Heidi's Heart

Everyone Needs a Good Editor

2012-01-20T09:27:00.001-08:00

Like a Guard in a Prison Watch Tower

2012-01-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve around midnight, I went out to spread good cheer and magic throughout my neighborhood, ringing sleigh bells and bringing little gifts to the doors and car windshields of strangers and friends alike. If a child happened to be up at that time, he or she would have heard the bells and thought that Santa was passing by. I also handed out my little packets of goodies to passersby, whatever it was they were doing at such an hour. Attached were notes asking them to be extra good in the coming year, because the world needs all the goodness it can get. Ho, ho, ho, Santa.

I put together gift bags for two women I've befriended, both of whom are single and without family in the area. Bags full of treats and things like scarves and mittens that they could use. To deliver one of these I had to pass through Rose Park, which is in the middle of a large roundabout. The park is separated into quandrants by east-west and north-south sidewalks. The sidewalks are well-lit, whereas the rest of the park is only dimly illuminated. So, given that it was late and I was alone, I did the prudent thing and walked through the park on the north-south sidewalk in the bright light.

Halfway through, at the central gazebo, a voice rang out, "STOP! You are in the park illegally. Your photo will be taken." Or something very similar to that. I wasn't afraid, only surprised. I felt as if I were in a prison camp movie, you know, when the prisoner is spotted by the guard in the watch tower, the spotlight is shown on the lone man, and the machine guns open fire on the poor soul. That was the tone of the voice, and at least to my mind, it sure seemed as if the voice were issuing from somewhere above me.

I, of course, did not stop but kept walking. How silly to stop in a park at midnight, one o'clock, when a man's voice calls out to me. No way! I half-expected to be shot. That's the creepy feeling the voice instilled in me.

On my way home, I again went through the park. Again the voice and the flash of a camera, taking a photo of Santa. How ridiculous if I were sent the photo with a fine. I can see the headline: Santa Fined for Spreading Christmas Cheer.

I went back the next day to see if there are any signs giving park hours or stating that it is against some city ordinance to be in the park after sunset. I took photos of the signs that are posted, but none of them state anything about the illegality of being in the park after dark. So how is someone to know?

Let me get this all straight: If you are engaged in criminal activity, do it in the dark areas of the park, away from the cameras, so there will neither be a photo record of what you are doing nor will any passing patrol car be able to see what you're doing. You, criminal, are free of surveillance. But if you're a law-abiding citizen, just trying to get through the park as quickly and safely as possible, and therefore passing through the well-lit areas, your photo will be taken and you'll be treated like a criminal.

Doesn't this perfectly sum up the philosophy of the police state: Let the criminals do what they want because they, like the government, breed fear in the populace. And scare the shit out of law-abiding citizens so they'll be too scared to confront the government.

What in the World Are They Spraying?

2012-01-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

I remember the first time I looked up into the sky and saw white trails crisscrossing each other. I pointed this out to my then-husband and said that sure was weird. Later I looked up and saw that these trails had not dissipated, unlike what happens with contrails, the water vapor that follows jets. So I have been seeing chemtrails for at least 22 years. Some days I see them every day over Southern California. I've even seen them over Nova Scotia.

Yet I am always amazed when I talk to people who have never seen them. Don't people look up into the sky? What's wrong with people when they don't pay attention to what's taking place so clearly right over their heads? Even people I think of as intelligent and people who are readers and observers of human nature. They are oblivious.

Well, finally some journalists have produced a film, primarily of interviews with scientists, that brings this dire situation to light. Around Mt. Shasta in northern California, for example, aluminum levels are up to 375,000 times what is considered safe. Yikes, yes 375,000 times! Fish ponds get a film on them following days of spraying. Barium and strontium are also found in astronomical levels.

I'm sure that once enough people start yelling about chemtrails to their governments, we'll get some ridiculous story about how the aluminum is reflecting heat and sunlight away from the earth to protect the planet from global warming. But I would say there's a much more plausible reason--culling the herd.

Wake up, folks. Start looking overhead. If you're 50 years old or older, like me, you remember how the skies used to look--bright blue with bright white, fluffy clouds. Not this hazy white we have now.

Here's the film "What in the World Are They Spraying?" Watch it and do something before all us "undesirables" die of aluminum toxicity and all the super-rich bastards who planned and executed all this are the only ones left to enjoy this contaminated planet.

More of Slab City

2011-12-31T19:50:00.000-08:00

Please see yesterday's post for the back story on Slab City, California.

Slab City

2011-12-30T19:13:00.000-08:00

For about 20 years now, I have wanted to visit Slab City and Salvation Mountain, located east of the Salton Sea in the southern California desert. (I'll write about Salvation Mtn. in another post.) A week and a half ago, I finally went. So very glad I did. Both are the kind of place you're going to see less and less of as the world becomes more controlled and more uniform. These are places that are certainly not for the conventional and the rule-oriented. These are the last of the free spirits. Perhaps the last free places left in the US.

Slab City occupies a tiny portion of the 631,345 acres on which Camp Dunlap was housed during World War II through the mid-'50s. Opened in 1942, the military installation was dismantled in 1956 and returned to the State of California in 1961. Somewhere around that time, the first civilians started moving in, in their recreational vehicles, trailers, and camper trucks. Slab City gets its name from the slabs of concrete that once served as the foundations for military buildings or driveways of one sort or another. Few are left, and most residents have their rigs on the desert floor, not on concrete. Some of today's residents are snowbirds, people from northern regions who want to escape the cold winters. Some are long-term residents who put up with the harsh summers. There's no electricity, no running water, no local government.

The people who live in Slab City are resourceful, friendly free spirits. They've got at least one trailer converted into a library, three clubs where residents can pay $20 for a year membership and get free coffee every morning. Internet service is $10/month, though it was a bit unclear how that system works. Residents bathe in a natural hot springs and either pay to have water delivered to their private water tanks or go into town (Niland's about three miles away) to get water from the store or gas station.

I had read that Slab City was deep in trash, but Aaron, who went with me, and I sure didn't see that. We saw the usual rusted metal and abandoned vehicles that you see in any remote enclave. Nothing more, nothing less. I didn't see any human or dog waste and no garbage. I wonder how order is maintained out there, seemingly without any police protection. I wonder how the retirees and others on fixed incomes who live there keep the druggies out.

I'm sorry that my photos of Crow, his mules, and his dog don't do them justice. When I first spied him and his crew walking down the road, I felt as if I had entered a time warp. He looked like someone who might have strayed from Pancho Villa's band in the late 1800s. He told me his camp was nearby and that he's been living with his mules for "12, maybe 15 years." He makes extra money by walking the 40-some miles to the Walmart in El Centro, where, for a fee, he poses for photos.

Two of the most remarkable things about Slab City are the abandoned water towers, one painted with corporate logos and dinosaurs, the other with animals in kama sutra poses. The former has a panel composed of colored shot gun shells with the message "Killing for God," a tribute to religious fanatacism. Both works of art give you the idea of the anti-establishment feel to the place.

The pet cemetary was touching. I can only imagine how much these dogs, cats, and rabbits meant to their human friends, many of whom, I'm sure were living out here alone.

I must admit that this life really appeals to me. Living off the grid, removed from government and corporate intrusion. A genuine sense of community and shared vision. If only I didn't need so much healthcare, I believe I'd be heading for Slab City right now.

Caroling for Brandy, 2011

2011-12-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

In general my fellow humans are a puzzlement to me, and caroling brings to the fore one of the many things I just don't understand about most Americans--why they buy into the Madison Avenue (advertising) BS about commercialism and unbridled spending. So many Americans say they hate Christmas because they HAVE to buy so many gifts and because it's so materialistic. Well, it's never been that way for me, and I live in the same country as they do. Caroling to strangers costs nothing, and it spreads far more Christmas cheer than an iPod or store gift card can ever hope to do.

Last year caroling for brandy was put on hiatus because of my kidney transplant surgery. But this year the tradition resumed on Friday, December 23, 7 p.m. We had seven carolers and three passersby who joined us--a first.

Othman had just finished his catering job, so he didn't take the time to go home and change but came in his tuxedo. Handsome as usual but a bit chilly, so I lent him a coat. I told him he was the Lebanese Oscar Wilde. He chuckled and said, "Oh, thanks, Heidi, now people have two reasons to hate me--Arab and gay." I reminded him that Wilde was an engaging personality as he is, and very intelligent too. Gay was certainly not his sole attribute.

Every year the energy is different because we've had as few as three carolers and as many as 10. Also, we go to different houses every year. Always the houses of strangers, unlike every other caroling group I've ever been in that just wants to carol on the doorsteps of people they know. What fun is that? One of the interesting things about our caroling for brandy is that we never know what lurks behind these strangers' doors. Perhaps wonder and awe. Perhaps anger. Perhaps indifference. One never knows.

Though we did receive beer at one house and spiced rum at another, drinking was not the main event. Three of us asked for water instead. Except for one guy who told us to go away and a woman who asked us to leave because she was putting her kids to bed, everyone else was positively thrilled to see us. It was downright magical for many of our listeners. That's such a wonderful feeling, going about and spreading Christmas cheer to unsuspecting strangers.

One groovy redhead in a metallic Egyptian princess mini-skirt invited us upstairs to her apartment. A small gathering was underway, complete with a life-sized manager against one wall. We attempted to place Rasputin in Baby Jesus' crib with the woman's cute, elfin daughter, but he wanted none of that.

I had two "Stille Nacht" solos. "Silent Night" in German. I am forever asking Othman to learn "Silent Night" in Arabic, but so far no luck. And Aaron and some of his buddies could surely do it in Spanish, but they don't.

Next year, folks, listen to your inner voice. Don't follow the herd. Ask everyone you know not to buy you gifts and let them know they're not getting gifts from you. Instead ask them to go caroling at the doors of strangers. Or come up with a loving, giving idea of your own. You might just begin to really enjoy the season.

Wake Up, Obama Apologists

2011-12-19T17:54:00.000-08:00

I submit this video in an attempt, once again, to get Americans and non-Americans alike to see what's going on in this country. I am sure that everything I write and say on the destruction of the Constitution could very well get me labeled a terrorist. But it is in my nature to speak the truth, and so I continue to do so.

Obama signed the military authorization act last week, a provision of which allows for the arrest and indefinite detention of American citizens on American soil who are labeled a terrorist. They can be assassinated on the spot or held indefinitely without trial. Could someone tell me again how that is in any way, shape, or form freedom? Here is a video, with damning evidence against Obama and Congress by their own words--and courageous, Constitution-defending speech from Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is truly the only person running for president who upholds and defends the Constitution and the rule of law. To vote for anyone else is to be complicit in the attack on democracy. Actually, the US is a democracy in name only. Remember, Egyptians, how I warned you not to accept any help from the US in forming your democracy. Well, hopefully democracy will be preserved in some corner of this world, but certainly don't look to the US as the standard bearer.

Obama Poised to Trash 4th Amendment

2011-12-13T16:25:00.000-08:00

If you've been following the news at all, you know that Obama has been claiming he would veto the Military Authorization Bill because it contains language that would allow for the arrest and indefinite detention of American citizens without trial. That's all bullshit. He is ready to sign it at any moment and with language that would have safeguarded due process stripped from the bill by HIS request. If you are still thinking that Obama is "doing the best he can" to help the country, this has got to make you change your mind. Or do you have to wait until your brother, sister, mother, father, lover, neighbor or yourself are carted off to prison without charge for the rest of your days?

My Kidney's First Birthday!

2011-12-09T10:11:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was one year since my kidney transplant. Hooray! Life without nightly dialysis and a foot or so of tubing sticking out of my mid-section is so wonderful.

My neighbors, Janet and Dana, and their dog, Arrow, greeted me at my doorstep early yesterday morning with a present for Pinky, the name I gave my new kidney because the surgeon said that when he placed it in my body it "pinked up." Janet was part of the donor chain that involved four patients and four donor, none of whom were matched to their friend or family member but who were matched to a stranger. So, Janet donated her kidney on my behalf to someone in Virginia, and I received a kidney from a woman who was not matched to her husband but she was to me. Her husband received a kidney from a man in Pennsylvania who simply wanted to donate to the next person on the list. The person in Virgina's friend or family member (we never heard from him/her) donated to a man in San Francisco. Thereby four lives were saved, whereas just a short time ago, we would have died for lack of a compatible donor. What a beautiful chain of life.

So, Dana and Janet gave me this beautiful, pink glass and glitter seahorse. It is so me! I have it hanging from a lamp next to a window so it can catch the sunlight.

I also happened to have an appointment with my dear nephrologist, Dr. Butman, yesterday. I brought wine glasses and a small bottle of Martinelli's sparkling apple juice to the appointment. Unfortunately, in my excitement, I dropped the Martinelli's bottle and it shattered over his office floor. Aw, oh, well, the spirit of celebration was in the room nonetheless.

So, Pinky, congratulations on making it through your first year. Many, many more to come.

Message from Anonymous--No Comment Necessary

2011-12-07T20:09:00.001-08:00

Feeling Like a Jew at the Beginning of the Third Reich

2011-11-29T19:24:00.001-08:00

When I was about eight years old, I had a vision that one day the US would become a dictatorship. In the early '80s I started looking into government spooky business--the CIA staging coupes and running drugs, the FBI spying on citizens, illegal wars made under false allegations. Then came 9/11. The first moment I heard the news, the message went through my mind: "They've gone and done it." And I didn't mean the "Arab terrorists." Since 9/11 there has been a wholesale assault on the Constitution, the rule of law, freedom of speech, and the right to a trial, among other things. Since Obama's reign has begun, the pace of the police state has accelerated.

Under Obama's watch, the Patriot Act has been strengthened, Guantanamo prisoners still have not had a trial, and Americans have been labeled and tried as terrorists because they spoke against the government, challenged the IRS, and posed as an oilman at a government give-away of public lands rich in oil, timber, and minterals. Then there was the alleged hunting down of Osama bin Laden and his slaying without a trial, followed by the slaying of three American citizens just because the government said they were terrorists--again no trial, no airing of the "evidence" in a public forum. Also, drone activity and killings have grossly increased under Obama. And then today and yesterday, the Congress and Senate are voting on the Military Appropriations Bill, which would make law what Obama proposed in 2009. In the height of hypocracy, especially for a self-proclaimed Constitutional lawyer, Obama pronounced, in sight of the original document at the National Archives, that people could be incarcerated indefinitely on the suspicion that they might someday commit an act of terrorism. Oh, my gawd! So we've gone from people being indefinitely detained without a trial to people being indefinitely detained before they've even done anything wrong. Here's the video of the 2009 speech.

The appropriations bill was not openly debated in either the Congress or Senate, merely discussed in committee, not in public view. It is beyond the pale that Obama took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. He and the Congress and Senate should have been labeled as the biggest enemies to the Constitution.

I have also read of firms within the killing industry and arms of the military that are developing systems that can "read" a person's brain activity to determine if he's having hostile thoughts. No doubt having hostile thoughts because of the survelliance of his thoughts!

Though I've warned people about the coming dictatorship for at least 20 years, now when I say something, I'm no longer considered crazy or over-reacting. Even people who six months ago were skeptical now see it plainly before their eyes. Everything is in place for a Stallinist US.

Just as the Jews were given plenty of warning signs that things were heading in a bad direction for them at the beginning of the Third Reich, so, too, Americans have been given plenty of warning signs. Some Jews who had the money to leave and/or family outside Germany got out in time. But a whole lot more didn't. Some probably thought it wasn't possible to get THAT bad.

I Didn't "Pull a Paterno"

2011-11-23T13:29:00.001-08:00

In case you've been away from all media for the past couple weeks, Joe Paterno was the legendary Penn State football coach who failed to report a friend and former assistant coach's child molestation to police. I have been outraged about this entire incident, especially with a former collegue who claims he's been a good journalist by "seeing both sides of the story" by defending Paterno.

UGH! I could go on and on about this.
1) The man has not worked as a journalist for more than three decades.
2) His supposed objectivity seems more to me like upholding the status quo and the position of safety, of fitting in. In this case he thinks he's seeing both sides, but when it comes to controversial ideas like 9/11 or the real reasons for our wars in the Middle East, he refuses to even entertain the evidence and the troubling questions. Finally, after years of pestering him about 9/11, he finally admitted that the USG could have planned it all, but that's "nothing new, government's are doing that all the time." But my God, that doesn't make it right! If that's not something a journalist should take a stand about, what is?
3) Like the greatest American journalist of all time, Edward R. Murrow, knew, there are times when a journalist must take a stand, as he did against Sen. Joe McCarthy and his anti-democratic, unconstitutional Committee on un-American Activities, which saw Communists everywhere. If journalists had taken a stand against all the illegal, immoral things the US government has done in the last decade or so, the country and the entire world would be a lot better off. (Think: torture, illegal wars, the murder of foreign civilians, the recent murder of three American citizens without trial, the so-called Patriot Act, illegal wiretapping and other surveillance, the police state tactics of the Dept. of Homeland Security and most visibly the TSA, on and on and on...).

Not just journalists but citizens in general need to take a stand, especially when children are involved. This ex-colleague of mine said that he could see why Paterno would not want to make a fuss about the molestation. He wanted to protect his reputation, his job, the football program's prestige, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, Sure I can see all that, but none of that makes what he did or didn't do a moral decision. If every time someone doing the upright and moral thing knew he was going to be rewarded and honored, everyone would do the right thing. A moral decision is when you know there might be negative repercussions for yourself and yet you do what is right, not necessarily for yourself, but for another. This ex-collegue seemed not to understand what I was talking about.

There have been plenty of times I put my safety in danger to help a child or a battered woman, calling the police or social services on negligent parents who let their diapered girl roam barefoot down and across the street, on a mother who yelled mercilessly at her toddler, on a former husband who was ripping down the door of his ex-wife's apt. while screaming he was going to kill her and her boyfriend, and on a neighborhood jerk who was in the process of killing his wife. The last guy drove his car full speed ahead at me when I was crossing the street. I yelled at him, "Good one, you asshole. Run me down in the middle of the street in broad daylight with a bunch of witnesses." He never bothered me again. I also called the father of four brothers who ran to my apt. when their mother was being beaten by her boyfriend. I also stood up to a nextdoor neighbor who let his kids play in my yard and bang their ball against my windows on a daily basis. He took a swing at me. I dodged it. These and other incidents didn't get me any rewards or kudos. On the contrary, they put me in danger. But I never thought not to take action.

That's why, when driving down a narrow, congested street on Saturday, I took action to save a young child. A girl not more than one was standing in the road. Other drivers were carefully going around her as if she were a stray dog. I immediately parked my car where it was, as there were no close parking spots. I stopped traffic and took the girl by the hand, leading her to the sidewalk. I motioned to a man pulling out of his driveway, and he motioned to the house next door. The gate to the yard was wide open. There were a few steps to the front door, so I lifted the girl and carried her. She was so calm with me, so willing to have me take her anywhere I wanted to go. In short, the kind of kid you could walk off with and you'd never see her again. I had to bang on the door to get someone's attention. Finally, a teenager came to the door. "Your daughter was out in traffic," I said. He said his brother was supposed to be watching her. "Well, he wasn't, and the gate was wide open." That poor, little girl. She's probably ignored all the time.

So the next time you see a child in danger or being abused, don't pull a Paterno and do nothing. I wish that everyone would just act instinctually when they see a child who needs help. Act without thinking. Act solely to protect the child.

2011-11-20T14:37:00.001-08:00

For quite some time, I have been taking the postage-paid envelopes from banks and sending them back with junk mail. This video takes the protest a few steps further. If you aren't a protester but want to show your suppport for the Occupy movement, this is an easy way to do that.

A Few Thoughts on Recent News Events

2011-11-19T17:45:00.001-08:00

To offset the sad truth of the following news events, I will pepper my comments with beautiful photos from Nova Scotia.

* Doesn't anyone else but me think it's hypocritical that the US government finally backed the protesters in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, and Libya as democracy-seeking movements, yet the Occupy protesters in this country are being forced to disperse through police violence and no one demands that Obama step down because of the anti-democratic tactics of police forces within his nation? How's this for our new national slogan:

DEMOCRACY, JUST NOT IN MY BACKYARD

* I got a major insight into the Arab Spring when I heard that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was talking about how the US has to "help" Egypt and other countries in the region with their "burgeoning democracies" by opening them up to the glories of so-called "free trade." Oh, so that's what this was all about! Opening the Middle East to more of the tentacles of the multi-national companies and their bankster friends. Evil shrouded in goodwill, once again. I advised my Egyptian friends from the get-go that they needed to stay as far away from the US as possible. No doubt the US government is supporting the current military dictatorship in Egypt just as it supported Mubarak for 30 years.

* The stationing of 2,500 elite troops (US Marines) in Australia--this is a travesty on so many levels.
1) We have no money for the poor, the sick, the elderly; we have no money for education or infrastructure; but damn it, we always have money for weapons and for killing, don't we!
2) This is a clearly provocative act against the Chinese. How do you think the Pentagon would feel if China established a military base in Brazil? It makes me ill how the USG is always doing things that it would never let anyone else get away with--anyone else except Israel, that is.
3) We've farmed out the electronics of our weapons systems to China, leaving us wide open to sabotage. Why any country would farm out its weapons manufacturing to another country is beyond me. Unless, of course, the US wants an incident that it can blame on someone else. That is always a very real possibility.
4) Why not bring these troops home and have them build bridges or pave roads, something useful for once!
5) Is the US attempting to start World War III? Sure seems like the way to go about it.
6) All this from the president who received the Nobel Peace Prize. What a cruel, cynical joke that is.

* The media have been reporting Obama's "free trade" talks with Asia, a move, they say, that will create American jobs and increase our exports. Oh, my gawd! I called my senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and told their aides, "Doesn't anyone remember NAFTA? That's exactly the B.S. we were told then." And what did NAFTA do? Kill good-paying American jobs, destroy cities like Detroit, move factories to Mexico, and decrease the American standard of living without making an improvement in the lives of those who took our jobs. Free trade is just a give-away to the huge corporations and the greedy banksters. It has not helped the average Joe.

A State-Owned Bank for California?

2011-11-12T17:40:00.001-08:00

Following is an article by Ellen Brown, author of "Web of Debt" and a blog by the same name, that was republished on The People's Voice. Though this was written in May about the California legislature's idea to form a blue ribbon committee to study the feasibility of a state-owned bank, and though Gov. Jerry Brown just vetoed the AB 750, he did say that the legislature's own banking committee should study the idea instead. Go to this website to read the article with links.

The following article discusses the good sense of a state borrowing from its own bank rather than from Wall Street banksters. I have long known about the only state in the nation--good, old North Dakota--that has a state-owned bank and how utterly successful it is, investing in the people and businesses of the state, not in fairyland derivitives and laundered drug cartel money, as is the case with BofA, Citigroup, and others of their ilk.

This article is well worth reading. If you're a Californian, push your state reps to give this a go-ahead. It would solve our debt crisis and keep money in the state, away from the Federal Reserve and from the evil banksters. And if you're a citizen of another state or country, push for local control in your own land. Let's bring the banksters down! Let's get back to the notion that banks are for the benefit of the people, not the elite.

WHAT A PUBLIC BANK COULD MEAN FOR CALIFORNIA

May 20th, 2011

Ellen Brown\

California is the eighth largest economy in the world, and it has a debt burden to match. It has outstanding general obligation bonds and revenue bonds of $158 billion, largely incurred for infrastructure. Of this tab, $70 billion is just for interest. Over $7 billion of California’s annual budget goes to pay interest on the state’s debt.

As large as California’s liabilities are, they are exceeded by its assets, which are sufficient to capitalize a bank rivaling any in the world. That’s the idea behind Assembly Bill 750, introduced by Assemblyman Ben Hueso of San Diego, which would establish a blue ribbon task force to consider the viability of creating the California Investment Trust, a state bank receiving deposits of state funds. Instead of relying on Wall Street banks for credit – or allowing a Wall Street bank to enjoy the benefits of lending its capital – California may decide to create its own, publicly-owned bank.

On May 2, AB 750 moved out of the Banking and Finance Committee with only one nay vote and is now on its way to the Appropriations Committee. Three unions submitted their support for the bill – the California Nurses Association, the California Firefighters, and the California Labor Council. The state bank idea also got a nod from former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in his speech at the California Democratic Convention in Sacramento the previous day.

Why a State Bank?

California joins eleven other states that have introduced bills to form state-owned banks or to study their feasibility. Eight of these bills were introduced just since January, including in Oregon, Washington State, Massachusetts, Arizona, Maryland, New Mexico, Maine and California. Illinois, Virginia, Hawaii and Louisiana introduced similar bills in 2010. For links, dates and text, see here.

All of these bills were inspired by the Bank of North Dakota (BND), currently the nation’s only state-owned bank. While other states are teetering on bankruptcy, the state of North Dakota continues to report surpluses. On April 20, the BND reported profits for 2010 of $62 million, setting a record for the seventh straight year. The BND’s profits belong to the citizens and are produced without taxation.

