Dennis Kucinich On the Bailout

There are few people whose word I trust more in this world than Dennis Kucinich. I believe he is a rare man of honor in our political system. I don't understand economics enough to have a clearly reasoned opinion about the bailout. I know the original plan was an outrage. I know the reasons given for not passing the bill yesterday were juvenile and petty. Maybe it was a good thing that happened for the wrong reasons. I don't know. But here are some thoughts from Dennis K.

Dear Friend,

Yesterday marked a day that will go down in history, when Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike took on full responsibility to protect the interests of taxpaying Americans, and defeated the deceptive bail out bill, defying the dictates of the Administration, the House Majority Leadership, the House Minority Leadership and the special interests on Wall Street.

Obviously Congress must consider quickly another course. There are immediate issues which demand attention and responsible action by the Congress so that the taxpayers, their assets, and their futures are protected.

We MUST do something to protect millions of Americans whose homes, bank deposits, investments, and pensions are at risk in a financial system that has become seriously corrupted. We are told that we must stabilize markets in order for the people to be protected. I think we need to protect peoples' homes, bank deposits, investments, and pensions, to order to stabilize the market.

We cannot delay taking action. But the action must benefit all Americans, not just a privileged few. Otherwise, more plans will fail, and the financial security of everyone will be at risk.

The $700 billion bailout would have added to our existing unbearable load of national debt, trade deficits, and the cost of paying for the war. It would have been a disaster for the American public and the government for decades and maybe even centuries to come.

To be sure, there are many different reasons why people voted against the bailout. The legislation did not regard in any meaningful way the plight of millions of Americans who are about to lose their homes. It did nothing to strengthen existing regulatory structures or impose new ones at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve in order to protect investors. There were no direct protections for bank depositors. There was nothing to stop further speculation, which is what brought us into this mess in the first place.

This was a bailout for some firms (and investors) on Wall Street, with the idea that in doing so there would be certain, unspecified, general benefits to the economy.

This is a perfect time to open a broader discussion about our financial system, especially our monetary system. Such a discussion is like searching for a needle in a haystack, and then, upon finding it, discussing its qualities at great length. Let me briefly describe the haystack instead.

Here is a very quick explanation of the $700 billion bailout within the context of the mechanics of our monetary and banking system:

The taxpayers loan money to the banks. But the taxpayers do not have the money. So we have to borrow it from the banks to give it back to the banks. But the banks do not have the money to loan to the government. So they create it into existence (through a mechanism called fractional reserve) and then loan it to us, at interest, so we can then give it back to them.

Confused?

This is the system. This is the standard mechanism used to expand the money supply on a daily basis not a special one designed only for the "$700 billion" transaction. People will explain this to you in many different ways, but this is what it comes down to.

The banks needed Congress' approval. Of course in this topsy turvy world, it is the banks which set the terms of the money they are borrowing from the taxpayers. And what do we get for this transaction? Long term debt enslavement of our country. We get to pay back to the banks trillions of dollars ($700 billion with compounded interest) and the banks give us their bad debt which they cull from everywhere in the world.

Who could turn down a deal like this? I did.

The globalization of the debt puts the United States in the position that in order to repay the money that we borrow from the banks (for the banks) we could be forced to accept International Monetary Fund dictates which involve cutting health, social security benefits and all other social spending in addition to reducing wages and exploiting our natural resources. This inevitably leads to a loss of economic, social and political freedom.

Under the failed $700 billion bailout plan, Wall Street's profits are Wall Street's profits and Wall Street's losses are the taxpayers' losses. Profits are capitalized. Losses are socialized.

We are at a teachable moment on matters of money and finance. In the coming days and weeks, I will share with you thoughts about what can be done to take us not just in a new direction, but in a new direction which is just.

Thank you,

Dennis Kucinich

Pelosi Speech

I don't know if the bailout package was good legislation or bad legislation. It seems like it was going to be a major improvement on what was originally suggested by the White House. If the Republicans said they voted against it because they didn't like the content, I might have had some respect for them. But they didn't. Allegedly, the problem was this speech because they felt it was too partisan. How old are all these people? Isn't that more how six-year-olds act? The video cuts off before the speech is over... and I've posted the text for those who can't watch video on their computers. Using this speech - not ethics, values, or a concern about the contents of the bill - as an excuse for not voting for it.... Pathetic and disingenuous. Or stupid. Or all three.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Madam Speaker, when was the last time someone asked you for $700 billion?

It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush Administration's failed economic policies-policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.

Democrats believe in the free market, which can and does create jobs, wealth, and capital, but left to its own devices it has created chaos.

That chaos is the dismal picture painted by Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke a week and a half ago in the Capitol. As they pointed out, we confront a crisis of historic magnitude that has the ability to do serious injury not simply to our economy, but to the American people: not just to Wall Street, but to everyday Americans on Main Street.

It is our responsibility today, to help avert that catastrophic outcome.

Let us be clear: This is a crisis caused on Wall Street. But it is a crisis that reaches to Main Street in every city and town of the United States.

It is a crisis that freezes credit, causes families to lose their homes, cripples small businesses, and makes it harder to find jobs.

It is a crisis that never had to happen. It is now the duty of every Member of this body to recognize that the failure to act responsibly, with full protections for the American taxpayer, would compound the damage already done to the financial security of millions of American families.

Over the past several days, we have worked with our Republican colleagues to fashion an alternative to the original plan of the Bush Administration.

I must recognize the outstanding leadership provided by Chairman Barney Frank, whose enormous intellectual and strategic abilities have never before been so urgently needed, or so widely admired.

I also want to recognize Rahm Emanuel, who combined his deep knowledge of financial institutions with his pragmatic policy experience, to resolve key disagreements.

Secretary Paulson deserves credit for working day and night to help reach an agreement and for his flexibility in negotiating changes to his original proposal.

Democrats insisted that legislation responding to this crisis must protect the American people and Main Street from the meltdown on Wall Street.

The American people did not decide to dangerously weaken our regulatory and oversight policies. They did not make unwise and risky financial deals. They did not jeopardize the economic security of the nation. And they must not pay the cost of this emergency recovery and stabilization bill.

So we insisted that this bill contain several key provisions:

This legislation must contain independent and ongoing oversight to ensure that the recovery program is managed with full transparency and strict accountability.

The legislation must do everything possible to allow as many people to stay in their homes rather than face foreclosure.

The corporate CEOs whose companies will benefit from the public's participation in this recovery must not benefit by exorbitant salaries and golden parachute retirement bonuses.

Our message to Wall Street is this: the party is over. The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the U.S. taxpayer bailout the recklessness of Wall Street.

The taxpayers who bear the risk in this recovery must share in the upside as the economy recovers.

And should this program not pay for itself, the financial institutions that benefited, not the taxpayers, must bear responsibility for making up the difference.

These were the Democratic demands to safeguard the American taxpayer, to help the economy recover, and to impose tough accountability as a central component of this recovery effort.

This legislation is not the end of congressional activity on this crisis. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will continue to hold investigative and oversight hearings to find out how the crisis developed, where mistakes were made, and how the recovery must be managed to protect the middle class and the American taxpayer.

With passage of this legislation today, we can begin the difficult job of turning our economy around, of helping those who depend on a growing economy and stable financial institutions for a secure retirement, for the education of their children, for jobs and small business credit.

Today we must act for those Americans, for Main Street, and we must act now, with the bipartisan spirit of cooperation which allowed us to fashion this legislation.

This not enough. We are also working to restore our nation's economic strength by passing a new economic recovery stimulus package- a robust, job creating bill-that will help Americans struggling with high prices, get our economy back on track, and renew the American Dream.

Today, we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years with the failed economic leadership that has left us left capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

We choose a different path. In the new year, with a new Congress and a new president, we will break free with a failed past and take America in a New Direction to a better future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone challenged the truth of the allegation that the Republicans were blaming Pelosi. It took me a while, but I found the

And here is Barney Frank's response to a reporter asking about this statement.

Some Political Laughs

Well, if she weren't professing to be ready to be Vice President - and therefore President - of the United States and going around the country repeating lie after lie, I might feel sorry for Sarah Palin, but there is a sense in which she is the author of her own humiliation, and unfortunately, like her idol George Bush, seems to be beyond shame or embarrassment, no matter how deceitful or dishonest she is being. For the first time in years, I've started watching Saturday Night Live - at least their opening political skits. What makes this particular one both sad and funny is that while much is clearly satire, many of the words - particularly about the economic crisis - are an almost verbatim repetition of the actual interview. That's sad.... and funny... and scary.

Blogger's Day Off

I had unexpected company - friend in crisis - this morning. I'm not that pleased with the haikus I wrote for OSI and I don't have the energy to try again or write more, so I"m taking the day off, especially since my company is going to return shortly. Since I almost always post something, I just didn't want anybody to worry. Hope you all have a lovely day.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 32

This is week 32 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. Many thanks to Maggie-Beth R. (aka Chatty) for next week's words. Linda at These Are the Days has created yet another category of wordzzle in which she combines the mini, the regular and the ten words from the vanity wordzzle into one paragraph. I'm not ready to try it yet, but anyone else who wishes to can do so. I think maybe we can call it the Mega-Max unless someone has a better idea. I look forward to reading everyone's stories this week. Thanks again to MommyWizdom for this week's words.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: exacerbate, leotard, path, tomato, Jungle Book, vagabond, parade, limber, storage, Maharajah
And for the mini challenge: crocodile, special, sleep, droll, turn around

Here's my ten-word offering for this week.

Looking through the old storage trunk that held the memories of her vagabond life, Miranda’s mind paraded down a path of memory that was a mix of brambles and rose gardens. First she found the old pink leotards that reminded her of days when she was agile and limber and danced the part of everything from a giant tomato in grade school to the Maharajah’s wife from the Jungle Book ballet when she was part of the New York City Ballet Company. Memories washed over her and she felt her broken body try to rouse itself and as that inner joy awakened it also exacerbated the grief and pain she was seeking to escape. She had thought this journey down memory lane might lift her spirits, but lifting another costume when she came across the photo of John, the deep grief she had been holding since the accident which had shattered her body and taken his life spewed forth. It was not the healing she had come looking for, but it was the healing she needed.

And here's my mini challenge:

He lay in bed tossing restlessly in his sleep. In his dream he kept yelling at Samantha to turn around, turn around. But instead she stood there looking at him with that special droll expression he loved so much, oblivious to the crocodile that was moving towards her from behind in the water. Waking up, he looked at his sleeping wife with apprehension and love, hoping the dream was indigestion and not a warning of an unknown peril to come.

