Food connection

Tomorrow is a big food day all over the country so i decided to dedicate this week’s blog to food and some of its remarkable abilities to connect us all up and help with the big picture.

i’m going to skip foods development and history and go straight to how important it is to eat together.

Studies done on the outcomes of positive future human behavior seem to come up with one common thread. Daily meals, usually dinner, eaten together as a family appeared most frequently in the list of research subjects whose overall mental and physical health was located at the top of the charts.  Those test subjects found with more negative social behaviors tended not to have engaged in communal eating while developing.

My kids are grown now but one thing i remember about eating together every night was the long discussions.  Lots of great talk about how to solve problems, how someone was feeling whether it was negative or positive, current events and questions about something learned in school.  We ran the gamut, no subject was taboo, and everything was discussed and debated openly.

Lots of families today can’t find the time to meet up for dinner.  Work and after school activities play havoc with the limited time available in the evenings so that too many families eat on the run.  A hectic lifestyle makes eating together difficult but certainly not impossible.  Even if you and your children’s schedules are full, try and find one or two days a week when everyone can sit down and enjoy a meal together.  i guarantee the benefits will accrue for all of you and will become apparent in no time.

Eating together creates a sense of belonging, it gives parents the opportunity to teach social skills like how to listen, speak and think; and gathering together for a family meal has emotional, health, and educational benefits that last a lifetime.

My husband and i still eat dinner together every night.  We work together to make the dinner and clean up after, we even set place mats and turn TV’s and radios off.  It is our connect up time, where we really focus on each other without any other distractions.

But families eating together are not the end of the story.  Friends play a role in our overall emotional and physical health and eating with them is just as important.  The sharing of food with friends is an essential ingredient of our social and cultural well-being.

Here on St. Croix a group of us has been meeting up every Friday night for as long as i can remember to eat.  We change the location, eat at one of our homes if the weather is bad or someone is sick, but hardly ever cancel that time together.  We are definitely bonded.

Contrary to those that believe society is falling apart, friends eating together is alive and well.  All over the country people get together for pot-lucks, barbecues and intimate dinners either at home or on the town.  We eat with our friends because that is what humans have always done since our earliest ancestors from the Stone Age.  Those stone agers understood the importance of establishing and maintaining the reciprocal bonds and loyalties that were essential to survival and that hasn’t changed to this day.

Tomorrow, food banks all over the nation will be at full tilt boogey.

Church’s, non-profits that cater to the needy, schools that collect canned goods to donate have all been working non stop all through the year to tend to food instability; this is a regular thing for them.  Too many will not be able to provide a complete meal for their families tomorrow but hopefully they will find open doors where food will be available to them.

Everyone here knows i hate war…well there is a group called Food not Bombs that shares free meals with the hungry in over 1,000 cities around the world to protest war, poverty and the destruction of the environment.  With over a billion people going hungry each day they ask how we can spend another dollar on war.

If you’re looking for a place to donate this holiday season consider them.

Within us is a universe of trillions of cells that need nourishment.  Outside us billions of people also need nourishment so please think about that tomorrow while enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with your family and friends.  Serving food and communing with those you feed is way better than dropping bombs on them.

Hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving see ya next week.

PS..Blueberries---are the new hot food.  They are being touted for their ability to zap free radicals, those nasty baddies that can cause cancer, attack the collagen that keeps you from wrinkling, or affect your LDL.  Scientists at Tufts University are claiming that ½ cup of blueberries a day may slow down the cancer, wrinkles, dementia and even failing vision. 

discover normal

Well to start off this piece i have to state categorically that i don’t believe there is any set of criteria that any group of human beings can fit into which would describe them all as normal.

Normal implies something ordinary, something regular, average or typical, something that is the opposite of abnormal(whatever that is).  To be normal you have to fit into prescribed codes of behavior and follow common standards of doing things.  i don’t think any one of us follows a sharply defined life style that would categorize us as normal.

i have friends that do all sorts of things that are outside the bounds of normal(whatever that is), but are natural and normal to them.  One friend feels it is normal for him to watch  a particular football team no matter what else is going on around him.  Another thinks exercising to the point of physical pain is normal.  Another friend thinks it is normal to work a million hours a day even though they don’t have to.  A lot of us think it is normal to accumulate a whole houseful of goods that we then have to pay for to maintain and store. 

All of us living on St. Croix think it is normal to drive on the left, but our visitors don’t.

All of us living on St. Croix think it is normal to feel chilled in seventy degree weather but our visitors don’t.

Normal is collecting water off our roofs and using it for all our needs but that’s not normal in other parts of the world or even here on the island where some have potable water.

What is normal to us personally may be abnormal to our family, friends and visitors.   

So what is really normal? 

The use of the term normal is ambiguous; it can have positive and negative aspects and yet we all use it in our daily speech as if there is some underlying understanding that we all get.  We all think we are part of some "normal" group that are all going about their lives in a similar "normal" manner.  

Well, we all get it(normal), as long as we don’t think about it. We think we know what "normal" is but when we actually start comparing ourselves with others we realize quickly that we have no bloody idea what "normal" is, because none of us do anything the same way.

