tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196001432024-03-13T10:47:13.992-07:00Better Terms"Next Level" writings
from a wannabe journalist
who re-discovered her muse
in the land of the blog...Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-21158721333599190392018-04-01T16:46:00.003-07:002018-04-01T16:49:35.554-07:00Hang Your Head in Shame<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Yes. People voted for a man who displayed this kind of unconscionable boorishness on the campaign trail. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He is the face of our national character, now. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I STILL cannot wrap my head around it.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXFesFuT0VWupmtZNVB6vj1vRFTOv-PmGQrxUi3YShh52DawT9S-_AjL12VkbwmTZA-gciXPOFn-F-mbzaaoA5y-7fRn92GhhsbZJwy3N1lw471U68eKKaVk9qxFL3HPot2Rz3iA/s1600/YOU.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXFesFuT0VWupmtZNVB6vj1vRFTOv-PmGQrxUi3YShh52DawT9S-_AjL12VkbwmTZA-gciXPOFn-F-mbzaaoA5y-7fRn92GhhsbZJwy3N1lw471U68eKKaVk9qxFL3HPot2Rz3iA/s1600/YOU.jpg" /></a></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-32063461851791528152018-03-31T16:31:00.000-07:002018-03-31T16:31:35.668-07:00On Political Hell<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6A4HefrEj3xEYwUGFKhHmySE6l7ZM3yA6HdV5L7w451FtT2A_PrHPu6pnDYprcguvK_07htlxoLdPg9ClljtJKsc1_2At80BGLMrjpyE02FT9_pQ-5BtQj17HlB9jcVI5oYg8g/s1600/emma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="445" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6A4HefrEj3xEYwUGFKhHmySE6l7ZM3yA6HdV5L7w451FtT2A_PrHPu6pnDYprcguvK_07htlxoLdPg9ClljtJKsc1_2At80BGLMrjpyE02FT9_pQ-5BtQj17HlB9jcVI5oYg8g/s320/emma.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">High school students turn to political activism after being subjected to the most horrific experience--a shooting at their school that leaves 17 of their friends and mentors maimed to death by semi-automatic gunfire. And how do we, as a nation, respond?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Many of us dry our tears and march beside them in protest. But we are not the loudest voices.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">A political candidate calls one of the student leaders a "skinhead lesbian."</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><span class="text_exposed_hide"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Media personalities accuse the children of being paid "crisis actors."</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">A popular talk show host tweets about what a loser one of the students is because he's been rejected by three colleges.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The President of the United States leaves Washington on the day of the largest youth-led protest since the Vietnam War, and his itchy Twitter finger goes suddenly limp. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The bowels of the right wing movement come up with stories ranging from the student activists being "unrepentant bulliers" of the shooter, to the young people using this tragedy as an opportunity for self-promotion. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">THESE are the loudest voices. THESE are the voices that speak of what our nation has become. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">Our politics are toxic. And we have no qualms whatsoever against pouring that acid on anyone who dares to oppose our personal views. Including our own children. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">We are surely going to hell.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">No. We're already there.</span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-74681002303885146422017-08-30T12:01:00.005-07:002017-08-30T12:01:54.659-07:00Will Not<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIHlZDgRUYC8dkEynmxoXVTAO87vVtK3TkshPrPRRphMODkAEkcW7LW5TaJNi_EQ9YFRzWY3p21rcoCOgU-S749jRDFmfrAYTz6AG4o_i9UcRirA9HA739ZJmni4AM3eahBCrnA/s1600/cartoon+for+blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="552" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaIHlZDgRUYC8dkEynmxoXVTAO87vVtK3TkshPrPRRphMODkAEkcW7LW5TaJNi_EQ9YFRzWY3p21rcoCOgU-S749jRDFmfrAYTz6AG4o_i9UcRirA9HA739ZJmni4AM3eahBCrnA/s400/cartoon+for+blog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">As you ponder the daily
outrageous antics of our juvenile idiot-in-chief, and you bang your head on
your desk in frustration that, no matter what he does, he seems utterly
untouchable, and inexplicably in it for the duration…. consider this:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">There has been a Congress in
Washington DC led by a fractured, ineffective Grand Old Party since 2010.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A group of men (and a few hapless women)
whose only objective for seven long years has been to acquire and rabidly
defend POWER.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Power used exclusively to
enhance their own fortunes, through enhancing the fortunes of those who already
have more money than they will ever need, and will use that excess to buy a government that will slavishly do their bidding. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Power that they either can
not or will not use to enrich the lives of the common American people…the
people who might still naively <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>believe
that the Congress is beholden to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">them</i>.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Power that, because of the deep
fractures within the party, cannot be harnessed for action, but can only be
laid, bulky and paralyzed, as an enormous blockade in front of the wheels of
progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">For seven years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Don’t forget that the only
thing, the ONLY thing, this Congress has accomplished in seven years is to impede,
to every extent possible, the ability of a duly elected president from the
opposing party to serve the people of the United States of America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This Congress’ greatest accomplishment, in 7
years, was to deny that president his Constitutionally granted right to appoint
a justice to the Supreme Court.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">This is the Congress of “Can’t.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">This is the Congress of “Won’t.”
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Think of that the next time
our hideous caricature of a Chief Executive does something outrageous,
preposterous, or downright dangerous, and then just skates on to his next
escapade, untouched and unimpeded by…anything.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Realize that it is in the
hands of the Congress of Won’t to keep this moron in check before he destroys
the country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">Realize that the Congress of
Won’t began destroying America seven years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">And they aren’t inclined to
stop now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-66006528415031926162015-01-14T11:08:00.002-08:002015-01-14T16:26:40.902-08:00Satire<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">So here’s a story for
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was linked to by a liberal
friend of a friend on Facebook this morning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFhvY5LNLHvv18klEXSzRt57X23hd0o0KkwYw0DDMhyphenhyphenfTCcEDUUR6gvY9nWwpUmuh-OKoCGaRQI2RUQXpvAxsAlGGLwetyLLlJVQZunnoX0rAwoVQqM7Xlq1TuFgPi9qR_l9p3eQ/s1600/frosty+fatwa.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFhvY5LNLHvv18klEXSzRt57X23hd0o0KkwYw0DDMhyphenhyphenfTCcEDUUR6gvY9nWwpUmuh-OKoCGaRQI2RUQXpvAxsAlGGLwetyLLlJVQZunnoX0rAwoVQqM7Xlq1TuFgPi9qR_l9p3eQ/s1600/frosty+fatwa.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/13/frosty-fatwa-saudi-cleric-bans-snowmen/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Frosty Fatwa:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Saudi Cleric Bans Snowmen </span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">While nodding your head and
snickering behind your hand, thinking privately (or not-so-privately) that </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">we have 9/11’s and
Charlie Hebdo massacres because there exists </span>a popular world religion so backward that it would follow
such screwy practices in the 21st century...</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Ask yourself:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this any funnier or more ridiculous than
millions of folks the world over believing that, in the midst of a mystical
ceremony with incantations and gesticulations, a flat disc of dried library
paste actually BECOMES the flesh of a long-dead Jewish prophet?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that consuming one of these wafers daily,
or at least weekly, provides essential spiritual benefit? Hilarious, no?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Hey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not a bigot. </span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">I was raised Catholic. But I outgrew it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And I defy any Catholic who reads
this not to feel at least a molecule of anger or indignation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Point made. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-36425743235358678192014-10-23T10:29:00.002-07:002014-10-23T10:34:36.260-07:00The Only Thing We Have To Fear...<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtV6DM-72Fw_G6Lk8O-5jNEutKquxkZ_H7Uj2-CaZ1r2TxZ6GBd_qA6C6il7QtJssMXBMDdekInYC1zO1pHTpT1Uu7mTT-Tt1zaOMgn__yebYpwX4bSWZCiFWU9QhPzn7yRGlPQ/s1600/220px-Ebola_virus_virion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXtV6DM-72Fw_G6Lk8O-5jNEutKquxkZ_H7Uj2-CaZ1r2TxZ6GBd_qA6C6il7QtJssMXBMDdekInYC1zO1pHTpT1Uu7mTT-Tt1zaOMgn__yebYpwX4bSWZCiFWU9QhPzn7yRGlPQ/s1600/220px-Ebola_virus_virion.jpg" height="146" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our intrepid media are at it again.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For months, while the ebola plague raged on in West Africa,
American media titillated our gawkers-at-a-train-wreck mentality with a
constant stream of little articles insinuating that the disease was poised to
pounce upon the United States, and what were we going to do when that happened?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The annoying and non-factual speculation did
nothing positive…was in fact <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">designed</i>
to do nothing positive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was designed
to sell soap. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was designed to stir up fear among a population arrogantly
ignorant about many things—infectious disease included (anti-vaxxers, anyone?)—and
entice millions of clicks to non-articles about the disease and the
threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To pages lined with ads, of
course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fear does indeed sell soap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unfortunately, it also creates a public prone to over-reaction,
finger-pointing, xenophobia and mob mentality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The kind of mentality that would allow a politician’s <b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></b><a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/former-sc-gop-director-execute-anyone-who-comes-into-contact-with-ebola-its-just-math/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">tweet</span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">—</b>that the best control for the disease would be to execute anyone testing
positive for it—to fade into the background of heinous statements and speculation
splattered all over the internet concerning this unfamiliar disease and our
irrational fear of it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But then, lo and behold, the virus DID make it to our
shores, as it was bound to do in this shrunken world of international air
travel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This presented a golden
opportunity for our media to fear-monger, and they took full advantage of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a couple of weeks, the top five stories
on any news outlet centered upon ebola, the fear, the quarantines, the outcry…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And the mistakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is where it gets interesting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Has anyone but me noticed how the ebola story has suddenly
seemed to burn itself out?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><i>Ebolaebolaebola!!!!!</i></b> is no longer screaming at us from every
available news outlet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This morning, MSNBC
has one ebola story in their top ten—and it’s ranked number 6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CBS features one story on its home page,
which you have to scroll down to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>ABC news features links to a couple of stories in their sidebar—one about
an international travel ban and one featuring good news about one of the
ebola-infected US nurses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, very
tellingly, not one ebola story appears on Fox News’ home page this morning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So what’s going on? Has the ADD American public gotten over
the whole ebola thing and begun to wander the airwaves in search of the next
new sensation?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have American news
outlets conceded that they over-covered the story and that there is other news
going on in the world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or have they
finally decided they’ve done enough fear mongering and are now taking the high
road in an altruistic effort to practice responsible journalism and NOT create
more panic?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dream on.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sure, there are a few ebola stories still floating around. But there are almost none concerning the topic that should be front and
center of the discussion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the glaring inadequacies
of our for-profit medical culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
culture that puts profits before patients, cash before care, corporations
before individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The culture that has
made our health “care” system an unnavigable tangle of red tape, referrals,
inadequate diagnostics and botched communication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “treat ‘em and street ‘em” mentality that
saves shareholders money (and endangers the public health) by putting very sick
people back out on the streets. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This culture has latched on to the idea that medical care is
one of the few services left stateside that cannot be outsourced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as one of the last remaining American
industries where there are still actual jobs to be had, it has become partners
with another expanding American entrepreneurial effort—for-profit educational institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These “colleges” provide our health “care”
system with a steady stream of poorly-trained warm bodies, churned out as
quickly as they can be inadequately vetted and licensed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who are then unleashed upon an unsuspecting
public, were they are given an increasing number of life-or-death responsibilities
for which they have not been properly trained and for which they have no visceral
understanding or respect.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yep…our national nod to capitalism has turned our health “care”
system into one huge profit center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
that is never going to go away—because people will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">always</i> need medical care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unfortunately, it has also compromised the system so badly
that it has become a gigantic money-making, <a href="http://betterterms.blogspot.com/2014/01/on-flu-shots-and-health-care.html">compassionless juggernaut that has little to do with "health," nothing to do with “care” and everything to do with profit</a>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://betterterms.blogspot.com/2014/01/on-flu-shots-and-health-care.html"></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This has been going on for years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American medicine has descended not too
gradually into a hellish system designed to facilitate the ring of the cash
register, at the ultimate expense of the effectiveness of the system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some critics—who are largely ignored and given little
credence—<a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/are-hospitals-more-deadly-than-ebola-112080.html?cmpid=sf#ixzz3GpucLeOB">estimate that over 200,000 American lives are lost through medical mistakes each year</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll bet that if you
take a moment to think about it, you personally know at least one patient who
has been dangerously misdiagnosed, or whose treatment has been complicated or
botched by miscommunication, specialist-hopping and/or buck-passing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Off the top of my head I can think of one woman—my
sister’s sister-in-law—who was scheduled for a tonsillectomy by a doctor who
was unaware that she was on blood-thinners for a heart condition; the surgery
would have killed her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, they discovered
the error the day before she was scheduled to go under the knife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But how many people don’t get so lucky?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How lucky will we ALL be if a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> infectious disease threat descends
upon our health “care” system, which demonstrated in spades earlier this month
its complete cluelessness in handling such a menace? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And yet, our media have not merely dropped the ball on this
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have actively thrown it down
a well and poured concrete on it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ask yourself why.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The answer that comes to mind should probably have something
to do with 90% of American media being under the control of six large
corporations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Corporations which have
the power to disseminate the exact messages they want the public to hear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And kill the ones they don’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ask yourself in whose best interests it would
be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> to raise questions that might
cause the cash registers at hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and pharmacies
