The Nature of Temptation

     It is always present to everyone the temptation to do bad ,as a matter of fact, the word temptation never really refers to any good act but a bad one. It is our good sense, religious and social beliefs that (for the most part) stops us all from falling into temptation but this problem is not new but as old as time itself. Our acts of temptations range from the very feeble or small to larger ones that would affect others who have nothing to do with our problems or are innocent of any wrong doing against us. We all sometimes try to justify our acts of temptation in a feeble attempt of seeing the right of our actions in what is clearly an act of wrong. So what would the recent shooter of Connecticut's Newtown violant act say had he survived the act of shooting those innocent victims whose life he cut short, we can only guess at this point as what his justification was. At least we can revisit the act and analyze it in order to truly prevent another violant act like this one to repeat itself again somewhere else in a truly sensible way, not in a state of panic as some are doing. I truly believe that no violant and sociably unacceptable act should be ignored, and to be openly dissected in order to improve our ability to avoid another incident and learn what was done wrong after all are we not trying to improve our science of human behavior or psychology to avoid another incident? We try to rely on our science of human behavior and psychology but this questionable science is relatively a new one and has a great deal of unjustifiable guess work on the part of the professionals and doctors in the field. Unlike medicine (that is not completely free of guess work) it can see most common health issue's and can come to a somewhat reasonable treatment. It amazes me that we can more properly diagnose a car problem, plumbing, electrical, computer or technology issue but we are unable or willing to conclude upon a real cause and then properly fix these issues.  It's very clear that currently some unacceptable human behavior, medicine and psychological problems we face (even in the past) we are unwilling to address them properly with the zeel required to address them with merit.

     We have all acted upon some level of temptation at one point of our lives and then for the most part regretted the act. We try to seek forgiveness from our sins by going to confessionals, being a born again, do something helpful for our communities in penance but the fact remains that all of us fall from grace at one point of our lives. I don't believe that earthly saints truly exist but I want to keep the hope alive that some of us are above our worldly temptations that inspire us to do good things as opposed to  bad ones. That ideal isn't a bad thing to look forward to after all  none of us are angels. All we can do is to always listen to that little voice that calls upon all of us to do good, and hope never to loose our frame of minds as to what line we should never cross that would cause harm to us and especially to others . So what is truly "The Nature of Temptation", who really knows? Not me nor the doctors who call themselves professionals at least not yet. It is still a big guessing game that society needs to address seriously in a scientific, logical and sensible manner not in a state of panic or to further some other questionable hidden political agenda.

How we Treat our Service connected injured Veterans locally in NJ!

     At the left you can see a simple Google search of the VA facilities in East Orange, New Jersey and you can too look it up if you like to contact them. It is public information and I am in no way trying to violate the rights of this institution but I will tell all I can in this article for your benefit, the reader and maybe a fellow SC (Service Connected) veteran. This article has been re-inspired to write due to some recently past issues related to me and others during the course of the past years that I have had to defend myself against a system I believe to be too extremely bloated and becoming less caring to the patient real needs, our injured veterans and their families. In comparison to the public sector, the VA has been touted to be a more efficient system (key word efficient) and the envy of many health care reformers but all is not rosy and perfect especially when it comes to the patients needs, many injured veterans who have sacrificed there well being so that others may enjoy this great democracy we have are suffering unjust treatment by the VA partially due to the actions of a few individuals with the power to affect service connected disabled veterans rights and services. I'm hoping this will change with a little bit of pressure from me and others concerned about this way of thanking our veterans for their service and sacrifice.

Gun Control Reform, is it serious?

     With the tragic shootings recently in the news, once again those people who believe the 2nd amendment is a mistake are taking up the cause to not properly address legal Gun ownership or the shootings that result from mentally disturbed individuals or the vast majority of responsible gun owners. No sane or rational person would disagree that the mentally disturbed or criminal element should not have access to firearms of any kind but that is the last thing considered by these anti gun ownership advocates, instead they address the issue by passing or pushing legislation that would make it even more difficult for responsible citizens to own their own firearms to protect themselves and or others from being shoot by lunatics throughout the USA with illegally obtained firearms.

