The Nightly Quill

Predictions of the Year 2000
from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900

The Ladies Home Journal from December 1900, which contained a fascinating article by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”.

Mr. Watkins wrote: “These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible. Yet, they have come from the most learned and conservative minds in America. To the wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions of science and learning I have gone, asking each in his turn to forecast for me what, in his opinion, will have been wrought in his own field of investigation before the dawn of 2001 – a century from now. These opinions I have carefully transcribed.”

During the Year 2000, we included Mr. Watkins research in our feature articles. We invite you to comment on these predictions, whether they have been realized in some way or how they can never be accomplished! In any event, we know you’ll enjoy these entries.

Prediction #1: There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America and its possessions by the lapse of another century. Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of the great canal. Mexico will be next. Europe, seeking more territory to the south of us, will cause many of the South and Central American republics to be voted into the Union by their own people.”

Prediction #2: The American will be taller by from one to two inches. His increase of stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food and athletics. He will live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present – for he will reside in the suburbs. The city house will practically be no more. Building in blocks will be illegal. The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only. A penny will pay the fare.

Prediction #3: Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling.

Prediction #4:  There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities. All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with “moving-sidewalk” stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels. Subways or trestles will be reserved for express trains.  Cities, therefore, will be free from all noises.

Prediction #5:  Trains will run two miles a minute, normally; express trains one hundred and fifty miles an hour. To go from New York to San Francisco will take a day and a night by fast express.  There will be cigar-shaped electric locomotives hauling long trains of cars. Cars will, like houses, be artificially cooled. Along the railroads there will be no smoke, no cinders, because coal will neither be carried nor burned. There will be no stops for water. Passengers will travel through hot or dusty country regions with windows down.

Prediction #6:  Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Farmers will own automobile hay-wagons, automobile truck-wagons, plows, harrows and hay-rakes. A one-pound motor in one of these vehicles will do the work of a pair of horses or more. Children will ride in automobile sleighs in winter. Automobiles will have been substituted for every horse vehicle now known. There will be, as already exist today, automobile hearses, automobile police patrols, automobile ambulances, automobile street sweepers. The horse in harness will be as scarce, if, indeed, not even scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today.

Prediction #7:  There will be air-ships, but they will not successfully compete with surface cars and water vessels for passenger or freight traffic. They will be maintained as deadly war-vessels by all military nations. Some will transport men and goods. Others will be used by scientists making observations at great heights above the earth.

Prediction #8:  Aerial War-Ships and Forts on Wheels. Giant guns will shoot twenty-five miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities. Such guns will be armed by aid of compasses when used on land or sea, and telescopes when directed from great heights. Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts. These aerial war-ships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash across open spaces at the speed of express trains of to-day. They will make what are now known as cavalry charges. Great automobile plows will dig deep entrenchments as fast as soldiers can occupy them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius. These photographs as distinct and large as if taken from across the street, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below.

Prediction #9:  Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances.  Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.

Prediction #10:  Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. American audiences in their theatres will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.

Prediction #11: No Mosquitoes nor Flies.  Insect screens will be unnecessary.  Mosquitoes, house-flies and roaches will have been practically exterminated.  Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding-grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams.  The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly.

Prediction #12:  Peas as Large as Beets.  Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day.  Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does.  Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply.  The milkweed will have been developed into a rubber plant.  Cheap native rubber will be harvested by machinery all over this country.  Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox.  The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth.

Prediction #13:  Strawberries as Large as Apples will be eaten by our great-great-grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence.  Raspberries and blackberries will be as large.  One will suffice for the fruit course of each person.  Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes.  Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges.  One cantaloupe will supply an entire family.  Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless.  Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States.

Prediction #14:  Black, Blue and Green Roses.  Roses will be as large as cabbage heads.  Violets will grow to the size of orchids.  A pansy will be as large in diameter as a sunflower.  A century ago the pansy measured but half an inch across its face.  There will be black, blue and green roses.  It will be possible to grow any flower in any color and to transfer the perfume of a scented flower to another which is odorless.  Then may the pansy be given the perfume of the violet.

Prediction #15:  No Foods will be Exposed.  Storekeepers who expose food to air breathed out by patrons or to the atmosphere of the busy streets will be arrested with those who sell stale or adulterated produce.  Liquid-air refrigerators will keep great quantities of food fresh for long intervals.

Prediction #16: There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second.

Prediction #17: How Children will be Taught. A university education will be free to every man and woman. Several great national universities will have been established. Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin. Time will be saved by grouping like studies. Poor students will be given free board, free clothing and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses. Medical inspectors regularly visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free dentistry and free medical attention of every kind. The very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school and free lunches between sessions. In vacation time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world. Etiquette and housekeeping will be important studies in the public schools.

Prediction #18: Telephones Around the World. Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago. We will be able to telephone to China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn. By an automatic signal they will connect with any circuit in their locality without the intervention of a “hello girl”.

Prediction #19:  Grand Opera will be telephoned to private homes, and will sound as harmonious as though enjoyed from a theatre box. Automatic instruments reproducing original airs exactly will bring the best music to the families of the untalented. Great musicians gathered in one enclosure in New York will, by manipulating electric keys, produce at the same time music from instruments arranged in theatres or halls in San Francisco or New Orleans, for instance. Thus will great bands and orchestras give long-distance concerts. In great cities there will be public opera-houses whose singers and musicians are paid from funds endowed by philanthropists and by the government. The piano will be capable of changing its tone from cheerful to sad. Many devises will add to the emotional effect of music.

