ARE BIRTHERS RACISTS?

The people who STILL believe that President Obama was not born in the US say that they are not racists. They do not understand why most everyone else thinks that they are racists.

Racism is not just saying that a group of people can not join your country club. Racism can also be more subtle. If you believe that every Black man you meet on the street is going to mug you, you might be a racist.

Racism can be your willingness to believe the most preposterous things about someone. (Preposterous is defined as a belief so devoid of wisdom or good sense as to be laughable.)

The person who believes in preposterous things about minorities NEVER believes that (s)he is being racist. This is because racism was taught to him/her at a very young age, in a manner that make her/him incapable of treating a minority as an equal.

As racism becomes more and more socially unacceptable, the person who is a racist will find other excuses as to why they are not treating minorities as equals.

There is a song in the musical South Pacific that perfectly describes the problem. The young officer is in love with a girl from the island, but he can not bring himself to marry her. He sings, "You have to be taught to hate and fear..."

It is really very sad. Especially since persons who can not treat everyone as equals have great difficulty getting and holding jobs in the modern day US.

People who come up with preposterous excuses for why they can not accept a woman or a minority can not hide their attitude. Modern corporations get sued if they have employees who are not being treated as equals. Therefore, most modern corporations will not keep someone employed if the employee is incapable of treating everyone as equals.

So, are birthers racists? Most of us think that they are racists, because birthers are incapable of accepting a President who's father was a very Black man from Kenya. I feel sorry for birthers. In my opinion, birthers were abused children, taught by racists to be racists.

DEATH OF A MURDERER

Osama bin Laden is dead. Please do not cheer his death. The death of a human being, any human being, is a tragedy to someone.

Personally, I am glad that bin Laden is no longer able to plan the death of thousands of innocents.

In the end, bin Laden was unable to effect the changes he wanted. When change came, it came from people who did their best to peacefully demonstrate for change. Change came from people who wanted to give everyone a chance to vote.

Now bin Laden will be judged by history and by Allah, who, the Koran tells us, does not approve of the death of innocents.

UNWISE ENERGY CHOICES

NUCLEAR ENERGY

We are storing spent nuclear fuel rods at the nuclear power plants. In many countries there is NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE to accumulating more and more spent fuel rods, which are stored at the plant. This is because no one can agree on what to do with the spent nuclear fuel rods which are both highly radioactive and generate heat.

Initially, the fuel rods are stored in water that has to be kept cool. If the water is not carefully watched, it may split into hydrogen and oxygen, which is a fire and/or explosion waiting to happen.

Sweden, Finland, and New Mexico in the US are the only places where deep underground storage of spent nuclear fuel is actually being done. Almost everywhere else, the spent fuel rods are kept at the power plant, getting more and more dangerous as the number of spent fuel rods increases over time.

There is no way we can be certain that the underground facilities will be effective for thousands of years until the fuel is no longer radioactive. However, we can be certain that keeping the older spent fuel rods on the surface, next to the plant, is immediately dangerous, if there is a huge earthquake or other natural disaster.

OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING

The US treats an offshore oil rig as if it were a ship. Such treatment means that the rig can chose which country's flag to fly. A ship is regulated by the country who's flag it flies.

THIS IS REALLY STUPID. A rig is permanently attached to the seabed, and should be regulated by the country where the rig is located.

For instance, the BP oil rig that blew up in the Gulf of Mexico, was flying the flag of the Marshal Islands, which means that the safety regulations that the rig followed were the safety regulations from the Marshal Islands.

Do you think perhaps the US has stronger safety regulations than the Marshal Islands?

FEAR OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL FAILURE -- NOT NECESSARY

Many of you are feeling fear of global financial failure.

Honestly, the fear you are feeling is about something that already happened.

The financial mess was a mess caused by the sudden drop in the money supply. The money supply problem then triggered a one to two year financial crises, which is now over.

Those of you who ignored the carefully worded warnings about "getting rich quick means the possibility of getting poor quick" have to start over. You may have to sell your real estate short, losing the down payment(s) that you made. You may have to find a lower paying job because your job was funded by the fake real estate boom. If you sold your mutual funds during the crises, you may never recover the loss.

But the rest of the world is moving on. You also will have to move on.

