Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty & Freedom

Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty & Freedom

This is a response to a post by www.independentvotersofamerica.org published here,
https://www.facebook.com/IndependentVotersofAmerica



"Unsubstantiated political attacks. Whether they come from the left or the right, they drive news headlines and media coverage away from the issues that really matter. Frank Bruni had a great take on this in yesterday's The New York Times:

"DO one tribe’s antics justify the other’s? Is this a road we really want to continue barreling down? We’re already on it, thanks in part to a presidential contest in which each candidate’s main pitch — I’m not half as awful as the other guy — points everything in a negative direction.



The new shape of the news-media universe doesn’t help. Balkanized into micro-niches where partisans can have their passions stoked and prejudices reinforced, it gives reckless allegations many places to land and even stick before they get a sober look. Those allegations are intended and tailored to rally the troops, who are believed to care more about truculence than truthfulness. The ends justify the Reid."


As written here, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/bruni-truculence-before-truth.html "FOR the dwindling few out there who still believe that big accusations require a little foundation and that truth — as opposed to conjecture — matters, here’s an update: "....

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave." ~ Patrick Henry

                       >>Unfortunately the NY times is no different. Try through any channel or proxy to confront them on their not so widely known media strategies and bias, and they'll ask you to go take a hike,

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/kristof-blissfully-lost-in-the-woods.html ( If you care to focus on the root of things that matter the most or about the unbiased Truth this is what you'll get from the likes of them -> "A little advice for the overburdened and over connected. Go Take a hike." )

“May the Spirit of Truth & Freedom live on. May the alert and the watchful divinities guard thee, may he that sleeps not and nods not guard thee, may he that protects and is vigilant guard thee” ~ Atharva Veda

 P.S ~ They are all.. mostly sold out, well fed and corporate controlled by groups and financial entities, becoming mere instruments of manipulation and propaganda. I pity and feel sorry for the people who take them seriously and spend their lives, their precious time and energy getting distracted by what is put out there. When it comes to certain key issues there is very little in terms of news, Truth or journalistic ethics here. One may safely treat them as a source of entertainment and senseless intellectual junk. 

              I personally feel that given such a circumstance and trend a wise man follows the news in America only to mostly keep track of the tactics, agendas, strategies and games being played. Always try to do your own independent thinking and research, get to the source of all things and make it a habit to take a dig and question the absolute authenticity of anything you come across. The great advantage we have today is that unlike ever before social media presents unbreakable social circles and trusted networks for individuals... these and the chain reactions they generate seem to be posing a serious challenge. Social media, personal circles and word of mouth enables people to over ride and cut through all of the gibber and bs* faster than ever before.

In your pursuit of the Truth stay vigilant, raise your guard and learn the Art of letting the works of all things trivial and corrupt go through one ear and out the other.

Sincerely,

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

“Justice does not help those who slumber but helps only those who are vigilant.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi 

If it Makes Perfect Sense, No One Can Redefine Meaning

This is a comment in response to the below letter I read today,

" Jaikrishna,
Last August, I stood in a living room in Andover and talked about why our country faced a massive deficit and what it would take to move us forward as a nation.


I'm proud of what I said. I meant every single word of it. I said, "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own." I praised the people who did get rich. I said, "You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea, God Bless!" But I asked those who make it big to invest in the next generation of kids so they will have a chance too.





Nearly one million people have watched the video from that house party. If you haven't seen the full clip, you can watch it here. And If you've seen it, you can watch it again -- and share it with your friends. Let's show Scott Brown and Mitt Romney that we won't back down:

http://www.elizabethwarren.com/nobodyinthiscountry


We don't know who is going to have the next big idea in America.


But we're pretty sure they're going to need employees who can read and write. They're going to need power to keep the lights on and clean water and functioning sewers to keep going. They're going to need roads and bridges to move their goods to market or bring customers to their store. And they're going to need police officers and firefighters to keep their businesses safe.


That's what makes America great. We make the investments together -- to put the conditions in place so that businesses can flourish and create more opportunities for all of us. And it keeps going forward. When we make it, all of us have an obligation to invest in creating the conditions so the next kid can get ahead, and the kid after that, and the kid after that.


