My current theory is that as they once owned an empire on which the sun never sets – they do not expect anyplace to be “better” then the UK. Thus they are never disappointed.

Many other guests come wanting the location to be ‘better” then they have. If for whatever reason this fails to happen, they are stricken with disappointment and leave unhappy.

As with everything, expectations set the level for what is acceptable.

You can see in sports.  There are those that love the “trick” sports – bikes, surf, gymnastics.  Which I do love.  But those I like to play involve confrontation and teamwork.  However how do you tell the difference?

I will flow on.  We all never quit.  That is the ultimate view of humanity.  We are ones that never quit.  Keep on Keepin’ on – and we are all the pips!

Where is the future? How long does it take? You’re already there she said. He looked at her solemnly and agreed. Treasure of love is that enough? Treasure of love till the glow of the sun sinks in the sky. He always last the longest of all his compatriots. But sometimes he packs it in and give up. Why he is not sure, but it always longs for the mother. When she left he was just a boy. He has traveled far and seen many things. Unfortunately he forgets most of them in the time flow. Perhaps he would be good in the future. Should he put himself in stasis? What are the chances that your re woken up? A gamble he will take at sometime in life. When he is old and dying and wishes for one glimpse of a future world. And we can all only hope that he is woken up in a utopia.

—-

There was a Halloween party put on by a mafioso. Everyone was required to be in costume and there was wonderful entertainment. Dancers and performers twirled and spun in their revealing attire. The throng was loud and vibrant in their revelry. Fireworks were put on for everyone’s enjoyment; well not everyone as the wife of the mafioso, her hairdresser and two randoms were shot and killed during the explosions. So well timed that no one heard the shots. Most went home none the wiser, though obviously some arrived with the knowledge. True Story.

Shifting Sands

Buckle down, Strap it on, take it out – I’m in a beautiful place – but where am I going?

Not a very informative post – but I wanted to write something and this is what came out.

Micro vs. Macro – you are going to screwed one side or the other. You can get the macro level – high taxes and surveillance. Or the micro – bribery, thuggery, intimidation on the personal level.

Which would you prefer? I guess the trick is not to get it both ways – that is why New York City is failing these days – they are hasseling on both the Micro and Macro level. FU MIke Bloomberg – you have succeeded in gentrifying – and driving me out. Enjoy your New City.

It was hot. How hot? Africa hot. I say this not because I’ve been to Africa- Even though I’ve visited Morocco a few times, but that is like an African saying he’s been to the US, just because he’s set foot in Hawaii, or Alaska.- but because I was passing 3 tall Africans, dressed in robes that may help with this heat?, who were quietly standing by their table on Spring St. Small flutes, beaded necklaces, a few wooden pipes and a range of pocket items, from coins to small dogs made out of reed, we neatly arranged on their black velvet cloth.

Watching them sweat under their umbrella, put me in mind of that old statement – Africa Hot. It’s one of those dumb statements that people who don’t travel use to lump countries or even continents into single groupings. But of course there were parts of Africa are hot, real hot. I know this from my decades old subscription of National Geographic that piles up in my life. I remember reading about Michael Fey and his trek across equatorial Africa on foot. The heat and insects and insanity and wonderfulness of that have never left my mind. That pile is full of adventures waiting to be had …

These thoughts swam around the ether or my misting mind as I culled the table; I was now handling currencies I’d never heard of- Cedi & Kwacha, Ekpwele & Ouguiya- and I watched my sweat drip off the end of my nose splashing on the bright metal of those coins.

This is the beauty of New York; here on a sweltering summers day, with the head smashing down, I could trade my green cash for these foreign dreams. I imagined myself sweating in Malawi or Mauritania. Passing these coins to a fruit seller as I watched an alternate stream of humanity pass beside me.

I swapped tender with the tall dark robed quiet man, and slid away. Fingering the coin in my pocket, my bod burning in New York, while my mind burned in Bamako.

— © 2009 New York

Please contact the Senator and show your opposition via his online form.

————————————————————-

To my senator and government representative Charles “Chuck” Schumer.

I am quite upset with you as I have just learned of your support for S. 1255 and its opposition to the Magnuson Stevens Act.

