Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Check this out!
Food for Thought! Check out this website. http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01272010.html
Monday, January 25, 2010
What the....
So now the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people? What? And as people are entitled to all the rights in the Constitution? So said 'people' can make as big contributions as they want to political parties or politicians, because corporations are people!
Now if I were a cynical person, I might believe that 5 of the Justices in the Supreme Court are being...what is an appropriate word here?...bribed...paid...in the pocket of...or some other phrase or word denoting possible dishonesty. Heck let's make that Probable Dishonesty. Of course, I am not a cynical person. But if I were Oh my! Once again my idea that the problem with cynicism is that it is so often right would come into play.
Now pundits are saying that 'Campaign Reform' is dead. I agree. However, it was never really alive in the first place. In a way, having corporations actively contributing, openly contributing to political parties will let voters know which candidate is favored by 'Big Business'. So maybe this will be a good thing? Now contributions will be scrutinized, and not hidden? Well maybe. Maybe it just means that what the corporations are doing...have been doing...won't be illegal anymore. Our election process can continue to be hijacked by moneyed interests, but now legally. That has to be an improvement, doesn't it?
I wonder does this ruling allow foreign corporations constitutional rights? Can a corporation doing business here in the United States, but owned by foreign nationals now enjoy all the rights of an American Citizen? Which in effect would make it a citizen without taking any of the oaths that real foreigners have to take to become Citizens? If that were the case, would it not seem that Citizenship was being purchased? Would that be a good thing?
If Corporations are Citizens...or people...can the time be far behind when people are not Citizens, but non-people because Corporations are people? Is it possible that we will lose our peoplehood, and our rights?
Is that thinking too far fetched?
No it is not!
Now if I were a cynical person, I might believe that 5 of the Justices in the Supreme Court are being...what is an appropriate word here?...bribed...paid...in the pocket of...or some other phrase or word denoting possible dishonesty. Heck let's make that Probable Dishonesty. Of course, I am not a cynical person. But if I were Oh my! Once again my idea that the problem with cynicism is that it is so often right would come into play.
Now pundits are saying that 'Campaign Reform' is dead. I agree. However, it was never really alive in the first place. In a way, having corporations actively contributing, openly contributing to political parties will let voters know which candidate is favored by 'Big Business'. So maybe this will be a good thing? Now contributions will be scrutinized, and not hidden? Well maybe. Maybe it just means that what the corporations are doing...have been doing...won't be illegal anymore. Our election process can continue to be hijacked by moneyed interests, but now legally. That has to be an improvement, doesn't it?
I wonder does this ruling allow foreign corporations constitutional rights? Can a corporation doing business here in the United States, but owned by foreign nationals now enjoy all the rights of an American Citizen? Which in effect would make it a citizen without taking any of the oaths that real foreigners have to take to become Citizens? If that were the case, would it not seem that Citizenship was being purchased? Would that be a good thing?
If Corporations are Citizens...or people...can the time be far behind when people are not Citizens, but non-people because Corporations are people? Is it possible that we will lose our peoplehood, and our rights?
Is that thinking too far fetched?
No it is not!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Under 6 or over 65 Consult Your Doctor Before Use
Yesterday morning I woke up with my allergies just raising all kinds of hob. I could not stop chasing my nose all around. It was running so bad. So before breakfast I took some generic Dayquil. Then I had breakfast and took my wife to work. I was miserable at McDonald's during my coffee hour with the guys. I came home and used some 12 Hour Afrin. I expected that to finish the work I hoped the Dayquil was doing. It didn't, so around noon I took some more Dayquil.
That seemed to be ineffective as well. I waited a couple of hours and then found some 12 Hour Benedryl. Generic of course. I took that as well. I then picked Lori up from work, still using Kleenex by the carload. We went to Mexican Restaurant for supper, and I was still pretty unhappy. I decided that I should buy some more Dayquil and take another shot. Which I did.
Finally, my nose started to stop running! Success! About darn time! We continued to the Grange to play music.
