New Look hope you like
July 30, 2010
Record heat, everywhere. June was the fourth consecutive month that the combined global land and sea temperature records have been broken. Yet our Congress can't get the job done.
It's the Opportunity, Stupid!
And if you are counting all the legislation that fails to pass due to partisanship, don't forget this one...
Congress Fails to Pass Aid Package for Sick 9/11 Responders
And finally, after writing three books about Jesus Christ, after the untold hours of research she did for those books, Anne Rice has announced that she is no longer a Christian. She has left Christianity but not Christ. Anne holds onto her faith and belief in God the creator and his son Jesus but she is done with belonging to any organized religion. Definitely worthy of much thought. We should all ponder this for I believe it is not only a viable option but most probably the very best option for the sake of your soul.
Anne Rice Ditches Christianity for Christ
July 16, 2010
It has now been 87 days since the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil well fiasco. The well is capped, again, and BP is saying they may have stopped the oil leaking into the gulf. So now what? Now whatever bad happens from today forward will not be charged to BP? Oh sure, you can take them to court but basically they are out of it now, right? But... http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/toxic-dispersants-near-gulf-harm-humans-and-wildlife
"'The oil, after they hit it with dispersants, moves
around beneath the surface and they can't track it,' she continues,
"they are using dispersants so they can minimize their liability."
"Barely two hours after our arrival, I pull Erika
aside. My eyes are burning with pain, I feel dizzy and lightheaded. 'So
are mine and so do I,' she says, 'And my skin burns. Look at this." She
turns her head and one of her cheeks has a light-red rash.'"
"The denials from BP, the Obama administration, the
Coast Guard, and other governmental organizations like NOAA are what
enrage Tracy more than anything else. In fact, BP is having response
workers in Mississippi and Alabama go through metal detectors so they
can't even take their cell phones out with them when they go and do
their response work.
'We're living here and see
this everyday. You can't
tell us we don't have the BP cough that we've never had before. It
makes us feel like the government thinks we are stupid little toddlers
and that concerns me. They are constantly telling us not to be afraid
and that is what scares the hell out of me. We shouldn't have to trade
our estuary and our kid's lives to protect someone else's investment.
We shouldn't have to trade ourselves.'"
http://sharing.theflip.com/session/599f13d8c137305a6a9ac22d0fcb7141/video/16098029
(I remember as a child catching crab in Grand Isle with a net, a line and turkey necks. I have never seen nor heard of anything like what is seen on this video. I did see crabs try to crawl out of the bucket to get back into the water but I never saw crabs crawl out of the water.)
"The day before, in Chalmette, Louisiana, I spoke with Dr. Riki Ott.
Dr. Ott is a marine toxicologist and Exxon Valdez survivor who has been
monitoring BP's actions and how they are affecting what we know about
the damage the oil disaster is causing and threats posed to those
working in the polluted zone.
'This is a hazardous
waste cleanup,' she told me as
we sat in the city hall chambers where she was soon to hold a public
forum, 'BP needs to be evacuating the Gulf coast and paying for that,
in addition to costs for relocating people and compensating them for
what they've lost.'
It is that serious. My eyes
still burn and my chest
is tight, long after we exited the toxic soup of air and water that is
south of New Orleans. Toxic chemicals from dispersed oil and the
dispersant itself now permeate all the air, leaves, water and wildlife
of the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida
and Texas. You are breathing this same air as you read this.
The only question is, how many parts per million of
toxics are now in your lungs as well?"
July 13, 2010
In the Sanctuary of Outcasts by Neil White
The Louisiana Leper Home was founded in 1894 in Carville,
Louisiana. Through the years it has changed hands and names but in 1991-1994 it
included a minimum security federal prison. The situation was unique for the
patients who called this home as well as for the prisoners. There was apprehension
on both sides.
In the early 1990s, Neil White was a busy journalist/publisher
working hard to provide his family with all the nice things money could buy. He
got his priorities mixed up and resorted to check kiting in order to keep his
business afloat. In 1993 he was given an
18 month sentence for bank fraud. His
sentence was served in Carville’s minimum security prison and while there, he wrote
this memoir.
To pass the time in
Carville, White decided to view his situation as a journalist’s assignment. He
proceeded to get to know the leprosy patients and their perspective on life in
Carville in order to write about it. The
unanticipated result was that at the end of his time served he knew himself
better and had a new perspective on his own life:
“Walking among the leprosy patients – whether in the
cafeteria, the hallways, or the Catholic Church – helped me see my own good
fortune. Watching them made self-pity impossible.”
“For reasons I could not fully explain I felt an
overwhelming sense of euphoria. I still did not know exactly how to change, but
I had discovered some simple truths: A good life with my children did not
require wealth. It was vital to be honest, without worrying about my own image.
And helping others was more noble than winning awards.”
The most memorable lesson in the book, the one I hope to
remember and live by comes at the end. Over the course of his stay he befriended a
woman, Ella. Ella came to Carville as a twelve year old child. When her family
was told she had leprosy their belief was they could do no better for her than
to put her away in Carville. She would be a shunned outcast all of her life on
the outside and at the time, the Leprosarium was the best if not only place in
the nation set up to care for these patients. So now in her last years of life,
White finds Ella and treasures her wisdom more than the nice clothes, perfumes
and fine wines he knew before coming here. White confesses to Ella his worry
that he was not yet a new person and he wasn’t sure he was ready to leave this
place that had taught him so much. Ella
tells White the following story:
In the early days of Carville the Coco-Cola distributor from
Baton Rouge sent the chipped and cracked coke bottles to the leper colony. The business
people at Coco-Cola were afraid the public would boycott them if they found out
the coke bottles they were drinking from had once been used by someone with
leprosy. Since the distributor could refuse to take return bottles that had
chips and cracks they sent those re-filled bottles to Carville. Over the years
Carville ended up with crates of damaged bottles they could not return. Then
one day the patients came up with an idea of recycling these bottles. They used
them for flower vases and bowling pins and sugar dispensers and they took
hundreds of the bottles, turned them upside down and shoved them into the dirt
around the flower beds for an attractive border. Ella showed the garden to
White and told him the story of the coke bottles. Then she said,
“CoCola bottle
still a CoCola bottle. Just found ‘em a new purpose... You is what you is.”
Neil White was not going to be a different man when he got
out. He is still to this day the same man he has always been. But today Neil
White has a new purpose.
July 9, 2010
Through the years I have been asked more than once, "What is your
favorite book of all time?". Every time I heard that question I
thought, "How on earth do I know? I have read so many good books and
there are so many left to read." But I think today looking back I am
ready to answer that question. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Nelle Harper Lee. As to why, I can not say it any better than Anna Quindlen does here.
Happy 50th Birthday Scout!***********************************************************
FYI, Worst Case Scenario?Crazy? What about ...
thisand...
Dr Ott?"When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail." Pearl S. Buck