Facade

Bush claims the economy is doing great. It is all a facade. We are robbing future generations to create a false sense of security and prosperity.

It is unfair of us to burden future generations.

David M. Walker is the head of the General Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that audits and evaluates the performance of the federal government. He is the Comptroller General.

He is not running for office. He has nothing to lose or gain by this next election. His job is secure.

He claims that the U.S. economy is on a course set for disaster. The vast majority of economists and budget analysts agree: The ship of state is on a disastrous course, and will founder on the reefs of economic disaster if nothing is done to correct it

It is a dirty little secret that everyone knows in Washington, but no one talks about.

Read the whole story: America The Bankrupt

Now I will talk politics. Our current leader is responsible for this fiscal mess. He is not a conservative, he is a Nationalist. His fiscal irresponsibility has put the future of the U.S. in graver danger the terrorists ever did.

Where are these conservative values of the "Republicans"?
Personal Responsibility
Fiscal Responsibility
Religious Liberty
Less Government
Liberty

All of these values have been lost by the Nationalists now in power, who try to keep us scared, while they line their pockets. They sing "God Bless America" while they are destroying values on which the U.S. was founded.

It is time to get rid of the current political parties, who answer to big money and special interests group. We need to regroup and create a government that values their people, and humanity, ahead of big corporations and big commercialized religious groups.

Friday DOG Blogging

For the Friday thing, I decide to focus on spirituality. Hey, I do what Dog tells me to do.

We all need to become more pawtriotic.

Clicking on the picture will take you to Amazon.com. I get no royalties, I just like dogs and books and I'm a sucker for books with dogs.

See Jon Katz on Amazon for some great reads about dogs.

Fools

Very small collection of foolish quotes, remind you of anyone?

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. ~ Douglas Adams

You don't have to fool all the people all of the time; you just have to fool enough to get elected. ~ Gerald Barzan

The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way. ~ Josh Billings

A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him. ~ Nicholas Boileau

Get the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything. ~ Frank Dane

A man who cannot reason is a fool,
a man who will not reason is a bigot,
and a man who dare not reason is a slave. ~ William Drummond

Note: Please leave insults and call me names, it flatters me when you waste such energy on a fool like me, I've already forgiven you.

Black & White

Believe or not, in this day and age, segregation still exists in Alabama. What do the majority black or white High Schools do when the drama department wants to do a play like To Kill A Mockingbird? This has always been one of my favorite stories.

Two schools in Birmingham earned a visit from the reclusive author, Harper Lee: Black, White Schools Unite To Stage ‘Mockingbird’

What did you say?

CAUTION? This is a Sunday Sermon. If you don't want to hear about G-d, then skip today's post, it'll make the believers rebel and the non-believers think. But no thinking is allowed. Sit down, shut-up, and hold-on. After the sermon is over, send all donations to someone who needs it.

G-d is all about the creation of the universe and the life within. The opposite is the destruction of the “creation” and the life within. Are you for G-d or not? When you destroy life, you destroy a part of G-d. Not just human life, all life. Animal, Plants, and the environment required for them to survive. Are you for that or against that? Evolution is G-d's plan. Yes, it is that simple.

It’s not in a book, or a man, telling me how to live my life, that is just humans trying to control humans, and rationalizing human's endless greed, "bloody deeds", and selfishness. Its does not matter how you live your life, what matters is how you influence others to live a life that protects and creates more life. The only thing that matters, the only thing that will still be around after you're long gone, is how you’ve influenced others.

Now the important part. All is forgiven. Everyone is forgiven. No matter what you do, or what you’ve done in the past, you are forgiven. Your soul has been saved. In the end, we all end up in the same place.

How do you respond to extreme evil acts of violence against you or your beliefs? With a greater acts of forgiveness and kindness! It is the only answer that is possible from anyone, any group, anything that is on the side of G-d.

That, my friends, is it. Peace. NOW DAMMIT!!!!! The voice has spoken.

That is the end of my Sunday sermon. The most important message of our times.

You’ve all been saved, no need to go the religious churches anymore, no need to give your cash to the bigoted capitalist religions. Create your own church.

