aiming higher

Each age, each definition
describes in colloquial metaphor
what is all ways known

 

 

 

A poem expresses experience more directly, more evocatively, than prose is meant to. It is an experience in itself, that plays with perception to, when the magic happens, make a leap at telepathic insight.

 

 

 

The guilt The blame The don't know what causes it The this is what causes it The industry quacks The ignorant hacks The pills that are miracles The relapse when all seemed well Break out of the spell We're humans living out what we've learned, mislearned, gotten confused in a confusing world Give it a rest Give it a break Stop blaming Guilt-tripping Joining one defensive position or another Stop Look Listen Breathe Find out how to behave well with each other.

 

 

 

Tell me I can dance
The world becomes a mystery
an ecstasy, a history
of all who dance
for the joy
for the taste
of pure enchantment
in midst of the everyday
in this instant every wish
is granted
in the play
-- body with bliss --
of celebration

 

 

 

We are told we need to be treated like cattle because of terrorist violence. The kind of terrorist violence that actually happens (more than once and then boosters of fake attack scares), that actually results in the deaths of innocent bystanders in the USA is the lone lunatic who has had too much going berserk with firearms in crowded public venues before offing themselves as well. Then we hear all kinds of outcry if Second Amendment rights are called into question. Apparently we care a lot more about the Second Amendment than the Fourth -- and about property rights over privacy freedoms or common decency. Don't tell me our troops are fighting for freedom. Wars as we know them are not for the benefit of we the people, but for the powerful.

 

This is far from a nonissue. This goes to the heart of government intrusion to make it look like it is helping us to be more secure while actually seeing how far we will allow our civil liberties, and even common decency, be eroded. Or maybe that is what all the fuss about "safety" is supposed to divert our attention away from.

 

Do you have any idea how many people are involved in this. Just by averages and a dim knowledge of human behavior we can assume that not every single TSA/public encounter is fully without lascivious content or otherwise demeaning to the hapless traveler. Then there are the actual accounts, even if it didn't happen to the people you talk to. Are your son's friends large and or otherwise dangerous looking? Or perhaps they are lovely, friendly types who no one would want to harm in any way? Some passengers are old and cranky. Some are mentally ill. You have to take the public as you get them. Some TSA agents are cranky, especially after being verbally abused by irate travelers; and some are mean or otherwise motivated against purely proper behavior.

 

OK, let's count: How many 9/11 type attacks have we had in the whole of the USA, ever? How many unsuccessful fools have been found with explosives by alert normal everyday public people and arrested without harm to anyone? How many successful bombers have blown planes out of the sky from within the plane? It might take just one, if someone you care about is on that plane (or on the plane that goes down for mechanical, or pilot error, or other normal reasons, or the train that goes off the tracks, or the auto collision, or the drunk driver, or, or, or ...) But frisking every passenger won't prevent or even address most of the ways that could happen. Meanwhile, we are consciously, even conscientiously, destroying the rule of law and freedoms that we are so frightened the terrorists want to deprive us of. Look how well they are doing, and so amazingly cheaply.  Because, you know, before we had this "security" suicide bombers were regularly blasting our planes out of the sky.

 

"Look! There goes another one. Wonder how many Donnie Darkos were made today."

 

Shoe bomber, underwear bomber: I count two irretrievably non-bombing fools quickly subjected to social scrutiny. That all you got? Anything since last Christmas, like the 3 year old terrorists we are desperately trying to protect ourselves from? They aren't even beginning to try to actually hurt us -- they are happy (chortling no doubt) to let us take care of destroying ourselves.

 

Of course we don't want racial profiling. That would be counter-productive as well. Crazies come in all colors. However, generally encouraging the public to keep watch for inappropriate behavior and having well-trained security watching and responding to public concerns does not require profiling at all and is what really does keep us as safe as we reasonably ought to expect (because, you know, everybody dies and not always in bed surrounded by family).

 

There are plenty of people all over the political spectrum screaming about this. In fact, I would think it would be an excellent issue over which right and left could bond, perhaps grow some common understanding of fellow feeling.

 

Since many do need to fly, why not make the policy that is best for the many -- actual measures that improve safety without trampling civil liberties, 4th Amendment rights and common decency.

 

 

 

 

Pointing out that the "defense" is really quite offensive is not the same as being uncaring. I do care. I want the military to be available for actual defense, and helping out in emergencies -- not dying for an irrational war of convenience to some arms dealers and agitators for profit and power.

 

 

 

Who decides: What morality is; what morality looks like; what kinds of issues are moral; who decides who and what fits the "moral" frame; why anyone has any obligation to live up to another (person's or group's) moral code? There are certainly religions with a moral imperative to destroy nonbelievers. Is that an example of the morality of the religious?

 

 

But there are values and values: the ones we like to think we have, and the ones that actually motivate us (like the salivary glands of Pavlov's dogs, helplessly in thrall to a technician's bell).

 

Truly. Let god be god. Let us use our free will to find better ways to live together.

 

 

 

It seems to me that in most cases some people doing one, some another, would lead not only to better outcomes, but to better discoveries of what could be possible; and would be the outcome of admitting that one size never fits all.

 

 

 

 I don't think even Darwin was a "Darwinian". And as far as "Social Darwinism" is concerned, people get all caught up in an ill-fitting metaphor. Evolution is not about rights, morality, or who is better. It is about adaptation to the local environment, which can vary considerably and change suddenly. Thus, mutations that might ordinarily seem counter-survival in some unexpected surrounding might save the day -- or not.

 

The thing with Social Darwinism is that it is about adapting to a social environment. As we who have any familiarity with history know, many social customs, social "knowledge," accepted ways of behaving, can be quite harmful to the society and its ecosphere, even more so to individuals who might otherwise have benefited said society enormously.

 

 

 

 

Candidate Obama was against the requirement. Perhaps if everyone is not required to buy health insurance from the insurers, they will start to understand the need to present a better product choice.

