A Middle Class in Despair

I don't have to go farther than my own family to see stories like the ones Herbert is talking about.

AT GRAVE RISK
By Bob Herbert, New York Times

Buried deep beneath the stories about executive bonuses, the stock market surge and the economy’s agonizingly slow road to recovery is the all-but-silent suffering of the many millions of Americans who, economically, are going down for the count.

A 46-year-old teacher in Charlotte, Vt., who has been unable to find a full-time job and is weighed down with debt, wrote to his U.S. senator, Bernie Sanders:

“I am financially ruined. I find myself depressed and demoralized and my confidence is shattered. Worst of all, as I hear more and more talk about deficit reduction and further layoffs, I have the agonizing feeling that the worst may not be behind us.”

Similar stories of hardship and desolation can be found throughout Vermont and the rest of the nation. The true extent of the economic devastation, and the enormous size of that portion of the population that is being left behind, has not yet been properly acknowledged. What is being allowed to happen to those being pushed out or left out of the American mainstream is the most important and potentially most dangerous issue facing the country.

Senator Sanders is a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats. He asked his constituents to write to him about their experiences coping with the recession and its aftermath. Hundreds responded, including several from outside Vermont. A 69-year-old woman from northeastern Vermont wrote plaintively:

“We are the first generation to leave our kids worse off than we were. How did this happen? Why is there such a wide distance between the rich and the middle class and the poor? What happened to the middle class? We did not buy boats or fancy cars or diamonds. Why was it possible to change the economy from one that was based on what we made and grew and serviced to a paper economy that disappeared?”

A woman with two teenagers told the senator about her husband, a building contractor for many years, who has been unable to find work in the downturn:

“I see my husband, capable and experienced, now really struggling with depression and trying to reinvent his profession at age 51. I feel this recession is leaving us, once perhaps a middle-class couple, now suddenly thrust into the lower-middle-class world without loads of options except to try and find more and more smaller jobs to fill in some of the financial gaps we feel day to day.

“All we want to do is work hard and pay our bills. We’re just not sure even that part of the American Dream is still possible anymore.”

One of the things I noticed reading through the letters was the pervasive sense of loss, not just of employment, but of faith in the soundness and possibilities of America. For centuries, Americans have been nothing if not optimistic. But now there is a terrible sense that so much that was taken for granted during the past six or seven decades is being dismantled or destroyed.

A 26-year-old man who emerged from college with big dreams wrote: “I had hoped to be able to support not just myself by this point, but to be able to think about settling down and starting a family. My family always told me that an education was the ticket to success, but all my education seems to have done in this landscape is make it impossible to pull myself out of debt and begin a successful career.”

How bad have things become? According to the National Employment Law Project, a trend is growing among employers to not even consider the applications of the unemployed for jobs that become available. Among examples offered by the project were a phone manufacturer that posted a job announcement with the message: “No Unemployed Candidate Will Be Considered At All,” and a Texas electronics company that announced online that it would “not consider/review anyone NOT currently employed regardless of the reason.”

This is the environment that is giving rise to the worker protests in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere. The ferment is not just about public employees and their unions. Researchers at Rutgers University found last year that more than 70 percent of respondents to a national survey had either lost a job, or had a relative or close friend who had lost a job. That is beyond ominous. The great promise of the United States, its primary offering to its citizens and the world, is at grave risk.

A couple facing foreclosure in Barre, Mass., wrote to Senator Sanders: “We are now at our wits end and in dire straits. Our parents have since left this world and with no place to go, what are we to do and where are we to go?” They pray to God, they said, that they will not end up living in their car in the cold.

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SHOWDOWN IN WISCONSIN -- SHUTDOWN IN WASHINGTON

The Coming Shutdowns
By Robert Reich

Wisconsin is in a showdown. Washington is headed for a government shutdown.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker won't budge. He insists on delivering a knockout blow to public unions in his state (except for those, like the police, who supported his election).

In DC, House Republicans won't budge on the $61 billion cut they pushed through last week, saying they'll okay a temporary resolution to keep things running in Washington beyond March 4 only if it includes many of their steep cuts - among which are several that the middle class and poor depend on.

Republicans say "we've" been spending too much, and they're determined to end the spending with a scorched-earth policies in the states (Republican governors in Ohio, Indiana, and New Jersey are reading similar plans to decimate public unions) and shutdowns in Washington.

There's no doubt that government budgets are in trouble. The big lie is that the reason is excessive spending.

Public budgets are in trouble because revenues plummeted over the last two years of the Great Recession.

They're also in trouble because of tax giveaways to the rich.

Before Wisconsin's budget went bust, Governor Walker signed $117 million in corporate tax breaks. Wisconsin's immediate budge shortfall is $137 million. That's his pretext for socking it to Wisconsin's public unions.

Nationally, you remember, Republicans demanded and received an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. They've made it clear they're intent on extending them for the next ten years, at a cost of $900 billion. They've also led the way on cutting the estate tax, and on protecting Wall Street private equity and hedge-fund managers whose earnings are taxed at the capital gains rate of 15 percent. And the last thing they'd tolerate is an increase in the top marginal tax rate on the super-rich.

Meanwhile, of course, more and more of the nation's income and wealth has been concentrating at the top. In the late 1970s, the top 1 percent got 9 percent of total income. Now it gets more than 20 percent.

So the problem isn't that "we've" been spending too much. It's that most Americans have been getting a steadily smaller share of the nation's total income.

At the same time, the super-rich have been contributing a steadily-declining share of their own incomes in taxes to support what the nation needs - both at the federal and at the state levels.

The coming showdowns and shutdowns must not mask what's going on. Democrats should make sure the public understands what's really at stake.

Yes, of course, wasteful and unnecessary spending should be cut. That means much of the DEFENSE BUDGET, along with AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES  and other forms of CORPORATE WELFARE.

But America is the richest nation in the world, and "we've" never been richer. There's no reason for us to turn on our teachers, our unionized workers, our poor and needy, and our elderly. The notion that "we" can no longer afford it is claptrap.

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OMG! Stupidity reigns in this country -- look at the results of this poll

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/02/18/americans-say-reagan-is-greatest-president-poll-finds/

Reagan voted as No. 1 president, Clinton No. 2?!!!  Both these guys don't even deserve to be ON the "Best" list!  Americans love to be fooled...and they are.  All the time.

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A Great Cost in Human Suffering and Morality

The Human Cost of Budget Cutting
By Bob Herbert

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20herbert.html?hp

EXCERPT:  We should keep in mind the current extent of economic suffering in the U.S. as we consider President Obama’s misguided plan to impose a crippling 50 percent reduction in the community service block grants that serve as the crucial foundation for community action agencies. The cuts will undoubtedly doom many of the programs. (The Republicans in the House would eliminate the block grants entirely.)

