Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
"Today, some are celebrating an underprivileged mom giving birth in a stable, to a baby who grew up to be a prominent activist for peace, love and anti-capitalist values; who preferred the company of honest prostitutes, the poor and the disabled than that of the religious or financial elite; who partook in radical direct action against the banking system and who, at the conclusion of his life, was executed publicly as an enemy of state. Jesus was a LIBERAL revolutionary." -- Merry Christmas (Posted by Noah Nethero.)
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Little Britain is sheer genius!
These two guys created a very diverse cast of out-there characters! But Maggie, the bigot who vomits when she even HEARS about ANY minority might be my favorite. SO gross yet so funny. Bummer I can find this classically horrific one in German only. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=3Bun9aM9JW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=3Bun9aM9JW0
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Occupy Christmas Carols
This is a superb demonstration of the spirit of OWS at its best.....soulful yet positive and non-violent. I think this is the same governor who tried to rob state workers of union representation.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/20/1047222/-Hundreds-of-Wisconsinites-sing-Walker-recall-carol-in-defiance-of-new-pay-to-protest-rules
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/20/1047222/-Hundreds-of-Wisconsinites-sing-Walker-recall-carol-in-defiance-of-new-pay-to-protest-rules
Monday, December 19, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Obama and the Military Detention Tragedy
John A Starnes When I voted for Obama I had SUCH high hope for REAL "change I can believe in" but to my mind the ONLY campaign he's kept has been to end "Don't Ask Don'T Tell" which pleases me as a gay man. BUT.....the bogus "War On Terror For Corporate Profit" has expanded....despite its daily/weekly crimes against humanity, Zionist Israel gets EVERY penny that AIPAC demands plus entire weapons free of charge....he wussed out on the pipeline and other key environmental issues, started a few more undeclared wars, hugely expanded the illegal drones program, sought NO justice for the Bush/Cheney gang of war criminals, and now this travesty that Americans can be scooped up and tossed into military prisons INDEFINITELY with no trial or even charges.....it seems that "The Land Of The Free" has decided to mimic the cruel dictators it has supported for decades like the Shah and Saddam and Allende. So I am changing my voter registration to what has always been unthinkable, Republican, so I can vote for Ron Paul, in the vain hope that he is NOT yet another pathological liar seeking office.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Fireball Xl-5
Every Saturday morning back then I'd be glued to the TV to see the cool launch intro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ifS2nP53Zs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ifS2nP53Zs
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Support Our Troops....truly support them.....
While I differ with Ron Paul's support of nuclear power and a few other issues, I wholeheartedly agree with his views on US economics (i.e. The Fed) and our constant military intervention around the world, WITHOUT provocation, as the main cause of what our avaricious, amoral, manipulative, deceptive leaders call "terrorism" even as they and theirs profit wildly from the bogus "War on Terror". Good video less than 5 minutes long. Occupy your mind and refuse to support ANY war of choice for profit, such as the one against Iran that has already begun with bombings, assassinations of scientists, assaults on their currency, manipulations of IAEA findings, drone flights, and a GREAT many U.S. bases all around it. Brace yourself for a staged False Flag event designed to make the American public "want" war with Iran. John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYxPkKGeVKI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYxPkKGeVKI
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Luigi Colani
This design genius proposed back in the mid 1980s this remarkable, feasible passenger airliner inspired by the form of a shark. Even now it takes me breath away.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
According to the GAO audit, $16.1 trillion in secret loans were made by the Federal Reserve between December 1, 2007 and July 21, 2010. The following list of firms and the amount of money that they received was taken directly from page 131of the GAO audit report....