It's letting insurers call the shots. Everyone does not use "the" healthcare system. There is no such system that everyone can benefit from.

It's a sick care system based on often faulty precepts and that results in a great deal of sickness and death. Instead of concentrating on everyone funneling through the funds, we ought to be working on real health care available to all.

Pulling your own weight can be taking care of yourself, paying at point of service, doing what you can to encourage what healthcare would really be for the people -- community healthcare facilities (that sell healthcare, not insurance) on a sliding scale, perhaps with subscriptions or with funding from government/private sources. 

Simple, no health insurance, you get billed for your care. Then, you and the care providers can hash it out. Instead of requiring people to buy private goods they don't want, let's get free/low cost/sliding scale medical care available to all who need it. If we keep our minds on that model, it could all be good.

 And we need better education (not legal mandates) for people to be able to better take care of ourselves. There are so many innovations that could be considered that would improve actual care and greatly lower costs. No one seems interested.

 

The Commerce Clause has been stretched beyond all possible sanity for years. It should be reigned back to where it belongs. If lawmakers have nothing better, perhaps they shouldn't be making these laws.

 

 

There is the philosophy of pragmatism that says in order for all of us to be more healthy, all of our health issues need to be appropriately addressed. When segments of the population are not able to access appropriate healthcare resources, the general population is prone to more spread of disease, less productivity by those who are not healthy, a more malaise driven environment for all of us, as well as a population more susceptible to parasitic growth and empowerment -- along with a host of other and related ills.

I think we need to admit the system is not working for us, and get together individual community systems that do.

 

 

 

The problem is we think there is this monolithic "government" that acts and we must obey. Think, rather, we are the people, the actors, the thinkers, the innovators. We don't need no stinking government out there telling us how to grovel. If we are taking care of our communities, the greater community will eventually be as we make it.

 

President Obama is neither Wimpish or Machiavellian. He is a centrist who believes his job is to bring this country together. He is working very hard on very difficult situations he inherited from our dysfunctional tearing apart. As far as I am aware, he is the best person for the job, though the cost to him may be severe.

 

He has a pair. It is the Senate Democrats that need to weigh in harder, like Bernie Sanders yesterday. The President is only one branch, separated more to keep change slow than to accelerate an agenda. Of course, what could really make a difference for Progressive politics is for the movement to grow a pair and make the so-called conservatives look like the fools they are with a show of the people's power. The vote is only the beginning of political involvement. Making a real case that cannot be denied takes work and courage. It's up to the people to lead the politicians, because we are the ones who have to live with the consequences.

 

This silly little midterm switch is the norm, as is disgruntlement which leads to it. You elect a President, all warm and fuzzy with victory and hope. He turns out not to be a wizard magically correcting and turning all the world into utopia. Ugh! He's no good! Let's show him and let the other side get some more clout to do what they claim they can and he can't. Yeah, all warm and oppositional -- until, you know, the other side isn't made of wizards either. Happens ALL the time.

 

 

 

I would have some respect for Republican filibusters if they would actually stand up and tell their story like Senator Sanders rather than having a "filibuster" without redeeming social value.

 

 

 

pols and pundits keep "ohhhhhhhhh, Tea Party. We have to go to the anti-gov extremes or get outed by the ridiculous right." stupid excuse, but all the whining lefties (or at least left of extreme right) just cry "it's so unfair" like two year olds. Where is the movement, the empowering of the sane?

 

 

 

You have to admire their steadfast bullheadedness and organizational skills. Then, you have to learn from their organizational skills.

 

 

 

 

 

Drifts of fairy lace grin
Sorrowing wings splayed upon spun altar
Tell me, Hold me, Save me
for cattail dreams, sweet rainbow river
Fat toads, swift dancing dragonflies,
beauty's buzz electric
What do boys battling their faces
to manhood
comprehend?

 

 

 

 Stem cells can be harvested from other sources than discarded fetuses. This need not be the issue.  Although I would think a discarded fetus, were it to have consciousness, would be happier to contribute to saving lives than to have such opportunity wasted for it.

 

 

 

A name is a trap is a portent
Tangled in verbiage, wasted from sight
Kept close, forever haunted
Let loose, as free as the night

 

 

 

I had recently been reflecting about the ways we damage kids while they are too young and powerless to resist. Parents insist that kids eat junk, learn to get by on null calories and little exercise, not because they are "bad" parents, but because all the pressure of surrounding messaging keeps many of us ignorant, because all the pressures of trying to keep family/work/personal life together leave little energy for doing better. If Mrs. President wants to send a message to the citizenry about possibilities of living better, why not applaud that effort? It doesn't mean we can't have our empty calories and mesmerizing screens. It just means that maybe sometimes we will think about what we are doing to ourselves and our powerless kids, and do better.

 

 

 

JFK inspired us to improve our primary education with a dream of reaching the Moon. Then, what happened?

 

We live during a time when things are different. Education does not have to be about schooling as we seem to know it. We are in the information age -- anyone can find the tools, the facts, the ideas and arguments, then devise the curricula and find the resources for practical courses.

 

 

 

Education as a priority is not about funding. It is about actually giving kids the opportunities to learn -- not just repeat what they are told. In the 60s there were storefront free schools in many cities, no funds whatsoever. People taught what they knew in a spirit of community. Everyone learned, and learned how to learn and teach. [They do say the best way to learn something is to teach it.]

 

 

 

Team teachers with team students, project based; community based projects utilizing local resources of knowledge and experience; excellent teaching broadcast by internet into classrooms with local team leaders bringing out questions, discussions, looking into facts on 'net; active dancing in the classroom at regular intervals to bring oxygen back to the brain and move active young bodies; respect for students, teachers, and others actively modeled; ...

 

feel free to add

 

 

 

If freedoms and rights to privacy are things of the past, it is not because of internet technology, but because of the technologies our government is legally (apparently) using under the guise of anti-terrorism.

