Screaming, our very sound
shatters the crystal of faith
our open mouths
creating sustenance



Part of a yet to be conceived rock opera about the last days of the US constitutional republic:

Infocontainment

Valerie Plame, Valerie Plame
The very fact that we all know your name
is a crime.
So, who's doing time?
American splendor
A pop carnavale
The greedy get famous
The poor rot in jail
The glitter and star light
is doing its job:
distract and divide while
they rape, kill and rob.

Is that a pimple on my face?
Oh, I'm such a big disgrace!
I can't keep it all together as I should.
The only explanation's I'm no good.
I want too much. I need to much.
I never learned to mind my p's and q's.
I didn't toe the line and pay my dues.
Now my dreams,
oozing day by day,
bleed out
with the atmosphere.
What am I even saying?
If the right people hear, surely
it's a treasonous crime.
And, unlike those Whitehouse lackeys
I may well end in a cell doing time.

(c) October 23, 2007 Laurie Corzett/libramoon



social fabric

Intricately woven
generation to generation
taking on the task



I was just watching a bit of a documentary on the worldwide energy issues. It was brought out in various ways that after the oil crisis of the late 70s ideas and inventions for alternative fuels were seriously taking off. Then, poof! Our energy policy become more tied to cheap oil (from Saudi Arabia) then ever. And the rest, in so many sad, sad ways, is history.




Chiron has been lately transiting my natal Mars. In all the other hubbub I hadn't really been thinking about this. However, I am very recently noticing a turning in my attitudes about anger. Memories have been coming up reframed, as well as mindscripts. I am seeing more accurately how in a misguided attempt to protect myself I have been holding grudges rather than allowing myself to see the current, updated situation in relationships. I also realized that a key turning point in my early life can be reframed and reconciled. At that time I made a conscious decision to hold my anger against myself in an attempt to gain control where I had none. That was a child's solution. It may be time to reexamine it in light of current life realities.

On a hunch I checked the ephemeris. Wouldn't you know it, that childhood incident occurred around the first time Chiron conjuncted my Mars.



My Samhainic Verse is based on my true life story, though since then I have been working with this myth in terms of the idea of balancing darkness and light. In fact, I am currently, internally, working on a novel in which the central character is a young woman named Persephone who has a pivotal reconciliation with her dying mother.

I've been seeing these dreams, to some extent, about the transition I am feeling from a more rational based to a more intuitive based way of living. In fact, I recently had a dream without water, but in which I left my packed suitcase in a room without a backward glance. I am feeling trepidation, and conflict over issues involving consensus reality versus personal integrity and finding my true vocation and worth. Of course, it's all very Neptunian, and hard to tell what is smoke, what is mirror, and what is revelation.




Dance with me
I'll hold you in ecstasy
whirling into a world so free
the music is all
Soul set free
while the music carries me
into places I need to see
without pain's deadly pall
Open my mind, my soul, my every desire
Keeping me warm in the hearth of internal fire
Dancing is magick, enthralled
in the music's grand call.



I don't know if there is an evil conspiracy, but there are certainly people who have power and work to keep it through manipulation of information.



I was watching a journalist on C-SPAN who wrote a series of articles about exploitation of workers in China. A caller brought up the view that it seemed as though the American people were being blamed for their desire for cheap goods. The caller's point was that we wouldn't need cheap Chinese goods if we had our old American manufacturing jobs with good pay and good products. It is not only others' cultures that are adversely affected by the pro-market globalization enterprise.



The US President seems like he has been treating his administration as a game, scoring points for his side by hook or by crook. This might be more charming if there were not so many deaths resulting from his strategies. All those soldiers destroyed as if mere game pieces. I guess, though, it's ok if you believe they are going to a better place. Like the suicide bombers are said to believe, so that all this bitterly painful destruction on Earth gets to better populate the respective Heavens. Who benefits? Well, who is getting all those 100s of billions of dollars we keep appropriating at the expense of our future and our sovereign state? Yet we were told that it would be a surgical operation, easy in and out. It would be over in a few months, and cost very little. We would be greeted as saviors and repaid in oil. We had the intelligence, the technology, and the high moral ground, remember? Way back in the winter of '03.



