Positive Thoughts for Today

Ummm. Weather? No. World peace? No. Must be something.

Got it. “Monsignor William Lynn, a Roman Catholic church official, has been convicted of child endangerment but acquitted of conspiracy in a groundbreaking clergy-abuse trial in Philadelphia.” That’s good news, isn’t it?

Another: “Mary Cheney and Poe [her female partner] were married today in Washington, they said. Mary Cheney has given birth to a son and a daughter.” That’s good news, isn’t it?

Another: “The Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the state's execution law Friday, calling it unconstitutional.” That is good news but would be better if they struck down the death penalty itself.

Another: “Just in time for summer, here's some news that may give vacationers pause before jumping into the water at Cape Cod beaches: Great white sharks are also paying a visit.” This is really good news. It means that seals are returning to their original habitat, sharks are returning to feed on them and tourists are paying a lot of bucks to get a glimpse of the fins. Now all we need is a Korean fishing boat to show up with “finning” knives. Ooops. That would be bad news.

See, if I look hard enough I can find some good news. And, I left out the good news about Justin, Kylie, John, and Katy. Oh yeah, and Jerry.

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKheEa3q7QEDwJ9wHCwIXXGYvy9D3b5mIaNv4prbF4kBCxKKL-HYUYsFgL9wc2gMIJmR6OAmQIb19aNknrMBZz0o0UwgTXr3DGEikZVNW8XbCt8_3b3RwqKVYHVvdSgRWnxCkaXAYzbHw/s400/positive+news.jpg

Talk Show Host Claims Big Business Will Do Good.

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Possibly Pragers Ideal Woman

Dennis Prager (1), a conservative talk radio host was a guest on the Commonwealth Club of California (2), a non-partisan forum for public affairs. He made lots of generalizations about the left and right, (left bad, right, well, right) and nobody called him out on them. Ok. He also said this, and I paraphrase: “People are afraid of Government. Government built Auschwitz. Governments preside over genocide. People are not afraid of Big Business. Big Business didn’t build Auschwitz or preside over genocides.” No body called him out on that either. Not Ok.

His thesis is pure “right”: that too much government is bad and business should be left alone to create and do good for us all. To which I say, partly true, partly very false. Let’s take a look at the premise that business didn’t preside over genocide. Consider the tobacco industry, the coal/electricity industry and the asbestos industry.
Tobacco: Millions die every year from using a product that the industry knows will kill them and denies that it will kill them. Chemical enhancements are included in the products to increase the level of addiction. This is corporate genocide.
Coal/Electricity: Millions of people get sick and die from lung diseases related to the pollution from coal-fired power plants and the industry knows it. Millions more sicken from the mercury emissions from the same plants. Millions more will die from the global effects of the carbon dioxide emissions from the same plants. And the industry knows it. This is corporate genocide.
Asbestos: Millions of people have died from crippling lung diseases as the result of asbestos inhalation. The industry fought the research for decades, insisting their material was not to blame. They knew it was. This is corporate genocide.
So wise up Prager. You may be right about the swelling government but you are so wrong about the benevolent nature of Big Business. Who polluted the Gulf of Mexico? Not Government.

Image: http://www.jewishjournal.com/images/bloggers_auto/1_Cindy_McCain_Gay_Marriage.jpg

1. www.conservativetalknow.com/
2. www.commonwealthclub.org/

“Every child deserves two parents. Period.” So sayeth Woody.

"Every child deserves a mother and a father.' So sayeth the Southern Baptist Convention today. They also say that gays do not qualify for protected status under the civil rights definitions. They affirmed that “gay marriage” is not in line with the biblical definition of a marriage of “one man and one woman”. (Didn’t any of the old testamenters have more than one wife or at least a mistress? Genesis 4:19, 2 Samuel 12:8, 1 Kings 11:3 ?) So what is this crap, anyway? Oh, I forgot. They get to thump any part they want and ignore any they find uncomfortable.

More than 13 million households in this country right now are single parent operations, usually solo Mom, but increasingly solo Dad.
Well I think the SBC is not only wrong, dangerously wrong, but bigoted and blind to the world around them.
If the “Two Parent Home” is considered the ideal, then 2 loving Moms or 2 loving Dads fit that ideal. Nothing wrong with 1 loving parent, but society seems to agree (and probably biology also agrees) that 2 parents are needed to fully surround a child or children with a complete home. On this point I think one could mount several arguments, but that is for another time.

Let me ask this:  is a home with one loving parent and one abuser better that 2 loving same-sex parents? Is a home with one loving parent and one absent parent better than 2 loving same-sex parents? Is a home with 2 parents that hate each other better than 2 loving same-sex parents? Huh? Huh? Where is the SBC answer to those? Silent, that’s where.

And never mind the entire issue of pushing a single religious view on all of us until we puke.

Images:  1.https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRSfYVgsL87VBv2ZsNi4BIys33Tm2L_ZW6hzu-UMM_2NSQhvLMAww

2. http://www.queerty.com/wp/docs/2010/09/2dadskid9234.png

3. http://anotsodifferentview.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/equal-education-rights-for-students-of-same-sex-parents.jpg?w=620

Congress is in Contempt of the People

After six, count'em six, attempts at compromise by the Justice Department were all rejected out of hand, the House Oversight Committee votes along 100% party lines to find the Attorney General (AG) in contempt of congress. The issue is a gun sting that went spectacularly wrong. The AG asserts that many of the documents that congress wants are involved in on-going situations and disclosure could be deadly for some people or interfere with the deliberative process of the agency and the White House. The AG offered to show the documents to the committee members in one form or another but the Republicans insisted they be made public. No compromise. My way or the highway. The "Just Say No Republicans" just said no. And Hodor said "Hordor".
So the vote in committee was 23 for contempt and 17 against. Partisan to the person.
I propose that WE THE PEOPLE find Congress in Contempt of the People. We do this by voting the obstructionist bastards out of office. Or to quote the Tea Party "Just Say No" to any more tea partyers, far leftists and far rightists and elect moderates. I don't care what party they are. Just as long as they are moderate.

