BanAnna Chips

This Ain't Funny

2026-11-01T16:53:36.290-06:00

I love comedy. When my classmates were swooning over the Beatles I was focusing on Red Skelton, Danny Kaye and Carol Burnett. I truly believe that laughter is the best medicine.

Politics has always provided great fodder for comedy and I have enjoyed the creativity of our current crop of comedians in their ability to bring laughter to what is, in my opinion, a very serious moment in our history. I believe that no other election outcome has ever been quite as important as the outcome of this midterm election. Why do I attribute THIS election with something that is traditionally a standard claim reserved for presidential elections?

Because, more than with any other election in my lifetime, the outcome of this election will confirm who WE THE PEOPLE are. It will proclaim to all of us what our moral standard is as a collective. It has ceased to be about political loyalties to a party but has crossed over to exposing what our collective character is as a nation.

I have many acquaintances who have continued to be loyal to the Republican party, even while saying, as if to establish their health while surrounded by illness, that they don’t agree with everything the party is endorsing, but that it is better than the alternative.  Many have been posting a “copy and paste” narrative explaining why they continue to describe themselves as conservatives. It has 10 points, many of which are incontrovertible and both liberals and conservatives would probably agree in essence, if not in how to execute, that they are important tenets of our democracy.

But there is one of the points (and only one) that cites constitutional rights and it pertains to gun rights. I’ll leave the 2nd Amendment argument to another day, but I’d like to examine the loyalty to the Constitution as it pertains to so much of what is going on in national politics now.

If you can stand in-front of the ballot and look past the multiple infractions to our Constitution and provide support to those infractions by the party and the candidates on the ballot by casting your vote for them, you are part and parcel of the destruction of our Constitution and of the the rights that it bestows on us and has protected for over 250 years.

We do not need to conjecture about the goals of the MAGA movement. The goals have been outlined and executed openly and with total disregard for laws and Constitutional procedure. When people are collected from their homes, their jobs, their errands and perfunctorily transported to other locations without due process IT IS AGAINST THE LAW. And the scary part is, if we allow it to happen “to them” we are that much closer to having it happen “to us”.  Those who are being affected may be here illegally, but that does not justify removing them illegally. What used to make us a superior nation was our adherence to the rule by law, not by bravado.

The treatment of immigrants is a flagrant example, easy to point at. But it is just one example. Take the destruction of the East wing, done against procedure, take the unorthodox authorities provided DOGE, take the refusal to adhere to procedure in the allocation of funds, take the military action in Iran done without Congressional approval, take the arbitrary imposition of tariffs, take the invasion of Venezuela, the bullying of Greenland and Canada, take the protection of the Epstein files, take the reflecting pool , take the …ohhhhh…the list goes on and on. So, if YOU cast your vote for any of the supporters of this travesty YOU have confirmed that our nation is not what we thought it was. And if we do not see a blue hand poised in the gesture of STOP there is no doubt as to the character of WE THE PEOPLE.

So, while I love comedy, this is not funny.

Are We Only in Remission?

2020-11-08T15:45:00.000-06:00

Like many, I have been genuinely concerned about the future of our Democracy and the state of our nation. Witnessing the growing division and growth of partisan vitriol on both sides of any given issue was painful. The outcome of the election has produced an entirely different painful reaction. It feels like what a cancer patient must grapple with when they are informed that a new, experimental treatment can push their cancer into remission, but it could come back even more virulently. Do they rejoice and celebrate the good news or fear the possible return of the disease?

I have tried to understand how a large proportion of our citizens could overlook the obvious flaws of #45 and still endorse and embrace him. What could possibly prompt good people to decide that lying, cheating, bullying, abusing, manipulating, etc., etc., etc., were less important than (fill in the blank). I know many Trump supporters and I know they are not racist, misogynist, cheaters, liars, dishonest people. But they are willing to support someone who undeniably is. Why? What was so compelling that they looked the other way? What cancerous malaise invaded our population so that a man so narcissistic that he cannot recognize his own incompetence could not only aspire to the highest office in the land, but gain it?

I believe it was that very narcissism that clouded our ability to see beyond the boisterous braggadocio. We came to believe that it was about HIM. We failed to look behind the man, to excise his person from what his supporters think he represents for them. They did not vote for lying and cheating. They voted for what the lies promised them. Because his announcements were always about himself, about how great he is, how astounding his intelligence is, how respected he is, we failed to extract him from the lies and genuinely consider the reasons the lies resonated. Over 70 million people voted for a deeply flawed man AGAIN; that’s over 70 million people who wanted to believe the lies, KNOWING they are lies. If those who worked and prayed for an end to what was clearly a nightmare for us want to ensure that the cancer does not return, we must search for ways to treat the source of the cancer. We must root out the carcinogens that threaten our collective well-being. Those ranting, chanting hoards of rally goers are still out there. They still believe that government status quo ignores them. We better not.

And Justice for All

2018-09-29T16:06:00.000-05:00

Part I of "As the Stomach Turns"

The issue that was under review in the Judiciary Committee really wasn’t about whether Dr. Blasy-Ford or Judge Kavanaugh is telling the truth. Without an investigation ANY accusation is reduced to he said, she said. We have been exposed to an accusation but with no evidence upon which to attach a TRUTH placard. Which one of the two you choose to believe comes down to which one rings true to you, which one do you want to believe, and which one did a better job of being credible and likable.

Those who watched the hearing did not see two people laying out evidence to substantiate their case. What we saw was how our government has been distorted and deformed, to the point where it is no longer a reflection of the lofty ideals that gave birth to our nation.

Both sides of the aisle are guilty of dismantling of our democracy. The left is fond of blaming all dystopian functions of government on the current administration. But it appears that this inexperienced, ill-prepared president is particularly guilty of being unwilling, unable or uninterested in playing the traditional game and in eschewing that role he has left the torpid winds of underhanded politics and politicians to wreak their damage, unchecked and even lauded and applauded. The fury of the storm has stripped away the pretense that we have elected officials collaborating with each other for the benefit of their constituents. With a leader who disdains civility and diplomacy and whose behavior garners applause and wild demonstrations of support the entire political scenario has shifted more dramatically toward disruption and destruction. But it is not just HIS disruption and destruction. It is his willingness to abandon the pretense that has laid bare the baser qualities of the American psyche, spreading the contagion that threatens our national health. That diseased body was on full display at the hearings and those who went beyond watching and actually SAW the performance should be dismayed.

Traditionally, under our Constitution, a person is innocent until proven guilty. Prosecutors are charged with obtaining evidence of culpability and defenders with refuting the evidence and/or obtaining evidence to the contrary. Dr. Blasy-Ford was correct in her request for an investigation. Evidence to support her claim can only be obtained by a professional investigation. It was embarrassing to witness a room full of seasoned lawyers (members of the Judiciary Committee no less) equating signed statements “under penalty of felony” to an investigation by the FBI. Riveting and painful as her testimony was it only presented a credible reason for the need of an investigation. It did not present verifiable, substantiating evidence to support the accusation.

Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony presented two powerful pieces of evidence, each contradicting the other. On the one hand his uncanny ability to refer to calendars dating to the time in question seemed to present exculpatory evidence. But the veracity of the information in the calendar must be established through an investigation; the calendars mean nothing at face value. The second piece of evidence was his anger and partisan accusations of conspiratorial goals; not entirely without merit. The final stages of the Judiciary Committee’s hearing were most certainly manipulated to cause as much delay as possible, with the obvious objective of maximizing the potential to have the final confirmation vote fall after the midterm elections. But his arrogant display of anger and disdain for the Senators also gave credence to the accusations of his sense of entitlement and the ease with which he sinks into bullying. Most telling was his repeated response to questions about possible alcohol abuse. He consistently responded with a recitation of his academic and athletic achievements. Aside from being a non-sequitur his response insinuates a belief that the sacrifice of hard work and success is justifiably rewarded with alcohol consumption, leaving the issue of its possible abuse as a shadowy appendage to the question, not worth answering. He never, categorically, stated that he had not had periods of blackout, failure to remember his actions while drinking or bouts of belligerence while under the influence of alcohol. Instead, in one instance he arrogantly turned the question around to the questioner.

