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Bloggers Parliament is running

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“Problems cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.” Albert Einstein
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Sydney J. Harris
“I don’t search, I find.” Picasso

A while back I posted a first sketchy outline of the idea of a Bloggers Parliament . Since then I’ve clarified and elaborated it and the project is now up and running and people have started joining. This is an open invitation to you, whoever and wherever you are, to come and be a Collector and Creator of Solutions. They don’t have to be world-size solutions, they could be small, simple and practical. A ‘Eureka!’ you had while taking a bath. Or some deep philosophical answer that came to you as you walked in the woods. Whatever. But they must be solutions to specific problems. Here are the guidelines which appear on the BP home page.

What is the Bloggers Parliament?
A flexible assembly of bloggers who are interested in finding and selecting from the blogosphere or from any other source – including their own thoughts – feasible solutions to current problems in the world. Members of Bloggers Parliament can be thought of as talent scouts, finding those elusive needles – solutions which can get right to the point of a problem – in the daunting haystack of information.
This is not a chat room, discussion forum, soap-box or fund-raising scheme, nor can it be used to advertise or sell any products or services.
Our focus is only on the collection or creation of specific imaginative, relevant, informed, constructive and perhaps unorthodox solutions which could, if applied, really solve specific problems.
Our personal Collection of Solutions , which will be added to regularly, is an example. But you need not agree with our choice of solutions in order to join this Parliament – you may have very different solutions to the same problems or choose to concentrate on other problems. The voting process will choose which ideas to include in eventual Solution Packages.

How do I join?
If you agree to the above principles and aims, you apply to become a Member of Bloggers Parliament simply by saying you want to join and entering your name and the URL of your site in our Comments box. Once you are accepted we put your name on the blogroll of MBP’s and it remains there as long as you actively participate in this project and keep to the guidelines. We reserve the right to remove your name from the list of members at any time if we feel you are not keeping to the spirit of this project.

How do I participate once I am an MBP?

1.Somewhere on your own blog, create a section headed: Bloggers Parliament.

2. Near the heading insert a link to Bloggers Parliament and our logo (a new one is being designed).

3. Below the heading insert your name followed by Collection of Solutions. For example: Joe Blogg’s Collection of Solutions.

4. All solutions that you post should go under the above headings, followed by the Category of Problem you are addressing. Choose from the list below or add new categories, if you wish, but tell us what they are so we can add them to the list.

5. Look at our Collection of Solutions for an example of a format you can adopt for presenting your entries. Include the following: General category of problem . Specific issue within that category. Title of the Solution. Author or source of the solution. Date you selected it.

6. If the idea is one you have found on the internet, give a brief quote or summary and add a link to its source. It’s not enough just to give the link: you must say in a few words what this idea proposes as a specific solution to the specific problem. The same goes for ideas you find from any sources outside the internet: always give the source and a brief, clear and specific summary. Avoid long discussions of the problem: this is about solutions .

7. If the solution is one that you have thought of and/or are actually using in your own work or daily life, follow the same format given above. Specify the problem and how your idea solves it, or would solve it. Summarize this in a short paragraph and give a link, if necessary, to a page on your site where the solution is fully elaborated.

If you don’t have your own blog, or only occasional access to the internet, let us know a URL to which you could occasionally post your solutions and where other people could read them.

What happens next?
When a reasonable number of people have joined and collected a reasonable number of solutions to given problems, Voting Days will be announced inviting everyone, anywhere, to vote on the best solutions published in all the participating Members’ blogs. The voters will be asked to vote according to the titles of solutions and categories of problems. Voting Days will be held here on the Bloggers Parliament Home Page and votes can be cast in our Comments box. This system may change in future if the project grows but for the time being we’ll start small and simple.

And then what?
After a good number of solutions have been gathered and several Voting Days held to choose the best, we will put together several Solutions Packages to be presented to the media, world leaders, experts, or anybody likely to give them serious consideration. Let’s see where this will lead. No predictions, no expectations – just travelling hopefully.

Categories of Current Problems
(You can add new categories. Tell us and we’ll add them.)

1. On-going conflicts, wars and post-war chaos.

2. Threats or dangers to individuals, countries or the planet.

3. Local issues specific to one country or area.

4. Race or religious conflicts.

5. Poverty, hunger, illiteracy.

6. Health & environment problems, local or global.

7. Economic imbalances/ Money/ Unemployment.

8. Lack of communication and/or reliable information.

9. Corruption and crime: on small or vast scale.

10. Individual and collective morality & responsibility.

11. Technology: problems it causes or that it could solve.

12. Psychological blocks and blind spots.

13. Spiritual issues.

14. Problems in Education, Arts or Culture.

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Please remember Bloggers Parliament is about collecting solutions
and not about discussing the problems.
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This post is also at Open Source Politics.

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About Aug

  • Oh, darn, somebody broke it before I got a chance!

    Seriously, you have to check out the interview with God! Augustine, this is great!

  • and free beer

  • A New Way For America By: David Tippie
    Daily we are reminded we have choices about most of the things in our lives but we refuse to pay attention to them. How sad it is that we have lost our way so completely, that we put everything in the hands of our elected officials. It would seem as though we have given up and just accept who ever rises to the top of the two party system that we are accustom to in our Country. We complain and grumble from time to time but we lack the substance our forefathers had.

    I believe we need to regain our direction and purpose we were handed by heritage. We were born and raised to adults in the greatest country on the planet and yet what got us here is slipping through our hands like the sands in an hourglass.

