Even when the economy was booming along in its various Republican party “bubbles” many millions of Americans had no health insurance and no access to health care. Now the George Bush Jr. recession is causing more and more large layoffs, which will bring even more people into the ranks of the uninsured.
Now is the time President Obama. Lets get moving on this Mr. President, please.
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The leukemia and lymphoma that I have is not curable, so the fact that I am uninsurable and don’t have access to health care is only disgraceful and shameful. But many other people have diseases which could be cured if they were only covered by health insurance. And for the richest power in the world not to have universal health care coverage is nothing less than a death sentence for these people.
This is not the America that I used to believe in. It is not the America whose flag I pledged allegiance to in grade school. And it is not the America that I pledged to defend when I raised my hand at that Army recruiting office back during the Vietnam war.
As the British Prime Minister once told the American President, “Don’t get all wobbly on us Mr. President.”
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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/opinion/30krugman.html?_r=1&em
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Friday, January 30, 2009
Déjà Vu
It felt like déjà vu all over again this morning.
It was sort of like I was walking down Boulevard de Clichy in the Montmartre district of Paris, a few blocks east of the Moulin Rouge. Or perhaps walking down Avenida Juárez just across the border from El Paso, Texas. Near to all the whore houses.
There were all these attractive, single people who wanted to be friendly with me. Guys and very attractive women too. I had my doggie with me, and suddenly all of these good looking young people were magically transformed into animal lovers too.
Then it hit home to me.
My dog and I had walked onto an enormous car lot, and all these friendly people were just hawkers/car salesmen. They were behaving like topless dancers or women of easy virtue who hadn’t seen a client in quite a while. They appeared very horny and quite anxious to become instant friends.
This car lot occupied several acres and had many hundreds of vehicles. There were desperate sales people standing all over the place. And not a customer in sight.
Alas, when they found out that I was just looking for a small, very used 4-wheel drive car to go knock around the desert in, suddenly my newly found friends were busy with other things. They no longer were interested in me.
Kind of like ex-spouses. I guess friendships like this just sort of come and go.
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It was sort of like I was walking down Boulevard de Clichy in the Montmartre district of Paris, a few blocks east of the Moulin Rouge. Or perhaps walking down Avenida Juárez just across the border from El Paso, Texas. Near to all the whore houses.
There were all these attractive, single people who wanted to be friendly with me. Guys and very attractive women too. I had my doggie with me, and suddenly all of these good looking young people were magically transformed into animal lovers too.
Then it hit home to me.
My dog and I had walked onto an enormous car lot, and all these friendly people were just hawkers/car salesmen. They were behaving like topless dancers or women of easy virtue who hadn’t seen a client in quite a while. They appeared very horny and quite anxious to become instant friends.
This car lot occupied several acres and had many hundreds of vehicles. There were desperate sales people standing all over the place. And not a customer in sight.
Alas, when they found out that I was just looking for a small, very used 4-wheel drive car to go knock around the desert in, suddenly my newly found friends were busy with other things. They no longer were interested in me.
Kind of like ex-spouses. I guess friendships like this just sort of come and go.
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Disgusting Republicans
The Republican National Committee is made up of spin artists and completely incompetent liars.
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In the news from America we learn that the US economy is shrinking at the fastest pace in at least 27 years. Well I guess so! These loser Republicans have run up the biggest federal budget deficit in history, and then they decided that it would be a good idea to lower taxes too. Especially on the rich.
We also see in the news that Exxon Mobil has shattered the record for annual profits. Do you think it is just a coincidence that Bush and his daddy Papa Bush were big buddies with the Saudi national family? And that Bush Sr. was an oil man?
These lying bastards should go to jail.
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In the news from America we learn that the US economy is shrinking at the fastest pace in at least 27 years. Well I guess so! These loser Republicans have run up the biggest federal budget deficit in history, and then they decided that it would be a good idea to lower taxes too. Especially on the rich.
We also see in the news that Exxon Mobil has shattered the record for annual profits. Do you think it is just a coincidence that Bush and his daddy Papa Bush were big buddies with the Saudi national family? And that Bush Sr. was an oil man?
These lying bastards should go to jail.
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Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Lunatic Right Wing Fringe
In America there is a fairly large group of hard core locos who are strongly into conspiracy theories. Their politics generally lean towards the right wing. They have some relatively articulate people who sound well educated and reasonable who are putting up videos on You Tube.
I suppose that at almost every stage of its development the United States of America has had its share of loonies. From the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis to the greedy and irresponsible Wall Street capitalist types who drew down $18 billion in bonuses last year…while their companies were undergoing melt down.
These lunatics really hate President Obama and all that he stands for. The Secret Service sure has its job cut out for it. Lets just hope that they haven’t been infiltrated by the anti-American right wing like they were on 24.
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I suppose that at almost every stage of its development the United States of America has had its share of loonies. From the Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis to the greedy and irresponsible Wall Street capitalist types who drew down $18 billion in bonuses last year…while their companies were undergoing melt down.
These lunatics really hate President Obama and all that he stands for. The Secret Service sure has its job cut out for it. Lets just hope that they haven’t been infiltrated by the anti-American right wing like they were on 24.
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Davos, Switzerland
The World Economic Forum is taking place in Davos, Switzerland right now. Davos is located in the eastern part of the country, about 10 miles from Austria.
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I've been to Switzerland many times. Once just travelling around by car with a young lady who I was very much in love/lust with. Another time by train to go up to see Oberammergau where they perform the famous Passion Play. Several times I went backpacking in the Swiss Alps. Once to see the archaeological museum in Zurich, and a couple of times I was just driving through on my way to somewhere else. --Switzerland is truly a wonderful place...one of the very best anywhere.
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This year many top people from American corporations are not attending the economic forum in Davos because of their efforts to project a PR image of their company wisely saving money. So in several cases the CEO is not attending Davos, but many of his top deputies still are. Also, some people have begun to notice that virtually all of the people who attend Davos and who are at the top of the world’s economic decision making system are men. Almost none are female.
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke to the group. He put down American economic policies pretty hard (many would say quite correctly) when he said, “A year ago, American delegates speaking from this rostrum emphasized the U.S. economy’s fundamental stability and its cloudless prospects. Today, investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exist.”
The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, left little doubt that Beijing blamed the United States for the economic breakdown. “Inappropriate macroeconomic policies,” an “unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption,” the “blind pursuit of profit” and “the failure of financial supervision” all contributed, he said.
Goodness. Each of these guys presented a good analysis of why the world is in such difficult economic times. And each blamed the misguided policies that were begun by Ronald Reagan and were brought to complete fruition during the Republican administration of George Bush Jr.
From a more local perspective it is entirely fair of me to point out that “blind pursuit of profit” can also be described as selfish, materialistic greed. And that “the failure of financial supervision” was a completely intentional policy of the Republicans. The misguided and now fully discredited concept of deregulation deliberately eliminated all sorts of vital government regulations in the name of the god of market fundamentals and trickle down economics.
“Low savings” are obvious if you look at the amount owed to credit card companies, and “high consumption” could also be described as unnecessary wastefulness. Such as driving a large inefficient pickup truck or an SUV which gets horrible fuel economy.
But the mostly wealthy Republicans still have their eyes closed and are living in the past. Yesterday in the American House of Representatives, every single Republican voted against President Obama’s plan to help get the economy back on track. Every one of them. These old geezers really are clueless. Lost in space.
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I've been to Switzerland many times. Once just travelling around by car with a young lady who I was very much in love/lust with. Another time by train to go up to see Oberammergau where they perform the famous Passion Play. Several times I went backpacking in the Swiss Alps. Once to see the archaeological museum in Zurich, and a couple of times I was just driving through on my way to somewhere else. --Switzerland is truly a wonderful place...one of the very best anywhere.
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This year many top people from American corporations are not attending the economic forum in Davos because of their efforts to project a PR image of their company wisely saving money. So in several cases the CEO is not attending Davos, but many of his top deputies still are. Also, some people have begun to notice that virtually all of the people who attend Davos and who are at the top of the world’s economic decision making system are men. Almost none are female.
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke to the group. He put down American economic policies pretty hard (many would say quite correctly) when he said, “A year ago, American delegates speaking from this rostrum emphasized the U.S. economy’s fundamental stability and its cloudless prospects. Today, investment banks, the pride of Wall Street, have virtually ceased to exist.”
The Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, left little doubt that Beijing blamed the United States for the economic breakdown. “Inappropriate macroeconomic policies,” an “unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption,” the “blind pursuit of profit” and “the failure of financial supervision” all contributed, he said.
Goodness. Each of these guys presented a good analysis of why the world is in such difficult economic times. And each blamed the misguided policies that were begun by Ronald Reagan and were brought to complete fruition during the Republican administration of George Bush Jr.
From a more local perspective it is entirely fair of me to point out that “blind pursuit of profit” can also be described as selfish, materialistic greed. And that “the failure of financial supervision” was a completely intentional policy of the Republicans. The misguided and now fully discredited concept of deregulation deliberately eliminated all sorts of vital government regulations in the name of the god of market fundamentals and trickle down economics.
“Low savings” are obvious if you look at the amount owed to credit card companies, and “high consumption” could also be described as unnecessary wastefulness. Such as driving a large inefficient pickup truck or an SUV which gets horrible fuel economy.
But the mostly wealthy Republicans still have their eyes closed and are living in the past. Yesterday in the American House of Representatives, every single Republican voted against President Obama’s plan to help get the economy back on track. Every one of them. These old geezers really are clueless. Lost in space.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Republican Party Decline
The Republicans remind me of the Jethro Tull song "Living In The Past."
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In America the Republican Congressmen and Senators appear to still be living in the George Bush era. They have begun making it clear that they have no desire to make any real compromises in the interests of the American people.
The Republican leaders are still playing the same old games. They can’t seem to get out of that loser era. If anything is good for the middle and working classes they have a knee jerk reaction to oppose it. Any policies which are not geared towards the wealthy are rejected out of hand.
The manner in which the Republicans are behaving is probably rational from their own narrow self-interest standpoint. If one is only interested in remaining in power, and the concept of being a statesman who does things for the good of the country is laughable, then their behavior is completely appropriate. The vast majority of campaign contributions the Republicans receive come from the greed-driven wealthy classes. So they do not have much interest in doing anything simply for the good of the country or to help out people who are down on their luck.
George Bush was without any doubt the very worst president in modern times. Because he represented the real ideas of the Republican party they have been in serious decline. Continuing with the same old games which favor the super rich over the middle classes will only put more nails in the coffin of the Republicans.
Their ideas of trickle down economics have been thoroughly discredited. Many of these old geezers are completely set in their ways. They just can’t accept any new ideas or adjust to changing times. It is so revolting and sad to watch. I have gotten to the point where I sometimes simply press the mute button when these sad old dinosaurs come on the TV screen.
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In America the Republican Congressmen and Senators appear to still be living in the George Bush era. They have begun making it clear that they have no desire to make any real compromises in the interests of the American people.
The Republican leaders are still playing the same old games. They can’t seem to get out of that loser era. If anything is good for the middle and working classes they have a knee jerk reaction to oppose it. Any policies which are not geared towards the wealthy are rejected out of hand.
The manner in which the Republicans are behaving is probably rational from their own narrow self-interest standpoint. If one is only interested in remaining in power, and the concept of being a statesman who does things for the good of the country is laughable, then their behavior is completely appropriate. The vast majority of campaign contributions the Republicans receive come from the greed-driven wealthy classes. So they do not have much interest in doing anything simply for the good of the country or to help out people who are down on their luck.
George Bush was without any doubt the very worst president in modern times. Because he represented the real ideas of the Republican party they have been in serious decline. Continuing with the same old games which favor the super rich over the middle classes will only put more nails in the coffin of the Republicans.
Their ideas of trickle down economics have been thoroughly discredited. Many of these old geezers are completely set in their ways. They just can’t accept any new ideas or adjust to changing times. It is so revolting and sad to watch. I have gotten to the point where I sometimes simply press the mute button when these sad old dinosaurs come on the TV screen.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
American Television
Much of my life I didn’t watch hardly any TV. Like maybe once a month. Now that I’m retired I have more time, so I have started watching some TV. There is an awful lot of really hard core, mind numbing trash on. But there are some good shows too. For the last 15 years I lived in Europe and I had satellite TV. Hundreds of channels. But I was working so I didn’t watch much other than the Animal Planet, National Geographic, and the BBC.
