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Friday, January 28, 2005

 

Torture is Evil.

Torture is Evil.

If we look at good and bad, good equates to ethics and morality, bad equates to deceit and elitist power building. The question is who is gaining what by the war machine being turned on? This whole thing going on in today's society is not good and bad at war; this is a battle of two different power elite wanting to get ahead of the other. Both sides of these power elite are evil because they both are using lies deceit and intentional mayhem to keep the pawns fired up and wanting to kill the other side.

The question is why are the good unable to stop the bad? In other words, why are the people with ethics and morality and concern for wellbeing and compassion for life, why are these people around the world unable to rise to put out the terror of death that the power hungry elitist are in battle over?

Really, when the oil issue settles and we hit the point that the issue is clean water... are the power elite going to invade Canada? Canada is the majority holder of the clean water on the planet. What will be the excuse then?

Somehow, the good need to join forces to quell the disillusioned power hungry. The good consists of people of all religions who operate from a place of unity compassion love and desire to help others with out regard for self.

Somehow, the folks with ethics and morality need to assert the need for humanity to chill out and live as one big family and the big brothers and sisters take care of the little brothers and sisters. Right now G.W. Bush is trying to take the candy away from the people who live in the Fertile Crescent. He is chumming the Neo Conservative and Right Wing Republicans into a feeding frenzy with his rhetoric. He got enough NC's and RWR's to 'vote' him in. He is better at 'playing the game' then the opposition who is not cohesive.


Somehow, we the people need to assert ethics into the grassroots local regional continental and global community. Somehow...


Do you have any ideas? ... comments welcome.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

 

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

.::Version 0.1 ::. DRAFT in Progress


Opening Statement
The inaugural address was the other day and this quote of G. W. Bush was in an article from the LA Times:

“Thursday, Bush proclaimed in his inaugural address that the central purpose of his second term would be the promotion of democracy "in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world" — a key neoconservative goal. Suddenly, the neocons were ascendant again.”

My brain hurt when I heard that in the news and read it today so I sat about thinking about it… the big question in my mind was and is, tyranny… isn’t it ironic that Bush is using that term when it seems to me that the Bush family has been operating under
despotistic type behavior to the point that we have today a person in the white house whom was a ‘C’ student who had drug issues and was flippant to the rules of academia? I was recalling reading about what Tsurumi is reported to have listen to come out of the Bush mouth back at Harvard… ''people are poor because they're lazy." Not even will I go into the spin around the Air National Guard Duty since I have already gone there earlier in this BLOG of Chaos.

What does it take to get a man into the guard with an aptitude score of 25? What does it take to get a C student into Yale and Harvard? Connections and power and influence that goes beyond the reach of all but the elite of the elite.


Define Tyranny

tyranny
n 1: a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.) [syn: dictatorship, absolutism, authoritarianism, Caesarism, despotism, monocracy, one-man rule, shogunate, Stalinism, totalitarianism] 2: dominance through threat of punishment and violence [syn: absolutism, despotism]

During the Revolution and the Tea Party and the forming of this nation the United States of America, our fore fathers, my relatives of the Mead family were rebelling against the idea that the common man did not have a voice in the local affairs of his life or the life of his family. Our forefathers revolted against the Aristocratic elitist powers, it was Jefferson who made the quote that GW was most likely mimicking … "I have sworn upon the altar of Almighty God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

Define Realist
realist
n 1: a philosopher who believes that universals are real and exist independently of anyone thinking of them 2: a person who accepts the world as it literally is and deals with it accordingly 3: a painter who represents the world realistically and not in an idealized or romantic style


Define Democracy
democracy
n 1: the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives 2: a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them [syn:
republic, commonwealth] [ant: autocracy] 3: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group [syn: majority rule]

Concern of current trend
Senior Bush Aide states: . "I've never understood what that neoconservative label means, anyway,"
He's made it clear that he's going to turn up the pressure a bit. He's going to try to accelerate the process."
Problem: It is Capitalism that is being pushed
Why is that an issue?
What do people THINK drives the Terrorists?
Core is Control structure
Other options
Closing statement
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.


Saturday, January 22, 2005

 

The End of Objectivity (Version 0.91) by Dan Gillmor

.:: Interesting points by this fellow... good read... ::.

