The Irrational NRA Leadership

When Wayne LaPierre, Vice President of the NRA held his press conference today, and got up to speak I got so sick to my stomach of his propaganda that I hate to write this post drawing attention to his speech.  If I don’t talk about it and point out just how severely insensitive the man was then, I like to many others will let that type of mentality pass off to those who do not know the heart of the American citizen, think his brand of callousness lies in the hearts of the majority of Americans.  As expected he blamed everyone but the NRA. Politicians politicizing it, demonic behavior, gun free school zones as an advertisement for the disturbed,video games, the lack of guards in our schools, the entertainment industry and the media.

If anyone read my post yesterday entitled,”Why Do We Lead The World In Suicide’ then you know I pointed out the cultural differences that we all must share in and the responsibility we all must take to keep our children safe.  We do not need guns in schools because they offer a false sense of security to those who carry a gun.  They also offer a challenge to those like Timothy McVeigh who went to a bomb where armed guards were, instead.

The facts are that the majority of us who own a gun will not and cannot shoot to kill another human being and we will either freeze up when called on to do so or we will shoot wildly into a crowd and kill more innocent people. Even policemen, who are trained to use a gun, know to shoot their guns is the last possible choice they have to make,since we have an established record of collateral damage and more lives lost as a result of having to use a gun in a crowd, throughout our History. Armed guards in banks and air ports know not to shoot where people are gathering.  The guards only end up being another victim when a person enters the space or establishment and far more guards are killed in businesses,Court Houses, or banks than are armed robbers, because they do not want to harm the innocent around them.

I don’t know what kind of sick home Wayne LaPierre grew up in or raised his children in but his statement that,” today’s children will see 16,000 murder scenes by the time they reach the ripe old age of 18,” is so totally inaccurate that if it wasn’t such a serious subject it would be laughable.  Movies of sexual or violent content are rated in America and children who do not have an ID of proof of age cannot get into a PG13 or R rated movie.  I know that to be a fact, even when they are accompanied by an adult.

I don’t doubt there are irresponsible parents who could care less about the movies their children watch at home but to declare them as the norm is totally adding salt to the wound of parents who do not allow their children to watch these movies or play these games.  Many homes have controls on their computers and televisions that will not allow the viewing of these shows and television warns adults when something is not appropriate or wrong for children to watch as well.  Even our news programs will place a warning prior to showing it.

Facts number two are that the very same movies named and the very same video games that Wayne LaPierre named play in Countries like Britain and Japan and are the very same video games played in both Countries. A ten-year study shows that they do not influence children to kill but violence in a home acted out by parents can and does. The Industrial or Civilized Nations have as much porn and as many people who prostitute.  They work to buy and over spend as well.  All the same things we have in our culture they have as well.

Britain and Japan are as civilized and advanced as we are and have the same kind of Democracies as we do. Britain’s Military is as strong as our own. The prices and costs in Japan are extravagant along side of what we pay for the same. The raining London skies and the Cramped Tokyo Apts. lead to as much depression and thoughts of suicide in these Countries as much as they do in our own but they do not stigmatize mental illness the way we do. They have free treatment facilities where anyone who is suffering from mental illness or delusional thinking can get help free, at any hour.

What separates all other advanced or civilized Countries from the United States is they do not have a powerful lobbyist that has brain washed gun enthusiasts into believing that the right to own a gun is a higher right than the right for people to be able to live.  When murder happens they do not have a Wayne Lapierre blaming everyone and everything else but themselves for the murders in their Country because they have gun laws that lessen those deaths.  Britain averages 600 murders per year in total and Japan has practically none while the United States has 18,000 suicides or 32,000 murders per year.

The facts are that no other civilized Nation tolerates the mentality that the NRA has and the irrational thinking that they hold nor do they use the lies or the scare tactics and the despicable words the NRA uses to blame everyone but themselves. The National Rifle Association leadership, needs to convince gun enthusiasts that everyone else is wrong and they are right otherwise they may lose their own power through lost of membership dues.

They are amongst the most powerful lobbyists in the Nation and no conservative politician from either the Democrat or the Republican Party can get elected without the support of the NRA.  Other Countries refuse to fight murder and suicide by using guns to protect against guns because they are rational enough to understand that people cannot kill unless they have months of training or are disturbed enough to commit suicide/murder. These certified programs that Texas and Utah like to talk about are three-days of watching videos and training at a gun range while shooting at a target in order to get a certificate to carry a gun in school.

To give teachers and school workers,  in places like Utah and Texas a certificate of completion of  a gun training course does not qualify them for training that allows another human being to fire under threat of gun fire or to kill another human being while looking into the eyes of someone who is just a kid themselves. How much more desensitizing of our behavior towards the power of the gun over the value of life are we going to tolerate in teaching our children, as a Nation, before we yell enough! Do we really want our youngest and most innocent strapped with the knowledge or fear that their teacher or the nice man with a gun or themselves can be killed at any given moment?

Teachers are trained to keep our children safe and we want their thoughts to go first towards protecting our children, over running in fear or stopping to kill. Teachers who care are not trained to kill the next young man who walks into the building armed to shoot. Many times they are students or past students of theirs and they are not going to be able to shoot to kill.  It is irrational thinking on our part to think they can and equally as unfair as to think they should. We may think if it is our lives or the lives of a child we all can shoot to kill but it is pure and literal nonsense. Firing a gun is not like going out to the paint ball course and shooting paint balls at each other. The fear or the need to survive under pressure of assault in the untrained, takes over control of all rational thoughts that we have when our lives are not under threat of danger. We freeze,run, or if we shoot we shoot wildly injuring far more others than lives we save.  Firing at a target is not the same as looking a human being in the eyes and firing.

It takes a well trained or a disturbed mind to do so and even then that trauma follows those who are trained perfectly, the rest of their lives.  Ask any military personnel or policemen how devastating the effects are of taking another life in defense of the Country, is on their lives, even when it is done for a higher honor.  I have lived with the results of those who fought in wars and too many times they are haunted by it forever. Many come home and turn to alcohol just to live past the nightmares that enter their sleeping hours or become workaholics in an effort to forget.  Their marriages and their lives quite often fall apart.

The mistake the media made was to allow that kind of propaganda that is spread across America by the NRA and some of its followers to even be broadcasted. As soon as they knew they had been had by the National Rifle Association they should have shut them off just as they do when a politician says something that is not of their political persuasion.  When this propaganda is spread it only leads to desensitize the minds of those who are already desensitized to the point that it starts making perfectly good sense to them.

No person who hunts wild game, even after hours of target practice, will escape what is known as buck fever. It takes practice to be able to shoot game animals before becoming an accurate enough shot to make the bullet connect with the game animal being shot. Even seasoned bird hunters will experience buck fever when switching to larger game animals.  Buck fever is the name commonly given to the hunter who will both sub-consciously and automatically pull up on their gun when shooting rather than to kill the animal.

It is not an automatic reaction in clear thinking humans to kill with a gun on instinct and it requires months to train people to kill out of a necessity or a higher pursuit of justice. Both the Police Academies and Military training requires men and women shooting blanks or live rounds above the heads of those in the fields to acclimate them to the reality of being able to fire at a human being every bit as much as it takes hours to train humans to remain calm, in order to kill out of necessity in war or when under attack. These are not normal traits that we adapt to on a first reaction under attack.

The guns Mr. NRA said the media is lying about and the politicians are trying to find fame in and that are being politicized hold magazines that leads to massive deaths.  Does it really matter if they are military or assault weapons when they fire in rapid succession?  Don’t they kill just as quickly and destroy the lives of our innocent just as well. They certainly cannot be used for hunting anymore than the ammunition they protect can be used to hunt when its only purpose is to pierce the vests of policemen and police women who are killed in the act of duty by the same.

I have acknowledged that it is our culture and the love of the gun  that needs to share responsiblity with the NRA for gun deaths in America but it does not hold a candle to the deaths that are caused by people arming themselves with a false bravado of thinking they will be able to shoot to kill.   Nothing inspires the fantasy  or gives forth the power to kill more than those who are too meek to murder or encourages those who are disturbed enough to murder faster, than the thrust of a gun. The gun feeds those fantasies in the minds of the disturbed faster than anything else that they can do.

Those who will cause murder have no conscious and we cannot try to rationalize  our minds with theirs. I repeat, people who are armed are killed  far more often by the perpetrators than what the perpetrators are killed. They always have the element of surprise over us and a great many of them do not have the same fear of death because many of them are seeking out suicide by cop.

Guns in the hands of those who are not thinking realistically only offers us a false sense of security that is quickly over taken by the perpetrators. Those who are disturbed do not hear the noises and sounds we hear as many are disturbed or can only hear the voices in their own heads.  They do not even hear the screams around them that make us run out of fear but as soon as we think we can pull a gun and shoot we will be dead with or without our three-day certificate that gives us a license to carry a gun. It is a fact!

I am sick of the hate and the fear tactics of the NRA and if you viewed the same that I did and could not see that expressed yourselves, I can only respond that Americans are much more sicker than I thought.  The NRA fear and propaganda tactics are not only false but they are irrational and have no place in the power that runs America. It sickens me that such trash talk was allowed to be spoken on our media services at a time we are already sicken by the deaths of our innocent, by guns.

Instead of talking about banning ammunition and magazines that only serves to kill humans along with high powerful and assault weapons, Wayne Lapiere and the NRA paid for monkeys successfully changed the subject to arming personnel in our schools where our children would be subjected to even more violence.  Anyone who thinks the bullies or gangs who hang out in some of our schools across America would not find a gun a worthy challenge to be taken, are not being realistic about what really does go on when the disturbed are made to feel powerful behind a gun.

What can I say other than may the Season offer some design of light into the hearts and minds of all of us and may we be infused by the Holy Spirit and Guardian that guides us towards common sense and intelligence to know the difference.  May God help us all in letting the goodness in all of us shine through the insanity of it all. God Bless us and God Bless America.

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Guns And Mental Illness

Too often as a Nation, we over look the risks and dangers of in-action.  We too many times talk about needing to help draw attention to both guns and mental illness but then the reminders of the tragedy passes and the powerful lobbyists again, win.

The facts are: we do nothing about the out of control gun ownership in our Nation because of the lies that lead to fear tactics, told and spread by the National Rifle Associations and many of their colleagues. People who run for office know and understand that the NRA is only second in power to the American Medical Ass. or the A.M.A.  With men like the Koch brothers backing the NRA, Republicans and Conservative Democrats know they will lose their jobs or never get elected if they even whisper, “gun control”, so as a Nation we keep talking about doing something and then we forget about it until the next tragedy.

When those who claim that,”we need to  grieve first,” I am in agreement with you if that is what it will take to give you the strength later to claim your responsibility to protect the children.  I am equally supportive of those of us who express our views now, as it is when we put a time clock on our expression of anguish, that we too often fail to do anything that will be heard by those who are responsible for such a needless tragedy. In America we need to accord the grieving of all people on their own time frame, because as a Nation we all share in the grief.  When we start judging each other in how or when they grieve or express that grief, then we fail to understand our own need to stop the in-action in us.