Prediction #20: Coal will not be used for heating or cooking. It will be scarce, but not entirely exhausted. The earth’s hard coal will last until the year 2050 or 2100; its soft-coal mines until 2200 or 2300. Meanwhile both kinds of coal will have become more and more expensive. Man will have found electricity manufactured by waterpower to be much cheaper. Every river or creek with any suitable fall will be equipped with water-motors, turning dynamos, making electricity. Along the seacoast will be numerous reservoirs continually filled by waves and tides washing in. Out of these the water will be constantly falling over revolving wheels. All of our restless waters, fresh and salt, will thus be harnessed to do the work which Niagara is doing today: making electricity for heat, light and fuel.

Prediction #21: Hot and Cold Air from Spigots. Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house as we now turn on hot or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath. Central plants will supply this cool air and heat to city houses in the same way as now our gas or electricity is furnished. Rising early to build the furnace fire will be a task of the olden times. Homes will have no chimneys, because no smoke will be created within their walls.

Prediction #22: Store Purchases by Tube. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house.

Prediction #23: Ready-cooked meals will be bought from establishments similar to our bakeries of today. They will purchase materials in tremendous wholesale quantities and sell the cooked foods at a price much lower than the cost of individual cooking. Food will be served hot or cold to private houses in pneumatic tubes or automobile wagons. The meal being over, the dishes used will be packed and returned to the cooking establishments where they will be washed. Such wholesale cookery will be done in electric laboratories rather than in kitchens. These laboratories will be equipped with electric stoves, and all sorts of electric devices, such as coffee-grinders, egg-beaters, stirrers, shakers, parers, meat-choppers, meat-saws, potato-mashers, lemon-squeezers, dish-washers, dish-dryers and the like. All such utensils will be washed in chemicals fatal to disease microbes. Having one’s own cook and purchasing one’s own food will be an extravagance.

Prediction #24: Vegetables Grown by Electricity. Winter will be turned into summer and night into day by the farmer. In cold weather he will place heat-conducting electric wires under the soil of his garden and thus warm his growing plants. He will also grow large gardens under glass. At night his vegetables will be bathed in powerful electric light, serving, like sunlight, to hasten their growth. Electric currents applied to the soil will make valuable plants grow larger and faster, and will kill troublesome weeds. Rays of colored light will hasten the growth of many plants. Electricity applied to garden seeds will make them sprout and develop unusually early.

Prediction #25: Oranges will grow in Philadelphia. Fast-flying refrigerators on land and sea will bring delicious fruits from the tropics and southern temperate zone within a few days. The farmers of South America, South Africa, Australia and the South Sea Islands, whose seasons are directly opposite to ours, will thus supply us in winter with fresh summer foods, which cannot be grown here. Scientist will have discovered how to raise here many fruits now confined to much hotter or colder climates. Delicious oranges will be grown in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Cantaloupes and other summer fruits will be of such a hardy nature that they can be stored through the winter as potatoes are now.

Prediction #26: Strawberries as large as apples will be eaten by our great great grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large. One will suffice for the fruit course of each person. Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes. Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges. One cantaloupe will supply an entire family. Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless. Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States.

Prediction #27: Few drugs will be swallowed or taken into the stomach unless needed for the direct treatment of that organ itself. Drugs needed by the lungs, for instance, will be applied directly to those organs through the skin and flesh. They will be carried with the electric current applied without pain to the outside skin of the body. Microscopes will lay bare the vital organs, through the living flesh, of men and animals. The living body will to all medical purposes be transparent. Not only will it be possible for a physician to actually see a living, throbbing heart inside the chest, but he will be able to magnify and photograph any part of it. This work will be done with rays of invisible light.

Prediction #28: There will be no wild animals except in menageries. Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of high breed will be kept by the rich for racing, hunting and exercise. The automobile will have driven out the horse. Cattle and sheep will have no horns. They will be unable to run faster than the fattened hog of today. A century ago the wild hog could outrun a horse. Food animals will be bred to expend practically all of their life energy in producing meat, milk, wool and other by-products. Horns, bones, muscles and lungs will have been neglected.

Prediction #29: To England in Two Days. Fast electric ships, crossing the ocean at more than a mile a minute, will go from New York to Liverpool in two days. The bodies of these ships will be built above the waves. They will be supported upon runners, somewhat like those of the sleigh. These runners will be very buoyant. Upon their under sides will be apertures expelling jets of air. In this way a film of air will be kept between them and the water’s surface. This film, together with the small surface of the runners, will reduce friction against the waves to the smallest possible degree. Propellers turned by electricity will screw themselves through both the water beneath and the air above. Ships with cabins artificially cooled will be entirely fireproof. In storm they will dive below the water and there await fair weather.

Boortz “tell’s it like it is”…I hope everyone will read this speech and listen to the hard truth.  I love it when someone is honest in public!!

This  Texas lawyer, himself recipient of an Honorary Degree, is obviously
opinionated, but to say what he does, in a commencement address a couple of
weeks ago, in front of a class of Texas A & M graduates, and especially the
faculty, is amazing. I would have loved to have been there just to see the
faculty reaction.

Commencement Address ( Texas A&M) Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:14:32 +0000

This should be considered must-reading for every adult in  North America . It
is extremely rare that anyone speaks the truth like this at any College or
High School Commencement Address.

