Reflecting On Life

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

2011-11-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

I really don't have any particular thing to blog about today, so I thought I would share some of the graphics I have accumulated to use on Facebook. Facebook is different than a blogging site in that one basically can only post a link to a longer post, put up a few lines or use a graphic. I have found that graphics seem to have the most impact and stir the most response, so I am constantly searching for them. Hence, I have a bunch downloaded. Here are just a few.

I have tons more, but that's enough for now. Many I haven't even posted yet on Facebook.

Where Are The Jobs? - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

2011-10-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

Trolling Blogster

2010-07-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

What is "insane troll logic"? Well, according to the website tvtrobes, "It's not just insane or stupid! It's a very exclusive flavor of stupid."

As the people on tvtrobes say, "It's the kind of stupidity that makes you stop and replay it in your mind because you didn't know anyone could be THAT WRONG!

It's the kind of logic that just can't be argued with, not because it's right, but because the insane troll is so demented, so lost in his own insanity, that any attempts to correct him will be met with more gibberish."

As the graphic illustrates, one of trollers' favorite words is "hypocrite." You're a hypocrite, for instance, if you believe in God and also believe that all people should be treated with respect.

It's kind of like saying that Stevie Wonder is blind; Stevie Wonder is a great singer. Therefore, all blind people are great singers. No rhyme or reason to their logic.

Here on Blogster insane trolls abound. However, the king and queen are The Whipster and Joey with the guy who can't seem to get out of a "rut" running a close second. Don't take that as a compliment; but with your demented logic, you probably will anyway.

Getting Work Done | MakeUseOf.com

2010-07-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

Getting Work Done | MakeUseOf.com

Wake Up, Middle Class Republicans

2010-01-30T16:13:00.000-08:00

"If You Want Hard Times, Just Vote For A Republican, And I Guarantee You Will Get Them."

(A quote that my father, one of the most astute political minds that I ever knew, drilled into our heads, admonishing us to remember it long after he was gone.)

This graph shows the percentage of the population per income groups $10,000 increments apart, except for the furthest two right columns which are separated by increments of $50,000

(This graph was prepared based on a 2006 United States Census Bureau Economical Survey. The figures remain fairly consistent today, however, with only very slight variations.)

According to this same survey prepared by the United States Census Bureau , only 1.93 per cent of all households have an income that exceeds $250k. Even if we consider all those households with incomes of $100,000 or more, we are still only looking at slightly more than 5% of the households in the United States. Today, an income of $100,000 does NOT place one in a wealthy category anyway--not by a long shot.

The primary agenda of the Republican Party is--and always has been--to represent the self-interests of the very wealthy and big business, their primary sources of money for campaigns.

That translates into as little governmental control as the Republican Party can either prevent or legislate out of existence. It has absolutely nothing to do with protecting anyone's first amendment rights. It is about accumulating wealth for the very rich and that is all it has ever been. In fact, today's Republican Party is nothing more than a mirrored reflection of the Democratic Party. If the Democratic Party says, "white," the Republican Party automatically responds "black."

They have no solutions for our many, many problems. What ONE idea has the Republican Party set forth to solve the health crisis that is draining our wealth and increasing our national debt every hour? What ONE idea has the Republican Party set forth to prevent another crisis on Wall Street?

The Republican Party would step on anyone's rights, steal his lifelong savings, encourage outsourcing of our businesses, let inflation run rampant, or sit on their hands when depression hits---and they have---time and again in America's history.

Now, lets talk about moral issues for a moment, considering such matters as abortion, gay rights, gambling, drinking, etc. One of the things that I read all the time on personal websites is that Obama is trampling on the individual's rights. Well, what about the rights of those who choose abortion, an alternative life style, or who like to gamble or drink? Does the First Amendment not apply to them as well?

We may or may not agree with their decisions, but is it our place to legislate those rights away from them? And I do not buy the religious argument. Those who follow the teachings of Jesus are well aware that he only issued two commandments. One was to love God with all one's heart and soul; the second was to love a person's neighbor as himself.

The only party that has EVER made any effort to protect the rights of the majority is the Democratic Party. So, why in the world are you a Republican if you do not earn more than 250k per year???

As for the argument that Obama is a liar, how can I possibly take that seriously from people who openly admit to admiring Glenn Beck, who couldn't tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth if I "set his pants on fire."

The man is not only a pathological liar; he is also a danger to us all because he constantly preaches hatred and encourages violence against our neighbors and our government. How, in the end, is he really any different from Al Quada?

Wake up, Middle Class Republican Americans. The Republican Party is using you only for your votes. They have absolutely NO intention of every doing anything that will make your life better; in fact, they will make it worse because every tax break and every piece of legislation will be exclusively for the benefit of big business and the exclusively wealthy Americans--not for you!

Figures courtesy of the United States Census Bureau , 2006

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

2010-01-29T06:54:00.000-08:00

This is a follow-up to the post "A Failure In The Grand Experiment In Democracy"

The demise of the feudal system in Europe can be attributed to three events: the black death, the invention of the printing press and the Reformation movement under Martin Luther.

