My New Years wish!

Watching a riveting Documentary about America’s online sex slavery trade, a trade that exploits minors for profit where the police are barely able to keep up and locate and rescue abused children made my stomach ache. I am certain if we had compassionate laws that deeply examined prostitution and drugs we could come up with laws that were compassionate. As it stands the under ground nature of drugs and prostitution and the stigma associated with it keep children and women in slavery. It keeps it underground in secret societies and online out of reach for monitoring keeping it unsafe and dirty. Legalizing the sex trade and drugs gives us much needed over sight and creates self monitoring within the community where women and men don’t need “Pimps” to function and where the government agencies can exert more control over STD’s disease and improve efforts to keep minors out of the trade. This alone would remove the stigma. Okay it wouldn’t solve all of the ills of this life but it would help in giving power and more safety to it’s workers. The men and women who can get off the street and into safer warmer shelter where they can nurse their addictions and maybe examine and change their choices. With drugs and prostitution illegal it helps the pimps and abusers keep their workers in the shadows on the street and in shabby motels across America. Most of the laws dis-empower the weak creating slavery…when will it stop? Justice isn’t served and the pimps are not brought to justice and the registering violent individuals isn’t possible and the vicious death spiral is maintained. As a so called civilized society we are barbaric in the treatment of the weakest of us, Women and Children we throw the poorest to the dogs. We are dismal in our record and it is present today in 2013. My New Years wish is a serious examination of compassionate law making. Laws that impact and make safer the weakest of us. Laws that can empower entire groups of people who historically are unseen and unsafe. We desperately need to examine legalizing drugs and prostitution and I pray it will happen in my life time, now. May we all continue to want the very best for everyone and may we continue to want to help each other in every way we can. It is not every man for himself it is holding up our human community, as a whole, as a whole we get stronger and everything is better when everyone can prosper. Blessings!

Religion

Last night I was immersed in love and fellowship and faith which wasn’t necessarily in the service I attended it was very present in my heart and I appreciated everything in the room. The experience made me realize that every shred of faith cloaked in a fairly dramatic story if one happens to be Evangelical or Pentecostal say versus New age which I learned is very different from each other is valuable and key to navigating life successfully. Okay so I like my spirituality more toward the new age side but I certainly enjoyed the zeal in the room last night even if I differ on most of the stories as to truth and I differ in the beliefs that there is only one book or way to God. We sang songs and prayed and listened to a rather common man pastor speak his truth. So much hope and love and care so much and I am certain any critique I have and there is a lot I hold is easy pickings so I will hold back. I am a great fan of Christopher Hitchen’s book “God is not Great” and I must say find his thesis important as we traverse spirituality. There is something magnificent that is the glue and web that holds us together and watches over us and it is intelligence personified so there is faith and spirituality deep in my core and heart and the only difference is rules and source. I adore the story of Christ and I believe Jesus exists now in our hearts and I do believe lived add the idea that Jesus died for our sins is fascinating. I think I die metaphorically for everyones sins everyday. Every person who suffers on planet Earth I suffer along with. I could sit and shed tears all day long if I wanted. I try not to but lately it has been really hard not to be emotionally devastated both for our domestic tragedies and for my own small “I” issues many loved friends and family have suffered this year. It is life I suppose, the condition that we endure all manner of experience and it hurts and uplifts simultaneously. Still I am humbled by all the biblical politics, the rules I bump up against plus I am truly tickled that New age is so scorned and or feared by the evangelicals… it’s humorous. Wouldn’t it be kind of lovely if we could allow and respect every religion and person who practices their beliefs equally? I know dream on…still that is what I want for Christmas; Tolerance with a capital T. Happy Holidays to all!

Dope

Yes, we need to make ALL illegal drugs legal…we need to tax and create environments where both drugs and prostitution are practiced in safe and well monitored establishments so that people who work in this business are safe and so are the patrons. Wow the idea that a society can finally come to terms with its community and allow us to individually decide what we do to our bodies in private. This is an important step to our evolution as a whole. The drug war is an enormous failure and will continue to fail as long as we believe the rhetoric that it is winnable. Nothing is further from the truth, all wars are intrinsically flawed. The reality is that those of us who can don’t feel motivated to be excessive about drugs and those of us who cannot control ourselves can get proper help or die. The truth is the law doesn’t deter us from doing things that are bad what deters us is free will and help. We can afford one pay health care if we have new larger tax revenue which we would have if all illegal drugs were legal and regulated. Ahhhh heaven okay maybe not heaven but it is mature more mature then being treated like children. Apparently it is a scientific statistic (IE;The Netherlands)that if drugs are made available it does not make the use go up or higher(no pun intended) in fact it appears that legalized drugs create a drop in use. So some of us conspiracy people think that, that is the truest reason drugs have stayed illegal for this long. It keeps demand sexy and popular. Let’s legalize all of it. I am willing as a citizen to try this experiment out. So let’s hope we get a very open discussion regarding drugs in general now that some of these states have won legalization. Let us not go backward. Then we can begin(again)funding mental hospitals with the state of the art facilities that will help keep clear our streets of homeless souls who are in need of monitored care. When the Reagan administration gutted mental health out of the federal budget it flushed many souls out into the streets. We need to gather them back inside to safety. A society that ignores or doesn’t help it’s citizens is indeed a poor society. So much good would come of this move and I hope between Obama and the President of Mexico we can accomplish this. It is worth it.

Checking in...

Okay it has been a glorious post election holiday season and it definitely feels better to be victors, thank you. We have a lot of work to do and it all feels bubbly and exciting. Yes for me personally I have a couple of challenging projects one I am certain will be a challenge the other less so but still I am grateful to be working. Also with “The Celebrant “ we are doing crowd funding for the first time and whenever I try something new it is both exciting and scary and humbling. One is never allowed to get fat or grow old if one was ever a siren…so it feels as if I have to constantly work out which I happen to love to do as well as watch what I eat which I happen to have to since I am pre-diabetic and suffer from Hashimoto’s disease and arthritis… Ahhh good times. It could be worse and yes I am grateful I get to play competitive tennis and run my dog in the woods. Life is good if not a wee bit stressful at times. Finally go to www.radonsport.com and have a look at the race car my husband designed. He is under a lot of stress since the SCCA decided to make The Radon illegal. Why pick on us? What a bunch of bull…maybe it isn’t meant to be but they couldn’t be more wrong and the car isn’t unsafe and in fact the new rule changes are strange and personal and seriously let’s hope these guys get smarter and change their minds.Change or innovation is a good thing and it is American and it is all about fair trade. I feel confident we will survive this drama and everything will work out in our favor. Here is hoping the holidays are filled with love and laughter and may all of us get our wildest dreams and wishes. Peace!

We worked hard to get Obama re-elected and it worked. Living in a swing state sort of upped the ante to getting involved in the campaign. One cannot sit by and expect results when the very state one lives in is small and potent to the process. A funny thing happened on the way to this election a sleeping community organizer was born. Unlike any other person I know in Hollywood where it is expected if one is "Liberal"to get involved. Where I live it isn't even a 'thing" a lot of my so called concerned friends barely showed up. Being engaged takes energy and a lot of us work and being a self employed person I had the time. We were "graced" with a thank you call from POTUS which was very thrilling even if I shared him with 30,000 others. You read right 30 thousand people were on the call.He explained so much, the metrics of their thinking in this campaign. It is sort of Ninja the way they went after otherwise non interested people, who we got to vote. Okay,so it made me think there is so much more to life than living and working and paying taxes. Yup I have had a taste of a bigger whole. What to do...I was reading about Matt Lauer being in trouble with his show. I would love to do a morning show and get up and chat about the days and weeks and months news. Meet interesting people or not so and talk about stuff...Yet I have no idea what it entails and it seems more cut throat than say Hollywood and Hollywood is tough. Not sure what I will end up doing and believe me I ask everyday. I will say being involved in this campaign made me think it is fulfilling to do something for a bigger whole not just for the small "I". Okay?

Zoe, Mitt and Bush

I signed two petitions both against the casting of my friend Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone. I love, love, love Zoe Saldana but I do not think she is a good choice for Nina Simone and Hollywood this is political. Not that Diana Ross made a good Billy Holiday but she was so wonderful we let that slide. Maybe the same will be true here but unlike Billy Holiday who on a good day was gorgeous Nina Simone was never gorgeous well maybe when she was singing then she was transcendent. So to love her music Nina was to love her and to love her was to know we entered her kingdom of pain. I for one shiver when I would sit and listen deeply to her singing knowing that she had that face, that face and its intrinsic hardships. Life is harsher if one is not beautiful, showbiz is especially cruel. the other issue is casting there are so few parts for us. There are zero roles for those of us whose visage is challenged so why take the ONE opportunity away from some magnificent sister? Would the movie "Precious" been as good if someone as perfect as Zoe were cast? Would we believe it?No we would have been kept out of the realistic story by her beauty it would have hurt the depth the poetry of pain. Recently I went to the movies and yet again a perfect looking actress was cast as the female lead. Honestly it was the only thing I felt was out of balance for the film. It made it feel "Hollywood" and that can be bad. the other actors were perfect in their misshaped faces and bodies, brothers each who had something weird in their stance and expression it helped to elevate the movie experience and made me feel as if we were there. yet the female lead was flawless and it was the only thing that I didn't buy and it hurt me thinking the film was a 10 instead I give it a 7.5 out of 10 stars. Listen this particular actor she is very good and works nonstop so my little opinion does nothing except make me feel good about being maybe critical about beauty casting. Would someone with Ellen Barkins face make it today in film? I wonder? Noomi Rapace would have been better in the role than the girl they cast. Still she is pretty...I want Nina to be presented with all of her feathers and wound. Otherwise I will not bother going to see it. Speaking of ugly the telling nastiness of Mitt is very entertaining and it reveals what we all suspected about him he is a plutocrat so it behooves us Dems to remind the public of every failed policy and mess up the last administration authored and how we were on the brink of total devastation with Bush and the overall amnesia that the right seems to have should not be allowed.I want the Obama campaign to drill the airwaves with memories and stats and figures and details of where we were back then and how far we have come. listening to the aw-shucks cruelty of Mitt and his cronies or "cohorts" as he calls them. Their complete inability to have empathy or be honest to the 47% is a very bad sign for him and the country. Bush and company are criminals and the way Mitt speaks and behaves reminds me of that motley crew of thieves and murders. As I watch this news cycle for fun I invert/turn around everything Mitt says and I repeat it about him and I find it is just as true or truer.

