TWO MINUTES

This is an amazing two-minute look at world history. Enjoy!

Political Corruption Can Be Overcome

Does Democracy Equal Freedom?
I deplore dealing in negativity, but I am not Pollyanna and I know you must recognize a problem in order to address it with solution-oriented  discourse and action. What my primary concerns are for our country are political corruption and mass complacency.
We were given the great opportunity to be self-governing, but over the years we have allowed a rash of greedy, power hungry individuals and organizations to chip away at our freedoms and our resolve. So many people do not even vote. Those who do, often either pull the lever for a strict party line, or they vote incidental issues of emotional hot spots.
Things that the government should have nothing to do with should not be party platform planks.
Radicalism is uncalled for, unless you want to be radical about preserving and regaining freedom from despotism. It seems there just are not enough fingers to point at each problem facing us.
That is why I will cast my vote for Ron Paul. Dr. Paul seems to know what America stands for and what America should once again be.
My favorite quote from Ron Paul to date is this: "It's important for us to remember, however, that words can be made meaningless by misuse or overuse. And when we as citizens allow politicians to obscure the truth by distorting words, we diminish ourselves and our nation."
Enjoy reading and thinking about the depth of understanding that he exhibits in the article entitled Democracy is not Equal to Freedom and other fine illuminating articles at this link:
http://www.ronpaul.com/author/admin or click on the post title.
Anyway, my point is, that as a patriot, I could never, in good conscience, vote for either the incumbent or for Gov. Romney, simply because I care too much about the present and future of the United States and all of us within her.
Ron Paul has integrity and knows what needs to be done and will do it. That is my stand on this issue.
Blessed Be
Victoria

Wise or Dumb, Your Choice

Ridiculous!

A current report reveals that women are as susceptible, if not more so, than men, to the sad phenomenon known as ‘beer goggles’ and are as apt to respond to said attraction most spontaneously.

If this is so, what, oh what has happened to the general mentality of women? If a pint and a half of beer will possibly make a loathsome toad appear to be a prince charming, why would a woman succumb to the beer in the first place, let alone to the toad/prince?

I do attempt to ‘judge not that I be not judged,’ but I feel strongly about the need to maintain standards and a sense of discernment. It is true that many a fine book may be hidden beneath an unattractive cover, and yet, it is also important to cull the chaff from the wheat.  (Forgive my mixed metaphors, but I enjoy them)

I think that there is a possibility for most anyone to be redeemed in this lifetime if redemption is sought. But the seeking is the key. One must strive for higher ground, or one will remain lost in the bog. It is not the job of someone to jump into the bog with another simply for the sake of companionship.

To me, the attraction is founded first upon intelligent conversation and clever repartee. Should someone prove themselves of equal or greater mental and spiritual standing than I, then I seek to raise myself up to worthy equality and allow for nature to take its course from that point.

In any interaction I hope to bless through encounter and both inspire and be inspired either mentally or spiritually. A challenge to learn something new is a wonderful blessing, so long as the subject is within the context of one’s appropriate value system, or the motivation to research is for the sake of an ultimate benefit to self or society.

I  sometimes feel the ‘need’ for a Guinness when out with the girls if I want to loosen up and dance or sing karaoke, but stopping with one and sipping it slowly is beneficial for me to maintain my reason and yet unstuff my excessive inhibitions. And yet, I know that I do not really ‘need’ that Guinness, because I know that appropriate meditation would achieve my desired affect just as well. Either/Or.

And so, I would caution women to embrace discernment in their quest for companionship and to embrace less alcohol or other substances that might alter their mental state of self-protective shielding.

Have fun, be well and Blessed Be

Victoria

Some Thoughts on How to Run a Planet

Here Are Some Thoughts on How to Run a Planet:

Attributes of a congenial society would include the following:

Freedom

Personal restraint

Courtesy

Kindness

Diplomacy*

Honesty

Integrity

Joy

Generosity

Fundamental concepts which, when diligently applied to daily life, lead to harmonious interaction among people and societies, and between humans and non-humans living beings:

Golden Rule or Ethic of Reciprocity, Rule of Karma or An’ It Harm Done, Do As Thou Wilt. **

10 Commandments

Beatitudes

WWJD?***

Consideration of Consequences

Development of Empathy

Assorted means by which humanity may learn to live by the fundamental concepts of harmony include:

Education

Peer pressure

Yoga

Tai Chi

Meditation

Methods for correcting aberrant behavior include the following methodologies, and though non-exclusive, rule out the use of pharmacological or chemical behavior modification. Some of these non-chemical means are listed here:

Cleansing through spiritual means

Extraction

Exorcism

Soul Retrieval

Is there a place in a perfected social structure for punishment? If the goal is reformation, the following procedures might be employed:

Shunning

Isolation

What kind of government (of the people, by the people and for the people) would be appropriate to achieve a free and peaceful society?

What are the significant elements of a healthy society, economically speaking?

Agriculture

Construction

Recycling

Transportation

Energy production and distribution

Recreation

Spiritual counseling, teaching and reformation

Is it possible to achieve this total freedom on a global scale?

How to obliterate the concepts of fascism,? Through teaching freedom as the ultimate concept and generosity and honesty as the means to achieve it.

What is the underlying principal of all of this? Love.

Agape, Philia or Platonic,  Eros, and Storge.

Selfless and generous, and of God; friendship; romantic and erotic (Eros and Venus); and situational/familial.

“…for love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Little else is needed but the most significant portions of the Bible.

That does not mean that Christianity is the only way. It simply means that the Bible contains a great compilation of factors that can also be found in an assortment of other sources, all of which, if distilled into a compact format, without prejudicial denominational titles, would provide humanity and earth with all that is needed for creating a peaceful, free and happy global society.

The importance of separation of Church and State is predicated upon the fact that there are many religions and a tendency for adherents thereof to become fascist in their religious beliefs and to want everyone else to adopt their particular belief patterns and theologies. Also, there is the (sad) tendency for some individuals to choose to believe in nothing and to adhere strongly to that outlook. Consequently, Freedom of Religion is a necessary constituent of any successful society.