The Black Death (black plague, bubonic plague) was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, but this view has recently been challenged. Usually thought to have started in Central Asia, it had reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by fleas residing on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout theMediterranean and Europe. The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400. This created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, resulting in a larger number of deaths, until it left Europe in the 19th century.

One of the significant repercussions of the black death was that it killed just as many Lords of the Manor as it did peasants. Almost overnight, peasants found themselves the beneficiaries of the towns within a Lordship in which they lived as well as the farmland surrounding the manor. When the Lord of the Manor perished, the people's business in the towns--the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, if you will--suddenly found themselves owners of their proprietorship. Farmers struggling on small acreages enjoyed the same. As more died, those who survived took their places or expanded their holdings. Towns flourished and farmers prospered, supplying wheat, barley, rye and cotton to the merchants to ply their trades.

The people, however, remained, for the most part illiterate, still tied strongly to the Catholic Church. The church had been hard hit, as many of its friars and priests in the monasteries died while ministering to the sick. The church, though wealthy itself and now the owner of huge tracts of land, continued to demand money from the peasants, promising them favor with God if they gave tribulation to Rome.

It had been the role of the priests and friars, among the few of the civilization of the time who could read and write, to transcribe the Bible and other manuscripts of the church as the hierarchy saw fit. They then passed on to the peasants the dictates of the church. After the plague eliminated so many of them, scribes copied and translated the Bible into various languages.

The invention of the printing press by the German Gutenberg was going to have a profound effect on that as well as every other aspect of life in the Middle Ages.

Previously, books were copied mainly in monasteries, or (from the 13th century) in commercial scriptoria, where scribes wrote them out by hand. Books were therefore a scarce resource. While it might take someone a year or more to hand copy a Bible, with the Gutenberg press it was possible to create several hundred copies a year, with two or three people that could read, and a few people to support the effort. Each sheet still had to be fed manually, which limited the reproduction speed, and the type had to be set manually for each page, which limited the number of different pages created per day. Books produced in this period, between the first work of Johann Gutenberg and the year 1500, are collectively referred to as incunabula.

The supplantation of hand copied manuscripts with printed works was not received with unanimous encomium. Not only did the papal court contemplate making printing presses an industry requiring a license from the Catholic Church (an idea rejected in the end), but as early as in the 15th century some nobles refused to have printed books in their libraries to sully their valuable handcopied manuscripts. Similar resistance was later encountered in much of the Islamic world, where calligraphic traditions were extremely important, and also in the Far East.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite this resistance, Gutenberg's printing press spread rapidly across Europe. Within thirty years of its invention in 1453, towns from Hungary to Spain, and from Italy to Britain had functional printing presses. It has been theorized that this incredibly rapid expansion shows not only a higher level of industry (fueled by the high-quality European paper mills that had been opening over the previous century) than expected, but also a significantly higher level of literacy than has often been estimated.

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The first printing press in a Muslim territory opened in Andalusia (Muslim Spain) in the 1480s. This printing press was run by a family of Jewish merchants who printed texts with the Hebrew script. After the reconquista in the 1490s, the press was moved from Granada to Istanbul (a popular destination for thousands ofAndalusian Jews).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Effects of printing on culture

The discovery and establishment of the printing of books with moveable type marks a paradigm shift in the way information was transferred in Europe. The impact of printing is comparable to the development of language, and the invention of the alphabet, as far as its effects on the society.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gutenberg's findings not only allowed a much broader audience to read Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible, it also helped spread Luther's other writings, greatly accelerating the pace of Protestant Reformation. They also led to the establishment of a community of scientists (previously scientists were mostly isolated) that could easily communicate their discoveries, bringing on thescientific revolution. Also, although early texts were printed in Latin, books were soon produced in common European vernacular, leading to the decline of the Latin language.

The Reformation began in October, 1517, when Luther protested a major abuse in the sale of indulgences in his Ninety - five Theses. These were translated into German, printed, and circulated throughout Germany, arousing a storm of protest against the sale of indulgences. When the sale of indulgences was seriously impaired, the papacy sought to silence Luther. He was first confronted at a meeting of his order held in Heidelberg on April 26, 1518, but he used the Heidelberg disputation to defend his theology and to make new converts. In August of 1518 Luther was summoned to Rome to answer charges of heresy, even though he had not taught contrary to any clearly defined medieval doctrines. Because Luther was unlikely to receive a fair trial in Rome, his prince, Frederick the Wise, intervened and asked the papacy to send representatives to deal with Luther in Germany. Meetings with Cardinal Cajetan in October, 1518, and Karl von Miltitz in January, 1519, failed to obtain a recantation from Luther, although he continued to treat the pope and his representatives with respect.

In July, 1519, at the Leipzig debate Luther questioned the authority of the papacy as well as the infallibility of church councils and insisted on the primacy of Scripture. This led his opponent, Johann Eck, to identify him with the fifteenth century Bohemian heretic, Jan Hus, in an effort to discredit Luther. After the debate Luther became considerably more outspoken and expressed his beliefs with increasing certainty. In 1520 he wrote three pamphlets of great significance.

