tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1972087036404809042024-03-13T18:52:44.146-06:00SUE BATTY MCGHEE'S MCFIN DINSue McGhee writes about her view of the world--politics, history, the Arts, family and opinion. See her new novel entitled "When the Eagle Flies with the Condor" and her collection of short stories "Voices" at www.suemcghee.com and www.amazon.com.
Copyright (c) 2011 by G. Sue McGheeThe Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.comBlogger150125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-15359874009405072832023-04-09T09:00:00.000-06:002023-04-09T09:00:16.211-06:00<p> </p><p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>METAPHYSICS AND ONTOLOGY<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">The following discussion is merely a
compilation of information I found on the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve edited some of it and removed the
redundancies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is kind of what I had
in mind when I was struggling to identify a “theme” for our discussions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">T</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">he word <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Metaphysics</span></em> comes to
us from Ancient Greece, where it was a combination of two words – <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Meta</span></em>, meaning after or
over and beyond – and <em><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">physics</span></em>.
Thus, the combination means over and beyond physics. In the definition found in
most dictionaries, metaphysics is referred to as a branch of philosophy that
deals with first cause and the nature of being. It is taught as a branch of
philosophy in most academic universities under the label of “Speculative
Philosophy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In today’s world the word metaphysics has become a sort of
description of many fields of interest. When one expresses an interest in
metaphysics, that interest may be in any one or a combination of the following
subjects:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Philosophy, Religion,
Parapsychology, Mysticism, Yoga, ESP, Dreams, Jungian Psychology, Transpersonal
and Theocentric Psychology, Astrology, Meditation, Self-Help Studies, Positive
Thinking, Life After Death, Transcendentalism, Reincarnation<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ontology </span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">is the philosophical
study of the nature of BEING and considered a subcategory of Metaphysics. The
common denominator of these and all similar subjects, of course, deals with an
exploration of reality, and in the idealistic sense, how such knowledge may
benefit human life on this earth, both individually and collectively. If, then,
this is the aim of such interests, it is why most professional metaphysical
practitioners regard metaphysics as a </span><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">spiritual philosophy or way of life. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">All but
a very few practitioners in metaphysics today have a pivotal point in some sort
of spiritual philosophy in whatever system or teaching of metaphysics they are
engaged. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">And if
we were to go from one metaphysical teacher or organization to another, we
would find people engaging in different disciplines such as those listed above
– or basically a </span><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">search for truth, purpose
and meaning in life, wherever that search takes us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">In a
more absolute sense, I like to think of metaphysics as dealing with the basic
questions of life, such as the relationship of man, mind, and the Universe,
which leads to discussions of the age-old questions posed by most of us when we
reflect on life: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;">“Who am I; what am I; what is my
purpose, where have I been, and where am I going?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #2e74b5; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">What are your
thoughts?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style="background: #FEF9EC; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Sue McGhee <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><u><span style="color: blue;">mcfin2@aol.com<o:p></o:p></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a href="mailto:Mcfin2@aol.com"></a><u><span style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></p>The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-27013353382412122642020-04-17T14:15:00.000-06:002020-04-25T10:35:23.716-06:00Earth Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 22.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 16.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span></span></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">April is the Cruelest month,</span></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Breeding
lilacs out of the dead land,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Mixing
memory and desire, <b>stirring<o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Dull
roots </span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">with spring rain. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></i></span></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> T.
S. Eliot – The Wasteland</span></i> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I sit here looking out my window upon the third day of
intermittent, then heavy, then dry, then fluffy and by any measure – beautiful
snow, I cannot blame the time of year on my uneasiness. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But I am beginning to feel that “I” am the “dull root”
being stirred – not with a sense of renewal, but with dread and suspicion. My
elegant, bright<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>daffodils are still
maintaining their valiant stance even as the spring snow tries to bury them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What beauty!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What courage, I think! And, I am a part of this rhythm of earth’s
renewal. Will my courage wane? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now we are threatened with a plague and many of us
remain strong, even while meekly peeping our mask-covered heads now and then
out of our self-imposed quarantine. We respect Nature; we even respect the
virus because it is new and stronger than any of us. But it is part of Nature –
like the asteroid’s that took out the dinosaurs all those millions of years
ago. Like the Black Plague centuries ago. It is a sign that Nature is in charge
and we are all part of it. We can battle the virus and will survive it. It is
part of Nature as are we. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But there is something else that we may not survive. And
this is what is now stirring my dull roots. Does it stir yours?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I worry. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I worry
about our Wildlife reserves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our parks
and our wilderness areas. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Did you know that our current president has <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rolled back</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>some 95 different laws and initiatives to
protect our earth, our water, our wildlife, initiated by previous administrations
(mainly Obama’s) and some national forest lands which had been set aside way
back in the twenties to protect those lands from development. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">See: </span><a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/open-for-business-the-trump-revolution-on-public-lands">https://e360.yale.edu/features/open-for-business-the-trump-revolution-on-public-lands</a><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We as Americans need to wake up before we lose what we’ve
fought to retain all these years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Our earth and our natural environment are under attack but that is not all. We are in danger of losing our </span>Democracy. This man wants to be King. We must not allow it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is Spring and the earth is awakening. So must we.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-57391861345106282212020-02-05T15:49:00.000-07:002020-02-06T15:51:12.399-07:00A Profile in Courage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 141.6pt; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Senator Mitt Romney has just restored my faith in government, in truth and in the decency of our politicians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Today he gave a speech only an hour or so before the Senate is to vote to acquit our president from impeachment and the removal from office which he so readily deserves. Romney appears to be the only Republican who is living up to the oath they all must take: Conscience first, County second and Party last. He is the only Republican who had the grace and the conscience to stray from the long vindictive arm of Mitch McConnell and therefore will invite a lot of vituperative comment and retribution from Trump. Still, in his speech, he acknowledged that; indeed, he expects it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">As we all have been reminded <i>ad infinitum </i>over the past couple of months, our constitution warns no one is above the law. This president, however, is too ignorant and too arrogant to care. And with his staff of sycophants including Barr and Pompeo, he doesn’t have to. And once this acquittal takes place, this president will feel he can do anything with impunity, as the Senate which is supposed to be the check on the Executive Branch, will allow him to do whatever he wants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">JFK, may we include Mitt Romney in your pantheon of Profiles in Courage? And may we award him the Medal of Freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">He deserves it. Not Rush Limbaugh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 141.6pt; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-19360082422761640742019-12-08T13:58:00.000-07:002019-12-08T13:58:43.602-07:00Complexities of the English Language -- a reprise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">With the undaunted and continuous reporting on every aspect of our world – both political and personal – as a result of the “twenty-four-hour-news cycle,” certain phrases appear again and again in our Media </span><i style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;">ad nauseum. </i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt;"> It isn’t just the “talking heads” who commit the sin of “pundit drivel.” It’s the supposed “experts” of all fields whom the pundits interview. </span></h3>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8641919751847592995" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15.4px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 492px;">
