thechristiandemocrat

Letter to a Friend who is participating in an Occupation Location

2011-10-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

The media is looking for the easy answer, the finely honed sound bite and the airbrushed press release. When Occupy Wall Street produced a list (created and voted on in their General Assemblies) of their goals, the media ignored it, except for Keith Olbermann formerly of MSNBC who has now found a home at Current.TV. If the insipid talking heads with good hair and million dollar salaries are clueless, the people aren't.

In recent polls, the great majority of the population agrees with the complaints of the Occupiers of Wall Street. The people want the banksters and hedge fund sociopaths go to jail for screwing up the economy. The people want to see production of goods gain momentum in this economy. The people want to stop the free ride for the wealthy. The people want to end the choke hold that the corporations have on our electoral processes and on our government.
The majority of the people want to see the end of personhood for corporations, and want to see jobs come back to the US.

    Sometime during the summer, Mike Bloomberg announced that he had a fear of a populist uprising, mentioning it weeks before OWS. He probably based this fear on guilt of knowing how he's been getting away with major theft, paying the lowest taxes as a member of the 1% since the robber barons paid taxes preceding the Great Depression.   He knows that index finds social unrest at the intersect point where food prices are high and income is low. This is a world wide index, and our country is still relatively cushioned against widespread famine. But, as our infrastructure is disassembled by the wealthy who pay practically nothing in taxes, and by multinational corporations posing as American companies who have no production in this country, we devolve into a third world consumer nation. We may, for the first time since the Great Depression, have to deal with these issues ourselves.

According to Thom Hartmann, radio commentator on WWRL1600.com, if we adjusted the money for inflation, and compared it to 1961 levels, we would find that corporations paid 43 percent of their profits to tax, while now they pay 17 percent.

We, the USA, in the 1950s and 1960s manufactured 60 percent of the world's goods, with 6 percent of the worlds population. In the 1970s, 37 percent of our GNP was from manufacturing, now it's 11 percent. Something's gotta give.

If the corporations were paying into the tax base at 1960s levels, all would be well. If we taxed imports, we may not have so many 99c stores, but we'd have a whole lot more jobs. If Mayor Mike was paying 50 percent corporate tax, he would be paying 750,000,000 this year in taxes, since his corporation Bloomberg earned 1.5 billion this year. Perhaps his fear is based on his knowledge that he is getting away with murder.
That kind of money would repair all the potholes on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. (Next year, he could pay for the Belt Parkway).

If our tax base was righted, Charlie Sheen would be paying 50,000,000 in tax, as would most CEOs of bigger corporations, and sports stars given to hosting pit bull fights and hiring under aged prostitutes.   Instead of going into yet another mansion that will be abandoned as soon as the addicted and addled get thown out of the game and off the screen, the tax money could go to rehabs for crack addicts and could build new factories to produce solar panels. Why are we letting these fools get away with this crap??

If Exxon Mobil lost their subsidies...If Apple began to manufacture in the USA ..if the government taxed imports....

Note to Occupation Sites: Make sure you have the Portosans..the kids here have been going to the local Burger King, McDonald., but they've been getting turned away..now the local churches are helping, I was told, but I haven't seen it.

.I suggested the Ironworkers donate facilities, the guys who are working on WTC, since their brotherhood says they support the OWS... Someone should reach out to the unions to find if they can rig up some facilities..

The first week of OWS, the kids were about 40 or 50 during the day in the rain and even NPR wouldnt cover the story. They eventually relented, but only Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann will give decent coverage to the mushrooming of 900 international Occupy events

The kids here are doing a class action suit, since they feel the police lead them onto the Brooklyn road way, only to box them in and arrest them en masse.

You might want to call into WWRL1600. to tell them of Occupy Albany and the lack of media coverage. they stream at wwrl1600.com. Mark Reilly is a progressive radio host, on the air from 6am to 9am M-F, has broadcast from OWS, to mention the media blackout on the rest of the Occupy protests. Their number is 212 868 0975

Stay strong, and know you're doing the right thing.

Universal Health Care NOW!!!!

2009-08-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Joy Ryder SEZ:

How to make healthcare affordable? Expand medicare/medicaid to anyone who wants it. Let people pay according to their income, like Child Health Plus, in NY State.. AND....make medical school tuition(AND NURSING SCHOOL TUITION) FREE, like in EUROPE...with stipends for students, while they're studying, so they don't have to go to work the nite shift at McDonalds and fall asleep in their anatomy class... (there's obviously wiggle room here, tuition could be sliding scale too) Graduated Doctors and NURSES can donate a month a year, or a year every decade to help out people overseas, in organizations like Doctors without Borders..now that's a way to win friends and influence people...Solving the health care crisis and developing Kucinich's Dept. of Peace, in one fell swoop!!

Global Warming has good sides, too!!

2009-04-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

We had the color extravaganza, the dogwood trees or cherry blossoms or whatever you call them busting out all over, together with daffodils, rhodadendron, lilac and some green blossoms. Pretty. But then the weather swooped up to 89 degrees for the last few days, ending the delicate little spring light show, and bringing in the heat from outside. Nice. I"m not ready..I still have some slack on my arms that I was hoping to tone by say, June. What ever happened to a weekly fast? Do Christians who shop at big box stores still fast once a week? I know I don't. I wish I did. I wouldn't be carrying around this extra baggage if I had been doing my Christian yoga thingie.