The common aspects all over the world are the need for food, shelter and nurturing, beyond that there is nothing common or "normal."

One friend of mine thinks normal has to do with looking backwards and not forwards.  He sees it as a major problem and a primary block to just living.   

Not a one of us is “normal.”  Got that?

We do things that we think make us normal, but none of us really understand that “normal” is not possible.  The way we live our lives is normal for us alone but not for anyone else, and it might not even be normal for our partners whose normal is different than ours.

Partnerships, friendships and family life is where this all plays out.  Expectations for certain behaviors create tension when those expectations go unmet.  It’s an unusual person that can recognize this and mold themselves to others requirements.  The easiest way to live in this world is to just accept everyone for who they are not any lofty expectation for how they should behave or live their lives.  If they don't get it in social circumstances well then they don't get it but it doesn't make them abnormal.

All of us follow our own set of patterns that have helped us navigate the world as we know it, only as we know it.  Steering our way through life doesn’t make us “normal” it makes us adaptable.   We adapt to the daily events that confront us, we mold ourselves to negotiate those tasks and daily interactions with as little stress as possible.

So where is all this going?  Its simple... pinch yourself the next time you are considering why some family member, friend or acquaintance hasn’t acted the way you had expected.  Remember, for all of us, that they are not normal and neither are you.

How to live longer

TED, which is a great compendium of speakers from around the world, has a speech up on line that discusses longevity and how it is achieved.

The speaker and researchers decided to investigate pockets of long life that were found in particular communities around the world.  Their question was why were more healthy elderly found in these areas and what circumstances, be it diet, lifestyle, climate, proximity to cities and pollution were common to all.

The researchers picked half a dozen localities ranging from Asia to California where more than one person was living to over 100 years.  Their idea was to find some kind of common thread that might explain why these places had more healthy elderly.

What they found was that it wasn’t location, it wasn’t a particular diet or exercise plan, and it wasn’t even proximity to pollution or stress full environments.  The overriding commonality was interpersonal relationships.

All members of the over 100 group were heavily involved with family first, friends, their church’s or some other aspect of their communities that had them interacting on a daily basis.

One thing i noticed that the study didn’t mention was that except for two places’ all were on islands, i wonder if that had any significance?

Anyway it appears from this study that seclusion tended to kill you off. 

All of these elderly had stayed in one place for a very long time.  They had developed social structures that included other women or men that they had aged with.  One group in particular was a group of Asian women in their late 90’s and early 100’s that had met regularly since their twenties.  They claimed to have met to discuss everything in their village and their personal lives.  They argued, fought, hated and got over it.  They loved and continued it.  They involved themselves in all aspects of the emotions and communal spirit and found ways to thrive and prosper from all the interaction.  They claimed that without this support and their families they wouldn’t be where they are today.

The group of men that aged well lived on an island and did the same thing.  Only they drank, fought, got involved in physical activities, some even smoked, and they spent a lot of time with their friends and family.  All of the elderly men and women lived with some family members, whether they were in the states or some other country.

And that’s where i’m going today.  In the US we have created a market that caters strictly to the elderly.  We have built retirement homes that warehouse our most treasured seniors, keeping them away from daily interactions with their children and grandchildren. We have separated them from society.  We can’t farm their wisdom the way we used to and our children aren’t learning from them because we don’t have ready access to them.

We have made it a goal to prove that each one of us can live independently and take care of ourselves, not be a “burden” and this may be killing us off sooner than necessary.

i just wanted to throw that out there today as food for thought.  Why don’t we keep more of our elderly close by, would it help them to live longer, and would it help us to live longer too?

It is pelting and lashing here, thundering and lightning and has been for weeks it seems.  Of course its still in the high 70’s and low 80’s, but we are getting waterlogged. The ocean has had beautiful swells which the surfers love but the rain has muddied up things. i didn’t get out to make new photos this week so i’m putting up some from this morning.

Paradise in the rain.

See ya next week.

Road maintenance

i’m not going to talk about the election.

This is the morning after and all across the nation people are waking up happy or sad.  Some may already be digging in for the next fight.

Locally, i’m happy about most of the outcome.  i hope all of you out there are also happy with your local outcomes.  Kudos to those that lost but never gave up trying and congrats to those that won.

Over the past few months the media has revolved so much around this election it is a relief to have the results and get back to the business of life.

Here on St. Croix roads and bush are bedeviling all of us.  Our roads are substandard to say the least.  They were created first by widening the donkey cart tracks, packing down the dirt, and allowing all manner of transport on them.

Historically, the donkey cart tracks were instrumental in moving the sugar cane from the fields to the ships and moving other goods from the ships to the estates.  Most of the tracks just went to the closest shore so boats could move the cane up and down the coast to the two towns. St. Croix had a small population and didn’t need many roads.

As the island became more developed and the need for roads, not just tracks increased, the donkey tracks found themselves being paved over.  Estate owners in the early 1800’s banded together and laid out dirt roads that we still use today.  Unfortunately, none of the new roads were ever meant to be used by cars and trucks and so our problems with them have just multiplied.

