Time to think at a certain level

The invisible

Those who know me know how much I love the people that I love, love the people that I like, hate the people that I hate, and tolerate allot more than most think. Mostly because in personal matters I can let allot roll off eventually, although I am quite outspoken about what bothers me. I like to think that by not holding back and festering resentment it actually improves a relationship. And I leave the door open wider to enable others to do the same. Some people don't see it that way and are unable to see the intent for exactly what it is. Oh well, can't help that. Some people can not be bothered to see beyond their own perspectives even without even trying to peek.

I think what really peeves me the most is when I allow myself to be taken advantage of... not in the sense that some one benefits from my nature or generosity, but when they abuse it or manipulate it. The only ride I like to be taken for is one that will end up somewhere positive, even if the road is bumpy at times.

I've been told that I'm not the most easygoing person in the world...and I take that as a complement. Easygoing people, in the long run, get walked all over and empower the manipulator to move on to bigger and better targets, wrecking more and more people along the way. Sad thing is, many don't even realize it.

I am guilty of being occasionally tread upon. Although I seem to have a special insight, there are some that are so gawdamn good at it that I get suckered in too. And they may not even see it, being too busy with far too many things to give it any special attention...or consideration.

Being selfish and self-ish are two entirely different things. Selfish is being too self-absorped to be responsible for your actions. Self-ish is living your life with your happiness and well being as the primary goal. I have no problem with the latter...in fact I live it as a philosophy. But eventually the selfish begin to become more and more transparent. And as more and more see it, they begin to fade away.

But sometimes its really tempting, yannow?

Right now, the Supreme Court of the United states is deciding whether or not there is still such thing as private property in this country.

The 5th amendment allows for the use of "eminent domain" to provide land for "public use"; it does not say "public benefit" and it damn sure does not say "private profit". It is there, in black and white; no debate, no interpretation needed.

this case, which has only come to the attention of my tiny but hyperactive mind, has been in progress for 6 years now.

It seems that the city government of New London, CT feels it has the right to take peoples homes away from them if it thinks it gain get more revenue by giving it to somebody else.

It also thinks it has the right to turn its powers of eminent domain over to a private entity (the New London Development Corporation (NLDC)).

The driving force behind this? The drug giant Pfitzer! They want to expand their operation there in New London and obviously don't care if anybody doen't like it and seems to think it doesn't have to. In any sane universe ruled by a sane and just God, Pfitzer would be told to go merrily Pfuck itself.

Inescapably, we are seeing a case of big business using local government as a tool to consummate what is, after all the varnish has been sanded off, a naked land grab. NLDC already plans to "lease" the confiscated land for a dollar a year per acre for 99 years.

It takes no great leap of imagination to suppose that careful scrutiny of the personal finances of the "movers and shakers" within New London's City Hall would likely yield interesting and instructive results.

The woman,Susette Kelo, whose name this case bears, has been offered a paltry $124,000 for her century old home. This is what the New London city government, with a straight face, is pleased to call fair market value. Perhaps it was.... twenty years ago. What a detached observer would call it is robbery.

The court is going to soon rule if it is all right for someone to take your property away from you if they have more money or can afford better lawyers than you. or if they can offer local government more in revenue. I think New London's city fathers need to be reminded, however forceably, that properly exists not for its own sake, but for the sake and at the pleasure of the governed. In this instance, the governed need to display their DISpleasure. But there is no need to give way to hysteria;we are Americans, we know how to arrange a proper necktie party, including live sex shows with amateurs. We leave curbside beheadings to the low and unrefined.

What the Court decides is going to shape the definition of private property for decades to come... or even if there still is such a thing. If the Court is so regrettably wrongheaded as to rule against the plaintiffs, then no one's property is safe. .... and another foundation stone from under the edifice known as the United States of America will be pried away. If the Supreme Court so rules, it will be openly admitting to the world at large that "justice" , in this country, id indeed for sale to the highest bidder.

I am not normally an advocate of political assassination; it tends to upset people. And I know that it's wrong.

Common denomination

I've made it pretty clear here that I am a Pagan...a Conservative Pagan. Rather pragmatic but leaning toward Asatru. Look it up if you care to, but this is not really about that.

When I tell folks this I get the same reaction everytime:

"How can you be pagan and Conservative, it makes no sense?"

It makes perfect sense to me...

I have a pretty great band of fellow iconoclasts, much to the surprise of many people. Yes, I'm not the only one, and that seems to be the first thing people say when they introduce themselves to the jasminlive group.

And we are as diverse amongst ourselves to reveal even more individualism. But the common thread is that we are Conservative, and most quite strongly so. We have occasional squabbles and disagreements but we all get along quite well.

