The Constitution is Only For OUR SIDE!!!

I just got a forward from a guy that is obviously pissed about the Feds suing Arizona. He conveniently overlooks the 12 or 13 Republican governors that are suing the Feds over the Health law. If States can sue the Feds why shouldn’t the Feds sue States? In the end, the courts will decide if any of the laws are constitutional, and that is what this is all about. Conservatives loudly thump the Constitution when it suits, but somehow get offended when someone else thumps it. Go to the Supreme Court for gun rights? That is a God-given right. Go to the Supreme Court for gay rights? That is a blatant insult to the Constitution and the founders. The conservatives can’t have it both ways, but they WANT it both ways. Supreme Court to uphold all of their issues, and Supreme Court to trash the ones they don’t like.
Many conservatives don’t like the ACLU, and throw all kinds of dirt at it. In the end though, the ACLU is only an arbiter for anyone or any issue that could be unconstitutional. If someone thinks that killing possums is a violation of some Constitutional right, then they have the right to find out. Everyone has the right to find out what is and what isn’t constitutional. The Constitution guarantees it.
I think we should trust the courts to sort out the issues and tell the conservative and liberal politicians to keep their hands off. If a law is unconstitutional, then it should be struck down. If not, then not. How can you ever tell if it isn’t challenged? A dangerous trend began to develop during the Bush II era. Questioning the Government was seen as being unpatriotic. Against the Iraq war? Must not be a Patriot. Against Guantanamo? Must not be a Patriot. Against UNLAWFULl tapping of AMERICAN CITIZEN’S phones? Must not be a Patriot.
And now: Against a law that looks on the face of it to be discriminatory? You must be a liberal socialist anti-conservative hack.
Read the Constitution and you will find that expressing your opinion is a very AMERICAN thing to do. Choke that off and you kill the dream. Do you really want to kill the dream? I don’t.
Image: www.searchnsniff.com/united-states-constitution.html

Follow That Dream

We were in Melbourne, Australia on a rainy evening, trying to find the motel recommended by a friend. A relative of his owned the place and he told us we would get a good “Aussie” welcome. We found it, and we did get that famous Aussie hospitality. And an unexpected bonus too. The owner, Ian Muir, was a friendly bloke (see, I still speak Australian) and we enjoyed his company over brick oven pizza and beer. He told us about his dream of getting into the country music scene and about his songs and local gigs. After a few days we left, having made a friend in Melbourne.
I have known lots of dreamers over the years. Mostly they dream, and then do other things.
One day we got a thickish envelope in the mail from Australia. In it was a cassette tape called “Time Stands Still” by Ian Muir. The dream was a reality, and Ian was published. As I mentioned in an earlier essay, one of his songs about an abused child got national attention, and this song called “Daniel” is on “Time Stands Still”. I listen to the album often, and always when “Daniel” comes on I get angry.
Ian now has 4 albums, tours in Australia and has been over here as well. He stands as a model for us all. The message is simple: If you have a dream, follow it. Don’t give up and don’t give in (hmmm. sounds like a song itself). You may have to have a “day job” to keep the bills paid, but the rewards of the dream are worth the price. Oh, and a talented and supportive partner make things that much easier. Ian has Glenny, I have Sally. My brother, also a musician, has Asya. Matt has John, and Hal has Cori. There is a message there too: next to a dreamer stands a solid partner willing to say “go for it”, and mean it. Thank you all. This is awesome company to share.

Image: http://www.ianmuir.com.au/

Waiting for the Tile Guy.

He started on the floor Monday, cleaning up the old vinyl and putting down the blue goo. Called Tuesday on the way to the Doctor to get his cough checked. No call today.
It is really strange how so many of the building trade people have the deserved reputation for undependability in terms of show up when they say they will, and not calling to tell you they won’t be there. So you sit around like a dork waiting. At least when you wait in a car repair place or Doctor’s office you know sooner or later someone will call your name. Not so with these guys. Roofers have the worst reputation of all, and electricians too. Don’t even ask about painters. Plumbers seem to be OK. Maybe because bad plumbing can be such a disaster.
I have dealt with a few dependable workers. The counter company we used 10 or so years ago was good then and right on time now. Capital Marble Craft for those interested. And the company that did our pool/patio screen was excellent. One of the owners came out to estimate the job, came back to measure and had the crew here to install. Every time on time and good work. American Discount Aluminum is the company and Dirk is the go-to guy.
No, we don’t get any discounts for name dropping. But I wanted to have a counter point to the complaint about crappy worker attention. There are good ones out there, but you have to be lucky to find one. The others just piss me off.
Image: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/5-holiday-disaster-stories-555935/
For fun: http://www.americandiscountaluminum.com/
http://www.capitalmarblecraft.com/index.htm