     It is well known that the one large major group that tries to protect our 2nd amendment rights are the NRA but not all gun owners are members of the NRA and a serious conversation about protecting the public against maniacs with firearms should include existing gun owners, law enforcement, constitutionalists and Mental Health experts. One major issue even before all these shootings, has been the lack of uniformity on the part of every state when it comes to background checks, carry and conceal, issuing permits, and some other particulars that gun owners have been putting up with for many years and only they know about. The right to own and carry legal firearms is more relevant today then when it was even written down by our forefathers but that topic is also avoided by the anti-gun advocates.

     The assault firearms ban is really non functional and serves little or no reasonable purpose in trying to lower the incidents of violence today and many statistics show that to be the case. Let's stop talking out of our bleep and seriously take up the topic with a well organized and intelligent group of people, not fanatics on either side. My prayers and sympathies go out to all the people affected by the shootings in Connecticut and other locations, it could of been avoided with some minor changes that most responsible gun owners could of provided in reasonable advice of responsible actions not dreamland actions.

Airport Security Madness Alive and Well Today!

     Recently I tuned into a local radio show coverage of the highly controversial airport security laws being questioned by some of the local New Jersey elected officials (bravo). There seems to be opinions flying about that airport security measures have been taken to the unnecessary extremes sacrificing our American travelers right to privacy and or freedoms for the sake of terrorist threats abroad. The radio show host Keith Gerhart from 101.5 FM radio station (somewhat extreme right channel) seem to not accept the rights of individuals to privacy and that we must all sacrifice our civil liberties for the sake of safety while flying at whatever the cost (lots of fear). So we should ask ourselves whether or not the terrorists actions from the 911 incident (and others) have won and made us all a bit more scared to do anything then we should be and sacrifice our rights so quickly? The answer to that is pretty clear, they have won and the proof is in our collective actions and acceptance to sacrifice our American rights to travel. I have to wonder if we had gone in the wrong path when the threats were more related to the improper follow-up of these questionable individuals by the FBI and other government offices as we now know after various investigations of the 911 incidents. Plus the fact that in other countries where terrorist really do reside, we don't demand that they receive the same level or better of scrutiny. Why not have these dangerous and really unnecessary body scanning machines placed in those questionable countries that pose a real known threat and also lower the level of hassles involved with Americans traveling through the our countries airports. The costs to travel both in privacy and financially we can give our thanks to the terrorists abroad but our highly incompetent elected officials just brimming for the chance to spend our taxes just to hassle us unnecessarily while the terrorists abroad laugh at our actions and travel much more comfortably then Americans that did nothing. Now some may say that the risks are just to high but has anyone really looked at the facts of statistics involved that would justify our exaggerated airport security here in America, I don't think so. I know I do not personally relish the thought of traveling anywhere inside the USA or abroad by airplane because of the hassles involved, privacy breaches, radiation threat, and the airlines justified reasons to charge extra for just about anything from baggage to others services. Americans have easily given into the terrorist threats and made us a less American nation by sacrificing so much unjustly giving into fear (the terrorist primary weapon). Just as an added note, I remember when 911 first affected air travel and I was at an airport waiting to travel abroad. Our group refused to give into the terrorist trying to scare us into a corner and not travel. In fact our air travel was the most congested when others barely had travelers seemingly from the scare of recent events of 911. Let us all hope this will change and that more reasonable minds prevail in the future in our security issues with real facts, real statistics and just plane common sense.

Veterans Travel Pay Problem Revised!

After many days of going back and fourth and several communications with both the VA representative and the local senators office here in New Jersey, a temporary conclusion on the problem of travel pay deductions was reached. I was informed by the local VA representatives that the travel pay deduction exemption are not automatic and must be requested by the veteran despite there qualifying factors  and a means test submitted at the travel office every fiscal year (mostly at different times then the means test) after meeting with both income and percentage of benefits requirements. I was told that they are working on trying to implement an automatic system in the VA travel compensation pay process but currently it is not available at this time so all military veterans have to be aware of the issue and make an extra effort for this very important and often abused benefit against the veteran in question. If you are a veteran of the US armed forces within the VA system and have any questions about this topic or any others, you should talk to your local patient advocates office or contact your elected legislatures if ignored. I will try to keep you informed as I am able to on this blog. Current update is that a card has been issued for those qualified veterans plus a list held at the travel offices but it is unstable and not well defined standard practicing procedures as per the Veterans Handbook issued every year. This newer adaptation still does not resolve the problem of most military US veterans inside the VA system, falling through the cracks when it is really not necessary.  Neither does it properly cover in our federal VA handbook as standard practicing procedure for obtaining these types of benefits, not to mention the real lack of knowledge about this benefit from clerks that attend veterans when claiming travel pay and tend to deny vets their just benefit.