    Each one of us are descendants from immigrants who came to this country to make a new and better life. They endured the odds; hostilities, nature and the perils of disease but in each case they not only survived, they prospered. That greatness is buried deep within us and it must be released once more in order for us to survive.

    We are consumed with the thought that someone else is responsible for us and constantly look to others for answers and try to find a likely person to blame for all transgressions we suffer. It seems like a spell has been cast over us and we walk in a fog of ignorants. It is time we regain our senses and deliver our-selves from our on transgressions. If you will allow me I would like to offer some food for thought on this subject. I will suggest first the questions and then my humble answers.

    Just like our forefathers we must seize the moment to act. We must realize nothing will change until we change it.

    We have special interest groups who are in the minority that advocate their point of view, march in protest and in various ways make their voice heard in support for those issues. They are able to call into action; policy that touches each of our lives and most of the time, that touch is negative. We sit back and allow the special interest groups to govern our lives and all we do is smirk to each other and agree as to how bad things are.

    1.Our country has 500,000 plus individuals, who are below poverty, how they got there is arguable.

    2.We have 50,000,000 people who do not have healthcare and even the most impoverished countries have some type of healthcare for their people albeit in most cases, remedial. Canada is used too often, as a mold to copy and in my opinion, in error.

    3.We have had billions of dollars in government surplus that has been reduced to a deficit reaching toward the trillions of dollars because of the top five percent (minority) making policy and running our country to reflect the needs of that top 5%.

    4.We have corporate officers that steal from their stockholders and employees and ship jobs out of the country; we seldom jail the officers and we don’t even inquire if the companies providing the goods or services in those overseas countries ( these jobs are shipped to) have to meet the same standards and guidelines as companies in the US, such as environmental regulations.

    5. We have an evil to confront that wants to destroy every man, woman and child in our freedom loving country, no matter what your race or religion, so long as you are a free American; now like our forefathers we must take the drivers seat and act, but in the stead, we cowl down, see it as someone else’s problem and demand our elected officials protect us.

    6. We have an educational system that has been slowly eroded and down sized insofar as talent, to meet the inabilities of the most remedial of students. Instead of bringing the remedial students up to the level of standard achievement; we pay our teachers a remedial salary so we attract remedial teachers; the highest paid jobs in America should include our teachers and professors.

    7. We have a legal system that encourages frivolous lawsuits and we have a rewards program allowing theft from society called “entitlement programs”. There is talk around some of the family dinner tables about how we hate those who have succeeded in life and have convinced our children who sit by and listen to this poison, that they should replace any hard work with these entitlement programs, so they may have the lifestyle of their neighbor. Instead of teaching our children to work harder to achieve goals, goals that the parents should have helped them establish from the beginning, we encourage theft as a way to strike back at our unwillingness to teach a better way.

    8. We have a military that is so down sized and ill supplied and ill trained that we send them into battle without proper armor and expect them to provide tasks which they have not been trained to perform; we have the most advanced robotic technology on earth and yet we have not produced lead vehicles to provide reconnaissance on the ground that can guarantee safe passage for the troops that follow. Yet we announce our ability to retrieve rocks from far away planets.

    9. As Americans we have rolled over and played dead for so long we are numb when told that greenhouse gasses are going to eventually eliminate all life from this planet. We get up each morning and spray various items on our bodies that are propelled by ozone unfriendly gas and then we use the lights provided to us by fossil fuels and nuclear, then we go to work in our gas gosling vehicle that emits carbon monoxide and all the above contribute to global warming.

    10. We accept the fact that the wealthiest few minority Americans plot with wealthy Americans and “Non-Americans” to exploit the needs and desires of all Americans such as, our dependency on oil; all of us are helping them degrade and abuse our country. Our dependency is just that, ours, we allow them.

    11. Our answer for hard times that befalls us is met with our demands for handouts instead of our resolve to band together, work harder to design a better mousetrap and make a new life for ourselves while facing all odds like our forefathers did.
    It is not enough to talk about the problems we face, although talking about the true problems honestly, is non-existent from our politicians, they simply appeal to our ignorant side and say words we often elect them to office with. We must offer solutions to problems not buzz words.
    For example: If I could muster your support my position on the above items would be the following: see my webpage: http://www.livelonger123.com/mypoliticalview.htm

    1. With your support I would start a think tank using our Universities brightest to inspire people to return to our entrepreneurial heritage. We would review an immediate answer for the short term and then a plan for the long term. For example, the short term 500,000 below poverty American’s in this country would be offered a chance to earn an $80 thousand dollar 401-K for their retirement, that would consist of the following: Everyone at poverty or below and at age 65 years or older, or those with medical conditions preventing them from ever working, would be offered assisted living and they would immediately receive the 401-k money for 4 years of care. At the 4-year mark an additional appropriations plan for that group would be established. Everyone else at or below poverty level who is capable of working would be entitled to the program provided they receive training for job placement, with the training programs that are now provided by our national and local government. After graduating they must hold a job. They must contribute a minimum of $100 dollars per month to the 401-K starting within 2 years of graduating from their training. The funds to pay for this program will be provided in my suggestions for item number 10.