Now stay off the roads on Sunday, I need to do my shopping.

Literate Cats

I have a funny story for the Friday Cat blogging people.

In the apartments where I reside, we have several friendly cats. Frequently when I'm out on my porch, one of these cats, a small young black cat, will come by for a warm lap or just a scratch behind the ear, or to see if I'm having some tuna or salmon to share.

I have several neighbors, mostly young women, who are afraid of any animals. When this cat walks up to these people, they try to shoo it away, or they will sit in there car until the animal goes away. I don't understand how anyone can be afraid of this small friendly cat who wants nothing more than to rub against your leg and say "Hi". It is a very vocal cat, and will meow several times when it first greets you.

One of these young women has a brand new over-sized SUV that she keeps very clean and shiny and she parks away from everyone else so that no one "touches" her precious piece of shit. I heard her talking to another neighbor, upset, because that cat had been walking on the hood of her car, making dirty tracks on her clean car and one day the cat was sleeping on the roof of her car, and she had to call someone to get it off before she could go near her car. I mentioned to her that I happily remove this evil menace from her car anytime I'm here, because the cat is super-friendly and doesn't mind being handled. She snapped at me, telling me that the next time she's going to call animal control so they can take it away and put it down. That is the typical "Montgomery" attitude. I now know not to be friendly to her anymore.

Here's the funny part. The next day, as I was finishing up a run, I passed by her car. She had a sign taped to the inside of the windshield, "No Cats on Vehicle".

Yes, these people walk amongst us.

The thing is, if that cat can read, don't you know it's going to climb up there just for spite and get her dirty little paw prints on that shiny clean wax job. It's the attitude thing, cats have loads of it.

-----------------------------------------------------------
OK, I'll post a picture for those you addicted to cat pictures.


I hope that doesn't get the cat people too excited, it is a rather "sensual" photo.

Just 5 more minutes..........

I think some of you might have a problem, so in your best interest; here are my 7 steps to curing your blogging addiction…

It starts out so innocently. The desire to have a creative outlet. To vent. To connect with people who may be like minded. To get that affirmation when you say something brilliant.

You start writing pithy and insightful observations. You surf others's sites similar to, and not so similar to, your place. You notice this little thing called a site meter. Hey, they've got 7326 hits. And they've only been blogging for 3 months! What the hell. And she's got 14, 587 hits! And at least 34 comments PER post! Why do I have no comments? I want comments. I want hits. So subtly, you have been lured.
.
Sound familiar? Hmmmm? Or are you in denial about your ~~whispered~~ little blog problem

The above was scraped from an older post at Blogher and Captain Me Planet. I've been a little overworked lately and don't have the time write.

When will it end?

Excuses

Has any of our corrupted criminal politicians currently leading the country in the executive branch of our government thought about how useless it is to have a “War on Terror”. It is just a phrase they use to justify their immoral, unethical, unpatriotic behavior.

The “War” on terror cannot be successful. You might eradicate it in one place, but it will just pop up in another place, perhaps in another form. The September 11 hijackers were successful because they assimilated into American life, wore the clothes of our culture, had the same habits and everyday tasks. They became so much like us, they just blended in. Now the authorities know what to look for, do you think they are going to use that tactic again? Doubtful!

Terror is much like a common cold or influenza virus. The cure cannot be found for those viruses or germs because they evolve, they change their form. We can fight the current rash of flu bugs, but those “cures” won’t work next year because it will not be the same exact virus. The same happens with the terrorist organization.

We are trying to fight an enemy without a country, without a land to capture, without any need to worry about United Nations Sanctions. As we focus on Iraq, a place The United States caused to become a terrorist state, the terrorists we thought we successfully eradicated from Afghanistan are slowly retaking that country. Anyone can see that our actions are making terrorism worse. We are using traditional warfare to fight idealism, it can’t work.

There is no war in Iraq; there is nothing to fight for. We have taken out the leader, we have installed our proxy government. We occupy a country which is at war with itself. The religions are fighting each other, as they were for hundreds of years. Religions are metastasizing malignancies that are much like the cancers that destroy animals. These are the same groups which brought it’s ousted ex-leader to power.

