Mission:1)Advance the principle that Pacifism, Liberalism, Environmentalism, + membership in the Democratic Party are not sins nor of which one need be ashamed. 2)Move us in the direction of a political culture which would enable public persons to proudly proclaim their leftist tendencies, just as those on the right may do at present.
ADDENDUM: TO VIEW ARTICLES JUST SCROLL DOWN. DON'T FEAR SCROLLING; NO INJURIES HAVE RESULTED, JUST ENLIGHTENMENT. ;o) PEACE PLEASE.... STEVE
Isabelle York on Facebook has been a friend of ours now for years, and is about to turn 18, a high school student, fan of nature but especially of the above pictured gentleman, Mr. Kevin Spacey. She marks her attendance at a performance of Richard III, which was transported across the big pond from his London offices where he is the Artistic Director of the Old Vic theater where this particular production was staged originally last summer. Isabelle had the opportunity to experience this production starring her idol when it was presented in Manhattan earlier this year.
In the video above, Ms. York expounds upon her feelings regarding her fondness for Mr. Spacey. There are legitimate grounds for admiring this talented actor beyond his on-screen activities. As a director he has done yeoman's service advancing the cause of live theater, and he maintains a full-time office at the Old Vic Theater, and relishes live theater so much that he is more often to be found in England than he is here in the states or anywhere else in the world.
Bella explains that her devotion to Mr. Spacey is deeper even than their common love of the theater, but also has much to do with commonalities in their personal lives and in their outlooks upon life. She views him as a "huge inspiration" to her and this video shows her being surprised on Christmas morning when she opens the tickets to Mr. Spacey's Richard III performance, and her extremely grateful emotional reaction to this gift. In her introduction piece prior to the Christmas morning segment, she suggests that others might not understand her fascination with the talented Mr. Spacey, and suggests that her strong desire to meet him and her fondness for all things Spacey are preferable to others' obsessions with drugs, alcohol or staying out late.
We couldn't agree more and offer our love to a dear friend, and our sincere wishes for good fortune as she musters both the courage and the technique which may be required in order for her to achieve her long-held goal of meeting Kevin Spacey in person.
To learn more about Mr. Spacey's work at the Old Vic check out their website linked here:
Pink's Title Sez It All About Today's Post-Convention Doctor's Visit:
You Make Me Sick
My
first-ever visit to a pulmonary doctor was compromised by right-wing
post-convention politics. Wow, btw, that just might be the first sentence to
contain THREE hyphenated words. Be forewarned that this article is based on a
TRUE STORY which REALLY HAPPENED TODAY, but which is slanted with hyperbole for
satirical purposes only – not in any manner for political gain. At the outset
let me emphasize that I have never, repeat NEVER, run a marathon of any sort; I
have never attempted to run a marathon and I most certainly have never run a
marathon in under 3 hours, as claimed most absurdly by the rival for the
most preposterous Veep candidate in US history (Ryan is, of course, neck and
neck with half-guv Palin at this point for that dubious distinction).
In addition
to breathing problems for about two or three years (no hyperbole thus far) I have
been enduring a chest and head cold for three or four days. This week I was diagnosed with COPD and now I have a puffer to spay into my lungs when I can't breathe so well and a fun disk to inhale twice a day called Albuterol. Next week I get to have my lungs undergo a battery of further tests. Fun, fun, fun!! Upon entering the
office of Dr. Smith (his real name, I later asked for and received a
copy of his long-form birth certificate) a coupla weeks back, a kindly looking young woman in scrubs
quickly escorted me into the outer office area and began asking questions and
taking vital medical signs. She asked my date of birth, and is my wont in such situations;
I replied “I was just born yesterday.” She laughed, as did all of her female
colleagues—also bedecked in scrubs—at my joke (which was intentional
hyperbole). I told her of my sniffles and my real long-term problem which
brought me there that day. She asked what medications I take, and I told her of
my blood pressure medications, and when she asked why I informed her that of
course it was because it was an election year. When asked if I had any
allergies, I told her that I was extremely allergic to the RepubliCon party of
2012, to Bill O’Reilley and Sarah Palin. By now, her colleague was laughing at
my comments as if I were jesting, but both she and my interlocutor agreed on the
Palin allergy.
My vital
signs were good except for my blood pressure which came in absurdly high at
160/100. I told my tester and my audience that it was perfectly understandable
and that I wasn’t surprised. To my astonishment they asked me the cause and I
told them “Because it’s less than two months before Election Day and we aren’t
ahead by double digits, of course!!!”
