Category: Political

The life you live is yours to live as you choose

IMG_1077 There is two ways one can go through life, one is going through life reacting to everything and everyone. The other is to walk through life as an activist,this means basically  being the cause of events in your life not being the effect. You can either ride the waves made by others or make your own. The problem with riding others waves is you have no idea where you will wind up most of the time along with the fact your life will be at someone else’s mercy. Riding your own wave you at least know where you aimed to go and the results will be yours alone. A good example of riding other people’s waves is when you are around someone who is persistently grumpy you tend to reflect the same attitude over time. You could have chosen to be happy or blissful instead, you choose how you feel at any given time. Even in times that are bad you can choose not to let the circumstances to control your emotions.

Though sometimes one must allow the circumstance to control their emotions at least for a short period. Circumstances such as the death of a love one is one of those times. You must grieve in order to have closure and so you can move on. But this should be as short of time you can manage for grieving too long can become depression. For the most part though you are in charge of how and what you feel. This only so once you realize you can choose to act instead of react to the world around you. There are two schools of thought on life, one is the school of destiny and the other is the school of Karma. The first school Destiny is the ideal that all things are predetermined and that there is no freewill or choice in what happens or what your final destination will be. The school is Karma, the idea that each thought and or action you take is what determines the outcome of your life.

Karma is the school of thought that supports the idea of freewill and self-directed paths of life. This is the school of thought I tend to believe in since I do not believe that we are totally predestined nor that we are without freewill. I will set aside the fact maybe some things may be predestined to a point but still we can choose how, when and why that predestined event happens. But far as our final destination is life, that is solely our choice as well as how we live that life. Being an open-minded Christian by faith I can see the idea of karma to a degree playing out in our scriptures. Freewill is the gift god gave us and we are responsible for both the good and bad we bring into the world. The wage of sin is death and the wage of goodness/righteous living  is life.

The life you live is yours to live as you choose, no one person can deny you the right to be happy in life. Others can only influence you if you give them the power to do so. Do not allow others to kill your happiness nor allow them to push on you there negativity. You only live this life once so make it the happiest and most peaceful one you can.

Just Some Thoughts That Came to me, Right or Wrong they are mine to share.
Raymond Barbier

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Natural Disasters, Political change and a Dysfunctional Government

009 Natural Disasters are becoming more and more frequent in the last decade or so. Everything from hurricanes, earthquakes and forest fires not only threaten the earths sensitive ecological system it also has become a big threat to all forms of life. There is many people without power, housing, food and or clean water from hurricane Irene. The U.S. Government is dragging their feet on sending aid via F.E.M.A. because they still are bickering over the budget cuts. These are the times when the citizens and businesses should band together to help those unfortunate people in need. There are even some trapped on islands created by flood waters from the hurricane. Trapped with no escape or ability to get food or fresh water. This is something I thought would never happen in the U.S., the government being unable to help the citizens that put them in office and pay the taxes that funds the government itself.

There is time for politics and then there is time for good governing and it seems our congress has no clue on the right time to do either. They enjoy the politics too much to focus on governing. I believe it is either time to do away with the political party system so the politicians can think independently and not be sheep following a blind agenda. I also still believe there should be term limits on a congressional seat so that new ideas can be introduced by new members after so many terms. Lifetime congressional members should be a thing of the past. It’s a new century and its time to overhaul the political system and time to cut away all the fat from our dysfunctional government. Political change never comes quickly nor does it come without some pain and or sacrifice.

The one thing I think the Americans are getting fed up with is this finger-pointing from both sides on who is to blame for the deficit. The cold hard fact is that it’s both sides at fault do to both poor governing and lack of the ability to co-operate and to put political party agendas aside to get work done.  Reduce Spending, rewrite the tax code to make it fair and fix all the loopholes. Stop messing with the so-called entitlements that we the people of the united states have been paying for and get rid of the earmarks. Make bills that are passed simple and direct with no string attached or hidden perks. Most of all congress needs to really listen to all of the people they were elected to represent.

When political agendas are more important than people who are in need then it is apparent or government has become dysfunctional and it has lost its way. Wake up congress and learn to prioritize as well as how to work together.

