Misplaced pride, Ignorance is unbecoming...

Vintage 1887 patchwork quilt

In this day of environmental awareness and looking after our planet, it has resulted in many people doing their part to assure the earth is hurt no more than it already has been and with each of us making our own contribution to that cause, we should be able to, if not turn things around, at least halt much of the pollution that's seen today growing worse. So many of the people born into this generation are thinking this way and it becomes second nature to them to recycle and pick up bits of trash and litter as they see it laying around the streets and wilderness. But as good as they are, they have one thing terribly, terribly wrong!
 
This became abundantly clear while standing in line at checkout one afternoon when the young woman at the register peered at the woman in front of me and told the elder lady that she 'should be doing her part'. That that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment!

The woman apologized to the young girl, saying she'd remember this for next trip to the store and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "And that's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations to come."

The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady then went on to explain:

"Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they really were recycled...but we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable, besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad, we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

And if we had a cat, the shredded bags were placed in a pan and provided kitty a place to pee if she had to go. No expensive litters or fancy mechanical self cleaning litter pans using electricity back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. And very few of us had weight problems for these same reasons."

  And she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

After the dishes are done...by hand...

In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us either. 

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not 'purchased for the purpose' Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right - we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or carrying around a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of throwing them away and buying a new pen...and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then we did recycle our outgrown or out of fashion clothing much as they do today, but we also made use of those clothes that weren't fit for wearing any longer. They became patchwork quilts! No buying brand new cotton when there was so much good usable cotton in the shirt with the blown collar or elbows. Or the dress with the stain or the blouse with irreparable seams...or sheets with too many patches became the quilt backs of the 'new' patchwork quilt. 
But she was right, we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Your ride to and from school everyday...

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

Please feel free to share this with another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't really take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced, spiky haired smart ass who can't even make change without the cash register telling them how much to hand us back.

The Extremely Outdated and Oft Misread Second Amendment....

The first Bill of Rights

 
The Extremely outdated and oft misread Second Amendment desperately needs to be amended again, this time including a guarantee that all citizens are given an adequate education so that they are capable of reading and comprehending what they have read. This amendment has been so often misread, intentionally or otherwise, for the personal gain of those that want it to support their views. 
It was written at a time when a property owner also needed to protect his property because he was the only one around that was able to do that. There really were no organized police forces that you could call on your cell phone...erm, phone....oops, yell out the window to the small local constabularies!

 Fast forward 222 years, from it's inception in 1791 to today, 2013. You can almost hear the rumbling underfoot as the Founding Fathers spin in their graves. They are appalled and stunned that the people they gave guidance in the form of the Bill of Rights, are so stupid as to never amend that Bill again, never amend to fit the era they live in, never understand that in the day when there were no assault rifles, no multi magazines, no phones, no TV, no cars, no computers, no radios, not even something as simple as a zipper!

Keep in mind please, that this amendment was written & adopted when George Washington was still in his first term as president!! It had only been eight years since the end of the American Revolution, altho' we were in the midst of the Northwest Indian War, taking place in what today, we know as the Industrial Midwest – Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. Vermont had just recently become the 14th state. Originally, the Second Amendment is very much about local militias keeping check on a federal military establishment. 
It’s about Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. It’s a product of the American Revolution. The motto at the founding is when guns are outlawed, "only the king’s men will have guns." 

In a nutshell, almost everything ordinary Americans think they know about the Bill of Rights, including the phrase ‘Bill of Rights,’ comes from the Reconstruction period. Not once did the Founders refer to these early amendments as a bill of rights. We read everything through the prism of the 14th amendment — including the right to bear and keep arms.” The reconstruction Republicans didn’t love local militias. They believed in Grant’s army so they recast it. It becomes an individual right. The NRA is founded after the Civil War by a group of ex-Union Army officers. Now the motto goes, when guns are outlawed, only klansmen will have guns. Individual black men had to have guns in their homes because they couldn’t count on the local constabulary. 
It’s in the text of the Freedman’s Bureau Act of 1866 that we actually see the reinterpretation of the original Second Amendment. It becomes about original rights.” 

