Dear Mom - Letters to Heaven

Friday, September 07, 2012

Vote Democrat For Everything!

 

I used to write, implore and pontificate about ignoring the little D or R after a candidates name and challenged people to vote for the most qualified candidate regardless of party affiliation.  A pragmatist and moderate that could negotiate, compromise and get things done is my kind of politician.  I advocated this belief system from 1972 to 2008. 

I felt as I do now that we need to govern this Country from a practical point of view.  For instance people will always seek out abortions whether legal or not.  So our choices are to let women die in back alleys using hangers because we are intolerant of any other beliefs or circumstances than our own or if one of our loved ones is in a jam and needs an abortion for whatever reason (no one "wants" an abortion) then she should have access to that medical procedure, safely, privately between her own doctor and conscience.  That's it - period.

We can't legislate morality.  Remember prohibition and the murdering gangsters?  Not unlike the Cocaine Cowboys that shot up Miami and the gangs blasting up Mexico right now TODAY if marijuana was legal it would be out in the light of day.  There we could manage it much like we manage and treat alcohol.

Moderates used to come in all sizes and shapes but now there are no more moderates in the Republican Party.  Regardless of what their latest beliefs are they can not govern without moderates.  Because without moderates you just have ideologues and because ideologues govern from a strict doctrine they are more suitable for a religion than governing.   

Ideologues no matter what their ideals make horrible leaders turning to Fascism and Totalitarianism right before our eyes as they seek to inflict their will on everyone else.  In case you have not noticed and you shouldn't let it scare you this is not a one size fits all world.  The diversity is what makes it interesting and fun.  The economy absolutely depends upon it and the richness of our life that surrounds us from the environment we find ourselves born into and to the man made creations of art, literature, music and community depend on that diversity.

In fact our very health depends on our diversity otherwise we breed ourselves right into extinction.  That's why you are not allowed to marry your cousin.

The Democratic Party for better or worse is the home of diversity and the Republican Party the home of some sort of twisted theocracy that proclaims Jesus and Christianity but ignores that religions tenants and seeks to impose an arcane vision of intolerance and repression onto all of us as if what's different about us scares them to death.

Talk about a slippery slop the Republicans are just steps away from outlawing our right to assemble, tossing people from hearings, our right to free speech, and eliminating our right to self determination.  The end result is total and complete gridlock in Congress.

They have taken an oath against taxes the same taxes that pave our roads, build our cities, schools, and universities, fund our research and science and military.  Some how they have decided that government is bad.  As if to assemble peacefully and govern for the good of the whole Country is an evil.

They are wrong of course governments aren't bad people are bad and unyielding bullies are the worst.  They certainly make poor leaders but excellent war lords and dictators.

So until the Republicans wake up and realize what it takes to govern successfully for the whole of the country, and not just the pursuit of their own riches and careers I am voting Democratic for EVERYTHING.

Every position that comes up the Democratic man or woman will get my vote.  From dog catcher to President and all Senators and Congressmen in between.

We have to restart the Country and the only way to get anything accomplished is to give the Democratic Party a filibuster proof majority.  Then we can move forward.  If not the ideologues who all reside in the Republican party will block and impede all progress until they get their way....much like spoiled children who do not realize, appreciate, or care that there are other people in the room.





Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Will I live longer than my cat?

A wonderfully wry piece of writing!

BBC News - Will I live longer than my cat?: If we are just adding years to life, rather than life to years, then we may not have so much to look forward to.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Isaac Hits Hurricane Strength as it Nears New Orleans

 Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal already called for Uncle Sam (me and you) to make a full reimbursement to Louisiana for a storm that hasn't happened yet because government is bad, we need to fend for ourselves and rugged individualism is the preferred path.

BBC News - Isaac hits hurricane strength as it nears New Orleans

Friday, August 10, 2012

Jerry Week 08/10/2012 - The Encore!


Jerry Day 10 - the encore! For today's selection I've gone with the So Many Roads Box Set Sampler featuring 10 selections from the 5 CD release. Again I don't know where this one came from probably a toss in from mail order but its a nice selection with some meaty cuts a ten minute Estimated a seventeen minute Shakedown and a seven minute Eternity.

I also have Rhino's wonderful Very Best Of cued up. When this was first coming out I thought "uh oh" how can they do the Dead justice. I mean a best of really? The Dead are a live band first in the moment but the disc is spot on. It has a great selection of tunes. It rides in the car well and is good for subverting the reluctant or unaware into the dead universe. The more the merrier! (~):D

So Happy Friday everyone. Its wonderful to be here its certainly a thrill give yourself a hug and hug a friend. Keep the Jerry vibe going all weekend and throughout the year. Summer never ends the weather just changes!

Paul (~):D

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Jerry Garcia Week The Days Between August 9, 2012



August 9th - all good things come to an end, but do they?  Apparently the day Jerry died his astral vibe knocked out electrical systems around the Bay area and the airport had to shut down for a while.  Energy transformed?  In Oakland on August 9, 1995, the ATC system lost all radar and radio contact with airborne planes down for one hour and eighteen minutes 333 flight delays attributed to one operational error (I bet).  It's a mystery to me and I'm okay with that.  When its my time I'm diving right in off the Tee Dock at flood tide.  I'll say this Jerry week has got me writing again and on a daily basis.  Its hard to divide up the energy between advocacy, work, home and playing/learning the guitar, plus I want to add painting back into the mix.  You're life is like a block of clay mold it however you want.  Keep trying.

Today's selection from the archives is the "I don't know how it got there" show.  That's right where the heck did this tape come from?  Anybody know?  Seriously.  I'm one of those that knows where everything is in the house and for the life of me I can't remember where this tape came from.  I remember a total stranger handing me the Duane Allman Grateful tape at a party once back in the 1980's remember the moment clearly but this one baffles me.  And of course its wonderful.  Oklahoma City 11/15/1972. 

A lot of serious fans will be familiar with this show why?  Not because it was mass produced and sold in stores but apparently it was passed around so much I don't even know where the damn thing came from?  Why?  Because right now in fact and in my ear Jerry and the band are playing some serious bug music.  It might be under the cover of Playin in the Band but it stopped being that song about 10 minutes ago.

And so it goes Kurt last nights gig surprised me it was such a mellow affair.  I had people right on top of me but it was a burst of energy and then it cascaded down from there.  Personally I like it quiet and mellow I can work on my flat picking.  I'm no Tony Rice not even the gum on his shoe and I'm trying out a new flat pick.  I got to deliver some lyrics really trying hard to inhabit the song.  Reminding myself while not screwing up the chord changes to not just merely repeat the words.

Because I don't plug in (remember the environment) my finger picking doesn't deliver the sound waves needed for this room.  So quiet is good for me.  It's odd how the music has a life of its own.  And while I was thinking I'm loosing the tourists and locals I stayed in the groove of the moment.  I couldn't shake the groove.  When its like that you probably shouldn't.  No table full of ABB fans getting rowdy just surprised individuals watching quietly.  More contemplative I got my nods, smiles, comments and applause to let me know they were with me but it was definitely a set I didn't think was going to come out. 

So that's it for Jerry week no great secrets unfolded just a reminder of the mystery.  And if that's what Jerry brought to the table he did yo-mans work for the creative forces.  All I'm sure of is that there is a creative energy with a mind of its own and we are active participants.  Manifested in a lot of different ways including dinosaurs and us are we not just as ridiculous stomping around, thrashing tearing everything and each other up or quietly being leaf eaters?

