Organic Food is No Better?

Researchers at Stanford University wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine, on September 4, 2012, that organic food is not better for human consumption, only more expensive.

Scientists tend to study events in isolation and draw far-reaching conclusions.  Such observations usually have narrow applications that really are more applicable to the internal analytical structure of their originating proposition than to the actual performance of that conclusion in an operating structure with many other factors present.

Let's take a closer look:  Organic is different from non-organic in at least four basic ways.

Pesticides.  There are no pesticides designed to kill “bugs” or “insects”.  Pesticides are poisons with one of three major areas of attack:  1)  The central nervous system, including the brain and spinal chord.  2) the lung and breathing capabilities.  3)  The reproductive system.  They apply to bugs, insects, dogs, cats, children, people.  Everyone knows that an apple a day will keep the doctor away – but apples transmit the highest amount of pesticides to human consumers of any produce. Look up the "Dirty Dozen" on the web. Other members of that list include strawberries, potatoes, spinach, and blueberries.  Be informed. There ARE things you can do to protect your body and that of your family and children.  And you can eat those items if they are organic.

Fertilizers.  According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs, twelve of the most widely-sold fertilizers used in the U.S. have ingredients know and proven to cause cancer.  Also many fertilizers are made from waste water treatment facilities and and include toxic heavy metals.  Many of these attributes are transferred through to the internal structure of the plant and cannot be "washed off".

Antibiotics.  Antibiotics used in the treatment of medical patients have begun to lose their effectiveness.  New “Superbugs” are also beginning to make their presence known.  These “superbugs” are really not “new” but mainly they are the old “bugs” that have mutated and “learned” how to resist those antibiotics.  The more antibiotics we use as a nation, the more germs will evolve to resist those antibiotics and develop new capabilities.  Now, notice that 80% of ALL the antibodies used in the United States are used on farms to help the animals grow faster, and also to live in the dirty and overcrowded facilities now characteristic of American non-organic farms.  This is especially true for the newer “factory farms”.

Preservatives.  Not added for the benefit of any consumer, but to increase the profit of the producer and marketer.  Many have been associated with brain problems (benzoate, for example),   high cholesterol levels (such as butylates), birth defects (red dye 40), many with skin problems (artificial sweeteners used in soft drinks), and a number of others associated with cancer.  

Even though these various toxin amounts are small they will have some effect on all systems they encounter.  They may also be eliminated more slowly than necessary, and while their effect on a person in their 30s, 40s or 50s may be undetectable for twenty or more years, they may be more noticeable in older people.  In young children these substances may prevent the development of only some of the child’s faculties thus leading to other developmental problems  caused not directly by the toxin but by the delayed development of that faculty, and that will continue to cascade.  And of course, damage to the reproductive system of a child who is two to twelve years old, will not be observable for another ten to twenty (or more) years.  And then any connection between a problem in a child, and its cause in its parent, ten or twenty years later, will be lost in time.

Bill Clinton's Speech, September, 2012.

Just saw and heard the most amazing speech I have ever seen.  It was a Toastmasters Special Edition.  The Master of Ceremony, the Table Topics administrator, the Toastmaster, the Evaluator, and so on were all the same person:   Bill Clinton. 

His use of voice, gestures, inflection and changes of mood were all elements of presentation taught separately in Toastmasters.  After studying each method, the aspirant will then develop and present a speech designed to display his mastery of that technique.  The presentation will be closely observed by all members and then critiqued.  After that, the presenter will take a break of a month or two before begin the preparation of another speech designed to help him or her master a different element of presentation.  

Last night Bill Clinton presented the entire book – all THREE books prepared for Toastmasters – in one forty-five minute speech!  And he left thousands of  people standing, screaming, crying in both outrage and joy, and applauding and dancing.  Other people, elsewhere, are now busy preparing how to rebut this intense presentation.

Okay.  So all this will play out in the election which will follow month after next.  But this speech was a big deal.  We will look at it tomorrow and maybe some of the froth will have gone, some of the bubbles will diminish, some of the air will have adjusted, but the facts and figures and – oh yes, I can’t resist – the "Arithmetic” will still be there.  

Throughout Washington, D.C. great statutes of heroic figures from the past stand, strive, ride and otherwise emerge from granite.  This speech tonight was Clinton’s statute.  It will be talked about, remembered, embellished and IF he ever does get a granite statute in that city, it will be largely due to this speech that he gave tonight in Charlotte.

Inconceivable!

Todd Akin’s comment about “legitimate rape”, and about how women would not get pregnant if they were “really” raped, means that if a woman does get raped and becomes pregnant then it is HER fault.  This is not only stupid and ignorant but more than that – it is very troublesome.  It connects with too many other issues such as the overpopulation of the earth, man-made climate-change, the pollution of the seas and air and many other  "political issues" and how “Truth” has to be adjusted so that it fits into the republican policies.  

This is what Hitler did.  Then the world called that “The Big Lie”.   Back then the “Truth” had to be “adjusted” to meet the policies of the Nazi Party.  Now we see republicans molding, shaving, bending and shaping truth so it will fit fit into the policies of the Republican Party.

