Best reads on Wikileaks

Don't know what to think of the Wikileaks bombshell? Try these essays.  Thanks to today's Hullabaloo by Digby for putting us on their trail.

1.  This essay is by Glenn Greenwald in Salon, and it makes the most sense of anything I've read.

2.  This essay is by Julian Assange, and it explains his philosophy--why he's doing this. Before we accuse him of anything sinister, we owe it to ourselves to find out just what he intends.

Hope...and resistance

Today's Truthout arrived with Real Hope Is About Doing Something, by Chris Hedges. It's long and thoughtful. I especially liked the last paragraphs:

Hope is not for the practical and the sophisticated, the cynics and the complacent, the defeated and the fearful. Hope is what the corporate state, which saturates our airwaves with lies, seeks to obliterate. Hope is what our corporate overlords are determined to crush. Be afraid, they tell us. Surrender your liberties to us so we can make the world safe from terror. Don’t resist. Embrace the alienation of our cheerful conformity. Buy our products. Without them you are worthless. Become our brands. Do not look up from your electronic hallucinations to think. No. Above all do not think. Obey.

W.H. Auden wrote:

Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.

The powerful do not understand hope. Hope is not part of their vocabulary. They speak in the cold, dead words of national security, global markets, electoral strategy, staying on message, image and money. The powerful protect their own. They divide the world into the damned and the blessed, the patriots and the enemy, the rich and the poor. They insist that extinguishing lives in foreign wars or in our prison complexes is a form of human progress. They cannot see that the suffering of a child in Gaza or a child in the blighted pockets of Washington, D.C., diminishes and impoverishes us all. They are deaf, dumb and blind to hope. Those addicted to power, blinded by self-exaltation, cannot decipher the words of hope any more than most of us can decipher hieroglyphics. Hope to Wall Street bankers and politicians, to the masters of war and commerce, is not practical. It is gibberish. It means nothing.

I cannot promise you fine weather or an easy time. I cannot assure you that thousands will converge on Lafayette Park in solidarity. I cannot pretend that being handcuffed is pleasant. I cannot say that anyone in Congress or the White House, anyone in the boardrooms of the corporations that cannibalize our nation, will be moved by pity to act for the common good. I cannot tell you these wars will end or the hungry will be fed. I cannot say that justice will roll down like a mighty wave and restore our nation to sanity. But I can say this: If we resist and carry out acts, no matter how small, of open defiance, hope will not be extinguished. If all we accomplish is to assure a grieving mother in Baghdad or Afghanistan, a young man or woman crippled physically and emotionally by the hammer blows of war, that he or she is not alone, our resistance will be successful. Hope cannot be sustained if it cannot be seen.

Any act of rebellion, any physical defiance of those who make war, of those who perpetuate corporate greed and are responsible for state crimes, anything that seeks to draw the good to the good, nourishes our souls and holds out the possibility that we can touch and transform the souls of others. Hope affirms that which we must affirm. And every act that imparts hope is a victory in itself.

Also from Auden:

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

P.S. I especially liked "Do not look up from your electronic hallucinations to think." What was he talking about, do you suppose???

President Announces Pay Freeze for "Most" Federal Workers?

And a Happy Thanksgiving/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year/Happy Valentine's Day/Happy Mothers and Fathers Day/Happy Independence Day/Happy Columbus Day/Happy Birthday to you, too, Mr. President! You saved us from the distasteful task of electing McCain and She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named--but we got a new manifestation of Scrooge all the same. You promptly announced there will be no COLA for Social Security recipients (code: old and disabled) for two years, and now you're telling us there will be no pay raise this year for federal workers (code: anyone left with a job). The disastrous Republican tax rates and tax cuts will remain the same, however--unless one of your pet financial geniuses (code: holdovers from W) can find a way to shovel even more $$ to the very rich.

Also, please don't send me emails thanking me for my hard work and financial sacrifices in getting you elected. It's too tempting for me to say you're not welcome.

You pour your heart and our treasure (I'm thinking more of our young men and women, but also our dollars) into keeping the diabolical wars going. I see you even made phone calls to soldiers, wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving. Nice. Beats W's theatrical turkey dinner visit to Iraq. It seems to me to be about the same thing, though.

Why not bring our military home alive and call off our wars? And please try not to fan the flames in Korea, North and South. Cancel the war games and pretend missile practice at sea. Why not get us OUT of Afghanistan, OUT of Iraq, and OUT of the business of stealing from the poor and giving to the rich that has taken over this country.

