God, Math, and Science

They tell me that God is not real.
He is made up and quite imaginary.
You must use thought, reason to deal
With all these things discretionary.

How could you believe so faithfully
In things like Grace and eternal life?
Where’s the proof quantitatively,
When God offers up such pain and strife?

You cannot believe in what is not there,
You imagine a Father who lives in you.
I know only reason and logic are fair,
Not granting prayers to the chosen few.

The real answers are in science and math;
I have no use for imaginary things.
Formulas work, observations break path
To all things real that reality brings.

I am a scientist; I use theorems and tests.
Cosmos to quantum, I study the facts.
I don’t believe until all my proof rests
Then I watch to see how the math reacts.

Beakers, pipettes, calibrated flasks,
Event horizons, protons accelerated,
Are the tools that we men use to unmask
Nature's creation finally adjudicated.

No Ghost, no imagined, worshiped being
The mysteries of life will be revealed.
God is a myth as believing is seeing
We expose all things that are thus concealed.

------------------------------------------------------

After listening way too long to this rant,
“Ah,” said I.”You must be having fun.
Please explain yourself, I bet you can’t,
In your faith in the square root of minus one.

"To support the world of reason you see,

That you consider your god and hero
You plug in numbers only imagined to be

But at least my God can divide by zero."

12/22/2012

The wind blew hot across the trees,
The weather now belongs to God.
The bloody streets no longer freeze,
Plants rolled ‘cross the hardened sod.
The blood-red moon was staring down
At a world without a wrong or right
Everything’s shades of tan or brown,
Death has won its lifelong fight.

A stand of trees just out of town,
A leaf-paved path, spear-lined pits.
A stealth hiker, steps slowly down.
Money and leaves crumble into bits.
Just past a tree a thin slice of blue,
The sky was dust, the wind was dark.
Eternal salvation just out of view.
Around more curves and past his mark.

Torrential darkness the red moon hides.
Events have silenced Nature’s voice.
Vengeance moves earth on the side,
Misery cloaks a loss of choice.
She’s gotten past the hills of pain,
Walking slogs, the senses drawn.
Checks her blade, looks for rain.
A little sleep, an hour before dawn.

When the tongues of evil and the tongues of man
Become the same,
Faith refrigerates and turns to dust.
Heaven recreates balance and an invisible hand
Resets the game
All that’s ever built turns back to rust.
The ones left reveal glory and trust
Exalt the name.

Travel at the first spark of light
Under cover of fire-stripped trees.
The silent bells break the night.
She prays for hope upon her knees.
The promised land is two more miles
The earth shakes warnings under feet.
The woods crack open like a smile.
She nears the ones she's come to meet.

The clearing opens on a dead grass floor.
No gate, no guard, the wind dies down.
The grass cracks on the path to the door.
The dead dust-smell of old swirls around.
She crouches into silence of never before.
She bows to this final place she’s found.

Slowly she awakes to the lie, so profound:
There's no one left in promised town.

12/21/2012

Laughing, the ghosts in the gallows
See your streets with words of war.
As I headed down to old K Street,
To see what I was paying for,
I saw these hills full of darkness
Deceit, lies, corruption, and more.

My freedom’s locked in your hall
And I’m working for the state.
Barren streets and broken stones
A beggar works at the broken gate.
The paint upon your history’s wall
Herald stories, the lost nation’s fate.

If I could see one smiling face
Share a kiss that’s not so cold,
If I could see the seasons dawn
Or hear the river’s whisper scold,
Then I would remember God’s grace
When it was free and not yet sold.

Looking in your window’s glass
They read and store your secret mail.
They know where you’re going next
Thoughts land you in political jail.
Lurking shadows assign you a class
No one child can be allowed to fail.

The rotting stench of potential lost
Decays in every street side home.
A nation made of sacred dreams
Disintegrated, dead, parched of bone.
Its soul deleted, no matter what cost
Adrift in legacy, to aimlessly roam.

The sun peeks through in the east,
The morning air cools my brow.
Some possibilities challenge fate,
An old emotion reborn, somehow.
An ambition spark evades the Beast
Thoughts strong enough not to hate.

But the stony sky returns to gray
The clouds, extinguish any fire.
The fruits of the new idea glow,
Become apparent, a burning tire.
Potential packed and put away
Doused by state-imposed desire.

Time and age leave a heavy mark.
They build up and become a cage.
But youth chains itself to the ground,
Denying Nature, defiled by rage.
Nothing to lose, the future’s dark.
They redact the facts, burn the page.

A dusty graveyard of broken dreams
Broken lives, families out of touch.
The hollow train mourns down the track.
Stars, planets age, I’ve seen too much.
We can’t walk alone again, it seems.
You see they own the public crutch.

The cloak of empathy hides the feast.
The lies are truth believed in hope.
Gifts and tongues of deception stares
Straight through the ashes of your soul
Of emptiness, barren, just as the Beast
Smiles as you accept his coil of rope.

My Fiscal Cliff Solution - Tax Edition

Let the Payroll Tax Cut expire.

Delete the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Make the tax cuts from the 2009 Stimulus permanent.

Make the 100% expensing of business purchases permanent.

Increase the R&D Tax Credit to 25% of 100% of the last three year's average.


Bush Tax Cuts - If they Expire and the Alternative

The child tax credit will be reduced from $1000 to $500.  Increase it to $1500.

The 10% income tax rate will expire.  Keep it and add a 1%, a 2.5%, and a 5% bracket.

Dividend tax rate will increase.  Remove all taxes on dividends and interest.

Marriage penalty reduction will expire.  Make it permanent.

Employer-provided child care credit will be reduced.  Maintain as is.

Adoption tax credit will be reduced.  Maintain as is.

Dependent care tax credit will be reduced.  Maintain as is.

Tax on bonds for school construction will be increased.  Maintain lower rate.

Tax on scholarships will be reinstated.  Wipe this from the history books.

Student loan interest deduction will decrease.  Maintain this.

Employer provided education assistance will decrease.  Maintain this.

Highest rate going from 35% to 42%.  For $1 million and above.

The 25% bracket will increase to 28%.  Reduce to 20%.

The 33% bracket will increase to 36%.  Keep it at 33%.


Proposed New Taxes

Capping itemized deductions.   No cap needed.

Capital gains tax from 15% to 20%.  Reduce it to 0.0%.

Millionaire tax.   See the Bush Tax Cuts above.

Spectrum Tax - a tax on mobile phone and other devices users.  Time to start this one.

Capital gains earned by managers of investing partnerships increased to their ordinary income rate.  This is punitive and stupid.

Airplane Tax Hike - depreciable life of aircraft to be extended from 7 to 12 years.  Decrease it to 5 years.

Ten additional tax increases on selected energy companies.  Remove all subsidies, loan guarantees, and credits. Tax the energy industry in all its facets the same as any other industry.