thefoundation-wallace

Update

2012-02-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

Instead of hiding this as an update at the end of my previous post:

Cancer Group, Reversing Course, Says It Will Maintain Planned Parenthood Funding

Susan G. Komen for the Cure said on Friday it was retreating from a decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion and birth control services, and apologized for a move that thrust the breast cancer charity into a deeply politicized controversy.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

It seems more and more of public outcry is paid attention to, everywhere, even in the US...

Morality and More Siege on Planned Parenthood

2012-02-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

I clicked on my link to Southern Beale this morning to find a post titled; "Take Your Pink Ribbon And Shove It" which was the first I had read or heard of this news. For further reading click here. It seems that the excuse is that they (The Komen Foundation) cannot fund a group that is being investigated. It seems that a republican is investigating Planned Parenthood.. Hmm.. So, maybe, we should investigate all of the groups or organizations that receive funds from Komen; just to see how they hold to their policy. I know, hurtful and vindictive but still, it would be interesting. I did enjoy Southern Beale's rant and the comments to that post were interesting, too. I want to include one short one here:

John Weiss
February 1, 2012 at 12:51 am
I love women. Why do these fuckers hate them? Everyone came out of a woman. I do not understand.

(I hope that SB and John Weiss don't mind the quote here)

I would recommend, for further study of John's question, a book titled; "Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches" by Marvin Harris. This book has some very interesting insights into cultures around the world and how women have been treated and why, or, at least some theories about it. I seem to recall some city that recently tried or maybe succeeded in removing domestic violence as a crime... must look that up, later.

We live in dangerous times, when "moral values" of a few control our government. What's next? I thought of this verse: Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1: 27). Things get out of hand when the ignorant, superstitious and "religious" impose their will on all of us. They all need to study their Bibles more, especially 1 Cor. 13.

I can't think of his name.. but, he looks like he is smarter than a lot of us...

Climate Change and Messing With Mother Nature

2012-01-31T08:29:00.000-08:00

I mentioned that I was in the Fresno area for work recently and also complained a little about the air quality. It was one of the first things I noticed when I arrived while being led to the job site which was on up an amazing road that wound up the side of a very beautiful mountain with some spectacular views. I wanted photos of the views and never really got a good opportunity, but it was the view that also revealed just how much pollution was in the air. Sometimes, I could barely make out the outline of the mountains and hills around me and I could almost taste the smoke or smog in the air (imagination?). Then one day on the news I heard that Fresno has some of the highest asthma rates in the country and some of the worst air quality. I would marvel at the beauty and also the think; what a shame..

We continue to be the worlds leader in oil consumption while demanding even more oil and refineries, so we can continue to have access to cheap fuel and other products and we seem to ignore the air around us. At the same time, we are oblivious to the affect we are having on other countries, especially China, which is polluting the air to produce those products we demand. We seem convinced that more wells will solve our problems, you know, "drill, baby, drill!", but don't care to consider the reality of how much oil an entire oil platform produces in relation to how much we use or how many years it takes to finally produce oil from a platform and don't talk about the environmental impacts of that platform. Don't regulate the companies out there drilling, but don't talk about how much money governments kick in to get the wells to production phase. As an example of the time and expense; you can look into just one relatively successful Canadian oil platform; Hibernia. And, Hibernia, as far as I can see, has pumped half of its known, provable reserves. Do we understand how fast we are drinking oil in the US? Does it matter where the oxidized fuel, we are producing, goes?

One very controversial theory about air pollution has been climate change. Many over the years have rigidly denied that man can have any affect on the world's climate and others have religiously promoted the theory that man is changing our planet's climate and as a result places like Greenland are melting. I have been on the believer side of this debate over the years, but I also realize that many things could contribute to our global warming and that much of the data could be wrong or exaggerated, too. There are those who profit from proving it and those who profit from denying it or convincing the public that it is a false religion. And, there are those doomsday folks living for the end of the world.. strange, but true.

When looking into climate science many years ago, I learned that volcanoes had a very large impact on climate, of course the more volcanoes; the more impact. So, this headline:

Study Finds 50-Year Burst of Tropical Eruptions Spawned Enduring ‘Little Ice Age’

got my attention... But, this link and the video imbedded there, gave me some entertainment (humor). (Mostly because of where the video or interview is from.) It seemed to me that those who most ardently deny man caused climate change will be the ones hoping to find some way for man to intervene and cool our planet down.. yes, this is funny and sad and... scary. Here is the interview:

I would like to return to the article linked to in the above headline with this reminder:

The driver of the larger-scale shifts was the impact of increased flows of Arctic sea ice on the North Atlantic Ocean, as a news release from the American Geophysical Union, which publishes the journal, describes:

Since sea ice contains almost no salt, when it melted the surface water became less dense, preventing it from mixing with deeper North Atlantic water. Without mixing taking place, the water that flowed back to the Arctic was colder, helping sustain large areas of sea ice and creating a self-sustaining feedback loop long after the effects of the volcanic aerosols subsided…. [Read the rest.]

(I bolded for emphasis)

Do we really want to add to our mistakes by playing around with our world's climate? We know that the way out of a penalty for cheating is to cheat some more..

Some Photos

2012-01-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

I finally was able to get to some of my photos. These aren't especially great pictures because I was on the road or working and had to use my cell phone. I guess that puts them in a different category and, in some ways, more interesting.. or not.

My little camper and old Ford ready to move out of CA..

I was on this machine a little, but never felt comfortable on it and dented it a little one day in the live oaks that we maneuvered through.. I wondered if I might be fired for a little moment..

This is a view of Millerton Lake, but this photo doesn't show how big the lake is..

This is near Challis ID

These grow quite well in CA.. pretty, but stinky plants. We had to dig through a lot of them one day which gave me a pretty nice little head ache.

Sunrise from my camp site in CA.
and not sure when or where.... sorry

Traveling for Work

2012-01-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

I mentioned that I have been working away from home. I have most recently been in the Fresno, California area up in the hills, in a little town called Auberry. This is a very pretty area, but the air is very hazy with smog. The people are very friendly and seem to be very honest and generous.. I liked everything about the place except the air and the Poison Oak. Yes, I was exposed to this sneaky little plant, twice, in fact, even though I was on the look out for it. I tried all kinds of things, even a trip to the doctor, and spent a lot of time concerned about it and a lot of money trying to cure, or, at least, relieve the itch and pain. I am still afflicted some, but it is going away. Tecnu, something I learned about at James Fallows' blog was some relief and I still have it in the shower. Poison Oak added to my desire to be moved to a different area for work, and made life in a travel trailer even more challenging.

California wasn't my favorite assignment, but it wasn't any worse than any other place when one is not at home and away from family. I was in several states last year: Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Idaho and California and all of these places were fun and challenging, at times, in their own way, and I learned a lot at every town that I stayed in. I made discoveries that floored me, like oil wells in Los Angeles.. right in the middle of businesses and parks; there are oil wells pumping oil! I was amazed. And, the huge number of wind powered generators in almost every state.. I so wanted a picture of the ones just out of Bakersfield, CA, but couldn't stop to get one. And, there are hundreds of them lined up in Wyoming and more and more in Idaho. We seem to have an unbelievable need for electricity and fuel in this country and more and more of both being generated or pumped out of the ground. This takes a lot of energy in itself. Working for extended periods of time in an area, gives one a different perspective than just vacationing or sight seeing. I think I actually became a part of things for a time.. sort of. You know, people in the stores start to recognize you.

Another amazing thing; there are a lot of people working away from home in order to earn a decent living or have work at all. I wonder why this is. It seems silly to be in an area, with high unemployment, doing a job that local people should be able to do. Why can a contractor get a job in a place hundreds of miles from his main office and make money on the job with added travel expenses and the local contractors cannot get these jobs? How does this work? Why can't someone like me get decent pay working where I live? It seems that we are geared to moving things and people around in this country, like shipping oranges from California to Florida or french fries from Florida to Idaho; crazy.

I want to share some pictures, if I can find them and some more stories of traveling (I wanted to do this when I started out traveling, and "working out of town"), but for now I will leave this post with a link to this NYT's story and this paragraph from that story:

Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrative that gave the ambitious or unsatisfied reason to pack up and seek their fortune elsewhere. For the first 300 or so years of European settlement, the story was about moving outward: getting immigrants to the continent and then to the frontier to clear the prairies, drain the swamps and build new cities.

Internet and Freedom

2012-01-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

I have been in a lot of places working in the last few months and a lot of time didn't have very reliable internet. That is not why I have not posted in some time, but the lack of internet did add to my lack of input. (I have hoped for more from others if I "stayed out of it" for a while.) An amazing thing about life these days; the internet is a very important and almost indispensable part of our lives. It has become my only source for news, at times while traveling, and my only source of entertainment at other times. The internet is the vehicle that has made possible the uprisings in many countries that have toppled long standing regimes of tyranny and many of our world's governments fear it enough that they try to suppress content or block access to it. Even many leaders in the United States have attempted to limit our internet. This is out of a need to protect "free enterprise" or the government itself. There are those who believe that people need protection from freedom or maybe, free and informed people are dangerous to those in power. There has never been so much access to information to so many people or access to instant communication to all parts of the world; such a powerful tool accessible to the masses... no wonder the leaders are fearing for their lives or livelihoods..

The internet has changed or added to the ways we communicate and stay in touch with the world around us, so it is no surprise to learn that blog writing has replaced the term paper in some classrooms ("the times, they are a changin"). While I am not sure about completely abandoning the term paper; I can see the need to learn blog writing, especially those chasing a career in writing. But, for some of us, it should be illegal to have a blog (especially me). Blogs give us a picture of what others are thinking and what they believe and they give us a chance to discuss or debate issues with each other. We just wouldn't have this without the internet connecting us and perhaps would never have any social setting where this could be done. Many people still congregate at coffee shops or other public places and talk, but many in this country just don't have this sort of opportunity. We all need this social interaction in one form or another. We need close friends and perhaps we also need these opportunities to express our thoughts and opinions in a less intimate situation. I think we need to express these thoughts in order to come to a clearer understanding of what we believe and to see how it lines up with others and perhaps come to a better more refined understanding of the reality of our world, or, find others with the same delusional views.

I want to leave this post with this link to a story that is also in the NYT's from today's paper about a documentary about the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. I have read about him before and enjoy his work. Read the article if you haven't already and even some of the comments are enlightening. From the article:

I have always believed that the story of the dissident artist Ai Weiwei is not about how censorship stifles creativity, but rather how one artist is able to work around such obstacles. It’s not about the system crushing individual expression, but about the power of an individual in the face of forces greater than himself. One thing is clear — Ai Weiwei’s story could not be possible without the Internet. We cannot imagine an Ai Weiwei without the megaphone of blogs and Twitter, without the ability to communicate instantaneously and connect to like-minded netizens around China and the globe.

Ai Weiwei told me recently that he thinks the government’s decision to detain him for 81 days last year and keep him under strict bail conditions ever since is completely related to his effective use of the Internet to communicate his views and exchange ideas with others.
He told me: “If not for my use of the Internet, I would just be an artist trying to put up a canvas in a gallery or a museum, which has almost no influence for the majority of society. It’s only because I acted on the Internet that the pressure comes. It made a lot of people feel scared, because they can never really stop my influence on the netizens.”

Protests, Stikes and Picketing

2011-10-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

We all have a somewhat ignorant idea of our history, or, at least, I do. I think most Americans believe that a group of rich guys got together and formed our constitution and founded this country out of the goodness of their hearts and did it for the good of the common man, voluntarily. Where do we get this idea? I have thought on this a lot in the past, and this morning, while catching up on reading (slowly as usual), I read this post and the linked essay at RYviewpoint. The way "our American way of life" came to be was not out of a love of freedom or concern for the common man in the hearts of our "founding fathers", but more accurately came from the common men and women getting out and facing down the greedy bankers and protesting the ills and wrongs of our country and the world. From that essay linked to above, written by William Hogeland at Hysteriography:

The Tea Party, meanwhile, has taken up founding economic issues from a right-wing point of view, associating itself with the upper-middle-class Boston patriots (often mistaken for populist democrats) who led a movement against overrreaching British trade acts in the 1760′s and were important to the impulse toward American independence. I’ve written fairly extensively about where and how I think the Tea Party goes wrong on the history of the founding period. But at least they’re framing their objections to current policy, and framing the historical roots of their ideas, not mainly in cultural but in economic terms.
Like it or not, though, it is Occupy Wall Street that has the most in common, ideologically, not with those Boston merchants and their supporters but with the less well-known, less comfortably acknowledged people who, throughout the founding period, cogently proposed and vigorously agitated for an entirely different approach to finance and monetary policy than that carried forward by the famous founders. Amid horrible depressions and foreclosure crises, from the 1750′s through the 1790′s, ordinary people closed debt courts, rescued debt prisoners, waylaid process servers, boycotted foreclosure actions, etc. (More on that here and here.) They were legally barred from voting and holding office, since they didn’t have enough property, so they used their power of intimidation to pressure their legislatures for debt relief and popular monetary policies. Their few leaders in legit politics included the visionary preacher Herman Husband, the weaver William Findley, and the farmer Robert Whitehill.
They had high hopes for American independence. In the 1770′s, their “out-of-doors” collaboration with the famous elites was critical to enabling the Declaration of Independence — even though none of their names appears there (well, Benjamin Rush’s does, but by then he’d become unradicalized). Their democratic, egalitarian hopes dashed, in the 1780′s, in western Massachusetts, they marched on the state’s armory in Springfield to reverse regressive finance policies that had again plunged ordinary people into debt peonage and foreclosure while bailing out rich creditors (elites called that populist action, reductively, Shays’s Rebellion). In the 1790′s, with the Constitution in force, and Hamilton’s economics the law of a powerful new nation (partly in direct reaction to the Shays action), populists took over the militia and debt-court system throughout western Pennsylvania and western counties of neighboring states, flew their own flag, and tried to secede from the United States and form an economically egalitarian country. Hamilton dubbed that action, again in a successful effort to reduce it, the Whiskey Rebellion, and he and President Washington responded, naturally enough, by occupying western Pennsylvania with federal troops.

Right now, in our nation's financial capital there are people occupying Wall Street in protest to the financial system that has almost bankrupted our nation and concentrated our wealth at the top 1% of our population and taken wealth from the 99%. This movement has been actively organizing for some time but has not received a lot of coverage by our corporate news media.. Where has Fox News been? Even police brutality inflicted on the protestors has been ignored until recently. James Fallows has written several posts on this, starting here and last one here. So, hit those links to read his thoughts and some reader comments that he has received on these events.

(I am slow writing this.. many things to do and only home for the weekend.. so it may take another day to post this.. I only hope that I won't read it and delete it before posting)

This morning (Sunday, October 2nd), I noticed these headlines on Google News:

700 arrested after protest on NY's Brooklyn Bridge
The Associated Press - ‎19 minutes ago‎
NEW YORK (AP) - Protesters speaking out against corporate greed and other grievances were maintaining a presence in Manhattan's Financial District even after more than 700 of them were arrested during a march on the Brooklyn Bridge in a tense ...
RelatedBrooklyn Bridge »New York City Police Department »Wall Street »
Arrest of 700 Occupy Wall Protesters a Good Sign for ProtestsForbes
700 Arrested After Protest on NY's Brooklyn BridgeABC News
Your preferred source:Hundreds arrested in US protestBBC News
Highly Cited:Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn BridgeNew York Times (blog)
From New York:Photos: Occupy Wall Street: Police Net 700 Protesters on Brooklyn BridgeInternational Business Times
Wikipedia:Occupy Wall Street

These kind on things are the way our nation has grown and developed from the beginning; only by public pressure from the people have the important issues been dealt with and policy changes made. And, often those in power try to stop these protests and the resulting change that these things lead to, but there is no stopping the power that we the people have when we come together and stand against those who would destroy us and our nation..

So, that is all for now; posting before I decide it isn't written correctly or some other excuse..

Keeping The Lights On..

2011-08-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

Most republican lawmakers have vowed not to raise taxes..

I often think about various types of utilities that usually on a yearly basis raise their rates and have to justify the rate increase before the PUC. There is usually a good reason to raise rates because they usually get the increase.. hmm.    But, almost all businesses these days have to increase prices to keep up with increasing costs of doing business. We see this in our utility bills, and we feel it most at the gas pump on a more often basis, and that is the subject of this post; prices go up, and usually no one shuts their doors or stops buying electricity or fuel or even their cell phone.. (Why are we afraid that higher taxes will shut down business but not higher fuel bills or other expenses?) As an individual facing higher electricity bills; do you consider just turning it off? Or, do you consider just moving out into a cardboard box? What do you think of doing if the power bill is more than you can pay? Do you try to conserve? Do you think about just paying the old rate? Or, moving where it is cheaper?   Does the average individual or small business have any options other than to pay?   We used to have annual raises for cost of living increases, but raises in pay just increase other costs.. (the circle of life?)    So, the small business can only hope to increase prices and that the customers will continue to stay loyal, or try to get by on less profit.

How do we think the government will continue to operate on the same revenue from year to year?   Just look at the small local governments like cities who can not continue to light the street lights.   They have decided in many cases to simply shut off the power..   Can an individual do this?   We have seen many republicans try to compare individual budgets to government budgets or deficits, but can the two be compared?   We are our government..   There is no "I" in government..   We stand or fall based on our allegiance to each other.   We need to keep the lights on, but many are advocating telling the power company to just shut it off.   Where is our pride? Aren't we embarrassed by this kind of thinking? What will the neighbours think? Aren't we proud to be America?

Let's keep the lights on... even if it costs a little more money and we have to cut the pay of our lawmakers.. I am sure they are up for the sacrifice   because all of the rest of us are..   right?

Credit Ratings.. intro

2011-08-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note.. Its all over the news that one agency has lowered our credit rating..

Many are upset about this and perhaps rightly so, but if you were to make it known that you didn't see the need to pay your bills or try to live up to your commitments; what would you expect? Do you think the banks would line up to give you money? And, the people of this land have made it clear that they don't want to pay for the many things that we need to pay for as a nation.. some absolutely refuse to pay the taxes they owe and others bitch about what they do pay.. We need to raise taxes, but many have signed oaths saying they will not vote to raise taxes. There is much more to this whole deficit/credit issue than I can write about at this time or in the near future.. So, let me just ask you this, What kind of person holds out from paying into the pot when they have a wad of cash in their pocket and make more than anyone at the table?

In A Perfect World...

2011-08-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

We have been assaulted by our ludicrous debt sealing debate, and along with it, the deficit reduction requirements of our republican politicians, for far too many weeks now. I am sick to death of it and our nation is about to see the world turn because of the ideology of a few fringe fanatics. At the same time, many in our nation go blithely along without care or knowledge of what is at stake or that it is even being debated in our nation's capital. It wouldn't matter if everyone in our country was in tune to what is going on because our nations leaders don't seem to care what the people think.

What is behind all of this anyway? A religion.. Plain and simple. The politicians have been trained to sell a religion to the people.. yes, religion, and the people have swallowed the myths and are willing to bring in their sacrifices, so the gods (ghost of Reagan?) will look favourably upon them. This is no different than any past power grab by leaders to keep the people submissive and docile.

One of the basic arguments is the role of government and one of the basic arguments against government is... uhm.. you know.. corruption.   Human failings are the usual downfall of all forms of government. Can you think of a government system that is inherently evil without men making it so?   You could argue that a dictatorship is an evil man running a nation, but if that one man is kind and generous then is the government evil?   I could ask, by whose standards?   I could ask, If the people want a man to run their country then what is wrong with that form of government?   When does that government end? When the people don't want that form of government or that person running their nation.   What if the people don't want to be the government?   Most of our nation does not want to be involved in their government.. So, I would guess that they don't want to live in a democracy, but by name only.   They like to say they are free and that they live in a democracy, but they don't have time to even keep up with the basic events including what a "Debt Ceiling" is.    In today's debate, even the ones running for office don't even want to make public statements concerning their opinion about what is going on.   How can someone who wants to be president stay on the side lines?   They are campaigning for the job of running the country..   So, what kind of government do our silent non-voting citizens want?

In a perfect world; Is there a government that wouldn't work for the people?   Even a monarchy would be a good form of government, if the king listened to his people.   The ancient Israelites didn't even have a king, but instead, they had God leading their nation through his prophets..   And, when they did want a human king, he warned them of what was to come, because men are corrupted by power even when they want to do good.

