Why own lots of books??

Umberto Eco, who owned 50,000 books, had this to say about home libraries:

“It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones.

“There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion.

“If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That’s why you should always have a nutrition choice!

“Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it. They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity.”

I guess I own a few thousand and they are greatly treasured!

Why don’t the media do their Job? Who pays?

Who owns the media?

Why don’t the Democrats know what Trump accomplished?

Because the media did a terrible job of reporting it. I’m amazed at how few people realize the records he set:

  • First President in history to serve a full term and increase the deficit every year he was in office.
  • First President in history to maintain a debt to GDP ratio over 100% for his entire term
  • Highest annual budget deficit
  • Most added to the national debt in a single term
  • Most new unemployment claims
  • Largest single day point drop in the history of the Dow
  • First President in almost a century to lose jobs in his first term
  • First major party candidate in half a century to lose the popular vote twice
  • Longest government shutdown in history (and he did that while his own party controlled both chambers of Congress)
  • First President in the history of approval ratings to maintain a net negative approval rating for his entire term
  • First President to be impeached twice
  • First President to have bipartisan support for his conviction after impeachment (which happened both times)
  • Most indictments, guilty pleas, and criminal convictions of members of an administration

And again, that’s just a few of the records! There are so many more things he accomplished! He flatlined a strong economy even before the pandemic. He wasted millions on golfing (with much of that going back to into his own pockets). He wasted millions more rebranding part of the Air Force to look like Star Trek cosplayers. He wasted billions more on an idiotic vanity wall that’s already falling over. He told tens of thousands of lies. He violated the Emoluments Clause and the Hatch Act more times than I can remember. Plus he sabotaged our operations in Afghanistan, sabotaged gas prices with an idiotic deal with OPEC to create a global oil shortage, forgot what country he bombed at least once, tweeted a classified a photo, and he committed a war crime by ordering the assassination of an Iranian general in violation of international treaties.

Then there were all of his brilliant ideas that were never realized. Like preventing wildfires by raking the forests, nuking hurricanes, and treating Covid by cutting open people’s lungs and wiping them down with Lysol and letting them dry in the sun. Just think how much more he could have accomplished if those godless liberals hadn’t stopped him from suspending the Constitution and declaring himself President for life!

How did these robber barons get to think they own things?

We’re just passing through!

Poetry – Partnership

Partnership

Partnership is the only way out of this zero hours’ gulag.

Where those in charge have all the power in this time lag.

It is no longer good enough for a small elite to dictate

While a majority have absolutely no say in their fate.

No fringe benefits, holiday pay, sickness or pensions.

Work when you’re told – loyalty is never mentioned.

But quality of life counts for something!

Welfare of the common folk is not nothing!

We need a better way of doing business.

Clearing up this exploitative mess!

Partnership and shared power!

Cometh the need, cometh the hour!

Opher 29.4.2019

I wrote this in response to the mess I see in the workplace. Thatcher and the Tories emasculated the Unions and now the bosses hold all the cards.

Yes – the unions had gone too far – protective practices and protected jobs were really insupportable. But the unions were responsible for fighting for fair pay and benefits. Without them we would be really in the mire.

Since the castration of the unions we have seen pay and conditions greatly eroded while profits for the wealthy owners soar.

I fear this would only get worse with increasing AI and automation.

It is time this is addressed.

If it isn’t we are doomed to a world of huge inequality with most of us on low pay with no benefits and a small elite raking in the dosh. That’s no life.

I wouldn’t want to go back to the days of too powerful unions. I prefer the German model. I think workers need to be in partnership with bosses in running the business and sharing the profits. I think that having a say and a share would be motivating and increase productivity.

Poetry – The Pursuit of Happiness

The Pursuit of Happiness

We’re all busy consuming.

It’s what we’re taught to do.

Buying and throwing away

Is the nation’s glue.

We’re using up the planet.

Making lots of people rich.

Destroying the thing we love.

Ain’t life a bitch?

The pursuit of happiness

Is to be found in ownership.

The more you have the more you are

All that matters is blue chip.

Some have much and some have none.

That’s the way it has to be.

We’re living the life of luxury

In the land of the free.

What good is having everything

If everyone has it too?

If money doesn’t buy us happiness

What are we to do?

Opher – 28.3.2021

It seems to me that we have lost our way. We do not have lives full of meaning, wonder and adventure. We live in a world where the only things that matter are status and fame.

It’s so empty.

Poetry – Private Property

Private Property

Once there was a country

Nobody owned it.

No private property.

Someone put up fences.

Claimed it

Set up a defences.

Once there was just land.

Now it’s law –

People are banned.

It was the robber barons.

Seized it by force

With their cannons.

We still pay them for our land

As they get richer

And live life so grand.

Once there was a country

Nobody owned it.

No private property.

Opher – 19.10.2020

We’ve become so accustomed to the situation. But the land used to be as free as the air and water. It was seized by force.

It is now owned by a few. The Queen owns 1,960,000 acres. Where did she get it from? Who gave it to her?

When did the land become owned?