Kumbaya? Not any time soon.

Mitch McConnell is quoted thus: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." (1) With this as a starting point, it is difficult to see how the party of “NO” can possibly understand anything other than their own power. The incoming chair of the oversight committee (house) said something like “We will bury the White House in subpoenas”. The Republican leadership in the Senate has said something like “We will use every parliamentary maneuver to stop the Democrats in their tracks”. Can’t the Republican Party see ANY other issues of importance?
In 8 years of the Bush daze I never heard any Democrats say anything even close to these outrageous things. Why you ask? Simple. The Democrats are slow and stupid when it comes to fighting for their own survival, and the Republicans are quick and deadly when fighting for theirs. The President has already conceded that in order to move the country forward he and his will have to compromise with the Republicans. The Republicans have already said “NO”.
So don’t look for any “Kumbaya” moments any time soon. And for you liberals, women, gays, poor and others towards the bottom of the food chain out there, don’t look for any sympathy from the Republicans. But, you bankers, oil men, CEOs and other power brokers and super rich folks, start up the Victrola and put on “Happy Days are Here Again” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hf53oFb4IKA).

1. http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/republican-leader-says-gop-s-number-one-goal-is-defeating-obama-2012
Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/His_Master%27s_Voice.jpg

I don’t give up. I throw up.

Fifty one percent of registered voters in Florida did not bother to vote. According to the supervisor of elections for Leon County, Ion Sancho, most of these were Democrats. That’s right, Democrats. Who didn’t vote. Makes me want to puke in their dinner. This country is all about “the People”. We hear “the People” this and “the People” that. But when it comes time to actually hear from the people, half of them don’t bother to vote. And this time that disgusting apathy got a full slate of Republicans elected.
So now the ball is in their court to play, as the newly elected Governor said “- - - for all the people, not just the Republicans who elected them.” Well, Scott, it’s like this: the Republican minority did not elect you and your party. The apathetic, pathetic and worthless Democrats that didn’t vote elected you. Personally I recommend that you piss on them. They deserve nothing less.
Sorry, got to go. Got to throw up again.
Image: http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40949000/jpg/_40949974_vomiting416300.jpg

Biuka: The Voice of Freedom

Listen to this link then come back and read: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKy_uZCC-Ko .

Thanks to NPR, I heard this incredible woman this evening. Wonderful in all qualities of singing, she said that freedom liberated her voice. Parents from an oppressive African country, raised as the only black in a gypsy enclave in Mallorca, a Spanish island, openly bisexual and a single mom. Talk about a few strikes. This woman didn't strike out. Her voice is amazing. I now have a new artist to listen to. And to learn and learn from. Don’t miss this one.

Bio information: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130920420

A Time for Good Will and Prayer

“Friends can disagree and still be friends.” “When two people of good will argue from opposite sides of an issue, one usually wins and one loses;” “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition."
These familiar phrases echo and resonate during the political season. Friends who have radically differing political views argue, taunt, point and laugh at each other. Then, the election is over and reconciliation usually happens. I was talking to a friend of mine just today, a quite conservative Republican, and he was teasing me about the probable outcome of the elections today. The “So, what’s your boy gonna do now?” kind of stuff.
The election isn’t over as I write this, and I will probably have more to say tomorrow. But for now I would offer this: If the Republicans win and can somehow manage to overturn and turn back what I see as progress in regulating the banking industry, and kill the healthcare effort, kill the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency and attenuate other moderate efforts to curb the excesses of business, then in addition to celebrating, I think my friend should get down on his knees and pray. Pray that the outcomes of these reversals won’t kill his grandchildren or send the country into a morass of unregulated greed. Pray that the air stays breathable, the water stays drinkable, the food stays eatable and the money stays spendable.
If they win we all should pull together to try to educate the electorate, if possible, and hope for a reversal of the reversal next time around.
Otherwise we are in very, very deep doo doo. (See, I can play nice.)
Image: http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/01/03/rg_sewage_wideweb__470x335,0.jpg

M-I-C----K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

The setup: STEMtech conference at the Swan and Dolphin in Disney country; families from all over the world staying at the “cheapest rates this hotel has ever offered” (desk clerk); walking on the Boardwalk and around the grounds (humming “Mrs. Robinson”?); Mouse ears everywhere.
This paradise destination for so many families is moderately crowded and bustling along nicely. Families having fun, coming back from fun, going out to have fun (whatever that may be). The place is noisy in a conference-e way. Lots of conversation (none overheard) some laughter, but always in the background the signature sound heard everywhere: children crying and whining. “I wanna go - - - - and see- - - “ or “I don’t wanna go - - - - etc.” or “No” or just whining. I cannot remember being anywhere in the place where some child wasn’t crying or whining. Walking along the 7th floor hall to our room on the third hallway we passed many doors. From behind some of them? You guessed it : crying or whining. I thought “what the hell? This is supposed to be fun (Whatever that is.) These parents and children are ragged out.”
It finally struck me: When I was a kid, we went places and had fun (whatever that was) and my brother and I probably cried and whined a bit, but we had lots of time. Time. We had a cabin for a week in the mountains, or spent 3 months in the summer house, or spent weeks driving to Nebraska to spend time with family. We didn’t have to pack all our “fun” into a 3 day pass and exhaust ourselves in the process. I didn’t, not once, hear my mother or father say “Damn it, we are here to have fun and we are GOING to have fun!!!”
So, are we having fun yet?
Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh73q5EX7-pIF4HVs7cVDoy3VdymU4nSHAfnU6PtnuMlEVg_1MSi44GVY6nyOcKkp-Lmi24yQRdkXdOcsoNVRCVGl4oelx7kjU8In3c3lmJLNuzSwx58y4QntyIrwkxvAThJPna47uWyd8/s400/sad_disney_mickey_mouse.jpg

Today I gave up “giving up”

For months, or is it years, or maybe decades of seeing the moronic knee-jerk responses of the American public (and somewhat also many people in the world outside our borders) I have responded “I GIVE up!!” Today I said it again, as usual over some political crap, and though “Giving up doesn’t work Woody. It takes too much energy to give up. You have to do something to change this attitude.” So I decided to give up giving up. No more will I turn with disgust from the pages of the NY Times, the Washington Post, The Sydney Daily Telegraph, Reuters and NPR. Not worth the effort. So I will just say “Hmmmm, more morons doing moronic things. Let’s see what Science News has going on today.’ I grant to the rest of the world the right and privilege of “giving up”. As for me: count me out.