It’s a measure of where we are as a country that this has not been a bigger news story. (Yes, a very low consciousness country)

“I’ve been like 40 years on the front lines here and never saw anything quite like what we’re going through now,” said Mr. Drew. “I go back to when President Nixon tried to put us out of business. Reagan tried to push us off the table. They didn’t succeed. Quite frankly, I didn’t expect that at this stage of the game we’d be facing these kinds of cuts from a President Obama. And the Republicans in the House — well, they’re just nihilistic. I don’t know where the moral center of the universe is anymore.”

President Obama may be trying to score a few political points by presenting himself as a budget cutter willing to attack programs that he has said he favors. But the price of those points in potential human suffering is much too high.

The president’s budget director, Jacob Lew, said in The New York Times: “The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of our values and aspirations.”

I couldn’t agree more.

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Good column by Frank Rich

I see Michelle Bachmann is considering a run for the presidency -- I hope she is encouraged by the Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the right-wing world.  What a spectacle that would be -- Bachmann against Palin in the primaries -- and then the two of them forming the Republican ticket--if they could ever agree who would be on top. (~.~)

Will Obama Take Advantage of the GOP Post-Tucson Traumatic Stress Disorder?  (That is the big mystery.  Stay tuned on that!)
by Frank Rich

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/opinion/20rich.html?hp

EXCERPTS: Glenn Beck’s ratings at Fox News continued their steady decline, falling to an all-time low last month. He has lost 39 percent of his viewers in a year and 48 percent of the prime 25-to-54 age demographic. His strenuous recent efforts to portray the Egyptian revolution as an apocalyptic leftist-jihadist conspiracy have inspired more laughs than adherents.

Sarah Palin’s tailspin is also pronounced. It can be seen in polls, certainly: the ABC News-Washington Post survey found that 30 percent of Americans approved of her response to the Tucson massacre and 46 percent did not. (Obama’s numbers in the same poll were 78 percent favorable, 12 percent negative.) But equally telling was the fate of a Palin speech scheduled for May at a so-called Patriots & Warriors Gala in Glendale, Colo.

Tickets to see Palin, announced at $185 on Jan. 16, eight days after Tucson, were slashed to half-price in early February. Then the speech was canceled altogether, with the organizers blaming “safety concerns resulting from an onslaught of negative feedback.” But when The Denver Post sought out the Glendale police chief, he reported there had been no threats or other causes for alarm. The real “negative feedback” may have been anemic ticket sales, particularly if they were to cover Palin’s standard $100,000 fee.

What may at long last be dawning on some Republican grandees is that a provocateur who puts her political adversaries in the cross hairs and then instructs her acolytes to “RELOAD” frightens most voters....

An opposition this adrift from reality — whether about Obama’s birth certificate, history unfolding in the Middle East or the consequences of a federal or state government shutdown — is a paper tiger. It’s a golden chance for the president to seize the moment. What we don’t know is if he sees it that way. As we’ve learned from his track record both in the 2008 campaign and in the White House, he sometimes coasts at these junctures or lapses into a pro forma bipartisanship that amounts, for all practical purposes, to inertia.

Obama’s outspokenness about the labor battle in Wisconsin offers a glimmer of hope that he might lead the fight for what many Americans, not just Democrats, care about — from job creation to an energy plan to an attack on the deficit that brackets the high-end Bush-era tax cuts with serious Medicare/Medicaid reform and further strengthening of the health care law. Will he do so? The answer to that question is at least as mysterious as the identity of whatever candidate the desperate G.O.P. finds to run against him.

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The Republican Strategy: Divide the Country and Keep Themselves Rich

This strategy is what we see under way right now in Wisconsin -- and in the nation's House of Representatives.  It staggers my mind that those who vote Republican continue to adamantly praise and support the policies that are tearing our country apart and will harm most of us, while making the rich corporatists even richer. Some never learn.  They swallow whatever FOX News and their "dittohead" masters tell them.  These voters, like the woman in the children's story "I Know an Old Lady," have swallowed a horse. In the lady's case, "She's dead, of course."  And what do you think will happen to us?  Read the following...and find out.   http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/5003-the-republican-strategy

THE REPUBLICAN STRATEGY
By Robert Reich

EXCERPTS: The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class - pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don't believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.

By splitting working America along these lines, Republicans want Americans to believe that we can no longer afford to do what we need to do as a nation. They hope to deflect attention from the increasing share of total income and wealth going to the richest 1 percent while the jobs and wages of everyone else languish.

Republicans would rather no one notice their campaign to shrink the pie even further with additional tax cuts for the rich - making the Bush tax cuts permanent, further reducing the estate tax, and allowing the wealthy to shift ever more of their income into capital gains taxed at 15 percent.

The strategy has three parts. 
The Battle Over the Federal Budget
The Assault on Public Employees
The Distortion of the Constitution

The Strategy as a Whole
These three aspects of the Republican strategy - a federal budget battle to shrink government, focused on programs the vast middle class depends on; state efforts to undermine public employees, whom the middle class depends on; and a Supreme Court dedicated to bending the Constitution to enlarge and entrench the political power of the wealthy - fit perfectly together.

They pit average working Americans against one another, distract attention from the almost unprecedented concentration of wealth and power at the top, and conceal Republican plans to further enlarge and entrench that wealth and power.

What is the Democratic strategy to counter this and reclaim America for the rest of us?  (An excellent question indeed!  Are our elected politicians--our supposed representatives--all in bed together?  Methinks so!)

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Powell was manipulated by Cheney into Iraq War

My, my...and well, well.  Strange, isn't it, that a little old middle-class housewife like me, knew at the time it was happening that Cheney was manipulating everyone and that he and Bush were lying in their determination to attack Iraq?  Gosh, I wonder how Colin Powell, "smart" man that he is, missed the oh-so-obvious clues that alerted me?  Don't you just get sick and tired of these jerks coming out of the woodwork years after their dirty deeds have been done, pleading, "I didn't know!"  Yeah. Right. 