TrackBack URL for this entry:http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/1694447
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(This is a draft. Over time I hope, with your help, to revise this into a better document. Let me know what you think.)
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Maybe it's time to say a fond farewell to an old canon of journalism: objectivity. But it will never be time to kiss off the values and principles that undergird the idea.
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Objectivity is a construct of recent times. One reason for its rise in the journalism sphere has been the consolidation of newspapers and television into monopolies and oligopolies in the past half-century. If one voice overwhelms all the others, there is a public interest in playing stories as straight as possible -- not favoring one side over the other (or others, to be more precise, as there are rarely just two sides to any issue).
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There were good business reasons to be "objective," too, not least that a newspaper didn't want to make large parts of its community angry. And, no doubt, libel law has played a role, too. If a publication could say it "got both sides," perhaps a libel plaintiff would have more trouble winning. Again, the idea of objectivity is a worthy one. But we are human. We have biases and backgrounds and a variety of conflicts that we bring to our jobs every day.
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I'd like to toss out objectivity as a goal, however, and replace it with four other notions that may add up to the same thing. They are pillars of good journalism: thoroughness, accuracy, fairness and transparency. The lines separating them are not always clear. They are open to wide interpretation, and are therefore loaded with nuance in themselves. But I think they are a useful way to approach quality journalism. They are, moreover, easier to achieve in an online setting.
Thoroughness
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When I was a reporter and, later, a columnist, my first goal was to learn as much as I could. After all, gathering facts and opinions is the foundation of reporting. I liked it best when I felt I had left 95 percent of what I'd learned out of the final piece. The best reporters I know always want to make one more call, check with one more source. (The last question I ask at all interviews is, "Who else should I talk with about this?"
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Today, thoroughness means more than asking questions of the people in our Rolodexes (circular or virtual). It means, whenever possible, asking our readers for their input, as I did when I wrote my book (and other authors are doing on theirs). Competitive pressures tend to make this a rare request, but I'm convinced that more journalists will adopt it.
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Accuracy
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Get your facts straight.
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Say what you don't know, not just what you do. (If the reader/listener/viewer does know what you don't, you've just invited him/her to fill you in.)
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Fairness
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This one is as difficult, in practice, as accuracy is simple. Fairness is often in the eye of the beholder. But even here I think a few principles may universally apply.
Fairness means, among other things, listening to different viewpoints, and incorporating them into the journalism. It does not mean parroting lies or distortions to achieve that lazy equivalence that leads some journalists to get opposing quotes when the facts overwhelmingly support one side.
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Fairness is also about letting people respond when they believe you are wrong. Again, this is much easier online than in a print publication, much less a broadcast. Ultimately, fairness emerges from a state of mind. We should be aware of what drives us, and always willing to listen to those who disagree. The first rule of having a conversation is to listen -- and I know I learn more from people who think I'm wrong than from those who agree with me.
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Transparency
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Disclosure is gaining currency as an addition to journalism. It's easier said than done, of course.
No one can plausibly argue with the idea that journalists need to disclose certain things, such as financial conflicts of interest. But to what extent? Should journalists of all kinds be expected to make their lives open books? How open? Personal biases, even unconscious ones, affect the journalism as well. I'm an American, brought up in with certain beliefs that many folks in other lands (and some in this one) flatly reject. I need to be aware of the things I take for granted, and to periodically challenge some of them, as I do my work.
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Another way to be transparent is in the way we present a story. We should link to source material as much as possible, bolstering what we tell people with close-to-the-ground facts and data. (Maybe this is part of accuracy or thoroughness, but it seems to fit here, too.) To the extent that we make thoroughness, accuracy, fairness and transparency the pillars of journalism, we can get a long way toward the worthy goal of helping our audiences/collaborators. I don't claim it's easy, but I do think it's worth the effort.
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.:: Interesting points by this fellow... good read... ::.
. go to his web Blog to read all the comments and read updated versions

Thursday, January 20, 2005

 

What is Love got to do with it?

Defining love
There are as many forms of love as there are lovers. However, all forms of love have some common factors and issues.
Discussions of love are inevitably colored by the language used to describe it. Each language, developing alongside a corresponding culture, has a different set of words to describe love. As such, it's difficult to discuss different cultures' views without referencing their language. See the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
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Interpersonal love
Interpersonal love is love between two human beings, and is deeper than merely liking someone a lot. Although feelings are usually reciprocal, there can also be unrequited love. Interpersonal love is usually found in an interpersonal relationship, such as between family members, friends, and couples. However, people often express love for other people outside of these relationships through charity and volunteering.
Some elements that are often present in interpersonal love:
Affection: appreciation of other
Attachment: satisfying basic emotional needs
Reciprocation: if love is mutual
Commitment: a desire to maintain love
Emotional intimacy: sharing emotions and feelings
Kinship: family bonds
Passion: sexual desire
Physical intimacy: sharing of personal space
Self-interest: desiring rewards
Service: desire to help
Passion, or sexual energy, is probably the most important element in determining how a relationship is seen. This is because passion is often considered undesirable or unhealthy in love. In many religions and systems of ethics, it is wrong to have passionate love for immediate family, or outside of a committed relationship.
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Impersonal love
A person can be said to love a country, principle, or goal if they value it greatly and are deeply committed to it. People can also 'love' material objects, animals, or activities if they like them a great deal. In these cases, if sexual passion is actually felt, it is typically considered abnormal or unhealthy, and called paraphilia.
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Religious love
Most religions use love to express the devotion the follower has to their deity who may be a living guru or religious teacher. This love can be expressed by putting the love of God above personal needs, prayer, service, good deeds, and personal sacrifice, all done selflessly. Reciprocally, the followers may believe that the deity loves the followers and all of creation. Some traditions encourage the development of passionate love in the believer for the deity. Refer to 'Religious Views' below.
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Scientific models
Biological models of love tend to see it as a mammalian drive, just like hunger or thirst. Psychology sees love as more of a social and cultural phenomenon. There are probably elements of truth in both views — certainly love is influenced by hormones and pheromones, and how people think and behave in love is influenced by their conceptions of love.
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Attraction and Attachment
The conventional view in Biology is that there are two major drives in love — sexual attraction and attachment. Attachment between adults is presumed to work on the same principles that lead an infant to become attached to their mother.
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Companionate vs. Passionate
The traditional psychological view sees love as being a combination of companionate love and passionate love. Passionate love is intense longing, and is often accompanied by physiological arousal (shortness of breath, rapid heart rate). Companionate love is affection and a feeling of intimacy not accompanied by physiological arousal.
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.:: What drives us for searching for this anyway? ::.
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There are times when the world seems devoid of love. Then there are moments with pets kids friends strangers and nature that bring a realization that the more love expressed the more love found. Still, as stated in the Bible... "And if I ...know all mysteries and all knowledge...but do not have love, I am nothing. ... Corinthians 13:2"
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But, as Francis Bacon said... "Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est." or Knowledge is Power. But what good does knowledge do when no one to share it with? I do not really know. However, I do know that the quest for love, or Love, like any other quest brings character and compassion to the table. If the table is the banquet of live's celebrations then the most glorious would be one with the most stories to tell. Boy do I have stories to tell! I am trying to determine what words to use to describe them and how to relay them.
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But, as was said... "As you ramble on through life, brother, whatever be your goal: keep your eyes upon the donut, and not upon the hole!" ... Murray Banks
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So, I will lurch through this life transition I am in and see what Serendipity brings and also make sure I stay focused on the donut, and not the whole. For the Love in my life, while not adorned with long hair flowers and dresses of silk... is still bountiful. As I close this entry, I have one cat waiting next to me and another lurking too waiting for her chance to snuggle and not to mention the dog who I think is already asleep on my quilt.
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Namaste to those who care.
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.:: jlm ::.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