Anarchism is a theory of government, not economics. Anarchist communities can be created in small population groups of like-minded believers in individual-self-rule. The economics of the group could easily be handled by a kind of "green" capitalism, in which the costs to the commons is understand as an underlying precept. No one owns the common resources of our natural environment. Any use of such resources must be judicious, with a mind to renewability. These are not laws of government, but of enlightened self-interest which can be agreed upon by those who chose to interact for common benefit. This is not at all about redistribution, or distribution of resources. It is about the people who have the projects, do the work, use what they need, and give back what they take. More an ecosystem than a political one.



Having carefully considered my stance in the great political universe, I have for some time self-identified as a green libertarian. As little government as we can manage to actually create and maintain the social and physical infrastructure with an economic system based on pro-Earth, pro-commons principles.



"It is about, not becoming cogs or slaves to some ideal or structure, but each being free, secure, respected, supplying the fruits of their visions to an endeavor
in which all prosper, all have appropriate investment and return.
It's not even about compassion or empathy, and certainly not altruism."

This is not a liberal or socialist dream. It fully embraces the basic principles of capitalism (the "invisible hand" of the market whereby each person presents their goods/services that all may win-win) and libertarianism. It evokes the "commonwealth" as in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, etc. The idea is about free and equal individuals solving common problems together that each may include individual voice and concerns. It is the very basis of the US constitutional democracy, the underlying sentiment of the Declaration of Independence, the very juice that feeds the grandest possibilities and most personal dreams.



According to the 10th Amendment (which everyone seems to forget about), "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Apparently we are relinquishing the right to privacy with all the "Patriot" type laws and the inability of Congress to cope with claims of Executive privilege. Those of us who believe in personal choices, medical discretion, privacy and all the other values espoused and constitutionalized by the Founders need to show a lot more backbone than our so-called elected representatives and organize locally, state by state, world wide web, or wherever the fight goes. The 10th Amendment can be our friend.



I like Ron Paul for a lot of reasons. I totally love Kucinich, but his unfortunate appearance and mainstream view of him as nutball gives him a mighty uphill battle. Then, I think his talents really could be better used in the legislature or possibly a Cabinet position -- if only he could get his Department of Peace. Hillary seems to me to be just one of the boys playing their power games. Richardson's got some real pluses, but he comes off somewhat stumbling and confused on tv.

My support, as things seem now, goes to Obama. Not only is he electable, but he is a popularist, a humanist, a person who truly seems to embody what people said they wanted from Bush, someone who will work to bring people together around common goals. More importantly, he is an international man -- coming from a background in which he learned first-hand about the world outside the US in his formative years. He has family connections to Islam, which could make him less of an Us-against-Them threat to world leaders with whom we need to develop diplomacy. In fact, he gives the appearance of being a whole new type of American president to usher in a whole new type of American policy. I like that he immediately understood that inviting talks with leaders from unfriendly countries as a very early act in office is vitally important. All the posturing being done in our name has only increased ill-will and hostilities. I really like that he comes from community organizing roots and knows the real concerns of real people. I like that he is the father of two young girls, giving him the kind of compassion and hopes for the future that comes with parenthood. I like that he is so enthusiastic and charismatic and does that kind of Bill Clinton thing of making it about all of us. I am impressed by his organizing ability, his sleeves rolled-up demeanor, and his inspirational approach. Of course he's not perfect; nobody is. But he's a helluva lot better than what we often get as our voters' choice.



On Book TV today, discussing a book about Einstein, the author brought up that Einstein's time was one when there were all kinds of new thoughts permeating the ethos, a movement from classical thought to modern possibilities.



I find it interesting that big finance is having such a field day ripping off the low income people who are less likely to have the kinds of legal knowledge to adequately fight back. The result is, of course, a tanking economy for everyone but the power elite. There's the whole housing market mess, the vast amount of national and consumer debt, and the devastation of the infirm, such as these people having their small incomes stolen by the banks. Yet, it has become so much more difficult to live in this age without the bank account, so your checks can be cashed and your bills paid, or credit cards, which are required forms of payment or collateral everywhere you look.



