Libertarian

It just makes sense.

In The Netherlands, Books For the Traveler

Of course, a library in an airport. How wonderful! The creative Dutch have done it again, and their practical approach to comforting travel-weary passengers stuck at the Amsterdam airport for hours and hours is alight in an otherwise dreary news day.

Most refreshing is the following: QUOTE Mr. van Tol shrugged that such hiccups were inevitable for a library that employs no permanent staff and whose only effort to discourage theft is a sticker on the cover of each book identifying it as part of the Airport Library collection.
“Trust is the basis of this project,” he said. “We are willing to take the risk of vandalism or that some books will disappear. But we think having security is much more expensive.” Since the airport opened in mid-July, he said, only about a dozen books have been lost. Many more have vanished temporarily, reappearing when travelers passed through the airport on their return journeys. UNQUOTE From The New York Times.

Be sure to click on over and read it all.

Tough Diagnosis

What happens to a society that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion? This is the question asked by author Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, is the author of several books including the best sellers War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.

QUOTE And yet, even in the face of catastrophe, mass culture continues to assure us that if we close our eyes, if we visualize what we want, if we have faith in ourselves, if we tell God that we believe in miracles, if we tap into our inner strength, if we grasp that we are truly exceptional, if we focus on happiness, our lives will be harmonious and complete. This cultural retreat into illusion, whether peddled by positive psychologists, by Hollywood or by Christian preachers, is magical thinking. It turns worthless mortgages and debt into wealth. It turns the destruction of our manufacturing base into an opportunity for growth. It turns alienation and anxiety into a cheerful conformity. It turns a nation that wages illegal wars and administers offshore penal colonies where it openly practices torture into the greatest democracy on earth. And it keeps us from fighting back. UNQUOTE

Here's an interview from 2007 that can serve as a good introduction to the man and his work.

Happy Thanksgiving to All

I am so grateful for the love of family and friends, and as we sit down to a home-cooked love feast of all the classics (turkey with cornbread stuff enhanced with sage grown in our own garden, gravy and mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with pecans and brown sugar, green Bean mushroom casserole, 5 kinds of olives, 3 kinds of pies with wines and coffee and a sip of whiskey at the end) we send our warm wishes and love over the earth and pray it finds people whose day is a bit less cheerful. Peace, love and light to all the world.

Adam Sandler doing his tune :D "Fifty million Elvis fans can't be wrong"

Sit back and listen to an American classic - Arlo Guthrie doing Alice's Restaurant.

"Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant, but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog."

My Reading List Gets Yet Another Title!

It sounds like perhaps in his new book, The God Theory, Bernard Haisch is picking up where De Chardin left off, all those years ago. They're talking about this over at Hubbert's Arms. My poor groaning bedside table. Sooo many books!

From the web site:

Somewhere between the hardcore reductionists who explain all things as merely the sum of their parts and greet every suggestion of spirituality with a sneer, and the unquestioning faithful who receive their beliefs full-blown from prophets and preachers, lie the skeptical but open-minded free thinkers curious to investigate their own nature and purpose in life. Are you one of them?

Readable and engaging… ways of reconciling science and religion. — Patricia Monaghan, American Library Association

A delightful romp through the labyrinths of philosophy, theology, and science.… very smart, very literary, very thrilling — a fine read. — Dr. Larry Dossey, author of Space, Time and Medicine

Whether one will agree or disagree, powerful arguments are presented for one to consider.— Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut Lunar Module Pilot

Bernard Haisch, an astrophysicist whose work has been reported in this magazine… also trained to be a priest, and this... is his attempt to reconcile his scientific knowledge with the idea of a purposeful universe.…Whether or not you agree, it's a compelling read.— Marcus Chown, New Scientist magazine

Don't Touch My Junk!

My 21-year old daughter is flying to see her sister's family this coming Thanksgiving weekend, and Mama ain't happy one little bit about the new TSA practices. An overdose of radiation with unknown health risks, OR behind the second door, a thorough groping. This video makes the point in a pretty funny way ~ please help it go viral!

Get yer dancin' shoes on. Don't Touch My Junk

Why Not Cure The Diseases?

As a 57-year old person who has arthritis, along with "borderline" elevated lupus and rheumatoid factors, I have some days every month with considerable pain in my joints, bones and tendons. Extensive testing (paid for out-of-pocket BTW, since DH (dear hubby) and I only carry major medical due to neither of us working for a large company)by a rheumatalogist showed no definite diagnosis other than osteoarthritis, and I walked out of the doctor's office with a prescription which "might damage your kidneys or liver" - this assuring that I would need to return to the rheumatologist every 3 months, and also visit the labs to make sure I wasn''t sailing headlong into kidney failure. Thus does the medical establishment "cure" its patients. (Hey, and I have barely even mentioned health insurance.)