 

 

 

we refuse to cut off the cartels at their knees by simply getting rid of incredibly stupid laws against substances people choose to use which could be lawful commodities under control and not incentives to violence.

 

 

 

Actually, research with meditation suggests depression can much more successfully (no nasty "side" effects either) be ameliorated with these kinds of mental exercises than with drugs or invasive "therapies".  Yes, chemical imbalances are physical; they are physical manifestations of overwhelmed coping mechanisms.

 

 

 

Meditation, moving one's mind in a conscious awareness direction, is amazing. Perhaps it is just becoming who we are.

 

 

 

Exercise, it seems to be a cure all, or, more likely, a health maximizer. We were made to move.

 

 

 

It is not about being at fault because of wrong ideas. It is about realization that ideas (the map) are not the same as the real (the territory). Thus, someone who may blame themselves for actions taken against them is in the thrall of "wrong" ideas.

 

Karma is not about blame. It is about the simple physics of rippling effect, thus that all acts meet their response. If we do reincarnate, the lessons we work out in the new life are still the lessons we need to work out -- no blame.

 

 

 

How can you love Jesus and not the Church? Probably the way you could love a lover, but not the institution of marriage. You know, Jesus did not create Christianity. He lived and died a Jew, who happened to have a great deal of nondenominational wisdom to impart. The Church was created by lesser men.

 

 

 

Let's make it clear: We are not talking about raising taxes, but about an experiment in lowering taxes which did not result in job creation lapsing after its appointed time.

 

I think, if we must give "tax relief" to the wealthy it ought to come as US Government Bonds.  We are so concerned with our debt to China and other not so friendly nations.  Why isn't the US debt in the hands of US citizens who have a stake in what happens to this country?

 

 

 

There is no possible way to save ourselves out of the deficit. The only way out is up -- increasing the general pool of resources by bringing more people into higher earning and higher spending. So, of course, we keep trying to convince each other that we only have to tighten our belts, when loosening them would give us a better outlook.

 

As to these tax cuts -- they were created with an expiration date for good reasons. Let them expire. If we want a new tax policy, let's create a better one. There are plenty of well thought out ideas to look at and debate, rather than going round and round and round and nowhere.

 

 

 

runaway spending is easily cut -- get out of Afghanistan and the other foreign lands where we are not wanted and only looking worse and worse to the world. Then cut out all corporate welfare, subsidies to bribe business, when what business ought to be is organically grown from the needs and desires of, for, by the people -- all of us.

 

 

 

We could have a permanent lowering of payroll taxes for the great majority of workers while fully funding Social Security by getting rid of the cap. This might also increase employment, since lower level employees would cost the business less, while these employees would be taking home more and be able to buy more.

 

The tax giveaways to the rich are not about creating jobs. They are about paying political debts to wealthy contributors.

 

The threat to Social Security is not in temporary payroll tax relief for those making too little to get payroll tax relief through the cut-off. Instead of this being a path to eroding Social Security income, it could be a rallying point for those who want to remove the cut-off and lower the individual rate for everyone. This would help to create jobs both by putting more money immediately into the hands of lower income workers and by lowering the employers' rate of their share of the payroll taxes for lower income employees. This would be a good way to help ameliorate the wealthy income tax break. It would also help to end all this catastrophizing about Social Security funds availability for future retirees.

 

 

 

I think most of the economic-political world fail to understand that money is not a commodity which can be owned. It is a social construct totally dependent upon social agreement. The wealthy do not own the resources they exploit. They are not entitled to their profits in some existential or moral sense. They are only entitled in the sense of "I claim this, so it is mine -- until someone realizes the joke and refuses to accept my statement of ownership as some kind of irrefutable fact."

 

It's not that they are doing well. They are simply doing very poorly at a totally different level. If we would cast the planks from our eyes and see that this money game is just gambling, that real useful work is what is of value, we might have the makings of a saner world.

 

 

 

It's not so much about "laziness" as "Divine Providence" from the Puritan Protestant theory of predestination. God lets us know who is good by elevating them. Unfortunately, the part they forget is that the point of elevating the "good" is so that they can give more to the community.

 

 

 

"Socialist" along with many other words have been co-opted for partisan purpose. It's getting so words no longer have useful definitions. We need to define our terms for each conversation if we mean to communicate at all.

 

Apparently there is a divide between those who believe that life is about winning all the toys, and those who believe life is about improving the lot for all (and those who believe life is about other kinds of things, like, maybe, just, you know, living ...)

 

 

 

We are doing quite well on our way to devastation in 2012 -- all that climate changing will make this planet a different place than we have become used to. It will be up to us, now that our environment is shifting, to adapt.

 

 

 

It is important that we grow our economy because we are so far in debt that the only way out is up. For instance, I have enormous credit card debt that I have been paying the minimum of, thus getting nowhere but behind. I can't save my way out of that debt. I have to find more income to pay it off. The government gets income from revenues that go up when the whole economy goes up.

 

Growth does not have to be about using resources (especially about misusing resources). That has to do with the greed-based market -- owning all the toys to be on top. Growth of an economy means more trade. Trade these days is often knowledge-based. Or, it could mean clever ways of reusing resources.

 

A great deal of trade these days is in intangibles. The major resource used is infinitely reusable -- thought, imagination, information

 

 

 

I miss the space, open and free and wild
I miss the marvel in exploration of each child
I miss the sky of stars unmarred by jets
I miss a market based on trade instead of bets
I miss people happily about their work
without expressing through their inner jerk
I miss sentimental time not on tv
I miss the way we thought by now we'd be

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long has the dance entertained
Sol to Gaea, flirting seasons, night and day
Eons slip through alignment
Mud to worm
to facile mind
wondering at starlight
as constellations parade
Still again that long cold night
rearrives, retells stories
spun from fire 

 

 

 

The problem with materialism is not so much that it denies the spiritual (perhaps it is a different understanding of spirit). It is that it does not honor the physical or the best practices for health on any level. The mind/body/spirit can be accessed, manipulated in a sense, from any point of the triangle, and thus influence the whole system. Concentration upon the mantras of materialist philosophy, though, denies the realities and lets the system flail helplessly in its own restricted fantasy world.