Soon it was our turn to perform. Lori chose That Was the Last Thing on My Mind . She kicked it off, and I started to sing. Absolutely Nothing went right! My fingers didn't make the right chords...I sounded like I was singing inside a barrel, and then the words all fell out of my mind! I forgot what I had just sung! OMG...disaster.
The band played on, until I just said Stop, we can't do this song! They did and I did...I sort of saved the day, by doing Paradise. I got through that one OK...but I have done it a thousand times. I explained what had happened, and the audience loved it! Lots of laughter! Evidently that was just too much cold medicine in 10 hours! But at least I could breathe!
I took Nyquil before I went to bed...are you surprised to learn that I fell to sleep immediately? I did make it into bed first. This morning it is as if I never had any trouble yesterday. Almost. Last night in my dreams I was floating down a river in Africa on a log, nearly naked, in cave man days, opening up a market for selling milk in plastic jugs. It was Warm in my dream, though.
That seemed to be ineffective as well. I waited a couple of hours and then found some 12 Hour Benedryl. Generic of course. I took that as well. I then picked Lori up from work, still using Kleenex by the carload. We went to Mexican Restaurant for supper, and I was still pretty unhappy. I decided that I should buy some more Dayquil and take another shot. Which I did.
Finally, my nose started to stop running! Success! About darn time! We continued to the Grange to play music.
Soon it was our turn to perform. Lori chose That Was the Last Thing on My Mind . She kicked it off, and I started to sing. Absolutely Nothing went right! My fingers didn't make the right chords...I sounded like I was singing inside a barrel, and then the words all fell out of my mind! I forgot what I had just sung! OMG...disaster.
The band played on, until I just said Stop, we can't do this song! They did and I did...I sort of saved the day, by doing Paradise. I got through that one OK...but I have done it a thousand times. I explained what had happened, and the audience loved it! Lots of laughter! Evidently that was just too much cold medicine in 10 hours! But at least I could breathe!
I took Nyquil before I went to bed...are you surprised to learn that I fell to sleep immediately? I did make it into bed first. This morning it is as if I never had any trouble yesterday. Almost. Last night in my dreams I was floating down a river in Africa on a log, nearly naked, in cave man days, opening up a market for selling milk in plastic jugs. It was Warm in my dream, though.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Music for a cold winter day
Tom Paxton and Ann Hills Home to me is any where you are...beautiful music
Sunday, January 3, 2010
New year...New Decade???
The '00's have ended and the '10's have begun...We have embarked on a new Year. But have we entered a new Decade? Or will the Decade begin with the year 2011? This is a huge controversy. One that should be carefully considered by every thinking person. (I am assuming that we all are thinking persons, but that may not be completely accurate.) I almost hesitate to bring up this subject for fear that it will be used to divide the American People for some political gain or other. But I will persevere.
Some said way back when the '00's began, that 2000 was the end of the 20th Century, rather than the beginning of the 21st Century. Some said the earth would stop spinning on that day, that life as we knew it would end. The computers wouldn't work and we would be harvesting each other for food before long. There were a whole lot of predictions of gloom and doom because not only was 2000 the beginning of a new Century it was a whole new Millennium. I am sure that everyone remembers that, and what happened on Jan 1, 2000. Absolutely nothing! Just like every other New Year's day.
We were not out of the woods yet though, because some believed that the New Millennium didn't begin until Jan 1,2001! However again nothing happened that had not happened before. We all kept on being, computers worked and cannibalism has not become worse.
Now it seems to me that we need to decide whether or not our numbering system starts with 0 or 1. We are taught to count in school starting with 1, with ten being the 10th number. That makes sense doesn't it? Following that way of thinking then '10 is the tenth year of the decade, so the new Decade will begin next January 1st. So there we have it. Everything is all settled. An open and shut case.
But wait. We are talking years here. Not something like apples, where the difference between having none (0) and having one is very evident. One apple is 1, ten apples is 10. But years are different, it seems to me. There is not all of a sudden one year. It takes a whole year, 365 days, to make a year. A year is a concept while an apple is an object. Now the counting has to begin at zero (0) as in 0,1,2,-9. 10 is the beginning of the next Decade!