To say the United States was a very different place at that time than it is today, is an enormous understatement. At that time, the country’s population was a little more than 4 million, nearly 1/80th of what it is today. The inventions of the American Industrial Revolution were still 40 years away. The Colt 45 Revolver wasn’t invented and wouldn't be for another 80 years. The firearm of choice in 1791 was a single-shot highly inaccurate muzzle loaded rifle. While we can certainly say that the framers of the Constitution were wise and prescient men, it would be ludicrous to think that they envisioned a world where anyone on the street could buy an automatic or semi-automatic gun with incredible firepower and large self-loading magazines. They would cry to see how the IQ of an entire nation has decreased and using your words to support sheer stupidity. And that’s where we are today. 

Yes, we hear the words from people -- 'Everyone wants reasonable gun laws...gun controls'. But that simply is NOT true. Gun manufacturers certainly don't. The NRA by and large, doesn't. We need to face this first and foremost before anything can be resolved - not "everyone" is for reasonable gun control. A wide swath of people are for no gun regulations at all, which is what makes this national "conversation" so frustrating to the more sane element in the country. 
 If what you have in your personal arsenal is equal or greater to what your military has, with its drones, anti-aircraft shoulder rockets and weapons grade plutonium, then I, for one, think it more than reasonable to limit your access, as you seem to have taken an oath to sheer insanity.

This old guitar of mine...

This week or the next I will finally be reunited with my guitar. My best friend for so many years, my beautiful Framus 12 string guitar. Listed as the Texan by the company, so many people referred to it as the Hummingbird that Framus finally changed the listing in their catalog to the Hummingbird. While the bird on the Framus pick guard isn't really a hummingbird, but really some sort of songbird, the shape of the guard and the flowers on it are very much like that of the Gibson Hummingbird.

I've had this guitar with me what seems like forever, but in reality 35 years. It is one of my things that I always took good care of, making sure it was always cleaned and polished, even if I wasn't using it and keeping the wood hydrated. No dust ever dare try to lay on it for long.

It was the third guitar that I'd owned, my first being a student guitar, a black flattop Harmony - 'the peoples guitar' they touted it at the time. I often wondered "as opposed to what?" That guitar came with a 25 year warranty and was sold through Sears with their Silvertone name on it. It was a surprisingly nice sounding guitar for it's price tag, maybe a bit scratchy, but otherwise okay for $90.00.

As a kid I thought I had the best guitar that money could buy.
I don't know if mine would have made it the 25 years or not but it didn't matter because I sold it to buy a Gibson LG1.

The LG1 and I did not get along at all. It was a sort of clunky sounding little 3/4 guitar that had neck rod problems we were never able to get fixed. One song and I was having to tune - that did get rather old very fast.

So a dear friend of mine, who happened to own a music store, called me in and presented me with my Framus. He thought it was the best guitar I could have for the type of thing I did on guitar and he was right on the money. I bonded with my baby immediately and I've never looked back.

So fast forward to today and getting my guitar fixed after our last move back to the east from Vegas. The guitar was so mishandled by the moving company, having been left in 100 degree heat unprotected for nearly nine months, it split down the center of the face.
*all photos may be enlarged by clicking on them ~

I was beside myself when it arrived wrapped in only a sheet of newspaper, nothing else, even tho' the company, Puliz Moving and Storage, [remember that name] assured us the guitar would be specially grated and kept in air conditioned storage, it was more than evident that never happened. As an aside, Puliz damaged more of our belongings in this one move than any of our other seven moves combined. If you need to move anywhere, you need to avoid this company like the plague.
And so began a long saga of fighting with their insurance company to have the guitar fixed.

Since they were refusing, I sought out a man here on my own in Pennsylvania...Bangor PA to be exact. Mr Fred Castner. The guitar has not left my side in 35 years! I didn't want it replaced - I wanted my guitar in the condition they received it in. I want you to remember this name too, Castner Guitar Repair, because not only is this man an expert at his craft, but working with him has been a delight from beginning to end.
In today's world, with all the businesses that won't give an inch, or live up to their promises, how refreshing it is to find a person like Fred who will go the extra mile and then some, to get it right! He has kept me abreast of every step of the way in the restoring process. I have received daily reports and he's asked for my input at times if in doubt about what I expect.

How could you ask for anything better in business?
~the seemingly innocent looking crack~
The progress pictures arrived compliments of Fred's wife Regina and I am thrilled at what I am seeing so far! I can't post all the pictures, but I will give you a sampling and trust me, the remaining photos show a beautiful guitar emerging again thanks to talented hands.





~prepping for the lacquer

~the crack is mended and sealed.


~another look before polishing it up


And so now I'm counting the hours til I have it back again. Any guesses as to what song I will attempt to play on it first? Isn't it obvious?