The BND partners with local banks in providing much-needed credit for local businesses and homeowners. It also helps with state and local government funding. When North Dakota went over-budget a few years ago, according to the bank’s president Eric Hardmeyer, the BND acted as a rainy day fund for the state. And when a North Dakota town suffered a massive flood, the BND provided emergency credit lines to the city. Having a cheap and readily available credit line with the state’s own bank reduces the need for massive rainy-day funds (which are largely invested in out-of-state banks at very modest interest).

The Center for State Innovation, based in Madison, Wisconsin, was commissioned to do detailed analyses for the Washington and Oregon bills. Their conclusion was that a state-owned bank on the model of the Bank of North Dakota would have a substantial positive impact in those states, increasing employment, new lending, and government revenue.

What California Could Do with Its Own Bank

Banks create “bank credit” from capital and deposits, as explained here. Under existing capital requirements, $8 in capital can be leveraged into $100 in loans, drawing on the liquidity provided by the deposits to clear the outgoing checks. Assuming a 10% reserve requirement (the amount in deposits normally held in reserve), $8 in capital and $100 in deposits are sufficient to create $90 in loans ($100 less $10 held back for reserves).

In North Dakota (population 647,000), the Bank of North Dakota has $2.7 billion in deposits, or $4000 per capita. The majority of these deposits are drawn from the state’s own revenues. The bank has nearly the same sum ($2.6 billion) in outstanding loans.

California has 37 million people. If the California Investment Trust (CIT) performed like the BND, it might amass $148 billion in deposits. With $12 billion in capital, this $148 billion could generate $133 billion in credit for the state (subtracting 10%, or 14.8 billion, to satisfy reserve requirements).

There are various ways the state could come up with the capital, but one possibility that would not require new taxes or debt would be to simply draw on the treasurer’s existing pooled money investment account, which currently contains $65 billion in accumulated revenues dispersed to a variety of funds. This money is already invested; a portion could just be shifted to the CIT. Since it would be an investment in equity rather than an expenditure, it would not cost the state money. Rather, it would make money for the state. In recent years, the Bank of North Dakota has had a return on equity of 25-26%. Compare the 25-30% lost in the two years following the 2008 banking crisis by CalPERS, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which invested its money on Wall Street.

There are many inviting possibilities for applying the CIT’s $133 billion in credit power, but here is one easy alternative that illustrates the cost-effectiveness of the approach. Assume the bank invested $133 billion in municipal bonds at 5% interest. This would give the state close to $7 billion annually in interest income – nearly enough to pay the interest tab on the state’s debt.

Choosing Prosperity

What California can do with its own bank, other states can do as well, on a scale proportionate to their populations and economies. North Dakota has a population that is less than 1/10th the size of Los Angeles; the BND produced $62 million in revenue last year and $2.2 billion in loans. Larger states could generate much more.

We have been trapped in an austere neo-liberal economic model in which the only alternatives are to slash services, raise taxes, and sell off public assets, all in a futile attempt to “balance the budget” in a shrinking economy. We need to start thinking outside the box. We can choose prosperity, and public banks are a key tool for achieving that end.

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http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/feds_states.php

Ellen Brown developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust.” She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. She is president of the Public Banking Institute, http://PublicBankingInstitute.org, and has websites at http://WebofDebt.com and http://EllenBrown.com.

Nova Scotian Beauty

2011-11-06T16:54:00.000-08:00

I write about police brutality in Oakland or how human rights have not improved in Egypt since Mubarak's ouster or the US government's plans to use drones to spy on everyday Americans and read their "hostile intentions." But I sometimes get so weary of all the evil in the world that I just need to take a break.

Instead here are a few beauty shots from Nova Scotia, Canada. I was in the province most of October.

Ecuador, Greece, and Nigeria

2011-10-27T07:58:00.001-07:00

Welcome, visitors from Ecuador, Greece, and Nigeria. All countries I have never visited. Ah, there is so much of the world I have not yet seen.

I appreciate your visits in the past week and welcome others from any land.

Hooray for Canadian Bus Drivers!

2011-10-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

Today I witnessed something that no longer occurs in the United States. A bus passenger who was saying hateful things on his cell phone was reprimanded by the driver and told to keep it down. In the US, rude and obnoxious people unfortunately get away with creating noise pollution wherever they go because no one has the guts to tell them to be quiet. Hooray for Canadians and their standards of decency.

This particular passenger was talking loudly on his cell, telling his friend that he tried to start a fight at the bus stop, I guess with the black man who was waiting there with his wife/girlfriend and young child. The passenger said the man wouldn't fight, but that he'd "blow his brains out." The "tough guy" wasn't so tough after all. He complied with the driver's request, without fuss.

In the US, people avoid getting involved, plus they don't want to "hurt anyone's feelings." This is so crazy. When I have encountered people who are polluting my space with their language, I've told them, without waiting for an authority figure to intervene.

One time was on a city bus in LA. A young man was cursing every second word--and loudly. I politely said that he needs to keep his foul language to himself. No one else is enjoying it. He gave me some attitude, but he did quiet down.

The other time I can remember, I was attempting to enjoy a cup of coffee at my favorite coffeehouse. Two men in their late 20s were saying "f--k" this and "f--k" that, and "I f--ked her" and I want to "f--k" this other one. On and on. I first gave them a cold stare, but when that didn't work, I told them that if they want to talk like that, go somewhere where they can be alone, so they don't disturb other people, but don't do it here because I'm trying to enjoy a cup of coffee in peace. The two guys gave me more attitude than the kid had. When they wouldn't stop, I said I'd ask the owner to intervene, as I was sure he didn't want their kind of patron keeping others away. They left, thank goodness.

I really wish that more people would get involved. I know some are scared, and friends have told me that I could get into trouble calling these social pariahs out. We are all in this together. If people need some instruction in how to behave, whether they are 14 or 64, why not educate them? They obviously didn't learn how to act from their parents. Somebody's got to do it.

I'm in the Woods

2011-10-17T07:07:00.000-07:00

For the past two weeks and for the next two weeks, I'm staying in my cabin in the Nova Scotian woods, near the Bay of Fundy. My cabin has electricity but no phone, cell phone or internet connections. The only reason I'm posting this is that I drove into town this morning and am using my friend Helene's internet access.

I have been taking some wonderful photos of the fall leaves, but, silly me, I forgot the cable that links my digital camera to my laptop at home, so I cannot transfer photos. I'll have to post these upon my return to So Cal. For now, you'll have to let this summer-time photo of my cabin suffice.

Now OK for Government to Murder US Citizens Without Trial

2011-10-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

Two American citizens were killed yesterday in Yemen by US drones. Why? Because the government said they were terrorists. They did not stand trial. They were not convicted of terrorism. They were labeled terrorists and "taken out." Yes, "taken out" was the phrase used by the news media, even by NPR. You know who else takes out people? The Mafia--by all accounts a terrorist organization.

Now I'm not saying that Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan were as pure as the newfallen snow. It's that the US Constitution requires due process. On NPR, a "legal expert" was quoted as saying that the government labeling these men terrorists is in itself due process.

What! My God, what kind of circular logic is that! So if the government says you're a terrorist or I'm a terrorist, well, hell, that's good enough reason for us to be taken out. That is actually what is known as summary execution, as was famously captured in 1966 by Vietnam War photographer Eddie Adams (see below). In the photo, police chief General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executes Vietcong prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém.

Let me interject a little civics lesson: In a trial, the government (known as "the people"--what a joke, huh!) presents its evidence, and the defense (the accused) presents his/her case. The evidence is aired before a jury. The jury then decides if the person is innocent or guilty. It seems as if the Obama administration has cut out this inconvenient, time-consuming step. Now the government merely has to say someone's guilty, skip the trial, not hear the accused's side of the story, and murder him. History buffs, does this make you think of Stalinist Russia or Maoist China? I'm sure plenty of other regimes also come to mind.

And you realize, I hope, that one of the Patriot Act's definitions of a terrorist is someone who disrupts commerce. What a vague, broad definition. Under those terms, basically anyone who protests in front of a store, or the Occupy Wall Street protesters, could be labeled a terrorist. So, too, I suppose, could someone who encourages people to refrain from buying anything from corporations and to instead buy used, pick up freebies in the alley, make or grow your own, or barter. In short, pretty much anyone could be labeled a terrorist.

The other thing I have to say about the CIA's drone murders of Americans is that isn't it so convenient! To me, it seems as if the CIA is simply cleaning house, bumping off anyone who might tell all kinds of secrets about US government spooky business, if he were put on trial in an open courtroom. Boy, we sure couldn't have that now, could we! All these "terrorists" spilling the beans about the real story behind 9/11, the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions and occupations, the so-called terrorist threats to the US since 9/11, on and on and on. That's why Osama bin Laden never stood trial, and why Saddham Hussein's trial was a sham.

Yet, sad to say, most of my countrymen do not see it this way. When asked by MSNBC, Do you think the U.S. should kill citizens overseas without affording them due process? of 38,877 votes so far, 79.8% said, "Yes, if they are plotting terrorist attacks against the U.S." Only 18.5% said, "No, U.S. citizens have the right to be tried in a court of law regardless of what they are accused of doing."

To the Yes people, I would ask, So, in other words, you're simply taking the government's word that they are plotting terrorist attacks? And this is the same government that's lied to you about everything from the reasons for invading Iraq and Afghanistan to 9/11 to helping Main Street not Wall Street to getting rid of lobbyists in Washington to closing Gitmo? My goodness, if you are that gullible, how do you go through life? Do you still believe in fairy tales too? Actually, I'd be more willing to believe a fairy tale than I would anything coming out of Washington or the mainstream media.

Welcome, Czech Republic and Portugal!

2011-09-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Visitors from the Czech Republic and Portugal happened upon my blog. Welcome!

Another two countries I have wanted to visit. Just waiting for an upturn in the American economy so that I can afford to travel or a handsome, rich guy to sweep me off my feet and whisk me to the far corners of the world.

Hmmm... I wonder which scenario is more likely. I'd say the odds of either one occurring any time soon are slim to nil. Oh, well...

Obama at the United Nations: The Arrogant Voice of Imperialism

2011-09-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Here's another thoughtful and thought-provoking article from Centre for Research on Globalization.

Obama at the United Nations: The Arrogant Voice of Imperialism
By Bill Van Auken

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26721

Global Research, September 22, 2011

President Obama delivered an empty and arrogant sermon to the United Nations Wednesday, laced with platitudes about "peace" that were designed to mask Washington's predatory policies.

The American president received a tepid response from the assembled heads of state, foreign ministers and UN delegates. Not a single line in his speech evoked applause. The novelty of two years ago, when Obama made his first appearance before the body posing as the champion of multilateral-ism in contrast to Bush, has long since worn off. As the world quickly learned, changing the occupant of the White House did little to shift the direction of American foreign policy or curb the spread of American militarism.

The immediate purpose of Obama's 47-minute address was to supplement a behind-the-scenes campaign of bullying and intimidation aimed at forcing the Palestinian Authority to drop its plan to seek a UN Security Council vote on recognition of Palestine as a sovereign member state.

Washington has vowed to veto any bid for Palestinian statehood if it comes to the Security Council, a move that would only underscore the real character of US imperialist policy in the Middle East and the hypocrisy of its claims to identify with the revolutionary upheavals of the Arab masses.

The speech and Obama's defense of the veto threat served to accomplish the same purpose, further diminishing the US president's popularity in the Arab world. According to a recent poll, his favorable rating in the region has fallen from roughly 50 percent when he took office to barely 10 percent, even lower than George W. Bush in his second term.

Obama rushed from the podium at the General Assembly hall to a meeting and joint appearance with Benyamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister praised Obama's remarks and made it clear that the two are working on a joint strategy to muscle Palestine Authority head Mahmoud Abbas into dropping the statehood bid. It was reported Thursday that there were efforts to get the Palestinian delegation to make an entirely symbolic plea for recognition, while agreeing to postpone any vote until after the resumption of US-brokered negotiations with Israel.

There have been two decades of such talks, which have achieved nothing, while Israel has relentlessly expanded Zionist settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. Since the onset of negotiations in 1991, the number of settlers has more than doubled, while the West Bank has been internally divided by settlements, security roads and checkpoints as well as the apartheid security wall separating it from Israel.

Obama's remarks in the UN speech represented an even further accommodation to Israel compared to his proposal in May for a resumption of talks, which he then said should be based upon pre-1967 borders with "mutually agreed swaps." That statement, which implicitly supported Israel's demand to retain existing settlements, merely reiterated the official policy of the US government since the Clinton administration. Nonetheless, the mere reference to borders provoked a storm of criticism from Netanyahu, the Israeli right, and the Republican Party.

In his speech to the UN, Obama mentioned neither the 1967 borders nor any proposal to halt the expansion of settlements on the West Bank. Instead, he presented the basis for proposed negotiations as: "Israelis must know that any agreement provides assurances for their security. Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state." As the rest of the US president's remarks made clear, both those conditions are to be dictated by Israel.

While behind the scenes US officials are reportedly threatening the Palestinian Authority with cutting off all US aid if it goes ahead with the request for recognition, in his speech Obama described a turn to the UN as a "short cut" that would accomplish nothing.

Dismissing the role of the institution that he had rhetorically praised at the outset of his remarks, Obama said, "Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN-if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now." Indeed, scores of UN resolutions on the plight of the Palestinians have been repudiated and ignored by both Israel and Washington. The US has used its veto in the Security Council to kill scores more.

Evidently responding to the right-wing criticism of Republican presidential hopefuls, who have denounced him for "throwing Israel under the bus" with his 1967 borders remark last May, Obama went out of his way to dismiss the historical grievances of the Palestinian people, while identifying unconditionally with Israel.

Of the Palestinians, he said only that they deserved a "sovereign state of their own" and they "have seen that vision delayed for too long."

This was followed by a declaration that "America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakable, and our friendship with Israel is deep and enduring." He continued by describing Israel as a country "surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it," whose "citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses." He referred to Israel as a "small country" in a world "where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map." And he wound up by invoking the Holocaust.

"These facts cannot be denied," he said. One would never guess from this selection of "facts" that some 4 million Palestinians live under the oppression and constant violence of Israeli occupation, and that another 5 million are refugees, driven from their homeland.

Nor for that matter, would one have any inkling of the constant wars that "little Israel," with its elastic borders, has waged against its neighbors. Among the more recent are the 2006 war against Lebanon, which left 1,200 civilians dead and much of the country's infrastructure in ruins, and the 2008 "Operation Cast Lead," against Gaza, which claimed the lives of nearly 1,500 Palestinians, compared to 13 Israelis.

With a tone of exasperation, Obama acknowledged that "for many in this hall," the Palestinian question was the issue that "stands as a test" for Washington's claims to champion human rights and democracy.

In reality, however, the rest of the speech proved just as revealing in terms of the hypocrisy and imperialist interests that pervade Washington's policies all over the world.

The pretense laid out at the beginning of Obama's speech was that the US government is engaged in "the pursuit of peace in an imperfect world." The address included a trite refrain, repeated three times: "peace is hard."

Fleshing out this theme, Obama pointed to the partial troop withdrawals from the eight-and-a-half-year-old war and occupation in Iraq and the decade-old war in Afghanistan. He bragged that by the end of the year, only 90,000 US troops will be deployed in these wars.

Washington's aim, he said, was to forge an "equal partnership" with Iraq "strengthened by our support for Iraq-for its government and its security forces," and an "enduring partnership" with "the people of Afghanistan." He claimed that these changes proved that "the tide of war is receding."

The rhetoric about "partnership", however, refers to the plans being pursued by the White House and the Pentagon to keep US troops, CIA operatives and American bases in both countries, long past the dates set for US withdrawal. US imperialism is determined to continue pursuing the goals that underlay the wars from the outset: hegemonic control over the strategic energy reserves of the Caspian Basin and the Persian Gulf.

Obama then preceded to extol the "Arab Spring," declaring: "One year ago, the hopes of the people of Tunisia were suppressed... One year ago, Egypt had known one president for nearly thirty years."

Needless to say, the American president made no reference as to whose support had kept the dictators Ben Ali and Mubarak in power for so long, nor to the current attempts by Washington to salvage the regimes they headed and suppress the mass popular movements that forced their ouster.

From there, he proceeded to praise the NATO war in Libya, declaring that, by authorizing this imperialist intervention, "the United Nations lived up to its charter."

In reality, the war represented a fundamental violation of the tenets of this charter, which proclaimed the "sovereign equality" of all member states, demanded that all disputes be settled peacefully and insisted that member states "refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

In the case of Libya, the US and its NATO allies, proclaiming the threat of an imminent massacre in Benghazi, procured a resolution authorizing "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. It utilized this resolution as a cover for a war of regime change. The NATO powers carried out thousands of air strikes and sent in special forces troops to organize, train and arm a "rebel" force for a war that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Libyans. The aim of this war, like those in Afghanistan and Iraq before it, is domination of strategic energy reserves-as well as inserting Western military power in the midst of a region facing revolutionary turmoil.

"This is how the international community is supposed to work," Obama declared in relation to the Libyan operation, calling to mind Lenin's description of the League of Nations, the UN's predecessor, as a "thieves' kitchen."

Turning to uncompleted business and potential imperialist interventions yet to come, Obama condemned Iran for failing "to recognize the rights of its own people" and calling for the UN impose new sanctions against Syria. "Will we stand with the Syrian people, or with their oppressors?" he demanded.

Given the bloody events in Yemen, where over 100 civilians have been massacred over the past three days, Obama could not completely ignore the upheavals against US-backed regimes in the region. In Yemen, however, there was no invocation to stand against oppressors, merely a call to "seek a path that allows for a peaceful transition."

Even more tepid was his reference to Bahrain, the headquarters of the US 5th Fleet. "America is a close friend of Bahrain," he declared. Here, where thousands have been killed, tortured, imprisoned, beaten and fired from their jobs for demanding democratic rights, he proposed merely a "meaningful dialogue," while justifying the repression by suggesting that Bahrainis were confronting "sectarian forces that would tear them apart."

The rest of the speech consisted of a hollow and unconvincing recitation of the usual platitudes. These included the elimination of nuclear weapons-with Washington, sitting on the greatest nuclear arsenal in the world and the only state ever to use such weapons lecturing North Korea and Iran. He inveighed against poverty and disease and insisted on the need "not to put off action that a changing climate demands." Thrown in were calls for the rights of women as well as gays and lesbians.

On the decisive issue facing millions of working people in the US and across the globe, Obama acknowledged that economic "recovery is fragile", that "too many people are out of work" and that "too many are struggling to get by." Referring to the multi-trillion-dollar bailout of the banks, he boasted, "We acted together to avert a depression in 2009" and insisted that "We must take urgent and coordinated action once more."

But as with all the other issues raised in the speech, the American president had no "coordinated action," no program, and no policy to propose. In the final analysis, Obama's empty rhetoric is a direct expression of the profound crisis gripping American capitalism and its ruling financial elite as it confronts economic collapse and the threat of revolutionary upheaval.

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9/11: The Official Conspiracy Theory in Five Minutes

2011-09-22T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the official 9/11 conspiracy theory in just under five minutes. You know, the theory about 19 guys with box cutters...

Article Published in Westways Magazine

2011-09-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

An article I wrote on traveling with medical equipment was published in the September issue of Westways magazine, which goes out to hundreds of thousands of Automobile Clubs of Southern California members every month. Even if you don't receive the magazine at home, you probably see it in a doctor's office waiting room.

What makes me so happy about this article is how many people it is inspiring. I have heard from bloggers, activists, patients, and patient rights organizations--all positive. That's one of the best things about being a writer: knowing you've inspired someone.

The Best Therapy

The rigors and rewards of traveling with a disability

By Heidi Nye | Illustration by Neil Webb

Westways September 2011

When my kidneys failed in January 2009, I figured my traveling days were over. Hooked up to a dialysis machine for 10 hours a night, I sometimes found just traveling from my bed to the bathroom a daunting journey. Yet I longed for adventures.

So as soon as my condition stabilized, I flew to Nova Scotia to spend six weeks in a cabin near the Bay of Fundy, hiking in the woods with my dog.

After that trip, I stayed with friends in Paris and the French countryside, took a solo road trip along the California coast, and made my maiden journey to Las Vegas to see if the reality matched the hype.

Getting to the destinations was not all fun and games. Prior to each trip, I had to arrange for delivery of a 30-pound box of dialysis solution for each day away. At the airport, I was invariably patted down and made to partially undress so that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) inspectors could examine my insulin pump and dialysis tubing. My machine was too sensitive to risk checking, so I’d lug its 40 pounds onto the plane. And one of my checked bags was devoted to the surgical masks and other medical paraphernalia required to perform dialysis.

I found the trips to be worth every bit of the effort. I learned that besides the pluses that naturally come to any traveler—new experiences and learning opportunities—travel can empower you if you have a physical challenge. At home, you often must put your trust in doctors; when you travel, you transform into someone who can rely on their own resources to navigate unfamiliar lands. You can then take this newfound confidence back with you to better negotiate the rough terrain of health-care systems.

Travel emphasizes the big, wide world, making it easier to not focus on your infirmities. The aches, pains, and inconveniences of chronic illness or disability temporarily take a backseat to the adventure ride of new sights, sounds, textures, and tastes. When you’re caught up in the quiet majesty of a redwood forest or the vibrant energy of the Champs-Elysées, it’s easy to mute the internal emotional din of physical challenges.

Illness and disability can be isolating, but travel forces you to mingle with strangers. It also brings you into contact with others who are traveling despite oxygen tanks, dialysis equipment, and wheelchairs. It becomes clear that you are not alone: Nearly 1 million Americans are on long-term oxygen therapy, more than 100,000 begin dialysis each year, and 1.6 million living outside institutions are wheelchair-bound.

“Modern medicine has created all sorts of outrageous gizmos to keep patients alive,” says Downey-based nephrologist Michael P. Butman, “but does that necessarily give patients the quality of life they want if they’re not doing the things they used to enjoy doing? If you derive enjoyment from travel, you’re probably going to feel better about yourself and about being compliant with your treatment [if you travel].”

Pushing yourself to travel despite the rigors of dealing with a disability can give you the gumption to do other things you’ve put off because of your condition. Maybe now you’ll finish college or gain fluency in French or write that novel.

Travel, in part, gave me the confidence to fight for a spot on the kidney transplant wait list.

Then last December, I had a successful kidney transplant. The courage and strength I developed through traveling helped me face the surgery without flinching. Though I no longer undergo nightly dialysis treatments, I’m a living example of the fact that travel opens doors, not only to the world outside, but to the even grander world within.

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Long Beach–based journalist Heidi Nye writes unique poems for special occasions at theweddingpoet.com.

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Taking the Bumps Out of Traveling With Medical Equipment

Before You Go

Scope out your destination. Ask if your hotel and nearby attractions are wheelchair-accessible and if your hotel has backup electricity. Can nearby medical facilities handle your condition in an emergency?

Work with a travel agent. Your travel agent can provide information to assist you in making the necessary arrangements to support a physically challenged traveler.

Check your health insurance. Does it cover you out of your area or overseas? Consider travel insurance that covers medical emergencies and transport, as well as trip cancellation. Discuss travel insurance options with a travel insurance provider at the time of booking to discuss your options, including preexisting conditions coverage.

Provide information ahead of time. Give as much information as possible up front to the airline reservation agent, your hotel concierge, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Check Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations. Not all medical devices are FAA-approved. Some may interfere with flight equipment. Provide specific information to your reservations agent about your device.

Make sure your equipment will work overseas. Do you need a converter or a transformer? You can purchase supplies from Magellan’s.

Secure a doctor’s note. Some airlines require this. The TSA allows medical oxygen without a doctor’s letter, but only certain portable oxygen concentrators are approved by the FAA for use on airplanes.

Request a mobility-impaired bedroom on a long-distance Amtrak train. If possible, plan your itinerary from one staffed station to another so that attendants can assist you, if needed.

At the Airport

Arrive early. Plan to arrive an hour and a half earlier than normally required.

Wear easily removable shoes. If a disability prevents you from removing your shoes, let the officer know so that you can be screened using an alternate method.

The 10th Anniversary of the US Government's 9/11 Conspiracy Theory

2011-09-14T20:40:00.000-07:00
Only the last residues of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 remain. A few more commentaries, a bit more flag-waving. For the past three weeks, I could not listen to anything but the classical station on my radio dial. The retelling of 9/11 lies was just too much for me to take.

More and more Americans are coming to their senses and realizing that, yes, indeed our government was and still is capable of such a deed. Yet the mainstream media continue to give the standard conspiracy theory of 19 men armed only with box cutters incapacitating the entire US military, strategic air command, intelligence community, law enforcement agencies, and air traffic control system. Wow, if that isn't the most outrageous, unbelievable, preposterous conspiracy theory I've ever heard, I don't know what is.

Prior to waking on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I had the following dream: I was walking alone through a war-torn landscape. I could hear gunfire and artillery fire. Fires were burning, and smoke filled the air. Destitute civilians and nearly robotic soldiers were heading toward the fighting, as a voice from above instructed them. I knew this was foolishness; I was intent on going in the other direction, away from the fighting. A soldier angrily stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I lied, saying I was returning home to get my bicycle so that I could make better time than I could walking. As soon as I got my bike, I told him, I'd race toward the fighting. He let me proceed. I walked away, amazed that everyone else was listening to the disembodied voice that urged them on toward the war.

