Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused.

~ Anonymous

Sometimes I think I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe. ~ Diana Britt

The verdict is in on all the tax cuts for those who did not need tax cuts during the economy decimating Bush years. Not only did they not
stimulate the economy, which has done nothing but tank under their weight, but then have in fact only resulted in a further wealth transfer to America's corporate elite. The richest have just gotten richer, as if they needed any help.

End Bush Tax Cuts Action Page:
http://ping.fm/0Qisf

Republicans Worship False God - Money

It's perception some of us revere all living things in fact everything that wasn't created by the hand of men including mountains, streams and all forms of life.

We were invited into this garden and we tear at it, trash it and each other like wild boars of course god also created them. Its a conundrum and a mystery and probably meant to be that way so each individual can draw their own conclusion.

Whats right for you may not be right for me. But at the end of the day we have been given brains, and reasoning skills and we need to use them. In my humble opinion if you are not living by these two rules; live and let live, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you then it is you who are doing the wrong thing, and that ain't cool no matter how you spin it.

If you think dogs are soulless and that killing for sport is fun you might want to take a step back and think about how you got here and were is here actually in the first place.

We did not build this little, planet in the corner of the cosmos we are guests and some feel stewards of creation, but we worship money and I think that is a classic example of barking up the wrong tree....

Its a question of perception and mind set. Just because things were done a certain way in the past doesn't excuse us or forgive us of our current actions. We need a gut check as to what are we doing and why are we here? Is this a pointless existence and even if it is shouldn't we make the best of it to not make it so pointless....?

I could go on but you get the picture - just look outside at the stars above - and get outside your immediate self, ask yourself those questions, remind yourself of the extraordinary and let that impression guide your day and your actions.

Too bad our politicians and captains of industry worship money and profit a man made tool and convention. They are leading us down the proverbial primrose path. And for the record they have got it completely wrong.

Take action here

__________________________________________________
To be "led down the primrose path" is an idiom suggesting that one is being deceived or led astray, often by a hypocrite. The primrose path also refers to someone living a life of luxury apparently linking primroses to libertine indulgence.

"America is not a perfect country... they have to review a lot of their policies because they are pushing secular, moderate, liberal and progressive people on the other side of the line of divide”

Dr Farooq Sattar

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.

Eight-year-old

Republicans, Bullies and Greed

The over simplified concept that leaves out the necessity and need for government, assumes that markets work in a vacuum freely (they don't and they never have) and that men aren't crooks, liars, cheats, and greedy.

The crisis is one of principle as well.

If the powers that be weren't gaming the system through bribes (lobbying) to maximize their profit margins we wouldn't be in this mess.

Small government is a wonderful idea but it better be powerful because what the status quo really wants is an inept, powerless cop on the beat so they can rob us blind (our tax dollars) park that money off shore thereby pulling it out of our markets completely. It renders the money useless and stored as if literally under a mattress.

Necessity is the mother of invention and so education has to be improved. If you want the so called lazy people (those disenfranchised by no fault of their own) to again have a productive life you have to SHARE the tools with them to achieve that productive life.

At the end of the day money is just a tool. It's how we use it that tells us who and what we are, and greedy little whores make terrible sheriffs.

The idea is to "govern" enforce the anti-trust act and stop selling out. Unfortunately our political system the way it is designed right now rewards the sell out.

Fair election laws and public financing take the bribery out of the system. But men being what they are crooks, liars, hypocrites and cheats struggling for power to stroke their own ego will stop at nothing.

When profit is the end all be all goal of existence this is the world we get. A world of resource wars and a vast divide between the haves and the have nots. Fairer more equitable societies are more peaceful and that affects productivity in a very positive way. So if you want productivity make it an equitable society.

Ethics, conflict of interest and a real gut check as to what is it we are actually doing and trying to accomplish with our existence needs to be addressed.

Otherwise we are doomed to our orchestrated treadmill money chase that benefits the few at the top of this so called fair market pyramid scheme, and we are left to wonder why our lives are so busy, but un-fulfilling.

We have a nice market idea of a system but it has been so fully corrupted that it is sputtering and almost inoperable and right now benefits the few.

That will change hopefully peacefully. Making government so small "you can drown it in the bathtub" as one right wing bully thief spoke isn't the answer either.

