The Nuclear Fallout of the American Dream

Did you watch "60 Minutes" last Sunday night when they showed abandoned houses in Cincinnati, OH, being torn down because so many of them were 'under water' mortgage-wise? The majority of entire neighborhoods, evicted and demolished; while the banks that created these implosions go on business as usual, unscathed by these decisions that they made in the name of Corporate Greed and Profit.

The Occupy Movement was accused of being fuzzy on their demands re: this whole political/economic mess. But what was shown on TV were clear scenes of detonations of the American Dream dieing a rather somnalent, but ultimately violent death. Whole Communities have been laid waste, and yet the Banks that created the circumstances for this wholesale destruction remain unharmed and un-indicted in their responsibility.

How many more Cities need to die quick deaths before the mess of this nonsense is rectified and brought to some kind of justice? How many people need to be evicted, their houses going vacant and up for the Crony Bidders of the Banks that orchestrated this fallout? Some Communities might as well have had a nuclear bomb dropped for all the livability and sustainability that remains in them.

It's time to find a way to Indict the New Un-Indicted Conspirators, and take down the System that is obviously so corrupt that it can't even police itself.

Ah, The Republican Feeding Frenzy...

It seems that the Republican Candidates for President have been stumbling all over themselves to make mockeries of... Themselves. From Herman Cain and his 'infinite number of women' to Eye of Newt and his leanings towards his installation as the New Monarch (obviously with no Clothes to hide his bald lies and outrageous statements) to Mitt Romney (a.k.a. King George the Firsts [George Herbert Walker Bush] demented In-Law) and his 'Oh, what's this? This little bar code thingie?', the whole race is turning into hares trying to twist themselves into political pretzels. Too bad the Far Reich Tea Partiers doesn't see these gaffs as disqualify-iers against Higher Office.

Much was made of the Biden gaffs during the last election cycle, but this new batch of stumbler/ bumblers takes the cake (as in "Let Them Eat...") is taking the gaffs to new highs. Newt and his 'If I don't agree with what the Supreme Court decides, I'll haul them in to Congress under arrest if necessary to have them answer to The People' (as if the Little People were the ones he was talking about), take the Fascistic leanings of the Tea Party and their Acolytes to new lows, further deadening the possibility of democracy even further.

What next, Herr Gingrich? Abolishing the Constitution if it doesn't suit you? Instigating Martial Law to enforce your World Views? Even Mad King George the Second didn't do that with the reason of 9/11 to be his excuse.

How much more insane do the Politics of Hate and Deception have to become before even the most dim of political bulbs understands the consequences? How many more rabid Tea Partiers have to make 'jokes' of assassinating a sitting President because of his Color?

If they don't watch out, the feeding frenzy on the horizon will be the Republicans eating themselves alive with their beliefs and opinions.

No Super Solutions; just another Super Logjamb

A recent poll of Americans brought out something that by now should be very apparent to even those most resistant to facts and figures (you know who these Amuricans are): Congress' general approval rating has dropped to 9%, lower than the number of people in the country wanting a communist make-over of the government. And since the conservative branch of the Houses of Congress have seen to it that the moderate members of their Party were cut down in the fury of Tea Party madness,  there is no balance beam there to help bring about any stabilizing influence in this equation/rating.

But those of the Far Right of the political spectrum seem to still be blaming the Democrats for this decline. Why is it so hard for them to realize and acknowledge that the less advantaged of the Country need to be paying less than Those Who Can most afford it to pay their fair share of taxes to do so. They have the battle cry of They Need to Compromise with Us, when the whole idea of compromise is that both sides give up something and that the process not just be a unilateral sided one.

And the idea of a flat tax being resurrected by the Republican Party hopefuls will only further redistribute the burden once again to Those Who Can't Afford It. Most of the "solutions" that Conservative produce and heavily promote, only serve to entrench the status quo of the 1%, and further entrench the 99% in an ever increasing spiral of poverty. Going back to 1950's solutions is not a solution.

I would say to those of the extreme Conservative end of the political spectrum that if they don't want to see the Occupy Wall Street movement flooding into the streets of Middle America, I would highly suggest that they start to find solutions that actually represent compromise, and to right this economic Titannic before the Iceberg of public outcry extends even to those who are now loyal to the agenda of the Far Right which this Committee so obviously embodied.

And I would also say to the Conservative Wing of the 99%; wait till your job is taken away, and you find out which Far Eastern County it's been shipped to. Perhaps that might be a wake-up call to them. Then they might finally understand what the Occupy Movement is all about.

And then again, probably not. 'Don't confuse me with the facts! I know what's right!'

The Time is now to enact Real Change -- before...

"Class Warfare" vs. Crass Warfare

So. President Obama calling on Taxing The Rich is "Class Warfare," as if the Rich don't know a thing or two about Class Warfare.

When did things get so crazy that the Poor and the Middle Class have to pay full taxes, but for some reason, The Rich need to be exempt? The reason usually given is that; "The Rich are creating jobs for Americans, and that's why..." Nonsense (and my language is cleaned up here for a general audience). The Rich don't create jobs for Americans, they create jobs for their companies. And when it suits them to ship those jobs to foreign shores for slave wage employees, they do it. In a heartbeat. Except for my mind, their having a heartbeat is questionable.