"Another Child has Died"

This 7 year old girl was starved to death by her mother in 2008. In England, where social programs abound to prevent just this kind of abuse. She was also abused by her mother’s partner. Her 3 brothers were at the point of death when finally found by the authorities. Failures at every level caused this. Everyone that was charged with protecting children in Manchester failed to act. The City has since put safeguards in place to minimize the chances for this to happen again. The mother and her partner were just sentenced to a minimum of 7 years in prison.
Does this sound familiar? It should, because it is happening all around all of us all the time. Overworked social service people, overworked teachers, staff cuts in school nursing and other support programs and nobody notices one small child evaporating before their eyes. It makes me so mad to think that right now thousands or millions of children (and old people too) are dying from neglect and/or abuse under our noses. What to do? I don’t know. Just keep your eyes open and notice things that are out of balance. Like a rail-thin child or missing granny. Pressure politicians to fund (where is the money to come from?) more social service type positions in schools and communities. Vote for someone with a conscience, not just a greedy bastard with dollar signs for eyes.
Years ago an old friend (1) of ours wrote a song called “Daniel” about an abused child that died from his abuse. The song raised the consciousness of an entire country. Australia. He gained national recognition telling the story of “another child has died”. How many more must we see killed before we collectively do something?
1. Ian Muir at: http://www.ianmuir.com.au/

Image: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298006/Khyra-Ishaq-death-preventable.html

(if you’ve never been down how can you know you are up?)

It occurs to me sometimes that in the pursuit of happiness (what ever that is) people don’t always have a reference point. I was just writing about the joy of life and it occurred to me that sorrow, loss, failure, disappointment, depression and other bummers are necessary parts of being alive. Think about it. If you never failed at something how could you possibly savor the wonderfulness of success. I seriously pity anyone that has never failed at anything. They have no idea how wonderful it is to succeed.
Love without loss? I think that you have no idea what love is until you lose someone /something/ someplace you think you love. Then you really know,and then you know the next time love comes around, too. In the depths of depression everything seems to be useless, or worthless, or hopeless. Then “up” happens and you have a reference point. What is better that being up and KNOWING how far down really is?
So this little essay is about taking life as it presents itself with all the ups and downs equally relished. Hard times ahead means better times too. If you think you will be rewarded for a life well lived you are right. The reward is LIVING the life well lived. All of it.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brookenovak/1305383543/

The Box You Love to Hate

Scary. The message read” Diskette drive 0 seek failure” followed by “no bootable partition in table”. And that was it. No boot. No nothing. F12 got nowhere. F2 got nowhere and F1 got nowhere. Shut down 12 or 15 times. No boot.
So I went out and bought a new Dell multichannel processor, 750 gig HD, 6 gig ram, wireless internet, white sidewalls and skirts. Cheap too. Got home and tried the old one one more time: The frigger (see earlier essay) booted. Good. I had a nice chat with Deepthi Shankar at Norton and now can transfer NAV2010 to new computer.
God, I hate these things sometimes. I hate to be completely at the mercy of some GD processor or, even worse, hard drive. Once I could fix anything that broke on a car. Now there is so much electronic crap you need a computer lab to figure out what happened. Even washing machines and toasters have “microprocessors” instead of relays and switches. Remember the days when there were appliance repair shops that could actually repair a toaster cheaper than a new one cost? No, you young’ins wouldn’t. Crap.
I can’t wait to get my new Dell up and running. This one only has 40 gigs of memory and I have almost 18 gigs of free space left. Anyone want to buy a few gigs of memory?
Image: backupshare.com/main/data-backup.html