We are already the lest taxed western civilization and lowering taxes isn't a panacea when you are trying to "govern" a continent and market sector with global ramifications.

It's time to spend those tax dollars more wisely yes but not going off on resource wars rather by unbridling the strangle hold the status quo has on the economy and politics.

That is the way out of our self inflicted wounds. Wounds brought on by those who govern by greed and wanting more, more, more, more and more and those servile enough to give it to them as long as they get more, more, and more.

Do you really think its lack of innovation that has kept electric cars off the road, solar panels off your roof tops, city centers from being retrofitted, high speed rail from being developed, wind farms from going up, solar thermal from being hooked up to a modern grid - NO IT IS NOT - its the vested self interest of last centuries dirty energy conglomeration that is protecting its share of the market place by hook or by crook.

A healthy law enforcing government plenty big enough to enforce the laws in a fair and equitable way to level the playing field so innovation can emerge is just exactly what is being prevented by those who have already "got theirs" and fear dramatically not being able to keep up with the Jonses.

Its all about the pathetic sociopaths and we have let these greedy psychopaths dictate our laws to us - literally by letting their minions actually write the laws and then accepting their campaign checks.

It is the status quo that shuts down innovation scoops new patents up and sidelines innovation in order to protect THEIR bottom line.

In a society that worships money and has been brain washed to see protecting the environment as a jobs cutter - do not underestimate the power of the corporate kleptocracy and their corporate owned media messaging system that for some reason forgot the lessons of sharing and the lessons of their bible.

They are the men doing the evil every minute of every day and all their nice sounding words of FREE markets, LOWER taxes are designed for one thing and one thing only - to make government impotent, useless and easily manipulated by the NEW ruling class of uber wealthy.

The richest 2% have taken over our Country and bled it dry but that's okay turn on the television, and by no means get involved or vote more than once every four years. Look the other way now you and whatever you do don't join a union. YOU can not make a difference.

Of course we all know that is utter hog wash meant to protect the hogs.

The magic of the unregulated invisible hand of the markets is no more real than the tooth fairy, and they'll steal that twenty five cents from under your pillow as well if you let them.

Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Republicans unveiled their plan for governing -- their Pledge on America.

They're pledging to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires.

They're pledging to roll back regulations on big oil and Wall Street.

They're pledging to strike down rules reining in the credit card lenders and the insurance companies.

They're pledging to increase the deficit by trillions of dollars.

Punch The Hippies!!!

Industry versus nature - money versus god - same old story - getting drunk and blasting animals as recreation isn't even a prehistoric mentality - they killed to survive. It's just plain wrong and guns as a religion is definitely twisted. Guns and money are only tools. Its how we use them that defines them and therefore our actions that define us. "Fat, stupid and drunk is no way to go through life son," Dean Wormer.

But recreation is a big, big, big business with lots and lots of money for our prostitute politicians. The haves versus the have nots - vote the bums out - bring the science back and ranchers start paying your fair share for grazing on OUR public lands.

Hire a few cowboys/park rangers to guard your wandering sheep herds. Heck if you paid your fair share for our public land then the public could train park rangers to protect your herds. The fact of the matter is you're business model would be broke if you had to pay a fair price to graze our PUBLIC land.

You know what they call this false bravado in D.C. - punch the hippies - that's right - that's exactly what they say behind closed doors - time to punch the hippies. From Regan on down its been a back lash against hippies - why - because we shocked the hell out of the establishment. An establishment that wants us all to walk in lock step to maximize their profits. They don't want us going off the grid and rejecting their ponzi rigged scheme of an alleged fair market system.

A market that is so twisted by manipulation that it protects and promotes monopolies, created an entrenched kleptocracy (look it up) and did away with the fairness doctrine in media.

The rah, rah, gun tottin' bible thumpin' conservative mind set is a heartless, unethical, pig headed and corrupt mind set that has destroyed this country.

Rugged individualism was glorified by the Hollywood they say they hate, and aped by our politicians and disenfranchised wannabes. In nature their is balance which requires cooperation.

You can't eat money you big dopes and everything we pump into the environment lodges back into our bodies. Take a high school biology class - for gods sake.

But keep pissing in your well water America and wondering whats wrong you'll either figure it out or you won't.

