Notes to the world

Notes...Did you know the deficit is going down? Probably not...only 6% of the people residing in the US are aware that the deficit is shrinking. In 2010 it was 1.3 Trillion and today it is projected to be $845 billion for fiscal year 2013. Now you know so you can join the 6 %.

Did you know that President Obama campaigned on reforming entitlements in exchange for closing tax loopholes that only the wealthy enjoy?What a trade off...poor people's safety net for loopholes.

Did you know that conservatives and liberals view government from morally different sets of criteria?

Liberals don't want to see millions of people hurt by the looming sequester. They don't want to see our economy tank again. Conservatives on the other hand believe that if you are not already secure it is your problem and your problem alone when the sequester is implemented if you are harmed.

Even though the deficit is not a problem conservatives believe it is morally right to go ahead with the sequester. They believe providing for the common good is a financial imposition, it impacts upon their Liberty and should not be a social responsibility even though it is enshrined in the constitution. They believe they should do everything in their power to insure that government fails.

Conservatives believe they got where they are without the rest of us. They didn't need those roads, bridges, weather reports, schools, teachers, policemen, firemen, hospitals, utilities or sewage treatment plants because they got where they are on their own and everyone, if they just work hard enough, can too.

The sequester is about “the good people who pursued their self-interest successfully, got rich, and have acted "morally" in avoiding taxes that pay for public provisions by the government.” George Lakoff 

Anyone that is hurt by the sequester according to conservatives needs to become more personally responsible because the elimination of the public sphere is what this is all about.

The public(government) rescued the 1% after the financial meltdown but we won't talk about that here. It doesn't fit the paradigm for personal responsibility. The myth of equal opportunity is so different from reality that it behooves conservative's to cling to that myth precisely because it is so wrong.

As the economist Richard Reich says “The Republicans austerity economics and trickle-down economics are dangerous, bald-faced lies.”

The nations problems revolve around too few jobs, slow growth, and wages that people can't live on. The sequester will exacerbate all of the above. Demand will go down, jobs will be lost and fewer people will be bringing in income that will support them. The economy will become depressed and the deficit will increase. Without money to purchase goods all that “trickle down” won't be happening.

On the Daily Kos a few days ago a diarist called Leapyear posted the following:

 “I wish I could get my FOX-loving acquaintances to just sit down and do an experiment."

1. Keep a tally of how many times FOX tries to make you scared, angry, or hateful.

2. Think about whether they may be trying to manipulate you.

3. Decide whether you want to live your life this way, and if not, just turn off the TV and do something fun and uplifting and rewarding. You might notice that you sleep better, and your stress levels go down.

   See Ya next week.
   

   

   New fun thing in F'sted!

   
   

St. Croix Ag Fair 2013

The Ag fair runs for three days and a lot of people including myself are there every day. The energy put out by the people who make the food, play the music, display the plants, corral the animals and cage the birds, and get the place ready makes it the best attended event of the year. It is one of my favorite happenings and it just ended Monday.

Soooo today is a photo blog. Enjoy.

THE FOOD

 THE WAIT

THE MUSIC

THE BOOTHS

THE PLANTS AND VEGGIES

 A SCHOOL DISPLAY

TRANSPORT

THE BULL

THE PEACOCK

  A ROOSTER

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THE PEOPLE

THE PICNIC AREA

JUST HANGING

QUESTION OF THE DAY...ANY ONE KNOW WHAT THIS IS...ANSWER NEXT WEEK

 ANYONE HAVE ONE OF THESE BED COVERS?

 SEE YA NEXT WEEK.

St. Croix Mardi Croix 2013

This piece isn't going to be about the parade that happens every year on the North shore of St. Croix but it will have pics from that day throughout.

Lots of items are in the news lately and its time to notice some of the positive changes that are happening. It is always hard to find the positive but i'm going to give it a whirl today just because we need something positive.

Have you noticed that renewable energy is becoming cheaper than fossil fuels. No? Well in Australia a research firm called Bloomberg New Energy Finance has found that wind farms there are producing energy at AU $80/MWh while coal plants are producing at AU $143/MWh and gas is at AU $116/MWh.

Australia has a carbon tax that is applied to those fossil fuels that pollute unlike us here in the US with no such charge. In the US we tend to sweep under the rug the fact that fossil fuel consumption increases disease and health care costs, contributes to pollution and global warming, and deflates property values. We put no dollar value on the negative effects connected with fossil fuel use and instead the civilian population eats the costs. Our taxes pay to keep our Navy where the shipping lanes are most vulnerable and our soldiers are on alert to "protect" countries that produce the resources we need. If we were to add in these costs wind power would be on par with coal and gas.

