TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY HAS BEEN AND GONE

September 19th was 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'. Google, feeling it needed to add another language to its list, has added Pirate talk. Just type in, for example, I'm thirsty. Pour me a drink, please? The trusty translator immediately replies in translation with: "Arr, I'm thirsty, Gar." Next I typed: This beats listening to McCain and Palin telling their lies. The reply: "Arrr, this beats listenin' t' McCain and Palin tellin' their lies. Aye, me parrot concurs."

"It gives your conversation a swagger, an elán, denied to landlocked lubbers. The best explanation came from a guy at a Cleveland radio station who interviewed us on the 2002 Talk Like a Pirate Day. He told us we were going to be buried by people asking for interviews because it was a "whimsical alternative" to all the serious things that were making the news so depressing. In other words, silliness is the holiday's best selling point." A quote from this site.

Given the general mood of the world right now, it is refreshing to have a diversion from McCain/Palin lies and the heartbreak of knowing how many people believe them. But, like many things that start in fun and acting, there are real criminals and pirates out there today...no longer the movie variety made famous in books by Raphael Sabatini, acted by Errol Flynn and the handsome Tyrone Power, that made a previous generation fantasy being kidnapped and ravished by them. Today's pirates are not adding to the aesthetics of the Caribbean, they are terrifying the rich and touristy yachters. Elsewhere, in real life, pirates are stealing fish as if it were gold from the sea. Officially it is what is known as Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Once again, Nero is fiddling while Rome is burning. It seems that criminals are everywhere, pretty undeterred by a society that squanders billions on everything but protection from them. As the world economy gets more desperate, we can expect more letters telling us to send money to Africa so that they can send money back to us; more empty promises from our Republican politicians so they can continue their reign of figuratively further thumbing their noses at our middle class and poorer workers and citizens; and all the multitude of scams perpetrated on us by society that has grown up to believe that anything is acceptable as long as you don't get caught at it.

Maybe the Rapture doesn't look so bad anymore, if only it were true. We can, at least, dream of a better world or state of being.

WORDS ARE LABELS

Labels are given us in many ways. We have a first name, possibly a middle name or more, and a last name usually taken from our 'family' name. Some are ethnic or racial labels that follow one where biases predominate. With multiple marriages, adoptions of some but not all step-children, names within a family unit may be different, as when a wife chooses to keep her maiden name.

Labels are also diagnostic, often misused. People are called paranoid, mental, schizo, and many other names in an attempt to be descriptive, rather than clinical. The worst of them, though, are the pejorative terms used when someone is actually suffering from an illness. In my experience, families struggle with the only language they know. When someone is unable to help with the chores (though they may be severely clinically depressed) they are given labels like 'lazy', 'selfish', 'into themselves' and similar descriptions of behaviors out of a context that might make the behavior acceptable or understandable.

'Unfaithful' is often used when, in fact, a person has never committed to another so that no promise of faithfulness was actually given. This person rarely feels they have violated anything important because they feel that it was never an agreement in the first place. 'Ungiving' is often another pejorative term. It implies selfishness and retentiveness. Often a contract of cooperation was never discussed or roles never spelled out. This, then, leaves partners operating under a totally separate and different set of rules.

'Controlling' is another often misused label. One should always control themselves and be in control of their boundaries. Yet the term implies someone who knows no boundaries and wants to control others. It does not take into consideration that one who is insecure or feeling overwhelmed and out of control of their life may try to maintain some order by trying to control some aspects within their existence. Those with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) may find their symptoms potentiated when feeling their world is collapsing around them. Terms are used to manipulate others. By calling someone a name like 'controlling', one might cause the person to allow anything to shed the label.

One's boundaries should start with themselves first; their body, privacy, safety and such. One without boundaries who is near you may have you feeling as though you perpetually live in a college dormitory. To the degree that one is somewhat territorial of sound, space, material possessions, clothing, money or whatever, intrusions that violate boundaries can make life fairly grim.

So when one shouts 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me', that is not often true. Names and labels can be extremely hurtful, shake self-esteem, shake self-confidence, and make one doubt intelligence, creativity, and their own abilities. We know this more as 'emotional abuse'.

People tend to take words too loosely. Words are weapons or comforts, depending on who is using them, with what intent and what the words are..

