Saturday, October 18, 2008

WHY I READ A LOT

Reading is a way of learning new things and exercising one's emotions. I cannot go through a room without reading something, magazine covers, labels, mail lying around, whatever is available. I read in the bathroom (and am driven to read product labels if there is nothing else around to be read), at the table while eating (since I am frequently alone), waiting in doctor's offices; there is no end to where, when, and how long I read. Normally, I believe I read anything I can get my eyes on but I now find that is not always true. I am more selective than that. I tend to read political stuff that supports my views (once I have decided what they are).

What I have recently come to realize is that reading can be like my mother's soothing hand and comfort on my forehead; it can be an emotional down, tension, to be relieved by resolution of a problem or misunderstanding, and then back up to finish a climax to a 'feel-good' conclusion. It can answer painful needs, filling in knowledge and experiential gaps, those when I struggles with feelings of helplessness and loss of control of my life.

Reading, whether in a book, magazine or on the computer can mentally transport me to wonderful places where my body is not threatened by Montezuma's revenge and my budget can remain intact, such as it is. Email can leave me laughing hysterically (belly laughs kick in endorphins...that's good!) or people write to affirm that they think it is good that I am alive and on this earth....how good can life get?

Reading can make me think I am young again, in my head (at least in my memories and fantasies) and even in my body when I read some torrid, emotional stuff. The term 'sublimation', borrowed from Freud, doesn't say enough to clarify the broad expanse of effect. Some heady passages can make physical responses, the activity of which may have been in the past, but is never forgotten by the brain or body.

Reading stirs thoughts, solidifies opinions, answers dilemmas and creates new puzzles. It can cure boredom and create it, as well. Sometimes it is a soporific, at other times an insomnia producer. It connects me to friends at great distances and, the ease with which reading email is possible to send and read responses has kept me in touch with friends with whom I would long ago have lost contact if left to letters, phone calls or visits.

Reading allows me to bring back feelings of warmth as I read Mother's Day and other greeting cards from those adults who were once my children, a lifetime ago. Cards and notes keep my mother near me though she has been gone from life for more than 20 years. Reading does a lot that pictures also do. If a writer is good, my mind fills in all the blanks with those written images. Really good writers not only picture the time, place and people involved, but capture facial expressions, relationships, and behaviors in powerful ways. It is like, "You Were There."
Indeed, by reading I am there, in every way, but with the luxury of remaining in the safety, warmth and comfort of my own home and I don't have to pack and carry my own luggage!

Friday, October 17, 2008

WHY THE WORLD DISRESPECTS THE US?

There was a time when the world envied the US for its technology, integrity, education, wealth, and much more. It has bee a gradual slide down for a few years with the last eight years seeing a free fall. Economists are more pessimistic than hunters looking for the Abominable Snowman.

Germany is planning to inject $650,000,000 (in Euros, of course) into their troubled banks.

French state-controlled electricity giant EDF said it had dropped plans to table a new bid for Constellation Energy (nyse: CEG - news - people ) as the credit crisis made corporate financing more difficult to obtain. U.S. company Constellation has accepted an agreed $4.7 billion bid by Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy (other-otc: MDPWL.PK - news - people ) Holdings. This was lower than a $6.24 billion bid by EDF and fund backers KKR and TPG.


"Which countries are bailing out their banks?" Iceland was the first country to cry 'uncle'. Switzerland, Belgium, Iceland and Britain all have bank loans which exceed their GDP (Gross Domestic Product), raising the question whether a government can guarantee deposits if the total is greater than the National Debt.

Only those of us, not yet gone to our 'greater reward' and who still remember the Great Depression of the thirties can visualize the desperation that many of our people will experience. Since there is less regard for fellow human beings and the law, we can onlyh anticipate the crime rate will rise considerably. As ever, children will be the most badly scarred, though the suffering of adults will be ever visible.

Now is the time to weed out the deadwood, stop the wasteful spending, and teach those in legislatures that the IRS is not collecting their personal allowances.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

20 DAYS TO VOTING DAY


While anticipating the last debate between McCain and Obama, I had a strange deja vu feeling. It was McCain giving the fish for a day (use government funds to pay the individual mortgages rather than continue to have homes foreclosed) versus Obama teaching people to fish (infusing banks and working on getting small businesses started so that more jobs would be created and having credit available to jump start the economy).

