Bush’s Shrinking World: George W. Bush Cancels Europe Trip as Human Rights Lawyers Threaten Legal Action over Torture | Democracy Now!

Bush’s Shrinking World: George W. Bush Cancels Europe Trip as Human Rights Lawyers Threaten Legal Action over Torture | Democracy Now!

He's still going to end up in prison. But he will have good company: Cheney, Rumsfeld, possibly C.  Rice. 

Keystone to Keystone: The Toxic Belly of the Beast | Common Dreams

Keystone to Keystone: The Toxic Belly of the Beast | Common Dreams

Planning For Firearms

• Don't shoot any of your friends, which may or may not include yourself.
• Lock them up in a safe. The life you save my be your child's.
• You won't need any assault weapons or handguns for hunting, assuming your not hunting humans.
• A 12 gauge shotgun should pretty well take care of your legitimate needs.
• It's not your right to own an arsenal. It's my right to make sure you don't.

Quote of the Day

“We were not a hugging people. In terms of emotional comfort it was our belief that no amount of physical contact could match the healing powers of a well made cocktail.”
David Sedaris, Naked

Proposed Warning Labels for Alcohol

� Consumption of alcohol may cause stupidity.

� The result of drinking this product may be pregnancy.

� Consuming this product may make you believe you are Superman. Please, do not leap off a tall building or pick a fight with someone named Bubba.

� Use of this product my cause a minor to act like they are an adult.

� Consumption of this product may make you believe four inches is actually ten.

� Excessive use of alcohol may make you pee your pants.

� Before drinking, remember, the life you destroy by excessive use may not be just your own.

Little Snivelling Jerks: Rush Complains He's Only Got Penile Enhancement Ads | Common Dreams

Little Snivelling Jerks: Rush Complains He's Only Got Penile Enhancement Ads | Common Dreams

Rush Slimeball.

Illusions

Anyone who is buying this good vs evil thing the government has going is either watching too much television, or dropped out of school in the 5th grade.

PRAYING

   * You pray for peace by warring, I pray for peace through negotiation, compromise, and compassion. 

   * You pray Obama fails, I pray he succeeds. 

   * You pray for a good crop of industrial corn, I pray our farmers plant food. 

   * You pray that guns are the answer, I think education and inclusiveness are the answers. 

   * You pray for the good-old-days, I pray for today. 

   * You pray Christian prayers, I’ll take any. 

  * You pray that Jesus will make it right, I pray that we will

  * You pray a better day will come, I ask why not today?

A prayer is not just a prayer. There are fundamental differences in what we ask and hope for. I’m glad I’m not God. Maybe she doesn’t pay any attention to all our asking? Maybe he wants to see what we can do on our own.

SUNDAY MORNING

Are You Part of the Cure, Or Part of the Disease

• Do you practice what you preach, or preach and preach and preach?
• Do you teach racism to your children?
• Do you promote and demonstrate violence over negotiation, compromise, and non-violence?
• Do you take and never give?
• Are you sure that guns are going to take us to the promised land?
• Is your mouth constantly moving and the words generally useless?
• Does your life mean more to you than the next guys? Are you one of those types that put a battering ram in front of your truck or car to make sure the other guy gets the worst end of the deal?
• If you know another person who is struggling, do you offer to help?
• Do you think any less of a person living on the street? Do you see them as failures? Do you write them off as worthless and a burden of society?
• Is your way the only way?

It's your choice. Are you part of the cure, or part of the disease?

Quote of the Day

"The rich are never threatened by the poor--they do not notice them."
Marie de France

Fiction Accomplished: Bush Outhouse Makes Excuses, Rewrites History, Lies and Lies About Its Awful Crimes | Common Dreams

Fiction Accomplished: Bush Outhouse Makes Excuses, Rewrites History, Lies and Lies About Its Awful Crimes | Common Dreams

George Jr. should be in prison, not a library. He can't read anyway.

Bush and the American Right Wing: Top Ten Ways they are Like the Children of an Alcoholic | Common Dreams

Bush and the American Right Wing: Top Ten Ways they are Like the Children of an Alcoholic | Common Dreams

Great analogy.

A Eulogy for Bob Edgar | BillMoyers.com

A Eulogy for Bob Edgar | BillMoyers.com

By The Light of The Moon

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon.

