Amber Ticker





Thursday, November 4, 2010

BOBBY VINTON SLOW DANCING

TAKE SOME TIME TO DANCE REAL SLOW AND FORGET ABOUT THE WORLD!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Jefferson and the Separtion of Church and State

A quote from a blogger on Yahoo:

Wonder what the Founding Fathers really intended? Does Thomas Jefferson qualify? Here it is:
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State"

For those of you who cant read above a third grade level, or have to have your news spoon fed to you with sugary sweet ideas from Fox (faux) news.....In this quote Thomas jefferson makes a direct reference to the 1st amendment...which clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".....Jefferson takes those specific words and explains them in his own words, "Thus building a wall between church and state".....

Jefferson made it very clear what the Founding Fathers wanted.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Police and Government Violence.

451 TASER DEATHS AND CLIMBING.http://www.facebook.com/patrick.crothers1?v=wall&story_fbid=114153528642536#!/patrick.crothers1?v=wall

This is a re-post with a little new information. 

I was at "Peoples Park" in Berkley April 1969 when 30,000 people came to hear a speech.  They were mostly Berkley residence very young and old and students.  800 police at the behest of Ronald Reagan Governor led by the Alameda Sheriffs dept. using 00 buckshot and were told to inflict as much damage as possible.  he authorities initially claimed that only bird-shot had been used as shotgun ammunition. When physicians provided "00" pellets removed from the wounded as evidence that buckshot had been used, Sheriff Frank Madigan of Alameda County justified the use of shotguns loaded with lethal buckshot by stating "... the choice was essentially this: to use shotguns — because we didn't have the available manpower — or retreat and abandon the City of Berkeley to the mob." Sheriff Madigan did admit, however, that some of his deputies (many of whom were Vietnam War veterans) had been overly aggressive in their pursuit of the protesters, "as though they were Viet Cong."
Hundreds were severely injuries, one shotgun death from repeated shot to the chest groin and face.  People were blinded and the Sheriff told his men to use deadly force and to inflict punishment like the people were Viet Kong.  Being mostly War vets they did.

Four days later 4 students were shot and killed at Kent State by the National Guard and that was the turning point in the War as parents starting paying attention and the beginnings of the end of police brutality.  WE ARE NOT THERE YET.

I got beaten by the L. A. County Sheriff four times.  Once I was arrested for armed robbery on my way home from work as the store clerk ID my Bothers custom 56 Chevy Two Door Hardtop.  There was not another like it as Johnny and I put thousands into the car including a custom paint Job by Barras.

I worked for General Telephone as a cable splicer and they could no locate my boss until Monday (Sober up day)  I was thrown down a flight of stairs and then the threw a bucket of water on the stairs and had a photographer take a picture of where I slipped...LOL

AS OF LAST MONDAY THERE HAVE BEEN 450 DEATHS FROM TASERS.  THEY ARE NOT NON-LETHAL.  IF THEY ARE TO BE ALLOWED THEY CAN'T BE GIVEN TO ANYONE WHO WEARS A SMOKEY THE BEAR HAT.

LAST DEATH 87 YEAR OLD WOMAN IN WASHINGTON STATE.  STAY TUNED AND TAKE PHOTOS OR VIDEOS OF POLICE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.  WE CAN SORT OUT THE BAD ONES.
THEIR MOTTO:  TO PROTECT AND SERVE,   

THE BYRDS I WILL FEEL A WHOLE LOT BETTER WHEN YOU ARE GONE.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

IF IT IS OUR OIL OUT IN THE GULF, WHY DON'T WE GET ROYALTY CHECKS?

I WAS WONDERING… where does the royalty money from USA oil go?