There must needs be certain constraints thereupon, however, and these are best based upon the fundamental precepts of freedom for all, kindness, generosity… essentially the precepts found in the 10 Commandments and the Beatitudes. (Regardless of their source.)

Religion itself can actually serve a purpose as an instructor of the precepts that create a society of peace.

Warlike behavior is generally predicated upon greed. Greed for power and greed for land and resources,

King Arthur had a pretty good idea when he sat his constituents down at a round table to discuss their issues of importance. A populist concept, the round table or the circle, is comprised of those who wish to be listened to and those who are willing to listen. Representatives of peoples from assorted areas coming together to establish concord and to confirm alliance to the principles of the social network should not need to make up more rules or laws, but should simply discuss how the fundamental precepts may be applied to any given circumstance.. If a group is having difficulty with something, then  persons with ability would be selected to advise or teach or perform the needed function or provide the remedial service.

How should representatives be chosen to sit at this ‘round table’ or discussion circle?

Each area would randomly select a man and a woman who have achieved adulthood and who have no incapacities and two post-pubescent children to attend and represent their group. By randomly, it is meant that all names would go into four ‘hats’ and four toddlers would pick out the names of the representatives that would serve for that session. There would be no campaigning, no voting, and no competition. Everyone would have an equal chance of being chosen and those who have served in that capacity could choose to decline to participate in additional drawings. This would be the format of ‘government’ at each level, local, continental and global. ‘Government’ would be called ‘Council.’

What would constitute ‘punishment’ for infractions of the general codes of conduct?

Would ‘police’ be required, or some type of enforcers?

What would protect people from mob rule?

It would probably be best for shamanic practitioners to perform remedial work to rectify any situation that results in harm to another or to others or to an aspect of the planet.

Participants in a crime would undergo spiritual cleansing, extraction soul retrieval,

Participants in an incidence of mob rule would also be individually subject to the same metaphysical healing work.

And so, to reform society requires us to actually re-form society from the ground up, casting off the concept of corporations as ‘entities with rights’ beyond that which a human or biological entity possesses. What corporation (perhaps excluding Zappos) holds the rights of the individual as equal to its own?

The current corporatocracy in which we find ourselves has taken over rule of society in a very global way. From the outsourcing of jobs from one country to another, the shipping of resources and products back and forth across our vast oceans, the negligence of enforcement of safety standards in the oil industry and in the building and re-building of communities in fragile shoreline areas, the punitive requirements pressed upon small businesses and individuals wishing to be self-employed, the kow-towing of all levels of government to the mega-corporations who have taken over healthcare, agriculture and energy, there is little room left on this planet for the individual who wishes to carve out a meaningful and productive self-sufficiency.

Complacency and depression have been the psychological results of this megal-o-manic takeover of the economic systems of Earth.  I have seen so much complacent (if annoyed) acceptance of encroaches upon personal freedom in my prior work at an international airport, that I am saddened, angered and inspired to write, blog and speak on this topic wherever and whenever called upon to do so.

Standing up, speaking out, prayer and fasting, boycotting and peaceful, passive resistance are the primary tools at our disposal at this time. That seems like a pretty paltry inventory. Numbers though, that is where it will begin to actually count. Remember the Hundredth Monkey Effect. Once the tipping point is reached, the effects of our actions/inactions will snowball into a noticeable populist force that will (yes, WILL) have an affect upon our governments and the corporations that run them.

Where there is darkness, let us shine our Light!

Blessed Be

Victoria Lea

*Diplomacy would be strictly defined as polite and honest disagreement with another point of view. There would be no prevarication and no ‘political correctness’ involved in diplomacy.  No ass-kissing and no special favors would be tolerated. Simple and courteous honesty would be the rule of the day.

** Variants of the Golden Rule can be found explicitly in nearly all religions from Anabaptist to Zoroastrianism, with only several notable exceptions. In Islam, for instance, one has to work quite hard to discern the concept through implication. Also, there are intellectual treatises which dissect the rule into ridiculous absurdity, for instance, John loves to be spanked, therefore, John is obligated to spank those he encounters. In ancient Babylon, Hammurabi’s code of honor although of similar concept, was in practice, retributional: an eye for an eye and did not seem to get the concept of blessing.

*** WWJD, or What Would Jesus Do? Is a predominantly Christian bumper sticker. One need not be a Christian to ask and answer the question, as throughout the world, Yeshua has been known as an exemplary, loving, kind and forthright individual, who healed and expressed honesty in His daily life. One might also say WWBD or What Would Buddha Do? What indeed, would any perfect archetype do? Take stock and think about the consequences of an action in light of the precepts discussed to create a better human society.

LOCATION,LOCATION,LOCATION

You know she* is everywhere here, from the deepest canyons to the highest manmade structure. You know where she came from. From the heart of the One Creator. You know where we came from: from the heart of the very same Source.

Why? For choices. Is it a game? Depends on your definitions. Is it folly? No. Is it caprice? No.

It says: ‘for He so loved the world.’

The Earth was made as one world among many, but one very special, and therefore, needing caretakers.

The caretakers though, have yet to pass the test. This is the ASVAB for stewards. We are failing. As a whole, we seem to care so little for our Earth Mother, that we tear her apart in order to make monuments in our own image and after our likeness… our vain imaginings.

Allow me to digress and grow personal for a bit.

I loved Iowa. Other than vacations to the Rocky Mountains, Manitowish Waters, Mammoth Cave, Chicago and one memorable trip to Boston, Iowa was my home. I did well there. Well enough anyway. Life was fairly calm and reasonable. Both typical and atypical in many of the ways of  family and marriage and jobs, when suddenly it all sort of imploded and I wound up with an ultimatum… move to Florida or else.

Like Ruth, whithersoever he went, I resolved to go.