It is disgusting what we Americans have put up with in our so-called "leadership."  But then, you have to look at the willingness of most of the population (especially right wing Southerners and Midwesterners) to have the wool pulled over their eyes, again and again and again -- voting against their own interests and leading us straight into the wars that benefit the wealthy corporatists who actually rule our world.  With so many voters eager and willing to be fooled over and over, it will remain impossible to establish any kind of justice or order in the world.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/02/18/ex-aide-colin-powell-was-manipulated-by-cheney-into-justifying-iraq-war/

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The Insanity of Republicans

The House of Representatives today took away federal aid from Planned Parenthood.  I think the Republicans should have their own planet to ruin, and leave this one to the progressive Democrats.  The Blue Dog type Democrats who voted along with Republicans on this amendment should go with the Republicans. And they should take Pope Benedict with them, too. They are all a throwback to the Dark Ages. Then the rest of us can give real equal rights to women and the middle class -- and start to repair this poor planet Earth that has been so damaged by right-wing stupidity. 
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/51-51/4999-house-strips-planned-parenthood-of-federal-aid

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For all parents: important info re. vaccines

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/18/leading-vaccine-doctor-states-cancer-linked-to-polio-vaccine.aspx

Do your homework before subjecting your children to any vaccine. A great way to get started is to simply use the Search Feature on this site, as it contains a litany of research on vaccine safety, and the lack thereof. The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) also provides well-referenced information on vaccines and diseases, such as HPV, rotavirus and polio.

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Some real truth about Reagan

REAGAN AND REALITY
By Bob Herbert

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/opinion/15herbert.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage

EXCERPT:

No less than other public figures, Reagan was complicated. He was neither the empty suit that his greatest detractors would have you believe nor the conservative god of his most slavish admirers. He was a tax-cutter who raised taxes in seven of the eight years of his presidency. He was a budget-cutter who nearly tripled the federal budget deficit.

The biggest problem with Reagan, as we look back at his presidency in search of clues that might help us meet the challenges of today, is that he presented himself — and has since been presented by his admirers — as someone committed to the best interests of ordinary, hard-working Americans. Yet his economic policies, Reaganomics, dealt a body blow to that very constituency.

Mark Hertsgaard, the author of “On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency,” says in the film, “You cannot be fair in your historical evaluation of Ronald Reagan if you don’t look at the terrible damage his economic policies did to this country.”

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Another Planet in our solar system? If so, it may be a Real BIG one!

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/15/scientists-telescope-hunt-massive-hidden-object-in-space/?hpt=C2

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Prize-winning nature photos of 2010--some real beauties here!

http://my.nature.org/photography/2010-photo-contest.html?autologin=true

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Only the curious who are asking questions, will be interested in this article

If you are satisfied with what your religion tells you about God and the universe -- and your own consciousness -- you probably won't want to read this article. If you are curious and open to new ways of looking at things, you might find it interesting:

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/15/my-take-science-and-spirituality-should-be-friends/?hpt=C1

EXCERPT: Outside the view of the general public, science has reached a critical point. The physical building blocks of the universe have gradually vanished; that is, atoms and quarks no longer seem solid at all but are actually clouds of energy, which in turn disappear into the void that seems to be the source of creation.

Was mind also born in the same place outside space and time? Is the universe conscious? Do genes depend on quantum interactions? Science aims to understand nature down to its very essence, and now these once radical questions, long dismissed as unscientific, are unavoidable.

My conference, called the Sages and Scientists Symposium: The Merging of A New Future, is only one in a wave of gatherings through which hundreds of researchers are working to define a new paradigm for the relationship between spirituality and science.

It is becoming legitimate to talk of invisible forces that shape creation - not labeling them as God but as the true shapers of reality beyond the space/time continuum. A whole new field known as quantum biology has sprung up, based on a true breakthrough - the idea that the total split between the micro world of the quantum and the macro world of everyday things may be a false split.

If so, science will have to account for why the human brain, which lives in the macro world, derives its intelligence from the micro world. Either atoms and molecules are smart, or something makes them smart.

That something, I believe, will come down to a conscious universe.

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Interesting theory re. parallel universes: Brian Greene, physicist

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/132932268/a-physicist-explains-why-parallel-universes-may-exist

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The Scarlett O'Hara GOP Budget Plan

"I'll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day..."

EAT THE FUTURE
By Paul Krugman

On Friday, House Republicans unveiled their proposal for immediate cuts in federal spending. Uncharacteristically, they failed to accompany the release with a catchy slogan. So I’d like to propose one: Eat the Future. ...

By slashing future-oriented programs, they can deliver the instant spending cuts Tea Partiers demand, without imposing too much immediate pain on voters. And as for the future costs — a population damaged by childhood malnutrition, an increased chance of terrorist attacks, a revenue system undermined by widespread tax evasion — well, tomorrow is another day.

In a better world, politicians would talk to voters as if they were adults. They would explain that discretionary spending has little to do with the long-run imbalance between spending and revenues. They would then explain that solving that long-run problem requires two main things: reining in health-care costs and, realistically, increasing taxes to pay for the programs that Americans really want.

But Republican leaders can’t do that, of course: they refuse to admit that taxes ever need to rise, and they spent much of the last two years screaming “death panels!” in response to even the most modest, sensible efforts to ensure that Medicare dollars are well spent.

And so they had to produce something like Friday’s proposal, a plan that would save remarkably little money but would do a remarkably large amount of harm.

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Democracy, where art thou?

Here is yet another wise observer, telling truth about what has happened in our country -- but who is listening?  Unless, We, the people begin to understand that our democracy is now under control of the rich and powerful, and start yelling out our windows, "We aren't going to take it anymore!" and start marching in the streets as the Egyptians did, we will continue to live under the oligarchy that now rules our government--and us.

Robin Hood Is Dead   http://www.truth-out.org/robin-hood-dead67679
By William Rivers Pitt

The streets of Cairo were alive with jubilation on Friday after the announcement that Hosni Mubarak had finally surrendered to the inevitable and lit out of town. After more than two weeks of protest, tension and sheer grit, the deal went down and the air rang with shouts of victorious joy.

In America, by contrast, all was quiet. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, millions of people went without work, and the “news” media kept everyone up to date on the latest criminal doings of Lindsey Lohan.

...but but but...

Things are better in America than they are in Egypt.

Right?  Right?  Well, let’s see.

Corporations are people, and they own the news. Money is speech. We are fighting wars in Eurasia and Eastasia simultaneously. It’s cheaper to die if you get sick, unless you’re a car, in which case you are required to have insurance. Rape isn’t rape anymore, if you ask the right people. Being gay means the Bill of Rights isn’t for you. Having brown skin is original sin. Guns don’t kill people. Keep your damn government hands off my Medicare. Clean water is a socialist plot. The polar caps totally aren’t melting and stuff. Have some seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. Visit the 9th Ward in New Orleans. Your vote counts, especially in Ohio and Florida. American citizens don’t get “disappeared,” except for Jose Padilla...remember him? He doesn’t.

...but but but...

