God Damn the Republican Governor

Gutted like a catfish. God Damn the Republican Governor, House and Senate of Florida. In one selfish move they gutted the retirement plans of thousands of State workers. Thousands of workers have planned retirement strategies for decades that include a promised benefit called DROP (stands for Deferred Retirement Option Program). This program paid retirement benefits into an annuity of some kind while the worker finished the final five years of employment. And, it is fully funded in the FRS trust.The purpose was to keep senior and well experienced people around longer, and to give them a cash lump sum when they actually stopped working. This cash in most cases formed the heart of the person’s retirement plan.
The benefit is now gone as of July 1st. No matter that someone has planned for 30 years and is eligible one week or one day after that date. No matter. Sod off. Meanwhile the very rich legislators and governor suck the coffers dry with their very generous retirement benefits, health benefits and “all they can steal” benefits. Think I’m pissed?
Thank you Tea Party. You just broke a system that was the model for the country, was solvent and was working. Oh yeah, and the same gang also is requiring all state employees to contribute 3% of their gross salary to their retirement plans. No raises for the past 5 years and this amounts to a 3% pay cut. Three percent OFF THE TOP. GROSS. Imagine a 20k employee losing 3% of their wages off the top. What kind of sadistic moron would do that? Rich legislators and a rich governor, that's who.
I hope somebody sues the ass off all these greedy bastards for breach of contract or something. I’ll contribute to that fund.
Image: www.kathysgetaways.com

So today the French used ‘copters to “take out” Gbagbo’s heavy stuff he ordered used against civilians. The UN passes an “all necessary means” resolution to help the beleaguered population of Ivory Coast keep from being genocided. (New word? My spell checker doesn’t like it.) This is basically the same type of resolution they passed for Libya. Then the US started the “no fly zone” and now others are doing that there. In Ivory Coast it’s the French. I think it is about time the free world kick the ass of any despot that kills their own people. Period. Even if we have to do it with Tomahawk missiles. BTW, the Tomahawk missiles already blown up cost more than the entire government contribution to NPR. So it’s OK to blow up s**t and pay to replace it, but not fund (get ready bobby) middle-of-the-road honest reporting. What crap. Somebody (get ready Rich) needs to do something Image: www.worldwidehippies.com.

The real meaning of words

Jen sent me an email with photos that illustrate words. Those here depict misery of some sort. I have never had to deal with circumstances that these three people are going through. I have never felt that level of pain, departure or sorrow (photos in that order). I see that they are all war related, but these deep feelings of pain, departure and sorrow are felt in all sorts of situations. I deeply hope no one that reads this ever goes through what these people went through. Hope. There were some happy ones too. Let me know and I'll forward the lot.

Pressure Washing and Emmett Kelly Sr.

Fact: When washing a car, pool or deck, the dirtier it is the more satisfaction you feel in peeling off the grime. Fact: When doing a mindless job like pressure washing a deck, the mind tends to wander. So, there I was, pressure washing away, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Get that spot there. Get that overlap here. Back and forth. Back and forth. Then, from the blue, my brain says “Emmett Kelly”. Emmett Kelly? Where the hell did that come from? Back and forth. Get that spot. Now louder: “EMMETT KELLY!!!” Brains are really funny things sometimes. Instead of just telling you something, they sometimes just tease with a cryptic message like “Emmett Kelly”. So I stopped washing and thought for a second about Emmett Kelly. He was the famous clown named “Weary Willie” who invented the clown trick of sweeping away a spotlight on the ground of the circus. Hmmmm. Then it struck like a bolt from the blue: I was trying to pressure wash a shadow from an overhanging branch. No wonder the damn thing wouldn’t go away. The brain connection was clear, but why didn’t my fevered glob of fat and water just say “DUMMY!!! You are trying to wash away a shadow!!!”. There is no accounting for a brain. Image: http://www.findagrave.com/ Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Kelly

“I just want Freedom”

A bumper sticker I saw today said “Give me my money, my gun and my freedom: You keep the change.”
Freedom? In Florida? Ha. A thing of the past.
The legislature that runs and spouts on the agenda of less government intrusion and more personal freedom is about to pass SB1070 which at this writing gives any police jurisdiction the right to ask ANY ONE, ANY TIME AND ANY PLACE with no probable cause for proof that they are citizens.
Of course, Canadians and Europeans (read white people) are exempt from having to prove they are citizens if they have their own passports. What about a Jamaican here on holiday that leaves their passport in the hotel? Screwed. The Brazilian? Screwed. All the rest? Screwed.
Me? No, I don’t look like a Mexican roofer, but by god if some cop asks me for proof of citizenship you can visit me in jail. Resistance is the only way to fight this kind of “Freedom”.
What crap. But, scary crap. And Governor Scott says he will sign it into law if it gets on his desk. I wonder if he carries his passport or birth certificate around with him. Oh yeah. He doesn’t have to. He looks “European”.
Image: www.memegenerator.net

Tired?