Citigroup - $2.513 trillion
Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion
Bank of America - $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC - $868 billion
Bear Sterns - $853 billion
Goldman Sachs - $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion
Deutsche Bank - $354 billion
UBS - $287 billion
Credit Suisse - $262 billion
Lehman Brothers - $183 billion
Bank of Scotland - $181 billion
BNP Paribas - $175 billion
Wells Fargo - $159 billion
Dexia - $159 billion
Wachovia - $142 billion
Dresdner Bank - $135 billion
Societe Generale - $124 billion
"All Other Borrowers" - $2.639 trillion
Morgan Stanley - $2.041 trillion
Merrill Lynch - $1.949 trillion
Bank of America - $1.344 trillion
Barclays PLC - $868 billion
Bear Sterns - $853 billion
Goldman Sachs - $814 billion
Royal Bank of Scotland - $541 billion
JP Morgan Chase - $391 billion
Deutsche Bank - $354 billion
UBS - $287 billion
Credit Suisse - $262 billion
Lehman Brothers - $183 billion
Bank of Scotland - $181 billion
BNP Paribas - $175 billion
Wells Fargo - $159 billion
Dexia - $159 billion
Wachovia - $142 billion
Dresdner Bank - $135 billion
Societe Generale - $124 billion
"All Other Borrowers" - $2.639 trillion
This report was made available to all the members of Congress, but most of them have been totally silent about it. One of the only members of Congress that has said something has been U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
I am blessed with friends and neighbors who are Christians who strive to be Christ-like. But historically, Christianity has an agenda of oppression of blacks, scientists (like Galileo and Darwin), women, gay people, plus wholesale conquest and theft of land from indigenous peoples in North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East, suppression of education and democracy, decimation of natural resources, expansionist nationalism like America's 'Manifest Destiny' and Germany's Nazism, endorsement of slavery and more shameful terrifying social injustices. But then again what can be expected from a blood cult whose central iconic image is of a brutally tortured dead man hanging on a cross?
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
A lovely song and one of a couple videos that George, Ringo and Paul created around a home recording by John that Yoko found, as I recall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWWJx4gpfMg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWWJx4gpfMg
Monday, December 5, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
BURT THE BIRD
One morning in early May, 1992, a fierce thunderstorm whipped through my northeast Denver neighborhood as I landscaped a home beside the foothills several miles to the west. That afternoon I returned to see that my yard, the streets, the whole neighborhood, was rain-soaked and littered with wind blown twigs and green leaves torn from trees. Two grackles paced nervously side by side on my roof, squawking hysterically. moments later I found two dead baby birds (mauled by a cat, likely mine) on the ground below my cedar tree where a week before a friend had pointed out a nestful of cheeping hatchlings near the pinnacle.
But from directly below where the parent birds made such a fuss, in a flower garden, came the frantic “cheeps” of a survivorthere, huddled between red poppies and purple iris, was a soaked, shivering, sorry-looking baby grackle. I took him inside, and quickly rigged up an incubator using a clear plastic bulk food bin from a grocery store dumpster, a soft towel, and a 40 watt bulb in a reading lamp. Soon his feathers were dry and fluffy and he no longer shivered, nestled in the towel and basking in the warmth. I named him “Burt, the Bird”.
Since re-arriving in Denver two weeks before, I had been barely functioning, on automatic pilot, nearly paralyzed by shock and grief over the violent suicide of my old friend Renee’ Ashley, which occurred as I migrated back from Tampa and learned of less than an hour after unlocking my dormant house. But Burt was simply too hungry too often for me to slip further into numbing grief as I struggled to devise a diet for him.I’d always heard that feeding orphaned birds a food slurry with an eyedropper can get it into their tiny lungs, leading to fatal pneumonia.
So I soaked little pellets of dry dog food in a weak solution of warm water and liquid baby vitamins until they softened and swelled. When I offered them to this tiny but incredibly loud baby bird he sucked them up like a black hole, making a hilarious gurgling sound as he continued to scream through a throat full of wet nuggets! Each feeding he’d wolf down seven or eight of them till his neck filled up, and wash them down with an eyedropper full of baby vitamin water, then quickly fall asleep in the warm glow of the bulb or in my hands. An hour later his screams for more food would echo through the house once again, and I’d obey. Umpteen times a day Burt screamed and I fed himit became a Pavlovian response for me, even when dead asleep. I had instantly fallen in love with this infant eating machine. And Sergeant, “The World’s Best Dog”, didn’t seem jealous, only curious.
Burt grew like something in a 50’s sci-fi movie, and soon his fuzzy baby feathers fell out as wave after wave of flight feathers emerged from his translucent grayish-pink skin. All this growth and change was fueled by vast amounts of watermelon, slugs, raw corn-on-the-cob, peeled grapes, cereal, oatmeal (cooked or dry), raw beans, citrus, bananas, cherries, cottage cheese, and his favorite..some of Sergeant’s ‘Prime Cuts’ canned dog food. Like me, he was a voracious garbage gut!
