I remember hiking through the back forty for our Christmas tree. Us kids would wade through thigh high snow to find a good spruce tree. My oldest brother would climb the tree and cut off the top and we would all drag it back through the Tug Hill snows to the house. Oftentimes it was a lot bigger than it looked in the woods and we would have to trim it down considerably to fit into the corner of the livingroom. The sweet aroma of freshly cut evergreen permeated the old farmhouse. Ah, Christmas!
These days what permeates is the sound of clicking fingers on keyboards and the silent hum of the internet. My days of tromping through the snow have long gone and my plastic tree is prelit. I could buy a candle with evergreen scent if I wanted to simulate the smell of a real tree. Sigh. What have I, we, become? When did misplacing the cell phone become the reason I don't dare to drive to the store? When did spider solitare replace a game of rummy with friends? I usually am able to get on my high horse and blame someone else, but, sadly, I am a part of it all. I love being able to see what is going on in the world with a few key strokes and to write my two cents worth.
Still, just one more time, I would like to shut everything off, sit quietly listening to the sounds of a wood fire and remember......
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Occupying Wall Street and Moving on to Arsenal Street
Left the laptop at home so it was a blog blackout for me for several weeks now as I have been supporting my nephew with a master's degree from Kenshire College and no job in site. He started camping out in the little park near Wall Street with others to protest the greed and corruption that got us into this hellacious never ending job stagnation event. First, he wanted a job, any job and so hearing that there were lots of jobs out west filled by illegal immigrants, he thought there might be one for him as well, but alas, the owners were not interested because they would have to put him on the books and the illegal immigrants were experienced and therefore so much faster than him at picking spinach. Dejected, he came back to New York. When a friend called to ask if he wanted to participate in a protest, he went.
So I went to visit him there and ended up staying for six weeks. Air is a little chilly now and my 71 year old bones don't take the cold so I am back north. Catching up on sleep and trying to put the whole experience into some perspective.
For those of you interested in directed information about Occupy Wall Street, you can click
www.occupywallst.org
So, back in the beautiful calm north country and I find that the movement has arrived here, in the Siberia of New York. There is a photo of occupiers on public square in Watertown. I still trying to get warm so I can't join you, but I do have one suggestion: move your Occupation up a bit further on Arsenal Street, perhaps Outer Arsenal Street where there is lots of corporate greed activity going on. Little Peanut Park on Public Square in Watertown has been occupied already for years by some of the victims of our corporate culture: the homeless. Business itself on Public Square is itself a victim of corporate culture. The fine little stores and restaurants located there now are lovely, but Public Square is just a shadow of its former self. Move up the street on Arsenal, find a corner in a parking lot at one of the megastores or malls. Maybe as people are getting out of their cars to head to the stores to load upon goods from China they will pause for a moment and think.
So I went to visit him there and ended up staying for six weeks. Air is a little chilly now and my 71 year old bones don't take the cold so I am back north. Catching up on sleep and trying to put the whole experience into some perspective.
For those of you interested in directed information about Occupy Wall Street, you can click
www.occupywallst.org
So, back in the beautiful calm north country and I find that the movement has arrived here, in the Siberia of New York. There is a photo of occupiers on public square in Watertown. I still trying to get warm so I can't join you, but I do have one suggestion: move your Occupation up a bit further on Arsenal Street, perhaps Outer Arsenal Street where there is lots of corporate greed activity going on. Little Peanut Park on Public Square in Watertown has been occupied already for years by some of the victims of our corporate culture: the homeless. Business itself on Public Square is itself a victim of corporate culture. The fine little stores and restaurants located there now are lovely, but Public Square is just a shadow of its former self. Move up the street on Arsenal, find a corner in a parking lot at one of the megastores or malls. Maybe as people are getting out of their cars to head to the stores to load upon goods from China they will pause for a moment and think.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Dear Nancy Grace -
Dear Nancy Grace and Cronies:
Congratulations on the recent highest ratings ever. Your tears over the Casey Anthony non-guilty verdict were on spot for the occasion. Now that you've got the momentum going, how about shifting your ever powerful talking head toward the other child murders to be prosecuted in the same area? Or, don't they meet your criteria for media sensationalism? Are the victims non-white? Are they poor, black or hispanic and don't meet your definition of cute? What is truly amazing in the coverage of this tragic situation, the hundreds of people congregating at the courthouse, the thousands (or is it millions) commenting on hundreds (or is it thousands) of websites and blogs and facebook posts express their utter horror over the verdict, but they have no awareness or opinion whatsoever of the child murders in their own communities. The medical examiner could not determine a cause of death. So the jury couldn't convict.