 

 

 

May we all relax into happiness as often as it suits us

 

 

 

I have wandered empty city streets
long before the noise of congested confusion
Flowed through rivers of sparkle, of delight
Tasted breath infused with green salvation
and longed for a touch to say
"Aren't we what we have always promised?
Sweetly dancing moonlight into dreams ..."

 

 

 

Many people do go into the mental health profession because they are trying to work out their own issues. I don't know if they turn out better or worse than those who are only in it for the money. Probably self-help groups are at least as effective as most "therapists" though occasionally (like decent gurus of any stripe) you find someone who is both compassionate and sane.

 

 

 

No judge, no jury, no executioner We are leaves in the wind Remarking upon the windsong

 

 

 

It doesn't matter that they don't get it.  It
matters that we/I ("we" of me and any imaginary audience) get it.  It's not
about fearing or obeying, "respecting authority" "respect for power"
It's not about getting anything back.  By ALL, I don't mean Homo sapiens.  I
mean ALL (whether you take that "spiritually" or ecologically).  When one
(we or me or some abstract sentient being) defaults to respect, that is
respect first for that one's own self, which then can hear that quiet voice
which is one's essence.  One can feel/act/live in tune to one's own
harmonies.  It doesn't mean I give up to or in to or over to or try to
"make" a difference.  It means the difference is that quiet voice and how
one lives listening.

Now, practical, real word ways -- because I don't want another woo woo,
mystical, spiritual one-upmanship way, but what works because it is real,
practical, grounded.  Enlightened self-interest -- because what goes around
comes around not in some "karmic" theater, but simply because that is
reality.  Not "namaste" and smile; but I am the spirit and the world is the
spirit and the cosmos is the spirit and you are the spirit and that dog
peeing in the street is the spirit and so forth because that is reality,
practical reality, if I truly mean to get my way, to live as best suits me
(or you or we or ALL)

 

 

 

"The point of the story," she insisted, would not let us laugh and wink beyond, is not to deny you your pain. It is to feel so deeply ..." and she paused in thought, scrinching up her brain to explain in words that would impale ... "that the lightest caress, the most exquisite gentleness, the wave from light within a minutely eternal eye can take hold

 

 

 

we need our stories -- like blood running through feeding and
maintaining continuity, to keep us warm.

 

 

 

ensorcelling sacred spider weavings into a lucky (and utterly loverly) 2011

come, weave with me ~

"Spacing Outward" Emerging Visions visionary art 'zine #19 has emerged

In this hectic season

take space to journey outward

 

Emerging Visions visionary art 'zine #19 "Spacing Outward"

 

has emerged

for your pleasure

 

http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com

 

 

Enjoy!

 

~ and share ~

Not a poem, but a heralding song
To gather audience, a hearty throng
Worthy of the artists' time --
An invitation set to rhyme

 

 

 

Look at the idiots with the plane bombs. They were not bombers. They were clowns. The point was not to bring the planes out of the sky, but to put the fear into the flyers.
Why did they fail? Not because of TSA. They were clowns, but they also were observed by the people around them to be acting inappropriately. My point is not that they are funny, but that they have won (not failed at all) when we act so inappropriately, unreasonably, and alarmingly idiotically. No one will get blown out of any sky, or not, because we did or did not humiliate, infuriate, and objectify the traveling public. We will be less as people if we continue to kneejerk ok any stupid ploy to make it look like something is being done. Spoiled brats insist on being impervious to harm, no matter what, refusing to acknowledge there is no such thing. There are much worse dangers than would-be plane bombers who can be focused upon and defused with so much less bad baggage for us all.

 

You want to be safe? Find a nice, well-protected hole, far from anyone. Fill it with the supplies you will need for the rest of your life and lock yourself in. No? How about developing good awareness skills and better intuition? Speak up if you notice something suspicious. Speak up if you feel abused.

 

What kinds of sensitivity training are agents given for people with such issues as rape survivors, for instance? How about everyone who feels violated by such treatment keeps account of mental health expenditures or other proof and find a sympathetic lawyer to put together a class action suit.

 

Overexposure to such rays is well known to be counterproductive to health. What about all the people with compromised immune systems, cancers, all kinds of health issues, who need to travel often (maybe for work, maybe even for medical reasons)? I don't think these policies were thought through at all. More like: "Hey, what can we do to show we're serious about fighting terror?"

 

But are we groping and raying the cargo?

 

Yes, of course, molest the passengers and let the cargo go free

 

You know what has been the best defense against these attacks:
public awareness.  Get rid of the machines and gropers. Let the public know how our input is appreciated. Maybe loudspeaker announcements thanking passengers for their help in keeping us all safe and these are the people to go to if you see something suspicious.
Because, you know, smugglers have used body cavities for millennia; the next step in "safety" is wholesale rape. And then there will be the pregnant women with explosives implanted or ... come up with your scariest scenario.
There is no absolute safety. All this insanity only keeps us from doing the things that do make sense.
When we dishonor each other, treat paying public like meat to be inspected, build up the fear of the people, we are working directly and with great loyalty for the terrorists.

 

Of course we can get rid of these intrusions. We have to demand to be treated respectfully or (just like with any bully) we will be derided and our concerns ignored

 

 

 

It wasn't Afghans who did the 9/11 acts. They were just jumped on because they were being oppressed by the Taliban, unleashed on them as an antidote to Soviet invasion. Kind of in the same vein that we promoted Saddam Hussein to help fight the Iranis. The enemy of our enemy is our friend, until they are of no more use as a friend and more useful as an enemy. Meanwhile we destroy people's lands/homes/lives to make some kind of erroneous point.

