I'm All For An Auto Industry Bailout!

The solution is obvious. Auto makers get subsidized only if they agree to dedicate themselves to high efficiency vehicles. They've had designs and prototypes for decades which they have suppressed because of their partnership with oil companies...but this has to end. Now.

If any of the Big 3 will get right on the envirofriendly car, they get help. If they say no...let them fail, and let someone else step up to the plate, get the subsidy, and make the envirofriendly vehicles.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

If you like this idea, share it...get some buzz going...maybe we can make it happen!

Hard to believe I posted last 6 days ago. It's been a good week for me personally. Things are working out well for me here. I accepted a 20 hour a week as an on-call crisis stabilization worker, starting next week. I did an afternoon of chair massage today. It looks like I will be offering an Elements of Magic class, and also doing some one on one teaching of the craft. I'm also going to be doing some PR for a local musician. I have a diverse palate. I enjoy doing different kinds of things. It keeps me engaged, interested.

I continue to read about and discuss the current political...what to call it...bizarro world comic-like events. Here are a couple of things I've posted recently on the NYTimes site and the Washington Post site.
-------
If McCain "wins" it will be due to election rigging and voter suppression, both of which the GOP is extensively involved in.

1. It has been reported in West Virginia last week during early voting that election machines were switching votes from Obama to McCain. This also happened in Ohio in 2004.

2. The GOP continues to try (and in many cases succeed!) to disenfranchise especially minority (Democratic) voters across the country. They tried it here in Montana but were stopped by a Republican judge who was appalled at the GOP's blatant efforts to derail democracy in the 2008 presidential election.

If McCain wins through fraud, then a lot of people are going to be pissed off. We've had the last two elections stolen so that the corrupt idiot and his gang of criminals could occupy the White House. I think Americans have had enough.

If McCain wins, through fraud, and people are pissed off enough, some people may choose to take to the streets. Why wouldn't they??

When the election was rigged in Ukraine and people took to the streets, they were praised by the US press, by Bush even, as standing up for democracy. So if our election is stolen, again, why shouldn't we stand up for democracy, take to the streets, and refuse to accept the next criminal regime?

I do not advocate violence. I advocate liberation.
-------
The answer is a resounding "No!" (to more nuclear power) for a multitude of reasons. Safety is the first issue. There is no such thing as a safe nuclear power plant, there are only plants which haven't YET had an accident. Included in this issue is that of nuclear waste, which cannot be safely disposed of. Economics is second. They are NOT cheap, they always run way over estimated cost, and nuclear power is yet further centralization of power generation and further profiteering by large corporations at the expense of the people, and the earth. We need to decentralize. Each town or even each building can produce much of it's own electricity through wind, solar, hydrogen. And we have barely scratched the surface in terms of what we can do by being more energy efficient. Third reason...by turning our focus to renewable energy we will create more jobs than nuclear power ever could, both in terms of R&D and in terms of implementation.

The arguments in favor of nuclear power are short sighted and based in an economic model which disrespects life, commodifying life and reducing everything to it's monetary value. Life is sacred. It is immoral to commodify life. A society which is powered by immorality, where can that lead? Look around and we see it. Divisiveness, politicians who steal elections and lie, corporate control of government, a military industrial complex run completely amok, and the list goes on.

We as a nation need to invest in renewable energy or we will make ourselves extinct.
-------
Sarah Palin...well I've never met her so I am not going to make a personal assessment, but from what I've seen of her on TV, and what I've read both about her and quoting her, she seems to me like a spokesmodel. She's Vanna White. I would be thrilled to see her on a game show. I bet she'd be great at it too! She's sparkly and kind of cute in her affectations. But a heartbeat away from the presidency? Noooo, not a good idea.

I just read piece by Kathleen Parker at the Washington Post. Click to see it.

I wrote her a response:

Kathleen, to what do you attribute blind adherence to ideology when reality blatantly proves the ideology is a flawed abstraction? It's a real question, I am interested to know your thoughts.

It can't be stupidity, one cannot generalize such a characteristic to as large a group as the current neo-con Republicans.

I can't generalize mindless greed or spiritual bankruptcy to such a large group either, and yet I don't know how else to explain to myself what I've seen happening in this country especially the last 8 years. I know the military industrial complex took a larger role under LBJ, and has been expanding itself ever since, with the aid of government, all bent on security and profit. I know that the foundation for this corporate takeover has been in the works for decades.

