Dear Friend and Reader:
Lather. Rinse. Repeat:В When you askВ the government for money to bail you outВ of trouble, please don’t use it toВ purchase a corporate jet. Don’t buy your company expensive week-long retreats atВ lavish spas when you get the government check, and PLEASE don’t pay yourselves salaryВ bonuses totalling $18 billion.
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That’s the message theВ Obama Administration sent when it announced their plan to cap executive salaries for financial institutions that receive Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) assistance from here on.
This moveВ was madeВ in the wake of abuses of the bailout moneyВ last year under the Bush AdministrationВ to fund corporate perks and boost executive salaries through high-dollar bonuses valued in the billions.
Under the original TARP Program developed by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the banks that received bailout funds wereВ already subjectВ to limits on compensation, but the Bush administration intentionally left them lax. Under the new restrictions proposed by the Obama Administration, the top five executives at banks receivingВ government TARP assistance are restricted from offering lavish perks toВ executives.В Any compensation above $500,000 is not tax deductible to the company.
In defining the principals of the new rules to be included in the bailout, National Economic Council Chair Lawrence Summers wrote that  “executive compensation above a specified threshold amount be paid in restricted stock or similar form that cannot be liquidated or sold until the government has been repaid.”
Once again, back to instructions: When you take out a loan from the US government, you must make sure what you borrowed is paid back before you give yourselves lavish perks. If this seems likeВ theВ United States government isВ trying to corral behavior that’s gone visibly out of control, then your assumptions are correct. It appears the corporate interests that had their heydeyВ during previous Republican administrations perceived themselves as above common sense, common decency and the law.
Year after year, from Nixon to Reagan to George Bush Sr. and George W. Bush, the free market was unfettered and unregulated. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), once formed by the Roosevelt Administration to circumvent future depressions by oversight and regulation designed to prevent market fraud and abuse by banks and lending institutions, was close to dismantled by four Republican administrations and congressional majorities in the latter half of the 20th century. WhatВ should have been theВ center of regulation was made toothless by the hiring of staff under-equipped to handle or regulate Ponzi-scheme masters like Bernie Madoff, who is now under federal investigation and house arrest for bilking billions from investors, taking money that was never invested in anything and ruiningВ lives and institutions across the world.
Obama was correct in delineating the cutoff point from where the Bush Administration’s TARP Program would end and his would begin. There is, as Obama said, “one President at a time.” The clear difference between PresidentsВ and the theme for todayВ is accountability where there once was none.
From the Iraq War to the economy, the operating principle for the last eight years under theВ Bush Administration was to “privatize the success and socialize the risk.” That means corporate cronies reaped financial benefits while the public took the fall in dollars and lives.В During the last eight years it started with Enron and ended with TARP, but this principle has really been in effect since “morning in America” under the Reagan Administration. De-regulation was the operative word.
Today’s instructions, administered by the Obama Administration, are step one in what will probably be many more to unravel what has been done to the country over the last 30 or more years. How appropros of an administration begun under a Moon void in Scorpio and Mercury Retrograde: digging deeply underneath the surface of what’s been obscured and re-doing it to make it right. Thankfully, President Obama makes these new regulations while Mercury is direct.
And now aВ word of warning before we lose our collective memory or minds and even dare to think that perhaps we can toy with the idea of having Republicans back in power in Congress or in the White House.В В Please read this. That’s Richard B. Cheney,В true head of the Republican Party and all its interests hoping that the country will be mired in a deep depression or fall prey to a terrorist attack, which they then of course can use to make political gains against Obama and re-establish RepublicanВ power in Washington and Wall Street.
They don’t care if the country lays in ruins or that lives will be lost, as long as they regain control. Cheney leads amongst the many with the cold darkness of heart that allowed massive greed and lust for blood and power to spin out of control to begin with, bringing this country and the world to the brink. Please, let us never allow that to happen again.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Yours & truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
Oops. . .the sun has no problem being seen in this eclipse. It’s the MOON that’s being eclipsed – invisably – so I guess the earth’s shadow is not impeding this moon in leo. This full moon in leo so close to President O’s uranus.
So sorry for my neptunian faux pas.
I imagine nearly everyone knows someone who is in prison or who has been in prison.
I’ve lived in the inner city. I don’t think society demonizes the poor in particular. There are areas of affluence in every community, where the people always think they are superior – but the poor tend to also have feelings of superiority. Everyone’s better than somebody. You don’t really become aware that other classes exist until you get out of your little neighborhood cocoon. That works for the rich too – when everyone is rich, you are just normal. Once the rich realize they are rich, they are really revolting – so the poor still think they are better than the rich!
Think of it like biggest loser, the tv show. The biggest loser is really the winner – see?
I’d blame movies and advertising before I blamed the schools system. I smoked cigarettes as a teen, to look cool. Some people chose to get high. It didn’t have anything to do with the schools or being poor.
I’m not hearing any support for the entrenched, outmoded and unfair systems of our government(s), unless maybe to reference a successful system “somewhere else”. What I am hearing from emotional and intelligent people are ideas for change. . for the better. . .for the people of the world. . .and their governments. You have listened to each other’s views and discussed matters. Thanks to different attitudes, different experiences, different locations you see things from different perspectives.
Two weeks ago we had a new moon eclipse in aquarius, with lots & lots of company. The sun, moon, jupiter, chiron, neptune, nessus, north node, and juno. Did I leave anyone out? The seeds were planted. Mercury was rx in Cap. He’s back in Aquarius in 6 days from now. It’s time for a full moon eclipse. The lonesome moon is in leo facing mars, jupiter, juno, neptune, chiron, and nessus and the nn. (Can we include the sun since this eclipse might be invisible thanks to neptune?)
This discussion has come a long way since I last entered it on Thursday. The entries have all been fascinating and educational. The beautiful people here are passionate about whatever they support and see the opposite “evil” as something to be transformed for the sake of the survival and growth of humanity. Who says everybody’s the same in aquarius? Nobody. We are all individuals coming together for a common purpose. And that would be. . . .
Again Fe, thanks for your work outside and inside PW.
on overproducing: I was taught in grade school that with the rate technology was moving, in the future we would all only need to work 20 hours per week to produce everything we needed. I guess the teacher forgot to factor in the need/income ratio. And that other thing we rail about.
20 hours a week, twice as many jobs.
The numbers have gotten too big and I think they need to come down. It is strange to see homes that have been vacated by folks who cannot afford to stay in them. And then see the same homes being sold to others at a much more affordable, lower rate. A deal the former homeowner was not allowed. Now that I don’t understand.
About nappy time, I think it could be as easy as office chairs that folded out into recliners with built in massagers. And haven’t some airports (not much of a traveller these days) installed rest areas, that could work.
About home schooling.
I think it is fine. I know a few who are doing it and that is fine. I find it interesting.
I was raised on a dairy farm. My high school class roll was 64. It was very small town walking between the lines and rebelling all the way. Being the adventurous type, I got out.
There is something about throwing yourself out in city life that is both wonderful and daunting. Street smarts is something I learned the hard way. And I survived somehow.
My thing about home schooling is that there is alot to learn about people and the world outside the home. It just ain’t the same.
