It's Very Entertaining to be an American Thing

Dear America,

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things.  Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me -- put it into practice.  And the God of peace will be with you."  Apostle Paul

this verse, snatched from Philippians 4:8-9...is one of my favorite...pretty sure I have led with it before...no matter.

It's a verse that builds from a place which transcends all human understanding, for in the moment just before, Paul says, "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

with thanksgiving, he says -- being of the present tense -- already praising HIM, no matter what happens; in everything, in thanksgiving, we must go to God to guard our hearts and minds from sinking into a certain darkness, floundering in our own swampy pit of self-pity, anger, despondency, or whatever...

But, to put into practice our loyal attachment to SOMETHING GREATER than ourselves -- to the Lord --  we basically learn to keep our head on straight, through anything and everything, trusting in the belief that for everything there truly is a purpose under heaven.

And Lord knows, that in this DAY, and in this AGE, there is probably no greater struggle upon us, to keep on believing; for we do not often witness the true, the noble, the right, the pure, the lovely, the admirable, let alone anything that appears excellent and praiseworthy...[and if we do, the media sure doesn't want to report about it...but I digress.]

There seems to be so many times, in life, that we simply don't understand why things happen when they happen; why bad things happen to good people; why our set of circumstances can virtually upend overnight, and for what?  For what purpose is some of this nonsense and those woes, the shocks to the system, that come out of nowhere all about?  Does it all go back to being on the receiving end of a gentle, or sometimes not so gentile, reminder of who, in fact, is still in charge?

But just so we're clear (for those aligned as a keeper of a certain faith),  the crazy truth is -- our world will surely get a whole lot worse before it gets a whole lot better again.  (And if that's not motivation to press on, then not sure what to tell you.)

In any event, I have wanted to talk about the Kanye/White House meeting, for what seems like a better part of a week, or more; my days and nights have rolled into one.... but who really cares, right?

But this treatment of Kanye -- being an African-American man, and celebrity, who has risked everything by his passionate support of President Trump, wearing his MAGA hat with pride -- is just heartbreaking.   It's, like, what happened to the Africa American community?  

White people are allowed to lean left or right.

Hispanic people are allowed to lean left or right.

Asian people are allowed to lean left or right.

But nooooooooooooo, if you are a person of color -- an African American -- you are not allowed to color your political party world outside the lines; you are mandated to think the same, support the same, and vote the same way as everyone else within your demographic.  How Martin Luther King Jr. must be rolling in his grave, let me count the ways.

It is shocking, the treatment by the media -- mocking Kanye's mentality and sensibility; and even more shocking, the response he has received  from his peers (like snoopdogg)...

Sometimes, it's just so very entertaining to be living in America. oh my

 But let's go to Thomas Sowell for a little reality check , shall we --

"Many things that would advance blacks would not advance the liberal agenda. That is why the time is long overdue for the two to come to a parting of the ways."
10:03 AM - 18 Oct 2018

indeed....in other words --

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things.

 And more to the point -- it's about time to change your hearts and minds... and political loyalties, my brother.

Being mindful of what we find true, and noble, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable -- let me have you read, for purely entertainment purposes, the full post at The Atlantic, penned by Hillary Clinton, "American Democracy Is In Crisis" -- here.

and let's cut to her big finish:

Meanwhile, hyperpolarization now extends beyond politics into nearly every part of our culture. One recent study found that in 1960, just 5 percent of Republicans and 4 percent of Democrats said they’d be displeased if their son or daughter married a member of the other political party. In 2010, 49 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Democrats said they’d be upset by that. The strength of partisan identity—and animosity—helps explain why so many Republicans continue to back a president so manifestly unfit for office and antithetical to many of the values and policies they once held dear. When you start seeing politics as a zero-sum game and view members of the other party as traitors, criminals, or otherwise illegitimate, then the normal give-and-take of politics turns into a blood sport.

[my red highlight for emphasis...]

Ironically -- Hillary made this final point, after lambasting the president, the entire republican party and especially the people who continue to support this presidency, after calling the 2016 elections illegitimate and part of an elaborate scheme, including Russian collusion,  after falling lock step in line with her party propaganda that divides Americans by demographics and identity politics, stewing the so-called "hyperpolarization" she claims to have nothing to do with democrats and everything to do with republicans, after elaborating on what she calls [Trump's] "five main fronts of this assault on our democracy."

The nerve, asking mid-stream, how did we get here?