Music teaches us to listen.  It can be just another distraction from contemplation another cacophony of the unexamined life but its safe to say that Jerry's kids although sometimes caught up in the trappings listen more completely, more actively, with their hearts and minds.  Its fun being conscious of the collective consciousness.  Its even better when we put the positive out into the jet stream.  Listen to the music play and don't be in a hurry for it to unfold.  Its a life lesson.  Let it wash over you like a warm waterfall.  Floatation is groovy.  I could play it small here but I'm not so enjoy the journey the trials and tribulations.  The truth carry's the day even though we don't always see it eventually even the most ardent denialist wakes up.  Carry that zig, zag, prankster spirit with you and let that bemused and amused smile come out but be careful who you bonk.  The cynical bullies serve their purpose.  All aboard the segue is on its way.  You bet I had a dead sled - Paul (~):D

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Jerry Garcia Week The Days Between 08/08/2012


Happy 8/8/2012 Jerry Week continues- many years ago I stumbled into a little hippie shop in Richmond Virginia which was a notorious dead head enclave back in the day.  As I thumbed through their CD collection amongst incense and tapestries I found something called "Bay Area Boogie" that featured West Coast Shows from Berkley, Oakland and San Diego.  The San Diego slice is Cold, Rain and Snow from 1/10/1970.  The Berkley slice is Deal and Dark Star from 7/13/1984 and the Oakland selections are Slipknot/Franklin's Tower, One More Saturday Night and US Blues from 10/09/1978 and Shakedown Street and Samson and Delilah from12/28/1982.

I'm sure to hard core collectors these selections or even this collection is nothing new but to me finding this little gem in Richmond when I was going to be away from home for six months was a god send.  Thank you Bay Area Boogie for softening the road for me and for the wonderful mix - smile, smile, smile. 

Another disc I'll be getting to today features the classic "Eat at Dave’s".  If memory serves this is Jerry riffing on US Blues either because he forgot the lyrics or sang it so many damn times he had to goof it up for grins.  This disc arrived in my hands through a story of wrath and redemption all within a week which I have become all too used to in my Journey fooled by looks, manipulated by fear, fueled by pharmaceuticals, tarred and feathered all within 24 hours.  Fortunately for me I'm largely clueless as to the subterfuge that whirls around me and I just go plugging along.  This does leave me confused when people come and go abruptly or try to run circles around me, but I've learned to be undeterred.  In the end vindicated is a word I have sadly become all too familiar. 

This 1987 collection from New York is a peach and chock full of good stuff along with classics it features la bamba, devil with the blue dress on, good golly miss molly and the aforementioned eat at daves.  So here's to you NY if I can make it there I can make it anywhere!  And all of you out there who can and do eventually think for yourself....rock on!

Keep the vibe going and enjoy your simple twist of fate that has brought you to the here and now life is amazing, the planet is real and you are the song that the morning brings make it a good one.  Paul (~):D

Jerry Garcia Week Day 7

Happy Day 7 of Jerry Week - Today's show from my modest archive is from 04/08/1985 - another high energy show that is one of my favorites. An audience tape the crowd is pumped pumped, pumped and singing along. Its fun to hear, and the band is talkative. This one is about fun. They kick things off with Midnight Hour into Walking The Dog, Big Boss Man, Me and My Uncle, Cumberland Blues, and Ain't Superstitious all at a furious clip. Finally they take a breath with Althea and bounce the crowd a little reggae vibe. The mid 80's crowd is ecstatic, cheering along every chance they get and happy to see the boys again.

While yesterdays space and drums set was eerie Apocalypse Now today's space and drums set is very, very, very much Close Encounters of the Third/Fourth Kind.  Mickey sets some sort of feedback loop and "they're here" the mothership is landing and the crowd just looses it...

Have a grateful day everybody and reflect on a little "sunshine" wherever you go. Look at things differently and remember we are on a planet of all things hurtling through space spinning like a top furiously on our axis. Remember that and hold it close, let it color your actions and attitudes and enjoy the acceleration on your journey home.

Paul (~):D

Monday, August 06, 2012

Jerry Week The Days Between 08/06/2012


Happy Day 6 of Jerry Week. Today's show is 9/22/1987 Spencer Davis Opens the Second Set. I remember seeing a white strat as Bobby introduced him. Everyone is up on their feet in an instant rush, cheering as they launch into Gimmie Some Lovin'. Hard to tell who was first us or Phil's Bass Line.

It's been a great week so far and I'm truly inspired by the interviews from Bobby's web feed. It was sweet seeing and hearing Bobby and Donna singing again and side by side. Good ol' grateful dead we miss Keith as well as Brent, Ron and Vince. No crazy Dead stories today. We took a road trip discovered a new State Park and roads not taken. I will zig back and say this 9/22/87 show is tearing up little red rooster right now- third song in on the first set.

So road trip; We celebrated Jerry Weekend by going to see the Allman Brothers Band in Raleigh at Walnut Creek Amphitheater Saturday night. I gotta say that's a nice venue and we had pretty good seats for pulling the trigger late but they were searching for tickets because on a Saturday night in Raleigh that show was sold out.


The Band? I can't even write about how good they were I can't even find the words to begin describing. Words are utterly useless in even getting close to what we witnessed Saturday night and a recounting of the set list pointless. I have seen this band almost as often as I've seen the Dead and if anyone thinks they are slowing down you have got to be kidding me. Mindblowingly tremendous, jaw droopingly stupendous, phenomenally beyond comprehension, dumbstruck, blown away again?????? Left a smoking creator on my mind, faced, laughingly ridiculously, speechless. I guess they're warmed up now!!???!! Shrugged shoulders can't explain shaking of the head wide eyed bowed - do it again???!!!!!??!!!

Jaw Dropping is the first phrase I could utterly speak. Just utter and sheer dis-belief. An anchor of a rhythm section Hammond B-3, three drum sets and a bass that could have saved the Titanic. Oteil I love you.

There are no words that I can utter that can even touch what we witnessed Saturday night. I'm having a religious experience during Dreams. Warren and Derek. That's all I can say and Gregg. His color was good, his voice was fine. Liver transplant, pneumonia that cut short the European tour, book tour with tired interviews, Hepatitis, it looks like the Hernia is all that is bothering him now as he ambled down from his keyboard rig a little stiffly at the end of the show, and when he and Butch took a short break mid show.

Blazing set list real core ABB Dreams Liz Read, One Way Out, Statesboro Blues, Electric Midnight Rider, Black Hearted Woman. Tell me that tune doesn't chug. Its the performance behind those familiar titles that's the deal in the moment as we all know. They hit the note kids with a rocket launcher. This show still had people applauding even after Little Martha finished playing over the PA system. The lights were already up and the stage hands were striking the show and applause at the end of Little Martha from the still standing fans...too much.

Ahhh the fans - now this I can write about. I've seen the ABB with their family in Macon but North Carolina is sort of a second home to them friends and family living there. I knew when I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd opening for them that I was going into the belly of the beast. Skynyrd god bless em now down to just Rossington from the original band had a new set of musicians from the last time I saw them and I will say this they nailed their set list. It sounded spot on. And I'll leave it there. But the fans were out in force hog tide and hell bent for a good time. It was like a war zone when we left going over the lawn section. Literally bodies down and out "hey you can't sleep it off here!" People crumbling under the weight of their own fun, weak kneed wrecks, spewing, unapologetic, heads rolling, clutching backpacks like life preservers, confederate flag waving motorcycle mama we're in the south mother fucker and proud of it! It's been a while since I've been in a group of such tremendously fucked up people barefoot in the ladies room confederate flag bikini top and hell ya!

They blazed, blazed, blazed through a nearly two hour set caught Derek grinning at Warren while Warren shredded, caught Warren shaking his head at Gregg, caught Gregg holding up the band with one hand while he extended his thought on a rumbling stanza, loved Derek parked next to Gregg and the shot of Derek, Butch and Warren driving the music together on the big screen. Needless to say I had my huge Garcia tee shirt on and the road goes on forever. We walked out over a blitzed field full of 24 oz beer cans thrown, strewn and crushed like howitzer sized shrapnel, bodies crumbled and motionless as the still standing recede like the tide down the staircases back to their cars amidst chants of USA, USA, and honey give "me" the keys all under a bright rising moon and a shooting star.