Well, that's what happened, wasn't it! Americans very willingly listened to Bush and Company, skipping happily into Afghanistan to "get" Osama bin Laden! I was one of very few people who spoke out during this time, attending a peace protest even before we entered the fray.

When I first heard about the plane crashing into the first WTC Tower on Sept. 11, 2001, I was dropping my son off at his high school. A shudder went through my body, and the words "They've gone and done it" went through my mind. The "they," however, was not Arab terrorists, though I'm open to the possibility that Arabs conspired with Cheney-Rice and Company to pull it off.

That evening, my son and I went to Circuit City to watch the destruction on their TVs. (I don't own a TV and didn't then either.) This was before Circuit City's TVs were controlled by some central command system that doesn't allow the sales staff to switch stations!

Aaron and I watched the planes and the towers for maybe a half hour on Circuit City's TVs. The first time I saw it, I said to him, "That's a controlled demolition!" I even asked if he saw the puffs of smoke coming out the sides of the buildings. I sure didn't have to be told that by some alternative news agency months later. I could see it for myself. I am convinced that the clarity I brought to watching that scene was due in great part to the fact that I haven't owned a TV since 1990 when I was still living with my now ex-husband. I looked at the images carefully, rather than passively.

But because almost every other American watched the planes and the towers over and over again until they were hypnotized and listened to the mainstream media's lies over and over again until they were brainwashed, very little critical thinking went on. Very little is still going on, but a little more than there once was.

Tanzania, Thailand, and Vietnam

2011-09-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome, Tanzania, Thailand, and Vietnam! Visitors from both countries have visited this blog within the last week! Hooray! Please send your friends.

Of the three, I have only been to Thailand. In December 1998. Really loved it. Would return in a heartbeat.

Rare Experiences for Me--a Family Dinner and Clothes Shopping with a Friend!

2011-09-03T13:37:00.000-07:00
Yesterday I had two unusual-for-me experiences--a family dinner and clothes shopping with a girlfriend. I know, most of you must be thinking, "What planet is she from that those are rare experiences for her?"

Now that my son moved to Pennsylvania to pursue a master's degree in art history at Penn State, I have no family in California. My nearest (in distance) and only other nuclear family member is my brother in Wisconsin, but every time I call to talk with him, he is angry. It's very difficult to be close to someone who is always angry at the world, the government, his coworkers, his neighbors, California, me. a million things. It seems as if he hates me or at least is disgusted by me.

My mother and father are dead, though my role in those relationships was that of dutiful daughter, not someone who felt welcome. Besides that, I have a bunch of cousins in Minnesota, one cousin near Seattle, and one in Northern California. These people are closer in distance, that's true, than is my brother, but they're not nuclear family members like my son and brother. I see my cousins rarely, maybe two or three times in a decade, some of them once since I was a child. Once in a while, we send emails. That's it for family.

My son was always my family. Now he's on the other side of the country.

That's why being invited to other people's family gatherings is such a novelty for me. Like last night when my friend L'Oreal asked me to her brother's BBQ. They're Italian and so they have a gathering at least every Friday night. How much fun is that!

After dinner, laughter, stories, and really bad jokes, L'Oreal, her sister-in-law-to-be, and the latter's young daughter slipped out to visit one of L'Oreal's favorite clothing boutiques. I am forever complimenting L'Oreal on her outfits. Even when she says she just "threw something on," she looks like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine.

When we got to the boutique, L'Oreal snapped into action, handing me blouses and sweaters, showing me how to layer, telling me what colors would go best with my complexion and hair. She was truly amazing! She didn't look at anything for herself. She was concentrated on finding an outfit for me.

I rarely buy clothes--or anything--new. Jeans, underwear, and hosiery--yes. But everything else is from thrift stores or yard sales. When I thought about it, I could only remember going clothes shopping with a female friend once before in my entire life. That was about 30 years ago with my friend Sharon. I bought a gray flannel suit, which I still have and still wear!

Since then, I've either shopped alone or, after I separated from my husband, with my son. We'd go thrift store shopping together. But this was a very different experience than shopping with L'Oreal was. With Aaron, he'd go off and look at the boy's or men's clothes, and I'd head for the women's section. Once in a while, we'd comment on each other's selections, but rarely would we suggest clothes for each other or model the possible purchases to each other. I can really see how it would be a lot of fun to shop with a friend--the comraderie of it, getting someone's opinion before the sale, chatting while we looked around.

I hope it won't be another 30 years before I go clothes shopping with a friend again. And anyone who wants to adopt me for an evening so that I can attend a family gathering, I am eager to accept. After all, I am an orphan! Now taking Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's invitations.

Another Short Story Published!

2011-08-29T19:46:00.000-07:00
My short story "The Emissary" was published in the Spring 2011 edition of Nerve Cowboy, a literary magazine out of Austin, Texas. Since you can't link to the story from the magazine's home page, here it is for your enjoyment:

The Emissary

by Heidi Nye

I did his laundry, made love to him every morning, and never gave him my name, though I told him I was Adiva. This is from the Arabic and means “gracious, pleasant,” for this is what I was to him: gracious in the giving I put into each folded towel and pressed pair of pants, pleasant in the love I bestowed upon him each day, early in the morning. Adiva was not my name, but this is what he called me when I opened his bedroom door, took off my clothes, pushed back the covers, and lay down beside him.

I chose Adiva because it’s unusual and, therefore, easily forgotten. Twenty years later, when he tells another woman about me, a woman who isn’t his wife or his lover, though he wishes she were one of these (which he can’t say), yes, twenty years after I stopped doing his laundry and making love to him in the early morning, twenty years later, as he finishes telling this woman about me, she smiles and asks, “What was her name?”

He returns her smile. “I knew you were going to ask me that, and I can’t remember. It was an unusual name. Something foreign, I think.”

“How could you forget her name?”

“I remember her breasts,” he answers, “small and firm, the breasts of a woman who knows her breasts are small and likes them that way.

“I remember them under her shirt, just before she would take it off. I think that was always the most beautiful time for me. I would be lying in bed, just barely awake, moving my hands over the pillow, as if her breasts were hidden in the folds of the pillow case. I knew that, any moment, she would open my bedroom door and begin unbuttoning her shirt.

“Sometimes my eyes were closed when she arrived. She would open the door and remove her clothes without my knowing. Those were the best mornings—when my dreams of her breasts hiding somewhere in the folds of the pillow case slipped into the reality of her breasts, small and firm, held within my hands.”

He tells the woman that we met at a laundromat, but, actually, it was a theology class. Twenty years later, he believes washing clothes was the metaphor that initiated our relationship, but his belief is not constructed from memories of meeting in front of a dryer, but rather is quickly assembled when the woman asks, “How did you meet?”

“She did her laundry at the same place I did,” he says, believing what he says, because the need to have some memories of me is so very important now as he’s speaking with the woman.

She listens, thinking that she, too, has small breasts, which are firm, which she likes very much, so much so that she begins to see her breasts in his vision of mine.

“Please, tell me more,” she says. “I want to hear all about her.”

She means this because she knows that his talk of me is the closest she’ll ever come to making love to him. She wants very badly to open his bedroom door in the early morning, unbutton her shirt, lie down beside him, and wait for his hands to find her breasts against the sheets. She wants this, and he does, too, and this is why he keeps talking about me. He knows this is the closest he’ll ever come to making love to her.

I am now not only a woman without a name who does his laundry, makes love to him, and leaves well before noon, but in his story, I have become a supernatural being sent to him from God.

“She was an angel,” he says.

“She worked at a fast food restaurant, a Kentucky Fried Chicken. She’d bring me leftover chicken that hadn’t been sold the night before. We were such poor students! For weeks on end, we survived on chicken. And then she left, without a word.”

“Why didn’t you call her, find out what happened?” the woman asks.

“I didn’t have her number, but months later I found out that she’d married. I never saw her again,” he says, taking the hand of the woman across the table.

She, too, is an angel, he thinks. She meets him for coffee every morning, sits across the table from him, and then the lovemaking begins. She tells him a story about an old lover, and soon the lover becomes him. Or he does the same. He tells stories set in unfamiliar places and distant times, but his lover is always this woman.

“An angel?” she asks. “What do you mean by that?”

He waits for the busboy to refill their cups and walk away before he answers. “You know what kind,” he says softly, testing the blade of her butter knife with his forefinger. “One who convinces you you can fly with shackles around your feet, the kind who lets you believe heaven is housed inside a cage.”

Welcome, Chile and Hong Kong!

2011-08-25T14:31:00.000-07:00
Folks from Chile and Hong Kong have visited this site. Hong Kong became a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China in 1997, ending more than 150 years of British colonial rule, but at least according to Google's blogspot stats, it is treated as its own separate country. Go figure!

I visited Hong Kong very briefly on my way to Beijing in 1991. My longest contact with Hong Kong was through my grade school pen pal Fut Lui. Recently, my New Zealand pen pal from that time, Shirley Fiddel, contacted me because I had mentioned her in another post. She had no memory of me, but I fondly rememeber both of them. Yes, folks, that was back in the days before facebook and email, when kids actually found foreign pen pals through classified ads at the backs of magazines! Wow, a different time.

As far as Chile is concerned, everyone I've ever known who has visited the country has loved it. Sure would like to some day.

Libya Our Next Iraq?

2011-08-25T14:08:00.000-07:00
Following the "fall" of Tripoli on Tuesday, I heard an NPR reporter say that Libyan oil revenues would provide the funds for rebuilding the country. I shook my head when I heard that one and immediately called a like-minded friend. I said to him, "Hmmmm....Sound familiar?" He chuckled, then said, "And I bet Halliburton will get the rebuilding contract." (Halliburton, the mega-company that was given a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq, but which simply absconded with a lot of money. The same company in which VP Dick Cheney was heavily invested and had been at the helm before becoming vice president.)

On the same news program, I heard an interview with the current Libyan ambassador to the U.S., the same guy who had been the Kadafi/Gaddafi/Qaddafi's ambassador to the U.S. until he jumped ship a few months ago. He reported that $160-170 billion in Libyan assets are in banks around the world. Just like Iraq, a whole heck of a lot of unaccounted-for money.

The third disturbing thing is the raid on the Kadafi's arsenals, which no one is guarding. So, just like Iraq, we'll end up with a plethora of young, restless, unemployed men with guns. Whatever you want to say about Kadafi, he united the country and kept ethnic tensions in check, just as every strongman from the former Soviet Union to the former Yugoslavia to Iraq once did. But once they were gone, all hell broke loose.

So now what? What's your guess? Mine? It sure ain't over yet.

Welcome, Saudis!

2011-08-22T20:02:00.000-07:00
In the past week, a few Saudis have visited this blog. Welcome! I wonder what your take on Libya is. Do you believe that the US and NATO were there to protect civilian lives and promote "freedom" or do you believe that this was all a smoke screen for the takeover of some of the highest-grade oil in the world? Sure would appreciate your opinions or the opinions of anyone else who reads this blog.

Another Report on the Police State

2011-08-20T20:00:00.000-07:00
Did you realize that you can now be questioned by police and detained if you take a photo of a building that, in the officer's mind, has no aesthetic value? Yup, folks, it's come to that.

I took a 2 1/2-hour walk through downtown this morning with the historical society. We checked out examples of Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and other architectural styles. I took photos of crumbling walls and old paint. Now to me that kind of thing is interesting and has a quirky beauty to it, but what would a police officer have said?

This has come to light because of an incident with a Long Beach reporter who was detained for taking a photo of a refinery. This is the same police department as I have called and complained about numerous times--the ones who fly their damn helicopters so close they shake the windows.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

[Police Chief Jim McDonnell said] while there is no police training specific to determining whether a photographer's subject has "apparent esthetic value," officers make such judgments "based on their overall training and experience" and will generally approach photographers not engaging in "regular tourist behavior."

This policy apparently falls under the rubric of compiling Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) as outlined in the Los Angeles Police Department's Special Order No. 11, a March 2008 statement of the LAPD's "policy … to make every effort to accurately and appropriately gather, record and analyze information, of a criminal or non-criminal nature, that could indicate activity or intentions related to either foreign or domestic terrorism."

Among the non-criminal behaviors "which shall be reported on a SAR" are the usage of binoculars and cameras (presumably when observing a building, although this is not specified), asking about an establishment's hours of operation, taking pictures or video footage "with no apparent esthetic value," and taking notes.

McDonnell says that LBPD policy is "on-line" with all instructions contained in Special Order No. 11, "as is everyone else [i.e., other police departments] around the country."

LBPD is in compliance with the Los Angeles Police Department's policy.

What's very interesting--and disturbing--about the above is that 1) the suspicious behaviors described are the things a reporter does--take pictures, ask questions, take notes, and 2) this is a unified policy across the country--once again the dissolution of local police departments into a national police force.

Has the US Already Started WWIII?

2011-08-17T15:33:00.000-07:00
An interesting notion: The US has already started World War III. It's not my idea, but the notion espoused by a young man carrying a baby in what appears to be the back woods of Mendocino County, California. Sorry, but I had trouble embedding it.

His basic theory: Just as WWII wasn't started all at once and just as many countries figured it was a local phenomenon for quite some time, so too with the Empire's invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, and Yemen. (I'm sure there are others--wasn't there a brief excursion into Somalia last year too?) And of course the growing police state in der Vaterland, ooops, the homeland. And, truly, if you objectively compare Germany's reasons for invading Poland with the US's reasons for invading Iraq, Germany does come out on top. (Germany--border skirmishes and mistreatment of ethnic Germans in Poland preceded invasion. US--trumped-up weapons of mass destruction, unfounded claims of imminent threat and of ties to bin Laden)Please note that I am only speaking about Poland, not the whole Nazi game plan!

The young man in the video also makes two other good points:
^ If Europe thinks it's not a co-conspirator, think again. Most of Europe is under NATO, and NATO is involved in the invasion of Libya. If you still think we're there to help the freedom fighters, think again. As former congresswoman and 2008 presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney has found on her recent fact-finding trip to Libya, NATO and US forces are purposefully hitting civilian targets.

* Just as fascists were stopped by the Allied forces during WWII, so the Empire will have to be stopped by a coalition of military forces. My guess? A pact between China and Russia, what Cold War strategists always feared. Only this time, the two will be fighting to stem the Empire's stranglehold on the planet, not spread worldwide communism. How the tables turn!

None of this is a foregone conclusion. Just as the Nazis might have been stopped sometime short of a world war, so too the Empire can be brought to heel. But people have to see what's going on under their noses, and they need to demand that violence and terrorism against the world's people come to an end.

Obama Supporters: Obama's Better. We Just Can't Tell You How.

2011-08-14T12:03:00.000-07:00
While at the farmers' market this morning, I stopped by the Obama-for-president table and asked the two people who were staffing it: "Could you tell me what Obama has done for the country?" They couldn't come up with a single thing, though they apologized that they didn't have their crib sheets with them.

They did, however, challenge me to write down the things he had said he'd do and hasn't done. With no preparation and no access to the Internet, I listed a dozen, with "rescind the Patriot Act" at the top of my list.

I spoke with them for about 10 minutes, and the only reason they had for supporting Obama is that he's better than Michele Bachmann. I said, "So in other words, you're saying that he's the lesser of two evils?" They agreed. I told them that if you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you'll continue to vote in evil. They agreed, saying that's what American politics are. I said, "But that's not democracy."

The subject of Ron Paul came up. They liked his anti-interventionist, bring-the-troops-home, don't-militarily-mess-with-the-affairs-of-other-coutries, anti-Federal Reserve platform, but were afraid he'd get rid of Medicare and Social Security. I said, "Just wait. Obama will get rid of them too."

Hello, Georgia and Latvia!

2011-08-08T16:57:00.000-07:00
Wow, two more breakaway republics of the Soviet Union. Yes, I'm old enough to remember the Soviet Union.

As I've said many times before, I never believed all the hype about the Evil Empire.

* I thought the whole duck-and-cover business was ridiculous--how in the hell could that be of any use against an A-bomb? To see the famous Bert the Turtle propaganda film, click here.

* I also thought my parents were full of fear and strange ideas when they spoke of fleeing to Minnesota, a six-hour drive away without any traffic, so that we'd be safe in the event that the Cuban missile crisis wasn't resolved. I wondered if a missile would only take a few minutes to reach us, how could we ever hope to reach Minnesota in time? This was at 4 years, 2 1/2 months.

* At one point in my young life, having observed enough TV to make an informed assessment, I told my mom that we shouldn't be spending all this time, money, and energy on weapons, but should instead send the Soviets TV sets. It would be a lot cheaper, and then they would be passive and distracted, just like us Americans. War won, without a single shot.

Another Fantastic Article from Information Clearinghouse

2011-08-07T11:54:00.000-07:00
This article helps to answer the questions that I hear voiced so frequently these days, "What's wrong with young people? Why aren't they involved? Why aren't they fighting back? Why aren't they out in the streets like young people were in the Sixties and Seventies?"

I can really relate with some of this author's reasons, especially those re TV and TV-like viewing and the educational system. I got so tired of the push for standardized tests and robotic teaching. That's never the kind of teaching I wanted to do. I wanted my students to think and to question. I got weary of going against the grain.

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance

The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.

By Bruce E. Levine

August 03, 2011 "Alternet" -- Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.

Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?” Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to having more money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security, even though they don’t believe it will be around to benefit them.

How exactly has American society subdued young Americans?

1. Student-Loan Debt. Large debt—and the fear it creates—is a pacifying force. There was no tuition at the City University of New York when I attended one of its colleges in the 1970s, a time when tuition at many U.S. public universities was so affordable that it was easy to get a B.A. and even a graduate degree without accruing any student-loan debt. While those days are gone in the United States, public universities continue to be free in the Arab world and are either free or with very low fees in many countries throughout the world. The millions of young Iranians who risked getting shot to protest their disputed 2009 presidential election, the millions of young Egyptians who risked their lives earlier this year to eliminate Mubarak, and the millions of young Americans who demonstrated against the Vietnam War all had in common the absence of pacifying huge student-loan debt.

Today in the United States, two-thirds of graduating seniors at four-year colleges have student-loan debt, including over 62 percent of public university graduates. While average undergraduate debt is close to $25,000, I increasingly talk to college graduates with closer to $100,000 in student-loan debt. During the time in one’s life when it should be easiest to resist authority because one does not yet have family responsibilities, many young people worry about the cost of bucking authority, losing their job, and being unable to pay an ever-increasing debt. In a vicious cycle, student debt has a subduing effect on activism, and political passivity makes it more likely that students will accept such debt as a natural part of life.

2. Psychopathologizing and Medicating Noncompliance. In 1955, Erich Fromm, the then widely respected anti-authoritarian leftist psychoanalyst, wrote, “Today the function of psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis threatens to become the tool in the manipulation of man.” Fromm died in 1980, the same year that an increasingly authoritarian America elected Ronald Reagan president, and an increasingly authoritarian American Psychiatric Association added to their diagnostic bible (then the DSM-III) disruptive mental disorders for children and teenagers such as the increasingly popular “oppositional defiant disorder” (ODD). The official symptoms of ODD include “often actively defies or refuses to comply with adult requests or rules,” “often argues with adults,” and “often deliberately does things to annoy other people.”

Many of America’s greatest activists including Saul Alinsky (1909–1972), the legendary organizer and author of Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals, would today certainly be diagnosed with ODD and other disruptive disorders. Recalling his childhood, Alinsky said, “I never thought of walking on the grass until I saw a sign saying ‘Keep off the grass.’ Then I would stomp all over it.” Heavily tranquilizing antipsychotic drugs (e.g. Zyprexa and Risperdal) are now the highest grossing class of medication in the United States ($16 billion in 2010); a major reason for this, according to theJournal of the American Medical Association in 2010, is that many children receiving antipsychotic drugs have nonpsychotic diagnoses such as ODD or some other disruptive disorder (this especially true of Medicaid-covered pediatric patients).

3. Schools That Educate for Compliance and Not for Democracy. Upon accepting the New York City Teacher of the Year Award on January 31, 1990, John Taylor Gatto upset many in attendance by stating: “The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions.” A generation ago, the problem of compulsory schooling as a vehicle for an authoritarian society was widely discussed, but as this problem has gotten worse, it is seldom discussed.

The nature of most classrooms, regardless of the subject matter, socializes students to be passive and directed by others, to follow orders, to take seriously the rewards and punishments of authorities, to pretend to care about things they don’t care about, and that they are impotent to affect their situation. A teacher can lecture about democracy, but schools are essentially undemocratic places, and so democracy is not what is instilled in students. Jonathan Kozol in The Night Is Dark and I Am Far from Home focused on how school breaks us from courageous actions. Kozol explains how our schools teach us a kind of “inert concern” in which “caring”—in and of itself and without risking the consequences of actual action—is considered “ethical.” School teaches us that we are “moral and mature” if we politely assert our concerns, but the essence of school—its demand for compliance—teaches us not to act in a friction-causing manner.

4. “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.” The corporatocracy has figured out a way to make our already authoritarian schools even more authoritarian. Democrat-Republican bipartisanship has resulted in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, NAFTA, the PATRIOT Act, the War on Drugs, the Wall Street bailout, and educational policies such as “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.” These policies are essentially standardized-testing tyranny that creates fear, which is antithetical to education for a democratic society. Fear forces students and teachers to constantly focus on the demands of test creators; it crushes curiosity, critical thinking, questioning authority, and challenging and resisting illegitimate authority. In a more democratic and less authoritarian society, one would evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher not by corporatocracy-sanctioned standardized tests but by asking students, parents, and a community if a teacher is inspiring students to be more curious, to read more, to learn independently, to enjoy thinking critically, to question authorities, and to challenge illegitimate authorities.

5. Shaming Young People Who Take Education—But Not Their Schooling—Seriously. In a 2006 survey in the United States, it was found that 40 percent of children between first and third grade read every day, but by fourth grade, that rate declined to 29 percent. Despite the anti-educational impact of standard schools, children and their parents are increasingly propagandized to believe that disliking school means disliking learning. That was not always the case in the United States. Mark Twain famously said, “I never let my schooling get in the way of my education.” Toward the end of Twain’s life in 1900, only 6 percent of Americans graduated high school. Today, approximately 85 percent of Americans graduate high school, but this is good enough for Barack Obama who told us in 2009, “And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country.”

The more schooling Americans get, however, the more politically ignorant they are of America’s ongoing class war, and the more incapable they are of challenging the ruling class. In the 1880s and 1890s, American farmers with little or no schooling created a Populist movement that organized America’s largest-scale working people’s cooperative, formed a People’s Party that received 8 percent of the vote in 1892 presidential election, designed a “subtreasury” plan (that had it been implemented would have allowed easier credit for farmers and broke the power of large banks) and sent 40,000 lecturers across America to articulate it, and evidenced all kinds of sophisticated political ideas, strategies and tactics absent today from America’s well-schooled population. Today, Americans who lack college degrees are increasingly shamed as “losers”; however, Gore Vidal and George Carlin, two of America’s most astute and articulate critics of the corporatocracy, never went to college, and Carlin dropped out of school in the ninth grade.

6. The Normalization of Surveillance. The fear of being surveilled makes a population easier to control. While the National Security Agency (NSA) has received publicity for monitoring American citizen’s email and phone conversations, and while employer surveillance has become increasingly common in the United States, young Americans have become increasingly acquiescent to corporatocracy surveillance because, beginning at a young age, surveillance is routine in their lives. Parents routinely check Web sites for their kid’s latest test grades and completed assignments, and just like employers, are monitoring their children’s computers and Facebook pages. Some parents use the GPS in their children’s cell phones to track their whereabouts, and other parents have video cameras in their homes. Increasingly, I talk with young people who lack the confidence that they can even pull off a party when their parents are out of town, and so how much confidence are they going to have about pulling off a democratic movement below the radar of authorities?

7. Television. In 2009, the Nielsen Company reported that TV viewing in the United States is at an all-time high if one includes the following “three screens”: a television set, a laptop/personal computer, and a cell phone. American children average eight hours a day on TV, video games, movies, the Internet, cell phones, iPods, and other technologies (not including school-related use). Many progressives are concerned about the concentrated control of content by the corporate media, but the mere act of watching TV—regardless of the programming—is the primary pacifying agent (private-enterprise prisons have recognized that providing inmates with cable television can be a more economical method to keep them quiet and subdued than it would be to hire more guards).

Television is a dream come true for an authoritarian society: those with the most money own most of what people see; fear-based television programming makes people more afraid and distrustful of one another, which is good for the ruling elite who depend on a “divide and conquer” strategy; TV isolates people so they are not joining together to create resistance to authorities; and regardless of the programming, TV viewers’ brainwaves slow down, transforming them closer to a hypnotic state that makes it difficult to think critically. While playing a video games is not as zombifying as passively viewing TV, such games have become for many boys and young men their only experience of potency, and this “virtual potency” is certainly no threat to the ruling elite.

