Quercus Florida

You Made a Difference. THANK YOU!

2012-01-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

I Beg You, America Begs You: STEAL THIS VIDEO

2012-01-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

The two websites mentioned in this video,

the sites you could go to to get it if they take it off of YouTube,
are MIA (Missing in Action)

2012-01-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Everybody!

2011-12-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

Whether it's Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa or however you celebrate,
have a wonderful time, be safe and be happy!

Build Your Own Snowflake - wonderfl build flash online

For my Friends and Fellow-Traders in the Stock Market

2011-08-13T00:01:00.001-07:00

Is it just me? I can't be the only one that can see this whole horrifying debt-ceiling brouhaha, stock market insanity is totally artificially induced? Actually, there probably are lots of people talking about it on "them conspiracy-nut" shows. But just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean no one is after you, as they say. I apologize about the length of this rant. Bear with me, I've provide appropriate music for you to listen to while you read.

Today I feel like ranting about the stock market, gold, fiat currency, central banks, international conspiracies, The Creature From Jekyll Island, Unequal Protection, and other such delightful topics that could keep a thousand monkeys busy for a thousand years. I have been reading, when I could, over the last couple of weeks, as I've fought to make my daily pittance from the stock market. What used to be interesting, fun, and not terribly time-consuming has turned into an eighteen-hour-a-day nightmare with no end in sight. The guys on the shows on TV have stopped even bothering to put on a coat and tie. It's pushed-up sleeves, 5 o'clock shadows, and open admissions of utter exhaustion.

Every day I watch, read, listen to the pundits expound on such subjects as: Gold is bound to drop terribly. From one such pundit: What good is it, anyway? You can't spend it; after all, it's not money!

They can't be this ignorant right? Nobody could be this ignorant. Gold has been the universal currency that has bought the same number of loaves of bread (or sheep, or cattle) for the same amount of gold since Roman times. And probably long before that. Utah just made it (and silver) legal tender. With numerous other states following suit. Who paid, pressured, brainwashed this fool into saying such a thing? I think it was on CNBC. (Figures) I would give anything to be able to provide the link...searched my history, even. Needle in a haystack.

And check out this from Donald Trump.

I watch people expound, hold forth, give theories, analyze fundamentals, examine technicals--my thing--as I'm a visual person, although I do my "fundamental" homework too. It's all so much Bull/Bear [take your pick] manure. There is nothing wrong with most of the companies whose stop is falling and rising so precipitously. Their fundamentals, in the most part are fine, as were those of the stock exchange-traded companies in 1929. Terror. It's terror, folks, pure and simple. Well, okay, a huge dollop of greed too.

Lord knows there has been plenty in the past weeks (as our legislators and president have aired our dirty laundry for the world to see) to cause the stock market to plunge despite the excellent health of the companies involved. But, and here is real, acid test kicker as far as I am concerned. As far as my manipulation theory goes: Can anyone tell me even one single thing that caused things to pick up suddenly at lunchtime Wednesday? Because for the life of me I sure can't. Not one single positive thing happening in the entire, totally beleaguered, beat-to-death world. Not one. No manna fell from heaven, no one discovered that the holes in the ozone were fixed, or that a no side effects cure had been discovered for cancer. Don't even get me started on that. Or, if you're interested read my article about Essiac--it's a real eye-opener our Big Pharma friends don't want spread around.

Is it some kind of conspiracy of silence that everybody seems to be ignoring this blatantly apparent phenomenon except me? Has the emperor lost his clothes? Am I truly Cassandra, as I've believed all my life? WTF is UP, everybody? Are they/you serious? Or more to the point: Are you blind? Are you living in LaLa Land? Did the stocks just start flying off of the shelves midday on the 10th because Glinda the Good came and waved her magic wand over the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave? Or did the Powers That Be finally (hello, hello, wake up) realize that they had let it go too far and we were for real this time, not a civil-liberty-theft drill, about to tank? Do they think, do you think that because this is the good old US of A it can't happen here? Well, guess what, we're about two paychecks away from it. We're spoiled. And we've got our heads buried in the sand.

