The NRA sits around all day contemplating the mass production of ever more destructive weaponry.
When their executives come up with something which will sell these weapons, they chuckle. They giggle. Then they
smirk and nod.
When unbelievable gun violence occurs in our society with a sickening regularity not seen in other
societies around rhe world, these same execs gather to blame something like video games.
What video game has unarmed people and creatures getting mowed down in melees?
The NRA would have us arm school professionals.
How could we know all the people armed in schools would be good guys for as long as they
are armed? A school janitor or principal won't ever be tempted to use an ever present gun inappropriately?
A guns and ammunition carrying 'bad' guy won't approach a school now that he or she is also armed with the knowledge a lot more persons in the building are carrying as well?
Armed perpetrators don't kill policemen and other armed persons?
The citizen with a gun during the shootings at Congresswoman Giffords' attack in Arizona arrived on the bloody scene to shoot the man who was wielding the gun. That man was the one who had disarmed the shooter. Luckily, the citizen realized in time he had no way of knowing who to shoot.
We don't need more guns. Of course that threatens the NRA.
This Association needs to get into a new business.
They need to broaden the range of their caring.
As it is today, they care for only one thing...the money they can get from our 'cold dead hands'.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Easy E
In 1979, Easy E said in his rap song- 'don't get high off your own supply'.
Later, Biggy quoted that from Easy in his own rap, The Ten Crack Commandments.
News analysts sometimes know a lot about late rap, but they don't seem to know a lot about who Biggy, and
Tupac and Snoop listened to when they were developing their styles.
As it turns out, not only Easy, but all the other NWA artists became stars again on their own.
Those guys were singing about life. And this multi billion dollar industry has an evolutionary and derivative history.
Later, Biggy quoted that from Easy in his own rap, The Ten Crack Commandments.
News analysts sometimes know a lot about late rap, but they don't seem to know a lot about who Biggy, and
Tupac and Snoop listened to when they were developing their styles.
As it turns out, not only Easy, but all the other NWA artists became stars again on their own.
Those guys were singing about life. And this multi billion dollar industry has an evolutionary and derivative history.
Black Culture
Black people in great numbers, inspire each other one small group at a time.
In the early eighties, I heard so many very young guys rapping. Sometimes they'd do it most of the day.
I was puzzled by it, and I was supposed to discourage it; but at times I'd sit and listen a while.
Later, in the mid eighties, when Luther Campbell became nearly a cult figure with black teenagers, he crossed over quite forcefully.
I don't know what happened to all those young men I listened to in the early part of the decade.
I was often glad when I had a chance to hear them.
Our city, and our country, however, called them 'Special Ed'.
I hear from a lot of people, now in their forties, that many rap artists allege in their work they were in
'Special Ed' in public schools.
I have no idea why people think conventional testing measures the intellect and creativity of black children.
When we get multibillion dollar industries of American culture from them, it's because the unmeasured
gifts they had to nurture in one another finally came to fruition.
The NBA was tiny compared to what it is now, since Michael came to town in Chicago from a small Southern college. (Well, chapel Hill isn't all that small, I suppose.)
Oprah has spun off many multimillion dollar enterprises in her career, including Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, and
Carol's Daughter. She is one who came to us from a small Southern college from which she was too busily employed to graduate. She was nurtured consistently by her earliest audiences, even when advertisers limited themselves mainly to diet products and liquor. Earlier, she was nurtured by her African-American radio
boss.
Michael Jackson pioneered contractual language in the music industry to benefit all artists. I can't say Michael was only accepted by black audiences, even when he was beginning in The Jackson Five; but he was brought into the limelight from Gary, Indiana to Detroit and Barry Gordy.
I hope we will continue to love our own children in great enough numbers to give them the power to create
popular new profitable industries.
I can't see who else will do it.
President Obama was unusual and somewhat lucky because he was both embraced by black culture, and quite conversant with American whiteness. It took him a bit of time to find us in the cities where we cling to each other, even though it is too often with awkward violence- once he did,
he became a leader for all of America. He gave all of us the chance to be encouraged to embrace
our culture as much as we can. No minority felt challenged in great numbers on November 6th, to strive for
whiteness. At last all minorities felt fine being who they were.
I heard Chris Matthews on MSNBC wax nostalgic about the Knights of Columbus in the fifties and sixties.
In our house, they were a racist joke. But they were in their own little tribe. So we let them be. What else
would we have done? Still, we strove to make Catholicism more than that in our neighborhoods. We did a
pretty good job, I think. We don't have as many congregations as we once did; but we are still proud of those we do have.
In the early eighties, I heard so many very young guys rapping. Sometimes they'd do it most of the day.
I was puzzled by it, and I was supposed to discourage it; but at times I'd sit and listen a while.
Later, in the mid eighties, when Luther Campbell became nearly a cult figure with black teenagers, he crossed over quite forcefully.
I don't know what happened to all those young men I listened to in the early part of the decade.
I was often glad when I had a chance to hear them.
Our city, and our country, however, called them 'Special Ed'.
I hear from a lot of people, now in their forties, that many rap artists allege in their work they were in
'Special Ed' in public schools.
I have no idea why people think conventional testing measures the intellect and creativity of black children.
When we get multibillion dollar industries of American culture from them, it's because the unmeasured
gifts they had to nurture in one another finally came to fruition.
The NBA was tiny compared to what it is now, since Michael came to town in Chicago from a small Southern college. (Well, chapel Hill isn't all that small, I suppose.)
Oprah has spun off many multimillion dollar enterprises in her career, including Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, and
Carol's Daughter. She is one who came to us from a small Southern college from which she was too busily employed to graduate. She was nurtured consistently by her earliest audiences, even when advertisers limited themselves mainly to diet products and liquor. Earlier, she was nurtured by her African-American radio
boss.
Michael Jackson pioneered contractual language in the music industry to benefit all artists. I can't say Michael was only accepted by black audiences, even when he was beginning in The Jackson Five; but he was brought into the limelight from Gary, Indiana to Detroit and Barry Gordy.
I hope we will continue to love our own children in great enough numbers to give them the power to create
popular new profitable industries.
I can't see who else will do it.
President Obama was unusual and somewhat lucky because he was both embraced by black culture, and quite conversant with American whiteness. It took him a bit of time to find us in the cities where we cling to each other, even though it is too often with awkward violence- once he did,
he became a leader for all of America. He gave all of us the chance to be encouraged to embrace
our culture as much as we can. No minority felt challenged in great numbers on November 6th, to strive for
whiteness. At last all minorities felt fine being who they were.
I heard Chris Matthews on MSNBC wax nostalgic about the Knights of Columbus in the fifties and sixties.
In our house, they were a racist joke. But they were in their own little tribe. So we let them be. What else
would we have done? Still, we strove to make Catholicism more than that in our neighborhoods. We did a
pretty good job, I think. We don't have as many congregations as we once did; but we are still proud of those we do have.
Wal Mart Business Plan: Enslave White People
Employees are hired at minimal rates of hourly compensation, given a few hours of work a week, insured by Medicaid, mainly disqualified for food stamps, can all afford about the same sort of low income housing near
the plantation, cannot afford much transportation, cannot afford to purchase things from many other stores. So all their paycheck goes for cheap rents, cheap transport, then back to the employer.
No wonder Wal Mart owners are so rich. We still have plenty of White and Latino citizens in this country who want work, but wind up with 'the company store'.
How clever the Wal Mart family has been. They are nearly as clever as the college football plantations...but those are not mostly white people working the lowest ranks of the university plantations without getting an education.
Come on, can we possibly operate in this country without a bunch of plantations? I guess the great percentage of prisons and prisoners developed during the Reagan years let exploiters down as useful institutionalizations of slavery. Wal Mart took up that slack- and then some!
the plantation, cannot afford much transportation, cannot afford to purchase things from many other stores. So all their paycheck goes for cheap rents, cheap transport, then back to the employer.
No wonder Wal Mart owners are so rich. We still have plenty of White and Latino citizens in this country who want work, but wind up with 'the company store'.
How clever the Wal Mart family has been. They are nearly as clever as the college football plantations...but those are not mostly white people working the lowest ranks of the university plantations without getting an education.
Come on, can we possibly operate in this country without a bunch of plantations? I guess the great percentage of prisons and prisoners developed during the Reagan years let exploiters down as useful institutionalizations of slavery. Wal Mart took up that slack- and then some!
The Violent American
We continue to see charts of American violence.
Americans watch video games, but in no case do we have a video game where there is glory in mass murder
in movie theaters, army stores, colleges, meet and greets for representatives, high schools, churches, or
elementary schools.
People so often look outside themselves to understand the violence they felt they needed to commit. Apparently, societies do the same.
If we are more violent than other developed nations it's because we are neglecting growth and development in crucial areas of our group interactions.
But we can't compare the violent incidents of a nation of over 300 million persons to those of a nation of
of 20 million. If we are statistically worse, OK; but numbers of incidents per capita are misleading when
depicted as groups of tiny nations.
One important thing is that we can mathematically extrapolate how many of these incidents we can
expect to have added to our grieving before we can diffuse enough of them to be more free of them.
We are burning through first responders- but laying off police officers and fire fighters. So we aren't making
any sense?
We have the technology to sense weapons. In the meantime, we have to begin to limit guns. They are too quick a fix.
Americans watch video games, but in no case do we have a video game where there is glory in mass murder
in movie theaters, army stores, colleges, meet and greets for representatives, high schools, churches, or
elementary schools.
People so often look outside themselves to understand the violence they felt they needed to commit. Apparently, societies do the same.
If we are more violent than other developed nations it's because we are neglecting growth and development in crucial areas of our group interactions.
But we can't compare the violent incidents of a nation of over 300 million persons to those of a nation of
of 20 million. If we are statistically worse, OK; but numbers of incidents per capita are misleading when
depicted as groups of tiny nations.
One important thing is that we can mathematically extrapolate how many of these incidents we can
expect to have added to our grieving before we can diffuse enough of them to be more free of them.
We are burning through first responders- but laying off police officers and fire fighters. So we aren't making
any sense?
We have the technology to sense weapons. In the meantime, we have to begin to limit guns. They are too quick a fix.
Mayor Mayor
Why is Mayor Bloomberg publicly instructing President Obama? Powerful New York public officials can run
for president. Is Bloomberg one of them? He keeps sounding like some outraged housewife. If he doesn't find a way to close his mouth, he is going to begin to sound like the Brutus Eric Cantor turned out to be when
Speaker Boehner took the floor. Has he ever heard of the Republican filibuster? He should complain bitterly
about it in public when gun control legislation begins to be debated anew.
for president. Is Bloomberg one of them? He keeps sounding like some outraged housewife. If he doesn't find a way to close his mouth, he is going to begin to sound like the Brutus Eric Cantor turned out to be when
Speaker Boehner took the floor. Has he ever heard of the Republican filibuster? He should complain bitterly
about it in public when gun control legislation begins to be debated anew.
Chris Rock Knows Gun Control
I think he was right. No matter how many guns someone has, if he or she has to pay thousands of dollars per bullet, a majority of gun purchasers will think a bit before buying available bullets.
The government needs to put heavy taxes on all of it. Also our government needs to put a computer chip in every part of every gun, and in every bullet sold. Alarms should go off when any one of those parts gets within yards of a school entrance unless is belongs law enforcement parts or tools.
We cannot stop murder, but we have to spend what it costs to begin to destroy gun murders.
While we try to shrink our government, instead we should be trying to shrink our murder rate, because it's
getting much more deadly than our government.
We used government to curb highway death.
We used government to curb tobacco-related illness and death.
We can use it to curb gun-related death.
We don't need enough guns to assault the government in the way 2nd Amendment enthusiasts believe we do.
Our government has drones, smart guns, detector robots, (Could schools use specialized robots? The kids might like them.) and many groups of armed forces. Our government has atomic power. No one in the world
has or will have enough guns to out-gun the U.S. armed forces.
Besides, if your gun is not out and cocked, how can it protect you? Mrs. Lanza had an arsenal of guns. Her son had no guns. Who got shot first?
The government needs to put heavy taxes on all of it. Also our government needs to put a computer chip in every part of every gun, and in every bullet sold. Alarms should go off when any one of those parts gets within yards of a school entrance unless is belongs law enforcement parts or tools.
We cannot stop murder, but we have to spend what it costs to begin to destroy gun murders.
While we try to shrink our government, instead we should be trying to shrink our murder rate, because it's
getting much more deadly than our government.
We used government to curb highway death.
We used government to curb tobacco-related illness and death.
We can use it to curb gun-related death.
We don't need enough guns to assault the government in the way 2nd Amendment enthusiasts believe we do.
Our government has drones, smart guns, detector robots, (Could schools use specialized robots? The kids might like them.) and many groups of armed forces. Our government has atomic power. No one in the world
has or will have enough guns to out-gun the U.S. armed forces.
Besides, if your gun is not out and cocked, how can it protect you? Mrs. Lanza had an arsenal of guns. Her son had no guns. Who got shot first?
Thank You Mort Zuckerman
I see Mr. Zuckerman has pledged a great deal of money to Columbia University's mind-body institute studies.
Now that a step in a right direction. Can we get prepared to hire these professionals as they acquire newer and newer bodies of findings, please.
We may also need university majors in developmental anthropological linguistics.
For instance, I used to know the approximate time the word 'manslaughter' enter into the English language.
English is a derivative language, though- very involved. But why does the word when separated into parts say 'man's laughter'?
Why does the word 'life' look so much like the word 'evil' when the letters are re-arranged? Is evil a restructuring of life? If so, how did early societies identify life in the sense of how humans should be alive?
Have we kept to early evolutionary basics for forming words from concepts? Are we gutting the basics?
How do societies losing their languages keep their relationship strengths at the start of life when adopting more modern language?
We have to study. We have to have teachers. We are not going to learn bonding dynamics from computers
alone. And that fact is beginning to show up more and more frequently, while shouting at us!
We are not supposed to be raising babies for predators. I have barely recovered from the Penn State
co-dependencies even though the children did not die, physically.
Now that a step in a right direction. Can we get prepared to hire these professionals as they acquire newer and newer bodies of findings, please.
We may also need university majors in developmental anthropological linguistics.
For instance, I used to know the approximate time the word 'manslaughter' enter into the English language.
English is a derivative language, though- very involved. But why does the word when separated into parts say 'man's laughter'?
Why does the word 'life' look so much like the word 'evil' when the letters are re-arranged? Is evil a restructuring of life? If so, how did early societies identify life in the sense of how humans should be alive?
Have we kept to early evolutionary basics for forming words from concepts? Are we gutting the basics?
How do societies losing their languages keep their relationship strengths at the start of life when adopting more modern language?
We have to study. We have to have teachers. We are not going to learn bonding dynamics from computers
alone. And that fact is beginning to show up more and more frequently, while shouting at us!
We are not supposed to be raising babies for predators. I have barely recovered from the Penn State
co-dependencies even though the children did not die, physically.
Family Leave
Every day I wake up wondering if 20 children were murdered all at once in Connecticut. Could that actually be true?
America is such a complicated society, we are all insane to assume we won't get even younger victims if our
business class don't get on board with child care and psychotherapy leave.
What happens to a person who does have post childbirth depression when she doesn't live near family, but her husband has to keep leaving the house every morning?
Initially, only the husband can accurately report the manifestations of his wife's problems if the couple is not
emotionally estranged. A person in the throes of postpartum doesn't actually know what is happening to her;
but psychiatrists are learning so much now about neglect and abuse that occurs pre-verbally. Those experiences are obviously processed in such a way that the violence later expressed from them is often very
meticulously planned, unique in objective ideal preferences, and easily manifested as objectifying other people.
Emotional isolation is obviously too easily absorbed in some families.
Gun control alone will do nothing. Mrs. Lanza may have had so many guns BECAUSE she felt her son was
alone and vulnerable without her. She knew him to be so odd that she may have thought he was the one at risk.
A woman who has nothing in her record to prevent her from buying guns will buy them if she feels she isn't
getting any younger, her son is odd enough to be a tormented loner with or without her, and has no support
systems to help him grow older in his world.
It could very well be that the odder the young man seemed to her the more she relied on a fantasy of outward protection.
We can't know why he wanted to kill such young children, but if he did do Kindergarten, he may have blamed first graders and first grade teachers for rejecting him enough to insure he must be home schooled.
Or he may have stopped at the first room near the entrance to ensure he could get started as soon as he could.
One thing clear to me is that he seemed to be unable to wait one minute longer than he absolutely had to in
order to get started in his slaying orgy.
How would he have needed to put so many bullets in a body small enough to be six or seven years old.
He had been to gun rages enough to know he needed live human targets in order feel really good. he knew
as well he wasn't willing to go to jail.
If he hadn't had a gun he would have used a hammer. He needed to have some fun, even if it were only
going to be once in his life.
He had probably been dying inside to do something of the nature of what he did since puberty, or even
earlier.
The point is that we do have scientists who postulate on these sorts of patterns. We need them is schools. We need them in maternity wards, and at six week check-ups.
People take days-old babies back to hospitals if the baby's hospital discharge suggests jaundice.
Babies have an unyielding need for steadfast relationship commitment.
We are going to have to begin to honor families who must adjust to those needs.
I don't think it will as heavy a lift as mass funerals every week.
America is such a complicated society, we are all insane to assume we won't get even younger victims if our
business class don't get on board with child care and psychotherapy leave.
What happens to a person who does have post childbirth depression when she doesn't live near family, but her husband has to keep leaving the house every morning?
Initially, only the husband can accurately report the manifestations of his wife's problems if the couple is not
emotionally estranged. A person in the throes of postpartum doesn't actually know what is happening to her;
but psychiatrists are learning so much now about neglect and abuse that occurs pre-verbally. Those experiences are obviously processed in such a way that the violence later expressed from them is often very
meticulously planned, unique in objective ideal preferences, and easily manifested as objectifying other people.