The world’s fisheries are in horrible shape, and we need worldwide single point management of their stocks, health and long term vitality.

Your support of individual managers gaining “flexibility” over their stocks leads us directly back down the path of greed, graft and death.

The Magnuson Stevens act sets objective, non-alterable goals & limits that put up barriers to the often selfish destructive decisions of individual managers. Managers who often are more interested in their own (or communities) short term gains over the continued long-term health of our worlds oceans- and by continuance, and their short-sightedness- the long term health of life on earth in general.

Please do not introduce S. 1255 and even make it possible to weaken our already fragile control over the worlds fisheries.

I am your constitent and support of this bill will not gain you too many votes here in NY- but it will cost you votes (starting with 2 in the this household) and more as I publicize this throughout my social networks (twitter, facebook, etc …)

Here’s to you doing the smart thing and removing S. 1255 from consideration.

yours truly,
Ethan Rosch
New York City, NY

Feeling free as the world passes by, I am surrounded by possibilities and movement.

As always it is the doing that matters-

Our time is now

Now Barack “big man” Obama has set out to clean these guys up.  You can track them a bit on their blog here: http://fdatransparencyblog.fda.gov/

Here’s to hoping that we can achieve a healthier America; cuz right now we’re a nation of fat slobs.  The number of 4 year olds being pushed around in carriages is just another disturbing trend.  We are fat and lazy -> and getting fatter by the minute.

Let’s see what you can do FDA!

Ugh --

what is your vision of the future?

check here for more info:

Legalize Milk

As a small organic dairy farmer, struggling to survive, my family and I drink farm fresh milk every day. No pasteurization or homogenization. It is not needed on a farm where cows are fed on pasture and the owner farmer keeps a close eye on the health of each cow. This milk is much better for human health and is very very safe ( see www.realmilk.com).

But if I sell or even give you the same milk I drink, in Americia I go to jail.

In order to restore the family farm, increase humane treatment of cows, restore human health, reduce global warming and other benefits, most of our food dollars must go directly to the  farmer.

Raw milk must be legal in all states, and for interstate shipment.

Please review www.realmilk.com first.

I have listed three video just to show the diversity of interest in raw milk. I do not agree with everything said in these videos. There are dozens more.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=rX1St4GgBnE
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcyAH0rOPE http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=RwuHArXm1cI

Join the conversation on raw milk at:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/RawDairy/

– Charles N. Rutledge (Cow loving, enviromentalist organic dairy farmer, who drives truck to support the farm), Exeland, WI

Not bad … do we think we need a president who knows everything or a president who can lead? Whom the people will believe in and follow? Is Obama that guy?

Posting it just to have it out there in the world — if anyone actually reads it – well maybe it can stir up some thought.

Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.

America voted for change in 2006, and we got it! ;
Remembe r it’s Congress that makes law, taxes and spends, not the President. He has to work with what’s handed to him.
Quote of the Day……..’My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you’ll join with me as we try to change it.’ — Barack Obama
Part 2:
Taxes…Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing. www.taxfoundation.org/publications/sho w/151.html
Taxes under Clinton 1999
Taxes under Bush 2008
Single making 30K – tax $8,400
Single making 30K – tax $4,500
Single making 50K – tax $14,000
Single making 50K – tax $12,500
Single making 75K – tax $23,250
Single making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 60K – tax $16,800
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K – tax $21,000
Married making 75K – tax $18,750 11%
Married making 125K – tax $38,750
Married making 125K ⤒ tax $31,250 20%
Both democratic candidates will return to the higher tax rates.
It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever. If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can’t wait for it to happen. This is like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and they don’t even know what happened.
PART 3:
You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much?
Boy am I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS.
I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL’s for verification of all the following facts.
1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments. Verify at:http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify at:http://www.cisorg/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0html
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
Verify athttp://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
Verify at http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. Verify at:http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US< FONT face=Verdana color=black size=2>
Verify at: http://transcri pts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.
Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, ‘estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.’
Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. ‘The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.’
Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
Are we THAT stupid?
If this doesn’t bother you then just delete the message. If, on the other hand, if it does raise the hair on the back of your neck, I hope you forward it to every legal resident in the country including every representative in Washington, D.C. – five times a week for as long as it takes to restore some semblance of intelligence in our policies and enforcement thereof.
Tell all of your friends, and if you know any, the Democrats that will listen

Curious who wrote this — but it needs a rebuttal – even if it’s an amateur one from one such as me.