Image: http://www.themillionairesecrets.net/images/2008/07/never-give-up.jpg

Right Now I'll Settle for a Good Rain

An old friend of ours from Australia has a song on her album “From the Heart” that has a line “All we need is a good rain”. Today, here in good old Havana we finally got a good rain. Still raining in fact. The soil is very thirsty. As it started to rain, the refrain from the song played once again in my mind (we play the album often, and still blub through most of the songs). And I thought, no, we need more than a good rain. We need civility and trust, and we need time to sort out all the problems facing us as a nation and world. We need solutions that curb populations and help to reduce poverty. We need to empower women all over the world, yes, even here. We need so very very much just to survive.
But I’ll settle right now for a good rain. Thanks Dianna. You and yours are a constant with Sal and me.
Image: Dianna Hammond at http://www.australiaday.com.au/ambassadors/ambassadors.aspx?AmbassadorID=175

Science is better than Politics

“The more carbon that gets released into the atmosphere, the higher the average temperature rises.
That's a scientific fact.
Human activities, such as driving, flying, building and even turning on the lights, are the biggest contributor to the release of carbon.
That too, is a fact.
And yet the majority of Republicans running for House and Senate seats this year disagree” (1).

I know some of you agree with the ignorant and science-hating people mentioned in the article quoted above. And if the national action to curb greenhouse gasses is stalled by a recalcitrant congress we will all suffer, including the morons that deny the science. I am sorry for those of us that know the truth yet will probably suffer for the stupidity of the deniers. I am not sorry at all for the deniers. They will suffer along with the rest of us, and it will be their fault. Unfortunately the entire world is watching us make utter asses of ourselves while they take the problem seriously. Even China and India are preceding with carbon reduction programs. While we screw around with politics.
A student told me the other day in response to a discussion on this: “Well, we are all in God’s hands.” If that is true, then God just washed them. We are on our own. No Deus Ex Machina on the horizon for us. Just a lot of suffering. Thanks guys for ignoring the science. I hope you lose your elections, because if you don’t, we all lose.

1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130776747&sc=nl&cc=nh-20101024
Image from same source as above citation.

"The Meeting"

Ever think about how economics work? No? At the roots of economics is this: You make or do something that you sell to someone else to get money that you can then use to buy what they make or do. Barter works the same way. You grow pigs and trade them for veggies or pots or fripperies that were produced by people who wanted pigs.
I have come to believe that the same system exists within many if not all organizations. This system is organized around “The Meeting”. In Educational Institutions meetings are the currency. Meetings occur on a daily basis, and the outcome of many is to set a time to meet again, and to refer issues to groups that must have meetings that in turn report back to the first group in, you guessed it, a meeting.
Periodically there are meetings to bring the results of other meetings together for review. These meetings usually result in the distribution or redistribution of tasks back to the groups that reported, thus safely generating more meetings to keep everyone employed.
In fairness, sometimes something emerges from a meeting that is not immediately sent to another group to meet about. These things are called “Decisions”. After all is said and done, Decisions are usually the product of one or two people who actually run the highest meetings, and ideally, but not always, are reached using the consultations derived from all the other meetings. Naturally, after a Decision is reached, the impact must be thoroughly reviewed and evaluated in a whole series of? You got it: MEETINGS!

Image: http://www.yavel.com/always/images/hp_dilbert.jpg

Let’s have a party.

What is WRONG with this damn weather?
In San Diego last week several locals told me that they had never seen such weird weather. Seasons seemingly switched: rain when it should be dry; dry when it should be wet; bleak and cool when it should be a glorious fall. You get the point. Same all over. Raging fires. Endless droughts. Huge storm systems.
I can’t wait to see what this winter will bring here in the VERY SUNNY SOUTH. Hasn’t rained in weeks and I am watering more than ever before just to keep things from dying. More water evaporating from the ponds than ever before. Damn weather. Weird weather. Ooops. Could we be in a “weather weirding” cycle predicted by the global climate change morons? You know, the ones Fox news says are crazy and have no scientific evidence of change? Hell, who needs science? Just look out the window or listen to the news (even Fox reports on the never-before-seen floods, droughts, fires, famines etc.) Oh, I get it! This is all NATURAL! No connection at all to the massive destruction of the world’s forests, the acidification of the ocean or the gigantic load of carbon dioxide added each minute to the atmosphere. NATURAL. Whew. Now I feel so much better.
Just sitting here waiting to go to a meeting organizing a group that is trying to get Thomasville to set aside forever a beautiful 200+/- acre forest. We need another industrial park like I need another dog. Have to wonder though: with the climate in the South getting progressively warmer earlier and staying warmer later if the forest will not change itself. The answer is “of course it will”. So why bother saving it? I agree it is probably just a “finger in the dike”. But why not try to keep what we have a little longer? Why not try to stave off the inevitable. Why not go down fighting? We are in the process of conquering nature.
Let’s have a party.
Image: http://users.skynet.be/oakcity/2006/CD/CD1.jpg