Our society has supposedly come a long way since the days when an abused child's greatest agency of protection was the S.P.C.A. But ask any local child protective services or law enforcement authority and you will be told of numerous attrocities to children that are difficult to prove, go under the radar and go unpunished. For example: a four month old infant dies when his parent "rolls over" on him. He's taken to the hospital but we are too busy watching Nancy Grace carry on to notice the ambulance on our street. The physician examining the child notes evidence of abuse. But the family of the victim's parent has money. Clout. The child's grandparents are best friends with the publishers of the only newspaper in town. There is nothing reported in the media. Not even an obituary for the child. The family asks for a second opinion from another physician and the results are inconclusive - no obvious signs of abuse to the dead child. No charges are filed. The public, Nancy Grace and cronies, is not even aware that this baby has lived and died. It happens on your street. But keep watching headline news. Nancy Grace will get tell you what to think.
Congratulations on the recent highest ratings ever. Your tears over the Casey Anthony non-guilty verdict were on spot for the occasion. Now that you've got the momentum going, how about shifting your ever powerful talking head toward the other child murders to be prosecuted in the same area? Or, don't they meet your criteria for media sensationalism? Are the victims non-white? Are they poor, black or hispanic and don't meet your definition of cute? What is truly amazing in the coverage of this tragic situation, the hundreds of people congregating at the courthouse, the thousands (or is it millions) commenting on hundreds (or is it thousands) of websites and blogs and facebook posts express their utter horror over the verdict, but they have no awareness or opinion whatsoever of the child murders in their own communities. The medical examiner could not determine a cause of death. So the jury couldn't convict.
Our society has supposedly come a long way since the days when an abused child's greatest agency of protection was the S.P.C.A. But ask any local child protective services or law enforcement authority and you will be told of numerous attrocities to children that are difficult to prove, go under the radar and go unpunished. For example: a four month old infant dies when his parent "rolls over" on him. He's taken to the hospital but we are too busy watching Nancy Grace carry on to notice the ambulance on our street. The physician examining the child notes evidence of abuse. But the family of the victim's parent has money. Clout. The child's grandparents are best friends with the publishers of the only newspaper in town. There is nothing reported in the media. Not even an obituary for the child. The family asks for a second opinion from another physician and the results are inconclusive - no obvious signs of abuse to the dead child. No charges are filed. The public, Nancy Grace and cronies, is not even aware that this baby has lived and died. It happens on your street. But keep watching headline news. Nancy Grace will get tell you what to think.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Attention New Parents: Save Your Baby's LONG FORM
Today I asked my daughter, who lives in Arizona, if she had the long form of my grandchildren's birth certificates and she said no, it must have got lost in the move because she couldn't find it and had to get replacement birth certificates for her twins Jeffrey and Jane when they started kindergarten.
"Great," I said, "There go my dreams of one of my grandchildren becoming president of the United States."
"Huh?"
"YOUR state is trying to pass a law that will only allow someone to run for president if they have the long form birth certificate," I explained.
"Huh?" she said again.
"Never mind, I'll e-mail it to you."
So I sent her this:
"So whose behind it? Those people who don't believe Barak Obama is a natural born citizen?"
"Them and Donald Trump. "I said. "If they do this crap, they better warn parents to save their children's long form birth certificates in the event that their child becomes a presidential candidate."
"Right. Well, we're not even worried about student council yet," she said.
"Maybe not, but I bet Ann Dunham would have saved it somehow if she'd known her son was going to grow up to be president. Then there wouldn't be all these wacky conspiracy theorists prompting such dumb laws that affect my grandchildren!!"