I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WORRIED ABOUT McCAIN'S HEALTH

It is difficult to view McCain's left cheek on TV. Most of the time he is shown from his right side. (Don't forget to reverse the sides on TV as you would in a mirror). However, after they have shown a live shot on TV, showing the massive lump in his cheek, they then show stock pictures which show his cheek as normal. I was confused until I began to watch the time line.

Today a friend sent me a video from YouTube. While all videos can be suspect of fraud today, this does not seem to have a law suit against it.

Many people who have had intimate experience with recurrent melanoma are genuinely concerned that Sarah Palin, totally unprepared to be President, will be the next puppet in office pulled by the real Republican leader's strings.

There are also some concerns about the long term effects of cancer survivors who have had chemotherapy. Good indications appear that it produces long term problems with memory and symptoms of mental aging.

All the preceding suggests we may expect to have Sarah Palin as President within the next four years should McCain be elected.

WHILE NERO FIDDLED, ROME BURNED

BBC, front page last evening:

US government rescues insurer AIG

While there are those who feel that large companies should pay the price for their own follies, it is important for people to understand the global consequences that have arisen from our unregulated insurance and investment systems. This situation smacks of some simple sayings like, "They bit off more than they could chew". "They got too big for their britches". The reality is, aside from putting 100,000 employees out of work, not to mention all those supported by the efforts of those who support from outside the company. There are all those countries in which AIG has billions of dollars of assets tied up.

There are no longer simple solutions to our economic problems, just as the technology needed to run our houses and lives is no longer simple. Just to watch television in my own home, I have 12 remote controllers, which includes those to watch DVD. I found myself envying what I heard from a dear friend who is almost ninety. Money is not limited for her but she does not have cable (she prefers to read), she does not own a DVD player (preferring to listen to audio tapes of music familiar to her, though perhaps, played by new musicians). She does not own a computer and carries on correspondence through US Postal Service or by phone. She is in good mental health and knows the frustration she sees around her as people struggle to keep up with all the latest technology. She sees it as interesting but not useful or necessary to her.

If the government had regulated these giant corporations, they wouldn't fall as hard and injure so many people in the process. Tonight I heard Sarah Palin speaking out that it is necessary that we regulate things. Where has the Republican party been the past eight years? Why have they been allowing Cheney to keep blinders on them. Why have the greedy and impulsive abused the system so badly that it has come to such a crisis, affecting the entire global economy?

Are there really people that want to vote in 'some of the hair of the dog that bit them'? Apparently there are!

HOW WILL THIS STORY END?

For some time I have occasionally written about trying to live a stress-free life. Reading 'feel good' books and watching 'feel-good' movies has been helpful. However, as I note their template, these often run to hero meets heroine, they dislike each other and spend most of their time misunderstanding one another. At the tale end of the book/movie, the writers give us a few paragraphs of their finally seeing the light, the truth, and their amazing love for one another. They leave us in the last sentence with the impression that they will live happily ever after though they have certainly not managed much happiness until now. The reader often struggles to understand what happened between them that will allow that prediction to happen but is often too pleased by the resolution to take it further in speculation.

The McCain/Palin campaign reminds me of these stories. There is a broad assumption that, if we vote the two of them in, they will live and reign happily ever after. But Prince Charming likely had the same distasteful odors when relieving himself as McCain does when he makes his promises of change. If he was capable of effecting the kind of change we have needed for the past 8 years, why hasn't he mentioned it, instead of voting with Bush 90% of the time. His promises, even now, give no indication as to what will become of the country other than the same degradation of the lives of America's citizen's, with a continuation of all the failed policies of the past two terms of this Administration.

A second assumption is that McCain will live to serve out a four year term. I'm not sure where he, as a 72 year old having suffered four bouts with cancer, appears on the insurance actuarial tables but I do know that a third of VPs have gone on to be President while serving their own term as Vice President. Governor Palin, who governs fewer than people in the state of Rhode Island, and who was mayor of a town of slightly over 5000 when she was in office, seems to be as unsure of herself as one might believe Cinderella may have been when suddenly finding herself a Princess after knowing little other than being servant to her wicked step-sisters. One might think that Cinderella might have been shrewd enough to listen and learn before she jumped into all the demands of royal court as the Princess before she became Queen. Governor Palin seems to think she needs no tutelage for the move to the top responsibility, call for experience in governing globally, and with a finger on the red button. She has the effrontery to believe that she will win over Senator Clinton's voters. Such colossal hubris simply bears to mind the saying, "Ignorance is bliss." No wonder she can smile and seem to sincerely believe they are somehow equals. Instead of Hillary Clinton, Palin comes across as Caribou Barbie with John McCain as her Ken (or is it G.I. Joe?) They are playing at living in the real world and seem not to notice that people are not as easily fooled as they are insulted when they are the recipients of so many untruths and promises that do not fit their ideologies.