I have a pretty well informed world-view for an American. I've traveled, I've spent chunks of time in other countries, and I've traveled extensively in North America. I see that most people are kind and want to be kind, even when they don't have much. I saw people in New Orleans in 2005-2006 show such compassion and wisdom as I had never seen before. I have also seen people be mean, I have to say mostly I have seen police be mean in crowd situations, and I have seen a lot of mean spiritedness on the blogs coming from the right. For the most part my impression of humanity is that humans are prone to a foolish shortsightedness, but they mean well most of the time...except for those "in power" who, for the most part, enrich their friends, themselves of course, and carry out ideological agendas that always include cruelty; killing people and Earth in business transactions, truly psychopathic behavior. Here's a link to a paper I wrote on the topic. http://www.healingmagic.org/articles/narcissism.pdf

Anyway, what do you really think is going on in this country? Maybe that can be your next column.

Have you ever heard of or tried Kombucha? I have a friend who told me about it, he's into many things fungal. It's a mushroom that grows in liquid. You drink the liquid and it's a super pro-biotic tasty drink.

OK drinking mushroom culture sounded kind of disgusting to me, so I didn't try it for a long time after my friend told me about it. When I was in Vermont this last time I was thirsty and went to the big overpriced natural food store which used to be a co-op, and I wanted something in glass because I am avoiding eating and drinking out of plastic, so I got a raspberry kombucha. It was pink and carbonated and tasted like any other good pro-biotic drink, and was really good. It wasn't sweet. Afterwards, the next day, I had the best morning shit. Sorry, but these things do matter and we never talk about them.

When I was preparing to drive west I wanted a half gallon glass bottle for water since I am not into buying water. I couldn't find one. I ended up buying a half gallon of kombucha in a glass bottle thinking I would drink it and use the bottle. Instead I have been drinking it, and refilling it and feeding it. I refill it with green tea with fresh ginger brewed with it, and feed it with agave syrup or brown sugar, let it sit out for a couple of days and it gets cookin'! If you've never tried it, do. It's good to read up on it by clicking in the link above before doing anything.

Today I feel ill at ease. We are over the edge and sliding. What's happening behind the scenes is insidious. It's happening and hasn't been unveiled yet. So much hangs in the balance.

Now more than anytime in my life it is time to keep the connections strong, to energize the web of relationships and awareness we each are part of, ultimately it's one web...life!

Today I put up massage posters, watched an episode of "Heroes," wept, played guitar, danced, drummed, and now I'm writing this. I also did a tarot reading for myself. Johnny Clegg on the stereo, from his most recent album. There's a ton of energy moving through me right now; feeling, thought, and just life force.

Morning in western Montana. It's cold and blustery, cloudy, snowing in the mountains a few miles away. My morning routine these days is to get up, have a cuppa joe, and tune into a few news sites online. I like to add my comments to articles in the Washington Post online and NYTimes online, though both of those newspapers have demonstrated that they are controlled by the right, one can participate in the online discussion by commenting on articles. The NYTimes screens posts before publishing them, and if one is too strident they won't print your comment, but the WaPo is instant publication.

It is fascinating to read what others have to say. Easily 95% of the posts are anti status quo (McCain) and pro change (Obama). The buy-in to polarization is easily 99%. Rarely do I see a post that is not ideological.

I like adding my $.02 to the discussions. I have become less and less vitriolic, but sometimes I do express my outrage, and if it's an article about Bush I feel fine expressing utter disgust. It's a fun pastime, and I do learn from reading some of the posts.

It is easy to hide behind one's computer and post whatever. There are folks out there posting vile hate-filled missives; people who would probably be afraid to spew their hate face to face but feel safe doing it online.

I found a massage table and a massage chair at a really low price this week and spent my last dollars on them. Tools of the trade! I did two tarot readings yesterday at the one really funky cool store in town, for the two women who run respectively the clothing/consignment part of the store and the metaphysical books and supplies part of the store. That was really fun and useful to the two women. They invited me to work out of their store anytime doing readings and massage. That's exciting! I also have an interview this coming week with the local mental health agency for a very part-time on-call crisis worker position. I also made contact with an agency in Missoula that does outpatient work with youth and families, and I think I will do some consulting work with them. Also exciting to me. I'm in the process of renewing my counselor's license in Vermont, and will be able to use that to obtain a license here in Montana. I can see that I will have all the work I want here, and I'm really excited to have such low overhead so I can charge a reasonable amount for my time and services, and be accessible to people who don't have much money.

