Thursday, June 30, 2011

Green!

"mermaid's tears"OPI

Since 2009, 88 Percent Of Income Growth Went To Corporate Profits, Just One Percent Went To Wages
http://www.worldwidehippies.com/2011/06/30/pittsburgh-in-the-60%e2%80%99s-wikipedia-monkey-business/#more-25499
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-jobs-lost-in-the-bush-and-obama-administration-2010-2

obama wins!
worth repeating









A young cowboy from Wyoming goes off to college. Half way through the semester, he has foolishly squandered all his money. He calls home.

“Dad,” he says, “You won’t believe what modern education is developing! They actually have a program here in Laramie that will teach our dog, Ol’ Blue how to talk!”

“That’s amazing,” his Dad says. “How do I get Ol’ Blue in that program?”

“Just send him down here with $1,000” the young cowboy says. “I’ll get him in the course.”

So, his father sends the dog and $1,000.

About two-thirds of the way through the semester, the money again runs out. The boy calls home.

“So how’s Ol’ Blue doing son?” his father asks.

“Awesome, Dad, he’s talking up a storm,” he says, “but you just won’t believe this - they’ve had such good results they have started to teach the animals how to read!”

“Read!?” says his father, “No kidding! How do we get Blue in that program?”

“Just send $2,500, I’ll get him in the class.”

The money promptly arrives. But our hero has a problem. At the end of the year, his father will find out the dog can neither talk, nor read.

So he shoots the dog.

When he arrives home at the end of the year, his father is all excited. “Where’s Ol’ Blue? I just can’t wait to see him read something and talk!”

“Dad,” the boy says, “I have some grim news.. Yesterday morning, just before we left to drive home, Ol’ Blue was in the living room, kicked back in the recliner, reading the Wall Street Journal, like he usually does. Then he turned to me and asked, “So, is your daddy still messing around with that little redhead who lives down the street?”

The father exclaimed, “I hope you shot that SOB before he talks to your Mother!”

“I sure did, Dad!”

“That’s my boy!”

The kid went on to law school, and now serves in Washington D.C. as a Congressman.







Dalai Lama...
People inflict pain on others in their selfish pursuit of happiness and satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood. We need to cultivate a sense of universal responsibility for one another and the planet we share.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

bob and layla sneaking a nap in max's crate
How Greed Destroys America


Robert Parry

Exclusive: New studies show that America’s corporate chieftains are living like kings while the middle class stagnates and shrivels. Yet, the Tea Party and other anti-tax forces remain determined to protect the historically low tax rates of the rich and push the burden of reducing the federal debt onto the rest of society, a curious approach explored by Robert Parry.


By Robert Parry

June 28, 2011"Consortium News" -- If the “free-market” theories of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman were correct, the United States of the last three decades should have experienced a golden age in which the lavish rewards flowing to the titans of industry would have transformed the society into a vibrant force for beneficial progress.

After all, it has been faith in “free-market economics” as a kind of secular religion that has driven U.S. government policies – from the emergence of Ronald Reagan through the neo-liberalism of Bill Clinton into the brave new world of House Republican budget chairman Paul Ryan.

By slashing income tax rates to historically low levels – and only slightly boosting them under President Clinton before dropping them again under George W. Bush – the U.S. government essentially incentivized greed or what Ayn Rand liked to call “the virtue of selfishness.”

Further, by encouraging global “free trade” and removing regulations like the New Deal’s Glass-Steagall separation of commercial and investment banks, the government also got out of the way of “progress,” even if that “progress” has had crushing results for many middle-class Americans.

True, not all the extreme concepts of author/philosopher Ayn Rand and economist Milton Friedman have been implemented – there are still programs like Social Security and Medicare to get rid of – but their “magic of the market” should be glowing by now.

We should be able to assess whether laissez-faire capitalism is superior to the mixed public-private economy that dominated much of the 20th Century.

The old notion was that a relatively affluent middle class would contribute to the creation of profitable businesses because average people could afford to buy consumer goods, own their own homes and take an annual vacation with the kids. That “middle-class system,” however, required intervention by the government as the representative of the everyman.

Beyond building a strong infrastructure for growth – highways, airports, schools, research programs, a safe banking system, a common defense, etc. – the government imposed a progressive tax structure that helped pay for these priorities and also discouraged the accumulation of massive wealth.

After all, the threat to a healthy democracy from concentrated wealth had been known to American leaders for generations.

A century ago, it was Republican President Theodore Roosevelt who advocated for a progressive income tax and an estate tax. In the 1930s, it was Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt, who dealt with the economic and societal carnage that under-regulated financial markets inflicted on the nation during the Great Depression.

With those hard lessons learned, the federal government acted on behalf of the common citizen to limit Wall Street’s freewheeling ways and to impose high tax rates on excessive wealth.

So, during Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency of the 1950s, the marginal tax rate on the top tranche of earnings for the richest Americans was about 90 percent. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the top rate was still around 70 percent.

Discouraging Greed

Greed was not simply frowned upon; it was discouraged.

Put differently, government policy was to maintain some degree of egalitarianism within the U.S. political-economic system. And to a remarkable degree, the strategy worked.