to stop ringing with merry abandon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
can’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i> wonder what happened to
investigative reporting here in the good ole U S of A, can you?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Unfortunately, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i>—not
ebola, or terrorism, or imagined WMD in some Muslim country—is what could ultimately
be the death of us:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What we don’t know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What we don’t want to know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What we are not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">allowed</i>
to know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-42845786834288517562014-01-29T22:41:00.001-08:002018-03-26T09:18:55.813-07:00On Flu Shots and Health "Care"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"></span><a href="http://www.kptv.com/story/24361002/doctors-confirm-oregon-boy-5-dies-from-h1n1-virus" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Doctors Confirm Oregon BoyDied of H1N1.</span></a>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">A five-year-old in Eugene
receives a flu shot in September.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three
months later, his parents, who did not get flu shots, both come down with the flu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the boy becomes ill, nobody—not his
parents, not his pediatrician, not a hospital Emergency Room—entertain the
notion that he might have the flu. Because he got a flu shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I have never been on board
with the whole “flu shot” song and dance. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Call me a die-hard skeptic, but it has always
seemed suspicious to me that the media whip up an annual frenzy of
influenza-phobia, which then give rise to those cute little TV commercials
where sincere adults look meaningfully at the camera and pontificate about how
being a good parent means you have to protect your family—everybody gets a flu
shot!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">It seems to me that five or
six years ago, flu shots were only recommended for “high risk” patients—the elderly,
the chronically ill—and health care workers to whom these patients would be
exposed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fast forward half a decade, and
suddenly they’re doling out flu shots at Walmart and Target like Halloween
candy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The entire population is cajoled,
frightened or guilted into lining up and sticking out their arms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To get injected with a vial full of this
miracle fluid…that may or may not prevent<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>them from getting the flu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all,
any one vaccine can only cover three strains of flu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vaccine recipients are just as susceptible to
any other strain as someone who never got a flu shot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Add this to the fact that one is warned when
one receives the vaccine that one might actually GET the flu from it, and I
have to wonder exactly how stupid the American public can be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">And who is making money off
all this…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The drug companies, of
course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">But my opinion of the
efficacy of flu shots is not really the point I wanted to communicate here.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The story of this little boy
who dies of the flu has the parents, after being assured by their pediatrician
that the boy has “the croup” (is that even a legitimate medical term in the 21<sup>st</sup>
century?) rushing him to the ER because he’s having serious trouble
breathing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hospital does a “soft-tissue
x-ray” and “noticed that his airway is a little collapsed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They then proceed to tell the mother that
this is “nothing too disconcerting” and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">send them home</i></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few hours later, the boy collapses and
basically dies on the floor of his home—or he would have died had CPR not
eventually got his heart beating so they could take him to a hospital and put
him on machines to support his now brain-dead little body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Am I the only person in the world
who looks at this story and screams “Why in God’s name was a boy with a
partially collapsed airway not admitted to the hospital?!?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sent this dangerously ill child home…why?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">H1N1 didn’t kill this
boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hellish quagmire that is the
American “health care” system did.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Over the last half of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century, the health insurance industry began its ascendency into the ranks of
international financial “players.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
enormous sums of money that passed through its systems—client payments in,
claim payments out—became too much of a temptation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all
that money</i> coming in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should
they not restrict the ways in which it could go out again?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why not keep more for the executives, the
rich investors and the stock holders?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">So the insurance companies
began to call the tune for medical treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They began to actually form medical practice based upon the treatments
that would or would not be covered by medical insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It started out with the exclusion of “pre-existing
conditions.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they expanded to the
exclusion of expensive treatments like brand name drugs and “experimental”
procedures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Treatment was no longer based upon what would produce the best outcome for the patient. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it was expensive, the patient was not going to get it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Since the insurance companies managed to get away with this with relatively little public outcry, they escalated to canceling benefits for clients diagnosed with cancer or other life-threatening illnesses, and refusing outright to insure people with medical histories that indicated they would be likely to <i>need </i>medical insurance sooner rather than...never.<i> </i>Finally, a discontented rumbling could be heard in the ranks of the health-care-consuming public. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Twenty years ago, the
American people very nearly figured out what was going on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Investigative reports were done, TV dramas
were written, about the shame of an industry that literally let people die so
the insurance companies could hold on to a buck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not so very long ago, there was outrage about
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were shocked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were incensed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But somehow, in the interim, we simply…forgot. Or were snookered into forgetfulness by an industry so rich, it had the financial chops to invest in the most monumental cover-up/misinformation campaign in the history of democracy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">This shameful perversion of “health
care” has been going on for a generation, now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are doctors in the field who have practiced in this system all
their professional lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They know no
other way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They don’t know that things
used to be different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what was shocking
and unacceptable fifteen or twenty years ago, has become…policy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Always push the least expensive treatment
option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cost of treatment is the number
one factor, given the greatest weight by any doctor, hospital or clinic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Treat ‘em and street ‘em.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give them a bottle of pills and send them
home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most likely, they’ll recover.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">More often than is in any way acceptable in the richest country on earth--they don’t.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I’m not sure what you have to
do to be admitted to a hospital these days, besides DIE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or nearly die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My brother-in-law was sent home from his local
ER; two hours later, he nearly died of a heart attack in his living room
recliner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My husband was diagnosed with
dangerous blood clots in his legs, and he was sent home with syringes full of
heparin (powerful blood thinners) and told to shoot himself up twice a day and
come back to the lab every other day for blood tests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank god, he didn’t nearly die, but no
thanks to Kaiser Permanente.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This little
boy goes to the ER unable to breathe and they send him home…he dies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He doesn't get a second chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">And everyone cries, “Oh,
no!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died of the flu!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I’m willing to bet serious money that he
would still be alive if he’d been in the hospital when he stopped breathing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Medical care in America took
a serious wrong turn when we began to allow insurance companies to dictate
treatment options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has been going
on for so long, evidently, that we don’t even recognize it for what it is anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can anyone possibly pronounce our health “care”
system vital, state of the art, or anything even approaching “the best in the
world,” as right-wing opponents of the ACA continuously insist upon doing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t have health care in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have a huge money-making, compassionless juggernaut
that has little to do with "health," nothing to do with “care” and everything to do with profit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The ACA is a start…not the
best start, to be sure, but it is the first wobbly step in the right direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But things are not going to change significantly if we
continue to refuse to recognize the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sure, it will probably take years of activism and concentrated efforts
to control the insurance industry and take obscene profits out of medical treatment in order to get our health care system healthy again. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">But how many more little boys
have to die in their mothers’ arms before we resolve to engage this battle in earnest? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-52161596201558159632013-12-19T22:39:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:39:33.350-08:00On the Duck Dynasty "Controversy"Duck Dynasty: Here is a group of savvy entrepreneurs who can very conveniently and profitably appear to be a cozy, "salt of the earth" family of back country hicks. Just plain folks all over the country have swallowed this act hook, line and sinker, and have put these reality stars on some kind of an "idolized everyman" pedestal. <br />
<br />
The family patriarch made some statements on the record that reflect his personal morals. Fine. Who cares, really? If his version of heaven is populated by people like him, I certainly wouldn't be caught dead there. <br />
<br />
But don't forget, this guy is an employee of the network, the network has sponsors, and sponsors react to this kind of thing. I remember the days when the stars of TV shows actually DID the commercials for the sponsors. They had to appear to use and love that sponsor's product, and they always had to comport themselves, on screen and off, in such a manner that the sponsors would be satisfied that the actors represented the image the sponsor wanted to convey. That was part of the job. The hard part, arguably; perhaps even the part that made what they did WORTH the silly sums of money they got paid. In return for keeping up the required appearances, stars got paid very handsomely and were the beneficiaries of a lifestyle few non-celebrities could enjoy. TV personalities who did not toe that line were not TV personalities for very long. <br />
<br />
All you out there hollering about Mr. Duck Dynasty's "free speech" should think very hard about what kind of behavior a star--who is, in the end, merely an employee--should be required to display in exchange for the ridiculous amounts of money he rakes in purely for <i>being </i>"a star." You say that an employer is not allowed to dictate what a person does outside of work? How many teachers have been fired due to moral outrage over some behavior they have displayed either in their past (nude photos?) or private lives (gay teachers are routinely fired.) For that matter, how many sports icons have lost lucrative sponsorship contracts due to the exposure of some kind of less-than-desirable off-the-field conduct?<br />
<br />
The silliest part of this entire mish-mash is, Robertson hasn't been fired. A & E can safely "suspend" the guy because they already have most of next season's episodes in the can. Do you think the network would actually cease production on a (mystifyingly) wildly popular cultural phenomenon (!!?!?!) over this? Not gonna happen. Remember, for the networks, it's ALL about money. A & E is simply trying to mollify sponsors while doing nothing to jeopardize their golden goose.<br />
<br />
The real calamity in all this is not that A & E has violated Robertson's right to free speech. It's the network's meaningless pretense of moral outrage over the situation. The network is trying to pacify everyone, yet come out on the other side of the controversy with its money-maker still intact; and it looks ridiculous doing so. Sigh! A & E--once the network of "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Hornblower Saga," now an endless parade of outrageous "reality" shows designed to buy 100% into the dumbing down of the national dialogue. How the mighty have fallen... <br />
<br />
Update: Can I call them, or can I call them: <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/21/phil-robertson-duck-dynasty-return_n_4485646.html" target="_blank">Phil Robertson Will Return to Duck Dynasty in January </a>Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-39188009567249262022013-12-14T22:38:00.000-08:002015-12-14T09:40:01.162-08:00Never Forget: Newtown, December 14, 2012<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp5gyujoOMCf5RyLHekN6al-hKDDRm_cgj3zBwH3Mq1V8L09h_4nKxEAX1GmZWYyyt6-u5jOXzahFPWwY5PrWxQ7TezDLLx6XAgPNAZ5_p25sgIAmByRQMaJzwgyErz3tFGu04cA/s640/blogger-image-1121133058.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp5gyujoOMCf5RyLHekN6al-hKDDRm_cgj3zBwH3Mq1V8L09h_4nKxEAX1GmZWYyyt6-u5jOXzahFPWwY5PrWxQ7TezDLLx6XAgPNAZ5_p25sgIAmByRQMaJzwgyErz3tFGu04cA/s640/blogger-image-1121133058.jpg" /></a></div>
The internet is a great place to "never forget" things. Every September 11, the ether becomes clogged with misty photos of two tall straight buildings, overlaid with transparent images of a gently rippling star-spangled banner, along with the stern words "Never Forget" in a bold and uncompromising font.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When December 7th rolls around, we are exhorted to never forget the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, even though that military atrocity took place almost seventy years ago, in a completely different world. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There are folks in the southern US who have passed "never forgetting" the "War of Northern Aggression" down through generations like a cherished family heirloom.</div>
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We are sternly admonished to never forget any military attack upon our "innocent" selves by a political enemy. We need to hold on to those feelings of shock, horror and hatred. We need to cultivate them, tend them and cherish them, haul them out annually on the anniversary of the dastardly deed, and let the world know we Never Forget, so the world had better watch out.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I find it interesting--and appalling--that in a culture such as 21st-century America, where we seem to have the political attention span of a fruit fly, we nevertheless pour enormous amounts of energy into remembering decades-old acts of war, the better to nourish our personal hatreds, xenophobia and prejudices.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But when one of our own--a middle class white boy with a distorted life view and an assault rifle--shoots his way into a school building and assassinates twenty babies and six teachers who gave their own lives in an effort to protect the innocents, we forget. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As soon as humanly possible, we forget.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Because to remember these babies, shot to pieces by a kid with a weapon that no private citizen should be able to get his hands on, would call upon <i>us </i>to act. It would force you and me, Mr. and Mrs. Joe American Citizen, to make a stand. Not just to be part of a grumbling mob of patriotic rabble-rousers that calls for an enemy's blood, and then huddles behind the young people who comprise our military and pushes THEM into harm's way. Remembering Newtown would call upon us to defy, every day, the forces in this country who have decided it is in <i>their </i>financial and/or ideological best interests to maintain a free flow of weapons of war into the general population. Remembering Newtown would cause us to live with the nearly unbearable knowledge that we ourselves could fall victim to a nut with an automatic weapon, anytime, anywhere. And we aggressively do NOT want to know that.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
