Presents:

 

 

PRODUCER’S BLOG

 

I feel the necessity of expounding on my commentary during the broadcast on October 7, 2009 when congress was debating national healthcare reform.  The bill that became law is in dire need of funding and the mood to amend it to become a more suitable framework lends itself even that much more to attach a rider to mandate a portion of health insurance premium to be earmarked for “terrorist insurance”.  The effect of this rider will be twofold at the least.  First, it will make news coverage of a “terrorist event” the equivalent of an auto accident or what the insurance industry refers to as an “Act of God” or natural disaster thereby removing the motivational attraction for recruiting new members. Secondly, it will reduce the tax burden by reducing the need for such a large budget for the homeland security and the defense department.   As the number of suicide bombers decline, the surplus from the premiums can be applied to the costs of health insurance premiums.  The world body should take advantage of the threat terrorists pose by reducing the nuclear arsenal now.  SEE PHILLIP’S REPUBLIC POSTED BELOW.

 

 

 

Phillip's Republic - Pragmatic Philosophy for modern times (or the 21st Century Socrates)

(c) 2007 - 2012 J. Phillip Judah

 

In Socrates' ALEGORE OF THE CAVE from Plato's Republic…

 

Beings inhabiting a dark cave deduce reality based on shadows cast by the light rays striking the back of its wall.

 

With its small aperture through which the light beams travel and strike the cornea, the Cave's description closely resembles the physiology of an eye!

 

A computer analogy lends greater significance to the outlook of the "director" of what I refer to as a virtual machine with which we recognize our own participation in the observed reality.

 

 

THE ALEGORE OF THE COMPUTER

 

A computer only presents to the "virtual machine" what has been stored in its "cache" or internalized.  Thus it is, before the browser presents any virtual image, the TOTAL of the recognizable reality exists INSIDE the device containing the browser or "virtual machine"!!!  The Ego is the virtual machine of the human.  I repeat our egos are our virtual machines and only present to us (the universal perceiver) what has been internalized to the brain by the sensory nervous system stimulated by our surroundings in concert.  Obviously, our "outlook" has a lot to do with what is internalized.  Thus the import of attitude gains considerable weight in the maximization of our inherent potential

 

Pressing Political and Social Issues

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Xeno_= different (prefix),  _Phobia = exaggerated fear (suffix)

 

Xenophobia (The exaggerated fear of people or cultures different from one's own) interferes with our civil right of association and enjoyment of the diversity humans and human cultures have to offer. 

 

Take Note of how a fear of something will often (if not always) point to the dynamic feeding the source of one or more conflicts of varying scale.

 

It behooves us to identify and address the dynamics driving these fears (real or imagined) before an undesirable reaction leads to a counterproductive hysteria. 

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9/11

 

The defeat of terrorism as defined by jingoistic governmental administrations cannot be achieved by the application of more terror.  It is understood that weapons used for the "war on terror" are in fact terrible.   The slogan, quickly mutating from "war on terrorism" (a war on an _ism), is a glaring oxymoron. 

 

Incentive for suicide attacks is THE ATTENTION given by the press to CREATE FEAR.

 

To combat suicide related attacks for which there is no defense, a true republican outlook is the recognition that the insurance industry has been dealing with these kinds of risks for years.  Either privately or publicly owned, an insurance company can legitimately consider them, like hurricanes and other natural disasters as  "Acts of God."    This is how the cherished "Business of America IS business" dynamic can eliminate the headlines encouraging so called terrorist acts to the kind of press given an auto accident.  Instead of a mandatory health insurance* paid to private industries, let us make terrorist insurance mandatory and provide state paid health care with the savings from the defense department and the reduction of case settlements as the bombers ranks are depleted by attrition and not replaced by the recruitment resulting from the story's amplification by the media.  *Since the supreme Court has ruled the purchase of insurance mandate by utilizing a "penalty" or tax policy constitutional (July 2012), we can actually consider utilizing this approach to defray much of the Defense and Homeland Security Departments' budgets and achieve the also mandated budget reduction and its related debt much faster than is currently projected.

 

Propaganda furthering suicide attacks is based on a perceived injustice or injustices.  As the incentive to walk the path of a suicide bomber decreases, the number of bombers will decrease with each event.  Thus the risk from this tactic will decrease as well.

 

To further reduce the suicide attack risk, an investment from a portion of the revenues generated by said "Terrorist" premium would be used to address the social ills often accompanying these perceived injustices. 

 

Columbine / Virginia Tech / Ft Hood / Tucson / Aurora Colorado*

 

Tolerance of the public's "right" to bear arms was written into the U.S Constitution in the 18th Century when it was necessary to load them with musket balls and black powder after each discharge.  It would take a sociopath so long between shots that the damage he could do to society was very limited. 

 

Recognizing the futility of identifying potential basket cases from obtaining modern weaponry on the open market, it behooves us to consider firearms being carried in public places as contraband.  Enforcement should proceed as follows:

 

Upon being caught carrying a firearm in public, Subjects are immediately arrested and promptly brought in front of a magistrate to explain the reason they felt the need to carry a gun.   Also, since said firearms are considered contraband the weapon will be confiscated. 

 

During the explanation pertaining to the subject's desire to carry said weapon, it will be determined by the magistrate as to the validity of the subject's complaint either to warrant further investigation of the conflict's circumstances or to relegate the matter to a trained mental health professional to help subject deal with his/her personality issues.   If the subject is a smuggler, then the confiscation of his weapons is in order and he or she will be released and the firearms confiscation will be considered his fine.  Privacy rights must be stiffened so that the right to a home security armament and rifles for hunting game will be protected.

 

This approach will:

 

1.  Continue to allow the defense of ones home against malicious individuals who just might not be as well armed as the defender.