8. Fundamentalist Religion and Fundamentalist Consumerism. American culture offers young Americans the “choices” of fundamentalist religion and fundamentalist consumerism. All varieties of fundamentalism narrow one’s focus and inhibit critical thinking. While some progressives are fond of calling fundamentalist religion the “opiate of the masses,” they too often neglect the pacifying nature of America’s other major fundamentalism. Fundamentalist consumerism pacifies young Americans in a variety of ways. Fundamentalist consumerism destroys self-reliance, creating people who feel completely dependent on others and who are thus more likely to turn over decision-making power to authorities, the precise mind-set that the ruling elite loves to see. A fundamentalist consumer culture legitimizes advertising, propaganda, and all kinds of manipulations, including lies; and when a society gives legitimacy to lies and manipulativeness, it destroys the capacity of people to trust one another and form democratic movements. Fundamentalist consumerism also promotes self-absorption, which makes it difficult for the solidarity necessary for democratic movements.

These are not the only aspects of our culture that are subduing young Americans and crushing their resistance to domination. The food-industrial complex has helped create an epidemic of childhood obesity, depression, and passivity. The prison-industrial complex keeps young anti-authoritarians “in line” (now by the fear that they may come before judges such as the two Pennsylvania ones who took $2.6 million from private-industry prisons to ensure that juveniles were incarcerated). As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed: “All our things are right and wrong together. The wave of evil washes all our institutions alike.”

Bruce E. Levine is a clinical psychologist and author of Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite (Chelsea Green, 2011). His Web site is www.brucelevine.net :

Crime on the Rise

2011-07-26T17:38:00.000-07:00
Up until just recently, I've lived in a decent area. Single-family homes interspersed with ugly block apartment buildings. People walking their dogs, talking to each other, riding bicycles, tending their yards, if they have yards. Very friendly. None of that has changed. But now we've got an overlay of crime.

As with most urban areas in this country, of course, there have been homeless guys in the alley, looking for cans, sometimes drinking, sometimes smoking cigs or pot. But now there have been guys smoking crack, which adds a whole 'nuther layer of seediness. Also, a few cars have been riffled through for cash or cell phones, bicycles have been cut from their locks and stolen off people's porches, and someone was robbed at gunpoint.

The overall feeling of the neighborhood has not changed. People are still friendly. I still walk my dog alone at night. The flowers and plants are just as pretty. The craftsman-style houses are still cute. It's just that the crime from the alley or from outside the area makes me think of the film "Blue Velvet." Starring Dennis Hopper, the film is unsettling. It takes place in picture-perfect suburbia during the 1960s. A land of beautiful stay-at-home moms; handsome, strong dads; cute dogs; healthy, obedient kids; and white picket fences. Then the camera angle focuses on the ground level, where ants are crawling about. Next we're in a seedy part of town, ruled over by psychopath Dennis Hopper. Like the movie, my neighborhood is just fine until it's not.

Columbia and Macedonia FYROM

2011-07-18T18:35:00.000-07:00
Readers from Columbia and Macedonia (FYROM) have visited my site. Welcome.

Perhaps I should have already known this, and my apologies to the Macedonians and the Greeks (we'll get to that) who really feel I should have known about FYROM. This stands for Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. When Macedonia broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece was none too happy when the new republic was named after its northern-most--and adjacent--province. Greece was concerned about a possible plan to annex its territory.

So the temporary solution--if 20 years can be considered temporary--is to add FYROM after Macedonia for those countries that do not acknowledge the name the Republic of Macedonia.

Always happy to learn something new, especially about maps and details of geography. Thanks for visiting, Macedonian. You've opened my eyes.

Another Activist Pulls Back

2011-07-18T08:50:00.000-07:00
In 2005 and 2006, my mail arrived opened or previously opened and taped shut. Also, letters I left for the letter carrier never arrived at their destination. I complained to the post office by phone and by letter. Eventually, after four or five months, this tampering stopped. Since the landlord and I were the only ones who had my mail key, and since I could see no reason why he would want to read my mail--he was pretty hands-off--the post office or agencies of the USG working with the p.o. were the culprits.

During this time and continuing for years after that, I would hear clicks on my phone during conversations. My brother said that he had been hearing those clicks for years too. Realizing that current technology must allow for silent wire taps--how else could an effective program against drug dealers or other suspected criminals be carried out--I knew that the USG must want me to know they were listening.

Though I have continued to speak out, call and write my representatives, write of injustices and government lies, and attend peace marches, I know that I am on some list. Even before the mail tampering and eavesdropping, I was aware of being watched. When I crossed the border four times during the summer of 2005, for example, I was detained for questioning and my van was thoroughly searched at each crossing.

Lately, however, with the militarization of local police forces and their funding and direction from the Department of Homeland Security, with the rapid erosion of constitutional protections, with the legalization of torture, imprisonment without charge and without trial, with hundreds of incidents of the federal government's boot on the face of anyone who steps just slightly out of line, I have begun to rethink my activism.

Do I really want to risk being jailed without charge, food, water, or access to my meds for days, as has happened to some activists? This would be a death sentence for a Type 1 diabetic-heart patient-kidney transplant recipient. And so when I have been asked to participate in recent protests at FBI headquarters, I have declined. Unlike in the past, I am now concerned for my personal safety.
Such is the case of an acquaintance, Leonard, who has been very vocal and active in the Long Beach peace group. His mail is now being opened prior to delivery, and he hears clicks on his phone line.
As my friend Helma, who lived through Nazi Germany, said after Bush II was "elected," "This is how it starts," with thumbing your nose at the law here and there and then more and more. I recently asked her what she thought of Obama, she scoffed, "He is no different than the Bush." Exactly what I've always said.

So for those of you in other countries or in this country too who still believe that Obama is the savior of the free world, think again. He is continuing the work of his predecessor, only with nicer words, a calmer demeanor, and a more polished look. But fascism is fascism whether it's delivered up by Hitler, Bush, or a biracial man.

Both Parties Serving Their Corporate Masters

2011-07-15T18:09:00.000-07:00
As I watch the debt-ceiling crisis play out in Washington, I am more fully convinced than ever of what I have long suspected: Democrats and Republicans are in cahoots. They make a show out in public of having rival world views--the Dems profess to uphold the interests of the common man, and are for justice and caring for the sick, the elderly, and the poor, while the Reps are siding with the wealthy and big business. But they're playing on the same team behind the scenes. In the end, after the Dems have said all kinds of sweet things about the social contract and shared sacrifice and making the rich give back some of what they've stolen from the rest of us, they cave to whatever it is the Reps want.

So in a sense both parties win, that is, if by winning you mean winning another election, not winning in the sense of helping their country or their fellow citizens. The Dems win by making nice speeches, as Obama is so good at doing, and the voters who just look to their words and not their deeds will vote for them again come election day, while the Reps win by appearing to have the upper hand, bringing those wimpy Dems to heel. So they both "win" with their constituencies, and they both win behind the seen in the form of campaign contributions from the super-rich and the mega-corporations.

And so it is with the debt ceiling. Obama has said a lot of strong words, railing against the rich, claiming that everyone has to sacrifice. His sheeple will only remember his words when it comes time to cast their vote in 2012. They'll have it in their heads that he "stood up" to the Reps, when I would bet money that all those hours he has spent behind closed doors with congressional leaders has been spent playing video games or talking about their golf games or chuckling about what nonsense they're going to tell the American people when they emerge from behind the closed doors.

It's all show. All smoke and mirrors. The point is not to fix the economy or create jobs or balance the budget or tax the rich or make cuts. The aim is to destroy the economy. The aim is to create what is being called neo-medievalism, the death of the nation-state and the full control of the world by various corporate lords. The question is: Will Americans rise up against this tyrrany, as have Iceland and Greece, or will we go quietly and without complaint into poverty, decline, and collapse?

Obama Loses His "Constitutional Law Professor Hat"--Once Again

2011-07-01T14:09:00.000-07:00
Don't you love it when you have a brilliant insight and then you see your insight in print, written by someone who expressed it much better than you could have? Well, here is an example.

This week I listened to as much of Obama's press conference as I could stomach. (Yes, just like George W., Obama's voice and his bullshit are really wearing on me.) A reporter asked him about Libya and the War Powers Resolution, which basically prevents a president from starting a war on his own. The president brushed this off, saying Vietnam (after which the WPR was passed), unlike Libya, was a costly war in terms of human lives and money. (But he failed to mention that Vietnam didn't start out that way. Only a few "advisors," remember?)

By this kind of logic, things only become unconstitutional if they are of a significant scale, is that it? So, if several hundred people are held without charge and without trial (think Gitmo), that's perfectly fine, but if we started incarcerating a million people without charge or hope of a trial that would be unconstitutional? Wow, folks, if that's not "dictatorship thinking," I sure don't know what is.

So here is a political writer who echoed my concerns about Obama, "the constitutional law professor," and his creative take on the Constitution.

Published on Thursday, June 30, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

Obama Loses His 'Constitutional Law Professor Hat'

by Charles Davis

As a candidate for president, Barack Obama was a Distinguished Constitutional Scholar. As a president waging an illegal war, he's just some guy who, gosh, isn't really in a position to talk about that complex document he took an oath to uphold and defend.

At a press conference this week, NBC correspondent Chuck Todd -- presumably under strict orders not to ask about Newsweek's Princess Di cover -- questioned the erstwhile legal scholar about whether he felt the War Powers Resolution, which forbids the president from deploying troops without congressional consent except in cases of imminent danger to national security, and even then for only 60 days, passed constitutional muster.

Well, the president replied, "I'm not a Supreme Court justice, so I'm not -- I'm not going to put my constitutional law professor hat on here." And so he didn't, declaring it irrelevant -- "I don't even have to get to the constitutional question" -- as he was already abiding by the law in question, rejecting the claim his actions "in any way violate the War Powers Resolution."

But the president didn't really want to get into legal specifics, other than to point out the that the resolution was passed in the wake of the Vietnam war and probably wasn't intended to apply to countries merely having the shit bombed out of them by U.S. forces (like, say, Cambodia). There's a reason Obama didn't want to put on his "constitutional law professor hat" during the press conference: he lost it during the 2008 campaign.

Back then, ages ago I know, Obama had no qualms addressing thorny legal issues concerning executive power. "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation," he told The Boston Globe.

You can see how such become inconvenient when you're the one unilaterally authorizing the wars.

Obama also probably didn't want to delve into the details because, when not reading the War Powers Resolution with the special goggles handed out to die-hard Democratic loyalists, it's quite clear -- indisputable, really -- that the Obama administration is violating the letter of the law. Contrary to administration claims, bombing a country and trying to assassinate its leader most certainly do qualify as acts of war, or "hostilities" in the resolution's terminology. And it's most certainly the case that by helping its NATO allies do the same, U.S. forces are being asked to "command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany the regular or irregular military forces of any foreign country or government," and that there's an "imminent threat" that those forces "will become engaged," all of which triggers the War Powers Resolution. That means Obama's roughly three-month old war is, if it wasn't illegal from the start, explicitly so since the 60 day limit on non-congressionally authorized troop deployments expired a month ago.

As for all those complaining about the blatant illegality of the latest and greatest humanitarian bombing campaign -- what Obama called the "noise about process and congressional consultation and so forth" -- the president declared it was much ado about nothing. "I've had all the members of Congress over to talk about it," he patiently explained, maintaining U.S. involvement in the war he once said would last "days, not weeks," had. "So a lot of this fuss is politics."

Politicians being politicians, the president's assessment is no doubt partially true, though it's a two-edged sword as Obama's own unwillingness to seek what almost certainly would have been easy congressional approval of the Libya war back in March likewise had a lot to do with politics. Seeking congressional approval may have spurred a wider debate about the wisdom of entering yet another war at a time when social programs at home are being slashed and Americans are increasingly tired of being known only for burgers and bombs, and seeking an authorization to use force may have required Obama to layout an endgame scenario -- an actual plan -- rather than platitudes about freedom and America's uniquely heroic role in world affairs.

"We have engaged in a limited operation to help a lot of people against one of the worst tyrants in the world, somebody who nobody should want to defend," Obama added during the press conference, bravely taking on the influential Gaddafi Lobby in Washington. "[W]e should be sending out a unified message to this guy that he should step down and give his people a fair chance to live their lives without fear. And -- and this suddenly becomes the cause celebre for some folks in Congress? Come on."

Got that? Dissent aids the enemy. Unity is Strength. The rule of law is a campaign slogan, nothing more. And Barack Obama is George W. Bush.

Charles Davis has covered Congress for NPR and Pacifica stations across the country, and freelanced for the international news wire Inter Press Service, primarily covering U.S. policy toward Latin America and the war on drugs in particular. He has also worked as a researcher for Michael Moore on his movie Capitalism: A Love Story.

Censorship on the Local Level

2011-06-30T13:57:00.000-07:00
Censorship happens at every level--federal, state, local. It is carried out by government agencies, corporations, political officials, and the media. Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes blatant.

My most recent experience was with the Grunion Gazette, a weekly community newspaper that claims it "encourages letters to the editor, and will try to print all letters received." Except those that take issue with the opinions of the editor, that is.

In the June 16 edition, the editor proposed that surveillance cameras be installed in public places and on residential streets throughout the city in order to cut down on rowdy behavior outside bars. Boy, did I take issue with that suggestion, sending the following email to the paper the same day the paper was published:

Dear Editor:

It was with horror that I read the June 16 editorial "High-Tech Solution May Help Bar Issue" in which the writer advocated the installation of surveillance cameras in public places and on residential streets. It is a continual source of amazement to me how easily Americans give up their constitutional rights.

The writer even "supported" his case with the argument "If you aren't doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about." The airline passengers who are groped and porno-scanned aren't doing anything wrong either, and yet their Fourth Amendment right to be free of warrantless searches without probable cause is violated countless times each day. And the so-called Patriot Act allows for the collection and storage of some 1.7 billion cell phone calls and emails (no doubt this one) every day, as well as the indefinite detention of persons who have not even been charged with a crime.

If this kind of anti-democratic, police state thinking goes on much longer and people fail to wake up to government intrusions into their lives, I suspect that next year the Gazette will be making a case for the microchipping of all citizens. That way, the authorities will know exactly where everyone is at any time. But of course if you're not doing anything wrong, what's the big deal!

My letter was never published, though another writer's letter was published this week--two weeks after the original editorial. A letter that felt that the editor had not gone far enough and which suggested further intrusion by the police.

I wonder how many times each day the media are preventing citizens from airing their concerns about the erosion of constitutional rights and other issues that question the status quo. A friend of mine who lives in Tucson was barred from online discussions at the local paper's web site because he voiced his pacifist concerns and made note of a major employer in the area, Raytheon, one of the key players in the killing--oops, defense--industry.

Why Don't I Have Female Intellectual Buddies?

2011-06-24T10:28:00.000-07:00
About a month ago, I had a revelation: I have never had female friends who were my intellectual buddies. It's not that the women I hang around with are mental lightweights. Far from it. It's just that talk seems to focus on emotions of all sorts and relationships of all sorts--family, friends, lovers, spouses, coworkers--rather than on ideas.

Even when I bring up the subjects of politics, religion, the nature of the universe, insights into human nature, science, the death of democracy, the corruption of the press, etc., I've found that women either let me talk, even when I ask for their input; seem uncomfortable and change the subject; parrot things they've heard on the radio or TV stations they listen to; or argue by personal example. There is not the give and take I have so thoroughly enjoyed with male friends over the years.

With Christan, Ken, Ed, Mark, Tony, Y, Truc, Tuyen, Rod, Jose, Othman, and son Aaron, among others, one person has presented an idea, the other has listened and added something about what he's read or what his take on the situation is, back and forth like this. He says something I hadn't considered, and I acknowledge and appreciate his insight. And the reverse is true: I say something, and he says, "Boy, I never thought of it that way!" These conversations have often gone on for hours. Give and take. By the time we finally call it quits, we both feel as if we have gained new insights and are much richer for the experience.

It's not that all my relationships with men have been purely intellectual. Of course, with several there has been sexual tension or sexual give and take. And with a few men, there has been no intellectual relationship at all to speak of, only sex.

I wonder why I have never had more than a few minutes of intellectual exchange with women. Little more than a book recommendation. Perhaps women are too sensitive. They feel that an intellectual exchange may offend others or disturb the emotional balance of the relationship. I have not found this to be the case with men. Disagreements have been easily handled with a laugh or my classic, "Ahhhhh...I don't know about that one, ___________." Of course, I can think of one man who would not answer crucial questions I had about his position, which did leave me frustrated.

This is not to say I don't like the company of women. It's as interesting to see how they negotiate the world as it is to see how men do so, or how dogs or plants do too. All these ways seem to work, so there's no reason to tinker with them.

Obama's "Troop Withdrawal" is Like a Gambler's "Win"

2011-06-23T17:43:00.000-07:00
Obama announced last night that he's bringing troops home from Afghanistan. He and his handlers are hoping that's all the information that will register with most Americans. He's banking on the fact that we're not much good at math.

If we were more gifted at addition and subtraction, we might note that there were roughly 70,000 troops in Afghanistan when Obama took office. He implemented a "surge" of 30,000 troops, bringing the total to about 100,000. Now he's bring 10,000 home. That leaves some 90,000, plus untold numbers of "contractors" (you remember Blackwater, don't you).

This makes me think of all the people I've spoken to after they've returned from gambling in Vegas. I have never heard a single one tell me that he or she lost money. Everyone always seems to win. Of course, upon further questioning, it becomes clear that they all experienced a net loss. They may have won $300 one day, but lost $300 each day for the next two days, for a net loss of $300.

This kind of magical thinking is what Obama is engaged in. He hopes that the general feeling Americans will come away with is "By God, the man is doing what he said he was going to do--pull troops out of Afghanistan. We've got to give him another four years so that he can finish the job." GROAN!

Perhaps a better analogy than the gambler is that of the dieter: Sally weighs 200 pounds and tells you she is going to lose weight, but first she wants to go on a binge, have one last hurrah before she buckles down and loses those extra pounds. So she pigs out and gains 30 pounds, then loses 10. At this point, she calls all her friends and tells them she's lost 10 pounds, isn't that fantastic!

Magical thinking. That's what runs Washington, D.C.

Bonanza! Italy, Lithuania, Nepal, and Taiwan!

2011-06-17T13:04:00.000-07:00
Hello, Italy, Lithuania, Nepal, and Taiwan! What a thrill to have new visitors from heretofore unrepresented lands! And what a diverse group it is.

I was only in Italy once, in the summer of 1976. I worked all kinds of jobs and sold all kinds of things--candles, potted plants, caramel apples, placemats--in order to raise enough money to spend the summer of my junior year of high school in Europe. Rome was my first stop. I also was in Florence and Pompeii, and took the train all about.

I really loved Italy--the fountains, the sunshine, the art, the town squares. The only thing I really didn't like were how the men would rub against young girls like me (15 and turned 16 over the summer) when they were passing through the corridors on trains. Really didn't like that.

When I think of Italy, I can't help but think of what a man told me about his daughter's wedding in a small mountain town in Italy. Les said that his daughter had married a young man from such a town. Accessible only by dirt road. A place where his family had lived for centuries. I am such the romantic that whenever Italy comes up, I think of the little mountain town I've never seen but I can certainly see in my mind's eye. Ah...

As I have previously remarked about Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine, Lithuania is special, again only in my mind's eye. I have never been to the countries of eastern Europe, but I sure would love to go. I have romantic notions about finding something of "old Europe" there.

As a younger, healthier gal, I had romantic notions about Nepal as well. I could see myself trekking the highlands and having wonderful exchanges with Buddhist monks. Those adventures will have to wait for another life, I suspect, as I sometimes have trouble walking up stairs or a small hill, much less tackling mountains. High altitudes also compromise my breathing. Sea level suits me best.

Taiwan, again a land I have never seen, though I worked for many years for a Taiwanese herbal company, known both as Sun Ten and as Brion. I was the English editor for the nonprofit wing of the operations, the Oriental Healing Arts Institute, which published books and a quarterly journal on acupunture and traditional Chinese medicine. I would occasionally write or edit marketing materials for Sun Ten and Brion. As this was a family business, with the patriarch being the founder and his three children in various positions, this was an interesting cast of characters, to be sure. It is through the institute that I went to China, a trip that altered the course of my life.

So, welcome new visitors.

A Little Less Stressed

2011-06-16T11:19:00.000-07:00
I had to take a break for a few days. I was getting so stressed I was not sleeping well. I would stay awake thinking, "Where am I to live? Where is the right place for me to face the crash?"

You see, I feel a bit left out. It seems as if everyone I know is already in his or her right place.
* That right place is a chunk of farmable land for my friend Rachel and her husband, Matt. They also have all the skills they need, everything from baking bread and growing crops in a sustainable way to building a cabin and making baskets out of tree bark. They've been at this sort of thing for a long time, having spent five years or so learning everything they could on a permaculture farm in Bolinas.
* Daphne has her daughter, son, and granddaughter within a 15-mile radius.
* Tom is living with the love of his life, and they have friends in Arkansas who keep telling them about three-bedroom houses for $40K, complete with an acre of land.
* Chris's youngest son just started living with him, and Chris has a secure job.
* Tim lives with his wife and three kids. They have a large house as well as a cabin in the mountains.
* Helene in Nova Scotia lives in a sweet, little town with a healthy sense of community, surrounded by organic farmers and lots of water.
* Araia has lived for many years in northern Washington state on a beautiful chunk of land next to a river.
* Diana's family is all nearby. My nextdoor neighbors, Janet and Dana, have a lovely craftsman-style house, a dog that could protect them, and a thriving community through their Buddhist temple.
* Sharon is happily married with a young daughter in Santa Cruz.
* Ken's land and house in Tucson is almost paid off, and he has the skills to do just about anything.
* Rick's daughter and grandson are living with him, and, like Ken, he can do anything that needs fixing or building.
* Jose has his house, his family and extended family, a secure job, and money.
* Bev believes that the transition may cause untold suffering and death to millions or even billions but that she will still live to be 100.
* Heather's living in Denver in a cooperative community with her boyfriend.

Everyone seems to be set in their own way for what is to come, whether they realize it or not. I, however, am not. Ideally, I would like an acre in a moderate climate with water and a man who loves me and is loved by me and who is strong and skilled enough to fix things, build things, and know how to do things. Health, too, would be fantastic. It would also be great if my son were living somewhere nearby, but he will soon be on the other side of the country, attending grad school at Penn State.

Most people are in the state of not knowing what's coming their way or, if they have gotten a whiff of what's coming, they've escaped into denial. Then there are a few people who have resources, friends and family who are with them, and the means to carry out their plans. They're the ones who have been creating a sustainable life off the land for years or who have relocated to Nicaragua or Venezuela or some other place as far as possible from American influence. But I'm in neither of those boats. I'm in the unfortunate place of knowing a freight train is barrelling down the tracks right at me and being unable to move off the tracks.

Though my kidney function is fantastic--creatinine 0.7 at the last reading, with normal being 0.6-1.1--my heart is giving me trouble. My chest is always tight. Exercise frequently produces pain and constriction. Going uphill is exceedingly difficult. I just had an echocardiogram. My EF rate, which tells how well my heart is pumping, has declined from 50, the bottom end of normal, last June to 35. Basically, even if I had an acre of land, I wouldn't be up to growing anything on it.

So this is why I've been stressed--I'm not in right place (cities are rarely the right place, but certainly not during a time of crisis), I'm without a partner, my son is leaving the area, friends are forever busy with their own concerns, and my heart is taking a dive.

So my m.o. is what it has been since I moved to Southern California in 1981. You see, ever since moving here I have been keen on leaving and have gone on road/camping trips to explore and look for right place. So, as has been the case all these years, I am open to right place and right situations. In the meantime, I am here, in Southern California, for good or for not so good.

I'm taking a Red Cross first aid class that recommends having two to three weeks of food and water in your abode. Since the debaucle of Hurricane Katrina, the Red Cross has upped this from three days to three weeks. See, even the Red Cross does not have much faith in the U.S. government. So if the Red Cross is saying three weeks, perhaps it's better to have three months' supplies. Whew! Well, it's something to aim for.

The Elite's Game of Death, Destruction, Greed, and Global Control

2011-06-10T16:57:00.000-07:00
What follows is a Pakistani professor and author's clear, documented account of the world's ruling elite, how they control 6 billion and some people, and what their plans are. Well worth reading. I have bolded some of the juiciest parts, for those of you who can't take the time to find out why the world is in the state it's in and the path of doom that is prepared for you.

The Elite, the 'Great Game' and World War III

By Prof. Mujahid Kamran

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25160

Global Research, June 7, 2011
New Dawn Special Issue 16

The control of the US, and of global politics, by the wealthiest families of the planet is exercised in a powerful, profound and clandestine manner. This control began in Europe and has a continuity that can be traced back to the time when the bankers discovered it was more profitable to give loans to governments than to needy individuals.

These banking families and their subservient beneficiaries have come to own most major businesses over the two centuries during which they have secretly and increasingly organised themselves as controllers of governments worldwide and as arbiters of war and peace.

Unless we understand this we will be unable to understand the real reasons for the two world wars and the impending Third World War, a war that is almost certain to begin as a consequence of the US attempt to seize and control Central Asia. The only way out is for the US to back off - something the people of the US and the world want, but the elite does not.