When it was decided to pave over the old dirt roads nothing was done to create a better substratum.  Four or five inches of asphalt were slapped on and hoo boy a lovely paved road that started showing wear and tear in the first year of life.  This has been the way roads have been built on the island ever since.  No concern for drainage, or slope, or longevity.

Today we have two lane roads that you can barely call two lane roads for much of the year.  Our annual rainfall is upwards of 45 inches and the plants love it.  They love it so much that you can see the bush grow inches in as little as a few hours after a rain.  These fast growing plants quickly eat into the roads making passable lanes smaller and smaller.  Those with newer cars not wanting to scratch their finish end up riding down the center line causing all kinds of havoc.

Not only does all this rain make the bush grow, it also comes down in such torrents that it deposits rocks and silt everywhere; it gouges out potholes on asphalt roads and creates mini grand canyons on dirt roads.  Runoff is a problem that our engineering department has never been able to solve.

This year, and the year isn’t over yet, we have had over 60 inches of rain and our roads are a mess;  we have car eating potholes, bush that has grown so far into the road that some are only one lane now. 

Back in the day when the planters had to tend and pay for the roads, there weren’t many of them.  Today, taxes have given us paved roads but seemingly not enough money to maintain them all.  i don't want to go back to donkey carts and dirt roads and the wealthy maintaining them or only the wealthy able to drive over them by paying tolls.  i think this is a problem all over the country that we need to address.

Anyway for us here in the islands the roads are a pressing concern.  i hope our new legislators are up to the task and can find the money to cut the bush and patch the holes.

So until next week keep this in mind, be quick to listen and slow to unhinge.

the shadow knows

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
- VOLTAIRE
i do believe this quote by Voltaire.  It was proved to me in glaring detail when our nation decided to invade Iraq, but this is not why i use this quote today.  Today it relates to the upcoming elections and a chat i had this morning, while walking at dawn.

As the sun was rising we discussed the failings and attributes of those running for our local Governor.  Local politics are interesting because they are exactly like National politics just on a smaller scale.

Here in the islands we have the sitting Governor running for re-election against a man who was a previous Lieutenant Governor and commissioner of the Public Finance Authority.  Both representative groups are out blaming the other for gross misuse of public funds. 

The sitting governor has a security fence around his private home, built by the taxpayers that is enough of an injustice to cause some voters to vote for the other guy.  The ex commissioner had a hotel reconstructed under his watch that went millions and millions over budget that will also cause some voters to vote for the other guy.  Which misuse was graver is not discussed nor are the circumstances that led to the alleged squandering of public money by both sides.

Unfortunately these two issues, not what they both did during their careers, not how they changed things or kept things the same in government will be the deciding topics for why people will vote the way they do.

Today no one has time to really examine the politicians they vote for.  All political parties know this and capitalize upon the negative.  President Obama has been slimmed since before he took office, no one looks at his actual record.

Melee is known as a confused struggle.  Our political arena's are nothing more than confused struggles between groups of people that lack important information.

A lot of what goes on in our political discourse today and leading up to the elections next week is based upon blame.  Blame, that more often than not is irrational.

"Blaming is a way of devaluing others. The end result is that the blamer feels superior. Others are seen as less worthwhile making the blamer  "perfect". Off-loading blame means putting the other person down by emphasizing his or her flaws." (Snatched from Wikipedia)

Today in politics the blame game is the only game in town.  If you can make your constituents believe that your opponent engaged in some heinous activity you have captured their vote. 

It is as simple as that.  Blame the other guy for all the nations ills and you get back in, after engaging in two wars, wrecking the economy, and bailing out your buddies with TARP money. 

Demonize them, demonize liberals, demonize minorities, demonize Muslims, demonize immigrants, demonize LBGT people, demonize non-christians, blame them for all the nations ills.  Just don't look too closely at those you might put back in, don't ask them important questions, like who is paying them to represent them, or how are they buying their seat.

No longer do politicians take questions that they have to answer for.  They don't want to debate today...you might catch them out.  No longer do they have to prove that they can do the job.  All they have to do is insinuate that their opponent took something from you.  Make you feel abused and they have your vote.

We are a nation of uninformed voters.  Too many people go to the polls knowing nothing about who they will vote for.  So here are a few myth busters before you go to vote next week.

1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
NOT TRUE: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first reduced that to $1.29 trillion.

2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
  NOT TRUE: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.

3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
  NOT TRUE: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.

4) The stimulus didn't work.
  NOT TRUE: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.

5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
  NOT TRUE: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.

6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
NOT TRUE: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.

7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is "going broke," people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
  NOT TRUE: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.

8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
  NOT TRUE: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on "welfare" and "foreign aid" when that is only a small part of the government's budget.

The above is from the Campaign for American Future

As T.S. Elliot put it:
"Between the idea And the reality. Between the motion And the act. Falls the Shadow"

Investigate the shadow before you vote, become an informed voter and vote for your interests, not those who want to continue to offshore American jobs.

happiness is contentment

Contentment is seeing a pink flamingo on St. Croix when they haven't been seen in years and years.  i know this is a fuzzy picture but seeing this tall bird in our beautiful water is mind blowing to say the least.  Having never seen one outside of a zoo, the feeling of contentment was overpowering.  That bird was magnificent.