 

:: If Not Republican Then Wander Aimlessly ::

:: Original Work of Out of Chaos ::
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Where is the unity of purpose here? Where is the information about other choices? Where is the movement?
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Looking around for information I struggled with the chaff of aimless responses from the major search engines when I keyed in 'PROGRESSIVE' and to test a disturbing thought, I keyed in 'REPUBLICAN' and the first page of returned links were all tightly organized coherent websites. The Democratic party did a little bit better then the Liberal or Progressive or Green parties. But the issue is, what good is a bunch of bright people with good social ideas if they are all facing different directions and bobbing in the ocean of aimlessness? Who is going to hear what they have to say?
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The Republican movement is apparently all banned together like a large raft made up of tightly coupled smaller rafts all hooked up with the rope of the Religious Right Wing Morality. They are easy to find, they show up on radar on sonar on visual scans of the horizon like their own continent. Such an easy to find mass is getting it's word out through a channel network of Fathers Priests Bishops and other Clergy that are spreading the word of the literal biblical transpositionists of lore to the constituents of Christendom.
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How can other opinions raise high enough on a platform to be heard above the din of the Republican movement? Some of these links help... but they were not easy to find... So I am listing a couple for you:
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http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org
http://www.americanprogress.org
http://progressive.stanford.edu
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Surprisingly when I found the Stanford link, I assumed other ivy colleges would like wise have good groups. Not so I found out as the Harvard and Princeton and Yale and Berkeley all had sophomoric web pages or just rudimentary place holders saying 'under construction' and to my disdained held little promise of resources or links to get information from. Hopefully some cohesion will occur soon.


Monday, January 17, 2005

 

How Trade Policy is Working Against the War on Terror

PPI Policy Report February 4, 2003
By Edward Gresser
Editor's Note: The full text of this policy report is available in Adobe PDF format, only. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Introduction
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In late September 2001, U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick asserted in The Washington Post that trade policy can help fight terrorist groups by promoting growth and economic integration. In practice, though, the Muslim world is the blank spot on the Bush administration's trade agenda -- and because of this, that trade agenda risks undermining, rather than supporting, the war on terrorism.
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If the administration achieves its trade policy goals, the result will be that between 2005 and 2015 (when all U.S. manufacturing trade barriers vanish), a series of preferential agreements added to the existing trade regime will create essentially a three-tiered system. The top tier, facing no trade barriers, will be made up of highly developed European and Asian economies, plus 70 to 90 countries in Africa, Latin America, and perhaps Southeast Asia enjoying wide-ranging duty-free privileges. On the second tier, two very large economies (China and India) will use abolition of clothing and fabric quotas to take full advantage of their size and economies of scale for the first time. The third tier, squeezed between these two daunting groups of competitors, will consist of a few very poor Asian countries and the western Muslim world: the 30 states and 750 million people from Morocco through the Middle East to Pakistan, Central Asia, and Bangladesh.
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This trade regime in turn could unintentionally worsen an economic crisis affecting almost all of the western Muslim states. With little outside notice, they have already seen their share of world trade and investment collapse since 1980. The economic result has been stagnant growth and falling income; the social consequences are unemployment, political tension, and rising appeal for religious extremists. And, as America's trade regime tilts more steeply against Muslim states, U.S. trade policy may not complement the war on terror ` la Zoellick, but actually work against it by reducing the Muslim world's growth opportunities and ability to reach world markets.
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This perverse result is not inevitable. Without vastly disruptive shifts in trade flows or the policy agenda, a strategic initiative for the Muslim world could end, or at least ease, the tilt. At minimum, such an initiative -- analogous to programs now available for Central America, the Andean nations, and Africa -- could avert creation of a trade regime that complicates the campaign against terrorism. At best, by encouraging reform and integration for Muslim countries, it could play its own role by sparking growth and creation, and so reducing the attraction of radicalism and religious fundamentalism.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

