As much as I like to take jabs at our neighbors to the north, the recent denial of their energy reserves by our president in favor of middle eastern oil makes absolutely no sense to me. Isn’t our dependence on middle eastern oil one of the major players in enabling terrorism and our vulnerability? Bad move, Mr. President.- The Globe and Mail.com
“No,” he said as he trudged through a darkening peach orchard. “Our religion teaches us to forgive.” Beside him, another Qusayr resident, Abu Khalil, disagreed. “Should we forgive until there are no Sunnis left alive?” he asked.
The conflict in Syria continues…members of the president’s religious class have been given weapons to open fire on their neighbors which belong to the religious majority. This country is truly being torn apart as now the trenches are becoming more and more the firing wall. NYTimes.com
Today the Healthcare issue is being heard in the surpreme court. For a breakdown on the opinion of different groups read this quick article from AtlanticWire.com
“Without mandatory insurance rules, the government says those provisions would create an industry ‘death spiral,’ in which only patients with costly health conditions would obtain insurance,” reports Bloobmerg. The government says with no mandate, it would lead to “higher premiums, which would prompt healthy policyholders to drop coverage, causing more rate increases.”
Doesn’t this remind you of the state of health affairs a bit?
In an effort to:
1. Write More
2. Start my day with something pointed
3. Actually read some of the websites I have bookmarked “Current Events” on a regular basis…..
I have decided to try to write a quick update on what’s being talked about in the news and blogs every morning. Kind of a tailored “get up, read the newspaper in your bathrobe” deal. I have decided to put it on the blog because maybe some of you would also like a quick update. So here goes the first one:
…Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock apparently falls short of being believable at all and the director is accused of lacking the ability to “do something important while not being self important”. The story follows a boy trying to find something of his 9/11 victim father in the streets of NY. One critic suggested audiences take a step back in time and see the 1960’s movie A Thousand Clowns which carries the same check list but weaves it together in a more believable story line. -Salon. com
…Mother of the slain Trayvon Martin is seeking to trademark his name in a supposed effort for financial gain some critics say. 17- year old was Martin was shot unarmed in Sanford, Fl by a self-appointed neighborhood watchman on 2/26/2012 and the incidient is sparking a racial fury. This couldn’t had happened in a worst state, with laws such as the “Stand Your Ground” Law making it difficult to prosecute the shooter when he is claiming self-defense. -ABC. com
…For a brief history of the swinging ways of the word “cock” you can read its’ orgins and transgressions here, makes for a great party trick- Jezebel.com
…North Korea plans to launch a “peaceful” rocket around 4/16 much to the dismay of world leaders. The UN says that such actions will be met with more sanctions and South Korea has already said they will shoot it down if it strays into their territory. The rocket will be for “agricultural purposes” accroding to North Korea.-BBC.com
…”Newt is one of the few surviving peacocks, especially if you discount Ron Paul, who’s less peacock than emaciated ostrich — never airborne, head in the sand — and so consistently discounted that no one even bothers to implore him to fold his tent. No one can remember that he pitched one.” So it’s Romney and Santorum…..congratulations Mr. President Obama on your job security. -NYTimes.com
I wanted to write this this morning and told myself to let it be…silly facebook thread. but now, after reading about it all day I am still stuck on my original point. That people who are idealists and speak with a unified voice for the country as a whole are unable to gain influential positions in government because campaigning is now a rich man’s game. In a country where wealth is so unequally distributed, how can it be acceptable that you must have a certain amount of money to even consider running for public office? This, I concede, is a romanticized hyperbolic notion of the answer. However, I truly, currently, believe that we can rant and rave against a system to do what’s right but if the system is prone to do as it is trained it will continue to do so. Like asking a lion to suddenly see the ways in vegetarianism. Excuse my metaphors but don’t you see my point? Making public office unprofitable will by theory make it more noble? Because while all your reform tactics are valid, educated observations..at the end of the day what kind of humans are going to execute them? Hence why we all operate in a state of american isolationism…the new apple pie. Can you even imagine a Egypt uprising here? no, of course not. Because in our separate lives things are not that bad…at least not those that are posting political propaganda on facebook, yet we feel the same frustration, even without the everyday violence those in the middle east face, in a psychologically crushing passive aggressive way. But why aren’t we in office? why aren’t we, who take so much time to educate ourselves, doing something about it? Because deep down, we feel like we can’t. And that is the problem, as I see it at least.
Sweet Banana by the White Ghost Shivers….saw them last night at Saxon Pub…so much damn fun!!
Body, mind and the soul, three separate yet connected entities that we carry with us through our life. It is believed that we have souls that carry on when our body and/or minds are finished, so who is running the show? Our thoughts, emotions, do they come from this intangible soul or do they come from a body/mind combination? I am bringing this up because yesterday I was very hungry. I was irritable, I didn’t want to go out and be around people, I was not enjoying life at all….then I ate something. All of those negative emotions vanished. I FELT different, not physically but mentally. My whole outlook changed. I suddenly wondered how many other emotions that felt so strong and real actually came from some physical/chemical need. Women are much more prone to this because of hormones during our monthly party. There are days when the party starts that I am severely depressed and I question my entire life. Then the next day I am fine, happy, and confident. So how do we truly feel? I find it hard to believe that our emotions and beliefs are based on whether we ate lunch or other physical considerations. Is there a internal compass inside of us pointing in the direction of what our souls believe and want that is unaffected by the needy body or gullible mind? Is there a way to listen to that and find our way much more easily? It is a frustrating thing to have your body lie to your mind to get something it wants or to throw a hormonal tantrum. either way, i’ll be keeping almonds in my purse and a closed door on party day policy until I can better run the show.
An extremely insightful friend told me something today that really made me stop and think. She said that our generation is just filtered water of our ancestors. What she was saying was that we are the first generation that is able to really live our lives in a way we want while taking the pure inheritance of attributes that are passed down to us. The belief that at the core, human beings are good. You have to believe that for this to sound like a hopeful idea.
I suppose when you look back a generation you see the baby boomers. While they were afforded a certain amount of success, they were still walking in their parent’s desires for them. Making up for the depression and hard times that were afforded to our grandparents, their parents. But my generation, we have nothing to make up for. Our parents didn’t have to fight a great war that affected the country’s way of life. Participation in conflict was optional on a general basis. Our parent’s had the chance to make something of themselves, whether they chose to do that is one thing…some did, some shouldered their parent’s disappointment at life and let it bury them.
So what does that mean for us? It means we wander a bit, we struggle with all this unfettered opportunity and decision, but we do it with the best intentions. Perhaps it means we will not force upon our children our grievances with the life we were handed. Maybe our kids will grow up idealists of a brighter and better world, and actually will it in to reality. Perhaps not.
But it sure is a optimistic way of looking to the future in a world that seems to be in a hand basket bound for a warm environment.
After having this realization I stopped at a live music bar next to my house and watched the baby boomers dance to a Rolling Stones cover band. It was odd and gratifying to do so alone with these thoughts in my head. Listening to the words of the songs, I still didn’t identify, but I could see the appeal to them. And the dancing of the middle aged, well…that is always a joy to watch. As if no one is watching, they dance.