Now they're beating people up on my block

2007-05-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hey..This neighborhood is really creepy...last week a white guy got jumped by five or more black kids on my block...he's on life support still..the cops came to my house asking me if I knew anything...another white kid who has lived around the corner said that his father had a rock thrown at him..he thought it was racially motivated...my own family is biracial..but i want to go live where people act like humans....the neighborhood used to be like sesame street all multi cultural, etc..everyone owning their own houses..but new people bought the houses, and rent them out for profit, so the people who are coming in are straight out of the shelter system, and do nothing but scream and curse all day long, and the kids run like a pack of dogs..with no supervision..ughh...in one year, my car's been shot and my car's been smashed by a trio of kids, aged 10, 8 and 3, careening down the road in an abandoned car with the emergency brake off...some sesame street..

In Memoriam

2006-05-27T04:44:00.000-07:00

In addition to those who died in the Revolution, or 1812, this post is for
the ur-uncle who died of dysentery in camp in Maryland after being drafted into the Civil War, leaving behind a wife and an infant daughter...
for Special Ed, who went crazy in Korea and finally bought the farm after working as a chaplain after 9/11, taking his own life in an apartment in Brooklyn,
this is for my uncle Richard who got malaria in the Phillipines, in WWII, suffered from depression ever after, and walked into a commuter train on his way home from work,
or here's to another great Uncle who killed my great Aunt, the suffragette, in Jersey City, the man who suffered horrible jealosy after he got a plate in his head in The Great War,leaving his children motherless,
or for guys who came back from WWII and then drank themselves to death,
or for the guys in wheelchairs who live in the VA hospital, , the ones I've sung to with the Al Jolsen Society, who can't quite remember who Al Jolsen was,
For those Working Class HEROS and HEROINES, who hold down the Fort while the rich guys in DC move the troops around like so many chess pieces,
for my cousin, the Navy nurse in Bethesda Naval Hospital, on call this weekend, dressing burn victims,
to the Jarheads out in the desert, breathing Iraqi dust, who are honestly trying to win Iraqi hearts and minds, giving away candy to the little kids,
for the soldiers named Gonzalez or Rodriguez or Jimenez, without citizenship, fighting for the US because they want to be part of, (and will get, if they survive, citizenship, just like my Great Grandfather did, in the Civil War)..
.for the kids who are driving HumVees down RPG Alley,
for the soldiers in Afghanistan sincerely looking for Osama Bin Laden (even though the president has said he doesn't think about him very much) , bless you and keep you. Your aim is true.

The "I" Word - Letter to Chris Matthews (MSNBC Hardball Host)

2006-05-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

I sent this letter to Chris Matthews at Christmas...I received no reply from him or any of his staff.. Thank God for patriots like Stephen Colbert, who recently publically criticized the Washington Press Corps, cowardly "journalists" who are too afraid to loose their cush jobs to actually report news...

Dear Mr. Matthews,
There have been rumblings about impeaching George Bush for some time, now. First it was because he ignored CIA, UN, and Pentagon intelligence sources, and chose anyway to invade Iraq, citing "imminent danger". Then it was discovered in the Downing Street Memo that he knew there was no "imminent danger", but was following the blueprint laid out by the Project for the New American Century (published in the late 90's) to invade the Middle East in order to maintain American global domination. Now we find out that the Bush Administration has been using our tax dollars to spy on such "subversive" groups as the Quakers.
Enough.
Unfortunately, MSNBC hasn't done much in the way of discussing impeachment. I understand that because you are an employee of a corporate conglomerate which enjoys tax benefits from this government, and because you are a member of the small percentage of high earners who don't have to pay much tax, you perhaps are discouraged from criticising this administration in any way, shape or form. It is for this reason that I am appealing to your journalistic sense, to report the facts. The Downing Street memo wasn't reported. I have not seen any Quakers being interviewed.
Rep. John Conyers has introduced a bill investigating grounds for impeachment, and several members of the House have signed on. This news needs to be covered. I hope you are willing to step up to the plate.

Sincerely, Joy Whelan

Christian Death

2006-05-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

I went to church for the first time in a long time. I was in the local Catholic Church for the funeral of my mom's cousin Jane, who was 90 years old. She had been shoved full of tubes before she died, she had the death pneumonia and they put feeding tubes in her, and performed a tracheotomy...instead of letting her die with dignity...I read a book called "The Way We Die"...and it goes into detail about the body shutting down. We don't seem to respect this process, and fight it, instead...hacking away at the elderly body..I know of two cases of octogenarians dying from colonoscopies..the machines perforate the wall of the colon or intestines, leading to bacterial infections, leading to death...You don't need to be shoving around an old person's behind looking for whatever..I warned Peter's mother, who is 89, don't get a colonoscopy!!