The American middle class became the envy of the world, with otherwise average folk earning enough money to support their families comfortably and enjoy some pleasures of life that historically had been reserved only for the rich.

Without doubt, there were serious flaws in the U.S. system, especially due to the legacies of racism and sexism. And it was when the federal government responded to powerful social movements that demanded those injustices be addressed in the 1960s and 1970s, that an opening was created for right-wing politicians to exploit resentments among white men, particularly in the South.

By posing as populists hostile to “government social engineering,” the Right succeeded in duping large numbers of middle-class Americans into seeing their own interests – and their “freedom” – as in line with corporate titans who also decried federal regulations, including those meant to protect average citizens, like requiring seat belts in cars and discouraging cigarette smoking.

Amid the sluggish economy of the 1970s, the door swung open wider for the transformation of American society that had been favored by the likes of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, putting the supermen of industry over the everyman of democracy.

Friedman tested out his “free-market” theories in the socio-economic laboratories of brutal military dictatorships in Latin America, most famously collaborating with Chile’s Gen. Augusto Pinochet who crushed political opponents with torture and assassinations.

Ayn Rand became the darling of the American Right with her books, such as Atlas Shrugged, promoting the elitist notion that brilliant individuals represented the engine of society and that government efforts to lessen social inequality or help the average citizen were unjust and unwise.

The Pied Piper

Yet, while Rand and Friedman gave some intellectual heft to “free-market” theories, Ronald Reagan proved to be the perfect pied piper for guiding millions of working Americans in a happy dance toward their own serfdom.

In his first inaugural address, Reagan declared that “government is the problem” – and many middle-class whites cheered.

However, what Reagan’s policies meant in practice was a sustained assault on the middle class: the busting of unions, the export of millions of decent-paying jobs, and the transfer of enormous wealth to the already rich. The tax rates for the wealthiest were slashed about in half. Greed was incentivized.

Ironically, the Reagan era came just as technology – much of it created by government-funded research – was on the cusp of creating extraordinary wealth that could have been shared with average Americans. Those benefits instead accrued to the top one or two percent.

The rich also benefited from the off-shoring of jobs, exploiting cheap foreign labor and maximizing profits. The only viable way for the super-profits of “free trade” to be shared with the broader U.S. population was through taxes on the rich. However, Reagan and his anti-government true-believers made sure that those taxes were kept at historically low levels.

The Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman theories may have purported to believe that the “free market” would somehow generate benefits for the society as a whole, but their ideas really represented a moralistic frame which held that it was somehow right that the wealth of the society should go to its “most productive” members and that the rest of us were essentially “parasites.”

Apparently, special people like Rand also didn’t need to be encumbered by philosophical consistency. Though a fierce opponent of the welfare state, Rand secretly accepted the benefits of Medicare after she was diagnosed with lung cancer, according to one of her assistants.

She connived to have Evva Pryor, an employee of Rand’s law firm, arrange Social Security and Medicare benefits for Ann O’Connor, Ayn Rand using an altered spelling of her first name and her husband’s last name.

In 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand, Scott McConnell, founder of the Ayn Rand Institute’s media department, quoted Pryor as justifying Rand’s move by saying: “Doctors cost a lot more money than books earn and she could be totally wiped out.” Yet, it didn’t seem to matter much if “average” Americans were wiped out.

Essentially, the Right was promoting the Social Darwinism of the 19th Century, albeit in chic new clothes. The Gilded Age from a century ago was being recreated behind Reagan’s crooked smile, Clinton’s good-ole-boy charm and George W. Bush’s Texas twang.

Whenever the political descendants of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt tried to steer the nation back toward programs that would benefit the middle class and demand greater sacrifice from the super-rich, the wheel was grabbed again by politicians and pundits shouting the epithet, “tax-and-spend.”

Many average Americans were pacified by reminders of how Reagan made them feel good with his rhetoric about “the shining city on the hill.”

The Rand/Friedman elitism also remains alive with today’s arguments from Republicans who protest the idea of raising taxes on businessmen and entrepreneurs because they are the ones who “create the jobs,” even if there is little evidence that they are actually creating American jobs.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, who is leading the fight to replace Medicare with a voucher system that envisions senior citizens buying health insurance from profit-making companies, cites Ayn Rand as his political inspiration.

A Land for Billionaires

The consequences of several decades of Reaganism and its related ideas are now apparent. Wealth has been concentrated at the top with billionaires living extravagant lives that not even monarchs could have envisioned, while the middle class shrinks and struggles, with one everyman after another being shoved down into the lower classes and into poverty.

Millions of Americans forego needed medical care because they can’t afford health insurance; millions of young people, burdened by college loans, crowd back in with their parents; millions of trained workers settle for low-paying jobs; millions of families skip vacations and other simple pleasures of life.

Beyond the unfairness, there is the macro-economic problem which comes from massive income disparity. A healthy economy is one where the vast majority people can buy products, which can then be manufactured more cheaply, creating a positive cycle of profits and prosperity.

With Americans unable to afford the new car or the new refrigerator, American corporations see their domestic profit margins squeezed. So they are compensating for the struggling U.S. economy by expanding their businesses abroad in developing markets, but they also keep their profits there.