Paul (~):D

82-Year-Old Nun Shuts Down Top-Secret Nuclear Facility

82-Year-Old Nun Shuts Down Top-Secret Nuclear Facility | Care2 Causes:

Although the activists triggered security sensors they were still able to reach the building’s walls before WSI Oak Ridge staff intercepted them.

In a statement the three activists said they had passed through four fences and walked for “over two hours” before reaching the uranium storage building, on which they hung banners and crime-scene tape.

N.J. Solar Energy Outshines Other 49 States

How N.J. solar energy outshines the other 49 states | NJ.com:

To say that New Jersey has made leaps and bounds in the solar industry is an understatement. In the first quarter of this year, New Jersey has become the largest solar market in America, with the rate of installations even outpacing the much larger, much sunnier California. New Jersey remains second only to California in total megawatts of solar power installed, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The solar market, most importantly, brings jobs and a boost to the economy. With unemployment at 9.6 percent - currently fourth-worst in the country - this is crucial. Let's be clear - this is the reason why the cut-happy Christie took solar subsidies off the fiscal chopping block. The solar industry in New Jersey employs nearly 3,000 workers and comprises close to 500 businesses, according to 2011 data from the Solar Foundation.

Utilities Try To Derail Metering Program

Campaign Launched to Counter Utilities' Efforts to Derail California's Net Metering Program - CleanTechnica:

Well-entrenched businesses will fight tooth and nail to maintain their market dominance and keep doing business in the same, well-entrenched ways — push from new technology, public interest groups, consumers, and government policies and regulations notwithstanding.
 
The vast majority of Americans have been ill-served by government policies of the past two decades that have greatly expanded the freedom of banks and multinational businesses to move money and assets across borders while allowing them to evade taxes, regulation, and accountability here at home.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Jerry Week Day Three - 08/03/2012

Welcome to day three - caught up on some rest - today's nugget from the personal archives (which is a modest not obsessive collection) is the 4/19/84 show.  I remember arriving late and getting a parking spot right up front at the Civic Center in Philadelphia as a rejected miracle seeker gave up his early spot. We literally parked the "vista cruiser" right next to the venue, "oh there it is!"

We promptly hustled in with the rest of the stragglers. Even more intimate than the spectrum we had impressive seats stage left up about 12 rows. But our intrepid leader was blasted on a huge bag of columbian marching powder and lead us down a wrong corridor into the bowels of the auditorium where there wasn't a soul.

With a hundred years of white durable lead paint and a psychiatric styled linoleum floor it was adorned by spirit withering florescent lights and we wondered if we would end up mole people never again seeing the light of day. We laughed maniacally as we pitifully tried to open doors that were sealed shut with gobs of freshly coated paint sealing the gaps as if years of zombies worked mindlessly painting away.  Somehow we are underneath the band as Phil drives the bass line into Bertha. Being less demented then the elders of the tribe I reversed course, climbed stairs two at a time and found our way back to humanity. With ushers not bothering we climbed over endless stair dwellers, boosted squatters and found our seats. We were now on top of the band shoulder to shoulder with our brethren in a rowdy, delighted rambunctious east coast crowd. They gave us plenty of room. It was a ridiculous and absurd adventure to and from the show but that's why we go and years latter this show still sounds pretty damn good. Clean not sloppy energetic and sung well. When the boys were on they were on.

Paul (~):D

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Jerry Garcia The Days Between Day One - 08/01/2012


Well Jerry Week kicked off for me with a rousing start.  I have a theory that over the year while many of us are scattered to our own destiny and journey our collective focus is also scattered.  That's okay but good ol'Jerry like when the band came into to town focus's our scattered collective conscious and unconscious energy, and we crawl out of the woodwork raised up a notch or two. 

In the past we were all in one spot a hockey arena or bigger or smaller indoor or outdoor.  But these days our forces aren't physical assembled (well there's further, and widespread and jazz fest etc but scattered like lost words).  Is physically being in one spot really necessary or even possible with all our numbers and separate camps and diverse overlapping interest?  No its not. 

Between August 1st and August 9th we focus back up coalescing around celebration.  The tee shirts come back out the tunes get replayed, the songs get sung far and wide from the feverishly daily dedicated to the been there done that almost forgot about it crowd and all around the globe.  A tiger by the tail emerges that has enormous energy and manifests itself in seen and unseen ways like a porch light thrown on illuminating the seemingly mundane to our tired eyes, and we feel it.  

Last night I was again bowled over by that collective consciousness.  Small things that would loose energy and not translate well held me transfixed as I physically witnessed the commingling of the infinite and the finite here on this earthly plane.  Oh don't think it can't happen.  It happens all the time.  It's down to whether we are wise to it or not.

For those who know me best; I witnessed the Jeana Flox being visited by a ridiculously huge and beautiful butterfly. It looked surreal Dalia’esque except it had the more peaceful beauty of nature.  I had two tables full of Allman Brother fans and their kids cheering, dancing and clapping.  Then at the end of the gig out of nowhere a guy with an Oakland A’s Tee shirt on celebrating the 70’s championships (72,73,74,89) brings up Johnny’s Dance Band…!?  I felt, “what is going on tonight,” and then drove home under a full moon.

Well that’s day one.  I’ll never make it all nine days (yes I will).  Yesterday I listened to 9/21/73 in its entirety and today I’m going with 5/4/81 in its entirety. 

Enjoy your heightened sense of awareness and put your antennas up.
Paul (~):D

Monday, July 30, 2012

20 Arrested at Historic Shutdown of Mountaintop Removal Site

20 Arrested at Historic Shutdown of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Site « EcoWatch: Uniting the Voice of the Grassroots Environmental Movement:

Following the historic July 28 shutdown of Patriot Coal’s Hobet mine—Appalachia’s largest mountaintop removal coal mining site—by more than 50 people affiliated with R.A.M.P.S. “Mountain Mobilization” campaign, 20 people were arrested and are being held on trespass and obstruction charges.

Bail is set for $25,000 each at the Western Regional Jail. Multiple arrestees, including 20-year-old Dustin Steele of Matewan, W.V., were reportedly beaten by authorities while in custody.

Hands Across the Sand August 4th 12PM

Hands Across the Sand | A worldwide gathering of people dedicated to a clean energy future and ending our dependence on filthy fuels: A Message To The World

One week left! Thank you Egypt, Jordan, Ireland, Portugal, Cambodia, Greece, New Zealand, Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Brazil Canada, Germany and 32 states for posting events so far! It is time to say NO to filthy fuels and YES to clean energy. It is time to draw a line in the sand, on the land, around our capitols with the powerful image of people joining hands in solidarity to say NO more drilling off our shores! Thousands of people will be joining hands around the globe on August 4th, 2012 at noon in your timezone. Click on your state to see where there are events or click on “Join Hands” on our web page and post an event.

Coal Mining Damaged 1,700 Miles Of Streams

Coal Mining May Have Damaged Up To 22% Of Streams In Southern W. Virginia - 1,700 Miles Of Streams - Democratic Underground: Using satellite images taken by NASA between 1976 and 2005, Bernhardt and her coauthors created maps of mountaintop mining in a 12,000-square-mile region of southern West Virginia. They found that companies had converted 5% of the land to mines during this period.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Mark Twain

Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one's head.

~ Mark Twain

Joseph Campbell

It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

Joseph Campbell

BBC News - Protected tropical forests' biodiversity 'declining'

BBC News - Protected tropical forests' biodiversity 'declining': Habitat disruption, hunting and timber exploitation have been seen as signs of future decline

Teenagers shunning drugs for healthier lifestyle

BBC News - Teenagers shunning drugs for healthier lifestyle

 Stupid is out healthy is in - finally!

