Symbols of the Confederacy; The Flag

My take on the "flag flap";

My father was born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I was born in Detroit (not technically, but I never saw that as an impediment to me making the entire metro/urban area my "stomping grounds").
Many of my neighbors were families from the South, that moved to Detroit for jobs after WW2.
We learned about the "civil war" like most school children do, and I NEVER saw a Confederate flag in real life until well into my late 20's, when I seen one in the front yard of a house in Monroe, Michigan; home of General Geo. A. Custer-the infamous UNION Indian killer.
Even then the irony did not escape me, and I wondered HOW they were able to fly such a flag.
A couple of years later a good friend told me about how the "war" was not fought over slavery, but over "State's rights", and how Lincoln knew the States had the right to secede, guaranteed by the Constitution, and that that part of the Constitution was never altered so the States still retained that right to this day. Plus, the issue of "slavery" wasn't introduced until late into the war in order to encourage others to join the fight.
I was leaning very much toward Libertarianism then, and this argument seemed to assuage my angst over this flag/symbol.
In the '90's there was again an uproar over this flag, and this time I took the time to research this topic to try to come to closure with it.

After due diligence I came to the conclusion that YES, the war was actually initiated much as he described.
YES, it was economics.
Yes, secession is protected under the Constitution.
But all-in-all, my angst was not misplaced; The "State's rights" and "economics issues" this war was fought over was the "right of these States" to keep humans as chattel, in order to benefit themselves "economically".

I had finally come to closure on this topic, but it didn't sit well with my old friend.
Returning for a moment back to General Custer;
My Mother was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
She was part Scot and part Chippewa.
She used to tell me about her people, their lives in poverty tar-shacks there, and why she left her homeland up North to find a better life in Detroit.
I loved to learn about the native peoples and their culture, and one of the things that stood out like a sore thumb was the use of the Swastika by the peoples of this area, and all over the world.
I found out that the Swastika was a very old, ancient even, symbol of peace an/or prosperity to MANY peoples of the globe.
So how had Hitler taken a symbol of peace and turned it into a symbol of horror, and why can't we just "take it back" to/for it's original purpose?

I know my "old friend" had his heart in the right place.
I know he was a good person. He didn't believe in slavery and he didn't hate the "union" that he lives(d) in; He was just honoring his "heritage" with the ONLY symbol his people had to hold onto.
It inspired him to be proud of "something", even if/when he had nothing else to be proud of.
I get that.

But the Flag had actually gone the way of the Swastika; They were now symbols of oppression and cruelty to millions of people who suffered under it's color.
And just like the Swastika, it too now had to be put away with the hope that at some later time in the future, at least ONE of these symbols will again be able to be lofted without pain, but with pride and goodwill.

Peace to you all.

YOU are a slave.

We are all slaves, and not just "figuratively".
Yeah, I know "This is a free country", and "I can choose whatever I please".
Blah, blah, blah.
Give up your job tomorrow.
You don't want to?
You CAN'T.
NONE of us can.
Even if we CHOSE to give up our jobs and live on the streets, THAT'S illegal.
It's illegal to panhandle, it's illegal to "loiter", it's illegal to pitch a tent anywhere.
You are born into slavery without your ever knowing it.
Sure, "free" slavery HAS it's perks. Afterall, who doesn't enjoy going out to a nice dinner and drinks afterward, but in order to enjoy that once-in-a-while treat, and with the ever elusive carrot-on-a-string of being "this close" to being able to do more than that, we have sold our lives and souls to the machine.

I made too much money!?!

• YES, I AM a liberal....
  But I have never endorsed anybody's lazy-lifestyle.
  Yes, I AM a liberal....
  But I have never endorsed anybody's "dependency on Gov't".
  
  I AM a liberal, but I believe that means I am for;
  freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom of travel, right to privacy, right to assemble, right to referndum.
  
  As a liberal, I have never endorsed the concept that a healthy person sit at home watching T.V., eating Bon-Bons, while living off of my tax-dollars.
  
  I believe we all have a RESPONSIBILITY to those hard working men and women of the Country; the carpenters, doctors, nurses, firewo/men and the artists, who are making life in America worth living.
  
