This is an excellent—albeit somewhat simplified—way of REALLY describing what is happening in our economy right now. And of course MAINSTREAM MEDIA isn't reporting it this way, because mainstream media is corporate.
9.22.2008
Recipe for a Peaceful Mind
1 medium to large fire pit (allow leeway for burning bans in drought-striken areas; use grill for backup)
8 medium steaks (no need for the expensive stuff; get what you want and what your pocket can handle)
1 container Butt Rub
4 large russet potatoes
2 6-packs of delicious beer
8 friends/family members
1 cord of applewood
1 bag of charcoal
1 box of mesquite chips
fire
Directions: Combine applewood, charcoal and mesquite chips in fire pit until golden embers. Coat potatoes in sea salt, wrap in foil and place in hot embers. Sprinkle Butt Rub on steaks, wrap individually in foil, and place on grate above embers. Cook 10 minutes for potatoes and 5-8 minutes for steaks, depending on cooking preference (if you are me, give it a killer look and then eat). Cut potatoes lengthwise and each half on a plate. Place one foil-wrapped steak on each plate. Add simple salad as necessary. Enjoy with beer, friends, and family.
Dessert: Have the good sense to have a brother with apple trees in his yard. Choose the 8 nicest looking apples and pick them. Slice in half, hollow out core, wrap in foil and place in dying embers. Allow to cook for 10 minutes or until somewhat soft. Unwrap caramel squares and place in hollowed apple, let cook for another 10 minutes. Roast two marshmellows above the embers while waiting for apples to cook. Remove apples from embers, place marshmellows on top, and enjoy. Commence with guttural sounds of delight. Repeat.
*I advise that, if you are a Chicago Bears fan, to not watch the game until AFTER eating. Then, you really won't care that they were up by 10 with 4 minutes left in the fourth and let the Bucs tie, go into overtime, and let the Bucs take that candy home. Seriously, I promise if you eat first, you won't care. I didn't eat first.
8 medium steaks (no need for the expensive stuff; get what you want and what your pocket can handle)
1 container Butt Rub
4 large russet potatoes
2 6-packs of delicious beer
8 friends/family members
1 cord of applewood
1 bag of charcoal
1 box of mesquite chips
fire
Directions: Combine applewood, charcoal and mesquite chips in fire pit until golden embers. Coat potatoes in sea salt, wrap in foil and place in hot embers. Sprinkle Butt Rub on steaks, wrap individually in foil, and place on grate above embers. Cook 10 minutes for potatoes and 5-8 minutes for steaks, depending on cooking preference (if you are me, give it a killer look and then eat). Cut potatoes lengthwise and each half on a plate. Place one foil-wrapped steak on each plate. Add simple salad as necessary. Enjoy with beer, friends, and family.
Dessert: Have the good sense to have a brother with apple trees in his yard. Choose the 8 nicest looking apples and pick them. Slice in half, hollow out core, wrap in foil and place in dying embers. Allow to cook for 10 minutes or until somewhat soft. Unwrap caramel squares and place in hollowed apple, let cook for another 10 minutes. Roast two marshmellows above the embers while waiting for apples to cook. Remove apples from embers, place marshmellows on top, and enjoy. Commence with guttural sounds of delight. Repeat.
*I advise that, if you are a Chicago Bears fan, to not watch the game until AFTER eating. Then, you really won't care that they were up by 10 with 4 minutes left in the fourth and let the Bucs tie, go into overtime, and let the Bucs take that candy home. Seriously, I promise if you eat first, you won't care. I didn't eat first.
9.18.2008
Simple Math
PALIN - L = PAIN
(Hey, if lipschtick on a pig is noteworthy, then so is my simple fucking math.)
(Hey, if lipschtick on a pig is noteworthy, then so is my simple fucking math.)
A Couple of Quick Points
First off: I want a free market too, but just like Communism sounds great in theory and fails in practice, as does our capitalistic model (something we have seen unfold this year alone). So, let's think of this in terms of a sports analogy: Regulate a fair playing field like a ref would a game. Establish rules, allow competition, and watch the game unfold. In our system now, with bailouts coming from the government, it is like the ref is stepping in and playing for an injured player. It just doesn't make sense.
Point number two: So, these companies have lost people money, and now the government is using our tax dollars to bail them out. For what? So we can pay TWICE OVER to save an institution who is working towards the bottom line of the few, and not the many??? How about the government takes that 85 billion and pays back the investors and stockholders, and let the companies go belly up? Then, establish regulation that would avoid this kind of greed-based failure in the future. Conclusion: The Bush ass-ministration are fucking idiots.