I recommend protecting the environment the way you protect profit margins. But who wants lower health care costs and maximized productivity from a healthy population living in balance and SUSTAINABILITY with what was laid out before us?

Like a huge banquet and feast we enter the Garden of Eden and destroy it like a bunch of wild boars...brilliant America, brilliant!

Take Action Here

Medicare Prescription Drug Rebates for Seniors—Medicare Part D enrollees who hit the Medicare prescription drug benefit gap in 2010 automatically will receive a $250 rebate check.

Tax Credits for Small Businesses Providing Coverage to Workers—Already effective, qualified small businesses get tax credit for up to 35 percent of their premiums for covering their workers.

No More "Lifetime Limits"—Insurers no longer can stop your benefits because you have "maxed out."

Immediate Access, Even If You Have Pre-Existing Conditions—Children younger than 19 no longer can be rejected from health care plans due to pre-existing conditions. New plans cannot exclude adults or children from coverage for a pre-existing condition.

Here are the health care changes going into effect today:

* No More Getting Dropped After You Get Sick—You no longer can be cut after the fact.

MYTH #4: Health care reform will bankrupt the country.
FACT: The new health care law will reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over the next 10 years. Repealing the law would increase the deficit by $455 billion over the same time period.

MYTH #3: Health care reform weakens Medicare and hurts seniors.
FACT: Health care reform actually strengthens Medicare. It will stop wasteful overpayments, cut down on fraud and abuse, reduce out-of-pocket costs and provide seniors with free preventative care visits.

MYTH #2: Small businesses can't afford health care reform right now.
FACT: Tax credits and other measures already are making it easier for small businesses to provide coverage for their employees.

MYTH #1: Government "death panels" will decide who deserves health care benefits.
FACT: Death panels simply don't exist: they never have, and they never will.

The Sun will not rise, or set, without my notice and thanks. Winslow Homer

Here's The Deal

Here's the deal: You have to put the bread on the table...its an expression I picked up passing two professors lamenting curriculum at Tulane on my way to freshman class.

I flunked out but my time in New Orleans has lead to a life time love affair with the City and State. You are not the only one who can digress...and that's what it is ...or as it occurs to me now...life is a digression.

Feel your way, feel your way like the day before - the timeless journey we all take as individuals remarkable in its similarities and looking back on it now - I've done some bouncing around myself.

Although I'm a bit of a safe freak - there are some chances I took - I guess having the cops draw their guns on you - isn't really that safe or smart.

So no one has the answers - nobody knows - take care to either farm your own food or get money to buy it - those are our two choices...opting for one the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Been through stupid jobs but got to the point where I realized my job wasn't me - just the fuel that allowed me to be what I want to be...wrote the book, played the guitar, biked the parks - my to do list is endless...but that's life...listen to some old music.

Cole Porter - the stuff Sinatra sings - Doc Watson - they laid the truths out that we can understand simply and clearly...and understand this - it is all magic...every square inch of it, every second - no matter where you are or who you are it is all a created miracle - as we are the conscious and consciousness of the world no less...no more.

It is the moment that we live in but a little planning helps those moments transition a little, smoother, lighter...although upheaval is a helluva producer.

Again nobody knows...NOBODY....emphasis mine because there are so many claiming to know...by design the mystery is built in and that's something amazing and thankfully not taken out of the equation.

There are a million roads to travel, a million ways to be - it is not a one size fits all world...and happiness comes from inside...wherever you go what is revealed is what you bring with you...what you broadcast you receive...keep your sense of humor and remember its not "out there" but inside each one of us because we are a part of all we see not apart from the world.

No baby, family, job, career, adventure will bring happiness - its not "out there" but in how you look at it - seems stupid - the great mystery is lying quiet with our souls - if we just step out of the way for a minute.

Being a part of the world, universe, ethereal reality as opposed to a part from it - that paradigm shift would cure a lot of ills ....now I'm skidding into politics, business, war, greed and don't want to go there....

and so I struggle to protect what has been created...I didn't put the Earth here or even myself or maybe I did put myself here -right now with my extenuating circumstances in order to evolve through the finite into the infinite and so isn't it amazing is not such a bad way to go...



Your passion and your career might not be the same thing but that's okay - our market system isn't "that" organic - its a man made tool, money is a tool - sometimes the mundane realities are just that...mundane...but within your soul is the ability to turn the mundane into harmony...



