Life

You cannot die until you can fight. You cannot fight until you can live. You cannot live until you can love. You cannot love until you can accept. You cannot accept until you understand. You cannot understand until you suffer without fear, and enjoy without expectation. You can forsake neither fear nor expectation until you judge, not your mortality, but your mind, even your soul as sovereign over your entire being. Likewise with suffering and enjoyment, you must judge that every individual has the same power to judge for their own selves; for every action, there is a re-action, and without consequences, there is no judgment, no sovereignty, no life and no peace.

You cannot live until you accept death. All who die shall rise again in immortality and eternal glory, and the power of the grave shall lose its hold upon the children of men. This is the only way to salvation and everlasting happiness.

Ayn Rand, Anthem, and the word "I"

Her philosophy resonates with me, a physicist, an Elder, an engineer, and a philosopher. I always knew that something was missing until I studied Athem, and realized that Russia had not even approach the highest crimes: knowing and hating nature. I recently heard a popular song with the chorus, "I hate myself for losing you." I made the connection primarily because of the use of the words, "miserable," "I," and "mirror." Athem speaks of Unity... looking at his own reflection and admiring his own face, but this singer looks at her own face's reflection and despises it in misery. So I realized, that the much greater crime is not to avoid the word, "I," as was the theme of Athem, but to know it and hate it with that knowledge. In order to hate oneself, one must say the word "I." Without this step, the next greatest crime is not possible, hating others. With this crime, people use force to effect their agendas upon others, even to their mutual destruction. Finally the greatest crime of all is to hate nature herself .. to know nature and to hate it, even to wish to change her judgments at will .. walking off a cliff and hating the gravity which pulls the body to the ground while desiring that gravity were no more. In a word, "fantasy" is the love of the unreal, which places man against nature herself in a futile rebellion to his own destruction.Thus, knowing and loving the word "I" is only the beginning of the journey, but absolutely essential to the progression in learning and loving others enough to allow them to love themselves as you do. First "Love the Lord thy God as Thyself," and then "Love Thy Neighbor EVEN AS thyself" or I said much better, "Love Thy Neighbors equally to the end that they may love themselves EVEN AS thou lovest thyself" that all may act according to the natures of each. And such love continues to nature, that thou lovest her as she is, desiring nothing contrary to her nature. I believe that the end of the journey is to fully know and love the natures of self, others, and nature. My greatest thanks to Ayn Rand for providing me the tools to better see good and evil in their most basic forms.

Andy Landen
Houston, TX
(832) 477-8327 [cell]
"To\nrest one's case on faith means to concede that reason is on the side of\none's enemies- that one has no rational arguments to offer." - Ayn Rand

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." - Elbert Hubbard

"To rest one's case on faith means to concede that reason is on the side of one's enemies- that one has no rational arguments to offer." - Ayn Rand

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."- Elbert Hubbard

Growing gap between the rich and the poor

I do NOT know if the saying is true that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, but I do know that if it is true then it is founded in two pivotal economic principles: Bad debt/investment, and bad budget.

Bad debt includes credit cards (their APR is usually much higher than most investments, even for those with flawless credit). Bad investments include items which either inherently depreciates quickly or which presents too great a risk of doing so for the investor; the automobile being an excellent example of an item which inherently depreciates very quickly. Debt and investment are opposite sides of the same coin (no pun intended). Every debt incurred is an investment, credit card debt typically tending towards unsound investments.

A bad budget simply involves spending more than one earns, or accepting too great of a risk that the earnings may be too little and/or that the financial obligations may be too great. For example, a job in sales offers a variable income which may not meet the expenditures for the current lifestyle, which would need to change as often as the income, in order to match it. A leveraged investment (as is common the commodities market) can easily acquire losses which exceed the income over the time period covered by the existing resources/collateral. A problematic vehicle may require far more maintenance costs than may be supported by the given income. Maxing out credit cards or obtaining large mortgage obligations may bring interest charges which force expenditures beyond the strength of the income to bear them.