Category Life before the September 17, 2008 Bank Heist!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008
OIL PRICES AND STIMULUS CHECKS

I have been watching the oil market for a long time. Many years ago I worked in a refinery laboratory for a Texas oil company and found out for myself over a ten year period that I worked for a corporation that cared more about profits than human life.
Now corporations are a machine with all the rights of a person; however, it lacks a human heart.
A man's life was worth $10,000, this was the life insurance payout in case of accidental death. And man… there were accidents that were beyond belief. This was during the Vietnam War 1968-77, and there was a serious manpower shortage. Young men, who would normally take dangerous work like this, were either in College or were being drafted into the military. We were always short help. I worked on a refining unit called a delayed coking unit. We made coke, oil baked coal. A guy named Dave, who hired on with me became a friend. He and I went through fireman training together. We were trained to fight fires and you can imagine an oil refinery is not a great place to have an unexpected fire. Dave worked on a unit called a Hydrogen Generator Unit or the Hydrogen Bomb Unit as the guys that worked there called it. One night after 1 or 2 A.M., I was on a platform about 150 feet in the air getting ready to drill for coke and WHAMM! The whole F**king unit shook hard enough to knock you off balance. We didn’t know where the explosion was and waited to hear the steam whistle give out a code. We had an elevator; but, we all went to the escape hatch, threw it open and started down seven stories of wet greasy ladders as fast as we could go. When we got to the two deck someone told us the HGU went up and the Plant Supervisor was waiting to take the six newest guys to the fire. I was hoping to see Dave; but never did. Apparently, he closed a valve on 1500 Lb/Sq. In. of hydrogen that simply exploded and vaporized anything not made of steel. We kept a 4’’ fire hose pouring on the unit to cool it off. All they found of Dave was a boot. An empty boot somehow survived. He never had time to train for his job. None of us did. Guys would quit and you moved up. If your relief didn’t show you worked a double shift. I worked 19 days in a row with 11 double shifts. I got so tired, this was hard work, I was filling up my car at a gas station and had to call home to find out if I was going to work or coming home. We were accidents waiting to happen. But, no one ever shut down a unit for safety. It was cheaper to pay the life insurance. I made huge money. More money than I ever expected to make in my life… but we were hurt, burnt and poisoned for it. More guts than brains. G_d Bless the young.

I watched oil being shifted around during the fuel crisis in the 70's. We got oil samples from all over the world and we knew which was which. Tankers sat offshore, just waiting. So we made less gasoline and shipped a lot of it to somewhere else. We were in L.A. man… people were shooting each other for a place in the gas station line. Crooks!

So in present day America… Our economy is in trouble so the president has decided to send us money to get the economy going. I don’t see how this is going to work as people are paying over $3.00 a gallon for gas. All our stimulus money is going to pay our gasoline so we can go to work. My sister bought a House for $350,000 two years ago and now is getting laid off. Her job went to China. She says they are selling for $500,000 now but she thinks it is going to collapse as she knows people who bought houses without jobs. They are lying about it and the Realtors are urging them to do it. My friend Sarah in Australia says the great depression is here… she has money (I mean money) and she is pretty good with investing; yet, I think all the borrowing by the government has been to funnel the cash to the same crooks that made out in 1929. I hope I am wrong but I think it is going to be bad.
When our President said that stimulus checks should be sent out oil was already starting to rise quickly, and for no clear reason at that.
Oh, I hear the reasons: Nigerian rebels (hungry people) are interfering with production; Oil refinery explodes in Texas ,(Small BP refinery that was unsafe and still allowed to run and kill workers); storms in the Gulf of Texas,( these ARE all leading to a massive shortage in the southern states; but, the prices are rising in France too) China, India and other emerging markets are decreasing the total oil available, (Iran reports that they have four full tankers if someone would like to have them)

The Kingston Trio sang about some of these, around 1960, with a Tune called The Merry Minuet. “There is rioting in African, there is strife in Iran, and what nature doesn’t do to us, will be done by our fellow man.”

As the checks go out, oil has already hit an all time high and is rising. I am telling people it was a good time to buy a SUV as the price would suddenly go down for no good reason. I know this as I have seen it happen twice before and the public dumped luxury cars taking very little just hoping to find any buyer.
Now the last stimulus checks have gone out and the price of oil is dropping and I think it will continue for a while.
There was no intention for us to have money... our job was to send it to energy companies to cover our very high gasoline and energy costs.

It is time for the American people to take their country back and while we are at it, all that oil that comes off of federal lands belongs to us. Where are OUR royalty checks? In fact, everything taken off of state or federal land belongs to us and only Alaska with the Alaska Permanent Fund gives their citizens their fair share of the profits. This a great program based on an idea from Abe Lincoln believe it or not, where state royalties go into investments and every man, woman, and child receives a check every year from the profits. $2000.00-$3000.00 per person or so is paid out each year. Now think of the minerals, timber, fishing… there is a LOT of federal (ours) property.
With this kind of money we could buy health insurance. We could fund our schools and not have to take Federal money or Federal mandated ideas on what our kids should know. No kid should have to see a book on sexual ideas involving non-traditional relationships until they are old enough. Only a community can make this decision.