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

"My twin sister was a terrible pessimist, she died when she was not yet 70 because she never laughed, never. Laughing is beautiful though," says 108-year-old Alice Herz-Sommer. "I'm an optimist, for me it's only the good things, never a bad thought," she says.

Born in 1903, Mrs Herz-Sommer has managed to retain a positive outlook despite a horrific start to life. The oldest living survivor of the Holocaust, she was imprisoned in Terezin (also known as Theresienstadt) concentration camp, near Prague, with her young son Raphael.

http://ping.fm/ZVGye

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Happiness is love of something outside of self! It may never be obtained, may never be known by loving only things within self or self's own domain!

Edgar Cayce Reading 281-30
If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.

~ Albert Einstein
Rupert "Fox News" Murdoch is in meltdown mode. Three of his aides face sanctions from Parliament for lying, another has been charged by UK prosecutors with "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice," and Murdoch himself is accused of having instructed then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to block the phone-hacking investigation.
Another study, released Monday by the U.S. Geological Survey, found that sea levels along a stretch of the East Coast from North Carolina to Massachusetts are rising 4 times faster than the global average, putting major cities like New York and Boston at severe risk of flooding.
Buzzfeed reports that dozens of patriotic Americans are vowing to flee to Canada – with it's tax-payer funded universal health-care system because “the United States is entirely too socialist.” At the time of this writing, there are no reports yet of Canadian authorities moving to shut down their Southern border.
Despite the media's intense focus on the mandate, it never represented a terribly onerous burden on those who refused to carry health insurance – the penalty, after all, was pretty small and many poorer Americans were exempted from the requirement (according to the Congressional Budget Office, the mandate will impact only 16 percent of Americans).
Both CNN and Fox News had 'Dewey Defeats Truman!' moments when they reported, immediately after the ruling was handed down, that the mandate had been struck down as unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court made conservative heads explode and lots of legal experts look clueless today when Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court's moderate wing to uphold ObamaCare in its entirety

BBC News - Syria unrest: Explosions rock Damascus court complex

BBC News - Syria unrest: Explosions rock Damascus court complex
 Whats that old story about the hens coming home to roost?  After decades of giving safe haven to terrorist organizations - scratch that - lets just call them political organizations who chose rather than to promote their causes peacefully but rather with violence; suicide bombers, rocket launches, stone throwing, intolerant inflamed rhetoric, hostage taking, and road side detonations claiming scores upon scores of innocent civilians as their actual targets - Syria is now exploding internally.  Small wonder - you reap what you sow.  

BBC News - Turkey sends anti-aircraft guns to Syrian border

Whats that old story about the hens coming home to roost?  After decades of giving safe haven to terrorist organizations - scratch that - lets just call them political organizations who chose rather than to promote their causes peacefully but rather with violence; suicide bombers, rocket launches, stone throwing, intolerant inflamed rhetoric, hostage taking, and road side detonations claiming scores upon scores of innocent civilians as their actual targets - Syria is now exploding internally.  Small wonder - you reap what you sow. 

BBC News - Turkey sends anti-aircraft guns to Syrian border:

BBC News - Big increase in Scottish renewables output

BBC News - Big increase in Scottish renewables output: Scotland's renewable energy output increased by 45% in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year.
Your word matters more than your opinion!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

"If you get too big for your britches you'll get exposed in the end" Aunt Zip
"You can't lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse" Uncle Dave Macon (recorded over 170 songs between 1924 and 1938)
I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.

~ Rita Rudner

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Why go further and further, / Look, happiness is right here.

Goethe
"No, Mitt, corporations are not people. People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick,... they live and they die. Learn the difference. And Mitt, learn this: we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people," Elizabeth Warren
If a group is trying to influence your vote, then you should know who is paying it to do so

News Corp "Warned" Lib Dems over BSkyB bid'

This is the power they wield over politicians - we can fix this problem by ignoring, abandoning and not subscribing to anything Murdoch or Roger Ailes is associated with - follow the money and know your news sources - mostly corporate they don't represent the people but rather they represent their owners and financiers and represent very narrow corporate interest - blow them off - I don't even watch Fox Sports - and dropped the Simpsons

BBC News - News Corp 'warned Lib Dems over BSkyB bid'

Monday, June 25, 2012

We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

¯Joseph Campbell
If I think, everything is lost.

~ Paul Cezanne
we want senators who belong to the people

Thursday, June 21, 2012

"There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart." Celia Thaxter
Last week, buried within a trade association filing, CREW discovered health insurance giant Aetna had contributed over $7 million to the American Action Network and the Chamber of Commerce.
"Be good to your friends without them you'd be a total stranger" Aunt Zip (David you need to put out a book of these)
"Don't make love by the garden gate love is blind but the neighbors aint" Aunt Zip
"If you get too big for your britches you'll be exposed in the end" Aunt Zip

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

EVIL only hath its appearance in the mind, in the shadows, in the fears of those that know not the light in its entirety.

Edgar Cayce Reading 689-1
A single-use plastic bag introduced just 25 years ago has become an environmental monster

Last Century Republicans Obstructionists of the Future

I've owned businesses you want to lower your overhead as far as possible.  Doesn't the wind blow in the mountains doesn't the sun shine there as well?  The status quo is wedded to a hundred year old technology and will continue to make money on it unless new technologies are developed. 



The problem is that their dirty technology is not only giving people cancer but giving people asthma downwind.  That affects our national bottom line/productivity and inflates our health care cost as well as the acidification of the oceans killing our food chain.

It is the exact role and purpose of government to manage and mitigate our national economy when its not working for everyone - why you may ask - because that's the difference between a civilized nation and Somalia or Syria and don't doubt that for a second. 

If you were a patriot you would care about your country and your neighbors.

You live in a fantasy world if you think deregulation means anything other than unlawful behavior. 

Our corporate CEO's aren't benevolent Christians bestowing generosity upon us - they are business men plain and simple focused on their own bottom line. 

We would get nothing not one residual penny from them for our labor and resources if they could arrange it so and they never stop trying to arrange it that way 24/7. 

Like it or not the democratic party is the only friend you have unless your net worth is a billion a year.  And you better wise up to that pretty fast. 

For the record the Obama-Gore vision is the vision of the majority of the people but for the republican obstructionist representing the old ways we would be well on our way to achieving that vision.  But some so called patriots prefer giving our tax dollars away in the form of "subsidies" to the already profitable oil industry.  That's just plain mismanagement and something for real to be mad at the government  about.
"I think God made me blind to humble me. I think the handicap made me realize I have to depend on others. It mellowed me out, especially in my older years. There was a time when I had a persecution complex because of the handicap...when I was much younger. That is one of the things I have looked back at in later years. But what brought me out of feeling sorry for myself was life itself - and realizing that I loved somebody I was responsible to and who needed me. Life is the best teacher of all." Doc Watson
"Visually handicapped people create this box of safety around them and remain aware of everything in that box. This has helped me become more aware of my surroundings. In many ways they are more aware than those of us who can see. Sometime sight gets in the way of seeing." T. Michael Coleman on Doc Watson
"He puts his personality into every note. No matter how fast he's playing, you always have the sense that he could go out for a cup of coffee between notes!" Mitch Greenhill on Doc Watson

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

Vincent van Gogh
Virginia possess great wind energy potential, according the National Renewable Energy Lab, enough to create 4.5 times the amount of electricity Virginia uses!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

"I found Jerry Garcia and a Navajo Medicine Man going over the transcript nodding with approval and making eye contact with me as I floated in on them." Paul Burke
"Promoting everything from the Allman Brothers Band to Doc Watson was a mission. Sticking it to corporate radio a duty!" - Paul Burke
Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 close to a million signatures please sign! http://ping.fm/ilexb
Love is all and love is everyone

Lennon/McCartney

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.