 

Apocalypse later

With nearly religious fervor, the Bush administration is mortgaging America's future into oblivion.
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By Arianna Huffington
for www.SALON.com
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Jan. 13, 2005 Near the beginning of "Saturday Night Fever," John Travolta's Tony Manero, frustrated that his boss thinks he should save his salary instead of spending it on a new disco shirt, cries out, "Fuck the future!" To which his boss replies: "No, Tony, you can't fuck the future. The future fucks you! It catches up with you and it fucks you if you ain't prepared for it!"
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Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but America has morphed into a nation of Tony Maneros -- collectively dismissing the future. And nowhere is this mindset more prevalent than at the Bush White House, which is unwavering in its determination to ignore the future.
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The evidence is overwhelming. Everywhere you look are IOUs passed on to future generations: Record federal debt. Record foreign debt. Record budget deficits. Record trade deficits.
And this attempt to "fuck the future" is not limited to economics. You see the same attitude when it comes to energy policy, healthcare, education, Social Security and especially the environment -- with the Bushies redoubling their efforts to make the world uninhabitable as fast as possible. (See their attempts to gut the Clean Air Act, gut the Clean Water Act, gut the Endangered Species Act, gut regulations limiting pollution from power plants.)
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And the even bigger problem? They don't see this as a problem. In fact, it all may be an essential part of the plan.
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If that last sentence doesn't make a whit of sense to you, then you are clearly not one of the 50 million Americans who believe in some form of "end time" philosophy, an extreme evangelical theology that embraces the idea that we are fast approaching the end of the world, at which point Jesus will return and carry all true believers -- living and dead -- up to heaven (the "rapture"), leaving all nonbelievers on earth to face hellfire and damnation (the "tribulation"). Christ and his followers will then return to a divinely refurbished earth for a 1,000-year reign of peace and love.
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In other words, why worry about minor little details like clean air, clean water, safe ports and the social safety net when Jesus is going to give the world an "Extreme Makeover: Planet Edition" right after he finishes putting Satan in his place once and for all?
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Keep in mind: This nutty notion is not a fringe belief being espoused by some street corner Jeremiah wearing a "The End Is Nigh!" sandwich board. End-timers have repeatedly made the "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic books among America's bestselling titles, with over 60 million copies sold.
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And they have also spawned a mini-industry of imminent doomsday Web sites like ApocalypseSoon.org and RaptureReady.com. The latter features a Rapture Index that, according to the site, acts as a "Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity" and a "prophetic speedometer." (The higher the number, the faster we're moving toward the Second Coming.) For those of you keeping score, the Rapture Index is currently at 152 -- an off-the-chart mark of prophetic indicators.
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Now I'm not saying that Bush is a delusion-driven end-timer (although he has let it be known that God speaks to -- and through -- him, and he believes "in a divine plan that supersedes all human plans"). But he and his crew are certainly acting as if that's the case.
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Take the jaw-dropping federal debt, which currently stands at $4.3 trillion. Just last month the Government Accountability Office released a report that found that Bush's economic policies "will result in massive fiscal pressures that, if not effectively addressed, could cripple the economy, threaten our national security, and adversely affect the quality of life of Americans in the future."
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And what was the administration's reaction to this frightening assessment? Vice President Dick Cheney shrugged, took a hearty swig of the end-time Kool-Aid and announced that the administration wants another round of tax cuts. Basically a big "fuck you."
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Then there's our trade deficit, which ballooned to a record $165 billion in the third quarter of 2004, when imports exceeded exports by 54 percent. Thanks to this imbalance, America is racking up a staggering $665 billion in additional foreign debt every year -- that's $5,500 for every U.S. household -- and placing the nation's future economic security in the hands of others. Here is Bush's response to this daunting prospect: "People can buy more United States products if they're worried about the trade deficit." Sounds like he has really got it under control.
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I guess after the rapture, debts of all kinds will be forgiven. The White House is promoting a similar "What, me worry?" attitude with our live-for-the-moment energy policy. America currently spends $13 million per hour on foreign oil -- a number that will only increase as U.S. oil production peaks (within the next five years) and as consumption by industrializing nations doubles over the next 25 years.
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So is the president pushing for a long-overdue increase in mileage standards or launching an all-out effort to break our dependence on foreign oil? Hardly. Instead, he's getting ready to make his umpteenth attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.
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And that is just a small part of the president's full-bore assault on the environment, best summed up by Sen. Jim Jeffords, the ranking minority member on the Environment and Public Works Committee: "I expect the Bush administration will go down in history as the greatest disaster for public health and the environment in the history of the United States."
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That said, it's not hard to see why Bush has hopped aboard the Apocalypse Express. Acting like there's no tomorrow dovetails just as neatly with his corporate backers' rapacious desires as it does with his evangelical backers' rapturous desires. It offers him a political twofer: placating his corporate donors while winning the hearts and votes of the true believers who helped the president achieve a Second Coming of his own. No small miracle, given his record.
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It's important to point out, however, that the problem does not lie just with the White House and the end-timers. Acting as if we have a finite future has infected our entire culture. Just look at personal savings, which have fallen to next to nothing, with Americans socking away a meager two-tenths of 1 percent of their disposable incomes. Meanwhile, the average U.S. household carries about $14,000 of credit card debt; one in four consumers spends more than he or she can afford; and, as a result, every 15 seconds, someone somewhere in America is going bankrupt. Which, I guess, in Bush World is how an angel gets wings.
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All this represents a seismic shift in our cultural outlook. Since the nation's founding, the American ethos has been forward-looking, geared to a bountiful future, with each generation of parents working as hard as they can to ensure a better life for their children. Those days are clearly gone.
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And it has put our entire civilization at grave risk -- a point echoed with great clarity by Jared Diamond, whose new book, "Collapse," looks at the reasons why so many great civilizations of the past have failed.
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Although Diamond offers a range of reasons why these societies collapsed, one message comes through loud and clear: We've got to stop living like there is no tomorrow or "fuck the future" will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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About the writer
Arianna Huffington is a nationally syndicated columnist, the co-host of the National Public Radio program "Left, Right, and Center," and the author of 10 books. Her latest is "Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America."
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Sound Off.
Send us a Letter to the Editor (www.SALON.com)
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Related stories:
Are we doomed?Jared Diamond, author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "Collapse," says that if America doesn't change its ways it'll go the way of the dodo -- no matter what Bill Gates, George Bush or Michael Crichton says.
By Oliver Broudy 01/08/05
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Fundamentally unsound
Left Behind, the bestselling series of paranoid, pro-Israel end-time thrillers, may sound kooky, but America's right-wing leaders really believe this stuff.
By Michelle Goldberg 07/30/02
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.::My Point of view::.
So if anyone has ideas about just what can be done should be done please sound off with a comment! The fundamentalisim of the right wing is just as out of line as the fundamentalist of the Islamic extremists. These people are all taking concepts from antiquity that have been translated over time and the essesence that is in these teachings, the Bible, the Koran, are being missed when these folks focus on litteral statements out of these texts.
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One question is how can the masses who are NOT on board with either extreme, be woken up to step forward and to be heard and balance and quell these extremists in the world? Then the question is what can be done before we have destroyed the home that keeps us safe and alive? What can be done so that the places where extremists are born are brought into the light of the wisdom of World Peace and working as one family? The family of Humanity.
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To what destructive end do we have to go before Humanity steps in with a collective voice and tells these two warring brothers to stop and go to their rooms? Osama! George! To your rooms with you! And no supper either, we are going to give your meal to the kids you left on the playground with out food or home to go to!
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.::Your Turn, what do YOU think reader?::.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