Burt had bonded to me on day one, always wanting to be with me, perched on my head (and pooping indiscriminately) as I typed, washed dishes or worked in my gardens. We were buddies. If he was elsewhere in the yard or house and I called out his name, he would invariably answer me with a loud singular chirp. One heartbreaking day though, as he sat drying on a tall squash trellis after a dip in the bird bath, he fell about four feet as I gardened beside him and landed skull first on the corner of a pane of glass at the back of the henhouse. Already filled with horror and sadness over Renee’s death, I saw him bounce sickeningly to the ground, legs painfully stiffening, eyes closed then he lay motionless. I felt guilty for putting him up there too wet too glide, certain he was dead.
But he was still breathing! So I put him on the hay on the floor of his little sunning cage atop the hen house, begging him not to die, my eyes filling up, a big lump in my throat, pretty well maxxed-out with negative life events. I stayed with him, softly calling out his name, watching his breathing. Soon he sat up, head waggling dizzily and unable to stand without falling over. But within the hour he was almost back to normal and screaming for food. Whew!
All that summer most mornings began with taking Burt, perched on my index finger, out to my neighbor’s expansive lawn (vs. my token 10 foot oval of it) for daily flying lessons as I sipped my coffee. I’d launch him with a gentle swing of my hand, but he just controlled his descent. As he got better I’d give him a softball-style underhand toss, and he’d “fly” maybe fifteen or twenty feet. By midsummer Burt was still a poor flyer as dozens of young grackles flew over the house daily. His now nearly adult feathers were a gorgeous shiny gray-black with an iridescent overlay of indigo and violet but the tips of his wing and tail feathers had frayed a little due to rubbing against the bars of his bird cage made vital by my and other cats who’d approach him hungrily. I wondered if he would ever be able to leave home to be with other grackles, even though I’d nearly weaned him from hand feeding by showing him how to catch pill bugs, earthworms, crickets and slugs, and by offering him assorted dry grains and seeds.
Tragedy struck Burt once again one morning during a flying lesson, when he landed on the heat-retaining compost berm on the north side of my house where he spotted and gobbled down a wild mushroom. The next morning the inside of his mouth was a sickly gray, his saliva was gummy, his golden eyes very dilated and his movements slow and jerky. So I gave him fresh water continuously from the eyedropper he had outgrown a few weeks prior to flush him out. He would not eatand seemed very spaced out.was he tripping? If so it was clearly a bad trip. The next morning he was okay but bonded to me even more, downright affectionate, like a tame parrot. I asked him to recall this lesson about mushrooms when he was off in the wilds as a free bird someday.
A few weeks later, during a practice flight, he proudly surprised me by leaping off my finger and flying straight across my yard and the next 2 neighbors’ yards in a long, strong but very low flight. But panic filled me as he crossed Ruth’s yard when one of her cats leapt off the front porch and nabbed him in mid-flight with its front paws, pulling him screaming to the ground. Like an hysterical parent I shot forward bellowing my lungs out at the damned feline who was so freaked by the sight of a deranged and angry maniac bolting his way that he released Burt before biting him and fled into the bushes. Walking back to my yard with my heart thumping and Burt perched on my index finger, I noticed the cat saliva on his wings, relieved that this poor cursed bird had once again cheated fate.
October came, the leaves changed to gold and rust, silvery frost coating my gardens each morning and still Burt the Bird barely flew, never again having repeated his Wright Brotheresque performance. I wondered if he’d be migrating to Florida soon but in my truck with Sergeant and Lovely (the World’s Fattest Cat) and my chickens. Suddenly though he was decidedly untame, pecking at my offered finger instead of jumping onto it as usual. One sunny autumn morning, as thousands of grackles oddly swarmed into the tall trees in my neighborhood, their voices filling the air, I coaxed Burt onto my finger and took him out of his big back yard sleeping cage (big to reduce the fraying of his feather tips) for yet one more disappointing practice flight, knowing that winter was closing in. Suddenly he shot up at a forty five degree angle and landed in the dead fifteen foot tall pollarded elm beside my raspberry patch. Convinced it was a fluke he had for the first time ever gained altitude, I climbed up to rescue him once more. With my outstretched hand just inches from him, Burt burst away in a beautiful arcing upward flight to the big apple tree half a block away!