Listening to the news coupled with the scary missteps and messaging from Mitt Romney and his campaign staff makes me want to scream and hug the White House all at once. Not good to go against America in such a sensitive explosive time. We do need to respond to the people who inflame racial division and who stir up religious furor globally. I am so sad because ignorance may be our internal undoing as a nation we do have a mighty large community who are just that IGNORANT! Yikes, what is a president and his administration to do? What a crazy time we live in. I am appalled yet not surprised. How clunky is Mitt? I keep hoping he calms down and takes a breath and does something cooler but no off he goes with his tin ear making us look goofy he so reminds me of W. That alone should sway the vote...shades of W.

My father sent me this link; http://youtu.be/-S74HuDIRa4 I love this guy and think he teaches us something well a few things. It is good to be a kind generous citizen of planet Earth. Give and give more as much as we can humanely without imbalance. Ah, imbalance is easy to reach because often in our giving our EGO is present. Ego with standing still give and risk it. Also loneliness we are lonely because we are not in community we are sitting at home or in our small world stewing up internal misery. Ge up and out and join the community. It helps to keep us busy and away from the fridge. Personally I can be lazy and unmotivated to do anything but hangout on my couch okay I play sport (tennis) I train clients (a few) and I walk my dogs but I can always do more. oh and I volunteer and I write and I love my friends and family as much as possible. Random acts of kindness but I am not perfect and I am often hard on myself and I am trying to improve. Life is good, kind and full for all of us if we let it show us "how" so be brave and give.

The Prezzzzz!

I met the president yesterday. OMG, Yup; it was amazing! I was fortunate to have a very good close view of him whilst he spoke. I think he recognized me and so when he made his way to my section (he shakes hands) he grabbed mine and mentioned my life as an actor which he said made me an excellent one. Or something to that effect. I melted and then he asked is I lived here in my tiny state which IS a swing state and I said YES and that I was a volunteer for his campaigning and I was committed to helping him get re-elected. Today I phone 144 people in a 2.5 hour period who are officially swing voters to ask the questions needed to ensure his re-election. It was tough my back was sore from standing for 4 hours or so to listen and watch him. It is worth the wait F.Y.I. and I would do it again…he has me lock stock and barrel.I found him to be erudite sexy and quick and scarily professional…he is 100% in and able and aware. I believe the President cares about America! So there you have it he isn’t what they keep telling people (anti this and that) he cares. I saw it in his eyes. Tonight in the Obama office one man was thoroughly Rushed he said Obama has ruined the country….what planet does he live on? Where has he been? Oh wait he listens to “Rush Limpbaugh” all day what a lazy Fuck! Listen if I am going to dedicate 8 hours a week to the cause I want results…critical thinking and volunteers. Get off the couch and get your bony asses and your not so bony asses down to the nearest Obama re-election office and volunteer NOW! I am watching and so is he…and he is something else, now volunteer!

The Threads

Okay this past week I was visiting Martha’s Vineyard where in the peak season (now) you can find a higher than normal concentration of people who are African American enjoying a well deserved summer vacation. What is amazing is that these folks all of us come from all over the US to summer there, a tiny island enclave in New England. This island historically was one of the earliest Jim Crow free places we could go and be treated like human beings and not as property. This tiny Island enclave must have the largest concentration of Pulitzer prize winning authors, seriously all week it seemed like people were introduced to me and inevitably it was added that they also had won that prize for something they wrote. It is intimidating and if that isn’t enough it seems as if they were retired judges or current professors at Yale the Island is filled with high achievers it can be very scary for an under achiever like myself. What have I accomplished? Compared to that crew not a lot yes, as an actor I feel like a big slacker, oh dear! What was stirred inside my heart other than self critical examination was the awareness that the Black or African American story is complex and nuanced even more so than the Jewish American story because we have so many different racial views within our community so many varied interests and neither can claim to be the truest or most pure point of view. Why should I even mention this? Well because I feel that my story is completely different than most people who are of color from the south just by virtue of being raised in Canada although American in DNA(Oklahoma according to a maternal aunt) and because I took American citizenship but was born Canadian follow? Okay so my point is that we as a group have an infinite array of stories because of our differing hues and complexities and everyone of us. Making every story each of us holds dear and true as the African American experience. We as a group cannot stand completely united because of this an infinitude of stories that could be claimed as the African American story so it is a canvass, a quilt made up of millions of threads. Ahhhhh relief what is heartening for me who has always felt like an outlier is that most African Americans from the south in my opinion have muscled everyone else into their story because it is source, or birth place of Africans forced into slavery. Ultimately we did start life in America in deep slavery somewhere like say “The Congo squares” of southern America. We who were tortured and sold and forced into horrendous conditions early on mind you there was a brief period in the early 1700’s in New Orleans where we were not forced into slavery and could own property and live in relative peace and freedom. Still those of us whose family trekked to the furthest point north(Canada) mine in the 1920’s don’t have the same awareness but it doesn’t discount our voice. In fact our voice is just as important and hued in a way that carries a different bitterness but still bitterness nonetheless. Personally I have felt less than because my accent was Canadian and not Southern hued. I have been told I was not black enough even this year because I was not Southern Black in my being. Sure I speak differently actually I have a California affectation when I get lazy that is irritating to me at time. I do say “dude” with as a natural a breath as saying “bless their hearts” which I don’t say but could. Yet I am not less of an African American. Here is another “thing’ I being a child of the 60’s was a baby, a young child when the vote was given to us and so the struggle is something I had to educate myself about I didn’t or could not march. Now today I cherish the freedoms we have and the vote being valued even more deeply because it is under attack. I had/have horrendous racism flung at me by the Hollywood insiders that hurt and devastate me but even in the face of being “other” I keep my course. Today much has changed and yet have we? There is still have so much work to do. Within and without the community, my community of African American men and women so much healing of our response to “The wound” which is made even more tender in this election cycle. There is nothing more complex than the Black experience in America NOW because our journey to the promise land of equality is still ON. So no amount of wealth or intellectual accomplishment can take away what still seems to be “our struggle” for equality, the struggle to live with a level playing field throughout the American social fabric or structure. Super complicated and rife with pain and misery and bitterness and anger we have a lot to be cranky about. This day of the new pole tax/voter suppression being just one more continuous cut into the very heart of life as an African American. My heart is broken and yet I like all of us soldier on and cherish the sweetness of life on the Vineyard because there it seems life is more equal and celebrated and sweet, or so it seems.

Gunning away our freedom

We are violent as a species we allow by law violent discourse to bellow over the airwaves in the form of Rush Limbaugh and Micheal Savage to name just two.They openly incite violence and racism especially against our president. Our very own politicians spread deep untruths about each other and their kind that can hurt the very people they are talking about as in the example of Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton in Egypt. Senator Bachman lied about her involvements and it cause public outrage and it could have been worse than a few loud protests and produce being thrown at her vehicle. We live on violent Planet and it doesn’t seem to be getting better or more loving and peaceful which makes me wonder if that is foolish to strive for? The impotence of the anti automatic weapons bans or gun control in general is depressing and frustrating and it seems no amount f domestic carnage will move the discussion. We are violent in our media and in our speech and in our ways that we run for office. In every aspect of life we are violent so it shouldn’t surprise us that dull, lonely, sad boys open fire and murder lots of people. This is the formula outliers need attention and they will murder to get it. So it is going to happen again and again.London has camera’s everywhere in the city and suburbs I like that idea, lights , camera , action. I want to televise every street and park and open space “Google it” so we can at least make it harder to open fire at malls and movie theaters. We need to do more…

Election cycle and the crazy myths.

My feelings get stirred up when I watch footage of Rush “the Terrible” speaking with bald hated about President Obama, it saddens me and makes me angry so much so I want to ask the FCC to take him off the air. Of course it also reminds me of the school yard limerick “I know you are but what am I” said in my childhood to diffuse a put down. The NY Times has released an op-ed piece outlining the 5 myths of Obama-care; If it doesn’t off a direct click through copy and paste it in your browser. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/opinion/keller-five-obamacare-myths.html?smid=pl-share I think it is an ugly time here in America and I am a little frightened by the vitriolic nakedness from the other side. It isn’t as bad as it has been obviously but the ghost of vile Jim Crow is pretty present. I cannot help feeling that something desperate and ugly is around the corner and I hope I am wrong. It just feels like when a rabid animal is trapped it tends to bite. The radical right feels rabid and the teeth are very sharp and the money is piled high and it is scary. My faith in goodness, education, wisdom and intelligent reason is firm but man is it getting scary out there. I know POTUS is not perfect but I sure do appreciate his candor and willingness to say as much. God bless Joe Biden never has a man been so helpful and inspiring he is damn good at making the much needed points for POTUS. It is the gypsy curse these crazy times, that is for sure and damn if it ain’t interesting!