    2. With your support I would solicit the most distinguished medical professors to formulate flat fee based hospitals. Hospitals that pay the best scale to the staff according to their experience that would attract the best talent, who could also teach, which would inspire promotion within. Starting from the medical Chief of Staff and going down. The physician holding the Chief of Staff title would receive a yearly salary that would equal the industry established per year, provided every member of Hospital staff treated every patient properly and timely. There would be a monetary penalty for any derelict of duty up to and including termination of any staff member including the Chief of Staff. An environment of productivity would be rewarded and dereliction would be penalized. The local commissioners would have oversight and the justice system would provide checks and balances to determine dereliction. A ceiling of $1,000,000 death benefit judgment would be the largest amount awarded to any patient’s family with no chance of further legal and or monetary payments. No attorney would be entitled to any part of the settlement money, the state & county would pay the prosecution and defense attorney’s fee and attorneys would bid on that representation, low bid to win. Defense Attorney’s who loose a case representing the deceased family, will be scrutinized for competency of that hearing and if found to have provided an improper defense, will forfeit his right to any money earned by that defense and will loose his right to bid on further defense work. The family of that deceased will be allowed a new trial with a different defense attorney, paid by the state and local government.
    Any physician causing death to a patient would not be allowed to practice further, provided guilt of negligence was proven and the court issued a judgment acknowledging that fact. The next step down from the death benefit, any compensation received by any family for other complications caused by doctors or staff at those hospitals would be the following; No doctor could practice after they have been found guilty of causing two lesser improperly performed procedures where guilt was found and a judgment was awarded to the patient. No doctor or hospital would be required to purchase insurance of any kind and any judgment awarded to any patient would be paid through the fund. That fund is described in item 10 and funded as described therein and would be further funded by employers through what they now pay in the amount established by workers compensation insurance for their employees. This would release those employers from having to pay for any further insurance now required of that employer.
    Every person earning 80,000 dollars would pay $1000 per year to the fund. Each person earning more than $80,000 dollars per year would pay $1,000 per each additional $80,000 Gross income before any deductions. Should there be a need to increase this fund for any reason, those additional funds would be created by a temporary increase in local sales tax from the county where the hospital was located which had suffered the increase. Only American citizens would be able to get treatment without charge at these hospitals. Citizens must apply for their hospital coverage by coming to the location and giving required proof of citizenship with address and at that time would be issued a card allowing them free treatment and medication from that hospital. Should they travel out of their approved territory stipulated by their hospital, the hospital at their destination must be notified of their stay and a copy of their treatment card from their home location provided.

    3. With your support I would put together a team of Accountants to examine leaving the tax cuts in place but adding the following condition: These tax cuts remain as they are for people and companies who outsource jobs at a rate of 0% to 10% outside the United States and who have paid and do pay income taxes. All other companies who outsource more than 10% will not be allowed to have the tax cut incentives. Any company outsourcing more than 10% and or who shows no taxable income will pay a flat fee of 10% of their gross revenue. A family of one male 18 years or older who is his own sole provider and does not live with any other person or receive money from any other person, directly or indirectly, will pay no income tax up to $30,000 per year provided he or she has not fathered or bared a child or children. If they have fathered or bared a child or children he or she will pay an amount equal to 15% of their yearly income to the guardian of that child and in the case of multiple children 15% for each child will be paid to the legal guardian of those children. A women who has had a child out of wedlock will pay no income taxes up to $30,000 per year and will be required to set up a 401-k account inaccessible to or by anyone except the child and only then when the child reaches 18 to 21 years of age, who is using it for university tuition that they have been accepted to attend or, when they reach the age of 65 years. For that child or each of those children, she must deposit a minimum of $1,000 per year in that account for each child, until they reach the age of 18 years. The proof of this account and each deposit to that account will be furnished at each years tax filing and any payment/s found to be missing will be garnished from any wages or income in the future. A man and wife will not pay taxes on money earned up to $68,000 per year provided they have at least one child conceived by that marital union and that child born at least 9 months after the marriage was legally binding.

    4. With your support I would solicit a group of law professors to formulate a process that will mandate a corporate officer to draw a salary only after the company is profitable and remains profitable, and any sale of stock by that officer must be placed in a trust fund, inaccessible to him or her for a period of 6 months after the sale. The funds released to him or her after that period only if there is no indication that something illegal had transpired by them or their company, with or without his or her knowledge and regardless if it pertained to his or her stock, until they and or their company, have been cleared of the illegality. Further, if any company out sources anything or purchases anything beyond the boarders of the United States it must have verifiable proof that the source has verifiable proof, they meet all the guidelines placed on US companies producing like goods or services. Further, if that out sourced company used by the American Company cannot verify that they have met the criteria placed on US companies, an import tax will be paid by that American company purchasing the out sourced goods or services, that will make the US manufactured price of that sourced product, equal to a product or service provided or manufactured in the US by Americans. If a company based out of the US sells product in the US and does not provide verifiable proof they have met the criteria levied on the US based companies, an import tax will be placed on the product to make the manufacturer’s price be equal to that of a like US product or service and, that company will provide evidence within 12 months, that they meet or met the existing requirements of those placed on American companies or they will not be allowed to sell in the United States.

