From here to there...

Although I'm going to watch the wedding of William and Kate in the early hours, my thoughts are with people in the south who are recovering from strange and devastating tornadoes.  The national news is showing residents already sifting through the wreckage recovering what they can.  Many are able to speak calmly and with some humor about how frightened they were while they were whipped around in various tornadoes throughout the region; at least one was reported to be one mile across, packing 200 mph winds, and on the ground for up to 300 miles.  Other people, sadly, have lost family, or are recovering from injuries themselves.

Locally, our news reports some areas of snow, hail, and thunderstorms interspersed with sunbreaks.  

It's a big world.

The Royal Wedding Official Website

Obama and the Birthers...

Today, Obama presented his long form birth certificate.  I feel sad about it.  Why do we have to give in to the bullies?  Is this the Twilight Zone where up is down and black is white?

The media fanned the flames of this ridiculousness when it gave the 'birther' supporters an equal platform with other news of the day - war, famine, genocide, etc. 
Now, they act all righteous and angry that this story has been given traction - they're the ones who gave it traction. 
I don't understand how they don't know that.
And why aren't they ashamed for their complicity?

The Republican Party Chairman chastised Obama for bringing this up when there are so many other problems in America.
But, it's from the Republican Party and their right-wing co-horts that all the nonsense was brought up.
I don't understand how he doesn't know that.
And why isn't he ashamed for his complicity?

It doesn't make sense for reasonably intelligent people to honestly believe some of the things they're saying.
I'm not talking about opinions, I'm talking about debates and arguments to defend positions.

There's something else going on here.

America is run by bankers and media moguls.

They've created a world that isn't even real so they can continue their backroom shenanigans without interference.  Us 'regular' folk are distracted by the fake world, so the people with money can move their puzzle pieces without interference. 

I've never felt so much like I'm living in a science fiction movie as I do now. 
Listening to news of the day seems eerily like the beginning of many of the post-apocalyptic movies I've seen where they're describing the events leading up to...whatever apocolypse it is.  Gas prices rising, wars and revolutions all over the world, economies failing, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes. 

I suppose the people who believe in biblical prophecy about the end times and Revelations are getting pretty excited.

Maybe they're right.

Sigh.

This post reads like I believe that Obama releasing his birth certificate is the beginning of the end of the world.
No...the regular folks will win in the end - I believe in the power of Love to overcome the power of fear.  Sometimes it just takes a long time.

Reality Bites

The Wars continue...

See here for the casualties and deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan

Pay Day

"Taxes are the price we pay for civilization"

     Oliver Wendell Holmes

Check out some patriotic millionaires who want their taxes raised. 

Goodbye ABC Afternoons

Boo Hoo...ABC cancelled my two soaps today.  Double Whammy!

I started watching All My Children around the time Phillip Brent came home from Vietnam.  He was in love with Tara Martin but she was with Chuck Tyler.  I watched pretty faithfully during the 70's and into the early 80's.
I don't remember what storyline was on when I started watching One Life To Live.  OLTL was on after AMC so eventually I was too lazy to get up and change the channel (back in the day) so I got hooked.
(Which is how I started watching General Hospital - I specifically remember the storyline that caught my eye was when Laura Webber was accused of killing David Hamilton).

For a time, I watched Ryan's Hope at 11:30, All My Children at 12:00, One Life to Live at 1:00 and General Hospital at 2:00 straight through.

One Life to Live was more consistently my favorite soap - the stories were quirky enough to keep me interested.  However, each one of the soaps had more than one storyline I can remember to this day.  Sometimes I'll look at soap websites to read old recaps...I'm reminded of what I used to care about and surprised by what I don't remember.

I've started watching AMC and OLTL again in the last year.  It gave me a familiar comfort in these crazy times.

I thought it would never end.

