Finding my way out of a maze.

When I was a youth, I didn’t know how to savor life. The longer I live, the more I learn. To really appreciate life. By taking life one day at a time. By making the most of each day. Each moment. Often, I have no set plan. No agenda. I just let things happen. Naturally. I don’t mind being surprised. Especially pleasantly surprised. Another thing I’ve learned. To become conscious. Observant. Curious. I remind myself daily. That I’m very much alive. Aware. And that I’m me. Some days I can hardly believe I’m me. But here I am. Creating stuff. Even thought. Imagine that. Being able to think. And reason. To find my way out of a maze of confusion. And give life meaning. My own meaning. –Jim Broede

I don't have to be liked.

I give readers of my blog many, many choices. Because I’ve posted over 4,000 threads. Yes, that’s a lot to choose from. You can find threads which turn you off. Maybe enough to dislike me. But you also can find stuff that turns you on. Gets you to think of me in a favorable way. Occasionally, I find people that have their minds made up ahead of time. They’ve already decided. To dislike me. That’s all right with me. There’s no requirement. I don’t have to be liked. –Jim Broede

We need an end to greed.

America would be a lot better place if we reduced profit margins. And instead, provided more and better services and more jobs. That’s far better than businesses, especially big corporations, reaping huge profits for owners/stockholders. Profits are all right. But let’s not make ‘em obscene. For instance, private health insurance companies typically have 20 to 25 percent administrative overhead. Compared to 3 or 4 percent for government-run Medicare. And oil companies have been making record-high profits in a time of bad economy. Let’s reduce those profits and pour the money instead into lower gas prices and the creation of more jobs. Corporations all over the U.S. are flourishing at the same time that they are laying off workers. Ain’t fair. Rank and file workers suffer while the corporate bosses and shareholders get richer and richer. I don’t trust big-time businessmen and bankers and other financial market manipulators. They are strictly in it for bigger and bigger profits. To get personally rich. And to hell with the common good. That’s why I want more government regulation and more socialism that benefits the poor and middle class. With better wages, with better social services, with better schools, with better infrastructure. And not least, socialized medicine. Yes, socialized a whole lot of things. I want a Works Progress Administration like the one we had in the 1930s. To put the unemployed back to work. Building infrastructure. Making America thrive again. But we ain’t gonna thrive until we stop the rich from getting richer. We don’t need the filthy rich to make America great. Instead, we need an end to greed. –Jim Broede

I wonder about not-so-nice people.

I like to be nice. That is, to nice people. But some people aren’t nice. Which doesn’t always bother me. In fact, I often find myself being nice to some not-so-very-nice people. Depends on my mood. And it’s a challenge. To win ‘em over. Sometimes I do. Other times I don’t. I often try to analyze belligerent people. To find out why they’re so ornery. Whether it’s a mental thing. Or physical. It just may be that they have a chronic pain in the ass. And often, I find that I’m the source of their pain. Makes me proud, to some degree. Knowing that I can cause pain or anguish in a Republican. Because they deserve it. Some days, I try to be nice to everyone. Especially when I’m happy. And I’m happy when I’m in love. Maybe that’s why I’m so nice. Makes me wonder if the not-so-nice-people need more love in their lives. –Jim Broede

A hell worse than god intended.

To be honest about it, I gotta admit that I like to agitate some people. Especially Republicans. Because they are natural born agitators. And so I consider it an honor and a pleasure and a privilege to out-agitate Republicans. Some people tell me that Republicans act stupid. Just to agitate people. But I know better. There’s no acting involved. Republicans are just plain stupid. They can’t help themselves. They are inherently stupid. It’s in their genes. Of course, Republicans don’t like to hear such talk. Because they actually think they aren’t stupid. If they knew it, maybe they could do something constructive about it. But they are so stupid that it’s gonna be impossible for them to ever recognize it. They’ll be stupid for ever and ever. Even after they die. If they advance to an afterlife, they’ll still be stupid spirits. Which means they could foul up heaven/paradise. But my guess is that god would find a special place for Republicans. Such as hell. But that might be a mistake. Because it would make hell a worse place than god intended. Too unusual and cruel punishment for the other residents. For having to put up with Republicans. –Jim Broede

On becoming decent human beings.

I’d like to shake up the world. By experimenting. With different political, economic and social systems. To find ways that work better than our traditional ways. Seems to me that the world is stuck in ruts. We aren’t innovative enough. We hold on to systems that really don’t work. Like American politics. And American capitalism. We keep doing the same things, making the same mistakes, over and over again. Because that’s the way it’s done. Look at Congress. And the gawd-forsaken two-party system. It’s awful. But we don’t change. We don’t make it better. Even when the world is falling apart. Capitalism doesn’t work. It has so very many faults. But we keep saying there’s no better system. Hell, there’s gotta be something a whole lot better. Let’s scrap what we are doing. And start all over. We can design something far better. If only we put our minds to it. And get ourselves out of the ruts. Maybe some of these systems worked when we only had a few million people on Earth. Now it’s billions and billions. We have to find better ways of serving the common good. We need to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor. We can’t go on like this and still have a decent society. We need major change. We need to recreate human beings. Change our essence. To something far more palatable. Oh, we can do so much better. We could become decent human beings. For a change. –Jim Broede

Beats the rich getting richer.

Seems to me we’d be all right as a society if people were not allowed to hoard money. Instead, they should be required to put excess money to practical use. To benefit society. To benefit the economy. Now rich people have far more money than they could use in multiple lifetimes. So let’s redistribute the wealth. Maybe by using much of it to create jobs. So everybody can work. And earn decent pay. To spend. That’ll help the economy. Thing is there’s plenty of wealth in the USA. Problem is that it’s concentrated in relatively few hands. By people who need only a small fraction of what they possess. Yes, they hoard big fortunes. Fortunes they’ll never be able to take with them. Even if there’s an afterlife. So let’s spread the wealth. Get it working for the common good. For the benefit of society. Sure beats allowing the rich to get richer while the poor get poorer. –Jim Broede