 

Instead of putting all these resources into destruction of war, wouldn't it be easier (and a big boon to the world economy) to say run contests and give big awards to people who organize peaceful businesses in communities at risk?

 

 

 

 Of course we are all feeling the effects of global warming. Of course the climate is already changing. It is far too late to put that back in the box. The urgent need now is to make the changes we need to in order to live in these changing conditions. We all know, we all complain endlessly, that Congress can't find its way out of a wet paper bag. Congress does not act on information; it acts on polemics. The only thing holding up clean energy is all of us. We need to demand it. Not from Congress, from those from whom we get our energy. Corporate money is not about destroying the world. It's about making more corporate money. If the market has spoken and demanded clean energy, you better believe they will fall all over themselves to provide it.

 

 

 

Those quietly moving and shaking behind the scenes are the plutocrats pushing an oligarchic agenda. They have the best that modern psychology can offer to pick off those below with lies and fantasies. People become so conditioned, they just move along in line. It is all very sad.

 

We have no idea what we are doing, not only to ourselves but to the environment on which we depend, in our mad drive toward profit.

 

well-regarded alternatives to big medical business are portrayed as quacks, scams, not allowed. This is not about "Obama-care" but has been the mainline paradigm for a very long time here. Why aren't the alternatives people want talked about?
As near as I can tell, they want to get us hooked on their products, then hooked on more of their products to counteract the "side" effects of the products they have already hooked us on and so on and so on -- fabulous business model until we're all sucked dry.
People don't generally seem to understand that "side effects" are just as much effects of the substance on your body as, not merely incidental to, the desired effects.

 

We should have clear, easily understood, write-ups of the research, of the various other remedies and their pros and cons, of various medical professionals and consumers giving their opinions, where questions can be raised and responded to in easy to access locations on the web and otherwise. As they say: "Sunshine is the best disinfectant."

 

If big business is really so socially responsible and the best way to get important projects done, why haven't these businesses taken on these projects. There is plenty of work to be done, and plenty of unemployed people to do it.

 

we don't need no stinking government to fix our economy
we do need to understand that freedom requires responsibility
It should be so obvious: If we don't want government interference in the marketplace, we need to be proactive and work out the problems in our communities that adversely affect our lives.
Politics is not about truth, but about persuasion. If the anti group can convince the people to make big noises, it matters not that it is merely noise. Those who dance to the tune of power through populism carry the day. No, of course, a majority in the House is not a license to repeal or even rule. That doesn't mean any of it is based on what is real in the world outside of hypeville.
There's always a trade-off. If we are informed, we can decide what we are willing to trade.
It is not only big government that can stimulate our economy. There are long religious and secular traditions of giving charity, providing within community, not to mention creative ideas such as contests in which small fees become a prize possibly based on developing clever ways to provide services or maybe starting small community-based enterprises through which people can earn money ad hoc or ...

 

There are easy ways to Win = Win in theory; but you get politics into it and all bets are off.   In reality, the economy is not a problem at all. The #1 problem in this country right now is angry cross-talk which keeps everyone at arms' length bickering rather than coming together to reasonably work out how to live together successfully.

 

What no one seems to want to say is that there is no possible way of saving ourselves out of the deficit. The only way out is up: growing the economy. If we want to survive this insanity we need policies that will encourage growth, like much more realistic education and encouragement of small businesses.

 

Social Security and Medicare are paid for independently of the other budget items. If we got rid of the cut-off, we could all pay a much lower percentage of income and save money for employers right where the employees' pay is concerned.

 

Get rid of all these unwanted foreign adventures, wars and rumours of wars and pushing around sovereign nations, and all those unfortunate weapons that mostly don't deliver as promised. Get rid of corporate welfare. Do real due diligence on making sure government agencies are administrated efficiently, including getting rid of overlaps. Spend to prime the pump, to encourage true government/private partnership in upgrading skills, promoting useful projects and providing sound infrastructure.

 

The good old days generally referred to are the post WWII times when we were full of vim and victory and most of Europe along with Japan were in shambles. Those were days of high taxation on the highest incomes, if you will recall. Also, it was a time when community philanthropy was expected and respected. The culture now is more about isolation and bifurcation. How do we bring ourselves together for our common good?

 

Kowtowing to big corp is exactly the wrong way to improve our economy. Many of those "regulations" businesses complain keep them from operating effectively are imposed by big business interests who buy themselves politicians to kill off competition. For a thriving economy we need small, local businesses providing for the needs and desires of customers in return for fair compensation, and so on, and so on, all around.

 

Don't cut programs that benefit people. But how do we know what is beneficial, what is merely politically expedient? Why not have a project: there must be Congressional oversight committees. Go through the budgets, piece by piece, not with an eye to cutting but an eye to efficiently administering programs to meet real goals. You know, like business executives are supposed to if they want their business to run well. Post the process online. Let us all see exactly what government spending is.

 

 

 

From a point of view with which you may be unfamiliar, government has no place in the free market. Free market forces, the invisible hand, if left to themselves will give everybody the shot they deserve. It is incumbent on the individual to produce appropriate goods/services to trade on the free market. If they do their job well and provide a product which sells, they deserve the reward. If they don't, they need to be told in no uncertain terms that they need to do better.
Let them find work they can do. Let the market provide entrepreneurs who can sufficiently monetize training and mentoring people without the ability to do it for themselves. [Or, maybe put together badly managed programs to give them too little to adequately live on while demeaning them with constant questioning of their deservingness, keeping them dependent, powerless, and miserable?]
 A major problem with this mindset, taken as an argument, is that we have never had a truly free market in the US. At this point the advantages to the advantaged are so intricately woven into the fabric that the only way to mitigate it is a radical realignment. People get so tightly wound into their ideologue fantasies they fail to actually look at the real situation and how their preconceived ideas don't fit it.  However, there is nothing wrong with postulating philosophies as an exercise in discovering possibilities.