And they ignore Darfur, just like they ignored Rwanda.

If we only had a authentic leader....

Sunday Insights

Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do..And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! ..But He loves you. - George Carlin

I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing. - Douglas Adams

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. - Benjamin Franklin

Religion is unusual among divisible labels in being spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for them, we might had to respect them in spite of their concomitant unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic. - Richard Dawkins

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand" - Mark Twain

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. - Gene Roddenberry

You keep believing, I'll keep evolving.- Bumper sticker

"Faith" means not wanting to know what is true. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.- Isaac Asimov

The intelligent beings in these regions should therefore not be surprised if they observe that their locality in the universe satisfies the conditions that are necessary for their existence. It is a bit like a rich person living in a wealthy neighborhood not seeing any poverty. - Stephen Hawking

Why do you write to me "God should punish the English"? I have no close connection to either one or the other. I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held. - Albert Einstein

The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. - Frank Zappa

Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence. - Unknown

Faith? Yes, I have faith. I faithfully believe in truth, not religion. - ME

Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense. - Chapman Cohen

Fear

In honor of Friday the 13th.

Our current leaders love to keep us afraid, but there is already too much fear. I couldn't find a fear of a Bad President. How about Bushitophobia.

The five most common phobias are:

1. Fear of snakes (ophidiophobia)
2. Fear of giving a speech (glossophobia)
3. Fear of heights (acrophobia)
4. Fear of rodents (musophobia)
5. Fear of flying (aviophobia)

Following closely are phobias about confined spaces (Claustrophobia), thunder (Astrapophobia), nighttime (Noctiphobia) and dogs (Cynophobia).

Sure, it’s amusing to think someone can be afraid of colors (chromophobia), but how do these people buy fruit?

Papaphobia—fear of the pope.
Scorodophobia—fear of garlic.
Pteronophobia—fear of being tickled with feathers. (Please hurt me)
Ranidaphobia—fear of frogs.
Philematophobia—fear of kissing.
Aulophobia—fear of flutes.
Ostraconophobia—fear of shellfish.
Graphophobia—fear of handwriting.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia—fear of long words (seriously, you're afraid of the word that describes what you're afraid of)

Blennophobia—fear of slime.
Gerontophobia—fear of old people.
Peladophobia—fear of bald people.
Geropeladophobia—fear of old, bald people.
Phobophobia—fear of developing a fear.

Complete List: http://phobialist.com/

Ending on a serious note:

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself" - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fear-mongering and bad leadership are the only real threats to our National Security.

Mad World

Melancholy creeps in....

I haven't had much desire to write lately, but I want to keep the blog current.

Video: Mad World, Tear for Fears
(Gary Jules cover, from the movie Donnie Darko)

all around me are familiar faces
worn out places
worn out faces
bright and early for the daily races
going no where
going no where
their tears are filling up their glasses
no expression
no expression
hide my head i wanna drown my sorrow
no tomorrow
no tomorrow
and i find i kind of funny
i find it kind of sad
the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had
i find it hard to tell you
i find it hard to take
when people run in circles its a very very
mad world
mad world
children waiting for the day they feel good
happy birthday
happy birthday
and i feel the way that every child should
sit and listen
sit and listen
went to school and i was very nervous
no one knew me
no one new me
hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
look right through me
look right through me
and i find i kind of funny
i find it kind of sad
the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had
i find it hard to tell you
i find it hard to take
when people run in circles its a very very
mad world
mad world
enlarging your world
mad world

Flower

We make restless efforts to achieve, improve, and strive. We always want to go somewhere, like restless hunter-gatherers, or, negatively, like wanderers doomed to scavenge the earth.

That is why the image of the flower in nature is such a calm and reflective alternative to the sense of restlessness. The flower makes us pause and wonder at its beauty and its utter simplicity but more importantly at the startling fact that it has done nothing in order to be or become the way it is. No one has intervened on its behalf to bring it about. A flower is a chance occurrence of soil and wind, of rain and sunlight.