MetaText RANT

2006-04-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

Well, few people read this blog, which is okay by me, it's become more of a journal than anything. Unfortunately, with Homeland Security sending out spyware to spy on us..any headline that shouts out at them will be grabbed..Marshall McCluhan used to call them "Hot Messages"..the sort of headline that is used in advertising and yellow journalism to grab attention..now emailers and bloggers must be mindful of their phraselogy, lest they become followed around by 'men in black"...Actually, the CIA seems more humane, and less scarey nowadays..what with their intelligence gathering being ignored...makes me think that they are just like us regular citizens, whose needs are being ignored...I look at the Verrazano bridge rusting away..and think of all the money poured into Halliburton's coffers..I look at schools where I sub, without textbooks, and think of all the 2 million young Americans wallowing away their uneducated lives in jail..those kids didn't need to supplement mom's welfare check with selling drugs...high school kids could get a stipend to attend class, and more kids would make it thru high school and hopefully college..where are the trade schools where kids learn to be plumbers, and dental technicians, and tilers and roofers?...how come these things aren't taught in school? My mom came out of high school with a beautician's license, and had a decent paying gig at 19.....Now you come out of high school and you're prepared for a minimum wage job..the skilled gigs, roofing, paving..go to the 12 million "illegal aliens"....the CEOs of Exxon Mobil earn record profits, and gas prices go up 5c per day....and the 6 billion dollars gone missing in Iraq..and the PNAC plan to take over the Middle East...Homeland security, what a laugh..12 million people come tumbling across the border, and they don't notice it? What did we hire them for?? To spy on the Quakers? That's who they're spying on...

Arrest Exxon Mobil CEOs for TREASON

2006-04-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

IN WWII, there was gas rationing. We are in a war. Prices should be fixed. The Exxon Mobil has no right to make excess profits during wartime. The CEOs of big oil and their high level management should give back their bonuses, or be arrested for treason during wartime. Sincerely, Joy Whelan, Yellow Dog Democrat.

America is beautiful.

2006-04-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

Well I was going to meet Alex for coffee, but instead, after seeing a zillion Latinos/as on the SI Ferry, I asked him if he wanted to document this social event. He did, so instead of coffee, we ran around the demonstration, me looking for angles, and Alex snapping away. Thats why I love NY, no time to be bored, there's always a whirlpool forming...Alex loves experience..his idea of a fun Friday night is standing in the middle of Times Square and photographing the oncoming traffic...

White Monkeys

2006-03-29T08:21:00.000-08:00

I caught a good chunk of Gunga Din, on the Turner Network.. with Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant and Victor MacGlacklen (sp)..wait maybe it was that other beautiful guy..not Cary Grant..yeah it was..doing a working class accent, as a lifer sargent in the British Army, who get ambushed in the Kyber Pass by a Shiva worshipping sect, known as Thugs..Gunga Din (aka Sam Jaffe) saves the day at the end..but you see a good view of Brit imperialism during the 1890s..What has changed? What have we learned from the experiences of Victorian England? Now it's us on the line, mucking around in colonies...while 12 million illegal immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Guatamala, Honduras, etc, invade our economy, and have come out of the shadows long enough to march en masse in LA, Chicago and other cities..come to work for ten bucks an hour at a job once held by an american labor union member for 30 bucks..sure..its nice for the contractors..the playing fields in the workforce are being leveled by competition who live 8 to a room, who pay no taxes, work off the books and ship half of their paycheck out of the country to their starving relatives....Now we have billionaires who pay no tax, and 12 million working people who pay no taxes..Why couldn't we have invested 10 percent (tithe) of our GNP to build sustainable systems in the lands of our neighbors, to build up THEIR economies so that they don't have to come swarming over the border..This resembles the end of the Roman empire...with people pouring over the borders, not necessarily to rape plunder and pillage, but looking for work in the Roman style..looking for economic opportunities..

Theme for an artist TV think Tank

2006-03-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

I wrote this letter to a friend of mine who did a TV show with me, who bemoaned the fact that there is very little intellectual discussion in the US...and how slogans are replacing actual conversation..and how intelligence is considered "unhip".

Hi Giorgio, Thanks for doing the show with me..It was
really inspiring..I was thinking about what you were
saying about finding truth in a logical fashion..Maybe
we could get a series of ideas/themes together, like
you mentioned, and discuss them, with other artists, a
sort of TV Think Tank..Bill Maher did it for a while
with Politically Incorrect, but they used the Fox
model of "shouting each other down", interrupting each
other, so that the loudest one got the floor. It was
an irritating show. The protocol would have to be
more on the model of improvisation, or Iroquois or
Quaker meeting model, where each speaks until they are
finished and then the next person who wishes to speak
gets the floor..