Emotional isolation is obviously too easily absorbed in some families.
Gun control alone will do nothing. Mrs. Lanza may have had so many guns BECAUSE she felt her son was
alone and vulnerable without her. She knew him to be so odd that she may have thought he was the one at risk.
A woman who has nothing in her record to prevent her from buying guns will buy them if she feels she isn't
getting any younger, her son is odd enough to be a tormented loner with or without her, and has no support
systems to help him grow older in his world.
It could very well be that the odder the young man seemed to her the more she relied on a fantasy of outward protection.
We can't know why he wanted to kill such young children, but if he did do Kindergarten, he may have blamed first graders and first grade teachers for rejecting him enough to insure he must be home schooled.
Or he may have stopped at the first room near the entrance to ensure he could get started as soon as he could.
One thing clear to me is that he seemed to be unable to wait one minute longer than he absolutely had to in
order to get started in his slaying orgy.
How would he have needed to put so many bullets in a body small enough to be six or seven years old.
He had been to gun rages enough to know he needed live human targets in order feel really good. he knew
as well he wasn't willing to go to jail.
If he hadn't had a gun he would have used a hammer. He needed to have some fun, even if it were only
going to be once in his life.
He had probably been dying inside to do something of the nature of what he did since puberty, or even
earlier.
The point is that we do have scientists who postulate on these sorts of patterns. We need them is schools. We need them in maternity wards, and at six week check-ups.
People take days-old babies back to hospitals if the baby's hospital discharge suggests jaundice.
Babies have an unyielding need for steadfast relationship commitment.
We are going to have to begin to honor families who must adjust to those needs.
I don't think it will as heavy a lift as mass funerals every week.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
First Grade
I had forgotten for a time just how dear first graders are. I haven't had a first grade class now for years.
Seeing the faces of the little ones killed last week jogged my memory.
They are fresh out of Kindergarten, and anxious to show they can be quite grown-up now that they are in
'real school.' They are so anxious to please, and to be pleasing.
They have lost that tendency to believe teacher already knows how their mom likes things done for them.
'You have to button my top button on my coat! My mom says I can't go outside just zipped up.'
In September they are very quiet, wondering privately if they are up to the tasks.
They are slowly getting used to the routines, and noting what boards are up.
They are so proud as they notice one day, some of them have actual work posted on some of the boards.
By October they have already begun to solidify friendships for what they think the year will bring.
They often know each other already; but anything new in someone, or anyone new to class starts to become
part of daily play lay acceptance. In Kindergarten they didn't seem to notice so much. They were guided more by finding the buddy who would definitely play dolls, or trucks. the girls got more and more girly for
the most part, and the boys had gotten a bit rougher than they were in pre-school. In first grade, though, they
have begun to take more delight in one another than in who will play what. They form the dearest, shyest little
bonds.
Then Halloween becomes an excitement which shakes them a bit out of their newly sophisticated school
personas, and they start to be a bit more giggly.
If Halloween was exciting, Thanksgiving really gets them going between the introspection of family traditions,
the history of the original Pilgrims, and the excitement of drawing turkeys, feasts, and getting ready for travel
or out-of-town relatives. They are way more interested in their art than they were a year before, as in they
want to make depictions more storied and complicated than any adult could tell with a naked eye.
For instance, that turkey may look pretty to you, but Johnny will tell you he is actually also looking for one of his feathers!
In Kindergarten, teachers are often more a part of the art on the page, the gluing, pasting, writing names, explaining to little ones what is being depicted.
First graders don't always seem to even remember having been in that stage. They take such delight in giving
the 'art gallery' tour of their pages, that I'd often get caught up enough to realize Art was going overtime, and
parents were wondering why we weren't at the door before the bell rang. Naturally, we have to get out there
before the big kids try to race out!
First grade is the only grade I became amazed at so many new coats before Christmas. I knew exactly what
had happened, because most first graders grow shockingly quickly between August and December. I'd
always remark: 'Oh you got a new coat. I love it.!'
Almost every time, I'd get a proud reply: 'My other coat was too small.'...or something to that effect.
By June, my heart would almost be heavy that I barely recognized the bitty girl or boy I'd met in late August
or early September, because the child had begun to take his or her own growth for granted. Only teacher
was dazed and amazed. Teacher was thought to be a little corny.
My greatest exposure to first grade was in a year when I had a nice friend who asked me to cover her classes as she dealt all year with chemotherapy, and weakness.
As I was a sub, I wasn't always able to get the classes I would loved to have taught. However, after taking
so many of my friend Phyllis's classes that year, whenever I got a chance to take a first grade class, I did.
For first graders, all information, all new experience is a wonder, as the little ones' imaginations and persons
are themselves.
Seeing the faces of the little ones killed last week jogged my memory.
They are fresh out of Kindergarten, and anxious to show they can be quite grown-up now that they are in
'real school.' They are so anxious to please, and to be pleasing.
They have lost that tendency to believe teacher already knows how their mom likes things done for them.
'You have to button my top button on my coat! My mom says I can't go outside just zipped up.'
In September they are very quiet, wondering privately if they are up to the tasks.
They are slowly getting used to the routines, and noting what boards are up.
They are so proud as they notice one day, some of them have actual work posted on some of the boards.
By October they have already begun to solidify friendships for what they think the year will bring.
They often know each other already; but anything new in someone, or anyone new to class starts to become
part of daily play lay acceptance. In Kindergarten they didn't seem to notice so much. They were guided more by finding the buddy who would definitely play dolls, or trucks. the girls got more and more girly for
the most part, and the boys had gotten a bit rougher than they were in pre-school. In first grade, though, they
have begun to take more delight in one another than in who will play what. They form the dearest, shyest little
bonds.
Then Halloween becomes an excitement which shakes them a bit out of their newly sophisticated school
personas, and they start to be a bit more giggly.
If Halloween was exciting, Thanksgiving really gets them going between the introspection of family traditions,
the history of the original Pilgrims, and the excitement of drawing turkeys, feasts, and getting ready for travel
or out-of-town relatives. They are way more interested in their art than they were a year before, as in they
want to make depictions more storied and complicated than any adult could tell with a naked eye.
For instance, that turkey may look pretty to you, but Johnny will tell you he is actually also looking for one of his feathers!
In Kindergarten, teachers are often more a part of the art on the page, the gluing, pasting, writing names, explaining to little ones what is being depicted.
First graders don't always seem to even remember having been in that stage. They take such delight in giving
the 'art gallery' tour of their pages, that I'd often get caught up enough to realize Art was going overtime, and
parents were wondering why we weren't at the door before the bell rang. Naturally, we have to get out there
before the big kids try to race out!
First grade is the only grade I became amazed at so many new coats before Christmas. I knew exactly what
had happened, because most first graders grow shockingly quickly between August and December. I'd
always remark: 'Oh you got a new coat. I love it.!'
Almost every time, I'd get a proud reply: 'My other coat was too small.'...or something to that effect.
By June, my heart would almost be heavy that I barely recognized the bitty girl or boy I'd met in late August
or early September, because the child had begun to take his or her own growth for granted. Only teacher
was dazed and amazed. Teacher was thought to be a little corny.
My greatest exposure to first grade was in a year when I had a nice friend who asked me to cover her classes as she dealt all year with chemotherapy, and weakness.
As I was a sub, I wasn't always able to get the classes I would loved to have taught. However, after taking
so many of my friend Phyllis's classes that year, whenever I got a chance to take a first grade class, I did.
For first graders, all information, all new experience is a wonder, as the little ones' imaginations and persons
are themselves.
Safety
Less than a mile from my house, my bank has a branch on a busy street. I believe those employees and the money housed therein enjoy a safe environment.
If you were to go to my bank, cameras would watch as you approached.
Once you get to the door at that bank, you enter a tiny thick Plexiglas room. Immediately, you get locked into that room while key persons inside the bank visually assess you and your possible motives. Then
you will be asked by a disembodied voice why you have come. If you try to get two people into that tiny
room, the doors will automatically stop opening to admit you.
Several banker eyes are on you as you approach a teller or manager. I get the sense every one of those
employees is well-trained. Every one of them must have a plan in case someone in their line of sight makes a wrong move. At some point before you complete a transaction at this bank, bank officials there become more relaxed.
I don't imagine my bankers are packing...but security is. Were you to get off a shot, you'd be down within
seconds. All of this was very irritating at first. But as time went on, I'd always think: 'Well, whoever you are
I doubt you're betting in here to do dirty work.'
I don't believe schools could use the tiny Plexiglas trap at the entry bell or for dismissal. However, in an
elementary school, officials could have eyes on open doors, and let adults know not to pass a certain
point.
At the middle school where my daughter sends her child, try to get a parent-teacher meeting. You have to
know what you are doing. That school is on serious lock down. One entrance, and one entrance only opens
at the starting bell; and you'd better obviously be a kid before you approach that metal detector.
Guards are behind the heavy, heavy, door. One entrance, and only one entrance opens at dismissal.
Kids in this city didn't do mass killings, but they were not above bringing weapons to school in order to protect themselves. Having gangs here meant younger students felt they had to be armed in order to feel safe.
Parents have to call in order to get into our school, because many times teen aged parents, cousins, older
brothers and sisters were coming to school to settle conflicts originating with family members but without school officials' interventions.
We welcome the boundaries between the well-intentioned, and the reactionaries. Those guarding our school
borders, and reinforcing those boundaries are friendly enough as community members. But as school protectors, they will ask you very quickly- 'What are you here to do?'
In the mornings, and at dismissal, there are two or three guards at the door to have one anothers' backs.
Many times, in order to enter at our school one has to call the office. The office double-checks the incoming phone number against their records. If they say they will call back, they always call back right away.
Our schools are painfully slow on some things we'd like to see. However, they normally call parents once a
week or so to inform them about school/community happenings.
So the office never seems completely remote or inaccessible. And the safety we take for granted is provided
by persons we come to know, to trust, to appreciate - maybe by October of each year.
If you were to go to my bank, cameras would watch as you approached.
Once you get to the door at that bank, you enter a tiny thick Plexiglas room. Immediately, you get locked into that room while key persons inside the bank visually assess you and your possible motives. Then
you will be asked by a disembodied voice why you have come. If you try to get two people into that tiny
room, the doors will automatically stop opening to admit you.
Several banker eyes are on you as you approach a teller or manager. I get the sense every one of those
employees is well-trained. Every one of them must have a plan in case someone in their line of sight makes a wrong move. At some point before you complete a transaction at this bank, bank officials there become more relaxed.
I don't imagine my bankers are packing...but security is. Were you to get off a shot, you'd be down within
seconds. All of this was very irritating at first. But as time went on, I'd always think: 'Well, whoever you are
I doubt you're betting in here to do dirty work.'
I don't believe schools could use the tiny Plexiglas trap at the entry bell or for dismissal. However, in an
elementary school, officials could have eyes on open doors, and let adults know not to pass a certain
point.
At the middle school where my daughter sends her child, try to get a parent-teacher meeting. You have to
know what you are doing. That school is on serious lock down. One entrance, and one entrance only opens
at the starting bell; and you'd better obviously be a kid before you approach that metal detector.
Guards are behind the heavy, heavy, door. One entrance, and only one entrance opens at dismissal.
Kids in this city didn't do mass killings, but they were not above bringing weapons to school in order to protect themselves. Having gangs here meant younger students felt they had to be armed in order to feel safe.
Parents have to call in order to get into our school, because many times teen aged parents, cousins, older
brothers and sisters were coming to school to settle conflicts originating with family members but without school officials' interventions.
We welcome the boundaries between the well-intentioned, and the reactionaries. Those guarding our school
borders, and reinforcing those boundaries are friendly enough as community members. But as school protectors, they will ask you very quickly- 'What are you here to do?'
In the mornings, and at dismissal, there are two or three guards at the door to have one anothers' backs.
Many times, in order to enter at our school one has to call the office. The office double-checks the incoming phone number against their records. If they say they will call back, they always call back right away.
Our schools are painfully slow on some things we'd like to see. However, they normally call parents once a
week or so to inform them about school/community happenings.
So the office never seems completely remote or inaccessible. And the safety we take for granted is provided
by persons we come to know, to trust, to appreciate - maybe by October of each year.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Chicago And Newtown
Of course it's awful that children get killed in Chicago on a more regular basis than they do in Newtown. However, children killing each other from a sort of despair emanating from certain systemic societal failures
can't be exactly the same horror as grown men killing babies all within several minutes during his planned massacre.
The aggregate of dead children per year in Chicago is truly horrible, for one thing, because young men of the intelligence some mass murderers possess intuit from it that human life is not especially precious in all children. Then when these young men become troubled, they decide to be the ones who take the young ones our society loudly hints would be missed the most. So that our youngsters lost in big cities help mark those
who will be someday lost in small, privileged communities.
Of course these killers probably begin to form processes of derangement early in life. It likely takes time for
them to build a solid sense, though, of how they want to integrate their ways of thinking and behaving into
society as a whole. Unnoticed, untreated early developmental derangement signals another societal failure Americans endure.
Apparently at greater and greater cost, we fail to use imprisonment wisely. Community will, power, space, energy, and wealth of material resource come together to make imprisonment possible; but not inexhaustibly in any society. The power to restrict and seclude should be used judiciously, when it is desperately needed. I always felt we should have pledged to set up great structures of new institutional protections and cautions the moment we knew Polly Klaas had been taken from her family so brazenly by an already convicted sex offender. We didn't make any such pledge. We didn't take any such action. Only now have some of us decided to stop setting aside so much jail space for non-violent offenders.
A serious societal failure in America points to the acceptance of a lack of health care- including mental
health care. We dearly need early intervention mental health care. We obviously quietly nurture grave psychic
pain until some few years after adult onset in the sufferer, we all pay for the neglect- even those who owe it least.
As for city kids, they are rarely killed en masse by someone who has chosen a rampage in order to express himself, his possible grudges, and his chosen legacy.
People have expressed shock that anyone could even be capable of the sort of carnage against tiny humans we have seen this weekend. The fact this assault seems to have been planned and the tiny ones seem to have been singled out, is truly mind-boggling.
Psychiatrists have seen to it we all know or have heard of manic depressives.
What I would hope to see is a specific diagnosis or set of diagnoses relating to people who seem to be 'rage depressives'. Some people seem to have manic states regularly suffused with masses of undifferentiated and
otherwise energetically suppressed rage. We have read about these people. We have met these people. But we can't diagnose them. And why are we possibly more enraged than other countries?
This man in Connecticut may have shot his mom simply because she defied him and would give him away. He was hell bent on hell. My fear is that even if he is there now, he may not notice he is.
He went on a killing spree to enjoy himself. For whatever reasons, killing first graders was the thing he had been dying to do, did die to do. He kept shooting because the first shot gave him a high he had to try to repeat. There is no reason to shoot a dead child. But he enjoyed it more than he even thought he would. He
of course knew he wouldn't get this chance again. The way pleasure works, according to the nuns at my high
school in the nineteen sixties, it has to be actively and purposefully pursued with vigor- because unlike happiness, it has a tendency not to last.
Happiness is achieved by exchanging warm feelings with others. Humans have no particular reason to seek what is achieved so naturally.
Once an aggressive person realizes he will not be capable of happiness, who knows how he manages to come to what will give him pleasure instead. Can science manage or predict these bloody desires?
Otherwise at the risk of trivializing any American murders, some of this may come down to
Joan Walsh becoming able to answer her own question.
What hurts me most about Newtown, is knowing we may never ever know who was the last baby to be
killed, and who could ever measure or imagine the loneliness of that child's last moment?
can't be exactly the same horror as grown men killing babies all within several minutes during his planned massacre.
The aggregate of dead children per year in Chicago is truly horrible, for one thing, because young men of the intelligence some mass murderers possess intuit from it that human life is not especially precious in all children. Then when these young men become troubled, they decide to be the ones who take the young ones our society loudly hints would be missed the most. So that our youngsters lost in big cities help mark those
who will be someday lost in small, privileged communities.
Of course these killers probably begin to form processes of derangement early in life. It likely takes time for
them to build a solid sense, though, of how they want to integrate their ways of thinking and behaving into
society as a whole. Unnoticed, untreated early developmental derangement signals another societal failure Americans endure.
Apparently at greater and greater cost, we fail to use imprisonment wisely. Community will, power, space, energy, and wealth of material resource come together to make imprisonment possible; but not inexhaustibly in any society. The power to restrict and seclude should be used judiciously, when it is desperately needed. I always felt we should have pledged to set up great structures of new institutional protections and cautions the moment we knew Polly Klaas had been taken from her family so brazenly by an already convicted sex offender. We didn't make any such pledge. We didn't take any such action. Only now have some of us decided to stop setting aside so much jail space for non-violent offenders.
A serious societal failure in America points to the acceptance of a lack of health care- including mental
health care. We dearly need early intervention mental health care. We obviously quietly nurture grave psychic
pain until some few years after adult onset in the sufferer, we all pay for the neglect- even those who owe it least.
As for city kids, they are rarely killed en masse by someone who has chosen a rampage in order to express himself, his possible grudges, and his chosen legacy.
People have expressed shock that anyone could even be capable of the sort of carnage against tiny humans we have seen this weekend. The fact this assault seems to have been planned and the tiny ones seem to have been singled out, is truly mind-boggling.
Psychiatrists have seen to it we all know or have heard of manic depressives.
