Non-traditional wishes for the New Year

I'm starting this thread to see what people are wishing for in 2014 besides the usual clichied good health, world peace, good luck, love, happiness, etc. Here are some of the wishes I hope come to pass in the new year:

1) Telemarketing finally dies the quick death it's deserved to die ever since some marketing genius with no common sense thought it up. Really, if someone asked me to think of a worse business model than calling people who don't want to be called to sell them things they don't want to buy I would be hard pressed to find one. I have reason to hope this wish will come to pass sooner rather than later as sophisticated call-blocking algorithms make it increasingly difficult for telemarketers to actually reach a live person.

2) We at least seriously discuss getting rid of income taxes. They were always a bad idea, but I think now that people are deriving income from all sorts of activities which are harder to track than traditional jobs, it makes more sense than ever to replace an income tax with a sales tax.

3) Human-powered transportation starts to be considered as important as other types, especially in cities, and we start building things like grade-separated bike highways.

4) Reality TV starts to die off. Seriously, I enjoy some reality shows as much as the next person, but mainly when they show things which most people would never be doing, like driving trucks on ice roads in Alaska, or crab fishing. I don't see the point of reality shows like the ones listed here. At the rate we're going, soon someone will put a camera above their cat's litter box and turn it into a reality show.

5) Along the lines of #4, we start to see higher quality programming in general even if it means fewer channels. Now we have a lot of mostly nothing. I continue to be amazed how I can look through the guide at a few hundred channels, yet often not find anything even remotely worth watching.

6) Fewer movies which are remakes of old movies which had nothing wrong with them.

7) The long overdue realization by the advertising industry that advertising has long ago reached its saturation point. More doesn't mean more sales. In fact, it may mean fewer.

8) More people choosing to become unwired and less attached to their devices. Yes, I know this is a lot to ask, but I honestly think people are too available for their own good nowadays. There's nothing wrong with going out for a walk and just leaving your cell phone at home. The world won't come to an end if nobody can reach you for a few hours, or even a few days.

9) Some sort of bailout on student loans, especially those over about 20 years old. Too many people are putting their lives on hold on account of student loan debt which is difficult or impossible to pay.

10) Some serious revolutionary technological developments so that we'll all have a lot more to talk about here!

All good wishes. We can always hope things turn in those directions.

Geoff

to expand on item #2 (income taxes), I'd like to see our legislative representatives really sit down and try to develop a budget that is in the best interest of the American populace as a whole, instead of trying to protect the people that funded their election campaign. I expect this will happen shortly after the porcine residents of the local hog farms fly off and migrate to warmer climes, though.

Tax reform would be nice too. It seems slightly more probable.

In the catagory of more probable events (and less likely to get the thread moved to the Underground), I'd also be happy to see reality TV shrivel up and blow away. The strategy of the cable companies appears to be to drive basic cable subscribers to the higher cost cable packages. I'm thinking of Discovery/TLC and History channels primarily. They've filled these channels with nonsense having nothing to do with discovery, learning, or history.

The end of twerking. In general, less self-absorbed public stupidity and more decorum.

With the exception of #2, wholeheartedly agree with everything said above! I'd also like to see a bit more social and environmental responsibility from the large and medium corporations along with more financial transparency.

With #9, in the UK anyway, I would like to see less of the 'I HAVE to go to University' culture and see an increase in the range and capacity of alternatives such as apprenticeships. But of course, that's slightly beyond the scope of New Year wishes!

PhotonWrangler said:

The end of twerking. In general, less self-absorbed public stupidity and more decorum.

Click to expand...

I'm going to assume that the twerking reference was about that Cyrus kid. Thankfully, I didn't witness it myself. Looking back on the last century or so, a person does have to wonder what the heck happened! Is it just looking at the past with rose-colored glasses, or was the media business too small to capture the dumb stuff going on? Or have people (celebrities) really gotten dumber and more desperate for attention?

It does kind of make you yearn for the days of dignified movie stars and musicians who would at least behave well in the public eye.

I do have to give child actors/celebrities some room to make mistakes, though. Without the benefit of a normal childhood, and then the typical loss of status & privilege as they get too old to be cute, it would be hard for anyone to cope. Perhaps the new year's wish would be to have the entertainment industry be more ethical in how it handles kids in the business, and do more to get them trained for a real life just in case they aren't one of the few that can continue that work into adulthood.