BFB

Friday, congress came to an agreement about the budget for the rest of the current fiscal year.
I think the Republicans/Tea Party supporters are Big Effin' Bullies.
"I'll relent on the Planned Parenthood 300 million, but only if you give me 900 million in other cuts"
"I'm just going to attach this rider to get rid of a social issue I don't like, and I'll take it away if you give me 5 times the amount of cuts in other areas."

They lie and posture and threaten and twist things around.
They get away with it the same way other bullies and dictators around the world do - they batter and abuse and call people names.
They gather together all the people who don't have a world view, the ones who can't see beyond their own fear in life, and they use those people as battering rams.  They change the argument so the new normal is the battering ram.  Far right wingers are the new normal.

I'm disgusted by it.
I don't know how to overcome it.

The Money Class

I carpooled to Kane Hall at UW with LJB, FJ, and KS to see Suze Orman promoting her new book, The Money Class.
I enjoy and appreciate her strength of personhood. 
One gentleman asked if she would be a spokesperson for the LGBT community.  I thought her answer was wonderful.  She said she speaks about it when it's appropriate.  But, she had to choose how she wanted to be thought of.  She has a passion for money and helping people understand money.  She doesn't want to be known as the gay/lesbian Suze Orman, she wants to be known as The Money Lady.  For that reason, she'll speak about being gay when appropriate and doesn't shy away from who she is, but she projects her passion in her life.
Interesting.  I wish I could figure out what my passion is.
I also like how she brings the spiritual into financial considerations.
The truth is - spirit is life.
I purchased a pre-signed book, but didn't have her personalize it.  There was a long line and we were ready to go home.  A good night!

Wasting taxpayer money...

Ah...so this is Barry Bonds.  Okay.
He's accused of using steroids as a performance-enhancing drug in professional baseball.
The United States has spent a chunk of money in Congressional hearings and through this prosecution to discuss this.
Isn't this a waste of taxpayer money?

Baseball is a sport - an industry - in which the goal is to be the best; number one.  At this level of "play", the goal is not for the sake of life lessons learned during the journey to become number one, but because being number one has financial rewards.
It's free market capitalism that allows players in the industry (owners, agents, merchandisers, media, along with actual practitioners) to do whatever they can to become number one.
Why does this affect the government?  How is the government (acting on behalf of the American people) changed or victimized by the mechanism that defines who is number one in baseball?

I feel like there's some self-delusion going on in America with regard to baseball.
At the playground level it's where we teach our children about sportsmanship and fair play.  In the Little League years we teach the kids about working hard, focus, dedication, teamwork.  When the kids are playing for their high school or college it's about playing for the pride of your friends, school, state, country.
And, when it gets to professional baseball - everything changes.  The people who get to that level are reaping the financial rewards of learning the lessons well and having some talent.
The players who dropped off along the way to pursue other goals, still have the romantic memories of learning life lessons because of, or through, baseball.
They want to uphold that ideal of baseball for their children and for their own enjoyment.
So, they demand a certain level of 'fair' play.
And feel 'offended' when it's not; when opening the veil reveals that the ideal they want to believe in is a cover for a money making machine.

Romance versus Capitalism.
(Romance is a marketing tool to fuel Capitalism)

It really has nothing to do with government.

Being clear water...

"To let knowledge produce troubles, and then use knowledge to prepare against them, is like stirring water in hopes of making it clear."

Lao-Tzu

"The mind is a spider that, if allowed, will tangle everything and then blame the things it clings to for the web it wants to be free of. "

Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening:  Having the Life You Want by Being Present

"I am whole as I am and I don't need to use my mind or analyze anything to figure out if I'm okay or not."

Vickster

Japan

The best of the human spirit in the face of the unknown.

Blessings to them.

Peace.

From all corners of the world there is news of suffering, courage, survival, hope, struggle, change, joy, relief, charity, compassion, fear, love, brutality, apathy, pain, rebirth...endings and beginnings.

Humanity is Alive.

Let this be a day of Light

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/world/asia/16workers.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&src=tptw

Everywhere we turn...

8.9 Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan yesterday.  

