The Mendelbrot Set

One day this week I watched a documentary about Fractal Geometry in Nature and a mathematician named Benoit Mendelbrot. Although it was quite difficult to understand I felt I was on the verge of understanding it and I find the whole idea fascinating. Since most of my inner fascinations deal with time & space, and the relationship of life on Earth to these two components; I can see how fractals fit in quite nicely, not to mention the image is beautiful…by using math he created an image and called it the Mendlebrot Set. It was a very energetic looking graphic.

Initial image of a Mandelbrot set zoom sequence
with a continuously coloured environment-Wiki Photo

His theory is that anything can be measured—and replicated! Like measuring the jagged coastline of a country it may seem impossible to get an accurate distance measurement using linear methods of measurement. By using the fractal method any object can be measured. Even a mountain can be measured using triangle shapes…overlaying triangles of various sizes over an image of the surface of a mountain and then extrapolating the mass from that and voila you got scale measurement. The rugged peaks of mountain ranges are fractal design. (just imagine a jagged set of peaks against a horizon)

This may seem impossible to measure but its actually done by replicating a shape…is it the way nature creates trees, mountains, clouds—the shapes originating from nature or maybe even a formula for creation?

The body of Man is made up of fractal design! They put up an ECG image and damn if it didn’t look exactly like the jagged peaks of the Alps on the horizon—Nature does not give us the square, the straight line, the perfect circle, the cube, the cylinder, the cone…that is mankind’s attempt at replicating nature—we build our houses one box connected to another we take straight lines and combine them to become what we need…but where in nature do you see a perfect box, a straight line, a complete circle that is perfect? Look at a tree it’s a fractal!

Mendelbrot created a mathematical formula and using a computer he was able to create an image using his formula! By adding the end result back to the beginning of the formula like a LOOP the Mendelbrot Set was the result!
A little help from Wiki-

For example, letting c = 1 gives the sequence 0, 1, 2, 5, 26,…, which tends to infinity. As this sequence is unbounded, 1 is not an element of the Mandelbrot set.On the other hand, c = i (where i is defined as i2 = −1) gives the sequence 0, i, (−1 + i), −i, (−1 + i), −i, ..., which is bounded and so i belongs to the Mandelbrot set.

It’s quite a striking image.
So that means by adding the same shape over and over we get mountains, trees, clouds, every thing that has mass and stuff we cant even see. I mean look at a snowflake under a microscope…all-different - all fractal.
So with this new idea of using fractal mathematics the antenna of the cell phone was created it looks similar to this:

Now if you take these shapes and put them on a grid they actually received better than the one straight-line antenna. By using this fractal shape the cell phone industry was revolutionized… to take the sound wave sending and collection to an all-new level. Due to the discovery of Fractal Geometry our world has shifted away from
atypical shapes to shapes that can explain some of the
mysteries of life itself! Including TIME- I always thought of time as
A web, a matrix and I still do—but now it seems we can measure time by using a fractals that was the topic of the book written by Greg Braden...Fractal Time and 2012.

With my minimal ability of understanding I cannot grasp how time can be fractal I am trying very hard to grasp it, and once I do-- Im certain I will become vastly enlightened about the possibilities of how fractals will change life as we know it on planet Earth!  The following is more help from Wiki-

Self similarity in the Mandelbrot set shown by zooming in on a round feature while panning in the negative-x direction. The display center pans from (−1, 0) to (−1.31, 0) while the view magnifies from 0.5 × 0.5 to 0.12 × 0.12 to approximate the Feigenbaum ratio δ.

One of the double spirals zoomed up--this is spectacular..and this was done with MATH-

 

What Would Socrates Say About Christmas?

ell,
I certainly ate too much at Thanksgiving...and I'm still enjoying the left overs...there was no meat on the table, but we had tons of carbs and several sweets so that was more than enough! I find myself in a slump...unmotivated, uninspired and, blah-the holidays for me kicks off the season to question lots of old habits and traditions that I'm not so sure are relevant anymore in my life, and I have to also question were these traditions ever relevant? 


Traditions are a great thing for families and a wonderful way to keep balance in our lives but I also think sometimes we need to examine these traditions just to see if they make sense! Socrates said "a life unexamined is not worth living," of course I'm not forgetting what happened to Socrates (recent documentary on PBS brought this back into the front of my mind) So today I examine, ask questions, find answers,  and ponder possible resolutions.


(I have to digress here for a moment when looking into origins of anything I think of Henrik, an online friend living in Denmark.  He knew perfect English and that was a good thing & he proceeded to teach me a few words in Dansk and we explored word origins together doing research, and it was totally fascinating!!  I know it's not your typical boy meets girl online relationship, I am drawn to certain ones who have something to teach me)

So with that said, where does the word Testify come from? You stand before a court to give testimony, your testimony is sworn now on a Bible, the word of God...but where did that begin?  Found this out while watching that same documentary on Socrates and the Early Democracy of Greece- and even though I did research checking for proof to support this idea, some articles disagreed with this origin & yet the explanation they gave was too vague for me, this one however does make sense!! So my research said when one came to speak to Gods of ancient Greece men had to place their hand over their testicles--thus they stood in testis, maybe this could be the true origins...But on this documentary they said when ancient Grecians came to speak to the Gods they had to bring along a sacrifice--(this made more sense to me, since sacrifice was the Cell Phone of that Century, and being done in 300 BC....so they would kill an animal and cut off the testicles and hold the bloody testis up to appease the Gods while they asked for Grace to be bestowed upon them, they gave TESTIS to the Gods thus came the word Testify--

Women of that time had no power in government or Religious doctrine... so they never had to grab or clutch their crotch, but they performed rituals a plenty of their own... such as killing & burying an entire litter of piglets and then digging the carcases up and ....[OH Ill save that one for another day].......today I'm exploring or examining this:


Why do I celebrate Christmas? What is the ORIGIN OF IT?  I am not of a religious nature--have never been baptised into any religion, I never thythe and as a child growing up we didn't have Christmas in our home!! The whole notion of creation was never explained to me in any form...IN fact I recall only one time in my childhood when toys were presented to my sisters and me...other than that maybe a bowl of walnuts sat on the table or a random card sent in by well wishers would arrive and be stood up on the table, then discarded to the trash a few days later.

So why do we, [my family] have Christmas now? I had to examine this and after a recent talk with my Mother who finally admitted to me she has a strong dislike of Christmas and always has...I searched my memory banks for the reasons behind the celebrating of Christmas for [US]


Well honestly I began celebrating Christmas when I met the man I married and later we had a son...like all parents I wanted my child to have everything I didn't have and that included Christmas! We told him the story of Santa on the roof, we chopped a live tree and brought it into my spotless living room, I baked cakes and hung stockings, I set up nutcrackers and felt covered reindeer!  WHY?

I learned all the traditions of Christmas outside my upbringing. At school I was in the art department from 6th grade on up...art was the main focus of my life [that and riding horses]! So it was that in art class I loved creating the red-construction paper chains and drawing donkeys and camels on the murals to be used as backgrounds for the Christmas pageant of Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus.  The plaster of paris ornaments we shaped by hand along with the homemade torn-paper mache dolls, were so COOL.  For me it was FUN and it was a time to be creative and to do things that otherwise I wouldn't get the opportunity to do!! It made me feel Good to be part of a group of creative people!

So it was that I got to know the event we call Christmas.  I learned of course that is was a religious holiday celebrated by Christians and that was ok, my Mother and sisters said they were Christians although the sisters were at that time Jehovah's witnesses, all 3 of them had been baptised, but I held firm to my non belief system.

I also learned the celebration we call Christmas originated as a Pagan festival in honor of the Goddess of Nature first held in Babylon!  It was a gluttony of excesses-- partying, food, drink, and gift giving...and was done each Dec. 25th. 

