Thursday, June 1, 2006

It's the End of the World as We Know It Yes, indeed it is. Yesterday was the last day of school for the students at the high school where I work. Once again, the 180 days of instruction began ten months ago and ended in a sprint to the bus loop. This was my twenty-fifth year working within the school district. Who knows where the time goes? It's the end of the world as we knew it for the past ten months. A new day has dawned. The next seventy days, give or take a few days, will reintroduce me to the everyday non Pavlovian world of no electronic bells ringing every 55 minutes. It is a welcomed respite. 10:25:14 PM    comment []

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Tell Me It Isn't True Happy Birthday Mr. Bob Dylan. All these years wondering why I found your songs always new when it struck me: it's the music that rings each word true. 11:29:13 PM    comment []

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Say It Is So? From foreclosures to fortunes. 10:50:23 PM    comment []

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Say It Ain't So. Foreclosure filings against Massachusetts homeowners increased 30 percent in the first three months of 2006 and have doubled in the past three years, as homeowners in one of the nation's most expensive real estate markets struggle to cope with high prices and rising interest rates. Here's the complete story (after reading page 1, registering is required)  from the Boston Globe. Whoever gets G.W. Bush's job will inherit the whirlwind. 5:40:30 PM    comment []

Tuesday, May 9, 2006

What Not to Say? Reading blogs, newspapers, and internet news; commentaries, opinion pieces and print magazines has lots of yack but little action. The prognosticators predications resolves nothing.  The big ticket items: war, hunger, injustice, materialism, cruelty and the everyday sale items: inappropriate language, rudeness, malicious gossip, dishonesty all stays with us like a bad cold. Hopeless? No. Opportunities for compassion are rampant in the midst of everyday life. The only way to counter despair is to act in a compassionate manner throughout the day. 7:08:38 PM    comment []

Monday, May 8, 2006

What To Say? Today is one of those days, like most of those days, when there's not much to say. So here is a link to make yourself think How one person created a world in a wink. 10:14:57 PM    comment []

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Email Overload Received an email that had fifteen appeals with links that would contact Senators, Representatives; share general knowledge regarding an issue, etc. As I tried to plow through the email, I stopped myself, tried to focus blurry vision and decided it was time to close the email program. A person needs to be fully awake and aware when reading such an email. http://www.savedarfur.org/ http://www.ciw-online.org/ http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ http://www.soaw.org/new/flash.php http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/ http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/apr24_call.htm http://www.fcnl.org/landing/iraqcall.htm http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/greentips/ http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0419-03.htm http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0415-04.htm http://www.paxchristiusa.org/news_events_more.asp?id=112 http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/actionalertdarfur0406.htm http://www.justiceforimmigrants.org/files/JFI%20Newsletter%2004-15-06.pdf http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/16/INGMBI864C1.DTL http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=262 9:40:03 PM    comment []

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Easter - Day IV For those who believe, today is the fourth day celebrating Easter. The celebration is not an easy thing beyond a day or two. Can we actually celebrate the resurrection for eight days? Can we allow the joy of Easter to fill our minds, hearts and souls beyond Sunday? Co-workers are suspect if you're happy all of the time; some people resent it. The pope has no problem proclaiming the good news. Our challenge is trying to live it. Happy Easter ! 9:51:53 PM    comment []

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Bring it on WalMart From the Christian Science Monitor Each year of gargantuan deficits with trade partners represents another year of erosion for America's economy, because it means US consumers are buying cheaper goods from abroad at the expense of jobs at home, say those who worry about the size of America's trade deficit. "We're hollowing the economy out," says Charles McMillion, an economist who follows trade patterns at MBG Information Services in Washington. "It's having enormous negative consequences for families and individuals." And the answer to these gargantuan deficits? In many ways, China and the US are reverse images of an imbalanced global economy. The US is the great consumer and borrower, and other nations, economists say, should devote more of their national income to consumer spending. Oh yeah, just what I'd want my kids to do, debt themselves up to their eyeballs, like the fool down the street who is maxed to the gills in bills. 7:43:31 PM    comment []

Friday, March 10, 2006

Current Reading I just finished reading John Crawford's The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell.  I found the story brutally honest, disturbing but sometimes humorous . Some of the reviews at Amazon reflect the anger of those who did not want to acknowledge the truth of his story. They only want to acknowledged the myth of war,  turning a blind eye to the truth the author shares. The negative reviews also reinforce some of the author's themes and insights. 11:18:21 PM    comment []

Monday, March 6, 2006

A Classic Newspaper Headline This March 6, 2006 article from the New York Times (annoying registration required) is a prime example of a win - lose business - labor situation: AT&T's proposed $67 billion purchase of BellSouth was received warmly by Wall Street today, and even critics who expressed concerns about the acquisition's impact on competition acknowledged that the deal should easily win regulatory approval. ...Moreover, AT&T expects to reduce costs with the BellSouth merger. The company said today that it would cut 10,000 jobs once the deal is complete. These cuts would come in addition to the 26,000 positions it had previously said it would eliminate from 2006 to 2008 as part of the previous merger of AT&T and SBC Communications. AT&T and BellSouth employ a combined total of 371,000 workers and have $120 billion in sales. (underlining added) What is also interesting is an earlier report in the Times (Feb. 28, 2006) by reporter Ken Belson who was blindsided when he wrote this article that opens with: As the merger merry-go-round spins through the telecommunications industry, one critical player appears to be sitting out the ride. BellSouth, the third-largest regional Bell carrier, has not only been absent from talks that led to deals for AT&T and MCI but, according to its chief executive, F. Duane Ackerman, is very happy to go it alone, thank you. And ends on this now humorous in hindsite note: They speculate that once SBC is finished absorbing AT&T, it will set its sights on BellSouth. SBC is trying to build a truly national carrier and to do that, it needs all of Cingular, they reason. And rather than buying BellSouth's stake in the venture, it will pursue the entire company. Just maybe not on Mr. Ackerman's watch. 10:33:21 PM    comment []