<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">We are being proselytized on a daily basis to thinking in terms of the clichéd cliché.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Here are few that have come to make me cringe: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .having said that...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .that being said. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .at the end of the day. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .we’ll get to that on the other side. . .” (of the commercial break).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .he allegedly. . .” (did something like cross the street). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . .whatever. . ."</span><br /><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . . it is what it is . . ." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .what were (are) your feelings. . .?” (asked of someone who can hardly speak because of being choked up with tears after a tragedy in their lives).<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . .sorry for your loss . . ."</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . .what was going through your mind . . .? (when the gunman shoved the gun in your face). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 17.248px;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . let’s DO this. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . be that as it may. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . so . . . “ (a word currently used to preface the answer to a question – Mike Morell should know better!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . like . . . “ (Oh, please, let’s get rid of this word used to begin a sentence or to fill a pause. Like, I'd be over-joyed!) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . I know what the <i>optics</i> are. . .” The White House Staff uses “optics” a lot. How about something like, “. . . I know how this appears. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Appearances do matter and so do words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">My latest peeve, however, is the use of “complex” when the speaker means “complicated.” Yes, the dictionary makes it sound like they are interchangeable. However, there is a subtle difference in the connotation of the words. In the case of the word “complex” the connotation is and has always been one of the following: <i>containing multiple interconnected parts; a composite; multi-faceted;</i> a<i> complex system of something.</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">"Complicated," on the other hand, is not that complicated -- it connotes <i>difficult to understand, analyze, explain or follow.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Am I the only one who gets rankled with the sloppy use of "I" and "me," "he" and "him" as well as "she" and "her?" One should give it to "me;" therefore, one should also give it to "him and me" or "her and me." Please don't let one give it to "her and I," since one would never give it to "I," would they? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Oh, well. I guess it's just me! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Next up: my rant on Pharmaceutical commercials. I’ll bet you can’t wait! </span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-62728327043676773792019-11-22T09:54:00.000-07:002019-11-23T09:55:59.171-07:00November 22, 1963<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Today is not a day to celebrate but to remember. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I was very young and very idealistic. But I have never been more in tune with or involved in government and what it was doing than those days of the Kennedy administration. My generation believed that government could work back then; we believed in the Constitution, in equal rights, in the freedom of the press. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">We were warriors, we were involved; we were activists, we lived fervently, rebelled ostentatiously and loved freely; we fought back; we became consequential. We did not "go along." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">We had a leader who inspired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Kennedy's legacy through the years has been laced with a kind of blandness as though aside from his youth, his wit and charisma, his attractive young family, he really accomplished very little. This was blatantly wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now, however, appreciation of Kennedy's accomplishments grows with each passing year. And it should. True, he allowed Khrushchev to get the upper hand (at first). Also true, that the Berlin Wall went up during his tenure. Indeed, he resided over the Bay of Pigs fiasco and we're all aware of his "indiscretions." But I believe today, that had that young president lived, he might have been one of our greatest leaders. Remember, he had only a thousand days in which to accomplish his agenda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As for his accomplishments, take note: the Peace Corps, the Alliance for Progress, Civil Rights legislation, the Space Program and the introduction of the Green Berets. His major accomplishment, however, was a tight and tense little psychological drama between the USA and the USSR known as <i>The Cuban Missile Crisis, </i>which, without the successful maneuvering of the Kennedys, might have left the world in a state of nuclear disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I guess his potential greatness will never be known which is what happens when someone takes you out before your time. But I think when all is said and done, his star will ultimately shine as one of the brightest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I remember and I am grateful to have learned my political abc's under your leadership, JFK. You never blamed others for your mistakes -- you took your lumps with calm and grace. You spoke decisively but with care for the feelings of your listeners, with admiration for those in the Press who covered you, with respect for those who opposed you and with dignity that matched the office you once held. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You made us dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I miss you, JFK.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-20473915234012399172019-06-18T20:30:00.000-06:002019-09-29T11:24:44.261-06:00God, Religion and Biocentrism <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> God, Religion and Biocentrism</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Rambling Thoughts on the Nature of
Being<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> My dad died in my arms when I was 15
years old; he died suddenly from a heart attack, gasping for air, sprawled on
the bathroom floor. We were alone and I tried to revive him without knowing
how.</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> I began a long journey of blame and
self-analysis, searching for answers to all the ancient questions like, “who am
I?” “Why am I here?” “Where do we go when we die?” I dabbled in everything and rejected everything.
I considered becoming a Trappist nun after reading <i>Seven Storey Mountain</i>
by Thomas Merton when I was seventeen. I didn’t. But I did join the Roman
Catholic Church and for a time became devout. I observed no meat Fridays, Holy
Days of Obligation; I had my babies baptized before they were six months
old. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> But I continued to explore. I ran
the gamut, studying every off-beat version of philosophy, science and religion.
I thought of myself alternately as a mystic, a Pantheist, a half-hearted
Buddhist, and ultimately, an agnostic. </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> I studied the big bang
theory and in my mind became a bit of stardust, believing for a time that is
where we all came from as a result of this cataclysmic event – an explosion 13.7
billion years ago that created massive energy allowing us to drift around until
we began to form into atoms and molecules.
And all that blustery energy stirred the primordial stew until there was
our earth and the seas and sea creatures who gradually migrated to land and trees and... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> When
I was a child, my WASP-ish parents dutifully sent me to Sunday school and then
my grandmother had me dunked at her Southern Baptist Tabernacle by Dr. Huston
when I was somewhere around ten. When I embraced Catholicism, I grappled with a
God who was cool and distant, who would have condemned me to an eternity of
hell, fire and brimstone had I sinned mortally and not had the good sense to go
to confession before getting hit by a bus. (That god led me into a miserable
marriage – yes, miserable, but it produced four wonderful children whom I love
with all my heart.) </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The idea that I was a jot
of mystical stardust from heaven was warmly comforting for a while and I basked
in the knowledge that I was a creation of light and energy, exuding that life
force into the world. </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The “God is Dead” period in
my life was difficult and demeaning. I was lonely without a God – believing
that if in fact He wasn’t really dead, He certainly no longer gave a damn. He
became to me the so-called “clock maker God” who created the multi-verse and
then turned his back on all that he created and sold us to a pawn shop.</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> But I hung on to a belief
in miracles. Because in hard times they came to me at the precise moment I
needed them – to help me find a job, a buyer for my piano in order to pay the
rent, to keep the house my kids and I were living in; to avoid an on-coming out
of control semi as it roared down the mountain in my lane. My life was full of
them. Still I searched. I wondered. I doubted. </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Then I learned about the
Quantum Theory.</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Oh, but Quantum Theory
(Mechanics, Physics, etc.) excludes the big bang, doesn’t it?</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> So I asked myself: how did
we come to be if there was no beginning? We created ourselves is Quantum’s
answer. In the quantum system, reality is in the eye of the perceiver and
therefore nothing is really <i>real </i>unless
someone observes it.</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Not too long ago,
scientists began looking for the God particle or gene or VMAT2 which they said
would explain everything to everyone and bring back the God of my childhood,
He, who crammed all his creating into seven days and nights, the God of Genesis. </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> After the end of my marriage, Religion began to lose all meaning to me
and I stopped going to church. I soured on it all -- that is, all traditional
religions including Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam -- believing they do
more harm than good. The Bible, a revered piece of God’s Word became no more to
me than a fanciful piece of literature, an ancient text filled with stories of
ancient people, compiled and edited by those attending the Council at Nicea in 325,
to include only those events and characters that supported the doctrine of
Christianity (sold, in my opinion, hundreds of years earlier by Paul, a
talented mythmaker who never even knew Jesus).</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> I don’t mean to offend the reader, here. But really, how much of the
Bible is myth, especially the New Testament? I know that Jesus walked the earth because of Josephus,
who was his contemporary and a major historian of the time. I know that Jesus lived, but was he God? </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> History of the Crusades, the boiling in oil of non-believers, antics of