In the year 350, The Pope Julius  decided to use this celebration as a means of converting the Pagan Romans to Christianity by continuing this raucous celebration...and the day of choice was Dec 25th...but scholars say the birthday of the man named Jesus...they think...is the same as my Birthday..Sept 29th!


To top it all off there was the music, I have always loved music and it was me who spent many a night listening to the little radio that Big Sis got with the saved Greenback stamps....that same Christmas music ringed through the halls of the old buildings that housed our elementary, jr, and high schools. In those days our schools were with-in 3 blocks proximity to each other. So I learned the songs and sang along from Silent Night to Rudolf.


I recall playing the triangle in the little chorus and I learned the words to the rest of the Christmas carols (the origins of the Carolers: began as mummers and was part of the celebration in ancient Rome called Saturnalia, honoring the God of Agriculture, Saturn, and this celebration started in Dec and slid into January when neighbors would go from house to house and sing and rejoice due to the bounty of harvest...thus began the Carol Singers) 

 So in art class I drew and cut out the Star of Bethlehem and squashed aluminum foil all over it...and then when I brought it home there was no tree, no lights, no colored balls, no fruit cake no carols on the little radio..and it seemed drab and cold in comparison to the Joy we were having at school in celebration of Christmas!

So this memory of Christmas that started in a child who had no reason to  celebrate Christmas felt it as --warmth-- that is what was instilled in me via a school system and eventually became a way for me to share warmth with my family, my son, and since we were at it may as well invite my mother, my sisters, and later on their husbands and then later still the girlfriends of my son.  So this is how Christmas grew to be in my life the history of the event notwithstanding the foregoing!

When I moved to NY to run away from the overburdened life I had created for myself I bought this little tree even though I lived alone and had no one to share the holiday with...I worked every single Christmas that I lived there the time and a half was too good to pass up...BUT this ugly little tree made in China and purchased at the 99c store warmed the emptiness, and made me feel closer to the family I had run away from!! (does that make sense?)

 So as Socrates examined the world in which he lived he asked questions that he wanted answers to --he questioned the power and the power consumed him...I have to question can this warmth we all wish to create during holiday time come directly from within US? Why can't it originate solely from inside our heart as part of our emotions toward the people we love, and cant it be expressed outwardly so everyone feels it and returned in kind?  Do we really need a funny looking tree with a star on top to create this wonderful feeling of warmth? Can we be like the Who's down in Whoville, can we have Christmas without a tree, a plum pudding, and a Visa bill in January?

I sure hope so, cause I dont feel the warmth anymore~

Take Time to Make Time

e had our first frost of the new season-last night, this means its officially Fall for sure!! It also means our planet the Earth has moved farther our on her orbit away from our Star the Sun...

It's 35 chilly degrees and it will go up to 57 today..The sky is blue, the air is breezy and its Sunday morning 8:30 which is really 9:30!!
I am not a big fan of the Day Light Savings time.  Anyone who reads my Writtn's in this blog know how fascinated I am with the concept of time and how and what it is.  TIME is space, and we occupy space so can we really manipulate time?  YES we can when we combine it with SPEED!!  Im only a fan of combining speed and time if Im trying to move TIME forward or back.  Moving the hands of a clock does not MOVE TIME--

When I was traveling this spring I got so confused as to what time it was I just stayed on Eastern Time! When I was in AZ they dont follow the DST and yet on the Navajo Reservation land that is in AZ they DO--so I was in and out of changing time zones--very confusing to my aging brain!!

When My Mom and I traveled back in 1998 together for 34 days around the country we finally gave up and just didnt bother to look at the time, we knew the sun was either up or down.  Sitting high above or closer to the ground, the Sun told us what time it was.  That is also the way it was when I was backpacking the Appalachian trail. Once you get in a rhythm with Mother Nature you start to realize keeping time by the hour is not really necessary! What's the point? We got up when the birds sang in the trees overhead and we went to bed when it got too dark to see--didnt take long for our cicadian clocks to get reset to the correct time!!

Only men wearing ties and women wearing business casual need this kind of time divisions and this down to the second measurement of time, why must the rest of us be dragged along in the stream of their faster than life passage of time?

These days we live with such a false sense of security-thinking we can control time, only the Universe can do that. We can control the speed at which we move through time that is all.  We move at speeds way beyond our own means, in a car we go 80 MPH yet on foot we can walk if we really move fast at 4 mph. (it take me 18 minutes to walk a mile if I'm walking comfortably, If I walk faster 15) SO just taking that little bit of math you can see how we are MOVING way out of our comfort zone-a disconnetion!!



IF I were to walk across this country as many have done, if I didnt stop to rest (which I know I have to do) I could walk 40 miles if I had 10 good hrs of light and the body of a 20 yr old..but with me I could probably do 10 or 15 on level ground. So according to this mileage calculator its 2,175 miles from my location to Ventura California...so it would take me 145 days--if I walk every day 15 miles--WOW-image what kind of life experience I could have if I were out there walking for 145 days? I could pack so much into a day!! There are endless possibilities of the number of people I would encounter, the things I would see and witness.

Instead when I recently drove to AZ I took my time, I drove only 8 hrs a day and yet I still got there in 5 days! I thought I was taking my time...WHAT If I drove only 15 miles a day? What memories I could accumulate!! It would have taken me  months just to arrive in AZ!!

When we slow down and take our time we absorb more, we are more connected and we are more in tune with the true nature of our bodies. So if I drove 15 miles a day I could go 374 miles on one tank of gas and it would take me 25 days Imagine all the awesome memories I could accumulate in 25 days!!


So the point is if we slow down we get more life in this lifetime!! We get what we put in...if we zoom around at the speed of light...what do we see-- a BLUR, if we slow down we see each star and each blade of grass we see each butterfly, each tree and each person we come into contact with --with clarity and then maybe understanding could actually sink in.  When we take the time to really spend TIME with someone the differences start to disappear and in that place is understanding.

My hope for the rest of my time on this planet is that I wont say I didnt have time---because we all have the same number of hours in a day, its the speed at which we travel that determines how much time we have! We turned back the clock...now what are you going to do with that hour?

Is it worth saving?

ell the elections are over, Im not happy with some results but now that my vote is cast I have no responsibility but to accept whatever the holders of those jobs will do. Or do I? Ya know Ive never understood why in this country we dont get out in the streets and shout when a candidate we dont approve of is elected? Is it because we know we are wasting our time or is it because we have lost our passion for what we believe in?

If we went out onto the street and protested first off the police would probably come and tell us to go home! Thats a free political system?

I spoke to many people who did not vote. They all said the same thing...they have lost their zeal and zest for making a difference. Wow Im glad that people like Martin Luther King didnt just sit down and say, Oh well may as well not bother-or what if a woman who was born in 1820 hadn't bothered to spread her message of civil rights for women..she traveled extensively giving speeches and making comments such as the one Im quoting here-

Speaking at the Ninth National Women’s Rights Convention on May 12, 1859, Susan B. Anthony asked "Where, under our Declaration of Independence, does the Saxon man get his power to deprive all women and Negroes of their inalienable rights?"

But for her diligence and for the diligence of others like her we women of all colors in this country would have been turned away at the polls. WE must cast a vote as long as there is hope that our system is still viable. If you were told you could NOT vote and had no say how would you react then? Would you shout in the streets?


So that makes me think that many people have drawn the conclusion that the current democratic system is NO longer working, and maybe not worth trying to salvage. Its times such as these when the public sits on their hands that opens doors---possibly a Pandora's box.

I recall a history of people who when faced with living in a nation that did not share their belief system, they packed up a few ships and left! They had a good idea...what went wrong?