Neal Boortz is a Texan, a lawyer, a Texas AGGIE (Texas A&M), and now a
nationally syndicated talk show host from  Atlanta . His commencement address
to the graduates of this year’s A&M class is far different from what either
the students or the faculty expected. His views are thought provoking.

“I am honored by the invitation to address you on this imposing occasion.
It’s about time. Be warned, however, that I am not here to impress you;
you’ll have enough smoke blown up your bloomers today. And you can bet your
tassels I’m not here to impress the faculty and administration. You may not
like much of what I have to say, and that’s fine. You will remember it
though. Especially after about 10 years out there in the real world. This,
it goes without saying, does not apply to those of you who will seek your
careers and your fortunes as government employees.

This gowned gaggle behind me is your faculty. You’ve heard the old saying
that those who can – do. Those who can’t – teach. That sounds deliciously
insensitive. But there is often raw truth in insensitivity, just as you
often find feel-good falsehoods and lies in compassion. Say good-bye to your
faculty because now you are getting ready to go out there and do. These
folks behind me are going to stay right here and teach.

By the way, just because you are leaving this place with a diploma doesn’t
mean the learning is over. When an FAA flight examiner handed me my private
pilot’s license many years ago, he said, ‘Here, this is your ticket to
learn.’ The same can be said for your diploma. Believe me, the learning has
just begun.

Now, I realize that most of you consider yourselves Liberals. In fact, you
are probably very proud of your liberal views. You care so much. You feel so
much. You want to help so much. After all you’re a compassionate and caring
person, aren’t you now? Well, isn’t that just so extraordinarily special.
Now, at this age, is as good a time as any to be a liberal; as good a time
as any to know absolutely everything. You have plenty of time, starting
tomorrow, for the truth to set in.

Over the next few years, as you begin to feel the cold breath of reality
down your neck, things are going to start changing pretty fast… including
your own assessment of just how much you really know.

So here are the first assignments for your initial class in reality: Pay
attention to the news, read newspapers, and listen to the words and phrases
that proud Liberals use to promote their causes. Then, compare the words of
the left to the words and phrases you hear from those evil, heartless,
greedy conservatives. From the Left you will hear “I feel.” From the Right
you will hear “I think.” From the Liberals you will hear references to
groups — The Blacks, the Poor, The Rich, The Disadvantaged, The Less
Fortunate. From the Right you will hear references to individuals. On the
Left you hear talk of group rights; on the Right, individual rights.

That about sums it up, really: Liberals feel. Liberals care. They are pack
animals whose identity is tied up in group dynamics. Conservatives and
Libertarians think — and, setting aside the theocracy crowd, their identity
is centered on the individual.

Liberals feel that their favored groups have enforceable rights to the
property and services of productive individuals. Conservatives and
Libertarians, I among them I might add, think that individuals have the
right to protect their lives and their property from the plunder of the
masses.

In college you developed a group mentality, but if you look closely at your
diplomas you will see that they have your individual names on them. Not the
name of your school mascot, or of your fraternity or sorority, but your
name. Your group identity is going away. Your recognition and appreciation
of your individual identity starts now.

If, by the time you reach the age of 30, you do not consider yourself to be
a libertarian or a conservative, rush right back here as quickly as you can
and apply for a faculty position. These people will welcome you with open
arms. They will welcome you, that is, so long as you haven’t developed an
individual identity. Once again you will have to be willing to sign on to
the group mentality you embraced during the past four years.

Something is going to happen soon that is going to really open your eyes.
You’re going to actually get a full time job!

You’re also going to get a lifelong work partner. This partner isn’t going
to help you do your job. This partner is just going to sit back and wait for
payday. This partner doesn’t want to share in your effort, but in your
earnings.

Your new lifelong partner is actually an agent; an agent representing a
strange and diverse group of people; an agent for every teenager with an
illegitimate child; an agent for a research scientist who wanted to make
some cash answering the age-old question of why monkeys grind their teeth.
An agent for some poor demented hippie who considers herself to be a
meaningful and talented artist, but who just can’t manage to sell any of her
artwork on the open market.

Your new partner is an agent for every person with limited, if any, job
skills, but who wanted a job at City Hall. An agent or tin-horn dictators in
fancy military uniforms grasping for American foreign aid. An agent for
multi-million- dollar companies who want someone else to pay for their
overseas advertising. An agent for everybody who wants to use the
unimaginable power of this agent’s for their personal enrichment and
benefit.

That agent is our wonderful, caring, compassionate, oppressive government.
Believe me, you will be awed by the unimaginable power this agent has. Power
that you do not have A power that no individual has, or will have. This
agent has the legal power to use force, deadly force to accomplish its
goals.

You have no choice here. Your new friend is just going to walk up to you,
introduce itself rather gruffly, hand you a few forms to fill out, and move
right on in. Say hello to your own personal one ton gorilla. It will sleep
anywhere it wants to.

Now, let me tell you, this agent is not cheap. As you become successful it
will seize about 40% of everything you earn. And no, I’m sorry, there just
isn’t any way you can fire this agent of plunder, and you can’t decrease its
share of your income. That power rests with him, not you.

So, here I am saying negative things to you about government. Well, be clear
on this: It is not wrong to distrust government. It is not wrong to fear
government. In certain cases it is not even wrong to despise government for
government is inherently evil. Yes … a necessary evil, but dangerous
nonetheless … somewhat like a drug. Just as a drug that in the proper
dosage can save your life, an overdose of government can be fatal.