The Making of The Village

“How to duplicate yourself: hang out with the same people and say the same things all the time. The you of today is a clone of the you from yesterday.”
Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

Things That Would Help Hot Springs Village Prosper:

1. Close down the gates and put up Welcome signs.
2. Charge $30 per round of golf for everyone. $35 if you have your won cart.
3. Half the residents have to become Democrats. The Democrats, or Democrat, which is probably only me, get to pick which half.
4. Everyone has to spend at least $50 per month at the restaurants. Consider this a restaurant tax. Proceeds go to the hungry in Arkansas.
5. For every right-wing Republican who is collecting social security, you have to put that "socialist" money in a fund to help stamp out right-wing Republicanism in the Village.
6. A jail should be built to house white, male, Christian, Republicans who think they know everything. It will need to be rather big.
7. No one over 85 can drive at night, or on cloudy days, or when the temperature is above zero.
8. If you think you are better than anyone outside of the Village, you have to pay a $100 "superiority complex" fine per month. This money will be used to re-sensitize you to reality. Electricity will be involved.
9. Finally, we will have to get rid of at least half the churches. They scare people.

Quote of the Day

“To people who think of themselves as God's houseguests, American enterprise must seem arrogant beyond belief. Or stupid. A nation of amnesiacs, proceeding as if there were no other day but today. Assuming the land could also forget what had been done to it.”
Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

In Hopeful Sign, EPA Slams State Department for 'Insufficient' KXL Review | Common Dreams

In Hopeful Sign, EPA Slams State Department for 'Insufficient' KXL Review | Common Dreams

More of the same.Let the people pay, not the corporations. We wouldn't want to stand in the way of profits.

Quote of the Day

Life is like the stock market. Some days you're up. Some days you're down. And some days you feel like something the bull left behind.”
Paula Wall, If I Were a Man, I'd Marry Me

Unbelievable

Well, we had a good one today. Someone tweeted that there was an explosion at the White House and the stock market tumbled. Of course, it ends up it was just a joke. It's nice to know our economy is based on such solid ground.  It's reassuring to know my retirement rests in the hands of these lame-brains. I'm going out and dig some holes in the back yard. In Arkansas, that's not easy. By the time I'm done, I may be broke.

DAY OF REST

Photo by Adam Littlefield

Sunday Morning Quote

“I don't go to church on Sunday, don't get on my knees to pray, or memorize the books of the Bible, I got my own special way”
Tom Waits

SUNDAY MORNING

FAITH

  "You got to have faith." The question would be: In what? Most often, having faith refers to having a belief in God. Faith in God requires a leap into the unknown. The unknowable. The unprovable. You either believe or you don't. There's not much of a halfway point. Taking that leap is difficult for a lot of people, including myself. You want to dive over the cliff's edge, like a bungee jumper off of a bridge, but you don't quite trust it. The cord. The distance. The bounce. Generally speaking, I could use a shove, but that is not how it works. It's you who must face the doubt and uncertainty. The trust and belief has to come from within, not from without. Faith is a word that has troubled me for a long time. I seem to find it, and lose it. Find it, and lose it. Find..........

Speaking of Someone Needing a Chill Pill

Speaking of Someone Needing a Chill Pill

The media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing was just God awful. The coverage is worse than the actual event. They just keep showing scene after scene, repeating events 20-30 times in a row over a half hour of coverage. I saw that 74 year old gentleman, who was a runner, fall 30 times. Then the experts parade on. One after another, giving their advice on what might have happened, and why. The event makes us fearful enough, but the coverage drives home the fear to the bottom of your psyche. It's all just a little too much. I had to take another pill.

Chill Pill

I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.

Liberation Day

The right-wing Republicans in Little Rock and Washington need to be relieved of duty. In Washington, this list also includes a few Democrats, or rather, a few Republicans who call themselves Democrats. None of them are leaders. Most of them don't even qualify as humans. They are self-serving, corporate-serving, bought and payed for robots. We need to liberate them of their duties. Let them find real jobs. Here in the Village we could use a dozen or so to help with all the crap being spread by their supporters. That would be really fun to watch.