There are now economic studies that confirm what Americans have been sensing in their own lives, though the mainstream U.S. news media tends to attribute these trends to cultural changes, rather than political choices.

For instance, the Washington Post published a lengthy front-page article on June 19, describing the findings of researchers who gained access to economic data from the Internal Revenue Service which revealed which categories of taxpayers were making the high incomes.

To the surprise of some observers, the big bucks were not flowing primarily to athletes or actors or even stock market speculators. America’s new super-rich were mostly corporate chieftains.

As the Post’s Peter Whoriskey framed the story, U.S. business underwent a cultural transformation from the 1970s when chief executives believed more in sharing the wealth than they do today.

The article cites a U.S. dairy company CEO from the 1970s, Kenneth J. Douglas, who earned the equivalent of about $1 million a year. He lived comfortably but not ostentatiously. Douglas had an office on the second floor of a milk distribution center, and he turned down raises because he felt it would hurt morale at the plant, Whoriskey reported.

However, just a few decades later, Gregg L. Engles, the current CEO of the same company, Dean Foods, averages about 10 times what Douglas made. Engles works in a glittering high-rise office building in Dallas; owns a vacation estate in Vail, Colorado; belongs to four golf clubs; and travels in a $10 million corporate jet. He apparently has little concern about what his workers think.

“The evolution of executive grandeur – from very comfortable to jet-setting – reflects one of the primary reasons that the gap between those with the highest incomes and everyone else is widening,” Whoriskey reported.

“For years, statistics have depicted growing income disparity in the United States, and it has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression. In 2008, the last year for which data are available, for example, the top 0.1 percent of earners took in more than 10 percent of the personal income in the United States, including capital gains, and the top 1 percent took in more than 20 percent.

“But economists had little idea who these people were. How many were Wall Street financiers? Sports stars? Entrepreneurs? Economists could only speculate, and debates over what is fair stalled. Now a mounting body of economic research indicates that the rise in pay for company executives is a critical feature in the widening income gap.”

Jet-Setting Execs

The Post article continued: “The largest single chunk of the highest-income earners, it turns out, are executives and other managers in firms, according to a landmark analysis of tax returns by economists Jon Bakija, Adam Cole and Bradley T. Heim. These are not just executives from Wall Street, either, but from companies in even relatively mundane fields such as the milk business.

“The top 0.1 percent of earners make about $1.7 million or more, including capital gains. Of those, 41 percent were executives, managers and supervisors at non-financial companies, according to the analysis, with nearly half of them deriving most of their income from their ownership in privately-held firms.

“An additional 18 percent were managers at financial firms or financial professionals at any sort of firm. In all, nearly 60 percent fell into one of those two categories. Other recent research, moreover, indicates that executive compensation at the nation’s largest firms has roughly quadrupled in real terms since the 1970s, even as pay for 90 percent of America has stalled.”

While these new statistics are striking – suggesting a broader problem with high-level greed than might have been believed – the Post ducked any political analysis that would have laid blame on Ronald Reagan and various right-wing economic theories.

In a follow-up editorial on June 26, the Post lamented the nation’s growing income inequality but shied away from proposing higher marginal tax rates on the rich or faulting the past several decades of low tax rates. Instead, the Post suggested perhaps going after deductions on employer-provided health insurance and mortgage interest, tax breaks that also help middle-class families.

It appears that in Official Washington and inside the major U.S. news media the idea of learning from past presidents, including the Roosevelts and Dwight Eisenhower, is a non-starter. Instead there’s an unapologetic embrace of the theories of Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman, an affection that can pop out at unusual moments.

Addressing a CNBC “Fast Money” panel last year, movie director Oliver Stone was taken aback when one CNBC talking head gushed how Stone’s “Wall Street” character Gordon Gecko had been an inspiration, known for his famous comment, “Greed is good.” A perplexed Stone responded that Gecko, who made money by breaking up companies and eliminating jobs, was meant to be a villain.

However, the smug attitude of the CNBC stock picker represented a typical tribute to Ronald Reagan’s legacy. After all, greed did not simply evolve from some vague shift in societal attitudes, as the Post suggests. Rather, it was stimulated – and rewarded – by Reagan’s tax policies.

Reagan’s continued popularity also makes it easier for today’s “no-tax-increase” crowd to demand only spending cuts as a route to reducing the federal debt, an ocean of red ink largely created by the tax cuts of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Tea Partiers, in demanding even more cuts in government help for average citizens and even more tax cuts for the rich, represent only the most deluded part of middle-class America. A recent poll of Americans rated Reagan the greatest U.S. president ever, further enshrining his anti-government message in the minds of many Americans, even those in the battered middle class.

When a majority of Americans voted for Republicans in Election 2010 – and with early polls pointing toward a likely GOP victory in the presidential race of 2012 – it’s obvious that large swaths of the population have no sense of what’s in store for them as they position their own necks under the boots of corporate masters.

The only answer to this American crisis would seem to be a reenergized and democratized federal government fighting for average citizens and against the greedy elites. But – after several decades of Reaganism, with the “free market” religion the new gospel of the political/media classes – that seems a difficult outcome to achieve.