That would be a change, don't you think?

It's That Time of Year Again!!

Tell that to the people in Seattle. Look at all the pedestrians out there!! Hope nobody got hurt!

Happy Thanksgiving 3

Don't miss Margaret & Helen's "Thanksgiving Letter to the Family"

Too funny. I have to say, however, that I don't share Helen's antipathy to jello.

Happy Thanksgiving 2

Digby has a wonderful, moving Thanksgiving post today from reader James Armstrong.

The original American Thanksgivings were religious ceremonies most likely derived from old-world harvest festivals, as the Pilgrims gave thanks to their god for the abundance of food in the new world.

The harvest festival is a good festival, it celebrates man's ability to provide for itself. So, a modern atheist/socialist can still celebrate a modern Thanksgiving. In that, I give thanks to:

I give thanks to the many workers, both documented and undocumented, who harvest the fields that provide us our food from farms, that keep us from starvation.

I give thanks to those farmers who dedicate themselves to sustainable farming techniques, so this bounty will not just be mine, but will be there for generations in the future.

I give thanks to people like Norman Borlaug, who won the 1970 Peace Prize for advances in wheat harvests, and scientists like him, who have helped make it easier to feed the world.

I give thanks to those who transport the food--the loaders, truckers, train engineers and signalmen, and others--responsible for getting fresh meat and produce to outlets throughout the world.

I also give thanks to those who are dedicated to the locavore movement, where freshness is not dependent on anything but time and speed to market, and where you know the plans (sic) are freshly picked.

I give thanks to those merchants who accept the deliveries and who provide us the opportunity to buy from the cornupoia of the American harvest.

I thank those few thankless food inspectors--too few and overworked--who are straining to keep the food supply as safe as they can.

And, finally, I give thanks to those who prepare and serve the meals we eat. If it is my own cooking, I thank those who came before and taught me how to cook, and who derived the recipes I use. When others cook, I thank them for the work they do for me.

It is for these workers, scholars, and ordinary people to whom I am thankful on this day of Thanksgiving, 25 November, 2010.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the USA. Many people gather with their families for a big dinner (most often turkey), many others are alone by choice or circumstance. However it happens for you, do yourself and others a favor and be happy.

The following The 9 Timeless Secrets of Being Happy arrived in my email this morning from the author, Brian Vaszily. Some of these are easier to do than others, but they're goals, not permanent states. We can always be more flexible, truer, more detached and forgiving, kinder, more caring of ourselves and our relationships, more thankful for what we have, and more vigorous in doing what inspires us.

1) Embrace New Experiences.
Most people suffer from merely existing versus really living. Don’t get caught in a rut; get out of it if you are. Explore. Play. Go beyond your comfort zone. Don’t lean on the excuse “I don’t have time to try new things.” It is as tragic and ridiculous as saying “I don’t have time to breathe.” New experiences are life. Live deeply.

2) Be Who You Are.
Recognize and clear through what others expect of you, including society’s expectations, your parents’ expectations, the opposite genders’ expectations, and anyone’s expectations. Recognize and clear through the guilt, anger, fear and other emotions that are sabotaging you. What are your dreams? Your goals? Your loves? Who are you? Be that person.

3) Let Go of the Past.
The past is good for two things: the happy memories, and the lessons it provides. Clinging to resentment and sadness for past events hurts one person the most: you. Don’t let the past suck the gift of the present out of you. Forgive. Let go. Be here now, and go forward.

4) Be Kind.
It is easy to act kindly to those who have been kind to you. Do so, but also remember that is not where kindness is needed most. Recall those many times where you made mistakes, where you reacted out of negative emotions instead of responding from who you really are. Recall how you felt, or how you would have felt, if others responded to your mistakes with kindness instead of harsh criticism or a cold shoulder. Negativity only breeds more negativity. Empathize, and choose to be kind. It spreads rapidly.

5) Be Responsible for Yourself.
Whatever happens, however promising or tragic, only one person is responsible for how you respond to it: you. There are no greater wastes of energy and potential than blame, envy, a desire for revenge, and wallowing in self-pity. You and only you are responsible for how you respond to anything and how you act. You wish others were a certain way? You wish the world were a certain way? Be the example.

