Do not worry as to whether you are fat or thin. Worry rather as to whether you use your body, mentally and physically, as an expression of thy ideal.

Edgar Cayce Reading 308-8

"The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” - Thomas Jefferson

Take the "Journey" for the Holidays! http://ping.fm/H6Qyi

Take the "Journey" for the Holidays! http://ping.fm/oWhT8

And O that all would realize, come to the consciousness that what we are--in any given experience, or time--is the combined results of what we have done about the ideals that we have set!

Edgar Cayce Reading 1549-1

Urge the EPA to close loopholes for automakers and gas emissions. http://ping.fm/6mE5t

Please join us on Dec. 7 at 2pm at the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection headquarters in Charleston, WV for a rally and protest to save Coal River Mountain.

Speak - Kristen Stewart - Movie Review

With all the Twilight promotion going on I wanted to throw out two movie reviews and a third recomendation that feature Kristen in powerful roles. The first one Speak based on a novel of the same name is more than a movie. On its own its a great story and the acting of Kristen Stewart the self proclaimed "regular chick" is vibrant and strong. Its as well done a movie as you could expect for the subject matter. We have all been to high school and witnessed and wandered through the minefield. The battle scars are real and so is the pain.

There are plenty of strong performances as the cast obviously came together on this effort. This is by far my favorite role for Steve Zahn and D.B. Sweeney plays the role of Kristen's father perfectly.

Chances are if you are flipped out over the Twilight Series you have watched everything you can get your hands on regarding Kristen Stewart. But if you only have a passing awareness of this actress because of the media blitz or you are outside the target market ignore the hype and see for yourself this powerful actress, and this moving movie.

The other movie I would recommend is The Cake Eaters - Kristen Stewart puts her body through some contortions. Her character has a rare degenerative nerve disorder. This is a directorial debut for Mary Staurt Masterson - Bruce Dern also stars in this heartfelt drama. This is a sweet movie with plenty of edge and tension between the characters.

Do your self a favor and rent it from net flix.

For a little lighter fare although Kristen brings her "A" game we also enjoyed Adventurland

Keep up the great work Kristen and don't get too caught up in the fame. I think this "chick" has her feet on the ground and I hope I get to see her performing and growing for a long time.

Arsenic and Old Lace - Movie Review

Frank Capra directs this farce of a farce and its a great movie - where the heck did Priscilla Lane come from she's a hoot. Cary Grant is at his best bumbling, stumbling and trying to play it straight. It's a mad cap adventure of dimwitted police, weird straight off a horror movie set characters and quick pacing. Peter Lorrie is in this movie also and he's casting about frustrated and at his overwhelmed and perplexed best.



This really is a classic movie and I fell in love with Priscilla Lane immediately and you will too! It all takes place on Halloween - so it's spooky fun. If you love old movies and haven't seen this one yet - move it to number one on your net flix list.

North Korea goes rogue not the President of the United States. http://ping.fm/nTxf7

Thoughts on Sarah Palin and the United States of America

Sarah strikes me as an empty headed prop who won a popularity contest at a small high school gymnasium by intimidating the other girls and romancing the administration. It looks like she bites the hand that feeds her as she turned on McCain the first chance she got - which was immediately.

That's the kind of class and dignity we are looking for in a President (?) - Sorry Palin worshipers she may be a sociopath.

The President of the United States is a very serious job. Our spin doctors and campaign managers have turned it into a high school popularity contest, but in reality the stakes are much higher.

You can not govern by slogan. Look at the damage done by deregulating Wall Street. That move was promoted and championed because of two words "free market". Nice concept but in the intricate world of market economies a complete fallacy. You can not govern by cute little slogans. "Trickle Down" has lead to the unconscionable concentration of wealth in 1% of the population through subsidies and give aways of our tax dollars to the corporate insiders who place their people in our government.

Granted its a costly game of brinkmanship, sloganeering and manipulation to get the population to vote one way or the other, but at the end of the day to the extent we relinquish control and fall prey to easy answers big corporate america runs the show.

