Gem with faraway eyes

2008-03-31T15:06:00.001-07:00

The Religious War Against Women
By Annie Laurie Gaylor
This speech was given on March 14, 1998, from the pulpit of the historic Sixteenth Avenue Baptist church in Birmingham Alabama. The occasion was the "week of remembrance and renewal" hosted by the Emergency Coalition for Choice, responding to the January 29 bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic that killed guard Robert Sanderson and maimed nurse Emily Lyons.
The group I represent, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, came into existence in part because of the abortion movement, because of the organized religious opposition to abortion rights. My mother Anne Gaylor in working for the repeal of antiabortion laws in Wisconsin in the late sixties soon realized that the true enemy of abortion rights and all women's rights was organized religion.

Virtually every vocal opponent of contraception and abortion for the past 30 years argues against these rights on the basis of God and the bible. There were many fine organizations working for women's rights, but none--we felt--getting at the root cause of women's oppression--patriarchal religion and its incursions upon our secular laws. So that's why I'm here today.

The primary organized opposition to reproductive rights in this country always has been religion. In fact, we are in the midst of a religious war not just against abortion rights, but women's rights in general, not just in our country, but worldwide.

In this country, the religious terrorism is directed at birth control and abortion clinics, their patients, medical providers and staff. In Alabama, it is the Army of God bombing abortion clinics. In Algeria, it is terrorists from similarly named groups who are shooting schoolgirls on the streets for not wearing veils.

In America, the foot soldiers of the Religious Right are engaged in their campaigns of terrorism, harassment, stalking, arsons, bombing, murder, trying to close down legal abortion clinics by force. They do all these things in the name of God. In Afghanistan, the radical Islamic Taliban that has taken over that country is literally halting all medical care for women--the hospitals in the capital city are already closed to women. They've done this, and worse, in the name of Allah.

Islamic fundamentalist theocrats openly talk of jihad, a holy war. So does Patrick Buchanan, who has called for a Christian jihad in this country.

Whether declared or undeclared, there is nothing new in this religious war against women. After the organized women's movement was officially launched 150 years ago this year, Elizabeth Cady Stanton said the "bible was hurled at us on every side." Every freedom won for women in this country, small or large--from wearing bloomers to riding bicycles to not wearing bonnets in church, to being permitted to speak in public, to attend universities, to enter professions, to vote and own property--was opposed by the churches. In the nineteen seventies and eighties, it was the churches--Catholic, fundamentalist Protestant and Mormon--which marshalled political forces to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment.

And the most important right women have strived to obtain is the right to decide if and when to become a mother. Foes of women's freedom know that controlling women's reproduction is the ultimate way to control women. That is why when it comes to abortion, religious opponents are not just hurling bibles. They are hurtling bombs.

This is a religious war against women because it relies on threats, force, violence, harassment, terrorism. Pascal said: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." And Voltaire said people who believe in absurdities will commit atrocities.

What happened on January 29 was an atrocity. It painfully reopens wounds of all the other atrocities here in Birmingham and elsewhere, also directed against civil rights, especially what happened to four young girls bombed in this church 35 years ago. Violent extremists who oppose equality such as the Army of God and the KKK, are always convinced they are acting in the name of God.

Let me acknowledge the great historic work of the SCLC, that was headquartered here, and to say a grateful word for the work of RCAR, Fran Kissling, and any one of any belief who does not let dogma get in the way of humanity. It is vital in the abortion debate that the mainstreamers and liberal religionists do not yield the moral high ground or let the crazies and fanatics speak for them.

But neither should we let the political debate deteriorate into a contest between believers who say God supports a woman's right, versus the implacable orthodox who scream that abortion is a sin.

Because that's a battle that has no place in our capitol buildings, should not be fought, and can never be won. No two denominations, no two clergy, no two biblical interpretations, seemingly can agree. Where there is one religious authority, there will always be a contrary religious authority. In our secular country, we are all free to believe what we like, but our government must remain above the religious fray.

And that's women's salvation--our precious, uniquely American principle of the separation of church and state.

Our constitution says you cannot legislate your religion. Belief that a "human being exists at conception" is a matter of faith, not fact.

You cannot shut down an abortion clinic because your church or your pastor or your holy book opposes abortion.

Our government cannot issue a divine fiat saying when a soul exists, or that a soul exists.

Despite what the Ten Commandments and Judge Moore and Gov. James and Attorney General Pryor and the Christian Coalition and the Christian Family Alliance say, in America, we can have as many Gods as we like, or none at all.

Women and the men who support women's rights must make it our business to protect our First Amendment, because it protects us. We must fortify the wall of separation between church and state, because it is the only barrier, it is the only barrier, standing between women's rights and this holy war.

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Let's take a cue from the great civil rights movement of the sixties, and keep our eyes on the prize--freedom. As Margaret Sanger said: "No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother."

As we renew our support, we pay homage to the remarkable courage and commitment of Emily Lyons. We renew our support in memory of Robert Sanderson, in memory of Dr. Gunn of Pensacola, in memory of all the women who have died from illegal abortions, the 200,000 women who die every year worldwide because abortion remains illegal or inaccessible. We renew our support in defense of women's lives.

Adlai Stevenson once wrote:

"It is a common heresy and its graves are to be found all over the earth. It is the heresy that says you can kill an idea by killing a man, defeat a principle by defeating a person, bury truth by burying its vehicle.

"Man may burn his brother at the stake, but he cannot reduce truth to ashes; he may murder his fellow man with a shot in the back, but he does not murder justice."

2008-03-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Several recent presidents could have been impeached for selected unconstitutional or illegal actions during their presidencies. But the sitting president, George W. Bush, may win the prize for committing the most impeachable offenses of any recent president.

Yet when one thinks of bad behavior leading down the road to possible impeachment, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon come to mind first. Although Bill Clinton was impeached for having sex with an intern and then lying about it to a grand jury, a better case could have been made to impeach him for conducting an unconstitutional war over Kosovo without approval by Congress. The articles of Nixon’s impeachment centered on his use of illegal surveillance methods against political opponents and obstruction of justice and contempt of Congress in covering it up. His launching of an unconstitutional war in Cambodia without congressional approval was equally serious, but was left out of the articles. Curiously, Lyndon Johnson, Nixon’s predecessor, also used illegal surveillance activities against political rivals, but was not impeached.

Ronald Reagan, who is now a celebrated past president and icon of conservatives, justifiably feared impeachment for the Iran-Contra affair. He knowingly violated the Arms Export Control Act, a criminal statute, and sold arms to radical supporters of terrorists. His administration also unconstitutionally violated a congressional prohibition on providing money and support to the Nicaraguan Contra fighters. The Reagan administration’s violation of the Boland Amendment stuck a knife in the heart of the checks and balances system in the U.S. Constitution by circumventing Congress’s most important power—the appropriation of public monies.

George W. Bush is following in the footsteps of his predecessors, but may have left more tracks. For starters, invading another country on false pretenses is grounds for impeachment. Also, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution essentially says that the people have the right to be secure against unreasonable government searches and seizures and that no search warrants shall be issued without probable cause that a crime has been committed. And the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requires that warrants for national security wiretaps be authorized by the secret FISA court. The law says that it is a crime for government officials to conduct electronic surveillance outside the exclusive purviews of that law or the criminal wiretap statute. President Bush’s authorization of the monitoring of Americans’ e-mails and phone calls by the National Security Agency (NSA) without even the minimal protection of FISA court warrants is clearly unconstitutional and illegal. Executive searches without judicial review violate the unique checks and balances that the nation’s founders created in the U.S. government and are a considerable threat to American liberty. Furthermore, surveillance of Americans by the NSA, an intelligence service rather than a law enforcement agency, is a regression to the practices of the Vietnam-era, when intelligence agencies were misused to spy on anti-war protesters—another impeachable violation of peoples’ constitutional rights by LBJ and Nixon.

President Bush defiantly admits initiating such flagrant domestic spying but contends that the Congress implicitly authorized such activities when it approved the use of force against al Qaeda and that such actions fit within his constitutional powers as commander-in-chief. But the founders never intended core principles of the Constitution to be suspended during wartime. In fact, they realized that it was in times of war and crisis that constitutional protections of the people were most at risk of usurpation by politicians, who purport to defend American freedom while actually undermining it.

The Bush administration’s FBI has also expanded its use of national security letters to examine the personal records of tens of thousands of Americans who are not suspected of being involved in terrorism or even illegal acts.

Apparently the president is also taking us back to the Vietnam era by monitoring anti-war protesters. Information on peaceful anti-war demonstrations has apparently found its way into Pentagon databases on possible threats to U.S. security.

Finally, the president’s policies on detainees in the “war on terror” probably qualify as impeachable offenses. The Bush administration decided that the “war on terror” exempted it from an unambiguous criminal law and international conventions (which are also the law of the land) preventing torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners. An American president permitting torture is both disgraceful and ineffective in getting good information from those held. Furthermore, the administration concocted the fictitious category of “enemy combatants” to deprive detainees of the legal protections of either the U.S. courts or “prisoner-of-war” status. The administration then tried to detain these enemy combatants, some of them American citizens, indefinitely without trial, access to counsel, or the right to have courts to review their cases.

All of these actions are part of President Bush’s attempt to expand the power of presidency during wartime—as if the imperial presidency hadn’t been expanded enough by his recent predecessors. President Bush usually gets the Attorney General or the White House Counsel to agree with his usurpation of congressional and judicial powers, but, of course, who in the executive is going to disagree with their boss? According to the Washington Post, the Bush administration describes the president’s war making power under the Constitution as “plenary”—meaning absolute. The founders would roll over in their graves at this interpretation of a document that was actually designed to limit the presidential war power, resulting from their revulsion at the way European monarchs easily took their countries to war and foisted the costs—in blood and treasure—on their people. Conservative Bob Barr, a former Congressman from Georgia who was quoted in the Post, said it best: “The American people are going to have to say, ‘Enough of this business of justifying everything as necessary for the war on terror.’ Either the Constitution and the laws of this country mean something or they don’t. It is truly frightening what is going on in this country.”

2008-03-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

by Richard C. Cook – Global Research.ca March 27, 2008

,div align="center">"They make a desolation and call it peace." –Tacitus

Was Alan Greenspan really as dumb as he looks in creating the late housing bubble that threatens to bring the entire Western debt-based economy crashing down?

Was something as easy to foresee as this really the trigger for a meltdown that could destroy the world’s financial system? Or was it done, perhaps, "accidentally on purpose"?

And if so, why?

Let’s turn to the U.S. personage that conspiracy theorists most often mention as being at the epicenter of whatever elite plan is reputed to exist. This would be David Rockefeller, the 92-year-old multibillionaire godfather of the world’s financial elite.

The lengthy Wikipedia article on Rockefeller provides the following version of a celebrated statement he allegedly made in an opening speech at the Bilderberg conference in Baden-Baden, Germany, in June 1991:

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine, and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during these years. But the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government which will never again know war, but only peace and prosperity for the whole of humanity. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in the past centuries."

This speech was made 17 years ago. It came at the beginning in the U.S. of the Bill Clinton administration. Rockefeller speaks of an "us." This "us," he says, has been having meetings for almost 40 years. If you add the 17 years since he gave the speech it was 57 years ago—two full generations.

Not only has "us" developed a "plan for the world," but the attempt to "develop" the plan has evidently been successful, at least in Rockefeller’s mind. The ultimate goal of "us" is to create "the supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers." This will lead, he says, toward a "world government which will never again know war."

Just as an intellectual exercise, let’s assume that David Rockefeller is as important and powerful a person as he seems to think he is. Let’s give the man some credit and assume that he and "us" have in fact succeeded to a degree. This would mean that the major decisions and events since Rockefeller gave the speech in 1991 have probably also been part of the plan or that they have at least represented its features and intent.

Therefore by examining these decisions and events we can determine whether in fact Rockefeller is being truthful in his assessment that the Utopia he has in mind is on its way or has at least come closer to being realized. In no particular order, some of these decisions and events are as follows:

The implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations has led to the elimination of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs as well as the destruction of U.S. family farming in favor of global agribusiness.

Similar free trade agreements, including those under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, have led to export of millions of additional manufacturing jobs to China and elsewhere.

Average family income in the U.S. has steadily eroded while the share of the nation’s wealth held by the richest income brackets has soared. Some Wall Street hedge fund managers are making $1 billion a year while the number of homeless, including war veterans, pushes a million.

The housing bubble has led to a huge inflation of real estate prices in the U.S. Millions of homes are falling into the hands of the bankers through foreclosure. The cost of land and rentals has further decimated family agriculture as well as small business. Rising property taxes based on inflated land assessments have forced millions of lower-and middle-income people and elderly out of their homes.

The fact that bankers now control national monetary systems in their entirety, under laws where money is introduced only through lending at interest, has resulted in a massive debt pyramid that is teetering on collapse. This "monetarist" system was pioneered by Rockefeller-family funded economists at the University of Chicago. The rub is that when the pyramid comes down and everyone goes bankrupt the banks which have been creating money "out of thin air" will then be able to seize valuable assets for pennies on the dollar, as J.P. Morgan Chase is preparing to do with the businesses owned by Carlyle Capital. Meaningful regulation of the financial industry has been abandoned by government, and any politician that stands in the way, such as Eliot Spitzer, is destroyed.

The total tax burden on Americans from federal, state, and local governments now exceeds forty percent of income and is rising. Today, with a recession starting, the Democratic-controlled Congress, while supporting the minuscule "stimulus" rebate, is hypocritically raising taxes further, even for middle-income earners. Back taxes, along with student loans, can no longer be eliminated by bankruptcy protection.

Gasoline prices are soaring even as companies like Exxon-Mobil are recording record profits. Other commodity prices are going up steadily, including food prices, with some countries starting to experience near-famine conditions. 40 million people in America are officially classified as "food insecure."

Corporate control of water and mineral resources has removed much of what is available from the public commons, and the deregulation of energy production has led to huge increases in the costs of electricity in many areas.

The destruction of family farming in the U.S. by NAFTA (along with family farming in Mexico and Canada) has been mirrored by policies toward other nations on the part of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. Around the world, due to pressure from the "Washington consensus," local food self-sufficiency has been replaced by raising of crops primarily for export. Migration off the land has fed the population of huge slums around the cities of underdeveloped countries.

Since the 1980s the U.S. has been fighting wars throughout the world either directly or by proxy. The former Yugoslavia was dismembered by NATO. Under cover of 9/11 and by utilizing off-the-shelf plans, the U.S. is now engaged in the military conquest and permanent military occupation of the Middle East. A worldwide encirclement of Russia and China by U.S. and NATO forces is underway, and a new push to militarize space has begun. The Western powers are clearly preparing for at least the possibility of another world war.

The expansion of the U.S. military empire abroad is mirrored by the creation of a totalitarian system of surveillance at home, whereby the activities of private citizens are spied upon and tracked by technology and systems which have been put into place under the heading of the "War on Terror." Human microchip implants for tracking purposes are starting to be used. The military-industrial complex has become the nation’s largest and most successful industry with tens of thousands of planners engaged in devising new and better ways, both overt and covert, to destroy both foreign and domestic "enemies."

Meanwhile, the U.S. has the largest prison population of any country on earth. Plus everyday life for millions of people is a crushing burden of government, insurance, and financial fees, charges, and paperwork. And the simplest business transactions are burdened by rake-offs for legions of accountants, lawyers, bureaucrats, brokers, speculators, and middlemen.

Finally, the deteriorating conditions of everyday life have given rise to an extraordinary level of stress-related disease, as well as epidemic alcohol and drug addiction. Governments themselves around the world engage in drug trafficking. Instead of working to lower stress levels, public policy is skewed in favor of an enormous prescription drug industry that grows rich off the declining level of health through treatment of symptoms rather than causes. Many of these heavily-advertised medications themselves have devastating side-effects.

This list should at least give us enough to go on in order to ask a hard question. Assuming again that all these things are parts of the elitist plan which Mr. Rockefeller boasts to have been developing, isn’t it a little strange that the means which have been selected to achieve "peace and prosperity for the whole of humanity" involve so much violence, deception, oppression, exploitation, graft, and theft?

In fact it looks to me as though "our plan for the world" is one that is based on genocide, world war, police control of populations, and seizure of the world’s resources by the financial elite and their puppet politicians and military forces.

In particular, could there be a better way to accomplish all this than what appears to be a concentrated plan to remove from people everywhere in the world the ability to raise their own food? After all, genocide by starvation may be slow, but it is very effective. Especially when it can be blamed on "market forces."

And can it be that the "us" which is doing all these things, including the great David Rockefeller himself, are just criminals who have somehow taken over the seats of power? If so, they are criminals who have done everything they can to watch their backs and cover their tracks, including a chokehold over the educational system and the monopolistic mainstream media.

One thing is certain: The voters of America have never knowingly agreed to any of this.

Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. His articles on economics, politics, and space policy have appeared on numerous websites. His book on monetary reform entitled We Hold These Truths: The Promise of Monetary Reform is in preparation. He is also the author of Challenger Revealed: An Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age, called by one reviewer, "the most important spaceflight book of the last twenty years." His website is at www.richardccook.com
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8450

2008-03-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, March 21, 2008; Page A17

Let's ask the hard question about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Is he as far outside the African American mainstream as many of us would like to think?

Because Barack Obama's speech on race in America was so candid about both the legitimacy of black and white grievances -- and the flaws in those grievances -- it carried the risk of offending almost everyone.

A man who, by parentage, is half black and half white took it upon himself to explain each side's story to the other. Obama resembled no one so much as the conciliatory sibling in a large and boisterous family, shouting: "Please, please, will you listen to each other for a sec?"

One of the least remarked upon passages in Obama's speech is also one of the most important -- and the part most relevant to the Wright controversy. There is, Obama said, a powerful anger in the black community rooted in "memories of humiliation and doubt" that "may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends" but "does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. . . . And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews."

Yes, black people say things about our country and its injustices to each other that they don't say to those of us who are white. Whites also say things about blacks privately that they don't say in front of their black friends and associates.

One black leader who was capable of getting very angry indeed is the one now being invoked against Wright. His name was Martin Luther King Jr.

An important book on King's rhetoric by Barnard College professor Jonathan Rieder, due out next month, offers a more complex view of King than the sanitized version that is so popular, especially among conservative commentators. In "The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me," Rieder -- an admirer of King -- notes that the civil rights icon was "not just a crossover artist but a code switcher who switched in and out of idioms as he moved between black and white audiences."

Listen to what King said about the Vietnam War at his own Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Feb. 4, 1968: "God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. . . . And we are criminals in that war. We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place." King then predicted this response from the Almighty: "And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power."

If today's technology had existed then, I would imagine the media playing quotations of that sort over and over. Right-wing commentators would use the material to argue that King was anti-American and to discredit his call for racial and class justice. King certainly angered a lot of people at the time.

I cite King not to justify Wright's damnation of America or his lunatic and pernicious theories but to suggest that Obama's pastor and his church are not as far outside the African American mainstream as many would suggest. I would also ask my conservative friends who praise King so lavishly to search their consciences and wonder if they would have stood up for him in 1968.

These are realities that Obama has forced us to confront, and they are painful. Wright was operating within a long tradition of African American outrage, which is one reason Obama could not walk away from his old pastor in the name of political survival. Obama's personal closeness to Wright would have made such a move craven in any event.

I'm a liberal, and I loathe the anti-American things Wright said precisely because I believe that the genius of our country is its capacity for self-correction. Progressivism and, yes, hope itself depend on a belief that personal conversion and social change are possible, that flawed human beings are capable of transcending their pasts and their failings.

Obama understands the anger of whites as well as the anger of blacks, but he's placed a bet on the other side of King's legacy that converted rage into the search for a beloved community. This does not prove that Obama deserves to be president. It does mean that he deserves to be judged on his own terms and not by the ravings of an angry preacher.

2008-03-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

UNITED STATESHOMELESS STATISTICS

According to official U.S. government statistics issued in November of 2007, more than 1 in 10 people in the United States go hungry.

More than 35 million people went hungry in 2006 according to the same report; almost 13 million of them were children and many of the rest were impoverished senior citizens.

In response, David Beckmann, president of said: "The U.S. is the only industrialised nation that still allows hunger within its borders."

While it is literally impossible to obtain entirely accurate statistics regarding poverty in America, valid estimates can be made based on a variety of agency, government and other sources.

On August 1st, 2003, it was estimated that 2.5 - 3.5 million Americans were entirely homeless and millions more lived in vehicles, garages and similar makeshift accommodations. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless the bare minimum of entirely homeless individuals in the United States in 2006 is more than 750,000.

The actual number is likely 2-4 million or more, as many cities only count the homeless who are actually in shelters on a given random date, thus reporting grossly under-inflated figures which in turn, are published as "fact" by federal agencies and the media (see newspaper article addressing severe Nashville descrepancies below).

Suffice it to say, many of those who work with homeless war veterans claim that homeless veterans alone number in the hundreds of thousands.

Many Americans have part-time shelter, moving in and out of motels and other weekly rental situations; when these and others who live in garages, motorhomes, automobiles, abandoned buildings and other forms of makeshift housing are included, the number of Americans who currently do not have a permanent residence is likely well over 10 million.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, over 60 American cities have essentially made it criminal to be poor, introducing measures to make it illegal to beg or sleep on the street, to sit in bus shelters for more than an hour, to stand on the corner soliciting work and some cities, including Las Vegas, have made it illegal to feed the homeless in parks and other public places; this is a gross violation of federal anti-discrimination laws unless such draconian measures are uniformly applied to citizens of all economic status, including making it illegal to feed relatives and children or to share food with friends at a public picnic area, as well.

Meanwhile, neither the Republican or Democratic Party has any plan whatsoever directly addressing America's growing homeless population, nor are the homeless, including homeless war veterans, even mentioned as a priority in their party platform agendas.

It is estimated by veterans groups that as of January, 2005, there are approximately 230,000 homeless war veterans in America. Homeless veterans from the current conflict in Iraq are already showing up at public beaches, parks and in city shelters and due to this conflict, the problem is expected to grow dramatically in the next several years

If 5% of the current American military budget were diverted to end the growing hunger within our own borders, there would be virtually no hunger in the United States. An additional 10% diverted annually, if managed correctly, could eventually wipe out starvation on the entire continent of Africa.

One of fastest growing statistical segments of the U.S. homeless population is single women with children. Lack of affordable healthcare, coupled with a catastrophic family illness, is a growing reason why many formerly working-class and middle-class productive citizens are becoming homeless.

Other homeless statistics compiled by the National Coalition for the homeless include the following:
Approximately 50% of all homeless women and children are fleeing some form of domestic violence.

Approximately 25% of the urban homeless are children under 18.

40% of homeless men have served in the U.S. military; meanwhile, the federal budget addressing homeless veterans was reduced in 2005.

Caucasians make up only 35% of the homeless, while 50% are African Americans; 40% are single men, 14% single women and 46% are couples, families or children.

While it is true that many homeless individuals suffer from mental disabilities and addiction, several studies indicate that much of the problem, especially in regards to addiction, occurs after individuals become homeless, thus making homelessness a cause of addiction, rather than the other way around, as is so often assumed by many of those attempting to excuse themselves for not wanting to help.

2008-01-30T19:31:00.000-08:00

Author Kurt Vonnegut, who died last April after a fall in his home, warned that corruption in this government must be removed and the perpetrators must pay for their crimes or our Republic is dead.

In an October 2005 PBS interview, as his last book, "A Man Without a Country," soared to the top of best-seller lists, Vonnegut said, "...we have only a one-party government. It's the winners. And then everybody else is the losers. And the winners are divided into two parties. The Republicans and the Democrats...that's what a charade the combat between the Republicans and the Democrats is. It's rich kids. Winners on both sides. So the winners can't lose. And, of course, the losers have no representation in Congress..."

Vonnegut said members of Congress, regardless of party, represent only those who bankroll their political campaigns; those making tons of money from Bush and Cheney's illegal war.

The 2006 elections, which gave the Democrats control of both houses of Congress, was a clear imperative to govern according to the will of the people. No Congress in history has ever been elected who knew better what that will was -- primarily to stop an immoral war, but also to hold accountable those responsible for the lies, torture, loss of freedoms, spying on their own citizens, and the relentless slaughter of US military as well as innocent Iraqi and Afghanistani citizens.

Nancy Pelosi, quivering at the thought of becoming the nation's first female Speaker of the House, said on Nov 9, 2006, "This new Democratic majority has heard the voices of the American people." She added, while apparently attempting to stifle a burst of wild, maniacal laughter, "Americans placed their trust in Democrats. We will honor that trust. We will not disappoint.”

Pelosi's counterpart in the Senate, Harry Reid, bowed his head and mumbled that “The days of the do-nothing Congress are over." He looked around furtively before whispering that Americans spoke “clearly and decisively in favor of Democrats leading this country in a new direction.” Reid then scurried off to crouch behind Bush, who smirked good naturedly while giving him a "good thumpin.."

