Sales of Decadent Sugary Foods Aren't Sustainable

Recently, I encountered the stats that within a generation’s time 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes, and that consequently life expectancy will likely plummet.  This diabetes threat is real.  It could happen, especially given the prevalence of foods with added sugar at the average American grocery store.  

Greedy capitalists have placed faith in idols.  They have no fear, for as Judaism puts it, “They say God does not avenge.”  They are fearlessly profiting by getting us hooked on added sugar, where sugar should be regarded as a dangerous drug.

We don’t want to sustain capitalism's greed.  It is flawed and outdated, and it must pass.  Transition to the new system probably won’t be easy.  This will likely present difficult times at first, which may be likened to birthing pains, where the end result will be an awesome and wonderful creation.

Life in a Post Capitalist World

If I remember correctly, in high school my teacher taught me how the invention of the assembly line was supposed to revolutionize the idea of capitalism. Things would be made much faster, and by everyone in the assembly line having a small but focused job, there would be extra time for stuff like fun. I don’t think many assembly line workers have free time in mind when they go to work these days.

First of all, assembly lines are usually no longer profitable in America, although we do farm them out oversees to people that we are allowed to pay whatever we want, and there always seems to be takers for these jobs. Let’s look at why? First of all, these workers lack skill sets, so when American Corporations defend the wages they pay overseas they play this card saying offering that we pay them so poorly essentially because we can get away with it. Fast forward to the modern era and now we are closing in on the idea that we don’t need anyone at all, and therefore there is no reason to pay someone anything, because everyone is replaceable.

And, now that I think of that, I don’t agree that people are replaceable just because we can get a machine or another person to do their job based upon a mere whim. A job can be found in Him merely though worship of Him. Yet, that day has yet to fully come, so don’t yet quit your day job. Most people probably like to think they are valuable, and they are, but the difference in today’s world is that their value is not going to be determined by their occupation. Those that accept that people are replaceable are probably going to be the first to say, something like, “Gee! Now that I have realized that I am useless, what can I do now?” For some that thought is pure bliss, for others that thought is a reason for suicide. Unfortunately, some people worship capitalism, as if it was a Gd, and the thought of life without capitalism brings nothing but the greatest sorrow of sorrows.

These are probably the people I least worry about: If you have the knowledge to know you can probably be outpaced by a machine, or someday in the near future, that that is right around the bend, you’ve probably taken some time to entertain yourself spiritually. Possibly, like me, you have gone on the quest to find the one true Gd, or something similar. These will be the types of escapades that will go on more often starting in about year 6,000 on the Orthodox Jewish calendar. This will be the 7th millennium, which in Judaism is known as the age of Moshiach. I like to explain this age as if it were Eden. If you paid it forward and did your good deeds, in the age of Moshiach, there will be no more work for you, although life will be better than just good.

In the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages times were much tougher. Now we have the time to explore the world at our leisure because really, few people need to work more than 40hr weeks, unless they want to. Just as the inventions from 1990 to 2000 where greater in number (and downright amusingness) than we have seen in the entirety of the rest of all other time periods, so too will technology cause us to all be obsolete if we allow ourselves to believe the lies about life in an atheist world.

As we head towards socialized healthcare in America, as well as for places that are more impoverished, such as in Africa through charities such as Heifer International, I think that it is safe to say that we are headed to a world that might be described as being like the Garden of Eden. In my mind, the rules of the universe will remain the same. Live by the golden rule and karma, and chances are that somehow you will come out on top.

If I had to refute the late Christopher Hitchens, then I would say, “Live a life of superstition because I can guarantee you that doing good deeds is the best way to choose no matter how superstitious it may seem.” Ozzy Osbourne was spot on in his song, “I don’t know,” in which he rather ironically claims, “Nobody ever told me, I found out for myself. You got to believe in foolish miracles.” Thus, it is such with reality; if we are able to make peace with our Creator, then indeed He will probably allow us a share of life in a peaceful world for our good deeds. Likewise, I should importantly say, good deeds are not always easy to do. I have spent a good deal of my lifetime trying to communicate over the net the blessings of doing what is moral, and upright. Learning to write didn’t happen in a day, a month, or even a year.

My take home message is to go study, be it books or baseballs, etc., with the aim of making yourself useful, and eventually, though you may crawl and cry, eventually things will work out for Gd. Take for instance the passage in Genesis that Joseph says, “You intended to harm me, but Gd intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” I guess that makes me a priest of sorts. So, when I go to write, I share what I know for the sake of helping people that I don’t know. In my darkest hour, You were there for me, Gd. You told me of your anger saying, “I am punishing you,” which was as music for my ears because I thought that not only wasn’t there a Gd, but also the Gd I had been told of was a wimp, so I dismissed my knowledge of a wimpy Gd. Gd you were there to accuse me, such that my soul repented out of love for your voice, and I realized that You, Gd, are a vengeful and wrathful Gd. He, Gd, reached out to me, so following that pattern, to imitate His just ways, I reach out to you, in the hope that Eden will be for all of us, from the greatest to the least, and none will be able to say, I am not important, because we can derive that Gd is reasonable because His creation is reasonable, and for His creation to be reasonable, each soul in it must have a share in the World to Come, as each soul has a share from the breath of Gd that came from Him in the creation week of Genesis Chapter 1.

