How Have You Been?

How has your life been these past few weeks?

Has your world been shattered into millions of pieces?

Have you come to the True and Accurate realization that the government and its judicial systems were not created for you?

Have you watched the country of your birth reject you and force you to face up that you are entirely worthless and not worthy of even the air you breathe?

Did you have to go to work, face the world, your neighbors, your daily life with a mask on your face and armor surrounding your heart each and every day since?

*

Did the president’s words raise your spirits yet make you weep inside because even he was shackled by circumstance and could not say everything he wanted to say?

Do you doubly fear for the Black males and yes even the Black females in your life?

Do you wonder if your Black child will make it back home safely each time he steps outside that door?

Did you march? Have you cried? Did you write? Did you petition? Did you protest?

Has the fabric of your everyday existence changed in any way over the past few weeks?

Did you find out some startling things about the “friends” on your Facebook and your Twitter and your Real Life?

Did you ever lose track of the fact that a child is dead, murdered and went on trial for his life and got no justice? Does it haunt your dreams at night?

Do you have that helpless feeling in the pit of your stomach?

*

All this and more and yet you had to keep breathing, keep walking, keep working, keep doing, keep stepping, keep that mask plastered on your face, bite your tongue, hide your true feelings because the world around suddenly showed its True Face and you realized that even more loss would rain down upon you and yours if you showed any emotion.

What happens next?

How are you going to live your life?

Did you check in with those of color in your life and showed your simple support by just a kind word, a gesture, an offering to spend time or just simple Let Them Know that you are there for them?

*

Is this the America you want to live in? Raise your kids in?

Things will only get worse if action is not taken. Silence equals consent. Inaction renders you part of the problem. Stand up. Speak up.

Combat injustice, racism, hatred, misogyny, discrimination, bigotry each and every time they rear their ugly heads in your life.

You live in America. These things touch your life each and every day. Begin to notice them. Speak out. Stand up. Stop the madness.

How Have YOU Been These Past Few Weeks?

*****

To whom it may concern,

I write elsewhere, and have been for sometime, as you probably could have told from my lack of new posts. I do so because I needed a different space to tackle different problems. I write here today because the world has changed, or rather it has been the same, I’ve only lately – past 6 or 8 months – let myself realize the hard truth of how the world actually is. These past few weeks were the clincher.

I had to speak up.

Living well, teaching your children well, and being a good person simply isn’t enough anymore.

Do what you can. When and where you can. Be a part of the solution.

Stand up. Speak up. Take action. No matter how large or small. Do something.

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______________________________

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Happy New Era!

 

The New Year is a special time for Buddhists of my ilk, but this year I had bigger fish to fry as you can see from my previous post. So midnight last night came and went with only wince or two at the local rednecks who keep confusing firecrackers with firearms. Did they not see that After School Special on firing bullets into the air? What comes up must come down. Somewhere. But I digress.

I’m always glad when the holiday season is over. As a person born and raised a Christian with the most fabulous Christmases concocted by my parents, and then being a Buddhist for the last twenty-five years or so – things can get muddled up. I even did the Kwanza thing for a little while, but that I found that it wasn’t for me.

I wrote a blog post some years back about celebrating holidays in general and I think I’ll repeat it here from memory because it illustrates my feelings on the subject quite well.

1. New Year. You should make resolutions and affirmations and set goals on the 1st day of every month. It helps to check in and see if some of those things have changed, or been attained, and you don’t get to beat yourself up if you haven’t followed through. Just start anew and continuously refresh yourself every month.

2. Valentine’s Day. Celebrate love – of every kind – on the 14th of every month. Why only one day of one month every year? And don’t confine yourself to commercialized commodities – the most valuable thing you can ever give to another is your time. And for that matter, celebrate Black History or as I call it Black Future Month every month. Learn something new about Black movers and shakers both past, present and future.

3. St. Patrick’s Day. Well what can I say? Wear green a lot all the time, every month and run around kissing everyone Irish you know. Ease up on the drinking thing, its stereotypical and silly and merely a cash cow for establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.