This is evidenced by the ideologues arguing for free markets or free enterprise thinking that the markets will regulate themselves.. When the markets are corrupted by their influence over government officials and in effect becoming the government.   The government they claim to oppose.   They claim that more taxes will suppress their freedom to bring prosperity to the nation.. but they have money to pay for the services of government officials and lobbyists.    Corruption of the perfect system of capitalism? Really?

Can democracy be perfect, ever? The more people there are in our nation the less perfect it will be for every one because it is impossible to please anyone when compromise is the name of the game. No side or party or group will be happy.. So, it is, in our world.. We are at odds with one another and our union is in peril, especially when we don't seem to have a common enemy, except each other.

Corporate Rights and The Right

2011-06-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

We have heard a lot about the corporate person thing.. It is a shame that our right wing ideologues think that corporations should not be regulated in any way; well, they do have the money that gets the politicians elected. Anyway, I am short on time, but I thought this article from The Atlantic, by Garret Epps,was an interesting one; go check it out if you are interested in corporate person hood and their rights.. Maybe the whole issue is more of a zealot right wing interpretation of citizens united ruling.

How Much Do Americans Know About Their Own Country?

2011-06-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

A must read from Kanna: From CQ.com; What They Don't Know About The Deficit. This is a very eye opening article, I, too, recommend that you read it. So, for the purposes of this post let me just give you a little taste or two:

With Washington tied in knots over the budget deficit, pollsters lately have been trying to get a sense of exactly where voters stand on the issue. What they’re finding would not be terribly helpful to those trying to solve the problem.

Interactive Feature: Click here to view charts

That’s because many Americans’ perception of how federal spending is divvied up is just plain wrong. In fact, if their answers about the federal budget were even close to correct, slashing the deficit would be a breeze.
In a recent CNN-Opinion Research survey, 30 percent of the respondents guessed that a fifth or more of the budget goes for foreign humanitarian and development aid. The real figure is closer to six-tenths of 1 percent.
In a Bloomberg survey, 70 percent said cutting foreign aid would make a large dent in the deficit. Fewer than half said the same about cutting Medicare.
About 22 percent of the respondents, when surveyed, thought the Corporation for Public Broadcasting consumes more than a tenth of the budget. The reality is closer to a hundredth of a percent.
And about a quarter of those in the survey believed that more than 10 percent of taxpayer money pays for housing assistance for the poor. The real figure is about 1.2 percent.
At a time when the deficit is driving every debate in Washington, the fiscal intelligence of the citizenry is troubling but not surprising to experts on public opinion. Mostly, pollsters say, people are in a state of confusion on a broad variety of issues.

This is something that I have learned, to a degree, just in conversations with some of the people I know personally. And, you may know, on some level, the same thing; many people just don't have time, or just can't be bothered with the details of living in a country that is governed by the people. Most are not interested in learning how our government works or what is going on in our government today.

There are those working within our government who know how to use this ignorance to their advantage, though:

Grover Norquist, president of the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform, also illustrates how a single savvy activist, who understands government, can effectively use that knowledge to inform and mobilize voters who otherwise might stay on the sidelines.
Since Ronald Reagan was president, Norquist has made his organization a powerful force in Republican politics largely by eliciting from candidates signed pledges not to support any measure that looks like a tax increase, whatever it is called. Although the average American might not understand the intricacies of the tax code, they do understand a simple statement like that.
All but 14 sitting Republicans in the House and Senate have signed Norquist’s pledge, and he has a proven track record of mobilizing voters against anyone who breaks it. Among those he is credited with helping to defeat was President George Bush in 1992, who famously broke his “read my lips” pledge against a tax increase.
In recent months, Norquist has figured prominently in the deficit debate, feuding with some GOP senators who think he’s getting in the way of a possible compromise that would bring Republicans on board to raise the debt ceiling by Aug. 2 to avoid what Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner says would be catastrophic consequences.

And, to illustrate the flawed thinking of this anti tax group:

Norquist, in an interview, counters that he isn’t standing in the way of a deal, only of a deal that includes tax increases. “There will be a deal,” he said. “There just won’t be tax increases.” And he took issue with the suggestion that he personally is such a “potent” force. The power comes from the pledge, he says. “If I said tomorrow that we should raise taxes, it wouldn’t matter” because the pledges would still be in effect.
What the pledge does, he says, is to save voters time and effort they would have to expend studying issues to determine what a candidate stands for. “The pledge reduces the cost of being an informed citizen,” he says. Taxation “is an issue that tells you everything else you need to know about the person. If a candidate won’t raise taxes, he won’t be a spender either.”

I have bolded the key line; Tell me which politician lowered taxes and spending... No, I didn't think so.. Who's head is in the sand or is this just spin for profit? Enough of that..

Another question.. kind of along these lines.. What service could journalism do for the American voter, with this in mind? Could it be that profit and political power is more important than democracy or patriotism?

OK.. enough of that.. There is a good ending to this article:

Kohut says, in his experience, voters ultimately catch up. But it can take time. He cites George W. Bush’s proposal when he first ran for president to create personal accounts under Social Security. “When we started testing the idea of privatizing Social Security, the Bush initiative, we were getting 70 percent of the public saying they liked the idea. Once Bush wins and begins to talk about it, that 70 goes down to a 40. So you have to be very leery about asking questions about things people haven’t thought about,” Kohut says.
“Opinions do change when people get information,” he says, “and they will get the information on things they’ve not thought about when they see an opportunity, or when they feel threatened.”

I am glad the article ends on a positive note... There is more to all of this spin and biased journalism in other articles that I have read recently.. The Chris Wallace interview of Jon Stewart... For very interesting reading on this go to James Fallows' blog here and here.. I am always impressed with how fair and even handed his writing is.. He is not afraid to give opposing views reading time, too. And, here is a funny clip from the Daily Show:

The Daily Show - Fox News Channel - Fair & Balanced
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

If you can't see the video (sorry RY.. still bothers me that you can't see these)..here is a picture from one of my walks about town:

Fathers Day Music, Sort Of

2011-06-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

My wonderful family sent me a little Father's day gift box which really brightened the weekend.. A new Stephen King book and some treats were inside the box and a really nice card. I don't really warrant any attention on this day.. I should give my family gifts for letting me stay around. But, what was in the box that you couldn't see with your eyes was their love. I am being too mushy..

What I would express is my admiration and awe that I feel about my four sons; they are truly awesome, talented people. And, most of the credit for them having so much going for them is due to my wife. One of the things she taught them and continues to help with is music.. She has urged and prodded them through many piano lessons and band instruments. They all can play at least one instrument and I do love to listen to them play. So, I am thankful for their talent and for my wife teaching them and working with them and nudging them and even more forcefully urging them to practice their music. If it depended on me getting them to work at it; it wouldn't have happened.

I found this video today in a round about way. After clicking on James Fallows' (recommended reading) latest entry, I found mention of one of Volkan Orhon, one of the top double bassist in the world today. I had to find some example of his work and then after finding it decided to post it here:

These are some of my favourite instruments.. One of my sons plays cello along with other instruments.. One of them played oboe through high school, so lots of music. Learning a musical instrument gives advantages to the student and is therapeutic for many conditions later in life. I think music teachers are the greatest of all the teachers because music is such an incredible gift..

Happy Fathers Day..

Why Can't We Just Get Along?

2011-06-18T14:44:00.000-07:00

What makes human beings fight?   Even two very good friends can come to a point of being hateful enemies and wanting to kill each other; over.. what?   Married couples reach a point in their relationship that makes the relationship something new; a bitter hatred for one another or at best a terse friendship.   But, the human ability for friendship or alliance is often a temporary thing and we often shake our heads and wonder; how did it come to this?   Why do disagreements and small perceived trespasses lead to war?   It isn't necessarily cultural or language barriers that lead to wars between nations, and the real cause is not the final straw, such as the assassination of the king or the abduction of the beautiful queen. Men seem to reach a point in all relationships (almost) where there is no recourse but to go to war. Then at some point, either certain victory or uncertain truce, the war ends, and both parties rebuild their nations and set up trade agreements.    I don't think I can answer my questions here but I do want to muse through some thoughts on the subject and some things that I have read.

When we think of peace; we might go as far as to picture utopia, and the images of a world with out war or even disease come to mind.   In my youth and early adulthood, I believed in the promised millennium of Biblical prophecy: A utopian time period when Christ will rule the world and there will be utter peace even among the animals. (Isa. 11:6-7) This comes after the prophesied Armageddon and the subsequent return of Christ to stop humanity from utter destruction which leads to a little battle in itself because humanity will reject Christ as ruler. In this scenario, God will have to force man to accept their saviour. On some levels it makes sense since now at this point in our history of war, war can totally destroy life on this planet if certain weapons are implemented, and the battles pictured in those prophecies; are some pretty frightening ones.   But, this is from a book that is open to interpretation and often we interpret from our limited view of things, from our current knowledge of the world, so men often get things wrong.   Depending on the age that the interpreter lives in, the images used in the Bible can be pictured with no knowledge of things such as aircraft or missiles or human engineered viruses or even nano technology.    But, these advances and thousands of years of historical evidence, can also lead us to look at utopia in a far different light, too.   I point out, as an example, the decades of living under the threat of nuclear war; as the years have ticked by we have become accustomed to the presence of weapons capable of destroying life at the push of a button. We have grown accustomed to the idea of satellites orbiting the planet and what they are capable of doing. Utopia is more of a myth than ever before in our world, just as peace is a pipe dream for so many in so many countries. Even in this country, peace is often a four letter word and for some, it would mean the end of a way of life and/or income. Utopia is not only scorned, but the concept is virtually abhorred by many as a threat to their way of life and their freedom to destroy life.    So, "getting along" is scorned in terms like; "lets all sit by the fire and sing Kumbaya" . Its "namby-pamby" to want unity and peace and looked at as sentimentality. Utopia is looked at as people without spirit living in an artificial environment that eventually breaks down or is revolted against.   Even the Biblical millennium ends with some of the people in revolt against the ruler of that world, Jesus Christ.

Our world has many wars going on right now; mostly in the Middle East.   Those countries have seen a rise of the common man fighting the repression that makes their lives more of survival than living.   But, these internal wars cause concern by those countries who depend on the region for oil because instability could cause interruptions in the supply of this energy source that makes money for so many powerful people and on down the food chain.   Now, instead of a small country deciding its own fate there are other nations riding to the "rescue".   It is a worldwide concern that pulls in resources from many nations.   It is almost a "world war".. (oops).    The US first went to war in the region on a more noble cause, although it is not so noble if looked at from other perspectives, but still, an act of war was committed on our soil and we had to respond; didn't we?    The way we responded was what I find fault with.. We needed to go to war with intelligence and not hot headed revenge controlling us, but still going to war was the only option, right?   We headed into Afghanistan with guns ablaze with no thought of anything else.   We should have considered how we had been enticed into an enemy land and used more cunning.. Then we took prisoners and tortured them, and held them prisoner still longer. Then, we virtually abandoned our quest and ~~attacked~~ ~~interfered~~ invaded another country that had nothing to do with our original noble cause. What the.. OK, so there were people suffering under a terrible ruler and there were weapons of mass destruction (not); um.. there are weapons of mass destruction in lots of other countries and we aren't invading those, and there is suffering under vicious maniacal rulers all over the world, and we aren't invading those. What makes this different?   Now, how many countries are we militarily involved in? Five, six? All noble causes, but when does war stop being our first answer? I want to insert a few lines from the Art Of War; chapter II, (bold line):

17. Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots
    have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first. 
    Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy,
    and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours. 
    The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.

And, concerning our running into battle:

17. Thus we may know that there are five essentials
    for victory:
    (1) He will win who knows when to fight and when
        not to fight.
    (2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior
        and inferior forces.
    (3) He will win whose army is animated by the same
        spirit throughout all its ranks.
    (4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take
        the enemy unprepared.
    (5) He will win who has military capacity and is
        not interfered with by the sovereign.

18. Hence the saying:  If you know the enemy
    and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a
    hundred battles.  If you know yourself but not the enemy,
    for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. 
    If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will
    succumb in every battle.

There is more about swallowing the enemies enticements and studying all aspects of the land, weather, daylight hours, etc. in order to be victorious, but I have said enough about this, we have already been at war for years and I am just rehashing old mistakes by saying anything at all.

One of the reasons Americans are quick these days to go to war or use military force "boots on the ground" (hate that term); we don't feel or see the hell that war is.. WE don't feel any pain from it except those directly involved either part of it or with loved ones dying in battle. Americans in general don't get the concept; "War is Hell".. Let me put another little quote here from the Art Of War:

7. It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted
    with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand
    the profitable way of carrying it on.

RYviewpoint recently made a very good suggestion for the ignorant who want to be warmongers here. Everyone should be able to at least taste a little sacrifice when considering sending fellow Americans into battle, and supporting our troops is not putting stickers on your car or waving a flag. That might make one feel patriotic, but it is not supporting our troops or our nation until there is actual meaning behind the sentiment .

But, there are more than actual wars in foreign lands going on these days. We have political/ ideological wars going on right here in our country. Nasty little battles for our rights and our freedoms and even our ability to support our families and even to call ourselves American. Depending on your beliefs or what part of the country you live in: you may not be a "real American", or so some would claim. We have growing conflicts between parties, religions and even neighbours. It really isn't a new "war"; its been going on since the nation was conceived and brought forth, but it has intensified over the years. It is OK for people to accuse each other of conspiring against our nation these days.. It seems to be perfectly fine to call someone "anti American".. What does this kind of rhetoric lead to? One party uses war tactics against all of us to regain power or to do their master's bidding. There is nothing out of bounds or actually; there are very few moral standards in this battle (anything goes). The losers are once again the peasants or common men; the actual middle class and poor folks (pawns?). We have been lied to and deceived by so many for so long; who knows what the truth is? Certainly, no politician taking campaign contributions from banks and corporations and billionaires.. Who are you working for? The one who pays you and gives you the position. How does someone making $200,000 per year become a millionaire at the end of a few years in office? Does anyone care as long as "their side" is in power? Another little line from the Art of War, chapter I:

18. All warfare is based on deception.

But, how long will people spit at each other before actual war breaks out? Why do human relationships lead to fighting and then eventually heads are going to roll? It seems built into us from the earliest accounts of man to today, everywhere in the world.

I have always been interested in human behaviour, so witch hunting, and killing accused witches, has been something of interest to me.. The idea that a normal group of people would become a mob intent on killing one of their own and then continue to live together afterward is so intriguing.    This kind of savagery seems to occur in human societies quite often in one form or another, and seems to be a necessary part of the way a group of people survive as a group.   Just as war seems to be part of the way neighbouring tribes or nations have always lived or died side by side.. The way nations come and go and some seem to always have been there.    It is one of the riddles of culture in this crazy world. I have been reading a book lately titled; Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches by Marvin Harris that covers this topic very well and I do recommend it as it was recommended to me by RYviewpoint in a comment on this blog. He covers the question of whether war is a population control device built into us.. And, he cites the example of a group of tribes in the Bismarck mountains of New Guinea; a very curious cycle of war and rebuilding, but connected to the cycle of growing pigs and feasting on them about every 12 years. This account is worth buying the book for in itself because of the way it illustrates a cycle pattern of life.    The rituals of truce and war are just amazing to me.. More on topic, he cites reasons why war controls population (at least primitive hand to hand combat).   The surprising thing is that it controls, or causes to be controlled, the female population since male babies are more desirable for war.   Female infanticide has been a part of many societies around the world and this also shows the savagery of not just male dominance but the female savagery, too.   The mother who whether purposefully or unconsciously allows her girl baby to die because she needs a strong army for survival.. because people fight with each other and must always be in a state of preparation for war if not in a war. In the war going on in our country; it seems that a great deal of focus is placed on depriving women of the care they need.   In fact a major campaign has been waged against on of the major care providers, why?    I read or heard one of the republican idiots citing abortion as a reason there are not more workers available for industries and such... What the....?   Okay.. I see that at 10% unemployment, we need more workers.   Still not advocating abortion as a population control.. we need to have more wars for that.   We can just let the extra bodies die of malnourishment and poor healthcare and apparently that will mainly be women. Southern Beale posted very well about this here.    Savages!

As in those Bismarck mountains war breaks out over little trespasses that build up.   This is the way witches were often accused; little events and little trespasses or offences would build up suspicion that this person was a witch (often an older widowed lady with a nice piece of property).    But, another reason wars begin has already been seen to some degree in the unrest in the world; people are seeing that they are getting the short end of stick, and they think that the answer is in protests and basically mob rule.   The masses only take it for so long then they become agitated by the shortened supply and the inability to make enough to get by on.   As was mentioned in a comment on my last post there seems to be a point at which the earth can support no more demand.   This happens in the forests of New Guinea when things need to rejuvenate and the land is tired.   A cycle must occur or the land is depleted and more problems set in.   We also see this to a degree in the changing of political parties.. only this time there is something wrong with the way the war is being waged..   Way too much money at the top not going anywhere but to take even more from the people.. What course will this take?    Will greed take so much that it depletes the very life essence from the entire nation? or?

One thing is sure: War will become more and more dangerous and perhaps that will be the ultimate population solution.. Or, we will see the need for other ways of settling disputes and maintaining the balance in all aspects of life on this Earth..    If only the future were on a straight road.. then we could look ahead and see how it will work out. Here's hoping for the best.

Obama's Jobs Plan or War Strategy

2011-06-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

I saw the quote from president Obama today:

"Government is not - and should not be - the main engine of job-creation in this country. That's the role of the private sector"

This would be a fine sentiment if the private sector were inclined to hire people here in the United States, but we see only downsizing and reduction in work forces and moving to other countries where labor is cheap and regulation is non-existent. There is a recent post at RYviewpoint that covers this aspect of this subject quite effectively and one or two of my thoughts in the comments on that post, but the consensus among many today is that we need a WPA style jobs program; actually this conversation has been going on since Obama entered office.. And, RYviewpoint has a post or two on this subject, as well (go read his blog). What I have often thought; Obama should have approached the economic disaster as a war just as Franklin Roosevelt did upon taking office and in no mincing of words made this statement in his inaugural address:

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing great -- greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources.

I was thinking about war today and started reading "The Art Of War" by, Sun Tzu, and discovered (I'm slow) that there are many mistakes in America's way of war, but more importantly there are many things to learn from reading this classic. I want to just give you a couple of bits here:

1. Sun Tzu said:  The art of war is of vital importance
    to the State.

 2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either
    to safety or to ruin.  Hence it is a subject of inquiry
    which can on no account be neglected.

 3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant
    factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations,
    when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

 4. These are:  (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth;
    (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete
    accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him
    regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

I was intrigued by the idea that "Moral Law" would unite the people behind the leader.. We have seen our leader abandon his proclaimed morals and continue the mistreatment of prisoners.. enough said. We also have not seen anyone disciplined or even prosecuted for crimes committed against our people (crimes that caused our economic disaster in the first place). We have no discipline in our leaders and so the people are confused and don't trust their government. I wonder if we could even begin to wage war on our economic problems and hope to win.

I was also a little amused by the following statement further into the piece:

II. WAGING WAR


 1. Sun Tzu said:  In the operations of war,
    where there are in the field a thousand swift chariots,
    as many heavy chariots, and a hundred thousand
    mail-clad soldiers, with provisions enough to carry them
    a thousand li, the expenditure at home and at the front,
    including entertainment of guests, small items such as
    glue and paint, and sums spent on chariots and armor,
    will reach the total of a thousand ounces of silver per day. 
    Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.

 2. When you engage in actual fighting, if victory
    is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and
    their ardor will be damped.  If you lay siege to a town,
    you will exhaust your strength.
 3. Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources
    of the State will not be equal to the strain.

 4. Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped,
    your strength exhausted and your treasure spent,
    other chieftains will spring up to take advantage
    of your extremity.  Then no man, however wise,
    will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.

 5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war,
    cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

 6. There is no instance of a country having benefited
    from prolonged warfare.

Notice the emphasis and repetition on the cost and futility of a long drawn out war. Other than the obvious costs we are enduring in our two wars that we are engaged in; we also have a drawn out "recession" going on with people who have used up their unemployment not to mention the states that want to shorten even that meagre stop gap for those unfortunate workers. Being on unemployment for 26 weeks is demoralising enough, but how do you cope if you don't even have that to help keep you sheltered and fed? Let's look at one more line from Roosevelt's famous speech:

We must act. We must act quickly.