mid century artifacts and marie antoinette

2006-02-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

bev died in december. i went to her house for the memorial, and kicked myself for a month for not being there at the end. i had been there in november, after the hurricane, to help her clean up, get food, gas, etc. i had the plane ticket because the operation had been originally scheduled for november. the operation was rescheduled. i had promised i'd be there, and then with the rescheduling for the third time, she became her stoic yankee self and said 'never mind, you come down at christmas". i had postponed my job, and had only taken that job because it was 3 days a week, so that i could concievably be there for her at least 4 days a week, if she needed me. bev could have afforded flying me back and forth, having money sitting in the bank "doing nothing" as she said. but $500 for the 4 days seemed like a waste of money. frugality won out. she had the operation, i sat in ny with my sweaty teenaged students, called her every day. on the forth day, she died. "i hurt so much" she said. "where does it hurt" i asked. "everywhere", she said. "I love you". I said.
"I'm right there with you". but I wasn't. I was in bensonhurst with the truculant actors, and verclempt bureaucrats.
reading this back, it all looks like justification. on the one hand, i had three classes full of drama students, wanting to put on their pagent, on the other hand i had an 81 year old lady who was going for experimental surgery. I should have been there, the drama job was cancelled after christmas. and all was vanity and dust.
i went for the memorial, and her niece and nephew asked me if i'd like something of hers. I asked for two serving trays, mid century bohemian, with primitive drawings of fish and wine and cheese on them..they were pretty battered. they had been gathering dust, but i loved the 50's stuff. it drew back images of a more egalitarian time. post war good buddy ship. that was the america i grew up in. bev wanted to be nothing but a middle class person, to escape her waspy patrician roots. after the war, a class society was an embarrassment, and even ceo's weren't paid the gajillion dollars they earn today..shoot, if i was a sociopath, with no regard for my fellow man, i could be a ceo. look at micky eisner. 250k per hour, as ceo for disney. all they do is fire people, thereby showing a lessening of spending, then they give themselves a huge salary increase, for their genius.
the government is now equally sociopathic, taking people's property, as part of eminent domain, and selling it to another person or corporation, if they can pay more tax. somehow this model is shortsighted.
i hope bev isn't seeing this. i hope she's in a place where animals are happy and people are happy. here we have a growing group of mindless, loveless millionaires who push the rest of us around. after you, the deluge...

What has to happen

2006-01-13T18:49:00.000-08:00

To set this country in order we have to
1) make sure that voting is as sure as a deposit at an ATM, complete with paper reciept.
2) make sure that lobbys or lobbyists who give ANY money or goods to legislators should be busted for bribery and tampering with the government
3) All media outlets licensed by the FCC, must, as a requirement of their license, set aside equal time for all candidates to air their views, in the time preceding an election. Any time bought by third parties would be considered election tampering, a crime.
4) personhood for corporations should be made illegal.
5) those who premeditatedly sent the usa to war on false pretenses, or were elected falsly should be brought up on charges of treason, and if they are in office, should be immediately impeached.
6) the people of the united states, (aka the government) having arrested these power usurpers, should then go to the un, nato, and other organizations, to work with other governments to bring stability to iraq.
7) the usa must develop a manufacturing base again. having exported most of it's production ability to other counties, the usa should give huge tax breaks to companies who manufacture alternate energy sources, creating exports to other countries and giving jobs to americans. factories should be placed in poor neighborhoods, to give jobs to the poor. perhaps these should be done as co-ops, so that the working people participate in profit sharing. these alternate energy products (solar panels, biodiesel engines, etc.) should not be imported, unless the buyers pay huge import taxes, to make sure the prices are on par with nationally produced items.
8) high school students from low income families should be paid a stipend for going to school and getting good grades. too many kids drop out because of minor economic reasons, not having new sneakers or money for the movies on the weekend.
9) to insure that good healthcare is available to all americans, medical schools should be made free for those who can pass the entrance exam, and young doctors must do public service, (ie work in a health clinic in a poor neighborhood) to pay for their tuition
8) 10 percent of the gnp should be allotted to developing infrastucture, ie. wells, medicines, schools for developing nations.
9) nafta and cafta should be abolished, so that millions of illegals don't come running over the border, because of trade imbalance
10) people who hire illegal workers, should be arrested.
11) immigration should be made more flexible, with day workers and easier laws for immigration, but only children of legal immigrants should be given citizenship
12) many people feel that abortion is murder, and ever younger fetuses are able to thrive, due to technology. abortion as we know it should be made to a great extent, illegal. third trimester abortions are certainly murder. but only in the most extreme conditions should even a first trimester fetus be aborted. the stress must be put on preventing unplanned conception. all birth control which prohibits conception, should be made easily available to any female who can menstruate, regardless of her marital status or age. a morning after pill, which makes the womb inhospitable to a fetus and state of the art birth control should be available to any female who can menstruate, regardless of her age.

That's it, so far.

Deep down depression

2005-12-26T07:36:00.000-08:00

Mele Kalikimaka, as they say in Hawaii nei. I can't find my old boyfriend Jeff on google, anywhere, he might have sailed off to Tahiti, like he planned. We broke up when he decided to go sailing around the world. I wanted to finish college, become an activist, and save the planet. Plus i was enjoying singing in a band way too much. So we parted company, a sad thing. He was the most healthy of my boyfriends..most kind and good. The second boyfriend, George, died of a heart attack at age 43. he dumped me to have an affair with a man (he said) and wound up with another woman..I think he was pretending to be gay..so not to offend me...(it's not you dear, it's your gender)..it was no use..i found out about his heterosexual stuff..later on, after we lost touch for many years, we became reaquainted, after my recording years in europe..we were both at the dentist at the Columbia U. clinic.. He had become a shrink, and married one of his clients, a sweet girl with mild schizophrenia... Claire would see lights when stressed out. George had advised her not to tell anyone. After his death, she was left with his medical school debts and an old car. So much for marrying a doctor. The third major boyfriend, Jerry, apparently is in jail, doing time for embezzlement. Millions and millions. He had gone back to law school. Now he's disbarred. Cheeeezzz..I think his son is a scientist. I'll go to Hawaii and find out more...maybe even visit Jerry one day. I've got time. He's got 10 more years to do.
I google friends all the time..i love this ability to find friends, i only regret that the government also avails itself of the internet..and has taken to spying on threatinging groups like the Quakers..and this is what they've put the country in hock for? (forgive the dangling preposition..or whatever it's called, my english is failing me)

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO??