There was an incident in the vicinity of the school my niece and nephew attend. It involved a man with a gun. There was a lockdown. I talked to my niece some time later about school shootings and how she felt about it. She said they are trained to lock the door of the room they are in, shut off the lights, and either get under a desk or line up along the wall where the door of entry is located. I was shocked at her matter of fact account of a standard routine emergency management procedure. I asked her if all this freaked her out at all, she nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and said no. It is the times they live in. Once again, I question. Where do these home schooled kids get their street smarts?
It’s a parental choice. I’m good with that either way. And we can say how sad about the world, but how long can we protect them? There is something to be said for acclimating them to the world at large.
oh my, what have I done here. Astraea’s fire was lit.
Anyway, no not everything is made in prisons. I just don’t want any trending to start. We must admit prisons are moneymakers or they wouldn’t get privatized.
The interesting thing I found when on a prison tour with the sociology class was the classroom. This was a facility for prisoners who could not adjust to hard core prison life, whatever that is. It was prisoner rehabilitation i guess. The person teaching the classes said that the inmates she was teaching could not read beyond 2nd grade level.
I must be having some communication problems that I have become incomprehensible. I defend no system in its totality. Systems are created to control things. I feel we must always question. If we do not question and are not questioned we become slaves to those systems and the systems that support those systems.
Don’t get me wrong I like systems. I’m a great system analyst on the job. I like workable systems in accomplishing tasks. It can become a baseline from which to run. But we can get stuck and that’s why change is so difficult.
Further, anyone who commits felonies should stay in jail. My point is having concern for people who are generationally criminalized, sentenced and socialized to do harm.
Its bigger now than just imprisoning people. We lost track when we allowed a poor education to happen to kids, and lost means for people working class people to work so they could support their families long ago. Thats where we’ve needed to draw the line for a long time. The community beyond a family necessary to support kids is just about gone.
I live in the vicinity of the inner city. That’s my neck of the woods, so you and I will have different stories. I also work, from time to time, in the jails. There’s racial tension in the city and from time to time our neighborhood gets hit with crime.
Hey Gardener:
Let’s clarify. There are people who deserve to be in jail. Murderers, rapists, thieves, — people who are a threat to society deserve to be. And there are others who are there for victimless crimes like prostitution and drug addiction, which are crimes of poverty, but sentencing laws have done nothing but warehouse them. And those sentencing laws have become more severe with time.
These are the ones I’m talking about where the social safety net, which provided some cover, was stripped away from years of neglect and just hard-hearted policy-making, helped along by demonizing the poor. People whose lives could be better improved by a stronger public education system to begin with are warehoused. This is where we’re dropping the ball as human beings.
Though there’s something to be said about home schooling, there are some folks who cannot afford to stay home to home school, they have to work.
Fe, I apologize if I seemed flippant about the creative product issue. I am in a Reichian kind of mood these days, feeling as long as more than 80% of the population continues to be in awkward, tangential, avoidance relationship with their blissmixers (the body, yo) it is all for nearly naught.
[eeeghhh… I just killed a rant about this. Who cares?] But the engineered garment/hammock/garden was my attempt to come in at the root: how do we get to be (as opposed to ‘have’) *enough*? How do we surprise ourselves/each other with the news of our enoughness?
So I’m thinking Napmobiles. Big, eco-happy Winnebagos that park in front of Hewlett Packard and GE ~ when people hit 20 hrs that week, they get an hour in the nappod, beginning with a footrub. At 30 they get another; at 40 yet another. Four per ‘Bago, working from about 2 until 7 p.m. — and of course there would be employees who wouldn’t wait to earn it.
Ah, but there’s this little problem back at the culture. Self-care is considered a luxury or associated with fat bastards and people who aren’t ‘working hard enough.’
Yet isn’t it curious that our current work ethic and its *overproduction* is so problematic for every other species on the planet (except the rats, who find us oddly attractive). Our willingness to fund the largest military buildup in human history is also connected to the anxiety generated by this overproduction. I mean, we have to protect all this shit we make, right?
(Local writer Michael Ventura pointed out last week that our military budget is bigger than all other militaries in The World, COMBINED… holy crap.)
Back at my Reichian aches and pains: I suspect that the so-called ‘natural’ affiliations between affection and hatred-jealousy-pride-guilt-shame are also driven by the overproduction engine. Though this may not be very Aquarian of me, what if ‘taking care of each other’ just meant acknowledging each others’ strangeness, beauty and distempers. I’ve been doing this lately, seeing – really seeing – people’s grace exactly where it is, and holding it with them. As this cycle of bathing and writing and steaming and breathing goes deeper, it has become easier and easier to say that grace, then hold the door for their embarrassment, the awshucks dance, the sidelong looks to see if I am going to turn suddenly ironic; then slow acceptance of what is offered in my regard.
***
Oh, and I’m not just running that regard over the locals. I wouldn’t call the Navy evil anymore than I call the Talib evil. They are, however, uninformed by anything outside of their ideological gated communities, and grow disproportionately convinced of their prerogatives. Yet all are blissmixers. All have the same fibonnacci music whistling from the sacrum to the saggitals, and that flute can play any number of tunes once you learn how to move your breath. Just. So.
Victoria,
I don’t know what you are trying to say so let’s call it a night ok?
Yeah Fe, but it is what it is – a prison. At least they aren’t breaking rocks anymore. I didn’t say I approved, but Victoria implied that everything we buy made in america is made in prisons. It just isn’t so. The model prisoners are the ones who get to work. I have some personal experience with prisoners too (a friend, a neighbor, and a relative), and yes its sad, but by golly being a crime victim is no picnic. All three of the people I mentioned deserved to do time and should have got longer sentences for what they did. Most prisoners are let out early because of crowding and they have near zero opportunity to work at worthwhile employment because of the police record. The military industrial complex has very high paying jobs, like at Rolls Royce. Ex-convicts would not meet suitability or security requirements for those kinds of jobs. I also had a cousin who went to prison for alchohol abuse, and in that case I didn’t think the punishment fit the crime, but it prepared him for his life’s work at a men’s homeless shelter.
The last two robberies at my house ended up with my husband catching one himself – he turned out to be wanted for rape, was tried and convicted. The second he shot at, and later had to id the truck which as it turned out fit the description of a vehicle that was seen during many home robberies. We live in the country, where people think you might own something they can sell for drug money. I have no use for people who do drugs and even less for people who would rob someone’s home (especially that!). Sorry!
It is another reason to home school, but most public school teachers oppose the home-schoolers, and even try to imply that there is something wrong with parents who do, like they might be deviant perverts, especially if they are Christian.
I don’t see hopelessness and despair in my nieces and nephews who attend public school but maybe they are in your area, or maybe you teach in the inner city.
Gardener:
I have concerns about any sort of prison labor. The first and primary of which is the prison industrial complex which builds this live-in population of cheap labor in the country to begin with.
The first phase of the complex is in the fourth grade, where its determined whether or not a child is penitentiary bound. The public school system does nothing to remediate matters. In fact, in some cases, it makes it worse.
The last twenty years of public education has been an example of sporadic excellence. dismal failure and general mediocrity. We have forgotten rule one about the basis of a civilization: educate the next generations to expect to maintain and improve the society in which they live.
Instead, we have been given little less than a lowered ceiling on what can be delivered and therefore, the sense of hopelessness and despair becomes systematized.