Evolution now harms mankind

Successful, intelligent, creative individuals seem to prefer much smaller families (0-2 children per family), while poor, superstitious, confused individuals seem to propagate without reserve either with an abundance of out-of-wedlock children, or 5-10 children per family). Evolution favors those who reproduce more viable children, and education and wealth seem to side against evolution, so the genes which will prevail in our species will not be the intelligent, skilled, successful ones, but the opposite, struggling under adverse conditions. Thus evolution brought the potential for extraordinary power to mankind, but the realization of these powers seems to have intrinsically predisposed our genes to disappear in the presence of the reproductively more dominant

Connection with nature through the heavens

The most powerful connection with nature is in seeing a full night sky of stars, but large cities create so much light pollution that residents are lucky to see only a few stars and only if they are really looking for them. Disconnected from nature on a daily basis, they manage daily with terrestial pleasantries while forgetting the celestial wonders. Restoration of the night sky is not that difficult with sky caps, which greatly increase security by also minimizing terrestial shadows. Here is an overview: http://www.dancaton.physics.appstate.edu/NCDarkSkies/AASstuff/AAS-2002.PPT

Improving the transportation network

Government is missing the mark in America for improving the transportation network on both the long-distance and local scales. In the local area, commuting solutions are required with a reformed network of express busses and vans. Patrons register pick-up and drop-off locations so that the vans know where to go on a in-vehicle GPS map. The vans pick-up the commuter upon receiving the requesting call (without delay) and transport him/her while picking up others on the way to an express hub. The express hubs have busses leaving on the hour and the half hour to other express hubs throughout the city with no stops in between. This is meant to hop commuters over large commuting distances (of at least 5 miles) and thus remove cars from the roadways during rush hour

The long-distance network invites the use of high-speed trains between major cities. It increases the country's interconnectivity. Patrons drive their cars or commercial trucks (with noncombustable materials) onto an electric or fuel cell (no burning of hydrocarbons in tunnels) train. Vehicles are secured and passengers ride in the train's passenger cars. The train enters an underground tunnel slightly larger than the train's outer hull and propels itself with air (pressure) to great speeds on tracks using suspension dampened wheel on all sides of the tunnel for guidance. Each set of tracks guides the train from jumping the tracks and the walls of the tunnel act as re-inforced guiding. Obviously an extensive network of air masks and fire suppressors must guard against sabatoge by combustion or other air problems. The issue of safety of non-passengers with respect to air flow at the tunnel entrances probably requires fences, large openings, camera surveillance, and armored shielding on the front of the train. Building safe tunnels is expensive, and the cost has not been evaluated, but it seems the best way to protect against derailment issues, unintended train collisions, and crosswind. Windows would be sealed closed, of course. The tunnel would be straight as possible for minimal stress on train and tracks.

Oscar Wilde

My thoughts on Oscar Wilde:
His quotes are to me like the tinkering of bells, making much noise about every passing wind, but hollow in reason, evidence, and inspiration. The voice of warning is useless when the terrain is not well-lit.His life only exemplifies to me a man angry at society's ills, but ignorant on the proper course of action. Like an animal, upon seeing one trap in front, backs into two traps to the rear and falls victim to a worse fate, so is the life and tragedy of this man, Oscar Wilde.

It is by the life of a man that his philosophies are best judged, for if his reasoning is sound then so will be his life, but if not, then his life will fail, as an example to all who would follow afterward.
“A sarcastic person has a superiority complex that can be cured only by the honesty of humility.” Lawrence G. Lovasik
"Neither irony or sarcasm is argument." Samuel Butler, Rufus Choate
"A sneer is the weapon of the weak." James Russell Lowell
"Edged tools are dangerous things to handle, and not infrequently do much hurt. " Agnes Repplier
“What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.” Don Williams, Jr.

For those who would censor these thoughts or others, I say that it is better to learn wisdom than to complain about ideas that needlessly bother you. I hear your censorship, and freely and openly refuse you.
"Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real. Somewhere in their upbringing they were shielded against the total facts of our experience. They were only taught to look one way when many ways exist."Charles Bukowski
"The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."Oscar Wilde"Fear of ideas makes us impotent and ineffective."William O. Douglas
"All despotisms should be considered problems of mental hygiene, and all support of censorship should be considered as problems of abnormal psychology."Theodore Schroeder
"All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions."George Bernard Shaw

Police imposters

Message from Andrea, wife of a policeman. Yahoo Answers screen name: Nationalist

Any type of impersonation is a pathological crime. The most common scenerio involving police impersonation are men who abduct & rape women broken down on deserted roads. Most of the imposters do this for reasons of masculine inadequacy. Both putting on the uniform & the act of rape supplement their lack of virile feeling & they typically form a pathologic attachment to fantasies of being powerful. Police wannabes are usually too obsessed to obtain police jobs according to criminologists & psychiatrists who have studied & treated imposters.