Now let’s address a few things that have been crammed into your minds at
this university. There are some ideas you need to expunge as soon as
possible. These ideas may work well in academic environment, but they fail
miserably out there in the real world.

First is that favorite buzz word of the media, government and academia:
Diversity! You have been taught that the real value of any group of people -
be it a social group, an employee group, a management group, whatever – is
based on diversity. This is a favored liberal ideal because diversity is
based not on an individual’s abilities or character, but on a person’s
identity and status as a member of a group. Yes, it’s that liberal group
identity thing again.

Within the great diversity movement group identification – be it racial,
gender based, or some other minority status – means more than the
individual’s integrity, character or other qualifications.

Brace yourself. You are about to move from this academic atmosphere where
diversity rules, to a workplace and a culture where individual achievement
and excellence actually count. No matter what your professors have taught
you over the last four years, you are about to learn that diversity is
absolutely no replacement for excellence, ability, and individual hard work.
From this day on every single time you hear the word “diversity” you can
rest assured that there is someone close by who is determined to rob you of
every vestige of individuality you possess.

We also need to address this thing you seem to have about “rights.” We have
witnessed an obscene explosion of so-called “rights” in the last few
decades, usually emanating from college campuses.

You know the mantra: You have the right to a job. The right to a place to
live. The right to a living wage. The right to health care. The right to an
education. You probably even have your own pet right – the right to a Beemer
for instance, or the right to have someone else provide for that child you
plan on downloading in a year or so.

Forget it. Forget those rights! I’ll tell you what your rights are! You have
a right to live free, and to the results of 60% -75% of your labor. I’ll
also tell you have no right to any portion of the life or labor of another.

You may, for instance, think that you have a right to health care. After
all, Hillary said so, didn’t she? But you cannot receive healthcare unless
some doctor or health practitioner surrenders some of his time – his life -
to you. He may be willing to do this for compensation, but that’s his
choice. You have no “right” to his time or property. You have no right to
his or any other person’s life or to any portion thereof.

You may also think you have some “right” to a job; a job with a living wage,
whatever that is. Do you mean to tell me that you have a right to force your
services on another person, and then the right to demand that this person
compensate you with their money? Sorry, forget it. I am sure you would
scream if some urban outdoorsmen (that would be “homeless person” for those
of you who don’t want to give these less fortunate people a romantic and
adventurous title) came to you and demanded his job and your money.

The people who have been telling you about all the rights you have are
simply exercising one of theirs – the right to be imbeciles. Their being
imbeciles didn’t cost anyone else either property or time. It’s their right,
and they exercise it brilliantly.

By the way, did you catch my use of the phrase “less fortunate” a bit ago
when I was talking about the urban outdoorsmen? That phrase is a favorite of
the Left. Think about it, and you’ll understand why.

To imply that one person is homeless, destitute, dirty, drunk, spaced out on
drugs, unemployable, and generally miserable because he is “less fortunate”
is to imply that a successful person – one with a job, a home and a future -
is in that position because he or she was “fortunate.” The dictionary says
that fortunate means “having derived good from an unexpected place.” There
is nothing unexpected about deriving good from hard work. There is also
nothing unexpected about deriving misery from choosing drugs, alcohol, and
the street.

If the Liberal Left can create the common perception that success and
failure are simple matters of “fortune” or “luck,” then it is easy to
promote and justify their various income redistribution schemes. After all,
we are just evening out the odds a little bit. This “success equals luck”
idea the liberals like to push is seen everywhere. Former Democratic
presidential candidate Richard Gephardt refers to high-achievers as “people
who have won life’s lottery.” He wants you to believe they are making the
big bucks because they are lucky. It’s not luck, my friends. It’s choice.
One of the greatest lessons I ever learned was in a book by Og Mandino,
entitled “The Greatest Secret in the World.” The lesson? Very simple: “Use
wisely your power of choice.”

That bum sitting on a heating grate, smelling like a wharf rat? He’s there
by choice. He is there because of the sum total of the choices he has made
in his life. This truism is absolutely the hardest thing for some people to
accept, especially those who consider themselves to be victims of something
or other – victims of discrimination, bad luck, the system, capitalism,
whatever. After all, nobody really wants to accept the blame for his or her
position in life. Not when it is so much easier to point and say, “Look! He
did this to me!” than it is to look into a mirror and say, “You S. O. B.!
You did this to me!”

The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that
your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either
success or failure, however you define those terms.

Some of the choices are obvious: Whether or not to stay in school. Whether
or not to get pregnant. Whether or not to hit the bottle. Whether or not to
keep this job you hate until you get another better-paying job. Whether or
not to save some of your money, or saddle yourself with huge payments for
that new car.

Some of the choices are seemingly insignificant: Whom to go to the movies
with. Whose car to ride home in. Whether to watch the tube tonight, or read
a book on investing. But, and you can be sure of this, each choice counts.
Each choice is a building block – some large, some small. But each one is a
part of the structure of your life. If you make the right choices, or if you
make more right choices than wrong ones, something absolutely terrible may
happen to you. Something unthinkable. You, my friend, could become one of
the hated, the evil, the ugly, the feared, the filthy, the successful, the
rich.

The rich basically serve two purposes in this country. First, they provide
the investments, the investment capital, and the brains for the formation of
new businesses. Businesses that hire people. Businesses that send millions
of paychecks home each week to the un-rich.