Catholic priests, terrorism by the Jihadists, distortion of the Koran, all
added to my disenchantment with religion. Think about how our Evangelical
Pastors manipulate their congregations and make money off of their flocks (yes
they do – especially through “televangelism” with Television pastors who fly
around in their “Jesus Jets” and live in tax free mansions they call <i>parsonages</i> paid for by their
supporters).</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Religion became a joke to
me. </span><i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Belief,</span></i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> on
the other hand, was still an important part of my life. <br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> From the time I was a child
chasing a lost spider or ant around the bathtub to keep from washing him down
the drain, I’ve always loved and protected animals and nature. I remember
sitting for hours watching my goldfish twist from side to side, then float upside
down in his fish bowl; I prayed that he would live. He didn’t. I had a turtle named Ike who was eaten by my
dog, Tony. My dad told me he had wandered out of the house to find his mother
in the pond down the street. I was heartbroken, but still I prayed that he
would somehow amble his way back to me. But, I <i>prayed </i>-- to someone or something.</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> My love of nature led me to<i> Biocentrism, </i>the belief that we and our
animals, all sentient beings have worth and that we humans do not necessarily
have dominion over the animal world. It fit perfectly with what was then becoming
my belief system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The term biocentrism
encompasses all<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_ethics" title="Environmental ethics"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">environmental ethics</span></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that “extend the status of moral object from human beings to all
living things in nature.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biocentrism_(ethics)#cite_note-Yu.2C_Lei_2009_422-5"><i><sup><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[5]</span></sup></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Biocentric ethics calls for a rethinking of the relationship
between humans and nature. It states that<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature" title="Nature"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">nature</span></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">does not exist simply to
be used or<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism" title="Consumerism"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">consumed</span></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">by humans, but that humans are simply one species amongst many,</span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biocentrism_(ethics)#cite_note-alarm-bari-rev-ecology-6"><i><sup><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[6]</span></sup></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and that because we are part of an<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem" title="Ecosystem"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ecosystem</span></i></a><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, any actions which
negatively affect the living systems of which we are a part adversely affect us
as well,</span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biocentrism_(ethics)#cite_note-alarm-bari-rev-ecology-6"><i><sup><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[6]</span></sup></i></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biocentrism_(ethics)#cite_note-idiots-guide-ethics-201-7"><i><sup><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[7]</span></sup></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">whether or
not</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">we maintain a biocentric<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview" title="Worldview"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">worldview</span></i></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">.” </span></i></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biocentrism_(ethics)#cite_note-alarm-bari-rev-ecology-6"><i><sup><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[6]</span></sup></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Biocentrists believe that
all species have<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inherent_value" title="Inherent value"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">inherent value</span></i></a><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, and that humans are not
"superior" to other species in a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality" title="Morality"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">moral</span></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">or<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethical" title="Ethical"><i><span style="color: #0b0080; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ethical</span></i></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">sense.<br /><o:p></o:p></span></i><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (From good ol’ Wikipedia)</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Of Course! The
statement above implicitly includes our environment.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> But, back to my
dilemma. How then did our world come to be? And, who’s in charge? Are the earth
and its creatures created by God or did we just randomly appear and assume our
roles as a result of an incredibly long evolution from stardust to sea creature
to land beings? How does one make sense of it all?</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> And, really, do I want
to put God back in my belief system?</span><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Better Yet, can I have my God without Religion?</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Western science has always
maintained dualism, back in the days of the Greeks followed by the Romans. Our western gods were separate and apart and
living a life of luxury and war in their pantheons, but still experiencing
similar emotions as we, such as love, hate, jealousy and wars. Still, we looked
<i>up </i>to them. They were <i>above</i>
us. </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Western
physicists, including Newton, managed to keep the <i>maker</i> in their theories of Physics. Newton defined creation as a <i>grand happening</i>, but it was always
understood that there was a higher intelligence behind it.<br /> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> In most, certainly many, eastern
religions, we are one -- the divine is within us – <i>we</i> are God. And since I
started practicing Yoga and studying the ancients, I realize that may be where
I’ve landed and will end my life-long search for answers. Maybe we <b>are </b>God or at least, we are partly God.
<b>We</b>
are the Source. So everything we say, do or think affects not just our family
and friends, but our community and the world beyond. Perhaps the new <i>Biocentrists </i>(who do embrace some of Quantum Theory)<i> </i>are correct – that our consciousness is
the real creator.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: -0.25pt; line-height: 150%;">I regard consciousness as fundamental. I
regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind
consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as
existing, postulates consciousness.” – Max Planck, the originator of quantum
theory (</span><a href="file://users/CE/Downloads/189-200-1-PB.pdf"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: -0.25pt; line-height: 150%; padding: 0in;">source</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; letter-spacing: -0.25pt; line-height: 150%;">)</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> In the last ten years,
two young scientists (Dr. Robert Lanza and Bob Berman) seem to express what
I’ve been grappling with all these years – a theory that allows me to believe
in something that is more than just randomness, although still with an
abundance of questions – which will probably never be answered. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> D</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">id the Big Bang happen according to Biocentrism? Yes. How?</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> This is what they say:</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The laws of physics
seem to be exactly balanced for life to exist. For example, if the Big Bang had
been one-part-in-a-million more powerful, the cosmos would have rushed out too
fast for the galaxies and stars to have developed. <span style="color: #5b9bd5; mso-themecolor: accent1;">There are over 200 physical parameters like this that
could have any value but happen to be exactly right for us to be here.</span>
These fundamental constants of the universe aren’t predicted by any theory —
all seem to be carefully chosen to allow for the existence of life and
consciousness. (Yes, consciousness raises its annoying paradoxical head yet a
third time.) Although biocentrism supplies answers, the current model has
absolutely no reasonable explanation for this.</span></i><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"> Robert Lanza and Bob Berman from Biocentrism</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> The universe is over 95% energy – dark energy and
dark matter -- and we are all a part of it.
We are all connected – to one another, to animal life, to plant life, to
the entire planet. We do not die,
because our consciousness, (no, not the brain) lives on. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> So then, what is
consciousness? We don’t know. What is
dark matter? Still unanswered. What is
infinity? We don’t know that
either. What happens to us when we
die? No one knows.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Thank you Dr. Lanza
for satisfying my need to feel relevant.
But no thanks that your perfectly perfect “<i>theory of everything”</i> does not answer much of anything. There are still questions whopping around my
head. More than ever.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Was God involved?</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Yes. According to Lanza, etal. There was some
knowing Power that made the conditions simply perfect for our world to <i>become.</i> Remember, </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span><i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;">There are over 200 physical parameters like this that could
have any value but happen to be exactly right for us to be here.” </span></i><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If so, isn’t that a
good thing?</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Knowing there is a
superior power out there should compel us to be good. And suggests we might
live on after death. If there were no
motivation that leads us to “do unto others,” why should we? If not heaven, hell, the fear of retribution,
then why should we try so hard to do the <i>right</i>
thing? Is this religion talking? Or does it matter? <span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Will my moral behavior
propel me into a higher and richer existence, or a lower, more demeaning life
than the one I am now living? </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> And what
brought me to this life? Was it my
immoral and unforgiving behavior in a prior incarnation? Or a bargain I made at
some celestial bus stop before being born?
