Cottonwood Theater

They are all so amazing at such a young age. Humans. Went to Cottonwoods theater/drama program tonight. Sweet program. No, not everyone was perfect, many have several years to grow into their best but all were sincere, all were earnest and all were genuine and full of enthusiasm. And I loved it.

Once again I'm reminded about what's best about our country. God bless freedom and a system that can truly allow the many, no matter their circumstances, the opportunity to bring their best.

Loren M. Lambert © January 24, 2014

David and Jackie Siegel, the Billionnaire Cry Babies Who Support Mitt Romney.

Saw a very candid and wonderfully revealing documentary about David and Jackie Siegel--the owner of the biggest time share business, "Westgate Resorts."

The documentary started before the recession when David was riding the real estate speculation bubble. Here's the comments that were made:

"I got President George W. Bush elected," David. Question: "How?" "I'd rather not say, it was probably illegal."

David and His Son: "We sold people time shares they could not afford. . . We were addicted to easy money... We could get loans for anyone. . .The goal was to change moochers into purchasers no matter what."

They filmed the hard sell that Siegels employees used to get sells at all costs and they were ruthless.

At this time, the Siegels started to build a 90,000 square foot home patterned after Versaille, spending about 120 million in France and around the same time built the biggest building in Las Vegas, the Westgate Towers at over 300 million. These projects were financed and relied upon there continued sale of time shares--almost like a giant ponze scheme.

All the while the Siegels were living the life of the most wealthy, buzzing around in private jets, spending lavishly and buying all they laid their eyes on.

Then the recession hit--largely, as we know, brought on due to "cheap money" and people purchasing real estate they could not afford or countries like Greece securing loans for massive public projects that they could not repay. As you can imagine, all hell broke out in the Siegel Empire.

Suddenly the Siegel's had to halt further construction on their 90,000 square foot "dream home," enroll their 8 kids in private school, refrain from taking their pack of dogs to the grooming services, sell off their jets and other assets, lay off many of their servants (from 18 to 5), lay off over 6,000 employees and they defaulted on the Las Vegas Towers.

In the turmoil instead of recognizing that perhaps their business model of "selling time shares that people could not afford," feeding their addiction with cheap money and credit, spending money they did not have and becoming over leveraged is what caused the crisis, they made these statements: David, his son and Jackie, "It wasn't our choice, the banks made us lay off our employees . . . The banks cut off our credit line to finance more time share sells." Jackie, "We didn't get any of the bail out money that was suppose to be for the common people like us." (Yes she really said this--the documentary is called--"The Emperess of Versaille," check it out for yourself).

The Siegel Empire is one of the "Small Businesses" that Romney says should get a tax cut. These are the tycons that are funding Romney. This is the guy that would probably do the "illegal" to get him elected. Do you think they will expect something in return from Romney if he is elected?

Currently, David Siegel was able to unload assets and buy them back at substantially reduced prices and unload the debt. He had to sell a controlling interest in his towers and has started up construction on their 90,000 square foot "dream home."

To top it off, recently David threatened his remaining employees jobs if Pres. Obama is re-elected because he was not going to add health insurance as an employee benefit.

Now, David and Jackie–although the documentary painted a negative view of your thought process, it also showed you to be human and you to have done a lot of positive things, I would appeal to that aspect of your characters. So I ask, isn't it a better business plan to sell time shares to those who can afford them, build up equity in your many land holdings, build up cash reserves to finance sales in house, live within your means and have a dedicated and healthy workforce by providing health care and scaling back upon your need for "dream homes" that will cost more than 200 million to complete?

(PS--the Siegels currently live in a house that would be the dream house of several families simultaneously)

Loren M. Lambert © October 24, 2012

World Literacy Rates

This week they announced world literacy rates. It's funny but when education is left to the market and not publicly funded, literacy rates plummet. Countries without public education are the most backward. With all its faults, we forget what a blessing public education is and how it empowers us as a nation. It creates the meritocracy we enjoy, it does not defeat it.

Love America. It was so superb traveling. Great people, great infrastructure, great transportation system.

Loren M. Lambert © October 16, 2012

Step Into My Consultation Shower

Was at Gold's stepping out of shower about to dry off and this Russian gentleman I know started to ask me a legal question.