Part 1)
A little over a year ago …. actually for many of the past years …. the banking industry went a bit nuts and came up with every scam and cram way to stuff more money in their pockets. It was obvious to any who looked that a LOT of people were living above their means. Of course this system broke — it was unregulated and dishonorable. Blaming our economic wows on things that could even possibly have been voted on since 2006 is ludicrous. Economies are big brush items that swing back and forth over multiple years, not months.

Blaming the democratic congress of the past 18 months for our economic woes are akin to blaming old age on the fact that you had your 80th birthday, not that you have lived for 80 years.

Part 2)

I hate paying tax more then the next person I’m sure of that.

However, Bush cut taxes yes — but look at the %’s -
- 11% Cut for the couple earning 75k — that’s $2250
- 20% for the couple earning 125k — that’s $7,500

Shouldn’t the family who is making less save more then the family that is earning more? It may be a bit of Robin hood thinking — but those with more should pay a larger part – especially when you consider the way history has set up society with the wealthy staying wealthy and the poorer struggling to get wealthy. Governments job is to help ALL the people, not just the top.

Part 3)
——- First off Apples & Oranges

What does illegal immigration have to do with the iraq war?

Why not compare either to the 61 billion spent on oil aid? (http://oilaid.priceofoil.org/) (and you can insert your own iraq war joke here :-) Or the billions in farm handouts that are destabilizing the world market? (http://farm.ewg.org/farm/dp_analysis.php);

“Through a complicated and overlapping system of government-sponsored insurance, counter-cyclical assistance, disaster aid and legacy payments tied to nothing, the five-year, $307 billion bill lavishes cash on wealthy farm households, the main restriction on collecting it being a means test that applies to couples making more than $1.5m a year. And even that can be avoided by employing a reasonably competent accountant.” – http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11412562

or the 3 billion a year on cotton subsidies that keep developing nations poor and land that could be put to better use churning out cotton?

I can make my own list of government junk to outspend the war too — they both still have nothing to do with one another. I say if we took the same 500 billion (much of it from the pockets of the presidents cronies) and used it to smartly build infrastructure, schools & hospitals in the middle east we would all feel WAY safer today. The terrorists are coming from the poor and disenfranchised – all killing them does is make more of them. More poor, more broken schools, more broken homes, more broken bones.

——- Second — does the $522 billion spent on the iraq war make you feel ANY safer? I know it doesn’t make me feel any safer. (oh — here’s a link for you — http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home)

——- Third — as many seem to have forgotten – it is the immigrants that have made this country strong. I am of the belief that our suppression of the immigrants is hurting us more then helping us. Beyond that highly debatable point, I’ll throw in another — how is that someone has the right to say “thou shall not walk south past this point. Yes I know there is food there and you are hungry, but no it is not for you” this kind of thinking makes us just like the animals we are — if humanity is ever to transcend into a truly great being, we need to move beyond the same territorial squabbles of the baboons and the rest of the animal kingdom.

(yes i know that whole third statement is completely subjective — ignore it and the rest holds merit)

——- Fourth and last comes your math with the big bold statement ….

The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR

When I do your math (quite fairly I think) I get 166.15 BIllion and find you over by 172.15 billion!

How do I get this from your list of figures?

#8 covers #’s 1-5 (and probably some of 6 & 7 as well as 1-5 only add up to 55.7. I’d check it, but the link is broken) – so,90 billion for all of 1-5

# 6 & #7 are back-ended questions — how many of these people are in jail BECAUSE they are illegal immigrants as opposed to them having done something wrong? And a corollary to this is that something is VERY wrong in this country when 1 in 100 people are in prison. But for the equation we’ll throw them in – they add up to 3 million a day = 1.15 billion

#9 – ok let’s say that ALL those jobs that are done by illegal aliens are done by poor americans (low wage labor) according to your bush tax cut rates if they make 30k / year (doubtful) wold be 15% tax. So that makes 30 billion dollars

#10 has nothing to do with this equation so I’ll ignore it further

#11 is also pointless — it is the citizens who are buying the drugs. Blame them.