What always amazes me is the public outrage or disbelief that these tragedies often happen in small or rural communities.  Mental illness and gun ownership is as prevalent in one area of America as the other. If we recognize that abuse happens in one out of every three homes in America regardless of the social economic situation, and a person needs to be mentally unstable on some level or suffering from depression on another, in order to commit murder/suicide, then we can and should accept that our children are not safe anywhere as long as gun enthusiasts rights are protected by the lobbyists who control our Nation and politicians.

Depression that is sometimes brought on by circumstances in our lives, holds no favorites nor does it care what the size of the community is or the type of community we reside in.  The sad thing is that mental illness is easily recognized by those who refuse to spend their lives in denial, and as equally and as readily treatable.  When Politicians, the law or the courts, or insurance companies refuse to help parents by passing laws that aid in the treatment of mental illness and carrying them long-term on insurance policies, then the public will too often suffer the consequences. We as a society should never condemn the parents for the real frustrations and sometimes fear that they are left to deal with in the interim. We instead need to point the finger at those who are more committed to profit over the safety of our children and ourselves.

We know mental illness results as much from genetics as it does from environment and just as compassionate people should not fault people for the unfortunate circumstances of many physical diseases, we should not condemn those who suffer from mental illness.  When we do not demand the coverage of Insurance Companies to cover mental illness, but too many times complain because our premium costs go up instead, then we also play into the neglect of the needs of our own or are responsible for our own in-action. When we refuse to believe that as a Nation we all must protect the needs of our children, then we fail more than just our children but we fail ourselves, as well.

As a Nation we are hearing the underpinnings of the refusal to cover the cost of the health care for our elderly,disabled, and poor even though Nations less advanced than our own cover 100% of the costs of all of its citizens, without stating as fact, that as a Nation they can no longer afford to do so. When we refuse to invest in the needs of our people, we refuse to keep our children safe as well.  In order for our children to be totally safe in America we must demand that the 17 Republican State Legislatures who passed into law the, “Stand Your Ground Laws”,over-ride the law effective, immediately.

We already have a history of knowing when lay people are not effectively trained, do pull a gun on another or fire back, too many times we will fire into a crowd wildly which leads to more death, or we will freeze up and not fire at all. Shooting at a target or a gun club does not offer us the same reality as actually shooting at another human being does. Guns in the hands of those of us who are not trained or of the mindset, only causes more death and destruction, when called on to defend ourselves or others. Even trained policemen are slow to use their guns due to the collateral damage that is often present. Using guns to protect against guns is simply another fallacy offered by The N.R.A. and those who protect the use of guns. The Stand Your Ground Laws,  have already shown that they are just another death, waiting to happen in our children.

We can no longer let the lies that the hunter will lose his guns or it is against the Constitution to interfere with the right to bear arms over ride our own common sense, while we let the power of those who run our Nation through preying on the ignorance of others to continue. It amazes me and should all of us, that the argument that if they don’t have a gun they will use a knife has led people to believe that as many people would die in as rapid succession with a knife as an assault rifle or a hand gun, has appeased the minds of those who pay membership into the NRA or those who are supposed Represent us in government.

The guns that are meant for self-defense or offense serve absolutely no needs and only adds to the destruction of the meat of the game animals and leads to the lost of human life. Military type weapons and ammunition do not belong in a home where our most innocent of people live or visit.  When the investigation is finished in New Town, Connecticut, we will do doubt hear as we always do, the guns that killed came from the home of the mother,  who was killed and who made the same mistake that too many others make and felt that a gun was safe in the home or would protect her.

Statistically, we kill many more people with guns of self-protection than lives we save as a result of owning the same. When 34 people per day or 32,000 people per year, die in America each year as a result of guns, then shouldn’t we start talking honestly about a person’s right to live over the rights of a person to own a gun?  When we compare our death rates with the use of a gun to those of 600 per year to Britain,who have much stricter gun laws, then something is terribly wrong when we don’t have meaningful dialog on the right of Americans to live over the right of a person to use a gun at will.

If we as a Nation place weapons into categories and then ban those categories we do not deny the hunter but instead deny those who would and do kill. If laws are enforced and placed on us to make us responsible for the handling of the weapon used for protection, then the unstable will not be able to own guns. When the Republican Party refused to reinstate the Brady bill in 2004 or the Violence Against Women Bill in 2011, they made it clear that it is not the people they are safe guarding and investing in, but the lobbyists instead.

When the NRA refuses to take action to ban bullets and ammunition when the only purpose they have, is to penetrate the vests of law enforcement, but instead lobbies millions into campaigns to guarantee the use of the same, then we the American public need to have our voices heard. When we demand that the responsible thing is done to keep all of us safe, then we will no longer need to ask “Why?” When irrational acts are done by those through irrational behavior, then we must as a Nation quit denying, “that guns do not kill but people do.” Without guns, irrational people cannot slaughter our young people or those who would protect them, in mass.

When guns are not kept safe in our homes or those who would use a gun to end life, knows where grandpa keeps the key, we must be held responsible for keeping guns and ammunition unprotected in our homes by the understanding that life is more precious than the need for recreational sport, with a fire arm.  Just as we wouldn’t turn rattle snakes loose in our homes or watch our children do drugs, and then deny that they would not kill, we must quit denying that guns do not kill.

There needs to be laws established to protect the gun as well as the people. If laws were made that would ban the use of a recreational gun, to those who it is not registered to and enforced by a stiff penalty of law, perhaps the most recent tragedy, just as in Columbine,would never have happened. If they refuse to pass the laws then we as responsible parents must understand that guns do kill.  Just as we do not offer our prescription drugs to children without penalty of law why would we offer a gun to anyone who it is not registered to use? Recreational guns could just as easily be stored at gun clubs or shooting ranges or stored in gun safes by responsible adults in the home. If we can put on a seat belt then surely we can safeguard the use of a gun.

We, the American People, can no longer let the memories of our children lost ,be in vain.  It does not matter if they died in Milwaukee, NewTown, Aurora, or on the streets of Detroit, Chicago or Philadelphia, their deaths just as their lives did, need to bring forward meaning to all of us. Their short-lived lives must stand for the end to the destruction done in our Nation by guns that only serve the purpose to kill our innocent people. We can no longer deny that the gun in the hands of the unstable kills.

These adults and children’s lives need to stand for the good in all of us that seeks out and demands the end to such tragedy in our Nation.  We cannot forget the trauma also experienced by the survivors in these terribly destructive killings of our loving adults and innocent children. We cannot allow such destructive behavior to continue to make our children to feel that adults do not stand for their need to feel safe. We cannot continue with the mentality that just because some one is a member of our family that their outbursts,with draw from Society, or fantasy of killing is normal.

When we as a Nation put politics, denial of reality, or sacristy of gun use in the hands of the unstable, over the sacristy of life, then we need to ask ourselves,” just how misconstrued is the American love of the gun over the value of life?”  We all need to take responsibility for common sense guiding us over a misconstrued value system.

Sadly the N.R.A. fights against any and all laws to use common sense in the handling of a gun and the storage of the same. Every lawyer knows and understands that any attempt to control the storage or use of a gun will lead to years of litigation by the N.R.A., just as every Conservative Democrats or Republican candidate understands it will lead to lost of their election run if they refuse to support the stand of the N.R.A.

Do not let the media fool you into believing it is as much Democrats as Republicans in Washington as less than 30 Democrats in Washington are Conservative out of  approximately 289 with only 47 Democrats,both liberal and Conservative in the Congress, as verses 196 Conservative Republicans including the Tea Party in the Republican Party married to the NRA.  When photo opts of our Republican leadership are taken in the presence of the NRA leadership representatives, each election year are seen as a proud moment of the Republican Party, then we need to ask, “Would our voices be louder than the lobbyists if we refused to vote for any candidate who protected or promoted the NRA and their colleagues’ memberships?”

Isn’t it going, “to take a village,” just as much as a city of people who are willing to stop the insanity of killings in our Nation and those who believe that we have a moral obligation to protect our children, to join together, to make the changes?  We have more than ample enough evidence to know that the politicians have no plan in doing anything but talking about it, because they are afraid to take a stand against the lobbyists.

Those politicians, who are committed to do otherwise, need our help and commitment to them at the election polls and need to hear our voices just as much as the law makers and politicians need to keep us safe. Do any of us even know who the Federal Judges in our States are, that we keep electing each election? I repeat:”When the voices and the votes of we the American people”, are counted and become more powerful than the lobbyists in Washington and our States, then we will have a Nation that protects its children.

If  we had spoken up as much for the rights of our children to be safe, as others did for the fetus, do any of us doubt that the politicians would act differently in the hours they put in, on the floor of the House or the Senate to protect our children against violence? When it comes to making and establishing gun laws, don’t we believe that if our voices are heard and our votes counted, that the politicians would develop more of a dialog in doing something to keep our children safe?

All the money paid the politicians by the lobbyists and men like Sam Adelson or the Koch Brothers cannot win an election for the politicians who refuse to act in the best interests of the American people if we simply refuse to vote for them or re-elect them.  The real power still lies in the hands of the common sense approach of the people, when we choose to invoke the same at the election polls.

When our voices and actions are as empty as the politicians, then the more powerful the Insurance lobbyists,NRA,and the American Insurance under writers will remain.  It is time that we make the changes in ourselves now, by moving forward instead of shaking our heads and passing the buck. I have enough faith in the power of the people to believe that we can make a difference in the safety of the lives of our children, so no other family has to ever suffer the tragedy taking place in our Nation today.

I am wishing everyone the Blessings of the Holiday Season and compassion for the grieving of those who have lost the most, along with those of us who have lost as a Nation. God Help us all.

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Being Genuine

Webster dictionary describes genuine as actually having the reputed or apparent qualities or character.  To many times we have people using words to describe others when they do not own or practice the qualities needed to possess or own character, themselves.  It was a repeated error made by candidates for election throughout the Nation this past election year.

When Governor Chris Christy of New Jersey showed his own Party what real character was or expressed genuine feelings in his praise of President Barack Obama’s quick response to the disaster in his State, due to the hurricane, men who like to refer to  themselves, as men who protect the standards of family values in America,criticized Christy for being genuine in his complement to our President.

When we as a Nation have leaders who criticize others who are genuine or fail to compliment others and treat it as a heresy when they compliment  or speak to a member of the opposite side of the aisle, can we really expect them to do what is genuinely in the best interests of those of us who are in need of their leadership?  Will men like Paul Ryan,Scott Walker, or Rubio, meeting and discussing the need of the Republican Party to become inclusive of the Hispanics, lead us to believe that they are genuine if they continue to vote against the equal rights of women to make decisions on their own procreation or to their own health, or when their Republican members in Washington filibusters immigration reform?