Now there is a time and place to ask your neighborhood attorney a legal question and it just may not be when he is dripping wet and naked. I would make an exception for some under such circumstances but I had to tell him to please call my office or at least wait until I was dressed.

I don't know, was I too harsh?

Loren M. Lambert © January 13, 2014

Wealth

Chris Martenson, of Peak Prosperity, indicates, as I have also said, that we cannot continually rely upon a consumer based economy that counts on everything always getting bigger--bigger populations, bigger homes, bigger GDP, bigger deficits, more speculation--it is unsustainable. It is not wealth. Wealth is a healthy, robust environment. Wealth is a well educated and healthy population. Money is an allusion. You all know that right. And the captains of the economy manipulate it at our expense.

We need an education and value based economy. Spend money on learning, until the day you die. Spend money on increasing the value of the things you surround yourselves with--your home, your land, your community, your state and your nation.

Loren M. Lambert © January 19, 2014

“I am”

“I am because we are,”--The African concept of ‘Ubuntu.’

Loren M. Lambert © January 18, 2013

Judges

Here's the stats on all the Judges up for retention. My own philosophy is that except for the US Supreme Court, there should also be term limits for Judges--so vote them out.

http://www.judges.utah.gov/

Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert - The most interesting part is comments by attorneys. Juries always think that their wonderful because they don't have to concern themselves with the dynamics that occur between attorneys and judges and can't tell when Judges are being coy so I don't think those scores are very helpful. When a large percentage of attorneys indicate that the particular judges are rude, dismissive, etc. it means something. Most lawyers are too afraid to ever criticize a judge, even in anonymous surveys, because contrary to popular belief, judges are as human as all of us and many of them are petty, hold grudges, and do things purposely to muck up your case if they don't like you. If a few attorneys are being critical you can guarantee there are many others just too afraid to say anything. However there are a lot of them that are really classy, extremely intelligent, wise and it is a pleasure appearing before them even when you lose because you know they have done their very best.

Comment 2: Loren M. Lambert - I'm a little partial to the idea that there is a benefit in judicial decision making when there is no political influence by the majority upon this branch of the government. This is especially true when it is the US Supreme's Court specific enumerated power to uphold the constitution against the tyrany/wishes/fashion/preferences of the majority. No other adjudicative branch has this responsibility as the ultimate arbitor of the constitution.

Loren M. Lambert © October 12, 2012

Head Coach

"So when they made me head coach, I thought heck, they're going to fire me anyway so I might as well try something different," LaVell Edwards. And that's how the passing game took off at BYU. He also said tonight, "Motivation is creating a need." Help people understand, see or feel the need to do something and they will.

Loren M. Lambert © October 12, 2012

Hello Yoga, Been A While, Know that I Love You

Past two years, with minor bilateral shoulder surgery and sciatica, other than some yoga I've done on my own, I haven't been to a yoga class. Finally went to a yoga class today. Here's what I love about yoga.

If earthworms exercised, and instead of earthworm Jim sprinting down the sidewalk for half a block to risk trampling, sun-scorch, asphalt ass-burn, Robin-depredation, dehydration, being picked up for hook duty as fish bait or wearing out all his cartilage, he simply did a plank between two rocks, he would get all the same benefits without the considerably high chance of death.

That is the same as me doing yoga rather than other workouts.

Because afterwards I feel like I just participated in same extreme, dangerous, crazy sport when the most distressing thing I had to experience was, not having my own mat and wondering who the last person was that did Child's Pose or Dying Roadkill Pose on my communal mat.

It also allows me to have that same sensation I had back in high school after a wrestling work out--the euphoria of to-the-max exercised-induced nausea.

But unlike high school wrestling--instead of a bunch of brooding, sweaty grunting men there where a few attractive females that I could pretend were admiring my warrior pose.

Lastly, even though I know competition is anathema in yoga, there is always at least some much younger well built guy whose legs were popping more than me and who was falling out of poses sooner than me.

Thank you yoga. I love you. With you all things are possible again.

Loren M. Lambert © January 14, 2013

Say No to Blasphemy Laws

The United Nations are even starting to loose their luster for me. It is astounding to me that in this day and age, allegedly rational human beings, many of them with leadership positions in the U.N. are aggressively advocating international blasphemy laws.

