Wait. All of you stop and think for a moment. Political expediency, rather clear this is the intent of Dawson. This is highly typical behavior of politicians who almost always make use of others until a liability is presented. Is Dawson’s behavior any different than Obama practicing precisely the same type of political expediency? Wright, Phleger, Rezco, Ayers, Giannoulias, Farakhan, ACORN…. Palin, McCain, the Republican party, other conservatives, all are being unfairly linked to this type of activity. But not Obama. Rather hypocritical, yes? Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Look close at their glossy print advertisement in the video, an Anglo man, typical American looking man, is featured. Any know O.J. Simpson’s bra size? I am thinking to ship him one to wear during his prison stay. I am sure he will need one, to keep Bubba happy. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Ms. Dee writes, “But tax revenue from individual earnings over $250,000 might be put to good use.” This cutoff point is now down to $150,000 which is deep into our middle class. Obama promised a 250k cutoff. He lied. Biden announced this to be a 200k cutoff. He lied. Not long back information leaked out of the Obama campaign people, this is now a 150k cutoff. I expect this cutoff to lower. This mule manure from Obama about 95% of Americans will enjoy a type of tax relief is just that, mule manure. This is a serious breach of trust on the part of the Black Messiah. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Elaine is realistic, which I like, “…are going to be utterly shocked to see that these problems are far more severe than anyone can handle or fix.” Yep. What I believe will happen, as so many other times during our history, our economy will cure itself, and our global economy will follow. Our country has suffered this type of economic collapse many times, and each time efforts of our government made no change. Final analysis is inherent capitalist market forces corrected problems, not our government. This crash is a very odd one. As McCain suggested, our fundamental economic strength remains sound. When we look at a vast majority of companies outside the financial sector, nothing has changed; those companies remain strong. Only the financial sector collapsed and this collapse is not a result of capitalism rather is a result of widespread financial crime enabled and facitilated by our government beginning way back with Bill Clinton. Wall Street is guilty, both Republicans and Democrats are guilty and Americans who spend more than they earn, are guilty. Point is, this economic crash is not a “natural” event. Our Feds have thrown hundreds of billions of dollars at this and nothing has changed. When Obama is finished, the Feds will have thrown, guesstimating, three-trillion to four-trillion dollars at this financial sector problem. Nothing will change. We will only be more in debt. Our economy will cure itself once business and people learn how to work around a lack of easy credit, and easy credit is what caused all this. Our family is cash and carry. We have no debt and we do without a lot to maintain a strict cash and carry family budget. This is why I voted for McCain and Palin; both are firm about reducing government spending, reducing taxes and saving more. Both display excellent common sense. Our economy will cure itself and politicians will be climbing over each others backs to jump under the limelight to claim, “Look! I fixed the economy!” Meanwhile, we Americans, our children, our grandchildren will be strapped with trillions of dollars of debt. Like you, Elaine, our family works hard for our money and there is no way we will hand over our money to Obama so he can send out welfare checks. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Belinda comments, “…so disregard those who will try to use this as a ‘see, told you he wouldn’t stick to his word’ type of response.” I told you so! Obama has yet to honor a single campaign promise he made. McCain is right, “Obama will say anything to get elected.” The Black Messiah is breaking one campaign promise after another. He lied to America and America was well aware he was lying, long back. Readers need to learn to deal with reality and to accept reality. Our politicians, both Republican and Democrat, are just a bunch of ignorant megalomaniac opportunists; their interest is only self-interest. “Oh, oh, the Black Messiah is to send us welfare checks! We are saved!” Mule manure. Our government treasury printing presses are quickly running out of ink. There is a limit to how much money the Feds can print off. We have currently exceeded this limit. There is no money remaining and America is drowning in debt. Those of us who fall within Obama’s definition of “rich”, which is now any person or family making over $150,000 a year, we are withdrawing our money from America, we are reducing our earned incomes, we are seeking tax shelters. We are flipping Obama the bird. This is not a “choice” by Obama, this is simply Obama and Democrats having no choice but to come clean on deceitful campaign promises; those folks knew long back most campaign promises made by Obama are worthless sugar pills for Americans. This deceit by all politicians is readily apparent by asking a simple question, “Where will they get the money to fund all these campaign promises?” Ain’t gonna happen. There is no money and those of us who work hard, who are successful, ain’t about to give up our hard earned egg money so our leaders can reward Wall Street for their decades of financial crimes nor about to give up our well earned money to have the Feds give to some crack head whore over on 44th and