Well right or wrong, that’s my 2 cents worth
Raymond Barbier

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Not even happiness can exist indefinitely

011Emotions, friend or foe to the modem man? Both, for without emotions we would be nothing but uninspired automatons. Each emotion serves a purpose and some emotions serve several functions. Fear is meant to protect our physical body by directing us away from things that endanger our well-being. Anger serves as a protector emotion by putting us in fight mode when there is either no escape or we feel secure enough to fight. Happiness is an emotion that inspires us to be creative and social so we can grow culturally as well as socially. Sadness keeps us rooted in reality, it reminds us that loss is a part of life as well as the constant reminder of our mortality. Even jealousy can serve a good purpose, for it shows that we cherish our mate when it is over a person and inspires us to work harder so we can better our life when it is jealousy over possessions. Each one of these emotions can either serve us in a positive or negative fashion and which way it does is based on our ability to control them.

Since emotions are a necessary part of our physical experience they should never be shut off or suppressed. The negative aspects of our emotions will exist and even though we can not turn them off we can learn to make them short-lived as well as temper their impact on both ourselves and others. They must be expressed and allowed to come to fruition but they can be channeled into a less destructive way of expression. Surprising them are an unhealthy way to control them and causes a lot of physical side effects that can create an unhealthy body. This is one of the most common ways people get high stress levels, and that in turn creates health problems such as high blood pressure and mental problems such as depression and even nervous breakdowns in the long run. One way to express the negative emotions with little impact on others is to write a journal or log and express them through writing. This gives them an outlet but restricts the negative effects. Express them and then let them go, for no emotion is meant to be permanent. Not even happiness can exist indefinitely, though it would be nice to be in permanent euphoria but it would be unproductive and probably would be troublesome down the line.

Seize the moment, Leave the past and hope for the future.
Raymond Barbier

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There is so much the arts have to offer

001Music touches the soul of the listener, each listener walks away with a different experience from the same song. Music can affect our mood, mind state and the heart rate in our bodies. There is so much music does for us as a species and yet schools are dropping music classes and choir thinking they are not useful. The arts are a very important part of education and our culture. Take away the arts and you have uninspired teens and less culture in our society.

A painting can say different things to each viewer and just like music can affect our mood, mid set and stress levels. There is so much the arts have to offer to our children and teens.

Just my 2 cents worth on the subject.
Raymond Barbier

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The family that eats, plays, prays and works together stays together.

dd43853The family unit is one of the most important part of society. Without a functional family unit t individuals would have no preparation for the harsh realities of life we all face. Some families are more functional than others and there are some that are quite dysfunctional. One of the shortcomings I see in modern-day families is that once the children approach the preteen and/or teen years the family group activities diminish if not cease to exist. Without family group activities the communications between the family members become less frequent as well as the trust that the family should have. The once close connection between parents and children break down as well as the connection between siblings. I had first hand experience with some of the problems mentioned above. I watched what once was a close family drift apart as I grew older.

I know that some of it is just a part of growing up, but it seems families are not as close as they once were and that the basic communication skills are lacking in the family unit. The family that eats, plays, prays and works together stays together. The family unit is a child‘s first social group along with its only true support structure. The child learns right from wrong, how to communicate with others and how to relate with the world outside through this or her family. Eventually the family unit will become second to the child’s social peers, and if there was not a strong bond amongst the family unit the social peers will be the social group that will influence the child the most.

The children and teens of today are the leaders, thinkers and the creative force of tomorrow. They are our greatest asset and the family unit is our greatest tool in molding and shaping their future as well as our own. Just something for all you out there to think about .

Peace and Wisdom be your Guiding light in life.
Raymond Barbier

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We dig a pit in which we feel there is no escape.

003 I see the emptiness in the eyes of others, they endlessly try to fill it with material goods and through pharmaceuticals. Unfortunately these are only temporary distractions from the emptiness they feel. The lack of meaning in their life and the absence of self-worth makes the empty feeling in them harder to overcome. What exactly is that emptiness or what causes it could be something as simple as low self-esteem or depression. It also could be the lack of spiritual fulfillment as well as not being accepted by their peers. It seems quite apparent that humans as a species require some sort of community and to be accepted in some sort of social group. We tend to be a very social species and we thrive on being  a part of such a group as well as being loved.

Sometimes we tend to create a false image of ourselves within and can not see the real person we are. We deceive ourselves into believing such negative things that we dig a pit in which we feel there is no escape. The hardest part is coming to the realization that we are not as bad off as we believe. It’s so easy to fall in to the pit but it is very hard to climb our way out. It is one of things that it probably took you many years to create such a negative self-image and it will take some time to teach yourself to have a more positive image. There are many methods of building self-confidence as well as improving your self-image such as attending religious meetings, meditation, exercise and even writing poetry or a journal.