I'm intending to add to this as the time nears to bring it home too, so please drop by again. Sorta like awaiting a new baby, isn't it?

Saturday, October 18, 2008 - homecoming day -

There was the sign just ahead at the roadside. The sign reads Castner Guitar Repair. Should also read “Miracle worker slash all round great guy!” I am still in awe of what he has worked with my guitar.

My heart started hammering as we pulled into the drive and it hit me that this was the day I was picking up my guitar to bring it home again.
We met Fred at the door and he took us into the shop and presented the guitar to me – and no, for those of you that know me, I didn’t cry. But it was an uphill battle not to.

~ No, it's not your eyes, it's hubby's eyes. The pix are blurry. He says he doesn't need to wear his glasses.





The guitar is so beautiful, as you can see.

Once I got it home, he & I went over a few tunes together - songs that I thought may be easy for me to pick up again. Now I have blisters on my fingers! Trust me when I say it’s been a long, long time since that’s happened, but I welcome it so much. And it didn't take too long either!

I was so relieved to find out I may have been worrying needlessly about my fingers not working. It will be like learning over again, I'm sure, but at least I can learn over…and with one advantage. This time I have the chords all in my head, I just have to send them all that back to my fingers.

I’m pretty confident that once I rebuild my calluses, I’m gonna be okay. Something I didn’t think about though, was the rest of my hand - my wrist will need some work because that is one wide neck, I tell ya! I had forgotten. I'm not a guitar weenie so I'm not sure of the measurements, but I believe the average 'at the nut' measurement for a guitar neck is 1 3/4" to 1 11/16" wide. Mine is 1 14/16ths"! That's quite a span for a female type hand, but ya do what ya gotta do! Life's little challenges, y'know?

And I will do it again, in fact already doing it, just awkwardly, but I’m not going for best looking guitar player so it doesn’t really matter! Wish me luck everybody. I will try to give a 6 month report on my progress.

And if you ever have a guitar that needs repair or refinishing, or know someone that does, keep Fred in mind, because as you can see you will not be disappointed.

STOP the nuclear bailout! A petition...

Please do this for yourself and the planet. It is such a small thing to do and has such a monumental result.



I thank you and the earth thanks you...

Making others listen to your inner self

As I sit here this morning thinking about the busy day, nay, weeks ahead and having to make yet another big move, I realize my six & a half year anniversary is nearing – the anniversary of my brain pop, my blow-out, my vascular paroxysm...my near death experience. I have called it many things, most unprintable – the medical professions terminology is brain aneurysms. But, like the rose, by any other name, it still stinks. You won't find that in any medical journal you can bet.

I think about where I am today and where I was the many weeks after May 29^th, 2001. First, laying unconscious in a hospital, totally paralyzed on my left side and everyone ready to write me off.

I was told I would likely not have the use of my left arm and hand again, or walk without a full leg brace and quad cane, never mind hike, climb or do something like drive a car. But today, I can do all of those things.

I was told that the hole was in my brain was placed immediately where the brain operates eyesight and I would likely lose mine. I don’t even wear glasses. I was told that since my brain was flooded with blood and sustained damage, I shouldn't expect to do any of the things I used to do. The bloody barrage that soaked the right side of my brain was going to render me disabled. Handicapped. Crippled. No longer able to do anything, so I shouldn't waste my time trying. Oh sure, I needed to do my therapy so I could see small gains - do my therapy so that I wouldn’t worsen. But don’t set my goals too high or expect to regain my abilities 100% because I would just be disappointed. It wasn't going to happen.

Thing is, I never approached my life like that before this event, so I certainly wasn’t about to cave and start doing things that way now. Not when there was so much at stake! Were they crazy? I would sit in my hospital bed in rehab and wait for someone to come around and wheel me to therapy, wishing all the while that I could do something…ANYTHING, while waiting for my hour at the gym room. I was so eager to get started and since I worked out everyday before being hospitalized, this was unbearable! I asked them if I could bring the dumb bells back to my room from the therapy room and the answer was no because they were needed in the gym. Besides, they didn’t want me to tire myself…~*sigh*~.
I was tiring alright! Tired of the inactivity I had to endure.

So I embarked on my own path back.