Acetaminophen (did I spell that right, you know, Tylenol) is the gateway drug. They make little kids take it when they don't feel well. See kid, drugs will cure what ails you. Then, of course, there's the Ritalin, Prozac (and friends), and other anti-acting-up drugs. Not to mention the ubiquitous ads for pharmaceuticals.



space jam

NOW!
BAM!
POW!
I finally know who I am.
In the pie that's the sky
I'm made of the stuff of the jam.
Catch me in reason.
Coach me in rhyme.
I'll beat out my rhythm
in my own time.
Aware of the scat and the scam,
I'll wear a new vision,
revoke indecision,
take a resister's stand,
or just fall helter skelter
irresistibly into the jam.



You screaming, streaming being
jamming away into outer space
running full-tilt from the race
to conquest of non-quests
rather feeling the nonsequitor
as a golden, trojan door
for geeks, greaks, sneeky shieks,
seekers all.



touching skin to skin
is a thin garment, not nearly
akin
to the true warmth in
knowledge of kind
touching
mind to mind.

Caught up in the
interspace of jam
who I am
encompasses your
being as you are seeing
evanescent strands
exchanging ors for ands
all creating the divine.



Let's see. Mars went retro pretty much exactly opposing my Mercury. Over the past pretty much week I have been almost trance writing, bit by bit, a sci fi (visualized as) graphic novel. I can't recall ever having done this before. Mars is transiting my 7th House, which also houses my natal Uranus.



On Book TV recently there was a panel of "experts" speaking about the illegal immigration situation in the US, from various perspectives. I was not fully listening, engaged in conversation, but I noticed the speaker, who was coming from a perspective of legality and social consequences, using language indicating to me that her real agenda was, as so aptly summed up by the Mr./Mrs. Garrison character on "South Park": "Why can't we kill all the Mexicans?" Never mind that much of the US territory onto which southern neighbors move for jobs was once Mexico, or maybe that is exactly the point.

Again, on Book TV (and don't anyone try to tell me that television is rotting our minds, its all a matter of what you decide to watch), there was a discussion of historical evangelical movements. It was brought out that for many evangelicals today, the Islamo-Satanists are the biblical enemy, in the all out fight of God vs. Satan. That's why it doesn't matter that the Iraqis had nothing to do with attacking our World Trade Center -- they are all part of the same Satanic movement, as far as certain Christian leaders and their followers are concerned. It's not about freedom or terrorism or anything reasonable, rational or compassionate. It's about being a good, obedient child so Father won't need to punish us. It's about deflecting anger and hatred toward a definable evil of the other.



Whether or not killing a murderer is a deterrent to other would-be murderers is, to me, beside the point. There can be a vast variety of deterrents to socially unacceptable behavior, the most effective being actual social unacceptability. Giving the state that kind of unemotional power over our lives, not only bringing liability of a slippery slope in which actions punished by death could proliferate, is most certainly showing social acceptability of murder. Then, of course, there is the problem of uncertainty of guilt, prejudicial prosecution, lynch mob mentalities, and general condoning of violence for violence. I would be much more comfortable with a social outlook that took each case for itself, with a passion for justice and compassion to individual circumstance, rather than one based on faux scientific principles of cost/benefit analysis.



We could certainly define "soul" in ways that would indicate it as a fiction. The Behaviorists and other pseudo-scientific theorists have argued for a concrete, physically discernable reality. Of course, some can argue, depending on definition, that the soul is concrete and physically discernable.

Postulating "soul" to mean something other than consciousness, some non-physical, spiritual component of life, or that energy that is the force which is the spark of life, how can we imagine not having this, unless we were to believe ourselves unalive.



It seems to me that people basically start out with that openly aware spirituality as part of the general ambiance of being alive. Religion seems to be to some extent about herding, moving people together under a common rule of law, which could use distorted spiritual feelings/ideas as part of the rationale and ritual. Then, from this synthesis and antithesis, a person maturing beyond the fold may well learn to lose the binding of religious trappings and dogma, and find that spiritual ambiance has been right there all along.