"Well, try not to worry too much. By the time Jane and Jeffrey have reached the qualified age to be president the courts will have long since thrown it out," she said.
"They better. It's just not right to impede on the rights of my grandchildren to be president!"
So here's to you Ann Dunham. I know that if you had lived to see your son become president the "birther's" would not be obsessing about this because you could have filled in all the smallest of details of the most memorable event in any mother's life.
Ann Dunham with Barak as a boy
Since you're not here to defend him, some of us will try to do right by you and dispel the nonsense. Once again:
"Great," I said, "There go my dreams of one of my grandchildren becoming president of the United States."
"Huh?"
"YOUR state is trying to pass a law that will only allow someone to run for president if they have the long form birth certificate," I explained.
"Huh?" she said again.
"Never mind, I'll e-mail it to you."
So I sent her this:
Within ten days after submittal of the names of the candidates, the national political party committee shall submit an affidavit of the presidential candidate in which the presidential candidate states the candidate's citizenship and age and shall append to the affidavit documents that prove that the candidate is a natural born citizen, prove the candidate's age and prove that the candidate meets the residency requirements for president of the United States as prescribed in Article ii, Section 1, Constitution of the United States. The affidavit prescribed in subsection a shall include references to and attachment of all of the following, which shall be sworn to under penalty of perjury:She called back.
1. A certified copy of the presidential candidate's long form birth certificate that includes at least the date and place of birth, the names of the hospital and the attending physician, if applicable, and signatures of any witnesses in attendance. If the candidate does not possess a long form birth certificate as required by this paragraph, the candidate may attach two or more of the following documents that shall take the place of the long form birth certificate if the candidate swears to their authenticity and validity and the documents contain enough information for the secretary of state to determine if the candidate meets the requirements prescribed in Article ii, Section 1, Constitution of the United States:
(a) early baptismal or circumcision certificate.
(b) hospital birth record.
(c) postpartum medical record for the mother or child signed by the doctor or midwife or the person who delivered or examined the child after birth.
(d) early census record.
"So whose behind it? Those people who don't believe Barak Obama is a natural born citizen?"
"Them and Donald Trump. "I said. "If they do this crap, they better warn parents to save their children's long form birth certificates in the event that their child becomes a presidential candidate."
"Right. Well, we're not even worried about student council yet," she said.
"Maybe not, but I bet Ann Dunham would have saved it somehow if she'd known her son was going to grow up to be president. Then there wouldn't be all these wacky conspiracy theorists prompting such dumb laws that affect my grandchildren!!"
"Well, try not to worry too much. By the time Jane and Jeffrey have reached the qualified age to be president the courts will have long since thrown it out," she said.
"They better. It's just not right to impede on the rights of my grandchildren to be president!"
So here's to you Ann Dunham. I know that if you had lived to see your son become president the "birther's" would not be obsessing about this because you could have filled in all the smallest of details of the most memorable event in any mother's life.
| 1961 | Barack Hussein Obama II is born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4 at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Woman and Children.II |
Thursday, April 14, 2011
An Appeal to Save Life on Earth: forget SETI
So, our planet is undergoing it's sixth major mass extinction, and there is a large array in
the desert searching for other life in the universe. Why is it that we care about life in other parts of the universe but we could give a rat's butt about life on our own planet? I'm so confused. Coral reefs which contain such abundant, extraordinarily beautiful, awesome creatures are bleached and dying throughout the world. In fifty years polar bears will be found at zoos and in the combined DNA of grizzlies but nowhere else. But, there is a large array in the desert searching for intelligent life outside our planet. Well, perhaps on the other hand that's not a bad idea to search for intelligent life elsewhere, because we are certainly not finding it here, except in rare instances. One such rare intelligence is a man by the name of E.O. Wilson.
He says:
"In one sense we know much less about Earth than we do about Mars. The vast majority of life forms on our planet are still undiscovered, and their significance for our own species remains unknown. This gap in our knowledge is a serious matter: we will never completely understand and preserve the living world around us at our present level of ignorance.
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."