Are these, the often spoken about, the young new hopefuls of the Republican Party, any better than what has destroyed the “Grand Old Party?”When they speak about the Americans who fall on hard times as being the “takers”, while they vote against the needs of the people or refer to those of us who paid into government as, “people with their hands out who feel entitled”,or try to pass laws against victims of rape in defining legitimate rape, will we see any genuine change in the Republican Party when these young men are chosen to lead our Nation?

Doesn’t the Republican Party need men in it instead like Bob Dole who was genuine in his actions towards the disabled, the poor, and the need of the Republican Party to know and understand the needs of the people?  Aren’t these new young Tea Party members only an extension of what is wrong in the Republican Party?  Aren’t we the American People totally tired of words that are opposite of the actions they practice when it comes to voting against our rights and needs?

Too many times in our own personal lives we make allowances for those who practice disingenuous behavior because they are the beautiful people,the most charming of our children or friends, or because we want to be more like them or a part of their group. The new generation just wants to be respected by their parents instead. When we ourselves are less than genuine it shows all over our bodies and faces to those of us who recognize phony or shallow values.

When these politicians do the same, too many people, who are less than honest themselves, will be taken in by those who are not genuine. I once had a person tell me that my biggest problem was that I was too moral for the group as they did not place a high value on morality.  Isn’t that also at the root of why we keep electing people who are less than genuine in their leadership? I applaud the American people who did not accept or support the practice of lies , that won these men the elections in our States and Washington in 2010.

Have we forgotten already the way they won or their legislation that brought in the right to work laws that eliminated our protection from the Unions against unfair labor laws?  Will we forget the bills that they tried to pass against a woman’s right to choose or the involvement of the Tea Party militia in hate groups?  Will the Corporate Press be able to convince us of all the wonders done by these men of the future who stormed our States in 2010 and began laying off teachers,firemen and police while decreasing the wages of the workers?

When Republicans are promoted to run in the highest office of the land in 2014 and 2016 by the GOP, will we forget that they have been less than genuine in their practice towards the needs of the middle class when it came to an economic recovery and of giving us real jobs with fair hours and wages? Will we forget the passage of the right to work laws that denied the American workers and their Unions the right to vote because 27 States had Republican governors who were financed by the Koch Brothers? Didn’t many of the Republican governors lie to the people while they denied the workers their right to Democracy? Isn’t this currently  happening with Republican Governor Rick Snyder in Michigan?   Don’t these Governors represent the future of the Republican Party and the mentality of the Tea Party while the wages of the middle class continue to decline but the wealth of the rich increases two-fold?

Despite their argument that without the right to work laws corporations fail to move to their States and that these laws release people from having to join the Unions; they fail to say that Federal law already states people who do not want to join a Union need not do so.  These Republicans offer absolutely no proof of the truth in their Statements.  There is a simple explanation for the same and that is because there is no proof in what they state.  The proof that does exist is that the average worker’s income drops by $5500.00 per year along with benefits while their working conditions worsen.

The Corporations continue to win while the workers continue to lose is the fact with the right to work laws and there is no proof when 22 States have adopted these laws that corporations do move in. Why should they change from the States they already do set up residence in, when the majority if not all of the Red States where these laws have passed previously, have always offered corporate welfare to Corporations previously to these laws being passed in swing States? Are we the middle class foolish enough to believe that these Corporations will give up all their bread and honey, along with their facilities, equipment and trained staffs in the Red States in order to take less in the swing States?

If they should happen to move to the swing States, which is unrealistic, how much more concessions and job lost do we think it will cost the middle class workers? Would the workers in the Red States continue to believe that they lost their jobs,health care,and pensions because they were taken over by vulture Capitalists in the claim their Company was losing money? Don’t we already know the truth is that the greed of the Republican Party along with the greed of Wall Street is responsible for job lost over job gain?  What will it take for all Americans to understand this concept?

Michigan Republican Governor,Rick Snyder, like so many other Republican Governors in 21 other States,totally ignored the right of the workers to vote when the polls showed that only 6% of the people in the State of Michigan favored this move. Many in the Red States do not even know if they are a right to work State because they have such a heavily backed Republican legislature along with a conservative media, who does not keep them informed.

Do we feel that the current Republican Party is genuine in their representation of the truth when it comes to balancing the budget and avoiding the fiscal cliff in Washington?The truth is that the Tea Party members have dug in their heals again, just as they did the last time, and refuse to accept President Obama’s proposal of at least lowering the taxes on those who make less than $250,000. and John Boehner, is blaming President Obama instead of himself when it is his job to lead his own Party as Speaker of the House in Congress. They all appear on camera instead for their photo opts and profess in unison that the problem is that President Obama has sent them nothing while they reject his offer of cutting 4 trillion dollars and raising the taxes on the wealthy.  The only thing they seem to be able to agree on is to lie in unison to the American people. They began as “the Do Nothing Congress and they will finish out the four years” as the same.

Are they any different from the Republican Governors in our States? Have we already forgotten their 100 plus filibuster attempts against the middle class that would have protected the needs of the people and gave jobs to the same over their protection of Corporate? Don’t we realize their main goal was to make certain that President Barack Obama was a one term President?  Do we really believe that these same men will now compromise in order to keep the economy improving when they have fought against President Barack Obama’s attempts to do the same in the past?

With all their excuses as to why they lost just how genuine are they in understanding their need to be all-inclusive of the American people?  Is it just another example of empty words on their part? Does our own belief system fail us when we are asked  to remember the behavior directed against us by them? Do we learn to hate others who do us no harm, because we have a genuine belief system that tells us that hate is acceptable? Does our own belief system excuse us from making excuses for ourselves instead of taking action?

Is our problem that we long- ago lost touch with practicing any kind of value system based on genuine values, ourselves? Do we have a clue what we believe when we are called on to fight for the same?  Do we believe instead what we have been told to believe so we go into denial when we see or hear a real lack of sincerity in the same?Are those who promote family values, actually those who talk about values but find morality too difficult to maintain themselves?  We need to be interested in politics and the history of our politicians if we are to hold them and ourselves to a higher standard.

When we fail to hold those who would lead us to higher standards, it is we who lose.  This is true when it comes to raising our children and in teaching them right from wrong because we practice what we preach.  When we fail to make morality a priority in our own life the first to understand that our words do not match our actions, are our children.

Many a straying spouse does not just prove to their spouse that they are not trustworthy but they also teach their children that adults cannot be trusted or the person they most admire lacks morality when it comes to being an adult. Many children will turn a deaf ear to what they feel is nothing more than gibberish when they recognize that the behavior of the adult in their lives does not match the words they speak. Sadly, others will emulate the same behavior when they become adults but they will many times prove to their parents that they can do a better job of failing  than what their parent or parents did when it comes to being less than genuine.

When we talk about how busy we are but our children never see us get off the couch they believe the ”busy talk” in us is less than genuine.   When  our children’s  needs to be disciplined go unprovided for, but are replaced by wants instead, we raise children who grow up feeling entitled without them making any efforts towards justifying the same in themselves; too often some will adopt a grandiose image of themselves while being totally void of human empathy for others while they often lack the understanding of what it takes to be ambitious.  If we never teach our children to take genuine responsibility for their own behavior or to care for their own needs in the home, but instead we make excuses for them or wait on them, we deny them the right to find genuine satisfaction in their own accomplishments.

When children are left untrained and untaught they often grow up fearful of being independent from us or to immature to leave home and to form their own belief system.  If we always treat work as something to be dreaded, we teach our children to be lazy instead. Too often we adults will go into denial before we accept the truth of the fact that our child’s behavior is out of control. The lives our children live while they watch us, when it fails to match the genuineness of the words we speak, often leads to denial in us and confusion in our children.

This is true about any behavior or words that leave our lips.  When we are less than genuine the first to accept it as being normal behavior in adults, are our children.  The fact that the youth vote went over whelmingly for President Barack Obama should show all of us who fear the “Me first and now” traits in the youth vote, that we are dead wrong in our judgements. Just as sometimes  the callous of heart appear to belong to the Tea Party or National Rifle Ass., we totally over look the value in the young who would put many of our generations to shame. President Ronald Regan means nothing to them and invoking his name did nothing towards winning their votes.

We forget that this generation of young people learned from us not to trust.When one out of every three homes on the block experience some form of  abuse in it, they have learned that they cannot trust adults to protect them.  We cannot turn around and place the blame on them without taking our share of the blame and pretend to begin to solve the problems that we face as a Nation, while talking about family values,if we do not understand that as adults our generations were far from perfect,as well.

The 1950′s were anything but what they have been romanticized to be but instead were hidden under the lies of injustice and under the veil of secrecy. The same environment allowed for the inhumane and violence of the Jim Crow laws to continue unchecked along with the violence and inequality of not just the tragedies of those laws but also the lack of laws that protect women and children against extreme abuse.

Those who would advocate the return to the 1950′s are not being fully cognizant or honest of the hardships and lack of humanity of the era.  When we fail to act out of genuine concern for all of our people, ourselves, we are certain to elect officials who would ignore the tragedies of the era,and instead repeat a history of genuine injustice. We as a Nation cannot return to a time of ignorance and injustice but we need to move forward by electing legislatures who  protect all Americans by making certain that the laws protect our children regardless of race,creed,gender or gender orientation, who are the most vulnerable amongst us. The spread of half truths and ignorance only makes hate breed.

Just as those who are aware of past injustices, and fight against the return to the same, we need to acknowledge in more recent times our children were victims of their babysitters, Ministers,coaches, and Priests,others their uncles,neighbors or Boy Scouts leaders,still others their step fathers, dads or mothers, others grew up with drugged,beaten,or alcoholic parents, and still others were prostituted by their own parents. They were warned about pedophiles and terrible behavior in adults that many of our generations were not aware of even existing.

Much of this same behavior happened throughout previous generations as well, but when it is kept as a secret in the closet to take to the grave we grew up being told it was our sin to bear and an isolated happening or worse yet, normal behavior, to practice as adults ourselves.  In keeping the secrets of those we were led to believe we should emulate, we lived our lives in turmoil being convinced we were the demon seed, where as todays generation understands that it is not their fault but the fault of the adult, once they are of voting age. This behavior is not limited to poor neighborhoods but happens on every block regardless the socio-economic conditions.

Many of our young people grew up to find their Sports heroes, steroid addicts or shot or killed in drunken accidents. Others were given drugs by their coaches and told to take it or else.  We adults left them devoid of the heroes we took for granted.  They did not have Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, or Martin Luther King to offer them hope in their lives.  They have no reason to trust the adults in their lives because if they were not victimized they have a friend who was.  They certainly are not going to take a politician’s word for something when their actions are less than genuine and they watched their mom’s work two or sometimes three jobs because they were not paid the wage that their Dad’s were.