And the mega challenge:

Harry Mortenson lifted the worn and treasured copy of The Jungle Book from the arms of his sleeping daughter and slipped it onto the shelf across the room. He treasured the joy of every moment with his only child. Her presence made each second seem special. The shelf held a unique collection of treasured books such as The Vagabond King, Constance Crocodile’s Crooked Cottage, Lucinda’s Lilac Leotard, and the tomato red copy of his own first book, Rumblebottom the Droll Troll. It was clear he was going to have to come up with additional storage space for Miranda’s growing collection of books. It made him almost dizzily happy that his daughter shared his love of words and that he now had sole custody and could make up for the painful lost time. He could hardly believe how his life had turned around since the divorce. It was as though his wife’s departure had lifted some kind of curse from every aspect of his life. Her mere presence in his life seemed to have exacerbated everything negative in his being. The physical pains that had haunted his every move for years had magically evaporated almost as she walked out the door and he felt mentally and physically limber and creative for the first time in years. Within days of Molly’s departure the story of the Droll Troll had begun flowing forth and submission of his work this time had been quickly followed by calls from a veritable parade of publishers. Kissing his daughter lightly on the forehead he tip-toed out of the room and headed off to his office. The Maharajah and Path, Princess of the Petunia People would not write itself.

~~~~~~~~~~~

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: swashbuckler, brassiere, Wedding Bell Blues, summer nights, uno momento, lavishly, wanna buy a balloon

She sat in the diner drinking her second cup of coffee, deep in a sea of daydreams. Even the painful pinch of her new brassiere - elastic not yet stretched and broken in - had ceased to bother her. Wedding Bell Blues, of all songs -- was this a time warp? -- played tinnily on the juke box and dragged her back to a time when there was still hope in her lavishly constructed fantasies, when the swashbuckler hero, be he cowboy, sailor, prince, or poet, charged into her life, saw her unrecognized beauty, and gazing at her adoringly, asked for her hand, a time when summer nights held magic and not just heat.

She took a sip of coffee and tried to shake away the sense of gloom. What had set her off, she wondered? Probably the funny little man outside who had called out, "Una momento, senora, wanna buy a balloon?" had thrown her back, somehow, to childhood pain and adolescent escape, to times when she still believed in rescuers and hopes and dreams, to a time before all that she believed in was defeat and realism.

Sighing, she finished her coffee, paid the check and walked out into the spring sunshine, wondering who was really wiser, the dreamer or the realist. It suddenly struck her that maybe somewhere along the way she had gotten the answer backward.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Many thanks to Maggie-beth R. aka Chatty for next week’s words.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: tattletale, homogeneous, flighty, cornucopia, plethora, militant, lovelorn, myopic, digitalized, mute

And for the Mini Challenge: washing machine, cholesterol, blatantly, Birdman of Alcatraz, poltergeist

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Something Silly for Friday: Shannon Art

Well, I've been all grimly political of late so I thought maybe I'd go a bit silly today.

Yesterday, my young friend Shannon dropped by for a visit and we ended up - deciding to play a little bit in my Paint Shop Pro program. She wanted me to put these on my blog and I think they are sweet and funny - like Shannon herself - so I thought I'd do so.

This is Shannon's representation of the "inner" Angel.

Some of you may remember Buster from Project Black. Believe it or not he's much bigger now. Anyway. Shannon wanted to bring out his inner clown.

Tara Grace, or course is Angelic.

Then she wanted to do me. I think this is in honor of our Monopoly game. I have been sent to jail. That's supposed to be steam coming out of my ears. I'm really very mild mannered, though. I think my prison garb is pretty high fashion.

Some Things I Don't Understand

Well, the list of things I don't understand is REALLY long even at my advanced age, so I won't try to talk about all of it, but... there are some things I don't understand more than others.

Yesterday, at the advice of my friend Dianne, I visited a blog I've never been to before written by Matt-man. He had a discussion going in his comments about the bail-out and someone in the comments had said something along the lines of how all the people who are in trouble with their mortgages were just greedy and didn't deserve any help. That kind of statement kind of triggers something in me and I lost my usual (I hope) good grace and said a bunch of things ending by saying she was "heartless." This was not at all nice of me or fair to a total stranger who may have a huge heart and an opinion with which I strongly disagree. I got scolded by a bunch of people for that and rightly so. I wrote a big long response to their comments which went into some kind of blogger void and I didn't have the time or energy to try and recreate it.

But... I think there are going to be lots of buts today.... comments like all the people who got questionable mortgages are greedy and/or "why should my taxes go to help them even if they were just stupid and not greedy," really do bug me big time.

So... first item... this is going to be long and rambling and I apologize for that in advance.

I was lucky. I got my house three years ago when all this craziness was still running at full bore. I live in a part of New York State where the only protection renters have is that landlords have to provide heat in the winter. Otherwise you're pretty much at the mercy of whoever rents to you. My first landlord was a psychopath who got mad at me because I said a rusty wood stove was ugly and started trying to lock me out of the building, turned off my heat and told me he hoped I would "drive into a ditch and die." He threatened one of my friends (a petite and gentle woman) with a 2 by 4. I fled in fear... which got me to a place with a month-to-month lease and a landlord who was the country equivalent of a slum lord. Then I found what seemed to be a lovely apartment. A friend lived upstairs and for about a year, life was pretty peaceful. Then the landlady started drinking and life went from being peaceful to being very scary as she lived upstairs and began threatening my friend and me and with no reason or provocation told us she was evicting us. When asked why, she hissed, "YOU know." My friend, who grew up with a violent alcoholic fled. I had already moved 4 times in 3 years. Besides the physical and emotional strain of this, the financial strain for someone living on my miniscule disability stipend was not managable. It had never occurred to me that I could own a home. It became clear that owning a home might be my only hope of survivial. I held my ground behind my locked doors for 9 months while the crazed landlady raged. Luckily for me my neighbor across the street was home on disability leave after an accident so I had some protection and a witness to here behavior.

So anyway... I went househunting in a state of fear and desperation, with good credit but not very much money. It took me about 50 years to recognize this, but I'm pretty smart. I'm pretty cautious about most things. Until I got sick, I never ran any credit card debt. Ever. If I couldn't pay for something I didn't buy it. When I got sick, I had to buy groceries on credit. Angels watched over me there too, but that's a story for another day.

Even in the poorest - or one of the poorest (Sullivan County where I lived then and Delaware County where I live now both claim that title) counties in New York State, there weren't many houses that I could even conceivably afford. But I found one... I thought. On paper, the numbers added up. I've never owned a home before. I didn't really have a good idea of the added costs of fuel, maintenance, taxes, water bills.... the "little" things that add up. And the bank offered me a mortgage. Here's where my age maybe and my personality combined made me vulnerable. It never occurred to me that a bank would give me a mortgage on a house I couldn't afford. That would be stupid. Besides not being good for me it would be a bad business deal for them. One kind soul tried to warn me that I would be in over my head but I didn't really believe him. I knew it would be scary tight, but I was terrified and desperate. And the bank said I could do it. Why would they lie? Lucky for me, the owner had someone else he wanted to see the house to and I didn't get it. Again, lucky for me, I found a much cheaper (and nicer) house and was able to qualify for a SONYMA HOYO mortgage. I'm chipping (more slowly every month) away at the debt I accrued when I first got sick, and I'm getting through each month. There's no way I could actually have afforded that other house no matter how it looked on paper. I didn't have the life experience behind me to know that. The bank should have. I don't think I was being greedy. I think I was being trusting and I didn't want to be homeless.

So maybe that's why I get cranky when people say that all the people who got in over their heads were just greedy and stupid and lose my cool and call people heartless.

I'm as pissed off as anybody about what's happening in Washington, probably more pissed off than many. I feel like I've been angry for 8 years and longer. I hope and pray that Congress won't let Bush and Co. get us into yet another "sky is falling" abdication of sanity and Constitutional responsibility in which one man gets total control of $700 billion dollars and no oversight and changes the nature of the balance of power yet a bit more. I don't want to pay taxes to preserve the life-styles of the rich and greedy who besides robbing the rest of us blind and creating this mess have been spared having to pay taxes themselves. Huh? SURE you've gotten all the money that could have paid for health care and roads and schools. Take my grocery money too. And while were're at it, let's just screw all the people who got duped by you along the way and add them to the homeless population who has to live on public assistance. THAT makes great sense.

See that's what I don't get about the people who say they don't want their taxes to go to help these people out because they were either greedy or stupid. First, I'm pretty sure it's very do-able to weed out speculators - or at least most of them. Second... (and this may not be the logical order but it's MY order), I hate the idea of ANYBODY being homeless. I had a close brush with it. It's scary and it sucks even being on the edge of it. It shouldn't happen to anybody even if they were greedy and/or stupid and it certainly shouldn't happen to their children who are just innocent bystanders. Third, your tax dollars are going to bail many of those people out in any case. You can bail them out by helping them keep their homes or you can bail them out by paying them public assistance and by watching the economy tank even further because homelessness breeds joblessness and illness and a host of other expensive things that as people spiral into bankruptcy cost the rest of us not just money but the availability of people who might otherwise be productive citizens.

I don't get the "me and only me" view of life. I think the individual good is connected to the common good. I don't think we should be stupid or cavalier about helping others, but I think certain kinds of selfishness cost more in the long-run than generosity. It's one of the reasons I don't understand this country's resistence to universal health care. I don't see why we think having 54.5 million (as of 2006) people uninsured is ok. I don't see why we think that the time we might save on line makes it ok that 54.5 million people can't even get ON the line. I don't see why we think an even bigger percentage of the population not being able to get dental care is ok (the government considers it to be "cosmetic" despite the fact that dental illness can lead to heart disease and many other serious health problems). I don't understand why we think it's cheaper to have people end up dead or unable to work than it would be to make sure they got medical intervention when they need it. I don't understand how we can live in the world and think some of us are entitled to medical care and some aren't. And I'm going to say something really rude and inflammatory here - but it seems like in many ways it's the "what would Jesus do" crowd that most opposes this when based on the words I read in the Bible, universal health care is one of the many things Jesus would be right on board with. Didn't he say, "Even as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me?" Doesn't that cover feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, tending to the sick, turning the other cheek, leaving vengeance to God... among other things?

I don't understand why it's any of Sarah Palin's or anyone else's business that my friend's Nate and Dan - two of the kindest, gentlest people in the world - love each other and want to be married. I don't understand why it's anyone's business who anybody else sleeps with - male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. I don't understand why some people think they have a right to monitor everyone else's morals or to speak for their idea of God as though they had been appointed to do so by divine decree, when again, the Bible I read seems to pretty clearly state that God feels quite confident that He/She/It can handle that task Him/Her/Itself. As long as I'm in the theology realm, I don't understand why people who say they have unbounded faith in God seem to think the Devil is stronger than God and that God can't handle that battle either. My guess is that one of the reasons the Divinity suggests the "let me handle it approach" is because many of us see different devils. Islamic terrorists see many of us as "devils;" Christian fundamentalists seem to see almost everyone and everything as devils; I don't particularly believe in devils, but I see racism, fear-mongering, greed, killing under any circumstances, hate, cruelty, telling lies ("and I just said "thanks but no thanks to that bridge to nowhere") to be "devilish."

I know this is long but I'm going to try and get at least a bunch of stuff out of my system this morning. I don't know if it's a good roll, but I'm on a roll and I'm not stopping.