.... or are we including politicians in the "public stupidity" category? I am reminded of a governor of Toronto....

Steve K said:

I do have to give child actors/celebrities some room to make mistakes, though. Without the benefit of a normal childhood, and then the typical loss of status & privilege as they get too old to be cute, it would be hard for anyone to cope. Perhaps the new year's wish would be to have the entertainment industry be more ethical in how it handles kids in the business, and do more to get them trained for a real life just in case they aren't one of the few that can continue that work into adulthood.

Click to expand...

VERY well said, Steve. I agree, these kids don't' have a normal life when growing up in the public spotlight, and probably get short changed on education as well as more normal life experiences, so they grow up expecting that the primary goal in life is public adulation, which is pretty sad, and leaves them far from being grounded people. Cyrus and Bieber come to mind immediately but there have been countless others.

1. I'd like to see a lot of changes in government, but honestly I think there needs to be a bigger change in our culture which is rapidly becoming immoral. People vote for what they want in their hearts and if that is the case, that is scary due to the recent results. People have voted to be disarmed of their right to protect themselves, for the death of the unborn, for sexual immorality, for generational theft, for no right to privacy, and for government mandated theft. By abandoning belief in God we are witnessing our nation going to hell. If our nation would turn back to the principals of the Bible which our nation was founded on, it might not be too late to keep it from falling apart.

2. I want to see those in government held accountable for their actions. I don't want to name any names or make this political, but if you are breaking the law and are in a position to make the law, you should be held as an example and punished more severely than someone who didn't know any better. Until we get the criminals out of making the law, things are going to get worse.

3. I want to squeeze the bloated government back to it's original framework. The federal government should only be in charge of national defense and punishing criminals and that is it. No more Ponsi scheme retirement plans, no more borrowing money from our enemies to avoid insolvency, no more spying on citizens or punishing those with different political views, no more I.R.S.. If people could keep most of their money, we could solve poverty. If we could actually work unencumbered, the economy would grow. If criminals were actually punished for crimes instead of being given law liscenses or elected to Congress, crime would go down.

4. I want all new laws enacted that will cost people money or restrict rights to apply to only those who voted for the law for the first year while everyone else gets a grace period. After that year, those that voted for it should get the choice to vote against it to weed out bad laws before one citizen is subjected to them. That way, no citizen has to suffer from a stupid law before the people who passed it get a taste of their own medicine. This is opposite of how it is now where the polititians are bribed to pass a horrible law and carve out exemptions for themselves.

5. I would like to see 200+ lumen/watt l.e.d. light bulbs with a 50,000+ hour lifespan on the shelves for no more than $5 so that I don't have to deal with high electric bills or more bulb mandates for the next 20 years. With more efficient lighting, an off grid lifestyle becomes more fesible, people keep more of their money, and there will be less polution (everybody wins).

6. I'd like to see cost affective solutions to energy storage so people can get off the grid in case it fails. Unless you have cheap, durable energy storage, I don't see the grid lasting more than a decade with increases in population, decreases in supply, neglected maintenance and infrastructure upgrades, and other threats to the grid.

Hooked on Fenix said:

By abandoning belief in God we are witnessing our nation going to hell. If our nation would turn back to the principals of the Bible which our nation was founded on, it might not be too late to keep it from falling apart.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm not going to let that pass. The founding fathers were explicitly trying to avoid religion in government, and that is one of the reasons that the Constitution has survived so long with few changes. To suggest otherwise is to reveal a lack of knowledge of history.

The bible is hardly original...most of the principles involved are older than Christianity (or any other popular religion you can name). Just because one does not believe in god, does not mean that they are immoral. In fact, in some countries belief in god is increasing, and that has hardly solved all their problems - they have little to do with each other. Bad people can use religion to justify bad behavior (examples are plentiful), and good people don't need a book to tell them to treat other people well. Certainly religion has inspired people to do wonderful things, and religiosity is not inherently bad, but when you start demanding that others share your religion/belief in god, you are asking for trouble. Judge not lest ye be judged, right? I think people should be judged by their actions, not their beliefs.

That said, you have some very good PRACTICAL ideas. #2 and #4, in particular, I wholeheartedly endorse. Reminds me of Robert Heinlein's For Us, The Living. Wonderful perspective on culture, politics, economics, and technology...particularly amazing given that it was written over 70 years ago. Your ideas are right in line with some Heinlein proposed in his book.

