Know♣Justice

Occam’s Razor and Global Climate Change

2011-07-16T21:39:00.002-06:00

William of Occam

Occam’s razor is a reference to the methodology and philosophies of William of Ockham. Occam was a friar and a philosopher from Surrey. He is best known for his philosophical style which has come to be known as Occam’s razor. This methodology choosing between competing ideas or theories in which both theories explain a phenomenon; the one with the least amount of assumptions is generally more reliable.

This methodology is logical because it favors facts while weeding out bias and unfounded postulations. If you find yourself making a lot of assumptions to justify a belief, it is an indicator that your belief is an unscientific and illogical belief. This does not mean it is wrong but only that it is less reliable in the scientific world view.

As children we often see the world through black and white goggles: There is good, there is evil, there is right, there is wrong, there is truth, and there are falsehoods. As children we are seemingly constrained by sharp deep lines that separate our perceptions of reality and truth. As we grow older these lines often blur and rather than our previous sharp contrast of black and white we rather see hundreds of shades of grey; rarely if ever do we deal with absolutes.

Flat Earth Society Map

As I perceive the debate on global climate change there are big questions that need to be answered. How do we know what to believe? What is black, and what is white? Will we ever come to unanimity in belief? This is very unlikely to happen on any subject. Today there are those who dispute just about any scientific theory. The Flat Earth Society is a good example of this. The Flat Earth Society believes that the earth is not a globe but rather a flat circular disc. This movement has intellectual and educated people in it. I use this example because it helps demonstrate that even well established and seemingly logical ideas have critics and skeptics.

We do not and cannot know with full certainty that anthropogenic climate change is occurring nor can we know for certain that the world is spherical. As we learn from the reasoning of French philosopher Rene Descartes, if we take skepticism to the extreme we cannot believe anything in this world except that we ourselves think and are thus existent. When it comes down to it, all that we believe can be doubted.

Greg Craven

Thus as we examine the information and ideas in relation to anthropogenic climate change, we should not require absolute proof or seek for an uncontended consensus but rather we should adopt the mantra of Greg Craven that,

“[We] don’t need to determine who is right to make a decent bet.”

This situation provides a need for critical thinking and analysis skills such as the principle of Occam’s razor. I wish to apply Occam’s razor to the driving question in the global climate debate discussion: Why is the earth getting warmer? I will attempt to briefly examine the most popular claims from both sides of the discussion. Then, both sides will be examined with the question, “Which side assumes less?”

We will start by explaining the Warmers’ position. The position is fairly universal among Warmers and the default position in the scientific community.

Through direct temperature measurements from the mid 1860’s until 2000, there has been a rise in the global average temperature by 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.44 Fahrenheit). These recent measurements correlate well, in most regards, with that of proxy measurements used to determine past temperatures.

This rise in temperature is attributed to the increase in concentration of Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses are gasses which can absorb and radiate infrared waves. The most efficacious greenhouse gasses are water vapor (60 – 70 % of total greenhouse gas effects), carbon dioxide (9 – 26 %), methane (4-9%), and ozone (3-7%). These greenhouse gasses absorb and radiate infrared light coming from the earth back towards the earth causing a blanket-like effect. This causes the earth to retain more of the heat received from the sun and thus raises the temperature of the earth. The greenhouse effect is the Warmers’ explanation why the earth is getting warmer.

Skeptics, here defined by myself for the purpose of this article, are those who disbelieve anthropogenic climate change. They have two main explanations as to why the globe is apparently warming:

Fred Singer

The first response is simply that the world is not warming. Skeptics claim that the temperature records are subject to large errors and that the coverage for direct measurements has been patchy therefore producing inaccurate global temperatures. They cite the urban heat island effect as a cause. Fred Singer, a prominent skeptic, stated that it is difficult to believe anthropogenic climate change when some predictions of climate models for the future have been inaccurate:

“…until the observations and the models agree, or until one or the other is resolved, it's very difficult…to believe in the predictive power of the current models.”

  I believe that Occam’s razor would dictate that we favor the Warmers’ position. The skeptics’ position an acceptable theory, but it relies on assumed uncertain and unscientifically-founded errors. It does not seem to provide better alternative information or data to explain the apparent increase in temperature.

   While their claim of inaccuracy of direct measurements was generally valid, the scientists have conducted studies and have made corrections in relation to these criticisms to the best scientific knowledge we have. However, the results still indicate an increasing global temperature which cannot be explained by the heat island effect; further NASA studies have examined the heat island effect and found that is it not a significant factor in the direct measurements.

   As for the supposed failure in models, models are not perfect and cannot account for all the potential changes in the climate due to variations. It cannot completely project future conditions as the variables are not all known nor are models primarily intended to project future conditions thus errors are inevitable in the scientific process and more more often call for refining rather than abandonment.

An additional issue when claiming the globe is not warming is the fact that proxy measurements generally agree with the direct measurements. Further we can see ice melting at an increased rate. Ice that has persisted for hundreds of years is melting, and thus sea levels are rising. These indicate an overall change in temperature of the globe.

If we look at the carbon dioxide concentrations in regards to global temperature throughout history we see that there is a heavy correlation. We see this on our earth through direct and proxy measurements. We also see it in planets such as Venus which has a higher concentration of greenhouse gasses. Although Venus is much further from the sun than Mercury, it is much warmer. It takes more of a leap of faith to say that the apparent correlation of carbon concentrations, temperature, direct measurements, and proxy measurements is result from anomalies and inaccuracies than it is to say that the measurements are generally accurate. There seems to be more assumptions made by the Skeptics in this view than by the Warmers.

Khabibullo Abdusamatov

A second skeptical view is that global warming is occurring but that it is natural and not caused by humans. Skeptic Khabibullo Abdusamatov claims:

“Global warming results not from the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but from an unusually high level of solar radiation and a lengthy – almost throughout the last century – growth in its intensity.”

Tim Patterson

Likewise, Tim Patterson testified to the Commons Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development stating,

“There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth's temperature over this [geologic] time frame. In fact, when CO2 levels were over ten times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half billion years...how could anyone still believe that the recent relatively small increase in CO2 levels would be the major cause of the past century's modest warming?”

It is pointed out frequently that the earth goes through cycles; it has been hotter, and it has been cooler. As is shown by Patterson, there have been periods in history where there have been high greenhouse gasses concentrations in the air while having lower temperatures. Recently, many skeptics have pointed out that the earth has not significantly risen in temperature since 2002 despite the fact that CO2 emissions have continued to increase.

Warmers would respond that while the models do not have 100% accuracy they have been shown to be very accurate over long term patterns. Short term predictions are very difficult to accurately make because of so many unknown variables. Anomalies in the pattern have been and are to be expected. However, as we look at the long-term results that the models predicted, they match current records.

Due to the apparent accuracy of models we currently have I believe it would be more of an assumption to believe that the correlation between carbon dioxide and global temperature is a coincidence than to believe that the discrepancies in the short-term predictions are due to natural short-term variations and anomalies that were unaccounted for. I believe that Occam’s razor would again support the warmers’ position.

CO2 Hockey Stick Graph

The last issue I would like to examine with Occam’s razor is the issue of scientific consensus. Why do most climatologists believe in anthropogenic climate change? Is it because they do not understand? Do they purposefully tout information they believe it untrue? Or is it that it makes sense to them, and thus the majority of people believe in it? I would say the simplest, less assuming answer would be the latter. Let us assume that the scientists trained in this area of expertise are honestly working their best to further humanity.

Occam’s razor does not necessitate truth, but it does help make decisions for individuals. It has

helped me to accept the tenants of anthropogenic climate change as I feel that it is less assuming than climate skepticism. I do not feel that I have determined what is right or wrong, but I do feel that with the information I have I can make a decent bet.

Works Cited

"BBC News - The Arguments Made by Climate Change Sceptics." BBC News - Home. Web. 14 July 2011. .

"Changes in Arctic Land Ice and Impacts on Sea Level - Barry." NOAA Arctic Theme Page - A Comprehensive Arctic Resource. Web. 14 July 2011. .

Craven, Greg. What's the Worst That Could Happen?: a Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate. New York: Perigee, 2009. Print.

Descartes, René, Elizabeth Sanderson Haldane, David Eugene Smith, William Hale White, René Descartes, René Descartes, René Descartes, and Benedictus De Spinoza. Rules for the Direction of the Mind. Discourse on the Method. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1955. Print.

"Does CO2 Always Correlate with Temperature (and If Not, Why Not?)." Global Warming and Climate Change Skepticism Examined. Web. 15 July 2011. .

"ESA Portal - Greenhouse Effects... Also on Other Planets." ESA Communications Portal. Web. 15 July 2011. .

The Flat Earth Society. Web. 14 July 2011. .

"Global Warming." Global Warming. Web. 14 July 2011. .

Gray, Vincent. The Greenhouse Delusion: a Critique of "climate Change 2001" Brentwood: Multi-Science, 2002. Print.

Hansen, J., R. Ruedy, M. Sato, M. Imhoff, W. Lawrence, D. Easterling, T. Peterson, and T. Karl. "A Closer Look at United States and Global Surface Temperature Change." Journal of Geophysical Research 106.D20 (2001): 23947-3963. Print.

Harris, Tom. "Global Warming, Scientists, Al Gore Climate Change." Canada Free Press: Online Conservative Newspaper, News, Politics, Editorials. Web. 15 July 2011. .

Leff, Gordon. William of Ockham: the Metamorphosis of Scholastic Discourse. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1975. Print.

Media Construction of Global Warming. Ithaca, NY: Project Look Sharp, 2010. Print.

"Russian Academic Says CO2 Not to Blame for Global Warming." Russian Information Agency. Web. 14 July 2011.

"Temperature Change and Carbon Dioxide Change." National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Web. 15 July 2011. ."What's up with the Weather: the Debate: Dr. S. Fred Singer." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 14 July 2011.

Water, ESNO, and Natural Climate Change

2011-06-25T21:38:00.011-06:00

Introduction
As a child I was often in trouble with my parents. The offenses ranged from not telling them where I had gone to getting into fights with my older brother Timothy. Going through these challenges and experimenting in my youth taught me many lessons about life. I am often amazed that the simple lessons I learned as a child apply in new circumstances today. One lesson which I never knew was going to help me later happened while in the bathtub. As I imagine is common with most children, I didn’t want to take baths. If I had to take a bath I thoroughly enjoyed them; I would make fantastic tidal waves by pushing my body back and forth in the bathtub which would have the adverse effect of creating a small lake on the tile floor of our bathroom. My parents were not too impressed with my fun, but perhaps they would not make me take another bath in the future. Through observing the movement of water and the effect that I had on it, it helped me better understand how such things as thermohaline circulation and water currents work.

Water and the World
Water covers roughly 70.9% of the world’s surface; it is essential for all known forms of life. According to The World Almanac and Book of Facts Americans use on average 123 gallons of fresh water each day; if this held true as a national average than the entirety of the world uses 852,390,000,000 (852 billion) gallons of water daily. Water provides the means to clean ourselves, prepare our food, and it nurtures wildlife which we in turn eat. However, many people are unaware or perhaps uninterested that water plays a large part in Global weather and temperature. Water affects the climate and weather in several ways: it is the source of precipitation, it absorbs carbon dioxide, while water vapors are in the air it acts as a greenhouse gas, and water creates cloud cover which provides shade and can reflect and radiate away energy. Water can also affect the climate through thermohaline circulation, also known as the ocean conveyer belt. This affects both local temperatures through the transfer of water and the global climate. Water also takes a lot of energy to change temperature and as such it absorbs much of the sun’s heat. Otherwise, it would have had to have been absorbed by land mass which heats up much easier than water. Another way that water affects us is through cycles such as the El Nino of La Nina.

The El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

  El Nino and La Nina or the El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a quasiperiodic climate pattern occurring across the Pacific Ocean. It is a pattern that affects weather around the world. In this pattern there are two oscillating phases: El Nino, which is characterized by warmer weather, and La Nina, which is characterized by cooler weather. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it generally occurs alternatively every 3 to 5 years, however it has historically varied at the outskirts 2 to 7 years.

  Before we can fully understand why this happens, we must first understand three things about water. Firstly, we must understand that dense objects sink in water. Secondly, cold water is heavier than warm water because the water molecule contracts. Thirdly, salt water is heavier than fresh water because the salt ions have closely bonded to the water molecules. This will help us understand how the El-Nino Southern Oscillation works.

  The reason that El Nino and La Nina occurs is due to the variations of the generally constant easterly trade winds in the south pacific which in turn effect the movement and currents of the South Pacific Ocean.

