For one human being to love another...the work for which all other work is but preparation.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.

~ Hippocrates (philosopher)

For one human being to love another...the work for which all other work is but preparation.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

2. 2. Social Security will never go bankrupt. Its major source of income comes from the contributions of workers and employers; as long as there are workers, Social Security will have income. Closing tax loopholes for wealthy individuals will increase the long term financial health of the program, and protect it for decades to come.

Facts:

1. 1. Social Security belongs to you—the workers who contribute to it—not the politicians in Washington.

4. 4. Privatizing Social Security would be a disaster. Social Security is so valuable because it provides a guaranteed benefit. Privatizing Social Security would remove this guarantee and have people gamble their retirement savings in the casinos of Wall Street. If the recent financial crisis taught us anything, Wall Street is the last place where our money is safe.

3. 3. Raising the retirement age is a terrible idea and a large benefit cut. If you were claiming benefits as a 66 year-old retired worker and the full retirement age was changed from 66, where it is today, to 69 your benefits would be cut 20 percent. A typical benefit would drop from $14,000 a year to $11,200 a year.

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

Alan Watts

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

~ Booker T. Washington

This is a world of action, and not for moping and groaning in.

~ Charles Dickens

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.

~ Charles Schulz

Clean Water, Air and Food Its Neither Left nor Right.

You have to survive on the planet first before you survive as a culture and NOW our cultures and civilizations are so huge and our population so large we are impacting the environment in significant ways across the board. From a macro world view Earth first - profit second is the recipe for our collective global survival, and yes cancer happens at the cellular level so we should be concerned with parts per million. None of our corporate, industrial chemical reactions happen in a vacuum so they all add up (even every time you go for an x-ray). In other words one smoke stack in Michigan and one in Pennsylvania equal two in the atmosphere even though you can only see one from your street corner.

The environment (innovation, emerging markets, education) = jobs and the two have to live together. Individual profit margins impacting the environment negatively have to be corralled, and corrected. There's nothing wrong with making money the right (industry advocates) need to stop foisting that straw man onto the environmentalists who see the big picture as opposed to what an individual company's profit margin might be. Environmentalists are just trying to keep the house clean and understand (like the bees for instance) how an integrated environment is the base from which everything else jumps off of. The Earth is our operating system - no bees - no almond industry. We can have a healthier, more diversified, productive and cohesive civilization but we have to keep our priorities in tact. Clean water, air and food isn't a matter of politics. Its neither left nor right. Unregulated fishing leaves no "free Willey" to argue about and a war over who gets to chop up the last one.

Stick with a managed market system. Science, education, national defense, infrastructure and then profit. There's plenty of money. Its just getting horded at the top because its over valued in the grand scheme of things. You can't eat money.

Politics a Team Sport - Which Side is Your Bread Buttered On?

"Enemy team" - that's what I read recently out at the Washington Times - referring to the democratic party, environmentalist and liberals.

It's exactly right on point - and the problem with politics.

Running a country is not a team sport - a house divided can not stand - and your fellow citizens are NOT your enemy, but such is the mind set foisted onto the american public by the powers that be - its called divide and conquer - the rich elite have the middle class squabbling amongst themselves - we out number them but they have more money and access and get 95% of what they want - bank on it.

Jobs going overseas.....because labor is dirt cheap - pennies on the dollar - you want to live in Calcutta slums keep arguing amongst your selves - you want a great country - vote "YOUR" pocketbook - not the other guys - don't worry about the drillers and oil industry - they make billions in profit - and have plenty of untapped leases already. Its cute but they don't need your concern. As far as the environment goes when its out of whack it gives us cancer so it doesn't need your help either. Vote YOUR concern. What needs help is the middle class and their lack of insight and ease of manipulation. Wave a few flags, thump a few bibles, kiss a few babies, stir emotions with fear and a whole lot of people's brains turn off.

Better schools create jobs, innovation creates jobs. Unregulated capitalism wants to corner all the markets, eliminate all the competition and rake in all the profits. Unregulated capitalism destroys itself, and its resources because by definition short term profit is its only concern. Polluted drinking water (not my problem) the less I have to pay for the unintended or ignored consequences of my actions the more profit I gain. That mindset is good for a business if they can get away with it and boy howdy they sure do, but it is absolutely a reckless mindset for a managed market system and for governing a country of 300 million people from sea to shining sea.

Those who want to drown government in a bathtub, vilify our government are crooks who want to get away with murder. The federal government is all we have to stand up to them for fair pay, a living wage, safe working conditions. The federal government is the only one big enough to hold them accountable for their actions that pilfer pensions, and whose products give us cancer.

Talk about too big to fail -the government is too big to fail because without it there are no laws, rules, and regulations in order to manage create and foster a prosperous, healthy, cohesive, civilization.

