Stuff flying through my head this morning.

There is a petition drive going on in Michigan in an attempt to get a vote in the next election calling for a raise in the minimum wage.

Both sides of this debate have statistics proving their side to be right. However as Mark Twain is credited with. “There are three kinds of lies, there are lies, there are damned lies and there are statistics.”

Personally, I think that rising tide lifts all boats thing works best when the rise comes from a bottom up pressure rather than a top down move. It seems when the top gets the extra money it *disappears, while the lower-income folk put any extra money they have right back into the local economy thereby increasing economic activity and the additional positive results of this activity.

*Cayman Islands?

Based on this opinion, I have in my possession some petitions awaiting your signatures, if you haven’t signed one yet, y’all come and do so. Email me @larryjben@gmail.com for directions.

This brings me to my next thought. “Clicktivism” This word was coined by a fellow named Micah White.

He looks down on the action of clicking on a link on the internet to show your support for a cause. In his words. “In promoting the illusion that surfing the web can change the world, clicktivism is to activism as McDonalds is to a slow-cooked meal.”

While I personally click on many links showing my support for numerous causes, I do realize this action is little more than a quick, feel good activity with little or no real nutritional value.

And of course clicking on these links brings the expected request for a monetary donation to “the cause.”

Micah White from Grand Blanc, Michigan has an interesting background if you want to read more about this young man here is a link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micah_M._White

In closing let me assure you, if you email me I will not link you to a request for a donation. 🙂

The World we live in

Generally speaking we all live in the same world.

The sun that peeks through the blinds in my room each morning is the same sun that nourishes the rain forests of the world, the same sun that heats the deserts of Saudi Arabia and the same sun that melts the polar ice caps.

The oxygen we take in from the air we breathe is the same oxygen worldwide, albeit some comes from different levels of polluted air.

And yet we all live in a narrower personal world. A world we have created to our own liking and standards.

We have sat our personal world into existence based on our values and beliefs.

In communicating with each other we must take this into context. A tea party Republican will never understand or accept the views of a left-wing radical and vice versa.

But, based on the fact that we do all live in the same world, we must find a way to open our minds and our hearts and communicate to each other.

We must learn to compromise and work together to achieve the goals we have in common.

Goals such as providing a good education to our children, providing adequate health care to our citizens at an affordable price, providing a decent job with living wages to our citizens. And last but not least, we must work together to combat climate change.

This is the only world we have, how about we all get together and work to make it a good world.

Here is a fun little Pop-Psych Game

Now if you have played this game before, just play along or check out.

This game was introduced to me some 20 years ago, I got a kick out of it then and you may now.

First get a pencil and paper to write down your answers to a few questions. I will wait a moment.

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WARNING IF YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY THIS GAME DO NOT READ TO THE END PRIOR TO ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS. IT WILL SPOIL IT FOR YOU!

Ready?

Ok, here’s the premise. We are going on a journey, a long journey, destination unknown.

1. You can take a long 3 things with you on this journey, what three things are you going to take?

Write them down.

2. As we walk along we come upon a large, deep fast flowing river. What do we do?

Write down your answer.

 

3. We continue on,  off in the distance we see an old house, from this house we hear what sounds like screams. Write down what we do now.

 

4. We then spot what looks like a corner of a box sticking out of the ground, upon further examination we dig up the box finding a gold key within. What do we do? Write it down.

 

5. Now we come upon a massive concrete block wall. This wall is so high we cannot get over it and so wide we cannot get around it. What is behind the wall? Write it down.

Did you write down all your answers? If not, do so now.

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OK here are what your answers tell us.

1. The three items you listed to take with you are the three most important things in your life right now.
2. This response indicates what you would do in the event of an unexpected obstacle in your life.
3. This response indicates what you would do in the event of a possible scary circumstance occurs in your life.
4. This response indicates what you have in an imaginative mind.
5. And finally this response indicates what you picture as life after death.

An interesting twist to this game would be to gather 2 or 3 close friends or family members and play the game having each person write down their responses for what they would do and also for what they think the other players would do.

This would give us a peek into the question posed by Robert Burns “o wad some pow’r the gifte gie us to see oursels as ithers see us!

Anyway have fun with this.