Pain body

Ekart Tolle talks a lot about the “pain body” being a place a state that is difficult to prosper and grow out of if we live most of our lives around it. Meaning avoiding it or dwelling in it or ignoring it which can keep it present, is a tricky thing because our spiritual growth depends on our managing our states and especially our response to the proverbial wounds all of it complex. So I was thinking about the African American story all of us have a long historical connection to deep pain and torture and abuse and more when it comes to being a person of color. So it doesn’t surprise me that we have such a disadvantage when it comes to managing our lives in other words every person of color no matter how affluent deals with a history that is difficult and maybe presently difficult so couple that with societal disadvantages no matter what anyone says it has NEVER been a level playing field in any sector of society historically or even today. With all of this in mind I sit in awe of the monumental healing salve President Obama initial victory means and what it means to those of us with this reality. It is deep, very, very deep so it makes the resistance to him extra sensitive a familiar cut into the already wounded and war worn soul of black America. The agenda of the far right with the bogus voter fraud laws which are designed to suppress the black vote makes this election personal, very. I am realizing that my very own race I happen to straddle three (complicated) still my own people have to fight falling into the depression that can overcome us just by virtue of the “struggle”…I also realize I have been impatient with my own family for not being bigger bolder thinkers because it takes great courage and evolution to be able to face the “pain body” and push past it to grow in our thinking and innovate. The average women of color have so much against her how can she afford the luxury of imagining more? Dreaming is a luxury in some instances especially when you work three shifts. In order to evolve we have to be strong and have courage and face pain body and push past it. In my life time it looks good for all of us and I know we can do it no matter what happens we must!

Bigots

I have friends who are family who are smart hyper educated Mormons who are the antithesis of Mitt Romney. Not only do my friends have an opinion that changes only when facts are irrefutably shown to them. Still they have opinions that remain firm regardless of outside pressures. Unlike Mitt they are proud of their church. Nothing in his current public discourse on Immigration has changed my opinion of Mitt as a waffling wuss. What creeps me out more are the fringe gun toting yahoos who seem to be bullying the Republican party worse than Grover and no one is worse than the triad of Grover- Rove and Cheney except the second amendment creeps who think going after Holder is a good idea. It bothers me that we don’t police these asshole better but maybe the FBI or the CIA are on it…the industrial complex that is homeland security hopefully is on it. So much violence and anger in America, it scares me. It is alike George Zimmerman is the poster man for the mindset violence against men and women of color. I think that we need to respect these fringe people who are bombing abortion clinics and bullying politicians and going after policies country wide. Weirdly the very people who are claiming war are creating that very thing, aggressive attack on freedom of choice. The intelligent gentle elite they better reset the thinking because these fringe elements are serious and they are going after “us”. Obama is coming to talk and I am nervous because I live in a small state that is red and they love their guns here. I am going to hear him speak but the secret service better be vigilant. In fact I wish he had a pope mobile. I know silly …and I hope he survives this era of weird polarization. I have strong negative feelings about Republicans especially Mitt dislike is too mild a term. BUT I don’t want to be a bigot against bigots it’s just not right.

Weirdo

It is so easy to make fun of Sheldon Adelson who is such a yacker sure he has endless financial means to capitalize a campaign but he talks a lot more than he seems to donate. 10 million is just that not 100 million and so why mention it, just do it? I think he brags about his moneyed donations because he isn’t about to part with 100 million but because he is the billionaire casino boss he can act like that bigger spender. You know its cultural he is a very shrewd man who worked hard to get where he is today and he is bloviating. On the other hand the flip flopping done by Romney makes my skin scrawl and although he isn’t the sexual predator that Sandusky is or Rush Limblowhardbag I know what his name is but refuse to say it right…Romney counts on us forgetting and not holding him up to scrutiny so he lies away. Also he does have the eyes of a weirdo; someone who does bad things in private like Sandusky…it’s awkward and gives me the creeps. I still think we need deep focus and continued truth telling from POTUS and a bit of bragging and charts, lots of factual charts to keep the 2 billion dollars strong weirdo right at bay. Landslide in spite of suppression of the votes, attack on all things female and the correction ,correction so we can have trust worthy bridges and yes weed out the gambling banks and financial institutions are addicted to, and put the public sector back to work, now. There I said it. Happy Fathers day.

Humane

There is an ill wind in West Texas a nuclear waste dump that manages to bury under acres of sand and rock waste that will never go away ever, no it will remain radioactive poisoning the ground water under the already fragile drought plagued West Texas, soon to be waste land for millions of years. The billionaire who owns and operates this mess is one of the largest super-pac donors to Mitts campaign. This man wants to be allowed to continue storage of nuclear waste without regulations designed to prevent pollution while protecting fragile aquifers. He doesn’t want the EPA to meddle in his affairs. He wants Romney and his cronies to allow him to be the gigantic polluter although successful business man to flourish. This guy Mr. Hammond is the poster boy for everything wrong in our society. What would be the profile of success in my “perfect world”? In my universe success would be gained with the caveat that my industry either protects vigorous the environment and the local community making both my industry and business mutually productive even if it costs me money in the short run. So if I was extracting something a mineral or substance from the ground I would make sure that the extraction was replaced with an exact replica of whatever we were taking out that we were replacing the weight in a nontoxic way. If this was impossible than we would cease this production, green industry/ energy everywhere, new town civic housing planning get everyone off the oil. It would be law that we could not develop communities without complete off the grid design including growing food. Yup my universe would be crunchy hippie Earth respecting and slow. We would be invested in moving a lot slower or maybe not traveling at all if it meant wasting resources. We would live in community taking care and making money although highly important to our society it would be balanced with a high quality of community and life and love. More would be replaced with best or better…value shifting, emotional connecting, experimental and yet necessary. We need to completely rethink what we do and how we do it and no it isn’t a utopia it is just more humane. The Danish, the Netherlanders are way ahead of us. We need to change the social paradigm. The Greedy people who need more at the expense of the planet will be replaced by people who care about the quality of life. We will cherish real things and not the trap of more is better. Bigger, is not better, better is a quality that encompasses life, relationships,and time, lots of it plus safety and clean water, air and forests. We need to slow way, way down and retrace and decompress from the “lie” of more is better, it isn’t…so try less and discover what is actually best.

Found freedom

Watching Morning Joe I noticed the camera used something special as a transition shot they show a statue of the founder of Chicago who wasn’t Irish or Italian he was Caribbean from Haiti. What it makes me feel is fear…because back in the early 1700’s we people of color enjoyed a modicum of respect and freedom and then the hammer came done. In the late 1800’s but prior to that we were on our way to a more level playing field as Americans. Today with the slimy presidential battle and the graceful Presidency of Obama I feel fear for the back lash that can thrust this country back 150 years in social and political policy. Please…not only is the Romney campaign counting on the elderly voters to vote for him because they distrust the Black man but the lies they are spreading, the distortions make me nervous. Every day the Obama campaign need to put a liar’s board up in Times Square listing the untruths being spread by the Republicans, like the debt board just post the list as it keeps growing of the lies. I know people are confident he will win…but I think that is folly. I don’t trust the process and I do believe Jim Crow is closer to being law again than any of us can imagine. It doesn’t seem possible but Nazism didn’t seem possible in pre World War two Europe which is why so many intelligent people got on those trains. Trusting that people were decent when in fact they were hideous monsters taking men and women who were doctors, lawyers, women and children to their deaths, monsters like Rush and Michelle Bachman and Santorum and others on the crazy right long for days when we were enslaved. It is in their rhetoric it is in every speech the ghost of dark days past. We are under attack and for every accomplishment we seem to make it seems eternally we will have to be vigilant against those that cannot control their fears and therefore wish censorship and loss of liberty and God forbid life for all minorities in America and women. It’s unimaginable but possible and this chills me to the bone.

Legalize it!

As the first daughter of a drug God ;Tommy Chong I can promise you that if the United States of America legalized all illicit drugs; Pot , meth , coke all psychedelics that it would fill our debt coffers getting us instantly out of debt and it would solve all if our social ills regarding vice. Once the human being is allowed anything it instantly loses its glamour. So yes; legalize all of it including heroin, and watch the number of addicts drop precipitously. Once something is made legal it loses its sex appeal. I promise YOU!

Octo-puss and Rush

I have a solution for both the Octomom and the religious pro-choicers they should merge. I keep thinking something has to happen to help Ms Octomom out with her 14 children and the crazy anti abortionists who seem hell bent on destroying woman’s lives. Unless you have been pregnant with a child you have tried to avoid conceiving you should not be able to vote into law any bills preventing a woman from choosing to terminate a pregnancy. It is a sin to vote against pro-choice because unless you can walk in her shoes stay out of her business. That is my position on abortion rights. We need to have the choice. The Octomom needs assistance and I think if the pro lifers want a gig, a reason to exist that actually "helps society" they should adopt that woman and her 14 children all of whom need financial help. 14 reasons to be proud, they could make sure the 14 children prosper. I think Rush Limbaugh should be the biggest donor of all since he would dub the Octomom a slut anyway and this way since he is a childless gas bag he could do something positive for society instead of spreading lies and racial divisiveness. Rush could make sure 14 souls make it through life without incidence and maybe contribute to society. I don’t think pro-lifers understand biology or the many different aspects of fertility and obviously the Ocotomom has no outward signs of sanity because who would bring 14 children into the world without any support? So the two should merge and become an example of crazy doing something good.