Point three: McCain has admitted he knows nothing about economics. His economic advisor is one of the architects of this administration's failed economic policies. Conclusion: McSame.
To all of those investors out there that have lost their asses: Hold on. I know it sucks now, but you can do nothing about it at the present moment. Let this play out before showing your hand, and pray to your god that we have an administration change in November.
The beauty of our country is its flexibility. If something isn't working (current economic policies), then we should have the wisdom and ability to fix it. Let us do that.
Point number two: So, these companies have lost people money, and now the government is using our tax dollars to bail them out. For what? So we can pay TWICE OVER to save an institution who is working towards the bottom line of the few, and not the many??? How about the government takes that 85 billion and pays back the investors and stockholders, and let the companies go belly up? Then, establish regulation that would avoid this kind of greed-based failure in the future. Conclusion: The Bush ass-ministration are fucking idiots.
Point three: McCain has admitted he knows nothing about economics. His economic advisor is one of the architects of this administration's failed economic policies. Conclusion: McSame.
To all of those investors out there that have lost their asses: Hold on. I know it sucks now, but you can do nothing about it at the present moment. Let this play out before showing your hand, and pray to your god that we have an administration change in November.
The beauty of our country is its flexibility. If something isn't working (current economic policies), then we should have the wisdom and ability to fix it. Let us do that.
9.17.2008
Whoa, I'm Nominated for Something
Hello loyal readers. All two of you.
I'm nominated for... for...umm....maybe a prize or something?
Anyway, if you have a minute, go check out the BlogAsheville Extravablogaversapaloozathon 2008 nominees and look for me! (I'm A Girl Named Boo, just in case, you know, you can't read the top of this page.) And they placed me perfectly: Blog Most Likely to Not Make Money (sweet! I'll never sell out!!!) and Blog That Makes Me Feel Happiest (clearly they haven't seen my latest postings, but whatevs. Don't tell them!)
Go HERE for the excitement.
I'm nominated for... for...umm....maybe a prize or something?
Anyway, if you have a minute, go check out the BlogAsheville Extravablogaversapaloozathon 2008 nominees and look for me! (I'm A Girl Named Boo, just in case, you know, you can't read the top of this page.) And they placed me perfectly: Blog Most Likely to Not Make Money (sweet! I'll never sell out!!!) and Blog That Makes Me Feel Happiest (clearly they haven't seen my latest postings, but whatevs. Don't tell them!)
Go HERE for the excitement.
9.16.2008
True Feminism, Part Deux
Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for 'The Vagina Monologues', wrote the following about Sarah Palin: Drill, Drill, Drill
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes. Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society, or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected, then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008
I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.
I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.
But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.
I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.
Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, 'It was a task from God.'
Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.
She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes. Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.
Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.
Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.
I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society, or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected, then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, 'Drill Drill Drill.' I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?
Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008
9.11.2008
True Feminism
"As a woman and a registered Republican I am very concerned about the choice of Mrs. Palin as a vice-presidential candidate. I do not believe that she stands for most American woman as she is against a woman’s right to choose in medical decisions concerning her own body, she has demonstrated an intolerance for differing beliefs, she does not believe in birth control or sex education. I was planning on voting for McCain but the Republican ticket has lost my vote because of this choice."
–Carol C., Tiverton, RI
"Sarah Palin is the classic example of a woman being used by those in power to remove power from women."
-Iliza A., 39, San Francisco, CA
"As a woman who is proud of the accomplishments of women over the past one hundred years, I am appalled and terrified by the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. This choice gives much credence to McCain's and the Republican party's lack of judgment and responsibility. I do not question whether Ms. Palin is a good mother or not. I don't care. As a potential leader for this country she is an abomination. What a ludicrous, blatantly pandering, frightening irresponsible choice this was. I can only hope that ultimately women see this for what it is, an arrogant, denigrating ploy to get their vote."
- Penny W., 56, North Carolina
womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com
–Carol C., Tiverton, RI
"Sarah Palin is the classic example of a woman being used by those in power to remove power from women."
-Iliza A., 39, San Francisco, CA
"As a woman who is proud of the accomplishments of women over the past one hundred years, I am appalled and terrified by the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate. This choice gives much credence to McCain's and the Republican party's lack of judgment and responsibility. I do not question whether Ms. Palin is a good mother or not. I don't care. As a potential leader for this country she is an abomination. What a ludicrous, blatantly pandering, frightening irresponsible choice this was. I can only hope that ultimately women see this for what it is, an arrogant, denigrating ploy to get their vote."