And there are lots of things that belong to us that we don't get a dime for like the leasing of the airwaves for television, radio and cell phones. It is ours and they sell it to someone to sell it back to us. Crazy.

It is our country and this is our money. Where is our fair share of the profits? I think we are going to need them sooner than we think.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

450 TASER DEATHS AND CLIMBING.

I was at "Peoples Park" in Berkley April 1969 when 30,000 people came to hear a speech.  They were mostly Berkley residence very young and old and students.  800 police at the behest of Ronald Reagan Governor led by the Alameda Sheriffs dept. using 00 buckshot and were told to inflict as much damage as possible.
Hundreds were severely injuries, one shotgun death from repeated shot to the chest groin and face.  People were blinded and the Sheriff told his men to use deadly force and to inflict punishment like they Viet Kong.  Being mostly War vets they did.

Four days later 4 students were shot and killed at Kent State by the National Guard and that was the turning point in the War as parents starting paying attention and the beginnings of the end of police brutality.  WE ARE NOT THERE YET.

I got beaten by the L. A. County Sheriff four times.  Once I was arrested for armed robbery on my way home from work as the store clerk ID my Bothers custom 56 Chevy Two Door Hardtop.  There was not another like it as Johnny and I put thousands into the car including a custom paint Job by Barras.

I worked for General Telephone as a cable splicer and they could no locate my boss until Monday (Sober up day)  I was thrown down a flight of stairs and then the threw a bucket of water on the stairs and had a photographer take a picture of where I slipped...LOL

AS OF LAST MONDAY THERE HAVE BEEN 450 DEATHS FROM TASERS.  THEY ARE NOT NON-LETHAL.  IF THEY ARE TO BE ALLOWED THEY CAN'T BE GIVEN TO ANYONE WHO WEARS A SMOKEY THE BEAR HAT.

LAST DEATH 87 YEAR OLD WOMAN IN WASHINGTON STATE.  STAY TUNED AND TAKE PHOTOS OR VIDEOS OF POLICE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.  WE CAN SORT OUT THE BAD ONES.
THEIR MOTTO:  TO PROTECT AND SERVE,   

Monday, August 9, 2010

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Lakers-Celtics, Father-Son,Jesus-G_d, and a young Christian man from Arlington, Texas, all met tonight at a Micro-Brewery named BJ's. In a whole lifetime, you and I will have many different experiences where the beauty of life and our love for each other will also entangle a mystery. I was riding on the ever-present mystery of "Why" things happen and just happened to collide with all the above mentioned characters at the intersection of Fantasy Street and Reality Lane.

I have just arrived at my home on the campus of the University of Texas Arlington and must tell my story as I think it is a mile-post on my Journey in This American's life.

I am now writing the post so I can get to bed as I am going to the hospital tomorrow to find out why I am bleeding out again and almost certainly will have another surgery, in my never ending lifetime, of being a medical miracle and a Shepard, for My Father who Created the Vines of the Earth and the Sun that Warms us All.

My Doctor, Raymond Westbrook, wanted me to go immediately, by ambulance, to Medical Center of Arlington and be admitted through the emergency room again.
I told him I could not do that as my son Aaron and I had to do something we have planned for one year. He knows that my commitments to my son and daughter and a select few others are the most important events in my life. Being with Aaron tonight was simply more important than being rushed to the hospital and finding out my fate. I find it odd that people believe that their lives are always the most significant ones. My life is important as I do look after His Flock quietly in the background and there are those who will worry about me that I must respect. It is very wrong to play with peoples emotions and disrespect their honest concern for me as a person. I consented to hospitalization this afternoon at 4:55 PM and I will arrive sometime tomorrow at his "Blasted Emergency Room" where no one will treat me like I am an emergency anyway. It is always a bit of a conundrum when I go through life and death type events. I have done this many many times in my life.

