Totally Disgusted (AGAIN!)

Today comes the word that Citi Bank is purchasing a 50 million dollar very fancy corporate jet. See the story on Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/26/citi-jet-purchase-50-mill_n_160807.html

They already have 2 corporate jets. We gave them bailout money and they go and spend it this way. We, the people of this country, are victims of theft of our tax dollars. I will urge each and every one of you to call your Senators and Representatives and have them demand all of our money back.

Not only that but the CEO of Lehman Brothers has sold his 13 million dollar mansion in Florida to his wife for $100.00. After receiving taxpayer money he is doing all he can to protect his personal wealth. The audacity of these men is beyond believable.

Sometimes I think I am living in a world gone mad. Has greed and misuse of power always been this blatant?

Let's all do the best we can to see that these people are punished for destroying our trust and confidence as well as ruining our retirement accounts.

The End of Suburbia

This afternoon I have been watching the movie The End of Suburbia. While this is a disturbing film, it presents a reality that we all need to be aware of. It talks about America's dependence on foreign oil and how the supply is decreasing. It also discusses how our lifestyles need to change so that we can adapt to a future with less or no oil.

There is a debate over whether or not we have reached the Peak Oil. It would appear that if we have not reached it, we will in the next few years. Are we prepared for the time when we no longer can depend on oil for our energy needs?

This film gives the history of the development of the suburbs, highways and automobiles and how these things have lead to our extreme use of oil. It discusses not only peak oil but also presents some ideas of how we might move ahead and recreate towns and neighborhoods that allow the use of bicycles, more walking, buying local and other ideas.

Are we ready to accept a new lifestyle? Does the government have a plan to help us get more energy independent? Do we still want sterile environments that have few trees, no clotheslines, no gardens and developments that have destroyed the natural world?

I would recommend that all people view this film and take what it says to heart. Begin thinking realistically about what you can do now to reduce your use of fossil fuels. What could we do?

We could convince the town to erect windmills and put up solar collectors to help power the community. We could encourage the development of community gardens. We can support local agriculture by getting our food at local farmer's markets. We can make sure that we unplug appliances that continually draw electricity. We can lower our heating temperatures and wear more sweaters. We can consolidate our trips so that we drive less. Let's put our collective minds together and see if we can make changes locally.

We all need to realize that in order to make the necessary changes we have to shed the "not in my backyard" state of mind. We need to accept the reality of windmills and solar collectors on roofs. This will be a stretch for many as change is hard to accept but we can no longer go on as we have been.

The Media and Tragedy

The story of George Anthony's alleged suicide attempt shows how devasting a family tragedy can be especially when the media is constantly reporting it. The media has inflamed the community to the point that his home and property has not become a safe place to be. Where is the moral obligation of the media to back off and allow this couple sanctity and safety in their own home? It is bad enough to be constantly covering this story but to drive a person to take is own life is unforgiveable.

No one should be allowed on their property, much less being at their front door yelling at that them. Does no one have any respect or compassion for the emotional toll that this issue has taken on them? Also where is law enforcement that they would allow this?

What makes this case so spectacular that it deserves this type of coverage? Do you know how many children are killed or abused each day in this country and never receive any mention? Why doesn't the media use their power to make sure that children are protected instead of exploited?

People who harrass the Anthony's are responsible also. When have any of us been given the right to harrass anyone? I do believe that these people are ignorant and cruel but I also think the media is the most responsible for keeping this case in the forefront of the news.

The justice system will deal with Casey Anthony. Let her parents alone and use the influence of the media to calm the community and give these people the space to deal with their grief over the situation they find themselves in.

Are You Disgusted Yet?

I am totally disgusted and furious about the news of the CEO of Merrill Lynch spending over a million dollars to redecorate his office when his company was in trouble. He gave billions of dollars in bonuses to employees of Merrill Lynch at a time when Bank of America was in the process of taking them over.