Are you for real, Hill?

[I can think of a way, by way of the antics of the Clinton Foundation, the State Department, the Benghazi terrorist attack, the economic downturn that Obama could never correct, the rampant joblessness, the politics of divide, the lack of security protections at the border, the meeting on the tarmac between your husband and the Attorney General, the fraud of the Iran Nuclear deal, the fraud of the Climate Change agreement, ummmm, shall I go on?  Cuz yes we can go on and on and on.............]

At one point, she says --

"Democracies are rowdy by nature. We debate freely and disagree forcefully. It’s part of what distinguishes us from authoritarian societies, where dissent is forbidden. But we’re held together by deep “bonds of affection,” as Abraham Lincoln said, and by the shared belief that out of our fractious melting pot comes a unified whole that’s stronger than the sum of our parts."

Seriously?  This is exactly what Trump is angling to do -- to unify the whole, the whole of America, as one America, for all Americans, because we are stronger than the sum of our parts. duh.

Your entire post -- ripe with contradictions -- is nothing more than  hate speech towards people who think differently and disagree forcefully from you, you being a liberal.  But much obliged for the Abraham Lincoln reminder of our "bonds of affection;" and likewise, since Lincoln was a republican, this girl is rather confused, yet pleasantly amused, by your choice.  Does your head still hurt, are your eyes still a wee bit blurry?  Is this piece how you show your bonds of affection...cuz i think some areas need a little work.

Gotta say, girl, you are great entertainment.
You and snoopdogg  and Martha Stewart should all hit the road together.
Please run for president again, please, I beg of you.

oh my, happy friday people

be kind to each other...
look for the true, the noble, the right, the pure, the lovely, the admirable, and things should work out pretty well, eventually...at least, within our own minds, anyway...and if nothing else, at least we are not going through any of this alone. May the God of peace be with you ALL (really; and especially with you, Hill.).

amen
and
the end.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's an All American Rumble and Fumble Fest Thing

Dear America,

"Believe in something.  

Even if it means sacrificing everything."

Nike Ad, featuring Colin Kaepernick

fabulous; and what a jarring way to segue from the easy breezy summer compositions to the full on, rough and tumble of fall ball.  Are we ready to roll, or what?

so we have football being politically charged, double-doubles being politically charged, and now sneakers....

Oh Nike -- it's a great message.... just the wrong face at the wrong time.  And YOU know it. 

Nike stepped into this campaign knowing full well the controversy would score some, and simultaneously, and explosively, take some away.  And NIKE DID IT anyway.

What is clear, given the reality that conservatives and many independents -- people leaning just right of center, to full throttle right, to everything in-between -- like working out, too.  These people, many being my people, like to just do it, just as much as the left guy, right.   And yet, Nike purposely elected to cut off relations with all these people in one move, overnight.  Stunning.  Calculating. And in my mind, just wondering if it was worth it? 

Time will tell.

Clearly, Nike picked a side.

And just as the president noted yesterday -- something like, he didn't like it, but  "this is what this country is all about"  -- and putting this in a more complete context, simply pointing out that the company has every right to make its own business decisions....To which, all this girl can add would be that he is absolutely right.

Further --  it is upon this very notion -- that the Left must concede, that even the Christian bakers and pizza makers also have every right to "pick a side" -- no matter the issue, the catalyst, for picking a side, and standing by that something to believe in,  in the first place.  We take our rumbles and fumbles with great pride.   EVERY  business has EVERY right to sacrifice EVERYTHING when they BELIEVE in SOMETHING!  [And I believe that goes double when in favor of Something really big, like, um, God, but what do I know, I'm just a girl x teehee]

INDIVIDUALLY -- we each have every right to make a choice -- aka to make our bed and lay in it --  each and every moment of the day, in every set of circumstances/conditions, that in proper turn, instantly give way to whatever consequences may lay in wait; for every action has a reaction, right. And naturally, without prejudice, this describes --  precisely --  how cause and effect works.  Our rumbles and fumbles work individually and collectively, large and small, macro and micro alike.

BELIEVE in something, 

even if it means sacrificing everything

...works at funerals, too.