Like the books, we wait until the last paragraph to find out just what will happen to Prince Charming and Cinderella, who unfortunately will not leave our land for a distant one. If it is McCain and Palin, they will remain in the USA and practice their governing on a country already dying. Their political medicine is totally inadequate to save it. However, if Obama and Biden, who have already finished their residency and have a great deal of experience behind them for 'fixing' sick systems prevail, the USA might survive. It will feel like spooning the ocean with a teaspoon, but will take Herculean skill. As with Hercules, it will take thinking out of the box. Hercules rerouted rivers to clean out the Augean stables in a day. (Augeus reneged on his promise to give him one tenth of the cattle if he succeeded, so Hercules killed him and put in Augeas's son as king. There the metaphor slips away from the current Administrative task but matches its challenge.)

FAULTS OF SARAH PALIN THAT SHOULD KEEP HER FROM BECOMING PRESIDENT

Reasons why Sarah Palin is unfit to lead the country:

1. She is vindictive. She fired a Democrat librarian when she would not ban a book from the library at Palin's request. She is harassing her ex-brother-in-law and will not allow State employees to provide information to the investigators. She may be taking a page from Bush but she cannot plead executive privilege here.

2. She would rather keep children ignorant of the dangers of sexual predators or premature and uninformed sexual behavior than allow them to be taught safety. Even abstinence did not work in her own family unit. This suggests she doesn't learn from her own mistakes.

3. She believes that the US military in Iraq is on a mission from God. She seems not to understand separation of Church and State. She also seems not to have studied much about the three branches of government and the Constitution. Some of her statements make me wonder if she differentiates the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

4. The rules of her office and the oath taken to uphold them seem not to matter.

As The Hill reports, "Governor Palin has ... opposed a crucial clean water initiative."

Alaska's KTUU explains: "It is against the law for the governor to officially advocate for or against a ballot measure; however, Palin took what she calls 'personal privilege' to discuss one of this year's most contentious initiatives."

Palin said, "Let me take my governor's hat off just for a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop. 4 -- I vote no on that." And what is that? A state initiative that would have banned metal mines from discharging pollution into salmon streams.

She also approved legislation that let oil and gas companies nearly triple the amount of toxic waste they can dump into Cook Inlet, an important fishery. It looks like being an avid outdoorsperson doesn't mean Palin really has the health of watersheds, natural resources or our environment at heart.

5. She does not believe in abortion for anyone in an unwanted pregnancy whether in throes of passion, failure of contraceptives to work, rape, or incest. She relents slightly if the life of the mother is in danger. Statstics suggest 25% of rapes in Alaska result in unwanted pregnancies to refrain from mentioning other serious consequences.

6. While she claims to be against earmarks, her actions exclude her from her own determination. However, later, she accepted the Federal money that was intended for the Bridge and put it to other uses. The rest of the country's taxpayers footed the bill.

7. Her ignorance of science is reflected in that she doesn't believe in Evolution and wants Creationism taught in schools. That is another indication of her poor boundaries between religion being forced on others, and lack of understanding separation of Church and State.

8. Sarah Palin is in favor of off-shore drilling. If you Google: 'Palin on offshore drilling', you will get 485,000 hits. Take your pick of any one. Environmentalists can only weep if that comes to pass. Her killing from the air and preference for killing animals should teach most people how little she truly values life. Are not animals also God's creatures?

9. Sarah Palin is totally uniformed about regulatory agencies findings. She is in favor of nuclear power. Even the U.S. government's own nuclear agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, thinks an atomic renaissance is a bad idea: Delivered by one of America's most notoriously docile agencies, the NRC's warning essentially says: that all cost estimates for new nuclear reactors -- and all licensing and construction schedules -- are completely up for grabs and have no reliable basis in fact. Thus any comparisons between future atomic reactors and renewable technologies are moot at best.

