August 15, 2010 archive

Choice Becomes More Clear; Carole P. Kaye for Florida House District 86



Carole Kaye Democrat for House 86

copyright © 2010 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

“I don’t really want to stop the show,

But I thought that you might like to know,”


That the choice becomes clearer.

“So let me introduce to you

The one and only”
Carole Kaye, Candidate for Florida House District 86

Local Election Days are upon us.  For months now candidates for elected office have roamed their regions.  Everyday people have had ample opportunity to meet, greet, and yes, even eat a meal with aspirants.  Often, one challenger’s name is better known. He or she may be an incumbent, or closely associated with one. Consider the Florida House race in District 86. Dissimilar Democratic candidates Carole Kaye and Lori Berman appear on the ballot. Who are these office seekers?  What will they do for my community, commerce, our children, and me? Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and parts of Boca Raton constituents, who have not made politics their lives, search for answers as they travel to the polls.

Citizens are inundated with “information.”  Posters dot the landscape.  Banners fly on Boulevards.  Constituents don pins and place placards on their lawn.  Windows and automobile bumpers have not escaped unscathed.  Today, the message heard on avenue is “The time is now.”  Indeed, it is.  Early voting began on August 9 and will continue through August 22, 2010.  In Florida, while technically Primary Election Day is August 24, 2010, in reality it is today. In Palm Beach County House District 86, Primary Election Day is the final deciding date. Democrats with different styles compete for state House 86 seat.  There is no Republican challenger in this race.  The winner of the Primary will represent South Palm Beach County communities. Yet, many people do not feel equipped to decide.  Whom might I cast a ballot for, the much lauded Lori Berman or the lesser known, highly qualified, Attorney, Educator, and person who for years has shared and cared for my backyard, Carole Penny Kaye.  

Wants vs Needs, Restructuring the Global Economy.

I was really inspired to do some thinking after reading Cassiodorus work here https://www.docudharma.com/diar…

We have a priority problem and a communication / definition problem in the US, and many other parts of the world.

The standard line is the global economy is rewarding us with greater efficiencies, translating in to higher standards of living, and overall growth every year.

The reality is very different, and I want to explain a bit of how that can be.

First, a few realities:

There are two basic labors we do in the world.  They revolve around needs vs wants. The needs are food, shelter, basic tools, utilities and other things needed for humans to simply live in the world.  Without these things, we are mere hunter gatherers, spending nearly all our time just to live and reproduce.

Wants are those things we can realize with some measure of our free time.  These are luxuries, not required things.  They might be entertainment, fashion, drama, etc…

One core reality, ignored in many of the economic discussion, is the needs are mandatory.  Without these things, we regress as a society and as a people, and simply die.  Wants come after needs, given we are wealthy enough to afford to entertain them.

That brings me to wealth.  What is wealth?  Wealth can be expressed in terms of time.  When we have time available to us, after our needs are met, we are wealthy.  The more of this time we have, the more wealthy we are.  It’s all that simple.  Most often, wealth is expressed in terms of dollars, and that’s misleading, because doing this ignores time, focusing on numerical value only.

Why is this a problem?

It does beg the question … How many, Where to, Why for ?

Edward E. Clark, President of the Wildlife Center of Virgina

Video statement

Earlier in June of this year, I was invited to be part of an interdisciplinary team of wildlife experts, that was organized by the Humane Society of the United States.  There were about five of us from around the country, who work with two HSUS disaster response experts.

We flew into New Orleans with the idea that we were going to spend a week, in the area — accessing the damage of the Oil Spill; looking at the Habitat at risk.  

And trying to come up with an Inventory if you will, of the short term and long term issues, that needed a response.

[…]

Well the hour came, where we finally were — supposedly — given our clearance to fly over the area where the Oil was coming ashore.  

[… and ? ]

Original v. Cover — #38 in a Series

Steam Roller Pictures, Images and Photos

O.K.  I’ll admit it.  I’m a sucker for a witty, well-turned phrase.

Pickup lines could potentially fall within this category, most assuredly in the minds of those who speak them, an opinion not necessarily shared by those on the receiving end. But of all the pickup lines witnessed live or on the silver screen, I’m hard pressed to think of one that didn’t seem crude, cliched or trite.

Such solicitations assume many forms, some subtle, vague and indirect but in other cases, are exceedingly clear, to the point and unambiguous. Those adopting the latter approach seemingly prefer to skip past the means, focusing exclusively on the ends, avoiding time-consuming preliminaries and unpredictable outcomes.    

Original v. Cover — #38 in a Series (UPDATED W/POLL)

Steam Roller Pictures, Images and Photos

O.K.  I’ll admit it.  I’m a sucker for a witty, well-turned phrase.

Pickup lines could potentially fall within this category, most assuredly in the minds of those who speak them, an opinion not necessarily shared by those on the receiving end. But of all the pickup lines witnessed live or on the silver screen, I’m hard pressed to think of one that didn’t seem crude, cliched or trite.

Such solicitations assume many forms, some subtle, vague and indirect but in other cases, are exceedingly clear, to the point and unambiguous. Those adopting the latter approach seemingly prefer to skip past the means, focusing exclusively on the ends, avoiding time-consuming preliminaries and unpredictable outcomes.    