 

 

 

Science slowly seems to be catching up with simple realities. The human response to the unsanctioned truth seems to be "No!" "No!" "No!" "Well, what do you know? Science has made it true."

 

 

 

Perhaps you honestly don't realize, or think that because you are so much milder than many of those antagonists on the "other" side that your belligerence doesn't matter. But it does. If you are to be an impeccable warrior, when it is pointed out that you have taken on characteristics that you demean in your opponents the response of defensiveness is no defense. Take the responsibility. Learn to be kinder. That does not mean to lessen the strength of your arguments. In fact, coming from a place of truth and honor strengthens them (and you) more. (However, if you decide consciously to enjoy a spell of bitchiness here and there, go for it. Just don't pretend you didn't.)

 

 

 

Ignorance and prejudice are not religiously based -- anyone can play.

 

Forgiving doesn't mean forgetting. It doesn't mean you welcome the mean spirit into your heart. It means you welcome love into your heart; allow the hate to fall off your back into the past. Forgive. Don't forget. Let the meanness be a lesson in how not to live.

 

Oh, my recent mantra: Never argue with a bigot. It will upset you and make the bigot madder.

 

What religion is is not about morality or rights. It is about a common understanding of the meaning of life that those who agree well enough can feel they are those in the know. Faith, spirituality, these are different from religion.
Religion, way back in tribal society, was a "yoke" of underlying tribal knowledge orally transmitted. As societies grew and took over further lands, ritual, ceremony, gathering for more formal teachings of collective knowledge became more and more formalized into what we now call "religion". Morality, spirituality, these are more individual relationships to what is beyond the individual. We are perfectly capable of living as moral beings simply because we understand that "morality" is about successfully living among others. Codification of morality is more likely to become oppressive and about hierarchical power.

 

There are Christians and Christians (as well as probably any other collective nouns).  Unfortunately, there are a great many seriously disturbed folks out there proclaiming Christianity as their cause.  They harass people mercilessly for not believing exactly as they believe their God commands.  Of course, there are a great many Christians (probably the vast majority) who are lovely people, living exemplary lives as their God commands, caring for those in their community no matter what the other states as belief because they understand in their hearts that the "One God" loves all of Creation.

 

There are a great many people who proclaim their love for their God and treat his Creation like a cesspool, and their brethren like mortal foes.

 

I believe there can be (perhaps will be) a paradigm shift such that we no longer need religion. It would have to be a true and overwhelming realization that we are all interdependent, among ourselves and with our environment.

 

 

 

It is a poem because of the evocative nature of the language, because it intends to speak with more than the prosaic words, but as a massage for the mind and heart. The line breaks are to make the reading easier, to put the phrases together as the poet's ear hears them, like stage direction.

 

Poetry throughout written history has been both an oral and visual art. There is a great deal of spoken poetry available, as well as more and more writing, experimenting, genre melding and overturning. Look for what speaks to you.

 

 

 

After many years of awareness introspection I have recently felt freed of the need to be bound by mislearned lessons of childhood. (Well, I hope I don't just fall back into those familiar but dreadful patterns.) It really is about accepting without blame, and realizing that the past can be let go to allow the present to be an adventure.

 

 

Speaking of folklore/fairytales/myth -- I am in the beginning stages of working
on a story (very soulful) in the style of an old folk legend. Perhaps some of
you here could point me toward useful online sources of such stories that I
might immerse in the flavor?

politicking

politics


infinite regression of change and resistance

multi-rhythmed rhyme

singing into the winds of change

to move their vector more in line

with where we wish to arrive

Common Ground

They say them liberal critters

Got their heads up in the clouds

They haven't got a clue to how

to live here on the ground.

They give hand-outs to criminals

Can't tell a foe from friend

They're scared of guns and gumption

so ready to amend.

But there's something we agree on

If we're all on common ground

You help folks if they stumble;

don't kick 'em when they're down.

duelality

Duality, dichotomy, antipathy

All we see is

black and white

wrong and right

day and night

running blind into sharp edges

unneeded bloodshed

See:  the world round, encompassing dimensions

Prologue

Sun and Moon embrace

as one 

for brief eternity

all mystery within

Black and White

create gradation

radiate kinetic energy

We can achieve

believe, begin, begin, begin

Gardeners, planting flowers,

planting food,

planting souls in

nurturing soil

Healers

perceiving wounds

to be sewn

relieving loneliness

revealing pain

held in, denied

twisting ardent toil

Teachers

admiring their wards

finding with them

questions, keys and doors;

realizing history is only destiny

when explorations cease;

invitations from space and time

come complete

with choices

A choir of voices

from softest spark

to fervent blaze

Troops of effervescent players

Symphonies, 

drums at dawn

Inspiration and instruction

carried forth through song and stage

vibrant murals painting onward age to age

Taking up the challenge of the tale

that twists, turns, meanders

providing kaleidoscopic opportunity

ever to begin again

unLocked

 

In the state of nature

Laws are enforced by

necessity, not choice

The Contract plainly reads

"Do what you will --

and see where that gets you."

hatemongers

They take up space in the marketplace 

with nothing but putrefying rotten wares.

Why should we think they have anything to offer us at all? 

Bullies have always tried to demand respect with violence. The real point is to cut off the power of the bullies by refusing to acknowledge them as anything but what they are. What needs to happen is for the bullies to be treated as the fools they are, instead of respected as some kind of power or authority on who deserves bullying. That includes the bullies on the playground, in front of the classroom, in the home, in the work place, in the street, on the battlefield, in the media, everywhere.

The point of the First Amendment to the US Constitution is that we each be heard, all be represented, all get our say.

we at the bottom have always known you can defeat money with imagination

The good old days generally referred to are the post WWII times when we were full of vim and victory and most of Europe along with Japan were in shambles.