What I would hope to see is a specific diagnosis or set of diagnoses relating to people who seem to be 'rage depressives'. Some people seem to have manic states regularly suffused with masses of undifferentiated and
otherwise energetically suppressed rage. We have read about these people. We have met these people. But we can't diagnose them. And why are we possibly more enraged than other countries?
This man in Connecticut may have shot his mom simply because she defied him and would give him away. He was hell bent on hell. My fear is that even if he is there now, he may not notice he is.
He went on a killing spree to enjoy himself. For whatever reasons, killing first graders was the thing he had been dying to do, did die to do. He kept shooting because the first shot gave him a high he had to try to repeat. There is no reason to shoot a dead child. But he enjoyed it more than he even thought he would. He
of course knew he wouldn't get this chance again. The way pleasure works, according to the nuns at my high
school in the nineteen sixties, it has to be actively and purposefully pursued with vigor- because unlike happiness, it has a tendency not to last.
Happiness is achieved by exchanging warm feelings with others. Humans have no particular reason to seek what is achieved so naturally.
Once an aggressive person realizes he will not be capable of happiness, who knows how he manages to come to what will give him pleasure instead. Can science manage or predict these bloody desires?
Otherwise at the risk of trivializing any American murders, some of this may come down to
Joan Walsh becoming able to answer her own question.
What hurts me most about Newtown, is knowing we may never ever know who was the last baby to be
killed, and who could ever measure or imagine the loneliness of that child's last moment?
Friday, November 30, 2012
Alexis Goldstein For President
Truly, no one else out there knows finance law and the tricks of the finance trade the way she does.
There is literally no one else out there who knows how Washington and international politics affects
the average life of an average working person the way she does.
Maybe Patty Murray would run on the ticket with her.
But hey, Joe Biden could run for pres with Alexis as his running mate. She is young enough for that
to help catapult her into a U.S. presidency quite soon.
I haven't heard everyone; but of those person's I have heard- I haven't heard anyone speak publicly
more honestly than Ms. Alexis Goldstein.
America couldn't get that lucky though, could we?
There is literally no one else out there who knows how Washington and international politics affects
the average life of an average working person the way she does.
Maybe Patty Murray would run on the ticket with her.
But hey, Joe Biden could run for pres with Alexis as his running mate. She is young enough for that
to help catapult her into a U.S. presidency quite soon.
I haven't heard everyone; but of those person's I have heard- I haven't heard anyone speak publicly
more honestly than Ms. Alexis Goldstein.
America couldn't get that lucky though, could we?
Jeb Bush- The Black Community Thanks You
You helped to make certain white men would 'stand ground' to shoot down young black men in Florida no matter how egregious the claims of threat perception become.
What a guy, Mr. Governor. Another Republican governor leaves a legacy of assault behind him.
Are you going to run for President on that legacy in 2016?
When I think of the Bush family I think of dead and insulted black and brown people.
The first gulf war...an unnecessary mess....
Throwing up on the shoes of the Japanese Premiere at a state dinner...an unnecessary mess...
The second gulf war of WMDs....a truly unnecessary mess.
But the death of James Byrd Jr. was a precursor for bloodthirsty tolerance in Governor Dubya
wasn't it?
Dead American black persons, killed by crazed white persons...horribly unnecessary tragedies.
Maybe your kids will help you get the Latino vote, Mr. Jeb.
But I doubt that can be done. I truly hope you bomb. You will at least be alive though, won't you?
What a guy, Mr. Governor. Another Republican governor leaves a legacy of assault behind him.
Are you going to run for President on that legacy in 2016?
When I think of the Bush family I think of dead and insulted black and brown people.
The first gulf war...an unnecessary mess....
Throwing up on the shoes of the Japanese Premiere at a state dinner...an unnecessary mess...
The second gulf war of WMDs....a truly unnecessary mess.
But the death of James Byrd Jr. was a precursor for bloodthirsty tolerance in Governor Dubya
wasn't it?
Dead American black persons, killed by crazed white persons...horribly unnecessary tragedies.
Maybe your kids will help you get the Latino vote, Mr. Jeb.
But I doubt that can be done. I truly hope you bomb. You will at least be alive though, won't you?
The Temporary Dubya Tax Cuts
What in the world is so wrong about temporary tax cuts being temporary?
Wasn't it a Republican president who instituted these temporary cuts?
Wasn't it a Republican president who quashed a democratic surplus, then ran up the country's debt?
Didn't the American public decide four times in a row they didn't want another Republican
president?
First time, The U.S. Supreme Court cheated Al Gore and the American public.
Second time, the Ohio Secretary of State cheated John Kerry and the American public.
The third time, people elected President Obama. Surprise! Carl Rove didn't think it could happen.
This last time, every Republican governor and Secretary of State tried as eagerly as possible to cheat
the American voting public of voting rights.
The last best hope of those who wanted to cheat the vote was that this vote would close enough for
Antonin Scalia to get his hands on it again.
A republican administrationhas run up the country's debt, yet wants the vast majority of the middle
class and the poor to go a bit hungrier to pay it off for them.
Maybe you should recall, Republicans, we are not your voters, are we?
Wasn't it a Republican president who instituted these temporary cuts?
Wasn't it a Republican president who quashed a democratic surplus, then ran up the country's debt?
Didn't the American public decide four times in a row they didn't want another Republican
president?
First time, The U.S. Supreme Court cheated Al Gore and the American public.
Second time, the Ohio Secretary of State cheated John Kerry and the American public.
The third time, people elected President Obama. Surprise! Carl Rove didn't think it could happen.
This last time, every Republican governor and Secretary of State tried as eagerly as possible to cheat
the American voting public of voting rights.
The last best hope of those who wanted to cheat the vote was that this vote would close enough for
Antonin Scalia to get his hands on it again.
A republican administrationhas run up the country's debt, yet wants the vast majority of the middle
class and the poor to go a bit hungrier to pay it off for them.
Maybe you should recall, Republicans, we are not your voters, are we?
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Is A Male Potency Drug To Blame?
If these drugs are to blame for women over 65 experiencing an epidemic of venereal diseases, then perhaps
they are also corrupting the military.
Retired men, according to my friend Pam the social worker, are using these drugs to be wild and impolitic with young women who aren't very careful- then taking the diseases home to their wives. Sick and sad...
So we know three star generals have enough experience with women of all stripes not to be going bonkers,
(especially with emails) over younger women, as retirement age creeps up on them.
they are also corrupting the military.
Retired men, according to my friend Pam the social worker, are using these drugs to be wild and impolitic with young women who aren't very careful- then taking the diseases home to their wives. Sick and sad...
So we know three star generals have enough experience with women of all stripes not to be going bonkers,
(especially with emails) over younger women, as retirement age creeps up on them.
President Obama/Susan Rice vs. John McCain- Lindsay Graham- and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
John McCain didn't want to be President of the U.S. if he actually had to run a serious campaign against
Barack Obama. He would have been less insulted to have had to run against Honey Boo-Boo, who we didn't even have at the time McCain was running for president. So perhaps he ran too soon.
Mitt Romney didn't want to be President unless he could win on the sort of backlash campaign Nixon and Reagan ran successfully.
Their bitterness against the President isn't as personal as their bitterness against losing the idea that women and minorities cannot be corralled around the warm excitement of white male privilege.
This privilege wants to be taken for granted as the most wise, the most intelligent, the most powerfully
admirable aggrandizement in the known universe.
What these two also-rans may have forgotten, is that Barack Obama was raised by white people. He knows what honest white people are. He knows equally well when phony ones present.
And he knows as well as anyone that it doesn't take wonder to get rich from slavery, as the thirteen colonies
did. All it takes is brute strength, firearms, and a people who have no idea where in the world they are.
Women in America have new strengths as well. American women realized decades ago they wanted for themselves all Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted for his own race.These Americans have seen the mountain top of being able to reject positions of ceding their personal lives to male citizens in their society. Senators don't have to be scheming old white guys anymore. Not everyone is going
to be happy about that. Scheming old white guys might not be so glad to embrace such a reality.
John McCain and Lindsay Graham are not particularly enraged by Susan Rice or anything she has done.
They know she went to Oxford University. They know she was a Rhodes Scholar. These two senators want to incite rage over puppet outrage by accusing her in public of not being too bright. Of course they won't find
real horrors in the President's cabinet or in his appointments. So they invent another 'Fast and Furious' type shocker because again, American deaths were involved; thereby making the grief of the American families involved like putty in their
wrinkled, opportunistic palms.
These two believe they can frighten and intimidate the President into believing he may be the one throwing Susan Rice into a wolf den if he attempts to put forth her nomination for Secretary of State.
Why don't they want Ms. Rice as Secretary of State?
Some of it is optics. They have to deal with Eric Holder, an official they've been unable to unseat- try as they might. So why not make certain to obfuscate the president's right and privilege over a different
potential appointee?
Besides,they are hawks. Our President is not a hawk. Benjamin Netanyahu is a
raging hawk of Israel's right wing-type Likkud party in Israel. Netanyahu was a pal of Mitt Romney. He came dangerously close to interfering with the 2012 Presidential election. Israel much preferred
a Mitt Romney presidency to a Barack Obama presidency. And Israel, Likkud, and Netanyahu do NOT want a Susan Rice as the American Secretary of State!
These two old hawk senators have nothing to lose by attempting to throw an Israeli hawk a bone, while enraging the U.S.President they did not want, and did not want to run against.
Where is Tzipi Livni when the world truly needs her?
Barack Obama. He would have been less insulted to have had to run against Honey Boo-Boo, who we didn't even have at the time McCain was running for president. So perhaps he ran too soon.
Mitt Romney didn't want to be President unless he could win on the sort of backlash campaign Nixon and Reagan ran successfully.
Their bitterness against the President isn't as personal as their bitterness against losing the idea that women and minorities cannot be corralled around the warm excitement of white male privilege.
This privilege wants to be taken for granted as the most wise, the most intelligent, the most powerfully
admirable aggrandizement in the known universe.
What these two also-rans may have forgotten, is that Barack Obama was raised by white people. He knows what honest white people are. He knows equally well when phony ones present.
And he knows as well as anyone that it doesn't take wonder to get rich from slavery, as the thirteen colonies
did. All it takes is brute strength, firearms, and a people who have no idea where in the world they are.
Women in America have new strengths as well. American women realized decades ago they wanted for themselves all Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted for his own race.These Americans have seen the mountain top of being able to reject positions of ceding their personal lives to male citizens in their society. Senators don't have to be scheming old white guys anymore. Not everyone is going
to be happy about that. Scheming old white guys might not be so glad to embrace such a reality.
John McCain and Lindsay Graham are not particularly enraged by Susan Rice or anything she has done.
They know she went to Oxford University. They know she was a Rhodes Scholar. These two senators want to incite rage over puppet outrage by accusing her in public of not being too bright. Of course they won't find
real horrors in the President's cabinet or in his appointments. So they invent another 'Fast and Furious' type shocker because again, American deaths were involved; thereby making the grief of the American families involved like putty in their
wrinkled, opportunistic palms.
These two believe they can frighten and intimidate the President into believing he may be the one throwing Susan Rice into a wolf den if he attempts to put forth her nomination for Secretary of State.
Why don't they want Ms. Rice as Secretary of State?
Some of it is optics. They have to deal with Eric Holder, an official they've been unable to unseat- try as they might. So why not make certain to obfuscate the president's right and privilege over a different
potential appointee?
Besides,they are hawks. Our President is not a hawk. Benjamin Netanyahu is a
raging hawk of Israel's right wing-type Likkud party in Israel. Netanyahu was a pal of Mitt Romney. He came dangerously close to interfering with the 2012 Presidential election. Israel much preferred
a Mitt Romney presidency to a Barack Obama presidency. And Israel, Likkud, and Netanyahu do NOT want a Susan Rice as the American Secretary of State!
These two old hawk senators have nothing to lose by attempting to throw an Israeli hawk a bone, while enraging the U.S.President they did not want, and did not want to run against.
Where is Tzipi Livni when the world truly needs her?
This Is How Dumb You Can Be!
Now why would you run for President in a democratic country, when you have naught but contempt for half the population of that country?
Mitt Romney- this question is pour tu!
Mitt Romney- this question is pour tu!
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The Cliff
Are Congressional Republicans completely bonkers?
They keep saying: 'Broaden the base.'
That was the first part of Romney's plan- a plan our best voters rejected last week. The voters who did vote for it, are a big part of the public who have no idea what it means because they don't care
to know what it means. All they knew was that they were going to vote for the contemptuous ones.
But it does mean that if you work for minimum wage for 30 hours a week, once you pay your sitter
you are going to see you have had to pay a bigger share of your check in taxes. You don't mind because you hate our President.
Republicans then say, 'Get rid of the loopholes.'
Again, many people who voted for Romney don't know or care what that means.
They don't see it means the house they are renting will cost a couple hundred dollars more per month
because their landlord isn't getting his mortgage tax credit next year in his income tax return.
Or if you are buying your home- no big income tax return check for you next year dearie!
And you won't be using any Earned Income Tax Credits for having to pay child care.
'Bring the rates down.'
How is that going to help anyone but the rich? The rest of us are already wiped out.
So 'broadening the base, getting rid of loopholes, and bringing rates down' are the three principal
ideas which lost in our national election. Those ideas lost because they help the rich in a much
greater proportion than they help the middle class. Not every person who has a family in a
capitalist society can vote his tribe rather than for his family.
Not every parent can work to pay every bill she has in full rather than work to feed her children.
Those are the 'special' people.
Besides, the talk about China is so worn.
China has millions of poor. They have to lend money. They need to lend money. They need the interest. They will find someone to lend it to. I doubt our interests would be served by who borrows
from China if we don't.
Our kids won't need to pay it back. They will need to be educated enough to be Able to pay it back
should that become an issue.
It won't. We won't be backward enough to let it- especially if we make sure we have full employment. The money will be there. Earning.
They keep saying: 'Broaden the base.'
That was the first part of Romney's plan- a plan our best voters rejected last week. The voters who did vote for it, are a big part of the public who have no idea what it means because they don't care
to know what it means. All they knew was that they were going to vote for the contemptuous ones.
But it does mean that if you work for minimum wage for 30 hours a week, once you pay your sitter
you are going to see you have had to pay a bigger share of your check in taxes. You don't mind because you hate our President.
Republicans then say, 'Get rid of the loopholes.'
Again, many people who voted for Romney don't know or care what that means.
They don't see it means the house they are renting will cost a couple hundred dollars more per month
because their landlord isn't getting his mortgage tax credit next year in his income tax return.
Or if you are buying your home- no big income tax return check for you next year dearie!
And you won't be using any Earned Income Tax Credits for having to pay child care.
'Bring the rates down.'
How is that going to help anyone but the rich? The rest of us are already wiped out.
So 'broadening the base, getting rid of loopholes, and bringing rates down' are the three principal
ideas which lost in our national election. Those ideas lost because they help the rich in a much
greater proportion than they help the middle class. Not every person who has a family in a
capitalist society can vote his tribe rather than for his family.
Not every parent can work to pay every bill she has in full rather than work to feed her children.
Those are the 'special' people.
Besides, the talk about China is so worn.
China has millions of poor. They have to lend money. They need to lend money. They need the interest. They will find someone to lend it to. I doubt our interests would be served by who borrows
from China if we don't.
Our kids won't need to pay it back. They will need to be educated enough to be Able to pay it back
should that become an issue.
It won't. We won't be backward enough to let it- especially if we make sure we have full employment. The money will be there. Earning.
Edith Childs
After five years, I finally saw Ms. Childs in an interview she did with Lawrence O'Donnell on
MSNBC during his nightly show, 'The Last Word'.
She is obviously a brave woman to refuse to be in Chicago on election night so that she could
continue to knock on doors in North Carolina.
She is a true hero because North Carolina was lost, but POTUS got so many votes there, that the
loss was close. Our President got a great many votes from North Carolina, and I hope we know now
that every vote counts! Congratulations Edith Childs. The popular vote was powerful, mainly in the
campaign lore, because of people inspired by people like you!
MSNBC during his nightly show, 'The Last Word'.
She is obviously a brave woman to refuse to be in Chicago on election night so that she could
continue to knock on doors in North Carolina.
She is a true hero because North Carolina was lost, but POTUS got so many votes there, that the
loss was close. Our President got a great many votes from North Carolina, and I hope we know now
that every vote counts! Congratulations Edith Childs. The popular vote was powerful, mainly in the
campaign lore, because of people inspired by people like you!
How Dumb Do You Think We Are?
Black people in the U.S. don't vote for someone for the single reason that he or she is black.
Even some citizens of recent African continent descent didn't vote for President Obama.
Who out there thinks black people would vote for Condoleeza Rice in great numbers?
How many black Americans would vote for Ron Christie, Robert Traynham, or even Michael Steele?
Would black citizens actually vote for Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas, or Alan West?
There are people in la-la land who seem to believe Black people will vote for any self-hating nut who
happens to be black.
Wrong-o.
Even some citizens of recent African continent descent didn't vote for President Obama.
Who out there thinks black people would vote for Condoleeza Rice in great numbers?
How many black Americans would vote for Ron Christie, Robert Traynham, or even Michael Steele?
Would black citizens actually vote for Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas, or Alan West?
There are people in la-la land who seem to believe Black people will vote for any self-hating nut who
happens to be black.
Wrong-o.
Election Day In America: 2012
My daughter Michelle called me to say the campaign had called her. Since she had done a 24 hour day at work that week-end, she'd decided to take the day to answer the citizen call.
I was immensely proud. This was the last presidential campaign for President Obama. Why let time go by without becoming a part of it?
She got on a bus set aside for the volunteers. They lived in Illinois, but were needed in Wisconsin.
She called me back to say how luxurious the bus was. There were screens for people who wanted to
choose a movie.