And corporatist and corporate america are unqualified to govern the country because their focus is too singular on their particular profit margins. Great focus for a successful business but absolutely wrong and a severe lack of vision for guiding this huge country over the realities of our collective landscape.

The fruit of their electioneering of politics has created an us against them mentality among the citizens in our Country. And it has created an artificial out of touch ruling class that cares only for the acquisition of personal wealth. The reality is that we are all in this together. And if we don't make room for one another there will be trouble no matter how right one group thinks they are over another.

That is hardly the Country we all want or aspire to and not the vision of the United States we all desire to see unfold. In short we are better than that.

While Sarah might be a fascinating soap opera of a character, fun to loath or root for she is only qualified for a People Magazine Cover in the same respect of a Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan - what will she do/say next escapade.

All of these new media celebrities are the same version of the same m.o. - say or do something shocking to get the world of rubber neckers gawking just like the well worn metaphor of a car wreck.

Whether Glenn Beck is crying or predicting something ludicrous or Rush is flame throwing and lambasting something even he doesn't believe, or some new media celeb is releasing a sex tape - its all shock value in the mode and method Howard Stern used to get famous and rich.

That may be one way to achieve a personal goal of wealth and fame but that personality trait is absolutely the worst trait to reward in our politicians.

Good governance requires good citizenship an understanding of how our Country works as a Nation of laws, the intricacies of the market place and in getting along with other people who may not share your same views, culture, beliefs and habits. It requires a true patriotism not in name alone but a commitment to actually put the Country and the people first over individual gain, profit and popularity.

Forcing ones self and opinion down another's throat doesn't win you many friends. No matter how right you think you are its counter productive and tone deaf.

Creating a nation and world where we are "free to be" as long as we don't hurt each other and live sustainably side by side is the goal. Jumping up and down screaming my way or the highway leads to bloodshed.

I would put forth that if you aren't living by these two rules of thumb "live and let live" and "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - it is you no matter what bible you are carrying or what uniform you are wearing that is doing the wrong thing.

That's Pollyanna thinking for the Alpha Dogs like Palin but in actuality the alpha dogs are the ones who are clueless when it comes to anything other than their own selfish- self interest.

That kind of self absorbed me first focus might be good for ones bottom line but it's one helluva lousy way to "govern" a Country.

North Korea goes rogue not the President of the United States.

Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home

Public Campaign Action Fund

Industry Coalesces to Fight Antitrust Repeal

The American Insurance Association, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, wrote a letter to legislators objecting to “onerous provisions included in the bill that without due consideration go far beyond the issue of expanding health insurance coverage.”

Too bad idiots - your price fixing and gouging days are over....

“The primary purpose of federal antitrust law is to encourage pro-competitive behavior and to promote the growth of private competitive markets,” the letter states.

No its not that's why there is only ONE Baseball League. The purpose of Anti Trust Law Exemptions are to preserve a monopoly among the "recognized" entities and since they don't authorize or recognize anyone outside of their group - anti-trust exemptions are a barrier to entry for "real and independent" entrepreneurs.

The fact that they are gathering "coalescing" together tells me that this "Exemption" is desperately coveted by them in order to maintain their monopoly and continue to enjoy the privilege of arbitrarily driving up consumer rates.

The reason that "Major League Insurance" screwed up - screwed the pooch - is because they got so greedy they disrupted and threw into turmoil the overall economy and the future of the overall economy. They are also terrified of the oversight the FTC will get into investigating their business practices and arbitrary pricing.

Support the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3692) and Section 262 - the repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act from 1945!

Its about damn time.

Tell Lieberman he's a disgrace to his faith and Country for putting money over people. http://ping.fm/bJIqB

"Two-thirds of the energy in the fuel burned to produce electricity is lost in the process of generation and delivery."

Solar World Round Up 11-06-09

While the GOP keeps up the steady drum beat about doing nothing to address health care - in other words doing the insurance companies bidding. America falls behind.

I'm sure the GOP will be staking out the same do nothing position when it comes to energy reform doing Exxon/Mobils bidding, and America lags behind. The Status Quo wants every last one of our dollar bills for themselves. Who cares if they cripple the entire national economic system and chew up our "disposable" income crushing our economic backbone - small business.