Here is the beginning of a philosophy of nature and life that is easy to grasp yet inexhaustible in its profoundness. Can we be like the "lilies of the field"? We are scattered seed upon the earth.

Can we discover the optimum conditions for a simple and fruitful life, nurtured by the elements of nature, not by contrivance, artificiality, or intervention?

The seed does not sprout in places it was not meant to. We are where we are because of some ineffable circumstance, and we may never know why. That is the source of our restlessness. Can we selflessly follow the wise pattern of the flower's growth and beauty and decay, which occurs irregardless of what it might "try" to do? How many mystics have given up on the "why" in order to throw themselves, like scattered seed, at the deeper solution: the ineffability, the mystery, the emptiness!

A field of flowers is impressive, and a bouquet of flowers has its charm, but it is the one solitary flower in the forest or the meadow or the trashheap that teaches best.

From: Hermit's Thatch

From Blueberry

This is hilarious, now you MUST Worship Dog: In Dog We Trust

Dog Bless You

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -Teddy Roosevelt

Remember to support the troops. How about buying one of those magnetic ribbons that everyone is using to show how much they have sacrificed to support the "War" effort.

This video will show exactly where to stick that magnetic sticker:
stick-a-yellow-ribbon-up-your-suv

For Montgomerians

Police Memorial Run for Keith E. Houts

Release

As a nation, we can learn much much from the way the Amish community is handling the recent evil act of random violence. They forgive the man who took their children from them. They won't let their faith become tainted with bitter feelings and evil vengeance. They have true faith. They know in their hearts that those children are in a better place.

I might not agree with their religion, but I respect their faith and their ability to follow the teachings of their faith, even when their own flesh and blood is torn from them.

Look at how we have responded as a nation to the evil act of random violence that has torn us apart, eating away out our principles, turning "Christians" into blood-thirsty murderers.

Would we see the same outpouring of grief if Islamic children had died in random acts of violence in Iraq or Lebanon? It has happened and is still happening.

I cannot understand how this "monster" could commit these acts of hatred and evil against innocent victims. It is even hard for me, an uninvolved bystander, to forgive it.

The "monster" I speak of is not only the one that murdered the Amish girls, it is also the the "monster" that has taken so much life in our "War on Terror". The "monster" is the inability to forgive.

"Fear is a powerful thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God-filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust"

Hot Air

Albuquerque Dreaming.....

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta - October 6-15

Question

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cos when we stop and look around us,
There is nothing that we need,
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its greed.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
Because the truth is hard to swallow
That's what the war of love is for

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me
It's more the way that you mean it
When you tell me what will be

And when you stop and think about it
You won't believe it's true
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you.

I'm looking for someone to change my life,
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see what it's done to me,
To lose the love I knew
Could safely lead me through.

Between the silence of the mountains,
And the crashing of the sea,
There lies a land I once lived in,
And she's waiting there for me,
But in the grey of the morning,
My mind becomes confused,
Between the dead and the sleeping,
And the road that I must choose.

I'm looking for someone to change my life,
I'm looking for a miracle in my life
And if you could see what it's done to me,
To lose the love I knew,
Could safely lead me to
The land that I once knew,
To learn as we grow old
The secrets of our soul.

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me
It's more the way you really mean it
When you tell me what will be

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war?
'Cos when we stop and look around us,
There is nothing that we need,
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its greed.

-- Justin Haywood (Moody Blues)

Farm Aid = Healthy Food

John Mellencamp has always been one of my favorite musicians. Mellencamp, along with Neil Young, are two artists that never sold out to corporate sponsorship. With Willy Nelson they began Farm Aid to educate America about why family farms are so important.

John Mellencamp never figured Farm Aid would still be needed now, 21 years after its debut as one of many moments of musicians trying to do good in the 1980s.

"We started out trying to save the family farm," Willy Nelson said at a pre-concert news conference in which the rockers sat among farmers. "Now, it looks like the family farm is going to save us.

The rest of the story: Farm Aid Aims to Educate on Healthy Food