We are here I suspect to help each other...and in your own corner of the world make it better somehow some way - a kind word - a smile - a helping hand, giving is receiving....don't give up on yourself - if you can't thread the needle where you are doing something you love and making a living - make a living and do something you love.

In a hundred plus words maybe I've said something after all.

Paul



Take action here

"I am a lover of my own liberty and so would do nothing to restrict yours." - Gandhi

What we play is life.

~ Louis Armstrong

Maybe it’s time to change the name of the Tea Party to the Flat Earth Party

From the first not a thing is.

~ Hui-Neng

“Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.” ~ Albert Einstein

Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours. –

Swedish Proverb

"Do not be driven by fear and anger - you get back what you project..." Paul Burke

That this moment will never come again, is what makes life sweet.

~ Emily Dickinson

May you live all the days of your life.

~ Jonathon Swift

Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite Nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.

Albert Einstein

Top Five Things You Should Know About Elizabeth Warren

Top Five Things You Should Know About Elizabeth Warren

1. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was her idea. Here's why she thinks this agency is so critical: "It is impossible to buy a toaster that has a one-in-five chance of bursting into flames and burning down your house. But it is possible to refinance your home with a mortgage that has the same one-in-five chance of putting your family out on the street."1

2. The Republicans are so scared of her, they tried to pass a law blocking her from leading the agency. Republicans in Congress and the big Wall Street banks have always been against Warren leading the new consumer agency. Republicans even offered an amendment that was widely understood as designed to block Warren. That amendment failed.2

3. She is one of the most prominent, successful and fierce female lawyers in America. Coming from working-class roots, she graduated from high school as a debate star at 16. She finished law school when she was nine months pregnant. And she has repeatedly been named one of the fifty most influential female lawyers by the National Law Journal and was twice nominated as one of Time Magazines 100 Most Influential People (among other honors).3

4. She spoke truth to power about the failed foreclosure program. The Home Affordability Modification Program was supposed to save homeowners from losing their homes but has left many deeper in debt than they were before. Warren used her position on the Congressional Oversight panel to bring the voices of these disaffected homeowners right to the decision makers in the administration and demand accountability.4

5. She may have actual superpowers. She once calmed the entire crowd of an NBA game with her encyclopedic basketball knowledge. She explained the financial meltdown so clearly to Jon Stewart he said it made him "want to make out with" her. And there's a viral rap video about her.5

Video Link

Sources:
1. "Making Credit Safer: The Case for Regulation," Harvard Magazine, June 2008
http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/05/making-credit-safer-html

2. "GOP Tried To Block Elizabeth Warren From Heading Agency She Proposed," Huffington Post, October 27, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90368

3. Elizabeth Warren Wikipedia Entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren

4. "Elizabeth Warren is Bostonian of the Year," The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90369

5. "How HAMP Makes Elizabeth Warren The Only Choice For Consumer Protection," The New Deal 2.0, July 22, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90370

Got a New Sheriff, Main Street Brigade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0vCgMRX0o

"Elizabeth Warren is Bostonian of the Year," The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90369

"Jon Stewart to Elizabeth Warren: Let's Make Out," Talking Points Memo, January 27, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=90371

From 2002-08, fossil fuels got $72 Billion in federal subsidies. Solar got $2 Billion. Oil & gas operates on 13 Million acres of "public" land. Solar has been approved for 0. Tack action here: http://ping.fm/pbq2i

Welfare Ranchers - Another Reason To Vote

Defenders of Wildlife stopped paying ranchers for wolves picking off strays out of the herd because of the multi state hunt that was slaughtering pups and blatantly ignoring limits set for the hunts. Good for Defenders of Wildlife. They aren't a bunch of suckers.

DOW tried to work with the ranchers but still can't get honest brokers to the table. Its become politics and a wedge issue.

Let's talk about livestock and the rights of individuals to get sweetheart deals from the Department of the Interior.

The Ranchers graze on public lands...so they loose a few head of stock...its called the price of doing business... Take your livestock elsewhere or start paying real money to the Federal Government for the presumed EXCLUSIVE right to graze on "our tax payer" land.

As usual the privileged want their cake and to eat it too as if we the public owe them anything. They graze for virtually free on Federal land expensively maintained by the tax payers to the benefit of a few individuals getting rich.