I have problems with prison-produced goods. I just do. To me, its the new plantation system, or the 19th century industrial age.
victorialynn, you can build a box with a hinged cover out of a throwout window. When temps go low you can throw an old sleeping bag or something over it. I use one for a starter box in the spring on the southside of my house.
the veggie I am toying with is the cherry tomato. I have seen them growing on my freinds fences. Maybe they could be trellised indoors. They are good little producers. I know rain water and a big soil bed provides alot of nutrients, but then again nothing kills the small tomato bushes.
If you can find any chickweed greens, it withstands pretty darn cold temps.
My other area of investigation for the upcoming season is the rain barrel. There’s a guy here who gets barrels of less than edible food to feed something he raises and sells the barrels for a few bucks. I just have to unattach the pipe running from the gutter and attach a flexible (yes probably plastic) thing to run into the barrel. I figure I can drill a hole into the lower part of the barrel and attach a fixture that I can run a hose from to my garden. If I run a two or three barrel system I will drill a hole in the barrels side at the top and run a hose between them for runoff from the upstream barrel (decreasing elevation is important here). It is water that may or may not have gotten to the acquifer, but hey, I get food without running the electricity.
Gardener, tis true, we are all weapons of mass consumption. Doesn’t excuse us from responsibility just because the next guy does it. Less I use, more for you? How does american consumption rate against the rest of the world?
I have some herbs growing year round…I wonder what, if anything, can be done inside as far as veggies? I will have to look into this. I’m in northern VA. This is my second winter here. Last year wasn’t as bad, but this year it has been downright freezing! Two days ago 13, today it was 64…go figure.
victorialynn, maybe the garden to table food is supplying you with some energy you don’t get from the walmart produce section. Buy some cilantro or parsley at farmer’s market and put it in the frig next to the walmart stuff, and see which wilts first. It’s a long journey to market. When you buy local, you also save on gasoline for product transport and all that goes with that. What’s your temp range in VA? Maybe I’m dreaming up here in the north country, but couldn’t you do greens year round?
i get what you are saying about boundaries. We all live under the same blue sky. But we ain’t there yet. We are governed and that’s where the breakdown comes in.
Next fall I am transplanting dandylions in a washtub in the basement. One of the weed goddesses says they do well in the basement. Fresh greens in the winter. Mmmmmmmmmmm. How about trading in some of them oxygen producing tropical house plants for veggie and herb plants? Any successes out there?
Gardener, I hear you on prisons, but when corporations get involved, it still smells like work camps to me.
And like there are people in prison for using a drug, while people are giving their fellow users on the streets handouts? That confuses me.
Try etsy dot com for hand-made goods and crafts.
I’ve been thinking about this whole “buy local” issue a lot lately. I don’t know where it came from, but out of the blue I got this deep desire to only buy “things” that are crafted by real people. (Guess that’s why the daily photo of women working together to produce beautiful textiles meant something to me the other day.) I have become so turned off of cheap goods…cheap in all ways. Instead of just buying “USA” or “UK” or “Canadian”, I’m focusing more on buying from people. I know this is hard, and I am far from being able to do this with my groceries especially. We have a small garden that we eat out of in the summer, and I go to farmer’s markets, but that is only a small fraction. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am so tired of giving my hard earned money to these giant retailers selling plastic baubles. Maybe I’m just looking for meaning, connection? I bought a fruit bowl off of etsy the other day and everytime I reach in to get a piece of fruit out I am reminded of the photo of the potter, his wife and their young child…I touch the rim and his hand has touched the same spot. You know what I’m saying?
Victoria, I’m sorry I still don’t follow you – but I’m happy to let it rest now.
Oh – I forgot to add, when prisoners in th eUSA work, they actually get paid. That is what I learned about the eyeglasses when I studied up on it a few years ago. It is all charity, but the prisoners doing the work get paid extra.
-uh Victoria, It’s true that some prisoners do some work, but it keeps them busy. I know our prisoners refurbish eyeglasses to redistribute to the poor in foreign countries, and they make license plates. The folks in our local jails sometimes do clean up work and some gardening duties. They also help in emergencies like the floods and ice storms. This is hardly the mass prison labor system that China uses.
The high paying contracts for military equipment go to a lot of foreign owned companies, like Rolls-Royce. What country is innocent?
People in foreign countries use oil too – it is our clothes, all plastics, your computer, printer, copier, auto, and on and on.
Toilet paper is still a renewable resource so I don’t plan to stop using it right away.
Local veggies are best for you to eat, but there are products from foreign countries that are too lovely to pass up. Coffee, chocolate, tea, and rice are 4 imports I can’t live without.
Victoria:
Funny you should ask that. I feel as though I’ve been riding a bicycle that’s suddenly turned into a helicopter hovering 2000 feel above ground and going up. Its taking a little getting used to feeling the new type of ride.
We’re handling it well here at PW. Its just a pretty amazing sequence of events at the moment.
fe, stormy enough for you?
paletiger, please refer to eric’s reference to maslow. Now zoom out to nations and world. How can we take care of others when we can’t take care of ourselves? Refer to janesd, she has a much better take on economy than me. Where are you janes? I would much rather supply you with something other than weapons. As far as fear of isolation, one of the pw writers said, always give some away. You know the energy game you speak of, don’t waste time worrying, direct it to creating and sharing. And if you and your friends are making some of them great natural products, don’t just put your name on it, stamp it Made in England and send it on over. You are now part of the world economy.
Sorry, V – I can’t follow your discussion – I don’t understand where you are coming from now. If it is any help, there has been some considerable debate here (UK) re protectionism – do we buy local now and shun products from other countries so that we can protect our labour (what little is left of it) in our own country. I would love us ‘all’ to get to a better balance of building and buying within our own countries as well as continuing a global market. My worry is that everyone will just want to take care of their own. That’s what sparked my comment in relation to yours about …’buying local’ etc.
paletiger, case in point. what are we making here? we have become dependent on dollars coming from less than honorable jobs. fear is keeping the military machine operating. Do you know how many parts and pieces and engineering goes into that stuff? and check out our prison roll call, more laws to incarcerate more people for stuff like smoking dope, so private industry can utilize cheap labor of inmates.
Whoa there – I was talking about you suggesting folks buying local…’when was the last time you bought something ‘made in the USA’.
paletiger, here’s the deal. We are involved in a struggle here in the USA. Too much of what we are producing is weapons. You think that does not affect you? Do you think our politics of fear does not affect you and the rest of the world? Shall we Americans retire to a state of victimhood? We are not separate. As a country we need to do our part for planetary healing. What you are witnessing here in the coastline story is something like, stop the warring and save the planet. We are appealing to our federal government in mass. Our heads of state are world leaders too.
And I am not sure where you are, but how would you like to be part of a group who continues to blow up the world’s valuable resources. If we can change here and get our anus’s working and directed, we can change the world. Join us if you will. And please by all means, let this american know what you are doing in your corner of the world. One world, one ocean.
Are you England? Remember the channelled whale. It’s a sign. Are you Australia? How about them beached sperm whales? It’s a sign.
The personal is political???????????????????
Victoria of the ” oh my god , I am getting a head massage. ”
I wondered if you weren’t riding along with me last night. I was coming back from the Hilton on a packed city bus, doing what I do on those rides: firing up the 5-minute Teaching Cycle. (I am getting damn good at this if I may say so).