They sent
me out to the waiting room to await Dr. Smith, and while waiting I looked back
into the area where I had just been and spied a bumper sticker over a desk for
the RepubliCon running for the U.S. Senate in CT, the purveyor of violence and
smut to kids and loser of the 2010 Senate race, former Wrestling/Porn CEO Linda
McMahon. OMG! I stuck my head into the area once again and informed the staff
that I had an anaphylactic allergy which could cause immediate death to these
bumper stickers, but the sticker remained and I had to shield my eyes with my
hands throughout the remainder of my time or arrange my body in such a way as
to avoid cardiac arrest. I asked the scrub-woman by the offending bumper
sticker who was paying for my visit—which was Medicare. I expressed to her that
very many of their patients are likely geezers like me, and that most of her
salary is generated by Medicare so she SHOULD vote Democratic!!!
I was safely
escorted to his office by Dr. Smith himself and he queried me further about my
health. He asked if I had any allergies, and I told him that I carried two
epipens and Benadryl at all times due to my deadly allergy to bee stings and to
the Fox News Channel. Dr. Smith laughed uproariously and nearly fell off his
chair (no hyperbole here), and I was confused. He asked when my breathing
seemed at its worst; I explained that it was sometimes random, sometimes upon
exertion, and frequently upon seeing images of Ann Coulter or hearing her
voice. He agreed that this is a frequent problem in his practice.
My apologies to Britney, who is doing fine today, as far as I'm concerned,
but I just couldn't pass up this image of Coulter.
He noted
some swelling in my ankles and he asked when I had noticed it commencing, and I
said that it seemed to correlate with the annual appearance of what is jokingly
referred to as a “Budget” by Paul Ryan, but that I’ve begun to fear ankle
Elephantitis now that Ryan is the RepubliCon VP nominee, but Dr. Smith assured
me that this was not likely. He listened to my breathing, which wasn’t
horrendous, but he noticed that upon close investigation it appeared as though
my breathing pattern included a sobbing component. I told Dr. Smith that this
is something that I’ve noticed in myself ever since John Boehner was actually
sworn in as Speaker. I told Dr. Smith that the cure for this was out of his
control, and that I was doing everything I can to ensure the cure, which a new
term as Speaker for Nancy Pelosi this coming January.
Dr. Smith
has me undergoing the new funner breathing testing, I had a chest x-ray, and he gave me a cool
testing thing to play with and that puffer and Albuterol to breathe until I see him next; as
long as the poll numbers keep getting better, I’m optimistic. ;0) Dr. Smith
asked me if I have any further questions, and I said yes, sir, I do. He asked
me what they were, and I said I had a multitude of questions for the staff
person with the RepubliCon Senate sticker over her desk. He said that she was
firm in her convictions. I pleaded with him to let me try. But I caved, because
I know I have to go back and that my persuasive abilities will be far more
effective closer to Election Day, and that if I rally the crowd at Dr. Smith’s
office to the Obama cause now, that they could change their mind between now
and the election.
It's crunch time boys and girls. The time for excuses is over! It's time to roll up our sleeves as one family, contact the campaign, donate-arrange rides to the polls on November 6th--whatever you can do. And it's as easy as one right click on the link below:
I am a spiritual being having a temporary human experience.
Augie and other Dogs are spiritual beings (of the same sort)
having temporary canine experiences.
The late great Augie the Doggie saved my life and passed away 6 months ago. Here is the tale of Augie's greatest day of major Canine Accomplishments and the day he made the headlines and was named Canine of the year by CNN (the Canine News Network). Love you Augman, seeya on the other side of Rainbow Bridge one day, pal! ♥
Shhh... From his base in Wallingford, Connecticut, Augie the Doggie secretly rules the Universe. In one single day Augie accomplished the following at the ordinarily geriatric age of THIRTEEN years old [when other mortals retire and rest on their laurels, Augie the Awesome Doggie springs to action]: 1) While photographing a shed I was planning to do major repairs upon, Augie succeeded in sneaking into each of the photos without anyone's awareness until we blew them up on the computer.