The last debate between the two Presidential candidates came and went and the sky didn't fall, no great lines were heard...in fact I really heard nothing new, though I suffered,bored, through all ninety minutes. Obama behaved more like a President should and tried to answer the questions asked, though time was wasted as he had to answer the lies McCain was continuing to tell about him. McCain repeated all the promises and misinformation from all the negative ads, praised Palin and genuinely answered that he thought she would make a great president( in not those same words). What he said was, "I am proud of her." I can't imagine Obama saying. "I'm proud of Biden" in those words, though he said he felt Biden would be a good president if something should happen to Obama. He was the realist throughout as McCain continued to tell us he knew how to solve all the problems of the world, essentially, he just never got around to saying how he would do it. It saddens me that McCain gives so much and I just keep wanting more, like explanations as to how he has such wonderful ideas and is only mentioning that he can capture Obama, solve the economic crisis, help the middle class and small businesses, and save family health care with a $5000 rebate (which will run out before the year is up for many) and says nothing about what will happen next year.

McCain looks worse than ever. It is clear that he is struggling to speak clearly as the lump on his cheek must feel as though his mouth if full of acorns to be stored for the winter. Not wishing to be impolite and point to his disabilities, I have to remind myself I am not criticizing a piece of art, I am expressing my terror that the candidate in question may not survive 4 years of Presidency.

The pundits, (stupid to the nth degree, spelled inside out) did the ridiculous and far-fetched pros and cons, depending on their leanings. They should be writers for fantasy though they might not be as funny. The general consensus on most critics whom I followed suggested that Obama was far the winner and also looked more Presidential. I agree with this finding from my viewing and felt ashamed that the world was seeing the pitiful ticket of the GOPs

The sound bite of the night came from Bob Shieffer's mother: "Go Vote Now--it will make you feel big and strong."

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

THE CAVALRY TO THE RESCUE

The government's rescue plans to buy shares, up to 270 billion dollars, in American banks. There is a 5% guarantee to taxpayers that interest will be earned on the loans. The government guarantees to pay, fully, to those who received loans but default on them (like the reasons for the home mortgage foreclosures. While this seems frightening, if loans are made wisely, we have to assume that some will default for reasons beyond their control.

It goes back to 'Give me a fish, I will eat for a day; teach me to fish and I will eat everyday.' Many people have advocated that the money should go directly to taxpayers to save their homes. That qualifies for the 'give me a fish'. It is what welfare used to be....feed them every day and assume they will never have to do anything but live on the dole and be trapped at their poverty level. Over 50 years ago, black mothers (as well as a few impoverished white mothers who were referred to as white trash) in Chicago, were forced to tell their teen-age daughters to get pregnant so that welfare would give them housing of their own and care for the child. No more was expected of them. Their housing and living expenses came from the tax that those of us who were working mothers, among all the taxpayers, and not even able to have the childcare we paid be tax deductible. I remember being told by a total stranger one day, "You are a mother. How dare you work?" My reply was, "Would you like to support me on welfare?"....not that I would ever have chosen that as an alternative as long as I could support my own family as well as take care of my children with hired help!

We have made some social advances. There are those who would like us to go back to values and beliefs that preceded those advances. I beg people to move beyond that mentality and allow
people to make their own choices about their bodies, have health care when needed (at least as good as that the Legislators have voted for themselves), and educate our children so that we will not sink into the class system of the 1800s of England.

I agree with Bill Maher; I don't want to be governed by people who believe in talking snakes. Religion is definitely not the Cavalry which will rescue us.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

THE DIRTY CAMPAIGN

It was interesting listening to news reports, today saying that even the Republicans do not approve of this campaign. However, more amusing was when McCain, after being told how many in his party were deserting him and how far behind he was in all the polls said, "My friends, we've got them (referring to the Obama campaign)just where we want them." It was beyond my Obama-besotted brain to understand just what McCain meant by that.

A Sheriff in SW Ohio who was shadowing newly registered student voters was told to stop the illegal action since he had no reason to think anything had been done illegally other than accusations by some callers. He was told: "Your investigation instead appears to be based merely on unsubstantiated 'concerns' expressed in telephone calls by members of the public who appear to object to registration and voting by students in the community, unaccompanied by any specific allegation of actual fraud or other illegal conduct committed by any specific voter." It was considered voter intimidation.

In Montana the GOP backed off voter registration challenges. It seems that the dirty tricks are not just what lies are spoken, but go deeper into illegal action. In Pennsylvania felons are being told they have no right to vote. This is erroneous but making many of them fear to try to register.

"If the November vote is close, key swing states that have been illegally rejecting voters could become recount battlegrounds like Florida was. According to a New York Times report on Oct. 9, key swing states -- including Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Missouri -- have been using Federal Social Security data to verify voter registration information from established and potential voters. The Social Security data, which is used to authenticate voters' identity but is known to be error-prone, has been used to purge "tens of thousands" of voters already on voter rolls, the Times reported, as well as to reject numerous new voter registration applications."

Nov 4 cannot come too soon for the millions of people who are sick of the less than fair voting registration practices in many of the key swing states. If luck holds out, the McCain/Palin candidates will self-destruct since they seem on their way to that end and doing well towards that end at the moment. If the current climate further holds out, people will be exposed to the truth with their own observations directly of the candidates.