Since the age of 18 months, it has been a lifetime of Living on the Edge. At 18 months of age I one day became terrified of our neighbor Mrs. Perkins. She apparently liked to hold me when mom worked in the yard. I remember that day and one other day when I was on the lawn and some girls from the Catholic School down the street were in a circle on the lawn and calling me and I went from one to another as they giggled. It was wonderful fun that I have remembered from that day before someone threw the terror switch on and I struggled with intense fear, became sickly and was very thin. A German doctor who was from Berlin shortly after the war, gave me steroid injections every week. I had to walk to his office after school and his nurse who was also VERY German would sadistically stab me and smile as she gave the shot. One day I was too scared to go and disobeyed my mom and just walked home. My mom really whipped me good as she had to pay for the shot anyway. Wasting money was a death sentence at our house.

I of course was terrified as a child, when I had go to the hospital. They used to not treat kids like they would an adult. Lots of loneliness and neglect came with every visit and it was not until the Great Childhood Epidemics of the Fifties that children became a major area of concern.

The Great Polio Epidemics began in America almost immediately after the end of World War II. I remember that kids on our block were just not seen anymore and there were hospitals in L.A. that only had Polio patients. On Imperial Hwy there was a hospital and they took the mostly kids outside in rocking beds that forced air into their lungs and sometimes could see the Iron Lung machines rolled out so some poor child could feel the sun on their faces.

At age 4 I first noticed in Kindergarten that kids just never came back. I think I was six when the first nasty Measles epidemic hit school and lots of kids disappeared suddenly and you knew that someone was sick as they put a large notice on the door that said MEASLES! The Health Department my mom told me put up the signs to help contagion. In the fourth grade another epidemic came through and two of my friends were gone for a long time and one, Richard, came back with a huge hearing aid and Jerry was totally deaf but we still stayed friends until 3 years ago. He died from his exposure back in the fourth grade. Just took a long time.

Chicken Pox,the three day measles, Mumps and Pneumonia's were scary but were mostly just miserably long. I caught Pneumonia pretty often since I was three, and I had what they called Catastrophic Asthma. I had heard that word before and it was not good. I really feared death with asthma. I would usually go to sleep feeling OK and would wake up unable to breath. I could not easily get out of bed at those times and would just pray to G_d, "please God one more breath."

Please God one more breath is something my 12 year old granddaughter told me she says too. She has a much less severe asthma but the fear is the same and Doctors still fail to aggressively be proactive in mollifying the fear of a child. I am not there to tell her how we will keep her safe as we no longer live in familial communities. We are more sterile and distant with our children not to mention our selves as we are digital and don't need to touch to communicate. We can just text them. U R fine.

I thought suffocating or drowning was the worst types of death as my childish mind examined it all. Superman was caught in a set of walls that were made to crush him. As the walls came together I thought oh, no, squished like a bug


Before bed mom would pray with me. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen.
I was terrified saying that prayer. If I should die????? What???? I am trying to live. I am not going to die am I??? I finally was able to tell mom how much it scared me and she changed the words. Whew!

Mom grew up in an Orphanage in Estes Park Colorado. Her father was a silver miner and hit a very rich strike of silver. He went and got my mothers mom and took her to an insane asylum and paid to have her committed. This was evidently more practical than actually killing her. Women were property in the United States until 1920 when Woman's Suffrage was ratified with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Mom 4, Sister Edna 5, and brothers Miner 7, and Mark 8, were told their mom had died and took them to the Orphanage run by very strict Southern Baptist women.

Mom had it tough and I

My face was not shaped right for some reason and I had to have my jaw widened 2 inches by pressure. Dr. William O. Reiman DDS. also had too bring out my jaw 2 inches forward. He was a Professor at USC too. He also pulled my mandible (bone)less than an inch back and pulled the upper teeth back by applying pressure. I had constant treatments for seven years. My mom would ask me to come into our living room when her Social groups met at our house and she would just pull my mouth open and show the work. I felt like a cow or something..lol
Mom was proud of the success they were having rebuilding me and I was so scared of people I would learn to vanish.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Elvis

In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The progressives have thankfully renamed themselves saving the great works that the Liberals did in the 50's.
Those Liberals just back from WW II knew just what mattered because they were tested beyond any previous generation.

Being Liberal meant generous. It meant hard work for a decent wage. It meant to reach into your own pockets to help those who could not help themselves. All the disabled from fighting in WW II were helped by such people as their government abandoned the Veterans. Just like today.