~ M.C. Richards

Monday, June 11, 2012

Why go further and further, / Look, happiness is right here.

Goethe
Think on This...
Arguments will seldom change the aspects or the views of any. And truth itself needs no champion, for it is of itself champion of champions - and needs no defense; only for self to live according to that which IS the truth!

Edgar Cayce
Reading 1669-1
Think on This...
Then the awareness in patience, for this entity, is to become more and more aware of thy relationship to the Creative Forces. Do not grow anxious because those about thee deny thy faith. Only live it and be it; not in finding fault with others, not in condemning others.

Edgar Cayce
Reading 3459-1

Friday, June 08, 2012

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

Jiddu Krishnamurti
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, pollinators including bees, birds and bats are involved in more than a third of the world's crop production

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

~ Albert Schweitzer
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, since 1979, income for the top 1% has increased by $700,000 a year, while income for the bottom 90% has declined by $900 a year. Between 1992 and 2007, income for the richest 400 Americans increased by 392%, as their taxes dropped by 37%.
And for the rich, the past 11 years has been one long party. According to the Paris School of Economics, the top 1% in America saw their share of national income increase by more than 13% from 2001 to 2010. The top 0.1% saw their share of income increase by 20%. The top 0.01% saw their share of income explode by more than 37%, from 2.4% of all of the income in America to 3.3%.
Bush claimed (as right-wingers always do) that tax breaks for the rich would create jobs in the private sector. Well, they haven't. There were 110 million private sector jobs in America in 2001. There are 110 million private sector jobs in America today. Despite a population increase of more than 25 million
You are in the majority. According to a November, 2011, Yale poll, 70 percent of Americans oppose federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry (coal, oil and natural gas).

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

When you live in reaction, you give your power away. Then you get to experience what you gave your power to.

N. Smith
I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.

Groucho Marx

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Doc Watson We Say Goodbye For Now



It's like losing Mark Twain is how I try to explain it to the uninformed.  It's like losing a family member is how I express it to all of you.  I am in mourning. 

I was a lucky little kid taking guitar lessons from David Stark who along with an older brother turned me onto Doc Watson in 1973/1974 - I was even luckier to see him for the first time at the Main Point that winter.  I remember standing on ice covered sidewalks and sitting in a lovely little coffee house that held a hundred people tops.  We slid into our seats and Merle lead Doc in by the arm.  It was biblical and I hung on every note.  I also got to see him play in a ridiculous little sea side bar in NJ with maybe twenty people in the mid eighties.  I was soooo excited to be so close and have a beer as he, Merle, and Michael did a full show.  It was stunning to me that the place wasn't packed but the 1980's were a silly musical decade not with out its virtues and haircuts.

 
However, my fondest recollection took all of three minutes as I crossed behind the stage at the Culppeper Festival (1986) on the way to the port a john - and there he was behind a little riser waiting by the steps all by himself tuning up.  No handler no one hovering just me and a friend walking by on gravel.  He certainly heard us going by (that’s horse footing gravel that aint train) and I waited until he tuned the string he was working on then without breaking stride spoke the unplanned words of "God Bless You Doc" came tumbling out of my mouth. 

I was humbled by his single solitary presence, blind, but standing tall, calm but getting ready to play, alone but hundreds waiting for him.  Two more steps by me and I received the most surprising, unexpected response spoken clear as a bell in that voice that is uniquely his  “thank you - god bless you.”   I could write for pages and not get close to what came across in those few moments but I’ll try.

I will never forget the time of day, the bright afternoon sunlight, the sound of his voice, he had a vest on, the big huge horse farm we were on – neither of us stopping what we were doing - his solitary appearance – how startled I was to just see him appear and how I reeled in every urge to stop and stare, hover, speak, exclaim, trumpet and noticed he was tuning and let the man be knowing how much trouble that B string gives me. 

It was startling that no one and I mean no one was around.  I think he knew I waited to say something until he was finished tuning – and respected that and that we didn’t break stride or invade his personal space.  We both heard in the timber of each others voice respect and I didn’t feel the need for anything else.  Amazed that I was good to go so to speak I didn’t need to press for details.  What more could we say to each other?  What was going to top that and really mean anything?  How can someone one amaze you in such a short second – its not what you say but how you say it – It was a moment for me and one that will live on forever.  It’s as clear as the crescent moon and solitary planet that hung over the Blue Ridge as we left the festival the following fall night. 

What a spectacular time it was with John Hartford, New Grass Revival, Arlo Guthrie and The Seldom Scene.  I did to Sam Bush what I didn’t do to Doc – LOL.  John Hartford was a sweetheart.  

But I tell you I have always felt honored to have exchanged those few personal moments and words with Doc.  His musical journey is second to none and to have him be a part of my musical journey well it’s the bedrock, the foundation, the essence of this land, gods land, the blue ridge, the great spirit, the good lord, the tree of life manifested, the well, the source, and Doc the hard working linchpin audible and personified with precision and joy, wisdom and heart, human and channeling through that man the spirit and his spirit nourishing our souls.  The Blue Ridge remains and so will his music.  We say goodbye for now and god bless you Doc Watson for he most surly did. What an honor to be alive during your time!  

Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home

Monday, June 04, 2012

No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap.

Carrie Snow
The beauty of the band was you never knew what was going to come out next.

~ Jimmy Page
Paths cannot be taught, they can only be taken.

~ Zen Saying
We're happy to announce that Lathem Family Farms in Pendergrass, GA has earned the Certified Humane® designation for their organic eggs!
Romney left Massachusetts residents with $10,504 in per capita bond debt, the highest of any state in the nation when he left office in 2007. The state ranked second in debt as a percentage of personal income.
Massachusetts lost 14 percent of its manufacturing jobs during Romney’s time in office, according to Sum. The loss was double the rate that the nation as a whole lost manufacturing jobs.
Only Louisiana, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, saw a bigger decline in its labor force than Massachusetts during Romney’s tenure as governor.
Despite Romney’s professed expertise in creating jobs, Massachusetts ranked 47th in job growth during his time as governor. The state’s total job growth was just 0.9 percent, well behind other high-wage, high-skill economies in New York (2.7), California (4.7), and North Carolina (7.6). The national average, meanwhile, was better than 5 percent.
Scott Walkers’ unfair budget cuts to the state's Earned Income Tax Credit will raise taxes on 145,000 low-income families with children
Scott Walker killed the creation of more than 15,000 jobs when he rejected $810 million in federal funds to construct a passenger rail system between Milwaukee and Madison.
Scott Walker has led Wisconsin to last place in the nation in job creation.
Scott Walker eliminated the collective bargaining rights of 175,000 public employees.
“There isn’t a musician anywhere who isn’t saying ‘My God, I’ll never even get close to that.’” – Mike Marshall on Doc Watson

Friday, June 01, 2012

Syngenta settles, but atrazine Kool-Aid still strong | Pesticide Action Network

Syngenta settles, but atrazine Kool-Aid still strong | Pesticide Action Network: Syngenta, for its part, still won't admit that the chemical is of concern despite handing over a hundred million dollars to make the lawsuit go away. And broken pesticide and agricultural policy keeps the chemical on the market, leaving farmers with precious few alternatives.

Take Action » Join us to build the groundswell needed right now to shine the light on the science on cancer and atrazine to fix what's broken in our nation's capitol and move us toward keeping chemical corporate feet to the fire — rather than their fingers pulling the strings.

Rethinking risk | Pesticide Action Network

Rethinking risk | Pesticide Action Network: But earlier this month a provocative Environmental Health Perspectives article argued that a "population approach" might be wiser — meaning that even when a health effect is not severe, if it's affecting a huge number of our children (think dropping IQs), we should be paying attention.