Hosni Mubarak was a dictator who stole elections and reigned with an iron fist for 30 years. America isn’t like that.

Right?  Right?

Ronald Reagan took office thirty years ago. He was a product of General Electric and the “defense” industry, right down to his dyed roots. George H.W. Bush, a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group, followed. Clinton took him down so as to deliver NAFTA, GATT, and The Telecommunications Act. Then came Al Gor…oh, wait, right, another Bush, who was his own man, the kind of guy you’d like to have a beer with, because he wasn’t running anything. Cheney, on the other hand, was still getting paid by Halliburton/KBR while in office, and yeah...he was the boss. Or was he?

So, yeah, who’s been in charge?

Hm.

Nobody knows Pharaoh better than Egyptians. Those nifty stone triangles soaring out of the soil give testament to the benefits of absolute power, slave labor, and why it’s good to be the king. Everyone thinks Pharaoh went away thousands of years ago – it’s in the textbooks, so it must be true – but the fact of the matter is Pharaoh yet remains, and has no interest whatsoever in letting his people go. Pharaoh is ExxonMobil, BP, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon…yeah, any corporate entity dealing in oil, bombs and/or bullets is rich beyond the dreams of avarice, even in the current crummy economy…or should I say thanks to the current crummy economy.

Yes?

Indeed.

Who runs America?

Not you. Not me.

Know how I know?

I know because Barack Obama is the President of the United States. Like Bush, Clinton, Bush and Reagan before him, Barack Obama is running the show. He is in charge. He spoke oh so eloquently on Friday about Egyptian freedom, change, and the new normal in the Middle East. Barack Obama is the place where the buck stops. Hope and Change and all that good stuff.

So, yeah, “This is the way democracy works,” he said. Like he would know. Like any of us would know. Ours is a tepid, controlled, managed failure of a democracy, if the streets of Cairo are any clue.

Know how I know?

President Obama is preparing to slash home heating aid to the poorest of the poor in order to get an “Atta boy!” from the GOP that will never, ever, ever, ever, ever come. He is likewise preparing to slash environmental protections while on bended knee to economic fallacies proffered by right-wing fools. He has done nothing, but nothing, but nothing, except to give long luxurious back-rubs to the criminal bastards who stripped us of our future. He has made sure those with money will keep their money and make more besides, but for those with no job and no hope and no heat, well…there’s always suicide, I suppose. Maybe you can move to Egypt, if Pharaoh lets you.

Who runs America?

Yeah.

I thought so.

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New findings re. breast cancer

Informative article!  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/215991.php

What else are they going to find was "unnecessary" in cancer treatment as time goes by? 

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America's Democracy Going Down the Tubes

This article/column by Bob Herbert tells the very sad truth about our country. I think too few realize that our democracy has become an oligarchy. While we cheer on other countries to seek democracy in their governments, we have not noticed we are rapidly losing ours. A new American Revolution is needed, but first, the people have to wake up and realize what has happened. As long as the Republicans keep crying out for lower taxes, less regulation for corporations, and more money for defense but fewer government programs for the people, the state of our country will continue to decline to where the drowning middle class and poor are struggling just to keep their heads above water (already happening!) -- while the fat cats sit on their yachts watching the drownings, as they get richer and richer. The "American Dream" is slipping away from all but the wealthiest in the nation.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY WEAKENS http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/opinion/12herbert.html?ref=global-home
By Bob Herbert, NY Times

EXCERPT: As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn't help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it's on the ropes. We're in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.

While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn't really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.

So what we get in this democracy of ours are astounding and increasingly obscene tax breaks and other windfall benefits for the wealthiest, while the bought-and-paid-for politicians hack away at essential public services and the social safety net, saying we can't afford them. One state after another is reporting that it cannot pay its bills. Public employees across the country are walking the plank by the tens of thousands. Camden, NJ, a stricken city with a serious crime problem, laid off nearly half of its police force. Medicaid, the program that provides health benefits to the poor, is under savage assault from nearly all quarters.

The poor, who are suffering from an all-out depression, are never heard from. In terms of their clout, they might as well not exist.

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Huge numbers of Americans don't realize they receive government social programs

So sadly true, and these people vote (blindly, but they vote):  In this case, we get many beneficiaries of government services actually cheering on cuts to their own benefits, not because they are ideologically against government -- but because they don't even think they get those benefits, when in fact they do. It's beyond the ignorance of not knowing that Medicare is a government program a la the fool who screamed "keep your government hands off my Medicare" -- it's not even knowing you are the beneficiaries of the policies you say you hate. Beyond any single issue, that kind of aggressive stupidity is the true crisis in America.

IDIOCRACY by the Numbers: New Data Show Many Americans Have No Idea They Receive Government Benefits
by David Sirota

How aggressively stupid is America when it comes to our debates over taxes, budgets and the size of government? That's been difficult to answer with any precision, beyond simply citing the Tea Partier who famously told his congressman to "keep your government hands off my Medicare." But now we have some hard numbers to tell us how deep this ignorance really goes.

According to new data crunched by Cornell University's Suzanne Mettler, large numbers of Americans who receive benefits from government social programs nonetheless tell pollsters they "have not used a government social program." And when I mean large, I mean large. For example, a majority of those who have received federally subsidized student loans, 44 percent of Social Security beneficiaries and 40 percent of G.I. bill recipients say they have not used a government social program.

These numbers go a long way to explaining why the economic debate in our country is so insane. Indeed, at a moment when taxes have hit a historic low, most politicians -- from presidents to governors to state legislators -- insist we must further cut taxes and shrink allegedly "Big Government." And they are finding a receptive audience in the general public because, as the numbers show, so many Americans wrongly believe they don't receive direct financial benefits from government.

Obviously, this aggressive stupidity politically props up the arguments of the anti-government right. With so many Americans evidently not knowing they receive benefits from the government, it's easy for opportunistic politicians to seize on our "me-first, screw everybody else" culture and misleadingly deride the government as some distant entity that exclusively benefits the "other." And if you don't know that, in fact, you are "the other," then you are more likely to conclude that that opportunistic politician is correct, and more likely to cheer on that opportunistic politician as he/she slashes the programs you directly rely on.

This, of course, is what Idiocracy looks like in practice -- a nation whose politics is inspired by "greed is good" self-interest, but whose voters often don't even know what "self-interest" actually is. In this case, we get many beneficiaries of government services actually cheering on cuts to their own benefits, not because they are ideologically against government -- but because they don't even think they get those benefits, when in fact they do. It's beyond the ignorance of not knowing that Medicare is a government program a la the fool who screamed "keep your government hands off my Medicare" -- it's not even knowing you are the beneficiaries of the policies you say you hate.