It meant volunteering to have your home as a percent location for voting, like my parents did. It meant not only going to PTA meetings it meant being part of the leadership.
It meant service to our country was the highest possible goal.
It meant many fine things but never meant free money to the undeserving, ever.
It meant your neighbors and your community worked together to insure your safety and well being.
Progressives....as far as I can tell have no real moral agenda anymore than conservatives do.

To take a slap at the name Liberal is showing your ignorance.
It is also taking a slap at my parents who like many others like them built this country to greatness.
A racist posting is Just that! Racist. It clearing is begging for comment. Mr. Free Tibet.
So quit, what do were care what you do. No need to post it, that is for certain.

Monies borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund must be paid back. Those are insurance premiums that were borrowed.

I can find no instance in history that a nation fell from having decent wages for private employees (non-government)

The majority owner of Berkshire-Hathaway has stated as recently as last year that he pays either no taxes or less that the average worker in the USA. He said this is wrong.

Cutting a little back from grandma's check so we can go to war is also wrong if the society as a whole is not giving up as much.

Fear and Greed of investors put us in this situation that was taken advantage by the warehouse lenders and the taxpayers were held up again for this clearly illegal action.

Taxpayers are the most abused citizens in the country. Some taxpayers like the above mentioned company are the freeloaders. They have more to do with how tax legislation is written than the minimum wage worker. Surely that must be obvious to a learned person such as your self. Here is a quote a well read person would know.

The days of the students of Ayn Rand are over. She is now seen for what she really was all along. A screen-writer. A story teller supreme. She made up a story to able to live her life as she pleased. Her best and brightest followers such as Allen Greenspan are now proven to be just what they always were...either fools, deluded or criminal.

In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Trying reading his sons work too James Kenneth Galbraith.

Let's go get Beitish

The Beatles Here comes the sun.

To Loretta Jo

Welcome home,
Texas hasn't been the same with you.
I have few word but of respect.
Your the kind that makes the world go round.
And that ain't bad.

The Beatles

OASIS MY GENERATION.



THE WHO, MY GENERATION!

AMERICAN WOMAN

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Exile On Main Street complete.

