Ethical Universe

Open letter to President Barack Obama.

Mr. President: Hillary Clinton was exactly right when she called the Mexican Drug Cartel’s organized violence an insurgency. The only problem I have with this label is that it should be called a North American uprising and dealt with by a combined front including the U.S. and Canadian governments – Mexico can not solve this problem alone! When one considers that 90% of the drug demand and the weapons being used by these thugs comes from the U.S., it is the ultimate hypocrisy for the U.S. to call it a Mexican problem.

This uprising must be put down immediately because the stability of the entire Mexican government hangs in the balance. Since a lawless Mexico poses a much greater threat to U.S. security than Al Qaeda ever did, we should immediately withdraw all our troops from Iraq and Afgahanistan and reposition them on our southern border. This action should, of course, be coordinated in advance with the Mexican and Canadian governments. Under no scenario should this action be taken as an act of war against the Mexican government; but, it should be made clear that if our troops are in ‘hot pursuit’ of members of the drug cartels, we will cross the border and deal with these criminals as the enemy combatants that they are, i.e., shoot on sight.

In addition to a frontal assault, we should immediately open up a joint dialogue inside the U.S. government to discuss emergency measures to legalize recreational drugs so it can be controlled, regulated and obviously taxed. We of all countries should know that prohibition does not work! In fact all it really does is give rise to organized crime with the attendant violence that goes hand-in-hand with it!

The White House should cease it’s internal bickering with the Pentagon and congress and spear-head this campaign of drug sanity. Speaking of campaigns, this problem should be escalated to the level of a campaign issue for all political parties – we must get real on this issue before anarchy reigns in Mexico and the south western U.S.

Since Arizona is right on the firing line for this struggle, I would expect to hear a lot from senator John McCain among others in congress; let’s see some real leadership from our elected officials on this crisis, right now!

Finally, Mr president, due to the urgency of this problem, every politico in Washington D.C., from you down to the lowliest clerk should consider this terrible problem as an golden opportunity to address several of our worst national issues at the same time: The wars in the Middle East; the drug war at home; illegal immigration; and yes economic problems here at home and the horrible carnage we are just now beginning to witness. And, by-the-way, Sir, if you put Hillary Clinton on the ticket in 2012, I promise to vote Democratic for the first time in my life!

I will be writing more about this crisis on my website www.Ethical-Universe.com/blog so please everyone join the discussion.

John W. McAlister

Note: I left the essence of this letter at the New York Daily and sent a email to the LATIMES on Wednesday morning. As an after-thought, I would also like our president to know that our good neighbors to the north should be called on to allocate a few hundred acres up in the NorthWest Territories where the North American governments can build a huge prison to house all prisoners of the Drug War in the future. This also seems like an ideal time to solve the Guantanamo Bay facility issue and move all enemy cobatants to the new location in Northern Canada. If the Canadian do not agree with this plan, we could always pick a nice spot in Alaska, only accessible by air. 

Over the years, I have found few public issues to agree with Hillary Clinton on. But, on the question of the Mexican drug cartels she is right on target by calling the situation an insurgency. The Mexican government is predictably nervous over this declaration. They obviously know what I know – it would be a very small step to further declare that a legally constituted government is at risk and being threatened on a daily basis. The next step is to connect the dots and call these drug thugs what they are, domestic terrorists! As such, these criminals should be hunted down like the mangy rabid dogs they are and exterminated like any other enemy combatants.

As I said on this blog back in August of this year, we should immediately begin pulling our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and station them along our southern border. If the Mexican government refuses to invite us in to help hunt down these vicious killers, they should be told that invasion is not out of the question – it would indeed be hot pursuit and should not stop until these thugs are out of business.

Interestingly, this kind of a move would also help solve, at least temporarily, another intractable problem known as illegal imigration. John W. McAlister

Image from discovermagazine.com

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I left the following comment on discovermagazine.com, 9-7-10, if they choose to publish it:

I hate to be such a party-pooper regarding this spectacular celestial event. But, I must ask, what are we really ’seeing?’ After all everything we know or more appropriately all that we think we know about the universe is based on the Second Postulate of Special Relativity – the constant speed of light. More technically, this assumption says, that all light travels in ‘empty’ space in all inertial reference frames at the same rate, regardless of the speed of the source and/or the observer. It may surprise some people that there is no hard evidence that this is true in all cases! Why? Because no experiments have been done in an inertial reference frame. Inertial reference frames are, of course, any that are in constant linear (straight line) motion with respect to the so-called ‘fixed stars.’ Since the Earth is not an inertial reference frame because we are spinning in addition to revolving around the sun, no experiments done on Earth can technically be called confirmation of this illogical postulate.  John W. McAlister

www.Ethical-Universe.com

In my experience with math problems, nothing aids understanding better than an example. So, in an effort to better explain the Ethical Quick Quiz, I will use myself as the guinea pig.

I will also include this example at the bottom of the web page on the page for the Ethical Quick quiz; I hope this helps for those people that are unfamiliar with vector addition.

