To live one day at a time like everything is just swell; 
To send me a Rolex so I can really enjoy one moment at a time; 
 To learn to avoid and run from hardships as the pathway to peace;  
And not taking, as He did, this sinful world
 as it is, but imagining it as I would have it; 
Trusting that He will make all things right instead of me trying to do it. 

That I may be unbelievably and screamingly happy in this life 
and even more super duper happy with Him in the next.

Amen.

Like you , LK…I too am done!  Toasted. Fatigued, infuriated, and feeling helpless.  A voice in a void that, unless I say something completely idiotic, hateful  and ruthless enough to go viral on You Tube, rises like a silent cloud to nothingness.  A voice that on Tuesday had so much more meaning as it screamed GOAL!!!! while my wife and I sat in hockey bliss, munching $9.00 fries and $10.00 beers.  A voice that delivers joy and pure devotion as it whispers “I love you,” to my sleeping wife.  Otherwise, a voice that is basically unnecessary.

We – more-so  you – rant weekly about all the horrors, cruelties, political gaffs and corruption, illegal and un-winnable wars, genocide, and on and on and on.  And yes, it’s a good thing to enlighten, to make people aware.  But even too much awareness bloats the psyche.  Like a therapy session that lasts longer than an hour because the brain shuts down from too much information, enlightenment and awareness become so much white noise, or worse, crying wolf.

And so, at least for now, I am washing myself clean of any and all responsibility of everything and anything that goes on outside my immediate circle of loved ones.  I imagine this will last for two or three days, but right now, it feels really, really good!

                          

I asked myself what I would do if this was it. If I knew for sure that say by next Wednesday everything was just gone.  My immediate bonehead ideas were 1.  Buy the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport…the fastest car in the world – and drive it as fast as it can go , which is 253 mph.  2. Buy the L115A Long Range Rifle – the best sniper rifle in the world, and shoot a bunch of Taliban guys just as they were getting ready to rape someone.  3.  Move next door to Angelina Jolie and take her for a ride in my new Bugatti.  And 4.  Drive Angie and me to NYC to find Donald Trump and punch him in the face.

Now of course, all of that is just simple self-entertaining nonsense, and I fully realize that I would do none of those things because none of those things have any true meaning.  But then comes the puzzle – why bother with meaning if this is all over – including my inherent awareness of myself?  And then that irritating God thing comes up and I have to start all over.  Was it the fear or love of God that kept me from just letting go of all restraints and tearing through this life like a mad dog?  Or was there some gene plugged in during mom and pop’s coitus?  The truth – at least my truth when giving this some heavy thought, is that one dies like one lived.  I believe that having gone so many years traveling what I assumed to be the correct path, the right thing to do, the way to be, and so on, has been so deeply deposited into my psyche that even now, knowing that Wednesday next is the end of everything, I would behave in exactly the same manner I did all those hundreds upon hundreds of past regular Wednesdays.

And so, if the Mayans are in fact correct, there will be people stealing, raping, killing, and doing all kinds of bad stuff. But I believe that those people have been struggling with keeping themselves under control all along.  The majority of us will just sit, realizing there is nothing else we can nor need to do.

As for me, my Bugatti -Jolie imaginings washed away for the comical absurdities they were, I would gather my family and try to keep them from the panic and fear that accompanies any unknown.   I would hold them close, and laugh and cry and run through memories and even discuss what is next for us since we all, my family that is, have a belief in an afterlife.  And whether that afterlife is man made fodder created to keep everyone from cracking up at the thought of death, or a mystical, spiritual truth doesn’t matter.  Hope is what has helped me and my loved ones through this life.  To drop it now would be as illogical as shooting up the Taliban.

Still, there is a tiny part of that sniper thing that gives me a smile.  Gonna have to talk that over with God next Wednesday.

                          

Dear Young Leader,
You have in front of you, two paths.  The one is that which you know.  A sheltered life of luxury and protection from the outside world.  The other is quite extraordinary, as it has the potential of running parallel with that of Siddartha Gautama, or the Buddha.

You see, when Prince Siddhartha was a few days old, a holy man prophesied he would be either a great military conqueror or a great spiritual teacher. His father, King Suddhodana preferred the first outcome and prepared his son accordingly. He raised the boy in great luxury and shielded him from knowledge of religion and human suffering. The Prince reached the age of 29 with little experience of the world outside the walls of his opulent palaces.  One day, overcome with curiosity, Prince Siddhartha asked a servant to take him on a series of rides through the countryside. On these journeys he was shocked by the sight of an aged man, then a sick man, and then a corpse. The stark realities of old age, disease, and death seized and sickened the Prince.