From The Village Voice comes a timely read: The 5 Most Profitable Drugs: They Never Cure You

QUOTE Martin Kuehne, a chemist at the University of Vermont, is quoted in the story, saying, "Pharmaceutical companies don't like cures. Really, they don't -- that's the sad thing. They like treatment. Something for cholesterol or high blood pressure that you take for years and years, every day. That's where the profit is." UNQUOTE

Michael Moore's Sicko addressed this with real clarity. If you haven't seen it, click on over and check it out.

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35th Anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald Sinking

29 crew and the Captain were lost in the raging swells of Lake Superior 35 years ago. Resquiat in Pacem.

From CNN: QUOTE"So you've got a grave marker there now," Farnquist said. "And the original bell, which is the soul of the ship and the voice of the men, was brought up and it gets tolled every year in the museum gallery for those that want to come and families that want to be close."
See all the men's names, jobs and hometowns
The bell is rung once for each man lost. As many as 10 family members are expected this year to step forward and sound the bell, Farnquist said.
"We helped bring closure, or as much closure as you can, to people who couldn't recover their loved ones -- sons, fathers, husbands, grandfathers and so on, who are still lying on that ship for eternity."UNQUOTE

November Comfort Foods

Here in Nebraska we get to enjoy all the sweaty humid bone-melting heat of a deep South summer, and winters not unlike those of our Canuck neighbors to the north, and if we're very very lucky, some nice weather come springs and autumns. It rarely is moderate, either blowing a gale or still; basements flooding, or a drought; AC on to bring it down to 80 in the house, or furnaces blazing away.

It is now beginning to get chilly and that means comfort food, Nebraska style. When our kids were in the local parochial school system, they'd come home several times a year saying they'd had "chili and cinnamon rolls", not a combination I would have ever thought of for sure. To me a cinnamon roll is Sunday brunch or maybe Saturday special breakfast treat, but in my PNW-raised world, it was confined rather rigidly to the breakfast menu. Just about everyone I know who went to school (public or parocial) in Nebraska says the same thing. The meal of chili and cinnamon rolls isn't just something we all have because we like it. It's also a reminder of childhood and simpler times. It is comfort food!

Swoof's Chili

1 eye of round roast (any cut will do, longer cooking negates the need for a tender piece of meat from the start) -

cut into small cubes

1 large onion - chopped

2 yellow chili peppers - diced

2 fresno peppers - diced

1 large bell pepper - diced

2 tbsp cumin

4 cloves garlic - minced

2 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp salt

1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce - chopped

1/2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 large cans of diced tomatoes

1/2 bottle of good beer, preferably brown ale or a decent lager like Sam Adams

Saute all peppers and onions over medium heat in a little oil while browning the beef in a separate pan. Add beef, chipotle peppers and sauce, beer and tomatoes to pepper and onions and add seasonings. Bring to boil and then simmer for awhile. Put it all in a crockpot and cook it as long as you'd like. The beef gets more tender the longer you cook it. You may add a can of pinto or kidney beans if you wish. (Beans optional.)

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Apparently the Miller & Paines cinnamon roll recipe is still a secret, so here's a little touch of why finding it would be a good thing.

And, from Moms Who Think, 2 great cinnamon roll recipes, ready to go!

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New Reality Global Meditation

On 11/11/11, please join in at 11:11 PM (or whenever you can) in visualizing world peace, ecological healing and perfect union of souls. A huge group meditation/contemplation/creative visualization that you are sure to love!

New Reality Transmission is an international team of mathmeticians and physicists who have been busy discovering underlying quantum unity along with their other work. Their discoveries have led to the project above, calling for a global transfiguration of consciousness to transfigure and heal reality.

Both Sides the Tweed

Dublin-born singer Mary Black

Being an American hybrid mutt, with genes from the north of England, Scotland, Eire, Germany, Yakama, Nez Perce and various Old Viking-days anonymous Scandinavians, I can resonate with any of them. This day my heart cries out for healing, both of our land and of our world ~ and also for various people and families I love who are in need of healing.

"Both sides the Tweed" is a re-working by singer Dick Gaughan of a traditional song from 1707 attributed to James Hogg about the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England. It is in contention for a new Scottish National anthem.

Both Sides the Tweed

What's the spring-breathing jasmine and rose ?
What's the summer with all its gay train
Or the splendour of autumn to those
Who've bartered their freedom for gain?

Let the love of our land's sacred rights
To the love of our people succeed
Let friendship and honour unite
And flourish on both sides the Tweed.

No sweetness the senses can cheer
Which corruption and bribery bind
No brightness that gloom can e'er clear
For honour's the sum of the mind

Let virtue distinguish the brave
Place riches in lowest degree
Think them poorest who can be a slave
Them richest who dare to be free

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Happy All Saints Day!

Today the western church celebrates the festive "church triumphant" ~ all the Saints in heaven, canonized and famous, or totally unheard of and unknown.

Those who have lived a life that grows in love, holiness and purity to the point that it is an icon of Christ and His Mother are the saints.

Celebrate them with much joy!

Sting sings Soul Cake "One for Peter, two for Paul, three for Him who made us all" (although it was originally a song for All Saints Day, not Yuletide!) http://www.youtube.com/watchv=OGe7LodVNBM