Culture shock. Sunny south Florida was an instant nightmare for this Iowa country girl.

It took a while. I evolved. I grew into it. I learned to love it. It wasn’t a choice so much as a slow development of a comfort zone, creating home where I was, simply because that’s where I was. I made lifetime friends, and lost contact with the ones from Iowa. A few letters and a couple of phone calls, the twenty-five year class reunion, and slowly all contact ebbed away.

Several trips to Missouri to spend time with my transplanted family remnants: sister and dad, were as close as I got to the ‘homeland’ again.

Solo journeys out west on a sort of ‘walk-about’ mission expanded my view and my love of this beautiful land we call America. And when I went home, it was to Florida.

Ups and downs and poor choices that did not feel like choices but inevitabilities peppered the Florida experience with stories to tell and heartbreaks to heal.

But at some point, I realized how much I had grown to love South Florida. The heat can be difficult, but so can heat anywhere. The traffic can be annoying, but so can traffic anywhere. Hurricanes… well, you can plan for them, and are easier to live with than the suddenness of the tornados that season the Midwest with discomfort at times.

Another sudden implosion ignited an explosion that sent me alone, to make a new life in Tennessee. Why? Poor choices I thought, but in retrospect, Tennessee has been like going to school for a degree in a topic I had no interest in, although, I have found that now that ‘graduation’ approaches, I can see that as much as I have been harmed financially and emotionally by these six troubled years, I have been blessed to a much greater extent by the trials and the lessons and the contacts that I have experienced here. I often kid that the Chamber of Commerce will never hire me, since I have nothing good to say about Nashville, and that is true to an extent. This is a culture in which I have not been able to sink roots. It is a place to visit if one is so inclined. It is a little country town with big metropolitan aspirations, a little skyline of which they are every bit as proud as they are of their guitars and country music, Confederate history and the Civil War battles and graveyards that dot the landscape. The twang which many find enchanting, grates on my grammatical sensibilities and niggles its way into my own lexicon like a virus for which I have very little immunity.

In spite of being cheated and robbed and foreclosed and financially ruined, I have met and made friends with a handful of very special people that I will always hold dear in my heart and that I hope will also value me as a lifelong friend. I have met dogs that have touched me in ways that few others have. I have lost two thirds of my own dogs that moved here with me. I have had heartbreak. I have learned firsthand what depression is, I have dated idiots and some dear but troubled souls. I have made no significant romantic connections.

I waited. Long and determined, I waited for a burning bush to jump up in front of me and tell me what to do and where to go. Fearful of my own tendency to make poor decisions, I wanted the Creator to intervene and outline a path for me.

When it happened, it surprised me. The burning bush said it was up to me to make up my mind and decide where to go and then said my decision would be supported and I would continue to be blessed.

The temptation of Missouri is great. How I would love to spend time with my wonderful nephew, Eithan. He grows so fast. Each day his maturity astounds. At eight years old, he expresses great wisdom, caring and joy. He will be a fine steward.

And so, as I endeavor to downsize my accumulation of physical anchors that hamper my mobility, I pack and ready myself to go home. Prodigal? Yes, in a way. My path home to South Florida is my path to my future of greater mobility. Geographically dangling once again on what I enjoy referring to (if you will forgive my crudeness) as the penis of America, I shall fall back, re-group and ready myself for my next steps forward to the completion of my mission.

I remain a potted plant: unable to sink down roots into this wonderful land. The choices are many. I shall perhaps become a tumble weed.

No longer knee-jerking responses out of fear, my choices shall be determined by gratitude and love for that which has given me life in this beautiful land.

And that’s the thing. All parts of America and all parts of this Earth have great beauty. I acknowledge the beauty of everywhere I have lived and visited. I mourn the destruction mankind has wrought upon many areas and many life forms in it’s (their, our) endeavor to ‘have dominion’ and to egoistically make monuments to themselves and through force to have power over others.

I mourn, but I endeavor not to condemn. For to condemn, is to resist and to fight and when we resist and fight, that only makes the job harder. A muscle resisted grows stronger.

I have this container where I am sprouting seedlings from my citrus fruit. I imagine they will be unable to produce fruit themselves, but the foliage is cheery. One cold winter’s day I tossed the seeds of a pepper into the pot because I didn’t want to trudge to the compost bin. I forgot they were there. They knew where they were. They sprouted and grew and continue to grow, and now they bloom. Coddled indoors, without the weather to force strength into their stems, they are limp and weak as the tenderest vine. Will they be strong enough to fruit? I do not know. I simply have observed that this indoor protected, coddled placement has not given them their needed opportunity to be all they can be… to weather the storms of life: and yet, they continue to grow and to attempt to be productive. It is their nature.

Sometimes home is not the best place for us to grow. Remaining in a comfort zone does not expand our horizons much.

The joy and the beauty of this world are gifts from our Source and true stewardship is our duty to support that beauty with our choices.

Oh Eternal One, forgive me my poor choices and help me to make choices that bless.

So mote it be.

* ‘she’ refers to Mother Earth

A SEARCH FOR MEANING

My country ‘tis of Thee

Sweet land of liberty

Of Thee we sing

Land where our fathers died

Land of the pilgrims’ pride

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring

…

Great God, our King

This is a hymn of gratitude to God for bringing the oppressed Europeans out of the old country and into a new land. It was not meant to be a song worshiping the land itself.

This is a confusion based upon the poetical wording and a people’s tendency toward nationalism and tribalism.

These grateful European expats slaughtered the native people of the Americas in order to found their [our] new nation. Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equally by the God of our fathers who brought them out of exile, they take over.

So what do they do? Rather than mixing and fitting in and living peaceably, they slaughter, and found an empire to rival all prior empires.

Somehow, our forebears assumed and passed on to us, a belief in superiority. Egotistically assuming that we are God’s favored people. What about ‘all men?’