Gas prices in US threaten inflation

Ghadafi in Libya attacks own rebel citizens, vows to crush rebellion - civil war?

Republicans and Democrats can't come together for a current year budget bill - government shutdown possible.

War in Afghanistan continues

Earthquake in ChristChurch New Zealand a couple weeks ago.

Wasting taxpayer money...

This is Dave Reichert. He's my Representative to the United States Congress.

Today I visited his website to share my opinion about funding CPB.

(See http://www.170millionamericans.org/)

He has a link on his website to take a survey.

Always interested in sharing my opinion, I went to the survey.

This is what I found:

In the past two years, we’ve seen a $700 billion bailout of banks and financial institutions, an $862 billion economic “stimulus” package, and a $1 trillion health care overhaul bill. I voted against each of these measures, but Congress continues to authorize massive amounts of taxpayer dollars that are adding to our nearly $1.5 trillion budget deficit.

This spending is unsustainable, and threatens to saddle our children and grandchildren with a mountain of IOU’s. Which of the following reforms would be most effective in reining in out-of-control spending by this Congress?

Which of the following reforms would be most effective in reining in out of control spending by this Congress?

Reclaiming bailout money for taxpayers?

Ensuring government is accountable to taxpayers

Ensuring government is transparent

Stopping government overreaching

Comprehensive Reform for a broken earmark system

Other

At first I thought I didn't like the survey because the question and options were framed so that a particular point of view was the only option. As I thought about it a little more I realized I was being manipulated to create Mr. Reichert's next campaign talking points.

I sent the following e-mail:

"I just took your survey and I thought the options you provided were an indication of why we're having problems in Washington - misinformation, manipulation of facts, and willfully misleading the public.

If you would stop that kind of nonsense, we could have productive discussions and make tough choices to solve everyone's problems.

I appreciate you have opinions and a preference for how our nation's problems are addressed, but if you're soliciting constituent opinions, then shouldn't your questions/options be more objective?

You're presenting yourself as the kind of politician who would rather win than govern.

And you know what? THAT'S a waste of taxpayer money!!

Your "survey" is a way for you to figure out what your next campaign talking points should be; you're trying to figure out what message - with no specifics - will get you elected.

THAT'S a waste of taxpayer money!

(And, you created negative energy for yourself from me because I thought you really wanted to know. How disappointing.)"

Link to Dave Reichert's website

Link to Survey

(I just realized the link to the survey is ...GUIDEDSURVEY/Sep2010.html.

Geez - they're not even hiding the fact that it's a 'guided' survey? And what's with the date? Don't they keep up to date? I'm even MORE disappointed now. I guess I'm a little naive.)

Maybe a more important website I should link to is Washington State Democrats

Talent and Energy

I love the energy this music lets loose in me.  It's great fun!

Alternative Blog Title



Someday, I might change the name of this blog to

Vickster's Blog

Solving the World's Problems

One Day at a Time

I figure 15 minutes a day to solve each problem, I could be done in a year.  Right?

* * *

Now, if EVERYONE took 15 minutes every day to solve a world problem, wouldn't it go a lot quicker?

We could have this thing licked in 15 minutes.

Or even one minute...

Here is my solution:

Release your fear

Let's think on that for a while, okay?

International Women's Day

Being a women isn't better than being a man.

Being a women isn't less than being a man.

We offer unique gifts to the world, but they have equivalent value.

Together we create the human race.

United, men and women create the world we live in.

I believe we can fly.

South Korea 2011


Lahore Pakistan 2011

Mike Huckabee will never have my vote...

Another Republican I will not vote for.
Mike Huckabee knows the truth, but he wants to be elected so badly he'll manipulate (ignore) facts to ingratiate himself with a particular segment of the voting population.  His cynicism is toxic.
He values political power more than his own integrity.
It's the pathetic and transparent act of a small man.
Article in  Daily Beast by Mark McKinnon:  "Wake Up Huck:  Obama didn't grow up in Kenya"

I just don't understand

From Huffington Post

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced on Friday that he was spearheading a process that will, ultimately, witness the House of Representatives taking over the legal responsibilities of arguing for the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Obama administration's Department of Justice removed itself from the case, declaring that it had determined the law -- which dictates that the federal government can only recognize a state-sanctioned marriage between a man and a woman -- to be unconstitutional.