 

Good place to spend some reading time

.::I found a good place to ready scarey things::.
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About Grist Magazine
Grist is an online environmental magazine. Our credo: Pull no punches, take no prisoners, eschew the wealth and fame that so often seduce online environmental journalists. And try to have a better sense of humor than a pack of fur protesters.
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Grist tackles environmental topics with irreverence, intelligence, and a fresh perspective. Our goal is to inform, entertain, provoke, and encourage creative thinking about environmental problems and solutions. We publish new content each weekday -- in-depth reporting, cartoons, summaries of breaking news stories, Q & A with activists, book reviews, an environmental advice column, and lots more. We're based in Seattle, and our contributors are scattered the world 'round.
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Contact us.
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Read descriptions of our columns.
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.::Also some links::.
http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2005/01/news/
http://www.theocracywatch.org/
http://www.wie.org/
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.::I will have some original work in a bit::.
Until then, enjoy my research!




Tuesday, January 11, 2005

 

George W. Bush's missing year

The widow of a Bush family confidant says her husband gave the future president an Alabama Senate campaign job as a favor to his worried father. Did they see him do any National Guard service? "Good lord, no."
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By Mary Jacoby FOR SALON http://www.salon.com

Sept. 2, 2004 NEW YORK --
Before there was Karl Rove, Lee Atwater or even James Baker, the Bush family's political guru was a gregarious newspaper owner and campaign consultant from Midland, Texas, named Jimmy Allison. In the spring of 1972, George H.W. Bush phoned his friend and asked a favor: Could Allison find a place on the Senate campaign he was managing in Alabama for his troublesome eldest son, the 25-year-old George W. Bush?
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"The impression I had was that Georgie was raising a lot of hell in Houston, getting in trouble and embarrassing the family, and they just really wanted to get him out of Houston and under Jimmy's wing," Allison's widow, Linda, told me. "And Jimmy said, 'Sure.' He was so loyal."
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Linda Allison's story, never before published, contradicts the Bush campaign's assertion that George W. Bush transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama National Guard in 1972 because he received an irresistible offer to gain high-level experience on the campaign of Bush family friend Winton "Red" Blount. In fact, according to what Allison says her late husband told her, the younger Bush had become a political liability for his father, who was then the United States ambassador to the United Nations, and the family wanted him out of Texas. "I think they wanted someone they trusted to keep an eye on him," Linda Allison said.
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After more than three decades of silence, Allison spoke with Salon over several days before and during the Republican National Convention this week -- motivated, as she acknowledged, by a complex mixture of emotions. They include pride in her late husband's accomplishments, a desire to see him remembered, and concern about the apparent double standard in Bush surrogates attacking John Kerry's Vietnam War record while ignoring the president's irresponsible conduct during the war. She also admits to bewilderment and hurt over the rupture her husband experienced in his friendship with George and Barbara Bush. To this day, Allison is unsure what caused the break, though she suspects it had something to do with her husband's opposition to the elder Bush becoming chairman of the Republican National Committee under President Nixon.
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.::READ FULL STORY AT::. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/02/allison/print.html ::
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The break happened not long after a boozy election-night wake for Blount, who lost his Senate bid to the incumbent Democrat, John Sparkman. Leaving the election-night "celebration," Allison remembers encountering George W. Bush in the parking lot, urinating on a car, and hearing later about how he'd yelled obscenities at police officers that night. Bush left a house he'd rented in Montgomery trashed -- the furniture broken, walls damaged and a chandelier destroyed, the Birmingham News reported in February. "He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people's possessions," Mary Smith, a member of the family who rented the house, told the newspaper, adding that a bill sent to Bush for repairs was never paid. And a month later, in December, during a visit to his parents' home in Washington, Bush drunkenly challenged his father to go "mano a mano," as has often been reported.