Those were days of high taxation on the highest incomes, if you will recall. Also, it was a time when community philanthropy was expected and respected.

Instead of putting all these resources into destruction of war, wouldn't it be easier (and a big boon to the world economy) to say run contests and give big awards to people who organize peaceful businesses in communities at risk?

If big business is really so socially responsible and the best way to get important projects done, why haven't these businesses taken on these projects. There is plenty of work to be done, and plenty of unemployed people to do it.

The thing is, kowtowing to big corp is exactly the wrong way to improve our economy. All those "regulations" businesses complain about keeping them from operating effectively are imposed by big business interests who buy themselves politicians to kill off competition. What we need for a thriving economy is small, local businesses providing for the needs and desires of customers in return for fair compensation, and so on, and so on, all around.

If big business is really the driver of employment, we do not need government involvement. However, do you see the millions of jobs these businesses have provided to bring us into near full employment today? I don't either.

A real stimulus would not cater to entrenched players with bad records. Where are all the innovative 21st century manufacturers? Is the US ready to enter the real world?

I am so tired, exhausted, over and done with these "parties" and their labels. Those old tried and true conservatives that really had important messages about, you know, conserving what is best in our country, keeping a tight reign on common resources, thinking clearly and deeply about what is truly of value, could not even get a fair hearing on Fox or from those rabidly proclaiming their allegiance to ignorance. There is nowhere for a real conservative to go.

Those quietly moving and shaking behind the scenes are the plutocrats pushing an oligarchic agenda. They have the best that modern psychology can offer to pick off those below with lies and fantasies. People become so conditioned, they just move along in line. It is all very sad.

The only thing I can think of to keep from totally going under with the shipwreck to be in Washington, D.C. is to go local, as much as possible, making it more possible every day to spit in the eye of Congress because we're making our world just fine ourselves.

With the national elections skewed by the focus of oligarchic special interests, it is ever more important to make a stand on the local level, where real people meet and work out regulations and services "on the ground". Because the vast easily manipulable electorate is not paying attention to the real issues affecting their immediate lives, those who do can make a real difference where it most immediately counts.

It's a midterm for the federal Congressional elections; but most of us also have State and Local governments, initiatives, referenda. The local level is where individuals can actually make a difference, where the rubber meets the road for immediate services and restrictions. To base the vote solely on the D.C. merry-go-round is to do a disservice to ourselves, to the concept of democracy, and to the communities in which we operate our everyday lives.

Serious about wanting people to vote? Get out there and promote -- offer assistance to get folks to and from the polls, to babysit, to help with whatever circumstance makes staying home seem a better option.

People don't get Obama. On the one hand they don't see beyond his color and liberal supporters and think he is a promoter of a far left agenda. On another hand they don't see beyond their own projections and fault him for bending too far towards the right. In fact, he is and always has been a centrist. He is mainstream America from his hybrid roots to his capitalist vision of the American dream.

Well-regarded alternatives to big medical business are portrayed as quacks, scams, not allowed. This is not about "Obama-care" but has been the mainline paradigm for a very long time here. Why aren't the alternatives people want talked about?

rebalancing

The line between politics and entertainment recedes
We have entered the 21st Century

 

 

 

Tango
Tangle
Twist and mangle
Whine and Wheedle
Thread the needle
mend the tear
become aware
within a muse's
winsome glare
dance alone or in a pair
or as a party to the fiddle
on the edge, out from the middle
rearrange stage from chair
move in tandem
or keep it random
lines at angle
long past parallel or paradigm

 

 

 

Bullying takes place because bullies get away with it. Bullies will find any identifiable "difference" to designate victims. It helps them that others in the greater cohort will willingly allow such victimizing.

 

Do not close off your thinking to decry gay bashing. Anyone can be bashed for pretty much any trait. It's not our differences that cause the bashing, but the same sad old story of the bully making big waves with loud obnoxious pugilence. The real point is to cut off the power of the bullies by refusing to acknowledge them as anything but what they are.

 

How about a concept: actual supervision. Maybe we can think of ways to reward good behavior. Maybe those who are playing nicely can be given fun new toys or be led in fun games. Bullies would have to reform, play nicely, before they could join in the fun. Otherwise, they could be ignored, except in cases where they need to be isolated.

 

It is not that the schools or any other institution needs to protect their charges from each other. It is the true responsibility of all of us to call out the bullies as the naked emperors that they are.

 

These kids are made miserable by more than bullying. They are made to feel they deserve the bullying, don't deserve defending, or, at best, that though they don't deserve it, they will always be bullied.

 

This is nothing new. Bullies have always tried to demand respect with violence. What needs to happen is for the bullies to be treated as the fools they are, instead of respected as some kind of power or authority on who deserves bullying. That includes the bullies on the playground, in front of the classroom, in the home, in the work place, in the street, on the battlefield, in the media, everywhere.

 

 

 

If police are so ineffective, and the neighborhood is so dangerous, wouldn't the logical step be to get together a neighborhood watch organization? You don't need guns -- just light on the problem and concerned awareness, and a small bit of actual courage to take back our lives.

 

 

 

Love,
amniotic ocean for the fetal dream
feeding on effulgence infused with faith
longing fulfilled
drop by drop
until the wake descends

 

 

 

We tell ourselves stories, display labels, devise descriptions to make it ok to be part of the human construct world. When we leave the construct, we just are. But, why do we leave this superconstruct? Why do we want to be other than interactive cells of humanity?

 

 

 

It seems to me that the essence is that what people need is back-up. Not drugs, not superiors telling them what to do or how to feel; people who are in crisis need to feel there is someone who is listening, really, a safe place where they can be totally real, and real hope that they can figure it out and get to some better understanding of themselves, their goals and needs, and their abilities. But really, people need to know that they matter, that they can learn and do what is needed, and that the stories of their lives are still being written and read.