Bible verse I Kings 3: 9 is known as a verse within Solomon’s Prayer where he asks God for wisdom and understanding to judge

… this Thy so great a people…

Long and long, I have misapprehended that one simple phrase. I think most of us who have read or studied the Bible have misunderstood great parts of it, simply because of word usage and multiple definitions.

Great: We can take it to mean large or we can take it to mean superlative.

I believe many of us in this instance take it to mean superlative, wonderful, special. Solomon though, is referring to the largeness of the population, as is earlier explained when he says they cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude [verse 8.]

Those of us who consider ourselves Christians and those who are Jewish generally mean well when we study the Bible. There are some who read it to find verses to support their ungodly behavior, and there are many who actually take each word literally without studying the words to determine what they mean. We make many assumptions, such as when Jesus tells us that the meek shall inherit the earth. In our current vernacular, we define meek as almost synonymous with weak, and therefore either discount the admonition or use it to justify inaction and complacency.  Whatever word in Jesus’ Aramaic language that was translated into meek, actually meant moderate. Moderate as opposed to extremist.

O woe is me. I have always defined myself in part, as a patriot. God Bless America.

All well and good, however, I have recently discovered that the extreme form of patriotism is nationalism and I have long tended to lean in that direction. And that direction is extremist.

I love America, I am grateful to God for America, for our Founding Fathers and their wisdom and for our documents upon which our nation is based. Politically, I have become a constitutional conservative and a moderate [neither Left nor Right]

I honor and respect our flag, sing our songs by heart and say the pledge of allegiance and place my hand over my heart. I have taken that oath many times and I take it seriously.

If you don’t love it, then leave it.

The importance of America to the world is based upon the liberty and principles stated in our Declaration of Independence. The format of the nation as set up in the Constitution is indisputably crucial to maintaining a free country. And yet, today, many people have not read it, and many who have misunderstand it, particularly those such as Madeline Murray O’Hare and others who do not think for themselves but find some mouthpiece to follow and become a groupie thereunto have done much damage.

So now, I am attempting to discern how to be patriotic without being nationalistic.

Like Solomon, and like others in Judeo-Christian history, after coming out of exile, leaders seek power, wealth and protection and these are the fundamental building blocks of empire.

How to have successful civilization without empire?

Lets’ take a look at the movie AVATAR. Watch it and re-watch it. It’s a think piece beyond the pure entertainment value.

The meanings of words change over time. Like meat marinating in seasoned juices, words marinate within the bodies of the cultures in which they are the medium of communication.

We must bear that in mind  and think for ourselves for the betterment of all.

Our Sacred Duty

As the people, the citizens of America, it is our duty as well as our sacred honor to remember our rights and privileges as Americans. It is imperative that we remember these things, not as history lessons, or something from the past, but as living , breathing active and valuable duties, rights and responsibilities set forth for us in our nation’s foundation, which was carefully crafted, under divine guidance, to last for all time.

Only we can screw it up. Only we can become so soft and so complacent and so forgetful, that we neglect our duties as Americans and allow ourselves to fall quietly into serfdom.

There is a rampant and often undetected effort by certain of the world’s richest and most powerful, to undermine our American values and weaken us to the point where we simply comply with the intrusions we were protected against by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Those documents set forth the foundation of law: of the people, by the people and for the people. It is, however, the people… us, you and me, who have the duty to make sure perpetuity sees the power of these documents.

Do you carry one in your pocket or purse? The book is smaller than a Kleenex packet. It weighs about the same. And is published with an attractive and durable leatherette cover.

Have you read it recently? Have you read it since secondary school? Have you EVER read it? Do so now. And after you have done so, think about all that it means.

Available from Amazon for less than five dollars, OR download for FREE onto your Kindle.

Here is what is said on the description page:

“Review

"Take a minute to consider a gift that hasn’t gone out of style in more than 200 years." -- Wall Street Journal

"Who needs play-stations when you can give the kids Thomas Jefferson?" -- Independent (U.K.)

From the Publisher

To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket edition of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. With more than three million copies in print, this edition’s influence has been observed far and wide. It has been held up by senators at press conferences and by representatives during floor debate; found in federal judicial chambers across the country; appeared at conferences on constitutionalism in Russia, Iraq, and elsewhere; and sold at U.S. Park Service stores, Restoration Hardware, and book stores around the country. It’s a perfect gift for friends and family. Order your copies today! “

And so, I challenge everyone to acquaint themselves on an intimate basis with these documents. Also, step up to the challenge of ensuring that your children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews receive proper education; not the heavily edited versions taught in the school systems of today. Where the systems fail, supplement the process at home. Libraries and bookstores offer ample access to the fundamentals of English grammar, penmanship, writing, reading, history, math, social studies, economics and the many other important topics that are only glossed over or utterly neglected in the school systems. Don’t be conned into thinking that education in the ways of modern technology is enough. What happens when the power goes out and the cell towers tumble? Get back to basics first.

Blessings of love and light and freedom to all, and God Bless America.

Victoria

SOME PEOPLE CARE OTHERS DO NOT

This gentleman says it very well. The same story applies not only to military personnel but to ordinary Americans who have little if any recourse and seldom any capability to combat these severe methods of USURY GONE AMOK in the USA


Congressional Committee hears about US soldier's family losing house to Chase Bank while deployed

IDEAS TOWARD A NEW ECONOMY

[This posting was supposed to have been published in here last winter (February 2011) but somehow it got lost and I do not know how to move it into position]
This is a heavy thought to jump in with, but hey... sink or swim!
A band-aid fix on our economy is not what is needed.
Economic rejuvenation, economic revitalization, up-turn in the economy, economic renewal, and so many other phrases designed to placate our mesmerized society do nothing but prolong our difficulties.
1. What would a truly healthy economy look like?
2. What features would indicate that a culture had an effective economic system?
3. Economic systems seem to be tied hand-in-hand with governmental systems. Why is that?


Please insert your answer to these questions in the comments section.