How can we do anything but act? (I urge you to read Roosevelt's speech if you haven't read it recently) We can't afford a protracted long drawn out war, let alone more than one of them, but we have endured years of war and the longer it goes on the more that is lost. The question arises; Who will pay for these wars? I will give you one more line from The Art Of War; Part 2 again but line 12:

12. When their substance is drained away, the peasantry
    will be afflicted by heavy exactions.

Hmm, the peasants are the ones who pay; how interesting. We already knew the answer to that question, didn't we? While our dirty politicians dither and talk; we pay and pay more.. This must be stopped or we will run out of a way to pay and we will have to sign our kids up for slavery.. Or, we can wait for our benevolent overlord corporations and billionaires to create jobs that will make it possible to pay the mortgage and buy some beans.. We might be able to get them on credit.

On The Road Again..

2011-06-01T04:11:00.000-07:00

I am headed out again (I know, I didn't tell you that I was home.) I will ride back with co-worker this morning, so this time, no adventures... probably. I have pictures from last weeks flooding but they will be here as I am going to be using a different computer while away this time ( may not get along with it) and will have to load more pictures. I hope this works out.. No promises, but I will attempt to write more often; I have just not been able to get into the mood to post very often lately.

Here is a picture for now:

Government and Taxes

2011-05-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

There are many today that believe government is evil as everyone knows, and the christian right is in the lead of this thought pattern.. We see many of these religious souls on the TV and read about them in our "news". Do we understand the progression of events that led the right to hate their very own government? Do we know why the zealots are opposed to government and at the same time want government to regulate such things as gambling, marriage and reproduction (to put it at its most basic level). Yes, they want government to decide that a woman is not in control of her body or what grows inside of it, and they want to control how we handle our money.. gambling is evil, so the government should control it. The religious right, at one time, managed to get a law passed that prohibited the sale or consumption of alcohol in the US, but was this in step with the anti-government stance that they have taken today? Should government step in and regulate who can be married? Isn't government bad?

To get a primary lesson in the history of this religious right's hatred of government; click here. (I think this is a good beginning to learning the history of our religious communities obsession with government.) From that link to an article at AlterNet excerpted from Frank Schaeffer's new book; Sex, Mom, and God: How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics -- and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway. I want to include this little taste from that article:

Ironically, at the very same time as Evangelicals like Dad and I were thrusting ourselves into bare-knuckle politics in the 1970s and 80s, we were also retreating to what amounted to virtual walled compounds. In other words we lashed out at “godless America” and demanded political change—say, the reintroduction of prayer into public schools—and yet also urged our followers to pull their ownchildren out of the public schools and homeschool them. The rejection of public schools by Evangelical Protestants was a harbinger of virtual civil war carried on by other means. Protestants had once been the public schools’ most ardent defenders.
For instance, in the 1840s when Roman Catholics asked for tax relief for their private schools, Protestants said no and stood against anything they thought might undermine the public schools that they believed were the backbone of moral virtue, community spirit, and egalitarian good citizenship.
The Evangelical’s abandonment of the country they called home (while simultaneously demanding change in that society) went far beyond alternative schools or homeschooling. In the 1970s and 1980s thousands of Christian bookstores opened, countless new Evangelical radio programs flourished, and new TV stations went on the air. Even a “Christian Yellow Pages” (a guide to Evangelical tradesmen) was published advertising “Christcentered plumbers,” accountants, and the like who “honor Jesus.”

I understand either not believing in the government of man and wanting to separate from the world or believing in the notion of making life better by teaching principles of living, but to force your beliefs on others is.. not Christian. It does not in any way adhere to the teachings of the man these people are supposed to be following. So, what would cause a Christian to believe that they should rule the world or a piece of it now in this life time? What did Jesus tell his followers to do to prepare for his return? Is it truly Christ-like to demand adherence, to what you believe, within your community or the nation? Should Christians be sneaking religion into government (the very government they believe is evil)? I know, a lot of questions, and I had in mind to go into some Bible study here and try to show how the Bible would answer these questions, but you must decide whether you believe what that book and the person who came to Earth to live and die for mankind (according to that book) says to you about how you should live as a Christian. I can't tell you how to live, but I could show you verses that are pertinent but it wouldn't really do any good and everyone must make those choices and do their own study. You must look within yourself and judge your actions and thoughts because no one can do it for you. You must get the beam out of your own eye before picking specks out of your neighbor's eye (Matt. 7:3).

I ran across an article, today while at James Fallows' site, at The Atlantic, written by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (She has written a book that I want to check out: "Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God With Politics and Losing Their Way")titled; "'Republican Virtues'? I Don't Think So". It goes quite well with this subject of government and taxes, and I urge you to read it (short read). Here are the first paragraphs to help you along and help make my point (if I actually have one):

I've been mulling over a column by David Brooks on "The Politics of Solipsism" for the past couple of weeks. What he wrote is nervy to say the least. He argues that America has lost the republican virtues on which it was founded, namely, the curbing of self-centeredness in the interest of the public good. I too am a fan of Cicero, but Brooks fails in one of the primary republican virtues by not forthrightly acknowledging that Republicans, the adherents of Ayn Rand, are the ones who have most blatantly deserted these same virtues. Self interest has center stage on their platform.
Brooks praises Truman and Eisenhower, but he fails to mention that it was President Kennedy who repeatedly challenged Americans and asked them to sacrifice. He urged us to go to the moon because it was tough, not because it was easy. And when my father, Robert Kennedy, was running for president and medical students asked him who would pay for more health care for the poor, he quickly answered, "You will."
Contrary to the Republican philosophy, summed up by Ronald Reagan, that government is the problem, John and Robert Kennedy considered politics an honorable profession and affirmed that government was the place where we "make our most solemn common decisions."

(Solipsism is an new word for me and if you are like me, I have provided a convenient link for your edification.. Sorry, but I often find that I am a little short when it comes to all the different philosophies.)

If you click on the link to the Brooks article; you will find a lot of blaring inconsistencies and even false statements about the two parties. I think that Townsend covers most of it quite well, so I won't get too involved in making any counter points. I don't really know how someone could have their head stuck so far into the sand that they could think that Democrats are the party that ran up deficits.. And, when it comes to the idea that people have always thought that debt was evil or sinful while loaning money must be virtuous... but, I seem to run off subject. Government should serve the people and the people should be doing their part in the administration of that government. Taxes are the chosen way to finance that government, so who runs up debt? Those who deprive the government of stable and adequate funds while simultaneously spending more money? Who is on your side, those who want to destroy your government or those doing their part to run your government? Yes, it is our government and I think it is time that we stopped allowing people to denigrate it by calling it evil or wasteful.. Ask your self: Why do the rich and powerful want to destroy our government? Who is living in a world that only includes themselves? And, yet the Christian right support a party that has been stealing from the American people for years and trying to destroy our government.. Tell me, what did Jesus say about those who are preying on the poor and widows? (Matt23:14) So many more scriptures that condemn those who take from the poor to increase their wealth... tsk tsk And, you want to support this kind of party? I would not go to that party; some one will get hurt.

Driving to Wyoming..

2011-05-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

I am in Wyoming again, but this time further north. I was determined that this trip would go better and consulted the maps and google, but once again the road gods had different plans. Actually, the weather god had more to do with it than the roads, and I have to once again, wonder about my intelligence. As you will notice by looking at the pictures that I will scatter through the post; I tried to drive through Yellow Stone in May.

The trip went well till I crossed into Wyoming and was immediately turned back to go around a mud slide. This back track and detour cost me a little time and frustration, but I didn't think it would destroy me or make me too late. I was driving and things were going fairly smooth, but as I got closer to the Grand Tetons, traffic was slowed because of wildlife and people taking pictures or gazing at this huge mountain range, and I did get the chance to slow down for two moose crossing the road (I had never seen moose in the wild before that I remember, but my dad and a friend were chased by a cow protecting her calf while in Alaska.) Upon reaching the Grand Teton national park, I discovered that going through this park and Yellow Stone required a pass which cost me $25.00, but I reasoned that going around the southern route would cost me time and more gas, so... Now, I was on my way into Yellow Stone and only frustrated by the slow then slower speeds.

I wish I could have been out for a Sunday afternoon drive to look at nature, but I was in a hurry and realized that I was in the wrong place to be in a rush. I did enjoy the scenery and even stopped a few times to take a picture. Some of these I snapped while driving, and when I saw the buffalo and calf in the road there was already a line of cars waiting on people to stop and photograph, so I tried a quick shot... see the blurry results above...

I drove my way through the park and after hours of driving found the road to the east entrance (which would have taken me to Cody) closed, so I found another route and upon reaching the critical junction, found it closed, too. So, I ended up getting out of the park by the north entrance and therefore going into Montana which was way off course, but with a little time and gas fixable. Some interesting scenery and mountains and country in Montana by way of the north entrance or Hi-way 89.. But, frustrating and even maddening when faced with the prospect of being very late for checkin and bed.. Still a lesson learned is better than the alternative. Live and learn or learn and live... And, really what is life for anyway?

republican Party Value?

2011-05-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

OK, I am going to point out a very humorous video that Southern Beale has posted, but the video is under some copy right law of some sort.. (another subject that many would disagree with me about) You can see this video here.. or follow the links at Southern Beale. That post is titled; "What Exactly Are Republicans Good For?" I like that title.. (I know, I screwed up some of the links, I apologize to SB). If you want to read some very good writing.. Southern Beale is a good place to go. I wish that I could embed Bill Maher's video here, but follow the links and you will not be disappointed (even if you are a fox "news" fan). Bygones..

Establishing Blame

2011-05-09T04:53:00.000-07:00

Rule number one when things go wrong: Establish blame. You have to make sure that there is someone you can blame so that someone doesn't blame you, and this has to be done as soon as possible. Our economy tanked, and now our "leaders" will blame anyone but themselves. It seems that we the people are the ones responsible.. But, who sold us on the idea that we could pay less in taxes and still have all the services and infrastructure that a great and powerful nation should have? Who keeps trying to convince the people that we need less government? What about these states that don't want to be part of the union anymore? Do they have the resources to wage war with other countries or to simply protect themselves? They can't pay the bills they have now and most of these states sure gobbled up the stimulus money they were offered.

For better writing and explanations:

The Unwisdom of Elites
By PAUL KRUGMAN (NYT)
The anatomy of a top-down disaster.

As I asked in the last post: Are the people who swallowed the con to blame, or don't you usually blame the con-man and throw him in jail? Lately we have rewarded the thieves and liars with more money and continued employment in our government, while we sit and think that we should have known better and allow them to chastise us for being so greedy.

Misery Index: Measuring Happiness?

2011-05-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

We all know the quandary that man has always faced when considering what brings us happiness and what is best for us; does money and power make you happy or challenges and hardship which make a person stronger and more in-tune to fellow man? We face this when considering the almost universal belief in a better world on the horizon or a reward when we die. Many believe that the hardships and trials of this life are what make us a better person, but at the same time believe that in the future millennium world there will be no pain or suffering, so how do those people learn and develop their character? Or, is the old belief in suffering making us better people a way to make those who are suffering from lack of resources feel like they have a reason to continue in the faith? You know; a pat on the back, so to speak, so that we feel God has blessed us, too, and that being rich doesn't necessarily mean that God loves you more. But, when you read the stories from the Bible of people like Abraham, for instance, you see a very rich man who had God's favor; why wasn't he poor and destitute, so he could grow in character? Today, we solace ourselves by thinking that those in the top 3% aren't as happy as us poor slobs trying to shuffle bills and still have a beer once in a while, but we know that money makes things grow not malnutrition. But, many, in all kinds of traditions try to understand what brings happiness and how to measure it and conversely how to measure misery.

Recently, I was introduced to the term, Misery Index by a comment on a post here, but I did not publish the comment. The Misery Index is a combination of unemployment and inflation, and I feel it is totally missing the mark when actually figuring how people feel about their lives and the economy. I feel that most people feel better when working and making even an inadequate income in high inflation compared to not working at all and no inflation. Ask yourself; who is afraid of inflation these days, and you will know why our government is making policy that is designed to prevent inflation. Ask yourself; why the recent stimulus put money in the hands of the bankers instead of the people who drive our consumer economy and you will know even more (this understanding will not bring less misery or happiness). Our government is for big business and by big business, and worker bees, especially with 9% unemployment, are a dime a dozen (deflation not inflation). But, greed is making these 3% club members forget that there is more to the body called America then just the mouth eating up all the resources; there are feet and legs and digestive systems and arms. These other parts of the system have to be taken care of or there will be problems getting to all that money piled up in the banks, and then no where to spend all that money, anyway. The government that backs up those dollars will not exist. Misery should not be measured in a country that has so much money and power. Happiness Index would be a better term; I wonder how we can have misery in such a rich nation..

Something to consider more than unemployment and inflation is the poverty level. Here is a chart of the poverty levels in our rich country:

It brought a certain amount of happiness to me to notice the time periods where poverty increased and when it decreased..(sorry about the ellipses but you can fill in the blanks, I think) Poverty in our country of billionaires and millionaires should cause some to be embarrassed and some to question their religion and others to wonder why they support the candidates that they help to elect and (ellipses). Misery loves company, I guess. But, wealth concentrated into 3% of our nation brings misery and that will lead to unrest and from there it doesn't take a history professor to know what often comes from unrest in the peasant worker bees or under Reagan's plan: peons (tinkle down). You have to ask yourself; "Am I better off now than I was five years ago?". Does it bring happiness to the average person to look around and see large numbers of fellow Americans not working? If you are a small business, it surely brings a lot of unease to see people who can't afford your services or products, so what would your happiness index be? Maybe seeing everybody lose brings you happiness (not me). Looking around and seeing affluence and pride in the faces of those people around me would bring a sense of well being and hope. You see, happiness is contagious. But, greed and avarice is not what brings happiness, so could you measure happiness by the expression of greed in a person's life? Or, are we on the wrong side of the scale again?

We do live in an economy built on consumerism and many go about their days acquiring things. Not long ago, I helped a fellow worker pack his travel trailer so he could move to the next job. In the process of preparing the trailer, a lot of things had to be moved out so they could be properly loaded back on for safe transport. This man kept referring to these possessions as "shit" and he was asking why he had so much of it.. I told him it was his gauge of success, and we laughed about that. People in this nation continually buy things that they really don't need, but think they do at the moment of purchase. I have talked many hours about this with my dad and for many years we have talked about the number of people who are in debt because of their "needs" and they have all this stuff sitting around in storage units or in the garage. But, this consumerism is what has driven our economy for many years, and many of us have our happiness tied up in the ownership of things. This is not our fault, but we all share the burden of credit payments and some of our governments debt is from those who borrowed money and found they could not make payments. Consider that many years ago we would have been in a recession or worse if every one had suddenly gone into a saving mode rather than buying. In many ways we have been on borrowed time, but why? Much of it was because we weren't living within our means and we allowed our people to be under payed, and ignored it because things were still percolating along so nicely but on "plastic" and home mortgages (for a better explanation; go to this article). Was it wrong to provide for our families the things that we should have been able to provide if payed fairly for goods and services in a rich and powerful full steam ahead supply side economy? Was it wrong to fall into the trap of believing that we could pay less taxes and everything would be fine? Or, that we would continue to be able to live on for ever in a housing bubble and that every year we would be able to make those payments? Who is at fault: the mark or the con-man? We wanted to believe..

So, how would you measure happiness? Living under crushing debt, so you can have a house and garage and storage full of things? The blank stare on your children's faces as they take their dose of drugs so they can handle the stress of ever more things to do and more tests to pass in order to get into college and run up more debt in order to qualify for a job that won't pay the college bill? Knowing that for sure your congressman is standing up for your kind of America with no handouts to those selfish retirees and poor people and don't forget the tax cuts for the rich (after all, they earned all that they have). (I know, just a little too much rant.) Wouldn't happiness be in seeing success in all walks of life? Knowing that your nation helps everyone have a chance at good food and healthcare and shelter? That no one suffers under a burden of unemployment if they are willing to work? Preaching utopia? NO, but why would we allow our people to go into debt under poverty wages with no options? Why would we allow our nation to fall into disrepair just because we don't think we should tax our people? Maybe big holes in the road, that ruin the front end and wheels on your car, make you happy, but it only serves to add to the unrest and unhappiness in most people. Why do we want our greatness to crumble to the ground? Where there is no vision the people perish.. Under very miserable circumstances, I might add.

Small Farms Coming Back?

2011-04-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

This morning I ran across a slide show titled; "A New Generation Of Farmers" at NYT's.. I am very interested in this especially in light of recent reading. Do take a look at all of the slides.. I then found the article to the slide show here. One of the interesting things is that many of the tools and equipment needed are not available for purchase except at antique sales or on Craigs List.. So, if this is a new trend there is an opportunity here for some reverse or retro innovation.. I find this a good sign and I would love to get into this new trend if I could buy an old farm or a piece of land... Raise some sort of food and some chickens and goats. Anyway I hope these people getting into this can make a living and at least survive, so good luck to them..

Big Machines..

2011-04-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

I caught this last night (barely because the news was on but I was doing more than one thing.) I didn't realize that they were pumping water and wondered where they would get all the concrete.. funny, but not funny is the disaster that is Japan's nuclear power plants.. earth quake or not... Anyway here is the video and the amazing huge machines that will go to Japan to aid in the cooling of those reactors..

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Getting By..

2011-04-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

Here was a happy headline from my news alerts from NYT's:

Economic Security Beyond Reach of Many Americans
By MOTOKO RICH (NYT)
A new study shows how much income it takes to meet basic needs without relying on public subsidies.

In reading that article you will learn this little tidbit amongst other things:

According to the report, a single worker needs an income of $30,012 a year — or just above $14 an hour — to cover basic expenses and save for retirement and emergencies. That is close to three times the 2010 national poverty level of $10,830 for a single person, and nearly twice the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
A single worker with two young children needs an annual income of $57,756, or just over $27 an hour, to attain economic stability, and a family with two working parents and two young children needs to earn $67,920 a year, or about $16 an hour per worker.

If you pay attention to costs you already know this on an intuitive level and realize that many of us are living in a time when "getting by" is out of our reach. And, I shake my head and yell when I see one more story of republicans trying to destroy yet one more union or cutting spending which seems to be only the spending that employs people.. not farm subsidies or really any sort of tax break for corporations or the higher levels of income or wealth.

Here is a post by RYviewpoint giving a little synopsis of a recent post by Paul Krugman.. explaining the reasoning behind the republican strategy for "job creation".. It makes your head spin if you have any thing inside your head other than republican/ teabagger propaganda.. people like Krugman and Robert Reich have been writing and speaking about this for some time. I have to stop there..

Kill The Union; Kill Your Future Or You Can't Have Your Cow And Eat It Too

2011-03-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a book titled; Cows, Pigs, and Witches by Marvin Harris which was recommended to me by RYviewpoint. I am enjoying the book, but right now I am slow reading it because I am either on this computer or texting my family (far more important and fun right now). I just read a book about witch hunting which had a very relevant section on unions and union strikes and I learned more about union organizing in that Witch hunting history book than I had ever known in all my study of unions.. Anyway, and this should all tie together eventually in my half hazard way, I started reading this book and never would have guessed that the first part of the book would be about Cow Worship in India.. I remember thinking the usual western thoughts about all the cows running amuck in villages and people starving..

What I have learned so far is that the situation in India is much more complicated than just a casual glance would give a person from the west. We live under the spell of petroleum and mass produced food.. It seems obvious to us that killing and eating that nasty cow would be a no brainer, but as explained in this book, it would be suicide for an Indian cow owner to butcher his cow in economic hard times or drought.. I was struck by the idea that what we would think of as common sense is as far from what should be done as one could get. You see, that cow is a means to many future opportunities once the drought is done or hard times have passed, but butchering the cow means the end of future opportunities. Yes eating the cow now would ease the situation for a moment, but then for some reason this poor farmer no longer has a cow. The American solution doesn't seem to fit, just as our chemical fertilizers don't fit other cultures.. just as our economic ways don't fit other peoples and our fast food destroys others long standing life spans. Our knee jerk response to eating the pesky cows just isn't the correct answer.

We in this country cannot point fingers at Cow worshippers in India.. We have the same situation in many of our states right now.. We have many communities that are over run with deer. The state I am currently in has deer running amuck everywhere in town and out on the roads. Why aren't we butchering deer and feeding the poor or simply dining on venison in our restaurants? Because we worship a different god; the god of the sportsman. We can't just harvest deer.. Am I stupid? Apparently I don't understand the culture..