 

2.  Locate individuals functionally isolated from society before harm is initiated unnecessarily.

 

3.   Discover injustices that can be addressed in a civil manner before bodily injury occurs.

 

4.  Reduce the number of firearms available to minors and sociopaths.

 

Funding of the system to deal with the subjects as they are arrested and delivered to a magistrate open 24 hours - 7 days a week can be realized by actually controlling other said "controlled substances" by their decriminalization and taxation or outright ownership of its monopoly by the government as Oregon monopolizes its liquor industry.  Only when an informed choice not colored by the hidden agenda of a “pusher” or an “ideologue” is available, can one be free to choose his course rationally.  The present approach has not been working, and each additional punitive measure adopted only causes the situation to get worse.

 

Sociologically speaking, this approach recognizes the ecological and economical realities that resist any major change in policies.  The vested interest of the smugglers, the enforcement agencies and judicial participants will not be threatened by a "change of contrabands" because former substance smugglers will begin to smuggle arms, and the enforcement community will get to keep their jobs enforcing a different set of laws.  This “contraband substitution” will allow a more healing approach to the problems associated with substance abuse without the major economic upheaval so feared by the establishment.  The biggest difference will be that enforcers will have to buy their guns from the smugglers.

 

 Stiff fines and penalties await those trafficking in contraband allowing an individual to stupidly abuse his body to the point of possible termination.  However these illegitimated substances have yet to kill dozens at a distance no matter how loud the pro law enforcement and smuggler's lobbies scream to have the punishment stiffened.

 

There is no worse addiction than that to power.  Among other reprehensible manifestations, it allows "control freaks" the excuse to turn others' addictions into another tool for them to gain power.   Except for the abuse of power, it is shocking to find so many for so long buying the idea that addiction is a crime.  Behavior defines the crime.  A medical condition certainly does not.

 

. Most experts agree, however, that its treatment belongs in the hands of health professionals rather than criminal courts.  We must separate the addict from the criminal by drawing the distinction of a person's addiction (state of being) from criminal (behavior).  We must agree to the precept (acknowledge the danger) that along with the medicinal / cultural use of a substance, the legitimate use of power for police or defense can also become an addiction calling likewise for an intervention. 

 

Substance substitution is a valid treatment combating the effects brought on by a more destructive substance addiction (dependency).  This approach is realistic and stands the best chance of immediate returns in productivity, safety and lower health care costs.

 

So how, you ask, can we determine when the use of a substance or power becomes its abuse?  Everyone has foibles. So, the criterion must include an individual's ability to maintain his responsibility to the needs of those in his environment and himself. 

 

It is remarkable how a segment of society (addicts) can be so easily disenfranchised like the Jews in Germany during the '30's - 40's and the "Witches" in Salem, Mass in the 1600's.  Striking examples are statutes allowing confiscation of property and removal of children to a CPS home prior to any conviction for these "special" offences.  They all totally violate one's constitutional right of "due process" as spelled out in its 23rd amendment to, "..not be deprived of Life, Liberty, or Property without due process of Law."   Yet politicos continue to point at overseas violations of some convention in Geneva and turn a blind eye to the infringements taking place under their watch.  Patrick Henry, who was mainly responsible for our Bill of Rights being the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution, would be outraged*.

 

Democratic Reforms for our time

 

Democracy is a shared value of our English heritage and North American United States culture. 

 

Democracy's beginnings come from the City/State of Athens of Greece where those allowed to serve could meet and vote on the issues of the time. 

 

The attempt to achieve a democratically based republic is reflected in the governance of the representatives elected by "THE PEOPLE" to the congress (law making body) as put forth by the Constitution of the United States and the "common law" carried over from its ENGLISH HERITAGE. 

 

The idea of a representative body was made necessary by the expansive territory needing government and by the limits of the communication available to the public at that time.  A major weakness of this representative form is the SPECIAL ECONOMIC INTERESTS' accessibility to the individuals selected to serve on the committee relevant to a particular group’s interest via its lobby or (in an extreme case) bribery.

 

The 21st Century is awash with instant global communication in which a truer form of Democracy can be realized.

 

The basic checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution's branches of government are still desirable and need not be rejected.  The only amendments necessary for the desired democratic reforms are as follows:

 

1.  Before any bill becomes Law, it must be submitted to the public for a referendum vote. 

 

With the technology of the telephone and computer networks it is easily within the power of the election institutions to set up a system by which a person can call a toll-free telephone number (or secured web-site), enter his or her registration number and vocally respond for a voice pattern recognition program to authorize his/her vote.  Once again, those interested in voting will take the time to study and participate, and those who don't won't.  And most importantly, the special interest groups will be forced to undertake a real public education campaign to sell their ideas to the public.  An immediate benefit will be the stimulation to the economy a public education campaign will cost.  A second benefit will be the money saved by the elimination of the "pork barrel" legislation so common with the current system.  Checks and balances for this scheme calls for at least three independent computer hardware groups managed by the Judiciary, the Media, and the League of Women Voters to count and verify the vote.

 

2.  Presidential election by the popular vote (jettison the electoral college).

 

This system will make a voting irregularity in one single State less likely to swing an election one way or another.

 

3.  All statutes come with an expiration date.

 

When a bill becomes law, there is an inherent enforcement cost.  This cost is paid for either with a tax or by selling bonds (borrowing on our posterity's credit).  So the only actual way to eliminate the debt or reduce the cost of government it to repeal some of the antiquated laws and make sure that the dubious laws expire when there is not enough public support to keep them on the books.

 

4.  The legislative bodies will still write and submit bills for the president to sign and refer to the body politic to become law.  

If the president vetoes the bill, THE BODY POLITIC (voting public) will need to muster a 2/3 majority for it to become law.

 

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July 2012

 

November 2012

 

 

To Be Continued...