Fun, Games and Other Time Uses

The Weekday Workend.
An observation for Tax Freedom Day®.

Now that we are working for our own benefit, would you like to have to work fewer hours with the same pay? Simple. On Wednesday, sometimes called humpday, do NO functional activity on behalf of the corporation that employs you. This functional activity is commonly refered to as 'work'.

If you can't bring yourself to do that all day long, then start simply. Do NO 'work' for the first hour. Or even make a minute stretch into two or three. (It gets easier the more you do it.) Kind of like i've observed at all the places i have ever been employed from the ones who are line managers, supervisors and others of the manager+ class. They will wander around looking over their areas of responsibility, conferring with others of their level about Lost, or the Biggest Loser or the game last night, or the game this weekend, or the new TV they bought and the teabag demonstration sponsored by FOX they watched on it and chuckling about it or... almost anything but the effect of this country's slide into oblivion on those under their purview, who may or not be homeless.

i know exactly how hard that will be to do as i have had in the past an urge to contribute to the well being of those who have chosen to employ me. The mayflowering puritan work ethic instilled in me (heavily weighted by Scottish and Germanic ancestry with some ornery Irish and a bit of the Brit) by my parents who were children during the Great Depression took hold without me even being conscious of it.

When you get more comfortable doing as you're done to, add another hour next week and within a month you will be up to lunch time. After two months you will have a full day at your disposal which, although not neccesarily the ideal place of your choosing, can be filled with activities that will enrich your own life in ways you probably can't foresee. i suppose it could get you fired too.

But, meanwhile back at the ranch... Let's play a game shall we? i propose a meme for your consideration. See how many wonderful and creative phrases you can make with the following letters - kind of a therapeutic anger management acrostic:

R, E, V, O, L, T!
(with or without the big bang! at the end)

i have a couple to get those addled (read this section, but only if you have done this worksheet, after determining the number of times desk meets head and if a contributor of a non profit producing benefit while engaged in lobbying, but only if not a professional, and subtract the line you multiplied earlier [see addendum Pub 8177 or instructions* for line 41 Form 1040]) brains, so prevalent on April 16ths, moving on a different tack...

REVOLT!

Rage Enabled Voters: Organized Layman Theatrics
Resisting Evil! Vehemently Opposing Lies & Thievery!
Reality Enhancement: Voluntarily Obstructing Late-stage Theocracy!

Have fun. Take care of each other!

feel free to use any of the above as a blog title - iam not selfish

*if you can find it!

a kind of oxytocic orangutan

i just read an article found on wikileaks titled:
"Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" that is indicated on every paragraph as either Unclassified/For Official Use Only or Unclassified/Law Enforcement Sensitive.

(google report title & get 15,900 hits)

i got more than a little confused...

This report, among other findings, says that returning vets are a potential threat and are actively being recruited to some of the rightwing extremist (ultra reactionary/conservative?) groups that are being scrutinized (as we all seem to be these days, except possibly for the financial fraudsters, their political enablers, and the ones typically comprising what has been termed by some 'The Powers That Be', which IMO should be the ones investigated and prosecuted!) by DHS, FBI and other various law enforcement groups and agencies.

The language used in the report is typical LEspeak* - presented matter of factly in non-personal terms that convey little, if any, emotive content, and that distills the rage felt and expressed, by many citizens of today's version of these United States, as "largely rhetorical" to 'facts', numbers and trends.

This rage stems, according to this report which they call "Threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groups", from real estate foreclosures on peoples houses and businesses, unemployment (read massive and continuing business restructurings that result in layoffs and firings), and inability to obtain credit (which i would call non-stop reports of bailouts , just-under-wire semi-legalities, offshore tax havens and the subsequent evaporation of our investments and retirement funds and pensions that were to be our sunset years realization of the 'American Dream' promoted and sold to us by 'visionaries', pundits and presidents since way before i was born in 1952). AND by the "election of the first African American president". So far no actual "attack planning" has occurred.

It goes on for 8 pages (minus title page & contact info last page) in more detailed LEspeak* about several more issues (in which both DHS and FBI have been implicated, in the past, by their own members).

After reading this report and remembering reading (and re-reading some articles) about the difference in fMRI brain measurements between Liberal/Conservative political tendancies and female/male life response tendancies i got even more confused...


My first confusion are the dates...
Created 2007-01-23 12:32:54, Modified: 2009-04-12 17:21:32.
Either this is a recycled Bush era publication finally seeing the light of day, and updated to include the pittsburgh cop-killer incident or a clever and well crafted forgery
or ???

my second confusion, and in my opinion, more perplexing to me is this:

Recently, i have gotten extremely angry and, unfortunately for my poor wife and other members of my family, vocal about this country's rapid, greed-fueled, politician-enabled descent and by increasingly fear and hate tainted divisive and destructive behavior into a place i hardly recognize any more...