I can't understand why this man and those who agree with him are so afraid.  What harm will come to them if gay and lesbian couples are allowed to marry?  What harm?  His actions actively HURT and DISCRIMINATE AGAINST other human beings, while other people's marriage affects him NOT A WHIT.  I just don't understand.  Why is he not outlawing divorce?  Heterosexuals getting a divorce hurts him just the same as gays and lesbians getting married - if that's his argument.  There are plenty more heterosexuals getting a divorce than gays and lesbians getting married; the negative impact on his view of the sanctity of marriage is more harmed by heterosexual divorce. 
It really just seems like a hateful attitude to have.  It's sad and disappointing.
With all the troubles we're having in this country he would rather spend time hurting people.  Shameful.

First Amendment

Today the Supreme Court ruled that members of a certain Kansas church can legally say repugnant and horrible things at the funerals of United States soldiers when they follow state and municipal rules - even if it causes emotional distress for the families of the soldier.
(If you were to look up information about the church, it would make your blood boil and you'd feel sad and sickened that people like this have so much time on their hands.  In my belief system they are not furthering any kind of spiritual, human, political,or religious cause by their unloving behavior.)

Even still, I agree with Steven Shapiro from the ACLU:

The court's decision today, properly and respectfully acknowledged the Snyder family's grief.  But, it also, correctly held that the response to that grief cannot include abandoning core first amendment principles that protect even the most unpopular speech. 

I'm coming down with Royal Fever

Thirty years ago I was afflicted as well.  I can't even tell you why.  I think a monarchy is elitist, I'm not a fashionista, and, for me, weddings are kinda goofy.
And yet, I'm under the spell.
Prince William seems to be a charming young man despite the unusual pressures he's grown up with.
Kate appears to be a happy and courageous young woman who looks good in all the clothes.
Together, they look like they're friends uniting.
That's cool.
So, from afar, and with no personal connection, I'm kinda hooked.
Luckily, Buckingham Palace just put up a website so I can keep up to date on all the goings on until April 29th!  YAY!

Eric Clapton Concert

And I was there...

I missed most of Los Lobos except the last medley of La Bamba and Doctor Doctor, which was peppy.
Sometime around 8:45 or 9:00, Eric Clapton came onstage and began a concert that was all about the music; there was no banter - at all.
Because of the big screens giving us plenty of close-ups of the guitar riffs, it was easy to appreciate the virtuosity and talent of Eric Clapton.  Not to mention the two guys on keyboard Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon, both of whom were givien multiple solos.
I found myself really getting into the flow of the song during the extended solos.
Since I'm not familiar with Eric Clapton's songs, I'm not entirely sure which songs I especially appreciated, but I think it was Key to the Highway, Hoochie Coochie Man, Old Love, River Runs Deep, Rockin Chair, and Before You Accuse Me.
Here is a link to the setlist.
I'm glad I was there with LJB and JYRG, although I drove myself because they went early and LJB is staying over at JYRG's for a couple nights.  There was some talk in the news about snow coming through again in the evening.  I forced myself not to worry about it during the concert.  I did okay with that.  And it turns out the roads were dry...yay!
I left before the encore song Crossroads because I was parked in a spot I figured would take me awhile to get out of if I waited for all the rest of the crowd to stream out.  I made a good choice - they were streaming out as I exited the parking garage and with one quick little jaunt through a neighborhood I managed to avoid much of a traffic jam.
(Although, sometimes avoiding traffic and missing the opening act isn't the most important thing; spending time with friends makes an experience more memorable.  It may have been convenient and less of a hassle the way I did it, but I missed out on bonding moments...plus, I gave into my fear of loss of control.  Sigh.)