    5. With your support an evil can be confronted. Hate has been brewing between cultures in the United States that makes a breeding ground possible for outsiders who wish all of us harm. We must change our society beginning with these following things: We must rebuild a society that is strong again with values that we choose to adopt and not that we are dictated to adopt. The FCC will no longer be the guardian of our morality. If smut is present we will advise our families accordingly and take morality back into the home and around the dinner table. The responsibility for our family’s morals begins and ends with each parent. Not by some law passed by our government or by our neighbor who believes he or she knows best for each of us. By the same token frivolous lawsuits are over. Unscrupulous lawsuits to make unscrupulous people wealthy are going to be a thing of the past. We are going to regain our pride and be provided incentives to build new and better lives. The evil terrorist is our enemy not each other. Because of this great country we are able to respectfully disagree, but we do not have the right to impose our will against our neighbor. There is no difference between standing out side an abortion clinic in wait to ambush the people within, than any other form of terrorism. We will learn vigilance and be known as having intolerance for evil. This intolerance must and will be placed in the minds of the American majority, the strong. As our intolerance grows stronger any act of aggression toward us will only strengthen our resolve and help us apprehend the perpetrators. Not make us live in fear of every shadow, although no matter what happens, the weak passive minority will always be frightened. As the world sees our resolve and begins to understand our intolerance for evil we will regain the respect we have lost many years earlier. We must adapt Zero tolerance when we are picked to be a juror in our judicial system, when we see a crime about to take place it is our duty to intervene, when we see or hear something suspicious we have to take time to report it, when we think our neighbor may be promulgating evil or criminal activity we can not mind our on business any longer. Sitting back and allowing a terrorist to take over a plane without our objection as we were told to do in the past, we now know is wrong. This American would only be sorry he had but one life to give protecting his country and fellow Americans.

    We have listened to the passive minority for so long we have become weak and indecisive. There are more strong Americans than the weak minority and we need to take control of our lives once again and run this country according to our wishes. We did not evolve from coward ness. By looking at our men and women who serve in our country’s military it is obvious our core values still exists. The top 5% do not mind spending their lives to insure oil rights and profits, but when these young men and women come home in a body bag they get recognition. When they come home wounded they are treated like second-class citizens with poor medical care and often isolated from their families. We will fix what is wrong with our military as well as our social status with the strength and resolve of the majority of Americans and the meek will simply fall in line.

    The strong are the new achievers and entrepreneurial genius’s this country will come to value once more. We will develop tolerance when we have to submit to delays necessary for the protection of America such as airport fingerprinting and body search and we will direct our anger towards the real enemy who has caused all of this, the terrorist and evildoers as well as our political leaders who have in mind, profits for their coveted lobbyist friends and not America. We shall direct our resolve with a vengeance toward the enemy and the state that harbors them. Reversing an evil takes intelligent action not blind action. When we believe terrorists are harbored by a state, we must issue an ultimatum that carries a date and if it is not responded to, our action should start at 40,000 feet, such as in Bosnia, not first with American treasure. We have the greatest minds in the world inside our boarders and I promise to utilize them to the maximum. There is nothing, which we can think about that we cannot accomplish. Empowering Americans once again means collective thinking and removing special interest groups from the equation. We are not entitled to anything because we are Americans, we have the duty to provide a country and for that matter, a world, that our children can survive and prosper in. Being cowardly and refusing to deal with a problem, is not going to solve anything, in fact it only makes matters worse.

    6. With your support the pride in our American treasure will return. Academics will once again be our prime objective. To promote students ahead of their academic level because we like the way the play ball is over. The teachers and professors of the United States of America are going to be a coveted highly rewarded profession. The impersonators are finished with the degradation of our students.

    7. With your support the wrongs of the past that robbed a complete culture of their future in our country will be rectified. John F. Kennedy had good and honorable intentions in his heart when he began and supported the entitlement programs for those he saw as less fortunate than him. He could not have known what his programs would cause. If he had, I am certain he would not have supported them. By removing competitiveness he removed will from an entire culture and it served as a death sentence for a group of people. Instead of being given the incentive to work harder to achieve personal goals, personal achievement was slaughtered by handouts though entitlement programs. It spawned a new and improved way to get ahead by the use of deception and corruption, which leads to loss of self worth. Entitlement began to produce a thought process of: it was acceptable for the have-nots of society to rape rob and kill the haves in this country. After all, the have-nots were entitled, the government agrees with them. Entitlement stole family values and replaced it with simple lust and self-satisfaction. Entitlement produced total mental numbness toward anyone other than himself or herself. Children regularly get thrown in dumpsters, abused, abandoned, used for income scams and the list goes on. The children that survive the abuse are among the new adults of today’s society. They have been taught to hate from childhood especially anyone of a different culture or seen to have more than themselves. They see America as a place of weak-minded people who fall for any scam. Scamming is a way of life that is so accepted, being sent to prison after being caught is not seen as dishonorable, to some. Nor does causing and having babies out of wedlock seem in the least, wrong. In fact all are seen as a social status symbol, to the young. Those who are part of this culture believe to get the things that bring them pleasure in life is not worth working for, because look how easy you can get it by selling dope, playing ball, singing or dancing, scamming the government entitlement programs or other illegal, illicit deeds.

    The little Florida girl who was lost because of the entitlement programs, Arealya Wilson, is not lost in the mind of this American. The caregiver responsible for this little girl is not new to our society; In fact she represents the norm. Arealya, like thousands just like her was simply a meal ticket to a caregiver. Punishment for the perpetrators of these horrendous acts will return to our country. New and improved screening of caregivers will be introduced and become the norm. Honorable hard working people will find it easier in this country and dishonorable people will find it to be getting much more difficult. If a lawsuit is brought to bare on a city, state, government office, company or individual and it is found to be groundless or frivolous, the person who brought the lawsuit will loose his or her right to bring any other suit, plus he/she/ they, will receive the maximum of any existing punishments provided by existing law. A second person will be required for any future lawsuits filed by that/those individual/s. To file any additional lawsuits the person/s who lost their right to file will need a second person to file for them and this second person then assumes the same punishment as the first, if that lawsuit is determined to be groundless or frivolous and so on.