Beyond any single issue, that kind of aggressive stupidity is the true crisis in America.

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Teens, young adults sniffing bath salts now -- with dire consequences

I just heard about this latest craze the other day from a friend -- here's an article about it, for those who have teens and young adults in their lives (children or grandchildren):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-meitiner/bath-salts-new-drug-old-problem-_b_818955.html

EXCERPT:

Recently, there's been a lot of buzz about "bath salts," the newest over-the-counter item teens are using to get high. The synthetic powder -- sold legally online and in drug paraphernalia stores under such names as "Ivory Wave" and "Purple Wave" -- has been linked to an alarming number of ER visits across the country. Although we are less than two months into 2011, the American Association of Poison Control Centers has fielded more calls about "bath salts" overdoses than in all of last year.

"Bath salts" may look innocent, but their effects are powerful. According to ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske's office, bath salts mimic the effects of cocaine and LSD, causing extreme paranoia and delusions, hallucinations, and suicidal thoughts, among other symptoms. Furthermore, an overdose on "bath salts" can have tragic consequences, as was the case with 21-year-old Dickie Sanders. Dickie snorted a packet of Cloud 9 "bath salts" and was overcome by terror and delirium -- he killed himself that same night.

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Important medical news for anyone taking statins to reduce cholesterol

Take CoQ 10 supplements, too!  In a video interview (and online article if you don't want to watch the video), Dr. Duane Graveline, a family doctor with 23 years experience and a former astronaut, discusses the health implications of cholesterol, statin drugs, and coenzyme Q10. 

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/12/dr-duane-graveline-on-cholesterol-and-coq10.aspx

Dr. Graveline has an interesting background that makes him particularly suited to speak on the topic of statin drugs. He's a medical doctor with 23 years of experience whose health was seriously damaged by a statin drug. His personal questions brought him out of retirement to investigate statins, which he's been doing for the past 10 years.

As a former astronaut, he would get annual physicals at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 1999 his cholesterol hit 280 and he was given a prescription for Lipitor.

"When they suggested Lipitor (10 mg), I went along with it because I had no reason to be particularly worried about statin drugs," he says. "I had used it a year or so before my retirement, but I wasn't a big user."

However, it quickly became apparent that something was seriously wrong.  For rest of story, go to:  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/12/dr-duane-graveline-on-cholesterol-and-coq10.

It's now clear that if you take statin drugs without taking CoQ10, your health is at serious risk as statin drugs deplete your body of this essential co-enzyme. As your body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure. Coenzyme Q10 is also very important in the process of neutralizing free radicals.

So when your CoQ10 is depleted, you enter a vicious cycle of increased free radicals, loss of cellular energy, and damaged mitochondrial DNA.

Unfortunately, the majority of people who take statins are unaware of their need for CoQ10, and physicians rarely advise their patients to take this supplement along with their statin—at least in the United States. It's also important to supplement right from the start. According to Dr. Graveline, once the mitochondrial damage and mutations are formed they cannot be reversed—no matter how much CoQ10 you take.

So early intervention is key. (Dr. Graveline goes into further detail of how CoQ10 offers protection against mitochondrial DNA damage in this interview, so for more information, please listen to it in its entirety.) If you decide to take a CoQ10 supplement and are over the age of 40, it's important to choose the reduced version, called ubiquinol.

Ubiquinol is a FAR more effective form—I personally take 1-3 a day as it has far-ranging health benefits. Dr. Graveline concurs with this recommendation.

As for dosage, Dr. Graveline makes the following recommendation:

• If you have symptoms of statin damage such as muscle pain, take anywhere from 200 to 500 mg
• If you just want to use it preventively, 200 mg or less should be sufficient

There's also evidence that CoQ10/ubiquinol is beneficial for Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, and even cancer, and that large doses may be justified in those cases as well.

In addition, CoQ10 is believed to play an important role in preventing premature aging in general by preventing telomere shortening, which can slow or potentially even reverse the aging process. This is just one of the additional benefits of CoQ10, and one of the reasons why I take ubiquinol daily even though I've never been on a statin drug.

There are no reported side effects of CoQ10 supplementation, and neither I nor Dr. Graveline have ever heard of anyone overdosing on it. The only drawback is cost.

However, if you're taking ubiquinol, here's some cost-saving information for you.

Certified reduced ubiquinol is only manufactured by one company in the entire world, a Japanese company called Kaneca. They own the patent. So, as long as it's certified ubiquinol, you can buy the cheapest brand you can find, because they're all the same.

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Beautiful ballet dancing/chereography, Romeo and Juliet

danced by Suzanne Farrell, one of the world's most famous ballerinas.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k997fqkXyoo

A good way to add some beauty to your day -- watch this short video.

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FOX News insider tells what most of us know: Their "news" is made up

The only ones who will be surprised by this (and won't believe it, of course!) are those who have been thoroughly indoctrinated by FOX to believe that everything they say is true.  It all comes down from Rupert Murdoch and his philosophy of life.  Most of it is just pure Bullshit.

FOX INSIDER: STUFF IS JUST MADE UP
By  Eric Boehlert

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/eric-boehlert/34312/fox-news-insider-stuff-is-just-made-up

EXCERPT: Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: “I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.”

Indeed, a former Fox News employee who recently agreed to talk with Media Matters confirmed what critics have been saying for years about Murdoch’s cable channel. Namely, that Fox News is run as a purely partisan operation, virtually every news story is actively spun by the staff, its primary goal is to prop up Republicans and knock down Democrats, and that staffers at Fox News routinely operate without the slightest regard for fairness or fact checking.

“It is their M.O. to undermine the administration and to undermine Democrats,” says the source. “They’re a propaganda outfit but they call themselves news.”

And that’s the word from inside Fox News.

So, Fox News as a legitimate news outlet? The source laughs at the suggestion, and thinks much of the public, along with the Beltway press corps, has been duped by Murdoch’s marketing campaign over the years. “People assume you need a license to call yourself a news channel. You don’t. So because they call themselves Fox News, people probably give them a pass on a lot of things,” says the source.

The source continues: “I don’t think people understand that it’s an organization that’s built and functions by intimidation and bullying, and its goal is to prop up and support Republicans and the GOP and to knock down Democrats. People tend to think that stuff that’s on TV is real, especially under the guise of news. You’d think that people would wise up, but they don’t.”

