Dangerous times indeed

It is amazing how our Republican politicians are willing to risk default of our debt for the sake of the insanely massive profit to business which will benefit a tiny minority of wealthy people. Their plan has been widely successful for big business in many countries around the world. The profits to businesses resulting from changes like the ones being espoused by republicans here have created billionaires.
What they fail to admit is the incredible price paid by regular people. In every instance this "economic shock" plan has been tried the wealthy have profited beyond their wildest dreams while the middle class has disappeared and joined the ranks of the poor. The end result is a place with a wealthy class unimanginably richer than the majority of people who live in unending poverty. The kicker is that the resulting new status is nearly impossible to break because a staple of this strategy is strengthening the security forces and creating favorable electoral proceses that maintain the status quo. Notice that the Republican plan includes cuts for the poor, tax breaks for the rich and budget increases for security forces. Such process has resulted in a society ruled by the wealthy and sustained by armed forces in all the countries where it has been implemented.
Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa, Poland, have all been presented as success stories of what they're trying to do with us here. They can do so because few people bother to look in past the headlines. Know what it required for this successes to occur? Elimination of organized labor. Elimination of social services, privatization of most government services, except defense forces.
Who paid for this?
Labor was cut by the thousands. Those who found work had to forgo silly things like, job security, fair wages, job safety, recourse in case of problems, etc.
So the poor were sent deeper into poverty while the wealthy were seeing record profits. Does any of this sound familiar? Have you seen the growth of disparity between the rich and the poor in our country lately? Are you following the war on organized labor throughout our country? The biggest enemies, song labor and a big middle class, are being systematically eliminated. .

we're like teenagers

Our country is like a teen.
We decided to party in a very risky way once all the curfews were lifted in the early 2000's. The party got good! There were party kids (financial people) who were geniuses at coming up with cool ways to get the most fun out of nothing, and we followed! soon most of us were in a party mood and were buying into it with glee! Soon people were in houses they couldn't afford, in deeper debt than they should. All of that was supported by over-inflated housing prices and recklessly risky investments.
Then, like a Friday morning class after a 50 Cent draft Thursday night, came reality. The floor was removed from under us and we were faced with the harshness of reality without the means or desire to deal with it. We found ourselves suffering through the responsibilities of reality in no condition to undertake those tasks. Some flunked out and went out of business, others hid and just hoped it would all go away. Some others who had been caught up in the "peer pressure" wave did their best to fight back but it was just too hard.

As we were all in our collective hangover we called our "party friends" to yell at them and let them know how angry we were. For the most part that's as far as it went. As we did our best to deal with the harsh, bright, eye burning, head exploding sun of the morning after we looked for what every person with a hang over looks for, a quick fix.
We heard of this quick fix called Barack and went for it in the same way we had for the partying. So we projected all our hopes of a speedy recovery, placed unrealistic hopes in it and bought into it. Why not? the package said it would cure our hangover, it said it had the solution! So we took the pill and waited 20 minutes, and nothing happened! We turned into teens and threw a fit!

All this fix did was give us a new thing to blame for our choices. Whereas before we were blaming the partying and those who took us to it we were now blaming the Barack we had taken. Quicker than I could imagine we shifted the blame to the one trying to fix it and took the real reason off the hook, we are indeed teen! All the meanwhile refusing to acknowledge that we had anything to do with the whole mess at all!

Through this whole thing our boring neighbor to the north decided to only go to dinner with us. When the party people came and told us of the 5c draft beer the neighbors simply said, I'll pass. SO we partied on while they went home and missed out on it. Now, as we sit here with our unending headache, sore body and flunking grades they simply sit next to us planning their next dinner out and studying for the next test. Meanwhile we move on to the next quick fix, some kind of tea I think and it has the word "party" in it so it must be good.

At the same time, our older neighbors in that other school across the pond have gone a different way. Their people in leadership have decided that their people need tough medicine and have come together to give that medicine! (dem-lib coalition) They're doing some "austerity" thing that's not fun for anybody but at least they're working together while us here just pick a side so we have someone to blame the other side with.

So we are indeed teenagers. We followed some questionable characters to some questionable party that got us into deep trouble. Someone comes to help us and they take longer than a minute to fix the mess so now it is their fault we are in the hole we ourselves dug. So instead of putting in the hard, longer term work we simply look for someone else offering a quick fix. We choose a group of people who are yelling angrily and assume that since they are angry they must care for us. When was the last time you made a wise choice while furiously angry!? oh yes we are indeed teenagers

Ramblings

I am getting soooo very sick of our political extremes. I've been reading "Patriot" blogs and sites. I am amazed how these sick radical people have hijacked that word. The way they claim to be the only ones who are patriots or true Americans makes me sick and yes it makes my blood boil. However, unlike them, I still do read what they have to say and will support their right to say their opinion, which is NOT what can be said about most of them. Of course, I understand that these people are extremists and as such logic is not necessarily something they are interested in exploring. These people are experts at manipulating small pieces of information and abuse faith and good will to trick people who think them reasonable and honorable.

The most recent and blatant of this is Glen Beck's tirade on what "social justice" really means. Apparently this phrase is code for communism or nazi socialism. This is the world in which extremists live, one where an accusation of conspiracy is enough to distract people long enough to derail true progress.

Most of what I hear is complaints about how our president has done nothing so far. How much could a reasonable person expect from someone who receives a country closer to a depression than any other time than the actual depression, fighting two wars, and under the biggest deficit we have had in a long long time? All of this with a republican legislative body blocking every attempt at governance made. I should say blatantly blocking, as many of these people are blocking legislature they had themselves sponsored before! Did I mention that the previous president received the country in the complete opposite state?