During a La Nina year, the winds on earth are blowing more strongly from east to west. This moves the warmer surface waters near South America towards the western pacific area: Australia and South-east Asia. This causes increased water levels, rainfall, and water pressure in the western south pacific, but for the east pacific it causes it to be colder than usual. While the warm water is being pushed to the west it piles up and displaces the colder waters below pushing that lower, colder water westward towards South America. When the cold, deep water gets to South America it replaces the warmer water that is being moved west by a process known as upwelling. This works as a general cycle – warm water in the west and cold water in the east. After the La Nina season winds return to their normal westward blowing thus decreasing the effects of the La Nina. This will stay constant for nearly 3 to 5 years before the next big change – an El Nino year.

During an El Nino year the effects are opposite of the La Nina. For some reason the winds stop blowing westward, and as a result the water no longer piles up on the west but rather rushes back towards America and eventually settles more evenly along the south pacific with the warm water distributed along the top of the ocean while the cold water remains below. This causes rain and warmer temperatures along the coast of South America along with droughts in the south east pacific. Along with the direct affects, the El-Nino Southern Oscillation also affects temperatures and air currents worldwide. As the El Nino year subsides, the normal prevailing eastern trade winds returns and blows back the warm surface water towards the south east pacific and remains fairly constant for the next 3 to 5 years until the next La Nina.

Conclusion

Although the El-Nino Southern Oscillation does affect temperature and weather, it does not affect the long term climate or temperature; it is a cyclical process which should not be taken as a sign of global climate change, global warming, or global cooling. Incidental weather is not a good indicator of climate change, but rather we need to be able to identify the natural processes which take place in our globe and account for them in our calculation to identify possible climate change. We need to find averages over long periods of time and identify trends. As we learn more about the natural oscillations and patterns of weather and temperature of earth, we will better be able to understand what is really happening on this earth.

Works Cited

"Are Cold Liquids More Dense Than Warm Liquids? A Guided-Inquiry Activity." NASA. Web. 24 June 2011.

"Global Climate Change: Oceans' Effect on Climate." Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Web. 24 June 2011. .

"International Programs." Census Bureau Home Page. Web. 24 June 2011. .

"La Niña Frequently Asked Questions." National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Web. 24 June 2011. .

Oregon. Mixing Fresh and Salt Water. Web. 24 June 2011.

Philander, S. G. H. "El Niño Southern Oscillation Phenomena." Nature 302.5906 (1983): 295-301. Print.

Terry, James P. Tropical Cyclones: Climatology and Impacts in the South Pacific. New York: Springer, 2007. Print.

"Thermohaline Circulation - Fact Sheet by Stefan Rahmstorf." Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research — PIK Research Portal. Web. 24 June 2011. .

United Nations. Web. 24 June 2011. .

Unites States. CIA. World Factbook Geographic Overview. Web. 24 June 2011. .
The World Almanac and Book of Facts. New York, NY: World Almanac, 2009. Print.

A Scientific Consensus on Global Climate Change?

2011-06-15T22:42:00.000-06:00

Imagine this: Over the period of several weeks you notice a small lump growing under your skin on your neck area. You are uncertain what it is or what it could mean but you know enough to know that it could be a dangerous cancer lump. What do you do? Should you Google it? Should you ask your friends? Should you ask respected scholars? Should you go see a medical doctor? Or should you just ignore it and hope that it goes away?

  To most outsiders the answer seems very obvious – go see a doctor! He will know best what it could be and what to do about it. However, for those in similar situations, history has shows that each of the above answered have frequently been employed in such life or death choices, sometimes with fatal consequences. Does the doctor know for sure the answer? Rarely if ever. Does he guarantee his solution will work? No. Does he guarantee it is even the best solution? No. But who better is there to answer the question than a doctor? Surely not your friends or family, not one with a Doctorate of Philosophy in Music Theory, not those who yell loudest, but those who have the most training on the subject.

  We can apply this to climate change. There is very little debate that the earth has been getting warmer. Nor do I believe that many would refuse to concede that the potential extreme consequences that are proposed by some could have devastating effects on the globe. More in the limelight in the debate is whether or not humans are causing this warming, whether the climate is changing a significant amount, and whether we can stop it. We have a big lump, there are vast evidences of climate change in the world today, but the real question is what are we going to do about it? Who do we go to get the best answers? Who are the doctors, the experts?

  The experts, or doctors, in global climate change are those who are actively studying and publishing in peer-reviewed journals on the issue of global climate change. They are climatologist, those who are trained and publish within the issues of the climate. Although everyone’s opinion does count, if we want the best results and the best answers we must go to those who know the most about the issues. Just because someone has a doctorate does not qualify him to speak on the issue with authority. Once again, you would not go to one with a doctorate of philosophy in music to diagnose your potentially cancerous lump.

  So what do the experts in climate change say? In this article I will discuss three of the major measurements of this question:

What is the opinion of individual experts?
What do the peer-reviewed research papers say on the matter?
What do prevalent and relevant societies have to say about the matter?

  I will only examine singular instances and studies.

  In a 2009 poll by Peter Doran and Maggie Zimmerman, in which 3,146 earth scientists responded 75 out of the 77 (97.4%) published climatologists believed humans were a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures. The study’s results also show a general positive correlation between education and a belief in anthropogenic climate change.

  Naomi Oreskes preformed a study on 928 peer-reviewed abstracts between 1993 and 2003 that had the key-word “global climate change” in which she reviewed the abstracts view on the legitimacy of anthropogenic climate change. She found that 20% explicitly endorsed it, 55% implicitly endorsed it, while the remaining 25% did not take a stance on validity. Tellingly no abstract explicitly rejected anthropogenic climate change.

  Julie Brigham-Grett stated in 2006 that “…the AAPG [American Association of Petroleum Geologists] stands alone among scientific societies in its denial of human-induced effects on global warming." Since that time the AAPG has changed its statement which according to Bigham-Grett would mean that no scientific body of national or international standing rejects the findings of human-induced effects on climate change.

  My conclusion in viewing this and such studies have lead me to believe that there is no significant debate among practicing scientists about the validity of anthropogenic climate change. Although there are those who are knowledgeable and are experts that oppose it, there are examples of these people in any subject including gravity or micro and macro evolution.

  Will there ever be a complete consensus on global climate change? Probably not. Will the experts always have the best answer? Maybe not. Who would better know what to do? I am content to believe a vast majority of leading scientists on the topics in the field. I am not a scientist, I do not know the majority of science behind global climate change, nor do I really feel a need to learn them to be confident in my choice. Climatology is not my field of interest or expertise. My personal overarching questions are “who would know best?” and “who will I trust with my children’s lives?” With democracy widespread in most all progressive countries we have a personal moral responsibility and stewardship over this earth; our voices count. We need to listen to what the experts are warning us about and move forward with the best scientific knowledge that they have to offer.

Carbon Dioxide(CO2) Emissions by Country per Capita

Works Cited

Brigham-Grette, Julie, Scott Anderson, John Clague, Julia Cole, Peter Doran, Alan Gillespie, Eric Grimm, Peggy Guccione, Konrad Hughen, Stephen Jackson, Timothy Jull, Steven Leavitt, Rolfe Mandel, Joseph Ortiz, Donald Rodbell, Charlie Schweger, Alison Smith, and Bonnie Styles. "Petroleum Geologists' Award to Novelist Crichton Is Inappropriate." Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 87.36 (2006). Print.

Doran, Peter T., and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman. "Examining the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change." Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 90.3 (2009): 22. Print.

"International Programs." Census Bureau Home Page. U.S. Census Bureau. Web. 19 May 2011. .

Oreskes, N. "BEYOND THE IVORY TOWER: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change." Science 306.5702 (2004): 1686. Print.

Polling Report, comp. PollingReport.com. Rep. 2011. Web. 19 May 2011. .

The Index of Economic Freedom

2010-12-10T20:59:00.004-07:00

For fifteen years The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal created the Index of Economic Freedom in 1995. This index measures and ranks the economic freedom of Countries around the world. It does so by measuring 10 broad economic factors: Business Freedom, Trade Freedom, Monetary Freedom, Government Size, Fiscal Freedom, Property Rights, Investment Freedom, Financial Freedom, Freedom from Corruption, and Labor Freedom. Each of these factors is measured equally from a scale of 0-100 where 0 represent no freedom and 100 means absolute freedom.

The Benefits Economic Freedom

The main assumption in the index is that economic freedom is a positive cultural and societal influence. It is geared towards the idea that the ideal economy to be a capitalistic system. Honorable Elaine L. Chao, 24th United States Secretary of Labor, said of economic freedom:

“History has proven that trade freedom is the best economic strategy for all of the world’s peoples. History has also shown that we are prone to ignore history.

Since 1979, the value of world exports has risen by an average of 7.1 percent annually. During that same period, world income has skyrocketed. Gross domestic product (GDP) for the world as a whole, measured in constant 2000 U.S. dollars, has risen from $17.5 trillion in 1979 to $40.3 trillion in 2008. Even on a per capita basis, GDP growth has been impressive, jumping from $4,002 to $6,023...

Few would doubt the relationship between increased trade flows and the rapid worldwide economic growth at the end of the 20th century…”

(Terry Miller and Kim R. Holmes. 2010 Index of Economic Freedom. New York: Wall Street Journal, 2010. PG 13.)

While it is true that most would agree there some such as Jeffrey Sachs, American economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, contests that economic openness in his book The End of Poverty in which Sachs' argues that poor countries are stuck in poverty which there is no escape except by significant contributions of foreign aid.

Although the benefits of economic freedom could be contended it is said by one of his students that Sachs admitted that “the path to long-term development would only be achieved through private sector involvement and free market solutions". Although the degree may be disputed it is a general consensus that economic freedom is a good and economical beneficial system.

The Factors of the Index

The ten factors for the Index of Economic Freedom as measured by the society are as follows (as is described by the organization itself):

Business Freedom

Business freedom is a quantitative measure of the ability to start, operate, and close a business that represents the overall burden of regulation as well as the efficiency of government in the regulatory process. The business freedom score for each country is a number between 0 and 100, with 100 equaling the freest business environment. The score is based on 10 factors, all weighted equally, using data from the World Bank’s Doing Business study… Each of these raw factors is converted to a scale of 0 to 100, after which the average of the converted values is computed.

Trade Freedom

Trade freedom is a composite measure of the absence of tariff and non-tariff barriers that affect imports and exports of goods and services. The trade freedom score is based on two inputs: The trade-weighted average tariff rate and Non-tariff barriers (NTBs).

Different imports entering a country can, and often do, face different tariffs. The weighted average tariff uses weights for each tariff based on the share of imports for each good. Weighted average tariffs are a purely quantitative measure and account for the basic calculation of the score using the following equation:

Fiscal Freedom

Fiscal freedom is a measure of the tax burden imposed by government. It includes both the direct tax burden in terms of the top tax rates on individual and corporate incomes and the overall amount of tax revenue as a percentage of GDP. Thus, the fiscal freedom component is composed of three quantitative factors: The top tax rate on individual income, The top tax rate on corporate income, and Total tax revenue as a percentage of GDP.

In scoring the fiscal freedom component, each of these numerical variables is weighted equally as one-third of the factor.

Government Spending

No attempt has been made to identify an ideal level of government expenditures. The ideal level will vary from country to country, depending on factors ranging from culture to geography to level of development. The methodology treats zero government spending as the benchmark, and underdeveloped countries with little government capacity may receive artificially high scores as a result. However, such governments, which can provide few if any public goods, will be penalized by lower scores on some of the other components of economic freedom (such as property rights and financial freedom).

The scale for scoring government spending is non-linear, which means that government spending that is close to zero is lightly penalized, while levels of government spending that exceed 30 percent of GDP receive much worse scores in a quadratic fashion (e.g., doubling spending yields four times less freedom), so that only really large governments receive very low scores.

Monetary Freedom
Monetary freedom combines a measure of price stability with an assessment of price controls. Both inflation and price controls distort market activity. Price stability without microeconomic intervention is the ideal state for the free market. The score for the monetary freedom factor is based on two factors: The weighted average inflation rate for the most recent three years and price controls.

Investment Freedom

In an economically free country, there would be no constraints on the flow of investment capital. Individuals and firms would be allowed to move their resources into and out of specific activities both internally and across the country’s borders without restriction. Such an ideal country would receive a score of 100 on the investment freedom component of the Index of Economic Freedom.