It can happen here the first day the trucks don't show up at the supermarkets. Did you know they only keep one day's worth of food on hand? One day's worth of water? This is due to a phenomenon known as "on-demand" shipping. I know a fair amount about this because in the Nineties I was the publisher of a trade journal called The International Journal of Logistics Management that the management of every Multinational Corp in the wold subscribed to. Did you know that even the main branches of most banks have less than $10,000 in cash on hand? According to the manager at my Wachovia main branch, anything much more than that "takes them up to a week to get" It can happen here if half a dozen people, in half a dozen towns decide to go down to a half a dozen banks and draw out their money. It's utterly terrifying to know that's all it could take. FDIC? LMAO

Scenario starting to sound familiar? Well, maybe if you're a student of history or finance. They keep us peons pretty ignorant nowadays. Did you know that we are becoming a Third World country at about the same rate that India is becoming a Middle Class one? WAKE UP PEONS! Oops, I mean PEOPLE. It can happen here. It has happened here before on a grand scale, and ever more often, recently, on a relatively small scale: Earthquakes, Katrina, Andrew and Tsunamis in Hawaii. And as the population pressures increase exponentially, what was a "fun" hurricane party when I was a child is an epic disaster-film subject now. Just insert Bruce Willis. Think about throwing in Global Warming (if your news-provider/church/political affiliation allows you to believe in it.)

I've let myself digress into the physical. Lets get ethereal. Let's talk about the cloud. Do you know where your money is tonight? Assuming you even have any, in this, the wealthiest nation on earth. Or are you living that fat-cat, it-can't-happen-here, head-wherever, existence I've mentioned? On credit cards and mortgages, perhaps? (Slap, Stop digressing Q) Your money isn't even in a "computer," per se, anymore, much less the bank, and that was scary enough. Now it's somewhere in what I used to call the ether and is now referred to as the cloud. Everything is there. Our whole lives are there, or soon will be. Unless you have large tax debts or a criminal record, you'd better pray the power doesn't go off. But to get back to our money, (no your money--I've already taken care of mine) my God, we can't simply consume and consume and consume, and print more and more and more money and make and export nothing (oops, I was forgetting weapons and young healthy Americans), The main thing we export is debt that is going to allow the people, whom we so ridiculously fear might take us over militarily, simply to collect on their debts and "buy" us. Actually, they're already well on they're way.

So yes, if you're a trader, for God's sake, by all means, trade each day as though it may be your last, because it may. Personally, I'm currently terrified because I got trapped into holding something over the weekend. Quelle horreur! Even if you're not a trader, get you head out of "wherever."

Before the Great Depression my grandfather got a bad feeling and took all of his money out of the bank and hid it in the engine of his car (and several other creative places). Damned good thing. My family had money when everybody else was starving. As you know, the Great Depression was caused by nothing more than panic, no crops failed, no industries were destroyed overnight. And here and now: Pay attention, this is important! A powerful group of "somebodies" has stepped up in the last couple of days to try to stem the panic. Pray that they are successful. I don't like that they exist in the first place, but thank God for them in this moment. I include this famous video of Jim Cramer "fessing up" to point out how easy it is for even one person to affect the movement of the stock market.

Jim Cramer on How Hedge Funds Manipulate the Stock Market Vidéo Enfin-Libre---- sélectionnée dans Actualité

But what you need to do:

Make a plan, do your research. What might you need for how long? Will you need to protect yourself? Have a problem with supplies of food? energy? fuel? Have you become part of the urban-gardening or sustainable-living movement? Who do you think is going to feed you like some baby bird with it's beak open if the trucks stop delivering the food to the grocery stores?

And bury a jar of gold under a rosebush in your backyard. I don't care what that Central Bank/fiat currency mouthpiece was trying to say about how worthless it is. If the world goes to hell in a handbasket, you'll be surprised how far the universal currency will get you.