Could you imagine what these people would be saying if a Democrat president had received a country with a budget surplus, had 9/11 happen, oversee two expensive wars, a financial collapse all before handing it to a Republican and expecting him/her to have it all fixed within a year!?

a question

What would our country be like if more politicians would choose to be more "custody mom" than "weekend dad" as Annise Parker said?

the gym

I have now been going to the gym for several weeks. The first week was exciting and fun so it was easy to keep going back. Half way through the second week the excitement about the gym was gone. By the end of the second week I was beginning to look for reasons to stay home from the gym, still, I persevered out of sheer will. Then a wonderful thing happened! I started to notice the regulars and the broad spectrum of entertainment possibilities they provide! Soon my trips to the gym became almost like pressing the "my dvr" button in my life. I would wonder what was in store for me as as walked into the "shows" page! after a bit of time I started to notice the regulars and the particular possibilities each of these "shows" brought w/ them.

Running

So I have been running for a bit now and there are some things I want to air out.

First, there is no love between running and me. I have not been able to enjoy the "runner's high" or anything like that. The first 5 minutes are a constant struggle to keep on going as I feel like I'm dying. So, I do not like running, it isn't a fun activity for me. It's more of a functional thing, it is the fastest easiest way to get exercise. I do not need to pay anyone for the privilege of running and I have no need to drive anywhere to get my workout.
As an aside, winter makes it a bit more inconvenient at times. As of now, thanks to the snow many of the sidewalks are still icy so running has become very interesting. It seems like just as I am getting in a rhythm there is another patch of ice that I need to slow down and dance for. I don't know how else to explain it but every time I am running over ice it's a bit like dancing as I'm looking for different places to step on safely, while listening to music and trying not to slow down too much. I guess that is a funny pic. I wonder if my "dancing" is different depending on the song that is on.

So why do I do it then?
I think I'm doing it because it is part of this whole Doug 2.0 theme with which I have been deeply involved in the past several months. I do not enjoy the event of running but I do appreciate the reason for running. I know running is a healthy activity that helps me in several aspects of life. Every time I run I get a very clearly felt illustration of delayed retribution, a lesson on patience if you will. This type of exercise is also a lesson on the importance of perseverance. A problem I have is that I am easily distracted at times and sometimes that keeps me from carrying through with things. So to live out the 5 minutes before I run and the first 5 minutes of the run serves me as a constant reminder that "sticking with it" is a fundamental part of life that becomes increasingly important during the unpleasant parts.

Lastly I can say that during my "troubled" years I was not very good at figuring out the direction I was following. I did not have any markers up a head that would give my life a sense of direction, I was simply letting life go and floating with it. Living in the moment is great as long as one is aware that the moment is one part of a journey somewhere. With running I also get to explore the wonderful combination of living in the moment fully while at the same time very aware of how that bit of time is part of a greater continuum that is taking me to a specific place. On the whole I can say that I am glad to have a clear goal in mind and the more clear that goal is the more what I dislike seems to become a "boberia". (a boberia [spanish slang], in this context, is something that is bothersome but in no way a limitation that is significant) In other words, the unpleasant aspects of life do not cease to be unpleasant but become something I see as necessary for the journey. They still affect me but in a healthier and less distracting way now.

Supermarket sterotypes

So tonight I went grocery shopping at the local supermarket. I hadn't been grocery shopping in a long time so this was an event. Then again I did not want to spend hours there soI figured it was good to go there on a monday night right after a holiday as most people would be home. I have to say I was right as there was hardly anyone there except every stereotype one could have of single guys, the diversity of this subset of society was rain forest plentiful. I found myself simply walking around the whole place in search of every type I could find. The task was made easier as I was able to blend in so I was free to roam undisturbed. A wonderful thing happened in the midst of my safari, a woman made a brief appearance! It was obvious she knew she was not on her turf and in possibly dangerous ground as she hurried in and proceeded to walk with purpose to the specific places where she would find the items that whatever home emergency had forced her to venture there at that time.

She was walking fast, looking around very much like Gazelles do when the afternoon is coming and the cheetahs are more active. Of course I had to watch the scene as the scent of a woman was now making its way throughout the place. So, I decided to follow her, try to keep up really, it was very helpful that the hand basket she had was lagging behind as she rushed through. The first one to notice was the heavy set single man, wearing jeans rolled down by the belly. Which are fortunately unseen as the un-tucked bottom of his shirt hangs like a curtain covering all that need not be seen. He is the man who, despite all evidence to the contrary, is still convinced that younger women do actually enjoy it when he stares at them. He smiled in expectation but she simply walked faster staring at the floor as if it could help her avoid the eyes following her.

Our next specimen is the younger guy who is just getting started in his white collar job so he's still wearing his suit at 9 pm and is only shopping for that night's dinner. But he fails to realize that shopping while hugry always makes us get more so at the moment the scent of the woman reaches him he is almost too busy trying to keep all the items in his hands under control. I can almost hear it, "Should have gotten a basket, I always do this!" He senses the coming possibility so his back is straightened, eyes open wider, his legs bend ever slightly in preparation to spring to action when needed. Then, just as she is coming into range the cheese sticks that were precariously placed on top of the hummus container on his left hand slip off of it and begin to fall causing a chain reaction that take his eyes of the prey. By the time he looked up the only one who actually gained something from this exchange was the girl who was now smiling slightly at the amusing scene she had just witnesed.

More later.....