Supreme BS...

There is something sinister about the push back from the Republican party against President Obama that reeks of history, a dark stain in history. The case of Plessey Vs. Ferguson June 7th 1890 the case of one man who refused to sit in the “colored” car of a train in Louisiana. The case made it’s way to the supreme court where the court ruled against his right to sit where he wanted. Today the Republican party and it’s thinly veiled resistance against everything this President has achieved or would like to achieve hearkens back to that point in our history which was crucial in early America when slavery teetered on being outlawed only to be fortified and kept for another 100 years or so. Jim crow and segregation laws maintained inequality even if the plantations and chains were dismantled. You take the current suppression of the vote in many states and it is easy to feel the spirit of that same evil where one group of citizens suppresses another because they can and they are the ruling class. It is strange to imagine that someone like a Richard Pierce of Arizona the proponent of SB70 the anti immigration bill who it has been shown has a direct link to white supremacists groups could flourish in local politics and not be forced to resign and stay out of public office. This same monster is associated with prisons where the majority of the inmates are brown skinned ethnic men. Isn’t our current prison system and justice bias against men of color another Jim Crow? Isn’t it just more racism and slavery in the present day? So where we make strides (voting in our first African American president) we then suffer a severe push back, a push back that allowed Michelle Bachman to wax poetic about the glory days when we African Americans worked on Plantations and according to her African American families were more intact then, than they were today.What a crock of ignorant insensitive bull.It make me scream whenever I see her take the microphone because her ignorance is shared by many lazy uniformed people in the middle fly over states and it scares me. Her brand of racism is what ails America today. Lack of information and a need to dominate and suppress. Maybe it is human nature and we will always have to fight the tide of suppression like a virus or mold it lingers and takes root if we take our attention away from it. We must stay vigilant. Growing up in Canada as a young black child my family was mixed and the only people of color that were close to me was my sister and mother and everyone wasn’t black. So we were teased as little girls and made to feel bad for being a beautiful shade of brown. So much were we teased that my sister took to wearing an angora sweater on her head to mimic having hair that moved “like Cher’s”. When were were older our father whose exposure to African American men was mainly musicians or pimps because he had night clubs and shady guys frequented them. So he made it his mission to scare me and my sister off men of color because his shaggy gang of thugs didn’t represent anything wholesome and in his twisted mind he was helping his little girls. As an adult I never allowed myself to integrate that part of my racial heritage and I know my love life would have been more diverse and I would have welcomed it had I not been frightened as a child against the very type of man I would today come to adore and love.To me it is a sad missing whole in my heart that we were sequestered away from our own heritage for no good reason. The African Canadian men are not all violent or wife beating thugs. It is so sad that we weren’t exposed early on to what is true that there are infinite examples of truly wonderful men and woman of a rainbow of colors. So the burden of raising our children to ensure they have diverse friends, and that we as adults diversify our own inner landscape. That we welcome differences. Politically I am friends with people who are republican I don’t hold it against anyone to be who they are even if it differs greatly from my own beliefs. I personally don’t think this Supreme court is trustworthy. Gore vs Bush was the moment I knew they were corrupt. I wish they were held to account like they do in Singapore. If a justice is found to be open to bribery or whatever they are executed within a week. They don’t mess around over there you will be dead in 7 days of being found guilty. So the justices are held to a very high standard and I am certain even with that lofty threat there are crooked judges. I don’t trust this court and I don’t like half of them I do feel Justice Thomas is too closely affiliated with the Heritage foundation via his wife, so he should be removed.We fancy we have come a long way but everyday I can see where we have not and I quake in fear. Citizen united ruling will be remembered as the ruling that killed democracy. Get a photo ID and register to vote, be vigilant because we are under attack and the unthinkable is possible. God help us all.

Read and understand before you choose...

Okay, why do people vote for candidates who have gone public with policies that don’t and I repeat don’t have their interests at heart? Because they don’t understand nor do they read policy. The same is said about 98% of the law makers in government. They don’t read their own bills. Which means “Houston we have a problem”. I can attest to having ADD when it comes to my reading assignments. I will plow through a book 2/3 and then get “bored” seriously bored and ready to get to the end. Which means the books I read are dull (maybe) or I am a lousy reader (maybe) or there is just too many things to do and I get distracted (very true)…meanwhile because we have a lot of outlets to get information I have become a lot more informed about the political culture/ sphere and weirdly interested in policy and I have discovered this not so secret fact. Most Americans have no idea what their pet politicians truly stand for. If most seniors who seem to be Republican realized and read what their politicians wanted as far as future policies they wouldn’t be Republican. Because most seniors are frightened and maybe old school and unfamiliar with anything like an Obama they vote for the big “white” guy not really realizing that the rich 1% wanna cut their social services or entitlements. The fact is we are under siege not only as women and children and the lower to middle class but as moderate Republicans who don’t agree with the Tea party rhetoric. In fact the moderates are a rare breed seemly soon to be extinct and it is scary to imagine a world of schizophrenic politicians like Romney who take an extreme position on day and flip flop the next as if no one witnessed the flip flop. Yet this is the world we live in. I don’t think Obama is perfect by any stretch of the imagination and it irritates me to think that the entire structure of our democracy is a sham because every day I study it; our democracy seems fake and nonexistent. This irritates and saddens me. Luckily for me I am beyond ever needing an abortion but in my prime I thank god I could get them. I say it plural because I happen to be one of those females who got pregnant with the harshest birth control. Meaning if you looked in my direction I was knocked up. So for me in 2012 imagining women across this country having to go to some voodoo back alley butcher because a gaggle of illiterate lazy politicians who by the way have their bible fueled beliefs clogging reason as they are writing bills and passing them prohibiting abortions and other services, it’s a nightmare I cannot and don’t want to imagine. Alas here we are, wake up America and vote with confidence and understanding, read the fine print, because it is a matter of life and death and prosperity.

Socio-path is more like it...

Mr. Romney freaks me out because he is mental and not in a fun way. Here is a deliciously great article by Paul Krugmen; Enjoy! Copy and paste in your browser. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/opinion/krugman-the-amnesia-candidate.html

The long road to justice

Watching the lawyer for Zimmerman try to undermine the charge of "confrontation" is interesting. If Zimmerman hadn't confronted the child wouldn't Trayvon still be living and breathing and at home, alive today? So what part of "something confrontational happened" does he need to prove? I hope the prosecution is ready because this lawyer is intense and seems pretty focused...more to come.Casey Anthony went free...so my hopes for justice are low because it's Florida. I know call me pessimistic.

Freedom-hood.

The best things in life are free…so goes the saying and so goes success. Ask yourself would you do what you do for a living or work whatever you call everyday for free? If so you are the luckiest and if not there is a wee bit o work to be done in our perceptions of what we call “work” or our careers. I am guilty of always going about my career for the wrong values and have been adrift for decades trying to jump start my drive for making movies and or television which interestingly enough started to wane (my career) right when I was becoming more whole and honest. In other words I was very successful as a kid when it is manic need that propelled me forward. What I realized after years pf therapy was that I was motivated by a need to be loved. Then a funny thing happened I achieved the goal I found the thing I most needed or thought I lacked and needed and Voila my career evaporated and the drive evaporated at the same time. As if getting sober emotionally killed what made me fascinating. Don’t you notice how certain actors were way more interesting in their work when they were raging drunks or coke heads. It is true for some but maybe not across the board or in every case but still a few major stars have maybe ruined their “hotness” by becoming sober as if they were de-clawed or neutered. I work as a volunteer trying to get films for our local film festival and nothing makes a person realize how powerless we all truly are than trying to get Hollywood-sters to give us their films. The town just lets one know how very unimportant I am by the abuse we face when trying to showcase films. Even if you star in them. Last year was rugged and I may never recover from the abuse of a certain studio. I know in my heart who lead the charge and I suspect their motivation was fear that I “little ol’ me” would steal their thunder which I did not. Still we were jerked around by them and I curse them for it. I kind of wish them all ill. I know not very evolved but hey they behaved badly. Maybe getting old and being overweight is sin against the machine that is Hollywood. I am not obese just not Hollywood thin and I am not young I am old compared to what they like. I get that. Yet on the other hand, I think reality TV has given us a glimpse into a truth. The truth is if it(content) is good and real and interesting it doesn’t matter what it looks like. That is the saving grace, “the thing” it has to be very good. When I say good it has to capture our attention and hold it. I think weirdo’s like Ted Nugent mistake the genius of Howard Stern…they don’t realize that he is measured in his outrageousness that he practices how far he can go as if he and only he knows what it is. In fact it is true he knows the limit from decades of practice. When some one flails so feloniously inappropriate threats against the President to make a point it is a measure of society and how far it has gone down. So we just have to take a breath and say “poor guy” he needs attention and this is how he wants to get it. I think he should be arrested for threatening to kill. I think he should be arrested for inciting murder amongst his followers. I like what I do and I do it for free occasionally I get a check or something but honestly it is for free what I get paid for is auditioning. I didn’t make that up, Phillip Seymour Hoffman told me that once. He said his real job was directing a theater company and that they pay him to audition and leave his day job. He would do the acting part for free. I say here, here…

Go girl!