Wondering what my topic was, a woman with beautiful, beautiful, beautiful hair reaches up and starts to untie one layer of it. It is down to her ass, it is salt and pepper and perfect. Just luscious. She drops it to her shoulders, and people gasp. She flings her head back and it hits the guys standing behind her in a silvery wave. He just smiles. He’s this well-put-together professional sort, so this reaction is kind of interesting.
THEN she starts playing with it, dragging it to the front of her face, creating this thick curtain of near-black while her lighter hair forms a pillowy shock around her shoulders. As I start my encomium (because you know I’m going to push it), I feel the vibe shift, opening lust (short for ‘lustre,’ eh?) to include something more venusian. I hardly had to say anything. People were *all* over it, thanking her, talking about their own hair, *in* there.
It was pretty wild.
So. Thanks.
er…is this USA Waves or Planet Waves? Some days it’s hard to tell. Is protectionism the way to go in a global crisis?
ps buy local and spread it around. when was the last time you saw made in the usa?
Gardener, it ain’t that I’m not aware of the struggles going on out there. They fill my phone line.
I hate to go new agey on you so I’ll blame my longtime no more healer dude buddy. The thing I am working with is that I create my reality. Now with my nervous system, if I focus on all the pain, I will shut down. I have shut down. So I have no where to go but to the wonder of life around me.
It is true that I live in area usually last hit by recessioned economies. I also live in an area of industrious people who make their own, evidenced in the amount of workmen who have their own businesses. These are the businesses that take care of the day to day mechanical grunt work. And people in these parts, love to work, love to eat, and love to drink beer. And as frustrating as it is, they have strong family networks, if they care to deal with them. That alone is inspiration to keep one’s own ship afloat. I don’t know if ol vince lombardi’s speeches still ring through this area or what. So yeah, we have the packer backers. That brings in business and gb has capitalized on that. GB is the population center closest to “up north” woods country. Those good folks come down and load up on the goods and some even stay in town a few days. We have a great private college in the nearby town which brings in alot of rich kids and their parents and the restaurants in that small town are awesome. We also have an excellent environmental university upstream.
Have I mentioned the oneida nation and their casino and entertainment venue.
And our big secret savior has always been the toilet paper coming out of the paper mills. You use it don’t you? (now to clean up the river, ye gads).
But we know it could shut down any day. And there are now signs of slowing and belts are being tightened. And we do have to travel to get places and an energy halt could shut us down good. But we focus on keeping moving. And yeah, I’m not working, but I sure am working hard.
I’m not saying it’s a great place to live, but it is where I am. And right now, we are working to keep it going like there is no tomorrow. I think what we have here is diversity of business. For now, we are okay. and my energy is riding in part with the folks holding together what is, so we can make an easier transisition to what is to be.
mystes, there is something going on with the cost cutter hair goddesses. I had gone shaggy for alot of months since my sister shaved my head. As it grew out she suggested I get professional help. I had a gift card so off I went back to CC. The young woman tipped me back to wash my hair. Normal enough. But she was washing and washing and washing. And I was, oh my god , I am getting a head massage. I got moved to the chair in front of the mirror for the shearing and noticed the lineup at the sinks in the corner. Three men tipped back in their chairs eyes closed enjoying their head massages by the three closed eyed hair goddesses.
I looked around the salon for some kind of sign or mission statement or something that reflected the change. And there it was a huge color poster of a young woman with a wispy kind of cut. The hair swept down over her right eye and she was peeking out from under it with a sly knowing smile. Enough said.
Likewise, my trip to the periodontist, was equally surprising. I will spare the details. Myself, I love a good confident mechanic. But it seems like that is expanding into something more.
I am pleased.
Actually, thinking and feeling can be considered ‘doing’ too…
Carecare7 – don’t find your comments re self-help and enlightenment offensive, but not entirely sure I understand you.
A ‘me me me’ culture seems to be going on with certain groups of people – thankfully, it is not everywhere. That culture is also fuelled by media to such an extraordinary degree, it’s frightening. But it doesn’t strike me it’s come from self-awareness or enlightenment – if anything, it’s vivid evidence of the opposite.
If people miss out on self-awareness – some seriously important learning grinds to a halt. I would be out of a job too. The trick with self-awareness and self-help (a bit like dieting, another billion dollar business) it ONLY works if you actually DO something different. So agree with you absolutely about the doing (or lack of!).
Change can come from just thinking and feeling differently about an area of life or part of yourself, that has troubled you or caused you trouble. It usually (usually) leads to the doing of something. But without the self-awareness? Harrummph.
V writes: “mystes, the Hilton spa? I love it.”
Yep, and apparently it is the only one in the country so endowed. The city gave the Hilton corp some monster incentive package, and with the extra they went a little wild with the gym/spa facilities. I have heard from Hiltonians who travel the chain that this place is the best.
Given how much the city ponied up, every citizen in Austin should have a free membership for a decade. But somehow I doubt that is going to make it to the next board meeting.
Still. If the Navy has been reeled in for a more comprehensive hearing, who knows what can happen.
mystes, the Hilton spa? I love it. The gifts we find in the most unusual places. Is the salt Austin only? Or chain wide? Is it an employee benefit? I’ve worked places for a lot less. The last one was easy commute, bottled water, and good investment package.
carecare7, I am with you on self help. Most of it I did not get, but I did do mental bookmarks and working through my stuff, I could understand what it was some were saying. And you kinda gotta face it, a little self awareness does go a long way because dysfunction can lead to misfunction to no function. Patience please.
Wasn’t there a daddy cuomo from new york who actually made some kind of humanitarian sense. When they asked him if he would run for president, his reply was, not the way the country is now. The right leaders for the right time. He knew the odds.
I’ve been thinking what I have been hearing out here is a bit of difference in the leonine plutoids and the virgoan plutoids. Me pluto just eeked by moving into virgo, and is just now getting comfy in leo. My younger virgoan plutoid contacts are working very hard and making some really good contributions to the existing structure. They whine about work (wouldn’t be anything virgo about them, if they didn’t) but these people are sharp. And hey I was out there grinding away trying to keep the machine moving while they were enjoying the fruits of perfection. Now the libran plutoids, they are a conundrum for the virgoans. The virgoans are saying giddy up get er done, but the librans want some balance in their work day. Your turn, figure it out. We support you. And scorpio is moving on forward in in big ways.
I imagine all the self help was triggered by our friend freud and his contemporaries and successors. What was the first self help book you read? I hate to admit it but I was a babysitting teen and read the sensuous man and the sensuous woman at my place of employment. Ye ha adulthood was gonna be fun. But your point is well taken, self help kinduv turned into help yourself in a not so good way. But now, as astrologers have said, the question is more about career. And hopefully with that we will come to understand what contribution we really make. What to buoy up, what to let fall away.
Carecare7 (the Ecstatic) says: “Not to offend anyone but I think the time for self enlightenment or self work ah-la Oprah is changing to other-work. For too long, our society has been about “me, me, me.””
It’s both. Certainly in my world it has been about ‘you, you, you’ — I’ve spent the last billion years supporting and launching others’ careers. I’ve done so with a wisdom-base collected and expressed through the awakened senses. I know the algorithms of that sensory array (which stands *behind* the normal sense inputs) and am getting ready to disseminate them.
