The idea of karma is a strong one. If you win this lottery, you have to be in a big hole with Vishnu. I am someone who would like to think the better part of life is in front of me. The ideas of change and opportunity linger right behind the next day. But if I win this bloated money pile, then I just about had all the luck I am going to get in this life time. And I almost certainly insure that I am coming back as a fly. Perhaps even a maggot that does not even make it as a fly status.

Other people certainly need the money more than I do. In fact, as a middle class American, all the trappings of a life style billions in the world will never know surround me. When I woke up this morning, my daughter, as she attacked my phone with abandon looking for a game to play, berated me that I did not have a lottery ticket. Even at the age of nine, a child who has never longed for food or medicine or clothes or shelter, wants what all the millions could give her. When I asked her what she would do with the money when we won tonight, she eagerly shouted out a swimming pool and a snow cone machine. As I sipped my coffee next to her a few minutes later, I timidly admitted that I did not know what I would do with it.

That is the final nail in the preverbal coffin. I do not want to know what my personality or life would become if I had every option afforded to me. I do not know if I would be generous enough to give most of it away. I do not know if I would still enjoy today’s 5-mile run and cutting the grass. I do not know if I would enjoy the water ice and watching my son play t ball in the same way with 600 million weighing down my shorts and my conscience. I do not know if would be angrier or if my kids would be happier. The 2 dollars is just too great a gamble to risk everything I enjoy about life.

So for this American, there will be no long lines and visions of popping champagne in my day. There will be no waiting up until 11 to hug my loved ones unusually tight before we go to bed. I have already won the lottery. But if no one wins tonight, it is said that the next game will be over 1 Billion dollars, and I may certainly change my ideas. Everyone has a number.

Michael J Shay is the author of What Baseball Teaches: A Poetic Odyssey into the 2008 World Series Champions: Philadelphia Phillies and Thirst. You can follow him on facebook and on twitter at @michaeljshay1

Michael Coard’s reaction to Philly Mag’s article questions the race attack says it all. There is more to this city than Huber’s feeble attempt to rationalize his fears for his son living in a “bad” neighborhood. The underlining question of Huber is racist: how can people live this way? Guess what Huber, people can live anyway they choose. Just because you gave your son an opportunity for higher education and he choose to attend Temple, where the education is state/federal subsidized and the rents are low, doesn’t mean he gets a safe, idyllic pasture for him to binge drink and study engineering.

First rule in Philadelphia: Be aware of your surroundings. Your son could live with you and take Septa each day to school instead of moving him to Diamond Street. Did you think because you moved in and because it is near Temple that the nightly news, crime statistics, and blight are just embellishments of media? This is a dangerous town in any neighborhood if you do not know where you are going or if you are new. Each neighborhood has its own rules and paradigm for acceptable behavior. Just because behaviors or ways of existing disturb your suburban taste, does not mean it should change or is inherently evil.

The article is a regurgitation of every gentrifying couple and prospecting proprietor in Philly’s history. We have come here to save you from yourselves. The neighborhoods are not yours. You are newcomers and as newcomers, there is a hazing period, adjustment period, and a process of learning the new rules of social interaction. For whatever is the stimulus for moving to a blighted or poor neighborhood, moving into a place where you are an outsider because of race, religion, money or lifestyle, doesn’t mean your way of life, just because you were reared this way, makes  it is the new social norm. Each neighborhood has its own social norms, and you would be wise to be aware of them before you move your children in.

Philadelphia is not a racist town. White people do not hate black people. Black people do not hate white people. We have poverty and as Coard’s suggests, our economic and racial history is dismal in alleviating our distrust. We lost our jobs and our minds in the 70s and 80s, and our reputation still suffers. But we have always been one people sharing a place. We are a city of neighborhoods; each with its character, history, violence, and change. It has taken me years to understand that there is nothing wrong with living in a white, black or Asian community, just as there is nothing inherently great about living in a diverse neighborhood. We live in neighborhoods based on our paychecks. But because you move in, it doesn’t mean you disregard the culture and rules, or you instantly become part of the historical and cultural fabric.