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GOOD NEWS: Religion losing young people -- hopefully real spirituality is gaining them

RELIGION IS EVOLVING BEFORE OUR EYES
By Paul Pardi
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-pardi/religion-evolved_b_820748.html

EXCERPT: The face of religion in the United States is changing dramatically. Formal religion is constantly evolving but every so often there is a mutation, or set of mutations, so great that a new species is formed. I believe we're at the cusp of one of those changes.

This seismic shift is not going unnoticed. Distinguished theologian Stanley Hauerwas in an article for ABC titled, "America's God is Dying" concludes with an air of doom, "Put as directly as I can, I believe we may be living at a time when we are watching Protestantism, at least the kind of Protestantism we have in America, come to an end." Recently, Christian Evangelical leader Jim Wallis claimed in a CNN article that the Religious Right "is over" because they no longer are able to attract the younger generation. Michael Spencer opened a recent Christian Science Monitor article with the words, "We are on the verge -- within 10 years -- of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity."

I think the collapse of the kind of "holier-than-thou" Christianity now being practiced by millions in our world today would not be a bad thing.  In fact, I think the collapse of religions of all kinds, that purport to have the "only truth", creating divisions between people, would be a good thing.  Jerry Wilson, a newspaper columnist in Indianapolis, Indiana, wrote a column in 2005, which tells the difference between religion and spirituality quite well.  Following is what he has to say, and I agree with him that Spirituality can bring people together; religion often tears people apart:

Religion vs Spirituality

Some people need religion. Others don’t.

One problem I’ve always had with religion is that the various religions and denominations of religions have become “mega-cliques.” Those who need religion and have chosen one tend to think everybody needs it, and that their chosen religion is the right one.

But religion is not a one-size-fits-all garment. Not everyone’s needs are the same, and those disparate needs cannot all be met by the same religion. That’s probably why there are so many.

I have recently had sort of an epiphany with regards to religion and God. No, God didn’t “speak” to me as others have claimed. And I didn’t run into a burning bush or get struck by lightning.

I contemplate a lot about religion. And there are a few things I’ve figured out. For one thing, I think the world, as a whole, would be better off today if religion had never existed.

Granted, religion provides a lot of comfort and hope for a huge number of people. So it can’t be all bad. People need comfort and hope. Some also need the social aspects of religion – meeting in church each Sunday morning and attending other church-related social events.

But if socializing were all religion was about, there are other ways to accomplish the same thing. What people really need is not religion, but spirituality. There is a difference.

Spirituality can also provide comfort and hope. Spirituality can bring people together; religion often tears people apart. Did God really intend to be the cause of more wars and loss of life than any other single reason?

I learned a long time ago that I don’t know what God thinks or how He works. Neither does anyone else. The problem with religion is that its subscribers believe they have it figured out and that everyone else should listen to them.

Religion also lends itself to the concept of worship. We gather together to worship God in church.

The epiphany I mentioned above is this: God doesn’t want people to worship him. He wants people to love him, to respect him, and to acknowledge his existence. But worship is a man-made creation. It is not divine.

I say these things knowing full well that I have already stated that I don’t know what God thinks. But it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me that God would have created beings for the express purpose of worshipping him. Is he that egomaniacal and vain that he would have to create an entire species of life to worship him?

If you are a parent, do you want your children to worship you? No, you want them to love and respect you. You want them to grow up to be high achievers. You want them to be successful, but to always remember that you helped them over the hurdles of life.

Maybe God just wants the same thing for us all. He allowed us to evolve intelligence. It would only make sense that he wants us to develop it and use it, not to live our lives based on millennia-old biblical superstitions.

We are the only animals capable of understanding ourselves. We are the only ones who can contemplate our own mortality.

For that reason, centuries ago, people needed to comfort themselves about their mortality. So they invented religion. The ancient pagans invented various and sundry gods that were in charge of different aspects of their lives. They invented worship.

Those who chose to believe in the God of Abraham picked up on the worship aspect of religion from those pagans. And, throughout the centuries, styles of worship evolved into the various sacraments of Christianity.

The bottom line is that religion and worship are human inventions. Neither will grant anyone a pass into whatever afterlife there may be.

Spirituality, on the other hand, which is the most deeply personal form of faith, is what may bring our souls closer to everlasting peace and comfort. At the very least, it could bring peace on earth, something that religion has failed miserably to do.

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Another "family values" Congressman bites the dust

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/new-york-congressman-resigns-over-shirtless-photo/?hp

Judging by all the holier-than-thou right wingers who always vote the "right" way (against homosexuality, for "love" in marriage between a man and woman, etc.) and then are found not to be practicing what they preach, the more they talk about "family values," the more I suspect they are involved in something other than that.  Here's the latest one to go down.

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NBC news: Diet soda tied to higher risk for strokes, heart attacks, doctors are finding

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41479869/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/

Looks like the mainstream news is catching up, with this new warning.  There have been many warnings for years by the alternative health community against aspartame in Nutra-sweet and in diet sodas. Just putting the word aspartame into Google will bring up tons of articles on this subject.  The very best source of articles/warnings written by many doctors -- and some articles that include the history of how aspartame was approved by the FDA (Donald Rumsfeld is involved) in the first place -- can be found at: http://www.321recipes.com/aspartame.html (a highly recommended site if you want to learn more about aspartame and how it may affect your health.)

"By all means don’t give your kids artificial-anything, especially artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or Nutrasweet. These products can negatively affect brain function, behavior, and their health." --Dr. Laura Thompson, metabolic nutritionist

Aspartame is one of the most dangerous substances ever added to food. Not only has aspartame been proven to make you fatter, it's been proven to cause some pretty serious diseases, including brain tumors and neurological disorders.  And the proof is on file already. Aspartame has brought more complaints to the FDA than any other additive--ever. It's responsible for a full 75 percent of the complaints the agency gets. From 10,000 consumer complaints, the FDA compiled a list of 92 symptoms, including death.  -- Dr. William Campbell Douglas

"Aspartame makes you fatter... After having been consulted by thousands of overweight people suffering with problems concerning the liver and/or metabolism I can assure you that aspartame will not help you in any way, indeed it will help you to gain unwanted weight."  --Dr. Sandra Cabot, liver specialist

• Bitter Truth of aspartame - Another article. "Unfortunately, many patients in my practice, and others seen in consultation, developed serious metabolic, neurologic and other complications that could be specifically attributed to using aspartame products."

• Radio Interview Transcript - A transcript of a 1997 Dallas, Texas radio interview with Mary Nosh Stoddard, Founder of ACSN. "..It was first approved in 1974, but the approval was rescinded because of the brain tumor issue....We compare this to the cigarette issue because it's a very close parallel. How many cigarettes does it take to cause lung cancer or a stroke, or a heart attack? How many diet drinks do you have to consume to get a brain tumor? How many spoonfuls of Equal do you have to take to have a pancreatic tumor or liver damage? The answer is: We don't know exactly what amount because it does not show up in short term testing. It's the long term effect. "

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Truth that needs to be told about Reagan -- and it's about time!