For a time the Prince returned to palace life, but he took no pleasure in it. Even the news that his wife had given birth to a son did not please him.

One night he wandered the palace alone. The luxuries that had once pleased him now seemed grotesque. Musicians and dancing girls had fallen asleep and were sprawled about, snoring and sputtering. Prince Siddhartha reflected on the old age, disease, and death that would overtake them all and turn their bodies to dust.

I am wishing you the wisdom and openness of heart to make the right choice.

                          

Anyway, when I got the rough track of the song, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t a folksy whiner.  The band even suggested I make it rock and roll!  “Yahoo,” said me.  Well, the thing came out tough, and angry, and gutsy.  The band even managed to lyrically deliver the much maligned point of the Occupiers, demanding to know:

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE FOOLIN’?”

Very cool, and maybe 99 Power have given the Movement an anthem.

Here are the video, the music track, and the lyrics:

Note from Cheyenne Picardo, the video editor: “My gratitude goes out to all of the protestors, artists, animators, documentarians, and other people who have created the content from which this piece is derived. In making this piece, I tried to pay respectful homage to the global video conversation that is so effectively saturating the Internet. Please feel free to post links to your work in their entirety in the comments section. We’re all in this together. Thank you!”

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE FOOLIN’?

Recorded by 99 POWER    Words & Music by James Mee

Who—do—- you— think you’re foolin’?
. . . Do—you—- think you’re foolin’?
Who— do—you—- think you’re foolin’?
. . . Do— you— think you’re foolin’?

Who— do—you—- think you’re foolin’?
. . . Do— you— think you’re foolin’?
Who— do—you—- think you’re foolin’?
. . . Do— you— think you’re foolin’?

Who—do—you—think you’re foolin’? . . .
Do—you—think you’re foolin’?
Who—do—you—think you’re foolin’
Do—you—think you’re foolin’?
Who—do—you
Who—do—you think you’re foolin’
Do— you— think you’re foolin’

You stabbed my heart, made me scream,
with the broken pieces of the American dream

Copyright 2011 Metrostar Music
c/o Publishers’ Licensing Corporation P.O. Box 5807, Englewood, NJ 07631

PLCAgent@aol.com

                          

I got the shot to feel like a 1 percenter the other day. See here in this little town, although pretty affluent, there are people who, like in every town are struggling . There is kind of an unwritten deal here that if you have something you are going to get rid of, and it’s not just trash, you put it out on the curb and someone who can use it will take it.

Now, my dad lives with us and he is recovering from a pretty substantial illness, and one which has left him for the time being, at least, in a position to mostly hang out, lay around, nap with his dog and watch TV. He is absolutely fine with this current lifestyle, so I’m not looking for sympathy, just stating the facts. Besides the occasional walk through the house for exercise as he builds himself back up, TV is the only entertainment he has. Again – don’t misunderstand. Pop could watch TV until the Chinese colonize Mars. And he will watch anything. I ‘ve caught him staring at the Spanish Channel, even though he does’nt understand a word of Spanish. Of course if you have watched the Spanish Channel, you will notice that despite the Latina movement to lose their sexist, misogynistic image, all the women are scantily clad. And so for Pop, understanding the language seems not that important.

Anyway, we figured it would be a nice idea to buy him a new 51 inch flat screen cause the one we had back here where he likes to party was over twenty years old and the picture was out of focus and burning images – basically hard to make out. My son helped me drag out the huge old monster and we – like I explained, put it out on the curb.

The next morning, two women came to the door to make sure the TV was free. I told them it was, and that it worked but it would probably need someone to have a look at it cause the picture was weak. One of the women was so excited, she begged me to hide it so no one else would grab it and then cheered “Merry Christmas to me!” as she scooted excitedly out our driveway to get a truck.

Now, I whine. I try not to, but it’s in my nature from time to time to whine about this thing or that. I whined today. The Eagles got embarrassed by the Patriots, my car got smacked in a parking lot in Baltimore, and I’m whining right now how I could kill you for me being awake after beating myself to a pulp with two out of town concerts this weekend. And so, I want to thank those two women for the God-pie in the face reminding me to shut up, count my blessings – of which I have many, and get on with this beautiful life. I also have a tiny smile thinking of them sitting in front of dad’s old TV. I would like to think that if I ever did become a 1 percenter for real, I would do a lot of giving cause it just feels really cool.

