Even those too lazy to vote feel it their birthright to blast our elected representatives from every direction.  We complain bitterly when we do not get all we want as if it were possible to have more services with lower taxes, broader health care coverage with no federal involvement, a cleaner environment without regulations, security from terrorists with no infringement on privacy, and cheaper consumer goods made locally by workers with higher wages.  In short, we crave all the benefits of change without the costs.  When we are disappointed, our response is to retreat into cynicism, then start thinking about whether there might be a quicker, easier, and less democratic way to satisfy our wants.

--Madeline Albright on page 116 of Fascism, A Warning.  This quote comes on the heels of a section about globalism and about the manipulation of public opinion using the internet.  The first part of this book was the best short history of Europe I have ever read--for once it made sense.  Excellent read: recommend.

Journalism is printing
what someone else doesn't want printed.
Everything else
is public relations.
--George Orwell

I just got an email on my personal email account that is masquerading as a message through livejournal. It is someone with an Alzheimer's info site wanting me to direct people to their site using liveonearth. I am afraid to even click on the links from my own computer, since the message is inherently dishonest. It was not sent via livejournal, but it is designed to look like it was. I don't like that this person has my email address. I don't like how much info people can get about me without my willingly giving it out. Oh well, such is the internet age...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/urizenus-sklar/understanding-conspiracy-_b_793463.html
Understanding Conspiracy: The Political Philosophy of Julian Assange
by Urizenus Sklar

thanks to skyojos for leading me to this

en·thy·meme   [en-thuh-meem]
–noun, Logic.
= a syllogism or other argument in which a premise or the conclusion is unexpressed

Think of your biggest personal goal
Don’t tell anyone what it is
Telling goal makes it less likely to happen
Work to achieve goal is needed
If you tell and it is acknowledged, the mind is tricked into thinking it is already done
(I think this depends on the rxn of the person responding: if they congratulate you on your awesome plans, that is what tricks your brain, but if they talk with you about the hard work and long road ahead, this may not happen)
so you have less motivation to complete the work
This goes against conventional wisdom that our friends will help hold us to our goals
People who talked about goal didn’t work as long and felt closer
Delay gratification of social gratification
Say it in a way that gives no satisfaction or stay mum.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/947

I knew he'd be hard at work. I had no idea he had such an elegant solution worked out! My favorite clear thinker Congressman Ron Paul has introduced several pieces of legislation in Congress to bring true change to health care. Imagine the impact if congress were to stop legislating as if they worked for big business, and begin legislating as if they actually had the health and best interests of private citizens at heart. The result would be something like what Ron Paul proposes.

H.R. 2629, the Coercion is Not Health Care Act
The intent of this bill is to stop government from railroading us into a scheme that requires us to buy health insurance, or makes the purchase of insurance a precondition for any government benefit or program.

H.R. 1495, the Comprehensive Health Care Reform Act of 2009
Allows us to pay health care bills as we choose. Provides a tax credit for all Americans for 100% of healthcare expenses (refundable against both income and payroll taxes). This bill also lets us roll over unused money in cafeteria plans and Flexible Savings Accounts (FSA), gives tax credits for premiums on high deductible insurance policies connected with Health Savings Accounts (HSA), lets seniors use their HSA moneys to cover the donuthole in medicare coverage, and repeals the 7.5% threshhold for the deduction of medical expenses, making ALL medical expenses tax deductible. This would lighten the burden on regular people, allowing us to seek care when we really need care.
( Several more bills worth supportingCollapse )

I look it up from time to time....just to see how much the world can find out about me from just my name. I am happy to report that my name is uncommon enough that approximately 20% of the hits are about me. The other 80% are other women---who write poetry (middle initial L), breed bulldogs, run for office and loose, go to court, and work hard at researching their family's geneaology. I found my mother's telephone number online in an old post to a whitewater club's site, and asked them to remove her number from the web. I found my amazon wish list. I wish somebody would buy me things from that list.

Nice NYT article here. As the Obama "transition team" (containing a few Clintonites) is working their way through the Whitehouse, preparing for the incoming staff, they are sworn to secrecy. "But few can contain their amazement, chiefly at the sheer increase in the size of the defense and national-security apparatus." Seems like the innards of the Whitehouse has been revamped in the style of a star ship. The Situation Room has secure video connections to US military commanders around the world, putting the "decider" in chief squarely into the military mindset and timeframe. So much for diplomacy, eh? The Department of Homeland Security, the sprawling new department which seems intent upon watching US has mushroomed into something quite large. I am relieved to hear that the new head of that Dept will be Janet Napolitano of Arizona. I liked her as Attorney General of AZ. She was straightforward, realistic, and fearless. Progressives in AZ have hopes that she will go far. Janet pledged to obstruct Shrub's Real ID (national driver's license) program, and now she is in charge of it. If we do end up with a national license and ID, it will be more reasonable because of her.