The Republican entourage of lawyers and lawmakers bent on not letting the delay tactics of the Democrats achieve their intended goal decided it was better to torpedo justice than to risk the possibility of losing the chance to fill the Supreme Court seat with Judge Kavanaugh. The Democrats bet democracy against the lives and reputation of two people and lost everything.

Our nation, held aloft on the righteous columns of “justice for all”, demonstrated to the American people that we can no longer aspire to that promise. We the people have elected representatives to Congress, within both parties, who do not defend the constitution, who do not pursue justice, who do not revere the uniqueness of the government structure set in place by intellectual giants. They created a functioning system created to thwart monarchical tendencies, to limit the abuses of privilege and defeat injustice. Years of malfeasance have undone their carefully crafted and robust system, injecting and infecting it with a fragility that threatens to leave us with nothing to pledge allegiance to. The most recent victim is Dr. Blasy-Ford, but this time the perpetrator is not Judge Kavanaugh; it is the collective. We the people are rewarding the manipulators and the pretenders. It is not they who are as naked as the emperor, but we! We have been stripped of a functioning government, we have been fed a crock of lies and we have gleefully complimented the chef and asked for seconds.

The Force of Evil

2018-06-21T20:10:00.000-05:00

In 1960 my family moved to a small suburb north of Paris, France. In an effort to spear our learning of French our parents enrolled my brother and me in the local public school for our first year there. We were immediately immersed in all things French; learning that paper tissues were frowned on, that teachers expected us to bow our heads when we passed in front of them, that the preferred doneness for steak was nearly raw and that only 15 years prior there had been a terrible war that changed the lives of everyone around us. I was 12 years old and I suspect that I became aware of the pains of war and the hatred that perpetuates man’s cruelty to others a lot sooner and a lot more vividly that most of my compatriot American school children living on the mainland.

To add another dimension, we had moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana where we relocated after living three years in Cuba. So, when we started saying “Oui” instead of “Si” I had already witnessed a revolution in Cuba and had felt the racial inequality of Louisiana; confusing my youthful mind. To me, racism was obviously wrong but here I was in a place where doing wrong was supported and approved by many, either tacitly or directly. Why were so many people around me oblivious to the obvious?

In France there were constant reminders surrounding us of the battles and inhumanities that had only recently been perpetrated there. Fifteen years after the end of the war there were still bombed out shells of buildings as testament to the ravages of war. At a very early age I began to ponder the question of evil; of the force that can influence and motivate mankind to engage in and perpetuate bad behavior. It is easier to understand how one person can be evil than how that one person can entice others to join in the evil. Hence, an early preoccupation with the phenomenon of Hitler. How was it possible, I would wonder, that so many people followed this man? How could it be that everyday people who were engaged in earning a living, cooking food, raising children, taking care of aging parents, enjoying a soft breeze and stealing kisses from loved ones could allow, even promote, the institutionalization of evil? Eventually, I concluded that Hitler and his success was proof that a quantifiable force of evil DOES exist and that it is capable of entrapping, ensnaring and deviating the human soul, en masse. Some would call this force the Devil. I also believed that whatever the force was that deviated the souls of so many during WWII it would never again invade humanity because the world had seen the Devil incarnate, had witnessed the power of evil and had suffered the consequences of allowing evil to wield its power. Mankind would never be so guileless as to allow their collective souls to become entranced and misled again.

But I was wrong. It is happening again. Multitudes of everyday people are once again embracing inhumanity. Behavior and tactics that are blatantly immoral and improper are now cheered and supported by hundreds of thousands of people who only a short time ago would have rejected, forthright, even an insinuation of accepting such behavior. Once again decent people have been lulled into accepting abuse and cruelty as the norm, malfeasance as a logical strategy to success, and mistrust and lies have overtaken confidence in authority and reverence for the truth. How does one do battle against a force of evil? How does one help lift the veil of confusion that has engulfed so many and led them to forego the values they have been raised to revere and respect?

As history repeats itself and we witness the gradual destruction of decency one cannot help but mourn the demise of the ideal that gave birth to our nation. The desire to ensure strong national borders is valid, commendable and even necessary. But there is a right way, a humane way, a way that sustains the belief that the United States is the beacon of hope and the defender of human rights. And there is a wrong way. A way that manipulates the truth and abuses the vulnerability of the least of us. A way that saddens the soul and confirms that THIS iteration of evil has so twisted the hearts and minds of those it has grasped that many angels will be required to bring it under control. Lord, have mercy on us.

It Ain't Over 'Til the Fat Lady Sings!

2016-11-20T14:25:00.001-06:00

The outcome of the recent election has left me in a mood... like much of the country. No matter if the ‘mood’ is a product of feeling uplifted because Trump won or depressed for the same reason, it’s a ‘mood’. I suspect that few of us are untouched, un moved or unaware that something major has shifted, something important has happened in our country.

Why was Trump successful? If our system has elected a person with little or no qualifications for the office and a plethora of reasons why he is NOT qualified we must ask ourselves what is wrong with the system? He warned us that the system was rigged and we failed to believe him, we failed to recognize that he has been a part of the rigging of the system for so long that he knows how to use the failings of it to cloud his own failings. So, let’s look at that system.

In reading about the Electoral College and the reasons that prompted the founding fathers to institute a separation between the voting public and the final vote I was somewhat surprised to learn that historians attribute this to their mistrust of the voter. Apparently, our founding fathers had discerned that it could be too easy to sway the voter with irrelevant, false and self-serving temptations. They felt that the Electoral College would be a protection against the misuse and abuse of this newfangled, untried and unproven system of government; Democracy. Let’s remember that Democracy was a pretty radical idea at the time. Europe was an amalgamation of separate monarchies (arguably Venice might have been considered a Republic but operated as a mixed government with monarchical trends) and the founding fathers were distinctly elite. They were educated men of means whose lofty ideals of equality and giving power to the people were tempered by their belief that not everyone was as prepared as they were to choose wisely and to actually govern themselves without the aid of those more prepared by education and reason. Hence, they slipped in the Electoral College; a layer of separation which would allow men of preparation to right the wrongs of voters who were misled by ignorance, graft, collusion or corruption. But this elitist attitude meant to provide "wiser" men the option of using Democracy more correctly than the poor, unprepared masses has actually provided a means to correct itself.

Over 50% of our voters selected a candidate other than the one our Electoral College THINKS it has to vote for based on a formula created in 1787 to protect the national interests from the ignorance of the voter. It is entirely constitutional and morally correct for the Electors to base their vote on the qualifications and preparation of the candidate to hold office PARTICULARLY IF THAT CANDIDATE GARNERED MORE VOTES IN THE POPULAR VOTE. While it breaks with tradition there is no legal reason they cannot recognize the popular vote and therefore, cast their vote for the winner of the NATIONAL popular vote.(There are two exceptions...two states would require the Electors to pay a small fine if they chose to take this path.) The actual election of the President has not taken place. The Electors will cast their votes on December 19, 2016. Let’s not gather in the streets to protest Trump’s election…let’s gather in the streets to impress on the Electoral College that they should respect the will of the people of 2016, not 1787.

Alexander Hamilton believed that the Electoral College would ensure that the President would be chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”

More Here:

The Wounds of Battle

2016-11-06T15:08:00.000-06:00

To tell the truth I am scared. No matter how the election turns out I am scared for my country and for my sanity.

Having lived outside of the Continental US for most of my adult life I guess I had an idealized and unrealistic image of the basic principles of our country. I firmly believed that our collective sense of justice and respect for human rights placed us, as a nation and as multiple communities just a wee bit closer to Heaven and God than many countries and peoples were privileged to achieve. Acknowledging that humility was not one of our characteristics since American arrogance is a globally recognized phenomenon I was wont to shake my head in disdain for our inability to be respectful of others but understood that our unique reality of being a great nation with great opportunities and great successes isolated from others by our great size was responsible for our abundance of hubris.