Capitalism
Corporatism
Communism
Socialism
Crime
These are the economic systems of which I have any awareness. Capitalism is our ongoing favorite here in America, but it has morphed into corporatism, though it still wears the capitalism hat in disguise. All of these fail to solve the needs of free people trading for goods and services.
Barter works in small and unregulated ways. I can buy eggs from a farmer for a lot less than at a store. I can barter for a massage by trading dog sitting. Barter is not something that can be regulated by a government, nor would we want it to be. In barter, everyone is responsible for and to themselves and for their behaviour of fairness toward the other party. Government does not like barter because they have not found an effective way to regulate and tax it.
I want to find or perhaps devise an economic system based on kindness, fairness and responsibility and not on greed and entitlement.
Seems like entitlement is greed turned upside down.
Those who feel they are entitled to things they have not worked for are greedy and envious and lazy. I painted that with a broad brush. I know there are mitigating circumstances. But people are entitled to shelter and food and water, not to big screens and Ipods.
Those who feel that their constituency are entitled to stuff are greedy for votes and if not that, then perhaps they are operating from a sense of guilt over being one of the 'Haves.' Then again, perhaps compassion has turned toward sympathy.
If someone, either rich or poor, is struggling to survive a negative outlook, or even stuck without trying, there is no way they can hope to save the world. Saving the world requires Love.
Love in every aspect of life.
Let's see how we can build an economy around that simple concept.

WHO, WHAT AND WASTE

CNN, which, as an airport employee, I am force-fed each work day, all day, actually aired a nice little piece about a little boy who had realized the wastefulness of drinking straws and had set about to rectify the situation. See the brief clip at this link:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2011/08/25/dnt-mo-anti-straw-campaign.cnn?iref=allsearch
Afterall, why should humanity turn so much natural resources into something as extraneous as one-use-disposable straws? Anyway, the piece interviewed him and he told about his research and the ideas he had in order to replace the ubiquitous disposable straw.
Here is the link to Milo's very worthwhile web site:
http://bestrawfree.org/Home.html
I made a comment about how refreshing it is to see a young boy so intelligent and proactive and willing to take up a cause no one else has done and to move forward with it.
Sadly, the old woman paying for her candy, diet soda and trash magazine bitterly responded by saying she wondered who had put him up to that. Who told him all that stuff and why bother to make a big deal of him on TV.
I was a bit stunned by her comment. I responded by saying, "Isn't it wonderful that such a brilliant little fellow had the gumption to begin such a project?"
She said, "Well, he couldn't have come up with any of that. Someone had to tell him all that stuff."
I said that he had done his research. She countered with well somebody had to tell him.
I said he was a brilliant little fellow who had the idea, then did his research, then came up with the plan.
She said that was impossible and that a little kid could not come up with any ideas but had to be told everything. (A classic she said /she said)
I said that brilliance is a gift and that it is accessible to anyone if they are willing to seek it and accept it and that it is possible for people to think for themselves, especially children.
And then I realized that what I was looking at in this old woman was the face of death. Entropy on two feet.
It was very sad.
That was a good time to say 'whatever,' give her her change and push her out the door. Well, of course I did not push her out the door. I simply turned to my next task.
I learn a little more each day about dealing with people. Some people apparently, choose to remain narrow-minded and ignorant. It is sad, but as I learn to discern this and profile who is who in society, I can point myself in directions that bless without wasting my efforts. When to engage and when not to engage is a time-saving lesson. Learning how to disengage is crucial, as is when to disengage. Saying nothing sometimes says it all.
Clearing one's energy field following negative encounters is important to one's well-being. Suggestions for ways to do that can be found in my HEALING THOUGHTS blog.
My comments to the brilliant young fellow doing this important work are 'Bravo! Keep up the great work!"

A LITTLE TROUBLE WITH YOUR PC?

Are you getting that? Are you having some unexplained slowness and jamming when you try to do even the simplest things on the internet? Are things loading more slowly? Perhaps not at all?


About a month ago, my perfectly functioning laptop system began to function like 'rush hour' in metropolitan NYC, regardless of day or time. Shortly thereafter, I began getting pop-up after pop-up offering me the perfect solution to PC slowness. This happens no matter which browser I am using.


Hmmm, paranoid I may be, but I do detect clear signs of a plot here.
"They" whoever "They" are, obviously have more control over what we see and do on our PC's than we have cared to suspect. It is calling to mind an old episode of Twilight Zone. "Do not attempt to adjust your screen," is the direct quote that comes to  mind ...  followed by some sort of invasion.


I suspect in this case it is a media and advertising scam creating the problem only "They" can solve.
So far, I've been able to limp along by repeatedly cleaning out cookies and deleting browsing history.
If you have better homegrown solutions that do not involve buying the services "They" are trying to sell, please comment here and let me know.


Thanks, and keep reading and keep active!
Blessed Be
Victoria

ANOTHER REASON TO CUT ALL FOREIGN AID NOW

This is the most shocking report I have yet seen. A true afront to the American People, Our Constitution, the Military, those who died on 9/11 and at every terrorist attack since the Crusades.

REVAMPING THE ECONOMY: A FEW IDEAS...

Admittedly, I know nothing about economics as is taught in economics classes. I have never taken “econ.” I was a science and journalism major. I always thought that money would take care of itself. My naiveté has come home to roost. I am essentially on my own for the first time in my life. I have been learning many lessons and continue to do so.

Even though my assumption that money would just happen as needed proved to be a bit of a fantasy, a more profound gut feeling about the way national and world economy functions has proven to be correct.

The economic system does not work. It appeared to work for decades, centuries even. Now we see it collapsing from its own dead weight, even though the pundits keep trying to prop it up and baffle our public consciousness with bovine excrement.

A growth economy is the fundamental foundation of how this is all set up. It is a crumbling foundation. Envision a huge pile of sand assaulted by the strong and unrelenting winds of change.

I am also no architect, but I think we can all call to mind what would happen if a tall building were built on top of a pile of sand.