So first, I will assign a number from 0 to 100 for each of the 6 variables to begin the MAGNITUDE calulation:

A = 60  – I love myself quite a lot.

B = 50   – I love others a little bit less

C = 50   – I consider myself assertive with other people (short of aggressive though)

D = 40  – I am somewhat self critical (less now than I used to be)

E = 50  – I am somewhat influenced by what others say about ethics/morals.

F = 30  – I usually rely on my own judgment to decide right from wrong.

So now, plugging these values into the formula factors for the Index value, we have:

(A-B) = (60-50) = +10

(C-D) = (50-40) = +10

(E-F) = (50-30) = +20

So now, we have Index = √ ((A-B)² + (C-D)² + (E-F)² )

which  becomes Index = √ ((+10)² + (+10)² + (+20)² )

So, Ethical Index = √ (100) + (100) + (400) )

which is now equal the square root of 600 = 24.5 ~ 25

So this says that I am approximately 25% of the way to being extreme. This ends the MAGNITUDE calculation. Now we must figure out which ethical extreme I am pointing toward:

Since the 3 terms are all non-zero, we have a 3rd degree extreme I am pointing at.

The 3 signs of the terms are +,+ and +.

Applying this to the chart shown on the Ethical Quick Quiz page, we see that these values point to the 3rd degree extreme of PRIDE. So this tells me I am approx 25% of the way to being extremely prideful. I’m not thrilled with this outcome but I am not ashamed of it either. I have some work to do on my pride, but at the same time these results also say I’m 75% productive – so it would seem that I have quite a lot to work with. So, overall I’ll take that result and go forward trying to reduce my pride, but obviously with my head held high.

I hope this example helps some people that didn’t quite get the point to all this. Again, don’t take this quiz too seriously; it is definitely not the final word on your wonderful personality! Just have fun with it. Good Luck everyone. Let me know if there are any further questions on the application of this quiz. Thanks for reading.

NOTE: FOR THOSE READERS THAT BELIEVE THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS, PLEASE REFER TO THE BOOK, ETHICAL UNIVERSE, FOR A MORE THOROUGH EXPLANATION OF THE UNDERLINING FACTORS INVOLVED IN THE ABOVE CALCULATION.

John McAlister

photo:Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

The editors at NewYorkMag.com certainly believe that Tiger Woods’ great golf career is over:

“Tiger Woods didn’t win the PGA Championship yesterday, or any major this year. Get used to that sort of thing happening, because Tiger Woods will never win another major championship again. He’s finished. He’s not catching Jack Nicklaus. He’s won what, fourteen majors? Well, that’s what he’ll stay on for the rest of eternity.”

I think this is probably an over-statement; but, it is reminiscent of a blog I wrote on this website back in March of this year, prior to the 2010 Masters. I said at that time, and I still believe that Tiger will find it exceedingly difficult to rise to the level of play he enjoyed for years. Check out my previous post for the complete prediction – my views have not changed; I still believe he did more damage to his own psyche than he did to Elin Nordegren, the rest of his family, friends/fans. He might manage to win a couple more; but, the odds of him beating Jack Nicklaus’ record (19 majors) have gone way up.

I also believe that Tiger moving to Manhattan is not a good career move for him. If he succumbs to the tremendous social pressure there and continues to feed his out-sized libido in a place that has some of the most beautiful women in the world, he probably is done as a serious threat to Nicklaus’ record.

If this saga plays out this way, it will constitute one of the saddest stories of tragedy in sports history!

John W. McAlister

Image from Associated Press

If this gruesome story does not convince authorities on both sides of the border that it is definitely time to remove the main source of revenue from these violent thugs by legalizing marijuana, I think they must be brain dead.

In addition to control the drug, the revenue generated through taxation should be used to finance the U.S. military helping the Mexican government eradicate these vicious drug lords and their minion of cold-blooded murderers and kidnappers. By all means communicate this sentiment to your elected representatives as soon as possible. Thanks for reading. John W. McAlister

Well, Steven Slater is still in the news. He is certainly getting his 15 minutes of fame. But, I still maintain that he makes a very poor ‘folk hero.’ By running away in the face of adversity, Slater sets a very bad example for other attendants as well as the public; he also most probably precluded any chance of turning the unruly passenger into authorities at the gate. Stealing beer from his employer prior to his swashbuckling ‘escape’ doesn’t help his ‘heroic’ image that much either. But, if Slater ends up on Oprah or the David Letterman show, this could turn out to be a good career move for him. Writing a book that gets turned into an Adam Chandler movie could prove very lucrative for him as well. At any rate, this affair does provide a little comedy relief during the dog-days of a hot summer.

One can’t help but wonder if Steven Slater listened to Simon and Garfunkel’s huge hit song, Slip Sliding Away a few too many times.

“The nearer your destination, the more you’re slip sliding away aaaay.”