[For more on these topics, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege and Neck Deep, now available in a two-book set for the discount price of only $19. For details, click here.]

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com. His two previous books, Secrecy & Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & ‘Project Truth’ are also available there.
me- some people object to their taxes going to planned parenthood-


i OBJECT to MY taxes going here!







Bachmann’s Christian counseling clinic receives state funds



By Andy Birkey









Marcus Bachmann.

Bachmann and Associates, Inc., a counseling center that receives state funds and is owned by Rep. Michele Bachmann and her husband, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, uses counseling methods steeped in fundamentalist Christianity, raising questions about its use of taxpayer money.

Founded in 2003, Bachmann’s clinic has taken in nearly $30,000 in state funds since 2007. Dr. Bachmann has said publicly that God heals people at his clinic and that Jesus Christ is the “Almighty Counselor.”

“We are distinctly a Christian counseling agency here in the Twin Cities,” he told KKMS radio in 2008. “We have 27 Christian counselors, Christ-centered, very strong in our understanding of who the Almighty Counselor is, and as we rely on God’s word and the Almighty Counselor, we have the opportunity to change people’s lives.”

He continued, “God heals people and if we give opportunity, if we are a willing vessel and we go according to what God’s word is, it works.”

The clinic applied for and received Rule 29 and Rule 31 licensing from the state in 2003. The rules allow the clinic to receive state money to treat low-income Minnesotans for mental health and chemical dependency problems. The clinic has earned $27,564 in state payments since 2007 — and likely received more, since the Minnesota Transparency and Accountability Project’s online data only goes back to 2007. Bachmann and Associates took $1,419 in public money in 2007, $13,140 in 2008, $12,493 in 2009 and $512 so far in 2010, according to the transparency project.

All of the clinic’s counselors identify as Christians. Among them is Marian E. Eckhardt, a licensed psychologist. Her mission statement says, “I believe that through knowledge, faith and dependency on God and His revealed truths one receives the strength and love to truly fulfill their life’s purpose.”

Saul Selby, the clinic’s drug and alcohol counselor, is also an ordained minister. Selby writes that he seeks to “help individuals and couples experience wholeness and healing through the application of biblical principles and the Love of Christ.”

Debra Kullberg, an associate marriage and family therapist, is also a licensed member of the clergy. “Jesus as the Son of God is the Savior, Healer, and intimate Lover of my soul,” she says in a statement on the clinic’s website. “He invites those He calls to join Him on a personal journey to the Cross. Our entire being is healed and restored (body, soul, and spirit) as we surrender ‘our way’ for ‘His way.’”

Watchdog groups say that the state’s arrangement with Bachmann and Associates is problematic.

“Unless they are receiving money purely through vouchers, this is clearly unconstitutional,” said Alex Luchenitser, staff attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Vouchers are used in some states to allow those on public assistance to purchase services, but Minnesota has no such system in place.

“It’s wrong for the government to buy clinical services that include submission to God or proselytization,” said Luchenitser. “This appears to be a textbook case of taxpayers funds for religious purposes.”

And if Dr. Bachmann only hires Christian employees, that could compound the problem, he added. “It sounds like employees have to be Christian to work in the clinic. That would be religious discrimination.”

Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, was a bit more reserved.

“If the government is going to pay Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities to do stuff, then they have to meet certain critieria. Bachmann and Associates has to meet the same criteria.”

“There are requirements that they insulate the sectarian or religious parts of their operations from the non-sectarian parts of their operation.”

He added, “I really don’t know if Bachmann and Associates is doing that.”

Dr. Bachmann did not return the Minnesota Independent’s request for comment about the clinic.

Given that the clinic is attached to conservative superstar Rep. Michele Bachmann, it has received a fair amount of criticism over the years.

The religious point of view represented at Bachmann and Associates is very conservative, if the clinic’s affiliation with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) is any indication. Dr. Bachmann’s clinic is listed among the WELS/ELS Christian Counselors and Life Coaches, a groups of counselors “intent on serving our Lord.”

WELS became a campaign issue in 2006, when the Star Tribune reported that then-candidate Bachmann’s church was a member of WELS, a denomination that described the Pope as the Antichrist (Bachmann denied that she believed that herself).

The clinic also reputedly engages in “reparative therapy,” or treatment aimed at making homosexuals straight. The first time that accusation was lodged at the clinic was back in 2006 in a City Pages profile on Rep. Bachmann.

Dr. Bachmann told the paper that he does not encourage gays to become straight. But he has spoken about the issue at length on Christian radio. He told Point of View Talk Radio that if a child confides in a parent that they might be gay, that parent should discourage the child from being gay. He also said because of public schools, the number of homosexuals in America is increasing.

“We have to understand that barbarians need to be educated, need to be disciplined,” Bachmann said. “And just because someone thinks [they're gay] or feels it doesn’t mean we need to go down that road. That’s what is called the sinful nature.”

“We have a responsibility as parents and authority figures not to allow such feelings to move into action steps” such as homosexual relationships, he said. “What is our public school system doing today? They are giving full wide open doors not only encouragement to think it, but to encourage actions steps.”

He concluded, “The percentage of homosexuals in this country is small but by these open doors we can see it is starting to increase.”