Government is the sheriff on the block. If you want to drown them in the bathtub then you're a crook looking to get away with something. Trust big business - right - trust them to pawn their expenses onto the general public, trust them to pawn their responsibilities for the messes they have created onto the general public, trust them to try and steal every last cent of tax dollars in subsidies and exemptions. They are false gods laughing all the way to the unregulated, untaxed bank. They don't care one bit about you except in how they can exploit your labor and your wages. Hedge fund managers 15% tax rate - what a rip off - vote YOUR pocket book- if you're a hedge fund manager - if you're not and your championing their cause while you pay 35% or more - you're an idiot.

Blame the government but don't go crying to them when bridges collapse and school buses go falling into the rivers or you don't have enough resources to hold B/P accountable for cutting corners. I mean really people wake up and realize which side of your bread is buttered. Its your tax dollars. You want to give em to Exxon.....laughable - how about create competition in the market place...hmmm think that might work - all you free marketeers out there - mouseketeers is more like it.

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.

~ Roger Caras

At the height of laughter, the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities.

~ Jean Houston

A gloss on Descartes: Sometimes I think: and sometimes I am.

~ Paul Valery

What greater gift than the love of a cat?

~ Charles Dickens

Think on This ...
In the first cause, or principle, all is perfect. In the creation of soul, we find the portion may become a living soul and equal with the Creator. To reach that position, when separated, must pass through all stages of development, that it may be one with the Creator.

Edgar Cayce Reading 900-10

At least 30 new GOP congresspeople scolding everyone else about debt, carrying more than $50,000 of personal liabilities. W. Post: "Those debts included large mortgages on investment properties, as well as student loans and credit card balances. At least seven freshmen had credit card debt exceeding $15,000 ... in their private lives.

Finally, many veterans rely on private insurance, mostly through their employer. Because Republicans want to repeal the recent health insurance law, these veterans will no longer have guaranteed access to health insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions and may see annual or lifetime caps on coverage under the Republican budget.

Veterans who rely on Medicaid would not escape cuts either. The Republican plan could slash $1.4 trillion in health benefits over the next ten years. Forty-four states are already facing significant budget shortfall in Fiscal Year 2012,and the cuts could force the state to either ration health care benefits for veterans across the country, restrict eligibility rules and leave thousands uninsured, including veterans, or raise taxes to cover the shortfall.

Many of these veterans are relying onMedicareas their sole health care provider.The Ryan plan would have an immediate impact on these veterans, forcing those falling into the "donut hole" with high-cost prescription drug costs to pay more for their medications in addition to paying more for preventative health services.

Millions of veterans over 65 rely onMedicare, Medicaid or private insurance for their health care. In fact, according to the last survey of veterans by the Department of Veterans' affairs, 39.3 percent of veterans useMedicare, compared with 14 percent of the general population.

Tell @SpeakerBoehner to stop censoring the truth about #Medicare. http://bit.ly/l4RQsi

A new report released today by SEIA and GTM Research shows that solar energy continues to be one of the fastest growing industries in the country. While the overall U.S. economy grew at a sluggish 1.8% during the first three months of 2011, the domestic PV industry grew at 66% compared to the first quarter of 2010. Domestic manufacturing of PV modules grew at 31% compared to 2010. In total, there is now enough solar energy installed in the U.S. to power nearly half a million homes.

Exuberance is beauty.

~ William Blake

Tell @BarackObama: Put solar on it! Make good on your pledge to put #solar on the @WhiteHouse by spring 2011! http://bit.ly/ik6uDA @energy

Here's a good, short clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking at a rally in West Virginia last weekend, about America's fight to rein in the power of corporations, banks, and other big business interests, and the importance of overturning the Citizens United ruling. http://j.mp/RFK-CU

"The percentage of adult children taking care of their parents has tripled since 1994, with nearly 10 million people who are 50 and older doing so in 2008....The financial toll on care providers who are 50 or older averages $303,880 per person in lost wages, pensions and Social Security benefits over their lifetime." WSJ

I'm proud to announce that in addition to Kindle that Journey Home is available on NOOK Books - http://ping.fm/9Nu7I

I'm proud to announce "Journey Home" is now available on Kindle - http://ping.fm/HV1FE

Think on This ...
Unless those activities among men are the aid for the greater number, rather than for the class or the few, they must eventually fail.

Edgar Cayce Reading 826-2

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 best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself, in the service of others.

~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

~ Chinese Proverb

Thank @SenRockefeller for defending #Medicaid http://bit.ly/lPqBDY #p2

Environment = JOBS!

There's not enough oil to affect prices on the international spot market - America is a bit player - less than minor league not even JV when compared to the majors in the Mid-East. We don't have 2% of what the Middle East has and all oil goes out to the international spot market where it’s bid on - that's where the price is set. We don't have enough oil to make a dent in the system.