No... When it comes to events like Newtown or Columbine or Aurora, the best we can do is shout for a week or two about how these things would not happen if EVERYONE were allowed to carry loaded guns around. And then throw a blanket over that story, stomp on it to make sure it's dead, and hurry on to the Next Thing. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If this is not a prime example of entirely misplaced priorities, I would like to know what is. To hell with "never forgetting" wars and military attacks. Get over it and move on. But if there was ever a thing in the world to Never Forget, Newtown would be it.<br />
<br />
Never Forget.<br />
<br />
Let it sink into your bones and change your life. Then do something.<br />
<br />
Today.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-49915629020706292202013-12-11T22:37:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:37:15.312-08:00On the Myth of the "Liberal Media"<div>
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Is there anyone out there who still entertains delusions of a "liberal media"?<br />
<br />
Once upon a time, the media may well have been "liberal", in that it was not only free to but <i>obligated </i>to present a balanced representation of current events. But that started to change after Reagan and the Republicans got their hands on things in the eighties. At some point, some group of ultra-rich geniuses realized that media
free of financial and ideological obligations to mega-corporate owners
came off as way too liberal. The media were free to report and develop stories
not necessarily conducive to putting money in the pockets of those who
already had more money than God, but nevertheless wanted to make sure
that more--perhaps ALL--money was channeled in their direction. Oh, it all seemed a very straightforward and "small government" philosophy. They sold the action to the American public by declaring that "excessive" government regulation limited the rights and the freedoms of all Americans. <br />
<br />
In reality, government regulation often is put into place in order to control the rampant greed that is an unfortunate corollary of our capitalist system. The GOP had no interest in protecting the freedoms of Average Joe Citizen. What they had was an agenda to allow monied interests--almost always closely linked to the Republican Party--to purchase entire monopolies of media outlets, the better to disseminate their message to the American people. So the concept of media deregulation was born.<br />
<br />
And yet, the right still has the audacity to holler "Liberal media bias!" at any story that might leak past the conservative blockade of corporate-controlled media. And a shocking number of conservative sheep--I mean, average citizens--take up that cry and seem to really, truly believe it. <i>Sigh</i>. Don't think my theory has merit? Let me just ask--why do you think conservatives are so publicly and adamantly anti government "subsidies" for public media outlets like NPR? <i>Because conservative big business interests can't control the message. </i><br />
<br />
Still believe in liberal media bias? Here's the story that actually got me started on the subject this morning: <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/10/1261758/-Dan-Rather-on-The-Difference-Between-Him-and-Lara-Logan-My-Story-Was-True?detail=facebook#" target="_blank">Dan Rather on the Difference Between Him and Lara Logan: My Story Was True.</a><i><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/10/1261758/-Dan-Rather-on-The-Difference-Between-Him-and-Lara-Logan-My-Story-Was-True?detail=facebook#" target="_blank"> </a> </i>In case you've forgotten<i>,</i> Rather lost his job in 2004 in a flap created over a negative story about then president (and presidential candidate) George W. Bush's military service. A story that was never proven untrue, never refuted by Bush Administration or campaign officials; a story that was shouted down so quickly and so thoroughly by the "liberal media" that Rather was forced to end an illustrious four-decade association with CBS news, skulking off with his tail between his legs.<br />
<br />
Nine years later, Lara Logan screws the pooch on a story that would put an Obama Administration damning spin on the Benghazi "scandal,"--by using as her featured witness a "contractor" (read: mercenary) whose version of the story changes and enhances depending upon to whom he is requested to recount it. In other words, she assembled a piece that was basically a pack of lies, in a bid to advance her own personal political agenda. I have two questions: 1.) Why, even though it has been almost a decade since the Rather debacle, would CBS allow one of their talking heads to go anywhere near a story with such flimsy basis in documentable fact? and 2.) Why would CBS air this story without properly vetting it?<br />
<br />
Could it be that the primary consideration afforded the story was that it leaned in an anti-administration direction "approved" by someone with buckets full of money? Did corporate owners actually believe they could sneak a Fox-esque collection of conjectures and untruths past a veteran audience that has been trained to hold a venerable news vehicle the like of "60 Minutes" to a much higher standard of truth and excellence in reporting? CBS first endeavored to defuse the outrage over the story by having Logan appear on camera with an "apology." When the controversy stubbornly refused to go away despite Logan's weak and disingenuous "my bad!" the network finally bowed to public pressure and asked Logan to "take a leave of absence." I'm sure nobody was as surprised as CBS' corporate owners that a large enough portion of a less-than-conservative body of viewing public would make a loud enough stink about their cheesy, agenda-driven attempt at "fair and balanced coverage" that they would be forced to back-pedal as furiously as they have for the past month.<br />
<br />
I take that back. I can't say that nobody was as surprised as CBS over this flap. <i><b> I</b></i> was surprised.<i><b> I</b></i> was surprised that a blow was struck for truth and research and real investigative reporting, and against shoving ideological pablum disguised as "news" down the throats of the American people. No kudos here for CBS. High fives to the audience who stuck to their high standards, would not accept lame efforts at mollification, and held CBS and the reporter accountable.<br />
<br />
It will be interesting to see where it all goes from here. <br />
<br />
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-22569991145372374202013-12-03T22:40:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:40:43.544-08:00Understanding Dave Ramsey<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I don’t know much about Dave
Ramsey, the Christian financial guru to whom I referred in the previous
post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve never listened to his radio
show (probably because I gave up listening to the radio about fifteen years ago
when it became overrun with right-wing talk shows.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From what I can gather, he is a
fifty-something southern guy who identifies as a “born-again Christian.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He got rich in the 80’s, evidently by utilizing
some questionable borrowing practices, and lost <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> fortune when a bank demanded repayment of over $1 million in
short-term notes within 90 days, whereupon he declared bankruptcy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Here’s a man who got burned
by the concept of “doing business with other people’s money” –a basic tenet of
American business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that
experience, it appears he got the “live debt-free” religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And like any convert, he is single-mindedly
zealous about the concept.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I get that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The problem is, he has
combined his two passions—Christianity and “financial freedom”—into something
that comes dangerously close to<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology" target="_blank"> “prosperity gospel:”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that skewed theology that maintains that God
wants Christians to be wealthy, and will generously bestow financial blessings
upon believers who follow certain guidelines, like giving generously to
Christian ministries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though Ramsey does
not openly identify with the prosperity gospel movement, he does preach that
God desires for believers to be happy (read “rich.”) Ramsey cherry-picks bible texts
that bear out this theory, while studiously ignoring verses like Matthew
9:24:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or Matthew 5:3:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, when
Ramsey’s detractors quote these verses to him, he accuses them of “biblical
nitpicking” and goes on his merry way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">But, as I said, I knew
nothing of Dave Ramsey until I followed a link posted by one of my Facebook
friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The link is to a<a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/30/what-dave-ramsey-gets-wrong-about-poverty/?sr=sharebar_facebook" target="_blank"> CNN piece</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that deals with a post on Ramsey’s web
page for which he has received a windfall of criticism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The essay in question, not written by Ramsey
himself but apparently endorsed by him, is a list of twenty practices
theoretically embraced by the rich and shunned by the poor that constitute, in
the author’s mind, the fundamental reasoning behind why some folks are rich and
some are poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rich folks do all these
wise and practical things!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why
they’re rich!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor folks aren’t smart
(disciplined, determined, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">desperate</i> )
enough to do these things!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s why
they’re poor! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The long list is an
unprecedented pile of poor-bashing hogwash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You can find it here:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/20-things-the-rich-do-every-day" target="_blank">20 ThingsThe Rich Do Every Day</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a trumped up piece of capitalistic
propaganda that cites “facts” and “figures” that look suspiciously like they
were pulled right out of someone’s wealth-promoting ass:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">"80%
of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor
do this.<br />
"76% of wealthy exercise aerobically four days a week. 23% of poor do this.<br />
"63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% of poor
people."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">What kind of “facts” are
these?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who did this research?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who would care enough about any of these
topics to DO the research?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The list is pure bullshit,
and Ramsey did himself no favors posting it to his site.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">As a result, a large enough hue
and cry ensued that Ramsey was forced to respond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did he remove the post?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did he acknowledge possible
inaccuracies?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did he challenge the
author to cite his sources?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He responded with<a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/20-things-the-rich-do-every-day" target="_blank"> an ungrammatical and rambling diatribe</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> of his own,</span> </span>(click on the link, scroll down past the original post; definitely worth reading) condemning his detractors as “politicized,
immature and doctrinally illiterate.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His response is, in itself, an amazing piece of self-promoting prattle
that leaves one a bit shell-shocked and mystified at the logic of it all, but
with no doubt as to the fact that Ramsey is shifting any perceived “blame” for
the impropriety of the post from himself to his detractors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a nutshell, he is saying, “We haven’t done
anything wrong, you just don’t GET us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So we are just going to ignore you and keep doing what we are doing,
because God is on OUR side.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ugh.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">My favorite part of his
convoluted logic is where he states:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">“My
wife and I started our lives with almost nothing, eating off a card table and
driving two cars that did not total $2,000 in value. We were broke…”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Broke, Dave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not POOR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Broke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a world of
difference between the two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Broke”
presupposes that you once had money, or you knew what it was like to have money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Eating off a card table and driving two cars…?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That would be broke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Poor” would be having no food, no card
table, possibly no room to put a card table IN, and almost certainly not in
possession of ONE car, much less two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unless the car served as your living quarters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Perhaps Dave Ramsey’s problem
is with semantics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems to function
under the assumption that those who are not rich are poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps he fundamentally does not get that
the definition of “poverty” is NOT “not rich.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps if all of Ramsey’s teachings, and even
this heinous “20 Things” list he shared, were based on “rich vs <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">broke</i>” rather than “rich vs <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">poor</i>,” it could all make a lot more
sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And be much less morally
objectionable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Because we all know there are
NOT only two personal economic realities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rich and poor are the opposite ends of the spectrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a lot of territory in between.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think Ramsey takes deliberate advantage
of the negative connotation of the word “poor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He has reinforced that negative definition by posting this list that
indicates that the “poor ” are folks who are too lazy, stupid, unmotivated,
criminal or sinful to follow the “Biblical” path he sets forth to attain
wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The poor are suffering the
consequences of their own “poor” choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No one who drinks the Ramsey kool-aid wants to be one of THOSE people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is how Dave Ramsey stays in business. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Ramsey makes all kinds of
claims about how he and his group teach “giving” and “extraordinary generosity.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess that’s his way of suggesting that the
“20 Things” list, and indeed, his entire ministry, is not about poor-bashing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He insinuates that his critics don’t know
anything about him or his teachings…that they have just decided to attack him
based on this one post and not on his total body of work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">You’re right, Dave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t know anything about your body of
work prior to this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this controversy,
and your way of dealing with it, do not entice me to get better acquainted with
you and your teachings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it
makes me want to avoid you like the plague, and tell everyone I know to do the
same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-49025554783294497732013-11-30T22:35:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:35:56.868-08:00SO Tired of Poor-BashingIt is such a sign of our times that, in this season of thanks, we seem to be ramping up the "poor-bashing" to a truly unheard of level. Are we all going for the Ebenezer Scrooge award or something? Every day I read a new utterly objectionable quote or meme sent around by raving right wingers that literally drips with loathing for disadvantaged Americans.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Today, a friend<a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/30/what-dave-ramsey-gets-wrong-about-poverty/?sr=sharebar_facebook" target="_blank"> pointed me in the direction of a Christian "prosperity prophet"</a> who claims that the poor in first world countries really have no business being poor. Opportunity here in the God-blessed U S of A is open to anyone. Everyone. Those who suffer from poverty in America are suffering the consequences of their own poor choices. An unintended and definitely un-funny pun.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And the comments about <a href="http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/20-things-the-rich-do-every-day" target="_blank">the original piece</a> were as clueless and vicious as the piece itself. "It's not Ramsey's fault that the divide (between rich and poor] is widening." "No, certainly not his fault or responsibility!" "I look around and see people who are smart and able sit on their butts and complain there is no opportunity." "Americans are too proud to start at the bottom."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Bullshit. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For every one person you might have seen sitting on his butt and complaining about lack of opportunity, I'll wager there are a hundred who work their asses off at multiple jobs just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. There may be those who are "too proud" to start at the bottom. But there are thousands who break their necks every day and stretch up as far as they physically can to <i>reach </i>the bottom. And use every ounce of their strength and resources just to hang on to that space on the bottom, to keep themselves from falling off into oblivion.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I wonder how many of the folks who cling to this prosperity guru's every word have any idea what real poverty is. I suspect that most people who have Facebook accounts and computers do not know what real poverty is. <b><i>I</i></b> do not know what real poverty is, yet I am not willing to bash those who live in it as being "too proud", too stupid, too lazy, or any of the other "too's" so easily bandied about, sitting there on your comfy recliner in front of your 300 channels on your flat-screen tv, to cure themselves of their economic ills.<br />