Here in America I am now just a retired old man living on a very modest income. So I haven’t got cable TV or satellite TV. All of what I watch is free over the air. The big problem with TV is the commercials. The volume is turned up much louder during the commercials, and they take come on all throughout the shows. Total time is sometimes almost half of the show.
If you buy a digital video recorder (DVR) then you can just simply fast forward past the commercials. You can press pause if you need to go the toilet or if the show gets a little too exciting. If you get a Tivo you have to pay them monthly fees, but it is also possible to legally purchase a DVR. This is what I did. The DVR makes watching television a truly pleasurable experience, instead of a constantly frustrating experience, with the continual loud interruption of the many, many commercials.
Here is my list of the genuinely first class and enjoyable programs that are on American TV at the moment:
Bones
24
House
My name is Earl
30 Rock
Knight Rider
Chuck
Fringe
Meet The Press
Saturday Night Live
Late night I prefer Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson (who hosts the late-late show). I record Craig Ferguson, since I very rarely am awake when his show comes on. Then I watch him the following day, usually mid-afternoon.
The Public Broadcasting System has some good programs too:
Nova
E Squared
Jim Lehrer
Gwen Eifel
Bill Moyers
Tavis Smiley
BBC World News
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Here in America I am now just a retired old man living on a very modest income. So I haven’t got cable TV or satellite TV. All of what I watch is free over the air. The big problem with TV is the commercials. The volume is turned up much louder during the commercials, and they take come on all throughout the shows. Total time is sometimes almost half of the show.
If you buy a digital video recorder (DVR) then you can just simply fast forward past the commercials. You can press pause if you need to go the toilet or if the show gets a little too exciting. If you get a Tivo you have to pay them monthly fees, but it is also possible to legally purchase a DVR. This is what I did. The DVR makes watching television a truly pleasurable experience, instead of a constantly frustrating experience, with the continual loud interruption of the many, many commercials.
Here is my list of the genuinely first class and enjoyable programs that are on American TV at the moment:
Bones
24
House
My name is Earl
30 Rock
Knight Rider
Chuck
Fringe
Meet The Press
Saturday Night Live
Late night I prefer Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson (who hosts the late-late show). I record Craig Ferguson, since I very rarely am awake when his show comes on. Then I watch him the following day, usually mid-afternoon.
The Public Broadcasting System has some good programs too:
Nova
E Squared
Jim Lehrer
Gwen Eifel
Bill Moyers
Tavis Smiley
BBC World News
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Homer Land Security
While I was out walking the dog this morning this fellow with the Border Patrol was checking me out. 
I guess that an old white guy out walking his dog, carrying a Nikon camera, and wearing an Obama baseball cap looks like a potential terrorist threat.
“Homeland” is the kind of word that only a semi-illiterate guy like Homer Simpson or the disgraced President Bush II could come up with.
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I guess that an old white guy out walking his dog, carrying a Nikon camera, and wearing an Obama baseball cap looks like a potential terrorist threat.
“Homeland” is the kind of word that only a semi-illiterate guy like Homer Simpson or the disgraced President Bush II could come up with.
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
The Worldwide Financial Crisis
What has caused the financial meltdown? --We have to understand this if we are going to fix the problem and then make sure that it doesn’t come back again in just a few years. What began as purely an American problem which was caused by deregulation, greed, and living beyond our means has now grown into a full-blown global recession.
The American president Ronald Reagan’s anti-government rhetoric fired up the movement to dismantle the protections of the American government. They gave this the label “deregulation,” said it was good, and encouraged it with almost religious fervor. Once all proper oversight of the financial industry was removed the speculative onslaught began. The now outrageously wealthy speculators have only one God; the God of money and wealth and greed. They have taken from the poor to give to the rich. I call this Reverse Robin Hood.
The cancellation of this essential governmental regulation led to massive financial fraud. To solve the problem the people who were responsible need to be held accountable for their fraudulent behavior. They need to do jail time. We can’t just turn our heads this time.
The God of Greed led companies to move their manufacturing operations overseas. This was convenient and profitable, because poor Mexicans or Chinese children don’t get paid the American minimum wage. Nor does anyone worry much about pesky subjects like workplace safety or protecting the environment. This loss of manufacturing coupled with the massive spiraling of debt led to the bankruptcy of the real economy.
So more and more people are beginning to lose their jobs. This means that they can’t pay their mortgage so they lose their houses (and marriages). The same Republican anti-government philosophy of greed led to massive underfunding of social service agencies, so the government does not have the staff or money to do much at all to help these unfortunate members of society.
Individual people, companies, and governments (city, county, state, federal) have all been living far beyond their means; for a long time. Dick Cheney once said that the federal debt was irrelevant.
With the castrated government regulators fully aware of what was going on, people were encouraged to borrow more than they could possibly ever pay back in order to buy big homes, big terrible-fuel-economy vehicles, big screen TVs, and all the latest gadgets and boy toys. Before this economic crisis can be genuinely solved, this excessive debt burden has to be paid off down to manageable levels.
The consumer has seen the minimum payments of his credit cards beginning to rise, and he is worried that he may be next one to lose his job. So finally he is starting to behave in a somewhat rational manner: He has begun slowing down his wasteful spending on silly, useless, soon to be obsolete toys. This slowing of consumer purchases is bankrupting lots of companies from General Motors to Circuit City.
The lower, working, and middle classes include any family earning about $150,000 per year or less. These people are seeing the gap between themselves and the super-rich increasing each year. Wealth in America is being concentrated, just like in Mexico and the Central American dictatorships. Democracy is dependent upon a strong middle class and a well educated electorate.
The percent of people covered by reliable and safely funded pension plans has gone down strikingly in the last 30 years. So has the percentage of people who have health insurance and good access to health care in America. Many millions of people now have no access at all to the health care system.
Religious and ethnic wars all around the world have made the bellicose Republicans get involved in military conflicts all over the place. And instead of raising taxes to pay for this massive military effort like was done in prior wars, the loser and mentally incompetent President George W. Bush actually reduced taxes. Of course he did this mostly for the wealthiest members of society.
It has taken at least 30 years of profligate living and spending to get ourselves into this mess. The now discredited concept of deregulation allowed it to grow exponentially.
Anyone who thinks that this horrible situation will be solved in a year or so just by taking on even more governmental debt is delusional. Yes, short term we do need to do even more deficit spending. But long term the manufacturing needs to come back to America. And the government needs to begin doing what it is supposed to do: Protect the average citizen from fraud by the greedy, rich, and powerful. And we need to begin living within our means again.
This is going to take some time. Even with a Super Star like Obama at the helm. In two terms (eight years) can he make some real progress? Yes. If he gets genuine cooperation from the greedy bastards on the Right Wing.
But if not….
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The American president Ronald Reagan’s anti-government rhetoric fired up the movement to dismantle the protections of the American government. They gave this the label “deregulation,” said it was good, and encouraged it with almost religious fervor. Once all proper oversight of the financial industry was removed the speculative onslaught began. The now outrageously wealthy speculators have only one God; the God of money and wealth and greed. They have taken from the poor to give to the rich. I call this Reverse Robin Hood.
The cancellation of this essential governmental regulation led to massive financial fraud. To solve the problem the people who were responsible need to be held accountable for their fraudulent behavior. They need to do jail time. We can’t just turn our heads this time.
The God of Greed led companies to move their manufacturing operations overseas. This was convenient and profitable, because poor Mexicans or Chinese children don’t get paid the American minimum wage. Nor does anyone worry much about pesky subjects like workplace safety or protecting the environment. This loss of manufacturing coupled with the massive spiraling of debt led to the bankruptcy of the real economy.
So more and more people are beginning to lose their jobs. This means that they can’t pay their mortgage so they lose their houses (and marriages). The same Republican anti-government philosophy of greed led to massive underfunding of social service agencies, so the government does not have the staff or money to do much at all to help these unfortunate members of society.
Individual people, companies, and governments (city, county, state, federal) have all been living far beyond their means; for a long time. Dick Cheney once said that the federal debt was irrelevant.
With the castrated government regulators fully aware of what was going on, people were encouraged to borrow more than they could possibly ever pay back in order to buy big homes, big terrible-fuel-economy vehicles, big screen TVs, and all the latest gadgets and boy toys. Before this economic crisis can be genuinely solved, this excessive debt burden has to be paid off down to manageable levels.
The consumer has seen the minimum payments of his credit cards beginning to rise, and he is worried that he may be next one to lose his job. So finally he is starting to behave in a somewhat rational manner: He has begun slowing down his wasteful spending on silly, useless, soon to be obsolete toys. This slowing of consumer purchases is bankrupting lots of companies from General Motors to Circuit City.
The lower, working, and middle classes include any family earning about $150,000 per year or less. These people are seeing the gap between themselves and the super-rich increasing each year. Wealth in America is being concentrated, just like in Mexico and the Central American dictatorships. Democracy is dependent upon a strong middle class and a well educated electorate.
The percent of people covered by reliable and safely funded pension plans has gone down strikingly in the last 30 years. So has the percentage of people who have health insurance and good access to health care in America. Many millions of people now have no access at all to the health care system.
Religious and ethnic wars all around the world have made the bellicose Republicans get involved in military conflicts all over the place. And instead of raising taxes to pay for this massive military effort like was done in prior wars, the loser and mentally incompetent President George W. Bush actually reduced taxes. Of course he did this mostly for the wealthiest members of society.
It has taken at least 30 years of profligate living and spending to get ourselves into this mess. The now discredited concept of deregulation allowed it to grow exponentially.
Anyone who thinks that this horrible situation will be solved in a year or so just by taking on even more governmental debt is delusional. Yes, short term we do need to do even more deficit spending. But long term the manufacturing needs to come back to America. And the government needs to begin doing what it is supposed to do: Protect the average citizen from fraud by the greedy, rich, and powerful. And we need to begin living within our means again.
This is going to take some time. Even with a Super Star like Obama at the helm. In two terms (eight years) can he make some real progress? Yes. If he gets genuine cooperation from the greedy bastards on the Right Wing.
But if not….
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Juarez, Mexico
The newspaper Norte de Ciudad Juarez has reported some comparative murder rates. The Juarez murder rate is 11 times the national average in Mexico and more than 25 times the international average of number of murders per 100,000 population. This makes Juarez one of the most violent cities in the world.
The Houston Chronicle says, “In this carnage-racked border city of 1.3 million, more than 80 murders have been clocked in the past three weeks, and kidnappings, extortions, robberies and rapes further bedevil an already rattled population.” http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6228949.html
Several times each week I drive down the border highway in El Paso, Texas. This is a 4-lane divided highway which parallels Interstate 10. It runs right next to Mexico. I mean like just 10 or 15 meters away. I like the border highway because I can drive along very slowly to improve my fuel economy. Technically the speed limit is 60 mph (approx 100 kilometers per hour) but no one really cares if you do 45 mpg (72 kph). And there are plenty of other poor Mexicans driving slowly right along with me.
I have genuine compassion for people who need a helping hand. So I have racked my brain trying to find something I can do to help these people. But I have not come up with any good ideas.
So what do I do? What with all the carjacking, murder, and beheading it is just plain sensible to be careful. So I try to avoid late nights and weird places. I also always carry a concealed hand gun. (I do have a license to carry this concealed firearm.)
To some of my fellow progressives I’m sure this sounds absolutely terrible, but it is just realistic. I am an old man now. I don’t move as fast as I used to. I am not out looking for trouble, for sure. But if some young drugged up lunatic wants to fuck with me and try to harm me, he will learn that he has come to the wrong place.
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The Houston Chronicle says, “In this carnage-racked border city of 1.3 million, more than 80 murders have been clocked in the past three weeks, and kidnappings, extortions, robberies and rapes further bedevil an already rattled population.” http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6228949.html
Several times each week I drive down the border highway in El Paso, Texas. This is a 4-lane divided highway which parallels Interstate 10. It runs right next to Mexico. I mean like just 10 or 15 meters away. I like the border highway because I can drive along very slowly to improve my fuel economy. Technically the speed limit is 60 mph (approx 100 kilometers per hour) but no one really cares if you do 45 mpg (72 kph). And there are plenty of other poor Mexicans driving slowly right along with me.
I have genuine compassion for people who need a helping hand. So I have racked my brain trying to find something I can do to help these people. But I have not come up with any good ideas.
So what do I do? What with all the carjacking, murder, and beheading it is just plain sensible to be careful. So I try to avoid late nights and weird places. I also always carry a concealed hand gun. (I do have a license to carry this concealed firearm.)
