Upping My Action

Yes, I might chime in here and there with an public opinion or two. And there's more at stake this election cycle. So here's how I am upping my action.

Here, on my personal Facebook page I'll share shareable information about the candidates that have my vote, subject to change.

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am a life-long Democrat (wait for it...). In the past several years a few things have changed:

...I've been disappointed by the Democratic Party,

...My default response to issue-based "Left or Right" questions is "It depends."

...I evolved from US Citizen to patriot when I realized our shared democracy, my citizenship, and everything in between can in fact be voted away.

...Being affiliated with either party is now an obstacle to individual, community and global peace.

So a few of us started our own party: The Voters Party(c) (TVP). It's been around for a while and more or less waiting for this moment. If you are qualified to vote in a US election, or want to be, you are already a member of TVP. You are a TVP Party of One.

TVP's only position is pro-voting (or is that pro-vote?). Our slogan is Promote the Vote. No candidates. No platform. No donations.

Why did I get this party started? I wanted to speak to US politics as an individual; a Party of One(c). I want us know what we agree on and what's needed to a path to 100% voter turnout.

Now, when you want to, you can say you belong to The Voters Party, or "I am a Party of One." More to follow on all things TVP.

Lincoln spoke to our time when he warned “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." [Source Reuters] ]

I agree to NOT do that. Do you?

I agree to Vote. Do you?

Peace.

Class Cold Warfare

Response to Karl Frisch's column of 20 Sept 2011

Brilliant.  Thank you for succinctly and pointedly calling the GOP on their hypocrisy,  They are arrogant enough to believe this strategy will work ad nauseum...time for it to backfire.

A lot of decisions and policies were enacted in public and private sectors...long before current administration...that drifted Americans toward the wealth and poverty poles.  The dearth of middle class, the discontinuation of good and equitable education, and simplification of health care for many to a choice between debt and death...these results evidence of successful class warfare campaign waged by the powerful against the plebs (myself included).

We need social leadership that will do for economically oppressed Americans what MLK did for civil rights--affirm the inequity and illegality of our current state, renew our commitment to peace and prosperity, ignite our potential and awaken our power.

I believe there are many out there who, like me, wallowed in the complacency of middle class while a slow, quiet drip eroded our economic security.  I knew fear for the first time upon waking up in actual statistical poverty and finally noticing the target on my back.  Having survived so far, and having worked through fear for survival, I now know anger.  Not a white-hot and irrational anger, but a focused and directed anger that is intelligent, educated, experienced and ready for action.  They want to call "Class Warfare?"  Bring it on.  You're right, Karl.  We have engaged.

I hold these truths to be self-evident

As always, more to come...

Everything that occurs naturally is ultimately round.  Anything that is planed or straight is man-made.

The problem with string theory is that it is not round.

The opposite of love is apathy.

All human intent can be plotted on a 4-square grid.  Y (Motivation) axis is Love and Fear, X (Survival) axis is Sex and Money.

Masonry began when Solomon built the first temple to "house" God in a palace of straight lines, and thereby reverse that nature of worship from female to male.  He later realized this as an error, realized its implications, and recanted.  It was too late.  The method of spiritual, political and economic control he loosed had taken hold, and holds us still.   

Bootstrap Brilliance

I don't know about you, but I need some new bootstraps.  Mine are, surprisingly, not broken or worn out despite my many years of pulling my considerable self up by them.  I can still pull but I don't get any lift.  No upward torque. They just don't work anymore.

Wait...I feel a song coming on...(yes, apparently I woke up in a musical version of my life this morning...).
If Jerrod Neimann will excuse my bastardization of his "Lover, Lover" lyrics, my song goes "Oh leather, leather, leather, you don't lift me no good no more."  

OK, that's enough of that.  Here's the Knowledge Shared that offers one explanation for why my trusty old bootstraps ain't liftin' no good no more. I swear I didn't write it.  In fact, it comes to us courtesy of The Economist\Intelligent Life\On Bootstraps.

“Lifting oneself by one’s bootstraps is an almost entirely American accomplishment,” wrote I.A.R. Wylie in a 1927 article in the Sunday Times London...The disadvantage, she continues, is that “there are more second rate people in first class positions than there ought to be…all right so long as there is plenty of room for the first rate man who has no capacity for bootstrapping and so long as there is no sudden crisis.” So perhaps bootstrapping is yet another reason for our financial woes;  arrogant, second-rate bootstrapping traders crowded out all of those first-class market experts.

Damn you, Rampant Mediocrity!

What's another word for "Thesaurus"?

Word freaks, rejoice!  Check out this beta I found on dictionary.com for visualthesaurus.com

My suggestion:  type in a basic word like "play" or "work" and then sit back and watch what happens.  Looks like its going to be a subscription, not free like dictionary.com, but if you get addicted there's at least a 14 day free trial.

In America, sociopaths have a competitive advantage.

If you believe you do not know at least one sociopath and/or are not impacted by sociopathic behavior, you're wrong.  This layman's guide is reprinted without permission from Hypocrisy Today, the official journal of the American Society of Sociopaths.  Have a read, and then re-examine the role sociopathy plays in your life. Sleep tight, we'll talk about it in the morning.

A sociopath is an individual whose behavior is socially acceptable, and in fact, who appears to be an ideal person. In reality, this individual sees no value in other people except as they may affect his/her own self-gratification.

We [A.S.S.] think sociopaths are grossly misunderstood by their fellowpersons, and are dedicated to correcting this abberation of human perspective. In keeping with current self-help, feel- good trends, we have gathered together, sociopathically, to

• create awareness of the problem,
• scold society for allowing it to continue unabated,
• whine about the trauma it has caused in our lives,
• seek justice (and perhaps a healthy class-action settlement),
• and to generally behave in sociopathically- acceptable ways.