Here is the text of the Contempt Citation:

WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FIND THE TEA PARTYERS, FAR RIGHTERS AND FAR LEFTERS IN CONGRESS IN CONTEMPT FOR THEIR CONTEMPTIBLE BEHAVIOR AND REFUSAL TO COMPROMISE.

Before you say or think it, I know this is an election year and politics are deeply at play here by both parties. Still, the Congressional Record shows a massive blockage in the pipes of congress, and the source is easily traced.

Image: http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSzyEz5Y9vE1oZlvwrrLcjZpSjgbEOR2tFX8GH0pjhzund8NJF-JqTbs1rE

Chop your own wood and it heats you twice.

Wood yard at Rainbow Rise

That is patently wrong. In fact it is so wrong I am sure that no one who has ever cut firewood from the forest or yard would propose it. The attribution I found was Henry Ford (1).
This morning while it was still cool I got started on the wood pile. Logs from the tree that went down a couple of weeks ago needed attention. I got out the maul, sledge and chain saw and went to work. Here is the actual warming:
1. Warmed while cutting up and piling the downed tree
2. Warmed while moving the cut wood to the back of house
3. Warmed while splitting the wood by hand
4. Warmed while moving the wood to the rick
5. Warmed by moving the wood to the house to burn
6. Warmed by the fire.

Six bloody times you get warmed, and 5 of them you don’t really need or want.

I spent a lot of time in my youth cutting, splitting and stacking wood. This was a winter activity where I grew up. Logs cut in the fall were stacked and split in the winter, restacked and burned the following winter. Nice and seasoned. I wore jeans, boots and no shirt. Cold as the Arctic by the woodpile, but I steamed from exertion. Hour after hour and never got cold. Today in North Florida I worked in shorts and a tee shirt (mozzies you know) and was boiling hot in 10 minutes. Thirty minutes later, I took a short break and checked email. And wrote this homage to cutting wood. I am going back now, and predict another half hour before the temp hits 85. Then, off to the store for a nice cool grocery shop.
Image: My wood yard
http://www.quotegarden.com/labor.html

The Frog and the Prince

I heard about a friend who was having a string of unsuccessful dating experiences. One of her friends advised her that she would have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. Hmmm. I guess the same would be true of princesses. Got me thinking about frogs and princes and it occurred to me that while the world is filled with princes and princesses who masquerade as frogs, few of us ever get to see below their green exterior.

Then it hit me. The old saying about for everyone there is someone. Cast in a different light you could say that every frog is a prince or princess for someone. And her friend was correct up to a point: you have to spend some time looking around, sampling the wares so to speak, before the green peels away revealing the royalty beneath. But you have to do the sampling yourself. Recommendations from others rarely work, because where they see royalty, you see frog. I know everyone that reads this has looked at a couple somewhere and thought “what the hell does she (he) see in him (her)? Simple. She sees a prince and you see a frog.

So go easy the next time you are tempted to make a judgment based on what you see. Others will surely see the same thing differently. You are probably a prince or princess to someone, and a frog to others. Remember what Kermit (1) said: “It’s not easy being green.” And he also said:

“And people tend to pass you over
'Cause you're not standing out
Like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky”

Not many of  us stand out like flashy sparkles in the water. But sometimes someone sees a tiny little sparkle, gives you a kiss, and reveals the royalty underneath. And by the way, the converse is also true: sometimes you find a prince and after the kiss he turns into a frog.

Image: http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/uploads/image/Kiss%20a%20Frog.jpg
1. Kermit singing the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpiIWMWWVco

A Whiff of Asshole

We are watching an old Masterpiece Theater drama with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson currently.  The film is called “Fortunes of War” and begins in Romania in 1939. It is the first time I ran into both Branagh and Thompson. Loved her and seriously disliked him. The reason is very simple: he is a consummate actor and convinced me that he really was an asshole, not just played one. The bookend to this is the Wallender series currently being aired, and he convinces me that he is a ragged out Swedish cop. I love the guy.

I got to thinking about assholes and who is and who plays one well. Won’t go into names but there are several real ones around, several poseurs and some that couldn’t be one if they tried.

Sally just got good news about a grant she worked hard to get about the time I was being amazed at what an asshole Branagh played. This grant will enable her enhance the college experience for minority males, and she is excited about getting it. I am not. She already works very hard and this just piles on more. I groused about it when she was writing it and again the other night when the word came through. The next morning I finally figured out I was wrong from the get-go. I forgot my own advice not to pick up someone before they fall. (http://searchesworld.blogspot.com/search?q=angel+flying+to+close+to+the+ground ). I think I rained on her parade by being an insensitive asshole. Her job; her grant; her faculty. I care deeply that she works too hard, and she takes on more,  with a smile and determination to do the best possible for everyone, usually students. I am deeply afraid that “Woody 7.2” is vectoring towards assholedom. Or maybe I am just realizing I’ve been here for a long time. Maybe time for corrective action.
My point? Take a good long look at yourself and see where your vector is going. And if you get even a whiff of asshole, turn around and smell the roses instead.

Image: http://www.movieforum.com/movies/titles/muchadoaboutnothing/images/emmaken.jpg