Hippie Peace Freaks:


‎"You may be sorry that you spoke, sorry you stayed or went, sorry you won or lost, sorry so much was spent. But as you go through life, you'll find--you're never sorry you were kind."

-Herbert V. Prochnow
Cost of US wars since 9/11? At least $3.7 trillion !!!

me- think about it.
i forgot to mention that the owls club scholarship luncheon was held last sunday. i'm so so proud of that scholarship program.

i didn't attend this year. i missed going, but i was just too tired to make small talk with the winners and their families. congrats to all of the winers and to the owls members that are always so giving of money and effort to keep this program going!

as you know, the things that come with a death are time consuming and draining. my sister in law is a wiz at paperwork and so she is moving right along. me? really all i have to do now is finish the thank you notes for the masses and flowers that i have to do and that's it.

getting used to the hole in the fabric of family is much harder and takes far longer that looking up address and sending a few cards.
beautiful day! not too much for me to do around here. i sent in my weekly column today for world wide hippies and now i'm just puttering around.

my humming birds are back. they stopped coming round for a few days and both my neighbor krys and i were worring what had happened to them. i'm hoping that maybe they hatched a few babies.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19270_6-beloved-80s-toys-with-bizarrely-horrifying-origin-stories.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage
everyone especially every WOMAN younger than me should watch this:




Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.

-Johann von Goethe


The boss wondered why one of his most valued employees was absent but had
> not phoned in sick one day. Needing to have an urgent problem with one of
> the main computers resolved, he dialed the employee's home phone number and
> was greeted with a child's whisper.
>
> “Hello.”
>
> “Is your daddy home?” he asked.
>
> “Yes.”, whispered the small voice.
>
> “May I talk with him?” asked the boss.
>
> The child whispered, “No.”
>
> Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, “Is your Mommy
> there?”
>
> “Yes.”
> >
> “May I talk with her?”
>
> Again the small voice whispered, “No.”
>
> Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss
> asked, “Is anybody else there?”
>
> “Yes,” whispered the child, “a policeman.”
>
> Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked,
> “May I speak with the policeman?”
>
> “No, he's busy”, whispered the child.
>
> “Busy doing what?”, asked the boss.
>
> “Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman.” came the whispered reply.
>
> Growing more worried as he heard a loud noise in the background through the
> earpiece on the phone, the boss asked, “What is that noise?”
>
> “A helicopter.”, answered the whispering voice.
>
> Now truly apprehensive, the boss demanded, “What is going on there?”
>
> Again, whispering, the child answered, “The search team just landed in a
> helicopter.”
>
> Alarmed, concerned and more than a little frustrated the boss asked, “What
> are they searching for?”
>
> Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle, “Me.”

Monday, June 27, 2011

had a really strange thing happen this morning. my doc has me taking niacin for my chloresteral. upping the dosage gradually. well, i took the 1st. full dose early this morning and had the reaction they warned of. it's called flushing and i turned as red as red can be and then started to itch!

took 2 hours and then it just disappeared. WOW!

i was red all the way to my toes!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Cluck cluck cluck!!!
Texas Gov Gerry's record..KEEP THIS GOING.


by Kathy Harbaugh :



Texas Governor Perry in just 6 months: June 12, 2011



(1) Perry allowed the execution of a likely innocent man, and then impeded an investigation into the matter:

(2) Perry wants to repeal the 16th and 17th amendments, ending direct election of U.S. senators and the federal income tax:

(3) Perry proposed letting states drop out of social security and Medicaid:

(4) Texas is the country’s biggest polluter, but Perry sued the federal government for disapproving of the state’s air quality standards:

(5) Perry designated as “emergency legislation” a bill requiring all women seeking abortions to have sonograms first:

(6) Perry gutted childcare services even as Texas childhood poverty hit 25 percent:

(7) Perry was a strong supporter of Texas’s anti-sodomy laws:

(8) Perry is a stimulus hypocrite who loudly criticized federal recovery money but used it to balance his state’s budget

(9) Perry said that Texas might have to secede from the United States:

(10) Despite having the worst uninsured rate in the country, Perry claims that Texas has “the best health care in the country”

Some young ones like norm
Are great people and give me hope















"Love should be a reality in your life, not just a poem, not just a dream. It has to be actualized. It is never too late to experience love for the first time. Learn to love. Very few people know how to love. They all know that love is needed, they all know that without love life is meaningless, but they don't know how to love." -- Osho

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Bob checking out some flowers
Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed









By Bronnie Ware (who worked for years nursing the dying)

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.



This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people have had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.


This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.


3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.


Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly,in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.



4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.



Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved.Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.
It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip.But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks,love and relationships.


5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have sillyness in their life again.
When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again,long before you are dying.
well, the funeral doings are done with.

i am so so tired and my sister in law looks as if she's ready to drop!

but, there is a large sense of relief that the pain and the fears are over and that so many did their best for as long as it took.

gives me great hope.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

John Fugelsang-


"I do enjoy people who blame the Federal Govt for everything after 8 years of not blaming it for anything."



my nephew, jordan with his new toy!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Bob is feeling the heat today!
R.I.P.