.
Around the same time, for the 1972 Christmas holiday, the Allisons met up with the Bushes on vacation in Hobe Sound, Fla. Tension was still evident between Bush and his parents. Linda was a passenger in a car driven by Barbara Bush as they headed to lunch at the local beach club. Bush, who was 26 years old, got on a bicycle and rode in front of the car in a slow, serpentine manner, forcing his mother to crawl along. "He rode so slowly that he kept having to put his foot down to get his balance, and he kept in a weaving pattern so we couldn't get past," Allison recalled. "He was obviously furious with his mother about something, and she was furious at him, too."
.
.::READ FULL STORY AT::. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/02/allison/print.html ::
.
More than a quarter century later, George W. Bush is running for reelection as a "war" president. At the Republican Convention, delegates pass out Purple Heart stickers mocking Kerry's Vietnam wounds as "a self-inflicted scratch," and George H.W. Bush, speaking on CNN, lauds the Swift Boat Veterans' claims against Kerry as "rather compelling." Karl Rove tells the Associated Press that Kerry's opposition to a war that Bush avoided had served to "tarnish the records and service of people who were defending our country and fighting communism."
.
Barbara Bush tells USA Today: "I die over every untruth that I hear about George -- I mean, every one."
.
Linda Allison watches it all from her New York apartment. About George W. Bush's disputed sojourn in Alabama, she asks simply: "Can we all be lying?"
.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writerMary Jacoby is Salon's Washington correspondent.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/02/allison/print.html

.::.
Lest we forget that the smoke and mirrors
eluded the issue of our President's
(God save our souls for re-electing him)
factual past and wonton behaviour
and ask again if the man is the modern
NERO?
.::.
.
Who is Nero?
Did Rome really burn?
Let them eat cake Georgie huh?
.
Who else thinks that George W. Bush is so disconnected from life that he is running our great nation into the sand from which we may never dislodge? Are we at the end of an Epoch?

Monday, January 10, 2005

 

Hundreds to be released from Guantanamo war on terror base: report

(AFP) - The United States is preparing to release or transfer hundreds of prisoners from its controversial Guantanamo Bay war on terror detention camp in Cuba, according to a newspaper report . Quoting a senior US defence official, the Financial Times newspaper said the releases would be part of a restructuring of the camp which will include the building of a new prison for long-term inmates. There are about 550 inmates from more than 20 countries at the camp on the US naval base, many of whom have been held for three years without access to a lawyer or being told whether they would be charged.
More...
U.S. Set to Release Most Guantánamo Detainees (Financial Times)
.
Guantanamo Takes on Look of Permanence (AP)
.
Camp Delta Overview (GlobalSecurity.org)


Sunday, January 09, 2005

 

We're Creative Commonists, Bill

02:00 AM Jan. 08, 2005 PT ::Lifted from WIRED::
When Bill Gates referred to copyright reformers as modern-day communists in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show, it didn't take long for the web community to respond with a big "nyah-nyah-nyah."
.
Bloggers and designers were quick to dream up "creative communist" symbols, a play on one of the best-known groups working for copyright reform, Creative Commons. The images were instantly passed around and added to websites, T-shirts and buttons.
.
The kerfuffle started when Gates was asked in a News.com interview if intellectual property laws should be reformed. He replied: "No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist," he told News.com.

::rest of story at WIRED::

::My Personal take on Copyright as it stands today... is that the corportation has distorted the fair use purpose to create a cancerous grouth of money spitting boils spitting out like puss for the owner who is no longer the creator of the art but the corporation is the one whom reaps the reward. THE ISSUE is that the individual content creative artist person has been left behind by this process and that is why the CREATIVE COMMONS was born.
.
Gates is like Katheryn the Great saying 'let them eat cake'
.
He is not doing anything for the common artist! Hell he is one of the THE largest personal owner of art and copyrighted content on the stinkin PLANET! Gates is an example of how excessive capitalisim has gone arye.
.
Do not get me wrong... Free market and Capitalism is the best thing going, Democracy and all that... but BUT it is important to not be takers it is important to have a balance someplace of resources and opportunity. Some how, it needs to become a moral imperative that you have X amount of money/assets you need to spread the wealth in proactive postive ways that assists humanity and our living and not just locally but globaly.
.
What is the alternative? Bladerunner?