Too much confidence has been placed in this economic house of cards. Literally tons of books have been written about this form of economy.

To paraphrase Wikipedia, labor, resources, production, exchange and distribution of goods and services comprise an economic system.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy.

There are places in life where balance is our best possible goal. Economy is one of those places.

Worldwide population growth is out of balance and has been since, well, forever. But that does not mean that the world economy has to outflank it. Achieving a balance in economy would look different than what we see today. Not only would it mean equal pay for equal work in the USA, but it would mean that no where in the world would women and children be enslaved for pennies a day. It would mean that compassion, fairness and wise stewardship would be the foundation upon which stability and balance would be achieved. Gross profits and Wall Street mania would be a thing of the past. Most necessary goods would be produced locally. Employment contracts would be written individually and agreed to by both parties and performance measured in both directions.

            It seems as though some things in life should be free. Indeed, some are, but they are the intangibles. If other things were free, how would the providers thereof be able to provide for themselves? Education, it seems, should be free, but if it were, then how would the teachers live? Parks should be free, but if they were, how would the people who care for them buy groceries and clothe their families?

Government has assumed the task of paying for many things for people. Oops! Where does the government get that money? Well, from the people. The government has become this gigantic and inefficient middle man doling out this and that while paying bureaucrats and staff large amounts of tax money to pass along some of it in the form of welfare, that people would not need if the government wasn’t sucking up so much money and accruing so much debt. Debt? Debt you ask? Well, yes, the government spends more than the tax revenues, no matter how great that figure.  And the United States Government has been borrowing money in one form or another for decades.

When I was a little kid, I saw on TV how we sent massive amounts of aid to China. So how does it turn out that we are now indebted to China for trillions of dollars? And of course many other countries hold paper against the USA for varying sums all totaling more zeros than my calculator can handle.

And some want to raise the debt ceiling and spend even more.

These are things the various levels of government should provide for:

Unified roads and bridges

The infrastructure for other forms of transportation, utilities and communication. This includes airport runways, cell towers, power lines, water and sewer systems and so forth.

Military

Border and port of entry monitoring

Police

Fire Departments and EMT services

When I say various levels of government, I am assuring you that not all of these things are to come from the federal government, but some must come from state and local levels. And some, especially infrastructure and  EMT and Fire department services could be privatized through renewable leases, which would not be a drain, but a possible source of income.

Here is how the governments can save money:

Cease and desist the so-called “war on drugs.”

Stop paying welfare to the able-bodied idle.

Cut off annual retirement payments to retired congressmen/women.

Freeze salaries of politicos currently in office at all federal levels.

Require that all persons serving in government fly or travel commercially and not in government craft or in private planes, unless those are paid for strictly by the individual. No expense accounts for elected officials. Only enforcement agencies will have access to government craft as need for assignments.

No government money to fund election campaigns.

Set a low cap on how much can be spent on any political campaign.

Eliminate lobbiest organizations.

Eliminate discretionary spending categories.

Confine entitlement programs to verified citizens and their legal dependents, providing none have any criminal records.

Tighten the eligibility criteria for aid programs

Turn away all illegals at the border. Explain to them the proper procedure for applying for legal entry.

Realize Border Patrol is not doing the job. Use the military and military dogs to do the border patrolling work.

Stop sending arms to Mexico and South America.

Eliminate all foreign aid immediately.

 Chart: Discretionary_Spending by Department

The above chart is from Wikipedia. This is the discretionary spending of our tax money.

Starting at the top, I suggest we do the following:

>Itemize Health and Human services. We need to know line by line, what this huge amount is for. Then we need to cut it, line by line as appropriate.

>Veterans Affairs: Increase to 60 billion to account for exceptional advances in  treatment of amputees and for PTSD.

>Department of Education: Cut to 30 billion, line by line

>Housing and Urban Development: lets do a line by line cut back to 30 billion.

>Homeland Security and TSA: Cut back to zero. We have a very fine, well-trained military and a wonderful contingent of beautifully trained dogs. Let them do their work.

>Department of State:  Minimize fluffy luxury expenses. Cut back to 20 billion.

>Department of  Justice: This department needs to review the Constitution and become more accountable to the original principles of that fine document. If they can do their job properly, leave it alone, if not, cut it at any area that is misbehaving.

>Department of Agriculture was originally designed to protect the interests of our nation’s farmers against foreign and domestic incursions. They have failed. Now our nation’s agriculture is dominated by two or three major corporate enterprises which are patenting chemically and biologically altered seed and prohibiting independent farmers from using their own harvested seed. They are killing our farmers and feeding us chemically altered crap prettily packaged as though it were actually food. Cut them back to 2 billion and rescind the seed patents issued to agribusiness corporations, whose names I will not mention here.

>Department of Energy. Hmmm. What have they done lately? Pushed pencils and wasted paper mostly. Eliminate the whole thing. Zero Zilch.

>International Assistance, also known as foreign aid. Bring it home! Cut this down to 2 billion dollars and that is still generous.

>Department of Transportation. Line item. Make them simplify. Eliminate excessive paperwork. Cut their budget to 15 billion and hold them accountable for their expenditures. If bridges and roads need repair, then acceptable proposals can be handled as special appropriations.

>NASA: well, as of today they seem to have eliminated this all together. Apparently the space industry is being turned over to the Russians and other European countries and to private industry. Too bad. It was the best research and development organization in the world.

>Department of Labor seems mostly like a lame duck. If it were fully functional, labor unions could be put to rest. OSHA should make periodic inspections of business and not wait to be called. Working conditions would be better monitored and  less jobs would be out-sourced. Make them accountable and more efficient. Perhaps President Johnson was correct when he suggested combining it with the ….

>Department of Commerce: they once were combined. It might prove more effective again. Dept. of Commerce needs to be watch-dogged a bit more rigorously. Especially in the area of patent-issuing. Consideration needs to be given to the long-term affects of certain patents that could eventually prove to be not in the public interest, but harmful to overall fiscal and physical health.