I believe in small businesses. My brother started a small business. My daughter started a small business. My aunt started a small business--and that's where I worked when I was a teenager. I've seen up close and personal how hard small business owners work and how much they risk to make their businesses succeed.


Right now, Washington's rigged for the big corporations who can afford armies of lobbyists and lawyers -- not America's small businesses. If Republicans like Scott Brown and Mitt Romney have their way, the system is going to stay rigged for the big guys.


The Republicans have their vision for the future. It says, "I've got mine, the rest of you are on your own."


That's not the American Dream. That's not how we build a future for ourselves and our children. We build a future together.


Thank you for being a part of this,


Elizabeth"

------------------------X------------------------

P.S ~ I am very positive and sure that your supporters will always stay committed to you.

Heaven is blessed with perfect rest but the blessing of earth is toil. 
~ Henry van Dyke 

       Sometimes we fail to accept the fact that regardless of the times common sense always prevails. There is absolutely no substitute for hard work. One needs to stay determined and make the effort without being too obsessed, distracted by or worried about the outcome.  It is a matter of being loyal and strongly committed to lasting and worthy values. 


       Perhaps at some point in your lives I am sure that many of you know what it feels like to work at minimum wage or something in range of it. Now I want you to imagine that you live a different life, you work a lot less and get paid a lot more. Lets say you are one of those fancy upper management professionals at some of those banks that are potentially preparing or are poised to fail some time in the foreseeable future. It's important to understand that within an organization like that people often resort to several tactics when it comes to management, a lot of them involve plenty of bad karma. The work may be largely monotonous, far from creative and excessively well paid. Again there are brilliant and admirable managers who are exceptional role models and then there are others who are determined to climb as high as they can and make as much as is possible giving up as little effort in exchange for it. There are plenty of examples for such organizations that may portray a facade but in actuality only serve as great case studies for any one who is curious or interested to learn about the avoidable. Eventually with age or retirement they get decommissioned but that Master-Servant-Slave Driver mentality, lack of creativity and the lust and greed for amassing the easy way by pushing the rest of us as hard as possible is very hard to let go off. They group up, they take their capital and their tactics and they hunt for opportunities to manipulate and extract more capital. For them life isn't about investing in values, places or people it's about being and living inside those perpetual gambling casinos that are locked inside their heads. Again not every one is like this there are plenty of very good exceptions but this country would have definitely been very different without them. 


           This election, the campaign funds seem to be pouring in like magical invisible rain from nowhere. These people that I just referred to above and the rest of their kind from around the world care very little about taking political sides for genuine reasons, a vast majority of them are strictly neutral and in search of their next   political puppet. A lot of people actively wish well and sincerely support progressives. In the face of a daunting opposition It can be understandably hard sometimes  to stay non aligned. But It's always good to know that one is sincere about keeping their words. 


               As for fiscal health, this is the n' th hour and yes one would have to go to any length, work with all sorts of people and use every trick there is to commit to extracting ourselves from the pit. Parallely it isn't money alone but rather access to quality Education, Healthcare and opportunities that truly have what it takes to make the American Dream a reality for so many. There are many feasible paths to this but the biggest obstacle being endless debates and bickering and no action. 


             For example if one were concerned about monitoring and raising children within one's family and in this country, look at all of the unpleasant things around.. that you don't want polluting your child's mind. Think about how much money and time is being spent annually towards something that is causing a moral decay and an absolute and unfortunate disintegration of values and heritage. Could you imagine what a big difference it would make to so many if you could encourage, support and inspire in a way that would ensure that that money be spent on something more constructive and meaningful in lines with the things mentioned above. 

 Where there is no real Will there will be an equally obvious lack of outcome.

But Where there is a Will there is always a Way.