Also important to note is that the largest percentage of these crimes are on stretches of deserted highway. While it may seem a smart or easy crime it infact is very hard. Police officers personally know every officer they work with. Upon sight of someone dressed as an officer they would issue an arrest, as that is a crime itself. If one is using impersonation as a means to commit other crimes it quadruples their change of incarceration. They also must have thousands of dollars worth of equipment to even vaguely pass as an officer including a city or county marked vehicle. Even harder yet would be to dupe the victim into believing they are a cop. Police have a certain demeanor & though you may not think you know how a cop acts, you would notice how one doesn't.Officers are squeamish on the subject due to the pathological & personal nature. It's creepy and they also may wonder your motives for asking.

Hope this helps!
Andrea

Gaining speed for a car collision

It is said that if a (non-frontal) collision with another car appears imminent and unavoidable, then the wisest course of action is to "put the petal to the metal" for maximum speed. The myth mostly concerns collisions at intersections typically at angles of 90 degrees.

The idea is that while the increased speed does in fact cause more damage, it also increases your inertia (resistance to a change in velocity) and thus yields the smallest accelerations and decelerations from an impact with a car of a constant mass and velocity. As we all know, survivability is a strong factor of acceleration/deceleration.

Would you test this myth to determine if faster collision speeds in non-frontal collisions with automobiles are actually safer for those in the faster car? It is obviously more dangerous for those people in the slower car, but then again, the myth only concerns the safety of the occupants of the primary vehicle.

Momentum (p = m*v) is a function of velocity too, but faster speeds may not mean more collisions, because the path will be less prone to deflection. The scenario of most interest is that you are traveling through an intersection and you see a car coming at you from the side (perhaps running a red light) like from a side street at an intersection (seemingly out of nowhere).

This happened to me once when a car (facing me and in the intersection) made a left turn on my green and hit the driver's door. Stopped him cold and spun his car 90 degrees counter-clockwise, but my car (about 45 mph) hardly deflected at all and I retained complete control as I braked to a full stop. I think that this myth might be true. In general, the fast you are going the better it is for you.

BTW, on the damage from the kinetic energy, your car will absorb the damage and spread it out over a larger area with higher speeds. Additionally, with more momentum, there is less deceleration, thus the faster vehicle incurs a smaller change in velocity. It thus absorbs less kinetic energy damage than it might otherwise be expected to absorb in any given high speed collision (assuming no collisions with immovable objects or flights off of very high cliffs, etc.).

Minimizing water absorption while traveling in the rain

I just did some very simple physics calculations (at the end of this message) and it appears that the simple movement of the bodies clearly yields let's water absorption with increased horizontal velocity. I believe that your results and "busting" of this myth are explained by 1) puddle splashing, 2) large lateral motions of arms, legs and head, and 3) the curving of the body w.r.t. the vertical.

1) Splashing water brings fallen water up onto the bottoms of the clothing,
2) Large lateral motions introduces a big surface area for catching more water.
3) A bent head and curved/slanted body greatly increases the area for the rain to fall on without substantial decreasing the forward surface area of the body.

My equations show that for speeds slower than the terminal velocity of water, the area on top should be minimized with the smallest vertical profile, while speeds in excess of this yield less water absorption as the body is tilted to increase the top surface area and thus minimize the frontal surface area.

This myth is not busted, and should be repeated with these three points addressed. I suggest that you conduct the run portion by:
1) Minimizing/eliminating the splashing, 2) Minimizing the movement of arms, head, and legs (range walk as they say in the Army, or in other words a very fast walk lacking the wild characteristics of running), and 3) Keeping the body straight vertically. I personally run through the rain with a mind to minimize splashes, minimize exposing extra surface area, and keeping my body fairly vertical.

The equations are as follows:

Q = rho * v, rho is the water density in air (constant), Q is the rate of absorption per unit of surface area, v is velocity

t = D / vx, t is the time for the trip, D is the fixed distance of the route, vx is the velocity of the subject in the direction of travel

m = Qy*Ay*t + Qx*Ax*t, m is the total mass absorbed, x and y subscripts refer to the directions of horizontal and vertical, respectively. The first term is the mass of water absorbed from the falling rain, while the second term reveals the mass absorbed from running into it.

m = (rho*vy) * Ay * (D/vx) + (rho*vx) * Ax * (D/vx) with substitutions from above equations

m = rho*D * (vy*Ay/vx + vx*Ax/vx) = rho*D * (vy*Ay/vx + Ax), thus small vx (walking slow increases the left term and gets you wet, while walking fast minimizes it and leaves you drier).

