tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29185469780233829822024-03-13T16:33:24.634-07:00Me For PresidentI'm changing this blog to my campaign for the Presidency (just pretending). This is an adult blog. There will be adult language and adult topics. If you are easily offended, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-45988704239987944252023-06-23T06:09:00.000-07:002023-06-23T06:09:59.894-07:00How the legislation process should work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho97KC6FpMDvJbs0_dDn7yjhLR6LlgB85BZfB54cqKXvAzegLbevE7NQv13raHTryGClLvErHdnsB5h2GSfySYyxXoR024iNSWOnuXutSoZmhNjJNMa2q8fhr_-G332mrO0_j3TGHyBvh4_gYntiRVQmtwQw4Jfv7cQfqPwMH8nA9s-z7k79tzEkH8LHB1/s489/usflagbunting.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="101" data-original-width="489" height="66" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho97KC6FpMDvJbs0_dDn7yjhLR6LlgB85BZfB54cqKXvAzegLbevE7NQv13raHTryGClLvErHdnsB5h2GSfySYyxXoR024iNSWOnuXutSoZmhNjJNMa2q8fhr_-G332mrO0_j3TGHyBvh4_gYntiRVQmtwQw4Jfv7cQfqPwMH8nA9s-z7k79tzEkH8LHB1/s320/usflagbunting.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>I'm new at this so forgive me my ignorance and naivete but it appears that the Legislative Branch spends too much time in party fighting, in campaigning for their next stint and in wasting time. I have worked with and sat on several boards, however, and it is tempting to forget the purpose of any public body and become just a group of personalities who can't seem to get anything done, homo sapiens being homo sapiens, especially now that they get air time to spew their every opinion and fantasy with cameras and microphones in their face every day. Aren't We Special.</p><p>Let's get to work.</p><p>Every law enacted should have a clearly stated aim; should include in its test all arguments for and against and a test against the preamble of the Constitution:</p><p>"We the People of the United States, <b>in Order to form a
more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for
the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity</b>, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America."</p><p>If it doesn't meet on of those very broad aims, it's unnecessary and should be a state matter.</p><p>In addition, all laws are dated and it should be the work of Congress to review, revise, update and remove all laws on a scheduled basis. That will keep them busy.</p><p>Article I. Section 6. of our Constitution addresses the compensation of Congress but, other than the Senate's sole responsibility in impeachments, nothing, before Section 6 addresses the job of Congress until after Section 6. That is poor personnel practice. You do not discuss compensation before definition the job. It is, after all job. A variety of types of legislation, imagined by the founding fathers, is outlined in Sections 8 and 9 but no where is there a clear definition of the actual work of the Legislative Branch, particularly as it applies to the clear aims of the Preamble, as shown above. Therefore, I propose the following Constitution amendment:</p><p>Proposed Amendment: It shall be the job and function of the Legislative Branch to enact such laws are determined useful in satisfying the aims of the Preamble of our Constitution which will preface each resolution and proposal. In addition, it shall be the function of the Legislative Branch to review, revise, update and/or remove any laws previously enacted, on a scheduled basis. Included in the text of each proposed legislation will be the justification of that proposal as it applies to the aims of our Constitution. Also included, will be a proposed period of time for the first and subsequent reviews.</p><p>Let's be clear, the founding fathers were predominantly aristocrats. They did not envision a Boebert nor a Santos being in office. They did not envision many things. That assessment is obviously biased and I am in the process of reading at least some biographical information about each of the founding fathers and will, hopefully, include a brief biographical sketch of each in the Resources.</p><p>That's it for now....</p><p><br /></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-31075563995667102722023-06-21T16:48:00.000-07:002023-06-21T16:48:39.406-07:00No parties<p>I'm not interested in parties. Some new ones are emerging. Too bad. Political parties are dividing us.-</p><p>I'm also not interested in individuals, in personalities; they also divide us.</p><p>We had better start looking at what our problems are and whandarat the solutions might be. As long as we focus our attention on parties and on personalities; we're not looking at our problems and solutions.</p><p>Our problems:</p><p>The economy - it's askew, top heavy. We have a handful of powerful, disgustingly wealthy people who are influencing the supposed representatives of ALL of us. That has to stop. Passing legislation is not the answer, government contracts may be. By setting criteria of government contracts intelligently, we can blunt the influence of the super rich.</p><p>Stupidity and incompetence - it's everywhere. We have to beef up our education in this country. Set standards; what everyone should know and what everybody should be able to do. Again, not legislation but standards that are required for support from the federal level.</p><p>Lack of consequences - we have become a supremely permissive society. We don't think a former president should be indicted let alone convicted - mistake. A president is a PUBLIC SERVANT - and should be most severely dealt with, of all criminals.</p><p>I am running - in this little exercise - as an absolutely Independent. I have no backing. I have no money. I am a citizen with family history going back to pre-Revolution colonial New York. I have every right to run - just an exercise.</p><p>The aims of government, according to Our Constitution are:</p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>to form a
more perfect Union, </li><li>establish Justice, </li><li>insure domestic Tranquility, </li><li>provide for
the common defence, </li><li>promote the general Welfare, </li><li>and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.</li></ul><div>Despite the antiquated misspelling of defense, it's clear what the intent of the drafters of the Constitution had in mind.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since then, over time, our government has been infested with profiteers who seek to gain, for themselves, against the American people; who have little or no intent to serve, but only to gain, for themselves. We have to work - hard - against this.</div><div><br /></div><div>Every oath of office should repeat these aims and annual reports must be required on how everyone and every agency is working toward these basic goals. Some of you may not remember but presidents used to be on the radio and on television answering the question of how well they were meeting these goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>Certainly neither the Democrats, nor the Republicans are working to form a more perfect Union; rather, they are working hard to discredit each other in order to get reelected to serve their financial supporters. It's become criminal. It's the same with each of these aims. Who's working toward these aims.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are, fortunately, a few decent human beings in government and they are usually those who don't get that much press because they are working to do what they were elected to do, fulfill those aims of the Constitution, not perpetually campaigning for the next election or fight with "the other side".</div><div><br /></div><div>Further definition of what I believe these aims mean in detail in the future.</div><div><br /></div><p></p><p></p>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-67254677643240159142023-05-28T18:57:00.000-07:002023-05-28T18:57:11.667-07:00More Stances<p>What I believe and feel and what I would try to do, if I were President.</p><p> <b>I'm for term limits.</b> Career politicians were never conceived of. Of course, neither was the complexity of modern life but career government employees pretty much take care of that anyway. And, I mean limits, two terms, consecutively or otherwise. 8 years to do damage or good is enough. The complexity of modern life make it tempting to extend that so "experienced" people continue their work but let's resist that temptation.</p><p><b>I'm OK with a death penalty</b> as long as it's lethal injection. But, its up to states, unless it's a federal offense.</p><p><b>I have a complete and comprehensive welfare plan</b> that does more but is for a limited time with a lot of controls. I was a single mother from day one with zero child support ever. I was on welfare for about 6 months when my son was an infant and I went back to work before he was weaned.</p><p><b>We need to get back to standards</b>: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Standards of civil behavior.</li><li>Standards of quality for just about everything.</li><li>Educational standards.</li><li>Work standards.</li></ul><div>So many things....</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Exacting economic control depends on government standards and regulations. </b> You have freedom to do business but no assistance without meeting standards and regulations; that includes licensing, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>I insist on separation of church and state.</b></div><p></p><p><b>Public, especially elected officials may NOT serve on national anything unless they provide a clear, easy means of feedback and communication from THE PUBLIC.</b></p><p><b>ALL Executive Branch Departments will be required to present 2 televised reports to The American People a year: The first to present the mission, goals and plans for the coming year; the second to report on the outcome of those missions, goals and plans.</b></p><p><b>The pay of ALL elected officials will be, by law, voted on at each election.</b></p><p><b>ALL government contracts will require of any proposed contractor:</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>a current (reviewed and updated in the past 3 years) personnel manual that is available to all employees.</b></li><li><b>a current (annually reviewed and revised) pay scale for all classes of employees, including executive class.</b></li><li><b>an acceptable gap between classes of employees to be decided among congress and Fair Labor Standards Board.</b></li><li><b>Fair Labor Standards will be returned to humane standards and reviewed periodically.</b></li><li><b>standards for products and services will be enforced.</b></li></ul><div><b>Election standards, regulations and laws will be reviewed and, hopefully, improved. Federal elections basics will be paid for from the General Fund. Certain regulations will govern campaign activities not covered in that budget in an effort to control excess "dark money" in the election process.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>All agencies will develop standards and criteria for their area of activity. Standards will be available on departmental web sites. They are not mandates, nor laws, however, federal funds will not be given to those who do not meet them.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I am for elected suicide. A person's life is the one true thing we own; it's nobody's business when we leave.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I think each person, at birth, has the right to have their DNA sequenced and registered as proof of their existence and their ownership of that DNA and life. </b>This is based on a televised documentary where a corporation obtained the rights to the DNA of a person with a rare disease and refused to pay for the right with free treatment with drugs obtained from that DNA. Should never have happened.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I am against gender reassignment surgery before the age of majority.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I am against discrimination of any kind in any circumstance.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Publicly funded agencies, services, etc. will not change their policies, hours, content, fees, activities, etc. based on the objection of individuals served. If someone is offended by something, input will be collected and, if enough evidence of a problem exists, a PUBLIC hearing will be conducted to determine an outcome which may include the removal of public funding and shutting down service to everyone. In the meantime, people who are offended can find those services elsewhere.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>It expected that actions have consequences and that everyone will accept the consequences for their actions. </b>Everyone does not behave responsibly and there must be consequences.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>To be a patriot means to accept the laws of the country you live in, receive services and protection from but work to improve by example, by voting, by participating locally and up through the various levels of government.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Paying taxes is one way each citizen contributes to the vast array of services and protections all our levels of government provide: roads, sidewalks, streetlights, sewers, water, police, fire, schools, libraries, railroads, the military, and more. We don't receive all the services, all the time, but jointly, we get more than we pay.</b></div><p></p><p>We each have our own perception of the world, our way of doing things, our own tastes, our own opinions. Sometimes we forget that everyone has their own as well and it's none of our business.</p><p><b>ALL life is sacred. The energy of life is eternal but physical life is finite.</b></p><p><b>War is wasteful and stupid but, unhappily, sometimes unavoidable.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHhG8-pc9QPxO5ifqscUeAstssqOuVBPUX5cJlksAi-K8JcthVnOnwb1AxzQzETQflTW_5VPYkzZhzzWwE1j8czKUwTIcVN_MnXUHXPNPLr2Z0DQ_HbrxaiQUyCiLogC9WfwBwpR9YnSK-lSET5i5ypVzZBb-jCeSdLoqXFBHy7jEPbAtsHXNuAowNA/s489/usflagbunting.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="101" data-original-width="489" height="66" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvHhG8-pc9QPxO5ifqscUeAstssqOuVBPUX5cJlksAi-K8JcthVnOnwb1AxzQzETQflTW_5VPYkzZhzzWwE1j8czKUwTIcVN_MnXUHXPNPLr2Z0DQ_HbrxaiQUyCiLogC9WfwBwpR9YnSK-lSET5i5ypVzZBb-jCeSdLoqXFBHy7jEPbAtsHXNuAowNA/s320/usflagbunting.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b><p></p><p><br /></p>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-86438661552281886892023-02-23T06:39:00.000-08:002023-02-23T06:39:22.168-08:00The Power of Government<p> There's much that I should post before this but I'll get to those things and this is on my mind right now and may need editing later....