The author of the following article does a good job in delineating some of the humongous lies the right wingers swallow with their daily FOX "news" brought to them by Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly and Hannity. The author includes the truth about the Reagan years and its failed philosophy that has brought us to where we are today:

A RICH FANTASY LIFE (being lived by the Far Right)
By William Rogers Pitt
http://www.truth-out.org/a-rich-fantasy-life67572

EXCERPT:

I know I should be immune to this by now, but I still find myself awestruck by the incredibly detailed, insulated fantasy world that the American conservative "movement" has created for themselves. No lie is too big to be told, no fact is too firm to be bent around ideology, no myth is too absurd to defend to the knife. The ability to spew deliberate nonsense into the credulous ears of Fox-watching right-bent voters - and to be utterly without shame while doing it - is the core of this "movement's" political muscle, and has been for a number of decades now.

Take, for example, this past weekend's festival of Reagan. The late president's 100th birthday opened the floodgates for an ocean of nonsense to be dumped on the American people. He was a great leader, the conservative's conservative, a small-government hero who deserves a place on Mt. Rushmore.

Rilly?

Ronald Reagan's "supply side" economic model was the gateway drug that led inexorably to the collapse of the American economy two years ago, and yet his conservative acolytes - as well as far too many Democrats who should know better - still cling to that economic model as if it were holy writ.

Ronald Reagan raised taxes massively, and grew the federal government enormously, while sending the country spiraling into a morass of debt we are nowhere near recovering from, and yet his worshippers continue to tout him as the perfect "small government" man.

Ronald Reagan and his people sold shiploads of weapons to Iran even as they supported Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in his war against the Islamic Republic. Ronald Reagan and his people basically created the Taliban, al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan as a means of carrying on the Cold War fight against the Soviet Union, and yet today his conservative followers cling to a "War on Terror" as their sword and shield.

Didn't hear any of this during the weekend's Reaganapallooza, did you? No surprise. Why let facts - Reagan was a terrible president who bears a great deal of responsibility for today's national problems, a president who exploded the debt and the size of government, a president who supported known terrorists and rogue nations with money and materiel even as they were killing Americans - get in the way of a perfectly good story line.

That's the kind of comfort bubble these people live in, and it must be a nice place to be, because they refuse to be budged out of it one centimeter. The Reagan worship we just witnessed is merely this week's iteration of an ongoing phenomenon: the creation of a parallel story line - nay, a parallel universe - to satisfy the already-calcified opinions of the far-right GOP base.

To continue reading the article, go to: http://www.truth-out.org/a-rich-fantasy-life67572

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The Government's Case against Julian Assange Is Falling Apart

YES!!!  This is a wonderfully informative article!  Finally, truth is emerging about the hidden powers in government behind the madness with which we have all been forced to live.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/09/julian-assange-case-falling-apart_n_820790.html

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Real reason for invading Iraq is surfacing

What most of us have known all along, but the controlled major media was loathe to report.  Think of all the hundreds of thousands who have died because Duhmbya wanted to be a "commander-in-chief" and the "decider"--and a bigger prez'dent than his Poppy. 

BUSH, RUMSFELD, and IRAQ: THE REAL REASON FOR INVADING THAT COUNTRY
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/russ-baker/34192/bush-rumsfeld-and-iraq-is-the-real-reason-for-the-invasion-finally-emerging in the major media

EXCERPT:

In Donald Rumsfeld's new book, Known and Unknown, out February 8, Rumsfeld offers an account of George W. Bush's early interest in Iraq. This was just days after the 9/11 attacks. There were no apparent reasons for Bush to focus on Iraq, instead of on the actual perpetrators of the attacks.

Here's the Rumsfeld version as reported in an advance peek from The New York Times,

Just 15 days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush invited his defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, to meet with him alone in the Oval Office. According to Mr. Rumsfeld's new memoir, the president leaned back in his leather chair and ordered a review and revision of war plans -- but not for Afghanistan, where the Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington had been planned and where American retaliation was imminent.

"He asked that I take a look at the shape of our military plans on Iraq," Mr. Rumsfeld writes.

"Two weeks after the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history, those of us in the Department of Defense were fully occupied," Mr. Rumsfeld recalls. But the president insisted on new military plans for Iraq, Mr. Rumsfeld writes. "He wanted the options to be 'creative.' "

When the option of attacking Iraq in post-9/11 military action was raised first during a Camp David meeting on Sept. 15, 2001, Mr. Bush said Afghanistan would be the target. But Mr. Rumsfeld's recollection in the memoir, "Known and Unknown," to be published Tuesday, shows that even then Mr. Bush was focused as well on Iraq.

What Rumsfeld seems to be saying, without saying it explicitly, is hugely important: that Bush's rush to war with Iraq seemed to make no sense. More than that, it was downright fishy.

Rumsfeld suggests that Bush had some kind of prior agenda that had nothing to do with any role Iraq might have had (and in any case did not) in the events of 9/11. Bush simply wanted to invade that country.

If so, why? Rumsfeld apparently doesn't speculate. But he doesn't need to.

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ONE MORE THING: Re. Cults and the Scientology article in the New Yorker

I wonder how many people will recognize their own church in the warning signs I wrote about in that previous posting. The Catholic Church and Opus Dei (an elite organization within the Church) come to mind. Cults are among us everywhere, in religion, in government, in the military, and in corporations. Wisdom calls for us to notice this with open eyes:

• Hierarchical structure, the leader and his/her "assistants" (cliquish/elite group formed around the leader) enjoying perks that the other members do not,
• No access to the leader by the rank and file members who are expected to work for the organization with little or no compensation (and, in fact, to pay for the "privilege"),
• Spiritual texts being quoted and used to justify and defend abusive practices against the members,
• Leadership that sets itself above the members--with a head figure or figures in obviously elevated positions, enjoying many fruits (huge monthly income, home or homes, cars, etc.) of the labors of the members.
  
• Most important, there is an implied or overt teaching/assumption that the leader is "enlightened" -- and you are not.  Therefore, you are expected to always defer to his/her greater understanding and authority, and never question it.
  

Controversies about Opus Dei have centered around criticisms of its alleged secretiveness, its recruiting methods, the alleged strict rules governing members, the practice by celibate members of mortification of the flesh, its alleged elitism and misogyny, the alleged right-leaning politics of most of its members, and the alleged participation by some in authoritarian or extreme right-wing governments, especially the Francoist Government of Spain until 1978.  Within the Catholic Church, Opus Dei is also criticized for allegedly seeking independence and more influence.