Financial Freedom

Financial freedom is a measure of banking security as well as a measure of independence from government control. State ownership of banks and other financial institutions such as insurers and capital markets reduces competition and generally lowers the level of available services.

The Index scores this component by determining the extent of government regulation of financial services; the extent of state intervention in banks and other financial services; the difficulty of opening and operating financial services firms (for both domestic and foreign individuals); and government influence on the allocation of credit. This analysis is used to develop a description of the country’s financial climate and assign an overall score on a scale of 0 to 100 through a comparison of standards.

Property Freedom

The property rights component is an assessment of the ability of individuals to accumulate private property, secured by clear laws that are fully enforced by the state. It measures the degree to which a country’s laws protect private property rights and the degree to which its government enforces those laws. It also assesses the likelihood that private property will be expropriated and analyzes the independence of the judiciary, the existence of corruption within the judiciary, and the ability of individuals and businesses to enforce contracts. The more certain the legal protection of property, the higher a country’s score; similarly, the greater the chances of government expropriation of property, the lower a country’s score.

Freedom from Corruption

Corruption erodes economic freedom by introducing insecurity and uncertainty into economic relationships. The score for this component is derived primarily from Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2008, which measures the level of corruption in 180 countries.

The CPI is based on a 10-point scale in which a score of 10 indicates very little corruption and a score of 0 indicates a very corrupt government. In scoring freedom from corruption, the Index converts the raw CPI data to a scale of 0 to 100 by multiplying the CPI score by 10

For countries that are not covered in the CPI, the freedom from corruption score is determined by using the qualitative information from internationally recognized and reliable sources. This procedure considers the extent to which corruption prevails in a country.

Labor Freedom

The labor freedom component is a quantitative measure that looks into various aspects of the legal and regulatory framework of a country's labor market. It provides cross-country data on regulations concerning minimum wages; laws inhibiting layoffs; severance requirements; and measurable regulatory burdens on hiring, hours, and so on.

Six quantitative factors are equally weighted, with each counted as one-sixth of the labor freedom component: Ratio of minimum wage to the average value added per worker, Hindrance to hiring additional workers, Rigidity of hours, Difficulty of firing redundant employees, Legally mandated notice period, and Mandatory severance pay.

Average Score Out of 179 Countries
Overall Freedom	59.37
Business Freedom	64.4
Trade Freedom	74.2
Fiscal Freedom	75.4
Government Freedom	65.0
Monetary Freedom	70.6
Investment Freedom	49.0
Financial Freedom	48.5
Property Rights	43.8
Freedom from Corruption	40.5
Labor Freedom	62.1

The Results
Overall there are 179 countries measure and ranked, for a full list of rankings and score please see the full list on their website at www.heritage.org/index/Ranking. Here I will only list the top ten economically free countries and other countries of personal interest. Folloing is the map of economic freedom published by the society as well as the top ten free economic nation for the 2010 study:

(Click to Enlarge)

Top 10 Countries of 2010

(Click to enlarge)

It is interesting to note that Hong Kong is, and has been the number one leader in Economic Freedom since the study was initiated in 1995. As we look at Hong Kong we notice that it is in juxtaposition with China, which is ranked 140th (see Countries of Interest Table). Hong Kong is extremely stable and productive economically. In 2009 Hong Kong 2.3 trillion dollars in initial public offering (IPO), this constitutes 22 percent of the worldwide initial public offering (whereas Hong Kong only constitutes .13 percent of the population) making it the largest IPO center of the world. This is an excellent example of the benefits of laissez-faire capitalism in comparison to the People's Republic of China, which although their efforts to adapt and more fully implement private enterprise has failed is significantly less economically prosperous (Hong Kong GDP PPP - $42,653, Peoples Republic of China - GDP PPP - $6,778)

In the top ten there are some large(relative) jumps in percentages. Hong Kong is a full 3.6 percent higher than Singapore, which in turn is 3.5 percent higher than the next highest country Australia making Hong Kong a full 8.4 percent higher than the third place Australia. The other big jump in the top ten is the 2.4 percent jump from position seven Canada and position eight the United States of America.

Another interesting point to examine are the progress of the countries economic freedom from the previous years. This following year there were a two significant changes in the top ten free countries of 2010. The first and largest is the United States with one of the largest changes in the index this year with a decease of 2.7 percent. As can be seen in the graph below the United states has stayed for the most part stable on the high end of the chart but for the last four years the United States has been slowly decreasing in economic freedom with this year being the largest jump yet. The other significant change this year is Denmark (not shown in below graph) which decreased 1.7 percent. Denmark has only recently made it to this hight of economic freedom. In the early 2000's Denmark was scoring in the high 60's but last year scored a rounded 80 and has unfortunately decreased significantly this year.

Examining the long term change shows interesting trend especially in a few of the below countries. Canada in particular has a very impressive increase in economic freedom showing relatively low rates in the mid 1990's but pulling out and ending up on a very impressive slope leading to where it is now. Also very impressive is Australia, New Zealand who shows persistent increase over time even when they have impressive above average scores. Mexico shows very rapid progress over the past few years. Somewhat troubling are the graphs for the United States and the United Kingdom who both had slow progress cumulating in 2006 but since has declined steadily for the past four year with this year being the most significant decrease. This could be attributed to the effects and measures taken during and after the financial crisis of 2007.

Countries of Interest

Following are some countries' statistics of economic freedom that might be on interest to others, for a full list of rankings and score please see the full list on their website at www.heritage.org/index/Ranking .

Conclusion

Economic freedom is the road to freedom and prosperity. As we continue to seek to promote personal freedom we help each other to create quality affordable products to aid us in our everyday lifestyle. We help progress technology by promoting worthwhile products and ideas. As we petition for greater economic freedom we can hope to see a better world for us and for our children.

- - - - - -UPDATE 20011- - - - -
Top Ten of 2011
1 - Hong Kong (previously #1, 0.0)
2 - Singapore (previously #2, +1.1)
3 - Australia (previously #3, -0.1)
4 - New Zealand (previously #4, +0.2)
5 - Switzerland (previously #6, +0.8)
6 - Canada (previously #7, +0.4)
7 - Ireland (previously #5, -2.6)
8 - Denmark (previously #9, +0.7)
9 - United States (previously #8, -0.2)
10- Bahrain (previously #>10, +1.4)

We see that Ireland took a dive(-2.6) giving place for a steadily increasing Switzerland(+0.8) and Canada(+.04). It is cited that "its score has decreased... particularly for government spending and financial freedom...". America has also dropped a slot from last year with a net lost of 0.2 allowing denmark to take its place. Bahrain makes it into the top ten displacing Chile to the 11th position which actually increased by 0.2 from last year. Bahrain is the leader in economic freedom in the Middle East/Northern Africa area.

The overall trend mentioned in the comparative graph above remains generally true: Canada and New Zealand(+0.2) has continued to increase. Australia had a slight decline (-0.1) which may be ominous as the score seems to have somewhat platoued over the past several years hopefully it has not topped out. Both the United States and the United Kingdom continue their descent downward. The United Kingdom dropped 2 full points this past year due mainly to Government Spending and Fiscal Freedom.

New Song - Crackhead

2010-10-13T14:43:00.000-06:00

Crackhead - Lynden Jensen

This song is an original that I composed a short while ago. The original idea for the song came from a diddy that I had recorded on my GNX4 (Personal Review of the GNX4) several months previous. I took this idea and developed it with the help my close friends and siblings who played the constructed pieces with me. Early in the creation process I transfered the music as best I could onto Guitar Pro 5, a program where you can create, share and listen to music. As of yet I have not recorded a full audio version of this song and that which I did record was lost in a disastrous external hardrive melt down. Luckily I had the Guitar Pro version on my computer.

The song is made for a four piece band. There one Acoustic Guitar(rhythm guitar), one electric guitar (Lead Guitar), one bass guitar, and one drummer.

For anyone who is familiar with the MIDI format -- or for that matter anyone who remembers the soundtracks to most video games in the 80's or early 90's -- you know that the sound quality, dynamics, and effects are non existent. That being said the below audio version of the song lacks much of the character and passion which I hope would have been demonstrated in this recording. Currently my power plug for my GNX4 is being shipped here to Idaho from Canada so once I receive it I hope to post more songs and ideas hopefully including a version of this song.

Lastly the name of the song. Crackhead. This name was chosen yesterday as a tribute to the fine residents of La Jolla Apartments, apartment number 115, which include Alise Ercek, Bri Goff, Marissa Flipse, Sheri Stone Booth, and Valerie Preston, who in every sense of the word deserve it.

Thank you all for your help and inspiration, please give me feedback. I hope you enjoy!

DOWNLOADS

Audio (MIDI) (Also available for download)
Sheet Music (PDF)
Guitar Pro 5 Format (GP5)

INTRODUCING THE CRACKEADS

Alise Ercek and Marissa Flipse

The Bri Goff...

Valerie Person, Marissa Flipse, and Sheri Stone Booth

p.s. Love you all!

A Philosophical View of Speaker for the Dead

2010-07-17T21:04:00.000-06:00

Introduction and Synopses

Orson Scott Card is an author best known for his works in Science Fiction. His greatest known contributions to the Science Fiction genre are two consecutive books: Ender’s Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986), both of which won the noted science fiction Hugo and Nebula awards the years they were released. Subsequently he has written several sequels and prequels to these original works. The series currently has eleven books in it with a twelfth forthcoming.

I have read several of his books, primarily in relation to his Ender’s game Series. I have noted that his books have very explicit and implicit philosophical themes that range from genocide to protecting nature, to human behavior. Although the philosophies in this book series can be attributed to one philosopher and often can be seen and contradictory, the philosophical content can often be traced to ancient and modern philosophers, many of which were discussed in this philosophy class.

In this paper I have decided to focus in on of his works and analyze the core philosophies and morals that are addressed directly and indirectly in the text. The text will be Speaker for the Dead, Card’s second written book in the Ender’s Game Series.

The protagonist in this book is a man Named Andrew Wiggin commonly known as “Ender” or “Ender Wiggin”. The book takes place around 5270AD, in an unknown part of the universe. Humanity is continuing to expand into the universe colonizing the habitable worlds.

Ender however was born some 3,000 years before on earth before the colonization efforts had begun. Ender was recruited at the age of six to go to battle school; a military training base in outer space. In as few short years Ender, still a young child, played the leading role as a military strategist and commander in the defeat and xenocide (xeno- meaning alien, and –cide meaning the act killing), or extermination, of an apparent hostile alien race known by the humans as “Buggers”. Ender was seen as a war hero, a savior from the threat of the alien species.

Shortly after the Buggers were eliminated Ender, along with his sister Valentine, left the earth and the rest of humanity behind forever to go with the first colonization group to the Buggers home world.

Ender travels at faster-than-light speeds and thus due to relativistic space travel by the time he gets to the Buggers home world all those that he knew back on earth were long dead while he had aged a relatively small amount. On this planet Ender found a message preserved for him from the Buggers. It comes out that the Buggers were not the threat that everyone had assumed them to be. The Buggers had preserved for the discovery of Ender an egg that would be able to perpetuate the bugger race.

The Bugger’s home world was not suitable so ender once again took to the stars traveling at faster than light speeds for 3,000 years. During this time he wrote a book called The Hive Queen which first person autobiography of the buggers including the good the bad and the ugly. He sent this to earth under the pseudonym “speaker for the dead” where it became classic literature. Since that time is has become a custom among some to have a “speaker” speak in behalf of the dead, telling their full story rather than the sanitized version that is so often spoken at funerals. Since the publication and acceptance of this book Speaker for the Dead Ender himself has become increasingly unpopular, he is seen as the monster that had destroyed the only sentient life that had been discovered.

In Card’s book Speaker for the Dead Ender finds himself in a similar situation as humanity was in thousands of years ago. Sentient life has been found on a plant called Lusitania. The life are called Pequeninos, commonly referred to as Piggies. The Piggies are several thousand years behind the humans technology wise although they are learning quickly despite the attempts from the humans to their technology from the Piggies. Ender, now in his 30’s, traveled to Lusitania under his true name Andrew Wiggin and the title of “speaker for the dead” with the egg to secretly restart the Bugger race on the only known compatible planet.

The Piggies carry a virus that is lethal to most life including humans; which if they were to achieve space travel could effectively work as a terraforming agent for any plant they would inhabit. Furthermore through misunderstanding the Piggies have killed a few of the human residents on Lusitania and in consequence humans on a neighboring world sent a strike force to Lusitania to eliminate the Piggies, and all those on Lusitania including ignorantly destroying the now recuperating buggers.