2) While measuring the shed, I glanced three yards over and saw Augie the Doggie in THAT yard. Augie had succeeded in eluding our backyard security system and ESCAPED! When I walked over to the neighboring yard, Augie the Doggie put up no resistance, merely smiled a sly smile to indicate yet again, that HE WAS, INDEED, IN CHARGE STILL. And as if that was not enough, Augie committed his biggest accomplishment to date:
3) While I was in the basement tending to the feral cats for which I was caring, I heard my ex-domestic partner stomping around hollerin' "Bad Dog! Bad Dog!" and racing about the house; her feet stomping and Augie's going clickety-clack on the hardwood floor in one huge circle around the house, repeating the circuit over and over. After I stopped laughing, I surfaced from the basement and asked my former partner what Augie had accomplished [it was in the days following Thanksgiving], she cried "HE GOT THE TURKEY LEG!" And I spied Augie the Doggie, and sure enough he was looking at me with an entire 5lb roasted turkey leg suspending from his clutched jaw. [I was furtively more proud of Augie Doggie than you could possibly imagine]. Our eyes met, a staring contest ensued, and we were off to the races!
Augie ran, and I ran a close second. Worried about the turkey bones, I tried kicking the offending leg outa his mouth, but to no avail. I knew taking it from him would violate his instincts, so that wasn't an option. I called to my partner,
"GET SOME HOT DOGS, QUICK, AND MICROWAVE 'EM!!!" I then tried putting the heated Frankfurts in Augie's face hoping for a trade, he wasn't about to be conned! I THREW FRESH HOT TUBE STEAKS RIGHT AT THE AUGMEISTER, AND STILL HE DIDN'T RELENT! WHAT A DOG
In the final analysis, Augie scarfed down that whole turkey leg without it touching the floor once, all while being chased, bribed AND having hot dogs thrown directly at him! He proved who was in charge of Wallingford and of Connecticut. He made the front pages of Canine News the next morning and the Canine News Network had live coverage of Augie's Awesome Day, replete with interviews and all.
In a quiet election, the canines of the Universe elected Augie Master of the Universe, and he's been ruling since January 1st, 2010. He is now 15, and has a lifetime term. ♥ :)
If ya happen to have a few bucks in your pocket, Augie's favorite charitable cause and mine is the wonderful Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals which has dealt effectively with incredible canine and feline crises as the result of both Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill. So all it takes is a click on the link below and a credit/debit card to donate:
a Duchess of whatever she sets her mind and heart to.
Blessya.
A few years ago I came online because of concern about the
oil spill sponsored forya by the likes of wayward Tony Hayward—then the CEO of
British Petroleum (now in hiding in Putin’s Russia at last check) and Dick
Cheney’s Haliberton. I was upset that New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast
were once again being threatened due to political and economic greed following
the inept incompetence of the bureaucrats and politicians involved just a few
years prior following the catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina and the Bush
Administration’s notion thatlaunching
wars overseas was a higher priority than taking care of our victims here at
home. During that spill the weather was a constant threat since the months long
spill occurred throughout that year’s hurricane season.
With intent, BP killed 11 men, countless fish, birds mammals
and family pets with their greed and oil spill in the Gulf.
I am an animal lover, especially of cats and dogs and I
learned about the desperation of families devastated by that spill who had to make
the nightmarish choice between keeping a roof over their heads and food on
their plates or turn their pet family members over to a shelter. Shelter
populations in the region bulged beyond capacity, and more cats and dogs were
documented as killed by the BP criminal spill (which killed 11 men the day of
the explosion on the oil platform in the worst of the tragedy) than wild
mammals. I was angry and came online to raise money for one cause in
particular, the awesome and spunky LASPCA- http://la-spca.org/
- and in the end I wound up writing about this and much more. 12,000 Facebook
friends and fans later, a quarter million hits on my own website, two sites on
Examiner.com, a CBS gig and I had become a writer. : )
But in the beginning I found out about websites chock full of
weather information and began interacting with weather experts all over the
world. One was a wonderful young student in another part of the northeast who
was so bright and knowledgeable that I thought she must have been a
professional meteorologist or an academic. Instead she was 15 years old and
headed to high school and uncertain of where her family was moving to—concerned
about a new town and a whole new experience. She and her little sisters had
been having a rough go of it for too long with instability in their lives and
my friend did amazing things in order to keep her siblings under her wing until
an adult family member and her boyfriend stepped up and provided a home,
stability and security to my friend and her beloved sisters.
This young woman had established several sites online,
including an awesome chat page which drew in experts including The Weather
Channel meteorologists sporting Ph.D.’s, on camera meteorologists, and just
plain weather fans. We set up Skype when Skyping was new because she wanted to
cover the weather live! She became my tech adviser online, helping me to set up
this blog page—she wanted to set up a blog, so we did it simultaneously late
one evening.