And while we are at it, let me say this: I am tired of citing essay after essay for accuracy and then having somebody deny the facts. I am tired of ignorant people in the world refusing to see what is before them, or making up some lane alternative to “explain the truth” as they want it to be.
I am tired of trying to logically present facts and truth and documenting, just to have someone tell me “It jest ain’t so” .
So starting with the essay before this little disclaimer I said at the end : “Content: Do your own damn looking up. I’m tired of citing truth and then having it denied.”
I may just be tired. Full stop. But I am at least “up to here” trying to make sense of sensible issues to insensible morons with cheese for brains, or worse, with religion for brains.
Think I am tired?
Image: www.sodahead.com

Miracles My Ass

Boy oh Boy. The fire is getting turned up on education. For years education has been viewed in this country as the territory of the liberal, and the antidote was “Vouchers”. That didn’t fly in most states so the conservative business oriented went instead for “Charter Schools” which are public financed private schools without the accountability of a public oversight.
The stats are clear: charter schools do not produce better results. But, they do pay their teachers less, have no tenure or pesky unions, and no need in most states to follow a curriculum required by the more rigorous public schools. Yes, I know. Some charter schools are very accomplished, but many are just religious wolves in sheep skins. And some are just business rip-offs.
The best schools in the world, typified by Finland, are 100% public with mandatory attendance and well paid, well respected and well protected teachers.
America was once like that. And then we were the envy of the world. Now we are sinking fast in the “business model” of education. Bulls***. Since the conservative agenda started to chip away at schools in the late 70’s and early 80’s, America’s schools have declined steadily. The target is now the higher education system (look at the most recent budget for Pennsylvania for an example, or Florida for that matter) to see the future.
Too late to wake up, though. Kids coming up today are already screwed. Only a miracle would help, and who believes in that?
Oh yeah, you do. You think it’s a Miracle when a Japanese woman and her grandson are found alive after the tsunami. Bulls*** again. The real miracle would have been a great big hand diverting the flood so 20,000 Japanese men, women and children didn’t die in the first place. Don’t tell me about miracles.
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34476833@N04/3850299810/
Content: Do your own damn looking up. I’m tired of citing truth and then having it denied.

Abused as a child? Should you tell?

We can all learn something from Stacy Lannert. She killed her father after he raped her repeatedly from the time she was 8 until she turned 18. She didn’t kill him for that, though. She killed him because he told her that her younger sister would take her place, and indeed was preparing to do follow through. She was unable, for legal reasons I can’t fathom, to raise the issue of abuse in her trial, and since she wasn’t a spouse the legal avenues open to spouses were closed to her. So she spent 18 years in prison before being released by the Governor of Mississippi.
There is some contention about the facts in the case. I heard Stacy and I believe her.
What we can learn is not that it is a good thing to kill someone. Not that. What she is doing is far more heroic in my mind. She is going public with her story with the hope of helping other sexually abused people realize that the shame and guilt they may feel is not their fault. That hiding what happened to them helps no one, and maybe by telling their story they can maybe help someone else or themselves.
So this essay is a way of introducing the idea that “going public” with a story of sexual abuse doesn’t have to be an “Oh woe is me. Oh pity poor me” kind of moment. It may just be the push that someone else needs to get help or to begin to understand that an eight year old child is NEVER responsible for being abused. End of story.
More on this in a future essay.
News Summary:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=7168291&page=4
Image: http://ncmbts.blogspot.com/2010/04/secrecy-law-scandal-john-aster-exposed.html

News from the Earth.

According to the JPL and NASA, the quake in Japan has: moved Japan closer to the US; shortened the day by a microsecond or so and; shifted the axis (1 and others). Don’t worry, though. These minor changes are normal results of major plate shifts. The interesting thing is that a mass as large as Earth can be changed at all by a surface action.
When the Chinese announced the building of the huge dam and lake complex, the Three Gorges Dam, calculations showed that this mass of water would change the rotation time, the shape and the axis of the Earth. They built it and it did those things. With no noticeable effect on anything except the 1.8 million people they moved and a reduction in flooding. This complex generates a huge number of megawatts of electric power. The trade off is seen as a good thing for China. Now they can have more people.
Reforestation is moving forward in many places in the world even as deforestation continues to increase.
Fresh water supplies continue to be stressed as more and more people are born and more live longer. The population increases continue to stress the Earthly infrastructure. So what? So nothing, that’s what. I just think it is amazing that human activity can measurably change the face of the Earth. Oh, and new data indicates more melting of the ice sheets and glaciers. This should be good, no? More fresh water? Wrong. That fresh water goes into the oceans and just causes a slight rise in sea level.
All in all we are seeing a positive feedback mechanism at work. Some things, like quakes and tsunamis are independent of human activity while others are a direct or indirect result of our activities. Whatever you think about the political stances you have to be glad that you won’t live to see the next 100 years. Hold on tight folks, there is a bad moon rising. Read the lyrics to Fogerty’s song and see if you don’t get a little chill.

Lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/creedence+clearwater+revival/bad+moon+rising_20034328.html
1. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Japan-Earthquake-Shifts-Earth-s-Axis-Shortens-Days-189265.shtml
Image: http://www.notkeren.com/writing/2009/07/bad-moon-rising/

Shame on the World

Genocide in Rwanda. The world watched as a million were butchered. Genocide in Bosnia. The world stood by while tens of thousands were butchered. Genocide in Kenya. The world stood by while thousands were butchered. Genocide in Sudan. The world stood by while thousands were butchered. Genocide in Germany. The world stood by while millions were butchered.
After all that, and more, you would think we would get the lead out of our collective asses and stop it from happening again. This time Libya. An oppressed people finally aroused by freedom seekers in neighboring countries take to the streets and begin a resistance that turned into a rebellion and then into a civil war. We watched as Gadhafi reeled back, then struck back with airpower, artillery and mercenaries. And we watched while he butchered his own people. The freedom seeking people have begged for help from the free world. Anything. And we stand by and watch.
The UN commissioned a report on alleged human rights abuses. Report due in June. Big f-ing deal. June. A no fly zone in Iraq worked without a preliminary softening up. The jets just flew over and sent a missile into anything that “lit up” with radar. The world could do the same here. In Bosnia the UN targeted tanks and artillery. Then the baddies negotiated.
In Libya we watch. The free world is full of gutless bastards. Us (spell that US) included.
Image: www.patriotactionnetwork.com