Out of desperation, I had my husband bring my dumbbells in from home and I'd sit in my chair in the corner of my room and work my arm. There was also Debi, an aide/friend/confidante who would bring me the mop from behind the janitors’ door at night and I did lifts with that while sitting on my bed. I got my fingers moving and gripping and then my hand working. Before long, my arm.
My doctors were astounded! My therapists weren’t. They said they knew if anyone was going to be able to come back from something like this, I was, because I didn’t accept no for an answer. I never believed the doctors and I never believed I wasn’t going to get better. That’s not a brag – that’s simply a fact. And it’s also the point of my post.

The medical profession continues to make one large mistake over and over again. They treat patients as case histories or tend to try and fit them into what they believe is how it should go, based on what has gone before. The textbook case. ‘Let’s see…kinda like case 732b and a little like case 81c with a dash of F459 thrown in, so I guess we can’t expect anything different from this person, even though she’s an entirely different human being in entirely different circumstances and with a major kick ass attitude!’

My main doctor, Dr. Howard Yonas, is a very highly respected neurosurgeon [and all round cool guy] not just in the US, but internationally, would kid with me from time to time, saying he was going to have my picture put on the side of buses in Pittsburgh as his poster person for recovery. I'd kid back telling him to throw away all his books and write his own books based on observations of his patients like me and he would have plenty of poster persons.

In the end, the lesson here is we should never limit ourselves, nor should we allow others to limit us - least of all our doctors and physical therapists. I lived all by myself in Vegas for nearly a year and today I still spend a lot of time on my own. I doubt I'd be able to do this had I listened to the naysayers. I was so fortunate to have good, understanding therapists that understood my mindset. Thanks guys and girls, you know who you are. Because of your support, I'm continuing to have an active life, and while maybe not 100%, I do a pretty nasty 95%.

Losing respect really hurts

In the space of two weeks I have lost respect of not one but two women I have long admired, and for reasons I never would have expected. All having to do with race and people of color.
The women I am referring to are Whoopie Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey.

First Whoopie.
How thrilled I was when I learned she was going to be joining The View? After the recent rash of controversy caused for the show by Rosy O'Donnell, I mistakenly thought Whoopie would be the intelligent and light-hearted addition they needed to continue into their eleventh season with some freshness. So how shocked and disappointed I was when I heard Whoopie defending Michael Vick in his recent dog-fighting scandal.

"He's from the South, from the Deep South. This is part of his cultural upbringing. For a lot of people, dogs are sport. Instead of just saying (Vick) is a beast and he's a monster, this is a kid who comes from a culture where this is not questioned."

Whoopie, Whoopie, Whoopie! You mean like Jeff Saturday, born in Georgia or Peyton Manning born about as deep in the south as you're gonna get - New Orleans, Louisiana. ...would you be so quick to condone them too if they'd broken the law? Or is your compassion for Vick more to do with his color? That's a terrible accusation I make, but I'm left with no other explanation for what you've done.
Whoopie subsequently defended herself the next day, explaining that she was attempting to explain Vick's actions from a cultural view, but was in no way condoning his actions. ~*back pedal*~

Dog fighting and cock fighting are cultural in some countries, yes, unfortunately they are. But here in the USA they are not. It doesn't matter if you're Chinese, Irish, Greek or African American, if you are born in this country and you live in this country, you abide by the laws of this country. There are no exceptions because you are a certain color or you don't know the law. It is up to you as a citizen to learn the laws - ignorance of them does not except you.

Dog fighting is a felony in this country!

There is no dark side to Vick being charged with this crime, only shock and disgust! And to imply like so many other black people do that he is being made a victim because he is a person of color just breaks my heart coming from you. I would expect any person with scruples or a hint of ethics to see that and not make excuses and alibis for him.

Thankfully Joy Behar took immediate issue with Whoopies comments and asked her, "What part of the country is this? How about dog torturing and dog murdering?"

Her comments were also denounced by Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, who noted that dogfighting is outlawed in all 50 states and is considered a felony in all but two, Idaho and Wyoming. How long will it take now before we hear someone accuse Behar and Pacelle of making a victim out of Whoopie? I have a sad feeling that someone is out there ready to do that too.

And Oprah - Oprah endorsing Obama. We've long known that Oprah is a king maker but now she's moved on to something a little different. I will leave you to say what that is, but after listening to her from as far back as 1984 say that it's criminal that more women aren't elected to office in this country and chastising the women of her audience for not doing enough to make that happen, she herself has an opportunity to do just that now and doesn't. Why is that do you suppose?
Furthermore, though she hasn’t had other candidates on her show to my knowledge, she did invite and had Obama and his wife. Not only that, but she then holds an extravagant bash with 1,500 guests on Saturday evening. As she introducing Obama's wife, Michelle, (who was wearing a dress by Chicago designer Maria Pinto), Oprah called her the "first lady."

