Hey LIZ, Cous! Yes, Rex Murphy. My gawd is that dude excellent. CBC is one of the best things about Canada because you produce real news and real events and real people and not media celebs reporting on Hollywood celebs. You damn Canadians are on top of everything! Scrapplers! I love it. Well you did it slower and made a strong social foundation for your economy to run over and now are buildin’ the little pig’s brick house! Don’t get caught up in the toys, like we did, and keep scrappling! I’m watchin’ your BC forests. As a Northeasterner here on the border I’m sure it will spread. Looks like the logging corps are takin’ out more than the diseased lumber, bastards, ay? That’s a serious mess. Bangladesh and Africa suffered I think from the over loggin’ that China did in Tibet. And I wonder about our Southwest from the over loggin’ we did in Oregon and Washington State. Boy the hip bone is really connected to the leg bone isn’t it? Do you know Liz if that damn little beetle leaves larve in the soil? On CBC last night the man said it would take 80 to 90 years to grow back. Serious stuff and they are expectin’ it to run all the way to the east coast. As you’re reaping those credits, watch out for the debits. Follow the money. I also watch the documentaries on CBC. So so good. We’re impoverished here. Yes, I love the panel. Wow, not pundits but really intelligent thinking journalists! 5th dimension, certainly. How else would I find out what’s happenin’ here, ay? What irony that the New American Dream may be Canada instead of the U.S.A. Ahhhh maybe it’ll be both, for all the right reasons. Down under there is some good stuff beginnin’ to happen here. Shhhh, don’t want the govt. to start regulatin’ against the down homer! Yeh our Canadian cousins, really really watch govt. regulations against small and home grown business right from your hometown all the way up to the feds. Killed us from takin’ care of ourselves.

Tinka remember Europe has a transit system for going to work and for travel—something our country didn’t use tax dollars for. Thus, they have an option. China and India will do this also I suspect, —all nice and modern. Japan already has. As someone said, we’re the richest 3rd world nation in the World. We were so busy partying with ‘wants’ economy we didn’t observe long enough to see if the cupboards were getting bare of needs and insist the right political action. Politics were for the ‘boring’. Our whole social and economic structures run within the system of govt. and the politics —and we’re too bored to use it as a tool? It is not a matter of driving less miles per hr, altho important. It is not a matter of new fancy light bulbs that were outlawed in the 60’s because of the mercury, to now help out G.E.—it is a matter of using less no matter what it costs. It’s a committment. Shopping should never be a recreation, but a need. Look at all those lights and heat and cooling open 24/7/365 and all the autos hurryin’ to get to them. We are spoiled and we’ve spoiled our children. Ain’t it amazin’ we’d do such a thing to ourselves and those we love and not think about it but we’d not dream of buying spoiled meat? I’m confused as to what an ‘intelligent’ species means anymore and I wonder if it’s a trick and we are actually the least intelligent? We seem to be great receivers of information that is secondary information and great receivers of propaganda as truths, but by golly we seem pretty stupid at figurin’ out primary intelligence on our own. Other countries are gettin’ it and workin’ wonders. They’ve developed strong social foundations for their economics to run over and now they are beginning to reap the benefits of the little pig’s brick house. We’ve been like little children hurrying and scurrying to get to the next new toy, with absolutely no thought to our personal, social, or economic health. It all began in the 70’s basically big time after that beat poet said don’t listen to anyone over 30 and the generations became severed and the wisdom. Corps and Govt. and advertisers hopped right on it! And the worse isn’t over. The middle of the middleclass and the lower of the upper class think it won’t touch them. They can still go to Starbuck’s with no less than a bitty bit of guilt. They don’t look down. Fear of falling. So by the time they notice their footing slipping and they look down to see , whhaatt? They’ll see the foundation they paid no attention to in their false sence of elitism -gone. Too late. And here we were.

Iris, I was never without that wonderful little book in my 40’s! I used it to turn to just any page and see what it said and how it applied to what scrunch was in my life. Great great book. My favorite part was the first pages that looked like lines on the blackboard or an assignment book! Said it all. But to your comment on ‘…learning is nothing more than remembering what you already know…’ by Bach, is I think in the Art of Observation in whatever we are doin’, kinda like ‘bein’ there, or better said maybe, here? I loved that book and bought so many to give away and loaned out so many I never got back and now I don’t have one. But it is with me. It was his best, I think. They lived about 20 miles from where I grew up. I know where he used to take up and put down that little Bi-Plane, both the physical and the metaphysical. Thanks for reminding me of that jewel.