>The Treasury Department has conspired with the Federal Reserve and the White House and Capitol Hill to ruin our economy. And of course, it harbors the IRS, a debatably controversial and unpopular agency. Hopefully the good it serves at least balances out the bad. As budgets go, it appears to be comparatively small for the complexity of the agency. We need more public oversight into this.

>Department of Interior Has not done an exemplary job in protecting our American Indians nor our American forest lands. It oversees the parks and really doesn’t accomplish much. It should be combined with …

>Department of Environmental Protection which has proven to be a whole lot of useless paper-pushing for the most part.  I suggest combing the EPA with the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Giving them a list of things to do, and hold them accountable. If they actually do it all, then it could be appropriate to combine their budgets and rounding down to a flat 25 billion. For good measure, let’s throw in whatever functions the Department of Energy was designed to perform. It all could easily be accommodated in this more efficient combination.

Here is how the governments can make money:

Legalize all currently illegal drugs or controlled substances, regulate and tax them. The ATF needs something useful to do.

Put prisoners to work. Make them earn their keep.

All welfare recipients must pass random pee tests. Even though controlled substances will be legalized, they must prove they are not wasting money on non-essentials.

Tighten scrutiny at the store level, so that people cannot buy junk food and luxury items with food stamps. And if they have money to buy these things, why are their ordinary items paid for by food stamps?

Force all able-bodied welfare recipients to work in some of the following areas:

Cleaning roadsides of trash and litter, sorting and recycling it.

Pulling noxious weeds from public areas

Sweeping streets and shoveling snow in public areas

Cooking and distributing food to the homeless or indigent

Collecting cast-off food products for the homeless

Collecting and sorting food waste for composting, making compost and mulch for sale to individuals and business.

Teaching ESL and other basic skills to those who lack them… ie: to each other.

Sand bagging for flood zones

Bucket brigades for wild fires

Reading to the blind or infirm, or to children in after-school programs.

People need to take pride in themselves for some accomplishments.

Make the welfare recipient work force available on contract to private citizens willing to pay a small amount for basic help, such as carrying things, cleaning or yard work.

(Determine which of these suggestions , if enacted, would not deprive someone not on welfare, of any employment opportunities)

I think we remember a few years back when the government accounting office uncovered  some very expensive hammers that were sold to the US government. Another look should be taken at the costs of private contractors. The government claims it is cheaper to hire contractors than to use military personnel. And yet the many contractors I speak with in my work tell me how delighted they are that they got out of the military to do contract work for the military because they make so much more money and do what they want. So how can that actually be cheaper?

I am tired of wastefulness in my own life and I am tired of wastefulness in our government. Let’s make government accountable to us. It is designed to serve us. We are not servants of government. Liberate America from the chokehold of our big fat Jabba the Hut government.

Maybe you disagree. Fully? Or line by line? I would like to know. Maybe I need a different perspective, but that’s how I see it.

Victoria

The Economy: It Sucks, So This Is a Long One...

Admittedly, I know nothing about economics that is taught in economics classes. I have never taken “econ.” I was a science and journalism major. I always thought that money would take care of itself. My naiveté has come home to roost. I am essentially on my own for the first time in my life. I have been learning many lessons and continue to do so.

Even though my assumption that money would just happen as needed proved to be a bit of a fantasy, a more profound gut feeling about the way national and world economy functions has proven to be correct. The economic system does not work. It appeared to work for decades, centuries even. Now we see it collapsing from its own dead weight, even though the pundits keep trying to prop it up and baffle our public consciousness with bovine excrement.

A growth economy is the fundamental foundation of how this is all set up. It is a crumbling foundation. Envision a huge pile of sand assaulted by the strong and unrelenting winds of change.

I am also no architect, but I think we can all call to mind what would happen if a tall building were built on top of a pile of sand.

Too much confidence has been placed in this economic house of cards. Literally tons of books have been written about this form of economy.

To paraphrase Wikipedia, labor, resources, production, exchange and distribution of goods and services comprise an economic system.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy.

There are places in life where balance is our best possible goal. Economy is one of those places.

Worldwide population growth is out of balance and has been since, well, forever. But that does not mean that the world economy has to outflank it. Achieving a balance in economy would look different than what we see today. Not only would it mean equal pay for equal work in the USA, but it would mean that no where in the world would women and children be enslaved for pennies a day. It would mean that compassion, fairness and wise stewardship would be the foundation upon which stability and balance would be achieved. Gross profits and Wall Street mania would be a thing of the past. Most necessary goods would be produced locally. Employment contracts would be written individually and agreed to by both parties and performance measured in both directions.

            It seems as though some things in life should be free. Indeed, some are, but they are the intangibles. If other things were free, how would the providers thereof be able to provide for themselves? Education, it seems, should be free, but if it were, then how would the teachers live? Parks should be free, but if they were, how would the people who care for them buy groceries and clothe their families?

Government has assumed the task of paying for many things for people. Oops! Where does the government get that money? Well, from the people. The government has become this gigantic and inefficient middle man doling out this and that while paying bureaucrats and staff large amounts of tax money to pass along some of it in the form of welfare, that people would not need if the government wasn’t sucking up so much money and accruing so much debt.

These are things the various levels of government should provide for:

Unified roads and bridges

The infrastructure for other forms of transportation, utilities and communication. This includes airport runways, cell towers, power lines, water and sewer systems and so forth.

Military

Border and port of entry monitoring

Police

Fire Departments and EMT services

When I say various levels of government, I am assuring you that not all of these things are to come from the federal government, but some must come from state and local levels.

Here is how the governments can save money:

Cease and desist the so-called “war on drugs.”

Stop paying welfare to the able-bodied idle.

Cut off annual retirement payments to retired congressmen/women

Freeze salaries of politicos currently in office at all federal levels.

Require that all persons serving in government fly or travel commercially and not in government craft or in private planes, unless those are paid for strictly by the individual. No expense accounts for elected officials. Only enforcement agencies will have access to government craft as need for assignments.