When they got to Wisconsin, a campaign leader got aboard their bus to give them clipboards.
They were to go door-to-door two by two, checking voter logistics.
Each clipboard had a great many addresses, with detailed info on each.
Each address listed a certain number of persons as residents, and told which residents were "friendly".
Volunteers were assigned to locate Obama voters, find out if they had gotten to the polls yet, then
let someone in the campaign know which citizens had not yet voted, and whether or not those
voters needed a ride.
In two hours, Michelle and her partner (a lady architect) got to 250 people before going back to
Illinois.
Back home, the last moment volunteers were shown to seats on the stage in the McCormick Center.
So our family place in a historic period in this country is sealed. Michelle sat in the first row behind
where POTUS came out to speak.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, one daughter dropped by one of the campaign sites in our state a couple of times. For myself, I was confident I'd done my part by making the 218 calls the campaign had given me to make during the summer.
However, at 6:20, I got a text from the campaign asking me if I could make a few more calls.
But Michelle was texting me at the same time asking me if Wisconsin was going to the democrats.
She couldn't charge her phone at that moment.
So I quickly got on line to get my new list. I didn't exactly get a list, though. I got a name and phone
number. Once I'd called the number, talked to the voter, reported back to the campaign on my screen
another number would pop up.
I was still trying to text election results to Michelle, so I finally said to her sister, Toni- "Actually this
campaign information is in your email so can't you make some of these calls?"
She did. She began to make calls. By around 7:15 I think, they let us off the hook. The polls were to
have closed at 8. So at last we would watch the results on TV.
Some of the polls in Detroit were still open I believe.
Detroit Public Schools calls parents for some reason every week. On November 5th, however, parents
got no calls. At 8th hour they told the students there would be no school on November 6th.
So I promptly got on the phone with the campaign worker who'd given me my original call list. Then
I phoned the Chairman of the DNC of Michigan. He thanked me, so maybe he got the Detroit polls
to stay open a little longer. I then texted five other campaign site heads I had on my call list. I felt at
this moment all our politics really was local. But at around 7:15 election night I was free to veg.
I'd begun watching a cable channel which kept saying "This race is too close to call."
I got sick of the drama, because the races were not all too close to call.
So I changed to Current TV.
Current seemed more honest, professional, and, informative. So I stuck with them. Until POTUS
was announced the winner before eleven thirty Eastern Standard.
At that point Al Gore began to go on a bit loudly about how both campaigns had neglected to start
meaningful reflection and talk about global warming.
I turned the channel again. I heard President Obama's victory speech. But one journalist on that
channel wanted the President to thank some persons who'd worked on the campaign individually.
The guy even wanted to use this moment to talk about Hurricane Sandy. I gave up.
Later that week-end even one of the Saturday journalists called the win a close race. I don't think so.
By the end of voting, POTUS had 3.5 million votes more than his opposition.
So many people this year wanted to give the campaign the credit for this second four years. The
campaign was stellar. But why? We were stellar because we had the best, most inspiring candidate
in the world...in the wide wide world. Thank you President Obama for running again; and thank you
for representing The United States of America.
I was immensely proud. This was the last presidential campaign for President Obama. Why let time go by without becoming a part of it?
She got on a bus set aside for the volunteers. They lived in Illinois, but were needed in Wisconsin.
She called me back to say how luxurious the bus was. There were screens for people who wanted to
choose a movie.
When they got to Wisconsin, a campaign leader got aboard their bus to give them clipboards.
They were to go door-to-door two by two, checking voter logistics.
Each clipboard had a great many addresses, with detailed info on each.
Each address listed a certain number of persons as residents, and told which residents were "friendly".
Volunteers were assigned to locate Obama voters, find out if they had gotten to the polls yet, then
let someone in the campaign know which citizens had not yet voted, and whether or not those
voters needed a ride.
In two hours, Michelle and her partner (a lady architect) got to 250 people before going back to
Illinois.
Back home, the last moment volunteers were shown to seats on the stage in the McCormick Center.
So our family place in a historic period in this country is sealed. Michelle sat in the first row behind
where POTUS came out to speak.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, one daughter dropped by one of the campaign sites in our state a couple of times. For myself, I was confident I'd done my part by making the 218 calls the campaign had given me to make during the summer.
However, at 6:20, I got a text from the campaign asking me if I could make a few more calls.
But Michelle was texting me at the same time asking me if Wisconsin was going to the democrats.
She couldn't charge her phone at that moment.
So I quickly got on line to get my new list. I didn't exactly get a list, though. I got a name and phone
number. Once I'd called the number, talked to the voter, reported back to the campaign on my screen
another number would pop up.
I was still trying to text election results to Michelle, so I finally said to her sister, Toni- "Actually this
campaign information is in your email so can't you make some of these calls?"
She did. She began to make calls. By around 7:15 I think, they let us off the hook. The polls were to
have closed at 8. So at last we would watch the results on TV.
Some of the polls in Detroit were still open I believe.
Detroit Public Schools calls parents for some reason every week. On November 5th, however, parents
got no calls. At 8th hour they told the students there would be no school on November 6th.
So I promptly got on the phone with the campaign worker who'd given me my original call list. Then
I phoned the Chairman of the DNC of Michigan. He thanked me, so maybe he got the Detroit polls
to stay open a little longer. I then texted five other campaign site heads I had on my call list. I felt at
this moment all our politics really was local. But at around 7:15 election night I was free to veg.
I'd begun watching a cable channel which kept saying "This race is too close to call."
I got sick of the drama, because the races were not all too close to call.
So I changed to Current TV.
Current seemed more honest, professional, and, informative. So I stuck with them. Until POTUS
was announced the winner before eleven thirty Eastern Standard.
At that point Al Gore began to go on a bit loudly about how both campaigns had neglected to start
meaningful reflection and talk about global warming.
I turned the channel again. I heard President Obama's victory speech. But one journalist on that
channel wanted the President to thank some persons who'd worked on the campaign individually.
The guy even wanted to use this moment to talk about Hurricane Sandy. I gave up.
Later that week-end even one of the Saturday journalists called the win a close race. I don't think so.
By the end of voting, POTUS had 3.5 million votes more than his opposition.
So many people this year wanted to give the campaign the credit for this second four years. The
campaign was stellar. But why? We were stellar because we had the best, most inspiring candidate
in the world...in the wide wide world. Thank you President Obama for running again; and thank you
for representing The United States of America.
Monday, November 12, 2012
"Job" Creators
How in the world can "job creators" get people to work for $4 an hour, 16-20 hours per day, with no
days off, living in small dorms ten to a room- with a tiny bathroom down the hall, for a minimum of 6 and 7 days at a stretch? If those same people have a government which makes those sorts of money-making treatments of its citizens illegal, the so-called "job creators would fail at creating anything.
Governments around the world have gotten sick of tolerating these treatments of their citizens, so
American business has decided to attempt again to do these things to us at home.
Perhaps the 1% should grow up. Implying- perhaps they should learn how to treat people in the 21st century work environments available to you. Chinese desperation won't last forever; and the 19th century is gone!
The 1% have a lot of nerve having our government guarantee their loans, grant them government contracts, protect their patents, etc. then telling us not to access our own government for anything unless "creators" approve what we ask.
The things they ask and get from government, those are things we pay for as working people.
We go in and out of the work force according to our ages and training. But our tax dollars make things quite stable for the business community. We do that.
days off, living in small dorms ten to a room- with a tiny bathroom down the hall, for a minimum of 6 and 7 days at a stretch? If those same people have a government which makes those sorts of money-making treatments of its citizens illegal, the so-called "job creators would fail at creating anything.
Governments around the world have gotten sick of tolerating these treatments of their citizens, so
American business has decided to attempt again to do these things to us at home.
Perhaps the 1% should grow up. Implying- perhaps they should learn how to treat people in the 21st century work environments available to you. Chinese desperation won't last forever; and the 19th century is gone!
The 1% have a lot of nerve having our government guarantee their loans, grant them government contracts, protect their patents, etc. then telling us not to access our own government for anything unless "creators" approve what we ask.
The things they ask and get from government, those are things we pay for as working people.
We go in and out of the work force according to our ages and training. But our tax dollars make things quite stable for the business community. We do that.
Another Famous Love Affair
Almost anything on a general's computer can be considered classified.
At some point the FBI should watch carefully, while advising judiciously, when they find out a key
general in our nation's security compound is having an affair.
If they determine nothing is compromised, they themselves compromise him by reporting someone
besides his wife knows what sort of toothpaste he uses, and how often he gets replenishes its supply.
Even the FBI has to exercise some judgement when setting up a boundary between national security
held up to scrutiny because something threatening is happening to our country, and national security held up to scrutiny because an unhappy lover has leaked maybe a less than devoted feeling of romantic slight.
At some point the FBI should watch carefully, while advising judiciously, when they find out a key
general in our nation's security compound is having an affair.
If they determine nothing is compromised, they themselves compromise him by reporting someone
besides his wife knows what sort of toothpaste he uses, and how often he gets replenishes its supply.
Even the FBI has to exercise some judgement when setting up a boundary between national security
held up to scrutiny because something threatening is happening to our country, and national security held up to scrutiny because an unhappy lover has leaked maybe a less than devoted feeling of romantic slight.
Today Is Veteran's Day
We cannot say happy, so we will say "thoughtful Veteran's Day" to us all or "peaceful Veteran's Day".
The President's speech to our nation was thought inspiring yesterday. It made me stop to think about
how a grateful nation should put a bit of Veteran's Day in all its days for a moment or two, somehow,
each day. We have so many vets now.
These wars don't start and end anymore. They ebb and flow. They ember, then inflame.
The suicide rate for vets reached a daily tally with these last wars. Someone needs to do a study on how unresponsive systems thought to be handling rape crimes are impacting our veteran suicide
rates.
A female soldier (and we have a great number of them) has surely not been trained to give up her
whole physical and mental self at someones whim, when she has already committed to do it willingly
for her country.
While irresponsible people sit self-righteously conjuring up adjectives for rape, as they sip whatever
on breaks in warm, well-lit rooms made safe for them by the blood of sacrifice, a soldier is somewhere being told she has to die many times before her life is over.
Now how is anyone supposed to live that down? Live down death and a plethora of betrayals?
Perhaps some of the perpetrators succumb to the effects of having become so much less than they need to be as well.
We need to step up on this. Perhaps having so many women in the Senate now will engender more
help. But it should not take that. Mostly men have sent women into war.
The President's speech to our nation was thought inspiring yesterday. It made me stop to think about
how a grateful nation should put a bit of Veteran's Day in all its days for a moment or two, somehow,
each day. We have so many vets now.
These wars don't start and end anymore. They ebb and flow. They ember, then inflame.
The suicide rate for vets reached a daily tally with these last wars. Someone needs to do a study on how unresponsive systems thought to be handling rape crimes are impacting our veteran suicide
rates.
A female soldier (and we have a great number of them) has surely not been trained to give up her
whole physical and mental self at someones whim, when she has already committed to do it willingly
for her country.
While irresponsible people sit self-righteously conjuring up adjectives for rape, as they sip whatever
on breaks in warm, well-lit rooms made safe for them by the blood of sacrifice, a soldier is somewhere being told she has to die many times before her life is over.
Now how is anyone supposed to live that down? Live down death and a plethora of betrayals?
Perhaps some of the perpetrators succumb to the effects of having become so much less than they need to be as well.
We need to step up on this. Perhaps having so many women in the Senate now will engender more
help. But it should not take that. Mostly men have sent women into war.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Winds Rains Waves ... Floods and Flying Refuse
I met so many white people after Hurricane Katrina who told me they would never vote Republican
again.
I think Chris Christie should get a break for acknowledging the leadership he'd said the President lacked just a week before the hurricane.
After Sandy hit, the Governor had a different constituency than the
average right-wing Republican to consider. He knew he'd put his foot in his mouth for Mitt Romney's sake, and he did not want that to factor in any way into the President's response to New Jersey's sudden trouble.
We don't have a President who would neglect storm victims. Those victims were the President's
responsibility as well.
But Christie may have had a somewhat knee-jerk reaction because the Republican response to Katrina was so very awful that it may be in the American consciousness forever. Besides-
Governor Christie had an awful shock last year when he called for help as Hurricane Irene blew
into New Jersey. Eric Cantor, of all people, seemed to believe the Irene hit Jersey so he could decide to delay help until ways to pay for the aid were solidified.
Governor Christie rightly blew a gasket, citing emergencies are not times to enact topically irrelevant ideologies. Good for him.
My heart has been hurting for our east coast since Sandy hit. Homes at the shores and along the coast
have been slipping into the sea by inches and feet, losing possibilities for insurance for years now.
Now apparently the slippage has turned into kilometers per storm.
At least two toddlers have died in this storm.
An elderly couple drowned on the first floor of their home.
What happened to those people who may have gotten a toothache or abscessed tooth the night before the storm?
What happened to the babies whose fevers may have spiked that evening?
How did diabetics get their medicine if the pharmacies were unavailable and the post offices were too
compromised to function?
How did elderly people in wheelchairs and on walkers manage?
People could not shower or drink the water, or bathe their babies or flush their commodes!
We have flip top cans now; but utensils couldn't be safely rinsed.
Many people who did survive got injured without reasonable possibility of medical intervention.
People who may have had money had to find a way to get to it, and an intact place to spend it.
Funeral homes and cemeteries were probably terribly impacted; so the families they were serving
were further traumatized.
Elected officials can often remind us that some political realities intersect human reality, thereby illustrating the urgency of linking events to personal, individual lives.
I remain bewildered by Republican reactions to Governor Charlie Christ, former (BP) governor of Florida, (Are storms attracted to names?) when he expressed a warmth of gratitude to President Obama for his firm response insisting BP clean up their own mess. I''m also a bit amazed the Obama 2012 campaign didn't trot out our President's response to that travesty, but since it was oil, maybe "drill baby drill" people would have found too much to complain about had democrats had stood up for our President's strong response to the struggle gulf coast states all suffered from that spill.
Boston didn't mention it either; so oil was obviously off the table for campaign talk this year for good
or for ill.
Any truly responsible coastal Governor would have panicked at that oil spill. Governor Christ obviously made the mistake of showing how relieved he was to know his government's response to
his state's principle economic income source was optimal.
The other two governors in the area showed him up in a way by behaving as though their politics
outweighed the heft of the sudden suffering in the average person living and working in their states.
Governor Jindal behaved as though he was being potty trained, holding on to his opposition
to government help for as long as he possibly could. Since I understand he has environmental
degrees under his belt, he should have responded as though he understood the quicker the environment gets help in a disaster, the better. Instead, he obstructed the President as much as he could, even knowing how much Louisiana needed the assists President Obama was attempting to
put in place there.
Next the President headed for Mississippi to discuss the concerns of the people and
economies there with Governor Hailey Barbour. Governor Barbour left the state. Nice.
I am certain Governor Christie did not want to risk thinking the President felt he'd encounter another
Jindal or Barbour response in this Sandy nightmare. In spite of the portion of the political calculus
spent not wanting to risk anyone ignoring any of the enormity in any amount of the possible increasing tragedy in his state, Governor Christie seems to have pre-emptorily rejected delays and personality conflicts over ideology as parts of the final calculus for solving the known New Jersey cataclysm.
His was the head wearing that particular crown.; but no one can blame him for getting the POTUS response he needed, got, and as he well knew, might one day need again. Since the President did
respond well to him, the Governor now likely has an interstate-intergovernmental storm response coalition behind him whenever anything else might happen. He has done the right things.
Now why would he want to be a turn-off to white people who obviously would not admire
the neglect of any citizens in trying times?
pre
again.
I think Chris Christie should get a break for acknowledging the leadership he'd said the President lacked just a week before the hurricane.
After Sandy hit, the Governor had a different constituency than the
average right-wing Republican to consider. He knew he'd put his foot in his mouth for Mitt Romney's sake, and he did not want that to factor in any way into the President's response to New Jersey's sudden trouble.
We don't have a President who would neglect storm victims. Those victims were the President's
responsibility as well.
But Christie may have had a somewhat knee-jerk reaction because the Republican response to Katrina was so very awful that it may be in the American consciousness forever. Besides-
Governor Christie had an awful shock last year when he called for help as Hurricane Irene blew
into New Jersey. Eric Cantor, of all people, seemed to believe the Irene hit Jersey so he could decide to delay help until ways to pay for the aid were solidified.
Governor Christie rightly blew a gasket, citing emergencies are not times to enact topically irrelevant ideologies. Good for him.
My heart has been hurting for our east coast since Sandy hit. Homes at the shores and along the coast
have been slipping into the sea by inches and feet, losing possibilities for insurance for years now.
Now apparently the slippage has turned into kilometers per storm.
At least two toddlers have died in this storm.
An elderly couple drowned on the first floor of their home.
What happened to those people who may have gotten a toothache or abscessed tooth the night before the storm?
What happened to the babies whose fevers may have spiked that evening?
How did diabetics get their medicine if the pharmacies were unavailable and the post offices were too
compromised to function?
How did elderly people in wheelchairs and on walkers manage?
People could not shower or drink the water, or bathe their babies or flush their commodes!
We have flip top cans now; but utensils couldn't be safely rinsed.
Many people who did survive got injured without reasonable possibility of medical intervention.
People who may have had money had to find a way to get to it, and an intact place to spend it.
Funeral homes and cemeteries were probably terribly impacted; so the families they were serving
were further traumatized.
Elected officials can often remind us that some political realities intersect human reality, thereby illustrating the urgency of linking events to personal, individual lives.