</p><p>One of the things that governments, at all levels can so to achieve a result it feels is in the best interest of the greater good, is a system of incentives and disincentives; in effect bribes and punishments. We do it with our children all the time, mostly without thinking. "If you keep your room clean for a week, we'll go ...." (add whatever reward you want here) Or, "If you don't clean up your room, you can't..." (add your favorite threat here.)</p><p>We get tax exemptions for the number of children we have. Is that not an incentive to have children? We have deductions of the interest on our mortgages. Is that not an incentive to buy a house? We fine corporations for polluting. Is that not a disincentive for polluting? Probably not enough of one since they still do it.</p><p>I think it's a very effective way of getting people to move in the direction you want. Yes, my friends, manipulation is human nature.</p><p>It's certainly a method I would use. Being a citizen of a country, a member of a society, means you have to conform, to a degree with, what I think, some general norms and behaviors. The Constitution lays out some very general norms, others are codified in statutes, laws and regulations.</p><p>So, if I were President, there are incentives and disincentives I would propose. Some would be different than those now existing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsTCxlTGOBg_wu9kwn9m6EtLKOshTBqnz5cVgwe8mxsnC0WZHk8RNni4523W9PI7USpsUrDXF6d0pSwoJvayJnH-5wZ33uMwmkglVPsw3hf-tXlBQaPMSnWQuvy7JnufDIiVz5ts2M4_C_LJqIFRAbZt7WxE-vxJpvD_ezFMIkbxVwouWa-GoJiYR2Og/s382/American%20Flag%20country.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="382" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsTCxlTGOBg_wu9kwn9m6EtLKOshTBqnz5cVgwe8mxsnC0WZHk8RNni4523W9PI7USpsUrDXF6d0pSwoJvayJnH-5wZ33uMwmkglVPsw3hf-tXlBQaPMSnWQuvy7JnufDIiVz5ts2M4_C_LJqIFRAbZt7WxE-vxJpvD_ezFMIkbxVwouWa-GoJiYR2Og/w133-h87/American%20Flag%20country.gif" width="133" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-46017882868974894402023-02-07T06:42:00.000-08:002023-02-07T06:42:00.882-08:00OK, here's the thing....<p> Just for the fun of it, let's pretend that I'm running for President in 2024.</p><p>Why not; look who else is running... so far nobody worth considering. Now, if Pete Buttigieg runs....</p><p>But, I'm gonna pretend that I'm running and post my campaign thoughts, policies, etc. As some of you already know, I'm very opinionated.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmgHUhvbeyCWGvgPMFyqiZxcDtB9FyNYr9ZaKDQT-ypQpW4n7mxU8hlm9Mu0NS0hfq-_NCuAk_rqq6WIdHMJmabDqbpviaVC3TR28JKaz5FJSw2qMOHuNxNlKZ9QyI7nbINN97ISocIInRPZkSXX8ZT81F5CuFWiFEQZAfSXpYCS_CayVbHK3EgjD2A/s200/200wUSflaggif.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmgHUhvbeyCWGvgPMFyqiZxcDtB9FyNYr9ZaKDQT-ypQpW4n7mxU8hlm9Mu0NS0hfq-_NCuAk_rqq6WIdHMJmabDqbpviaVC3TR28JKaz5FJSw2qMOHuNxNlKZ9QyI7nbINN97ISocIInRPZkSXX8ZT81F5CuFWiFEQZAfSXpYCS_CayVbHK3EgjD2A/s1600/200wUSflaggif.webp" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">More later.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-nAdaERSCZah5Zu7dnRD27mc4QTkZUKCnur6sbjslhYR2HccM-7jZZE11oYttGdGd1R5QCV27Ep_P3uLz8skn5UXesvk2sVGFY1IAeYW8HItP7AhUPYsahqYDE3v5f42d84VBbl17Vd_AE6taj7ifZZxbUId3HnQDYQC0Z4tiMaliRBNt5SMsk573Q/s200/200wsalute13.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5-nAdaERSCZah5Zu7dnRD27mc4QTkZUKCnur6sbjslhYR2HccM-7jZZE11oYttGdGd1R5QCV27Ep_P3uLz8skn5UXesvk2sVGFY1IAeYW8HItP7AhUPYsahqYDE3v5f42d84VBbl17Vd_AE6taj7ifZZxbUId3HnQDYQC0Z4tiMaliRBNt5SMsk573Q/s1600/200wsalute13.webp" width="200" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-43421199882966354032017-02-13T09:42:00.000-08:002017-02-13T09:42:55.598-08:00I Am For:<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am for:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clean air and clean water; therefore, I am for dispensing with outdated, environmentally hazardous materials, fuels, processes; WHATEVER THE COST.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After all, we need to breath before we can do anything else. We need clean water to drink before we need food to eat and we need clean water to grow healthy food.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, I am for dispensing with coal, oil and gas as our primary fuels. We now have the means, through solar and wind energy, to power the country. Investing in those infrastructures is smarter than continuing to support the former. Nuclear fusion is still a hope in the back of my mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, jobs in outdated industries will be lost but programs have been in place and funded for job training and other support during this transition, created by people who actually knew something.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The current administration who is both painfully ignorant and pathologically paranoid about what has already been done and is in the process of dismantling all the work that more intelligent, more informed and saner people have done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Those who cannot see past their own noses, whose egocentric, selfish interests don't go far from their own tiny lives will forever be the road blocks to progress and far-reaching efforts for the greater good. That includes those in the new administration and those ignoramuses who have supported them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our planet cannot afford the stupidity of the current administration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have no answers for how to resist this stupidity. We may have to weather the storm and be prepared to take back what's needed to move ahead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are days when I worry about how far this wreckless idiocy will go and the resistance in response.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Those who refuse to understand what's at stake, those who refuse to sacrifice their tiny pleasures for the health of the place where they live are not worth thinking about. Those of us who do see the issues and the solutions must keep working toward a saner, healthier future which will be of benefit to them regardless if they figure it out or not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I often feel impotent lately. I'm just an ordinary, little person. But, I will do everything I can to refuse to participate in or support what is clearly against the environment and my best future. I will continue to communicate with anyone and everyone who I think can make a difference. I will continue to make decisions with the future in mind. I will do what I can to spend my money wisely in this regard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are living in dark and troubling times. Stupidity and ignorance must not prevail. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-25381782915411600522016-05-17T01:26:00.000-07:002016-05-17T01:26:11.128-07:00The gender bathroom thingReally?!!!<br />
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This is my understanding and it's definitely flawed but not as flawed as the thinking of some of the unbelievably dense and ignorant people out there.<br />
<br />
First, definitions are clearly necessary so here are mine:<br />
<br />
Gay - people attracted to the same sex romantically and sexually.<br />
<br />
Transvestite - someone who dresses up and makes up like the opposite sex.<br />
<br />
Transexual or transgender - someone who feels they were born in a body with the wrong gender and feel that they are the opposite gender and often have had gender reassignment surgery which means they are <b>ACTUALLY FUNCTIONING AS THE GENDER THEY FEEL THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN BORN AS</b>.<br />
<br />
So:<br />
<br />
Gay men - not interested in women or little girls.<br />
<br />
Transvestites - may be interested in women or little girls.<br />
<br />
Transgender/transexual women (formerly men) - not interested in women or little girls.<br />
<br />
It seems to be a lot of women who are objecting to trans women using their bathrooms, excusing their discomfort by claiming fear for their daughters. TRANS WOMEN AREN'T INTERESTED IN YOU OR YOUR DAUGHTERS.<br />
<br />
Trans women can't use men's bathrooms. They mostly don't look like men anymore, often aren't physically equipped like men. And, most importantly, are in more likely and more seriously in danger from using men's bathrooms, from men, than any danger you imagine they present to you women. THINK ABOUT IT!!!<br />
<br />
I understand there are conflicting definitions. These are mine which influence my view of this issue.<br />
<br />
I haven't figured out the transvestite situation because it's my understanding that there are hetero men who are transvestites. So, I think the first problem is clarifying the definitions for everybody, legally, so there's no confusion about what laws apply to whom.<br />
<br />
At any rate, I have personally known just about every configuration of race, religion, nationality and gender and everybody needs to take a breath and stop looking for demons around every corner. There are dangers out there but stop exaggerating; most of them are from heterosexual people.<br />
<br />
And, people who have had gender reassignment surgery should be given a second birth certificate immediately after surgery which should be legally binding (but please keep the first as well for us genealogists).<br />
<br />
Please - transgender people, chime in and correct me where I'm mistaken.Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-15479340164540728182016-01-30T07:59:00.000-08:002016-01-30T07:59:05.664-08:00Ugly Americans<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We Americans are so ridiculous at times that we are disgusting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We complain about taxes forgetting that paved roads cost money, sidewalks cost money, crossing guards and buses for our kids cost money. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Somebody has to come and put out our fires. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Somebody has to be paid to fill in potholes. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Sg_nIGnowkLxVmeVaxKuTaLezT_Bg1dkjZPlW4ivucYxaOvUlOOCT35LEQDQ3VmONSkOsZD-UJhnNpfzhz89od9A6OhdB5Wgvlv5ReW7ECkcQD9sPkwKazMRYg-NUA8HtGsnnfxiIUAb/s1600/pothole2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4Sg_nIGnowkLxVmeVaxKuTaLezT_Bg1dkjZPlW4ivucYxaOvUlOOCT35LEQDQ3VmONSkOsZD-UJhnNpfzhz89od9A6OhdB5Wgvlv5ReW7ECkcQD9sPkwKazMRYg-NUA8HtGsnnfxiIUAb/s200/pothole2.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have indoor plumbing and sanitized water that comes to our house in pipes that have to be laid and, sometimes, repaired and replaced. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have schools to send our children where there are teachers who do many things for our children on their own time, at their own expense, who have to keep up with the latest information on their subjects and who expect to be paid. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We're afraid of anything and anyone with which we're not familiar so we want an Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Marines to protect us. We also want street lights so we can see people coming at night. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of us think it's both necessary and appropriate to raise hell, from time to time, drink too much, get into drunken fights, cause property damage, steal from our neighbors, etc. so we have to have police and they expect to be paid </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some of us like to read and to learn new things so we want libraries. Some of us can't afford to keep up with technology with the latest gizmos so we want libraries to have some available for us to share there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many of us can't be trusted to drive in a reasonable, safe manner, keeping the safety and comfort of other around us in mind so we have to have signs and traffic signals to control our movements and to tell us what's ahead. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19NrR8pXSMsLnfUYqFUe2mdIIHe4le6QAfLf8A4dir8N6eAcaJHSnLvMVLrQN3LBLKt4l_QGM-JRDTg-1SjFbuwn-qBjxn0ss9RulJIWJptT3ilNJaDYdGRvNbORWEPG2eLz_IiKpf_2t/s1600/guardrail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19NrR8pXSMsLnfUYqFUe2mdIIHe4le6QAfLf8A4dir8N6eAcaJHSnLvMVLrQN3LBLKt4l_QGM-JRDTg-1SjFbuwn-qBjxn0ss9RulJIWJptT3ilNJaDYdGRvNbORWEPG2eLz_IiKpf_2t/s200/guardrail.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Streets, sidewalks, schools, school buses, teachers, librarians, library books, magazines, DVDs, music CDs, public computers at the library, street lights, sewers, public water, gas lines, crossing guards, musical instruments at schools for kids to practice on, school books, school nurses, firehouses, fire equipment, public works employees, parks, road signs, traffic signals, sewage treatment plants, water treatment plants, sand and salt for winter roads, power plants, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard, policemen, judges, bridges, reservoirs, all kinds of supplies, buildings, equipment, vehicles and employees to make all these things available. These are just a few of the things our taxes pay for.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the meantime, most of us have never been to a town council meeting, don't know who our local officials are and don't care, never communicate with our state or federal representatives because we want to believe they don't pay any attention (that's called self-fulfilling prophecy). [They actually log each call, piece of mail, email by subject and stance - not quite personal, individual response but they are paying attention]. How do I know that? Ask me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, we all have lots of opinions about how things should be done, what's wrong and who's to blame.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just remember that when our Constitution was put into force (1789), the population of the United States was roughly 3.5 plus million; it's now almost 323 million. You might consider the possibility that providing all those things listed above and more for all those people is extremely difficult and expensive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm not saying there aren't inefficiencies and waste. I'm not saying there isn't corruption. I'm not saying that we should overlook the distance that's grown between our representatives and us (whose fault is that?).