Throughout our lives there is the outside clamoring, ringing against our psyche, which asks the question “Are you happy?”

“Are you happy?”

This has been a philosophical dilemma for millennia. 

How do we define happiness and what constitutes being happy? 

i’ve always thought that loving yourself is the first step, loving all your faults and attributes, but hell, i don’t know the answer  to "Are you happy?" any more than any one else does.

And, i’m not going to write about happiness because it is an impossible subject, one where too many go to find unhappiness.

But i will talk about contentment.

The sea gives me a warm feeling of connectedness, makes me want to celebrate, enjoy myself, have fun out there, whoop it up and tell the world if they aren't in the water they are missing out.  The mountains do the same when i hike or ski or just enjoy.  Watching nature in any environment certainly fulfills my need to be contented and at peace with the world.  Having peaceful relations with family and friends is important too, and being honest with everyone is a good thing. 

So is being at peace happiness…or is it being contented, i don’t know?

The daily drama of our lives fluctuates so much between frustration and elation that i think any definition of happiness is lacking.  No one explanation suffices for all of us.  We all have our own definitions of happiness and what makes us happy.   

Here’s mine.

Happiness is so broadminded, so idealistic, that it defies definition.

Now being content is easier, it can mean living in the moment with your family, loving having lunch with a close friend, walking in the dark with your neighbors, enjoying a swim with all your buddies, connecting when you are in the grocery store line, doing the best you can at your job and accepting what you have.

A Jewish poet and philosopher born in Spain had this to say about contentment.

“Who seeks more than he needs, hinders himself from enjoying what he has. Seek what you need and give up what you need not. For in giving up what you don’t need, you’ll learn what you really do need.”  Solomon ibn Gabirol

different folks

i was in the grocery store this afternoon thinking about how we group everyone.  Today the Vitran buses had gone to pick up the elderly that don't have cars, so they could do their shopping.  When i entered the store and saw all the old people i thought to myself this would be a slow day at the check out stand.  This would be a slow day going down the aisles.  i had grouped all the elderly in the store and declared them slow in my head.

Many of us believe that we are open and accepting of others differences.    In fact, this is not the case at all.  All of us, no matter what our background automatically divide people into groups. Some do this in a more methodical manner, white, black, rich, poor, while others are more subtle in their approach, "yes there are haves and have nots."

All of us are drawn to associating with like minded people, putting ourselves in groups we think are beneficial to us.  If you have the same beliefs and life style, alternative points of view don't have to be explored; they can easily be discarded when traveling in those "tight circles" that reinforce a particular idea,way of life, or belief about a group of people.  We all have our "tight circles" no matter who we are.

When you go out of your comfort zone, out of that limited circle, to explore the possibilities, to explore the reality of a new way of doing things; thinking about life and relating to others can make your life much more satisfying.  If you take on a higher level of understanding and truth it will affect you, your family and your peers.

Today in the store i had to check myself,  i had work to do, personal work.  i had to tell myself that not all these elderly were slow, or without cars, or would make the check out wait longer. i had to tell myself that if i got rid of my initial annoyance the trip through the store would be more pleasurable.  i had to remind myself that many of these elderly had fascinating stories to tell.

Today in the news we are inundated with issues that divide us into groups.  Immigrants, welfare mothers, rich, poor, middle class, government workers, private workers, soldiers, republicans, democrats, i could go on and on but i think you get the picture.  Each and every one of these monikers conjures up an image that is used to divide us.

Each and every one of those above categories represent individual human beings that don't fit the negative  marquee.  They don't carry the negative baggage that each of those groups names may trigger for some when the label is attached.  Every one of those groups is made up of people who don't fit the narrative.

As a path, to break yourself of dividing us all into groups, instead of humans, you have to give up the fiction that you are always right, that what you think about these groups is accurate, even if you've studied the group.  None of us are 100% right, nor are we too old or too young to learn about something new that can help change the world.  Remember we all do it, each and every one of us groups humans, even if you say you don't, you do.

So today's message is that  grouping human beings hurts all of us when the categories conjure up negative connotations. 

You don't need the social support of your peers to break out, to doubt what you are being fed about groups of people, be they rich, poor,white, black, purple, welfare moms, republicans or democrats.  You don't need their support to stop grouping people.  You don't need anyone to approve of you relating to each and every person as a human being first.  You don't need anyone to approve of you practicing it every day as a path towards stopping yourself when you put anyone into a group that you view negatively.

So go on, take those first baby steps alone and place humans first, think about the human beings in that group first, before the group image takes over and ruins your brain.

We the People

Plato had a knack for thinking in such broad terms about government that it is still relevant today.

In The Guardian's Manner of Life, he writes, that the aim in founding the commonwealth was not to make any one class especially happy.

Today, we must remember, that also was the aim of the founding fathers when they declared independence from England.  Declaring Independence was not to make any one class of people happy but to form a union that would prevent that from happening.