Paterno's Statute. What to do with it?

There should be a special place in the College Football Hall of Fame.

A place that would feature Joe Paterno in lead position.

Jo-Pa is the guy who recently held the title "Winningest Coach in College Football"

But that was before a review board held their collective noses and scratched away his last 189 wins because he had covered up pedophilia by one of his assistant coaches for 13 years.  Paterno didn't want word to get out.  Paterno didn't want to let anything happen that might tarnish his reputation.  So.  Paterno knew about the child sodomization that was being conducted by one of his assistant coaches, and when that assistant coach quit, Paterno helped him continue access to the Penn State locker room area and helped him create an organization to "help" young boys in athletic "skills".

Now Penn State has taken Paterno's statute down from a pedestal outside Beaver Stadium and removed it to a "secure location".   They have it "covered up", which seems fitting somehow, but they really don't know what to do with it.

My suggestion is to send it to the College Football Hall of Fame, mount it on another "pedestal", more appropriate to its new significance, and let Joe Paterno stand there forever as one of the very worst people ever to walk the face of the earth.  To Joe Paterno, fame was very important.  He has earned his fame through the hidden tears of young boys.  Tears that he covered up.  Let his statute bask in the fame it deserves.

Social Security

Social Security was really not designed for individuals but for America itself.  It is intended for ALL the people in our country.  Just as police and fire departments protect their city, Social Security provides another kind of protection for a greater community.  

Many of the recipients of Social security helped build the community they live in.  Now, as they grow older, the purchases they continue to make become transferred into wages that are paid to workers at grocery stores, drug stores and gasoline stations, and also generate orders for more merchandise from suppliers.  In this way the recipients of the benefit payments continue to support their community even as they provide for their own personal needs. 

It is sometimes said that social Security provides a safety net for people who did not adequately prepare for retirement.  That’s true.  It also provides a safety net for people who did provide for retirement but because of reasons now beyond their control find those pensions became insufficient.  Other people planned as well as they could for retirement but simply outlived their plan – they, or their spouse lived “too long”.  Social Security does not ask you how long you want to live.  

Social Security was never intended to constitute our only source of retirement funding. We do need to prepare for our own retirement and that is our own responsibility.  Some of us recall when President Bush said that Individual  Retirement Accounts “will be yours – and the government cannot take it a way from you!”  But it has always been the government that has come to the aid of our citizens after the corporations and markets have failed and turned against them.  Our government has not abandoned its citizens as many corporations have done, even in the very recent past.  It is not going to merge with other governments and it does not collapse when the markets fail. 

Catholic Church and Jon Stewart - An Open Letter

Jon Stewart brought to the attention of some of the people in his audience the archaic relationship the Catholic Church maintains toward sex, women, children and life itself.  It is my contention that the Catholic Church should refrain from ANY comments about these matters since its priests and nuns are preemptively unqualified for any comments concerning these matters.  I wouldn't even mention the repeated and carefully shielded, and selectively transmitted crimes of pedophilia which were promulgated by the Catholic Church, not to blame in any way those wayward priests themselves who clearly were denied opportunity for treatment, therapy and redemption, but to blame the Catholic Church itself for claiming those sick priests as some of their most precious beings by sheltering them, holding them closely to the church bosom,  and introducing them to places yet unaware of your most intimate and most valuable sacraments, rites, "services" and "communion"!   Ratzinger himself, now your Pope, was in charge of this denial, shielding and re-infection.  

What you say in church, during services, is one thing; but that which you value most highly, and hold to be most holy, are those things which become apparent only through revelation.  It becomes clear that you hold sex, women, the creation of human life, and the proper "love" of children to be simply unimportant, non-substantial, insignificant, inconvenient, even evil,  temptations apparently created by some devil simply to test your priests.

If it were otherwise, you would not have to utter a word.  Your actions would reveal glory, instead of scum.  Think about it.  Pay attention to people like Jon Stewart, and thousands of others, even millions of others who have tried again and again and again to tell you the same thing.  Jon Stewart finally got through.

Stand Your Ground, or Make My Day?

“Hey Dad,”  Trayvon called out,  “I’m going to run down the the store for some skittles.”  

“O.K.,  got enough money?”

“Yeah, I got more than enough, thanks – be right back!”
“Oh –  Trayvon!”

“Yes  dad?”

“Don’t forget your gun.”

“I don’t have any bullets, Dad.”  The door opens.  “I’ll be O.K.”

“Here – take mine.”  The father said, “You don’t know who you might run into.”
“I’ll be all right, I’ll hurry,”

“NO!”  The father’s voice resonated, “Don’t go out there, it’s pitch dark.  There might be somebody out there looking for trouble.”

“Well, sigh, O.K.”

“And remember, if anybody starts stalking you, or coming after you, in Florida now all you need, to shoot somebody, is to feel like you’re in danger.”

“O.K. Dad, I’ll be right back, don’t worry.” 