    Each person who works and pays social security can opt to have a payroll deduction starting from a minimum of 1% of their total gross placed in a 401-K which is locked from retrieval by anyone until they reach 65 years. If the person opts for the payroll deduction he or she becomes eligible to have their regular social security deductions placed in that same 401-K account as well.

    Each person that has not owned a business prior to the newly passed law, who starts and maintains a new company after this plan is implemented and provides the following: pays him or herself a salary monthly and who creates jobs for other people and those people work for that new company for at least five years, the person creating the jobs will get 10% of the net income which he or she have paid themselves monthly for that five years and, will receive 1% of the net they paid each employee for that five years, to be placed in their 401-K. For each additional 5 years these employees work for that person and they have continually paid themselves a salary, 1% of the net they pay their employees will be placed in the 401-K belonging to the owner of that company.

    8. With your support the military will become one of the most sought after professions in the country. The technical and tactical training will not be available or duplicated in any private sector, that will be better. Our men and women will have the best science has to offer. New technology will be introduced to preserve their lives should there be a need for battle. Our deterrent technologies will no loner be sold to the highest bidder. Our security strengths will nurture and attract alliances. It will also strike fear in the hearts of those who would threaten us or harbor those who would. We will become the gentle giant but giant non-the less. The meek may inherit this earth but until then, the strong majority will run it.

    9. With your support we are going to correct the biggest injustice ever created in our country. Our country has been lead by the minority billionaire families to this point. The brotherhood has created and presented strange bedfellows, which has not surprisingly provided opportunity for the privileged few. The reason we are still tied to fossil fuels and combustion engines is money and, deals made behind closed doors that provide this narrow elitist group, opportunity. The concern of greenhouse gases is not a matter of concern if and when it interferes with the production of money with oil. When this problem is fixed, It will be seen in the future as an outrage to every American that we allowed such rape to our planet in order to build the bank accounts of the few.

    The problem has to be approached from the short term to help us manage for the long term. The first order of the day with your support, is going to be, a 500 million dollar reward paid to the person or company who can develop a device or devices that can be adapted to the all cars and trucks, which are now owned by all Americans. This device/s will extend the gas mileage to a minimum of 50 miles per gallon. This technology developed by an individual or company will be tooled and manufactured with a grant from the federal government fund. This fund is described in item 10 herein.
    For the long term, a one billion dollar reward will be paid to the first American automobile manufacturer, owned by Americans, who produce their complete line of vehicles to get a minimum of 75 miles per gallon of gasoline. Then, a two billion dollar reward will be paid to the first American automobile manufacturer owned by Americans, who produces their complete line of cars and trucks that do not require gasoline and, the emission from all of their vehicles is environmentally friendly.
    Private individuals will be paid for energy they produce from wind powered or any other environmentally friendly energy producing devices, which can contribute power to the power grids. Grants will be provided to land owners who wish to construct these energy-producing devices and the repayment of those grants for these devices will be paid from the sales of the energy produced by those devices owned by these property owners. The mom and pop farms and ranches can now subsidize their income. Food producing farms will become the thing of our future once again. A country that has based its economy on oil revenue will most certainly need food, as oil is not part of a proper diet.
    For the person or company that can retrofit existing fossil fueled electrical power plants to use environmentally friendly fuel, a reward of 3 billion dollars will be paid.
    For the companies that manufacturer products that are propelled by spray that is harmful to our environment, will be given 24 months to switch to pumps and or the use of propellants that are environmentally friendly. For those companies that make the deadline they receive a tax incentive in the amount of the tax they paid the previous year. For those who violate the deadline a fine will be imposed in the amount of two times the amount of tax they paid the previous year or $10,000 which ever is higher and for each 30 days after that date which they remain out of compliance the same fine will be imposed until they are in compliance.

    10. With your support we will lobby and bring to the people for their support, laws to implement the items listed herein and we will take back the country that belongs to each of us equally. Man does not exist for the sake of business; man created business for the sake of mankind. We will pay for the items listed herein by the following, referred to as the Fund above:

    1. A ninety-day tax on gasoline in the amount of $1.00 per gallon would be imposed. This will create 67 billion dollars. Out of that 45 billion will provide the fund for item number one; which is to fund 80 thousand dollars to the 401-K plans for the 500,000 Americans who are at poverty and below in America. Americans who earn less than $80,000 per year will be able to deduct the temporary $1.00 per gallon tax, from their filed income tax at the end of the year. Those, who by the implementation of this plan, that are not requred to pay an income tax, will get a rebate of the additional $1.00 per gallon that they paid within the ninety-day taxing period, provided they kept the necessary reciipts.

    2. Employers would pay payments equal to the workman’s compensation they now pay for their employees to the fund that can serve as a benefits package to their employees, with no further insurance obligation placed on the employer.

    3. Persons earning up to a certain amount, explained in item number three, as well as all those who earn over, would be contributing to the fund yearly as indicated.