To some of my fellow progressives I’m sure this sounds absolutely terrible, but it is just realistic. I am an old man now. I don’t move as fast as I used to. I am not out looking for trouble, for sure. But if some young drugged up lunatic wants to fuck with me and try to harm me, he will learn that he has come to the wrong place.
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
Exodus
If you have compassion for all of the Mexicans who try to get to America just to improve themselves and their families, you should read the new book by Charles Bowden called Exodus. The first words in the book are, "I want to thank all the Mexicans who taught me the pain of leaving home and the struggle required to find a new home."
Having lived abroad for many years this hit home.
This is a glossy coffee table book which has a lot of nice pictures, but also excellent text. I recommend it highly.
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Freedom Of Speech
Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan the U.S.A. has backslid terribly on basic human rights and adherence to the rules outlined in the American constitution.
But in one area America is still ahead of much of the rest of the world. Not the very best, but certainly well up near the top.
Sensibly one cannot yell “FIRE” in a crowded theater just as a hoax. And there are other limits on free speech in America.
Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil of PBS can interview pretty much whoever they want, and they can say pretty much whatever they want too. If the American people choose to play video games, drink beer, or smoke pot rather than listen these guys, that is their ignorant right. But they should be aware that a well educated electorate is essential in order to maintain a properly functioning democracy. Ignorance breeds totalitarianism.
Free speech is only a dream in China. In fact those ignorant bastards even censored Obama’s inaugural speech!
In parts of South America, Africa, the middle east, the former USSR, and Asia much the same thing applies. You could end up in jail (or disappeared) if you say who the corrupt politicians are. Freedom of speech and a free press /TV are just fond dreams, nothing more.
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But in one area America is still ahead of much of the rest of the world. Not the very best, but certainly well up near the top.
Sensibly one cannot yell “FIRE” in a crowded theater just as a hoax. And there are other limits on free speech in America.
Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil of PBS can interview pretty much whoever they want, and they can say pretty much whatever they want too. If the American people choose to play video games, drink beer, or smoke pot rather than listen these guys, that is their ignorant right. But they should be aware that a well educated electorate is essential in order to maintain a properly functioning democracy. Ignorance breeds totalitarianism.
Free speech is only a dream in China. In fact those ignorant bastards even censored Obama’s inaugural speech!
In parts of South America, Africa, the middle east, the former USSR, and Asia much the same thing applies. You could end up in jail (or disappeared) if you say who the corrupt politicians are. Freedom of speech and a free press /TV are just fond dreams, nothing more.
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CAPITALS, lower case letters, and Proper Punctuation
Many young people (and some old geezers too) nowadays think that it makes them seem cool or hip if they refuse to capitalize the first letter of a sentence.
I even know young people who are school teachers who sometimes write without using any capital letters. School teachers! Can you imagine? No wonder kids get out of school not having learned anything today.
I have some news for those people who think that using only lower case (or all upper case) letters when typing makes them seem up-do-date, hip, or cool.
It makes them look lazy, ignorant, self-centered, and stupid. Using both upper and lower case letters, along with proper punctuation, makes what is written down be much more readable and far more understandable. Communication is greatly improved.
So if you don’t care at all whether people will understand what you are writing, and you are too lazy to hit the Shift key, then don’t use any capital letters. It will make the reader’s job more difficult, proving that you are self-centered too.
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I even know young people who are school teachers who sometimes write without using any capital letters. School teachers! Can you imagine? No wonder kids get out of school not having learned anything today.
I have some news for those people who think that using only lower case (or all upper case) letters when typing makes them seem up-do-date, hip, or cool.
It makes them look lazy, ignorant, self-centered, and stupid. Using both upper and lower case letters, along with proper punctuation, makes what is written down be much more readable and far more understandable. Communication is greatly improved.
So if you don’t care at all whether people will understand what you are writing, and you are too lazy to hit the Shift key, then don’t use any capital letters. It will make the reader’s job more difficult, proving that you are self-centered too.
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Fascism In America?
Several weeks ago someone who I have a great deal of respect for told me that he thought America had become a fascist country. Thinking of the excesses of Hitler, the gas chambers of Nazi Germany which murdered so many people, and the other fascists from the WWII era I responded to him that, “While America has a great many problems, I feel that using the word fascism to describe the American political system is grammatically incorrect. A bit excessive.”
This conversation (by email) has been playing over in my mind off-and-on since then.
I hold a University Baccalaureate degree in Political Science (Honors). But I earned this degree 40 years ago, and now in 2009 I couldn’t really come up with a satisfactory and concrete definition for fascism. So this morning I did some research on the subject. It turns out that I am not alone. There is significant disagreement among authorities about how to define the word.
However, the more I looked into it, the more I kept finding very uncomfortable similarities between what America actually does in real life and many of the concepts of fascism.
Since the administration of President Ronald Reagan, America has been increasingly ruled by authoritarians. These men have radically increased the power of the president, to the detriment of the Congress and the average person (i.e., the voter). The separation between church and state mandated in our Constitution has been intentionally weakened and in some cases almost totally dismantled.
There has been an ongoing redistribution of wealth. Despite what the right wing types tell us, this has not been the Robin Hood kind if redistribution from rich to poor, but from the working and middle classes to the top 5% of wealthiest people in America.
Each decade a smaller percent of Americans have employer paid health care or reliable pensions which will provide for a retirement in dignity.
Deregulation of the financial system has resulted in massive fraud. The old, poor, the weak, and the poorly educated members of society are the most visible targets. Their meager wealth has been openly stolen by the wealthiest members of society.
Deregulation of business has meant that the human food supply in America is no longer regarded as the safest in the world. Children’s toys made in China and imported into America continue to be found to have grossly excessive levels of lead in them.
Important elections have been openly stolen against the will of the people. See Bush vs. Gore in Florida.
Militarism has grown and concepts like preemptive strikes or preemptive wars no longer seem particularly anti-American to many people. Secret prisons and indefinite detention without any recourse to the legal system have become a reality. So has torture and rendition of suspects to countries which openly do torture.
Torture forces one to self-incriminate, even though this is prohibited by the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Torture of enemy combatants and of political prisoners has been supported from the very top of government - the President and Vice President. And most of the career military was all too happy to go along. Even top TV shows like the wildly popular “24” now tacitly support the concept of using violence and torturing confessions out of people.
Rampant government wire tapping of telephone calls and email without prior court orders or proper court oversight has become routine. This has been proven not just to be overseas phone calls and emails, but also domestic phone and email traffic.
Even though the people in power have claimed to be devoutly and wildly religious, they no longer show basic Christian compassion for the weak, the meek, or the poor. Each year the gap between the super rich and the normal person grows. Each year the percent of American citizens who do not have health insurance or access to adequate health care grows.
The percentage of taxes paid by the rich is now much smaller than the percentage of taxes paid by working class people. FAR lower. So this transfer of wealth from the middle class to the super wealthy continues.
So has America become a fascist state? Probably, in many ways. But I still think that using this word is excessively inflammatory. If we are going to solve the massive problems that America currently faces, we need to try and gather together as many supporters as possible. And intentionally using inflammatory language alienates most people.
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This conversation (by email) has been playing over in my mind off-and-on since then.
I hold a University Baccalaureate degree in Political Science (Honors). But I earned this degree 40 years ago, and now in 2009 I couldn’t really come up with a satisfactory and concrete definition for fascism. So this morning I did some research on the subject. It turns out that I am not alone. There is significant disagreement among authorities about how to define the word.
However, the more I looked into it, the more I kept finding very uncomfortable similarities between what America actually does in real life and many of the concepts of fascism.
Since the administration of President Ronald Reagan, America has been increasingly ruled by authoritarians. These men have radically increased the power of the president, to the detriment of the Congress and the average person (i.e., the voter). The separation between church and state mandated in our Constitution has been intentionally weakened and in some cases almost totally dismantled.
There has been an ongoing redistribution of wealth. Despite what the right wing types tell us, this has not been the Robin Hood kind if redistribution from rich to poor, but from the working and middle classes to the top 5% of wealthiest people in America.
Each decade a smaller percent of Americans have employer paid health care or reliable pensions which will provide for a retirement in dignity.
Deregulation of the financial system has resulted in massive fraud. The old, poor, the weak, and the poorly educated members of society are the most visible targets. Their meager wealth has been openly stolen by the wealthiest members of society.
Deregulation of business has meant that the human food supply in America is no longer regarded as the safest in the world. Children’s toys made in China and imported into America continue to be found to have grossly excessive levels of lead in them.
Important elections have been openly stolen against the will of the people. See Bush vs. Gore in Florida.
Militarism has grown and concepts like preemptive strikes or preemptive wars no longer seem particularly anti-American to many people. Secret prisons and indefinite detention without any recourse to the legal system have become a reality. So has torture and rendition of suspects to countries which openly do torture.
Torture forces one to self-incriminate, even though this is prohibited by the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Torture of enemy combatants and of political prisoners has been supported from the very top of government - the President and Vice President. And most of the career military was all too happy to go along. Even top TV shows like the wildly popular “24” now tacitly support the concept of using violence and torturing confessions out of people.
Rampant government wire tapping of telephone calls and email without prior court orders or proper court oversight has become routine. This has been proven not just to be overseas phone calls and emails, but also domestic phone and email traffic.
Even though the people in power have claimed to be devoutly and wildly religious, they no longer show basic Christian compassion for the weak, the meek, or the poor. Each year the gap between the super rich and the normal person grows. Each year the percent of American citizens who do not have health insurance or access to adequate health care grows.
The percentage of taxes paid by the rich is now much smaller than the percentage of taxes paid by working class people. FAR lower. So this transfer of wealth from the middle class to the super wealthy continues.
So has America become a fascist state? Probably, in many ways. But I still think that using this word is excessively inflammatory. If we are going to solve the massive problems that America currently faces, we need to try and gather together as many supporters as possible. And intentionally using inflammatory language alienates most people.
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Friday, January 23, 2009
Predatory Lending
Government Deregulation = Predatory Lending -to the very most vulnerable people in our society. The old, the sick, the unemployed, and the people who are already poverty stricken.
The financial institutions make loans to people who can’t possibly afford to pay back the loan. And charge the borrower exorbitant fees for doing them this “favor.”
Now, what was it you were trying to explain to me about the wonders of the free market and capitalism?
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It has gotten hard to tell the difference between the bankers and the crooks. They both are looking more and more alike.
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The financial institutions make loans to people who can’t possibly afford to pay back the loan. And charge the borrower exorbitant fees for doing them this “favor.”
Now, what was it you were trying to explain to me about the wonders of the free market and capitalism?
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It has gotten hard to tell the difference between the bankers and the crooks. They both are looking more and more alike.
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The Pope on You Tube
The Pope has his own channel on You Tube now.
I am not a Catholic. Even though I was raised as a Christian it would be a real stretch now to even say I am a Christian. In fact I think that ALL organized religions are basically harmful. Some more than others.
As soon as you start getting organized, building buildings to worship in, writing sacred documents, and making some people more powerful in the hierarchy than others, taking up financial contributions, etc., you are sunk.
So I am not saying what I do or do not believe in, other than I absolutely do not believe in Organized religions. They suck. Big time.
I do believe in Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He is a well educated man with a lot of experience all over the world. And he is a HUMBLE man. I am delighted that he now has his own You Tube channel.
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/vatican
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I am not a Catholic. Even though I was raised as a Christian it would be a real stretch now to even say I am a Christian. In fact I think that ALL organized religions are basically harmful. Some more than others.
As soon as you start getting organized, building buildings to worship in, writing sacred documents, and making some people more powerful in the hierarchy than others, taking up financial contributions, etc., you are sunk.
So I am not saying what I do or do not believe in, other than I absolutely do not believe in Organized religions. They suck. Big time.
I do believe in Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He is a well educated man with a lot of experience all over the world. And he is a HUMBLE man. I am delighted that he now has his own You Tube channel.
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/vatican
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President Obama's New PDA
Mr. President has been issued a new NSA certified PDA to replace his tired old lame civilian Blackberry.
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This is really James Bond stuff.
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Check out his new tricked-out cell phone:
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
Who Is Visiting This Blog?
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The internet is just so incredible!
I now have my blog set up so that it tracks where visitors are located. I can’t tell exactly who is looking at the blog, but I can track where they are. And not just what country they are in, but actually what street in what town!
A great many of the visitors I get to this blog are from abroad. I can even get a map showing where the last 100 visitors were located.