  But this is NOT that America anymore.
  I have watched this country go from a time where there was plenty for all.
  Anybody who really wanted ajob could have one, one that paid well enough to keep a household.
  I myself made $45 thousand dollars a year, without a high-school diploma, back in 1995.
  
  Some would say I made too much money.
  To them I ask why didn't the companies and corporations make too much money?
  Because they gave me a job, I should have been so grateful that I would willingly work for $20 thousand?
  
  What did I do what all of that money I made?
  Look around you, and you will see every dollar every worker ever made, right in front of your eyes.
  
  What did the corporations do with the $BILLION$ THEY made?
  Look up and down your roads and see the empty buildings and houses, and you will see what they did with THEIR MONEY.

No country for old men...

     The Social Security system has been a panacea for the retiring masses who had no corporate supplied retirement bonuses, funds, and parachutes over the years it has been in place.
     Your father and mother very likely were very lucky to have had this to help them through their golden years.
This is not something that is negotiable in a free society.
If we need to fix it, so be it, but to abandon it?
     NEVER!

This is NOT the wild, wonderful expanse of land our forefathers came upon.
There are no "new Frontier"s to be settled, where a man can just pick up his belongings and head out west, get a scrap o' land, build a cabin with a couple head of cattle and rough out a life with nary a care in the world (seppin those dern Injuns might come in the night an scalp ya).

There is no such thing as "we're out here in the world alone, doing it by ourselves".
Everything you touch and see is there because of the efforts of ALL.
Your street.
The lights on your street.
The stop sign, the green light, the telephone and electrical wires coming to your house.

You would have NONE of these things were it not for the combining of the people's needs and interests to access services we could not afford to purchase individually.

Social Security and Medicare are the last two safety nets left to the working people of this Nation.
You will Rue the day you let them talk you into giving this up.
We all think that we will never use it, or we will never see it.
Both are wrong.
You have a plan for your life. Most of us do.
And if we keep doing the right things and are diligent, SOMETIMES we hit it right and things work out just grand for us.
But when the best laid plans go wrong, and believe me they do, at least you still have a safety net to fall back on.
If ALL else fails, you can retire at 65 and enjoy the last years of your life.
You won't have to be a greeter at Wallyworld when you're 75 because you don't make enough money to live on; PROVIDED you have been diligent all along and made good financial choices (paid your house off, payed into S.S., don't owe thousands to credit cards, etc).

But one bad accident can take it all away from you in a breath.
This is why single-payer health care is the next practical step for a progressive society.
This would secure our future in ways unimaginable to us now.
Could you quit your dead-end job and start your own company if you had health insurance, for yourself and your children, that followed you to whatever job you chose to work at, or whatever skill you choose to make a living at?

We need to put these options into action and move our communities toward healthy living.

If things keep going the way they are, and we get rid of the very things that keep us from drowning in debt when we are at our most vulnerable, this will be no country for old men (or women).

Gay Marriage and abortion are ruining America...

.....Cried Chicken Little as he ran through the barnyard.

     I was raised a Baptist.
I have fond memories of riding in the back of Mr. Fisher's pick-up truck (later he bought a station wagon) on Summer Sunday mornings, picking up other children in the neighborhood to attend Summer vacation Bible school at Fisher's church.
      There are times, once and again, when I have thought to myself that I may possibly like to get back into the 'fold' one day.
I know a lot of people who would be tickled pink were I to show up at church one morning, wearing my Sunday best.
     There would be lots of hugging and kinship going on, and then we'd all sit down and hear the lessons of Jesus, and of God, and at the end of the sermon we would all leave and go back our daily lives.

Meanwhile, back in the WORLD;

    America has over 700 military bases occupied with over half a million troops, in over 130 countries circling the globe.
On record.

Underneath that, there are entire separate entities that build up a very large network of military lobbyists, alphabet spy agencies, and black-operations; fomenting troubles that keep us in a constant state of fear and at-the-ready for war.

     Almost 52 million Americans have no health insurance, and every year that number grows higher.
Many of those people who do have insurance cannot afford the co-pays, so they too wait until it is absolutely necessary to finally go; by then making the illness' that much harder to treat.

Children and adults line up in the cold at food pantries across this country seeking shelter, medical attention, and something to eat.