    4. Any hospital requiring more money than its predefined flat fee caused by anything would have that overage paid for by a temporarily imposed sales tax from the county the hospital was located. This would insure the county commissioners having the oversight for its Hospitals, would be held accountable because they are elected officials.

    5. The fines and additional taxes created by those companies who outsource as earlier explainted, will be placed in this fund.

    11. Hard times due to joblessness and health burdens are relieved by this plan. Productivity, hard work and commitment will be rewarded regardless of your culture. Criminal activity, scams and free rides will not be tolerated and they will not go unpunished. New hope will be instilled in Americans.

    To who ever is reading this letter, I need your support please contact me.

    David Tippie – Lobbyist for a new America
    Anti-Aging Clinic Assoc. Inc.
    7200 West Commercial Blvd.
    Suite 209
    Lauderhill, Florida 33319
    Phone: 954-830-8509
    e-mail: cpcoinc@bellsouth.net “REMEMBER”

    People who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. Experiencing failure is inevitable on your journey to be successful. Every defeat is merely an installment to victory. You’ll find that the number of times you succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times you fail and keep trying. You won’t be judged by the number of times you fail, but by the number of times you succeed. Failure is nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better. You can’t be a winner and be afraid to lose.

  • Eric Olsen

    the original meaning of “utopia” was simply the freedom to start from scratch and design an ideal system of life, government, society, etc. While most have failed or never been implemented, the United States has succeeded rather well.

  • Wow! Thanks for the support Josh, Natalie and Eric! A warm glow is lighting up this grey wintry day.

    I agree I shouldn’t waste time on debating,but this is definitely (?) my last (??) comment on comments about this subject:

    Utopia is the opposite of what BP is for. Utopia implies a beautiful but forever out-of-reach, unrealistic universe.
    What I’m hoping (not counting on) is that in the grab-bag of solutions that BP members will collect, there will be *real*, feasible, practical solutions to problems, all kinds of problems. And yes, some may be unorthodox, which is not the same thing as utopian.
    And yes, some will be utopian, no doubt provoking lots of hollow laughter from the cynics. So what? At least their faces will crease from laughing instead of sneering.

    Criticism which focuses on the solutions proposed is missing the point of the project itself.
    If one says that the project itself is worthless is it because:

    a) the critic believes that there are no solutions to any problems?
    or:
    b) that there *are* solutions but they are being thought up and applied by the Experts and Authorities and we shouldn’t concern our silly ignorant little heads about such things?
    or:
    c) that *some* of us are not silly or ignorant but briliant and informed and creative, but we’ve got far more important things to do than get involved in such useless utopian schemes?
    or:
    d) that We-The-Brilliant-Creative etc. wouldn’t put our names on a list of members which is bound to be full of silly, ignorant hoi-polloi which we are far superior to and cannot be associated with?
    or:
    e) that this is all (yawn) boring and let’s just go to the movies (etc.) and applaud (or criticize) what other people’s imaginations create.

    That’s it. End of *positively* last comment on this subject. I’m off to draw something that will illustrate BP better than 1000 words.
    Thanks again guys.

  • Eric Olsen

    I agree – visions of utopia linger long past policy debates.

  • Augustine, I would suggest you turn away from this debate, which is as useless and potentially hurtful as all others in the blogospheriverse, and concentrate on looking for solutions via BP. Someone needs to do something positive and constructive to at least imagine the decent world that now does not exist. And even if nothing comes from it, at least there is this: The existence of a site without word-wielding warriors engaged in linguistic cage matches is a blessing all by itself.

  • Hi, potential BP’er here who’s been along the process since the beginning. First, I would like to say that I am glad to see that the sarcasm turned to honest discussion as things went along here in the comments field.

    To the real point though. The problem with debate type places that Natalie (“augustine”) is trying to change here lies in the endless debates of why something “doesn’t” work, of useless bits of sarcasm, of the lack of solutions for anyone (except maybe those involved to feel more secure in their own judgements), and the lack of creativity as people tend to do less creative thinking to find unseen ideas and more attacking and defending of already countlessly debated stances unresolved in in of themselves. (Yes, I know, that was a big sentence! Take a breath…. Ok.. read on.) There is far more deconstructing of thoughts and ideas on the internet than ever of building upon ideas and thoughts and making them better. Far more defenses than open debate to come to workable and usable solutions and ideas.

    I share some of your views on the unrealistic, idealistic positivism of some of the ideas put forth, although the Moore statement gave me a knowing laugh even though it would be scary to think Oprah herself was president just because big media types like that I simply don’t trust with my dog, let alone my life or country. But what Augustine is trying to do is very commendable, even if many thoughts put forth so far seem a little unreal to be possible to put into practical practice. Don’t like them? Then make your own, dangit! (no almost cuss words here kids!) Quit whining and put your own more practical solutions in! Don’t have any, then why complain about what they are trying to do? Are the ideas destructive to anyone? Then why shove them away? The only thing that can happen is some fluke of nature can make something good happen.

    Her point here is this: It is a forum for ideas. You decide any problems you see, and they are considered problems without debate. You post or find a solution and it’s only your own idea, people can take it or leave it. Don’t like the idea, have something different? Post it! Just don’t tear down the other person’s idea to support your own; support your own on the merits of the idea itself! The only catch – the “idea” has to be in some way a solution that can be put into practice, in theory anyways. Eventually, ideas will be pooled together and voted upon. These more select ones will then be put together and brought to whoever they can be, and to the internet at large, so that if nothing else they can be voiced. Idealistic? Yes. And your point is?