The Rolling Stones are bigger than life; yet, as comfortable as a good pair shoes.
As I listen to them play I think about their relationships and what makes them so special.
After years of searching for their musical center, I have recently found what has made them so special.  It was just a funny little factoid that I never heard before.  As school chums Mick and Keith toured around as an Everly Brothers gig.  I can hear the harmonies in what they play today. 
The Everly Brothers were BIG and Mick and Keith quickly learned the styles of harmonies so they too could achieve the oneness of a duo like The Everly Brothers.
It was a thrill for them to play as an opening act for the EB.  Later the EB opened for them.
If I told someone that I can hear the beautiful harmonies of The Every Brothers in many Stones songs...they would say I am crazy.  I don't really care as the music means even more now that I know what those two cut their teeth on. 
Everything is a mystery to me and I am either very dumb or very smart, or some way of being both at once like harmonies.
Life seems a never ending river of excitement and I like it very much.
It is funny in a very odd way, that the American Government got completely full of incompetents all at once.
Just ask British Petroleum...bastards!
I worked for Texaco Oil for 10 years. From 20 to 29 years old. I worked as part of the 1500 man team of engineers, comptrollers, chemists, machinist and other maintenance staff, Unit Operators for the refining units, visionary leaders and the totally untrained and incapable Foremen, who were bosses but not very good as one.
It was all about keeping everything running as fast as possible without breaking anything or killing anyone.  They did both regularly if you ask me, as more than twice was too much, yet more came.
I went to work for Texaco during the time of the greatest manpower loss since WW II.  They were always short-handed and I worked 17 double shifts in a row once.
I remember stopping to get gas and had to call home to find out if I was coming home or going to work.  Funny, going to work in a coal mine in the sky. A Delayed Coking Unit that made commercial Coke which is like cheap fast burning coal that we sold to Japan by the 1000 metric tons.
You have these 100' by 36' vessels (4) that are mounted high up on a platform from which you take the elevator to the top. close to 200' high. We also had four derricks over head that went up 140' with lights on top which we had to oil on a regular basis.
Someone heats the crude oil (San Ardo the most toxic crude in the world) to 905 degrees f. and then inject water into it.  Yes, we had very strong lids on both ends with the largest bolts you will ever see.
The next day when the pressure drops below three pound and no more water is can be drained out we start taking the nuts off of the bolts. 48 on the top 3' lid and 144 nuts and bolts on the bottom with a lid so heavy you have to use a special lift to support it.  Everything can go wrong right there and did.
One time a boss named Risley turned the draining water off and we looked down saw it had stopped and went down to unhead the drum.
It was still full of water and I held the controls a half deck higher for a safety margin (nice of them don't you think) when the head busted loose and sprayed super heated water on the three men on my team.  I tried to lift it up and it wouldn't move.  You could not yell loud enough to help them but they knew to run.  The whole place was a mass of super hot steam and I was in the easiest place to get away.  I grabbed the welded in ladder and slid down to the bottom and ran a direction I knew.  Not the first time for running but the first time for this.  The other time was poisonous gas, hydrogen-sulfide.  Man it is invisible and I saw two guys just drop and then a third a little closer me and I ran and hit kill horn.  Sometimes the Foremen world not let you shut anything down until they saw a problem and I had to point out the bodies and then they killed the unit.
It was always exciting and was not for the faint of heart.  One time we were all smoking a dobbie as we had a couple of hours to kill when a tremendous explosion rocked us.  That took power to shake us. We were all cement and steel.  It was the Hydrogen Generating Unit or the Hydrogen Bomb Unit as we called it.  I had to go as I was first take for the Fire Department so I got picked up in 3 minutes and went to the unit. There was no fire.  Never is with Hydrogen. Just boom or one time I saw a leak in a flange (connector) at 1500 lbs of pressure and it was an invisible thirty foot lick of flame which someone would of really ate it if I hadn't seen it happen.
This time a guy I went through training with just evaporated.  We only found a shoe.  He closed a valve he shouldn't of and it was an instant hydrogen explosion.  Now you see them and now you don't.  That is the tough breaks that goes with all the money.  I made huge wages for the time. I made around $40000 in 1969.  I bought a new Camero in 1967 for $1700.00 about $2400.00  out the door with options. $97.00 a month for 3 years GMAC financing.
The refinery was so violent at times you needed you wits about you, stoned or not.  Sometimes we would smoke pot or take Black Beauties to over-come good sense.  No sane person would take the chances as we did for money.
So I went from the labor pool where you did something different every day, sometimes good, sometimes bad, to the Delayed Coking Unit the most dreaded place there.  Then I got a bid on the boiler-house and started as a water tender making thousands and thousands of soft water for the 9 unlimited horsepower boilers that ran the place.
It was here that I had my first lung collapse and first experience with physical problems from toxic exposures.  I was off two weeks and then I got wrote up for absenteeism and they gave me two weeks off for punishment but actually it was was pretty cool.  The beach water was warm and the surf was coming in 4-7 swells at Rincon( not so warm but they had a great curl if you could pull out before you hit the cliffs.)  Huntington Beach was gnarly too. A friend and I just took off for the two weeks and partied on the beach.  What a great time it was. This was the last time I saw my friend Bryce as the Selective Service (draft) was really after him.  I understand that he fought it out with the FBI and would of rather been dead than to have someone tell him to go kill people he didn't dislike.  There is some comfort in that.

To be continued...

Saturday, May 15, 2010

"The World As I See It" by Einstein

"The World As I See It" by Einstein


Einstein at his home in Princeton, New Jersey
"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."
"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Arizona law creates a crisis for Hispanic Amenesty Organizations

Today a Pinal County Deputy Sheriff was shot by 5 marijuana smugglers while on lone patrol. A radio message was received that he was wounded by an AK-47 and contact was lost. Pinal Sheriff's Spokeswoman Lt. T.Villar. (A Hispanic)
Nearly half of Arizona's population is Hispanic or other dark skinned peoples. Arizona has the largest percentage of Hispanic Police Officers in the nation and make up 40% of the force. These are the men you will unjustly accuse of racial profiling. How does a Hispanic profile a Hispanic?