One of the really really BIG things that I don't understand - that makes me feel passionately nutty - is the Pavlov's dogs response Americans have to the words "tax cut," or the crazy belief that taxes are some kind of awful punishment or theft. I won't say that I don't hate paying taxes as much as the next person. Money is cool and having it is even cooler. I also won't say that I am happy with the way our taxes are being spent lately. BUT.... taxes are important. They are part of how society takes care of the common good. Or that's what they are supposed to be. Taxes are how we are supposed to keep the infrastructure maintained so that bridges and levees don't collapse or wash away. Taxes are how we pay to maintain schools and fund education for the children we all profess to love so much and who ARE in fact our future. Taxes are how roads are paved and maintained.... Taxes have a purpose and it's a good one. And if you think that the so-called tax cuts are anything more than sleight of hand, you are fooling yourself. And in the age of trickle-down crazy people like George Bush, they while you are being distracted by the sleight of hand (see the pretty tax cut), they are picking your pocket with the other. But back to the sleight of hand part. Those pretty shiny tax cuts are an illusion. The bill for them just shifts to your state and local government. Or it shifts to those collapsed bridges and untended water treatment facilities, to crumbling buildings, to cuts in school lunch and after-school and arts programs. It shifts to cuts in programs that support the poorest people in our country. It shifts to theft from the Social Security program. It shifts to huge debts run up in our name. It shifts to untended facilities for returning victims of the debacle in Iraq and to long lines and lack of medical care for the soldiers we like to talk so much about honoring.

Which reminds me of something else I don't understand and brings me kind of full circle as well. (I'm almost done ranting... really I am.... I promise.) Why have we been blithly willing to let our government create a private army of mercenaries and pay them something like 5x the rate we pay our soldiers... using our tax dollar - and yet we are outraged at bailing out our neighbors who might be in danger of becoming homeless. I don't understand. It puzzles me. It makes me angry. It makes me sad.

Kahlil Gibran in the Farewell Chapter of THE PROPHET (one of the most beautiful and wise books in the history of time) says "You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link. This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link."

Which brings me to my close and the last thing that I don't understand. I don't understand why we don't all wish for the highest good of everyone, why segments of society horde more bounty in their banks and kitchen cabinets than they can possibly use and begrudge a starving child a bowl of rice. I don't understand our penchant for us and them-ness and for using that to justify blowing one another up. I don't understand using fear to manipulate people and to justify unspeakable behaviors. I don't understand why my country has become a place where people don't seem to stop and think, where we don't care enough to vote, where we are willing to let people die in our names and not expect to make any sacrifice of our own comfort and well-being beyond saying how noble and swell they are to put themselves in harms way. And I don't understand how we can let huge lies - that have set back our democracy and caused massive death of our own young men and women and those of other lands - go unchallenged and unpunished. (I guess I wasn't quite done.) I don't understand. What has happened to my country which I love. I want it back. I don't care if I have to pay some extra taxes to get it. I love it that much.

And now I'm REALLY, REALLY done - at least for today. I'm sorry this is so long. I'm not even going to re-read it. I'm just going to post it and live with the consequences.

Ohio Grows Really Good Representatives....

A friend sent this to me in my email. Dennis Kucinich, an American treasure is from Ohio. So is this woman. I wonder if there's something they can export to the rest of the states.

and then this from Senator Obama on the Economic Crisis and the question of Friday's debate...

Creative Photography: Creative, Stupid or a Little of Each

I haven't entered Creative Photography for a while and it seems like the system has changed a bit so I hope I'm doing the right thing here...

I don't know how creative this picture is. Last week I got the bright idea on a particularly shiny Fall day to take pictures of the sun. Lucky for me (I'm told by wiser heads) I didn't ruin my camera... probably because all my pictures are taken through glass and in this case double-paned glass with some kind of thermal gas in the middle. Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures just because it seemed like fun. This is my favorite. I'll share a couple of the others below too. I know, one man/woman's hideous mis-fire is another's "that's kind of cool."


You can see here how dirty my windows are. Sigh. I'll have to see if my friends will clean them off for me again.



And then, just because I love to play with paint shop, it occurred to me that it would be amusing to try "solarizing" the sun. That's the bottom left. Top right is "colored foil," and bottom right is "enameled." Top left is the original. If you click on it you can enlarge this silliness and see it bigger. Some days I'm just crazier than others. Thanks for visiting. I'll slink off now and hope I haven't embarrassed myself too much.

Some Balanced Reporting

PBS is running a series of "close-ups" on each candidate, looking at different aspects of how each of them operates. I think they are very balanced and very well done. I wish that I could embed them here, but all I can do is provide links. These can be read as text or viewed in video format.

This first pair is on each man's approach to decision making. Please note that this links you to the text version. These are available in video format. The connection is in the little blue bar near the photo of each candidate.

Here's the link for McCain.

Here's the link for Obama.

These are free of all the political slime that taints most coverage. I think they are very revealing about both men. The report on each man speaks to a wide variety of people, mostly those who support and work with the candidate being discussed because they are the people who understand their working style. I found them very informative and enlightening.

Here's a link to their Presidential Race page, which offers a great deal of information on all the candidates.

I wanted to provide a link for something called FactCheck.org which is a non-partisan group that monitors both campaigns. Their site seems to be down. I'll keep checking and when it is up again, I'll add it.

I know I'm being all polite and impartial here, but I'm still FOR Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

A Little More Political Humor

Well, I think it's funny anyway....

Finding Humor in the Ugliness

(Please scroll down for Ruby Tuesday.)

As I've mentioned before, I live on the border of Pennsylvania, one of the key contested states for the November election. As a result, I have to listen (well I have my TV on too much... I don't technically HAVE to listen) to the obscenely dishonest commercials that the McCain campaign runs. This is a parody, but sadly, it's not much of an exaggeration on how bad the ads actually are. Since I can't change them, I figure it's better to laugh at them and hope that the vile absurdity of them shows through to most people.

I haven't watched SNL in years - I thought they stopped being really funny - but since the Tina Fey skit last week, I thought I'd check in on them and I enjoyed this skit too.

Ruby Tuesday: Little Bits of Red

Maryt/The Teach over at Work of the Poet has something called Ruby Tuesday which featuring all things red.

This week she requested that we post things with just a little red, so I went with a bunch of odd, not particularly good pictures from nature. I do kind of like the one with the cardinal. I think I figured out why some of the pictures come out fuzzy and some come out sharp. I'm probably the only person who cares about this, but it's my blog so I'll tell you anyway. My theory is that since all my photos are taken through the glass of my window or back door, when the light isn't good, the pictures are blurrier. When the sun is really bright, they come out more clear. I think.

I debated with myself as to whether the center of these flowers is red or reddish, but there's spot in this picture that really is red... I have no idea why there's red on the stone, but it seems to be there. Another mystery I'll probably never get an answer to.

This may really be brown but it looks red to me so...

HAPPY RUBY TUESDAY!

Steal Back Your Vote

Greg Palast is one of a number of voices which America's media effectively silences. He is an American who now works for BBC because American news organizations would not cover this profoundly important story.

Here's a link to Steal Back Your Vote.com. Worth checking out. Can we really afford to have a third election stolen from us? Can we afford a McCain - or just as frightening - a Palin presidency? If you haven't registered to vote, do so. Just go to Rock the Vote. They make it easy.

International Peace Day

(Please scroll down for One Single Impression)

Alas, I'm ashamed to say that this year I forgot about International Peace Day, so this reminder halfway through the day is perhaps a bit pointless. Still, it's not too late to stop and think about the possibilities for peace, to remind ourselves that it IS possible. I happen to believe in the power of belief and the power of human consciousness to alter the course of events.

Maybe it's quibbling with words
But I want to be less opposed to war
And more passionately desirous of peace
I want to be less angry at violence
And more joyfully grateful for acts of love
I want to bless goodness when I see it
Praise generosity
I want to be conscious of every blessing
I want to remember that while light can sometimes be dimmed
It continues to be light
And that although it sometimes seems overwhelming
Darkness can always be lit up
I want to be for peace
To nurture and bless it's every instance
So that when I leave this earth
Generations to come
Will know things like war only as myth
That's my wish, my hope, my prayer
I think it's possible
Not easy
But possible
So starting with my own heart
I extend to yours
My prayer for a better, gentler world

Peace be with you... and with us all

Happy Peace Day!

One Single Impression

This week's prompt for One Single Impression was "autumn." I would have thought this would be an easy one but my muse seems to be in early hibernation. This is all I could come up with.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 31

This is week 31 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. My apologies for posting so late this week. A friend of mine gave me a new cybergame and I've been lost on a mysterious island all afternoon in a complete fog, neglecting all other responsiblities. Sigh. Thanks to MommyWizdom for next week's words and to others who sent me suggestions for future weeks as well. My brain is still on Mystery Island, so I don't know if these make any sense or not. Looking forward to reading all this weeks contributions. Linda - over at These Are the Days - has created a new category... the Mega Plus? Anyway, she uses all the words from the regular, the mini and the vanity in one paragraph. Whew.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: budget, news, outer space, gargantuan, brass band, Purple Rose of Cairo, polar bears, insight, innovations, mute And for the mini challenge: investments, purring, death penalty, mercury, convalescent home

Here's my ten-word offering for this week.

Waiting for The Purple Rose of Cairo to start Marjorie kept the TV on mute watching the news in blessed silence. She loved that movie with it’s wonderful insights and brilliant cinematic innovations so much that she would even endure commercials to watch it again. Meanwhile images flowed past. The gargantuan rocket which had just taken off for outer space carried with it (or left behind might be a more accurate description) an equally gargantuan budget deficit. Next were pictures of polar bears on melting ice, after which she saw what looked like a high school’s brass band marching across a football field. This was followed by a weird looking guy standing in the rain. And then mercifully, she had survived what passed as news these days and now she could turn the sound back on and enjoy the wit and humor of her favorite movie.

And here's my mini challenge:

Mercury was a silver-gray kitty who earned his living purring for the elderly residents of the euphemistically named Macomber Convalescent Home. He had a special fondness for those for whom the death penalty had been decreed by the Almighty. It was partly the openness of their spirits that drew him to them, but mostly his investment of extra time with the dying was directly proportional to the number of angels who stood watch with them. Nothing soothed a kitty's heart more or made him purr louder than the songs of angels.

And the mega challenge:

Purple Rose of Cairo Brass Band was famous for its musical innovations, but that wasn’t why they were in the news on this particular night. Rather they were protesting the idea of some genius at NASA to send an endangered polar bear into outer space as part of the Mercury program. Holding a loudly purring cat in his lap as he spoke, Gus Rose, the group’s lead singer asked, “What kind of gargantuan moron thinks it’s a smart investment - either in terms of scientific insight or budget balancing – to take an animal from a species already facing an almost certain death penalty as a result of human selfishness and environmental abuse and put it into a rocket ship as some kind of publicity stunt. Although we try to stay away from political issues, the Cairo Band all agreed that we just couldn’t stay mute on this particular subject. Whoever the jackass is who thought this up should be fired and since if he can’t be sent to jail for pure stupidity, then he should be sent to a convalescent home until he isn’t stupid any more.” As the reporters all chuckled, he gave them a big wink and a wave. “That’s all we had to say, guys. Thanks for listening. Keep the story going if you can. Polar bears need our protection.

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: hairsplitting, nonchalant, boisterous, obstreperous, kitty-cat, toenail, magma, Ton Ton Macute, tulips