Luther never viewed himself as the founder of a new church body, however. He devoted his life to reforming the church and restoring the Pauline doctrine of justification to the central position in Christian theology. In 1522, when his followers first began to use his name to identify themselves, he pleaded with them not to do this. He wrote: "Let us abolish all party names and call ourselves Christians, after him whose teaching we hold . . . I hold, together with the universal church, the one universal teaching of Christ, who is our only master." He died at Eisleben on February 18, 1546, while on a trip to arbitrate a dispute between two Lutheran nobles. He was buried in the Castle Church at Wittenberg.

Source(s):

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/luther.ht…

Though the old feudal system had died, the people were still in a feudal relationship with the ruler of the land, who was thought to be appointed by God; indeed, even God-like. One family arose, ruling Germany, Russia, Italy, England, the Scandinavian countries, and the smaller principalities of Europe. The various rulers were kings with complete autonomy, often imprisoning and beheading anyone who questioned their absolute power.

In the Eastern companies, the Muslim religion ruled the people through the church hierarchy. Church and government very much overlapped, as they continue to today. The government that angered the church soon found itself out of power.

to be continued

Travel: Places I Want To See Before I Die

2010-01-27T10:46:00.001-08:00

The Temple of The Golden Pavilon in Kyoto, Japan

Golden Pavilion Kyoto Japan: The Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) is literally covered in gold - gold leaf. The Golden Pavilion is World Heritage listed and surround by beautiful gardens.

Golden Pavilion is the popular name for one of the main buildings of a Buddhist Japanese temple in Kyoto Japan. The name Golden Pavilion comes from the Japanese term Kinkakuji, which literally means the temple of the Golden Pavilion. Deer Garden Temple is the formal name of the temple complex in which the Golden Pavilion is found.

Golden Pavilion - History

In the 1220’s it was the comfortable villa of Kintsune Saionji. Yoshimitsu, the 3rd Shogun of Ashikaga, who abdicated the throne in 1394.

After three years, he began to build Kitayamaden and he made a special effort to make it a breath-taking site. He indulged in his peaceful life in this serene setting. After Yoshimitsu’s death, Kitayamaden was made into a Zen temple in accordance with his will. All the buildings of those days came to ruin except Kinkaku. The garden, however, remains as it was in former days and can be enjoyed as it was hundreds of years ago. .

Golden Pavilion - Building

Kinkaku was formally called Shariden. The elegant, harmonious building consists of three types of architecture. The 1st floor is Shinden-zukuri, the palace style. It is named Ho-sui-in. The 2nd floor is Buke-zukuri, the style of the samurai house and is called Cho-on-do. The 3rd floor is Karayo style or Zen temple style. It is called Kukkyo-cho.Both the 2nd and 3rd floors are covered with gold-leaf on Japanese lacquer.

The roof, upon which the Chinese phoenix settles, is thatched with shingles.Recently, the coating of Japanese lacquer was found a little decayed and a new coating as well as gilding with gold-leaf, much thicker than the original ones, was given to the building and was completed in 1987. Furthermore, the beautiful painting on the ceiling and the statue of Yoshimitsu were restored, with utmost care, to their original splendour.

Golden Pavilion Points of interest

The name of the pond is Kyoko-chi (Mirror pond). The pond contains many large and small islands. Climbing a few steps, you stand at the edge of another small pond, An-min-taku. The small stone pagoda on the island is called Hakuja-no-tsuka (the mound in memory of the white snake).

Stone pagoda Golden Pavilion

The classic tea house is called Sekka-tei. In Sekka-tei there is a celebrated pillar made of a nandin. The house was restored in 1997. On the way to the exit of the temple, you will find the small Fudodo shrine where the stone Fudo-myoc (Acara) is enshrined as a guardian.

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/golden_pavilion.html

A Real-Life Story That Will Curl Your Toes

2010-01-26T16:53:00.000-08:00

I have just completed The Hunted , an account of the almost unbelievable struggles of Alex and Elena Konanykhin, a wealthy young Russian couple, newly married, who have everything stripped from them by the former KGB.

Brian Haig was contacted by the Konanykins after Alex read his novel, Kingmaker. He was impressed with Haig's account of modern Russia, feeling that he had got some things right. The couple wondered if Haig would be interested in using their life as an inspiration for a book.

Alex had written a non-fiction version of their life in Defiance, released in 1996; however, after Haig met with the couple, he knew he wanted to tell their story as well in a fictionalized version.

In his author's note, Haig states that this couple in real life "experienced fifteen years I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy--and I pray my worst enemy wouldn't wish upon me. "

Profit Magazine in 1996, in its review of Defiance, summarized the book thusly:

Imagine you are a teenage physics genius who quickly amasses a $300
million empire of real estate and banking ventures, has dozens of cars, six
hundred employees, several mansions and two hundred bodyguards—but you are
nonetheless kidnapped by those you trusted, threatened with torture and death,
and have your entire empire stolen from you one dark night of torture in Budapest. You escape with your life by racing through Eastern-block countries and flying to
New York on stashed-away passports—only to have the KGB and Russian Mafia
hell-bent on your hide and the U.S. government jailing you and conspiring to
serve you up into their clutches. All this before your 29th birthday.