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am saying that constant bitching about "the government", as if it's some foreign entity instead of a bunch of institutions and people that we have some responsibility for having allowed or ignored in its growth and evolution. And, looking at one (the president) or a few (our representatives) as the source of our problems is stupid and ignorant. Bitching is not taking an active role in our government. Voting isn't enough. Thinking and worrying about what's wrong are wastes of time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We need to educate ourselves about how our government works - no, not textbook stuff. I'm not talking about how government works in general; I'm talking about how government works on a day by day basis; because that's where things happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How are decisions made in your town about where street lights are installed, where sidewalks are laid and what they're made of? Why are there 6 people and 3 trucks at a road repair (just an example)? Do you know why that pothole in front of you house hasn't been fixed in 2 months?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Who is your state representative? How has he/she voted on the last 10 bills that were proposed? What legislation is coming up? Have you ever read your state constitution?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same questions for the federal level? How often have you written to, called, or emailed your senator or congressman? What's actually in the federal budget - do you know, have you ever seen a copy? This is incomplete - the 2010 budget (the last I saw) was about 6 or 7 volumes: <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview" target="_blank">Budget Overview</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even our towns' management is a big, difficult enterprise. If you don't understand and appreciate that fact, well, then, your opinions are based on absolutely nothing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, there's another much more fundamental problem and that's that some of us, when we think about these things, think about WE. WE are a country. WE share a Constitution that WE (sort of) agree is the basis our how our country is supposed to work. But, some of us actually <u>don't</u> think in terms of WE or US; some of us only think about I and ME, or a much smaller WE that only includes people who think exactly like us. Some of us aren't able to see the importance of looking out for the mass of the population out there with all it's diversity. It's an US vs THEM way of seeing the world and it can only lead to conflict.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At any rate, almost all Americans live in a world where they have access to all these publicly funded things, in contrast to people living in little villages in say, Afghanistan, Africa, China, India, the rain forests where some people live in tiny structures, without running water, without sewage control, without garbage pickup, without sidewalks, paved roads, street lights, schools, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, complain away, just keep a little perspective. And, educate yourself and be more active in your governance. Did you know there are towns where you can actually fund a specific pothole?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can mouth off here but I do monitor comments. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhImGV9ELP6fb6gM00eu5PgssfjMUgq2xkTNF28B_MFgMOIxu7ZIP2LYcBeWav2x0y30kZrPPbC555ZlfxalZGlz5Prx93wS2QH4gfVMMDl-5n-cFkgO62cIzaepml4EDXL93wI9_sjDCJd/s1600/water-tower1-720px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhImGV9ELP6fb6gM00eu5PgssfjMUgq2xkTNF28B_MFgMOIxu7ZIP2LYcBeWav2x0y30kZrPPbC555ZlfxalZGlz5Prx93wS2QH4gfVMMDl-5n-cFkgO62cIzaepml4EDXL93wI9_sjDCJd/s200/water-tower1-720px.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-91253902978212137262016-01-18T07:14:00.001-08:002016-01-18T07:14:19.178-08:00Liberal vs Conservative<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Let's take the politics out of the definitions:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">From Merriam-Webster:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal" target="_blank">Liberal</a>:</u></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">1. a. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">of, relating to, or based on the </span><a class="d_link" href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal%20arts" style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">liberal arts</span></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="vi" style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">liberal</em> education>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span class="vi" style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> b. </span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">archaic</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="intro-colon" style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> of or befitting a man of free birth.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">2. a. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">marked by generosity.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> b. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">given or provided in a generous and open-handed way.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">3. </span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">obsolete</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="intro-colon" style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> lacking moral restraint .</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">4. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">not literal or strict</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> .</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">5. </span>broad-minded<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">; </span><em style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">especially</em><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><span class="intro-colon" style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> not bound by authoritarianism, </span>orthodoxy<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">, or traditional forms.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">6. This is the political definition and I'm omitting it.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conservative" target="_blank">Conservative</a>:</u></span></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">1. </span>preservative.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">2. This is the political definition and I'm omitting it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">3. a. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions </span><span class="intro-colon" style="font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> </span>traditional.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> b. <span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">marked by moderation or caution.</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"> c. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">Now -- read each definition, carefully. give some attention to your reactions to each definition. give attention your the biases and prejudices behind your reactions. read each definition again. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">If you're honest with yourself, if you're open-minded, you'll find there's nothing wrong with any of these definitions. I can analyze each of them for you but you should do that, and honestly, because I think you'll find your own biases and prejudices which are the more important things to give attention to than the actual definitions. It's your biases and prejudices that create problems in the world; problems for yourself, problems for others.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">I have no problem with any of these definitions except in the degree and intensity with which they are held - which, of course, makes me much more of a liberal than a conservative but I can actually claim each of these definitions to some degree, in myself.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">Politically, I'm definitely liberal but I'm not a member of any political party which I would be happy to see abolished completely.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">I believe that being either one or the other, to the exclusion of the opposite is to be quite insane.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">I do take issue with one definition - definition 3 of Liberal - believe me, this is not confined to liberals, that's why it's obsolete.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">What about you? How do you really feel and think about things, and why? If you never ask yourself....</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small; letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;">[I cut and pasted the definitions, thus the font variations]</span></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="color: #3b3e41; font-family: "open sans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.64px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-34706834537689772862016-01-14T11:04:00.000-08:002016-01-14T11:04:11.523-08:00Bureaucrats<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Some people like to spew words that they often don't actually
think about - lazy thinking, lazy communication. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In reaction to a Facebook comment I just read I wanted to
actually think about a word used - bureaucrat.
It gets slung around quite a bit, without thinking. In fact, in many of my jobs, I could easily
have been labeled a bureaucrat. Not that
I would have cared much about such unthinking remarks. It's a term often used for public servants,
better names public employees. Elected
officials are, in my mind and vocabulary, public servants. They are elected to SERVE the public. Public employees, in contrast, are hired to
perform a job for the public. Both are
often called bureaucrats.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I found this on Wikipedia: “The term bureaucrat was first used in print
during the French Revolution, by the journalist Fouilloux in the Père Duchesne
in 1791, writing that the object most deserving of his disgust was the
bureaucrat, harbinger of a "new mode of servitude”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJT0_JiEs0xd1xjzUWCvN23C9JBLWPGxKdvCm24gqVMC-NKxq8LSkJZ5J6IJibrlv5FXMVWgBq0AcmM5vAgEdPmCZRi69Q-p3wK1CVDYhaX-3AD70OpJBa3vD-W59bNg9gYFJxbI2cZT3/s1600/busy-office.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJT0_JiEs0xd1xjzUWCvN23C9JBLWPGxKdvCm24gqVMC-NKxq8LSkJZ5J6IJibrlv5FXMVWgBq0AcmM5vAgEdPmCZRi69Q-p3wK1CVDYhaX-3AD70OpJBa3vD-W59bNg9gYFJxbI2cZT3/s1600/busy-office.gif" /></a></div>
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Yes, servitude. In
each, the public servant, or the public employee, their function is to SERVE
the public.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A colleague once told me how she distinguished between
the two: the public servant has very few
qualifications, training or often little experience required to get the job;
the public employee, depending on the position they hold generally has a list
of required qualifications, training and experience even to be interviewed for
the position.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In either case, if a public servant, or a public employee
isn’t doing the job you think they should be doing, first, be sure to determine
if the job you think they should be doing is the job they are supposed to be
doing. In my experience, many in the
general public have no idea what any particular individual’s job is other than
their own because most of us are quite self-absorbed and don’t pay attention to
the world around us. Many in the general
public seem to believe that anyone at any public desk is there to do whatever
is asked of them by whoever asks. If that
same person were on the other side of the counter, you can be sure they would
see how ridiculous their expectation is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Before you go charging into any particular agency, be
sure you are going to the correct agency whose purpose is to help you with what
it is you need help with. Then, be sure
to find out what office and what individual it is that you should go to. Then, before you make your request, take a
breath and think and understand that you are one, single individual making a
request that employee or official has heard, just in that day alone, more times
than you might think. They are people,
just like you, who have undoubtedly already faced a slew of people who want
something, want it now and, many times, are already angry when they approach
this person with their expectations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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When you reduce an individual to a category, to a word,
in this case usually negative, you behave toward that individual in ways that
you are often unconscious of that will affect the outcome of your
interaction. Fortunately, good public
employees, who have been empowered by management to do their job and given a
work load that is manageable, will be able to overlook your shortcomings in
your approach and will be able to help you or find someone who can.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you don’t take responsibility for what takes place
around you, you will always be disgruntled and rarely satisfied.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I was a librarian for most of my adult life and worked
most often in public libraries. My job
was to help people find books they were looking for (which, btw, they should
have learned to find themselves) or by answering questions for them by getting
them information from various sources.
If someone wanted something our library couldn’t help them with, I often
called around and found an agency that could help them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My experience helping the public was as varied as was
each individual approaching me for help.
Some people have no idea what they’re doing and are grateful for any
help they can find; other people who have no idea what they’re doing can’t
accept that fact and approach already angry and expect problems. Some people are quite knowledgeable and only
approach with requests that are more complex or esoteric and are open and
questioning. Some people are afraid for
various reasons, are hesitant about asking any question at all but generally
are thankful for assistance. There are
people, having gone to a number of agencies for information, impatient,
suspicious and quick to anger resentment, who most often treat others with
disrespect and are rarely satisfied because they don’t challenge their own
assumptions about most things, including about themselves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Like all human beings, there are good and not so good
public servants and public employees.