Many of us have lost everything at least once in our lifetimes. We know that is it possible to start over. Actually, things are often easier the second time around as one did hopefully learn something from the first failure.

This is the US. We believe in second chances.

I will guarantee you that if you dwell on the past, you will miss your future.

PUTTING THE GENIE BACK IN THE BOTTLE -- LIMITING THE NUMBER OF MARIJUANA CLINICS

Why is San Jose trying to close medical marijuana clinics? (Please note that the vote has been carefully scheduled during Easter Vacation.)

Rather than actually believe in the science behind the numerous US Presidential Commissions on marijuana, the San Jose City Council would rather go with the "gut" of its mayor, who thinks marijuana is an "evil" that attracts the "wrong crowd". (I find that defining sick people as evil is both sick and evil.)

I think the pharmaceutical industry is quietly putting pressure on politicians to keep medical marijuana from patients. If patients are using marijuana instead of expensive, addictive, often dangerous, modern drugs, the pharmaceutical industry does not make as much money.

San Jose wants to be the center of the bio-chemistry industry (the people who make designer drugs that doctors prescribe).

Is there a connection?

Does anyone care about the millions of patients that marijuana has and is helping?

THEATER WHEELCHAIR ACCESS

Theaters are set up so that people sit in seats above the person in front of them, so that the view is not blocked. In order to get the maximum number of seats into a theater, the seats are close together and all seats are the same size.

There are several problems with getting a wheelchair into the theater's seating.

1. Wheelchairs vary in height, so that a wheelchair in front of a normal seat may block the view of the person sitting behind the wheelchair.

2. Most theaters use stairs as the way that people get to their seats. This means that wheelchair seating is only possible where there are no stairs.

3. Theater seats are very close together, leaving very little room to walk between the seats. A wheelchair almost always takes up more space than a row of seating.

Personally, I think that putting wheelchair people in the first row, transferring the person from the chair to the seat, and removing the wheelchair until the performance is over, can be the best alternative. I know of NO THEATER who does this.

I have been seated at the goal post on ground level at football games which I attended only to watch the marching band. It is difficult to watch the patterns of the band from ground level. It is difficult to see the band from 50 yards away.

Many times, I have been seated on the edge of the theater seating. Generally, when sitting on the edge, the performance is somewhat lopsided.

Last time I went to the Shark Tank, many years ago, the only wheelchair seating available was in the most expensive seating area. Unless you were willing to pay premium prices, you could not attend using a wheelchair.

Often, the wheelchairs are put at the top of the seating, so that no one else is bothered by the wheelchair. This means that wheelchair people get the worst seats in the house.

Some local movie theaters have wheelchair seating right before a balcony. Sometimes this seating is in the center of the seating. These theaters are the ones I attend when using my wheelchair. However, I know that the seating in the center of the theaters was only achieved by disabled people suing the theaters.

Please understand that I am ALWAYS early for the theater, so that I can get whatever wheelchair seating is available, and so that if there are difficulties, they can be worked out. Even so, I dread going to a new theater, because I am never certain of the difficulties I will encounter.

FELONIES YOU MAY BE COMMITTING

I hear that there is a LOT of office bragging from immigrants who are making money in foreign stock exchanges and keeping the money overseas so they do not pay taxes. They seem to think that they can fool the IRS.

The IRS NEVER lets a US taxpayer get away with NOT REPORTING INCOME. The latest effort is called Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. US taxpayers, both individuals and corporations, MUST report all of their financial interests in bank accounts in foreign countries. The report is due June 30 of each year.

Have you done your FBAR report? Not doing your FBAR report is a felony. Also, generally the IRS can start seizing your money and your homes to pay the steep fines you will have to pay when you are again free to pay fines.

Recently, the US forced Swiss banks to reveal bank account information. Believe me, if they can get a Swiss bank to give them information, whatever bank you are using will also give the IRS information. Who knew terrorism laws could be so useful against tax evaders?

BTW, it is also a felony in California to pay someone cash for full time work, because you are then not correctly paying your worker's compensation insurance.

The IRS has a FBAR amnesty program where you can confess, pay the taxes, and move on with your life. May I recommend that you hire a tax attorney BEFORE confessing?