Sunday, March 5, 2006

War on Terror of Starvation The global war on terror (of starvation) is failing. Billions for arms when millions are needed for moms and dads and children who are starving. 1:05:49 PM    comment []

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

May You Live in Interesting Times This expression does not originate from the Chinese, as commonly quoted. These two sites: NOBLE Reference Files and Sidebar attempt to explain the origins of the expression. This brings up the issue of gullibility: how easily we can be duped. Sounding authoritative does not mean the speaker is knowledgeable or honest or an authority. Everyday, the President says things that are untrue. Everyday the secretary of defense says things that are untrue. We used to depend on journalists to stand up and call these persons to task regarding the incongruity of their statements. Not anymore. Actions speak louder than words still rings true. Or at least that's what I've been told and by who, I do not know. 11:02:42 PM    comment []

Monday, February 20, 2006

The Organized Way IV The conclusion to being organized (emails, phone messages and verbal requests) is old technology: the legal pad. The use of a PIM (Personal Information Manager) is not realistic. The legal pad is crash proof, immune to power surges or power failures. It is light weight and portable. My Day Timer provides an excellent calendar and system for note taking. Sometimes I think of certain technologies and software programs as nothing more than snake oil,  not forgetting Silicon Snake Oil. 9:16:32 PM    comment []

Friday, February 17, 2006

Link TV Began watching a documentary on  Link TV last night about Iraq and one of the framers of its constitution. The film maker returned with her father to Iraq after a 30 year absence. Her father was a diplomat in Washington, D.C. those many years. Her interviews with ordinary Iraqis from shopkeepers to upper middle class professionals who were imprisoned and tortured under the former dictator were sobering. 8:07:36 PM    comment []

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Red Day When a child, it was known as St. Valentine's Day. Now it is simply Valentine's Day. Three huge heart shaped red balloons reluctantly follow A tug on the heart strings. A day filled with candy, the cheap kind, like a second Halloween without costume, without trick only treats of kisses and caresses and soft carmel coated words from an unaware high school boy. 8:23:37 PM    comment []

Monday, February 13, 2006

Long Time Gone Four and a half months away from the blog; none the better nor the worse. It has taken fifteen minutes to write these words due to the phone ringing, children yelling about furniture removed from their room without foreknowledge and my own intermittent web surfing. An attempt has been made to reestablish this blog. 6:51:07 PM    comment []

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Give Peace a Chance Today the life of Francis of Assisi is remembered throughout the world by christians and non-christians. He was a man who chose to live in complete poverty of mind, body and soul, utterly dependent upon God for his existence. He was a joyful person who celebrated the life of his mentor, Jesus of Nazareth, by living and dying as Jesus did, emptying his life of selfishness. Francis sought peace wherever he traveled and with whomever he met. May St. Francis intercede for Mr. Bush (and each of us). 11:37:34 PM    comment []

Good evening. I am speaking to you from the city of New Orleans, nearly empty, still partly under water, and waiting for life and hope to return...[where] millions of lives were changed in a day by a cruel and wasteful storm.. In the aftermath, we have seen fellow [world]citizens left stunned and uprooted searching for loved ones, and grieving for the dead and looking for meaning in a tragedy that seems so blind and random. We have also witnessed the kind of desperation no citizen of this great and generous [world] Nation should ever have to know fellow [citizens of the world] Americans calling out for food and water vulnerable people left at the mercy of criminals who had no mercy ...and the bodies of the dead lying uncovered and untended in the street. G.W Bush Hurricane Katrina is an apt metaphor of the presidency of Mr. Bush...[where] millions of lives were changed in a day by a cruel and wasteful storm... The cruel and wasteful storm has been visited upon the people of Iraq, Haiti, the United States and many other regions of the world. This day has lasted for almost five years, at the mercy of criminals who [have] no mercy. 10:06:52 PM    comment []

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Presidential Readability Using MS Word's Flesch-Kincaid's Grade Level Readability statistics, Bush's address to the nation regarding Hurricane Katrina tops off at an 11.6 grade level. Below is the complete breakdown on the speech's Readability Statistics. 11:34:35 AM    comment []

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Thirty-six Days During the past thirty-six days our nation was struck by a devastating hurricane named Katrina. The response of the federal government was abysmal. The president floundered, providing nil leadership. A major city was flooded, after being evacuated. Evacuation was available for those who had personal transportation. The elderly, the poor, the homeless, the carless were stuck. The president's speech to the nation about  his plan for helping the victims of the hurricane sounded like a campaign speech. It would be interesting to de-construct the speech and see what it revealed. 11:12:44 AM    comment []