4. Easter. Celebrate your risen Lord once every month. I’m sure he’d appreciate it.

5. April Fool’s Day. Well have fun every month! Do something goofy every month and let your inner child out to play.

6. Cinco de Mayo. Get your Mexican happiness on once every month. Why not? Send out love and appreciation to Mom at least once every month. Mom’s are Mothers 24/7 so the flow of love should go accordingly.

7. Same goes for Dad’s. And if you are like me likeminded to observe Juneteenth, well get your hooray on for the Black Independence Day each and every month of the year.

8. Same goes for July 4th and and for Francophiles like me July 14th. Once or twice a month throw a BBQ or whatever for the country of your choice.

9. I can’t say much about Labor Day – snagging a three day weekend once every month might get you fired. As for “Patriot Day” – if you need a special day once a year to remember everyone who died in the twin towers then….

10. Try to get the truth out about Columbus instead of celebrating that genocidal slaver poor excuse for a mariner. CA, HI and NV have opted out, maybe you can get your state to do the same. CA celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day and South Dakota celebrates Native American’s Day. Maybe we can celebrate those two things once every month instead.

11. Halloween. Seriously. We need to dress up and have some fun at least once a month. I see nothing wrong with this.

12. Thanksgiving. Don’t get me started on this. Again truth needs to be told on how it actually was. We can still  have a day where we gather together and give thanks, but it should be based on truth and not comfortable lies. Why not give thanks for what you have in your life once every month?

13. Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Puhleeze. I know spending is great for the economy but goodness me! There are bargains to be had all throughout the year. Find them and don’t confine yourself to killing yourself at Walmart once a year.

14. Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza etc. Celebrate those themes of family, renewal, kindness, peace, giving and love at least once a month. Keep those warm and fuzzy feelings going all. throughout. the. year.

And if I missed any holidays or observances close to your heart, then ok, but I think you get what I’m saying. Don’t let things be confined to just one day. If you are going to celebrate and observe: do it alla dang time!.

Peace.

Be With You.

And Also.

With You.

Every Day.

I Welcome The Fifth Sun

Merry Winter Solstice Everyone!

I’m excited and happy that I’m alive to welcome the beginning of the next Baktun, the next 5,125 years cycle of the Mayan Long Count Calendar:

The Fifth Sun Cycle.

Many non-Mayans have believed – and cashed in on to be perfectly honest – that December 21st, 2012 is the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar. Since Mayan calendars are all wheels or circles, there is no beginning and there is no end as we usually perceive such things – there are nesting circles and spirals and as one era or count “ends” it simply rolls into the beginning of the next count cycle.

“Let us be absolutely clear that the Maya tell us their calendar does not end on 21 December 2012.  Rather, a long Mayan calendar cycle of just over 5,125 years finishes, and on the next day a new great cycle of 5,125 years begins.  If you are interested in the fine details, this 5,125 year cycle is equal to the following Mayan units of time: 13 Baktuns, or 260 Katuns, or 5200 Tuns, or 1,872,000 Kin (days).

The breathtakingly harmonic calendar works as wheels within wheels within wheels that keep turning.   The great cycle ending on Winter Solstice 2012 began in 3,114 BC and is called the Fourth Sun by the Maya.   There were three Suns before the Fourth Sun and there is another one coming…the Fifth Sun.

To get more specific, the Fourth Sun actually ended on 16 August 1987, a day marked by the worldwide ceremonial event known as Harmonic Convergence, and we have been in a sort-of 25 year gestation period leading up the Fifth Sun.  On 21 December 2012 we finish this transition period and on 22 December the Fifth Sun is born, a new 5,125 year era that will be governed by a balance of male and female energies.  The Fourth Sun was governed by male energy.” (source)

I know not everyone is as space-happy and starbound as I am, but with my twin obsessions interests of space and anthropology, I for one cannot deny the spiritual and scientific import of the documentation of space-time from these fiercely accurate time-keepers. I’ve ever been open to world views and quests of the spirit from those that came before us. Never do I dismiss what they have to say simply because they did come before and are “ancient” in our linear perception of time. Back in the day, I celebrated the Harmonic Convergence in my own way, and I intend to celebrate this particular solstice in like fashion.