Current energy issues

Concerning fission, there exists Helium-4, but Helium-3, having only one neutron, would be *extremely* unstable and any discussion of it would seem impractical; such a nuclear core would deteriorate in femtoseconds or faster. I have commonly heard of Hydrogen-3, also called Tritium, in discussions of fussion, so my guess is that this is the correct reference. Now, Tritium, also called heavy water, because it is usually harvested in that form, has enough mass to assist the process in slamming the nuleii together for fusion. The increased mass provides more momentum which resists the nuclear deflecting forces. Now continuous fusion has been around for at least a decade, but the duration of fusion has always been far too short to net positive returns on power. The reason for the brevity of the fusion process is that the incredible energy release quickly overpowers our ability to maintain the required pressures and temperatures. BTW, scientists have always projected fusion to be 50 years from the point in time at which they are asked the question about its viability. I just chalk it up to them saying that they don't know but they are seeing very slow progress.

On the oil issue, most of the world has been mapped with crude images (pun intended) and most of the significant, easy oil reserves are known. Now deep sea (past the continental shelves) has not been imaged or drilled very well and much of the land has also been practically ignored. It is kind of like taking large pictures of the whole sky and then looking deep into the sky at all of the places where you expect to see life (based upon rough theories of the development of life), and then (incorrectly) saying that you've found most of the life in the universe. Whenever someone talks about oil reservoirs, ask how their sizes and capabilities have been assessed for their numbers/claims. Do they include the proprietary data held secret by the oil companies as they implement their strategic business goals? I should think not. Do they include shale oil, oil sands, or oil on protected lands (say thank you to the environmentalists)? Protections on Alaska, and the entire region around Utah are being lifted as we speak. Do they include more difficult oil reservoirs, where 100 wells are required for the same production that one well used to generate? This is the situation for the new oilfields in northern Canada.

Now as far as shale oil, the method of extraction is mainly heat, but also pressure. The crude is brought to such a high temperature that it exits the pores of the fractured rock in a gaseous form, not necessarily as natural gas alone, including diesel, kerosine, gasoline, hexane, butane, and methane. All of these forms are easily separated and processed, according to the current petroleum needs. It is all a matter of chemically combining or splitting the carbon chains via organic chemistry, or of stripping off the hydrogen from the chains to generate hydrogen gas. Natural gas may be converted into gasoline or diesel (at a small expense) and vice versa, with the option to convert most of any of the forms into hydrogen gas for a hydrogen economy (see the hydrogen car or fuel cell). So the petroleum is extracted as a gas, but not necessarily "natural gas" and with a small expense, the desired form of "crude oil" may be synthesized from the purified shale oil extracts; the technology and methods have existed since the 1980's (when fuel prices went "through the roof" for a time) and are in use today. The only element of development these days is efficiency.

BTW, according to a recent article, the US shale oil reservoirs are estimated at around 97% (or higher) of the world shale oil reserves, and 7 times the crude oil estimates for Saudi Arabia, but again some knowledge affecting those numbers is guarded and additional knowledge from better and expanded geological imaging and interpretation both increase those numbers on a daily basis.

The question isn't when we run out of oil, but when the price of oil becomes uncompetitive with other energy sources (hydrogen not being a source, but a storage mechanism). My question is when are we going to start (safely) recycling our nuclear fissile fuel and thus slow our nuclear waste generation, which typically contains between 97% purity (military) and 99% purity (civilian) reactor fuel minimum requirement?

Correcting the calendar and time conventions

Noting the odd convention of the leap year, multi-base (non-decimal) definitions of time units with seemingly arbitrary multiples which aren't always integers, and discrepancies between the conventional time for the average year of 31,557,600 seconds per year and the correct time per year of 31,556,925 seconds per year, one might resolve these very small temporal discrepancies in the time conventions by restructuring the standards of time so that one year measures the period of revolution of the earth around the sun with little need for corrections (every four years) and that each unit, like the metric system is a multiple of ten as opposed to the 60s per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 4.4 weeks (constantly varying, but never an integer number, between 4-5) per month, 12 months per year, 52 weeks per year, etc.

With 31,556,925 seconds per year (365.25 days) in 2000 and 31,556,981 seconds per year (365.25 days) in 2100, the latter standard will be good for the next 200 years as an average to the year 2200. With 365 days per year, an extra 57.48 seconds is added to every day, yielding an average day of 86,458 seconds (86,400 currently). A new second can be defined as 0.86458 old seconds to yield 100,000 seconds in a day, which can be divided into new decimal based time units of 10 hours per day, 100 minutes per hour and 100 seconds per hour.