10. Her statement at the Convention about not going to Washington to please the media but to work for the American people shows how little she understands that, barracuda though she may have been on a basketball court, when she is let loose in the Washington fish tank of media and other political pirahnas, she will find out that she is not yet equipped for political and governing prime time. Unless, she is being picked as another Right Wing puppet, which is more than likely, as they have grown to like that in the past 8 years with the strings they have been able to pull on Bush.

We need a President whose mind and body are youthful and healthy. Absent that, we need a Vice President who will be able to take office immediately, if called upon. Sarah Palin cannot be that person. Her lack of training for that position makes a mockery of the office. Can we really depend on the drooling men who think she is HOT or the women who admire her because she can do her job as governor with fewer people than in the entire state of Rhode Island, while breast feeding? Can she credibly represent the United States to a world already disillusioned by our heads of State and who expect more than sound bites from an American Vice President who might become President?

LETTER FROM AN ALASKAN

Every once in a while something comes to my attention that takes precedence over my original thoughts. This is such an occasion. This letter was written by a woman living and working in Alaska to one down in the lower 48. She requested that it be spread around and I thank her for the permission as it should be read by all.

" I have been so mortified since McCain chose her, since the willing media found their princess, since the campaign, AGAIN devolved to circus.

So. Deeeep cleansing breaths, everyone.

Palin absolutely has the ability to win this thing for McCain. She will avoid interviews of substance, unless seriously coached. Meanwhile, the press will take a pass at serious journalism because, gee. She's SO HOT!

I feel sickeningly like history is repeating itself in the worst possible way.

When she ran for governor, she ran against Murkowski, former us senator, who took the job for one reason only. To appoint his daughter to the US Senate seat he vacated. He spent the rest of the time eliminating revenue sharing for Alaskan communities, flying around on the (now famous) jet, and generally driving his poll numbers into the low twenties. Enter the beauty queen. (Love the Caribou Barbie comment, btw). Pretty, vivacious, and vapid, but who cared? She was HOTHOTHOT. And the bar was set so low, she just had to smile and that was enough for this blood red state to sweep her in. At the time, working for her opponent, I knocked on many doors, where men told me they didn't care that she was incompetent. She had their vote cause she was HOT. It got to be a mocking refrain. Who cares about Troopergate? She's HOT. Applaud the Brdge to Nowhere? So what? She's HOT.

Then, with a resume so paper thin, she is elected governor. Sitting on a multi-billion dollar surplus, (caused by the hardship we all endure over 4.50 dollar a gallon gas) she decides, instead of planning a future for her state, to just give it to us in a lump sum (1200 dollars a person). Popular move, that. My guess is that anybody could be governor with that kind of surplus. But she did NOTHING to fix the gutted retirement system that was dismantled by the Republicans three years ago. She did NOTHING to reinstate the revenue sharing to communities, the absence of which made Fairbanks property taxes among the highest in the nation.

Imagine a woman who even fires a librarian for disloyalty. What a harpy. (Note from Yiayia Online: a few words removed by me to restrict further retaliation to the librarian). To my profound disappointment, she refuses to talk to the press, who have been swarming around her endlessly. The truth of that little story is that she was fired three different times, and rehired two times for one reason or another. But the real reason is because she is a democrat, and had campaigned for Sarah's opponent when Sarah sought the Wasilla Mayor's seat.

Imagine someone that vindictive heading up a country with the Patriot Act backing her up. Meanwhile, the gaff she made about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac makes nary a ripple in the press. That comment showed just how unschooled this woman is. She can be coached for sound bites, but scratch her surface, and she's as shallow as a person can be, intellectually.

I tell everyone to spread the word, hard and fast, there's absolutely no time to lose. There is way, way too much at stake to reelect the Bush administration, the Karl Rovian attack dog, the train wreck that has been the last eight years. Hard to remember, but Bush inherited a 200+ billion dollar SURPLUS in 2000.

Commit your time, your energy, and if you haven't already done so, your hard earned money to stop this. The bar is set so low by Bush, that pretty-pretty princess could toss off a few snarky one-liners, and help McCain step over it.

I am proud to be an American. These days though, it's hard to be proud to be an Alaskan. Feel free to spread this email, if being from Alaska makes any difference to people. Fence sitters out there, don't be fooled by the pretty face and the updo."

There should never be a person elected as Vice President who is clearly not suitable to be President instantly, should necessity dictate. How can people think of this person as being ready?