Obviously, Trayvon didn’t take a gun on his fatal trip.  But if he had, he probably would have had a much more compelling reason to use it than his killer did.  Apparently he discovered he was being followed on his way home.  According to his girl friend, who was talking with him on his mobile phone right before he was shot, Trayvon knew somebody was following him, he knew he was being stalked.  He knew he was in trouble.  He certainly had reason to feel like he was in danger.  

If I had been Trayvon, and if I had had a gun, and I knew a five-foot ten-inch 250 pound man was coming after me in the dark, I might have pulled that gun and informed the stranger that I was armed and asked him to leave me alone.  If he didn’t, and still came toward me, then I might have fired a warning shot into the earth before I decided to Stand My Ground.  But Travon didn't have a gun.  And in Florida now, if you don't have a gun in your pocket, you don't have any ground to stand on. 

ALEC and the Koch Brothers, Fascist Powers

The suddenly spotlighted “Stand Your Ground” laws that are sprouting up all over America, along with efforts to eliminate state unions, movement toward private prisons such as CCA, attacks on Planned Parenthood and even questions about contraception are all indications of fascism at work in the United States.  The question remained, who is behind all this?  Now finally comes a finger pointing.  Whose finger?  Paul Krugman.  He doesn’t mention the Koch brothers, but they are the forces behind their cover, which Krugman is beginning to remove.  Krugman's finger points to the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, which now numbers at least 2,400 state legislators as members across the United States.  ALEC has been associated with attempts to privatize functions normally performed by government.  ALEC wants to turn those operations into profit-making work.  Theoretically, taxes will go down but  people will pay more for services previously provided by government employees and some company will make a profit from that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/opinion/krugman-lobbyists-guns-and-money.html?_r=2&hp

http://savannahnow.com/bluffton-opinion/2012-01-11/norquist-alec-and-koch-brothers#.T3CguHgh95g

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/a-primer-on-alec-its-influence-and-its-presence-in-north-carolina/Content?oid=2666829

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11356/arizona’s-alec-leader-wants-your-boss-make-decisions-about-your-contraception-cov

Trayvon, Zimmerman and the Coming Riots

This much is certain:   The investigation into the shooting of Martin by Zimmerman was over and had been closed. 

Chris Serino, the chief homicide investigator in the Sanford police department had recommended that Zimmerman be arrested the night of the shooting, but Incredibly, the senior State Attorney for the district, Norman Wolfinger came there there that night and said to drop the matter. 

Zimmerman’s father, Robert Zimmerman, is a retired judge or magistrate from the state of Virginia. 

No investigation of the killing was ever conducted thus there is no evidence of injuries to either party except, of course, that Martin was killed and a funeral office employee said he saw no sign of injury to Martin’s hands or face indicating a fight.   Also Zimmerman’s gun was never confiscated or officially inspected.

Although Zimmerman “received  a scalp wound requiring stitches”, no one ever made those stitches, and a video of him in the police department right after the shooting showed no blood, and scalp wounds are famously bloody.  

Zimmerman was well known by the Sanford police department after having placed at least 46 calls on the 911 system in 14 months, or about one every 10 days. 

This event was plunged into a “trial by media” because there was never to be an investigation conducted into the event and there would never be any other kind of trial.

George Zimmerman is a dead man walking.  He can never be A) released from “hiding” and walk free ever again, B) put in any jail in Florida or C)  be incarcerated in any prison in America.  

Finally, this is not the end of this issue.  It is only the beginning of the realization of a great national tragedy.  All that is missing between this awareness of the problem long simmering and a race-riot explosion is the occurrence of some kind of a middle event.  Let’s hope there will be some legal resolution beginning to take place SOON.   This country is too well armed to let something like this get totally out of control. Unfortunately, the elected officials involved here seem to be willing to sit back and wait.

Clear – Rush, Beck, Hannity, Savage, Romney, Bain

Clear Channel owns more radio stations (850) than anyone else in the United States.  They also own Premiere Radio Networks, the company that syndicates the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, among others.  Needless to say, Clear Channel basically owns conservative talk radio in the United States.  So who owns Clear Channel?  Well, it turns out that Bain Capital is one of the primary owners of Clear Channel. 

http://www.infowars.com/bain-capital-owns-clear-channel-rush-limbaugh-sean-hannity-glenn-beck-michael-savage-etc/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_Communications

Senator Burr and Insider Trading Vote

Called Senator Burr.  Asked why he voted to allow inside trading by members of congress?  Woman says Burr voted against making insider trading illegal because he feels like it is already illegal and there is no need to vote on it.  I told her I was stunned when I saw that last night.  I had heard that two senators had voted against it and I wondered who on earth those two idiots were, then I saw Burr was one of the two idiots.  SO I have a feeling 1) that he is playing games with me. 2) One of the two of us is dumb.  3) If he really meant well, he has a HELL of a communication  problem.  Then I told her he needs to clear this up immediately.

Perry is Now Only a Memory

“Well I wanna tell you somethin and when I am through you will never forget it!  Let me begin by telling you who I am!  My name is JAMES  - RICK -  . . . .  uh . . . lesseeee . . . ah . . . ah . . .“ 

Someone else interjects “Perry?”  

