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Bad for business… Good for business…

Bad for business… Good for business… Two terms that one hears quite often. We apparently need business to some extent to meet our daily needs.  The unfortunate aspect of business is that to a large extent it is based on the profit motive which often translates into unbridled greed.  The way businesses and corporations are structured in this country it tends to shield individuals from most responsibility for less than desirable actions.  A familiar buzz phrase is “corporate citizen” which in my mind is the paradigm for explaining what an oxymoron is.

When I hear something is bad for business it generally grates on my nerves.  It frequently is a case of the tail wagging the dog.  In this country, businesses and corporations have garnered more than their fair share of wealth.  This wealth has bought politicians and who knows whom else.  This wealth has managed to change the laws to shield and benefit these legal fictions. It has reached the point that if Lincoln was giving the Gettysburg Address today, his closing would read “and that government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations, shall not perish from the Congress.”

What started me down this well trodden path again was a news story this morning on NPR. It was reported that “Louisiana’s coast is disappearing at the rate of about a football field an hour. Since the 1930s, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed up an area the size of Delaware.”

Many folks allege that this erosion of the wetlands that provide a buffer between hurricanes and New Orleans is the responsibility of the various oil companies operating in the area.  For mysterious reason some of these folks feel that the entities that caused the erosion due to their business activities should pay to restore the land.  It is costing  Continue reading “Bad for business… Good for business…”

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Overheard

I was walking out of a restaurant tonight when I overheard a boy of about 7 or 8 years say to his mother, “Do old grandpa men know anything?”

God bless his mother who said, “Yes they know a lot, they have a lot of experience.”

It does not seem that in this youth oriented culture the elderly are valued much.  The mother went against the grain a bit.  As I said, God bless her.

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The French Disease

benvenutocellini_vol2_1210benvenuto-cellini-5-sizedI am currently listening to The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. Benvenuto Cellini was an Italian man of many talents. If you doubted this you would just need to ask him to have it clarified for you.  He worked as a goldsmith, sculpture, a soldier and a musician.  He did much work for Pope Clement VII and the succeeding Pope.  He lived from 1500 to 1571.

Besides his many talents and egotism, he was very much the bon vivant and more than a little licentious.  By his own reports and court records he enjoyed the company of both men and women.  Throughout his book “The French Disease” was mentioned frequently.  From the context I assumed it was a sexual transmitted disease. However, wanting to know for sure I did a Google search and came across the following very interesting article.

In the early 1500s, the French Disease aka syphilis, came to Europe, probably from the New World. It was the AIDS of its day.  Not only does this article discuss the etiology of the disease, Continue reading “The French Disease”

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Change Needed in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District

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I wrote this blog post a while ago.  Since then I have attempted to contact Mr. Lieber via his website some 2 or 3 weeks ago. So far there has been no response.

If I was trying to run a grass roots campaign by not accepting money, I would be responding to every possible citizen interest that came my way.

What I concluded by this is the Democratic machine does not feel that they have a breathe of a chance to win against Ann “Climate Change Denier” Wagner.  Therefore they are not putting any resources into the race and Mr. Lieber is, for lack of a better phrase, the sacrificial lamb.

There is a reason that I do not claim to be a Democrat, but an anti-Republican.  How sad it is that our politics and our future in the hands of these two corporate owned parties.  If the Democrats were truly a party of the people they would be putting up a fight against the horrendous legislator that is Ann Wagner.

Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District is in the part of St. Louis County known as West County.  It is 90% white and 60% Republican. The average household income ($71,141) is approximately 35% higher than the national average of $52,762.  Home ownership is 78% with a median home value of $209,200 versus the Missouri wide median value of $138,900.

To call this district conservative is an understatement.  They sent Todd   “Legitimate Rape” Akins to Congress 6 times.  They followed that up with Ann “Climate Change Denier” Wagner.  Continue reading “Change Needed in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District”

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Hucksters selling you a ray-gun-proof magic hat…

The following quote is from an op-ed piece in the New York Times.  I found it exceeding rich and to the point.

‘“Do you think that storm was from global warming?” everyone asked after coastal New York and New Jersey were smashed by Hurricane Sandy. “Well, maybe,” was the best anyone could say; there have always been storms.

But the aliens are in the backyard, Granny, and it’s time to start hitting them with the cast-iron pans. The [climate] deniers are the equivalent of hucksters selling you a ray-gun-proof magic hat.‘

Hear that Ann Wagner?

Here is a link to the full article: The Aliens Have Landed

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Fun In The Golden State

Robin and I recently took a trip to the west coast to visit my daughter and her family who live in Salem, Oregon.  Before we went there we did a little sightseeing in San icecreamtruckFrancisco and Sacramento.   We had a wonderful time, both sightseeing and visiting.  There were a couple out of the ordinary encounters that occurred.

San Francisco like most large cities has a lot of homeless folks.  Two individuals stand out in my memory although I do not believe the second to have been homeless.  The first was a very dirty white man of indeterminate age.  His clothes were dirtier than his body and they seemed to be disintegrating on him as he approached.  He reminded me of an actor I once saw at Medieval Fair playing the part of the village mad man.  This fellow in San Francisco was screaming at the top of his lungs in language I assume was English, but it was not very intelligible.  He was also gesticulating wildly.   He alarmed me somewhat, and I moved myself and Robin aside.

The second individual was a black man around 40 years of age.  He was dressed in a nice suit sans tie.  Continue reading “Fun In The Golden State”

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Sitting Bull’s Speech Still Rings True

indian_heroes_1210I was raised a military brat.  I was born the year that Eisenhower started his presidency, and thus my early education was in the 50s and 60s.  The result of the two was a deep pride of country, and an admiration of our history.  As I grew older, as I studied more and as I read more I retained an admiration for our founding fathers.  They were remarkable men alive at a pivotal point of history, but they were still men.  Many things that happened then were the sausage of compromise. So much of our history after that point was colored by the institution of slavery and the genocide of the native populations.  Those two, in my mind, make the history of the United States less than glorious.  So much of our history from Vietnam onward is less than efflugent.  We have a sense of global empire that bothers me deeply.  Our government has basically been hijacked by the corporations and the mega-wealthy.   I would love to have a sense of pride and admiration in my country again, but it does not seem to be in the cards.

In my work commute of 54 miles round trip in big city traffic this week, I have been listening to the audio book, Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains by Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa).  In this book he included a speech by Sitting Bull that rings true even today for our society.  I have included it here with Eastman’s  introductory paragraph:

His bitter and at the same time well-grounded and philosophical dislike of the conquering race is well expressed in a speech made before the purely Indian council before referred to, upon the Powder River. I will give it in brief as it has been several times repeated to me by men who were present.

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! Every seed is Continue reading “Sitting Bull’s Speech Still Rings True”