 

 

 

dark evocation
tension, sensual and sad
branded bold, bad, dense
and pale in waning light

 

 

 

food, water, air, sexual reproduction -- these rightfully ought to be celebrated as our necessity for interaction, for deep meaningful understanding of our environmental connections.  We as individuals can never exist alone.

 

 

 

Anyone who invests human animals with "spirit" denied to everyone else is operating on prejudicial discrimination -- not some higher power.

 

 

 

If Love is universal
why limit it to the living
or possibility of life
Love freely, all that inspires
love, all the companions
and comforters,
all the blessings and brightenings

 

 

 

As you astutely observe, it is not the drug culture, nor the influence of druggy friends that create a downturn. They are in some sense a cure, or at least a palliative, for the sweet comforts of home. On the other hand, check out biographies of the artists who truly move us and even culture. We don't get to sing the blues effectively if we haven't paid the dues.

 

Getting "high" needs no excuse. Easing pain and other aspects of illness that interfere with the activities that are important to us is what is to be expected when possible.
or
No, let's be so in awe of the boogie-boogie of "DRUGS!"* that we joyfully embrace our suffering because it shows our strength in staying away from ... what big pharma doesn't profit on.

 

*Deny
Reasonable
Use
Government
Sanction

 

What are/were those "progressives" thinking? It ought to be a no-brainer that prohibitions are counterproductive, counter-progressive.

 

 

 

I've been thinking about this narrative as essence or pseudo-essence in terms of biosemiotics. Every bit of life a construct evaluating and acting out the narratives implied by collective and continuously collated data.

 

 

 

In deep field dreams
rustic woodfire comfort
blesses autumn morn

 

deadly sweet sister
howls into windy canyon
sad chants ricochet

 

 

 

gracious glorience
calcified webs of sparkle and synapse
Terra forms; delicate balance renders

 

 

 

Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Neo-Pagans, Zoroastrians -- no we can't trust any of them, because people can be a nasty, dishonest lot. It's not their gods; it's their blatant idiocy.

 

If we were indeed an intelligent race (that's homo sap, not some divisive idea about "races"), we would honor and respect each other as a matter of "of course!"

 

 

 

We are not being suffocated by illegal immigrants. Most of them are here because employers are employing them to do tedious or dangerous work for low wages. We are being suffocated by our own frankly insane ways of working out our differences.

 

 

 

Instead of hunting for a job, it might be more productive all around to hunt for a market.

 

 

 

If big business is really the driver of employment, we do not need government involvement. However, do you see the millions of jobs these businesses have provided to bring us into near full employment today? I don't either.

 

 

 

I don't get why anyone would not be able to name the person they want as intermediary when they are too sick to speak for themselves. Often a next of kin might have very different ideas about what is to be done than the person being done to.

 

 

 

Nietzsche believed will is exploration
far beyond the need of expiation
I am and thus breathe in reality
breathe out subjugation
to Lords

 

 

 

Eternities' glow, transform, trip fantastic light
Timeless journeys cycle into life
We breathe, entangle air and Earth
perceive other stars and hearts, wishes
to believe our fates have fire

 

 

 

Life's song can rise and fall in tone
Encode the call we each alone
can hear and dance with
through fear, romance, death,
learning to repair, to own the tune we play
expand and jam throughout each day
maiden to crone
Creating symphony, notated memory
of how we've grown

 

 

 

I wonder about the mindset that makes sense of hoarding resources in the hands of any few elite. Wealth is not money or even precious jewels. Wealth is active commerce thus that resources are used to create better resources.

 

 

 

The thing is, kowtowing to big corp is exactly the wrong way to improve our economy. All those "regulations" businesses complain about keeping them from operating effectively are imposed by big business interests who buy themselves politicians to kill off competition. What we need for a thriving economy is small, local businesses providing for the needs and desires of customers in return for fair compensation, and so on, and so on, all around.

 

Women are subjugated as part of the mindset that favors ownership of the means of production for the benefit of oppressors.

 

I've been thinking about fear and anger. Fear is often to a large extent paralyzing. Anger is energizing.

 

I too prefer to vote for someone I like seeing on tv. However, being of more intellectual persuasion, I like to see them making useful arguments and explaining policy. Probably why I prefer C-SPAN to reality tv.

 

 

 

Serious about wanting people to vote? Get out there and promote -- offer assistance to get folks to and from the polls, to babysit, to help with whatever circumstance makes staying home seem a better option.

 

 

 

Blame the politicians, the parties, the President, the tea and coffee crowds, whatever. I like to blame the education system that doesn't. But, honestly, if the people who are so concerned about progressive issues would get in gear and fire up some imagination and grit, we could overwhelm all the nasty nyah nyah "right wing" trash and swing that American Dream.

 

 

 

so-called Republicans confuse me. They insist on doublespeak such that they're activities totally belie the tenets they traditionally claim to uphold. The party of rah-rah America sells us out quite literally. The party of limited government puts the law into our bedrooms. The party of fiscal responsibility spends on a system of voodoo economics. The party of family values gives no value to family needs. The party of Christian values angrily spits in the face of the mere idea of brotherly love. I think we get the idea -- they are institutionally insane.

 

 

 

Money, much like bureaucracy, effectively acts as a separator of actors. If I can give you money, I don't have to interact with as much as if I had to trade directly.

 

My impression of mainline Republicans is that they don't like to get too close.

 

 

 

It occurs to me that those who are truly "elite" in the sense of having more clearly defined ideas about social good would not, by the nature of the clarity of their ideas, be oppressive to anyone. Rather, it would behoove them to lead by example.

 

 

 

work and love
expression and assimilation
need for food, air, stimulation
ideation, imagination, succor
self-aware cells, each with place
and passion
busily interchanging
at market and field
combine wielding power, growing
beyond boundaries
permeable to trade, elation
creative generation
each lives to give
essence