That's what happened to Alex and Elena both in real life and in The Hunted. Granted asylum in the United States while living on a "rainy day' fund that Alex had stashed in the Bahamas, the couple are quickly on their way to making their first million in the United States.

Then, the unthinkable happens. The FBI, in a deal they cut with the Russians who want Alex back, revoke the couple's 'protected status' and jail them. Though Elena is finally released pending the outcome of a ruling by the INS, Alex remains imprisoned in some of America's worst hellholes.

Representing himself through much of the process, Konanykhin finally manages to convince an immigration judge of an alleged INS and KGB conspiracy and cover-up. Following the court's admonishment, the INS agreed to drop all charges and also pay $100,000..

The judge also ordered an investigation of the Justice Department. In separate actions, Konanykhine subsequently won multimillion dollar libel judgments against two Russian newspapers. A $100 million lawsuit against the Justice Department is pending, alleging perjury, fraud, torture and witness tampering by U.S government officers on behalf of the Russian Mafia.

I actually did not know until I finished the book and read the author's note in the back that this was a true story. I have to tell you--this book does not paint a pretty picture of what the INS and the Justice Department did to this couple.

I recommend this book highly.

Now, I can't wait to read Defiance.

Obama To Propose Freeze On Federal Spending

2010-01-26T07:53:00.000-08:00

According to two senior admininstration officials, President Obama will announce in his State of the Union address that he wants to freeze all non-discretionary federal spending for three years.

The proposed freeze, which could help position Obama in the political center by sharpening his credentials on fiscal discipline would reduce the deficit by $250 million dollars. Programs exempt include budgets of the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs, along with some international programs.

"We are at war, and we're going to make sure our troops are funded adequately," one of the senior officials said.

The officials refused to say which areas would be affected; however, they did state that within their departments, officials could elect to shift money around, adding to some while reducing others.

One of the areas the President could choose to cut is Medicare. However, the officials stated that Obama would prefer to start other places first.

Under the proposal, which would need to be approved by both houses of Congress, all federal discretionary spending would be frozen at its current level of $447 billion per year, It has already drawn fire on both sides of the aisle.

The plan could force the hand of Republicans, who have criticized President Obama on spending issues. Some already have indicated they could support it while others stated it does not go far enough.

Immediate Republican reaction was split, with some senior GOP aides saying the freeze is something they could support, while others said it did not go nearly far enough.

"Given Washington Democrats' unprecedented spending binge, this is like announcing you're going on a diet after winning a pie-eating contest," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Will the budget still double the debt over five years and triple it over 10? That's the bottom line."

The senior administration officials acknowledged that discretionary spending is only about one-sixth of the entire federal budget, and that much larger savings would come from cutting entitlement programs like Medicare, but the White House believes that cuts need to start somewhere.

"We're not here to tell you we've solved the deficit," said one of the senior officials, adding that the federal government has to go through the "very same process that families" across America have had to go through in their personal budgets.

The move will also spark a major debate within the president's own party, with senior Democrats already saying the cuts would be tough to swallow. A senior Senate Democratic aide said it will prompt a major fight after the Bush administration "underfunded domestic programs for so long."

"Why would we want to play into the Republicans' hands like this?" the senior Senate Democratic aide asked.

But it could also help Obama break ranks with an unpopular Democratic Congress. "Do I expect this to win us a lot of kudos on Capitol Hill? No," one of the senior administration officials said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/25/obama.spending.freeze/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

What Can We Do As Citizens To Help Our Country?

2010-01-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

Our country is in serious trouble right now. Everyone wants to point a finger at who is to blame.

Can we just forget about pointing fingers and talk about what we can do to fix our country?

First and foremost, we have to stop hating one another's political ideology. We have to say to ourselves that we are Americans first and political creatures secondly.

We ALL need to quit watching cable news channels and start reading and studying the issues more...that does NOT mean reading liberal or conservative posts; it means reading the least biased material we can find--at the library, on the internet, etc.

We need to study history. If we know anything, we know that history repeats itself. We need to read about the political agendas of every President in American history but especially those since the Civil War. It's right at our fingertips on our keyboard.

Everyone of us has some idea what we think brought us to this point. All of us need to make a list of things that we think contributed to this poor state of America. Then, we need to learn all we can about each of those. We may find our list will morph as we go.

Here's an example of what I mean. For many years, the United States was an isolationist country in terms of business and industry. How did past Presidents and Congress keep foreign goods that competing companies could ship here for less than an American company could make them from ruining the market? I know the answer. Do you?

I don't want to influence anyone's opinion by what I think the problems are or the solutions; but we need to forget about such things as the stimulus bill, etc. Those are things that have been done to try to fix the problem. Whether they have worked or failed is not the issue.