Watching Ashley Judd jump all over the media for the right reason; objectifying women,supporting misogyny and supporting/promoting destructive body images for women both old and young. It made me furious,sad and frustrated because we seem to be helpless when it comes to creating a healthy consensus in regards to the female body through the decades. Dove products and their advertising are one good example of truth in advertising that promotes a positive image of what a real person looks like. Now days we are crucified when we “let ourselves go” burned at the proverbial stake as it were. I know because throughout my entire existence I have struggled with my body and I have allowed it to do what it needs to do and still go in front of the camera and sometimes looking awful but we still need to work. It has deeply impacted my career and prevented me from booking many jobs no doubt and it gives me pain but what am I to do I am a human being with fluctuating weight and everyday is a struggle to just stay healthy. I cannot complain the brush of divine beauty has been kind to me. Still what I think is the dark secret in this debate isn’t just the blatant male and by the way female enforced inequity in all aspect of society whether it is equal pay or equal standards of beauty which don’t exist. What really galls me and causes me to feel the most bruised is that the biggest culprits the most guilty people of keep women down and preventing “real” images to be the norm are women.If you listen carefully the women in power in the world make sure that they are one of a very small group of successful beings and sure enough if you look at them they look like this “a younger version of Candace bergen”. Look at the corporate profile of every top media outlet studio and you will see 99% Caucasian men with a smattering of females that look like Murphy Brown only thinner. The women will be blond maybe Jewish but definitely wasp looking. These very same people will be the harshest and will maintain the status quo. So how dare YOU be a normal looking women of a certain age in media. So Ashly Judd is right to be offended and I caution pointing the finger at men only when indeed it is the women in power who are as much to blame. It is that dirty secret of racism in the African American community that some of the biggest bigots against African Americans are African Americans. It follows the same in the Jewish community hence the higher appreciation for all things Brit; in Media all Media. We hate ourselves. Recently some one I admired died and it made me stop and realize that all the money in the world or fame or what have you matters NOT in the face of poor health. That we are all in the market for LOVE if you cannot get LOVE in a positive way we will distort it and get attention in a less productive way. Negative pleasure which is a whole article unto itself is another form although harmful to manifest a form of love or attention. We need to demand more examples of life that are reflective of life, we need to hold symposiums where maybe we can ‘out’ the true battle for equality and womens rights that seem to be up right now.There is a war on women being waged by men and WOMEN together! I say we need to be honest, the battle we are raging starts from within. There are legions of women whether it is from ignorance, daddy centric complexes or just plain self hate but there are a lot of women today who are keeping the greater whole in a fragile not so nice place and these sisters need to be educated and brought back into the fold. To be a fully realized women only enhances the life of the male and can bring happiness and peace to any couple. It doesn’t mean you are a man hating, lesbian.Not all Lesbians hate men I am just citing an obnoxious example. To be supportive and kind to other women and to extend generously to others enriches you and the greater whole. Will we ever trust that there is enough to go around? Be brave, kind and strong and vow to work for equality and the right to choose. Good luck to all of us, Go girl!

Read this...

I know it seems odd to do this but he is a treasure...but in case some of you don't subscribe to the NY times; My idol Paul Krugman has this to say; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/opinion/krugman-pink-slime-economics.html Enjoy! RD

Leveling the field

Imagine being marked because your skin isn’t the preferred or valued tint. Unless you are ethnic and a shade of brown you cannot know and it isn’t easy for non-ethnic people to grasp even my most diverse friends who have many hues in their friendship pool they cannot imagine it. I also want to express frustration at the economic gap that has spawned decades of misery within the ethnic community and still has not been rectified in our society. In fact there is no example of the same socio-economic disparity within the white community that hasn’t spawned crime. If you are poor and don’t have any other options you will be a criminal because we need to have our needs met regardless if it is legal. The human animal will do whatever it takes to feed themselves and maybe their family. If you belong to a group of people who cannot find a way and you happen to be on the bad side of the socioeconomic divide you will commit crime. When you see the profile of wealth it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see a racial preference or trend. It is a white man who is given all of the opportunities in our society and so much so it is hard not to think there is an unspoken conspiracy to keep the non-white people down. I personally have pushed against this thinking because I come from the great”white” north; Canada where we are so far removed from the American south we have forgotten our ancestors struggles.Canada, where I have benefited from a safe childhood sequestered away from racial tensions until my family moved to Detroit in the late 60’s to get a green card and work for Motown. There we were thrust or dumped into the ghetto where we had to fend and endure near rape and physical violence that when we finally left almost two years later we still don’t remember who drove us to LA. My mother being shell shocked (divorce,moving,money stress) jammed my sister and I into a strangers car; a man and a women who then drove us to California. I promise you it was a stressful drive but somehow we realized LA would be kinder, better than the ghetto of Detroit Michigan and we were right.It almost doesn’t matter who drove us to California because we made it intact. Do remember making sure the man stayed clear of us and the while women was the creepier one and thankfully there were With only two nights of sleeping in motels which must of been tricky because this was the 60’s and a lot of places weren’t friendly to blacks. We made it and I will say my poor 8 year old psyche was on alert always because someone had to protect us from adults and I was it.Now as an adult myself and a middle aged woman of color, I pay attention and being a mother myself to a young man I like the rest of the world am in pain, because of the Trayvon Martin cases world wide. In fact it seems after decades of denying my race, because in denying it I could infiltrate and integrate or so I thought. Today I can attest, that denying my race was erroneous thinking. No matter how integrated one may think they are, they are not the same as them. We are different and diverse and it is a good thing. So now awake to the fact that my race is and is not going away and it has been in many moments of my career and life a liability. So, I can breathe a sigh of sadness for all of the above. It doesn’t help the planet to deny ones heritage and racial makeup just as it doesn’t help the planet to bludgeon society every minute of everyday with it “hello new Black Panther party”.Somewhere or somehow there has to be balance. How do we balance life in this society when there are giant gaps and injustices and plain straight up forces of suppression? There is a thought that the FBI and the CIA in the 70’s encouraged drug use in the ghetto’s to distract and disable the men and women who lived there. Drug saturation to keep the brown masses down. It could be argued it happened but it is unprovable because if those agencies were doing that they certainly don’t want the brown masses to know it. Let's face it every day horrendous stuff is done against humanity somewhere globally by agencies everywhere. It is a huge almost unfathomable crisis. Still here in America we need to be vigilant and protect our brown skinned children and men from harm and we also need to help educate and encourage better choices and help those driven to the edge of society and crime. I do know that a scintilla of the defense budget could create a G.I. Bill educating the entire veterans core. We could rebuild roads and bridges, provide for better mental health clinics and rehab facilities. So much could be done and legally we must begin to examine laws that are geared to suppress the men and women who happen to be of color. This isn’t a thorough comment I know and this subject to huge to even begin to comment on but I have to say something. My heart is broken and it doesn’t seem to be healing anytime soon. I want justice, a more level playing field because it is constitutionally right that all men be able to walk home in safety with their skittles and ice tea.

The New Black Panther's and Voters

My mom and I were talking this morning about the Trayvon Martin case which is everywhere and still so very raw in all of us. She was explaining to me that the new Black Panther party has offered a bounty for Zimmerman as if killing the man will bring any closure. It will not and even if he were to receive life without parole it will not bring any satisfaction because the crime has been committed and the young life extinguished its tragedy all around. Still I was saying that the new BPP could help in Florida and country wide with voter registration and that alone would ensure fairness in the next election and have a farther reach than revenge. I am not saying that I want Zimmerman to be treated with kindness or any other specialness I do think he is a liar and guilty and a racist murdering fool still I do know that the biggest damage has been done. Still we are awake and there is a bigger issue afoot and that is voter suppression. As an American who is ethnic and awake I want to be cautious and helpful and be able to see Obama in the White House for another 4. It is imperative for me individually and as a community member. Better more affordable education, less defense spending, the rebuilding of our infrastructure and economy these things are at the forefront of our immediate needs. Yes, we need justice in the Trayvon case and I am hoping we will live to see it and as important we need voters to be registered and President Obama re-elected. There is a conspiracy to hurt Americans and to keep the 99%’ers down but we are a strong group and we can prevail, we must!

Read this...

I promise this isn't me being lazy;

The article is very important....and please spread the news;

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/opinion/krugman-lobbyists-guns-and-money.html

Here we go again...

Here we go yet again with the staggering pain that we feel about the loss of life for this baby; Trayvon Martin and all the Trayvon Martins in America and the world over its unmanageable. There is nothing to compare with the loss of a child and I will confess that being a mother of a child who can ”pass” I cannot fathom what it means to be a mother of a child who cannot “pass” and what daily fear exists in ones heart as our boys make their way through life. I hope justice is served and Mr. Zimmerman is arrested and treated properly. It isn’t just the fact that Trayvon’s body was kept unidentified in the morgue for three days because no one imagined that he belonged to anyone. What is wrong with this picture? How evil is racism in America and with the presidency being a polarizing contest and the issue of race ‘up” it still doesn’t answer so many questions we need to be asking ourselves. If you are not ethnic I ask you how diversified are your friends? If there is little or none you need help. Because we self segregate it creates untruths both ways. I know African Americans who don’t believe there are honest trustworthy Caucasians so it does cut both ways. Diversification is an answer a very good one. The entire south but especially in Florida with its suspect racial history needs an overhaul. A physical and spiritual and political overhaul, I hear many comedians complain that Florida is home to the lowest common denominator of human kind, maybe. I won’t go that far but these cases as well as the many on the book of unsolved missing person cases that seem racially charged in Florida aren’t helping the state. It’s a shame we are still here fighting for decency. One child walking back from the store with candy to watch a sporting event loses his life because the neighborhood nut job has a ‘thing” against “African Americans. It makes me wanna scream, cry and hang my head in sadness, in fact I spontaneous cry for the family of Trayvon martin and for myself and all of us who know what it feels like to be “other”. We need to do better than this, all of us.