Since I’ve had a pretty challenging yet fulfilling life this time
around, perhaps it was because I lived a decent, moral life before. Do we live
in a system of rewards, then? </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> And. I know I am
happier when I live morally -- when I am generous and giving and grateful for
what I have. I am unhappy when I allow
myself to sink into resentment, anger, revenge or retribution. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Perhaps that
means we are naturally imbued with a sense of morality, goodness and love. And
when we reject those things, we are out of balance. And so is our world. Perhaps this is our moral imperative. To be
good. Not because of fear or a possibility of reward, but because it behooves
us to be good – to our family, our community, our world. We can make it better just by being good. How powerful that is! </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Oh, my God.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Just think about it! I have. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> But I don’t have the
answers.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Do you? </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-35382668381612663952018-11-23T13:19:00.000-07:002018-11-27T10:35:35.639-07:00House Cleaning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Interesting to watch as the House Majority, still attempting to flex their muscles, try yet again to thwart the lawful purpose of <i>oversight</i> by selectively leaking and distorting information resulting from secret testimony. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">They
have now subpoenaed James Comey and Loretta Lynch for closed door hearings
regarding events during the 2016 campaign. Mr. Comey’s attorney, David Kelley
has replied, saying Mr. Comey will be happy to testify but not behind a “closed
door” session.</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How
refreshing it will be in January to have new occupants of this House, sweeping
away the dirt, the secrets and the lies, scrubbing out the stains of hypocrisy, opening up
the windows and allowing the sun to shine through. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-22437689617694701632018-11-22T12:55:00.000-07:002019-05-03T08:05:38.157-06:00JFK. I Remember . . . a reprise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In other years, November 22 was not a day to celebrate but to remember. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was very young and very idealistic in the early sixties. But I have never been more in tune with or involved in our government and what it was doing than those days of the Kennedy administration. My generation believed that government could work; we believed in the wisdom of the Constitution, in equal rights, in the freedom of the press. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">We were involved; we became warriors; w</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">e were activists, we lived fervently, rebelled ostentatiously and loved freely; we fought back; we became consequential. We did not "go along." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.4px;">We had a leader who inspired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kennedy's legacy through the years has been laced with a kind of blandness as though aside from his youth, his wit and charisma, his attractive young family, he really accomplished very little. This was blatantly wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And, now, gradually, appreciation of Kennedy's accomplishments grows with each passing year. And it should. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">True, he allowed Khrushchev to get the upper hand (at first). Also true, that the Berlin Wall went up during his tenure. Indeed, he resided over the Bay of Pigs fiasco and we're all aware of his "indiscretions." But I believe today, that had that young president lived, he might have been one of our greatest leaders. Remember, he had only a thousand days in which to accomplish his agenda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">As for his accomplishments, take note: the Peace Corps, the Alliance for Progress, Civil Rights legislation, the Space Program and the introduction of the Green Berets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">His major accomplishment, however, was a tight and tense little psychological drama between the USA and the USSR known as <i>The Cuban Missile Crisis, </i>which, without the successful maneuvering of the Kennedys, might have left the world in a state of nuclear disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I guess his potential greatness will never be known which is what happens when someone takes you out before your time. But I think when all is said and done, his star will ultimately shine as one of the brightest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mr. President, I remember and I am grateful to have learned my political abc's under your leadership. You never blamed others for your mistakes -- you took your lumps with a calm appreciation of history. You spoke decisively but with care for the feelings of your listeners, with admiration and humor for those in the Press who covered you, with respect for those who opposed you and with dignity that matched the office you held. Intellect, Decency and Grace defined you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We have lost something precious. The ability to dream and not dread. You made us dream. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I miss you, JFK. </span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-806785919690324932018-10-05T14:18:00.001-06:002018-10-05T20:39:25.782-06:00Our Democracy <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Brett
Kavanaugh is probably well qualified, academically, for the Supreme Court.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">I don't know this, but I grant him this. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But that
is not my problem with him. I did not like what I saw as he testified during
the spectacle we witnessed last week. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
am a citizen of this country and I feel that I’ve been railroaded today. None
of my concerns have been validated by those who represent me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And neither have theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s because one political party holds
power in all three branches of government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Republicans who control our Senate, have virtually ignored every dissenting
opinion in Congress in order to get this guy into a life-long post as Justice. The
FBI “investigation” begun on Friday last, turned into a sham and produced no
new information. This is because the White House orchestrated the parameters
around which the FBI was allowed to work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today
the Senate votes on cloture, a preliminary vote that does not mean much as far
as I can tell. It is said to move the vote forward, however; in other words,
the Senators will vote again tomorrow. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According
to this vote today, Kavanaugh has won cloture 51 to 49 and Senators like Susan Collins of Maine, having falsely agonized over their decision now show their true stripes. Party over conscience. She turns out to be like all the rest and her declaration of why she will vote yes tomorrow makes it obvious. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Kavanaugh
does not appear to be a nice person, at least as he has represented himself on TV. His
demeanor as many have stated after viewing him last week, is not what one would call judicial. He
has an ugly temper and went on a rant about the Democrats’ revenge for his role assisting Ken Starr in the Clinton hearings. I don’t remember this,
but it was this unnecessarily snarly defense that so outraged many of us who
watched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
allegations of early drinking and sexually abusive behavior are one thing, but
as bad as they sound, we cannot hold a seventeen year old accountable for bad
behavior 36 years after those incidents. I believe it is, however, an indication of character, displayed with a vituperative and arrogant surliness not becoming anyone seeking public office. He is not seventeen today and he must own this. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It
is his record (and writings) on the power of the presidency that worries me most:
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as I understand it, Kavanaugh believes
the presidency is inviolate; ie, the person holding that office can get by with
almost anything, including acts against the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution,
Fraud, Tax Evasion, and can, if it behooves him, even pardon himself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our
system of “checks and balances” so lovingly set up by our patriotic forefathers,
those who believed that the people we sent to Congress to represent
us, would be non-partisan and work together for the good of the country, has not been working. There are no "checks" on a runaway Senate controlled by the partisan Mitch McConnell. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
people we have in Congress, by and large, have little sense of patriotism –
love and pride in our system of government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are there to enrich themselves and their friends and families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are there in order to acquire power and
hold on to it – they vote in order to keep themselves in office. (Term limits, anyone?)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What happened to Conscience, Country and
lastly Party? Eh, Lindsey Graham? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kavanaugh
is one of their kind.</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This
man is not fit to sit on the Court. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
they who put him there are not fit to hold a seat in Congress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This
president will never be impeached. Indeed, he will be pardoned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He will pardon himself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-73939977157550306352018-09-06T14:33:00.000-06:002018-09-06T14:37:17.290-06:00Things Need to Change<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Does anyone think that the Anonymous Op-Ed
coming from the WhiteHouse is anything other than a pathetic attempt to soothe someone’s
conscience?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How can I express the disgust I have for those
surrounding the President, who despise what he’s doing but don’t have the spine
to do anything about it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And then there’s our flaccid Congress, (a
critical <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">check </i>on the presidency provided
for in our Constitution) which should have stepped in months ago to begin
Impeachment Proceedings within the House.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But of course the one to begin such proceedings would be the Speaker who
somewhere along the way (along with McConnell and Graham and numerous others)
has dumped his patriotism into the trash bin and covered it up with a
sycophantic eagerness to allow this president to get away with anything. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It doesn’t make sense to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They know Trump cannot continue in office and
will eventually resign or be removed. Where does that leave them in the annals
of history once he’s gone? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And then there’s Kavanaugh. Do they think
that confirming him for the Courts will not only save Trump but them too?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Let’s talk about Kavanaugh: on the second
day of confirmation hearings, he refused to answer the question that we are all
concerned about:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>should the president be
allowed to self-pardon?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a hypothetical
question, he said, that he was not prepared to answer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hello? Hypothetical today, perhaps, but reality
likely tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Where are our Nathan Hales?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where are our Thomas Paines? Our JFKs:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">These men and women in Congress are supposed
to represent us. We are supposed to be their constituents. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But no, it doesn’t work that way anymore. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not represent us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not work for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They work for themselves and that is their
main purpose for running for office – to enrich themselves and their families
and to stay in power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Some things need to be changed, like term
limits. One term only extended, perhaps, for House and Senate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Come in, do your job and go back home. It is
an honor to serve one’s country. Perhaps, this would remind them that it is a
privilege not a payoff. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Things need to change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-69744509649141134662018-07-11T14:08:00.000-06:002018-07-11T20:59:11.122-06:00America's Denouement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;">In
his inaugural address on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy observed among many
other truths that we, as citizens, must be vigilant: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">“Let
the word go forth that the torch has been passed to a new generation of
Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and
bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and <i>unwilling to witness or
permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been
committed and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Are
we still committed to those rights 57 years after those words were spoken?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /> </span></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">With
the advent of Trumpism, we are losing our Democracy, slowly but surely.</span><b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Under the title,<b> Kennedy was Right: we are Heirs of the First Revolution, </b>Jo</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">hn W. Whitehead</span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> wrote a piece in the
Huffington Post back in 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seemed
to see it coming even then, back before Donald Trump was elected president.