Sincerely,
Jai Krishna Ponnappan

You Live With The Choices You Make, So Choose Wisely

This is a comment in response to an article on the Huffington Post,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/mitt-romney-foreign-income_n_1695806.html

                Since when if ever, was making money or being rich such a crime in this so called land of opportunity, liberty, prosperity and freedom. A lot of people here spend a great deal of their lives and their days far away from things like entertainment and mainstream media, they are usually up against the wall, very busy working hard and meticulously investing their time, energy, efforts, planning and resources towards their futures. The last few years have been very tough on a lot of Americans. It is really sad to say that a lot of wealthy American investors have been forced to pay a hefty price for unwise decisions, policies, mismanaged funds and a changing country that has on several fronts become needlessly over regulated, unreliable and unattractive to anyone with a reasonable amount of justified fear, common sense and wisdom. 

               Your main focus should be to commit resources and invest in highly essential priorities like education and infrastructure and make things as feasible and as beneficial as possible to businesses and supporting industries. Your main focus should be to collaborate and work with homegrown industries and facilitate in making America as attractive, productive, yielding and safe as possible for investors and businesses. You can't waste away precious time and resources on unrealistic strategies like excessive governance, short term stimulus, all the pointless projects that go with it  and so many of these highly publicized attempts at job creation. These are sensible steps in the right direction but unfortunately they are not in line with what has made America prosperous historically. At times the environment, sentiments and trends are as such that it feels like you are living in a new country if not an entirely different place altogether. In other words on account of such negligence and complacence the country has needlessly slipped away and changed to such an extent that the average enterprising businessman, wealthy investor and the rest of the best of America's very own by products are all being forced to shy away or flee and find alternatives and a future offshore.  

                  I sincerely hope and wish that people would learn to criticize and examine someone to expose their realistic capacity and abilities to conduct office and to do a reasonable job. Trying to sway or manipulate the emotions of the masses and potential voters based on deliberately disparaging and inaccurate presentations, prejudice and uncivilized passive aggressive hate won't work with the average educated or hardworking American who uses his brain and can think for himself. All this here article proves is that he has done well for himself and his family and is unlike many others who have abandoned ship and forfeited their citizenship. A person like that would succeed no matter what. The only big question off course has to do with his plans for the future and his level of commitment to America and its people. Are they family enough? Regardless of our personal opinions and tastes we must strive to wish all candidates well but the only desperate appeal at this point is to ensure the whole process is unbiased and fair. I know this expectation is perhaps a little too much to ask of some of the sections of the media and the way they are playing their strategies this election. This is understandably big fodder for those who love to sensationalize and extract stories for all they are worth. Please do not forget to engage in a bit of honest journalistic work because it is a part of your moral responsibility and obligation towards this country, its people and their future. There are always great pros and cons to such critical issues. The next four years will definitely be a sensitive phase and a critical turning point for this country. You live with the choices you make. Being sensible, thoughtful and mindful of how you, your actions and what you put out there can impact the outcome is the least that one can expect at this stage.

Again, You Live With The Choices You Make, So Choose Wisely. 
I Wish You All the very Best. God Bless :) 
~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

A Comment from an Equipoised and Reasonable Centralist: How Liberals and Conservatives Write About Religion

This is a comment in response to a post I read at,


https://www.facebook.com/LearnLiberty

Usually my comments don't last very long on social media. They have a mind of their own and often strike deep and hard at the root of all things false. So I'm blogging and making a note of it :)

“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.” – Lord Byron 

What do YOU think? Does the freedom of people depend on their ability to reason?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=451426858222678&set=a.434963643202333.102349.187626791269354&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

Freedom from ??? 

Please help, this young Man needs some clarity and insight :)

No matter how wise we may think we are, those who accept their fallibility are far from fools, they are perhaps the only handful that can and may be considered remotely wise and capable of significance and intelligence. Life does not come with a promise of Liberation nor a state of Liberty. How little is the line of difference..What separates Men from Magnificent Dinosaurs. What difference does it make whether you are reasonable, irrational, a bigot, a fool or a slave if you have not known and accepted your own fallibility and the fragility of this experience called Life. Forget being anything else just try being humble. Give Humility a chance. Explore and experiment with it. It might just save the day.