This is requiring a huge shift of focus, and a path of being IN the body as never before. Part of what I am reading through the Book of Blue has to do with E.’s corresponding inquiries. Physicality –as it passes into open discourse– is shifting into another modality beyond public/private. Not as exhibitionism, but really something else. My body knows this path; articulating it involves self-care at a level that will encounter some resistance at first. Push through it.
Apropo lyrics to share from great album: The Church, Priest = Aura, 1992
I wasn’t expecting this
Now everything is destroyed
Underneath us are the nothings
Underneath them is a void
Beyond that void is a place
Where figments from bad dreams are banished
Childhood nightmares all come seeking
And adult logic nearly vanished
Chaos
Inside-down, upside-out
None of this is what I wanted
I truly asked for what I got
Bang the gavel, it’s lawlessness
I can’t unravel the knot
Half this wretched town is starving
While the other half are bloated
Everybody hates the bastards in power
But their pill is sugar coated
I didn’t need any of this
I feel anxiety in my neck
The consequences now apparent
Feeding back unchecked
Incessant blue in spiral coils
Fingers underneath the skin
Adrenaline is not my mistress
But she always knows just where I’ve been
The album is an amazing mix and ends on a positive note, and this song is second to last, so we MUST be near the golden light, eh?!!!
‘Morning, Angels…
I don’t want to clutter up the PW space with this, so will put up an address to the ‘story’ of how this is done. But in a nutshell, it’s the technology. The Hilton’s management, for whatever goddesskissed reason, decided to purify their spa waters (‘spa’ comes from the latin salud per aqua – you know this, yes?) and salinize them instead of chlorinate. So what comes through the steamroom, whirlpool, tropical shower and swimming pool is R/O’ed saltwater.
I help that along in various ways (discussion coming). But this is a massive, institutional investment, and I have no idea why they decided to do it this way. I’ve been using it for not quite a year.
Another reason you should all move to Austin. Though I’d trade for Findhorn in a flash.
“Mystes~How exactly do you “salt-water steam?”
Yes – still eagerly waiting to hear about this process; and try to emulate!
Yes, and a shout out to Rachel Maddow and her segment “Lather, Rinse, Repeat.” Hopefully everyone is watching.
As for Cheney, for anyone that even has a smidgeon of thought that either he and the neocons allowed 9-11 to happen or they made it happen to further their own ends, this is a WARNING from him. If they did either, and especially if they made it happen, they could do so again, just to mess up Obama and the Dems, just to keep the fear going so the people cower and forget their power. Like the ants in Bug’s Life, we are huge in number and we have to remember the neocon grasshoppers are few and though they are bigger, have the money, the means and the power, we have power in NUMBERS and in the end, like Ghandi found, we CAN defeat their fear mongering and take BACK our dignity and our country.
Cheney is issuing a warning. Watch for his neocons to try another 9-11 again. They may succeed, but THIS time, we have to be ready with the LAW to prosecute them and make them pay for this time and the last time too. We must be ready to catch them. This is why he is smiling, he knows it is a warning and he thinks he holds all the cards. Not this time. The people are waking up. Fool me once…….
Not to offend anyone but I think the time for self enlightenment or self work ah-la Oprah is changing to other-work. For too long, our society has been about “me, me, me.” All those self help gurus, those personal coaches to help us improve ourselves, those card readers to point the way did their job and we had time to do that but there has been a frustration within me when I see the Oprahs and others keep telling us to bask in the oneness of it all. Dammit, we have got to stop basking and start DOING. For each other. For the human species, for the planet, for all species.
As Starhawk once said (to paraphrase) the Goddess was alone and then created another that was her but as the other swung away, the Goddess turned from herself and looked outward, toward the other and that balance between them created the universe. We need to get busy taking real action, in our homes, in our families, in our communities, in our states in our country.
Our family has been very busy all along capturing water for the garden, composting, having compact flourescent lights in every socket, water shut-off valves for our showers, thermostats turned to 62 even in the dead of winter, buying in bulk, cooking at home, freezing foods, washing clothes only in cold water, hanging them out to dry and so on. The next step we have already set in place: all of our kids (the oldest are 16 , the next is 14 the youngest is 7) have been taught from the ground up that families will need to live together even as adults (like the Asians do!) in order to consume less. We have no-present birthdays now and low present Christmas. We reuse, recycle and purchase wisely. ‘
The next thing to work on for us is to get our incomes stabilized and then work on educating the kids as they reach that age. We already home school, which is way cheaper than public school in the laundry savings, clothing savings, supplies and party savings and so on. We all strive to help at least one person every day no matter how small the help. We donate to food banks, frequent thrift stores (recycling!) and give our used things like books to the library and clothing to local charities. We only drive when necesary and try to keep it simple. If everyone does their little bit, and everyone focuses on US instead of ME, things will change.
Oh and I write my legslators, Obama, my state and county and city law makers and tell them what they need to change to make our world a better place. It isn’t enough to complain, it is better to offer up solutions along with the complaints.
I don’t mean to sound grumpy, I just feel fired up and ready to DO more and help people more and get others excited about that too!
Fe,
“What could we do to provide a spiritual commodity (oxymoronic I know) that fuels a great awakening?”
While the moon is still in the twilight of Gemini, I would say that you are already providing a spiritual commodity that fuels a great awakening, just by being here. When the moon moves through Cancer and then on to Leo the ideas will become more than just a plethora of words (no offense, I LOVE Gemini, would be nothing without Gemini). In the meantime, your suggestions can stimulate the imaginations of those who read here every day.
Ralfee Finn writes today in a stariq article: “From a transformational perspective, a deep creative river runs through the current series of Saturn/Uranus oppositions. Its current is mighty, and that translates into the potential to seek inspired solutions to the disintegration of structures that no longer serve. We have opportunities, personal and collective, to reach past normal, standard responses. Social Band-Aids based on expediency won’t work. And there’s nothing left for hedge funds to hedge their bets on. Our societal and cultural structures require new vision if we are to remedy our deep personal and collective dilemma.”
She goes on to say: “Over the course of this week and the next several weeks allow yourself to be moved beyond the contraction of uncertainty and anxiety into the fresh air of invention and imagination. And when possible, allow love to steer your stars.” Take that Dick Cheney!
Now mystes has a great idea in her genetically engineered plant, but as Fe reminds us, Pluto in Cap will require it (ideas) be grounded in reality. Keep working on this.
I too will sleep, while the moon moves through Cancer, with these brilliant thoughts churning up the Aquarian energy we are surrounded in. She will contact Saturn and Uranus on Saturday, and perhaps while completing chores, you and I will come up with some brilliant idea we can report back here. Thank you and good night!
well now, that is soothing, fe.
Oh, thank you Fe….I missed this. Hope he repeats on his program.
Here’s the word from Keith Olbermann’s diary at Daily Kos:
Special Comment: Dick Cheney
by Keith Olbermann Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 02:58:51 PM PST
While he was this nation’s Vice President, we more or less had to permit Dick Cheney the platform from which to give voice to his delusions, his paranoia, his manipulation, his willingness to do the primary job of the terrorist for him – to scare the Slasher-Movie part of the population.