This is justified through labeling Piggies, and ultimately everything not-human, by names that rank life in a hierarchy with humans at the top of the list thus degrading the value of their ambitions, pleasures, and pains. Such labels include ramen, sentient communicable species, comparable to humans and varelse, essentially what we would consider unknowable animals, in which we can ethically manipulate for our benefit, treating then inhuman. On his website Orson Scott Card clarifies this by saying:

By definition a varelse is someone so alien and dangerous that you can't know them and can't reach an understanding with them; but that inability to know them makes it quite possible that they are potentially raman after all, but you have no way of discovering it… Once having admitted the possibility that, to defend your own community, you might have to obliterate another, do you then find yourself leaping to the conclusion that any degree of strangeness is enough to make aliens worthy of treatment as varelse?

The Piggies are seen as less-than-human and feared because of the sentience they have and the potential competition for resources, planets and dominance. The humans thus feel justified in eliminating all the Piggies in an effort to make human life most pleasurable at the sacrifice of other “less valuable” life.

Utilitarianism and Animal Rights

The justification seeks to employ a method of Utilitarianism; that most happiness in the long run would come from the elimination of the Piggies and all those on Lusitania. Although this is an interpretation of Utilitarianism which is not necessarily wrong, it defiantly does not match up with the classical views of Utilitarianism that was viewed by Jeremy Bentham or John Mill.

Jeremy Bentham’s view of Utilitarianism was revolutionary to philosophy for the very reason that he asserted that life should be measured not by how well a person or being reasons, but on their ability to suffer or feel pleasure. Just because we may be able to reason better than other animals does not mean it hurts any less to hurt them than to one of us. As Bentham explained in his book Introduction to the Principle of Moral and Legislation:

The day has been, I am sad to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated by the law exactly upon the same footing, as, in England for example, the inferior races of animals are still… The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognised that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog, is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month, old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? the question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

In the book Speaker for the Dead humanity has not progressed as Bentham has seen or hoped for, but rather they have digressed back to inflicting pain on sentient being simply because they view them less-than-human, whose pleasure or pain is less valuable than humans. They have reasoned and found it best to destroy an entire species because of this.

Similarly John Mill said about animal rights in an article defending against animal rights:

It is "to most persons" in the Slave States of America not a tolerable doctrine that we may sacrifice any portion of the happiness of white men for the sake of a greater amount of happiness to black men. It would have been intolerable five centuries ago "to most persons" among the feudal nobility, to hear it asserted that the greatest pleasure or pain of a hundred serfs ought not to give way to the smallest of a nobleman… Nothing is more natural to human beings, nor, up to a certain point in cultivation, more universal, than to estimate the pleasures and pains of others as deserving of regard exactly in proportion to their likeness to ourselves. These superstitions of selfishness had the characteristics by which Dr. Whewell recognizes his moral rules; and his opinion on the rights of animals shows that in this case at least he is consistent. We are perfectly willing to stake the whole question on this one issue. Granted that any practice causes more pain to animals than it gives pleasure to man; is that practice moral or immoral? And if, exactly in proportion as human beings raise their heads out of the slough of selfishness, they do not with one voice answer "immoral," let the morality of the principle of utility be for ever condemned.

The leading argument against equality in computation in a felicific calculus for humans and non-humans is the uncertainty of the qualitative or quantitative pain of non-humans. In recent philosophy and science it has been shown that in most cases the majority of these assertions against equality are false. Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher and a prevalent voice on the animal rights issues said the following in regards to sensational equality of animals and humans:

[E]very particle of factual evidence supports the contention that the higher mammalian vertebrates experience pain sensations at least as acute as our own. To say that they feel less because they are lower animals is an absurdity; it can easily be shown that many of their senses are far more acute than ours.

As we examine Speaker for the Dead we see that it does not discusses animals with lower level reasoning and unintelligible communication but rather a highly rational species that learns, adapts, communicates and can express themselves equally as capable as humans, if not more so. It demonstrates a degradation of human philosophy back to racism and illogical bias.

One of Card’s main themes in this book is equality, honestly fairness; we need to question all out beliefs in honest light and see the world as it really is. As it says in Speaker for the Dead describing the philosophy of a speaker for the dead:

No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins.

For Card the speaker for the dead really is the ideal philosopher in his mind; he is impartial dealing unbiasedly with the facts, then revealing the person in all honesty holding everyone equal as individuals, all with worth.

Conclusion

This is a theme in many of his books and a primary theme of this one. Who are we to judge if a species, if a person, or if an animal feels any differently about painful experiences, or joyful experiences than ourselves? We have been egocentric as a species since the start of time, we prone to assume that we ourselves are the most important thing in this world. We often naturally get into the mindset that we are the only real persona on this world. We do not, nor can we feel the pain of others, and thus we deem that it worse for us to feel pain than for them. However for the best possible society for all, for the greatest happiness for all we need to follow the golden rule, perhaps best known from Jesus Christ when he said “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

Works Cited

Bentham, Jeremy, and Laurence J. Lafleur. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation ;.New York: Hafner Pub., 1948. Print.

Card, Orson Scott. Speaker for the Dead. New York, NY: TOR, 1986. Print.

Card, Orson Scott. "Student Research Area - OSC Answers Questions." Hatrack River - The Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card. Web. 18 July 2010. .

King James Bible. [Cambridge, England]: Chadwyck-Healey, 1996. Print.

Mill, John Stuart. Dr. Whewell on Moral Philosophy. [Charlottesville, VA]: InteLex, 200. Print.

Rollin, Bernard E. The Unheeded Cry: Animal Consciousness, Animal Pain, and Science. Oxford: . Oxford UP, 1989. Print.

Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. New York, NY: New York Review of, 1990. Print.

The Secret is How to Die

2010-07-06T11:50:00.000-06:00

Dan Brown’s hit book The Lost Symbol opens with the words “The Secret is how to die. Since the beginning of time, the secret has always been how to die” (3). There are only two guarantees in this life, and those are that you will be born, and you will die. As such these should be of great ethical interest to everyone, as it truly affects all of us.

In our society talking about death is taboo, it is something that we do not understand; it is something that many of us do not wish to understand. For those lives that death has touched it leaves a burning hole, a feeling of loss often chased by despair and depression. As society politely sweeps the dead under the carpet with as little exposure to the living as possible, we as a people avert our eyes from the unknown and unknowable. We fear death because we know it not, we cling to life because it is all we know. Death is no tragedy, death is no sin it is another step that we take in life, a step into the unknown, one that we must all take. The secret is how to die.

In Greek there is a word that is defined as “good death”, this word is Euthanasia. Euthanasia is a practice today that essentially allows one to end their life when they have rationally and logically decided that there is more unavoidable physical pain and displeasure to come than happiness and they would prefer to end their life prematurely. The choice to be euthanized can extend to the family of the person if the said person is not in a condition to grant consent. Currently there are but five countries that legally allow a form euthanasia.

As we look at this life we see that it is a balancing game; we constantly make choices that we believe will bring us, and those we care about, more happiness and joy. We weight the possibilities and make an individual choice of which option will afford us the most happiness or the least amount of displeasure. All our rights have been given to us so that we can achieve a greater level of freedom and happiness as individuals and as a society in general. There comes a point where the happiness of the individual and society would be greater if the individual were allowed to end his life.

That being said the legal acceptance of Euthanasia should be carefully defined and outlined as this concept could introduce several cultural and social issues if improperly applied. Many of us feel at points in our life that we would rather not have to continue living, we may feel that there is nothing worth living for. More often than no we come to realize in retrospection how wrong we truly were. It would be inappropriate and irresponsible for society to allow a healthy sixteen year-old boy to end his life prematurely because of a failed romantic relationship. Although he may wish his life to be over it would be rash and illogical for him to do it on the basis of utilitarianism and on the study of others such experiences.

Despite the potential negative implication of Euthanasia if inappropriately applied, the beneficial qualities far outweigh potential depravities. Let us consider a case wherein Euthanasia would be considered moral by utilitarian standards.

Doris’ husband was 82 years old when he started having serious medical issues. He had specifically placed in his will that “[He] didn't want any extreme measures taken [to preserve his life].” The time came when he was no longer conscious and his life was in question. Doris was influenced by her children to place her husband into a special care facility. She visited him every day that he was in the facility. Doris described it first hand:

He was in intensive care. Tubes were inserted in his neck, oxygen was given, and he had a tube down his throat. Every day different specialists examined him. He remained unconscious.

After a while, the tube down his throat caused a problem, so it had to be removed and a tracheotomy performed. He had to be suctioned to keep the fluid from filling his lungs. The tubes in his neck area became inflamed, so they were moved to his other side. He was turned constantly to avoid bedsores.

Every day we were told he was improving in one area but failing in another. The resuscitation cart was always outside his door. The one time he regained consciousness, he started shouting that he wanted to get out of there. The doctors assured me that he didn't know what he was saying.

This went on for 45 days. Every day I stayed with him, and the family gave me what support they could.

As we consider the ethical values implicit in the Euthanasia issue we must put ourselves in the plae of Doris and her Husband. What is the ethical thing to do in that situation? Is it ethical to prolong his life indefinitely or would it better to stop his suffering?

Doris chose, with the affirmation of the doctors, to discontinue further treatment. Her husband was placed on a morphine drip to quell his pain and was taken off of treatment. He died the next day.

This is a day of rights, where all humans are given the ability to choose what they believe to be right. From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the Declaration of Independence we have past milestones in obtaining freedom and morality while remaining in civilized society. For one to be restricted on a reasonable medical request to end one’s life is paramount to taking one’s life out of their control. In the afore mentioned Declaration of Independence it states:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”

To deny euthanization can be seen as an obstruction to the pursuit of happiness. When the pain and degradation of life, or unavoidable future pan and degradation, outweighs the pleasure and happiness that their life bring the logical course of action in the pursuit of happiness is to end your life. This would beneficial not only the recipient but also society as a whole, as it would allow for better medical attention, less money spent by the family and government, and better peace of mind and closer for the family and friends knowing that the person is no longer in pain.

As responsible loving pet owners often we see this issue much clearer. There comes a time when you can see an animal is in pain, when you see that it hurts every moment of every day. To euthanize it is the responsible thing to do, it is the charitable thing to do, the human thing to do. How are humans different? How much more do humans deserve this treatment when they so ask for it? We deserve to die in dignity in whatever way we see fit, to aid in the reasonable termination of life is not a tragedy, it is not a sin, it is a service. We all must die at some point, when you leave this life do you want to do it in a situation of control or a situation of compulsion? The secret is how to die.

Works Cited

Brown, Dan. The Lost Symbol. Doubleday, 2009.

Harris, NM. "The Euthanasia Debate". J R Army Med Corps 147 2001: 367-370.

Doris. "DORIS' STORY." Compassion & Choices. Compassion & Choices. Web. 06 July 2010. .

Jecker, Nancy Ann Silbergeld., Albert R. Jonsen, and Robert A. Pearlman. Bioethics: an Introduction to the History, Methods, and Practice. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett, 2007. Print.

17 USC. Sec. 304. 2000. Print.

Meier, Diane E., Carol-Ann Emmons, Sylvan Wallenstein, Timothy Quill, Sean Morrison, and Christine K. Cassel. "NEJM -- A National Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States." NEJM -- Conflict of Interest in the Debate over Calcium-Channel Antagonists. The New England Journal of Medicine, 23 Apr. 1998. Web. 06 July 2010. .

Utilitarianism and Gun Control

2010-07-01T16:20:00.000-06:00

Utilitarianism is the belief that morals should be governed in quantitative happiness; that one’s actions should be governed by asking yourself the question “What will bring the greatest amount of happiness to greatest amount of people”. It makes morals a mathematical formula rather than a subjective religious or belief system.

When talking about utilitarianism there are two names which are attributed to its rise: Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832)(above on the left) and John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873)(above on the right), both British philosophers. Bentham in particular was a staunch believer in quantified ethics wherein happiness is trump. It is the foundation of the belief that the good of the community is simply the sum of the pleasures of the individuals who compose it.

Bentham identifies seven categories of calculation when considering a choice: Intensity, Duration, Certainty, Propinquity, Fecundity, Purity, and Extent. To quantify happiness we can ascribe each of the categories having a score of 10 to be divided between the options. Each point represents a degree of happiness relative to the other option(s).

To demonstrate and define each of these categories I will take a current event and go through these categories to see what ethical action would be correct in the eyes of these utilitarian’s. The issue that I will be discussing is whether or not guns should be more difficult to purchase. Should we increase the training expectations and prerequisites of buying a gun? Let us look at the criteria and the point breakdown, to do this I will construct a graph.