Why is it so difficult for the religiously and politically blinded to understand that offense is taken and not given? What is so alluring about the power gained by the pious and the politicians that comes from declaring some place, some person, some idea or some realm beyond criticism, comment or condemnation?

Something that is inherently good or genuinely divine has very few antagonists or detractors because of its inherent goodness and not because any person, group, government, Pope, Iman, etc. has sanctioned, imprisoned or condemned to death any one who would question, disrespect or blaspheme it.

Given such inherent goodness, one can simply ignore the miscreants that attempt to convince otherwise. Do not be sucked into thinking laws should be passed to protect anyone's sensibilities or propensity to engage in violence because they have been offended.

Loren M. Lambert © October 10, 2012

The Next Equal Rights Battle Ground

They use one instead of two, they have to only worry about two edges instead of four, they like half pipes instead of tobacco pipes, they shred instead of schuss, and while these others get the run, for a small fortune, of a piece of prime Utah alpine winter wonder land, they are excluded and are suing.

They demand that the U.S. forest service force Alta ski resort to allow them to take their two-edge, single board contraptions with their goofy footed or regular footed stances and shred the gnar right alongside the straight liners.

What's next? It was bad enough when they replaced those long Alf Engen wood planks and cable bindings with those short metal skis. This could open up the flood gates. Soon Tobogganers, snow-kayakers, tubbers, and unwashed bare-footed nudist will demand equal access to the slopes. Can't there be at least one place on earth were some semblance of Alf is kept sacred?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/15/idUSnMKW0Dk4Sa+1d2+MKW20140115

Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert: Actually it falls under the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, "“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Because when Snowboarding is done right, in the right setting it is not just a religion, it is more than a religion, and to prohibit it from expressing itself at the pinnacle of sublimity on Catherine's Ridge and Albion Basin is preventing it from the most exquisite experience known to man.

Loren M. Lambert © January 15, 2013

Fitness Tip for Today: When I go to the gym, I am there for one reason, to work out and only work out.

To enhance my workout, I like to learn by observation.

This is what I've noticed, all the people, with few exceptions, who exercise on the stair master with the revolving stairs that place you a couple stories above all the other exercise equipment, look really fit and exceptionally cool--this especially those that find creative ways to climb stairs-- sideways, reverse, on their butt cheeks, and on their hands.

So you want to, do it. Let the cool and fitness factor begin.

PS. Don't forget to dress appropriately for the occasion.

Loren M. Lambert © October 2, 2012

Misguided

It has been shown that the extent of a narcissist's delusion exponentially expands to the degree he or she thinks that everyone else is misguided and dumb.

Listening to Rush Limbaugh at noon, I loved hearing the panic and doubt in his voice underlying a flourish of bravado he spewed out about how smart he is and how dumb and misguided the 47% and now about 53% of the US populace is.

Loren M. Lambert © September 26, 2012

The Sleeper Effect of Governmental Aid

My good friend D. Michael Martindale stated that there is a troublesome mindset that people get when, "government is taking care of," our needs, and we get to thinking that "we don't have to worry about helping others." I think there is some truth to this.

Yet, and D. Michael you knew there would be a "yet," let me draw a few fine points upon our proclivity to nap when disaster rages about us when we think Capt. America is the proxy for our charity.

First, charity offered among associates or bestowed by strangers when there is an obvious need is more likely to be timely, specifically tailored to the scope of the problem to be re-mediated and is given to those who genuinely merit it. That is why families, churches and other private organizations are so good at efficiently providing this type of charity.

Second, random charity offered by strangers to strangers, though serving an important purpose at times, or that is given long after a compelling event, is often untimely, haphazard, inadequate or disproportionate to the actual need and is therefore inefficient and more likely to be given to many who are truly free loaders. This is why we like having (at least I do) charitable organizations to funnel our charity through so that they can access the need and deliver the assistance in a proportionate manner.

Third, many of the most needy do not belong to churches or other charitable organizations. And many that desire to provide basic charitable services are unaffiliated with charitable organizations or are suspicious of them.

Lastly, where private charity sometimes breaks down is when there are persistent, somewhat invisible, long term, chronic problems. Unfortunately, government is often best to address such problems--not because it is more efficient--but because it more easily operates in a manner that is comprehensive and does not differentiate due to color, creed, race or political affiliation. It also, through legal constraints, must do so in a transparent manner. It therefore is better equipped to deal with many long term issues like health care. For these reasons, many prefer such community wide charity to be provided by government.

