Jungle, Jumble, Jihad

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Ungodliness is a state of mind. There was not a time when Jesus was not aware of the holiness of his father. Faith must be a way of life. This writer must have the faith to believe that God is involved in everything. Faith is a verb, action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. Faith must be life, a way of life. I have the faith to believe that God can subtract as well as add, that in the jungle-jumble almost Jihadist actions of men, IN HIS SOVEREIGNTY, God will handle everything, including the Jihadist actions of one company toward me. "Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed" (Lamentations, 2:22).

When you speak of a man's life, you talk about impact, what he does, the resourcefulness of the individual. It has been the resourcefulness of the individual that has made this nation what it is. Most businesses started in the home. I am old enough to remember the woman who started a large clothing-sewing factory in her home. Before the time of motels, there were "tourist homes." Most beauty shops, barber shops, started in homes. Today's large hospitals started in the private individual offices of physicians or surgeons. All new testament churches were in homes, large cathedrals, houses of worship were started and built at least a thousand years after the early church. Automobile garages-dealerships started in blacksmith shops. AND, we could go on and on of how commerce, "sick care", education, specialized services of every type started on a small scale, usually in a home. Before the time of bakeries, large self service grocery stores, mothers made extra money for the family by cooking at home and selling at the curb market.

In the curse of free enterprise, capitalism, governments want control. Now, there must be a permit or a license for everything and, in the fascism-communism regulatory mentalities that afflict the brains of some human beings, large must be better, whether with a smart phone or smart electric meter, your life must be controlled. One of the greatest curses in the modern municipality, homeowner associations. A small elitist group of "supposed" neighbors who regulate and control other peoples homes, people who pay for their home, its taxes, its expenses. Then, homeowners are told what they can and cannot do. Robbing the world of the greatest business model mankind has ever known, the "mom and pop" business, the strip mall concept of small businesses now being "ERASED" by the giants of commerce. This writer has traveled through Communist China three times since the reopening of China to the west. All the stores-businesses in Communist China, Russia, Burma, are much like your local Wal-Mart... huge buildings with great piles of things. Do you miss window shopping? The extravagance of having competitive-civilized service, in any type business? Rapidly coming, just robots doing everything-going through the motions. Watch what goes on in every business enterprise around you.

This world traveler has seen the beginnings of commercial entrepreneurs in developing countries. When you go to a city like Lagos, Nigeria, you find every type of business-enterprise in small stores-offices operated by concerned owners. They want to help you, please you and, this was the American capitalism spirit of my childhood.

The salvation of the small entrepreneur has been online selling. I will not go into every aspect of online selling, just my own personal business. In online selling, just as selling from a brick and mortar building, you face problems. You have all the problems of any other type of business; buyer remorse, employee theft and often disgruntled employee sabotaging, coding and keeping up with everything, postal and government taxes-services. You have wins, might even make some profit, in spite of government, not because of it. The bureaucrat-politician has no concept of what is involved in business success. Most politicians, like Obama have never operated a lemonade stand. The CEO's of most large corporations have never earned a living... they got their positions by knowing the right people, networking at the fraternity house.

Research in England tells us that 70% of all entrepreneurs think that their failures are due to themselves, not the problems afflicted on them by government and others further up the food chain. Time is always a factor and there is not enough time for me to pursue what I want to explain here. We live one day at a time and almost, before you know it, its tomorrow.

I am a totally blind veteran, Army Medical Officer, and I have made my living by investing and still work at age 85.

I am an antiquarian book collector, thousands of rare books and many other antiques (old things). I employ local university students who help me. We sell thousands of dollars in merchandise online every year. We make much money for those licensed by government in E-commerce, such as EBay, Amazon, Etsy and many others. They assist us and get a commission of our sales. We have no quarrel with that. But, Amazon has become a monster-Jihadist, terrorizing enemy of the small business person.

Their latest business model, Fulfillment By Amazon or FBA. To do business with Amazon, you transport your entire inventory to them, where you pay storage fees, handling fees and, if anything is left from their sale efforts, you might get some results from your years of time-efforts-energy. Just think, does this make common sense? You have spent your entire life-money-efforts, collecting, listing for sale inventory which customers might wish to buy. I have over ten thousand items listed in Amazon's sales catalog. Much of the ephemera (paper products) are old documents that have been carefully chosen-purchased, kept in plastic, in climate control and, like old books-vinyl records, kept in plastic-climate control. This company wants me to forgo all my years of training in handling such merchandise. To ship, at my expense, my entire inventory to them for their perusal and disposal. "When orders are received, we will professionally pick, pack and ship the product directly to your customer. In addition, our customer service team will manage customer inquiries, refunds, and returns for your FBA orders." In other words, the new model for American commerce, as in the communist system, big brother controls your business efforts as well as controlling your life.

In the jungle of the new world order, the jumble of financial duress (recessions, etc.). Facing terrorism everyday from some new direction, you now survive in business at the whim of Jihadist competition. The American spirit of free enterprise has been shamed previously by elitists (minorities-especially blacks in business, women in business, the disabled-handicapped in business efforts). Now comes the extremes of taking away from the entrepreneur, every tradition-discipline of self worth. Doctor Benjamin Rush, physician, signer of the Constitution, said, "I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat." What would Jesus do?