Amazing!
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The internet is just so incredible!
I now have my blog set up so that it tracks where visitors are located. I can’t tell exactly who is looking at the blog, but I can track where they are. And not just what country they are in, but actually what street in what town!
A great many of the visitors I get to this blog are from abroad. I can even get a map showing where the last 100 visitors were located.Amazing!
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The Human Brain
The human brain is such an amazing organ.
I just turned 60 years old. As a young man during the Vietnam war era I smoked my share of pot and then some. For much of my adult life I drank a little more alcohol than what was good for me. So it would be normal to think that my brain would be on the declining side of the curve. And I am sure that it is!
When I was about 9 or 10 my dad and I experimented with thermocouples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple Now it is fifty years later. Lots of images and subjects have been stored in my tired old brain since then.
This morning when I went to wash my glasses prior to taking a shower I realized that the hot water was barely warm. I spent the next hour or so trying to get the hot water heater to stay lit. I took much of it apart, cleaned it, etc. But the gas heater still would not remain lit.
In diagnosing it everything seemed to point to the thermocouple. Thermocouples in 2009 look just exactly like they did fifty years ago. So I went to the plumbing supply store. For about $500- I could buy a new hot water heater. It would probably take me at least half a day or longer to install it, but doing it myself would no doubt save me at least another $500- not spent with the plumber. For a little less than $11- I could buy a universal thermocouple. So I decided to try this first.
I got home, installed it, and the hot water heater is back working perfectly. So today I saved myself enough to pay for that new Nikon lens I bought last week. If you include the labor of not calling a plumber I could have bought two of them.
All because of something I learned from my father fifty years ago. Amazing.
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I just turned 60 years old. As a young man during the Vietnam war era I smoked my share of pot and then some. For much of my adult life I drank a little more alcohol than what was good for me. So it would be normal to think that my brain would be on the declining side of the curve. And I am sure that it is!
When I was about 9 or 10 my dad and I experimented with thermocouples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple Now it is fifty years later. Lots of images and subjects have been stored in my tired old brain since then.
This morning when I went to wash my glasses prior to taking a shower I realized that the hot water was barely warm. I spent the next hour or so trying to get the hot water heater to stay lit. I took much of it apart, cleaned it, etc. But the gas heater still would not remain lit.
In diagnosing it everything seemed to point to the thermocouple. Thermocouples in 2009 look just exactly like they did fifty years ago. So I went to the plumbing supply store. For about $500- I could buy a new hot water heater. It would probably take me at least half a day or longer to install it, but doing it myself would no doubt save me at least another $500- not spent with the plumber. For a little less than $11- I could buy a universal thermocouple. So I decided to try this first.
I got home, installed it, and the hot water heater is back working perfectly. So today I saved myself enough to pay for that new Nikon lens I bought last week. If you include the labor of not calling a plumber I could have bought two of them.
All because of something I learned from my father fifty years ago. Amazing.
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Racism In America
I am still receiving anti-black emails from people who are intelligent, well educated, and have a lot of life experience. Another one was waiting for me in my inbox when I got up this morning. Obama getting elected as President seems to have increased this.
The people that write these try to make them appear intelligent, subtle, and compassionate. But they are just the latest chapter in pure old good time ignorant American racism. If I were to answer these emails back with a similar “subtle and compassionate” critique showing the negative stereotypes of Jews or Mexicans or whatever their own background is, no doubt all communication would cease. And friendships would be destroyed.
The friends who forward me these emails apparently have no idea that other people are looking at them and thinking, “Wow, this jerk is not very bright. Living in the past. This is just a narrow-minded racist. And she/he forgets that his own parents were ethnic immigrants from ________.”
I guess it is time to summarize my own life experience in dealing with people who have a different skin color, or religion, or country of origin.
Over the course of my life and career I have really been very fortunate. I have had the pleasure of knowing closely a lot of people from Mexico. And many Jews, Muslims, and a few Hindus. Also lots of Blacks from the deep south. During the almost twenty years that I lived in Europe I got to know many Europeans from Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Scandinavia, and Italy. I developed friendships with dark skinned people of the Muslim faith who had grown up in Afghanistan, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Turkey, and Iraq. I could go on-and-on but it wouldn’t serve any real purpose.
What I have learned by interacting with all these people of different skin color, national origins, and faiths is that people are people. Everywhere. They are 99.9% the same. There are a few bad apples, but for the most part all people just want to lead decent lives with a certain amount of dignity and self respect. They want to raise children and provide for them well.
It really is no different among Blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Germans, Muslims, or Turks.
It is so sad to see these comfortable bigots forwarding on these racist emails. They seem to think that they are doing something positive for society by doing so. They are so out of touch that they don’t realize that this is exactly what the Nazi storm troopers thought. Just doing my job... The same with the KuKluxKlan guys in their white robes who were lynching Jews and Blacks. And the white apartheid guys in South Africa.
They have no idea how harmful it is to society to forward on this racist claptrap. Clueless.
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The people that write these try to make them appear intelligent, subtle, and compassionate. But they are just the latest chapter in pure old good time ignorant American racism. If I were to answer these emails back with a similar “subtle and compassionate” critique showing the negative stereotypes of Jews or Mexicans or whatever their own background is, no doubt all communication would cease. And friendships would be destroyed.
The friends who forward me these emails apparently have no idea that other people are looking at them and thinking, “Wow, this jerk is not very bright. Living in the past. This is just a narrow-minded racist. And she/he forgets that his own parents were ethnic immigrants from ________.”
I guess it is time to summarize my own life experience in dealing with people who have a different skin color, or religion, or country of origin.
Over the course of my life and career I have really been very fortunate. I have had the pleasure of knowing closely a lot of people from Mexico. And many Jews, Muslims, and a few Hindus. Also lots of Blacks from the deep south. During the almost twenty years that I lived in Europe I got to know many Europeans from Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Scandinavia, and Italy. I developed friendships with dark skinned people of the Muslim faith who had grown up in Afghanistan, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Turkey, and Iraq. I could go on-and-on but it wouldn’t serve any real purpose.
What I have learned by interacting with all these people of different skin color, national origins, and faiths is that people are people. Everywhere. They are 99.9% the same. There are a few bad apples, but for the most part all people just want to lead decent lives with a certain amount of dignity and self respect. They want to raise children and provide for them well.
It really is no different among Blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Germans, Muslims, or Turks.
It is so sad to see these comfortable bigots forwarding on these racist emails. They seem to think that they are doing something positive for society by doing so. They are so out of touch that they don’t realize that this is exactly what the Nazi storm troopers thought. Just doing my job... The same with the KuKluxKlan guys in their white robes who were lynching Jews and Blacks. And the white apartheid guys in South Africa.
They have no idea how harmful it is to society to forward on this racist claptrap. Clueless.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Dear Mr. Commander In Chief
I was watching the news tonight on PBS. They interviewed several prominent American military Generals.
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All of these lifers basically said that the desire of President Obama to get out of Iraq promptly is dumb and risky. They seemed to be lecturing him like some young school boy.
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President Obama: We elected you to get us out of Iraq SOON. We weren't kidding. Please.
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Does the military think they are in charge? Screw them and the horse they rode in on.
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All of these lifers basically said that the desire of President Obama to get out of Iraq promptly is dumb and risky. They seemed to be lecturing him like some young school boy.
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President Obama: We elected you to get us out of Iraq SOON. We weren't kidding. Please.
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Does the military think they are in charge? Screw them and the horse they rode in on.
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Is Mexico Becoming A Failed State?
Yesterday in Juarez, two ministerial (state) police were gunned down as they patrolled a major street in their official truck at 10 a.m.
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Also, a man and woman were shot and killed inside their house by a group of men.
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And 3 heads were found inside an ice chest outside the offices of the transit police in Guadalupe, distrito Bravo.
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And a decapitated body was found in a canal.
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Failed State? By way of anaolgy let me say that if it is brown, looks like dog doo, and smells like dog doo, and the doggie is standing nearby looking very guilty, then the chances are really pretty high that it is in fact actually doggie poo.
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Also, a man and woman were shot and killed inside their house by a group of men.
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And 3 heads were found inside an ice chest outside the offices of the transit police in Guadalupe, distrito Bravo.
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And a decapitated body was found in a canal.
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Failed State? By way of anaolgy let me say that if it is brown, looks like dog doo, and smells like dog doo, and the doggie is standing nearby looking very guilty, then the chances are really pretty high that it is in fact actually doggie poo.
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Obama Can't Dance
President Obama endeared himself to millions of men around the world yesterday evening.
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This is a guy who has the right stuff. He can easily become president of the Harvard Law Review and the same with America and the entire Free World. He is great at basketball, and he jumps over tall buildings with ease.
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But he has more than a little trepedation when he has to dance in public with his sweetheart.
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President Obama is clearly not a black man, nor is he an oreo cookie. Obama is a man. Just a man. A rather superior specimen I might add, but the color of his skin has no more relevance than his height or weight.
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This is a guy who has the right stuff. He can easily become president of the Harvard Law Review and the same with America and the entire Free World. He is great at basketball, and he jumps over tall buildings with ease.
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But he has more than a little trepedation when he has to dance in public with his sweetheart.
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President Obama is clearly not a black man, nor is he an oreo cookie. Obama is a man. Just a man. A rather superior specimen I might add, but the color of his skin has no more relevance than his height or weight.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
CLL Treatments
The eminent British CLL specialist Dr. Terry Hamblin has provided in a recent blog entry an excellent list of the side effects of the various drugs currently being used to treat this form of leukemia.--- http://mutated-unmuated.blogspot.com/2009/01/side-effects.html
I have met Dr. Hamblin. In fact when I was living in Europe I went over to meet him in England so that he could do prognostic testing on me. He is one of the most respected researchers in the entire world on CLL. He also is a really nice guy who is funny, and a gentleman who it is a real pleasure to spend some time with.
He is able to speak doctor-talk, and also at times can communicate using language that the laity understands. Unfortunately this paper of his describing the side effects of CLL medications is not written in a language that normal well educated patients can understand.
If I were sitting down with Dr. Hamblin to chat and drink a cup of tea here is what I would like to ask him:
(1) Is there verifiable statistical proof which shows that using any of these various toxic treatments measurably increases the life span of CLL patients?
(2) One of the biggest problems with this particular form of leukemia is that it gradually lowers the ability of the body to fight off disease. Over time the immune system gets more and more suppressed. Most of the current chemotherapy treatments reduce even further the proper functioning of the body’s immune system.
So I would like to ask Dr. Hamblin if any of the currently used “treatments” for CLL are proven to significantly increase life span, and at the same time do not reduce the proper functioning of the body’s immune system? Maybe actually make the immune system work even better?
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I am afraid that his reversion to doctor-speak in this article is a camouflage for this basic dilemma.
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Dr. Hamblin was kind enough to respond:
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Hi Paul,
You are right that there has never been a controlled trial comparing any treatment with no treatment, but there is no doubt at all that when patients get very ill with CLL and would die untreated within a matter of weeks, it is sometimes possible to rescue them with chemotherapy, and after that they sometimes live for a very long time.
It is also true that when patients have severe symptoms from CLL, it is usually possible to relieve them with treatment.
What has not been shown in any trial is that using anything other than chlorambucil as first line, extends overall survival.
There are studies that show that people are living longer with CLL than they used to, and part of that increased survival may be due to the fact that we have more and possibly more effective drugs now, but there are other explanations: better supportive care; earlier diagnosis; changes in the definition of CLL etc.
You are also right to say that all treatments of CLL make the immunodeficiency worse, but whether this is a big issue depends very much on the individual patient. For those who start out with a very poor immune system, it obviously is a very important factor, but for other patients, even a big hit on their immune system leaves them better off than are some patients before they start treatment.
That's why treatment is a matter of judgement requiring an experienced physician. You can't do it by applying a formula.
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I have met Dr. Hamblin. In fact when I was living in Europe I went over to meet him in England so that he could do prognostic testing on me. He is one of the most respected researchers in the entire world on CLL. He also is a really nice guy who is funny, and a gentleman who it is a real pleasure to spend some time with.
He is able to speak doctor-talk, and also at times can communicate using language that the laity understands. Unfortunately this paper of his describing the side effects of CLL medications is not written in a language that normal well educated patients can understand.
If I were sitting down with Dr. Hamblin to chat and drink a cup of tea here is what I would like to ask him:
(1) Is there verifiable statistical proof which shows that using any of these various toxic treatments measurably increases the life span of CLL patients?