Meanwhile China is spending multiple billions of dollars on clean energy technologies across the board, wind, solar and electric cars while we fight to preserve our outdated business models and the enormously rich and vastly few they benefit.

Hurry up and pass this health care reform so we can reform the energy sector and spur on jobs for our unemployed. Boehner doesn't even know the difference between the Constitution and the Deceleration of Independence and he wants to run Congress. He doesn't speak for me that over tanned freak. Get off the golf course and pick up a history book asshole.

Here's the rest of the world beating us to the punch while we protect the uber wealthy's profit margin on outdated health care and energy systems.
__________________________________________

Space Age solar technology lands on earth
Mother Nature Network
If approved, Rice Solar Energy Project (RSEP) will become the nation's first heliostat power plant tied to the public electrical grid. ...

Absolute Auction near Boulder, CO
Reuters
This energy efficient, low-maintenance house offers easy living and significant energy savings with its solar electric photovoltaic system, solar thermal ...

Ex-United Technologies Rocket Scientists To Build 150 MW Solar ...
By Susan Kraemer
Abengoa has several in Spain, and plans one in Arizona. United Technologies has licensed the original technology to the new company SolarReserve and its wholly owned subsidiary Rice Solar Energy, LLC, (RSE). ... In reality, even wet-cooled solar thermal, utility-scale solar's piggiest water hog, uses only 1/60th of the water that nuclear can use and one 1/50th as much as a coal plant can; according to the (pdf) Report to Congress on Concentrating Solar Power Commercial ...

Germany to Help Develop Moroccan Solar-Thermal Energy Projects
Bloomberg
Solar-thermal systems heat a fluid by concentrating the sun's rays on a tube. The liquid produces steam that turns turbines. ...

Ryan Davies Finds Hot Technology Produces Solar Power for Half the Price
International Business Times
... where Ryan's company is awaiting permit approvals to build a solar thermal plant that will provide peak power to some 2500 homes. The Energy Report: ...

By 2050 solar thermal energy could provide 47% of the UK's low ...
Brussels, 25 September 2009. Since heat accounts for nearly half of the overall energy demand in the European Union, the solar thermal industry will no ...

Solar Thermal Molten Salt Project For California
Energy Matters
by Energy Matters Rice Solar Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Solar Reserve, has filed plans to construct and operate a large solar farm in Riverside County, ...

My Turn: What's good for environment is good for economics
BurlingtonFreePress.com
Unfortunately, however, we now import almost half our solar panels, while countries like Germany and Spain get more energy from solar energy than we do. ...

Big Government is the Problem - Guess Again
Hot new blog posting - http://ping.fm/vcWh3

Big Government is the Problem - Guess Again

I ran across this quote again - "When the government gets involved, everyone loses in the long term," posted by some empty headed student in one of those big Texas universities. I have been listening to this shit since Regan got elected. It just gets repeated over and over again until a certain type of individual actually thinks its true. The only scenario where government would be a bad idea is if people where angels. Well mankind is far from angelic. We are base, short sighted and driven by greed, jealousy and envy, and some would argue that's our good side.

The fact of the matter is that when government (a.k.a. - law) wasn't involved men shot men in the street and banks were robbed - the pablum puking repetition of the rhetoric that government is bad serves no purpose. This is a nation of laws - not dictators or armies or royalty and it's a better system than most. But it is government who put that system in place and it is government that is supposed to manage it - not lobbyist. And it has to be big to effectively manage a continent with global interconnectedness and relations you freakin' idiots.

A well thought out system of checks and balances however can be corrupted when "individuals" sell out.

The problem is our lazy uneducated population from which we draw individual representatives from and how easily their morals are bought off to stay elected or gain title, power and stature for title, power and stature sake. The system as now rigged by individuals requires a ton of cash to keep your job as a representative but that's no excuse for selling out or an excuse for citizens to be apathetic.

The solution is campaign finance reform. And I would remind everyone who insists on making empty headed statements about government being bad to step back and think about it. Hyper self interest and a slavish focus on the bottom line may work for an individual business model but it is one helluva lousy way to run a Country.