Back then Plato said:
"We thought we should have the best chance of finding justice in a state so constituted where the aim was not to make any one class specially happy, but to secure the greatest possible happiness for the nation as a whole.  If we were to focus on a select few the Guardians we have chosen to represent us will bring the whole state to utter ruin" Plato

Today the focus on wealth  and what it can achieve through the use of political donations is creating a nation where the ordinary voter no longer has the ability to get his message out to the masses.   Our nation is heading towards ruin, we see it everyday with the focus on profits over people and the nation.

Today, think tanks financed by oil, insurance and pharmeceutical companies dominate all facets of our communication systems. They have carte blanche to disseminate their talking points and they do.  They send out endless bulk e-mails saying the same things over and over to instill unreasonable fear. They pay their lackies to spout out fear on the nations multi media channels.  They have been given free rein to spend as much money as they can on politicians that will do their bidding when elected.  Unfortunately, the uneducated masses fall right in line, voting against their best interests.

The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court allowed corporations to become people.  Allowed them the same rights as citizens.  Even going so far as to allow foreign corporations to donate to political groups through back door methods. No longer is our nation about representing the "voter or person" for the term person, now means corporation.  Corporations who have no one individual accountable and are considered "people," can give as much money as they want, anywhere they want with no limits.

What does this mean for our "democracy."  How can we call ourselves a nation of laws when those very laws have been manipulated to allow corporations to act as individuals?

As Plato stated...our nation was never about allowing one section of society to commandeer the reins of power for their own benefit; as he said, it will only create ruin.  Justice Stevens recognized this in his dissent when he stated:

"At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics."

Our laws were established to represent "We the People" and i close with the preamble as a reminder of where this country is not going, for "We the People" are loosing our voice.

We the People  of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

starve the beast

i think most of you reading here have heard of Lemon Pledge.  It's a furniture wax that contains no wax.  You probably also know that recently the Republicans came out with a "Pledge to America."

Most of us regard a pledge as given by someone you hope you can trust,  someone that will keep your children and my children safe.

Well when people are confused about evolution or global climate change, they endanger your children and my children, by weakening science, by weakening education, by making it harder to deal with problems like cancer and floods that kill people and wreak economic havoc when they're not handled right.

When politicians allow crazy, nasty talk to be part of their "contribution" to American democracy, when they allow crazy, nasty talk to be part of how they participate in self-government of our country, they hurt everybody because when government doesn't work well-- when our justice system doesn't have enough judges to function, when our state budgets can't withstand a recession, when we can't even talk about health care or the deficit or tax relief for the middle class without going crazy ... we end up with a country that doesn't work so well.

There's a reason most people don't want to live in places without a working government -- Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, the Wild West just to name a few. 

Because it's not safe for you, for me, for our children.

Poverty, bad education, unaffordable health care, crumbling roads and bridges, pollution in our air and water, contaminated food ...

... they don't magically take care of themselves.  We all need to be involved in making these things better for everyone in the country.

So when we can't govern ourselves because of the screaming or the misinformation or the dishonesty, people suffer, people die.  Needlessly.

That's what happens when anyone lies about the facts.  Or get them wrong.  Or get all crazy and can't have a constructive conversation about it because they are focused on some personal failing.

This new pledge is the same old pledge we have seen for the past 30 years.  Nothing has changed.
They want to drown the government in a bathtub.  They want to starve the beast.  If you want more of the same put them back in so they can continue to run this country into the ground.  This new pledge is like Lemon Pledge, it's a fake, it has no wax, nothing that will make this country run more smoothly. 

Starving the Beast(cutting taxes) means taking your Social Security and Medicare, it means roads, bridges and infrastructure will continue to deteriorate.  It's a buzz word you should recognize.  The Republicans started this a long time ago, running up the deficits, knowing that if they wrecked the economy eventually they would have to go after Social Security and Medicare.

Here's the findings on cutting Social Security and Medicare: "On Social Security, 73 percent of Republicans, 84 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independent voters are opposed to cutting it in any way. On Medicare, 75 percent of Republicans, 80 percent of Democrats and 74 percent of independents are opposed to eliminating it."  We do agree on the most important things.

The new Pledge to American was drafted by a lobbyist.  One who represented pharmacetical compaines, oil companies and insurance companies.  If you want backward and regressive offshoring of jobs etc. then vote to see your taxes go down and your country rot. 

The job situation is not going to change with tax cuts.  High unemployment will continue even with Republicans in charge and may last even longer because they want to cut instead of stimulate the economy. 

Unemployment is a function of lack of demand; there is no other reason for it. 

If we were a country with political clarity our problems could be attacked positively.  The right claims that there are jobs just no one to fill them.  So where are the big labor shortages, have you seen any in your community, ads for all those jobs in the paper?  I haven't seen any in mine.

"Job openings have plunged in every major sector, while the number of workers forced into part-time employment in almost all industries has soared. Unemployment has surged in every major occupational category. Only three states, with a combined population not much larger than that of Brooklyn, have unemployment rates below 5 percent."  Paul Krugman

Even highly skilled people who are willing to move can't find jobs.   So where are these jobs the right says are available?

