September 26, 2008

Sigh

Bush never had an original idea. Don Imus, an infamous shock jock, back in 2000 was actually looking forward to have Bush just because it would be easy to make jokes about him. Imus is long gone off the air because of racsist remarks to a college womans' basketball team. 3 pages for a bailout of Wall Street is an insult to the intelligence of the electorate and the house representatives and senators on Capitol Hill. It makes me shake my head.

McBush and the White House Screw Up

You cannot run the country on an empty ATM machine. You cannot run a country when not only the ATM's are empty, but the parties who represent the voters are running on empty as well. This latest debacle is disgusting, scary and wholly unnecessary. McBush is a danger to the country. Obama is the only one in the public who has a clue. Obama is working for everyone to "win" whatever they can from this situation. But just watch who gets the blame when someone has to bear the weight of the financial fall. It will be the democrats.

McBush, sorry McCain, needs to take a break, debate Obama, have his VP girl debate Biden, and work on getting the folks in the hinterlands to believe in him as he is now. Not as a war hero. But as someone who can negotiate. My view from this end of the screen is that McCain can't, won't and is the ultimate blame game player. After all, it was the Republicans who suggested the Mississippi debate site, no doubt hoping to throw Obama off his game. Hoping Obama would find it threatening to be in Oxford, Mississippi at the University of Mississipi, being on the campus that was one of the first to integrate the college with some really tough situation in a really tough time. Talk about an attempt at intimidation.

McCain and the Republicans must get to work to regain my trust. Over taken by the Dixiecrats, they are as defunct as the dodo in my book and finally others are seeing the same things I am. I ask, "Why 4 more years?" My opinion is that 4 more years of the same is going to put us into a many year long depression. Not recession. Depression.

Until peace, Know Peace

It's the Economy, Stupid

Yesterday's intrusion by John McCain into the financial crisis was disgusting. Playing politics in a situation this severe is nothing but political grandstanding. McCain did this when Hurricane Gus hit New Orleans, cancelling the first day of the convention on the specious excuse that he is for America first instead of politics first. He needs to attend to his party. He needs to get the Republicans to step up to their first responsibility of representing the people instead of trying to derail the process. He can't have it both ways -- either run for president or represent the people who elected him. The economy is under enough stress.

September 15, 2008

Hurrying towards Happiness

As a society, though, we are all in too much of a hurry to let happiness happen with animals who can't talk. A shelter worker at one of the best shelters I know once told me that the cats who can't adapt to being in a shelter situation with the noise and people get put down first. Put down before they have a chance to learn to trust. Put down before they have any chance at all.

And that is exactly what happens in politics and real world economics. We want what we want when we want it without going through the steps in between. If the law firm isn't bringing in enough money, we don't think about making an unpopular decision and telling the partners that they will not make as much money as they did in years' past. We just fire the people in the law firm who can't bring the partners to judgment. We fire the secretaries, the IT professionals, the Office Services people. We fire those without a voice.....just like the cats getting put down. We don't give a chance to those who don't have a chance otherwise.

We hurry towards the bottom line of happiness and then wonder why we aren't happy.

Oreo


In August, a semi-feral cat named Oreo came into the shelter to stay overnight. She was coughing and generally not feeling well. Oreo is a tiny tuxedo cat who has taught me a lot about feline time. When she first decided to come in, I was one who picked up her up from the outdoors and survived without a single scratch because she felt so bad. As soon as she felt better though she would hiss and growl at anyone who cleaned her cage. This lasted for a month. Then last Saturday she let me scratch her head while I was cleaning out the cages, so I made a note to go back after all my chores to see if she would like to be held in an old quilt. And she did. She settled right in and all you could see were her two eyes over the patchwork. She was happy, content and warm.

Bliss is a happy cat.

Feline Time


This is the first week I can remember not getting scratched by the cats out at the cattery. I don't mind getting scratched. It is part of what being a cattery person is all about. Rehabilitation, hugs, nail trimming, brushing, putting contrary kitties into carriers to go to shows... Cats don't always agree with our sense of time, though. And that's why I get scratched. I hurry too fast getting cats to do what needs to be done. But over time they have taught me that a hurried cat is an unhappy cat. And sometimes, if I stop and watch and wait, they will do what I want them to without scratching or getting upset. All it takes is setting my own internal 'hurry up' watch to "feline time." And not having scratches that itch makes working on feline time worth the effort.