Wow, talk about life imitating art! Maybe Slater took these lyrics a little too literally?

image from New York Daily News

JetBlue flight Attendant, Steven Slater, is the most unlikely hero I can think of. Apparently on an incoming flight to Kennedy airport yesterday, Slater got into an altercation with a passenger who had accidentally hit him in the head with a carry on bag while removing it from the overhead compartment. The two exchanged expletives and Slater retaliated by announcing on the intercom f***You. When the plane stopped on the tarmac, Slater took 2 beers from the galley, popped open the emergency door and slid down the ramp. He apparently had enough time to escape the airport grounds and hurry home. The police later found him at home in bed with his ‘boyfriend.’ This whole episode must have really turned him on!

Reportedly many of Slater’s fellow attendants now see his actions as somehow heroic.

It seems to me, that it would have been more admirable for him to go inside and confront management and throw his apron at his boss or something like that and just say “I quit.”

I am, of course, not a flight attendant and can not truly relate to their frustrations of dealing with the flying public. I remember from years ago meeting this stewardess who worked for the now defunct Eastern Airlines. She was also on vacation down in the Florida Keys and was over at my sister’s condo on Plantation Key. We were partying pretty hardy and this gal popped up and started talking about some of her misadventures with ‘nasty passengers’ on various flights. She related a harrowing story of actually being aboard a flight that went down in the everglades. She openly confessed how her first impulse, after escaping the wreckage was to hold one of the passenger’s head under water – the passenger had been particularly obnoxious to her in first class. She ended her tale by announcing her heart-felt sentiment that “I HATE PASSENGERS _ THEY ALL SUCK!”

I asked her the obvious question of why she continued to work at a job that frustrated her so much. Her answer was quite enlightening: “Well, I love to travel and the money is pretty good.

It still seems to me that she should have felt morally compelled to find a different line of work that would not evince such open hostility to customers or clients that pay her salary. Before ending her tirade, the woman also revealed that she was not alone in her extreme disdain for passengers. “Many of us feel the same way.” She even mentioned that they had somehow banded together. I think it was a rather loosely organized group of confederates that partied together at times. It remains an open question as to how they would all feel like celebrating and for what exactly? This incident gave me pause because at that time I flew quite a lot; I was never as comfortable as I had been before.

John McAlister

image from muslimworker.com

To claim that the planned Islamic Center near Ground-Zero in New York City is not politically motivated and highly controversial would be a massive insult to our sense of reason. If the planners of the project truly want to build bridges between the major religions, I am hard pressed to think of a worse location to choose! On second thought, there is one other place that would be even more divisive – why don’t the planners just go to Jerusalem and try to get approval for their Islamic center somewhere around the Wailing Wall, a key symbol for Jewish suffering? It is rather humorous to contemplate how many nano-seconds the Israeli Knesset would seriously debate this issue before putting the kibosh on it!

Whether or not the planners decided on a place that would give Islam the maximum exposure is really beside the point here. What, in reality, they and their unwitting supporters are doing is using our main strengths in the U.S. against us – our love for individual freedom, diversity and religious tolerance. It is interesting to note that it is these very same strengths that set us up for the 9/11 catastrophe in the first place. Without the freedom of movement; the freedom to take flying lessons (minus landing instructions) on our very shores; use credit cards to rent automobiles, buy cell phones, rent rooms, buy airline tickets to anywhere and dine out every night, it is hard to imagine the 9/11 terrorists being successful.

Now, I would be among the first to admit that Islamic terrorists are not the ones planning or supporting this mosque-from-hell. Nevertheless, I am equally convinced that Osama Bin Laden and company are rejoicing and laughing up their collective sleeves at our naïveté for even considering this farcical maneuver ostensibly intended to increase religious tolerance.

I really don’t blame Islamic extremists for supporting this proposal (secretly or otherwise). After all, any group worthy of being called an enemy have always and will forever attempt to use their adversary’s strengths as well as their weaknesses against them – even we do that, routinely; it’s just part of the fog of war. But, we should never knowingly give aid and comfort to our sworn enemies, especially on the altar of our greatest strengths – we should rather be doing the unexpected.

Islamic Jihadists are our sworn enemy. They plot our demise every day, just as much as they once did for the Soviet Union. Afghanistan was the Soviet Union’s battle field that ended up as their graveyard. Make no mistake, this 10-year struggle did more to destroy the USSR than Ronald Reagan and his Cold War minions ever did. The Afghan war wrecked the economy of the Soviet Union which ultimately resulted in the stupendous implosion in what seemed like a heart-beat 15 years ago. Since we are still fighting and dying in the same place, we are certainly not exempt from the same fate. The Islamic extremists will not rest until the U.S. is soundly defeated in Iraq/Afghanistan and they, of course, would like nothing better than to see our economy collapse as a result. Let’s all take an oath to not let this happen.

John W. McAlister

Image from New York Daily News

It is a sad irony indeed when a politician feels compelled to run for public office in order to raise enough money to pay legal bills to defend himself from charges of being a crook from his fellow politicians! I sincerely hope the good people of Harlem see that they are the butt of this cruel joke that isn’t the least bit funny.

Unfortunately, if history serves any example, there will be many die-hard supporters who will be duped into contributing to Rangel’s sham of a defense fund.

John W. McAlister