I decided nearly a year ago on New Year’s eve that I would turn on and tune myself during 2012 towards listening and understanding and making sure that I keep myself open to all the possibilities that this new era could bring. Quantum Physics have already touched on the power of human mind and thought and shown us that much of what IS exists due to the interaction, focus and attention of human perception.

I choose to be a part of the endless spinning of planets, galaxies and stars. We are indeed stardust and I try to remind myself of that everyday. That there could be hope for balance, for truth and Awakening in the dawn of this new era brings me comfort and peace.

To at least make the effort to align myself, my pure self, my essence my Spirit, my inner energy with the advent of a chance to renew, to regain, to come home, to settle, to instill within myself the strength of cosmic distance and the intimacy of space and time – well that makes my heart sing and makes diamonds out the tears I’ve shed for us on this little blue-green marble.

I will take my few moments and joyfully greet the sun as it rises tomorrow. I will pace the frigid dust of this desert and give gratitude and thanks as I breath in the crisp Winter air on that morning. I will dance in my own way on the next day on the Birth Day, on the first day of the Fifth Sun Cycle.

“…the arrival of the Fifth Sun will not be an “Aha” moment and that changes will be gradual.  After 21 December 2012 four periods of thirteen years each through which we will grow into the Fifth Sun.

We will have thirteen years of infancy in our new way of being on the Earth (2012 to 2025), followed by 13 years of toddler-ship where we are just learning how to walk (2025 to 2038).

Then we will have 13 years of adolescence (2038 to 2051) followed by 13 years of young adulthood (2051 to 2064), and then we will have matured into our new way of living in harmony.” (source)

I would love to be alive to experience all of those footsteps along the pathway to fully realizing the potential of the Fifth Sun. I’m realistic about my health and the personal choices I make, and some key elements of those don’t add up to me living to the ripe old age of 96. However, I could make some key changes that would lead me to extending my life, and who knows that the future might bring. Our children and their children will be here to experience all of these things and I give Blessings to us All that we might see and live as much as we each possibly can.

As you hold your family tight and celebrate the joys of this special time of year, send out a thought, a prayer – take a moment from the hectic speed of days – and capture even just a little part of the heavenly harmonics that will sustain you and yours well into this New Baktun, this Happy New Era this exciting new age of Balance, Birth and Potential.

Understand that while there might be barriers like the speed of sound the speed of light to us touching the farther reaches of our galaxy and our universe, there is nothing that blocks the way and the velocity of the speed and power of thought and prayer.

When the light of Earth’s star bathes my face and tickles my smile I will send my thoughts my prayers to you and may you feel them and bathe in them like the warm rays of Sol and know that I am thinking of you and love you and that I share with you my Joy, Hope and Happiness for our future.

Blessings.

Go Palestine!

I’m rooting for ya!

Palestinian UN Bid Gets Thumbs Up.

But THEN!!

Israel continues its bullying ways.

There’s more

Reactions to this on Global Research site.

The Fine Print from AlJazeera.

aaaaand we all know which way the US voted on this *facepalms*. This was a missed opportunity to put politics ASIDE and do the RIGHT THING for once. Israel doesn’t need backing from anyone. They seem to be doing just fine bombing women and children “back to the stone age” all by themselves. Its way past the time we extricated ourselves from that whole thing.

I guess that was asking too much.

There’s more but you know how to use google I’m sure.

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For those of you who dunno:

1. I’m not anti-semitic. I’ve kept my mouth shut on this for YEARS because as a Black person, the second you say something bad about Israel suddenly you hate Jewish people. See the vid on my previous post to know exactly where I’m coming from on this issue.

2. No, I’m not Muslim. I’m a Buddhist actually. But why can’t I just be a human being who wishes that intense human interactions could be conducted fairly and without bullying and bloodshed?