Every day is but one more step in your personal journey through life and each step leads you forward in your self discovery.  If you search within to find out who you really are you may just find that you are far better person than you once believed. For we seem to be a far stricter judge upon ourselves as well as or actions than we are on others. We have to look at ourselves like we look at friends and family. Judge ourselves with compassion like we do those we love and care about, knowing no one is perfect and to expect perfection from ourselves or others is just plain illogical to say the least. To remember your past mistakes is wise but to punish yourself over them is foolish. We paid the price for the mistakes shortly after we committed them and guilt shouldn’t last beyond a few day to a week. Forgiving ourselves and others seems to be one of the hardest things to do., but it is a necessary part of our life.

Well enough of my Psycho-babble Nonsense.
Peace and Love to All
Raymond Barbier

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Come up with some real proven facts.

Ok here we go again with another flip-flop on the health news front. Now they are claiming that salt is now good for you and that being fat is also good. The once believed fact that cholesterol in food elevates your serum cholesterol in your bloodstream is now been revised to say it is not the cholesterol it is only the fat. Well at least so far they have not wavered on the saturated fat issue as of yet. I really wish they would get their theories behind them and come up with some real proven facts. This zigzag technique of informing the public has caused more worry and harm than good in the long run. I am beginning to think they best policy is to just eat a well-balanced diet and keep active and pay less to what you eat but how much of it you consume.

I also am convinced it’s the quality of the food we consume now days. It seems the nutritional value of most foods bought in supermarkets have lower nutritional values than what our grandparents had back in their day. Plus we have so many chemicals added to food along with the food being processed to death before we even cook it. And we can not forget all the pesticides and herbicides that are used in farming now days along with how much food contamination is happening lately. Food safety and quality should be one of our biggest concerns along with water quality. We are what we eat and if we eat junk we get bodies that run like junk. All in the name of progress and cheaper production costs. The food quality crisis also heavily influences our healthcare problems.

Hopefully they will get real accurate facts about what food is or isn’t or bad for you to eat as well as finding the best way to raise the food quality and safety. Until they do, they should keep the theories and unproven facts to themselves to avoid confusion as well as unnecessary stress on the public.

Well that’s my thoughts on the matter.
Peace to all
Raymond Barbier

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With a fair and balanced solution

A Indecisive and argumentative congress along with all the political rhetoric is creating problems all across the board. The inability of our congress to come to a reasonable and balanced decision on how to balance the budget is effecting not only the credit ratings of The U.S. it is also effecting the stock market and the national economical growth. Our Congress needs to put aside political ideologies and get over the fear of making unpopular decisions so they can concentrate on the problems at hand. It will probably take a combination of spending cuts and the increasing of tax revenues to bail our selves out of this financial hole our government is in. Warren Buffet even made a statement supporting the idea of taxing the extremely rich (those who have earnings above 1 million dollars a year).

In the end it always comes down to the middle class as the ones to carry the largest part of the burden financially when it comes to stabilizing the economy and in paying taxes. Even though the tax increases might be focused on the rich it usually trickles down to the middle class consumer and worker in one form or another. This is a sad fact of the reality of capitalism and our nations financial system.  To be honest being a lower middle class person myself I do not mind a slight tax increase in order to keep the entitlements such as social security and Medicaid / Medicare alive for our seniors. There is a few things we can do as Americans to help get our country back on track, things such as buying saving bonds, treasury bills and investing in the stock market. The Congress needs to grow up and face reality as well as put aside their political differences to get the job done when it comes to our national debt.

Buying U.S. T-bills is a very patriotic and sound investment. By buying T-Bills you are buying up American debt, this takes away from the debt that other countries own and helps finance our own government. To be honest I know our country is going to be debt for a very long time and I would rather the debt be owned by fellow Americans than any other nation. If we are going to look to the federal government to take care of all the woes and needs of our great nation we have the responsibility to help finance such measures. Like it or not any governmental intervention, subsidy and or entitlement has a price tag attached to it. We can not expect great things without having a some sort of price attached. So we either need to cut the fat and have less help from our federal government or we have to pay higher taxes in order to maintain the programs in place. The option of doing a little of both is also possible but it seems that our government is too caught up in their politics to be able to come up with a fair and balanced solution.

 

Well that is my two cents worth on the economy and what is going on today.
Wrong or right, It is here for all to see.

