Who Died...???

There's an editorial in the NY Times: Anti-Gay Anti-Family that talks about what has just recently happened in California, Florida and Arizona. It also brings to light an issue that was not highlighted in the recent elections...a measure that social conservatives got passed in Arkansas that makes it illegal for anyone other than married (read man/woman) couples to be foster parents. Yes, you read that right - no grandma cannot live with her boyfriend and keep her pension and still raise her grandchild - the boyfriend would have to marry her and they would take a substantial hit to their incomes in their golden years, not to mention, income that would be needed to raise the child...

My question here is this...Who died and made the social conservatives the deciders of who is fit and who is not to marry, to have children, to raise children, to build families, to love?

I believe it is time for another Stonewall Uprising of epic proportion and this time the streets are going to be the main streets of anytown USA - this has gone too far...

United We Love...

Clean Coal????

With all this talk about "Clean Coal" why is no one talking about what really happens still, when coal is mined, and what the current President is trying to do in Appalachia to the mountains there by allowing the mountain tops to be removed in an effort to make mining easier? How does that help our planet? Isn't that in effect strip mining? Why aren't we talking about this???? This is serious and needs to be addressed. Along with making our planet less dependent on oil, we need to protect our natural resources like our mountain ranges that protect the people below and make sure that those who are doing the mining are following the strict guidelines when it comes to waste disposal so that water resources are protected for those who live near and below those mines.

While the burning of the coal that is mined may be a cleaner process, the actual mining of the product has not really improved as far as it's impact on the environment.

A new start...

America made history on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. After eight very long years of governance by someone with mediocre intelligence, the voting public finally realized that just because someone talks and acts like a regular guy, doesn't necessarily mean he is the best suited person to be sitting in the west wing of the White House.

The person who needs to be in that position, is a person of high intelligence who can grasp complex ideas and situations and make studied decisions that are in the best interest of the country at-large rather than the select few surrounding them. America chose well and a collective sigh of relief was felt around the world.

This does not mean that there will be easy sailing for the new President or that our President-elect will not have to make compromises on some of the promises made during the campaign for election, on the contrary, there will be plenty of compromises to be made and promises broken in the name of keeping the country on an even keel. It is the way of politics and it is something we will have to live with. How many promises will be broken, we will have to wait and see...

For now, we have the hope of a new direction, a step in a positive direction to look forward to.

Thought for the day....

Lessons learned are pavement for the future...

menopausal maniac  - 2008

George W. the environmentalist....

EDITORIAL
More Sadness for Appalachia
Published: October 21, 2008
The Bush administration is writing one more sad chapter in the long, tortured history of Appalachia’s coal-rich hills.

Who is the real Sarah Palin?

I have discovered a series of films created by an amazing group of filmmakers who went to Wasilla, Alaska to find out about who Sarah Palin was from the people who best knew her....the townfolk of Wasilla. What they found there and the stories they recorded are very interesting to say the least and the filmmakers did a wonderful job with the production of these short films. I encourage you to check out what some of the people who were actually willing to risk their political futures had to say about Ms. Palin.....

http://www.wasillaproject.com/

Headline: GAY MARRIAGE UNDER ATTACK!!!

Dateline 2008: Conservatives across the United States in an effort to hold on to their Special Right of marriage have used the tried and true tactics of the Republican party and put fear in to the hearts of voters. Fear that Same-sex marriage will allow gays and lesbians to use this new-found social status to wield power and "repress, marginalize, and stigmatize Americans who disagree"1

Unwittingly, these conservatives have uncovered the truth of what has been done to the GLBT community for as long as it has been in existence. For a reference point one only has to look as far back as Stonewall or a more contemporary happening with the Oregon Citizen Alliance attempting to proclaim homosexuality "unnatural, and perverse" and the rancor and violence that followed those attempts from their supporters.

As Dorothy Parker so aptly put it "Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common." The conservative groups that are fighting to keep "marriage" for themselves, are hurting the entire country by creating such a divisive environment. Not unlike John McCain in his attack ads. The truth is, Same-sex couples just want to be able to marry should they choose to do so - and not all of them choose to do so. Not unlike the heterosexual community. No, homosexuals are not looking to oppress anyone - there is far too much oppression in the world - much of which the GLBT community has experienced for far too long, to want to become the oppressor.

1-Prop. 22 Can Save Traditional Marriage in California
by Maggie Gallagher
05/29/2008

Scranton, Pennsylvania - October 12, 2008

"America will rise from the ashes of the Bushes" 

-Hillary Clinton     10-12-08

A proposal to Joe America...

OK, we've watched our 401k's become 101k's over the past weeks and had to sit by and twiddle our thumbs helpless to do anything.   Here's something that might make us all feel a little better... a class action lawsuit.  