    Afterall, what does all the debate do? Does anyone but ourselves hear what we debate about on that blog, or that forum? Maybe something can actually come of this. This is the power of assembly, the basis of our country. Not in protest, but to put forth solutions, to put forth opinions. In opinions I mean that if a majority of people are coming up with ideas that are different from how things are heading, then that is obviously an expression of public opinions, of an assembly. But this house needs balance also, needs differing sides, both parties, voicing in an organized, open, and constructive fashion. The more we have, the more chances of unique concepts, the stronger voice we will have, the more we will be noticed, the more others will join, the greater capacity for change it has. “just imagine”, “imagine”, “imagine”, blah blah blah… yup, it sounds rather after-school-special I know. Doesn’t mean its wrong.

    Also, this concept allows a forum for all those with ideas who simply don’t say anything because they realize the fruitlessness and pointlessness of all these other debating areas. They know as soon as they say something someone is probably going to say something against in a very non-constructive way. An argument will then erupt of people simply defending their own positions, and they go through all what they consider aggrivation (while others live on it) for nothing. Their potentially very good base ideas were never even heard by anyone, not really, not to be put to any use.

    Blogger’s Parliament is about trying to actually move forward with ideas, instead of chopping each other down and fighting amongst ourselves.

  • i stand by my posts (#3 and #5), but cant fault nataug for her earnest reply.

  • Actually I’m enjoying this feedback. It’s useful in making me re-think the way that I’ve presented this project and I’m going to be making some changes in the layout of those pages.
    I take your points, Mac D. and Phil.

    But Mac, you say:
    “… if I post an entry about racism, I can count on some stupid person telling me I am causing racism by acknowledging its existence…”

    Very true. But, if you’re following BP guidelines, you would be posting a constructive solution to the problem of racism, which might be one that you have tjought of, or one that you know about that is being tried somewhere, or one that someone has written an article about, or whatever. It wouldn’t have to be THE one and only solution, but just a possible one.
    If somebody reads your solution and criticizes it, they can offer an alternative one if they wish.
    The judgement of whether any solution is good, bad or useless will only come when the voting process begins. But that won’t happen for some time because we’ve barely got off the ground and there’s only a handful of solutions in the bag, including my choices (which, btw, may well alter as I go along. Nothing’s engraved in stone).

    All I’m trying to do is create a collection, a stockplle of different kinds of solutions to different kinds of problems. And then, when there’s a big pile of them, have people vote to pick out those that are the best: i.e., those that address specific problems most effectively and feasibly.
    So forgive me if I’m repeating myself, but that’s what I’ve already written in the guidelines. I’ve emphasized that this is not a discussion/debating forum because I want to stick to a particular task:
    The gathering of solutions that are already ‘out there’ but perhaps overlooked, or unknown, or unexpressed, or lost in an overload of information.
    I see members of BP as researchers or collectors and all I’m asking is that they make a list of what they find.

    Phil, you say:
    “…The best ideas come after honest debate. The ideas are tested and modified and tweaked and in the end they either work or they don’t, but they’re more than masturbatory thought experiments…”
    I agree with you. But the debates are already going on elsewhere. I don’t want to add yet another debating society to that already overflowing arena.
    The BP idea is really a lot simpler than it’s being made out to be. All the solutions collected will be the members own individual choices. If some of those choices will not be the best solutions to any particular problem then they’ll just get weeded out in the voting process.
    MD, you wrote:
    “I now feel inspired to write a blog entry explaining why one of the solutions, based on a Portland mistake called Dignity Village, is not a solution to homelessness. ..”:

    Fine, and I’d be interested to read what you say. But my point is: do you have, or know of, an idea which might be a solution to homelessness? If so, then join BP and put it on your list. Of course it’s important to hear your view, and other views, of why that particular project is or isn’t effective. But the task I’m focusing on is only the *finding* and * listing* of solutions.

    Phil:
    ” I think you’re trying too had, but fortunately you don’t need my approval to do whatever you want to with your own site. I’ll be surprised if you manage to achieve any momentum, and I could (and have) tell you a little bit of why, but in the end its all only my opinion. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’ll change the world with BP. …”

    I never pretended to change the world with BP. What’s wrong with a modest attempt to collect solutions?
    And you’re right, maybe it won’t achieve any momentum. I don’t have any expectations of it and I’m not really trying so hard, There are other things in my life.

  • I took time to read some of the BP material and must agree with Phillip. I found myself humming “We Are the World,” afterward. Ironically, I now feel inspired to write a blog entry explaining why one of the solutions, based on a Portland mistake called Dignity Village, is not a solution to homelessness. Oy vey!

  • This project is a solution looking for a problem – but BPers aren’t allowed to discuss the problems anyway, so it’s more like the random pie-in-the-sky ideas from anyone who wants to participate, without any opportunity for pushback (“…not about discussing the problems.”)

    Augustine, I get it, I really do. It’s just that I’ve seen it before, and it’s bored me those times, too. The best ideas come after honest debate. The ideas are tested and modified and tweaked and in the end they either work or they don’t, but they’re more than masturbatory thought experiments. I’ve seen some darned fine ideas here at Blogcritics, and it’s not even a site originally aimed at coming up with those types of ideas. I’ve seen far more darned good ideas here than I have at other sites that have been designed to come up with them, several of which have failed.