Back on the ground I was filled with conflicting emotions.pride, joy, relief, uncertainty and a touch of sadness that this might at last be the goodbye I’d hoped for and worked towards all summer. I never wanted Burt to be a pet, just a mature and healthy wild grackle. Parental concern drew me to the apple tree filled with grackles feasting on the red ripe fruits, and I spotted him due to his frayed feather tips right where he’d landed. I called out his name, and as usual he answered back. Without warning there was an explosion of grackles from that tree and towards a distant elm. Grinning and misty-eyed, I spotted one grackle flying lower and slower than the rest of the flock, but damn, he was keeping up!
Back home I read that grackles migrate south each winter too in large gregarious flocks, ending my fears of his freezing to death in Denver, hungry and alone. And all that winter in Florida, whenever grackles flew over making that oh-so-familiar call, I’d check first (usually) to see if anyone was looking then call out “Burt!”, entertaining the fantasy that one would break away from the flock and descend to land in front of me, screaming for ‘Prime Cuts’ and slugs.
I still occasionally wonder where he is, if he is, thankful for the chance to have first saved him then grown to know him. And while I don’t believe in an anthropomorphic God running a cosmic show, I still can’t help but to see Burt as a gift of light and life at a time I was nearly completely filled with pain and darkness. While I will always miss Renee’, Burt’s golden shining eyes reminded me all that sad summer following her death of Life and Love and Innocence.
If that is not a priceless gift, what is?
One morning in early May, 1992, a fierce thunderstorm whipped through my northeast Denver neighborhood as I landscaped a home beside the foothills several miles to the west. That afternoon I returned to see that my yard, the streets, the whole neighborhood, was rain-soaked and littered with wind blown twigs and green leaves torn from trees. Two grackles paced nervously side by side on my roof, squawking hysterically. moments later I found two dead baby birds (mauled by a cat, likely mine) on the ground below my cedar tree where a week before a friend had pointed out a nestful of cheeping hatchlings near the pinnacle.
But from directly below where the parent birds made such a fuss, in a flower garden, came the frantic “cheeps” of a survivorthere, huddled between red poppies and purple iris, was a soaked, shivering, sorry-looking baby grackle. I took him inside, and quickly rigged up an incubator using a clear plastic bulk food bin from a grocery store dumpster, a soft towel, and a 40 watt bulb in a reading lamp. Soon his feathers were dry and fluffy and he no longer shivered, nestled in the towel and basking in the warmth. I named him “Burt, the Bird”.
Since re-arriving in Denver two weeks before, I had been barely functioning, on automatic pilot, nearly paralyzed by shock and grief over the violent suicide of my old friend Renee’ Ashley, which occurred as I migrated back from Tampa and learned of less than an hour after unlocking my dormant house. But Burt was simply too hungry too often for me to slip further into numbing grief as I struggled to devise a diet for him.I’d always heard that feeding orphaned birds a food slurry with an eyedropper can get it into their tiny lungs, leading to fatal pneumonia.
So I soaked little pellets of dry dog food in a weak solution of warm water and liquid baby vitamins until they softened and swelled. When I offered them to this tiny but incredibly loud baby bird he sucked them up like a black hole, making a hilarious gurgling sound as he continued to scream through a throat full of wet nuggets! Each feeding he’d wolf down seven or eight of them till his neck filled up, and wash them down with an eyedropper full of baby vitamin water, then quickly fall asleep in the warm glow of the bulb or in my hands. An hour later his screams for more food would echo through the house once again, and I’d obey. Umpteen times a day Burt screamed and I fed himit became a Pavlovian response for me, even when dead asleep. I had instantly fallen in love with this infant eating machine. And Sergeant, “The World’s Best Dog”, didn’t seem jealous, only curious.