How to Make The Most Out of Your Life

• Try to take the positive things in your life and use them to your advantage. Don't paint yourself into a corner. Keep as many options open as you can. 
• Sleep at least 6-8 hours per night. It takes you unconscious mind at least that long to straighten you out.
• Put work no higher than 5th on your priority list.
• Do something worthwhile for someone else at least once per day.
• Never hand feed an alligator.
• Read a lot. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry. Give up the dime-store novels and check-out isle tabloids. They only clutter up your mind with nonsense.
• Never take the advice of anyone claiming to know "the truth" or "the way." It will either screw you up or you will end up screwed.
• Give yourself a break. You're going to make mistakes. The best you can hope for is they won't be fatal.

Could Our Deepest Fears Hold the Key to Ending Violence? | Common Dreams

Could Our Deepest Fears Hold the Key to Ending Violence? | Common Dreams

NRA Directs Senators to Vote No

Well, we know where the Senate stands. What a bunch of blooming idiots. A check would hurt no one short of someone wanting a gun in a hurry. That generally means someone who is up to no-good. It's pathetic. The NRA has these folks under their spell. We have to get these people out of Washington, or face hell in the future. Our Democratic Senator from Arkansas, Mark Pryor,  voted against the gun check measure, as did our Republican Senator, John Boozman. They should both be put on the get-rid-of list, although being from Arkansas, they will probably be hailed as heroes. I'm thinking Costa Rica.

Corporate Tax Dodgers: 10 Companies and Their Tax Loopholes | Common Dreams

Corporate Tax Dodgers: 10 Companies and Their Tax Loopholes | Common Dreams

New Church Almost Opens

There was a church available on Desoto that I almost borrowed. I was thinking of opening Weik's Happy Hour of Salvation. No down-and-out, sorry-assed, moaning and groaning sermons. Sinning would be discouraged, but not condemned. Praying would be a state of life, not an event. There would be plenty of cheap advice. At Weik's Happy Hour of Salvation, you get what you pay for. The billboard would have read, "Give a lot, but expect little." With that in mind, I'm sure you would not have been disappointed. Here's a sampling of what money could have done for you:

1. For $1000, you can be born again. Obviously, this is serious. Everything you have done that is naughty would be forgiven up to that point. It's going to take some time to list everything. This also requires being re-baptized. The price is high because you may be held under until you quit struggling, which at times results in legal ramifications.
2. For $500, any affairs you might have had would be forgiven. The price is pretty cheap for this because it is so popular. Sort of a volume discount.
3. For $750, you can be exorcised. This is a good deal because it takes a while. Pretty much anything can be exorcised, but I specialize in bill collectors.
4. For $350, we can work on your alcoholism. Here in the Village, this is again a volume rate. I am qualified to do this, so it's a bit special. I am fast. You come in, sit down, and I say, "Don't drink anymore." I waste very little of your time. You can't beat it. ( By the way, the pill I give you is safe, unless you drink. Then you die. I get $650 for funerals).
5. One last service you'll miss. We would have had communal meals. Everyone brings something, the church supplies the bread and wine. This can get expensive, but I figure I can make up for it in the end. Enough wine, and numbers 2 and 4 may come into play fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, the Assembly of God took the church before I worked out a deal. I'm sure it's not going to be near as much fun.

TERROR

There's plenty to go around. The terrorist, domestic or foreign, picks and chooses the exact moment to strike. Patriots Day in Boston. The financial center of America, the Twin Towers. The federal building in Oklahoma.  Killing is not the essential, or most important part of a terrorist act. It is the fear generated from the act that the terrorist is looking for. Making you think twice before you leave your home or go to some public event. Looking at everyone as a possible suspect. There are multiple reasons why people commit terrorist attacks. At the heart of it, none of them can be ended. The only thing we can do is move on. Not let it make us "the living dead." Answering the call requires compassion, understanding, acceptance, and a personal commitment from all of us to not let fear immobilize us or let it overcome us with revenge and hatred. In our greatest hours of darkness, compassion and strength and goodness overcomes the evil. Evil will always be present, but goodness will always prevail.

What I've Learned From the Internet

• I apparently need a bigger penis.
• I can borrow money in seconds, get a credit card in minutes, and buy anything imaginable, and charge it all to you.
• You can get the news instantly. This is both good and bad. Now I know every damn stupid thing that happens, like the guy in Ohio who peed on a power line. 
• There are no rules. No one has figure out how to enforce any. I'm in favor of that, although you need to be careful who you quote., or what story you pass on. 
• Women are always making advances toward me. They must really be hard-up.
• You no longer have to talk face to face with anyone. You can be anybody, or anything, anytime you want to be. Being anonymous doesn't help truthfulness.