                          

We can assume the Pope knows about pedophile priests, bishops and other church hierarchy.  And we now know that Joe Paterno was told about the sodomy of a young child by one of his coaches.  As for Schwartz, he told an Armed Forces congressional panel he took “personal responsibility” for what occurred in 2009, when soldiers’ body parts went missing and then wound up in a landfill somewhere in Virginia.

The Pope protects the Catholic Church.  Paterno attempted to protect Penn State football, and Schwartz tried to protect the US Air Force.  I smell something missing.  But before getting to that, another assumption must be made.  All three of these guys most definitely are not – were not promoting child abuse.  We can say with almost absolute certainty that these three top guys are not pro man-child sexual relations.  We can also make book on the fact that none of these guys held the victims in any formidable place in the line of importance.  And there is where they all stink as humans.  Along with their power, comes responsibility.  Not one of them stepped up to the plate and took any action until they were hit with the not so glamorous spotlight of exposure.

Did Schwartz fire everyone involved with the unbelievable concept of burning and dumping our hero’s body parts?  Did Joe clean house when given a detailed description of the ugly, unspeakable stuff that was being done to children?  Is the Pope washing clean the stains on the souls of his priests and bishops by turning them over to the policia?  No. No. and No.  Sports reporters rumble on about the Penn State scandal not being about football.  It’s not?  Then what is it about?  We’ve already established Paterno is not pro-ped.  So, why the whitewash?  The Catholic Church denounces the despicable acts, as does the Air Force, but – like Joe – they consider the bigger picture.

Well, my friends, if the bigger picture does not have the victims and their families forefront, then that picture is distorted and plain wrong.

The fact is those violated will never be the same.  Their lives have been changed forever.  The families of the landfill soldiers will look upon our country’s military as a shameless machine that has dishonored their loved ones.  Used them up and tossed them away.

Responsibility is a great word, and an even greater concept, but like so much of the word noise we get from political, corporate, and big religion, it is only that – noise.  These people are essentially lobbyists looking out for themselves and the shadowy upper echelon who pay them.  They are not anything more than that.  Leeches, piranha, bulldozers, sucking dry, eating up and blowing through anything that may prove disruptive to their personal money pots.

                          

The aid agencies say they are helpless.  Ali Mohamud Raage said,  ‘The UN said that there is famine in Somalia. That is not true. It is a lie and they are politicizing the issue. “We only have drought in Somalia, not famine.”  Conversely, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said : “Nearly 3.7 million people are now in crisis,” . Aid agencies estimate that 10 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda and Somalia are at risk of famine.  Ten million people.  I’m going with Ban.

So as not to be completely unreasonable, Al-Shabaab has offered a bargain to the aid agencies.  Of course, no specifics have been presented as to what this bargain entails, and so the UN, The World Food Programme, and Mercy Corps. are waiting around for negotiations.  CNN reports that according to the head of USAID, “President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have asked us to test Al-Shabaab, if they’re going to provide humanitarian access. We’re going to stand with the United Nations and other partners to make sure that humanitarian organizations can get in and can reach the most affected people.”  What that means is nothing.  Certainly nothing to this satanic offshoot of Al Qaeda.  It’s another tragically, laughable statement that carries no weight whatsoever.  Testing Al-Shabaab?  Are you kidding?

If we are going to be king again, we need to start acting like one.  A good one. We cannot change everyone with military action, but we can change hearts and minds by winning hearts and minds.  If we show the UN and the other humanitarian organizations that we in fact are humanitarians, they will follow in kind.  For once, let’s do the right thing.

                          

I normally don’t get giddy happy thoughts and feelings when I see an ultra powerful guy fall from his perch on the top of the world.  Honest.  I suppose I was brought up not to wallow in others misfortune.  Not that I am a saint – far from it.  I just kind of see it as karma and try to use it as a lesson for myself when I screw up or hurt someone.  But, forgive me if I do a river dance over Rupert Murdoch’s tumble.  This is a very nasty man, and he deserves every bit of smelly rot that is being tossed his way.  And the irony is just brilliantly perfect, as Murdoch’s papers thrived on this kind of scandal.  In fact, he’s probably more upset about not being able to cover his own story than the fall of his News Corporation.

Just to be clear, Murdoch, through his papers, more accurately described as tabloids, have – this from an article in the NY Times, lowered the standards of journalism on three continents — and routinely broken the law on at least one of them. He had dumbed down his prestige papers, like The Times of London. He has run roughshod over cross-ownership rules meant to prevent one man or company from having too much power — and then used his lobbying might to get those rules diluted. He has put kowtowing to China ahead of freedom of the press, even killing a book set to be published by his HarperCollins unit – did this guy own EVERYTHING? – that the Chinese authorities objected to. He has consistently used his media properties to reward allies and punish enemies.