They were not bought off as Mitt Romney said with “free birth control” but they have seen too much disingenuous behavior in adults in their lives to be bamboozled by less than genuine politicians. Many of them have no reason to any longer fall for the charismatic who will lie to them.  When abuse was not a part of their life they grew up with the ability to express themselves.

The fortunate ones had parents who encouraged them because they had parents who did or are doing a better job of instilling morality in the next generations than our parents or we did, so the young amongst us who are our future, do recognize the lack of words matching the actions in those who would lead us. It is way past time that we, just as the youth vote does, demand proof of the genuine actions of our politicians to hear us the American Public, and to act as our leaders over lying to us. If the Republican Party continues to fail to understand that their behavior and performance has been exposed and has come out failing,  they will continue to lose elections.

When the Republican Party learns to run legitimate candidates who are genuine in their words matching their actions, then the Grand Old Party will return fully vindicated of its past history and will again be representative of the needs of the people. Talking about it will prove nothing when the conversations are about play acting warm and fuzzy feelings or concerns for the middle class,women, and minorities but their actions taken, prove otherwise.   They cannot deny the voters the truth when their own votes, platform,voter suppression, and actions betray them as less than genuine, nor will it win them votes of the American people.

When the Republicans refuse to accept genuine actions speak to the heart of the youth vote and those votes that they are accustomed of getting, are the votes of the dying generations, then they must change their own actions or become distinct along with the dinosaurs. Unlike those of our generation and before, young people do not buy into the belief that a candidate is a “Nice Young Man”, nor do they vote the way they are told to vote.

Todays’ young people grew up on the internet and are much more likely to check  out the voting records of the candidates  against  their campaign speeches. Bullshippers in politics are on their way out with tomorrow’s voters. The Republicans need much more than empty words or the Hispanic vote in their corner and in most cases, they are assuming that the Hispanics have a short memory and are not computer savvy as well.  No one takes the privilege of voting more seriously than an immigrant, denied.

I wish all of us the appreciation of having genuine people in our lives who surround us this Holiday Season.  May we all be so Blessed as to attract the same with our own honesty while understanding the need of it in all of our own lives. The Holiday Season is not about making comparisons with our neighbors, but about taking pride in the generosity of the American spirit that we helped inspire, while embracing those of us who express the truth of that same spirit.  Celebrate the genuine goodness in all of us by giving of ourselves to what ever Religious or Spiritual belief we hold dear, or as a sign of our genuine love expressed, and give what we can spare to the less fortunate, as a reminder of the real purpose of this Holiday Season.  God bless us all!

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Do We Know Ourselves?

When was the last time or have we ever taken a hard look at ourselves?  Many felt that candidate Mitt Romney defeated himself in the election because we really did not know the person, Mitt Romney, when his conversations in private were opposite of his public conversation. The young Tea Party members are expressing the fact that they need to be more inclusive of all Americans and talk about it.  Does conversation on a level of rhetoric convince any of us when the actions through their votes deny the same? When Congress holds the middle class hostage as they have for thirty years, in order to make certain the wealthy gain instead, will we believe that they care about all Americans?

Isn’t this true about many of us, in that our conversations are many times opposite of our actions? How inclusive are we in our actions?  When I first moved into the Rural areas or took a new job, and I still find it to be true, many of the people I met were so busy asking me questions about myself, while they failed to tell me much of anything about who they were or are.

When couples meet for the first time many times women will tell men much more about themselves than what men will tell about themselves. Many time a majority of men will talk about what jobs they are studying for or hope to get or they hold,hiking,sports,hunting,fishing,women,working out,or any other subject that does not reveal themselves long before they will reveal personal information about themselves.

In the heading about myself on this blog I reveal nothing about myself but state I prefer to let others define me because in writing anything, we will reveal ourselves.  Too often people will go into denial about the person they feel  they are before they will take an honest look at themselves. Many times if we ask what their belief or philosophies are on important issues of the day, we will many times get back a blank stare before we will get an answer.   Other times we hear, ”I really am not interested in that,” “that kind of stuff just makes my mind go numb,” or “I haven’t got a clue about what you are talking about.”  Too many people fail to realize that we should at very least take time out to reflect or know our own philosophy on life in order to understand the person that we truly are and embrace.

If we fail to understand our own belief system and the triggers in our own life, that makes us understand why we react to the outside stimulus of life the way we do, then we too many times will spend a lifetime judging others according to standards we do not practice in our own lives.  Many times we will live beyond our means and makes excuses as to why we do or look down our noses at those who do with less and find much more happiness in life than we do.  Having the courage to look at ourselves on an honest level of really knowing and embracing the person who lives inside of us is what makes us find the joy that we seek.

When our own behavior defies the reality of the person that we are, we leave others feeling as though we are a misguided individual, or brain washed by Society or other people’s philosophy, while we have no clue as to what it is that we truly do embrace.  The 2010 election was a perfect example as to how quickly what we knew about our President Barack Obama, could be turned on lies both against him and against Obama care.  It took too many to finally realize that is was not our President who changed his commitments to us but the lies that we accepted as truth, that turn our views on him.  In the end he won because we recognized that his words matched his actions and as a leader he would fight for our rights.

When we fail to know ourselves then we too many times can be led in life by people who prey on our vulnerability. If we have to ask,”Why am I always attracted to people who are not good for me?” then it is time we discover for ourselves why we have to ask,”Why are we always attracted to the same and what are the triggers in me that makes me continually repeat the same mistakes?” Our friends will make excuses for us and so will our family say things such as,”You are just to kind or trustworthy”, or other answers that actually make us feel better about being attracted to those who prey on us.” When we do not get an honest answer but buy into what others tell us, we keep repeating the same mistakes.

When we learn more about ourselves we often find that we have an irrational need to be needed,or to be made whole by someone else,or there is an insecurity in ourselves that can only be made to feel better by attracting or gathering those who we feel are inferior to us.  When we believe we are better than those who we attract too many times we feed our own false ego in the process. The difference between confident people and insecure people is: that those who do know themselves understand their own weaknesses and strengths and their lives indicate that they live according to their own philosophy of self, over that which has been defined by others.  When I tell my readers that I would rather be defined by others, it is because I am confident in the person that I am and yet aware enough that even with that, people will define me anyway.

It is when we can change and alter our actions according to the words that we speak that we do become the person we want to be.  We do not have one set of standards for ourselves, while holding another set of standards for the clique’s,or the job that we work or the group that we hang with during our free time. When we are true to ourselves then we are true to others as well.

Many times in life we are given tests, or run into road blocks in life, or even marry people that we had no business of marrying.  If we do not reflect on ourselves and what our own tolerances or rejections in life are all about, then too often we will go into denial about the person we are.  We need a clarity of why we react and why we need to fill an emptiness in ourselves with that which is bad for us.  If we do not understand ourselves It will exhibit itself in all kinds of judgement calls against others,acceptance of what we intellectually know and understand to be destructive but we will choose it anyway, and leave us in a state of confusion to the point that we can be led by undesirables.

We heard the word hypocrisy expressed many times during the election year because we did not feel that the candidates spoke on the truth of their own lives and how they have voted or spoken in the past. Too many times the candidates had one set of rules for others while having another set for us, when their own actions betrayed their own words.

When people criticize those who have affairs and gossip about it around the coolers or our coffee table, it is not all that unusual that they themselves have had affairs or will have in the future.  Many times the idea of the same has been entertained, at least in their minds, and by downgrading others that have had affairs, they often feel safe in the words that they speak. This is true about many other things that we tear apart in others as we too often fear,”But for the Grace of God there go I.”

Many of us can and do find hypocrisy in people who will malign others regardless of the conversation because we do know and understand our own strengths and weaknesses, and find gossip such a waste of the precious time each of us are allotted in life.  I personally am bored by such talk because I want to know you and what is your banner that you promote and stand for, or will fight for, and what it is about you that is special.

Each of us,regardless of what others think about us,will find that we are uniquely an individual that is special in an area of expertise that makes us the way we are.  We will also often discover that much of what made us think we knew better than others, is our weak point.  When we know ourselves we leave behind so much of the waste and the distractions that separates us from the joy,that we feel in knowing we are our own person and much stronger and competent that we believed ourselves to be in some cases and in other cases we find a total humbling experience.

Either way it is in knowing ourselves we will not only do what is best for us but we will also do what is best for everyone else as well.  When our actions match our words we do not tolerate bigots nor do we reject the equal rights of others but instead we become more inclusive of the understanding that we are all working towards the same goals in our lives.  Happiness often comes at a price and if we do not seek it through hard work and honesty of self, we often find that we fail it instead of it failing us.

I wish all of us a clarity of self this Holiday Season because we do know and understand that our limits range from the amount we can afford to spend on gifts to the amount of triggers in us that causes us to be upset by other’s rude behavior and words.  It is not wrong to discover sometimes, that it is time to throw the bums out of our lives, and to embrace the Independence in ourselves that makes all of us strong enough to carry the crosses we are asked to bear.  We must understand at the same time, there are triggers in us that causes bad reactions in others and work towards changing those triggers in ourselves, as well.May we all have a Blessed Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

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AHHhhhhh!

For those who missed it, the above title is a sigh.  The Thanksgiving meal has become a recent memory and the turkey an ugly carcass and the next Holiday meal with all the trimmings will be fixed by my son-in-law and daughter while I spoil those terrific grandsons of our’s.

I have the Holiday gifts purchased wrapped and mailed, and I am down to charitable giving.  We purchased the car that we will be revisiting America in while we travel both Canada and the U.S.A. My husband is a tall man so it is always a challenge to find something that is tall enough to give him the head and leg room he needs, that is comfortable for me, and that I no longer have to use a running board to step on to pull myself into the vehicle.

Lucky me that the market is flooded with Japanese and Korean vehicles that are made for the 5 foot 8  or under people and the taller Americans appear to get the smaller American sedans appear to become, due to all the added technology.   We have never purchased a vehicle not made in the U.S.A., and probably never will.  The only vehicle that fit our qualifications was the Mercedes-Benz SUV.

The American-made pick ups,suv’s, and custom vans fit my husband’s size and we have had our share of them, but they require me to step on a footstool or to swing my leg up on the running board and then to pull myself up and I am  hurting before I even leave home, since my health problem is as compounded in the arms as it is the legs. We feel somewhat justified buying the Mercedes since it is made in Alabama, and you do what needs to be done.

Some people on the internet and Facebook, that seem to think it their job, have done their number on degrading the Chevy Volt, that was one vehicle that caught on fire when it was put through rigorous test results that would not happen with normal driving, and the Mercedes-Benz SUV because 8,700 vehicles had their floor mats recalled because of the potential of it sticking under the gas pedal.