They knew they were elected to stop the madness, to stem the onslaught of tyranny and to protect and defend the Constitution, but chose instead to fall on their knees before those who scorned them, threatened them, or perhaps offered them a "piece of the action." By choosing to suspend, rather than defend, the Constitution, they are guilty of high crimes. We can no longer stand on the sidelines waiting for the evil to subside.

They must go -- all of them -- starting at the top with the impeachment of the mad Cheney and Bush and continuing through both houses of Congress where all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are up for election this year.

The majority of Americans are demanding that both Bush and Cheney be impeached and removed from office, and those like David Swanson, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and now Fla Rep. Robert Wexler, are working tirelessly to make that happen.

We've had enough. We not only agree with Vonnegut, but with Lee Iacocca, who pulls no punches in his April 2007 book, "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" Iacocca asks, "Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course.' Stay the course?

You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!"

I didn't write this, and if I did I'd almost be afraid the thought police would come and get me if I put my name on it. I agree with every word however.

2008-01-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

A History Of US Secret Human Experimentation 3-25-3 1931

Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients. 1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.

1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occurred within poverty-stricken black populations.

1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.

1942 Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.

1943 In response to Japan's full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.

1944 U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite.

1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States.

1945 "Program F" is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.

1946 Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word "experiments" to "investigations" or "observations" whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation's veteran's hospitals.

1947 Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.

1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge. 1950 Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates.

1950 I n an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Francisco. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.

1951 Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed. 1953 U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.

1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii. 1953 CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the sub projects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings.

1955 The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.

1955 Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958. 1956 U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.

1958 LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence. 1960 The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the European population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.

1965 Project CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MKSEARCH, a program to develop a capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs.

1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.

1966 CIA initiates Project MKOFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain drugs on humans and animals.

1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop light bulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.

1967 CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MKNAOMI, successor to MKULTRA and designed to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons.

1968 CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.

1969 Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists.

1970 Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.

1970 United States intensifies its development of "ethnic weapons" (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.

1975 The virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retrovirologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).

1977 Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis. ( swine flu anyone?)

1978 Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men. 1981 First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B vaccine

1985 According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship.

1986 According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (83:4007-4011), HIV and VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists.

1986 A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government's current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines.

1987 Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities around the nation.

1990 More than 1500 six-month old black and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental.

1994 With a technique called "gene tracking," Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected with an altered strain of Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made.

1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psycho-chemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War .

1995 U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for data on biological warfare research.

1995 Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.

1996 Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.

1997 Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bio weapons use & Gulf War Syndrome. ( A way to support the troops? and what was the result? Who knows? The letter must have fallen into the circular file.)

And remember the Anthrax attacks in Washington, New York & Florida? Bin Laden? Saddam Hussein? yeah right.... guess again! US Government Biological Weapons Legislator Says 2001 Anthrax Attacks Part Of Government Bio-warfare Program Expert says FBI covered up the plot to attack Congress which may have been perpetrated by the same people who carried out the 9/11 attacks (Just the threat was enough to shut "our" congress people up and get them to fall into line.)

http://www.infowars.net/articles/december2006/131206Anthrax.htm

IMHO... The greatest threat to the people of this country is the Rockeffellers and those people who support what they are doing.

2008-01-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

The New York Times made it official. The Economy is a problem!

So, now, at last we can discuss it. Not just discuss it, in rapid order "recession" became the word of the day, from White House, Congress, the Fed and the media.

It's blamed, mostly, on the subprime crisis. But that's not the problem. It's a symptom. It is the logical, and probably one of the necessary results, of Bushenomics.

Along with low, or no, job growth. Little or no business growth. Depressed wages. And the crashing dollar. (The president has a different vision of the economy. In his vision it's booming! And the number of jobs is growing! Though there is this little blip.)

The idea under which Bushenomics was sold is this: The rich are the investor class. If the rich have more money, they will invest more. Their investments will create more business. Those businesses will create more wealth, thus improving everyone's lives and making the nation stronger. They will also create new and better jobs. Whether or not the people who say such things truly believe them, I cannot say. But that's their pitch, and the media certainly seems to buy it, as do most of the establishment economists.

A more realistic -- and less idealistic -- view of Bushenomics is that the Bush administration and its cronies came at the economy with the attitude of oilmen. They inherited a vastly wealthy country. They looked at it like the oil under the Alaskan wilderness. They craved to pump it out, turn it into cash and grab as much of that cash as possible.

Wherever possible, they literally sold off the assets. This was called privatization. Our biggest asset -- in terms of size -- is, of course, our defense establishment. With privatization, one dollar out of every three for direct military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan goes to private contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater. So when someone says, "Support the troops!" with budget appropriations, they should really yell, "Two-thirds support to the troops! One third support to Halliburton, et al.!"

This is just an estimate. The degree of privatization is unknown. Presumably, that's deliberate. Nor does it count the amount of money the military spends with private purveyors to supply the troops and their operations. It is only the amount that goes directly to private contractors. But for the most part, the assets of the United States, our collective wealth, could not be sold off in such a direct manner.

In order to turn them into cash, what the administration did was borrow against them. That is, they cut taxes while continuing to spend lavishly, creating debt. The debt is owed by all of us, the collective people of the United States. The tax cuts hugely favored rich people. They also favored unearned income (dividends, capital gains, inherited money) as opposed to the kind of money people have to work for. The very richest got richer. The spending was -- to the degree possible -- directed to themselves, their friends and their supporters: Big Pharma, the medical industry, insurance, banking and financial, among others. And, of course, Big Oil, from whom they have spent close to a trillion dollars of our money to conquer a big oil field for private exploitation.

Now let's take a look at some numbers. The numbers will tell us if their idealistic tale about unleashing the capitalists to create a better world for us all is correct. Or if it's a fairy story that masks uncaring greed.

The big number is that the economy has grown. As measured by the GDP it has. From 2001 to 2007 it went up by 35 percent. GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product. It could more accurately be called Gross Domestic Transactions, because it is the sum of all the financial transactions in the country.

Now let us look at job creation. In the first six years of the Clinton administration, 13.7 million jobs were created. In the same period, under Bush, only 3.7 million jobs were created. Barely keeping up with population growth, if that. (Source: Fox News)

Now let us look at median income. That's as opposed to average income (If Bill Gates walks into a bar with 10 people, the average income of everyone in the room goes up by $17,500,000. But the median income just moves up half a notch, from between the fifth and sixth person, to the sixth person's income).

From 2001 to 2005, median income, for people under 65, went down $2,000. That's worth restating. From 2001 to 2005, the income of the average working person declined by $2,000.

Now, let's look at the value of America's businesses. A good rough measure of the market value of America's best businesses is the stock market. Under Clinton, the Dow Jones went up 324 percent. Wall-to-wall, after the dot.com bubble burst, it more than tripled in value.

Bush arrived in 2001. Since then the Dow Jones is up just 10 percent. Adjusted for inflation, that's absolutely flat. (It was briefly up 23 percent. It is now below the 10 percent mark, and tumbling down as this is written). Just pain, no gain.

If jobs have not increased, salaries have gone down, and the value of business has not risen, where is that 35 percent growth in the economy?

There is a number called the M3 money supply. The M1 is basically cash, plus checking and "current" accounts. The M2 adds savings accounts, money market accounts and CDs up to $100,000. The M3 adds in the big CDs, Eurodollar accounts and other large exotics. Already rising very fast, the M3 took off like a rocket after 2001.

The Fed stopped publishing the M3 in 2006 (conspiracy theorists, please note.) But a quick look at the chart of its growth, and assuming its trajectory continued, clearly shows that the M3 grew by something in the range of 35 percent.

The entire growth of the economy under Bushenomics is accounted for by growth in the money supply. The administration did not directly inflate the economy by 35 percent. They pumped it by the size of the deficit. The rest happened this way.

When a government is "printing money" (running big deficits), the big fear is inflation. Particularly in the financial community. Bankers make their money on interest, and inflation eats their profits, point for point. The administration, very proudly, grew the economy (or at least the amount of money in circulation), without inflation. Which actually is a pretty good trick.

In part, they were able to do so precisely because the policy was a failure. If it had created business growth -- actual business, not just financial business -- that would have created jobs. Then there would have been inflationary pressure. Especially if they were good, high paying jobs.

If salaries for ordinary people go up, even a little, the total is a big sum because there are so many of us. But due to free trade, outsourcing, bad economic policy, policies aimed at keeping wages down, and relentless union busting, good jobs were lost, to be replaced with low-wage jobs, when they were replaced at all.

The proof is in that median income figure (down $2,000 per worker). Due to free trade and outsourcing, consumer goods mostly went down too. The exception being in favored industries like pharmaceuticals, insurance and oil.

Finally, and this the key to the next step in the process, the Fed kept interest rates down. Low interest rates mean that it's cheap to borrow. The administration largely believes in supply-side economics (otherwise known as "trickle down," or "piss on the people."); if you increase the supply of something, consumers will appear to buy it. The actual results are a perverse triumph of the idea.

The supply of money was increased. The price of money was kept artificially low. Think of borrowing as buying money. It is. People (and businesses and corporations) did rush forward to buy it. Once they had it, what was there to do with it? There was no new trend, no dot.coms, no high techs, no bio techs, no nothing. So they went out and sold money.

That is, they made loans. There are two big retail loan areas, credit cards and housing loans. Both were pushed very aggressively. With cheap, cheap money available to finance home buying, that market heated up. At the same time, commercial interests started aggressively buying up loans, packaging them together, and reselling them as financial instruments. That created more desire to make more loans (sell money). Financial institutions bought more money (borrowed), in order to sell it at a profit (make loans). Since the loans were quickly resold -- and profit taken off the top -- the quality of the loans didn't matter to the people who made them.

The housing market -- or rather the loans that fueled it -- grew into a bubble. The subprime crisis, the housing bubble, whatever you want to call it, is not the problem. It's a symptom of pumping in money with no place to go.

Other symptoms are no job growth, no business growth, no stock market growth, falling median incomes, disappearing pensions and health plans, and the fall of the dollar.

When Bush came into office, a Euro cost 95 cents. Now it costs a $1.50. The Canadian dollar (the Loony) was 70 cents. Now it costs a dollar. Most mainstream economists and pundits will opine that a low dollar is good for American industry, because it will help us sell our goods. That's only true if we're producing things that no one else is -- or producing them better or cheaper -- and we're not. Also, many foreign exchange rates are being kept artificially low against the dollar. Some, like many of the oil countries, are pegged to the dollar.

They're making up for it by raising the price of oil (currently traded in dollars). Others, like the Asian manufacturing countries, are keeping their currency down to retain their edge in selling here, thereby canceling whatever advantage we're supposed to get from declining currency.

One way to think of what the administration has done, is as a leveraged buyout. That's when someone buys a company, using the company itself as the collateral for the loan used to purchase it, usually at very high interest, then pays off the interest by cutting the work force and salaries, selling outsets and even breaking up the company. It's good for the guy who makes the deal, skims the cream off the top and gets rich. (The company that Mitt Romney got rich working for specialized in doing that.) It's good for the lenders, who get a good return (if the buyer is able to squeeze enough money out of his purchase), but it's bad for the work force, bad for the company, and, if no one comes along to replace it, bad for the business as a whole.

We've experienced a leveraged buyout of the national economy. Our politicians, the media and economists are just now waking up to the fact that the economy is in trouble. The current numbers make it clear that we are probably in, or probably headed for, a recession. Also, the polls show that people are concerned about the economy, and it's an election year.

The people are out ahead of our governing and media and professional economic classes on this, because they live in the real economy, the one that's been leveraged, and the professionals are either in, or work for, the investor class that has been doing well.

So there is, at last, talk about doing something about the economy.

The Feds will cut interest rates! George Bush wants a stimulus package. Tax cuts, tax cuts and make my tax cuts permanent! After all, that policy has worked so well. He said the cuts must be at least 1 percent of the GDP. That will be $145 billion. Harry Reid and Nancy Policy (the King and Queen of Effective Politics) will offer a competing one (tax cuts, tax cuts!). Although they promised pay-as-you-go economic policies from a Democratic legislature. Pundits in the media talk about a crisis in consumer confidence. And how the fix is to restore it. So we will go out and buy. Presumably on credit.

How about consumers think there's a problem because there is one. Not because they're weird emotionally. They reasonably see themselves so overextended, with so little hope of being better earners, that they won't be able to pay things off. Not even with a one-time government check of somewhere between $300 and $1,200.

In short, most of those solutions will go to making things worse.

The real solutions are pretty obvious and pretty simple.

First, we have to make a choice: Do we want a sound economy for all of us and a strong America? Or do we want to have a few people of unlimited wealth who use that wealth, among other things, to control the government so that it helps them milk more money from the rest of us?

By the way, this is not a call for socialism! Or other ism! Except a call for sensible and effective capitalism. Based on what we've seen work and seen fail. In the real world, there are no such things as free markets. In the real world, business people manipulate and conspire to control markets, and governments both control and collude with business, while tax policies and government spending have a major affect on the economy. Let us accept that, and then the argument is only over how best to do it.

Simply giving money to rich people doesn't work. Bob Novak, the conservative commentator who calls the investor class "the most creative class," is flat out wrong. As we've seen, outside of their ability to buy influence in politics, the media and the law, the rich are like the rest of us, relatively passive and unimaginative, prone to putting their money in the easiest place that promises a return, in whatever bubble is in fashion at the moment and wherever some salesman who gets their attention tells them.

Money has no mind of its own. It has to be directed toward areas that will generate and support business and good jobs at good wages. As it happens, our economic goals are on the same road as the social good.

The No. 1 target has to be alternative energy. Energy that can be produced here, in the United States, renewable, nonpolluting, and not, like corn-based ethanol, requiring as much petroleum to produce it as it replaces. One-third of our balance of trade deficit is oil, year in and year out. If the United States can become the world leader in alternative energy and conservation technology, we will, at last, have something to export.

The No. 2 target is infrastructure. By it's nature, infrastructure has to be largely produced here with local labor and it stays here. Hard infrastructure, like roads and bridges, cleaning up New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, protecting our coasts from future storms, internet and phone service as good as Europe's, Japan's and Singapore's.

Soft infrastructure, like education, youth services, parks and recreation programs, public safety, and a saner criminal justice system.

The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the incarcerated population. That's expensive. And wasteful. Unsafe streets and high crime are expensive and wasteful.

Infrastructure makes doing business easier, quicker and cheaper. It becomes an invisible subsidy for all businesses. Try to imagine, for example, Fed Ex, that entrepreneurial triumph, without a national web of airports, flight controllers and roads.

The No. 3 target is health care. Health care in the United States costs at least 50 percent more than the next-highest spending country and double what it does in most other modernized countries. All of them have better health than we do. They live longer and in better condition.

The difference is that they have national health plans. Mostly single-payer, usually tax-supported. Our plans are based on a hodge-podge of a thousand private insurers. A single-payer national health plan should cut the costs of our health care by at least 25 percent, possibly 50 percent.

That's an astonishing number. That money could go to more productive things. Or to even more health care. American businesses who supply health care to their employees claim they are noncompetitive with companies from countries that have national health. This will make them more competitive. This will make American labor more competitive.

The No. 4 four target is a balanced budget. There are, in fact, times for deficit spending. Just as there are times in our personal lives to borrow and times for business to borrow. This is probably not one of them.

There is an ocean of money sloshing all around the world, looking for a home. If there are real business opportunities in America (like taking the lead in alternative energy, bio tech, and whatever is next around the corner), it will come. Especially if there is a sound business environment and dollar investments return to being the most reliable in the world. That means paying down our debt.

How can all this be done? Raising taxes. On the wealthy. And on corporations.

That's not class warfare. That's simple practicality. After your first $20,000, how much of the next 20 do you need, to live, thrive and survive? Damn near all of it. After your first 20 million, now much of the next 20 million do you need? Not a nickel.

The rich will whine, writhe and scream that they won't do business, they'll be driven out of business, that business will collapse.

Bullshit. If they dislike keeping 20 or 30 or 40 cents of each dollar of profit so much that they won't take the dollar, someone will come along who gladly will. That's how markets work.

All of this is pretty straightforward and common sense. The illogic of Bushenomics is obvious. The results were foreseeable. After all, similar effects took place under Reagan and Bush the Elder, until they reversed courses. The alternatives are equally obvious. The facts bear out the theory. Go back to Hoover and Roosevelt, then look at the down, up, down, of Bush the Elder, Bill Clinton, and Bush the Lesser. (We do note that there are minor industries dedicated to proving that Franklin Roosevelt was, in the words of CNN's Glenn Beck, "an evil son of a bitch," that the New Deal really, really, really didn't work, and that Bush the Elder was really, really, really responsible for the boom of the Clinton years and that Clinton was responsible for the first recession during the reign of Bush the Lesser. But they are like people who see the image of the Virgin Mary in bread sticks and crullers.)

None of our politicians, pundits or economists are addressing the fundamentals. The last time we switched from the nonsense of worshiping unmitigated greed, disguised as free marketeering, it took a market crash and the Great Depression to move us out of our public relations-manufactured delusions and make us understand that when we all do well the rich get richer too, so let's start with the common good. Based on the dialogue as it stands now, we will go with tinkering and twaddle, doing more of what doesn't work. And only if the whole things collapses will we address the real problems.

Looted Nation

2007-12-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

A month ago, the House of Representatives passed legislation that targets Americans with radical ideologies for research.

The bill has received little media attention and has almost unanimous support in the House. However, civil liberties groups see the bill as a threat to the constitutionally protected freedoms of expression, privacy and protest. HR 1955, "The Violent Radicalization Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007", apparently intended to assess "homegrown" terrorism threats and causes is on a fast-track through Congress.

Proponents claim the bill would centralize information about the formation of domestic terrorists and would not impinge on constitutional rights. On October 23, the bill passed the House of Representatives by a 404-6 margin with 23 members not voting.

If passed in the Senate and signed into law by George W. Bush, the act would establish a ten-member National Commission on the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, to study and propose legislation to address the threat of possible "radicalization" of people legally residing in the US.

Despite being written by a Democrat, the current version of the act would probably set up a Commission dominated by Republicans. By allowing Bush and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff to each appoint one member of the Commission, and splitting the appointment of the other eight positions equally between Congressional Democrats and Republicans, the Commission would consist of six Republican appointees and four Democratic ones.

The Commission would be tasked with collecting information on domestically spawned terrorism from a variety of sources, including foreign governments and previous domestic studies. The Commission would then report to Congress and recommend policy changes to address the threat.

There is no opposition to this consolidation or research.

However, the Commission would be given broad authority to hold hearings and collect evidence, powers that raise red flags for civil liberties groups. Civil liberties activists have criticized the bill, some comparing the Commission it would establish to the McCarthy Commission that investigated Americans for possible associations with Communist groups, casting suspicion on law-abiding citizens and ruining their reputations. The Commission would be empowered to "hold hearings and sit and act at such times and places, take such testimony, receive such evidence, and administer such oaths as the Commission considers advisable to carry out its duties."

Odette Wilkens, the executive director of the Equal Justice Alliance, a constitutional watchdog group, compared the legislation to the McCarthy Commission and to the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), which infiltrated, undermined and spied on civil rights and antiwar groups during the 1950s and 60s. "The commission would have very broad powers. It could investigate anyone. It would create a public perception that whoever is being investigated by the Commission must be involved in subversive or illegal activities. It would give the appearance that whoever they are investigating is potentially a traitor or disloyal or a terrorist, even if all they were doing was advocating lawful views," Wilkens said.

In a speech on the floor of the House before the vote, Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-California), the chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and author of the bill said, "Free speech, espousing even very radical beliefs, is protected by our Constitution - but violent behavior is not. Our plan must be to intervene before a person crosses that line separating radical views from violent behavior, to understand the forces at work on the individual and the community, to create an environment that discourages disillusionment and alienation, that instills in young people a sense of belonging and faith in the future."

In the same speech, Harman explained why "homegrown" terrorists are a threat to the US. She offered the explanation that adolescents who might be susceptible to recruitment by gangs might also be potential terrorists. "Combine that personal adolescent upheaval with the explosion of information technologies and communications tools - tools which American kids are using to broadcast messages from al-Qaeda - and there is a road map to terror, a 'retail outlet' for anger and warped aspirations. Link that intent with a trained terrorist operative who has actual capability, and a 'Made in the USA' suicide bomber is born," Harman said.

The bill specifically identifies the Internet as a tool of radicalization. "The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens."

In a press release, Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington American Civil Liberties Union legislative office, took issue with this characterization. "If Congress finds the Internet is dangerous, then the ACLU will have to worry about censorship and limitations on First Amendment activities. Why go down that road?" Fredrickson asked in a press release.

The ALCU has "serious concerns" about the bill. Fredrickson said, "Law enforcement should focus on action, not thought. We need to worry about the people who are committing crimes rather than those who harbor beliefs that the government may consider to be extreme." According to Wilkens, the bill, in its current form, lacks specific definitions. which would give the Commission expansive and possibly dangerous powers. The Committee would be set up to address the process of "violent radicalization," which the bill defines as "the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." According to Wilkens, the bill does not adequately define "an extremist belief system," opening the door for abuse. "An 'extremist belief system' can be whatever anyone on the commission says it is. Back in the 60s, civil rights leaders and Vietnam War protesters were considered radicals. They weren't committing violence but they were considered radicals because of their belief system," Wilkens said.

The bill would also create a "Center of Excellence for the Study of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States," on an unspecified University campus. Unlike other Centers of Excellence university-based government research centers created by the Department of Homeland Security, the Center established by this bill could have a chilling effect on political activity on campus because of its specific mission to "assist Federal, State, local and tribal homeland security officials through training, education, and research in preventing violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism," according to Wilkens. "If you are on campus and the thought police are on campus are you going to want to join a political group?" Wilkens asked.

Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) was one of three Democrats who voted against the bill, but he has given no public explanation for his opposition and his office did not respond to a call for comment as of this writing. Neither the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) nor Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, voted on the bill.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut). With overwhelming support from the House, it is likely to pass quickly through the Senate.

If this doesn't scare the shit out of you... Then you are too uninformed, or too stupid to understand what is really happening.

2007-11-29T15:11:00.000-08:00

In my studied opinion, neither the Democrat nor Republican Party has any intention of slowing the out-of-control expansion of government. Neither party has demonstrated any loyalty to preserving and protecting our constitutional form of government

Like National Socialists and Soviet Socialists of old, the only thing that concerns Democrats and Republicans today is who is in power. Both are equally willing to destroy the freedoms and liberties of people without conscience or regret as long as their party remains in control.

1. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that elected leaders should really obey the U.S. Constitution.

2. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that before the United States invades and occupies another country, Congress must first declare war.

3. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe the federal government should live within its means, like everyone else is forced to do.

4. You might be a Constitutionalist if you think that taking away people's liberties in the name of security is neither patriotic nor does it make the country more secure.

5. You might be a Constitutionalist if you would like to see politicians be forced to abide by the same laws they make everyone else submit to.

6. You might be a Constitutionalist if you understand that we have three coequal branches of government that are supposed to hold each other in check and balance.

7. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that the federal government has no authority to be involved in education or law enforcement.

8. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that gun control laws do nothing but aid and abet criminals while trampling the rights and freedoms of law abiding citizens.

9. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that the income tax is both unconstitutional and immoral and, along with the I.R.S., should be abolished.

10. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe the federal government had no authority to tell Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore that he could not display a monument containing the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery.

11. You might be a Constitutionalist if you understand that freedom has nothing in common with illegal immigration.

12. You might be a Constitutionalist if you understand that outsourcing American jobs overseas is not good for America.

13. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that the Boy Scouts are not a threat to America.
14. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that the federal government should honor its commitments to America's veterans.

15. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that the federal government has no business bribing churches and faith-based organizations with federal tax dollars.

16. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that federal agents who murder American citizens should be held to the same laws and punishments that any other citizen would be held to.

17. You might be a Constitutionalist if you understand that NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and the FTAA are disastrous compromises of America's national sovereignty and independence.

18. You might be a Constitutionalist if you would like to see Congressmen and Senators be required to actually read a bill before passing it into law.

19. You might be a Constitutionalist if you understand that it is the job of government to protect and secure God-given rights not use its power to take those rights away.

20. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that parents have a right to home school their children.

21. You might be a Constitutionalist if you believe that governmental seizure of private property is plain, old fashioned thievery.

2007-11-26T06:11:00.000-08:00

Lawmakers need to stand up for the Constitution and support impeachment

By LINDA BOYD GUEST COLUMNIST

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. -- Article II, Section 4 On Nov. 6, Rep.

Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney on the floor of the House of Representatives. For one shining moment the will of the majority of Americans and the promise of this nation's founders were truly represented.

The detailed charges were solemnly read from the House podium and televised on C-Span. House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer made a motion to table the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lobbied hard for votes to table. In a stunning turnaround, House Republicans changed strategy and voted decisively to prevent tabling the impeachment resolution.

Pelosi was defied by 85 Democratic members who voted against tabling the impeachment resolution. This includes John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and six committee members. The resolution was quickly voted back to the Judiciary Committee, where it is not resting quietly.