Meanwhile that champion of republican ideology Eric Cantor wants to ADD another government agency and none of the faithful even challenge the idea - talk about blinders. I hope his die hard republican supporters UNDERSTAND Cantor is EXPANDING government - not de-funding it.

When will people see the forest from the tress - there are more jobs waiting in the clean energy sector but the representatives of the status quo, big oil, big nuke, big coal and the telecoms don't want competition. They have blocked the creation of millions of jobs to stall the economy to win power, elections and corner their respective markets. That's capitalism and its no good for the Nations economy when it functions to suit its own, singular bottom line destroying competition and using profit margin as its universal excuse to drive up cancer rates, gut the economy and cause world war.

Off shore rig jobs will barely bring a thousand jobs nation wide.

The millions of jobs and boom are in upgrading the transmission lines, installing recharging stations for electric cars, slapping solar panels on ALL our rooftops, replacing hot water heaters, and retrofitting the cities for more energy efficiency.

But the status quo is in the business of SELLING energy consumption so what’s good for America is not good for them.

So the question is whose side are you on Americas or some rich CEO in his skyscraper palace and country club mansion?

Leases already owned not drilled, billion dollar coastal markets and livelihoods destroyed and for a few CEO's and investors at the top - rich guys like politicians - that's not democracy but that is capitalism at its worst.

Mismanaged markets are unregulated they devour resources blindly and spoil our land, food, water, air and health all in the name of short term profits. the collateral damage has ramifications from coast to coast and all points in between. We can not allow individual companies and their pursuit of profit to continue acting as if in a vacuum and that their actions have no consequences on the greater good and survival of our planet, our health, our food supply and economy. A rich vibrant and diversified economy will operate at peak efficiency and with benefit to all not just a few wrecking havoc on the rest of us.

What is with the disconnect between the Earth and what it takes to live on it successfully and making money? You can't eat the money. That the easily mislead think the EPA and government is the problem is just sad. Usually it’s a polluting industry insider at the head of the EPA rolling back mercury laws. They put people over profits and don't care or account for downstream ramifications of their byproducts unless they have to pay for them.

And the people are so spun around and mislead that they don't know what’s in their own best interest.

You need a scapegoat look in the mirror apathy, willful ignorance, and easy answers are being fed to you and you’re buying it...because you think having a successful country means ripping down all the forests, poisoning the water and making a few rich guys happy and that somehow magically and mysteriously on faith it will trickle down to you.

It hasn't yet has it? How many more decades are you going to fall for that b.s.?

The problem is the status quo wants the entire economy and markets cornered that’s what they do. They want to get rid of any and all competition, thwart innovation and legislate any threat to their individual bank accounts into obscurity.

That’s the game the big boys play night and day 24/7 without any consideration to the overall macro-economy. That’s your government’s job and to the extent your government can be bought off, and corrupted is to the extent that the powerful can gain more power and steal our capital and natural resources for themselves parking it in off shore accounts where it is kept willfully out of our economy and you wonder why you can't find work.

The money is hoarded at the top, off shore – it’s not reinvested - it never trickles down - that's a fantasy that you bought and continue to buy every time you vote republican. It’s got nothing to do with NASCAR, Ram tough or country music that's just all marketing that you have fallen for - co-opted imaging meant to win your allegiance and your vote to one party and further the cultural war that divides the people.

Such is the "cultural" war that has been foisted on us by the divide and conquer status quo crowd. Until WE all pull together Washington will continue to represent the richest most privileged among us. They don't care about your job or lack of one or your neighborhood. You are chumps who have fallen for their phony cultural war and your spleen is so vexed and your emotions so played that you have no idea what’s in your own best interest.

Billionaires got tax cuts for decades upon decades as low as they have ever been so where are the jobs (overseas). They got everything they asked for and Cheney had his energy commission write the laws in secret. The interior department for decades has been headed by lobbyist for drilling and mining and hunting. War machine you got it off the books and unpaid for - everything, and they left office with the economy destroyed and are blocking any attempts to fix it in order to blame the new guy and regain their grip on power. Good for them all 2% of them and bad for the other 98% WE THE PEOPLE - all of us.

Decades of giving power over to the rich folk has destroyed the middle class but keep blaming the hippies, progressives, and liberals - after all they stand for peace, love and organic farming, clean water, air and civil rights, and taking care of our seniors - obviously they are the problem - and not the powerful who have deregulated us into the worst depression in history for the sake of their singular pocket book and theirs alone.

Yo tough guys you're being played by the corrupt who don't give a hoot about you and you think you are one of them - you’re held in higher contempt than the liberals, hippies and progressives because you are dupes, easily manipulated by imagery and emotion whose vote can be coaxed into voting against your own self interest.