Hooked on Fenix said:

1. I'd like to see a lot of changes in government, but honestly I think there needs to be a bigger change in our culture which is rapidly becoming immoral. People vote for what they want in their hearts and if that is the case, that is scary due to the recent results. People have voted to be disarmed of their right to protect themselves, for the death of the unborn, for sexual immorality, for generational theft, for no right to privacy, and for government mandated theft. By abandoning belief in God we are witnessing our nation going to hell. If our nation would turn back to the principals of the Bible which our nation was founded on, it might not be too late to keep it from falling apart.

Click to expand...

For the reasons thedoc007 mentioned, I'm not sure I can agree here. While I certainly agree with you that some of the laws we have now make no sense, that's due to an entirely different set of reasons than the one you gave. The issue in my opinion is that people nowadays are quick to write their legislators to pass laws against anything which annoys them. The legislators are often all too quick to comply. End result is we have a lot of stupid laws.

2. I want to see those in government held accountable for their actions. I don't want to name any names or make this political, but if you are breaking the law and are in a position to make the law, you should be held as an example and punished more severely than someone who didn't know any better. Until we get the criminals out of making the law, things are going to get worse.

3. I want to squeeze the bloated government back to it's original framework. The federal government should only be in charge of national defense and punishing criminals and that is it. No more Ponsi scheme retirement plans, no more borrowing money from our enemies to avoid insolvency, no more spying on citizens or punishing those with different political views, no more I.R.S.. If people could keep most of their money, we could solve poverty. If we could actually work unencumbered, the economy would grow. If criminals were actually punished for crimes instead of being given law liscenses or elected to Congress, crime would go down.

4. I want all new laws enacted that will cost people money or restrict rights to apply to only those who voted for the law for the first year while everyone else gets a grace period. After that year, those that voted for it should get the choice to vote against it to weed out bad laws before one citizen is subjected to them. That way, no citizen has to suffer from a stupid law before the people who passed it get a taste of their own medicine. This is opposite of how it is now where the polititians are bribed to pass a horrible law and carve out exemptions for themselves.

Click to expand...

Agree on #2, and that should apply to anyone in a position of power. I feel we let white collar criminals off way too easily, for example. #3 and #4 are really two sides of the same coin. I say whenever you want a new law passed, you have to repeal five or ten old laws. That would at least keep the number of silly laws and regulations down.

5. I would like to see 200+ lumen/watt l.e.d. light bulbs with a 50,000+ hour lifespan on the shelves for no more than $5 so that I don't have to deal with high electric bills or more bulb mandates for the next 20 years. With more efficient lighting, an off grid lifestyle becomes more fesible, people keep more of their money, and there will be less polution (everybody wins).

6. I'd like to see cost affective solutions to energy storage so people can get off the grid in case it fails. Unless you have cheap, durable energy storage, I don't see the grid lasting more than a decade with increases in population, decreases in supply, neglected maintenance and infrastructure upgrades, and other threats to the grid.

Click to expand...

We'll probably see #5 by 2020 or earlier. #6 is a serious issue which needs to be fixed. I dare say in both cases while government isn't the sole answer, a few well-though out regulations and requirements would have the effect of nudging private industry in the right direction. I totally agree with your general idea that too much government interference is bad, but that doesn't mean that no good at all can come from government.

Another wish I could add is for banks and other places to get rid of their overly paranoid security. I just tired to register one of my mom's credit cards so I could pay it online. Of course, they had to ask which "security word" she choose, presumably when she applied for the card. The card number, 3-digit code, and last four digits of her Social Security number weren't good enough for them. Naturally, she didn't remember the security word, so I ended up having to make out a paper check. And then there have been other cases where you successfully complete the registration process, but passwords have to meet a bunch of criteria. You end up having to write down the password so you won't forget it, which to me kind of defeats the purpose of a complex password. I can't wait until things like retinal or DNA scans become the norm because security procedures have gone off the deep end. All I was doing was trying to register the card to pay online, not apply for a job at the NSA.

jtr1962 said:

And then there have been other cases where you successfully complete the registration process, but passwords have to meet a bunch of criteria. You end up having to write down the password so you won't forget it, which to me kind of defeats the purpose of a complex password.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

https://xkcd.com/936/

thedoc007 said:

The founding fathers were explicitly trying to avoid religion in government, and that is one of the reasons that the Constitution has survived so long.

Click to expand...

