A Page From a Book

there’s a hole in my sun / and it leads to my closet door / behind which lie / my secrets
and office supplies

i have a picture of a filmy / naked lady
and a current rumi calendar / and evidence
of a mistake / i made
that i don’t mind you knowing about

doors will be opened / rats will be flushed
into view / and we will look at them

will we know what we see / will we believe what we know / will we give / ourselves / a chance

there are many / holes in our sun

normal things are happening / but unusual are / the bright colors / splashed across our
landscape

open the doors and / embrace it all / closets hide nothing

We Never Saw It Coming

I sometimes have time to listen to podcasts. I forget how enjoyable and informative they can be. This American Life is one of my favorites.

Last Sunday I listened to the episode titled: "Inside Job." Here is part of their web page on it:

405: Inside Job

Originally aired 04.09.2010

For seven months a team of investigative journalists from ProPublica looked into a story for us, the inside story of one company that made hundreds of millions of dollars for itself while worsening the financial crisis for the rest of us. It includes our original Broadway song "Bet Against the American Dream": MP3; video; sheet music.

Prologue.

Ira talks about a friend who for years had a very trusted business partner and bookkeeper, until one day when he ran away with all of her money. (1 1/2 minutes)

Act One. Eat My Shorts.

A hedge fund named Magnetar comes up with an elaborate plan to make money. It sponsors the creation of complicated and ultimately toxic financial securities... while at the same time betting against the very securities it helped create. Planet Money's Alex Blumberg teams up with two investigative reporters from ProPublica, Jake Bernstein and Jesse Eisinger, to tell the story. Jake and Jesse pored through thousands of pages of documents and interviewed dozens of Wall Street Insiders. We bring you the result: a tale of intrigue and questionable behavior, which parallels quite closely the plot of a Mel Brooks musical.

If you have any questions after hearing this story, you can email the ProPublica team for an answer. (40 minutes)

We commissioned a Broadway song to go along with this story, which you can listen to here.

This American Life pods are generally pretty comprehensible. I have some interaction with the terminology of this subject, but the way they put it is very easy to follow, with definitions and explanations along the way.

This is an interesting story. The theory was posed that the predator (in this case Magnetar) is just doing what predators do. Can't blame them. True enough I think.

If you're wondering these days how Wall Street really works, listening to the Inside Job will give you some good ideas and maybe even help connect some dots regarding current Wall Street events like the SEC suing Goldman Sachs.

Enjoy!

It IS Spring!

I wrote a post at Catherine Austin Fitts' blog titled "Gardening in a Nutshell." Take a look if you're interested.

I found a booklet online—The War Garden Victorious by Charles Lathrop Pack. From Chapter I:

The war garden was a war-time necessity.

This was true because war conditions made it essential that food should be raised where it had not been produced in peace times, with labor not engaged in agricultural work and not taken from any other industry, and in places where it made no demand upon the railroads already overwhelmed with transportation burdens.

The knowledge that the world faced a deficit in food, that there existed an emergency which could be met only by the raising of more food, was apparent to every well-informed and thinking man and woman during the early months of 1917.

The author, wishing, as every patriot wished, to do a war work which was actually necessary, which was essentially practical, and which would most certainly aid in making the war successful, conceived the idea in March, 1917, of inspiring the people of the United States to plant war gardens in order to increase the supply of food without the use of land already cultivated, of labor already engaged in agricultural work, of time devoted to other necessary occupations, and of transportation facilities which were already inadequate to the demands made upon them.

In March, therefore, some weeks before the United States entered the war, he organized for this work a commission known as the National War Garden Commission.

What were the causes which led to the world’s lack of food and the need of a largely increased production by the United States to prevent world starvation? The same question could be posed in present time. What's happening now with our food supply? Most cities do not have adequate stores of food to meet the needs of even a short-term catastrophe. I do not believe shortages will necessarily be felt due to catastrophe, but rather, from economics and weather change.

It's time to be watchful of these things, and to plot a course for our own action in the face of such changes.

On a treadmill at the gym is a good place to think

This morning, this was my thinking....