Soil health matters — a lot! | Pesticide Action Network

Soil health matters — a lot! | Pesticide Action Network: As the Senate is poised to vote on the 2012 Food and Farm bill, we're working with our partners in the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) to fight for those programs that best protect vital soil resources — and you can help.

20 yrs later, the Biotech Brigade marches on…. | Pesticide Action Network

20 yrs later, the Biotech Brigade marches on…. | Pesticide Action Network: After 30 years of publicly subsidized research and 14 years of commercialization, agricultural biotechnology — despite its aggressive promotion by the Biotech Brigade, and facing precious few of those “unnecessary regulations” — has failed to deliver its promises of higher yields for U.S. farmers, or drought-resistance for developing country farmers.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

I'd rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on Earth.

Steve McQueen

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Practice random beauty and senseless acts of love.

~ Anonymous
the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago learned that a pro-coal group had posted an online ad offering $50 (and lunch!) to anyone who would wear an "Count on Coal" t-shirt to the Chicago hearing. The ad was quickly yanked once the Tweets began

Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar Doc and Merle Watson

From the moment I first saw him play at the Main Point, the Birchmere, Cul Pepper, Merle Fest - I've always loved Doc & Merle. His Memories album is one of my favorites and his humor and warmth on Tennessee Stud from the first Will The Circle Be Unbroken album is palatable. It's like loosing Mark Twain in my book - a true American treasure - he's with Merle now. Thank you Doc for making our time on Earth a richer, fuller, more enjoyable experience. You will be missed by millions.
"When they let you in this world, they hand you a little box. It’s invisible, of course, and it’s got a few talents in it. And if somethin’ happens that you can’t lean on one, why you got two or three more you can get hold of.” Doc Watson

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.

Spanish Proverb
A Robin Redbreast in a cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage.

~ William Blake
What do we live for; if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?

~ George Eliot
God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?"

William A. Ward

BBC News - Major US law firm files for bankruptcy protection

BBC News - Major US law firm files for bankruptcy protection
Look what these greedy idiots did to a law firm...and all the people they put out of work - run away compensation is one thing but these idiots can't even regulate themselves when it comes to something as simple as payroll - THIS IS WHY corporate compensation regulation is needed - they didn't just put themselves out of business - they destroyed the lives of thousands of people and the economic impact those people have on their communities - unregulated capitalism is suicide plain and simple.

BBC News - Bluefin tuna record Fukushima radioactivity

BBC News - Bluefin tuna record Fukushima radioactivity
How is anybody surprised by this - the Earth is a closed system what you put in it is what you get (in your body as well)

Solar World Round Up - May 29, 2012

Despite concerted efforts by the dirty energy sector and their minions bought and paid for in Congress not only willingly but desperately bending over backwards to show loyalty in a contest of no wait I'm the biggest whore give me your money solar energy development and clean energy continues its march of inevitability.  Clean energy is the future and the future is now.  Create some jobs congress stop protecting the national security risky and health destroying dirty energy sector and do your jobs.  Its called governing.  Leave the profit whoring to unregulated Wall Street.

Here"s Your Solar World Round Up Spring 2012
 


Goldman Investment Shines Light on Solar Power
TheStreet.com
It's a simple acknowledgment that Goldman sees big profits in solar, wind and biomass power, not to mention the cheapest renewable energy of all, conservation. The University of Chicago has a new cell-making process that's as simple as soaking a ...


Solar energy industry is flourishing in Mass.
Boston Globe
But that isn't stopping the solar energy industry from flourishing here. Massachusetts, better known for long, cold winters, gloomy springs, and gale-driven nor'easters, is undergoing an unlikely solar power boom, attracting solar companies from around ...

 
Germany sets new solar power record
Independent Online
By Erik Kirschbaum A factory site of German solar power equipment company Q-Cells is pictured near Bitterfeld. Berlin - German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full ...


UK powered up £7bn of green energy investments in 2011
Business Green
The news came a week after the government launched its draft Energy Bill which included plans to replace the current renewables subsidy scheme with new contracts for difference that would guarantee low carbon energy generators a set price for the power ...


New laws in Maryland could spell major success for solar energy
Hydrogen Fuel News
By Stephen Vagus This week in Maryland, Governor Martin O'Malley enacted two new laws that is expected to bring significant growth to the solar energy industry. The Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard for Solar Energy and the Solar Water Heating ...

 
Chevron May Use Solar in Oilfield Shared by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
Bloomberg
(CVX) is considering using solar energy to produce the steam needed to pump heavy crude from an oilfield straddling Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Chevron may start a pilot solar plant at the end of 2013, Hashim al-Rifaai, chairman and managing director of ...

 
Unirac and Bella Energy Complete Milestone Solar Project on Salt Palace ...
MarketWatch (press release)
ALBUQUERQUE, NM, May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Unirac, Inc., a Hilti Group Company and North America's leading provider of infrastructure for solar power systems, was selected by Bella Energy, a nationwide commercial solar developer and ...


Solar Energy Financing on Brink of Transformation; Obama Iowa Wind Power
CleanTechnica
“US solar projects have historically been bankrolled by some combination of energy sector players, banks, and the federal government, but the landscape is rapidly changing. New business models are emerging with an emphasis on third-party financing.


Solar power in MENA
REVE
Masdar Power is leading renewable energy development and currently constructing a 100 MW Concentrating Solar Power facility, Shams 1, in Abu Dhabi, which is set to be completed by the end of the year.


Aiding the search for solar energy storage catalysts
ScienceBlog.com (blog)
Eons ago, nature solved the problem of converting solar energy to fuels by inventing the process of photosynthesis. Plants convert sunlight to chemical energy in the form of biomass, while releasing oxygen as an environmentally benign byproduct.



 

Doc Watson Health Update | Folklore Productions

Doc Watson Health Update | Folklore Productions

Friday, May 25, 2012

Pew Research Center finds that clean energy has far more support than fossil fuels support across the political spectrum — except among conservative Republican males
Rupert "Fox News" Murdoch is in meltdown mode. Three of his aides face sanctions from Parliament for lying, another has been charged by UK prosecutors with "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice," and Murdoch himself is accused of having instructed then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to block the phone-hacking investigation.
every gallon of gas costs 56 cents more as a result of financial speculation.
since 1929, $10,000 invested in the stock market under Democratic Presidents (over 40 years) had become $300,671. Meanwhile, $10,000 invested in the stock market under Republican Presidents (over 35 years) had become only $11,733.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.

Jean Anouilh
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair
Laughter need not be cut out of anything, since it improves everything.