Judiciary Committee member Bob Wexler wrote, "The American people are served well with a legitimate and thorough impeachment inquiry. I will urge the Judiciary Committee to schedule impeachment hearings immediately and not let this issue languish as it has over the last six months. Only through hearings can we begin to correct the abuses of Dick Cheney and the Bush administration."

Impeachment is squarely on the table, and momentum is building. A year ago, almost no elected official breathed the word impeachment. Now impeachment has hit the House floor, and our electeds have gone on record. Millions of Americans are demanding an end to executive abuse of power.

After six years of state of emergency, the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, continual war and occupations, our Constitution is deeply in crisis. Americans are in danger of losing our system of government and civil rights if they do not roll back the Bush administration's assault on the rule of law.

Allowing Cheney and George W. Bush to finish their terms without being impeached means future presidents are free to copy their lawless behavior. Of course many important issues deserve the attention of Congress. But the Constitution is the foundation of our democracy, not just an issue. Without the Constitution, we have nothing.

Polls show that 74 percent of Democrats and the majority of American adults support impeaching Cheney. "Never in our history have the high crimes and misdemeanors been so flagrant, and the people of our country know it," writes local author Richard Behan.

Kucinich has targeted Cheney first, but investigations will implicate the president as well. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50 percent of respondents say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48 percent, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974. With these numbers, why aren't Bush and Cheney gone already?

The vice president is accused of: purposely manipulating intelligence to fabricate a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in order to justify an attack on Iraq; deceiving Congress about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida; threatening aggression against the Republic of Iran, absent any real threat to the United States.

These violations of the Constitution and international treaty are just the tip of the iceberg. More articles of impeachment can be added at any time, and ample evidence to convict is on the public record.

Representatives need to introduce articles regarding: illegal war, in violation of both international treaty and the Constitution; widespread domestic wiretapping in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony.

Bush already has admitted to this; condoning torture in violation of federal laws and international treaties; rescinding habeas corpus, the cornerstone of Western law since the Magna Carta; obstruction of justice regarding U.S. attorney firings; subversion of the Constitution, abuse of signing statements and rescinding habeas corpus.

It's astounding that our representatives to Congress carry on with business as usual knowing that Americans lack habeas corpus and a working code of law.

I want my representative, Dave Reichert, to block the doors of the House until habeas is restored as a basic human right in this nation!

In light of Bush's steady drumbeat for war with Iran, Kucinich said he will consider an impeachment resolution against him. "Impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran," he says. "The most conservative principle of the Founding Fathers was distrust of unchecked power. Centuries of experience substantiated that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The Constitution embraced a separation of powers to keep the legislative, executive and judicial branches in equilibrium," Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, said in the October 2006 edition of Washington Monthly. If Congress were serious about oversight, there already would be dozens of bills and resolutions calling for impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

The "Unitary Executive Theory" violates the principle of balance of power in the Constitution. The president cites this "unitary" power in hundreds of signing statements that say he can ignore laws passed by Congress. The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments are all now subject to the caprice of government officials.

The Military Commissions Act allows U.S. citizens to be detained without due process if they are declared enemy combatants. Without our permission, this country has become an exporter of torture. Congress has failed to provide oversight and exercise its authority to rein in a criminal administration. Only swift action on impeachment can redeem it now.

The people have done the heavy work of bringing impeachment forward. Representatives need only ask if the allegations are serious enough to warrant investigations. George Bush and Dick Cheney promote an imperial presidency. They assert that the executive is the most powerful branch of government, undermining the judiciary and Congress in violation of the Constitution's bedrock principle of shared power among three co-equal branches.

This subverts the very nature of our system of government. "This is an attempt by the president to have the final word on his own constitutional powers, which eliminates the checks and balances that keep the country a democracy. ... That's a big problem because that's essentially a dictatorship," Fein said.

Washington For Impeachment and Citizens to Impeach Bush and Cheney are working to inform the public, collect signatures to petitions, provide forums, and lobby representatives.

Washington was the second state to sponsor a bill for impeachment in the state Legislature. Washington State Democratic organizations have passed resolutions in 11 Democratic legislative districts, five counties and the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, has received impeachment resolutions from almost every legislative district within his congressional district. When will he represent the will of his constituents and honor his oath to protect the Constitution?

The national movement to impeach is a non-partisan effort to restore the Constitution and the rule of law. People across the political spectrum can unite to preserve the Constitution and civil liberties given to us by the founders. Impeachment is the peaceful, orderly, constitutionally prescribed way to rid ourselves of a lawless administration. The issue is not about removing Bush and Cheney as much as it is about preserving the Constitution and redeeming the office of the executive.

The Constitution is the contract of governance between the people and the government. What happens when major portions of the contract are violated? Congress has failed to call the president and vice president to account, so citizens must turn up the heat.

Members of Congress who fail to demand investigations are covering for criminals. Every elected official has sworn an oath to "support and protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic." Anything less than impeachment and a full repudiation of the Bush administration's crimes and violations of the law is a dereliction of duty and a betrayal of the public trust.

If we want our democracy back, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work to clean out the House.

Linda Boyd is director of Washington For Impeachment, www.washingtonforimpeachment.org. Citizens to Impeach Bush and Cheney, in Olympia: www.citizensimpeach.org

2007-11-21T05:13:00.000-08:00

Every day, every damn day, it's on the news, another baby raped... dead or a little body badly mangled inside...

Somebody always blames the child's mother, and it's usually the boy friend who does this evil, but sometimes it's the child's father, or an uncle, babysitter, or a neighbor.

I think we can all agree, this is not normal behavior, for a grown man to rape a baby, a child, and cause that kind of pain and damage to any living thing. It's wrong. It's sick.

Two teen age-rs, kill a man, cut his head off, burn his hands and feet with a blow torch and throw his head in the river so the body can't be identified. It's wrong. It's sick.

Another woman gone missing, locked in a basement and sexually tortured sometimes for years, a little boy knocked off his bike and when he gets too old, he's used to find another, younger little boy for his "adopted father" to abuse. It's wrong. It's sick.

An infant ripped from the womb, and brought home by a very disturbed woman, or a woman who has told her lover she's pregnant and has to produce a baby. It's wrong. It's sick

A mother drowns her children in the bathtub.
A father shoots the whole family, especially the in-laws.
A husband kills his wife, marries again and the next wife goes missing and is soon presumed dead.
A woman talks her teen lover into shooting her husband.
A child arms himself and goes to school and shoots his teachers, and classmates.
A collage kid with issues he's been dealing with all his life, nuts up, and in a few hours becomes a mass murderer. It's wrong. It's sick.

Young men, collage age, seem to be drowning in rivers and lakes, along the freeway from Minnesota to New Jersey. Too many bodies to be just a coincidence, but law enforcement across the states can't see a pattern and refuse to say, "serial killer" and the numbers just keep going up.
Some one, in almost every city, in almost every state, is killing prostitutes. It's wrong. It's sick.
There are people, all across the country it seems, who are doing drive by shootings of animals. Peoples pets and livestock maimed and slaughtered in their own yards. It's sick.

Bloggers blog about these horrors and their readers make toxic, and hate filled, violent, comments about what should happen to the perpetrators when they are caught. It's sick.

SICK is the key word here.

This country is in the midst of a mental health crisis.

Starting at the top, the inmates are running the asylum!
and at the bottom, the inmates are running the asylum!

In between are the rest of us, stuck in that hand basket.

We have our own moments of anger, and angst but we control it more or less. We try to instill a conscience and a moral compass in our children. We gasp and some of us weep when we hear of the horrors, and yet...

While the government is spending trillions of dollars for the war that fear built, the mental health system has degraded to producing income for a select few, while providing some therapy for a lot of folks who's biggest problem is being frustrated by seeing all the things that are wrong and sick and not being able to do anything about it. Then a few pennies go to keeping under lock and key, for a while anyway, those who are a danger to themselves or others.

A trickle of pennies goes into research. Mostly for drugs to keep people like me from waking up crying, because we woke up.

Being depressed isn't the same as raping an infant.

"A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," said Ben Franklin.

In other words, we need to re-set our national priorities and begin spending our tax money in ways that establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity.

With what's left over we can fix the health care system, including mental health intervention for those kids that grow into monsters.

2007-11-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

I found this in my inbox this morning.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Let's say I know someone who has a drinking proble...": AND THIS TRAIN WRECK IS MY FAULT HOW?

You enabled him by encouraging him, that's how it's your fault. You helped a criminal engage in a smear campaign against law abiding people. You are a pervert supporter, and a child molester supporter, which makes you just as bad as a pervert jacking off to child porn yourself.You are guilty, guilty, guilty, and you will burn in Hell right along with all the rest of the demented child molesting perverts that you support.

I think these are the key words...

"You helped a criminal engage in a smear campaign against law abiding people."

The only thing I have to say is; Get over yourself.

I say now, as I did then, me thinks thou doth protest too much.

My friend didn't start the so called smear campaign. The law abiding person's sister accused the law abider of sexually abusing her when she was a child.

I supported the law abider's sister and I still do. I believed the sister's story and I still do.

If The sister's story is true then you are the one who supports a child molester and are aiding a demented pervert. I guess that means you will burn in hell.

Steve Huff introduced Brian to the people concerned. Are you sending anonymous hate mail to him as well? Are you abusing others again with your high and mighty, heavy handed, control issues?

Law abiding isn't quite the same as taking people to court to control them or sending forged emails all over hell's half acre just to spread distrust and hate among good people.

If the law abider's sister wasn't telling the truth... Then I was mislead and guilty only of wanting to help someone I thought was wounded and in need.

There were others who believed the story the sister told. The real pain that was heaped on them and the lies told by the hateful, "law abiding" fraction wrecked havoc and created a loathing in some good and kind people.

The bottom line is this... The so called "smear campaign" was over almost TWO YEARS AGO, to keep bringing it up and bringing it to my blog with such vengeance and hatred is a sign of someone who has serious mental problems. I urge you to seek therapy.

2007-11-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

Let's say I know someone who has a drinking problem.

An online friend.

I haven't known this person long, but he seems honest and open, He seems intelligent, well read, he communicates well and he is interesting. I like him.

A friendship develops, I learn more about his drinking, his life that's been in the ditch for some time and offer what help I can, albeit from half way across the country. I encourage him to seek help. We talk about A.A and the good work it's done for others. He tells me he is on the wagon, in therapy, and I have no reason to disbelieve him and continue to be a friend.

We talk spiritual beliefs, we talk art, we talk computer stuff, we talk about writing, education, our pets, our pains, and how bloody hard the battle to get right can be without support. I try, from where I am, to be a supportive friend.

Then this person says he is going to deal with his problems himself. He is going to close all the doors and begin anew and He won't be in touch anymore. I wished he wouldn't, but okay, good luck then, and God speed. It's been almost a year since I've heard from my friend. I was sad and I missed the contact, and I hoped for his higher good and kept him in my prayers.

Then he falls off the wagon, drives a train drunk, smashes head on into a van full of young scientists, one of which may have found a cure for cancer and another with promising research in curing AIDS, and another who was working on a pill to cure stupidity. They are all killed, my friend survives.

People who dislike my friend accuse me of aiding and abetting his wrong behavior.

AND THIS IS MY FAULT HOW?

There are some people in this world who just love to wallow in other peoples grief. These are the same people who can't wait to spread gossip and bad news. They are the unforgiving, holier-than-thou, know it alls, who have to control everything around them including other people's bowel movements.

Don't disagree with this pack's mindset. The pack (even if the numbers have dwindled down to a precious few. 2?) will hound you, follow you, spend hours online looking for your footprints to try to embarrass you. They still use any excuse to get in your face over slights both real and imagined. If all else fails they will bore you to death.

Before they come back here stinking the place up.... and before I'm accused of being dishonest, (How is my spelling and grammar by the way?)

According to my evil, small minded, piss ant, little trolls...
Brian Kastel has been arrested for some sort of child pornography. AND THIS TRAIN WRECK IS MY FAULT HOW?

At the risk of repeating myself...
I own everything I ever wrote, (or cut, pasted and agreed with) as my very own thoughts and feelings at the time. I do not apologize to the pack or to any rabid individual who runs with the pack. If you don't like what I think or write... too fucking bad. Go away, don't come back.

Your theatrics, school yard bulling, threats of legal actions, and temper tantrums might allow you to tell some folk when, how, and what color to shit, but I am NOT one of those folks.

I'm comfortable in my own skin. I like me, I don't want for friends or entertainment, I am loved and respected for who and what I am by the people who count. I don't ask for permission nor beg forgiveness for my personal choices and I'm not about to start.

The liar and pretender can kiss my ass, the bully can eat my shorts! They can both go climb aboard the hand basket and go to hell.

2007-11-02T10:13:00.000-07:00

Webmanager Critest has taken me to task for taking words out of context. I will let you, Dear Readers, decide if what was left out makes the comment clearer.

Webmanager Critest has left a new comment on your post... "Your post would have made more sense to readers it you had posted my comments in their entirety. Typical American idiot. By taking words out of context, you think yourself some kind of wit. Your are not. You are lame. These are emotive, contentious and sensitive discussions and materials. If you are unable, or if you choose not, to consider the truth, then I wish you well and suggest you visit the "hog wash" and get cleaned up."

Below is the comment in it's entirety...

You need to take into account overpopulation. Xenophobia is nature's was of keeping the world from getting overpopulated. It's just like the rise in homosexuality and pedophilia is nature's response to lower the birth rate.The Earth is too far overpopulated, and killing people is the only way to save the world.

I edited out "You need to take into account overpopulation. and The Earth is too far overpopulated, and killing people is the only way to save the world"

Since Xenophobia is a fear of strangers, and the original post, below, was about embracing all our brothers and sisters and doing so without fear, for the betterment of the human race, Webmanager seems to not only have missed the point, but has chided me into doing what I attempted to avoid in my last post... Showing his or her lack of understanding of what I wrote.

"Real intelligence consists of two key components; the ability to talk to virtually anyone, prince and pauper alike, stable hand or King, and more importantly to treat them with the same respect due their inherent dignity. People who are really intelligent and able to use that cognitive horse power share several traits in common - an ability to moderate it, the recognition that virtually every experience and every person has something to teach us and is a learning opportunity and above all - with that kind of awareness and intelligence comes the humbling awareness of how little one really knows in the grand scheme of things. Intelligence, like wisdom, is modest because experience reminds it that there is so much still beyond one's ken."
--Demosthenes2

2007-10-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

Webmanager Critest has said, " Xenophobia is nature's way of keeping the world from getting overpopulated. It's just like the rise in homosexuality and pedophilia is nature's response to lower the birth rate."

Excuse me?

I don't mean to be rude, but Hog wash is the first thing that comes to mind.

Working backwards... What lower birth rate? The planet is already over populated, with over six billion people, most struggling to survive. For some, finding drinkable water and a mouth full of food is an all day job. Others waste enough in a week to feed a village for a month.

Homosexuality and pedophilia, like the poor and death, have been with us since the beginning of time. Homosexuality has been celebrated and vilified depending on what age and which religion and or culture dominated that space and time. Remember the ancient Greeks and Romans? I believe science will prove that homosexuality is genetic and a person can no more help being homosexual, than they can who their parents are, or their skin, hair, or eye color.

I don't begin to understand pedophilia. Even animals do not use their young for sexual gratification. This is a sick and twisted aberration of the mind. A compulsion, a lack of moral fortitude, and a mental health issue.

The so called rise in pedophilia, is more about the retarded and backward thinking about anything sexual in this country and culture and time. It's also about a screwed up legal system that is more about winning, than truth and justice.

I think the population of pedophiles has only risen with the rest of the population. While the numbers haven't changed, something happened that has given brass to the balls of pedophiles everywhere. I'm not sure what that something is or when it happened but pedophiles everywhere seem to have banded together and try to make their wrong thinking political.

Used to be, the finger of public scorn was a powerful agent to drive outcasts from decent society. Fear of outraged family, neighbors, a lynch mob, kept all but the most driven and those with the least self control from doing harm to children. Now with a transient population, everything is left to the system.

For too long the system has handed out wrist slaps or turned a blind eye to the toxic nature of pedophilia. There is very little justice for children who are abused untill it's too late.

Would that science study the mental workings of pedophiles to discover how their attraction to children began, perhaps then an alteration in attitude or to the brain it's self could be performed to protect both the pedophile and the children he is attracted to.

And last; Famine, and disease is natures way of keeping the population at a sustainable level.

War is governments way of culling the population. Nature's way is fair, it's the luck of the draw. Governments take the best and the brightest from the gene pool and leaves the rest to reproduce. That creates a dumb, docile, and lazy society that is easy to control.

Xenophobia is defined below and has very little to do with population, except to keep that population within it's own group.

2007-10-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

Xenophobia.

Xenophobia is a fear or contempt of foreigners or strangers. It comes from the Greek words xenos, meaning "foreigner," "stranger," and phobos, meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners or in general of people different from one's self.

Fear is the key word here.

The effects of Xenophobia sociobiological researchers see it as an innate biological response on the part of the evolved human organism in inter-group competition and the biologically rooted tendency of people that are more similar genetically to behave more generously toward each other.

Primates exhibit xenophobia when one social group comes across a rival group in the jungle. According to some researchers, all primates have an innate, evolution-produced tendency to seek proximity to familiar faces because what is unfamiliar is probably dangerous and should be avoided or perhaps attacked. Chimpanzees, and other primates, have been known to attack, kill, and eat, members of other groups.

More than two hundred social psychological experiments have confirmed the intimate connection between familiarity and fondness. (This would explain why we don't usually kill and eat family members.)

This universal innate, evolution-produced tendency in humans is the foundation for the behavioral expressions of xenophobia.

Favoritism towards one's own ethnicity is an evolutionarily based, "objective" value "universal nationalism", in which all planetary ethnic-based communities or nations have the right to preserve their own heritage and distinctiveness.

That's all well and good, but when will humans evolve enough to understand that to be truly human we must, for our own sakes, embrace all people and work together to solve the planets problems as one community?

It's time to stop drawing lines in the sand and defining ourselves as "us and them." We are all one people. All of us bleed red blood, we all treasure our children. Each and every one of us want the best for our selves and our families.

2007-10-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

Last night, on 60 Minutes, the story was about a preschooler who died of a prescription drug overdose. The parents are charged with murder. They blame the doctor.

This child was being treated by a psychiatrist for bipolar disorder, since she was two.

The kid was on four different antidepressants, off label, which means none of these drugs were developed or tested for little kids. Children are just as likely as adults to be treated with powerful anti psychotic drugs, although children are more likely to receive the newer "atypical" anti psychotics. In six out of 10 visits, patients regardless of age receive a combination of at least two drugs.

A 40 percent increase in bipolar disorder in children should mean a corresponding increase in adults with bipolar disorder. Apparently that isn't the case. The study that provides this alarming data doesn't answer this crucial question. This means we're either discovering previously unrecognized bipolar disorder in children, or that they're misdiagnosing children. Are we only now discovering a huge reservoir of untreated psychiatric illness? Or is there an epidemic, not of disease, but of misdiagnosis and over treatment?

How does a doctor diagnose a two year old a having bipolar disorder? Oh, irritability may be the only sign. Have any of these doctors heard of the terrible twos? The horrible threes? The obnoxious fours? The obominable fives? The offensive sixs? Then it starts over again with the teenage years.

What do these drugs do to the developing brain of a child? Who knows? No one even knows what causes the disruption of brain chemicals or even if that is the basis of bipolar. It's all guess work.

Give me a break!

Where is the common sense here? A baby with bipolar disorder? This is the same psychobabble as repressed memories was. Repressed memories has been debunked and is a thing of the past. The damage done was relatively minor, confined to hysterical adults and a few hundred psychiatrists that jumped on that gravy train.

Flooding a child's body and brain with chemicals is something altogether different.

What we have here is a huge reservoir of parents who have money to support the health industry and and drug companies.

Allow me to go on a rant for a moment...

Have you noticed the many drug commercials there are on TV these days?

Ask your doctor about----------- (Insert the popular name of a drug here. ) You are directed to diagnose your own health problem, tell your doctor what drugs you need, then pay up.

Do you hear the disclaimers? One advertisement asks you to trade your stuffy nose for cataracts and glaucoma, among other things. ( I'll keep my stuffy nose, thank you. Pass the tissues please.) If you read the small print (read fast) it says, the drug company doesn't know how or why the drug works.
Somehow I think that knowing how and why a drug works should be a prerequisite to the FDA approving it.

Who names this stuff? "FLOMAX" So a fellow with an enlarged prostrate can watch the football game without having to pee so often. (maybe he should drink less beer at the game and drive home safely instead?) Again with the disclaimers... Might cause a sudden change in blood pressure when standing, rarely causing fainting, but just in case Guy, make sure you don't hit anything, or the person in the seats in front of you at the game when you fall down. Tell your doctor if you have this, that, and any other things.... Shouldn't your doctor know these things? Tell your eye doctor if you plan on eye surgery that you have taken this drug. Why? they don't explain that part.

I love the disclaimers at the end of the adds for erectile dysfunction... If you have a sudden loss of vision discontinue the use of this product. I guess great gram ma was right.

What about all those class action suits the drug companies are dealing with? Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex, Baycol, Ephedra and Fen Phen just to name a few. Only the lawyers make any money on class actions suits, I guess that means the legal industry gets it's share of the pie as well.

What is it the government's food and drug administration do for us again?

The bottom line is we all have to become smart consumers. We seem to put more time and energy into reading up on the benefits and risks involved when buying a new car than we do when taking prescription medications or giving them to our kids. We have to ask questions, like, has this drug been approved for children? Maybe we should rely on our own good common sense when dealing with a kids behavior too. If you have concerns about your child's growth and development, there are more books on child behavior than you can shake a stick at, do your homework at the library before you run to put your children on drugs.

2007-09-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

To Lynx Gaede. Hog wash.!

Under the theory of Eugenics you would be first in line to be sterilized, as one of the feeble minded. You and your little lamb too.

Hate is learned, if no one teaches it, and no one practiced it, the world wouldn't be going to hell in a hand basket.

The people who climbed on the eugenics bandwagon suffered from a crisis of ego. That an accident of birth, somehow makes one person, or group, superior to another and therefor qualified to pass judgement, which deviates from the dictates of moral law.

(Accident of birth is a phrase pointing out that no one has any control of, or responsibility for, the circumstances of their birth or parentage.)

Immigrationists and racists are now using the place of a persons birth as a reason to distort, distress, discriminate, distract and hate.

Latinos are the object of the politically correct shit storm of the moment.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 denied illegal aliens federally funded welfare benefits.

Since 1986 illegal immigrants have been denied welfare benefits, and yet one of the main arguments against our southern neighbors coming here is they are all lining up at the welfare office.

It's a feat of incredible government prestidigitation.

Look at the Spanish speaking people! Think about all their faults, their families are too big, they are all lazy, criminals, gangs, taking jobs away from us, hooking up with your sister, sucking the system dry...

It's all propaganda designed to keep people from thinking about the real issues.
Our troops being killed and maimed in these senseless wars.
Our resources being squandered on these senseless wars.
Our infrastructure, roads, bridges and the power grid denied funds because of the senseless wars.
Education, health care, housing, underfunded because of the senseless wars.
Research on stem cells, mental health, cancer, heart disease, and other ills that plague us denied funding because of the wars.
The economy going down the tubes.
Outsourcing jobs.
The fact that this country doesn't produce anything any more.

Forget about it! Go out and hate someone.

2007-09-10T05:58:00.000-07:00

Michale Crichton is one of my favorite authors. I read "State Of Fear" this spring and I've wanted to share a few bits and pieces with the folks who may not get the chance to read the whole thing. I also want you to know if you do pick up a copy, it's a slow, rather dry, and drawn out beginning, before the pace picks up, but then ... hang on, you are in for a wild ride.

The story was/is a good read. It was the authors message after the story that rather knocked my socks off. and particularly one series of unfortunate events in history that I had not ever heard about before.

"A century ago a scientific theory warned of a crisis and pointed to a way out," Says Crichton. "The theory gained support from leading scientists politicians, and celebrities, including, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Winston Churchhill.

It was approved by Supreme Court Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis, who ruled in it's favor.

Alexander Graham Bell, Margret Sanger, Leland Stanford, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw and hundreds of others, including Nobel prize winners gave support.

Research was backed by the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations. The Cold Springs Harbor Institute was built to carry out the research but work was also done at Harvard, Yale, Princeton , Stanford, and John Hopkins. Legislation to address the crisis was passed in states from New York to California.

These efforts were supported by the National Academy of Science, The A.M.A. and the National Research Council. It was said that if Jesus was alive he would have supported this effort.

Those who opposed the theory were shouted down, called reactionary, blind to reality, or just plane ignorant.

What is surprising is that so few people objected. Today we know that the theory was actually pseudoscience. There was no crisis and the action taken was morally and criminally wrong. Ultimately they led to the deaths of millions of people.

The theory was EUGENICS. It's history is so dreadful and so embarrassing that it is rarely discussed, but it should be well known to every citizen so that it's horrors are not repeated.