Edward O. Wilson, The world's leading authority on Biodiversity, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Harvard and author of "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth."
As I write this, I can envision some believers out there thinking and saying that this is just all part of the foretold end of the world. Nonsense. We are called upon to be stewards of the earth. Where is our estimation of sincerity for our home, our Earth? It is our gift and we have squandered its riches.
Instead of focusing on life outside the universe, lets concentrating on saving the one we have.
the desert searching for other life in the universe. Why is it that we care about life in other parts of the universe but we could give a rat's butt about life on our own planet? I'm so confused. Coral reefs which contain such abundant, extraordinarily beautiful, awesome creatures are bleached and dying throughout the world. In fifty years polar bears will be found at zoos and in the combined DNA of grizzlies but nowhere else. But, there is a large array in the desert searching for intelligent life outside our planet. Well, perhaps on the other hand that's not a bad idea to search for intelligent life elsewhere, because we are certainly not finding it here, except in rare instances. One such rare intelligence is a man by the name of E.O. Wilson.
He says:
"In one sense we know much less about Earth than we do about Mars. The vast majority of life forms on our planet are still undiscovered, and their significance for our own species remains unknown. This gap in our knowledge is a serious matter: we will never completely understand and preserve the living world around us at our present level of ignorance.
"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos."
Edward O. Wilson, The world's leading authority on Biodiversity, Emeritus Professor of Biology at Harvard and author of "The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth."
As I write this, I can envision some believers out there thinking and saying that this is just all part of the foretold end of the world. Nonsense. We are called upon to be stewards of the earth. Where is our estimation of sincerity for our home, our Earth? It is our gift and we have squandered its riches.
Instead of focusing on life outside the universe, lets concentrating on saving the one we have.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
A New Party
In recognition of International Women's Day March 8 I've joined a new political party. Inspired by the former candidate for Governor of NY who ran under The Rent's Too Damn High! party, a new political party is in the works:
THERE'S TOO DAMN MANY MEN IN CHARGE
Look around the halls of the Congress and the white shirts and ties will blind you. For these fellows two wars half a world away are not enough. Now they've waged war at home against women. While billions are spent on war, a billion in cuts for food and healthcare for pregnant women and children is proposed. There is so much misinformation about planned parenthood it would take more pages than are available here to rectify. The main purpose of Planned Parenthood is to provide low cost women's health care. It's NOT all about the A word. It's about HEALTH for women who don't have the financial wherewithal to get it elsewhere. Those who have the financial means will always get their pap smears, but those who don't won't. How much money will be saved when you've got financially strapped women needing emergency treatment for cervical cancer in a few years? And I really don't understand the bill that attempts to change the definition of Rape. Rape is rape is rape fellas. The list of assaults goes on and on and on. What the-? While Wall Street boys are back getting richer and richer and richer, the regular citizens are fighting against each other and women are taking the brunt of the assaults.
So what is needed is the new party: THERE'S TOO DAMN MANY MEN IN CHARGE
Organize! Join today!!!
THERE'S TOO DAMN MANY MEN IN CHARGE
Look around the halls of the Congress and the white shirts and ties will blind you. For these fellows two wars half a world away are not enough. Now they've waged war at home against women. While billions are spent on war, a billion in cuts for food and healthcare for pregnant women and children is proposed. There is so much misinformation about planned parenthood it would take more pages than are available here to rectify. The main purpose of Planned Parenthood is to provide low cost women's health care. It's NOT all about the A word. It's about HEALTH for women who don't have the financial wherewithal to get it elsewhere. Those who have the financial means will always get their pap smears, but those who don't won't. How much money will be saved when you've got financially strapped women needing emergency treatment for cervical cancer in a few years? And I really don't understand the bill that attempts to change the definition of Rape. Rape is rape is rape fellas. The list of assaults goes on and on and on. What the-? While Wall Street boys are back getting richer and richer and richer, the regular citizens are fighting against each other and women are taking the brunt of the assaults.
So what is needed is the new party: THERE'S TOO DAMN MANY MEN IN CHARGE
Organize! Join today!!!