Ludicrous - its a bad deal for the tax payer.

To bad if some individual rancher looses a few heads of Cattle or sheep. If they had to pay a real world rate to graze our public land to go along with their arrogant demand that it is their land to exclusively use in the first place they'd be completely out of business.

These welfare ranchers ought to thank their lucky stars they have it so good and tolerate the odd wolf feed, or better protect their herd by hiring ranch hands. Isn't this sweetheart deal rationalized and excused because its supposed to help the total economy?

Hire some damn cowboys, pay to federalize and train them so they are not stupid yahoos out just for the kill or move the damn herd out of wolf migration routes.

But since the welfare ranchers don't want to loose one dime and think Uncle Sam should prop up their business model then we'll have to let the wolves run free.

We could use a reduction in cattle and meat consumption anyway. The methane and waste is bad for the environment, watershed and fish, and eating red meat jacks up our health care costs through the roof.

It would be an overall macroeconomic money saver to let the ranchers go out of business. Then those western states would have to join the 21st century. Put up some windmills you big government teet sucking dopes.

The cattle industry is like the oil industry an outdated relic from 200 years ago.

Let nature take its course and if a few well connected ranchers go out of business too bad.

The outcry is because the Republicans don't want to loose their cash cow (pun intended)- as uber wealthy ranchers plow money back into their campaigns to keep their sweetheart deals together out on the range.

I'm sick of everyone bending over backwards to keep a few rich fat cats happy because they lost 1% off their bottom line.

A bottom line that wouldn't even exist if the tax payers weren't propping up their business or got fair market value for their presumed EXCLUSIVE rights to our PUBLIC LAND.

Shut up and deal with the wolves - god created them - man created money.

Take action here

Puccini for Beginners - Movie Review

I liked this movie. It stars some of my lesser known favorite actors including Elizabeth Reaser (Family Stone), Julianne Nicholson (Tully) and Justin Kirk (Weeds). So I jumped on it. A romantic comedy that has an inventive way to deliver inner dialogue. I like how it doesn't hit you over the head with guffaws. One critic called it Woody Allen lite. Well that's an easy way to describe some of the dialogue but seriously are we only allowed one director to explore our relationship nuances, obsessions and confusion.

Although this film deals with lesbian relationships and hetero relationships - if you are squeamish do not be put off. This is an easily accessible movie with plenty of laughs and charm. A great date movie and one for the Mr. and Mrs. as well - although I'd keep the super young kiddies away.

Good writing, inventive screen play, a couple of insights as well as outright yucks.

Four out of five stars.

I'm a big fan of Julianne Nicholson since Tully - she delivers the goods again. The woman is a fine actress. Although I'm not a big corporate television fan so I haven't seen her television work - just the big screen stuff.

Rent Puccini for Beginners from Net flix guilt free and get the popcorn ready for a heartfelt good time.

We Could All Be Farmers

Regulating agencies NOT doing their job - is largely due to the fact that "most" agencies have someone from the industry they are supposed to be regulating as head of the department.

Look at the Department of the Interior. The Ranchers and oil men are regulating themselves. This is called a conflict of interest and its the main cause of ineffective government. That 1800 mining law is an abomination that leaves the tax payer on the hook to clean up industry messes and lets the miners walk of with our National treasure at pennies on the dollar. (tax payers are both liberals, independents, and conservatives).

Not having the richest 2% pay their fair share of taxes and the middle class paying a higher percentage is also highway robbery. It doesn't work as an economic stimulant because the rich boys just invest it off shore and hoard it at the top.

Trickle down economics is a theory offered to justify an action and it has failed miserably as an economic model, but it was never a serious model it was just an excuse to hoard money. It obviously doesn't work or the economy would be just fine - they've had the tax breaks since Regan with a brief time out during Clinton/Gore - who amazingly managed to balance the budget...go figure.

If you would calm down and stop playing us against them - and stop treating politics as a team sport - you would realize that so called liberals and conservatives all want the same thing.

We don't want the government telling us how to live our lives.

It's not middle and lower class republicans versus democrats and greens...it is and always will be down through history and into the future -

The "haves" versus the "have nots".

Money, money, money controls access, power and decision making. If you think the NRA isn't some political juggernaut your being dishonest - but you see "guns" are a wedge issue - meant to keep the have nots squabbling amongst themselves - along with abortion and jobs versus the environment....