I am TIRED of hearing about health care reform, the bill, Democrats and Republicans, reconciliation, now deem and pass, but at the top of the list and beyond all other issues, about abortion relative to health care reform, Bart Stupak and his team, and I'm angry....that feeling of overheat in the solar plexus....that the potential and reality is that someone is assiduously working on legislation that would deny me and all of my gender the option of making my own decision on a personal issue. It rankles.

I have also been thinking about taxes, April 15th being now less than a month away. I have paid taxes in good faith in the past but I've lost faith and I no longer believe the government deserves my good faith offerings.

I found this:


(View the full page)

This is the government's view of the budget:


















I don't support the military...wait a minute! I do!

What am I going to do? I don't know, honestly. How do I be true to myself in these times? It is likely that those in government are either blinded by money or do really believe what they are doing is right for all of us (I'm not so sure they would feel it's right for them if they really were on the receiving or compliance end of their legislations), and the people decrying abortion I am sure feel they are being true to themselves in their efforts against it.

How do we all be true to ourselves, make our statements, stand our stands, and still live together peacefully?

Ghandi said: "I have so much to do today, I will have to meditate two hours instead of one."

I have too much to think about today. . .I'm going to meditate.

On My March Calendar ~ Did You Know?

I was a little surprised when I turned my calendar this morning and saw the quote below this month's image:

"If women were paid the same wages that men of similar qualifications earn, about half the families now living in poverty would not be poor."

That's a striking statement.

Want an issue to hang to, get passionate about, hop on the soap box...whatever. Take a look at those surrounding women and children.

Why do we not automatically care better for these people?

I don't have any answer.

Be aware......

Outrage

I just watched the documentary film, "Outrage"—not all because the Netflix DVD was damaged and wouldn't play past 1:17—but enough to get the point.

It's so interesting! Reading Wikipedia's entry on the film talks about NPR's censorship of critic Nathan Lee's review of the film, here:

In a review for NPR, film critic Nathan Lee mentioned that Outrage's primary subjects were Larry Craig and Charlie Crist. NPR altered Lee's review by removing these references to Craig and Crist [14][15]. Lee responded in a comment on NPR's website:

“I personally disagree with NPR’s policy - there is no other area of ‘privacy’ that elicits such extreme tact. [I] also feel that it is a professional affront to my responsibility as a critic to discuss the content of a work of art, and an impingement of my first amendment right to free speech and the press.”[14]

NPR deleted this comment as well [14]. An NPR editor later explained these actions, noting that, “NPR has a long-held policy of trying to respect the privacy of public figures and of not airing or publishing rumors, allegations and reports about their private lives unless there is a compelling reason to do so.” [16]. This statement drew immediate criticism, as NPR had previously speculated on the sexual orientation of public figures such as Adam Lambert and Queen Latifah [16][17]. This led to questions about why closeted entertainers presented a “compelling reason” for reporting while politicians did not [18].

I have never considered this situation. But it's this. . . closeted gay politicians and their support teams are sabotaging advancement of gay issues as evidenced by the politicians' voting records. And the media is complicit in squelching related coverage—both political and personal.

It's a thready subject. The ramifications of transparency have many tentacles in our belief systems, moral, religious, political.

As I read more about GLBT issues and history, I have a very much increased respect and honor for the people who have and are speaking out, speaking up, writing, filming, producing and showing what this is about.

Transparency can help bring about change. Beliefs ARE mutable. Many situations in our past have proven that true. Then we forget. That once there were whole races of people here in our United States who were enslaved, oppressed and relegated to lower eschelons of human-hood. And there may be more, operating now, in our midst.

I like transparency. I'm looking forward to watching and doing what I can to support some really courageous people whose names I just learned.

I have had the great pleasure of spending some time talking with Jon Rappoport, of nomorefakenews.com, and have been reading his writings ongoing.

I am reproducing below copy from one of Jon's recent newsletters that I thought particularly poignant. You can subscribe to his nomorefakenews.com newsletters here.

OBAMA HITS THE WALL

FEBRUARY 11, 2010. Since his inauguration, I’ve written two articles warning that Obama was veering off in a disastrous direction. Now he’s crashed, and he has no one to blame. Of course, that doesn’t stop him from trying.

