NATURE'S HOUSEKEEPING

Wondering how Nature works, I thought there might be a Master List somewhere in the order of Nature's priority as to which species is next to go in the queue.We lived through the Gypsy Moth deforestations in the NE USA though the plague periodically hits and expands its hold of territory. Next we saw the destruction of our magnificent Dutch Elms. Vestiges of its greatness appear in crossword puzzles as '3 letter word for shade tree'. The list grows impossibly long as we wonder whether there is an overall plan somewhere or are our losses a random happening. Will we ever know?

In more recent years Nature has turned the plagues onto so many things...bees, bats, and frogs among them. Frogs have been dying off in great numbers for some time but, only recently have scientists gotten a clue as to how they die. At last the secrets of the frog killer have been laid bare.

The list of extinct animals has grown to great proportions, showing signs of acceleration rather than deceleration.

Are we then to assume that, just as forest fires serve to keep forests alive with new growth and periodic pruning, there is a similar use for all these losses? If you believe in a master plan of some sort, that might be a relevant hypotheses. However, if you don't believe there is a leader out there somewhere making these decisions, you are left to wonder, as I do.

HOW TO TURN NEW ENGLAND INTO FLORIDA

First, get old. Second, push your winter thermostat high enough so that your fuel bill more than equals your yearly taxes. In the summer, do the same with the AC. Next, surround yourself with retirees. This will assure that you will always have people with whom to discuss doctor's appointments and find names to file away for when you need a specialist. Scratch the name off the list if your friend doesn't make it.

If you miss the huge cockroaches and other bugs, buy plenty of bananas. You're bound to find some with a tarantula or some beefy, hairy spider eventually...unless you'd rather have a small, yippy lap dog for a pet...one you can pretend to walk as though you enjoy the exercise.

You can make new friends with all the wakes, shiva attendance, or whatever else goes on for the deceased, of which there seem to be many showing up in our late decades. If you must drive outside, have a remote starter built into your car so you can turn it on in the house and not step into it until it is very hot! Wear sunglasses to cut the glare of the snow and pretend it is bright sunlight off the ocean. Since returnees from Florida use sunblock now, no one will notice your Northern pallor.

When snow begins to fall or icicles to form on your windows, quickly close the shades and put on DVDs of sandy beaches, swimming pools, and doddering old people having fun. It will save packing up and moving your body a great distance. to say nothing of all the effort of unpacking and repacking in the spring. then unpacking, yet again, when you are returned to your home. Add to the enjoyment by thinking of the money you are saving, then spend it while imagining how your children will be shocked when they learn you meant you didn't plan to take it with you.

RESEARCH ON KEEPING BODY PARTS WORKING TO KEEP UP WITH LONGEVITY

Living to a ripe old age is great as long as your body and mind goes along with the deal. Manufacturing replacement parts is not enough, it would seem. People are looking for more without the complete over haul periodically. Click here to find out what Leeds University researchers are currently doing. They are trying to develop medical engineering solutions.

We can no longer kid about becoming bionic tongue in cheek. It is very real. Click on diagram to enlarge.

CASSANDRA LIVES IN 2009

It wasn't Apollo who made men not believe Cassandra; men in power, in general, do not play truth with a single powerful woman. Instead, they gang up on her and do the little tricks of demeaning her, ruining her reputation, casting innuendos so that they'd tarnish her to the point of a total lack of respect for whatever she had to say. I'm speaking of Brooksley Born, a Stanford University law graduate, who foresaw the collapse of our economy starting with OTC derivatives way back in the 90s. She was ignored by the same men whom Obama has brought in to straighten out our economy, the economy they allowed to fall...in other words, the foxes are now in the hen house. Read more.

On 5/26 the Washington Post wrote about her but it never seemed to make the mainstream media...at least, I never saw anything on her until tonight when Frontline on PBS did a brilliant piece exposing the conditions under which she testified before the Senate (who chose to listen the the 'big boys' instead of this brilliant woman).

Born believed in government regulation. Greenspan, the God of economics through many presidential bipartisan periods, followed his credo, Markets Get It Right and then, after he retired, had the temerity to simply say, "I was wrong." while the country was in economic and emotional shambles. In 1999 Time Magazine was praising the threesome for their great work. Do you think they would dare do a truthful update?

There was only one powerful man who ignored her and who had the manhood to admit that he didn't pay enough attention, swayed by the men who spoke so forcefully. He is a former SEC Chairman, Arthur Levitt. Gentleman that he is, to say he is sorry, doesn't change history and we are still going to have to suffer the mistakes of these men, bankers, investors, and greedy men who care not for their fellow citizens.

IGNORANCE SHOULD NO LONGER BE TOLERATED

In Tanzania, there is a belief that Albinos, for which they are being murdered, are worth money so their parts can be used for Witchcraft. It is believed that 53 Albinos have been murdered for their 'parts' in the past two years. Consequently, 1000 Albinos living there are in perpetual terror for their lives. For more detail, click here. One year ago, Mariam Staford Bandaba of Tanzania, had a hand chopped off and the other arm had to be amputated half way up. She lived but the government will no longer shelter her. She had the courage to name her attackers and now must live among them in continuing terror.