Huber is wrong. We are much more than black and white. This town has always been about diversity. We have always had bad neighborhoods. We have always done things a little different in the row homes. We have always been wary of outsiders. We are also very sensitive of others motives, especially when we perceive their sense of superiority. This is the character of a Philadelphian. It is nice that white people feel free to move around the city, but know the rules. I am sorry if people feel a little frightened or intimated when you move to a new place. But don’t ever blame the people who live there.

We are not a racist town, unless you blame race for our differences. Look a little deeper, and you will find our differences are the dynamic you search for and will enrich a life when people move to a city. Looking at the world in black and white is the same as seeing a topic only in right and wrong.  Neither framework work in this town.

Michael J Shay is the author of What Baseball Teaches: A Poetic Odyssey into the 2008 World Series Champions: Philadelphia Phillies and Thirst. You can follow him on facebook and on twitter at @michaeljshay1   

There are many theories about what prompts a person to engage in criminal activities. For example, a lot of people debate whether it’s nature or nurture that fosters criminal behavior. What are some factors that correspond with an increase in illegal activity? Studies have found steady trends, and here are just a handful of them.

1.) The Media

It has been largely argued for quite some time now that people who watch a lot of violence on TV or play violent video games are more likely to exhibit that behavior in real life. In fact, there have been cases of young children who have played gruesome video games and then have apparently gone out and behaved in the same manner.

There are two sides to every story, however, and Psychology Today says that this theory is hogwash. PT argues that if a person commits a violent crime, it doesn’t matter that they previously saw a lot of violence in the media: They already had the desire to behave like that even before the exposure. Basically, they’re saying that a violent person will seek out violent media—not that violent media will make a nonviolent person violent. It’s kind of a case of arguing whether the chicken or the egg came first.

2.) What Role Does the Family Play?

The prior case of the media involved questioning nature versus nurture: Is a violent person like that naturally and on their own, or did the outside force of the media cause it?

Another outside force often called into question is the family, and how a person’s upbringing can affect their likelihood of committing crime. Talidari reports that uncontrolled punishment, as well as a lack of punishment, has been connected to an increased predisposition to crime.

Other behaviors exhibited (or not exhibited) by the parents also play a role. For example, having criminal, alcoholic, or arguing parents has been shown to make matters worse. In addition, growing up in a single-parent household has been shown to correlate to crime rates. Talidari reports from the Texas Department of Corrections (1992) that 85% of the youth population in prisons had come from fatherless homes.

3.) Does Where You Live Matter?

It has often been believed—and some studies will swear—that people living in poverty are often more likely to commit crime. It could be easy to explain, thanks to the saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.” A person with no warm clothes, no food, and no money might resort to drastic behavior to get what they need to survive.

There is also a serious stigma here, though—a negative reputation that often follows around the poor, homeless, and hungry. One has to wonder just how high criminal activity is amongst this group; and even if it is, could it be a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy (meaning that we expect them to engage in criminal activity, so they do)?

An important thing to keep in mind is that with many of these scenarios, the key words are “theories” and “trends.” These are theories and trends that have been detected. It’s not a simple case of cause and effect; so you can’t automatically assume that, for example, a person being raised by their mother is going to end up a criminal. These trends are also changing over time, going up, going down, and sometimes being eliminated entirely.

Kara Martin writes for criminal justice blogs that feature career and education advice including the best reasons for getting a criminal justice associate's degree online.

eschipul

Violence is the worst way to handle a disagreement anywhere else but in the animal kingdom. When we resort to bloodshed and killing, we devalue human life, even if it is too protect the innocent. The valuable social contract is torn to shreds and we are left with nothing but our most basest instincts of survival.

For 12,000 years, human have tried to scale back our violent natures of competition to promote a safer and more predictable world for humanity to prosper. We have built some astounding civilizations using peace and cooperation as the tools to success. Only when we allow our animal instincts to dominate our logic have we regressed, often in the name of war or greed.