I remain bewildered by Republican reactions to Governor Charlie Christ, former (BP) governor of Florida, (Are storms attracted to names?) when he expressed a warmth of gratitude to President Obama for his firm response insisting BP clean up their own mess. I''m also a bit amazed the Obama 2012 campaign didn't trot out our President's response to that travesty, but since it was oil, maybe "drill baby drill" people would have found too much to complain about had democrats had stood up for our President's strong response to the struggle gulf coast states all suffered from that spill.
Boston didn't mention it either; so oil was obviously off the table for campaign talk this year for good
or for ill.
Any truly responsible coastal Governor would have panicked at that oil spill. Governor Christ obviously made the mistake of showing how relieved he was to know his government's response to
his state's principle economic income source was optimal.
The other two governors in the area showed him up in a way by behaving as though their politics
outweighed the heft of the sudden suffering in the average person living and working in their states.
Governor Jindal behaved as though he was being potty trained, holding on to his opposition
to government help for as long as he possibly could. Since I understand he has environmental
degrees under his belt, he should have responded as though he understood the quicker the environment gets help in a disaster, the better. Instead, he obstructed the President as much as he could, even knowing how much Louisiana needed the assists President Obama was attempting to
put in place there.
Next the President headed for Mississippi to discuss the concerns of the people and
economies there with Governor Hailey Barbour. Governor Barbour left the state. Nice.
I am certain Governor Christie did not want to risk thinking the President felt he'd encounter another
Jindal or Barbour response in this Sandy nightmare. In spite of the portion of the political calculus
spent not wanting to risk anyone ignoring any of the enormity in any amount of the possible increasing tragedy in his state, Governor Christie seems to have pre-emptorily rejected delays and personality conflicts over ideology as parts of the final calculus for solving the known New Jersey cataclysm.
His was the head wearing that particular crown.; but no one can blame him for getting the POTUS response he needed, got, and as he well knew, might one day need again. Since the President did
respond well to him, the Governor now likely has an interstate-intergovernmental storm response coalition behind him whenever anything else might happen. He has done the right things.
Now why would he want to be a turn-off to white people who obviously would not admire
the neglect of any citizens in trying times?
pre
Friday, October 26, 2012
They've Only Begun
If U.S. health law begins to desiccate the most intimate rights half our population has, our government can then begin to crush all rights for a majority of Americans.
Roe v. Wade acknowledges rights which are inalienable because American privacy is an inalienable
right.
If half the American populace has diminished privacy rights regarding what goes directly in and out of their bodies, then diminished rights will become established law and precedence for the other half ...all in due time.
We don't live in 1973 any longer. So if in the 21st century, great swathes of the American public lose
a group of the most basic of human rights, even though reproduction is used as the impetus, less definitive rights will not be far behind in falling to a lack of access to privacy.
If forty years of established rights and laws fall, those years will take a great deal of personal security with them.
One by one, any and all privacy rights will wither away on the vines of government formerly of the
people, by the people, and for the people.
And where will those rights reside in dormancy?
They will live within the purview of states.
And then slowly, the legacy of the Kennedy-Johnson administrations will be wiped away.
The legacy of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration will become vestigial, at best.
So there will be no point in hating Iran.
The armed forces, and the radicals in government will rule all of daily life.
We will be Iran.
Roe v. Wade acknowledges rights which are inalienable because American privacy is an inalienable
right.
If half the American populace has diminished privacy rights regarding what goes directly in and out of their bodies, then diminished rights will become established law and precedence for the other half ...all in due time.
We don't live in 1973 any longer. So if in the 21st century, great swathes of the American public lose
a group of the most basic of human rights, even though reproduction is used as the impetus, less definitive rights will not be far behind in falling to a lack of access to privacy.
If forty years of established rights and laws fall, those years will take a great deal of personal security with them.
One by one, any and all privacy rights will wither away on the vines of government formerly of the
people, by the people, and for the people.
And where will those rights reside in dormancy?
They will live within the purview of states.
And then slowly, the legacy of the Kennedy-Johnson administrations will be wiped away.
The legacy of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration will become vestigial, at best.
So there will be no point in hating Iran.
The armed forces, and the radicals in government will rule all of daily life.
We will be Iran.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Dr.Leonard Susskind
Dr. Susskind has discussed the borders of "event horizons" at the edges of black holes, as things very different than what Stephen Hawking imagined when his discovery of these holes, born of his
hatred for quantum mechanics, was accepted by the scientific community.
According to Dr. Susskind, anything sucked into a black hole does come out eventually in some form, or it does come out at least partially in some form at the rim of the hole.
For instance, the thing I am doing right at this moment can be mathematically reproduced at the edge
of a black hole, were I to be sucked into one. At least part of what I am would be reproduced.
I don't have the best imagination in the world.
I don't have any idea what I might be like or look like as a mathematical reproduction at the edges of
a black hole.
But doesn't such a posit make everyone want to study enough to become a physicist?
And don't atheists look more and more narcissistic the more we learn about our universe?
hatred for quantum mechanics, was accepted by the scientific community.
According to Dr. Susskind, anything sucked into a black hole does come out eventually in some form, or it does come out at least partially in some form at the rim of the hole.
For instance, the thing I am doing right at this moment can be mathematically reproduced at the edge
of a black hole, were I to be sucked into one. At least part of what I am would be reproduced.
I don't have the best imagination in the world.
I don't have any idea what I might be like or look like as a mathematical reproduction at the edges of
a black hole.
But doesn't such a posit make everyone want to study enough to become a physicist?
And don't atheists look more and more narcissistic the more we learn about our universe?
Not Again
Say I am thirty-eight years old.
I have to catch a bus to get to work as an assistant dietitian at a hospital.
Is this a cool story yet?
So usually my son walks me to the bus stop, but he broke his leg on the stairs at school last night.
I don't have sick days left at work, so I ask my daughter to stay home with her brother, and I head
off to my bus, which leaves before daylight.
My daughter also has to get her sister to the school bus. So she has her hands full.
I hurry toward the corner. I attempt to cross a business driveway. A car pulls out, blocking my
path. I establish eye contact with the driver, while a police helicopter suddenly appears overhead.
This stranger continues to stare at me, refusing to unblock my path. I glance up at the copter.
My husband is serving in Afghanistan, and I do not ever want to tell him this story.
Eventually the guy looks up at the cops, then drives off, deciding apparently he will not take the risk.
What if there had been no witness? There was no other person in the vicinity that morning.
What if I had been attacked, but lived? Many women have been. Many, many women have been. Would I have shared the story of what had happened to me with anyone? I'd have been so worried about the heartbreak it could cause my parents.
Had I gotten pregnant from such an assault, would I be forced to carry to term?
If I get pregnant for any reason at all or by any means at all, what does it have to do with you?
If I decide to have an abortion, and you decide to block my will and ability to carry out what I have decided -then that's between us. You and I have the problem.
God hasn't a thing to do with it. You do not speak for him, or for me. You also don't speak for any unborn person anywhere- surely not any belonging to my body.
I have to catch a bus to get to work as an assistant dietitian at a hospital.
Is this a cool story yet?
So usually my son walks me to the bus stop, but he broke his leg on the stairs at school last night.
I don't have sick days left at work, so I ask my daughter to stay home with her brother, and I head
off to my bus, which leaves before daylight.
My daughter also has to get her sister to the school bus. So she has her hands full.
I hurry toward the corner. I attempt to cross a business driveway. A car pulls out, blocking my
path. I establish eye contact with the driver, while a police helicopter suddenly appears overhead.
This stranger continues to stare at me, refusing to unblock my path. I glance up at the copter.
My husband is serving in Afghanistan, and I do not ever want to tell him this story.
Eventually the guy looks up at the cops, then drives off, deciding apparently he will not take the risk.
What if there had been no witness? There was no other person in the vicinity that morning.
What if I had been attacked, but lived? Many women have been. Many, many women have been. Would I have shared the story of what had happened to me with anyone? I'd have been so worried about the heartbreak it could cause my parents.
Had I gotten pregnant from such an assault, would I be forced to carry to term?
If I get pregnant for any reason at all or by any means at all, what does it have to do with you?
If I decide to have an abortion, and you decide to block my will and ability to carry out what I have decided -then that's between us. You and I have the problem.
God hasn't a thing to do with it. You do not speak for him, or for me. You also don't speak for any unborn person anywhere- surely not any belonging to my body.
Driving A Wedge
So- Roman pagans in power in Jerusalem thousands of years ago, washed their hands of the Crucifixion they had the power to stop; then used the message of the Christ to drive a wedge between Him and all His own brethren ( not only those who actually advocated for Christ's death)... forever.
Subsequently, these new Christians began to collect money worldwide for themselves for spreading the message of the brother of the Jewish people. These 'new' Christians collect still..daily...all over the world. The 'rock' on which Peter built the church remains opulent. I am Catholic; but, irony much?
We think to persecute the people who advocated for what we had the power to halt. Then we term
ourselves 'chosen'. Why does advocacy trump a willful, criminal neglect of depraved contempt, in the search for a people to prosecute, forever, leaving one of their own to blame, forever?
Instead of turning over in his grave...Jesus left it.
Subsequently, these new Christians began to collect money worldwide for themselves for spreading the message of the brother of the Jewish people. These 'new' Christians collect still..daily...all over the world. The 'rock' on which Peter built the church remains opulent. I am Catholic; but, irony much?
We think to persecute the people who advocated for what we had the power to halt. Then we term
ourselves 'chosen'. Why does advocacy trump a willful, criminal neglect of depraved contempt, in the search for a people to prosecute, forever, leaving one of their own to blame, forever?
Instead of turning over in his grave...Jesus left it.
Road Flare
I should tell Road Flare Mary of Current TV's Stephanie Miller show that Michelle of Chicago is
one of those black people in the city who, after working five days per week, fills up her car on weekends with lots of groceries to feed her two young children.
Michelle does have a pretty big car. Mary feels that's the stereotype for black people in Chicago.
Sadly, the car is not an Escalade though,as Mary would believe.
Additionally, on another front, Mary's beliefs about Michelle's groceries are erroneous, because this working mom has completely missed out on food stamps.
She has had a professional salary for years, so never applied for food aid.
Michelle does claim to be a black person though. And she looks like a black person.
Could it be?
one of those black people in the city who, after working five days per week, fills up her car on weekends with lots of groceries to feed her two young children.
Michelle does have a pretty big car. Mary feels that's the stereotype for black people in Chicago.
Sadly, the car is not an Escalade though,as Mary would believe.
Additionally, on another front, Mary's beliefs about Michelle's groceries are erroneous, because this working mom has completely missed out on food stamps.
She has had a professional salary for years, so never applied for food aid.
Michelle does claim to be a black person though. And she looks like a black person.
Could it be?
Michelle Of Chicago
I asked the young mother what she thought of Gov. Romney in the third and final 2012
presidential debate.
She sent me this text: Tonight Mitt was just a sassy parrot.
presidential debate.
She sent me this text: Tonight Mitt was just a sassy parrot.
Roe v. Wade
What is wrong with us, really? Our citizen rights are not about definitions of force. Physics adequately describes force. Do we need more physics in the criminal code? We have a lot of forensics science now.
Our political conversations are not in every case to be our social and religious conversations as well.
Our Roe v. Wade rights are not about conception, the moment human life begins, medical emergencies, means of impregnation, or the opinions of strangers.
Since we have blurred so many Roe v. boundaries, we can't seem to see the forest for the trees.
Our constitutional rights are about privacy. Perhaps when it comes to this right, we should have
a throwback policy: DADT. We used to count on that policy as regards Roe. Let's go back to that.
Our political conversations are not in every case to be our social and religious conversations as well.
Our Roe v. Wade rights are not about conception, the moment human life begins, medical emergencies, means of impregnation, or the opinions of strangers.
Since we have blurred so many Roe v. boundaries, we can't seem to see the forest for the trees.
Our constitutional rights are about privacy. Perhaps when it comes to this right, we should have
a throwback policy: DADT. We used to count on that policy as regards Roe. Let's go back to that.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Debate III In Real Time
What is going on?
Bob Scheiffer's first question was not intelligent. It had already been asked and answered in public many times.
Gov. Romney did not answer it anyway.
Gov. Romney is now sounding very reasonable and conciliatory. He is also speaking about gender
equality in the Mid-East when he claims to have no position on Lily Ledbetter. Well, she is an American who asked for gender equality Mr. Romney.
President Obama is concentrating on Gov. Romney's ever changing opinions on what his record has been.
Gov. Romney is deciding he doesn't agree about what his speeches of a few weeks ago had been
Mr. Scheiffer wants to know what POTUS intends to do about the year-long bloody conflict in Syria.
Our President wants to keep up humanitarian efforts, but not arm opposition leaders there who nay then turn the weapons on us or our allies.
Apparently Gov. Romney agrees in prepared, memorized remarks.
Now the President has become an agreeable.
These two are making nice, and Gov. Romney started it.
Chris Matthews, what is going on?! I want answers.
So- Mr. Scheiffer has gone on to Egypt, asking if we jumped the gun asking Mr. Mubarek to go.
President Obama has decided he had the correct responses in Egypt.
What!? Gov. Romney agrees?! Again? Where is the blood-letting?
What kind of gladiators are we getting here?
OK- here we go. Romney is spouting statistics again, and claiming our debt is our biggest national
threat, claiming our international reputation of strength is not what it was four years ago. Poppycock!
Four years ago all of the Mid-East was disgusted by us, save perhaps Jordan.
Now he claims we should have left more arms in Poland, and intervened in Iran's recent unrest. He is
bothered by what he sees as tensions between the U.S. and Israel.
Nonsense. We need our arms redeployed to the Pacific Rim, not rusting in Poland.
We can't get into conflicts with Iran's internal citizens' strife. We have other problems with Iran, problems we may be able to solve without putting Iranian citizens at risk in their own country.
POTUS is making it clear that enhancing U.S. workers and U.S. education, we will be able to be of
more help abroad.
I agree.
Four years ago, Europe and South America blamed the U.S. for the world's economic meltdown.
That meltdown was engineered by Republican administrations.
Again with the 'get rid of Obamacare'. Again.
No, Medicaid is not here just for "the poor".
Older people who cannot live at home any longer are stripped of all their belongings and assets so they can qualify or Medicaid supported nursing homes.
Babies born with birth defects have families who are eventually stripped down to a point where they
have to use Medicaid for a baby to get care.
People who didn't pay much into Social Security because they had low-wage jobs, often need some
Medicaid.
OK, this is getting better. POTUS is telling Romney the Navy needs fewer horses and bayonets!
Romney apparently isn't seen by POTUS as someone who understands what the armed forces need
Mr.Scheiffer wants some assurances on our commitments to Israel.
The President says we are firmly promised to Israel's interest sphere.
Romney has decided to accuse Ahmadinejad as a practitioner of genocide.
And that would do what, exactly?
If we did have a chance to pull some Iranian teeth this morning, Romney's mouth may have just jeopardized.
POTUS says he and Israel have the same clock as regards Iran's nuclear readiness.
Here come the accusations now.
According to Romney, the President agreed to talk to America's indicted bad acting countries.
Then the President went around the world to apologize for America.
Then our country was not loud enough when Iranian citizens engendered their green revolution.
Romney: centrifuges are spinning in Iran, and POTUS visited Mid-East countries.
President Obama says when he visited the Mid-East, he visited the troops, and when he did get
to Israel, he didn't take fundraisers.
Mr. Schieffer wants to know what would happen if Israel called to say they were about to attack Iran.
Romney doesn't care to answer. To him, the world is shrinking from American influence because we
look weaker than we should; but no such letter would come as a surprise to us.
I think that fundraisers comment got to Romney.
Mr. Scheiffer: What if 2014 comes and the Afghanistan government isn't ready to take over their
country's security?
Gov. Romney doesn't know. He has begun to prattle on about Pakistan.
POTUS says he put a surge of troops into Afghanistan to make sure he could work on measured
objectives for Afghan authorities along with our allies. He seems to feel that surge aided the eventual
timeline he'd sought for leaving Aghanistan in 2014.
Why are Mr. Scheiffer and Gov. Romney talking about Pakistan as though India doesn't even exist.
Again some agreement though. Romney agrees with drone strikes.
POTUS is saying he has built ally relationships in many Mid-East countries. He says we stood with
Tunisians earlier than any other country when those citizens opted for freedom from dictatorship,
He asserts we were also early partners with Egypt and Libya to keep terror organizations from becoming dominant as new politics flowed into their governments.
But, where does China fit in, Mr. Scheiffer wants to know? And where is our biggest terror threat now?
The President feels that China has to be fair players in economic matters.
Mr. Romney claims he would call China a currency manipulator on day one if he is elected.
Bob Scheiffer is asking if that wouldn't start a trade war.
Yes. Yes it would.
However many widgets we can sell for a dollar- China can sell millions more, and they can sell them
to any country they like, whether they are our allies or not.
So- Romney is filibustering again. He claims he wanted to save the auto industry. What a joke. Is that
what he meant when he said- "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt"?
He is a funny liar. Let's laugh.
POTUS in his last statement: I will bring jobs back home. I will invest in an educated America, an
America invested in research.
Gov. Romney wants to embrace freedom, balance the budget, get people good enough jobs to get them off food stamps, have a nation that is full of freedom and hope and his strong leadership. He
wants to maintain America as the hope of the world.
Sounds good Gov. Romney, but 20% across the board tax cuts you keep claiming won't do any of those things.
Let's go with BRINGING JOBS BACK HOME!
Bob Scheiffer's first question was not intelligent. It had already been asked and answered in public many times.
Gov. Romney did not answer it anyway.
Gov. Romney is now sounding very reasonable and conciliatory. He is also speaking about gender
equality in the Mid-East when he claims to have no position on Lily Ledbetter. Well, she is an American who asked for gender equality Mr. Romney.