#12 – is a hypothetical cost – so it also does not count

#13 – I’m not sure how this is a part of the equation – but if are thinking that these people should be better americans and not take their $ out of the country – so be it – 45 billion

So if I do the math I get — 90 + 1.15 + 30 + 45 = 166.15 Billion

so being generous I think by adding in the 45 billion. And I STILL don’t see the connection between illegal aliens and the war in iraq. Explain that one before you bother with all the other stuff.

Sorry I could not just delete this. I probably should have as democrats will win new york no matter what.

Remember folks who may have gotten – I’m lifelong independent – a card carrying member of NO POLITICAL PARTY!

If 10% are paying 75% it shows the disparity between the have’s and have-nots.

I’m stating that the cuts for the wealthy are 20% while lower earners only get 10%. Why do the wealthier get bigger cuts?

Just because they are paying more doesn’t mean that should be cut a greater amount (especially when the additional dollars mean less as you get more of them

Recently my neice graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA, she had worked very hard, studying, completing assignments, extra credit, never cut classes. She also scored a 1520 on her SAT. As a result she was accepted to Harvard Unsiversity. Her best friend was a bit of a goof off, didn’t complete assignments, cut classes, generally did not work hard in school. She finished with a 2.0 GPA and scored a 980 on her SAT. As a result, the only school she was able to get in to was a local community college.

But the new rules of fair and equitable distribution. You know the haves & have nots results in my neice having 1.0 of her GPA given to her friend so they both end up with a 3.0 and get accepted to the University of Illinois.

Now that is how redistribution of wealth should be explained.

However MY niece went to private high school at Exeter while her friend was from the bronx and went to P.S. 93.

Both girls were equally bright, tried very hard, diligently did their homework, studied every night and listened to their teachers wisdom.

My niece at Exeter had a lovely live-in facility, 10 kids to a class and a lovely campus to work in. She was not distracted by the state of her neighborhood, neighbors or family. Her brain and body were stimulated daily and she flowered into a 4.0 GPA student and went on to harvard.

Her friend had to travel through the NY subway to get to school, was constantly harangued by thugs, her techer was overworked/underpaid and she had to worry about getting home in time to feed her sister as her mother worked late and she had no father. The combined stresses of school, home & environment eventually broke her down until she could not be successful in all three arenas. Family came first and she took a job to help feed her sister. While she was bright enough to have gone onto a better position in life, she was stuck working at the (insert crappy job here) to help pay the bills; and though she climbed the ladder at work to manager, that ladder only goes so high for someone of her socio-economic-educational background.

Once you flesh out the story, the plot-line gets a little bumpier :-)

And who’s talking about wealth distribution anyways? Get ready for this analogy ok — it’s a doozy, barely works and relies on the fact that you know that whole milk has 3% cream, Low-Fat 1.5% and skim 0% :-)

I’m saying if you take 1oz of cream from the whole milk it still has 2ozs left — If you take it from the Low-Fat it’s got .5% and the skim doesn’t even have enough to give. Even if you cut the amount you ask across the board — all your doing is giving the Whole & Low-Fat more cream to enjoy — the skim still doesn’t have any to give!

:-)

1 name is all I need

Chris Gardner

But I will continue

Horatio Alger

Og Mandino

I could go on and on.

I love ya Bro and we forever disagree on these things one thing I will say without a doubt in my mind.

Anyone who sets out the hope that Government is the answer to their problems is in for a lifetime of unanswered problems.

You made one other point that was of great interest to me in your first reply, it was something along the lines of

“While Bush’s cronies made millions”

What company received more Government contracts from 1992 through 2000?

You guessed it, Haliburton, who was President? Clinton.

Point of this whole e-mail is and has been that Bush is an easy target but people refuse to look at certain facts b/c they get in the way of the argument.

Since GWB was elected, India & China have tripled their oil demand. Since the 1970′s when Hollywood was screaming no nukes, France has gone 85% Nuclear.

We could go on forever and you know what, we would both be right and we would both be wrong. In the end, until “We the people” decide that Government is not the answer, this great republic will flounder.