The issue is that we MUST identify what past administrations, both Democratic and Republican, did that have brought us to this point of high unemployment, two disastrous wars, loss of businesses overseas, rampant "Ponzi-like "schemes by investment bankers, gigantic commercial banks, rampaging medical costs, a huge deficit that is destroying the dollar, and that's just a partial list. I know we each have others we can add to it.

Next, we need to learn everything we can about that problem. As we learn, we will begin to see solutions to it. Finally, we need not to be afraid to contact the Congress and the President with what we think the problems are and what we think the solution is.

If it seems to daunting to some to study all the issues, then pick one or two and concentrate on those.

Forget that we have a Democratic President if you are an Independent or a Republican. Save that attitude for the voting booth. Let's work with who is in office and quit squabbling.

Can we do that for our posterity? I know I can and will. I hope you will also.

Places I Want To See Before I Die

2010-01-25T18:21:00.000-08:00

Ko Phi Phi is considered to be one of the most naturally beautiful islands in the world. The Phi Phi Islands are located in Thailand, between the large island of Phuket and the western Andaman Sea coast of the mainland.

The islands are administratively part of Krabi province. Ko Phi Phi Don meaning "island" in the Thai language) is the largest island of the group, and is the only island with permanent inhabitants, although the beaches of the second largest island, Ko Phi Phi Lee (or "Ko Phi Phi Leh"), are visited by many people as well. The rest of the islands in the group, including Bida Nok, Bida Noi, and Bamboo Island, are not much more than large limestone rocks jutting out of the sea.

Phi Phi Don was initially populated by Muslim fishermen during the late 1940s, and later became a coconut plantation. The Thai population of Phi Phi Don remains more than 80% Muslim. The actual population however, if counting laborers, especially from the north-east, from the mainland is much more Buddhist these days.

The islands came to worldwide prominence when Ko Phi Phi Leh was used as a location for the 2000 British-American film The Beach. This attracted criticism, with claims that the film company had damaged the island's environment,[1] an accusation the film's makers contest. The film's release was attributed to an increase in tourism to the islands. Phi Phi Leh also houses the 'Viking Cave', from which there is a thriving bird's nest soup industry.

Ko Phi Phi was devastated by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004, when nearly all of the island's infrastructure was destroyed. As of 2010[update] most, but not all, of this has been restored.[citation needed]

From archaeological discoveries, scientists think that the area was one of the oldest communities in Thailand dating back to the prehistoric period. It is now part of Hadnopparattara-Koh Phi Phi National Park, which is home to an abundance of corals and amazing marine life. There are limestone mountains with cliffs, caves and long white sandy beaches. The national park covers a total area of 242,437 Rai. Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Le are the largest and most well-known islands. Phi Phi Don is 28 sqm: 8 km in length and 3.5 km wide. Phi Phi Le is 6.6 km.

The name Phi Phi (pronounced ‘pee pee’) originates from Malay, the original name for the islands were ‘Pulao Pi ah Pi’. The name refers to the mangrove wood found there. They were incorporated into the national park in 1983.

Have I Got A Christmas Gift For You!!! - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

2009-12-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

Have I Got A Christmas Gift For You!!! - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

Should Tiger Appear On Oprah To Try To Salvage Credibility? - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

2009-12-07T23:25:00.000-08:00

Should Tiger Appear On Oprah To Try To Salvage Credibility? - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

Has Obama's First Year Been A Disappointment?

2009-12-04T10:54:00.000-08:00

Has Obama's first year in office been a big disappointment?

In all honesty, we were all so thankful to be out from under Bush, who was finally going back to Texas to get out his trusty chainsaw to cut down anything in sight and to dutifully carry out the trash for Laura, that we raised our hopes to sky high levels. Some went so far as to claim that we dared to look upon Obama as the next savior, possibly even able to 'walk on water'.

We have all had time now to let the glow of that magical night in the park in Chicago and that cold, crisp, glorious Inauguaration Day fade from our memories.

Instead, we hear many grousing that he's not all he was cracked up to be because he hasn't cured cancer, hasn't solved all our problems, hasn't put all of us back in work making twice what we previously made, and still hasn't freed gays to frolic openly at boot camp.

Where's the peace we were promised? Why are we sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan; where's the complete overhaul of the Federal government; where's my tiny car that purrs along on pure air; why is the smog still so thick that I can't breath; where's my single-payer health care?

And those are just the complaints from the liberals.

Conversely, the far right fringe spews forth hate, drenching the internet and conservative television programs with a steady barrage of venom that can only be described as childish at its best and as deliberate misinformation, lies, and threats at its worst. It infuriates them that Obama, with his intellect and control, ignores them, continuing to work quietly and carefully on his agenda.

Because he's not interested in bombing everyone in a turban, he must be a coward who is hell-bent on taking away their sub-machine playthings to keep them from attacking the government.

Like bullies on a playground, they keep up a steady barrage of intimidation tactics, calling him all manner of names--he's a Muslim, he's a Socialist, he's a Marxist, he's a Communist; he's Hitler come back to life. He dares to bow to kings and queens; America "bows" to no one!!

Well, I am happy to report that both sides are wildly, fantastically wrong.