Burt grew like something in a 50’s sci-fi movie, and soon his fuzzy baby feathers fell out as wave after wave of flight feathers emerged from his translucent grayish-pink skin. All this growth and change was fueled by vast amounts of watermelon, slugs, raw corn-on-the-cob, peeled grapes, cereal, oatmeal (cooked or dry), raw beans, citrus, bananas, cherries, cottage cheese, and his favorite..some of Sergeant’s ‘Prime Cuts’ canned dog food. Like me, he was a voracious garbage gut!
Burt had bonded to me on day one, always wanting to be with me, perched on my head (and pooping indiscriminately) as I typed, washed dishes or worked in my gardens. We were buddies. If he was elsewhere in the yard or house and I called out his name, he would invariably answer me with a loud singular chirp. One heartbreaking day though, as he sat drying on a tall squash trellis after a dip in the bird bath, he fell about four feet as I gardened beside him and landed skull first on the corner of a pane of glass at the back of the henhouse. Already filled with horror and sadness over Renee’s death, I saw him bounce sickeningly to the ground, legs painfully stiffening, eyes closed then he lay motionless. I felt guilty for putting him up there too wet too glide, certain he was dead.
But he was still breathing! So I put him on the hay on the floor of his little sunning cage atop the hen house, begging him not to die, my eyes filling up, a big lump in my throat, pretty well maxxed-out with negative life events. I stayed with him, softly calling out his name, watching his breathing. Soon he sat up, head waggling dizzily and unable to stand without falling over. But within the hour he was almost back to normal and screaming for food. Whew!
All that summer most mornings began with taking Burt, perched on my index finger, out to my neighbor’s expansive lawn (vs. my token 10 foot oval of it) for daily flying lessons as I sipped my coffee. I’d launch him with a gentle swing of my hand, but he just controlled his descent. As he got better I’d give him a softball-style underhand toss, and he’d “fly” maybe fifteen or twenty feet. By midsummer Burt was still a poor flyer as dozens of young grackles flew over the house daily. His now nearly adult feathers were a gorgeous shiny gray-black with an iridescent overlay of indigo and violet but the tips of his wing and tail feathers had frayed a little due to rubbing against the bars of his bird cage made vital by my and other cats who’d approach him hungrily. I wondered if he would ever be able to leave home to be with other grackles, even though I’d nearly weaned him from hand feeding by showing him how to catch pill bugs, earthworms, crickets and slugs, and by offering him assorted dry grains and seeds.
Tragedy struck Burt once again one morning during a flying lesson, when he landed on the heat-retaining compost berm on the north side of my house where he spotted and gobbled down a wild mushroom. The next morning the inside of his mouth was a sickly gray, his saliva was gummy, his golden eyes very dilated and his movements slow and jerky. So I gave him fresh water continuously from the eyedropper he had outgrown a few weeks prior to flush him out. He would not eatand seemed very spaced out.was he tripping? If so it was clearly a bad trip. The next morning he was okay but bonded to me even more, downright affectionate, like a tame parrot. I asked him to recall this lesson about mushrooms when he was off in the wilds as a free bird someday.
A few weeks later, during a practice flight, he proudly surprised me by leaping off my finger and flying straight across my yard and the next 2 neighbors’ yards in a long, strong but very low flight. But panic filled me as he crossed Ruth’s yard when one of her cats leapt off the front porch and nabbed him in mid-flight with its front paws, pulling him screaming to the ground. Like an hysterical parent I shot forward bellowing my lungs out at the damned feline who was so freaked by the sight of a deranged and angry maniac bolting his way that he released Burt before biting him and fled into the bushes. Walking back to my yard with my heart thumping and Burt perched on my index finger, I noticed the cat saliva on his wings, relieved that this poor cursed bird had once again cheated fate.
October came, the leaves changed to gold and rust, silvery frost coating my gardens each morning and still Burt the Bird barely flew, never again having repeated his Wright Brotheresque performance. I wondered if he’d be migrating to Florida soon but in my truck with Sergeant and Lovely (the World’s Fattest Cat) and my chickens. Suddenly though he was decidedly untame, pecking at my offered finger instead of jumping onto it as usual. One sunny autumn morning, as thousands of grackles oddly swarmed into the tall trees in my neighborhood, their voices filling the air, I coaxed Burt onto my finger and took him out of his big back yard sleeping cage (big to reduce the fraying of his feather tips) for yet one more disappointing practice flight, knowing that winter was closing in. Suddenly he shot up at a forty five degree angle and landed in the dead fifteen foot tall pollarded elm beside my raspberry patch. Convinced it was a fluke he had for the first time ever gained altitude, I climbed up to rescue him once more. With my outstretched hand just inches from him, Burt burst away in a beautiful arcing upward flight to the big apple tree half a block away!