It was the pastor at Aretha's funeral -- the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. --- who had the nerve to call out the issue of black on black crime...and in an instant, boy did he turn up the volume to controversy; when surely he was just speaking his truth, perhaps even the truth, to an audience who should know better...and in turn, is still standing firm to that something something said out loud, something awfully good and totally praise worthy:

"I said black do not matter, because black lives cannot matter, will not matter, should not matter, must not matter until black people begin to respect their own lives. Then and only then will black lives matter. That's what I said, and again, and again, and again. We need to have respect for each other. Once we start doing that, then we can begin to change."

HE BELIEVES in something even if it means sacrificing everything....He just said it, did it, and is faithfully standing behind it....
and just where oh where did his respect go?   Anyone?

Hey, even up-Chuck Todd can believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything, or nothing, really, given his reality is totally tainted...given he's surrounded by a band of liberal media brothers and sisters who think the same thing, and say the same thing, and do the same thing, day in and day out and shamelessly have his back.  Please, just stop doing it, up-Chuck. please.

LIBS are all under the same delusions of grandeur, even if that means oppressing any, and all, opposition...even if that means, selectively handpicking the news...even if that means, targeting a sitting president of the United States with so much dis- R-E-S-P-E-C-T, that they go out of their way to make a mockery of even their own profession while doing it.

THEY DID THIS TO THEMSELVES...oh yes, stepping into it now -- heeeere's Chuuuuuck, for The Atlantic:

It’s Time for the Press to Stop Complaining—And to Start Fighting Back
A nearly 50-year campaign of vilification, inspired by Fox News's Roger Ailes, has left many Americans distrustful of media outlets. Now, journalists need to speak up for their work.

SEP 3, 2018


WARNING:  Classic LIB ignorance, coming right up --

From the very beginning, Ailes signaled that Fox News would offer an alternative voice, splitting with the conventions of television journalism. Take the word balanced. It sounded harmless enough. But how does one balance facts? A reporting-driven news organization might promise to be accurate, or honest, or comprehensive, or to report stories for an underserved community. But Ailes wasn’t building a reporting-driven news organization. The promise to be “balanced” was a coded pledge to offer alternative explanations, putting commentary ahead of reporting; it was an attack on the integrity of the rest of the media. Fox intended to build its brand the same way Ailes had built the brands of political candidates: by making the public hate the other choice more.

there's more --

Fox News adopted a similar strategy, rarely showcasing its own reporting or journalism. There are some great journalists at Fox, including Chris Wallace, Bret Baier, and Shep Smith, but it’s not an organization that emphasizes journalism. Instead, Ailes created an organization that focuses on attacking the “liberal media” whose “liberal bias” was ruining America. Almost any big story that was potentially devastating to a conservative was “balanced” with some form of whataboutism. The Ailes construction has been so effective that these days, I often get mail from viewers who say: Now that you’ve focused on all of President Trump’s misdeeds, you are biased if you don’t dedicate the same amount of time to Hillary Clinton’s misdeeds. It seems completely lost on this segment of the population that one person is the leader of the free world, and the other is a retiree living in the suburbs of New York City. 

and this --

The American press corps finds itself on the ropes because it allowed a nearly 50-year campaign of attacks inspired by the chair of Fox News to go unanswered.

Seriously, up-Chuck?

A fifty year campaign of attacks...unanswered?

THAT IS HILARIOUS.

You are so deep into your deep state dialog and deep throat talking points, clearly, the oxygen has been cut off from your brain.  The American press corps...on the ropes?  Which universe are you living in?  Your leftist media mafia controls all of the mainstream news feed, every single day!  This huff and puff piece is nothing more than leftist propaganda.

Where was the unbiased reporting on the umpteen acts of Executive overreach of the Obama Administration -- namely, you know, writing new immigration policy by Executive Order is a misuse of presidential power, right?  Where was the unbiased reporting of the over half of Americans who were not in favor of Obamacare, who had republican representation in Washington DC without one single vote in favor of it?  Where was the unbiased reporting of Hillary wiping clean any and all evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, and even erasing her hard-drive, after using an insecure server (with China hacking in!), after her botched handling of Benghazi, when four Americans died, including an ambassador, as Secretary of State, and then trying to cover it all up with a lie about a video?    Where is the unbiased reporting of the fake dossier, and the long record of corruption within the DNC and the FBI?  Where is the unbiased reporting of the Clinton Foundation and its involvement of the sale of uranium to Russia?!

The thing is, there are just too many things to count.

The thing is, there are just too many things that  MY mainstream media intentionally, and manipulatively, fully IGNORES!   And this girl just can't ignore that.