And speaking of the universal currency, I just got through watching an interview with one of my favorite young technical traders. He's the Chief Strategic Officer of an analysis website called T3Live.com. Rumpled, sweaty, unshaven, as promised. And he's an Iron Man Triathlete. Think how the rest of us must feel.

A Nice Brain Entrainment Piece

2011-04-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

I have been using brain entrainment CDs since the 90s. Often with light glasses that intensify the effect on your brain by delivering not only the tones to your ears, but sending a message through your optic nerves as well. Brainwave Entrainment can be a very powerful form of meditation, and can actually form new neural pathways in your brain and help to synchronize the two hemispheres of your brain.

In 2005 or 2006 (I really can't remember) I began making brain entrainment recordings to use with my clients in my alternative medicine practice. This little piece not one of mine, and is on a wavelength that makes it good for reading or studying or just relaxing, as it doesn't put your brain in a very deep state (Delta or even lower), but rather a theta state that is good for the purposes I mentioned, reading, studying--which it enhances, or just relaxing.

Brain wave entrainment is a very old technology. In fact some forms of it existed long before technology, in shamanic drumming and other meditational and hypnotic practices. Perhaps at some point I will delve more deeply into the history of it and how it works, but for now, this is just for your enjoyment. You can click on the link for a wiki that goes into great detail on how it works and it's history. It is absolutely critical to listen to it with the best possible head phones available to you, as the two tones must go separately into each ear to be effective. Enjoy!

Just a Quickie

2011-03-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

To say that I discovered some comments on long-ago posts that I never knew were there, and have now rigged-up, and tested a system of getting them more reliably (as I don't monitor them, but let people post at will). So to anyone who left a comment a year ago, thank you. :) I was particularly appreciative of the comment by the seviceman on my article "Gratitude, or a Quick Thanks."

Balancing Life and Work

2011-02-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

In the meantime, while we're working to tame the savage Corpocracy, it's only realistic to try to find ways to make our lives more joyful while living with it. To that end, if you haven't already, meet Nigel Marsh. This is just a short video, although he has written a book as well, called Fat, Forty and Fired.

Power To the People, Uh Huh!

2011-01-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.

- Louis Brandeis

Corpocracy is a term that I thought up about 10 years ago, when I started dictating a book about the evils of the Corporation as an entity, while I was driving across the United States, accompanied by my cat. (But that's a story for another day.) Anyway, no sooner did I get to LA than I went to a launch party for Thom Hartman's Book Unequal Protection, and I just quietly slipped mine into the circular file.

It's here now. We don't have any civil liberties anymore; but what we do have is the power of the people. I don't just mean only on a grass-roots level, but as Dr. Laibow says, on a level made possible by some of the very Corporate Giants who now run our country.

Ironic.

Because what they've done, with the Internet, and Social Media Marketing, and 24-hour-a-day connectedness that is getting to be the norm because of the wonders of cell phones and other portable devices, is create, truly and really, for the first time, a Global Village. The Global Village that has been predicted since Marshall McLuhan first used the phrase in the late 1960s.

Think of it! They've undone themselves with their greed and lack of morality. I can sit here in my bedroom and help a political prisoner in some country I've barely heard of because, if I choose, I can get daily updates on who to harass with emails and phone calls to make it stop.

Less than ten years ago, a large numbers of people, working together, from every part of the United States, through an activist organization, each signed up for an exact time that they were to call their Senator and/or Congressman. The intention was to overwhelm the government with a particular political message (I don't even remember what it was) but the effect--as the little dots with peoples names started popping on and off all over the map of the US on my computer screen, was totally unexpected.

It completely jammed the phones systems on Capitol Hill and the surrounding areas. No calls in, and no calls out. I never got to make my scheduled call. It was a result they had never considered.

Think of it! It was never on the news, of course, but, nevertheless, don't be deluded into thinking that we're powerless; as they would have us believe. We're definitely not. And we don't even have to do anything dangerous, illegal, or even strenuous. We don't have to go out and picket, putting ourselves in jeopardy of being maced and clubbed by police force or National Guard, or militia.