Money for Militarism, not for People: Obama’s Betrayal of Social Security | Common Dreams

Money for Militarism, not for People: Obama’s Betrayal of Social Security | Common Dreams

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, WE SEEM DRIVEN TOWARD BECOMING COSMIC FOOLS (continued from yesterday)

Aside from war, these creatures also seemed preoccupied with destroying the Earth. They appeared to give it very little thought at all. Humans maintained they were superior over the environment and could dominate nature at any expense. For creatures with large brains and reasoning power, this is hard to figure out. Living in groups did not help this faulty reasoning. People formed companies to supply everyone with goods. Goods were good. But the by-products of producing those goods was bad. It required exploiting the environment. They dumped the by-products into the streams and oceans, cut down all the forests, and ravished the land looking for oil and coal. The heads of these companies made millions of dollars figuring out how to deceive the public into believing that what was happening was best for everyone. That Mother Nature could deal with it. That everything would be fine. They exploited everything imaginable. It was all done in the name of profit. They called it capitalism. Nothing was to stand in the way of growth. If a concrete road did not run to where people wanted to go, they built one. These were all odd, selfish notions.

Procreate, fight, and destroy. It was a vicious cycle that they could not break.

Now they are gone. It is only I who has survived. I, one single cell floating through the vast universe of time. Now I must start again. I must wait for that single magical moment when everything comes together in such a way that I can once again drive life forward. For the one-million and fifty-ninth time, I will start again. Hopefully this time they can get it right.

AMEN

AMEN

• War is wrong.
• Hunger does not have to be.
• The rich do not need government stipends.
• Love always wins out over hate.
• It doesn't hurt to say you were wrong. Or that you are sorry.
• Revenge will wither your soul.
• No one should die alone.
• We are all brothers and sisters, fashioned from the same dirt.
• No religion is better than the next.
• Violence is a spiritually weak position.
• A public servant should be just that.
• We should treat the Earth like we would our mother.
• In the end, it will not be fame or fortune that sustains you, but family and friends.

SOMEONE SAVE ME, IF YOU CAN

• I don't believe God plays favorites.
• I don't think God favors any particular religion. There are many paths to Her doorstep.
• God has many disguises. One minute He's a beggar on the street, the next a brilliant sunset, and still at another moment a child laying in your arms sleeping. God has to be everything, or nothing.
• The harder I look for God, the further I get away from Her. 
• Church doesn't have anything to do with God. Church has to do with man.
• I don't believe in heaven or hell. I don't think that either place is up or down, or a place where we go when we die. I think heaven and hell are in our hearts. Part of our soul. I think we visit heaven and hell on a daily basis. A child is born; a loved one suddenly dies; a marriage ends; a niece who graduates with honors; a cousin who becomes a drug addict. Both places touch us deep inside our heart and are an integral part of the human experience.
• Jesus brought God to life, as did the Buddha, Muhammad, Zoroaster, Confucius, St. Francis, George Fox, Lau-Tzu, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and the Dali Lama. The Divine seems to come to life in some people, seeping out, affecting us all.
• No one can understand God. If one claims to know God, you should run from them. The Mystery cannot be understood. It exists only in its non-existence. A person who claims to be enlightened probably isn't.

If Babies Had Guns They Wouldn't Be Aborted. | Common Dreams

If Babies Had Guns They Wouldn't Be Aborted. | Common Dreams

The lunacy continues. 

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, WE SEEM DRIVEN TOWARD BECOMING COSMIC FOOLS

Once upon a time there existed a civilization of people known as homo sapiens, more commonly referred to as humans. They lived on the planet Earth, third rock from the sun.

They were a strange lot of creatures. They incessantly argued over whether they were the product of evolution or simply sprang up in a garden and immediately started arguing over apples and clothing. Who knows why they cared or what difference it made. They should have been paying more attention to the now. One of the major preoccupations with these creatures was sex. Of course it had to be that way. How else would they survive? Procreation was necessary. Humans really didn't like to talk too much about sex, but they obviously caught on to it. They ended up with about 7 billion of them. Eve begot Cain who begot Jane who begot Dick who begot John, and so on and so forth. 