Its quite sad – how about trying another tactic next time around and stop falling for the same old rhetoric – its not jobs versus the environment but the environment = jobs.

The Other 98% - Take Action Here

I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.

~ Igor Stravinsky

The People's Budget from the Congressional Progressive Caucus calls for higher taxes on the wealthy, cuts in military spending and a tax on Wall Street speculation. A new Pew poll (6/7/11) shows that these ideas are broadly popular with the American public. http://ping.fm/YNt54

Mercury is so toxic... just 1/70th of a teaspoon can contaminate a 20 acre lake. Imagine the damage 50 tons can do.

Watch @StephenAtHome expose the dangers of #fracking and join the @DFAaction campaign to Stop Fracking Now http://bit.ly/mS67nJ

“The best thing we can do is learn from the past and live our lives the right way so, in time, when we can do something to change things, we will be real people. Not sick or haunted by what life has done to us. We have the advantage of seeing definite examples of what can happen when people permit life to tangle them so badly that there is no escape. For us there is time-life can be real and beautiful if you build it that way honestly so there will be no lies or shadows to be afraid of later…it requires a lot of work, knowledge and love.” Gram Parsons

I love this tool - find out who, who, who's in your backyard...http://ping.fm/0w7Ku

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

~ Aesop’s Fables

“Failure to respond is a form of appeasement that has not worked in the past and it will not work this time.” – Bruce Babbitt

89% of Americans want more wind power

Today I have grown taller from walking with the trees.

~ Karle Wilson Baker

Tell the @EPAgov to block the surface mining permit at Ison Rock Ridge http://bit.ly/j1qFFq #coal

Tell @BarackObama we will have his back if he stands up to Republican #Medicare hostage-takers. Sign: http://bit.ly/iOiFyJ #p2

I still believe that love is all you need. I don't know a better message than that

~ Paul McCartney

June 7 marks the tenth anniversary of the day President George W. Bush signed into law $1.35 trillion dollars of tax cuts for the richest people in America. A decade of tax cheats!

Join me in telling Rupert Murdoch to stop peddling misinformation about #cleanair protections: http://bit.ly/mzf8hR @LCVoters

Hey friends, help me thank the @whitehouse for promising to end #tax breaks for the rich. Sign here http://bit.ly/koNwxi via @usaction #p2

"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you."

–Frank Lloyd Wright

Stop the unchecked Fracking of our water. Tell your Senator co-sponsor the FRAC Act: http://bit.ly/mvrW0O @CREDOMobile

"Can any reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and carnage the only means of supporting itself?" -- Alexander Hamilton - (1757-1804) - Source: at the US Constitutional Convention

"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." -George Washington

"He [Paul Revere] who warned, uh, the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells...." Sarah Palin

Between 2007 and 2010, the American Federation of Government Employees grew from 216,000 members to 268,000, a remarkable trend in an age when union membership is on the decline nationally. Flex Friday isn't going to save itself

The Tea Party and the Republicans want to repeal the healthcare reform, dispose of Medicare, and end Social Security. That would all work as long as there was universal euthanasia at 60."

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

~ George Eliot

It is not what one says that counts, but what one is!

Edgar Cayce Reading 524-2

Say WHAT? #GOP wants to kill #Medicare to give #tax breaks to the #rich. Fight back here with @USAction http://bit.ly/lgLRxF #p2

Great short article- excerpts posted...http://ping.fm/x4pT3

They just doubled-down on the obstruction and the propaganda and repeated a now well-worn pattern of exploding the debt only to turn around and blame the Democrats and social programs for the deficit.

They didn't change their beliefs or behavior after getting drubbed two straight times in 2006 and 2008.

They learned nothing from Dubya's destruction of the global economy.

The success of Bill Clinton's economic recovery act did not impress them.

When Reagan's tax cuts ballooned the deficit, they forgot it happened. When Poppy's tax hike fixed the problem, they were happy to see him go.

"...it's incumbent upon Romney, or someone, to explain convincingly what his party stands for besides the word 'NO!' shouted at the rising tide of change." Howard Fineman

O ye Gods, grant us what is good whether we pray for it or not, but keep evil from us even though we pray for it.

~ Plato

Here is a fact: today when you hear from Republicans you are hearing from Wall Street, giant oil companies, huge multinational firms and a few billionaires, period

Tell the news media to spend less time covering Sarah Palin & more time reporting the #climate crisis: http://bit.ly/iL4v7v @LCVoters

General Electric, Boeing, and more than 60 profitable Fortune companies pay no federal taxes, thanks to offshore tax dodges and other loopholes.

The richest 400 taxpayers, whose average income is $270 million, pay about 18 percent of their income in taxes, the lowest effective rate since the 1920s.