The summer of 2010 I chased a hurricane named Earl skirting
the northeast seaboard from my home in Central Ct to Rhode Island, knowing she’d
be a bit jealous since she loved such storms. She wasn’t at all, she was happy
for me. In fact, a system was moving through her area just as I was chasing
Earl. As I was driving over the Quinnipiac River Bridge in New Haven, I saw a
beautiful full arching double rainbow right over the bridge. As I drove further
east, weather conditions deteriorated to tropical downpours and winds, and I
enjoyed a wonderful chase and witnessed nature at her finest. When I arrived
home, I was surprised to learn that my friend had seen a rainbow at the same
time as I had. I was so touched that I wrote this poem about a storm that never
stood a chance of hitting the coast, but inspired by her and her love of nature
and all that she’d accomplished for herself and her family.
She turns 18 in 12 short days, and she is now more
interested in the theater than weather and has a genuine passion for actor,
director and committed Artistic Director of the Old Vic Theater in London,
Kevin Spacey.
In honor of her pending birthday I offer to my readers this reproduction
of her poem:
Ode to the Weather Explorer (A Poem)
No Igor for you and
me
Lisa-marie.
I guess we’ll just
have fun
Sitting outside in
the sun,
And just wait and
wait and wait
Until it’s very, very
late.
But this is the
tropical season my dear,
And I feel that the
time is near
When you have your
eye
And I
Have my eye
High, high, high
Way up in the sky
Looking right thru an
eye
Right in the middle
of the sky.
And who will it be?
Hurricane Who?
We’ve had a rainbow
We’ll have a
hurricane, too.
Me and Lisa-marie.
Steve Alexander 9/20/10
Hurricane Igor made landfall last night [2010] and this morning and is currently (12:47pm) a minor Category 1 – 75mph –
Hurricane that only the fishes will watch disintegrate and harm nobody any
more. The Weather Explorer helped keep YOU safe, once again!
Luvya Lisa-marie. Hope you like your
poem Ms. Pip and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! How do you make that? It’s an < and a 3?
Like this: <3 font="font">YES! I didit! TYTYTY! Ya just gotta love those Lisa-marie pink hearts. :)
More than any race in history, this one pits those who have
wealth against the rest of America. Romney says 47% of Americans are parasites.
He’s got it backwards. The plumbers, the waitresses/waiters, chefs, mechanics
and assemblers of America and those who need their help because they are either
handicapped or are benefitting from a lifetime of paying into such wonderful
American inventions as the Social Security program or Medicare are the BACKBONE
of America’s moral fiber AND it’s economy. Romney’s pyramid scheme Bain
Capital, along with his ‘financier’ cronies such as Bernie Madoff, the Koch
Brothers, Leman Brothers, Citibank and other such con scheme individuals and
groups produce nothing of benefit to the nation or to the economy! Romney and
his cohorts have succeeded during the George W. Bush presidency and at the
state/local level in recent decades, starting with their hero, Ronald Ray-gun’s
busting of the PATCO union when air traffic controllers struck for airline
safety pre-9/11 in decimating our union’s powers and centralizing wealth in the
nation and the world like never before.
Ray-gun did it the old fashioned and obscenely heavy-handed
way by overpowering PATCO, and forcing the rehiring of all new traffic
controllers without regard for the safety of the American public. His policies,
those of his successor, George H.W. Bush and those of Bush’s son have enabled
the states to do individually what they could not succeed at by trying to shut
down the labor movement at the national level. And please let’s not forget that
it was while we had a strong union movement in this nation, during the
Eisenhower through to the beginning of the George the Second’s administration
that we enjoyed a strong middle class, a non-depression or “Great Recessionary”
economy, and the opportunity for workers to exercise bargaining rights which
strengthened our industries and made us the manufacturing capitol of the world.
One state at a time, one regulation and one piece of
legislation at a time, conservatives have been able to ‘privatize’ major state
services which were previously performed by highly qualified, trained and
competent state employees. For example by appealing to the compassion of
people, they used the horrendous conditions at institutions for those with
mental disabilities to rally for the cause of ‘deinstitutionalization,’ which
was a needed change in some ways, however they were able to ,very quietly here
in Connecticut and throughout the nation, turn these handicapped folks over to
private not-for-profit agencies which are non-union, have less qualified
workers and the incompetency of these agencies is now the stuff of legend,
unfortunately. These agencies, like their profit making counterparts, seek to
get bigger and bigger so they have co-opted many other than their original program
areas of expertise. One with which I am familiar now runs group homes, drug and
alcohol programs, work programs, and even a nursing agency which is staffed by
part time nurses who don’t receive benefits. And all of these previously
state-run programs are now being run by the not-for-profits at higher cost
because of the decentralized and massive overhead costs, and by not-qualified
non-union personell.