Soon after humans made their appearance, they decided to live in groups. Procreation was high on the list for reasons to do this, but was not their only motivation. It was easier for the group to protect themselves from natural predators, including other humans. When people live in groups, eventually someone surfaces as a leader. With leadership came politicians. Politicians produced laws, laws produced criminals, criminals produced lawyers, and unsuccessful lawyers became judges. It all seemed so quaint and predictable.

Anyway, groups of people became known as clans, civilizations, communities. They built homes and formed families. More procreation. Communities flourished, became cities. The people played together, worked together, prayed together, and fought like cats and dogs. Often these arguments were over property, color of skin, whose God to worship. Seems like they fought over just about anything. Cities fought cities, countries fought countries. Arguing became the most popular activity on Earth. They named it War. Humans seemed to love it. They were good at killing and destruction. At any rate, these creatures would fight at the drop of a hat. Towards the end, the politicians encouraged everyone to own a gun that could spit out tens of bullets per second. It's hard to imagine, but it's so. War's evolved into killing the enemy at great distances. Thousands could be annihilated in seconds. they called these new war weapons drones. But no one really seemed to mind. They were good at rationalization, justifying this Evil as something noble and worthy of countless holidays, songs, and slogans.

(to be continued).

Quote of the Day

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
 William Shakespeare, The Tempest

We're Hell Bent on Killing Ourselves

A country that is more interested in arming itself than in making sure that every child is feed, and every person has a roof over their head, and every citizen has decent health-care, is a country that is pretending to be religious, when in fact, it has lost its way. Hell will be our reward. But it won't be down-under somewhere, it will be right here.

Have You Ever Felt This Way Before?

• Like you are the only person in the world with problems?
• Have you ever been so lonely you would welcome a Mormon or two at your door?
• Has your heart ever been broken so bad you considered open heart surgery?
• Have you ever felt connected to everything?
• Have you ever felt so low that you were afraid to get up in the morning?
• I once thought I know what was best for everyone. I got over it.

Jim Hightower | The wisdom of the wealthy

Jim Hightower | The wisdom of the wealthy

Oh brother!

Quote of the Day

“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy.
In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers...
Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”
Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Everybody Repeat After Me: This is All Just a Dream

The stock market keeps going up, which will help 54% of Americans who hold various types of market investments. In reality, only about 20% will make much of anything. As for the other forty-six percent of Americans who don't have any stock market investments, well, your shit out of luck. In as bad a times as these, the rich just keep on getting richer, and the poor work three jobs to try and keep up. Go figure.

Angels of Mercy

Most people don't know
there are angels
whose only job is to make
sure you don't get too comfortable
and fall asleep and miss your life.

Brian Andreas

A Lack of Leadership

The drug war is no more effective than the Iraqi war: The government lies. We’ve seen it with Iraq, and we’ve seen it with the drug war. Jailing users and minor sellers is a waste of tax dollars. How often have you seen a "big" buyer of drugs jailed? You know, a fancy businessman with a $1500 suit, sitting behind a fancy desk, smoking a fancy cigar. The answer is not often. It’s always the poor, often minority person, pawning off the rich boy’s stuff on the street. It’s much easier, more visual, and takes a whole lot less brains. There aren’t many white, middle or upper class folks in prison for selling, buying or using drugs. It’s apparently harder for the legal system to see white. Dealers need to be punished, but it needs to be reasonable and humane. Users need help, not prison. The same attitude that believes killing terrorists will end terror maintains that jailing users and minor dealers will end drug use. This belief lacks a serious level of intelligence and foresight.

Keystone XL's Impact Statement: How Stupid Do They Think We Are? | Common Dreams

Keystone XL's Impact Statement: How Stupid Do They Think We Are? | Common Dreams

More of the same from our esteemed American corporations.

Quote of the Day

“there is a loneliness in this world so great
that you can see it in the slow movement of
the hands of a clock.

people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love.

people just are not good to each other
one on one.

the rich are not good to the rich
the poor are not good to the poor.

we are afraid.

our educational system tells us
that we can all be
big-ass winners.

it hasn't told us
about the gutters
or the suicides.