“YEAH!,  heh - heh - PERRY!” He grins, “Now lemme tell yu what I was goina tell you, and by the way – and don’t forget this – my name IS . . . uh . . . ah . . . heh-heh? . . .ah?”

Someone else “PERRY?”

“Yeah, PERRY! - sorry, sorry ‘bout that.”  

So he speaks, and when he is through, the moderator comments and then says, “And by the way, your name IS Perry, right?”

The speaker replies, “Oh no, no no, Bush? No, no . . . Reagan? no no I don know . . .”  He confers with one of the other speakers and then turns to the moderator and grins, “Yeah.”  

Well, that’s not quite what we saw on TV the other night, but that’s what we will always remember.

Open Tweet to Keith Olbermann

This morning my wife asked me a dumb question while we were eating breakfast and reading the morning paper.  She had just read Paul Krugman’s column and was talking about the “Occupy Wallstreet” and its offspring in other towns, and how the anarchists had now began joining in on the protest movements.   She paused for a moment and asked:  “Who are these ‘anarchists’?”   Then, looking at me, “Really?”

I casually replied “Well they’re ‘anarchists’, you know.  There are photos made of them from time to time, they are always dressed in black, they all seem to be men, look like they are in great physical shape, they have their faces covered  so you can’t see their features and usually have hoodies on.”  I added, “They spray graffiti on property, break windows of shops and set small fires.”  She was still staring at me, so I continued “They usually show up a day or two after a protest has been going on and they become the reason the authorities have to step in and shut down the protest movement.”  I thought for a moment and added “You would think the police could put plainclothes men in among the protestors and have them catch some of the “anarchists” – then we would know for sure.”

She was still staring at me with her eyebrows now raised, so I continued on “Sometimes they do capture one or two of them – the police do – but nothing ever seems to come of that.  They just seem to disappear.”  Then I asked HER a dumb question:  “Yeah, who ARE they?  Really?”  I thought for a moment and then wondered out loud, "Could it possibly be that the 'anarchists' REALLY are policemen dressed in black with their faces covered and with hoodies on?”  But I really couldn't believe that a policeman, or a military guy for that matter would betray his oath to office and do something like that.  Then my mind began running through other possibilities such as Xe (nee Blackwater), or DynCorp,  maybe Triple Canopy, or ArmorGroup . . .”   

I probably looked like my mind was boggled (it really wasn't), so my wife asked.  “But if that were true, who would hire these “anarchists”?  Since my face still looked blank she continued, “Who would want to break up a protest movement, like those at economic summits, and these Occupy movements?  Who would profit from that?”

So I said “I will write my congressman.”  She shook her head.  “I will write our senators.”  Then I shouted “I know, I’ll write Paul Krugman!”  She nodded her head and said “Write Keith Olbermann, he’s following the Occupy people.”  

“Great” I replied, “and he's pushing 'tweeting' – I will tweet Keith Olbermann!"


I might also try to tweet Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell too, maybe somebody will look into this.”   

Then maybe we can ALL find out who these “anarchists” REALLY are.

The Great Giggle – Oh!

Suave, debonair, possessor of commanding presence, threatener of succession from the union he is.  One who says he was hand-picked by God and told by God Himself to run, and his wife agrees with that.  Evidently, God apparently meant to run far away from seeking any higher office, and Rick misunderstood and he now stands more naked in some ways than either Adam or Eve ever were.

New Hampshire found him grinning,

smirking and dancing (alone with his lectern)

happily squirming, like a

tadpole swimming.  Really just a GiggleOh

Suave and debonair,

everywhere he goes

now people know the truth –

that he’s really just a GiggleOh

This grinning and giggling guy

thinks he should have his finger

on America’s nuclear trigger

should another coyote appear on the road.  Oh no Giggle Oh!

And the worst part is he said the next day that he hadn’t been drinking and he hadn’t had a medical injection for any kind of pain.  He said that was the way he sometimes is.  Hmmmmm.  I guess that depends on what the definition of “is” is.  Or was.  


At any rate he has a LOT of money behind him.  That only goes to show how the American government "works", where the guys who want to run the world, but who could not ever be elected to ANYthing, those people like Rove and Yoo and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and others, some even worse than those, have to find a good-looking horse to ride in on the main stage.  Then, if there is money behind all that, from some corporate bosses who want to run the world their way, then it is a done deal.  Especially now that the Supreme Court has ruled that dollars are free speech and corporations are people.   

Gotcha? Ha ha. Not ME!

Herman Cain really is a different breed of political cat.  For example, he proudly told reporter David Brody the other day that he was on the lookout for “Gotcha” questions.  He gave an example “When they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I’m going to say, ‘You know, I don’t know. Do you know?”  And he continued “knowing who is the head of some of these small insignificant states around the world.”  

Wow.  Surely Cain must know Uzbekistan is pretty significant in today’s world.  It plays a major part in helping supply American troops in Afghanistan and also a number of corporations are very active in that country.  Now you can agree or not with the war in Afghanistan, but surely no one thinks we should just abandon them there.  But?  Well, maybe he just didn’t know.  