"I've been looking at what self-proclaimed experts were saying about unemployment during the Great Depression; it was almost identical to what Very Serious People are saying now. Unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly, declared one 1935 analysis, because the work force is "unadaptable and untrained. It cannot respond to the opportunities which industry may offer." A few years later, a large defense buildup finally provided a fiscal stimulus adequate to the economy's needs — and suddenly industry was eager to employ those "unadaptable and untrained" workers."  Paul Krugman

When demand increases workers will find jobs and not until then.  We need to invest in America and if you keep voting Republicans in this will not happen.  Think about your children next time you vote, do you want them living in a third world country or at least having a fighting chance that they might get to live like you did.

Increase or cut

Bush's tax cuts, Obama's tax increase, which is it?  Well we all know that during the Bush administration Congress passed legislation reducing taxes for ten years.  At the end of the ten years the tax rates were scheduled to revert back to their original levels.  So Bush and the Republican congress played politics with the expiration date of the tax cuts.  Great plan if you lose the Presidency, House and Senate.

Today, President Obama inherited a dilemma, he doesn't want the taxes to revert to their original levels especially for the middle and lower classes.  But he also understands, as do all the major economists, Alan Greenspan included, that to reduce the deficit taxes must go up somewhere.

Internal Revenue Service statistics indicate that only 3 percent of small businesses would be subject to the higher tax if President Obama pushes for the group making $250,000 and over. Innumerable studies of previous tax increases suggest that it would have a minimal impact on hiring.

According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, "Ninety Seven percent(97%) of all businesses owners do not earn enough to be subject to the higher rates, which would be levied on income over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families."

Now here is an interesting factoid, the I.R.S. classifies small businesses differently from the public perception of the neighborhood laundry or the small mom and pop corner grocery store. A report released by the Joint Tax Committee in July found that many of the tax returns categorized as small businesses were actually filed by wealthy taxpayers who earned business income through limited partnerships or S corporations to allow their firms to avoid paying corporate taxes.

You have heard of sole proprietors?  Well many of the above are wealthy individuals with NO EMPLOYEES and guess what else, they won't be hiring any time soon.  Those S corporations consisting of lawyers, hedge fund managers, lobbyists, consultants, actors, athletes, authors and even some doctors will certainly be enlarging their employee base...right?   How many employees do you think they have, and how many more do they need, and how exactly is that tax money going to create jobs?

Using mom and pop business's as a political tool to get more money for the wealthy won't work this time around. The tax money is not coming out of the business, it is coming out of the pockets of the individuals that made the money.  Once it is in their pocket it is no longer used in the business.  If those business owners(that might actually grow their business) were to expand, they would do it before taking the money out, which means before taxes. 

A business decision to hire new employees is based simply on the calculus that the new employees hired will make more profit for the business, and ultimately it's owner. An additional tax of 3% or 4% on those increased profits, after the  profits are removed from the business, does not affect that calculus.

If i can hire an additional employee who will make another $20,000 per year in profits for me, i will do that whether or not i have to pay another $800 in taxes on that profit.  Mitch McConnell and his conservative buddies want you, the middle class, to loose your tax cut unless his wealthy buddies get theirs.  The right is using a false pretext, using small business to convince you and make you sympathetic, to make you feel like it is coming out of your pocket. Its not.

The key to new jobs is that if demand doesn't go up no one hires, regardless of a tax break or not.

Here is another point about higher taxes.  Employers at the end of the year try to find ways of reducing their tax liability by buying things they can deduct.  In some ways that buying keeps other business operating.  Farmers buy new equipment, companies buy new computers and i think you get the idea here.  Higher taxes can actually stimulate business.  You don't pay taxes on the money you invest in the company.

Back in the day when taxes were higher companies plowed their money back in by hiring more employees and expanding business instead of paying higher taxes.  Now they are just sitting on it, putting it into bonds and waiting for the market to move.  They should really be using the money not hoarding it.

"Between 2003 and 2007 we experienced the first-ever economic 'recovery' on record where productivity and profits grew but poverty went up and median incomes fell. The middle class and low-income families did not benefit from the gains accrued over the last decade, which was due to the failed economic policies of the Bush administration and the focus on tax cuts for the wealthy that did not lead to growth in investment." Melissa Boteach

Profits and productivity do not mean more jobs.  How many friends do you have that are working double time at their jobs for fear of being laid off?  Giving tax breaks to the wealthy will not change that scenario.
                                           

Jobs in the service sectors are about the only things that can't be out sourced or moved offshore any more.  We've let China and the European countries lead the way in alternative technology that we invented.  We are no longer investing in the USA and a tax break for the wealthy will not create more jobs.  If the mom and pops are where the jobs are then lets give them the tax breaks they need to at least keep what little we have left churning at home.  Those real mom and pops don't make over $250,000 a year and they will get a break.

Eye of AllOne

Before i get into the meat of this piece i wanted to post this picture for everyone to see.  To me it looks like a large eye with eyelashes.  i thought it was so beautiful i tried getting the whole thing into the view finder but missed one portion.  It was so big and gorgeous that to get that sense yourselves you should double click on it and really give it a look.

i like it so much i'm calling it the
Eye of AllOne.  i imagine this is how ancient religions got their myths started.  One could easily equate this with any God they believed in.  So since i think we are all connected by and through AllOne here it is.