Ton Ton Macute was a kitty-cat, a very sweet and gentle kitty-cat, which made the name all the more unfortunate. But Betty had just liked the sound of the words Ton Ton Macute and she had not been able to remember what they were about, still couldn’t really, but people had such strange reactions when the heard Mack’s (that was what she called him) name that she knew she had perhaps missed something significant. She had first recognized the problem one evening sitting with her sister. As boisterous and obstreperous as he was gentle, Mack could squirm and fuss with the best of them when confronted with something he didn’t like - and he didn’t, not even for a minute - like having his claws clipped, especially when she couldn’t find the trimmer and was reduced to using a toenail clipper. “How could you give that poor creature a name like Ton Ton Macute?” Andrea had growled. “Well, I like the way it sounds, like Mack cute. I didn’t remember where I heard it, just the sound. It’s catchy, I think. She tried to sound nonchalant and self-assured. Andrea was such a know-it-all. She was always criticizing or hairsplitting about just about everything and Betty often fantasized about dropping her into a huge pit of molten magma. But since that wasn’t practical, she just pretended to listen. Andrea had named her cats Tulip and Violet. On the whole, Betty thought, Ton Ton Macute was much better.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Many thanks to MommyWizdom for next week’s words.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: exacerbate, leotard, path, tomato, Jungle Book, vagabond, parade, limber, storage, Maharajah

And for the Mini Challenge: crocodile, special, sleep, droll, turn around

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Skywatch Friday

This is my 9th time participating in Skywatch Friday after a month off for a variety of reasons from illness to angst to computer issues. Yikes but time flies. I didn't take as many photos as I sometimes do, but I still have over a hundred to choose from and will post too many here. Still, die hard cloud lovers can see all the ones I didn't post here.

Sky Watch Friday is hosted by Tom at Welcome to Wigger's World and I hope you'll make it a point to visit his wonderful site as well. He takes awesome photos.

Everybody (me included) always tries to take pictures of the moon. I thought it might be interesting to try getting a shot of the sun, which was incredibly bright yesterday. Here's one of the shots.

Even though the wing got cut off, I thought this was kind of cool.

Polls, a Good Cartoon and Some Recommended Reading

This nation seems to me to be poll crazy. I swear we take polls about what to have for breakfast. The media gives us minute to minute reports about what "we" are allegedly thinking and who is where in our hearts and minds. It's exhausting following them. It's irritating listening to them and I think they are questionably accurate in any case.

One thing that skews the value of polls these days is that pollsters call people with landlines. That means they talk to old farts like me who haven't joined the cell phone age. A large segment of the population no longer uses land lines which means polls only reach a diminishing portion of the populace and a portion which is not particularly reflective of the whole. So that's the first major flaw validity of polls as a way to understand what's happening in the country.

I haven't taken any political polls lately, but I've been polled on a few other things. I can tell you that the nature of the questions and the phrasing of them often leaves little room for my actual opinion on a subject to muddy up the waters of what the pollsters want to hear. Natural gas companies are invading my part of New York State, buying up and ravaging the land. This brings money to some pretty impoverished people and high paying jobs for some where jobs have been extremely scarce. I'm against having the gas companies tear up this pristine country, but I'm sure that's not the impression that the poll took away... although I stated it very clearly. It was a while ago so I can't remember many of the specific idiotic and badly worded questions. One that stuck with me though was a question about Company X. Did I have any negative opinions of them. I had never heard of them, so no, I didn't. There was no not applicable response. That's a petty example.

I take polls on line for Harris and a couple of other companies. These polls too often ask questions which must be answered but which have no response available that actually reflects my true feelings. Which do you hate/love more - the color black or the color white - doesn't offer a reflection of any kind of truth since I don't love or hate either and/or I love different things about each. Which matters more - the economy or the war? Well both matter and the choice is a stupid and ultimately meaningless one. They matter for different reasons and the one is tied to the other in many ways. Or take a question like this one: How do you feel about the effectiveness of the Democratic majority. Well, I'm disappointed in Congress. In defense of the Democrats, though, truth is that they have a majority in name only. In the House where they actually DO have a majority, they have accomplished quite a lot. Unfortunately they don't actually have a real majority in the Senate so they haven't been able to get anything past the Republican deadlocks there.

Huffington Post has been writing on this subject for a while and this article contains some good information (not all that well presented) on the statistical validity of what is offered up to us on a daily and hourly basis. Worth looking at.

Some polls can be fixed. A computer savvy friend of mine pointed out that AOL's polls are open to cheating. All you have to do is clear your cookies and you can vote again. I checked out his claim and it proved to be true.

Then there's the subjective way in which the polls are reported by the many in the media. When Obama leads, it's reported that it's surprising that his lead isn't bigger. When McCain is leading, it's reported as an awesome accomplishment. Hmmm. McCain has plenty of money. He's white,. He's a war hero. He has Sarah Palin, he's following an incumbent president (traditionally a good thing): Why doesn't HE have a 20 point lead? Not a question I've heard asked very often.

The most damaging thing about polls in my opinion is that they are reported as though they are some kind of gospel of reality when they are at best expensive and unreliable statistical horoscopes. Because of the media's treatment of them as predictive truth, however, they take on a level of importance that can actually skew the results of the race.

Remember these things when someone announces some poll result.

• We don't know what has been asked.
• We don't how the questions have been framed. (Questions can be badly written or intentionally phrased to produce a distorted answer.)
• We don't know (really) who has asked the questions.
• We don't know who has answered the questions.
• 
  

I think we would all do ourselves and our nation great service if we stopped answering polls and more importantly if we stopped paying attention to them as though they were some kind of map to the truth. They aren't.

Oddly, the only polls in disfavor these days are the ones we SHOULD pay attention to. Those are the exit polls at our polling places. Those are historically very accurate. The discrepancy in that data after the last election - distorted again by the media - was a red flag that the vote had been tampered with in places like Ohio and other states. In our present psycho nation, we listen to the horoscope polls and ignore the factual ones.

I guess I think the other thing we might consider doing is paying less attention to the tv and radio media and reading and researching on our own. Here are some interesting columns I've read recently that I highly recommend:

In Praise of Sarah Palin by Robert J. Elisberg

Protecting America's Families from McCain's Broken Health Care Plan by Rocky Delgadillo

Putting the Past Behind Us: A New Energy Future for America by Rep. Louise Slaughter

Moo by Timothy Egan

The Delicate Subject of John McCain's Marbles by Chris Kelly

The Big Whisper: What's Up with John McCain

Women Leaders Hold Press Conference on the Presidential Election by Marcia G. Yerman

Country First (Or How the Media loves a Lipsticked Rumsfeld) by Sean Penn

A Nation of Village Idiots by James Moore

These aren't necessarily the best of what's available to read, but they are some of the articles I ran across this morning.

Not going to reread this. Hope it makes sense.

Portrait of Words: Challenge #1 - Helena's Song

Jeff B over at A Word in Edgewise is offering a very challenging writing meme called Portrait of Words. Jeff has provided us with a collection of pictures, each with an assigned description, which must be incorporated into the story. That's an awful explanation. Sorry. I'm having as much trouble with the introduction to this post as I had writing the story. We got a month to think about this daunting task and then all participants were asked to post their stories between the September 15 and 17th. I am just squeaking in here under the wire and as I typed this realized that I failed the test because I used all three wild cards but forgot the "item". I thought about trying to rewrite but I barely got this far, so I'm just going to go with what I've done and hope to do better next time. At least I tried. So I'm going to stop trying to explain and just post the pictures and my response and go read the wonderful stories of the other participants who probably all did it right. Sigh.

HELENA'S SONG

Music had been everything to Helena from the time she was a small child. At three she had sat at the piano and started playing and she had never stopped. A prodigy. A modern day Mozart. A genius. She had become the center not only of her parents’ universe but of a wider musical circle. Everyone wanted to be “know” her, in hopes, she imagined that they could tap into the endless reservoir of sound that flowed from her as water flowed from a broken tap. She had not minded. She had been rather oblivious actually. It was all she had ever known. Nothing but the music had mattered to her. Nothing else had been real to her.

Until the day in last August when her agent had decided they should travel to Europe by ship. Less concern with terrorism, he had said. And she had agreed. She would play concerts on the passage and they would travel for free. Her agent had forced her to buy a bathing suit and sunglasses and had hoped too that maybe being at sea would force her to rest. And it had. Unable to pratice her usual seven hours each day, she had begun pacing the decks and eventually – after much coaxing by the aforementioned manager – had gone to sit by the pool and even put her toe in at one point before settling back onto a lounge chair to practice in her head.

Initially, she was irritated when a deep male voice disturbed her focus and then when she opened her eyes handed her chilly glass with the words.

“You’re way to beautiful to be sitting here alone. May I join you?”

She had not answered, hoping he would go away – but much to her own surprise – hoping also that he wouldn’t. This was such a totally new experience for her that she absentmindedly took a sip from the glass in her hand to calm her nerves.

Another new experience. This wasn’t water, nor was it the cranberry juice she normally drank. It was bubbly and had an odd taste. “What is this?” she asked. “I think I like it.”

“What’s your name, beautiful?” he asked in that amazing musical voice. “My name is Jean-Paul Le Beau. Oh… and your drink is a gin and tonic.”

“Gin and tonic,” she muttered. “Very good. Thank you.”

“You are welcome. Is your name a secret?”

“Secret? No. Everybody knows my name. It’s Helena Franklin.”

“Are you an actress then?”

Baffled, by his question, she looked at him for the first time and felt her heart flutter. He was very handsome. She didn’t know quite how she knew this, but she did. “I’m a pianist,” she responded finally.

“Ah,” he replied. “I’ll bet you’re a good one. Would you like to go for a swim?”

And suddenly for the first time in her life, Helena realized that there was something else besides music. For the first time in her life she looked around and saw the rest of the world. For the first time in her life she felt empty. “I would,” she replied, “but I don’t know how.

All I’ve ever known is music.”

“Well, we must fix that,” he replied.

And that was how it began. A love that was as deep and passionate and forever as her music. Jean Paul taught her to swim, he awoke her to food, to art and color and the beauty of nature. He bought her sneakers and awoke her to the movements and mysteries of her body. But he never pushed her, only guided her gently where her curiosity took her. For all the attention she had receive her whole life, she felt as though no one had ever actually seen her before. But how could they have? She had never seen herself. She had only seen and heard the music.

So when Jean Paul – this man who had in a way given her life beyond her music - asked her to marry him, she said yes without a moment’s hesitation, without really knowing anything about him.

But who was this Jean-Paul, this man who was, in the eyes of some, too good to be true? For not everyone was delighted by Helena’s awakening to a fuller life. Her parents and her agent had thrived both financially and psychologically on her gift. She had made them rich and she had made the reflected glow of her genius had made them feel important. For the denizens of the music world, she had like a magical toy they could play with and study. This was not because they were bad people. They had been as swept away by her gift as she herself had been. But while the awakening Jean Paul had brought to her life expanded her world, others felt robbed and angry. “He’s a fortune hunter,” they had asserted. “You wait.“

But sometimes the Universe protects the innocent and for all her lack of worldliness, Helena had good instincts. Jean-Paul, it turned out, was anything but a fortune hunter. He was one of the richest men in France, a count whose family estate remained in tact. He too had spent much of his life being seen only as a fragment of himself, being courted for what rather than who he was. As he had introduced Helena to her greater self, so she had opened his heart and shown him his own deeper aspects. He was truly in love.

And when he took her home after their wedding it was a fairy tale continued - a vast stone estate with long sun-lit corridors, high windows, a huge canopy bed where they made love and rested in each others arms. And then he showed her the grounds – beautiful woodlands and fields where magical sturdy horses with great fluffy ankles danced like unicorns. She was truly happy.