Approaching either with expectations is a mistake. If they aren’t able to help you, there’s
always another. Know what you want,
communicate clearly, listen carefully and if you aren’t satisfied ask who else
you can speak to. If you don’t get an
answer to that, ask for a supervisor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I would agree that many of our politicians, who are
public servants, seem to have forgotten that and have not been doing much of a
job at all. <o:p></o:p></div>
Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-72177102309578275752014-12-04T15:25:00.001-08:002014-12-04T15:25:27.315-08:00Consequences<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mmmm, there's a video going around Facebook, of a bear chasing a bicyclist. What do you think you'd do if a bear, that size, caught up with you? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, consider a bear-sized man, refusing to cooperate and it's YOUR JOB to get him under control. What do you think you'd do? Doesn't matter what color you are or what color he is. Let's be real. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People, all over, are doing whatever they damned well please and think there won't be consequences. Friends on Facebook are posting complaints fairly regularly about people who don't use their directional signals. It's irritates me too but that's nothing. People don't pull over when they hear sirens behind them. Apparently, they don't think rules apply to them. I wonder what they'd think if they were in that ambulance or waiting for that firetruck or that police car.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We aren't alone on this planet. In order to live together in any kind of peace, rules and agreements are necessary or we'd all be beating each other up pretty regularly. Just think, when was the last time somebody you don't know infuriated you on the road? Are you going to try to kill them every time it happens?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, if you want to live in peace; if you want to live in relative safety; if you want to be left alone, keep in mind that everything you do affects everything and everyone else, no matter what your motivation or intention. And, there will ALWAYS be somebody who doesn't like what you're doing. But, as long as you try to follow the rules, behave considerately, and listen to those whose job it is to keep things peaceful, you should be OK. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Otherwise, you may pay consequences far beyond what you anticipate.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Things are rarely fair. Don't expect them to be. What's good for you isn't for someone else and vice versa. Do what you can to live as you want without going too far to take it back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The deck is stacked for most of us. I don't know anyone that's holding the deck. I've found ways to live as I want without too much trouble. I've also paid the price of trying to exact my own justice and have things my way. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can be freer if you keep a low profile, move between the cracks, appear to be "normal" and keep your differences to yourself. Do you want to be yourself? Live your own life? Or throw it all in the face of unconscious forces? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And, don't fool yourself into thinking that all those people who appear to be doing things you can't are getting away with it. There are always consequences.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The police have a job to do. We want them to do their job, most of the time. They're just people. If they face someone bigger and stronger than they are, should they just let them go? Do you want that bigger, stronger person to show up at your house, like a bear chasing you on a bicycle? I don't think so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You don't get respect if you don't behave respectably. You don't get respect by exempting yourself from decent and reasonable behavior. If you don't park where you're supposed to park, signal when you're supposed to signal, pull over when there's a siren behind you, wait in line quietly and patiently, pay your bills, etc., etc. what do you think should happen?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You'll pay the consequences.</span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-66655958852820095622014-11-13T07:03:00.002-08:002014-11-13T07:03:51.372-08:00The Purpose of Education<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The purpose of vocation education is to get a good job; the purpose of education is not, although job training may, in some cases, be contained in some aspects of education. As one sets out on one's own life path, attention must be given to both. You can educate yourself by reading extensively, particularly things that you don't agree with or have not experienced. You can educate yourself by listening to educated people, particularly those that you don't agree with or don't understand. You can educate yourself by participating in a variety of activities, particularly activities that you aren't accustomed to.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Education is not just for one's self but for society, to broaden one's perspective, to understand others, to learn to appreciate our world and everything in it. And, more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you've always lived in the same place, spend time only with people just like you, go only to the same places you've always gone, do only the things you've always done, you don't know much, and, I'm guessing, you don't like things, people, places, ideas that aren't just like what you're familiar with.</span><br />
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</span> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4IylBYZzE2jqNnfBuikS3R_cv-9ZfZk9C4jBPwF03Ws8ltQxj6ePQbsNDVgpXVcO_ffPmKpS-G8SiA6LReNS5_G9sfNUeO04PmVm70Oy8pDVcL1wuEfKcueA4G34BI3hhq4TiRMedZuJY/s1600/brassbar.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="6" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4IylBYZzE2jqNnfBuikS3R_cv-9ZfZk9C4jBPwF03Ws8ltQxj6ePQbsNDVgpXVcO_ffPmKpS-G8SiA6LReNS5_G9sfNUeO04PmVm70Oy8pDVcL1wuEfKcueA4G34BI3hhq4TiRMedZuJY/s320/brassbar.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"<span style="line-height: 20px;">An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">"</span><span style="line-height: 20px;">It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">"</span><span style="line-height: 20px;">The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth." John F. Kennedy</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">"</span><span style="line-height: 20px;">Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education." Franklin D. Roosevelt</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4IylBYZzE2jqNnfBuikS3R_cv-9ZfZk9C4jBPwF03Ws8ltQxj6ePQbsNDVgpXVcO_ffPmKpS-G8SiA6LReNS5_G9sfNUeO04PmVm70Oy8pDVcL1wuEfKcueA4G34BI3hhq4TiRMedZuJY/s1600/brassbar.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="6" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4IylBYZzE2jqNnfBuikS3R_cv-9ZfZk9C4jBPwF03Ws8ltQxj6ePQbsNDVgpXVcO_ffPmKpS-G8SiA6LReNS5_G9sfNUeO04PmVm70Oy8pDVcL1wuEfKcueA4G34BI3hhq4TiRMedZuJY/s320/brassbar.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Beware what you learned, as a child, at home. Outside what you learned to get along socially, behaviorally; the beliefs, assumptions, biases, prejudices and misconceptions you learned, unconsciously, as a child, are best unlearned.</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good education should open your eyes, your ears, your mind, your heart. Not everything you are expected to learn in school will be used by you, personally, at some point in your life, but, if you actually pay attention, it will teach you perspective and will break down your assumptions and beliefs. <b><span style="font-size: large;">Life is a great deal more than what personally affects you.</span></b> If you pay attention to your education, you'll learn that you are far from being the center of the universe.</span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Your inner development is another matter....</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Neither training nor education - nor a great deal of religion, for that matter - addresses one's inner development. All three are important, in varying degrees, at various times, particularly your inner development. You're not finished until you draw you last breath.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4IylBYZzE2jqNnfBuikS3R_cv-9ZfZk9C4jBPwF03Ws8ltQxj6ePQbsNDVgpXVcO_ffPmKpS-G8SiA6LReNS5_G9sfNUeO04PmVm70Oy8pDVcL1wuEfKcueA4G34BI3hhq4TiRMedZuJY/s1600/brassbar.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="6" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4IylBYZzE2jqNnfBuikS3R_cv-9ZfZk9C4jBPwF03Ws8ltQxj6ePQbsNDVgpXVcO_ffPmKpS-G8SiA6LReNS5_G9sfNUeO04PmVm70Oy8pDVcL1wuEfKcueA4G34BI3hhq4TiRMedZuJY/s320/brassbar.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just my educated <b>opinion</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All quotes are from <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/" target="_blank">BrainyQuote</a> and exact sources are not given.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Copyright, Lorraine I. O'Dell, 2014. Please cite the source if you quote anything on this blog. Thank you.</span></div>
Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-36073779089849780302014-09-20T18:02:00.000-07:002014-09-20T18:02:10.990-07:00Fighting Fuzzy Thinking<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just finished watching an excellent 2011 documentary called Pink Ribbons, Inc. about the rah rah phenomenon surrounding breast cancer and breast cancer research that has, at best, become a distraction from the devastation of the disease itself and from finding causes, preventions, treatments and a cure for the disease.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My mother died of breast cancer. There is not much that I can say about that except that some of the avoidance thinking about the disease might have spared her some of the suffering she experienced in the last year of her life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's clear that we don't know enough about the disease, about what causes it, about the course of the disease and, apparently, because we don't know that much yet, rather than investing in learning more, we choose to fight something we know little about by spending much effort, time, energy and money in cheer leading those suffering from it. This not only is a waste by accomplishing little but is a monumental waste of resources that could be spent finding out more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Much of what is said about the pink ribbon movement can be said about other charitable ventures, particularly those involving corporate efforts. Those who become enthusiasts of these activities need to step back and ask themselves what benefit, if any, other than their own deluded sense of well-being, comes of all these efforts. What goals, objectives and outcomes are being measured to determine if these efforts are doing anything positive toward the issue at hand or are they just robbing the energy and attention away from needed efforts to actually address whatever problem is the supposed focus. Look at who's speaking about these charities. Look at how they're dressed. Listen to who they're championing. There's a lot of money in fund raising and in running not-for-profits. Where is the money going; is it going to where it's needed?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please watch the film: Pink Ribbons, Inc. It's available on streaming video at Netflix.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9FDvQELCdC9LwA43XRS4fIRtspzuiKHu5CbpXVG6l07YnDBP2pbbmqixT_8A8z1hvuY8goY1rdpc_9N40EfuyViYJe6Rt2Pl4ZeOAeQB8EZ9GOTTLzArEkYFteq7NP5AFYivLtBxvg7r/s1600/pinkribbon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr9FDvQELCdC9LwA43XRS4fIRtspzuiKHu5CbpXVG6l07YnDBP2pbbmqixT_8A8z1hvuY8goY1rdpc_9N40EfuyViYJe6Rt2Pl4ZeOAeQB8EZ9GOTTLzArEkYFteq7NP5AFYivLtBxvg7r/s1600/pinkribbon.jpg" height="200" width="163" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Watch and learn.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Breast cancer is NOT a pretty pink ribbon. Breast cancer is NOT patting people on the back for getting through it. Breast cancer is NOT cute products colored pink to sell to concerned customers, making profits for corporations who donate pennies for what results? Breast cancer is a nasty, killing disease.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you want to donate to research on breast cancer, do your homework, find out what research is being done, where, by whom. Find out how they're funded, donate there. If you want to donate to palliative care for breast cancer sufferers, do your homework, find out who's providing such care, find out how they're funded, donate there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I DO NOT donate to charities through any corporation; I'm perfectly capable of donating directly to any charity of my choosing. I DO NOT purchase any commercially manufactured product that might generate a % of a cent toward any charity. When I am able to donate to a charity of my choosing, I send them a check. I make every effort to research any charity that I'm interested in for how they spend their money, their administrative costs, their executive compensation, what projects they fund, etc. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I highly recommend that you do the same. </span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-17645659008388854292014-03-18T06:41:00.001-07:002014-03-18T06:41:20.016-07:00A Reason for Government<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A post appeared on Facebook this morning; I re-posted it. It's about registering your pet as an Emotional Support Companion animal so you can get into a housing rental with it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I try to investigate certain types of Facebook posts before I Share them; like missing person's notifications. I find many to be erroneous. I often Share missing person's reports with a link to updates that show them found, etc.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, this morning, I did a quick search about companion animals to verify whether or not such a designation as emotional support companion animal actually exists. It does. And, like other companion animals, they can be registered and there are laws about how companion animals and their owners must be treated. For example, I'm a librarian by profession. I've worked mostly in public libraries for most of my career. Pets are NOT allowed in libraries, for what most people would understand is a policy for obvious reasons. In case you don't see the obvious reasons here are a couple: You can't have animals running around pooping and peeing on the floor; you can't have animals running around biting people. That's just a couple of reasons. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you work in public service and experience hundreds of individuals walking in off the streets daily and their behavior, you'd understand how many more reasons there might be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Companion animals for the blind and physically disabled are allowed and they are usually easily recognizable from obvious needs of their owners. However, I'm quite sure that, if the owners are unable or unwilling to control their animals, they can be asked to leave. It's important to know laws that might affect you more than occasionally.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3djhYyxBn3SSYYnu54J9nQJdIStaAls3XFBqf8lf5AYlGt4TjbJs4jxZmpCsQcc2NB2uqNdp0A8lOoKO7YdmNbU410r8-ioxQda7J-NPdzQYmfPtOMaNwJdB77IreilLco0Axfc7J-R1r/s1600/companionanimals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3djhYyxBn3SSYYnu54J9nQJdIStaAls3XFBqf8lf5AYlGt4TjbJs4jxZmpCsQcc2NB2uqNdp0A8lOoKO7YdmNbU410r8-ioxQda7J-NPdzQYmfPtOMaNwJdB77IreilLco0Axfc7J-R1r/s1600/companionanimals.jpg" height="88" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, apparently, there are Emotional Support Companion Animals. The first agency's site I found had substantial information about the criteria for the designation, the registration process, what such animals are exempt from, etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I posted the link to that site, then was asked a question by a Facebook friend and did a little more looking and discovered several other "agencies" and their sites. I'm now confused about the "official" capacity of these agencies. I'm not going to bother looking into the all of this; it doesn't directly affect me. What I do know is that laws can be federal or state or a mix. I don't know what laws exist about companion animals; I'm not going to investigate but I am going to contact my state and federal reps and ask them to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>I did just a link that says that Emotional Support Companion Animals are protected by ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) which is a federal law.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the functions of government, as I probably learned it and certainly think of it, is to protect and intervene for us and to control flim-flam, sham and dishonest enterprises that misrepresent themselves in order to scam us out of our money. I don't know if the evidence of these multiple "agencies" to certify and register companion animals is about that or just no standards. There are, if you are or aren't aware, multiple companies that can register a domain name (web site address) for you. I initially thought there was one and I see no reason why I need any company to do it for me if I could get through the maze to the "agency" that maintains the database. I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another purpose of government, as I understand and wish it to be true, is setting standards. If there are federal and/or state laws concerning companion animals, there have to be criteria (standards) so designating them. Therefore, there have to be agencies, legally designated agencies to certify companion animals; otherwise everybody could and would just say their pet is a companion animal. By the way, setting standards, at all levels of government, has fallen by the wayside.