The theory of EUGENICS postulated a crisis of the gene pool leading to the deterioration of the human race. The best human beings were not breeding as quickly as the inferior ones... The foreigners, immigrants, Jews, degenerates, the unfit, and the feeble minded.

The British scientist Francis Galton first speculated about this area, but his ideas were taken beyond anything he ever intended.

Science -minded Americans and those who were worried about the immigration of inferior races or dangerous human pests, and the rising tide of imbeciles who were polluting the best of the human race, jumped on that band wagon.

The EUGENICS and the IMMIGRATIONISTS joined forces to identify individuals who were feeble minded.... Jews were agreed to be largely feeble minded but so were many foreigners as well as blacks... and stop them from breeding by isolation in institutions or by sterilization.

"A rigid system of selection through the elimination of those who are weak or unfit -- in other words social failures -- would allow solve the whole question in one hundred years, as well as enable us to get rid of the undesirables who crowd our jails, hospitals, and insane asylums.

The individual himself can be nourished, educated and protected by the community during his lifetime, but the state through sterilization must see to it that his line stops with him, or else future generations will be cursed with an ever increasing load of misguided sentimentalism. This is a practical, merciful, and inevitable solution of the whole problem, and can be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased, and the insane, and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives, and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types."

Margaret Sanger spoke of the burden of caring for "the dead weight of human waste." H.G. Wells spoke against the ill trained swarms of inferior citizens.

Sterilization could be ordered any time after a patient had been examined by a eugenics committee that was composed of a lawyer or family member representing the individual, a judge, and a doctor or other eugenic "expert." More than 30 states had enacted such compulsory sterilization laws by 1940. Indiana was the first with a eugenical sterilization and it went into effect in 1907. By 1941, more than 60,000 eugenical sterilizations were performed in the United States. Most state sterilization laws were not repealed until after the 1960s.

Following are the remarks Mr. Platt made to the California senate judiciary committee, June 24, 2003, regarding senate resolution no. 20 - relative to eugenics.

The grounds for sterilization included such vague classifications as "feeblemindedness," "idiocy," "excessive masturbation," "immorality," and "hereditary degeneracy." In 1926, for example, the superintendent of Riverside's Bureau of Welfare and Relief advocated sterilization of "feebleminded," unmarried women as a means to halting the "menace to the race at large." At the Sonoma State Home, sexual activity by single women was perceived as evidence of mental defect, irrespective of whether or not a patient met medical or psychological standards of "feeblemindedness."

Eugenicists strongly supported limits on immigration from non-European countries, a restriction on welfare benefits to poor families, and bans on interracial marriage or "miscegenation." As Sacramento banker Charles M. Goethe, a founder and sponsor of the Eugenics Society of Northern California and Pasadena's Human Betterment Foundation, noted in 1929, the Mexican is "eugenically as low-powered as the Negro. … He not only does not understand health rules: being a superstitious savage, he resists them."

The proponents of eugenics were not obscure cranks or fringe right-wingers, but the best and brightest civic reformers and professional leaders.

The Rockefellers funded the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany. The Rockefeller Institute supported Alexis Carrel, who advocated the use of gas to get rid of the unwanted. John D. Rockefeller III founded the Population Council.

California not only led the nation in forced sterilizations, but also in providing scientific and educational support for Hitler's regime. In 1935, Sacramento's Charles M. Goethe praised the Human Betterment Foundation for effectively "shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind Hitler

California's eugenicists could not claim ignorance that Germany's sterilization program was motivated primarily by racial politics. For example, in 1935, the Los Angeles Times published a long defense of Germany's sterilization policies, in which the author noted that the Nazis "had to resort to the teachings of eugenic science" because Germany had been "deprived of her colonies, blessed with many hundreds of defective racial hybrids as a lasting memory of the colored army of occupation, and dismembered all around." Not only did California eugenicists know about Nazi efforts to use sterilization as a method of "race hygiene" -- targeted primarily at Jews -- they also approved efforts to stop "race-mixing" and increase the birth rate of the "Northern European type of family." The chilling words of Progressive reformer John Randolph Haynes anticipated the Nazi regime's murder of 100,000 mentally ill patients: "There are thousands of hopelessly insane in California, the condition of those minds is such that death would be a merciful release. How long will it be before society will see the criminality of using its efforts to keep alive these idiots, hopelessly insane, and murderous degenerates.

2007-09-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

The following is from the Washington Post yesterday. It's a little blurb, like a rain drop falling from a sick cloud. I'm sad to say there are too many raindrops of this ilk poisoning the minds of good people. This is about one cheap politician, being a politically correct racist.

The immigration policy in this country is unbalanced and racist. If a Cuban person can make it to the beach they are welcome. If a Haitian lands alive on our shore.... The rule seems to be, if you are black, you go back.

It's wrong to judge a group of people by the country they happened to be born in, the color of their skin, the shape of their eyes, or by what name they use to call God.

JITTERY Republicans, whose grip on state politics has been weakening steadily for several years, are facing further setbacks in this fall's elections for the General Assembly, possibly including the end of GOP control of the Senate for the first time in nearly a decade.

HELLO!

In their desperation for a vote-getter, they have seized on the whipping boy of illegal immigration, which they blame for ills ranging from the erosion of values to the difficulty of being admitted to state colleges.

William J. Howell, the Republican speaker of the House of Delegates, from the Great State of Virigina, worried aloud the other day about the presence of so many newcomers in the Old Dominion. Mr. Howell said that the state's newest residents, particularly in Northern Virginia, may not embrace "the shared values we have in Virginia." He didn't specify which "shared values" he had in mind, nor did he draw a distinction between legal and illegal newcomers.

A week earlier, he unveiled the GOP's immigrant-bashing agenda for the legislative session that will begin in January. Among other measures, it would bar publicly funded colleges and universities from accepting undocumented aliens -- even those who have graduated from state elementary, middle and high schools. To Mr. Howell and his cohorts, it is a mere detail that most public colleges already deny entrance to such immigrants. In fact, the Republicans could not cite a single example of an illegal immigrant gaining access to public institutions of higher learning.

No matter. The Republicans' point here is to stick it to the culturally distinct "other" by hook or by crook, even to the point of suggesting -- again without proof -- that some of the 36 percent of applicants rejected by four-year public colleges in the state had been denied a place because of the supposed tide of illegals also seeking higher education.

It's an ugly strategy It seeks to distract voters from core state issues such as transportation, fiscal prudence and good governance. But bigotry-mongering's day is long past, and voters have shown little disposition to reward candidates who extol intolerance. If Mr. Howell's "shared values" turn out to be mostly about immigrant-bashing, the GOP strategy is unlikely to rescue the party's electoral prospects.

2007-09-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

From The Washington Post this morning.

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said illegal immigration is not a crime. "It's not a crime," Giuliani said Friday. "I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime."

Giuliani's comments came in an interview with CNN Headline News and radio talk-show host Glenn Beck.
"I was U.S. attorney in the Southern district of New York," he said. "So believe me, I know this. In fact, when you throw an immigrant out of the country, it's not a criminal proceeding. It's a civil proceeding."
Illegal immigration shouldn't be a crime, either, Giuliani said: "No, it shouldn't be because the government wouldn't be able to prosecute it. We couldn't prosecute 12 million people. We have over 2 million people in jail right now for all the crimes that are committed in the country, 2.5 million."

There was more political Blah, blah, blah, about the subject between Mr. Giuliani and Mit Romney, that I have edited out.

The point is, COMING TO AMERICA IS NOT A CRIME!
The people working here under a false SS number are paying taxes, paying into the system and will most likely never see that money again. They are adding to the coffers, not taking away.
Most so-called Illegals do not drag their families with them, the children are left home with grandparents so the schools are not, repeat, not teaching illegal children. (as if any child could be illegal)

At the risk of being redundant, I say, this whole racist, tempest in a tea pot, brew-ha-ha, is about taking peoples attention away from the bloody wars.

Oh sure, the death tolls aren't Like the numbers from Vietnam, YET, but the number of kids coming home with needed parts missing is huge! We are not seeing the flag draped coffins, we are not hearing about the protests, the government is partners with big business and big business controls the media. We hear and see only what the government wants us to know.

"Listen you morons", says the government. "we don't want you to see what we are doing to your country, ripping you off to the tune of billions and billions of tax dollars for the wars, taking away from HEALTH CARE, HOUSEING, EDUCATION, ROADS AND BRIDGES, DISASTER AID, CRIME, and the other needs of this nation and you people.

We, the government, want you to get your collective panties in a bunch over immigration. We are giving you a political correct group of people to hate so get busy rednecks, clan members, couch potatoes, and the rest of you dim bulbs, take this issue and run with it."

We, the government, will start with the untruth that anyone who is here from another country, without a green card, is breaking a law.

Then we will make a big issue when ever an undocumented immigrant breaks the law, nation wide for days, weeks, if its a deadly crime. You will only hear about the run of the mill murders, drug busts, gang crime, in your own neighborhoods, even missing and murdered children won't make headlines unless a immigrant from below the southern border is involved.

We will claim the immigrants coming across our southern border, mostly people of color from Mexico, Central America, and South America, might be terrorists and are most certainly lawbreakers just because they are here.

We, the government bought off business and the rich with tax breaks. We also helped move many businesses to other countries so they could employ cheap labor and make more money for themselves. They love us! We bought off the house and senate by giving them a big raise. They make more money a month than some of us make in a year. Hell, more then some of us make in five years.

The people didn't care, they had the immigration thing to focus on.

The people don't care that their kids and their neighbors kids are going into battle with inferior body armor and protection on their vehicles. The people don't care where their money is going, they have a group of people they can hate and still be good Americans, hell it's expected of them.

Climb on the ol' hate wagon boys and girls, don't look around or look past what ya see on TV, repeat what you hear like a parrot and do not think for yourself. Just be a good American and do what your government tells you.

We the government, will now go after small business and further muddy the waters by expecting them to fire workers in case they might not be legal so that the business isn't fined. This might hurt the economy but at least the people won't think about the wars and the billions of tax dollars being spent that no one is accounting for.

Pssst, the oil companies made record profits again this year. (one CEO got a BILLION DOLLAR bonus) Has anyone noticed how the price of everything from milk to shoelaces has gone up? Has anyone noticed how the stock market has been going crazy? Or how people are losing their homes, jobs, and small business are going down the tubes? Or that we are importing food from China?
Something is very wrong and if we focus on brown people we are going to miss an important clue and it will be too late, perhaps it is already too late, to stop the deadly downhill slide.

If like Rome, this United States of America falls, The haves will have theirs, but with the borders closed, will the have-nots be able to get out?

2007-09-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a long summer. I have been caregiver for all of my grandchildren, busy with the garden, children, the little dog, and friends to do any writing or much painting.

I have completed more than my share of summer reading projects and most days hauled my butt out of bed early so I would have time to read the online news papers and keep up with what's going on in the outside world.

I have questions. More questions than answers, and many thoughts about how the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

NOTE TO "THOSE" CYBER STALKERS, If you don't like what I have to say, don't read my blog.

Why are so many folks bound and determined to close "our" borders?

Don't they understand that this will effectively keep "us" in, rather than keep "them" out?

One rational off times used, is the criminal intent of illegal immigrants, along with some horror story or another about a crime committed by an undocumented alien. These crime reports feature people of color, albeit light color, of Mexican, or Central / South American persuasion.

Do Canadians who come here ever commit crimes?

Maybe not, Canadians are so polite. (And are mostly white.) I can't think of a single reason why a Canadian would want to become an illegal immigrant. Their government, laws, health care, education, are all better than ours. Even their money is pretty.

Now that the exchange rate is at par, we hardly have anyone from Canada coming down to shop. A loss for the local economy, but with closing borders, they might get stuck here and be forced to break our laws in order to survive.

It's all about the crime of wanting to work and provide a better life for family and being on a ten year waiting list to be granted a green card. These people risk life and limb in a desperate bid for the things we take for granted. Most of these people are hard working, honest and good loving parents. They do the best they can to provide for their own and are forced by our laws to not pay into the system.

Yet they keep the system running smoothly. Pickles and popcorn get to the table, beds get changed in the motel you will rest in on your vacation or business trip, Lawns are groomed at the golf course and in the high rent districts everywhere. Trucks are loaded and unloaded, offices cleaned, houses roofed and painted, trash gets hauled, babies bathed, chickens cleaned, and all things packaged and sold. Illegal immigrants do the work we can't or won't do for ourselves. They do it for less money, because they can't argue in a work to live situation.

My personal favorite illegal immigrant, a lovely woman named Rita, came here on a visitor visa and just stayed a few years longer than her original plan. Rita is British and her home is in Spain.

She started a small landscaping business while she lived in the states, paid into the system, money she will never see again, and left for England when she developed bone cancer.

I'm happy to say that she has survived, has turned her little Spanish farm into a rustic B&B and is prospering.

The bottom line is this. All the uproar over illegal immigrants is a feat of prestidigitation.

It's about this government turning the focus off the nasty little wars that are killing our young men and women, watering down the gene pool, draining this country's resources, and putting cash in the privet coffers of the elite, and giving those racists and haters a group to hate and still remain politically correct.

Hide and watch, as soon as the elections are over, this immigration thing will fade away and it will be business as usual.

2007-09-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year! All the parents and caregivers I know feel it is anyway. School starts on Tuesday. In a few days or a week or two, life goes back to school mode and some sort of normal begins.

Bed times are by the clock again, everyone has some place to go in the morning and things to do in the early evening, like homework, and getting ready for tomorrow. Meal times get regulated, and all things seem to become more organized, until routine reigns again.

Alarm clocks that have been silent all summer will blare again, followed by moans, grumbles and stumbling steps of the half awake getting ready for school.

The down side is, with summer coming to an end and the beginning of fall, winter is just around the corner.

I guess it's best not to think about winter yet, there are still too many good things in the waning days of summer. Ripe tomatoes, apples, straw berries. Warm days with the kids in school, dedicated to the summer reading that's been put off, or in my case, painting that has been waiting for the moments when it's not too hot and naps need to be taken in the afternoon. There is also fall gardening but that's not for a month or so yet.

I will be down to one preschooler on Tuesday. "The Darling One" will be having classes with Gramma, in short sessions, so she won't even know she's learning. Just one on one, coloring shapes, and counting them as well, lots of stories, and exploring the neighborhod now that the bigger kids are back to school and before it gets too cold.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

2007-03-31T17:21:00.000-07:00

RE; the Going to hell in a hand basket post written early-er.

Here are links to contact pages with email access to the powers that be. I read someplace, a long time ago that business and government counted one letter, either negative or positive, as ten thousand, for the nine hundred and ninety nine people who felt the same way but who were to lazy to write a letter. Here is your chance to put your money (and time) where your mouth is. Let them know how you feel. A whole heaping pile of emails might just make something happen. Go for it.

http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/default.asp page to contact The Governor of Washington State

https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/ContactForm.aspx page to contact the Attorney General of Washington State

http://access.wa.gov/agency/agency.aspx A to Z listing of all other Agencies and Departments of Washington State government.

If there is a power I missed, please let me know.

2007-03-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

This is another, "Going to hell in a hand basket," post.

A friend sent me this today, and I am aghast and chagrined! The story is cut and pasted here below, but I want to first say that if my kidlets were photographed and their pictures posted on this guys web site, I would run to the court house to file as many kinds of law suits as there are on the books against him. If I had to sell my blood to get this guy from doing his thing, so be it.

That being said, I wonder how many parents will attempt to take this guy down? Perhaps there is a way to take up a collection to help someone pay court costs for any parent who would spend the time to do the job?

The sad part is, apathy is rampant about this and most everything else to do with children.

The law says this guy is within his legal rights to post the pictures of other peoples children and the police can't make him stop. (right here someone might suggest a lead weight put in this guys ear would make him stop, but I believe in real life results, not ranting and blowing off steam.)

If you think this is something worth a few moments of your time, I will find the address to the folks who make the laws in this state and post it here in my next post and you can protest, I hope loud and long. Who knows, if enough folks rattle the cages of the powers that be, something might change for the better. If it changes here, then it sets a precedent for the rest of the country.
and here is the story.

SEATTLE — A Web site created by a pedophile is a virtual "how-to" manual, complete with the best places in western Washington state to see little girls, and tips on how to avoid getting caught by the police.
The site, titled "Seattle-Tacoma-Everett Girl Love," has been around for a few years. The police know all about it, yet they say they can't shut it down because the site is legal.
"As disturbing and offensive as we find this, there's no evidence of a crime, or even suspicion of illegal activity," said Rebecca Hover of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department.
The man who runs it, 45-year-old Jack McClellan, has never been convicted of a sex crime, which means he can attend any family-friendly events where children are present, and take all the pictures he wants for his Web site. He also lives close to a school bus stop.
McClellan says his purpose is to promote association, friendship and legal, consensual hugging and cuddling between men and pre-pubescent girls. He admitted to FOX News that his "age of attraction" is between 3 and 11 years old.
"I guess the main thing is I just think they're cute, a lot cuter than women. I admit there is kind of an erotic arousal there," McClellan said. "It makes me happy simply. Like I said, I think girls are cute, beautiful, just children in general make me happy ... being around lots of them. ... I'm doing what anyone else would do with a hobby. If someone's into birds they're taking pictures of birds. I'm convinced that none of these images are illegal."
McClellan wants to bring pedophiles out of the closet and give them a way to get some relief, by going out and being around little girls. He suggests a number of places, such as plays at elementary schools, parks, swimming pools and libraries.
"I really think a lot of this pedophilia hysteria is overblown. I think there are a lot of people like me. They have the attraction but they're not going to do anything physical because of the laws. It just makes me happy to attend these events."
McClellan said that for pedophiles, just being around children is almost like a "legal high" that makes them happy.
But "I can understand the fear," he added. "I hope that what I'm doing is setting myself up as an example that it is possible to have these attractions and not be out of control."
But he said while it's OK to look, it's not OK to touch, given the many state laws in place to protect children against that.
"I know it sounds kind of crazy, but there's kind of a code of ethics that these pedophiles have developed and what it is ... the contact has to be completely consensual, no coercion, if you're going to do it," McClellan said.
Parents are understandably outraged. FOX News spoke to the mother of an 8-year-old girl whose picture appeared on the Web site. The picture was taken at a dance recital.
"I needed to get those pictures off of there. I didn't want the pedophile community having any visibility to my daughter or her friends or any of the children that were on that site," said parent Ann Cialoa. "Whether it's a physical threat, a perceived threat, whatever threat it is. It's our jobs as parents to protect our kids from threats, and he is a threat, and people like him are a threat."
Some legal experts have said the best course of action for parents who see their kids' pictures on sites like these, is to get a temporary restraining order against McClellan and demand that his Web site be taken down.
"You have one in your face and you can't do anything about it because there's not a law to protect them from that," Cialoa said. "It's scary, and the fact that we're going to wait around for him to violate before we do something."
Neighbors of McClellan's say there's a man who rides his bike around town at night and peeps into others' windows. They believe that may be McClellan.
"You'll notice that every single person in this neighborhood has very large attack dogs," said neighbor Melissa Henry.
The Web site was taken down by the Internet service provider after FOX News called the company about it this week. The company is investigating whether any material on the site is illegal.
At least one area school has sent McClellan a letter saying if he comes onto school property or attends their functions, they will consider it trespassing and will have him arrested.
Police and prosecutors are watching him closely to see if he crosses the line. A handful of state legislators are looking at drafting a new law to deal with such Web sites. But until they do, McClellan is free to continue pushing pedophilia.

2007-03-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

The picture shows a little red headed girl with a smile that could light up a room. She has broken more hearts than any movie star or beauty queen.

Her name's Summer and her sunny smile and the color of her hair reminds you of a bright, warm, August morning. You can almost hear her giggle, almost see her dancing through a field of buttercups and daisies, laughing, twirling around with her Easter hat in her hand, the ribbons on her hat and dress flying in the breeze, head back, laughing at the clouds in the sheer joy of being a child in the sun. The way it should be.

She was four years old. How much trouble could she be? She was developmentally delayed, disabled, they say. Or was the inability to behave like a normal four year old, a result of the alleged sexual abuse and the six months of physical and mental torture, perpetrated on this small helpless creature, the reason she was labeled this way?

If this baby was born mentally disabled, doesn't that mean she needed extra compassion, extra patience, extra love? Shouldn't she have been in a special school for special children? Shouldn't her parents been also educated to meet her special needs? Shouldn't the child have had a caseworker to help the whole family?

Summer Phelps died Saturday night, March tenth 2007, after what police officers alleged was nearly 24-hours of sustained physical abuse that some described as torture, with some of her scars showing signs that the abuse had been going on for several weeks, perhaps months. Hardened police officers, and nurses on the front lines wept at the site of this child's battered and wounded body. Someone called it the worst case of abuse they had ever seen.

The state Department of Social and Health Services issued a brief statement late Tuesday afternoon regarding Summer Phelps' death, acknowledging it has investigated claims against the Lytle family involving Summer Phelps in the past.

Summer had an eight month old half brother. There must have been some red flags, because they had a visiting nurse come by the appartment where Summer and her family lived. Where Summer was tortured and died in a bathtub filled with water and urine.

Why didn't the visiting nurse take a moment to check on Summer's health and welfare?

There are more questions than answers.

There's been 12 child deaths since 2000 here in Spokane County linked to abuse. Where the hell are those people, who are paid very well, to protect those at risk children?

While there is no acceptable excuses for Summer's parents to use a dogs shock collar to "discipline" or to exchange a bite for a kick on a four year old, or using any weapon to beat a child. There is also no excuse for the department of social and health services/child protective services for not being on top of this child's situation. The child's parents are guilty of abuse and murder and DSHS/CPS is guilty of gross neglect and dereliction of duty.

Summer's family asked that donations be sent to the agencies that protect children. Perhaps donations should be used to make the agencies that didn't protect Summer, or the other eleven children who have died as a result of abuse, responsible for not doing the job they are already paid to do.

This is a link to the news station that also has the police documents on the abuse this baby suffered at the hands of her parental units.

Be warned it's painful to read.
http://www.krem.com/news/local/stories/KREM2_031107_childmurder.2825a68.html

2007-02-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

Whatever you vividly imagine, Ardently desire,
Sincerely believe, and Enthusiastically act upon…
Must inevitably come to pass.

I don't know where this comes from, but it's one of the things I have on my fridge and on the wall where I paint.

I believe in the power of positive thinking.

Whether you believe you can, or you can't, you are probably right.

I don't know where that comes from either.

There are universal truths The above are two of them.

What is your universal truth? I'd like to know, I'm starting a collection.

2007-02-12T09:25:00.000-08:00

There were many comments about what I wrote on the tabloid goddess, her rise and fall. Some were about the writing and I thank those readers.

Some were about Ms. Smith personally and some were unkind.

I believe in the "walk a mile in my shoes" way of dealing with people.

Social butterfly that I am, and being on the planet as long as I have, living in many places, I have met, and become close to many, many, people over the years.

I have sat down with senators, governors, PhD's, lawyers, pastors, doctors, teachers, cab drivers, bartenders, window washers, janitors, street urchins, hookers...

Drunks and addicts come in all shapes, sizes, professions, and walks of life.

I discovered one day, quite by accident, my best girlfriend had a serious problem with alcohol. She lived across the street, we went to school together, I was with her every day, and I didn't know she was drinking. (She is more than 25 years sober now)

We had a classmate and friend we both cared about, and still do, who was/is, a binge drinker. Over the years I have watched him go up and down life's ladder. I'm happy for him when he's on the high end, and I always hope he stays there.

I met someone else who was addicted to alcohol. I stayed around until it was too hurtful for me to watch him drink himself to death. It's a slow way to die, and it often kills others along the way. I couldn't allow his drinking to take me down with him.

Alcohol is the most insidious drug of all.

I learned more about addiction, first hand and close up, then I ever wanted to know.

Those people who pat themselves on the back and crow about how wonderful THEIR choices have been and congratulate themselves on how good and moral they are ... and who look down on those souls who are slaves to an addiction, should rather say to them selves....

There but for the grace of God go I.

"Addiction has been defined as being possible only to a psychoactive substance (for example alcohol, tobacco, or drugs), which is ingested, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and alters the natural chemical behavior of the brain. Psychology professionals and laypersons, now feel that there should be accommodation made to include psychological dependency on such things as gambling, food, sex, pornography, computers, work, exercise, cutting, and shopping / spending."

Maybe everyone, before they accuse, criticize, and abuse, should consider first, how it would feel to walk a mile in the other guys shoes?

The moral model states that addictions are the result of human weakness, and are defects of character. Those who advance this model do not accept that there is any biological basis for addiction. They often have scant sympathy for people with serious addictions, believing either that a person with greater moral strength could have the force of will to break an addiction, or that the addict demonstrated a great moral failure in the first place by starting the addiction. The moral model is widely applied to dependency on illegal substances, perhaps purely for social or political reasons, but is no longer widely considered to have any therapeutic value.