Well he earns no platform any more.
And for the Vice President to deliberately undermine a 17-day old new Administration, in an interview with Politico, earns him the kind of old-fashioned flagellation provided by a Special Comment tonight.
Or if you want you could call it Enhanced Commentary.
“When (Cheney told Politico)we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry.”
More concerned, Mr. Cheney?
What delusion of grandeur makes you think you have the right to say anything like that?
Because a president, or an ordinary American, demands that we act as Americans and not as bullies — demands that we play by our rules — that we preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States — you believe we have chosen the one and not the other?
We can be Americans, or we can be what you call “safe” — but not both?
On the way to invoking Oliver Cromwell, we stop off at John Frankenheimer and Richard Condon.
The Politico story continues:
“Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration – “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” – have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”
Mr. Cheney, you made this statistic up.
Perhaps not you personally, but your people made this statistic up!
Mr. Cheney, which orifice are you pulling these numbers from?
You know, in the movie “The Manchurian Candidate,” the character based loosely on Joe McCarthy had trouble remembering all the different numbers.
His Lady Macbeth-like-wife pointed out to him that the reason she kept changing the number of purported communists in the state department, was so that people would no longer be asking “are there communists in the state department?”… but would begin only asking “how many communists are there?”
Eventually she picked one number that her husband could remember.
57.
She found it on the bottle of steak sauce on the room service tray.
It’s nice to hear Representative Harman say “it’s time to retire the fear card,” and for Roger Cressey dismiss as “ludicrous” the idea that Cheney’s way is the only way.
And now let’s all help him off the stage. Quickly.
‘what you’re up to’ (I should have said)…
Hey VictoriaLynn, that’s great – I used to live in Newcastle too for a year way back in the late 80’s. Had a brilliant time there – very friendly people. Don’t know Northern Virginia, only know Charlottesville and Lewisburg in West Virginia – was working out there for a spell a couple of years ago and loved it! Have to say that the North Sea from this point on the map is a little less desolate than down in Sunderland etc., but it has the same misty soul about it none the less.
I’d be curious to know what your up to as well Mystes – I am a water baby too and if there’s something I;m missing, I’d like to find out!!
PT~I live in Newcastle-upon-Tyne for three years before moving back to the states, so relatively close to you when you consider I am now in northern Virginia! It took me a while to get used to the North Sea after growing up on the coast of Maine, but I find myself longing for the quiet desolation lately. I was able to get to the seaside in Maine over Christmas though; the whispering of the stoic pine sentinels did a lot to soothe my soul.
Mystes~How exactly do you “salt-water steam?” I’m not ashamed to admit I am a hedonistic bather…cleansing for the body and soul. Oils, potions, herbs, elixers…I enjoy them all!
Yeah, I can understand that. I’m lucky that I live pretty close to the sea – beautiful beach at Findhorn, where I head with the dog most weekends. And of course of the non-sea-salt variety, there are umpteen lochs and rivers around here – even a very small river (what we call a burn) running along side the house.
I would struggle being landlocked. I tried it and felt miserable.
Actually, it’s not just luck – I upped and left the City and all that was familiar to come here around 9 years ago. Many thought I was mad – but I could care less. Best thing I ever did. It’s a pain in the butt trying to get anywhere – everywhere is a long way away – but nevertheless, you can still get there and the view out my window, the air in my lungs and the sounds in the sky are worth every bit of it.
May the ocean rise to meet the soles of your feet 🙂 x
PT: Wondered if you had ever tried homeopathy? In particular Natrum Mur (salt). In fact, you can also get Nat Mur in sea salt version. Just when you talk of the �need’ for it…
Sure, doll, but it’s not (only) the salt. It’s the water + steam + neg. ionization + more water + luxury. As in *being* in my body as never before. Perfect for getting me to the next stage in my practice.
I was born in a hospital room overlooking the Gulf of Mexico (birthed by the town’s mayor, who was slumming as an MD). Seawater is beyond critical, but this is my home, 180 miles landlocked.
I also work out there, but only because I have four kinds of water to immerse myself. Putting things in the body is fine, putting the body in things is better.
For an earthbased being, this might be the equivalent of a dirtbath (I know someone like this); for an aerealist, that house UP in the trees (swaying with stormlight, rain, wind) might do it. For firedancers, might I recommend a nice flamenco. This is where I go so that my body can finally start saying itself.
You come too.
Gardener:
Mars goes into Aries on the 22nd of April this year. I’m actually looking forward to the energy boost.
Hey Fe, when does Mars move into Aries this year?
I’ve had a bad feeling all week – a very uneasy feeling. Hope nothing terrible is getting ready to happen, especially after my 911 call to you – so I’m taking it all back. I can work with the people in my life who need help. LOL.
blessings and more….!
fe, the bastille, is too big and scattered to storm. It is everywhere. But how do we audit those financials of Cheneys? Wasn’t one of the problems with Daschle that he had private dealings on the side? Any good criminal detective follows the money?
And the sad tale of the disease we now call consumerism, I believe has indeed alot to do with reagan(?), reagon(?), rag on. It seems to me that there once was a law that prevented marketeers from marketing any products from cartoons. For example, if there is a bullwinkle show, you could not market a bullwinkle doll. Mr R changed that law. He built a whole culture of consumers from the bottom up.
In the mid 90s I watched a two year old child sitting on the floor opening up the christmas toy catalog. Her face changed and she started wincing in pain and clawing at the pages out of want. It is one of the most pathetic and illuminating scenes I have ever witnessed. How far we have come.
Victoria:
Sound like you’re having a Saturn-Uranus epiphany, or the lid’s blown off the volcano and released hot mother earth energy.
Bravo.
The more I peruse the blogs, the more I see people spouting off the collected steam of thirty years of denial that this was happening to us. We let them because they gave us good money. Now they ran with the bags filled with cash and all we’re left with is empty shelves that used to be stocked and empty pantries that used to be filled.
I am surprised we haven’t yet done the equivalent of storming the Bastille. At least not yet, anyway.
What the hell is Cheney running on? Somebody please do a public release of where his dollars are invested? And does he have enough invested to make another 911 happen?
America needs respect? Is that what we had in his administration, respect?
He wants to fight with the present administration? You want us to defend ourselves against you? Don’t need to add any carbonation to your water. We know you got the guns at your command.
The bosses I had that fucked with my accounting or tried to (just try to fudge the black and white on this Virgo, I’ll spend the hours setting it straight, you think I don’t know what your doin when I’m not there.) were trying to hide what they were doing. If I just mess things up bad enough, no one will know the lying cheating lout that I am: they’ll never figure it out and they will never find me.
What is he on? You’re done you dick. The world abhors you. Go to the spa or take a nice long salt water waterboarding.
I so did not want to go here today. More mess left by the annointed ones. Aaaargh!!!
It’s a dirty job fe, but somebody has got to do it. And I’m glad you are on it.
Mystes – ‘Six weeks without saltwater steam in Dec./Jan showed me that it is *more important than food* for my spiritual and psychic health.’
Wondered if you had ever tried homeopathy? In particular Natrum Mur (salt). In fact, you can also get Nat Mur in sea salt version. Just when you talk of the ‘need’ for it…
Love PT.
“Being a mars in Aries with little tolerance for bullshit, I’d like to punch their lights out!”