Teachers are the very pinnacle of social evolution. They are humans willing to offer their knowledge and experience for others to take and prosper. Altruism is the highest form of humanity as it undermines all our selfish instincts for self-protection and preservation. When we place a gun in the hand of a teacher, our society condones violence, in one of its deadliest and quickest manners, to be the framework of conversations.  

Learning is created by opposing arguments and the ability to cipher the truth from opposing points. Very few truths are born fully developed, but they are a conglomeration of different ideas expressed, thought about, and compromised upon. The very element of all democracy must be a peaceful debate to decide what is best for all involved. Compromise in a peaceful manner is the dialogue of the classroom and rhetoric is the cornerstone of all learning in all fields.

Teachers lead by example of altruism to direct argument to understand the issues in a logical and conscientious manner. When teachers decide that the last say in any argument is with a gun, even for protection, their sacred oath is broken as defenders and protectors of a humane society built 12,000 years ago in the Middle East.

Leave the guns at home and let teachers continue to promote the best in human interaction and growth.

Matthew Straubmuller

As we head out this December to buy our gifts, maybe we can take a look at the label. Where is this token of appreciation made? A fire in Bangladesh kills 112 workers making US companies clothes. It is not being a Grinch if we require compassion in the making of the gift and not just the giving. Samsung  has been accused for having underage workers, working over 200 hours a month, producing their televisions and phones. The painful consequences of Capitalism is apparent and Americans should do and know better than to support companies that continue to remove American jobs for cheap labor and unsafe work places.

Where are your shirt, pants, and shoes made?

National

It will cost a lot of money to rebuild what Sandy has ravaged. NJ needs 30 Billion in Federal Money to be rebuilt. The number pales in comparison to the hundreds of billions New York will need. There is not an endless amount of money to rebuild, especially if the investment by American tax payers will be wiped away in the next big storm. FEMA was $18 Billion in debt before Sandy and the cost will soar. Should we be building on barrier islands in the first place? Secondly, should we insure FEMA action if they are decimated? It seems callous to decide now when so many suffer with the coming winter, but the hubris of man must make compromises. In any case, there is legislation in New Jersey that will make the beaches free to the public if they receive federal and state funds in building.

Should the government buy the properties of the barrier islands to prevent rebuilding?  

Local

The news does not get any better for the Phillies. Carlos Ruiz, the all of sudden power hitter from 2012 lineup, has tested positive for a banned substance. The catcher and MVP from the Phillies disappointing year will serve a 25 game suspension at the beginning of this season. Now I am not one for conspiracy theories, wait I am certainly one for those, but with Utley and Howard out for the beginning of last year, what were the Phillies to do? They needed a power hitter and the drugs certainly made Ruiz a different and more potent hitter. It is almost impossible to deny the link between banned substances and better play, and the motivation is just too great to deny the temptation. The penalties and shame are still too weak to make effective change in the drug use of major league players. There is certainly a link between the first story and this disappointing action of an admirable player.

Should MLB ban the player for a whole year if caught with a banned substance?

Ezra Wolfe

There is no more disappointing and contested area than Israel and Gaza. They have been shooting rockets at each other for a week and the people are living in fear. Even with Israel’s protective dome, part of the Jewish state is vulnerable. With the preparations for an Israeli ground assault complete, all of Palestine is prone. How a place that was seemingly peaceful a month ago, with just the normal barbs of frustration, has gone berserk with imminent violence, befuddles the mind. The Middle East is just passing the baton of violence across the borders and there seems no peaceful end: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Palestine.  War seems to be just one miscued rocket away.

What statement should Washington make concerning the recent developments?