Second, the rich are a wonderful object of ridicule, distrust, and hatred.
Few things are more valuable to a politician than the envy most Americans
feel for the evil rich.

Envy is a powerful emotion. Even more powerful than the emotional minefield
that surrounded Bill Clinton when he reviewed his last batch of White House
interns. Politicians use envy to get votes and power. And they keep that
power by promising the envious that the envied will be punished: “The rich
will pay their fair share of taxes if I have anything to do with it. The
truth is that the top 10% of income earners in this country pays almost 50%
of all income taxes collected. I shudder to think what these job producers
would be paying if our tax system were any more “fair.”

You have heard, no doubt, that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Interestingly enough, our government’s own numbers show that many of the
poor actually get richer, and that quite a few of the rich actually get
poorer. But for the rich who do actually get richer, and the poor who remain
poor … there’s an explanation — a reason. The rich, you see, keep doing
the things that make them rich; while the poor keep doing the things that
make them poor.

Speaking of the poor, during your adult life you are going to hear an
endless string of politicians bemoaning the plight of the poor So, you need
to know that under our government’s definition of “poor” you can have a $5
million net worth, a $300,000 home and a new $90,000 Mercedes, all
completely paid for. You can also have a maid, cook, and valet, and $
million in your checking account, and you can still be officially defined by
our government as “living in poverty.” Now there’s something you haven’t
seen on the evening news.

How does the government pull this one off? Very simple, really. To determine
whether or not some poor soul is “living in poverty,” the government
measures one thing — just one thing. Income. It doesn’t matter one bit how
much you have, how much you own, how many cars you drive or how big they
are, whether or not your pool is heated, whether you winter in  Aspen and
spend the summers in the  Bahamas , or how much is in your savings account. It
only matters how much income you claim in that particular year. This means
that if you take a one-year leave of absence from your high-paying job and
decide to live off the money in your savings and checking accounts while you
write the next great American novel, the government says you are ‘living in
poverty.”

This isn’t exactly what you had in mind when you heard these gloomy
statistics, is it? Do you need more convincing? Try this. The government’s
own statistics show that people who are said to be “living in poverty” spend
more than $1.50 for each dollar of income they claim. Something is a bit
fishy here. Just remember all this the next time Charles Gibson tells you
about some hideous new poverty statistics.

Why has the government concocted this phony poverty scam? Because the
government needs an excuse to grow and to expand its social welfare
programs, which translates into an expansion of its power. If the government
can convince you, in all your compassion, that the number of “poor” is
increasing, it will have all the excuse it needs to sway an electorate
suffering from the advanced stages of Obsessive-Compulsive Compassion
Disorder.

I’m about to be stoned by the faculty here. They’ve already changed their
minds about that honorary degree I was going to get. That’s OK, though. I
still have my PhD. in Insensitivity from the Neal Boortz Institute for
Insensitivity Training. I learned that, in short, sensitivity sucks. It’s a
trap. Think about it – the truth knows no sensitivity. Life can be
insensitive.  Wallow too much in sensitivity and you’ll be unable to deal
with life, or the truth. So, get over it.

Now, before the dean has me shackled and hauled off, I have a few random
thoughts.

* You need to register to vote, unless you are on welfare. If you are living
off the efforts of others, please do us the favor of sitting down and
shutting up until you are on your own again.

* When you do vote, your votes for the House and the Senate are more
important than your vote for president. The House controls the purse
strings, so concentrate your awareness there.

* Liars cannot be trusted, even when the liar is the president of the
country. If someone can’t deal honestly with you, send them packing.

* Don’t bow to the temptation to use the government as an instrument of
plunder. If it is wrong for you to take money from someone else who earned
it — to take their money by force for your own needs — then it is
certainly just as wrong for you to demand that the government step forward
and do this dirty work for you.

* Don’t look in other people’s pockets. You have no business there. What
they earn is theirs. What you earn is yours. Keep it that way. Nobody owes
you anything, except to respect your privacy and your rights, and leave you
the hell alone.

* Speaking of earning, the revered 40-hour workweek is for losers Forty
hours should be considered the minimum, not the maximum. You don’t see
highly successful people clocking out of the office every afternoon at five.
The losers are the ones caught up in that afternoon rush hour. The winners
drive home in the dark.

* Free speech is meant to protect unpopular speech. Popular speech, by
definition, needs no protection.

* Finally (and aren’t you glad to hear that word), as Og Mandino wrote,

“1. Proclaim your rarity. Each of you is a rare and unique human being.

2. Use wisely your power of choice.

3. Go the extra mile .. drive home in the dark.

Oh, and put off buying a television set as long as you can. Now, if you have
any idea at all what’s good for you, you will get the hell out of here and
never come back.

Class dismissed”

A GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING FOR CEOs
INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING FOR CEOs
By HERBERT MEYER

This is a paper presented several weeks ago by Herb Meyer at a Davos,
Switzerland meeting which was attended by most of the CEOs from all
the major international corporations — a very good summary of
today’s key trends and a perspective one seldom sees. Herbert E.
Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to
the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s
National Intelligence Council. In these positions, he managed
production of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimates and other top-
secret projections for the President and his national security advisers.

Meyer is widely credited with being the first senior U.S. Government
official to forecast the Soviet Union’s collapse, for which he later
was awarded the U.S. National Intelligence Distinguished Service
Medal, the intelligence community’s highest honor.

Formerly an associate editor of FORTUNE, he is also the author of
several books.

