The World's Greatest Challenge is that of Changing Decades Old Habits of Energy Use

We are all user's of energy and we have fixed habits in the way we use energy. This is our greatest challenge, our natural reluctance to alter the amounts and ways we use energy. We have not even accepted yet that we need to change our energy habits. Many newly elected governments are not yet pulling their weight as regards telling the truth to their electorate. Statesmen, like Stephan Dion of Canada, who tried to tell the Canadian people as it is, can be laughed out of a serious role in political circles where they could be extremely value because they see the very real need to alter our habits even if it is costly. We cannot avoid the costs and we need to educate people that these costs are coming down the track, and if we don't the costs will make our present recession seem like a vacation, a play day.

Europe took many decades to set its habits in a somewhat energy saving mode, but North America is decades behind and still unwilling to see the facts staring at them. The very real facts that their economies need to move in very different energy producing and consuming directions. Instead we have insincere people leading what has become a multi-ring circus of dishonest game playing about energy. There is such a lack of consensus in North America about what to do and how to go about it.

Stop Your Negative Thinking Now

A consequence of the stresses on the world financial and economic systems that we see all around us is the rise of negative thinking. What many don't realize is that the financial patterns that we are presently seeing have been evident for some long time. They are not something negative, but a new pattern that is positive. The earlier pattern of inflation of excessive spending and spiralling house prices was actually the negative pattern. That is now ended in the US and thank goodness for that! Talk about living in a dreamworld!

The collapse of that pattern and its replacement with a process of necessary correction is a positive thing and will help the younger generation realize that things do not come as easily as they have been led to believe. This reassertion of the real values of our universe, is a wonderful expression of its ultimate vitality. What we were seeing was market-led injustice. What we are now seeing is a necessary realignment of values.

The fact that America watched Asia have its crisis in 1997 and did little to change its own ways are an important lesson for all of us. The Asian crisis was in reality an American led dollar crisis, and we can now all see that. That is a very positive step to Americans realizing that they are not the creme de la creme, but a part of the whole, and a declining part of that whole. Now as we watch other peoples realign, we will see more clearly the mistakes of the Bush administration, the lack of understanding by Bill Clinton of the economics of his success.

We see more clearly that all sides were most definitely wrong, and we see that it is now necessary to keep inflation of all kinds down otherwise we risk a rise of the second stage of depression which is anger and intolerance. I myself, sleep much more soundly now that the crisis is over for the crisis was what went on before and not what is going on now. Sure the world is in pain, but it could be in so much more pain down the road, should the old patterns of profligate spending not been arrested.

Now is the time to embrace the message that Obama is stating, and that is one of social justice. This does not mean that Obama got the pattern right. He most definitely did not as the McCain people so clearly show. No one in America has the right now to point the finger. All were within a destructive process that leadership at the FED failed to recognize and act upon.

We are suffered from a lack of direction on the part of the US monetary authorities, who go it wrong and should have known better! Lets hope they can end this scourge of inflation while we invest in a new energy paradigm that is self sustainable and based on what flows from the sun rather than what happens to come from the ground, or from inside the molecule.

The Pain of the Straight Line

Those who know me will understand when I say that the anathema of modern civilization is its obsession with the straight line. For me, the straight line is associated with the rise of Roman thinking, an obsession with directness and a failing to understand other forms of line.

As the straight line was absorbed into the world as a dominant form with the suppression of other forms, civilization began the road down to evisceration and self destruction. For me the straight line is so closely attached to death that it is synonymous with dying and self elimination.

We are impoverished by the dominance of the straight line and when ever we add curves we are enriched. Why is that? Why do so much of us live linear lives? Why are so many of us impoverished by the straight line. You may not know what I mean, but then you are on the straight line of your life and if you remain on it you are approaching, well whatever! Put a mirror in front of yourself and ask whether you see any straight lines. Your life is based on nature making curves, so why are you so obsessed with the straight line.

Why is the Roman logic of linearity captivating your soul. Consider, is the straight line evil, or painful, or dangerous, of hurtful? I ask you to add a curve or two and to start to live more universally. Get off the straight road and breath life. See the other patterns out there. Forget the straight lines and see the beauty of the curve. Allow yourself to be inspired by the charm of indirectness, captivated by the novelty that is contained in curves. Be yourself as you can be. Live your life more eternally. Don't die on the straight line.

My Auntie is One Hundred Years Old

As of October 15, 2008, I have it on good information that my English auntie is one hundred years old. Time to celebrate! Good luck and congratulations, Auntie Stella!

The Challenge of Economic Adjustment and What to Expect

For a simplistic explanation read my comment!

Explanations of the present worldwide financial crisis are not so clear as to the adjustment process. Was has happened is the United States and many other countries have over invested in their respective domestic housing markets. This was made possible by lax lending practices which did not adequately take into account what borrowers could afford throughout their borrowing period.

Obviously, to make the financial equations balance either peoples' incomes have to rise, or they have to pay out so much of their current incomes for their mortgages that they can afford little else, or they have to receive further loans at concessional rates, or they have to rent out part of their homes, or they have to sell their homes.

To mitigate the overall problems, governments have decided that they will help out by making available more money at concessional rates so that more people can hang on to their homes. What happens in reality is that people try to make ends meet by getting better paying jobs, by getting second jobs, by working longer hours, by divorcing and selling their homes, by declaring bankruptcy, etc.