Back in the early 60s, when I was in high school, I innocently wore a sweatshirt I liked to school. I knew girls couldn't wear pants, or skirts of other than a certain range of length, or a whole host of other requirements, but the sweatshirt, with a picture of a Peanuts character on the front and a quote from that subversive comic strip on the back seemed wholesome enough. The petty tyrant who was our assistant principal stopped me in the hall on my way to class and insisted I take off the shirt. I explained, more out of embarrassment that defiance, that I was not wearing ANYTHING underneath. He responded by sending me home for the day. How this improved anyone's education (except mine in handling authorities, perhaps) I have no idea.

A couple of years later, when my brother was in the same high school, the dress code was eliminated. My brother and his friends went to high school, boys and girls, generally in jeans and t-shirts. Their education did not suffer.

In these days of overreacting about everything, where children are expelled for accidentally having a butter knife in their backpack, or drawing a picture of a gun, or expressing anger in a less than mature verbal manner; or for that matter when shoes must be taken off at airports and baby bottles confiscated, a little sanity would be nice.



I have a character in my slowly forming novel in need of a fatal disease. She is a woman in her fifties, has known for maybe a year or so that she is dying and arranged for early retirement. She is slowly becoming more disabled. It is too late, or the disease is too incurable, for any hope of beating it. She is using alternative therapies for symptomatic relief. She has arranged to go to hospice at the end, but meanwhile is basically able to get around and be lucid needing little care.







Like you can't usually pick your relatives, you can't usually pick your co-workers. A bad work environment created by mean-spirited or out-of-control workers can be even worse than high school. It can put you in the double-bind of trying your best to adjust to impossible situations in order to be able to do a job you love and/or need. Employers ought to be aware that such situations are counter-productive, in a real and economically important way. I don't suppose people can be fired for these kinds of attitudes without clearly articulable illegal behaviors, but some kind of ameliorative supervision and support for harassed workers ought to be in place.



If I had the opportunity, I would make beautiful, on-target, highly persuasive television ads on a variety of high impact topics (as they arise in public discourse) to encourage open conversation, free thinking, and creative problem-solving, and pay to have them telecast on all the major networks several times a day during the height of the given topic's relevance.



Ah, the Cassandra syndrome (also enjoyed by that person in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who had figured it all out just as the planet was destroyed). I'd simplify and clarify the concept as best I could and keep sending it out wherever it might find reception, then take whatever feedback might ensue and do the whole thing again. In the process, I would hope to find fellow travelers who might prove inspirational, or whom I might inspire.



Breathe in the inspiration. Breathe out the pain and confusion. Breathe in the beauty and awe. Breathe out the calcifying crud of certainty.



Trying to stretch the food dollar while eating healthfully can be difficult. Food coops help. Doing as much as possible yourself helps -- using the healthiest basic ingredients, and still doing your price comparison thing for what you do buy. However the comparison is dollar per healthy ingredient (two-pronged test) rather than just dollar value. Also, you might consider in general eating lower off the food chain, if you have the resources add to your larder with home gardening, if appropriate do a little neighbor to neighbor bartering. As an added benefit, cooking, gardening and learning about nutrition are excellent activities to share with kids.



Happiness is not lost, though we often are. We look for it in all the wrong places, when it was just there in the peaceful places so quiet we forgot.



Not only are illegal immigrants being paid for work performed, but they are often paid wages so low that US citizens would not be able to live on them. Because the cost of living is lower (along with the general lifestyle) in Mexico, it works out for them. Basically, though, it is the employer who is making out by getting the benefit of cheaper labor, much like those employers who deport jobs to India and other countries, or who buy cheap goods from China (despite their poisons). However, the Mexicans are able to do the jobs that can't be exported. If we were truly concerned, we would make sure our governments signed and observed trade agreements that were of benefit to the workers in all countries concerned. If we were all getting decent pay for decent work, it wouldn't matter so much which country it was being done in. Further, many illegal workers sacrifice the tax money taken out of their paychecks because they don't want to file for refunds and perhaps be found out. As for their healthcare and education, that is to our benefit to keep up the general health and education levels for everyone here thus promoting generally healthy living. As to what the Bible says, or how it is interpreted, we all know that any devil can take any scripture to make his own less than sterling point.