As Slate's Jacob Weisberg rightly points out, Obama has had a very first good year; indeed, spectacular even, far better than most in major media acknowledge (but they will, they will). In fact, assuming health care passes, Obama will have accomplished more in his first year than any president in the history of the world, ever.

To quote from Mark Morford, SF Gate columnist:

"That might be an exaggeration. But I'm OK with that, because the basic idea is something that needs to be declared a bit more loudly. Nearly everything Bush tore down and decimated and humiliated to its very core, Obama has either restored, is in the process of restoring, or is set to restore. Even Afghanistan appears to have a coherent framework now (we shall see). And that's just the beginning.":

It hasn't been a steady stream of euphoria emanating from the oval office; the harsh realities of life have brought us back off Cloud Nine. We've forgotten what Obama said from the very beginning that things would get worse before they got better, that we would not agree with every decision he made, and that he would make mistakes.

Morford stated that he decided when Obama took office to keep a running tally of ' accomplishments; but, in his own words he couldn't keep up:

I had an ambitious idea, way back at the beginning of Obama's term, to keep a loose, running catalog of all his accomplishments, every announcement and policy shift, legislative act and executive order I could find that either reversed a toxic Bush agenda item or put into motion a progressive idea he'd mentioned during the campaign, everything from science to emissions, stem-cell research to women's rights. As the stories came across the wires, I'd grab the link and keep a master list. Just to see.

Ha. It didn't take long before I realized the utter futility of this plan. I simply could not keep up. There were too many, coming too quickly. What's more, many of the changes were not widely reported, were not shouted by the White House by a president seeking applause or a boost in poll numbers from a mal-educated, reactionary "base" who wouldn't be happy until every Planned Parenthood clinic was burned down and Jesus' face was on the dollar bill and the Indy 500 was declared a national holiday. For example.

The good news is, others took up this noble task, have tracked most of Obama's rather stunning, unsung achievements and policy nudges to date. And those changes are voluminous. Here's just one handy list, a quick rundown of about ()90 of Obama's more noteworthy accomplishments, right off the top. Can you read it and not be impressed? Or do you get stuck on those handful that you disagree with, personal hot buttons that negate and blinder everything else?Shame.But, here's even better news. That list is not a complete accomplishment, and Obama continues with reform. The Washington Post just reported, for example, that the Obama administration is now beginning to ban all lobbyists -- hundreds if not thousands of longtime influence peddlers from serving on federal advisory panels. Many people totally missed that because it didn't get much coverage.

All is not perfect. We are still invading Afghanistan, Wall Street is still filled with cheaters and crooks, DOMA still exists; but things are DEFINITELY not what they used to be.

And that is the best news of all.

Inspiration for this post came from: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/02/notes120209.DTL#ixzz0Yk9k2ITi

One Less Company.... - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

2009-10-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

One Less Company.... - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

2009-10-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

Send 40,000 Lobbyists to Afghanistan
by Kevin Spak

It doesn’t really matter how many troops Barack Obama decides to send to Afghanistan. Obama could send every man and woman he’s got into those mountains, he could call every veteran out of retirement, he could revoke Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and send recruiters to every gay club in San Francisco, and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. Afghanistan is screwed.

We’ve heard often now that the disputed election has changed the calculus in Afghanistan, that without a reliable, legitimate partner in the government, counterinsurgency tactics aren’t worth much.

But things looked bad even before Hamid Karzai rigged the vote so blatantly the OJ jury would have convicted him. It’s no secret that the Afghan government is among the most corrupt on the planet. Getting absolutely anything done in the country, up to and including, say, entering the airport, requires a bribe. The police are poorly paid, and often make deals with insurgents. People at the highest level of Karzai’s administration have been linked to Taliban drug runners—including his own brother.

No troop surge is going to change that. We need a different kind of surge, a kind America is uniquely qualified to provide. We’ll send lobbyists. We’ll send congressmen. Let the think tanks roll; what Afghanistan needs is our decades of experience in shady politics.

Afghanistan is new at this whole democracy thing. With our help, they can replace those bribes with campaign contributions and questionable real estate deals. Karzai can launch a vigorous investigation into his brother’s drug connections that costs millions and lasts until no one cares anymore. If we can turn the militants of Iraq into “concerned local citizens,” surely we can turn some of the Taliban—the smack-growing, money-hungry portion—into a special interest group.

Come on, Ted Stevens doesn’t have anything better to do. Tom DeLay’s done dancing. No one will notice if Charlie Rangel takes a month or two off. If there’s anyone who can make a dysfunctional, money-grubbing government look good, it’s America. And in between, maybe, just maybe, we can convince them to start providing some basic services or security for the Afghanis.

Because the Taliban isn’t so much running an insurgency as a competing government. It’s a brutal government made up of religious fanatics, but it actually gets things done, and a lot of Afghanis prefer that.

“I can't blame them,” one Wardak province judge told the Guardian last year. “A court case in the government system takes five years and many bribes. The Taliban will settle it in an afternoon.”

Until this government can at least pretend to give a damn about its people, the Taliban isn’t going anywhere, and sending more troops is a fool’s errand. We’re not fighting for freedom over there. We’re fighting for gangsters.

