agencies, corporations, and environmental groups continually tout how clean and pristine the environment is. Most of my students know that clean water is anything but clean thanks to our microscopy exercises in lab. I frequently gross them out either because I am able to show them things they'd rather not see or tell them stories of things I have seen in other classes. Until now, I haven't broached the subject of the air.

What we call fresh air really isn't that clean. The atmosphere is actually full of waste exuded from both the earth and all the life forms that live thereon. Each time you anally or orally discharge, you release waste gases either from our own metabolism or as metabolic byproducts of organisms living inside you, symbiotic or pathogenic. That mulch pile out back is a cesspool of toxic gases. Even plants belch millions of liters of toxic gases into the air. It's not just us or our industrial activities. Fissures in the rock and volcanic tubes are the sights at which toxic fumes escape from lower rock strata into the air around us.

The bright side of this is perspective. Fortunately for us, we are beneficients of physiological discongruities and other organisms in the air that save us from suffocation and death. What is a waste for one organism is necessary for life of another. We trade carbon dioxide waste for oxygen waste from plants, and certain strains of bacteria and other fauna convert nitrogenous, sulfurous, and carbon wastes into things that are mostly harmless.

Still, I argue with the premise that the environment is 'clean and pristine'. Even in the highest lakes to which I have hiked, we have taken water purification mechanisms to prevent giardia, amoeba, bacilli, or other organochemical toxins from hurting us in the wilderness. Like JRR Tolkien reminds us, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." You never know what dangers lurk unseen.

If you appreciate 'clean' water and air, thank plants. They do far more for us than government ever could.

We Can't Win, Let's Surrender!

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I spent the last week traveling from Valley Forge PA to Ft. McHenry VA. On day 1 I started at a place where it was unsure whether the American movement for independence would survive to where it was made evident that we could thrive. Imagine then my frustration and surprise to read today that powerful UN officials, law enforcement gurus, et al., think we should surrender in the war on drugs because it hasn't stopped drug use. What kind of a world would we have if others adopted that attitude?

Things have frequently looked bleak for the side that eventually prevailed. At Valley Forge, Washington was worried. At the Battle of Britain, Churchhill had to buoy up the British people to take courage. Until Eugen of Savoy stopped the Mongols at Moedling, Austria, it wasn't evident whether the Mongols could be stopped. You find out the strength of the Wehrmacht by resisting it, not by capitulating when it approaches.

In Otto Carius' memoir "Tigers in the Mud", he talks about German tenacity. People asked him why the Germans fought so hard against the Russian push into Germany. He wrote that it was to protect as many of their people from the Russians as possible in hopes that the other Allies would take as much of Germany as possible. They threw everything they had against a menace in order to trade it for a nuisance.

People who surrender things they do not feel they can do run the risk of doing nothing whatsoever. A chinese proverb states that he who thinks something cannot be done should not interrupt the one doing it. Everyone once thought it impossible to circumnavigate the globe, stop Napoleon's inexorible march, and break the sound barrier. Analysts also thought gold would peak at $1000/oz. Since the dark ages, men have done many things once thought impossible.

They did not achieve by listening to those who preached surrender. They won because they were disciplined. As for myself, I will fight against what is unacceptable to me until I have no other choice. I have to live with myself 24/7, and if I compromise on myself, then I am the only one to blame.

Many of the men I admire are people who stood for what was right. You don't ever get what you hope to achieve by giving up. Sometimes, you have to change your strategy and outflank your opponent, but if you give up, you can never win.

Wars require that the people who start them define achievable objectives and a means to measure progress. In normal wars, that's easily done by measuring changes in the front line. So maybe it hasn't stopped drug use completely, but what has it done? Also, if your objective is to end something wicked for all time, that displays a fundamental misconception of human nature. These kind of people expect of humans something that is completely foreign to them.

If you really aim to change what happens to, with, and among humans, you start by affecting human nature. The war on drugs is really nothing more than people swatting at the mold growing on the leaves growing on the tree of evil. A winning strategy goes after the root, where we find all the strength of the problem. In this, they are correct- they cannot win by swatting at the leaves of evil, and it's best to surrender that strategy.

We can win. Give us the right objectives, tactics, and equipment, and let us raise up the next generation when it is young in the way it ought to live. Hold people accountable. When they know we will follow up, they will follow through.

Ellis Island Experience

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As part of my back east trip over Memorial Day, a friend and I made our way to Liberty Park, Ellis Island, and the statue from France. Although the prior day might have been an easier day to visit the islands based on reports, I think we chose the perfect day to appropriately experience these islands as they ought to be. Before I get on with the particulars of why, allow me to explain some things. Although they demanded photo ID, it was never requested, and it would have been nice to know how long the wait actually might be since the line was deceptively short, as it wound its way down the south side of the building out of sight of the entrance. It might have been nice to know that if you order online you can skip ahead in the line.