Don't worry, we have plenty of homegrown killers (not to mention "terrorists") even if we could manage to keep our borders secured.



Throw away your tv? Just what we need: more junk pollution. No need to throw the box to the landfill. Watch what you like, when you like, then unplug.



The majority of people with or without mental illness (and in a lot of ways the majority of the people might well be considered mentally ill depending on your definitions) don't commit violent crimes. The ones who do generally have a reason that could have been noticed -- not by keeping them under any kind of surveillance, but simply by promoting an environment of people who care. I have read some very intriguing articles by mental health researchers indicating that the best treatment for many of these disorders is not drugs or surveillance or years of treatment dependency, but the resiliency that comes from meaningful relationships, even if those relationships are with caring professionals.



Have you noticed how it is the Republicans who are constantly beating the "Hillary" drum -- insisting she will be the candidate to beat, trying to turn it into a self-fulfilling prophecy because they already have the talking points mapped out?

Clinton machine? Afraid? Can you say "straw man"? Can you say: wtf???? I never heard of anyone anywhere any time who had any fear of the big bad Clinton. Maybe you are having a projected paranoid fantasy? Or maybe you are merely insularly misinformed? As to handing down a dynasty father to son ... I have no interest in voting for Hillary Clinton for plenty of reasons having nothing to do with the Republican talking points. My problem with the Republicans, by the way, is that I can't find any actual Republican candidates (except maybe Ron Paul) who actually stand for the old-fashioned, conservative Republican values, like states rights, and free market capitalism (as opposed to corporate fascism) or liberty generally.



In a lot of ways, especially fiscal, Bill Clinton (and most likely Hillary as well) is a "conservative ideologue" -- which did not stop me from voting for him twice, for other reasons, and because to some extent I agree with conservative fiscal policy. (I actually agree with old school conservative fiscal policy, and a lot else, but I digress.) I don't agree with the whole PNAC take over the world thing they're into. I don't agree with the fearmongering tactics. I don't agree with their analysis of the Social Security system.

There is no need to "fix" Social Security. The problem here is not in the program, but in the demographics. The real concern would be the lack of labor force in comparison to retirees leaving too few people to take up the work that will need to be done, especially in light of the needs of the aging, retired population for services, and thus also lowering the tax base. As many people are indeed more able to work
for longer years, the rationale for raising the retirement age would be to keep more people in the workforce doing the work. However, this could also be accomplished by immigration policy to bring in more younger workers.

My big peeve about the Social Security system is the cap on income eligible for payroll taxation. If we took the tax all the way to the last dollar, there would be plenty available to seriously lower the percentage of taxation, taking more of the burden off of the lower paid workers.

If the cap were completely removed, and the percentage of earnings were taken up to the last dollar, or even if there were some kind of donut hole for some predetermined wage level, the percentage taken from each would be much lower. Thus, the self-employed person who know has to cover both the employer and employee taxes might well end up paying significantly less in payroll taxes.



It is easier to lead in the direction that you would naturally be heading.



Good parents are attached to their kids for life in a kind of symbiotic love tie. It's the only relationship that can't truly be severed



I am convinced that the only way to truly move on from addictive behavior is to find something so much more important that the object of addiction becomes meaningless.



Something about lighting a candle to send forth a prayer of peace rather then cursing in the dark? May candles light candles throughout the land creating a brilliant chain of peace.

a thousand lights of peace may bloom
and then a billion more
moving our hearts/minds/souls into
a happier healthier wiser world



Sure kids can be depressed, but is that any reason to muck around with their fragile developing psyches with drugs that we do not even really know how or if they work? If a child is exhibiting symptoms that are interfering with their lives, perhaps they could benefit from a truly caring adult with whom they can share and work out their concerns. In general, I think it is criminal to force young children, biologically designed to be moving and learning kinetically, to sit for hours without appropriate exercise, which could be as simple as dancing around for a few minutes between lectures. There is also the pervasive problem of too much sugar in our youngsters' diets making them prone to sugar crashes, which are in fact physical depression. What kind of society bemoans the use of recreational chemical self-medication to the point of imprisoning a large percentage of the population, but insists our children's behavior be regulated chemically because we don't want to take the time to deal with their actual situations one on one?