I have no idea what drives people to downgrade others who have their best interests at heart, much less vehicles, but the Chevy Volt even got a dressing down by the Fox news panel even though it is the model other Countries are copying in order to catch up with its technology. It is almost impossible to get lost,killed, or bored in today’s fully loaded vehicles if we follow the speed limits, do not get caught in a pile up due to bad drivers and weather, or do not meet drunk drivers, regardless of where they are made.

I need to send out very few Christmas cards yet and the decorations and the lights were up and went on Thanksgiving night. We needed to stay at the Kids’ house as it was their turn for the other side of the Family for Thanksgiving, and we bought the SUV across the river from where they live but a distance from our own home.  My husband got sick from shell-fish and we were grateful that they extended us the offer.  Their cats were as well and they got a nice airing out of it.

It was a delight to see their tree up and lights strung as well.  I learned years ago that the weeks before Thanksgiving run as good of sales as the stores do after Thanksgiving,because often they need to attract buyers worse before Thanksgiving than they do after.  Any time I can get 40% off across the board and not fight the crowds or stand in line, it is worth shopping early. I understand that many wait for their bonus but since I pay my credit card off during the year I do not feel bad paying a little interests until the bonus is paid.

The Christmas Season or Holiday Season has always been my favorite time of year.  If I stay away from the grumpy or harassed Christmas shoppers who are shopping on Black Friday or the last-minute, I never have to see the dark side of the Holidays.  The generosity of the majority of Americans shown during the Holiday Season is always amazing and almost magical to me.  It is not an easy task to remember all those who we share our thoughts,prayers,cash, and gifts with during the Season.  When we add the meals and goodies anyone who can, do, and we see the best of mankind all around us, how can we not be inspired by the graciousness of the American people? Why anyone would resent or hate the Season is beyond me, but many do.

The complainers totally over look the generous spirit of the Christmas Season and instead complain that Christmas has become too commercial. Those who are members of a Religion, such as The 7th Day of Adventist, even refer to the mention of Santa as being sinful and deny all mention of his name in their home,totally disregarding the fact that Santa comes from the name of Saint Nickolas who was admired for his spirit of giving.  Children in these Religions are never able to celebrate beyond attending Church and being reminded of the Christ child. I do not criticize those who truly believe as they do or their right to do so.

My own personal experience with the complainers has not been so much that they  themselves resented giving as it was that they felt cheated on the Holidays when they were children,felt to give to children meant they would be spoiled and lose the meaning of Christmas, felt they should be receiving and not giving to their children,were too drunk on alcohol or drugged out to care, or felt giving to children left their bank accounts lower.

I understand the difficulty of the Season if we have lost a loved one since the memories of past Holidays can sadden all of us, if they are all alone, do not have a job, or cannot afford to buy the gift the children want from Santa, but often times these are not the people who chronically complain about the Holidays. Many of them learn to seek out others who share their pain or learn the healing power of bringing joy to others brings to them. Others are also the grateful ones, since they end up on the receiving line of American generosity just as our family members do, when they too will accept the love given at Christmas time. I grew up under the roof with one of the chronic complainers at Christmas time and I was determined to reverse the cycle by compensating for my loss by being generous instead.

We, who love the Season, are all driven by some time or memory of our own or by our spiritual beliefs of Christ’s birth to do a little extra for those we sometimes spend too much time forgetting during the rest of the year.  I know people who will leave their Christmas lights up year around as a reminder to themselves to treat others the same during the year, as they do during the Holiday Season. Some people keep their decorations up until their loved ones return home from military duty. Others work in soup Kitchens while others deliver packages to those who have not fared as well during the year. The joy on the children’s faces are thanks enough to those of us who share our good fortune with others during the Holiday Season.  Neighbors often bring baked goodies to the shut ins or sing Christmas carols each year,while others send or bring good will and cheer to those they have not seen or heard from, for years.

Even though I have been through many other Christmases, I am still touched by the magic that changes each of us, just for a while at least, when we remember why we celebrate the Holidays. Since no one knows for certain the real date of Christmas,some how, I do not feel like Christ minds too much when or how we celebrate the spirit of giving in His memory, since He instructed all of us to love each other and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Sadly, to often we need the Holidays to remember that which we should know all year; Just as much as we need to be reminded to be grateful for what we have, for our lives, and our loved ones.  If it takes commercial means to remind some that it isn’t the things that we buy but instead the spirit of giving out of love that we pass on to others in the form of a gift to cheer them, that matters,or it takes the same reminder to donate to worthy causes, is that really so bad?

As much as I love the Season I can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief knowing that most of my work of the Season has been completed and now I can stay inside for a while and enjoy the snow from our recent storm, light a fire if I feel like it, and listen to my favorite Christmas music. AHHhhhh!

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The Manipulative

I have chosen to write today on the manipulator as they are especially active during the Holiday Season. We all know the manipulative by different names and faces but at some time in our lives we will all know several.  They are often times the charming that are generous with both their praise and gifts, until they have us totally convinced they are the victims of others,before they begin their attempts to victimize us.

If we could all just remember that people who do not expect something from us will walk away since they have nothing to prove, nor will they waste our time or their’s convincing us, unless we seek them out and ask for the facts, then we would all be the wiser before we find ourselves trapped by the manipulator.

Some are very obvious to those of us who have been conned ourselves, and too often when we try to warn our loved ones who are being victimized by these people or the person,we are the ones who lose the affections of our loved ones instead.  They are so charming while they convince us that they are the benefactors or benefactress of the World, before we become sucked into their schemes and realize that those who tried to warn us,were our real friends.

Many times they enter our lives when we are the most vulnerable and reaching out to gain knowledge or comfort.  They will many times be so perfect in our minds that we cannot believe ourselves that anyone so kind and generous can be in our lives. They run the gamut from Religious schemers such as Rev. Jones, who convinced or forced 900 people to drink the Kool-Aid,to claims of being a charitable organization but unless we check them out first they can be very convincing in their efforts to deceive, or many times they are a member of our own family.  No one is a better manipulator than the family member who needs alcohol or drug money and they often times do not stop with the family members but move on to the neighbors and strangers who will fall for their stories of victimization, just as we do.

When the charm runs out of the manipulator,because they can only sustain it for so long,we will either be made to feel that we  owe them the rest of our lives or we will wise up and run because just as charming as they can be, they can also be as intimidating.  While we are convincing ourselves that we have welcomed the perfect people or person into our lives they are learning our weak or vulnerable points and they learn to use them to their advantage when the charm wears off.  They capitalize on the negative feelings of guilt or feelings of betrayal in us, and use it to their benefits.  We should never think it is just our imagination or we are being unfair to them, after they have been so good to us, because they trap us into believing just that so they can gain control over us.

As we gain more knowledge and comfort with ourselves we recognize them readily and  to often think they are rather harmless to those of us who are aware of people who play on others’ emotions.  While we ourselves are no contest to them they often times see us as a challenge to defeat and will deliberately,in some cases, prey on those who we befriend, is our child, or another loved one, just to prove that they can out smart us and defeat us when we do think of them as being harmless. It often serves in the best interests of all of us if we do not make it obvious to them that we do not believe them, but remain firm in what our ground rules are because then the more likely they will be to move onto their next victim.  If we try to warn the next candidate to be victimized by the manipulator before they become victimized, they will not believe us either, unless they themselves are already wary of the charmers  who manipulate.

They appear at family gatherings such as Thanksgiving,in the malls,in our group of friends,at the  work place, at our church gatherings and in some cases even lead us in prayer,they are anywhere that the vulnerable can be isolated from others. If we donate to them once they will continue flooding our mail boxes or e-mail with more requests to give until they wear us down or convince us they need our donations, often under false pretenses. Other times they reach out through our telephones or the internet, as it is the perfect cover for the deceitful who never wish to be found out once they scam us into believing we are the most beautiful person in the World or they promise us that we will inherit a fortune if we just pay the taxes on it.If we are being manipulated or conned ourselves, we must first accept that we are as much at fault for allowing it to happen, once we become aware of it,as are the people who manipulate us.

So I offer all of us this Thanksgiving this simple advice even though I know those who need to heed it most, will not hear it, “If it is too good to be true, it almost always is.” We all make the dreams in our own lives come true.  It takes a lot of doing without sometimes and the understanding of those who help us to realize our dream.  No person ever realizes a dream as a single unit. It always takes a lot of hard work and co-operation to achieve our dreams.  It doesn’t fall from the sky and land in our laps, we have to earn it, and anytime we find others trying to take from us on a song and a dance or a story of victimization, we should never question our own motives but always question their motives, first.

Good luck is only what others are waiting for because they were not willing to make the sacrifices for others who truly needed their help or to make their own dreams come true.  Sometimes it is being in the right place at the right time but if we are not willing to put out the efforts it takes to achieve then we will not gain from the placement either. Dreams can still come true when we recognize our own strengths and weaknesses and accept help from those who do help us, by rewarding those who help us, through just and fair wages.

I wish each and all of you all the joy of giving that Thanksgiving can bring to all of us if we give in the spirit of giving.  Once we become aware of the manipulator and we make ourselves dependent on the kindness or intimidation of the same, or allow those who do help ruin the spirit of giving, we must accept our role in the same. All the denial in the World cannot force us to fail to acknowledge that if we are being played by a manipulator there are others as well.

Sometimes people are placed in our lives to test the respect that we have for ourselves and humanity in general, and when we fail that test we will also fail the tests of showing respect to others, who truly do deserve our time and love.  We have a responsibility to not only ourselves but to those who care about us to understand the difference of those in our lives who do respect our spirit of giving as verses the manipulators who take without a conscious. Once we become aware of the fact that we are the ones being used, then we need to accept that we enable the manipulators of the world and we need to stop the time,attention,and money often given to the manipulators, for all the reasons that allow them to operate on the unsuspecting. If we cannot stop them for our sake or the sake of the manipulator themselves, then we need to be aware of those who we hurt by going into denial of the part we play in it.

Thanksgiving is a time of appreciation and when we fail to appreciate those who should matter to us, we lose everything else of value as well. I feel truly Blessed for having the husband I have had for 45 years,my terrific daughters and son-in-law, and the two Bestest grandsons that a grandmother could ever have. I appreciate the value they add to my life by just being the genuine people that they are and their own faith in their own achievements.

All we who truly love really want is for our loved ones to be happy and for us to be aware when they are not, by offering them the emotional support they need,if they need our help. Too many times I have made the assumption that they needed my help when their maturity was leap years ahead of my own, at the same age they are.  Age may be a teacher to those of us who are willing to learn, but we should not always assume that we know better because of it. May we all be Blessed this Thanksgiving while we remember those who are really victims with our generosity and prayers.  Have a safe trip and a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

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Family Gathering For Thanksgiving

I am not writing this post for those of you who are suffering or have done without this Thanksgiving, because if you have been suffering for a while now, most of you are already grateful for the significant things in life, such as food on the table or life itself.  Others may be grateful for electricity being restored or for the Insurance adjuster showing up.  It has been a matter of fact for years now, that the more mankind suffers, the more likely we are to be grateful for the things that others take for granted.