 

nightmare of guantanamo

reading the sunday paper, i read the comics first, then Parade and USA Weekly for thr trite stuff about actors and actreses for the levity of it, then I typically go through and toss out sports, adds, real estate, and read through the perspective section and business section. This time I shifted my focus.
.
I read the section on Style and section on ARTS becuase I have been reading Barry Lane's book about writing and I was / am wondering 'what is selling' well.... I found a book review by John Freeman of a book by David Rose. "Guantanamo, America's War on Human Rights' by New Press.
.
The last paragraph gets my attention....
.
"Drawing on dozens of interviews with guards, released prisoners and high-ranking officials, Rose argues that this legal purgatory to which America consigns enemy combatants has—much like the war in Iraq—actually increased the likelihood of terrorism. Why? Because the spectacle of Americans trampling on the rights of humiliated Muslims has given al Qaeda yet another powerful recruiting tool. In fact, it’s so potent a symbol that many of the Western hostages in Iraq whose decapitations have been videotaped were made to wear orange jumpsuits—just like the prisoners at Guantánamo."
.
Full book review I found it online at the Missoula Independent:
http://www.missoulanews.com/AE/News.asp?no=4547
.
I also found this site that is dedicated to expose the goings on at Guantanamo:
http://www.cageprisoners.com/about.php
.
.
.
What gets me is that the goverment that is supposed to represent the people of the united states of america, stir the masses with the tonic that 'they' do what they are doing to 'fight terrorisim' and I dissagree. It seems obvious to me that what is really going on is that the Bush organization and powers that be are creating the petri dish ripe to grow more terrorists.
.
To really fight terrorisim, the focus needs to be educate people how to self improve the standard of living, educate people and raise the poverty level so that suffering is reduced. All of humanity is created equal, the environment of which people mature closes some doors and opens others... if we the people want to proclaim democracy... which is about freedom of choice and personal voice in politics that govern, then we need to open doors that people can have choices of positive nature not negative nature.
.
Until then, bombs and big sticks do nothing but build a devide from where the task of world peace and cooperation of humanity will be harder to achieve.
.
my 2 pennies
.


Saturday, January 08, 2005

 

Christians are called to recognise that the essence of the divine being is not power but compassion and love

This is important.. in my mind, a piece by a priest who writes 'the essence of the divine is' ... 'compassion and love.'
.
.

Full story at ... http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0108-29.htm
.
But this does not offer the Christian worldview unlimited protection from the stormy blast of the tsunami. Christians cannot go on speaking about prayer as if it were an alternative way of getting things done in the world, or about divine power as if God were the puppet master of the universe. What is so terrifying about the Christmas story is that it offers us nothing but the protection of a vulnerable baby, of a God so pathetic that we need to protect Him. The idea of an omnipotent God who can calm the sea and defeat our enemies turns out to be a part of that great fantasy of power that has corrupted the Christian imagination for centuries. Instead, Christians are called to recognise that the essence of the divine being is not power but compassion and love. And it's this love, and this love only, that whispers to me in defiance of the darkness: all will be well, all manner of things will be well.
.
.

Rev'd Dr Giles Fraser is Vicar of Putney and lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford.

source.. http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0108-29.htm

 

On Receiving Harvard Medical School's Global Environment Citizen Award

From http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1206-10.htm
pay attention to :
...reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.' ...
=====================================================
Published on Monday, December 6, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
On Receiving Harvard Medical School's Global Environment Citizen Award
by Bill Moyers
=====================================================

