_

" One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others. " (attributed variously to Robert Heinlein & Archibald Rutledge). The idea of envy (or, covetousness) is an important subject in the Abrahamic faith traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The prohibition against covetousness rounds out the Mosaic moral code, codified as the 10th and final commandment in the Ten Commandments -- the injunction against coveting one's neighbor's property. The rationale behind this is the acknowledgement that all blessings arise from God's sovereign providence and it is not for his creation to question whom and how and when he chooses to bless. Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines covetousness as : 1. " feeling or showing a very strong desire for something that you do not have and especially for something that belongs to someone else ", or 2. " marked by inordinate desire for we...

As of April 19, 2016, we have the following ranking of some prominent technology companies, in order of revenue per employee: Company Revenue Per Employee Apple $2M Netflix $1.9M Facebook $1.37M Alphabet $1.2M Microsoft $0.79M Qualcomm $0.76M Cisco $0.68M PayPal $0.58M Intel $0.51M Juniper Networks $0.48M NetApp $0.48M EMC $0.48M Yahoo $0.47M Amazon $0.46M Adobe $0.38M Salesforce $0.35M VMWare $0.33M LinkedIn $0.32M Citrix $0.31M SAP $0.31M Oracle $0.28M eBay $0.24M IBM $0.21M It is interesting to note that these numbers are far exceeded by pharmaceuticals (e.g. Gilead, $3.2 M) and simply dwarfed by energy companies (e.g. Valero, $13 M and Philips $10 M).

Notes 1. circa 2012 : some sections of the Tea Party gradually shifted focus to and became more vocal about populist nationalism -- i.e., militaristic posturing & economic protectionism. I do not associate myself with these ideas. However, I continue to retain immense gratitude for the original movement and its current champions, Ted Cruz, Justin Amash etc., as profoundly influential in my political maturation. 2. While I am a libertarian, my Patriot and social-conservative ideological roots are influential in the following manner: (A) I am still Patriotic to the American idea (Jefferson, Madison, anti-Hamilton) and the Constitution -- not to the corrupt crony-capitalist, welfare-warfare-statist federal government that has co-opted the media and academia, and (B) I am socially conservative personally, but not polit...

Can conservatives and progressives agree on a negotiated platform based on a common commitment to some libertarian ideas? An attempt follows, in which I first identify the common core and then discuss the contentious issues and how we may negotiate toward a compromise. I. Common Ground -- The Core On all these issues, left-leaning and right-leaning libertarians have policy proposals that are the same or similar enough and may be palatable to both wings. Criminal Justice Reform decriminalize all drugs (including recreational) decriminalize prostitution decriminalize gambling reprieve all prisoners currently in for the above crimes Economic Policy NO to Corporatism, Cronyism, Corporate Subsidies, special interest kickbacks, pork, etc. -- the federal budget will not be used to subsidize any particular corporation or industry (aerospace, defense, ethanol, sugar, solar, wind, etc.) no bailouts for banks or corporations -- no more too big to fail audit the Fed reduce bu...