And they’re not even competent gangsters.

Columbine killer’s mom: ‘No inkling’ on son

2009-10-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

Columbine killer’s mom: ‘No inkling’ on son
Dylan Kliebold in a 1998 Yearbook Picture from
Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado

Mother’s anguish emerges in Oprah magazine essay on teen's suicide

DENVER - In the first detailed public remarks by any parent of the two Columbine killers, Dylan Klebold's mother says she had no idea her son was suicidal until she read his journals after the 1999 high school massacre.

Susan Klebold's essay in next month's issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, says she is still struggling to make sense of what happened when her son and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher in the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. Twenty-one people were injured before Klebold and Harris killed themselves.

"For the rest of my life, I will be haunted by the horror and anguish Dylan caused," she wrote. "I cannot look at a child in a grocery store or on the street without thinking about how my son's schoolmates spent the last moments of their lives. Dylan changed everything I believed about myself, about God, about family, and about love."

The killers' parents have repeatedly declined to talk about the massacre. They gave depositions in a lawsuit filed by families of the victims, but a judge in 2007 sealed them for 20 years after the lawsuit was settled out of court.

In her essay, Susan Klebold wrote that she didn't know her son was so disturbed.

"Dylan's participation in the massacre was impossible for me to accept until I began to connect it to his own death," she wrote in excerpts released by the magazine ahead of Tuesday's publication.

"Once I saw his journals, it was clear to me that Dylan entered the school with the intention of dying there. And so in order to understand what he might have been thinking, I started to learn all I could about suicide."

In a statement with the essay, Oprah Winfrey wrote that Susan Klebold has turned down repeated interview requests but finally agreed to write an essay for O. A spokeswoman for the magazine said Klebold was not paid for the essay, and there were no plans for her to appear on Winfrey's television show.

A spokeswoman for the Klebold family said there would be no further statements.

In the essay, Klebold said her son left early for school on the day of the shootings.

"Early on April 20, I was getting dressed for work when I heard Dylan bound down the stairs and open the front door. Wondering why he was in such a hurry when he could have slept another 20 minutes, I poked my head out of the bedroom. 'Dyl?'

All he said was 'Bye.'

The front door slammed, and his car sped down the driveway. His voice had sounded sharp. I figured he was mad because he'd had to get up early to give someone a lift to class. I had no idea that I had just heard his voice for the last time."

She said she had "no inkling" how sick her son was.

"From the writings Dylan left behind, criminal psychologists have concluded that he was depressed and suicidal.

When I first saw copied pages of these writings, they broke my heart. I'd had no inkling of the battle Dylan was waging in his mind."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33257356/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

2009-10-10T19:44:00.001-07:00

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I'm Saddened By Republican Reaction To Nobel Prize

2009-10-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

Is anyone besides me saddened that our Republican friends cannot put aside their personal animosity toward the President of the United States long enough to acknowledge what a significant moment it is for all citizens when our leader is recognized by the Nobel committee for the hopes and aspirations he has for all of us and for the world which our children and grandchildren will inhabit?

I heard one commentator today state that there are only two groups not happy about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize--Republicans and terrorists.

That is not company in which I would want to be.

Republicans want to dwell on the fact that he has not done anything to deserve the award. I personally have to disagree with that. I think he, just by virtue of being elected, accomplished a monumental feat.

He had to overcome the one thing over which no other person has ever triumphed--that, of course, being the color of his skin.

We have not yet absorbed the significance of that as American citizens; sadly, some of us may never admit what a step forward for America that was. But history will record this Presidency as having every bit as much significance as Lincoln's in the battle for equality among all men.

I truly believe that Obama wants a better world for the next generation. He is a young man with small children. When he looks into their eyes, I am certain that he is no different from any parent...he worries about what kind of place they will live in as adults

Each of us who voted for him did so because we believe in his vision--a vision that includes a world without nuclear weapons, a vision that includes a world without hate toward any man regardless of race, sexual orientation or religion; a vision that includes quality health care for every American; a vision that includes responsibility by big business, a vision that includes a cleaner world, a vision of peace on earth and good will toward all men.

Thanks
to the Nobel Peace Prize committee members for recognizing what our
President has already accomplished and for having faith in his vision
as all of us here in America who voted for him do also.

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2009-10-10T16:40:00.001-07:00

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2009-10-10T16:37:00.001-07:00

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AddThis - Sharing http://www.blogster.com/southwesterngrad/iranian-pinocchi...

2009-10-04T08:47:00.001-07:00

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Reflecting On Life

2009-09-24T11:08:00.003-07:00

Reflecting On Life

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2009-09-24T11:08:00.001-07:00

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Noted Naturalist Says,

2009-09-24T11:04:00.001-07:00

Noted Naturalist Says, "Let Pandas Die Out" - southwesterngrad's Blog - Blogster

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How Television Has Destroyed Critical Thinking

2009-09-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today's adult began his learning process in front of the television set. What he learned from the time he was old enough to reach the television knob was that he could sit passively for hours being entertained. Heaven forbid that the television be turned off long enough to read a book.