Normally (at least in my 2sd bell-curved version of what i call normal) iam a very moderate, laidback type with a knowledge that each of us is doing the best we can in our daily lives and that, given opportunity, help and encouragement we will all develop to become highly intelligent, creative and compassionate beings that ALL systems of morality have espoused and portrayed as desirable since grunts (or laryngeal refinements) first turned into words...


am i a left-leaning, liberal-tendancied, conservative-acting, rightwing extremist, with a male-chromosomed, female integrated brain, a self-effacing empath (a kind of oxytocic orangutan)
or what???


Namaste



*LEspeak note: over the last two years and 4 trips to NM, i cleared out my father's 20 year rented 10'x20' storage unit, going through box after box after box after... of a lifetime of law enforcement type accumulations that contained, among other items, semi-classified documents, arrest reports, notes and tests from his life as a military intelligence officer, beat cop, and nearly 30 year university professor of police science.
i can spot LEspeak with out breaking a sweat and only using one eye...

**blog against theocracy inclusion:
Censored New Scientist article:
How to spot a hidden religious agenda, 28 Feb 2009

***photo credits www.primates.com/orangutans***

Easter 2009

In the name of the Father,

In the name of the Mother,

In the name of the Son,

May the Blessed Ones

Lead us from darkness

Into Light.



Om - shanti, shanti, shanti.

Namaste Lily Raine

My grand daughter would have been 6 weeks old today.

Her name is Lily Raine.

I never got a chance to meet her. She died in utero from umbilical cord strangulation. She was delivered by induced labor about 36 hours after her parents learned that she had no heartbeat, on the day that had been chosen to be her birthday. I only hope her journey through the Bardo will be short and will allow that tiny portion encompassing Brahman to choose what lesson she will learn, or teach, next to happen soon. I know that which ever path that spark chooses next will be one of profound compassion and clarity. It is very difficult to bring that hope to the surface through the tears shrouding all I see. I am a coward and weak and unable to realize how insignificant my own pain and utterly immobilizing anguish is compared to what her parents are experiencing. I am shamed by my weakness. I want to blame someone, something, some god. There is nothing at which to direct my anger and I am ashamed by that fear and anger. But it isn't about me.

My son, C___ and his lovely partner H______ were so happy and proud when we saw them last September. They looked so joyous and in love and strong. C____ is 28. H______ is 24. C____ stands six foot five and H______ comes nearly to his chin. I was so pleased and proud of them both and the life that they had put together. They shared some of their plans and hopes and concerns with us, both together and separately.

C____ and I talked about how a child changes things. About how that tiny intrusion of perfection into our mundane lives brings wonder and awe and uncertainty and fear but mostly unspeakably indescribable love. How we are remade into better people by such a small wriggly bundle of newness. How we can relearn the mystery of this universe every time we see them sleeping or blinking at us through unfocused eyes bright with that still fully connected to god sparkle, not yet dimmed by all the intrigues of butterflies and puppies, the momentary agonies of bruised knees and broken arms and hearts. Of the guilt felt by us when the complete trust and boundless love given by them freely and totally is fractured when we feel they need to be trained in the rules of this world. At least as far as we understand those semi agreed upon rules. How they will forgive us our ignorance about what really matters when they reach out and wrap their sticky-fingered hands around our neck and kiss us on the cheek. How they will share their most treasured and powerful amulets of bird feathers they find stuck in the bushes, the empty, broken snail shells that fascinate and enthrall them and the delight when they give us a special rock or dried up leaf they've found.

When C____ and I emerged from his mancave, we returned to the civilized world and sat around and talked about practical items like curtains and mortgages and car seats. We chatted about what might be needed for them to feel ready for this incredible journey they were fully embarked upon. How they were starting Lamaze and prenatal yoga classes.

I don't know what my wife and H______ talked about, but I am pretty sure it had to do with mommy type stuff, which as all men, who think they know who they are or not, realize we can never fully comprehend even though they tell us and show us every moment we are together. I used to think I was a reasonably intelligent man and knew quite a bit about this world until I was made aware by the mothers of my own children that my misplaced and ignorant ideas of what was of value paled to insignificance by dirty diapers and healthy choices of foods and toys. Of how sharing is a lesson that, while difficult to impart, is closer to Truth than spelling correctly or tense agreement. By the urgent and paramount requirement that acceptance and encouragement is so much more vitally important than scribbles on a wall or a broken dish or a throw up stained tie and shirt. Of how answering “Why?” needs to be an immediate priority, towering so far above a dusty shelf or a messy room, as to need a telescope of Hubble proportions for such ephemerals to be even seen.