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.
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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.
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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.
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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.