Um, this may come as a surprise to you, up-chuck, but not everybody in America is a liberal.  We don't all drink the same kool-aid.


Oh, Up-Chuck, you have made my day -- can you really say this with a straight face..... 

Does this mean that other cable-news networks should follow Fox News’s lead and become advocates? That’s not the answer. Newspapers did this in the early 19th century, when they operated as arms of the political parties.

tears are rolling, this BS is so funny....

Instead of attacking rivals, or assailing critics—going negative,in the parlance of political campaigns—reporters need to showcase and defend our reporting. Every day, we need to do our job, check our facts, strive to be transparent, and say what we’re seeing. That’s what I’ve tried to do here. I’ve seen a nearly 50-year campaign to delegitimize the press, and I’m saying so. For years, I didn’t say a word about this publicly, and at times I even caught myself drawing false equivalencies because I was afraid of being labeled as biased. I know that stating the obvious will draw attacks, but I’ve also learned that the louder critics bark, the more they care about what’s being reported.

I’m not advocating for a more activist press in the political sense, but for a more aggressive one. That means having a lower tolerance for talking points, and a greater willingness to speak plain truths. It means not allowing ourselves to be spun, and not giving guests or sources a platform to spin our readers and viewers, even if that angers them. Access isn’t journalism’s holy grail—facts are. 

What a crock,  you mean, you're not advocating to continue to be an activist press, only an aggressive one?  What does that even mean?  Isn't that a contradiction -- how can facts have characteristics at all -- how do you tell of the facts, while being aggressive in telling the news at the same time?  Are you really telling the American people facts -- or are they just the facts packaged according to how you want the American people to hear it?

OH and I love love love your last line-- "Ask yourself why someone is so determined to convince you not to believe your lying eyes."

oh up-chuck todd -- you don't complete me.

But so happy you live in a country that allows you to live within your four walls of delusional reporting of the truth, all -- how do you say -- all fifty years of it;  that this country celebrates the independence and freedom that gives you every right to believe in something, even if that means sacrificing everything -- even if that everything is the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Indeed,  facts are stubborn things, even for whiners like up-Chuck Todd.

oh my, what a good day in G land, what a good day, indeed.
if it's fall, we must be having a ball, and how.

the end.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's All Divinely Designed...and It's a Real Thing

Dear America,

"The awareness of God's

 presence energizes us for our work."

Life Principle #4
Rev. Charles F. Stanley

the lazy hazy days of summer are in full swing, though for me, the emphasis is clearly on hazy and less lazy.

and on that premise, this girl is proving the old saying, the more you do, the less you do gooder... teehee.  the gist, the more we struggle to juggle and jiggle our way through the day, the less chances of the end result being all that it could be, or even should be; leaving us at the end of the day, an actual day, nothing close to what we imagined  (and more than likely well over par...and you know that's not a good thing, right).  

these days are hazy, indeed. 
I seem to have more balls in the air than every ping off the head of the entire World Cup -- and let me tell you, that was a lot -- so much so, the powers that be don't even keep stats on stats on stats on thats (that would be a little out of hand, badadump ba)

but switching balls one more time --

even the news comes at me in a purple haze, and all I wanna do is crush the nonsensical with the sensational and see what's left.  like the viscous lob of a tennis ball -- everything has spin; and it's getting old, right -- the tactics are well worn, emphasis on thread bare...the yellow fuzz being merely something that was.   and likewise, it seems to be wearing everyone thin.  [for some great summer reading, here's a great post on the dirty truth of tennis ball waste and what to do about it...re-purposing flat, bald balls in ways unimaginable...yay team.]

even the beach is under a haze for the better part of a day...ugh.

And round and round we could go, but let's cut to the chase and meet up at the net, all of this might be best summed up with another good read (recycled from summer 2016) ....and of all places to find it, @The Huffington Post!  e gads!  But I gotta say....to be honest, think I'm mostly in love with its title, "Stop Multi-tasking.  It's Not a Thing"  Jessica Barrett does a thorough job explaining it all, but here's her big finish:

"My sweet friends, start taking it easier on yourself. Live your life with more awareness. Pay attention. Notice more. You’ll get the same amount of “stuff” accomplished, if not more, but you’ll actually be present while it happens. And if your company asks you to multi-task, politely let them know you’ll be happy to do that, as soon as you grow a couple of more brains."

OH to be in celebration of this kind of awareness...indeed.