The last 4 years have been very important in my life. The murder of my mother incited a riot in my mind, in my soul, in my life, so that I am much more congruous, more in line with my own ethics. Thank you Mom! Today I wish I could call her and tell her what I'm doing, and hear about what she's doing.

Seems to me that a lot of folks are waiting with bated breath to see what will happen next with the economy, the election, with the environmental crisis that's upon us. I say...don't sit around with bated breath, do something! At the very least talk about stuff with acquaintances, friends and family. At the most, do something radical like reducing your overhead, reducing your carbon footprint, refusing to buy into the lies being promulgated by the US corporate government. This is no time to be passive. We each have gifts, talents, skills, perceptions...if we use them, even if we go down, we go down with some integrity...and maybe, just maybe, using our abilities may save us from going down.

Now, I am not one who believes that humans are the crown of creation, and I do see that while we do not have to be, we have been and are a blight on this beautiful Earth. However, we can be part of the solutions, each of us, but we have to choose that. The status quo is to keep consuming ourselves to death, but we have a choice, each of us every day. Our species needs a 12 step program!

Watching the debate I saw a number of things:

1. McCain is physically very rigid. He can barely move his head. I know he has a terrible set of injuries to his arms from his time as a POW but beyond that he holds himself very rigidly. I have been a body oriented psychotherapist for over 25 years. McCain's body language suggests a rigid character and a lack of connection with his emotions.

Obama moves with confidence, he is not rigid, and his body language suggests someone who is grounded, who is connected with his emotions as well as with his thoughts.

2. McCain has obviously had botox treatment on his face. Botox paralyzes the small muscles of the face, creating a rigid mask. Human beings, as we age, change. Our faces change to reflect what has happened to us, our experiences, and our character. Botox creates essentially a mask which hides the true face of the person. What would McCain look like without Botox? What would his face show about his character if it weren't chemically altered by Botox? What is he hiding?

Obama’s face is expressive. He shows who he is with his face, he is not wearing a mask.

3. McCain used a lot of platitudes and attacks, but rarely said anything specific. His responses to the questions lacked substance. He focused on broad ideological responses, but didn't answer the questions.

Obama also didn’t answer the questions directly. He did describe a coordinated set of responses to curent situations, and made connections between the economy, education, and security, and he was less vague than McCain.

I came away from the debate thinking...McCain is an old man who, naturally, cannot see a future because his life is coming to an end. He is not forward thinking because his natural life span is about to end. Obama is younger, and has a future in front of him. He is in the middle of his life span, so he naturally envisions a future.

I would rather have an emotionally connected forward thinking president than a sick old president. I would rather have a president who sees the connections between the many aspects of our country than one who sees things as a top-down power structure pyramid.

“Flexibility is kin of life. Rigidity is kin of death.” -Lao Tzu

It rained last night here in the Bitterroot valley, western Montana. It's a beautiful sunny morning, Lasky is asleep on the floor. We arrived here on Monday after 6 days of driving. The week has been about relaxing, settling in, and last night watching the VP debate with a bunch of folks. That was a lot of fun, and the debate was...wel it's hard to know what to say. I did post this on a Washington Post discussion...

"I felt like I was watching a kind of charming Barbie Doll last night. She kept flirting with the audience with her winks and her wide eyed exclamations. She clearly disassociated a number of times, and babbled meaningless response to questions she couldn't answer. She changed the subject a number of times, and responded to questions with answers that stayed on the surface, demonstrating a shallow understanding of the issues, at best.

I'm sure the republicans see this as a win, which shows how shallow THEIR engagement is with the issues...all ideology, no real meaning."

I'm glad to be here. It is so beautiful and low key.

I sent out some resumés, made some calls, initiated the process of getting licensed in Montana as a counselor, and my friend who I a staying with, and I, have been working on a plan to create a Community Health Worker program for this area. I'm very excited about it. We have a lot of good ideas. She has lived here for decades and knows the lay of the land.

Now I'm needing to attract money. I have about $200, and the next scheduled cash in comes at the end of November. I really want a 2 cup espresso maker...one of those two compartment thingies...if anyone has an extra one, also looking for a massage table. drop me a line!