2005-11-17T13:26:00.001-08:00

WHAt would Jesus do, what would jesus do? What would jesus do, what would Jesus do?

Would he bomb Iraq? Hell no.
End Medicaid? I don't think so

Stop food stamps? Hell No
Forsake New Orleans..Hurricane?

Tell me what would Jesus do, what would Jesus do?
What would Jesus do, what would jesus do?

Would he give a tax break to mllionaires, and Exxon? (I don't think so)
Make homes for the rich, only, hell no.
Cause thousands to die? Hell no
Advocate torture? I dont think so
Take money for Rwanda, and spend it on his own diamond mine (like Pat Robenson)

Get Back Pharisee, you don't speak for me
Get Back Pharisee, you don't speak for me

What would Jesus do, what would Jesus do???

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO??

2005-11-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

The Retirement fund for legislators, an email sent to me

2005-11-15T07:12:00.001-08:00

WHY WAIT UNTIL 2008? THERE IS AN ELECTION IN 2006. I HEREWITH FIRMLY STATE THAT I WILL NOT VOTE FOR ANY POLITICIAN, REGARDLESS OF THE OTHER ISSUES, IF HE DOES NOT SPONSOR AND SUPPORT THE FOLLOWING LEGISLATION. THAT INCLUDES EVERYONE STANDING FOR ELECTION IN 2006.

LET US SHOW OUR LEADERS IN WASHINGTON "PEOPLE POWER" AND THE POWER OF THE INTERNET. LET ME KNOW IF YOU ARE WITH ME ON THIS BY FORWARDING TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.

IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU ARE REPUBLICAN OR DEMOCRAT KEEP IT GOING!!!
2008 Election Issue!!
GET A BILL STARTED TO PLACE ALL POLITICIANS ON SOC. SECURITY
This must be an issue in "2008"
SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.

Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society.They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:

When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..
For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries.Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH...
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthlybenefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator Bill Bradley's benefits! Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.

That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us then sit back....and see how fast they would fix it.
If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe good changes will evolve.
How many people CAN you send this to?

Better yet.....

How many people WILL you send this to ?

The Retirement fund for legislators, an email sent to me

2005-11-15T07:12:00.000-08:00

Something's rotten in Denmark

2005-11-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

Hey , a lot is rotten in Denmark. Mobil oil posted the best profits EVER, while we paid over $3 at the pump..It's horrific. We sign NAFTA, CAFTA and what other free trade agreements, and send jobs overseas, without taxing the corporations for bringing the goods in...NEGATIVE BALANCE OF TRADE...Who's gonna stop that??? Until we make advertising air time available free to all potential legislators...and make private campaign advertising illegal..when normal working people, not just millionaires, can run for office, we'll be ruled by people who have no idea how tough it's becoming.... I recently recieved an email about the retirement plan that US Senators and Congressmen voted for themselves......Legislators hould get social security checks based on income, like the rest of us. And maybe use KMart's retirement plan, as a blueprint for how they get paid....Even better, try my Dad's retirement plan..go to work for years for a company who conveniently goes bankrupt, so that you don't have to get a pension..Kerry and Rangel should suggest this change to their retirement deal...Especially now, when we're going further into debt to China, Saudi Arabia, and are leaving our grandchildren the bill for this Iraq war.

The only thing to fear is Fear itself...FDR

2005-11-06T12:27:00.000-08:00

My son reminded me that long ago, I didn't want him to join the local boyscout troop, because I didn't like the look of the local "troopmeister", and figured he might be a pederast. He was pasty and fat and dopey and creepy, and I just didn't like his vibe. I didn't exactly say that my son couldn't join, but when son of mine showed tepid enthusiasm, I didn't push him to join up. J-man, now a highschooler and wise beyond measure (according to him) scoffed at me, for my fear. He didn't remember, but I had been right once about that stuff. I was offered a scholarship for my son to a small christian school and I said no. The school was kind of far away, so that was one of the considerations, but I knew the headmaster, and I just didn't get a good vibe. As an artist knocking around NYC and Berlin and SF with all sorts of straights, gays and bi's, I think I began to read people.
I'd been around in the days when my gay friends would be vying for the cutist teenager..but I didn't know if this dude was into littler people than that. J'man was way younger than that..but sure enough..aforementioned headmaster was busted exposing himself in a YMCA locker room to teens...Maybe I'm a chicken, but I do know chicken hawks....
Speaking of fear..I've been hesitant to email, to sign my name to petitions, due to the nature of these neocons.Wilhelm Reich outlined the character type in the Mass Psychology of Fascism..cruel, perverse, revengeful, lying, haughty..so I know what's out there.. I do get searched when getting on planes, perhaps my id is flagged. I've heard of leftist activists being given "no fly" status..you know, the really tough types..Ie Quaker Grandmothers..But despite the possible harrassment, There is no time to be timid. Plamegate is the tip of the iceberg. 1) We need an investigation to find out who was responsible for treasonously "outing" a CIA spy.
2) We need to look to the PNAC's plan for US Global domination in the 21st Century, to see the premeditation on the part of NeoCons, to get into the Middle East.
3)We also need to have an investigation into voting machine tampering in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
4) We need to know how much Stock Donald Rumsfeld owns in the company that is to get the contract to supply the USA with Avian Flu vaccine. Nuff said.