The new movement of the Tea Party is just another division between us. I wish the political system could be abolished..NO Party rooster..no party affiliation...the polarization of the political parties is as unmoving as the lines of religious practice in the world. It is as if a new cold war is happening between the Democrat and the Republican parties. Back when Ross Perot created a third party I had big hopes only to see them squashed...and I had huge hopes of leadership into the future from Obama. He has tried but he has failed with his back down from the fight attitude same as the voting public has backed down...they have thrown down their flags and walked away.


That line "you can please some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time" should be going over and over in his mind. He has to stay true to the ones who put him in office wanting the change he spoke of...but in his efforts to please the right he has angered the left--and the middle of the road people have thrown up their hands in disgust.


A government of the people, for the people, and by the people that still sounds like a great idea..but is that what we have now?
Is it of the people? That would mean the person we have representing us is one of us, I dont feel that at all with the people in our government. One of us would be the high school principal, the guy from the gas station, the lady at the post office. For the people, not hardly politicians are in it for the money,fame, and the power. Corporations are calling the shots now...and special interest. By the people--well I lost faith in that one when GW Bush won 2 elections without winning the popular vote..so I dont think so.


I found this: Concerning the writing of the Constitution-
Among the chief points at issue were how much power to allow the central government, how many representatives in Congress to allow each state, and how these representatives should be elected--directly by the people or by the state legislators. The work of many minds, the Constitution stands as a model of cooperative statesmanship and the art of compromise. We need to reread it: number one on my list of changes is

• Limit terms of Senators to 4 yrs and thats it!
• Same with Congress-
• to abolish the party system,
• abolish the campaigning-
• abolish the contributions
• abolish the lobbyists,
• create a new method of selecting who will run!

If its worth saving its worth doing whatever it takes to start making change. Whats on your list?

The Corporate Coop of America Part III

 HAT IS --FASCISM-(according to Wikipedia-Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy)


Who is controlling the Media   Our media is no longer the watchdog it once was!! Large Corporations now own the media! All one has to do is listen to the Right Wing Controlled Fox News to see that propaganda is running wild in American medias today. Rupert Murdock an Australian with many ruthless years in TV and Newspaper business owns and runs Fox News with lots of shotty deals in his background he has his hand in many foul pies. Along with him is an Arabian Prince Al-Walid-Bin Talal who owns 7% of Fox News..so why do Americans tune in to hear this extremely biased news program?  Fox news is trying to undermine the confidence of the public in our democratic president, why is that?  Why can't we come together and work for the common good of all?  Fox news is anti Black, anti Hispanic, anti-gay, anti American!!  If you are tuned into Fox News then I know you are a bigot and not planning on helping to bring us all together...

NBC is owned by the giant company of General Electric, CBS is owned by Viacom/Westinghouse, and ABC by Disney, CNN belongs to Time Warner, where is the non BIAS in any of those??  PBS is the only place I feel comfortable believing the news- many times its sensationalized for dramatic effect and for ratings!



The Work Place Shutdown


The few jobs left in this country have many qualified persons waiting to fill those slots.  It’s almost impossible to get fair treatment in the work place. You have to be part of the TEAM…which basically means there is no place for critical individual thinking in the work place…(you will be assimilated) they give you a handbook and you are to follow it to the T- yet when you call in sick they will treat you as if you are hurting them by taking care of you. Once I called in sick and was told that I would have to bring a Dr’s note. I replied, “In my employee handbook it says I will have to bring a Dr’s note if I am absent 3 days in a row.” So my employer's policy was to have the girl who answered the phone...lie by telling everyone that…many I’m sure would come into work anyway---while their rights are being trampled on.


You have to sign papers and forms “you were informed of the new policy” etc this goes in your employee file, if you forget and break that new policy rule, they have a sweet little paper as grounds to fire you, OH actually they don’t even need grounds, employers have the strength while workers are losing rights every day…

Northern Unions are the main reason we have lost jobs.  Union employees are over paid and even if they are not good employees they are very hard to fire!  So with Unions running the show the jobs left the COUNTRY!! American workers have to realize there is a line somewhere in the sand where you're pay is exceeding your value! 

MANY American corporations have taken the jobs out of this country…yet the cost of the goods they are selling us is getting out of reach for most—the gap gets wider while the wealthy take more and more control of our society and the take jobs out of this country…less jobs means less sales, so the cost of the foreign manufactured goods goes up and up and the wealthy investors and stock holder continue to live an elitist life style- until the bubble breaks. SO even though the jobs left the prices of goods have risen and continue to rise!  So we became too big for our breeches and now we have no jobs.  Where can we go from here?

Third world employees are being abused and used as I’m sure they are misled to believe they are now in the big time—working for an US company they are told how much better their lives will be now that they are working for an American company, making clothes and shoes they cant even afford to BUY! Watching third world countries climb out of poverty while US companies are the very oppressors keeping them in the dirt. 

Got Benefits?

More and more benefits are being removed, employers are making more and more demands on an employee’s time, people are routinely being forced to work overtime or threatened with losing the job. I recently saw one of my old co-workers from Wal-Mart. (I worked at Walmart for 6 months after I moved while I looked for a better job).  She still works there and told me she has been there 10 yrs now and she gets 3 weeks vacation!! I know she routinely is told she has to come in on her days off, she has to stay an hour later, I recall how it was working for Wal-Mart. I didn’t want to tell her I had taken a 3-week vacation and I don’t even have a job right now!! She told me she has to go in for a CT-Scan because she has a spot on her lung, found on a chest x-ray she recently had done when she had a check up...I wondered why was she not out on medical leave so she could get a medical work up?


Is There A Solution?


For one I boycott, boycott, boycott. I don’t spend much money but I try to spend it where it will sends the biggest message. I don’t buy meat, diary, fish, processed foods, I don’t take any prescription drugs, I don’t work a 9-5 job and I don’t bother trying to keep up with the Jones’s. I don’t have high speed internet, and stay away from malls and chain stores as much as possible. I buy at the Goodwill when I can; I try to support local businesses and farmers markets.

I really hope that we can convince (with our spending power sending them a message) Corporations to bring the jobs back home!  If the CEO's and the corporate big whigs would take a pay cut, and if Unions would lower wages and if the minimum wage was raised to come more in line, we may be able to put this country back to work. The medical profession has to be brought back in line with reality..WHY Is it that I saw a news program about a woman who was going to have to pay $14,000 to get her teeth fixed.  SHE had dental insurance but it was NOT going to cover the cost completely.  She went to Costa Rica and got it done for $4,000. 
The reason was so much govt regulation here, high cost of liability insurance and the charges are so inflated in the USA.  You can get cheaper medical and medications in other countries, why do we Have to have the Best of Everything..and now its getting where the ordinary US citizen cant afford the Cheap stuff let alone the good stuff..SO is that causing a split in our society?


Most Americans don’t care, they are complacent and they really don’t give a damn! They get fat, sick and get the pills to fix them up or have bariactric surgery!! Buy cancer insurance on top of regular insurance, because you got a little paper in the mail saying your insurance co. will no longer COVER CANCER!! (because everyone is gonna get it if Americans dont wake up and change their diet)


The insurance companies know what I know and what you should know Americans are at high risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, digestive disorders and disease, osteoporosis, mental breakdowns, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and Alzheimer. Why is that?

It’s the stress of the American lifestyle, the marketing done by big business to keep us buying the very unhealthy food they sell to us, the side effects of the drugs doctors put us on, and the stresses of trying to keep our crappy jobs that still exist and doesn’t pay  enough to be able to purchase good wholesome foods, to take time to relax and vacation, and very little time for exercise and recreation.


The American dream has been tarnished by the very free capitalist idealism it was founded on, is there such a thing as too much of a good thing? No what is wrong is there is too much of a bad thing going around and the good things are now out of reach for most Americans.

I know what you are saying--the system is broken and I'm powerless to change it.  WRONG- you hold all the power in your hands!! You dont have to buy into this out of control capitalism that is rotting our society and our home. 