Intensity

Intensity can be simply defined as pleasure, generally in a very sensual immediate way. You ask “how strong is the pleasure?”

In regards to gun control you can see that many people use guns as a form of recreation and receive pleasure from using them, it also gives you a feeling of independence with the ability to defend yourself if needs be, increasing gun control would lower the amount of people that would have this pleasure while not using them would give you very little pleasure at all. In opposition shooting or owning guns does not give everyone pleasure and for some may put added weight on their emotional lives which would hamper potential future pleasure. Also there would be negative pleasure for people if you were to be shot by a gun, if animals were killed, if the gun was used to take away pleasure from other people. Guns have been a chief tool of pain in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. This category would most likely favor increasing gun control as there is more potential pain than there is pleasure to be gained. Let us make the ratio 7/3 for gun control.

	Further Restrict Gun Control	No Further Gun Control
Intensity	7	3

Duration

Duration can be defined as the length of the pleasure. So we ask ourselves “how long will those pleasures last?”

How long would the pleasure last of gaining more gun control than to not? The potential gain of further gun control could include peace of mind and security knowing that guns were under heavier moderation and potential depravities were less likely to occur, this would last indefinitely. It would also arguably firearm abuse and displeasure caused by them. Possibly the greatest factor is the displeasure that could be averted by the harms created by misappropriate use of firearms. The potential duration of such unhappiness is very lasting.

In opposition there is momentary pleasure revived from recreational gunmanship, there is also a long lasting potential safety and security of mind that owner’s, if restricted the number of participants would be reduced. All in all there is more happiness to be found, or unhappiness averted, in restricting gun control than in keeping it as it is. Let us make the ratio 8/2 in favor of gun control.

	Further Restrict Gun Control	No Further Gun Control
Intensity	7	3
Duration	8	2

Certainty

Certainty can be defined by the question: how likely is it that the act will bring about the anticipated pleasure?

This is a big issue for the anti-gun control argument as although antidotal evidence is available and cited in favor of gun control the certainty that this will happen is not very strong, furthermore it is argued that even if guns were restricted the depravities would still occur through different mediums, thus making gun control somewhat pointless. On the same hand there is great certainty that recreational gunmanship for everyone gives pleasure every time and that the peace of mind knowing you are have the means to defend yourself is a certain thing.

On the pro-gun control side argument the point is that you can still have guns, you just must “jump through some extra hoops”, and this with certainty will give us all a greater peace of mind as we know that many of those that would abuse guns are deterred by this process.

All in all we can say that there is more certain pleasure in gun control than the certainty of displeasure. Let us make the ratio 3/7 for certainty against further gun control.

	Further Restrict Gun Control	No Further Gun Control
Intensity	7	3
Duration	8	2
Certainty	3	7

Propinquity

Propinquity is a measure of how soon the pleasure can be enjoyed, the further away the pleasure the less power it has.

As gun control is based largely on aversion of potential future unhappiness whereas those not wishing to have further gun control are enjoying their benefit now, I believe this category would be in favor of those not in favor of further gun control. They are currently enjoying their happiness while those in favor of gun control would gain only incremental happiness as gun control was eventually legislated and enforced. Let us make the ratio for this category 2/8 in against further gun control.

	Further Restrict Gun Control	No Further Gun Control
Intensity	7	3
Duration	8	2
Certainty	3	7
Propinquity	2	8

Fecundity

Fecundity can be defined by the likelihood that the pleasures or pains that it causes will be followed by similar pleasures or pains. If the chain effects of the action will likely be good than this that is positive for fecundity, where if they are negative than it’s negative.

If this was law was passed it could potentially lead to a less violent society, it could lead to further weapon restriction legislation possibly leading to the abolition of deadly weapons in society, thus reducing death, both intentional and accidental. It would make it easier to track gun crimes, and thus better deter such crimes, particularly passion crimes. It could lead to a more peaceful society with less mortal confrontations.

Another possibility is that this would allow criminals and those with ill intent to better prey on the people causing for an increase in predatorial crimes such as robbery, rape, or murder.

For the greater amount of people there would be more potential fecundity happiness if gun control was heightened. Let us make the ratio for fecundity 8/2 in favor of gun control.

	Further Restrict Gun Control	No Further Gun Control
Intensity	7	3
Duration	8	2
Certainty	3	7
Propinquity	2	8
Fecundity	9	2

Purity

Purity is a factor for the probability that the event will not be accompanied by unhappiness. An act that causes only pleasure is far better than one that causes some happiness mixed with pain. How pure is the emotion?

The probability that gun control will bring you pure happiness is low; there will likely be those incidents and people that will suffer because of the choice. The same is true about the antithesis.

I would postulate that the better happiness mix would exist in the pro-gun control emotions. Let us make the ratio 6/5 in favor of gun control.

	Further Restrict Gun Control	No Further Gun Control
Intensity	7	3
Duration	8	2
Certainty	3	7
Propinquity	2	8
Fecundity	9	2
Purity	6	5

Extent

The question here is “how many people will it affect?” where in more is better.

For pro-gun control this is a very good category as the choice to increase gun control is aimed to better society as a whole. If further gun control was enforced there would be very few people that it would immediately affect negatively and only a few in the future. Increasing gun control would affect everyone in society in a positive way immediately as it makes gun misuse less probable. Let us make the ratio 8/2 in favor of gun control.

Conclusion

	Further Restrict Gun Control	No Further Gun Control
Intensity	7	3
Duration	8	2
Certainty	3	7
Propinquity	2	8
Fecundity	9	2
Purity	6	5
Extent	8	2
TOTAL	43	27

According to these thoughts about the gun control debate I believe the utilitarian morality would support a move towards further gun control.

In conclusion I wish to share a personal story. While I was living in Las Vegas I was in the house of a young man in his 20’s. He told me that he had recently gone to a pawn shop that sold guns, he desired to buy and gun so the clerk give him some paperwork to file. When filing to buy a firearm in Nevada it is required to ask if the person is a registered felon, if they are schizophrenic or suffer mental conditions, if they have violent history, and other such question. My friend instead of checking the ‘no’ boxes accidently checks all the ‘yes’ boxes. They did not check and gave him the firearm. Two weeks they called him up and asked him to return the gun. Although this is antidotal, and not amiable to legislation it could reflect the mindset of the general American in regards to Gun Control.

The Three Ways to Live

2010-06-23T18:33:00.000-06:00

Soren Kierkegaard was an 18^th century Danish philosopher who focused in on how we live our lives and why. He looked on everyone as living in one of three different mutually exclusive ways of life: the aesthetic life, the ethical life, and the religious life. The main difference between these three ways of life is the purpose of why you do the things that you do. Although actions are important and a key to understand who we are, more important than what we do is why we do it. Subsequently these three categories are divided due to the motivation of our actions rather than our actions themselves.

The Aesthetic Life is a life in pursuit of interest, often sensual in nature. These people will seek out adventure and interest, their actions are guided by the all important question: “Is this, or will it be, interesting?” The Ethical Life is very much reason based and driving, often societal based, it is a life of ethics, commitment, and self sacrifice. In the minds of the ethical based they sacrifice sensual pleasure for a more lasting enjoyment. The Religious Life is a life motivated by faith in God, the question that motivates their actions is can be seen as the platitude “What would Jesus do?” Everything revolves around what God would have them do and how “this” action will affect their relationship with God. Often these choices are neither logical nor sensually beneficial. Although these categories are in Kierkegaard’s philosophy are mutually exclusive it is possible to belong to different categories of living at different point in your life as long as you belong to only one of the above categories at one time.

Having outlined Kierkegaard’s philosophy of living we naturally introspectively ask ourselves: “Who am I? What motivates me?” For different people come different answers; our perception of ourselves often is not our reality. Many would like to think of themselves as living ‘religious’ lives, or living a reasonable “ethical life’ but often we allow our desires cloud our perception of who we really are.

In my self analysis I perceive that I live an ethical life style. In my attempt to objectively view my actions and motivations, I noticed several indicators that were either inconsistent with a religious or aesthetic life, or were supportive of an ethical life. I will examine each life in turn with examples that illustrate my alignment or dissidence with the said categorical life.

The Aesthetic Life

In my personal life I abhor dramatical or theatrical displays of emotion or conflict. When there is emotional dissidence in life I seek the fastest and most efficient solution so as to eliminate the emotional turmoil. I am forthright and blunt with my feelings seeking for solidity and “the bottom line”. These actions eliminate much potential “interesting” living; many people who live the aesthetic life seek out and revel in such emotional unsureity and bore of uniformity.

Another indicator that I am not living an aesthetic life is that I gain power and motivation from commitments. I construct personal commitments and account to myself in their completion because I feel the need to have that structure in my life. Those who live the aesthetic life shy from commitment preferring to be free to indulge in spontaneous interesting activities rather than be tied down. Their ambition and commitments are like the ocean, constantly revising the moving depending on which way the wind is blowing today. They will constantly look to see what, or who, is more interesting than what they are currently occupied with.

The Religious Life

Although I personally am religious (meaning that I have a belief in deity) I do not believe I live a religious life. I have faith in a God, and that he is striving to communicate to me. My first reaction to conflict or dilemma is not “what would my God have me do?” but “what makes logical sense? What will ultimately bring the greatest quantity of long term happiness?” For one who lives a religious life is not concerned with their desires or well being or with his fellowman but for his Deity and the relationship that exists therein.

If God asked me to do something that did not make sense to me, such as Abraham when he was asked to sacrifice Isaac, I do not think I would do it based purely on faith, at least not initially. It might trigger a change in me to live a religious life, but currently I think the first thing I would do is ask “why”, which is rational, not faithful. A true religious liver, or as Kierkegaard coined “a knight of faith”, would act without question.

The Ethical Life

The Ethical life if venerated by Georg Hegel as the greatest, or highest, form of living. It is reason based. It is a system of weights and measurements, the person is always calculating what will be most beneficial for him and his fellowman. Commitment and sacrifice are employed to achieve a greater end.

This afternoon I was in a cafeteria and was hungry. I went to the various food establishments to view their goods. I saw many choices, and as I viewed the selections aromas triggered in my brain intense hunger. As I surveyed the food I had a desire to eat it, but as I viewed the prices I was forcibly reminded of last night when I was in the grocery store. The pricesfor the food was much higher for the amount of nourishment here than it was at the store, so I left the cafeteria and decided to forgo lunch for a few hours until I returned home. This is an example of living an ethical life. I sacrificed what I very sensually wanted for logical reasons. I believed that practicing self sacrifice then would greater benefit me in the future.

As mentioned about I commit myself to principles and values which is a sign of the ethical life. Often times I will ignore chosen aspects of living because I am not yet ready to commit to living them. When I learn I feel an obligation to apply through commitments, and when I commit I feel it almost impossible to discard the commitment. I do this because I believe that by binding down ourselves in actions we ultimately can have greater freedom and pleasure in the long run.

In reflection of Kierkegaard’s philosophical standards I feel confident in my assessment I would be considered currently to be living an ethical life. This knowledge allows me to better understand myself, understand others, and apply that understanding (in my ethical way) to best benefit myself and my fellow man. Through this I can understand and better predict what and why different people do different things, I can more accurately select friends, associates and environments which will support and augment my personal characteristics and endeavors. By understanding others you better understand yourself.

Living in the Past - The Imperial System

2010-06-19T18:41:00.000-06:00

As a Canadian growing up in the 90's I am used to using the metric system for pretty much all measurements. Albeit I do causally use the Old Imperial system for my personal height, weight and some other incidental social uses but in general I keep away from it. Why? Because it makes no logical sense.

What is the Imperial System?
The Imperial system as we know it today was inaugurated in 1824 by the British. It was subsequently adopted by as an international standard in measurement. The origins of this system come from just after the turn of the first millennium, 1066, but has been since heavily revised.

When I first moved down to the United States in 2007 I was talking to some Americans who referenced the "standard" measurement, or the "standard" system. I was confused as to what they were referring to. I came to find out that it was what I knew as the Imperial System. I was somewhat amused at the name as it showed in my eyes an aversion to the United Kingdom origins and also because the "standard" measurement was somewhat ironic in its title as "the standard" is only found in the United States of America.

Currently there are virtually no countries that use the Imperial System of measurement, but rather they have adopted the Metric system so reasons which will become indubitably clear as we continue.

The Imperial system was discarded starting in the middle of the 20th century, and is now obsolete. The following map shows the adoption of the metric system in the world today.