Rush and Fatty

Rush and Fatty Arbuckle have a lot in common both at one time at the top of their game seemingly invincible and yet both have met their match and probable destruction by abusing women. The thing is Fatty as rumor goes may or may not have physically harmed the alleged victim who died by brutal causes nonetheless he attended the “orgy” and was blamed for the event that resulted in the death of a young girl. I believe he was exonerated of charges later in his career but by that time the damage was done. He wasn’t king anymore. Like Fatty, Rush’s invincibility has been shaken and I like to think/hope irreparably damaged by a young woman. A young woman whose character he tried to assassinate. What a fascinating similarity “who’d a thunk it?” Felled by a young woman voicing her opinion and concern as a citizen before Congress, his true nature revealed and exposed and harshly rejected. It is the moment millions of us have been waiting for. It is a witch hunt, the witch being Fatty Rush Limbaugh. Like Fatty Arbuckle he may think he will or can survive this by cash and influence and damage control but I am thinking this time he has “stepped in it deep” the crap isn’t washing off anytime soon. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. I also find it horrifying that he uses Peter Gabriel’s music on his show and can’t imagine Peter would approve of it. Listening and watching him spew his vitriol against the sound track of Peter Gabriel’s sledge hammer was disturbing. I hope his lawyers do something about that. Don’t get me wrong it is healthy to have opposing viewpoints regarding any subject and I am not saying that we should erase any opposition. I am not saying this I just think we need to hold accountable the degenerates the lower than the men and some women who harm. Everything he said last week was not to humor it was to destroy, scorch and dismember. Like the awful tragedy that Fatty Arbuckle found himself mired in this one will hurt that big buffoon and maybe critically, one can only hope.

For a giggle have a look;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZK75pXLlbY

Lotto

I play the lotto because my neighbor in Vancouver won the thing twice for a tax free total of 26,000,000, all because he played the thing for three dollars each drawing and so the joke goes “buy a ticket”. Of course I have no idea what that size of cash would do to my equilibrium and I imagine I cannot imagine the disruption and maybe regret. None of us knows what a hassle to our lives winning tens of millions of dollars would be. We can only see the imagined up side. My friend Chris felt sad today he is stressful about money and work. We all get that way and its weird but somehow I think it is part of the human condition to be worried and sad occasionally or maybe always. Do we ever examine the why of it? Does it ever do any good to worry away whilst we wonder where our good fortune will come from? It doesn’t and yet all of us are addicted to panicking. The truth is we need to focus laser beam like on the NOW and get out of the future and past. Easier said than done and we need to be grateful. It changes the DNA of the moment and allows which can open up the vibration to usher in our abundance and opportunity. Turning 51 on Tuesday was interesting young no more, I have not been young for over a decade. Do I miss the ease of youth? Yup, but I am digging the wisdom of age and I notice I am not worried about whether you like me or not. In fact I worry about adult things like how the Senate votes. We are each exactly where we need to be now in this moment. It is a privilege. We are blessed even if we are moldering on death row. To be alive is the thing…trust me.

51

My birthday is coming up and so a friend sent me a link that shows who has the same birthday Feb.28 not necessarily the same year. One of the luminaries is Paul Krugman who I assume is THE Paul Krugman Nobel prize winning economist which just thrills me to no end. I know that greatest doesn’t rub off or isn’t achieved by association or anything like that but it warms my heart to know someone with this birthday can achieve a lot. It isn’t an easy day to have been born; it comes with incredible highs and lows. I am certain everyday has similar influences that our day does and I am not at all saying we are more or less blessed but of all the people who share this day that one person thrills me. I love his op-ed page in the NY times and I listen every time he speaks. He feels human to me and I trust his critical thinking. Can one be a groupie for a genius? You bet! Okay so how does it feel to turn 51? It doesn’t feel like anything except that being 51 is beginning to unfold in my life as the decade where I create and know what I like and whom I like and what activities will take up my time. It is a certain awareness and lack of tolerance for the excess and the inconsequential and the unproductive. It sounds cliché’ and maybe it is but I have decided that if you are not generous and kind and fun I don’t want to bother with you. So take this as a warning and if you are a TAKER beware I am after you. It could be that my intolerance for being a taker only is my own self judgment maybe, but beware. Okay so this year I am in a good mood even if I am not sure where I am headed. I am excited and trying to get a handle on myself and my appetites. So far so good it is beginning to show. Being middle aged doesn’t have to be hideous it can be a flexing of confidence and mind muscle that otherwise hadn’t been formed yet. That in itself is sexy. Happy Birthday Paul!

Revenge

This past Friday a rather sleazy producer passed away. I regretted ever working for him and wish I wasn’t so driven because everything he was associated with somehow was below par for me and he even forged my signature on a document allowing his company to show frontal nudity. Extremely painful and deceitful and wrong, as both a man and director and producer he was just despicable so when I heard he had battled cancer and died I was overjoyed. Seriously I was tickled pink and feel he fully deserved his end and everything that happened to him. I know horrible me.
I have always thought I was a forgiving person who mainly forgave because I’d have mostly forgotten whom ever had done me wrong and there is a long list(sadly) plus I also accept my own responsibility for my experiences both positive and negatively so I get that I am 50% responsible for the bad stuff too. Still I am shocked at my joy at the misfortune of someone else. I do believe it plunks me to the bottom of the list of enlightened souls. OH boy am I busted. I delight in his death and feel like he deserved every miserable moment of pain because he is or was an evil bad man. Where is my Buddha hood now? Missing in action I admit and I laugh or giggle at my viciousness what a revengeful minx am I. Revenge isn’t good but it certainly is powerful and listen I didn’t have to work with him exposing myself to his vibe and company and films it was all my fault. So I need to cleanse and get going with my own teachings because obviously I have a LOT of work to do. Wow.

My New Years wish for all of us...

Recently I cut out sugar and booze (any kind) and gluten and fats that don’t come virgin or cold pressed. Added more fish and beans and veggies and fruit, yup I have lost weight (quite a bit actually) and weirdly I seem energized and quite happy about the way I am feeling. They say when we clean up our diet we have a health crisis. I notice I play a bit too much tennis and need to balance out the sport with more cross training and a day extra of easy active rest, my health "crisis" is tennis elbow and sore knees, ouch. Still I seem to be unable to take complete rest since I have two giant dogs that need to move everyday and they prefer me to go along with them, lucky me. My point is we are constantly reminded to eat food in magazines and ads that flood the airwaves both on television and online. Late at night the television is flooded with food commercials promoting sugary high fat foods that if eaten will be detrimental to us at anytime, especially at night.It seems evil to me that these ads are legal. It's at night when we are alone and sleepy and probably most vulnerable to want bad things. Shouldn't we be protected? Food commercials followed by commercials promoting pharmaceuticals for almost every ill that if you were to list what those ailments are they stem from eating too much of the wrong food. These pills with the fast voiced warning read by the fastest speaking voice-over genius warning of death. These potential side effects are pretty bad most are even worse than the original ailment. Are we insane? So let’s get this straight if we reduced what we consumed by half without cleaning up the menu we lose weight, it’s a fact. So if we clean up what we eat with say less processed foods, more live organics and maybe stay away from gluten and sugars we lose weight and feel better. If we reduce these foods by half we lose weight and reduce the chances of diabetes among a long list of potential ailment its fascinating, it’s a fact. I know curing illness isn’t a simple dietary fix but from being free of sugar and booze and gluten (30 days so far)I feel amazing and I sleep deeper and longer. I think the foodies who are religious about a veggie based diet may be onto something. Don’t get me wrong I know not all illness comes from a crap chemical filled diet, still it does seem that those who consume processed food 100% of the time are getting sick a lot. Just imagine you are filtering some dangerous chemicals into your body daily that the FDA support not because they are safe but because it is big factories like General Mills with lobbyists in Washington spending millions on policy who don’t have our best interests at heart. So maybe it is simple to think just clean up your diet and you will look and feel better and ward off cancers of all kinds or not. I know that I am a big fan of good wine the taste of interesting reds but I dislike the next day after effects. The hangover, the bloat, the weight gain. I dislike feeling fat and chunky and never seeing the scale budge lower. Will I ever take a sip of wine? Yes, probably but I have a goal weight, will I make my goal? I hope so, I am certainly open to getting there and open to failing too because I am not perfect. Still I think we deserve to have a processed food free media and portions sizes could be reduced by 2/3rds. It pains me to sit down at a good restaurant and look at a plate that could feed four comfortably yet it is meant for me alone. Yes, my husband and I we share an entrée’s when we eat out otherwise it feels like a huge waste. So my New Year’s resolution isn’t just for Obama’s reelection or world peace and an economic recovery? I want those things too but I also want or wish for all of us to be inspired to eat better, be more active and love our bodies by eating clean. Health, Wealth, Love and perfect Self expression I wish this for all of us. Ho!

I love Jon Stewart!

In case you have been paying attention here is a comedy nugget to tickle your senses…




Enjoy!