~ James Thurber
In other words don't tax me but bomb Iran is a blatant display of poor math skills - let alone poor public policy.
Especially if we have to protect our oil companies. Soooo - lower tax rates means a retreat from all foreign soil - you can't have it both ways - yahoo American exceptionalisim - we can't add.
In as huge a country as the USA is from ocean to ocean and all points in between and with 350 million people and climbing we need a realistic tax rate.
If we have to protect our oil companies then a lower tax rates means a retreat from all foreign soil - you can't have it both ways - yahoo American exceptionalisim - we can't add.
The financial transaction tax is a good idea and wouldn't even be noticed by the hyper wealthy -
No wonder they don't understand our governing documents -
Sunlight Foundation: "Today's Congress collectively speaks at a 10.6 grade level, down from 11.5 in 2005. By comparison, the U.S. Constitution is written at a 17.8 grade level and the Declaration of Independence at a 15.1 grade level.
According to a new report from the Sunlight Foundation, Congress is speaking at nearly a full grade level lower than it did seven years ago - so its official they're idiots.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Jobs vs the Environment MYTH - full report
http://ping.fm/Anw1C
Economic experts have concluded that evidence fails to support the environmental “job-killer” myth. And four decades of false alarms about the alleged dangers posed by environmental regulations should be a reality check to everyone
3,300:
Number of workers Montgomery County,
Maryland expects to employ over the next
3.5 years building its new network of
stormwater controls.
Source: Montgomery County, Maryland
20,000:
Number of construction jobs created by each
$1 billion invested on water and wastewater
construction projects.
Source: Clean Water Council
118:
Number of contractors who are working on a
$63 million upgrade to the Noman Cole
Pollution Control Plant in Lorton, Virginia.
This emerging environmental industry is now worth $312 billion34 a year nationally and mploys 1.7 million people,with 75 percent of job growth in this field driven by government regulation.
The federal Clean Water Act alone spurs construction projects that are worth at
least $11 billion per year to the national economy, according to an EPA estimate in 2000.
Less than two-tenths of one percent of all layoffs in the U.S. are caused by government
regulations, according to 2010 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
$312 billion:
How much the environmental industry in the
United States is worth yearly.
Source: Environmental Business International
About 11,751 temporary jobs are expected to be created over five years if Virginia and the federal governments invest $804 million in farm runoff control projects such as planting trees and building fences along streams to meet Bay-pollution goals, according to a University of Virginia report
Similar stormwater projects could provide work for 178,000 full-time-equivalent jobs across the region over the next five years, including
36,000 jobs in Maryland, 10,000 in the District
of Columbia, 80,000 in Pennsylvania, and 52,000 in Virginia. Economic Policy Institute.
Construction is underway in Montgomery County,
Maryland, on $305 million in stormwater pollution
control projects that will create 3,300 construction
and engineering jobs.
Overall, the number of environmental clean-up
and monitoring jobs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia has surged over the last two decades,from 98,000 jobs in 1990 to 140,000 jobs in2009, with a significant portion of this growth coming from required sewage and water system improvement projects
Sweeping assertions about economic ruin caused
by environmental regulations are nothing new,
and many economists7 have concluded that there
is no substance to them.8
43 Percent:
The increase in the number of environmental
industry jobs in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and
Virginia over the last two decades.
Source: Environmental Business International
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite - William Blake

Friday, May 18, 2012

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair
"Today oil price fell, reflecting global economic concerns." Not from supply but on what speculators were willing to pay on the spot market because future demand was foretasted to be low - based on global economic news. Nothing at all to do with supply - or drill baby drill.

Here Comes the Future - BOO!

Let me see if I get the arch defenders of oil subsidies and the haters of the President right.  We aren't supposed to do any R&D in alternative clean energy because......we want to be beholden to foreign countries, because its not a national security issue, because pollution is healthy for us, because.....the status quo makes money when we drill until the very last drop comes out of our sovereign territory.  Okay good for those few people.



In the meantime we destroy our coasts, food supply and billion dollar tourist and fishing industry and never affect the international spot market while the commodity traders bid up the price of oil when economic signs are good.  We create a few jobs maybe in the hundreds with a few more platforms 15 guys a platform and aren't we smart.


Or we could build electric cars, install solar panels everywhere, retrofit every building, install wind turbines, wave generators, geothermal and invest heavily in our national infrastructure with mass transit creating millions upon millions of jobs generating a dynamic surplus.  And plow that surplus back into education to create the best work force in the world. Sounds like a terrible idea. 




But no the politicians want dumb people to manipulate with false advertising. Don’t think for yourself just follow. Resistance is futile assimilation is necessary.

Who would want to do an all the above energy strategy it’s obviously favoring one side over the other. We might sell less oil but who would care about that the guys selling the oil paying to elect politicians...nah they're not desperately trying to protect their 100 year old last century business model going the way of Kodak?

I agree with the entrenched just say no, bigoted and scared. We should just curl up in the fetal position not try anything new at all and let the extraction companies do what they want.  They won’t try and circumvent the system for personal gain or run rough shod over us. Hey as long as .0075 percent of the people are getting hyper rich I’m all for it the heck with old people, the sick and disabled. Let em rot in the street. 

They failed at being the rugged individual.  It’s the American way. That good ol' American mindset big fat business man blowhard act is just like a cowboy movie.  Acting and its a severely sociopathic.  In the end macroeconomics -reality- has to be dealt with.  The truth will out and the crooks, chicken hawks and pigs at the trough cry like babies. Wah, wah where’s my easy answer I’m scared of change, learning or doing anything new. LOL – some tough guys! Here comes the future....Boo!




Journey Home - Paul Burke

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

Henry Miller
"The church is supposed to be the lobbyist of the poor, and the church has given up on its calling..." Shanta Premawardhana, President of the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education

The Earth Orbit

Our Earth is a living breathing organism not a dead rock that we just happen to be on.  Humans are a part of the natural process just as plugged in as the ocean breezes and the passing clouds.  We have evolved out of that natural process you see before you.  Every decisions we make whether its tossing a cigarette butt on the ground or ignoring industrial/commercial pollution degrades that system and degrades us.  Every breath you take is like that planet spinning you see before you.

What does it feel like to orbit planet Earth?

Our Earth is a living breathing organism not a dead rock that we just happen to be on.  Humans are a part of the natural process just as plugged in as the ocean breezes and the passing clouds.  We have evolved out of that natural process you see before you.  Every decisions we make whether its tossing a cigarette butt on the ground or ignoring industrial/commercial pollution degrades that system and degrades us.  Every breath you take is like that planet spinning you see before you!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Acts of Kindness, even in the simplest ways, are what make our lives meaningful, bringing happiness to ourselves and others.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The 87 GOP members of the freshman class sent more than 25.6 million pieces of unsolicited mail last year at a cost of nearly $9.8 million, according to a review of records compiled by the chief administrative officer of the House.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

~ James Thurber
Giving is the secret of abundance.

~ Swami Sivananda
Think on This...
SELF! What action should be taken? CORRECT thine own WAYS!

Cayce Reading 1828-1
The Department of Defense, War, Veteran Affairs and Nuclear Weapons Program is 60% of the Federal Budget - Education is 6%, Health and Human Services is 6%, NASA 1.5%, EPA 1%.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it.

~ St. Francis of Assisi
Spending billions and billions of dollars trying to get control of the so called terrible government seems a bit counter-intuitive to me. Seems like the government must be pretty wonderful to spend that kind of money.
Environmental regulations have been around for centuries. River pollution was banned in South Carolina as early as 1671. In 1306, certain types of coal were banned in England because of the air pollution they caused. (StephenBP Huff Post)

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Any time any DC elite complains about 'the deficit' remind them that when Clinton left office we had a huge surplus, so big that at the rate it was being paid down the entire US debt was going to be paid off in 10 years. Bush demanded that we give back the people's money and Greenspan warned of the danger of paying off the debt ... So we went from big surplus to huge, huge deficits. Bush said it was 'incredibly positive news' when we went back into deficit spending. He said it was good news because it continued the plan to use debt to force the government to cut back .
As far back as records go (1895), never has the U.S. strung together 12 straight months warmer than May 2011 to April 2012 according to new data released today by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. The average temperature was 2.8 degrees F above the 20th century average
To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

Heather Cortez
Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

~ George Carlin
In the Bizarro world in which we live, we have 27 Attorneys General challenging the constitutionality of 35 million Americans getting health coverage, but no one challenges the constitutionality of an undeclared war (see Article I, Section 8 on that) that has now entered its second decade.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Our tax dollars have been hijacked for personal gain instead of being plowed back into our communities by the richest 1% because that's what they do and that's what they live for. It is a question of values and community and We The People civilization such as it is need/demand/deserve and require economic democracy.
Imagine those trillions invested in our communities and citizens for education and improved quality of life as opposed to the improved portfolios of the less than 1 percent.
The question is who controls the flow of trillions of dollars generated from the labor and taxes of this country.