6) Nurture Relationships.
Think of your most joyful moments. Think of all you have learned. Think of what has helped you grow. Chances are great these all involve other people, and other relations such as pets and nature too. There are over six billion people on this earth. There are infinite relationships to be had. Everyone has something to understand and to learn from. There is infinite love to be had, and to give. You can choose to be lonely, but you are never alone.

7) Recognize All You Have, and Be Grateful for It.
If you are alive, you are fortunate. If you can read this, you are fortunate. If you can walk, talk, see, smell, taste, or feel, or all of these, you are fortunate. You are what you focus on, so if you focus on what you lack, you become that lack. Focus on all that you do have, on the gifts inside and all around you. Be grateful to be great.

8) Do What Inspires You.
Painting, singing, writing, biking, swimming, gardening, reading, dancing, walking, woodcarving … what is your flame? What ignites you, inspires you, enlightens you, restores your life? Do it, and do it often. Do not believe your excuse of having too much work to do and too little time for what inspires you. Doing what inspires you is the very fuel that will give you the strength and motivation to do the other things you need to do, and do them well.

9) Remember that Happiness is a State, Not a Circumstance
Happiness is a state of being, not merely a moment of pleasure or joy. By committing to your happiness you acknowledge and accept that there will be times of challenge and suffering, but by staying true to who you are you will not just endure but thrive. Happiness is not just the bird floating serenely on the water, and happiness is not made unhappy by the rock that falls and temporarily disturbs the water. Happiness is the water itself, always being exactly what it is.

Lots of love to all of you....M.E.

Get out your crayons.....

This caught my eye on Hullabaloo this morning:

It appears that the NY Times made a major error which, so far, it's refusing to correct. I understand that the ombudsman may take it up if enough people draw it to his attention. This one's important. If you have a chance to read the article I linked and send a quick, polite note to the Ombudsman at public@nytimes.com it could make a difference. It's bad enough that people are relying on projections 75 years into the future to destroy the New Deal, but the least they could do is correct numbers that are clearly incorrect today. Social Security is not going broke in 2015.

You don't have to be paranoid to know they ARE out to get us....

The Book on Bush....

Have a thought to buying or reading W's new "memoir"/collective writing project, Decision Points? It perches on top of Amazon's best-seller list today, but a better book about Bush and his family is Family of Secrets, by Russ Baker. Subtitled, "The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Past 50 Years," Baker's book is full of eye-openers.

Before I say anything else, I wish to say regarding George W. Bush--and even more his family--that we, the American people, do need eye-openers and not the kind that come in glasses or with ice cubes. Sad to say, we are not going to get this from either Bush's new book OR the American media, and I leave it to your imagination--if it hasn't already been blown by the events of the past 10 years--to tell you why.

Here's a hint. In Chapter I, "How Did Bush Happen?" of Family of Secrets, author Russ Baker begins,

This is the story of a family we thought we knew--and a country we have barely begun to comprehend.
George Bush, father and son, are vastly more complicated, and their doings are vastly more troubling, than the conventional wisdom would have it. This book reveals the story behind their story, documenting the secrets that the House of Bush has long sought to obscure.
These revelations about the Bushes lead in turn to an even more disturbing truth about the country itself. It's not just that such a clan could occupy the presidency or vice presidency for twenty of the past twenty-eight years and remain essentially unknown. It's that the methods of stealth and manipulation that powered their rise reflect a deeper ill: the American public's increasingly tenuous hold upon the levers of its own democracy.

Intrigued? By all means, buy or borrow Family of Secrets and prepare to lose yourself in its almost 600 pages of substantiated revelations that at the very least clearly illuminate the transfer of America's vast wealth to the very few.

Role Model for Snoozeville

The exemplary blog, DemocracyforCalifornia, has been posting what looks to be a thorough rundown of the California state and local elections this year. I don't know enough about the politics of that huge state, but the way DfC has broken it down makes me yearn for something like this here in Maryland.

It's business as usual here in Snoozeville right now...Our outgoing county executive was arrested with his wife, whom we just elected to the county board of supervisors, as they tried to get out of their house with a bunch of payola from developers. The wife, when taken into custody, had nearly $80,000 in US currency stuffed in her bra. (Her name on the ballot was "Jane Doe"(D)--should have been (DD)!) She earlier had been recorded on tape while flushing a check for another $100,000 down the toilet. (Dang! Why don't these developers give these bribes right to the voters instead of to crooks??!!!)