Half of all patients diagnosed as alcoholic are born into families where alcohol is used heavily, suggesting that familiar influence, genetic factors, or more likely both, play a role in the development of addiction. What also needs to be noted is that when people don't gain a sense of moderation through their development they can be just as likely, if not more, to abuse substances than people born into alcoholic families.

that which is in blue is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

2007-02-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Everything is Anna Nicole Smith today.

Since the shock of her death yesterday, at the age of 39, every TV news story, every news paper, every phone and water cooler conversation is about the life and death of the goddess of tabloid fame. She was far bigger than just any celebrity.

It seems everyone knows her life story, Small town girl, high school dropout, teen bride and mother, Stripper turned model, turned gold digger. She was the girl we loved to laugh at.

We laugh at what makes us uncomfortable.

When Anna Nicole Smith married her sixty some years older oil-rich billionaire, she crossed a line, by attempting to move into too high a place in our society. We laughed at her for pretending the marriage was anything more than an arrangement for cash. For some reason I don't quite understand we didn't laugh as much at the old fart she married? She was an object of our scorn when she didn't profit from the marriage as she, and the rest of us, imagined she would.

Anna Nicole kept on keeping on. On TV, she had her own show for two years, and selling diet pills for which she, and the diet pill company was being sued in a class action. Her life was all grist for the gossip mill.

I always felt bad for the girl, she sold herself shamelessly, and did nothing to maintain her dignity. BUT, the woman did what she had to do, with what she had. She made her mark on this society, and even in death her name will be coming up on the news and in the papers for months and perhaps years from now.

I can't help but wonder if she will ever rest in peace?

2007-02-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

There are crimes, and then there are CRIMES.

The Washington Post had an article today by Sonia Geis. I also visited Downwinders.com and pasted some of their information here. Anything in blue is from the Washington Post, anything in purple is from the Downwinders site. My thoughts are in this brown that I like so well.

It's about the nuclear testing that was done in Nevada and about the big bomb they want to test there now. Beginning in the 1950's until early in the 1990's, there were 925 announced nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site. 825 of them were underground (There may have been many unannounced underground tests as well.)

Here is where the CRIME comes in. Our federal government assured the people of the little town of St George, which is East of the test site, that they were in no danger, as it detonated bombs in Nevada over forty years, just as they assured the folks in Washington, Oregon, and Utah, that the Hanford site was safe.

But thousands of people who lived downwind of the test site got radiation-related cancer.

This sounds much like the story the Hanford Downwinders tell.

The following is from the downwinder web site.

"In 1955 there were eight reactors in operation along the Columbia River. They used the river water to cool the intense heat at the core of the reactors. The water became contaminated with radioactivity, toxic chemicals and excessive amounts of heat. Within as little as 15-20 minutes, the contaminated water was released back into the river, allowing radiation to concentrate in the bodies of fish and other aquatic life. Local game animals, especially waterfowl, also became contaminated. People were then exposed when they ate the fish or game, drank the water or swam in the river. Hanford's operations discharged over 440 billion gallons of contaminated liquids into the ground, resulting in approximately 200 square miles of contaminated groundwater beneath Hanford.

Radiation exposure can occur either externally or internally. External exposure occurs as radioactive by-products descend from the sky as fallout from the stacks at Hanford and are carried by the wind in different directions and speeds depending on the size and chemistry of the material and the weather conditions. Internal exposure occurs by the direct inhalation of airborne radioactive material or by ingestion principally through food or water that has been exposed to radioactive material.

In Nevada, the government wants to test a huge bomb that will send radioactive dust from from earlier tests thousands of feet in the air. The people in St Georges are worried, and rightly so, that the dust will fall back on them again.

"The Nevada Test Site is one of the best-studied areas in terms of meteorology," said Darwin Morgan, a spokesman for the Nevada Site Office. "We know the volume of dust picked up from the explosion. We took the weather for the worst time period: January, with the highest winds. When you model to that, it stays on the test site.

Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah), whose district includes St. George, is not convinced. Declassified documents that show the government did not detonate nuclear bombs when the wind blew toward Las Vegas. They waited until the wind blew toward St. George.

The recent release of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) study on the atmospheric testing of atomic weapons confirmed that areas of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho received radioactive air releases from the above ground nuclear tests conducted in Nevada in the 1950s. One of the primary fission materials in the fallout is iodine-131. Thus, some people were exposed to radioactive materials from both Hanford operations, and weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site (NTS).

http://www.downwinders.org/

The above site says; Welcome America, we are all downwinders now.

So what's the crime? Our Government wants to set off another bomb. To test to see if below ground bunkers can withstand the force of a 700-ton conventional weapon. I agree with Rep. Jim Matheson, who said, "there is no such thing as a 700 ton conventional weapon."

I have a question? Who or what is going to be hunkered down in those bunkers the governments is so worried about. I think it's a safe bet, that it won't be you or me.

Defense officials have looked at moving the test to another site, but they say the alternatives would cost $100 million and take three years of planning. Holding it in Nevada could be done this year for $5 million.

Wouldn't it be a better idea to spend all that money to work towards a ban on all nuclear weapons, so all the Earth's children could live a safer and healthier lives?

2007-02-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

Last month I logged on to my computer and instead of my desktop on the screen, there was a notice that Qwest had to reconfigure my modom.

I tried to use the page with it's boxes to be filled in with my user name and email address, to help Qwest reconfigure my modom, to no avail.

Qwest, MSN, and I have been together for eons. Except, I don't much care for MSN and haven't ever used hot mail or visited their home page.

Now what was my user name and password?

Who knew? Not me. Not Qwest. MSN knew but they weren't telling me online, because I couldn't get past the Qwest pages.

I then called the Qwest phone number listed on the page and spent three hours, time I will never get back, with a young man in the Philippines. A very mannerly fellow who called me Ma'am, at the end of each sentence. "I am putting you on hold now Ma'am, is that all right with you Ma'am? I will be right back with you Ma'am, is that all right Ma'am?"

After putting me on hold many times, and together, many times, we typed code, and were shuffled back to the first, "Qwest must reconfigure your modom" page, we did our best to help Qwest reconfigure my modom.

Until in his frustration and to my relief to get away from the phone, he informed me that the modom was broken, and I needed to call the Qwest business office on Monday and order a new modom.

The modom couldn't have been broken. I was online. The Quest page would go from one Qwest page to another and back. The modom showed I was online, and the MSN broadband status showed that it was active. I was on line and the modom was working.

Which didn't matter because Qwest wouldn't allow me to get past it's page.

On Monday, I spent another two hours while Qwest reconfigured my modom. More time I will never get back,

Which wouldn't be so bad, but for the awful, cheerful, electronic voice that told me how important my phone call was to Qwest and to stay on the line while she informed me over, and over, and over, in that oh, so, cheerful voice, how I could save money if I bundled my services with Qwest.

I wanted to bundle Qwest into a box filled with Rocks and that too cheerful woman and throw them both into the river.

I'm old, I have more money than time, and not enough of either from my perspective.

The questions are? and I still want to know... Why did Qwest need to reconfigure my modom?

Why does Qwest outsource their customer service and tech support?

Most importantly, Why do they have the annoyingly cheerful voice, repeating ove,r and over, how important my phone call is to Qwest and how Qwest would be so happy to save me money if I used more of their services?

If my call was so important, why was I sitting on hold? and since I am trying to get one of their services to work properly, and it's not, why would I want more of their services?

I am waiting patiently, and have been for quite some time, I believe some soft and soothing music would be in order, or just some quiet, with a soft, sincere, "Sorry for your wait." every five minutes or so. Or some sort of a refund for my time.

I may have to send Qwest a bill.

Real people can be too chipper early in the morning before the second cup of coffee. I don't have to deal with most of them. A disembodied, voice recording, with that much cheerful should be against the law, at least before noon, and probably always.

2007-02-02T08:46:00.000-08:00

The Indiana University Campus Writing program has a great page on plagiarism.

Here, college students can learn everything they need to know about Plagiarism.

Important stuff if you are a high school student, college student, political speech writer, news paper reporter, Ummmmm.... author of a book of some kind or another, or if you are a blogger who has the ego, and wants some kind of recognition from the world wide web.

Me? This is a junk drawer. I put stuff here that I want to keep, for what ever reason, to share with my family and friends, to come back to from some future date and remind my self where I was then. I don't much care who wrote it, if it wasn't me.... If it came unsigned in an email from my favorite brother, or a friend, and I like it, I'll copy and paste it without thinking twice about doing research to hunt down the author so I can give credit.

Does credit have to be given for every email forwarded?

Intent seems to be the issue.

I didn't intend to make anyone think I wrote the sand & stone piece, or the man/dog/heaven piece, and not even the Enough piece.

They were all just sweet thoughts delivered to my inbox from someone who cares enough about me to email something they know I'd like.

Should I accuse my friends and family of plagiarism for not quoting the author?

Nahhhhhhhhhhh, I'm smart enough to know that my brother didn't write the "enough" story.
I know my friend Betty didn't write "sand & stone." Donna may have written the man/dog/heaven bit, but I believe she would have claimed credit for it if she had. Donna has that kind of ego.

Since this blog is meant mostly for myself, with family and friends more or less poking around just to see what's stashed in here, I really don't see what the fuss is about plagiarism? It's not like I have the kind of ego that is looking to take any kind of credit for anything, especially for anything online. Most likely I'd be blamed, not given credit.

The point is, This is my disclaimer, Anything you read here, either I wrote, or I cut and pasted it here.

If I know who the author is, I'll be sure to let you know.

If it sounds like me, talking to myself, then I wrote it.

If you read something here that is really well writen, lovely in it's thought, has a message , or is in any way important, then I didn't write it.

2007-02-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

This is one of those things that people send around the net. I don't know who wrote it but my favorite Brother sent it to me and I wanted to share the lovely thought.

To my family, who have been aghast but have supported me, and my friends, the 3 ladies who are dealing with their own challenges, each in her own way. To the fellows who stay quiet, and then email me...

To all my friends I wish you enough...

Recently, I overheard a Mother and daughter in their last moments together at a regional airport. They had announced her departure and standing near the security gate, they hugged and she said, "I love you. I wish you enough.

She in turn said, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom." They kissed and she left.

The elder woman walked over toward the window where I was seated. Standing there, I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy, but she welcomed me in by asking, "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?"

"Yes, I have," I replied. "Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?" I asked. "I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges a head and the reality is, the next trip back will be for my funeral," she said.

"When you were saying good-bye I heard you say, "I wish you enough. May I ask what that means?"

She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone." She paused for a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and she smiled even more. "When we said 'I wish you enough,' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them," she continued. Then, turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory:

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye."

She then began to sob and walked away.

My friends and loved ones, I wish you ENOUGH!!!

2007-01-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

I didn't write this.

A man and his dog were walking along a road.

The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years.

He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.

When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like Mother of Pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.

He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, where are we?"

"This is Heaven, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked. "

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up." The man gestured, and the gate began to open.

"Can my friend," gesturing toward his dog, "come in, too?" the traveler asked.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road which led through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence.

As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?"

"Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there". The man pointed to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. "Come on in."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog.

"There should be a bowl by the pump." They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.

The traveler filled the bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.

When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree waiting for them.

"What do you call this place?" the traveler asked.

"This is Heaven," the man answered.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "The man down the road said that was Heaven, too."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's Hell."

"Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?"

"No. I can see how you might think so, but we're just happy that they screen out the folks who'll leave their best friends behind."

2007-01-29T17:50:00.000-08:00

These are not my quotes.

GREAT QUOTES BY GREAT LADIES

"Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what the hell happened." Cora Harvey Armstrong

"Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out. But I can usually shut the bitch up with cookies."

"The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy." Helen Hayes (at 73

"I refuse to think of them as chin hairs. I think of them as stray eyebrows. " Janette Barber

"Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse." Lily Tomlin

"A male gynecologist is like an auto mechanic who never owned a car." Carrie Snow

"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry with yourgirlfriends." Laurie Kuslansky

"My second favorite household chore is ironing. My first being, hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint." Erma Bombeck

"Old age ain't no place for sissies ."Bette Davis

"A man's got to do what a man's got to do. A woman must do what he can't." Rhonda Hansome

"The phrase "working mother" is redundant." Jane Sellman

"Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the windows." Jennifer Unlimited

"Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult." Charlotte Whitton

"Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart." Caryn Leschen

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once ."
Jennifer Unlimited

"If you can't be a good example -- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning ."Catherine

"When I was young, I was put in a school for retarded kids for two years before they realized I actually had a hearing loss. And they called ME slow." -Kathy Buckley

I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb -- and I'm also not blonde." Dolly Parton

"If high heels were so wonderful, men would still be wearing them ." Sue Grafton

"I'm not going to vacuum 'til Sears makes one you can ride on." Roseanne Barr

"When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country." Elayne Boosler

"Behind every successful man is a surprised woman." Maryon Pearson

"In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you wantanything done, ask a woman." -Margaret Thatcher

"I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career." Gloria Steinem

"I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house." Zsa Zsa Gabor

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission." Eleanor Roosevelt

2007-01-28T17:34:00.000-08:00

I didn't write this, I don't know who did, but I liked it.

SAND and STONE

TWO FRIENDS WERE WALKING THROUGH THE DESERT. DURING SOME POINT OF THE JOURNEY, THEY HAD ANARGUMENT; AND ONE FRIEND SLAPPED THE OTHER ONE IN THE FACE.

THE ONE WHO GOT SLAPPED WAS HURT, BUT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING,WROTE IN THE SAND: TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.

THEY KEPT ON WALKING, UNTIL THEY FOUND AN OASIS,WHERE THEY DECIDED TO TAKE A BATH.

THE ONE WHO HAD BEEN SLAPPED GOT STUCK IN THE MIRE AND STARTED DROWNING, BUT THE FRIEND SAVED HIM.

AFTER HE RECOVERED FROM THE NEAR DROWNING, HE WROTE ON A STONE:
TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE ".

THE FRIEND WHO HAD SLAPPED AND SAVED HIS BEST FRIEND ASKED HIM, "AFTER I HURT YOU, YOU WROTE IN THE SAND AND NOW, YOU WRITE ON A STONE, WHY?"

THE FRIEND REPLIED, "WHEN SOMEONE HURTS US WE SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN IN SAND, WHERE WINDS OF FORGIVENESS CAN ERASE IT AWAY. BUT, WHEN SOMEONE DOES SOMETHING GOOD FOR US, WE MUST ENGRAVE IT IN STONE WHERE NO WIND CAN EVER ERASE IT."

2007-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

Today I am finished. Brian has his blog back. I want to shower, wash my hair and get the rank stink, of"those people" off me, out of my blog, and out of my life.

So, if you morons want to fight.... You can stick your heads up your collective asses, and fight for air.

I will not post your rude, crude, comments.

After this morning you pea brained misbegotten, inbred, malcontents do not exist in my world. You know who you are, I know who you are, other people know who you are.

I for one will step back and laugh at you from the other places you skitter about to splatter, sputter, and spit out, your OH-So_Important-Opinions on how the universe should be run by your rules. I don't think I'll be the ONLY one laughing at ya'all.

It won't be long before you will be fighting with some other poor soul. There is too much ugly and hateful in you. You can't keep it to yourself. You will find someone else who doesn't agree with you, or who YOU don't agree with and you will bully them till they run away or until they fight back... and like me, become so bored with you that they just STOP dealing with you.

HINT, other people are watching you now. Have a care when calling people troll. I know it's your favorite offensive tactic... (it's not misspelled)

To the piss ants who follow the leader, Watch Out! One miss placed word, one post disliked, one accolade for your good work from outside the coven, and you will be set upon and kicked off a blog roll, and bullied until you get back with the party line.

Ya gotta kiss a lot of ass to stay in the good graces of this bunch.

Don't wax too creative either. Those who can only copy and paste loathe the people who are truly talented. Be sure to do lots and lots of research for others. They depend on you. Why should they do their own work, when you can spend your time doing it?

Tread lightly with every step, the feelings of the cretans are so sensitive, they wet the bed, cry and wail, and hold a grudge for YEARS. if you bend their widdow feelers. They will stalk you, vilify you, drag you down to their level in the slime.

Don't have a sex life. To "Those people" sex is a four letter word. Remember they have issues with their own distorted ideas about sex. They are repressed, and have latent, deviant, ideas. They also want to control your sex life and they get all confused and angry if they find out you enjoy more than the missionary position, and have sex for reasons aside from procreation. OH, and NO SEX for you if you aren't married. (this will be the only time they will bring God or the bible into their arguments for back up)
Good luck.

Good day, so long, good bye to you freaks. Bah bye ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ waving buh bye. GO AWAY
Get the fuck away from me!

2007-01-27T16:17:00.000-08:00

My, my, what a busy day this has become.

Taa Daaa! has left a new comment on your post "1/27/2007 01:28:00 PM":

The key word here is "innocent." You are not innocent at all. You yourself are the instigator who originally began attacking people and disrupting the lives of people you don't even know. You did it for your own enjoyment, and you did it because you thought you would remain anonymous.What goes around, comes around.

You are either misinformed or out of your freaking mind!

Even if what you say, were true, and it is not, how the hell does that excuse the attacks on the other ladies?

How do you justify dragging MY grand child and the other peoples children into this garbage?

I never, never, took any on line BS into any one's "REAL LIFE!"

I stated my opinions. Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one and they all stink.

An opinion is not an attack. I do not go to any one's blog and threaten them or their family!

Starting 11/24/06 go back and read. Who came here and started this crap?

My answers are the same now as they were then, if I said something a year ago, or two years ago, GET OVER IT!

Harboring a grudge, still..... Having your delicate little feelings hurt, spewing vile and hateful things STILL.... is a sign of being mentally unstable at best, and down right sick at worst. It for sure isn't healthy.

I didn't drag you here, I didn't even invite you here. If you don't like what I have to say, get the hell away from me. Don't come here and accuse me of disrupting lives of people I don't know.

How could I?

Explain that one to me!

You give me a awful lot of power over people I don't know. (don't want to know, don't want the power.)

I thought you wern't going to post here? Quit being a bed wetting cry baby, just go away.

And" bark at the moon"! O.O.

Hahahahahahah!!!

2007-01-27T13:28:00.000-08:00

Then there was this just a moment ago in my inbox.

Unbareable has left a new comment on your post "1/26/2007 11:47:00 AM":

I have been reading your blog for awhile, and I finally figured it was time to tell you what I think. (not that my opinion matters a hill of beans or anything)You are doing a good thing here. Not that I always agree with you, cause I don't, but because you are exposing the seedy underside of the internet.You have shown that the world wide web is just an adult (I use that term lightely) version of a school house play ground. Bullies galore!Thank you for not backing down to your bullies. May they quiver just a bit next time they try to mess with an innocent person.

THANK YOU !

No, thank you for posting.

I have been mouthing off back to these morons mostly because I won't roll over for anyone. Also because, it amuses me. I laugh so hard at the stupidity of the whole thing.

I wish everyone who was attacked by this self righteous, controlling, group, of know-it-alls would have been able to fight back as well.

"Those people" have taking online crap into peoples real lives and tried to ruin them.

Real people have had real harm done to them, unfairly, needlessly, Illegally, with malice and for thought.

I ask and ask, What is the point? What is the reasoning behind the rude crude and bullying tactics? I am a good person, the others are good people too.

Who died and made these people in charge of our lives, the net, the world???

From what I've seen, there isn't a one of them, that's qualified to tie their own shoes.

How dare they presume to tell me, or anyone else, how to live our life? Who do these people think they are?

2007-01-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

Awwwww, crap! Some folks don't know when to just shut up and go away.

Karl V. Schuler has left a new comment on your post "1/26/2007 11:47:00 AM":

Gem, ah yes the wheels tutn and turn, but what you dont know is that where you're going involves no wheels.Karl

It sounds to me like you are sputtering, Karl.

What I want to know is; How do you presume to know where I'm going? Hmmmmm?

You really should seek help for that God complex you have. The lobotomy doesn't seem to have affected you the was it intended.

I don't pretend to know where I'm going, but I will find out soon enough, so I'm not too worried about it. Where ever it is, and how ever I get there, I assure you, it'll be a hell of a ride and I will enjoy every moment of it.

Thank you for your concern Karl. I think your concern however, would be better used if directed toward your self.

"Nonsense and noise will oft prevail, When honor and affection fail" Lloyd.

Nonsense and noise, Karl.

You have no honor and no body likes you.

2007-01-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

Karl V. Schuler has left a new comment on your post "1/26/2007 08:16:00 AM":

Gem, I notice that you don't allow yourself to be controlled by outsiders.Why then did you allow yourself to be controlled by the likes of me?I told you to tell me to bark at the moon and you did it you puppet.Karl

Karl, you ignorant slut,
Your delusions of grander are becoming tiresome. I know you think you are the master of the universe... and maybe in some other universe you are.... at least in control of your bladder.

In my universe, you are something to poke fun at. You control nothing.

I only acknowledge you, because I feel like it. It amuses me, has nothing to do with you.

Puppet indeed.

You would know more about puppets than I. You have been one all your life. Not an original thought, nothing creative, nothing real, just the same ol' same ol' ever comes out of your head.

My question is; Who thinks this crap up for you, Karl?

It's funny only in a breathtakingly stupid way.

The wheel turns.

Get busy studying Karl.

2007-01-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

Oh and then there is this just now in my inbox.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "1/26/2007 08:16:00 AM":

"Yep, we are laughing at you. Yesterday we laughed, and danced, and clapped our hands. Whoooo Hoooo! ! !

"Yes, let's see how long that humble christian "I pray for you my enemy" crap actually lasts. We know it's a put on, and that you really love child molesters. Laugh & dance??? Over what? You're just a bunch of child molester enablers.

looks like you know what it's about, don't you?

Don't get me confused with anyone else. I don't like you, I feel sorry for you. I pray you get what you deserve. That isn't the same as praying for your good fortune.

I have faith, I have faith that you will get exactly what you deserve.

You all can huff and puff, you can foam at the mouth and shout all the breathtakingly stupid, illogical, inane, garbage you want to spout. The truth is; you lose. The more garbage you post, the more you say about yourself. You show your own stupidity. You damn yourselves.

Sticks and stones, your name calling can't hurt me. You are school yard bullies, trying to push other folks around. You are cowards and now all you can do is spit and sputter.

Do I look like I give a rats behind what you think?

I'll tell you what I think, I think you have unresolved issues with latent deviant behavior.

I think you are afraid of your own urges and fantasies. I think you doth protest too much. I think you rail and rage at what you hate in yourself. I think you are a danger to yourself and anyone who might cross your path. I think you are a sick bastard and you infect others with your sickness. I think you need help.

Just wait. it's going to get better.

2007-01-26T08:16:00.000-08:00

I have been up all night with Dean Koontz. He's no Stephen King, but he can turn a phrase, and from time to time spin a delicious tale. "Odd Thomas" is one of his better yarns. He has a touch on this character and the story isn't half bad either, no wait, the story is darn good.

Anyone new to Koontz will be happy they started here and long time fans will be pleasantly surprised. A word to the wise, buy the first two books right away. you won't be sorry to read them back to back. Sorry when the second story ends, but "brother Thomas" is out in hardcover, and maybe in paperback. I'll get back to you on that.

Karl V. Schuler has left a new comment on your post "1/18/2007 09:22:00 AM":

Gem, do you know somebody named Karl V. Schuler?If you do it sure isn't me.You are just part of my anthropological studies.Karl

Karl, it's over. If you want to continue fighting, stick your head up your ass and fight for air. I have wasted far too much of my precious time allowing you to post your silliness here.

I'm sure you have heard the old saying, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

For you, and your anthropological throwback pack of curs, it's all over but the crying.

We'll see who has the last laugh now.

Oh, that would be ME. That would be Ms. Magnolia. That would be the rest of the folks "Those people" and you vilified with your lies and your disgusting trash talk at Brian's blog.

Yep, we are laughing at you. Yesterday we laughed, and danced, and clapped our hands. Whoooo Hoooo! ! !

It's really going to be interesting to see what happens next.

Hey, Karl, Study up.

2007-01-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

Today the garbage was about knee deep. As rude and nasty as it is, I am going to post it here just to show the mentally of "Those people" who still just don't get it. Do I look like you morons are affecting me?

I post your crap so that anyone who is attacked by a predator like you, will, I hope, be a lot less afraid and fight back. You people are morons. This batch of comments proves it beyond any doubt at all.

Your lives must be so sad and lonely. it must be hard to find friends when you have the mental age of 7 or 8, the body and face of a gorilla, and a tyrannical temperament .

Actually comparing your looks to a gorilla, is being unkind to the gorilla family. When I use the word "people", I use it lightly.

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers, This will end soon. It was funny for a little while, in that stupid school yard kind of way... Some days like today, the stupidity is what Granny Sugars would call breathtakingly stupid, and it's still getting old.

The gag factor is an issue as well. Reading email with my morning coffee, and having something open that is so rude, that my gut flips, or is so witless, and so needless is becoming so boring.

It was fun for a while, but "Those people" have no verve. They use the same words and phrases, over and over, with not a bit of creativity, or humor.