Until peace, know peace

September 8, 2008

Take overs or Take out

Today saw the government takeover of the two premier financial institutions in the U.S., Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Those institutions were perhaps the first to be privatized and, as with other privatized organization, they were systematically looted. My question is whether taking over the banks was such a good idea. I mean as a country we are busy printing money to back loans and institutions when we don't have the money to back up what is in circulation. When private people pass fake money, they go into jail. Hmmmm, I wonder what happens when a country prints bad money...does it go to jail? We need to take out the folks in charge and elect people who are not neo-conservatives who believe that they can control everything if they just find the right spin-meister. Until peace, know peace

Hurricane Mondays

Hurricane Hanna is history...at least for this area. But if hurricanes generate tidal surges, I believe they also generate emotional surges. I have never seen so many angry people on the road, in the stores and other areas of my life. It is weird. I really should see if anyone else has noticed this phenomena.

September 7, 2008

Experts

Experts will tell you that 3 male cats cannot live together without marking and making a mess of the house and of each other. I don't think the experts have met my three male cats. Mine lie near each other, play together, swipe each others toys and food almost with impunity. And yes, like all cats they have some accidents. But to impute the accidents to the living together is unwise. It is much more likely that cats have medical issues that need to be dealt with when this happens, especially if it happens a lot over time. I am not a fan of experts because I don't know what their credentials are. Just becauase they put themselves forward as an expert, doesn't make it so. And that brings me to the talking heads on the news and on the radio. I grew up with the likes of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite who not only wrote and talked news, they went out and found it. In today's world of conglomerates, there are few who do it. Amy Goodman, Christiana Amanpur and others. But these 'in-country' talking heads? I'd rather watch Amy and Christiana talk than listen to self proclaimed experts. After all, anyone can say they are an expert. I am a novice in cats but ... I do know what I know from first hand experience and can only advise on that knowledge.

Cat Purrs and Living with An Open Heart

All I have learned in the past (almost five years) is from my cats. Contemplate the ups and downs of life whilst cleaning litter pans and putting out food and walking through clusters of hungry cats is my way to serenity. I have tried 'sitting' meditation. But the walking through cats practice helps much more. Clearing the debris of the present clears the clutter of the past ...

Namaste

September 6, 2008

Listening

Listening to others is a lost art....at least for me. I have talked incessantly about myself for years. "I" is a whole universe of words in my lexicon. Lately, however, I've been turning the "I" off and letting others be their own "I". And it is a fascinating development for me. I am learning that others out there are a lot like me. They go through harrowing experiences with jobs, health, loss and they survive. Well done. So if the posts here are a little sparse these days, it is because my "I"-ing is taking a step back and letting life be ... well, what life is....

A bumpy road. With crickets chirping if you listen hard enough.

Peace

September 5, 2008

Bill Moyers Journal 9-5-08

Hurricane Hanna brings up vivid memories of Hurricane Katrina for me and I am sure for many others. Certainly, Hanna's predecessor Gustav, was a timely reminder for all of us of the failure of the Bush administration to deal with disasters. And I will be charitable. Bush had a lot of help. However, one of the things he could have helped was to keep the National Guard at home and not send them over to Iraq to fight in a war they were never trained to fight. The National Guard was trained to deal with civil disturbance and natural disasters and certainly Katrina posed challenges in both of those areas. But because Bush and Cheney wanted to look like they knew what they were doing, they sent a minimum number of regular troops to do a job that needed a lot more feet on the ground. They backed the troops up with National Guard (who may not have been counted in the regular Pentagon budget because National Guard and Pentagon don't calculate souls and soles the same way). And then they employed Blackwater and other firms who were not calculated at all in that hard math of war. Companies we have learned about like Blackwater and Cheney's old firm, who don't have to answer to military law at all because they are not bound to use the military rules of engagement. Bill Moyers' Journal tonight discusses the New Jersey National Guard deployment. Fully one half of the entire NJ unit is being sent to Iraq in the next week. If New Jersey takes a direct hit from Hanna tearing up the coast will there be enough National Guard to take care of the devastation? I hope so. I really do but at what cost to the Guard members and to the people who need saving? Worse, the last I heard on C-Span is that the Guard is not being treated equally in their health care and after battle demobilization. In fact, they are not being treated well at all. Guard members and their families are an uncounted cost of this conflict. As a nation, we need to come back to basics, take care of our own people who have taken care of us. We really do.

Peace Now, Shalom Aschav
Publish Post

Keeping it simple

I rearranged my furniture tonight to get more space for my cats and to clean the carpet before the electricity goes out with this storm coming through. The weather channel says that Hanna is going to be very windy. I hope not so very windy that it damages the cattery or my place but I don't deal well with waiting so I rearranged my furniture to pass the time. And I discovered all over again that my main room which is a square of about 20 x 30 and is broken into a living, office, kitchen and dining area is about the size of one of the rooms of where I used to live. Downsizing with a vengeance. So, yeah, I am pretty down about that but I console myself that if it were larger, I'd have more to lose in the storm. Keeping it small truly is all about keeping it simple.

Stay safe