Middle class jobs are gone from here, never to return, while the jobs that ARE coming back pay much less than ever before, and the cost of everything else just keeps rising.

Meanwhile American multi-national corporations are poisoning our air, food, and water with their factory pharms, oil spills, and mountain top removal operations; amassing tremendous amounts of wealth at our expense.


Our system is broken.

The Christian right talks a good talk, but the words in between belie a people who are very much concerned with how other people morally live their lives.
Decisions that have no impingement on your own liberty.

If the good Christian people of this world would focus their energy and strength into creating a world worth bringing a child into, demanding that their fellow human beings have a life worth living, and a planet worth living on; I just might find my way back to the people who carry Jesus' message of hope, love, and fairness.


There are very real issues facing America, and the world today.
Important issues that need our immediate attention before we won't have to worry about any of it 'cause there'll be nothing left to worry ABOUT.

Gay marriage and abortion are NOT them.

A stick and a carrot

Jamie Walker

2 seconds ago

Ron Paul is THEIR carrot.
Are you Jack-ass enough to follow it?

Look at the caliber of people they have presented here.
Not a single one could muster enough people dumb enough to vote to allow one of them their finger on a nuclear trigger.

EXCEPT; Ron Paul, of course.

Sure, he has a couple of real bumps that would be hard for folks to take, but hey, he's talking about ending the wars.

Think about that for one minute......

A President Paul would have WHO, and WHAT, in the House and Senate to deal with?
WHICH of his policies are THE most likely to see through?

The end of the wars?
Who in Congress has been talking about that?
Not the Republicans.
Not very many Democrats either.

How likely is he to get the backing needed to retract the arms-sales race?

How about his other policies?

Deregulation of vast industries.
This one he will likely get traction on.
I imagine every district of Congress has a need for jobs, and what better way than to deregulate everything?

So yeah, we'll get some jobs back.
At what cost?
Only Gahd knows.

Then there's his policies on health care.....OR should I say LACK of health care policy?
OR, better yet, his lack of care about health care....and pensions..... and Federal disaster emergency funds....and Medicaid.....and Social Security.....and Medicare.....

Well, we'll just HAVE to sacrifice SOMEWHERE, right?
He'll get the traction he needs for this too.
They'll move the retirement age up to 72 cause, you know, people are living longer now, even as they poison us with our phood and fluoridate our water along with heavy-metal pollutants.

The pipeline will roll across the Great Plains. Covering a diversity of ecosystems, some farmland, some grazing, and some of it wildlife fly-overs, while it staggers South, over the Oglala Aquafier, THE source of fresh water for millions of people in several States, until finally reaching the Gulf of Mexico.
All of this is going to happen even though the one year old Keystone pipeline 1 (YES, as in the first 1) has had over 30 leaks since it went online.
A leak last year sent thousands of gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River, near Lake Michigan.

I don't know about you but, I don't see a carrot....
....I smell a RAT!

Church sits by silently ...

The Church sits by silently ...

I am not angry as much as I am frustrated with trying to be civil to people who
do not deserve civility.
People who need the sharp point of a boot in their asses, not the gentle
guidance of a child, though they act very child-like.

There are times I want to point to someone and say "There you can see why Christians were so persecuted.
NOT because they believed in Jesus, but because they are tunnel visioned cock
roaches who think they have been given a divine connection to the earth's
creator.

There are millions of churches in this country, and they cannot keep their doors open unless someone is putting money into the collection basket each week; meaning that there must be MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of Christians in this country that attend church and who donate/tithe their money so that the church can continue God's work (I'm not including the millions who say they are christian but attend no church).
What are the Churches saying today about our morality concerning our killing of innocents in foreign lands?

...........SILENCE!

.....Oh wait, I CAN hear a couple of churches.
What are they saying?......
Obama is a Muslim and doesn't belong here?.......
He's making the world unsafe by withdrawing our troops from Iraq?.........
They want him to send in more troops to fight the Muslim extremists?.......

There are no political terrorists in the world and longer, they are all now HOLY terrorists.
They are attacking God's people to overturn God's will, and change the Western
christian world into Sharia law.
They're not angry at us for slaughtering their babies, they hate Jesus.