Be the Change You Want to See in the World.

Each journey is completed one step at a time.  It's kind of my motto!  If we each do this then Change has occurred!! Dont allow "them" to scare you.  Go about your life as if "they" dont exist.  I dont go to McDonalds, why buy that crappy food that makes you sick and is slowing taking the vigor out of your life?  Buy fresh and cook at home!!

Change the way you live your life, if you want to see more people having a better life, if you dont care about others then dont read any further and go on your merry way.


I know many are so tired on their way home they hit the drive through...I know this exhaustion that comes from working long hours--I have been there!  AND who knows I may end up there again, I certainly HOPE not, but I will do what I have to, same as anyone.

 You can cook a huge pot of brown rice, and then each day when you get home put some fresh veggies in a steamer by the time you get into your comfy clothes it will be nearly ready.  Add some of your rice- make a quick fresh salad and its a nutritious meal with little fuss.  I used to chop all my veggies and have them clean and ready to go in separate containers in the fridge.  All I had to do was grab it and add it.  I washed, spinned, and chopped my lettuce FRESH not that prepacked stuff, and keep it in a green bag in the fridge-
Next day open a can of black beans and add to the rice, add a whole wheat tortilla you got a good meal in minutes.  So you see how it goes.  I dont eat meat so that saves a ton of time, money, and animals!!  So plan some meals cook staples ahead of time and keep it simple-

Stay away from Processed foods as much as possible!! These are the worst foods you can buy dont let the marketing of this product fool you into thinking its healthy...READ the label.  Educate yourself...I suggest the films of Micheal Moore, & Morgan Spurlock
I suggest you see
Supersizing Me,
Sicko,
Capitalism: A Love Story

Try to spend your money in local owned business and pay cash!  This way the money you spend stays in your community!  (business owners have to pay a % to banks for the use of credit and debit cards...
Support the unknowns--Boycott companies that have sold US out and gone to third world countries to have their good made for pennies while they charge you outrageous prices for these goods.

Recycle, reuse, re purpose!! This saves money, and keeps you out of chain stores and corporate owned businesses.  I know MOST Americans use name brand stuff!! I dont understand why? Some items we have almost NO choice already--we cant find American made goods any more so what do we do?  Try buying used whenever possible-need a new tv, stereo, vcr, dvd player?  I bet the second hand store has one!!

When it comes to medications... get on a good diet and exercise program, you may be able to stop taking medicines if you create a healthier body.  Then talk to your Dr and make sure you really need those drugs, and be sure he is allowing generics!

If you can-- home school your kids!! I personally think satellite teaching is the direction this country should go with Education!  TOO much money is being spent for our kids to be brainwashed by bad teachers!! The surface is barely being scratched in this area..and its become almost as out of control.

Speaking of the Senate ..why re-elect anyone who is NOT in favor of changing the status quo? It hasnt worked and its what has brought us to this point...we need people who are not afraid to face up to the Ridiculous Right--the Tea Party is more white right so BEWARE!! And now that the Reps have won so many seats the Bush Tax Cuts that help only the rich will stay in place and the sinking middle class will have to try and hold up that burden yet again?

Get off the grid, or at least use it as little as possible.  I do think that in the next few years having home with electricity is going to be a luxury as most things are becoming a luxury--as prices soar and jobs are cut and outsourced.  Finding other ways to supply our needs are a must do for each of us.  Solar & wind power generation is now available to anyone who can afford to put it in.  I hope it will get cheaper as it becomes more available...clean water is a very big issue with me.  Drilling wells for persona l use is on the rise.  I think the day will come when water will become a political issue across this country not just in the dry west.  Rain colletion on a mass scale should be done! Our government is too busy trying to blow their own agenda horn to see that we need to take steps that insure a prosperous future for all.  Water collection and storage is something no one has even touched on at the global level..WHY? We have rivers, that are polluted, and diverted...if rain water catch and storage facilities were put in place each community would have an ample reserve of water!  Ever hear that saying money doesnt fall out of the sky...guess what--IT DOES!!

Our homes should all have solar panels a wind turbine in the back yard a well in the ground and a water collection system in place!  Its due to the corporate "lifestyle" that we wont have these things..Those things help us sustain our lives and takes away our dependance on our needs to be supplied rather than us taking our lives back from corporate control.  A cell phone is not going to get you nourished or help you cook your food, but everyone has one..why dont we all have solar panels???

I know this comes off as hostile and in a way I am more and more hostile to a system that I can no longer support! Business is one thing, taking the whole pie is another.  Sometimes there is NO BETTER MOUSE TRAP...many of the old ways was the best way.  We supported each other and yet we were allowed to be individuals and were paid a good wage for a honest days work..what was wrong with that?  The Bush years have put us in a bind, his wars cost us a fortune, he left this country in a mess and now the clean up crew is getting the blame for a shoddy clean up...well it will take at the very least the same amount of time to undo the damage as it did to do the damage.  The Dems have played a big part in writing the legislation that got us where we are..We can simplify and streamline without leaving anyone behind if we do what is best for all!
Create change in your own house-then watch it spread!!

the Corporate Coop of America part II

HAT IS --FASCISM-(according to Wikipedia-Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy)



The point of my series called the Corporate Coop of America is my attempt to get the attention of the droids that have been created by the Corporatizing of our Society, I get very little readership so.... in any case, we each need to stop sitting on our hands and allowing corporations to take over everything from the food we eat to the government that controls how we are allowed to live our lives. I dont plan to point fingers and walk away my last post on this series will contain MY solutions for these problems. Nothing burns my mind more than that...finger pointers who have no ideas of their own, persons like Sara Palin who stand on a soap box and use phrases like "we can fix this" but offer no agenda on how to fix it. Agendas such as where to begin, where the change will come from, who is going to do it, where will the money come from? These are solid questions that need answers--not hushed away with foo foo phrasing--


So this is part two...


Corporate Bleeding Of The Middle Class


What about the Smith Barney Coup...before they folded that is....


Financial Wizzardery--American workers are sold a bill of goods called a 401-K or an IRA and guess what you are not going to have those thousands they promised you!! We can’t get rich earning less than 30K a yr I dont care how much of it is invested UNLESS you get some super inside info...You can't get rich using these methods, but they sure can! Remember when the Feds tried to convince us that we should invest the SS fund in Wall St? Good thing someone with some clout said NO!! Actually your chances are probably better of winning the Lottery!! {E-Trade Baby, go get a diaper change-Please!!]


We were shown all these amazing pie charts, and how the money taken right out of our paycheck builds and grows year after year and they projected this absolute amazing story...but it never happened!! In fact most Americans lost BIG TIME in the recent crash, and the one in 2000. The only people who make money in the stock market are the ones who have money they can put at RISK, (why do you think the financial wizzards told everyone  DONT panic, let your money ride it will weather the storm...because THEY would go broke if you took your money out)

I dont know about you but I cant afford to lose any money not one cent on speculation. So when we should have been putting money in a totally safe savings account or at the very least a money market, instead it was being invested in HIGH risk Mortgage Loans, that the FUND Managers KNEW would fail, they purchased insurance to cover their asses….that’s how certain they were that the mortgages would fail…wonder why they didnt tell everyone to purchase insurance to cover their losses?


SO we all put our middle class money in, but who is walking around in fine Italian suits and shoes and has a house in the Hamptons, and a yatch at the Marina? Do you have one, I dont have one...so its very easy to see who is making a KILLING off the stock market and who is getting KILLED by the stock market...and its also easy to see where that money is coming from--Yours n Mine!!!


We were seduced into investing as if we all had a $$million$$ in the bank to fall back on. It was a working stiff’s nest egg the risky investments ate up…it was college educations, and hopeful retirement funds that went up in smoke.