And lest you fear that Jean-Paul stole the music from her, you would be wrong again. The estate had a vast conservatory and a grand piano where she could not only practice to her heart’s content, but give performances. She still went on the road from time to time. And those who had thought her genius complete discovered that she played now with an even greater depth.

Over time, as her children came, she taught them to play and sing – and also to laugh and live and enjoy the fullness of life. What was best of all – was that those who told her she would have to choose between music and a full life were proven wrong. She had chosen with her heart and her heart had guided her wisely. Her music and her life now carried the magic of love. And love – as we all know – multiplies all things.

And that my friends, is Helena’s song, which started out as a haunting melody and grew into a wonderful polyphonic symphony of joy. May your life too be a rich, harmonic song and may you live it with as open and joyful a heart as Helena and Jean-Paul.

Some Political Entertainments....

Please scroll down for Ruby Tuesday....

Well, the heroes in Les Miserables didn't fare so well, but, I think this is very clever anyway, it was part of an article at Huffington Post which I think is well worth reading.

Just in case anyone isn't clear about it yet,
I'm FOR Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Those other people want to continue what's been happening for the past 8 years and I don' t think that's a good idea at all because:

I'm for health care for all people,
I'm for better education for our children,
I'm for relief for the poor and middle classes,
I'm for taking action to heal the environment,
I'm for lowering the taxes of the 90% of us who need the help
I'm for green jobs,
I'm for a return to decency
and at least a passing acquaintance with the truth,
I'm for a woman's right to choose
I'm for the Constitution
I'm for medical and psychological treatment military personnel
I'm for a living wage for people who work hard
I'm for compassion
I'm for keeping people in their homes
I'm for international moral accountability
I'm for honoring the laws of the land
I'm for respecting all life
I'm for world Peace

I'm for Barack Obama

Backsliding a little here in my BE FOR campaign, but I thought this was pretty funny

Ruby Tuesday: Angel Plays Monopoly

Maryt/The Teach over at Work of the Poet has something called Ruby Tuesday which featuring all things red.

I unwittingly took a jump on the suggestion for next week for "just a little red." On Sunday, Shannon, my young neighbor came over with her Monopoly game. She proceeded to win by as wide a margin as I've ever been beaten by in any game. She actually tried to help me out but her strategic hotel placements and my bad luck were too much even for her desire to prolong the game.

Angel, of course, just loves board games and always likes to join in.

After Shannon and I started to get cranky, she decided to supervise from a box seat.

Boring!

Shannon wanted me to take a picture of Angel wearing the top hat. Took us a few tries, but I think it's a good look on her.

Happy Ruby Tuesday!

Let's Be FOR Obama, Not Against Palin

Well, it's Monday, which should mean The Alphabet Backwards for me... only the letters B and A left to go, but I think I want to write about something more important today.

Sometimes - it takes being reminded of something you know by someone else to really move your brain back into place. Michelle over at Full Soul Ahead did that for me yesterday. She reminded me of about The Law of Attraction and how this applies even in things like politics. The Law of Attraction basically says that (as the Hawaiian mystics put it) "energy flows where attention goes." I believe this and I try to remind myself of it regularly, but I'm as susceptible to psycho Republican games as anyone else and I fall off the Law of Attraction wagon a lot.

Sarah Palin is awful. She may be a nice woman. I'm not sure I think that. She's pretty nasty and comfortable with telling lies for a nice woman. I've done some reading on her. She's pretty comfortable with cronyism, calling people who don't agree with her "haters," secrecy (never a good sign that someone is on the up and up), religious fanaticism... a host of things that make me very uncomfortable. Here are some links that counter the media's bombardment of the air waves with how much everyone loves her.

The first is a blog called Women Against Sarah Palin. They apparently sent out an email on September 3rd requesting that women who weren't all thrilled with Mrs. Palin just because we share a gender with her, could share our thoughts as to why we think she wouldn't be such a good Vice President or President. As of yesterday when I went to the site, they had had over 100,000 responses. Then there's this article - called Alaska Women Reject Palin Rally is HUGE - I read it just before bed last night and it made me feel more hopeful again -

I have to toss this one more article - about at least one book Mrs. Palin did try to ban before she was mayor, while she was on the Wassila City Council.

Ok... got that out of my system. Thing is that creepy and whacky and uber-right wing as Sarah Palin is, her presence, the liberal (including mine) reaction to her, and the absurd press coverage, have totally obscured the actual main participants in the contest for President. We seem to be talking constantly and almost exclusively about Sarah Palin and very little about policy, John McCain, or - most importantly - Barack Obama. The Republicans, the media and liberals ourselves - have taken the wind from our own sails. We've stopped being for Obama and started being against Palin. If anything proves the principle of the Law of Attraction, the rise in the McCain/Palin poll numbers should do it. Let's get back to being FOR Senator Obama, the man who is FOR health care for all people, the man who wants to lower taxes on 90% of the population, the man who wants to restore diplomacy and peace, the man who wants to restore integrity and a respect for the law of the land, the man who won't find reasons to justify torture. Let's get back to being FOR hope instead of AGAINST creepy people unworthy of a moment's waste of breath, let alone high office.

I'm not saying that it isn't important to learn about Palin and to put as much information as possible about her out there. But let's get back to being FOR Barack Obama, for hope, for health care, for a balanced budget, for integrity, for women's rights, for sex education, for better schools, for the environment, for green jobs, for raising people up out of poverty. If we do that, what we are against will lose it's steam and it's power.

Even now, I have to fight my impulse to talk about what I don't want more of for my country. It's such an easy trap to fall into. The Republican machine has waved a shiny object in our own and the faces of it's own party - and we have all forgotten that this contest is between an aging former hero who has nothing to offer but more of the same and a young, vital, intelligent, creative, thoughtful, decent, honorable, passionate and compassionate man who offers not just hope, but true change for the better. Let's get back to being FOR him and attract him right into the White House.

I thought I'd repost my twin tanka's from yesterdays OSI post since they seem pertinent to the subject.

I'm FOR hope. I'm FOR change. I'm FOR peace. I'm FOR decency and integrity. I'm FOR Barack Obama.

One Single Impression: Seeds

This week's prompt for One Single Impression was "seeds." I've had a hard time this week. I'm afraid these offerings are more political than poetic. Sometimes I can make politics poetic but this week I think I'm just too pissed off and too afraid for my country to feel very poetic about things, so I apologize.

Show Me: You

(Please scroll down for The Saturday Wordzzle Challenge.)

Robert at Thoughts of a Father is trying his hand at a photo meme. He has named it Show Me and each day he will ask us to "show him" a photo relating to a specific request. Today is the last day and the request is show me "You." Well, I hate having my picture taken or showing my face, but I'm doing it anyway - sort of. I have to confess that I've cheated. I took most of these - did my hand and foot this morning - as part of Anna Carson's Project Blue. Was trying to get my eyes and kept getting the rest of me too. I took a picture of my foot without the shoe but no way anyone gets to see that ever. Be grateful.



Thanks for a fun meme, Robert. We showed you.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 30

(Please scroll down for Robert's Show Me meme.)


This is week 30 - can you believe that! - of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I had an awful time with this week's words. My apologies about the late addition of the 10th word. As I said, cactus was optional. Looking forward to reading what everyone has to offer.

The words for this week's 10-word challenge were: spam, problematic, flower girl, splurge, milk, orphanage, lyrics, politics, ice cream cone and the optional (since I counted wrong and added it at the last minute) cactus.

Words for the mini challenge were: drag race, poppy seed, swinging from a star, John Denver, diagram

Here's my 10-word offering:

Juliette didn't see why the producers of her musical The Cactus Flower Girl foundt her lyrics problematic. Of course they were political. These were political times. If Republicans could foment lies like so much spam, she didn't see why she couldn't introduce a little social discourse into her musical. Bonnie Sue - the central character - had come out of an orphanage full of other right-to-life babies who been abandonned there by mothers too poor to buy even things like milk or cereal, none-the-less splurge on something like Bonnie Sue's long dreamed of but never tasted ice cream cone. What better symbol of sweetness stolen by greedy robber barons, she thought, than a child who had never had an ice cream cone? Of course nobody had said the lyrics were too political. They had said they were saccarine, but she knew what they meant, rich, greedy bastards that they were. They claimed they were Democrats, but she had no doubt that they were really Republicans at heart.

My mini offering is:

Chewing thoughtfully on his poppy seed bagel, David studied the diagram of the proposed course of the drag race. In the back of his mind he was surprised at the music - he was surprised that John Denver of all people, had made a recording of the "swinging on a star" song. Still, odd though it was, he chose to take it as a good omen. He was going to win at last.

For the mega wordzzle, I came up with:

Little Flower Girl Florist's owner , Daisy Flora Rose, created some very unique arrangements: things like an angel swinging on a star holding a boquet of day lilies or a bunch of white mums in a container made to look like an ice cream cone. Since she was in Washington, DC, she was often called on to make political arrangements and was quite famous for her creative designs. Lately, however, since she was angry with both political parties, these were a bit problematic for the purchasers as they were made from cactus plants and roses with thorns. She got great delight watching the party hacks try to arrange them on the tables after she delivered them. Having grown up in an orphanage, Daisy Rose had learned to live by her wits and to hide her emotions with a face which, luckily for her, looked like innocence itself. Creative as she was in her flower arranging, she was a creature of habit, in other ways. She started each day with a poppy seed muffin and a glass of chocolate milk. Next, she put on the one of half a dozen John Denver albums that were the only music she listened - she loved his voice and the lyrics to his songs - to, turned on the computer, checked her email and sent out a bunch of spam advertising the business before opening the door to the shop. If there were no customers she played an on-line game called Drag Race in which other on-line competitors raced around diagrams of famous race tracks. Despite her penchant for making thorny creations for those she didn't like, business was quite good and she ended her day with - every day - a luxurious meal at one or another of the many restaurants for whom she provided floral arrangements in exchange for free meals. On days when business had been very good, she would splurge on a nice bottle of wine and would curl up in front of the tv with her two sweet kitties and watch a movie or read a good book. Except for the absense of a good man, life was pretty darn good.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Words for this week's Vanity Wordzzle were: Morning, horse, he was standing there, alone, in the middle of the square, building, unicorn, panic, invisible

It had all started on a Monday morning three years earlier. It was a day that changed her life. Sad, lonely, shy Melissa Messerschmidt was climbing off the bus as usual, when she saw the stallion. He was the most beautiful horse she had ever seen. He was just standing there, alone in the middle of the square, not far from the building where she worked. She was surprised that no one else seemed excited by the unusual sight of a wild horse in the town square. But her own shock grew even deeper, for as her turned his head slightly, she saw that he was not a horse at all; he was an exquisite unicorn and he was looking straight at her. She started to panic, but then looking into his deep green eyes, she felt reassured. More than that, actually. She felt chosen and knew in that moment that she had in fact been chosen, that this exquisite creature was making himself seen only to her, that he was invisible to everyone else there. And seeing herself reflected in those deep mysterious eyes, she felt suddenly safe and self-assured and beautiful. She knew, as she had never known before, that she had a destiny, a purpose to fulfill in the world. And in that instant he looked again into her eyes, touched her lightly with the tip of his horn and vanished from sight. But the sense of his presence continued to linger with her always. Indeed, as she joyfully painted the canvases which now made her famous, she could hardly remember the unhappy young secretary she once had been until the morning when she was touched by a unicorn in the town square.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Word for next week's 10-word challenge: budget, news, outer space, gargantuan, brass band, Purple Rose of Cairo, polar bears, insight, innovations, mute

And for the mini challenge: investments, purring, death penalty, mercury, convalescent home

If anyone else would like to offer words for an upcoming week, they will be gladly welcomed. I enjoy relief from having only myself to blame when I struggle to do the exercise.

