While random Google hits land on this blog at several day, more than any one subject, the hit is usually about Nikos Kazantzakis who has, written on his tombstone: I want nothing, I fear no one, I am free. I am particularly struck today, the day after the most material Holiday, that those words are wasted on so many people.
The day was to me, not the material things that were given back and forth by loving people for one another; often an expression of knowing what would please that loved one, but that was second to the joy of eating together and sharing ourselves. Sadly, in some families, members don't speak to one another or they bring up the worst of the past which can't be changed. Some argue for their points of view to be followed by everyone, and generally make the social occasion unpleasant Our dinner had all of the positives and none of the negatives as well as being a wonderful feast. We clearly experienced the 'spirit of Christmas' to its fullest, regardless of the varying and diverse religious beliefs of those present. To some, the day represents the birth of Christ; to others it is a day free from having to go to work. It can be spent making others happy by showing how much they mean to one another, and further demonstrate those feelings by their interactions and words.
Email and telephone were the major modes of communication for the day to me. to and from. Loved ones are continents (or often) many miles away, but a phone call has them touching us. The inner warmth engendered by being remembered by those far away, even fairly nearby, is unequaled to receiving the Christmas card that has printed Seasons Greetings and just a signature with no message. While that is a statement of being thought of, it costs a lot of money for the card and the stamps but has only the simple message that I was thought of.
The exception to that is when people send pictures of their children or something else very significant from their lives though, it too, can be done by email. Isn't the whole object to reach out and touch people in any way that is meaningful?
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
MERRY CHRISTMAS: A DAY TO REJOICE FOR LOTS OF REASONS
A HealthCare bill passed the senate. It is a far cry from its ultimate form, no doubt, but it's a start. Hopefully some veto power might calm down the sneaky little things people put in at the last minute (or, if we are lucky, left out), selfishly for their own needs. However, there are many other reasons to rejoice today.
It's Christmas! That means the worst of the season is over. Solstice has come and gone. We are now moving towards longer days. People will stand in line to return all the gifts they, or someone, didn't want in the first place. What a silly tradition...give something even if you haven't the foggiest what they might need or want even if you haven't seen them for a long time and know little of their current lives. Some will return gifts just to find what you spent on them as though that satisfies their sense of worth to you. Others will keep the gift and pass it onto some other poor soul next year. Some will return the gift and take the cash which is what they really needed in the first place.
I've already stopped exchanging gifts with people I haven't seen for over a year...even family. Fortunately none of them are in need or I would send money, if asked and needed. Shopping has never been a passion and we now can rejoice in online shopping and gift cards. Ah, life is so much easier that way. I remember having to wrap 150 Leechee nuts separately, for my boss to give to his wife who shakes packages, the family custom being to guess the contents. Thank 'Whomever' that those days are over!!!
Regardless of our religious beliefs, we are all stuck with the merchandising that is now starting earlier and earlier. July seems not too early for stores to expect you to begin thinking AND SPENDING. Children don't know what it is all about other than it is a time that gifts are to be received and you can ask a fat old man in a red suit for what you want. Does any of this have to do with Christ? In fact, what has Hanukkah have to do with religion? Not anything, so I am told.
However, we rejoice because we are still believed to be the richest country in the world and have food, clothing, shelter, toilets that flush, lights that go on with a click, and heat in our insulated houses...unless we are the unlucky ones who are poor and homeless, starving in a land invisible to most politicians...at least the ones who most obstruct fixing it.
Dare we hope 2010 will be a world improvement?
It's Christmas! That means the worst of the season is over. Solstice has come and gone. We are now moving towards longer days. People will stand in line to return all the gifts they, or someone, didn't want in the first place. What a silly tradition...give something even if you haven't the foggiest what they might need or want even if you haven't seen them for a long time and know little of their current lives. Some will return gifts just to find what you spent on them as though that satisfies their sense of worth to you. Others will keep the gift and pass it onto some other poor soul next year. Some will return the gift and take the cash which is what they really needed in the first place.
