I'm back!

Greetings to all who regularly visit this blog and to those who happen upon by chance!

The holidays are upon us, so I'll start by saying a warm and heartfelt Merry Christmas to all. If Christmas isn't your bag, than happy & merry salutations to you for whatever is important in your life at this time of year.

Financial meltdown, recession, multiple wars, massive unemployment. The list of things to be concerned abut goes on and on. When things get like this, I manage to ground myself by harking back to the 3 spheres I apply in both my personal and professional life to keep from being overwhelmed.

Here they are from 1st to last.

Control - Is it within my sphere of control? Can I control the events that are unfolding? If yes, I act. If no, I move on to the next one.

Influence - Is it within my sphere of influence? Can things I do or say have meaningful influence on the events that are unfolding? If yes, I act or speak. If no, I move on to the next one.


Concern - This is where 80 % of things fall. Is it within my sphere of concern? If yes, I make note of it, I adjust my long or short term plans and goals if prudent and I move on with my life. If no, then it's a non issue and I pay it no further mind.


I know this sounds simple. It is simple. Remember the principle of Occam's Razor/ Loosely translated: "All things being equal, the simplest solution is usually the right one."


That's all I have to say for now. Merry Christmas.

Be nice.

Peace

Time to rethink our strategy...

I know it's been a while since I blogged. Life gets busy.

Now that Hilary is out and it looks like a horse race of Old Bitter vs. Young Hubris, I think we really need to look at where we've been and where we want to be.

I was once a McCain supporter. Back in 99, after reading Faith of my Fathers and watching a truly independent spirited man stand up for what he claimed he believed in, I drank the cool-aid. I believed what he said. Hell, I even bought the t-shirts!

Then, he was brutally smeared by Rove and Company. He caved in to the pressure and began the long suck up to the religious right and the Bush/Cheney machine. That was it for me. I swore then and I repeat it now. I will never vote for that man as long as I live! As the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!"

And in the immortal words of The WHO, "We won't get fooled again!"


Now, back to the topic. Obama may not have been my first choice, but I firmly believe he is our only choice at this point.

Is he a bit high on himself? Sure

Does he think he's smarter than the average American? I sure as hell hope so! :-)

The last 7 years have been brutal on our economy. Our standing in most of the world is in shambles (certain areas of Africa & South America where we've been helping to fight aids and malaria notwithstanding). Our citizens are sorely disillusioned and we need to fix things.

It's going to be a long haul. Four years won't be nearly enough. But, it'll be a start. It will show the world that we are not all Bushites who want to democratize the world. It will show ourselves that we can do better and we will have hope once again.

And for the young 'uns reading this.

Clinton / Richardson 2008

Here's what I believe about this year's election.



We can't afford to have a new candidate for change inheriting the mess of the past 7 years. Like it or not, we need someone who knows how the Washington machine runs and who will be realistic in their approach to fixing it.

We also need a veep who has street creds in the international community, who will hit the ground running to mend fences around the world and who knows what it takes to deal with the cast of characters all over the globe.

Hillary can accomplish much of what is required on the domestic front with respect to the economy, infringements of civil liberties, lack of adequate health care and repealing the unfunded mandate that is No Child Left Behind! VP Richardson can set to work securing nuclear weapons that are unaccounted for, establishing relations with nations we've ignored for the past 7 years and, hell, maybe even open up Cuba! Be a nice play for a tropical vacation!

That's all I have time for at the moment. Clinton / Richardson. Think about it!

Relax, breathe and let it flow....

Vinyasa Flow Yoga has been one of my best discoveries over the past year. Seane Corn's DVDs are terrific and easy to follow.



A lot of you may eschew yoga has a hippie trend or have some other bias against it, but in my experience it's a great addition to life's routines that helps to keep me grounded, relaxed and able to deal with whatever comes my way.

What do you have to lose besides a few pounds and a ton of stress!

It looks as though Al's going to stay on the sidelines.

So, our next best hope to fix the mess we are in has to be Hillary!

Russia claims the pole and everyone else loses all sensibility!

So, Russia planted a tiny flag under water at the geographic north pole.



BFD.



Btw, this is the Russian Arctic Base Camp above.

The problem with this situation is not that Russia has claimed the pole with the goal of exploiting its reported gas and oil reserves (25% of total available resources globally be some estimates.).

The problem is the reaction of all these other countries to jump all over the issue and claim that they have sovereignty over the area and thus have rights to this reserve.

Ok, so that's only part of the problem. The big picture issue here is that they are already planning how to create a new arctic route to save going through the Panama canal with all the booty!



BIG PICTURE PEOPLE! BIIIIIG PICTURE!!!

The reason it is even possible to consider an arctic route for heavy oceanic transport is because the ICE is melting!

The ICE is melting in large part due to global warming!

GLOBAL WARMING is being hastened by the unchecked burning of OIL & GAS!

Common sense should allow us to consider that if:

A) Arctic Ice is melting because of Global Warming
+
B) Global Warming is hastened by burning of Oil and Gas
=
C) Then perhaps we should be more concerned about keeping anyone from touching the Oil and Gas in the Arctic region and focus on ways to develop clean and renewable energy.

I can't be the only one thinking of this. That's way too scary a thought that I am the voice of reason in the world!

In past years, (read before 2000) I would have suggested writing to the President and to your Congressmen and Senators. You can try writing your representatives but it'll probably prove as useless as writing to Bush and Cheney about it.

When even the environmentally Kennedy clan is sucked in by their own and other rich folks' interests (Ted Kennedy opposes Cape Wind project while only 14% of his constituents oppose it. But then, 86% of his constituents don't have homes on Nantucket that may be disturbed by the faintest sight of wind turbines 5 and 1/2 miles off the coast of the Kennedy compound!), there really can't be much use in writing, calling or emailing anymore!

So Bill, what can we do?

I'm glad you asked. I've said it before and I'll say it again.

Third Party.

And I hate to say it but Unity 08 doesn't cut it. It's clear that people in this country just don't get that flag waving fervor going over a word like Unity! They may favor it, they may even admit that it's a good idea, but they will not be putting stickers on their pickups about it!

What we need is a third party with a strong libertarian leaning and a name like the Patriot party.



Who doesn't want to support a Patriot? Before McCain sold out to Bush and Falwell he may have even been a contender for such a party, but no more.

Now's the time for action before we slide so far down that proverbial slippery slope that it's impossible to recover. Wake up folks! It's time to mobilize and strive for change. In a peaceful and non-violent manner of course! Did you hear me NSA? I'm sure you did. Give out a shout out to Alberto for me! :-)


Our job, daresay our duty, as Americans and human beings is to find a way to stop this ridiculous childish behaviour and get this country back on track as a nation that leads the world by example (good example!) rather than trying to force our will down the throats of others from the barrel of a gun!


Be nice.

Peace

A brief interlude. :-)