<br />
In my comment on the post, I asserted: "I am going to put this in all caps because, yes, I am yelling: I AM GETTING REALLY TIRED OF POOR-BASHING. And if all you can do is sit in judgment of these folks, tell them what to do, what not to do, and who is or is not responsible for the plight of the poor, YOU are part of the problem."</div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-9332784804519586012013-11-26T22:34:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:34:45.293-08:00On Poverty, From the Inside<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Yesterday, one of my Facebook friends posted a<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-tirado/why-poor-peoples-bad-decisions-make-perfect-sense_b_4326233.html" target="_blank"> link to a Huffington Post essay</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I followed that
link, and what I read blew me away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
piece was written by a young woman—<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-tirado/" target="_blank">Linda Tirado</a>— who knows what it’s like to be
poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s written in a voice that I
knew existed, but had never heard quite so clearly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I wasn’t aware that there was a poor
person out there who could put together a piece of writing like this essay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A piece of writing that slices open and pours
out the guts of the “working poor,” in desolate language, dealing with the
daily challenges of getting up every morning to face the same bleak reality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"There's
no way to structure this coherently. They are random observations that might
help explain the mental processes. But often, I think that we look at the
academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the </i><i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">why.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> We know the what and the how, and we can
see systemic problems, but it's rare to have a poor person actually explain it
on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of."</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the woman I want every troll who posts
holier-than-thou comments on stories about the poor and the immigrants and the
“entitlements” to hear and to know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is the woman who can get in your face and make you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel </i>her poverty—not just her lack of means poverty, but the
poverty of the spirit that is borne of it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"The
closest Planned Parenthood to me is three hours. That's a lot of money in gas.
Lots of women can't afford that, and even if you live near one you probably
don't want to be seen coming in and out in a lot of areas. We're aware that we
are not "having kids," we're "breeding." We have kids for
much the same reasons that I imagine rich people do. Urge to propagate and all.
Nobody likes poor people procreating, but they judge abortion even harder."</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is wrong with us that we can’t allow people to have a
hard life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why can’t we tolerate the
idea of someone being <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unable</i> to rise
out of poverty?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why in the world do we cling
so desperately to that “American Dream”—the one where all you have to do is
work hard, get an education, save your money and stay away from the temptations
of the devil, and you will achieve success beyond your wildest dreams?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We know damn well that’s a crock of crap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We see it in our own lives—we work hard, we
go (went) to college, we’ve stuck money in the stock market or a 401k, and
we’re not getting rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, we’re
going backward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Retirement is a pipe
dream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why can’t we cut the poor some
slack? If WE can’t get ahead, how much harder must it be for them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we afraid that if we admit that the guy a
few rungs lower on the food chain is never going to claw his way up, even to
where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> are, that we’re sealing our
own fate?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"Especially
since the Patriot Act passed, it's hard to get a bank account. But without one,
you spend a lot of time figuring out where to cash a check and get money orders
to pay bills. Most motels now have a no-credit-card-no-room policy. I wandered
around SF for five hours in the rain once with nearly a thousand dollars on me
and could not rent a room even if I gave them a $500 cash deposit and
surrendered my cell phone to the desk to hold as surety."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 1.0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How meaningless, too, is all the hubbub surrounding
“Obamacare” to the poor?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every single
one of us doing the arguing has at least some idea of what it is/was to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i> health insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While we’re whining about the cost of our
coverage going up or our shitty policies being canceled or having to wait an hour
or two to get on a website, the poor are simply going without.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or hauling themselves off to an emergency
room when they’re so sick they cannot even stand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For which <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we
</i>do nothing but give them a raft of shit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"There's
a clinic? Great! There's still a copay. We're not going. Besides, all they'll
tell you at the clinic is that you need to see a specialist, which seriously?
Might as well be located on Mars for how accessible it is. "Low-cost"
and "sliding scale" sounds like "money you have to spend"
to me, and they can't actually help you anyway."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why do we have to make judgments about poor people, about
how they should or should not be “allowed” to spend the two pennies they have
to rub together at any given time?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll
admit, even I have had trouble with the concept of poor people smoking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cannot believe how much a pack of
cigarettes costs these days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The smoke
shop in town sells single cigarettes for $1 each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why would anyone need a nicotine fix so badly
that they would spend their last buck on one cigarette?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">"I
smoke. It's expensive. It's also the best option. You see, I am always, always
exhausted. It's a stimulant. When I am too tired to walk one more step, I can
smoke and go for another hour. When I am enraged and beaten down and incapable
of accomplishing one more thing, I can smoke and I feel a little better, just
for a minute. It is the only relaxation I am allowed. It is not a good
decision, but it is the only one that I have access to. It is the only thing I
have found that keeps me from collapsing or exploding."</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>I have prized my
liberal views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Taken them out and
polished them lovingly, displayed them proudly for all to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, in dinner table conversations, I
have been guilty of labeling as “trailer trash” those women who have a passel
of kids, each with a different father, trailing around behind them; kids who grow up
in that world of never having enough and never knowing quite where to go next
to get more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why would anyone want to
perpetuate that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why bring more souls
into the world to eke out a life dominated by the inescapable <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i> that you experience every day?
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poverty
is bleak and cuts off your long-term brain. It's why you see people with four
different babydaddies instead of one. You grab a bit of connection wherever you
can to survive. You have no idea how strong the pull to feel worthwhile is.
It's more basic than food. You go to these people who make you feel lovely for
an hour that one time, and that's all you get. You're probably not compatible
with them for anything long-term, but right this minute they can make you feel
powerful and valuable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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</div>
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One thing I have noticed in the time I have spent hanging
around these kinds of posts on the internet and reading the snarky comments
posted afterward, is that the folks who seem to be the hardest on the poor are
those who regard themselves as having <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">been
</i>poor themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have these
stories of overcoming adversity, of pulling themselves up by their own
bootstraps, of working hard and making sacrifices until they “made it” out of their
definition of poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is this
pervasive attitude of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I did it and I am
nobody special.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I can do it, anybody
can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if they don’t, they’re lazy,
stupid or criminal.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They made it, all
by themselves; and by god, they’re not going to lift a finger or part with a
dime to help out some <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">slacker</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is it about having been down that makes you an expert
on everybody else’s degree of “down?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or
makes you think you have any idea of where “down” is, for someone who is not
you, somewhere that is not where you are?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe you were “down” in rural Montana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is that the same as being “down” in the inner city of Chicago?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will the tools you used, the opportunities
you grasped to pull yourself “up,” even be available to that other person you are
calling lazy or stupid?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you make
it for one minute, walking in their shoes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I
am not asking for sympathy. I am just trying to explain, on a human level, how
it is that people make what look from the outside like awful decisions. This is
what our lives are like, and here are our defense mechanisms, and here is why
we think differently. It's certainly self-defeating, but it's safer. That's
all. I hope it helps make sense of it.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 1.0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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We live in a wacky, twisted 21<sup>st</sup> century world,
where “reality” is rich housewives in Orange County having catfights over
designer dresses and party invitations; but we accuse people of inventing or
embellishing the suffering and hopelessness of living in poverty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We want to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">be</i> the Orange County housewives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We don’t want anything to do with those exhausted, empty-eyed folks who
live in the “bad neighborhoods” of our own towns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, we would like very much if the poor
didn’t exist, because they serve as a sobering reminder of where we might
ourselves be under less favorable circumstances, and we don’t want to know
that. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Linda Tirado has kicked open the door of separation we’ve
erected between ourselves and the people we don’t want to know, and shined a
light on the stark reality of their lives. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What are we going to do about it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-4539924783530079082013-11-23T22:33:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:33:25.995-08:00On "The Knockout Game"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Thursday morning, I caught a
story on <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-knockout-game-what-it-is/" target="_blank">CBS This Morning</a> that was really disturbing.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">It seems there is a new “game”
being played by roaming gangs of inner-city teens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CBS claims it’s called “the Knockout Game.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The object of the game is to assault a random
stranger on the street with one disabling punch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you knock that person out cold with one
blow, you win.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">CBS even showed surveillance
camera video of teens in the act of delivering these punches. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A group of three or four kids is walking
down the sidewalk, one breaks out of the formation, makes for a passing
stranger and lets him (or her) have it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The stranger goes down like a felled tree, and the little posse of
kids just keeps walking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
disturbing demonstration of truly frightening random violence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The New York Times published
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/nyregion/knockout-game-a-spreading-menace-or-a-myth.html?_r=0" target="_blank">a related piece today</a>, in which the reporter disputed whether this phenomenon
is actually as widespread as the CBS piece suggested, and even whether it is
indeed an acknowledged “game.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seems law
enforcement is reluctant to call it so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can see why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once it is labeled
a game, will it sweep the nation via social media in the manner of the<a href="http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/the-lowdown-on-getting-high-considering-the-risks-of-the-choking-game-and-legal-substance-abuse/?_r=0" target="_blank"> “choking game"</a>--so popular among young teens across the
country that it was once estimated that 6% of teens across the US had tried
it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">One can imagine a certain
amount of reluctance in the hearts of police agencies to spread another such
randomly destructive fad—this one manifesting itself as danger to unsuspecting strangers on the street rather than to the teens themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Does the "knockout game"
exist?</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the police are asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maybe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe not. We haven’t noticed teens talking it up on social media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one has come forward to give us details.</i>
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">But still…there is this
growing incidence of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>one-punch assaults
by teens—on men, women, young, old…some of which have proven fatal. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">My first reaction to this
story was, “Oh my god!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wrong</i> with these children?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can they be so randomly violent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are they so angry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What degree of rage could they possibly have
experienced in their young lives that would turn them into sociopathic thugs
before they turned 16?”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">In the mind of this 50-something white suburban lady who has led a pretty
damned sheltered life, this gets chalked up to drugs and gangs and the
violent culture of blacks in the inner city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It reinforces old stereotypes of black kids and bad neighborhoods and
places you have never been and are now feeling pretty sure you will never go. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>It destroys hope that there
is a way out for these kids; affirms that “their” culture is just too poisoned with
hatred and violence for them to be saved.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">But then, this 50-something white suburban lady experienced a sort of epiphany. It occurred to me
that maybe young blacks DO have a reason to be angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe when "we" rail against their violent tendencies, it’s a prime example
of the pot calling the kettle black.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">What kind of kids would
randomly assault strangers on the street?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I don’t know.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">But what kind of society
would allow a white man to confront an unarmed black teenager on a dark street
in the middle of the night, beat the kid up, shoot him dead, and be convicted
of no crime?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">What kind of society would
take two weeks to make a case against a white man who shoots and kills an
unarmed young black woman on his front porch?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">To me, any outrage we expend
in the direction of “the Knockout Game” sounds as disingenuous as the cries of “Why
do they hate us?” wailed in the aftermath of 9/11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Really?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are they angry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With images of<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/05/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-fast-facts/" target="_blank"> Trayvon Martin</a> and <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/11/the-killing-of-renisha-mcbride.html" target="_blank">RenishaMcBride</a> swimming around us, it’s a wonder we can even ask that question</span>.