Yet as D.M.M. states since too much Government involvement destroys our initiative, government programs should not displace private charitable efforts but should only provide a minimal safety net that when supplemented by the private sector creates the most humane yet dynamic and productive society as possible.

Loren M. Lambert © September 25, 2012

Do People Vote For the Presidential Candidate That Will Get Them The Most Bacon?

A few of my conservative friends are upset because they think people voted for President Obama because he's promising to steal from the rich to give to the poor; i.e. them. They further cynically think that President Obama, for the sole purpose of maintaining power, promises to rain upon them riches.

I will give them credit for recognizing a common human proclivity--to scratch the back of him or her who returns this favor and I admit that indeed it does happen. But it goes both ways.

It is naive and myopic for those same conservatives to think that conservatives and the wealthy are immune to such human corruptions. Why do the rich, some single-handedly donate up to 70 million dollars to Mitt? Do they seek influence. Do they get benefits from politicians. Yes they do. It's buried in legislation favoring the rich, in corporate pork and in the awarding of government contracts.

Fact is everybody likes bacon (vegetarian of otherwise metaphorically speaking), and if they believe that the cheapest way to get it is by voting or donating a million dollars to the candidate that can bring it home to them, then that may be the only reason they do so.

But here's the differences between Mitt and Pres. Obama. Although the realities of politics has blunted Pres. Obama's ability to achieve all of his goals and those who thought he was bringing Camelot are disappointed, he is authentic, he has stayed on track with what be believes and knows to be the best choice for all Americans, from saving the banks and Detroit (not popular with the masses) to achieving an historic reform of our health care insurance (a small part of it not popular with the conservatives, the wealthy and those that already have insurance and don't want any one else to have it--[yes this is my spin but its the correct spin--you guys just want an exclusive club of the healthy and wealthy])

Mitt is not authentic, nor sincere, he changes his position when it suits him based upon who he thinks he can get the most money from. Also, he really sincerely does not view himself as the candidate for all Americans but the candidate for the rich and for those he can bamboozle. He wants to tie the rest of us up on the roof of the Winnebago and then the Cruise liner while he and his buddies go on a wild romp off through America and straight to the Cayman Islands--he's written us off.

So I voted for the candidate who truly wants to bring home the bacon for all Americans--Pres. Obama--and not the candidate who wants to bring home the bacon for himself and a few of his millionaire donors.

Loren M. Lambert © September 24, 2012

League of Denial--Never Underestimate the Corrupting Influence of Money

Radio West re-broadcast the story about the NFL's complacency and complicity in the brain damage that the sport of football causes. Not that there was anything too surprising about it--I just always figured and assumed that the players knew and understood that you can't take a baseball bat figuratively speaking to the human head 1500 times a season and not have any affect, but they didn't.

They didn't because those put in charge of them and paid dearly to keep them in play were in denial--the team doctors. Never underestimate the power of money to corrupt--whether its politics, law, business, medicine, banking, news casting, etc. Pay people to support a position and they will find a way to do it.

I guess common core needs to add the study of the tobacco, NFL, Oil Industry experts paid to back them up so as to keep their pocket books backed up with bucks.

Loren M. Lambert © January 3, 2014

To a Relationship, Joy is Measured By the Quality of Creation.

On the program To The Best of our Knowledge, on NPR, the guest stated that we should honor the wonder of the sun as we turn under it each morning and then again as it departs from us to the shield of darkness and that , "To the universe, time is measured by the quality of creation."

That is hard for me to grasp, but I do know that often to a relationship, joy is measured by the quality of creation.

Find the joy of creativity with your love and companion. Honor him or her with the changing light when you end the day and when you greet the morning. In this there is great power.

Loren M. Lambert © January 4, 2014

In All of Our History, Charity Has Never Been Enough

While charity is the essential character that makes a nation that has been built by co-operational sacrifice, worth living in, and should be the impetus to much of our actions, it has never in the history of humanity been enough.