I write this instead for those who are gathering for Thanksgiving and dreading the moment.  There are families who all have that one person, if not two or three, who feel it their yearly obligation.” to rain on our parades.”  We all know them, they will say things like,”Why can’t Mary find a man?”; “Will Johnny ever get a decent job?;”or “Whats wrong with you anyway that you can’t be more like your Saintly sister?; “You know what your brother said about you?”; “I don’t know how your husband or wife can stand you or just the opposite I don’t know how you can stand your husband or wife,”  or why are you so fat when your brothers and sisters aren’t?” Anything they can find to ridicule us about and then sit and laugh about it when they do insult us or hurt our feelings, like it is some kind of a fabulous joke. If they can’t show their own resentment in life, through turning us against the family, then they will turn the family against us.

When they are not making comparisons with one of us on the losing side of what they think is acceptable behavior in us, then they are putting their leg on a chair so no one can miss the fact that their arthritis is acting up in their knee or they belabor their suffering in  great detail.  There will be others who suggest that we can make a better broth or gravy if we just add such and such to it while others insist on carrying a conversation with us through the walls of a different room, while complaining that they cannot hear us, while we are trying to time the turkey coming out with the dinner rolls being finished.  Others will complain about it being too hot while others complain about it being two cold. These same people will be the last to even notice that we are caring for a sick child or suffering from the end results of the flu, while we try to put on a brave front so we do not spoil our own family’s Thanksgiving.

Speaking from someone who swore each year that I was not going to go through another Holiday where the person involved in ALL of the above behaviors could ruin it for my family, it took years before I found the courage to tell her that we would be spending the holiday without her.  Since there were 4 other children in 4 different States who could have paid her expenses and asked her for the Holidays but refused to, I had to learn to ignore the criticism and bear it, until it reached the point the only other one of her children who would take a turn ,decided to match the bullying techniques move by move, and then I washed my hands of it completely.

It is not easy to enjoy the Holidays with a mother only 4 blocks away and alone.  I was greatly criticized by those who refused to give me a break by taking our mother in my place, and by others who knew a different person from the one both myself and my family knew. There does come a day in all of our lives that we must reach our own decisions on our own priorities.  When we had honor rolls, graduations from not just highschool but college and grad school as well as engagements and marriage plans, there did come a time that as a grateful family, we did have the right to celebrate without the center of attention going to my mother who gains attention with continued hurtful or negative comments.

If you find that someone is ruining your Holidays, I do hope you take the time to understand their suffering and give them the attention that they crave,but I also want you to know when the negatives in your family is denying the other family members from giving thanks and celebrating the joys of the family, perhaps it is time to reverse your course or to ask,” what are the priorities of your loved ones?”

Respect walks a two-way street beginning with respecting our own needs as well as the needs of those who depend on us.  For those who can deal with both, despite the abusive grumbling of spouses,mothers and bitchy fathers,jealous siblings,ungrateful children,complaining Aunts and Uncles or Grandparents, I congratulate you on your strength and forbearance.  I hung in for 35 years out of my own sense of duty to my mother, but with growing health problems, myself, it was time to eliminate the negativity in order to enjoy the positive in our lives.

I know other people who deliberately make a habit of working the Holidays,or  leaving for better weather, Vegas or the Beach, in order to avoid having to confront the issues of family.  Others will go ahead and put up with it and then make their friends lives miserable for a month in both the dreading of it before the Holidays and the hurt of it when they leave.  The Holidays can be stressful, because as much as many of us look forward to them there are many others who go into a depression that spreads through the family because they are hanging onto a time in their child hood or life when they felt deprived.

Others will lose loved ones on the Holiday and we do understand that they grieve, as a result of it.  What I am describing here are those who feel that even though they got cheated in life, they are the experts over the entire family, and will not rest until they feel they get the upper hand even though they contribute nothing other than the complaints that brings all of the rest of us down.

We all hear how elderly parents are left to spend the Holidays alone by ungrateful children but never do we hear that parents are left to spend Holidays alone because they themselves have established a record of being ungrateful for those of us who do make the effort to include them until they themselves wear out their welcome.

Many times these same people will become the favorites of strangers or the nursing staff and then treat their own children like they are beneath them because they refused to believe as they were told to believe,accept the faith of their parents,loved someone their parents forbade them to love, or did not become the person the parent thought they should become.  The parent was continually ashamed or embarrassed by their own children’s appearance or the way they dressed. At the same token some parents had reason for concern, when the adult child’s behavior was out of control or they were too willing to accept abuse,themselves.  There are any number of ways beside ungrateful children, as to why family members do end up alone on Holidays.

I welcome the idea that mankind is one family and when our own blood family drives us away with their own behavior that they do find a friend or care giver that befriends them when we ourselves cannot.  I think I speak for many this Holiday Season when I say that we are very grateful that our loved one’s have you in their lives.  We do love them, despite the fact that when we try to love them, they themselves drive us away with their words and behavior against us.

Those of you who think  I am talking about simple cantankerous relatives who are suffering, and it is the same that you welcome into your lives, all I can say for the rest of us is,”NO They Are Not! Not all of us are as fortunate as to have family members who are any different at 70 than they were at 30 or at 3, and there in lies the difference. We grow old as we grew young while some wounds are never allowed to scar or heal by those who spend a lifetime taking out their hurt on those of us who are the closest to them, while they refuse to get the help we offer them. Many times you instead can be the catharsis to them that we cannot be, and as a result we remain grateful to you, a total stranger.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and remember to be grateful for all of those who we too often take for granted and love each other. The less said the better Thanksgiving will be for all of us, if the only thing that crosses our minds has criticism attached to it, just because we may think it is constructive criticism, it has no place at the dinner table, now or ever.  Perhaps constructive criticism does exist on a job where an employee struggles to learn the same, but criticism in a family is criticism.

If we can not treat family members with the human dignity of respect how can we teach our own children or grandchildren to give respect and to demand the same respect, in their own lives? If discussing our differences becomes as lop-sided as the lack of respect shown, then we need to make decisions in the best interests of those who do care about us and who depend on us. We cannot expect others to defend us if we refuse to defend our own right to be treated with human dignity. As adults if we cannot discuss our differences without demeaning ourselves or others, then it is time to consider another recourse.  If we do not like receiving criticism ourself, then we must learn to be adults and not give it, as what goes around will come around. If you are traveling have a safe trip and God Bless us all!

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The Heritage Foundation and Grover Norquist Ties

The Heritage Foundation bills itself as a Conservative think tank when in truth they are lobbyist and responsible for hiring the people who spread the lies against the Democrat majority and President Obama both on the blog-o-sphere and the air waves. It, along with Grover Norquist, was responsible in helping elect President George W. Bush.  They sponsor Rush Limbaugh and work in unison with Grover Norquist refusal to raise taxes. Grover Norquist is a frequent guest as are Tea Party members Ron and Rand Paul on CNN

Phillip Morris Tobacco  along with the Choctaw Indian Tribe and Time Warner who owns CNN are large contributors. CNN likes to call their polls following the debates Scientific and the erratic campaign of Mitt Romney as being mostly true but their poll following the debates have  always had more Republicans than Democrats in it as CNN claims that Republicans watch the debates more than Democrats.  I point that out so when we see other Networks with a double-digit difference in favor of President Obama we understand why CNN is trying to spin it in favor of Mitt Romney.  What I saw of Mitt Romney was anything but Presidential as he was sweating,blinking his eyes and licking his lip which again are symptomatic body language of someone who is less than honest. I sure wouldn’t want Mitt Romney negotiating for my release if  I was ever held hostage ,negotiating nuclear disarmament with Korea or unfair trade practices with China.  As the saying goes”Never let them see you sweat” or”He who blinks first loses.”

But I digress, many believe that the Heritage Foundation along with Grover Norquist also played a major role in helping defeat John McCain because they were the ones responsible for putting Tea Party candidate Sarah Palin on the ticket.  When they did so, John McCain’s support, fell into the dunking tank as far as most women were concerned. I personally  think that any Republican was going to lose the election following George W. Bush and the Tea Party knew that so set John McCain up so  he wouldn’t be in their way this year.

Remember when we did not know Sarah Palin was a Tea Party member but only speaking at their Convention?If we would have known the truth then, The Tea Party would not have been able to ride in on their “Trojan Horse” and claimed they wanted to clean up the Republican Party after The Bush Administration debacle. No one whispered the same in the Republican Party but instead left us puzzled as to why they would support the Tea Party.

Too many voters were led to believe by the media that the Tea Party was a brand new grass-roots movement and many of the followers had to make sacrifices to attend their Conference in Indiana, in 2010, even though the Tea Party members have been part of the majority and the members financially well backed for at least 13 years because Paul Ryan has been a member of Congress for that long as has Ron Paul, and in the World of Politics that makes them old timers. The lies have spread like wild-fire against President Obama since their so-called grass-roots movement with the Help of the Heritage Foundation.

This election year in Maricopa County Arizona, Hispanic voters are being told to show up two days after the election to vote on November 8th instead of November 6th.  The officials there are saying it was just a mistake made in their printing and that might be believable if it was not for the fact that voters in Ottawa,County in North West Ohio, who voted heavily for President Obama in 2008, were not being told the same thing by Republican officials.  Voters are being intimated by the Conservative vote group in Texas and elsewhere by asking questions that are not any of their business and asking for unnecessary ID.  Please be aware that this is all organized mayhem in order to run off the voters for President Obama by these sleazy groups being supported by the Republican Conservative base and the Tea Party.

The Heritage Foundation was behind electing John Roberts to the Supreme Court and in making  large sums of money in campaigns legal.  They have convinced too many Conservative voters that electing President Obama means bringing in Socialism and Communism to our government and to America. Senator Allen West claim that”All 81 Democrats serving on the budget Committee to reduce waste and to support a plan to reduce the deficit are all Communists,” is supported by Tea Party members, Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann, along with the Heritage Foundation.  Mitt Romney has said he will appoint Allen West of Florida to his cabinet if Mitt Romney is elected.

They are no different from the McCarthy era of the 1950′s nor the John Birch Society of the 1960′s except they accept Mormons who are as far right as they are,  and have paid for and continue to finance the Tea Party. They spread the rumor that the Tea Party was grassroots in the 2010 election and were concerned about spending when their real goal is to eliminate all moderate Republicans and take over the Republican Party while promoting the end of the FDR programs and equal rights for women.

Mitt Romney became their choice for President when Newt Gingrich lost his bid to win the primaries.  Do not be fooled by Mitt Romney’s apparent swing to the middle in his debates as the handlers knew if Mitt Romney stayed right where he has been campaigning he would lose the moderate vote. They cannot win without the moderate vote so Mitt Romney is saying everything that appeals to the moderates while wooing the right-wing in the Primary elections.  They are so far right that they make the Conservative right look liberal. The war on women is real as they try to bring back the white male race to what they feel is the entitlement of the white male to prominence over minorities and women in the work force even though they are less educated and many times less qualified for the current job market.