The NYC Mayoral Elections Bush = Bloomie

2005-10-14T06:58:00.000-07:00

Heather, You might want to remind your email leaders that a vote for Bloomberg is a vote for Bush..since Bloomie contributed 7 million bucks to the Bush campaign..and brought that lovely military occupation to NYC (otherwise known as the Republican National Convention). A lot of people think Bloomberg isn't doing such a bad job, and that Ferrer is a wuss who dissed the black community because of his switch on his stance on the Amadou Diallo case. Maybe a lot of people need to hold their nose and vote for Ferrer.
Sincerely,
Joy Ryder
theChristianDemocrat.blogspot.com

Prayer in the School, a letter to my cousin DJ

2005-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Prayer in the School. Hmm...I've got mixed feelings.. I'm not sure the Lords Prayer in the public school classroom is right. I recited it in elementary school, in the 50's, along with my classmates, all who were either Lutheran or Catholic. I'm sure it's not a bad idea where all kids are Christian, but In NYC, we've got Jewish kids, Buddist kids, Muslim kids, Christian kids, Atheist kids and who know's what else. I would probably die before having to bow down to Allah..I was offered a job in Saudi Arabia, years ago, and turned it down, because I would not be able to practice my Christian faith (You can be arrested in Saudi Arabia for having anything but a Muslim religious service).....After moving to NYC in the 60's I met Hindu and Buddist and Muslim children, as well as Black 7tth Day Adventists, and Puerto Rican Catholics. Talk about a cultural wake up call!!.. I remember a young Hindu girl running out of my junior high classroom in Queens, because she was embarrassed by the teacher, who had singled her out because of her clothing. Kids hate to be outsiders..Would a Christian prayer (ie the Lords Prayer, first prayed at the Sermon on the Mount) be appropriate to all American children?? Should some form of Christianity be manditory for citizenship??

I agree that the United States would not have been created without the imput of fundamentalist Christians like the Pilgrims and liberal ones like the Quakers. Catholics, of course, were not allowed in for a very long time, due to their penchant for torturing people of other faiths.. There was a time when Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Columbia were church schools for Protestant children, only. (I think they've lost their spiritual thread, but that's another story.) If we wish to establish ourselves as a Theocracy, are we to go back to our earlier policies, which excluded, in the 17th century, Jews from being allowed to immigrate to the colonies? Would we make Muslims and Hindus and Buddists leave?? (Polygamists were deported in the last century...)..Would we exclude Jews from owning property? I believe in God, the Father and the Son, but I also respect the Creators creation of Free Will, which allows each person to make up their own mind about their own faith, or lack of it. I'm all for prayer in religious schools, and I'm all for released time, but in a place like NYC, a Christian prayer in the school is sort of prejudiced.

The 700 Club Pharisee

2005-10-11T08:11:00.000-07:00

I was watching the BBC news since Pravda (oops, I mean MSNBC and FOX) seem to be more about Liberal bashing than about information dissemination. Their presenter said that Pat (Mullah) Robertson has claimed Hugo Chavez contributed money to Al Quaida after 9/11. Who gives Robertson this information? Is he on the CIA payroll? How come our news people haven't picked up on it? I think it's time to start investigating the Mullah. Robertson is the primary shareholder in a Ugandan (remember good ol' Idi Amin) diamond mine. There is talk that Robertson funded his stake in the mine from contributions from good simple Christian folk who sent their tens and twenties in the mid 90's to help the children of Rwanda. If this is so, Robertson is going to have to go the way of Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggert, off his pedestal.

Tell Mullah Robertson to take a hike.

2005-08-25T07:09:00.000-07:00

Pat Robertson, that blathering republican neocon posing as a christian pastor has called for the assassination of a duly elected Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. I don't know if Chavez is any good or not, but apparently he's getting the poor people into schools, trying to put an end to illiteracy. I am tired of these neocons from kissenger on down to bush, attempting to manipulate the governments of others. i really dislike it when, in the case of allende, they were democratically elected. I'm also pissed that they havent come up with a decent constitution for iraq. get the people who wrote the japanese constitution. a bunch of americans, right? right now, they're talking about taking education for women off the table. the islamis will take over, and the people will be back in the stone age.
Meanwhile, Chalabi, that embezzler who has an arrest warrent out for him from Jordan, is cozying up with Sadr, that fundamentalist nut job. the middle class of Iraq (and there was a big one, before we started bombing them) are afraid of the fundi's getting hold of the government. Now women wont be able to work, or go to school, and will have to wear bags over their heads, like they do in Saudi and Afghanistan. Gee, thanks, George Bush. We could have spent all that dough on alternative energy..You could have givene the money to your croneys, for energy development...and we could have been weaned off middle eastern oil. Ask your pastor, Mullah Robertson. (I suggest you both read some scripture, sometime. ..you seem to be far off course)

I'd vote for a yellow dog.