Why don't we gather the names of our friends and co-workers and walk into our lawyer's offices and demand to file a lawsuit against the former CEO's of all the Wall Street brokerage houses who took their golden parachutes just before the free-fall began?  You know, the ones who walked away unscathed in all the mess.  Aren't they also responsible?  Why are they not being called to atone for their reckless behavior?  Why should they be allowed to walk away with their millions while the rest of us lose our thousands we have been counting on to carry us into our "Golden Years"?   Isn't it about time we stood up and said ENOUGH!  Enough of your greed.  Enough of your taking for your out of control wants, just because you demand it.  ENOUGH, ENOUGH, ENOUGH! 

As interesting as milk-toast...

As I watched the vice-presidential debate Thursday night there was a recurring theme that kept floating through my brain as each candidate did as their party requested and did not rock-the-boat...this debate is as interesting to watch and as spicy as milk-toast.

The only saving grace for Joe Biden was that he actually answered the questions put to him and answered them with grace and facts.  Ms. Palin, on the other hand, refused to actually answer the questions put to her and instead set her own agenda.  Her folksy dialect began to wear thin about half-way through the meeting as well.  

Ms. Palin spoke about belief in family values and I wondered as I watched her family after the debates what exactly her family values were.  See, what I saw was Ms. Palin holding her new baby and then her youngest daughter carrying this newest edition to their family around the podium area.  At no time was Daddy Palin involved in the caring for of this child - as a matter of fact, in each of the appearances the family has made, Daddy has been noticeably hands-off with this newest edition.  He seems more interested in being recognized for being "the guy" rather than taking care of the rest of his family...I'm just saying that this is the appearance as I see it. 

Why didn't THEY think of this???

So, apparently the 700 Billion -that Bush and his cronies want you and me to pony up to bailout Wall Street isn't so forthcoming...

There's another proposal that came out of the meetings that was so revolutionary - so, out in left field, that no one saw it coming! The proposal? Oh, yeah, have Wall Street bail itself out.

Have the fat cats that have been playing with all this money and basking in their greed for lo these many years, finally have to pay the piper for their debauchery. Everyone knew that the market has been inflated for quite some time and that there were going to need to be corrections. But no one did anything about it.

Borio and Lowe(2002) as written by Kevin J. Lansing in his Federal Reserve Bank SF(FRBSF) Economic Letter dated 14 November 2003... also argue that emerging bubbles can be more readily identified if central banks look beyond asset prices to include other variables that signal a threat to financial stability. Specifically, they find that episodes of sustained rapid credit expansion, booming stock or house prices, and high levels of investment, are almost always followed by periods of stress in the financial system.

HMMM...I'd say this is STRESSS!!!!! wouldn't you?

That same letter, which holds the subtitle -Should the Fed React to the Stock Market?
He quotes Borio and Lowe "If the economy is indeed robust and the boom is sustainable, actions by the authorities to restrain the boom are unlikely to derail it altogether. By contrast, failure to act could have much more damaging consequences, as the imbalances unravel" (p. 26).
Borio, C., and P. Lowe. 2002. "Asset Prices, Financial and Monetary Stability: Exploring the Nexus." Bank for International Settlements. Working Paper 114. http://www.bis.org/publ/work114.htm

This was 5 years ago, 700 Billion dollars earlier and GW and the Republicans chose to do NOTHING!

I think that there must be consequences for those for whom this proposed bailout is to benefit. Exactly what those consequences are, I am not sure as I am not privvy to the inner workings of the system. I do believe in the No golden parachutes, though - you've already gotten yours. (that's a consequence? Boo hoo)
Guess you'll have to struggle like the rest of us peons to make our retirement accounts add up and hope that we have enough to carry us through old age.

It is heartening to see our representatives finally show some backbone, but in the end it may all just be for show and we, the lowly taxpayer, end up footing the bill again for the excesses of the greedy who have taken their money and run...

More commentary on Sarah Palin...gotta love this stuff

OP-ED COLUMNIST

Lipstick Bungle

By CHARLES M. BLOW

Published: September 20, 2008

Support for Sarah Palin among Republicans seems just as superficial as she is. When asked why they liked her, the answers described a talk-show host, not a vice president.

some thoughts on freedom...

I recently had the privilege and honor of standing with the Patriot Guard at a ceremony at Fort Logan in Denver, Colorado.  These folks come from all walks of life to stand and honor those who have given their lives in service for this country.  I do not believe our presence in Iraq is justified, but it was not the decision of those who are coming back in those caskets. This was a most moving experience from the horse-drawn caisson to the release of a dove by the parents of the young man killed in action signifying their release of him to a better life.  