The Congressional hearings on Wednesday in the Senate were informative. CSPAN aired this and I’m sure anyone can find it at their website. But one needs to interested in facts. As today the Chinese govt. says it will meet with an envoy of the Dali Llama in a few days. What needs to be watched is if it is being used to settle the Olympic Torch problem only —and the talks bring no solutions or cooperative discourse. It is the Ancient Chinese that designed the warring strategy of Promise and Delay, which we’ve seen our own govt. do for decades at least. My bet it is a ploy and this is a bet I’d celebrate if I lost it! But the Chinese (especially men) have a huge ‘face’ they don’t want embarrassed or disagreed with. And another question in my post 9/11 paranoia: Why is it all of a sudden our govt. is takin’ interest in Tibet? Our people always have but certainly not the govt. I’m smellin’ a skunk and hope the Tibetan leaders are watchin’ our Govt. as close as they are the Chinese Govt.

It’s about time Dr. Mc! Obviously your arguements produce quite a dissonance folks are afraid of, as if there is no right in what you say. And I’ll add to what they say also. But balance and new thinking can’t come from bad cats and impersonators. So personal they take your opinions! I tend to argue most of your points actually but I’m intelligent enough not to resort to name calling. It’s a rather disgusting discourse actually, due to the name calling. Isn’t it amazing how people think ‘playin’ with langauge with clever and stifling creativity makes them clever, and confusing it with intelligence? Distracting business. Gives women a bad name. Fortunately I don’t see thses kind in my world. Possibly we spray here.

Seems many the cops are now shaved bald, say Sir! Yes Sir! and fire. I donot think civilian police should be former militray. Not since the ‘volunteer’ forces anyway. Hometown young men are best. They care. I recommend for those who like physics and prose, EINSTEIN’S DREAM: by Alan Lightman. Nice book for under the ole appletree or under the glow of lightning bugs!

AB, haha, yes. And let’s not forget that other woman who ‘bobbed’ it with a knife in the dark! Over 1000 comments on the NYTimes so far and they’re havin’ trouble keepin’ up. Shameful as to what the Nation’s cities police department’s have become. None of us are safe from the ones we pay to keep us safe!

Whoaaaa, there IS a grain shortage! My gawd my gawd, who doesn’t know this? Do we think that 1 in 6 planetarians are suffering hunger because they’re lazy, idiots, and homeless? 1 in 6! Boy it’s gotta hit our front door and ring the bell before we get it? My gawd my gawd.

I’m now old enough to know why adults when I was young said,”Children should be seen but not heard.” I thought it such an awful thing. Didn’t do it with my own. Now I understand. Children, no matter how intelligent, need to spend several years quietly observing, in order to come up with the ‘right’ questions. Had I been allowed to ask any question I’d wanted to ask I wouldn’t have had time to observe anything! Observation is ‘key’ I think. Mom was right and damn if she up and died before I could let her know all the things she was right about! She’d love the opportunity to say “I told you so!”

Well Bella Bella hope you keep the refrigeration goin’ and gotcha a pile of wood and kindling to cook it, and the water to wash dem dishes. Anyone over 70 in here has never seen our country in such bad shape. That ole Liz is even old enough to remember the depression and oughta know better than to even mention anything as decadant as Starbucks when she should know there are plenty in this country right now that can’t afford cheap supermarket coffee. Now this my dear is a bit Elitist, you think? Hey, I was nice to you yesterday I think.

As we speak, comin’ off Canada’s CBC TV NEWS: the detectives that shot 50 bullets into 23 year old Shawn Bell comin’ out of his stag party in NYC 3 years ago, hours before his wedding, unarmed and mindin’ his own business —were found innocent of murder. None of us are safe. $%#@&*%$# !!!

It’s us. We agreed to everything that promised us a chance to save 50 cents. We outsourced our productivity to buy it back for 50 cents less. We outsourced our personal responsibility to local govt., county govt., state govt., and federal govt., sayin’ politics isn’t our thing. And so we outsourced ourselves for about 50 cents on the dollar. Ya git what ya give. Adult folk are actin’ like the kid we tell to be careful on their bike. They don’t really believe anything bad can happen to them. They haven’t reached that developmental stage to ‘internalize’. We need to grow up real fast. Real real fast. Someone said recently and I can’t remember who, some economist I think, ‘We’re the only rich country that is third world.’ A couple of national sick days in a row for starters folk and stay home. Don’t drive, don’t go to the company stores. This is much much more serious and sinister than most folk will allow themselves to think through. We are systematically bein’ takin’ out! The foundation is implodin’ from the bottom up and will go all the way to takin’ out the lower upper class. All those who were afraid to look down for fear of fallin’ will fall. It is your fear to see the Tree from the bottom up that is the biggest tool of the multinats and the pimpin’ lawyers and prostitutin’ legislators. As we speak 1 in 6 planatarians are without water or without food and sometimes both. Emigration has already begun all over the planet. Why do you think the Bushkid wants to put up Walls everyplace? My gawd are we Rip VanWinkle? Stuperd stupid?