</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-65739706967219351852013-11-21T22:31:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:32:09.740-08:00On The Nuclear OptionSo.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/21/1257328/-Why-did-Harry-Reid-go-nuclear-Here-s-why-in-one-image?detail=facebook#">We've gone and nuked the Senate.</a><br />
<br />
And not a moment too soon, in my opinon.<br />
<br />
Yes, I remember vividly, during the Bush Administration, when the "nuclear option" was bandied about by Republicans, because Democrats were filibustering Bush's conservative court nominations, something which previously had been done rarely and with much more meaty reasoning behind it than "it's your party against ours and we're not gonna let you do that."<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, I'm pretty sure I was thoroughly convinced that the judiciously applied filibuster was the only way for the Democrats, as minority party, to prevent Republicans from completely and immediately turning the government over to moneyed interests, and setting things up so that those moneyed interests would control things well into the future. Democrats used the filibuster to block only Bush's most heinously biased conservative appointees. But it's obvious by the graphic below, that the Republican minority in today's senate has taken that "minority control" tool, used it and abused it to an unprecedented degree. The uncontrolled use of the filibuster has become the primary weapon in the arsenal of Republican lawmakers, whose professed goal since November 4, 2008 has been to "make this president fail."<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJzaOTCe7lBOAIAcT4NFr2Pa3UPTF-5QvwKYCnJWsMq8kCvWmuGsNHRFf3KwNQtrfkAqklk1N9vCptDSjrG-daVLzc-haXHJ5N_JFcc5RruC9cambEucVXV2tBVfaRtkJMpVMjLw/s1600/DPCC_Cloture-Votes-01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJzaOTCe7lBOAIAcT4NFr2Pa3UPTF-5QvwKYCnJWsMq8kCvWmuGsNHRFf3KwNQtrfkAqklk1N9vCptDSjrG-daVLzc-haXHJ5N_JFcc5RruC9cambEucVXV2tBVfaRtkJMpVMjLw/s320/DPCC_Cloture-Votes-01.png" height="320" width="244" /></a></div>
<br />
The rampant use of the filibuster has become a huge contributing factor to the dysfunctionality of our federal government.And it had to stop.<br />
<br />
It's too bad that the task of applying this "nuclear" fix fell to Senate Democrats. And, yes...this probably will come back to bite them in the ass should they lose their slim majority in that body. <br />
<br />
But something had to be done. Somebody had to take an axe to the log jam.<br />
<br />
And now, it's done.<br />
<br />
Good. Now maybe we can get on with the business of government. Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-58479143185143157452013-11-18T22:29:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:30:51.065-08:00On George Zimmerman, Act 2...Or 3...Or More<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrAnxzWWLaFy9jz-uzMdwlXcu8QkGNjLOCPck2_iPgm8y7h8Jm4oztg-z5j-rdkbZl7yK9hJi3tt35DjU5WzzcNrnpTH8wrwwGuug8ytXlSjTVXuqI6ywEUo-0GUARAqxf_GkYGg/s1600/zimmerman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrAnxzWWLaFy9jz-uzMdwlXcu8QkGNjLOCPck2_iPgm8y7h8Jm4oztg-z5j-rdkbZl7yK9hJi3tt35DjU5WzzcNrnpTH8wrwwGuug8ytXlSjTVXuqI6ywEUo-0GUARAqxf_GkYGg/s320/zimmerman.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span class="creditwrap"><span class="credit">Gary W. Green</span>/<span class="rightsnotice">EPA/LANDOV</span></span></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">So…<a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/11/18/246027229/george-zimmerman-charged-with-aggravated-assault">George Zimmerman is at it again.</a></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">As far as I know, he is still
in custody in Florida this evening. Police arrested him after his new
girlfriend called 911 when he started brandishing his guns in her face and
using them to bust up her house, which he then proceeded to push HER out of
and lock the doors before police could arrive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">When I first became aware of
this story, I thought, “This guy is such an idiot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either he thinks his acquittal in the Martin
case has given him blanket immunity from prosecution, or he is just too
violent and too stupid to know when to quit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Either way, he’s in jail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again.
We can only hope he stays there this time.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I even posted something on Facebook
to the effect that his girlfriend called the cops on him, and I guess she can
consider herself fortunate that he didn’t shoot HER.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we can only hope the law can put him away
before he kills someone else.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">But then I caught the
Lawrence O’Donnell show on MSNBC this evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>O’Donnell played the TWO 911 calls generated by the incident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first was from the girlfriend, detailing
how Zimmerman had smashed up her house, waved his guns in her face, and was now
pushing her out the door and locking her out.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The second was from Zimmerman
himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He called 911, not because he
needed help, but because he “needed to get his story out there.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then he went on, in a deadly calm voice,
to spin HIS side of the yarn for the operator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>About how <i>his girlfriend</i> smashed her own glass table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About how SHE “went crazy on him” after he
decided it would be better if he moved out and he started to pack up his
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About how SHE was throwing his
stuff around and breaking things. You can listen yourself here:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span>
<iframe border="no" height="500" scrolling="no" src="http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/EmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_lw_1zimm_131118" width="635"></iframe>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Isn't this absolutely chilling?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is this guy, moments after a
highly-charged confrontation which ended with him pushing this girl out the
door and locking her out (and then barricading the door against police), and he sounds like he just woke up on a fine morning
and hasn’t quite finished his first cup of coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s quiet, he’s calm, and he’s got his story
absolutely down pat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it sounds for all the world as if,
not only does he believe every word he’s saying, but he fully expects the 911
operator--and the entire world, which he knows is going to hear this tape--to believe him, too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">This guy is NOT just your
run-of-the-mill, gun-loving good ole boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s a classic abuser with dire anger management problems bordering on psychopathic, who has the
balls and the legal know-how to construct elaborate layers of fiction
surrounding his misdeeds with the intent to confuse, side-track and even derail
prosecution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I heard on that tape
was frightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He sounded as deadly dangerous as any caricature serial killer/villain pulled out of the minds of the writers of <i>Criminal Minds</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And I had to quit watching <i>Criminal Minds</i> because that show seriously creeped me out. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">It must be obvious, now, that the Trayvon Martin killing
was not an isolated, “Oops! He beat me up and I had to shoot him. Sorry!” incident. If the circumstances of this new arrest
are any indication, Zimmerman knew exactly what he was doing, and exactly how to
craft his story in order to get himself off the hook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">And if someone doesn’t keep a
close eye on him, he will kill again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> With every intention of getting away with it.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-76368472875889135172013-11-15T22:27:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:28:05.263-08:00On the GOP Drowning in Tea<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3pLUfCRn9ywSFOnDXCp1pmJGDr_eqlmaVuKFHYw7gDx-FNWZclbbRuQOtMFyoLw09Vl3FfDDfP7srjKYyonSWdhb6pKBXEYbSf5MRyq6qrFm80uOtzjW3-qoPHhtjDYtCi1OTg/s1600/tea+party+slam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3pLUfCRn9ywSFOnDXCp1pmJGDr_eqlmaVuKFHYw7gDx-FNWZclbbRuQOtMFyoLw09Vl3FfDDfP7srjKYyonSWdhb6pKBXEYbSf5MRyq6qrFm80uOtzjW3-qoPHhtjDYtCi1OTg/s320/tea+party+slam.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Here is an interesting tidbit
I dug up on the interweb today:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/tea-party-pac-traitors/2013/11/13/id/536535"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Tea Party PAC Targets 87 GOP “Traitors” </span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Wherein we get the details of a Tea Party plan to give proper comeuppance in the mid-term elections to those 87 traitorous Republican house members who "caved" to the outrage of the American people and voted to end the government shutdown last month. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">All I could think was, “Karma’s
a bitch.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Back in the early eighties, I
was a Pentecostal Christian with a keen distrust of Ronald Reagan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never actually subscribed to right-wing
politics, even though I was exhorted from the pulpit the Sunday before election
day 1980 to go to the polls on Tuesday and cast my ballot for “the Ronald
Reagan of my choice,” and for the next four years, I spent a goodly portion of
my waking hours among folks who fawningly referred to Reagan as “God’s man in
the White House.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I may have been young and
callow—and, back then, not nearly as politically aware as I am now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even I could see that the Reagan campaign
had rolled out enticements to the Christian right—abortion limitations, government
sanctioned school prayer, contempt for the ERA—but once safely in office, The Great Communicator
conveniently forgot to go anywhere near those political third rails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And had the audacity to pull the exact same bait and switch in 1984. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the Christians ate it
up with a spoon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Politically, I couldn’t
figure out which frustrated me more:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Reagan making promises he never intended to keep, or my Christian
brothers and sisters being hoodwinked by his campaign speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I’m not sure if the Reagan
presidency was the genesis of the unholy alliance between the ultra-right-wing
fringe and the Republican Party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some
sources hold that it was the Nixon campaign that originated the idea of “values”
voting—mostly by appealing to “conservative” voters in the South (read: white
southerners disenchanted with the Civil Rights Act that passed under the
previous Democratic administration.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wherever the idea came from, the Republican Party of the late 20<sup>th</sup>
century adopted as its mandate the conscription of every ragtag sub-group of
whackadoodle right-wingers it could dig up into the ranks of GOP faithful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No fear was too outlandish, no prejudice too
appalling, no hatred too sociopathic to be welcomed under the umbrella of
political “conservatism” that the GOP offered to anyone who would mark a ballot
in the appropriate column. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Because the GOP was
interested in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">numbers</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It needed control of Congress, of the White
House, of both at the same time if the gods really smiled upon them, in order
to advance the aggressively pro-business agenda of wealthy corporate
backers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Republican Party at large
had no real interest in the political agendas of this disparate collection of
ideologues they had gathered into the fold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They simply wanted their votes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So the GOP would promise them anything, and give them nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">And it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worked</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a really long
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All during the Reagan years, on to
Bush One, and along through the Clinton Administration, the GOP promised and
gathered, gathered and promised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Talked
the talk, and walked the other way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
the wingnuts sat on the sidelines and nodded, smiled, marked their ballots as
requested, and held out their hands…and got nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Until 2001. Empowered by nationwide fears that an angry god had obviously passed judgment on our fallen nation by allowing jihadists to blow up Manhattan, and by an administration that took every opportunity to exploit those fears, the ultra-right wing rose up and commenced to demand everything it had been promised. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">This morning's headline is proof positive, as if we needed it, that those folks are
done getting stiffed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today’s Republican Party is rapidly becoming victim
to the most nuclear demonstration of karma in the history of government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The GOP has not merely caught
fleas from sleeping with dogs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has
contracted distemper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possibly even
rabies, from all those vicious bites in the ass inflicted upon it by forging,
and then reneging on, deals with the lunatic fringe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Republicans traded a couple of decades of unmolested hands in the
cookie jar for…what is about to befall them now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it may be as serious as the collapse of
the party altogether.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I'm tempted to say "Good riddance," but in my heart, I know that there was a day when America's two political parties complimented each other, challenged each other to better performance, even worked together for the common good. It will be a sad day for the entire country if the Republican Party fails. REAL Republicans---like
Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and even Ronald Reagan--are definitely spinning in
their graves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-84089898629968498622013-11-11T22:24:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:25:00.532-08:00On Veteran's Day<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->Veterans Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another
“holiday” where Americans take the opportunity to mouth platitudes like “Freedom
isn’t free,” inferring that those men and women still living who fought upon
any battlefield to which our government exported them were performing a vital
service <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>without which life as we enjoy
it would have ceased to exist; a thinly veiled declaration that nefarious forces all over the globe are plotting to attack and destroy OUR "freedom," so someone needs to be the advance guard that takes death and destruction to THOSE folks before they can inflict it on us (never mind that the continental United States has not been attacked by another country's armed forces for several generations.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But let's give ourselves a</span>nother
excuse to affirm that violence is the solution to any ideological conflict
between nations, tribes, ethnic groups, races…and that those we send forth to
engage in that violence deserve honor, thanks, and glory (two or three days a
year…)
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have nothing against America’s veterans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not THEY who create or choose the
conflicts into which they are shipped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
when they return home from service on our battlefields <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">du jour</i>, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they get a pretty
damn raw deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s so easy to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">say</i>, “Thanks, veterans!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but not so easy to demonstrate our gratitude,
with things like proper medical care, housing, education, job placement…hell,
even three decent meals a day—once they’re back on American soil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Damaged goods, but trying to scratch out a
living and make ends meet like every other American.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But god forbid we should confer upon them some kind of "entitlement" to help level the playing field for them after we have wrung out of them the best of their efforts and energy for purposes of "purchasing" our freedom. </span>Yeah. That's the thanks they get...