I want to ask more questions concerning short term solutions that lead to long term destruction or the destruction of the future to feed our bellies today.. Currently, we are seeing a nation set on reducing spending.. yeah, it is the only recourse for a family that is struck with hard times or recession caused loss of income.. But, what happened to the old saying; you have to spend money to make money? You have to invest in the things you believe in and then you see the fruits of your investments. But, in todays world, it is not sound investment policy to put your money into our country.. It doesn't make sense to pay a solid wage to those who work for you if you can cheat them out of it.. But, on the other side is the workers who don't see the importance of investing in the company that is feeding them and theirs.. We have a very shortsighted population in this country that is set to kill that only thing they have for the future of their household or farm or business or.. country. Destroy the workers who provide the work that makes all the big wheels turn because there are bad times and budgets are tight.. and we have to balance the budget! I mean we have to cut spending, so sacrifice those pesky government workers and public workers and I mean all of them even the firefighters and police.. It only makes sense; we can't afford to pay them the obscene wages that they are subsisting on.. Stop sacrificing our children at the alter of union labor; right? Wrong; we are destroying the future of our children being able to earn a decent living. We are sacrificing the future of our children and even ourselves at the alter of big business capitalism. We are throwing away our home or if you were in India; your farm. I hope that steak is worth it..

Traveling..

2011-03-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

I am out of town, right now, working on a project with a pretty good crew. It is hard to leave home especially if you are not sure of the duration of time required. And, I started missing my family and home before I left. But, I can talk and write to them instantly and even share photos, so it's almost like being there.. not.

I had a very long and frustrating trip to get here.. I knew right away that I had failed to plan and I had failed to navigate the route diligently enough, so the main frustration was my lack of preparation and learning the route closely enough: I didn't do my homework and it cost me a lot of time and made me feel silly and frustrated, but also could have been disastrous. A result of my getting lost led me to take a route that put me on a pass with a lot of snow drifts which became very treacherous. But, I also got to see a lot of beautiful night time scenery and a very pretty moon at one point. A lot of the time it was very peaceful and smooth except for me yelling at myself.

One amazing thing was the amount of deer and what looked to me like big white rabbits... uh, yeah white rabbits; could have been the lighting. But the deer at night on such a fast road made me nervous and some of them were a hazard because their carcasses were in the road.. such carnage on our roads. I know one of them had to have gotten a few whiskers taken off when I flew by. But, today right in town was a fairly large herd holding up traffic. I wanted to get pictures but I couldn't get my phone out in time.

Working here is a big change; there is not the amount of traffic that I am used to. I had to walk across the little road we were working on and I would stand at the edge looking at an empty road and not know what to do for a moment.

I am going to close with a picture of the machine that I ran today... It has a rock hammer attached which runs like a jackhammer but with hydraulic fluid. You have probably watched one work at one point or another, but I may get more shots or a video.. I want to get out and take pictures of the country and there is a museum of dinosaurs here. All kinds of cool stuff..

War And Fear

2011-03-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

I read this little quote from Helen Keller this morning in a Truth Out email:

Congress is not preparing to defend the people of the United States. It is planning to protect the capital of American speculators and investors.... Incidentally this preparation will benefit the manufacturers of munitions and war machines.... Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction!

-Helen Keller at Carnegie Hall January 5, 1916

It seems like we are at war in every aspect of our lives. We have to fight our own governments for our basic rights and we have to fight with just about anyone we deal with to get what we pay for or to get payed for what we do. Our pay is on the line, but not the utilities or the oil companies or even the phone and cable companies. We pull up to the pump and pay the price; there is no negotiation or even a complaint form.. We get our power bill and we have no recourse but to pay (you can't send them half and say that is all you are willing to pay..) or else.

Meanwhile our government has waged wars against all kinds of enemies.. Drugs, poverty, terror, to name a few, have pretty much defeated us. Plus we have two actual wars going on and we seem to be in a standoff on those fronts as well. Why are we at war? Why are we being drained of our resources for wars? And, why are we afraid of almost everything? And, why are our great bankers and geniuses of finance afraid to invest in American enterprise and infrastructure and education? They are such fearful delicate creatures.. If you raise their taxes; they quit trying to make a living.. If any little thing in the world happens; they get all scared and sell their stocks and stuff their money under a mattress. Mattress factory stocks should go up all the time; safe investments.. secure and comfortable at the same time. We are a nation of fearful homebodies so unlike our pioneering and immigrant forefathers. You can see this in our security theater in the airports.. We are being pacified by a fake security system so we will continue to travel on airplanes. We are allowing our freedom to be stepped on so we feel all secure and safe from the terrorist; just look at what is being done all around this country in the name of security or war on terror; a war we are afraid to fight or win. This is how the west was won..

I can't say that current fear of Muslims is different from how we have treated various people and ideas in the past. We don't have to look far to see similar attacks on groups of people. Fear has ruled over sanity many times. (For another, better post on the victory of fear over sanity look here.) One such attack caused by fear was in the early 19th century involving the Freemasons , but there are many instances of fearful people taking the rights of others just so they could feel more secure.. Our wars have been very costly to us both in the loss of lives and freedom and in the loss of something less tenable but far more precious. So many atrocities (read this from Tomdispatch) are committed so that we can cling to our consumerism or what we refer to as "our way of life" and so we can feel secure and we are fine with it; after all it is not my kid or spouse out risking his life or sanity in a foreign land or my kids being killed accidentally by an invading army. It is not us being investigated or targeted for investigation to see if any of us have been radicalized. We have to root these things out. Our nation is under attack and it will be the end of it if we aren't careful or so we are told by the wild eyed republican hiding under his mattress.. repent, the end is near. Maybe it is, but not for the reasons that the right says and if it is then it won't do any good to hide or lay down and give up; we have to keep on living like we know every moment is ours to live.

Speaking of fear, why is the left so easily shaken by anything that the right wing crazies throw at them? A little edited video and heads roll.. One statement taken out of context and a hardworking defender of down and out Americans is forced to resign. We see these fearful people shaking in their boots every time one of these right wing puppets points a finger their way. Where is our spirit? Courage? Self Respect? Why don't we believe in our point of view and our message? Say socialism and we hide our beliefs in shame. What is wrong with caring about our country and wanting equality and a safety net for those struck with calamity and devastation caused by the republicans and wall street bankers? What is wrong with a news organization that is not driven by profit or corporate interests? I don't trust corporate profits and I don't worship at the alter of capitalism where so many have been sacrificed to appease the god. In other words to preserve their way of life. Let's be heros in an army of construction..

Update on 3/16: I want to give you this clip from Hardball With Chris Matthews that I listened to yesterday and thought would sum up things a little better for this post... I don't know if this post makes sense to anyone.. I may not have expressed myself clearly or coherently, but here is the clip:

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Rachel Maddow Gives Us a History Lesson Again

2011-03-10T07:47:00.000-08:00

I was sent this link by Kanna and I appreciated it because I didn't get to watch when it aired and didn't get it recorded. Maddow has given us several history lessons on Wisconsin and I recommend looking them up and viewing those episodes. I was bummed to read news last night that the republicans in Wisconsin used a round about to get their union busting bill through which goes to show what their real intent has been all along and what the republicans are about all across the country. I want to assure everyone that may come across this little post that the republicans nor anyone else can take our rights away if we don't let them. What are they going to do, shoot us? Starve us out? Oh, wait, they have been trying to do that already.. Anyway, here is the video from The Rachel Maddow Show:

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Jobs For The Future

2011-03-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

I have been reading a lot of job postings at various outlets lately... I look at these for people who are out of work and out of curiosity (kind of like looking at want ads). Anyway, uh-hmm... I have been amazed at the requirements for many of these jobs. Here is an example (not the best one that I can remember):

The duties of this position include but are not limited to:

Street Maintenance
Cleaning storm drains, patching with asphalt and concrete, sweeping, working with pick and shovel, and hauling and dumping road and building materials.
Traffic Operations
Driving steel sign bases with a sledge hammer, setting up traffic cones, signs, and barricades, using air-less painting equipment, using and moving pavement marking stencils.

Applicant must be able to perform strenuous manual labor and heavy lifting in various environments including outdoors and in all weather conditions.  Must be able to maintain composure under challenging working conditions.  Knowledge of city streets and previous experience in street maintenance and/or traffic operations preferred.  Must be available to work four ten-hour days per week and nights as scheduled.

Requires ability to perform vehicle servicing, operate a single and tandem axle dump truck and use various hand and power tools.  Experience with air-less paint equipment, work zone traffic control, maintaining painting equipment, installing and maintaining traffic control devices is also beneficial.

Must have a valid Idaho Driver’s License, a good driving record, and own transportation to and from work.
Prefer Class B CDL with air brakes endorsement or ability to obtain within 30 days.  Subject to City’s drug testing program.

Now this would seem reasonable to me if the job paid about $18. per hr.. But, these guys can get away with paying: Class B CDL:$10.45/hour, without CDL $5.59/hour

There are a lot of high school kids that wouldn't work for that wage and anyone who does is living with his parents or a lot of room mates. That doesn't address the idea that anyone with the experience required here in this add should have to work for that kind of pay..

I often think of the kind of workers that would be available if people were hiring from a union hall; trained journeymen and in training apprentices would be sent out with no more than a phone call to the hall and there would be no need to administrate a health plan or retirement plan.. That seems like a win win to me, but I often think out side of the box. I guess in the real world, employers like to have to put ads in the papers or pay to have them listed on job websites and then interview countless people only to find out that the guy you hired doesn't know what a jackhammer looks like or what the funny paint on the ground is for.

On the other hand, we have lost our skilled labor force, because employers are unwilling to train and there is no union to train people. This leaves people who are unprepared and unsafe to do the work. To me this looks like a lose -lose for all of us.

Playing With Fire

2011-03-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

After my last post on my logging days, memories of that part of my life and its many chapters came back to me a little more and I remembered another moment...

One cold snowy day.. (I like this beginning already), we were doing the logging thing, and I was keeping a fire going to keep warm by and the operators would stop and warm up occasionally, too. The warming fire was usually started with a little saw gas and some pitchy dry wood, but sometimes the fire wouldn't keep itself going very well and we would throw gas on it from the gas jug (plastic bottle in those days). This little trick was pretty easy to do if you were careful to just dash the gas real quick and keep the fire from following the gas to the jug, but on occasion it would light the jug on fire and that was no problem if you quickly smothered the fire with your hand.. no air no fire. (Kids, don't try this at home!) On this day, I had a fire going and had to keep throwing gas on it hoping the wood would burn on its own with enough heat, but this was one of those days and soon I had a gas jug on fire which I tried to smother... This little trick did not work and my glove caught on fire, so I put the jug down and put out the glove, but then I had a runaway fire on my gas jug. I then got a little angry at this and kicked the jug which caused fire to go everywhere including my pants legs which I began to pat out but unsuccessfully. During all this time, I never once became panicked or realized that I was in danger and I don't know if I would have got the fire put out before it became a disaster or not because about that time, an operator happened to come into the landing. He immediately jumped off his skidder and practically ripped off his leather jacket and threw it around my legs to smother the fire. He then chastised me a little for causing him to break the zipper on his jacket. I still felt that I had it under control, but later looking back on it, I don't really think I knew how much danger I was in.

That operator was a Navajo, his first name was Joe (I think).. What is important about him is the things he told me about himself later as we got to know each other a little better. When he first came to work with us he was on the DT's. He told me many months later that he was hearing voices and seeing all kinds of animals talking to him, but these animals were in very bright colors, and they kept telling him to have a drink. He said that he had been drunk for several weeks before this happened to him. I could not believe that someone could live through being on a drunk for weeks at a time. He had been a Peyote "dealer" before he was caught with alcohol which is strictly forbidden especially if you want to have a Peyote license. Peyote is for religious observance only.. I don't remember details of stories that he told me about Peyote ritual, but I thought it was interesting that they were so strict about alcohol on the reservation and there seemed to be no tolerance when it came to mixing it with the religion..

He worked with us for many months and then I think he fell off the wagon again because he simply quit showing up for work one day after such a long run of being on time and reliable and a good operator. Plus, I enjoyed his stories and insights even though I can't remember much of them right now..

I know I was more careful with fire and gas after that day. And, I know I should say something about lessons learned about other chemicals that can be just as deadly and flammable, but I don't think I need to. Sometimes things get out of hand... When you play with fire.

Have fun

Reading List

2011-03-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

I read James Fallows' blog fairly often and get the RSS feed in email, so I notice his blog everyday. Recently he has had guest bloggers filling in for him and I have found these to be very interesting and even edifying. This last week one of them, Debra Fallows has posted about her interest which is linguistics. I wanted to draw attention to her posts (more here and here and here) and writing and her blog and to note that I added it to my reading list on this blog. Also, if you have missed reading, for some reason, the guest bloggers on James Fallows, then I do recommend a little catch up for you... It will be worth it. There you will find a wide range of subjects and some very good reading..

Have fun....

Close Calls

2011-03-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

I mentioned "close calls" in my last post about my logging days.. For no other purpose than to tell the tales, thus keeping my word; here goes..

During my time as landing man (I did move up the ladder and operate skidders and dozer later), there would be the need to ride on a machine to move from one place to another. On one of these occasions, I was riding on a D-6 while there was a little more confusion about where we were moving to than usual and in passing a rubber tired skidder the operators decided to stop and discuss strategy. Now, this was winter and the skidders had had their tires chained up so they could get around in the snow easier. These chains were very aggressive affairs with big cleats about 10" in diameter in all the cross sections of the chains. When the machines pulled side by side and shut off the engines; I jumped off the cat and down between the tires of the skidder (these tires were about head high at the top of the tire), while the two operators talked about what to do next. After a little chit chat and a couple of exchanges of insults the skidder abruptly started up the motor and took off.. I found myself running as fast as I could to stay ahead of the wheel which was moving very fast while the cleats of the chains were trying to catch me as they rubbed on my coat. At the same time, the cat skinner was yelling as loud as he could for the other operator to stop. I had no way of escape till the tires cleared the end of the cat, so when that was reached, I dodged out past the tracks to safety, and at the same time the skidder stopped to see why the other operator was yelling. Well, of course there was some more yelling and cursing, but I was just happy that I was not mashed into the ground or flopping on a tire and chain combination which would have been very uncomfortable for all of us. Things like this can leave an impression on a body.. And, missing a close call like this can leave an impression on your mind that tends to stay with you for many years.

Another such event for me involved unhooking the chokers in the landing.. The choker bells usually drag along on top of the logs, but with a drag of several logs; the chokers are bound to get crossed and often end up under or between the logs. This requires that the ones that can be reached get unhooked and then the others are pulled out some more, so they can be reached.. no big deal, but a little inconvenient. This was going on one beautiful day and I had unhooked some of the logs, and told the cat skinner to pull, so he chose to use his wench (common choice) but at the moment that he pulled line, I realized that I was caught by a choker and it pulled me a little; annoyed, I shook my foot, but the choker had me better than I thought, but about this time the line moved quicker than it should have and pulled my feet out from under me. Now, on my back, I thought the choker would have fallen off and I would just be embarrassed, but then the winch inexplicably took off again and pulled me and the remaining logs very quickly up in the air to the back of the winch, so I was hanging in the air for a brief moment and the only thing that stopped the winch was the logs that were still hooked up and taking up more choker cable than my little foot. I then fell out of the choker and landed on the ground under the logs and very quickly rolled out from under them because I knew that the next reaction from the operator (he was terrified) would be to release the winch and drop the logs and I did not want to be under them.. I stood up with no injuries and amazed to see several people running toward me afraid that I had been hurt. Then the yelling began; directed at the poor cat skinner (I think he was relieved to be yelled at and probably needed dry pants).

I learned from close calls over the months and years and hardly ever got close to an accident, but I also learned from seeing others get injured by not following procedure or not using good form. Just simple things like the way the chainsaw is held can prevent injury (something my dad showed me). So some things are learned because the crew takes the time to talk about the hazards with each other and takes the time to stop hazardous activity, like climbing on log decks especially when alone.

Along these lines, I mentioned always watching the machinery... One close call that I caused, was as a skidder operator. I brought a skid of logs in and backed them up toward the deck (common procedure to be able to turn around and push them into a pile), but I didn't notice that I hadn't opened the grapples up all the way and one very long log was trapped under the skidder so that it was now levered up at the far end.. As I pulled around in a circle the log was sweeping around like a bat or club in an even bigger arc (40 or 50 feet). This would not have been permitted if the landing man were not cutting firewood with his back to the landing... But, he was, and I put him out on the ground and knocked his hard hat several yards into the forest. When I turned around and saw that I still had a log and that the landing man was laid out.. I thought that I may have killed him, but he soon started getting up, as I got off and checked him out, but I was also concerned that he might kill me.. The first thing he said was, "what day is it?", so I was still concerned for him and started checking to see how bad he was injured, but he showed no signs of anything bad... We talked for quite awhile.. I can still see his face. He was a big Navajo with waste length hair and the greatest sense of humor.. I miss those days and those people.

Work History: Logging Days

2011-03-03T09:04:00.000-08:00

Right after high school, I started working on a crew that harvested timber. My primary responsibility was to operate a chainsaw, but the job was called; "Landing Man" and was commonly referred to as Knot Bumper because in the early days an ax was used, instead of a chainsaw, to remove limbs that had been inaccessible when the tree was originally cut down by the tree fallers. Even after the logs were brought into the landing and decked or pushed into piles there would be limbs that had been missed so the loader operator had a helper that would remove these. I really enjoyed working in the log woods and running a chainsaw even though it was hard work and either very cold and wet or hot and dusty, and it could be dangerous, at times, too. But, you could not beat the atmosphere and beauty of the mountains with no traffic and relatively few people.

I should try to give a better picture of what it was like.. As I said, my job was to work the landing, which involved; (1)counting logs that were skidded in,(2) marking the end of the log (this started with a crayon then changed to a stamp mounted on a hammer that had to be carried on a tool belt), (3) as mentioned cutting remaining limbs, (4) cutting broken logs into acceptable lumber lengths, (5) taking care of the chainsaw (fuel, sharpening, and keeping it safe). A landing was the area that would be cleared along side a logging road. We would pick a spot that was already fairly open (trees had been cut or it was just naturally clear of trees) and if this was not possible then, we would cut down a tree or two. In later times because of some operators being irresponsible, the forest rangers and supervisor would select landing areas and mark these with ribbon to avoid unnecessary damage as much as possible. The skidders would drag logs in to the landing and drop them then turn and prepare to push them to one edge of the landing perpendicular to the road. This had to be done in a fashion that would allow the loader to pick them up and swing them onto a truck. If I had a cable skidder or cat coming in then I would have to unhook the chokers which would be the same effect as dropping the logs, so the cat could pull around and push up logs or return to gather more logs, so sometimes multiple machines would drop logs and one would stay to deck them.. Here is a funny commercial that shows a deck of logs. Then the logs had to be counted and marked and the limbs cut off then the skidder would push them up and run to gather more. When I was waiting for more logs; I would perform maintenance on the saw and make sure that I had stamped or marked all of the logs.

Some of the hazards involved climbing on the deck to cut a missed limb or knot. One company had a green hand injured by logs rolling while he tried to cut a limb. He lost his legs doing this.. I never so much as cut myself with a chainsaw, but this is a common injury and hazard in logging. I did have some close calls... One day I was... I will tell that story soon. Chokers and unhooking them could be a challenge and sometimes got a little dangerous. The main thing with a job like this is to always pay attention to what is going on; always face to landing or watch the machines when they are in close.. tree fallers, too. Staying alert and using the brain greatly diminish the hazards of any situation.

One of the things that I learned about while working in the log woods was unions. It came to my attention one day that we were under a union contract even though none of us were union members. This revelation came to me because we were told that our break times were not part of the union contract. Then I realized that the union contract was used when the company did not want to do something. It was this realization that led me to reason that if the contract helped the company then maybe parts of it that helped the workers, too. I began to ask very loudly to see this union contract and this led to many of the crew members joining the union and then the appointment of a union steward. My demands led to quite a bit of unrest in our little logging operation, but I learned a lot about people and unions during this time. I also learned about how companies use unions and contracts and that companies are never on the side of the workers. I know, there are those who care.. somewhere, but for the most part or in most places in the world; it is the company vs. us, and the company usually wins. The most important thing about it is the union of the people not how much is gained or lost in little battles, but the power of people standing together. I think this is important to accomplish almost anything and for the human race to survive as a human race, we need to stand together and work together.

I worked for several years for that logging company and learned a great deal. I will post some stories and lessons in coming days. Here's to coming days.

Privatized and Shutdown

2011-02-25T14:45:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of talk about entitlements lately and usually this includes Social Security.. I become very excited very quickly when someone tries to demonize Social Security by calling it a charity or an entitlement. Social Security has funded many of the projects that they call "pork" since politicians realized there was money in the account. But, anyone getting S.S. payments is collecting on an account that they paid into with their hard earned money.