 

Peace and Love to All
Raymond Barbier

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You don’t have to agree with each other

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living life with a self-imposed moral code within our thoughts and  actions. To live by what you perceive as right and wrong along with finding compassion for both yourself and others. Principles taught  by philosophers, religions and visionaries through out mankind’s existence. Why does it seem such great ideals seem to be lost or ignored by those who are either in power or that have the greatest capacity to change the world we live in? Why is it such things as honor and compassion seem to be things of occasional use than the daily practice of all human beings? Why does it seem that religion has started more wars than it has saved lives or helped the needy? Most religion teaches us to have compassion and to help out our fellow humans as well as to do what is right and what to avoid as far as the wrong. but yet too many wars have been fought over Holy landmarks and over which is the one true religion. So sad that mankind can take the scripture of any religion and find in it a reason to kill other humans. Anger, greed and intolerance are not what most religions teach yet this is what some of the followers seem to think it is about. All of mankind are brothers and sisters and we all live on the same small planet called earth. I can not see why we can not just get along and work together for a better world instead of fighting over religion, natural resources and for the sake of national pride.

Personally I could care less what religion another human being choses for that is their god given right to do so. Nor do I worry over Holy landmarks or icons for the whole world is a creation of god so therefore all of it is Holy in its creation and existence. I do understand though why others may find significance in holy places and that in itself isn’t a problem. It is when certain holy landmarks are claimed by multiple religions it tends to cause problems. I never could see why that each religion couldn’t just share the holy places. Respect each other and the beliefs that they choose and in turn they should respect you and yours the same. But this is not an ideal world and religious leaders are not perfect in any means so they will always will have their problems till the end of time. Though that isn’t necessarily the only choice they have but it is the only one they seem to want to choose.

The good news is that as individuals we have not only the right but the ability to choose a more peaceful and more tolerant way of coexisting with others in this world. We don’t have to fall to anger,greed, intolerance or prejudice. We can choose to love one another regardless of flaws, faults or our differences. The choice is ours and no one can make the choice for us. No government, religious leader or military force can change the minds of others. They can only force you to hide your true beliefs as well as pretend to believe as they do. For war and conflict they are not the right way to change the world, it is done through compassionate actions and through wisdom being taught. Though change sometimes takes a long time to come it always will but usually through the minds and hearts of the people more so than through the sword.

To be clear there are times the sword may be the only choice but it should always be the last choice in a do or die situation. All other avenues should be exhausted before such a terrible thing as war or conflict should be considered. I myself would never seek out any type of negative action such as war or to kill another human being, I find taking the lives of others into my hands as such is to play as if I am god and that is definitely not an option for me. I am a mere human being and I try to do what I see as good for both myself and all other living creatures on this planet. Having my own faults I don’t always succeed in making the right choices but I put my best effort in trying to avoid hurting others when I make choices. Sometimes it is unavoidable and I usually suffer from a conscience that will not allow me to forget.

Live by the moral code of your choosing and avoid causing suffering of any kind while you walk the path of life. If you must be judgmental try to judge kindly for you are judged by the way you judge others. Learn to forgive both yourself and others for the shortcomings we all seem to bear. Treat others with kindness for it is the right thing to do and it also may be returned to you when you are in need. Be slow to anger and quick to cool down, for anger is the path to destruction. And always remember you don’t have to agree with each other, you just have to respect each others right to believe as they wish.

Well that’s enough of this fools thoughts for today.
Peace and wisdom guide your hearts.
Raymond Barbier

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Congress Needs to Get a Grip

united states currency seal - IMG_7366_web

Once again the congress is in the process of taking away more benefits from our seniors. They always seem to aim at the seniors when it comes to budget cuts. Medicaid and Medicare are an important part o a seniors ability to financially survive. The fat health insurance is still unaffordable for the average Joe and the retired middle class it makes no sense to cut the Medicaid and Medicare programs. There are so many programs the congress can cut besides the programs that we have paid for through the F.I.C.A / Social Security taxes. To be honest I would rather pay a little bit more out of my paycheck to keep Medicare, Medicaid and social security off the cutting block in congress.

We may have to impose a national sales tax that only applies to luxury items similar to the V.A.T. of Europe to help deal with the national debt. The congress really needs to put aside their political parties agendas and get down to business. A big part of our economical problem is that the United States has became too much of a consumer economy. We consume far ore than we produce, most of the product bought in the U.S. is from foreign countries. We need to make it more profitable for companies to produce in the U.S. and American products more affordable to consumers.

The bottom line is that the congress is going to have to come up with a balanced solution to our national debt and economical situation. they will have to find a good balance of budget cuts and tax increases to accomplish the task at hand. But as long as they stick to political party agendas and are unwilling to compromise the chances of a true economical recovery is very unlikely.

God Bless and may truth light your path.

Raymond Barbier.

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