3. Yeah, I voted for Obama and I’m pissed off at him and my government and they need to come correct on Israel like yesterday. Those nekulturny dunderheads over in Norway or Sweden or wherever the heck it is that awarded him the Nobel PEACE prize…*shakes head sadly*

Uh HUH

and this is what was really going on

http://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/operation-pillar-of-cloud-israel-continues-to-destroy-gaza/

If you don’t know, now you know.

Stop The Killing

When I see stats like these:

45 Palestinians dead; 3 Israelis dead.

I have to wonder at the obvious imbalance of it all.

The Buddhist and Quaker in me is mortally offended at any war at all, and my compassion for the injured dead and dying on all sides hurts me to the bone.

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I knew that there would come a time when our hand-in-glove relationship with Israel would have to come up on a reckoning.

Shame on you President Obama with your backing of “right to defend” nonsense. You know good and damn well Israel “defends” itself by being the aggressor and raining down death on Gaza.

But I guess you are used to that what with all your drones you got going on.

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Where is the United Nations? What about Human Rights?

Are we just to stand by and watch people kill each other? How are we “civilized” nations that we cannot deal with our problems in any other way?

“The United States has given us full backing to take whatever measures are necessary to defend our citizens against Hamas terror.”

Thank you Michael Oren. Yet another reason for me to be embarrassed to be a US Citizen.

In early 2009, a ground war in Gaza left some 1,400 Palestinians dead, the vast majority civilians, in a conflict that was similarly intended to stop rockets from being fired from the region. Thirteen Israelis were also killed.

Again, I hate to bring up numbers but LOOK AT THAT!! What on The Good Green Earth do think is going to happen if there is a continuation and a repeat of hostilities?

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Somebody has to do something. I am brought to mind the picture of that lone Chinese man standing in front of those tanks. Enough is enough. What is it going to take?

I leave you with this statement because maybe my words have little weight. Who am I but an ordinary human being who simply wants the killing to stop?

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My Birthday Wish…

Peace On Earth by Kathleen Scarboro

My birthday wish in these wild and crazy times

Is simply to have everyone I know

And everyone I meet

Take just one thing – Peace – and see how they can create MORE

Of it within their own lives and in the lives of

Everyone they know

And everyone they meet.

Maybe it will grow and spread and change lives

Like that movie Pay It Forward touched so many people

And made people realize

That it is up to us – individuals – to lessen the Hate

Eradicate the prejudice, and for the sake of

All our souls – end the killing and work towards rebuild.

If I could have my wish this year

I would wage Peace on each and every one of you

Peace of mind, Peace of spirit, Peace of heart and soul

Peace in the true sense of the word

A dignity for life on this planet and our responsibility

To know what the right thing to do is

And to do it.

My birthday wish is for Kindness, Compassion and Respect

To be the way we treat each other

Peace be with you

And also with you.

Bittersweet Day

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Just want to thank all you Fam and Friends who got out there and ROCKED THE VOTE! Who all saved the day: Record numbers of Black voters, young voters, WOMEN, and the Latino voters who are a force that every politician needs to reckon with from here on out.

Really great day for my LGBT peeps too so YAY!!

That is the Sweet. Here comes the Bitter.

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Very bad taste in my mouth. I’m a Black Woman in America. I’ve had to deal with racism in so many different ways all the time, every day. Nothing new. Unlike those squigits talking about “post racial America” I figured there would be a backlash to Obama’s election the first time around and I was right, but I wasn’t expecting the racists to be so unashamed about it. That was the only surprise.

Actually no. I was surprised that they went and created a whole political party/faction around their racism and even won major seats in our governing body running primarily on their racist agenda and little else.

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I want to share with you some of the stuff that got thrown around in the last four years. Maybe you missed it, maybe you’ve forgotten some of it. I think we need to remember and never forget. Because until this country deals with its deeply rooted origins of white supremacy and racism we will not make it.

~That young Black man shot by police officers on the eve of Obama’s inauguration. Nothing new there, Black men are shot and killed by the Po-Po all the time in this country. Business as usual no matter who is president.

~Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates arrested in his own home. Suspicious behavior called in by a neighbor. Gates got off lucky. Black, male and “suspicious” is a death sentence these days.