You begin your visitation of the islands in reverse to that order in which the 12 million immigrants who passed these shores so did. As you first enter the complex, you walk along the tracks, now almost retaken by the forest, where immigrants faced their final farewells and made way into an undiscovered country. It represents the third degree of separation. They began by leaving all they knew behind in their home countries, the people, the customs, and the neighbors. Along the journey, they made new friends and lost others who were dear on the month-long sea voyage. After Ellis, they parted ways with these as well to head to different parts of the Americas, and it is here that we came together with strange neighbors as they might at the time.

No sooner than we set foot on Ellis Island than we felt strange. At first it was a mixture of relief and sadness at the same time as we became aware of feelings not our own or part of the exhibits themselves. In one room, I felt dizzy and nauseated and had to leave. We felt as if the building were swaying, as if at anchor, but everyone else seemed quite unaffected by it. I can only imagine how much worse the feeling might have been in the buildings opposite, where the sick and dying were quarantined. Oddly juxtaposed to this, there were children playing ball and snack vendors, most of the tourists quite unaware of any emotions beyond their own, forgive the word, morbid curiosity at the exhibits. Then, like the migrants did, we saw the Statue only from the ship before we made our way south to Baltimore.

Ellis Island is a solemn place. Although the people who came through here came to America for better prospects, it was not a place of happiness and jubilance. It was a bureaucratic nightmare. The red tape made them wait in lines, speak to strangers, and nervous for their futures. Would they be allowed entry? Would they still have their luggage? If you look at the exhibits, some of the pictures taken when the facility was first procured to make a monument represent a more honest truth than the clean and washed halls that a visitor actually sees. Ellis Island threatened to hold them back from their hopes and dreams with New York and all of America beyond in their sights.

The only thing stronger than duct tape is Red Tape. The Red Tape of the experience helps guarantee that you can have an authentic Ellis Island Experience if you so choose. I am not sure that most of the children and students or the proud locals who know how to game the system get the reality of this place, but I am grateful I went when mature enough to feel what it might have been like for those people. Some of my ancestors are among them.

Disturbed at Ft. Mifflin

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Many people are disturbed at Fort Mifflin. To be quite honest, I'm surprised the Philadelphia Airport Authority isn't, given its close proximity to the end of the runway. It's kind of an eerily silent place, a lone historical landmark that attests to a different time and era in American life.

What is Fort Mifflin? In 1771, at the insistence of some, including Benjamin Franklin, that Philadelphia needed protection from pirates, smugglers, and aggression, an artillery emplacement was built on Mud Island. Sort of, anyway. By 1776, the British had pushed Washington's ragtag army out of New York City, New Jersey, and up towards Philadelphia. Washington placed 400 men inside the fortifications tasked with holding up the British long enough so he could go to winter encampment.

The British Navy shelled the fort for days. Eventually, what was left of the defenders, perhaps half, fled the fort. However, they had managed to hold up Howe's advance long enough that he decided to winter in Philadelphia, allowing Washington the desperately needed respite. Sort of. Washington went to Valley Forge, which is another disturbing sight altogether as well as a solemn testimony to tenacity under fire. Ironically, as I crossed the parade ground, a British Airways plane flew overhead.

Mud Island Battery, as it was originally designated, was renamed Fort Mifflin in honor of General Thomas Mifflin whose brigade maintained appearances in Brooklyn while Washington withdrew.

As to why Mifflin disturbed me, well, that's a personal matter. Before leaving the fort, as we were there close to closing time, I explored some of the casemates and the bastion just to one side of the main sally port. After that, I stepped briefly into the kitchen/mess hall, looked immediately to my left and saw an American flag crumpled in a ball and dumped unceremoniously in a dirty windowsill. I was appalled. Just a few days before Memorial Day, this was no way to treat an American flag even if Mifflin was taken in the siege.

Mifflin saved America long enough for Washington to make his escape. Unlike McHenry, there was no capitulation by the British or anthem written by captives offshore. However, this fortification is the longest serving and oldest surviving star fortification in the contiguous united states, having only been abandoned in the 1950s.

Not much of the Fort's original structure remains. What does remain is a feeling, a feeling that I stood on holy ground, made pure when washed with the blood of patriots and tyrants. There was no media circus, no fanfare, and no slieu of tourists. Even a certain prominent member of the GOP didn't pay it a visit. Just a few solitary souls wandered its parapets and a few sweaty sentinels managed it from the safety of shaded offices.