or the terror of one person
aching in one place
alone

untouched
unspoken to

watering a plant.”
Charles Bukowski, Love is a Dog from Hell

Face the Face

• You cannot hide behind a lie, because a lie never stands still.
• You screw up, you re-do. If you don't re-do, you stay screwed up.
• In seeking revenge, you'll never be satisfied, because revenge has no final resting place.
• Talking the talk is not enough. You have to walk the walk. Do the work. Bust your ass. Pay the price. Draw the line.
• In seeking The Call, follow your heart, not the sales pitch of a military recruiter or the promises of a career counselor or the beckoning of your family.
• I would just as soon feel pain as nothing at all. Pain reminds us we are alive, when sometimes we forget.
• Fight the fight without ever raising a hand or making a fist. Give up the need to conquer and dominate.
• There's nothing wrong with silence. Feeling the need to talk fills no human requirement, outside of showing others just how dumb you really are. Perhaps by talking the talk, you are trying to impress someone? Maybe that someone is yourself.
• When you look in a mirror, don't turn away and run. Face the face.

Peever Law #86

Don't believe everything you think.

Sanders Statement on Obama Cuts in Social Security, Veterans Benefits | Common Dreams

Sanders Statement on Obama Cuts in Social Security, Veterans Benefits | Common Dreams

We Are One of the Hungriest States in the Country

Twenty percent of Arkansas residents live below the poverty line. One in four children don't get enough to eat. We are tied with Mississippi on the USDA's list of states with the highest rates of food insecurity.

With such stunning needs, we have a state legislature that takes up such asinine things as abortion, the right to carry guns, and a mandatory voter ID law. All of these men and women should be ashamed of themselves. So should the people who voted for them. Most of these very people will end up hungrier and poorer because of their choice. It's hard to feel sorry for them. They're going to end up getting what they deserve. Maybe it's the education. We currently stand 46th among the states in educational achievement. That's the 46th lowest.

These right-wing yahoo's appeal to the uneducated. In a funny twist of fate, they also appeal to the educated, as demonstrated by the Village. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the water. Maybe it's the gene pool, swimming in the water. We now rank as having the 48th dumbest state legislature. At least we ae good at a few things.

SUNDAY MORNING

Preacher & the Demons

The preacher dunked her head 3 times
in the basin and called out for the demons
to leave and then she spit water in his face.

So he extemporaneously added a fourth and
by the time she came up for air the demons
were considerably more restrained.
Brian Andreas

Use Your Head

You put guns all over the place, you're going to get death all over the place.

In Arkansas, Exxon Is Threatening to Arrest Reporters But Otherwise Telling Nobody Nothing | Common Dreams

In Arkansas, Exxon Is Threatening to Arrest Reporters But Otherwise Telling Nobody Nothing | Common Dreams

Welcome to Russia. 

It’s Official: A Democratic President Proposes to Cut Social Security | Common Dreams

It’s Official: A Democratic President Proposes to Cut Social Security | Common Dreams

Say What!

Will Obama Defend Media Democracy? | Common Dreams

Will Obama Defend Media Democracy? | Common Dreams

Freedom of the Corporate Press

Another Morning in Republican Hell

I'm sitting on the back porch, doing a little writing. It's finally a nice day. I have mixed emotions about living among people who have money. They're all Republicans.  I don't mind conservatives, or moderate Republicans, although they can get on my nerves. It's the right-wing, Christian ones that really send me over the edge. I have to listen to how ungrateful the poor are. How much they steal from the rich on such worthless things as health-care, housing, and food. And of course, I can never keep my mouth shut. I don't think I'm going to be nominated for Citizen of the Year. I have to admit, it does bring a smile to my face to be in such fertile Peeving territory.

"We Deserve Better": Striking NYC Fast Food Workers Demand Higher Pay | Common Dreams

"We Deserve Better": Striking NYC Fast Food Workers Demand Higher Pay | Common Dreams

Fast food industry takes advantage of the poor. More of the same. Skip your McCrap and Whopper and buy a hamburger from a local diner. 

The Conspiracy to Kill MLK: Not a Theory But a Fact | Common Dreams

The Conspiracy to Kill MLK: Not a Theory But a Fact | Common Dreams

Dr. King died on my birthday, in 1968. I was attending Northern Illinois University. A bunch of racist idiots on my dorm floor from Chicago cheered. I left, never to return. Hard on my GPA, but worth it. 

Sixty-Five Today

I don’t mind turning 65.  I almost didn’t make it past 52, so 65 is quite an achievement.  Thirteen additional years to try and get it right. I’m needing at least another ten.

This is the last birthday you get rewarded. Medicare. Now I’m a full-pledged socialist, living off the government dole. Social security and Medicare. Wow! Just think, all us old folks are Marxists.