~Just ask Trayvon Martin. Profiled, hunted down and shot point blank. Murdered because he was Walking While Black.

~New York has a wonderful Stop and Frisk Program going on right now. Blacks and Latinos are being targeted nearly exclusively. Watch THIS VIDEO to see exactly what is going on there. Apartheid much? More on this LINK HERE.

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http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/what-is-white-privilege/

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~A Spanish magazine features The First Lady of the United States of America as a partially nude SLAVE on their cover.

~RNC attendees throw peanuts at a Black camerawoman and shout “this is how we feed the animals” at her.

~That racist agenda I was talking about? There are so many examples, but Tim Wise gathered nearly all of them in one place. If it walks and talks like a duck… Happy perusing! He’s got even more if you’re not sure I’m telling the truth on this.

That is called Southern Strategy. It is old and nothing new. In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the Republican Party strategy of gaining political support or winning elections in the Southern section of the country by appealing to racism against African Americans.

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This is what you do with a Black male to keep him in his place. You never acknowledge him being an adult. You infantilize him. You always call him “boy”. And if he still gets too uppity you chop off his foot or castrate him and lynch him from the nearest tree and then set his body on fire when you’re done.

Did you hear GOP elected officials, surrogates and pundits calling Obama “a child” and saying things like “let the adults handle things” or refer to his policies as “infantile”? Well I heard them, and those words were not chosen idly.

Obama being hung in effigy via a noose got so commonplace I barely twitched an eyelid. Many got creative and started hanging empty chairs after the RNC, and this past Halloween brought those wannabe lynchers out in droves.

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What was your response to seeing the President of the United States showing his long form birth certificate? Were you slightly miffed that all “that birther nonsense” had gotten that far? Click below and experience what that was like for Black America to see the leader of the free world being asked to show his papers.

http://angryblacklady.com/2011/04/27/heartbroken-at-the-suffocating-racism-and-outraged-at-the-apologists/

http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/white-americans-really-need-to-shut-up-and-listen/

If this is still confusing to you, then this will help make things very clear:

http://blog.reidreport.com/2011/04/icymi-goldie-taylor-on-americas-first-black-president-and-his-papers/

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The GOP and its members tells people like me things like this:

Black kids better off during slavery than they are today because back then they had a two parent family.

Slavery was actually a blessing for Black people!

_______________________________

And now we come to the response of white America to the results of Election 2012. We got The Donald calling down a Jihad on Democrats. We got people on facebook and twitter talking about how they are going to ditch out of the USA and move to Canada. Or Australia. Might want to research up a bit before ditching, cuz Australia: “for all you Americans talking about moving here, our PM is a single atheist female, we have national healthcare and mandatory voting.” Best tweet evar.

Speaking of twitter here are just a few of the torrential gushing of racist posts in reaction to Obama’s win.

Another comment I copied from the web:

My homegirl Noelle said one of her co-workers facebook status this morning was:

“I guess fried chicken will be free all day today. Congrats”

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Like I said, America has a serious problem and it didn’t just crop up because we had the audacity to elect a Black president that first time. Or this time around again. There is the institutionalized and systemic racism and there is the racism of the citizens themselves.

I am in less danger than say Doover or my son – I might survive walking down the street or being deemed “suspicious”. I might survive my next doctor’s visit, or I might be considered trash and ignored and be LEFT TO DIE. Little Black kids playing and driving their go-carts COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED simply because the color of their skin made them a target.

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You don’t get to skip off from responsibility like that woman did, nearly killing those children and not even getting a ticket much less arrested. Something needs to be done to get this country turned around and living up to its true potential.

I know there are civil rights groups and what all that you can turn to to help with this huge project.  You were a bunch of damn hypocrites to think all was right in our world because look we did a good thing and elected Barack in 2008. You can’t even cry the same game this time around, because the alternative was so disgusting, pretty much anyone damn else would have been the better option.

