Dynasty

How can you know if someone is good at what they do without knowing them personally? Most people find that a person's name is a useful measure. In politics, think Kennedy, Paul, (in Pennsylvania, Casey). In entertainment, think Barrymore, Cusack, or Arquette. There are many more. This type of branding is useful. And it is not taxed by the government.

However, small businesses also use name branding, to carry them from one generation to the next. While income has been taxed all along, the government feels that it is a moral virtue to tax whatever is left after taxes and death in the estates of the owners, because what is left over has material value and wasn't earned by the inheritors, even those who are blood relatives with the same name.

In fairness, perhaps there should be a name tax, applied to those whose names or lineages carry economic power. So, should a Kennedy relative want to enter politics, there should be a special tax on that person. Similarly, if Angelina Jolie's children want to become entertainers, they should have to pay for the right to be the third generation of Voight descendants on the silver screen.

Everyone works for their money, but gets their inheritance for free, be it a business or a bankable name or identity. If you tax one, tax the other. I cannot see why taxing one would be a virtue and taxing the other a vice.

Pleasure Principle

Few who have opined on the massacre in Tucson have it right. Everyone seems to be looking for reasons for Jared Loughner's actions. Why did he choose those people, that site and that time? While these are interesting questions, they really are not pertinent to the event. The driving force behind the event was pleasure.

Take one look at Jared's face and you can see the rapturous pleasure, the feeling of having completed an act that unified all the positivity within him.

• His body, highly trained by practice with firearms (and, although not mentioned, likely with first person shooter games). Reflexes honed. The well-trained habits of using firearms with precision.
• His thoughts, confused, but focused on finding someone who would be the ideal target for his gun. A woman? Young? Famous? Bestowing notoriety on himself! And she talks about guns! And local, easy to find.
• His emotions, pleasure from shooting his gun and imagined pleasure from killing, from shooting a living person at point blank range. Pleasure from the reactions of those around her who will cower in fear, scream and moan. All fulfilled beyond his wildest imagination. How fun to kill in first person shooter games! How fun to shoot a real gun!
• Flow. It all came together so smoothly. Arriving at the scene, ability to get close to his target and ability to carry out his fantasy to perfection. In the zone, firing at will, watching the targets fall. Nothing too challenging but all new and exhilarating.
• Higher purpose? He had none, other than his own self fulfillment, his own self mastery, and perhaps, a desire for fame and notoriety. Mission accomplished!

No, I don't believe he was driven by anger or fear. Nor was he influenced by images of targets or words that evoke weapons. No remorse because he experienced his ultimate pleasure. The ultimate psycho-narcissist, the opinions and passions of others do not even register in his mind. Perhaps he sees all of life as a videogame, with himself being the only real character. A real life Neo.

Those who approach this event from the rational perspective just don't understand that rationality was not his forte. Those who look for anger and fear as motives have only to look at Jared's face to realize the error of their assumptions. This is one happy young man, having fulfilled his fantasy.

How do you prevent things like this from happening in the future? Not by fixing civil discourse or by getting rid of gun related analogies or by eliminating guns. It is by recognizing individuals who have no compassion for others and who achieve pleasure from evoking fear. These characteristics, especially in young men (who have less impulse control as is their nature) are the (pardon the expression) correct targets. Individuals with these characteristics need to be carefully watched, redirected, educated and retrained. It is the failure of politics to allow the mental health professionals to be the masters of these individuals.

As usual, the politicians do not see it is their abuse of power that allowed this to happen.

Paging Lovey!

It is 2012 and time for the presidential election. You walk into the voting booth and look at the offerings of the two parties. You are determined to vote. Which one do you vote for?

D: Barack Obama

R: Sarah Palin

You could vote for the black man to show you are not prejudiced, or for the woman to show that you believe we should remove the glass ceiling, that women are as capable as men. You could vote against the idiot who said she can see Russia from her back yard, or the moron that said he had been to all 57 states. You could vote for the one who spends huge amounts of public money on family vacations, or the one whose daughter was on a cheesy TV dance show. Or the one who wields a gun or the one who wields a cigarette. Would you vote for the intellectual? We have had intellectual giants, such as Wilson. Or would you vote for the simple minded one? We have had simple folks such as Reagan.

This is a choice between the Professor and Mary Ann, and we are stuck on Trillions-are-gone Island!