This is what he says: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt 0.25in; text-align: center;">
The freedoms
we often take for granted did not come about through<br />
happenstance. They were
hard-won through the sheer determination,<br />
suffering and sacrifice of thousands
of patriotic Americans who not only<br />
believed in the cause of liberty but also
acted on that belief. The success of<br />
the American Revolution owes much to these
men and women. In standing<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">up t</span>o the British Empire and speaking out against an
oppressive regime,<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">they exemplified courage in the face of what must have
seemed like an</span><br />
overwhelming foe.<br />
Those
revolutionaries were average citizens, not agitators or hotheads. They were not
looking for trouble or trying to start a fight. Like many today, they were
simply trying to make it from one day to another. But they finally had enough
and decided to stand and fight for the one thing that makes an American an <span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">American</em>: freedom.</span><br />
It wasn’t
easy. Many lost their livelihoods and homes. Many lost their lives.<br />
But, like
Tom Paine, they would not be sunshine patriots. They would not shrink from
service to their country.<br />
<b>If we are to
survive as a nation, we must regain the spirit of the American revolutionaries.
It’s time to turn off the television set, put down the cell phone and, if need
be, take to the streets and make sure our voices are heard.</b> Some of our fellow
citizens are already on the front lines of freedom. Let’s join them. In the
words of Patrick Henry:”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; line-height: 1.75rem; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #757575; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">Why stay we here idle? What
is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so
sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty
God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me: give me liberty, or
give me death!</span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #757575; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="color: #757575; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt;">From The Blog @ The Huffington Post </span><br />
<span class="timestampdate--published" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span style="color: #757575; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span></span>
<span class="timestampdate--published" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 35.4pt;"><span style="color: #757575; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";">11/22/2013 10:52 am ET</span></span><span style="color: #757575; font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif"; text-align: center; text-indent: 35.4pt;"> <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "sans-serif";"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Updated</span></span></strong><span class="timestampdate--modified"> Jan 25, 2014</span></span><br />
<b>Kennedy Was Right: We are the Heirs of the First Revolution, </b><span style="font-size: 1.125rem;">by John W. Whitehead</span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-86190946566634009972018-06-08T13:50:00.000-06:002018-06-08T13:50:30.855-06:00Anthony Bourdain<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hearing today of Bourdain's suicide in France was a terrible shock. I've watched his show and admired his style and now, he's gone from all of us.<br />
<br />
I'm sad. But I understand. He has no obligation to continue living if he feels he's had all he can take. I do not believe in Heaven or Hell and I don't believe it's a sin to take one's own life. It is, after all, one's own life.<br />
<br />
God bless you Anthony. But I wish you hadn't hanged yourself -- ugh: painful and ugly.<br />
<br />
As for me, I want to maintain awareness through that whole transition. So, perhaps a couple of scotches, a hot bath, a pill or two and a quick slit to the wrist as one watches the warm blood flow?<br />
<br />
I'm not trying to be morbid, though I do sound that way.<br />
<br />
<i>Sic transit Antonio. </i><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-13753334656092134442018-05-01T09:07:00.000-06:002018-05-19T09:15:11.667-06:00Elements of Story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Years ago, in my English classes, we learned that <strong>Story = Protagonist + Antagonist</strong> resulting in <strong>Conflict.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Conflict</strong> creates rising <strong>Tension</strong> ultimately resulting in <strong>Climax</strong> and (hopefully) <strong>Resolution</strong>. With resolution comes <strong>Denouement</strong> or gradual reduction in tension.<br />
<br />
These are all arbitrary guidelines for the beginning writer at best and in my writing, they’ve been thrown out the door a number of times.<br />
<br />
But the <i>antagonist </i>can be the beginning and end of story -- one of the most important elements. To ensure this, some writers work very hard to "plot" his or her story in order to create and maintain the kind of rising tension, initiated by a powerful antagonist and required for a really good story.<br />
<br />
That writer would spend plenty of time in her initial structuring of the book on that particular element of story with a definitive profile and the full development of the character.<br />
<br />
But what happens when your novel takes a side trip from your planned itinerary and you have to go back, pick up and try again? I was not able to control that.<br />
<br />
In my novel, “When the Eagle Flies with the Condor,” the antagonist is not a person, but a situation arising out of emotions such as feelings of abandonment, estrangement and perhaps even jealousy. <br />
<br />
It is unrequited love. Sound corny? Not when the love is between brother and sister. Their love is more representative of “agape” (from the Greek) than romantic, but the point is, it wasn’t planned that way. It happened and I wanted to be as honest as I knew how to be, thus allowing the antagonist to become whatever it needed to become.<br />
<br />
I do believe that having a good idea of what your story is going to say and knowing how it will end is one way to write a novel. But I also agree with some who say that allowing the mind to soar uncontrolled into unexpected regions can be very satisfying and productive and end up perhaps being more. . . well. . . or maybe. . . less -- formulaic? It's my understanding this is called the "panser" method rather than the "plotter" method.<br />
<br />
I rather like the term. Perhaps I've been a panser rather than a plotter all along. Or maybe a "plodder." You get the idea.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-26661574735314990032018-04-30T20:14:00.000-06:002019-05-03T12:02:18.037-06:00A Grumpy Senior's Take on Drugs and advice to other Seniors. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I am a senior citizen.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">What that means is that I've reached a certain age where I am
considered to be "over the hill," over dependent, under productive
and affectionately superfluous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It has nothing to do with my physical or mental health. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I “retired” long after the average retirement age and miss the
hundred plus mile daily round trip commute to my office. Retirement, is, after
all, what most of us long for most of our working lives, equating it with what
is euphemistically known as “the golden years.” But to me Retirement is a bore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">So I write. Blogs, novels, essays and even -- occasionally a
poem. I watch TV. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">When my husband and I sit down to watch a TV show at a certain
time in the evening we are bombarded with commercials from pharmaceutical
companies directed primarily at seniors. These ads are insidious attempts at
keeping customers sick rather than trying to cure them, and often contribute to
Alzheimer’s Disease, heart disease, and others. They are supported by federal
agencies with major conflicts of interest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I know. That’s quite a
statement. But politics and greed have
wormed their way into the medical/pharma communities allowing decisions by the FDA,
AHA and other federal oversite agencies to help major pharmaceuticals make lots of money. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I am not a physician, attorney, or scientist and will leave the legal
and scientific findings to others as there are many well researched sites which corroborate the
accuracy of this information. I will list them and hope that individual
seniors begin to listen to their bodies instead of Big Pharma and research the
efficacy of the drugs they are being prescribed and sold. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Instead of “ask your doctor about. . .” why not do the research
yourself. You’re retired now. You have the time. And there’s abundant
information. It is essential for you if