I've already stopped exchanging gifts with people I haven't seen for over a year...even family. Fortunately none of them are in need or I would send money, if asked and needed. Shopping has never been a passion and we now can rejoice in online shopping and gift cards. Ah, life is so much easier that way. I remember having to wrap 150 Leechee nuts separately, for my boss to give to his wife who shakes packages, the family custom being to guess the contents. Thank 'Whomever' that those days are over!!!
Regardless of our religious beliefs, we are all stuck with the merchandising that is now starting earlier and earlier. July seems not too early for stores to expect you to begin thinking AND SPENDING. Children don't know what it is all about other than it is a time that gifts are to be received and you can ask a fat old man in a red suit for what you want. Does any of this have to do with Christ? In fact, what has Hanukkah have to do with religion? Not anything, so I am told.
However, we rejoice because we are still believed to be the richest country in the world and have food, clothing, shelter, toilets that flush, lights that go on with a click, and heat in our insulated houses...unless we are the unlucky ones who are poor and homeless, starving in a land invisible to most politicians...at least the ones who most obstruct fixing it.
Dare we hope 2010 will be a world improvement?
Thursday, December 24, 2009
WHERE THERE IS A WILL, EVENTUALLY THERE IS A WAY
Today I listened to a radio program on which a man involved as a Locksport competitor spoke. It is fascinating to hear both sides of the argument about whether this sport should be banned. Actually both sides were presented by law enforcement and security people. The beat cops think it is a terrible thing because it can be abused (forgetting that the instructions for picking locks are already on the Internet through YouTube). The Security people like the idea because they can test their equipment before installing it. It is said that lock picking is as old as locks and I like to think of the locks on chastity belts as having enhanced the art and developed some tools for it. Certainly the motivation was there. For more on this sport, click here and here.
Hackers in Israel are having a lot of fun challenging copyright programs to stop them. The latest is that one (known as Labba) claims to have found a way to be able to take anything off Kindle and place it on other media as a pdf file. It is the latest in a series of Digital Rights Management hacks, the most famous being the reverse engineering of iTunes. These stories of hacking remind me of Willie Sutton. Most of you probably aren't old enough to remember him. Click here. Read more....
Hackers in Israel are having a lot of fun challenging copyright programs to stop them. The latest is that one (known as Labba) claims to have found a way to be able to take anything off Kindle and place it on other media as a pdf file. It is the latest in a series of Digital Rights Management hacks, the most famous being the reverse engineering of iTunes. These stories of hacking remind me of Willie Sutton. Most of you probably aren't old enough to remember him. Click here. Read more....
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
REGARDLESS OF THE CONSTITUTION, YOU MUST DO IT 'THEIR' WAY
What is the new nonsense about punishing females in the service if they become pregnant? Just how out of tune have out military leaders become. Isn't that pretty hypocritical? Should service people fight all their procreative, sexual urges, need for an endorphin release, but, failing birth control methods working, not have the same protection of abortion...an American right for which they are fighting but that is not available to them? 
It was always my impression that you are bound to those aspects of the agreement or contract which you signed (informed consent) when you joined the service. Can the Armed Forces just change the rules in midstream, at whim?
Kathryn Joyce write in Religion Dispatches. Posted December 21, 2009: "Thanks to anti-abortion forces in Congress and other culture warriors, female soldiers are not protected by the Constitution they defend." Apparently there is a ruling that there should be no sex in a war zone. However, that seems not to have stopped rape. The double standard rolls without even slowing down and women have to fight to keep from being seen as weak.
For the complete Joyce article, click here.
It was always my impression that you are bound to those aspects of the agreement or contract which you signed (informed consent) when you joined the service. Can the Armed Forces just change the rules in midstream, at whim?
Kathryn Joyce write in Religion Dispatches. Posted December 21, 2009: "Thanks to anti-abortion forces in Congress and other culture warriors, female soldiers are not protected by the Constitution they defend." Apparently there is a ruling that there should be no sex in a war zone. However, that seems not to have stopped rape. The double standard rolls without even slowing down and women have to fight to keep from being seen as weak.