The US is a country controlled through the privately owned Federal Reserve, which in turn is controlled by the handful of banking families that established it by deception in the first place.

In his interesting book The Secret Team, Col. Fletcher Prouty, briefing officer of the US President from 1955-63, narrates a remarkable incident in which Winston Churchill made a most revealing utterance during World War II: "On this particular night there had been a heavy raid on Rotterdam. He sat there, meditating, and then, as if to himself, he said, 'Unrestricted submarine warfare, unrestricted air bombing - this is total war.' He continued sitting there, gazing at a large map, and then said, 'Time and the Ocean and some guiding star and High Cabal have made us what we are'."

Prouty further states: "This was a most memorable scene and a revelation of reality that is infrequent, at best. If for the great Winston Churchill, there is a 'High Cabal' that has made us what we are, our definition is complete. Who could know better than Churchill himself during the darkest days of World War II, that there exists, beyond doubt, an international High Cabal? This was true then. It is true today, especially in these times of the One World Order. This all-powerful group has remained superior because it had learned the value of anonymity." This "High Cabal" is the "One World Cabal" of today, also called the elite by various writers.

The High Cabal and What They Control

The elite owns the media, banks, defence and oil industry. In his book Who's Who of the Elite Robert Gaylon Ross Sr. states: "It is my opinion that they own the US military, NATO, the Secret Service, the CIA, the Supreme Court, and many of the lower courts. They appear to control, either directly or indirectly, most of the state, county, and local law enforcement agencies."

The elite is intent on conquering the world through the use of the abilities of the people of the United States. It was as far back as 1774 that Amschel Mayer Rothschild stated at a gathering of the twelve richest men of Prussia in Frankfurt: "Wars should be directed so that the nations on both sides should be further in our debt." He further enunciated at the same meeting: "Panics and financial depressions would ultimately result in World Government, a new order of one world government."

The elite owns numerous "think tanks" that work for expanding, consolidating and perpetuating its hold on the globe. The Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, and many other similar organisations are all funded by the elite and work for it. These think tanks publish journals, such as Foreign Affairs, in which these imperialist and anti-mankind ideas are edified as publications, and then, if need be, expanded in the form of books that are given wide publicity.

Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger et al, as well as the neo-con "thinkers," owe their positions and good living standards to the largesse of the elite. This is an important point that must be kept in full view at all times. These thinkers and writers are on the payroll of the elite and work for them. In case someone has any doubts about such a statement, it might help to read the following quotes from Professor Peter Dale Scott's comprehensively researched book The Road to 9/11 - Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (University of California Press, 2007):

...Bundy's Harvard protégé Kissinger was named to be national security adviser after having chaired an important "study group" at the Council on Foreign Relations. As a former assistant to Nelson Rockefeller, Kissinger had been paid by Rockefeller to write a book on limited warfare for the CFR. He had also campaigned hard in Rockefeller's losing campaign for the Presidential nomination in 1968. Thus Rockefeller and the CFR might have been excluded from control of the Republican Party, but not from the Republican White House. (Page 22)

The following quote from page 38 of the book is also very revealing:

The Kissinger-Rockefeller relationship was complex and certainly intense. As investigative reporter Jim Hougan wrote: "Kissinger, married to a former Rockefeller aide, owner of a Georgetown mansion whose purchase was enabled only by Rockefeller gifts and loans, was always a protégé of his patron Nelson Rockefeller, even when he wasn't directly employed by him."

Professor Scott adds:

Nixon's and Kissinger's arrival in the White House in 1969 coincided with David Rockefeller's becoming CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank. The Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy of detente was highly congruous with Rockefeller's push to internationalise Chase Manhattan banking operations. Thus in 1973 Chase Manhattan became the first American bank to open an office in Moscow. A few months later, thanks to an invitation arranged by Kissinger, Rockefeller became the first US banker to talk with Chinese Communist leaders in Beijing.

How They Manipulate Public Opinion

In addition to these strategic "think tanks" the elite has set up a chain of research institutes devoted to manipulating public opinion in a manner the elite desires. As pointed out by John Coleman in his eye opening book The Tavistock Institute on Human Relations - Shaping the Moral, Spiritual, Cultural, Political and Economic Decline of the United States of America, it was in 1913 that an institute was established at Wellington House, London for manipulation of public opinion. According to Coleman:

The modern science of mass manipulation was born at Wellington House London, the lusty infant being midwifed by Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothmere. The British monarchy, Lord Rothschild, and the Rockefellers were responsible for funding the venture... the purpose of those at Wellington House was to effect a change in the opinions of British people who were adamantly opposed to war with Germany, a formidable task that was accomplished by "opinion making" through polling. The staff consisted of Arnold Toynbee, a future director of studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), Lord Northcliffe, and the Americans, Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays. Lord Northcliffe was related to the Rothschilds through marriage.

Bernays was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, a fact never mentioned, and developed the technique of "engineering consent." When Sigmund Freud moved to Britain he also, secretly, became associated with this institute through the Tavistock Institute. According to Coleman, Bernays "pioneered the use of psychology and other social sciences to shape and form public opinion so that the public thought such manufactured opinions were their own."

The Tavistock Institute has a 6 billion dollar fund and 400 subsidiary organisations are under its control along with 3,000 think tanks, mostly in the USA. The Stanford Research Institute, the Hoover Institute, the Aspen Institute of Colorado, and many others, devoted to manipulation of US as well as global public opinion, are Tavistock offshoots. This helps explain why the US public, by and large, is so mesmerised as to be unable to see things clearly and to react.

Bilderberg researcher Daniel Estulin quotes from Mary Scobey's book To Nurture Humanness a statement attributed to Professor Raymond Houghton, that the CFR has been clear for a very long time that "absolute behaviour control is imminent... without mankind's self realisation that a crisis is at hand."

Also keep in mind that currently 80% of US electronic and print media is owned by only six large corporations. This development has taken place in the past two decades. These corporations are elite owned. It is almost impossible for anyone who is acquainted with what is going on at the global level to watch, even for a few minutes, the distortions, lies and fabrications, incessantly pouring out of this media, a propaganda and brainwashing organ of the elite.

Once your picture is clear it is also easy to notice the criminal silence of the media on crimes being perpetrated against humanity at the behest of the elite. How many people know that the cancer rates in Fallujah, Iraq are higher than those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of the use of depleted uranium, and maybe other secret nuclear devices, by US forces? Fallujah was punished for its heroic resistance against the American forces.

The Importance of Eurasia

Why is the US in Central Asia? In order to understand this, one has to look at the writings of the stooges of the elite - Brzezinski, Kissinger, Samuel P Huntington, and their likes. It is important to note that members of these elite paid think tanks publish books as part of a strategy to give respectability to subsequent illegal, immoral and predatory actions that are to be taken at the behest of the elite. The views are not necessarily their own - they are the views of the think tanks. These stooges formulate and pronounce policies and plans at the behest of their masters, through bodies like the Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg Group, etc.

In his infinitely arrogant book The Grand Chessboard, published in 1997, Brzezinski spelled out the philosophy behind the current US military eruption. He starts by quoting the well-known views of the British geographer Sir Halford J Mackinder (1861-1947), another worker for the elite. Mackinder was a member of the 'Coefficients Dining Club' established by members of the Fabian Society in 1902. The continuity of the policies of the elite is indicated by the fact Brzezinski starts from Mackinder's thesis first propounded in 1904: "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland: Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island: who commands the World-Island commands the world."

Brzezinski argues that for the first time in human history a non-Eurasian power has become preeminent and it must hold sway over the Eurasian continent if it is to remain the preeminent global power: "For America the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia... About 75 percent of the world's people live in Eurasia... Eurasia accounts for about 60 percent of the world's GNP and about three fourths of the world's known energy resources."

It is not just the geostrategic location of this region - it is also its wealth, "both in its enterprises and beneath its soil," that holds such attraction for the elite whose greed for money, and lust for power, remain insatiable, as if there was a sickness afflicting it.

Brzezinski writes: "But it is on the globe's most important playing field - Eurasia - that a potential rival to America might at some point arise. This focusing on the key players and properly assessing the terrain has to be a point of departure for the formulation of American geostrategy for the long-term management of America's Eurasian geopolitical interests."

These lines were published in 1997. Millions of people have died in the past two decades and millions have been rendered homeless in this region but it remains a "playing" field for Brzezinski and his likes! In his book Brzezinski has drawn two very interesting maps - one of these has the caption The Global Zone of Percolating Violence (page 53) and the other (page 124) is captioned The Eurasian Balkans. The first of these encircles a region which includes the following countries: Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, all Central Asian states, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Russia as well as India. The second one has two circles, an inner circle and a wider circle - the outer circle encloses the same countries as in the first map but the inner circle covers Iran, Afghanistan, eastern Turkey and the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia.

"This huge region, torn by volatile hatreds and surrounded by competing powerful neighbours, is likely to be a major battlefield..." writes Brzezinski. He further writes: "A possible challenge to American primacy from Islamic fundamentalism could be part of the problem of this unstable region." These lines were written at a time when this kind of fundamentalism was not a problem - subsequently the US manipulated things and chose to make it one by its provocative and deceptive tactics. According to its strategic thinkers, the US might face a serious challenge from a coalition of China, Russia and Iran and must do whatever it can to prevent such a coalition from forming.

For Brzezinski, "terrorism" - a Tavistock-type concept - is just a well planned and well thought out strategy, a lie and a deception, to provide cover for a military presence in the Central Eurasian region and elsewhere. It is being used to keep the US public in a state of fear, to keep Russia in a state of insecurity about further breakup (the US has trained and supported Chechen fighters, "terrorists," throughout) and to justify presence of US troops in and around Central Asia.

The Concocted War on Terrorism

Terrorism provides justification for transforming the United States into a police state. According to the Washington Postof 20 & 21 December 2010, the US now has 4,058 anti-terrorism organisations! These are certainly not meant for those so-called terrorists who operate in Central Asia - the number far exceeds the number of so-called terrorists in the entire world. Unbridled domestic spying by US agencies is now a fact of life and the US public, as always, has accepted this because of the collusion of media and Tavistock type institutes owned by the elite.

The US historian Howard Zinn puts it very well: "The so-called war on terrorism is not only a war against innocent people in other countries, but also a war on the people of the United States: a war on our liberties, a war on our standard of living. The wealth of the country is being stolen from the people and handed over to the superrich. The lives of our young are being stolen. And the thieves are in the White House." Actually the thieves control the White House and have been doing so for a very long time.

In his outstanding book Crossing the Rubicon, Michael Ruppert points out that much of the violence in the Central Asian region as well as in Pakistan, which has been encircled in two maps in Brzezinski's book, was "initiated by the US proxies." "Given that these maps were published a full four years before the first plane hit the World Trade Centre, they would fall in a category of evidence I learned about at LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department]. We called them 'clues'." This means that the eruption of US militarism after 9/11, and the event itself, were part of a pre-planned and coherent strategy of global domination in which the people of the US were also "conquered" through totalitarian legislation carried out in the wake of 9/11.

As Brzezinski puts it:

America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a popular democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being... The economic self-denial (that is, defence spending) and the human sacrifice (casualties even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilisation.

Certainly post 9/11 legislation, the extraordinary expansion of agencies and surveillance of the US public is a cause of great satisfaction for the elite - the US can hardly be called a democracy now. As reported by the Washington Post, the National Security Agency intercepts over 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other communications every day and stores them. No wonder Bush called 9/11 "a great opportunity" and Rumsfeld saw it analogous to World War II to "refashion the world."

In order to achieve the objectives of the elite, the US destroyed Yugoslavia while Russia stood by mesmerised and impotent, carried out regime changes in Central Asia, set up military bases in East Europe and Central Asia, and staged highly provocative military exercises testing Russia's and China's will. It set up a military base in Kyrgyzstan that has a 500 mile or so border with China. When the Chinese protested recent naval exercises with South Korea were too close to Chinese territory, a US spokesman responded: "Those determinations are made by us, and us alone... Where we exercise, when we exercise, with whom and how, with what assets and so forth are determinations that are made by the United States Navy, by the Department of Defence, by the United States government." As journalist Rick Rozoff notes: "There is no way such confrontational, arrogant and vulgar language was not understood at its proper value in Beijing."

The US has acquired bases in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, and the Czech Republic - and set up the largest military base ever built in the region, Camp Bondsteel, in Kosovo. According to a report in the Russian Kommersant newspaper on 3 March 2011, a four-phase plan for deployment of a US missile system in Europe is to be fully implemented by the end of 2020. The US is also busy setting up bilateral military ties in Russia's backyard with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and is pursuing the goal of a "Greater Central Asia" from Afghanistan right up to the Middle East, a great corridor from where the oil, gas, and great mineral wealth of this region will flow to the coffers of the US elite, at bloody expense to the local people.

As remarked by the Indian career diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar: "The time is not far off before they begin to sense that 'the war on terror' is providing a convenient rubric under which the US is incrementally securing for itself a permanent abode in the highlands of Hindu Kush, the Pamirs, Central Asian steppes and the Caucasus that form the strategic hub overlooking Russia, China, India and Iran." The scene for a great war involving the great powers of the time - US, Russia and China - is now set, by design of the elite. It is just a matter of time.

Time and again the US elite has taken its good people into great wars through documented and proven deceptions - the sinking of the Lusitania during World War I, Pearl Harbour in World War II, and so on. The elite considers us "human garbage" - a term first used by the French in Indo-China. It is also generating a good deal of "human garbage" in the US. A World Bank report points out that in 2005, 28 million Americans were "insecure" - in 2007 the number had risen to 46 million! One in every five Americans is faced with the possibility of becoming "destitute" - 38 million people receive food coupons!

Michael Ruppert laments:

My country is dead. Its people have surrendered to tyranny and in so doing, they have become tyranny's primary support group; its base; its defender. Every day they offer their endorsement of tyranny by banking in its banks and spending their borrowed money with the corporations that run it. The great Neocon strategy of George H.W. Bush has triumphed. Convince the America people that they can't live without the 'good things', then sit back and watch as they endorse the progressively more outrageous crimes you commit as you throw them bones with ever less meat on them. All the while lock them into debt. Destroy the middle class, the only political base that need be feared. Make them accept, because of their shared guilt, ever-more repressive police state measures. Do whatever you want.

A global economic system erected on inhuman and predatory values, where a few possess more wealth than the billions of hungry put together, will end, but the end will be painful and bloody. It is a system in which the elite thrives on war and widespread human misery, on death and destruction by design. As Einstein said, "I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth - sticks and stones!"

Prof. Mujahid Kamranis Vice Chancellor, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, and his book The Grand Deception - Corporate America and Perpetual War has just been published (April 2011) by Sang e Meel Publications, Lahore, Pakistan.

Finally, a Few Senators Are Waking Up!

2011-06-10T10:17:00.000-07:00
In the June 2 edition of the Los Angeles Times, a paper that often touts the government line, a story ran about two senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee who are sounding the alarm about the so-called Patriot Act. I have been doing the same since it was first passed in late 2001, shortly after 9/11. Supposedly, it is about fighting "terrorists," but as I have said from the beginning of this police state, it is really about spying on citizens and destroying the Constitution.

The Patriot Act--Making All Citizens Suspects Since 2001

Senators Udall and Wyden were not even allowed to discuss provisions of the reauthorization with other senators unless they went to a secret room. And the senators are prevented from discussing how the government plans to interpret the Patriot Act. Unbelievable, folks. Just a decade ago, Americans would have looked for this kind of "law-making" in dictatorships, not in their own country.

For my foreign readers, I say: Don't look to the U.S. as a model of democracy. Granted, perhaps it once was. But those days have long since passed. If you are thinking of emigrating to this country, I sure would think twice. If you have just gone through a democratization of your own land, please don't accept any "help" from the U.S. Do democracy on your own. You'll be much better off.

Here's the article:

Senators Sound Alarm Over Patriot Act Extension

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Americans would be "stunned" if they knew how expansively the government uses the Patriot Act to collect information on citizens. (Harry Hamburg/AP)

By Ken Dilanian

Washington Bureau

June 2, 2011, 6:43 a.m.
Reporting from Washington—
When two senators warned that the Patriot Act is being interpreted in a secret way that would alarm Americans if they knew the details, civil liberties activists could only speculate about what they meant.

The activists' fear: that the government is using the anti-terrorism law to collect vast troves of personal information, including cellphone records, on Americans who have no link to terrorism.

Congress voted overwhelmingly last week to reauthorize key provisions of the Patriot Act for four more years. President Obama signed it from France by authorizing the use of an autopen.

The Senate debate on the law featured an unusual dissent by two senators who serve on the Intelligence Committee.

Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, proclaimed that the Patriot Act's surveillance powers are being used far more expansively than most Americans realize. But they can't disclose what they know, they said, because the documents that detail how the Obama administration implements the act are classified. As members of the Intelligence Committee, Wyden and Udall are privy to secret briefings.

"Today the American people do not know how their government interprets the language of the Patriot Act," Wyden said. "Someday they are going to find out, and a lot of them are going to be stunned. Some of them will undoubtedly ask their senators: 'Did you know what this law actually did? Why didn't you know? Wasn't it your job to know, before you voted on it?' "

In an interview, Udall said he wasn't even allowed to discuss details about the government's intelligence-gathering with fellow senators unless they go to a secure room in the Capitol designed to thwart eavesdropping.

But in a statement before the vote, Udall said the law allows the government to "place wide-ranging wiretaps on Americans without even identifying the target or location of such surveillance; target individuals who have no connection to terrorist organizations, and collect business records on law-abiding Americans, without any connection to terrorism."

Nonetheless, most members of Congress, including others who have received the classified briefings, apparently did not share their concerns. The Senate passed the extension, 72-23, with Wyden and Udall voting "no." The bill cleared the House, 250-153.

Still, the warnings by two lawmakers with access to secret information underscore the extent to which government surveillance is shielded from view, in an age when nearly every American leaves a digital trail through the Internet and mobile devices.

Civil libertarians say they suspect the act is used to justify bulk collection of data, most of which is associated with people unconnected to terrorism investigations. The business records provision, Section 215, is subject to a particularly broad reading, they say. It lets government obtain "any tangible things," including cellphone or other personal records, that are "relevant" to a terrorism inquiry after a secret order is obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"There's absolutely nothing in the law that would prevent them from using 215 to do bulk grabs of stored information," said Michelle Richardson, an American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist.

Kevin Bankston, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, "I expect that the main concern is that they are obtaining cellphone records in bulk masses, often pertaining to people who have no link to spying or terrorism."

A clue about Wyden's concerns may be found in a separate bill he is proposing, to forbid the government from tracking, without a court order, the location of Americans through the GPS signals given out by their cellphones.

In 2009, members of Congress voiced concerns that the National Security Agency, which sweeps up huge volumes of foreign communications data, was "over-collecting" and obtaining phone and email records of Americans without warrants. No full accounting was ever made public.

Government officials declined to address the specifics of what Wyden and Udall were referencing. But Todd Hinnen, the assistant attorney general for national security, told Congress in March that the Patriot Act's business records provision supports "important and highly sensitive intelligence-collection operations" that he could not discuss further.

Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, noted that the surveillance is approved by the intelligence surveillance court.

"We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the public's elected representatives are fully informed of the ways in which we interpret and use these authorities," he said.

Wyden argued that it's one thing to support a provision about which the public is unaware, and another to have to explain it to constituents when they learn of its implications.

"I don't take a back seat to anybody when it comes to the importance of protecting genuinely sensitive sources and collection methods," he said. "But the law itself should never be secret -- voters have a need and a right to know what the law says, and what their government thinks the text of the law means."

kdilanian@tribune.com

You Are Not Alone

2011-06-08T11:57:00.000-07:00
This video is funny and so right on. It is a message that is sorely needed: You are not alone, even when you think you are the only person you know who "gets" it about where our world is going. Fantastic video about what you can do to resist the corporate takeover of life itself. And the guy is cute too! Warning to the sensitive: He does use a few "bad" words. His name is Lee Camp, and you can find out more at leecamp.net

A Dream Within a Dream

2011-06-07T19:43:00.000-07:00
Early Monday morning I had a number of fascinating dream experiences. Dreams within a dream. Memories within the mind of my dream self. My dream self observing me sleeping. Orchestrating my dreaming. Some of this I've experienced on previous nights, but never a dream within a dream, not that I can recall at least. Following is my account.

Outer-frame dream: A young boy, sometimes Latino or Lebanese, 3 or 4 years old, and sometimes blond and white, 8 or 9 years old, who talked quite a bit. Was he my dream guide? He and I were in an alcove of a waiting area in a large institution, like a hospital or government building. He asked me what I was doing. I told him I was writing down a dream. I could see my handwriting in a stenobook, like the one I use in waking life to write down my dreams. I returned to the boy several times, each time after going off to another dream within the outer-frame dream.

In one inner-frame dream, I stood in a large, dusty, neglected yard. I had a memory of the yard as lush and green, but now it was almost devoid of plant life. I looked at the few plants that were still alive in the flower beds. I remembered them when they had flourished. I figured I needed to water them and so got a hose.

Then I heard Rasputin’s excited yip, which he does when he’s happy to see me. The yip came from inside the house, but when I climbed the four or so stairs and opened the door to step inside, he wasn’t there. Instead, I encountered my mother, looking the way she had perhaps a year before her death. She was clearly senile and was talking nonsense. I had to keep shifting position because she continued to shift her gaze, as if she were speaking to someone I couldn’t see.

I left her and explored the rest of the building, which didn’t seem like a house at all but an abandoned office or warehouse. I sensed a male presence, always out of sight.
In another inner-frame dream, I was acutely aware that I was dreaming. In fact, I was either thinking with determination or saying instructions aloud. The instructions offered by Carlos Castaneda in his book “The Art of Dreaming.” He suggests that the dreamer focus on one object upon entering a dream and allow this object to be one’s anchor. If you feel as if you are leaving the dream space and you want to stay rather than shift to another dream space, you look again at the anchor object. Also, do not stare at objects, but rather keep your gaze moving. If you stare at an object, you will be pulled into another dream space. So, as I was dreaming, I was thinking or saying these instructions to myself.

But I encountered a bougainvillea that was so lovely, its color so intense and which took up so much of my view that I was drawn to it and could not stop looking. Very soon, I felt myself lifting from the dream space, floating for a short time, then being transported back to the outer frame, almost sucked back to that frame.

At one point, the dream self was observing the dreamer. I, whoever I was at that point, could see me lying in bed. Moreover, the dream self could hear some noises in the courtyard next to my bedroom. This sure smacks of astral travel.

Last night I slept fitfully, but tonight I hope to do some more exploring. I especially want to work on controlling my dreams and traveling beyond my bedroom. We'll see...

Hello, Romania and Sweden!

2011-06-06T16:38:00.000-07:00
Since Finland and Norway have already sent visitors, and since by some accounts, Denmark is also a Scandanavian country, now that a Swedish soul has visited the site, all that's left is Iceland. Remember, folks, as previously stated in my March 7 post, "Thanks to All my Readers," Iceland, Greenland, Bhutan, Andorra, Afghanistan, and Pitcairn Island are the big prizes, but I appreciate visitors from any and all lands.

I haven't been to Sweden or Romania, but I once worked with a man who got it into his head that he was moving to Romania--in 1989, just in time for the revolution that overthrew Ceauşescu and Communism. Before he left, I asked if he had really thought this through. He was an odd guy, to be sure, but struck me as having a light about him, as if he would escape harm. He seemed incredibly trusting and naive, but it has often been said that God protects fools. He didn't even speak Romanian, but said he'd learn once he got there. I've often wondered what happened to him.

This tale of my co-worker reminds me of another young man with a vision. When I was teaching at Cal State Long Beach, I'd often open the semester with a mini-lecture on freedom. It went something like this: "You don't have to be here. The government isn't forcing you to be here. You are adults, so your parents can't force you to be here either. Besides being in this classroom, you could be doing thousands of other things with your life. Starting a business. Surfing Tahiti. Writing a novel. Getting high. You have choices. You are free. Free to walk out that door and never come back. But if you are here, I expect you to be completely here. If you make the decision to be here, then I expect 100 percent from you. But always remember that you are free."

Usually, my students just listened--or didn't listen. But one semester, a good-looking, blond, surfer-looking guy stood up and walked out of the classroom. I clapped as he left. I had given him permission to be free, and he took it. Good for him.

The Last Nails in the Coffin of American Democracy

2011-06-05T16:57:00.000-07:00
This five-minute speech delivered to Congress in May says it all: Democracy has been so severely eroded in the U.S. that it will soon be a democracy in name only. Congressman Ron Paul spells it out so eloquently and so succinctly.

Adbusters

2011-06-04T13:17:00.000-07:00
If you're not familiar with Adbusters, I suggest you check out this publication. Calling it social commentary is an understatement. Canadian-based, it was founded by advertising people who became critics of the system they once extolled.

A typical Adbusters spread is a still photo from the security camera video of the Columbine gunmen with the tag line INSANITY on one page, and on the facing page, an Army recruiting poster with the tag line SANITY. Adbusters are the folks who sponsor Turn Off Your TV Week and Buy Nothing Day, the day after Thanksgiving, which is notoriously the pinnacle of American consumption.