The Rich make often many times (millions to billions of times) the amount of the average American Worker. And to top it off, many of their industries would not exist in this "Capitalistic" society if they hadn't received massive subsidies to build those very same industries (the most egregious examples being the Oil and Nuclear Power companies). And to top even that off, not only do they pay no taxes on their massive incomes, most of these "Captains of Industry" continue to get major subsidies.

Which never, by the way, get talked of being cut by the lackies of The Rich from the US Budget in any way like those elements of/programs for "...the least of these" -- "The Poor will always be with You."

Yes, it's time for The Rich to pay their fair share of taxes. And while we're at it, let's cut their entitlement programs. Let their  business rise or fall by their economic standards, losses, and gargantuan egotistical mistakes. If we need to rise and fall by our personal capitol and mistakes, then so should they.

Tax The Rich and Cut their subsidies, Mr. President. No more Entitlements for those who don't 'need' them becasue of their business expertise (or lack thereof).

A Child Must Be A Choice

I'm single. I have never really wanted to have children except for one of the women I have been with.

Below is a response I wrote in a personals ad regarding the idea of  'men not wanting children,' describing why I haven't wanted children. I know that some of it will seem crass and uncaring to some (mainly women), but there are a number of reasons for this in my life (most of which I won't go into in a public forum).

Not everybody should have children. A current look around this country shows that many shouldn't have had; they weren't prepared to raise children. If you haven't at least tried to heal whatever childhood emotional injuriesthat were done to you, perhaps you should wait on transferring those same issues to children.

I've also known a number of women who decided (one of them at quite an early age) that they themselves did not want children. The reasons? I can't tell you or (perhaps) they'd kill me. [Sort of a joke.]

And in a similar vein, not everybody should go to college. In this country you're treated as pariah if you don't have a degree (or two), but many people should perhaps attend vocational training. We have way too many lawyers and not enough nurses. And I know a number of  people with superfluous degrees that they arenever going to use.

I have personally fathered two children in my time. But in both cases, however much the woman wanted (or in both cases never knew they wanted) children, neither was prepared to do it. With one of them she was too old and her body rejected the fetus. In the other one, when I didn't respond favorably, she had an abortion.

In the end, unless both of the procreators are wanting wholeheartedly to devote the next 18 years of their life to the child, the child should not be created. I know this probably  sounds really harsh, but have you ever known anyone who found out that they were an 'unwanted' child? It wasn't a feel good revelation, I"ll tell you that.

We all need to find in ourselves what our true reason for coming into this life is, before we take on the task of forming someone elses reason for coming in. I truly believe in a saying by a comedian some time ago, "I don't believe in having children until I"m through being one."

Aside from this, I have way too many other things in my life that if I don't give them attention for any length of time, will not suffer for the rest of their lives for that lack of attention paid. And besides, I don't have enough time for all of my creative 'children' (works of art/writing/design) as it is.

In my opinion, a child is either a choice, or a potential (as a former friend once was fond of sayinhg) flaming disaster if they are not.

That Anniversary.

Ten years ago this Sunday, I was standing on a ladder with a bright blue almost unnatural sky behind me painting high up under eaves and listening to NPR when "reports [were] coming in of a possible small plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center Towers in New York. More details will be made once we have reporters on the scene." At that moment, I knew it was no "small plane" that had hit, and that that day was going to be one of the longest in my memory. I was also however, expecting that Martial Law would be imposed at any minute, when the news came that a "second plane" had struck the other Tower. 

Yes, we're coming up on that anniversary, eulogizing and fetishizing our very own post-modern Pearl Harbor: 9/11. 'A day that will live in..." No, that was that other attach on American Soil.

Let me once again remind you before I go on, I am in not in any way either diminishing or denying the horror of that day now almost ten years ago. Three thousand people lost their lives that day, and many more suffered on the ground from the consequences of the two Towers crumbling into dust, both on that day and in the days and months to come from the literal fallout of the destruction.

What I am also reminding you about are the questions involved which still unanswered to this day regarding the circumstance of what happened and who did it. And I already hear the angry lynch mobs at my door ready to make me one of the fallen, just because I don't agree with the Twin Fetishes of what are called "National Security,"  and "Homeland Security." I still believe that the Twin Towers and the devastation to them and New York City, were merely excuse and prelude for the Military-Industrial complex to generate more revenues and get the American People to give up what had heretofore had been precious Freedoms in the 'fight against'  "International Terrorism."

And while that day no visible form of Martial Law was imposed as I had expected it would, the prelude to the dissolution of our Protected Freedoms in the face and guise of  'protecting Our Nation,' still resounds like that of the previous "Shot Heard Round the World" of an earlier Age of Revolution, not dissolution. The very foundations of what Those who would say that they 'Believe In'  the freedoms inherent in our System of Law and Revolutionary Intent, are still, or have been participating in the taking apart/tearing down/dismantling, Declaration by Declaration and Constitutional Amendment by Amendment of that System; all in the face of denial and fear-mongering and for an arcane sense of "safety" that has never really appeared. 