The jobs versus the environment wedge issue is about to go away because everyone knows around the globe that the environment is where the jobs are as clean energy emerges from behind the blocking of the dirty fuel empire that has been driving this country for 100 plus years.

Stop seeing yourself as if on a political "team" - you are - as the laws stand now - free to live your life anyway you want, buy as many guns you want and never ever practice birth control - and you can - as it strands now worship any way you want - if you want.

The problem is that when one sector of society tries to enforce its beliefs, culture, habits, lifestyle onto everyone - especially in such a huge diverse country out of fear or the need for validation - the other sectors of society push back.

Vote your conscious but don't think for a minute corporate self interest is even slightly capable of enlightened governance when they are the jerks that corrupted the system in the first place - it certainly wasn't a tree hugger.

And speaking of wedge issues - deregulation and war exploded debt versus retirement.

Know this:

Social Security is funded entirely by working Americans and their employers. It takes no money from the Treasury and has no impact on the national debt.

We could all be farmers but we bought into the capitalist system. We work until our bodies are unable to promote and advance the system which makes those at the top insanely rich. But now they want to eliminate our meager retirement security because they chip into it and want to keep even that small amount in their own over stuffed wallets to hoard.

If they want us to buy their stuff and prop up the economy - they better make sure we all have a living wage - if they crush the middle class - this Country folds and you will have even more to be angry at - but don't be duped into thinking its your fellow middle classers no matter what they vote for - but those at the top are to blame for being greedy beyond belief...and cutting their nose off to spite their face.

Try to refrain from attacking your fellow citizens - we are in no more control than you are - and to the extent that we attack each other is the extent to which the ruling elite have successfully played us off one another while they escape with our tax dollars.

For instance Exxon Mobil paid zero federal taxes while getting subsidies - if you (a conservative, tea party person) or me ( a compassionate liberal) were in charge neither of us would let those fat cats get away with something that outrageous.

The liberals are not the enemy. We are ALL being ripped off by the super rich. They are not our saviors and they are not an effective means of government. Simply put government is the policeman on the block. To the extent that policeman has been sold out, compromised and corrupted is what we all need to fix.

There is plenty of room in this world for environmentalists and sportsmen - but thinking each other is the enemy is taking our eye off the ball while the super rich game the system in their favor and rob us blind.

By the way we are one of the least taxed countries in the world - and we all hope it stays that way.

Liberal, conservative, independent, green, tea - we are all patriots who care about this country - our representatives are very vulnerable to corruption and we must fix that - fair election laws, conflict of interest and the upholding of ethics - we have to dream the dream and change what those in power want us to think is unchangeable. Money is and always has been the root of all evil.

Take Action Here

Hound Dog - Movie Review

After watching the Runaways with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning I wanted to explore some more Dakota Fanning films. I thought she did a great job in the Runaways and I thought Kristen nailed her part as Joan Jett - fantastic. I can highly recommend The Runaways and suggest you see that as well if you have not rented it from Net Flix yet.

In any event I stumbled upon Hound Dog and liked some of the other reviews I saw and took a chance on renting.

A serious movie with moments of sheer despair, farce and joy mixed together. Hound Dog is a slice of life, rural south, exploration and exploitation of hope, grit and determination all wrapped up in Dakota Fanning as an 11 year old. I'm guessing on her age but she's just a young girl in this movie and deals with extraordinary over the top circumstances. Well maybe on second thought not so extra-ordinary but perhaps quite ordinary, and that might be the point of the movie.

Growing up is hard, growing up poor is even harder, growing up poor and uneducated damned near impossible. There are sharks swimming all around you as a child in all sorts of strips ready to take advantage. They may be your parents, grand parents friends, neighbors and personalities, but everyone is hard scrambled and living on their wits. Some use their wits to take advantage of the naive some use those wits to make the best of a bad situation, and others struggle mightily somewhere in between waffling back and forth.

Half way through this movie I realized I was watching a movie that the small minded had a knee jerk reaction to when it first came out. You know who I mean the supposed arbiters who want everyone to act the same, think the same and live the same as if creation its very self wasn't a triumph of diversity and creativity. You know the ones who lambasted Scorsese The Last Temptation of Christ. Well that's a beautiful movie and after watching that I still do not see what the outrage was all about.