We sent a troop surge of 50,000 into Afghanistan within weeks of our own C.I.A.
saying there were "less than 100 Al-CIAduh" in the country.
50 thousand troops for LESS THAN 100 men.
We have KILLED 100 times more innocents with collateral damage than there were terrorists.

All of this war, that is either encouraged by some churches, or allowed to proceed in "complicity by silence" by others, creates chaos for the populace being attacked.

The warhawks are foaming at the mouth at the thought of us going to war with Iran.
WHY?

To do JESUS' WORK?

Who do you think would believe such a crock of bullshit?
It's about money and it always HAS been about riches for the conquerors and their accomplices.

Why do YOU think it is SO important to have a religious man as President of this
country?
To bring us "back to God"?
You have to know as well as anybody else does that that will NEVER, EVER happen.

And what would HAVE to happen to GET this country back to God's way?


They are pretending this is the crusades again, and the end-times are upon us so we have to fight for Jesus, as if WE can control the day he comes back by bring Armageddon upon ourselves.

It is about control of resources.

It is about digging more oil wells.

It is about fracking more grasslands

It is about cutting down more forests.

It is about mountain-top removal, and tar-coal sands and unrestricted corporate
control of resources, INCLUDING THE VERY FOOD SUPPLY,.... world-wide;.... at the
expense of whomever and whatever is in the way.

This I know

The meat;

Chickens, cows and pigs are kept in large ware-house like structures, covering square miles at times.
here they are fed, besides their daily fare of GMO grains (and the remains of other ground up animals), a steady diet of growth hormones and antibiotics.

They urinate and defecate a stew of this cocktail of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides, right in the place where they stand, very often up to their knees in it.
 Several times a day a sprayer system comes on and rinses this mess outside into a lagoon to be stored for later usage.
Sometimes hard rain storms will cause these lagoons to overflow, flooding into rivers and much of this is introduced to our sources of drinking water.
Eventually this sludge is emptied and sprayed on food crops for fertilizer, along with another cocktail of pesticides.

So, not only is the tomato you're eating a genetically modified organism saturated with pesticides, it was grown in a stew of dung loaded with hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and GMO residues from the crops the animal ate while alive.

The air;

Coal-fired electricity plants emit hundreds of tons of particulates, which can cause chronic bronchitis, aggravated asthma, and premature death, as well as haze obstructing visibility.

They also release thousands of tons of  carbon-dioxide, carbon-monoxide, lead, mercury, arsenic, and sulfur-dioxide.

At any given time many other heavy metals and even radioactive particulates can be recorded in an air sample.

On top of this we have the exhaust of billions of automobiles around the globe, along with factories and toxic fires such as at trash/tire yards.

The water;

Pharmaceuticals have been showing up in water samples for many years now.

All of the drugs that we take, and most of those we don't take (if disposed of down the toilet/drain), end up in our sources of drinking water.

Then there is transmission fluid, engine oil, antifreeze, gasoline, diesel fuel and a host of other gahd only knows what that goes directly into our lakes and rivers, where most of us draw our drinking water from.
Add to all of that the acid rain from the sulfur-dioxide in the air pollutants.

The food;

We've already spoken about the sludge that they spray onto our food crops.

This sludge is not able to compost, so it is sprayed onto the crops as near as raw sewage as can get.

This is where a lot of our recalls concerning crops derive from. 

Along with the heavy dose of insecticide we get with that salad, most of the ingredients have been genetically engineered.

These modified organisms have been showing up in laboratory rat's and pig's cells and altering the growth of the major organs.

But we typically eat more processed foods than fresh, at least in American, and herein lies the real threat to our health.

This is typically where you are going to find the worst of the worst.

Everything they can do, and even what they can't, will be found in processed food products.

First, EVERY ingredient is likely a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO), then they add in the highly processed, high-fructose corn syrup.

This shit is in hot mustard (WHY would anybody want this in their HOT mustard?).

Check your processed white flour breads or your manwich mix or your  cereals, this shit is hard to avoid.

Aspartame, Nutrasweet, or neotame.

These are the chemical sweeteners that you'll find in all of your " diet"  and "lite" foods.