On Wednesday, December 1, 2004, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School presented its fourth annual Global Environment Citizen Award to Bill Moyers. In presenting the award, Meryl Streep, a member of the Center board, said, "Through resourceful, intrepid reportage and perceptive voices from the forward edge of the debate, Moyers has examined an environment under siege with the aim of engaging citizens." Here is the text of his response to Ms. Streep's presentation of the award:
I accept this award on behalf of all the people behind the camera whom you never see. And for all those scientists, advocates, activists, and just plain citizens whose stories we have covered in reporting on how environmental change affects our daily lives. We journalists are simply beachcombers on the shores of other people's knowledge, other people's experience, and other people's wisdom. We tell their stories.
The journalist who truly deserves this award is my friend, Bill McKibben. He enjoys the most conspicuous place in my own pantheon of journalistic heroes for his pioneer work in writing about the environment. His bestseller The End of Nature carried on where Rachel Carson's Silent Spring left off.
Writing in Mother Jones recently, Bill described how the problems we journalists routinely cover - conventional, manageable programs like budget shortfalls and pollution - may be about to convert to chaotic, unpredictable, unmanageable situations. The most unmanageable of all, he writes, could be the accelerating deterioration of the environment, creating perils with huge momentum like the greenhouse effect that is causing the melt of the arctic to release so much freshwater into the North Atlantic that even the Pentagon is growing alarmed that a weakening gulf stream could yield abrupt and overwhelming changes, the kind of changes that could radically alter civilizations.
That's one challenge we journalists face - how to tell such a story without coming across as Cassandras, without turning off the people we most want to understand what's happening, who must act on what they read and hear.
As difficult as it is, however, for journalists to fashion a readable narrative for complex issues without depressing our readers and viewers, there is an even harder challenge - to pierce the ideology that governs official policy today. One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the oval office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.
Remember James Watt, President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.'
(continue reading it at ... (http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1206-10.htm))
Just what the Hell is this about?
I was sent it by a friend who got it from a friend who got it from:
Senator Ken Gordon
Web: www.kengordon.com
Email: ken@kengordon.com
Questions: Ask Senator Ken Gordon
I mean this is absurd!
I can only image the image from the movie ICE AGE where the DODO birds are doing 'doom on you ... doom on you' and they only have 3 mellons. God is not a sentient being sitting at a game board going 'ok, cut all the trees and then I will hit the 'redux' botton and everyone who does the hooky pooky will be saved and anyone who does not follow will perish. WHAT? Gimme a break!
GOD is a word that refers to the cumulitive power of good actions over bad actions will give us a happy place, if we do bad actions we will have a sad place.
GOD is a concept for us fools to focus on to line up and all think positive thoughts at the same time and to assist in moral and ethical behaviour decisions if we all are thinking 'let us do happy things for the greator good of all'
If we allow the dessicration of our home, the environment, our planet, our source of life... we are screwed and the next phase of life on earth will be the cockroach and ant creatures.
WAKE UP
WAKE UP
WAKE UP PEOPLE
The lives of our childrens children depend on us working at peace and balance of all living things.
If we are proactive to finding a balance of sustainability and support our fellow man and seak Peace... maybe our 7th generation of humanity will stand a chance.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

 

my daughter is 7 and gets 'pressure' from school kids

Already, at seven, my little kiddo is getting people busting on her for her
hair cut for her body for what she wears... unbelievable!

http://www.dadsanddaughters.org/
http://www.parentstalk.com/
http://childparenting.about.com/

are some support places to figure out how to deal with self image. Like
here is a clip from the childparenting place....

>>
Clemes & Bean (http://childparenting.about.com/msubbook.htm)
have identifed these four conditions of self-esteem in children.

-A sense of connectiveness
-A sense of uniqueness
-A sense of power
-A sense of models

I highly recommend their work because it is practical and useful. I
frequently refer to their now out-of-print book, Self-Esteem: The key to
your child's well-being. The mastery tasks of elementary school build the
child's sense of power, but what about the other three conditions?

Elementary children build a sense of uniqueness when

-their opinions and feelings are accepted and valued;
-they have opportunities to explore individual interests;
-their unique learning styles and intelligence patterns are valued;
-they have opportunities to use their imagination and express their
creativity.

Children build a sense of connectiveness when

-they have a sense of family and cultural heritage;
-they feel connected to their own bodies;
-they have their own special possessions;
-they feel part of a group.

Children build a sense of models when

-they are taught right from wrong;
-they have a broad range of new experiences;
-they have order and structure in their daily lives;
-they learn to set goals and solve problems.
<<

The big thing is to continually search out and learn new ways of dealing...

now... I have to get to work and deal with those things!





Tuesday, January 04, 2005

 

cool webzine for designers found

location... http://www.sensoryimpact.com/ ... what caught my attention was an article link sent by my friend (brynonly -Y!IM) http://sensoryimpact.com/2005/01/performance-sculpture about this guy that made a collapsable 'cell phone booth' and by golly, quite neat methinks!

I took a quick look around in the sensoryimpact site and it has a host of curious design focus things... thesis projects, quirky new things like wall paper that is a digital screen that you can load data to and see it on your wall... (http://sensoryimpact.com/2004/11/interactive-wallpaper)

neet.

Saturday, January 01, 2005

 

my freakin back! oui vey

Jheesh louise!

like ouch

Last night Phaelan and I went out to first night and had a burger at chicago's then bought a button and went and did the venues at the Lincoln center in Fort Collins and my pumpkin kid experienced TV2 poetry performance art, juggleing chainsaws and pigs on stage doing tricks and a pretty dorky magic show! Then hooked up downtown to watch the 10:30 fireworks.

PDM was rolling her eyes trying to stay awake! Getting all droopy and stuff, what a trooper! Angela and Daren saw us and came over! They got a great pic of PDM and I and will see if I can get a copy later to post. It was cool, not cold but cool enough to be chilly.

Made it home and tuked PDM into bed and OMG my lower back is horked, I am sOOOOOO missing Gina not being around. She is the best maseuse I have ever had work on me. Gotta find a nother good hands person who really knows technique and psyiology. man o man.

This morning Ruby got excited when PDM came into my room and plumped into bed, Ruby jumped over to PDM to the whole HI HI HI HI HI puppy thing and she smacked PDM's nose and eyes with her paws... :-( I was not even awake but as soon as PDM's tears kicked in and I realized what happened, as I tried to get 'to' PDM to check on her, with Ruby inthe way being and overexcited puppy, I puppy tossed the mutt off the bed and about 15 minutes later PDM could finally open both eyes and seems fine now... although it was scary for a bit there I was not sure if her eyes got scratched or gouged or what they had happen.

Rose Parade is still on right now, but we need to get dressed for a potluck at a friends....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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