Reading, after all, is hard; watching is easy. It requires very little effort on the participant's part whereas reading forces the participant to become actively involved in the learning process and to commit a block of his time to the process with no diversions along the way.

It long has been an accepted premise among educators that television has a tremendous impact on students' ability to learn. From the time they are tots, they watch such shows as "Sesame Street" and "Teletubbies "as well as modern, fast-paced cartoons.

What this constant passive learning does is ingrain in these children two things: First, we learn by watching--not participating. Secondly, that it comes in fast, short spurts interspersed with entertainment.

By the time these children begin school, these concepts are so ingrained into their memory banks that teachers must now be entertainers as well as educators.

I was a teacher for ten years, so I speak from experience. Trying to get my students in high school to become partners in the learning process was next to impossible. By now they were teen teletubbies with their antenna firmly and permanently attached, waiting for the image to be imparted to their antennae by someone or something.

I not only wanted my students to learn how to repeat back to me on a test the material; but also to become critical thinkers. I tried to instill in them the fact that they should never take at face value the word of anyone. I even went so far as to tell them that if I ever said something that they thought was incorrect to challenge me on it.

As I repeatedly reminded them, "Teachers are not perfect; we make mistakes too." Occasionally, I would even throw out something outrageously incorrect just to see if anyone would catch it. Of a class of 20 to 25 students, I might have one or two who might pick up on it; even then, it wasn't a given.

However, 99% of my students never questioned or challenged anything that I said. If I said the sun rose in the West they just automatically assumed that it must.

That all goes right back to having become passive learners from constant exposure to television. It was only a matter of time before television news picked up on this. It all began with Fox News but has rapidly spread to the other channels. Both the left and right are equally guilty, though I do believe that Fox is the worst.

News is no longer the news. It is sensationalized entertainment focused on feeding information to a specific group to alter their thinking patterns and their behavior.
In journalistic jargon, that is called "yellow journalism". It is the exact same type of journalistic jargon that we see every day in such publications as Globe, Star, and the National Enquirer.

Either the facts are distorted or they are not fact at all but lies. The perpetrators of this often are not even journalists. They are bloviators hired by talk radio or internet channels to perpetrate the image the owners want to present to the public.

Many do not even have journalistic training or a college degree. They have about as much real insight into the political scene as the guy in the coffee shop arguing politics with his neighbors. But, as Robert Lewis Stevenson noted long ago, "Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary." That applies to those who commentate on it as well.

They hire people with backgrounds in such fields as sports talk or as disc jockeys because they have a gift of gab, certainly not because these people have any credentials as certifiable news commentators.

The networks don't care if the truth gets mutilated. All they are interested in is ratings and advancing their agenda. Since news in and of itself--particularly political news--is dry and sometimes boring, let's "juice it up a little."

Rupert Murdoch, one of the most powerful men in the world, owns Fox News. He is so heavily vested in media properties of all types that I do not want to waste this space listing them. Suffice to say that Murdoch, a staunch Republican because of
his interest in protecting his multi-international media interests, has been anti-Obama from Day one. He wants the Democrats out of power and he doesn't care what dirty techniques have to be used to make it happen.

After all the teletubbiues are now telehubbies and telemommies, long since programmed to believe anything we tell them. As H.L. Menckin, the famous humorist and commentator on the American scene said and I'm paraphrasing just a bit, "Nobody ever lost any money betting on the under intelligence of the American people." Then there was P.T. Barnum, who understood the whole process of visual misrepresentation long before television when he said, "There's a sucker born every day."

In my next post, I will get into the specifics of how the American people have been and are being manipulated by television news programs.

2009-09-17T09:41:00.000-07:00

2009-09-17T00:32:00.000-07:00

I thought I would begin this new post by stating that I am happy to be here and telling you a little more about myself. I am an old hand at blogging, having been at it on various locations for some four years.

I have a degree in English and journalism. I taught school for ten years; then, I moved on into advertising and writing, working for a local newspaper for the next eight years in the town where we lived.

In 1988, my husband and I separated. My older daughter had just finished high school, so she went off to college. My younger daughter and I moved to the Oklahoma City area, where I have lived every since.

In order to make more money, I joined my two brothers in the insurance business. I worked at selling health and life plans for a variety of companies until 1970 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

After undergoing six months of chemotherapy, which left me drained and weak, I did not feel strong enough to continue working. I retired on disability and have been retired since.

I am a Democrat who supports Obama and what I believe he is trying to do for America. I believe very much in health care reform, having had to exhaust my savings because of illness.

I now live with my elder daughter, who is divorced, and her fifteen-year-old son. My younger daughter, who is an attorney, has two daughters. My three grandchildren are the lights of my life. I refer to them as Grandson, Big Sissy, and Little Buddy with I write of them.

I hope that I can make lots of new friends here. My hobbies are reading, blogging, gardening, and spending time with my family.

I do not react well to posts filled with misinformation, and I will call any person who posts such. I think opinionated posts should be supported by what the facts can support.

Looking forward to getting to know you.