Thanks Frank, it is written down, so it shall be!

If I were to recommend books for the U.S.A.an to read that I think they NEED to read, and are easy to get through and high interest and help to understand where we are and why I would recommend: CONFESSIONS OF A PROFESSIONAL HIT MAN, by John Perkins: He an insider lets us know what the corpies and politicians are doin’; OVERTHROW:AMERICA’S CENTURY, by Stephen Kinzer, gives a history of how we took what we got; DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY, by Kenneth C. Davis, he takes mythology and does a historical outline up to Christianity and you end up really really understandin’ ‘religion’ and the ‘politics’ that produced religion real well without havin’ to learn the names of the ole gods and goddesses or specific country. It is so so excellent and certainly produced my thinking is a much broader yet cohesive direction. He’s writes it for mythology dummies, which is why I bought it. Other important, I think, reading is William Mosley, to get a better internalization of the African Americans journey within this Democracy thus all of ours. I’m findin’ the best teachers of the democracy dream we hold are the African American writers. Such scholars! Such ability at language! Tavis Smiley’s books are good too. And when we actually think about it, who the hell would know it better than the African Americans desended from the slave trade? Also in reading African American scholars let’s us know they’ve been becomin’ scientists, professors, businesspeople, physicists, inventors, accountants, engineers, etc. all along while the TV and media in general been tellin’ us somethin’ else. Time to open our eyes and read for pure pleasure but also what we need to read, I think. My support of African American scholarship does not mean I do or do not support Barak Obama —who did not rise up from the decendants of slave trade. There is, I think, and must be I think, an inherent difference in MindSet. An important difference as to our Democracy and our love affair with it.

Ummm. I really like to study. I am usually reading about 4 0r 5 books at the same time. However within this would be only one fiction. Can’t seem to read more than one fiction at a time. Now I’m reading EXIT GHOST by Philip Roth as my fiction. Non-Fiction: VIOLENT POLITICS BY William Polk; THE END OF AMERICA, by Naomi Wolf; IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS, by James Longley; CONSUMED: HOW MARKETS CORRUPT, by Benjamin Barber I read about 5 books a week. The fiction I read well, many of the non=fiction I survey, but well. All the time I am reading Cornell West, anything. And I have BOOKS I re-read every few years: Rollo Mays COURAGE TO CREATE, and a book of SUFI STORIES, and I survey Big Dragon every couple of years to see if Burstein and DeKeijzer got it right. I usually have one country I am studying also, in depth. I’ve finished up Tibet and don’t know where I’m goin’ next. Done China, Russia, Europe, Israel, Australia over the last few years. Probably to Africa which really sparks my curiosity. Think I’ve been fed alotta bull about Africa over the decades. Gonna find out. I use both books written and maps and atlas. Like to find out what the natural resource is or was exactly that causes the G-8 multinats to take us all to war all the time. Often need an atlas for this to figure it all out. Fun really. Roth isn’t entertainment for me as most Jewish writers aren’t. For me anyway. But he makes good observations in this small book. I reread almost all of Taylor Caldwell’s books except when she went to religion. She was uncanny in her ability to write in the 30s and now see it unfold. She’s layered usin’ a lifing thing to layer family, markets, politics, greed, games, etc. and make all the connections. Her style isn’t the prettiest but her visionary abilities are outstanding. She speaks in a way I expect a woman to speak. I like being current and responsible. Think it’s my job as a plantarian, but I like knowin’ how I got here also, along with everyone else. I hate going into a play in the middle. I LOVE a good fiction that just takes me far far away into it. They are becomin’ harder to find with all this genre’ stuff where each book is just like the last one. I’m not a fad reader. And if I read to tune out (fiction) it is usually because I want somethin’ in it to tune in to. I love love love good story and think I’ll copy the Whoopies list. Gotta feelin’ her stuff ain’t fluff.