President Obama is concentrating on Gov. Romney's ever changing opinions on what his record has been.
Gov. Romney is deciding he doesn't agree about what his speeches of a few weeks ago had been
Mr. Scheiffer wants to know what POTUS intends to do about the year-long bloody conflict in Syria.
Our President wants to keep up humanitarian efforts, but not arm opposition leaders there who nay then turn the weapons on us or our allies.
Apparently Gov. Romney agrees in prepared, memorized remarks.
Now the President has become an agreeable.
These two are making nice, and Gov. Romney started it.
Chris Matthews, what is going on?! I want answers.
So- Mr. Scheiffer has gone on to Egypt, asking if we jumped the gun asking Mr. Mubarek to go.
President Obama has decided he had the correct responses in Egypt.
What!? Gov. Romney agrees?! Again? Where is the blood-letting?
What kind of gladiators are we getting here?
OK- here we go. Romney is spouting statistics again, and claiming our debt is our biggest national
threat, claiming our international reputation of strength is not what it was four years ago. Poppycock!
Four years ago all of the Mid-East was disgusted by us, save perhaps Jordan.
Now he claims we should have left more arms in Poland, and intervened in Iran's recent unrest. He is
bothered by what he sees as tensions between the U.S. and Israel.
Nonsense. We need our arms redeployed to the Pacific Rim, not rusting in Poland.
We can't get into conflicts with Iran's internal citizens' strife. We have other problems with Iran, problems we may be able to solve without putting Iranian citizens at risk in their own country.
POTUS is making it clear that enhancing U.S. workers and U.S. education, we will be able to be of
more help abroad.
I agree.
Four years ago, Europe and South America blamed the U.S. for the world's economic meltdown.
That meltdown was engineered by Republican administrations.
Again with the 'get rid of Obamacare'. Again.
No, Medicaid is not here just for "the poor".
Older people who cannot live at home any longer are stripped of all their belongings and assets so they can qualify or Medicaid supported nursing homes.
Babies born with birth defects have families who are eventually stripped down to a point where they
have to use Medicaid for a baby to get care.
People who didn't pay much into Social Security because they had low-wage jobs, often need some
Medicaid.
OK, this is getting better. POTUS is telling Romney the Navy needs fewer horses and bayonets!
Romney apparently isn't seen by POTUS as someone who understands what the armed forces need
Mr.Scheiffer wants some assurances on our commitments to Israel.
The President says we are firmly promised to Israel's interest sphere.
Romney has decided to accuse Ahmadinejad as a practitioner of genocide.
And that would do what, exactly?
If we did have a chance to pull some Iranian teeth this morning, Romney's mouth may have just jeopardized.
POTUS says he and Israel have the same clock as regards Iran's nuclear readiness.
Here come the accusations now.
According to Romney, the President agreed to talk to America's indicted bad acting countries.
Then the President went around the world to apologize for America.
Then our country was not loud enough when Iranian citizens engendered their green revolution.
Romney: centrifuges are spinning in Iran, and POTUS visited Mid-East countries.
President Obama says when he visited the Mid-East, he visited the troops, and when he did get
to Israel, he didn't take fundraisers.
Mr. Schieffer wants to know what would happen if Israel called to say they were about to attack Iran.
Romney doesn't care to answer. To him, the world is shrinking from American influence because we
look weaker than we should; but no such letter would come as a surprise to us.
I think that fundraisers comment got to Romney.
Mr. Scheiffer: What if 2014 comes and the Afghanistan government isn't ready to take over their
country's security?
Gov. Romney doesn't know. He has begun to prattle on about Pakistan.
POTUS says he put a surge of troops into Afghanistan to make sure he could work on measured
objectives for Afghan authorities along with our allies. He seems to feel that surge aided the eventual
timeline he'd sought for leaving Aghanistan in 2014.
Why are Mr. Scheiffer and Gov. Romney talking about Pakistan as though India doesn't even exist.
Again some agreement though. Romney agrees with drone strikes.
POTUS is saying he has built ally relationships in many Mid-East countries. He says we stood with
Tunisians earlier than any other country when those citizens opted for freedom from dictatorship,
He asserts we were also early partners with Egypt and Libya to keep terror organizations from becoming dominant as new politics flowed into their governments.
But, where does China fit in, Mr. Scheiffer wants to know? And where is our biggest terror threat now?
The President feels that China has to be fair players in economic matters.
Mr. Romney claims he would call China a currency manipulator on day one if he is elected.
Bob Scheiffer is asking if that wouldn't start a trade war.
Yes. Yes it would.
However many widgets we can sell for a dollar- China can sell millions more, and they can sell them
to any country they like, whether they are our allies or not.
So- Romney is filibustering again. He claims he wanted to save the auto industry. What a joke. Is that
what he meant when he said- "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt"?
He is a funny liar. Let's laugh.
POTUS in his last statement: I will bring jobs back home. I will invest in an educated America, an
America invested in research.
Gov. Romney wants to embrace freedom, balance the budget, get people good enough jobs to get them off food stamps, have a nation that is full of freedom and hope and his strong leadership. He
wants to maintain America as the hope of the world.
Sounds good Gov. Romney, but 20% across the board tax cuts you keep claiming won't do any of those things.
Let's go with BRINGING JOBS BACK HOME!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
A Lack Of Knowledgeable Respect
Not too funny to make jokes about transmogrification.
Not so hilarious to compare President Clinton to a real wife.
How St. Peter built the Church- doctrinaire.
At a traditional dinner, which honors a traditional member of the Catholic faith, which supports traditional Catholic charities, Gov. Romney dances around in a flirtation with a sacrilege which borders on heathenistic disrespect.
At a function set aside for the Church to invest in aggrandizing its best traits, please do not show yourself to be awful enough to ridicule faith and doctrine.
After all Mr. Man- you do live in a glass house.
Not so hilarious to compare President Clinton to a real wife.
How St. Peter built the Church- doctrinaire.
At a traditional dinner, which honors a traditional member of the Catholic faith, which supports traditional Catholic charities, Gov. Romney dances around in a flirtation with a sacrilege which borders on heathenistic disrespect.
At a function set aside for the Church to invest in aggrandizing its best traits, please do not show yourself to be awful enough to ridicule faith and doctrine.
After all Mr. Man- you do live in a glass house.
So Disgusting
What in the world can be wrong with a full grown man who is one of the featured guests at a formal dinner, but uses the occasion to give a shout out to the "innocent" unborn babies in the country?
Truly, could he be mad?
So anyway Mittmer, most of them can't hear you. Did you know that? Next time, say hi to their moms at the same time. Some of them are innocent as well.
**Could we get a group of board certified gynecologists together who are willing to teach a Clinical
Practice and Statistics For Republicans class
Truly, could he be mad?
So anyway Mittmer, most of them can't hear you. Did you know that? Next time, say hi to their moms at the same time. Some of them are innocent as well.
**Could we get a group of board certified gynecologists together who are willing to teach a Clinical
Practice and Statistics For Republicans class
Republicans Plan For The Future
Make no mistake about it. If the Romney-Ryan types get to advance their disgustingly restrictive
agendas, women's bodies will be only the start.
Once privacy laws are excluded from abortion rights, Republicans will then get into people's bodies
and bedrooms in many more ways.
Acts between consenting adults won't be considered private for much longer.
Nothing between a doctor and patient will be any more private than elective abortion is.
Rich people will have lawyers which draw up extensive privacy documentation for physicians to sign; but what about the rest of us?
"Employers" will become a euphemism for anyone who has money to be admitted into the money
club. The guy who runs the dry cleaners down the street, or the grocery at the end of the block, won't be an employer in any Republican sense of the word as I understand it now.
Besides, if things go Romney's way, we probably won't be living on blocks anyway. He'd just as soon
we go back to four families in one unit of a tenement house again.
Rich people have been getting richer for years now. They are not hiring. We have to hire one another
as much as we can.
We cannot trust people who refuse to respect 47% of all our citizens. How did they come up with that
percentage?
What about an only bread-winner husband in a family who falls in love with a younger woman when his children are ten and twelve?
Say he marries the other woman. Even if he pays child support for his children, if his first wife can only get a job in a diner, his children may fall below the poverty line. His ex is then one of the 47%.
But she works hard, keeps the younger one in school long enough to get her into college. The elder child had to drop out of school to work, helping with family bills- though she did keep up enough to get her G.E.D.
Once eight years have passed, aren't all three of the adults in my story in a different part of Romney's
47%?
Then the eldest child marries a soldier. Romney doesn't think soldiering is a valid reason for anyone to be in his 47. Now four different individuals in this family are in one part of Romney's 47.
When mom turns 62, her arthritis is her only health problem; but she can no longer walk well enough
for various restaurants to consider her as a waitress or hostess.
For thirty years mom put retirement into Social Security. Now she must retire. She is another part of
Romney's 47.
She has been a single mom 47.
Now she will be a retiree 47.
Her children have been under 18 years old 47s, minimum wage earner 47s, army wife 47s, college
student 47s.
What significance does the 47 have for these American earner, learner, soldier persons?
What do Republicans want from these citizens? What do Republicans admire? Oh! Right!
Ten or twelve highly skilled workers to a dorm room who are locked into the plant, work 7 days a week, and share one bathroom while earning one dollar per hour. Nice.
And when Richy Rich can't exploit the Chinese this way any longer, who is going to force the Chinese to honor his various banking concerns as his? No one. We, his fellow citizens, will be too
downtrodden and uneducated to learn enough banking and patent law to protect these greediest of
Americans from themselves by then.
There are only 300 million of us. If we are not trying to enhance each other, how are we to live as
sovereign citizens in a world of over 1 billion well-armed, formerly exploited, resentful Chinese persons?
Answers?
agendas, women's bodies will be only the start.
Once privacy laws are excluded from abortion rights, Republicans will then get into people's bodies
and bedrooms in many more ways.
Acts between consenting adults won't be considered private for much longer.
Nothing between a doctor and patient will be any more private than elective abortion is.
Rich people will have lawyers which draw up extensive privacy documentation for physicians to sign; but what about the rest of us?
"Employers" will become a euphemism for anyone who has money to be admitted into the money
club. The guy who runs the dry cleaners down the street, or the grocery at the end of the block, won't be an employer in any Republican sense of the word as I understand it now.
Besides, if things go Romney's way, we probably won't be living on blocks anyway. He'd just as soon
we go back to four families in one unit of a tenement house again.
Rich people have been getting richer for years now. They are not hiring. We have to hire one another
as much as we can.
We cannot trust people who refuse to respect 47% of all our citizens. How did they come up with that
percentage?
What about an only bread-winner husband in a family who falls in love with a younger woman when his children are ten and twelve?
Say he marries the other woman. Even if he pays child support for his children, if his first wife can only get a job in a diner, his children may fall below the poverty line. His ex is then one of the 47%.
But she works hard, keeps the younger one in school long enough to get her into college. The elder child had to drop out of school to work, helping with family bills- though she did keep up enough to get her G.E.D.
Once eight years have passed, aren't all three of the adults in my story in a different part of Romney's
47%?
Then the eldest child marries a soldier. Romney doesn't think soldiering is a valid reason for anyone to be in his 47. Now four different individuals in this family are in one part of Romney's 47.
When mom turns 62, her arthritis is her only health problem; but she can no longer walk well enough
for various restaurants to consider her as a waitress or hostess.
For thirty years mom put retirement into Social Security. Now she must retire. She is another part of
Romney's 47.
She has been a single mom 47.
Now she will be a retiree 47.
Her children have been under 18 years old 47s, minimum wage earner 47s, army wife 47s, college
student 47s.
What significance does the 47 have for these American earner, learner, soldier persons?
What do Republicans want from these citizens? What do Republicans admire? Oh! Right!
Ten or twelve highly skilled workers to a dorm room who are locked into the plant, work 7 days a week, and share one bathroom while earning one dollar per hour. Nice.
And when Richy Rich can't exploit the Chinese this way any longer, who is going to force the Chinese to honor his various banking concerns as his? No one. We, his fellow citizens, will be too
downtrodden and uneducated to learn enough banking and patent law to protect these greediest of
Americans from themselves by then.
There are only 300 million of us. If we are not trying to enhance each other, how are we to live as
sovereign citizens in a world of over 1 billion well-armed, formerly exploited, resentful Chinese persons?
Answers?
Friday, October 19, 2012
Ms. Crowley
I cannot imagine what anyone expected the moderator to do.
As moderator, Ms. Crowley was to pose audience questions in a timely manner, choosing various
audience members to be able to speak to candidates.
She gave each candidate a chance to speak to a question. Check.
Then she said it was time to move along to another audience person/question. Check.
Gov. Romney very assertively replied, 'No, blah, blah, blah.'
Uh oh.
Ms. Crowley is thwarted now; but she makes no reply.
Romney blathers on. He is in his glory because he's attacking.
When Republicans have no transparent way to be proactive, they attack. So on this day...
Everyone is listening.
Then Romney addresses the President.
Uh oh. He has abandoned following the rules, on this point too.
Ms. Crowley doesn't respond.
Now Romney questions the President.
Uh oh. That breaks the rules again.
The President, in deference to decorum, has taken his seat and remains there. Romney, on the other
hand, is so reveling in Romney, that he practically ignores the audience as he advances on
Candy Crowley.
The president, knowing the format has been abandoned by the governor, noting that the moderator's
direction is being ignored, simply says to the Rom guy: "Proceed...please proceed..." or some variation of those two terse words.
No one is doing anything in that room now, save listening to Gov. Romney, waiting for him to stop
talking of his own accord. Well, he has already said he isn't going to follow the moderator,
and it isn't protocol for the President to stop him. The President, a leadership guy, chooses protocol.
But finally, in the interest of Gov. Romney NOT proceeding ad infinitum, Ms. Crowley gives a fact
concerning the event in question.
She was in real time. Her duty was to move things along!
She was not to have waited indefinitely for Gov. Romney to realize he wasn't alone in a room with
his peeps.
What?
As moderator, Ms. Crowley was to pose audience questions in a timely manner, choosing various
audience members to be able to speak to candidates.
She gave each candidate a chance to speak to a question. Check.
Then she said it was time to move along to another audience person/question. Check.
Gov. Romney very assertively replied, 'No, blah, blah, blah.'
Uh oh.
Ms. Crowley is thwarted now; but she makes no reply.
Romney blathers on. He is in his glory because he's attacking.
When Republicans have no transparent way to be proactive, they attack. So on this day...
Everyone is listening.
Then Romney addresses the President.
Uh oh. He has abandoned following the rules, on this point too.
Ms. Crowley doesn't respond.
Now Romney questions the President.
Uh oh. That breaks the rules again.
The President, in deference to decorum, has taken his seat and remains there. Romney, on the other
hand, is so reveling in Romney, that he practically ignores the audience as he advances on
Candy Crowley.
The president, knowing the format has been abandoned by the governor, noting that the moderator's
direction is being ignored, simply says to the Rom guy: "Proceed...please proceed..." or some variation of those two terse words.
No one is doing anything in that room now, save listening to Gov. Romney, waiting for him to stop
talking of his own accord. Well, he has already said he isn't going to follow the moderator,
and it isn't protocol for the President to stop him. The President, a leadership guy, chooses protocol.
But finally, in the interest of Gov. Romney NOT proceeding ad infinitum, Ms. Crowley gives a fact
concerning the event in question.
She was in real time. Her duty was to move things along!
She was not to have waited indefinitely for Gov. Romney to realize he wasn't alone in a room with
his peeps.
What?
Benghazi In The Rose Garden
Republicans didn't hear what the President said in the Rose Garden. So they made something up which aligns itself with what their candidate said when he misspoke before having the correct public
information. Apologizing to the families of those killed... is just to big a lift for a small spirit.
Officials getting killed in terror attacks on foreign soil warrant highly classified incremental steps of investigation.
Gov. Romney cannot initiate or follow through on any of these investigations. Neither can Romney surrogates. If America wants both solving, and prevention, then public minds have got to accept we won't get the details we whine for in time for Republicans to insist they are in charge of messages on foreign affairs.
Libya currently has no professional police forces aside from the former militias who deposed Qaddafi. As our professional forces distill which forces are which, there is no way our President is going to allow his responses to be guided by how politicised the criticism of his administration has become on the newly forming power structures in Mid-East countries. That is not the sort of foreign policy operative President Obama happens to be.
President Obama is a results driven leader. That general reputation of how America focuses on problems initiated abroad suits Republicans as Americans; but they aren't quite as enamored of that
reputation as part of our President's record.
We need to know why Congress refused funds for more security for foreign service personnel.
We need to be sure we don't tip our hand in public about how close we are to separating Libyan wheat from chaff.
We will eventually know whether the controversial film helped terrorists use a non-violent protest
as a piggy back in order to transform crowd anger into the impetus for an attack they'd already planned.
We need to know why in testimony before Congress, Americans who survived Benghazi said the attack would have been deadly even if a Marine detail had been on hand- but of course America uses
Marines at embassies, not consulates.
We need to know if Libya was to have secured that consulate, and if unstable countries in the region might be unable still to provide the security we normally trust countries to provide.
However- we can't know any of those things officially at the time journalism wants to insist upon. We have to know what the President can say without jeopardizing the results we need. But because
Republicans jumped the gun by responding to what had not actually happened in total, they'd like a
do over on what the President responded to in real time as tragedies unfolded in the news media.
There is no do over. And our President has said what he can say. For the sake of the families involved, who have asserted they really are being properly informed, we need to accept that Benghazi
is water under the bridge for now- even for wordsmiths.
information. Apologizing to the families of those killed... is just to big a lift for a small spirit.
Officials getting killed in terror attacks on foreign soil warrant highly classified incremental steps of investigation.