(2) One of the biggest problems with this particular form of leukemia is that it gradually lowers the ability of the body to fight off disease. Over time the immune system gets more and more suppressed. Most of the current chemotherapy treatments reduce even further the proper functioning of the body’s immune system.
So I would like to ask Dr. Hamblin if any of the currently used “treatments” for CLL are proven to significantly increase life span, and at the same time do not reduce the proper functioning of the body’s immune system? Maybe actually make the immune system work even better?
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I am afraid that his reversion to doctor-speak in this article is a camouflage for this basic dilemma.
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Dr. Hamblin was kind enough to respond:
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Hi Paul,
You are right that there has never been a controlled trial comparing any treatment with no treatment, but there is no doubt at all that when patients get very ill with CLL and would die untreated within a matter of weeks, it is sometimes possible to rescue them with chemotherapy, and after that they sometimes live for a very long time.
It is also true that when patients have severe symptoms from CLL, it is usually possible to relieve them with treatment.
What has not been shown in any trial is that using anything other than chlorambucil as first line, extends overall survival.
There are studies that show that people are living longer with CLL than they used to, and part of that increased survival may be due to the fact that we have more and possibly more effective drugs now, but there are other explanations: better supportive care; earlier diagnosis; changes in the definition of CLL etc.
You are also right to say that all treatments of CLL make the immunodeficiency worse, but whether this is a big issue depends very much on the individual patient. For those who start out with a very poor immune system, it obviously is a very important factor, but for other patients, even a big hit on their immune system leaves them better off than are some patients before they start treatment.
That's why treatment is a matter of judgement requiring an experienced physician. You can't do it by applying a formula.
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January 20, 2009
A lot of people have been commenting on how wonderful it is to get rid of Bush and have Obama instead. The following is one of the best descriptions that I have read. This came to me by e-mail today:
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Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Friends,
This happy, happy day!
We have made it through the Dark Ages and here we are, in one of the most redemptive moments history has ever witnessed. Barack Obama is our best hope to get it right, to heal our national soul, to reach out to the rest of the world with an olive branch instead of shocking brutality.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has worked to make this day happen. For many, the madness goes back, not eight years but twenty-eight years, to the tragic day Reagan was sworn in to dismantle our precious "government of the people" and our beloved way of life.
To all of you who have spoken up and spoken out, who have written letters and marched for peace, for all of you who never gave up, you are the true heroes today. Many of you have suffered great economic losses. Some of you have endured a loved one being shipped overseas to senseless and shameful wars, and thousands of you have seen those loved ones returned home, no longer alive. It has been a heartbreaking time.
But the sun comes out at noon today. The disgraced outgoing president will slide out the side door and head to Crawford to sell the Hollywood set known as the Bush "ranch" before he settles down in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. I would encourage Mr. Bush to issue one final pardon before noon today -- his own. He had better issue a blanket pardon for all crimes that may have been committed since 2001 by himself, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole gang. Serious laws were broken, a war was concocted on a lie, and now, please, justice must be carried out.
So let us move forward and fix the horrible mess we are in. We are fortunate to have a new president who is smart and kind and committed to serving his country. Take a moment today and think about what you can do to join him in helping him do his job. We're all in this together. Our country has been so profoundly wrecked by an administration who decided to mug our constitution and then steal what they can for their Wall Street cronies on the way out the door.
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Here is my plea: Let's not leave Barack Obama alone to clean up the mess. As he takes his oath today, please take one yourself -- to work harder than ever to end these wars, create universal health care, save our planet, end poverty, increase knowledge and establish a true government "of, by and for the people" (instead of "of, by and for the lobbyists, the bankers, and the war profiteers").
12:01 p.m. can't come soon enough! Happy Inauguration Day!
Yours,
Michael Moore
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Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Friends,
This happy, happy day!
We have made it through the Dark Ages and here we are, in one of the most redemptive moments history has ever witnessed. Barack Obama is our best hope to get it right, to heal our national soul, to reach out to the rest of the world with an olive branch instead of shocking brutality.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has worked to make this day happen. For many, the madness goes back, not eight years but twenty-eight years, to the tragic day Reagan was sworn in to dismantle our precious "government of the people" and our beloved way of life.
To all of you who have spoken up and spoken out, who have written letters and marched for peace, for all of you who never gave up, you are the true heroes today. Many of you have suffered great economic losses. Some of you have endured a loved one being shipped overseas to senseless and shameful wars, and thousands of you have seen those loved ones returned home, no longer alive. It has been a heartbreaking time.
But the sun comes out at noon today. The disgraced outgoing president will slide out the side door and head to Crawford to sell the Hollywood set known as the Bush "ranch" before he settles down in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. I would encourage Mr. Bush to issue one final pardon before noon today -- his own. He had better issue a blanket pardon for all crimes that may have been committed since 2001 by himself, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole gang. Serious laws were broken, a war was concocted on a lie, and now, please, justice must be carried out.
So let us move forward and fix the horrible mess we are in. We are fortunate to have a new president who is smart and kind and committed to serving his country. Take a moment today and think about what you can do to join him in helping him do his job. We're all in this together. Our country has been so profoundly wrecked by an administration who decided to mug our constitution and then steal what they can for their Wall Street cronies on the way out the door.
-
Here is my plea: Let's not leave Barack Obama alone to clean up the mess. As he takes his oath today, please take one yourself -- to work harder than ever to end these wars, create universal health care, save our planet, end poverty, increase knowledge and establish a true government "of, by and for the people" (instead of "of, by and for the lobbyists, the bankers, and the war profiteers").
12:01 p.m. can't come soon enough! Happy Inauguration Day!
Yours,
Michael Moore
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Monday, January 19, 2009
Universal Health Care
President Obama is going to be inaugurated tomorrow. This got me to thinking about one of his main campaign promises. Providing health care to all people in America. To begin with, I think the chances that he will succeed in implementing universal health care are about 20%. At best. The Clinton team sure failed miserably, but the Obama administration looks a good bit more competent than the Clintons.
Almost all of my life I have been fully covered. As a child the health insurance provided by my father’s employer was basically 100% of all essentials. All genuine health issues. I doubt that they would have covered breast implants or sex change operations, but if you were sick or injured you knew for sure that the health insurance would pay for the finest medical care available.
For roughly half of my working career the company I worked for paid 100% of the premium for our health insurance. And for the last half of my career I lived in Western Europe where universal health care is a reality. So I am familiar with the different ways that this concept can be implemented.
I believe in the KISS idea. Keep It Simple Stupid. So here in America one way to go about this would be as follows:
We already have universal health care for all people over the age of 65. To start out, one could simply say that anyone who does not already have employer provided health insurance is automatically covered by Medicare. Anyone. Everyone. If this system is good enough for our loved and respected old geezers then it should be good enough for everyone else too.
Of course almost immediately all companies would cease providing health insurance to their employees. That is fine, it will help make companies in America much more competitive with foreign firms operating in those countries which do have government provided universal health care.
Doctors, clinics, and hospitals will have to begin accepting these Medicare patients or they will rapidly go out of business, so there won’t be any need to make it mandatory. But it may be necessary to say to these health care providers that when they are treating a Medicare patient the provider will be compensated only by the government. So they will not be allowed to take some money for the government and then also try to extort additional money from the patients.
Some tweaking to Medicare will probably be necessary. Like having Medicare pay 100% of the cost of all medically necessary medications. Blood pressure medication, antibiotics, cancer medication, etc. Probably not Viagra though. Of course the government will need to bargain for the best pricing.
It could be that simple. What is not quite as simple is how are we going to pay for all this?
The alternative minimum income tax concept needs to be applied to all companies and people with high incomes. Maybe even non-profit foundations like all the rich like to set up. So regardless of the tax shelters or tax planning gimmicks that they employ, they still would have to pay a minimum amount of taxes. Just to pull a number out of the air, say, 30% of total income.
I suggest putting significant import taxes on everything coming into America unless the importer can prove that these items were produced in locations where the employees and their families received proper health care, and that the products were made in locations where environmental laws equivalent to those of America were enforced. The same goes for work place safety regulations, child labor laws, and minimum wage legislation.
These import duties will no doubt be so high on lots of things that many companies who have sent their production offshore will now find that it makes good business sense to go back to producing their products at home here in America.
Taxes on all motor fuels including diesel and gasoline need to be increased substantially. There need to be big federal sales taxes on low fuel economy vehicles. There should be a federal transaction tax for every time that a stock, bond, or derivative is sold. Fattening, unhealthy foods like soft drinks, beer, ice cream, candy, cookies, etc. need to have a large federal tax added to their final sale to the consumer. The same goes for most fast foods. Cigarette taxes need to go up again, at least $2- more per package.
If this doesn’t generate enough revenue, then the legislators should decriminalize recreational drugs like marijuana. Have the FDA control their quality and safety, and impose large taxes. Smoking regulated pot would still be cheaper than buying it illegally from drug dealers.
But like I say, there probably is less than a 20% chance that Obama will be able to implement universal health care. If he fails then it will be fair to say that this was just campaign speak/hype. Sort of like George Bush the First saying, “Read my lips, no new taxes.”
Does all this sound radical? Well, then listen to this. In America we pay higher taxes than the French. To make that statement be true just think of all health care expenses as taxes. In France health care is free.
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Almost all of my life I have been fully covered. As a child the health insurance provided by my father’s employer was basically 100% of all essentials. All genuine health issues. I doubt that they would have covered breast implants or sex change operations, but if you were sick or injured you knew for sure that the health insurance would pay for the finest medical care available.
For roughly half of my working career the company I worked for paid 100% of the premium for our health insurance. And for the last half of my career I lived in Western Europe where universal health care is a reality. So I am familiar with the different ways that this concept can be implemented.
I believe in the KISS idea. Keep It Simple Stupid. So here in America one way to go about this would be as follows:
We already have universal health care for all people over the age of 65. To start out, one could simply say that anyone who does not already have employer provided health insurance is automatically covered by Medicare. Anyone. Everyone. If this system is good enough for our loved and respected old geezers then it should be good enough for everyone else too.
Of course almost immediately all companies would cease providing health insurance to their employees. That is fine, it will help make companies in America much more competitive with foreign firms operating in those countries which do have government provided universal health care.
Doctors, clinics, and hospitals will have to begin accepting these Medicare patients or they will rapidly go out of business, so there won’t be any need to make it mandatory. But it may be necessary to say to these health care providers that when they are treating a Medicare patient the provider will be compensated only by the government. So they will not be allowed to take some money for the government and then also try to extort additional money from the patients.
Some tweaking to Medicare will probably be necessary. Like having Medicare pay 100% of the cost of all medically necessary medications. Blood pressure medication, antibiotics, cancer medication, etc. Probably not Viagra though. Of course the government will need to bargain for the best pricing.
It could be that simple. What is not quite as simple is how are we going to pay for all this?
The alternative minimum income tax concept needs to be applied to all companies and people with high incomes. Maybe even non-profit foundations like all the rich like to set up. So regardless of the tax shelters or tax planning gimmicks that they employ, they still would have to pay a minimum amount of taxes. Just to pull a number out of the air, say, 30% of total income.
I suggest putting significant import taxes on everything coming into America unless the importer can prove that these items were produced in locations where the employees and their families received proper health care, and that the products were made in locations where environmental laws equivalent to those of America were enforced. The same goes for work place safety regulations, child labor laws, and minimum wage legislation.
These import duties will no doubt be so high on lots of things that many companies who have sent their production offshore will now find that it makes good business sense to go back to producing their products at home here in America.
Taxes on all motor fuels including diesel and gasoline need to be increased substantially. There need to be big federal sales taxes on low fuel economy vehicles. There should be a federal transaction tax for every time that a stock, bond, or derivative is sold. Fattening, unhealthy foods like soft drinks, beer, ice cream, candy, cookies, etc. need to have a large federal tax added to their final sale to the consumer. The same goes for most fast foods. Cigarette taxes need to go up again, at least $2- more per package.
If this doesn’t generate enough revenue, then the legislators should decriminalize recreational drugs like marijuana. Have the FDA control their quality and safety, and impose large taxes. Smoking regulated pot would still be cheaper than buying it illegally from drug dealers.
But like I say, there probably is less than a 20% chance that Obama will be able to implement universal health care. If he fails then it will be fair to say that this was just campaign speak/hype. Sort of like George Bush the First saying, “Read my lips, no new taxes.”