Organized religion is just another political party who wants to control their minions. Run don't walk away from their controlling behavior. You inherently know the difference between right and wrong. You do not need another man dressed up as if at a costume party haranguing you, guilting you and manipulating you into supposed norms. Norms that betray the very teachings of their messiahs. Norms that discriminate, divide and exploit our differences, norms that promote fear for personal gain and power...all dressed up as a religion...the hypocrisy is blatantly obvious.

Anyway those turkeys tried to control the viewing of this wonderful movie and I think it got passed over. Dakota Fanning delivers a remarkable performance considering her age. It is very believable and the controversial scene will knock you out as it should. There is a message being delivered here and it evolves over the course of the movie.

Robin Wright Penn gives a stellar performance as well.

Rent Hound Dog. It has moments of light, farce and joy as well as despair but the contrast is what makes the movie so powerful. And the farce will make you laugh out loud. At times it parodies itself to lighten the load but the overall message is delivered in the end.

Four stars out of five - it could have been longer and Robbin Wright Penn's Character more developed. That way the movie could have avoided stereotypes and the farcical situations. The lightening strike is a riot, and the pool hall scene incredulous. The musical scenes were a bit over the top but for the record the back porch jam sessions are what its all about. Those scenes came off a little too polished for me. The expense of all those nice instruments versus the background of being poor didn't add up. I mean the movie has an Elvis impersonator in it. Tongue in cheek or a needed light touch. I don't think the director set out to make Sounder (another beautiful movie). So its not all doom and gloom and your emotions do jump back and forth. If you look at this movie insisting on a dreaded serious topic being reduced to academia you'll be frustrated.

I never got the feeling that the director was making a documentary but rather a movie that threw up the reality of extremes that are all too common and just what depths an individual has to go through in dealing with situations beyond their control.

God Made A Mistake

The senseless slaughter of god's creation is radical? You folks need to direct your anger in a more positive way. Defenders of Wildlife is just what their name say's - they defend wildlife against poisoning and barbaric man made practices.

Mankind needs an attitude adjustment and to take a huge step back. We are not gods, we are not above it all and we desperately need this planet to survive. We need to co-exist not only with each other but within our environment and maintain our environment.

Defenders for the record understands culling herds and understands big business, and the difference between the two. Politicians no matter how they appear or sell themselves are parasites and junkies for money who will sell out anything and anyone to get ahead.

We are stewards of this Earth and it is a question of sustainability and balance and quite frankly that is in all our best interest. Left unabated we'll strip our forests, kill all our fish and end up like Haiti.

Government is a necessary tool to oversee the big picture because individuals are reckless fools only looking out for themselves. They don't care to take the big picture into account because they have the mindset that its someone else's problem, and to get away with as much as they can get away with. Call it the pissing in your well water syndrome. If there is a buck to made make it and get out quick, and let the other guy (tax payer) worry about it and clean it up.

There is nothing radical at all about maintaining a healthy ecosystem and it is in our best interest economically and environmentally. It impacts our health, and economy. The slash and burn mentality of corporate profiteers who value profit margin above all because that is how they are set up to do business make a few people very, very, very, very rich. It doesn't trickle down it gets hoarded at the top and sent overseas to the Caymans and Bermuda and Switzerland. Your anger is completely mis-directed.

It's not the environmentalist who are causing you harm it's the profiteers who are thwarted by the environmentalists actions who will stop at nothing to make a buck.

If money was so essential to survival why doesn't it grow on trees? I guess God made a mistake and man is the one who is right......guess again.

Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home

By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.3 trillion surplus.

Social Security is funded entirely by working Americans and their employers. It takes no money from the Treasury and has no impact on the national debt.

Animals are such agreeable friends. They ask no questions, they pass no judgments.

~ Unknown

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

* Amount spent on television ads in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's home state of Nevada since June: $7.5 million
* Amount spent on those ads by outside groups: $2.8 million
* Amount Republican candidate Sharron Angle has spent on ads: $2.6 million
* Amount Reid has spent: $1.9 million

Undue Influence and Duress

Undue influence is undue influence and conflict of interest is still what it amounts to no matter who is in office.