And then came the Trump effect. I have watched in horror as a man who started out as a joke, a stand-up comedian’s dream come true, an icon of excess and bully mentality, an image of orange brutality and abusive behavior, a bold-faced liar and decrier of basic human decency, a power grabbing blow hard has stripped our society of pretense and bathed us in his brand of sulfuric effluence. And my horror has increased as I watch multitudes of citizens ignoring the obvious, defending his lies, explaining away his ludicrous behavior and accepting his demagogic behavior with the chant of making America great again. Where is the greatness in lying? Where is the greatness in using money and strength to commit atrocities on the vulnerable? Where is the greatness in living under delusions? It isn't as much an issue of who HE is but what he has bared to the world of who WE are. But it's done. No matter who wins we can't erase what he has done to US. From now on we will have to live with the understanding that we have embraced division and the seeding of hatred in our midst and that many, many of us have joined in his hymn of dissension and fabricated conflict.

I pray that he does not win, but America has already lost by the effect that he has had on our nation. Our wounds will outlast our bruises; our hurt will leave us with a wall dividing us within. His platform and the thousands who chant at his side have proven that the principles of equality, fairness, justice and truth are what we gave lost. Only by renewing our faith in those principles can we make America Great Again and Trump is certainly NOT the champion of those traits.

Franklin Roosevelt said it well…"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely."

Fear of Lying

2016-06-15T10:51:00.000-05:00

There is an old joke which used to appear frequently on plaques, bumper stickers and T Shirts. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they really aren't out to get you." In today's political environment there are all kinds of adaptations that could be made to that old one-liner. "Just because you're a liar doesn't mean you never tell the truth" might be one iteration that could apply to Donald Trump. One of the most effective ways a pathological liar achieves both success and a perceived authorization to continue lying is to mix a degree of truth in with the blatant lies so that where one begins and the other ends becomes muddled and difficult to extricate. As people begin to show their willingness to endorse the lie because it is hidden within the truth the liar becomes emboldened to lie even more.

Truth: Much of our population is confused and fearful of the upsurge in attacks by avowed radical Islamists.

Lie: The recent attacker in Orlando, Florida was part of a worldwide, organized plot to attack Americans.

While the details concerning the background of the attacker are still emerging it seems pretty clear that this man was mentally unstable and his attraction to a movement that couples hate with violence was a manifestation of his mental illness rather than an ideological choice or conviction. His claim to be a member or supporter of organizations that are actually enemies of each other furthers the understanding that in his incoherent derangement he grasped at ways to justify his abhorrent actions. See THIS ARTICLE from the Washington Post for more detail.

So, what does Donald Trump do? He makes an impassioned speech at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, lauded by Trumpsters, defending his desire to ban Muslims from entering the United States. FACT ALERT: The Orlando attacker was born in New York. Does he plan on making his ban retro-active? Are we looking at another bout with internment camps, as in World War II? How else would his proposed ban affect the likes of this most recent attacker? Many pundits have drawn parallels between the presumptive Republican candidate for President and Adolf Hitler...if that statement alone isn't enough to sober the reader, contemplate the 8th demand of Hitler's Nazi Party, published February 24, 1920:

8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who entered Germany after 2 August 1914 shall be required to leave the Reich forthwith.

Mr. Trump uses the truth of our fear of irrational and violent behavior from proponents of ISIS and radical Islam to support bigotry. Ignoring the threat of unbridled and unmatched terrorism, no matter the source, is not a sane course of action, but equally; fanning the flames of fear and hatred toward a body of people based solely on the religion they profess is insanity and not what the United States stands for.

Level the playing field. Let's draw a correlation here. On June 17, 2015 a white male from Charleston, North Carolina committed an act of "domestic terrorism" and was later charged with hate crimes for the murder of nine church members during Bible study. He admitted to hoping that his actions would incite a race war. He was an avowed supporter of white supremacist groups and had been in direct contact, via the Internet, with several of these organizations. He is quoted as having said something vaguely similar to Mr. Trump's inflammatory remarks against Mexicans before shooting his victims, "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." Should we, following Mr. Trump's logic, begin to round up all the white supremacists we can locate in our country? Should we consider that their connection to any organization that espouses anti-social behavior makes them suspect and therefore appropriate for incarceration until their intentions can be clearly established? Or does the presumptive Republican candidate suggest that white supremacists should be deported to the countries from where their ancestors immigrated? According to Ancestry.com that would make the perpetrator more than likely headed for Germany.

Radicalized Christians? Christian Americans have been responsible for a large number of crimes against clinics and individuals that provide abortions. Cases of abduction, murder, arson, anthrax threats and bombings have consistently plagued abortion related individuals and locations. Perpetrators claim devotion to their understanding of Christian doctrine as justification for these actions to protect the lives and souls of unborn babies. Just as radicalized Muslims believe they are defending the tenants of their interpretation of Islam, these radicalized Christians are CONVINCED of the righteousness of their actions. Again, following the logic of the fear mongerer some sort of control mechanism should certainly be mandated. Let's start monitoring Fundamentalist churches, perhaps we could put phone taps on any communication device used by the pastors and their activist supporters? Anyone wearing a cross or bearing a tattoo of Jesus Christ would need to be watched and placed on an FBI list warranting possible internment and deportation to the country of origin of their ancestors.

We are taught, from our earliest years, that lying is a very bad thing. Children lie for many reasons; to avoid punishment, to embellish accomplishments, to seek recognition, to gain favor, and just because. Maturity is supposed to lead us away from this childish behavior; to learn that as we enter adulthood we can no longer rely on the winking away of our transgressions and that if we ignore this mandate there will be consequences. Mr. Trump constantly and consistently mixes slight truth with great lies, uses opinion in the place of facts and willfully misleads with misinformation. And yet, the consequence he faces is election to the highest office of the nation. This is the FEAR OF LYING...that his ability to mesmerize a population will be successful. His need to avoid punishment for his past frauds, to embellish his own achievements, to seek unending recognition, to gain favor with the voting public that is already fearful is leading kind and thoughtful people toward division, bigotry and division.

Assault on Trayvon and Lady Justice

2013-07-21T19:00:00.002-05:00

Trayvon Martin

Trayvon Martin reportedly pounded George Zimmerman's head on the pavement just prior to getting shot and killed. But I maintain that what has really taken a pounding here is not the shooter's head but Lady Justice herself...she has been violently bloodied and ravaged and continues to limp along as the many pundits apply their interpretation to what the verdict in Florida really means.

Our nation has become the victim of Mr. Zimmerman, just as painfully as the young man who lost his life as a result of the actions of a self appointed vigilante who was unwilling to follow the specific instructions given to him by the authorities, "Stay in your car..." What part of that simple instruction was Mr. Zimmerman unable to understand?

Personally, all other facts of this case simply become background chatter to the glaringly simple fact that had George Zimmerman acted as the authorities instructed him none of this would have happened. Trayvon would have finished eating his Skittles, would have gotten home safe and soundly, his mother would have berated him for being out too late, George would have met the police on the corner and said "He went into that house there" and the police would have done whatever they do when a vigilante is too eager to identify every shadow as an opportunity to live out his personal dream of power.

But his irresponsible actions bring into focus a lot of other imbalances in the whole sequence of events. Why did the authorities not prosecute him immediately for failure to follow their admonition to stay in his car? Wouldn't that have qualified as criminal endangerment? Why did the authorities assume that his story did not require investigation? Why was the prosecution based on ANYTHING other than the strictest recitation of the facts...This man's refusal to heed the instructions given him directly resulted in the unnecessary escalation of events resulting in the death of a young man. No assumptions required of whether he was profiling, whether Trayvon had the intention of doing something illegal or not, whether Trayvon was a nice young man or a troubled teen, whether Zimmerman is a bigot or a racist or whether he felt his life was in danger; no assumptions required. He failed to follow instructions and this failure on his part ALONE resulted in the death of a person. PERIOD.