The Patriot Guard stands between Fred Phelps and his people when they protest at these funerals.  Now, Fred Phelps is not one of my favorite people for other reasons, but this goes beyond the pale when he will bring other people and especially children to protest at a funeral of a person who has been killed in service for this country.  This country where we, at present, still have the benefit of speaking out against the things we think are wrong,  still enjoy most of our privacy (thanks GW), and if you are of the common, heterosexual variety, you still get to enjoy the benefits of inclusion in the greater society.  The common, homosexual variety is becoming more included but still to a lesser degree at this writing.

Thoughts from Eve Ensler

Subject: Eve Ensler on Sarah Palin...

   *Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and

  activist best  known for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the following about Sarah  Palin*.

    I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was amember of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular

thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in  person or touched one.  Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears. I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.  But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

    I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may 

never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would  have on the rest of the world.  Unfortunately, this is not a joke.  In my  lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected  to the presidency with regularity.   Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a  metaphor. In her  world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or  evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the  arctic,  the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of  cancers, are all part of God's plan.  She is fighting to take the polar  bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view,  is here  to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot  and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is  here to be  taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a  task  from God."  

 

 

    Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women  who are  raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a  right to  determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.   She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I  imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that  makes.   Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather  she has  tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with  people  who think  independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of  ambiguity and  difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next  president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse  populations on the earth.   Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting  rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds  of wolves  from the air.   Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But  when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is  declared  in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that  is the  end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything  America  has ever tried to be.

       I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this  election in  our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not  just of  the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create  policies to  save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will  determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or  whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and  attack. It  will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or  invest  our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and  destruction.  It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or  whether  we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether  America  is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear,  fundamentalism  and aggression. 

       If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your  power to  get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after  Palin  spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of  drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of  domination. I  think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the  brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent.  I think of pain.   Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the  floor of  the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and  peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

       Eve Ensler

   September 5, 2008

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indecision 2008 - What the ?!?!?! (from the Daily show with Jon Stewart)

Sarah Palin and the gender card ...

How many...

Has anyone ever done a survey of the right-to-life folks to see how many of them support the death penalty?  I'm curious...does anyone else see the irony?

I wonder....

I wonder how many of the Right-to-Life folks who are so vehement that women not have abortions who have been raped or are the victims of incest, have thought about the trauma they are inflicting on those women by forcing them to carry the seed of the bastard who forced himself on them for nine months knowing that they are sharing in creating something they had absolutely no say in.  That's inflicting additional trauma on the victim- how dare those who have never had to deal with this type of trauma, decide whether someone who has, should have to carry to full term the child of their assailant.

You hear these people talk about those childless couples who would love to adopt these children of these victims.  I believe there are plenty of children waiting to be adopted in this world already.  The problem is that these so-called 'childless couples' want newborns - they are not willing to adopt older children.  They don't want to adopt someone else's problem.  How shallow is that?  Either you want a child or you don't.  If you are given the opportunity to adopt you take it.  You are not given a guarantee when you get pregnant that your child will be healthy or without problems, so why should it matter?  

You, who have not gone through the  trauma, do not get a say in whether those that have are to keep their baby full-term or are allowed to abort it and move on with their life and heal from their trauma.  That is their personal choice and should remain so.

No woman should have to die in a back alley ever again because of someone's religious beliefs.  This is where the true separation of church and state must exist.  What must prevail is the understanding and thought process that takes into account what is right and just for all people not just those of your own religious beliefs.  You may have your beliefs, but you may not inflict your beliefs on me.

what we have..is a failure to communicate

email - gotta love it, right?  it's become our primary form of communication.  there's a problem.  email doesn't let you hear emotion in the sender's voice - often there's no inflection in what's been written, so you really are at a loss as to how to interpret what is being said unless you know the sender very well.

we have become so dependent upon this form of communication, yet most don't have a clue how to properly use the medium.  they don't carefully choose their words to convey the correct meaning, no, instead they spew whatever words come forth from their meager vocabularies and don't even think about the ramifications of their impact on the other party without the benefit of inflection or emotion.  this can and often does have devastating results.

at least when we speak with someone face to face or even on the phone or chat on the internet, we have the benefit of seeing their face and or hearing the inflection of their voice and can often tell if they are joking, smiling, laughing, angry, sad, etc.   with email we get none of that.

communication is the bedrock of every relationship - friend, lover, work, person you meet on the street, customer -  essentially, every interaction you have with another human being requires communication of some sort.  it is far too important to leave to chance or guesswork by the other when you create an email.  take the time to think about what you want to convey with your words and then put it down.  yes, it may take a few extra seconds, but those few extra seconds may make the difference between understanding and misunderstanding and save a lot of heartache in the end.

Why, oh, why...

I can't quite get my head around the notion that someone would actually feel that there was no other way to deal with their life than to end it with their own hands.  

I'm not talking about someone with a terminal disease - I'm talking about someone with from all signs a decent life.  A good wife, good kids, good friends...then BAM! gone.  What was so bad that they couldn't talk to somebody?  One of their friends?  