    I think you’re trying too had, but fortunately you don’t need my approval to do whatever you want to with your own site. I’ll be surprised if you manage to achieve any momentum, and I could (and have) tell you a little bit of why, but in the end its all only my opinion. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you’ll change the world with BP.

    But I doubt it.

  • I should have phrased that better, Aug. What I can’t see happening is people agreeing on the definition of a problem.

    For example, if I post an entry about racism, I can count on some stupid person telling me I am causing racism by acknowledging its existence. That kind of poor thinking is so common in the blogosphere that I can’t see most bloggers making the analytical leap necessary to get past it.

  • Mac D: Have you been to look at the BP home page?
    There’s a general list of problems. Within that general list, people can focus on any problem they choose. So obviously they have to define a problem first. Have a look at some of the things people have selected. For instance, under the general category of Economics, Robin Good is talking about micro-payments for web content.

    Chris, I welcome constructive and intelligent criticism, suggestions and opinions. I didn’t feel that your sarcastic comment had any of those characteristics, hence my sarcastic “is that so hard to grasp”.

    If your criticism was at least an accurate report of what BP is about that would have been fine. You could have said that, based on your view of the solutions proposed by Augustine/Natalie:

    “…the whole thing appears to be an exercise in doing what superficially seems best and in wishing that the impossible were possible, so the blogosphere is probably the best and least dangerous place for it.”

    But what you did was to dismiss the whole project with superficial mockery without understanding its aim. That’s what provoked my “is that so hard to grasp’. You focus your crticism on those solutions you feel are worthless. But suppose the project itself is valid, and suppose it grows and many people join it, isn’t it possible to imagine that among hundreds of ‘worthless’ solutions collected there will be some pearls?

    And if my own solutions are not among the pearls but destined for the wastepaper basket, I won’t mind. It will still have been worthwhile to have set some wheels in motion.

  • (Scratching head.) How can people come up with solutions for problems they haven’t even defined?

  • natalie, fair enough. i wasn’t insinuating that all those i mentioned were members or that the ideas i cited were anything more than the products of the individuals who submitted them–is that so complicated to grasp?

    i was merely expressing my opinion that, based on my visit, the parliament seems to have neither an opposition nor much more to offer than platitudes–is that so complicated to grasp?

    i also dont suffer under the delusion that my time is especially valuable. just as i have demanded in consumer transactions a satisfaction that proved ultimately to be cost ineffective, i’d like the 10-15 minutes back so that i can waste them somewhere that either entertains or enlightens me–is that so complicated to grasp?

    i intensely dislike your habit of confusing criticism with stupidity–is that so complicated to grasp?

  • Chris, well at least your 10 minutes at BP gave you some ammunition to fire off right here so that wasn’t entirely a waste of your valuable time.

    It seems you didn’t take in the information that every member’s list of solutions is their own individual choice, and those choices are not necessarily shared by Bloggers Parliament as a whole. Is that so complicated to grasp?

    The ones you mention above, in hyperbolic language (“Guardian worship”.. ??.), are listed on a page headed:
    Augustine & Natalie’s Collection of Solutions.
    So you’re free to mock my choices as much as you like, but please be accurate if you want to dismiss BP as a whole.
    I quoted Bruce Sterling and Michael Moore and a few others and have given the source of those quotes. This doesn’t mean that those people are part of Bloggers Parliament. It only means that I chose to put those views on the list of solutions I’ve started collecting.
    I’m sure there will be other members who will have quite different kinds of solutions to all kinds of problems. And if you have any you want to offer to this ‘Solution Tank’, in any of the categories of problems, you’re invited to join.

  • well, i just spent 10-15 minutes over at this bloggers’ parliament and i have a question: where can i apply to get those 10-15 minutes back?

    i suppose i could have tolerated the Guardian worship and serious endorsement of BC-certified super tool michael moore’s suggestion that oprah become president. but the guy who demanded the death sentence for nuclear weapons, light bulbs, prisons, internal combustion engines, and common sense (actually he didn’t include common sense, expressly anyway) was a bit much.

    the whole thing appears to be an exercise in doing what superficially seems best and in wishing that the impossible were possible, so the blogosphere is probably the best and least dangerous place for it.

  • Phil, I’m all for well-aimed sarcasm especially when it punctures pretense.
    But in this case, you either haven’t read the guidelines, or haven’t visited the BP homepage to check out what kind of solutions the members of this newborn project are collecting. You wrote:

    “…forbidding them to actually do anything to learn more about the problems. ..”

    Huh? Is that what I said? Here’s what I actually wrote at the bottom of the above post:
    “Please remember Bloggers Parliament is about collecting solutions and not about discussing the problems.”

    Translation:
    BP isn’t a discussion forum, or an educational project. We’re assuming that anyone who joins has some idea about a problem, or several problems, that they’re interested in solving. We’re limiting the scope of BP to simply collecting and listing solutions rather than entering into debates about the problems.
    Such debates go on all the time, all over the net, sometimes effectively and sometimes not.
    We’ve decided to take a different approach and concentrate on simply identifying a problem, and then locating some solutions for it. Everyone will have different kinds of problems they want to focus on and different kinds of solutions. That’s the whole point.

  • Please remember Bloggers Parliament is about collecting solutions and not about discussing the problems.

    Brilliant — specifically asking for “solutions” from people while forbidding them to actually do anything to learn more about the problems. This is different from every other website (including this one) where uninformed people mouth off about every old thing how?
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