Why shouldn't we question the objectivity of the proceeding when the obvious was not done? Why shouldn't we be concerned when the brother of the accused deserts the court house the day before the verdict and publicly stated that he did so to be prepared for the media because they had received a good indication that the verdict would be "not guilty"?

History has proven that we are a brave and just society that faces our shortcomings with wisdom and courage and makes the corrections that are required to truly live up to the ideals of being the "land of the free, sweet land of liberty." Citizens of all ages, of all races and political convictions are waiting for some serious answers. The questions are all too apparent.

The Media-Dangerous Allies of Evil

2013-06-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

The Media-Dangerous Allies of Evil

Our era of political correctness has erased all sense of common sense. We appear to want to cleanse our past by pretending that it didn't exist and that our personal and shared history is not what taught us lessons but that somehow we collectively became better people by pure grace. This pretense is a very dangerous thing and is somehow reminiscent of the Soviet Union where people could disappear from history books and photographs because having to admit what they stood for was not convenient to the new political forces.

It is an unsavory reality that we were a slave nation. Not only did portions of our nation embrace and relish slavery but those same factions were willing to fight a war to defend that practice, disguised as a war to defend state's rights. History has engraved the results of this reality with more than a century of consequences including discrimination, abuse, murder, resentment, social inequity, poverty, crime, stigma and struggle. The revolution that was the Civil War caused an evolution within our society ... one that is STILL in the process transforming us.We are all living with evolving standards whether we choose to recognize it or not. The most recent victim of this charade of pretense is Paula Deen.

I do not know Paula Deen other than through her presence within the media as a chef and a proponent of cooking with ingredients that are shunned in today's search for healthy alternatives. When I have seen her in public she has been witty and lighthearted. Using the "n" word is ugly and demeaning but it's use alone qualifies one for the title of insensitive but not necessarily a racist.

Most of the deposition has to do with the reality of running a business with a family member, of the jealousies and nit-picking that occur in any organization, common behaviors that when put under a microscope appear very damning but are an everyday part of learning to live in community. We have all done or said things we are not particularly proud of but our character is defined by how we act and react to the lessons those moments teach us. And one of the most important lessons we should have learned by now is to get the facts before we jump to conclusions. I have no idea if the accusations made against Paula Deen Enterprises, her person and her brother are correct. I do know that the lawsuit and the deposition are two different things and that if we are to judge the veracity of the lawsuit by the treatment being afforded the deposition we must proceed with great caution.

The deposition itself is quite long, 145 pages of actual discussion...most media pundits probably wager that not many people are going to invest time in reading the whole thing and will be perfectly happy to accept their choice of excerpts as gospel and a trustworthy reflection of Paula Deen's statements and character. Well, I read it and frankly, I find the lawyer's behavior and the media's handling of the report more reprehensible than what she admits to saying. Click here to read it yourself... Paula Deen Deposition. I can faithfully say that the lawyers were trying very hard to entrap her and that the media has done a bang up job of misrepresenting the facts. The maelstrom of inaccuracies and unjust consequences of those inaccuracies should be a lesson to us all on how dangerous the media has become. No matter what side of the debate they decide to attack, once the media decides to embrace showmanship rather than truth they become dangerous allies of evil. And to those who wish to refer to the accusations made against her which are not reflected in the deposition but are the basis of the law suit, please be reminded that those are accusations. The accusations are what the party demanding $1.5 million in damages alleges. Remember the adage, "Innocent until proven guilty?" That is what is supposed to happen in a court of law, not on television.

Regarding her use of the "n" word...very little, if any, coverage has been given to the following excerpt: (Page 23)
PD: "But that's just not a word that we use as time has gone on. Things have changed since the '60s in the south. And my children and my brother object to that word being used in any cruel or mean behavior" (Emphasis mine)

Or this excerpt when asked if using racial slurs constitutes harassment:

(At the bottom of page 81)

PD …. If you were doing it against a Jewish person and constantly talking about – bad mouthing Jews or lesbians or homosexuals or Mexicans or blacks, if you continually beat up on a certain group, I would think that that would be some kind of harassment.

Lawyer: Okay

PD I don’t know. We don’t do that--I don’t know.

And the whole issue of the Plantation style wedding...oh please! The lawyers gave the whole thing the 'slave' connotation, not Paula Deen. What she said was that she had really respected the level of professionalism provided by a staff of waiters at a Southern restaurant she and her husband had eaten that recreated a by-gone era. I surmise that she was referencing the famous Southern gentility. The lawyer then went on to create the analogy and the impression that what she was after was to glorify slavery.

(Top of Page 130)

PD: Well, it -- to me, of course I'm old but I ain't that old, I didn't live back in those days but I've seen pictures, and the pictures that I've seen, that restaurant represented a certain era in America.

Lawyer: Okay.

PD: And I was in the south when I went to this restaurant. It was located in the south.

Lawyer: Okay. What era in America are you referring to?

PD: Well, I don't know. After the Civil War, during the Civil War, before the Civil War.

Lawyer: Right. Back in an era where there were middle-aged black men waiting on white people.

PD: Well, it was not only black men, it was black women.

Lawyer: Sure. And before the Civil War -before the Civil War, those black men and women who were waiting on white people were slaves, right?

PD: Yes, I would say that they were slaves.

Lawyer: Okay.

PD: But I did not mean anything derogatory by saying I loved their look and their professionalism.

Throughout our nation there are myriad examples of historical re-enactments...Civil War battles, gunfights in Western Towns, Medieval Jousts, Colonial villages, and yes, Southern Plantations. And here's a news flash! Those re-enactments pertain to a time when all things were not morally consonant with today's standards. 100 years from now I suspect there will be re-enactments of things we take for granted but that will offend the sensitivities of those of the future."What? You mean our ancestors actually executed citizens?"

Paula Deen deserves to hear voices of common sense.

Hype at the IRS

2013-05-18T09:48:00.000-05:00

Not a fan of the IRS...let's get that straight right from the beginning. Like so many law abiding, tax paying citizens I do not trust that the IRS will be fair or just and I do not imagine that job applications to the IRS attempt to measure the compassion and aptitude for caring of its candidates for employment.

That said there is something that is bothering me about the recent scandal involving the IRS and the accusations that employees there had focused on conservatives groups that had applied for tax exempt status. What bothers me is that there appears to be a significant bias in the manner that the facts are being reported; a bias which skews the facts toward one conclusion. While the truth is being reported; the manner in which it is being reported may be influencing the interpretation of the truth. Here are some issues that I heard reported ONCE and have not heard since.

In the years following the 2010 Supreme Court's decision that allowed 501(c)(4) groups to accept unlimited donations from corporate donors without disclosing the donor information there was a dramatic increase in groups applying for recognition as 501(c)(4)s . So, what is a 501(c)(4)? It is supposed to be an organization dedicated to social, charitable and recreational activities. It is their character as an organization serving the well-being of the community that allows them to be clasified as TAX EXEMPT. The Internal Revenue Service is not well known for clear language, for making it easy to understand what you can and cannot do with your money, but in the case of these charitable organizations they have outdone themselves for ambiguity! One part of the code seems to state that the group must be involved exclusively in charitable or social activities while another part of it replaces exclusively with primarily. That is sort of like comparing "going steady" with "playing the field"!

So I can just imagine the scenario at the Cincinnatti office of the IRS...populated by people whose primary role in life is to catch people who are lying to them; these are people who suspect EVERONE of trying to take advantage of the 'man' when they are suddenly or even gradually confronted with a noticeable uptick in groups wishing to not pay taxes. Aha! Anathema to any IRS employee! Now, let us imagine some numbers because I cannot find any dependable results by asking Google for numbers. Let us imagine that the office normally received 100 requests for tax exemption. Then there is a shift and they start receiving 150 requests. There was probably very little head scratching but an immediate and communal giant light bulb that appeared, fully lit, above the heads of the suspicious IRS career officials. "Check these new applicants out." OK, so they have no responsibility for what the percentage of new applications just happen to be conservative Tea Party groups. If 75% of the groups (again, made up numbers because I am just a normal citizen, not subscribed to high-level research resources) are conservative Tea Party type groups it may seem like they are being targeted, but in fact it is only because the increase in applications were primarily from groups that shared the same traits. Doesn't that make sense?