At any rate, Herman Cain just “gotcha’d” himself. That’s one way to stay ahead of your competition and leave them scratching their heads.  Well, Cain is not the first candidate to Gotcha himself, he is just the first one I have seen who seems proud of it.


This is the guy who is "not a Washington insider"?  Well, that's what he said.  Of course he WAS a lobbyist.   He lobbied for the National Restaurant Association.   He lobbied hard to get legislators to continue letting their patrons smoke in the restaurants and fought hard against lowering the level of alcohol that determines the status of "DUI".  He also knows the Koch brothers pretty well, and apparently receives a good bit of money from them.  He also incurred a trail of two, three, four? sexual episodes, all paid off now with a pledge of silence obtained in exchange for that money.  Apparently there is a lot more than just some of the world's nations that are small and insignificant.  Ask Herman Cain.

Republican Candidates for . . . ?

 What are these guys campaigning for?  Are they trying to be elected Speaker of the House?  That’s where the tax bills originate.  Surely they know that don’t they?  That’s in the US Constitution.  Article I, Section 7.1 reads “All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.”   And, of course I “assume” that both Perry and Cain have asked the permission of Boehner and Cantor and DeMint . . . right?  If either of those two get elected president, and the House of Representatives stays republican and the Senate goes republican too,  will they just do whatever the new president wants them to do?  For the first time in history?  Or do Perry and Cain know – or care – anything about the constitution?  Maybe they are running for Dictator of the United States?

And Cain was talking about an amendment to the constitution.  He said, eloquently I thought, that if the House and Senate and the states of the union passed a constitutional amendment that he liked, he would sign it.  Like maybe if he didn’t sign it, it wouldn’t become a part of the constitution?  Surely he knows that the president doesn’t even get to sign an amendment.  Of course he must?  Doesn’t he?  Ahhhhhh,  but of course!  Dictators would!  

Or maybe, just maybe, the republicans need smoke and mirrors to detract from President Obama’s constant reminders that the House and Senate need to get busy raising taxes on the richest people in the world so America can start hiring teachers to teach our kids, and policemen to protect us and firemen to come to our homes when we call them, and also hire some new workers who can go out and work jobs.  
The republicans have nothing to say about this, don't even want to talk about these things so they talk about Flat Taxes and 999s and so on.  

How to Fix Congress

These are not my ideas (actually they are, but it is not my writing).  However, the persons who sent it to me did so ONLY under the condition that I would pass it on to as many people as I could.  Here goes:

(Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

 

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election).

 

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only

3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

 

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

 

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

 

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

 

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

 

2. Congress (past, present &future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

 

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

 

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

 

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

 

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

 

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.

Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

 

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

 

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

 

Telephone Calls to Congress about Gun Control.

Today I called Senators Burr and Hagen, Representative McHenry, and Speaker Boehner about gun control in reference to the shooting in California yesterday in which 9 people were shot, 8 of them killed.  All this because a guy was unhappy with his love life, or his wife, or girlfriend or something.   

This was not an isolated incident. Every month 1,000 Americans are killed by gunfire. (*)  They are victims of American Terrorists.  Egyptian terrorists killed 3,000 Americans with airplanes on 9-11-01.  Because of that act we went to war on the other side of world, spent more than a TRILLION dollars, killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yet that SAME number of  Americans were killed AGAIN before the Christmas Day which followed the attack on 9-11-2001!  

AND 3,000 more Americans have been killed by American Terrorists EVERY three months since then.  That is 120,000 Americans gunned down and killed by American Terrorists since 9-11-2001. That's so far – we're still counting – and still shooting.

Isn’t this a national problem?  What is the solution we are given?  Arm everybody?  Great - then a loud noise in a restaurant, or department store or mall and a number of people pull their guns out and what next?  I hear a noise and pull my gun out, somebody else shoots at something, then I shoot at him, somebody else shoots at me, three or four other people shoot at him and me?  Then everybody starts shooting? Huh?  

I realize that a lot of Republican Party members of Congress have taken pledges to other organizations, which include Grover Norquist and the NRA, and who knows who or what else, and they place those pledges ABOVE their oath of office, and honor those pledges BEFORE they honor their oath of office, but STILL – doesn’t something need to be done?  

All I ask is that we just start a democratic dialog in Congress and begin talking about our problem.  Bring it out from under the rug, and talk about it.  Will you help me?  

• 
  
•  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States  (!n the year 2000, 84 people died each day by gunshot for suicide and 34 each day were homicide deaths.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state

n 2010 - the latest year for which detailed statistics are available - there were 12,996 murders in the US. Of those, 8,775 were caused by firearms. (excluding Florida and Illinois).

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/opinion/18herbert.html  Approximately 100,000 shootings occur in the United States every year.  . . more than a million people have died from gun violence — in murders, accidents and suicides — since Dr. King was shot to death in 1968.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/more/facts.html

Number of murders committed in 1995 in the US:	20,043
Number of murders committed with a firearm:	13,673
Number of murders committed with a handgun:	11,198
(Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports, 1995)

Perry and Social Security?

Let me see . . . How can I get this straight? Governor Perry thinks the Social Security thing was a misguided attempt by people who didn't know what they were doing . . . Because 70 years ago they were overly reacting to problems they had? This from the King of the Tea Party?