- Penny W., 56, North Carolina
womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com
Growing Pains
Ah, the self-realization just keeps on going, doesn't it? One day I'm living a blissfully ignorant existence, happy to medicate my depression away with the not-so-legal meds, and the next I'm stone cold sober and pissed off. The balance just won't last.
But in the interest of bettering myself, I know that it takes these moments of pain to get to the better moments. The moments when it is ok that I didn't realize something about myself 20 years ago, because how is an 8-year-old child supposed to tell her mother that she is the mom, and I am the child, so just let me be a kid? It isn't easy.
This all has come to a head in recent days. I've had issues with my mom in the past, but it was never anything that I felt could end our relationship, or I just refused to allow that to happen. It has been a tough couple of years for the two of us, matching and almost surpassing the struggles of my teenage years. Back then, I could just be an immature little brat, and she could be the adult (for the most part, but now I even question that). But the illusion is gone. I have been the caretaker.
She never had it easy, and she constantly reminded me of this. It did exactly what it was supposed to do: made me feel guilty for having a happy life. And to this day, even though I'm old enough to have my own children, this pattern repeats itself with a dreadful regularity that has me as depressed as I've been since the days after my dad died.
She was a child raising children. I can't really blame her; she did the best I could and she loved me. But what am I supposed to do with these feelings? The resentment that immediately makes me feel guilty? The frustration that she still can't care for me as her child? My reaction to all of this, which is to pull as far away from her as possible? My husband and I have recently contemplated moving completely across the country just so I can loosen her hold on me. A hold that is so subtle, so complete, that I never noticed it until now. Until I witnessed one of my dearest friends caring for her 14-month-old son and recognizing my own feelings of jealousy. How could I never have seen this???? It is almost devastating. It might be devastating if I didn't have so many other things on which to focus my frustrations.
And here I am, building a house right fucking beside her, and all of the sudden it comes into focus. Very clear focus. She has bound me to her more completely than I could have thought possible, and I convinced myself that our relationship meant that we were close. As close as sisters. As close as best friends. What a fucking lie. She has cared for me, yes, but she has manipulated me to care for her as well.
"What have I done to deserve my children treating me this way?"
"You have it so easy. You have no idea what it means to have a hard life."
"You spoiled brat."
These are the things that she would say to me if I wanted to make a choice about my own life. And I fucking believed her. Now I'm living in her basement, building a house 50 feet away from her bedroom, and I want to just disappear. I want to get on a plane with my husband and my dog and get the fuck away.
But in the interest of bettering myself, I know that it takes these moments of pain to get to the better moments. The moments when it is ok that I didn't realize something about myself 20 years ago, because how is an 8-year-old child supposed to tell her mother that she is the mom, and I am the child, so just let me be a kid? It isn't easy.
This all has come to a head in recent days. I've had issues with my mom in the past, but it was never anything that I felt could end our relationship, or I just refused to allow that to happen. It has been a tough couple of years for the two of us, matching and almost surpassing the struggles of my teenage years. Back then, I could just be an immature little brat, and she could be the adult (for the most part, but now I even question that). But the illusion is gone. I have been the caretaker.
She never had it easy, and she constantly reminded me of this. It did exactly what it was supposed to do: made me feel guilty for having a happy life. And to this day, even though I'm old enough to have my own children, this pattern repeats itself with a dreadful regularity that has me as depressed as I've been since the days after my dad died.
She was a child raising children. I can't really blame her; she did the best I could and she loved me. But what am I supposed to do with these feelings? The resentment that immediately makes me feel guilty? The frustration that she still can't care for me as her child? My reaction to all of this, which is to pull as far away from her as possible? My husband and I have recently contemplated moving completely across the country just so I can loosen her hold on me. A hold that is so subtle, so complete, that I never noticed it until now. Until I witnessed one of my dearest friends caring for her 14-month-old son and recognizing my own feelings of jealousy. How could I never have seen this???? It is almost devastating. It might be devastating if I didn't have so many other things on which to focus my frustrations.
And here I am, building a house right fucking beside her, and all of the sudden it comes into focus. Very clear focus. She has bound me to her more completely than I could have thought possible, and I convinced myself that our relationship meant that we were close. As close as sisters. As close as best friends. What a fucking lie. She has cared for me, yes, but she has manipulated me to care for her as well.
"What have I done to deserve my children treating me this way?"
"You have it so easy. You have no idea what it means to have a hard life."
"You spoiled brat."
These are the things that she would say to me if I wanted to make a choice about my own life. And I fucking believed her. Now I'm living in her basement, building a house 50 feet away from her bedroom, and I want to just disappear. I want to get on a plane with my husband and my dog and get the fuck away.
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