you really want to enjoy your senior years.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">See these sites and look for more: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;"><a href="https://healthimpactnews.com/2018/the-drugging-of-american-seniors-big-pharma-profits-depend-on-sick-seniors/" target="_blank">https://healthimpactnews.com/2018/the-drugging-of-american-seniors-big-pharma-profits-depend-on-sick-seniors/</a></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<a href="http://www.bemedwise.org/medication-safety/medication-therapy-management-for-seniors">http://www.bemedwise.org/medication-safety/medication-therapy-management-for-seniors</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_24999_6-evil-af-supervillain-schemes-pulled-by-big-pharma.html">https://www.cracked.com/article_24999_6-evil-af-supervillain-schemes-pulled-by-big-pharma.html</a></span></div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-16151668545971013442018-04-12T11:59:00.001-06:002018-04-12T12:04:53.520-06:00Life is a Banquet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Don't nibble on the good things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Life is a banquet. Devour it!</span></div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-66456284953496393532018-04-04T12:11:00.000-06:002018-04-12T12:13:15.943-06:00Words of wisdom, eerily relevant today. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Martin Luther King, Jr.</span></span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /></div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-14747060097635581022017-11-22T10:53:00.002-07:002019-05-03T07:46:35.182-06:00JFK. I Remember . . . a reprise <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today is not a day to celebrate
but to remember. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was very young and
very idealistic. But I have never been more in tune with or involved in
government and what it was doing than those days of the Kennedy
administration. My generation believed that government could work back
then; we believed in the Constitution, in equal rights, in the freedom of
the press. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We were warriors, we were involved; we were
activists, we lived fervently, rebelled ostentatiously and loved freely; we
fought back; we became consequential. We did not "go along." </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We had a leader who inspired. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kennedy's legacy
through the years has been laced with a kind of blandness as though aside from
his youth, his wit and charisma, his attractive young family, he really
accomplished very little. This was blatantly wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, however, appreciation
of Kennedy's accomplishments grows with each passing year. And it should. True, he allowed Khrushchev to get the upper
hand (at first). Also true, that the Berlin Wall went up during his tenure.
Indeed, he resided over the Bay of Pigs fiasco and we're all aware of his
"indiscretions." But I believe today, that had that young president
lived, he might have been one of our greatest leaders. Remember, he had only a
thousand days in which to accomplish his agenda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As for his
accomplishments, take note: the Peace Corps, the Alliance for Progress, Civil
Rights legislation, the Space Program and the introduction of the Green Berets.
His major accomplishment, however, was a tight and tense little psychological
drama between the USA and the USSR known as <i>The Cuban Missile
Crisis, </i>which, without the successful maneuvering of the Kennedys,
might have left the world in a state of nuclear disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I guess his potential
greatness will never be known which is what happens when someone takes you out
before your time. But I think when all is said and done, his star will
ultimately shine as one of the brightest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I remember and I am
grateful to have learned my political abc's under your leadership. You never
blamed others for your mistakes -- you took your lumps with calm and grace. You
spoke decisively but with care for the feelings of your listeners, with
admiration for those in the Press who covered you, with respect for those who
opposed you and with dignity that matched the office you once held. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You made us dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I miss you, JFK. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-10175216251176129682017-08-16T07:51:00.002-06:002017-08-23T10:12:04.952-06:00"Being President doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are." Michelle Obama <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is the President of my country: </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Someone who has led a life that began with power and money, who has learned he can buy his way to anything; someone who is lazy and lacks intellectual curiosity; someone with no sense of history, who has an untrained mind and who either cannot or will not read crucial briefings but instead must be mollified on a daily basis with adulation. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Someone who (research reveals) has a history of corruption and money laundering with foreign partners, who admires autocratic and dictatorial regimes, who supports white supremacy and neo-nazism. This man has no respect for our system of "checks and balances," for the Press or for established norms of decency. This man thinks he is king! </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This man who has become president of our country is embarrassing us in the eyes of the world with every stupid tweet and every garbled and inarticulate utterance. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is someone who moves within his world of privilege without contributing anything to it. He is a taker but he gives nothing back. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is a man who is unfit, both morally and intellectually. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">He should be removed from office! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Speaker Ryan, are you listening? </span><br />
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-47326120627102236452017-08-10T07:37:00.000-06:002017-08-16T07:45:38.699-06:00When Will These Two Men Act? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Image result for sue mcghee these two men hold our futures" height="266" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Senator McConnell and Speaker Ryan.<br />
You are there to represent US. When will you begin to do that? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-20921707068332658422017-08-05T15:15:00.000-06:002017-08-05T15:21:38.198-06:00Complexities of the English Language -- a reprise.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">With the undaunted and continuous reporting on every aspect of our world today, both political and personal -- as a result of the "twenty-four-hour-news-cycle," certain phrases appear again and again in our Media <i>ad nauseum</i>. It isn't just the talking heads who commit the sin of "pundit drivel." It's the supposed experts of all fields whom the pundits interview.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">We are being proselytized on a daily basis to thinking in terms of the clichéd cliché.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Here are few that have come to make me cringe: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .having said that...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .that being said. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .at the end of the day. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .we’ll get to that on the other side. . .” (of the commercial break).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .he allegedly. . .” (did something like cross the street). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . .whatever. . ."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . . it is what it is . . ." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . .what were (are) your feelings. . .?” (asked of someone who can hardly speak because of being choked up with tears after a tragedy in their lives).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . .sorry for your loss . . ."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">". . .what was going through your mind . . .? (when the gunman shoved the gun in your face). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">“. . . be that as it may. . .”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . so . . . “ (a word currently used to preface the answer to a question – Mike Morell should know better!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . like . . . “ (Oh, please, let’s get rid of this word used to begin a sentence or to fill a pause. Like, I'd be over-joyed!) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">“. . . I know what the <i>optics</i> are. . .” The White House Staff uses “optics” a lot. How about something like, “. . . I know how this appears. . .”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Appearances do matter and so do words.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">My latest peeve, however, is the use of “complex” when the speaker means “complicated.” Yes, the dictionary makes it sound like they are interchangeable. However, there is a subtle difference in the connotation of the words. In the case of the word “complex” the connotation is and has always been one of the following: <i>containing multiple interconnected parts; a composite; multi-faceted;</i> a<i> complex system of something.</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">"Complicated," on the other hand, is not that complicated -- it connotes <i>difficult to understand, analyze, explain or follow.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Am I the only one who gets rankled with the sloppy use of "I" and "me," "he" and "him" as well as "she" and "her?" One should give it to "me;" therefore, one should also give it to "him and me" or "her and me." Please don't let one give it to "her and I," since one would never give it to "I," would they? I guess it's just me! </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;">Next up: my rant on Pharmaceutical commercials. I’ll bet you can’t wait! </span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-50605167392933973722017-05-16T21:49:00.000-06:002017-06-22T12:17:47.450-06:00“. . . the slow undoing of human rights. . .” Part II (JFK Inaugural Address 1961) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 35.4pt;">This week marks a new