Standard and Poor's Trick

At first it might seem justifiable that S&P had nailed the Republican Party for letting its Tea Party wing drag it into offering the United State's credit rating on a stone for sacrifice to their principles.  And in that case, Good!  That's what they deserve.  Maybe the Republican Party will cast those demons out!  And it is clear now that the Republicans will be back next time holding the national credit rating hostage again until President Obama kneels before them again.  Also we must remember that some of the GOP presidential hopefuls said the debt rating was a joke.  Bachman said she would not vote to raise it.  And then the Republicans ran it too close to the wire.

But a moment's reflection reveals that this has happened before to other countries.  It was not a real big deal to them at first.  Not at first.  Their interest rates did go up.  Then about three months later their interest rates went up again.  And then about three months after that, they went up again.  So somebody is paying a lot more money than they were just three months ago and even more than they were paying six months before.  A lot of money is rolling around.  Somebody is taking some of that home.

I suspect – but can't prove (wish I could!) – that millions and millions of dollars are now  poised to move to those individuals who made that decision in S&P to downgrade the US credit rating.

Contempt of Congress

Please don’t call me to testify.  Oh, I can go anywhere and talk – and say whatever I might want to say.  But if I am called to testify, I will be sworn in and instructed to tell the truth.  Then I will have to tell the Congress of the United States of America that I hold them in contempt.  And I do hold the Congress of the United States in contempt because of the following – which is not a complete list:

The lack of jobs for Americans who were laid off by great corporations who fired them and who also out-sourced their jobs to other countries where labor costs were minimal and those corporations could thrust their profits higher than ever before, and achieve great personal enrichment of those few who run these corporations and share that great profit with nobody - except of course, certain members of the Congress of the United States of America.  No wonder the Congress didn't intervene even though it has the power to regulate commerce and has regulated the action of corporations in the past.  Maybe that's why a lot of them got a cut of the action.

The protection of the gun manufacturers so that America has become the “Gun Merchant” of the entire world. We sell guns to foreigners who use them to fight our own troops.   And guns are freely used in America to settle our differences and shoot down people in shopping malls, universities, main streets of our country and in our homes.  We entered  into a ten year long war when foreign terrorists killed less than 3,000 people in the World Trade Tower attack in September, and have spent Trillions of dollars avenging that horrible act.  Of course American terrorists then killed 3,000 more Americans between 9-11-2001 and the following Christmas day - with handguns.  And American terrorists CONTINUE, ten years later, killing 3,000 Americans in EVERY three month period –  or should I say  “season”?  The American Congress continues to say “Well, we got a right to defend ourselves don't we?.”

The persecution of gays and lesbians.  These people are what they are because that is the way they were created.  About 10% of all Russians are gay, about 10% of all Asians are gay, about 10% of all blacks are gay, and so on.  The Good Book says that mankind was made in the image of God, and it also says that God makes no mistakes, so I must assume that God is gay.  Or at least He makes these mistakes on purpose, like he did you and me – but members of the US Congress don’t like what God has done, and want that part of His work to be not REAL American citizens – unless they hide who God has made them.

The acts of treason committed daily by congressmen who refuse to vote in higher taxes because they have taken a pledge to Grover Norquist never to raise taxes ever again.  According to the Constitution it is the job of Congress to “levy taxes”.   More than 200 members of Congress now are being sworn in to office to do their job and support the Constitution but they have this prior pledge they made to Grover that takes precedent over their oath to the American people, their constituents and the Constitution of the United States.   

This week’s refusal to bail out the American economy which may condemn our nation to ten more years of recession or possible entrance into another depression.  The private sector of the American economy is sick.  People have been fired and their jobs out-sourced to other countries and ten years of wars along with great all encompassing tax reductions .  ONLY the public sector can fund the immediate employment of great numbers of workers by, yes borrowing money – which is available – and cheap – and put those people to work repairing roads and bridges, building light rail systems which will bring us up to the level of the rest of the world.  But the congress says  we have to pay off all our debts as soon as we can even if this results in reductions to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  That is where the corner grocery store, the drug store and gasoline station begin laying off more people.  That's where those stores call their suppliers and tell them to reduce their next orders.

Providing money for troops to engage in war without raising taxes to pay for those endeavors which depress the general economy.  For facilitating the operation of great wealthy corporations that NEED wars to make their profits.  Then for fighting wars endlessly – America has been at war constantly during my lifetime, except when we were still in the Great Depression.  The GD#1, we may begin calling it now.

Eliminating 40 to 50 million Americans from any form of health care, and providing care for the rest of America that costs twice as much as people in other developed countries pay.  Meanwhile the health of the American workforce, probably our greatest natural resource, falls into the level of a pretty good third world nation.

Incarcerating more members of its citizenry than any other nation in the world in both total number and percentage.  And then for facilitating the operation of great wealthy corporations that NEED more prisoners behind bars to increase their profits.

For insisting that a business that makes a NET profit of more than $250,000 in a year is a “small business”.  