My point is that we don't have anything we can rely on when we're preparing to vote in our local elections. Our yards are full of signs foisted on us by door-to-door campaigners, and we get reams of flyers every time we leave the house, but they don't tell us much. They don't tell us who is in whose pocket. The newspapers aren't going to tell us this.

Great job, DemocracyforCalifornia. You're a shining example of democracy in action.

TGIF, almost....

Peggy and Sally both posted this on FaceBook this past week. It's a new one to me, but this one has captions so you can sing along!! Love the lyrics, love the bouncy melody. And what the hey....it's not quite Friday yet, but it will be soon where Peggy is. Thank God!

Go Away, Shrub

Will we ever be rid of this American virus? Is there any limit to the damage this one family plus the CIA can do to our country? William Rivers Pitt in Truthout says it all.

George W. Bush was all over my television this past week, all over the newspapers, and the feelings inspired by his sudden reappearance are almost beyond my capacity to describe. There was the story about his hearty approval of waterboarding. There was the story that had him contemplating dropping Dick Cheney from the administration. There was the story that had him describing himself as a "dissenter" on the Iraq invasion. He did interviews, and excerpts of his new book dribbled out, and it was all too much to endure.

This is the guy, I thought to myself when I saw his face or heard his voice. This is the guy.

This is the guy who took a massive Clinton administration budget surplus and gave it away to his friends at the top of the tax bracket, a move that laid the groundwork for our current economic calamity.

This is the guy who breezed past a pointed warning about Osama bin Laden, terrorism and airplanes on August 6, 2001, because he was on vacation and couldn't be bothered.

This is the guy who parlayed that massive failure into a constant goad of fear to be wielded with impunity against the people he purported to lead. Plastic sheeting and duct tape, anthrax under your pillow, and of course, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

This is the guy who, not even a month after the Towers came down, looked into a television camera and said, "We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates."

Oh yes, this is the guy who stood before the American people in January of 2003 and proclaimed that Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX gas, mobile biological weapons labs, uranium from Niger for use in a "robust" nuclear weapons programs, and that Iraq enjoyed connections to al Qaeda that led directly to the attacks of September 11.

This was the guy who presided over the outing of a deep-cover CIA agent after her husband had the temerity to call him a liar in the public prints. That agent was running a network for the purpose of thwarting any person or group that might try to deliver weapons of mass destruction to terrorists.

This is the guy who strutted like a bantam rooster under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished," bragging about the end of a war that was to grind on for seven more years, and grinds on even to this day, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

This is the guy who said "Bring it on" and put a target on the backs of tens of thousands of US troops. This is the guy who is personally responsible for the death and injury of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings. The body count from his administration is breathtaking in size and scope.

This is the guy who allowed the intelligence services of this nation to violate the Constitutional rights of its citizens in a way never seen before.

This is the guy who turned the entire world against America after that same world embraced us so completely after September 11. World leaders could not stand to be in the same room with him, and openly mocked him, thus humiliating us all.

This is the guy who literally fiddled while Hurricane Katrina devoured the city of New Orleans.

This guy actually said he considered dropping Cheney from the administration? It would be comic if it were not so pointedly fraudulent. Cheney ran the government, ran roughshod over every right he found meddlesome, and Bush sat by and let him do it with that same simpering smirk on his face.

This is the guy who set stem cell research back more than a decade because of his overarching fealty to "snowflake babies" over living, breathing, suffering people.

This is the guy who unleashed all the horrors of the torture chamber because the lawyers said it was OK. If the president does it, it's not illegal, right? Nixon came up with that line, but this is the guy who took it farther than it has ever been taken before.

This is the guy, and now he's back on my television again, and it makes me want to eat my own teeth. I endured him for eight long, brutal years, and have often thought since that no matter how bad things get - and they have, indeed, gotten pretty damned bad - I don't have to endure his face or his voice or his abject serial failures anymore.

But now he's back, and it is like returning to a nightmare.

I don't know what this George W. Bush Reputation Rehabilitation Tour will actually accomplish in the end. The same 20% of the country that kept his approval ratings from slipping into single digits - said group now being known as the "Tea Party" - will go out and buy his book. They will lap up his mealy-mouthed pabulum like cats into the cream, and some of our "mainstream" commentators will try to shoehorn the idea that he is missed into the national conversation.

He is not. George W. Bush was, and likely will forever be, the single worst American president in the nation's history. To outstrip his remarkable record of failure, criminality and disgrace, a future president will have to personally cause the Earth to crash into the sun.