One of the republican ideas has been to privatize Social Security like they have managed to privatize many government operations.. An example of privatization was made quite visible (or unaccessible) to me on a recent road trip to AZ. I noticed it as I realized that I needed to make a pit stop as I drove along on one of the freeways and passed what was once a very much used icon of the American roadways; rest areas. You see almost all of the rest areas that I passed were closed.. I then remembered that I had read signs that stated that rest areas were now privately owned or some were some sort of private/state partnership, so I started paying attention.. Yeah, these privatized rest areas were shutdown with closed gates so you couldn't even pull into them and get off the road. I think you might guess what I think of not being able to pull off the highway and take care of a real need because someone has decided that operating their rest area was not profitable. I wonder....

We cannot turn our promised services over to private companies that will outsource the service to another country and then eventually find a way to cheat us out of our money. This money was paid into this account and it belongs to us. Don't let the money grubbing thieves have it.

Candle Light Vigil In Idaho

2011-02-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

I happened to see a news story last night showing the candle light vigil that people attended in many cities in Idaho last night.. Here is the video I saw last night:

Maybe we are a little down, and I could be wrong about our spirit in America.. Maybe we are broke or broken.

I was thinking about teachers and we talked quite a lot about teachers last night. Our youngest has a couple of years to go and we will have had 4 boys go completely through the Idaho school system, so we are well acquainted with the system and many teachers.. First thought: They are not rich or overpaid and their classrooms are not small enough. Second thought: I didn't vote for Luna. One of the reasons I went to vote was to vote against him; no matter who his opponent was. But, in this state, many vote for the "R", so I don't feel too sorry for them. Third thought: We need more teachers and we need good teachers.. How do you define a "good teacher"? Someone who wants to teach would be the main criterium. I admire anyone who can get in front of a room full of kids and keep them all at attention and give them some new knowledge. Are all of them going to learn? I think all of them will learn something, but all of them won't achieve high grades. Parents become upset when their little boy or girl is not a genius or hasn't got the motivation to work hard enough to get high grades, and teachers are blamed. I am sorry to tell you this but not everyone is going to be a rock star or football hero.. Sorry, but some of us have to dig ditches, and some of us are low class thieves while some work at banks and steal billions from hard working teachers. How can the teacher be blamed for a non student who doesn't see the need for chemistry?

Along these lines; I am reminded of the President's SOTU speech just this year. One of his points was education and he even made a pitch for more teachers... If you missed the speech... look it up. I have to wonder who would choose to teach in the current atmosphere in this country. Why not go into a life of crime? There are many diverse careers in crime: banker, politician, lobbyist... if you are real successful; corporate executive. Does President Obama really think there are people who will choose to teach school and suffer through all of the pressure from kids who don't want to learn, parents and now, politicians trying to look like they are trying to fix things? I don't think so..

In these days of budget cutting many states are using prisoners to do the jobs that laid off people should be doing.. I am all for making prisoners earn their food and shelter, but this.. it is a steep slippery slope. I was sent this head line this morning:

OPINION | February 25, 2011
Op-Ed Contributor: A Saudi Prince's Plea for Reform
By ALWALEED BIN TALAL BIN ABDULAZIZ AL-SAUD
Arab governments must make radical changes to avoid unrest.
Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy

Within that article you will find these two paragraphs:

The majority of the Arab population is under 25, and the unemployment rate for young adults is in most countries 20 percent or more. Unemployment is even higher among women, who are economically and socially marginalized. The middle classes are being pushed down by inflation, which makes a stable standard of living seem an unattainable hope. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening. The basic needs for housing, health care and education are not being met for millions.
Moreover, Arab countries have been burdened by political systems that have become outmoded and brittle. Their leaderships are tied to patterns of governance that have become irrelevant and ineffective. Decision-making is invariably confined to small circles, with the outcomes largely intended to serve special and self-serving interests. Political participation is often denied, truncated and manipulated to ensure elections that perpetuate one-party rule.

Change a couple of words and you could come pretty close to describing the US. I know, you might think that we have a two party system, but I would argue that it is a one party system that represents only the rich fat cats. So, what do you think when you watch disillusioned people at a candle light vigil and hear that there is an atmosphere of anger?

Could We Have A Party?

2011-02-24T14:18:00.000-08:00

I have read that the labor unions no longer have a chance of recovering from the state they are in now; decline. I think that may be true as far as what we had back in our heyday, when we had vast political power, but I don't think that the spirit of working people, from the minimum wage earners to the upper middle class, is broken. From what we see in Wisconsin; the labor movement may be in a rebound.. Is it possible to get people to stand together and fight the issues that the republicans seem to be bent on pushing on all of us? What sort of form would this take? If organizing in unions is no longer going to do the trick to get us a voice in Washington, then how can we be heard? The big business organizations have things pretty much sown up, so are we going to watch as they bring us back to the 19th century and wait for the pendulum to swing back in our favor... That could be a long wait.. Or, can the people once again gain some representation with our government?

What I have read says that the Democratic party is not labor oriented; none of our politicians listen to low income or even moderate income people. This includes the Democrats.. I haven't witnessed anything in years that would counter this viewpoint. Have you? I think this would explain why our incomes have stagnated and why we can hardly get healthcare reform passed, yet it seems quite easy to pass other bills into law. Have you wondered why tax cuts for the wealthy just zipped right through congress? And, I realize that at this point, the house has a republican majority, but how do they get all these spending cuts through so quickly? I guess I don't know how it works.. The point here is that average people make up the majority or our country, but we don't have representation in either of our two parties.

I think we need a party, but not a tea party that is funded by the likes of the Koch brothers. No, we need a party that represents the working families of this country and we are the majority and with a little solidarity; we could be a force to be reckoned with. Maybe what we see in Wisconsin, and now other state capitals across the country, is the beginning of a new era of a labor movement. Can we have a party?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Budget Balancing Act

2011-02-23T09:27:00.000-08:00

We are being told that we are in a crises with our budget.. In fact the idiot Speaker of the House says we are broke. I am so embarrassed by such a person speaking for the American people. When I was young, my family was always broke, but you certainly did not go out and tell anyone this, let alone announce it to the world. We (Americans) have come to a point of not only announcing that we are broke, but we now find it quite fine to admit that we can't honor our contracts and that we can't manage one trust fund. We have financial geniuses in this country that can swindle other geniuses out of their money and set up complicated financial packages that hardly anyone can understand, but we can't take care of one particularly important account that so many of our own parents (people who worked their asses off doing their part) depend on for survival (not parties or fancy cars). This is embarrassing and it is a shame. We suddenly find ourselves in a crises that can only be remedied by stealing from retirees or taking more from the poor. I say this is a crises of morality more than a financial crises. Shame on us.

Let me digress... We live in the largest economy in the world. I read somewhere that China is about a third of our economy and they are number two. We have some of the richest people in the world.. I don't want to start saying that we need to take money from them; God forbid, but I find it hard to understand how all those rich people can stand to live in a broke country that is the largest economy in the world. I find it hard to understand how we can have so many financial wizards that don't understand that if you take away the ability to earn a healthy income from your tax base (workers); and you are unwilling to tax the non workers (fat cats); you can't pay your bills. How do you continue to go the "clubs" if you can't pay the dues? We have lawmakers saying that we can't afford UN dues... Really? But, we can veto UN security counsel resolutions . And, we (our wonderful representatives) think that we can tell other countries how to deal with their problems and their people. But, let me remind you that we are broke. And if, we are broke, how do we plan to enforce our rhetoric and demands that we make on others? Yes, we are the largest economy in the world, but if we are broke; how will we make war or police anything in other countries?

In our current battle over the budget and what we will cut back on; we hear about threats to shutdown the government. In a shutdown, no one will get paid and no services will be allowed that the government pays for.. Except, the military and other things that are deemed absolutely necessary. The president and congress will continue to be paid and the Pentagon, of course, will be funded. So, we are not that broke (come on, now!). We have to have money for our military, don't be silly. What would we do, drop everything in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops home? We couldn't even afford to do that... OR, couldn't we.. If we are broke and government shutdown is eminent, what are some ideas to solve our insolvency? Couldn't some of the "fat cats" get together and chip in to keep their war going? Or, to keep on paying their politicians? Why not? Isn't it their government? Why is it on the backs of those who are being denied programs and union benefits and rights? Why do we have to keep the government going so that "fat cats" can reap the benefits and get even richer?

Currently, we are being told that we have 9% unemployment.. This is a lie and anyone who can do math knows it, but still this number is being used. (What will we think when the number magically goes to 8%?) Regardless, we have a very high amount of unemployed in this country, and no one in our broken government seems to care. We have an insurance program in every state to pay people who unemployed and looking for work, and along with this is a program for helping people find jobs called Job Service. Funny thing; I just found out that a lot of companies don't hire unemployed people. Whaat!??? Who needs a job? Who looks for a job? So, with this mentality or outlook; who can become re-employed? What kind of job does an unemployed person find? Does Job Service help these unemployable people find work? What do they do when their unemployment insurance runs out? I know, a lot of questions and no answers, oh wait, that is what the unemployed are facing; no answers and no jobs. 9% unemployment? Even I could sell a bridge to you if you believe that.

So, along with the unemployment comes the idea that government workers are making too much in wages and benefits. You see, the private sector workers are looking at the government workers and getting all jealous and thinking that they are paying that bill with their taxes and all. I need to let you in on a little secret: The government workers pay taxes, too. When more people make more money there is more tax revenue (shh, don't tell the republicans). When there are more union level wages; their is more tax revenue.. But, the consensus in this country has been to deny people higher income by destroying the only thing that gave any of us any worker rights or decent pay in this country, ever. Unions are what give non-union workers decent pay and benefits (talk about health insurance). So, the republicans have tried for many years to destroy the tax base by ridding us of those pesky unions and that debilitating expense of a retirement pension (let me get into that in a moment). Is it sane to think that it is fine for "fat cats" to continue to horde money but at the same time, want to take wages away from fellow workers? Are people crazy? Who knows a "fat cat" that has stood in a picket line or rally or protest in order to secure workers a fair paycheck or rights? Name one billionaire or millionaire who has stood up for you to make a decent pay check.. I can wait... Now, on top of this, we are allowing companies to discriminate against unemployed workers and we sit by and watch our representatives and president take away more of our rights and freedoms while the rich get richer and take more and more, but don't let government workers stand up to unfair wages or conditions. After all we are paying for that! Silly brainwashed American; you will probably never big a "fat cat", but you could make a good living with the help of a union with your fellow workers!

Why do we think that union pensions are to blame for company failures and state budget deficits? OK, if a common person has an expense that they can see coming; what should be done? The correct answer is to think that it will take care of itself when the time comes and spend all your income on toys and parties until that time comes... I know that the big companies have a better grasp of finances than that.. NO, apparently they did not and the states with pensions coming up did not think about it either. Why isn't the money in an account making money, so there would be funds for the workers that would one day retire? A lot of unions have the money in a trust fund of their own, why not all unions? The American people have Social Security... it, too, has been borrowed against and not funded properly with increases on the amount of income taxed for that purpose.. But, now, we think that instead of having a little more income in the higher brackets taxed; it is better to raise the retirement age. This idea is very faulty and ill conceived because first of all it is a breech of trust and second it won't solve the problem. Raising the retirement age will put a strain on the rest of the working class and tax revenue because there will be more workers in a low income bracket and more health costs. And, we all know that healthcare is where the real deficit is. The only way to fix this retirement problem is with more union trust funds and lower retirement age and a better healthcare plan. There are more reasons to grit our teeth and keep our bargain with workers than just economics, but even if we look at it in monetary terms it makes no sense to cut back on this or renege on it. The companies or states and unions negotiated these contracts in good faith and these things should be followed through because it is the ethical thing to do and it will hurt more than can be gained if the people allow it to be reneged and cut for budgetary reasons.

The right wing politicians and "fat cats" have done a good job of "educating" people in this country for some time now. And, have successfully placed ideologues in some of our highest courts. Plus, they have successfully moved the center of our political spectrum to the right, so that we are unable to even have centrist thinking anymore. To top things off, our news media is referred to as liberal, but is decidedly not even close, but is really being run by corporations intent on "educating" us so we don't really know what is center or right of center and would know left field if we saw it. Liberal media is myth. I read an interesting little post about how China has educated their people to believe that the government is what holds it all together or prevents the country from unraveling and that is why there is not as much risk of rioting in that country. We have been taught that government is bad and corporations and rich soulless bastards are our friends and should be allowed to do whatever they see fit. And, even with the evidence sticking to our feet as we walk on the beach we still believe the lies. So, yeah, stab your brother in the back to give the "fat cats" one more dime because they know what is good for America.

I saw a little of the Daily Show yesterday.. Jon was going over the comparison of the Mideast with the Midwest.. I think (it is a comedy satire) that he missed the boat on this one because there are a lot of similarities to what we in this country are facing and what the Egyptians have faced and stood against with such courage and conviction... But, in that segment, I saw a little clip of Hannity railing against the union members and other citizens protesting in Wisconsin.. Here is the clip:

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - Revenge of the Curds
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Hannity says; "This is what you get when you disagree with the left wing in America?"
My reply; No, this is what you get when you try to take worker's rights away from them. This is not the left wing, these are tax payers working for their communities and nation. Get a clue or a brain.. If you can find one that will fit in your pin head. How can you make human rights into a left/ right issue? Oh yeah, you are fox news, but wait that is unfair, almost all the news channels have some form or another of this bullshit.. " We are in a budget crises" "We are broke" We can't afford to be civilized anymore.. We can't afford anything but to give tax breaks to the rich and take from the working people... until our nation is so broke that there is no choice but to divide it up among the other nations of the world.. If we don't stand together; we will be divided.

My respect and best wishes to anyone who reads this..

2011-02-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

I will not post here for a while.. I would like to, but there are opposing forces preventing me from contributing for now. I apologize to anyone who frequents here hoping for some mind shattering information or wisdom or entertainment.. but, there are other contributors and a lot of reading just on my reading list or profile.. If I run across something that I can quickly link to and I think it will help someone live another day.. I will slip it in.. I don't know how long I will be in this status or what will happen to this little blog, but thank you for your patience and for stopping by.

Revolution # More Again

2011-02-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

Twisted dog?

We have all watched Egypt and other countries in the middle east with a great deal of interest; many in the world have much at stake and for many reasons worry about how this will play out. And, the world has watched President Obama's responses and wondered, and many have fumed at what they see.. Doesn't the United States stand for democracy? In a discussion recently, I asked if the riots are really about democracy or if it isn't just a case of economics.. Would these people be out on the streets if their economy was good for them... if they had jobs that provided them with life's necessities and a little fun? Why do those in power always choke the life out of the poor until they revolt which does nothing for them except to lower the population? Why is money and power and politics more important to Obama than the freedom and well being of all people? Why do we, the American people, allow our nation to align with totalitarian governments while the people of these lands suffer under their rule? Could it be that we really don't care as long as times are good for us? As long as we have our homes and toys we can mouth empty ideologies and pretend that we stand for freedom. We want just enough instability in the world so we can justify a huge "defense" budget which keeps those industries working and those tycoons wealthy, but hey, we are all for peace as long as we have cheap oil and food. Stability and peace translates to keep our interests in tact at the expense of ordinary common folk. How did we become so.. absolutely self serving spoiled imperialists. We want to believe that we have values, that we stand for freedom.. we just don't want it to cost us anything. And, why do these people hate us?

I read an interview with Noam Chomsky this morning which was posted on AlterNet here and here is one of the key questions:

AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, I wanted to read to you what Robert Fisk has written from the streets of Cairo today. Robert Fisk, the well-known reporter from The Independent of London. He said, "One of the blights of history will now involve a U.S. president who held out his hand to the Islamic world and then clenched his fist when it fought a dictatorship and demanded democracy." Noam Chomsky, your response?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, Fisk’s reporting, as usual, has been inspiring and phenomenal. And yeah, he’s exactly right. And it is the old pattern. As I say, it goes back 50 years right there in Egypt and the region, and it’s the same elsewhere. As long as the population is passive and obedient, it doesn’t matter if there’s a campaign of hatred against us. It doesn’t matter if they believe that our official enemy can perhaps save them from our attacks. In fact, nothing matters, as long as the dictators support us. That’s the view here.
We should remember there’s an analog here. I mean, it’s not the same, of course, but the population in the United States is angry, frustrated, full of fear and irrational hatreds. And the folks not far from you on Wall Street are just doing fine. They’re the ones who created the current crisis. They’re the ones who were called upon to deal with it. They’re coming out stronger and richer than ever. But everything’s fine, as long as the population is passive. If one-tenth of one percent of the population is gaining a preponderant amount of the wealth that’s produced, while for the rest there 30 years of stagnation, just fine, as long as everyone’s quiet. That’s the scenario that has been unfolding in the Middle East, as well, just as it did in Central America and other domains.

Along the lines of "as long as everyone's quiet"; How often have we seen our politicians upset because their actions and votes were criticized? Then we get to hear the list of accomplishments... things that were single handedly accomplished by these "public servants". So many appointments and legislation barely passed or still haven't because of blocks by one senator, but a tax cut extension goes through in days.. wow! Who accomplished this? Really? Didn't it take the votes of all those in Congress? And, with no filibuster or even a threat of one to ball things up? How did a repeal of healthcare reform go through so fast? NO one blocked or threatened to? We sit quietly and watch..

Just as we have watched our government set up dictators and create terrorists to combat some evil empire that must not have been on our side (didn't add to the bank accounts of ?). Or, it made more money to supply arms to their enemies so one day they could kill our soldiers and we could be distracted into yet more sitting quietly while more wealth is taken to the fantasy land of the top 1%. Hallelujah, praise the billionaires and our "public servants"!

Let me leave this with another selection from the Tao Te Ching, this time Chapter 38:

The highest kind of man
Has innate goodness,
And that is what he rules with.

The lesser man brags about how good he is –
And isn’t much good, I can tell you.

A Man of Te rules by wu-wei
Doing nothing for himself or of himself.

The lesser man acts from his ego
And what he wants is gratification.

A man who rules with compassion
Acts through it – and no one even realizes.

A legal man acts judiciously
But he is still serving his own ends.

And the rigid man uses laws
And if people don’t like it, force.

If the true Taw is lost
Then morality takes its place.

If that fails, we have ‘conscience’.
When that fades, we get ‘justice’.
When that disappears, we have the status quo.
Confusion reigns. No one knows
what’s going on. Forecasts
and prophecies abound –
and they are merely a gloss on the Tao,
they are the root of all
twisted guidance.

So the sage only looks at what is really real.
He doesn’t just look at the surface –
He blows away the dust and drinks the water…
He doesn’t just go for the flower
But also for the roots and the fruit.

Blow away the dust, now:
Come to the living water

I hope something good comes of all the courageous acts going on in Egypt... I hope they come together with solutions for all their people and no one has died in vain.

Revolution # Again

2011-02-01T07:34:00.000-08:00

To start, a link to the transcript from the Friday the 28th episode of Hardball With Chris Matthews in which he interviews NBC's chief news corespondent, Richard Engel on the ground in Cairo. I will just include here a part that is relevant to what I have been posting about:

MATTHEWS: You know, when you visit Cairo—I‘ve been there a few times—you get a sense there‘s a lot of bureaucrats. There‘s a lot of people with at least a minimal stake in stability. They dress Western. They have jobs. They take a break more than we do, perhaps at times. There‘s a lot of cafe society. But they‘re not—they‘re not desperate people, at least the ones that hang around downtown. Is this a revolution of the very poor or a revolution of the middle?
ENGEL: I think it‘s of the lower middle. And it‘s of the exact working-class people that you were talking about, people who maybe work in a government office, in a post office or something like that, drive a cab as a second job.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
ENGEL: Those people are having a very difficult time in Egypt right now. Prices have gone up. Rents have gone up. It‘s difficult for young people if they don‘t have enough money to pay dowries and to get married. So it is a fairly broad-based, large segment of society here, people who have jobs, maybe even two, but still can‘t pay their bills.
MATTHEWS: My sense of Egypt and how it works is it‘s all tied together by relationships, by brothers-in-law, family relationships, people basically on the take with each other, very complicated networked relationships that are good for the people on the inside. You get the business. You get the jobs. And the people on the outside never have a chance to break into that. Are we looking at the people here who know they‘re never going to break into that inner power structure of Cairo?
ENGEL: And sorry I was looking away. We‘re just—we‘re just being told right now that Mubarak—President Mubarak is expected to give a speech in a short while. These would be his first public statements, perhaps putting an end to some rumors that he has fled the country.
MATTHEWS: I see.
ENGEL: What he says will be critical. Going back to—because if he gives conciliatory remarks and remarks that people on the street just dismiss, it could inflame these protests even more. So he has to walk a very delicate line. If he gives in too much and upsets people, it could spell the end for him.
When the president of Tunisia gave a speech and came out on television and said, I understand, I understand this movement is taking place, I get it, it ended up being the end for him and he went on to Saudi Arabia.
Going back to your other point, there is a feeling of a glass ceiling here, that there is an elite of tycoons that run the country, that run the big businesses, and that the average person on the street has absolutely no shot of making it and advancing himself further.
And that‘s why people are out. They feel that their children aren‘t going to necessarily have a better life than they will. And when you feel that kind of frustration and you‘ve been feeling it for a long time and the government doesn‘t give you an opportunity to vent those frustrations, you have a situation like the one we‘ve been seeing here.