Martial Law was not instituted that day or in the days following, but a far more insidious form of imposition of loss of freedom resulted in the Stalin-like fortification of Military Might in the form of first "The Patriot Act" and later the 'formation' of the equally infamous(and scabrous) "Tea Party." Quote/unquote Patriots will use the excuse of this anniversary to once again pump up the drumbeat of War in the form of  'tightening' our borders and cutting loose/jettisoning any impediments to their version of Making America Free and Safe. Martial Law might have been more easier to deal with in a way. At least that way the loss of freedoms and rights would have been obvious. Which is why that 'nuclear option' of Constitutional 'deregulation' occurred.

And also once again I urge you to watch the documentary entitled "9/11: Press for the Truth." <http://www.911pressfortruth.com/> which  has detailed timelines that contradict the4 "standard version" of what really happened that day, and has "humorous" clips of Bush, Cheney and Rice backtracking and getting caught in outright lies over the exact nature of what transpired. It also shows how the international police organization Cointelpro raided an Islamic Terrorist group in Manilla, Philippines in 1992, retrieving drawings then of plans of two planes going into large square buildings; evidence which was dismissed by the US Government.

Not to mention the FBI Agent who told her superiors that there were reports of individuals in Texas (I believe) learning how to take off and  fly planes but not how to land them, in 2000. These reports were also brushed aside.  And just for further information, in the day following the events of the morning of 9/11/01 when air traffic was suspended over the entire US, there was one plane that was allowed to fly out of the country: one carrying a family with the curious name of bin Laden.

As with the Kennedy and MLK assasinations, the true facts of these matters will probably never be revealed, with the 'Clear and Present Danger' to our Nation and our planet which those answers represent will go one shrouded in mystery. 

Yes, The Rapture didn't happen.

Don't you think that they could get it right?

There is always a Born Again Christian group proclaiming that... "Jesus is COMING! Be prepared!" The End of The World (as they know it). This has been a favorite pasttime of Those Who See Themselves as Righteous and eveyone else as... Wicked! [Not that I"m saying that there isn't enough of that 'wicked' thing to go around.]

But the Bible even says "No man knows the hour or the day" that The End will come (not that that isn't becoming kind of obvious. Fire and Hurricanes and Tsunamis! Oh, My!). Those who would wreck havoc on the Earth and it's resources, are also largely the ones claiming their virtue instead of living it. Google "Depleted Uranium Casings" and see if it doesn't lead to what bullets and shells are made from in The War Against Terrorism. (There's money to be made in continuing the myth that Nuclear is "Clean" energy. All that depleted uranium has to go somewhere.) And that isn't even going into the current "drilling" technologies they're using to get to oil (and poisoning the drinking water of this country like they're poisoning the towns and villages in Iraq).

Then again, there's always the saying, "Jesus is Coming! Look Busy!"

The Coming Iceberg

In 1912, the supposedly unsinkable ship Titannic...

Perhaps you see where this is going. We often overlook evidence that is right in front of our face, in favor for the much nicer scenario that allows us our denial to continue. We "don't see" the impending divorce, the bank account that is quickly dipping into the red, the growing credit card tallies, and many other things. You might say that it's in our nature.

And like that ship that suffered so much lose of life at the turn of the last century, the same was true for the 9/11 Event. It's also true for Global Warming/Climate Change, and was true for the coming tyrannical dictatorship of the Moneyed Giants mascarading as The Little People. It's often easier to not see the 800 ton gorilla in the room about to sit on you until it's too dark and too late.

I just watched the video "9/11: Press for the Truth" about the journey from the acceptance to horrorific disbelief to downright outrage of three women (nicknamed "The Jersey Girls") who lost their husbands in the Twin Towers that were the modern day equivalent of the Titannic. Indeed, these husbands were told to stay at their desks as the deck was shifting to 90 degrees, and they accepted the Word from Above. These women, one of whom said that she voted for George Bush and then came to belief that her elected government had lied and allowed the disaster, are now forever changed in their acceptance.

In the video (and the website/book that pointed out the actual Timeline of events of the days and years leading up to it <www.911timeline.net/ >), it is shown that in the least case scenario the Bush Administration knew the attach was coming, and in the worst case, allowed it to happen.  (Only hinted at are the larger implications that it was a created event. Good thing the Congress had the Patriot Act ready to save us!)

In the case of  the Titannic, the Owners and Engineers continued to whittle down the costs (using inferior and less materials than were originally called for, as well as cutting down the number of lifeboats deemed necessary) in order to reap more profit and insure the deadly toll. There were also reports of the iceberg field that were telegraphed to the ships wireless operator that never reached the bridge and the Captain (who was alseep when the imfamous ice hit). No one was ever held accountable either legally or economically for these gross violations that led to that severe loss of life.

In the case of the modern planetary Iceberg heading our way (or soon to be lack thereof), those responsible for this coming loss of life also continue to be held unaccoutable. We continue to build nuclear power plants under the lies of "safe energy" while the Japanese plant leaks plutonium into the Pacific.

And the Global Warming deniers point to the cooling off of the planet. 'See? It's not getting hotter, it's getting colder!' Watch out for that Iceberg. It may be one of the last ones left.