The man in the Hoodie

I was seated inside a booth in a fashionable hotel bar. I was waiting with my then boyfriend for another couple who were joining us for dinner. It was late afternoon almost 5:30 when he walked in. He was wearing a hoodie underneath a dinner jacket the hood was up on his head. The bar was quite dim lighting was low and it wasn’t easy to see his features but I happened to look at his face as he passed and was shocked to see it was the same shape as the Elephant man, he had the same disease Neurofibromatosis. I noticed that one of his eyes seemed to be dangling down near the bottom of his chin. I controlled the gasp but I did gasp as he passed. My boyfriend didn’t see him and would not be able to because the man sat directly behind our booth. I was suddenly so sad trying to instantly imagine what life would be like to have such a devastating condition that cannot be easy to live with. He like John Merrick (the elephant man) had the most melodious beautiful voice I was mesmerized. I couldn’t help but listen to him; it was a meeting with a lawyer who was concerned about how he would get back home. The man let the lawyer know that he preferred traveling at night less people on the subway.
The couple we were meeting arrived and we shoved off to dinner elsewhere. I wondered what his life was like and how hard it was to have a body that was grotesquely deformed. We who are “normal” have no idea what life is like when children scream and adults gasp when they catch a glimpse of him. This was Toronto in the late 1990’s. Canadians are kinder or better mannered and I like to think stare less. Still there is always one who is an ass no doubt.
I wanted to stare at him and examine his face his features but I could not I could only try and understand the big picture the broader perspective. If there is a god that loves us as we are told in every religion then the logic should go that there is a good positive reason that this man with the deep sweet voice is living a life that will serve his highest good. I need to think this because if there is a God and he isn’t all loving and the deformed man with the acute intelligence and the gorgeous insides suffered for what? I like to think hardship is asked for so we can evolve and become more whole. I like to think that life is the only place where the rubber hits the road and our souls evolve. In the after life there is no such growth or it isn’t as swift. People with this condition don’t live long and I am grateful for that it cannot be easy living life with that.

New lows

We seem to have created a new low in politics; I know that is an oxymoron, politics by nature are low as in nasty, still the level of lying, the lack of character and other sad desperate measures to win votes is impressive. Every time Mitt opens his mouth I cringe, same with Gingrich and Santorum. I will say I am tickled in a “he’s my weird uncle way” with Ron Paul and I am disturbed by his brush off of his self published racists pamphlets it is all so strange. I wonder if it ends will me miss the shenanigans will we? I think maybe, I am saddened by the lies and the attacks on Obama and I know Obama is a flawed person and flawed President but I have deeply enjoyed his successes and I like where the country is headed under his guidance plus I will accept the pace of our recovery. I am happy to say we are spoiled, all of us by his elegance and his intelligence and class. His lovely openness to bipartisanship and his willingness to try it, we are spoiled. He reads unlike the last buffoon who ruined us absolutely thrust us into chaos. How will we manage under Mitt or Newt? Scary thought. My husband says we will win, Obama will get re-elected. I hope so.

Paul Krugmans Op Ed piece from today! Enjoy!!!

Bain, Barack and Jobs
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 5, 2012


America’s recovery from recession has been so slow that it mostly doesn’t seem like a recovery at all, especially on the jobs front. So, in a better world, President Obama would face a challenger offering a serious critique of his job-creation policies, and proposing a serious alternative.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Paul Krugman
Go to Columnist Page »
Blog: The Conscience of a Liberal
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Times Topic: Mitt Romney

Related in Opinion

Nicholas D. Kristof: Waiting for Mitt the Moderate (January 5, 2012)
Maureen Dowd: Oedipus Rex Complex (January 4, 2012)

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Instead, he’ll almost surely face Mitt Romney.

Mr. Romney claims that Mr. Obama has been a job destroyer, while he was a job-creating businessman. For example, he told Fox News: “This is a president who lost more jobs during his tenure than any president since Hoover. This is two million jobs that he lost as president.” He went on to declare, of his time at the private equity firm Bain Capital, “I’m very happy in my former life; we helped create over 100,000 new jobs.”

But his claims about the Obama record border on dishonesty, and his claims about his own record are well across that border.

Start with the Obama record. It’s true that 1.9 million fewer Americans have jobs now than when Mr. Obama took office. But the president inherited an economy in free fall, and can’t be held responsible for job losses during his first few months, before any of his own policies had time to take effect. So how much of that Obama job loss took place in, say, the first half of 2009?

The answer is: more than all of it. The economy lost 3.1 million jobs between January 2009 and June 2009 and has since gained 1.2 million jobs. That’s not enough, but it’s nothing like Mr. Romney’s portrait of job destruction.

Incidentally, the previous administration’s claims of job growth always started not from Inauguration Day but from August 2003, when Bush-era employment hit its low point. By that standard, Mr. Obama could say that he has created 2.5 million jobs since February 2010.

So Mr. Romney’s claims about the Obama job record aren’t literally false, but they are deeply misleading. Still, the real fun comes when we look at what Mr. Romney says about himself. Where does that claim of creating 100,000 jobs come from?

Well, Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post got an answer from the Romney campaign. It’s the sum of job gains at three companies that Mr. Romney “helped to start or grow”: Staples, The Sports Authority and Domino’s.

Mr. Kessler immediately pointed out two problems with this tally. It’s “based on current employment figures, not the period when Romney worked at Bain,” and it “does not include job losses from other companies with which Bain Capital was involved.” Either problem, by itself, makes nonsense of the whole claim.

On the point about using current employment, consider Staples, which has more than twice as many stores now as it did back in 1999, when Mr. Romney left Bain. Can he claim credit for everything good that has happened to the company in the past 12 years? In particular, can he claim credit for the company’s successful shift from focusing on price to focusing on customer service (“That was easy”), which took place long after he had left the business world?

Then there’s the bit about looking only at Bain-connected companies that added jobs, ignoring those that reduced their work forces or went out of business. Hey, if pluses count but minuses don’t, everyone who spends a day playing the slot machines comes out way ahead!

In any case, it makes no sense to look at changes in one company’s work force and say that this measures job creation for America as a whole.

Suppose, for example, that your chain of office-supply stores gains market share at the expense of rivals. You employ more people; your rivals employ fewer. What’s the overall effect on U.S. employment? One thing’s for sure: it’s a lot less than the number of workers your company added.

Better yet, suppose that you expand in part not by beating your competitors, but by buying them. Now their employees are your employees. Have you created jobs?

The point is that Mr. Romney’s claims about being a job creator would be nonsense even if he were being honest about the numbers, which he isn’t.

At this point, some readers may ask whether it isn’t equally wrong to say that Mr. Romney destroyed jobs. Yes, it is. The real complaint about Mr. Romney and his colleagues isn’t that they destroyed jobs, but that they destroyed good jobs.

When the dust settled after the companies that Bain restructured were downsized — or, as happened all too often, went bankrupt — total U.S. employment was probably about the same as it would have been in any case. But the jobs that were lost paid more and had better benefits than the jobs that replaced them. Mr. Romney and those like him didn’t destroy jobs, but they did enrich themselves while helping to destroy the American middle class.

And that reality is, of course, what all the blather and misdirection about job-creating businessmen and job-destroying Democrats is meant to obscure.
A version of this op-ed appeared in print on January 6, 2012, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: Bain, Barack And Jobs.

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proftom
newberg OR

Well said. Mitt and his buddies made their money by taking the value from my job. He helped create declining job values. To me he often seems like he's a hero in his mind. Like a lot of rich kids it's all about them, not all about us.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:39 p.m.
Recommend147
capncuster
California

Paul. Don't you get it? Romney's rich, therefore he is a job creator, therefore he deserves more tax breaks.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:39 p.m.
Recommend60
carlos lascoutx
mexico

...no more juniors for the white house, we've barely recovered from the last oaf,
whose last words were: when i leave this office, no one will ever know what
happened here. present Junior is just warming up his lies, and looking for
the fools who will believe him.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:39 p.m.
Recommend52
Chuck Vekert
Highland MD

There is another logical fallacy in Romney's whole talking point. Does he intend as president to take over failing companies and downsize them from the Oval Office? Or does he intend to increase the incentives for Bains Capital and the like to take over companies and downsize them? Even assuming that he did create more jobs than he eliminated, how is this going to translate into Romney's actions as president.

To put it another way, I would not let the greatest neurosurgeon in my mouth to do a root-canal.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:39 p.m.
Recommend72
timesreader
Roslyn Heights, NY

It seems all politicians lie at some point as demonstrated by Politifact and FactCheck. These organizations have also demonstrated that some do it more than others. Most of the lies are about things the politicians use to substantiate their policy positions.

There must be something in the nature of politics and human nature that causes this phenomenon.

It forces voters to choose leaders based on guessing games about what they think they will do when elected.

We can only hope Lincoln was right when he said, you can fool some of the people some of the time, and all of the people some of the time,but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:39 p.m.
Recommend16
John Scanlon
Collingswood, NJ
NYT Pick

There seems to be a disconnect between Mr.Krugman and the NYT reporter staff. It seems that the US factory worker with benefits is competing well against foreign competition. Krugman would benefit President Obama more if he acknowledged the President's ability to adapt to new realities. Get real, Mr.Krugman.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:38 p.m.
Recommend6
JD
Pottwtown, Pa
NYT Pick

I voted for Obama but won't this time.
He seems depressed all the time and lacks confidence that a business leader needs.
Running our country is like running a business and Romney is more confident, therefore will help our economy more than Obama.

So this time Romney looks better.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:38 p.m.
Recommend15
Victor O
NYC
NYT Pick

Mr. Krugman's criticisms of Mitt Romney come across as those of a petty, petulant little schoolboy.