Now, to the facts. The Arizona law, SB 1070, merely makes a state crime what is already a federal crime. For example, the requirement that legal aliens carry their documentation on their person is already in federal law. All of the provisions of the law were crafted carefully to avoid any conflict with federal law. It specifically prohibits stopping anyone based solely on race or ethnicity. The Arizona law does not attempt to create any new immigration law; it simply gives state law enforcement agencies the power to enforce existing laws and arrest persons who are in the country unlawfully.

Why does the Hispanic Lobby accuse good people of racism. To get their way. To achieve amnesty at any cost.

Why does the border stay open when the American public wants it regulated. We have been told we are targets of terrorists and yet the government that tells us that has for 24 years let just about anyone in.

Some say it is a policy to create an underclass. The American public however has only hated Hispanics in boarder states that fell under the Treaty of Guadalupe of 1848. As a Californian I never experienced hatred of Latinos. My friends were largely Hispanic. The idea of hatred is propagated by those who wish to gain from that ideal of hatred. It simply is a lie. It would not matter if Eskimos were crossing the border in mass and bringing all the ills of their society with them. This isn't rascist. It is cultural shock. The loss of your culture is like the loss of a mate. Deep dispair will overtake the weakest. Anger will come from the stronger.

There is a real tragedy to be found here. There is a crime so heinous, so large that people can't even see it or understand what is happening to them.

The destruction of Mexico as a state. We have been skimming off the best and the brightest for the USA. Corrupt politicians in Mexico have made their home a pit of lawlessness. You don''t find as many young men to protect their families and so the Narcos take over. Towns that used to bustle as Guitar makers are deserted. Towns like Taxco, known world wide for it's superior silversmiths has not enough young men to apprentice at this beautiful artistry.
Only two hotels lie within 30 miles of Taxco. Three stars when they used to have five star hotels nearby.
We are destroying Mexico and not one person has ever mentioned it to me or did I read it in some text. NAFTA has distroyed Mexican markets for produce and craft products.. It is no longer safe to even visit unless you know your way around.

This is the hatred. This is the truth that no one will dare tell you. This didn't happen by accident. There is too much money at stake to ever enforce the border. The plite of the Mexican citizens will not be heard as genocide in the Congo is whitewashed from our lives.

Friday, April 23, 2010

THE ARMENIAN HOLOCAUST, NEVER FORGET.

I lived in Fresno California when it was the largest concentration of Armenians in the world. I learned much from them and from studying their diaspora. They and the Jews have much in common as they are traditionally of one religion, the Armenians Christian Orthodoxy, the Jews, Judaism. They kept to themselves living in valleys and herding their sheep. Great art works are found in old Jerusalem as their skill in stone cutting was unparalleled.

Present day Armenians can be found in America as School teachers and professors. They are social workers and professionals too. Being careful with their money they have been wise investors and in Fresno owned most of all refrigerated warehouses, yet had theaters dedicated to past master writers
whose work is still regarded as masterful.

Most importantly they were refugees when they came, in mass, in 1910-15 to America. They did not stay refugees, they made something of themselves in short order. Just like the Jews and other groups who have been victims of genocide and a Diaspora, they have excelled.

However, the murders of their families is still fresh in their minds as 80% of the population was executed or starved to death.

I admire these people for what they have done and for what some of them have done for me.
There is no such thing as a second generation refugee, it is not heritable. They have proven why. You get up and go to work to make something of yourselves.

Only one group in the history of mankind has made being a refugee inherited. They live in the middle east and you can see what the difference is. Self determination to do the best they can no matter where they are.

I mourn with you my fellow Armenians. May your future be bright and someday the wounds are healed.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

LA's ex-gangsters train with police to go against gang life.

NEWS ARTICLE 4/17/10
 

LA's ex-gangsters train with police to go against gang life.
 

Yahoo blog that follows all started with WE NEED TO...
 

So I wrote:
WE NEED TO.....stop right there.
I grew up in Lynwood and in 1959 someone spray painted on a garage wall Rolling 78s. Probably a gang initiation as it only happened once. That is when we should have done something.

Did we know that the CIA raised money for black ops back then...no.
The Heroin that came in on Air America landed at Air Force Bases and was picked up in government vehicles and taken to safe houses. Then it was sold in Black Communities all over America. Ronald Reagen and Oliver North were importing Cocaine the same way to pay for Iran -Contra. How do we stop gangs while the government creates them. These are all true and documented.