Open Jam

Photobucket

(Credit: Sekti Artanegara)

99ers on the Street

They’re known as the 99ers – laid-off people who have gone 99 weeks without finding work, at which point their jobless benefits expire.

More than 1.4 million Americans have been unemployed for at least that long – victims of an economy that has not been creating many jobs.

The 99ers took a stand on Wall Street Thursday. A throng of desperate job-hunters — who’ve been out of work so long their unemployment benefits ran out — staged a protest rally on the steps of Federal Hall.

“Are you going to tell us, President Obama and Congress, that our lives are not worth saving?” asked 99er Connie Kaplan.

What’s the Keynesian eco-plan?

This question dates back to a conversation I had some time ago with bobswern, who advocates some form of Keynesianism, as to the efficacy of a renewed economic stimulus.  The problem here is that the current industrial society is based on a foundation of oil consumption, so more economic growth = more oil consumption = higher gas prices = more global warming.  I want to know, then, what’s the Keynesian plan for the environment?  I am not trying to attack here — but I’m curious as to how well thought out the “stimulus” plan is.  My own advocacy involves the transition to a more humane economy, rather than a mere renewal of “economic growth.”

(crossposted to Orange)

Woodstock, 41 Years Of Peace

Today is the 41st anniversary of the first day of Woodstock.

The next best thing to actually being there, here is a time machine.

“Woodstock: The Lost Performances”

1 hour and 8 minutes of Peace and Music.

A 1991 compilation of outtakes from the 120 or so miles of film taken at the festival

with

The Band, Joe Cocker, Canned Heat, Paul Butterfield, Arlo Guthrie, Blood Sweat & Tears, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Sly and the Family Stone, Tim Hardin, Melanie, Joan Baez, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Janis Joplin, and Richie Havens.

Bear with the awful 1 minute intro – the performances are great!

The Costs of Wars Only Grow

There are two very important, and full of real facts, op-ed’s in the San Francisco Gate this Sunday morning that should be read and absorbed.

We hear very little, actually almost nothing, about the present costs, nor long term costs, of our long occupations of choice. Especially by those that held the power and readily rubber stamped what their same political party administration wanted. Nor did they feel much need in holding congressional hearings, investigations nor much oversite, not much heard when reports of billions just went poof nor when private contractors on their no bid contracts kept wasting money on shoddy work and much more, while they held the power. They weren’t the only ones, even their supporters and talking heads readily supported everything they did and didn’t do.

Docudharma Times Sunday August 15




Sunday’s Headlines:

Secret Assault on Terrorism Widens on Two Continents

Alone With the Masters

USA

Alaska plane crash a painful reminder for families of Boggs and Begich

Jobless millions signal death of the American dream for many

Europe

Ireland’s weakened economy provokes new abortion crisis

Russia begins ban on grain exports after fires devastate crops

Middle East

Hezbollah theme park draws the crowds

Israel sees battlefield hidden in southern Lebanon

Asia

Pakistan floods: Aid trickles in for victims as cholera spreads in Pakistan’s worst-ever floods

China holds day of mourning for Gansu landslide victims

Africa

Activist group Girifna aims to educate voters in Sudan

Latin America

Haitian quake shook leader to his core

I watched him die.

I watched HER die.  I watched my lover, my boyfriend, and now, only lately, what I have come to understand that those words are a sham, my husband, die. in 1997.

I was denied access to his belongings by the hospital.  I was denied the final choice on the disposition of his remains, by the crematorium.

My mother was a homophobe.  In February, I watched him die.  I got called by the hospital, because I had to have rest.  I had no emotion, hearing the words, he had died.  I sobbed, great, wracking sobs, with no emotion of any kind, in them.  In February, February 23rd, he died.

My mother was a homophobe.  But a kind one.  On December 9th, 1997, she died.

She could not understand why I could not just try a woman.

She loved animals, and finches, and hamsters.  Killed them, too, with great wracking sobs, when they were in pain.

She died of cervical cancer.  She died in agony.  She died, with her last words to me, about how if I gave a shit about her, I would not get AIDS .. as if I was a prostitute, rather than trying to rebuild my life out of pain.  Her last words, about my brother, were about how neither of them gave a shit to visit her.

I watched her die.  I held my hand to her temple as she took her last breath.

This is how I feel now.

I am in pain.

I am lonely.  But I am strong, also.

I have recovered.  It has taken me 11 years.  But I am strong, again.

I am the Phoenix.  And the Phoenix is angry.

The Phoenix burns.  The Phoenix does not feel pity, or remorse, or fear.

It burns.

Do not speak to me of humor, or acceptance.  I have passed through those.  I have passed through the sun, and come out unburnt.

I have passed through my stage of humanistic acceptance of life and its vagaries.  I have passed through pain.

I had a husband, not a lover, not a boyfriend.

You took that away from me.  

I have no sense of humor about this, no.  I will never have.

You can mock me, but I will not be mocked.  I have a pain that will take my death to resolve.

I am death.  But I am also the Phoenix.

And the Phoenix will not be mocked.

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