The important thing here is to determine just how many of these new applications WERE fraudulent. How many of these groups were engaging in political activism more than 49.9% of the time and were avoiding paying taxes on the funds they received and disbursed? Personally, I would rather have the IRS vultures circling these goups who are filtering corporate funds in the millions than Harry down the street who may or may not have filed his return with 100% accuracy. Of course, if they actively avoided investigating any application OTHER than the conservative groups; this is bad. But if they stuck their hands into a barrel of new applications and it just so happens that all the forms that fit into their hot little hands were Tea Party type groups what's rotten in the barrel isn't what's rotten at the IRS.

In 2011, there were 97,382 501(c)4 organizations (civic leagues, social welfare orgs, etc.)^[8]

NBA Gone Las Vegas

2013-02-18T13:18:00.000-06:00

OK. I am officially old now. This is a confession that those who know me would probably chuckle about as one look at me tends to confirm my chronological status. But I ascribe to the idea that the clock and the spirit do not run at the same pace. I have always considered myself 'youthful' in attitude and outlook. I embrace new technology and changing styles in clothes and social structure. At least I thought I did. I have been alarmingly aware of the onset of bahhumbugism in my distaste for pants that barely cling to a young man's bottom, to music which has no melody, to poorly researched and phrased news reports and to the apparent evaporation of the difference between 'less' and 'fewer'. However, I have steadfastly rejected grunting and saying "That's the problem with today's youth" as my parents frequently spouted over the breakfast table. So what has changed?

Last night I watched the NBA All Star Game. I really love basketball and the idea that all these great players would be pitted against each other fueled my imagination. I was looking forward to a game played with spirit and determination, a great competition that would showcase the highly honed skills of professional athletes. It wasn't a good game, it was lackluster and almost a parody of itself but this isn't about the game...it's about the presentation of the game.

NE-YO performs before the NBA All-Star basketball game Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

What's with the smoke and the lights and the whole Las Vegas atmosphere? What's with the announcer, sounding like he is opening some pro-wrestler match? The coaches and the players looked downright embarrassed! And then came the dancers. It now seems that choreographers have succumbed to the idea that grabbing one's genitals and generally mimicking the sex act is dance. I have never been to a strip club, have never seen pole dancers, lap dances or dancers outside of films but I have studied dance and the line between pornography and art is not that hard to identify. Shelley Winters once said, "I think on stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic and a progressive religious experience." Am I merely reflecting that sort of age-reality distorted disconnect? I hope not. She was being funny but when we have barely clothed women dancers rubbing their vaginas on barely clothed male dancers on stage during prime time ATHLETIC stagings, how long before we have the actual sex act thrust on us with a musical beat behind it so we can call it art? I am certainly not prudish nor am I in favor of censorship but it seems there IS a gradual decline in our character as a people when we accept and promote the distortion of art to appeal solely to prurient and commercial interests. Dance is a beautiful art form which CAN authentically and artistically capture the magic of the sexual attraction between the sexes, it can present the irresistible magnetic attraction between two people, it can reflect the poetry and the violence that can exist in the act, but it should do so in appropriate venues, before an appropriate audience. With every presentation that lowers the bar of our expectations we lower our standards for the NEXT event with flashing lights and smoke machines and force our dancers to prostitute their art.

Gun Laws vs Gun Rights

2013-02-02T10:14:00.001-06:00

Even as I prepare to compose this entry I can hear weapons being cocked and ready to fire all over the nation. So, not just as a matter of self defense but as a means of clarification let me immediately state that I have no desire to promote the destruction of our second amendment rights. I support the right for all people who are sane and capable to have a gun if they so wish.

However, you will notice that I qualified that statement. Sane and capable. Yup...if you are crazy, unstable or blind I would rather you take up a different hobby. But therein lies the rub as Hamlet was wont to say! The NRA is scared to death of giving the government too much authority over who gets to bear arms and who doesn't. The troubling reality behind that fear, or at least the way it is sold to the public, is that our founding fathers recognized that the only way to keep tyrants from usurping our rights as citizens is if the government (the potential tyrants in this story) recognizes that the people they govern have the means to take the power away from them. Aha. The fact that it has been so darn easy for those supporting that argument to sell it means that there are a lot of people out there who don't trust the government one tiny bit and really want to keep their options open when and if a scenario including armed revolution comes into play!

The oft repeated argument that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is certainly true. But that fact does not invalidate other undeniable facts. Guns were invented to kill people. They were not invented for hunting, they were not invented for collecting or for target practice even though those are all valid uses for guns. Their purpose is to kill. When you have a society that also promotes violence in movies, in video games, in lifestyles, you have created a dangerous combination by also promoting the propagation and veneration of guns. I don't want to abrogate my right or your right to own a gun but I do want SOMEBODY trying to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of crazy people. We let the government determine who can drive a car, who can drink a beer, who can smoke a cigarette, who can...fill in the blank. But who can have access to a killing machine whose raison d'etre IS TO KILL is off limits. So, for all of those gun toting, potential revolutionaries out there who distrust our government I have a proposal.

Give the responsibility of vetting who gets to become a pistol packing person to...wait for it...the NRA! We would pass legislation that would make it the responsibility of the National Rifle Association to be the sole grantors of permits to own guns of any type. If Wahoo Crazy Bob grabs his trusty Bushmaster with a 30 round clip and shoots up a grocery store or a school or a movie house or WHATEVER the NRA will be the responsible party. THEY can get sued for endangerment of the public and for failure to comply with their responsibility.

All of a sudden we might have the NRA promoting seminars on mental health, proposals to provide each and every school in the nation with a trained mental health adviser, suggestions for social programs to educate young adults on the skills of parenting, inaugurating pleas for less violence in movies, video games, and lyrics...the possibilities boggle the mind!

There is one other little thing though. We'd probably also have to pass legislation that would make their records of who has been granted a permit as sacrosanct as our medical lab results are.

Words, Mere Words!

2010-12-03T18:39:00.005-06:00

What an amazing time we live in! All things are possible, the old tried and true challenges have been replaced by spanking new ones including how to interpret the discovery of a life form that replaces phosphorous with arsenic...nothing is as it was before.

Take words, for instance. It used to be that a spill was a definable amount of something that suddenly was somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. But not any longer. But since British Petroleum had that, uh, spill we can now refer to a free flow of an undetermined amount of something as "a spill". (Refer to 6-11-2010 post.)

Now we have a new one. "Leak" The big story this week is the "Leak" of sensitive cables provided by the nefarious Wiki-Leaks website. Most definitions of this widely used word center around the undesired escape of liquid or gas. Only one definition refers to the "anonymous unauthorized disclosure of confidential information." So our new understanding of "leak" can now mean the forewarned release of unauthorized classified information acquired by theft through a publicly accessed media venue and reproduced worldwide by myriad reputable news organizations. Hmmm. That sort of gives it a whole new spin, doesn't it?

The last I heard, the mere unauthorized possession of classified material was a criminal offense. But with this new tendency toward mutant word definitions we can safely assume that it is neither an offense nor criminal to possess, distribute and reproduce classified information.

I really feel sorry for Hillary Rodham Clinton. First she had to live with the redefinition of what "sex" is or is not and now she's having to battle the definition of "leak".

Truly, amazing times we live in!

Can't Believe a Word of It!

2010-11-26T15:41:00.008-06:00

Knee jerk reactions, no matter what side of the fence they originate on, continue to be defined primarily by the term "jerk". Years of brainwashing have apparently led many of us to believe that anything that is printed is fact. It used to take a while for the printed word to reach the more credulous of us but thanks to the wonderfully rapid aspects of the Internet truth and falsehood appear with equal speed and indiscriminate respectability. But that same Internet can and does provide the means to filter through the VOLUME and attempt to reach the ESSENCE.