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The following are links to the "agenies" in the U.S. that I've found, so far, that register/certify companion animals:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.servicedogsamerica.org/" target="_blank">Service Dogs of America</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://nsarco.com/index.html" target="_blank">NSAR - National Service Animal Registry</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-26839668968478346352014-03-13T09:07:00.001-07:002014-03-13T09:07:05.042-07:00Blind, Deaf, Dumb, Ignorant and Stupid<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday, I watched a video recording of the <a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?318225-1/hearing-health-care-access-costs" target="_blank">CSpan broadcast of Tuesday's Senate hearing on single-payer healthcare</a>. The purpose of the hearing, apparently, was to listen to reports of single-payer healthcare programs in other countries. Senator Bernie Sanders, (D-VT), was chair and ranking member was, Sen. Richard Burr, (R-NC). I admit, I'm quite ignorant about these protocols and, quite honestly, I'm quite tired and sick of them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found the speakers, who were from academia in the U.S. and administrators of programs in Taiwan, Denmark and Canada; two of whom are physicians. I found their presentations interesting and informative, although their written remarks have to be downloaded and read to get the entire information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What was most telling, appeared when the Q and A began and Sen. Burr and Sen. Enzi, (R-WY) asked their questions and made statements. Neither listened even slightly to the responses they were given. They are, clear from their behavior, so completely embroiled in their beliefs, that they are unable to hear, or see anything that doesn't conform to those beliefs. I'm not sure how one gets past the closed minds of such people but they are not thinking in the least. If such a person believes that a stop sign is round and purple and you tell them it's octagonal and red, you can stand them in front of it forever and they will refuse to see it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I doubt that the general public understands, is how statistics are used by a variety of people to make a point. I know many people believe they are being lied to and stop listening which is a mistake. Having worked for a significant manufacturer at one point in my career; and having assisted in producing presentation materials for the shareholders of that corporation, I can tell you that the statistics chosen, for any presentation are those that support the point of view of the speaker and they are only a tiny piece of the picture. They are most often completely accurate but they are selected to create an impression that is often false in the omission of the rest of the facts. They are not lies, except in those omissions. Both sides of the argument in the hearing presented statistics that supported their stance; neither side listened to the other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another interesting aspect of the hearing was the presence of the speaker, Sally Pipes, who has written a number of books against single-payer healthcare. You will find little about her qualifications to address the topic. I have not yet found anything about her education. She has headed a variety of organizations and, apparently can write (I have read nothing that she's written and have no interest in doing so) and has gained the attention of people in power who have used her organizational and spokesperson skills. She has suffered a family medical tragedy that is clearly the impetus and basis for her activities and opinions. I found her to be an unconscious zealot with little background on which to base informed opinions. Her opinions have, in my mind, no validity or importance whatsoever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I stopped watching the recording of the broadcast after about 10 minutes of the Q and A which made it obvious that our government is mostly <b>dis</b>interested in facts and problem-solving and is mostly interested in promoting entrenched beliefs and in denying We The People solutions that will enhance and improve our daily lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am truly disgusted and divorce myself from considering anyone in D.C. to be working for my best interests. I wish almost everyone there would just go home and shut up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-16295857568174506652014-02-18T10:53:00.000-08:002014-02-18T10:53:14.158-08:00Wealth RedistributionI'm getting things ready to send to my accountant to have my taxes done.<br />
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Unhappily, I lost my house last year, opted for deed in lieu of foreclosure at the advise of my lawyers and my accountant though they both told me I would pay a tax penalty because my loss is considered a capital gain by the IRS.<br />
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The bank received my deed and full payment of the balance of my mortgage because I had paid PMI (personal mortgage insurance) as required by my state. In effect, I paid to insure the bank against the possibility that I might default on my payments; they get paid. Why they aren't responsible for their own insurance -- well, think about it....<br />
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So, I'm feeling very nervous and vulnerable since I'm guessing that I can't pay the capital gains. I'm also feeling very angry and hateful toward the banks and impotent to do anything about it. Thinking about how the owners, stockholders, executives of financials institutions have most of the rest of us by the balls, so to speak, I decided to do a little calculating of revenge. Here's my thinking:<br />
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Total U.S. wealth, as of 2009, was 55,000 billion dollars. Think about that.<br />
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$55,000,000,000,000,000 -- I think<br />
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The top 1% owns about 34.5% of that wealth, or -- $18,700,000,000,000 -- $18,700 billion<br />
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The population of the U.S., as of 2010 was about 318,000,000. 315,000,000 less the top 1%.<br />
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What would it be like if, in the interest of moving the economy and narrowing the gap between the top 1% and the rest of the population, we executed a wealth redistribution program. We certainly wouldn't take the entirety of the 1%'s wealth away from them. That would hardly be decent. What if we took just 10% of their wealth away from them and redistributed it equally among the rest of the population. What would that look like?<br />
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10% of 18,700,000,000,000 is 1,870,000,000,000. A pittance.<br />
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Distribute that among the 315,000,000, the rest of the population, minus the 1% and each person would get, roughly, $5,937. A down payment of a new car; a vacation, whatever. <br />
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Just another indication of how enormous the gap is between the top 1% and the rest of us.<br />
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<br />Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-28609501777826371472014-02-12T08:43:00.001-08:002014-02-12T08:43:16.460-08:00Workin' For A Livin'<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's just my opinion but I really don't believe that anyone can become a billionaire except through inheritance, accident or deceit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Think about it, if you go to work for somebody every day, put away 10-25% of what you make, invest which is really just gambling that you pick a winner, you will not, even at the end of your life have even one million, let alone a billion dollars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now think about advertising. The key word in business, industry and advertising is spin. I've known and worked for a few spin doctors. They think nothing about what spin actually is. Spin is just lying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A man has a house to sell. Buyers come by to see it. They ask questions: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Is the foundation sound?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He doesn't know but he says, "Yes, I just had it inspected." (a lie)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Is the plumbing up to date?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He replaced visible iron pipes with copper but not those hidden in the walls and he's put temporary sealant on a couple of valve leaks, "yes", he says and shows them the receipts for the copper pipes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Is the well water good?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Yes", he says but he just the day before 'shocked' the well by pouring a gallon of bleach in because the water has been iffy since he owned the house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you think he's justified in lying about these things because it would cost him too much to fix them and few people would buy the house if he was honest about them? Do you think he's in a fix and the only way out is to lie?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then, you can expect just about anyone else to do the same to you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Corporations spend millions of dollars learning the weaknesses of consumers in order to make claims, design products and create dependencies so they can continue to sell products that nobody needs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now they have gained the power to influence OUR government over the interests of all of the rest of us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's the reason regulations are needed. If you believe that businessmen are honest as saints and will do right by their customers, you are a fool. If you believe that people who are taken advantage of by the deceit of others deserve what they get, then you will be sure to be screwed by somebody because deceit means that you don't know that you're being screwed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dhu!</span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-52859741133491953162014-01-29T05:47:00.001-08:002014-01-29T05:47:37.038-08:00State of the Union 2014<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Did you watch?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are you happy with the way the country is being run? If you didn't watch, if you don't respond to what you liked and didn't like, then, in my opinion, your opinion about what was said doesn't count for much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've felt, for a long time, that what's mostly wrong with our country is us, the citizenry. On the one hand, we want to hand over responsibility for running things to complete strangers; we want to trust in a mythological "daddy" out there who will look out for our best interests. We've been thinking and acting this way for a very long time. On the other hand, we're really, really unhappy with the way things are being run.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I ask you, what's wrong with this picture? How long do you continue to behave in the same way and expect things to be different?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's time to rethink, reassess and take hold of the reins. You voted for somebody. How often to do tell that "representative" what you think, what you want? I'm guessing not very often.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How often do you actually sit down and mentally layout, for yourself, what you think about all the issues: national security, foreign policy, commerce, education, the economy...?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is our country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back to the State of the Union Address --</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's required, loosely, by the Constitution: "</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient:..." It's supposed to be a REPORT to Congress about - guess what - the state of the union - what's wrong, what's right - and proposals for the future. And, in my assessment, that's exactly what last night's speech was. The President reviewed what had been done by his administration and what he intends and wants to do in the future. In a vacuum, the speech, on its own, was fine; not too much pomp and circumstance; not too much bullshit. However, there were several things that I noticed that I think are problematic:</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The energy policy is too much same old, same old. I was absolutely not happy that production is up; that the President is standing behind natural gas which means - FRACKING. This is a disaster. Almost immediately after making those statements, he mentioned something about the preservation of federal lands. So here's my assessment of that. He's OK, Washington is OK with poisoning our communities by fracking for natural gas but federal lands will be protected so we can escape from our polluted neighborhoods by visiting national forests and parks. REALLY!? Remember this is a president who believed in CLEAN coal. So, F for energy policy. He did mention other energy sources but mostly in passing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next, I noticed policies of partnering with major corporations - the usual players - for various programs. This is same old, same old. Our economy is a disaster because of big business, Wall Street, the entire financial industry. If we don't divorce ourselves from these 'partnerships', that serve them more than they serve us, we will eventually be doomed to slavery to them, which, BTW, we nearly are already.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Education, some OK thoughts but defining education as training for a job is just another step in the United States of American Business. I didn't go to college to get a job. I went to college to be educated, to explore things I'm interested in, to expand my knowledge and outlook, and, in the process, decide what kind of work I wanted to do. We do need updated vocational education; everybody knows that. But, because we've turned our "think tanks" over to corporate bean counters and accountants, we've ignored the real geniuses that have come from our educational system, from scientists and economists and, yes, philosophers, social scientists, engineers, psychologists, thinkers, who have more constructive and positive solutions to our economic and social problems than whorish businessmen whose sole aim in life is to find more and more ways to make money. So, D for education policy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, many of the assumptions on which most policies in Washington are based on are outdated and erroneous. Everyone in Washington keeps going to the usual players for answers; the usual players are ALL self-serving and will, in my opinion, NEVER do what right unless it means a profit for them, and it usually doesn't. There's a John Bunyan quote (I just discovered the source) that occasionally goes around Facebook, that Washington should recite every morning, as a mantra: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“<span style="color: #990000;">You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.</span>”</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: normal;">My Fellow Americans, have a good day.</span><br />