Back on the ground I was filled with conflicting emotions.pride, joy, relief, uncertainty and a touch of sadness that this might at last be the goodbye I’d hoped for and worked towards all summer. I never wanted Burt to be a pet, just a mature and healthy wild grackle. Parental concern drew me to the apple tree filled with grackles feasting on the red ripe fruits, and I spotted him due to his frayed feather tips right where he’d landed. I called out his name, and as usual he answered back. Without warning there was an explosion of grackles from that tree and towards a distant elm. Grinning and misty-eyed, I spotted one grackle flying lower and slower than the rest of the flock, but damn, he was keeping up!
Back home I read that grackles migrate south each winter too in large gregarious flocks, ending my fears of his freezing to death in Denver, hungry and alone. And all that winter in Florida, whenever grackles flew over making that oh-so-familiar call, I’d check first (usually) to see if anyone was looking then call out “Burt!”, entertaining the fantasy that one would break away from the flock and descend to land in front of me, screaming for ‘Prime Cuts’ and slugs.
I still occasionally wonder where he is, if he is, thankful for the chance to have first saved him then grown to know him. And while I don’t believe in an anthropomorphic God running a cosmic show, I still can’t help but to see Burt as a gift of light and life at a time I was nearly completely filled with pain and darkness. While I will always miss Renee’, Burt’s golden shining eyes reminded me all that sad summer following her death of Life and Love and Innocence.
If that is not a priceless gift, what is?
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Occupy Obama
Wonderful to see the hand picked audience BEHIND him applauding with and for the Occupy mic-check protestors! To think I voted for "Change You Can Believe Him" but his new decree that ANY American can be killed here or abroad (one already killed along with his son with a drone) OR being imprisoned INDEFINITELY without trial if he or a future president declare them an "enemy combantant" is shocking and tyrannical. He now also has the power to "flip the switch" on the internet. Scary times in "the land of the free".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLI6KX-P8f4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLI6KX-P8f4
Giving My Hybrids This Holiday Season
I've been breeding roses since the early 1990s and a few of the fragrant tough roses I've bred for Florida are available own root and organically grown from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium in Texas. They pay me a $1 royalty per rose sold. I've bought many roses from them since 1989 for my two landscape businesses and pleasure and as breeders, and many thousands of the readers in my newspaper columns in The Rocky Mountain News and The St. Pete Times are happy customers of theirs. If you order a rose as a holiday gift they mail the lucky recipient first a nice greeting card letting them know of your purchase. They currently offer my hybrids 'Sarasota Spice', a SUPER fragrant white climber, 'Gold Blush', an apricot, cinnamon-clove scented bushy climber, and 'Gainesville Garnet', a tall flexible caned red climber with a light tea rose and apple perfume. Their number is: 1 800 441 0002
pulled from CNN Ticker on Perry signing marriage pledge
Rudy NYC
Why is it that the party that claims they want government out of their lives wants the government enforcing their religious beliefs? Whatever happened to that 'get government out of lives' rallying cry?
Have you noticed how the liberals and conservatives differ on legislating moral issues? Conservatives are always pushing for legislation that restricts what you can do, while liberals are always pushing for legislation that unrestricts what you can do.
November 21, 2011 05:38 pm at 5:38 pm
Why is it that the party that claims they want government out of their lives wants the government enforcing their religious beliefs? Whatever happened to that 'get government out of lives' rallying cry?
Have you noticed how the liberals and conservatives differ on legislating moral issues? Conservatives are always pushing for legislation that restricts what you can do, while liberals are always pushing for legislation that unrestricts what you can do.
November 21, 2011 05:38 pm at 5:38 pm
Bush Era Deficits Now
Why is he not in jail facing charges of war crimes and treason instead of getting taxpayer-provided pension and health care plans and a book deal?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/bush-tax-cuts-debt_n_864812.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/20/bush-tax-cuts-debt_n_864812.html
A Poem I Wrote In My Early Thirties To Help Me Heal From Chronic Fearfulness
DICTUM
Live a Big Life.