I fear I have angered people I respect and admire for their many contributions to the community they live in; people who don't have the desire to transmit falsehood; people who truly believe they are "doing the right thing" by passing on information which proves that they are correct to take the stand they take on any given subject by pointing out to them that they are contributing to spreading false information in the best of circumstances and outright slander in the worst of the circumstances.

The least dangerous of these cases are the multitudes of emails we collectively receive pleading for us to pass on the picture of the poor little girl or boy who is dying of cancer in a remote hospital and whose parents lack the funds to save the beloved child's life. Of course, Microsoft and AOL have agreed to contribute toward the treatment of the poor child ONLY if they can squeeze a profit out of it and so you are urged to not be cold-hearted and pass the email on to everyone in your address book. It only takes a moment to either spread this urban legend or go to snopes.com and find out that if you do you will be contributing to wasted time, wasted bandwidth and worst of all, the pilfering of empathy and the sincere desire to help someone.

Of the same ilk but much more mean spirited are the rash of emails that take a tiny bit of truth as yarn and knit a wildly incongruous and untrue tale that usually pits the fears of one political faction against another.

The clue is to follow to look beyond the obvious. What does the originator of the email want to achieve? What is the agenda of the originator? Don't judge the sender's objective since the sender is probably a victim of Internet Abuse. They may well be your colleague, friend or family member. You hesitate to correct them because you don't want to seem patronizing or create conflict where nothing but friendship resides. But please; find a diplomatic way of having them look beyond the obvious. Send them this blog if you think it will help!

A recent email claimed that the left was proposing banning the American Flag. Research showed that the "truth" was that a school in LA had banned the wearing of clothing sporting the American Flag ONE DAY (5 de Mayo) to avoid conflict. Fox News spun this event into a online survey titled "Should the American Flag Be Banned -- in America?" which was then spun by others to claim that the left was supporting the banning of the American flag. Massive emails went out to ask the conservatives to show the liberals the true tenor of the American people.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/05/06/american-flag-banned-america/#ixzz16QrIZa2L

The sad reality is that we have become too eager to react without checking facts. Are we too complacent to check our facts or too secure in our own limited collection of knowledge to risk seeing beyond what we currently accept as truth? Knee jerk or just jerks?

Spill, What Spill?

2010-06-11T21:43:00.006-05:00

Let's take a look at the word "spill". You spill a glass of water. You spill a pound of sugar. A spill is a specific amount of something that unintentionally and suddenly exits it's vehicle of containment. But, if you forget to turn the faucet off you aren't "spilling" water, right? THAT's a free flow. So how come we have so easily accepted what seems like the deceitful use of 'spill' to define what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico? That ain't no spill, baby.

And since this is an equal opportunity blog be forewarned that there is plenty of criticism to share...the media is doing a sucky job by following somebody's prescribed script. They are in control as far as framing the reality of that copious flow of oil. They have chosen to use the wrong term. They too have chosen to create a scenario that does less to represent the truth of the contributing factors and more to play up the fantasy of the 'bad guys against the good guys', failing to point out that there are 'bad guys' on all sides of the issues.

Of course, the politicians are doing all the de rigeuer hand wringing and swearing to make the guilty pay for their sins. Congressional hearings pretend to demonstrate that our elected officials are actually DOING something when all that is being achieved is an equally prolific 'spill' of verbiage.

BP has willfully lied about the amount of the oil pouring into the ocean and has always seemed more intent on pumping the stuff into a container than containing the gushing stuff. They misspent time, money and the public's goodwill by trying to manipulate the truth of the the volume of the oil and the devastating results of this tragedy.

And then, there is all the lip service being offered to the great god of 'safety'...if we really wanted safe we would not be forcing the oil companies to drill in such deep water where the risk of accidents and the their severity increase with each additional foot. We want the oil but we want getting it to be both aesthetic and cheap. And apparently we have been willing to wink, wink, nudge, nudge where safety regulations are concerned. Those charged with the responsibility overseeing operations have preferred to benefit from a cozy relationship with the very entities they should have been watching.

So all the big players have failed; the media, the government and British Petroleum so Mother Nature and the real people; the hardworking individuals who are just trying to get through the day, get their kids educated, food on the table with enough left over for a six pack are paying the price.

And after all the wailing and finger pointing, nothing changes. The oil still gushes, the media still calls it a 'spill', BP still chants mea culpa unconvincingly and an entire way of life undergoes a slow death. If we learn anything from this mess can it not be to train ourselves to the truth? Oil companies would still make money, media sources would still report the drama and the government would still get votes, but the truth ; that ever elusive truth, would allow the context to be one of reality and response both rapid and relevant.

But when we can't tell the difference between a spill and cascade the oil drenched birds and poisoned oysters are the least of our worries.

What did the Wise Latina Woman REALLY say?

2009-05-29T10:57:00.005-05:00

I am a self described Liberal at odds with many broad brush definitions thrust on those of us who relish freedom of thought. The exercise of the right to judge the evidence at hand and reach an independent conclusion is what I consider the primary ingredient in being Liberal. The conclusion reached may be more or less liberal than conservatives like to paint those they oppose, but it is the process of reaching independent conclusions which makes one Liberal.

When the press started harping on President Obama’s recent nominee to the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor’s quote “Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life” I was concerned. I did not like that quote. It does sound like reverse racism and I have to agree with Newt Gingrich (the fact that I can agree with him on anything makes my stomach turn) that new racism is just as unacceptable as old racism. But since I wish to consider myself a wise Latina woman I researched the origin of that quote. The speech was delivered at the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal's Twelfth Annual Symposium on October 26, 2001. The purpose of the speech was to address the effect of ethnic and gender bias in the application of law and the rendering of judgements.

Sonia Sotomayor’s entire speech is available at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/4982.htm so all who are interested in exercising their freedom to reach independent conclusions are free to go there and read the quote in context. And, granted, had she use the term “different” rather than “better” we probably would not be having this controversy. But, in summary she was basically saying that one’s life experience will and should shape the manner in which one acts and reacts to stimulus. It is part of the human reality. She uses the analogy of how we react to ethnic food…to a Puerto Rican eating blood sausage is normal and delicious. To that wise old white man it may well be the cause of retching and turned up noses. More importantly, her position on HOW one uses life’s experience to wield the power that judging affords is much more significant than what the media has chosen to focus on.
“Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage. I also hope that by raising the question today of what difference having more Latinos and Latinas on the bench will make will start your own evaluation. For people of color and women lawyers, what does and should being an ethnic minority mean in your lawyering? For men lawyers, what areas in your experiences and attitudes do you need to work on to make you capable of reaching those great moments of enlightenment which other men in different circumstances have been able to reach? For all of us, how do you change the fact that in every task force study of gender and race bias in the courts, women and people of color, lawyers and judges alike report in significantly higher percentages than white men that their gender and race have shaped their careers; from hiring, retention and to promotion and that a statistically significant number of women and minority lawyers and judges, both alike, have experienced bias in the courtroom? ”*
Wordier too. Apparently it is more important to have brief sound bites than accurate ones.

*The text which appears at the provided link appears to have typographical errors which I have attempted to correct in a manner concordant with my "life experience and gender bias" .

Muss Up Your Hair

2009-03-17T10:32:00.006-05:00

A friend from Puerto Rico sent me the following essay. I translated it with very few "indulgences"... I couldn't find any reference to when or where it originated, but it came with a cartoon of Mafalda ... a cartoon character from Argentina and very popular and well known throughout the Spanish speaking world. I don't know if Mafalda is known in the States. The original author is apparently a woman who is mandated by Feminism to write this essay, but frankly I feel like it's a pretty good admonition to men too. Of course, some of us take it a little TOO far, but what the heck!

Muss Up Your Hair

Today I learned that you have to let life muss up your hair, so I have decided to live life with greater intensity. The world is crazy. Definitely crazy. If it tastes great, it’s fattening. What’s pretty is exprensive. The sun that warms your face wrinkles it too. And everything that is truly good in life musses up your hair.