Right and Left Agree, who woulda thunk?

 

Some dude from the Heritage Foundation just stated something along the lines of, we have to look at eliminating mandatory prison sentences for minor drug offenses.

The left has been painted as being soft on crime for years thanks to an effective ad campaign by Bush 1’s staff. (Willie Horton)

And today the right is growing concerned about the cost of keeping these low-level drug dealers in prison for years on end. (It’s always about the money for the right)

With the cost of keeping a prisoner being $30,000 a year, they are coming around to thinking we should either reduce or eliminate these silly mandatory sentences for minor crimes.

This expense is starting to bother politicians at both the national and state levels.

A couple of sticking points here are:

Attorney General Holder has just issued a statement suggesting many who are now in prison based on the previous laws should be released. President Obama has already provided clemency to some of those convicts.

This problem is with the far right folks in the Republican Party, the folks that inherently hate anything with Obama’s name on it.

The second point would be the greedy wing of the Republican Party, the wing that looks at every situation as a possible way to increase their personal wealth.

What happens if these dudes decide private prisons are the way to go?

Keep in mind, private, for profit prisons, create more prisoners.

Just a few things to think about on this bright, sunny Saturday. Enjoy the sunshine.

Through a Child’s Eyes

 

As we go about our daily lives we pass through a myriad of emotions and emotional events. Anything from the joy of a sweet “good morning dear” from our partner, to a nasty “tough shit” from an adversarial confrontation.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we could see the world through a child’s eyes?

A child that has reached an age of understanding enough to know the stove is hot, yet still holds the innocence of one not yet tarnished enough by outside forces to dampen his/her enthusiasm for life.

Can you imagine seeing a person of another race and thinking, oh look another person, perhaps we can be friends and playmates. Children do this all the time, until they have been trained to do otherwise.

Can you imagine going outside and seeing a lawn full of dandelions and exclaiming with glee “Oh look at all the pretty flowers!” Another excellent trait found in children.

Can you imagine seeing a dog on the street and thinking, oh look at the cute puppy?

Can you imagine splashing gleefully in a puddle of water on the sidewalk?

Can you imagine making angels in the snow?

Can you imagine turning on the television and watching Sponge Bob Square Pants or having a grown up read you a story?

Can you imagine meeting someone for the first time with a curious yet friendly smile?

How about we all take at least one day and live our lives as a child?

Sounds like fun to me, now get out there and splash in that puddle.

For Political Junkies Only!

Today I have a couple of links to share.

First is a link to a Princeton study that declares America is no longer a Democracy. The study does not use the word Oligarchy but it sure sounds like one to me.

Here is the link…

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy

The second is a link to a thread on Democratic Underground.
The actual thread can be found here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024863987

This thread discusses the possibility of America being a fascist state. I found a lengthy post about halfway down the thread that explains in detail how we came to this current condition. From the writings of Noam Chomsky.
http://www.chomsky.info/books/priorities01.htm

If you want to read some wonky yet enlightening stuff click on those links. I did and found them interesting and revealing.

Now I am off to the library to get something lite to read. 🙂

You all have another good day.

The Challenge for Democrats Will Be Turnout

The upcoming midterm election affords us the ability to continue our efforts at regaining control of our government from the corporatists that currently are in control.

As a believer of separation of corporate and state, I feel this  must be done.

All the blogs, pages and web sites I peruse suggest the same, getting out the vote is imperative.

And I see little if any suggestions as to how to accomplish this goal. I myself have thoughts and ideas, some came from others some are my own.

In Michigan there is a group working on putting a raise in minimum wage on the ballot, this sounds like a good plan for getting out the vote and I support it.

A gentleman I met recently suggested we have young men go to barber shops with flyers stressing the importance of voting. Especially in minority neighborhoods, unfortunately this group has been known to stay home during midterms. I like this idea also, now how do we implement it? Any suggestions?

The average citizen today cares little about the upcoming election in spite of the barrage of political ads on the television. It is only the political junkies that are fired up and working feverishly at this time, but it is never too early to start planning and working on this project.

In the last presidential election the Obama team had one hell of a get out the vote team. Is there a way we can tap into that team/concept?