I have bolded key bits to help with my point in the previous post and with thoughts that I have today..

My thought was; where in the world is this situation existent on a large scale today? Poor to lower middle class getting poorer and having no hope of improving and the rich running the country... Can you think of a similar situation anywhere?

Throughout history there have been revolutions to break the cycles and make things better for live their lives, but often there is no improvement because the revolutions are highjacked by the extremists who only want power for themselves and when the dust clears and the ruble is cleaned up; the rich still run things and the poor and middle class are worse off than before. This was discussed even in this interview..

MATTHEWS: Mubarak has been very tough and his people have been very tough on his critics like us, saying, Every time you recommend relief or reform, whether it‘s Iran or you recommend an election in Gaza, the bad guys win. The ayatollahs win. Hamas wins. Every time you guys interfere with the Middle East, the bad guys win.
And our own history books have taught us, every time there‘s a revolution, if the power structure gives in and shows some relief or some uncertainty and gives way to the crowd, they definitely go down. So I can understand why Mubarak is listening to Secretary Clinton, saying, Don‘t give us advice. Your own history books tell you that every time a revolution is met with what looks like concessions, the revolution goes further and demands the overthrow of the government.
So Mubarak seems to know what he‘s doing here more than we do.
ENGEL: There is that possibility. And many people in Cairo are very worried that this movement, if it goes further, could get hijacked by Islamic radicals who do not believe in democracy and very much have their own agenda. And that is, as you say, the history of popular revolutions. They start out as exciting, apparently idealistic movements, and then will turn into something else.
That‘s what happened in Iran. In the beginning, people thought, This is a great thing. We‘re going to have Islamic law.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
ENGEL: We‘ll have free rights for everyone and a just society. And then it turned into the regime that it is right now. So he could end up being proven right, and saying that there needs to be a strong hand. That message, however, is not being accepted by the people, who say that he‘s just had too many years to try and change things in this country and has let the people grow too poor and too frustrated.
MATTHEWS: You know, just a look at our own history books, Richard, it seems to me—we look at Castro. He was going a democratic revolutionary, a bourgeois guy of the middle class. Kerensky in Russia was going to be democratic revolution. In both cases, they went hard left, all the way to communist. In this case, in the Middle East, I guess the longer we go without seeing real signs of religiosity, the better. Is that a fair estimate, from our Western point of view? As long as this stays to look like a middle class or a lower—working class Egyptian revolution and not an Islamic one, the better for us.
ENGEL: It won‘t look like an Islamic revolution. The Muslim Brotherhood—it‘s a group I know very well, I‘ve spent a lot of time with them here in Egypt—they don‘t operate openly. You‘re not going see people carrying Muslim Brotherhood flags and waving them in the streets.

The interview was interesting if you have time; read the whole thing..

Who will win in this revolt in Egypt? We can only hope for the best for all of the people and that may not be in our or Israel's best interests, and it may cost us in higher oil prices for a while or it may change even more aspects of life all over the world, but the price will be worth it if it improves the lives of Egyptians which will make a difference for all people everywhere.. Here is a little entertainment and some words of wisdom from the Beatles:

You say you want a revolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

You tell me that it's evolution

Well, you know

We all want to change the world

But when you talk about destruction

Don't you know that you can count me out

Don't you know it's gonna be all right

all right, all right

You say you got a real solution

Well, you know

We'd all love to see the plan

You ask me for a contribution

Well, you know

We're doing what we can

But when you want money

for people with minds that hate

All I can tell is brother you have to wait

Don't you know it's gonna be all right

all right, all right

Ah

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...

You say you'll change the constitution

Well, you know

We all want to change your head

You tell me it's the institution

Well, you know

You better free you mind instead

But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao

You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow

Don't you know it's gonna be all right

all right, all right

all right, all right, all right

Revolution # ?

2011-01-29T15:21:00.000-08:00

I watch Hardball With Chris Matthews almost every day lately, and I enjoy the show. Friday's episode was dedicated to the protests in Egypt, and I have been looking for clips or even the whole episode, but it is not available yet. The part of the episode I am looking for (and viewed on Friday) talks about the massive gap between the rich and poor in Egypt.
I wonder how many places in the world have a similar difference between the upper and lower classes; and, how much of the revolt is a feeling of disparity and frustration with not being able to live comfortably (or at all.) These people can't afford to live because now, they have a car payment or two and dowries and on and on and then food along with other necessities that have increased in price. Wait a minute...

Twenty five years ago my wife and I were dating; and now I am not any better off, in many ways, than I was then. My income was not exactly stable and I was not making that much anyway and we had many a discussion about how we would live. I remember being full of hope or faith that things would work out and that we would eventually live comfortably (I never thought that I would be rich one day). I had watched my mom and dad live and even come to a place of steady income, and I thought that if a person lived within their means that one day it would get easier. This faith in things working out caused me to argue that we could make it. The bottom line in my mind was that we could live, especially if we were together. There have been brief periods when we made it without worrying about how to make the next payment or shuffling payments or hoping. And, now I am in the same place and disillusioned.

I live in a country full of resources, a place-- ostensibly --of great wealth and opportunity; but I wonder why I can't pay my bills or get a job making a decent amount of money. I hope for change for the people of Egypt, but I know that at the end of the day the status quo will be maintained. And the status quo involves some people being too poor to live and some people being inexcusably wealthy.

There have always been poor people, the difference now is that poor ways of survival have been taken away. Take food for instance: There used to be what could be referred to as cultural food. Nutritious, cheap, and made from things that grew/lived in the area. In every society or group there was a way to eat that didn't cost so much and was easily accessible while it might require prep time or know-how to prepare; it was there. Now, we find that it is easier and cheaper to buy at a fast food chain than to light up the oven or actually cook a meal, and a corporation is in control of what people eat. Systems that evolved over centuries and were thus adapted to allow people to survive have vanished. They've been replaced by something inferior but cost effective. You see, we are in a quandary; do you try to feed your family a real meal or save money and time and give them some instant "food"? After all they will eat the burger and fries, but will not touch the home cook veggies or casserole, so why fight it?

The point here is: how do you live within your means? This is not just an Egyptian problem, it's a problem that people across the world face everyday.

Practice Life

2011-01-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

The following was sent to me today from Yoga Journal News Letters:

Relationship Rescue

Are you in a relationship rut, having the same fight with your partner over and over again? Or playing the same role—nag, enabler—day in and day out? By contemplating the yamas and niyamas, guidelines for living consciously, you can break free from unhealthy patterns and move toward a more joyful future.
The problems may seem to be all about your partner, but if you practice svadhyaya (self-study), you may learn something valuable that can shift the dynamic. For example, do you set your partner up for failure by asking them to do things you know they won't do—and then play the martyr? If you observe your thoughts and motives, you can make your contribution toward healthy change.
Read the full articles:
The Yoga of Relationships
Relationship Rescue

Highlights are mine..

The guidelines referred to, yamas and niyamas, can be found here. They are very basic, yet can take a lot of time to fully understand and put to work in your life.. But, like the very brief example in this letter, could bring real harmony to any aspect of life. Have you ever considered the way a person can set up some one else to fail? How far into every aspect of human relationships could you carry this?

Something that I thought of this morning when reading about the protests in Egypt; if Mubarak truly loves his people; what should he do? Perhaps, a peaceful election? If he wants to serve his nation and do what is best for his people... and, all of the other nations around the world.. I wonder if he is thinking about it on these terms or just trying to hold onto his position and power.

OK, I am off again, sort of, but as I said, I think many things in life can be made better, if everyone practiced living with diligent study and exercise of all the movements and skills. I refer to something I read yesterday on the subject of Kung Fu in this article.. I will probably go into that at some later time.

Buddy(Shawn's) and Daisy

For now, namaste

Sputnik Moment?

2011-01-28T09:20:00.000-08:00

This has been an interesting week; We have learned that some don't know basic history of our country, while others don't understand economics nor do they want to. It is not popular to practice to perfect one's craft or art or profession, and this is evident in many politicians when we watch their lazy and sloppy performances. Yet, these amateurs are chosen to speak for their party not to mention winning elections. This says more about the voters than the politicians, but it is out of a desire for a "real person" or for an honest and a "down to earth", "one of us", non-political politician. I can't blame them for wanting someone who can relate to the common man and will work to rid government of all those nasty things we don't like. The problems still persist because everyone wants stable long term employment, and work harder to keep their jobs than working for those who put them in office, thus becoming a career politician, anyway, without the professional manner and without the ability to actually do the job; a very bad trade. By contrast, the rich and powerful continue to get exactly what they want and need to continue to suck the life out of our nation and thrive.

You may not like my view of our "Sputnik moment", and neither do I because it is pessimistic or cynical. I blame the depression. The amusing thing about this is that I enjoy trying to write on this blog and I am going to take some advice that I heard yesterday and have fun doing this. My posts may not be written properly (a lot of them really are very poorly written), but I think that is OK because I am doing it and it is free. The most wonderful thing about our country and this day and age is that we are free and there is this technology that allows me to write and post it here. And, with the click of the mouse, I can read so many writings and view art even meet people from all over the world. My little thing here is nothing compared to all the beauty and knowledge out there and it is available at the "next blog". Still, I am cynical about the direction that a fad, like austerity, will take us.. sorry.

Here is another chapter from the Tao Te Ching:

When the Great Tao is lost sight of –
Then people have to try to be kind and gentle.

They try to compensate by being clever
But this only breeds hypocrisy and sleight-of –hand.

When families fall out
Relationships sour into useless formality.

When the nation is misled and in chaos
Ministers mouth empty promises.

This Just Isn't Possible...

2011-01-26T11:31:00.000-08:00

I have lot's to catch up with even though I am not really busy. I have more time than money these days and still I don't seem to be doing the things that I should; like, reading and writing (my last comment anywhere was one sentence). So, this post will not get the time that it should, but I think that is the way depression works..(humor)

With deficits on most American's mind; the President feels that it is necessary to address the issue and it was part of his State of the Union Address last night. His proposal is across the board spending freezes. Now, how could a little austerity hurt? Some think it would help the economy... When there is not enough spending and unemployment is high, less spending always helps. So, you might use other countries as examples of success.. The new austerity policies of Great Britain come to mind:

Britain’s Economy Stalls, in Setback for Cameron
By JOHN F. BURNS and JULIA WERDIGIER (NYT)
The slowdown prompted some economists to warn that the country was at increased risk of a “double dip” recession

I don't know where I read a warning of just such a possibility...

Another part of this that keeps coming up and really irritates me can best be said with an example; this is from a question/answer section in the NYT's this morning (I will highlight the key phrase and underline the key words):

Q. How long will the media permit our politicians to use the word “investment” as an emollient word for “spending”? The president paid some lip service to the idea of budgetary reduction, but his main theme was, euphemism or no, that the government (i.e., taxpayers) need to “invest” [read "spend"] still more money. I wonder whether the required funds will come from still more “financing” [read "borrowing"], still more increased “revenue” [read "taxes"] or still more “quantitative easing” [read "printing money"]. Surely some more straightforward use of language would help. Why don’t the media provide it? – Richard S, Oldsmar, Fla.
A. You’re absolutely right that “investment” can easily become a euphemism to support any kind of spending. But there are really some forms of spending that qualify as an investment and some that do not. The basic difference is whether the spending has any hope of bringing a return equal to or greater than the initial spending. Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits and most military programs are not, to my mind, investment. They may well all be excellent things for the government to do. But they won’t pay for themselves in the long run. Spending for education or research and development, on the other hand, has the potential to pay for itself, if it’s done well. The taxpayer money that the Defense Department spent on an internalcomputer network we know now as the Internet surely paid for itself.
One thing to worry about is that the government is doing too little investment spending even as it’s committed to doing too much overall spending.

This is not just an occasional thing; Social Security is lumped in with other programs all the time. Social Security is paid for with deductions from hardworking Americans for their retirement and it is not part of those other programs, but it has been borrowed from to pay for other programs some of which were not even remotely related to social services at all. But, I am little off subject.. Must be the depression setting in again.. Here is a picture that Kanna pointed out to me this morning.. NYT won't let me "borrow" it.

Free Speech?

2011-01-20T16:47:00.000-08:00

This morning's email from AlterNet had some good offerings; this headline was amongst them:

Isn't Free Speech Important Enough to Tolerate Fred Phelps Screaming 'F*ggot' at the Funerals of Dead Soldiers?
More, rather than less speech remains the best way to combat the kind of bile peddled by Phelps and his ilk. READ MORE
Joshua Holland / AlterNet

Here is a little sample of the article:

Last week, Arizona passed an ordinance barring protests within sight of funerals. It's the latest in a slew of popular laws that criminalize the very unpopular political expression of Fred Phelps and his clan from the Westboro Baptist Church – the “God Hates Fags” freakshow. They're very popular but very un-American, because our Constitutional protections don't exist to protect popular speech.

People like these laws because they represent basic common sense. Of course one shouldn't be able to wave signs at military funerals declaring God's distaste for “fags” and rejoicing in those soldiers' deaths. But the freedom of speech and expression is a core liberty, and as such, it shouldn't be subject to the sensitivities of the community. It should never be subjected to a popular referendum, nor limited in response to some current outrage – to the “passions of the day.”

Of course, we tolerate other restrictions on our right to speak, assemble, and yes, offend others. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater (unless it's on fire, of course), and “fighting words” aren't protected. Neither is slanderous or obscene speech.

He goes on to say:

These laws are as likely to pass Constitutional muster as the “free speech” zones that have become increasingly common at political conventions – the courts have held that the government can regulate the time, place and manner of speech – and they're just as wrong. Despite their popularity, these laws affect all of our liberties – Fred Phelps' right to express views in a way that is decidedly outside the mainstream is inextricably connected to my own ability to express unpopular views without being subject to arrest by the police.

It's hard for people to grasp that connection because the Westboro Baptist clan is generally thought to occupy a space far out on the fringe of America's political culture. Decent Americans don't want the right to slur gays at funerals, but the question is: who gets to determine what speech is so offensive that we have to throw out the First Amendment to ban it? Where is that line, and how do we know we may not one day end up on the wrong side of it?

There is a lot more to this article and some thoughtful comments after, but I don't agree with the whole thing. I don't feel this is a question of limiting free speech, but a question of controlling a space just like we control the noise level in a library. If you were to go into a library and yell anything especially obscenities; you would be thrown out. A funeral is a private place and time and the mourners have the right to peace and quiet. This courtesy and right has been observed by even the most notorious of criminals and warlords.. But, these christians are without common decency or manners.

On further conversation; I realized that Phelps is doing a great service for us.. His darkness is showing us a great light because he is bringing people together to block his hatred in truly great acts of kindness. So, perhaps he serves a purpose after all.

Wars And What We See

2011-01-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

I would put a couple of items together for you to read.. First from TomDispatch an article by Tom Engelgarht titled; In The Crosshairs:

“Slowly a humped shape rose out of the pit, and the ghost of a beam of light seemed to flicker out from it. Forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men. It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. It was as if each man were suddenly and momentarily turned to fire.
“Then, by the light of their own destruction, I saw them staggering and falling, and their supporters turning to run...”
That, as H.G. Wells imagined it in 1898, was first contact with a technologically superior and implacable alien race from space, five years before humanity took to the air in anything but balloons. And that was how the Martians, landing in their “cylinders,” those spaceships from a dying planet, ready to take over ours, responded to a delegation of humans advancing on them waving a flag of peace and ready to parlay. As everyone knows who has read The War of the Worlds, or heard the 1938 Orson Welles radio show version that terrified New Jersey, or watched the 1953 movie or the Stephen Spielberg 2005 remake, those Martians went on to level cities, slaughter masses of humanity using heat-rays and poison gas, and threaten world domination before being felled by the germs for which they were unprepared.
Germs aside, Wells’s Martians did little more than what earthly powers would do to each other and various “lesser” peoples in the 112 years that followed the publication of his book. Now, a group of scientists writing in an “extraterrestrial-themed edition” of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A in Great Britain warn us that we should ready ourselves for the possibility of alien contact. We should, in fact, “prepare for the worst” which,according to contributor Simon Conway Morris, could be summed up this way: thanks to neo-Darwinian laws of evolution assumedly operative anywhere, such aliens, should they exist, would probably be more or less like us.

-------

At a moment when a single horrific incident, the killing of six Americans and the wounding of 13, including a member of Congress, looms so much larger than life and has for days become “the news,” when our world has been abuzz with media discussions about civility in U.S. politics, crosshairs and where they were placed, the president’s role as "national healer," and various profiles in courage among the living and dead, when the focus, in other words, is so overwhelming, you have to wonder what’s hidden from sight.
One out-of-sight matter to consider might be those crosshairs -- not on a symbolic political map but over actual humans beings, resulting in multiple deaths. I’m talking about our war in Afghanistan.
To give an example, on January 10th, according to a New York Times report, a “team” (whether American or NATO we don’t know) “conducting a patrol” in the village of Baladas in central Afghanistan "spotted 'nine armed individuals setting up what appeared to be an ambush position.'" That team called in a helicopter strike, killing three Afghans and wounding three others. According to a statement from “a coalition spokesman,” the six casualties turned out to be “innocent people... mistakenly targeted.” According to local Afghan figures, they were members of “a local police team... on their way to meet a unit of the American Special Forces for a joint patrol.” Condolences have since been offered and a NATO “assessment team” was sent to the site to “investigate.”
Classified as a case of “friendly fire,” the incident represents one small-scale slaughter that got no attention here. Like almost all such reports from Afghanistan, the names of the dead and wounded were not recorded (undoubtedly because there was no reporter on the ground to ask). And it goes without saying that no one in our world will grieve for those dead, or praise them, or offer “healing” words about what their example should mean to the rest of us. About their fate, there will be no TV reports, no conversation on underlying issues, not a shred of discussion, not here.

This is a sample and you should read the whole dispatch. There are so many being killed in our wars.

Here is another little story of how we go to war and the way public opinion on war is manipulated... I think this has a lot to do with that first article.. The two go together like pictures in an album. This headline is from RT:

Media propaganda sells wars to America
The American media machine has worsened over the years in its ability to report facts over government propaganda.

In my current state, I have been reading too much and not getting out like I would like breathing fresh air because of weather conditions. Please bare with me..

Do It Yourself Security

2011-01-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

In today's world we see more and more self service services.. Checkouts at markets comes to the forefront of my mind, but at every turn we learn that we have to do things that used to be done by a fellow human being. This is one more way that we lose jobs in this country. Who wants to have to run out and pump gas for a customer when that customer can do it on their own? After all, can we afford to have a cashier at the checkout? We could save money and get rid of almost all law enforcement if everyone would just learn how to use a gun and carry it at all times..

One thing that we don't see an actual demand for; do it your self police or detectives or even airport security. Why don't we all just carry a gun where ever we go and have authorization to shoot perpetrators or suspects on sight. We could investigate our own robberies and hunt down the criminal on our own time. Then there would be no need for a judge or expensive trials because we would take care of it on our own in the way we see fit. There would be little need for jails or prisons because the criminals would be taken care of at the scene of the crime. Burglars would only need a hearse and body bag and I would think that could be handled very easily by the home owner, too, so maybe we wouldn't even need hearses. Traffic violations would be handled in the same manner; on the spot justice. In this case, we would need more tow trucks unless immediate confiscation of the vehicle were the people's policy. School shootings? Say no more. Trouble on a flight? One of the armed passengers would take care of it, and maybe the plane will make it to an airport to land where the wounded passengers could be treated.. Well, anyway, it would get worked out.