· Making love musses up your hair.
· Laughing till your gut hurts musses up your hair.
· Traveling, flying, running jumping in the ocean musses up your hair.
· Taking your clothes off musses up your hair.
· Kissing the person you love musses up your hair.
· Playing musses up your hair.
· Singing till you’re out of breath musses up your hair
· Dancing till you wonder if wearing high heels was a good idea leaves your hair unrecognizable!

So, from now on every time you see me my hair is going to be mussed up. And you can be sure that I am living the happiest time of my life. It is a law of life: the woman who rides in the first car of the roller coaster will have hair that is more mussed up than the one who chose not to take the ride.

I may feel tempted to be impeccable, combed and pressed inside and out. Life’s ‘help wanted’ ad demands a good appeareance. Brush your hair, put on, take off, buy, run, loose weight, eat healthy, stand up straight, get serious.

And maybe I should follow the instructions, but when will I be told to be happy? Hasn’t anyone figured out that to look pretty I have to feel pretty? The prettiest person I can be! The only really important thing is that when I look in the mirror I see the woman I should be. So, my recommendation to all women:

Throw yourself into life, Eat with abandon, Kiss, Hug, Make love, Dance, Fall in love, Relax, Travel, Jump, Go to bed late, Get up early, Run, Fly, Sing, Dress up, Be comfortable, Admire the view, Have fun…and above all, let life muss up your hair!!!!

The worst that could happen is that you look at yourself in the mirror and see that you have to comb your hair again!

This is an example of Mafalda ... by the cartoonist Quino. Mafalda is saying " Mom! What kind of future do you see for this woman's rights movement? Never mind."

Petition to Rush Limbaugh

2009-01-30T10:34:00.002-06:00

The recent content of Mr. Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated radio program has irked many and provided him with even more fodder for his negative approach to program content. Many of us believe that party affiliation has nothing to do with patriotism; that constructive criticism is crucial to building sound platforms and a future that will sustain the promise of American freedom of thought, speech and the pursuit of happiness. Destructive criticism, on the other hand, is employed solely to ensure that the noise created by the criticizer is heard at a greater distance. Please consider copying the petion you will find below and sending it to those on your mailing list. Mr. Limbaugh loves to pound his chest concerning the large number of people who listen to him. Perhaps we can make him listen to a large number of people too.

Petition to Mr. Rush Limbaugh
Please be quiet. Please take a solemn moment and consider history, consider where the nation you purport to love finds itself at this moment. There are many things you and each of us CAN do. We the undersigned, hope that you will choose to be quiet. We hope that you will recognize that wishing for the failure of your president is NOT patriotic. We hope that you will recognize that creating dissention and vitriol is NOT patriotic. We hope that you will recognize that what you identify as humor and wit is nothing more than cynical anger that is often vulgar. We hope that you will recognize that calling women "babes" and environmentalists "whackos" plays to the lowest component of your audience but fully defines the height of your cultural contribution to our national reality. We the undersigned do not wish to silence dissent, we do not wish to eliminate authentic voices of conservative reason, and we do not wish to pretend that all is well or that the current government can do no wrong. Our sole wish is to recognize that the severity of our present situation demands that the majority of us pull together in the same direction, that the painful sacrifices we make today will protect us from greater, deeper sacrifices tomorrow and that fertilizing acrimony is not conducive to healing. Rush Limbaugh; PLEASE BE QUIET. Your mouth is the source of much of the fertilizer.

Please, be quiet.

The Change from Within

2009-01-19T20:05:00.002-06:00

Something very special has taken hold of our country. Of course, we have all been following the rhetoric of the mass media with all the understandably euphoric hoopla fluttering about the inauguration of Barack Obama. But that alone is not what we're seeing.

Have you noticed the plethora of African-American's barely able to contain their tears as they are interviewed on TV? Well, I don't know about you but as I watch them tears well up in my eyes as well. Because we are all participating in something that is still unspoken yet so true.

We are seeing African-Americans from all across the US in exactly the same way. Rich or poor, educated or ignorant, cultured or coarse; they are moved to emotional reactions because they are witnessing something they never thought they would see in their lifetimes. They may have all agreed that SOMEDAY an African-American could become President but they provided a degree of protection from the pain of believing that it was out of reach by imagining that magical day as sometime in the distant future. And now the day is here. They are seeing it come true. Even Dr. Martin Luther King, whose birthday we commemorate today dreamed of a day when "his children would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skins." No mention of people JUST looking at the character and skipping the skin color part. He dreamed, but he and countless wonderful people like him thought it wiser to keep the dreams to a manageable level. And now Barack Obama has shown that we HAVE progressed. The biggest change that Obama and all Americans can point to right now is one that has already happened; one that took place in our souls and which allowed this momentous inauguration to be taking place.

When I was 10 years old my family was traveling through Mississippi and we stopped at a gas station. On my way back to the car after going to the bathroom I stopped to drink from a water fountain. As I lifted my mouth away from the stream of water I saw a sign that said "Colored Water". In my youthful innocence I recall staring oddly at the water and feeling confused because the water wasn't colored. In the fifty years that have passed since then the obvious signs of racial bias have disappeared, replaced by the nefarious, hidden prejudices that have fueled discrimination. We know that there are still people who stubbornly hold on to the need to be divided and who raise children they taint with a darkness that is within. And yet, tomorrow we will witness proof that we have progressed. We are on the road and certainly walking in the right direction.

Do we have a long way to go? Yes...we do but we can do it! The change has come from within and we will continue to mine the unending vein of American ideals! Good will prevail.

Uncle Jay Explains the News

2009-01-02T09:44:00.007-06:00

Tired of all the re-hash of 2008 news stories yet? There is so much doom and gloom out there on a daily basis that being reminded of what has already happened is about to push large groups of news addicts over the brink! So, a different approach to the typical re-live, re-flect, re-view was very appealing! If you can't laugh about it, no matter what your point of view on "it" is, healing is hard to come by.

So, here is a little dose of remedy! Laugh a little.

Christmas or Holiday Season?

2008-12-22T14:06:00.005-06:00

Lately there has been a major amount of air time on local radio discussing a recent poll from Fox News that indicating whether "The American People" prefer to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays". For your reference, here is the original report from Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,467571,00.html

The hoopla over this survey, at least locally, made me shudder a little bit. I listened to the multitudes of angry, and I mean very angry people practically shouting about how disgusting it that as a society we have chosen the politically correct catchall "Happy Holidays" and that it is all the fault of the Democratic Party and the left wing liberals. In their angst over the selection of words used in greetings they mixed in the stripping of religious content in school plays, the loss of manger scenes in public areas and the elimination of the Ten Commandments and The Lord's Prayer in schools.

OK. Take a breath. A deep breath.

The Christian tradition is Christmas. That's why it is called Christmas. It is irrelevant and inmaterial to mix in any discussion regarding whether or not Christ was actually born in December...the TRADITION is that we celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas Day, December 25. So, if you are a Christian and want to say "Merry Christmas" go right ahead. If you are a Christian and you want to embrace the season that Jesus would have celebrated in His time, say "Happy Holidays". There is nothing un-Christian in saying "Happy Holidays". And if someone greets you with "Happy Hannuka" smile and return the blessing.

A far greater danger lurking about and undermining the Christ in Christmas is the behavior of Christians who celebrate Santa Claus more than they celebrate the birth of a Savior. I once witnessed a pastor asking a group of children IN CHURCH during the Children's Sermon what they were anxiously awaiting? To a one they all said Santa Claus! Remember, this was in church!

I am not against Santa Claus, I love the imagery involved and the ease with which innocence is demonstrated through a child's eager acceptance of the myth. But let us be clear and put the responsibility for making Christmas a generic holiday were it really lies. If we as Christians do not massively redirect our attention to the REAL reason for our season it will become generzied through our apathy. When we choose to celebrate a fat, jolly man in a red suit, sitting in a sleigh with eight tiny reindeer above and beyond a tiny, innocent baby in a manger it is we who have taken Christ out of Christmas.

What????