Now for the meat.......So, what could a conservative and a liberal agree on?   How about we start with government spending.  i know you want less, we all want less, liberals and conservatives alike; but how concerned are you about a massive defense establishment which spends $1 trillion of your tax money every year in peacetime?   Please realize this amount does not include counting the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Also remember that our nation maintains over 700 military bases all over the world. 

For everyone out there that is concerned what would the founding fathers say about that?  All those military bases?

That $1 trillion-a-year defense budget didn't prevent the 9/11 attack, we don't like to think about that, but it didn't.  The actual attack for the perpetrators may have cost a mere half million to pull off.  So have we been wasting that $1trillion or is it being spent wisely?  Apparently the libertarian Cato Institute thinks we have been spending too much and recommends cutting the defense budget in half . 

Guess what? 

We liberals agree!

And there's probably a lot more we could agree on.

Jim Hightower recently wrote, "the true political spectrum in our society does not range from right to left, but from top to bottom.  Let's put aside the labels of left and right for a bit and figure out how to wrest power from the tiny minority who have manipulated the law, politics and the media to maintain it.  Get your facts straight and then let's work together to bring back government of the people, by the people and for the people."

The first step to changing how we interact and treat each other as a species starts with each individual deciding there is a better way. i know there are better ways. Only very rarely does something truly need force to create change.

i think we all realize there are no easy solutions.   Historical events are not linear, they don't fit together nicely.  There are many complex narratives concerning how we got here, no one example completely delivers any one pat answer, for there is none.  We shouldn't buy into the simplistic commentaries that blame taxes, welfare, war or even the wealthy.

Vast numbers of decisions that were made over time did get us here today.  We can look at how we want to do things differently in the future but that means taking stock of where we are today.

When we emphasize identity politics we create factions that are manipulated against each other to the detriment of all of us.  So keep that in mind as you read the following.

One interesting conversation of late is the income gap.  For decades we have been told that you don't raise taxes on job creators(wealthy).

Well you do know the wealthy do not spend all their money unlike the lower and middle classes.  The lower and middle classes spend everything; all of it goes back into the system, which churns the economy. The theory is that if we catered to the middle class the middle class will have money to spend and the wealthy will come out of the woodwork to provide something(jobs) to separate them from it.  According to the Congressional Budget Office this churning from 1979 to 2007 gave the top 1% a whopping 281% increase in their after tax incomes.  The bottom fifth of the nation enjoyed a measly 16% increase.

Assuming the wealthy are "job creators" what does it say about the fact that even back in 2004, after the tax cuts, the economy shed over 3 million jobs?  It tells us that in spite of just receiving a massive upper-class welfare package, the rich did NOT create jobs.  If anything, the businesses they own or are shareholders in laid off, outsourced and offshored jobs rather than create them.

When you drive the middle class into penury by giving the wealthy tax breaks that will not create jobs because there is no demand for whatever commodity they want to sell, you have to re-evaluate.

Americans are no longer employable on the global market.  Our basic cost of living is too high and we cannot compete with labor in developing nations.  Henry Ford once said that he wanted to pay his employees enough money to buy his cars. Wal-Mart wants to pay its employees so little that they have to shop at Wal-Mart.  This is where we are today and we need to remember it is today not yesterday.

The wealthy (who own and operate corporations) have a single purpose - that is to increase the size of their portfolio and corporate profits by any means necessary. 

Creating jobs in the USA stands in direct opposition to increasing profits.  The long range goal of any corporation (small business or large) is to eliminate or reduce labor costs as much as possible.   This takes us back to the cause of the civil war.  The reason the south fought was because the north threatened a source of free or low-cost labor. 

There has been no new net job creation in the U.S. since sometime in the 1990s.

The rich are not concerned with unemployment, they are concerned with profits. 

The wealthy do not create jobs in the USA anymore.

Extending the tax cuts for the wealthy is giving more upper-class welfare to people who helped create the mess we are in today.

So if you want to see the deficit reduced think a bit more about where those tax cuts are going and who they are really benefiting.  The wealthy can afford to pay.

Hope you enjoy the pictures...see ya next week.

Tax Cut or Stimulus

So the other day President Obama proposed spending $50 Billion on infrastructure projects; he wants to boost jobs and fix things around the country but Republicans are against it.

If you are on the conservative side of the coin you will probably scream bloody murder that the first stimulus program did nothing. Welllllll i hate to disagree with you but it did have an impact.

Anyone who actually examined where the money went from the stimulus understands it kept millions of people working when there were no other alternatives. Those people that actually "followed the money" understand that Republican governors all over the country took it, ran with it and held press conferences saying "Look what we did for you with it" without ever acknowledging that the it was stimulus money. They used it(stimulus money) in their communities, then bad mouthed it(stimulus money) politically. Here is a short list of some of them:
Govs. Mitch Daniels (R-IN),Dave Heineman (R-NE), Sonny Perdue (R-GA), and Phil Bredesen (D-TN),Mark Sanford (R-SC)you remember him, even went to court then quietly took the money. Gov. Pawlenty(R-MN)refused to sign a letter requesting money but his budget already included it(stimulus money), he was counting on the money to balance his budget but he didn't want to tell you that. i could go on but won't.  Forty Seven Governors signed up for the money that alone tells you how dire the situation was.