Don’t believe me? Why in the world do all the TV MORNING NEWS shows employ a financial analyst to come on periodically and speak to the viewing public? They are talking to you-- John Q. Public...in order to keep us thinking that everyone is investing (its as simple as Homemade Apple Pie) and we should too, its to keep us questioning what we are doing to save for our future, it's to keep us scared of NOT being on that Gravey Train... its as common as eating a cheeseburger, and its about as deadly…


I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to speculate on my future!! If you have a job you probably have money in the stock market!! They take it right out of your paycheck!! (SO easy for them to Tap Your KEG)  YOU would be better off to forget that…and put that money away yourself. I paid off a $25,000 debt and saved $10,000 in cash by taking charge of my own finances, it took me 2 ½ yrs!! (I didnt invest a dime!!)(did your IRA give you that kind of money in 2.5 yrs?)


Robber Barons

Banks and Credit card companies have robbed us blind for years as our Govt. sat on its hands and did nothing…then the Govt came out with the recent HUGE credit and Bank Reform Bill --What?…its baloney!! It does nothing to stop them from robbing us blind. In fact the house n senate allowed them a 3 months Warning period by not making the bill start ASA it was signed....and during that time the banks increased our rates, increased our payments, and ENDed what few deals going in our favor (when is the last time you got one of those super 0% offers?) before the changes went into effect. The banks can still rob us blind, but now they HAVE TO put it in words we can understand…see they know the majoirty of us dont have a college education with a minor in law in order to read the bunky "fine details" --
thanks for the big credit rescue!!


Bank Fee Scam-yes it is a scam but guess what our leaders look the other way while the Banks of this Country rob us blind.  Lets say you have $400 in the bank, you write a check for the electric bill, which is $120 ....then you go to the grocery store and spend $80, Then 3 days later ....your car breaks down and you have to pull out $410 to pay for it...WHAM you are over drawn. Now the bank does not PAY these checks in the order you wrote them or in the order they come in...THEY will pay the $410 first because that will over draft your account, then they can charge you overdraft fees on the $120 check, and the $80 check too!!! Even tho it was only the last transaction that caused the overdraft--

Credit card companies can raise your rate because you paid your electric bill late OH YEAH..they can--they watch your credit score closer than you do, and by the way-- who gave these 3 credit score companies the rights to either make us or break us? Did you vote on that?  THEY are in control of your financial life yet where did they come?  Who made this decision? Why do we allow this type of Corporate Harrassment, and like sheep we just wiggle our tails and keep moovin...with our baa-baa-backs against the wall?

Verizon gobbled my prepaid phone service up. We had a great little deal with Alltel, but Verizon bought them out…now we have all sorts of changes, they will now charge us $4 per month if we DON’T use the phone!! Our rate went up and now every other day it’s a letter in the mail about Changes, they do what they want…THEY are stealing our money…and we cant do a damn thing about it, yeah we can get rid of the phone which is probably what will happen when we reach our limit… What about all the research that proved cell phone usage causes cancer? What happened to that? Cell phones emit something called electromagnetic radiation. This is a low, pulsing energy that can actually interfere with our cells, they wont let a plane take off IF ONE CELL PHONE IS ON..so what is it doing to the natural flow of energy around us? Around your baby, your pets, your brain?
Everyone has one glued to their ear…everyday it’s a new phone from Apple, or Verizon…what’s the reasoning behind it? Money that’s all!!




Who Is Really Running Washington?


What about our government? From local to federal-- lobbyists are in control of how the vote goes and Corporations are calling the shots and pulling the strings on the puppets we ELECT to go to Washington…they are controlling our laws, our national budget and our politicians. These lobbyists are representing corporations and organizations founded and run by these corporations.  The decisions, and budgets are geared toward whatever makes more money for the corporations these lobbyists are representing.


The lobbyists who tell our Senators how to vote are in control…the conservative Justices we have rule to keep us in the dark more and more as the Corporate blinders go in, i.e. the recent vote to allow Corporations unlimited access via the way of campaign contributions, that’s just about the most outrageous thing I’ve seen come out of Washington lately. DID the public cry out in outrage..NO they just went back to work their job and get their pay check, you cant take a day off to go protest at the Supreme Court building and if you try you would PROBABLY be fired then arrested!!!


On tv I sometimes see HUGE crowds of people screaming out about an injustice..NOT HERE IN other countries..wonder why that is?---I marched in a Protest against the GOP at the Rep Convention in NYC in 2004---the street was barracaded and police in riot gear and ARMED With M-16's stood all along our Pre-arranged route---SO NO you dont see OUTRAGE IN THIS NATION..its NOT ALLOWED.


JUST look at the way BP has handled the Gulf Oil Spill, and the way our Government is looking to businessmen n women who sit in Board Rooms to solve this problem!! This is not a BUSINESS problem it’s an environmental disaster more than Katrina ever was—the Bush administration botched the Katrina relief and the Obama administration is botching this catastrophe. I voted for change, but so far its business as usual with the current administration.


We need to curtail corporate control, hold them accountable but take Charge of this disaster, I don’t get it…Trust me they never saw this coming, all the structuring of the company was done with only the bottom line in their sights...the almighty American Dollar Bill-and not a care was given to the threat of an environmental disaster, who will handle it, what is the first line of defense, what’s the agenda? So are we to believe if the Center for Disease Control lets loose a super virus, it will be up to them and them alone to curtail and contain it? If the oil leak was a virus (which it is to our OCEANS) we would all be dead! In the end Im sure BP will spend more money on the AD campaign and the TV personalities it hired to MAKE them LOOK GOOD, than they will ever spend on cleaning up gunk from the water and shoreline.


As far as their environmental impact concerns BP execs were all satisfied when they changed their logo to that cute little GREEN FLOWER. "Aw look at us we are environmentally minded"…yeah right!! That’s Corporate crap that I’m sure a very expensive marketing firm was paid BIG BUCKS to come up with…we are so easily bought and sold out, we working stiffs and consumers. I look for BP to get out of paying for this disaster, to take some legal chapter 11 or 13 or some such and then restructure and come back to life under a brand new name and begin making billions again--and people who are so busy on the hamster wheel trying to make ends meet will buy their gas and oil. Don’t forget they tried to file in a Louisiana court right away to put a limit on their liability at first…I guess that court couldn’t be bribed. ME I don’t buy BP I just traveled over 5,000 miles and never once filled up at a BP!! (thats a solution friends)


YOU CAN NOT run a government like a business-a government is not supposed to be about making money, it's supposed to be about making laws and paving the way for ALL to prosper and be happy...(the pursuit of happiness-justice for all etc) yet more and more of the offices elected and appointed are being filled with people coming from the business sector of the population!


Loss of Empathy and Compassion for the Poor & Downtrodden
The Bush Whacking Tax Cut-


Our Federal government is bought and paid for. Most right wing conservatives frown on giving money to welfare mothers to feed and house under privileged children while billions are given to banks and no one is talking about how these fat cat bankers are giving themselves huge bonuses yet they will talk about a poor mother trying to live on $125 a week like she is a dog not worth the trouble…WHAT IS UP WITH THAT KIND OF THINKING??? They dont want a welfare mother to get a small sum, but they want the HUGE TAX CUT BUSH gave all of them to continue. They say it will bring jobs...EXCUSE me, but wasnt that tax cut in Force when the JOBS disappeared???? NOW the Tea Party is yelling "stop Obama's tax HIKE" making it sound like he is raising taxes on everyone, he is only not REinstating the BUSH tax cut that the RICH and Corporate have enjoyed, wage earners making over $130,000 a yr!!


EX: WHAT IF I make 30K a yr and you make 300K a yr, we both pay 10% tax then I go home with $27,000 and you go home with $270,000 looks to me like you are still Living VERY High on the HOG..you can live very well in this country with that kind of income....while me Im barely making it on my $27,000. People who earn more should pay more ---the tax burden can no longer be shifted to the Shrinking jobless Middle Class---and who can make it on minimum wage? Maybe more people could/would come off welfare if the minimum wages were decent.