2005-07-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Haven't been blogging recently...not too much political stuff, either..i'm going to help produce a tv show with frank barbaro, who ran for congress.. just trying to get the democratic principles out there in the ether..most of the politicians are relying on media groups to do their promotion..and some of these groups don't care if you're a politician trying to save the nation, or a box of cheeze bisquits..the politician is a product to be sold. on the barbaro campaign, his people couldn't be reached after five pm..during the week and not at all on the weekends...someone said can u imagine the kennedy campaign with workers who folded up shop at 5?? during campaign season?? hmm...anyway..just needed to get my hand in..

The Mass Psychology of Fascism

2005-05-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

I listen to Air America, and hear how the speakers are all so amazed at the behavior of the Neo-Cons. They can't seem to get inside their heads. No matter, someone already solved the puzzle. Wilhelm Reich, the great German Jewish Atheist(Austrian?) psychiatrist who lived in the Nazi era, hit the nail on the head with his pamplet Mass Psychology of Fascism, which analyzed the fascist psyche, broke it down. (Google it, if you can) He wrote about the phenomenon of the Emotional Plague, where a person is so emotionally/psychically/spiritually ill, that he/she try to stifle any natural life force in others. ..ie the Taliban forbidding women to see male doctors, and forbidding women to practice medicine, thereby allowing women to die...for Islam...or how about the major spate of Neo-Cons who seem to share affinities for the netherworld of sick/or sadistic sex? Whether Swaggert and his streetwalkers, or Tammy Faye's husband, or Guckert, the male prostitute with top journalist clearance for White House press conferences, or Jim West, the pedophile conservative, or Ann Coulter, with her preference for casual sex with bar room aquaintances, or the Nazis or the North Koreans pleasure in torturing prisoners..this mindset is called by Reich the emotional plague. It is a fractured ego that will admit no wrong, will lie to appear right, and attempts to harness natural expressions such as dancing, free speech, art etc. Read Reich to know thy enemy.

New TV SHOW

2005-04-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

This is kinda strange. I'm producing a Community TV show for Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Part of the band I work with is showing up, and I've got a few guests. I need to do this show so that I can use the studio on a regular basis. I want to be the Dinah Shore of the New Millenium (it's still new, right?) The kid called to say he wanted to stay over at Tristan's cousin's house in NJ. When I asked to speak to Brenn's mom, he "accidently" hung up. I know it was a long haul, but I'm gonna be doing super sleuthing today..asking Tristan's parents mega questions...etc. To do a show with teenaged wacko behavior sitting on the subconscious is tough..but what is there to do?? Life is not linear, there's always a light bill or a phone call that looms in the scenery..anyway, the show is JoyRYDER's Rhythm Club..lets see what happens.

Easter

2005-03-23T06:51:00.000-08:00

Easter is the most precious Christian holiday. When I was a kid, I loved Christmas better. Of course. Tons of toys. Being showered with presents is a great thing. Christmas is about the baby Jesus, and every kid understands birth, because children are near to birth. Brothers and sisters get born, new cousins, friends of Mom and Dad are in the childbearing years, so babies are everywhere. To celebrate a baby's birth, and to get tons of presents, now that 's understandable. Easter was different. A new outfit, of course., and a bunch of chocolate. Coloring and finding easter eggs was a fun game, with the inevitable lost stinky one turning up under the couch in July. Easter is about death and resurrection. Death. Rebirth. The kinds of things that older folks have on their minds. Easter is more real to me now, than as a child. I wonder about death a lot, after my father's death two years ago. Most of his "greatest generation" with their swing music, money hustling and love, are gone. Now we're on the line. It's our turn at the ferris wheel. In my 50's, I feel I'm on top of the ride, with an overview that only longevity can produce. Yet, I know that I'm on my way down, now, ever so gently. I look forward to Easter.

Tort Reform..Preview of things to come.

2005-03-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

A year and a half ago, I was in El Paso Texas, when I got a blinding headache, which made me vomit and get dizzy. My eye didn’t react to light. My sister took me to the emergency room and 2 doctors said it was Bell’s Palsy, a temporary paralysis that would go away on it’s own. After an MRI They gave me codine, and told me to check with my doctor when I went home to NY.
The codine made me dizzy and nauseous. I couldn’t eat, just drink cold water and hold ice to my head. Two days later I went back to the ER. They gave me a CAT Scan. Nothing. They said it was nerves, and again they said I should follow up in NYC. They prescribed anti-anxiety medication.
When I got home, I went to my doctor who sent me to a neurologist, who sent me to a brain surgeon who said “ you’re getting operated on in the morning.” He did an angiogram, and found the aneurysm which had been sitting in my head waiting to explode. After cranial surgery, I went home to recouperate.
At one of my many followup visits, the doctor was very angry. He said they had used the wrong tests. As it was, I would probably be seeing funny for the rest of my life. I would be squinting like someone with bad cateracts, and I’d always have to wear sunglasses in bright light, due to a permanently frozen retina. He told me I could have died, and I that I should sue. From a doctor, no less.

My sister recommended a medical malpractice attorney in Texas. I called. The attorney said it was too late. I asked if the statute of limitations had expired. She said, no, it was just that Texas’s tort reform was already in place, making it almost impossible to sue. She said she’d have to deposit 15 to 20 thousand cash, just to have the case heard, and with less than a year to work on the case, she said it was too risky.