This report finds that, without both the stimulus and financial policies, the "GDP in 2010 would be about 6 1/2 % lower, payroll employment would be less by some 8 1/2 million jobs on top of the 8 million already lost, and the nation would now be experiencing deflation." Now read that again because naysayers that believe we shouldn't have done anything have to understand where we would be today if we hadn't done the stimulus. Eight and a half million more people without jobs. Isn't it bad enough already?

The reports authors Mr. Blindi and Mr. Zandi estimate the total direct cost of the recession at $1.6 trillion, and the total budgetary cost, after adding in nearly $750 billion in lost revenue from the weaker economy, at $2.35 trillion, or about 16 percent of G.D.P.

By comparison, the savings and loan crisis cost about $350 billion in today’s dollars: $275 billion in direct cost and an additional $75 billion from the recession of 1990-91 — or about 6 percent of G.D.P. at the time. This recession was not President Obamas fault, he's been trying to put band-aids on a gaping wound.

The above may have been too many facts to take for some. i understand i can get a little long winded but having information is important to understanding the issues.

Anyone who has spent any time reading here knows i'm all about spending tax dollars to benefit all of us. Putting our tax dollars to work on roads etc. will benefit some out there and if i ever drive over those roads it will help me too.

To me, the only problem with this $50 billion is it is too small to have the kind of impact that really helps enough people get jobs.

i get lots of conservative bulk e-mails and one thing i always notice is how they appeal to the emotions first. They give you a sob story to make you feel taken advantage of or fearful of something and then leave it to you to reach a conclusion that will not help your bottom line. i wish it wasn't the case. i wish more people would read both sides before reaching any conclusion, because so many buy into the crap that cutting taxes will create jobs.  It doesn't.  Delete the crap e-mails do your own research.

Now on the other hand extending the Bush tax cuts provides for every $1.00 spent $0.10 to $0.40 cents in economic activity, compared with spending a $1.00 on infrastructure and getting $1.20 in economic activity. Republicans all support extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans as a means of boosting the economy but if you look at the numbers above its obvious which one gets more bang for the buck and which one will actually create jobs and boost the economy. Looks like tax cuts give a smaller economic return which doesn't support that "trickle down theory" we are always bombarded with. i could go on and on but won't. You are probably bored by now. i hope you enjoyed the pictures and please think more deeply about where this country is headed. We need to cut back the money we spend on the military(that will reduce our deficit)and invest in ourselves. President Obama can't do it alone, he needs your help, don't vote against yourself in these up coming elections.  Voting for tax cuts won't help you, but it will help those 2% at the top of the food chain.



If you need a tree cutter and you are on St. Croix Louis Broadman is your man.  He did a great job on cutting ours down.  In case you are appalled that we cut down the tree it was rotten in the middle and posed a huge threat.

Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl was a beauty.  Nicely formed, tightly compacted
and barreling along as a Category 3.  We have been

here before and followed it closely.  As it approached it picked up on the wind velocity and ended up walloping the north shore of St. Croix(where we live) more forcefully than anticipated. 

We had expected winds of maybe 40mph but by the time we were finished with Earl he had left us reeling.  After an early morning flooding in the living room we decided more panels were needed to protect the western side of the house; storms don't usually come in from that side but with Earl he did.  Up the panels went around 9:00am and we settled in to wait out the storm.  

Have any of you noticed that some of the names for storms this year are cartoon characters?  Fiona from Shrek, Hermine from Harry Potter, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Igor from Frankenstein...hmmmmm.

i've always been concerned about a tree in our front yard that if it fell could do serious damage to the cars.  i suggested moving my car but we decided anywhere we put it was dangerous.  So i suggested cramming it up against the patio just in case the tree came down.  We literally only moved the car about six feet but wouldn't you know it was exactly where the tree wanted to go.  That sweet tree didn't come crashing down it just gently leaned over during the course of the storm, finally breaking at the end.

i would have posted last Wednesday like i usually do but wouldn't you know the power was out.  We spent days cleaning debris, scooping leaves out of the pool and general cleanup.  We still have the panels up because we anticipate more storms this season and don't want to have to do it all again. 

The power went out about 1:15pm Monday and we had it restored Saturday night around 10:00pm.  We had gotten used to the oil lamps, the hand crank radio and a really nifty IKEA goose neck solar lamp i bought in San Diego.  i wish i had more of those for all my friends, they work great.  Its a wonderful feeling to get light from the sun, and its free.

We have a generator but the noise drives you mad so we only run it in the morning and evening for showers, the refrigerator, and ugh the washing.  i'm glad to have that noise silenced.

Hurricanes are stressful.  No matter how much you prepare there is always something. The most positive thing about hurricanes is the aftermath, when everyone kicks in to help each other.  Every hurricane season i remark about how wonderful it is to see so many helping others only to watch it all fizzle out once things are more normal.  i wish there was some magic elixir we could all take that kept us so communally oriented.

This is just a quickie blog, hopefully Wednesday i'll be back to normal, stay tuned.  And thank you for the lovely dish towel, you know who you are.