Grover Norquist, who often speaks for them and sits on the board of the National Rifle Association, has informed the Conservative people we do not need a President that comes in here with an agenda of his own but instead a man with five digits who will sign into law what we tell him to, has always been a member of the extreme right and worked as an aide for Presidential hopeful,Barry Goldwater,who was financed and  supported by The John Birch Society in the 1960′s.

Mitt’s professed views on rape and women equality,even though they were not the same in the primaries as they are now, makes no difference  as the Tea Party attempt to stack the Senate, Congress and Governorships in our States with strong pro-life stances and with a majority to do away with the rights of women to make choices on their own health and body and to do away with Unions that protect the working conditions and rights of the workers.  It will not matter as to what Mitt Romney’s views are as with a majority vote Mitt Romney will sign into law the inequality of women. The Heritage Foundation supports and backs the heroes of Conservatism such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and as a result have led the Conservatives to believe that they are telling them the truth because their views on women inequality is even more harsh than the view of most Conservatives against Women’s rights.

It is the aim of both The Heritage Foundation and Grover Norquist’s along with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to eliminate Social Security and Medicare and to turn it all over to private Industry by cutting government to half the size it currently is today.  In doing so they will eliminate all controls and regulations as they did under the Bush Administration and do away with the Consumer Protection Agencys as well as the government Agencys that protect the rights of the poor and middle class.  As Mitt Romney has said,”I will get rid of HUD,turn Teacher’s Unions over to another government Agency, and do away with Planned Parenthood and Obama care the first day I am elected”.

The Heritage Foundation and Americans For Tax Reform co-mingle and are one and the same in their belief system and strong supporters of the Tea Party and their supporters through their Foundations.  Both are lobbyists for their own causes and any and all Republican candidates, who take so much as a dime of their money, must sign an agreement to not raise taxes as they want government to go broke so they can shrink it to half of its size and turn the government wealth over to Private Industry.  Unlike the Conservatives the Tea Party does not believe in Democracy nor does Grover Norquist.

Americans For Tax Reform was founded and is ran by Grover Norquist.  Both the Heritage Foundation and Americans For Tax Reform have pumped in 4 million dollars into the Tea Party in an effort for the lies to be spread against Democrats, President Obama, and Obama care, prior to this election year.  Since they saw to it that the money paid in by outside groups does not have to be reported by getting John Roberts elected as a Supreme Court Justice and swinging the vote to their side on unlimited dollars going into campaigns, no one knows for certain to what a degree their dollars have gone into the Mitt Romney Campaign once Newt Gingrich was defeated in the primaries.

Mitt used an unlisted mail box in Park City, Utah to receive his cash funding during the Republican primaries. They flooded the State of Nebraska and pumped money into the pockets of all Republican candidates and are supporting Republican Deb Fisher against Democrat Bob Kerry  in the Senate Race even though they hold no other interest in the State due to the Law that does not allow Corporations into Nebraska to compete against Agriculture. The Republican Congressman of Nebraska who is running for re-election, Adrian Smith, has always had their backing and votes with them.Their  interest is two fold: to sign all Republicans to their pledge to not raise taxes or let the Bush taxes run out on the wealthy while increasing their tax breaks in exchange for paying for both Nebraska campaigns and to do away with the Equal Rights of Women.

Nebraska has already approved the Personhood Bill that gives all rights to the egg while denying women,including those of rape and incest, the right to make decisions on their own body and health. In their efforts to stack the Supreme Court with Conservative Justices it is their belief that they will over throw Roe vs. Wade and send it back to the States where Roe vs. Wade will be over thrown  in favor of the Bill guaranteeing Personhood to the egg and thereby deny women the right to make decisions of their own on their own health issues.  The Personhood bill criminalizes abortion, irregardless of the circumstances, while criminalizing Doctors who would attempt to save a woman’s life or to prescribe the Morning After Pill (Plan B) following a rape, as those rights under the Personhood Bill would go to the egg even when women are not pregnant. Nebraska is only one example of many States voting in or attempting to vote in laws of Personhood, by Tea Party controlled Republican Governors  and legislatures in our States.

Grover Norquist has said,” Conservatives protest in favor of values when in truth they have no values.”  The Conservatives do not know yet that they are being ripped off by the Tea Party and the Heritage Foundation along with Americans For Tax Reform because Mitt Romney could never win this election without the Conservative vote any more than he can win it without the moderate Republican vote, and they know it.  After George W.Bush won election Grover Norquist said,”Pat Robertson’s staff is so much a part of the White House, Thems is Us, and Us is Thems,” while saying Conservatives do not have any values and are against business.

Mitt Romney is telling us that President Obama will ruin entrepreneurship because by charging more taxes to small business they will all go out of business. He is calling for people like the Koch Brothers and Florida Resorts to tell their people that they better vote for him or lose their jobs and they along with other CEO’s are threatening their employees with the same.  Only 1% of 1% of small business makes a million dollars or more per year and the other 99.99% of small business will profit under President Obama’s tax plan.  Despite these facts, Mitt Romney, continues to claim that 60% of  the people hired by small business will lose their jobs if President Obama’s Tax plans go into effect as small business employs 60% of all workers in America.

In closing then the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Tax Reform are as big of a lie as what Mitt Romney and the Tea Party spreads. It is no accident that Mitt swung to the middle so far on his first debate that he totally left President Obama in a daze.  In both his second and third debate he continued to deny almost everything that he has said on the campaign trail in order to influence the moderate vote while assuring the Conservatives of his opposite stand on the campaign trail.

MITT ROMNEY AGREED WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA SO MUCH  ON  LAST NIGHT’S DEBATE ON FOREIGN POLICY THAT HE SOUNDED MORE LIKE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S VICE PRESIDENT CHOICE.  After listening to Mitt Romney talk about how President Obama is doing everything right on Foreign Affairs we would have to be stupid to get rid of the Inventor of these ideas as President Obama’s Administration has done everything right according to Mitt Romney during the debate but on the campaign trail Mitt Romney has been vicious in his attacks against President Obama’s foreign policy.The Tea Party  are in all of our States backing all Republican candidates both in our States and in Washington in an effort to take over the Republican Party and to deny equality to both women and minorities and to send us back to the 1950′s.

They will not be stopped, unless we stop them together at the election polls.  Vote for the re-election of President Obama and for Democrats now or on November 6. They have tried so hard to rig the system that if we do not vote we will all lose, if Mitt Romney and the Republicans are elected or re-elected in November. That includes you as well, Republicans.  There is not a single moderate amongst them even if they think they will be because the only way they can win their election is by taking Tea Party advanced money, and that includes Mitt Romney, as moderate hopefuls for President, were cut out of the vetting system, before the selection of candidates for the Republican primaries. Why do you think they had such a pathetic selection in the primaries?  Your original instincts on, Mitt Romney,saying what ever it takes to win the election even when his actions and private conversations held before the “Fat Cats” prove differently, were not wrong. Trust them now.  Vote!

(Late edition to my readers:  Today Colin Powell endorsed President Obama because he was concerned about Mitt Romney’s change of views at the debate and feels he is all over the map and may have neo-conservative views in his foreign policy and is not coming clean with the voters. For those of you who are concerned about balanced budgets,the economy and jobs, and why people vote Republican, I urge you to read my post entitled,” The History Of Balanced Budgets” and the question and answers that follow.  It was written on May 2,2012, and can be either typed into this site where it says search or you can simply press on May 2012 at the side of this post and find it.  Thank you!)

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In Summary:Elitists,Bigots, & Obstructionists

I don’t think anyone can seriously defend the current Republicans as being anything more than Elitists who will be led under the ticket of  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.  The Republican Convention is planning on running a 90 minute film on the life of Mitt Romney, where they will leave out the fact while Mitt Romney was promoting his Religion in France, he was also avoiding the draft that was taking place in the United States.

Even during the civil war, the elitists paid Germans to fight in the place of their sons.  Unless they are someone like John Kerry who volunteers,which is unheard of in the Republican Party, it is the working poor and middle class that makes up the military; Instead both the Bush campaigns and the Romney campaigns under the guidance of Carl Rove have belittled the accomplishments of both John Kerry and President Obama. We can bet that we will not hear anything  on Mitt Romney’s or Paul Ryans’ accomplishments in regards to the Military personnel, beyond their belief in a strong defense while sending our children to war, since neither have an ounce of experience in Foreign affairs.

The Republicans will also leave out the fact that Mitt Romney came from a privileged background that consisted of boarding schools and Ivy league Colleges.  Instead we will see everything about Mitt Romney’s accomplishment as a political and business success.  They definitely will not tell us that the voters of Massachusetts did not want Romney back for a second term or just 4 years ago only 23% of the Republican Party wanted him to be President.

I have written, as so many others have, that we really do not know Mitt Romney and even after they run a 90 minute film on the life of this man, we still will not know Mitt Romney because he is an elitist who will neither Ever try to know or try to understand us. This is a man who has already proven that he cannot sit down and eat a cookie or have lunch with us without insulting us.

No one can deny, that a Political Party who meets for their National Convention or CPAC and invites both white supremacists along with the head of the NRA to speak  then turn around and profess, “they are not bigots”, are the worst kind of bigots.  This same Party continues to promote the idea that there is no racism left in America while promoting the idea that our President is not a citizen or the birther belief; add to that their refusal to pass the Violence Against Women Act because the Democrats want gays, Native Americans, and Immigrants specified under the Violence to Women Bill and the Republican Party refused to pass it because they held that the gay and transgender population are not even recognized under law. They have made it clear that they will veto any and all bills that pertain to “the Dream Act,” while denying women of rape and the women whose lives are threatened by pregnancy the right to make those decisions over a fertilized egg.

The Republicans deny what many people who study these numbers know and that is the  gay and transgender population consists of 25% of our population.  They refuse to recognize this group as citizens much less as a group who are entitled to the same rights and privileges as all Americans are entitled to.

After Todd Aiken spoke this week (See Pathological Liars And Hypocrites in this blog) and exposed the fact that the Republican Party is also stripping the right to decisions of our own health from women, then only those who are deep in denial can continue to promote the belief that the Tea Party brought with it an upsurge of inequality and bigotry to all but the white male race. It is clear to rational thinking Americans that the Republican Party has leaned even farther right to the extremes in bigotry an inequality at a much greater rate, in the last decade. Vice President hopeful, Paul Ryan who is a member of the Tea Party has bragged on numerous occasions and said,”I am so far right that I am even right of the right.”

