In 1996 I started posting stories and thoughts on this website. I shared pictures and links and tidbits of interest and learned how to write code for the web. Blogging showed up 5 years later as a thing to do and I read a lot of blogs and still do but realized that wading through someone's blog to figure our who they were or what they believed or thought took a lot of time so I challenged myself to just get to the point and say everything in one page as sucinctly as I could.

This is who I am and what I believe with minimal varnish.

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I believe that government serves a useful and important role in making our society just, livable, safe and resilient.

I know that capitalism and especially entrepreneurism are the best system we’ve devised to mobilize resources to improve our circumstances and the quality of life for people.

I’m convinced that the free markets are unable to self regulate for any sustained period of time and require government to set standards of conduct, and punish liars, cheaters and thieves.

I think there is almost no good reason for the government to keep secrets from those who elect them and any justified secrets should have congressional and judicial scrutiny to ensure that power is justly used.

I think that lobbying firms and ALL sides of the non-profit sector play an important role advocating for causes, being a watchdog of government and raising awareness of issues important to our society.

I know that corporations also play an important role in advocating their interests and they outspend all the non profits and unions combined (25x more) and that their influence is vastly greater than any other constituency in our democracy.

I believe that God is a Bronze Age myth that has outlived its usefulness in the 21st century.

I consider being religious a form of expression of spirituality and that every human being expresses spirituality in some form or another. Mine is best illustrated in this video.

I’m certain that natural selection endowed humans with a rudimentary moral compass that is fragile to greed, envy, lust and fear and that a rule of law is required to be a more just, equitable and free society.

I see that only scientific or technological breakthroughs that began around the 20th century transformed communication, transportation, housing, medical care, education, food production, environmental sustainability, entertainment or living standards and no other system of belief has EVER made that kind of impact on the quality of life for human beings.

I believe that a country that tells all other countries that it is the best, when its measurable living standards have consistently declined in comparison to theirs, and that we have nothing to learn from them, is ignorant and arrogant.

I doubt that there is much of a rational case someone can make for going to war with another country after the debacle of Iraq, Afghanistan and Viet Nam and I believe that the deployment of American soldiers into harm’s way must be a last resort and demands thoughtful deliberation.

I’ve come to understand that the media has no incentive to tell us the truth but instead must play to our base emotions to engage an audience they can sell to advertisers.

I fear that most Americans don’t question their beliefs and attitudes, they simply react to them and make themselves easily manipulated and choose to be righteous and comfortable instead of courageous, visionary or compassionate.

I think that most people are not prepared for the massive impact of an emergent China, India, Russia and Latin America and that scientific and technological breakthroughs in the 21st century will blindside everyone still trying to recapture a Leave it to Beaver era lifestyle.

I marvel at the speed that wealth is being created and consolodated. The top 20 million households globally are due to amass $200 Trillion by the end of the decade, leaving the other 1,900 million households to divide less than $10 Trillion. We are richer and more divided by massive wealth than ever before and that gap is widening faster and will likely shape much of the politics in this century.

I’ve learned that, contrary to the prevailing media tone, we live at a time when the most likely cause of death is old age, more people are healthy, fed, educated and well, and there is a larger percentage of people working for the betterment of others than at any time in human history. This 4 minute video illustrates this point best.

I don’t think this means we can stop or coast, far from it, but I think we’ve become so baited by fear mongering that we loose sight of the real facts on the ground… life for humanity on this planet is the best it has ever been… sadly that seems to be a great expense to the planet.

Welcome to life on planet earth as I see it.