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, not taking anything away from veterans who do a
difficult job and get little reward for their trouble, holidays such as this
one bother me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Particularly Veterans day, because it started
out as a celebration of PEACE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not a clap
on the back and a raised glass to war.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
World War One was called the “Great War.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The War to End All Wars. Europeans, used to
fighting, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>had been involved in military
conflicts with each other for centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But by the end of the first decade of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, they had
developed just enough of “modern” warfare capabilities to create a volume and
variety of carnage never previously experienced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chemical weapons, machine guns, tanks and
newfangled flying machines combined to shape violence so massive, so
destructive, that Europe staggered from the effects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the war’s most epic battles, the
Battle of the Somme, lasted 4 ½ months and produced over 1,000,000 dead or
wounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Casualties.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s beyond
comprehension. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When that war finally ended, when the peace papers were
signed—on the 11<sup>th</sup> hour of the 11<sup>th</sup> day of the 11<sup>th</sup>
month—Europeans <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>were so heartily sick of
war that they celebrated a holiday on the signing of the peace treaty. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Armistice Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The end of the War to End All Wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But human beings don’t DO peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> We </span>do war. Less than 25 years after the Armistice at Compiegne that ended the Great War, we were at it again--in a truly global conflict that made the War to End All Wars pale in comparison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It became gravely evident that we had no intention of “ending all wars.” Armistice
Day no longer made any sense. So it morphed into “Veterans Day.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A day
to honor all who have served in all wars. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Americans:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WWII.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Korea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Viet Nam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Desert Storm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Afghanistan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iraq. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And dozens of other unofficial actions around
and in between. All involving plenty of death and destruction. All conducted far away from our home shores.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Somehow, it has seemed an easy leap from "honoring" veterans
to today’s jingoistic declarations <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">vis a
vis </i>the price of freedom and how it’s any good American’s solemn duty to
stand behind (and push?) those we delegate to send into harm’s way. (Rather than tackle any
of that scary freedom-defending ourselves.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There's something so wrong about celebrating anything associated with the act of human beings facing off to destroy each other. What's to celebrate here? Hatred? Dominance? Intimidation? Fear?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We've combined all that negative passion with Mr. and Mrs. America's well-protected cluelessness about the <i>real </i>costs of war, and turned it into a holiday. Pardon me if I don't feel like queuing up to join the party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only possible cause for a celebration in any way associated with war would be if we could <i>end it</i>. Permanently. Oddly enough, the original intention of the Armistice Day holiday. It's impossible to erase the violence that has erupted since. But we could dedicate ourselves to preventing future conflicts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And </span>THAT would be something to celebrate. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-43033441874010936992013-11-09T22:23:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:23:40.854-08:00Media Rant<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, the American everyman was compelled to
seek out sources of written information—books, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers—in
order to satisfy his curiosity about the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Shortly after its birth, that century gave birth itself—to the
electronic wunderkind with the globe-altering embrace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Radio, movies, and then television gripped,
contorted and contracted the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within
a few short decades, everyman…every-<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">family</i>
could no longer live out an insular life within the confines of a comfortable
town or neighborhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Global affairs
played out in their living rooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were alternately rapt and horrified by events taking place on the other side of
the world. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fifty
years ago, when I was a kid, electronic media were becoming a fact of
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took radio for granted—it had
been around <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">forever—</i>and television
grew to be an integral part of our existence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There were three networks, public television, and, if you were in a
really big market, one or two independent local stations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>News was broadcast for five minutes on the
hour, every hour, on the radio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On TV, the
networks broadcast national and world news at the dinner hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And local news had at it at the end of every “prime
time” evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
had it good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had the perfect blend of
news and time for it to sink in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time to
make decisions about what to DO about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We were not bombarded with “news” 24 hours a day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe that was why it was the “golden age of
journalism.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>News stories had to be concise,
factual, and well-researched, because the writers would not get another crack
at them for several hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And
we got the news that WAS news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was
no time for the ideological pissing contests, magazine fluff pieces and celebrity
stalking that passes for “news” today; that unfortunately has multiplied to
such a degree that it has completely buried <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i>
news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I don’t think you could
find a shred of what we used to call “news” even if you did have the fortitude
to shovel away the Everest-esque mountain of crap churned out by electronic
media today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because they just don’t
produce that kind of thing anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
doesn’t entertain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it doesn’t sell
soap.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes,
the world “shrunk” once, back in the early decades of the twentieth
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It reached an almost manageable
size, a proportion that you could possibly wrap your head around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You got a window into lives that were not your
own, and gained some understanding that you were not the center of the universe.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You were force-fed the seeds of empathy
for people less comfortable than yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Time was, you watched what there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i>, and sometimes it wasn’t pleasant. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Americans are no longer compelled to
witness the more unpleasant aspects of others’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> lives around the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you should come across a broadcast that challenges or disturbs, you
can just “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">click</i>” to a reality more to
your liking. </span>Unfortunately,
the amount of information churned out by media today is so massive, so
unmanageable, that it has served to actually reverse the world-shrinking trend. Well, no...it hasn't reversed it. What it did, perhaps, was inject our shrunken world with so much fill that it burst--into millions and millions of smaller worlds. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
no longer reluctantly allow world truths into our living rooms at the dinner
hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t find ourselves changed against
our wills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sheer volume of “information”
out there has allowed us to choose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Compelled</i> us to choose. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 21<sup>st</sup> century, we can simply
inhabit our own personal, comfortable universes, populated with things and
people who entertain us, make us feel good, underscore the opinions we already
have and don’t challenge us to form new ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And since all this stuff is coming at us from the media that we were
raised to trust (a trust based on long-extinct principles of truth and
transparency in broadcasting), we feel validated and justified in these insular
worlds we now inhabit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It was on TV
(the radio, the internet) so it must be right.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
media takeover of America that once enlightened, enriched and empowered us, now
serves to neutralize us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blind us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enable our addiction to the comforts and
pleasures of inhabiting one of the richest nations on the planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should I care about changing the world? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve got MY cozy little reality!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Talk
about going to hell in a well-upholstered, insulated and encapsulated
handbasket… </span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-29428448968550806082013-11-07T22:22:00.000-08:002014-01-29T22:22:31.661-08:00Encore on "Unskilled Labor"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/11/06/breaking_california_wal_mart_workers_strike_today_following_stunning_florida_victory/">story in yesterday’s news</a> rekindled my interest in the ongoing struggle of underpaid
service industry workers to demand better wages, and all around better treatment, from
employers like WalMart and McDonald’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">. Seems an outfit called "OUR Walmart" is promoting one day wildcat strikes of Walmart workers. One was staged yesterday in Southern California, based upon the "conrete victories" resulting from a similar strike held in Florida on October 18th. OUR Walmart plans to encourage Walmart workers to strike on Black Friday and throughout the holidays, in a quest for decent wages, decent schedules and decent raises for Walmart employees. In short, they would like Walmart workers to be treated like worthwhile human beings, and they're going to make a lot of noise and inconvenience a lot of shoppers until that happens. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hey, I’m
out here rooting for those Walmart stalwarts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Walmart is no less the devil than McDonald’s when it comes to not only
underpaying the help, but treating them like crap to boot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And last
weekend, Bill Moyers shared <a href="http://billmoyers.com/2013/10/24/audio-mcdonalds-tells-full-time-employee-to-apply-for-welfare-benefits/">the story of the McDonald’s worker</a> who called a Mc
Donald’s employee help line looking for help getting more pay, only to have the
operator point out which federal assistance programs she qualifies for and
offer to help her apply for federal benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spent several hours bandying comments back
and forth on that story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’m beyond
shocked at how people are frothing at the mouth to disrespect the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If poor people can’t/don’t work, but collect
benefits anyway, they are moochers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
they work full-time at a job that doesn’t pay them enough money to live, they’re
too lazy to or too stupid to get a “better” job. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here are
some of the comments that have increased my blood pressure to the boiling
point: </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“</span>why
is this woman assuming that a job should provide for her and her entirely
family? it is an entry level work position.... why aren't people aspiring for
more?!”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
“Nancy needs an education thats her problem.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
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“If we start paying these guys higher wages it'll inflate
everything... A quarter pounder will soon cost 12 dollars.. Tell them to go to
school... These types of jobs were never meant to be supporting children and
full families...”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“So call it what it is, she wants the easy, no
responsibilities, job of working at McDonalds while earning enough money to
live the consumerist american lifestyle.”</div>
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</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And here’s
a REAL corker: </span></div>
<br />
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Front-line jobs running a cash register or a fry machine
at places like McDonald's and Walmart are basically unskilled labor. They are
not meant to be full-time jobs that support a family. These are jobs that are
best left to teens, college kids, moms who just want to get out of the house a
few days a week, and retirees looking for a little extra spending money. It's
sad that there are many people doing these jobs and trying to support a family.