For the complete Joyce article, click here.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
LIAR'S NOSES DON'T GROW LONGER
For months now I have been amused when politician's appear on video saying they never said something or other when more video of them is then shown in which they are saying that which they said they did not say in their own words and clearly documented speeches. Yet, nothing seems to happen about their being outed for their lies. What has happened to our people. Have we all been lied to so much that we helplessly vote the liars back into office if we like the lies they tell? It certainly seems so.
Someone sent me a list of stocks of health insurance companies and how they have risen recently. Here's a quick breakdown of major health insurance company stock performance from Oct. 27 to Friday's market close:
Coventry Health Care, Inc. is up 31.6 percent;
CIGNA Corp. is up 29.1 percent;
Aetna Inc. is up 27.1 percent;
WellPoint, Inc. is up 26.6 percent;
UnitedHealth Group Inc. is up 20.5 percent;
And Humana Inc. is up 13.6 percent.
Perhaps I should instantly be ashamed that I assume they intend to continue functioning in the monopolistic fashion in which they have been bleeding the American taxpayers of lots of money for limited service. Is it possible that anyone who voted out the public option can be voted back into office? Unfortunately, voters really seem to be that gullible and probably will believe just as they believe the birthers and others with ridiculous notions that persist in the face of reality.
Someone sent me a list of stocks of health insurance companies and how they have risen recently. Here's a quick breakdown of major health insurance company stock performance from Oct. 27 to Friday's market close:
Coventry Health Care, Inc. is up 31.6 percent;
CIGNA Corp. is up 29.1 percent;
Aetna Inc. is up 27.1 percent;
WellPoint, Inc. is up 26.6 percent;
UnitedHealth Group Inc. is up 20.5 percent;
And Humana Inc. is up 13.6 percent.
Perhaps I should instantly be ashamed that I assume they intend to continue functioning in the monopolistic fashion in which they have been bleeding the American taxpayers of lots of money for limited service. Is it possible that anyone who voted out the public option can be voted back into office? Unfortunately, voters really seem to be that gullible and probably will believe just as they believe the birthers and others with ridiculous notions that persist in the face of reality.
Monday, December 21, 2009
GREATER BOSTON IS ASSURED OF A 2009 WHITE CHRISTMAS
A few months ago I quoted the Jewish saying, 'You can't control the wind but you can set your sails." Well today it became apparent once again that we can't control the weather, either. Click here. Fortunately, lucky for us, we were on the tail end of this receiving line and fared the better for it. The snow was light, dry, and fairly easily cleaned out of the way.
Not so for those who were south of us, however. From New Jersey on south through Washington, those not used to snow to any appreciable depth never know what to do with it and, least of all, drive in it. I recall being in Quebec City a few years ago and seeing snow piled more than a story high on either side of the road. It brings home that people can learn to do deal with almost anything when they are forced to live with it year after year. Necessity forces people to adapt and survive. Those who can't, move to Florida and live with alligators and bugs for the joy of being exposed to the sun and risk cancer or lathering themselves all day with sun block. Otherwise they are doomed to stay indoors all day with the AC turned on full blast.
It is hard for me to imagine how one can really miss snow though a Georgia friend of mine writes how he wishes they would get some cooler weather and snow. I guess it proves the grass is always greener in the other person's yard. However, a wise patient of mine once asked, "Yes, but are you willing to do what it takes to keep it green?" That was a very profound question because we so rarely think that far.
Not so for those who were south of us, however. From New Jersey on south through Washington, those not used to snow to any appreciable depth never know what to do with it and, least of all, drive in it. I recall being in Quebec City a few years ago and seeing snow piled more than a story high on either side of the road. It brings home that people can learn to do deal with almost anything when they are forced to live with it year after year. Necessity forces people to adapt and survive. Those who can't, move to Florida and live with alligators and bugs for the joy of being exposed to the sun and risk cancer or lathering themselves all day with sun block. Otherwise they are doomed to stay indoors all day with the AC turned on full blast.