Charity has never built a national infrastructure, never trained a police force, never assembled an army, never saved an endangered species, never cleaned up a river, never maintained the rule of law, and never built a nation. Unfortunately, charity, which has always had a place unfettered and unrestrained by government, corporate power or peer pressure, in a modern nation it never has, never will, and never can cause a health care system built solely upon the principles of market forces alone provide access to its necessary resources in a fair, efficient and equitable manner.

All charity can do is blunt its sharp edges. In fact, charity is the antithesis of the market system. Market forces dictate that no food, water, housing, education, health care or comfort should be given to those who cannot directly pay for them regardless of the reasons for their need.

Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert - “United we stand, divided we fall,” does not mean that everyone, at all times, is going to agree on all things. Otherwise we might as well disintegrate into little Balkanized communities which appears to be the solution to every little community rift in Europe and elsewhere. Look at Catalunya, the Basque region, Czechoslovakia (no longer exists), Yugoslaviaand on and on and on. If you want examples to the other extreme where the solution has been make everybody always and at all times agree on all things, take a look at Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and other dictatorships. In America we seek a balance between competing interests, beliefs, and economic forces.

Yes there is a balance between huge nation states and sufficient geographic and economic divisions that makes sense. I wouldn't want to live in a world where one power had hegemony nor a world where every time one portion of the community had disagreements with another whether due to religion, economics, taxes, or the lack of or existence of natural resources separated off into its own little sovereignty like icebergs calving off of a glacier into the ocean. Such communities soon just melt away as the storms, tempests and calamities of the sea of time beset them.

You ask, “What right does a democratic or representative government have to tax individuals and business entities and use those taxes for programs for that nation?”

Or stated in the pejorative these questions could be formulated as follows:

“What right does a government have to steel money from its citizens and give this money to others to prosecute a war that isn't universally and unquestionably popular to all of its citizens? (i.e. the Utah war, the Spanish American war, the Civil War, the Mexican American war, the low-level conflict wars in numerous parts of the world, Vietnam, the Iraqi war, and the Afghan war– just to name a few).”

“What right does a government have to steel money from its citizens and give this money to others to prosecute laws that are not universally and unquestionably popular to all of its citizens? (environmental laws, labor laws, safety laws, drug laws, immigration laws, just to name a few).”

“What right does a government have to steel money from its citizens and give this money to others to subsidize businesses in programs that are not universally and unquestionably popular to all of its citizens?”

“What right does a government have to steel money from its citizens and give this money to others to build particular roads and bridges that are not universally and unquestionably popular to all of its citizens?”

“What right does a government have to steel money from its citizens and give this money to other governments like Israel to prop it up when this isn't universally and unquestionably popular to all of its citizens? (Yes indeed there are individuals with valid and rational opinions that think that Israel, among other nations that we support as our allies, do not always do the right thing and should stand on their own.)”

“What right does a government have to steel money from its citizens and give this money to others to administer programs such as Social Security old-age pensions, Social Security disability programs, food stamp programs, Medicaid and Medicare programs, Obama care that are not universally and unquestionably popular to all of its citizens?”

These are all legitimate questions and the answer is not that those that are against or those that are for are to be reviled but that when through the political process we deem through our chosen representatives that such endeavors are sufficiently beneficial to our nation as a whole that they are worth funding. Have we always got it right as a nation? Of course not. And the reality is that all of these questions have always had those that disagree with them. The disagreement thereon should not be pointed to as a sign of disunity or a lack of patriotism but as a process through which we become a nation that truly understands and agrees that at the end of the day when the political ruckus is over, “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.”

Loren M. Lambert © September 23, 2012

Financial Planners

Listening to one of those financial planners on the Glen Beck station. He said he has a strategy to help avoid all taxes at retirement because there are "sacred cow" tax deductions that will always be there. Isn't that what Mitt Romney is against? Isn't it the problem with any tax reform efforts--so many sacred cows that we've invited into our holy of holies? Moreover, in listening to non-aligned tax experts, they indicate that many of those "sacred cows" that really need to be sent to the knockers (not all, they say--a few really do promote a benefit to all) are promoted by conservatives.

Loren M. Lambert © September 22, 2012

Short Track Speed Skating--The Big Guns

Attended short track Olympic Trials. I know it's not, but it seems like cheating.

This is because anything can happen, sometimes they start really slow, and at the end, unlike in track and field, you can't see their faces distort as they strain toward the finish.

Yet, it was fast, real fast and it's cool to see it. Saw the team that's going to Sochi.

