In the years following WWII, we have seen an era in the U.S. like nothing before it.  Knowledge has expanded exponentially with a leap of progress in almost every field.  Inventions flooded the scene in virtually every category.  Progress made possible the largest middle class on earth. 
      The U.S. economic engine dwarfed every country in the world and we educated the highest population percentage in history.
      For those who have been around since World War II, progress has been fast paced.  For those who have been around since the 1970s, progress has been exponential.
      What do we do with what we've learned ?

        Our concept of self-independence still has a way to go.  One example is how our treatment of the elderly leaves them with no dignity.   Their ability to make free choices has been legally taken away by misguided religious fundamentalists. 
        A person should have the right to decide not to live in excruciating pain and has the right to end his own life but for ill considered laws.  Fundamentalists have taken their belief that suicide is a sin and have been able to legislate it into a crime.
        Many nursing homes have become warehouses for the "living dead."   The stench of urine permeates the interiors and zombie-like creatures sit around in wheelchairs.  The suffering invalids are over medicated and wallow pitifully in beds with extensive bed sores.   
      A.  They are not enjoying a longer life. 
      B.  They are being subjected to a living hell. 
      C.  Where is our compassion for our elders and the dying?
Doctor Jack Kevorkian pioneered the solution in the 1990's with his highly publicized assisted Euthanasia with terminal patients.  He helped end the suffering of approximately 130 people and after six trials, several juries found him to be "not guilty."   
        A prosecutor in Michigan named David Gorcyca, who was elected in1996 based largely on his promise not to "waste taxpayers' money" on Kevorkian trials, recanted and finally convicted him.  He served several years in prison, but is now free to pursue this humane solution.                                               Michael Don Fess

      A Space Capsule . . .  This describes a small but strong chunk of metal and composites surrounding a fragile bag of air, inside which human passengers are protected from the forces of launch, the emptiness of space, and the blazing descent back to earth.
      We've been building them for about fifty years now, and we'll be building them for decades more yet ... so here's the future of the space capsule.
      Early in 2010 Boeing got an $8 million grant to develop the design for a totally new crew-carrying space capsule: The Crew Space Transportation 100 vehicle. Boeing, confident in its initial plans and certain that the real capsule will one day soon rocket into space, signed a memo of agreement with Space Adventures to ferry paying space tourists aloft.  Their fees will pay for some of the huge costs of the flight.

Photo by Steve Stephens

545 PEOPLE -- By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them..

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits..... The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of t he federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan...

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

      According to a story in the Chicago Tribune,  outgoing 160-character text messages on a cell phone typically costs users 20 cents, while it only costs carriers three-tenths of a cent to process. That's a whooping 6,000% profit.

      One web site puts bottled water at a 4,000% markup, partly based on the fact that it takes five bottles of water to make the plastic for one bottle of water.

      Some estimates put the markup of brand name drugs at 200% up to 3000% when compared to the cost of active ingredients.

      Markups of 300% and 400% are now common at hotel mini bars.

      It's not unheard of for a restaurant to pay $5 wholesale for a bottle of wine and charge a customer $25 for the same bottle.

      Do you wonder why do people pay the 200% markup that stores put on greeting cards?