Given 365 days, we could follow the lunar cycle, with 13 months in the year, where each of the first twelve months has 28 days and the thirteenth month has 29 days. Or if we have an aversion to the number thirteen or to changing the number of months in a year, then we could define 5 days per week would yield 73 weeks, thus 12 months per year would allow 6 weeks per month for 11 of those months, with 7 weeks in the 12th month. These considerations have been made with the restrictions that the length of the day must remain relatively the same and that the year must extended to maintain itself from year to year without any need for leap year corrections, and that all units of time should been even multiples of each other with the preference of base ten numbers and a secondary preference of numbers similar to standard conventions when the primary preference is not ideally applicable.

Inner Peace

If only more people were interested in the question, "How does one find peace?" That path begins with finding inner peace. There is a saying in the scriptures (New Testament) which helped me understand it: "Thy will (God's will), not mine, be done." Our desire to defy reality places us in conflict with nature (God), and disturbs our peace. I recommend the book, "Loving What Is [Real]," by Byron Katie, a virtual masterpiece. It is the best I have seen on the subject, though I would advise that you exercise some caution of her very brief, but frequent treatments of Relativism and Knowledge; contrary to her assertions, you do know two subjects for sure 1) The exact natures of yourself, your desires, and feelings, 2) Your observations and experiences (which are not usually completely accurate).

Many people turn to religion to find peace, but instead typically find hate and division, or hopelessness and despair. Peace is the Holy Grail of Beauty and Life. Your beauty will rise to the surface and literally change your physical appearance as you find peace. There will exist no fear or doubt, no regret or anger, no problems or suffering only challenges and opportunities.
It is hard to find peace, especially with oneself, and here is why: Because you want things to be different than they are. In short, you must desire and expect that everyone and everything act according to their natures, regardless of your own personal wishes. The only way that your peace may be violated is when you expect differently.

The key to peace is this (and this is worth more than all the gold in the world): Decide to love and accept every real thing, but focus on the positive and inspirational aspects. See happiness in pain, but here is the hardest part: Accept that it is the nature of others (though not always) to violate their own peace, to disturb the peace of others, and even to sometimes try to disturb your own peace, if they ever get reason to believe that this is possible. Now loving pain is not to say that you desire more pain, but simply that you are deciding to respect and appreciate it while it is with you. As you heal by this process, the pain will and must leave you, but only when it is ready to do so, only when it is the right time.

While in jail, you must love those opportunities to find, embrace, and share peace: to serve, to inspire, and to live a happy life. . When others think poorly of you, there is only one peaceful reply, "I agree that your unrealistic expectations of me are negative, I accept that, and I am at peace with that." This reply is usually best said only to oneself, as other people tend to disturb their own peace even more when the truth of their negative dissonance is established. Disturbing the peace of others is obviously not the peaceful path. Never do it, even when others request it. Instead, find a peaceful and inspiring reply on the subject. If I have said anything which interests you, feel free to let me know.

--
Andy Landen
Houston, TX
When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.- Plato

The FairTax, Term limits, and Majority Rule

Many people introduce the idea of term limits in hopes of strengthening the voice of the people and thus enabling the FairTax to be passed into law. My response is that this won't work, it just changes the dynamic, that's all. Currently, I am convinced that mere numbers is insufficient for political reform because representatives exist ONLY to execute their own agendas and make the people think that they are "the lesser of the evils." If you contribute enough money, they will try to work you into the pork barrel spending politics of Washington.

Remember the effect of the massive anti-war demonstrations? To no avail whatsoever. Consider the effects of local protests against school district policies. With sufficient numbers, the board will pretend to listen by inviting the concerned parties to attend a *regular* school district board meeting. The board hears the group for a time without reaction, and then spells out their policies and justifications. They continue with the same plan, perhaps with small token adjustments to appease the protesters and the public into thinking that they had some effect.

I have seen government ignore very large numbers of people with very legitimate concerns, even using the judicial branch to undermine their initiatives (in Washington State). While number are important in some respects, the FairTax cannot succeed without a more strategic operations. Writing letters makes us feel good, and in fact appeases our anger on short term basis, but that appeasement only undermines the will to create a more effective campaign. Ultimately, the FairTax WILL PREVAIL when our government is reformed to *represent* the will of an equal and *complete* majority, otherwise any victories will be small and short-lived.
Which brings me to address the true (complete and equal) majority. The founders of this country imagined factional tyranny acting in the name of the people, as is found most extensively in George Washington's writings which includes warnings about foreign entanglements with alliances and mutual defensive pacts. They never imagined a complete and equal majority sovereign in government.