For providing subsidies to the largest corporations in the entire world who are now making the greatest profits ever made by anyone or anything, anywhere anytime.  Yet those same corporations pay NO taxes, and the American taxpayers who do pay taxes, also pay these corporations subsidies to please continue their work.  

Well, this is enough for one evening.  There is more.  A lot more.  Sounds like another book.  At any rate I will have to make a list.  Please let me know if you know of other reasons why the American Congress should be held in contempt.  

Then if I do get called, and sworn in, I can fillibuster.

The Debt is Saved but the Dream is Dying

The “full faith and credit” of the United States is saved!  And at the last minute, too!  What wonderful . . .

But there is something missing.  In fact there are a lot of somethings missing.  A sickness seems present.  A pollution seems slowly spreading across the nation.  We are like people who have just received very, very bad news.  Stuff like that takes a while to seep in. 

Much of this centers around the president.  He was the one we were expecting to step forward and bang on the pots and pans, to blow the trumpet and to stampede the wild creatures who attacked.  But no.  Obama played it Very Cool.  I suspect much of this was about the upcoming election.  

Obama has no democratic opposition.  He will be nominated and will run. And he will probably be reelected.  Largely because the republicans are in such disarray. They have NO one to run, and those who are likely to be nominated are biding their time and hedging their bets.  

But there is a blast coming from the south.  It will blow all the other republican “candidates” out of the picture.  I am talking about Rick Perry, governor of Texas.  He will be able to control the republican party and he can capture the Tea Party people.  He is not yet fully visible, but as he has already indicated, he senses that God has called him.  Plus – he has a LOT of very rich people ready to back him.

However.  If I were a republican,  and if I were looking for the best possible person to be my president of the United States, I would have to think HARD about voting for anyone else than Obama.  Sure, I know he “runs” as a democrat, but hey – look closely.  As the Good Book says, “ . . . by its fruits, you shall know what kind of tree it is.”  

If I were a republican, I think I would have to vote for Obama.

Loughner Declared Sane!

A ruling from the United States Supreme Court this afternoon stated that Mr. Loughner " . . . was not an insane citizen in a normal nation, but rather was a normal product of an insane nation."  

The 9-0 ruling was accompanied by a statement from Chief Justice Roberts who wrote that Mr. Loughner's actions epitomized the spirit of the country, as exemplified by the courageous refusal of the Congress to pass ANY laws concerning the regulation of hand guns or ammunition.  "This,"  he added, "in spite of stupendous and overwhelming allegations that such laws might occasionally save a life or two."

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that Loughner's dedication to his own personal ideals and deeply-felt needs was an important prelude to the "Cap, Cut and Balance" legislation which passed in the House of Representatives and failed in the Senate by only 5 votes, this despite the understanding that its passage would result in some 700,000 Americans losing their jobs.  “Mr Lougner showed us that we really don’t need to see through the results of the actions we know in our heart that it is the right action to take.”  he concluded.

Justice Scalia pointed out that Mr. Loughner's willingness to do what would "normal people would regard as unthinkable", has been a sustaining inspiration to members of the Republican Party and its Command Center, formally known as the "Tea Party", and which is now more and more often referred to as "THE Party", as they engage in negotiations with the president over the Debt Ceiling.  Probably without Loughner’s display of leadership”, Scalia continued, “ . . . members of The Party would probably have been unwilling to confront the many economic appraisals that refusal to raise that debt ceiling could somehow taint the nation.”  He concluded “Now, The Party is encouraged to just pull that trigger and get it over with!”

Finally, Justice Alito wrote about the effect of “Mr. Loughner’s demonstration that “Any definitive action, especially if it is compelling action, can divert attention from mindless chatter over unimportant issues and show the rest of us how to accomplish those things that really NEED to be done, like our ruling which concerned campaign contributions by corporations.”  Then he smiled and quietly whispered behind his hand, "Bang-bang."

Open Letter to President Obama

Mr. Obama, it is my observation that the Republican Party is now waging a War of Terrorism against the old, the sick and the poor people of America. 

It is threatening to shove the people of America over the cliff of historic prosperity into the abyss of financial misery unless they, the Republican Party, get the American public to give up the Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and many other entitlements they have earned and built – PLUS – agree to never raise taxes on rich people or corporations again.  

The Republican Party is declaring that the American Government is now dead, and they are the rulers of a new American Fascist State.

We have learned the hard way, and many other countries have too, that to give in to terrorists - and that’s what this threat rightly is - only encourages them to continue to demand some other trophy, and then another and then more.  Eventually, we will HAVE to fight them.  

My take on this is to let it happen now.  Let the country fail and lose its “full faith and credit”, let the rest of the world fall with us into another great depression. Even THAT would be better than to remain dangling and twisting, being picked apart, bite by bite, by those who have sold their own souls to corporate greed and who are busy building a purely fascist nation.  Fascism needs leaders and it need workers.  it does not need – indeed, it  cannot tolerate – a middle class.  