Credit Card Companies Outsourcing causing Security Breech!

Most people with a store or regular credit card do not think about what their respective companies are doing to protect your very important personal information. It has become common place to outsource customer services to questionable countries who many times barely speak enough proper English to keep both the customer and the rep from frustrating situations but it cost less for these companies to do so. In keeping their costs down they are sacrificing our privacy and personal information that could be taken and used by any disgruntled employee (or unknown thief within the system ) or for what ever reason there may be. It took from me a very irritating phone call today trying to report my mothers lost store credit card from Macy's. After a series of what I thought to be excessive personal questions, I had to question the real need to do so since with just a few these questions of customers identity could be verified since really they would only know the answers to not to mention caller id phone number on record. The representative could barely speak proper english and resisted any attempts to transfer the call (once my mother was grilled with questions) to a line supervisor on duty ending with a quick hang-up. Problem cured right, not really I had to follow up not only by calling back to their main number but speaking to a line supervisor only identified as Manny who really defended the other reps actions justifying the multitude of unnecessary personal questions. This is not unique in today's customer service out sourcing epidemic making it hard on both the rep on the other line and the customer when it could be easily be fixed by either truing them more on speaking english or hiring employees here in the USA that do speak proper english. Another option would be for the rep to transfer out to another individual that can understand better the spoken language but that seems to be impossible within corporate American companies lacking in concern for their customers today. The Federal US government has to be more concerned about just how much of a security risk to their citizens this represents (or at least I hope so) especially in current circumstances and with so many terrorists salivating at the thought of false ID's being obtained, this really does represent a real threat to all of us. This is not really acceptable or necessary with so many US employees out of work and the high risk of having our identities stolen after all will these countries go out of their way to protect American consumers from abuse or is it the job of our elected officials? Be careful who and how much information you give out to these companies while on the phone even if you know who they are and protest your concerns always directly to them either by phone, letter or otherwise.

The Racial Divides of the Past Repeats in a morphed Version!

Our country is going through a difficult time that try out all of our patients and temper but this is not the first time in our history when this has happened especially when it comes to racial divides encouraged by the in power leaders and others. We have seen these conflicts before when the Chinese slave labor was used to build our great railroad system, the irish and other European slave labor work was used to conquer the wild lands in the vast areas of the then west, and of course the slavery of our african american brothers culminating in the nastiest war ever fought on American soil. Now once again our attention is drawn by force to the spanish community legal or not but those ignorant or many times intentionally driven political leaders have no clue to the pasts price when we as Americans take this course of action. Going to bed with a radically right wing fanatic group that is mostly white in the tea party seems to be backfiring on the republican leaders, the party of Lincoln who freed the slaves in a time that cost thousands of lives of the Civil war of the past. So what exactly is really the driving force to have us all Americans tune on each other by these ignorant and selfish leaders, money the root of all evil and not skin color or ethnic attachments. This mid term elections could be a decisive point in our current history especially if the morally & mental correct of us allow it to just happen and roll over to the actions of a stirred up fanatic group. I grew up appreciating everyone no matter what race or color and to respect their right to exist in this country but that is not the case with many closet hidden racists behind the scenes. Sure I may feel somewhat unfairly treated or even jealous when a racial group seems to be doing better then my own, it's only natural but it does not rule my moral way in respecting all people. The so called white majority need to do the same and see beyond the political boloney spewed out by the leaders who live in a different world then the rest of us, privileged or better yet well of financially unlike the rest of us whites included. The election of this countries first half African American and half other (I think Irish) should be something all good Americans should be proud of not the actions of the no party or some run off group of misguided fanatics like the Tea Party. I just hope white, black, hispanic, asian and all will wake up before it is too late and make sure they vote this coming election keeping the fanatics from gaining any real power. If these fanatics do gain power, whats next the Klan's party to rise again as some force in our country after we finally put those nuts in their place? I hope not. I trust we will see the light soon.