This trend is NOT accidental on the part of state and
national politicians—their intent has been to bust the unions. They have also
succeeded in the private sector, by various means. One is that private
employers, thanks to their buddies in the state and national capitols, have been
able to render formerly full-time benefitted quality jobs into part-time
unbenefitted jobs—resulting in the absolute necessity for Barack Obama’s
first-step Health Care Reform Act.
The impact of these right wing extremists’ policies
including and since the Ray-gun administration has been the centralization of
wealth into the hands of super-rich folks as unheard of in global history—the likes
of the Wal-Mart family dynasty-the Walton billionaires, the Koch Brothers, and
now quarter-billionaire and tool of these folks, Willard Mitt Romney. They now
seek to have the presidency in their pockets in order to finally consolidate their
wealth and power. They have no scruples in sending American manufacturing jobs,
characterized by good full-time pay with benefits and reasonable working conditions,
over to abusive totalitarian regimes such as Communist China!
Once we win back the government again this November, we need
to take a look at some serious reforms in the nation’s labor laws, and begin to
strengthen the rights of the formerly Great American Middle Class and restore
our nation’s economy. Union = Good. Not Bad. We need to tear the unfair
advantages the billionaires have developed at the expense of every single
moderate and low income American! Go President Obama, Go! YES WE CAN!!!
DEAR MITT ROMNEY: TICK. TICK. TICK. TICK.I receive government benefits. Yes, how brash. How bold a parasite I must be to proclaim to thousands that I DARE to receive public funds. I am presently receiving SSD, love my Medicare, love my neighbors in my public housing as I work my tail off to get retrained in grad school (a seminary--I'm hoping to be an ordained minister one day, Mitt) so I can get back to paid productive work! My next door neighbor is a wonderful friend who just came back home after a 7 month hospital stay, and resides in her efficiency apt and her hospital bed most of the time--a 40ish former Kindergarten teacher. Next to her is my 50ish friend with TBI. Next to him is my 60ish friend who wears about 10 lbs of shrapnel and hardware since diverting a grenade to save two other soldier's lives in Vietnam--he is proud of his disabled vet license plate. My neighborhood is chock-full of elderly who also receive government benefits. I've done the math, Mitt. All of my friends have in their years, paid FAR more than the paltry 14% you paid in the one year of taxes you have released thus far. WE want to know about the other years AND where YOUR money comes from? Your billionaire pals, like the Koch brothers do it by greedy means and shipping US jobs to Communists in China and other less desirable places. You've thrown hundreds if not thousands out of work as a CEO of a pyramid scheme financial outfit, and were the BAIN of their existence. And YOU want to be President? WHO IS THE PARASITE MITT? WHO? YOUR WELL-DESERVED DRUMMING AT THE POLLS IS COMING.TICK. TICK. TICK. TICK....
There once was a Flip-Flopping Quarter-Billionaire Republican Presidential candidate, a kind of Pathetic Republican Vice Presidential Nominee with hoof-in-mouth disease and an Awesome Incumbent Democratic President. They're all in a boat fishing.They're doing pretty good, catching some decent bass.
The President sez to the other guys- "Wow, that soda has gotten to me, I have to excuse myself." So the President hops out of the boat, walks to shore, goes into the woods-disappears for awhile then comes out of the woods, walks back from shore, out to the boat and climbs back in. He sez "Now that's how I spell relief, guys!" Romney and Ryan look at each other in disbelief! "HELL NO!" he couldn't have done that they thought.
So Ryan has to pee also by and by, but rather than risk his buttocks by trying to walk to shore, he just asks for Barack's soda can and pees into it. And you just KNOW Romney had to go real bad, but held it just as long as he could because he couldn't make up his mind whether to walk to shore and was afraid of looking bad. Finally he couldn't stand it any longer and he jumped outa the boat and sunk like a rock.
He bobbed up and cursed, screaming for the other two to haul him back into the boat (he had apparently peed himself out in the process of sinking and treading water). When Romney got back into the boat, he blubbered to the President you ARE amazing, you walk on water dude!"
"Lean over, Willard, and look close." said Barack. "Do you see that rock just below the surface? Now look ahead of it. Do you see that one?? All you had to do was follow the rocks in to shore and get your relief and come back. If you follow SOME kind of CONSISTENT plan, instead of trying to be all things to all people, NOBODY SINKS and I get my nickel back for my soda can without feeling guilty. And NO, you may not have the key OR the wheel to this boat WILLARD!" Let's re-elect this awesome incumbent, it's crunch time and his website is: barackobama.com