National

You will be healthier without eating Twinkes and Ding Dongs, but the anti-union spin the management is blaming for liquidation is unfair and untrue. Twinkies are gone and so are the workers. I have always felt the health of unionized workers represented the health of middle class America, who do not have college degrees. Americans with college degrees only make up around 30% of the working public. But the hate rhetoric towards unions and their pledge to create fair conditions in the economy is being swallowed by most Americans, even as Washington debates on taxing the rich to create a more equitable system of funding in government. James Suroweicki said it best:  “When organized labor represented more than a third of American workers, it was easy for unions to send the message that in agitating for their own interests, union members were also helping improve conditions for workers in general.” Not today, and perhaps not ever again.

Was the demise of Hostess a result of dietary changes to the American diet?

Local

Should minimum wage have a cost of living increase each year? New Jersey politicians think it should. The Democrats are trying to push the lowest wage hourly rate to $8.50 from $7.25. While many Republicans, and even Governor Christie, will support such an increase, they are steadfast against a yearly cost of living addition. It seems that minimum wage is the worker’s social security, but it also may be a preemptive move as Obamacare comes and makes the workers and companies provide health insurance, thus decreasing take home pay. When minimum wage increases, the pay rate of all workers usually rises, and more money is released from stocks and holdings to the citizens. A mandatory state raise for all workers to cover the rising cost of living is perhaps something all America needs to examine.

Should cost of living increases being mandatory?

Courtesy of Torben Hansen

Devil 2: You talking about the NPR interview? 

Devil 3: Yeah.  It was good.

Devil 2: So, you guys in?

Devil 1: No, no way.  We can’t just let people get high.

Devil 3: But don’t people already get high?

Devil 1: Yeah, but not legally. Plus…

Devil 2: But we let them get drunk.  The one stat that was interesting was that 80% of the people that smoke and drink apparently abuse it and they’re 80% of the users.  So the question the author was asking was how do you establish regulations that prevent it from being advertised and potentially abused.

Devil 1: It already is abused.  And if it’s legal there’s no way to prevent it from being abused.

Devil 2: What’s “abused” mean though?  Honestly, there are definitely people who drink beers just on the weekends, but they’d be considered abusive, right?

Devil 4: It’s when it starts to affect your body.  Anyway, these people legalizing it are just wanting to make money off of it.  Did you read the Newsweek piece? The "Pot Baron's" article? 

Devil 2: I guess so, but there are people that drink ten to fifteen beers a week and live to 90+ without any damage to their liver.  Anyway, are you really opposed to legalizing weed, though?  I mean, what about the money?  With all the money made, you make tax revenue, right? 

Devil 1: It doesn't matter.  It’s absurd.  You're exploiting people's addictions.  We can’t be permitting more people to be getting high in front of their children or on a stoop somewhere. 

Devil 2: Getting high in front of their children?  Not everyone’s necessarily doing that, plus they’re already getting drunk, so what’s the difference?  Isn’t this at the heart of the hypocrisy? 

Devil 1: Yeah, except weed’s so much stronger and potent than alcohol.  People drink beers just to relax, not always to get drunk. 

Devil 5: That’s ridiculous!  There wouldn’t be any bars if people only drank to relax.  You’re out of your mind! 

Devil 2: Okay, so you think it’s different, but what about the tax revenue and the elimination of absurd crimes, reduction of prison population, and violent cartels? 

Devil 1: No.  The cartels aren’t really involved in selling weed. 

Devil 2: What?  I’m pretty sure the cartels still have a very strong influence in the manufacturing and sale of weed.  That’s what the article explained about the difference between California and Colorado.  California medicinal pot shops are just fronts for the cartel, which is still making a lot of money off of pot. 

Devil 6: Whatever, I just want to get high. 

Devil 4: You already can, so what’s really the big deal?

Devil 2: The big deal is she can still lose her job because of it, get arrested for it, and no one is benefiting.  It’s crazy that I can drink beers and whiskey and get crazy drunk and she can’t smoke a joint!

Devil 1: Weed is so much stronger and more dangerous than alcohol!  People don’t drunk off a beer or two, but they can get high from a few hits.