Having a Voice, Quoting and Facebook – Popularity, Obscurity, the Role of Corporate America, and Study

Having a Voice, Quoting and Facebook – Popularity, Obscurity, the Role of Corporate America, and Study

Some people put a lot of quotes on Facebook. Some of them are cool, but for the most part I would rather people think for themselves and put it in their own words. I feel bad for the people that only post quote after quote and never seem to find their own voice. I hope that they are able to find it someday.

There are some great quotes and this one applies. “I found a voice in what you call noise,” by the local hardcore band Rebound from their song I Found a Voice. I think the record label was Sektion 8. Sektion 8 had some great cds. My personal favorite was “No One in Control” by Drained. There is probably no reason why Rebound didn’t make it big except that corporate America wasn’t into marketing that style yet, way back when I was in High School.

Why haven’t you heard of Sektion 8 Records? Blame that on corporate America too! This song was clean enough to be on the radio, no swears, but corporate America wouldn’t have it, so the people that pulled the strings, corporate America, had reduced Rebound to an act that couldn’t get much more of a following than one that could fill a garage.

Some idiots would blame Rebound for that, but the fact is that they don’t know the power of corporate America. This is equivalent to someone that blames the victim, rather than blaming the perpetrator. Corporate America decides who gets the best musical equipment. They usually decide who gets gigs beyond those at the local bar. They decide who gets to be on the top 40 (You can’t tell me that anyone becomes a national act because they were able to promote themselves unless they were independently rich.). If you have heard it on the radio, then it was almost certainly the result of a decision made by corporate America.

Want to know what success is in the music industry? Success is a fluke! The people that have are not always the people that deserve. The radio would have us think that good music is scarce, so they play a lot of junk on the air and mix it in with the occasional good song.

Usually, the songs that are remembered are in fact good songs. They do stand out against the backdrop of junk on the radio and for good reason. The reason is that capitalism is evil. Capitalism deceives the people into thinking that there is not a lot of good music and they do this because rarity affects the value of things.

Take for instance Magic the Gathering cards. No person in their right mind will argue that a common is more likely to be expensive than a mythic rare! Don’t get me wrong, to me it seems completely reasonable for MTG to create artificial rarity to improve the game, but that is because it doesn’t victimize anyone one. In fact, just the opposite, it helps employ people in meaningful jobs, and add meaning to collections that support collector and dealer alike.

What determined the value of that card but how many times corporate America felt like printing it! Guess what, Lady Gaga is a mythic rare in the radio world. Dave Matthews was a mythic rare to the radio world, and so on, but this is artificial rarity for the purpose of making a profit, and this sort of artificial rarity is bad because it makes victims. Why? It is not fair. Every musician that could sell or practices, but the music industry doesn’t market has been had. I believe that it is the people that practice and who are gifted at expressing themselves through music theory that should be rewarded. Reward doesn’t have to be relative to audience size. However, such people deserve to be financially compensated for their hard work. Being popular is also hard word. Some music is more about image than sound, and it is hard to be about image just the way it is with sound, but in the end it is the same, I want for the person that is gifted and works hard at what they do best to be rewarded. If one ventures outside of the world of the radio, bands like these are actually more common than one might think. So in order to keep the prices on records and music high, the music industry deceives the masses that good music is rare. If you are a capitalist, then that is good business, but if you want to hear good music, then you are probably angry.

Let’s examine what the rarity system of Magic the Gathering means as it relates to news media, specifically with respect to the Occupy Wall Street movement. The news media only covers what will make a profit for it, usually what brings in advertisers. Guess what, the Occupy Wall Street movement is broke. They don’t have money. So, why would they be covered in the news? Advertisers will rarely pay to be on news that is anti-corporation. It should be obvious why. It is self defeating when the news says that people hate corporations, and your corporation is the one that is advertised. You might as well put a kick me sign on yourself. However, there is a backdoor that the Occupy Wall Street has to get coverage. It is violence! Remember Ice T when he started the band Body Count? One of the not so great, but very popularized songs from the album was “Cop Killer.” Killing a cop is the equivalent of generating a mythic rare. It would be extremely valuable for news media to cover the Occupy Wall Street movement if they killed a cop. Like any good deck, it probably isn’t made up of all mythic rares. For example, you might have some rares such as police firing tear gas, presidential address, or stand offs between police and protestors. You might have some uncommons such peaceful protest or right wing criticism. And, maybe a few commons such as, angry interview, intelligent interview, and/or interview of fool.

Sometimes, these days, I get bored and put a quote on Facebook myself, stuff that has generally meant a lot to me through the years, like this line by Rebound. Quoting is defiantly historically well founded as a good means to get a message across. Just as bad Presidents use quotes, even good Presidents sometimes quote. It’s not that I am anti-quoting. It’s that I feel bad for the people that over quote. For the most part though, I am sure that this is just a phase that they are going through. What is even better is that many of these people that post a lot of quotes are studying word combinations that have proven more effective to improving the human condition than wars. And, what is best is that through study, these people that frequently post quotes are on the path to develop their own voice.

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