All I can do for now is avoid the TV, stay away from the newspapers, and pray to God on High that this small fraction of a man will soon retreat back into the ignominy from which he has emerged. There is no salvaging him, and thanks to him, there may be no salvaging America in his aftermath.

We are all children of this bastard fool now. The least he can do is stay in the shadows where he belongs, while we toil and sweat to repair what he wrought.

Late night around the web

Early Sunday morning....these three items caught my interest. Frank Rich lays out just what's specious about the arguments for not letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire on time. FireDogLake has an amusing (?) counterproposal to making the rich richer. Helen Philpott lets fly against Republican obstructionism. For the life of me, I don't see WHY the very few superrich need any more money, especially when it will come at the expense of the rest of the country. And I don't see why the Republicans have taken on themselves such an ugly mantra: doing everything they can to ruin Barack Obama's presidency. I like to believe that ugliness does not win in the end.

Frank Rich, NYT:
on the Bush Tax Cuts....

The G.O.P.’s arguments for extending the Bush tax cuts to this crowd, usually wrapped in laughably hypocritical whining about “class warfare,” are easily batted down. The most constant refrain is that small-business owners who file in this bracket would be hit so hard they could no longer hire new employees. But the Tax Policy Center found in 2008, when checking out similar campaign claims by “Joe the Plumber,” that only 2 percent of all Americans reporting small-business income, regardless of tax bracket, would see tax increases if Obama fulfilled his pledge to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for the top earners. The economist Dean Baker calculated that the yearly tax increase at the lower end of that bracket, for those with earnings between $200,000 and $500,000, would amount to $700 — which “isn’t enough to hire anyone.”

Jon Walker, FireDogLake:
$1,000 to everybody....

I have a counter-proposal to the Republican demand that we must temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts. They want to include tax cuts for those making over one million dollars a year, for the next two years, despite the fact that it will add hundreds of billions to the deficit. I suggest President Obama demand that instead of using the money to extend tax cuts for the rich, that it be used to mail every taxpayer a $1,000 check.

Helen Philpott: Margaret and Helen
on bringing the country together...

For there to be common ground, both sides have to be looking for it. Kind of hard when the new Republican leader John Boehner has declared that Republicans will not compromise. Funny. They’ve been compromising on their principles about smaller government for years. Why change now when compromise is exactly what we need?

Sometimes I just scratch my head and wonder how much better life would be if Americans still had to turn a page in a newspaper rather than flip a channel on the boob tube to get the news. But such is life. You live and you learn. And at my age you learn too much. For instance, I have learned that when Democrats over-reach, we end up providing health insurance coverage for children who have pre-existing conditions. When Republicans over-reach, we go to war.

When a liberal activist judge over-reaches, a disenfranchised group of Americans have their constitutional rights restored. When a conservative activist judge over-reaches, the country’s elections get handed to corporations on a silver platter.

Sour grapes? Maybe. I never said I was without prejudice. In fact, I have openly admitted to being a bitch. But the difference between my being a bitch and Sarah Palin being a bitch is huge. When I am a bitch, a few people get a good laugh over an old lady’s blog writing. When Sarah Palin is a bitch, some of God’s most beautiful handiwork gets reduced to a line item on Exxon’s annual report.

I have lived all my life speaking my mind. And I don’t intend to stop now. You want to know what I really think? I think Fox News has no problem telling lies. And I think a whole lot of white people don’t like having a black President. And I think gay people scare straight people. And religious people forget the basic teachings handed down by the founders of their religion. At the crossroads of every major religion, you’ll find the Golden Rule. Too bad they’ve deleted it from their GPS.

Do you really expect me to believe that a bunch of Republicans were swept into office because Democrats covered pre-existing conditions for children? Or because Health Insurance Companies can’t drop you when you are no longer profitable? Or that Cap and Trade is killing our country? Please. I bet you can’t find 10 Tea Party voters who can even tell you what Cap and Trade is. I know for damn sure that bitch from Alaska can’t.

Michele Bachmann is a lunatic who wants Democrats investigated. Sarah Palin quit her job as Governor so she could get rich. Sharron Angle told a bunch of hispanic students that they looked a little Asian – as if the Asians got together with the Hispanics to create a bigger voting block ??? I mean what the hell was that all about anyway?