Adbusters has taken on the collusion between the pharmaceutical industry and the "researchers" who are paid by the pharmaceutical industry to test the drugs. They've tackled psychotropic drugs and the American duty to be happy, or at least act that you are. They've looked at military recruiting and always at consumerism.

Adbusters is as critical of Obama as they were of Bush--and well they should be. Really, what's the difference except that Obama delivers evil in a more intelligent, nicer-sounding package. The current issue has an article on the U.S.'s weaponized drones in the air over more than a dozen countries. In Pakistan alone, American drones have killed 14 supposed terrorists and another 700-1,000 civilians. A cartoon in the latest issue shows Obama at a podium, taking a question from a reporter, who asks, "Mr. President, your administration acknowledges it has carried out extrajudicial assassinations, an illegal practice. Would you therefore consider yourself to be a legitimate target of assassination?"

Lately, Adbusters has been spending a lot of time musing about the end of the world as we know it. The total collapse of the economy and resulting food and medicine shortages, civil unrest, that sort of thing.

I have been thinking a lot about the same recently. I've known this was coming for decades, but I've never known what I in particular am supposed to do about it. When I consider moving some place where I could have a vegetable garden, I take stock of my physical condition and reconsider. Walking around the block sometimes gives me chest pain. Preparing soil for planting, hoeing, weeding, watering, and harvesting are much more strenuous tasks.

I've also considered moving to Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where the small communities there have an alternate currency, Berkshares. Currently, you can trade your U.S. dollars for Berkshares, which are accepted by local merchants and banks. Some employers even pay in Berkshares. That way, when the dollar collapses, those communities can continue functioning. Other communities throughout the country have currencies, but none are as sophisticated as Berkshares. Many other towns, including Long Beach, have time exchanges in which one hour of your work is equal to one hour's of anyone else's work. These are basically service barters. I'm all for those, and as a massage therapist, I've traded for hair services, massages, and facials for years, but they are services only, not the things you need for life like shelter and food. The only thing about Massachusetts is that I don't know anyone there, and what is most important during difficult times is knowing your neighbors and having people you can count on. To be a newcomer when the shit hits the fan won't be the best thing.

With my son moving to Pennsylvania in August, I certainly am free to move. But where?

$188 in New Dehli, $1,020 Here

2011-06-01T09:45:00.000-07:00
Harken back to my recent post Third World Wages, First World Prices in which I wrote:
My competitors for writing jobs are in places where the cost of living is a whole lot cheaper than it is here. I can't imagine, for example, that a small, poorly maintained one-bedroom apartment in a town in Bangladesh or a village in Mali rents for $1,020/month. For someone in these circumstances, writing 20 articles for less than $500 is no doubt a boondoggle.

My suspicions were confirmed when the next day, I spoke with a Dell technical rep when my laptop's desktop was upside down and right side left. The icons were turned on their heads, and those that had been on the lower right were now on the upper left and vice versa. In addition, the cursor went up when I moved it down and right when I moved it left and vice versa. What a mess! The ever-polite, young man from New Dehli and I chitchatted during down times when diagnostics were running on my slow PC. He told me about his sweetheart and his studies to improve his lot in life, and I told him about my dog (which he could see, through screen sharing, on my desktop), my line of work, and the cost of living here.

I asked him what would a one-bedroom apartment in New Dehli go for in a decent, working person's neighborhood. Not a fancy neigborhood, but not one where you could expect to have a gun pointed at your head either. He said 8,000-9,000 rupees. I looked that up on a currency converter. On that day, it meant that my $1,020 apartment would rent for $188 in New Dehli. I pay 5 1/2 times what he pays for a place to lie his head. How is an American writer supposed to compete with Indian writers who are paying so much less for their necessities?

This makes me believe what I've so often heard and read: The main reason behind globalization is not to improve the lot of poor countries but to bring developed countries' standards of living down to those of developing countries. In other words, to make everyone poor and only a tiny, tiny few exceedingly wealthy.

America, long seen as the land of opportunity and of freedom, had to be brought to its knees by the globalists. That has been their aim for the last 30 years, duing which time there has been

* a major redistribution of wealth from the already poor and the middle class to the super-rich;
* the offshoring of good-paying manufacturing and service jobs;
* an at-first slowly encroaching and now rapidly expanding police state with all its surveillance apparatus and unconstitutional manuevers;
* the government- and corporate-engineered decline of the dollar against other currencies;
* the orchestrated boons and busts of the dot com, stocks, housing, and commodities markets;
* the uncontrolled federal, state, and personal credit debts;
* the destruction of unions that once helped to keep tariffs intact and wages high;
* the wholesale sellout of the corporate mainstream media, as well as much of public media, to their corporate and government masters;
* the robbing of Social Security, which was designed to be self-supporting and separate from the federal budget;
* the ungodly amount of money American taxpayers have been saddled with because of savings and loans, bank, and other bailouts, and corporation-serving, otherwise-meaningless wars; and
* the destruction of personal wealth at one time held in home equity, savings, pension contributions, 401(k)s, and stock holdings.

In the New World Order of all countries under the overarching iron fist of corporatism, America was seen as a threat, and so the global elite have done all in their power to make the American public stupid, lazy, disenfranchised, disheartened, fearful, confused, and misinformed. The final blow has not yet been delivered.

There still is time, and people are finally beginning to wake up to things I saw 44 years ago, when, as an 8-year-old girl, I had a vision that someday, America would become a dictatorship. There is still a little bit of time left before the final death knell is sounded to the Constitution. Wake up, folks, and start looking for the truth yourself and not listening to the government or its corporate sponsors.

What am I to do About "The Crash"?

2011-05-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

Everywhere I look, I see portends of the impending crash of civilization. I'm not talking about a biblical end of the world but a very human-engineered end. I just don't see how we can avoid total economic collapse, total environmental collapse, total oil collapse or all three.

The system cannot hold. Need I count the ways for you?
* creeping fascism, surveillance, and the erosion of freedom in the U.S. and other developed countries
* unending, meaningless wars that the populace opposes but which cater to the greed of banksters and defense contractors
* globalization and so-called free trade that benefits no one but the multi-national corporations and the elites that control them
* an exploding population and diminishing resources
* governments and media that lie to the people over and over again (9/11, the "death" of Osama bin Laden, the "safety" of nuclear power, vaccinations, genetically modified food, radiation, pharmaceuticals, fish from the Gulf oil spill, on and on)
* skyrocketing government and personal debt
* widening gap between super-rich and the rest of us
* declining wages
* rising prices
* increased demand for oil, diminishing reserves
* governments that are beholden to business interests not to the people
* the stealing of elections
* the declining dollar

OK, that's enough. You can fill in the other hundred or so reasons for concerns.

I've known for a very long time, probably two decades, that this just could not continue. The "this" being pretty much everything you see around you. Cars, consumption, TV, electronics, the Internet, government. I've known that the best strategy was to buy some land in a moderate climate with a good source of water and live off the grid.

The thing is that's just not been possible for me for a number of reasons, one being financial. Now I am not even sure as if I had the money if I could physically work as a farmer. For sure I'd have to wear a mask to guard against infection from the fungi and micro-organisms that live in the soil. And then there's the pharmaceutical thing. All the prophets I'm reading say, "Take care of your own health. No one else will." But if there is no transportation after the crash, then I and millions of others won't get the drugs they need to live.

So, the post-crash world will be fine for the young, the strong, the healthy, the landed, and the partnered (spouse or friend), but not so great for the aging, the weak, the ill, the renters, and the single.

So for all of you who have your stash of cash, I recommend that you spend it on some farmland near a friendly community of like-minded individuals. Good for you.

For the rest of us, we'll just have to:
* Live fully in the here and now.
* Be good to our neighbors, our family, and our friends.
* Work at building community and relationships with the people who live in our surroundings.
* As much as possible, prepare for the crash as we would prepare for an earthquake. Store water, non-perishables, books, meds, matches, a camp stove, fuel (safely, of course), comfortable clothes, blankets, a deck of cards, paper and pens, and toilet paper. There are more things too, but you can check with any emergency preparedness site for more info.
* Prepare for the big changes that are coming, but don't give into fear. Fear never does any good.

Welcome, Argentina, Serbia, and Singapore!

2011-05-29T21:53:00.000-07:00
Three more countries have entered the fold. Thank you, Argentine, Serbian, and Singaporean visitors. My first South American visitor. Another visitor from an Eastern European country. And a visitor from a country I almost entered when I was in Malaysia in 1999. Really appreciate your stopping by. Hope you come back and bring some friends.

This photo, by the way, is from none of these countries, but from my beloved Northern California.

Osama bin Laden, the Dialysis Patient

2011-05-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

Shortly after 9/11, there were many reports that bin Laden was on dialysis. Jokes went around about bin Laden receiving dialysis treatments in a cave in Afghanistan. At the time, I didn't pay much attention to this, but for the two years I was a dialysis patient, I sure wondered, "How in the hell can he still be alive? All these many years on dialysis!"

As the majority of American dialysis patients are dead within five years of starting dialysis, it seemed ludicrous to me that a man on the run, subject to extremely challenging conditions and probably often unsanitary conditions could survive for more than a decade on dialysis. That's why when it was recently announced that bin Laden had been killed, I thought, So much bullshit. Is everything the government says a lie?

Here, for example, is an article by the respected British newspaper the Guardian about Osama getting a portable dialysis machine in late 2001. This same article states what has already been reported elsewhere: that Osama was visited by the CIA while hospitalized in July 2001 in Dubai. The New York Times reported that Osama died in December 2001. For extensive links to credible reports of bin Laden's death in 2001, see this site.

Now the American spin doctors--aka American mainstream media--are attempting to cover their tracks, stating that Osama's dialysis is one of the "myths" about him. I love this report from ABC News, which states that there was no evidence of dialysis treatments at the Pakistan compound where Osama was "killed." Well, OK, that could mean one of two things: 1) Osama was not on dialysis, and he was killed a few weeks ago, or 2) Osama may have been on dialysis, but the man who was killed a few weeks ago was not Osama. Guess which one I'm banking on?

Hello, Pakistan and Finland!

2011-05-24T12:04:00.000-07:00
Hello, Pakistani and Finn visitors. Welcome. It's difficult to imagine two places so far apart.

As I did for Iranians, I also must do for Pakistanis. I apologize for the actions of my government. Not all Americans approve of the use of drones on Pakistani soil or on anyone's soil, for that matter. Of course, I wonder how much lip service the Pakistani leaders are giving to their outrage against the Americans invading their country, staging attacks and in the process killing their citizens. I very much doubt that any of the American incursions could proceed without the tacit support of the Pakistani military and political leaders. As in the U.S., so too in Pakistan: Tell the people one thing, but do the opposite behind their backs.

From the very beginning when I first learned of drones, I shuddered. How evil to have non-human things that are without feelings and discernment playing the part of some cold, lifeless god, dishing out death with no regard to the look on the victim's face, the fear in his or her eyes. I said from the get-go that the government's reasoning behind the use of drones was not to protect and save American lives, but to try them out on people in other countries before they would be used at home on American citizens. I wrote a post about a Texas police department's use of drones. It's already happening here. You can't sow evil elsewhere in the world and not expect it to take hold and grow like weeds back home. Soon will come the day when drones will be used to disrupt peaceful demonstrations in San Francisco or New York, or to stalk and destroy an alleged drug dealer. Just wait.

And now to Finland. Thank you for visiting as well. I have never been to a Scandanavian country, but sure would love to go. Could you please reduce your cost of living so that, that may be possible for me? :)

News to Me: Blogspot is a Christian Hangout

2011-05-14T23:18:00.000-07:00
In the years since I started this blog, I never before hit the "Next Blog" tab...until tonight. What an awakening! I must have scrolled through 40 of the next blogs. This was the run-down: 90 percent Christian-themed, 5 percent for family and friends only (we had pizza for lunch, Jenny took her first step, that kind of stuff), and 5 percent disease-oriented.

Granted, there must be thousands of blogs on this site, maybe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, who knows. And maybe I just happen to be in a Christian zone. I always thought the "next blog" was arranged alphabetically, but it must be based on date of inception or number of visitors or something else.

I don't really fit in very well with my neighbors, as I discuss a lot of things they wouldn't think to cover, like the ridiculous stories the government tells us about 9/11 and the death of Osama bin Laden. I can't imagine any of the Christian blogs questioning authority. Actually, Meister Eckhart, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., and Matthew Fox are the only Christians that I can think of off the top of my head who have questioned authority.

Oh, well, I'll leave it to you, dear readers, to bring more visitors to Heidi's heart.

Third World Wages, First World Prices

2011-05-14T11:01:00.000-07:00
One field in which the work world has drastically changed is writing. From the late '80s through the late '90s, I was often making $100/hour for writing magazine articles and corporate newsletters, and as much as $90/hour for editing. Today on craigslist.com, writers can make $5-$10 for a 1,500-word "thoroughly researched" article. For those of you who aren't writers, this would take between 15 and 25 hours of work, at between 20 and 67 cents/hour, well below the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr. and the California minimum wage of $8.

I recently met up with a former student of mine while I was walking my dog in the neighborhood. Daniel said that I should check out elance.com, the site at which he gets all his work. He has been working through this site for years. He admitted that when he started out, he was shocked at how little he was making, as he was competing against English-speakers throughout the world, many of whom in countries where $150 went 20 or more times farther than it does here. After many years, though, he said that clients come back to him because they like the work he does and they will pay what he's worth. I checked it out.

Like many such sites, elance talent bids for work. You can buy into different plans--five bids per month for free, then the fees increase, depending on the number of bids you wish to submit. In addition to this, elance takes 6.75-8.75 percent of your earnings, the highest percentage going to those contractors who have the least amount of work--boy, isn't that the way the world works! The jobs I've seen so far have been abysmal. Twenty 400-word articles with synopses for less than $500 (the maximum bid). Back in the day, I could make that much for two articles. On a good day, maybe even one.

This wouldn't all be so bad if prices had gone down in the past couple decades, but that sure has not happened. As anyone who has ever shopped for his or her own food knows, the cost of living has skyrocketed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the government agency that calculates the Consumer Price Index (CPI), claims that prices have increased by 277 percent since 1980. That, however, is quite deceiving, as the BLS reconfigured the way it calculates the CPI back in 1980. Instead of sticking to the things that everyone needs to survive, like food, housing, medical care, transportation, and clothes, the BLS started to throw in items that you either don't need or you can certainly do without, things like iPads. Because, as has been the case throughout history, when a new technology first hits the scene, it's expensive, but as time goes on and consumers are buying more of the thing and the cost of producing the thing decreases and there's more competition in the marketplace, the price to consumers also decreases. But a lot of these items are durable, which means you don't buy them every week or even every year. They're not like a loaf of bread or a pound of beans. If you look at the real inflation rate from 1980 to 2011, it's more like 1,110 percent.

I can vouch for a much-higher inflation rate than the government reports. My first apartment in 1977 was a cute one-bedroom that rented for $175/month. When I got married in 1978, we rented a much bigger place with built-in mahogany bookcases, a walk-in pantry, two bedrooms, and a sun room that was glass on three sides. This was $300. The place I'm in now is a small one-bedroom that is poorly maintained by the landlord. The railing on my porch is termite-ridden and falling down. Many of the exterior boards are either cracked or not flush, allowing rodents to come in from time to time. It's easy to see the structural damage in this 1920s-era house, of which I rent the back half for $1,020. Though we aren't comparing apples to apples, as my first apartment was much better maintained, yet the percentage increase is 483. I have no basis for comparing medical costs, as I have always had some sort of insurance, but these costs certainly go well beyond the government CPI.

Food prices are even more shocking. Currently, I'm paying up to $3.99 for a single bell pepper, a little more than $4 for a gallon of milk, close to $4 for a loaf of bread, and almost $5 for a dozen eggs. Working for 20-67 cents an hour, I could spend two days earning enough to buy my breakfast.

This brings the point home of what globalization has done. It's drastically lowered wages and the buying power of the American consumer, while taking overseas what once were well-paying jobs. And yet the cost of living continues to climb. My competitors for writing jobs are in places where the cost of living is a whole lot cheaper than it is here. I can't imagine, for example, that a small, poorly maintained one-bedroom apartment in a town in Bangladesh or a village in Mali rents for $1,020/month. For someone in these circumstances, writing 20 articles for less than $500 is no doubt a boondoggle.

First Visitor from the African Continent!

2011-05-11T10:21:00.000-07:00
Good morning, Kenyan visitor! You are my very first visitor from Africa.

Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father, though the land was not known as Kenya at the time of his birth or Obama's birth. Rather it was British East Africa and did not become Kenya until two years after Obama's birth. Just a bit of historical accuracy that American journalists seem to miss.

But thank you again, man, woman, or child from Kenya. I'm very happy to welcome you.

A More Encompassing View of Motherhood

2011-05-08T19:14:00.000-07:00
On this Mother's Day, my hope is that all women and their individual decisions regarding children will be honored and respected. Mothering and motherhood manifest in so many ways that go well beyond the narrow view of giving physical birth.

The woman who lovingly cares for animals or for her garden, the one who brings in homemade baked goods for her coworkers, the gal who remembers her friends' birthdays with cards and calls, the woman who has a deep connection with nature or who works for peace and justice or is a counselor, a therapist, a doctor, a nurse, an acupuncturist, a teacher, or a massage therapist--all these women manifest the loving, nurturing qualities of a good mother.

I'm sure that today many women who do not have children are feeling down. As I have often felt on Valentine's Day, they feel that everyone else but them has been invited to a huge party. Just as the unloved (at least in a romantic sense) are uninvited to the Valentine's Day party, childless women are left out of the Mother's Day celebrations, especially after their own mothers have died. Up until that time, the focus is on the women who gave birth to them, but once they're gone, the focus then shifts to themselves.

Of course, some women are happy with their decision not to have children, but others may have wanted children but never found the right person with whom to have them or were physically unable to conceive. To these women and to society as a whole, I say, Expand your notion of motherhood.

The world could certainly do with more nurturing, caring, loving, attending, healing, helping, guiding, and nourishing. And not simply from biological mothers but from everyone, female and male, of child-bearing years or not. Just think how dramatically life on this planet would change if we all went out into the world beaming love at the world as a mother beams love at her child. And if we cared about each person we met with the concern and consideration that a mother gives to her child.

If each one of us acted as good mothers every day, I can't see how we would ever tolerate the destruction of the rainforests or the drumbeat to war or the imprisonment of the innocent or the torture of the never-brought-to-trial. Also, like a mother, we would insist on punishment and correction if the world strayed. If we looked at banksters, for example, as a mother would look at a child who has committed serious wrongs, we would not allow them to continue their evil work. We would insist that they take a time-out or we'd take away all their toys and privileges. Wouldn't that be fantastic--a time-out from unchecked greed and the ungodly wealthy deprived of their toys and privileges! Now that's the kind of mothering banksters need!

So Many of my Female Friends Are Childless

2011-05-08T16:49:00.000-07:00
As I was going through my phone list today, searching for friends to whom I could wish a happy Mother's Day, I realized that somewhere around 90 percent of my female friends don't have children. This would not be so remarkable if they were in their teens or twenties, but they're in their late 40s to late 70s.

The rate of childlessness among my friends is much higher than the norm, which now stands at 20 percent for women aged 40-44. According to a June 2010 Pew Research Center study, this is double the rate in 1970, when only one in 10 women beyond child-bearing years was childless. Granted, this study only concerns itself with biological mothers, not adoptive or stepmothers. One does not have to physically give birth to a child to be a mother, but this study only looked at those who did give birth.

As is as to be expected, women with at least a bachelor's degree are more likely to be childless than those with no college degree. For more educated women, the rate of childlessness rises from one in five overall to one in four. White women are more likely to be childless, but rates of childlessness are rising among blacks and Latinas.

One would think that a key reason for increasing rates of childlessness is society's greater tolerance of women who either cannot or choose not to have children. Surprisingly, this is not the case. According to the Pew report, although "about half the public -- 46% in a 2009 Pew Research Center poll -- say it makes no difference one way or the other that a growing share of women do not ever have children, Ssill, a notable share of Americans -- 38% in that 2009 survey -- say this trend is bad for society, an increase from 29% in a 2007 Pew Research survey."

Once again, we are a divided society. Nearly half seem to say it's no one's business but the woman's and her partner's, while almost as many feel childlessness is wrong. I am sorry that so many people feel it is their business to judge another's life path. What a wonderful day it will be when everyone will feel free to fully and completely pursue their own inner vision of their destiny, with or without children.

Paint Your Heart Out

2011-05-07T18:49:00.000-07:00
I'm healthy enough to begin volunteering again. Today was my first time back with the meetup.com volunteer group with which I've helped serve breakfast to the homeless, cared for trees in a regional park, and taken a hike with the blind. Today I did some painting for two low-income elderly women through an organization called Paint Your Heart Out.

I arrived at the mobile home park about 8 a.m., the appointed meeting time. I drove about but could only find a group from Target, which was also involved in the Paint Your Heart Out event. I finally located one of the homes that the meetup group was to paint and knocked on the door. A delightful Italian woman--the 90-year-old by the name of Toni--answered the door and invited me in, then made a cup of coffee for me.

Toni's story is typical of many seniors. They bought their houses years ago when prices were cheap and have paid them off, but their living expenses are barely covered by Social Security. Medicare doesn't pay the full bill, so they have hundreds of dollars of uncovered medical expenses each month. In a mobile home park, they may own the home itself outright, but they have to pay a maintenance fee, in Toni's case, it's $700/month, what I consider quite high. So to make a long story short, though she's living in a decent place in a decent neighborhood, she has no money for anything other than food, taxes, medical bills, and car expenses. The last time she had a crew come out and do the painting that we did today, she had to pay $500. So she was very grateful for our help and served us homemade chocolate cupcakes for dessert. (Pizza was provided free of charge to volunteers by a local pizza place.)

I did most of my work, however, at the home of an equally cute 79-year-old named Sonya. She did not interact with us as much as Toni did, though she too was grateful and pleasant. Minthu (pronounced minn tu), a Vietnamese woman about my age, worked alongside me at Sonya's mobile home. We hosed down the outside of her home, then primed her back railing and painted it the same color as her home, a light peach. John, Adrian, and Wiseman, the organizer, painted the eaves on both homes.

Sonya had a shelf that must have been sitting outside for decades. It was covered in dirt. She asked that we paint it. A few of us had a go at cleaning it. I even used the power setting on the garden hose. All to no avail. We left that job undone.

Since I have to be careful about dust and contaminants, I wore a mask the entire day except while eating lunch or taking a water break. I don't want to do anything to damage Pinkie, my new kidney.

At one point during the day, John and I drove to another location to help a Starbucks work group. They were at a hoarder's house, cutting down a bouganvilla bush that had overtaken one side of the house. John and I went with the woman of the house into the backyard and attempted to hide our horror at what we saw. Piles of newspaper that had been left outside for years. Mountains of empty plastic bottles. Machinery that may have worked some time in the past but were now missing multiple parts and had been rusted through and through. Too many odd things for my mind to fully grasp with such a brief look. We politely told the woman that we didn't have the equipment to do the job right now. Through the windows, we could see that stuff was piled to the ceiling. Hoarding is a not-uncommon disorder in America.

I really like the people who volunteer for these meetup events. They tend to be young and enthusiastic. I like their energy. I encourage all to get involved with their communities. It's a far better way to save the world than getting involved with politics. Isn't that the truth!

Nice to See You, Norway!

2011-05-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

Some time during the past 24 hours, a Norwegian stopped by this blog. Welcome.

I have never been to Scandanavia, primarily because it's just so darn expensive. But I have long wanted to visit. I am especially fascinated with the Svalbard Islands, an archepeligo located halfway between Norway proper and the North Pole.

Besides my wonderment with this remote region of the country, I have always held such romantic notions of happy skiers and rosy-cheeked snowshoers, of cozy mountain cabins in which friends gather about the fireplace and sip grog. I also have equally quixotic visions in my head of a kindly, older woman teaching me all sorts of fancy knitting patters for those distinctive Norwegian sweaters.

I realize that life in Norway must be a lot more than skiing, snowshoeing, mountain retreats, and handmade sweaters, but that's a pretty good start, don't you think? So, thank you, Norwegian friend, for visiting. Perhaps you know someone in Finland, Sweden, or even Iceland or Greenland who may want to wander this way.

Whom Would I Love to Meet?

2011-05-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Dalai Lama was in Long Beach this past weekend. My dear neighbor and friend bought a ticket for me to attend his talk. On the day of the event, he had a sore throat and had to cancel. Later my friend, who had been a key volunteer in facilitating his stay in Long Beach, had been given a last-minute invitation to see the Dalai Lama for a group blessing. She either arrived too late or wasn't sure where to go, but in any event, she missed. out. As the Dalai Lama is to her like Jesus is to many Christians, this was a big disappointment.

All this made me wonder: Who would I feel bad about not meeting if the opportunity arose? I couldn't come up with anyone. Simply shaking hands or saying hello doesn't interest me. If, however, the person had time to have a good conversation over a cup of coffee, well, then I could think of a lot of people I'd like to chat with. But simply being in the same room holds little appeal.