Gov. Romney cannot initiate or follow through on any of these investigations. Neither can Romney surrogates. If America wants both solving, and prevention, then public minds have got to accept we won't get the details we whine for in time for Republicans to insist they are in charge of messages on foreign affairs.
Libya currently has no professional police forces aside from the former militias who deposed Qaddafi. As our professional forces distill which forces are which, there is no way our President is going to allow his responses to be guided by how politicised the criticism of his administration has become on the newly forming power structures in Mid-East countries. That is not the sort of foreign policy operative President Obama happens to be.
President Obama is a results driven leader. That general reputation of how America focuses on problems initiated abroad suits Republicans as Americans; but they aren't quite as enamored of that
reputation as part of our President's record.
We need to know why Congress refused funds for more security for foreign service personnel.
We need to be sure we don't tip our hand in public about how close we are to separating Libyan wheat from chaff.
We will eventually know whether the controversial film helped terrorists use a non-violent protest
as a piggy back in order to transform crowd anger into the impetus for an attack they'd already planned.
We need to know why in testimony before Congress, Americans who survived Benghazi said the attack would have been deadly even if a Marine detail had been on hand- but of course America uses
Marines at embassies, not consulates.
We need to know if Libya was to have secured that consulate, and if unstable countries in the region might be unable still to provide the security we normally trust countries to provide.
However- we can't know any of those things officially at the time journalism wants to insist upon. We have to know what the President can say without jeopardizing the results we need. But because
Republicans jumped the gun by responding to what had not actually happened in total, they'd like a
do over on what the President responded to in real time as tragedies unfolded in the news media.
There is no do over. And our President has said what he can say. For the sake of the families involved, who have asserted they really are being properly informed, we need to accept that Benghazi
is water under the bridge for now- even for wordsmiths.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Romulus- and Even Remus
The Roman Empire tricked us. How is it fallen? Maybe the other Italian city-states fell. Rome
didn't. Vatican City always does well.
Rome, initially pagan, co-opted Christ's message, spread it far and wide to the far corners of the
known earth, then later to newly found parts of the earth. At that point, Rome proceeded to do what it had been doing all along- collecting treasure from every locale it touched- but rather than do it in Caesar's name, they've been doing it in Christ's name.
Presently, Rome is still doing this collecting.
Even now, Rome is rich. Rome is opulently rich. If people in Italy face austerity; then they are not
specifically Roman.
Some historians say Remus founded the city of Rheims. That's champagne country. How bad can it get there?
Seems to me the twins still rule.
didn't. Vatican City always does well.
Rome, initially pagan, co-opted Christ's message, spread it far and wide to the far corners of the
known earth, then later to newly found parts of the earth. At that point, Rome proceeded to do what it had been doing all along- collecting treasure from every locale it touched- but rather than do it in Caesar's name, they've been doing it in Christ's name.
Presently, Rome is still doing this collecting.
Even now, Rome is rich. Rome is opulently rich. If people in Italy face austerity; then they are not
specifically Roman.
Some historians say Remus founded the city of Rheims. That's champagne country. How bad can it get there?
Seems to me the twins still rule.
A Candidate Who Is A Fast Talker
Why is Governor Romney saying "Arabs" when referring to oil producing countries? Not all
Mid-East countries consider themselves "Arabs". That seems quite a pejorative way in which to
show some racial bias. Some of his ill-chosen words have been thus far overlooked by traditional
media.
Persons from Central and South America prefer to be called Latino, or even Latina. So all this
reference to the former continent of Hispaniola is silly.
And in my view, people brought here as children from other countries are inside our law unless
they break a law after reaching the age of reason. If countries want to expel people for being here
illegally, then do that. If our country has no working method for controlling border entrances,
children are in no way a part of that incapacity.
I personally know of two children who came to America at ages 6 and 7. One parent was from
Ecuador. She passed away last year when her young ones were 12 and 13.
Their dad was from a different country in South America. They had no idea where he was. The parents had been divorced for about five years. Let's make sense. Spend the money to find the dad?
Reunite the family and send them all back to the dad's country? Have the children ever even seen
dad's country?
If we spend what it will cost to locate 12 million persons, get accurate records of where they really
are from, and transport said persons south of our borders to a myriad number of countries, then we are prepared to spend a fortune. We are also prepared to have a great deal of push back, the
nature of which will probably take many costly forms as well, from nations which cannot easily absorb so many new citizens for an indeterminate amount of duration.
Mid-East countries consider themselves "Arabs". That seems quite a pejorative way in which to
show some racial bias. Some of his ill-chosen words have been thus far overlooked by traditional
media.
Persons from Central and South America prefer to be called Latino, or even Latina. So all this
reference to the former continent of Hispaniola is silly.
And in my view, people brought here as children from other countries are inside our law unless
they break a law after reaching the age of reason. If countries want to expel people for being here
illegally, then do that. If our country has no working method for controlling border entrances,
children are in no way a part of that incapacity.
I personally know of two children who came to America at ages 6 and 7. One parent was from
Ecuador. She passed away last year when her young ones were 12 and 13.
Their dad was from a different country in South America. They had no idea where he was. The parents had been divorced for about five years. Let's make sense. Spend the money to find the dad?
Reunite the family and send them all back to the dad's country? Have the children ever even seen
dad's country?
If we spend what it will cost to locate 12 million persons, get accurate records of where they really
are from, and transport said persons south of our borders to a myriad number of countries, then we are prepared to spend a fortune. We are also prepared to have a great deal of push back, the
nature of which will probably take many costly forms as well, from nations which cannot easily absorb so many new citizens for an indeterminate amount of duration.
"Gosh" Where Can We Find Qualified Women?
Or maybe he meant "Golly Gee". Governor Romney, why were you amazed and confounded about
trying to find qualified women?
Perhaps The governor is still ten. That was back in 1957. Time moves FORWARD.
When you were governor of Massachusetts, weren't women on the civil service rolls? Women apply
for jobs all the time. Additionally-
Weren't you down the street from Harvard?
Aren't you around the corner from MIT?
Isn't Radcliffe right around the bend?
Boston U. is in your vicinity there in Massachusetts.
You know, there are many more stellar institutions in your state which house, educate, and engage women.
Are you able to see women?
They truly are everywhere.
I hope women will be able to vote their long term interests. A woman has to understand that she may
have daughters to vote for. If not, she may need to go out and vote for her granddaughters.
She may need to vote for the women who will need to work in child care centers, or as nannies for
the children who are in her family, or who someday will be.
Women should vote in order to get a job, but also to be able to afford to go to that job in case of
unplanned pregnancy, getting a living wage, and/or getting affordable child care.
Vote for adult autonomy, even if you yourself don't need the sort of autonomy many modern women will have to have in order to survive with dignity.
trying to find qualified women?
Perhaps The governor is still ten. That was back in 1957. Time moves FORWARD.
When you were governor of Massachusetts, weren't women on the civil service rolls? Women apply
for jobs all the time. Additionally-
Weren't you down the street from Harvard?
Aren't you around the corner from MIT?
Isn't Radcliffe right around the bend?
Boston U. is in your vicinity there in Massachusetts.
You know, there are many more stellar institutions in your state which house, educate, and engage women.
Are you able to see women?
They truly are everywhere.
I hope women will be able to vote their long term interests. A woman has to understand that she may
have daughters to vote for. If not, she may need to go out and vote for her granddaughters.
She may need to vote for the women who will need to work in child care centers, or as nannies for
the children who are in her family, or who someday will be.
Women should vote in order to get a job, but also to be able to afford to go to that job in case of
unplanned pregnancy, getting a living wage, and/or getting affordable child care.
Vote for adult autonomy, even if you yourself don't need the sort of autonomy many modern women will have to have in order to survive with dignity.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Romney Really Has Been Alone With His Lies Too Long
Governor Romney was so crude on the Libya tragedy that he didn't even bother to know the President's Rose Garden talk.
He walked into his own 47% remarks.
I hope he won't waste our time this way again next week.
I am so happy POTUS addressed Romney directly, even though he was actually not talking to the
governor. He was talking to us. I really liked that in this debate.
Romney was so odd by walking right to the President's side of the room every time he spoke. He kept
ignoring his side of the room unless a question came directly to him from there on occasion.
President Obama refrained from doing that, which made him seem determined to be more polite.
The press is not jumping up and down, screaming. So that means our President did what he decided
to do.
Candy Crowley was beyond masterful. She wasn't afraid of either of them!
I wish that Romney hadn't continually tried to filibuster all evening. Ms. Crowley saved us. I also wish that town hall group had been the least bit interesting.
He walked into his own 47% remarks.
I hope he won't waste our time this way again next week.
I am so happy POTUS addressed Romney directly, even though he was actually not talking to the
governor. He was talking to us. I really liked that in this debate.
Romney was so odd by walking right to the President's side of the room every time he spoke. He kept
ignoring his side of the room unless a question came directly to him from there on occasion.
President Obama refrained from doing that, which made him seem determined to be more polite.
The press is not jumping up and down, screaming. So that means our President did what he decided
to do.
Candy Crowley was beyond masterful. She wasn't afraid of either of them!
I wish that Romney hadn't continually tried to filibuster all evening. Ms. Crowley saved us. I also wish that town hall group had been the least bit interesting.
I Am Getting Excited To Hear
I guess I wasn't so anxious to hear the first Presidential debate. I knew Romney would lie like a rug.
I knew if the American public was listening to Romney at all, President Obama would be talking not only to the faithul, but also to Fox News types. I knew the left wing would do all they could to put the words they wanted to hear in the President's mouth.
This time, knowing the President, as we all should, I feel certain no one knows what he will do. That
makes me able to look forward to this debate with a bit more interest in what will be said.
President Obama did halt the financial meltdown, thereby saving so many pensions and savings.
He has done many things to halt foreclosures.
He did help the auto industry become number one in the world again, noting a new global economy
was at work.
He has expanded trade.
He has gotten us to the point where we don't have to be half dead before we consider medical care.
He made sure citizens in the Gulf Coast were not the ones who had to pay for BP's negligence.
He has brought Al Queda and Bin Laden to the light of justice.
He has handled two wars, bringing one to an end.
He has created so many of the kinds of jobs which pay a lot more than minimum wage.
He has been staring down Republican filibusters and junk legislation for years.
He stopped DADT...and helped many young Hispanic persons.
OK. It has begun!
I knew if the American public was listening to Romney at all, President Obama would be talking not only to the faithul, but also to Fox News types. I knew the left wing would do all they could to put the words they wanted to hear in the President's mouth.
This time, knowing the President, as we all should, I feel certain no one knows what he will do. That
makes me able to look forward to this debate with a bit more interest in what will be said.
President Obama did halt the financial meltdown, thereby saving so many pensions and savings.
He has done many things to halt foreclosures.
He did help the auto industry become number one in the world again, noting a new global economy
was at work.
He has expanded trade.
He has gotten us to the point where we don't have to be half dead before we consider medical care.
He made sure citizens in the Gulf Coast were not the ones who had to pay for BP's negligence.
He has brought Al Queda and Bin Laden to the light of justice.
He has handled two wars, bringing one to an end.
He has created so many of the kinds of jobs which pay a lot more than minimum wage.
He has been staring down Republican filibusters and junk legislation for years.
He stopped DADT...and helped many young Hispanic persons.
OK. It has begun!
Of All Places
On page B1 of the 9-10-12 Business Page of The New York Times Duff Wilson has written an article
about the disagreement advisory board officials are having with each other and with the FDA about
what sort of labelling to put on osteoporosis medicines.
Apparently the FDA doesn't find evidence of advantage in using these longer than five years.
That's too bad, because old age brings enough challenges without the threat of being more bent than
is absolutely necessary, right?
Apparently, a relatively small number of long term users will suffer unusual thigh fractures, or serious
jaw disease.
Doctors who are weighing the risks and benefits of the medicines effects relative to a patients' overall health landscape, cannot agree on the severity of keeping to the medicinal regime versus
stopping after a few years.
Dr. Jennifer P. Schneider's thigh broke as she stood in a New York subway. Now that's scary!
Dr. Schneider has herself studied both osteoporosis and osteopenia.
Osteopenia is a post osteoporosis condition.
As I am not looking forward to having more bone problems than I already have, I sure hope they come up with something soon.
Why was this article on page 1 of the Business Section?
Worldwide sales of these drugs last year was $7.6 billion.
So many of us are getting older so quickly now.
about the disagreement advisory board officials are having with each other and with the FDA about
what sort of labelling to put on osteoporosis medicines.
Apparently the FDA doesn't find evidence of advantage in using these longer than five years.
That's too bad, because old age brings enough challenges without the threat of being more bent than
is absolutely necessary, right?
Apparently, a relatively small number of long term users will suffer unusual thigh fractures, or serious
jaw disease.
Doctors who are weighing the risks and benefits of the medicines effects relative to a patients' overall health landscape, cannot agree on the severity of keeping to the medicinal regime versus
stopping after a few years.
Dr. Jennifer P. Schneider's thigh broke as she stood in a New York subway. Now that's scary!
Dr. Schneider has herself studied both osteoporosis and osteopenia.
Osteopenia is a post osteoporosis condition.
As I am not looking forward to having more bone problems than I already have, I sure hope they come up with something soon.
Why was this article on page 1 of the Business Section?
Worldwide sales of these drugs last year was $7.6 billion.
So many of us are getting older so quickly now.
Affordable Care Will Create A Lot Of Good Jobs And Better Medicine
When Obamacare takes center stage in this country, we will have so many more tech jobs available
we may have to hire from abroad if we don't hurry up and educate a great many young people.
I Charlie Rose interviewing Gina Kolata of The New York Times a few days ago. Years earlier, I'd read her book, Flu about the pandemic of a century ago.
In this new interview she was speaking about projects in which scientists had discovered 'dark matter'
in human cancer cells. The discovery is momentous because science has found that if genes in the 'dark matter' of offending cells is turned off, the attackers become harmless. So the aim now is to find medicines which will turn off said 'dark matter'.
Cancer treatments in our future will not revolve so much around a lot of invasive surgery or extensive
time-consuming chemo therapies. Therapies will be tailor made to turn off destructive matter. The remainder of work to be done to get rid of material left behind in healthy tissue will be likely a process to aid the body as it does the bulk of the work itself, naturally.
What has spurred the new discoveries? According to Ms. Kolata, the sheer volume of data scientists have been able to process because engineering and software processes have advanced so quickly.
Information has become so voluminous, and so much easier to put into real time, that patterns which give rise to problem-solving insights have become much easier to discern these days.
What is one of the things The Affordable Care Act has inherent in its character? Data. Reams and reams more data patients allow providers to share will become available to general information pools.
I hope we will solve many more diseases now on the verge of yielding their terrible
secrets; and I hope Americans will be using the newer and newer methods of processing and cataloguing this data.
we may have to hire from abroad if we don't hurry up and educate a great many young people.
I Charlie Rose interviewing Gina Kolata of The New York Times a few days ago. Years earlier, I'd read her book, Flu about the pandemic of a century ago.
In this new interview she was speaking about projects in which scientists had discovered 'dark matter'
in human cancer cells. The discovery is momentous because science has found that if genes in the 'dark matter' of offending cells is turned off, the attackers become harmless. So the aim now is to find medicines which will turn off said 'dark matter'.
Cancer treatments in our future will not revolve so much around a lot of invasive surgery or extensive
time-consuming chemo therapies. Therapies will be tailor made to turn off destructive matter. The remainder of work to be done to get rid of material left behind in healthy tissue will be likely a process to aid the body as it does the bulk of the work itself, naturally.
What has spurred the new discoveries? According to Ms. Kolata, the sheer volume of data scientists have been able to process because engineering and software processes have advanced so quickly.
Information has become so voluminous, and so much easier to put into real time, that patterns which give rise to problem-solving insights have become much easier to discern these days.
What is one of the things The Affordable Care Act has inherent in its character? Data. Reams and reams more data patients allow providers to share will become available to general information pools.
I hope we will solve many more diseases now on the verge of yielding their terrible
secrets; and I hope Americans will be using the newer and newer methods of processing and cataloguing this data.
My Girls
I called my little one today, to see if her three-year-old felt well enough to go to school.
Well, for me she might always be a ten-year-old sweetie with a constantly distraught, mean mommy. Actually, though, she is a couple weeks past forty. I like to see how she is doing with her babies in the mornings when she has a moment to chat, or when something may have gone wrong.
I knew the moment my three-year-old granddaughter answered my daughter's cell phone, that she was indeed on her way to play at her preschool, not in bed with a fever.
She said "Hi grandma", as though she were tired. I said a few more things. Then the phone went dead- twice.
The next time I called, I asked her to give the phone to mommy.
I heard my little (well, she's actually quite tall) daughter say: "Tell gramma to stop calling, you will
talk to her later so you can play your game."
Then a light bulb went off in my recent memory. My daughter did take the phone and tell me baby
wanted to play "plants" and something on the phone.
So I hung up, remembering a few weeks ago I watched same baby sitting propped up on my couch,
feet crossed at the ankles, working her little thumbs feverishly over the cell phone keys in a complete
concentration. Hilarious. I was only then becoming accustomed to my eight-year-old granddaughter
being so caught up in having her own private cell phone. -Of course, nearly everything is blocked.-
The story hasn't much to do with politics except that this little one actually does need the games.
They relax her, and give her something she makes her own in real time.
She is gone from parents about nine or ten hours every day whether she wants to be or not. She is like
millions of kids in big cities.
When I think about it, I realize how much I admire our current administration for attempting to make sure every location in the country has cell phone access.
These little things, the barely publicized things, make one proud to be American.