Oh to be paying attention....from actually being present for the ones we love, to living consciously in every moment, from work to play; surely we would make less mistakes, we would exude confidence in our actions, and all in all, around this ball that we call earth, our days would reap a certain sense of fullness, knowing our intentions and actions are not only connected, but blessed by our level of effort and giving everything we do our very best. 

Ahhh and then to be distracted by the action outside my window just now... Surely, the hummingbirds are doing their thing -- their one thing -- and popping in and around every bud, harvesting the nectar of the gods and that's it.

Only the hummingbirds, outside my window and in plain view, flit and flutter the evidence, seen and unseen, of God's presence purposely energizing and mobilizing the natural flow of life, assisting life, and producing results worthy of total awe.  Ask me how happy my dwarf lemon tree is right about now and I will tell you a story of transcending waves of haze every single day.  she is a mighty dwarf indeed.

More important, both bird and tree are keen on living a purpose driven life.  It's as if they sense this Life Principle #4 without even being told, keeping their awareness fixed upon God's presence all the live long day!

Thankfully, there is good news, for we are all born with a purpose, a personal intention designed by God.

This purpose, though, grand as it may be -- naturally and lovingly, comes with a near suffocating haze of free will hovering over and around and through us from the moment we take our first breath to the moment we begin a brand new day; the decisions we make, the turns we take, the mistakes in the cover of darkness or in the wake of day, it all carries the power to shake us smooth, barren, like the yellow wool off a tennis ball.  (this is the stuff not made for snowflakes in the form of snowballs.)

The catch --- free will doesn't have to be suffocating at all; matter of fact, it can be liberating, empowering, and now imaging something a lot like whacking the snot off the ball and winning.

DOING Something -- taking real action --  is required of us to stay on purpose, to stay within bounds, to stay aligned with what we are born to do; and even though intimately connected like bird to a tree, we must remain true to our individual calling while breathing in God's presence without ceasing (for surely the distractions of this world can easily get the better of us).  And to be as clear as clear day can be, we can't just stand there doing nothing; our lives are about as static as the wings of a hummingbird.

As we individually stay true to this Godly, Universal, mandate, of sorts, and the assorted characters in which we all become -- in good turn,  the collective grows stronger, brighter, leaning more in the direction of the Sun itself  and becoming a mighty force for good and the many more good things to come.

God is the Mighty Source that feeds us the inspiration, sends our minds soaring with wings and a prayer, and gives light to the path ahead.  This is how we, as people, can find our shine, doing one thing at a time.

This day took all day to write.
I started, then I had to stop.  I started again, and then had to stop.

But lo and behold, here it is nearly sunset, and the day outside my window has never looked more clear; but then again, perhaps it's all in my head :).  Even the hummingbirds are still about, and for a matter of maybe twenty seconds, one just sat on the wire of lights and began to swing.  Surely, the little guy must feel it was a job well done today...

...and given I have worked a little, donated some time a little, smooched my man a little, and blogged a little, I am finding happiness in my ability to take things one at a time better and better as each day passes.

Large and small, in the macro and micro, to everything there is indeed a season, and it is Divinely Designed to be done one thing at a time....It's the real thing, baby.

Thank you, God. 
Praise you. 
Can't do life without you. 
See you tomorrow as soon as my eyes pop open.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's Two Birds Sitting on a Branch Thing

Dear America,

"I've learned so much from my mistakes, 

I think I'll make a few more."

Tee Shirt Guru strikes again

so this is kinda funny...

here's Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg, courtesy of a quote plucked from Los Angeles Times...

“We still go back to the basic problem: 11.3 million people,” said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Congress has not appropriated the money to arrest and deport millions of otherwise law-abiding immigrants, she said, so it makes sense to allow some of them to work legally and raise families.

Which made me wonder....I wonder what planet little miss ruthie lives on these days -- how long as it been since this nation, and more expressly this Congress,  been concerned with living within it's means?  Considering the annual budget deficits in the trillions, and a National Debt at nearly 20 Trillion, and UNFUNDED LIABILITIES from Medicare...Social Security...etc. exceeding 100 TRILLION....what's with the concern of "appropriating the money" first?  The interest on the nation's debt alone should preempt any future appropriations of any kind!

And to the point of the case itself --  what's Congress got to do with it, right?  It's before the Supreme Court, for Pete's sake, simply because the Executive Branch -- President Barack Hussein Obama --  did the legislating all on his own, without Congress!