This may sound bizarre, but this is the kind of fantasy world that gun rights advocates think we live in. They believe that citizens should be able to defend themselves in their homes and on the streets. They believe that gun ownership has lowered the crime rate. They believe that armed people could stop would be assassins. I can imagine more than one person shooting in a crowd... A lot of innocent collateral damage, but one lucky shot might get the shooter, so it would be worth it. That is the price you pay for freedom.

Here is a debate on Bloggingheads; More Guns, Less Crime? The video cannot be embedded, so hit the link to watch.

But listen to what is said and the points made.. Then there is this story today about a shooting at Gardena High School but the sickening part of this is the comments made by readers (if you can stand to read all of them), but some actually make a point or two about gun control. A reader or two continues this idea that armed citizens could stop a gunman like in Tucson recently.. I find it disconcerting that anyone would want to shoot someone else not to mention that every missed attempt would mean an accidental casualty. I don't know what would be scarier; the assassin or the armed citizen. Hmm Maybe people do really think that this would be acceptable risks and could face the families of those shot in an effort to subdue one killer.

Another aspect to this is the countless hours of training to be proficient with a weapon and the psychological training so that you could actually shoot at another human being and kill them in the heat of battle. I think you need analysis just because you want to.

Here is an interesting interview posted on RT:

There are a number of stories on RT on this subject, here is one of them, and a little taste..

A chill in Russian-American relations blew through a White House briefing following a question by a Russian journalist suggesting the Arizona shootings could have been due to the freedoms enjoyed by Americans.
Andrey Sitov, a reporter for Russia's official news agency ITAR-TASS, asked if the Arizona shooting rampage was an inevitable by-product of Americans having too much freedom.

This reminded me of when I watched a little of the Senate Judiciary hearings of Sonia Sotomayor. I remember question after question during the brief moment that I watched, had to due with her opinions and beliefs concerning gun rights. I could not believe that this was such an important issue for those Senators.. Here is a video of Colbert explaining some of the issues and some of the solutions that Congress has recently come up with:

The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Run for Your Life
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive

So, a plexiglass dome and a law to prevent a gun with in 1000 feet of an elected official.. Thankfully they realize that they need protection..
Where would all this stop? How long before you need more than a handgun to go out and shop? How long before your kids need an assault rifle to attend school or go out with friends? Where does this fantasy end? Talk about lowering your standard of living.. constant readiness to shoot.

Standards Of Living

2011-01-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

As we see our standard of living in danger from prolonged high unemployment rates; we start to wonder what we can do without and how we can make the money to keep some of our "necessities". We also from time to time think about what we really want or how we really want to live.. I mean, what is important and where do you draw the line on what you would do for your lifestyle or income? In this day and age we have so many things that we can't conceive of living without, but not too long ago these things did not exist. This is where the inevitable stories of "the way things used to be", or "when I was growing up" get cued in a never ending loop; kind of like this: "Why just a few years ago, we didn't have the luxury of just calling someone from a cell while driving around... " This is the proverbial walk to school in the snow uphill both ways stories that we laugh about, but these things are true when it comes to our houses and cars and phones.. you name it; we live with a lot of "necessary" gadgets in our day to day that people just didn't have 10-20 years ago (give or take). We have so much around us that many in the world today live without and we probably could not live without. Could you live without your morning coffee? Could you make it through the morning without your computer? Could you make it to the office without your GPS (some of us used to use bread crumbs)?

Many years ago, my wife and I started looking into various low levels of self-sufficiency and various ideas like non-electric options. There are ways to do things with out electricity that work quite well, but require more work and time, and there are people living off the grid with solar and batteries and other contraptions and doing quite well (happy). We started a fairly large garden and practiced preserving food and storing winter supplies. We never went too deep into it, but we did play around with the concept of trying to live more independent of the system (hobbyists). We had some fun, but there are groups of people, that for whatever reason, are very serious about living off the land independent of the modern world as much as possible. And, there are those in the world who have no choice because they can't afford the conveniences that rich countries take for granted..

When I consider our standard of living; part of me becomes a little angry because I think our standard should be growing.. We should be living better than our parents and grandparents before them. They worked hard to improve life for themselves and for their children and now greed will take those advancements away from many in this country. I think about the average size of new homes and the number of rooms, especially bathrooms; just because the average family (mine) made it with only one bathroom doesn't mean that that is the way it should be now. On the other hand, what is wrong with living within your means? But, on the other hand, I don't really blame the ones that are starting out for wanting to achieve the milestones of moving through life: a car, home, family and recreation. After all, I am very happy to see my children and others reach for these things . I want to see this nation having success and ever higher standards. I also want to see that my own sons have the maturity to know when and how to reach for these things. I have often not had the patience or foresight to plan or save or to even know how I was going to pay the credit, so I know this is part of life too. As I was reminded recently; we get 70 to 80 years to live in this world; why does it have to be limited by so much seriousness? When it is done; what do you have left?

Here is an excellent article from AlterNet by Jill Richardson; Do We Have To Live Like Peasants To Be Truly Sustainable? Here is a paragraph from this excellent piece:

In the San Diego suburb where I live, I don't quite fit in. I drive a Prius, grow some of my own food and buy the rest at the farmers' market or the co-op, and I don't own a TV. I can my own jams, pickles and tomato sauce, make my own sauerkraut and yogurt, and collect what little rainfall we get in a rain barrel. I am a vegetarian. I have four pet chickens who provide eggs and fertilizer for my garden. If I could afford it, I would certainly install solar panels on my house. Some call me a hippie or a treehugger. But several recent trips to visit and live with families who are reallysustainable have given me pause. Can I live a sustainable life without giving up all of my modern conveniences? Can any of us?

Go read the whole thing to get her answer to the question and to learn about how some in this world have to live.

For many years in this country, we have watched as more and more jobs go overseas thinking, "at least I still have my job", but not realizing that the more unemployed there are; the cheaper all employment will be. How many have recently lost pay because there are people waiting in line to have a job, any job. You may think that just anyone can't do your job... Silly American! You will think that while setting up your cardboard box.

So, part of the concept I read and write about here is solar energy, and indeed this has a lot to do with the subject at hand because solar and other alternative energies were supposed to make more jobs, and indeed this should be a new way for people to be employed and a way for some to have a source of electricity and heat, but now again this new technology will be made overseas and those working on it now begin to be laid off. Kanna happened to send me a headline while I was working on this post this morning:

Solar Panel Maker Moves Work to China
By KEITH BRADSHER
Evergreen Solar, a leading maker of panels in the United States, is laying off 800 people and shifting production to China.

How does someone do this? How? Who benefits? I guess life goes on and we only get 70- 80 years to live here and do our part and then someone else will have to make their way in the world that is left for them to live 70- 80 years. Will their stories be about how good it used to be when they drove a car to school and had hot water to shower with in the morning with a hot coffee ready when they got up? Yeah, you kids should have lived back in those days...

The President's Speech In Tucson

2011-01-13T14:41:00.000-08:00

I know this is all over the internet, but I have to embed it on this blog.. I can't help myself. If you haven't listened to President Obama's speech then here it is:

I want to highlight some of what he said and he said it so well..

If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate -- as it should -- let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost. (Applause.) Let’s make sure it’s not on the usual plane of politics and point-scoring and pettiness that drifts away in the next news cycle.
The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better. To be better in our private lives, to be better friends and neighbors and coworkers and parents. And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their death helps usher in more civility in our public discourse, let us remember it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy -- it did not -- but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation in a way that would make them proud. (Applause.)
We should be civil because we want to live up to the example of public servants like John Roll and Gabby Giffords, who knew first and foremost that we are all Americans, and that we can question each other’s ideas without questioning each other’s love of country and that our task, working together, is to constantly widen the circle of our concern so that we bequeath the American Dream to future generations. (Applause.)
They believed -- they believed, and I believe that we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved life here –- they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another, that’s entirely up to us. (Applause.)
And I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us. (Applause.)

Something To Start The Day With

2011-01-13T04:59:00.000-08:00

I simply will link to RYviewpoint for this post... I think this is something to get things off to a good start.. so, click here.

A Speech By John Kerry

2011-01-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

I was sent this this evening by Kanna.. I have to say that I appreciate the things that she forwards and emails to me. I wish I was better at blogging and could write or post all the things that I want to, but I have to be happy with what I can do and learn from the mistakes that I make along the way. This is from the Washington Post.. by Ezra Klein:

Sen. John Kerry appeared at the Center for American Progress today to give a speech on "gridlock and globalization." The address should've been a snooze, but it's not. It's an ambitious and plausible diagnosis of our country's economic problems as partly political in nature, and it's a sensible and complete vision for how we could move forward. Frankly, it's the speech President Obama should be giving.
I'm not going to summarize it here, because I think it's actually worth taking five minutes to read it in full. But the whole thing is below the fold:
---------------------
Someone might ask why, with our country in mourning, we are here this morning continuing to talk about the business of the country. But the truth is that is what Gabrielle Giffords was doing – talking about the business of the country. And the truth is, talking about the business of our country is more urgent than ever.
John and I considered postponing this speech, which had been planned for some time. But serious times call for serious discussions. And after some reflection, both of us felt that not only should this speech not be postponed, but that, in fact, it was imperative to give it.
So obviously, as we gather here this morning, last weekend’s unspeakable tragedy is at the forefront of all of our minds. Our thoughts are with Congresswoman Giffords and the families of all the victims. We pray for her full recovery, even as a nation mourns the loss of innocent life in such a senseless act.
All of us struggle to understand this horrific event. There is much we still don’t know about what happened and why. But here’s what we do know without any question: on Saturday, a public servant went to meet with her constituents in the best tradition of our democracy, and while out, just doing her job, Congresswoman Giffords was shot down. Today she's fighting for her life, and six people lost their lives in this senseless assault not just on them, but, in its calculated planning for assassination, an assault on our democracy itself.
Eerily, I heard this weekend’s news while in Sudan, representing our country in our collective effort to help a people who have endured unspeakable violence and who are trying to make a fresh start through their democracy. Yet as I stood beside those Africans who have lost loved ones in pursuit of the democratic values we Americans so proudly export to the world, there was an unavoidable clash with the events unfolding in Tucson – a dramatic underscoring of the work that must be done to revitalize our own democracy here at home.
Many observers have already reduced this tragedy to simple questions of whether overheated rhetoric is to blame, or one partisan group or another. And surely today many pundits and politicians are measuring their words a little more carefully and thinking a little more about what they’re saying. But in the weeks and months ahead, the real issue we need to confront isn’t just what role divisive political rhetoric may have played on Saturday – but it’s the violence divisive, overly simplistic dialogue does to our democracy every day.
In the wake of this weekend’s tragedy, Speaker Boehner was right to suspend the House’s usual business; the question now is whether we’re all going to suspend and then end business as usual in the United States Capitol. Because even before this event shook us out of our partisan routine, it should have been clear that on bedrock questions of civility and consensus– discourse and democracy – the whole endeavor of building a politics of national purpose – the big question wasn’t whose rhetoric was right or wrong, but whether our political conversation was worthy of the confidence and trust of the American people.
Millions of Americans know we can do better than we’ve done these last bitter years – because our history has proven it time and again.
When the Soviets sent the first satellite in history into orbit half a century ago, leaders from both parties rose with a sense of common purpose and resolved that never again would the United States fall behind anyone, anywhere. President Kennedy summoned our nation to reach the great and audacious goal "before (the) decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."
There were no partisan divisions that blocked the way. With daring and unflagging determination we moved immediately to unprecedented levels of investment in science and technology, engineering and R&D – and only twelve years after Sputnik, two Americans humbly took mankind's first steps on the moon.
Back then – just as today - our leaders, Democrat and Republican, had deep disagreements on many issues, but back then, they shared an even deeper commitment to stand together for the strength and success of our country. For them, at that turning point, politics stopped not just at the ocean’s edge, but at the edge of the atmosphere. For them, American Exceptionalism wasn’t just a slogan; they knew that America is exceptional not because we say we are, but because we do exceptional things.
As I first said last month, we as a people face another Sputnik moment today. And the great question is whether we will meet this moment as Americans did so boldly five decades ago. The decisions we make – or fail to make – in this decade on new energy sources, on education, infrastructure, technology, and research , all of which are going to produce the jobs of the future, and our decisions on deficits and entitlements will without doubt determine whether the United States will continue to lead the world – or be left to follow in the wake of others, on the way to decline, less prosperous in our own land and less secure in the world.
Some will question how in the world this could be possible – America less prosperous? America on the decline? They forget that exceptionalism for America has never been an automatic fact – a birthright on autopilot – but an inheritance of opportunity to be renewed and revitalized by each generation.
So, let me share some facts with you. Right now, other developed and developing countries are making far-reaching choices to reshape their economies and move forward in a new and very different global era. But instead of us responding as Americans have in the past, the frustrating reality is that our American political system is increasingly paralyzed and Balkanized into a patchwork of narrow interests that have driven the larger “national good” far from the national dialogue altogether. Increasingly, overheated ideology and partisan infighting leave us less able to address or even comprehend the decisive nature and scale of the challenges that will decide our whole future.
The fact is – our strength at home determines our strength in the world. And other countries are constantly taking our measure, sizing us up, watching our politics, measuring our gridlock.
On issue after issue, enduring consensus has been frayed or shredded by lust for power cloaked in partisan games. Health care’s individual mandate? Guess what -- it started as a Republican idea-- a pro-business idea-- because rising insurance costs leave big holes in profits. Cap and trade? Guess again -- another Republican idea based on market principles and, with bipartisanship, successfully implemented by President George Herbert Walker Bush, now denounced as ideological heresy. And energy independence? For forty years, every President since Richard Nixon has recognized that foreign oil imports are America’s Achilles heel. But whenever we’ve had a chance to act, we’ve been blocked by entrenched influence and the siren call of short-term interest instead of achieving long-term success.
Even as we were clawing our way to the ratification of START Treaty last month, I noted that far more ambitious treaties had previously been ratified by votes of 90 or 95 to zero. I joked that in this Senate, in this hyper-partisan Washington, 67 might be the new 95. I’m proud that in the end we sent a signal to the world that in American foreign policy, however uphill the slog and improbable the victory, partisan politics can still stop at the water’s edge. But the fact remains that it was closer than it ever should have been.
All of this underscores the current danger to our country in ways that go far beyond that single debate and highlight a host of other issues that demand and deserve common resolve, not constant suspicion and division. If treaties ratified almost unanimously yesterday get just 71 votes today, what’s the forecast for other decisive endeavors that once would have commanded 79 votes in the Senate? We can’t afford for the old 79 to become the new 49, dooming our national will to unbreakable gridlock. Because in the 21st century where choices and consequences come at us so much faster than ever before, the price of Senate inaction isn’t just that we will stand still; it isn't just that America will fall behind; it's that we will stay behind as we cede the best possibilities of this young century to others who are more disciplined.
Just think about an issue as simple and fundamental as building and investing in America – an issue that was once so clearly bi-partisan. The Republican Mayor of New York City Fiorello LaGuardia famously said: “There’s no Republican or Democratic way to clean the streets.” Well, for decades there was no Democratic or Republican way to build roads and bridges and airports. The building of America was every American’s job. This wasn’t narrow pork; it was a national priority. But today, we’re still living off and wearing out the infrastructure put in place by Republicans and Democrats together, starting with President Eisenhower’s interstate highway system. We didn’t build it; our parents and grandparents did. Now partisan paralysis has kept us from renewing that inheritance even as it decays from neglect. And the question is – what are we building for our children and our future generations?
Reliable, modern infrastructure isn’t a luxury. It’s the lifeblood of our economy-- the key to connecting our markets, moving products and people, generating and sustaining millions of jobs for American workers, to not wasting hundreds of thousands of hours and millions of gallons of gas on clogged highways.
In the face of global competition, our growth and exports are directly tied to the modernity of our infrastructure. As we invest too little and our competitors invest more and more, the harder and harder it will be to catch up – and the more and more attractive those countries will be for future investments.
In 2009 China spent an estimated $350 billion on infrastructure-- 9 percent of its GDP. Europe’s infrastructure bank financed $350 billion in projects across the continent from 2005 to 2009, modernizing seaports, expanding airports and high-speed rail lines, and reconfiguring city centers. Brazil invested over $240 billion in infrastructure in the past three years alone, with an additional $340 billion planned over the next three years.
And what about us? Well, we know that Americans have always been builders. We built a transcontinental railroad. We built an interstate highway system. We built the rockets that let us explore the farthest edge of the solar system and beyond. But as a result of our political gridlock and attention to the short-term, that’s not what we’re doing today.
For too long we’ve underbuilt and underinvested, and too much of what we have done has been uninformed by any long-term strategic plan. In 2008, it was estimated that we had to make an annual investment of $250 billion for the next 50 years to legitimately meet our transportation needs. Right now, we aren’t even close to that. Right now, we are as many miles away from it as we ought to be building to get there.
Other countries are doing what we ought to do. They’re racing ahead because they created infrastructure banks to build a new future ; but we’ve yet to build a new consensus for our own national infrastructure bank to make Americans the world’s builders again-- and to keep our country the leader in the new world economy.
Imagine the possibilities that would come from this endeavor - financing projects from high-speed rail to air and sea ports, all with the expectation of being repaid, lending directly to economically viable initiatives of both national and regional significance, without political influence, run in an open and transparent manner by experienced professionals with meaningful Congressional oversight. That is an indispensable strategy for prosperity and a legitimate vision that Americans could embrace. And if we offer America the leadership it deserves, it ought to be an undoubted opportunity and necessity for bi-partisanship.
It’s not just infrastructure where we must rebuild our sense of great national purpose: virtually every measure shows that we’re falling behind. Today the United States is ranked 10th in global competitiveness among the G20 countries. America is now 12th worldwide in the percentage of 25-to-34-year-olds with a college degree, trailing, among others, Russia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Israel. This year investors have pulled $74 billion out of domestic stock funds and put $42 billion into foreign stock funds. High-profile multinational companies including Applied Materials and IBM are already opening major R&D centers in China. And as we look to the Googles of the future, it is increasingly possible that they will be founded by students from Tianjin University, rather than MIT or Stanford.
We need to face up these new challenges-- not just as individuals or separate interests, but as a nation with a national purpose. The world of the next generation will change too rapidly for political parties to focus too narrowly on the next election. And the 21st Century can be another American century-- but only if we restore a larger sense of responsibility and replace the clattering cacophony of the perpetual campaign with a wider discussion of what is best for our country.
For the last months we’ve watched the news and read the campaign literature and heard a lot the soundbites. We've heard politicians say they won't become a part of Washington. That say they're for small government, lower taxes, and more freedom. But what do they really mean?
Do they want a government too limited to have invented the Internet, now a vital part of our commerce and communications? A government too small to give America’s auto industry and all its workers a second chance to fight for their survival? Taxes too low to invest in the research that creates jobs and industries and fills the Treasury with the revenue that educates our children, cures disease, and defends our country? We have to get past slogans and soundbites, reason together, and talk in real terms about how America can do its best.
If we are going to balance the budget and create jobs, we can’t pretend that we can do it by just eliminating earmarks and government waste. We have to look at the plain facts of how we did it before, and by the way, you don't have to look far. In the early 1990's, our economy was faltering because deficits and debt were freezing capital. We had to send a signal to the market that we were capable of being fiscally responsible. We did just that and as result we saw the longest economic expansion in history, created over 22 million jobs, and generated unprecedented wealth in America, with every income bracket rising. But we did it by making tough choices. The Clinton economic plan committed the country to a path of discipline that helped unleash the productive potential of the American people. We invested in the workforce, in research, in development. We helped new industries. Then, working with Republicans, we came up with a budget framework that put our nation on track to be debt free by 2012 for the first time since Andrew Jackson's administration.
How we got off track is a story that doesn’t require retelling. But the truth of how we generated the 1990’s economic boom does need to be told. We didn’t just cut our way to a balanced budget; we grew our way there.
And nothing played a more important role than the fact that we developed a one trillion dollar technology market with one billion users. Today we’re staring another economic opportunity of extraordinary proportions right in the face – and so far we’re doing precious little about it. The current energy economy is a $6 trillion market with 4 billion users (and the possibility of growing to 9 billion in the next 30 years) – and the fastest growing segment of that is green energy – projected at $2.3 trillion in 2020. Yet, as of today, without different policy decisions by us, most of this investment will be in Asia, and not the United States. Two years ago, China accounted for just 5 percent of the world’s solar panel production. Now it boasts the world’s largest solar panel manufacturing industry, exporting about 95 percent of its production to countries including the United States. We invented the technology but China is reaping the rewards.
China's government is poised to outspend the U.S. 3 to 1 on public clean-energy projects over the next several years. They have installed 36 percent of the global market share in wind energy in 2009 and surpassed the United States as the fastest growing market. Deutsche Bank's Kevin Parker, who manages $7 billion in climate change-related investments, calls the US “asleep at the wheel on climate change...[and] on the industrial revolution taking place in the energy industry." Because of political uncertainty and inaction in this country, he’s now focusing Deutsche Bank’s “green” investment dollars more and more on opportunities in China and Western Europe, where governments provide a more positive environment. Today only $45 million of the $7 billion green investments fund that Deutsche Bank manages is from the United States. Simply put, because we are asleep, the investments are going elsewhere.
Now is the moment for America to reach for the brass energy ring – to go for the moon here on earth by building our new energy future-- and, in doing so, create millions of steady, higher paying jobs at every level of the economy. Make no mistake - jobs that produce energy in America are jobs that stay in America. The amount of work to be done here is just stunning. It is the work of many lifetimes. And it must begin now. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue; but instead of coming together to meet the defining test of a new energy economy and our future, we’re now leaving a political season in which too many candidates promised not to work with the other party. And this in the wake of a Senate session that started for Republicans with a power point presentation pronouncing - and I quote - "the purpose of the majority is to pass their agenda, the purpose of the minority is to become the majority."
It’s no secret that I’m a convinced Democrat. And I know it’s better to be in the majority than in the minority. And I don't want anyone to come to the Senate, check their beliefs at the door, and "go Washington." Neither did the Founding Fathers. And certainly no one's elected to the Senate promising to join an exclusive club-- or to forget where they came from. But the truth is some of the most fiercely independent, plain-talking, direct, and determined partisans I've ever known in the Senate have also been the ones who tackled the toughest issues, finding common ground with people they disagreed with on damn near everything else.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a New York liberal. Alan Simpson was a Wyoming conservative. But they could sit down and talk and debate and disagree about deficits, debts, and entitlements and somehow someway they could shape a way forward. And they did it in a way that enlisted liberals like Bill Bradley, moderates like Jack Heinz, and conservatives like John Danforth because they knew that certain issues were just too important to be lost in partisan squabbling.
And you couldn't find three more proudly partisan and ideologically distinct politicians than Ronald Reagan, Tip O’Neill, and Bob Dole. But they found a way to put politics aside and save Social Security for a generation rather than saving it for misuse as a cudgel in the next campaign. They didn't capitulate - they compromised. And, speaking of backroom deals, they agreed NOT to let either party demagogue the issue against the incumbents who cast the tough votes to pass the bill. Now, if you’ve got to have a backroom deal, that’s the kind to have.
Folks, you won't find a Republican today who would dare criticize Ronald Reagan. Last week, when the candidates for chairman of the Republican National Committee had their debate, Grover Norquist asked each of them to name their favorite Republican other than Ronald Reagan. He said he had to add that caveat so everyone didn't give the same answer. But we'd all be better off if some of these Republicans remembered that Ronald Reagan worked across the aisle to solve big problems. And we'd all be better off if Grover Norquist thought of THAT Ronald Reagan before he announced that "bipartisanship is just another word for date rape."
That's the difference today. Ideology isn't new to the American political arena and ideology isn't unhealthy. The biggest breakthroughs in American politics have been brokered not by a mushy middle or by splitting the difference but by people who had a pretty healthy sense of ideology. Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch were a powerful team precisely because they didn't agree on that much and they spent a lot of time fighting each other --and so the Senate leaned in and listened on those occasions when somehow this ultimate odd couple found things they were willing to fight for together.
Sometimes, as John Kennedy once said, “party asks too much.” Sometimes, party leaders also ask too much, especially if they exploit the rules of the United States Senate for the sole purpose of denying a President a second term. But that is what we have witnessed the last two years; Republicans nearly unanimous in opposition to almost every proposal by the President and almost every proposal by Democratic colleagues. The extraordinary measure of a filibuster has become an ordinary expedient. Today it’s possible for 41 Senators representing only about one tenth of the American population to bring the Senate to a standstill.
Certainly, I believe the filibuster has its rightful place. I used it to stop drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge because I believed that was in our national interest --and 60 or more Senators should be required to speak up on such an irrevocable decision. But we have reached the point where the filibuster is being invoked by the minority not necessarily because of a difference over policy, but as a political tool to undermine the Presidency.
Consider this: in the entire 19th century, including the struggle against slavery, fewer than two dozen filibusters were mounted. Between 1933 and the coming of World War II, it was attempted only twice. During the Eisenhower administration, twice. During John Kennedy’s presidency, four times-- and then eight during Lyndon Johnson’s push for civil rights and voting rights bills. By the time Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan occupied the White House, there were about 20 filibusters a year.
But in the 110th Congress of 2007-2008, there were a record 112 cloture votes. And in the 111th Congress, there were 136, one of which even delayed a vote to authorize funding for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps during a time of war. That’s not how the Founders intended the Senate to work-- and that's not how our country can afford the Senate not to work.
Chris Dodd said it best in his farewell address just a few weeks ago – a speech the Republican Leader called one of the most important in the history of the chamber. Chris sounded a warning: “What will determine whether this institution works or not, what has always determined whether we will fulfill the Framers’ highest hopes or justify the cynics’ worst fears, is not the Senate rules, the calendar, or the media. It is whether each of the one hundred Senators can work together.”
That was a speech that needed to be heard. But the question now isn’t whether it was heard; it’s whether we really listened to it. Because when it comes to the economy, our country really does need 100 Senators who face the facts and find a way to work not just on their side, but side by side.
No one runs for the Senate arguing that the United States should have one fifth of its foreign debt held by China. No winning candidate has ever suggested that the United States should trail Poland in education. Or that Germany should invent the next Google or develop the cutting edge new clean energy industries. No one has ever gone into a debate pledging that Indian workers should hold the jobs of the future not American workers.
There’s a bi-partisan consensus just waiting to lift our country and our future if Senators are willing to sit down and forge it and make it real. If we're willing to stop talking past each other, to stop substituting soundbites for substance. If we're willing finally to pull ourselves out of an ideological cement of our own mixing.
We will no doubt continue to be frustrated and angry from time to time, but I believe that more often than not, we can rise to the common ground of great national purpose. Surely we can agree and act to realize the goal set by the President who called his fellow citizens to meet that earlier Sputnik moment -- an America " that is not first if, not first but, but first period."
So, in this time of crisis and mourning, in this time of challenge and opportunity, we need to commit to reaching across the aisle, as colleagues did before us, to unite to do the exceptional things that will keep America exceptional for generations to come.
By Ezra Klein | January 11, 2011; 11:09 AM ET