These have been said to be safe, but independent laboratory tests show gradual neurotoxic and immunotoxic damage from the combination of the formaldehyde metabolite (which is toxic at extremely low doses) and the excitotoxic amino acid".

Who the health cares?

The constant battle with dis-ease and pain leaves one with a great depression.
You're alive, but you're not a part of LIFE.

You just .....ARE.

Many times I just want to stop all of the medications and just DEAL with the pain, but when I try, I find it too much to deal with, and .......

It has become obvious over the last two years that since I don't have insurance, no doctor will treat me.

I go to the "specialists", Pain management doctor's, and they tell me what I already know.
I walked into their office with MRI's, X-rays, Neurologists' reports, Rheumatologists' reports, S.S. Disability reports.
They just charge me the office calls (which was difficult to afford in the first place) and send me on my way.
And they knew ahead of time that I was coming to them for them to become my pain management physician.
They don't say why they didn't schedule a next appointment and get me on the right pain meds to give me back a quality of life, and they don't have to, apparently.
I have a G.P. writing my pain meds, and my Neurologist writing my Muscle relaxers and Lyrica.
But NEITHER will take over the role of the other, and my pain is being under-treated.

So I suffer.
And I do the best I can to try to stay positive and feel like I have some semblance of LIFE.

A Life I used to know.

But my dreams lately are about reliving my past life.
The mistakes I made, and the way I responded passively to much of the adversity life throws at us leaves me feeling even more inadequate when I wake up than I already do anyway.

speeding to the wall

Is global warming caused by humans?
You can argue all day about whether a car rolling down a hill gaining speed headed toward a wall is being influenced by gravity, or a person’s foot on the accelerator.
At some point, someone has got to put their foot on the brake pedal!
Better to be safe than mistaken.

Whoa is us that Edward George Ruddy died.

You know how everybody always says "I don't watch the news anymore, it's just full of ____________
(Insert your own reason here)?

You just may want to watch the news again, at least once more, after I tell you this.

You see, the bad news that the news reports about each night is more often than not, tragedies.
A plane crash, shootings, fires, robberies.
Those stories SELL!
Basically, human interest stories.
These stories are meant to catch your attention because they are directed straight at your reactive gut. They are meant to prick at your latent biases and self-interests, and to put you into survival mode.
It is, for all intents and purposes, to SHUT YOU DOWN.
The exact response that you made to it.
They don't want you to pay attention.
Those who continue to watch are long term bread and butter, so they don't even worry about them thinking for themselves, or shutting the t.v. off.

     You are the person they were aiming for..... and they got you.
They got you to turn away and not pay attention any longer.
They got you to withdraw, and in doing so maybe you picked up smoking or drinking again or just got your head into a hobby and don't care anymore.
Hell, you probably wont even bother to vote anymore for city council, mayor, governor, or Senator maybe cause nothing ever changes anyway.

They got you!

Well, we want you BACK!
We NEED you back!
     We need you to care again. To stand up and pay attention and not let them play the sleight of hand on you.
Keep your eye on the ball because as soon as you look away they'll slide it in past you.
Your voice IS important and it CAN make a difference.

"I don't want you to protest....I don't want you to write to your Congressman, 'cause I wouldn't know what to tell you to write.
I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street, all I know is that FIRST, you've GOT to get MAD!
You've got to say "I'm a human being, Gahdam it!
My life has VALUE!

..........so I want you to get up now....I want all of you to get up out of your chairs....and I want you to get up right now and go to the window.....open it and stick your head out and yell; "I'm as mad as HELL and I'm not gonna take this anymore"


Whoa is us that Edward George Ruddy died.

appreciation

Appreciation   

     I know well that people can get tired of hearing a point of view they disagree with. Ofttimes I just assume I am speaking with people who have open minds and WANT to learn something other than what they think they already know.

     Whenever I have conversations/debates with people, I like to come away with something to think about, hopefully expanding my way of seeing the world.

     I hope that they then are rewarded with observations of mine that help them see things differently also.

The insistence by some that the U.S. adopt Christianity as the National Religion, and the celebration of Christian National Holidays.