I stumble around sometimes, if it’s too light or dark. When I look up, it’s like looking thru a kalidescope. But I am blessed. I’m alive. Those doctors are probably still working in the ER. The next patient who walks in that hospital with an aneurysm may not be so lucky to get a second opinion in New York City. And if they die or are crippled from the aneurysm, their families may not be entitled to any settlement, thanks to tort reform.

CampaignReforms

2005-03-06T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Democrats needs to be the party of working families, and needs to stress a populist platform, rather than a centrist, pro-corporate one. The Dean presidential campaign, with it’s unprecedented internet donations, proved that Dems do not have to court corporate campaign funds, or any longer need to promote their interests, when they are in opposition to the well being of the population.
“Working Class” is an antiquated phrase. White collar, blue collar, upper middle, lower middle and working class labels just serve to divide people who earn their living from their wages, as opposed to people who earn their income from stock dividends (ie, from the labor of others). Working Families is an honorable way to define people who earn their living from the sweat of their brow.
We need election reform. ATM machines produce paper receipts, and election machines can do the same. If ATMs can spring up in every bodega and 7-ll in America, then there's no excuse that voters are made to wait for 10 hours in poor neigborhoods to vote. Perhaps we need to get Apple to produce new election machines. Campaign advertising as we know it must be changed. Free air time should take the place of purchased air time. The FCC should mandate that every station licensed thru the FCC must donate equal FREE air time to all valid candidates. We must get corporations to pay taxes, and disallow them to give money to campaigns.
Corporations are not persons. The law must be changed. Corporations don't vote, people vote. Corporate campaign financing money should be viewed as payola, graft, and nothing more.

Tsunami Grief - one among many

2005-02-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

Tsunami Drama getting all the $$$ and the headlines, while Pensacola people are living in mold and misery..I'm singing at a Tsunami Relief benefit today while People in Darfur are dying and homeless, Guyana and Panama just had humungous flooding...and Africans die every day of Malaria and AIDS for want of mosquito netting and condoms..(a UN worker here told me that in parts of Africa, men believe if they have sex with a 10 year old virgin, they will be rid of the AIDS virus..)
Tho' I am relatively poor, I cannot feel sorry for myself..I think of children on garbage piles in Brazil foraging for food, I think of abandoned babies with HIV being used as guinea pigs in NYC by the drug companies...this is the one that freaks me the most..this is the Millennial Tusgegee Scandal..please google "guinea pig kids." Somehow this needs to be exposed in a BIG way..
I wrote down a quote from Ossie Davis a few months ago which said that "truth is the goal toward which we sail". or something like that..

I looked at TEd Becker's 'Teledemocracy" review at Amazon..I sort of understand naybe, using quantum physics..which I don't know about..but the idea of grabbing a random group of people for voting..reminds me of the Neilson ratings.. I envision using the American Idol voting technology to do away with the electoral college...or voting from our ATMs, complete with paper reciept. In my perfect world, the FCC would mandate all stations to give equal time to all candidates...no advertising allowed..this is not private enterprise, electoral politcs are not to be made a profit based enterprise for ad agencies and TV networks....anyway, Peace, Joy

hands off my social security!!

2005-02-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

what did my dad, my ex's dad and mom have in common? not much. they never met each other, lived a thousand miles from each other. one was white, two were black. my ex and i never got it together to introduce them all, and pretty soon they were more or less dead. but what they had in common was that they all worked for small companies, and they were all screwed out of their pensions...3 small companies gone bankrupt, and three aging employees with nothing to show for their years except some savings...what kept them from destitution was SOCIAL SECURITY!! THere's nothing wrong with social security..Bush has a way of presenting his ideas..first he says theres a BIG DANGER!! ie..iraq has weapons of mass destruction poised to attack at any time. ..of course the CIA and the UN inspectors said he was WRONG..then COLON POWELL went to the UN with documents, saying Iraq had been dealing with Nigeria, and was getting nuclear materials..turns out the documents were forged..my kid wouldn't even go to the teacher with a forged note from me!! the supposed signator of the document had been out of power for 10 years..they didn't care..they were off..NOOWWW its SOCIAL SECURITY..now again it's a BIG SCARY PROBLEM..and we needed to fix it..NOW!! I don't believe them...the republicans in their red ties, giving a standing ovation to every word of bush..NOOO..NOO A european friend told me we were heading toward an imperial state..5 years ago..i didn't believe it...HA..the ONE PARTY SYSTEM..lucky us.

what would Jesus do?

2005-01-31T13:52:00.000-08:00

I am blogging cause i'm a Christian, born again in 1984. I am also a Democrat. The Democratic Party has always represented the party which (however imperfectly)has tried to protect the poor, give justice to all people, and in general, has used the Lord's Prayer as a moral compass. Somehow the Republican Party has attempted to Shanghai the Christian faith. I am blogging, in hopes that other Christian Democrats can have a dialogue about issues that effect us all; the melting icecaps, pollution, job outsourcing, foreign aid to third world countries, birth control, war, and of course, social security. This is just a start, and I'll need to work with a tech-head who can show me how to allow others to post to this site. Hopefully, we will be able to come up with good ideas on how to make this earth a better place.