The main reason the Republican Party wants this election to be a referendum on President Obama instead of their own pathetic job in Congress and the Senate, as obstructionists in the Republican Party, is because if we take a good clear look at the Republican Party for the last decade we will see a Party who put us in a fiscal hole so deep that we will be climbing out of it for years.  They blocked every effort made by President Obama to close the hole a little tighter, by being obstructionist in the form of filibusters or by attaching anti-rights for women to each bill.  If we make this a referendum on the Republican Party instead of President Obama, who have held the purse strings for the better part of the Decade, then they would fail miserably.

In summary then, we can all be certain that the last thing that any of us will hear out of the Republican Convention is that under the guidance of Grover Norquist, the Romney/Ryan ticket will be of the few,for the few, and by the few, and if elected Democracy will continue to fail along with a government of the people,by the people and for the people.

If we elect or re-elect these Republicans in our States or send any to Washington, we can be assured that they will adopt the Ryan Plan which they all must sign if they want the dollars and support of the Tea Party and Conservative base.  The Ryan plan  decreases employment and wages for the working poor and middle class while forcing everyone to pay out of their pocket any increase in healthcare ten years from now or after 2022. It will balance zero budgets for 30 years. Do not believe for a moment that it won’t include more sacrifices on all of us who are already stretched thin by the Republican Party, regardless of our age, while continuing to increase the wealth of the wealthy.  We have a clear choice in November and if you vote Republican then we of the working poor and middle class,those in agriculture,minorities,immigrants,the gay and transgender,Seniors and women will continue to lose. Vote!

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Pathological Liars And Hypocrites

The uproar in the Republican Party leadership and the Conservative media, over the Todd Aiken comments on rape is so hypocritical and only infuriates the members of the Republican Party, because like President Obama giving amnesty to the latino and Hispanic population who were brought here as children, it draws attention to what the real divide in the two parties has been about while the Republican Party wants to keep this quiet since they know that it will cost them the women’s vote; even while they lie and some in the media promotes the same lie, that it is women who want this since they overwhelmingly choose the pro-life view that the Good Old Boys continue to force on women.

The Republican Party’s growing war against women was brought to the fore front in what the Tea Party and Conservatives have really believed on rape going back to 1988 when the then Republican representative from Delaware, alluded to the same view. This was the belief of Church officials going back to the 1300′s and was even used as a way to know if a woman had been of loose morals prior to a rape. Doctor John Wilkie reported the same insane belief in 1999 and Todd  Aiken was quoting him about women not being able to get pregnant in a legitimate rape.

Dr. Willkie is a supporter of candidate Romney going back to 2007. He was so important to Romney that he headlined Dr. John Willkie as a supporter at the time. Mitt Romney now calling for the resignation of Missouri Senator Todd Aiken of Missouri to resign in as fake  of an act of disgust for his comment on rape as is the rest of the Republican Party’s pretence to be alarmed by the same.

The belief that good girls secrete a fluid, out of fear and therefore cannot get pregnant in a legitimate or what they prefer to call a forcible rape, has always been the universal view amongst them.  They are now  trying to attack  Todd Aiken for saying out loud what they have grown to accept and for the media to promote his view as an extreme view of the right and not the view of Romney and Ryan, is as big of a lie as everything else that the Republicans are trying to keep quiet in their move to deny  minorities and women both their civil and equal rights.

They had hoped they could go into their Convention next week without drawing attention to the fact that their own platform denies women any rights at all to their own decision to contraception or their health but instead give those rights to the fertilized egg, in what they call the Personhood bill that they have attempted to try to pass on the floor or attach to the bills that Democrats have tried to pass since 2004.

The law of ”Personhood” has already  been  passed in Virginia,Oklahoma,Kansas,Nebraska,Idaho and Arizona.  Women are back to crossing the border into Mexico from Arizona and again being aborted by unlicensed abortion practitioners in an unclean environment or are getting what is a prescription abortion pill,without direction from a Dr. or pharmacist in the United States, just as they had been forced into doing prior to the passage of Roe vs.Wade.

Because women are being handed these pills they are taking as much as the whole bottle that is leading to hemorrhaging again as it did  in the 1950′s.  Even in the 1930′s, 18% of pregnant women got illegal abortions.  Wealthy women always had a Dr. who would perform an abortion in a clean environment and they would list it as a miscarriage.  Men who feel they can make women subservient to them again by keeping them pregnant abound in the Republican Party. There are more than 1000 more bills pending in other States that run the gamut from pressing criminal charges on women who seek abortion to banning the use of birth control for women.

There is not, nor have there ever been any laws to ban condoms,surgery for men, or testosterone decreasing drugs for men,or Viagra by these same hypocrites who are attempting to have the fertilized egg rights increased over the rights of women, while they out-law the use of birth control for women, as well. By ignoring the use of birth control or non-birth control in men they are stripping women of the right to make decisions for their own procreation and instead giving the right to men, to determine the size of the family or the number of fatherless children they produce. 38 States have already removed Insurance coverage  to women for any form of birth control for women, while they continue paying for men, including Viagra .Drug Companies continue to develop a birth control pill for men without any protests from the Republican Party.

When we live in a society where too many men are refusing to work, or being paid cash under the table, rather than pay child support and single mothers are instead getting support from our States, these elected Tea Party and Conservatives in the Republican Party and to a much lesser degree 16 Conservative Democrats are supporting the decisions of men in procreation, over women.

In doing so they are trying to limit divorces that  they think will force women into choosing between poverty or being subservient to men by forcing too many women to remain in abusive or miserable marriages or relationships. If they were truly trying to stop or prevent abortions they would not be attempting to ban the morning after pill or birth control for women, because even an idiot would understand that to do so, will only increase the number of abortions.

By making birth control and abortion for women illegal and pressing criminal charges against women, it will only take women back to the 1950′s when they were dying of infections or hemorrhaging in back alley abortions again. If they are stupid enough to think they can take  free will from women that God granted us all,including women, away from us then we need to get them out of Republican Party since clearly they are only proving they do not have a clue how women do feel or think.

Paul Ryan, is denying that they are banning birth control for women, even though he has introduced or co-sponsored or voted  for 62 bills that limit women the right to their own health and to making their own decisions, on procreation. Mitt Romney in the Republican primary debates said, and I quote,”I hope that the Congress passes legislation that bans all abortions because if they do, as President, I will sign it into law in a heart beat.”  the Mormon Church, of which he is a Bishop, also denies women the rights to the use of birth control. The media that now tries to promote the out rage of the Republicans against Todd Aiken of Missouri for his comments on rape are as hypocritical as the Republican Party, itself, is over their so-called outrage.

In 2008 the Republican representative from Texas made the comment”Rape is inevitable as the weather so a woman might as well set back and enjoy it,” and many in the Party have held the idea or belief that this is what cost John McCain the women’s vote in 2008 and they sure as the hell were not going to make that mistake again.  Paul Aiken did make that mistake on repeating their over-all view on rape and in doing so he committed the unforgivable sin in the Republican Party and they acted in agreement over what they feel is betrayal by Todd Aiken for exposing their belief.

The Republican platform next week, states that all abortions will be banned by the Republican Party,  in all cases of  a fertilized egg including all rapes and when women’s lives are in jeopardy.  This has been the big secret that they wanted to keep even though it has already been adopted to their platform and has been the same since 2004 but has gone unreported. They will deny women any and all rights and instead turn all those rights over to the fertilized egg, by passing what they call “the Personhood Bill” and in doing so it will deny women all use of contraception.

Aiken and Ryan sponsored the  HR3 bill together on the House floor that tries to define rape and denies women of rape their own rights.  The belief in the Republican Party, that they are trying to distance themselves from Todd Aiken’s belief, along with their own belief that good girls do not get pregnant when raped but those who they call whores (any non-virgins) do because of their behavior,how they dress, or the fact that they are drinking alcohol,or fall for a man’s lie of,” come in for a drink”, then they  ask for rape, is as common in their belief as the sun rising. They have been and do separate various degrees of rape from being forcible rape and therefore the fault of the womans’ behavior, and to deny that they do is just more of the lies of ”Good Old Boys.”

For them to come out in force now and pretend that they have not been trying to define different levels of rape and attach bills of Personhood to a fertilized egg on every attempt made by President Obama and the Democrats to pass through bills on immigration and on bills that would help balance the budget or give job relief to the middle class,or farmers and ranchers relief in a comprehensive farm bill, is nothing more than the lies that have existed for 4 years in the Republican Party.

In a study done in 1996 and reported in the American Journal of gynecological and obstetrics, approximately 32,000 women per year who are raped get pregnant or 5% of all women raped.  If any of us believe that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will allow these women the choice to choose abortion to eliminate an unwanted pregnancy, then it is time you get out of denial before the next people they decide to take away freedoms and rights from is yourself.

As much as Romney denies now, that he will follow his Party platform, we can relate it to the same as when he says,”You are just going to have to take my word for it when I say, I pay taxes.” If you believe him then take to heart what Grover Norquist,who is the Republican Party, has said,”We do not need a President who comes in here with an agenda or plans on making policy changes, all we need is a man with five digits who will sign into law what we tell him to sign.”

As long as the Republican Party could promote through the media that it was President Obama who would not co-operate with them and was  responsible for the divisiveness between the two parties and the media  promoted  that idea then they could defeat President Obama and do as Mitch McConnell promoted and that is make President Obama a one term President.  They took a pledge under the guidance of Grover Norquist, to do the same at the CPAC retreat, ten days after President Obama was signed into office, and 95% of the Republican Party agreed to it.  All newcomers to the Senate and Congress in 2010 were also asked to sign it, and since they were all Tea Party members they knew they would, with Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell leading the pack. It caused the Tea Party favorite to win the election in Kentucky against Senator Lugar because Lugar refused to sign it and instead voted for Obama’s affordable health care.

With their efforts to defeat President Obama,they are pumping in billions of dollars through right-wing groups such as Citizens United,The Christian Coalition,Americans for Prosperity,The Christian Family Group,etc. while Romney/Ryan supporters are writing $10 million dollar checks to defeat affordable healthcare that provides free screening for all of us and birth control for women. The lies are astronomical coming out of the Republican campaigns this year. They think if they buy enough ads and keep repeating the lies, while they campaign with the same lies, that we will eventually believe their lies and vote for them.  As far back as 1962 or 60 years ago, Adlai Stevenson who ran for President against Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 50′s, said and I quote,”If the Republicans will quit lying about us,(the Democrats) we will quit telling the truth about them.” Its way past time we show them what we do think of their lies.

Vote in November even though it will mean sacrificing our time getting picture ID,a birth certificate and two proofs of residency, standing in line, and time away from our work and families, due to the Republican voter suppression laws in our States.  In some cases,if you are in college,it may even mean skipping school and going home to vote. We need to show them that no matter how difficult they make it for us to vote, they cannot nor will they deny women,minorities, and immigrants equality nor will they break our spirits in the efforts to deny us our freedom. The important thing is that we Vote or we will be the ones who lose, the most, and you will be next.

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