END A WELFARE STATE-For Rich or Poor?

The rich want to cut the poor off at the knees, and take away their livihood and have them do what?  Get a GOOD JOB--doing what?? You show me those jobs that welfare mother can do and EARN enough to feed her family, pay rent, medical care, etc.  THE nation would be richer if they stop the welfare state to the RICH--tax breaks, capital gains, Im SO out of the rich loop I dont even know about all the loop holes they use to protect themselves yet they want to put a loop around the very neck of welfare recipients.

Same welfare mother may collect $125 a week, how does that hurt society? Where does that money go?  IT goes to the LOCAL ECONOMY...You think if she was not getting the money, she would get a job…where? Doing What? Do you think she will get a job at Wal-Mart and still have time to take care of her kids? She will have LESS if she works!! SO raise the minimum wage…Tea Partiers -PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS—Yes she can get a job, can she survive and raise her family on that minimum wage job after TAXES?-- NO!! Will the system help her get a better education, give her child care, cook dinner for her family while she goes to night school, will they guarantee her a job with health care for her whole family? Doubtful, maybe if she lived in France!! The rich need and depend on a u huge uneducated and desperate lower class workforce in order for them to keep most of the profits and spread it among their investors and board members.  (rich employ child care, house keepers, gardeners & landscapers who earn p-nuts...do you have a child care worker, gardener, cook, or housekeeper?)  WHY NOT?
Why do you think Mexican Immigration has NOT been addressed.  The poor Mexicans coming here illegally are being USED and ABUSED by the super rich of this country.  DO you have a Mexican working for you? WHY NOT? Because its the protected rich who are the dominating employers of the illegal Mexican population and the poor.  Yet they dont pay a decent wage to these people!! I would prefer welfare as to work for an employer who thinks they are MORE worthy and More valuable than I am...The elitist attitude runs rampart as the middle and lower classes are left to flounder in a society that believes if you are not flourishing it’s due to your lack of trying…

By allowing the huge earners to NOT pay their fair share of tax it is Welfare for the RICH!  EX: a lawyer who works 60 hr a week earns $130 an hr.
A ditch digger who works 60 hr a week makes minimum wage- and yet the ditch digger is paying MORE Of his share of the tax burden than the Lawyer!!
Why is one man’s time more valuable than another man’s time, is the ditch digger not digging hard enough, he is not sweating enough, what? The difference is Education and that is becoming more available to Special Interest and the Wealthy and less available to the middle class and poor.!! You have a better chance of getting a free education in this country if you come from Ughanda than if you come from Kentucky.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next part in this series
Who is Watching the Hen House...and more.

The Corporate Coop of America Part 1

HAT can we do about the way things are going...I recall those words in a John Lennon song, and The way things are going...they're gonna crucify me. Well sometimes I feel we have all been crucified! In my mind we have all been hog-tied and now we are being spoon fed all the corporate crap we can ingest! What exactly am I talking about...well Ill try to explain my thoughts...

FASCISM-(according to Wikipedia-Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy)Does that sound familiar? I saw an episode of Law N Order..the character played by ICE-T is one of my favorites in the series...He came to arrest this guy and the guy said,
"You cant do this, its a free country." ICE-T grabbed the guy turned him around put the cuffs on him and replied,
"NO, its a Democracy and you're under arrest." That made me laugh...

BUT is it a democracy any more?
Not according to what the definition of a Fascists Government is, that sounds more like it...
This goes so far back in my life that I dont know if I can find the starting point, but I think it started with a bank...my mistrust of Corporate America and how it has not so quietly taken over our culture, our government, our lives!  we have all become slaves to , corporations & the products they give us we are droids....

From the food we eat to the drugs we take (to fix the problems created by the food we eat), corporations are giving us what they want us to have, (not what is better for human life) whatever they can make the quickest buck on, and they dont want us to question why, what, when, where, or how its manufactured...they just want us to buy it and shut up!

More of the speeches of Executive, and Judicial branches are about economics, government jobs are being filled by people with a background in business and economics-- Obama was recently criticized because he does not have enough business oriented people in his cabinet and on his staff and as his advisers...(corporations wish to remove all stumbling blocks so big business can control everything from the top on down)The recent oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico...
is a great example of how far our government has become a fascist one!! Why is the government looking to a corporate boardroom to solve this HUGE environmental catastrophe? YES they created it, (my question is WHY was offshore drilling ever an option, its a huge disaster waiting to happen as we saw). It became apparent right away BP Oil & its advisors and engineers didnt have a clue what to do about the undersea rig failure YET they built it. 

A corporation now can control the will of the President? Obama (rightly so) put a hold on off shore drilling (for 6 months) its obvious that BP (and the rest of the Big Oils) has no clue of what they should do in case of a spill a mile down!.

So the industry went to court to have the hold on drilling withdrawn…They say they have to get back to work, back to doing what? Destroying the environment, keeping us dependent on oil? The reports I heard of that platform and the one that exploded after that was a small number of workers on each 10 here 13 there, doesnt sound like many jobs were at stake compared to the HUGE risk to the WORLD's environment. A job drilling on LAND, makes more sense...at least we can control that if it blows.

But this series is not just about BP, its about Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, Walmart, Smith-Kline, Microsoft, Apple, AT&T, Sprint, IT’S about all of THEM. The corporate jungle that is overtaking us-
it's as out of control as KUDZU.

How Big Business Is Killing Americans
Products being sold for our ingestion are not much better than poison to our systems.  Fast food, high calorie soft drinks, snack foods are full of contaminates and fillers, sweetners, and fatty oils.  Take soft drinks for instance each bottle is full of high fructose corn syrup, now I dont care how many TV commercials the Corn Processors of America can afford to show, they wont convince me its GOOD FOR ME, it is NOT! It’s in nearly everything on the shelf...from Salad Dressing to Candy Bars, why is that? Because it’s CHEAP to process and buy that’s why---in those commercials they say it’s a natural product…so is poison IVY and opium but I’m not going near it!! Its made from corn and corn is subsidized by the Fed Govt! There fore there it is readily available and its cheap!! This high sugar content product is causing diabetes, obesity, and has no NUTRITIONAL VALUE!  The diet substitues?  Are sweetened with a chemical. 

Solutions:
 Make your own juices at home! A juicer is not that expensive.  It will pay for itself in no time..
Tea is still a good drink, decaf if you prefer-and water with a little lemon or lime is a perfect drink!  Look for all natural bottled juices with NO sugar or corn syrup added.  Natural sugars are easily processed in the body and if comsumed in wise proportions causes no health risk!

Side Effects Of Corporate Controls:
Pharmaceutical companies are holding our health care system hostage. I have heard that the owners of our horrible meat industry buy stock in the pills that we will be sold to treat our clogged arteries!! I don’t know ANY BODY who is not using some kind of prescription drug, except ME! I challenge you to find someone!! I do take a baby Aspirin trying to counter act the effects of years of eating “the American diet.” I have made a lot of change, hope it’s not too little too late

The drug companies have doctors dishing out billions of dollars in pills…Senior citizens are the largest sector under attack. Pharmaceutical companies partnered with Doctors are a guaranteed ticket to the revolving door…you go to the Dr, he finds something wrong (usually caused by poor eating habits and lack of exercise) he prescribes, you fill your medication and every 3-6 months you have to go back to the Dr, so he can make sure the side effects of most medications is not KILLING you faster than your diet and life style…and he writes another script…now you are hooked in…you are enslaved to this vicious circle of modern American medicine.