If You Wish to write or argue or reason well and effectively, here are a few tips and guidelines for people of all understandings,

~ How Liberals and Conservatives Write About Religion ~

How to be a Successful Religious Affairs Journalist

"Whether you read The Guardian, The Telegraph, New Statesman or The Catholic Herald, you’re bound to stumble upon a hefty smattering of religious affairs journalism. 

Whatever your belief, or lack of belief, chances are you enjoy keeping up to date with religious affairs. It may be to keep abreast of events within your own faith, or perhaps to just follow the farcical antics of other religions.

Regardless of your pre-existing viewpoint, you won’t have too much of a problem finding a piece of journalism that is conveniently tailored to your way of thinking. Indeed many recent news articles regarding the ordination of women bishops, catholic child abuse or legislation for gay marriage were spun to fit a particular point of view by the simple selection of the appropriate vernacular.

For those entrepreneurial journalists wishing to cover all bases and therefore maximize their reach, this could require rewriting each piece to tailor the language for each demographic.

In order to solve this problem I have customised the AutoCorrect feature in Microsoft Word to enable generic religious news stories to be either liberalised or conservatised to suit the target audience. The AutoCorrect function simply searches for predefined strings within the text and automatically replaces the string with the designated replacement string.

In order to liberalise your religious article, pull down the Tools menu in MS Word and select AutoCorrect. Then simply set up the function as shown in the screenshot below:

And this is what shows up for liberals,

Using Technology to Save the World One Tool..sorry...One screen shot at a time

  All the trade secrets on how religion writers — depending on whether they’re liberal or conservative — edit their articles.

They just go to Microsoft Word’s AutoCorrect feature. This is what shows up for conservatives:"

P.S ~ Avoid being swayed by extremes. Try Staying Down to Earth & Centered. It can be beautiful, peaceful, blissful and It's definitely not that hard.

Best Wishes & Regards, Jai Krishna Ponnappan:)

Ref.


http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/07/18/how-liberals-and-conservatives-write-about-religion/

http://crispian-jago.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-be-successful-religious-affairs.html

PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act: A Case for Better Preparedness

This isn’t an Argument but rather a Case for Better Preparedness and a Broader Strategic Realignment

                                It is important to note the big difference between technology firms such as Google, social media platforms such as Facebook and the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America. It is unacceptable and unfair to claim to talk about a middle ground or a reasonable position of compromise that is fair without understanding how they all function as businesses.

This a comment in response to a post on TAP: Technology | Academics | Policy's Community Page on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/TAPolicy


Quoting from the article,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/idUS6947526520111206

‘claims that Congress’ efforts against online piracy would “break the internet” and usher in censorship and “Finding a reasonable solution to the problem of online piracy and counterfeiting is too important to let hysterical, ideological posturing and threats influence public policy,”

…… these types of responses are completely understandable and absolutely expected and anticipated by most people in the technology industry. It is sad that even in this day and age despite all the progress and radical growth and impact that we have seen, some people still think of the internet as a place that is mostly or solely meant for sharing music, movies and proprietary digital content. I’m quiet certain that given this attitude the people entrusted with the job are not likely to focus on the challenges, that will greatly impact the way in which many sites are carefully designed and function around the way in which people openly and freely use the internet. Technology firms have to constantly adapt to people, their consumers, the average internet user, the competition and the trends and a comprehensive sketch of their patterns of behavior, market conditions and changing habits online. Sales and Marketing strategies for most internet based commercial transactions and even for media giants are based firmly on many of these highly relevant fundamentals that are intrinsic to how the Internet works and evolves. The condescending naivety with which these things are ignorantly referred to as ‘Hysteria and ideological posturing’ unmistakably proves that the issues that are central and matter evenly from the perspectives of all parties concerned, including sites such as Google, social media platforms, small/ medium sized businesses, independent publishers, the internet itself and the public who use it, are least likely to be considered on the basis of facts and rational argumentation.