low – even for Trump.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">May we recap the last four
months or so? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Since Trump took office, he has:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Reduced crucial cabinet departments to
bare bones and appointed obvious sycophants and liars to head those
departments. (eg; Michael Flynn as Nat’l
Security Adviser even though red flags were waving from every direction.) We can add Jeff Sessions, Sean Spicer, Kelly Ann Conway, Reince Priebus, and now, unfortunately -- H. R. McMaster. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Fired
Sally Yates January 30 (ostensibly for disagreeing with the President’s
Immigration Order, but really to shut her up for information regarding Michael
Flynn). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Fired
Preet Bhahra (along with 40+ U.S. Attorneys) a member of Justice who was doing
an investigation of Trump’s labyrinthine financial conflicts of interest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Dismissed
our Press as purveyors of “Fake News,” as "the enemy of the people" and the Courts as “so-called Judges.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Discontinued the White
House Visitor Log (effectively hiding from the People any controversial
visitors’ presence and reasons for being there). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Discontinued press reviews
following important phone calls or visits with foreign dignitaries to three or
four word statements. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Threatened to discontinue
White House Press briefings because of the criticism of White House
spokesmen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Deftly shifted attention
from major (unflattering) news items with other (juicy) news items in an attempt to create media
distraction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Appointed Ivanka Trump
and Jared Kushner, neither of whom have credentials
other than being family members, to Special Councel to the President. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Weekend trips to
Mar-A-Lago costing the taxpayer millions of dollars. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Personal business
trips by Sons and Ivanka including Secret Service paid for by taxpayers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Fired James Comey, the
one who heads up an investigation by the FBI into Trump’s possible collusion
with Russia. (The audacity of this act is almost laughable if not so serious.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Demeaned the FBI
director (a 30 year veteran of government service) by calling him a “showboat” and a
“grandstander.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today, we must add the
news story from the Washington Post yesterday about our president’s casual disclosure
of classified information to his Russian visitors in the White House (this is one
day after Director Comey’s firing) after having barred the American media from
attending but <i>graciously </i>allowing the
official Russian press (RT) into the
Oval Office. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Some
tremendously generous commentators and supporters like to say that the president
is simply on a learning curve and is to be forgiven. I would say, that my 10 year old
granddaughter would have known better than to divulge that information. Some say Trump is slightly deranged with
early symptoms of senility; others think he is just dumb. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I think he’s led a life that began with power
and money, has learned he can get his way, is lazy, fat, lacks curiosity, has no historical perspective, has
an untrained mind and cannot or will not read crucial briefings. </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He moves within his world of privilege without contributing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> He’s a taker and will take more from us than he is capable of ever giving back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Because
our forefathers were astute enough to understand the dark side of human
nature, they’ve provided us with a system of government that requires checks on
the presidency -- Congress, the Courts and the Press. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Under Paul Ryan as Speaker
of the House, and Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader, the Congress has abrogated
its duty and they, as leaders, should be removed. One is not surprised at
McConnell, whose partisanship within the Senate is well-known. Ryan might have been a statesman at one time,
yet today, he’s become a lap dog to the President and his minions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Fareed Zakaria GPS, Sunday
morning on CNN discussed the situation – this was before the WAPO exclusive
Monday afternoon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
"So far, it appears that the
Republican Party is losing any resemblance to a traditional Western political
party, instead, simply turning into something more commonly found in the
developing world, <b>a platform to support
the ego, appetites and interests of one man and his family."<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I agree. However, we still have the Courts and the Press – and
they are doing their jobs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But it’s going to be up to us – the citizenry;
WE are now the ones in charge and we must remind Trump’s enablers that they owe
their jobs to us – not him. We, the voters, can fire them unless they immediately begin
the process of forming an independent committee (outside of the Congress) that
will not replace the on-going investigative congressional committees, but will instead
supplement their findings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Without the cooperation of the Congress, we,
as voters, have no choice but to take back OUR house. Think 2018. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; text-indent: 35.4pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
</div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-60364156487601212972017-03-24T10:31:00.000-06:002017-03-31T21:07:54.173-06:00". . .the slow undoing of human rights. . ." (JFK Inaugural -1961)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
slightly more than two months, our nation has been turned upside down by the inauguration
of Donald Trump as president. Many of my friends and some family members told
me back in October that Trump would be good for us. A composite paraphrase would have sounded
something like, “We’ve become complacent; we need a little shaking up. Trump is
the guy to get us moving in the right direction; he’ll get rid of the bureaucrats,
and ‘drain the swamp.’” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sadly, today, what we’re thinking is “Oh, my God, how
they lie,” and what we’re feeling is incredulity . . . and fear. He has not drained the swamp, I fear he’s
filled it with billionaires whose immediate instinct is: “what’s in it for me?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our congress is like a limp dish rag being flopped in
the face of its constituents. Our congress people – many of them -- no longer
work for the people; they care only about keeping their jobs, their life-time pensions,
physical security and health care. They
don’t answer to anyone but “the Party.”
Shouldn’t our decision making processes be ruled by conscience first,
then country and then party? Apparently
not today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today, we are faced with a president who has so many
conflicts of interest, that any one of them should have been enough to disqualify
him from running, much less taking office.
Why does he get by with it? Why,
because of the Congress who wants to keep him in office in order to advance
their “agenda.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He’s flatly refused to produce his tax returns which could
enlighten us as to possible illegal gains and unlawful deals. Perhaps there is nothing illegal or nothing
to hide. But we should demand to know
and should have known before the election.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We, the tax-payers, pay for his frequent weekend stays
at Mar-a-Lago. We, the tax-payers also pay for travel and security for his
children’s business trips across the world.