When I gave the subject some more thought, I realized that the only being I would really hate to miss is an ET. That's right, if someone called me right now and said, "Heidi, hurry over to the football field. A huge flying saucer is going to land, and they want you to come on board and spend a few days," and I missed that opportunity, I'd really be bummed.

Nightmares Not Scary

2011-05-03T15:17:00.000-07:00
For the last decade or so, nightmares have not scared me. Whereas when I was a child or young adult, I frequently had nightmares, I now rarely do. But when I do, they do not frighten me.

In the past few years, I've had dreams of ghosts, ghouls, pursuit by demons and murderers, dark forces lurking in abandoned buildings and near-brushes with death. But each time, I felt no fear. It is as if I am simply observing, just as one would observe a beautiful sunset, a curious dog, or an inert pile of garbage. I sometimes wake up, but I am not sweating, my heart is not pounding, and I don't pull the sheets over my head to "protect" me from the Boogie Man. I just wake up, think, "Wasn't that something!" and drop back to sleep. No problem.

A few weeks ago, I dreamed that I had gotten somehow involved with a criminal gang of hillbillies, not that I ever realized there were such things as hillbilly gangs. The hillbillies' rivals were a crime syndicate of well-dressed, sophisticated, young Iranian women in traditional dress. They had an apartment that overlooked the hillbilly hide-out, and so they peered out their second-story windows at us.

One of the hillbilly gals was pregnant--or was she? She was feigning pregnancy but actually had a tummy full of stolen cash--cash that had been taken perhaps from the Iranians. Though I wasn't involved in any criminal activity, I agreed to drive the "pregnant" woman and her fiance to the hospital, where a doctor was to perform surgery and remove the cash. I witnessed the surgery, which actually took place at a small motel, rather than a hospital. The whole business was quite sloppy and brutal, but the patient was in fairly good condition when she and her fiance entered the back of the van that I drove.

As we were exiting the motel parking lot, a hired gun for the Iranians (I assumed) stood in front of the van and fired three shots, all three of which were direct hits, the final one to my head. The action then stopped, and the dream took place inside my consciousness. I thought, "I must remain perfectly still so he'll believe that I am dead." That's when I woke up. The closest I've ever come to dying in a dream. But I was not at all scared. I found it fascinating from an intellectual standpoint, that's all.

Osama Brought to Judgment, Not Justice

2011-05-02T19:57:00.000-07:00
Osama bin Laden is supposedly dead. Hmmm... Interesting that his body was tossed out to sea. Convenient, isn't it? Reminds me of the cleanup jobs at Oklahoma City and 9/11. Get rid of the evidence as soon as possbile.

For the record, I am sure that bin Laden had something to do with 9/11, so I don't believe he's a good guy. If you want to read a really detailed and insightful book about 9/11, I suggest Michael Ruppert's 600-page, 1,000-footnote "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil." There's a much stronger case to be made against former Vice President Dick Cheney as the mastermind of 9/11 than there is against Osama bin Laden.

I listened to what little coverage of the assassination that I could handle. I found it ironic that commentators talked of the innocents who died on 9/11, but they made no mention of the innocents within the bin Laden compound, specifically, the women who allegedly were used as human shields.

I found it disturbing how often journalists said bin Laden had been "brought to justice." I always thought this meant that someone stands trial and is either convicted and sentenced or found innocent and allowed to go free. But I guess that, too, is changing. Now "brought to justice" means that the government determines your guilt and blows you away without a trial. Is this a new precedent?

On "Bloomberg Market Minute" the reporter said that the markets had gotten a boost with the news that Obama was dead, but then went back down because he's old news and is not all that important to give the stock market a lasting boost. Again, strange to hear a man's death discussed in terms of a temporary asset. I wonder if, at this very moment, Wall Street banksters are wondering, "Whose death would push the market up or down, in our favor, of course?"

The simple truth is that, like Manuel Noriega and Saddham Hussein, Osama bin Laden outlived his usefulness and had to be silenced by prison or death. If the guy would have been captured and put on trial, just imagine what secrets he would have divulged. I seriously can't see him saying to the judge and jury, "You're right. It was 19 of my men, armed with box cutters, who foiled the entire U.S. military forces, intelligence agencies, and air transportation system." In the event of a real Osama trial that was open to the public, we'd all be calling for Dick Cheney to "be brought to justice."

Article About Kidney Donor Chain

2011-05-01T16:10:00.000-07:00
The following article was written by a young woman who contacted me via this blog. Though I twice offered to talk with her about my experience, she didn't call.

Two corrections: I am a former journalism, not English, professor. My neighbor Janet took the photo, not me. She should receive the credit. Other than this, Gabrielle did a very good job of discussing the process.
I had queried several publications about my experience, but none wanted a first-person piece, so I'm glad that our story got out anyway.

Local Woman Saves Lives Through Kidney Donation Chain

by Gabrielle Moreira

Ventura County Star

Posted April 29, 2011 at 9:16 p.m., updated April 29, 2011 at 9:16 p.m.

.This story is contributed by a member of the Ventura community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Ventura County Star

www.heidisheart.blogspot.com - permission from Heidi

Brandie Pabustan (sitting) with Heidi (standing) during their recovery at the UCLA Medical Center.

Brandie Pabustan was just a few days away from donating one of her kidneys to her husband, Conrad, when doctors called off the surgery.

Brandie’s blood type made her a good match for Conrad and her great health made her an ideal candidate to be a donor.

But it came as an unwelcome surprise when doctors told them during their final blood test that Conrad’s disease-fighting antibodies had started attacking Brandie’s blood, making it all but impossible to move forward with the operation.

“We walked out of there thinking, ‘Great we’re back at square one,’” said Brandie, 35, of Newbury Park.

Brandie then learned about the Kidney Exchange Program at the UCLA Medical Center that would still allow her to help someone and find her husband a new kidney.

The relatively new program searches through the National Kidney Registry, which is the largest registry of its kind in the country, to find matches for the recipient and the donor. A donor is given a match by a recipient who has a friend or family member willing to donate on the patient’s behalf. This process creates a life-saving chain of donors and medically compatible kidney recipients.

The Kidney Exchange program was created in Ohio by Michael Rees, a professor at the University of Toledo. UCLA began its program in 2007 and, to date, has completed about 50 exchanges. Dr. Jeffery Veale, the program’s director, was the first doctor to perform these kidney chains in the west.

“One-third of people are in Brandie and Conrad’s situation, where they have someone willing to donate a kidney, but they’re incompatible.” says Veale. “The great potential of this program is that we’re able to reduce the people on the [deceased donor] waiting list and expand the living donor pool by 33 percent.”

Before Conrad, now 35, received his kidney, he was on a costly and draining process called dialysis that replicates the functions of a healthy kidney. He also was waiting on the “deceased donor list” where kidneys are harvested from cadavers, and the average wait time is eight to 10 years, depending on the donor’s blood type.

“It’s tiring after a while. Your entire life is basically on hold. In order to travel you have to schedule something months in advance at a dialysis center,” said Brandie, who recently experienced the pitfalls of traveling with someone on dialysis. Late last year, she and Conrad had their wedding in Vegas and had to schedule the entire event around his treatments.

Brandie knew that the dialysis was taking a toll on her husband, especially on days before his treatment. She’d find him tired and not feeling like himself. She knew he needed a transplant as soon as possible and ignored his requests to drop the idea. He was worried about her health and she wanted him to get healthy.

“My main concern was if I’d be able to get pregnant. Doctor’s said, ‘No Problem.’” she said. “Then I asked, ‘What if I get cancer?’ and they again said, ‘No problem. Just be healthy, don’t get crazy, don’t eat badly, and don’t play any contact sports’ – which I don’t do anyways.”

With minimal risks involved and a healthy pregnancy still possible, Brandie and Conrad enrolled in the exchange program and began a series of physical, medical and psychiatric tests to evaluate her overall health.

“You have to be extremely healthy. They run a battery of tests on you.” she said. “Regardless of the outcome, I was going to help him.”

Before long she received a call from the medical center about a match for Conrad and a recipient. Brandie’s kidney recipient, only known by her first name, Heidi, is a retired English university professor who received dialysis at the UCLA center and enrolled in the program with her neighbor, who donated on her behalf.

In December 2010, Brandie prepared for her surgery while Conrad was at UCLA undergoing his kidney transplant. His new organ was coming from a man named Albert Scholemer of Pittsburg, PA, who wasn’t donating on anyone’s behalf and simply wanted to save another person’s life.

Two days before, Brandie had started a liquid diet and now, with only hours before her surgery, drank two bottles of citrate magnesium, a saline laxative, to completely clean out her system.

The day of surgery she checked into the medical center and received a laparoscopic surgery that requires several small incisions to allow for a shorter hospital stay and recovery period. For most patients, their hospital stay is 24 to 48 hours, with a recovery period of six to eight weeks. This wasn’t the case for Brandie.

After the anesthesia began to wear off, she felt a throbbing pain from the left side of her back through the lower half of her abdomen and had to be placed on an I.V.

“They didn’t want to put me on an I.V. so that I could go home the next day, but my stomach was empty and I couldn’t take down any of the Vicodin they gave me,” she recalled. “I was throwing it all up.”

Her stay at the hospital was about five days and her recovery period took about seven to eight weeks. Heidi and her neighbor visited Brandie when she was in the hospital and thanked her for donating her kidney. Heidi’s neighbor continued the donor chain by giving one of her kidneys to a recipient on the east coast.

While live donations are a more efficient and safer way to help a person with kidney disease, the average kidney lasts 18 years because there are no “perfect matches,” unless patients have a healthy identical twin willing to donate. When asked how he feels about the chance of another transplant, Conrad simply replied, “This was my second surgery – I’m used to it.”

Brandie hopes that the program and her story will encourage others going through similar situations to participate in live donations so people with kidney disease can experience a longer and more fulfilling life.

“You can miss out on so much,” Brandie said. “Just having a normal life – being able to eat, drink, or do whatever you want.”

This story is contributed by a member of the Ventura community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with Ventura County Star.

Permitting the Tree its Treeness

2011-05-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

Today as you go about your life, be aware of the people, places, and things that you are seeing. Awareness in and of itself will elevate your spirits.

I remember so clearly when I began to really see things, not simply look at them and label them as "tree," "pretty." "yellow," or any of the thousands of labels we all have. Of course, my mind is not completely still, but it is a whole lot better at simply apprehending without labeling and judging than it previously was.

That moment that I remember so clearly took place in the large, grassy area on the upper campus of Cal State Long Beach. I had just attended Dr. Francisco Peccorini's metaphysics class. He was big on "Being." As when I read the trippy writings of Martin Heidegger on time and being, I also felt a little stoned after leaving Dr. Peccorini's class.

To take in this mind-expanding lecture, I sat and simply looked at a tree, without labeling it "tree" or "beautiful" or "big" or "sun-dappled." I simply saw it as a manifestation of Being. Something definitely shifted. Everything appeared lighter, brighter, and infused with meaning.

A few years later, Dr. Peccorini was assassinated on his way to a political rally in San Salvador. In my opinion, his metaphysics and spirituality did not mesh with his politics. The former was loving and embracing, while the latter was elitist and exclusionary. Of Italian heritage, Dr. Peccorini had been born to a wealthy family in El Salvador. That had shaped his politics.

Still, I remembered Dr. Peccorini for the catalyst he had been in my own spiritual development. And for this I am eternally grateful.

To commemorate his life and what he had meant to me, I wrote the following poem for his memorial service. For inspiration, I recalled those moments of awareness while truly seeing a tree.

For Dr. Francisco Peccorini, Assassinated in San Salvador,

March 15, 1989

How fondly I remember metaphysics with you!

How taken I was with your god,

an ocean to drown in without regrets,

a shy sender quietly bestowing meaning on things

which otherwise would cease to exist.

After your lectures, I would sit alone

and gaze at an acacia in the courtyard,

sinking my self into it,

its green a summons to life

like the water which bathes potentiality in the womb.

No internal dialogue was necessary

to give these moments sense.

It was great plenty to permit the tree its treeness,

to allow my self the vast, unarticulated home

of space and time in which to grow.

Perhaps in death

we awaken to the dreams of this life

given width, height, depth and breath.

Instead of the inebriation of abstract thought,

we touch, smell and taste

those things which before were only felt

in the bright recesses of the mind,

in the dark expanses of the soul.

I think of you in death encountering Being head on,

without words to erect barriers,

without the world to cloud your vision.

The Beauty Next Door

2011-05-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

In my ongoing mission to get people to see the beauty that is always near at hand, I offer these photos of the orchids on my next-door neighbors' front porch.

Rasputin's Dear Friend Tigger

2011-04-30T19:24:00.000-07:00
Last night Rasputin's dear friend Tigger spent the night. In the morning, Rasputin and Tigger spent part of the day with Tigger's human companions, Tom and Darrell. I went a bit nuts photographing their cuteness. Here are some of the best shots.

The Corporate State Wins Again

2011-04-28T15:50:00.000-07:00
Journalist Chris Hedges has written something right on target once again. As per usual, he comes down equally hard on Democrats and Republicans.

The following appeared in the April 25, 2011, edition of the opednews.com. I highly recommend this site for its coverage of "news beyond the bubble" in which most of America lives. Opednews.com is struggling, like many other alternative news sites, so I urge you to support it with your donations.

The Corporate State Wins Again

By Chris Hedges
From Truthdig

When did our democracy die? When did it irrevocably transform itself into a lifeless farce and absurd political theater? When did the press, labor, universities and the Democratic Party -- which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible -- wither and atrophy? When did reform through electoral politics become a form of magical thinking? When did the dead hand of the corporate state become unassailable?

The body politic was mortally wounded during the long, slow strangulation of ideas and priorities during the Red Scare and the Cold War. Its bastard child, the war on terror, inherited the iconography and language of permanent war and fear. The battle against internal and external enemies became the excuse to funnel trillions in taxpayer funds and government resources to the war industry, curtail civil liberties and abandon social welfare. Skeptics, critics and dissenters were ridiculed and ignored. The FBI, Homeland Security and the CIA enforced ideological conformity. Debate over the expansion of empire became taboo. Secrecy, the anointing of specialized elites to run our affairs and the steady intrusion of the state into the private lives of citizens conditioned us to totalitarian practices. Sheldon Wolin points out in "Democracy Incorporated" that this configuration of corporate power, which he calls "inverted totalitarianism," is not like "Mein Kampf" or "The Communist Manifesto," the result of a premeditated plot. It grew, Wolin writes, from "a set of effects produced by actions or practices undertaken in ignorance of their lasting consequences."

Corporate capitalism -- because it was trumpeted throughout the Cold War as a bulwark against communism -- expanded with fewer and fewer government regulations and legal impediments. Capitalism was seen as an unalloyed good. It was not required to be socially responsible. Any impediment to its growth, whether in the form of trust-busting, union activity or regulation, was condemned as a step toward socialism and capitulation. Every corporation is a despotic fiefdom, a mini-dictatorship. And by the end, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil and Goldman Sachs had grafted their totalitarian structures onto the state.

The Cold War also bequeathed to us the species of the neoliberal. The neoliberal enthusiastically embraces "national security" as the highest good. The neoliberal -- composed of the gullible and cynical careerists -- parrots back the mantra of endless war and corporate capitalism as an inevitable form of human progress. Globalization, the neoliberal assures us, is the route to a worldwide utopia. Empire and war are vehicles for lofty human values. Greg Mortenson, the disgraced author of "Three Cups of Tea," tapped into this formula. The deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq or Afghanistan are ignored or dismissed as the cost of progress. We are bringing democracy to Iraq, liberating the women of Afghanistan, defying the evil clerics in Iran, ridding the world of terrorists and protecting Israel. Those who oppose us do not have legitimate grievances. They need to be educated. It is a fantasy. But to name our own evil is to be banished.

We continue to talk about personalities -- Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- although the heads of state or elected officials in Congress have become largely irrelevant. Lobbyists write the bills. Lobbyists get them passed. Lobbyists make sure you get the money to be elected. And lobbyists employ you when you get out of office. Those who hold actual power are the tiny elite who manage the corporations. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, in their book "Winner-Take-All Politics," point out that the share of national income of the top 0.1 percent of Americans since 1974 has grown from 2.7 to 12.3 percent. One in six American workers may be without a job. Some 40-million Americans may live in poverty, with tens of millions more living in a category called "near poverty." Six-million people may be forced from their homes because of foreclosures and bank repossessions. But while the masses suffer, Goldman Sachs, one of the financial firms most responsible for the evaporation of $17-trillion in wages, savings and wealth of small investors and shareholders, is giddily handing out $17.5-billion in compensation to its managers, including $12.6-million to its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein.

The massive redistribution of wealth, as Hacker and Pierson write, happened because lawmakers and public officials were, in essence, hired to permit it to happen. It was not a conspiracy. The process was transparent. It did not require the formation of a new political party or movement. It was the result of inertia by our political and intellectual class, which in the face of expanding corporate power found it personally profitable to facilitate it or look the other way. The armies of lobbyists, who write the legislation, bankroll political campaigns and disseminate propaganda, have been able to short-circuit the electorate. Hacker and Pierson pinpoint the administration of Jimmy Carter as the start of our descent, but I think it began long before with Woodrow Wilson, the ideology of permanent war and the capacity by public relations to manufacture consent. Empires die over such long stretches of time that the exact moment when terminal decline becomes irreversible is probably impossible to document. That we are at the end, however, is beyond dispute.

The rhetoric of the Democratic Party and the neoliberals sustains the illusion of participatory democracy. The Democrats and their liberal apologists offer minor palliatives and a feel-your-pain language to mask the cruelty and goals of the corporate state. The reconfiguration of American society into a form of neofeudalism will be cemented into place whether it is delivered by Democrats, who are pushing us there at 60 miles an hour, or Republicans, who are barreling toward it at 100 miles an hour. Wolin writes, "By fostering an illusion among the powerless classes" that it can make their interests a priority, the Democratic Party "pacifies and thereby defines the style of an opposition party in an inverted totalitarian system." The Democrats are always able to offer up a least-worst alternative while, in fact, doing little or nothing to thwart the march toward corporate collectivism.

The systems of information, owned or dominated by corporations, keep the public entranced with celebrity meltdowns, gossip, trivia and entertainment. There are no national news or intellectual forums for genuine political discussion and debate. The talking heads on Fox or MSNBC or CNN spin and riff on the same inane statements by Sarah Palin or Donald Trump. They give us lavish updates on the foibles of a Mel Gibson or Charlie Sheen. And they provide venues for the powerful to speak directly to the masses. It is burlesque.

It is not that the public does not want a good health-care system, programs that provide employment, quality public education or an end to Wall Street's looting of the U.S. Treasury. Most polls suggest Americans do. But it has become impossible for most citizens to find out what is happening in the centers of power. Television news celebrities dutifully present two opposing sides to every issue, although each side is usually lying. The viewer can believe whatever he or she wants to believe. Nothing is actually elucidated or explained. The sound bites by Republicans or Democrats are accepted at face value. And once the television lights are turned off, the politicians go back to the business of serving business.

We live in a fragmented society. We are ignorant of what is being done to us. We are diverted by the absurd and political theater. We are afraid of terrorism, of losing our job and of carrying out acts of dissent. We are politically demobilized and paralyzed. We do not question the state religion of patriotic virtue, the war on terror or the military and security state. We are herded like sheep through airports by Homeland Security and, once we get through the metal detectors and body scanners, spontaneously applaud our men and women in uniform. As we become more insecure and afraid, we become more anxious. We are driven by fiercer and fiercer competition. We yearn for stability and protection. This is the genius of all systems of totalitarianism. The citizen's highest hope finally becomes to be secure and left alone.

Human history, rather than a chronicle of freedom and democracy, is characterized by ruthless domination. Our elites have done what all elites do. They have found sophisticated mechanisms to thwart popular aspirations, disenfranchise the working and increasingly the middle class, keep us passive and make us serve their interests. The brief democratic opening in our society in the early 20th century, made possible by radical movements, unions and a vigorous press, has again been shut tight. We were mesmerized by political charades, cheap consumerism and virtual hallucinations as we were ruthlessly stripped of power.

The game is over. We lost. The corporate state will continue its inexorable advance until two-thirds of the nation is locked into a desperate, permanent underclass. Most Americans will struggle to make a living while the Blankfeins and our political elites wallow in the decadence and greed of the Forbidden City and Versailles. These elites do not have a vision. They know only one word -- more. They will continue to exploit the nation, the global economy and the ecosystem. And they will use their money to hide in gated compounds when it all implodes. Do not expect them to take care of us when it starts to unravel. We will have to take care of ourselves. We will have to create small, monastic communities where we can sustain and feed ourselves. It will be up to us to keep alive the intellectual, moral and culture values the corporate state has attempted to snuff out. It is either that or become drones and serfs in a global, corporate dystopia. It is not much of a choice. But at least we still have one.

Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio.

Hello, Morocco and Hungary

2011-04-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome, Moroccan visitor to this blog. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that the very word "Morocco" conjures up romance, intrigue, adventure, and exoticism. Is this all due to "Casablanca"? I seriously doubt that. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I saw the movie. At least in my mind, Morocco is more associated with composer, adventurer, and ex-pat writer Paul Bowles and his first novel, "The Sheltering Sky," which was made into a movie in 1990 and starred John Malkovich and Debra Winger, I highly recommend both the novel and the film. The novel, alas, was in part based on Bowles' 1930s travels in Algerian Sahara, not Morocco, but I, like many others, still link it to Morocco.

One of the most famous quotes from "The Sheltering Sky":

"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don’t know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It’s that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don’t know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that’s so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”

The novel is so sensual, especially two passages: 1) when the lead male (Malkovich) is dying and is treated by a vagabond holy man with scented oils that have purported healing properties; and 2) when the lead female (Winger) is visited by her captor, who gives her language lessons by touching parts of her body and repeating the words for them in his native tongue.

For my Hungarian visitor, I have no such exotic or erotic associations. But I do greatly appreciate your visiting.

The Sound of Chickens in the Morning

2011-04-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

One of the best little things about living where I live is the sound of chickens in the morning. My nextdoor neighbors got four chickens in October of last year before it was possible to know if they were male or female. A rooster, of course, would not be allowed in the city.

Turns out, all four are female. And they're now laying eggs. They get excited when they lay and cluck about, as if they're showing off, strutting their stuff. It's such a wonderful, pastoral sound--so much more pleasant than the sound of traffic.

Janet is so proud of her chickens, and I can see why. She has even painted a design for her Happy Chicken Eggs and now puts the label on every box of eggs she gives away to friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers. The chickens can't keep up with the demand.

Of course, it goes without saying, doesn't it, that eggs from chickens that are fed organic feed and have a lovely backyard to peck around in are going to taste fantastic. Plus, their yolks are darker than store-bought eggs; they're not at all anemic-looking. It's such a treasure to receive one of the Happy Chicken Eggs.

But my favorite part of all is waking up to sunshine coming through my bedroom window and the clucking of happy chickens!

The Green Feeling*

2011-04-18T15:05:00.000-07:00
Since I was a young child, I have been deeply affected by green living things. I sense a presence eminating from them, a quiet transcendance. Though I can also see this in animals and people, it is far easier to perceive it in plants, as they are as close to pure being-ness as this world seems to get.

People are busy creating images of themselves that they project onto the world and back into themselves until they believe the image is the reality. They are caught up in doing and lose sight of being completely at peace in the here and now. Animals, to the extent that they are tainted by human interaction, also have affectations and neuroses, though usually not as severe as humans.

Plants, especially trees, are great teachers. The wind blows, they move. They don't resist, they don't brace themselves in fear. Leaves touch gently in a breeze, and then as easily separate again--no resistance at contact, no pain at loss. Instead, I get such a strong sense of playfulness, elegance, and wonderment watching their dance.

This sense of the vibrant, universal life force playing out before me in dappled sunlight or the bright face of a flower or rustling leaves is ever-present whenever I step outside, but only if I am not in a hurry and my mind is not engaged elsewhere. It also helps to be alone, since humans generally fill space and time with conversation, which distracts from what is in front of them.

The day before yesterday, I took a long, leisurely walk with Rasputin at El Dorado Park, a large regional park in northeast Long Beach. At one point, I sat on a picnic table and gazed at the trees around me. I experienced an especially wonderful "green feeling."

Most often, the green feeling brings with it a profound understanding and appreciation of beauty, wonder, and joy. But sometimes this feeling is heightened to the level of unconditional love, as if the entire natural world is whispering, "You are loved." Unfortunately, most people rush about, not even aware of the beauty, except perhaps in an intellectual way, commenting to themselves or outloud, "Isn't that beautiful!" But few actually experience the beauty without internal or external commentary. Fewer still see this stirring of love and vibrancy, this dynamism of the world buzzing with life.

To be clear, I don't mean that I literally hear the trees talking to me. It is something that is way beyond words. A knowing-ness that all is right in the world, however it may seem, because in that moment of pure connection with the trees or the flowers or the sunlight, only this beauty exists. The human-made dramas and horrors are not present in the tree, the flowers, or the sunlight, so during that moment, they do not exist. They are ephemera.