No government money to fund election campaigns.

Set a low cap on how much can be spent on any political campaign.

Eliminate lobbiest organizations.

Eliminate discretionary spending categories.

Confine entitlement programs to verified citizens and their legal dependents, providing none have any criminal records.

Tighten the eligibility criteria for aid programs

Turn away all illegals at the border. Explain to them the proper procedure for applying for legal entry.

Realize Border Patrol is not doing the job. Use the military and military dogs to do the border patrolling work.

Stop sending arms to Mexico and South America.

Eliminate all foreign aid immediately.

The above chart is from Wikipedia. This is the discretionary spending of our tax money.

Starting at the top, I suggest we do the following:

>Itemize Health and Human services. We need to know line by line, what this huge amount is for. Then we need to cut it, line by line as appropriate.

>Veterans Affairs: Increase to 60 billion to account for exceptional advances in  treatment of amputees and for PTSD.

>Department of Education: Cut to 30 billion, line by line

>Housing and Urban Development: lets do a line by line cut back to 30 billion.

>Homeland Security and TSA: Cut back to zero. We have a very fine, well-trained military and a wonderful contingent of beautifully trained dogs. Let them do their work.

>Department of State:  Minimize fluffy luxury expenses. Cut back to 20 billion.

>Department of  Justice: This department needs to review the Constitution and become more accountable to the original principles of that fine document. If they can do their job properly, leave it alone, if not, cut it at any area that is misbehaving.

>Department of Agriculture was originally designed to  protect the interests of our nation’s farmers against foreign and domestic incursions. They have failed. Now our nation’s agriculture is dominated by two or three major corporate enterprises which are patenting chemically and biologically altered seed and prohibiting independent farmers from using their own harvested seed. They are killing our farmers and feeding us chemically altered crap prettily packaged as though it were actually food. Cut them back to 2 billion and rescind the seed patents issued to agribusiness corporations, whose names I will not mention here.

>Department of Energy. Hmmm. What have they done lately? Pushed pencils and wasted paper mostly. Eliminate the whole thing. Zero Zilch.

>International Assistance, also known as foreign aid. Bring it home! Cut this down to 2 billion dollars and that is still generous.

>Department of Transportation. Line item. Make them simplify. Eliminate excessive paperwork. Cut their budget to 15 billion and hold them accountable for their expenditures. If bridges and roads need repair, then acceptable proposals can be handled as special appropriations.

>NASA: well, as of today they seem to have eliminated this all together. Apparently the space industry is being turned over to the Russians and other European countries and to private industry. Too bad. It was the best research and development organization in the world.

>Department of Labor seems mostly like a lame duck. If it were fully functional, labor unions could be put to rest. OSHA should make periodic inspections of business and not wait to be called. Working conditions would be better monitored and  less jobs would be out-sourced. Make them accountable and more efficient. Perhaps President Johnson was correct when he suggested combining it with the ….

>Department of Commerce: they once were combined. It might prove more effective again. Dept. of Commerce needs to be watch-dogged a bit more rigorously. Especially in the area of patent-issuing. Consideration needs to be given to the long-term affects of certain patents that could eventually prove to be not in the public interest, but harmful to overall fiscal and physical health.

>The Treasury Department has conspired with the Federal Reserve and the White House and Capitol Hill to ruin our economy. And of course, it harbors the IRS, a debatably controversial and unpopular agency. Hopefully the good it serves at least balances out the bad. As budgets go, it appears to be comparatively small for the complexity of the agency. We need more public oversight into this.

>Department of Interior Has not done an exemplary job in protecting our American Indians nor our American forest lands. It oversees the parks and really doesn’t accomplish much. It should be combined with …

>Department of Environmental Protection which has proven to be a whole lot of useless paper-pushing for the most part.  I suggest combing the EPA with the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Giving them a list of things to do, and hold them accountable. If they actually do it all, then it could be appropriate to combine their budgets and rounding down to a flat 25 billion. For good measure, let’s throw in whatever functions the Department of Energy was designed to perform. It all could easily be accommodated in this more efficient combination.

Here is how the governments can make money:

Legalize all currently illegal drugs or controlled substances, regulate and tax them. The ATF needs something useful to do.

Put prisoners to work. Make them earn their keep.

All welfare recipients must pass random pee tests. Even though controlled substances will be legalized, they must prove they are not wasting money on non-essentials.

Tighten scrutiny at the store level, so that people cannot buy junk food and luxury items with food stamps.

Force all able-bodied welfare recipients to work in some of the following areas:

Cleaning roadsides of trash and litter, sorting and recycling it.

Pulling noxious weeds from public areas

Sweeping streets and shoveling snow in public areas

Cooking and distributing food to the homeless or indigent

Collecting cast-off food products for the homeless

Collecting and sorting food waste for composting, making compost and mulch for sale to individuals and business.

Teaching ESL and other basic skills to those who lack them… ie: to each other.

Sand bagging for flood zones

Bucket brigades for wild fires

Reading to the blind or infirm, or to children in after-school programs.

People need to take pride in themselves for some accomplishments.

Make the welfare recipient work force available on contract to private citizens willing to pay a small amount for basic help, such as carrying things, cleaning or yard work.

(Determine which of these suggestions , if enacted, would not deprive someone not on welfare, of any employment opportunities)

I think we remember a few years back when the government accounting office uncovered  some very expensive hammers that were sold to the US government. Another look should be taken at the costs of private contractors. The government claims it is cheaper to hire contractors than to use military personnel. And yet the many contractors I speak with in my work tell me how delighted they are that they got out of the military to do contract work for the military because they make so much more money and do what they want. So how can that actually be cheaper?

I am tired of wastefulness in my own life and I am tired of wastefulness in our government. Let’s make government accountable to us. It is designed to serve us. We are not servants of government. Liberate America from the chokehold of our big fat Jabba the Hut government.

That’s how I see it.

Victoria