The concept of blind justice revealed the path of fairness and equality to me many years ago. The idea is that a person can only be partial if they can differentiate between several options, and that inequality requires the invasion of privacy which departs from "blindness." So given the existence of two wolves and one sheep voting on who to have for dinner, the sheep is only in danger if the wolves can discern or judge 1) that they are wolves and 2) that the victim is a sheep. With blindfolds (and nose pins, etc.), they are unable to target (vote) any specific group for dinner. Thus equality and fairness may be preserved only through the defense of privacy which blinds "justice" (i.e. the government). Concerning the FairTax, every measure taken to defend privacy in the FairTax strengthens its fairness, equality, and power; measures of privacy enacted throughout government strengthen its legal resistance to factional corruption and forces other laws to submit to the fairness of "blind justice."

Is blind justice, i.e. equality, relevant to the subject of the FairTax? Of course. The FairTax is attempting restore fairness, equality, simplicity, transparency, and responsibility into the revenue side of government, but the government must be aligned with those principles in order to accept any legislation founded in the same (without a SERIOUS fight). These principles must be incorporated into every other aspect of government, else "traditional politics" will both fight the enactment of the FairTax bitterly, and effectively and utterly corrupt it (as it has the income tax) once we win the needlessly costly fight.

The FairTax has begun as a grassroots organization, but noble goal of fiscal fairness must develop into a much more comprehensive and strategic operation in order to prevail in the current political establishment; brute force of numbers is insufficient, as very clever politicians are quite practiced in the art of "side-stepping" the brute will of the masses. Leadership will listen to the people when they are legally bound to the people's will, and that requires a constitutional ammendment. The only way to give the people (and thus the grassroots) sufficient power to advance fair initiatives like the FairTax is to fill government with leaders who would release their own power in favor of Democracy (and I have yet to ever see that happen). The FairTax binds government to the will of an equal people, removing the manipulative power of inequality which many politicians so cherish and thrive upon, so their strong opposition is natural and expected. What begins as a movement from the people, must "snowball" into an effective, multi-pronged, multi-tiered, strategic government reformation process, or else it must smolder forever as a good intention continually undermined and dismissed by the politics of the day.

-- Andy Landen
Houston, TX
When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.- Plato

DNA Mapping Revolution

Understanding the language of life will empower those who "speak it" to program whatever kind of life he desires. It is the power of the Gods, and far more significant than a nuclear arsenal or advanced medicine, when completely understood.The DNA is a complete instruction set for each life. It chemically dictates the biological construction, functioning, and processing of all organs within it. Any language, to be understood, must be first mapped. Usually, the "bad" words (or diseases) are the first words learned, because they hold the greatest interest of the student/researcher.

The first benefit and the primary course of study in this effort is the identification of troublesome "codes," or diseases, but that just barely begins to scratch the surface. We will begin to recognize patterns between the code and the operations until we start to build DNA-compilers which translate human instructions into DNA-code, and attempt to reverse-engineer interesting segments to understand what they are saying specifically.

Ultimately, humans will be able to design viruses which attack certain diseases, or races, and they will move to designing better organs and even useful life forms to meet specific needs. As with all great powers, much potential for harm from side-effects exists with amateur experimentation unless great care is taken, much potential for good and evil will arise from developed/mature technologies and experience. Given the complexity and size of DNA, this process could take substantial time and resources, until the emergence of quantum computing.

Before we design viruses and other life forms, we will find it necessary to design "DNA workshops" consisting of "DNA construction machines," and stores of "DNA building materials," such as amino acids, vitamins, minerals, etc. Eventually, we will be building our own amino acids with specialized DNA/organisms. At last, a long and complex assembly line of Life will be designed and put into motion for each desired biological creation.

The science fiction names given to humans of "Carbon unit," and "Carbon machine" will be very easily accepted, and we will find ourselves with the difficulty of trying to define a new morality with the blurring of the lines between life and machine.

The Third Party

My fellow Americans, I hear you. Grassroots and constituents hate their own parties and groups. Republicans jumping ship back and forth. Democrats keeping on their own ship mostly, but feeling betrayed. AFT trying to get the grassroots power (their own power base).