Does all this sound radical? Well, then listen to this. In America we pay higher taxes than the French. To make that statement be true just think of all health care expenses as taxes. In France health care is free.
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Ghost Town
I just finished watching the DVD called Ghost Town.
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It is billed as a hilarious romantic comedy. I agree with that 100%. It is a really great movie that I rate A+
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American Presidents
The earliest president I can remember is Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was born in Denison, Texas as the third of seven sons. He graduated from Westpoint. He had been a real powerful man even before becoming president. A five-star general in the United States Army. During the Second World War, he had served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, so he was regarded as a war hero from WWII.
Even with all the power he was not corrupted. He had very successfully retained his dignity and the feeling of being one of us. A common man. Ike was a very decent man with a plain looking but very decent wife. Here was the most powerful politician in the land warning the American people to beware of the growing strength of the “military industrial complex.” Eisenhower was well liked. My little brother was named after him. He was an honest, hard working guy who had made a success of his life.
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John F. Kennedy was magical. In many ways he was much like Obama. An inspirational figure who wasn’t just out for the rich. Camelot and all of that. He also was a war hero and his wife Jackie (Jacqueline Bouvier) was a genuine beauty queen. Both were from the “upper crust.” JFK’s father had made his money illegally during prohibition, but that was easily forgiven. The fact that he was a Catholic and might have the follow the orders of the Pope in Rome was harder for the American people to accept. They finally did though. Of course this idea was complete hogwash, but the American people didn’t realize it at first.
No one realized that he had some serious issues with abuse of prescription drugs because of his WWII back injury. It also was successfully kept quiet that he was friends with the Mafia, using their help to procure women for him (like Marilyn Monroe) and maybe even getting them to try and assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba.
Here was a guy who cared about things like civil rights. A prince. And people had no idea that the little unrest over in French Indochina would turn into the nation-busting Vietnam War.
JFK was idolized, and when he was killed in Dallas the American people felt sort of like on 911. Maybe the Ruskies did this. Maybe the country is under attack. I remember being sent home from school, and not just because of respect for JFK. It was also very much the idea, if this is the end then the kids need to be at home with their families.
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Lyndon B. Johnson was the vice president when Kennedy was killed, so he automatically became president. He was more successful at getting legislation passed than any president in my lifetime. He talked like a hick, but you can’t have everything.
LBJ got the strongest civil rights legislation passed of any president ever. He tried to solve poverty with the great society program. Overall he would have been well remembered except for one little issue. The Vietnam War.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident never happened. It was just various people in the government trying to kiss LBJ’s ass and please him. Sort of like Sadam’s weapons of mass destruction in Iraq under Bush II.
The biggest and most violent protests in the nation’s history took place because the youth of America wanted the Vietnam War ended. Right now. But LBJ was determined to win. Of course at the end the U.S.A. lost it's ass, and we had to retreat with our tail between our legs.
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Richard Nixon was really smart. But he was a weirdo. No friends. The kind of guy who didn’t ever drive hot rod cars, go out drinking or chase women with bad intentions in mind when he was young. He was a dishonest and crafty crook. A lawyer with no regard for truth and justice, just winning at all costs. I hated him back then and I still do today.
Instead of just allowing him to resign and sending him back to California, the son of a bitch should have been hung. Literally. The impeachment process should have continued, and he should have received the death penalty for treason.
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Gerald Ford was a good guy. Pleasant. Lots of dignity. Honest. An ex-football player who was a bit of a clutz. Fell down snow skiing, etc.
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Jimmy Carter was another guy who had never chased pussy or gotten drunk as a young man. A very devout Christian. He cared about all the right things, but he was incompetent as a leader.
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Ronald Reagan was an actor. He could read his lines well. Not a very bright man, but he had worked hard and was well known and a big success long before becoming president.
He is the one who started this now discredited right wing malarkey of trickle down economics, deregulation, etc. But he made us feel good about ourselves and our country.
I called him Ray Guns back then, but when he turned on that voice he could lead you right off the cliff. A good leader but unfortunately not at all smart. He got dememtia. Lots would say that he sort of already was afflicted when he was president.
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George Bush the First had a real high pitched voice. He talked like some kind of wimpy faggot, but his wife Barbara was a real sweet, grey haired, old fat lady. Bush I had been fairly successful in his own right, having been head of the Republican national committee, Ambassador to the United Nations, and head of the CIA before becoming president.
He was smart, just had no idea at all what normal working class people were going through. He was clearly through-and-through a member of the Eastern Establishment. He was the son of a rich and famous senator.
Papa Bush said to the American people when he was in an arrogant, foul mood one day, “Read my lips. No new taxes.” And then the dishonest dumb-ass implemented new taxes. So he didn’t get elected to a second term.
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William Jefferson Clinton was a lawyer who was married to a lawyer. They had one child. Clinton was raised by a working class single mother in Arkansas, and he later became a Rhodes Scholar. He smoked dope during the Vietnam era and chased lots of pussy. His big problem was that he never grew out of the era of chasing women. Maybe a shrink would say that he was some kind of a sex addict. He even got involved with some horny, fat young intern who worked in the White House.
He was dishonest. Slick Willy. The kind of guy who you would buy a used car from but later would regret it. He abused his power as an elected official to get women and to get rich.
He and Hillary had very good ideas about universal healthcare and civil rights, but they were hopelessly incompetent at getting their ideas implemented. Basically an insecure loser posing as Mr. Big Man On Campus. He managed to avoid doing any military service during the Vietnam war.
The rest of the world loved and still loves Bill Clinton. Americans really understood the guy, and they sort of tolerated him. He certainly was never "respected" or thought of as a leader and role model by the American people.
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George W. Bush tried to get into Law School at the University of Texas but was not accepted. He later graduated from Yale and got an MBA from Harvard. Positive proof that you don't need to be smart or hardworking to graduate from these two Ivy League schools. He got out of serving in Vietnam because his daddy was rich and powerful. He flew fighters in the National Guard (when he showed up for work sober).
He worked out and was in good physical shape. He tried recreational drugs when he was younger, but no longer even drank alcohol. He was a Republican who believed that business should be allowed to make money without any pesky government interference. In other words he embodied many of the most deeply held beliefs of lots of Yuppies.
But George Bush II spoke with the accent of a hick from Midland, Texas. So did his wife, as did their two a little bit wild and probably sluttish daughters. No one wanted to think of the first family as trailer park trash, but it was a nagging thought in the back of everyone’s mind. George Junior was a little rich kid who had a powerful daddy. But he was a loser who had never been successful at much of anything except choosing a famous father. At one time some rich friends of his father arranged for him to own and manage a baseball team. He ran it right into the ground.
Bush didn’t read. Didn’t read books, didn’t read briefing materials.-- Just a total fucking loser. The reason that this wanker was elected for a second term was because the Democrats ran an equally unattractive candidate against him, and also because Bush Jr. just happened to be president on watch when the Muslims knocked down the World Trade Center on 911. He didn’t care one bit about civil rights or the U.S. constitution. He and his vice president Dick Cheney authorized the use of torture. They did it a lot. Cheney seemed to get off on it. The country had a bush and a dick in charge. But not a brain.
Bush the Second got the country into a horrible and completely unnecessary war in Iraq that killed thousands of people and almost bankrupted America. And his economic ideas of deregulation destroyed the country’s financial system and shortly thereafter the real economy too.-- This threw the country into the worst recession/depression since the 1930’s.
Baby Bush is the most disliked and biggest loser of a president since Richard Milhouse Nixon. The entire country is heaving one big collective sigh of relief to see this fuckwad finally leaving Washington. As expected, he chose to move to the city where JFK was killed.
Good riddance you misearable asshole.
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Even with all the power he was not corrupted. He had very successfully retained his dignity and the feeling of being one of us. A common man. Ike was a very decent man with a plain looking but very decent wife. Here was the most powerful politician in the land warning the American people to beware of the growing strength of the “military industrial complex.” Eisenhower was well liked. My little brother was named after him. He was an honest, hard working guy who had made a success of his life.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John F. Kennedy was magical. In many ways he was much like Obama. An inspirational figure who wasn’t just out for the rich. Camelot and all of that. He also was a war hero and his wife Jackie (Jacqueline Bouvier) was a genuine beauty queen. Both were from the “upper crust.” JFK’s father had made his money illegally during prohibition, but that was easily forgiven. The fact that he was a Catholic and might have the follow the orders of the Pope in Rome was harder for the American people to accept. They finally did though. Of course this idea was complete hogwash, but the American people didn’t realize it at first.
No one realized that he had some serious issues with abuse of prescription drugs because of his WWII back injury. It also was successfully kept quiet that he was friends with the Mafia, using their help to procure women for him (like Marilyn Monroe) and maybe even getting them to try and assassinate Fidel Castro in Cuba.
Here was a guy who cared about things like civil rights. A prince. And people had no idea that the little unrest over in French Indochina would turn into the nation-busting Vietnam War.
JFK was idolized, and when he was killed in Dallas the American people felt sort of like on 911. Maybe the Ruskies did this. Maybe the country is under attack. I remember being sent home from school, and not just because of respect for JFK. It was also very much the idea, if this is the end then the kids need to be at home with their families.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lyndon B. Johnson was the vice president when Kennedy was killed, so he automatically became president. He was more successful at getting legislation passed than any president in my lifetime. He talked like a hick, but you can’t have everything.
LBJ got the strongest civil rights legislation passed of any president ever. He tried to solve poverty with the great society program. Overall he would have been well remembered except for one little issue. The Vietnam War.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident never happened. It was just various people in the government trying to kiss LBJ’s ass and please him. Sort of like Sadam’s weapons of mass destruction in Iraq under Bush II.
The biggest and most violent protests in the nation’s history took place because the youth of America wanted the Vietnam War ended. Right now. But LBJ was determined to win. Of course at the end the U.S.A. lost it's ass, and we had to retreat with our tail between our legs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Nixon was really smart. But he was a weirdo. No friends. The kind of guy who didn’t ever drive hot rod cars, go out drinking or chase women with bad intentions in mind when he was young. He was a dishonest and crafty crook. A lawyer with no regard for truth and justice, just winning at all costs. I hated him back then and I still do today.
Instead of just allowing him to resign and sending him back to California, the son of a bitch should have been hung. Literally. The impeachment process should have continued, and he should have received the death penalty for treason.
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Gerald Ford was a good guy. Pleasant. Lots of dignity. Honest. An ex-football player who was a bit of a clutz. Fell down snow skiing, etc.
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Jimmy Carter was another guy who had never chased pussy or gotten drunk as a young man. A very devout Christian. He cared about all the right things, but he was incompetent as a leader.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronald Reagan was an actor. He could read his lines well. Not a very bright man, but he had worked hard and was well known and a big success long before becoming president.
He is the one who started this now discredited right wing malarkey of trickle down economics, deregulation, etc. But he made us feel good about ourselves and our country.
I called him Ray Guns back then, but when he turned on that voice he could lead you right off the cliff. A good leader but unfortunately not at all smart. He got dememtia. Lots would say that he sort of already was afflicted when he was president.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George Bush the First had a real high pitched voice. He talked like some kind of wimpy faggot, but his wife Barbara was a real sweet, grey haired, old fat lady. Bush I had been fairly successful in his own right, having been head of the Republican national committee, Ambassador to the United Nations, and head of the CIA before becoming president.
He was smart, just had no idea at all what normal working class people were going through. He was clearly through-and-through a member of the Eastern Establishment. He was the son of a rich and famous senator.
Papa Bush said to the American people when he was in an arrogant, foul mood one day, “Read my lips. No new taxes.” And then the dishonest dumb-ass implemented new taxes. So he didn’t get elected to a second term.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Jefferson Clinton was a lawyer who was married to a lawyer. They had one child. Clinton was raised by a working class single mother in Arkansas, and he later became a Rhodes Scholar. He smoked dope during the Vietnam era and chased lots of pussy. His big problem was that he never grew out of the era of chasing women. Maybe a shrink would say that he was some kind of a sex addict. He even got involved with some horny, fat young intern who worked in the White House.
He was dishonest. Slick Willy. The kind of guy who you would buy a used car from but later would regret it. He abused his power as an elected official to get women and to get rich.
He and Hillary had very good ideas about universal healthcare and civil rights, but they were hopelessly incompetent at getting their ideas implemented. Basically an insecure loser posing as Mr. Big Man On Campus. He managed to avoid doing any military service during the Vietnam war.