I recently read an article pointing out that drs often do not take full consideration of the miseries of side effects to the drugs they prescribe. In general, I would think it best to take as little as will be reasonably effective, and work to ameliorate symptoms with alternative/complementary therapies such as meditation, rhythmic exercise, appropriate nutrition (some foods are natural mood stabilizers), self-help groups, etc.



Dancing is a way to a natural high, in a very physical, neurological sense. It is a spiritual tradition from the beginning of human spiritual traditions, a very direct moving meditation, a simple while profound means to expel or expand emotional energy, and a great way to exercise.



Sounds like your witch had a lot to learn from her spiritual path, if she ever would. Being that kind of disorganized, neurotic, somewhat desperate type of person is not derived from asserted religious traditions, nor gender, ethnic background or any of that. It is more likely derived from a dysfunctional homelife or other problems in gaining maturity. A lot of kids who have resentments against their mainstream religion parents seem to like to assert a belief in witchcraft or other minority religions. However, that doesn't mean they actually know very much about their chosen tradition.



This never was a war in any classic or non-Dumptyian sense (as in Humpty Dumpty in "Alice" who insisted a word meant exactly what he said it meant, also see "Torture"). It was an invasion of a sovereign on flimsy, manufactured and manipulated "evidence" and occupation to inflame disruption. There are motives of oil and permanent military bases in the Middle East, but mostly vast profits to be made off the backs of ordinary Americans for quasi-military and corrupt reconstruction operations. There's also that thing of hyping the amorphic, easily malleable, and probably ever-lasting "war on terror," as if terror, a mental state, is a thing to make war on. Someone on another group asked if others thought that there is an evil conspiracy at the top manipulating information to maintain and increase power. I'm not so sure it is that cut and dried, but those who are in positions of power don't seem to have any real interest in what is right or in the interests of the rest of us. They do manipulate information, and fog up the facts with factoids and talking points. They insist on all kinds of crazy powers because they need to save us from terrorist plots, when the 9/11 warning was right there, given to the President and his associates before the fact, but they refused to act. Sometimes I think that it was allowed to happen because it served so many interests so well. They are doing their best to turn America into a police state, Iraq into a failed state, Iran into a puppet state, and Israel into the state of end-day prophecies. Don't worry, though, China will be ready to take charge as the big colonial empire soon.



There is nothing insane about impeachment. It is a constitutional means to deal with leaders who think they are above the Constitution. As to the ufo thing, there's quite a lot out there that has not been identified, including quite a lot of illegal activities by the current Executive Branch. I know, he has that unfortunate elfishness and people like to make fun of Kucinich, but he speaks a lot more clearly, accurately, and sanely than most of the candidates.



Religious beliefs are like opinions. We are each entitled to our own, and each entitled to change them. Personally, I am a polytheist. I believe all the beliefs are valid, depending on where you hold your attention. Church, however, is not so much about belief as community. We come together in community to worship in common structured ritual with others whom we believe to share our beliefs.



I am a polytheist -- an infinite variety of godheads: no waiting, no wasting time in hating. Btw, I was just listening to a radio show featuring a physicist talking about why the universe has (our universe?) the necessary conditions for life. Well, duh, obviously the universe supports life, or there would be none. There doesn't have to be a why.



The world's a stage, as all theater people well know. Those who act out roles as artistry give more wonder and wisdom to us all.



The thing with life is that it is not one thing, but multiply layered. There is that layer we tend to think of as real which is anything but, media hype and social constructs. There is the layer of the natural world, which is where the more fundamental reality resides.



Nobody goes to heaven or hell, we have to create them.



The stories we are told and tell ourselves in fact create, to an overwhelming extent, what we perceive to be our reality.




We can all be inspirational leaders when we ourselves have opened our lives and purpose to inspiration. A lot of times people with excellent ideas need some help with organizing their project; and people organizing projects need the energy and ideas to expand their scope. An enlightened leader, I think, can compassionately embrace fears and limitations, transforming that energy into useful action.