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Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-74460027556960836072014-01-22T03:08:00.000-08:002014-01-22T03:08:33.188-08:00Getting Rid of Citizens United - Being a Citizen<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #333333; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is the 4th anniversary of Citizens United when the Supreme Court granted citizenship to corporations, allowing them to inordinately influence decisions affecting the lives of each and every one of us.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #333333; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, corporations are a collection of people but by granting corporations personhood and citizenship, each and every member of the corporate board and each and every voting shareholder, is, thereby, granted <b>double</b> personhood and citizenship, on their own, as citizens, and through their corporate influence. <b>DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?!</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; line-height: 15.453125px;">This legal action has doomed the rest of us to always be outvoted and out-influenced by corporate interests. And, if you think that national and multinational corporations have your best interests, our country's best interests, our planet's best interests at heart, I'm afraid I think you're a fool.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.453125px;">Watch this video and educate yourself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyncSd-UtB4" style="background-color: #fff2cc;" target="_blank">Legalize Democracy</a></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.453125px;">It is extremely important that we overturn each and every one of these decisions and that a constitutional amendment be enacted to define, once and for all that a citizen is a single, individual homo sapien and that the laws of the country apply only to so defined citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.453125px;">Be a <b>Citizen - </b>(American Heritage Dictionary)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 15.453125px;">"</span><b style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Minion New', times, clean, serif; margin: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial,sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1. </span></b><span style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Minion New', times, clean, serif; margin: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Minion New', times, clean, serif;">A person owing loyalty to and entitled by birth or naturalization to the protection of a state or nation."</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even that definition (matched by Webster's), is outdated and, in a democracy, insufficient. Remember, in our democracy, as defined by our Constitution, We The People, the citizenry, <b>ARE</b> the government.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Much of what's wrong with our government today, is a result of our throwing away our rights as citizens and by being lax in our responsibilities as citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are, in fact "governed" by layers of governments; from our local municipal, county and state governments to the federal government. Are you informed about each and every one of those governments? Do you know your state Constitution? Do you know the ordinances of your town? How many city council meetings have you attended?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Think about your answers to these questions, because if you are not acting and functioning and taking responsibility as a Citizen, what do you think will be the result; government functioning without you. Complaining about decisions that are made, laws that are enacted, after the fact, is pointless. You and I must, pro actively, become citizens who include our citizenship in our daily thinking and activities.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go to your town's web site. Who's who? Can you find local ordinances there? If not, call the Town Clerk and ask how to find your local ordinances. You public library often has a copy of the Ordinances. Also ask for the schedule of Council meetings and how to get a copy of the agenda. You may have to pay for a photocopy (saving the taxpayers money, of course). DO NOT let anyone intimidate you. I have had town clerks ask me who I am and what I need the information for, in an authoritarian tone. I simply give them my name and tell them I'm a resident, home owner and voter and I need the information I'm asking for. They don't need to know why. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some towns, that have the correct attitude, that information about their operations is open to The Public, will have that information on their web site, posted in the municipal offices and/or available at the local library. You have a right to this information. Don't let anyone tell you differently. In some cases, they have so seldom been asked that they have acquired wrong thinking and bad attitudes about the loftiness and privilege of their activities and become secretive. We are responsible for that as well. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm a librarian. I have been a public employee (differing from a public servant in many ways), serving the public in public libraries in many municipalities in 4 states. I have attended many public meetings in my capacity and a librarian and a citizen. Over time, when very few people show interest in what you're doing and how you're doing it, you just stop thinking about how what you do affects them. So, as citizens, we have to be ever vigilant about how our various levels of government function and continually communicating our wishes to our public servants (our elected <b>representatives</b>). How else can they represent us?</span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-87767992223010301782013-11-28T17:09:00.000-08:002013-11-28T17:09:14.676-08:00<br />
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Email to a "minister":</div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1385682371567_25">Isn't it fortunate that our country included freedom of speech and religion in the constitution? It means even the most ignorant and stupid people can voice their opinions on whatever topic they wish. It's also fortunately that we have risen out of the dark ages and most of us have benefited from education which make it possible for those of us who are intelligent and humane can recognize these various spewings of stupidity, ignorance, intolerance, superstition and righteous idiocy and ignore them. Sometimes, however, those of us who, through our personal relationship with the Creator, have learned to utilize the intellect and higher emotions with which the Creator has endowed us, find it necessary to make the attempt to assist those who have not; those who live in ignorant darkness, mentally and emotionally, to move into a closer relationship with the Creator and Creation.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1385682371567_34">I have just read of your opinion of and directive to single mothers. Clearly, in your heart and mind, you have imagined a God that has stagnated in Judeo-Christian historical interpretation. The Creator and Creation is ever present and ever evolving. Whatever your personal relationship with the Creator; I have my own. Whatever directives you believe come from your relationship with the Creator, it is astoundingly self-righteous and arrogant to believe that the Creator would have identical directives to anyone else and that you have been designated to be the spokesman for the Creator.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1385682371567_43">I'm a single mother, 65, my son is 36, I have a granddaughter. Fortunately, I never heard of you until today but it wouldn't have mattered because I made my decision about being a single mother very quickly after learning of my pregnancy and that, "sir", is between me and the Creator and nothing that you should be presuming to be interfering with for me or anyone else. Every time someone presumes to tell someone else what the Creator expects from them, they are, in fact, interfering with the personal relationship between that person and the Creator. We can assist in sharing all the options that we're aware of, but, in the end, it is imperative that each of us make the choices that are presented to us and learn and experience the consequences, in order to find the path the Creator has set for us. While often difficult, it is through compassionate acceptance that we can best be helpful to others; not by presuming to know or interfere with the path that they are traveling.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1385682371567_48">You are just a man. You would do well to learn, with humility, that that is what you are and that what is decided between others and the Creator is none of your concern. You would do well to learn that women are the bearers of life and that men are meant to be the protectors of women and children, whatever their circumstances.</span></div>
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_7_1385682371567_73">Forgive my own presumption in thinking my words will make any difference. </span><span id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1385682371567_4720">I pray for your deliverance from your attachment to a historic interpretation of the Creator's "rules" and a movement into the light and a more immediate relationship with the Creator and with Creation which will bring you joy and acceptance and compassion and fill your heart with love and greater humanity. </span></div>
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<span>For Everyone: I would like to reiterate that I believe that each and every individual has the opportunity to have a personal relationship with the Creator and with Creation and that anyone who presumes to know about, to speak of or to act in any way toward someone else's decisions and choices in that relationship is, in fact, interfering with that relationship and with the path that individual is on.</span></div>
Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-89479656639936447822013-10-22T08:49:00.000-07:002013-10-22T08:49:14.967-07:00The Affordable Care Web Site<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think some of you don't understand - politicians are NOT managers, they're politicians. In their own businesses, they usually hire managers. They're idea people. They're publicity people.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, apparently, the PPACA (the Affordable Healthcare Act) web site, is a mess. I don't know because I just applied for Medicare so it doesn't really apply to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, yelling and pawning off the mess to the President and his party doesn't solve the problem. Yes, ultimately, he's responsible; he's at the helm, so to speak. But, I'm guessing he knows little about production and this is a production problem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Somebody was delegated the responsibility of drawing up the specifications for the web site. If not, well, somebody was delegated the responsibility of figuring out how the system has to work. In one way or another, someone or a team of people are responsible for how the system is supposed to work and how the web site makes that possible. They failed. Apparently they more than failed, they didn't even work out rational procedures to be translated into the web site.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is, unfortunately, not all that uncommon. I recently wrote a rather nasty to our state (New Jersey) pension fund about their web site which kept taking me in circles; never to arrive at the page I needed to get to. Somebody was paid to create that web site and somebody was hired to create the PPACA web site. Unless the procedures have been laid out, in detail, before the web site design is designed, the web site will NOT and CANNOT work properly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sit down. Think of the steps necessary to boil an egg - from getting the pan out of the cupboard and the egg out of the refrigerator. Unless you start from the beginning, step by step, if you write down those steps and give them to someone who's unfamiliar with a kitchen or a stove, they won't be able to complete the task. Then translate those step-by-step instructions to forms and online instructions and programmed computer routines and you have a tiny idea of why the PPACA web site isn't working.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Someone was responsible for ensuring that all necessary steps in applying for Affordable Care was translated into the web site. If the specifications that were given to the web designers were insufficient, the contractors are not necessarily responsible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I just sent messages to the White House, to my House rep, to my Senator and Senator Elect about this matter. There are 2 questions that need to be asked and answered first:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #660000;">Who was responsible for writing the RFP for the project?</span> </b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(RFP - request for proposal, generally the specifications required and desired in any project, written and distributed to interested contractors who then write a proposal to meet those requirements and specifications and their proposed charges to provide those specifications.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whoever was responsible for writing the specs, is the first individual(s) to call on the carpet for the mess the web site seems to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We've heard reports that the site is supposed to handle 50,000 applications a day. That is clearly insufficient for the demand and SOMEBODY should have known that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can be sure the President didn't write the specs. I'm guessing he wouldn't begin to know how. He delegated that responsibility to SOMEBODY. Who was it? That person, after thorough debriefing and hearing, <span style="color: #660000;"><b>HAS TO BE FIRED.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been fired for, more or less, nothing. I always did my job, I never didn't do my job, I wasn't perfect but I did my job pretty well. Whoever was responsible for writing the specs for the web site didn't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #660000;">Second, has the contractor been paid?</span> </b> They had better not have been. You never, Never, NEVER pay a contractor unless and until the project has been completed satisfactorily. There is always an upfront payment for time, materials, etc. that is part of the contract. The contract must state that final payment depends on satisfactory completion of the project.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, if the contractor has, in fact complete the project as specked out by whoever wrote the specs, WE are accountable to pay the contractor. If the specs said the site has to be capable of taking 50,000 applications a day, and that's what it can do, then the contractor has fulfilled their end of the contract, even though the specifications are crap. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Generally, a good contractor, who knows the business of what the project is for, will see such idiotic specifications and alert the client who will then rewrite the specifications.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've written RFPs. Generally, I solicit the advice of colleagues who have completed similar projects. I read articles and books on completing similar projects. I talk to contractors who have completed similar projects. I attend workshops about related projects. I take notes and draw charts along the way. I send my notes out to many I've already talked to for their feedback. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many reasons why large projects like this go wrong:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The person who delegated the project has failed to monitor those to whom the project was delegated.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The person(s) to whom the project was delegated is incompetent.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The person(s) to whom the project was delegated doesn't care if the project is satisfactorily or not.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The person(s) to whom the project was delegated didn't write an RFP but just called familiar contractors to discuss the particulars of the project, then hired one or more of them, leaving there no way to hold them accountable.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The project specs didn't include procedures for monitoring and evaluating the completion of steps and features.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The contract didn't include a punch list for completion.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The contract didn't include procedures in the event of contingencies.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The contractor had nothing to work with to guide his/their work except their own experience which may or may not have been relevant to the project needs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The contractor didn't follow specs, cut corners, etc., etc.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In this case, I suspect that last is NOT the case. I suspect that the project was managed by someone who either didn't care enough or didn't now how to manage such a project. A project like this really needs a team of experts to draw up the various aspects of the system, procedures, criteria, etc. I suspect that the 3 years of the project were mostly filled with phone calls and that whomever was responsible for carrying out the project and others involved did NOT have dedicated responsibility for it. A project like this, required ALL the time of everyone working on it until it's complete.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkbpjcr_jlNHJDEPKhjT5FTNPrq9cmi4HbxHT4Gf28rOgUDs52SxFD3FpnuELtQMHC2-WoXmkyLgZktDoWJ2blrytD5l_QDjKnd3bYpN70ft93OUkoOycxcTalcRUC432YvkWbFRBZ54o/s1600/Server_1_Computer_Clipart_Pictures.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUkbpjcr_jlNHJDEPKhjT5FTNPrq9cmi4HbxHT4Gf28rOgUDs52SxFD3FpnuELtQMHC2-WoXmkyLgZktDoWJ2blrytD5l_QDjKnd3bYpN70ft93OUkoOycxcTalcRUC432YvkWbFRBZ54o/s320/Server_1_Computer_Clipart_Pictures.png" width="232" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unhappily, it's my observation that public contracts are paid, regardless of whether or not the project is completed satisfactorily. It happens because the specifications for the project were not written clearly enough and the contractor has a case for completion. It happens because the contract doesn't have sufficient legal language to protect the public from incompetent or unethical contractors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Each payment, other than an initial start-up payment, the % of which should be specified in the contract, must be tied to satisfactorily completion of a piece of the project and the evaluative criteria and process clearly specified for each step.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been out of work for 2 1/2 years and the dummies working on the PPACA project were all, undoubtedly, paid very well for giving us this mess, for which WE paid a great deal. Go figure.</span></div>
