Rasta Rants

This word means contention, argument, debate and dispute. I find that we are in a great controversy about all this sexual misconduct that is in the press daily. Before we get into this I want to state explicitly I am against all forms of sexual harassment or abuse of any kind and think it should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. That said I find a lot of what is going on now to be strange if not hypocrytical. Here is what I mean: Hollywood is acting as though sexual misconduct and harassment are new and shocking to this industry. Are you kidding? This is the industry that has fostered this behavior for decades. Back in the 50's Hollywood was known for the "casting couch". Nothing has changed but the sick individuals who are perpetuating the behavior.  This is the problem with power and fame. On the one hand you have Hollywood executives who control the success or failure of actors and others. These people know and feel their power. They literally

Is anyone out there as tired of the hatred and fighting as I am? It has to stop. America was born out of a concept of freedom and I respect that but we also have to be united and work on problems together. A house divided cannot stand . All this hatred, the left versus right, the biased reporting, the political unheaval and the lack of respect and common decncy has to stop. What caused all this? Lets go back to 2001 after 9/11. We were united as a country because we had been attacked horribly. We changed many things and we compromised to get them done. President Bush was not a dynamic leader but he was forceful and pushed us through. Was the Iraq war a mistake? Maybe but it is not the root cuase of where we are today. Obama came along and we were in trouble. The mortagage crisis had turned into a world economic crisis and he was dynamic and a great orator. We bought it hook, line and sinker. He was a community organizer and in his heart a socialist. His roots started to show by mid

Increasingly I am starting to think the US (and maybe several other countries) have lost their collective minds. Society must change and grow - I get that and support it. Lately we are seeing shifts that are not societal growth or even expanded awareness but outright stupidity. For now I will focus on the US issues only and pick on the world in another blog. I am to the point today where watching the news is painful. The things we focus on and argue about are surprising and show a total lack of worldly intelligence. Here are few I have noticed recently: This Russia issue. Stop already! Trump won the election and we should be trying to find ways to work with his administration to fix important things in the US. This absolute fixation on Russian colusion is ridiculous. Okay Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer who lied about having dirt on Clinton. Jr. just wanted to help Dad win and the meeting was a bust. Its not illegal and it is not treason. Get over it. Did the Russian

I think we can all agree US healthcare needs some help - It is not working well. Just look at our costs versus the world then go look at our outcomes versus the world. Its alarming! We costs nearly twice as much as the next two highest spending countries combined. We are still ranked 27th in the World Health organization rankings of health around the world. So in short we are paying the most and getting a terrible result from all that spending. I think both political parties see this although I'm not sure they are actually admitting it. So who is winning in the current system and who is fighting to keep it as it is? The big winners are medical providers and drug companies. Providers include hospitals, doctors, diagnostics, Labs, surgery centers, ambulance, urgent care clinics and more. Drug companies include drug manufacturers and PBM's. These two industry segments make the majority of money in the US healthcare system. This is not to say that there are not others that benef

I have spent the last 3 days in the US capitol - Washington DC. This is by no means my first visit and probably won't be my last. Coincidentally I am here as the Republicans finally pass ACA reform in the House. Will this be a historic day? Only time will tell. Why my onerous title? Well being at the seat of Federal power and interfacing with several very powerful policy makers and their staff has scared the crap out of me. This place is not normal and we should all be very worried. Look DC has always been nuts. Inside the beltway has no connection to reality and how they operate is ridiculous and illogical, I have known this for more than 20 years so seeing it again close up was not shocking just very disappointing. What created fear in me was the changes I did see First I have never seen such a partisan divide. The camps are literally angry and mean to each other publicly. The 22 years old staffers who sadly really run the government have even changed. They used to chase each

Well we have had another peaceful (relatively) change in power in the US today. We inaugurated our 45th president - Donald Trump. There are many Americans who are very unhappy today and I would like to address you in the hope that you will adjust your thinking with a bit of perspective. Today is not about Donald Trump. Today is about our country and the Democratic system we have in place to transfer power from one administration to another without violence and anarchy . It is about showing the world what a smart and balanced country we are. How well our freedoms work and why we are the greatest country on earth. As for Donald Trump, there a few truths you need to ponder. He would NOT be our 45th President if it were not for you. Yes you the left wing liberals who swung the pendulum to far left and enraged the moderates and conservatives. You and your progressive agenda created this backlash that we now all have to live with. You were warned and did not take heed. You violated the

The older I get the more I see change that I don't understand. As a society we must change and grow or be doomed. But change needs to be governed by some guiding principles or it has no meaning. Morals Where have our morals gone? Start with the world. The things we are doing to each other is unbelievable. I don't mean just the big obvious things like war and terrorism. While these are terrible we have seen these before for centuries. It does not make them right and I do not condone any of it but I can't help wonder if it does not stem from the smaller more mundane moral failures. When I was growing up my mother told me there was no such thing as hate. She said you can dislike someone or disagree with someone but you cannot hate them. If you are a real Christian or Muslim this should be a cornerstone of your beliefs. perhaps it all starts here. If we grow up accepting and portraying hate then is it any surprise that we see the kind of horrible human tragedies we do?