                               This is strictly an opinion……:I think it is important for people, especially high profile technology firms and highly used websites to stop worrying about or wasting anymore time dealing with these types of policies and the market conditions and legal/economic environments that may come about, and start embracing new strategies to allocate a budget and try their best to develop neutral technologies and neutral technological barriers that will fully enable them to selectively or terminally insulate themselves from certain sections of mainstream media that are most likely to abuse the provisions of this Act and also make efforts to protect themselves from a legal system that may affect the environment in which their business processes function or provisions that could be used to unfairly target them, their media partners and ultimately their business itself. If you wish to engage in business or promote sales and business interests of big content owners then you must carefully setup the mechanism to ensure everything occurs contractually and not otherwise. It is also highly advisable to buy insurance coverage for legal liabilities or allocate sizable amount of funds to safeguard against these types of possible risks and threats (Many publishers and firms who were anticipating this and that I’m aware of have millions in coverage and pay hefty premiums as an added overhead to their existing budgets) .




                              The public must use the example of China and see what has happened to their internet users in the recent past to psychologically prepare themselves to start having access to only a certain percentage of sites, servers and domains present on the World Wide Web and be very…. Very….. careful as to how they use the internet or rather how they should not use the internet to share any copyright protected content whether it is for their personal use or if it is with their friends, their family or on other social media platforms. Even if they have their own content which they may wish to publish online they must take extra measures to avoid placing any third party media elements on the site or incase they don’t have the financial backing they must also avoid making references to potentially harmful material that could be used again to implicate them legally under the provisions of the Acts. I’m not expecting it but I hope and pray that the people who are rushing to promote these laws will show the same level of enthusiasm when it comes to educating the masses and the online community about the exactly ‘N’ number of ways in which they could be in trouble while sharing online or while assuming that they are exercising their constitutional rights. This will make these companies with an online presence responsible for the actions of people who may choose to supposedly, deliberately or allegedly “misuse” the technologies and platforms that they are providing or in other words they’ll be the first to be held responsible if the measures that they have in place fail.

                                   I’m not saying that we are another China – II in the making, but we are definitely starting to look something like many of these countries especially since people and industries here are desperately trying to stay ahead and in many cases are trying to stay in par with the competition, especially in terms of growth, advancing technologically and having the financial health, resources, supporting industries/infrastructure and the means to realign the strategic outlook of their future.

The people in China didn’t make a lot of noise and even if they did there is no way you could have heard it,

http://mashable.com/2011/07/13/china-web-shutdown/

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/22/google-shuts-down-chinese-search-redirects-to-hong-kong/

http://thenextweb.com/asia/2011/06/08/china-increases-internet-control-takes-down-hundreds-of-websites/

http://mashable.com/follow/topics/internet-freedom/


                                       I hope the following link clearly hints you to accept the fact that industries here, that could and should potentially complement and even achieve a great synergy in many ways, are not quiet any where near doing the same. Where there is self centeredness there can be no synergy.



http://www.ucsdguardian.org/component/k2/item/25186-quicktakes-stop-online-piracy-act

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_19472833


                    I’m an optimist, I believe that adapting to problems and adopting solutions aggressively is the key mantra to survival in this day and age. Time is too precious a resource that can easily outweigh all others. It takes a reasonably intelligent and logical mind to respect the rights, the freedoms, the time, the lives, the voices and the problems of others.

                      I don't know if there is a difference of mentality or outlook or culture when it comes to the people working in the concerned industries, I don't know if this difference is irreconcilable either but there comes a point where we have to look beyond mere arguments and our differences and think of the collective higher good. Showbiz can be a funny word that means different things to different people, art to some, ratings to others and $Money$ to the people who matter the most. Business can get dirty at times and life can get tricky, but we need to appreciate and learn by dealing with the challenges we face rather than imposing them in a way that sidelines the rights of others and the public who are outside the industry and don't quiet understand what are the substantial and legitimate concerns that plague the industry, address and bring out those issues in a way that will not cause it to be confused with other broader rights. I wish every one both my dear friends in Technology and others in the Entertainment/ media industry the very best. Why argue when you have the means and the choice of being civilized enough to talk and state your concerns in a respectful, constructive and viable way. It doesn’t matter who or what you represent or what your business interests are, there is nothing you can’t achieve by putting people first above all else : )