Monday, May 07, 2012

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

Marcus Aurelius Antonius
We are what we repeatedly do.

Aristotle
Tell me what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver

Friday, May 04, 2012

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

~ Albert Einstein

Thursday, May 03, 2012

A Message To Sportsmen, Hunters and NRA Members


 

Environmentalist here: We understand the individuals need for goodness sake Robert Redford made the beautiful movie A River Runs Through It about fly fishing.  Bob is a huge environmentalist.  What the middle and left oppose is violence for violence sake.  What we understand is the balance of nature.  With over 7 Billion people on the planet we have to keep run away degradation at bay.  What would be excellent is if the individual sportsmen and hunters came out against long line fishing the indiscriminate sweeping of the oceans, factory farming which spreads disease and destroys our waterways, or smokestack pollution which spreads mercury and lead poisoning, or even voluntarily took the lead out of lures, shot gun shells and buck shot.  Because as you know the woods and other predators feed on kill that's left behind.





Speak up for common sense regulation as passionately as you advocate for the right to carry a weapon and together the left, right and center can "govern" better.  It's not the individual its the permanent incorporation of individuals that create the biggest foot print.  Culling herds, actually using what you kill for food  its all part of the environmental chain.  But mass destruction like what occurred to the buffalo out on the great plains is short sighted.  We environmentalist also realize guns, weapons are a huge business but the bigger the business the more potential it has to do horrific destruction whether its Columbine, VCU or Monsanto altering our food with herbicides and pesticides.



Speak up for other issues as loudly as you can regarding the overall general well being and balance of the very environment that actually sustains us and then maybe more people will appreciate the individual sportsman's point of view.  Until then you just sound like your right to shed blood and wander around in the woods alone trumps everything else.  Remember these are public lands and as much as you ridicule the east and west coast cities that's where the majority of the population lives and the majority of the tax revenues come from.  Tax revenues that get dispersed throughout all 50 states. 

Government is not the problem pitting left versus right citizen against citizen is the problem and those that do that practice the art of deception.  Greed is the problem profit over health is the problem.  It always has been and always will be a question of balance.  Government is the cop on the beat that is supposed to manage that balance in the market place and keep it running smoothly for everyone.  Single issue campaigns/voters/advocacy groups screw up the works.  There's a bigger picture that needs to be taken into account its complex and interrelated and requires cooperation. 

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

A sketch has charm because of its truth -- not because it is unfinished.

~ Charles Hawthorne
A sketch has charm because of its truth -- not because it is unfinished.

~ Charles Hawthorne
Love is all and love is everyone

Lennon/McCartney
As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

Mahatma Gandhi
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott Adams
There is nothing like a dream to create the future.

~ Victor Hugo
Acts of Kindness, even in the simplest ways, are what make our lives meaningful, bringing happiness to ourselves and others.

~ Dalai Lama
The Romney policy team is the Bush policy team. Salon's Andrew Leonard: "[Glenn] Hubbard is famous for his role as a chief architect of the Bush tax cuts ... Greg Mankiw is famous for a little flap during the Bush reelection campaign when he annoyed the White House by declaring that free trade and outsourcing of jobs 'was probably a plus for the American economy in the long run.' ... They are campaigning with the explicit promise to return to the economic agenda of Bush."
"Big companies like Verizon use threats of layoffs to force their workers to take pay and benefit cuts, and use the money to pay huge amounts to their executives. This is why the middle class is being 'hollowed out.' So the 99% Spring movement will be protesting outside of Verizon's shareholder meeting in Huntsville, Alabama on Thursday ..
Upon discovering research that identified pesticides as a leading contributor to declining bee populations, Monsanto, a major producer of genetically modified foods, decided to simply buy out Beelogic, the research company.
The electrical shock delivered to the chest by a Taser can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden death, according to a new study, although it is unknown how frequently such deaths occur.

The study, which analyzed detailed records from the cases of eight people who went into cardiac arrest after receiving shocks from a Taser X26 fired at a distance, is likely to add to the debate about the safety of the weapons. Seven of the people in the study died; one survived
With Scott Walker raking in $13 million in just three months, the WI recall battle is shaping up to be a definitive showdown between Big Money and the People.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

Eckhart Tolle
You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.

~ Henry David Thoreau
In 2011, the average level of CEO pay in the S&P 500 Index increased 13.9 percent—to $12.94 million!
2012 Social Security Trustees Report": "The Social Security Trustees Report shows that our Social Security system works just as intended, even in difficult economic times. Unlike the banks, which nearly brought the economy to ruin, Social Security didn’t need a bailout. The most important fact revealed in the 2012 Trustees Report is that our Social Security system has a large and growing surplus."

Friday, April 20, 2012

Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own. - Carol Burnett

The Outer Banks Growth vs Development! Happy Earth Day?


 
Let’s look at some hindsight and look at 100 years ago or even 50 years ago.  Heck I remember the 1970's Outer Banks and looking back well the growth has been enormous.  Have you tried getting over that bridge on a Friday?  And hurricanes keep wiping highway 12 out maybe that should give everyone pause to think about where we live.   At some point we have to self regulate and understand we need the environment more than it needs us.  And that we need the real outer banks the natural outer banks to grow, thrive and flourish.

Long line fishing, herbicide and oil run off we pollute and deplete the very thing that sustains us but you can't eat money.  If you are going to buy into the market system and not be a subsistence farmer/fisherman then you have to adapt to the boom and bust cycle of the market place and mom and pops go in and out of business. 

Better regulation would smooth the transition for the mom and pops affected by environmental foresight.  But real bullies controlling Capitol Hill don't value helping anybody but themselves.  Face it we are all sort of like that.  But if you care about the mom and pops that go out of business as we recalibrate our awareness as to the necessity of sustainability and a healthy environment then vote democrat across the board no matter where you live.  That way the mom and pops can get the assistance they need to transition to a new plan, further education or skill training.  The powers that be helped transition Goldman Sachs and AIG but they don't have dime one to spare for the bait shop owner.  Those are your bullies.  


Do you know how many career changes the average person goes through in current economic system?  Ten!  That a mom and pop has hung on for decades perhaps over expanding, perhaps never changing their business model, perhaps not even having a plan other than hanging a shingle out while the outer banks explodes with development isn't much of a sob story admittedly especially in the face of the greater global good.  But I am sorry for them and that their world has been encroached upon - really I am - who wouldn't want to have a little bait shop that earned you 100K clear?  Maybe the mom and pops should try kayak tours, real estate, insurance or get a medical degree? 

Environmentalists think long term and big picture they aren't bullies or zealots they are people who care and have the foresight to worry about long term sustainability over development.  The environment that feeds us and keeps us healthy is an intricate design each part of it working in harmony to grow but in walks man clear cutting it all to pieces as fast as he can for short term profit and cheap thrills. 

Without governance seeing the big picture and managing the markets we would all be the victims of self immolation except there wouldn't be any point to it other than sheer stupidity, shortsightedness, and greed. 

If I was on City Council down in the Outer Banks I would be in favor of preserving the environment and long term sustainability - would request federal funds since that stance is in everyone's best interest, and help those 20 odd businesses currently affected by new environmental regulations transition to a new line of work, and or relocation. 

In order to sustain the growth in human population 7 billion and counting we need to sustain and enable the growth in the natural world that actually feeds us and drives or economic machine.

Being able to four wheel around now off line beach areas burning fossil fuel for kicks or being able to carry everything in your garage to the beach would not and should not be a governmental concern. 

That all may be fun and convenient and direct a few dollars in a certain way but we can no longer ignore or be lackadaisical about our hugely negative impact on our environment, health and well being.  Natural resources are the building blocks of - everything - in the market place.  We need to grow, preserve and protect our natural resources through time tested natural processes at a much greater rate then we are depleting them.



HAPPY EARTH DAY!