The Human Experiment Experience

By Dan Barber

If I may be presumptuous enough, I would like to call attention to our human experiment in the social/political/environmental sciences. I would like to write down some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head off and on for a while now before they can escape again.

Recently I have noticed a lot of talk in the news about white people having “white privilege” and poor people resenting what rich people have, and self-appointed or elected leaders promising to create opportunities to redistribute wealth from the one-percent of richest people to everyone else and to make a level playing field for everyone.

How about sharing the diversity of cultures, ideas and educational opportunities for inclusion in the human condition rather then building barriers with political clichés, government interference and over-regulation that bar entrepreneurism for individuals?

Then there are the environmentalists who worry about what humans and farting cows are doing to the earth and oceans, those righteous self-appointed or elected leaders also make promises to create opportunities for scientists to clean up the environment; develop cattle food that will prevent cow gas; and to provide renewable and affordable “clean” energy and to take away people’s guns so they can’t shoot one another with them.

We also have animal rights groups who are concerned with carnivorous humans who eat beef, pork, poultry and fish; and use domesticated animals to perform some tasks for humans such as providing companionship, guiding blind people or sniffing out drugs, bombs or criminals hiding in bushes, or fetching dead ducks.

Environmental and animal rights activists butt heads over environmental and animal rights issues because huge windmills kill birds… some of which might be endangered because they are nocturnal hunters who can’t see the blades of the wind mills at night. Then huge solar farm developments in the desert, where sun shines the most, that have displaced endangered desert tortoises and other critters from their natural habitat in some areas to make room for the large solar array, to other areas of the desert with enclosed habitats for the tortoises own protection… however a problem with this idea has created overcrowding of the artificial habitats which means some of the desert denizens there have to be euthanized so a healthy population of tortoises can be maintained.

In addition, the large mirrored arrays of solar farms concentrate the desert sun’s heat on a tower which also kills birds because they fly through the concentrated heat and catch fire in flight… they do this because they mistake the mirrored fields below as a large body of water, which attract the birds wanting a cool drink. I’ve heard the workers at the solar farms call these birds “smokers” because they leave a trail of smoke as they fall from the sky to the ground.

I recently read in the news that herds of deer are overtaking the grounds at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) so they have equipped a special operating room at the NIH so they can neuter or spay the deer at a cost to taxpayers of only $1,000 each so they don’t have to euthanize any of the animals to maintain a healthy population… my question is… don’t deer also fart? And, wouldn’t it be cheaper to allow hunters to shoot a few of them each year for food?

My suggestion is to separate and isolate the political scientists from the environmental and social sciences so they don’t muddy what water we have left.

OK, I’m done.

Addressing Christmas Sprit, or Bah Humbug!

By Dan Barber

I need to apologize to family and friends for my lack of Christmas spirit this year. I can only blame myself for the absence of lights adorning my home or a large Christmas tree taking up valuable space in my living room… Yes Virginia, I’ve become a big bah humbug type of person.

My dread of Christmas cheer increases each year that I grow older. I used to believe that a miracle would happen on the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus… but that miracle has already happened at His birth. I do enjoy the happiness that my Grandchildren display during this time of year, but my dread starts to build from the time stores start stocking and selling Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa before Halloween has even passed. I would love to give my children or the Grandchildren who are old enough a nice new car with the big red bow as advertised repeatedly on TV but I can’t.

Then there are the news reports stating that our U.S. economy hinges on Holiday sales projections. Which just reminds me of the debate reported in the news about appropriate greetings during this time of year between should it be “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah” or “Happy Kwanzaa.”

For the sake of disclosure: As a Christian my preferred greeting is Merry Christmas, but when I was a Navy Journalist I favored the government requirement of using “Happy Holidays” because it saved me from using up limited editorial space in my command newspapers, and it didn't anger anyone except for the Puritans.

When my children were young and we were stationed overseas far from family our tradition was to start Christmas decorating right after our Thanksgiving meal. My now adult children continue that tradition for their own kids.

There isn’t even the opportunity to escape from Christmas Cheer when all of my favorite TV dramas or comedies on Prime Time TV are preempted for Christmas cartoon reruns from years past…even “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” as sung by its creator Gene Autry keeps rattling around in my head until President’s Day in February.

I did give American made gifts to my Grandchildren this year… they were printed at the U.S. Mint, and I didn’t even have to fight the crowds at the mall! I just had to stand in line behind a few people at the bank who were smart enough to save up for Christmas in special interest bearing savings accounts.

I can proudly say I did my part by contributing to the U.S. Economy via my nine Grandchildren, who will probably spend their Christmas gift from me at the mall where they will buy their favorite foreign made doodad they believe they’ve always wanted. “They’re happy, I’m happy, happy, happy” as one of my favorite TV personalities would state.