They are spending this weekend in Aspen, along with an entourage of
one-hundred or more security details and secret service people. How nice for them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I repeat! We pay for it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Secretary Tillerson does not feel the need for the Press
to accompany him on his trips abroad. He can live without the Press, he says. But can
we? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We know our election has been manipulated by a foreign
power with more and more evidence indicating that it wasn't just Clinton they undermined but other challengers to Trump. If the president is complicit in this, he is a traitor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Speaker Ryan has proven to be a spineless enabler – not
just with the president, but with the congressman who recently revealed himself
as incapable of non-partisanship by revealing sensitive information to the
president who is under investigation by the very committee he chairs. I speak, of course, of Congressman Devin
Nunes, who has disgraced himself and has no choice but to resign. In addition,
he’s cancelled a scheduled meeting on Tuesday with crucial witnesses who may
have crucial evidence. Why? Could it be to cover for the president? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A special non-partisan committee MUST be appointed by
someone other than the Speaker of the House to investigate this president, his
campaign, his white house and perhaps beyond. It must come from outside our Congress because,
unfortunately, our Congress is complicit in the reign of what I believe may be
an illegitimate president. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Someone has to say it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-58134831615689255732017-01-24T15:42:00.000-07:002017-02-10T11:27:17.321-07:00Autocracy is on the Horizon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We have elected an authoritarian, a liar, a
womanizer, a tax evader, a sly manipulator, a con artist and a dishonest
business man who obviously would like to be rid of the Press.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We live in a dangerous world full of eager and
power-hungry leaders. We all know about Putin, of course, and his encroachment
into Ukraine, but look at Assad of Syria, a butcher of his own people and
publicly supported by Putin. Erdogan of Turkey, who promised to be a beacon of
democracy in the Middle East is now cracking-down on the media, the
intelligentsia, and throwing dissidents into jail, helter-skelter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is craftily leading
the Israeli people into an apartheid, by boldly allowing settlements to
continue; recently he gave his blessing to allow 2500 new “outposts” in the
West Bank and 566 settlements in East Jerusalem. All this activity is in
response to a Trump presidency and perhaps to deflect attention from a series of
recent interrogations by the police into allegations of bribery and graft. Will
the settlements begin before he is asked to resign? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Conflicts of interest abound, accusations that
he and his wife received expensive gifts and travel from businessmen whose
purpose was to influence his decision making.
And, Sara, apparently likes pink Champagne – a lot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The cases against Netanyahu are numerous: one of the charges of bribery results from two
recorded phone conversations between him and the editor of one of the most
respected newspaper in Israel – the </span><em><span style="border: none 1.0pt; color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; padding: 0in;">Yediot Ahronot</span></em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> . </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">According to an article by Ruth Margalit in <i>The New Yorker</i>, January 13, Mr. Mozes
is heard saying: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I
will do everything I can to keep you around for as long as you want.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Apparently a</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> deal was never agreed upon however, and Mozes continued hitting
Netanyahu hard all during the campaign leading up to the election. And as recently as last month, a headline in
the </span><em style="background-color: transparent; color: #121212; font-family: tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">Yediot Ahronot</span></em><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">
read, “Netanyahu Leads to Disaster.”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">Nevertheless, it is obvious Netanyahu attempted to illegally entrap
a rival and threaten him: According to the Israeli newspaper <i>Ha’aretz, </i>Netanyahu was heard saying, </span><br />
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">“If
you rake me over the coals before the election, I’ll deal with you.” This is the prime minister of Israel
threatening a representative of the free media in Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">President Trump has only been in office for four days. Already, he is excoriating our media from his
podium and instructing his press secretary to mindlessly do the same. If he is criticized, he will attack. If his
ego is threatened, he will whine as he did in front of the CIA’s wall of honor. He is a disgrace to our country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">And today: a media blackout was imposed upon the EPA and other
federal agencies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">The VOA (Voice of America) formerly broadcast to citizens outside the U.S.
and an unbiased source of news, is now being managed by Trump’s pick for a CEO.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">As <i>Israel Hayom</i> is the
voice of the Prime Minister of Israel, so are <i>Breitbart News</i> and Sean Hannity of <i>FOX</i> news, the voices of Trump’s nascent autocracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #121212; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif";">Dark clouds have already begun to obscure the sunshine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-37579041694983529022017-01-02T21:29:00.000-07:002017-01-02T21:39:35.836-07:00Don't Cancel Pure Genius!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I loved this show.<br />
<br />
I am so sick of the blood letting, the car chases, lovers flopping into bed after banging against walls and tearing their clothes off -- ugh -- the utter disdain for originality AND the constant use of the F-Bomb! This little show is something different with fresh ideas and fresh faces. It is hopeful and inspiring. The writing could improve, but the over-all concept is hope. Whether the fictionalized cures could be realistic some day or not, I wouldn't know. Some say yes and some say no.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, we need more shows on Broadcast TV that our children can watch. And this is one with a theme of goodness, generosity and beneficence, rather than greed, arrogance and utter lack of morality, <br />
<br />
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<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-197208703640480904.post-5877167750098611642017-01-02T15:57:00.000-07:002017-01-13T16:02:54.340-07:00Israel's Apartheid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am an American woman and U.S. citizen – a
staunch supporter of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve admired the Israeli people for years --
long after I got over my teenage infatuation with Ari ben Canaan (<b>Exodus</b>,
1958). I fervently believed in the courage and fearlessness of the <i>Haganah</i> (now,
the IDF), the inherent romantic ideal of the <i>Sabra </i>and the
immensely sensible structure of the <i>Kibbutzim. </i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Israeli people
brought forth a veritable garden from the dry and rocky Negev Desert. They
elected the miraculously astute Golda Meir as their Prime Minister long before
most countries would take their women seriously as political leaders. And, they
allowed their women to fight! This is a country to be proud of, I
remember thinking – they were resourceful, brainy and courageous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But then, they elected
Benjamin Netanyahu as their Prime Minister and I began to doubt. Netanyahu appears to have no desire for the peace process. I
believe he descends from an innate hatred of the Arabs and thinks the only
thing they understand is force; to wit, the long-standing wars and the
continued illegal settlements or “outposts” on Palestinian land. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He is taking the two
state solution down the tubes and his answer to Kerry’s reasoned speech on
December 28, expressing sentiments that most of us agree with, is to have a
temper tantrum and behave like a child. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Of whom does he remind
me? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With doubts about the
myriad financial conflicts with our own president elect, we now hear that Prime
Minister Netanyahu may himself have been involved in inappropriate financial dealings
– graft – which is currently being reported in Israeli newspapers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He is not satisfied
with the newly published newspaper owned by Sheldon Adelson blaring support for
him and given away for free seven days a week; he is said to have been recorded
in an attempt to “negotiate” with the editor of Adelson’s major competitor to
be less critical of his administration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is a sad thing to
see this brave and exceptional country with a history of brainy and gutsy
leaders, languish in the devious grasp of this pompous prima donna. I have come to despise his muscle-flexing and
his interminable fear-mongering over Iran, his lack of respect for our current
president Obama and his underhanded attempts to influence our president-elect. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bradley Burston, an
English language journalist for Ha’aretz says of Netanyahu, “. . . he has
poisoned his country. Israel is broken and battered and weak with fear . . .
His legacy is decay."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Not only that, but i</span><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">n 2015, this same respected newsman wrote that the Israeli
policy now amounts to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid" title="Apartheid"><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">apartheid</span></span></a><span style="color: #252525; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, stating: "I used
to be one of those people who took issue with the label of apartheid as applied
to Israel. . .Not anymore . . . Our Israel is what it has become:
Apartheid."</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Apartheid! And blatant apartheid supported by the Likud
government and many readers of Adelson’s free </span><span style="color: #111c24; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 13.5pt;">Israel Hayom. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We Americans will
never be far from our greatest ally – Israel. However, Benjamin Netanyahu and his extreme
right-wing government are a plague to our long-standing positive relationship.
I sincerely hope that he is forced to resign as it would not only be a blessing
for Israel, but for the U. S. as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">May God bless both
countries today, the second day of this new year and beyond. May we remain
watchful that our Democracies do not descend into autocracies, led by spoiled
and pampered demagogues, whose own self-interest is their number one goal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Voicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07687356769573435116noreply@blogger.com0