He’s engaged in planning the economy, always a bad sign. He’s doing it with health and jobs and climate, and fewer and fewer people are responding with enthusiasm.

Think of it as a principle: When you keep increasing the size of the ruling bureaucracy and then assign that bureaucracy the task of fixing things, you’re asking for a debacle. You’re begging for one.

Add the fact that the things which are supposed to be fixed are incredibly complex, and you’ve got a real problem. A problem on the order of an oil tanker two miles from shore springing leaks, and the captain decides the ship can sprout wings and fly.

Obama came out swinging last year with health insurance reform. The American people, already reeling from the economic smash-up, would pay for this new program. Taxes would rise. Penalties would be assessed for failure to join the party.

The hardest piece of legislation to pass in this country was Obama’s first point of attack. One hidden factor: millions of invisible Americans want to take care of themselves through alternative methods. Not thousands, millions. These people are, by and large, independent voters. They don’t stick to Demo or Repub paths. So the president lost those folks in the blink of an eye.

Cap and trade and tax and the worldwide decimation of industrial economies—the supposed answer to manmade global warming—was stacked up against science that was shaky, at best. In fact, on closer examination, it wasn’t real science at all. It was a political power play with a greedy goofball posing as Jesus Christ at the head of the parade: Algore.

When thousands of emails were leaked out of the CRU at East Anglia University, the game was up. The venomous crazies were exposed. Key scientists were illegally stonewalling FOIA requests for vital data, scheming to cut dissident viewpoints out of the debate, and hiding a decline in warming.

Obama ignores all this. He’s still planning to push cap and tax legislation.
And, most importantly, he has no idea how to create jobs. Now that the health bill is stalled, he’s coming back to jobs, which is where he should have started. However, the one action that would stimulate the economy, tax relief, isn’t on his agenda. It’s against his philosophy.

The wet dream of liberals is that everyone will work for the government. That solves all issues. That shuts all mouths, because when you work for the Man, you must love the Man. He signs your checks.

Obama has never run a small business, and he doesn’t have a clue about what works and doesn’t work. He wants to put more pressure on entrepreneurs, in form of taxes and health insurance payments. He’s talking from a tower beyond the fray.

I don’t know about the audacity of hope, but Obama displayed a considerable amount of audacity (chutzpah, actually), when he claimed Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts was an expression of the same basic outrage that swept him into the presidency—and therefore it wasn’t really a problem for the Democrats. Scott Brown actually won on the coattails of Obama’s failed first year in office.

The president’s supporters point out that the current state of the Union has a history that goes back into GW Bush’s eight years in office. Well, yes. That history goes back into the Clinton years, too, and into the reign of Bush the Elder, and then there was Reagan, and Carter and Ford and Nixon. Under every president, the size of government grows. It’s a self-generating fungus.

But when there is a great and immediate crisis, such as the one Obama inherited a year ago, the president has to take effective action right out of the blocks. He can’t, for example, try to impose a super-structured health program linked to a lie that it will shrink the federal deficit. Even if that were true, it’s too abstract. Jobs was his mandate, and he ignored it. He looked away. It says something about the man. It says he is more interested in his philosophy and overriding agenda than in the horrendous situations people are facing, from one end of the country to the other.

Everything Obama could have misread and ignored, he did.

He can’t run away from that now. People know. The trust is disintegrating on all fronts.

Government has been too big for a very, very long time. Government has taken on power and control and privilege it was never meant to have. The ground-level expression of that power is taxes—the fuel that allows government to grow. So who is going to reverse the trend? Who is going to stand up and say, “I want to legislate myself out of a job.”

The answer is stark and simple. People who are temporaries. Men and women who want to serve in office for a short time and leave. People who have no intention of making a lifelong career out of government. The Founders never meant to have young people grow old working in Washington.

I don’t accuse Obama of inventing collectivism. It is the natural consequence, politically, of inflating the size of government. But in this crisis, with his ideology, we have exactly the wrong man at the wrong time. What may have looked like high majestic passion during the campaign has turned out to be free-floating detachment. The man simply does not understand what works, and he doesn’t want to understand.

Meanwhile, the American economy, where it is recovering, is the result of the work of people who have nothing to do with government, and never will. That is called a clue.