They say nothing with a speck of anything profound or bright, or worth responding to. It's just the same garbage, with the exception of using new names, and pretending to be someone else.

Buddy, I would pretend to be someone else too if I were them.

I'm Not sure Ozzie would like you talking trash using his name. I know he wouldn't like you putting such rude and disgusting words in his lovely wife's name.

Ozzy Osbourne has left a new comment on your post "1/22/2007 12:13:00 PM":

As if, bitch. You didn't copyright "Bark at the Moon." I did. You must be completely brainless if you can't think of any other catch phrases. Even retarded kids can think of something new to say.Oh that's right,... I forgot. When they did the sex change operation on you, they had to suck 90% of your brains out of your skull.

Isn't that special? Isn't that just what everyone wants to read with coffee? Not smart, not bright , just garbage. Is this the best you can throw at me? It is funny though, which is the only reason I posted it at all. Funny in a how fucking stupid is that?

Sharon has left a new comment on your post "1/22/2007 12:13:00 PM":

C U Next Tuesday, Gemmy, old bag! Get stuffed!

M. I thought you were not going to post here again. Bless your heart, you just had to come back. Trust me, it won't hurt my feelings if you didn't come back and leave a mess again.

Then there was this... Jesus, help me. I am not going over this again!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "1/19/2007 08:56:00 AM"

"That would include the people who think they are above the law of this, and all the other states"

Like smoking weed even when that is against the law? Like sharing how to subvert the law?

Except for this part of the stupid!

Like sharing how to clean one's hard drive, so that child porn won't be found on it?By the way, glad to see you are finally moderating your comments. Still doesn't stop you from salivating while "responding" to those non-published comments, however. arf

Arf indeed. I couldn't share how to do something I don't know how to do. You are an asshole for making such an accusation.

I suggest the anonymous writer here, has more knowledge of such things as hard drive cleaning and child porn than I do.

Whats more, I have moderated this blog since Those people began squirming in here to post rude and nasty crap.

Hey stupid, how does one respond to non-published comments?

"The moral law is writen on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for hate or vanity, the price has to be paid at last." J.A. Froude.

Go "bark at the moon" O. Osbourne.

2007-01-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

Ol' I am, who I say I am, left this the other day.

Karl V. Schuler has left a new comment on your post "1/17/2007 10:01:00 AM":

Gem, here's a picture with my name.

Now how smart does a person have to be, to send a picture with a name... to what? prove he is who he is?

Karl,
What in your delusional thinking, ever makes you think for one moment that I would believe anything you sent, wrote or said?

I already have a picture of you and it ain't pretty. The garbage that comes from you and your merry band of haters tells it all. The disgusting and hateful turns of phrases y'all use in trying to out rude each other speaks volumes about the whole rabid mob.

The hateful nosy neighbor is personified in you people. Hiding behind your curtains, spying on what others do and say, spending hours trying to cause distress for people.

For what? I ask you? What is the point?

Do any of you think you are doing something good?

If you do, then you are even more delusional than I thought.

You all need to grow up, get real lives, and mind your own business. Your controlling obsession with other peoples lives borders on mental Illness, and the hate you spew here and other places IS sick.

I know it just pisses you off that I can fight back, because I got nothing to hide, nothing to fear. I've never had so much as a parking ticket, you can't get me fired, all you can do is sputter, foam at the mouth, and drool, because you can't do anything to me.

To all "Those people", Go bark at the moon.

2007-01-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006 One of "Those people", left an anonymous comment and then signed her name to it. I go back and read that post every time I feel the need for a good laugh.

I read a lot, I have very eclectic taste in all things, from decorating, clothes, music, to reading material.

In the book I'm reading now, by Dean Koontz, one of the characters says; "Being a hard drinking woman with numerous interests in addition to poker, Granny Sugers didn't always spend as much time speaking God's word as she promised Him she would. She believed that God expected to be conned more often than not and that He would be a good sport about it.

You can con God and get away with it, Granny said, if you do so with charm and wit. If you live your life with imagination and verve, God will play along just to see what outrageously entertaining thing you'll do next.

He'll also cut you some slack if you are astonishingly stupid in an amusing fashion. Granny claimed that this explained why uncountable millions of breathtakingly stupid people get along just fine in life.

Of course, in the process you must never do harm to others in any way or you will cease to amuse Him and payment comes due for the promises you didn't keep."

When I read those lines, I thought about "Those people", while much of what they have done is funny as hell in some ways, they have done real harm to people I know and like.

Granny Gem believes God does not take kindly to folks who are unkind to others, especially people who try to do good, and who you don't know, have never met, and will never meet.

Just because YOU don't believe God exists, doesn't mean you are getting away with anything. I post this as a mild warning to "Those people" to stay as amusing as the person who signed her name to the aforementioned post, it may be your saving grace because none of you are charming, witty, or have an ounce of verve.

Sadly, you are just breathtakingly stupid.

Like this jerk.... the real brian kastel has left a new comment on your post "1/17/2007 10:01:00 AM":

Why wont you come and visit me Gem? I thought you were my friend.

This is not Brian, just another pretender, no charm, no wit, no verve. Just stupid.

2007-01-19T08:56:00.000-08:00

This was in my inbox today.

Karl V. Schuler has left a new comment on your post "1/18/2007 09:22:00 AM":

Dear Gem, just really don't get it from this end.You think that the person who commented is not really the person who commented?

You have some really convoluted garbagey logic going on there on that end.

It's things like this that give our welfare state a bad name.
Karl

Dear Karl,
Other people have signed my name to vulgar and disgusting posts, Other people have made disturbing comments here under the names of people I know. Pretenders are running amok all over the blogs.

Blogs and email accounts have been hijacked. Emails forged and sent in mass with the intent to make innocent people look bad. Peoples names and reputations have been ruined, friendships broken, trust lost.....

This bull shit you and your sick, demented, holier-than-thou, friends and family members, have splattered everywhere has made some really nice people, actually physically ill, and pushed others to the very edge.

Don't think you haven't gotten some on ya, because you stink to high heaven.

So why should I believe you are who you say you are? Just because you sign a name to your post, Dumb ass?

It isn't rocket science. Where is your fine tuned logic? Huh?

As for things that give a state a bad name? That would be vile, loathsome, people who think they have some kind of right to persecute, harass, and steal from those they disagree with.

That would include the people who think they are above the law of this, and all the other states. The ones who think they have the right to judge and dispense justice with vicious vigilantism.

You people are all sick. You need to seek help from a mental health center and get to the cause of your problem.

You and your ilk have some issues with latent deviant sexual behavior.

As I see it, you are a crime waiting to happen.

I worry more about one of you hurting someone in real life, than all the online predators combined.

I mean that with all my heart.

Please, phone your primary physician, ask for a referral to mental health.

Explain that you have delusions of adequacy.

No wait, tell them you need help with your megalomania, and the over powering need to control every one and every thing in the universe.

Then you can share with "Those people" what you learn about becoming human. There may be hope for all of you yet.
Sincerely, Gem

2007-01-18T09:22:00.000-08:00

This piece of garbage was in my inbox when I got up this morning. I wonder if this is the real Karl V. Schuler? There is no way to tell who is using who's name when they come to post this crap. I have witnessed some infighting in this family, as well as some real backward thinking, not to mention the rude crude and socially unacceptable behavior. So this might actually be the person who posted in my comments section.

Karl V. Schuler has left a new comment on your post "1/17/2007 10:01:00 AM":

Dear Ass Twadler,

Thank you for giving me more to hate you with. I'll take the time since you gave it to me.

I know that I'm not harassing you because of your superiority.

Can you please now tell me to bark at the moon.

Thank you for making my skin crawl.

Karl

Dear misbegotten, halfwit,

If it gets you through your sorry and miserable life to hate me, then go ahead on and hate me. You are the cripple who hates the dancer.

Your hate hurts me not. For the most part, I am completely unaware of your existence in my world. You and your hate is less important to me than.... Christ, I can't think of anything less important.. That makes you at the bottom of a very, very, long list of things I even barely think about.

At this moment, I feel sorry for you. All that hate, and you have to live with it. One day your head might explode. I can not, in my wildest imagination, understand hate.

I dislike asparagus, I'm not fond of weeds, there are people I don't associate with, and places I refuse to go, but I hate nothing, and no one.

I certainly dislike you, and your ilk. I would rather not have this discussion, but you came here.

"A man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies, because if you indulge in this passion, on some occasions, it will rise of it's self in others. If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will brake out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you." Plutarch

That would be me, indifferent to you.

"It is the nature of the human disposition to hate him whom you have injured." Tacitus

"Hell is truth, seen too late." H.G. Adams

Hate is the acid that distroys the vessel that holds it.

2007-01-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

A MAYONNAISE JAR AND 2 CUPS OF COFFEE

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember this story about a mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class with several items in front of him.When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full they agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full and the students responded with a unanimous "yes." The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed."Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things, your God, your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions -- things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full."

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. "

"The sand is everything else -- the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."

"Take care of the golf balls first -- the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

I thought this was a very nice email and I wanted to share it with folks who are not on my email list.

Please note, nowhere in this does it say, "make time to hate people. or sit at your computer and tell yourself it's okay to harass people you don't know, because you think you are morally superior." It doesn't say, "you have the right to attempt to controll others and tell them how to fill their jars."

It says, "Take care of your own balls. Set your own priorities, and do what it takes to fill your own life."

2007-01-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

KrisT has left a new comment on your post "1/07/2007 07:22:00 AM":

Now I'm wondering about klee and Gem and what's up here? Is this new forum owned by a troll's sockpuppet?

Troll's sockpuppet... Now where have I heard that one?

I don't know anything about klee, last I heard the lady wasn't well.

As for me, I am confused... What is your question exactly?

This is not a forum at all, just my own junk drawer, a place to express myself, save my thoughts, and for some reason I don't quite understand, where I defend my right to do what ever the hell I want to do.

If you have a problem with any of that, I cordially invite you to go start your own blog and leave me alone. Or go bark at the moon with the rest of that rabid pack of curs.

If you are here, as at least a friendly sort, then say your piece clearly and question away. I got nothing to hide. Don't ask if you are going to bitch about the answer you get.

2007-01-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "1/06/2007 09:57:00 AM":

"Look asshole, I'm just setting you straight, I'm pointing out that you are an asshole. I'm not joking about it either. You are an absolute asshole."

No,... you're still the joke. When somebody repeats a lie, that's spreading a lie. It doesn't matter if the person spreading the lie (that's you) kenw it was a lie. You should have checked it out before you repeated it. The idea that our government gives money to start businesses and subsidized housing to immigrants is completely ridiculous. Anybody with half a brain ould see that it's a lie.You are going to call me an asshole for pointing out the lie you were spreading, and then you feel it's your right to spread lies any time you want, with out checking them out. That and you,... are a tremendous joke.

Well asshole, you should have quit while you were ahead, but as usual you have to have the last word. And as usual you are wrong. That would make you the tremendous joke.

I say you are an asshole because you are a unmitigated asshole. You are rude, condescending, a big mouth, know-it-all. You come to my blog just looking for something you can jump on and pick at me about.

You insinuated that I somehow haven't done right in my life, and that I resented the hard work and good fortune of others.

You made an angry, rude, remark about the shape of my behind, which you have never seen and know nothing about, which is an attack on me personally. That makes you an asshole.

When one repeats something NOT KNOWING if it's true or not, it would be gossip. Accusing someone of spreading lies, for no good reason, is a bit over the top.

I did not ever intend to deceive anyone.

There are churches and other organizations who help people with housing in Spokane. at least one of the families I was talking about lives in one of the privately owned, subsidised, units close to my grandson. Now what?

I was talking to a friend of mine, who lives in Spokane, about assholes in general, and your name came up, with the story of this blog.

She said, that, "The Russian interpreter at the welfare office drives a Lexus." She said she took a neighbor's kid out to the office on East Trent Avenue and there were several ladies sitting together with the rest of the folks needing assistance, speaking Russian together. She said, this leads her to believe that the Russian immigrants are getting government assistance. Perhaps you should have checked your facts before you assaulted my veracity

Before you open your big mouth and put your foot in it again, let me assure you that I don't care that these folks or anyone else for that matter are getting their needs met by the government.

I do not presume to know how good or bad life is for someone else. Knowing how demeaning it is to have to deal with the system, in any way, shape, matter, or form, I can only assume, that to be in the welfare office, means life is pretty Goddamned bad, and a person needs a hand up. So be it!

This is the richest nation in the world. There is no reason any child should be hungry, not have shoes and a warm coat, any elder should fear homelessness, or have to give up a beloved pet in order to live in a cramped one bedroom apartment. Every person should have their dignity along with the basic necessities to survive.

Some people would rather pay for the killing and maiming of our own, and other people's kids, and for blowing some poor country back to the stone age, than pay for a poor little American kids medical bills, or dental bills.

I'm not one of them. I don't care what color that kid is or where his or her parents came from. Every kid has the right to medical care when they need it. No child should have to suffer pain or being ill and not get the medical help that they need. For that matter no adult or elder should either.

Look asshole, your white hatness is beginning to fade... Some of your hateful, true self is showing through the thin veneer of altruistic motives. Real people pick up on this stuff, which is why you don't have any friends.

I'm sure there are other folks who have blogs you can go to and search out things to call them names about. Why don't you go look for someone else to annoy. or just go bark at the moon.

2007-01-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

I woke up to all sorts of comments today. One goes back to the entry I made on Monday Oct. 23rd. It was about another comment made about that time. Below are both comments.

Anonymous said...
UPDATE ON BRIAN KASTEL: I have sad news for those of us who love Brian. Brian had his hearing on Tuesday and the Judge revolked his probation because of the positive results of a random drug test. The results were positive for marijuana, Diazepam (Valium) and trace amounts of cocaine. The level of valium in his blood (according to the probation officer who testified at the hearing) indicated that Brain had taken 5 to 10mg's approx. one hour before his schedueled monthly meeting with his probation officer. Brian did not have a prescription for the drug. The officer decided to test him because he said it was obvious he was high on something and he said Brian kept dropping a pencil he was holding and he seemed to avoid direct eye contact. A subsequent search of his apartment also turned up some drug paraphanelia described as "a pipe used to smoke meth or crack cocaine" (no drug residue in pipe), a small bag of seeds and marijuna stems, some rolling papers and "a homemade water pipe used to smoke marijuana". No child pornography was found in his apartment or on his computer hard drive. A police officer testified the drive had recently been formated and no forensics could be done on either his personal computer or what was described as "an older laptop" because the laptop was missing the hard drive. He said they also found several hundred printed pictures of young girls and boys approx. 6 to 10 years old clipped mostly from catalogs and store circulars. He said the children were fully clothed in the pictures or in bathing suits and are not illegal but the probation officer testified that "it demonstates Mr. Kastel's continueing interest in minor childen" and he said it looked like some of the photo's were several years old and a number of them appear to have been folded as if to fit in a wallet. He also said a pair of binoculars and a telescope though not illegal also raises questions about their intended use. There was no mention of his blog by either the judge or the prosecuter. Brian did not testify but his public defender read a short note from a former landlord that basically said Brian was friendly and in the 4 months he rented from him he was always on time with the rent. The lady prosecuter asked to look at the letter. After comparing the dates she said to the judge that Brian's rent was paid for by a check from HRS sent directly to the landlord on the 3rd day of each month and Brian was never late paying the rent because he didn't pay rent, the state paid it for him. She then said all that letter tell's the court is Mr. Kastel is friendly and she said I would smile a lot too if someone was paying my rent every month your honor. The judge then said something like I think we can find a nice apartment for Mr. Kastel. Do you like green Mr. Kastel?. It was funny and even Brian chuckled. The whole thing took maybe 10 minutes and despite the seriousness of the matter Brian looked like he was a kid on a field trip. He was dressed in the standard orange jump suit and had both leg and wrist chains on. He smiled a lot and kept looking around the court room for familiar faces and as far as I know only his sister and a family friend were there and neither took the stand or spoke to Brian.Brian has just over 5 years remaining on his sentence and though it is unlikely he will serve the entire term he will not be eligible for a parole hearing under Florida law for at least 8 months. Don't get your hopes up, a hearing is not a guarentee he will be released it is just a hearing. He is schedueled to be transferred from the Pinellas County Jail early next week and will likely do his time at Stark in North Florida. His good friend Danny said he talked to Brian on the phone and said he is resigned to doing the time and is adjusting well to the idea of returning to prison. He said he will use the time to write a book about his life and feels that what ever time he serves will only help build interest in his book and boost initial sales.
12:39 AM

disgruntled said...
You must know that the entire monologue above is a complete fabrication. Every sentence can be easily checked for veracity, and not one single sentence within the entire piece has even a shred of truth, except these two lines: "There was no mention of his blog by either the judge or the prosecuter. [sic]," and: "No child pornography was found in his apartment or on his computer hard drive." However, his computer (a desktop) was never searched by LE upon his arrest.

Nevertheless, the hackers who had free, unrestricted access to everything on his system in the several months preceding his arrest never did find any such incriminating material either, despite their fine-toothed combing that they were certain would reveal his "secret pedophile activities. " All they uncovered were emails and documents that continued to provide an avalanche of evidence for his truthfulness and forthrightness. And we see how those have been presented.

Your own integrity shines brightly for not bowing to the Gestapo-like intimidation tactics of those people nor back-pedaling or attempting to make excuses for your befriending him.Major props to you, Gem.
1:23 AM

There was also this, which I think must have come from the same person who wrote the comment above.

Go figure has left a new comment on your post "11/17/2006 04:51:00 PM":

You wrote: "Why are they so obsessed with my little junk drawer, my friendship with Brian or anyone else on line? What is the point they are trying to make by hijacking Brian's blog, making public emails from the people who supported Brain in his attempt at becoming a better person, and vilifying those people, as well as spending seemingly unending hours searching for every post ever made, in an attempt to embarrass, and intimidate."

One word, Gem: misogyny.

Examine this in the context of latent tendencies toward violent sexual abuse, and the picture becomes exceedingly clear. (yeah, it sure does, huh?) And the MALICIOUS HACKING that compromised not only the blog, but the computers and online accounts of several people leaves few ALTernatives as to who is/was responsible.

This also points to the phenomenon of psychology known as "overcompensation." Considering that the vast majority of perpetrators have never been caught for their crimes, this overlap of closet victimizers parading around as white hats should surprise no one.It will be interesting to see who becomes the next Mr. Foley.

FWIW, I think you are a truly benevolent soul. Keep on keeping on. God bless you.

Thank you for your input and kind remarks. Please come back again, it's good to hear positive comments. Except for three of four friends, I have felt like I was fighting a war all by myself. The rest of the folks who were attacked so viciously, the ones I know about anyway, fell apart. They got scared right off the net.

I want to add that some of "Those people" are overcompensating in more than one way. And that I have said all along, "me thinks they doth protest too much." I also think there is more than a bit of projection going on with some of those less than real people.

AND THEN THERE IS THIS GUY....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "12/31/2006 11:52:00 AM": "I am so tired of you and your ilk jumping on typos, miss spellings, and now you questioning MY work ethic?"

I didn't see no typos. You said immigrants get their housing subsidized and money from the government to start businesses. That's an absolute lie, and I'm just setting you straight.You blabber about "truth" and then spread lies in the next paragraph. And then when somebody points out your lies, you call them an asshole. What a joke.

Didn't see any typos.

Your comments were not just pointing out an error on my part, concerning funding for the Russian families, you were being a rude, condescending, asshole. The joke is on you asshole, because most people know the difference between a mistake and a lie.

An absolute lie is one that is told with deliberate intent to deceive.

I did no such thing.

I might have been blabbering on about something I knew little about, which is my right, BTW, but I had no intent to "spread lies" while you had every intent to be an asshole.

Look asshole, I'm just setting you straight, I'm pointing out that you are an asshole. I'm not joking about it either. You are an absolute asshole.

2007-01-02T08:55:00.001-08:00

The day after New Year's Day. Undress the tree, pack away the decorations for another year, rearrange the rooms to fill the space that the tree and other Xmas related things took up. Store all the boxes, that won't be opened until next year, in the basement, or attic, or closet, and really begin the new year.

That's what the day is about for me. Looking at the tree decorations one last time until next year. Some are just glass or plastic, but some are a memory disguised as a Christmas decoration.

Like the wax coated, glitter sprinkled, origami star that my nephew Kent made for me when he was in grade school. How many years ago? That would be...42 years ago. Held in my hand twice every year, once gong up and once coming down. Junk to anyone else. Treasure to me. A bit of paper, folded with love by little hands, and a heart that knew I would keep and treasure this offering forever. That little boy, so loved, is a grown away man, but twice a year he is a child of my heart once more.

I have some of my grandfathers decorations. these get wrapped in paper before being packed away. Every year, without fail, I remember gram pa's house, and he sits at the kitchen table smoking. Faintly comes the smell of wood and smoke, and apples and chalk. All this remembered through the great, cut glass pitcher, glittering always in my mind's eye.

Branches and branches of snowflakes and angels made by, or bought by, other children of my heart. For me. Just for me.

A glass globe so thin and fragile it has it's own velvet box, a brass angel, and owls of all sizes that came from my Daughter, remembered by which house we lived in the year they arrived.

A new this year, star, copper and glass, from my ex husband and his new wife. I am pleased to add one more star to my treasury.

Next year, twice, I will remember the first Christmas in this house, and this person in my life who has remained a friend of my heart, and his lovely new wife who accepts not only my children and my grand children, but me as well. She has such style! He got so lucky this time. I wish them both the best.

2007-01-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

Magnolia has left a new comment on your post "12/31/2006 08:43:00 AM":

"Know, that if one of your guests leaves your home and has an accident, you are libel."The word is liable, not "libel." "Liable" is when somebody is responsible for paying a debt. "Libel" is when you publish written material with malicious intent to harm the reputation or occupation of another. Freudian slip much?

I wondered about this when I allowed it to post in the comment section. Ms Magnolia will off times correct me but she does it via email. She knows I am dyslexic and that spelling is, and always has been, a challenge. Maybe it was the Freudian slip crack that raised a flag in my head, or maybe it's just because it's rather cold and not at all the way Ms Magnolia writes...

Then the real Magnolia phoned me to say that she didn't make this comment.

Is anyone besided me tired to death of the cheap shots these rat bastards, and two bit bitches keep dragging their fat, stupid, lazy, asses, here just to make? And useing someone elses name to do it? How fucking sixth grade is that?

(What did you think? That game, "lets you and her fight", ain't gonna happen with me and Ms Magnolia)

No it wasn't a slp, Freudian or otherwise. it was a misspelling aided and abeted by spellcheck and a tired mind.

I know the poser didn't mean to be helpful, but you can bet I won't make that mistake again.

So thank you dumbshit. here's your hat, don't let the door hit ya in the ass on your way out. Please don't bother to return, I'd rather live with my mistakes than deal with your lieing ass.

2006-12-31T11:52:00.000-08:00

Use the link below to read the whole report. but please don't fail to read the last line on this page.

This is the guy who should know what's what on this issue.

[[[I have said from the git- go that the immigration laws need to be changed and that the government is useing the immigration thing as a red herring.

It's to keep a part of the population thinking about something besides the wars and our kids dieing for oil and to line the coffers of those few policy makers who are ripping off everyone.