OH but Reagan did it...nana nana na na  -- OH REALLY?  read this little number.

What I really like about that link -- if you read it -- is the point that it didn't work the first time, or the second, and at this rate, third time's a charm has no legs to stand on either, no matter if those legs be considered juvenile or fully matured into adulthood...

 3) The Reagan-Bush examples are not positive ones. The 1986 amnesty did not work as promised. It was riddled with fraud. The enforcement provisions were ignored or circumvented. Illegal immigration actually increased in the years after the amnesty. The supposed "once and for all” solution almost immediately gave rise to an even larger version of the original problem.

The argument that “Reagan and Bush did it,” is essentially an argument that future generations should not learn from the errors of previous generations. With the advantage of experience, it is clear that their decisions did not produce the desired result, and actually greatly worsened the problem they sought to solve. Let’s not repeat their mistake.

And then there's this --
one of my favorite founders, Ben Franklin, gave us warning...

He recognized the "natural inclination in mankind to kingly government" --  for through a Ruler's Law,  the subjects may gain the illusion of security, as if the people are better protected under a certain centralized rule -- but at what cost?  And more important, where would it stop?  

If the king giveth, the king can taketh away,..

And given where America is at these days -- with about half of the population realistically considering a full-blown socialist or a bonafide lying elitist leftist to take the highest office of the land, oppressive rule seems to be coming back around again on broken wings and promises, usurping the Rule of Law and all.

Here's an illustration for you, as described in The 5000 Year Leap:

The Two Wings of the Eagle

The Founder's view of their new form of government can be further demonstrated by using the symbol of the eagle and referring to its two wings:  #1 The Problem Solving Wing  #2 The Conservation Wing.

Wing #1 of the eagle might be referred to as the problem-solving wing or the wing of compassion.  Those who function through this dimension of the system are sensitive to the unfulfilled needs of the people.  They dream of elaborate plans to solve these problems.

Wing #2 has the responsibility of conserving the nation's resources and the people's freedom.  Its function is to analyze the programs of wing#1 with two questions.  First, can we afford it?  Secondly, what will it do to the rights and individual freedom of the people?

Now, if both of these wings fulfill their assigned function, the American eagle will fly straighter and higher than any civilization in the history of the world.  But if either of these wings goes to sleep on the job, the American eagle will drift toward anarchy or tyranny.  For example, if wing #1 becomes infatuated with the idea of solving all the problems of the nation regardless of cost, and wing #2 fails to bring its power into play to sober the problem-solvers with a more realistic approach, the eagle will spin off toward the left, which is tyranny.  On the other hand, if wing #1 fails to see the problems which need solving and wing #2 becomes inflexible in its course of not solving problems simply to save money, or not disturb the status quo, the the machinery of government loses its credibility and the eagle drifts toward the right where the people decide to take matters into their own hands.  This can eventually disintegrate into anarchy.

What do you think?

Are we there yet?

Dare I suppose that we are swiftly approaching the outcome of this duel come November.

Oh the error of our ways is going to the extremes.  Just where oh where is our balance -- our compassion and our conservation meeting somewhere in the middle?

The thing is -  never mind the central government,  this seemingly rather unnatural law of finding such balance may very well start with us, as individuals.  And yet, look at us, look at our children, look at our colleges, look at our millennials...look at our congress, look at our courts -- instead of instilling this kind of reserve and respect for that which is found in the good company of coming to the middle -- a balance of wings so to speak -- by all evidence, be it by our lack of civility or the total absence of critical thinking in areas of life and liberty, finding such middle-ground of the common man has nearly all but  self-destructed.

Let's hope the highest court of the land is at a tie when this lawlessness of amnesty through executive order is once again decided, third time around.  Let's only hope.

Let's slow our roll from here on out and settle things down, for once and for all -- or at least for the next four to eight years, shall we?

You know, when this girl was just a kid, my dream was to grow up pretty much so that I could eat Ding Dongs whenever I wanted; I couldn't wait to get older just to have that kind of power.  tee hee

As If that kind of power comes without any responsibility; as if that kind of perk comes without any second thoughts, missteps, trial and error, or without just cause for taking a pause from time to time...

moderation in the form of two birds always seem to show up just in the nick of time....

they come swooping in from out of nowhere.... taking their proper place upon my shoulders...one to the left and one to the right...and begin pecking at me.  [It's rather hard to ignore.] And sure enough, no matter the argument presented to the psyche, deep down, the answer reveals itself with the responsibility to heed or not to heed to do the right thing.