I would remind the geniuses that swallow the rhetoric that running an individual business and governing (ie managing) a Country are two different things. It's a question of balance. When one sector of the market gets a choke hold (monopoly)on the macroeconomics and structure it thwarts and stifles economic growth and inventiveness across the whole broad market.

The inverse is actually the truth - when government doesn't get involved everyone looses in the long term. It all depends on what we the people tell the government to do. The government is our tool. When we hand it over to individuals, corporatist or the military its function of oversight, and ethics gets abandoned.

The single mindedness of one market sector and its laser like focus on its one business model doesn't take into account the ramifications or unintended consequences of its actions across the whole market nationally and internationally.

To put it in simple terms your State forests would have been clear cut by now because individual market sectors have zero self control when its only focus, goal, and pursuit is to maximize profit. Why do you think overfishing is an issue? Because the individual corporations, companies and businessmen say - the next guy can cut back I'm making as much money as I can.

No one cuts back until a law and a power able to enforce that law is passed by the majority to ensure our collective survival and the continuation of that market and all that is linked to it. That law and that power is called Government. Without it and this isn't hyperbole we return to the wild,wild west. And in case you didn't know it no amount of being right has ever stopped a bullet.

So wise up and get a clue. People are now so comfortable they think government is bad. It is government that has provided that comfort by replacing the rule of the gun with the rule of law.

Without laws and because of deregulation the economy goes through boom and bust cycles rocking everyone's world. Unless you are okay with all that and would like a return to the gun model of running a country, city, town and street I suggest you pull back and think about who is telling you Government is bad?

I'll answer that for you. It's the individual self interested who have been restricted in their pursuit of profit because they do more damage than good to the big picture.

They have no moral compass or long term understanding built into their business plan of maximizing profits through any and all means or when it comes to making a quick buck, and to everyone else be damned.

If the free market is so all powerful how come it can't get a foot hold in Hatti? Because it's the rule of the gun on that island and not law. If there were no laws there wouldn't be a global economic infrastructure and corporatist mechanism in place for you all to worship at.

As usual mans sight needs to be raised up from staring at his own belly button. Part, a small but loud part, and very well funded with national media outlets at their disposal echo the chant of laws are evil (they call it regulation or government because we all know laws aren't evil - they are set up to prevent evil) and claim what holds it all together and props it all up as evil because their particular financiers are encumbered by governance.

Romanticism of rugged individualism (the retarded cowboy) has never saw beyond itself or governed effectively. Greed is not good and Clint Eastwood isn't going to ride into town and save us all from the evil Bush-whackers. We save ourselves by governance and the rule of law.

Pick up a history book and go back to economics class. Although the individual profit whores (Bush-whackers) don't want an educated public because it would screw up their schemes of power and manipulation. It's too hard to manipulate an educated population with empty headed slogans and fear - Government is bad - yeah right - guess again.

Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home
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Break Up The Insurance Companies - Like AT&T!

The fact remains that big insurance by refusing care to patients and reimbursement to doctors over typos has ticked everyone off. They have a monopoly over the whole process and a well financed lobby team (including Liebermans wife) and representatives on both sides of the isle.

A friend of mine recently laid off just he and his spouse is paying $2,500.00 dollars a month for his COBRA. Health insurance costs more than his mortgage. Anyone taking up the insurance industry's cause doesn't know what they are talking about.

If you think the insurance companies are going to voluntarily lower their cost while having a monopoly over the process – you are being disingenuous …Over 60% of all US bankruptcies are attributable to medical problems. Most victims are middle class, well educated and have health insurance - (The American Journal of Medicine)

The insurance companies and their representatives in Congress would love to perpetuate a business model that is crippling our overall economy – a bunch of great Americans aren’t they?

90% of the wealth concentrated in 1% of the population is no way to run a country but a heck of a way to establish a royalty ruling class. Yacht sales can not sustain 350 million people. I'm for the public option, competition and a level playing field or break up the big insurers like we did AT&T.

Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home

This article from the LA Times is Tremendous!