From government contracts that are offered without bids and never performed on, government stuff like vests that are less than protective and armor that doesn't exist, to scads of money moved from one company to another all over the globe so fast it's hardly able to be followed. But that's a whole nother thing, isn't it?]]]

http://www.ailf.org/ipc/spotlight/071206_writtentestimony.shtml

Written Testimony of Benjamin JohnsonDirector, Immigration Policy CenterAmerican Immigration Law FoundationBefore the Committee on the JudiciaryUnited States. Senate July 12, 2006

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and to provide testimony on behalf of the Immigration Policy Center (IPC). The IPC is an independent, non-partisan research center dedicated exclusively to research and analysis of immigration and immigration policy in the United States. The IPC is a division of the American Immigration Law Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation which for 20 years has been dedicated to increasing public understanding of immigration law and policy and the role of immigration in American society.
The root of the current crisis of undocumented immigration is a fundamental disconnect between today’s economic and labor market realities and an outdated system of legal immigration. Undocumented immigration is driven in large part by a U.S. labor market that is creating a higher demand for less-skilled workers than is being met by the native-born labor force or by the current legal limits on immigration. Migration from Mexico in particular has increased over the past two decades as the U.S. and Mexican governments have actively promoted the economic integration of the two countries. As the past decade and a half of failed federal border-enforcement efforts make clear, immigration policies that ignore these larger economic forces merely drive migration underground rather than effectively regulate it. In short, there is an unsustainable contradiction between U.S. economic policy and U.S. immigration policy, and economics is winning. The problem is not undocumented immigrants, but a broken immigration system that sends the dual messages “Keep Out” and “Help Wanted” to the Mexican, Central American, and other foreign workers on whom the U.S. economy depends.
The Failure of Enforcement Only Strategies
The federal government has tried for over a decade to stop undocumented immigration through an ever expanding use of enforcement strategies. The experiment has been a failure. From FY 1993 to FY 2005, the Border Patrol budget quadrupled from $362 million to $1.4 billion and the number of agents nearly tripled from 3,965 to 11,300. Most of these resources were devoted to fortifying traditional border-crossing locales in the southwest. Despite these efforts, the pace of undocumented immigration to the United States has increased. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the number of immigrants entering the country in an undocumented status, or falling into undocumented status by overstaying a visa, rose from about 400,000 per year between 1990 and 1994, to 575,000 per year between 1995 and 1999, to 850,000 per year between 2000 and 20051. As the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded years ago, heightened border-enforcement efforts primarily have shifted undocumented immigration from one place to another2 and have motivated more prospective migrants to hire human smugglers to guide them into the country.3
It makes little sense to continue pouring federal money and personnel into an enforcement-only strategy that does not work. It makes even less sense to force local and state police departments to go along for the ride. Turning police into immigration agents would destroy the community trust that many police departments have spent years building. The breakdown in this important relationship means many people – and not just illegal immigrants – will be less likely to report crimes or to cooperate in criminal investigations if they fear that doing so could lead to deportation of them, a family member, friend, or neighbor. This loss of public trust would not only undermine crime-prevention, but would erode national security as members of immigrant communities become even more afraid than they already are to offer tips to government authorities on potential security threats. There also is the problem of paying for local enforcement of federal immigration law. As Philadelphia Police Commissioner Johnson testified in this Committee’s July 5th field hearing, local police already are doing more with less money. If they also must enforce federal immigration laws but are not given federal funds to do so, “enforcement of local and state laws, as well as our Homeland Security duties, would be compromised.”
In arguing for the continuation of enforcement-only strategies some have attempted to use frightening images of immigrants as terrorists or criminals. This rhetoric, however, bears no relationship to the reality of the immigrant experience in America. To quote a 1997 paper jointly sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Urban Institute, "Few stereotypes of immigrants are as enduring, or have been proven so categorically false over literally decades of research, as the notion that immigrants are disproportionately likely to engage in criminal activity."

2006-12-31T08:43:00.000-08:00

The Moon enters airy Gemini at 6:15 am EST, so we seek intellectual stimulation and engaging discussions on this last day of the year. Butterfly chaser, or pretender, you have nothing intellectual or engaging to say. Go the hell away and stay away. You are a moron, a pea brained piss ant, without the good sense the Lord gave a crow bar. I will not publish your posts.

Assertive Mars aligns with idealistic Neptune, deceiving us into taking action based on unrealistic expectations.

Since Mars rules the gas pedal and Neptune fogs the windshield of reality, we are reminded of the dangers of driving under the influence of Neptunian substances, such as drugs and alcohol.
Terot.com

Please don't drink and drive. If you plan to party, have a sober driver. If you are buzzed, call a cab, call a sober friend, sleep on the floor, just do what ever it takes to not get behind the wheel of a 2000 lb lethal weapon.

Tell your teens you would rather get out of a warm bed and go out in the cold to come and bring them home... than to have to get out of that warm bed to go to the morgue to identify their body. Promise that you won't get mad and yell at them for 24 hours after the fact. Make them promise to phone home.

Hosts, take the keys at the door if you are serving anything that is intoxicating. Have pillows and blankets ready for the fool who doesn't know when to slow down and stop. (there is at least one at every gathering) Have lots of food, and silly as it sounds, party games, or dancing to keep guests active doing something besides getting hammered.

Cut people off if they are too stupid to know when enough is enough. Put all the alcohol away an hour or so before you want your guests to go home and pull out the coffee, and/or other non-alcoholic drinks and more food. Make breakfast part of the party. Make the drunks sleep it off on the couch.

Know, that if one of your guests leaves your home and has an accident, you are libel.

Have a safe and Happy New Year.

2006-12-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

The post Christmas blues are beginning to effect the folks around me.

I'm working hard to avoid anything that even looks like it might be blue. I have too much to do to get bogged down with bad feelings about anything. The blues will have to catch up with me some time in March or April when I have time to relax and enjoy em'.

It's cold and clear here, a lazy morning so far. The kind of snuggle in and spend time under the covers day dreaming, because you know the floors are cold, and your bladder is going to force you up and out soon enough. And it did. I allowed myself one go back... but it's not ever the same, is it? Going back to warm covers, but knowing ya gotta get up again soon because there is that to do list, and laundry that isn't going to do it's self.

It's going to get busy around here soon enough, this early-ish time of day may be the only alone time I get for the next few days. My choice but still....

I am going to beg for the grand baby and perhaps the great grand baby too, if he is back in town, to come spend the weekend with me. Baby grand is a sure thing, GG baby depends on if that woman brought him back. But the kids play so good together and are so much fun, More fun than work, I can't think of a better way to spend the beginning of The New Year in the new house.

So just in case, I have cookies to bake. I promised to make more Mexican Wedding Cakes for everyone anyway, and I have the stuff so I might as well use it and make everybody happy.

These cookies are all my son ever asks for as a Christmas gift. The recipe is simple and easy, but time consuming. Worth every second if you take the time to beat enough air into the mix.

So here is a family treat for my friends and foes alike, enjoy!

Mexican wedding cakes
This can be only doubled once. Can’t be tripled, or quadrupled
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup powdered sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup fine chopped pecans

The trick to making these cookies melt in your mouth is to whip the butter until it looks like whipped cream and then add the dry ingredients a spoonful at a time whipping the whole time.
Pinch off small pieces of dough roll into balls the size of small walnuts.
Bake at 400 degrees about twelve minutes.
Roll in powered sugar while still warm.
These cookies frost themselves.

2006-12-29T11:27:00.000-08:00

Vanessa has left a new comment on your post "12/16/2006 11:20:00 AM":

You have very obscene people visiting here. Why don't you post their IP numbers, sometimes they tell you if it's a work computer or home one. Some of us have wondered who these freaks are. They really do a good job of abusing free speech ,don't they ?

Hello Vanessa, Thank you for stopping by.
To answer your question, one that has been asked before, is because one of "Those people" is sue happy. To post an ISP would almost be the same as posting names and holding them up for public ridicule. Even though they damn themselves by their own words.

While I have no doubt, if I were forced to defend myself in court I would laugh with the judge as he threw the case out, it would still be hours of my precious time I'd never get back, wasted over on line crap. I have already spent more time on this crap that I ever wanted to.

But it is about MY freedom of speech, and the freedom to communicate with whomever I chose.

It's fast becoming about how stupid some people are and how rude and vile they can be.

Stupid, for taking on line crap so seriously, bringing it into someone else's real life... Getting P.O.- ed at some one and hunting down their real name and searching for their home address to harass, intimidate, and even just plain annoy, is the sign of a sick mind in desperate need of mental health help.

Holding a grudge for months /years over something posted on a message board or blog that ya disagreed with? How stupid is that? Get Over It!

If something I wrote, someplace, bothers you so much that you are spending hours of your time getting even, you need to step back and see how much power you are giving me over your life. (power I did not ask for and do not want.) Get mental health help and then Get Over It!

IF, for what ever reason, you think you have the right to control someone else's online presences, you need to rethink that and seek mental health help. The only person you must need control is your own bad self. (and perhaps your dog) Everyone else can take care of themselves.

Fighting with someone on line is like winning a race in the Special Olympics, ya win but you are still retarded.

Now for something completely different....

2006-12-28T18:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2006 is almost over and we survived.

Next year has got to be better.

I am going to try to get out more next year.

I have a Dear Friend who stroked out during surgery last year. Her recovery has been remarkable but she has been mostly house bound.

As soon as the weather lightens up, my friend and I are going to take walks together. I dare say we could get half way around the block at least. It's a start.

She was my support system when I was down and struggling to survive. Her humor and her phone calls cheered me more than she will ever know. Words can't express how grateful I am to the woman.

Now I'm close enough to her, and the more well of us, so I can attempt to return the favor.

The short jaunt to her house to visit and play ball with her little dog will soon change to me walking over and getting her for a short walk back here so she can see the new house and say hello to my little dog.

She has said she can't wait to come and visit. Now that the house is in order and the mad rush to get everything done for Christmas is over, and the snow and ice is melted off the sidewalks, I think it's safe to have a coffee fest with my friend at my new place.

I'm only hesitant because if, (God forbid) she should fall, I couldn't get her up again. While I'm a bit more steady on my feet, I'm not as strong as I used to be, and because of the stroke, she has lost the feeling in her left leg and foot. She also has tunnal vision to deal with.

We'll begin on a day when my daughter, or one of the other able bodied kids are here to go with me the first few times.

I wish the two little dogs would walk well on a leash together... We could all go walking soon. Sadly, neither of the little dogs want to walk on a leash.

I wish all my friends a Happy New Year, and if you are still young and healthy, take care of your body, you may live longer than you think.

2006-12-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "12/11/2006 07:05:00 AM":

"Third, You really must tell me HOW he was going to committ a crime by my sending him email.
"By sending him information on how to mask or remove THC from his urine, before his next mandatory UA.

For the third, and I hope last time...

Brian had already smoked that joint, had already had a dirty U.A. and was already on his way back to jail when I asked him if he didn't know about the body flush stuff. He answered that he knew about the stuff, and didn't think he needed it. or words to that effect.

Got that? It was all over but the crying by the time I even knew he smoked a joint.

So now what?

Before "you people" start congratulating each other for making some kind of point, you should know, that, the body flush is legal and there isn't any law against smoking pot.

Brian didn't committ a crime by taking a few hits off the pipe. He violated the conditions of his probation.

In Washington State, possession of less than 40 grams is a misdemeanor. a $1000. fine and/or 90 days jail time.

You can't grow the stuff, you can't buy or sell the stuff, you can't carry the stuff around, but there is no law against smoking the stuff in your own house as long as you don't go driving while under the influence.

Now... if this is the worst thing you can throw at me? "You people" are cordially invited to collectively go squeak at the moon.

You can kiss my big, fat, ass on your way out!

2006-12-12T13:56:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "12/11/2006 03:20:00 PM":

You make so many claims about "those people" but we don't know who they are. Do you know who they are? and how do you know they are who you think they are? And why can't you say exactly what they are doing to you, you are so vague that it sounds like paranoia. Put on pics of their IP adresses visiting your blog. You should really use the comments moderation on your blog. You seem more unsettled everytime you blog.

Dear Anonymous,
"Those people" know who "they" are. I know who "they" are. Some other folks know who "they" are.

What "they" say is that I'm a bad person for posting and emailing a confessed and convicted child molester that I believe wanted to change his life and become a better person.

"They" have hijacked Brian's blog and searched out other posts I have made at other places in an attempt to embarrass and vilify me. "They" come to my blog and trip over each other in an effort to see who can be the most rude and crude. I have not allowed some of the comments for the sake of not offending some of my more gentle readers.

One of "Those people" thinks he's Perry Mason or Steve whats-his-name and threatens to sue anyone who disagrees with him.

I think anyone who takes online BS into the real world is a pea brained moron.

I also don't want to give the fool any ammunition to haul my happy self into court. Since I haven't named any names, or posted any thing that would identify them and hold them to public scorn or humiliation, "they" can't bother me with their theatrics or make me deal with "them" in any other forum. "They come here, I don't search them out. I don't care where they live, I don't want to know. I don't want to know any real names, where they work, or any other personal information. I DON"T CARE!

They have made veiled threats against my grandson, posted pictures of where they think I lived and where I once lived and threaten to show up at my door. ("CU Tuesday" one posted)

I have been "warned" to cease and desist. Cease and desist what? Defending myself?

I'm not paranoid exactly, but these people are not the sharpest colors in the box. "They" seem to hold a grudge over stuff that happened 8 months ago and perhaps farther back... maybe almost two years ago. How crazy is that? I keep asking what "their" problem is... and "they just post some other kind of stupid drivel.

I'm not unsettled, unless you think falling out of my chair laughing is unsettled. It's too funny to read out right lies posted with such an earnest attempt to be believed, and somehow make herself look better.... "LE asked me to investigate his supporters..." Yeah right. As if!

I hope that you feel better Anonymous, Thank you for your concern. Have a nice day.

To "Those people"

It's on line bull shit. Get over it. Grow up. Get a life. Go find some good works to do. Take your toxic garbage and go squeek at the moon.

2006-12-11T15:20:00.000-08:00

It's official folks, The real Shadow did not make the post below. It seems, "Those people" are now getting high by forging posts all over the place using other people's names.

These are supposed to be adults. They set themselves up as morally superior and shout me down, call me vile names because I was kind to someone who had done some really bad things in his life.

I didn't lie. I didn't steal. I didn't threaten anyone. Even when I was angry, I didn't bring anyone's beloved children or grand children into the mix.

"Those people" say, "You Gem, are a supporter and enabler of child molesters. This means you can share the blame when children are molested."

Should I feel guilty?

Maybe I might, IF Brian had gone back to jail for re-offending, But he went back to jail for smoking pot. If Brian had done something really bad, I would have been disappointed and completely disillusioned with Brian. I might have even felt guilty for being his friend, but as it is now this isn't about Brian.

This is about "Those people" attempting to tell me what to do. Trust me, they aren't qualified. Individually or collectively, "Those people" couldn't walk a mile in my shoes. Not one would have survived and stayed sane. Those people don't know where I've been, nor how I got to where I am now. I am a survivor, not a victim!

I can only wonder at how sad and lonely "Those people" must be. All they seem to have is each other. The good news about that is, they are far enough away from each other that they can't reproduce.

Not that "Those people" could tear themselves away from their keyboards for the 30 seconds it would take... perhaps it's true what P. Harris said about short comings, and 30 second wonders... What ever the reason... the world is better off without these misbegotten morons bringing more of their kind into this already overburdened world.

"Those people" will just have to continue to bark at the moon.

The rest of us can continue to vacillate between feeling sorry for them with their pathetic lies about how special/good/morally superior/holier-than-thou they are, and laughing at them for their childish, plain stupid, and so sixth grade, behavior.

Laughing is good.

2006-12-11T07:05:00.000-08:00

Shadowraith has left a new comment on your post "12/09/2006 07:17:00 AM":

"Like the rest of "those people" You pick on a group of people who supported a confessed, convicted, grieved, child molester, who was attempting to become a better person."

Brian Kastel was never attempting to become a "better person." He was just conning people to give himself more opportunities to commit crimes. That's why LE asked me to help investigate him and find out who is supporters are.We (as in the universal "we") do hate child molesters. If that makes us "haters" then so be it. You Gem, are a supporter and enabler of child molesters. This means you can share the blame when children are molested.

I call bull shit. I call bull shit from several directions.

First, I'm not sure The REAL Shadow posted this.

Second, You don't KNOW that Brian wasn't trying to become a better person.

Third, You really must tell me HOW he was going to committ a crime by my sending him email.

Forth, I doubt very much that some cop picked you out of the blue to "investigate" anybody and "find out who his supporters are." That is the biggest load of crap I ever heard. (what an ego)

I know quite a few people who work in law enforcement, from street cops to judges. I know cops rely on information from citizens, I know cops have informants, I know informants get paid for information, in one form or another. I have never heard of any cop going to a stranger and asking them to do undercover work, even on line undercover work.

So you are telling me, the police in FL searched you out, on line, In Calif? in Western Washington? in MA? and asked you to "Investigate" Brian and the people he emailed and posted messages to? Give me a break. I was born at night, but not last night!

The next thing you'll be telling me is that you have seven million bucks in the Nigerian bank and I can have half if I help you get it out of the country.

I also know about civil rights. I know that even a confessed and convicted child molester has rights. I have rights.

Read this slowly and try to comprehend... I have the right to communicate with the devil himself, if I so chose. it ain't no body's business but my own.

Try to understand this too.... I believe Brian was trying to become a better person. I supported him in his becoming.

You must explain to me how... befriending one person equals enabling and supporting all the world's child molesters.

I believe "The Universal WE" you are talking about equals the person who lives a made up life, and some mad wac yo yo with a personal grudge that he can't sue me over, and a few mean, sick, moronic, drunks that make up "Those People."

"The Universal We" is false as you use it here.

Not everyone HATES.

Not everyone believes that people can't redeem themselves.

Not everyone thinks they are qualified to run other peoples lives and tell them who they can be friendly to.

Not everyone can read minds and hearts and KNOW what a persons motives are.

Last, but not least, Not everyone has the ego to believe they can judge someone they have never met, don't know, and never will meet.

"Hate is the acid that destroys the vessel that holds it."

"Hate the sin, NOT the sinner"

GO BARK AT THE MOON!

2006-12-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

Llort has left a new comment on your post "11/25/2006 03:17:00 PM":

That's just a made up story. It never happened and it's not true. Merry Xmas anyway. Think of all the children who will be getting sexual abuse for Christmas while you cuddle up with and support child molesters.

Holy flipping Christmas! What is it going to take to get you haters to back the hell up and see what really happened and why?

I never thought I would ever meet so many dense, and discombobulated, nincompoops in one place.

"That's just a made up story. It never happened and it's not true."

How old are you Llort? Like 12? or just a grown person with a 12 year old brain?

First of all, you don't know if the story is true or not. Second, who really cares? it's a nice little story.

The whole story of Christmas isn't true but we hear it over and over every year. We see the wise men, the angels, the manger, we sing the songs, and we look to the heavens in wonder, to see if we can see the star that will shine on the stable where the Christ child that will save the world was born.

It's about faith.

It's about the human need to hope.

I have faith that human beings can change. I have faith that with motivation and support a human being CAN become a better person.

The people who supported Brian hoped to see him become a better human person.

Llort, your hate shows in the way you write.

The question is; Are you stupid because you hate or do you hate because you are stupid?

I think you hate because you are too dull and dim to understand anything more than hate.

I don't think you fully comprehend your hate.

Like the rest of "those people" You pick on a group of people who supported a confessed, convicted, grieved, child molester, who was attempting to become a better person.

Another question is; What gives you the right? Who died and made you the one who sets the rules about who I can and can not support?

Is it okay for me to be a Green Bay Packers fan?

Do I have to ask you and "those other people" if it's okay for me to join a church? Or leave the one I belong to?

I have friends who are gay, what should I do?

I want to see Mel Gibson's new movie, do I need to ask your permission? (After all there was that messy drunk driving and antisemitic controversy just a little while ago)

Oh no, drunk driving is okay as long as ya don't get caught, right?

Being drunk and hateing go together so I'm sure you and "those people" don't care if I go see a Mel Gibson movie. Why, you and "those people" might even cut me some slack, if I got good and sloshed before I went to see a Mel Gibson movie.

MY GOD! If I got drunk and stupid every night, you and "those people," might even want to be MY friend!

Which is the best reason not to drink.

Go bark at the moon llort

2006-11-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

I got this in an email from a friend today. Let me be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas.

The "W" in Christmas

Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations -- extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the meaning of Christmas.

My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six-year-old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant." I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise.

So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a spot on the afeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song.
Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer.

So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads. Those in the front row-center stage -- held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love."

The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down -- totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W." The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W."

Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the lastletter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear: "C H R I S T W A S L O V E" And, I believe, He still is.

May each of us have an exciting Christmas as we reflect on His Amazing Love for us.

2006-11-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "11/24/2006 10:32:00 AM":

I don't get it?What are these "private forums" of which you speak?You cantankerous witch.I'm Em

Thick as a brick. The only thing worse than a stupid woman... is a stupid woman that thinks she knows it it all.

Duh, Em, if I told you , all your maladjusted, moron, friends would be slobbering on themselves to get there and "sleuth" some tidbit of something to come back to my blog and whine about. Gem said this, and Gem said that. I don't want this power over your lives. I think you are toxic, stupid, people and I want nothing to do with you.

Judy In The Sky has left a new comment on your post "11/24/2006 10:32:00 AM":

Awww... did somebuddy's widdow feewings get hurt? Ya scuzzy old hag. You can sling shit when yur anonymouse though, can'tchya? Now peeple are pooping in yer junk drawers. Too fuckin' bad.

Look dumb ass, if my feelings get hurt, and someone doesn't like me, I avoid them.
I don't nurse a grudge,
I don't hunt down their name and address,
search out every post they, or their family, ever made on line,
I don't hijack someones elses blog and post rude and nasty things in a attempt to embarrass them,
I don't make threats against someone to elitist fear.
I just avoid some one if I don't like to hear what they have to say.

What would you think if someone came to YOUR house and shit in your drawers?

Yeah, that's how I feel too. You rat bastards are tripping over yourselves, trying to out rude each other. How stupid is that? BTW, I'm getting tons of hits from all over the world... What you post here says a lot more about you all than it does about me.

Frankie Doodle has left a new comment on your post "11/24/2006 10:32:00 AM":

Boo fucking hoo. Are your widdle feelers hurt? You can dish it out, but you can't take it, can ya? You just loooove those child molesters though, don'tchya? Oh well, a few more days and you'll be homeless and you won't be able to log on anymore anyway. Hope you had fun slinging your shit with your child molester buddy.

See....? Who pissed in your oatmeal today? All I have to say to you, is I pity your sorry ass. No wonder you don't have any friends. It's not just because your eyes are too close together, or because your shoe size is bigger than your IQ, but because you are blind to the things that make up a human being.

Huh, I just read the post above again... This IS about The war between Kris and her brother. Kris said her brother was a child molester. I don't much like Kris's brother, I took Kris's side in the war. So did Brian.

Awwww... You have to put down that rotting stinking bone of contention you are gnawing on there fool.

It's going to make you more sick. I think you should put in a call to mental health and get help for your problem.

2006-11-24T10:32:00.000-08:00

Back Door Betty has left a new comment on your post "11/24/2006 08:17:00 AM":

This is just as I recieved it a moment ago. I have made bold the parts that are important here.

Gem said: "As brain dead as they might be, they don't have the balls to crawl out from behind their mighty keyboards, where they are safe."

You are the brain dead one with the memory problems. Do you remeber when you posted this?

-Anonymous said... Auntie Em is a dip shit! Go ahead and sue me. Let me also say, Brian, let the dumb brawd post, please? Please, Please, I get such a good laugh every time she starts running her mouth. All true, I said it. I think it was in a private forum or in an email. Auntie Em is, in my opinion a dip shit. So what? I have a right to my opinion, no matter what screen name I use.

BTW... where did you post her work info? I didn't see it... Not that I care, or would use it and drag this crap into HER real world. Er... not the way Mike and Auntie Em dragged it to your PO in that silly attempt to stir up trouble for you. How stupid is that? The key here is the "not that I care or would use it and drag this crap into HER real life" and so on. and so on.

Em, get a real life. Go try to be nice to someone. volunteer at a homeless shelter, become a part time care giver for someone who needs a break from caring for an alzheimer's patient, deliver meals on wheels. Help someone who is developmentally delayed, give time to care for animals at the pound, give an ounce of love to something, before you lose what pitiful little humanity you have left.

Who knows maybe it will make your face clear up, maybe you can work off the fat both on your ass and between your ears.

TAAAA DAAAA OH, wait.... Was this when the war was about Kris and her brother? You remember? When Kris accused her brother sexually abused her when she was a child? Is this about my believing Kris? Is this what "those people" have their panties in a bunch about?

Ahhh, who cares... So auntie Em got her feelers out of joint? Cry me a river. I still didn't send her emails about her nieces, or say "I know where you are..."

For christ sake, GET OVER IT!

Proud to support anyone working hard to be a better person. 4/07/2006 03:45:28 AMSomebody flipped your mighty keyboard over, and figured out who you are, TAAAA DAAAA. You didn't have the balls to crawl out from under your hiding place and put your name on the insults you can so easily sling while you think you are anonymous. Fat between the ears, you say?Ha, Ha, Ha. Is any of this coming back to you, you fat ugly dumbass ditchpig?

Do you think I would hold any of your remarks close to my heart and plot and scheme to find your home address and the names of your kids and nieces so I could go to your blog, call you names, and make veiled threats against your family eight months from now???

Do you not see how mentally sick that would be? I MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU SAY, BUT IT STOPS RIGHT THERE.

I know who I am, and I don't care if you like me or not. I LIKE ME. THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW ME LIKE ME. When I don't like someone I avoid them. I don't go out of my way to search out where they are and get into their face.
How stupid is that?

2006-11-24T08:17:00.000-08:00

For the benefit of the learning challenged, just this one time, NOT because I have to PROVE ANYTHING to "those people", or anyone else for that matter, how these threats arrive.

Sick "those people are, and slick they think they are.

Today, one of the cowards came to my blog and posted in the comments section remarks about my grandchild. It was gobbledygook that even the hell pig might question. It was offensive, rude, and so unladylike. Too chicken shit for words. So far, those people haven't hijacked my blog, so I can moderate the posts. I chose not to have that garbage left here. It stinks.

What vile and loathsome creatures "those people" are. (and I use the word "people" lightly)

Question? What the hell is wrong with these people? Is this a threat? This was in my inbox this morning as well. I allowed it and it's here without the headers and all that, for space sake. I believe it's in the comments section of the last post.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post 11/23/2006 06 :28:00 AM:

Coal black.