So many questions left unanswered...never to be known.  What signs did we miss?  What lessons can we learn to keep this from happening again?  This is happening with frightening frequency.  These are not children doing this - these are grown men in their 40's and 50's.  What is happening here?  This is a problem that needs to be addressed.

smellyvision...

i'm peeling wallpaper off the kitchen walls.  paper that had been steeped in cigarette smoke for years.  i'm finding that now that the paper is coming off, the acrid smell of old cigarettes is permeating the house.  it got me thinking - it's kind of an interesting metaphor for the effects cigarettes have on the body even after you have quit smoking. 

chamomile tea? tried that...thanks

in previous posts i have vented about what i consider to be social issues.  not so, this post.  no, this post is more concerned with the with the personal.   

it would appear that there are forces taking over my sleep center.  i now have an internal clock that has reset to awaken me at anywhere from 1:30 am to 3:00 am and it doesn't matter what time i go to bed!  this has been going on for 3 (yes that is three) months now and if i don't get some sleep soon, i can't be held responsible for my actions.   i try napping during the day, but those naps only last about 20 minutes at best.  power naps- it seems.

friends have commented that they don't know how i have managed to keep such a nice demeanor.  my thinking is - that it doesn't do anybody any good to be a grouch - there's nothing i or anybody can do about the situation currently, other than ride it out.  right?  the biggest issue i find i face, is the problem with typing.  i can't seem to type worth a sh*t  right now and it is really frustrating.  letters get transposed,  words get left out even though my brain says they are there.  i have to read and re-read every thing i write.  the rest of my life seems to be running in slow motion while everything around me is running normal speed.  what a weird feeling that is.

on the plus side - my house is really, really clean - i'm sure my neighbors love hearing the vacuum running at all hours of the morning but that's too bad...  

a great billboard...

I saw this great billboard the other day:

"Half the people in this country know about Darfur - 

the voting half" 

ROCK ON!!!

more maniacs join the fray...

There are now more maniacs to post their opinions here.  Yes, my sister and her friends thought it would be fun to join in on this venture so, welcome to you all and jump in with your salient venting anytime.

making mudpies...

Here in the midwest we have had our share of rain this year so we could easily sit in all the mud left over and make mud pies suitable for slinging until probably the next decade arrives.  We choose to instead find a way to use that mud to create something better for ourselves.  

Not so John McCain.  Instead of focusing on what the issues are and how he might run the country, he has to find a way to tear down the other candidate.  So typical of the Republican tactics a la Karl Rove and his ilk.  If you can't win focused on the issues- try to win by negative campaigning.  It is so transparent and so inauthentic and yet there are, sadly, those who will blindly follow his rhetoric.  

I had truly hoped that by this time, almost a decade into the the new millennium, we would have gotten beyond the negative ad campaign and been able to truly focus on what was important for the voters in America to understand about the candidates in order to make an informed decision.

OH! Silly me, it's happening - just not the way I expected!  Go ahead, John keep on keepin' on - the rest of us will focus on what's important for the country and you will become even less relevant than you are right now.  Does anyone else hear fingernails on a chalk board?

a rose by any other name...

I am hard pressed to find a credible argument that shows me how two people who have been married, had kids even, then divorce - doesn't threaten the institution of marriage more than the idea of two men  or two women who happen to be in a committed loving relationship who want to marry.  The current rate of divorce among the heterosexual population is more of a threat to the institution of marriage than any gay marriage would ever be.  Those gay or lesbian couples who actually went through with marriage, are the ones who have been in long-term established relationships and have just as much of a chance if not dare I say maybe even a better chance of staying together than their heterosexual counterparts.  So, where is the threat?

And, don't even come at me with the procreation thing!  What about the heterosexual couples who are infertile- or chose not to have children at all.  They still get the special privilege of marriage.  Why?  I know of quite a few gay and lesbian couples who have chosen to raise beautiful, bright and well adapted children.  I think that puts them in that procreation category.

And don't come at me with Leviticus either- you don't get to pick and chose which parts you follow and which ones you won't.  I mean we could always re-institute some of the other ones if you insist on hanging on to this one - maybe the stoning for blaspheme - yea, that's a good one...

and not in Seattle....

it's another sleepless night here in the midwest.  why, oh, why do people think that drilling in some of the most beautiful natural wonders this earth has to offer is a sane idea?  It's a short term fix for a long term problem and will destroy a natural resource for oh, I don't know, forever!

How stupid does congress have to be to not realize that rolling back the speed limit to 55 is an effective solution to this problem right now and the signs are already made!  They don't even have to spend money to make them!!!  WAKE UP, PEOPLE!

Are the big oil companies paying that much into the coffers of these politicians?  All of these politicians?