The Battle Against Public Broadcasting

Sarah Palin said while discussing the issue on Fox News: "NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, all those kind of 'frivolous' [quotes and bold bloggers editing] things that government shouldn't be in the business of funding with tax dollars — those should all be on the chopping block as we talk about the $14-trillion debt that we're going to hand to our kids and our grandkids ... Yes, those are the type of things that for more than one reason need to be cut."

Yes. Those are the types of things that need to be cut. Like the influence of the Billionaire Kock Brothers who are behind the Tea Party and all their Minions. Like the fact that Corporate America owns America, and the intellectual giants of the Tea Party someone think that if the Billionaires are spared from paying taxes, eventually they will be too. (Or more ridiculously yet, that when They, the [Tea party] People become million- and billionaires, then they won't have to pay taxes.) Other People (the Liberals, the 'Coloreds' and everybody else but Them) will take care of paying the way for "Loyal Americans." This is the heartless and souless beliefs of the so-called "Legacy" People: i.e. the "Original Americans" meaning White Landowning Gentry.

Yes, the Far Right believes that Everybody Else (but Them) should pay taxes so they don't have too.

So, taking away NPR/PBS is about not funding "frivolous things." Right?

No. it's about trying to make NPR defunct so that the "frivolous" broadband radio and television blocks currently 'misused' by Public Broadcasting can then be bought up and used for 'usefull' purposes: like andditional channels for FOX News and other Right Wing Media Outlets.

It's about castrating investigation into the highjacking of democracy by the Billionaires, deleting any 'unnecessary' investigation of Right Wing activities, and last but not least, "fair and balanc[e]"ing the rest of the news waves for Right Americans.

Hold on to your freedoms, because they are about to be annulled.

Nuclear "Option" in Meltdown Status! Scramm it!

"Nuclear Power! So cheap it won't even be measurable!" screamed the Voice back in the 1950's and 60s'. Along with the (radioactive) nugget: Safer than Coal or Gas!"

With the power plant in Japan breached, lacking electricity to get water into the containment vessels of tow (our of five) reactor cores, this stands as the largest nuclear disaster in history. Larger than both Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Of course, this was due to the massive earthquake, but it was built on a known (and quite active) fault line, guaranteeing that sooner or later...

And this reactor is not the only reactor in the world built on a fault line. There are several others, including those in California. These are just accidents of monstrous proportion waiting to happen, also sooner rather than later.

Let's return to those thrilling days of yesteryear...

Nuclear power was sold to the American People as both safe and cheap. That spent fuel rods hav e to be kept in water that is costantly filtered and refreshed, wasn't part of the propaganda. Neither was the billions of dollars that went into developing the technology by the US Government, not the Private Industry that would profit from this "cheap" energy source.

And as to the waste byproducts... That was a whole nother prospect.

Not only are the reactor cores in full breach in Japan, but the spent fuel rods 'isolated' in on-site storage tanks are also in danger. If not constantly cooled, they would still have enough fissionable material (in the quantities stored) to start an uncontrolled chain reaction as well.

If the US Governement had spent a mere fraction on the solar and other alternative power possibilities, the cheaper alternatives to Nuclear, Coal and (especially Liquified) Natural Gas, those sources would be online and generating power in the quantities that were once touted for Nuclear. And solar panels don't go critical, either.

Bake Sale for Billionaires

Welcome to those thirlling days of Yesteryear! Where the Rich were Rich because God Blessed them (even though they were cursing the Not Rich). If the rest of the Country is Poor, that just means that they need to pull themselves up by the bootsraps, and get some Gumption, by God!

Now let's take you to to our radio show in progress. (What's that? What's a Radio? You know, those things you listened to before you had the Internet and iPods and Mp3 players, oh my? I know; that's so last Century.)

The Poor:

Let's have a moment of silence here... for the poor Billionaires of This Country. Seems that they don't have enough money in their bank accounts.

I know! Let's have a Bake Sale for Billionaires! They don't seem to have enough money, poor dears. Well, we'll give them even more of Ours! Whaddaya say, Kids? Aw, come on...

Those Poor Billionaires are going to bed hungry.

Yeah. Hungry for more. MONEY, Power. By Gosh, I guess they don't have it all just yet. I guess we'll have to help them out.

The Rich:

Whaddaya mean, we don't have ALL your money yet? That's not enough in my book!

Poor People? We don't have any Poor People in this Great Country of Ours, do we? [pause for brilliant idea here] Oh, you mean the Welfare Cheats?! The Under-Taxed Class. Yes. They should pay their taxes, by Gumption!

What's this? They don't have any jobs? Well, that's not Our Fault, is it? They just need to go out and get a Job. This is America, where everyone should work (so they can continue to pay Our Taxes for Us). Isn't there a McDonalds or Walmart close by for them to work in? That's what we made those jobs for.

What's that, you say? You're saying this isn't funny? Well, how about Wisconsin? The Demoncrats leave the State in order to not rubber-stamp our fully elected Tea Party Guvner's plan to slash and burn the State Budget. That's not fair! They're Criminals, Criminals I tell you! Get those arrest warrants out already and bring them back to do Our Civic Duty! What do they think this is? A Democracy?

Talk about the "Nuclear Option"...