As you can see the only countries not to adopt the Metric system is the United States, Myanmar, and Liberia.

What's Wrong With the Imperial System?
The Imperial system is very unintuitive and random. To understand it you must remember apparent random numbers, deal in obtrusive fractions where in the dividend constantly is changing, and convert to metric for scientific measurement.

Let us take a look at the current Imperial measurements in relation to their like measurements.

Length

12 inches = 1 foot

3 feet = 1 yard

4840 sq. yards = 1 acre

5280 feet = 1 mile

1760 yards = 1 mile

Mass

16 ounces = 1 pound

Volume (Dry)

2 pints = 1 quart

8 quarts = 1 peck

4 pecks = 1 bushel

Volume (Liquid)

8 ounces = 1 cup

16 ounces = 1 pint

2 pints = 1 quart

4 quarts = 1 gallon

Notice the very unintuitive numbers and names. Here is an example - how easy it to remember that a mile is 5280 feet? How easy is it to remember that a cup is half of a pint, or that a quart is double a pint? It a very arbitrary system with little correlation or intelligent logic.

I worked in construction as a cabinet installer. The problem was that they would use both measurements because even when you are in Canada there are those that still use the Imperial system, or there are objects or material that come from the United States. Striving to make calculations in imperial is about as fun as doing dental work on a tiger. Lets say you had to had to add two imperial measurements, add 23/32 and 3/8. You would have to times 3/8 by 2 (to make it 6/16) than again by 2 (to make it 12/32) then add it to 23/32 making it 1 3/32. This may not seem very complicated to you, but converting and measuring it with a tape measure several times every day takes up significantly more time than it would in the metric system.

What is the Metric System?

The metric system was conceptualized in France in 1791. In stead of using arbitrary numbers it uses a system based on the number 10, the same system that we currently use to count. In stead of having strange fractions such as 2/32 or 1/64 or 1/8 it uses decimals such as 0.063, 0.016, or 0.125. These are perfectly standard to each other requiring no conversions or simplifying to use together. by

Looking at the above measurements all I would have to do it add .719 (23/32) to .375(3/8) which is 1.094. No conversions no dealing with small integer ticks on the tape measure, as a construction worker it makes it much easier.

Not only is the number system much simpler the names are intuitive, logical, and are less finite(meaning you don't have to invent new words for larger numbers). Lets take a look at the metric measurements.

Pico - 0.000,000,000,001

Nano - 0.000,000,001

Micro - 0.000,001

Milli - 0.001

Centi - 0.01

Deci - 0.1

Deca - 10

Hecto- 100

Kilo - 1,000

Mega - 1,000,000

Giga - 1,000,000,000

Tera - 1,000,000,000,000

Peta - 1,000,000,000,000,000

And it continues on both smaller and larger. These measurements apply to various measurements: Length, weight, volume, mass, etc. You don't have to remember arbitrary words and number for different measurements, it is common language in relation to the base measurement (e.g. Meter, Gram, byte, watt).

Example:

Kilometer

Kiloliter

Kilogram

Kilowatt

Kilobyte

Kilojoule

Conclusion

For simplicities sake American needs to bit the bullet and finish what they tried and failed to do in the 80-90's change the broken system. I am no republican, I am not democratic, I am a Canadian, but I see hope in the some changes that are being purposed today in the United States. To change means to admit that you are wrong, or that there are better systems out there.

I sometimes feel that America turns a blind eye to change because of supposed prosperity, but an inflexible country will not stand long. I would prefer to see the United States as a economic and political world leader, but to continue to be such change is needed. It is something that I think America struggles with, we need to look at things as they are, acknowledge what doesn't work, and embrace the change. America has been a leading power in society for the less than 100 years, I would prefer that it stay as it is now for a longer duration of time.

In closing; when it comes down to it the Imperial system just does not measure up, it's time for change.

Some Problems with Cause and Effects

2010-06-06T17:45:00.000-06:00

A highly reliant concept in todays society is cause and effect. We use this but is this really reliable? Can we receive proof from these test? Some thing so, but some do not.

David Hume was a philosopher who lived 1711 to 1776 in Scotland. In juxtaposition with the commonly accepted philosophies of the day, and even of those today, he asserts disbelief in common doctrine of causation. Causation is the sociological and philosophical idea that everything reacts to events in a uniformly predictable way. Causality is the relationship between causes and effects where the second is a consequence dependant on the first. Hume says that when we observe or say we observe an effect as a product of a cause it is not reason that links the cause and effect together but rather past experience. The cause and effect are independent distinct events and are not linked together except by our mind from past experience. The question arises “how can we justify applying conclusions based on past experience to modern experience when there is no known uniformity?” To be able to establish cause and effect we must be able to authoritatively prove the reason why the effect took place in relation to the cause. Because the theory of cause and effect hinges on experience and not matters of fact it is impossible to demonstrate a unquestionable cause and effect. There can always be alternate theories that could have been the cause of the effect, no matter how bizarre or unlikely it may seem. Any appeal to probability or past experience can be dismissed as it assumes uniformity, which cannot be proven without an appeal to past experience, making it circular.

To illustrate this reasoning I will use a modern example of cause and effect. There is a debate going on today about cause and effect; a small movement in the United States of America asserts that there the current vaccines and their administration causes and promotes the effect of Autism. They cite evidence that shows the number of vaccines that a child receives has risen in the past twenty years, they then look at the number of people diagnosed with autism, and see that it has risen over the past twenty years as by over 1000%. They thus assert that because we have increased the number or vaccines a child receives and also the number of people diagnosed with autism has increased that the increase of vaccines causes an increase of autism. Thus:

Cause = Increase of children’s’ vaccines

Effect = Increase of Autim

The problem with this theory is that although their statistics are accurate, there could be an infinite number of other reasons that number of diagnoses of autism has risen. I will give 3 examples:

The reason for the rise of diagnosed autism may be that the medical practices have increased in their ability to accurately identify and diagnose autism, particularly in less severe cases, which previously would not have been diagnosed as autism. This would mean that autism hasn’t necessarily risen, but just the recognition and diagnoses of such has.
Another reason that autism could have risen so drastically in the last twenty years is the use of electronics. The use of electronics has risen exponentially in the past twenty years. If we look at the correlation between the use of electronics and diagnosed autism we can use their logic to ‘prove’ that the increase of electronics has caused a rise of diagnosed autism.
A third possible reason for the rise of diagnosed autism could be that the people are much more dependent on the health care and health professional then they were twenty years ago. Thus more children are diagnosed with autism because more are submitted to be tested for autism.

These are a just a few possible examples of alternate possibilities of this theory, but they help illustrate that there is not one undeniable reason that something happens; there can always be alternate possibilities for a theory regardless of how improbably or unlikely they may seem. Improbably and unlikely things happen every day, the only way that you could prove that something caused something else is to identify all possible causes and disprove every single one except for the excepted cause. Even if you were to somehow do this, how would you know that there are no other possible explanations? You can’t, thus it has to be open for possible future findings or explanations and can never be a proven cause.

Why are they Changing Health Care?

2010-05-31T19:32:00.001-06:00

   Recently I was in a university math class when the man beside me made some snide comments about my Canadian health care, and some ill informed statements about the current American health care reform. This rather annoyed me as I was aware of some rather abysmal facts about the previous United States health care system. That is the event which inspired me to investigate more closely the United States Heath Care System, its benefits, its shortcomings, and the newly introduced health care system.

   We are all aware of the benefits of health care, or at least we would quickly be if we did not have it. Any health care is good health care, but our goal is not to have adequate health care, but the best possible to ensure a high quality of life. In this publication I will examine some of the current health care problems, many of which this new system was, and is, being designed to correct. This hopefully should allow you to understand why such a health reform is in process, and what issues need to be addressed.

   This publication is not meant to examine Obama's health care, or the United States health care in general, it was designed solely to show some of the reasons why a change is necessary or logical.  The United States has one of the best health care systems in the world. I am showing some statistics that focus in on why the United States needs to continue to reform, while doing so I am not focusing on the currently working programs of the United States health care except as they related to the negative ones.

PRICE

Something commendable about the United States Health Care is that they are not skimping on monetary support. The United States spent 17.3% of their gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009 which is up from a little over 13% in 1999. That is a rise of about 30% in the last ten years. It is estimated that by 2017 the GDP percent will have raised to 19.5% a 3% rise in 7 years. That's a total of $2,466,336,000,000 (2.5 Trillion) or $8,000 a person (307 million people in the USA). There are a minimum of 15.3% of citizens uninsured (22,933,893) (excluding illegal citizens who still get emergency care). So in reality the average American pays ($2,466,336,000,000 / (307,000,000(US POP) – 22,933,893(Uninsured))) $8,682 annually. That is 20 %( 2003 stat) of the long term American earning average of 43,000 a year.

   This amount of money in comparison to other countries is exorbitant. The next closest contender is Switzerland at a little over 11%, which would have to increase its price by 40% to match the United States GDP output towards health care. It is 60% more than Canada's cost.

            Now heath and quality of life should be worth that money right? So if the US is spending head over heels more than any other country then there should be Rudolph Giuliani stated "the best medical care in the world". And this could very arguable be true for the top medical centers in America but as the New York Times declared "the disturbing truth is that this country lags well behind other advanced nations in delivering timely and effective care".

INTERNATIONAL OVERALL RANKINGS

            The World Health Organization preformed an assessment of the level of health and health care in countries around the world. According to this study the United States Rates 37^th in the world out of 191 countries, which is on the outside of the top quarter for overall health care system. This was assessed by several factors. Of those factors the funding and responsiveness significantly boosted this mark while the overall health in the United States and the fairness in financial contribution drug the mark down. The following are the categories and ranking.

Category	Rank out of 191
Health Level	24
Health Distribution	32
Responsiveness Level	1
Responsiveness Distribution	3-38
Fairness in financial contribution	54-55
Overall Goal Attainment	15
Health Expenditure per captia	1
Overall level of health	72
Overall health system performance	37

Other notable countries rankings are:

Country	Overall Rank
France	1
Italy	2
The United Kingdom	18
Canada	30
Australia	32
Chile	33
Cuba	39

A second study done by the Common Wealth Fund compared with five comparable countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom) the US ranks last (if GDP spending is not taken into the equation), or second to last (if GDP spending is taken into the equation as a positive). From the Common Wealth Funk:

"Among the six nations studied—Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2006 and 2004…The U.S. health system is the most expensive in the world, but comparative analyses consistently show the United States underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance…The U.S. is the only country in the study without universal health insurance coverage, partly accounting for its poor performance"

CHILD CARE

The association "Save the Children" published a report called "The State of the Worlds Mother Reports" where it gauges the combined and individual health care quality of care for mothers and children. The United States placed 28^th out of the 43 in the "tier 1" countries overall ranking. Below is a listing of key developed countries in the weighted ranking system which I have abbreviated.

Following are some comments from this study regarding the low United States ranking

"One of the key indicators used to calculate well-being for mothers is lifetime risk of maternal death. The United States' rate for maternal mortality is 1 in 4,800 – one of the highest in the developed world. Thirty-five out of 43 developed countries performed better than the United States on this indicator, including all the Western, Northern and Southern European countries… A woman in the Unites States is more than five times as likely as a woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece or Italy to die from pregnancy-related"

"At this rate, a child in the U.S. is more than twice as likely as a child in Finland, Iceland, Sweden or Singapore to die before his or her fifth birthday."

"Only 61 percent of children in the United States are enrolled in preschool – making it the seventh lowest country in the developed world on this indicator."

"The United States has the least generous maternity leave policy – both in terms of duration and percent of wages paid – of any wealthy nation."

"The United States is also lagging behind with regard to the political status of women. Only 17 percent of seats in the House of Representatives are held by women, compared to 46 percent of seats in Sweden and 43 percent in Iceland."

On the official United States of America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) the United States ranks 48^th lowest infant mortality rate at birth with 6.7/1,000(2008) which is high comparative to other systems. Furthermore is seems to be on the rise from 5/1,000 in 2006. As Medical New Today said:

"…the USA has fallen a long way behind [in the live birth death ratio]."

Below is a list of comparable countries.

Country	Rank	Mortality Rate (X/1000)
Japan	4	2.79
Hong Kong	5	2.92
France	8	3.33
Germany	15	3.99
Australia	29	4.75
United Kingdom	32	4.85
Canada	36	5.04
United States	46	6.26
Russia	73	10.56

QUALITY OF HEALTH

            The quality of health of a country is a good indicator on the effectiveness of the health care system. The health care system is specifically to support the people in becoming and staying healthy. Although ultimately personal health is primarily the responsibility of the individual, the greatest testimony of a user system are the users.