Wake up America. John Boehner is orange for goodness sakes. Orange people don’t have to be asked because you can tell just by looking at them. Where is Michele Bachmann’s investigation on orange people?

And this lot is better than Obama? I’m not buying it.

Ten percent of the vote came out of a nation frustrated by unemployment. The other 90% remains divided. As soon as the jobs return we’ll be back to dealing with the hard problems: Racism. Sexism. Ageism. Religious fanaticism. Ignorance…ism. And Sarah Palin.

Two years ago, the pundits predicted that the Republican party had become a regional party reduced to the southern states. Clearly they were wrong. Why? Because hate has no boundaries and Sarah Palin found a flight out of Wasilla.

Today the pundits are saying that Democrats are out of touch with the main stream. Guess what? So were abolitionists. Pundits come and pundits go. I’ve been around for more than 80 years. Deal with it.

For everyone who is currently considering removing their Obama sticker from the back of their car… for every Democrat who made the effort to get out the vote and today is feeling a little down… for every progressive American who is thinking about moving to Canada…. I say this:

Christine O’Donnell might not have been a witch, but Sarah Palin is definitely a bitch. Three steps forward. One step back.

We’re still two steps ahead of the game with a Senate and a White House. Washington will be grid-locked for the next two years, but the ground war just came to the States. Democrats need to stop looking for middle ground and start looking for higher ground. And for goodness sakes, grow a pair and quit apologizing for it.

As I see it, the Democrats have one job between now and the next election - figuring out how to get those who stayed home mad enough to get off their asses. Democracy isn’t a spectator sport. I mean it. Really.

Oy, Vey Is Mir.....

Sometimes, when I read blogs by people with full, rich lives, I feel steamrollered. Not a good or even valid response, but I have it. Then I read blogs by people with seemingly endless troubles and woes, and I think...yeah...why can't I write about that? These people write about their headaches and blown boilers and truly serious depressions, and they get all kinds of sympathy and replies. When I write about anything personal, especially if it's at all painful, the silence is deafening. I guess I'm not a sympathetic character. Better to stick with being the old curmudgeon. That's at least familiar.

But tonight, riding the bus, I was overwhelmed by the thought of....riding the bus in Washington, DC, of all godforsaken places. And I thought about myself as a 10-year-old fishing with my pals on the west shore of Lake Sallie...how we'd ride our bicycles over the gravel road around the lake and pull off onto this one area with no cottages. It was on a small bluff, with the lake and a slim beach about 10 or 12 feet below. We'd cast our baited hooks and wait....I don't think we ever caught a single fish. But it was FUN...different from our usual excursions with our fathers, who drove us in boats out to the good fishing spots, and where we almost always caught fish. But we didn't have to behave ourselves when we rode over to the west shore of the lake by ourselves. We could say what we wanted and act silly.

Anyway, there I was on the bus tonight...coming home from Safeway with TWO big boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios, my favorite cereal these days. And it seemed so far away from where I grew up, and so different, and so isolated. In the beginning of my life, I lived close to rivers and lakes in the Midwest. I had a family--Mom, Dad, John, Bob, Paul, and Gene--though only some of us were left at home. My three oldest brothers were gone fighting WWII. Mom did all the cooking, and my youngest brother, Gene, and I did the dishes on alternate weeks. I can't remember what we had for breakfast at the lake, but in the summer in town, we had Pep flakes with sugar and milk.

Now, tonight, I am an old lady buying my own cereal and going home to share it with Fiona, the landlady's dog. Fiona is nuts about Honey Nut Cheerios, too. I get enormous pleasure hearing her crunch the little o's and smack her doggy lips. I love it when she licks my fingers with her soft little tongue. I'm not supposed to be sharing my food with her--landlady's orders (requests/suggestions/unsubtle hints). The LL says giving her human food turns her OFF her dog food. I have news for the LL. Fiona's been turned off her dog food from day one. In fact, I was reading online about pet owners' experiences feeding small dogs, and I discovered that pretty much to an animal, little dogs HATE the kind of dog food the LL is trying to feed her. It's supposed to be very nutritious, and it's quite expensive, but Fiona won't touch it with a 10-foot pole except when she's desperately hungry. Apparently that event happens in the night when nobody is watching. I've never seen her dig into her dish at other times.