Vine. McCain promised to reduced taxes and to reduced government spending. We all know we cannot trust politicians, but on this, we all know McCain would have kept his word; he walks the talk, with good common sense. Reality is settling in, deal with this. Whisper me sweet lies, soft sweet lies, Tickle my fancy beyond deceitful delight. Bring a slight sly smile with wicked cries, Tell me, please tell me, during midnight Of beautiful fireflies and dragonflies, Lover of mine, reality is truly my plight, So whisper me sweet lies, soft sweet lies. — Okpulot Taha Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Marjorie is disagreeable, “Still enjoying your stories even though I don’t always share your views.” You do not share all my views. Well, I never! How boring life would be if all shared similar or same viewpoints. Heck, should you share the same views as mine, I would have to take to lying just to have some fun. Well, I would have to lie more than I already do. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Know how to spot Ronald McDonald at a nudist resort? He is the one with sesame seeds on his buns. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Amongst my best of memories of our rural Oklahoma farmlife, is grandma standing in her kitchen, just before dawn, cooking up breakfast on our wood burning stove, “Child, you get on out there and fetch some ham for the menfolk.” Off I go, sharp knife in hand, headed out back to our smokehouse. Stepping into our smokehouse back when I was belly high to a mule, this is like a fantasyland. Dark, wood plank walls blackened by decades of smoldering fire, bit of light sneaking through cracks and knotholes, smelling like an old wet campfire not quite out, there hangs two or three slaughtered hogs, bellies cut open and gutted, hanging by rear legs, front legs pointing down as if in fear of falling, glazed eyes staring at nothing. Sometimes, one of those hogs is one I helped to slaughter, gut and butcher. I am the one who most often slit their throats before butcher; I am quick and good with a knife and just the right height to easily reach around then quickly draw and slice deep the sides and underside of a hog’s throat. Rather merciful, those hogs I killed dropped dead in less than a minute, with no display of panic nor pain, almost like they had no idea what was happening. This is because grandpa kept my knife surgically sharp, swift painless cutting. Trick is not to cut the windpipe. This causes a hog to gasp, to panic, to thrash about knocking down your wood chute, maybe breaking your leg. Some of those hogs weigh as much as four-hundred pounds. Menfolk always get the best cut, they work the hardest. This is the flank and rump. A bit of an art slicing meat off a salted smoked Duroc hog, several hundred pounds in weight. Grab a shoulder, knife almost in a shaving position, then slice upward away from your holding hand so you do not cut off a finger or two of your own. Finished slicing, rub your hand in a sack of salt, then rub the cut with salt to keep the bugs off. A cut must be the right thickness, about as thick as a black-eyed pea lying on its side. Too thick, takes too long to fry up; charred around the edges, not quite fully cooked inside. Too thin, the whole slice shrivels and blackens. Has to be just right or the menfolk will complain then take to throwing biscuits at you. I have a hard time understanding why so many people are squeamish about slaughtering animals, about seeing upside down hogs hanging in a smokehouse, or a turkey being dressed out for eating. Seems so natural to me. But then, I am an Okie farm girl accustomed to getting my hands bloody. City slickers, I do not know, they seem kinda sissified to me. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Ok, ok, I am off on an Andrews Sisters trip. WoW wants to know the ultimage fantasy music reunion, this would be the Andrews Sisters! I am sitting here, midnight, rocking and socking to the Andrews Sisters, and my husband, trying to sleep after a hard day’s work, is covering his head with a pillow, but I can see his toes keeping beat. Would you readers enjoy watching real dancing? There is all this new age junk, brake dancing, hip hop, gangsta rock, whatever. All of that stuff sucks. Here is a short fast loading Andrews Sisters film with excellent sound quality. Check out the dancing in this film. This is real dancing! The real thing! This video, with really great sound quality, will rock your socks off! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=439uSYegXJ4 Hands down, an Andrews Sisters fantasy reunion would be the ultimate, and this would please Liz Smith to no end; she would probably jump up and dance! They just don’t make triple chrome plated music like they use to. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Reminds me of a story. I am treating our girl, at the time on the verge of becoming a teenage monster, treating her to a cassette tape of her choice, “You have been pretty good lately, not too many notes coming home from your teachers. Would you like a cassette tape?” She is ecstatic, “Duran Duran!” I look at her, “I am not hard of hearing, I heard you the first time.” She gives me one of those “Mom, you are so stupid!” looks. Like most here, The Doors, this would be a delight. Second up, I am with James, I would love a Deep Purple concert. How about some Moody Blues? Maybe “Knights in White Satin”? This would be very touching for me. I enjoyed a great honor of being amongst a local philharmonic orchestra backing up the Moody Blues during a local performance many years back. I play cello and cried during their performance of Knights in White Satin. I was not alone in this. Andrews Sisters would be the ultimate. Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZv6hL6aYfQ In a little honky-tonky village in Texas…. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Parents should mind their own business and tend to their own hypocrisy. My experience as a public school teacher is parents are the primary source of our American poor performance in education. Parents hamper a child’s education in two basic ways. One is not becoming involved in their children’s education. The other is parents do not actively support teacher’s disciplinary actions. A majority of American parents are highly irresponsible when this comes to education for children. My only suggestion for Louisa Tuck is she should wear one of those wrap around back supports like worn by workers at Home Depot. Good of Tuck to pursue a goal of making a positive difference in the lives of children. She is to be commended for this; she is doing more good than most parents. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

nitak hollo chito - day holy biggest - biggest holy day - Christmas Some readers might find a short story about this be interesting, knowing we American Indians are traditionally not Christians and long ago, had never heard of Jesus Christ. Cyrus Byington, a Christian missionary, lived in my hometown back in the late eighteen-hundreds. He lived with my ancestors. Byington wrote the only Choctaw dictionary, published posthumously in 1915 by the Bureau Of American Ethnology, later the Smithsonian and now, oddly, published by the Global Bible Society. I have first edition copy signed by the son of Cyrus Byington, June 1916. http://www.purlgurl.net/~choctaw/c_things_18.html Byington performed good work but made his share of mistakes and his share of misunderstanding. Frustrating, almost all words in his dictionary are interpreted according to Biblical passages. He “invented” hundreds of words related to Christianity which are not of our traditional language. nitak hollo chito - Christmas, according to Byington. Here is the real meaning from a traditional perspective. nitak - time from sunrise to sunset, other words, daytime. hollo - our female menses, noted by blood flow. This is very sacred. chito - the biggest, the most large, enormous, greatest. nitak hollo chito - daytime menses biggest - biggest daytime menses True traditional meaning is, interpreted to English as best I can, the monthly blood letting of a sacred life giver woman during the greatest revered period of daytime This is clearly not quite Christmas day and is more gibberish than else. Byington, being Christian, did not understand our notion of “sacred” which applies to many notions for American Indians. My hunch is Byington inquired about what Choctaw hold to be most sacred. This is women’s menstruation which is directly associated with life giving. Women are life givers, which is about as sacred as possible. Most likely, Byington associated this with the birth of Christ, a man unknown to my ancestors. Byington only needed to add “greatest” and “day” to have Christmas. My ancestors helped him to create this phrase but being pragmatic, probably did not inform Byington his Choctaw phrase for Chistmas did not make a cow lick of sense. We are known for not elaborating unless asked. You can wish Merry Christmas in Choctaw, “nitak hollo chito yukpa” but do not be offended if a traditional Chocaw looks between your legs then fetches a piece of cloth to give to you. During my rural Oklahoma farming days, a “sanitary napkin” was a torn out piece of cloth from a worn out sack used for picking cotton. We carried this cloth in an overall pocket and used this as needed to simply wipe. We also made shirts and curtains from old cotton picking sacks, on a foot treadle Singer sewing machine. Our yukpa means a feeling or state of mind which makes you laugh; cheer. You say nitak hollo chito yukpa in Choctaw and in English you “suggest”, This daytime I have my sacred period and this makes me feel like laughing. However, modern day Choctaw would know you mean, “Merry Christmas.” Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

M L Staats comments about Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” movie, agrees with my contention his movie is a work of genius, as he is, “And I completely agree on this matter.” Another movie of his which is a favorite, probably on my top ten list or near, is his “Million Dollar Baby”. This one, though, is too hard hitting, too heartbreaking. Watching this movie, discussing this movie, emotionally wrings me out; I am rendered to tears and depression. This talent of Eastwood is found in his innate ability to present gut wrenching moral dilemma. A knife sliced up whore, a paralyzed female price fighter, a man who is to be a hero but with such sadness. To be a hero for his disfigured whore, he must become a murderous drunkard again. For his wasting away fighter of a “daughter”, he must find his lost inner strength then kill her. Both movies display this conflict we face often, this conflict of finding personal strength to what we abhor to do good. For trivia, back in 1985, my husband enjoyed a one time event of snow skiing with Clint Eastwood, who is a kick ass snow skiier. Same day, I enjoyed snow skiing with Brooke Shields who, well, hmm.. well, I spent most of our time together helping her up off the snow after her making repeated face plants. Brooke is not up to double black diamond snow skiing nor much up to good acting. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Marjorie enjoys a serious moment, “From what I have learned about Native Americans…the women were quite uninhibited. Probably because they had no organized religion….” Bingo! Your “organized religion” is the underlying basis of our societal mores. I will avoid one my rants about this hypocrisy of religion. Some _traditional_ tribes, both men and women are or were uninhibited compared to today’s values. Some, Marjorie, but not all tribes. Much the same is true when what’s-his-name was the first Westerner to set foot on the Hawaiin Islands, “My God in Heaven, bare breasted women, everywhere!” Well, yeah, weather in Hawaii is hot and humid. Why would you wear clothes? I would bet those sailors aboard his ship had no need for Viagra rather had a need for saltpeter. Eskimo, these peoples are or were known for wife sharing with visitors to both provide warmth and to honor a visitor. This is quite the expression of trust and honor. Doubtful this takes place in our modern times and, in a traditional sense, doubtful this was a widespread activity. Nonetheless, monogamous coupling is the rule amongst almost all cultures and this is a good rule. Mormons, well…. Marjorie adds an addage, “Too-many-people-in-the-same-bed messy. Where is the drama of love and all the psychological mind twisting….” Messy, boy howdy! Wet spots all over the place! Annoying men expect women to sleep on those wet spots. Yes, I sincerely agree with you, Marjorie. A monogamous loving couple to head up a family, is the best way, the most appropriate way. We know this arrangement works best and produces the greatest success in family matters. I am a strong advocate of traditional family values. Recently I comment “Ozzie and Harriet” are the greatest of examples of a decent and a moral family; no better role models. However, I am a “I Love Lucy” type of girl; not quite sane. Contrasting, Marjorie, I can argue there are problems with our traditional family values, today. Not so much yesteryear, but today. We know both wives and husbands are prone to cheating, we know our traditional divorce rate stands at two out of three marriages. Margo can attest to this. I am not putting down Margo rather hinting she has not figured out most men are jerks, noting my wording “most men” not “all men” as might be construed. Might be other reasons for Margo and her marriages, but I am not about to judge without knowing true circumstances; I am firm but fair. My humorous commentary on our lesbian girlfriends is true, a bit of “whopper” seasoning in my telling, but underlying is truth. We are all very much in love with each other, and we honor both our traditional family values and our notion of true love. I am absolutely faithful to my husband as he is to me, as we are to our girlfriends who display the same fidelity. We are truly a strong family unit, a tribe, if you will; we never venture outside our tribe. If there is regret, this is my not being able to convince our girlfriends to make a baby or two with my husband. However, this is their choice and this would present a moral delemma of “half-siblings” which might not prove healthy for our children during their more adult life. So, who am I to critique Margo and her four marriages while my husband enjoys three women and we three enjoy him and each other? I am firm but fair, and not fearful to confront my own hypocrisy and my own questionable moral values. As to our sordid lifestyle, I always strongly, adamantly discourage other couples from ever attempting such a lifestyle. This lifestyle is a virtual guarantee of heartbreak and sorrow. This almost never works. Good thoughts, Marjorie, I do sincerely support your notion of monogamous coupling and strong family values. This is the right way, the Ozzie and Harriet way. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

Sibelle is torn between her savage instincts and her civilized mores, “‘Refined Savagery’…I Am ‘The Great Artist’ half Beast, half Human.” Wolfman, Dracula, Beauty and the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, Dances with Wolves and my favorite, Mary Wollstonecraft’s “Frankenstein”. Mary Shelley provides the best in-depth story of this nameless monster which haunts us, this constant personal battle between being savage and being civilized. We all display this personal fight within our minds and our hearts. None of us are exempt. Most of us lose this war. There is no questioning our savage side. Contrasting, I do question if our civilized side is not truly our savage side. In many ways, our savage side is actually our instintive behaviors which are twisted around by thinking. I do suspect our civilized side is truly a rationalized twisting of and justification of our being savage. Reminds me of a man who commented on our financial crisis. I cannot remember his name nor his exact quote. He is discussing these securitized packages (sub-prime loans sold for profit) and comments about how much money he is making then finishes up, paraphrased, “Wait until this house of cards falls apart.” All along he knew of his wrongdoing, his “savage” behavior, yet chose to ignore this in favor of wild profits. What he did not know is when this “house of cards” fell apart, this would lead to the worst global ecomonic crash of written history, exceeding the damage of the Great Depression. Sibelle, your “Refined Savagery” well labels our typical human behavior. Challenge is for us to leash both our savage side and our civilized side. We know the results if we do not moderate our behaviors, much like Wollstonecraft’s nameless monster finding beauty in flowers floating on water and confusing this beauty with a young girl floating on water, which proved to be an innocent act yet a tragic act. However, we humans rarely act out with innocence. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation