Incentives matter, even Birds think so

You can spend a lifetime discovering things on the internet. Luckily for me, it took me a short time while browsing through videos for good laughs on YouTube.




As always, life finds a way. Amazing what an incentive will cause someone or thing to do.
The birds wanting to crack nuts with ease and safety had devised an interesting system by using their surroundings

Yet we find other birds who find a better way to adapt with no need to inconvenience themselves with a high cost upon their lives. Everywhere and in everything we find incentives. The bird steals but does not think of it as stealing only for the fact that it has received food. For the birds there is only one incentive, to eat.

We are faced everyday with our own decisions to make facing incentives and it is our job to find the easiest way of obtaining what it is we want. Anything can be done... you just need the right incentives to do it.

Silly Bolivian; Why I stopped watching the Daily Show...

I flipped the channel to Comedy Central and found an interesting person being interviewed by Jon Stewart. None other than the Nationalist Bolivian President, Evo Morales.

It is easy to speak about life and caring for mankind, yet asking for government intervention is not the answer to salvation. The lower class look towards government to assist them with the complaints that society is holding them down and Evo is unlike any of the lower class. He dreams that government is the savior and empowered with his position as President has nationalized the gas industry, subsidized other industries, and believes in the end the money will end in the hands of the poor natives of Bolivia. This is not the first time it has been tried Evo get over yourself and learn to be a better farmer so that you can produce more food as PRODUCTION increases worker wages, not government subsidization.

Jon Stewart appeared to support Evo in his performance as President of Bolivia. Applauding and commenting that Evo had completed the promises he had made while campaigning within 8 months of his election; promises filled with the nationalization of Bolivia's resources.
Evo sat proud of his accomplishments even commenting on how much money was now in the hands of the government due to the nationalization of the gas industry. Of course there is an increase of money going to the government since it now owns most of the industry. What kind of idiot would have expected less?

I am not impressed with Evo. I feel for my family still in Bolivia and hope that one day they can all become citizens of the United States; the nation in which Jon Stewart liked to say holds 'rigged' elections. Thanks Jon, we know that elections are flawed haven't you heard of the field of public choice?

Yes, I no longer watch the Daily Show. The show is not dull only to much to left for my own taste although the Colbert Report is incredibly fun to watch as it has broken wrists and water fights with billionaire guests. In the end it all goes back to the Bolivian. Silly Bolivian, government intervention takes away individual rights... to think he said that he knew about rights at the beginning of the interview.

Sunday Mass is for self prayer?

So perhaps I am misunderstanding the Catholic Church; I must be since all those who are not Catholic usually tell me that they do not have to be at Church to pray to God that they can pray wherever they like. As I understand it, that is the point. We should pray everywhere and anywhere not just behind the closed doors of the church. That is the point of being a Christian by loving God and living by his Word.

The next question I encounter is why then must we attend Sunday Mass?
We attend to receive Holy Communion, to listen to the scripture, to pray in unity as the children of God. Mass, from my perception, appears to be less of an individual prayer than a group prayer. We adore, love, and ask for forgiveness from the Lord before we receive him together as a group as the whole Church.
Immediately after receiving communion, many individuals enjoy being in the presence of the Lord. They kneel in silent reflection. I am beginning to believe when kneeling following the communion we should join the choir in song to help all celebrate in their communion. In this moment we are as a whole filled with the Lord and able to pray and glorify him more fully. This leaves for that moment of reflection to be a short enjoyment from when the Priest is purifying the vessels and sits down in his own reflection to when he stands for ending prayer. In fact, at the end of Mass is when the individual prayers should begin. I like to end it with a Prayer to St. Michael to combat the devil, but that is for the individual to decide....

The Market's Answer to Animal Cruelty

The media is calming down its firestorm that it reigned down upon Atlanta quarterback, Michael Vick. The government prosecution had taken him to court on charges taken a great amount of time before he pleaded guilty. Yet who responded first?

The police found evidence of dog fighting in Michael Vick's home. The prosecution at that point began. Throughout the summer the court system carried on with protesters outside calling for Vick's own blood to be spilled. Yes, this was it what all people want, the government response.

Yet is the government punishing Vick for his actions? He has to pay a fee, face court time, has a jail sentence. No, I do not see the government as a punishment at all. The government in its will to punish Vick is actually saving him from his punishment. Yes the view point of society is that the government announces punishment, yet I say who responded first?

By the time the uproar of disgust arose around Vick's actions, Nike had canceled their deal, Reebok had canceled their deal, and the NFL had declared him ineligible to play. The market had retaliated. Call for blood if you like but it was his own wants that would drive his pain. The want to keep his home, the want for luxury goods, the want for hanging out at a club; they all cost money. Money he would begin to lose and his lifestyle would decline. Would Reebok, Nike, any other business give him a deal? Perhaps, when the public calms, but would the public calm if Vick were among the living? Or would the public be more calm as Vick is housed in a jail cell where our tax dollars pay for him to live leaving him to spend none of his own funds. In the jail cell, Vick is no longer in the view of the public giving them the opportunity to remember why they dislike him. Would anyone buy his jersey again? Probably, but no where near the amount that had before.

Yes, it was the Market not the Government who had first responded. While the government took its time in prosecution waiting for a chance to prove guilt, the market did not care and reacted with a swift hand. Sometimes the market over reacts, but blessed is the market and it adjusts giving more in return for the pain it had caused. Market vs Government is a clean shutout, or in tennis term 6 - love. Love for minimal government perhaps...