Mc-burgers
are made of beef that is full of AMMONIA, and thats to kill the fecal matter and bacteria before the meat is ground up---the chicken too, its not safe...IN fact MEAT is not safe to eat period, its clogging up the arteries of Americans...why? Because since meat processors can destroy the bacteria (with the ammonia) the trimmed fat they used to THROW away can now be ground in with the meat…so YEAH --now the meat has even more artery clogging fat!! SO you got FAT, & AMMONIA, and to boot its served on a white flour bun---it is a ticket to ride the heart disease train.


Thanks to the fast food industry the way meat in the USA is produced has changed dramatically.  In order to have tons of beef, chicken, and whatever ready to sell at the counter beef has to be raised faster, fatter, with no regard to the quality of life for the animal, and then slaughtered quick, in dirty facilities where poundage is money!  In order to give you the FAST food, every process in bringing Meat to the table has been made fast.  So you say, well I buy my meat and cook it at home.  SAME processors are making that meat!  Fast food chain's changed an entire industry into a huge nuturional disaster.  If the end product is BAD for you, then the beginning product was bad in the first place.  Millions of cattle, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and more are slaughtered each day to feed Americans and its providing the worst diet in our histroy


Solution:  For me it was simple-stop eating meat period!
Unless you know a local farmer who is raising quality beef and is slaughtering correctly and running a clean facility...then there is no way for you to get uncontaminated meat.  Some high end grocery stores are beginning to offer organic, range beef, chicken etc.   If you raise your own its the best way to go.  Humans are not meant to be eating meats...we can get all the protien we need from fruits and vegetables.




Got Milk?
Maybe you should throw it out! IM a VEGAN, Dairy products are not good for us either, but the Diary Producers of America say it is--why would they lie to us? Actually drinking milk can make bones weaker!! AHHH yes, but they say it does a body good. Milk is full of fat & cholesterol, fat clogs arteries and is hard to digest!! Arteries feed the tissue and bone of our bodies with nutrients and oxygen. Clogged arteries can’t deliver these life-giving essentials… therefore our bones are not getting the nutrition needed.  Dont we need calcium from the milk and cheese, and yogurt?  Actually NO...those products clog our life giving arterial blood flow.


We can get all the calcium we need from fresh fruits and vegetables, and th emost important factor to building stong bones is EXERCISE!! So if you have osteoporosis, talk to your Dr about an exercise program to help you build bone.


Solutions:
 I gave up Dairy Products cold turkey--its not easy there is bits of dairy in MANY foods-so another Corporate Coup has been unearthed. Nearly every processed boxed product has whey, eggs, milk, butter, or some sort of dairy product in it!
Although I dont particularily like soy products I use almond milk, and butter supstitues with no trans fats or hydrogenated oils-cheese in not part of a healthy diet and neither are other foods that come from dairy products.  Just stop buying and consuming them.  One great side effect is redcued weight and you can actually begin to reverse the effects these fats have taken on your circulatory system.


Why Would the FDA take advantage of us, consumers?
Many of the FDA regulators began their careers in the Meat and Diary Industry..where do think their work experience came from? They have ties from past jobs held in the Meat and Dairy Industry, Associations and Producers…so who’s side do you think they are on?  Yours or theirs, how about their former employers who helped them to land the job and makes sure they are well rewarded for keeping regulations in a place where it is inexpensive and cost effective for the Corporations who process foods and drugs for our consumption and use, they keep the bottom line healthy for the Meat & Dairy Processors, while the health of Americans goes down the drain at a very high cost!


Solutions: As Ive said above, just dont buy these products...your body will thank you!



Now they have found a way for Medicare to pay for these overpriced drugs—wow imagine that, people stopped buying their pills when the recession kicked in so lobbyists were successful at getting Medicare and Medicaid to pay for the drugs they manufacture. How clever is that? A way was made to get those pills paid for by the federal government---they don’t care if these pills are only treating/covering up SYMPTOMS of disease and not curing disease…hey its Modern Medicine!!! Dr’s prescribe, push the pills made by the large pharmacueticals ...ever see all the freebies sitting around in a Dr’s office, the pens, the pads, the calendars, the booklets, where do you think those come from? A visit by the friendly pharmaceutical representative that’s who!!

Free samples, come on it’s a product and they are selling their product. For years our doctors have looked the other way while we poisoned our bodies with bad food, and now the doctors are trying to keep a sick population alive with pills, wouldn't it make more sense if Doctors put Americans on a HEALTHY DIET...then they wouldn't be stuck taking pills to stay alive. (but that would put pharmaceutical companies out of business)  Some drugs can cost upwards of $700 a month!! Even weatlhy patients cant take a blow of that kind for long...but if your doctor is telling you this will keep you alive you will pay it!!

Most of these drugs can be manufactured cheaply, the patent on a drug keeps it safe from being duplicated for 20 years and when it’s up generics can be made and generally for a fraction of the cost of the name brand! In fact now deals are being made with the manufactures of Generic drugs and the Pharmaceutical corporations to stop the generics from being made–they PAY THEM MILLIONS to WAIT A COUPLE OF YEARS TO START CHURNING OUT THE CHEAPER GENERIC VERSION!!  So they can suck more money from the sick, ill, and dying, and Medicare, and private insurance.

Another trick of Pharmaceutical companies is to take an old recipe for a drug, change ONE component, maybe add a wee bit of a placebo and then sell it as a new Diabetes medication, or a new BP medication, or a New Pill For Heart Disease…its not new its just re-manufactured!! Yet that now means a new patent is issued and there is 20 yrs of overcharging all over again!


Trying to get the FDA to pull a diabetic drug that has now been linked to heart attacks was like pulling teeth...THEY did not pull it even tho studies show it increases heart disease and studies also show it has very little benefit to lowering blood sugar levels as it claims!! The FDA hearing was held in a hotel, wonder who was paying for those rooms? hmmm


Solutions: I hope if nothing else this post will encourage readers to question why they are eating food that is not fit for dogs? Is it more convenient to die slowly and get sicker and sicker or wouldn't it be better to TAKE control of what YOU put in your mouth and prepare your food at home in your kitchen from fresh ingredient? Take the time to learn about nutrition and dont get your facts from the FDA or the USDA or the national nutrion charts!  Do your own research-
I Suggest watching the following..
Sicko by Micheal Moore
Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock
The DANGERS ABOUT DAIRY PRODUCTS BY DAVID RIETZ

To emphasize my commitment to putting better foods in the bodies of the ones I love, I took it a step farther...what about my dogs?  Read the label on the foods you are feeding if you see CORN, then stop buying it...since when do canines eat corn? Some dog treats have High Fructrose Corn Syrup on them!! Read the label!!! Why do you think dogs have started to have the same diseases as humans?  Maybe its becuase we are on the same BAD diet!! High sugar, high fat, and poor qualtiy! I pay more but I swear it's going to save me money at the VETS with my dogs!
READ THE LABELS-
Im currently using 4-Health its grain free and my dogs are in great shape and they love it.  ITS Not perfect but its the best Ive found that I can afford...its $18 for a 15 lb bag.

More to come...

Deflections....

hen I first began blogging it was due to a literary agent in NYC telling me to start a blog to push my books, I was on a quest to become a writer. But it didn't take me long to figure out my entire life is a quest and I can't single out one thing that gives me warm n fuzzes, I get that from many points of my life's compass! I gain inspiration from others, other people, other places, other ideas, generations past and present...and sometimes it's the not so good parts of others that pushes me in the direction I need to go in, I'm deflected Toward the Place I need to go.

So it was that I began a blog on Yahoo! at the recommendation of a friend. I had a blog on MySpace which was a nightmare for me! And I went about it all wrong by posting my feelings and my opinions, and my political ideas, my spiritual beliefs, and got very little feedback and most was negative...