-

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?
A GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING FOR CEOs

By HERBERT MEYER

FOUR MAJOR TRANSFORMATIONS

Currently, there are four major transformations that are shaping
political, economic and world events. These transformations have
profound implications for American business leaders and owners, our
culture and on our way of life.

1. The War in Iraq

There are three major monotheistic religions in the world:
Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In the 16th century, Judaism and
Christianity reconciled with the modern world. The rabbis, priests
and scholars found a way to settle up and pave the way forward.
Religion remained at the center of life, church and state became
separate. Rule of law, idea of economic liberty, individual rights,
human rights–all these are defining point of modern Western
civilization. These concepts started with the Greeks but didn’t take
off until the 15th and 16th century when Judaism and Christianity
found a way to reconcile with the modern world. When that happened,
it unleashed the scientific revolution and the greatest outpouring of
art, literature and music the world has ever known. Islam, which
developed in the 7th century, counts millions of Moslems around the
world who are normal people. However, there is a radical streak
within Islam. When the radicals are in charge, Islam attacks Western
civilization. Islam first attacked Western civilization in the 7th
century, and later in the 16th and 17th centuries. By 1683, the
Moslems (Turks from the Ottoman Empire) were literally at the gates
of Vienna. It was in Vienna that the climatic battle between Islam
and Western civilization took place. The West won and went forward.
Islam lost and went backward. Interestingly, the date of that battle
was September 11. Since them, Islam has not found a way to reconcile
with the modern world.

Today, terrorism is the third attack on Western civilization by
radical Islam. To deal with terrorism, the U.S. is doing two things.
First, units of our armed forces are in 30 countries around the world
hunting down terrorist groups and dealing with them. This gets very
little publicity. Second we are taking military action in Afghanistan
and Iraq.

These actions are covered relentlessly by the media. People can argue
about whether the war in Iraq is right or wrong. However, the
underlying strategy behind the war is to use our military to remove
the radicals from power and give the moderates a chance. Our hope is
that, over time, the moderates will find a way to bring Islam forward
into the 21st century. That’s what our involvement in Iraq and
Afghanistan is all about.

The lesson of 9/11 is that we live in a world where a small number of
people can kill a large number of people very quickly. They can use
airplanes, bombs, anthrax, chemical weapons or dirty bombs. Even with
a first-rate intelligence service (which the U.S. does not have), you
can’t stop every attack. That means our tolerance for political
horseplay has dropped to zero. No longer will we play games with
terrorists or weapons of mass destructions.

Most of the instability and horseplay is coming from the Middle East.

That’s why we have thought that if we could knock out the radicals
and give the moderates a chance to hold power, they might find a way
to reconcile Islam with the modern world. So when looking at
Afghanistan or Iraq, it’s important to look for any signs that they
are modernizing.

For example, women being brought into the work force and colleges in
Afghanistan is good. The Iraqis stumbling toward a constitution is good.

People can argue about what the U.S. is doing and how we’re doing it,
but anything that suggests Islam is finding its way forward is good.

2. The Emergence of China

In the last 20 years, China has moved 250 million people from the
farms and villages into the cities. Their plan is to move another 300
million in the next 20 years. When you put that many people into the
cities, you have to find work for them. That’s why China is addicted
to manufacturing; they have to put all the relocated people to work.
When we decide to manufacture something in the U.S., it’s based on
market needs and the opportunity to make a profit. In China, they
make the decision because they want the jobs, which is a very
different calculation.

While China is addicted to manufacturing, Americans are addicted to
low prices. As a result, a unique kind of economic codependency has
developed between the two countries. If we ever stop buying from
China, they will explode politically. If China stops selling to us,
our economy will take a huge hit because prices will jump. We are
subsidizing their economic development; they are subsidizing our
economic growth.

Because of their huge growth in manufacturing, China is hungry for
raw materials, which drives prices up worldwide. China is also
thirsty for oil, which is one reason oil is now at $100 a barrel. By
2020, China will produce more cars than the U.S. China is also buying
its way into the oil infrastructure around the world. They are doing
it in the open market and paying fair market prices, but millions of
barrels of oil that would have gone to the U.S. are now going to
China. China’s quest to assure it has the oil it needs to fuel its
economy is a major factor in world politics and economics.

We have our Navy fleets protecting the sea lines, specifically the
ability to get the tankers through. It won’t be long before the
Chinese have an aircraft carrier sitting in the Persian Gulf as well.
The question is, will their aircraft carrier be pointing in the same
direction as ours or against us?

3. Shifting Demographics of Western Civilization

Most countries in the Western world have stopped breeding. For a
civilization obsessed with sex, this is remarkable. Maintaining a
steady population requires a birth rate of 2.1 In Western Europe, the
birth rate currently stands at 1.5, or 30 percent below replacement.
In 30 years there will be 70 to 80 million fewer Europeans than there
are today. The current birth rate in Germany is 1.3. Italy and Spain
are even lower at 1.2. At that rate, the working age population
declines by 30 percent in 20 years, which has a huge impact on the
economy. When you don’t have young workers to replace the older ones,
you have to import them.

The European countries are currently importing Moslems. Today, the
Moslems comprise 10 percent of France and Germany, and the percentage
is rising rapidly because they have higher birthrates. However, the
Moslem populations are not being integrated into the cultures of
their host countries, which is a political catastrophe. One reason
Germany and France don’t support the Iraq war is they fear their
Moslem populations will explode on them. By 2020, more than half of
all births in the Netherlands will be non-European.