Very funny, Gardener. I’m Mars-Aries in the 1st, so when I walk into a room people who don’t know me know I have zero bullshit tolerance.
Works quite well when you’re negotiating with contractors.
I love sea water so that is one I plan to look into! I just read an interesting article about limiting bad karma too – very interesting. The coming two years are looking more and more like a time for waking up
G…”she’d probably be turned off by the religion of the Salvation Army ”
insert favorite substitute organization here…
Yeah…my 70-year-old landlady from a few years back also had an inviolable open-door policy. But that’s because she had a bullet lodged in her brain ~ put there by Kellogg, Brown and Root (she had been an investigative reporter) not by any of her ‘guests.’
There’s scarcely anything more refractory than a hard-headed coke or heroin addict. I have a couple in my ‘greater metro’ area as well. You don’t have to be religious to use the SA’s facilities; one friend saw her 30-year-old coked-out son wind up in their program. He’s now 40, married, and running an important museum in California . . . and still as irreligious as a mountain goat.
But, here’s my salvo over the bridge *again*: Salt-water steam, I tell you. As soon as the body has a chance to assert its authentic algorithms, there’s no going back.
You could do it as a sweatlodge, no? Just add some nice tibetan or mediterranean salt to the water. Energy-intensive, yes. Permanent, no, but it is cumulative.
Kissies,
M
Fe writes:
“How about energy to power our homes off the grid? Or America taking the lead to provide a cheap and easy way for the developing world to have safe drinkable water? How about ways to supply housing materials that are cheap, again sustainable, and inexpensive housing kits, easily erectable and can hook up to utility stations so that no one goes without shelter in our country and in the world?”
Lots of off-grid options that also give big tax break, at least in SW and W. But, of course, one must be a home owner to participate.
Has anyone noticed the number of motels/hotels across the USA? I’ve driven across/around the country 4 times in 2 decades and there is no need for anyone in USA to be homeless. We already have the shelter built – most motels sit empty along the nations highways which is why the hotel industry players buy and sell properties weekly trying to find the ONE that makes a profit.
Safe drinking water is another SORDID big corporate issue and USA is asleep on this point though the French are sexing it up with big condoms. World water supplies have been in process of being privatized for a while now. And, its hurting other countries beyond our silly money issue, and ruining our water supplies here at home. For example, Nestle is pumping bazillions of gallons of water from Michigan and surrounding areas groudwater to dryness. Please see documentary: Flow: For The Love Of Water – it will change how you view bottled water, etc. There are techniques for harvesting water directly ourselves, catchment systems, several educational places in SW teach sustainable living and have resources online.
It all can be very overwhelming in the microclimes we each exist within. Positivity is a boon, but Pollyannism is easily scoffed at. I feel any sense of community anywhere is wonderful, but ultimately, we each have to walk out our front door and deal with what’s outside our front door. I encourage everyone to learn how to garden, how to cook, how to reduce energy consumption – like turn off your ENTIRE computer system when you sleep as a typical modem and box system take 1KW per day to run 24 hours. Just because the lights come on when you flip the switch doesn’t mean what you are paying for that priviledge is the TRUE COST.
Mindfulness. And, most importantly, free choice. Many folks are going to make choices others do not like. IMHO, the ONLY way to get to another place is to let each make their choice, freely, and live with the ramifications. Of course, as soon as someone asks for help, if one has the ability to give it, by all means, step in and help. It’s just that as we are seeing in first waves of bailouts, if bailout occurs without real, um, forgive me if this word offends – renunciation – then it doesn’t work or last – just creates more delusion and laziness.
My mom is a hard-case, and she’d probably be turned off by the religion of the Salvation Army although she does support them with money since they help so many people. She is a Catholic by marriage to my dad, but always described her family (brothers/dad) as being ‘good pagan’. It was sort of a joke, but they never attended church. Her ancestors were the quakers who fought slavery in New England, were tarred and feathered and run out, which is how we ended up in Indiana. indiana has a large quaker population.
She has several drug addicts that she can’t seem to shed, and these are people who think you owe them a month’s rent when they mow the grass. Being a mars in Aries with little tolerance for bullshit, I’d like to punch their lights out!
Gardener, honey… surely these people can pick up a snowshovel, crack pecans, wash your dog, sit in your farmer’s market booth? Money is like sex (whaddya mean ‘like,’ Pilgrim). Exchange is the name of the game.
As for your Ma, she needs to sink her philanthropic impulses into volunteer hours at Salvation Army, where she’ll have support, friendly eyes and more fun in the doing.
Just my opinion, sweetheart…
(Life to Smoochey!)
Money is still power, so power off the grid won’t happen anytime soon.
Mystes, I hear you but I’m as frustrated as can be with the hands out to me for help. I’m retired and (luckily) on a fixed income, but I can cut back in some other spending to help where it is needed. My mom who is 82 caught a man she feeds about once a week rummaging through her cabinets. Desperate people do desperate things and all the intellectualizing won’t save my mom if some idiot decides to knock her in the head for her food stash and a little change.
Shelter? energy? clean water? all entirely worthy, but the imagination is beggared by the number of initiatives, solutions, manufacturers already in play.
How about genetically-engineering a plant that grows a perfect Fe-shaped, personal bower while you sleep in its cottony rosettes, then tropes the following morning into a ‘bodyshelter’ (aka “clothing”) that resembles forest canopy.
All the freedom of clothing, with the sustainability of a garden. If we could get ourselves to go quiet enough, we might even be able to pick up on its commentary, thus moving through the world with a companion plant-pet.
A few tweaks and it could produce blackberrybananas in the ‘pockets’ :: snack-dress, traveling hammock and photo(synthesis)booth.
Who needs architecture after that?
Hey:
I see the logo has hit gold, so I think we get the message here at PW. Thanks.
This is as good a place as any to start walking and talking each other through the strange changes we’re facing as we move from one type of life to the next. If this great crisis is the spiritual awakening of this country, let’s make Planet Waves a good place to gather and share the kind of energy we’re going to need to create the next step in our evolution.
Money. That’s a hard one to get over. Money is still power in the world, but what if something else had as much power to move things, make things happen, make things grow?
What could we do to provide a spiritual commodity (oxymoronic, I know) that fuels a great awakening?
I sense that because we’re cruising on Pluto in Cap, it has to be simple, grounded in reality, sustainable and elegant.
How about energy to power our homes off the grid? Or America taking the lead to provide a cheap and easy way for the developing world to have safe drinkable water? How about ways to supply housing materials that are cheap, again sustainable, and inexpensive housing kits, easily erectable and can hook up to utility stations so that no one goes without shelter in our country and in the world?
Any thoughts?
Clarification: Jobs with Census: Call US Dept of Commerce if no computer access at home or local library; they will give you local office number and then test location and times. Some skills are required for this, true, but they are hiring thousands of people on part time basis and providing all equipment, etc. Jobs pay from $11-$20+ per hour. And, you get to get out and meet your neighbors! 🙂 PS They let people take the test as many times as folks want; 70% is passing. Highest scores get management positions which pay towards high end. Mornings, all day, or evenings, weekends. Takes 3-4 weeks to hear back after test submittal. Hiring now through fall. Census is next spring! Worth a try, or rather, I thought so. Disregard if not appropriate for yourself. Thanks!
whoa, I resemble that remark…
G writes: “Some of the people who write into this blog are still pretty clueless about how badly the working class has been hurt this year. Most people do not have access to luxury spas and museums for relaxation and meditation. ”
Gardener, my finances fluctuate between poverty and working class level about 80% of the time – working class is considered 150% of poverty level – 1,150 for a family of two. Family security index is around 2,400 a month for two, and I usually hit that a couple of times a year (but not in 2008).