Thomas Pasquarello

my brother in law and a funny, straight forward guy.
he fought a hard battle against cancer. but cancer doesn't play fair.


Monday, June 20, 2011

New definition for S.O.S.




A C-130 was lumbering along when a cocky F-16 flashed by.

The jet jockey decided to show off.



The fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, 'watch this!'

and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb..


He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier.

The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that?




The C-130 pilot said, 'That was impressive, but watch this!'

The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said:

'What did you think of that?'

Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, 'What the heck did you do?'

The C-130 pilot chuckled.
'I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back,
took a leak, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll.'

When you are young & foolish - speed & flash may seem a good thing!

When you get older & smarter -

comfort & dull is not such a bad thing!

Us older folks understand this one, it's called S.O.S.

Slower, Older and Smarter....
another monday.
we spend most of the day at the hospice. tommy is still hanging on tho he is out of it and we all just sit there and talk while we watch his chest unevenly rise and fall.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/over50hippie/blog/2011/06/pittsburgh-60%E2%80%B2s-why-ask-why

Saturday, June 18, 2011

got in last night about 10. my brother in law is at the hospice-it wasn't easy on him to be moved but the ambulance people were as gentle as they could be and drove as slowly as they could.

the hospice facility is wonderful and they got him settled and upped his pain meds so that it was clear that he wasn't in the gawdawful pain that he had been in. he is as peaceful as can be expected and that is a blessing.

Friday, June 17, 2011

my brother in law-tommy (yes, had 2 named tommy. now only one, soon, none.)is scheduled to go to hospice today.

imagine someone in such pain that even on a steady morphine drip plus extra, that moving their body an inch or two on the bed causes them to moan and sc

ream!

the cancer is in him from the hips down and has eaten away most of the 1 hip and the ball of the thigh- it's also in the thigh muscle of the other leg.

the docs were hoping he would pass away there, in the hospital and not have to be put into an ambulance and driven to a hospice facility BUT docs are not in charge anymore-not in this day and age- the insurance companies are and in this case you have about 3 days to die and if you are still hanging in there and all that can be done is pain meds-then off to hospice you go- that is if you are "lucky" enough to have insurance for it OR you have a couple of hundred a day to pay for it!

i've been up on and off all night dreading this trip. his wife and daughter are besides themselves.

the hospital staff have been wonderful- the insurance companies- FUCK EM!!!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

CC Live @Bonnaroo Comedy TentSunday, 6pm ET
Lewis Black
www.comedycentral.com
CC Live @Bonnaroo Comedy Tent#bonnaroocomedyComedy Central
http://www.politicususa.com/en/tax-cuts-millionaires-feeding-needy


i day of the tax cuts that millionaires enjoy would feed needy for a YEAR!
Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip-Bacon Cookies

Recipe courtesy Food Network Magazine
.
Prep Time:25 minInactive Prep Time: -- Cook Time:20 minLevel:EasyServes:12 cookies.




Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of chipotle or ancho chile powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
5 strips bacon (1/3 pound)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup roughly chopped honey- roasted peanuts
1/3 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, chile powder and salt in a large bowl.



Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 4 to 6 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; reserve 2 tablespoons of the drippings and set aside to cool. Crumble the bacon, discarding any chewy bits.



Beat the butter and reserved bacon drippings in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in the peanut butter until combined, about 1 minute. Beat in the granulated and light brown sugar until creamy, about 4 minutes, then add the egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 more minutes.



Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture in 2 additions, scraping down the bowl as needed, until just combined. Stir in the peanuts and all but 2 tablespoons each of the chocolate chips and bacon.



Form the dough into 12 balls and arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten with your fingers (the cookies will not spread in the oven); press the reserved bacon and chocolate chips on top. Bake until golden, 12 to 14 minutes. Let the cookies cool 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

a tomato sandwich on a fresh bagel from bruggers in oakmont with a cup of coffee-just right!
was at the hospital again this a.m. the people there have been wonderful during this whole ordeal but i wish it were over for tommy. every day he looks worse-EVERY DAY!

tho, i think his morphine level is finally high enough to let him rest. his face isn't contorted with the pain today.
that is a blessing.
Mitt Romney: Federal Disaster Relief For Tornado And Flood Victims Is ‘Immoral,’ ‘Makes No Sense At All’

By Brad Johnson on Jun 14, 2011 at 12:40 pm



Obama meets victims of the Joplin tornado.
Asked about federal disaster relief for recent tornado and flood victims at last night’s GOP debate, candidate Mitt Romney called the spending “immoral” and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be privatized. With greenhouse pollution on the rise, the United States has been struck by a “punishing series of billion-dollar disasters.”

Embracing a radical anti-government ideology from the most extreme elements of the Tea Party, Romney said that the victims in Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and other communities hit by tornadoes and flooding should not receive governmental assistance. He argued it is “simply immoral” for there to be deficit spending that could harm future generations:


Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. [...] We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all
...