The rest of the world loved and still loves Bill Clinton. Americans really understood the guy, and they sort of tolerated him. He certainly was never "respected" or thought of as a leader and role model by the American people.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George W. Bush tried to get into Law School at the University of Texas but was not accepted. He later graduated from Yale and got an MBA from Harvard. Positive proof that you don't need to be smart or hardworking to graduate from these two Ivy League schools. He got out of serving in Vietnam because his daddy was rich and powerful. He flew fighters in the National Guard (when he showed up for work sober).
He worked out and was in good physical shape. He tried recreational drugs when he was younger, but no longer even drank alcohol. He was a Republican who believed that business should be allowed to make money without any pesky government interference. In other words he embodied many of the most deeply held beliefs of lots of Yuppies.
But George Bush II spoke with the accent of a hick from Midland, Texas. So did his wife, as did their two a little bit wild and probably sluttish daughters. No one wanted to think of the first family as trailer park trash, but it was a nagging thought in the back of everyone’s mind. George Junior was a little rich kid who had a powerful daddy. But he was a loser who had never been successful at much of anything except choosing a famous father. At one time some rich friends of his father arranged for him to own and manage a baseball team. He ran it right into the ground.
Bush didn’t read. Didn’t read books, didn’t read briefing materials.-- Just a total fucking loser. The reason that this wanker was elected for a second term was because the Democrats ran an equally unattractive candidate against him, and also because Bush Jr. just happened to be president on watch when the Muslims knocked down the World Trade Center on 911. He didn’t care one bit about civil rights or the U.S. constitution. He and his vice president Dick Cheney authorized the use of torture. They did it a lot. Cheney seemed to get off on it. The country had a bush and a dick in charge. But not a brain.
Bush the Second got the country into a horrible and completely unnecessary war in Iraq that killed thousands of people and almost bankrupted America. And his economic ideas of deregulation destroyed the country’s financial system and shortly thereafter the real economy too.-- This threw the country into the worst recession/depression since the 1930’s.
Baby Bush is the most disliked and biggest loser of a president since Richard Milhouse Nixon. The entire country is heaving one big collective sigh of relief to see this fuckwad finally leaving Washington. As expected, he chose to move to the city where JFK was killed.
Good riddance you misearable asshole.
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Sunday, January 18, 2009
Circuit City
Bankrupt Circuit City Stores Inc. is going into complete liquidation. Thanks to the collapse of the U.S. economy, which was brought on by grossly excessive deregulation and the policies of the disgraced American President George Bush Jr., Circuit City is having to close all of its 567 U.S. electronics stores. This means that 34,000 employees will lose their jobs. Lots of marriages will break up. People will lose their homes. Children will not have health insurance.
But the self centered Republicans don’t care one bit about these “common” people. They just want for the rich to get even richer. Cynical? Yes a bit. But sadly it is true.
Unintended consequences. Bush and his cronies thought that by letting business get away with murder they would prosper and get even wealthier. But the unintended result of this Republican chicanery was the complete collapse of the American financial system and shortly thereafter the collapse of the real American economy too. And as interconnected as the world is in the 21st century, China, India, Europe, Russia, and even the sheiks in the middle east are now suffering too.
I went in my neighborhood Circuit City store this afternoon. Today was the first day of the liquidation. The store was full, but the prices were lousy. They were giving 10% off on cameras. Even at that price you can buy most items a good bit cheaper through Amazon.com
I guess I have gone into Circuit City 6 or 7 times in the two years since I moved back to America. Every single time I went there, the staff were rude to me. It seemed like I knew more about their products than they did. So frankly I’m not terribly sorry to see them go.
One lesson that American business needs to take forward from this Bush Recession-Depression: The customer is KING. -That means be polite; kiss his ass just a little. Treat him with the same common courtesy that you would expect someone to give to your own Mother. --And be honest with him. Genuine honesty is appreciated even more than common courtesy.
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Wal-Mart and Best Buy better wake up too. Be nice to your customers, because if you are not they really do have lots of other options and other places they can go.
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But the self centered Republicans don’t care one bit about these “common” people. They just want for the rich to get even richer. Cynical? Yes a bit. But sadly it is true.
Unintended consequences. Bush and his cronies thought that by letting business get away with murder they would prosper and get even wealthier. But the unintended result of this Republican chicanery was the complete collapse of the American financial system and shortly thereafter the collapse of the real American economy too. And as interconnected as the world is in the 21st century, China, India, Europe, Russia, and even the sheiks in the middle east are now suffering too.
I went in my neighborhood Circuit City store this afternoon. Today was the first day of the liquidation. The store was full, but the prices were lousy. They were giving 10% off on cameras. Even at that price you can buy most items a good bit cheaper through Amazon.com
I guess I have gone into Circuit City 6 or 7 times in the two years since I moved back to America. Every single time I went there, the staff were rude to me. It seemed like I knew more about their products than they did. So frankly I’m not terribly sorry to see them go.
One lesson that American business needs to take forward from this Bush Recession-Depression: The customer is KING. -That means be polite; kiss his ass just a little. Treat him with the same common courtesy that you would expect someone to give to your own Mother. --And be honest with him. Genuine honesty is appreciated even more than common courtesy.
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Wal-Mart and Best Buy better wake up too. Be nice to your customers, because if you are not they really do have lots of other options and other places they can go.
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Thank You For Giving Us Hope Again Mr. Obama
With the inauguration of Obama coming up in two days I thought it would be appropriate to go by the Good Will store on Alameda in El Paso, Texas and take a picture of the mural painted on the building.
It seems like lots of people are suddenly feeling more hopeful. Even some of my cynical, greedy Republicans friends seem to be getting in the mood a little.
President Obama has restored the sense of hope to many people. Thank you Barack!
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It seems like lots of people are suddenly feeling more hopeful. Even some of my cynical, greedy Republicans friends seem to be getting in the mood a little.
President Obama has restored the sense of hope to many people. Thank you Barack!
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Orphaned Roll Of Film
At the flea market this morning I got a good deal on a Pentax F5 camera. This is a 35 mm film SLR which was brought out around 1986. It has TTL metering, has a long zoom lens mounted on it, and the digital displays even still light up. The camera 
probably works fine.
When I got home I opened it up and found that there was a used roll of film inside of it. This has happened to me before, and I have always just thrown the film away. But today I got a really weird feeling. Sort of a Twilight Zone feeling. I thought, “What if this old roll of film contains someone’s baby pictures?”
So I took the roll of 35 mm film over to Walgreens and had it developed on a one hour basis. I have read that it is a good idea to have one’s film developed as soon as possible after taking the pictures. The film developed pretty good, and sure enough, it did have some baby pictures on it!
One’s mind tries to fill in the story. What were all these young men doing out there in the forest? My mind can write either a sex filled horror story or a novel with a happy ending.
How old is this baby now? Where was this beach? I’m sure it is not Loch Ness in Scotland, but the rocks kind of look the same.
What happened to this guy? Probably he was the father. Maybe he was killed in Iraq.
If anyone knows who these people are, please e-mail me. I will mail the pictures to them the old way via stamps and the post office.
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probably works fine.When I got home I opened it up and found that there was a used roll of film inside of it. This has happened to me before, and I have always just thrown the film away. But today I got a really weird feeling. Sort of a Twilight Zone feeling. I thought, “What if this old roll of film contains someone’s baby pictures?”
So I took the roll of 35 mm film over to Walgreens and had it developed on a one hour basis. I have read that it is a good idea to have one’s film developed as soon as possible after taking the pictures. The film developed pretty good, and sure enough, it did have some baby pictures on it!
One’s mind tries to fill in the story. What were all these young men doing out there in the forest? My mind can write either a sex filled horror story or a novel with a happy ending.
How old is this baby now? Where was this beach? I’m sure it is not Loch Ness in Scotland, but the rocks kind of look the same.
What happened to this guy? Probably he was the father. Maybe he was killed in Iraq.
If anyone knows who these people are, please e-mail me. I will mail the pictures to them the old way via stamps and the post office.
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The World Is Getting Smaller
The world is getting smaller all the time. Instantaneous communication to the other side of the globe is now almost ho hum.
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Late yestereday I removed the old counter from this blog and changed it to one which records what country each visitor is from. Don't ask me how it knows. Cookies? Couldn't say. But I know that when I log onto the BBC from a location in America, it knows that I am not in the UK and it won't allow me to view certain videos!
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One thing is certain. Communication by e-mail is not the least bit private. And it is 100% permanent. No matter how hard you try to delete a message you have sent, once you click the SEND button you may as well have published it in the classified ads of the local newspaper.
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This is what the counter looks like right now. If you scroll down a bit, on the left hand side you will see the latest results. Twenty four hours after installing this counter I see that people in 27 countries around the world have already visited my humble blog.
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I would like to extend a most sincere welcome to all yof ou citizens of the world!! Please come back.
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Late yestereday I removed the old counter from this blog and changed it to one which records what country each visitor is from. Don't ask me how it knows. Cookies? Couldn't say. But I know that when I log onto the BBC from a location in America, it knows that I am not in the UK and it won't allow me to view certain videos!
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One thing is certain. Communication by e-mail is not the least bit private. And it is 100% permanent. No matter how hard you try to delete a message you have sent, once you click the SEND button you may as well have published it in the classified ads of the local newspaper.
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This is what the counter looks like right now. If you scroll down a bit, on the left hand side you will see the latest results. Twenty four hours after installing this counter I see that people in 27 countries around the world have already visited my humble blog.
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I would like to extend a most sincere welcome to all yof ou citizens of the world!! Please come back.
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Saturday, January 17, 2009
Extreme Home Makeover - El Paso, Texas
The television show called Extreme Home Makeover on the ABC network in America finds worthy people and either rebuilds their house or starts over completely and makes them a new and really nice place to live.
They are in the process of building a house in El Paso, Texas for a very worthwhile family. The lady of the house has done a great deal of charity work for the orphans in Juarez, Mexico. I haven’t met her, but I certainly have heard and read a lot of good stuff.
So this morning on the way to the flea market I drove by there. There must have been 75 pickup trucks parked nearby, and the police had the streets blocked off so that gawkers like me couldn’t get too close. But the house they have built is visible from a distance. I have no idea when the show will air, but it looks like the house is almost finished.
It is a two story palace. My goodness, this house must have 4,000 square feet of living space. It is absolutely enormous!
I got to thinking about the property taxes on my modest little energy efficient house, as well as the cost of homeowner’s insurance, and the utilities like electricity, water, trash disposal, and natural gas. Without even having a mortgage payment, she will need to earn a pretty good income just to manage to keep that house.
But who knows, maybe there is some independent wealth there or another source of income that is not readily apparent. I hope so, or they have not done her any great favors by building this mansion for her.
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p.s. I was talking with some friends yesterday and they said that these guys tore down an almost perfectly good two story brick house to build this new stucco one. So I guess paying the utilities and property taxes isn't a big problem after all.
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I received the following email on 21 January from a lady who knows the people who had their home redone so I am adding her email to this post:
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Mr Garland
I was reading you review of the Ruiz home in El Paso, Tx. I know the family and I can tell you that their house may have looked fine on the outside, which if you had looked at it close up, it was falling down around them. In fact, the city inspectors said that they would have condemned the house because it Was in such bad shape inside. The Ruiz family had personally built this house with the assistance of their family over 12 years ago. They never finished the inside because they chose to use every bit of their money to help people in need - both in Juarez as well as in Socorro, Tx and the neighbors around her area.
It is so easy for people to speculate without knowing the family - I just wish I was even a fraction of a bit as giving as they have been. I was also a volunteer and spent the entire time working to help give them a house that would give them the tools to continue their ministry.
I just wanted to share this with you. If you would like to talk to me, please email me and I would love to have a further conversation with you.
Frances
LINK: http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index?pn=index
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They are in the process of building a house in El Paso, Texas for a very worthwhile family. The lady of the house has done a great deal of charity work for the orphans in Juarez, Mexico. I haven’t met her, but I certainly have heard and read a lot of good stuff.
So this morning on the way to the flea market I drove by there. There must have been 75 pickup trucks parked nearby, and the police had the streets blocked off so that gawkers like me couldn’t get too close. But the house they have built is visible from a distance. I have no idea when the show will air, but it looks like the house is almost finished.
It is a two story palace. My goodness, this house must have 4,000 square feet of living space. It is absolutely enormous!
I got to thinking about the property taxes on my modest little energy efficient house, as well as the cost of homeowner’s insurance, and the utilities like electricity, water, trash disposal, and natural gas. Without even having a mortgage payment, she will need to earn a pretty good income just to manage to keep that house.