You should thank the GOP and their Southern Strategy machinations for bringing the racism out into the foreground. Now you can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist anymore. That its really “not that bad actually”. You have to begin to understand what the real America is. I know its heartbreaking. Trust me, I know. You want to believe that the America you THINK should be or WISH should be is – but the reality is much more sobering. But they say that the Truth shall set you Free. So why not start there?

Be warned. This sort of thing will happen a LOT when you confront a white person with their own racism:

“…whites’ chronic misunderstanding of the nature and mechanisms of racism so we hear racists calling out minorities for being racists for calling racists out on their racism”.

Don’t get caught in that web. Refocus, bring things back around. Think of it like AA – once you acknowledge the problem – that is the first HUGE step and you are ready to get to work and change your life, other peoples lives and hey our country and maybe the world?

Every Vote Counts

Who do you want in charge of “restocking” the Supreme Court? There are four seats that will become vacant very soon.

The Supreme Court does things like decide on Equal Marriage. DOMA was recently ruled unconstitutional in a Federal Appeals court on its way to the supremes.

The fact that we are discussing things like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in this day and age is scary. Who do you want in charge of deciding what your civil rights (if any) should be?

Why is fair pay even up for discussion? It seems a no brainer to me.

I’m also not interested in discussing other no brainer issues like family planning and women’s health care with politicians waving hypocrisy in one hand and a bible in the other.

Last I checked there was separation between church and state and aside from that, I believe women should have every single option available while making private and personal decisions for their own families and their own health and well-being.

Your vote COUNTS. Get out there and let your Voice Be Heard.

Early Vote Ballot

My early vote ballot came in the mail yesterday.

YAY!!

I was getting a bit antsy because I’d heard that early voting was open in Arizona and I was like I KNOW I signed up for it soooo WHERE is mah ballot!??

Some peeps might have issues about voting by mail and the supposed “fraud” that occurs with absentee ballots. Well whatevs. All I know is voting by mail allows people like me – who aren’t always sure if we are going to be actually physically able to get to the voting place – and people like my parents who were overseas for years and for the women and men in the military overseas – to participate in our country’s politics and policies.

HuffPo sez My Prez is leading in Early Voters so WOOT!

I’ll be spending the rest of today working on getting everything filled out properly. There are a lot of propositions on the ballot I gotta figure WHAT HECK THEY MEAN – wade thru all the legal jargon and politspeak.

Why they can’t just say: A vote no on this prop means the proposed amount of money does not go here; a vote yes means it does.

Instead you get a page and a half of confusing words and phrases. Usually if I can’t figure out what the right way to vote is on a proposition, I abstain. Better to do nothing than to accidentally do harm – let the chips fall where they may.

I’m sorry if that seems whatever it seems, but I DO try my best. Some of this stuff is just buried beneath crap or written in ways to mislead, so well as soon as people learn how to write a proposition in PLAIN ENGLISH, I’ll be voting on more stuff. IJS!

But at the very MOST – I get to put my vote down for the Obama/Biden 2012 ticket and that does this ole heart a WORLD of good :)

Vote Early!

Remember how it felt… and go out and VOTE:

Papa Joe Brings The Thunder

Welp.

Oh NO He Di’int!

__________________________

*record scratch*

say whaaaa??

I know errbody else including myself has jumped in on this but when you have the MittBot spouting his usual lies and nonsense and Barry off his game – nothing else really sparked in that debate on Weds.

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Run the numbers!!

The federal government appropriated about $445 million in fiscal year 2012 to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports both PBS and NPR.

The amount allotted for federal office space acquisition: $864 million a year.

The amount budgeted by the State Department for either Afghanistan or Iraq in 2012: $2.3 billion and $1.0 billion, respectively.

The defense budget: $676 billion this year.

(Source)

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One of my FAVE astrophysicists Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted:

I concur.

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And now for some closing arguments:

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Register To Vote

Today, Tuesday September 25th, 2012 is National Voter Registration Day!

So Go Ahead and

http://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/register-to-vote

JUST DO IT!

For a country with real ease and freedom when it comes to voting (compared to countries around the world that is – don’t get me started on the voter purges and voter ID crap that’s sprung up this election) We sure don’t vote any where near our national numbers.