Judy, Judy, Judy! C U Next Tuesday.

pub lish this comment.
r e jct this comment.

Should I be worried that one of these maniacs is going to show up at my door? No, because they got it wrong again. Even if they had it right, "those people" are cowards. As brain dead as they might be, they don't have the balls to crawl out from behind their mighty keyboards, where they are safe.

They are like jackals, slinking around the net foraging for dead and stinking bits to feed on, pissing on bushes to mark, what they think is theirs, and theirs alone.

They cut and paste, spew a few rude and hate filled things into the mix and call it their own. They are as creative as a rock. They shout down and bully anyone who doesn't run with the pack. but at the end of the day, they are still Just a pack of loud and obnoxious cowards.

Beware o ye of little mind, fuck not with me, for I fuck back.

Here are the headers you asked for JOY... As you see all posted from my very own blog comments page. I'm sorry, I don't know what a screen shot is... you must enlighten me so I can PROVE.... what ever it is you think I must prove to you and the rest of the brain dead...

It's funny, isn't it? How what a person writes on line is so telling about who they are? They use the same phrases, and make the same rude remarks... "Those people" do anyway. Things like, "old hag" which is one of the few clean insults that have been childishly tossed in my direction.
"They" say things on line, that they think, but would be terrified to utter in a real life, face to face meeting.

From Joy Thu Nov 23 23:13:38 2006
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Joy has left a new comment on your post "11/23/2006 09:27:00 PM":

Boo hoo are your widdle feelers hurt? Wy dont you post these threats?

You know, along with teh headers and screenshots of the emails. Expose those peopole,....Oh, you cant because they dont exist. Nice try you old hag!

p ublish this comment.

r eject this comment. Moderate comments for this blog. Posted by Joy to Gem with far away eyes at 11/23/2006 11:13:38 PM
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2006-11-23T21:27:00.000-08:00

Another thanksgiving that couldn't be beat. Dinner was great, The turkey and dressing perfect, and we all had a great deal to be thankful for. The oldest girl grand kid made the dressing and it was every bit as good as mine. I told her, "Kissing don't last.... Cooking do."

Then I came home and found this...

Anonymous said...
yer 2 funny gem. what you sent around came around. online bs in a persinal life? u didit, and now its come back to you.

Dear Anonymous,
Google has a great spell checker on their free tool bar. It's easy to use and will correct grammar and correct capital letters too. I am dyslexic and spelling has always been a challenge for me. It works most places .

I have to correct you about your post however. I have never searched out any one's real life Name or address, I have never threatened anyone. I have never brought any one's children or grand children into the on line bull pucky.

You say I did it. So you need to explain to me just what exactly I did? I didn't spread anything around anywhere. Is this about something I wrote eight months ago? It couldn't have been very important to me, because I don't remember what it was. Whats more, If someone got their feelers hurt, they need to get the fuck over it.

Yes, there are some people with whom I am less than fond. There are some people I actively dislike. I don't go out of my way to confront them on line. I don't go to their blogs and post rude and disgusting things.

I had a mad wac neighbor that I disliked intensely. He was a mean, loud rowdy, and often violent, drunk. I wasn't the only one who disliked the man. I did get a order of protection on him, (which didn't do a whole lot in the way of protection.) But I didn't throw trash in his yard, or rocks at his windows. I did talk to some of the other neighbors who were as upset about the B.S. he was doing to them and others in the neighbor hood. He has since been evicted from the house he rented, and the last I heard he was in jail.

There are people on line that I consider friends. Some of my friends don't care a whole lot for some of the other people I dislike. We have shared our feelings in a private forum. I guess "those people" lurking at that private forum, saw something I said that they didn't like.

So what?

Boo Hoo, how sensitive and fragile those itty bitty feelers must be. Oz what's wah wah, the bed wetting cry babies are spreading feces all over, and threatening me, my grand son, and telling me what I can and can not do. "they know where I am" one of them said. " Consider this is a warning" she also said. Screw that, what they are doing says volumes about them.

I say, "go bark at the moon." And you, Dear Anonymous, can also go bark at the moon. All the huffing and puffing, the veiled threats, the rude and unkind crappola, (to borrow the word) is just that. What goes around does indeed come around, and karma bites.

What the hell is wrong with "those people?" Thick as a brick every last one. I have zero respect for anyone who takes on line stuff into some one's real life. "Those people" can all fuck off. They need to work on their own lives and stop being so concerned with mine. Their rabid rants border on mental illness. I gave some of "them" credit for having some good sense, but I was wrong.

In closing Dear Anonymous, while you are out barking at the moon, take a few moments to contemplate the what and why of your affiliation with "those people". You might be on the wrong path, we are often judged by the company we keep. The toxic poison "those people" are splashing around might get on you.

2006-11-23T06:28:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "11/11/2006 09:42:00 AM": My, how your little self-contained drama drones on and on...aren't you in the thick of things, by identifying with a twice-convicted child-sex-offender (not to mention those pesky little B&E's and convicted armed robberies...)?We're all duly impressed by Your! Deep! Involvement! In! The! Fray!*yawn* BTW, there are 13,415 people in Texas with my name. Get to sleuthing and get your facts straight, "Gem." Libel works both ways (and yes, I have your transcripts from "secret chat" as well as your IPs.). Ahem. Consider this your fair warning, because I'm a fair kinda girl. Cease and desist your crappola. We know where and who you are, on the other hand.Ugly people see only ugly, the rest of us see what you are.All my best, Dulcinea.

Back up the bus!

Madame,

First, this is my blog. It's like my house in a small way. I don't go to your house and attempt to correct or direct your life. You came here, by your own volition, I didn't drag you. I didn't even invite you.

Second, this is about my right to communicate with who ever I chose. Here you are jumping into the drama with both feet. Stirring the pot a bit more. Should I be impressed??

For the record, and because you and the rest of "those people" don't seem to get it! Read this slowly, and try to comprehend... I am not here to impress you or anyone else. "I don't give a rusty rats behind if you approve of my choice or not. It's none of your business." WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH?

I don't care what you think about me. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations.

Do not confuse me with one of your ilk who go hither and yon searching for people's real names and addresses. I couldn't care less what your name is or where you live.

To me, searching into a persons real life is a violation of privacy and a twisted and sick way to behave. I do believe there are "laws" against STALKING.

I don't care how many ip's or copied posts you have from the private forum. Opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one and they all stink. So sue me!

Why do YOU identify with dishonest people who hate so much that they spend hours of life vilifying, threatening, and attacking people they don't know in the most rude, crude, and socially unacceptable, ways possible... because they disagree about on line B.S.??? (Does that sound healthy, intelligent, and ok with you?)

As for your warning .... "Ahem. Consider this your fair warning, because I'm a fair kinda girl. Cease and desist your crappola. We know where and who you are"

Why do you care where I am ? Is this another threat? It sounds like you are trying to make me feel fear that you would come to my home and do damage to my person or property. Perhaps I should get on the phone and call 911? There has already been a veiled threat against my grandson by "those people" with whom you seem to have aligned your self .

What the hell is wrong with you people? Do not tell me you are protecting children... You people have posted a veiled threat to MY Grand child.

"Ugly people see only ugly, the rest of us see what you are."

Ugly is as ugly does. The rest of "you people" don't have a clue as to what I am.

Ugly is hurting other people. Ugly is dishonest, threatening kids, making fake newspaper front pages, posting vile and disgusting things about others and most of all trying to control someone else's life.

Lady, you should question your collective motives.

Why are you coming to my blog to post threats ?

Why are the rest of you so very concerned with who I chose to support,

What I do?

Who I talk to on line?

What I post here, and any place else?

Why do you care? Why do they? Don't you think it's a bit obsessive? Just a tad bit over the top? Come on now, making threats against me? My grand kid? Think about it.... it's malicious, toxic, and if something bad were to happen... (God forbid) You might be accused as an accessory after the fact. I wouldn't encourage "those people" if I were you. You have at least one loose cannon in your midst. In my opinion, the rest aren't wound to tight either.

2006-11-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

So the following is an attempt to answer the charges from "Anonymous" I hope the readers will bare with me if my language is a little harsh and grating on the senses. As much as I dislike being rude, and foul, I think perhaps I must speak to these people, (this moron anyway) in their own language. they don't seem to understand real people talk. This Dip Shit starts every sentence with LMAO... Braying like the jackass she is. Trust me Dear, you will NEVER be able to laugh THAT ass OFF.

My answers to the jackass begin with a *

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "11/21/2006 06:33:00 AM":

"I have nothing to cover my ass about! I Supported Brian in his attempts to become a better person! I did it and I'm glad! I will do it again! So what?"

LMAO! You were helping Kastel commit crimes. That's becoming a "better person???"

*How exactly did I help Brian commit a crime? he lives in FL and I Live in WA. If you are referring to the body flush I told him about when he tested positive for smoking pot... He had already smoked that joint, already been tested, already had a dirty U.A. He told me he already knew about the stuff... Every pot smoker does... Since the stuff is sold all over, it must be legal, so.... What the fuck are you talking about?

"I believe human beings can change if they want to. I believe in forgiveness, human kindness, compassion, and My right to choose with whom I communicate.

"LMAO!!! Kastel is a criminal pervert with a history of violent crime, theft, robbery, and child molestation, and you were enabling him to commit fraud.

* First read the sentence above your cackle, Dip Shit. Then read the garbage you wrote. "History" is the key word. It means in the past. Now explain how I enabled him to do more than exchange emails and have human contact? Perhaps this is more about you and your ilk getting their collective noses out of joint because of something I wrote 8 months ago??? Something about a made up life story, I believe. I ENABLED BRIAN TO DO NOTHING MORE THAN STAY HOME AT HIS KEYBOARD AND THINK. ( You should try thinking sometime)

*This is yet one more attempt to justify the things you have said and done. The hate and self loathing oozes from every post, here and at Brian's blog. What you post says more about you than it does about me. I think you protest too much.

"I don't give a rusty rats behind if you approve of my choice or not. It's none of your business."

LMAO You have no idea who Kastel's victims are, and you don't care.

* I repeat, I don't give a rats behind if you approve of my choice or not, it's none of your business. What the hell does that have to do with Brian's victims? (please don't come here and pretend you are one... That would be more than I could handle... You already have a place to play that roll.) This isn't about Brian's victims, who you know nothing about either btw. It's about you people attempting to victimize ME! I refuse to play that roll, you can't frighten me, you can't shame me. I don't answer to you. I'm right and you are wrong. Sick and wrong, and without the brains the lord gave a crow bar.

"Posting what I wrote to Brian on his HIJACKED blog and trying to make ME look bad, is my business. The malevolence that is displayed at "hell to pay" is beyond disgusting. How dare "those people" malign and abuse me and the other good and decent people who supported Brian's attempt to change his life?"

LMAO You and Kastel's other supporters are absolutely not "good and decent" people. If you were "good and decent" you wouldn't have anything to do with him. You are just another lowlife scumbag that got suckered into Kastel's con job.

* This is a witch hunt. The only people I shun are republicans.

I didn't steal no body's blog, I didn't write sick, rude and foul things about anyone in an attempt to humiliate them and shame them and then post them in someone Else's blog. I didn't use the names of your children, or grandchildren, or post pictures of your house... As you can see I don't threaten easily.

I didn't post private emails, I don't make stuff up as I go along. I own every damn thing I ever posted, here, at Brian's blog and anyplace else. I don't make up any of the comments here, and I never posted a comment at Brian's blog after he went to jail.

So wait? How does this make ME a bad person? I don't understand the reasoning behind most of your comment...

Who are you to tell ME who I can communicate with? How does your hate trump my kindness? Who put you in charge of deciding what constitutes good and decent? I don't think you would know good or decent if it bit you on that wide ass you try so hard to laugh off.

I don't care what you think about me. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations. The" low life scumbag" part of your comment only makes me wonder about you? You don't know me. so why do you have this obsession with trying to control what I do after the fact? Remember, when you point a finger at someone, there are four of your fingers pointing back at you.

I think you have issues that need professional help. Anyone who takes on line B.S. as seriously as you seem to, should perhaps question their own motives.

Seriously, you and "those people" need to step back and ask yourselves; Why are you so nutzo about the people who wanted to help Brian become a better person?

Why do you hate so much?

Why are you gnawing on this decaying, dead, and stinking, issue of who and why some people wanted to help Brian move on with his life and be a better human being?

Who are you to say who can or can't change their life?

Where the HELL do you get off judging me

Who died and made you God?

2006-11-21T06:33:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "11/20/2006 07:12:00 AM":

If you are saying that the email headers are all cut and paste fabrications, you must have the originals? Why don't you post the originals and prove they are fabrications? Sounds like you are just trying to cover your own ass.

Gawd! What part of this B.S. don't you morons under stand?

I have nothing to cover my ass about! I Supported Brian in his attempts to become a better person! I did it and I'm glad! I will do it again! So what?

I believe human beings can change if they want to. I believe in forgiveness, human
kindness, compassion, and My right to choose with whom I communicate.

I don't give a rusty rats behind if you approve of my choice or not. It's none of your business.

Posting what I wrote to Brian on his HIJACKED blog and trying to make ME look bad, is my business.

The malevolence that is displayed at "hell to pay" is beyond disgusting. How dare "those people" malign and abuse me and the other good and decent people who supported Brian's attempt to change his life?

Who died and put "those people" in charge of our lives?

Are they morally superior, because they "stole" Brian's blog? Or because they can string rude and vile words and thoughts together about people they don't know, will never meet, and make a judgement call based on a few exchanged emails... Maybe because they post crap that isn't true... Or perhaps "those people" are ruling the universe? In which case everyone on the planet is in trouble.

If that's the case, cover my ass hell, I'll have to bend over and kiss my ass goodbye, because I can not live in a universe where my life is controlled by morons with their own agenda. It's bad enough that the country has been controlled by moron republicans for so long.

Just to be clear... What I said was;

The fabrication on Brian's hijacked blog is going to get interesting pretty soon. I'm thinking since there isn't anything new on the question posed there about how real it all is... They must be having to put in a lot of time cutting, pasting all those headers and trying to find something damning to post.

and what I meant was;

I expected something new and fabricated by "those people" with cut and pasted headers. To caste aspersions on the veracity of the folks who were supporting Brian.

"Those morally superior people" are not above spreading misinformation, or telling lies. They snap onto something they "think" is a morsel of, or has the ring of some small truth to it, and post it as gospel.

The pictures for example... The apartment building on second ave, is low income housing supported by one of the private charities. I don't live there, never have lived there, and while it's not a subdivision, family and white picket fence neighborhood, it's not a slum by any one's standards. It is in a commercial zone, but close to downtown, easy access to the freeway, public transportation, and I'm sure fairly nice inside.

The brick Tudor WAS my home . I lived in that house for over twenty years. I OWNED THAT HOUSE. and it killed me that when I got hurt, I couldn't hang on to it. It was a lovely home and I worked 15 hour days, sometimes seven days a week, to make the payments and to keep the place nice.

BTW no one gives away that kind of house. I painted all the trim, twice, and paid for a new roof, furnace, as well as doing an update on the kitchen with new counter tops, flooring, dishwasher, cabinets and sink. (not a ss sink either.)I also paid for an insert, in the knotty pine finished basement, fireplace.

I loved that house and the stress of losing it contributed to the heart attack that decreased my health situation greatly. Fuck you very nice! It made me feel much better that you posted the picture of my loss. How deep did you have to dig to find it? What ever is the point you want to make?

If getting hurt makes me a loser, what the hell do "those people" use as an excuse?

I don't get it.... Just what is the point of this unrelenting agenda? "Those people" need to go crawl back under the rock from whence the came.

Ugly people have no reason.

2006-11-20T07:12:00.000-08:00

The fabrication on Brian's hijacked blog is going to get interesting pretty soon. I'm thinking since there isn't anything new on the question posed there about how real it all is... They must be having to put in a lot of time cutting, pasting all those headers and trying to find something damning to post.

Not that they don't make things up, they do, and not really very creatively. Taking things out of context, and out right lies are what these people do.

Putting someone else's name on the comments, for example. I have NEVER once posted anything on Brian's blog since he went back to jail, nor has Magz. the comments are as made up as the rest of the hijacked blog. (For the record, and for anyone who doesn't know, and/or cares, Brian went back to jail because he tested positive for marijuana, which was a violation of his probation.)

Perhaps, just maybe, someone has had a heads up? or maybe... They have seen what a foolish waste of time and energy it is to take on line bull shit into someones real life. Perhaps they have seen how obsessed they are and have decided to have their heads checked. maybe somebody got laid, and is now feeling better about life.

Most likely though, someone else is the target of their hate. Some other poor soul is being abused on line by "those People." I don't see that kind of person suddenly becoming human.

Maybe they have a sudden health problem, which has kept them away from the computer. If that's the case, I wish I was magnanimous enough to say, "get well soon" but I'm not. I'm still angry that "those people" are so mean and nasty to people they don't really know, and their low life tactics of dishonesty, intimidation and veiled threats, that I can't help but pray for them to get just what they so richly deserve.

2006-11-17T16:51:00.000-08:00

I like to think the net is a wonderful way to learn things. I also want anyone who visits here to learn something, whether they want to or not.

About "THOSE PEOPLE"... I have asked the question... Why are they so obsessed with my little junk drawer, my friendship with Brian or anyone else on line? What is the point they are trying to make by hijacking Brian's blog, making public emails from the people who supported Brain in his attempt at becoming a better person, and vilifying those people, as well as spending seemingly unending hours searching for every post ever made, in an attempt to embarrass, and intimidate.

I am beginning to believe "they" have mental health issues. Like the ones listed below.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder - An individual with this disorder is in love with himself/herself, and has little positive regard for others other than in a superficial manner. They tend to be grandiose in how they present themselves, and tend to demand admiration from others. They believe they are special and deserve special treatment, regardless of the problems this creates for others. They readily take advantage of others, and tend to be quite arrogant, and tend to not be able to tolerate any criticism or negative feedback.

They often do not seek treatment, because they perceive everyone else as causing the problems, not themselves.

Some argue that a major component of this disorder is the reduced ability to feel empathy for other people. This inability to see the hurts, concerns, and other feelings of people often results in a disregard for these aspects of human interaction. Finally, irresponsible behavior often accompanies this disorder as well as a lack of remorse for wrongdoings.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder - This individual is a perfectionist, and obsesses about details to the point of following rules for the sake of the rules. They are extremely inflexible. Their quest for perfection usually slows progress toward goals because they tend to re-do things forever, without ever completing anything. They are overconscientious at work, but tend to not have many relationships. They are extremely rigid in terms of morals and values, to a degree not expected by their religious background. Their perfectionism prevents them from delegating tasks to others, so they tend to get bogged down in details, and become overwhelmed. At times, they are afraid to throw anything away, for fear they may need it someday, and they are sometimes true penny pincher's. They often have difficulty making decisions, because of fear of making a mistake.

This disorder should not be confused with conscientious behavior, attention to detail, and a desire to do a good job. It should also not be confused with normal conservative morals and values, and a desire to save money for the future. These are all positive characteristics that actually assist an individual in coping with the world. Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder is a condition in which these traits are severely exaggerated to the point of becoming negative. (An example of too much of a good thing!).

In other words... these people need help, they are freaking nuts!

2006-11-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

How sweet it is...

Thank you again John, I hope you have custard for breakfast at your house.

The shag nastys who have been so obsessed about their hurt feelers and punishing me for something I wrote eight months ago have stopped annoying me, at least for today and are now attacking Magz.

What is with the second grade name calling? So Our Dear Magz is having some dental work done. WTF do you care about it?

I guess these folks have such an exaggerated opinion of their own good looks. How lucky they are, to have never broken a tooth, or to be so eternally young and movie star beautiful.

But wait... My mother used to say, "Beauty is as beauty does."

That would mean, Hmmmmmm, these folks are as ugly as sin. Ugly, as in; Fell out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

That sure would explain why they have so much time on their hands to search the web looking for crap to try to embarrass people with and to hijack someone else's blog, and to post stuff friendly people shared, and turn a trip to the dentist into something ugly.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

I'm thinking nobody likes them. They don't have any friends, and aparently they don't even have family that likes them. Maybe it's because; when they were born they were so ugly the doctor slaped their mom. ( I am so tempted to put in a bunch of ugly jokes here, but these people are joke enough.)

Ms Magz, I'm sorry you have to endure such boorish remarks from such ignorant people.
It just goes to show that ugly is, as ugly does as well.

Be happy, at least we don't have to look at them. (now that's a scary thought.)

I pity the folks who have to deal with these people in real life. Can you imagine?

See Magz, how sweet it is...

Meddle ye not in the affairs of my friend, moron, for
Thou art crunchy and will taste good with ketchup.

2006-11-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

I asked a new friend if I could use this. he said it was cool, so here it is.

Please visit http://joshuaink.com for the latest updates.

An open to letter to "Those People"
Wednesday March 2, 2005

Dear Anonymous "Those,people"

I would like to offer you a little tip, one that will keep you entertained for hours, one that should ease the pain you must feel from never having had a boyfriend/girlfriend/friend.

What you will need
Your favourite 2 second porn clip.
If you are left handed, your right arm. If you are right handed, your left arm.
Screen wipes.

Method

Open up your favourite porn clip and set it to loop continuously. Try and find one that loops smoothly, this will enhance the experience no end. Or, if you have a credit card, go one better, download a full movie!

Now, take that arm of yours (remember use the one that you don't write with, this again will enhance the experience and leave you free to make one or two word, dull ass, anonymous comments). Sit on your arm for twenty minutes or at least until it goes really numb.

Hopefully, this numbness will alleviate some of your loneliness, for I hear tell that it is not dissimilar to having someone else do it for you. Note: If it's close but not quite what you were looking for, try sticking your tongue out a little during the process, this may help.

The screen wipes are, I admit, a little ambitious. I think it is unlikely you will need them to wipe down your monitor, though I may be underestimating the excitement factor here. Either way they are a little more subtle than having toilet roll sat on your desk and that extra moisture will help to clean up your sticky fingers.

With all this done and your sexual frustration alleviated, I hope you will now be able to interact with society in a more positive way, m'kay.

Kind Regards and Smooches,

John.

Ditto, from me!

2006-11-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

Troll is a name I have been called when I dared to Post something "Those People" disagreed with. When I dared to question, yes, even challenge their thinking... Though I was polite, and honest in my questions, "Those people" used the term troll to define me. This was also the case for a few other people with whom I became friends because of the close minded, foul mouthed, attacks by "Those People."

The question is... Can one be called a troll on one's own blog?

What is a troll?

The term "troll" can mean a number of different things, but in essence, a troll is a person who aims to have 'pleasure' at your expense.

There are two main types of trolls:

People who have the psychological need to feel good by making others feel bad.

This is a sort of "psycho troll", whose deception involves deceiving themselves as well as others. Such people may use their real names on the Internet, and they may not even realise that they are "trolling" because it is all subconscious.

WOULD THESE BE THE FOLKS WHO SHOUT DOWN ANY DISSIDENCE BY YELLING TROLL AT ANYTHING THEY DON'T LIKE?

People who pretend to be someone that they are not - they create personae that you think are real, but they know is fictitious. SOME DO THIS BETTER THAN OTHERS.

There are four types of these trolls: but these are the three types who are of concern in this blog at this time.

Playtime Trolls: an individual plays a simple, short game. Such trolls are relatively easy to spot because their attack or provocation is fairly blatant, and the persona is fairly two-dimensional.

Tactical Trolls: This is where the troll er takes the game more seriously, creates a credible persona to gain confidence of others, and provokes strife in a subtle and invidious way.

Maniacal, psycho, trolls who spend hours online, (time you will never get back btw) searching out every post a person has ever made, and post it on a blog someone else owns, in an attempt to embarrass, or intimidate a person. "Those people" have gone so far as to create faux posts in my name.

Searching for personal information and posting it online in veiled threatening ways... Such as using a child's name or posting a picture of ones house. Most damning of all... taking on line bull shit into a persons real life.

Why? What is the freaking point?

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "11/15/2006 04:31:00 PM":

"What goes around, will come around... we'll see then who's ass gets bitten.
"

Didjya think maybe what's coming around is what you yourself spread around, about 8 moons ago?

Christ on a crutch, Your nose is out of joint over something I wrote eight months ago? How long are you going to carry this grudge? What ever it is... I know I didn't bring your kids into it, or your grandchildren.

I didn't spend a moment looking for crap online to post about you, I didn't pretend to know more than I did. (I don't in fact, want to know more than I know now.) I didn't tell outright lies about you. I don't go to your blog and post vile things. I DON'T THREATEN YOU.

You might have gotten widdow your feelers hurt because I posted eight months ago, on a private forum, that I didn't like you, I LIKE YOU EVEN LESS NOW, I THINK YOU ARE MORE OF A NUT CASE NOW. SO WHAT? WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR POINT?

GET OVER IT. MOVE ON! GET A REAL LIFE! GO ANNOY SOMEONE ELSE! GO BARK AT THE MOON!