I believe this year I will deflate my “self-imposed” holiday stress by attending Christmas Mass and telling Jesus, “Happy Birthday.”

Happy Birthday and 45th Anniversary Punkin

By Dan Barber

I won’t say how old you are, but you do have a lot of miles on you… over 60 trillion miles, and at a very high rate of speed, to boot, of about 66,600 miles per hour.**

I do admit that I too have a lot of miles on me because together we have been on a wild and fun ride that I would not trade for anything. It has been a magical destiny that was possibly started even before our parents were born, with a childhood blood brother pact our grandfathers worked out when they were children 50 years earlier in Nebraska before we even met in California. This scenario is probably unlikely, but they were in fact neighbors as recorded in the Nebraska census of 1910…it has been fun to speculate why we were made for each other.

I hope that what I have given you over the years has provided more happiness than sadness, more adventure than boredom and more security than insecurity.

Whenever you are in pain I am in more pain; whenever you are sad I am sadder; whenever you are happy I am happier because you give me purpose to my life.

We are survivors… because we have survived emotional turmoil; health scares; long separations because of my Navy obligations; and the challenges of parenthood. Our emotions have calmed; our illnesses and injuries were cured or repaired; our long separations adapted to by celebrating holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and events whenever we could; and our children survived to be successful adults with children of their own, that we now spoil. All of those things could not have been possible if you were not there to take care of the family while I was away from home. You adapted and flourished in many different cultures thousands of miles away from your childhood home and family.

There isn’t any material thing that I could possibly give you that is worthy of the love that I feel for you. I do promise to keep on loving you...hopefully for eternity.

Happy Birthday and Happy 45^th Anniversary!

** Based on the 93 million mile orbit of the earth around the sun in one year at a speed of about 66,600 miles per hour.

Using Racism as a Political Tool

By Dan Barber

When I first read about New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s remarks about racism going back for centuries I thought, “What a political moron.” But after thinking about all of the media coverage of current events I’m thinking that he might have a point.

I believe that ugly racism has been used like a weapon to gain political status, power and comfort since the beginning of time. To understand the root cause of racism I believe that we have to look at it through the prism of the human experience reflecting societal norms for the survival and belief systems of the individual.

Our history has shown that wars have broken out when some event took place to threaten the survival and beliefs of a society. Some of those historical events having impacted the individual view of survival much deeper by triggering the emotional need to avenge some historical wrong.

Divisive racism will end when it’s no longer used to control societal norms.

If allowed by voters and the media Congress will now have an opportunity to serve everyone through empowerment rather then through the oppressive governmental controls espoused by some progressives.

Conservative leaders need to study the past political strategies of the Progressives so they don't fall into the same trap of misleading voters for the sake of controlling them to win elections. Keeping people trapped in the high density Ghettos or high density urban developments with the promise of unionized employment is an easy and cheap way to maintain a voter base. For this reason, the Electoral College has been established so high population centers of America does not have the absolute power of “selecting” our President by excluding rural voters. 

Unfortunately for Americans, with a globalized economy those high-paying union jobs are disappearing from the rusted out factories and urban centers such as Detroit that once kept people contained in their comfortable society.

Also by using environmental controls, politically rather than scientifically, can and does oppress business and employment opportunities in rural America which can drive job seekers to high-density population centers. It is very important for the future of our country to pay attention and not allow politicians or their pundits the opportunity to manipulate our society, for the sake of a political party win.

Just recently leading Democrats have announced forming a task force as a strategy to counter Republican Party attempts to forward conservative goals for the country. Part of the Democrats plan is to garner support from minorities who they can only control through fear and oppression. The oppression comes from providing housing, medical care, food, and cash aid. The Democrats do not want minorities to be self-reliant because if that happened the progressive liberals would lose control of their vote. As soon as the Democrats lost control of the Congress in the mid-terms elections Obama turned up the heat on conservatives with his plan for allowing undocumented immigrants to stay in the US and work... Who do you think will suffer the most from this action? American minorities and legally documented immigrants who will be competing for any available jobs... a vicious cycle of oppression continues.

The fear aspect comes into play when the Democrats play up the fears of the people with the threat that mean Republicans will take away their free money, homes, food and medical care. Conservatives will want people to get out and work for what they get! My gosh... what a concept, self-reliance, personal responsibility, freedom to own what you’ve earned instead of sharing what you’ve earned (taxes) with people who don't want to work.

Just to add to our societal scare tactics, we now have agitators drumming up the old fears of blacks against whites and visa-versa. I hope that Obama, Reid and Pelosi really believe in what they are doing to help people, because they don't know any better. If they were actually manipulating people for their own political gain, then in my opinion, they are much worse then the original plantation owners and slave traders of old.

The enslavement of people with socialism has been shown to be a self-defeating model because it destroys the societal norms for the survival and belief systems of the individual...especially when one of the leading societal norms for Americans is freedom.