At a time when our world is teetering on the brink of ecological collapse (yes, I know it's a bright sunny day out there probably as you read this), the Republicans are out to kill off legislation that was hard won and will be hard to get back once they have decimated it.

Other global competitors (especially China) are playing to win this race for a clean energy future, and we should be working together to create the 21st century technologies that will help us grow our stagnant economy, cut pollution even further, and end our over-addiction to oil and other fossil fuels; instead of working against our own good. If China can have clean air standards, why can't the US?

Instead, some in Congress seem more interested in taking us back to the19th century, where you couldn't see for the coal smoke in most major cities. Or even as late as the 1980's, where I'm told that the wir was so thick with pollutions some days, you couldn't see the end of your block.

The latest proposal by Wyoming Senator John Barrasso is  attempting to gut the EPA AND every other federal agency from using the Clean Air Act AND any other environmental law to do anything about reducing America's clean air and climate pollution. After thirty years of improvements, the Republicans want to take us back to the Bad Old Yesteryears.

And just for good measure, it would also preempt state climate actions. Please tell me where these legislators who have in the past been so pro "States Rights" can justify this nonsense?

A similar proposal by West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller would halt EPA actions to reduce carbon pollution for at least two years. These proposals are part of a coordinated pro-polluter assault on America's clean air standards that would reverse important progress we've made to cut pollution and promote innovation.

The 21st century will be a clean energy century. If Congress refuses to fulfill its responsibility to pass a strong climate and energy bill, it should at least get out of the way of progress.

I strongly urge you to oppose the Barrasso "Do ABSOLUTELY Nothing on Climate" bill, the Rockefeller "Do Nothing for Two Years" bill, and all bills like them. It's time to respond with courage and fortitude.

[Taken in part from an Environmental Defense Fund letter to be found @
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1025 ]

Ah, the Creative Life!

In the last two months, I have finished off almost a dozen short stories, started three novellas, wrote a ten page short video script for two friends, and ordered my comedy skits into reasonable expectations of one day getting up on stage with them and becoming a Comedy Star.

In the last two months, I have also gone without a lot of the Holiday Cheer that most others in our society expect to have during the Christmas and New Years season. I have also spent most of it on friends couches and floors, filling out another dozen works of fiction known as Employment Applications, which have large gaps in the history of, due to bouts of writing and acting which, unfortunately, I cannot acknowledge in this town because it is the kiss of death in finding employment.

As soon as those sidelines come out of me, it's time for the interview to have been over two minutes prior. Never mind that I've spent much of the last two years looking for work, or hopping back and forth from here to the East Coast in search of work, the admission of Things Other Than Gainful Work is enough to sink the prospect.

So yes, I can brag of my great creative strides, while at the same time severely lacking in the basic necessities.

Ah, The Creative Life! It chose me, not I it. It is who I am, regardless of any other aspect of my life. For Better or Worse.

Hey! Doesn't that sound like a marriage?

Step Right Up! Getcher Politician! Unlimited Time Offer!

This is sort of The Devils Bargain, part two, wherein Corporate America is Old Scratch getting Politicians to sell their souls (hey, wait! is that a contradiction?). Will Politicians in this new age of chicanery start acknowledging their Corporate Overlords with "brought to you by..." messages at the end of their ads? Or how about wearing proudly the logos of their Corporate Sponsors on their jackets, like the NASCAR's do?

Why not? As long as they're going to be bought and sold to the highest bidder, they might as well be proud of it. After all, NASCAR drivers are. Do they really think that the (left leaning) public interest groups (probably next on the Corporate Supreme Court  hit list no doubt) won't be able to find out?

And now it seems that the Conflict of Interest with "The Supremes" grows deeper. Justice Thomas'  wife has been a paid "consultant" to the Heritage Foundation and other Right Wing groups that are behind the Buying and Selling of America.

Now the Members of the Supreme Court are supposed to be above reproach. They are also supposed to recuse themselves when cases come before the Court in which they have a vested interest: such as Virginia Thomas receiving payment from, and helping to found another, organization (or two) with which the Court is in active litigation involving said organization.

The main backers of most of the Far Right and their actions (from the Tea Party to "Citizens United" are two oil baron brothers, the Kock (pronounce Cook) brothers, who BTW are funding a Billionaires Retreat on how to finish taking over the country this weekend in Palm Springs. Both Justices Scalia and Thomas have spoken at these retreats in the past  Considering that the Koch brothers created "Citizens United," that is so clearly a Conflict 0f Interest that the whole "Citizens United" case would be thrown out -- except in this case, the Supreme Court is the last place a case goes in this country. Oh, well, so much for democracy.

So, Fart Proudly*, I say! Step right up (or is that Step Right up?) and stand proud for who you represent. The American People? Hell, no. Only the disembodied Corporate ones (you know? the ones recognized by Law as living forever?) however. No need to acknowledge those "Little People" ever again. They don't count, anyway.

[* The title of an essay by Benjamin Franklin.  "Fart Proudly, because you're an American." (When once that name, American, actually meant something.]