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

got back from the hospital a bit ago. it's nearing the end for my brother in law.

you can call me any name you like-you can believe down to your tippy toes that i'll burn in your hell but FUCK- assisted suicide should be allowed-hell- it should be a RIGHT!!!!

i have been thru many deaths. some, like my grandfather's and my uncle's and my father's- really horrible but i have never seen the suffering of anyone like i have now-it's cruel and it's evil to let a human being suffer as he is and i know- he isn't the only one going thru this ordeal-somewhere-someplace!

this is pathetic! and for what? he only has a few days to a week and yet with all the morphine and oxy and whatever else-he STILL moans out or screams in pain, especially if you have to move him even to reposition his head on the pilliow. the cancer is in his BONES now for pity's sake-WTF??!!

even a few of the aides cry with him.

we treat animals better- don't DARE give me crap about it's god's will-god will decide- fuck. that's why we have morphine!

he said today that he "doesn't know how to die!" he said he "wants to go!"

do you have any idea what that does to his family? tommy's a good guy. i've known him since he was just a kid-15 years old. i was there when he finally passed his driving test-when he and his girl(now his wife) went to the prom.

sucks!
Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash, was one of the

greatest political sages this country has ever known.

Enjoy the following:


1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.


2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.


3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman.

Neither works.


4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.


5. Always drink upstream from the herd.


6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.


7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it

and put it back into your pocket.


8. There are three kinds of men:

The ones that learn by reading.

The few who learn by observation.

The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence

and find out for themselves.


9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.


10. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.


11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.


12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring.

He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.

The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.



ABOUT GROWING OLDER...

First ~Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers.

Not me; I want people to know 'why' I look this way.

I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth,

think of Algebra.

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging

is that it's such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Tenth ~ Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft.

Today it's called golf.

And, finally ~ If you don't learn to laugh at trouble,

you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old.


me- thanks marty

Monday, June 13, 2011

http://www.wtae.com/video/28216467
just saw a BIG ole fat groundhog in my neighbor's front yard! it's not my groundhog that lives in my back yard by the woods. mine is grey with a black tail and much smaller. this fellow is brown with a brown tail and has been getting good eats somewhere.

got a feeling that this is the guy that will be dining on my little tomatoes.

Itty bitty baby tomato

My new lilly
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/16/news/economy/middle_class/

Sunday, June 12, 2011

busy busy day!

spent a few hours at the hospital this morning-then a charity car cruise for a local little league-thrn home and cleaning out the flower pots in the yard/refilling and then planting my flowers and some basil and rosemary plants.
got a small load of laundry in and then i'm done for the night!

Saturday, June 11, 2011


max saved a chipmunk early this morning!

we went outside for our morning walk and the black cat that's been hanging around the area(has to belong to someone-too well groomed)saw max and took off across the street. as it did, it dropped the little chipmunk it was carrying. the cat kept running and the chipmunk ran the opposite way back to it's home in nasser's yard!

max wanted to chase the cat but i always have max on his leash.
wish people would keep their cats indoors. for the cat's safety as well as the little critters. plus- this cat is the one that's been coming over and peeing next to my door! PHOOEY!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Little Timmy the tomato plant


made it to the cemetery today. this is my nunnu-my great grandfather.
notice the dark on the left part of the stone?

it's not there on the stone- showed up on the iphone picture.

made it home just as it started to storm.
storm's over for now-i'll plant my flowers this weekend.

i broke down and bought a tomato plant even tho i know my groundhog will show up and eat the tomatoes. i just feel better having one planted!

his name is, "little timmy"
the humming birds have been zipping back and forth all morning . funny- one found the feeder the other day and must have alerted the rest!
http://www.worldwidehippies.com/2011/06/09/pittsburgh-in-the-60s-people-of-walmart/#more-24576



a very cool one from GD!

Wednesday, June 08, 2011



me- crank it WAY up!
getting hotter and more humid now. glad i got a lot done early. been putting ice cubes in max's water dish. he likes that and it will help keep him cool.

my brother in law is in and out of rational thoughts. the implanted pain pump has knocked the pain level down but still- gawdawful! he ate 2 small pieces of pineapple out of his fruit cup at lunch. he doesn't care to eat and i can well understand. he's going about the business of letting go.

we treat our pets more humanely at the end!
Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Cookies














Source: Cooking.com










Recipe

























Active Time: 15 Minutes
Total Time: 40 Minutes
Yield: Makes 18





If you like slightly soft and chewy peanut butter cookies (as opposed to crisp and crunchy ones), then this is the recipe for you. These cookies have a rich peanut flavor which is accented by a dash of molasses.



RECIPE INGREDIENTS



1 cup whole-wheat flour



1/3 cup old-fashioned oats (do not use instant or quick oats)



1 teaspoon baking soda



1 cup extra crunchy peanut butter



3/4 cup (packed ) dark brown sugar



1/3 cup granulated sugar



5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature



1 large egg



1 teaspoon dark robust-flavored molasses (do not use blackstrap)



1 teaspoon vanilla extract



1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts


















DIRECTIONS




Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter 2 large (16-by-14-inch) nonstick baking sheets.






Mix first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat peanut butter, both sugars, butter, egg, molasses and vanilla in large bowl until well blended, about 1 minute. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients just until blended (do not over beat). Mix in peanuts.