It's also sad that many of these individuals made horrible life choices at a
young age - like dropping out of school, getting pregnant as a teen, etc. - and
are now paying for those poor decisions for the rest of their lives (just like
their parents, teachers, etc. told them they would). Don't like the wages at
McD's? Don't work there.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Basically,
the arguments are that (1) “unskilled” service industry jobs were never meant
to pay living wages…so these workers had no business taking the jobs to begin
with, and absolutely have no business complaining about the wages <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">NOW</i>… And (2) all they have to do is go
to school, get an education, and a living wage job can magically be theirs
almost instantaneously!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I already
said my piece about the level of skill required to perform these “unskilled”
labor jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only people who call
them unskilled are those who have never done and WOULD never condescend to
doing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I strongly suspect that
whole attitude is a cop-out, because the fact is, these holier-than-thou types know
they would never be able to cut the mustard in the industry. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But let’s
look at the “they need to get an education” argument.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Seriously,
I could probably come up with ten examples of people I know personally who went
to “get an education” in order to get a higher paying job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these either (1) got the certificate
but are no longer doing the work for which they were educated, or (2) could not
GET a job in the field because it’s flooded with applicants, or (3) washed out
of a “fast-track” education program, are still working in the service industry,
and now owe $10,000 to $15,000 for the “education” they never finished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And here’s
a thing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many people who actually ENJOY
the food industry are going to culinary school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do you have any idea how much culinary school COSTS?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eight years ago, I looked into doing that
very thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that time, a three-year
chef program was running over $40k.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “patisserie”
certificate in which I was interested was $20k.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Perhaps a four-year college degree in, say, engineering costs double or
triple that, these days. Still, these are not insignificant figures. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People GET these certificates in hopes of
landing one of those “living wage jobs” NOT in fast food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So what do
they get for their money?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So glad
you asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This brings me to the seed of
this entire post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once
again, I was checking Craigslist for job listings the other day, and I picked
another “favorite:” </span></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Part-time Baker wanted (Vancouver) </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We're seeking a baker for 20+ hours
a week in our growing bakery. This position will likely grow into 30-40 hours
per week as we grow and after full training.<br />
<br />
MUST have minimum of 1 years bakery experience or <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;">a degree in culinary arts</span>. Applicant must be
flexible to work day, night or wing shift. We will better explain the hours and
details about our products in the interview process. <br />
<br />
Due to an expected high volume of applicants we will only be responding to
those who we would like to interview.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">·
<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;">Compensation: $10</span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, say I
HAD my $30-$60k culinary arts certificate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Good deal!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It qualifies me for this
great part-time baking position that pays ten bucks an hour!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shaking My
F**king Head…</span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-76771183280927987102013-11-01T22:16:00.000-07:002014-01-29T22:17:05.868-08:00On The Way It Is, And Was...<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Last night we had dinner at
our favorite local watering hole. One of
our regular servers waited on our table—a young man, probably early
twenties. When he approached the table
to get our drink order, he overheard the husband and me talking politics—as we
often do. I believe I was making a point
about how “news” stories should not be reported from a right- or a left-slanted
viewpoint. And the kid said, “Exactly!
That’s the way it should be!” We
talked back and forth for a few minutes, about politics and the media and fact
vs editorial; and then he asked, “Has it always been like this? Has everyone always hated the government like
they do now?” </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
wanted to tell him something that would give him enough faith in the
process to keep him engaged, but my mind presented me with an odd sort
of empty hole. I thought about it later. I
thought, “What COULD I have said?” that might have explained the
stupidity in
which we now wallow, that might have given the kid some assurance that
somehow,
somewhere in recent memory, all this stuff had made sense. That people
had once known how to respect
opposing viewpoints and work together for the benefit of all. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">As I contemplated how to assure this young man that, no, people haven’t always hated the government, I
thought back to when I was a youngster, and we baby boomers were full of piss
and vinegar and the self-righteous fire of freedom coursed through our veins,
and we marched and we demonstrated and we burned draft cards and bras and
college campuses. And we hated the establishment,
and disdained the pigs, and called soldiers baby-killers. And we embraced ‘free love” and birth control
and atheism and ecology. Anything that
our parents had held sacred, we rejected.
At top volume and with all the violence and vehemence our young bodies and
minds could muster. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And I think of those days as
the “good old days”? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Two streams of thought sprang
forth from this ride in the Way-back Machine.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Stream Number One: Were we right? Were the windmills against which we tilted
really the enemies we believed them to be?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Stream Number Two: Does nothing ever really change, permanently,
for good or ill? Is it all a matter of
the swing of the pendulum, whiplash and backlash, leap forward, leap
back? Was our generation the slingshot
to the left that resulted from the extreme pull to the right of the McCarthy
era ten years before our time? And is the current situation the swing in the other direction after, arguably, twenty
or thirty years of advancement of a liberal agenda? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Do we ever learn a god-damned thing?</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I so wanted to tell this kid
that where we are politically, as a nation, right now, is not normal or right
or anything we had ever seen before. I so
wanted to assure him that sanity and cooler heads really did prevail in the “old
days.” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But I had to bite my tongue
before the words came out of my mouth. </span></span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-71701010989403159812013-10-25T20:33:00.000-07:002014-01-12T20:33:42.317-08:00On Pointing And Giggling at the Kid Across the Aisle<br />
Did anybody else watch<a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-23-2013/suppressing-the-vote"> NC Republican precinct chairman HenryMitchell interviewed on the Daily Show </a>Wednesday night?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The aim of the interview was to impugn North
Carolina’s new voter registration laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>During the course of the discussion, Mitchell made some pretty
outrageous statements; mostly stupid-ass racist remarks, but nothing we haven't
heard before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the interview WAS
manipulated, "cut and pasted," if you will, to make it look worse
than it was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(This IS Comedy Central
after all, not the Ifill/Woodruff report on PBS) <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What was more shocking (to ME) than the guy's racist
comments was his uncensored assertion about exactly WHY North Carolina was instituting voter
reform:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The law is gonna kick
the
Democrats in the butt." (Due to the suppression of voting blocs most
likely to VOTE Democrat.) He was so comfortable with that idea, he had
no issue with declaring it in no uncertain terms on national
television. I'm sure it never occurred to him that what he was saying
was proof positive of the illegality and unconstitutionality of the law
and its intent.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So it comes out yesterday that<a href="http://www.today.com/entertainment/daily-show-interview-leads-gop-official-resigning-over-offensive-remarks-8C11463044"> Mitchell resigned</a> in the wake
of the airing of the interview.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the
Republican officials with whom he was associated have thrown him under the bus, calling his statements "offensive,
uninformed and unacceptable of any member within the Republican Party."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What to think about this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Honestly?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I kind of feel sorry
for the guy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'm sure his views did not exist in a vacuum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do NOT believe he came up with these
"renegade" statements all on his own, at the spur of the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My feeling is that the world he lives in is
heavily populated with folks who believe as he does and are neither afraid nor
ashamed to verbalize their views at any time, in any place. Despite his protestations
to the contrary, I don't think this man had any idea how this was going to play
out on a national broadcast that "leaned to the political left."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr.
Mitchell lives in the Neverland created by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Ann
Coulter, Glenn Beck--the world of which we got an intimate, disturbing
view on election night 2012. On that night, the nation witnessed the
live
meltdown of a news broadcast when the right-wing talking heads realized
that
their candidate was receiving a drubbing for which they were completely
unprepared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had immersed themselves
so deeply in their own press that they were utterly blind-sided when reality intruded into their universe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Politically
slanted commentary disguised as news has become the norm, and it's the
single biggest stake being plunged into the heart of America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People can now spend their entire lives
preaching to their own choir and choosing a reality that matches their personal
fears and bigotries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our hopelessly
polluted national news stream not only allows them to do this, it actively encourages
it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what persuades a man to go
on national television and speak confidently from his personal reality, only to be
made to look like an utter fool by the opposing political ideology that
arranged the interview.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do I in any way condone Mitchell’s statements or comfortable
state of home-boy bigotry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, I do not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I DO feel that this entire undertaking was a cheap shot
that, when you really think about it, is more representative of the problem than the solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mitchell and his ilk are not the
primary villains here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Partisan media
ARE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Are
we now forever condemned to be spoon-fed a steady diet of political
satire--ENTERTAINMENT--when we hunger for news? When we are literally
dying for lack of untainted, untwisted, unspun information? Is it too
late to go back to the good old days of the “who,
what, when and where,” of the golden age of journalism, without having
to steer to the right or the left to obtain
the “facts?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope not. Or things in this country are not going to get
better soon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-59436513959066116032013-10-22T20:31:00.000-07:002014-01-12T20:31:47.685-08:00On "Unskilled" Labor<br />
I spent virtually my whole working life in the food
industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My husband worked for Kmart for ten years, from 1974 to
1984, and held various middle management retail or food service positions for a
decade after that. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of my sisters capped a fifteen-year retail “career” with
a five-year stint at Sears. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I provide these facts as evidence of my intimate personal
understanding of the retail and food service industries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know about hard work, crappy pay and no
benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know about “salaried” retail
positions (the ones where the annual salary looks pretty attractive, until you
break it down by the number of hours you’re expected to work, and you realize
you’re making less than $3 per hour…)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
know about being trapped working just under the number of hours per week
required to qualify for benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
about being afraid to take time off because there’s a good chance your job
won’t be there when you get back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know
about the “full-time with benefits” carrot that is constantly held just beyond
the reach of 90% of the work force in retail and fast food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even back in the eighties, it took <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">two</b> full-time jobs—one in retail, one in food—to support just our
family of two.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose we were
fortunate that I turned out to be infertile…because there was never any viable
economic possibility of my taking time off to bear/raise children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the husband had not made the fortuitous
transition out of retail management to something a little more white collar
twenty years ago, I have no doubt we would both still be toiling in the
trenches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though, realistically, I “aged
out” of my chosen career about ten years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are only so many years you can expect the body and the will to withstand
the sort of abuse handed out in the food service industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which is why I seethe to the point of near self-immolation
when I read comments on articles about today’s retail and food-service
employees, comments that loftily state that these folks have no right to
complain, because they are the scum at the bottom of the employment food
chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Retail and food service employees
are lucky to have these jobs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all,
they “have no skills.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No skills?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try your
hand at manning the sales floor of a 100,000 square foot establishment that is
purposely chronically under-staffed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try
dealing daily with rude, abusive and even dangerous customers without putting
yourself in a position that will give the company an excuse to fire you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try organizing your life around an income and
working hours that can fluctuate wildly from week to week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Did you know that WalMart requires that applicants submit to
psychological profile testing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that
if your scores don’t reflect the requirements for employment, you won’t even
get an interview?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evidently you have to possess
a certain set of (submissive?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>masochistic?)
character traits to be considered proper WalMart material.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So guess what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WalMart really does NOT “hire anybody.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, unfortunately, in a lot of places,
WalMart is the only gig around.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then there’s food service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am currently in a position where it
behooves me to keep my finger on the pulse of the type/quality of positions
open locally in this industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And all I
can do is read these ads and think, “You’ve got to be kidding!” once I get a
sense of what a job entails and what the employer expects to pay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s one of my most recent favorites from
Craigslist:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: red;">We seek pastry
cooks for quality high-volume production for both catering and cafe service. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: red;">Qualified
applicants will have some experience in production of plated and petite
passable desserts (petit fours) for catering events. Familiarity with baking is
also a must with an emphasis on quick breads, muffins, cookies and scones as
well as classic french patisserie. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: red;">The ability to
temper and control chocolate, to create custards, sauces, fillings and
frostings and a basic understanding of gluten-free, dairy-free recipes are also
all needed.<br />
<br />
Candidates must be able to be punctual with a flexible schedule, have the
ability to multitask, take initiative, and perform under pressure. <br />
<br />
A clean work station, a sense of teamwork and the ability to laugh and have fun
are also required and appreciated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wow!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s an
amazing conglomeration of highly specialized skills they’re asking for
here!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what would you expect the pay
to be for someone possessing this skill set?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: red;">Compensation: $10-12
hr. DOE</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ten bucks an hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Less than $1 an hour above Oregon’s minimum wage (effective 1/1/14.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And notice they don’t mention how many hours
you can expect (any they happen to want to throw your way, depending on the
business level), or what kind of benefits are available (none.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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So I would invite any of the self-righteous jerks who scoff
that retail and food are “unskilled” positions, the “I-Got-Mine” idiots who
dare to pass judgment on those they believe to be a few rungs below them on the
societal ladder, to take on one of these “non-skilled” positions for a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Can you say, “Crash and burn?” </div>
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<br /></div>
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I thought you could.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-56547079242513829322013-10-17T20:26:00.000-07:002014-01-12T20:27:27.121-08:00On Our Retreat from the Edge of the Cliff<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It occurs to me that we are a
society that has devolved to the point where average citizens cannot be
emotionally moved by anything that is not brutal, bloody, terrifying or abusive,
and we flock in great mindless hordes to any activity or spectacle that displays
those characteristics in abundance. We
consider it entertaining to watch grown men in a hand-to-hand death struggle
over an elliptical scrap of pigskin; we glue ourselves to a voyeuristic portal
that allows us to gawk at the deepest, darkest secrets of folks who are purported to be “just
like us.” Bad behavior attracts us like
a magnet, and we not only crave to watch it, but we then take it as a template
for our own lives, and so, go forth and do likewise. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Entertainment
has become the
Swiss army knife of the ruling class, a multi-purpose tool designed to
get
and keep the money rolling in an upward direction.