If you have any ideas or suggestions to help in this effort please share them here, this is indeed an important event.

Thanks for your help.

Here is a story you may like, fact or fiction? :)

Seems there is a lady that lives in section 8 housing in Pittsburgh, Pa. that has found herself in a fix.

She goes by the name of Nevilc. Not sure if this name stems from her African roots or some other, perhaps “backward” thought. 😉 The neighborhood children all call her Mama Nevvy.

A little background check on this lady finds out she is well liked by the children in her neighborhood. Always has an encouraging word for them and usually a cookie or two. She attends church services weekly at the local church of the redeemed souls. Baptist I think, but not sure. She donates to the church with both money and time and is well liked and received in the church and the community.

Based on this information it came as a complete shock to all when they heard that Nevvy was under federal indictment for having received assistance for claiming children that were not really hers.

She had been receiving both food stamps and earned income credits for 20 some years now claiming neighborhood children as her dependents. Nursing on the government teat so to speak.

The government’s red tape bureaucracy had missed this and let it slide for these many years. Now that they had discovered it they were coming after Nevvy full force. Agents from the IRS were scheduled to come to her house and remove any and all materials deemed to have value. They were also working on confiscating any money she had in bank accounts.

Mama Nevvy felt that she had done no wrong. She had provided food, clothing and shelter to those children. The fact that they were not her biological or legally adopted children should not be a consideration in this manner. Based on that, Nevvy put out a call for help in this predicament. It was not 24 hours before support came rushing to her aid.

When the government agents approached her residence they were confronted by 100 or more men and women from the inner cities from as far away as Jacksonville, Fl. Some called this group “Black Panthers”, but they professed allegiance to no group. The men were all armed with assault rifles and threatened to use force if necessary to turn back these government thugs.

Nevvy has a right to live her life as she sees fit and the federal government has no right to interfere with her was the rallying cry of her supporters.

Her full name is “Nevilc Ydnub” or something like that.

What do you think the government should do in this situation?

Here is a link for comparison…

http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=12655

Boston Marathon Today

Thirty-six thousand runners today, more than any race in history. Boston Strong! Yes sir, we are going to show those terrorist thugs we will not be intimidated.
We will wave our flags with pride and glory, the terrorists be damned. If they think they can change us and our traditional actions and values, they better think again.
But, upon further review…

We find ourselves going through metal detectors at major league baseball games, we see on this morning’s news the areas in Boston that have been cordoned off. No vehicles allowed near the start or the end of the today’s marathon.
We see our local police departments arming up with military weapons obtained from the WAR department.
We see our local police pepper spraying and throwing peaceful demonstrators to the ground.
We see police arresting peaceful demonstrators in state capitol buildings across the nation.
We see laws being written banning peaceful demonstrations in public buildings.
We see hundreds of militia type individuals come racing, with assault weapons, at the ready to defend a scofflaw in Nevada as he refuses to comply with federal laws.
We see our citizens killing each other at the toss of a handful of popcorn or the booming sound of a car radio. And these homegrown thugs are getting away with this activity based on laws written to alleviate the fears fostered by the gun lobby.
We see laws being written to allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom.
We see laws being written allowing guns in churches.
We see laws being written allowing sawed off shotguns.
All these laws and changes in our society stem from a society that has been fed a constant message of fear.
So my friends, are we standing up to the terrorists or have they already won?

Bovine Militia

And more on the cow thingy. this from a stable Canadian.

notestoponder

The other night I wrote about understanding America, professing a maturity capable of calmly accepting dead end logic. Sensitive to perceptions of preachy over reactive rants,  my resolve stood firm for almost 48 hours before withering in the face of bat shit crazy shenanigans.

America is not well. What’s more – the diagnosis is further complicated by America’s affliction – an all encompassing mental illness akin to paranoid schizophrenia. Insidious delusions of patriotism morph into outrageous displays of anti-government chest beating – oblivious “patriots” certain it’s for the good of the nation.

Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy has spent the last few decades squabbling with the Federal government. In dispute is cattle grazing on Federal land – Bundy claims his family’s cattle have grazed there since the 1860s, the government wants a million dollars in restitution for land use taxes. Last Saturday a judge ruled if fees went unpaid, Bundy’s cattle…

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