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Show Me: A View and Something that Relaxes Me

Robert at Thoughts of a Father is trying his hand at a photo meme. He has named it Show Me and each day he will ask us to "show him" a photo relating to a specific request. I skipped yesterday in favor of letting my 9/11 post stand alone, so I'm going to do two days in one again. I don't know that these three things represent my favorite view - I already posted the view out my back door (see show me your kitchen) and have posted elsewhere the park-like yard across the street. Instead, I've chosen three small things that delight my eyes on a regular basis. As for things that relax me... well, when Angel isn't driving me crazy doing something naughty she give the best hugs in the world and when Tara Grace isn't yelling at me she has the loudest rumble and the sweetest spirit you could wish for. They give me joy. They are my kids. I considered taking a page from Robert's book and letting them stand as both my favorite view and something that relaxes me, but... I had already uploaded these other four yesterday so...

This tree trunk is what I see if I look straight (well, almost straight - if I look straight I see a wall) ahead. There are often squirrels running up the trunk, sometimes a woodpecker and often wonderful sunlight. I love that stone wall too. Hancock is famous for it's blue stone quarries. I think that's what it's called.

One of the aforeomentioned squirrels looking very cute.

And many mornings if I look up at the sky, I see the turkey vultures circling. When I look out the back door in the mornings, I often see their shadows. Keep wishing I could figure out how to capture the shadows on film but haven't figured it out yet.
I love this birch tree. It's in my neighbor's yard and I think its just one of the most beautiful trees ever. Not my best photo of it, but I (well, my friend Nate did it, actually) moved all my photos into a new external hard drive and I haven't quite got a handle on getting them from there to here yet.


This is Tara Grace. As I'm typing this she is running around the room playing with a little mylar toy. She's so darn cute when she plays. She has come such a long way since being rescued. I'm repeating myself from other posts, but Tara moves like a ballerina and talks like a long shore-man. Here is some very modest (she's MUCH MUCH MUCH louder) footage of her.

Angel has the face of an innocent - and the spirit of an innocent - just a very very very very very creatively naughty innocent. My friend E. - who has many, many cats - took care of Angel and Tara Grace when I was in limbo in a motel before the deal on my house finally got settled (long horrible story). Anyway. E always says that having Angel around was like having another 11 cats. If she can't find mischief she invents it. And then she gets all snuggly and gives you a hug so you forget that you want to wring her little furry neck.

Terrorism and Love

I wrote this essay the day of the attacks on 9/11 in 2001. I think it bears repeating. I hope I haven't broken any copyright laws with this image. If you enlarge it, I like what it says.


Well, I had a column set to post tomorrow, but it seems wrong to let the day of these terrible bombings go unacknowledged, to not speak a word of grief for all the innocent dead, people like you and me who just got up this morning, put on their clothes, drank their coffee and headed off to work in the beautiful sunshine of an early Fall day. I feel such grief not only for the dead, but for those who were there and survived, for all of us who watch this horror broadcast around the world and will live forever with it seared into our eyeballs and our hearts. I feel such grief for the firefighters, policemen, doctors, and just regular folks who courageously put themselves into the path of danger to save those who can be saved, and who in the days and weeks to come will put themselves through the horror of rescuing the dead. I feel grief for all of us not just in the United States, but all over the world, whose sense of decency and innocence has been dealt a wicked and cruel blow. I pray for us all, the living and the dead. I believe that all people are connected, that on some level the good and evil each of us does touches everyone. So many people from all over the world have written to me in pain and love today, that I know more than ever the truth of that belief. We really are one world, one people. Maybe this act and these dead will, in giving their lives, remind us of that.

But I want to say that I also feel grief for the people whose souls are so wounded and dead that they can deceive themselves into thinking that mass murder is noble or honorable. When I pray for healing for/from this vile, cowardly, mass murder of innocents, I will pray also for those who caused all this pain. In some ways, I think they above and beyond all of us, need our prayers.

In Christian churches all over the world, people repeat the Lord's Prayer every week: "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." The words are repeated with so little thought. Now is the time to think about them. Now is the time to meet hate with love, violence with peace. Otherwise hate and violence win. The innocent don't need our love nearly as much as the lost souls of this world do. It is those who are lost in darkness who truly need our prayer and when we won't or don't or can't pray for them a little of their darkness casts it's shadow into our light. Maybe this sounds crazy. Maybe it sounds like airy-fairy nonsense. I don't mean we shouldn't be angry. How could we not be enraged by such incomprehensible evil? We are human. The pain of such an act is excruciating. I lived in New York until a year ago. Many of my closest friends live there. I don't know yet if any of them were killed in this horrible thing that was done. But I know that if I become consumed with hate, then it all becomes even worse.

Jesus said that, "Even as ye do it unto the least [and worst] of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." I believe that includes hate and love, that it includes assassins as well as innocents.

I do a kind of healing called Reiki. Reiki practitioners learn that the energy we move through ourselves to heal others also heals us. This is also true of our thoughts. If we send thoughts of hate and anger to others, we move that energy, those thoughts first into and through our own body and spirit. We send anger not just to one recipient, but through our own being and out into the whole world. The world doesn't need anger right now. It needs love. It needs love especially where it is wrapped in hate. Hate is a wound in the spirit of the world. I guess I'm asking us to put a bandage of love on it and not add more poison to the wound. That's what I'm going to try to do.

I pray for us all.

Show Me: Front Door and Something Sentimental

Robert at Thoughts of a Father is trying his hand at a photo meme. He has named it Show Me and each day he will ask us to "show him" a specific place or thing. Today is Day4 and the theme is "something that has sentimental value to you." I'm also posting my front door since I skipped yesterday.

This is my front door from the inside. It is one of Angel's life dreams to escape out this door. This means that I keep a small window screen across the bottom to make sure she stays in. So far it has worked, although it makes coming IN rather inconvenient for others. The mask on the far wall is a special treasure I got when I visited Jamaica many years ago. The butterfly on the other side, I got in Aruba, though I think it was made in Venezuela.


Oddly, I'm having a hard time with finding something "sentimental." I used to think of myself as very sentimental, but I'm really not so much that way any more. Maybe it's an age thing. Maybe it's because when I was forced to move 5 times in 5 years I had to let go of a lot of things. Maybe it's because the little knick-knacks and things that are special "treasures," are physically difficult for me to maintain these days. They feel less like treasures than they used to, more like dusty things that make me ashamed of my inability to care for them. Here are a few of them, though.

The little lamb is almost as old as I am. It's kind of ugly, but I've had it since I was a little child back in the Dark Ages. Next to the lamb is a Thai Demon Guard. It was given to me by a friend of mine in New York after she returned from the trip of a life-time to Thailand. You're supposed to hang in facing the front door and it keeps demons out. Seems to be working. It's been watching over me and mine for about 25 years now and is one of the first things I hang when I move into a new place. Below the little lamb is the only one of my mother's Hummel's I've kept. Back before my sentimentality began to wane I had about 11 of them. The rest (she had quite a few) were shared out to my brother and my sister's children. This little angel has a broken wing but I'm very fond of her anyway. Next to the angel is an eskimo carving that my sister's children pooled in on many years ago. Besides the fact that I like it, it's a gift from the three of them and that makes it special. The elephants on the bottom row belonged to my mother too. She loved elephants and this is one I gave her... mother and child. What I wanted from my mother but never quite got, I guess. The last item is a little ornament. I'm not sure where it came from. It's a lute, but it makes me think of my father who played the mandolin. A big part of my relationship with my father centered around music. I would sit at the piano and play and sing and he would play his mandolin. He was often drunk for these sessions and there was a lot of complex family drama around them, but they are none-the-less among my happier memories. I really miss having a piano. So that's my journey into sentimentality.

Another Day Off

Hi All,

Back aches, head aches, nose stuffed up, ears plugged.... Taking a day off from thinking and even reading. Hopefully, I'll see you all tomorrow.

Show Me: Your Kitchen

Robert at Thoughts of a Father is trying his hand at a photo meme. He has named it Show Me and each day he will ask us to "show him" a specific place or thing. Today is Day2 and the theme is "your kitchen".

EEEEEEEEEK. My kitchen is not so much my favorite room in the house. At my best in the days when I could walk better and could stand for more than 20 seconds, I wasn't a particularly good housekeeper. Now I just suck at it. And I'm a clutterer. My kitchen is no exception. This is not aided by the fact that the people who lived here before were apparently giants. I am quite short. Besides being ugly, the kitchen cabinets are pretty much out of my reach, so I've got one of those rubber maid rolling cart things and then lots of stuff just sits on the counters... the dirty messy counters, And right now there's a huge box with my new pots and pans in it, still unpacked. But someone dared me to post "as is," and I got an email from some spiritual guru or other saying to own my faults, so.... here's the hideously messy kitchen.


Ok... a tour... Above... hideous white cabinets that are too high for me to use. If I had a little money, they would be painted another color. If I had a lot of mone, they'd be gone... The yellow thing hanging in the center of the picture is a ribbon that lets me reach the string for the ceiling fan and light. The picture over on the left is a mandala I made the night my father died. I kind of knew he had died but was waiting for confirmation. The crock pot was a gift from a friend of mine who was trying to improve my cooking habits. Didn't work. You can see even from this distance that the stove needs some cleaning. Sigh. I love that wolf picture. I'll go see if I can get a close-up. I got that when I was still living in NYC and still going out of the house. Went to a Native American crafts show. The clock belonged to my parents. It's an hour an 5 minutes slow but soon it will only be 5 minutes off again. If you look carefully, you can see Angel climbing onto the box with the new pots and pans. She is heading up to the counter where she will attempt to wreak havoc in one form or another, either by pushing things off or finding some little thing that she can carry around and convert from it's given purpose into a cat toy.


To the left of the stove is a door that leads to the laundry room/storage area. When I first moved in, my friend Kim and her daughter came and spent a day with me. Among the fun things we did was to decorate this door. They did most of the work. I cut out some of the hearts, I think. When I look at it, I always think of them and that lovely day.



My refrigerator door. You can see that even that isn't neat. And this isn't a very good picture, either. Shame is not good for creativity. Pictures on the door are my nephew who is a chef, my niece Diana with the dogs and the bluebells, my niece Cindy and her two kids and a picture I took of my great niece when I lived in AZ. She's seven - well almost 8 - now and apparently has started talking to boys on the telephone. Oh, dear.


My favorite part of my kitchen, though, is the view out the back door. It's been painfully quiet and critter free out there since the big tree cutting, but I'm hoping that the birds will come back in the Spring or that winter will offer some good views over the top of the snow mountain that forms when the snow slides off my metal roof.


I guess I'm going to skip The Alphabet Backwards today and go hide in a corner for the rest of the afternoon.

Show Me: Mailbox

(Please scroll down for One Single Impression.)

Robert at Thoughts of a Father - who makes me cranky on the political front.... actually, to be fair, it is probably me who makes him cranky - is trying his hand at a photo meme. It will last for 7 days starting today and each day he will ask us to "show him" a specific place or thing. Today's theme is "your mailbox".

Since my mailbox is outside the house and I'm not - and because I can't stand up for long and I have to make sure that Angel doesn't run out the door - photos of my poor rusty old mailbox were something of a challenge. Also, it's old and rusty and not terribly photogenic. Anyway, I stuck the camera and my arm out the door a few times and then made a collage of the terrible pictures I got in that process. I'm not liking today. I posted rotten poems and now I'm posting a collage of rotten pictures. Since the theme of One Single Impression (below) was "defenses down," I figure I'm living that a bit by even posting these. Oh, the joy of living a shame-filled life. So I guess I can't stall any more... here's the collage...

One Single Impression: Defenses Down