It is hard for me to imagine how one can really miss snow though a Georgia friend of mine writes how he wishes they would get some cooler weather and snow. I guess it proves the grass is always greener in the other person's yard. However, a wise patient of mine once asked, "Yes, but are you willing to do what it takes to keep it green?" That was a very profound question because we so rarely think that far.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
DESTINED TO BE PUZZLED
Our local TV News channels must be part of a monopoly or somehow get together to prevent the rest of us from hearing something other than inane chatter from anchors. It can't be the only thing in the world, even locally is the snowstorm , though that is what the producers would have us believe because nothing else is being broadcast. Hey guys, we are in New England in the middle of December...what else is it going to do? So many people were praying for a White Christmas I want to call some of them up and tell them to shovel me out since they prayed for the storm.
Those of us with cable can get news elsewhere. The network political shows on Sunday mornings that have been pre-empted so that we can hear whether the anchors had difficulty getting to their job and whether they got their doughnuts this morning. I for one do not like the being -in-their-living-room.
We lost electricity for a bit more than an hour. I found my battery operated radio and listened to all the AM and FM frequencies. Not one had a word about the weather. So much for anticipation of the need for weather emergencies to be reported...what else is a radio good for these days if you can't hear about the unusual that you can't get when the power is not available? Am I the only one who feels this way? Gr-r-r!
Those of us with cable can get news elsewhere. The network political shows on Sunday mornings that have been pre-empted so that we can hear whether the anchors had difficulty getting to their job and whether they got their doughnuts this morning. I for one do not like the being -in-their-living-room.
We lost electricity for a bit more than an hour. I found my battery operated radio and listened to all the AM and FM frequencies. Not one had a word about the weather. So much for anticipation of the need for weather emergencies to be reported...what else is a radio good for these days if you can't hear about the unusual that you can't get when the power is not available? Am I the only one who feels this way? Gr-r-r!
IGNORANCE AND 'BLACK MAGIC'
A Brazilian toddler has been found with 42 sewing needles inserted into his body, two in the left ventricle of his heart, now being airlifted for surgery. The article may be read in its entirety here.
Using a legal concept, that of intent to deceive and harm, clearly the case of the little boy is an example of both. However, when we are talking of marketing mislabeling, is not the concept the same.
To mislabel food products so that parents think they are giving their children healthy meals, in fact, the meals are potentially harmful, is akin to the tobacco industry claiming for so long that there was no danger in smoking filtered cigarettes. A survey in the UK found that 9 out of 10 mothers could not properly understand the food/nutrition labels on purchases made for their children. For the complete article on the poll done by the British Heart Foundation, click here.
Whatever has permitted our society regulators to have become so immoral, able to 'get away' with it for so long and with so much damage to humans. Our lobbyists will seemingly do and say anything to fool the public as will bankers, politicians, merchants, pharmaceutical companies, and so many other groups which even include religious leaders, police named to protect but who fail to do so when they become the predators themselves. Has it not become a very dangerous society and does one not find it self-incumbent to become one's own expert in safety, security, medicine, consumer-savvy, and are we not forced to live our lives in paranoid defensiveness?
Using a legal concept, that of intent to deceive and harm, clearly the case of the little boy is an example of both. However, when we are talking of marketing mislabeling, is not the concept the same.
To mislabel food products so that parents think they are giving their children healthy meals, in fact, the meals are potentially harmful, is akin to the tobacco industry claiming for so long that there was no danger in smoking filtered cigarettes. A survey in the UK found that 9 out of 10 mothers could not properly understand the food/nutrition labels on purchases made for their children. For the complete article on the poll done by the British Heart Foundation, click here.Whatever has permitted our society regulators to have become so immoral, able to 'get away' with it for so long and with so much damage to humans. Our lobbyists will seemingly do and say anything to fool the public as will bankers, politicians, merchants, pharmaceutical companies, and so many other groups which even include religious leaders, police named to protect but who fail to do so when they become the predators themselves. Has it not become a very dangerous society and does one not find it self-incumbent to become one's own expert in safety, security, medicine, consumer-savvy, and are we not forced to live our lives in paranoid defensiveness?
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