     We have seen in the above health care assessment study that statistically the overall health of Americans ranks 72^nd in the world. As an established nation when we think of health we may firstly jump to the thought of weight, as that is the most common ailment in our society, this is a big contributor to this number but if this were the sole factor the united states would be ranked 191 out of 191. The rank of 72^nd is abysmally low for an established nation, this is below many south America countries, and is on par with Iraq.

Body Weight

    Having said this, statistically 30.6% of Americans are obese (Meaning that they have a BMI (body mass index) greater than 30 Kg/sq.meters). This is over double the international average and the highest percent in the world. It ranks high even in comparison to its immediate neighbors Canada and Mexico; Canada being ranked 11^th at 14.3% and Mexico being ranked 2^nd at 24.3%.

What is more is that a good majority of Americans are overweight (67%), making it the norm. Possibly more disturbing is the rise of child obesity currently at 17%. Being overweight makes it more difficult and more expensive to get health care. It leads to a spectrum of illness and conditions, which brings down the overall health of the American people. Although we cannot say that medical care is to blame on these statistics, it does shoulder a portion of the blame. What is clear is that what we are doing is not working, and it is not getting any better.

When it comes down to it, controlling weight is up to the individual, which means what has to change is the mentality. This focus can start on a national level with health care. There is hope that in the new health care will focus more on child obesity, rising awareness, and getting doctors to focus more on keeping the citizens healthy. With this focus in school, with regular check-ups and evaluations it is hoped to change the American mentality on weight.

Smoking

Aside from weight and the associated complications therein, America still has several health issues that it is trying to resolve. One of these is smoking. An article from "America's Health Rankings" summarized the recent efforts to cut smoking out of the American lifestyle:

"Despite focused efforts, nearly one in five Americans [or 21%(2003)] still smoke, which is only 8 million people fewer than 20 years ago."

Although this number may seem high to some, and the decrease of habitual smoking depressing, the percent of Americans that smoke is below the international average of 24%. It is ranked 44^th highest female smoking rate and 115^th highest for men. These statistics are on par with most of the established world nations. Although this is a serious problem in the United States it has little to no negative effect on the overall ranked health of the United States in comparison with other nations.

Life Expectancy

As the purpose of health care is to support and encourage good health a great measure of its effectiveness is how long a person lives. The United Nations publishes a "Human Development Index" which measured the quality of life in selected developed and developing countries. This index, or ranking is weighted on three dimensions: Life expectancy, Education, and standard of living.

In their assessment of life expectancy they placed the United States ranked 38^th highest life expectancy in the world with a life expectancy of 78.2 years (75.6 for females and 80.8 for males). This is above the international average of 67.2 (2005) by 11 years. Below is a comparison of a few countries and life expectancy.

Country	Rank	Life Expectancy
Japan	1	82.6
Australia	5	81.2
Canada	10	80.7
France	10=	80.7
United Kingdom	22	79.4
Germany	23	79.4
United States	38	78.2
Mexico	48	76.2
Russia	137	65.5

So although the United States does have an above average score, but compared to other economically leading countries, the average is much lower then would be expected.

Below is a graph showing the correspondence between amount paid to life expectation.

Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL)

Year of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) is a measure of premature death. It shows the additional years a person would have lived if they had not prematurely died. It examines the overall expected life expectancy of the desired sample group, then calculating the difference between actually life length and the expected age (Expected Life - Age of Death = Potential Life Lost). To get a country's YPLL you calculate the cumulative number of years lost of a sample size, the total YPLL is generally calculated per 100,000 people. The United States is currently rated the 3^rd highest YPLL country with 10%. Comparatively this is 48% higher than its northern neighbor Canada which has a rate of 6.7%. Below is some key countries YPLL.

Country	Rank	YPLL	% Compared to US
Mexico	1	6,778	+73%
United States	3	4,962	0%
New Zealand	8	3,644	-36%
France	9	3,459	-43%
United Kingdom	10	3,392	-46%
Canada	11	3,361	-48%
Australia	15	3,118	-59%
Japan	29	2,614	-90%

A health care should be striving to minimize premature death. Some may assert that these years are generally not related to health care as much as the United States homicide, suicide, and accident rates. It is true that the US has an above average homicide rate in established nations, it being three time the amount in Canada. But in comparison to overall world homicide average, it is much lower with it being only 10% of the homicide rate of Honduras rates. Although the US has a higher than average homicide rate for an established nation it does not hugely effect the overall YPLL rate of the United States as out of 100,000 deaths only 4.2 are murders, to find the actually effect of murder is on the YPLL you need to multiply this number by the years they lost. The mean age of murder victim is 27, 51.2 years younger than the US average of 78.2. Thus the YPLL attributed to murder for the US is around 215 years (51.2 X 4.2), which accounts for only 4.4% of total YPLL.

A large percent comes from infant and child deaths, as we have discussed above, but the Majority of the YPLL comes from medical reasons. Some of those medical fatalities are for reasons that our current medical knowledge considers unpreventable, or untreatable. But a large portion of these years come from people who are uninsured or underinsured. 45,000 people die a year because they do not have insurance. Many die because they do not receive medical preventive measure because their insurance will not adequately cover the treatments, or because they simply do not have the money to make the copayments to combat chronic illnesses. I am not suggesting that the majority, or even a large minority, is because of lack of medical care, but a significant number do die due to problems with health care. Below is a graph showing the breakdown for premature death. Keep in mind that this accounts for reasons of death and not PYLL.

Death Amiable to Health Care

To get down to some "real" health care meaty statistics we can look at the extreme topic of death amiable to health care, or death that could have been prevented to timely and effective health care.  This is quite simply how many people died a year when they didn't have to.  This is one of the best ways to measure the quality and coverage of national health care.

            In a study published in the peer-reviewed research and commentary "Health Affair" it aims precisely at this topic. The goal of the study was to see how the countries that participated in the World Health Organization's health care ranking system would be ranked if all the other factors were stripped away and all that was left was death amiable to health care.  The way this is tabulated is that they took the World Health Organizations constructed list of ailments or conditions that can generally be treated at their corresponding ages by proper health care attention.  Then they took the countries with highest quality mortality documentation and plugged it into the list that was constructed. Then they received the list of people that hypothetically could have been saved if they had access to proper medical care at the proper time.

So how does the US stack up against the other countries?

The following are the statistics from 1997 – 1998 study a little more than 10 years ago.

The United States is on the lower quadrant of the graph, but from statistics that we have already seen this is not a big surprise.  Overall it is not doing all too terribly but is only a little behind the average.

The following are the statistics from 2002 – 2003 only 5 years later.

An important note is that everyone is decreasing in deaths amiable to health care, this is a good sign, and it means that we are continuing to hone our health care systems and techniques. The average improvement of any given country in this graph is 16%. If we look at the United States though we notice that it only decreased by 4%, a much lower rate of decline than any other country on the graph. What is more it is now has the highest mortality rate amiable to health care out of all of the countries listed. So apparently this can tell us that the Health Care system is considerably underperforming in comparison with other developed countries and what is more, is that it is not significantly improving. The United States could take a couple leaves out of the other countries books when it come to health care.

The major contributor to these low number is that all those other developed countries have universal health care whereas the United States has been working off of privatized health care, where money talk; If you have the money to pay for health care you can have the some of the best health care in the world. But if you don't, well then you can come to the hospital is you are dying, but don't expect too much.

COVERAGE

The narrow coverage of the United States health care is the source of the majority of negative attention in international health comparisons. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 45.7 million Americans (15.3% of the total population) have no health insurance coverage. The Commonwealth Fund published an article in Health Affair that states 16,000,000 (16 million) (5.3%) (2003 statistic) Americans were underinsured. That is a huge percent! One in every five Americans have inadequate insurance.

The following are some statistics retrieved from surveys:

"Among adults surveyed in the U.S., 37% reported that they had foregone needed medical care in the previous year because of cost… 42%—among those with chronic conditions"

"19% of U.S. adults surveyed reported serious problems paying medical bills, more than double the rate in the next highest country [in the study]."

Mental Health

In one study the United States dominated a study of 14 countries in prevalence of mental illness at a rate of 26% of the population is mentally ill, or will be diagnosed as such. This could also be linked to diagnosis practices and effectiveness for less developed countries, but for established countries it is fairly accurate. A look to Canada shows an estimated 20% that will suffer from mental illness, this is still a 30% lower rate than the US, but it is much higher than the other countries in the study. There is currently a lack medical coverage for mental health. It is estimated that less than half of those suffering a mental illness receive treatment for it because of lack of access to care or because of stigma. This leads to more and more serious conditions then if they would have received health care in a timely and efficient manner.

The Medically Uninsurable and Underwriting

With privatized medicine it isn't focused on the people as much as it is about the money. It is a business and a competition. In most states the people go through a medical screening process called underwriting. This is essentially the policy that the private medical country has the right to deny coverage based on the health information provided, and also to set the rate of the premium. This is to ensure that the company makes a profit off that plan. All in all it is an investment and a gamble. The Medical Insurance is betting that you will pay more money in then you will get out, while you are betting against those odds. Because of this practice there are some people out there that insurance companies will not bet on, and thus they are labeled as "uninsurable". These are those who are not able to get health care anywhere because of preexisting conditions. Disease is a big part of the factors that keep these people uninsurable but also common ailments such as acne or being overweight or underweight. An estimated 5,000,000 in America are considered uninsurable because of preexisting conditions.

A survey of a large company showed that 13% of all applicants were denied plans, out of the 87% that were accepted 22% were offered higher than average insurance rates, which the other 78% received regular rates. Insurance acceptance rises correspondently with age, thus it will be easier and cheaper to have insurance when you are young, as the insurance companies see it as a easy bet.

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE AND HEALTH CARE

          As discussed in my previous post "Propagating Propaganda", a way to manipulate people and their ideas is to latch on words with negative connotations to influence the people to reject the idea, not based on content but based on association. It comes from the human desire to put everything into a box. If you can link negative images and emotions in the mind of a person the object then becomes associated in negative ways. The government constantly uses this in even small ways such as changing "The Department of War's" name to "The Department of Defense". In our minds we associate war with negative emotions, and defense with positive emotion.  We see war as bad and defense as good, even though the functions of the department didn't change the thoughts, emotions and connotations changed because of the change of name.  It gets placed in a different box because of the title we give it.

           During and post World War II there was and is a huge communist scare.  There were many people calling others "communists" as a dirty word, a way to label people.  Communism in general is not inherently evil; if it were conducted purely it has many, many good effects and very few negatives.  The obvious problem in the soviet system was that it wasn't being conducted that way, and as far as we know there have been no successful communistic societies.

           Universal health care is the focus of pejoratively.  It is labeled unaffectionately by many Americans as socialized health care this to predispose the people against it.  The term first came around to public usage to employ this propaganda method against Harry Truman's health care initiative in 1947.

Universal health care goes back to the Germans who introduced a universal health care in 1882.  Britain constructed their universal health plan in 1911. Most other developed nations adopted it shortly after World War II concluded as a result of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This article was presented by the United Nations to set a standard of rights that everyone is entitled to.  In it was discussed the right of life, the right of equality, the right of freedom, the right of non-discrimination,  the right of presumed innocence, the right of privacy, and several other fundamental issues that were not observed during World War II.  It was signed by the majority of developed countries at the time.  The United States did not ratify the 25^th article which states:

1)Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

For this cause at this time most of the developed countries adopted universal health care, which generally greatly improved the general health of the countries.

Despite what may be said about Universal health care, it is the most widely used health care system in developed countries; it has and is replacing the privatized medicine. The top ranked (according to the World Health Organization's ranking) medical care countries are all using universal health care.

Below is a map from Wikipedia made before the new United States health care decision which shows the prevalence of universal health care. Both blue and green are Universal health care systems where grey are other systems or where there was no data available.

CONCLUSION

How much is a human life worth? Having discussed this topic with many Americans due to the current reform, and the propaganda spread about universal health care, in particular Canada's health care, I have noticed a prevailing selfish attitude among the majority of people. Many get angry that they would have to pay for someone else to receive health care. The health care in the United States is catered for the rich while is buries the poor. According to the statistics for 2002-2003 there around 337,700 people that die every year that don't have to, that is the size of New Orleans. The American people are griping about paying less to save more lives, not because of the price, but because that means they feel they are paying for indolence, that they may in the process help someone who doesn't deserve to be helped.