     I'll try today to HELP some understand the dynamics of the insistence by some in society to FLAUNT hurtful customs as respectful events that the offended observer(s) doesn't appreciate;

     Imagine that every September 11, the entire Muslim community in the U.S. had a great big party, and it was all over the news being touted as a good thing that everybody should have a big feast over.

It it a festive day for YOU?

     And yet THAT is what Judeo-Christian Holy-days force many American Indians and other cultures to endure.
    

     Thanksgiving is not a day that ALL Americans have a kinship to, and can participate in, without feeling that they are honoring something that was a tragedy at best.

We ALL have something to be thankful for.

We should ALL be able to participate in such a day, and feel GOOD about it.

     Drop the commercialism associated with the day, "Black Friday", and put your Pilgrim hats and bulky brass buckles away and let's just call it a day for all Americans to reflect on the good friends, family, and health in our lives.

     Say to those with whom you converse; "thanks for listening/helping me open my mind to larger concepts and truths". 

Today's "Season" is little less than a celebration of gluttony, consumerism, and opulence.

     Too many of our neighbors cannot relate to the large table loaded with a feast that only too few will enjoy.

Manitou Mimi
"Gentle Spirit", believe it or not.

The ice melts

The ice melts

They can now get access to resources that were once under that ice
They use those resources to run economies that should, by nature's law, be obsolete
The result of using those resources to enrich their empire causes the release of more CO2 and Methane gases

The ice melts

The rich create the jobs.....

What fu@%ing country do you live in?
What Year is it?

Do you know your name?

     These are all questions you might ask a stroke victim.

Instead, we must ask these questions of the people who spout such nonsense as "The rich create the jobs".

Thursday, October 27, 2011;
     Money is NOT worth LESS
     Money is WORTHLESS!


The dollar today is printed out of thin air. There are trillions of them floating around.
The real elite do not have, nor want, DOLLARS.
That is PAPER.


Dollars are for dullards.
     Dollars are for the peon masses. Dollars are dirty and therefore only kept by the unkempt. The rich? They demand something more......tangible today.


The "dollar" economy cannot help but collapse upon itself.


But first, let's go back a minute;

     There was a time.................. a time long gone by now, when the rich people of this country DID create the working class, the middle class.

The rich from the "robber baron" years, along with many other people of science, mathematics and culture, brought on the industrial revolution.
Along with giant industry, were brought millions of jobs as inventors came up with every new thing they could that ran on electricity, gas, coal and/or steam.

Soon the country was producing unique, helpful products and ever new machinery, and they needed people to build, sell, and otherwise distribute these products around the country.
     They were easily able to ramp up production of military equipment for the country when WW2 came along. By the time "The Big one" was over, prosperity flushed the nation.
Now America's ingenuity (and dominance) was recognized around the globe.
We were now making the most advanced, technologically forward products at home and around the world.

     The people who worked these jobs prospered, and they hired people to fix their furnace, remodel their basement, update their electrical service. 

     The people who did THOSE jobs ate at restaurants, needed to keep their vehicles running properly, and their wives got their nails done.

     Those were the days.......

But those days are now longggggggg goooooone, as my favorite baseball announcer would have said.

Today's rich are not re-stimulating our economy.

Instead, they are enriching the economies of many other Nations FIRST (and foremost), and they are using the same M.O. on the rest of the free world; 

     "If you raise taxes on the rich, they will flee the country".

    That is EXACTLY what they told London, helping Tony Blair to back down on his pre-election speech that he would raise taxes on the rich and corporations.

     

     The rich are no longer creating jobs here, other than that of chauffeur, doorman, and waiter/ess, and these jobs do not translate into the snowball effects described above "in the good ol' days". 

They relate to an economy that is service worker, and below.

     People will no longer be able to pay the price for services that they could afford when we were in the "OLD" economy, so electricians can expect to accept less for their work, or not get any work. Same with plumbers, hair dressers, auto mechanics, and the rest.

     There just isn't going to be any money out there to afford the scale of prices that were common for these trades then. Everybody will have to accept less and scale back in the new economy coming to America.

     Lets stop kidding ourselves. The "good old days" are just that, the good, OLD, days.

     We must now prepare ourselves for a NEW time, a new era, a new ZEITGEIST.