AFT is a party, it just hasn't been recognized as one, and hasn't accepted itself as one. AFT does not belong in any of the current parties today. It's true. Republicans are the strongest supporters, but with their majority did nothing for it. Many Democrats like it but with the party *dead* against it, they are frozen and mute on the subject. The constituents of both parties are quite similar in their desire for the FairTax, but the parties are more interested in themselves. Yet the Democrat constituency stands out with amazing patience and loyalty.

Most people already want the FairTax, they just don't know it yet. When we get the support of the masses (the question is only how soon), my experience shows that the politicians will manipulate, deceive, and divide them in every possible way to advance their own agendas and the power of their parties, respectively. AND IF somehow we manage to ram the popular rampart through the castle gates, storm the congress, and put the FairTax bill before our leaders, I promise you that they will pervert it in every way possible so that the bill which is passed is only vaguely similar to the original, and over time the people will see the FairTax defiled by corruption comparable to the current Income Tax. To me, this is a very ugly picture on the backs of tremendous will and sacrifice by AFT leaders and grassroots.

Try a different picture now. Fine, charismatic, honest, amiable, open leaders are taken from within the FairTax ranks as candidates for a new FairTax party. Wealthy individuals such as Ross Perot and Bill Gates are persuaded to back us. Our party is cleansed from all politics, including desires for reduced government (that will happen in time when the people are empowered to rule in fairness and sovereignty), and our platform becomes only fairness, honesty, and integrity. These leaders will inspire a nation which already want the FairTax deep in their hearts. These leaders will protect the FairTax from corruption, and fairness from politics.

DO NOT entertain the idea of creating a third political party in terms of the traditional partison lines, or it CANNOT energize the populous. We need a party for the people, protecting fairness in every aspect of government while ready to advance the will of the people IN ANY FAIR AND RESPONSIBLE WAY WHATSOEVER.

Let the people increase government spending by 10% every year (or reduce it). Let them UNSECURE the borders if they wish (however unlikely that might be). Let them deteriorate our military readiness (that hasn't been the American way yet, but hey, people may change with good representation, no? :) Let the people abandon social security (its was built upon an unstable foundation and is due to collapse of its own accord quite soon anyway) and replace it with something which is fair to all. Last, but most important, let the people "abandon" the Constitution (according to its own provisions for ammendment of course)! It is THAT document which established the system which empowers two parties, both of which have done injustice to the people since the beginning. Let the people reform the constitution to create a system of nonpartisan popular sovereignty in equality, instead of the highly partisan system which fights, controls, subdues, and manipulates the people at every turn.

I accept that AFT wants a strong popular base, and though I see much wasted effort and disappointment at the end of that road, please recognize that any party and any person is at risk to the corrupting influence of power unless they stand on the sure platform of democracy, equality, and freedom, where each candidate is not an agent of popular power, but a powerful agent of the people, a true representative.

Andy Landen
Houston, TX

The Mind

It is clear to me that most people are scared of the little understood Mind, but that they are all troubled by its operations.

The Mind seems to be the spiritual part of the person which governs our perception of, interaction with, and effect on the universe. The spirit seems to be the psychological control center of the brain, especially the conscious part. It seems almost synonymous with God and definitely somewhat removed from our consciousness. It seems as if there are three parts to the life of the person: the body, the spirit, and the mind. The mind seems to observe and react to the situation of the body and the spirit so as to advance one's interests while protect oneself from harm, both bodily and spiritually.

By faith, the mind hears the suggestions of the spirit and works to establish peace and security for the individual. At times, this work appears to be real and miraculous, while at other times, it appears to be unreal and deceptive. The former appears to operate on the principle of industry and respect and peace, while the latter seems to be driven by anger, fear, doubt, idleness, and disrespect for nature.

Republican Failures and Government Shortcomings of 2006

Republicans appear to be unable to deliver on key promises and American expectations when it comes to:

1. Fiscal Responsibility with a Balanced Budget Ammendment, Tax Reform/Simplification/Fairness (FairTax) and Elimination of Debt
   
2. Social Responsibility with Welfare Reform/Privatization (especially Social Security)
   
3. Civil Respect and Freedoms with Protections on civil liberties, privacy, justice, and legal and government transparency
   
4. Stronger Democracy with measures which increase voter turnout and increased government dependence on the same
   
5. Foreign Strength with Respectful Alliances and Clear, unilateral advancement of American interests; disable threats and respect foreign peoples
   
6. American Independence with solely American command of American troops
7. Military Superiority in space and especially against ICBM (long range missile) threats (work is just beginning in those areas

As a result, Republicans empower Democrats in the upcoming elections, without clear, decisive, and effective actions on those issues. Republicans must not take their power for granted and must earn the trust bestowed on them in the last few elections. Currently, beyond the War on Terror which is becoming very inefficient, they have little to show for their power.