So once upon a time, there were two birds sitting on a branch....

What does the Law say?  

How about we --- and when I say We, I mean, the Supreme We -- start there.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's All About the 115 Trillion Ton Gorilla in the Room...It's a Pretty Big Thing

Dear America,

happy thursday.

to save time, let's just assume I know everything...

that's kinda funny, isn't it.  read it on a t-shirt once and stored it away with the apples of my cheeks just waiting for the right moment to insert a nugget of silly.

Considering the mood I'm in and from where I sit, me thinks the world could use a little silly.


Scratch that -- we have the world on fire in every which way to Sunday and what do we silly Americans do?  Escape -- as the top Google trends in recent days have included Demi Moore, Kim Kardashian, gift ideas and apple juice...

seriously people?

As if we don't have enough issues here at home with our own Central Bank "helping" us too much, now we have to be concerned with the entire world of central banking going gangbusters and global.  And the market is happy with this?  [see Wall Street's best day in years, just yesterday; right...but we hate Wall Street....I betcha even Alec was okay with what happened @Wall and Broad...tweet that, baldwin-boy]

If you have some time, here is an interesting overview, from The Atlantic. In a nutshell, here ya go:

"Don't be fooled by Wednesday's early stock-market rally: Hardly anyone believes that the central banks' actions are anything but scotch tape over the shattered window of the European economy."

got that right.

We, the people of silly Americans, are all aflutter from a five hundred point leap in the market, when we are in fact trillions in debt.  And we're not talking about the mere 15 Trillion it shows on record as our 'national debt.'  Hardly.  We're talking T  R  I  L  L I  O  N  S.  Honestly, it's an amount that will take multiple generations to pay back...if ever.  Collectively, we have stored in the apples of our cheeks not for the future, but for an onslaught of future unfunded financial liabilities, and all we keep doing is try to stuff in more.

From my favorite libertarian hang out, The Daily Bell, I bring you sustenance, including alternative perspective with plenty of back up [and may I recommend you take a basket with you...plan to camp out, take a picnic perhaps, for there is just way to much going on here].

Like most things, some of the most fascinating information comes underneath the article itself within the commentary back and forth.  The Daily Bell responds actively to questions posed by suspect minds, sharpening the original argument to it's finest pithy points.  Let me elaborate a wee bit....

From The Real Reason Bloomberg Sued to Open Up Fed Records:

"There have been a lot of reasons advanced as to why the New York Fed printed as much money as it did, but most of these elaborate justifications are just that ... justifications. What the elites of the day did during the "Roaring Twenties" (that they created) was to DELIBERATELY destabilize and undermine the system. It was probably done on purpose (in hindsight) to create a depression and perhaps a war that could then give birth to a new world order.

And in fact, this is exactly what happened. World War II gave way to a whole panoply of global institutions: the IMF, the UN, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, NATO and more recently, the International Criminal Court. We are expected to believe this was some sort of coincidence, a "reaction" to the second Great War. Was it really? Can we STILL be so sure in this era of the Internet?"

From The Daily Bell, in the comments section:

"The Fed, headed by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, argued that revealing borrower details would create a stigma -- investors and counter-parties would shun firms that used the central bank as lender of last resort -- and that needy institutions would be reluctant to borrow in the next crisis. Clearing House Association fought Bloomberg’s lawsuit up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the banks’ appeal in March 2011.

$7.77 Trillion

The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.

----

The 7 trillion is only part of about US$16 trillion that was revealed by an audit initiated by Congressman Ron Paul ... We subtracted about US$3 trillion because ... "Of the $16.1 trillion loaned out, $3.08 trillion went to financial institutions in the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) analysis shows."

Our central bank has already loaned out $3.08 trillion to financial institutions in the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium ...according to our own GAO!  Who's paying for that?  I'm not paying for that.  Are you?

Oh, but lookie there, Paris Hilton just got a new 280k Ferrari...
and Demi and Ashton are splitting up...

and Kim Kardashian is divorcing her husband of 78 days...

and...

and...

and...

and we're trading dollars for euros on borrowed time.  everything should work out just fine.

Make it a Good Day, G

OWS should be storming the White House and The Federal Reserve Bank.

This might be a good time to sell.  But what do I  know, I'm just the 115 trillion ton gorilla in the room.