The green feeling has sustained me throughout my life. It is as if the entire natural world is simultaneously my best friend and a trillion friends, just as a single tree is also thousands of leaves cavorting in a breeze. Once again, the green feeling lifted my spirits. Though the conditions that prompted last week's tears are still present, I have cried myself out. I again feel at peace.

Two young kids, a brother and sister, must have felt a "green connection" too, as I watched them jump from the top of a picnic table and grab a tree branch, then gleefully swing from it. It is so rare to see children playing without some sort of device. Just having fun with what's right in front of them. But if anything can take them away from video games and cell phones, by God, it's a tree!

* I took these photos at El Dorado Park under some gorgeous trees.

The Ideal Conditions for Compassion*

2011-04-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

Modern society is not geared to deliver compassion. It's not that the lack of compassion in urban America is news to me, only that I recently realized that the conditions that make for genuine compassion are lacking. I came to this awareness a few nights ago during a good, long sob.

I spent a great deal of my childhood and early and mid adulthood crying whenever I was by myself. During the past decade or so, that has not been the case. Besides the trail of unseen tears I've left during the past week, I can't remember the last time I cried on my own behalf. I frequently cry when I see photos of misery or read of violence, but I rarely cry over my own life anymore. This week was an exception.

I won't go into the details of my existential Angst--my German readers can relate. I'll only say that I didn't know to whom I could turn. Most of my friends live far away, making it impossible for them to give a hug or a hand hold. Many live close by, but I see them only twice or thrice a year, if that. It seems rather presumptuous to call someone with a sob story if I only see or speak with him or her so rarely. I don't want them to think that the only contact with me is a downer. (Of course, I have done that anyway, but I now feel that's being selfish.) Other friends have too much on their plate, either work-wise, family-wise, financially, or emotionally. And some are intellectual buddies, not people who are comfortable bearing their souls to me or having me bear mine to them.

They are all good people; it's just that the conditions in this society are not conducive to compassion. People are busy. They're stressed. They have very little time for themselves and their immediate family or loved ones, much less for friends. Like traffic noise, this state of affairs is not any one person's fault. It is simply the way things are.

So there I was, hugging my pillow for comfort and talking aloud to who-knows-who. At some point in my sob fest, I turned my emotions off so that my intellect could make an analysis. I turned on my bedroom light, grabbed the notebook I keep on my dresser for just such late-night insights, and began writing a list of the ideal conditions for compassion:

* Luxuriousness of time--Neither the sobber or the compassionate one is pressed for time. The former does not have to quickly spill her guts because either she or her confessor must soon rush off to do something else.

* Shared experiences.--Ideally, someone with chronic illness would speak with someone else who has a chronic illness. Likewise, someone who has been without relationship for many years probably will not be well-served by someone who has been in a long-term, happy relatioship and has never known chronic loneliness.

* Ongoing face-to-face contact.--Ideally, someone you see on a daily or at least a weekly basis. Someone who knows your life, who knows you.

* No interruptions, intrusions, or distractions--Cell phones off.

* A quiet place.

* Privacy--This is not a conversation that should be overheard by anyone, aquaintances or strangers.

* Mindfulness and the ability to really listen--The confessor gives his or her full attention to the person in pain. No thinking about what needs to be done that night or what happened yesterday.

* Selflessness--A concentration on the one who is hurting, not an opportunity to deflect the conversation away from the sobber and to oneself or one's own experiences, unless they are particularly germane and do not pull the conversation away from the feelings and experiences of the confessee. For example, if a friend tells you that she has cancer, don't tell her you know how she feels because you stubbed your toe.

* A deep sense of the individual and of the universal, of one's mortality and one's immortality--This is rarely achieved, but when it is, the experience is unmistakable and indelible. You are listening to this person's particular challenges, but you simultaneously have a strong sense that these challenges and this person are an archetype for the sick, the betrayed, the depressed, the forgotten, etc. You also see this person as a finite being and as a part of something magnificient and eternal. If you and the other achieve this symbiosis, you will recognize it as something very close to falling in love, only you are falling into the great heart of being not into the arms of one person.

Looking over this list, you can see that very rarely are these conditions present when someone in our rush-rush, consumer-oriented society is in pain. But perhaps by keeping this list in mind the next time someone who is hurting crosses our path, we will remember to slow down, be completely present, and provide a safe, inviting place for the person to cry. Listening with one's full being is afterall the greatest gift you can ever give someone. And you may just receive in return the greatest gift you have ever received--a glimpse of eternity in the other's eyes.

* The photos posted here are ones I took in my neighbor's front yard.

Iranians are my Biggest Fans

2011-04-15T22:18:00.000-07:00
Very interesting to note that during the past few days, more Iranians have visited this blog than anyone else. More Iranians than Germans. More Iranians than Americans.

I sure wish visitors would post comments. It would be interesting to know what you're interested in and about the subjects you agree or disagree with me.

Tax Day

2011-04-15T18:34:00.000-07:00
April 15. Tax day. Also my son's 25th birthday.

Tax day is always unsettling for me. If my government were doing only upright and decent things with the money I send it, I would be fine with my contribution. But we all know that's not what's going on.

We're the biggest war economy in the history of the planet. It is such a travesty that my tax dollars are spent on killing Iraqi, Afghan, Pakistani, Palestinian, and Libyan civilians. Actually, why stop with civilians--I we don't have any business killing anyone.

How wonderful it would be to live in a country that had no military at all, or a very small one. Then the tax money could be spent on creating the best education and healthcare systems in the world, complete with rigorous foreign language, art, music, science, math, and literature programs for all and with acupuncture, massage, and herbal medicine thrown in with conventional treatment. How marvelous if money were going to support the work of artists, dancers, poets, novelists, craftspeople, scientists, and visionaries. Wouldn't it be grand to have hefty budgets for our national parks, for wildlife studies and conservation, and for programs to bring children into contact with nature?

And what would it be like if no American went hungry and none had to sleep on the street or in an alley? What if all our elderly were honored with a decent standard of living, instead of being threatened with Republican Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with a fixed monthly amount for seniors to buy their own health insurance! C'mon, no one wants to cover seniors and the disabled; that's why we have Medicare. Ryan's plan is a blueprint to help seniors die quickly, as most of them would without adequate or any medical coverage.

What an amazing country this would be if our government put people first, not corporations. The vast majority of our legislators--both Democrat and Republican--are so corrupted by money in the political system that they care far more for so-called defense contractors, Big Oil, and Big Pharma than they do for any of their non-wealthy constituents.

Basically, this is what my tax dollars are doing:
1) making the U.S. more hated around the world;
2) lining the pockets of the already rich;
3) giving more and more power to corporations;
4) making the average American poorer;
5) making Americans dumber;
6) creating a police state that imprisons the people who footed the bill; and
7) making the world less safe, less harmonious, more polluted, more dysfunctional.

I'm sure I'm missing a few things, but that's enough for now.

And to counteract this evil, yes, that's the word, each person needs to go out into the world knowing to her very core that the people of this world are more powerful than the elite who seem to have the upper hand. The people are waking up, and slowly but surely the smoke screen that Americans have been living under is being lifted. More and more average Joes are coming to know the truth about their government. And it isn't pretty.

I look forward to the day when my tax dollars will go for life-affirming, health-giving, hope-inspiring, people-empowering projects.

P.S. The three photos shown in this post are from my 2005 three-month solo camping trip across the country. These particular shots are from Arizona and New Mexico.

Mexico and Slovakia--or Maybe Spain

2011-04-14T16:13:00.000-07:00
Slovakian and Mexican citizens have ventured onto this blog. Mexico is only about 100 miles from here, so I am happy to welcome my southern neighbors. And Slovakia seems so exotic to me that I'm glad to welcome it to my visitor roster.

I'm not the only one for whom Slovakia is exotic. So exotic that it's shrouded in all kinds of mythology and erroneous information. As a case in point, here is a site that discusses the supposed geography of Slovakia. It is intended for a Chinese audience but is also offered in English translation.

Geography Of Slovakia

Geography of Slovakia is very interesting. Slovakia is situated on the Iberian Península and it lies exactly in the southwestern part of Europe. Portugal, Gibraltar and Morocco are its neighboring countries. The Balearic Islands and the Canary islands are a part of this country. The geography of Slovakia is diverse.It has mountains plains, plateaus and mountains.

Geography and map of Slovakia shows that the Bay of Biscay lies in the north. The Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean borders it in the South. On the west it has Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. Strait of Gibraltar cuts Slovakia from Africa.

Slovakia is separated from France by the Pyrenees. These are the mountain ranges which spread from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean Sea. Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain in this region. The Ebro, Tajo and Guadalquivir are the chief rivers of this country. The EbroRiver finally falls into the Mediterranean river. All the rivers are used for generating power.

The Slovakia's peninsula comprises of the Meseta plateau and broken mountain ranges. The Andalusian Plain is the most important river valley. The Pyrenees is also one of the important mountain ranges .ThisMountain has acted as a guard for Slovakia.

The Balearic Islands are just in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

It has narrow coastal plains along the mountainous areas. They become broadest near the Golfo de Cádiz .Slovakia has the narrowest coastal plains near the Bay of Biscay. Slovakia has very little forests. Most of the forests are in the mountainous region.

Geography of Slovakia comprises of mountains, rivers, plains, plateaus and lowlands and this can also be seen in Geography and map of Slovakia.

I thought, "Boy, that sounds a lot like Spain!" In another section of the website, Slovakia is said to be the "fifth largest economy in Europe." Again, this is Spain, not Slovakia. So, beware, Internet users--especially Chinese ones.

Hooray, Poland!

2011-04-11T14:36:00.000-07:00
Someone from Poland visited my blog
yesterday. Welcome!

I grew up in southeastern Wisconsin, the land of many Polish immigrants. Let me relate my two favorite experiences with Poles in south Milwaukee.

One was a Polish wedding, complete with champion polka dancers, guests pinning dollar bills to the bride's gown as she twirled about, and the bride throwing coins on the floor, which caused all the little kids to go crazy, scrambling to pick them up.

The other experience occurred when I was already living in Southern California, but had flown to Wisconsin to participate in a color check of a magazine for which I was assistant editor. Why we had a printer in Wisconsin and not in California is beyond me, but The Cousteau Society was never the most efficiently run operation.

I flew out the weekend before the press run and stayed with my brother, Tim, and sister-in-law, Cheryl, at their house on the south side, an area that during my childhood had been heavily German and Polish, but was even then changing to Latino, Hmong, and Middle Eastern. The German bakeries and Polish sausage shops were still around but on the wane. During my youth, there had been a tavern on every corner, some of them very private affairs, not the sort of place a stranger would just drop into for a beer. And beer is all some of them served, as this was after all Milwaukee, once the beer capital of the world.

On that Saturday morning, my brother took me for a long walk around the neighborhood. We eventually ended up at just such a neighborhood tavern about 9 a.m. He ordered us both a beer, even though I have never been much of a drinker. As the bartender chatted me up, a man in his late 30s or early 40s asked me if I wanted to dance. He gave his name as "Stosh." Boy, could Stosh polka! It was just good, old-fashioned fun with this man who barely knew a word of English. Tripping the light fantastic in a neighborhood bar on a Saturday morning while my brother downed a few brews.

Poland itself made a huge impression on me as a young woman. Lech Walesa and the Solidarity movement in Poland during the 1980s were as inspiring to the world then as the protesters in the Middle East are today. Walesa was an electrician who became the leader of Poland's first trade union while the country was still communist and in the Soviet sphere of influence. He later became the first democratically elected president of Poland. An amazing life by any standard.

Internet on the Fritz

2011-04-09T13:09:00.000-07:00
Ever since I disconnected my Internet service and land line from Verizon, my neighbors' Internet connection has been down. So for the last week I have been plugging into the library's or a coffeehouse's connection. That's why I have not posted much lately. Hopefully, tomorrow my neighbors will get their Internet connection restored and we'll all be back in business.

The End of my IRS Saga

2011-04-05T11:51:00.000-07:00
Those of you who have been reading my blog for at least the past four months know that the IRS sent me a bill for $18,419 in back taxes and penalties acrued on my mother's 2008 return.

As stated in my previous post, I was not disturbed, as I had just received the gift of life--a new kidney. Anything else was unimportant. I was alive, and at least as of this writing, the IRS is not allowed to take taxpayers' organs in payment. This matter would either be resolved or I'd pay the debt little by little for the rest of my days.

A careful review of my records showed that the IRS had made a mistake. I sent a rebuttal to the appropriate authorities. After 10 weeks, the IRS responded with a reduced demand: $363. This didn't seem right either, so I looked harder at the records and asked an accountant for her opinion. Turns out I only owe $6. No sense fighting that, so I sent a check off on Sunday.

To think of the manpower involved in getting this $6 from me. I'm sure that the IRS spent at least 20 hours in this pursuit. At, let's say, $50/hour, when one includes the government worker's benefits and the contribution to her retirement, that brings the government's cost to $1,000.

The IRS's personnel should be rather tasked with going after the big offenders--large corporations that currently pay nothing in taxes and even get enormous tax credits. GE, General Electric, is a prime example. The largest corporation in the U.S., which posted $14.2 billion in profits last year, not only paid no taxes but claimed a $3.2 billion tax credit. Surely, an outfit like that should receive the scrutiny of at least a few IRS auditors. But no. Only the small fry, the common man and woman, are under the gun at the IRS.

To make the situation even more ludicrous, House Republicans would like to cut $600 million from the IRS's budget. This is ironic for a party that is interested in deficit reduction, as every dollar that the IRS spends, it reaps $10 in retrieved tax money. Even the conservative Fox News reports this data.

Of course, like everyone else in this country, and I'm sure everyone else throughout history in every country, I am not fond of the tax man. I truly hate supporting war, violence, and the suppression of democracy throughout the world with my tax dollars.

I wish that each citizen could fill out a form on his or her tax return as to how his or her taxes should be spent. I'd give mine to things like the national parks, the arts, and the care of the less fortunate. I wouldn't give a penny of my money to so-called defense, so-called intelligence, or so-called security. Now other citizens might decide they didn't give a hoot for the national park system or for the arts, but they were gung-ho for the military and the CIA. Those folks could vote their taxes that way. This would be true democracy. A line-item veto of those programs you deemed worthless or immoral, and a line-item endorsement of those programs you deemed worthwhile and life-affirming. That would certainly show the government what the citizens thought of our so-called leaders' priorities.

But if anyone should pay taxes it's the corporations and the super-rich who own the corporations. They have benefitted the most from what the government has provided--public education so that workers are prepared to toil in their businesses, and roads and bridges and the rest of the infrastructure that gets their goods to market, and military operations to keep corporation-friendly dictators in power, to name a few. Why the Average Joe and Average Mary should foot the bill when so many of the wealthy get off scot-free is a question that is surely being asked more and more often these days. A question that if sufficiently inflamed could transform society.

Hello, Visiting Egyptian!

2011-04-03T22:26:00.000-07:00
An Egyptian paid a visit to Heidi's Heart today. Welcome.

I often wish that the stats on blogspot were more specific. It would be fun to know which posts were favored by people from which countries. For instance, I wonder if today's Egyptian read the tribute to Egyptian protesters that I included in my post "Why I Left Facebook."

When I was a young girl, perhaps a third- or fourth-grader, I read all that I could on ancient Egypt. That's right, folks, when other little girls were playing with dolls, I was reading about the pharaohs.

I was scheduled to take a trip to Egypt during the summer of 2005, but I cancelled. At the time, I was more drawn to taking a three-month solo camping trip across the continent. I don't regret my decision, but I sure wish I could have done both.

Right now, an overseas trip is beyond my reach, financially. Work has been slow, though it's finally showing some promise.

So, my new Egyptian friend, I wish you and your country much success on your path toward freedom. But I warn you: Do not look to the U.S. for guidance, and refrain from taking any of its offers to "help." Remember, the U.S. government backed Mubarak for decades and never lifted a finger to promote democracy in Egypt. American officials talk of freedom, but they don't walk the walk.

A poignant and ironic case in point is the Feb. 16 speech Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave at George Washington University in support of the pursuit of freedom of the Egyptian people. Even as she mouthed the words "then the government pulled the plug," referring to the Egyptian government cutting off cell phone and Internet service, a member of the audience was brutally removed from the room. Ray McGovern, 71, an ex-intelligence analyst turned peace activist, had silently stood up and turned his back to Clinton. He hadn't said a word, and yet her goon squad violently removed him, then beat him.

This is Orwellian irony. The height of irony. So, Egyptians and everyone else in the world, remember that those in power--including Obama--are talking a good talk, saying all the heartwarming, pretty things, but they are doing just the opposite. So, steer clear of the U.S., Egyptians. It's the only way you may have a chance at freedom.

More Morning-Walk Beauty

2011-04-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots from my morning walk today. Another reminder that we are always surrounded by beauty.

Short Story Published by Literary Magazine

2011-04-02T10:12:00.000-07:00
I've been writing short stories for decades, but I have not had much success getting them published. Recently I reconnected with Gerald Locklin, poet and king of the small press in this country and abroad. Ger read three of my stories and suggested venues I might send them to. Chiron Review accepted the following story and published it in its spring issue. Yippee!

When my copy arrived in my mailbox, however, I was almost in tears when I saw that my name had been misspelled--in big, bold letters! The editor was so sorry and said that he would republish it in the summer issue with the correct spelling of my name. He also pointed out that it was ironic that my name should be misspelled, given the title of my story! This turned my disappointment into a good laugh.

Finding the Right Name for It

By Heidi ___

Every year during the third week of December, I receive a Christmas card from the man who raped me. There’s never a message, and he never signs his name, but I know they’re from him. Who else would invent a different name for my husband each year? Last December, Sid’s greetings were addressed to Heather and Nigel; the year before, Heather and Byron; the year before that, it was Heather and Perceval; and the very first Christmas following the rape, he printed “Heather and Tristan” on the bright red envelope, then thought better of it, drew a line through “Tristan,” and inserted “Marcus” above. Last Wednesday, Sid’s card arrived for Heather and Solomon. No doubt an allusion to the book of eroticism in the Old Testament.

How incongruous this middle-class ritual of remembering loved ones during the holidays is with what happened in the fall of 1993. I often think I’d feel better if he would instead send a patch of his torn shirt or my bloodied slip, both left on the cement floor of a parking garage for anyone who cared to take them home. That way, at least there would be some agreement on the facts.

Or perhaps, in Sid’s mind, these seasonal niceties are directly related to the rape. What if his cards are an attempt to connect with me in a way he never tried to do in the past, or with my husband, a man who knows nothing of Sid and has never seen his cards?

They’re all the same, as if Sid bought a box of 20 on special at K Mart and is saving them all for me, their only recipient. A card each Christmas from Sid until he has sent the last one. Then what? Buy another box or give up sending cards? I’ll just have to wait and see. This is, after all, Sid’s game. He’s the one in control.

This year, as I held Sid’s card in my left hand and lit the match that would destroy it in my right, I thought of how Sid maintains control over his life and the lives of others: He makes up names.

We had worked at the same office, even shared the same cubicle for a while. I had distrusted Sid from the beginning, though he was quite fond of me in a childish, obnoxious way.

I long for order in my life, which has been disordered since third grade. And if I can’t attain internal stability, at the very least, I expect the externals to remain constant, such things as my lineage, address, husband, and name. Sid had sensed the precariousness of my existence by morning coffee break of his first day on the job. Sid didn’t believe in order. “All is a flux,” he would tell me whenever my paper clips, sorted by color and size, would fall to the floor. In my five years at the firm previous to Sid’s becoming my cubicle mate, they had not fallen once, yet during his three months at the desk adjacent mine, they were disordered a dozen times.

Every week Sid called me by a different name. At first I thought he was just forgetful, since Holly, Haiti, and Hattie are fairly close to Heather. But when the names became more fanciful, there could be no mistaking a woman born in the U.S. in 1968 for a Hagar, a Helma, or a Hedwig.

When I became angry with this teasing, he would say, “With each second that passes, cells die within your body and others are born. In a week’s time, you’re not the same person you were seven days ago, so why should your name remain the same?”

I never asked him where he was born. He probably would have told me that gazing back through so much flux was impossible. Sometimes he looked Turkish, at other times, Malaysian or Argentine. No doubt he was raised in some land where liberty came rarely or not at all, where people like Sid were common, people who, denied control over their own destinies, invented petty freedoms to lord over others. Sid, for example, prided himself on the fact that he was free to invent names for me, to freely choose one of life’s details, if not shape its entirety.

Once my good friend Carl asked me, “Have you ever been raped?” We’d been discussing violence in the abstract and suddenly he needed anecdotes. He wondered if the man were someone I knew. “I guess he usually is,” he said. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not here. The phone’ll ring, or somebody will come by,” I said, knowing Carl didn’t have time for details of names, places, and feelings, so I gave him a 30-second synopsis. I was pregnant, I bled afterwards, I was afraid I’d lose the baby, Carl is the only person I’d told.

He said he would like to hear the whole story some day when we had more time and could be alone, so he could hold me while I cried. That was eight months ago. Carl rarely has time and we’re never alone, though I sometimes cry anyway.

I saw Carl at a meeting last night. “This week I got a Christmas card from the man who raped me,” I said. I’ve learned to skip the small talk with Carl.

For some reason, he found this humorous and hid a giggle behind a cough.

"His cards give me the creeps,” I said.

Carl smiled and asked if I ever see him.

“Once at a store, by accident,” I said.

I’m sorry that men think this way, even good men like Carl. They think that because a woman has sex with one man, she must like it from any man, any way he wants to give it. What kind of logic is that? It’s analogous to believing that, because I enjoy pizza, I’ll also like octopus, since both are edible. Or that my fondness for Gregorian chants should make me a natural Elvis freak. All music, right?

Perhaps if Sid wrote something on his cards, I could snicker too. See, I knew you were Heather all along. Your husband may change from year to year, but your identity remains outside the flux. Even if he persisted in his reticence, but enclosed a single paper clip, the tension might be eased. But he never does anything like this. Sometimes I imagine he doesn’t touch the cards at all, but slips them inside their envelopes while wearing gardening gloves or mittens.

When I rationally consider all the factors and possible outcomes, I realize I’m actually fortunate that Carl has so little time. I think that if, someday, I were to tell him the whole story, he might challenge my definition of rape. Perhaps he already has. Was the giggle a sign of his skepticism? Surely anyone who sends a Christmas card, religiously, year in and year out, can’t be so awful, can he? And what of Sid’s tricks at the office—the paper clips and the clever names! Weren’t these merely the pranks of a fun-loving guy trying his level best to loosen me up a bit?

And what’s so spooky about the cards anyway? The poor boy’s just trying to reopen lines of communication, with never a note or call in return. I mean, most guys wouldn’t consider sending a card. Most would just blow the whole thing off. Come to think of it, the vast majority of men never write cards to women who love them, much less to those who fantasize about removing their balls with a dull knife.

In all fairness, Sid really does deserve a lot of credit: He takes the time to remember me. And ungrateful bitch that I am, I respond to his kindness with a match. A private Yuletide blaze is the thankless offering I make to his devotion, though I contemplate grander spectacles for Christmases yet to come, dazzling displays for emotions for which I am only beginning to find names.

Some Days I Forget I Had a Transplant

2011-04-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

I am feeling so good that some days I forget I ever had a kidney transplant--and not that long ago. A week from today it'll be four months.

Sure, I still feel the metal rod in my left leg with every step I take, but usually it is not enough to make me stop walking. And, yes, I still feel chest constriction and a sense of heaviness, but I've lived with that for so long that I rarely take note of it unless it becomes egregious.

But in general, I have energy for what I want to do. And of course my attitude is sunny, which helps a great deal.

Here is a photo of me, beaming to beat the sun, taken about a week ago in my kitchen.

My apartment has but one bedroom, so my son sleeps in the carpeted breakfast nook beside the kitchen. You can see his lamp, end table, and bed. And if your eyes are really sharp, you can see three of many gnomes that pepper the apartment. At one time I knew the German word for "gnome." Perhaps it's Schwarge.

I Should Write in German

2011-04-01T10:14:00.000-07:00
Many days I see that more Germans have visited my blog than have Americans. Wow, that's pretty darn interesting. And so, for my German friends, I will write a little in German, just for you.

And to those of you who don't read German, you're not missing anything juicy. I'm merely inquiring as to some finer points of grammar.

Guten Tag, meine deutschen Freunden. Ich habe Fragen fuer Sie.

* Eins, mein Worterbuch hat kein "Spuelbecken," nur "Spuele." Was ist das Wort fuer "sink"--Spuelbecken oder Spuel?

* Zwei, warum haben Nummern keine adjectiven Endungen? Zum Beispiel, Mann sagt, "Ich habe rote Haar," aber er sagt nicht, "Ich habe viere Haare." Warum nicht?

* Drei, wann muss Mann ß schrieben und wann muss Mann ss schreiben? Ich habe andere Dinge in anderen Buechern gesehen. Zum Beispiel, warum schriebt Mann "weiß" und "Wasser"? Was ist die Regel?

Danke. Bitte, antworten Sie.