February...a Juicy Month!

Call & Response - Slavery in Our Time

I attended a showing of the new movie about human trafficking, Call+Response—a good film about a horrific subject. Slavery. I was encouraged to see the young people involved in activism on this issue. Our local Flathead High School, and the newly formed Flathead Abolition Movement hosted the showing.

I learned a lot. People are still bought and sold into slavery on our shores (and others, too). How can we know about this and watch it continue.

It's the triune function of Money / Drugs / Human Slavery. It's not personal, it's profits.

If you're interested, go to the website: http://www.callandresponse.com/home.html.

If you want to do some little thing to show support, buy the music. I love it. The title "Call and Response" is rooted in music. The intro explains. Go to this iTunes web page.

Or do something else. . .whatever moves you. There are lots of issues to apply our energies to these days. Choose where you fit.

Montana's Food System

Up until the early 1950's Montana produced nearly 70% of the food Montanans ate. We were a net exporter of many foods. After Worle War II we lost capacity for production as export capabilities increased.

Watch the video . . . highly recommended!

Peace All Over the World ~ Episode 23

A new year, a new decade....

Federal Prop 8 Trial Starts

The trial to bring in to question California's Proposition 8 which prohibited gay marriage in 2008 began today in San Francisco.

If you live in the right city, you can watch the trial via live feed. Here is the notice on the American Foundation for Equal Rights webpage:

Watch Prop. 8 Trial Live
JANUARY 9, 2010
A live video and audio feed from the upcoming Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco will be available for public viewing in federal courthouses elsewhere in California, and in Oregon, Washington and New York, it was announced today. Video and audio of the trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday, January 11, 2010, at 8:30 a.m. (PDT), will be distributed via electronically secure means to the federal courthouses listed below.

View the list of cities at AFER.

The trial was scheduled to be made available live on YouTube, but that plan was changed.

Reporting from Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court, acting on an appeal from conservative defenders of California's ban on same-sex marriage, overruled a federal judge in San Francisco today and blocked video coverage of the trial on YouTube.

In a brief order, the justices said they were halting the move by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker "permitting real-time streaming" of the trial, "except as it permits streaming to other rooms within the confines of the courthouse in which the trial is to be held."

Read the full article at the L.A. Times.

Watch Rachel Maddow's interview of Plaintiffs' attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies:


Read Laura Flanders review at The Nation: Willing to Reconsider.

Lots of Tweets about the trial. Look here.

Will continue updating . . .

The Criminalization of Protest

Here is a snip from the article "The Criminalization of Protest":

On the Friday afternoon before the G-20 meeting kicked into high gear, a student at the University of Pittsburgh snapped a photo showing a University of Pittsburgh police officer directing traffic at a roadblock. What’s troubling is what he’s wearing: camouflage military fatigues. It’s difficult to discern a practical reason why a man working for an urban police department would need to wear camouflage, especially while patrolling an economic summit. He’s a civilian dressed like a soldier. The symbolism is clear, and it affects the attitudes of both the cops wearing the clothes and the people they’re policing.

Read the full article The Criminalization of Protest - Police and politicians ignore the First Amendment when we need it the most.

What Happened to Senator Max?

What do you think when you see this video clip:



The Senator office hasn't exactly denied alcohol as an excuse for the manner of his speech, his spokesperson's statement only references possible smear tactics. (See Montana senator denies being drunk during floor speech; Crapo, Risch decline comment.)

Wouldn't it be interesting if we could call up Senator Baucus and ask him directly? Just get an honest face-to-face answer to the question of his state during that speech?

I recently wrote to both Jon Tester and Max Baucus about the health care bill. I guess I can say I was naive in thinking I would receive a real-live-person response. I received a real-live paper form letter from Tester, plus an increase in e-mails from his office, and nothing from Baucus. They're busy, right?

This is the state of our political world. I believe we would be astonished if we really knew how little the actions of our representatives have to do with benefiting you and I.

The thing to consider is....what's the damage?

Health Care Bill

Not sure what got into me this morning. The internet makes it easy to send off communications to just about anybody. Like Senators for instance. I have a feeling that if H.R.3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 finally makes its way through Congress, it will not inure to my benefit.

