Food for one week

Germany : The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07

United States : The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week $341.98

Italy : The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Mexico : The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

Poland : The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

Egypt : The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Ecuador : The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan : The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

Chad : The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

The Ambiguity of Fact

Michael Scherer breaks down the Obamanomics of Gay Marriage:

He suggests that laws preventing gay marriage are as unjust as laws preventing interracial marriage, the very union that led to his own birth. But he further argues that the best way to fight this injustice is to indefinitely cede the central moral argument--that in America all men (and women) must be treated equal--and rather score incremental victories that push the nation in the right direction. In Obama's formulation, it would have been indefinitely acceptable for interracial couples to be denied the rights of civil marriage, if other progress was being made to advance racial equality. In the same way, it is indefinitely acceptable for gay couples to be denied the right to civil marriage, if other progress is being made to give gay couples similar rights. There is an unstated assumption here: If Obama is successful he will clear the way for a subsequent politician to support gay marriage, just as the broader civil rights movement cleared the way for an end to anti-miscegenation laws in 1967 by the (activist?) U.S. Supreme Court.

It's the constant, trapped cycle we're held hostage by thanks to religion: the ceding of real-world, fact-based truths in response to the moral absolutist outrage of the faithful. Time and time again, we're asked to add nuance and ambiguity to an issue because of the belief of someone with no empirical evidence to support their claim.

Some things in this world are proven (beyond a reasonable doubt) and some are not. There is no ambiguity about the theory of evolution thanks to years and years of research and testing; there is no ambiguity about the reality of global climate change and there is no reasonable justification for the abridging of civil rights for a large percentage of the population. While Obama's position is politically savvy, it's still a compromise based on a false premise.

This is the crux of the dubious "bi-partisan coming together" mantra. You ultimately cannot find genuine "middle ground" with those whose beliefs paint the world in a stark black and white of good and evil. At some level, either the believer is remiss in her/his duty by not championing the cause of "righteousness" or we, the reality-based thinkers, are asked to sacrifice dignity for the sake of magic.

Excuse me if I have trouble with that idea.

The problem is that the believers can't be asked to sacrifice anything because they're unwilling; the moral absolutes of their systems of thought prevent such compromises; so it's always the victims of their bullshit that have to suffer through "compromise" for the sake of perpetuating their absurdity.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

A Short Love Story in Stop Motion by Carlos Lascano

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Writings of Ryu: Anime Movie Review - Adolescence of Utena

Writings of Ryu: Anime Movie Review - Adolescence of Utena

Peanuts

Robert Indiana

Perspective

Truth

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth: anonymously and posthumously.

- Thomas Sowell

The truth hurts

Humans are stupid.

Practicality in Education

"No issue is more pressing than education. ... It is the civil rights issue of our generation" - Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education Designate at today's press conference in Chicago, Ill.

I spend a lot of time in schools talking with students and what I'm forced to conclude is that anyone who finds themselves in the incongruous maze of today's public education system for as many years as our children would be hard pressed to emerge a healthy, contributing member of society who looks back fondly on their time spent there.

There are a plethora of problems: deteriorating infrastructure, an outdated bureaucracy, over-worked and under-qualified teachers, and a pervasive sense that no one's paying attention or listening.

While I value the post-ideological pragmatism exhibited by the Obama Cabinet appointments, I think the place where a pragmatic re-evaluation is needed most is the American education system. I frequently ask groups of students the question: "How many of you feel that what you learn in school is not at all related to your everyday life". Every hand has gone up every time I ask it. What it tells us is that content is dated, unimportant and a big fat waste of time. Students are given materials they care little about as the prism through which to learn the skills necessary to survive in the world. The discerning student brain discards both out of sheer boredom.

And can we blame them for that? Humans naturally look for what's essential. If we can't see it, we ignore it.

Education needs to be relevant again. Every student needs to learn to read, think critically, know logic, basic computation and the ability to intelligently and thoughtfully express her/his thoughts in a variety of forums. Content is ultimately irrelevant, and so it ought to be selected based on the interests of students, rather than academics in ivory towers.

That's real pragmatism.