In what universe does a woolly-headed college teacher have standing to judge the actions of those in the practical world of real accomplishment, a world where actions have consequences and where accountability is the coin of the realm.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:37 p.m.
Recommend17
Javier Bocanegra
Rio Medina, Texas

The GOP and the presidential candidates don't have any ideas on how to govern, so they attack with their culture wars with the same topics: be afraid of, gays, brown people, black people, spending out of control, tax money being given away to poor people, too much regulation stifling business, etc. But we know all the talking points by now and we all know the truth, so only the very impressionable will follow them.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend94
Phyllis Kritek
Half Moon Bay, CA

This editorial is strangely comforting. I have tried to follow the messaging of the GOP presidential candidates and am increasingly astounded at their content. I try to measure the messages against the facts as best I can discover them, and cannot discover linkages. It sometimes seems these messages are merely sly manipulations directed at the fears of those in the US who sense that the world is changing quickly and unequivocally, mostly aging white folks (of which I am one...).

The first unsettling question is : Do they really think that we are that dumb?

The second unsettling question is: What if we are?
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend135
Sandy Reiburn
Brooklyn, NY

Those "good jobs" ever dwindling...those ever "bad" jobs increasing. The immigrant laborers being chased out of the US in harsh and unconscionable ways, who did much of the farm work which Americans disdained, have now left and offered new job opportunities...
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend13
zb
bc

Well let me just add lying to the list and btw, in my book a half truth is the same as a lie. Time and again Romney has proven he is a lying spineless flip-flopping draft dodging chickenhawk who wants to go to war with Iran and send other peoples children to fight while he and his children sit with their millions, give themselves tax cuts, and send jobs to China.

The guy is as bad as all the rest of the Republican/Tparty Clowns and maybe even worse if that's possible. While they do nothing but talk, Obama cleaned up the Bush/Republican economic mess, got Bin Laden, got out of the Bush/Republican 10 year trillion dollar fiasco in Iraq. stabilized Afghanistan, and cleaned out Libya for next to no cost, and no lives in just 6 months.

Meanwhile, what did the Republican/Tparty do: gave tax cuts to the richest people while the nation went to war and others are doing all the fighting. And now they want more of the same tax cuts. Shame, Shame, Shame on them!
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend127
gskalsky
Cleveland, Ohio

The jobs "created" by the great job creators of our time are not so bad. Just ask any Advanced Degree holding youngster who's fast tracking it in a big box store's General Manager Trainee Program if they think life could get any grander. Or the Bachelors Degree seeking part timer who dreams of meaningful, secure, maybe even- if they are fortunate enough to be a Liberal Arts type- self actualizing work but who instead will probably face a Sallie Mae mortgage and maybe a couple more part time situations to help them get a better foothold in the "real world". To quote (sic... paraphrase) the great job creating social philosopher Sonnie Dubya Bush: "Isn't this a marvelous country, where you regular folks can have 3 jobs like that... only in America... isn't that marvelous?"

Until all or plenty of us who see the absurdity of this ongoing economic model's vision and consequences organize effectively to truly create an alternative path into our collective futures- I fear all our columns and essays and comments (not to mention our variouis "occupy" events/be ins) are merely whistling in the dark. We should start by supporting a grass roots Congressional District by Congressional District organizing effort to confront with Constitutional Amendment level reform- or re-Constituting, if you will- our Campaign Finance, Electioneering, Lobbying, money in politics, and corporate charter laws.

Till such time enjoy this silly sporting event election and its banal mainstream coverage.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend35
mgreczek
Texas

No one denies President Obama created jobs. But he threw $800 billion at the problem with very little to show for it on a $/job basis. This makes the President look incompetent. Plus the revolving door of" experts" like Romer, Summers, Goolsby, et.al. haven't given rise to confidence either. And what of "shovel ready jobs" and the laughter Obama displayed when he dismissed the later critiques with the trite "a lot of those jobs weren't so shovel ready afterall" ? These things do not add to the command that a President is supposed to display. In fact, they greatly subtract from it. Hence, a majority of the voters are now tired of the sameness of this act and the incompetence of the display.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend11
RDV
Pennsylvania

The Obama campaign staff would be fools not to start lining-up people who were laid-off from Bain acquired companies for appearances in TV commercials.

If Romney claims second-hand success-by-proxy, then he should be prepared to get full credit for the failures as well.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend69
Enough
Northeast

In March 11, 2003, you wrote a piece entitled "A Fiscal Train Wreck":
"With war looming, it's time to be prepared. So last week I switched to a fixed-rate mortgage. It means higher monthly payments, but I'm terrified about what will happen to interest rates once financial markets wake up to the implications of skyrocketing budget deficits. . . ."
Skyrocketing budget deficits worried you then?!?! Oh my, you must be on a cycle of changing your position every 8 or 9 years depending on who is in office.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend6
R. Karch
Silver Spring, Maryland

The trend in this country has been toward fewer and fewer good jobs, that is, jobs that pay good wages or salaries, and good benefits. The shift has been toward the best jobs, and then the most money becoming concentrated among a smaller and smaller class of people. And along with this trend, it is no wonder that there is now a lopsided concentration of wealth among the richest 1 %, and the richest 0.1 % . The lopsidedness gets worse the richer people are, and the more the rest of the whole lopsidedness in wealth distribution is, the worse this disparity gets at the high end.

But you wrote: ' The real complaint about Mr. Romney and his colleagues isn’t that they destroyed jobs, but that they destroyed good jobs.' In view of what 'good jobs' have been doing for this country, why is that not the right result, of the other failures?

How can this country keep having nothing but 'good jobs'? People have become accustomed to the ideas proclaimed by politicians that everyone should be able to share in an 'American dream', meaning continued same levels of wages and benefits.

Meanwhile the cost of oil, cost of corn, wheat, and other commodities have all been rising. It means all the systems a modern economy depends upon: transportation, heating, manufacturing, and construction, cost more. Something had to give. But people demand continuation of same standard of living.
The costs have been absorbed in unemployment, employment nowhere near population growth!
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend1
Dave
TX

If Mitt was such a skilled and successful job creator why is his fortune of roughly $260M so small? He would have done better as an insurance company executive. Sounds more like he was a mediocre parasite living off other people's money.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend13
Janieliza
Peoria Illinois

There is no border to the dishonesty Romney presents as truth. It is all one fabric these days. And very little of it is what he intended six months ago.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend15
collhic
miami beach

Can we get one, just ONE, op-ed who will objectively on these issues. Yes, Mr Krugman, we know...you like Democrats & Mr Obama, it's plain as the nose on your face and the pom poms in your hands. How about impressing everybody (and restoring your credibility for the moderates) and writing an unbiased piece that distills the essence of both candidate's sides of the argument and issue? And then let us make up own minds on the subject?

Now, that would be a rare op-ed worth reading.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend11
kgeographer
Santa Barbara, CA

It is truly gratifying to hear someone of Krugman's stature no mince words. Now, as the Yiddish saying goes, "your mouth to God's ear." And the ears of the former middle-class and middle-class aspirants who are under attack from the capitalist hydra now just at its peak power and just don't know it -- courtesy of Faux news of course but also the spineless among the journalist profession.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend24
Socrates
Phila.

Fair comparison?

Ok.

How many jobs did Obama create before he was president?
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend10
kant
Colorado

Right on the button again, Dr. Krugman. I am almost becoming your "groupie!" It is astonishing to me that except for a few like you, most in the corporate-controlled media never ever challenge these false claims and run such people out of town for outright lying, as they used to do in old days. There is no stigma attached to making such blatantly false claims and a certain party has gotten so good at it that it has managed to redistribute the national wealth to "job creators" instead of the common public. The media must be blamed mostly for this, since they present these claims as facts, without ever challenging them directly and shaming the claimants. Anyone with common sense ought to realize that you don't become 250 million dollars rich by doing what is best for the common folk. That money came from somewhere and I am sure in Romney's case, it did not come from "capitalist wealth creation." It came from buying companies, selling off valuable assets and trashing the companies and their employees, all the while pocketing the proceeds! Just take a look at the photograph in which Mr. Romney is handing out money to his colleagues with a wide grin on his face. That is not "jobs" he is handing out for sure. How can we let these things happen in the name of democracy and unfettered capitalism, and commit national suicide in the process? Wake up America! Please!!!
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend45
Michel
France

In France we are also in presidential campaign. Every day we hear new affirmations, in a sentence, one wronger than the others.

Many people believe them. One needs articles like this one, bright and clear, to explain in what they are wrong. Problem is that it is easier to hear, and to believe, a sentence than to read a long article.

Election campaigns are the "zero degree" of intelligence, unfortunately for us. The only objective of politician often is to saturate the media space rather than make people clever.

It's true for republicans in States this last year but it's also true for the right in France. We share at least this !!!

Unfortunately for us.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend31
James
San Clemente, CA

It's clear that Governor Romney, at best, had a neutral impact on job numbers during his tenure at Bain, and it is equally clear that most of the jobs Bain created during that period were lower-paying than the ones that were destroyed. It would be useful, however, to have more precise figures on this as the Presidential campaign moves ahead.

With regard to a comparison between George W. Bush and Barack Obama, we do have precise figures, which give the lie to Republican claims that the President is a job-destroyer. Generally, one starts holding a President to account beginning with the first fiscal year in which his first budget is passed, not the beginning of his term, when the previous President's policies are still in effect. By this standard, employment during the eight George W. Bush years declined by 1,792,000. During the first three Barack Obama years, employment has increased by 1,608,000. In September 1981, total U.S. employment stood at 131,518,000. In September of 2011, total U.S, employment stood at 131,334,00. So, over the past 10 years, U.S. employment has been stagnant, with employment declining under the Bush Administration and rising an equal amount under the Obama Administration. Those are the true figures.
Jan. 6, 2012 at 2:36 p.m.
Recommend89

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