How can so much enter our country without someone our side letting it happen. Too much money in it. Take the money out of it. Legalize any natural drug. Scary consequences for the addictive stuff if you make, transport or sell bulk quantities.

People need jobs that pay fair wages. Kids need not good schools but great schools that kids actually want to go to. Make food affordable. Start with love instead of hate. With love we can do anything. Hate and we are doomed.

Kids need good families to grow up in. Immigrants associate with their own kind and are scared. I don't know how to stop this but taking the money out of drugs will help.
Return our freedoms and question everything. I am an old Compton College grad and I have seen better times.

I pray we have them again.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

HAPPY'S PROFILE:

Happy the Wonder Dog!

Happy left this life in 1990. His picture is on the wall with my other children.
I carry his Dog Tags with me at all times so I will never forget.

I met him as a pup at the orphanage and adopted him.

Catching things thrown at him. He liked to get out of the house once in a while and hunt. He would bring home some of what he found (usually bones) and give it to me. He liked to play tug of war.

A National Forest started at my back yard and Happy would go out at night and protect my daughter's (Jenny) rabbits from the coyotes. He would lie perfectly still until they were near and then pop up and give chase. He did not hurt them. It was just a form of a game.

Happy liked to catch rope that was thrown at him and wait for directions on what to do with it. This was part of rescue training. He really loved to help people.

Bad people, burglars, dopers and prowlers. He pinned two across the street when I lived in Fresno. I have no idea how he got free; yet, when my neighbor Sandy, a elementary school teacher, got home she found much of her valuables were missing. Not thinking she went through the house and in the back yard her things were neatly lain on the lawn and Happy had two men pinned against her garage. The men called for help as they had been there for four hours. She called the police and then called me. The police got there first and Happy would not let them approach. One officer mentioned shooting Happy to get to the men and Sandy went ballistic. I got there a few
minutes later and rather shocked asked what they wanted me to do. I did not want him hurt. I told him "home" and he trotted off with high steps and head up. "Show off" I called to him.
Uniforms. I caught a meter reader, who was next door, spraying him in the face with mace because he was barking at her. He had several other abusive encounters with officials before his first birthday. I decided not to train this behavior out of him as I was concerned what would happen to him if he left himself vulnerable.

Sneaking a nap on my couch. Sitting in front of my house waiting for an Avocado to fall of my tree, roll off my roof and he would catch it and bring it to me. I don't know why???? He liked it.

Trying to copy his older brother (not litter brother) an Australian Shepherd named Bowser. I would toss food to them as rewards. Bowser loved grapes. He would catch a grape, flip it with his tongue and bit down. Happy would try to do the same but could not ever bite one. he would chew and chew and chew and the grape would sooner or later fall out of his mouth. I had to squish them so he could eat. I am not sure if he actually liked them. He was an alpha and did not like to finish second to his witty brother.

1 1/2 " rope which hung from a pine tree. He would play tug of war with the tree

A space heater in my daughters room caught fire at the wall and Happy tried pulling me out of bed with great urgency. I shook my wife and went with Happy to open the door and the whole wall was on fire. He woke my son up and we all got outside safe and then he went to where they were sitting. He licked and wined and babied them. He knew to reassure the children and my kids always felt safe with Happy near them


We loved doing things together although we once had a fight for dominance while rough housing. He bit the top of my head hard and I clocked him. I knocked him out.  I ran and got an ammonia ampoule and put the smelling salts under his nose.  He suddenly woke up and started barking and I swear he barked at everything for 5-10 minutes then he took a hunk of bacon from me  and settled at my feet apparently satisfied to be a member of my pack.


Saturday Baseball and Snacking With a Brew.
We were watching our usual Saturday baseball game on TV and Happy grabbed a Peanut out of a bowl and crunched the shell, let the nuts fall out and ate them and to my surprise he picked up the shells and put them in my shell bowl. From then on he and I watched a game on Saturday and drank a couple of beers, I would pour him a bowl, and we ate salted peanuts.
I was careful as two beers were his limit and we only did this on Saturday.

All animals are unique. Happy was my best friend, he never hurt me in anyway and was always loyal. I miss him so much I still cry. I after 20 years still carry his dog tags with me at all times and someday soon I will see him again.

I know this to be true.  It is in my heart.