In some communities, banks have allowed people to remain in their homes but become shareholders. This seems like a reasonably good solution since the debt of the bank is no longer a purely bad debt, but an asset of lower yield, i.e. lower profit. The problem is that the banks have sold on their loans to other entities who are not in a position to dictate the terms of shareholding in the housing market. Indeed in buying the 'housing' paper, speculative buyers, which means banks wishing to convey at the time to others they were in the 'profitable' housing market, leveraged themselves into a crisis. But, what if the original lenders were required to buy back all their housing loans that did not perform! At least then there would be some accountability.

The impact of over-investment in the housing market, which is a long term market, is probably over investment in almost every other market, especially the longer term markets, such as vehicles and all what fills new houses, such as furniture. What this means is that the value or prices of the product of these over invested markets will decline. Those that have over invested will probably under invest as a precautionary rule. This means that the recovery out of this period of over investment could take a very considerable period.

Meanwhile governments will try by various means to soften the impact of recession. If they soften too much people will continue to over invest and a correction to sustainable investment will not happen. That is the problem of low interest rates and easy money. It encourages over investment and pushes against correction to sustainable spending and investment.

Perhaps, if governments focused on redirecting the economies towards CO2 saving industries where there is now under investment, we might just be spared the repeat of over investment.

My Political Leadership Wish List

If the last few weeks of turmoil and bubble bursting have taught us anything, it is that economic, financial and political policies of communities and governments do matter. The failings of the leadership of Blaire, Brown, Harper and Bush are now very apparent. The most obvious fact is that they need to seriously re-read the histories of their own countries to understand what they did wrong. Perhaps, they should also take courses in ethics. This is so they don't embarass us when they write their memoires.

I don't think they should write autobiographies or memoires until they really understand how serious their failings were for the three countries they led or continue to lead. They should pay particular attention to the interwar period and try to understand the way things work in desperate societies and why they now have contributed or continue to contribute to the creation of a world environment that is poised for religious, social and then nationalistic warfare. In my view, they do not understand the sources/causes of war. This is why they really need to go back to school so that they can see the extensive damage that they have done.

Of the present candidates for leadership of the free world my present preference is for Dion (Canada), Obama (USA) and Cameron (UK). What strikes me about these candidates is their honesty, sobriety and genuine ethical approach. What worries and worried me most about the Blaire, Brown, Bush and Turner leaderships was their dishonesty. It seems/seemed as if they are/were caught up in a world that they do/did not really understand.

I am particularly distraught about the contradiction inherent in the right wing religious community of USA, which espouses the minimalization of government while promoting ideologies that promote the intrusion of government into everyday life and freedom of choice. They say governments should be reduced, but want governments to expand and then behave as though they are religious communities at war furthering obvious religious goals, such as have to do with reducing the influence and freedom of genuine scientific research while supporting rearmament, disengagement, warfare, prohibitions and ever more dangerous weaponry. By preventing the normal evolution of positive and open value development, they foster an ever more dangerous hidden criminality of mentality. Though they don't bless it, they undoubtedly do lead to its increased likelihood. By supporting gun ownership, they increase the role of government in defending people's rights and a growth of governments and related agencies focused on security and control. They see people being shot in the streets with guns that people should not own. They don't mind gun ownership and they let the fear mentality of gun ownership to dominate the mores of American society. In effect, they bring the old west mentality into an otherwise ethical modern society where it can do serious damage.

Starbucks Coffee Shop - Blueberry Bar

Since I don't eat wheat, it was a shock for me to see Starbucks in Ontario selling donuts with their coffee. It seems that Canadians cannot get away from their favourite food fifth column.




If you don't think that donuts are bad for you, perhaps you are a bit of a carb addict yourself. In any event, I enjoy the Starbucks blueberry bar, and when I don't see it on display, I do ask for it and have not been disappointed in Ontario, yet! So far, I have not detected any digestive problems associates with any wheat lurking within the bars. I do believe that blueberries are cancer fighters, and that oats are good for your heart. The coffee contains caffiene, which helps keep me alert, but I think it dries me out a bit, so I also like a glass of cranberry juice with my meals.

A Personal Review of Tim Horton's Coffee and Donut Shops

This morning, I tried very hard to find something at Tim Hortons that I could enjoy because it would not make me either sick or uncomfortable. Most of the products at Hortons make me ill because my body cannot tolerate the wheat that seems to be in everything they sell! I think all this wheat in the form of white stuff is bad for one's health.

My choice was coffee with two milk and one sugar, plus a side of hash brown potatoe. I find the coffee at Hortons fairly acidic so the double milk was intended to offset that. I was risking wheat being with the potatoe, but thought it might be worth the risk.

Everything went sour when I noticed the 'chef' touching my hash browns with her fingers. I did not order germs, so was a bit put out. The coffee was tolerable and it really did give me an energy rush for my bike ride. I left the hash browns because its not a good idea to eat food that others have touched with their fingers.

By all means have your coffee break, but I would do a cycle around Tim Hortons to a place where the coffee is better tasting, has more aroma, and seems fuller. As for the finger work. Who asked for that!


Incidently, I tend to prefer Starbucks coffee, which is better from filler, taste and aroma aspects, and I find less acidic. The oceans have too much acid so why do I need it also (a stupid non-sequitor!).