Where is the most expensive medical work preformed? The hospital. The United States public is already paying for the health care of those uninsured and underinsured by the means of hospital bills. Rather than these people getting the preventative measured they need they are forced, or choose, to go without because of the exorbitant price. In a few months they will get the care they need from the hospital staff, but you can bet this far down the road it will not be their last visit. At this point they will need to make regular stops at their hospitals, they will not able to secure health insurance, and will be caught in the rapid whirlpool of health care with no hope of escape. As the platitude rightly states:

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Out of the federal budget (not GDP) the United States spends 23% on the Department of Defense, formerly the Department of War, which for 2011 has a predicted budget of $1.003–$1.223 trillion $1,223,000,000,000.00. That is about $4,000 a person. Maybe instead of sending off trillions of dollars to other countries to fix their governments, the United States should look to fix their own first. Instead of spending their money on guns that are in part responsible for the 5,400 Americans that have died in war this past decade and 120,000 Afghanis and Iraqis, maybe it should be spend in saving the lives of the (estimated) 3,377,000 Americans that, in the same amount of time, died unnecessarily due to the inefficiency of health care.

The Sign of Jonas Blog

2010-05-19T18:48:00.000-06:00

I have recently started a new personal Mormon based religion blog called The Sign of Jonas. I invite you who are religiously inclined to follow the posting that will be published there. If you are interested in authoring for this site below is an email sent out to those specifically invited to join our community.

The reason I have created this new blog and did not choose simply to express my ideas on the Know Justice blog is because that this blog, in my mind, is to be an unbiased look at things as they are. This has been my goal in publishing on Know Justice: to provide facts and reasonable assertions with a minimal amount of authoritative conclusions but leaving the conclusions to the reader.

On The Sign of Jonas blog, it will be approached from a biased pre-supposed position. It will examine information with an assumption of the faiths validity and from a faith perspective rather than secular knowledge. It will be addressed to those who have knowledge of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its doctrine and its history. In my vision of this blog, this is not the place to be pushing my own personal beliefs. I would prefer to keep those ideas separate from the ideas on Know Justice to best insure the unbiased nature of the blog which I have strived to observe.

Thank you for your support.

For further information about The Sign of Jonas blog, see the following links:

Blog
Forum
Calender

Hello,

This is a formal invitation to join us as an author of the academic research blog "The Sign of Jonas" blog. This is a newly initiated multi-author blog that has a focus on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each of the authors of this blog has a unique and distinct focus on the blog that has chosen by the authors.

The Sign of Jonas blog team is currently searching for "Regular Publishers" (once a month 1,000-2,000 word post), along with authors willing to publish occasional or incidental posts as a "guest" blogger.

You have been recommended as one who has the interest and the ability to create academic and coherent religious studies. We would welcome your contribution and support in whatever way you wish.

As an author you would have administrative power over The Sign of Jonas Blog, and The Sign of Jonas Forum, where you help moderate discussion. Also as an author there is a section in the forum restricted for authors only wherein ideas and plans are discussed, which will be coordinated by The Sign of Jonas Calender.

If being a Regular Publisher interests you please review the attacked "Expectations of the Authors of The Sign of Jonas Blog" then follow the instruction under the "Application Form for Authorship on The Sign of Jonas Blog" attachment.

If you are interested in becoming a Guest Author it is only needful to read and follow the instruction in the "Application Form for Authorship on The Sign of Jonas Blog".

Your response will be reviewed by the existing member of the team and we will respond to your e-mail by the end of May. After this period there will be Author discussions on the forum. The blog is anticipated to launch its first post June 6th 2010.

Thank you for you time, we hope to hear from you soon,

The Sign of Jonas Team

TheSignOfJonasBlog@Gmail.com

P.S. If you know of others who would be capable and might be interested in participating please forward this message along to them.

Seventy-Six and Counting

2010-05-14T23:37:00.000-06:00

Crescent Valley, Nevada: one square mile, one elementary school, one gas station, two hundred people, seventy-six stop signs. It was the densest concentration of nothing within fifty miles in the middle of the waste which is northern Nevada. Fortunately for these people, God loves all his children and sent to them two willing, young men on a mission.

Speeding down the I-80 in a 2006 Mazda 3, my cruise control was set to 83 miles an hour, just 8 miles over the limit that way if the cops were to catch me with their radar guns they would not pull me over since I was not even going 10 miles over the limit. It was 10:15 in the morning and there was not a cloud in the morning sky. I squinted down the road as the sun glared back at me off of the blacktop. There was no denying it; even with the air conditioning maxed out it was a hot summer morning which only promise was a hotter afternoon. Gently droning from the car speakers was the enthused voice of a man lecturing. I glanced over to my passenger, he wore a white shirt and tie with a stark black name tag over his right chest pocket His seat was reclined, sunglasses askew with his mouth draping open. His hair, shaggy, brown, and unruly, hid his forehead from view while his eyes remained shut and motionless. His hair was way too long for missionary regulations. He just did not realize how important it is to be obedient. I turned back from my sleeping companion to survey the road ahead of me. There was one thing that was for sure: being the senior companion had its drawbacks. Most notably in my mind at this moment was the responsibility of driving.

On this particular trip our destination was the aforementioned Crescent Valley. We were currently exiting of the town in which we were stationed, Carlin Nevada. The town was really only good for one thing: gold. What else would lure 3,000 people to a little town with no natural resources or beauty in the middle of a desert? Everyone in the town was working for the gold, whether directly or indirectly, their efforts were to support the extraction of this shiny substance.

We, as the missionaries in the area, covered a huge geographical area a little over 8,000 square miles. That is about the size of New Jersey. However, unlike New Jersey, which has thousands of cities and a population of around nine million, this desolate portion of Nevada consisted of only three small towns: Carlin, Crescent Valley, and Eureka, each of which were significantly distant from each other and which collectively was home to fewer than five thousand people.

I looked out my window to the left; there was nothing but a cluster of rolling hills and a vast panoramic horizon. I thought I could see a point of reflected light shining in the sea of brown, it must be a shed or possibly a small trailer home. Being stationed in Carlin defiantly afforded me a lot of opportunity to dive. I would have dreaded driving if I didn’t enjoy it so much.

As missionaries we do everything together. We eat together, read together, travel together, shop together; we even sleep in the same room. As a rule we were to never be apart from our companions. This can become very stressful at times. You do not get to pick your companions, and sometimes you just need to be alone for a while. These regular trips afforded me the opportunity to have some solidarity. As we would prepare to go on one of these trips I would slip in the Mazda, crank up the air conditioning and pop in one of my favorite lecture CDs. This served a dual purpose: firstly I really did enjoy listening to Truman Madsen speak of the Life of Jesus Christ, and Hugh Nibley speak of the ancient prophets but also because it quickly and effectively placed my companion in a comatose state, allowing my mind to wander and be freed from the constant confinement of companionship.

As I turned off the main road onto the car rumbled and swayed as we started down a narrow gravel street. My companion jerked awake. He quickly readjusted his seat and then fixed his glasses. He looked around; there wasn’t much to see. The rolling hills were behind us now, the view now was nothing but flat, treeless desert, which was littered with mobile trailers and a few small houses. A few dozen meters ahead was a fire-red stop sign caked in dirt, an utterly useless precautionary measure as you could see a car coming down the road from ten miles away. As I approache I scanned the horizon: not a sign of life in sight. I continued on through the stop sign. It was illegal but I blame my audacity and dissonance on the fact that I am a second child. Second children are notoriously free willed and natural rule breakers. It was not a big deal.

We took a right onto a smaller, less-well maintained gravel road. A sign proudly proclaimed the roads name: Hillbilly Lane. A short while later I threw the car into park, unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door. I was greeted by a scorching vindictive cloud of trailing dust, two dogs and a half-dozen young boys. This was our first stop.

An hour later we returned to our car, which in our absence had been turned into an oven. After it had cooled we continued on our journey. Five minutes later we were passing the crown and jewel of the community: the Elementary school. It is a huge school for the number of people who attend it. The grounds were pristine and held a monopoly in the city on grass. You see, because of the gold mines and the low populations of the area, the cities receive huge sums of money from the mines which goes into the public facilities of the area. As I approached the school I glanced at a sign at the side of the road: School Zone: 15 miles an hour. It was an hour since school let out. There was no one in sight. I continued at 45 miles an hour beside the school. Ahead was another stop sign; I slowed to 30, looking around. I saw in the distance a bus traveling very slowly. I continued on through the stop sign. We just had one more stop, and then we would start on our way home. We approached the trailer, walked up the constructed stairs and knocked on the door. There was no reaction. After about fifteen seconds longer and a repeated attempt to notify the occupants, we returned to our vehicle.

As I slammed my car door behind me I fell back into my seat, my head tilted towards the roof, my eyes shut. As I sat up and turned the key in the ignition I surveyed my surroundings. The horizon was a tapestry of purple and red. How stunning it was to see the darkness creep into the sky. The sinking sun bred long shadows from behind the far blue mountains, texturing the otherwise barren landscape. Maybe Nevada did have some redeeming beauty after all.
My companion turned to me; “Hey, we need to go to the Holts and pick up some milk before we go home.”

“Right.” I replied.

I turned from the view and we drove off towards the Holts’. The Holts were an extremely nice family who were members of our church. They supported us by feeding us when we came to Crescent Valley, telling us who needed to be visited, and giving helpful suggestions and information. They also owned a couple of milk cows and offered free milk to the missionaries.

As we pulled up next to their high fence and walked in through their driveway we saw Brother Holt was outside doing some chores. Brother Holt was a middle aged man in his late 40’s. He was about 5’10” with salt-and-pepper hair, slightly overweight with thick large rimmed glasses. He was wearing jeans and a tight striped collared shirt. I smiled and waved to him, offering a salutation.

“Brother Holt! How are you doing?”

“I’m doing well, how are the Mission Mormonaries doing?”

After a few moments of talk he looked deep into my eyes. I could tell that something was coming. Brother Holt was known for several things, one of those was for being forthright and opinionated. There was something in those eyes that told me that I was now the focus of his opinionated displeasure.

“I have a bone to pick with you two!”

“What is that?” I asked

“Who is the driver?”

“I am.”

“Well then I have a bone to pick with you! Do you believe in obeying an honoring the law, Elder?”

I didn’t like the way he used my title, nor did I like his aggressive tone of voice. This was a rebuke, I knew it, and the use of my title was merely an attempt to manipulate me. He was also citing an Article of Faith, a pillar of the Latter-day Saints doctrine.

“I do.” I replied

“I don’t l know if you know, but I am a school bus driver. This afternoon as I was returning to the school with the bus I saw you blow past a stop sign in a school zone going forty-five miles an hour! We are trying to show the people in this town what kind of people we are by the kind of lives we live, and it’s tough when you go and blatantly disregard the laws. I have it all on camera on my bus. The footage now belongs to the school, they can do with it what they want, whether it involves you getting a ticket or not.”

Walking away from that conversation I felt a spectrum of emotions. We grabbed our milk and started the long trip back home. There was no CD playing, I was very concerned about getting a ticket. Missionaries do not make money, all I had was the money I had earned from work back home as a cabinet installer, which was already in use to support me on my mission. On the way home my companion attempted to console me. He told me of how Brother Holt was being unfair and how he doubted I would get a ticket. Shortly after, he fell asleep, leaving me in the solitude of my own thoughts driving towards the failing rays of light emitting above the mountains. It was ridiculous the way he reacted, who is he to lecture me? He is just a grumpy old man. He has nothing better to do then to harass the people that were trying to do some good in this deplorable town. There was no logical reason for the laws, no one even lived there! There were more four wheelers on the road then cars, what is the point? It was unreasonable! I felt a passionate wave of anger towards the man. I had a strong desire to speed past that same intersection going 80 miles an hour with Brother Holt standing on the corner. That would be satisfying, that would be justice. I would show him what I thought of his tirade. I smiled at this, as the final rays of sun disappeared. I felt closure, I felt a simmering pleasure laced with vindictive fury. As I sped down the highway I looked over to my right at my passenger; his seat was reclined, glasses askew, mouth draped open. His shaggy hair hid his forehead from view while his eyes remained shut and motionless. I looked out my window to the left; I stared at the silhouette of the mountains eclipsing the bright shining stars for a long moment.

I closed my eyes and whispered to myself;

“He was right.”

View Larger Map

P.S. Pictures taken by Lynden. The families name has been changed, though it seems pointless as if anyone in that area were to read this they would know who it was. If anyone in that area or family does read this know that I have great respect for that man/family.