The entertainment industry commands billions of dollars in and of
itself, and it’s also a superb diversion.
Keep the masses “entertained” while you pick their pockets. Those
clueless dolts will jones for the
adrenalin rush so hard that you can rob them into poverty while they
cheer and
boo and wager on the outcomes of meaningless contests. And it doesn't
hurt to liberally lace the "entertainment" with your message and the
type of behavior you wish the public to emulate. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Which is, I imagine, how it
came to pass that our lawmakers, our <i>leaders</i>,
became the greedy, unmannered, ruthless charlatans they have become, and we
have hardly noticed. In fact, maybe we
have sat on the sidelines and cheered.
Maybe we got confused between <i>entertainment</i>
and <i>government</i>. Our national media have been heartily helpful
in the blurring of that line. Certainly
we have completely forgotten that “fact” and “fiction” are not
synonymous. As surely as it has slipped our vacant minds
that society is made up of ALL people, all colors, all genders, all
ethnicities, all religions, all economic levels. And our government is
supposed to be about
guaranteeing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for ALL the
people. Not just the rich. Not just the fortunate. Not just the
privileged. Not just the “winners.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Have
we had our fill
yet? Have we reached the point where the
outrageousness of the behavior of our legislators has finally sunk in
and
stirred the reaction in us that it should have done months ago? Do we
feel disbelief, anger and revulsion? Do we feel those to the point
where we are now,
as a nation, ready to DO something about it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Time will tell. But I think we do. I don’t think I could get out of bed in the
morning if I didn’t believe that… </span></span></div>
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-53172818052477578342013-04-10T22:49:00.000-07:002014-01-29T22:51:37.173-08:00(West-)Winging Into the Future
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">I mentioned last Christmas that probably my favorite gift was
a boxed set of West Wing DVD’s. Sometime
around mid-January, husband and I cracked open the box and waded into the 47
discs that comprised the seven-season series.
Last night, we watched the last three episodes. Everything came to a satisfying conclusion:
a vigorous young Democrat was duly installed in the White House to take over
for the weary, scandal-worn and not altogether successful Jed Bartlett. The changing of the surrounding guard mingled
the mists of nostalgia with high-powered visions for the future. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">The West Wing debuted in 1999. Many of the writers and consultants were
fresh from gigs in the Clinton Administration. The events that would shape American politics
for the first decade of the new millennium were still on the horizon. The 2000 election debacle. 9/11.
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Filibusters. Sarah Palin. All the events that pushed many of us to the
far left shoulder of the middle of the political road. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">But in 1999, the country was already well on its way to the
paralyzing political polarization in place today. Republicans, stung by Bill Clinton’s ability to
emerge victorious in 1992 despite unceasing attacks on his character and business
dealings, hounded Clinton throughout his presidency, seriously hampering his
ability to govern. This was especially
true during his second term, when the single-minded refusal of congressional Republicans
to bow to the will of the American people and play the hand the election had
dealt them reached its crescendo in the sensational impeachment saga of 1998-99.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">This was perhaps our first real experience of the “new”
Republican <i>modus operandi—</i>the policy<i> </i>that<i>
</i> permanently elevated the promotion,
the will and the good of the Republican Party over more trivial matters like
forming a more perfect union, providing for the common defense, insuring
domestic tranquility, and promoting the general welfare. In those dismal months, government took an ignominious
back seat to party politics. And has
remained there ever since.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">So Aaron Sorkin had plenty of raw material to work
with. There was enough historical skullduggery and
partisan maneuvering imprinted upon the political consciousness to provide us
with a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the highest office in the
land. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">What struck me most about those “old” West Wing episodes was
the eerie recognition of the absolute topicality of the plotlines. As if they were ripped right out of the
headlines. Because they <i>were</i>.
More than a decade ago. The unfortunate truth is, they still are. Twelve years, and this country is still
tossing around the same political footballs.
Abortion. Equality for
women. Gay marriage. Medicare reform. Judicial confirmations. Gun control.
Budget turmoil. Illegal immigration
and border security. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Honestly, if I did not KNOW that show was over ten years
old, I would have thought it was written last night. How shameful is it that we can gaze out over
the political landscape and see the same legislative turd piles that have been
littering the countryside for more than a decade? Only now they’re bigger and smell a whole lot
worse. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Twelve years. The
Bush Administration managed to spend every minute after the 9/11 attacks, from 2001
to 2008, spinning the terrorist threat into justification to push an agenda that
either covertly or blatantly advanced the interests of its deep-pocketed
backers. Leading to, among other things,
the ship-wrecking of the American financial system just before GW abandoned ship. Hard to know whether <i>that</i> was deliberate or accidental.
At any rate, the timing was off…because the economic death-drop seemed
to be the determining factor in the Obama victory of 2008. All the election-tampering and
conservative-base-pandering in the world could not blind voters to the worst
economic disaster since the Great Depression; not enough to entice them to
sanction four more years of the same s**t,
different day. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">As we were celebrating the Obama victory, anticipating the
return to some version of normalcy in the federal government, Congressional Republicans dug in their heels and declared that their primary goal, the one directive
that would form their every action from January 20, 2009 until the next
presidential election cycle, was to <i>make
this president fail</i>. And another
four years swirled down the toilet. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">So it appears our intrepid elected officials have devised a
way to permanently derail the wheels of progress in America. The issues of real importance, the problems
that need to be solved, only get trotted out as hot-button issues at election
time (which seems to be ALL the time, these days…) or any time it appears that
calm and rationality might try for a serious comeback. And of course, if we actually <i>addressed</i> these issues and <i>solved</i> the problems, what would be left
to throw out there every two years to rile up the base? No doubt about it. Our government is Oh. So. Broken.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">This is where I fervently wish that life could imitate art. Because in those final episodes of the West
Wing, two presidential candidates who embodied a return to the political center
duked it out in the election of 2006 (the fictional election cycle was two
years off of the actual…) The candidates actually agreed on many key issues. Each honored a tacit agreement to reject
negative campaigning. They met in a televised
debate that truly <i>was</i> a debate—(that
meant-to-be-edgy “live” episode that showcased, among other things, the
Democratic candidate’s vigorous defense of the word “liberal.”) </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">What rather sappily played as “hopeful” and “visionary”
seven years ago, comes off as pure laughable fantasy today—as embarrassingly
simplistic as the “morality play” of any sixties sit-com. We have left centrism so far behind that we couldn’t
find our political center with a map and a sextant.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Government—actual legislation—has
not been the focus in Washington for a long time. Almost too long for many people to
remember. I know I’m older than dirt,
but as I write this, I think to myself, “Who am I talking to here? Everybody knows these things. We all lived through the same past twelve
years.” In reality, if you pay attention
to today’s political discourse, it’s as if the world began no more than a
couple of years ago and anything prior to that is incomprehensible primordial
muck. The word on the streets is that
everything was going along fine until Barack Obama came along with his deficits
and his wars and his bailouts that have sent the country to the brink of
ruin. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Even so, at the end of last year, in spite of yet another ugly
campaign designed to demonize the president coupled with concerted efforts to
disenfranchise voters who might lean in his direction, Obama emerged
victorious. The Republican Party was
handed its head in an election that was not nearly as close as they stubbornly broadcast
up to the minute their candidate was declared the loser on national
television. For about ninety seconds, we
cherished a glimmer of hope that this fact might actually inspire the party to put
its failed obstructionist policies in the past and go back to the business of
governing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">The first action of the Republican controlled House of
Representatives was to trot out a budget plan that had been proposed (and
rejected!) by the losing vice-presidential candidate. “You have to show the people what you believe
in!” they asserted, as they invested the first weeks of the tenure of the new
Congress into an empty political gesture. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">The “Sequester”
became fiscal reality after no compromise between the executive and legislative
branches would be reached to circumvent it.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">The Senate recently returned from its Spring break so it can
use the filibuster to prevent gun legislation from coming to a vote. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Not looking too good, is it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Governing? Meh. Bring back Matt Santos and Arnie Vinick. </span><br />
Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19600143.post-81638688545727435302011-03-02T23:18:00.001-08:002011-03-02T23:18:47.764-08:00Enough Already<span xmlns=""> <p>My husband likes to talk about sports. Since I gave him an "e-book" computer for our anniversary in 2009, he makes use of his "library time" (I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which room in our home qualifies as his library) reading sports stories from all over the internet. He has, in fact, become somewhat of a walking sports encyclopedia in the course of the past sixteen months.<br /></p><p>Absent a community of other men with whom to engage in analytical sports banter, he sometimes gets really desperate and starts spouting his facts and figures at ME. To my credit, I have enough residual interest in sports (I <em>used</em> to be a genuine fan) and just enough exposure to news outlets that I can generally engage in a moderately satisfying exchange on the subject.<br /></p><p>We were sitting in a booth at one of our favorite eating spots—we call it "the sports bar" because from every booth, one has a clear view of no less than five television screens, each tuned to the sport <em>du jour</em>—when the husband began to wax encyclopedic about the latest big story. Seems there is a young man who plays baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. A very talented young man, who has been with the team for the first ten years of his career. That's nice. Nowadays, the players tend to sell their services to the highest bidder, and never play for more than a couple of years for any one team.<br /></p><p>Well, it seems this young man (Albert Pujols) is up for a new contract at the end of this year. And the negotiations, apparently, are no less complex than a trade treaty between international giants. Pujols sets a deadline. Deadline goes by—no contract. Rumors fly, but neither side will tip its hand. The team is said to have offered $200 million over eight years. Cardinals manager theorizes that Pujols is being pressured to "set the bar"—by demanding something exceeding the current fattest contract: Alex Rodriguez's $275 million over ten years. They think $300 million over ten years might properly set that bar.<br /></p><p>Three hundred million dollars. Thirty million a year. To play a kids' game.<br /></p><p>This young man would earn—well, not earn, exactly…let's say he would be paid—the equivalent of <em>twenty-five years</em> of my husband's current salary in slightly less than a month. We could live comfortably well into our retirement (husband will be 80 in twenty-five years) on what this kid will put in the bank in thirty days.<br /></p><p>And the thought occurred to me: there's no shortage of money in this country.<br /></p><p>It's simply that more and more of it is going to those who already have more than they could possibly need or use.<br /></p><p>How much filet mignon and caviar can the guy eat? How many south sea islands can he own? How many designer drugs can he put up his nose?<br /></p><p>Meanwhile, the price of meat and fish has us increasingly dining on…pasta. The price of gas has us vacationing in…our back yard. The price of health care and pharmaceuticals has us…taking aspirin for a heart attack.<br /></p><p>And WE are the "<em>middle</em>" class. God help those below US on the food chain.<br /></p><p>Enough.<br /></p><p>Enough already. </p></span>Lisa :-]http://www.blogger.com/profile/02237889098638895390noreply@blogger.com3