We'll see who has the stomach for it.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

The Death of Consumerism

Reich begins to paint the new picture of our economy with a clarity that's been lacking as of late while addressing the underlying assumption of the new found love of Keynes:

The first assumption is that American consumers will eventually regain the purchasing power needed to keep the economy going full tilt. That seems doubtful. Median incomes dropped during the last recovery, adjusted for inflation, and even at the start weren’t much higher than they were in the 1970s. Middle-class families continued to spend at a healthy clip over the last thirty years despite this because women went into paid work, everyone started working longer hours, and then, when these tactics gave out, went deeper and deeper into debt. This indebtedness, in turn, depended on rising home values, which generated hundreds of billions of dollars in home equity loans and refinanced mortgages. But now that the housing bubble has burst, the spending has ended. Families cannot work more hours than they did before, and won’t be able to borrow as much, either.

It's what's been missing from all these haphazard calculations in talking about the recovery packages that Congress and the Treasury have been passing and it's a big part of the reason that everything remains frozen: people have changed. Americans have wizened far quicker than anyone thought to the new era of what Thomas Friedman calls the Climate-Energy-Era, the death of consumerism and the new birth of frugal living and conscientious buying. We're certainly not completely there yet and educational outreach will be needed to fully prep the public for the coming shake-up of a system built on living beyond one's means, but it's a good sign.

What's not so good is that all of the assumptions about what will get this economy moving again have to be rethought; freeing up credit won't matter if people are cautious about using it (as they should be).

People have gotten smarter. Now the economy needs to catch up.

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

Head

What's that on the moon?

Has it ever occurred to you.....that you might have been lied to?

Unidentified Lunar Objects have been found in NASA photographs of the moon.

Visit Lunomaly Research Group and see more photographic evidence of unusual structures found on the moon.

Noonan's Reinforcements

She gets it, my core argument for the relocation of the theatre and our greatest source of untapped potential in these dismal days:

And people want to belong to something. If you’re a vibrant member of a church in America, or a casual member of a vibrant church, you’re part of something. If you’re a member of a family that’s together, you are part of something. A lot of Americans do not have these two things.

But she also seems to exhibit a typical conservative, irrational revision of history:

There’s something else going on, a new or renewed sense of national shame. Or communal responsibility. Or a sense of reckoning. Whatever it is it’s a reaction to the excesses of the O’s, a reaction against the ways of those who caused the mess on Wall Street and Main Street. It is a reassertion that there actually are rules, and that it is embarrassing to break them in a way so colorfully damaging and destructive to everyone else.

Ahem.

Pardon me, Ms. Noonan, but were you not part of the Reagan Administration that brought us this mess through the castration of effective government as a market motivator and regulator? The "rules" she cites are the very same "rules" that the Reaganites worked to remove or neuter.

The task at hand now is to revive government as an effective tool in motivating people to make the changes in their lifestyle necessary to ensure our survival; that means a smarter, larger and more demonstrably results-driven Washington.

For more, visit Rants, Raves & Rethoughts

I like the truth

because it's much

more disturbing than lies.

Boy Soldiers

In over twenty countries around the world, children are direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts.

Don't Do It

What is the amount

of money in "Gift Cards"

that went unredeemed last year?

$Eight Billion (8,000,000,000) Dollars!

Okay, so that's FREE money for corporations?

I think I'll give CASH.

fuel for thought?

The most logical support for the US auto industry is from
the oil companies and their record profits.
Have you heard anyone imply this connection?

I'm listening...

I can hear you crying...



And I'm sending love...♥

Paradoxymorons

The asset holes dumped on their food.
So . . to start a new garden, of budding credit,
plow all debt under, as educational statistics,
and encourage tending the weeds as mulch.

"I like to watch" ~ Chauncey Gardener~Being There

You eat poison

Your world is poison.......

Greeting from Tough Times

...

I don't know about you Bernie,
but I'm not giving
a Bone to Betsy
this holidays.

Mix Media by C.L.DeMedeiros

A Citizen

A "Citizen"

has the courage

to make the safety of the human race

their personal responsibility.

Starship Troopers.

Desired things........

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

--- Max Ehrmann, 1927

The Corporate Myth

They don't pay any taxes........they pass the taxes on to you.

It started with price fixing........then it evolved into supply manipulation.

And then they get tax breaks........for paying no taxes.

Call your doctor

Call your doctor if

you experience an erection

lasting longer than four hours.

POW!

Prisoner of War.




You're next.

Lovers seeking for their other half

Us

All we need to do is think outside of the box.

To be above conventional thought is to win.

A universal Revolution of The Mind.

To win, against evil, for ourselves, for the world,

For The Sake Of Humanity

There is no enemy

Is this the enemy?



Remember...............

You don't hate....people

You hate what they........do.