Until the rank and file voters who call themselves republicans wake up and realizes their middle class “self-interest” are being trounced by power brokers and stop worshiping lawless corporations we’ll have a problem a huge problem on our hands.

Consolidation of industry is akin to incest and is having the same results on our economy as it did on the royals lineage.

Innovation is being stifled as the status quo seeks to clamp down on power, corner the markets and eliminate competition. That’s what they do and its bad for America but in the Status Quo’s self interest.

Rampant egos of the likes of Murdoch (FOX Corp) and the Koch brothers demand autonomy and to do what they see fit, and to rule the world - literally I'm convinced of that and that their ego's are driving them that way.

But as they bleed the middle class dry they have their puppets in Congress block all meaningful change and the Country crumbles. Their bottom line comes first and to hell with everyone and everything else.

Diversity and sustainability a level playing field = a healthy country, healthy markets and a healthy economy for all. It also would pay handsome dividends to the power brokers across the board, but their greed has blinded them to this obvious macro-economic reality. Their mindset of being only in it for themselves hampers their bottom line from exploding exponentially into the stratosphere as they miserly operate from a mirco market point of view. They lack the common understanding of a vibrant interconnected market system. They only see top down.

The ROLLING BACK OF THE BUSH TAX BREAKS FOR THE RICHEST TWO PERCENT would be a start in taking back the Country from the Kleptocracy it has become. And is something the MAJORITY in this Country are pushing for - the airwaves and corporate media outlets are not to be trusted.

Well done Koch Industries and Rupert Murdoch and Rodger Alies…well done. You're corruption of government officials is about as unpatriotic as it gets.

Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home

When the bird and the book disagree, always believe the bird.

~ John James Audobon

"If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.""

–President Lyndon B. Johnson, on the signing of the Wilderness Act of 1964

Liberals are NOT the Enemy

Your wages have been stagnating since Regan took office.



Your food, water and air are polluted.



Cancer even in children is increasing exponentially.

Health care costs go up.

Corporate america and transnational corporations don't care about anything other than their bottom line.

Corporate america and transnational corporations fund cut throat politics to rig the markets in their favor.

Corporate america and transnational corporations are to blame.

They do "not" want competition or a level playing field, but they do want desperately to consolidate monopolies - and to "corner" the market.

They do not want a free market and they do not want voters educated.

Turn off the 24 hour propaganda machine FOX. (awesome link)

They funded the Republican Governors Committee to the tune of 1 million bucks.

Rupert Murdoch wants to be the King of the World.

The RNC is registering HOMELESS PEOPLE as green party candidates to split the vote.

Big Oil funds the climate deniers while collecting billions in YOUR tax dollars.

By they way this summer was the hottest summer on record where I live. There is Dengue fever in the Keys and moving north into Miami.

Too much info for you?

Too bad.

The world can not be reduced to a sound bite.

Those who try are selling snake oil.

Good luck with that stagnated pay check.

The corporations do NOT have your best interest at heart or even in mind.

They're too stupid to know that without a good solid living wage we can't buy their crap, will drive less, consume less and leave them stuck with inventory.

Good solid pay affects their bottom line positively but since they are corrupt beyond belief they can't see that. Just because they are rich doesn't make them smart and vice versa.

But don't worry the Liberals will despite all odds and in the face of volumes of vitriol and uncivilized discourse - right the ship.

If you vote republican you are voting for him and...



stabbing your own self in the back.

Media Matters Home Page - get involved learn more

The new earth arises as more and more people discover that their main purpose in life is to bring the light of consciousness into this world.

~ Eckhart Tolle

In 1999, Koch Industries was indicted on 97 counts of violating the Clean Air Act, and related criminal laws. Why? Because Koch's Corpus Christi oil refinery had dumped 91 tons of benzene, a carcinogen, into the environment.

Fossil fuels receive $550 billion in subsidies a year -- 12 times what alternatives such as wind and solar get. - International Energy Agency

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans." Robert Kennedy

For the past fifty years, through its Matador Cattle Company subsidiary, Koch Industries has been quietly milking a New Deal program that allows ranchers to use federal land basically for free.

kleptocracy n. , pl. , -cies . A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption

David Koch is the owner of the second largest private company in America. He made his money the old-fashioned way: he inherited it. Incredibly, his father got rich helping to industrialize and arm the Soviet Union.