SO I moved to Yahoo!...found myself in the middle of this tight little group that was so critical & competitive (always in One Up Mode) AND somehow I found myself constantly seeking their approval and when I didn't get it, I was unhappy in my real life!!! And I didn't realize that little group had a ring leader who wanted to always come out on Top...I had no idea that the group was actually a group of Groupies of this one individual..but that was revealed later---BUT I had no idea of how I stumbled into this group and why they even accepted me in the beginning, LOL It was Dumb luck, or maybe more like Murphy's Law~

Many troubles arose from that involvement and I couldn't figure out exactly what I was doing wrong, I was trying so hard to fit in, (equality) yet somehow I managed to always become entangled in drama--I picked sides (because I don't like fence riders for me its better to know where I stand, but most people keep their truth hidden until Suddenly you are in their face with an opinion they totally disagree on) and I know in this highly volatile world one cant do that, UNLESS you wish to alienate yourself...which is sometimes better! I didn't know that I stumbled into a snake's den, sort of~~There should have been a sign somewhere and there was I didn't read it right!!!!

Then Yahoo announced they were removing the blog--so a large group made a move to Multiply, and again I tried to "fit in" and it just never happened, I felt as if I was outside the circle looking in, and no matter how hard I tired to be accepted, I was not! Or I got that feeling, I had some support, but mostly I drew lots of arrows and spears in my direction...

When the elections of 2008 came along it opened my eyes that the group I had tried so hard to be a part of was full of racists and people who would judge someone based on skin color, economic status, and religion, and not on their merits. That's when it became abundantly clear to me WHY I had never been able to fully incorporate into that little group!!

So I left Multiply and came to Blogger, and made the decision that I would stick to posting my art, photography, travel, and the parts of my life that hopefully were not open for Discussion!! Not that I don't want to debate policy, and belief systems, its that I don't want to draw negative attention and arrows again!! I no longer wish to defend my ideas on how I personally view the world and "if Only"... and try to create understanding and education where there is no room for it!! (giving audience to unforgiving mind) IF someone pushes negative energy toward you, then why would you want to be around that person?

I have reached out on occasion and found that most people are very self centered and only want to talk about them and they don't share-- they make many blog entries,-- you visit and comment and they never reciprocate-why is that? They want an audience, they want to be center stage, and hear the cheers and no jeers, I guess these are the people the universe revolves around--lol

AND in the end that is just it, see the Universe does revolve around Each of US!! WE are the Center of OUR Universe!! Its up to us to try to reach through the atmosphere and be happy with what we bring back from the hunt..if we are not then maybe we have ventured into the wrong camp, and we will be deflected to the right place in the end, only if we hold true to our own belief system!!

So I made a rule of thumb, I encourage the belief systems I agree with I don't bother to debate the ones I don't, and I move on...somewhere out there, there are others LIKE ME!!

Acceptance, tolerance, all ya'll

HI YA'll its as HOT as a firecracker on the 4th of July-- which is right around the corner...I saw an episode of Star Trek Next Gen. in which the aliens they had encountered didn't speak in logical sentences of the past, present, and future tense, instead they used metaphors based on the history of their culture to communicate. Such as we may say "Washington crossing the Delaware" this would conjure up an image of patriotism of the father of our Democracy leading us to victory.
...so in a way, especially here in the south, we use a lot of metaphors to communicate.
He's slicker than goose s**#, = to describe someone who is not to be trusted..
Who ate the red offen your candy? = "what's up with you?
You are fixin to get your tail under my rocker ="You are starting to piss me off"
Where's the fire? = "what's your hurry"
He flew outta here like Moodys Goose= "he was in a hurry"
How are ya'll doing? (even when addressing one person)= making an inquiry as to how are you and all of your immediate and extended family!
Too many Chiefs and not enuff injuns = no ones is in charge cause everyone wants to be in charge.
Yuanto= "you want to do that"
Yungs =hillbilly for "ya'll"

AND Jeff Foxworthy has published a book on this subject..so you get the point!!

I get sort of bent outta shape (angry), and I know its not just me,...but I can be in a room of people from all over the world each with a dialect built upon special blends of language, history, and word origins, and yet it's the southern American that will be made fun of and have their speech corrected!! THIS BURNS MY *** which is a metaphoric way of saying "I do not like it"...lol

NOW I do understand that sometimes southerners can be considered uneducated, dim wits, but I've done my fair share of travel and rubbed elbows with people from around the world, I have found uneducated dim wits from everywhere!! ITS not just geographical....
I did live in (New Yawk City not once-but twice in my life time amounting to 10 yrs total) the proverbial melting pot--

I worked with people from countries that I hardly knew existed and I was introduced to many cultures and tried quite hard to learn from everyone I spent time with. I always tried to understand what was being said to me and what it meant and was always fascinated with each and all-from Russian to Hassidic Jewish, Uzbekistan, to Istanbul, to India, to Guiana to Spain, Colombian to Mexican, Puerto Rican to Turk, to Romanian to Nigerian, from Israeli to Italian, from Kenya to Australian...the list goes on and on---and that's not counting the various Americans from every state in the Union!!
...and yet it would be me when marching into a crowded Emergency Room in the city that never sleeps , would be approached and asked "where are you from?"...now my accent is not too southern, just enough that you know its there, I try not to use too many metaphors but its not easy---they are sort of hot-wired in. Do you find that every happens to you? Phrases such as I'm fixin to, ive been told it sounds ignorant, but here even the most educated person will use that phrase and its never frowned upon. I have been told "I love your country way of talking"...okay that did not exactly flatter me---but I said nothing and just thought "how ignorant that jerk just sounded" to myself....lol

--my sister who has lived in Colorado for close to 30 yrs was recently corrected by someone from California, and told the correct way to pronounce the word "coupon" is COOPON- not Q-pon the way we pronounce it here in the south---
I beg to differ, if you come here you will not hear anyone calling it a coopon, and I guess when in ROME yada yada yada....

NO ONE IS WRONG and WE ALL ARE RIGHT!! Yes its a COOPON and a Q-PON as long as we all understand and get the message-
I can just imagine me telling a Brit, that schedule is not pronounced "Saidule" that a squirrel (sqrl) is not called a squirall and that is not a lory but a truck, and that's not grit its sand and that's not an ice box! LOL it goes on and on..

Just like one fellow I worked with hours and hours he was from Haiti my dear friend Anthony--who spoke English with a beautiful sexy French accent, his skin was the color of ebony, he had the manners of a perfect gentleman...he was one of my very best friends---his voice and tone were so elegant...but come lunchtime--me the southern fried dixxebell would order the vegetarian plate and he would order OX TAILS!!

I would say "Antnee," (southern for Anthony) "you gotta start eating higher on the hog, or in this case the OX....like up around the shoulder or the hip...dang the TAIL, do you know where that is located"? And he would reply "Sondra, (it just sort of slowly ran off his smooth french tongue) "you are always a lady ture and ture, (Hatian for through and through) "now eat your vegetables, and allow me to enjoy my meal" And I did-but I rolled the window down...he tried on many occasions to get me to "just taste it," but he knew I could never do that--BUT I did try some of the steamed cabbage and veggies as long as he promised the meat never touched it!!

So I guess my point is live and let talk!! WE say Ya'll cause our mama's taught us to say it that way...yours probably taught you the way she was taught and so on- So I told my sister next time her California friend corrects her to remind her that she was born and raised in the South and that is the correct way of pronouncing coupon acording to her-
In the south a buggy is a shopping cart in England a Buggy is a pram, and in New England a buggy is a wheeled cart pulled by horses!
Ya'll come back now, ye hear," is not really an invitation for your return, it's just a common courtesy to say that to everyone, and as soon as the door closes... "I thought they'd never leave!"

I recently visited my friend who is also from SC and has a very southern accent and has deep southern family roots. She and I became quite the spectacle in the stores of Mesa, Arizona...talk about one fish outta water but wait it was TWO, whats the odds of that??? LMBO--