Monday, October 13, 2008

MANIPULATIONS

Politicians, if they are not so already, must become masters at reading and manipulating people. The failure for some is that they do not adequately gauge the intelligence of their listeners and end up insulting them. All campaigns are manipulations of some sort but during the past eight years we have been subjected to a Rovian kind of dirty campaign. Thus, it surprised even me, to learn that Karl Rove did not approve of the way the Republicans are running McCain’s campaign right now.
When the pig leaves you in the mud, indicating it is too dirty to play there, it has to be seen as a serious signal.

Alternet recently wrote an article titled: The 12 New Stomach-Turning Revelations About Sarah Palin. The first is whether Sarah Palin is trying to incite violence against Obama. Palin is referred to as a demagogue in a skirt. It seems that many people think that the McCain campaign is stirring up enough hatred, hoping there will be violence against Obama. Whether the wish is there in her open mind and empty head, how can anyone conscience her actions when she must know she is not speaking truth and is just fighting the dirtiest of Republican politics. Her lying about the money invested by her state in Darfur, her high regard for Dick Cheney, are all signals that too many people are ignorant of the truths, though the Internet seethes with criticism about her as a person, as a governor, as a taxpayer, and now as a candidate. Her performance has left little to be admired by anyone who takes the time to study her adult and political performance. if, in fact, some are correct in saying that she really doesn't care whether McCain loses (as the polls indicate is inevitable), she is trying to position herself for a Presidential run in 2012. Continuing on as Governor of Alaska might well not buy her a nomination. She is as likely to get it as Kerry has been in 2008.

One of the tricks of manipulating is Triangling. It uses the principal that 'in numbers there is strength'. It is when you claim the support of another, or several others, to support your position as more powerful than that of the person whom you are addressing. (eg, Mom (talking to kids), "I do not give my consent and your father and grandparents agree with me." Powerhouse to the kids!) The media pundits do it all the time with little shame or realization of the immaturity of the ploy.

Try maintaining your own position in a stand-off with someone without wishing you could say, "And, XXX feels exactly as I do and told me so." Whereupon the person with whom you have spoken will feel compelled to ask XXX who will then be caught in the middle. They will either be uncomfortable having to defend what they said to you and not to them in the first place, or they will chicken out and have to deny it, leaving you looking pretty untrustworthy. If your objection or position is compelling, you should argue only on your own information and convictions, never drawing in another who is not present, or by quoting (or often misquoting) that person.

Slight distortion of facts can change the tenor of a situation from acceptable to totally non-acceptable. Palin is trying to do that and is probably succeeding with many who believe her 'honesty' and 'sincerity', rather than seeing what she is doing as the worst kind of dirty politics possible. We must ask the question, "Is this the real Sarah Palin?" If so, her admiration for Cheney and lack of understanding and adherence to the Constitution and other societal rules, like income tax, make her a frightening thought to in any way be an example for young, impressionable women or having ability to lead our country.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

OH, REALLY?

What was said: 'Palin found guilty of ethics violation and abuse of power'. What the Republican response was: 'The charges were motivated by her political opponents."

It reminds me when, years ago, I bowled a 300 on a bowling machine in a bar. I never bet on myself, but a lot of other patrons who knew how well I bowled on it, did. When my opponent lost, guys looked for him to pay off his bet. His comment as he did, "Well, I let her win." If you believe that one, you can believe that the charges which were made before Palin was selected to be the VP candidate, were made by enemies who knew it would hurt the candidacy she had not yet obtained!

News Flash: Apparently Sarah Palin got a very cold reception at a hockey game in which she threw out the first puck. It is a good thing the hockey Moms weren't on the ice at the time; they'd have thrown it AT her.

McCain has indicated a falling out with his pet pitbull, Palin, as reported in the Times today. He does not approve of her whipping up the mob mentality. As his candidacy is fast going by him in the wrong direction, one wonders at a lot of things he might be feeling and thinking. He let the pitbull out of the pen and his legacy will forever remember the mammoth error of choosing her, not realizing that most people don't think he will survive four years and are terrified of her becoming President . If a candidate no longer has control of his own campaign, there is little chance of winning a victory unless there are more terrorists out there in the Republican party. The dirty campaign and all the lying, marks him as no longer the 'honest' man he was seen to be many years ago in the Senate. His is not a fair, accurate, and clean campaign. He can no longer be seen as caring more for the country than himself. Even his wife, despite the VA Hospitals making research in PTSD a top priority, seems not to see that her own husband has it. I don't know whose denial she is operating off of, his or hers, but she seems not to have talked to anyone who knows about PTSD and can explain it to her.