I sent the following notes to Montana Senators Tester and Baucus:

Senator...have you carefully examined the effect of the Health Care bill on business owners who might already have health insurance in place for their employees?

Have you proven to yourself that passing the Health Care bill will truly benefit a preponderance of the citizens of Montana?

Have you carefully considered its impact, especially given our income levels, which are decreasing daily due to multiple factors?

How would you respond to this statement: this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated.*

Do you agree with the statement that passing the Health Care bill will mean an increase of $70 billion of new annual revenue to insurance providers? Does this sound like a good thing to you?**

I would like to honestly hear your answers to these questions. A form letter response will not satisfy.

I know you are a Montanan. It sounds like a silly statement, but I see that very often local people elected to public office leave our state and truly forget where they came from -- that they were ever part of the same life the people they represent are still living. I am not saying this applies in your case. I am saying that as an elected officer, you should be asking the same questions we on the ground here in Montana are asking about how what our government intends to legislate might materially affect us.

Thank you.

Anais Starr

* From: http://michaelconnelly.viviti.com/entries/general/the-truth-about-the-health-care-bills
** From: http://www.truthout.org/1108091

I will understand, but not excuse, the Senators' inability to answer my questions.

The good thing—it's a new day affording us all the opportunity for new thoughts and actions and letting go of the past, and things that have not, will not, do not work.

~ Anais

New Sounds ~ Are We Listening?

Playing for Change ~ Band on Tour

They may be coming to a city near you. Support 'em. Make your own music!
~ anais

Take a Break ~ Mudra for Wisdom

Mudra hand gestures or poses are often used in yoga practice, meditation, and for healing purposes. One I am familiar with and use all the time is Gyan Mudra, shown in the photo left. Click here for more information about Gyan Muddra.

Here is the one to take a break for, the Mudra for Wisdom. Simple hand position with deep breathing. Both can have a dramatically positive effect during a trying time, or at any time.

More Remedies For What Ails Us . . .

This week a friend and I went to visit Tom Tracey of Swan Valley Herbs, in Bigfork, Montana. Tom is a master herbalist with a lot of experience. His store is a thing of beauty! He and his crew harvest much of their stock locally. I love it! I cleaned up my basement yesterday and found a copy of his Herb Reference Guide from 1989.

We went to talk with Tom to get his ideas for keeping our immune systems up and running in best form. Tom's approach is pretty common sense. Cleanse the body using heat (saunas, baths) and take an appropriate herb, homeopathic remedy or other healing/balancing substance. Add to that, what you eat, water you drink, rest and exercise. Makes sense.

Winter seems to have come early here in Montana . . . along with quite a few other places in the U.S. Change of weather always affects our immune systems. There are homeopathic remedies for symptoms created by seasonal weather changes. It's a test, and an opportunity. How will our system respond? It's a good time to keenly observe, and take steps to take care. We can re-train our bodies to adapt to change. As a homeopath, and working with myself and my family, I have seen success in remedy administration over time, bringing the recipient to the point of being less susceptible, or entirely immune, to conditions that previously had caused a dis-ease condition.

I came away from Tom's shop with some ready-made tincture, and some herbs to make my own. It's fun to make your own tinctures—and quite simple to do. Tom recommends using Everclear (grain alcohol). Use glycerine or apple cider vinegar for non-alcohol preparations. Do an internet search for more details . . . or talk to your herbalist or buy a book.

The tincture Tom calls "Lomatium Compound" contains Lomatium Root, Osha Root, Cedar Leaf, Yarrow and Usnea. I also purchased some dried elderberries (locally wildcrafted) and a couple bags of the Lomatium Compound dry. I've started my tinctures which should be ready to strain and bottle by the next full moon.

Tom doesn't have a website but if you would like to contact his shop, call 406.837.5747.

I urge everyone to look up their own local herbalist, hopefully, one who takes the time and effort to wildcraft their own herbs. Knowing and trusting your health care provider is as important as anything else. Who's your farmer, who's your banker, and where's your money applies at all levels.

~ Anais

Playing For Change ~ Episode 17