2011-01-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

I got this headline in an email this morning:

City Upon a Hill of Scraps: Surviving on Scavenging in Iraq
By JOHN LELAND (NYT)
Nocturnal scavengers and the middlemen who buy the scrap for cents on the pound belong to an underground economy that sustains and organizes whole neighborhoods.

I couldn't help but think about a recent trip to turn in cans for my youngest (since he goes to the trouble of taking care of the empty cans; I let him have the little bit of cash from it).. I was told of the homeless in San Francisco who turn in recyclables on one day a week for money. I wonder what they do to gather up the cans and other material. It would seem that we have created a similar situation in Iraq; another export of our way of life? In this country we have an element that goes to even lower extremes to acquire scrap that is traded for money. Twice I have had welding cables stolen from my welder in the night. We call these people tweekers, because generally they are on crack cocaine. They scrap and steal scrap for a little more drug, but there are others that scrap for food money and other necessities; they are scrapping to survive. I started wondering what I could load up to sell at the salvage yard...

Update: My wife showed me this news story this morning(1/13/11)a:

Four arrested after string of local burglaries
Idaho Press-Tribune
- ‎16 hours ago‎ -
all 4 articles »

Politics in America In The Face of Horrible Tragedy

2011-01-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

To say the least, there has been a lot of discussion about the recent shootings in AZ. There have been some very good statements and articles from some and some have chosen to lay blame while others have tried to defend themselves and their rhetoric. I want to point out some of the better ones that I have read or heard. First, Jon Stewart, in my opinion, gave one of the greatest statements I have ever heard from him and perhaps the best speech on this subject by anyone... So, here it is:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Arizona Shootings Reaction
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

Of course I have to include in this post, James Fallows' posts on this as well; first this one titled; The Cloudy Logic Of 'Political' Shootings, and there are followups to this subject here and here. I urge you to read these, but to also follow James Fallows' blog and writings not just for more postings on this subject...

Now, last night I read these two posts; first from David Brooks titled; "The Politicized Mind" and then from Bob Herbert; A Flood Tide Of Murder. These two will give you two ways of looking at this.

But, this cannot be complete without a little more perspective from history so go read this one also from NYT's by Joanne B Freeman; When Congress Was Armed And Dangerous.

I want to share one more video; this one is from the Ed Show on MSNBC and I think he brings us things that we need to think about in a very unbiased levelheaded way.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But, what are the talking heads saying? They are defending themselves and blaming others and using tragedy to line their pockets and fire up their audience at the same time. This is a real shame for them. I purposefully will not post anything from these people.... I guess I am not fair or balanced.

A Good Cause

2011-01-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

I read this from James Fallows yesterday and I want to post it here just in case one reader comes along and has a way to help with this or knows others to spread this along.. I want to donate to this and I will if I can in the future, but for now all I can do is make it known as much as I can.. here is the gist of the story from the posts on James Fallows' blog here and here:

I don't want to set a precedent of becoming a venue for fund-raising appeals. There are too many deserving candidates. But on a one-time basis, the note I received today from Len Edgerly, of the Kindle Chronicles, seems to me so sensible, and so modest in its needs, that it is worth sharing -- especially at a moment when many people are thinking about ways to mend the civic fabric. Edgerly writes:

Follow the my links above and go read the rest of it if you interested or know someone who might be..

I had the opportunity to check out a Kindle recently and I think these things could be truly helpful to many different people, but to our troops... invaluable, so I do think this is a worthy cause.

2011-01-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

The shooting in Tucson is really too horrible for me to write about.. The death of 9 year old Christina Green, and the obscene mutilation of Gabriel Giffords is a very grievous injury to all of us.. This is so much senseless pain.

One part of the story is a good lesson for us and gives one a certain amount of inspiration and hope. This is the story of the intern that stepped in and took care of the wounded Giffords until the paramedics arrived and even then stayed with her to the hospital. This is an example of light in a dark time that gives us all hope in our devastation. This is something to point out instead of pointing fingers of blame.

Surprised?

2011-01-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

I read of the president's new chief of staff appointment yesterday and had to wonder just how long this kind of behavior would be tolerated.. Is everyone's face numb or do we enjoy being slapped? How long before we will be lectured again about not being grateful for all the things this president has done? OK, here is the headline this morning on AlterNet:

Here We Go Again: Obama Picks Big Bank, Big Telecom, and Big Phrama Lobbyist to Be Chief of Staff
Obama ushers a telecom lobbyist, chief architect of NAFTA and current Midwest chairman of JP Morgan Chase into the #2 job in the White House. READ MORE

Here is little sample from the article:

Daley, brother of outgoing Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, was Commerce Secretary under Bill Clinton, the chief architect of NAFTA, chairman of Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, a top adviser/fundraiser for the Obama campaign and, most recently, Midwest chairman of JP Morgan Chase. He shares the corporate centrism of Emanuel and, when it comes to economic issues, may be worse. AFL-CIO head John Sweeney once said that Daley stood “squarely on the opposite side of working families.”

And, here is a sample comment from one reader:

I'd like to say that this appoint surprises me, but it doesn't. Given all the other crooks and liars and banking-business criminals he has already appointed, this is just one more in that ilk. Wait a minute. Actually he is a Chicago Machine Democrat, son of the man whose corrupt Democratic party machine ruled Chicago for years, winning elections with votes from the cemeteries. Daley was a thug no different than Al Capone and some of the other notorious gangsters that were produced by Prohibition. The political system is beyond repair and on a steeply sloped, greased track to fascism. "Then they came for the trade-unionists, and I didn't speak out." And so it goes as the history of mankind repeats itself century after century.

I can only shake my head and wonder how things will go in the next couple of years and how far down the drain we will go.. Like my dad says; "Things are going to get worse before they get better". At this point; I would guess that Obama will not win a re-election and we can only hope that somewhere out of our crop of leaders someone will emerge that can lead us out of our current direction. It will take courage and someone who knows what needs to be done and stays with it, but we all will have some unpleasant maybe even painful years ahead that we will have to unwaveringly stand up to. We will have to work together... and stop blaming the other party (I know, we have heard it before).

Along the lines of "blaming the other party"; we have once again a game of misdirection going on. What do I mean? Healthcare is going to be debated once more instead of a solution to our unemployment crises. Get over health insurance and realize that if we don't get started working in this country there will not be enough money to run the governments all over this country let alone pay for insurance. We are going broke if we don't raise our tax base.. end of.. all of us. There wont be hospitals to spend your insurance money in if we don't fix this. Stop employing the rest of the world and put us to work.

It doesn't comfort me to know that someone we elected to stand for the common working man and change we can believe in has not, and has arrogantly stood before us and demanded gratitude for his ineffectual "leadership". But, more disquieting is the idea that now we will allow our leaders to take even more from us and take even more from us, while the ones many believe would save us (corporations and rich private investors) take even more from us and export our jobs to other countries. How can they expect to pay the bills with no income?

Trick Question

2011-01-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

Have you ever fallen for a trick question on a test or quiz or, perhaps a joke? You can probably think of a riddle that is actually a trick question.. Well, I have one for you to think about: "Are you better off now then you were four years ago?" This is Reagan's famous question that he first asked in the debate with Jimmy Carter in 1980, but here is what he actually said:

Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than it was [sic] four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was four years ago? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as were were four years ago?

I still remember how I felt when I watched this debate in 1980; Reagan's smirking and laughing at Carter, and then his little, "there you go again", still pisses me off when I watched this video today. The nation was on a course of improvement with the Carter administration and Reagan came in and... The American people voted in an actor who did not even believe in what he was saying.

I would ask if anyone can look at any period of life whether last year or 20 years ago and say that they are absolutely better off than___ years ago. Why is this? Because, humans don't remember things as they actually were but they remember with emotions and perhaps other perceptions that can be just as unreliable. Were things really better in 1976 than 1980? What part of the population would think it better or worse? Consider the economy today; the top 4 or 5% would have to say that things are definitely looking up. These folks just got a raise in net income and they just keep on making more and more money especially in comparison to the rest of us. But, if you had asked me if I was better off in 1980 compared to four years earlier; I would have had to say, yes, indeed I am. But, if you asked me four years later... hmm, and even in four more years? I can say that in 1988, I was very poor as far as income goes... but, I was starting a family and my first was born at the end of the year and in that way things were good. In 1988, the economy sucked and I was very disillusioned with a certain president and wondering how to support my family on part time work and little of it (when Becky and I married, I had full time and occasional raises).

Think about your past to a time when things changed and you started thinking; things used to be better. Now, think about all the times that you wished things would change or that you could go somewhere else or, maybe even thought that things used to be better when____. Are humans ever happy in their current state? Is there never some moment that you long for or some situation that was so much better and you wish you could return?

I read about this and listened to this lecture first on RYviewpoint, but today could not find it right away, so, here is the video from TED:

There are many more articles and other "proof" that I should use to substantiate what I write, but I don't see the sense of it. We as Americans need to ask our selves better questions. But for now, we need to realize when we are being led into thinking or remembering and following the speaker into a fervor. Like a crowd being led into giving their souls over to emotional sentiments that are not real and giving their future away.

I wanted to include here another aspect to this.. Two of my sons and a friend were discussing a literature project involving the concept of utopia and dystopia. After hearing their brief conversation; I wondered if ever there could be a truly utopian society where all people were happy. I think some would long for the "good ole days" and sit in the coffee houses at night planning a revolution.

2011-01-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

I got this email from Yoga Journal Newsletters awhile back and thought it interesting, but had other things to think about...

Practice Makes Possible
The great paradox about surrender—as with other qualities of awakened consciousness, such as love, compassion, and detachment—is that though we can practice it, invoke it, or open up to it, we can't actually make it happen. In other words, just as the practice of being loving is different from being in love, so the practice of surrendering is not the same as the state of being surrendered.
As a practice, surrender is an antidote to the frustration that shows up whenever you try to control the uncontrollable. There are any number of ways to practice surrender—from softening your belly to consciously opening yourself to grace, turning over a situation to the universe or to God, or deliberately letting go of your attachment to an outcome. At the very least, the intention to surrender will allow you to release some of the invisible tension caused by fear and desire.
When the great will opens inside you, it's like going through the door that leads beyond limitation. You wonder why you didn't just let go in the first place. Then, like a surfer on a wave, you let the energy take you where it knows you're meant to go.

I like this paradox because it gives us something to ponder. There are so many things in life that like this; out of our reach because reaching for it puts it out of reach. This is kind of like trying to relax or de-stressing. It becomes a vicious circle that can spiral in on you. I want to give one more thing to think about from The Illustrated Tao Te Ching, A new translation by Man-Ho Kwok, Martin Palmer and Jay Ramsay (which is the book that I always copy from) Chapter Forty Five:

A great thing done is never perfect –
But that doesn’t mean it fails: it does what it is.

Real richness means to act as if you had nothing,
Because then you will never be drained of it.

The greatest straightness seems bent,
The greatest ability seems awkward,
And the greatest speech, like a stammering.

Act calmly, not coldly.
Peace is greater than anger.
Tranquility and harmony
Are the true order of things.

Upgrade To First Class

2011-01-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

I was sent a link to this very interesting opinion piece by Frank Rich titled; Who Killed The Disneyland Dream?. Frank Rich writes a very interesting and thought provoking article with this one (as always); I do like his writing and point of view. The cartoon at the top of the article says a lot and I am tempted to steal it... But, I am going to give you a couple of paragraphs and let you read the rest on your own..

But a third representative American optimist who died this year, at age 91, is a Connecticut man who was not a player in great events and whom I’d never heard of until I read his Times obituary: Robbins Barstow, an amateur filmmaker who for decades recorded his family’s doings in home movies of such novelty and quality that one of them, the 30-minute “Disneyland Dream,” was admitted to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress two years ago. That rare honor elevates Barstow’s filmmaking to a pantheon otherwise restricted mostly to Hollywood classics, from “Citizen Kane” to “Star Wars.”
“Disneyland Dream” was made in the summer of 1956, shortly before the dawn of the Kennedy era. You can watch it on line at archive.org or on YouTube. Its narrative is simple. The young Barstow family of Wethersfield, Conn. — Robbins; his wife, Meg; and their three children aged 4 to 11 — enter a nationwide contest to win a free trip to Disneyland, then just a year old. The contest was sponsored by 3M, which asked contestants to submit imaginative encomiums to the wonders of its signature product. Danny, the 4-year-old, comes up with the winning testimonial, emblazoned on poster board: “I like ‘Scotch’ brand cellophane tape because when some things tear then I can just use it.”

And, here is the point of the article:

The key word in that sentence is “bygone.” The Barstows accept as a birthright an egalitarian American capitalism where everyone has a crack at “upper class” luxury if they strive for it (or are clever enough to win it). It’s an America where great corporations like 3M can be counted upon to make innovative products, sustain an American work force, and reward their customers with a Cracker Jack prize now and then. The Barstows are delighted to discover that the restrooms in Fantasyland are marked “Prince” and “Princess.” In America, anyone can be royalty, even in the john.

-----

How many middle-class Americans now believe that the sky is the limit if they work hard enough? How many trust capitalism to give them a fair shake? Middle-class income started to flatten in the 1970s and has stagnated ever since. While 3M has continued to prosper, many other companies that actually make things (and at times innovative things) have been devalued, looted or destroyed by a financial industry whose biggest innovation in 20 years, in the verdict of the former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, has been the cash machine.

There is so much more to the article and I recommend that you go and read all of it and think about the cartoon at the top.

The first time I flew on an airliner; my wife and I had the opportunity to go first class. It was a very fun plane ride for us. I was so thankful for the adventure, but I have not been even close to first class since then and now, I dread flying and try to think of ways to avoid it.
I watched my son who is in the military go through the "security theater" at the airport on his way to the next step in his military training this morning. I think we are a long way from first class these days in America. Can we ever really grasp how much has been taken and traded away from all of us? Do we think that we can ever get it back?