The huge design flaw in the postmodern secular state is that you need
a traditional religious society birth rate to sustain it. The
Europeans simply don’t wish to have children, so they are dying. In
Japan, the birthrate is 1.3. As a result, Japan will lose up to 60
million people over the next 30 years. Because Japan has a very
different society than Europe, they refuse to import workers.
Instead, they are just shutting down. Japan has already closed 2,000
schools, and is closing them down at the rate of 300 per year. Japan
is also aging very rapidly. By 2020, one out of every five Japanese
will be at least 70 years old. Nobody has any idea about how to run
an economy with those demographics.

Europe and Japan, which comprise two of the world’s major economic
engines, aren’t merely in recession, they’re shutting down. This will
have a huge impact on the world economy, and it is already beginning
to happen. Why are the birthrates so low? There is a direct
correlation between abandonment of traditional religious society and
a drop in birth rate, and Christianity in Europe is becoming irrelevant.

The second reason is economic. When the birth rate drops below
replacement, the population ages. With fewer working people to
support more retired people, it puts a crushing tax burden on the
smaller group of working age people. As a result, young people delay
marriage and having a family. Once this trend starts, the downward
spiral only gets worse. These countries have abandoned all the
traditions they formerly held in regard to having families and
raising children.

The U.S. birth rate is 2.0, just below replacement. We have an
increase in population because of immigration. When broken down by
ethnicity, the Anglo birth rate is 1.6 (same as France) while the
Hispanic birth rate is 2.7. In the U.S., the baby boomers are
starting to retire in massive numbers. This will push the elder
dependency ratio from 19 to 38 over the next 10 to 15 years. This is
not as bad as Europe, but still represents the same kind of trend.

Western civilization seems to have forgotten what every primitive
society understands-you need kids to have a healthy society. Children
are huge consumers. Then they grow up to become taxpayers. That’s how
a society works, but the postmodern secular state seems to have
forgotten that. If U.S. birth rates of the past 20 to 30 years had
been the same as post-World War II, there would be no Social Security
or Medicare problems.

The world’s most effective birth control device is money. As society
creates a middle class and women move into the workforce, birth rates
drop. Having large families is incompatible with middle class living.

The quickest way to drop the birth rate is through rapid economic
development. After World War II, the U.S. instituted a $600 tax
credit per child. The idea was to enable mom and dad to have four
children without being troubled by taxes. This led to a baby boom of
22 million kids, which was a huge consumer market. That turned into a
huge tax base. However, to match that incentive in today’s dollars
would cost $12,000 per child.

China and India do not have declining populations. However, in both
countries, there is a preference for boys over girls, and we now have
the technology to know which is which before they are born. In China
and India, families are aborting the girls. As a result, in each of
these countries there are 70 million boys growing up who will never
find wives. When left alone, nature produces 103 boys for every 100
girls. In some provinces, however, the ratio is 128 boys to every 100
girls.

The birth rate in Russia is so low that by 2050 their population will
be smaller than that of Yemen. Russia has one-sixth of the earth’s
land surface and much of its oil. You can’t control that much area
with such a small population. Immediately to the south, you have
China with 70 million unmarried men who are a real potential
nightmare scenario for Russia.
Read the rest of this entry »

A ritual practiced in India where babies are dropped from the roof of a building. Warning may be shocking for some.

It starts on the tip of the nose and ends on the bottom.
Check out the copyright date.

(click on sketch for enlarged picture)

Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our new wave of overprotected kids — and spells out 5 (and really, he’s got 6) dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.

In this fast-paced talk, iconic motivational speaker Tony Robbins explains how to unlock your true potential, and asks the audience (including former Vice President Al Gore) for a bit of high-level interaction. The spontaneous on-stage interaction between Gore and Robbins creates an unforgettable TED moment, and also demonstrates the power of Robbins’ direct — even confrontational — approach, which calls on his listeners to look within themselves, and find the inner blocks that prevent them from finding fulfillment.

Awesome footage of an Iceberg breaking apart somewhere off the coast of Argentina, At 2:26 the Iceberg puts on a spectacular show that you do not want to miss !

A good man shares his
insight and experience

This is one of the most fascinating and moving talks I’ve ever heard in my life.

It’s made all the poignant by the fact that the speaker has been told by his doctors that he has left than six months to live.

In an age of faked sentiment, shallow posturing and manufactured accomplishments, it’s refreshing to see a man who chose to spend his life working hard, thinking deeply and sharing generously.

Internet “gurus” sell lifestyle. This man talks about having a life.

It’s a “long” video, but I’d be shocked if this is not the best hour and 44 minutes you’ve spent in a very long time.

Comments from the speaker, Professor Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon University:

“Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living.

Sadly, most people don’t achieve theirs, and I think that’s a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I’ve actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center (etc.cmu.edu), of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams.

This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how *you* can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too.”

All I can say is that he massively undersells the value of what he offers in this marvelous talk.

Plastic artist who makes human beings in silica, with melancholic expressions……

click image (requires PowerPoint)

If you’re a Giants football fan, you remember George Martin. As a defensive end and tricaptain of the 1986 Giants along with Harry Carson and Phil Simms in their Super Bowl XXI victory, Martin tackled Broncos quarterback John Elway in the end zone for a safety. Over his 14 seasons, his six touchdowns (three on interception returns) set a National Football League record for a defensive lineman. Coach Bill Parcells considered him a pillar of locker room leadership.