When people act out of ignorance that is perpetuated through brainwashing, tradition, religion, or whatever else keeps the ignorance alive, it cheats too many of our people caught ignorant, from which they cannot but resist change, having been taught to reject other views and having no innate ability to learn or reason for themselves. Their ignorance justifies their actions to them as the murderers of abortion doctors, in the name of saving life!

FGM, female genital mutilation, also called female circumcision, is yet another tradition out of ignorance. There is no reason other than a misogynist one, to justify this barbarism yet women keep the tradition alive by mutilating their daughters or other young girls. If they were medically educated or informed even close to the 21st C. science of the female body, the importance to stress reduction by clitoral stimulation and orgasm, they might begin to understand the ignorance of their actions.

The entire question of whether people should meddle with the ethnic or religious customs of others is a grave one. How one separates ignorance and cruelty from some of these practices and traditions is a serious problem. Maintaining human rights and safety for all humans is at threat by ignorance more than any other form of terrorism. We see that in our own country which is supposed to be so civilized yet we vote politicians into office who burst forth constantly with their ignorance. As long as ignorance prevails, the voters will vote those into office who agree with them and thus the cycle of ignorance gets perpetuated.

Some things have been proven so clearly that there is no longer an excuse for people to remain in faulty belief that the world is flat, there is no evolution; a God no one can produce tells the rest of us what to do through those self-appointed within a religion of their choice. When people go around spouting these ignorant-of-the-proven-truth facts, society should be able to give them less of a podium than we are currently as a society providing for them. We should stop making heroes out of the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks of our society.

WHEN WEATHER DETERMINES ONE'S OUTLOOK ON LIFE

Today the world looks grim. It is raining and forecast to continue to rain all day with high winds and temperatures in the 40s. It is the middle of October and yesterday there were snow flurries. All that shouts that summer is over and winter not far has made itself clear. Inside the house, the furnace is unevenly heating the house as always. Hot and cold, alternating, as the forced hot air is never on long enough to heat the walls and furniture. The toilet seat is cold...the greatest insult to one's body imaginable!

When all the lights have to go on at noontime, the sense of dread drops over me like an umbrella caving in on me. World News only intensifies the sense of impending unpleasantness. Now the gloom is not only within but I am surrounded, as well, without. Snow flakes the size of quarters are falling against the greens, oranges, reds and yellows of the fall showing of leaves. It would be lovely if it weren't such an unwanted harbinger.

Then a realization surfaces. It is mid-October and my light box is still in the basement. Now I know why my body won't shed an ounce...it is grasping at every calorie ingested, to save it for hibernation in winter. Ever since a doctor told me I have vestigial tail bones at the end of my spine, I have known I am not as highly evolved as many around me. My S.A.D needs attention.

Never having been one to need to cry to rid myself of an excess of cortisol, I find a strange urge to weep creeping up on me. Another clue that I'd better get the light box beside me and on, especially on days like today. However, I need a surface on which to place the box to allow me benefit from the light. My bed is where I spend the greatest portion of my day. My computer is second, so it goes next to me there. Now all that is left is to clear a table to put it on...Oh, no!...I need a few days of the effects of the light to ready me to sort what to do with everything piled on the table since last winter...horrors!...how do I manage that one???? Eek!

RACISM DOES NOT REFER TO COMPETITIVENESS IN SPORTS

Verizonpathetic.com is a site devoted exclusively to complaints about Verizon. If one Googles 'verizon complaints', 1,550,000 come up and are quite current. When 'racism' gets Googled, 7,740,000 hits for racism in the usa now but few seem to be more recent than 2007. It makes me wonder why no one seems to want to fill the media with tales of racism though they seem to be quite prevalent in speeches on the radio, private homes, the work place, and informal soap boxes everywhere.

Whether the discrimination is racist, ethnic, religious, economic, education, gender, age...it is a cancer in our society. Because it permeates boundaries and affects all manner of policies, priorities, politics, opportunity, and much else. People have become far more subtle in hiding their prejudices, unlike the 60s and 70s when one heard, "Some of my best friends are Colored" and immediately recognized the reaction formation.

Why have some of us moved on from early training that we were better than those who were not like us while others maintain their superiority? Is it as simple as that. Being hateful and critical makes you feel superior? A recent article: Why Conservatives Are Really Afraid of a Black President By Jonathan L. Walton, Religion Dispatches. Posted October 10, 2009. offers some guesses. Click here.

It is interesting that a Justice of the Peace in Louisiana refused to marry an interracial couple (not because the two races involved) because he was concerned about their possible issue of children! Gov Bobby Jindal wants the man removed from his office with much support from people around the state to do just that. After all, we wouldn't want any more people around like Barack Obama or his wife who had ancestors from a union between a slave owner and one of his slaves ( a frequent combination, apparently, many of whom went on to have significant achievements in the 18th and 19th centuries). We would not have our golfing Tiger Woods, nor the 3 octave vocal range of a Cleo Laine. In politics we would have missed Adam Clayton Powell and his son, and Edward M. Brooke, writer Samuel Coleridge Taylor, John James Audubon, and so many others. Since mixing races is possible by the Law of Nature, one can only wonder on what grounds someone can justify not allowing it since it has been successful for generations.