At that time, there wasn't any such thing as Facebook (released to the public in 2005), or Twitter (2006) and those people were able to have that much impact; just with the telephone. Google was founded in the late 90s, and Gmail was only released to the public in 2004. The explosion in the technology, has had an unexpected and even unconsidered effect of turning the marketing and brainwashing, the government by fear, the censorship back on them.

We can act together as one to stop a particular act of Corpocracy, or of any other abuser of the earth or of the people of the Earth simply by our sheer numbers. On the Internet, which has an amazing jargon that is practically a new language, the effect is known as "going viral." Marketers think it is a wonderful thing. And it is, but not just for them, as was intended, but for the people, the People as well. We can do it. We can do anything.

The Internet, the cell phone, the various portable devices are our friends. Yes they can track them. Yes, they kidnap and torture a few activists, but they've always done that. Even tracking, recording, putting people on lists won't stop it once people realize what we are capable of by our sheer numbers. "It's a new dawn, it's a new day", and we're just starting to realize the power that we've been given. Look at the dates I talked about above. It's been just a few years, but we're learning fast. We'd be learning even faster if it weren't for the suppression of the news of the kind of event like the one on Capitol Hill that I talked about.

Censorship: They're trying hard. And they're doing a pretty good job, And there are still a lot of people who blindly believe what they see on the evening news, or hear on the radio. But it's slipping through their fingers, and they can't pin it down and hold it still or stop it, any more that we could capture little globs of mercury that my generation played with as children--because, the Powers That Be who had known for millennia, that it was toxic, suppressed the information because it was "just so useful"

If you want to know about what's going on in your country, watch the news about it as reported in some other country. In the United States, for example, New Zealand might be a good choice. You might actually see some of the events both public and secret that never make it into the news here.

"It is a new dawn and a new day" and new year and a new century. The one in which the people, despite the grim news in the media about the disappearance of the middle class--the news they try to terrify us with--the century that the people are going to take the power. Not take it back, take it for the first time, ever.

Motiphe

2011-01-21T15:27:00.000-08:00

Eaters of the Worl Unite

2011-01-20T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is something I have been watching happen since I became a nutritionist in the 70s. It's getting worse, and quickly, now that we live in a Corpocracy rather than a Democracy.

Essiac

2011-01-11T22:31:00.000-08:00

Essiac Tea is a blend of herbs used to make a tea that is believed by some to have cancer-treating properties. Originally used by Native American tribal medicine men, the recipe was rediscovered by a Canadian nurse, Rene Caisse, R.N. in 1922, as she was attending to a woman who had previously cured her breast cancer with an herbal remedy given to her by a North American Indian shaman in the 1890s.

Known as "Nurse Caisse" or "Miss Caisse", Rene named her version of the recipe—her last name spelled backwards. She continued to help people suffering with cancer up until she died in 1978. In 1959, Caisse was working with Fawcett Publishing editor, Ralph Daigh and a major Boston hospital to conduct major testing on Essiac's effectiveness. These efforts led to her involvement with John F. Kennedy's personal physician, Dr. Charles A. Brusch, MD, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1989, Dr. Brusch revealed that he had cured his own cancer using Essiac daily since his own cancer was discovered in 1984. Dr. Brusch continued Caisse's Essiac work after her death.

The origin of the Essiac formula is believed to have its roots in native Canadian Ojibwa (Midewiwin) medicine. The basic Essiac formula contains greater burdock root (Arctium lappa), slippery elm inner bark (Ulmus rubra, formerly known as Ulmus fulva), sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), and Indian or Turkish rhubarb root (Rheum officinale).

Beautiful But Sad

2011-01-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

Titanya, at home at her ranch in California

I have been studying Poi Balls since I took my Donna Eden class at the Omega Institute, and did some classes with one of her daughters, Titanya. This spin is lovely, but made me want to cry. It's about spinning fire, which, needless to say takes the ultimate in skill.