And on Martin’s way to and from the practice field outside Giants Stadium, he couldn’t help but see and marvel at the twin towers of the World Trade Center across the Hudson River.

On the evening of Sept. 10, 2001, Martin, returning from a business trip, was on a jetliner about to land at Newark Airport when the woman sitting next to him mentioned that she was visiting the New York area for the first time.

“See the twin towers over there,” Martin told her, pointing toward the New York skyline. “Be sure you go down to Lower Manhattan to see them up close.”

The next morning, when Martin turned on the television in his Ringwood, N.J., home, he saw smoke belching from one tower. Moments later he saw a jetliner crash into the other tower. One by one, he saw each tower collapse. Soon he, his wife, Dianne, and their four children — Teresa, George II, Benjamin and Aaron — learned that two 23-year-old neighbors, Christian DeSimone and Tyler Ugolyn, had died in the terrorist attack.

“They were two of God’s special angelic kids,” Martin said Monday at a Giants football camp for youngsters in Wayne, N.J.

Martin, 54, has not forgotten them or those who responded to the attack: the firefighters, the police, everybody who rushed there. Through his Journey for 9/11, he hopes to raise $10 million to care for first responders who develop illnesses related to the attack and its aftermath. He plans to walk more than 3,000 miles across the nation, from the New York side of the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey, down to Washington, south to Interstate 40, then west, eventually leading to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

“All those respondents unselfishly put themselves in harm’s way, and they’ve been forgotten,” he said. “People like to call football players heroes, but we’re not heroes, we just play football. The last thing I want to do is open old wounds, but these unquestioned true heroes have been forgotten. It’s like what John F. Kennedy said when somebody asked why somebody should do something and he said, ‘Why not?’ Why shouldn’t we do something for the respondents?”

Martin, the sports marketing director for AXA Equitable for the past decade, has been granted a paid leave of absence for his journey.

“I’ll walk every mile; no walking a few miles and jumping in a car,” he said. “I start Sept. 15, the day before the Giants’ home opener. I’ve been training for a 50-miles-a-day clip — up early and walk 12 ½ miles before breakfast, do 12 ½ more before lunch, another 12 ½ and a short rest in the afternoon, then a final 12 ½ before dinner and bed. It should take three and a half to four months. I know I can do it.”

Martin won’t be alone, of course. With a budget of $150,000 for the trip, he’ll be accompanied by a police escort and a support staff. His corporate sponsors include Hackensack University Medical Center, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health Systems, Fairleigh Dickinson University, United Parcel Service, Bear Stearns, Nike, TanaSeybert, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Keyspan Energy, Hunter Douglas, the Giants, the N.F.L. and the N.F.L. Players Association.

“I was lucky,” he said. “As a football player, I never had any broken bones, never had surgery. I don’t have an artificial knee or hip. I’m the antithesis of all these former N.F.L. players who have had problems, but they shouldn’t be blaming Gene Upshaw and the players association. We all went into the N.F.L. knowing the average career was only about five years. We all went in with our eyes open.”

Martin’s eyes have always been more open than those of most pro football players. At Armijo High School in Fairfield, Calif., he was the student body president. At the University of Oregon, he was an art-education major before the Giants drafted him in the 11th round.

“When I was at Oregon, I always admired Steve Prefontaine,” Martin said, referring to the world-class distance runner who died in 1975. “You’d see Steve running everywhere all over the campus, not just in track meets. It was as if he had a personal affair with nature. I won’t be running, but when I’m walking across the country, I’ll be thinking of him.”

And when George Martin is making his way across the nation, he’ll also be thinking of all those 9/11 responders whom he’s walking for.

This about sums it up!!!!

HAMPTONBURGH, N.Y. (Aug. 5) – An artist has mowed an 850,000-square-foot rendering of a Purple Heart medal into a park field to honor the 75th anniversary of the medal that commends service members killed or wounded in action.

Field artist and painter Roger Baker mowed an 850,000-square-foot image of a Purple Heart medal into a lawn at Thomas Bull Memorial Park in Hamptonburgh, N.Y., Sunday.

The rendering, unveiled Sunday in Thomas Bull Memorial Park in this city 55 miles northwest of New York City, was done by field artist and painter Roger Baker, whose past works include the Statue of Liberty and Elvis Presley.

According to Baker, the project followed a chance meeting with Bill Bacon, membership director of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. After meeting with officials from The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor and Orange County parks, the plan was on.

The New Windsor Cantonment, in what is now Orange County, was the final encampment of the Revolutionary Army. To honor the service of select troops, Gen. George Washington presented a small purple cloth Badge of Merit – the precursor to the Purple Heart medal.

In 1932, the Purple Heart was awarded to 150 veterans of World War I. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor opened in New Windsor in 2006.

Baker’s design was based on a photograph of the medal awarded to Art Livesey, a Middletown, N.Y., Marine Corps veteran who was wounded at Iwo Jima.

Click image to view slideshow (requires PowerPoint)

The Grand Canyon Skywalk.

* Juts out about 70 feet into the canyon, 4000 ft above the Colorado River

*Will accommodate 120 people comfortably (How comfortable would YOU be?)

* Built with more than a million pounds of steel beams and includes dampeners that minimize the structure’s vibration

* Designed to hold 72 tons, withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake 50 miles away, and withstand winds in excess of 100 mph

* Has a glass bottom and sides…four inches thick Read the rest of this entry »