Wouldn’t you love to see that guest list? I do know that Stevie Wonder performed at the do and Chris Rock and yup! Whoopi too, were both in attendance. We can only speculate…

I hope no one takes me wrong with this post though I have no doubt it's about to happen. But I stand by my convictions and I can live with peoples criticisms.. I admire Barack Obama very much and this really has little to do with his running for office - or him personally. He is a very pleasant and articulate man and he may well be the next president - the first black president this country has seen. I love the prospect of something like that happening. But this post has little to do with that. It has to do with hypocrisies and people’s motives and how they can be upset by accusations of racism against them yet perpetuate it with their actions.

Ladies, you really have let me down.

The Buffalo Field Campaign...

I can't bring myself to watch these videos more than once, but I feel compelled to post them here in the heartfelt hope that it will compel enough people to write, email, phone, march or whatever it takes to stop this practice...or that matter any of these practices! Who are we that we set ourselves up to 'manage' life?

The Buffalo Field Campaign removes any (small) steps we've made toward preserving things that share our country and our planet with us. Buffalo and wolves fall to our every whim to satisfy rich ranchers and/or are 'managed' due to illness & disease. My question is if they can shoot a bullet then why can't they shoot a vaccine? There are alternatives to so much that we do but as usual, they are being ignored. We haven't learned a damn thing, have we?

Secrecy & Privilege by Robert Parry - click here to purchase

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Tracing investigative leads back through three decades, Secrecy & Privilege explores the mystery of how the two George Bushes rose to the pinnacle of American political power - and what the rise of their dynasty has meant to the nation's democratic principles.

Suggesting to Americans that their country has a compelling lust for political, economic and military hegemony over the rest of the world, divorced from any moral considerations, is akin to telling them of one’s UFO abduction – except that they’re much more likely to believe the abduction story.

Well, I gotta tell ya! This is a book that picked my head for sure! I don't like to admit it; I wish it wasn't so; but it is and there's no point in my denying it.

Did you ever stop to ask yourself why the Bush family has risen to the heights they have and achieved the political success they’ve enjoyed, yet none of them have ever really held any position outside of politics? They’ve held political office for decades, but what else?
None of them, to a man, has ever succeeded in any other vocation or profession outside of politics! You have to ask yourself ‘how does this happen?’
This book steps you through the process that got them to their political stations.
Parry takes you through the last 30 years of Bush dominance (I hesitate to say dynasty) and lays out the events which led up to today and another term of Bush mismanagement.

From Watergate to Dubya today, as you will see, the phrase 'taking care of business' takes on a whole new meaning.

You can also be assured that Robert Parry is not just another author with an axe to grind. He has credentials. He is an American investigative journalist. Along side his AP partner Brian Barger, he was the first to report on Oliver North's activities in the White House basement, and the first to describe the Nicaraguan Contras' involvement with cocaine traffickers. He also was responsible for breaking a number of Iran-Contra stories.
He knows where he’s coming from.
Only Parry has had the sources, found the documents, and cogently compiled the deceptive history of how the Bush family have deliberately buried, under multi-layers of secrecy, the truth of some significant events in recent history.

He was there in 1976, when George H.W. Bush was Director of Central Intelligence, the head of the CIA. While few paid attention at the time, certain anti-Castro Cuban exiles, many with past and current ties to the CIA, were the only terrorists ever to export terrorism from the United States. In 1977, the CIA reported that these terrorists killed more people in 1976 than all of the Middle East terrorist groups combined. Yet when the FBI asked DCI Bush for help in quelling the Cuban exile attacks, he slammed down a brick wall on anything that might have come out of Miami. And those secrets are still sealed. That alone may give an unbiased observer a reason to understand the overwhelming support the Bush family receives from the Cuban-Americans in Miami.

In 1995, Parry established Consortiumnews.com as an online ezine dedicated to investigative journalism. From there to present, he’s delved into Colin Powell’s history, and brought attention to Sun Myung Moon and his plans for world domination.
Much of this are found within the pages of Secrecy & Privilege.

I cannot stress enough, if you’re not squeamish about learning the truth, then grab a copy of this book, a bottle of Pepto Bismol or a stiff drink, and read on. Parry has dragged the truth out from under the rocks and released this book of enlightenment for all.