Loren M. Lambert © January 5, 2014

Stole this and must One up It:

A Paradoxical Quote of The Day From Ben Stein:

"Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen."

But I say:

Fathom the hypocrisy of people who claim to be the Chosen of God who require every person to prove they are healthy and a citizen before they will extend to them the opportunity to access health care." A Paradoxical Quote of the Day from Loren M. Lambert.

Comment 1: Loren M. Lambert - Charity has never built a national infrastructure, never trained a police force, never assembled an army, never saved an endangered species, never cleaned up a river, never maintained the rule of law, and never built a nation. Yes, while charity is the essential character that makes a nation that has been built by co-operational sacrifice worth living in, and should be the impetus to all our actions, it has never in the history of man been enough. May we always possess it in abundance. Unfortunately, charity, which has always had a place unfettered and unrestrained by government, corporate power or peer pressure, in a modern nation it never has, never will, and never can cause a health care system built solely upon the principles of market forces to provide access to its necessary resources in a fair, efficient and equitable manner. All charity can do is blunt its sharp edges.

Loren M. Lambert © September 21, 2012

Health Care

No matter how you cut it rationing of health care has been an ongoing issue since the very beginning. In the US there are exponentially more people needing kidney transplants than there are kidneys. It used to be that the longest on the list was the first to get the kidney. In the US they are considering changing it to who is the best fit for the available kidney as far as getting the most mileage out of it. What do you think? Any way you cut it, there are advantages and disadvantages. Should it be the highest bidder (right now it's like college sports--only the people who set up the game--the doctors and the hospital make money off the kidney). I say set up loose guidelines that take into considerations a number of factors then the rest should be set up in a lottery among those that scored highest.

Loren M. Lambert © September 20, 2012

When The Clinically Paranoid, Delusional and Ignorant Swarm

The internet is an amazing tool because it gives a voice to everyone with access.

Unfortunately, as often occurs in two party politics, those with minds that race with delusions, clinical paranoia and abject hatred can appear as a significant sounding block.

Be discerning, while the village crackpot was known and easily disregarded, a distant village crackpot can give him or herself a degree, an un-examined sales pitch and a huckster polish with just a few easy tools and they'll have the appearance of the most credible leader in your local community.

The crackpot swarm is in full fury at this time. Lot's of scams out there. Don't be bitten.

Loren M. Lambert © September 20, 2012

New AG Reyes Drops His Pants To Show His Two Mill Cojones

AG Reyes reveals what he's got. Two big ones to rent for a million each to the Utah tax payers so he can feed a small bevy of foreign lawyers to defend Utah's Defense of Marriage Law. I say, if you really have to, buy local, hire local. You will get the same result.

In fact you could have a third grader write the appeal on a napkin and it will do as well and as the recipient of the two million, she will be a better investment. Why, because the outcome is going to depend on what the current Supreme Court Justices believe right at this moment in their hearts and heads about it and they will then find the language to validate that belief regardless of the ammunition the lawyers give them.

Furthermore, my conservative friends, this is another example of taxpayer money being used against the will of many Utah tax payers. It's what occurs in a democracy. Remember? Like health care reform.

While, unlike the moderates like me, many liberals will claim the State can't do what it wants to do, I know it can, I just wish it would do so inexpensively and locally. I also wish that the conservatives would just use charity to take on this fight, just like they want charity to take on the needs of all needing health care, and spare the money for--something worthwhile--like health care.

And why not? Charity is the answer for everything conservatives don't want to spend money on. Let them show us how it is done on something we don't want them to spend money on.

Loren M. Lambert © December 30, 2013

What a beautiful day and night.

I had two hearings today, and I have to admit it that it is so emotionally draining.

The best attorneys maintain both a detached aloofness from their client's cases so they can be objective and see things from all sides, yet have some affinity for the case so they can empathize and feel the pain, the justice and the validity of the case. Easy said, hard to do.

My problem is that it really tears me up, the struggles and difficulties others must deal with--problems that are overwhelming. It's not easy to be cold and calculating in such situations.

Most of us are so blessed to have so much: security, freedom, liberty, sufficient material comforts, good health and appreciative companionship. Cherish what you have, do what you can to bring joy to others.

Loren M. Lambert © September 19, 2012