That's a bold statement. Would you mind sharing what you base it on?

Hopefully, the moderators will allow civil discourse concerning this interesting subject.

~ Chance

Chauncey Gardiner said:

That's a bold statement. Would you mind sharing what you base it on?

Hopefully, the moderators will allow civil discourse concerning this interesting subject.

Click to expand...

I hope so too, this is The Cafe after all.



1. One source is the US Constitution itself, specifically the First Amendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Everyone knows about the second clause, respecting freedom of religion. But the first clause clearly states that religion can have no OFFICIAL status in government. It bans the creation of a state church, like the Church of England in Britain.

2. Also from the Constitution, Article 6: "...shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

3. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter (1802): "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their "legislature" should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State."

4. James Madison: "Because if Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body." After retiring from the presidency, Madison wrote of "total separation of the church from the state." "Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion & Govt in the Constitution of the United States," Madison wrote, and he declared, "practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government is essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States."

5. Regarding "litmus tests" for a specific religion: The absence of an establishment of religion did not necessarily imply that all men were free to hold office. Most colonies had a Test Act, and several states retained them for a short time. This stood in contrast to the Federal Constitution, which explicitly prohibits the employment of any religious test for Federal office, and which through the Fourteenth Amendment later extended this prohibition to the States.



Yes, there were people opposed to all of this...there is rarely 100% support on any issue, and separation of church and state was no exception. But given that it is embedded in the Constitution, and has been repeatedly upheld and reinforced by the Supreme Court over 200 years, I think it is fairly clear that the founding fathers were indeed trying to keep religion out of government.

Note that this does not mean people cannot be religious, and belief in god is no hindrance to office either. But the establishment of an official, state sanctioned religion, is banned, and for good reason. Religious persecution is common when one religion is seen as the norm, and pressure is placed on others to conform.

I think it would be more appropriate to say that government is keeping out of any particular religion...on the surface level, government 'stands' to neither be for or against any religion. Meanwhile, it follows the religion of money Money makes this world go round, so for the new year, here's my well wish: May everybody find happiness in their wholesome living in the world in which money can help to buy.

Chauncey Gardiner said:

Hopefully, the moderators will allow civil discourse concerning this interesting subject.

Click to expand...

The "subject", or topic, of this thread is "non-traditional wishes for the New Year". While the subject you're endorsing is likely to be involved with those wishes, it is a tangent that is capable of totally consuming the thread and overriding our topic.

It is an interesting topic. It's also a topic that is dear to the heart of many, and the particular views can be be far more volatile than is expected in the casual nature of the Cafe. While we don't dedicate the Cafe to heavy political and religious arguing, we do provide the place for such discussion in CPF's Underground Wine Cellar with forums devoted to both politics and religious discussion. That would be the better choice for such discussion, without as likely interruption by moderators.

The topic in this thread will be difficult to maneuver for two reasons; the topics themselves and the deviation from the topic of the thread.

I wish to acquire and test a good induction hotplate this year. I love our gas stove, I do most of the cooking and the gas stove will be staying. Mrs. Bomber wants a better cooking experience and does not like gas stoves, not ours not any of them. Induction is the next runner up.

I wish to figure out the art of cooking with a wok. I have a good wok, I have an 80k btu propane burner, I just need to get a pile of veggies and some more sesame oil and start experimenting.

I wish to figure out how to relax. I busted my grits for a long time to retire. I'm there now. I still feel antsy - like I have to get up and DO something. Habit of a lifetime. The house is clean, the garage is clean, the shop is clean, the cabin is built, the vehicles are built. I don't need to set the alarm clock and the world will keep spinning if the truck's oil change is postponed to noon instead of 7:30am. I need another hobby, or maybe a part time laid back job, just to keep me busy. Or start another part time business. Hmm.

Clearly, I wish to do some serious soul-searching and figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

I have lots of opinions on the political items that have been mentioned. I wish people would learn to take care of themselves, take care of their responsibilities, and mind their own business. Only you are responsible for your own actions, and you ARE responsible for them. On the flip side, you are NOT responsible for anyone else's actions, if they aren't hurting anyone then mind your own business.

To post in such a manner so as not to be in need of moderation. Sometimes it's the beer, but most of the time it's just my sense of humor.......combined with a beer, or two.

~ Chance

Norm said:

Drunk driving posts moved to there own thread. - Norm

Click to expand...

Thank you!