Using about 3 tablespoons dough for each, drop 9 mounds of dough on each sheet, spacing evenly apart. Bake cookies 8 minutes. Reverse cookie sheets and continue baking until golden brown, about 8 minutes longer. Cool cookies on sheets 5 minutes. Using metal spatula, transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature).






OPTIONS: •Mix 1 cup of butterscotch, semisweet, milk or white chocolate chips into dough.
•Mix 1 cup of small chunks of butterfinger or pay day candy bars into dough.
After 35 years of marriage, a husband and wife came for
counseling.

When asked what the problem was, the wife went into a
passionate, painful tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the years
they had been married.

On and on and on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness,
loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of unmet needs
she had endured.

Finally, after allowing this for a sufficient length of
time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and after asking the wife to
stand, embraced and kissed her passionately as her husband watched with a
raised eyebrow.

The woman shut up and quietly sat down as though in a daze.
The therapist turned to the husband and said, 'this is what your wife
needs at least 3 times a week. Can you do this?'

"Well, I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays,
but on Fridays, I fish."



me- thanks uncle gabe
going to be a hot day-92 degrees! not supposed to storm til tomorrow tho- that's good.

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

just watched festival express
a concert film from 1970-
joplin,buddy guy, jerry garcia and more.

those were good times.

got it from netflix.
"What mean and cruel things men do for the love of God."


W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) British writer


me- and you know i wouldn't do this!
big storms on the way- i can hear the thunder coming. went to the hospital to see my brother in law-back home now- 2nd cup of coffee and laundry in the dryer.

Monday, June 06, 2011

sitting in bed. can't think of sleep. they moved my brother in law to a different floor of the hospital and askd his wife about using life support.

i pray that he goes peacefully. no one should have to endure what he has and sadly, this is not the 1st time i've seen this. i hope to NEVER have to see it ever again.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/06/06/237112/rick-santorums-top-12-most-offensive-statements/
monday morning- trying to figure out what needs to be done first. still on my 1st mug of coffee.

went to pudd'n and gerri-lee's yesterday. played with the husky pups and yogi- it's funny to watch those puppies play with that big sweet newfie! cuda is getting much braver about the swimming pool. they all can swim and that's the point of getting the pups to swim to the steps and climb out. yogi- being a newfoundland-swims effortlessly. he doesn't even splash as he goes-just seems to slide thru the water.

Sunday, June 05, 2011




me- it's like banging my head against a wall- please- pay attention before it's too late!
well, they put the pain pump into my brother in law- now- we have to see how well it works. i hope it does work. no one can live long in the pain that he has been in.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/dan-wolfe-anthony-weiner-weinergate-632095

Friday, June 03, 2011

Sarah Palin badly mangles the story of Paul Revere’s ride in statement
Posted on 06.3.11
By David Ferguson
Categories: Featured, Nation, Say What?


In Boston, yesterday, former Alaska Governor and possible 2012 contender Sarah Palin kept mum about her plans to run or not run for President, but she did share some fairly jumbled thoughts on the story of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride, “…he who warned the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringin’ those bells and, um, makin’ sure as he’s ridin’ his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that were gonna be secure and we were gonna be free. And we were gonna be armed.”

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin deadpans to the camera, “History lesson from Sarah Palin on the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”. For the record, no shots were fired nor bells rung on the famous ride along the Freedom Trail.
Raise your words, not voice.
It is rain which grows flowers,
not thunder.

Rumi

TO THE STUPID REDNECKED JAGOFF

in the black truck-GMA....-with the sticker about BEER on the back:

SCREW YOU!

we were on dorseyville and tho it's a damn double yellow line and a 35 MPH zone you decided to tailgate more than once and then zoomed past us sticking your hand out of the window with a "thumbs down" gesture. so there you were- in front of us when we turned off-you gave the same gesture.

what's wrong? hum? don't like my OBAMA sticker? too freaking bad-that doesn't allow you to speed-tailgate OR fly around me on a winding road with a double yellow line.

hey- do you think no one saw you? do you think no one has cell phone cameras?

dumb redneck jagoff.

i've got a family member in st. marg's who might not make it- don't need someone that thinks freedom of speech only pertains to fools like palin.

read a damn civics book- IF you can read.
they are going to try again today-to put the pain pump into my brother in law-praying all goes well this time.
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/06/03/aspinwall-police-investigate-possible-attempted-luring/

Thursday, June 02, 2011

http://www.worldwidehippies.com/2011/06/02/pittsburgh-in-the-60s-evil-clowns/
Until lions have their historians,
tales of the hunt
will always glorify the hunters.

African Proverb
C. S. Lewis-

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."
Fran Rossi Szpylczyn:


‎"Average Americans like to think that hard work etc will keep you safe. They don't want to acknowledge that we are all one major illness or job layoff away from poverty. Average Americans like to believe that extreme poverty only happens to "bad" or "lazy" folks, that way they can believe it will never happen to them."

Thank you Margaret Jenkins Colangelo. Perfectly (but tragically) put.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/01/233767/beccera-budget-cuts-firemen/

me- yes, they stood there and watched a man drown.
what sort of a people have we become?
well, they can't put the pain pump into my brother in law- he's too weak and not stable. i hope they can do something to ease the pain.

cancer is a nasty nasty thing.
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