Six weeks without saltwater steam in Dec./Jan showed me that it is *more important than food* for my spiritual and psychic health.
More important? Come again? I *mean* it. How do you think I can exist here without poverty, penury, resentment, fear, guilt or shame – while spending weekly the amount of $$ that most bums can panhandle in a weekend?
For me, everything flows from a deep physical reconnection with beauty. It needs to be reclaimed as continuous to spiritual unfoldment. The experience does not take money. Hear me again: It does not *take* $$.
It had better not, or I’m toast.
***
I am not unconscious of others’ struggles to make a living; but real life is *way* more demanding than finding the next gas payment (and yes, I’m one behind). One of my heroes — the greatest South American poet of the 20th century — died on a Paris street of starvation. So what? Read twice through “Espana, aparte
de mi este caliz” “Spain, take this cup from me,” and you will be kissing the pavement that he fell upon. That poem alone is worth a year of gas bills, of homelessness, of hunger.
And it is also worth a year of wrangling clean energy for your city, demanding a system that creates jobs that don’t poison the air, water and earth, and creating art and musical-instrument lending centers (like libraries, with art). For example.
If we get stuck obsessing over the survival level, we won’t see where this ‘crisis’ is taking us. Look UP.
Love,
M
When I was young, the scariest, meanest villians and enemies were across the ocean and far away. Now they live amongst us here. Keep an eye on them Fe.
Gardner, thanks for being concerned for the people in Kentucky. Many do have their electricity back thanks to the tireless efforts of the local gas & electric companies and other workers from other states. But many still don’t have the most basic (for these times) necessities like electricity and heat. And baby, you are right it HAS been cold..and snowy. . and icy. But a lot of good people have volunteered their homes and services to help their neighbors, family and friends. The sweetest story is of a pet supply store in a small town in Kentucky that took in all the pets of the folks who had no heat and stayed open 24 hours a day so the “moms & dads” could come visit their pets. They took no money, and only asked for cleaning supplies!
And, like you, I also feel the approach of revolution. Fe, love your new logo. Wish you’d get some t-shirts made and sell them to us!
I like the new logo too – it says to me, “In case of 911, call Fe!”
Here’s my 911 call: I know several peopel who are a few unemployment checks from being homeless. I’ve paid rent for two people the last two months and given more money away the last two months than I can ever remember doing. I know young people who can’t pay their water and light bills and have little babies and it is COLD this winter. Hasn’t anyone else run into this sort of thing? The people in Kentucky have been without electricity for over a week – but what is being done about it??
A lot of people do not have access to computers and do not have the ability to take and pass exams. That is a fact of life.
Some of the people who write into this blog are still pretty clueless about how badly the working class has been hurt this year. Most people do not have access to luxury spas and museums for relaxation and meditation.
If I were a betting sort, I would bet that we are closer to the Iceland resolution than not. That whole episode with Daschle was nauseating! Most of us would have been on the way to prison for tax evasion. Oh, and I think revolution is still ahead of us.
Bleah; still makes me nausea to read the number $18 billion in salary and bonuses paid from a bailout. Let’s run the numbers: that could have been 750,000 people receiving $24,000 ea., or 1.5 million people getting $12,000 ea. , or 3 million people getting $6,000 ea, enough to help get through the next year, and not just the next case of champagne and caviar for 500-1000 people. Double bleah.
I saw this in the NYT and was hoping there would be a cute $$$ bailout LEGO, but alas still cute: [niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/i-lego-ny/]. Someone with LEGO or pick up sticks could do something inventive…
And, to anyone looking for extra work, the 2010 Census is hiring! You have to take an exam, but hey, that’s kinda fun too – multiple choice – language, math, spatial, management skills. Part time work, weekly pay and they need people all across the country – ads on Craigslist or go to 2010Census online.
Victorialynn:
Thanks.
Its important to get a look at the monster while he breathes, so we know what he is and how to prep ourselves to react.
Its unfortunate that even his virtual presence has such an effect.
If wishes were horses, Planet Waves would provide psychic condoms to protect ourselves from the Dark Lord. He truly is a sight to behold.
The greed and disregard for decency and fairness coming from corporate America just blow me away. I’ve been shaking my head for years now.
More head shaking today after listening to Dick’s comments. He said, “Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business.”
Guess some of those top CEO’s hold the same belief concerning their paychecks:
“Protecting our yearly salaries is a “tough, mean, dirty, nasty business!”
I’m so thankful that there is hope as we gingerly back away from the edge!
Fe…love reading your articles, and love your new logo!
When all the shit came down on 9-11 I was highly disappointed at the violent (as opposed to reflective) energy that came from the “event”. I do understand the “You picked the wrong mother fucker to fuck with”, but, I also “under”stand that there never is an effect without a cause. A lot of people still don’t grasp that “America” is a stranglehold on the environments of the world, including those people who inhabit this plane. So many want their cake to be made by slave labor (I currently make anywhere between $1.00 to $5.00/hour but I’m drawing and I love it,so it’s not a complaint), and then they expect others to service them in ways that are non-reciprocal…. Fuck ’em. Their play is trash.
Fe, please keep the energy above our heads, you’re good at it.
I absolutely respect the insight that flows from this space!
Again, Love and a humble bow…
J
Planet Waves people:
About the new logo-
When I first got this photo–a birthday present from my brother in law, I had to send it to Eric as a gag. He thought it was brilliant and said this needs to be my new logo.
I agreed on many levels – not the least of which is that we need to re-appropriate “9-11” from the neocons.
If there’s any place that deserves to re-frame “9-11” as aid in the event of crisis instead of a call for war, its here at Planet Waves.
Much love to my brother-in-law Rick Van Stolk for taking the shot, and my ever undying love to my sister Rain for spotting it in the first place. Cheers, mi familia.
Very poignant article Fe, thank you. This is where I would say, “How aware are you (you, being anybody) of what you support, and by what means that support is manifested within the overall reality framework?”.
It honestly is a very “sideways” reality that we exist in, perceptions and justifications rampant, everyone with an opinion/perception based on LIMITED knowledge. The powers that be have their own reality, that is entirely different from the “average” persons idea of reality.
I only venture here because the “static clutter” is still too intense to work out. The individual and the collective are being worked as we continue.
It’s always a wise idea to stay connected, and communicate your perceptions to “the powers that have influence over/within your reality”. Please, to all, continue your expressions (one of the best sites I’ve found for activated folks, smile beautifuls :)). And, in all “bowing out of this insanity at the moment”, find EVERY single aspect of yourself, where it exists, what’s it doing, what can it accomplish, and HOW THE FUCK DO WE ENJOY OURSELVES IN THIS REALITY THAT WE ARE CREATING AT THIS “NOW” MOMENT IN TIME!
All you cats are gorgeous, Have a beauiful day!
Love Jere