The Scourge of The Scooter

You see the ads for The Scooter Store on TV when you're watching late night or some of the cable channels, where they say that "You may qualify for a Scooter at no cost to you!" (What they don't say is that the government picks up the hefty cost of $10,000 adding to the burden of health care

My, how far disability has come!  Curb cuts, disability access on busses and in most newer buildings... It's a far cry from the older days when  people with disabilities were kept hidden from view or only taken out to doctors appointments or to say in the back yard on a sunny day. We live in a society that is increasingly stratified not only by race and money, but also by the gap between the (in some cases) very abled, (mostly  among the obsessively gym-going among us [the more well to do in most cases]) and the disabled community (those recognized as disabled and needing to have wheelchairs as well as those who because of weight or other physical issues may need then soon).

So you might say that the Scooter — the motorized one-stick-does-all carts — are a good thing. And for certain populations of the disabled, they are. For individuals with MS (I know two) and the extreme Elderly, they are. It's a good time for the mobility of those individuals who are still active in their minds, even if their bodies do not function as well as they would like.

But then there are those who make the transition from walking to the Scooter because it's easier to do. For some of those, active exercise might be of better prescription than taking the (apparently often) step to full dependence on having a chair that they are bound to.

Studies are showing use of the scooter type device increases cardiovascular functioning (when the body is not moving for long periods of time)1 that, once someone has made that choice, the lack of activity is not only not helpful, but leads to a quick decline in physiological functioning leading to an earlier death than might have been.  In these cases, it might have been better for these individuals to remain actively mobile until their functioning declines to the point of no return. Giving up is a sure way to give in.

The more active physically we stay, in other words, the longer our lives and the lesser our declines, leading to better quality of life. Some people manage to stay as active as they can until the day they die. In my church recently, a prime example of this was a "young" woman of 103, who got up and danced an an event. She was a shining example of what it means to grow old gracefully and live longer.

Before I go any further however, I should point out that I am not biased against the disabled in this case. I myself am physically disabled, owing to a work accident that I had in my early thirties. At that time, I was determined that, even with my doctors admonitions  that I was going to be crippled by arthritis in my knees by the time I am the age I am now aside, I was determined to be active and to recover as much as I could.

I wanted to be like that 103 year "old" woman and not be confined to a chair or scooter any sooner than I had to be. So far, I have been able to remain quite abled, doing things like dancing and hiking that I "shouldn't " be 'abled' to do by this time. I want to life my life to the fullest until that possibility is firmly retreating from my grasp.

And that is answer I would like to be giving to all that are able and active: to have the best possibility of quality of life is to remain active. "Do not go gentle into that good night..." but go actively. Don't fall prey to the idea that you don't have ability and mobility until your body tells you "no more." You don't have to be 'disabled' even at 100, unless your physical condition demands it.

Leave the Scooter and the Wheelchair until then.

1("Effect of Motorized Scooters on Quality of Life and Cardiovascular Risk"   www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20185015)

p.s. as I finish writing this, I've just found out that the fitness/nutrition guru Jack LaLanne has died. He is said to have exercised right up to his death yesterday... At the age of 96.

1st Anniversary of Supreme-ly Obscene Gesture to Democracy

Today is the first anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court decision of  the advocacy group called  "Citizens United," which isn't comprised of  "Citizens" in general, but a select few of the Supremely (and obscenely) Rich working to undercut anything but their agenda (which is to collect more obscene wealth and cut any and all regulations of their poisoning of America and the World).

By giving Corporations full "person" status, the Supreme Court had negated any and all of those of Us who don't have a spare few billion lying around to influence the process. It was a bold and very above ground taking down of democracy, and subverting the process of this Country through concerted Wealth and Power.

"We the People" is not Citizens United (the greed of the few), but should be citizens united (the will of the many). Please help to overturn this egregarious, obscene and corrupt abuse of our American Freedom and Process. It's no longer "We the People," but "We the Corporation." I'm not a corporation, and corporations are not people.

What's next? "You don't really need elections. We know what's in your best interest." The price of tyranny is slavery.

They Say...

In a recent set of editorials in the LA Times on the events in Tucson, one said that there was no connection between the Right Wing and the killer, Jared Loughner. The author also went on to say that there was no connection between the various Bird Deaths that have been taking place around the world and anything of apocalyptic content.

The other one said that just because Sarah Palin put various members of the Opposition Party in cross hairs, it had nothing really to do with the killings either. That if that were the case, then all the Media depicting killing, whether films or games, would have produced a rash of other killings. We wouldn't want to start censoring Hollywood, would we?

The idea of Connections, that certain events do not necessarily have any connection with actual events, is getting thinner. Just simply because One can't see connections, doesn't mean that they aren't there.

And connecting Sarah Palin with her propaganda of putting real humans in the cross hairs of rifle sites, and entertainment (however bloody), is not approriate. Yes, they have the same connotations, but one is real and the other imagination; they can both 'inspire' the mentally unbalanced to acts that have real world consequences, but the rhetoric of Palin and the Far Right is not falling on deaf ears, but eager ones.

The second editorialist would not want to go towards implicating FOX News and all of the other Far Right Pundits in his call for potential censorship, but he was obviously only going after That Other Side of Politics, claiming 'bigotry' and 'hypocracy' on the Left. "Fair and Balanced" my--

New Years Evolutions

The New Years resolutions I've made are: No Judgements, No Expectations, and No Politics.