Stretch the skin of each new day
then fill it with the flesh of your dreams.
Find the frozen stone of your fear
and chip it into sparks
to illumine the wonders that you can do.
Tell a Big Truth so bright
that the light of it flies out from your mouth
into the dark places
beneath every stone
behind every building
inside every mind.
Let your words and deeds be trusted things
that others can hold and treasure
as perennial measures of honor.
And every time you do the right thing
a stain will fade from the hearts of your children
their grandparents
and you.
Ask a Big Question.
Never lose the cool hunger of your youthful eyes
learn of the mysteries
inside a lover,
a seed,
even you.
Use your Fear to taste the dark sweetness
reserved for heroes
so that when Death does come
you will have really BEEN,
you will have truly SEEN.
And as you leave that frail human shell,
it a faded chrysalis,
feel the quiver of your new, unseen wings.
John Starnes
Live a Big Life.
Stretch the skin of each new day
then fill it with the flesh of your dreams.
Find the frozen stone of your fear
and chip it into sparks
to illumine the wonders that you can do.
Tell a Big Truth so bright
that the light of it flies out from your mouth
into the dark places
beneath every stone
behind every building
inside every mind.
Let your words and deeds be trusted things
that others can hold and treasure
as perennial measures of honor.
And every time you do the right thing
a stain will fade from the hearts of your children
their grandparents
and you.
Ask a Big Question.
Never lose the cool hunger of your youthful eyes
learn of the mysteries
inside a lover,
a seed,
even you.
Use your Fear to taste the dark sweetness
reserved for heroes
so that when Death does come
you will have really BEEN,
you will have truly SEEN.
And as you leave that frail human shell,
it a faded chrysalis,
feel the quiver of your new, unseen wings.
John Starnes
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
I'm Calling!
If you are as sickened as I am by "peace officer" John Pike assaulting seated peaceful protestors with pepper spray, call him AND his boss Joyce who said she was "proud" of him and his actions!
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2344806
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2344806
Friday, November 18, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Pachel Bel's Canon in D
Until I heard 'Appalachian Spring' this was my favorite symphony since 1987. Years ago I bought a CD of many versions, and this morning, out of the blue, I remembered this touching vocal version that is a tender love song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c13U_MQg11I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c13U_MQg11I
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Thanks To My Tampa Friend Brad For Sending This Cool Video About A Modern Railroad Track
Amazing to consider just HOW many minds had to work together to devise the track itself, THEN impliment it! John
http://dc132.file.qip.ru/flash/player.swf?file=http://dc132.file.qip.ru/img/135218468/cfbba8b3/dlink__2Fdownload_2Fx3UWWolQ_3Ftsid_3D20100723-132526-f1240c3b/preview.flv&image=http://dc132.file.qip.ru/img/135218468/cfbba8b3/aefc0a75_kak_kladut_relsi.flv&logo.link=http://file.qip.ru/video/x3UWWolQ/aefc0a75_kak_kladut_relsi.html&logo.hide=false&logo.file=http://dc132.file.qip.ru/images/logo.png&logo.position=top-left&plugins=sharing&sharing.link=http://file.qip.ru/video/x3UWWolQ/aefc0a75_kak_kladut_relsi.html&sharing.code=
http://dc132.file.qip.ru/flash/player.swf?file=http://dc132.file.qip.ru/img/135218468/cfbba8b3/dlink__2Fdownload_2Fx3UWWolQ_3Ftsid_3D20100723-132526-f1240c3b/preview.flv&image=http://dc132.file.qip.ru/img/135218468/cfbba8b3/aefc0a75_kak_kladut_relsi.flv&logo.link=http://file.qip.ru/video/x3UWWolQ/aefc0a75_kak_kladut_relsi.html&logo.hide=false&logo.file=http://dc132.file.qip.ru/images/logo.png&logo.position=top-left&plugins=sharing&sharing.link=http://file.qip.ru/video/x3UWWolQ/aefc0a75_kak_kladut_relsi.html&sharing.code=
Newest Version of "Saddam Has WMDs/did 9-11/Support Our Troops/Freedom Fries"
Sickening what our nation perennially engages in while lecturing the world about proper international behavior! Oh wait....Iran has HUGE reserves of oil.....