This week's prompt for One Single Impression was "defenses down." The little haiku about opening my heart came pretty quickly, but after that it was a struggle. I keep thinking I should have a lot to say about this but my brain doesn't want to offer up anything. The last one - which I just wrote this minute (as opposed to last night), might have potential but it isn't very good at the moment. I'm posting it anyway. Desperation, I guess.



Turn the other cheek
Means let your defenses down
And give peace a chance
How else is there any hope
Of ending foolish wars

Peace is what we crave
It is our natural impulse
It’s where the heart is
Until those with agendas
Trick us into shedding blood

After 9/11
There was a moment, a chance
An instant in time
When people across the globe
Reached out to hug, not to strike

After 9/11
The world was betrayed again
By mongers of fear
Using words like God and freedom
To excuse betraying both


***********


My defenses down
I open my heart to you
Trusting and afraid


***********

I went to a workshop once
And as often happens
I felt very alone
Needy
Ugly
Out of place
I was with a friend
Everyone loved her
Which made it even worse
I feel so undefended out in the world
Like a child looking for a mother
Lost
Afraid
Alone
Even in a crowd
It was a healer's gathering
Later we all took turns
Lying on the table
Opening ourselves to love
The woman who led the group
Working on me
Said
"Wow!
I'm amazed at how huge your heart is.
You seemed so closed and defended."
Ironic, isn't it?
I thought I had my defenses down
That I had none
But the world saw me armed to the teeth
If only we could learn
That fear and shame and doubt
Are defenses that close us off from what we want
And if only we could learn
To look past what people (nations) seem to be
And look into their hearts
I bet we'd be surprised
At how beautiful they really are
Wow, we'd say
Hearing your leaders
(the face nations show the world)
I thought you cold and cruel
But now I see your heart
And oh, how big it is!
Just like mine.

Genius! And Very Funny Too

The Daily Show is always clever, often funny and once - well recently twice - in a while they offer presentations of pure genius. If you missed these two skits, you are in for a treat. If you saw them already you are still in for a treat. They are brilliant... and really funny. Enjoy!






Ok... for some reason the videos aren't showing up... Here are is the URL for the first clip. PLEASE watch it. It's BRILLIANT. It compares the Republican pundits discussing the gender issue pre and post Sarah Palin.




Here is the URL for the second segment on McCain's acceptance speech. It does side by side comparison with Bush's acceptance speech. Eye-opening and very funny too.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 29

This is week 29 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: invincible, falling leaves, two-year-old, fusion, grizzly bear, Jamaica, delivery, popsicle stick, caviar, lap-top And for the Mini Challenge: toad stool, liquid lunch, counting sheep, manacles, Jurassic Park

Here's my ten-word offering for this week:

Caviar the Invincible, the two-year-old trained grizzly bear from the Russian circus was lost and confused and wandering the streets of Jamaica, Queens. It had all started when the man from Falling Leaves furniture had backed his delivery truck into the van in which Caviar was sleeping peacefully. The driver of Caviar’s truck – who was also lost - had been so involved searching for directions on his lap-top computer that he had barely noticed the bump which freed his passenger. Despite his dramatic name, the young bear was a gentle creature and once sighted was easily lured back into captivity with his favorite treat of a dozen popsicles. He was a tidy eater, enjoying not only the sweet ice cream it self but the fusion of the ice cream with the popsicle sticks on which it was delivered.

And here's my mini challenge:

It was one of the strangest dreams Joan had ever had. She was wearing manacles and seated on a giant toad stool in Jurassic Park counting sheep as giant T-Rex’s ate them. I’ve learned my lesson. No more liquid lunch for me she vowed.

And the mega challenge:

Instead of counting sheep as he had been assigned to do, the young shepherd sat fervently chewing on his popsicle stick, the only solid food along with a bag of potato chips in an otherwise liquid lunch which had consisted of a six pack of his favorite beer. His eyes were glued to his two-year-old lap top and the Jurassic Park computer game at which he was aiming to achieve the level of invincible genius. So far, nobody had ever managed this feat and he wanted more than anything to win the trip to sunny Jamaica where he could trade in falling leaves, cold winds, beans for dinner, a drafty tent and the fear of grizzly bears for swimming pools, beaches, beautiful girls and meals of caviar, rum and lobsters. Just one more level to go and he would be there. All he had left to do was undo the fusion of the manacles that chained his character to the wall and accomplish the delivery of the rare toad stools which would allow him and the other scientists to manufacture a toxic spray which would neutralize the monsters and return the park and it’s human residents to safety.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: Degree, figure, nourish, introduction, color, remember, brightness, worry, aventurine, fingertips.

Sarah held the small round stone in her delicate hands and admired its rich green color. She had a particular fondness for aventurine, but this was the most beautiful stone she had ever seen. She could not remember ever finding another stone quite like it. It rested on her fingertips with such extraordinary brightness that it took her breath away. And although she did not generally believe in such foolishness - she was of much too practical a bent - this stone actually did seem to emit some kind of energy. She could not figure it out, but holding it (or even looking at it) seemed to ease her worries and fill her with a degree of peace and contentment unfamiliar to her. Why it was quite utterly absurd, but she would even say that she felt nourished by this tiny stone. Standing there in the sunlight holding it, she knew, though she could not explain it, that somehow her life from now on was going to be different. And she could not have been more right, for this particular stone came only to a special few and was both an invitation and an introduction into the fairy world. Practical, no nonsense Sarah had been chosen and her life would never be the same again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: spam, problematic, flower girl, splurge, milk, orphanage, lyrics, politics, ice cream cone

And for the Mini Challenge: drag race, poppy seed, swinging from a star, John Denver, diagram

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

Definitions

Well, the Republican Convention is mercifully behind us. I couldn't bring myself to listen to most of the invective - uh, speeches, though I did listen to both Mrs. Palin and Mr. McCain.

It was fascinating to me to hear how the Republican Party is attempting to co-opt the language of the Obama campaign. They have suddenly become the party of change, though what that change will be is less clear. Unless change means the same bad policies on steroids. Mr. McCain would continue the Bush tax "cuts," which favor the top 5% of the nation's population and make them permanent. He and Mrs. Palin blithey repeat over and over that Obama will raise my taxes although they know perfectly well that that isn't true. He'll raise Mr. McCain's taxes since he lives in those upper eschalons of wealth. I dont' know about Mrs Palin's taxes. In any case. The repeated mantra in speeches and ads that Obama will raise our taxes is a flat out lie. I think it says something about a politician's own platform when he or she thinks that in order to win they have to lie about the other guy. Republican style change also involves continuing the Iraq war until the end of time. Republican change involves more of the same environmental and energy policies too. They will drill more. They will take wolves and polar bears off the endangered species lists. This doesn't seem like a big change from what we have now. If anything, it might possibly be worse. So there was a lot of use of Obama's theme word change, but I guess - again taking a page from the Bush/Cheney playbook - they have simply redefined the meaning of the word. Change in the Republican dictionary means "doing the same thing."




Then there's the definition of maverick. According to Merriam Webster, a maverick is "an independant individual who doesn't go along with a group or party." Hmmm. To give credit where credit is due, there was a time when Mr. McCain was indeed a maverick and an independent-minded man. Early on in his career, I had great respect for him and the work he did to eliminate certain kinds of corruption in Washington. But times change and men change. The John McCain who campaigned for Bush and who voted with Bush 90% of the time is not my idea of a maverick. The John McCain who so wants to be president that he has changed his views on torture, immigration and other things in order to get his party's nomination doesn't seem very independent to me, so I guess that "maverick" in the Republican dictionary means "one who will do and say whatever it takes to get elected."

Compassion and compassionate are also words which Republicans and I seem to define differently. Again, Merriam Webster defines compassion as "sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it." I continue to be struck by the "compassion" of a woman like Mrs. Palin governor of a state so rich on the oil profits that are draining the finances of the rest of the nation at the gas tank that it has a surplus, yet who chose to slash close to $3,000,000 in funding for a residence and training program for young unwed mothers who chose to keep their babies. Then there is the compassion which cuts funds for a very effective health care program for children, which favors the profits of the insurance industry of the life and health of the poor. There is the compassion that mocks the work of "community organizers," as meaningless. I guess it community organizers don't serve the Republican constituency. Then there is the compassion which says that the economy is doing great and that my struggle to pay for heat and food is "in my head," that considers my distress to be "whining." Granted Mr. McCain booted the source of those last two comments to the curb, but although he's too smart a politician not to distance himself from the idea of poor people whining, he continues to defend the health of an economy in which the poor and middle classes or the nation are suffering mightily. My sense is that Mr. McCain's compassion lies with rich guys like himself who will have to pay more taxes when Senator Obama gets elected. Frankly, I'm not sure what the Republican redefinition of compassion is. If they are feeling my pain, they are certainly showing very little sign of wanting to do anything about it. Maybe the Republican definition of compassion saying "I feel your pain, promising tax cuts and then giving those tax cuts to the one tiny segment of the population that doesn't actually need them."


Which brings me to the whole subject of taxes, I guess. It's something that has always annoyed me about the American people. We have somehow been programmed to think that taxes are some wicked punishment perpetrated on us by the forces of darkness. That, I think, is the Republican definition of them and unfortunately way too many of us buy into it. Taxes are, in fact, simply how government pays for itself - for roads and schools and other programs that serve the greater good of the population at large. Those wonderful tax cuts we all salivate for are more slight of hand than anything else. What trickles down from them isn't golden goose eggs. What trickles down from them is higher taxes on the state and local level. What trickles down from them is unpaved roads, collapsed bridges, failed levees and flooded, devastated cities. What trickles down from them is underfunded school programs. What trickles down from them is cancelled health care and food assistance programs. What trickles down from them is an entrenchement of poverty and suffering for the most vulnerable in our society and while we treat free the most wealthy members of our society to a free lunch. Mrs. Palin and Mr. McCain both flat out lied in their speeches. I didn't listen to anybody else but I'm sure they all sang the Obama is raising taxes song too. Obama's plan lowers taxes for 90% of the population. But I think the McCain campaign is applying the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels credo that "if you repeat a lie long enough and loud enough...."

On to something else. Just for a break from words, I stole this little cartoon from Jay Simser at Bailey's Buddy. I think it's very funny. Thanks Jay.


But this brings me to another definition I'd like to look at. Big Government. Big government in the Republican dictionary is any kind of government program that is aimed at helping the poor. Legislating my right to marry who I choose or abort a baby or tapping my phone calls and spying on me are not big government. They are ways of protecting me from bothe eternal damnation and terrorists.

I could go on and on, but this is long so I'll end with this one because I think it's a very important word and applies somewhat to all the rest of these re-defined words. According to Merriam Webster yet again, the word LIE is defined as follows:

1: a - an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker to be untrue with intent to deceive b - an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker

2: something that misleads or deceives

The Bush/Cheney administration likes to say that they aren't lying or changing their story, they are "redefining." Apparently this is another "change"* (see Republican definition above) that the McCain/Palin administration plans to institute. (See paragraph on taxes and any of their campaign ads.)


By the way..... A couple of die-hard Right-Wing Republicans have been discussing politics with me. In the comments of my last post one of them asked me a question about whether liberals weren't trying to impose our values on people like him. I'm really proud of my response. I'd love to have people read it. (How pathetic is this... asking you to read my comments responses... but I REALLY like what I said.....)

Sometimes Private Matters Have Public Relevance

I really can't stand Republicans. Well let me correct that. I can't stand the Republican Party. There are some perfectly fine and kind people who for reasons beyond my comprehension think that's the way to vote. That's how democracy works and I'm glad they have that right.