Increasing the Population

A recent article commemorated the US population 300 million mark, and I salute her for it; though I believe that she should open her borders to much more legal immigration having only the requirements of English proficiency and lawful intent (free English courses offered and police background checks required). She should also reject criminals (after reparations) to their home countries (transfered to their home government's jurisdiction).

Some argue that an increase in population is bad, but I say that nothing could be farther from the truth, unless of course you are trying to make slaves of the existing population to your will. It is true that resources are finite, but we can hardly tap into them all, for nature is far greater than us and we keep getting smarter everyday. The important point is that every person earns at least as much as they spend (no subsidies or grants). True, every person adds their own set of needs and wants, but at the same time they must also offer services to meet the needs and wants of others, which in value exceeds their own consumption. Therefore the net result is that there is more of an increase in resources and services than there is a demand on the same concerning each individual, thus leaving a net increase for every addition to the population.

A study revealed that there is enough land in Texas alone for every American family to live on a 2 acre plot of real estate. Obviously, land is not an issue, for we are very good at building up even if the population rose to such heights that ownership of a quarter acre was not possible for every single American family (a population increase of 800%, assuming we are only limited to living in Texas, never mind California and Alaska, and the other 47 states for that matter).

An increased population brings increased competition, increased specialization and talent, increased culture, and more diverse ideas and communication. It brings a stronger country when the population is raised for success. The increase in demand for food with increased populations certainly raises the costs of food (which is good for the agricultural sector), thus revealing the insanity of our subsidized destruction of crops. Larger populations increase the potential for social and economic circulation (much like the life blood of the body). In conclusion, there exists no negative argument against an increased population which isn't immediately countered with a larger positive argument for it.

If there exists any problems associated with larger populations they are erroneously confused with the root problems of poor family, social, or governmental systems. Problems must be expected from children who are raised to fight goodness, and love evil. Societies which rejected children or foreigners border on the evils of isolationism and racism, and create selfish, foolish policies which quickly undermine the foundation of their strengths and successes. Governments undermine their economies and the freedoms of their citizens when they establish masters and slaves by creating inequality, as in the current partial, progressive tax system which allows no privacy or impartiality and by redistributing wealth by grants/subsidies, and by targeted, free services. All of these problems are independent of population and completely based on politics and inequality. So America, open your borders to good people interested in integrating into our english-speaking societies and remove your ïllegal' laws which establish inequality and injustice.

The Threat of North Korea

North Korea poses a grave threat to all and differs little from Iraq, except that she has no resources of value. Her dictator is killing her own people for the military power to fight America. The world strongly resisted the US invasion of Iraq against a ruthless dictator bent on the destruction of Israel and America. Similar resistance is found with this equally ruthless dictator. North Korea stole our nuclear secrets, secretly implemented a nuclear program based on them, took our money as funding for the very weapons they intend to use against us, openly broadcast their desire for war with us by a nuclear dud. We've put up with them long enough and now it is time to move our military assets to bear on the situation, as they leave no other option.

Secure all weapons of mass destruction. Leave a small force in Iraq to train the Iraqi forces to maintain security, and threaten the nuclear option for the next 8 years (on condition that Iraqi forces and operations remain inside her own borders) on any country, especially Iran, who attempts to violate her borders or fund any group which violates her borders or control any city within her borders. Posture all military units on the borders of North Korea, declare a DMZ on the country's borders, and tell them to stand down for a military invasion using strategies which expose us to minimum risk. Prepare the use of non-conventional weapons where needed/appropriate. Secure and destroy all weapons, and their systems, plans, technologies, and facilities, conventional and unconventional. North Korea will be united with South Korea under South Korean government. The nuclear option will be put on the table for any country which attempts to invade South Korea for the next 8 years (similar to the Iraqi deal). American forces will then leave. Post-war humanitarian aid will be limited to food and water donations from and by third party Red Cross and other neutral, non-military organizations (at their own risk). Ask Iran to consider her own fate in light of Iraq and North Korea.

US forces must leave Iraq quickly (9 months from now, June of 2007) with a native, trained security force in place, lest there be devastating results from nuclear attacks by North Korea and Iran and their militant, terrorist allies.