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29627.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29627.htm
Depressed? One More Reason To Get Out In Sunshine Daily....
...and to not use deodorant soaps that kill the bacteria on our skin that actually MAKE Vitamin D for us. Thankfully I quit using those soaps in the 70s.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/mental-health-and-learning-disorders/depression/
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/mental-health-and-learning-disorders/depression/
Friday, November 4, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE!
Now WHY does the 99% feel shafted?
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/03/360185/30-corporations-no-taxes/
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/03/360185/30-corporations-no-taxes/
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
George Harrison's "Isn't It A Pity"
Out of the blue this morning I remembered just how deeply moved I was by this sweepingly beautiful song that came out on the 'All Things Must Pass' album in my senior year at Robinson High. Nice to hear the majesty once again for the first time in years. Enjoy, John
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG-qdc5Z8Hw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG-qdc5Z8Hw
Occupy Tampa Potluck
This Sunday, November 6, at the Curtis Hixon protest site there will be a community potluck from 2-5 PM. Since the folks who spend the nights there are eating a lot of processed foods I will bring fresh greens, fresh citrus, hard boiled eggs, and a hearty stir fry. They ask that dishes be labelled for vegans, folks with allergies etc. It will be nice to hang out with fellow Occupiers again and to see the overnighters enjoying live, wholesome real foods, like kefir and kombucha tea and dried seaweed and salads, especially from our own farms and gardens and kitchens. I will have with me some envelopes of some great seeds I want to share with gardeners I know, or that I meet there.
I gather that the Mayor and Lt. Governor visited them today and that it went well. I hope to see you Sunday.
John
I gather that the Mayor and Lt. Governor visited them today and that it went well. I hope to see you Sunday.
John
No Money For Social Services, Cutting Benefits To Injured Vets....
yet PLENTY of money for the wars of choice for profit they were sent to fight and die in! Whatever happened to "Support Our Troops"?! No WONDER so many vets from branches are joining Occupy!
http://costofwar.com/en/
http://costofwar.com/en/
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Check out this large, stunning, home built Flying Wing Radio Controlled Plane!
Suspended from a wire for flaps check. I LOVE the aerodynamically efficient airfoil cross sections of the wings/body...a real stunner. Almost gives me a boner it is so cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9WZNNyrSF0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9WZNNyrSF0&feature=related
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Bless This Brave Woman!!
The members of this committee have received HUGE "donations" from Wall Street Firms!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i_a3qKZuwU&feature=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i_a3qKZuwU&feature=share
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
How DARE Israel call itself a Jewish state...it is a Zionist state
Once again Israel violates core values of the Jewish faith and simple human decency by stealing MORE land and displacing the native population, both banned by the UN decree that CREATED Israel from stolen land for European Jews.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105605
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105605
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
If you liked Iraq, you'll just love Iran!
John A Starnes
I wonder what False Flag "incident" that the U.S./Israel will cook up to make Americans "want" to support attacking Iran as was done in Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin incident) and Iraq ("Saddam did 9-11, has WMDs")?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29497.htm
I wonder what False Flag "incident" that the U.S./Israel will cook up to make Americans "want" to support attacking Iran as was done in Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin incident) and Iraq ("Saddam did 9-11, has WMDs")?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29497.htm
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Cold Turkey
If I had to choose three favorite John Lennon songs, this would be one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4jS6OI61D4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4jS6OI61D4
Thursday, October 20, 2011
The Cadillac Ciel
This stunner captures the graceful glory of Cadillac's zenith days but moves it into the 21st century. Cadillac had damned well better put this gorgeous car (with FINS as all Cadillacs SHOULD boast) into production soon, either as this convertible or a sleek "four door coupe" as a true flagship to challenge the best from Mercedes and BMW and Lexus!
http://www.topspeed.com/cars/cadillac/2011-cadillac-ciel-concept-ar114610.html
http://www.topspeed.com/cars/cadillac/2011-cadillac-ciel-concept-ar114610.html
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
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