We must now become our OWN job creators. We will again start to barter with one another for our services and goods.
     Families are going to decide they simply cannot afford to live in a house by themselves and take in, or move in with, other family members to help meet the bills. 
     There will be less money to keep 2 and 3 cars per family, and cars will be kept for longer periods than was the norm.

     But we'll still be able to run the country with the tax money that will come from the ultra-rich and corporations who want to stay here and pay their fair share of taxes, or hit the road and have no American base for right-offs and rebates.


     We do not need corporations to create jobs in America.
We have the man-power, we have the technology, we have the raw materials, and we have our own tenacity to succeed.

Look out world, we can change it again....

Being a HERO

What does it mean to be a Hero?

     The word hero sure gets thrown around a lot lately.

    

     over the ages, the word hero has changed and had several meanings. Of course it has always been used to identify someone in the community who has done a(n) heroic deed, such as saving a drowning child, etc...

     Lately it seems like anybody who carries a gun is referred to as a hero.

     This is when things started to get "weird" for me.

     Calling Firemen and EMT's 'heroes' was fine with me.
They do a job where they are likely going to have to save somebody's life.
Firemen and EMTs will often do some dangerous things to get to and rescue a victim and some of that work is certainly "Heroic".

     Then they started calling cops Heroes.
Okay. Again, in the line of his work, a cop MAY come across a situation where he can do something heroic, but this is a known possibility when one chooses this profession. And the compensation isn't too bad either.

     To then just call ALL of them heroes is to begin to diminish The honor that the title is meant to bestow.
 

Many today have started calling soldiers heroes.

     This is where we have to stop and question ourselves; 

     "just WHO really IS a hero, and then, are not we all in some way?

     My preference would be that we call people who do heroic things, Heroes.

We cannot call people heroes just because they strap on a gun, and in my opinion it is HARDER to get that title if you DO have a gun.

     A hero is called such because he risked/gave his life to save another/all.

     Shooting up a drug house or 'safe haven', or shooting up the wrong house and killing grandmothers and children, do NOT qualify as 'heroism'. Those who choose this line of work know this when they sign up, and more often than not, the RISKS of the job are the most likely reason they choose this line of work.

     

     So we can hardly call people a hero for 'doing their job'.

     My greatest thanks to those who HAVE demonstrated heroic qualities in concern for their fellow man. May your examples be an inspiration to all.

You still don't believe it

America has just suffered the first in a long line of many set-backs to come.
China has been clawing at our back door for too long now.
CHINA HAS WON!
It is all over but the crying now folks.

Thanks to the Tea Party, it is now official, COMMUNISM WINS OVER DEMOCRACY.

OH the irony.

Can you ignore them all?

That man or woman working next to you?
Your Mother, Brother, or cousin?
He/She is not some kind of pencil.
When it breaks, do you just go get a new person and it does the same thing?
They're your co-worker, your lawn keeper, your hairdresser.
You chose, and choose, these people based on your comfort and satisfaction level.
Ask any mother, "Can you just let anyone sit your kids?
The answer is likely "NO", and do you know why? because all people are not the same.
They are not just expendable cogs in the wheel. Even neighbors are irrepalcable sometimes. I know.
You have lunch and coffee with these people and discuss your lives and families.
They're your neighbors and your friends.
How can we sit idly by while they struggle and fall under from mounting medical bills that soon turn into mounting debt?
We say "Boy, they sure were nice people, too bad for them.", or "I hope they can get what they need somehow, they really deserve it.", then we turn around and start our party. WOOO_HOOO.

They CAN get what they need.
They NEED medical attention, and they need health insurance that follows them from job to job, in order for them to move from job to job to continue to improve their living situation. Health insurance that lasts while they are looking for a new job after being "downsized" from their current position.
Health insurance that is not dependent on if you are lucky enough to be employed by a company that offers that sort of benefit.
In an industrial world wide economy, in which all of the competing players give THEIR own people this kind of peace of mind, the country that is in a death spiral is pulling it's people completely out of the race.


Single payer health care could have provided that peace of mind to ALL Americans.

Long over due.