I always wondered what the demographics would look like and what our past voting record might have looked like if 90-100% of Americans were registered voters. It is said that 75% of those registered WILL actually vote. So the results would be very interesting to say the least.

Are you a woman? Get registered and get out there and VOTE!

Black person in America? Get registered and get out there and VOTE!

Love to complain about politics and your president? Get registered and get out there and VOTE! Earn the right to complain!

OK that about covers MY demographics (haha!) and didn’t you notice how wonderfully nonpartisan I was? All in keeping with the spirit of the day ;)

The ER Is Not Free

Mitt thinks that people like me the uninsured can just go ahead and use the ER as our medical care.

Really? If we had between $800-$2,000+ to blow on an ambulance ride visit to the ER we’d have already signed up at for one of those rippy offy “personal healthcare” policies and been done with it.

Little did I know when I called an ambulance to take me to the hospital over a year ago just how much it actually costs you. This is what I learned:

NEVER CALL AN AMBULANCE UNLESS YOU ARE BLEEDING TO DEATH OR SOMETHING. CALL A CAB OR GET A FRIEND TO DRIVE YOU TO THE ER.

They charged me all the mileage/gas it cost round trip. They charged me for the oxygen they used to keep me from hyperventilating and passing out. They charged me for a complete box of latex gloves although from what I could see the EMT only used one pair on me. That was the breakdown from the bill. Those were just the incidentals. It is actually about a $400 ride from your house to the nearest ER.

I had to stay overnight in the behavioral health unit (you know the Loony Bin) and that cost a pretty penny. They charged me for the gallons of blood they drew and for all the tests they used it on. They chared me for the room and board and the $15.00 pill they gave me when I was bouncing off the walls and couldn’t sleep. If they’d told me that teensy lil pill was fifteen bucks I woulda said no and opted for deep breathing exercises or taking a walk or something else to try and get my heart rate down and stop my head from buzzing like it does sometimes.

Did the “health care professional” who handed me that pill know how much it would cost me? If so is she allowed to even mention it? If not, why not and also why then are they pushing more and more expenses on patients without letting them know how much each form of “treatment” is going to cost??

When all was said and done I think my bill was somewhere near $1,200 if I remember correctly. I had to go to the ER again recently and though I managed not to take an ambulance I ended up with about a $500 charge with all the stuff they used to keep me breathing and un-dead and now I have no idea how I’m going to get a refill for the albuterol sulfate inhaler that was prescribed to me.

Another $500 trip to the ER? An 8-hour wait at a crowded free clinic somewhere? (All the while trying not to panic out because I don’t do well in crowded places much anymore). I tried the Walgreens pharmacy clinic thing and found out it would cost me about $80.00 just to sit down with a physician to talk to them about my breathing issues and hope at the end of it all I’ll get a refill script for my inhaler.

ALL BECAUSE BIG PHARMA TOOK ALL THE OVER AND BEHIND THE COUNTER INHALERS OFF THE MARKET AND TOOK MY RIGHT TO BE ABLE TO BREATHE OUT OF MY HANDS AND INTO THE HANDS OF SOME RANDOM DOCTOR I CAN’T EVEN AFFORD TO GO SEE.

Why? Because it cost 11 bucks for a primatene mist inhaler – I used to be able to walk into the supermarket and buy – and costs FORTY BUCKS for a prescription inhaler that’s why. I just thought I’d mention that since we were on the subject.

No sorry Mitt you are so far out of touch with how things are if it weren’t so sad and tragic I’d be laughing. And my story is on the not so very scary end of the horror stories people could tell you about their experiences when they’ve had to go to the ER.

Nobody goes there on PURPOSE Mittens. Nobody LIKES the ER you dolt! Nobody wants to use it instead of having a doc and healthcare so you can manage your health with preventative care and regular doctor visits so you DON’T end up in the ER.

It certainly is not a viable alternative to affordable health care for each and every American citizen – but you wouldn’t know anything ABOUT that now would you??

Can’t Get This Song Out Of My Head

No One by Alicia Keys