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Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-78331244228117174372013-10-19T19:37:00.001-07:002013-10-19T19:37:37.535-07:00A Flaw in the System<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A serious flaw in the make up of our government, pointed out indirectly on the McLaughlin Group tonight: the the President is the president of the entire country but that Speaker Boehner, a Republican, only represents his constituents and party stance. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Really?! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once in office and voting on decisions on NATIONAL policy, party ideology needs to disappear. And, as Speaker of the House, with members of the opposing party, he has a responsibility to the entire House membership.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another reason for the dissolution of political parties. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If political parties disappeared from the process, ideologies would continue but in greater diversity and the aim would be for all points of view to come together in order to fit as many pieces of all of those ideologies into a more comprehensive framework for all of us. We need to get away from this idea of one side gets to win at the expense of the other just because - this time - they're in the majority.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Think about this jerking back and forth between the 2 MAJOR parties we've been living with; how has it benefited the country? It's a little like the card game, War. At some point one player wins nearly the entire deck and sudden the game shifts the other player wins back and the deck is nearly all his. This can continue for a very long time with little resolution or conclusion often ending when both players are bored. It's a waste of time and pointless. It's really a stupid game.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgctRoludiELgkCZXnFHFi_wLNnlJikHzwjCE5ogN4-zaAyzGbOGu9LzDdqc1I4UCa7pnHn4RfbfJTQ-FPY8_4Jbj4iqXwpjLsC1nZrYHqEL3jdfrs0hTZ_ixxM-K7bXzZm2BpPTX51rwnE/s1600/2partycircle+-+Copy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgctRoludiELgkCZXnFHFi_wLNnlJikHzwjCE5ogN4-zaAyzGbOGu9LzDdqc1I4UCa7pnHn4RfbfJTQ-FPY8_4Jbj4iqXwpjLsC1nZrYHqEL3jdfrs0hTZ_ixxM-K7bXzZm2BpPTX51rwnE/s200/2partycircle+-+Copy.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Constitution needs to be reviewed with an eye toward inclusion, toward consensus and away from "majority rule" which by definition and result means the exclusion of large numbers of the citizenry who's "party" loses this time around. It's based on winners and losers; on competition rather than on cooperation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's a major flaw in the system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Accepting the inevitable breadth and depth of diversity among the population, it's much more sensible to address that diversity by attempting to governing to include the diversity. The citizenry is a large conglomeration of unique, diverse individuals. We're not cut out with cookie cutters. If you look at 5 individual citizens; at their philosophical, religious, political, spiritual points of view, their family make up, their socio/economic situation, their intelligence, their dreams and wishes, you will not find any 2 the same.</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This desire to fit the entire population into a handful of categories, depending on an issue, is laziness, ignorance and foolishness. Just think of the people you work with. There are shy people, outgoing people; there are intelligent people, less intelligent people; there are pleasant people and unpleasant people; there are skillful people and barely competent people; there are industrious people and very lazy people; and everything in between and in all of these in various combinations. That's just your workplace. We're talking about an entire country of nearly 317 million individuals. And, we try to fit them into 2 political boxes?</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Duh!</span><br />
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</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Definition of this post - </b>(don't worry I'll cover all the political ideologies)</span><br />
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</b></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal" target="_blank">liberal</a> - (<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/">www.merriam-webster.com</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">1.<b> <span 13px="" 20px="" arial="" bold="" class="sn" font-family:="" font-size:="" font-style:="" font-weight:="" helvetica="" line-height:="" normal="" sans-serif="" verdana="">a</span></b><span style="line-height: 20px;"> </span>:<span style="line-height: 20px;"> of, relating to, or based on the</span><span style="line-height: 20px;"> </span>liberal arts<span style="line-height: 20px;"> </span><span class="vi" style="line-height: 20px;"><<em>liberal</em>education></span></span><br />
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<span class="ssens" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em class="sn" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">b</em> <em>archaic</em> <strong>:</strong> of or befitting a man of free birth</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="ssens"><em class="sn" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">a</em> <strong>:</strong> marked by generosity <strong>:</strong> openhanded <span class="vi"><a <em>liberal</em> giver></span></span><span class="ssens"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="ssens"><em class="sn" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">b</em> <strong>:</strong> given or provided in a generous and openhanded way <span class="vi"><a<em>liberal</em> meal></span></span><span class="ssens"></span></span><br />
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<span class="ssens" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em class="sn" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">c</em> <strong>:</strong> ample, full</span></div>
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<span class="ssens" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>obsolete</em> <strong>:</strong> lacking moral restraint <strong>:</strong> licentious</span></div>
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<span class="ssens" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>:</strong> not literal or strict <strong>:</strong> loose <span class="vi"><a <em>liberal</em> translation></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">5</span></div>
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<span class="ssens" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>:</strong> broad-minded; <em>especially</em> <strong>:</strong> not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">6</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="ssens"><em class="sn" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">a</em> <strong>:</strong> of, favoring, or based upon the principles of liberalism</span><span class="ssens"></span></span><br />
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<span class="ssens" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em class="sn" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">b</em> <em>capitalized</em> <strong>:</strong> of or constituting a political party advocating or associated with the principles of political liberalism;<em>especially</em> <strong>:</strong> of or constituting a political party in the United Kingdom associated with ideals of individual especially economic freedom, greater individual participation in government, and constitutional, political, and administrative reforms designed to secure these objectives.</span></div>
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<b>My definition 1. is 2.</b></div>
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<b>New Product</b></div>
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<b><iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS1=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=aw0320-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=tf_til&asins=1576751287" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe><br />
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Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-3761316370427981282013-10-13T16:35:00.001-07:002013-10-13T16:35:46.718-07:00Antics in the House of Representatives<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yesterday, Saturday, I saw a news item online that a vote was going to take place in the House to end the shutdown. I ran downstairs and turned on the TV to CSPAN which gives live coverage of various government and organizational operations. Not much commentary; you decide for yourself what to think about what's going on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unhappily, no vote.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What I saw was so disgusting, so disturbing, so infuriating that I've been emailing, posting, etc. since. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJAx-3gH-1PmvNFsFA10qWub_GF4MR_zV_lCdT1hSp-pti1ZUFr_iVApoQEzNlCiBvqdsJ_ABaTRQlGSKBQIiP3JuOHDhULTmLtDmXsGxl__tjBZxWz-aUbg_PFkuWV4o_uuteXfNWmzpc/s1600/usflag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJAx-3gH-1PmvNFsFA10qWub_GF4MR_zV_lCdT1hSp-pti1ZUFr_iVApoQEzNlCiBvqdsJ_ABaTRQlGSKBQIiP3JuOHDhULTmLtDmXsGxl__tjBZxWz-aUbg_PFkuWV4o_uuteXfNWmzpc/s200/usflag.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, about half an hour ago, ad of this writing, I read that Republican Representative Rob Portman of Ohio has expressed the opinion that the shutdown will be ended by Thursday. He also expressed the opinion that "Obamacare", the Affordable Care Act (PPACA) should be repealed because most of the country doesn't want it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm afraid I think he's completely deluded. It's a law. I will post the text of the email I sent him below.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's interesting that those opposed to the PPACA are continuing this "fight" now that implementation is underway. I believe that it's just symptomatic of the central focus of the GOP to obstruct anything and everything that the President proposes, for no other reason that to do so.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyone who thinks that a law that has been passed by both houses, signed by the President, been reviewed by the Supreme Court, should be repealed before it is implemented is severely stupid and irresponsibility. It was passed. It needs to be given at least 3 years from implementation to give it sufficient time to work out bugs, etc. before any action to repeal it is taken. But, this isn't about the PPACA, it's about trying to prevent the President from succeeding in making a positive contribution while in office. Why would anyone want to do that? It's not just about party politics. Think. What have they been trying to say about the President all along.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is about some ugly, dirty agenda that certain members of our Congress have - but I'll get back to that.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIjFQ-b1HMyV5qZLB94UBIQWPYAElhRsVorfyY07Lc3hT9RukR4jg4RuJShWeUKgcaBRGwBOGkQJzo_uBOngKdAkb3UkH-1Q8OAfY3cZt7hanZXaTryTG9-7ILvA0QZIqe2zD5cqoPHpq/s1600/usflagbunting.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="66" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZIjFQ-b1HMyV5qZLB94UBIQWPYAElhRsVorfyY07Lc3hT9RukR4jg4RuJShWeUKgcaBRGwBOGkQJzo_uBOngKdAkb3UkH-1Q8OAfY3cZt7hanZXaTryTG9-7ILvA0QZIqe2zD5cqoPHpq/s320/usflagbunting.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's what I saw yesterday: First I have to say that I'm a terrible citizen and do not know the details of how our government works as well as I, and you, should. After all, if our government is supposed to be of, by and for us, then we should be actively involved and informed to ensure our "representatives" our representing us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I saw someone officiating, not Representative Boehner. I'm sorry to say, I don't know how that procedure is handled. Someone was yielding his time to various members of the House, all of which seemed to be House Democrats asking for unanimous consent to move a vote to end the shutdown. I do know a little Parliamentary procedure, having worked for a number of public boards and sitting on several public committees and having been a member of various organizations. I did have to look up unanimous consent, however. These members were simply asking the House to vote to end the shutdown without objection to the vote.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now what's so strange or bad about that? Well, the vote to end the shut down involves passing the C.R., continuing resolution. Continuing resolutions become necessary when the annual spending bill is NOT passed. The federal budget calendar runs from October 1 to September 30, so if a new annual budget is not passed by September 30, the government risks shutdown unless C.R.s, continuing resolutions are passed by Congress (the House). The C.R. generally means continuing the budget, as appropriated, per department, for a particular period of time. However, this House, at this time, refused to pass the budget, or the C.R. unless and until the PPACA is defunded.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember the PPACA was enacted into law. It has begun implementation, though shakily. Now, Congress wants to defund it. Does that seem intelligent or kosher or prudent? Not to me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These calls for a vote were met with the identical response each time, that "... that request cannot be entertained absent appropriate clearance." This means that the call for a vote was not being allowed because it did not have the appropriate clearance, according to House Rules. There was clearly no intention of letting the vote happen, regardless of the fact that the law had been enacted and monies had been spend toward the implementation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the midst of this appeal for a vote, there was a break and a delegation of House Democrats appeared to say that they were bringing a petition to the floor, hoping to get enough signatures, from both parties to force the vote. I haven't read the House Rules on this procedure but they assured the viewing public that it was an acceptable procedure.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After the break, a member of the House posed a Parliamentary question, as I understood it, regarding a question of privilege (meaning the rights of members of the House), in that the requests for unanimous consent to call for a vote to end the shutdown were being denied. The speaker brought enlargements of Rule XXII, and section 4 of that rule which states: "</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">When the stage of disagreement has been reached on a bill or resolution with House or Senate amendments, a motion to dispose of any amendment shall be privileged." </span>I believe the disagreement referred to is on the amendment to defund PPACA. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At this point, the revelation occurred that said House Rule XXII, Section 4 had been changed as of October 1, 2013. Privilege, as I understand it, in this case, means that any member of the house may bring the motion to dispose of said amendment and call for a vote to end the shutdown. However, the change made on October 1 was that ONLY the Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, or his designee, could bring such a motion to the floor of the House. He was, of course, absent, and no designee was apparently present or made. [which is more than irresponsible]. This was the meaning that the requests for a vote could "not be entertained absent appropriate clearance", meaning ONLY Eric Cantor could approve such a motion. One man had been given complete control of this decision -- completely undemocratic.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, I was unable to find the action enacting this change and I was unable to find an up-to-date edition, online, of the House Rules reflecting this change. This is an unacceptable situation. As a citizen, I expect government documents to be available. I don't know how these changes are made and will probably not make the time to discover that process.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The other thing that is unacceptable is that, apparently, the House Democrats seemed completely unaware that this change had been made. How is that possible? Are they not members of the House. Is the process such that members of the House are not aware of such changes that affect ALL members of the House? Certainly, the possibility that changes in House Rules can be made without ALL members participating in the decision to make such changes is COMPLETELY undemocratic and unacceptable and inexcusable -- even treasonous, in my book. If this change was made in a democratic manner, with the participation of ALL members of the House, then the House Democrats are completely remiss in not only not knowing about the change but in not anticipating its consequences and in participating and accepting the change.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, here we are, the Rules have been fixed to prevent any action. The House is clearly holding the President hostage in order to repeal the PPACA which is not their job to do not their prerogative. In the midst of these antics, I heard individuals speaking outright lies. I heard palming off the blame on the President. I heard individuals espousing a form of fundamentalist "Christianity" as the end toward which they were moving. I heard grown men whining and baiting and cheating and acting like snotty children. I did NOT hear reason. I did NOT hear interest in the interests of the American people. I did NOT hear professionalism. I did NOT hear humility.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While individual House Representative are elected by constituents in their districts, once in office and voting and making decisions on national issues, they must understand that their actions affect ALL Americans, many who may not have their point of view. I have been sending messages to the Speaker of the House and other members of government over the past few days expressing my wishes and point of view. I feel quite strongly that the time for </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 17.99715805053711px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">courtesy and deference toward our elected officials, on all levels, is over. They are our employees. They're not doing their jobs.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19.1875px;">My email to Representative Rob Portman: "</span>It doesn't matter that I'm not one of your
"constituents" because, once any of you are in office and making
decisions affecting the entire country, all of the rest of us have a right and
a responsibility to contact you and weigh in.