But this is an on-line group of folks, not those that I interact with during the normal course of my day.

What I have experienced in my real world is that I have only one other true pagan friend anymore. And this is a man with whom I have been friends with for many many years. He also serves in the military and is a police officer. The rest of my pagan social peers have fallen away from my life for the most part because, simply, I am Conservative. The rest of what we have in common became irrelevant as I grew to be more open and confident about it. And strangely…my Christian Conservative friends have offered me the most support, encouragement, and genuine admiration toward me as a person…an individual.

My very good friend and fellow "misfit" (I say that with the warmest regard), Phoenix, received the following e-mail via his website The Conservative Pagan.

The link has been there on the side bar and was actually the first one added when this blog began. I have a great deal of respect for him and the following is just another reason why...

Hello!

Today's Reality Check comes from Hennessy's View, an all round intelligent and well written blog. Let's play connect the dots:

Dot #1:

The volcano, Krakatoa, [which is actually west of Java - but that's not important, now] blew its top in 1883 releasing about 11 cubic miles of dust into the atmosphere and an estimated 1 cubic mile of finer dust into the stratosphere [about 17 miles up,] not to mention tonnes of various gasses, most of which could peel the paint off your garage door on contact. The effects of this spectacular release, including massive destruction in Indonesia and beyond, included sunsets in Poughkeepsie bright enough that the fire dept. was called to "put out that fire" and sufficient filtering to the solar radiation that world temperatures were lowered by as much as 1.2° C or 2° F. Temperatures did not return to normal until five years later, in 1888.

World temperatures, lowered by 2 degrees F, 1883-1888. [see correction below]

Dot #2

Environmental "scientists" have chosen to use the year 1884 as the baseline for measuring changes in world temperatures.

Much more info at Hennnessy's. Go See . . .

Thinkables

Music for me is evocative of a time, sometimes a moment in time. Reading yesterday of Laura Branigan's death brought her signature song "Gloria" to mind. It reminds me a of a certain summer. If you asked me to sing it, or even if you didn't, I would sing the word Gloria a few dozen times and call it a day. Even back in the days of my garage band, about the best any of us could manage was the first verse and chorus of any song. And these were songs where you could understand the lyrics. Anyway, I said that to get to this.

A while back I was reading some jasmine live blog, don't ask me whose, where the girl was using songs to express how she felt about a love interest. She mentioned one in particular (I forget); neither title nor group meant squat to me. On a lark I followed the link to a web spot where song and lyrics could be had. The music was ... cacophonous is a good word ... noisy, smokey and ear hurting. Unintelligible music that nobody will ever hum, because it's unhummable. But the lyrics! The lyrics were poetry of a fairly high order. I was actually staggered by how this rotten music could be the vehicle for such insightful, even beautiful, thinkables. Even more staggering ... no disturbing, was this realization. Some people, this girl for instance, can actually hear the words, understand the lyrics, without reading them. That blows my mind. Truly. Even if I gave in and got a hearing aid, I could never hear them. Ouch.

I'm playing Frank Sinatra until my head stops hurting from all this deep thinking.

HA!

But of course these laws need only to be heeded by the rest of us, yannow, the ones doing all the vandalism and environmental damage. They're vowing to go ahead with it anyhow.

Like driving a beat up VW with a "take the bus" sticker in the rear window (ever behind one going up a hill?)...or smashing windows of Starbucks (yes...more fossil fuels to turn sand back into windows!). Or defacing stop signs and spray painting "Bush" underneath (you gotta use solvents to remove it!).......... or using up all those poor trees to print leaflets (with soy ink, of course!) decrying the raping of the forests....

Yannow.

I'm sorry, What was that ?!?!?!?

I don't care if it's a 527, a 501(c)(3), or Mary Katherine's Quilting Circle -- any individual or group of American citizens have not only the right but the duty to speak out on the issues that effect this country. That is how the PAC was invented. And another oddly named species will come out of this ruling.

I just want to know howinhell a POTUS can even utter anything like the words, "shut those citizens up."

Inappropriate, at best.

"Shadowy" my wide white ...foot! Just look and you'll see who these 527s are. Right there: Soros et al, ad nauseum. Hell, Kerry's "Brown Books" [to match the shirts? naaah] are about to tell us how many damn fillings the Swifties have and which ones poop too much!

The Swifties are funded by private citizens at an average donation of $59. [at last count] "Shadowy" -- feh!

It's a helluva time when honorably discharged, decorated veterans cannot speak their piece. It's a helluva candidate who tries to run on some non-relevant hype then cuts and runs when the heat is on. Rational response that is on point seems completely out of the question for Kerry. But the attacks on the personal lives of the Swifties says louder than any release of his Navy records could, "I am full of shit lied and these men caught me."