Do you want to improve your moral behavior? Well according to researchers at Boston College just thinking about being moral may make you more moral.

If you get a good nights sleep regularly your memory can benefit according to a study done by the University of Berkeley. Apparently they were trying to figure out why sleep and memory were related to a decline in the elderly. They put electrodes on to discover what was happening and found that sleep is an important factor in memory. Improving cognition appeared when the subject had a better nights sleep.

Establishing good sleep and exercise habits, having good social interactions on an every day basis can improve our memory. But according to Dr. Seruja  usually when we think we are having a senior moment and our memory is faulty its not that we are forgetting it is that we just aren't paying attention, we have lost focus. He says if you are forgetting regularly throughout the day then you should be worried. But it seems there is a very simple antidote to memory problems and that is get a good nights sleep.

Thoughts about the future sometimes rage around the intertubes. Here are a few of them i picked up along the way.
1. Digital currency...coming sooner than we think
2.Robots will do the farming
3.Planes will fly pilot free
4.Populations will start to decrease
5. We will all wear devices that record and transmit everything we say and do.
6. You will be able to log on directly from your brain.
7. You will be able to touch each other through your phones
8. Fusion will be a reality
9. You will be able to buy bionic eyes
10. We will all be branded with chips that track our every move.

We need more of these around St. Croix...folks in South Carolina are getting Solar Trees built by Envision Solar in parking lots...2,300 trees that move and track the sun will supply 35 Megawatts of electricity and also be charging stations for electric cars.

See ya next week.

Are you free?

View from the new by-pass

Not many of us think about what real freedom means. We believe we are free because we live in the “land of the free” but are we really? FDR said onetime that real freedom should consist of four things, freedom of speech, freedom to worship whatever, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. If you don't have all four of these then you aren't free according to FDR.

Coral Vine

Guns...an ex Navy Seal named Chris Kyle was shot and killed recently at a shooting range by a vet he was trying to help. Everyone was armed and the most adept Navy Seal around was annihilated. This guy was a trained sniper, better trained than anyone you will ever know, he killed over 150 people while on duty in Iraq, he even wrote a book about his exploits and he got slaughtered along with his friend.

A street on St. Croix

Being armed is not necessarily going to save you if the perpetrator is primed. There is a great piece that 60 minutes did a few years ago using civilians they had trained and armed so they could protect themselves in the event they were attacked. None of them could function in a simulated event, all of them got shot. When you are under stress your reaction time slows. Go watch it...it is one of the most enlightening pieces on gun use you will ever view.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/defend-gun-7312540

The cemetery from the new by-pass

Owning a gun means constant practice...one month without it and you have regressed to a less than basic level. You are deluded if you think you are going to protect yourself with one because the odds are against you, even your body is against you in a stressful situation. If a professional Navy Seal snipper couldn't save himself at a gun range what makes anyone think that with a little practice they will function appropriately. No one can be on guard 24/7. i'll say that again...No one can be on guard 24/7.

Dry Mt. Fancy

Living in fear of house invaders, a tyrannical government and all the other fears that may inflict you is a complete waste of time. The United States has more guns in private possession than any other country in the world and yet instead of being the safest country we have the most gun related deaths. Only a fool would believe that more guns would make us safer.

Cane Bay 7:00am Feb. 5th, 2013

Guns are made to kill, their sole purpose is to inflict death. The other side constantly harps on deaths from abortions, car wrecks, tobacco and alcohol as some kind of save me from the anti gun folks. Having an abortion is a choice, autos are made for transport and you choose to avail yourselves of them, alcohol and tobacco are made for pleasure, none of these compare to being murdered with a gun.

If you die because you got drunk or smoked or drove or had an abortion those are your own damn fault...getting shot is not...those 6 and 7 year olds and all the other people that have been massacred lately did not choose to get shot.

The more guns that are available the more gun related deaths increase.

i don't own a gun and i'm not going to spend my life being fearful that someone might shoot me with one. i would own one if i wanted to hunt so i'm not against gun ownership. But if you own a gun for protection then you are not free from fear which is one of the four criteria for freedom.
Chew that one.
See ya next week.

This morning! Ahhhhhhhhh so lovely!