Devil 6: Not me.  I get drunk off a few beers and it takes a whole joint to get high!  You’re crazy!  I like to relax with a few hits. 

Devil 1: No, no, no!  You can’t tell me that weed isn’t worse than alcohol.

Devil 2: I think you have a very outmoded perception of pot smokers…a bunch of guys sitting around taking gravity bong hits in a filthy apartment or dorm room, listening to Grateful Dead and eating Graham Crackers. 

Devil 1: Yeah.

Devil 2: But what about the other benefits.  All the money from taxing it and keeping it safer and purer?  Plus the violent cartels are eliminated!

Devil 4: But the cartels are still going to exist.  Right?  They’re still going to sell other drugs. 

Devil 2: True, but all the money being wasted on operations against weed cartels can be better dedicated to more severe drugs. 

Devil 1: We can’t add more vices and have more kids getting drunk and high and their parents sitting around getting high.  The government can’t condone that.

Devil 7: It's because you're Catholic.

Devil 1: No, no.  It's just wrong, not because I'm Catholic. 

Devil 3: But the people voted for it.  What if the people want it?  Shouldn’t the government just allow individual states to decide based on these ballot votes? 

Devil 2: Plus the hypocrisy of saying alcohol and tobacco are okay and weed isn’t.  It’s absurd. 

Devil 1: No, it’s not the same thing.  It’s not good. 

Devil 7: This is ridiculous.  Let’s go.

Devil 6: Yeah, I want to get out of here and go home and relax.

Patrick Edmonds is a co-founder, editor, and writer for/of The Lunch Break.  His passions include Food, Arts & Entertainment, and Educational News.  You can follow Patrick Edmonds on facebook and on Twitter @patrickedmonds1. 

futureatlas.com

Will the United States have to enact a new Petraeus Act? The Military and the CIA have an uncanny smell of a Fraternity house after Homecoming weekend, and man, are the rumors of sexcapades running rampant. We have a FBI agent without a shirt, a scorned mistress threatening another potential pursuer of her man, a friend of the family who released information that destroyed a 37-year marriage, and a decorated general who kept it in his pants until he took off his fatigues. Add in an uncomfortable phone call to the President on election night revealing the treacherous liaisons a week before Congressional hearings on the Benghazi attack and the fiscal cliff does not look so steep anymore. Now if this is not a new HBO miniseries for this summer, we are really missing must see TV. My life is boring.

Is this a real issue for President Obama or a ruse to sidetrack the Benghazi attacks?

National

Wyoming did it. Colorado did it. Alaska did it. Even the hippies and Presidents have done it. Why don’t we do it? Let’s do it. Let’s legalize pot. The states keep voting, but the Federal government keeps saying no. The country is growing more diverse, more democratic, and perhaps it is opening up our collective mind to medicinal marijuana. The Federal Government has made a clear stand not to allow this drug for recreational use. There is no need to add another harmful substance to the counters of Wal-Mart, regardless of how much you could tax it. We do not need easy access to drugs that alter reality or make us high. States should regulate the growing, distribution, and use in its respective borders but only for medicinal purposes. Imagine the idea of recreational heroin, cocaine, or acid. It will never be all right to get high and drive, take care of children, or work. The government must speak loudly and swiftly to cut this in the bud.

What is your puff on legalizing recreational marijuana?   

Local

Philly went overwhelmingly for President Obama. President Obama received over 85% of the votes in Philadelphia. With only a 60% turnout for this presidential election, this belies the idea that there are seven Democrats registered for every Republican. In 13 wards, the President received 99% of the votes. Philadelphia has been a democratic stronghold my whole life and most of my father’s, but it is bothersome to see the city so one-sided. Philadelphians rarely see eye to eye on anything, and yet our politics seem to fall exclusively in the corner of one party machine. It is a diverse city with racial, economic, and social differences, and yet this does not show up in our voting. As a democrat, I have to say I am glad there is a place equal to the level of devotion to the Democratic Party as Lancaster county holds for the Republicans. However, there is a scary uniformity hinting of corruption, ignorance or fear; independence in electorate is sign a great city should contain.