What year is this?
What century is this?
The world is connected by an electronic web. Information flows faster than water from your tap.
People are able to access millions of bits of information and when they do take the time to do it on this subject, ALL of the information comes back as positive.
And still Marijuana is illegal.
Think about this for one minute.

If cigarettes, booze, and pot were all illegal, given what you know about each of these, which would you choose to make legal were it up to you?
There cannot be a sane, informed person in the world who can intelligently argue for the legalization of cigarettes and booze over pot.

This is the argument we need to be having, because these Nazis are not going to let any sunlight shine on the statistics and figures that show this is an atrocity that is being pulled on the American public, working men and women, and unfortunate families of this country.

Do you want jobs in this country?
Do you want industry to thrive in this country?
Do you want farmers to work again?
Do you want healthy nutritious foods that aren't filled with anti-biotics and growth hormones?
Do you want water that is fresh and pure, that grows fish that you can eat more than once a week?

All of these things are possible with Hemp!


Do just a little research on this matter and you will come away angry and dismayed at the mentality of this country, and of the world for that matter.

‘What Would Jesus Cut?’: Christian Leaders Urge Obama To Protect The Poor In Debt Talks

‘What Would Jesus Cut?’: Christian Leaders Urge Obama To Protect The Poor In Debt Talks: "pAn “unprecedented” coalition of religious leaders are coming together to urge President Obama not to sacrifice the needs of the poor in negotiations to reduce the nation’s debt. Leaders from the Episcopal Church, the Salvation Army, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the [...]/p"







FINALLY! The Church(s) has been silent for too long on social, and international crises.
Where has been the outcry for the innocents who are killed daily in a war that was based on lies?
So it has taken you a while.
I am glad to see you stepping back into the fold.

Change?

WTF

     It's hard to sit quietly these days and watch the animals roar over each other to be the loudest of the pack.

I'm an independent minded guy, I like some Republican candidates and I like some Democratic candidates. I listen to what they represent and decide whether that is what is important to me.
But to listen to some of the rhetoric today, one would think that there is only ONE party that will save the nation.
I have been a voter for over 30 years now. I have seen them come and I have seen them go.
There is NO one party that can, or will do the job of setting this nation back on it's feet.
It took the complicity of both parties to bring us here and it will take the work of both parties to get us out of this mess.
But we are a nation divided right now.
We just went through a leadership that promised to be a "uniter, not a divider" and all we got was a trillion dollar sink hole and more further apart than ever before than any time I can remember.
Now we have a new President.
He promised to change the status quo in Washington, change the way things worked, give the voters their voice back in government.
Instead he has surrounded himself with many of the same old tired pol pals, ensuring the continuance of the "good old boy's" club, and there is little difference in policy, even extending the last administration's wars, renditions, and attacks on the people's rights with the unPATRIOTic Act.

$1 trillion dollars.
Man, wrap your mind around that for a minute.
A trillion dollars is a heck of alot of dinero.
Now, there were a lot of wheels in motion that brought us to our knees, but the act of taking us to war against a country that posed no threat to us, and against a group that could not be found, has really come back to bite us HARD.
We have spent over a trillion dollars on this "war" so far, and what has it gotten US?
What, exactly, has our folly wrought us?
Do we have access to more oil?
Do we have cheaper oil?
Have our countrymen been put back to work building war equipment like in WWII?
Has our economy rebounded because of this war?

What could we have done instead with that trillion dollars?
What would our economy look like today had we spent that money on rebuilding our infrastructure, putting in mass transit trains across the country, making funds available to small business instead of corporations?
What could we have done with a trillion dollars spent HERE?

Who knows? We will NEVER know now. The money is GONE, never to return.
SOME people made multi-millions from the war though.
It did enrich a select few.

And today we have a groundswell of people calling for the return of the very people who enriched themselves at OUR expense.
I hear churches outright degrading our President for not expanding the war. CHURCHES, complaining that we aren't killing enough heathens. Meanwhile, they are the same people complaining that we cannot afford, or do not want, national health care.
It is all just so mind bending.
How does one rationalize in one's mind that we don't have the money for health care for our citizens, but we give the Iraqi people free health care with our tax dollars.
What kind of world is it when churches are complaining that we aren't spending enough money on war?
We don't have the money for health care for our children or parents, but we have to stop abortion?