With the shootings yesterday... Oh, well. I'm loosing big time.

Time, and Time Again

Time is a funny thing. When you think you have plenty of it, you don't. When you're on the run, it moves so quickly. When you need to be somewhere now and the bus isn't coming, it can slow to a crawl.

I passed a billboard with a photo of the Beatles from circa 1970, from the period just about the time that Apple Records was crashing down around them and their breakup as a band was imminent. Their looks are serious, not at all the looks of a few years of time prior when during the Sgt. Peppers and Yellow Submarine periods they were usually seen in the playful, even ecstatic mode. Another aspect of time.

The photos we keep remind us of the passage of time. Seeing those of us who are now gone from this time also reminds us of the ultimate passage of time.

Time may heal all wounds, but it can also seal them and make scabs that can take years of more time to heal and fall away.

time and time again

we get reminded of when

time seemed to stretch for miles and miles

on an endless highway without signs

no mileage to remind us

of how little we will see this time

Time moves on. Unless you stop worrying about time. When you're in love, time stands still... Whisper to me of Eternity.

Responsibility and Peter Pan-ism

I have been told repeatedly, that one is not an adult unless one has fathered a child. And yet, on a bus recently, I was confronted by two loud "ghetto" (that's what they call it when they take over a bus or a corner and proceed to announce to the world... whatever)  twenty somethings that the children they created (one of them two by a woman/child that he didn't want to have anything to do with but for his 'kids'). As I was getting off the bus, the loudest (the two children) said, "Havin' kids just happens to the best of us" -- as if that justified it. Funny, I've never known having children to force anyone to grow up, and many still don't.

I have also been told that Women today are 'independent' and able to support themselves and a man if they want. But they still expect the Man to  make a lot of money. One couple I know of, the wife supports the husband and has for years, and he has apparently had a number of women supporting him in the past. I have also known several other men who, while the wife/girlfriend didn't support them completely, helped them out a great deal.

I've supported myself (some years better than others) most of my life. I've done my creative pursuits most of that life, paying for the doing of them by not exactly making a lot of money. I've been married twice, and each case the 'independent' woman I married soon expected me to support them. Not conducive to having creative time.

I've searched for someone to support me the way my first friend has been supported by a number of his girlfriends and then wife, but that creative thing and the money thing always seem to get in the way. The saying goes that "behind every great man stands a great woman."

I'm still looking for that "great woman" myself -- not out of a desire to not grow up, but because if I had that kind of support, who knows where I would be today? Life is enough of a struggle as it is. Add a rich Creative Impulse to that struggle, and it becomes a decision point (usually) of: responsibility/earning a living, or creative pursuit/not earning much of a living.

Now this is not to say that I haven't had the support of a number of loving friends over the years, because I have. I just haven't had that Partner along the way who had the steady job that might have provided for both of our welfare with my Creative Pursuit paving the way.

Soon my intention is that it won't matter any more. I am intending that this is the year of Breakthrough on many levels, the year of fulfillment of the promise of the years that I have put into the Creative Pursuit.

Reminisce

I smelled a familiar scent in the air one night about two weeks ago right before Christmas. It was one from my childhood and it was one of wonder and one I hadn't remembered smelling for a very long time. It reminded me of the season we were in, and took me back to much simpler times (in a way). It was a scent that felt like wood fires burning somewhere close, combined with that of snow on the chill winter air.

Now normally, it would strike me as a wonderful experience... It once upon a time meant that everything would be made new by a new blanket of chilled white covering all the imperfections of this world, even if only for a day and a night.

Once upon a time, it was magic.

And it would be still. If I were standing in Indianapolis, Indiana, that is, and I weren't really standing in Los Angeles, California. It's supposed to snow in Indianapolis this time of year. It isn't in LA (even though it did, however briefly in Mailbu a couple of years ago).

It's hard enough for me to be here sometimes, especially with the temperatures in the seventies and eighties, and especially during the season where you are hearing "songs of joy and peace" extolling the snow falling and how wonderful it is to see. A serious disconnect as I'm walking in Hollywood, even though I had been just the week before walking past a big Hollywood type of display of the Hollywood Hills covered in three feet of snow.

The clean scent of magic (however wonderful), in (at) an inappropriate time. Boding? As I have said before, the day snow starts falling for real in large quantities in El Lay, is the day that I go back to the Other Coast, where I can expect snow to be falling at that time of year.

Still, it was a wonderful reminisce...

Risk Is My Middle Name

I've been taking risks all my life.

The first risk I took was in not taking my parents fervent wishes seriously about taking my education past the two year degree that I received with the double major of Art and English to the next level. I did not really like formal education, not being very good at studying and preparing for work by deadlines (a still serious flaw of mine if you will). That did not stop me from studying till this very day, but I don't like to do anything formally, much less the gathering of knowledge.

I told them at the time (I was sure) that I could starve just as easily (being an artist) on a two year degree as much as a four or six-year set of degrees. My next youngest brother has three degrees — none of which he seems to be using in his current job (well, maybe parts of his MBA). I don't even remember what degree my sister got, and my youngest brother inherited even less of an aptitude for formalized education than I did.