How To Make a Doctor's Head Mirror

2011-01-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

I was fool enough to write this for a service (not the one I actually work for) before I realized that what they were looking for was a paragraph or two, and a picture for one of those About.com type sites. Odd that the one that's wherever it is (I've already forgotten) reads a lot like parts of mine. You couldn't find a reference to the term head mirror on the net before I wrote this. Now there are dozens of them. Gee, what a surprise. Think it could be because I was doing all that research?

Anyway, here's the little article I wrote:

********************************************************************************

The Head Mirror, sometimes know as a temple mirror was invented by French accoucheur named Levert, who used it to study the human larynx. He did it using a form of bent glass. Since ancient times, physicians and others have used various methods to increase ambient light. Some of these included candles and lamps placed in front of a mirror to increase the brightness.

The head mirror could have been formed by the method of bending or curving glass and then mirroring the back, or by hammering metal into a slightly concave mold and then polishing it to a bright "mirror" finish.
With the arrival of industrialization, It could have been done all in one step with die-making equipment, the enormous pressure of the stamp, making stainless or chrome steel mirror bright.

This mirror then had a hole drilled in the center and was attached to a leather strap worn around the physician's head with a swivel attachment that allowed him to swing it down to cover one eye or the other and be able to have binocular vision, sometime somewhat magnified, and at the same time, turn the head mirror to direct light wherever he wanted, usually into one bodily orifice or another.

For many of us the head mirror, and usually a stethoscope hung around the neck or hanging out of the pocket made up our iconic image of the healer; sometimes accompanied by the equally iconic black satchel or white coat.

But is the head mirror a thing of the past? Is is a memory known only those of us that are old enough to remember those doctors who actually made house calls and sometimes got paid in chickens or sausage? Is it an icon that will pass away with those of us who formed an image of heroes who got by on virtually no sleep, and knew the names of everyone in the family?
Apparently not. Most doctors nowadays use pen lights. They're easy and work well. But some medical schools still teach the use of head mirrors. And some doctors still use them, primarily ENTs (Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists).

Like a good, old-fashioned stethoscope, they are easy to tuck in a pocket, and you don't have to worry about not having the right battery when you need it.

2011-01-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

The Digital Story of the Nativity

2010-12-31T10:11:00.000-08:00

I came across this a little late, but I thought it was so hysterical that I decided to post it anyway.Even if it's not Christmas, it's worth watching.

2010-12-21T09:41:00.000-08:00

The Bloody Eclipse of the Moon

2010-12-21T05:22:00.000-08:00

Tonight just after midnight Pacific time a total lunar eclipse occurs on the Winter Solstice (December 21.) What this means for Earth's inhabitants is a focused showering of light from the Sun with added blessings bursting forth from the Sun's reflected light coming to us via the full moon/blue moon eclipse.

The Moon was dipped in the deep coppery hues caused by atmospheric refraction. When the Moon enters the Earth’s shadow completely, the refracted sunlight is still able to reach the Moon and light it a little. This light passes through the deep layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, which filters the blue end of the spectrum more, and so the remaining light is deep brown, red, orange or yellow. "They" say it's one of the signs in Revelation, but we seem to be nearly submersed in "signs" from Revelation. Hmmm.

Something interesting to note about this particular Winter Solstice and all the extra high vibrational activating energy available to us is this. When you add up the numbers of the month day and year, 12-21-2010 is actually a 9 in sacred numerology. (12=3, 21=3, 2010=3/3+3+3=9) 9 came into the universe as energizing endings and beginnings, exhales and inhales.

The Global War on Drugs

2010-12-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

International Drug Policy: Animated Report 2009

In a way, given the facts of the global meltdown that seems to be going on in many areas: finance, war, religion, nutrition, etc. ad nauseum, this one seems almost insignificant. But it's earning billions of dollars each year for the players. So much money wasted by those who need it for other things, including medical treatment and so much of our nations' wealth filtered into the secret bank accounts of the greedy relative few.. How much money can you spend before you die? Is it true that whoever dies with the most toys wins? What ever happened to "you can't take it with you," and "It is easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven?"