Romney actually received less votes than McCain in Philly, how do you explain this?

mrsdkrebsElection 2012

For months we have heard about the contempt of Congress, the need for change in Washington, and how partisan politics have made shambles of American Democracy. Yet President Obama won comfortably and one must ask, what has happened to the demand for change?  Over 2 Billion was spent in this election just in the presidential run, and the government, including the House, Senate and White House, looks nothing different. In Pennsylvania, every incumbent, prior to Tuesday’s vote, was predicted to win back his or her position. With low US congressional approval, in fact only 1 in 5 Americans saying their doing their job, the conjecture remains if elections are even coming close to what Americans actually want. From this standpoint, the American electorate likes to complain about job performance as it struts and gestures for seismic alterations. But when it comes down to it, we vote for what is familiar for fear of change.

Were you surprised by the lack of change in the 2012 elections?

National

I heard of having respect for the dead, but placing them in elected office might be going too far. Two dead candidates won reelection in Florida and Alabama. These two men came from different parties and died weeks before yesterday’s election, yet people continued to vote for them. How is that for informed voters?  I usually like to take election year off from political discussion as I have a growing disdain for the candidates’ spitfire, circuitous ambiguity as they convince voters they are there for their benefit. Commercials are the zenith of the leap year phenomenon as they usually involve black and white, unflattering pictorials of the political rival. I wish I could sleep away election year, but I feel compelled to vote based on following the actual politics during the three years when it actually matters. This story just proves my belief that most Americans are not paying attention.

What was your favorite story of this election year?

Local

You can never beat Philly for an election controversy. This year was one of my favorite and it didn’t involve the Black Panthers, paying homeless to vote, or names off of gravestones. This year, the voters in Northeast Philly had to stare at a mural of President Obama as they placed their vote for or against him. In a move right out of Stalin’s Russian playbook, it took to 1 PM for a judge to declare that the mural might influence votes subliminally or obviously, depending how much the voters were paying attention. Next election, Benjamin Franklin Elementary promises to paint all the candidates on the wall just to make sure all voters know what the person they are voting for looks like.

Will they have internet voting in our lifetime?   

Roberto Trm

Rain seems to be falling everywhere, but no one handles rising water like Venice. Yet, like around here, Venice is experiencing its own flood. The channels seeping into St. Mark’s square as the people attend to work and children to school, is one scene I would love to look upon sipping a cappuccino at a table. With so many scenes of water devastation vivid in our minds, Venice deals with water in the most artistic manner as the people cohabitate with the element’s moods and movements. You have a feeling coasting the canals that the water would miss Venice as much as the Venetians would miss the city.

What body of water or river would you like to experience or live near?

National

How long before society breaks down? Well in New York, it takes about three days. New Yorkers are near their patience limits as they deal with the lack of food, electric, and gas. Hurricane Sandy caused lots of misery for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but with the large amount of people living on cut off islands, we are seeing how fragile our societal system is. We are the weakest of any ecosystem and as we stand in dire need for the small comforts of electricity and transportation, there is a lamentation to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s appeal to American self-reliance. The city’s frustration is palpable and even as the city begins to move all its muscular economic and cultural parts, there is something inherently weak exposed in its fabric.

If you had food, how long could you go without electric or gasoline?

Local

I hate storms, especially big nasty ones. It is not the clean up or the stress; it is the idea that I will receive a phone call saying I do not have to come to work. A phone call that says basically, you are not important enough to risk your own life. I am not an essential worker.  As I cuddle up to the fire and drink my fourth cup of coffee, I wonder what the excitement would be like. I want to drive on the blizzard roads; use a backhoe; climb a utility pole in the middle of lightening. But the fact remains, no one wants me on the streets so I sit here with my fuzzy slippers and silk pajamas and write a poem about snow or rain or floods or hurricanes and how helpless they make me feel.

Are you an essential worker?