But who knows, maybe there is some independent wealth there or another source of income that is not readily apparent. I hope so, or they have not done her any great favors by building this mansion for her.
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p.s. I was talking with some friends yesterday and they said that these guys tore down an almost perfectly good two story brick house to build this new stucco one. So I guess paying the utilities and property taxes isn't a big problem after all.
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I received the following email on 21 January from a lady who knows the people who had their home redone so I am adding her email to this post:
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Mr Garland
I was reading you review of the Ruiz home in El Paso, Tx. I know the family and I can tell you that their house may have looked fine on the outside, which if you had looked at it close up, it was falling down around them. In fact, the city inspectors said that they would have condemned the house because it Was in such bad shape inside. The Ruiz family had personally built this house with the assistance of their family over 12 years ago. They never finished the inside because they chose to use every bit of their money to help people in need - both in Juarez as well as in Socorro, Tx and the neighbors around her area.
It is so easy for people to speculate without knowing the family - I just wish I was even a fraction of a bit as giving as they have been. I was also a volunteer and spent the entire time working to help give them a house that would give them the tools to continue their ministry.
I just wanted to share this with you. If you would like to talk to me, please email me and I would love to have a further conversation with you.
Frances
LINK: http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index?pn=index
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Petri 7
Yesterday the UPS guy delivered my brand new, 40 year old 35mm film camera. It was made from 1963 until 1976. The Petri 7 was the very first 35mm camera I ever owned, and I shot a lot of pictures with it. So I was happy that I could buy one on e-bay for just $5.99. I really didn't expect it to work, I just wanted one on display in my camera collection.
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But after examining the camera closely it looked
to me like it probably would work fine, so I loaded a roll of 35mm film in it. This is a neat camera for several reasons. It is light weight and has a f/2.8 lens.
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It has electronic metering but the camera doesn't need any battery. It is not a stretch to say that this camera was solar powered. I have read that during the 1960's the Petri 7 was as good as what was being made by Nikon, but at about half the price. I don't know. At the time I certainly couldn't afford a Nikon. But the Petri 7 is a rock solid camera which takes great pictures.
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This camera didn't have true TTL metering; it was "around the lens" metering. It has a place to mount a flash on top, but it is not a HOT shoe. There are no electrical connections. You change the switch on the camera depending upon whether you are using flash bulbs or an electronic flash. And you run a cable from the lens to the flash unit.
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I went over to the park with the dog, and I shot a roll of film right quick. I have to be honest, it didn't take me long at all to realize that I sort of missed automatic focusing and automatic adjustment of aperture and shutter speed. Oh, yes, I also missed having a zoom lens and the camera automatically adjusting light sensitivity (ISO or ASA or DIN).
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And what I missed more than anything was the ability to see the pictures immediately and then edit them on my home computer as soon as I got home. Back when this camera came out in 1963 the concept of having one's own "home computer" was not even a fantasy. It was completely outside the realm of reality. Computers at that time which are much less powerful than my laptop is today (or maybe even my solar powered digital watch or one of my cell phones) took up a full room of space and had dangerously hot vacuum tubes. They were unreliable, required constant maintenance by technicians, used an outrageous amount of enegry, and were not even the least little bit user friendly. You controlled the computers of that day using punch cards and reel-to-reel tape.
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The other thing I missed in using this old film camera was the ability with just a couple of mouse clicks to send the photos instantaneously and completely free of charge at the speed of light to my sister across town, and to my friends in Dallas, Belgium, and Venice, Italy.
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The technology used for communication has made great strides in the last 40 - 50 years. Satellite TVs and cell phones. But has communication really improved? Not much it seems like to me.
I was at the summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany in 1972 the day that the Palestinians killed all the Israeli athletes. Both sides of this conflict really hated each other when I toured the middle east in the 1970's. And it seems to me that this hate has not diminished much if at all over the last 40 years.
The richest 1% in America now control a much larger portion of the country’s wealth than they did forty years ago. The super-rich still feel the same way about working people that the Masters on the plantations felt towards their slaves in the 1800's. A much smaller percentage of working people in America have health insurance today than was true when I was growing up. White Americans still dislike dark skinned immigrants almost as much as they did 40 years ago.
So technology is not always the answer or the solution to the problem. Sometimes it is as simple as sitting down face-to-face, talking politely and honestly, and really getting to know each other.
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After shooting 24 pictures I took the roll of film over to the one-hour processing at Walgreens. When I returned an hour later on my trusty little Honda I got a nice surprise. The pictures came out really great.
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LINK: http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?Petri7s.html~mainFrame-
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But after examining the camera closely it looked
to me like it probably would work fine, so I loaded a roll of 35mm film in it. This is a neat camera for several reasons. It is light weight and has a f/2.8 lens.-
It has electronic metering but the camera doesn't need any battery. It is not a stretch to say that this camera was solar powered. I have read that during the 1960's the Petri 7 was as good as what was being made by Nikon, but at about half the price. I don't know. At the time I certainly couldn't afford a Nikon. But the Petri 7 is a rock solid camera which takes great pictures.
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This camera didn't have true TTL metering; it was "around the lens" metering. It has a place to mount a flash on top, but it is not a HOT shoe. There are no electrical connections. You change the switch on the camera depending upon whether you are using flash bulbs or an electronic flash. And you run a cable from the lens to the flash unit.
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I went over to the park with the dog, and I shot a roll of film right quick. I have to be honest, it didn't take me long at all to realize that I sort of missed automatic focusing and automatic adjustment of aperture and shutter speed. Oh, yes, I also missed having a zoom lens and the camera automatically adjusting light sensitivity (ISO or ASA or DIN).
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And what I missed more than anything was the ability to see the pictures immediately and then edit them on my home computer as soon as I got home. Back when this camera came out in 1963 the concept of having one's own "home computer" was not even a fantasy. It was completely outside the realm of reality. Computers at that time which are much less powerful than my laptop is today (or maybe even my solar powered digital watch or one of my cell phones) took up a full room of space and had dangerously hot vacuum tubes. They were unreliable, required constant maintenance by technicians, used an outrageous amount of enegry, and were not even the least little bit user friendly. You controlled the computers of that day using punch cards and reel-to-reel tape.
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The other thing I missed in using this old film camera was the ability with just a couple of mouse clicks to send the photos instantaneously and completely free of charge at the speed of light to my sister across town, and to my friends in Dallas, Belgium, and Venice, Italy.
-
The technology used for communication has made great strides in the last 40 - 50 years. Satellite TVs and cell phones. But has communication really improved? Not much it seems like to me.
I was at the summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany in 1972 the day that the Palestinians killed all the Israeli athletes. Both sides of this conflict really hated each other when I toured the middle east in the 1970's. And it seems to me that this hate has not diminished much if at all over the last 40 years.
The richest 1% in America now control a much larger portion of the country’s wealth than they did forty years ago. The super-rich still feel the same way about working people that the Masters on the plantations felt towards their slaves in the 1800's. A much smaller percentage of working people in America have health insurance today than was true when I was growing up. White Americans still dislike dark skinned immigrants almost as much as they did 40 years ago.
So technology is not always the answer or the solution to the problem. Sometimes it is as simple as sitting down face-to-face, talking politely and honestly, and really getting to know each other.
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After shooting 24 pictures I took the roll of film over to the one-hour processing at Walgreens. When I returned an hour later on my trusty little Honda I got a nice surprise. The pictures came out really great.
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LINK: http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?Petri7s.html~mainFrame-
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Friday, January 16, 2009
Michael Dwight Garland
Oct. 8, 1952 - January 17, 1996
Honor Graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso in Electrical Engineering. One really nice guy. It is such a shame that his life ended in his mid-forties.
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You had a lot of people who loved you Mike.
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The Virgin Mary
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In Santiago, Chile some Christians are outraged because an attractive model has dressed up as the Virgin Mary.
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First Off: Anyone who thinks that the mother of the carpenter from Nazareth was a virgin is delusional.
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Second: Would they prefer that his Mom be portrayed as a really ugly chick with warts all over her face, no boobs, and morbidly obese? -- Of course she had boobs. And lets hope for her sake that she was a normal, healthy woman who enjoyed sex. -- Big deal.
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Airbus Ditches in Hudson River
After apparently striking some birds and losing all thrust in both engines, the pilot, Sully Sullenberger, landed his Airbus airliner full of people and fuel in the Hudson River right in New York City approximately due 
west of Times Square. It gradually drifted downstream near to where the Twin Towers used to be.
How wonderful people can behave sometimes still amazes me.
This is not April of 1912 when the Titanic sank.-- In the self centered “me first” 21st century, the male passengers on the downed airliner apparently insisted that all the women and children exit first when the rescue boats began to arrive.
After all passengers were rescued the pilot insisted on walking the length of the airplane twice to make absolutely certain that no passengers were still on board.
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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/nyregion/16pilot.html
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west of Times Square. It gradually drifted downstream near to where the Twin Towers used to be.How wonderful people can behave sometimes still amazes me.
This is not April of 1912 when the Titanic sank.-- In the self centered “me first” 21st century, the male passengers on the downed airliner apparently insisted that all the women and children exit first when the rescue boats began to arrive.
After all passengers were rescued the pilot insisted on walking the length of the airplane twice to make absolutely certain that no passengers were still on board.
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---------------------- Well Done To All!
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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/nyregion/16pilot.html
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Homeless In America
While I was out walking the dog this morning I came upon some homeless people. I guess in the 1930’s you would have called these people hoboes. I remember my grandmother talking about them. They would come up to the door asking to do any kind of work, just for a little food. Just decent people who are down on their luck.
At other times people like this would have been called vagrants or even bums. Maybe in these politically correct times they are supposed to be called “dwelling challenged individuals.”
Maybe these guys are drug addicts, or alcoholics, or military veterans who are all screwed up emotionally and mentally. In any city in America homeless people can be seen.
Frankly it makes me feel a little uncomfortable to see homeless people. I guess that I am a little concerned that they may be sort of crazy and might be a little dangerous or make a scene. And probably down deep I worry a little thinking that but for the good luck I have had in life, that could be me.
In the almost twenty years that I lived in Europe I never once saw a homeless person. I saw plenty of poverty, lots of tenements, and slums galore. But not one person who
was so far down that they actually had to live on the streets.
If these people had the chance they would be sleeping in a place with a little more security from teenage punks and racists. Maybe a roof over their heads. And if they could, I have no doubt that they would prefer to have running water, a flush toilet, central heating, a refrigerator, and a stove or maybe a microwave oven.
Sleeping on the streets of El Paso, Texas is not like backpacking in the Swiss Alps or the Gila Wilderness. I have backpacked to both places. Camping out like this in an unbelievably beautiful place for a few nights is great. It is wonderful to sleep under the stars out in the wilderness. But eventually you sure get a strong urge for a shower, a real bed, and a washing machine.
In the other parts of the world America is known as a very hard land where most people are just out to get rich. A place where the average person no longer cares about people who are less well off than they are.
How sad that America has fallen so far.
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At other times people like this would have been called vagrants or even bums. Maybe in these politically correct times they are supposed to be called “dwelling challenged individuals.”
Maybe these guys are drug addicts, or alcoholics, or military veterans who are all screwed up emotionally and mentally. In any city in America homeless people can be seen.
Frankly it makes me feel a little uncomfortable to see homeless people. I guess that I am a little concerned that they may be sort of crazy and might be a little dangerous or make a scene. And probably down deep I worry a little thinking that but for the good luck I have had in life, that could be me.
In the almost twenty years that I lived in Europe I never once saw a homeless person. I saw plenty of poverty, lots of tenements, and slums galore. But not one person who
was so far down that they actually had to live on the streets.If these people had the chance they would be sleeping in a place with a little more security from teenage punks and racists. Maybe a roof over their heads. And if they could, I have no doubt that they would prefer to have running water, a flush toilet, central heating, a refrigerator, and a stove or maybe a microwave oven.
Sleeping on the streets of El Paso, Texas is not like backpacking in the Swiss Alps or the Gila Wilderness. I have backpacked to both places. Camping out like this in an unbelievably beautiful place for a few nights is great. It is wonderful to sleep under the stars out in the wilderness. But eventually you sure get a strong urge for a shower, a real bed, and a washing machine.
In the other parts of the world America is known as a very hard land where most people are just out to get rich. A place where the average person no longer cares about people who are less well off than they are.
How sad that America has fallen so far.
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