My Southern Thanksgiving

2010-12-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Secret to Perfect Collards

I have always been a big city girl, and when my brother and I were growing up in Coconut Grove (a suburb--now--of Miami) my mother was back in school after running a successful and exclusive high-fashion clothing store for many years. Her alteration department had eight women working in it full time; Cuban women, and boy could they sew. And lined all the seams and hems with lace...the whole nine yards.

And my mother was the best. She could design, cut a pattern and whip up a little something with bound button-holes in the twinkling of an eye. In order to take a job teaching mens' tailoring at the high-rise technical school in Downtown Miami, she had to get a Master's in Home Ec. I guess that's what they called it, anyway. In her case they waived almost all of the course requirements due to her vast experience.

My mother was also one of those people who was also an excellent public speaker, and on one particular occasion she was giving a presentation at a seminar of some sort having to with her classes or degree, and brought the house down by sharing with the audience the easiest way to wash spinach, which in those days was invariably covered with mud if not worse.

She told them to remove the leaves from the bundle and rinse then spin them for a few minutes in the washing machine. After howling with laughter, a lot of people didn't believe her until they had tried it, but I have washed spinach that way my whole life. No muss, no fuss. Proceed directly to stem-removal.

A few years ago I made a move to the Very-Deep South. I had many cultural shocks in store. Stories, maybe for another day.

This Thanksgiving, my daughter was here visiting from Boston, and she and I were invited to a neighbor's for dinner. After discussing it, we decided to call and tell her to choose whatever dish she least wanted to fix, and we would make it. She confessed to a craving for collards, but just really didn't think she would have the time to mess with them.

Me and my big mouth. I had very little idea what a collard looked like, much less how they are prepared or what they are supposed to taste like. To me they had always been something nasty that came in a little side-dish in Southern restaurants that could be made semi-palatable by drowning them in Pepper Sauce--another term many of you non-Southerners might not be familiar with. I demurred, she insisted I could cook anything. Guess who won?

The next day, after reading the instructions on a soul-food recipe site, I set out to acquire the requisite five bunches of collards, ham hocks, and the stuff (I'm still not sure what it was, and not sure I wanted to know) that the gentleman in the meat department assured me I had to include for the "soul" to be fully present. I cleverly slid them (it?) under a package of something else when he wasn't looking. I thought of the lunch lady in Beauty Shop.

Now five bunches of collards is somewhat more that a bushel, I think, so my daughter and I decided to use the old tried-and-true family method of washing spinach. There was just one little problem. We couldn't get the washing machine to stop. While I was tearing my hair out and we were both envisioning days of scooping collard mush out of the washer, followed by an almost certainly expensive visit from a repairman, we finally manage to halt the beast after spinning out the water, and took a cautious peek. Oh yeah, about what I had envisioned.

We started scooping. A faint ray of hope began to break through the despair. The collards had turned themselves into 2-3 inch pieces, and the thrashing had removed the stems. Ye gods and little fishes. I had gone my Who's Who of Commerce and Industry mother one better. Washing, drying and de-stemming all in one easy 10 minute step. The only thing we had to do, was pick the huge chunks of stem out of each handful.

Which I cooked, according to recipe, minus that one little bit of "soul," and everybody raved about them. Were they being polite or did they taste like they were supposed to? I haven't got a clue. I won't believe I know what a collard is supposed to taste like until I've had some prepared by an acknowledged Southern born and raised collard expert.

Each photo is a link back to the blog or website where it was found.

Garfield on the Oil Crisis

2010-09-25T16:46:00.000-07:00

A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
Well, there's a very simple answer. Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn't know we were getting low.

The reason for that is purely geographical. ~~~ Our OIL is located in: ~~~ ALASKA ~~~ California ~~~ Coastal Florida ~~~ Coastal Louisiana ~~~ North Dakota ~~~ Wyoming ~~~ Colorado ~~~ Kansas ~~~ Oklahoma ~~~ Pennsylvania And Texas ~~~

Our dipsticks are located in DC Any Questions? NO? Didn't think So.

Ridiculous Issue To Argue Over!