We know how to build a country.  We can do it again.  We can build a new world, and we can build one that operates without its “full faith and credit” being devoted to the great corporations that need wars and prisons to increase their profits.  The old industrial world has changed now anyway.  The great age of industry based on oil and coal, nuclear power and big automobiles and endless highways is diminishing, it is clearly ready to transition into a different engine of power.  New industries beckon us to enter into a new economy increasingly powered by solar and wind energies and using information technologies and new advances in medicine.  

We would eventually evolve into such a condition anyway, but not if we are workers in a fascist state making millions and billions for our corporate owners.

Republicans and Obama versus US?

Well, the last act if the great play is ready to begin but we know how it will end now.  And here's what will make the audience scream in agony and tear their hair and rend their garments and smear their faces with ashes:  just before the curtain descends, the main player, Obama, will announce to the world that Social Security and Medicare will take significant hits.  He says they will remain strong, but everyone in the audience will know that is a lie.

The barbarians, played by republicans, will remain at the gate, and continue to shake it and shout, but their tone of despair will be as fake as Obama's ring of endurance.

How do we know the outcome so early?  Some of the key players have tipped off that they know the outcome.  How could they all know it?  That would have to be because they have been briefed.  We're talking now about the Chamber of Commerce, among others.  Also the great players on Wall Street.  These are the people who would be the great big losers if the debt ceiling does not get raised.  If there was a chance that it would not be done, they would by now be conspicuous by their actions on Capitol Hill.

So they know.  And they know more than that.  They also know that it is all a great play so that the tension can be raised so high, that Obama can cave.  He would have to know that too.  And that's where the play comes in.  Because it will all look like Obama navigated a dangerous strait, that he brought his ship in safely and only had to concede a minor amount.  But that amount will bring an end to the "Social Welfare" programs that the republicans hate so much.

That's my hunch.  I hope I am wrong.

Burr, McHenry, Republicans. Treason?

The current problems in the American economy were caused by a) the freeing of the economic markets from regulations by the federal government, 2) the reduction of tax rates on the wealthiest people and great corporations and c) unfunded wars that have dragged on for 10 years and which have funneled enormous amounts of money to certain major corporations that NEED wars to increase their profits.

Now the inequities of that recession are being portioned out to the middle class and the poor people of America by threatening the dismantling of the Social Security and Medicare programs that we have built and paid for, and the destruction of Medicaid.  Meanwhile, the richest people America has ever had are making more money than ever before largely due to the laying off of American workers and the out-sourcing of American jobs to other countries, like Mexico, Korea, China and others so they can continue to reduce their costs of business and increase their profits even more.  AND, they are paying less taxes than any rich class ever has in American history AND they refuse to even talk about paying more.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party now seems to be saying they will NEVER raise taxes EVER, and they won't even talk about it either, because they have taken an oath to Grover Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform Party that they now appear to be placing ABOVE the oath they took to the American Constitution when they took office.  If this can be proven true, would they be guilty of treason?  

I have called my two republicans, Senator Burr and Congressman McHenry.  Their staff "doesn't know" if Mr. Burr or McHenry have taken any such oath, and they say they don't want to raise taxes on the rich people and corporations during a recession because those people and corporations "provide jobs", even though that not been true over the past 30 years since deregulation took place, or during the lifetime of the people involved.   They are simply telling us that we have bothered them long enough and that our time is up.

John Womack

Response to "Skyscraper of Debt" by Patrick McHenry

First, the debt was run up there by republicans - the debt ceiling was raised 8 times under George Bush. Second, it went up because the great corporations laid off American workers and they out-sourced American jobs to other countries -  including textile and furniture making jobs from right here in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  Third, it went up because great corporations do not pay taxes (instead, they are paid Subsidies (from us!)) AND the richest people in America now pay less taxes percentage-wise than they EVER have - this another legacy of George Bush and the republicans.  Fourth, three wars in the middle east - including one to attack Iraq because of WMD that they HAD - well, Bush thought they had them (probably still does).

Now, if I get this right, you want to fix this debt issue by 1) eliminating or reducing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits for American citizens. 2) reducing taxes further on the richest people in America and the great American corporations who are now making more profit than any corporation has EVER made before in ALL of history. And 3) by making all the Americans who are getting these "entitlements"  from the government have to, as Orrin Hatch said today "go back to work".

Probably the reason your "Skyscraper of Debt" is being viewed on two programs is because they are laughing at it.  It may well "go viral".   But if Americans who have EARNED Social Security find it being reduced, they will have to spend less money at the grocery stores, drug stores, and gasoline stations - leading those places to lay off a few more people and call their suppliers and tell them to cut back on their orders, and lead hospitals and health care workers to find out they are not needed to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients and they can stay home.  Emergency Rooms will find more and more extremely sick people showing up who have no money and no insurance.  And no hope.

So.  The answer to all this is the Spirit of America.  Remember, our founding fathers pointed out that all people are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . . life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Then they added:  "To SECURE these rights, GOVERNMENTS are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . ."

Thank you for providing this opportunity to respond to your video.  A great country is always built by those who have been denied opportunity elsewhere, and their struggle is against those who are defending their own personal pleasures.  We need strong, independent people who have not sold their souls for money to represent us.  Show us your soul Mr. McHenry, are you with us?