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Knock their socks off, Keith!

KEITH OLBERMANN COMING TO CURRENT TV
http://current.com/keith-olbermann/

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Excellent New Yorker report re. Scientology cult and a prominent member who woke up

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright

Oh, how well I know this story from the days of my own cult experience!  Like me, Paul Haggis, a Hollywood writer and director and long-time member of Scientology, one day woke up and realized, "Oh my God, I'm in a cult!"
This new article takes its place beside another New Yorker expose' of a cult, written and published in 1994: O Guru, Guru, Guru.  That article became so famous, it can now be found online in many places, including: http://www.leavingsiddhayoga.net/o_guru_english.htm

I highly recommend the following report to everyone, to show how easy it is to get caught in a cult, much easier than most people think.  I particularly recommend it to anyone seeking spiritual education in the marketplace. There are many large and small organizations calling themselves "spiritual", but if you get involved, you may find cult-like rules, iron-handed leadership, and never-ending demands for more and more financial support.  Just a few warning signs to look for:

• Hierarchical structure, the leader and his/her "assistants" (cliquish/elite group formed around the leader) enjoying perks that the other members do not,
• No access to the leader by the rank and file members who are expected to work for the organization with little or no compensation (and, in fact, to pay for the "privilege"),
• Spiritual texts being quoted and used to justify and defend abusive practices against the members,
• Leadership that sets itself above the members--with a head figure or figures in obviously elevated positions, enjoying many fruits (huge monthly income, home or homes, cars, etc.) of the labors of the members.
  
• Most important, there is an implied or overt teaching/assumption that the leader is "enlightened" -- and you are not.  Therefore, you are expected to always defer to his/her greater understanding and authority, and never question it. 

THE APOSTATE
By Lawrence Wright
EXCERPT:  Haggis forwarded his resignation to more than twenty Scientologist friends, including Anne Archer, John Travolta, and Sky Dayton, the founder of EarthLink. “I felt if I sent it to my friends they’d be as horrified as I was, and they’d ask questions as well,” he says. “That turned out to be largely not the case. They were horrified that I’d send a letter like that.”   This is a typical reaction from those who are still cult "believers" and who don't want to admit--or even allow themselves to think that they have dedicated many years of their lives and MUCH money to a cult.  For anyone who thinks "I could never fall into a situation like this," this article delineates how subtly, and easily, one can slide into a cult, without realizing it.  Cult leaders know how to manipulate and control, as I discovered from my own several years' membership in a spiritual group where I, along with many others, was exploited and abused, all the while thinking I was "helping mankind."

“I had such a lack of curiosity when I was inside,” Haggis said. “It’s stunning to me, because I’m such a curious person.” He said that he had been “somewhere between uninterested in looking and afraid of looking.” His life was comfortable, he liked his circle of friends, and he didn’t want to upset the balance. It was also easy to dismiss people who quit the church. As he put it, “There’s always disgruntled folks who say all sorts of things.” He was now ashamed of this willed myopia...

Over the years, Haggis estimates, he spent more than a hundred thousand dollars on courses and auditing, and three hundred thousand dollars on various Scientology initiatives. [His wife] Rennard says that she spent about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars on coursework. Haggis recalls that the demands for donations never seemed to stop. “They used friends and any kind of pressure they could apply,” he says. “I gave them money just to keep them from calling and hounding me.”

I once asked Haggis about the future of his relationship with Scientology. “These people have long memories,” he told me. “My bet is that, within two years, you’re going to read something about me in a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.” He thought for a moment, then said, “I was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don’t know why I couldn’t.”

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_wright

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Clarence and Ginni Thomas: getting away with as much as they can!

They're just following in the footsteps of Cheney and DeLay and so many others of their ilk.  It's no surprise that Thomas's wife is as big a liar as her husband--and a lobbyist as well (is there a difference between lobbyists and liars?).  These two are making hay while the sun shines -- and he is on the Supreme Court--for life! (sob).  He didn't report his wife's income for the last 7 years, when her income was almost $800,000 each year.  Thomas: Gee, I kinda' missed that little sum -- don't know how I did that...Oh well.  This lying, sexual-harrassing thief is what we have serving as one of the justices on our Supreme Court!  He and his wife are cashing in in every way they can, with his biased judgment making the Court votes that benefit them both.  This is what Republicans think of as "justice." Washington and Jefferson must be spinning in their graves.  Woe is us!

Clarence Thomas' wife now a Lobbyist
http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/69-69/4848-justice-thomas-wife-virginia-thomas-now-a-lobbyist

EXCERPT: She started as a congressional aide in the 1980s, became a mid-level Republican operative, then briefly left politics, reemerging in 2009 as founder of a tea party group before stepping down amid continued questions about whether her actions were appropriate for the spouse of a Supreme Court justice.

Now, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, has recast herself yet again, this time as the head of a firm, Liberty Consulting, which boasts on its website using her “experience and connections” to help clients “with “governmental affairs efforts” and political donation strategies....

Legal ethicists asserted that Thomas’s role could compromise her husband’s impartiality, especially since the group is not required to report its donors and could have benefited from the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling last year in which Justice Thomas sided with the majority in a decision that allowed corporations to fund campaign ads, often without disclosing their contributions.

Thomas’s role as a de facto tea party lobbyist and — until recently — as head of a tea party group that worked to defeat Democrats last November “shows a new level of arrogance of just not caring that the court is being politicized and how that undermines the historic image of the Supreme Court as being above the political fray,” said Arn Pearson, a lawyer for Common Cause, ...a government watchdog group.

“It raises additional questions about whether Justice Thomas can be unbiased and appear to be unbiased in cases dealing with the repeal of the health care reform law or corporate political spending when his wife is working to elect members of the tea party and also advocating for their policies.”

Even among congressional Republicans, with whom Thomas boasts she has close ties, the reaction to the entreaties from her new firm, Liberty Consulting ranged from puzzlement to annoyance, with a senior House Republican aide who provided Thomas’s e-mail to POLITICO, blasting her for trying to “cash in” on her ties to the tea party movement.

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Jerusalem UFO hovers over Islamic dome

Interesting videos, taken from 2 different perspectives of the UFO sighting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/jerusalem-ufo-spottings-o_n_817689.html

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Wow! A perfect dance game score at age 5!!!!

Amazing kid.  Wish I had his talent -- AND ENERGY! (~.~)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/01/ryota-wada-dance-dance-revolution-record_n_816994.html

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