You doubt me??? Well, let's examine the problem from a different situation (sort of). Say you have a child born to your family. That child's birth day is the beginning of his life. He has lived a whole year on his first birthday. His life started at (0) when he was born. The second year of his life begins on his first birthday, and the 10th year of his life begins on his 9th birthday. So that decade ends on 9. Clear as mud, right?
I am not actually in favor of counting years that way. I just think that is the correct way. Using that method of counting, I am half way through my 68th year rather than being 'only' 67. Unfortunately that is correct. I will have lived -completed- 68 years on my next birthday. OMG... now I wish I had not started this blog. 67 is not so bad, only a little more that 65, but I am about to begin my 69th year which is almost 70 and 70 could be construed be mean 'OLD'...I believe I am going to get depressed!
Well OK, maybe not depressed. I am sure that my 'true age' as found by those tests on the Internet would be around 40-45. I am positive of it. I have hardly changed at all since I was say 25. Just ask my kids! On second thought, don't. I am sure our perspectives are quite different. They will get to my perspective though.
I am sure that my clear thinking on this subject (whether or not 2010 is the beginning of a new Decade or not) has cast a bright light on any controversy and will put all and sundry other opinions at rest!
Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!! Let us hope that the new year and decade bring us a much better life than the did the past did!
Some said way back when the '00's began, that 2000 was the end of the 20th Century, rather than the beginning of the 21st Century. Some said the earth would stop spinning on that day, that life as we knew it would end. The computers wouldn't work and we would be harvesting each other for food before long. There were a whole lot of predictions of gloom and doom because not only was 2000 the beginning of a new Century it was a whole new Millennium. I am sure that everyone remembers that, and what happened on Jan 1, 2000. Absolutely nothing! Just like every other New Year's day.
We were not out of the woods yet though, because some believed that the New Millennium didn't begin until Jan 1,2001! However again nothing happened that had not happened before. We all kept on being, computers worked and cannibalism has not become worse.
Now it seems to me that we need to decide whether or not our numbering system starts with 0 or 1. We are taught to count in school starting with 1, with ten being the 10th number. That makes sense doesn't it? Following that way of thinking then '10 is the tenth year of the decade, so the new Decade will begin next January 1st. So there we have it. Everything is all settled. An open and shut case.
But wait. We are talking years here. Not something like apples, where the difference between having none (0) and having one is very evident. One apple is 1, ten apples is 10. But years are different, it seems to me. There is not all of a sudden one year. It takes a whole year, 365 days, to make a year. A year is a concept while an apple is an object. Now the counting has to begin at zero (0) as in 0,1,2,-9. 10 is the beginning of the next Decade!
You doubt me??? Well, let's examine the problem from a different situation (sort of). Say you have a child born to your family. That child's birth day is the beginning of his life. He has lived a whole year on his first birthday. His life started at (0) when he was born. The second year of his life begins on his first birthday, and the 10th year of his life begins on his 9th birthday. So that decade ends on 9. Clear as mud, right?
I am not actually in favor of counting years that way. I just think that is the correct way. Using that method of counting, I am half way through my 68th year rather than being 'only' 67. Unfortunately that is correct. I will have lived -completed- 68 years on my next birthday. OMG... now I wish I had not started this blog. 67 is not so bad, only a little more that 65, but I am about to begin my 69th year which is almost 70 and 70 could be construed be mean 'OLD'...I believe I am going to get depressed!
Well OK, maybe not depressed. I am sure that my 'true age' as found by those tests on the Internet would be around 40-45. I am positive of it. I have hardly changed at all since I was say 25. Just ask my kids! On second thought, don't. I am sure our perspectives are quite different. They will get to my perspective though.
I am sure that my clear thinking on this subject (whether or not 2010 is the beginning of a new Decade or not) has cast a bright light on any controversy and will put all and sundry other opinions at rest!
Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!! Let us hope that the new year and decade bring us a much better life than the did the past did!
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