I'm 64, soon be be 65, never married, female, Independent, a mother and
grandmother, a professional, highly intelligent, highly educated and completely
disgusted with all of you in D.C.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I've just read that you believe that there will be an
agreement about the debt ceiling that the shutdown by Thursday. I certainly hope so. This NEVER should have happened in the first
place. This is NOT about the Affordable
Care Act, this is about the irresponsible reneging on our fiscal obligations
and trying to blame that action on the President's refusal to
"negotiate" about a law that was passed and about to be
implemented. We The People owe what you
the federal government en masse have obligated us to, regardless of what the
GOP and the disgusting Tea Partiers think about the Affordable Care Act. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You are absolutely incorrect that the majority of the
country is NOT in favor of the Affordable Care Act. The only people who are against it are the ignorant,
delusional and those living in the past, before we had a black president.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I expect a CLEAN C.R. resolution to be passed ASAP. And, having been responsible for many public
budgets; this is no way to operate a budget or run anything. You've ALL forgotten what you're there for -
not to force fundamentalist "Christian" values down our throats; not
to tell us spend all your time and our money obstructing a president that the
GOP doesn't approve of; not to try to WIN the 2 party playoffs (I wish both parties
would disappear); you're all there to work to make our lives as comfortable, as
INDIVIDUAL citizens with our own values, our own agendas, our own beliefs, our
own aims. I, for one, don't need any of
you to make any decisions for me, I'm only stuck with all of you. I'm smarter, kinder, more generous, more
understanding, more inclusive than any of you that I've witnessed so far,
particularly members of the GOP. Your
values fall away in the face of defeat.
I watched Republican members of the House outright lie, in public, on
national television to the American People to maintain this idiocy. I watched in amazement revelation of the
change to Rule XXII that the House Dems seemed to be unaware of, that blocks any
democratic functioning of the House, then to find that I can't find the passage
of that change anywhere online, including on the House web site or in the 2
clearly outdated, online editions of the House Rules. It's treasonous.<o:p></o:p></div>
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You're not there to legislate an ideology, and while I'm not
in your electing district, if you don't see that in your votes on national
issues, you have a clear responsibility to me, you shouldn't be in any public office."<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looks like I have some lapses in the text but that's OK, he'll get the idea.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The GOP, specifically the Tea Party agenda, as I see it, to come....</span></div>
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Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-17919374845824336122013-08-02T15:39:00.000-07:002013-08-02T15:39:01.264-07:00Poor Showing<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you sometimes wonder, if you're out of work and have recently lost your home because you can no longer pay your mortgage, and you look around and see people working, doing a lousy job, not having any apparent standards for either their behavior or their quality of work, if somehow you woke up in a different space and time? I do.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most recently, I'm disappointed and irritated by the establishment of a new federal organization and its pathetically crafted first meeting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have an interest in Native American issues and activities. It's not necessary, here and now, to get into the reasons for that interest. In the past, I was somewhat actively involved in my immediate geographic area, at the time; no longer. But, I do follow some things as I learn about them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In June of this year, the President, by <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/26/executive-order-establishing-white-house-council-native-american-affairs">Executive Order</a>, established the White House Council on Native American Affairs. This was done in response to a focus and request by tribal leaders.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Section 1. Policy. "The United States recognizes a government-to-government relationship, as well as a unique legal and political relationship, with federally recognized tribes."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, the entire rest of the Executive Order does nothing but establish yet another bureaucratic organization without membership or defined participation by the parties affected and recognized in its establishment: the Native Americans who requested this involvement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Clearly, the United States government does NOT recognize a government-to-government relationship, but rather an apparent patriarchal, overseer relationship. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a huge disappointment. More so, I'm sure for the tribal leaders who had such high hopes than for someone like myself watching from the sidelines. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The convening of the first "meeting" of said council demonstrates so obviously that: "The Secretary of Interior has NO clue how to include constituents, NO clue about the relationship between Native people and their leaders and the United States government. She is NOT qualified, therefore, to be in her position nor to conduct this and any future meeting of this kind." -- from my email to the White House.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As someone who has spent a career in public service and in management and as someone who has been mostly unemployed for over 2 years and who recently lost my house because of my inability to pay the mortgage, I am very irritated by this embarrassing and insulting "meeting". This is nothing more than a token gesture. This is NOT, I'm sure, what tribal leaders wanted nor intended in their requests. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a citizen, I would like to see my government making efforts to do <b><u>substantive</u></b> work in all areas, not just convening pointless meetings to have more discussions, excluding the very people from whom they need to be seeking input.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many of us have outgrown this kind of government. We are not children asking for "guidance from above". We are, many of us, intelligent, capable, creative individuals with a high degree of vision about our own lives and the future of our country and our world. And, our Constitution defines our right, outside the purview of any of our various governments, to conduct our lives as we see fit. So, while treaties define the relationship between the Native Nations of this continent, our Native cousins can also be seen as having those same rights and capabilities to conduct their own lives and business. They have simply asked for a single arena in which to conduct their business with our federal government rather than the multitude of agencies with which they currently have to deal; as I understand it.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7s-df2kem0IRRQ5dgf2BFLiCLTb_oaoSWOL2OjeGxT8rxZWWILWLhD4O9D6vvcsFOm4VQm0PXWq2_cv6izfnGXwuXeWV-IDhtnmCB3rYSD9Q5QBUYXlnf6pGg6eIqpo1sOQJCgZuTVN-k/s1600/Aa_Two+Row+Six+Nations+MAI+Hamell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7s-df2kem0IRRQ5dgf2BFLiCLTb_oaoSWOL2OjeGxT8rxZWWILWLhD4O9D6vvcsFOm4VQm0PXWq2_cv6izfnGXwuXeWV-IDhtnmCB3rYSD9Q5QBUYXlnf6pGg6eIqpo1sOQJCgZuTVN-k/s320/Aa_Two+Row+Six+Nations+MAI+Hamell.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I include a photo of the two-row wampum belt which was made as the document of the treaty between the Dutch government in New York State and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Nations in 1613 as the beginning of the conceptual relationship between the Native People of this continent and the government of the United States. The rows of purple beads signify the path of two vessels, that of the Haudenosaunee dugout canoe and that of the Dutch ship, traveling parallel paths down the river of life but never touching; the understanding that neither interferes with the path of the other. This is the relationship desired by the Native people of our country and it is my understanding that this is the relationship defined in many treaties but not adhered to.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I do, however, think that the expectations of the People (Native People), in view of the entirety of the Executive Order, were not going to be met and, perhaps, the outcome might have been foreseen, given the language of the text and the history of the relationship. There is nothing in the Executive Order describing or defining input from tribal leaders, or input of any kind from outside the various, and numerous, representatives of the various and myriad (there's a literary phrase that escapes me...) government departments and agencies. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I suspect that the requests and discussions of tribal leaders with the President, the Executive Branch and various agencies, were more politic than clearly defined and assertive in their expectations. In my experience, while words similar to: "You say that you are our Father and I am your Son. We say 'We will not be like Father and Son, but like Brothers." (no source cited - Wikipedia) have been spoken by my Native cousins, many actions I've witnessed have belied these thoughts. I imagine that the desire to maintain peace has, generally, tempered most discussions and demands. While I understand that the actual relationship is not as agreed to: separate and equal, I don't believe that anything will change unless and until Native leaders stop behaving as if the historically defined relationship is what exists. I don't believe that protesting the lie, or fighting about the difference between agreement and reality works either. Like many relationships, what is spoken of is often a lie, a fantasy. Still, if the defined relationship is what is desired, there are steps that one party can take to move toward the desired end without discussion, without agreement (the relationship is already defined, the actuality is simply ignoring the definition). Much has been done in gaining independence and self-determination. Much more is needed and is possible. There will be mistakes. There will be sacrifices. There will be conflicts. The Native Nations of this continent DO NOT NEED THE PERMISSION OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT to conduct their business, to provide for their people, to create a future for their nations that they desire. That's the desirable end, from where I stand. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just my opinion.</span>Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2918546978023382982.post-20100958341747273502013-07-22T08:44:00.001-07:002013-07-22T08:44:22.435-07:00It Takes an Effort to Move Beyond Reaction<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most of our behavior, most of our lives, are simply reaction to stimulus. It takes an effort to move beyond reaction. It takes first remembering that we are mostly robots trained and conditioned, both accidentally and intentionally, to behave in certain ways to the world around us. It then takes additional awareness to decide on a direction, action, thought, other than the automatic and an effort to move against the initial response to one that is more focused, consistent and intentional.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am no different in this than you. I sometimes like to think otherwise. Certainly, I prefer my reactions to life than those of some other people. I have a view of life and the world that I want to maintain and support in my actions and reactions. That I do so consciously and intentionally is an illusion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, I reacted to a reaction that I felt exemplifies this mindless fact about ourselves; that we simply react to what the world puts in front of us. My reaction is just a reaction to someone else's reaction; the flavor is different but it's just a reaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There was a Facebook post about a Dana Perino (some kind of news person on TV - I generally don't watch it) who reacted to the President's 2nd statement about the Martin - Zimmerman mess. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/dana-perino-bashes-obama-wheres-your-speech-for-baby-shot-in-the-face-by-black-teens/"><b>http://www.mediaite.com/tv/dana-perino-bashes-obama-wheres-your-speech-for-baby-shot-in-the-face-by-black-teens/</b></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I didn't watch the video; it would have riled me. Her reaction, as reported, was stupid and thoughtless, automatic and pointless, although I would imagine she would feel otherwise. But, then, she's paid to make such statements biased in a particular way. I'm guessing the reaction, however, is her own. I posted my reaction, as follows, on her Facebook page. My post doesn't appear as far as I can see. Coward. Here's my reaction:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few days ago, I was in Trenton to deal with my state pension. Trenton, like many cities, has many one way streets. I find getting in and out of such cities complicated and irritating. Just going around the block is not just going around the block. I was headed in the wrong direction and lost track of how many blocks I'd traveled in which direction and needed assistance. I found myself in a black neighborhood - Oh, My. Yes, I have the same reaction: I'm in a strange city, I don't know the neighborhood, I'm alone. But, I have several black blood relatives. I have many black friends; some of them live in Trenton. So, resisting my internal reaction, I saw a man on the street ahead, about mid-30s. Yes, he was black; I was in a black neighborhood. I slowed down, lowered my window and said, "Excuse me..." His face showed surprise, a little nervous, then a slight smile. What was he thinking? I asked him for directions back to the highway I needed, which he gave me, thanked him and drove on. I yelled back to him, out the still open window, that I hoped I could remember all the turns.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nothing bad happened. He was just a guy; a black guy. I could have a conversation with him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You're capable of getting past whatever biases and prejudices you have on a moment by moment, situation by situation basis. What's inside you belongs to you: good and bad. You are responsible for your actions; nobody else is. You don't know what a black person feels, unless you're black. I don't know what a black person feels; I've never been black</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">. You don't know what I feel either; I don't know what you feel. Stop assuming, or, at least, don't go with your first assumption.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you treat me like I'm stupid; I'll react badly. If you treat me like I'm bad; you leave me no choice but to defend myself which you will undoubtedly interpret as bad. If you look at our differences as problems instead of just differences; if you think I have to conform to how and what you are; we'll have problems between us. If I were a black person and said these things to you, depending on who you are and how you view the world and life, I'm guessing you'd react differently than to me: a white female senior citizen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You don't think you're a racist but you are.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can approach life as an adventure or you can approach it as a mine field. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Your choice, inside.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A black person on the street is just a person unless you make him different by your actions or words or he proves by his actions, not your imagination, to be anything else. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why, BTW, are there black neighborhoods? Duh, THINK.</span></div>
Senior in New Jerseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09170936209375518548noreply@blogger.com0