The thing that bothers me about what the Republican Party has become is that it seems to preach a kind of Democracy in which only their rights and beliefs count, a democracy in which if I disagree with them, I don't love my country. In the Republican Party's democracy, they get to legislate my values and assess my spirituality as "lacking." What makes this even more irritating is that when they themselves fail to live up to the values they are trying to impose on me, they get all huffy and say such things are private and not up for discussion. They get to have it both ways.

In principle, I agree with Barack Obama about Bristol Palin's pregnancy being none of anybody's business. It isn't. At least not in a personal way. Bristol Palin is a teenager. She shouldn't be fodder for gossip. Being 17 and pregnant is hard enough in the "privacy" of your own community. Being 17 and pregnant on a national/international stage has to suck in spades. Personally, Bristol's life and decisions are none of my business.

But on another level they are my business, because they are a reflection of how well the social policies that the Republican Party want to impose on the rest of us work. If Mrs. Palin and the Republicans only wanted to shield their own children from options like sex education and abortion, Bristol's pregancy would be absolutely none of my business. But Mrs. Palin and the Republicans want to teach Creationism in everybody's school. Mrs. Palin and the Republicans oppose educating not just their own children about the dangers of unprotected sex; they want to keep everyone else's children ignorant as well. So the success of this approach to education in her own child's life does have relevance in the larger debate.

As a mother, Mrs. Palin has every right to thinks her own pregnant-at-17 daughter should have a baby that she probably doesn't want and be pushed into a teen-age marriage to make it "tidy." The thing is, Mrs. Palin and the Republican Party want to force that same "values" system onto my young neighbor and my great niece and everybody else's sons and daughters. I have a problem with that. Mrs. Palin's idea of good parenting isn't the same as mine. I don't think pushing teenagers into marriage because they got knocked-up is wise or loving. I think it's expedient and potentially spirit-killing.

Mrs. Palin's daughter and her prospective young soon-to-be husband will undoubtedly have lots of family support - especially given that it's an election year and what was once a private family matter is now being played out on a national stage. Interestingly, Mrs. Palin's compassion for unwed mothers doesn't apparently extend to other people's children. She used her line-item veto pen to significantly slash funding to a program designed to offer housing and counsel to young unwed mothers in Alaska. Hmmm. Mrs. Palin and Mr. McCain both oppose funding for sex education in our schools and they oppose spending money to cope with the results of such policies.

I'm not delusional enough to think that sex education in the schools will prevent all unwanted pregnancy. I'm also not delusional enough to think "just say no" will work either. Clearly it didn't work with Mrs. Palin's daughter. One of the things that really bothers me about someone like Mrs. Palin who wants to keep everyone else's children as ignorant about sex education as she keeps her own, is that she then had no compassion or sense of responsiblity about cleaning up the mess that her own policies create. Unborn babies are treasured. Other people's knocked-up teen aged daughters, not so much. And I guess that while it's important to Mrs. Palin and her ilk to keep unwanted babies in teen (and adult) wombs, they draw the line at providing support and education to their mothers so that when the beloved precious foetuses pop out of the womb and start needing love and attention, both they and their parents have have a chance at a decent life. I just don't get that kind of selective sacredness. How can the life of a non-viable egg be more sacred than the life of a real, flesh-and-blood young adult?

I'm finding much of the Republican spin about the wonders of Mrs. Palin entertaining. Bristol's pregnancy isn't a reflection of failed parenting or the pit-falls of not educating your children about unprotected sex. Nope. They're marrying the kid off and not kicking her out of the house, so it's a sign of the strength of family values. And apparently just living in Alaska makes people foreign policy experts because part of Alaska borders the Soviet Union. Wow. Who knew! And then Mrs. Pailin's year-and a half as governor trumps everyone else's experience. Simply by living in Alaska, she apparently has more foreign policy - this is a Republican talking point - than Joe Biden after 33 years in the Senate much of it serving on the Foreign Relations Committee, currently as chairman. It also apparently trumps Obama's 8 years in the Illinois Senate and his 4 years in the US Senate. Something about Alaska, I guess, and that intense border proximity.

But I'm digressing from my theme. Bristol's private life is and should be private. But since her mother wants to legislate my private life and that of those I love and care about - the success or failure of how her policies work is profoundly relevant.

That's it for now.

Ruby Tuesday

Maryt/The Teach over at Work of the Poet has something called Ruby Tuesday which featuring all things red.

I am slowly pulling out of a major funk, deeply obsessed with politics at the moment. I was thinking I didn't have anything exciting for Ruby Tuesday. The backyard has been slow. I have one red object that I'm looking forward to sharing but haven't figured out how to take a picture of it yet. But then I remembered a few things so I'm going to "do" Ruby Tuesday, even though I'm coming in a bit late and my offerings are kind of mundane.



I'm very excited because I finally splurged and got myself some decent pots and pans. Found a good deal. And they are RED. You might wonder why I'm posting them in/on the box. Well, I have to CLEAN the stove before I can take a picture of them there. They remain in the box at the moment because I don't want to defile them until the stove/kitchen becomes more worthy of their shiny new-ness. Housekeeping - even in my more agile days - has never been one of my strengths or virtues.





Ok... these may be more orange than red, but they have a reddish tinge, I think. Mother nature is as confused as I am, it seems, about the weather. We have had September in August and many trees are already well into fall foliage already. Hope this doesn't mean we are going to have the coldest winter in history. Yuck.

And of course, there's Netflix, savior of the home-bound.

Last, but not least. My little neighbor Shannon - following bad advice from me - made this wonderful collage for a contest on a really stupid website she likes. I misread the instructions so her efforts were not what the contest was looking for, but I think she did such a great job that I thought I'd share it here. There's a little bit of red in it. The request was to compile things they thought were "cool," - people, stores, tv shows... The website is "Go Supermodel." I thought Shannon's work deserved an audience so here it is.

The Alphabet Backwards: C is for (Toxic) Cynicism

It’s alphabet backwards day and I’m down to the letter “C.” There are lots of cool “C” words: chocolate, of course, is a popular one. Then there’s charisma, character, coincidence, calendar, colander, crocus, clavichord, chronicle, concept, corridor, congestion, congregation, church, chemistry, claustrophobia, Christmas, crutches, Crucifix, Christianity, California, concrete, camp, Clue, crafts, Colorado, companionship, company, creation, Creationism, country, cluster bombs, Clintons, clip art, cavities, Chaucer, choir, chorus, Columbia, Cyprus, cognitive learning, chess, cauliflower, crispy, crap shoot, cylinder, cysts, cancer, Cancer, coat tails, Cold War, cold, conundrum, codicil, creepy, crepe, Chinese, Chinese food, chili, cornbread, cranberry sauce, children, candy, chopped liver, cinema, cartwheels, cabaret, cucumber, cheese (almost forgot cheese, one of the holy foods), chestnuts, chimera, celebration, celebrity, compliments, Congress, conspiracy, Constitution, camera, … well there are lots and lots of really cool “c” words (certainly camera and Christianity were both mighty tempting), but I knew from the start that I want to write about cynicism.

I have a theory and I almost never get to tell anybody about my theories. Now here you are - my three or four avid readers - ready to be dazzled by the brilliance of Raven's Theory of Toxic Cynicism. Hopefully, anyway. I have one or two brilliant theories that rumble around in my head and that I've tried to share from time to time without any success. But enough introduction. Here goes.

I think that one of the reasons our society is in such a terrible mess - one of the reasons that people sit back and do nothing while Rome burns, why they don't vote, and particularly why the media has gone so far astray - is that we have fallen victim to a profound and toxic degree of cynicism. I'm not talking about the clever, wry wit of someone like sweet (sorry big guy) Jay the Cynical Bastard. I'm talking about a pervasive and toxic way of thinking.

I think the problem started with Watergate. America was in a state of flux anyway, but we were still profoundly idealistic... maybe as a nation we were in our pre-adolescence. Nixon and Watergate did two things. It shattered our innocence to a large degree and - this is the important part - it changed how the media pursues news. After Watergate, everybody wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein. Reporters stopped looking for truth and started looking for lies. This is a very different pursuit and it produces very different - and very skewed - results. Because when you are looking for lies you are looking at the world through a very distorted lens. Everything becomes suspect... even the truth... and as a result truth gets lost in a sea of speculation and distortion. Over time truth actually becomes irrelevant, though it's name is bandied about by those (like Karl Rove et al) who have learned to use toxic cynicism to their own advantage.

There are a number of reasons that this kind of cynicism is dangerous. First, it is pervasive. I first became conscious of it about 25 years ago, I guess. I'm about as airy fairy, optimisitic, trotting through the daisies singing by nature as you can get. I look for the good. It's who I am. That said, listening one of those rare stories about someone doing something good on the news one night, I heard these little whispery thoughts in my head: "yeah, sure... I wonder what's in it for him." This is not me. This is what toxic cynicism has done to us without our even being aware of it.

I always think a good example of how far from news reporting the media has come - without even knowing it - is an example from the Clinton years. It was a petty news story. Bill Clinton went to a prayer breakfast and said that he repented his sins and prayed for forgiveness or something like that. Now THAT should have been the story. That's a fact. That's not how it was reported. It was reported that this was probably advice from his handlers. The media not only reported Clinton's words, they assessed his motives - cynically, of course. I think much of the media problems are because it's a tool of the right wing. But I also think that the media is composed of human beings, many of whom have now grown up in a world where everything is filtered through the lens of toxic cynicism. Many of them don't know they're doing it, which is why it is so toxic. Many of them are not acquainted with the concept of truth. It became irrelevant - because in toxic cynicism - the pursuit of lies has become confused with the hunt for truth. In today's world, if Angels floated down from the heavens with bags full of gold and food and a cure for all diseases - rather than receiving them joyfully, I can almost guarantee you that most of us would question their motives. Without thinking, without even being consciously aware that we are doing so. This is the price of toxic cynicism. As a nation we are paying a heavy price for it.

Toxic cynicism saps the spirit and damages the capacity for hopeful action. Toxic cynicism allows the Karl Roves and George Bush's of this world make us doubt our intuitions and to question truth on those rare occasions when it is offered to us. We have been taught to no longer believe in truth and as a result we let tyrants and bullies manipulate us. Perversely, toxic cynicism makes us easy prey for liars.

I hadn't thought of this until writing this essay this morning, but I think the power of Obama's voice, the appeal of his message is that it is the first phase of what is hopefully antidote to toxic cynicism. The Bush administration's failures are so overwhelming, their abuses of power and decency at home and abroad so great that they have begun to awaken many - alas not all - people from the haze of perpetualy cynicism. The idealism and particuarly the unshakable decency - of Barack Obama - are food for our starving souls. I hope he wins not just because I have been starving for hope and idealism for years now - but because I don't think the nation can survive the alternative.

I don't know that electing Obama will be a cure for toxic cynicism, but surely it is a start. He has broken through the haze and that gives me hope. But it isn't going to be that easy even if he's elected. Toxic Cynicism is a form of addiction and like any addiction the first step in recovery is accepting that you have a problem. Obama's candidacy has at least shone some light in the darkness and proven that decency can be as powerful as graft and greed and soulless ambition.

I'm almost done. I promise. Just one last thought. I personally believe that truth has an auditory and biological resonance. It can be felt in our bodies. We recognize it when we hear it. It's time now that we reclaim that instinct and become consciously aware of the little whispery voices of toxic cynicism that think of truth as a myth. It's not. Time to move back to a world where we look for truth instead of lies. The hunt for lies creates a world of shadows. When we hunt for truth, we shine light into the darkness. That is how to drive the shadows out.

I'm not going to re-read this. I'm just going to post it. I don't know if I've made a lot of sense. I do know that I'm right about this even if I have not expressed it well. I hope we can stop our search for lies and start becoming seekers of truth once again.

Have a great week. Happy Labor Day.