Well, for me she might always be a ten-year-old sweetie with a constantly distraught, mean mommy. Actually, though, she is a couple weeks past forty. I like to see how she is doing with her babies in the mornings when she has a moment to chat, or when something may have gone wrong.
I knew the moment my three-year-old granddaughter answered my daughter's cell phone, that she was indeed on her way to play at her preschool, not in bed with a fever.
She said "Hi grandma", as though she were tired. I said a few more things. Then the phone went dead- twice.
The next time I called, I asked her to give the phone to mommy.
I heard my little (well, she's actually quite tall) daughter say: "Tell gramma to stop calling, you will
talk to her later so you can play your game."
Then a light bulb went off in my recent memory. My daughter did take the phone and tell me baby
wanted to play "plants" and something on the phone.
So I hung up, remembering a few weeks ago I watched same baby sitting propped up on my couch,
feet crossed at the ankles, working her little thumbs feverishly over the cell phone keys in a complete
concentration. Hilarious. I was only then becoming accustomed to my eight-year-old granddaughter
being so caught up in having her own private cell phone. -Of course, nearly everything is blocked.-
The story hasn't much to do with politics except that this little one actually does need the games.
They relax her, and give her something she makes her own in real time.
She is gone from parents about nine or ten hours every day whether she wants to be or not. She is like
millions of kids in big cities.
When I think about it, I realize how much I admire our current administration for attempting to make sure every location in the country has cell phone access.
These little things, the barely publicized things, make one proud to be American.
Don't Mind Me
I wanted the real refs back in the NFL as much as anyone, so I can feel more sure of the calls and of the
instant replays. However, I didn't see the glaring mistakes everyone else saw. I'm not saying I have
20/20 eyesight. But I couldn't say everyone but the replacement refs had it either. I thought they did
a good job- even on their lasts days.
instant replays. However, I didn't see the glaring mistakes everyone else saw. I'm not saying I have
20/20 eyesight. But I couldn't say everyone but the replacement refs had it either. I thought they did
a good job- even on their lasts days.
The Second Presidential Debate
I agree with Dr. Howard Dean. President Barack Obama won the first presidential debate this year.
If all one has to do is start lying and backtracking in order to debate, anyone can do that. Staying
calm while someone lies and lies, then calls the other debater a liar all in the same breath- now that is a feat of leadership. As soon as the President pointed out Romney's new position was "never mind"
that is when President Obama won the first debate.
This debate itself may have been a failure because as soon as a lie hits the airways, someone needs to be there to say the liar has forfeited.
On the other hand, Gov. Romney would be more difficult to pin to the truth than an honest man would be, because whatever position he claimed during that debate, he truly had held at some point
in the primaries, or in his career. Either that or he was then adopting it anew.
For him to say he'd never had a 5 trillion dollar tax plan was simply obfuscating the facts of what
he had been presenting a bit too much for anyone to consider his new offering honest.
Unlike a great many persons in the news and in polls, I hope not very much happens tonight.
I suppose the President could point out the temporal boundaries of Romney's most recent positions
if he has committed them to memory. Everybody could freak out then. They could say POTUS nailed
the guy.
Maybe then the rest of us could define "truth", and nail Mitt Romney to it as something well-defined
and deserved and expected.
I hope foreign affairs won't include the Republicans' insistence disgracing the memories and the family wishes of our leaders in Libya. What's more, I hope no one attempts to blur all the boundaries
between embassies and consulates, and security we provide, and security host countries have to provide. Any of that could harm the newly-formed good wishes the Libyan people have for our country. Additionally, since our President is responsible for our continued good relationship with Libya now, he would be debate-handicapped as regards making public statements about possible culpabilities abroad not yet publicly discussed.
If all one has to do is start lying and backtracking in order to debate, anyone can do that. Staying
calm while someone lies and lies, then calls the other debater a liar all in the same breath- now that is a feat of leadership. As soon as the President pointed out Romney's new position was "never mind"
that is when President Obama won the first debate.
This debate itself may have been a failure because as soon as a lie hits the airways, someone needs to be there to say the liar has forfeited.
On the other hand, Gov. Romney would be more difficult to pin to the truth than an honest man would be, because whatever position he claimed during that debate, he truly had held at some point
in the primaries, or in his career. Either that or he was then adopting it anew.
For him to say he'd never had a 5 trillion dollar tax plan was simply obfuscating the facts of what
he had been presenting a bit too much for anyone to consider his new offering honest.
Unlike a great many persons in the news and in polls, I hope not very much happens tonight.
I suppose the President could point out the temporal boundaries of Romney's most recent positions
if he has committed them to memory. Everybody could freak out then. They could say POTUS nailed
the guy.
Maybe then the rest of us could define "truth", and nail Mitt Romney to it as something well-defined
and deserved and expected.
I hope foreign affairs won't include the Republicans' insistence disgracing the memories and the family wishes of our leaders in Libya. What's more, I hope no one attempts to blur all the boundaries
between embassies and consulates, and security we provide, and security host countries have to provide. Any of that could harm the newly-formed good wishes the Libyan people have for our country. Additionally, since our President is responsible for our continued good relationship with Libya now, he would be debate-handicapped as regards making public statements about possible culpabilities abroad not yet publicly discussed.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Thirty Years
For at least thirty consecutive years in the lives of most women and girls, reproductive life is economic life.
Will your children be born the year after you begin med school?
Will your children be born the first year after you pass the bar?
Will you be in your ninth month of pregnancy when you take your beauty school licensing
exams?
Will you still be serving drinks when you have to pay a babysitter twice what she was charging
before you had twins?
Will you get to retirement if you are finally back at university when your son has an accident at age twenty-one? By then, you are forty-five,and he needs to be cared for at home for an indeterminate
amount of time. That is, having a child is often a lifetime commitment. So shouldn't a woman make
some money, plan to make some money, for a certain amount of years she has specified for herself?
Don't believe protecting your reproductive rights are different from planning your education and
economic future. Those two spheres in your existence enjoy nearly total overlap, especially if you
care at all about doing well with your education, your children, and your career.
Perhaps even more important than simple reproductive rights, are reproductive health rights.
We will always need our governing bodies to insure we get safe, clean services for whatever health
initiative we choose.
While politicians are so focused on restriction and control- who is minding the real store of whether
safe practices are actually the norm in the reproductive health requests we have of today's professionals?
Will your children be born the year after you begin med school?
Will your children be born the first year after you pass the bar?
Will you be in your ninth month of pregnancy when you take your beauty school licensing
exams?
Will you still be serving drinks when you have to pay a babysitter twice what she was charging
before you had twins?
Will you get to retirement if you are finally back at university when your son has an accident at age twenty-one? By then, you are forty-five,and he needs to be cared for at home for an indeterminate
amount of time. That is, having a child is often a lifetime commitment. So shouldn't a woman make
some money, plan to make some money, for a certain amount of years she has specified for herself?
Don't believe protecting your reproductive rights are different from planning your education and
economic future. Those two spheres in your existence enjoy nearly total overlap, especially if you
care at all about doing well with your education, your children, and your career.
Perhaps even more important than simple reproductive rights, are reproductive health rights.
We will always need our governing bodies to insure we get safe, clean services for whatever health
initiative we choose.
While politicians are so focused on restriction and control- who is minding the real store of whether
safe practices are actually the norm in the reproductive health requests we have of today's professionals?
Poll Taxes
We don't have Medgar Evers any longer.
We don't have Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We don't have Malcolm X.
So what are we going to do? Our causes, the legacies we had hoped to leave our children, are the aging orphans of the uplift of our own 1 to 3%.
What many sophisticates have decided is this: 'Just go ahead and pay the poll tax. Quit yer whinin'!
I guess the prevailing wisdom of the race disdainers is that if 'you people' want to vote, you will go
ahead and 'show your papers'.
So if the poll taxes take a different shape, and get requested in even more stealthy ways, and grow to
larger and larger amounts of an individual's monthly income, does that mean we should still go ahead and pay, or we don't care about our vote?
I can see how mockery could lead someone to that view. What? Isn't it OK to call out mockery when
it's noticed? I think that should be OK.
I think if we have to wage generations of war and dissent to claim a 500 year old birthright, maybe
we need to think in terms of different papers. Passports are nice. I hear Burkina Faso is nice any time
of the year.
We don't have Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We don't have Malcolm X.
So what are we going to do? Our causes, the legacies we had hoped to leave our children, are the aging orphans of the uplift of our own 1 to 3%.
What many sophisticates have decided is this: 'Just go ahead and pay the poll tax. Quit yer whinin'!
I guess the prevailing wisdom of the race disdainers is that if 'you people' want to vote, you will go
ahead and 'show your papers'.
So if the poll taxes take a different shape, and get requested in even more stealthy ways, and grow to
larger and larger amounts of an individual's monthly income, does that mean we should still go ahead and pay, or we don't care about our vote?
I can see how mockery could lead someone to that view. What? Isn't it OK to call out mockery when
it's noticed? I think that should be OK.
I think if we have to wage generations of war and dissent to claim a 500 year old birthright, maybe
we need to think in terms of different papers. Passports are nice. I hear Burkina Faso is nice any time
of the year.
Minimum Wages
When Republican politicians say they are job creators, and their buddies are job creators, believe
them. They are minimum wage job creators for a few people at a time.
Oh, you meant you wanted a career?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
If that's the case, you'd better be a Republican who votes for Barack Obama. Sorry. Paul Ryan has
already said he thinks the minimum wage should be between 3 and 4$.
them. They are minimum wage job creators for a few people at a time.
Oh, you meant you wanted a career?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
If that's the case, you'd better be a Republican who votes for Barack Obama. Sorry. Paul Ryan has
already said he thinks the minimum wage should be between 3 and 4$.
Manners
Question: When does the more polite person lose a debate?
Answer: When he or she is a democrat.
Question: When does the most polite person win a debate?
Answer: When he or she is republican.
Question: Is it ever good to be soft-spoken during a debate?
Answer: If there is any republican anywhere who wants you to be
soft-spoken during a debate, you must be soft-spoken.
Even vicious Republicans want to be handled with kid gloves.
Answer: When he or she is a democrat.
Question: When does the most polite person win a debate?
Answer: When he or she is republican.
Question: Is it ever good to be soft-spoken during a debate?
Answer: If there is any republican anywhere who wants you to be
soft-spoken during a debate, you must be soft-spoken.
Even vicious Republicans want to be handled with kid gloves.
Women Expanding Their Opportunities
How many one per centers in this country are women? Are half of them women? No. half of them are not women. Half should be women. Women generally have to do twelve or fifteen sustaining jobs in order for the day-to-day of any man who lives in a family to become a billionaire.
A man with a life partner he can trust has a much better chance of sustaining an ever building high
incomes than a man with a lot of girlfriends. In America, we tend to think of that as some sort of very cute heady and romantic fact. In some other countries it is often considered a duty a man can take for granted. Actually, it's neither. Beyonce's life can illustrate this partner value possibility.
A woman who already has money, from earning x million dollars per year, cannot simply put all that
aside to have a child which is just as much her partner's baby as it is hers. I mean, of course some women will be glad to do that. However, there should not necessarily be such an expectation placed
upon a woman available for marriage and a family. Why should a husband who can afford to make
up the difference say to wife, "Honey I intend to make the same money I make each year, or maybe
more- but could you perhaps cut yours by up to half so we can have a child?"
Women should exercise choices beyond traditional divorce possibilities in fashioning marital prenuptials.
Generally, a professional partner, male or female has to get laundry handled properly in a household.
Dry cleaning also has to be managed.
One of the questions I came to love, then hate- 'What's for dinner'?
Groceries have to be purchased. Then they have to be stored. Then someone has to decide which
of them is to be served on what day.
Dishes have to be in place. Flatware has to be ready.
Food has to be rinsed, and kitchenware has to be available for food preparation and for cleansing the services.
Or...reservations have to be made, unless someone is going to pick up or call for delivery of pizza or
Chinese, or whatever.
The rooms in a home set aside for daily living have to be kept clean and comfortable.
Who decides when to reorder or re-purchase the pillows and throws?
Who does the cleaning or manages the paid household helpers?
The road from hundred thousand dollaraire to millionaire to billionaire is long and bumpy.
One partner has to restrict much of his or her day to business climates, finance, real estate, payrolls,
meetings, boards, bottom lines etc.
But I don't know what is for dinner tonight. You figure it out darling. I'm taking investors to dinner.
And by the way, if all goes well, the GOVERNMENT, will of course give us loan guarantees for
much of the investment we're soliciting.
A man with a life partner he can trust has a much better chance of sustaining an ever building high
incomes than a man with a lot of girlfriends. In America, we tend to think of that as some sort of very cute heady and romantic fact. In some other countries it is often considered a duty a man can take for granted. Actually, it's neither. Beyonce's life can illustrate this partner value possibility.
A woman who already has money, from earning x million dollars per year, cannot simply put all that
aside to have a child which is just as much her partner's baby as it is hers. I mean, of course some women will be glad to do that. However, there should not necessarily be such an expectation placed
upon a woman available for marriage and a family. Why should a husband who can afford to make
up the difference say to wife, "Honey I intend to make the same money I make each year, or maybe
more- but could you perhaps cut yours by up to half so we can have a child?"
Women should exercise choices beyond traditional divorce possibilities in fashioning marital prenuptials.
Generally, a professional partner, male or female has to get laundry handled properly in a household.
Dry cleaning also has to be managed.
One of the questions I came to love, then hate- 'What's for dinner'?
Groceries have to be purchased. Then they have to be stored. Then someone has to decide which
of them is to be served on what day.
Dishes have to be in place. Flatware has to be ready.
Food has to be rinsed, and kitchenware has to be available for food preparation and for cleansing the services.
Or...reservations have to be made, unless someone is going to pick up or call for delivery of pizza or
Chinese, or whatever.
The rooms in a home set aside for daily living have to be kept clean and comfortable.
Who decides when to reorder or re-purchase the pillows and throws?
Who does the cleaning or manages the paid household helpers?
The road from hundred thousand dollaraire to millionaire to billionaire is long and bumpy.
One partner has to restrict much of his or her day to business climates, finance, real estate, payrolls,
meetings, boards, bottom lines etc.
But I don't know what is for dinner tonight. You figure it out darling. I'm taking investors to dinner.
And by the way, if all goes well, the GOVERNMENT, will of course give us loan guarantees for
much of the investment we're soliciting.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Truth
Truth doesn't seem to have much value in Republican politics. If someone asks why Mitt Romney is
so blatantly dishonest, one of his supporters asks: "What about Barack Obama?"
Whether or not Romney habitually lies and obfuscates has no meaning in the minds of his supporters.
How does a grown man change his mind every day without being either a liar or a neurotic?
None of his supporters care.
They could care less whether he is open, honest, empathic, interested in the majority of the country,
able to support middle class job careers, intelligent, or knowledgeable about intricate patterns in
world affairs. His supporters only care that he is not Barack Obama.
President Obama, even among many self-loathing black and brown people, was to have been all things to all people, just as scores of black people have had to be twice as prepared in this country to
get half the reward of other groups, for generations.
Expectations for Gov. Romney revolve around one thing, and one thing only. Beat President Obama.
He doesn't have to know anything about science. He doesn't have to know much about foreign affairs.
He doesn't have to understand the strengths or needs of the average American. There does not exist a
requirement among his backers, that his plans for this country be explained clearly or concisely.
He is asked to beat President Obama. Republicans could care less about the honesty he has to ignore
in order to get that job done.
The reverse has not yet become a reality in democratic political life.
What bothers me, is that the closer we get to the election of 2012, the closer we could get to all sorts
of destructive behaviors which present actual dangers to individual persons. If I don't mind lying, all
I need to do is whatever I happen to feel like doing at any given moment, as long as I feel I can lie my
way out of taking any responsibility for my whim.
Showing requested tax returns, kindness to animals, interest in close family, care about how money is
accumulated, aftermaths for those affected by my personal business decisions, caution about my investments in foreign economies, sensitivity about my tax evasion plans, are all unnecessary traits for me if I am to run for President of the United States of America as a Republican candidate.
Surprised?
so blatantly dishonest, one of his supporters asks: "What about Barack Obama?"
Whether or not Romney habitually lies and obfuscates has no meaning in the minds of his supporters.
How does a grown man change his mind every day without being either a liar or a neurotic?
None of his supporters care.
They could care less whether he is open, honest, empathic, interested in the majority of the country,
able to support middle class job careers, intelligent, or knowledgeable about intricate patterns in
world affairs. His supporters only care that he is not Barack Obama.
President Obama, even among many self-loathing black and brown people, was to have been all things to all people, just as scores of black people have had to be twice as prepared in this country to
get half the reward of other groups, for generations.
Expectations for Gov. Romney revolve around one thing, and one thing only. Beat President Obama.
He doesn't have to know anything about science. He doesn't have to know much about foreign affairs.
He doesn't have to understand the strengths or needs of the average American. There does not exist a
requirement among his backers, that his plans for this country be explained clearly or concisely.
He is asked to beat President Obama. Republicans could care less about the honesty he has to ignore
in order to get that job done.
The reverse has not yet become a reality in democratic political life.
What bothers me, is that the closer we get to the election of 2012, the closer we could get to all sorts
of destructive behaviors which present actual dangers to individual persons. If I don't mind lying, all
I need to do is whatever I happen to feel like doing at any given moment, as long as I feel I can lie my
way out of taking any responsibility for my whim.
Showing requested tax returns, kindness to animals, interest in close family, care about how money is
accumulated, aftermaths for those affected by my personal business decisions, caution about my investments in foreign economies, sensitivity about my tax evasion plans, are all unnecessary traits for me if I am to run for President of the United States of America as a Republican candidate.
Surprised?
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