The second risk that I took was baring more than my soul for art classes by being an art model. Yes, of the nude variety. It helped to pay the rent, and out of modeling for one class at a nearby community college not of my childhood county (which I would never have gone to for studying), I learned the Old Masters technique known as Egg Tempura Crosshatch. This method was from the Middle Ages, and involved mixing pigment with egg yolk.

It started me on a medium that, although I didn't keep up for too many years (it's a tedious application of painting, requiring the buildup of many hundreds or thousands of layers, stroke by laborious stroke) led me into the derivative style of drawing using the same technique but with colored pencils that I have used till this very day, (When I have the time to draw that is. I have long since tired of trying to earn a living at it, but hope to pick that business up again when my money is coming in. More later.)

If I hadn't taken that 'risk' (baring all), I wouldn't have been exposed to that technique and my art would have been the less focused for it.

The third risk that I undertook was when I was twenty-four (and this was the most major risk that I've taken in my life). I decided to try my hand at the then current mode of travel accessed by sticking my thumb out on the side of a highway and accepting the graciousness of random strangers. I learned many things at the risk of this, and thereafter called myself a roads scholar. I had many experiences that I would not have had otherwise.

Out of the experiences I had On The Road, I've written two screenplays, one of which is quickly becoming my second finished novel. I had experiences that both broadened my life, and in some cases felt like it was also going to be the end of it as well. But that obviously didn't happen.

I have also taken the risk of my life in driving cab for a living (much more lucrative on the East Coast than here), as well as having moved all the way to Los Angeles (for the second time) to try to make my mark in both acting and screenwriting.  Hope springs eternal; rent due arrives each month.

I have in the last two years also been living close to the edge, spending a lot of it couch surfing (sleeping on a variety of friends couches), and also having the most productive two years of my life at the risk of writing (large amounts of time in solitary confinement with just me and my computer). Unless you're writing solely short stories for your livelihood, writing scripts (I've finished six and written on portions of twenty-two others), or writing as a journalist, writing is not a short term solution to riches and happiness. If I could write a horror movie script that had all the elements I abhor in movies, I might have made those thousands of dollars.

Now I am taking the risk of converting those finished scripts into novel form. The longer form not only takes much more time than a script, but may be equally unsold at the end of it all.

Recently, I took another risk. I enrolled in, and attended, a weekend seminar in real estate investment. I spent (in monthly installments I am still paying off) what for me was a huge sum of money, with the hopes and dreams of making a living doing something that all of my friends and family wished me a very hesitant "good luck" in (to which my business partners and myself are still hoping to make our first sale in).

Life is full off risks. You can think that you're not taking risks, but every day you step outside the door to your dwelling, you never know where that day will take you. It might just be shopping, or then again it might be to the end of your life (as happened for five people yesterday in Arizona). You never know. "One never knows the hour or the day" that one is going to be called from this life. But everyone is always risking; some great risks, and others everyday risks. Simply by crossing the street these days you can be risking taking your life in somebody else's hands. 

With Great Risks, come Great Rewards. At least I'm hoping so.

Second Amendment Wrongs

Once again a sick act of monstrous proportions has happened by a member of the hard right wing of the "Republican" Party. Someone has taken his version of 'The Law' into his own hands, feeling fully justified from his mentally skewed  perspective that Might makes Right, and he was Right. Now a number of members of the other party and several innocent bystanders are dead.

He sited (apparently) the Ad from Sarah Palin's political action committee (called SARAHpac) that has a hit list of those of members of Congress they want to 'take out' with targets on the various states where these 'hits' are supposed to take place. They (the Right Wing) will say that Palin's illustration had nothing to do with the actions committed on Saturday.

But it's sickly ridiculous that the Far Right site their freedom of speech to say whatever they want (even to the point of incitement to murder), and then move to curtail anyone else's who doesn't believe as they do. This has now reached its peak in this outright incitement of its most "Incitement to Riot" is the political equivalent of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater (the furthest extent of Freedom of Speech allowed in our society).

They who shout the loudest of their Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms, are usually the ones using those arms to exact the 'vengeance of the Lord' or just out to make their mark on society. Those who champion this 'right' are usually the first ones to use those "constitutionally protected" weapons on others.

No amount of apologies or condolences by Palin and her Ultra-Right Wing ilk over the next few days will bring back the lives of the 9 year-old and the others killed on Saturday. No amount of justification can be used, for this act and those surely to follow (copycats portraying themselves as "patriots"). And no amount of spinning this into left wing conspiracy theater on the TV and radio shows of the Neo-Con and just plain Con wing of the nuthouse party, will be able to erase the blood stain on the Republican Party (the God Offal Party). 

Sarah Palin and all the others (hear me, FOX?) who spout this crackpot form of 'free speech' should all be held as coconspirators to murder, as well as incitement to murder, both of which are 'assesory before the fact ' in Capital murder cases.  They can justify these acts as "righteous vengeance of the Lord" all they want. But murder is still murder, no matter what the cause.

"It's Time to Take a Stand," says the ad. I say that for Palin and her kind, it's time to take The Stand and answer for her crime.