Things could be better in this country. The WWII generation and boomer generation have not done us much good. People complain about the young kids, but they are the ones who are going to have to save us, mainly from ourselves.

I’ve had a good 65 years. I’ve done some interesting things, married my childhood sweetheart, had two good kids, got a Masters degree, which no one would have ever guessed. I had a good career as a family therapist. I have a lot of friends, both old and new.  I retired at age 60. My wife and I moved to Arkansas two years ago, which is still under review.  I’ve always taken the road less traveled, for whatever reason. I try to do my best, which most days comes up short. Would I do certain things over? You bet.

I would have never guessed that I would have made it to 65. The odds were not good.  Sixty-five is getting old. Still, I don’t really feel 65. I’d put myself at maybe 58. Yea, 58 feels about right.

One of my unfulfilled goals is being a revolutionary.  So far the revolution hasn’t gotten off the ground, although we are somewhat closer. A revolutionary without a revolution. Well, we’ll see. I am getting a little old for that kind of crap.

I play golf two or three times a week, shoot buckets on Thursday in the H.O.R.S.E.  league, fish maybe once or twice a week, have joined one committee, maintain three blogs,  walk 3-4 times a week with the dog,  dig crystals when I can, and we go out to eat maybe twice per week. All in all, I’d be a fool to complain, although I am living in Republican hell.

A Quote Pertaining to the Village Mentality

"It is discouraging to try to penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. That would take some of the rigidity out of it."
Mark Twain

Some Sparrow Opening Lines

• I woke up, smelled the coffee, then lay in bed for three hours.
• Using my phone, I took a picture of my camera.
• I'm allergic to alcohol: every time I drink it, I get lightheaded and befuddled.
• I live in a mobile home: my body.
• For six months, drugs can make you a better person.
• You can't cut the military budget, because the U.S. must be constantly losing at least two wars.
• If you met Jesus, you wouldn't understand a word he was saying.
• The one compelling argument for pacifism is war.

Drugs are Drugs, or So They Say

I like all the prescription drug commercials. Ends up you'd be better off with the disease rather than the side effects of the drugs. Any way you cut it, drugs are bad news, prescribed or otherwise. Make sure the drugs you are taking are not making you worse than the disease being treated.

Quote of the Day

“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made (Director) should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

POA Board of Directors Election Results

Looks like Atkins and Shelton. Atkins did not seem to have much support. He had been on the board previously and has some conflict of interest issues with lots. I did talk with him and suggested, if he were elected, to abstain from any votes regarding lots and to encourage the board to establish guidelines for conducting its business by following municipality rules. This would eliminate things like voting in closed session. They should also appoint a parliamentarian.  I don't have an opinion on Shelton, other than he's old and white, and male. I suppose it wouldn't help much if someone were female, old, and white. Most the females in the Village seem to pretty much kiss their husbands ass. Or whatever. Now if they hire a decent general manager, which they are close to doing, we'll see how things develop. Hopefully, it will be better than the recent past.

Say What?

Say What?

• I'm thinking of turning Republican. It's like a bad case of jock itch. Why fight it?
• Rush Limbaugh is starting to make sense to me. The other day he said Obama was a socialist. I've been thinking the same thing myself.
• All the illegal immigrants should be sent home. I've been wanting to get a job cleaning motel rooms for a long time, but they won't hire me. 
• The best that I can make of it, only Christians will be meeting in heaven. The others are heathens. 
• I think we should get in some more wars. Gives everyone something to do. And it really helps our economy.
• I'm going to get myself a drone, so I can keep track of what the neighbor is up to. I promise I won't shoot anyone.
• Speaking of guns. Thank God for the NRA. I have twenty-five guns and 10,000 rounds of ammo. Come try to take my things.
• I'm sure glad Arkansas elected a Republican state legislature. It feels good to be living back in the 1850's. Life was so much simpler than.
• Too bad Mitt didn't win.
• The rich deserve government subsidies, including tax breaks. The poor add nothing to the economy but drag it down.

April Fools!

Quote of the Day

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”  

Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Reference

An Outpouring of Love and Support for Bradley Manning to Receive the Nobel Peace Prize | Common Dreams

An Outpouring of Love and Support for Bradley Manning to Receive the Nobel Peace Prize | Common Dreams