2010-08-22T17:12:00.000-07:00

Famous Economic Hitman at Omega

2010-08-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

The Omega Institute, in Rhinebeck, New York, is an amazing place. You can get away from the world there. It's totally isolated, with very little contact with the outside world. Oh, of course you can take your cell phone and stay on it constantly and defeat the whole purpose of the experience, but most people don't. They may take them, but usage is allowed only in a few areas, so things tend to stay pretty mellow.Even to use a computer, you have to trek to the cafe. And it can be a trek, as the campus is large and hilly.

All the food is locally grown and vegetarian. And it's absolutely delicious. Meat-eaters don't feel deprived. They even have their own, totally unpolluted water supply. Also wonderful. It's beautiful, and peaceful, and the wild animals have been so unharmed by humans for so long that you almost have to shove them out of the way. There are lots of birds, rabbits, woodchucks, and groundhogs.

There's always something going on. You can go there to take a class in an unbelievably wide variety of subjects, ranging from alternative things of every type you can imagine from medicine to music, but also things that relate to politics and global affairs. Everything is aimed toward making the world a better place for everyone.

There is a Wellness Center, and your can go to Omega without taking any classes at all, just for a relaxation getaway, like the most wonderful spa retreat, and be pampered and massaged have life coaching, see a psychic, or just lie in a hammock by the lake. There are always activities that everyone can go to, whether they are taking classes or not: yoga, dance, lectures on a wide variety of subjects, music, and a wonderful library. It's a wonderful joyful experience.

When you're taking a class, the facilities on the wooded campus are so widely separated that you feel as though what you're doing is the only thing going on. No noise from anything else, but at mealtimes, in the dining hall, you realize how many other people are there. To give you an idea of the variety of what's available, when I went last summer to take an energy medicine course, John Perkins, famous author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, was also there giving a class. Here is an interview with John:

I Love the Idea of Tiny Houses

2010-08-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

I am really taken with the idea of a tiny house. Particularly if I could combine it with the practice of building houses on barges that is so popular in Seattle. I'm going to have to do some research to see what I would have to do to combine the two. I live now, and have lived before in areas that have/had massive river systems with amazing views,

I really think that I would like to do it. I have actually been thinking about it for years. To serendipitously land on the page of a tiny house builder was really an amazing thing. And on the same day that I serendipitously, accidentally landed on the B&B page. It has really made a difference in the way I view my possible futures; a problem that had been driving me crazy for years.

My friends are scattered all over. My only offspring lives in sublets all over the world. My parents and former husband are deceased. It's both a blessing and a curse to have so much freedom. I don't, any longer have anyplace I have to live, but on the other hand that makes the variety of choices almost overwhelming. This could be the answer. I will have to do some research to put it all together. But here is another "Tiny House" video:

Women of the Storm

2010-08-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

I've just been reading a letter from "Women of the Storm," an organization formed around the time of Hurricane Katrina. It was just a "thank-you note" for signing a petition,but it made me think of the devastation that is happening there, both in the ocean and on the shore. I thought of the tiny fishing towns that were completely destroyed in Hurricane Camille, when I lived there almost 40 years ago, and that were again ravaged by Hurricane Katrina

They have now been damaged in a far more permanent way by us. Human beings, people. Thousands of lives were lost in Hurricane Camille and in Katrina when the tiny towns were no longer just fishing villages but tourist destination, but nature is more merciful. Nature does no permanent damage to the earth, and allows us a chance to rebuild.

We're not so kind. We we destroy something, we do it right.We make it last. The small tows will be gone again now, because there will be no way to make a living. Fishing and tourism have been canceled for the foreseeable future. Not as many people died. In fact I'm not sure anybody died. But millions of animals in the sea and on the shore have died and many millions more will before it's over, and given the fact that 30% of our seafood comes from that area, it isn't just the sealife that will suffer. We will too. Enormously greater shortages and higher prices of some of the foods that are so much better for us than red meat. Oh well, I guess if we feel a craving for sea food we can just get a fish sandwich at McDonald's.