He also gave us Fox News, the tabloid TV outlet that Canada refused to give broadcast rights because in Canada there is a law prohibiting news shows from lying. I did not make that up.  Murdoch’s ugliness allowed, even prompted his minions to do such things as hack into the  phones of murdered teenagers, families of victims of  9-11, and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, where Rebekah Brooks called Brown to tell him the Sun was about to print that his infant child had cystic fibrosis.  That was the kind of news Murdoch and his dark crew feasted on.

Powerful enough to even bring down the big boys at Scotland Yard, an institution I always considered ranking up there with our FBI and Israel’s Mossad.  So, yeah.  I’m all smitten right now, especially after reading a piece from CNN that ultra-hackers Lulz Security got in and wrecked Murdoch’s Sun paper and his News International website and his Times of London.  I’m also not keen on hackers, but in this case, I’m giving Lulz a couple of thumbs up.  Let the weasel taste the bitter ugliness of being invaded.

We will have to wait and see what – if any punishment Murdoch gets.  But for now, being outed and paraded publicly for the terrible man he is works for me.

                          

In the wake of this whole debt ceiling circus, I was kind of shocked – in a humorous way of course, to learn that there is a credit rating company that actually can ruin the United States of America’s credit score.  How weird is that?  Didn’t you guys think the USA would be immune to a bunch of slug lawyers and accountants who have the power to deny the US a MasterCard?  Does this mean that Bernanke logs on to Free Credit Report.com every day?

Feeling like a real dope, I had to look into this, and it seems that there are actually three of these companies that research and analyze international finances on government agencies.  Now it seems that the big one, called Moody’s Corporation, is  considering downgrading the USA’s triple A rating because of the possibility that the debt limit will not be raised in time.  Plus, any financial institutions connected with the government -  that would be Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Home Loan Banks, and Federal Farm Credit Banks, are also being reviewed for downgrade. And if that ain’t enough, Moody’s has also placed on review for possible downgrade pre-refunded municipal bonds, certain housing bonds that are supported or guaranteed by the US government, and other municipal ratings that are directly linked to the rating of the US government. Bonds issued by the governments of Israel and Egypt that are guaranteed by the US government were also placed on review for possible downgrade.   Man, that’s an awful lot of power!

Given that I don’t have the slightest clue of a clue about economics, cause basically it’s pretty boring stuff compared to say, the NFL, MLB, and the Deadliest Catch crabbing show, I had to look up the ramifications of international bad credit.   A credit rating reflects the risk of default.  There could be a massive outflow of foreign investment since some global funds are mandated to invest only in AAA debt and if the U.S. loses its AAA rating‚ it loses those investors.  A credit rating downgrade provides a perfect excuse for an alternative reserve currency to replace the dollar. China‚ Russia and other countries are already suggesting creating a “basket of currencies” that would replace the U.S. dollar.  Interest rates will increase as will risk of inflation. Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Charles Plosser cautions, “History shows us that you can get very bad economic outcomes with rapidly rising inflation.”  Okay, I kind of understand all that.  But, I also understand that every coin has two sides, and I really understand blackmail.

It seems in the early 1970s, S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch began receiving payment for their ratings by the securities issuers for whom they issue those ratings. Also, according to The Institute for Individual Investors, Moody’s had offered German insurer Hannover Re a “free rating”. When the insurer refused the gift, Moody’s continued with the “free ratings” anyway, but gradually lowered its rating of the company.  The German insurer continued refusing Moody’s services, so Moody’s lowered Hannover’s debt to Junk, causing the company to lose $175 million in market value in a couple of hours.  And, finally, Wall Street veteran, Chris Rowe writes, “I started underwriting big bond deals for one company that we eventually took public.  The CEO of the security issuer suggested we remind prospective investors that the bonds would eventually be given a “nice rating” by credit agencies like Moody’s, which would push the bond’s prices higher and put the firm in a better capital position.  I asked how I could possibly say that (as it seemed illegal), only to find out that the only thing the firm had to do was PAY THE RATING AGENCIES and BOOM!  Instant credit worthiness, instant price movement, and instant exposure for the company itself.”

I was right.  This economics stuff is so corrupt, crab fishing in the Bering Sea is literally a breath of honest, fresh air.  I prefer it and the people involved in it to the thousand dollar suited mobsters that make even our politicians look like innocents.  I don’t like it.  I don’t get it.  I don’t want to get it.  I won’t participate in it.  Call me a dreamer, but I will invest myself in my family, the blue sky and the yellow sun.