2008-12-11T09:13:00.003-06:00

No, I don't think I'm hard of hearing. But a lot of what I'm hearing is hard to believe. Hence I've been saying, "What????" far too often.

The housing, insurance and banking industries need bailing out because they were forced to grant loans to people who didn't qualify for expensive homes. WHAT? If anybody was forced it was greed that forced them to do what common sense had to be telling them was a stupid thing to do.

The banks got bailed out but they are now refusing lines of credit to small businesses forcing them into bankruptcy. WHAT? Wasn't that part of the argument for bailing them out?

GM and Toyota sold an equal number of cars but GM lost TWICE what Toyota made. WHAT? Doesn't that say something? If I earn just as much as my neighbor but I end up on welfare while my neighbor vacations in the Bahamas I think I might catch on that I'm doing something wrong.

The Secret Service cleared illegal aliens to work part-time at the home of the head of Homeland Security but the federal government fined the owner of the business who contracted them. WHAT? Two wrongs don't make a right, but if the SECRET SERVICE couldn't identify them as illegals, how can a regular, small business man be expected to?

The Governor of Illinois was caught selling President Elect Obama's Senate seat. WHAT? And he knew he was being investigated. WHAT? That level of arrogance begs the question if any politician truly feels that laws govern them at all. With that level of disregard for law and common sense we may well be beyond saving.

Get out your Q-Tips...clean out your ears but in all likelihood, you'll still be saying "WHAT?"

It's Over!

2008-11-14T10:00:00.002-06:00

I've been silent for a long while. I guess that the excessive political buzz just made it implausible for me to add my voice to the muddle. But, it's over now and the election has been decided (and thankfully, NOT by "the Decider") and the rhetoric has shifted from one cacophony to another.

This was a momentous election for me. Not just because of the candidates that were available, not just because of the condition of the economy or the disquiet in the world. It was momentous to me personally because it was the first time that I had been afforded the right to vote for the leader of our country. By virtue of having lived my entire adult life in Puerto Rico where there is no electoral college, I had never been able to execute the right to vote; a right which I cherish immensely.

Texas offers early voting which I took advantage of and then I felt more like a spectator than a participant since all the dialogue seemed to be directed at the undecided. I was not an undecided...I cast my vote with tears in my eyes. I was so excited about this exceptional culmination of a life's dream that I had to share it with everyone at the polling station. They were very excited for me and assumed that since it was my first time and I qualify for "little old lady" they needed to give me a screen by screen tour of the voting process. And that was OK. I reveled in the ease of voting and assumed that the fact that I was the only person voting at that particular moment was simply a function of the prolonged availability of the polling station.

Once I had cast my vote and left the building I was still smiling and feeling elated with the experience. I have saved my "I voted" sticker and the little "take a number" tab I was assigned. It's just a couple of more things for my poor husband to sigh over as he wishes that someday I will learn to throw things out!

So now the first African American president has been elected! I would have preferred to vote for Hillary, to tell the truth. I think there is a troubling lack of explicit experience and a disconnect between Obama's ability to motivate and inspire and his track record on producing results based on his idealism. But he earned my vote on a message of Hope and I certainly hope that he will be able to continue to motivate the people of our country and the world. I hope that his vision will change the negative way so many see the United States; I hope that his abilities will be up to the task of embuing our own people with the will to correct the errors of greed, selfishness and laziness that have contributed to the erosion of our national pride and the soul of liberty that guided so many hopefuls to found our great nation.

Think about the one common denominator resting in our history of development as a nation. It is HOPE. When the original colonists braved the fears of a trans atlantic crossing in small, leaky, wooden boats they were HOPING for a better life. When millions of European immigrants risked their lives and dreams to come to a new land, they HOPED for a better life. When masses of people carted up their belongings into covered wagons they HOPED for a better life. Today, as millions of new immigrants pour across our unprotected borders, they HOPE for a better life.

We are a nation founded on the basic principle of hope. Everyday we hope for decent weather, for an improved economy, for good health, for opportunity, for safety, for joy and for success. So far, hope has worked pretty well for us. I decided to put my faith in hope and I am glad I did.

Of course, that doesn't mean I have stopped praying or asking God to guide Obama!

Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Bush and ?

2008-09-16T09:02:00.005-05:00

It's time to draw some comparisons...Take a piece of paper, make two columns and label them 1929 Wall Street Collapse and 2008 Wall Street Collapse. Now, put these facts where you think they belong. You may place each fact in as many columns as you think applies.

This isn't a pop quiz, there is no prize at the end for whoever gets the most correct answers, and no one will rap your knuckles if your answers don't agree with mine.
Here are the facts:

Excessive speculation led to the crash and subsequently the depression
Artificially high valuation led to the crash and subsequently the depression
Mass failures of banks led to the crash and subsequently the depression
Reduction in availability of loans followed the crash and led to the depression
Massive loss of jobs followed the crash and led to the depression
Unbalanced foreign trade levels followed the crash and led to the depression

Once you have completed the exercise I recommend reading a little about the Great Depression and perhaps learning how to make dishtowels out of flour sacks...oh! Wait. Can you use paper bags to dry dishes?

As we prepare to vote for a new administration it might be wise to look back at the arguments that prevailed during the times of Coolidge, Hoover and FDR. Coolidge embodied the "let the market solve any problems" and it was conditions that existed in his administration that led to the problems inherited by Hoover. Hoover believed that volunteerism and pacts between the private sector and government would avoid dependence on government and he spearheaded a Mexican Repatriation program in response to uncontrolled Mexican immigration. FDR's administration created the programs that now shake and tremble despite the role they played in History...the SEC, the FDIC and Social Security. It all sounds too hauntingly familiar.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Gender Gyrations

2008-09-05T17:02:00.010-05:00

Wearing skirts has just become de rigeur in the Republican party. Did anyone else notice that all the important women who addressed the convention were clad in very nice, gam disclosing dresses or suits? Nothing androgenous or reminiscent of the Hillary Clinton Pantsuit Pandemonium! No pantsuits in this crowd...Thanks to the interested viewpoint of the cameramen I got to see many DOM bearing lapel buttons that proudly proclaimed "Hoosiers for the Hot Chick." Way to go, old dudes! You have unthroned the proud poser of questionable questions, the "chick" who asked Clinton if he prefered jockeys over boxers! How enlightening that the "conservatives", defenders of all that is moral, religious and patriotic in our great nation have found that resorting to good, old fashioned sexism is the best way to support their candidate for the Vice Presidency.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum it is undeniable that Senator McCain did a remarkable job in his selection of a running mate. I say this not based on her qualifications, though I think there are many; not based on her politcal wisdom, though I am convinced she has a solid supply; not based on her youth and attractiveness, though that is obvious...I say this based on the how much positive effervescence has been caused by her nomination. As far as charisma and ability to cause excitement goes, Obama had McCain flat out like a pancake. There was no way McCain could have ever hoped to garner even a small percentage of the visibility that Obama takes for granted. Obama sneezes and there is a new flash in Australia. McCain could have fallen down a flight of stairs in women's underwear and barely have been noticed. And this absence of visibility was a built in black hole for the Republican Party...any message McCain wanted to get out to the light was being sucked in to the black hole!

Until Sarah.

Sarah is the center of attention, not only because of what she brings to the table in her own right, but because of what HE DOESN'T. She is celebrated because she is clearly defined in who and what she is, HE ISN'T. Is McCain a liberal conservative or a conservative liberal? Is he an independent aligned with the right or homeless Democrat whose only port in the storm was the Republicans? There is no doubt that he is a respectable man who endured great pain and indignities for his country, but he lacks a clear, identifiable personna that allows the voter to get to know him. Sarah is his solution to this lackluster predicament.

And while the conservative right rejoices in the excitement caused by this formidable woman, let the rest of us remember that her bright smile and painted pit bull tenacity only dress up the fact that she has chosen to cast her lot with a party that is more dictatorial than republican.

Personally, I find the upcoming months cannot help but be the most entertaining politically; it will be great fun to watch a true Washington outsider transform before our very eyes and become the very thing she has spent her life NOT being!