A lot of people promote "instant run-off voting" so a vote for a less likely candidate wouldn't be wasted, encouraging a greater diversity in choice.




There is so much more to wealth
than money can ever buy or recompense.
Cold coins, lifeless bits of green,
unable to feed or shelter or inspire,
of so much less value
than autumn leaves or your excited smile.



unsettling images, memories, tests of faith and progress
walking the boundaries, spilling poison to dissuade
intrusion, to keep home what is left
yet, the stranger's call, so sweet, so inviting
hear the call to faith, to progress, to images, to
memories to be created
together, in a larger landscape



Life light, life dark, life twilight, life portrayed in rainbow array
Time may dance away in colors, receding firework displays
Mirrors into mirrors, infinite
reflection, memory, dream, intent



Wisdom, so common yet so fragile and rare,
peeking out of storybooks, popular lyrics,
offhand remarks.
Days go on and often with little thought
wound up in routine, dance steps to
elevator music, or music only recalled.
Then, on a silent walk to some unsung errand,
bursts of beatific choirs take flight,
circling like mythic birds of joy.



I saw Ralph Nader on C-SPAN earlier. He spoke, among other issues, of the hold on US politics and policies of corporate interests and their funding of candidate campaigns for Republicans and Democrats alike. It was part of a wonderful response to a disgruntled ex-fan over the whole 2000 election myth ("A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush.").



Why can't everyone get the medical care they need? Is it that some are deserving of health and others not? I got thinking about something said on C-SPAN by Ralph Nader when he was talking about his book on his family's traditions. In his home town, his father took him around one day to see all the community institutions. Each had been built by wealthy families or individuals who took pride in giving back to their community. This included the local hospital.

My thought continued, why does each community not have a full-service medical facility, created and paid for by that community, through grants, philanthropy, subscriptions, fund raisers, whatever each community comes up with. Costs could be kept low. Those who didn't have the money at all could be given individually designed payment plans, or get their costs offset by others' contributions. Each community clinic could be designed to provide the kinds of services needed by that community, with changes coming into play as community needs change.



Everyone getting health care would mean more of us would be generally healthier, thus cutting down tremendously on the cost for all. The real practices, however, that would save us all financially (in a variety of ways) as well as in all the benefits of a healthier population, would be do deemphasize the quick pharm fix and promote more "alternative" and lifestyle therapies, as well as better information to the general public about healthier alternatives and self-care.



We all have the cancer potential from which our immune systems, when working well, protects us. In fact, we all have vast numbers of potentially disease-causing agents in and around us all the time. Building our immune system is not just about good nutrition and avoiding toxins. The biggest enemy of our immune system is chronic, untreated stress. Of course we cannot (nor would we really want to) eliminate stress from our lives. We can treat the stress with relaxation techniques, appropriate exercise, and enjoyable activities that get our hearts, heads and minds moving.



I was having a conversation this evening about the mindset of some religious fundamentalists, very like that of abused children. This makes sense, because many of them have been through that experience, needing desperately to figure out how to please the Father to avoid perhaps life-threatening, certainly painful, punishment. Counter-intuitively (or maybe not), abused kids tend to identify strongly with the abuser, defend him/her, believe (and exonerate) the punishment was merited by the abusee's bad behavior, or sins of omission or commission. A common relief strategy is to, while striving to live up to impossible standards, throw blame and a need for retribution onto others whom they see as not following the prescribed behaviors.

This conversation was instigated by a Book TV talk about historical evangelical movements. The author/lecturer, explaining the popularity of non-religious-right Rudy Giuliani, said that there is more concern to defeat the Islamo-Satanists than to have a pro-life President. The war against Islam is very seriously a religious war, so secular arguments fall on deaf ears.



"Conservatism" used to mean: conserving natural resources, fiscal responsibility, following fundamental principles of fairness and good sense, working to build up value over time through attention to detail and creating goodwill, staying out of others' fights, keeping violence as a very last resort, minding one's own business, and respecting the rights and self-expression of others.



If a tree falls in a forest, it physically makes a sound. All the forest creatures could here it. Postulating a forest without creatures, just a falling tree, it would still make a sound. Soundwaves circulate possibly forever.