Anyway,...I was sitting there holding my Honey Nut Cheerios in the plastic store bag, and drowning in loneliness. I've never been afraid of loneliness, but sometimes I get so effing tired of hauling it around, that I suddenly feel overwhelmed and very sad--almost to the point of tears. I wish I could write hilariously about this--that is, write about it so it's hilarious, sort of, like Belgian Waffle. She has major miseries, but the way she writes about them cracks me (and dozens of others) up.

So I'm riding the bus thinking "despised as a kid, despised as an adult." Thus, I do lojong practice and send at least my small joy in the cartoon bee on the Honey Nut Cheerios box to everyone else in the world who is also feeling lower than snake shit.

White House Caves on Bush Tax Cuts

Here's a comment by "Roger G" from the Huffington Post article on this today (emphasis definitely MINE):

I voted for Reagan in 1980 because I was concerned about interest on the national debt--
He said he would eliminate the debt- HE LIED-
He tripled the debt and after he lowered the top tax rate to 54% in 1980
-he again lowered it to 28% in 1984--
Since then ,we have paid $8,000,000,000,000 in interest on the debt.

Had he left the rate at 54%-we would NOT have a national debt today.
The wealthy and the Republicans have ruined this country.

To those who think the wealthy deserve these tax breaks because you think it ts not coming out of your pocket-THINK AGAIN- Who do you think gets the 8 Trillion in interest,it is the wealthy who own the debt.

Who do you think profits when health care insurance has doubled in the last 10 years, who profits when you buy medicine,who profits from prisons,who profits when you go to a hospital,who profits when you buy car
insurance,who profits when you pay high interest on your credit cards--

It is the wealthy who own the majority of stocks and bonds in the aforementioned entities.
Yes,the wealthy even make money when you WIPE YOUR BUTT-They own the paper companies- Think about it

Thanks, you totally stupid Republican Tea Partiers! Thanks you stay-at-home-and-don't-vote Democrats! Are you happy now?

It's Saturday Night! Time for Fun!

In 2007, after I'd had my cochlear implant for a few months, I tried listening to the Klazz Brothers' album, "Mozart Meets Cuba," and was enchanted. One selection from this CD, Mozart's "Reich mir die Hand" from the opera "Don Giovanni," is a love song--a duet. Youtube has many versions of "Reich mir die Hand," some instrumental only, some sung.

Here's "Mozart Meets Cuba":



For fun (this IS Saturday night) I'm posting two more traditional versions. The first features Placido Domingo and Kathleen Battle--well matched, not only in their powerful voices but also their dramatic presence:



(Ms. Hodgepodge, sorry for the Korean subtitles....)

The second features Sting and Angela Gheorgiu. Sting, despite his wonderful musical talent and accomplishments, clearly is not an opera singer, but it is no surprise that Angela Gheorghiu with her gorgeous voice and dazzling presence is a beloved star of opera:



Both of the sung versions are in Italian rather than the original German. The first few words translated into English read

Don Giovanni. Give me your hand, my life,
Come to my castle with me.
Can you still resist?
It is not far from here.
Zerlina. Oh, I should probably dare.
My heart is far too much.
Soon I should be happy to beat it,
Soon anxious and difficult.
Don Giovanni. Let me not advertise for free.
Zerlina. Masetto would die.
Don Giovanni. Fortunately you will always surrounded.
Zerlina. I can hardly resist.

This goes on for another 500 words or so, and then, they go off together to the castle.

"Hi, Sweetie!"

Despite the election day before yesterday, there are miracles all around....here's a happy you-tube for Ronniecat and Cynthia and Darlene and Barbara. This 8-month-old baby was born deaf. Watch the moment as his cochlear implant is activated and he hears sound for the first time--and his mother's voice. We got our CIs much later, but that little guy's face says it all: I HEAR YOU!!! (Thanks to Peggy for sending this!!)

"The GOP Faces Choice in How to Oppose"

This was a headline in today's NYTimes. Yes, members of the newly GOP-heavy House of Representatives are facing choices, but WHY should their their main goal be to OPPOSE?? How about HELP FIX THE MESS THEY GOT US INTO IN THE FIRST PLACE? What with their endless, anonymous source of funds, which are going mostly to people who are already rich, how are they going to justify parading as "servants of their constituents"? Their real constituents are their owners--the ones who bought their seats in our government. They don't give a flying f*ck about the rest of us, who are just poor and getting poorer.

Happy Halloween

What better day for a Halloween post than the day after the election?  It only seems like I'm weeks late....

Guess what!? People are remembering!!

"Get your friends to the polls"