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Brawny Bros Wipe Up
So, I vowed to Be Good. Went to the sixty day rehab for Sarah Palin Detestors, a nice facility in Texas for those who can't stop making fun of that poor vice presidential wannabe. It's an affliction that affects not only lowly little bloggers like me, but the rich and famous. And they were at the rehab too. I'm bound by oath to protect confidentiality so I can only tell you there was a certain former Saturday Night Live comedian I will call Fina Tey and a famous New York Times columnist named Daureen Mowd. (Names spelled backwards to protect their identity.) Oh, the discussions we had, I can't tell you. We learned that her purpose in life is just to get under the skin of right minded liberals and to give in to the obsession to satirize her was just feeding into the machine that made her a millionaire.
They released me from SPD rehab in early February after the ice finally melted in Texas and at first it was okay. Let the woman shoot caribou for stew if she wants, I was just going to enjoy life here in the cabin on The Hill enjoying my vegeterian soup while the winter storms off the lake piled up the snow. But then she had to, just HAD to, run her mouth against the union protesters in Wisconsin...Wonder how much the billionaire backed tea party paid her to shout her nasally call for workers to "sacrifice". Ugh. I'm really, really trying though and I will resist the urge toward sarcasm. I will try to replace it with a few facts, number one of which is that her call to "sacrifice" is a load of crap.
The economic crisis that she wants workers to "sacrifice" for was caused by Wall Street Greed. They've tried real hard to make us forget that fact, but I for one, remember.
The big financial backers of the "grassroots" tea party are a couple of Billionaire Brothers named David and Charles Koch(pronounced coke). Seems they made their money making Brawny paper towels among other useful items. Check out the story in the February 21 New York Times if you don't believe me. I first heard about these secretive bad boys in a magazine article last year and I was sickened to think that people were being hookwinked into thinking that their lofty political movement to restore American ideals was in actuality intended to serve the interests of the billionaire industrialists that got us into this economic mess in the first place. Wall Street is back up to the level where it was before this mess began back under George Bush's tenure while the common people are still struggling ,and now fighting amongst ourselves.
We do need a political movement. Call it the Coffee Party, Iced Tea, Water or Wine Cooler Party , or whatever, but please, pay attention to the real culprit here. Hey Sarah, why don't you ask the Brawny Bros. to "sacrifice" a billion that they made off the backs of their workers?
Fina Tey and Daureen Mowd, I release you from your vow. Go get her.
They released me from SPD rehab in early February after the ice finally melted in Texas and at first it was okay. Let the woman shoot caribou for stew if she wants, I was just going to enjoy life here in the cabin on The Hill enjoying my vegeterian soup while the winter storms off the lake piled up the snow. But then she had to, just HAD to, run her mouth against the union protesters in Wisconsin...Wonder how much the billionaire backed tea party paid her to shout her nasally call for workers to "sacrifice". Ugh. I'm really, really trying though and I will resist the urge toward sarcasm. I will try to replace it with a few facts, number one of which is that her call to "sacrifice" is a load of crap.
The economic crisis that she wants workers to "sacrifice" for was caused by Wall Street Greed. They've tried real hard to make us forget that fact, but I for one, remember.
The big financial backers of the "grassroots" tea party are a couple of Billionaire Brothers named David and Charles Koch(pronounced coke). Seems they made their money making Brawny paper towels among other useful items. Check out the story in the February 21 New York Times if you don't believe me. I first heard about these secretive bad boys in a magazine article last year and I was sickened to think that people were being hookwinked into thinking that their lofty political movement to restore American ideals was in actuality intended to serve the interests of the billionaire industrialists that got us into this economic mess in the first place. Wall Street is back up to the level where it was before this mess began back under George Bush's tenure while the common people are still struggling ,and now fighting amongst ourselves.
We do need a political movement. Call it the Coffee Party, Iced Tea, Water or Wine Cooler Party , or whatever, but please, pay attention to the real culprit here. Hey Sarah, why don't you ask the Brawny Bros. to "sacrifice" a billion that they made off the backs of their workers?
Fina Tey and Daureen Mowd, I release you from your vow. Go get her.
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