Then Bank of America asks for more money because Merrill Lynch was in more trouble than they thought. I am furious that the taxpayer's money is going to line the pockets of people who are already wealthy and have acted in a greedy way and misused their power. I am sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't believe that Merrill Lynch is the only company that has misused the taxpayer's money. We should be rising up in anger and putting a stop to this type of abuse.

Then there is the issue of the illegal wiretapping that occured during the Bush administration. One of the NASA analysts has now come out and told how deep the wiretapping has gone. He did not come out into the open while Bush was still in office as he was afraid of retaliation. As it is he was fired from his job when he began asking questions and it became obvious that he knew too much. I believe that there will be an investigation into this at least by investigative reporters.

This is another issue that we should all be rising up in anger about and writing to our Senators and Representatives and calling on them to look into this matter. Our rights have been compromised and we should be angry and concerned.

Three Days Later

Well, I don't know how you feel, but still three days after Barack Obama's inauguration I am still hopeful and energetic. I can't wait to hear what the new president is doing each day even though the stock market is tanking AGAIN or should I say STILL. So far it seems like he is at least trying to get us back on moral and legal ground.
How long will this feeling last?
Already there are members of Congress who will be roadblockers. I think especially of John Boehner, Conservative Republication from Ohio. His state is one that has lost many jobs and industries and yet he will be one of the worst members of Congress in bucking anything that this new administration tries to do. I wish he and Mitch McConnell would heed President Obama's advice to put away childish things. This means, to me, that everyone needs to grow up and work together. Unfortunately, I fear that partisan politics is still alive and well in Washington, D.C.
Partisan politics do not serve the people very well. It will always be a fact and I agree that there needs to be debate but not animosity and hatefulness.
All I know is that the economy needs help, jobs need to be created, peace needs to be reached in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistani issues need to be solved and we can't have a bunch of sore losers delaying the solving of these problems.

A National Day of Service

Today has been called a National Day of Service by President-Elect Obama. As I watched him helping to rejuvenate an emergency shelter for homeless teens I wondered what that call could mean to all of us.

This is not meant to be just one day but a change in the way we act from day to day into the future. Our society has become so introverted and focused on the individual and instant gratification that we have difficulty seeing what is needed beyond our own needs and wants. Many of us do not even try to reach out and do things for others in the community.

I see this call to service as asking us to begin to take responsibility to help get the country back on track. What can one do? There are all kinds of opportunities available. I have thought about what I would do. These are my conclusions though they could change.

I will knit mittens for the homeless shelter.
I will continue to purchase and collect food and personal care items for the Windham Food Pantry.
I will continue to work with the Windham Land Trust to preserve open space for the community.

These are just a few things that I am committing to. What will you, readers of this blog, commit to?

Acropolis Restaurant Review

Acropolis Restaurant
If you like Greek food, I have the place for you. It is the Acropolis Restaurant and Banquet Center. It is located on Elmwood Drive right off Route 302 in the Prides Corner area of Westbrook. It is a pleasant place, with nice place settings. There is live music on Friday and Saturday nights. The restaurant is open Wednesday through Saturday from 5 pm -12:30 am.
My friends and I were the only guests at that time and we were entertained by the owners' three children, ages 13, 12 and 9. They played instruments and sang Greek music. They are very talented and we enjoyed them tremendously.

Two of us began with a nice, full bodied red Greek wine and one enjoyed a Greek beer. With the wine we were served warm toasted bread with Tzatsiki , which is a cucumber and yogurt dip. Then two of us indulged in a very generous bowl of delicious Kotosoupa Avgolemono. This is a chicken and rice soup with egg and lemon. The flavor was full and the soup was hot. That in itself was a treat. The soup was very filling and it could have been my whole meal. I highly recommend it.

One of our party had the lightly fried scallops, another had the Pork Souvlaki and I had the grilled lamb. All meals came with a choice of spinach rice or lemon roasted potatoes and a mixed vegetable combination that reminded me of Ratatouille. The lemon roasted potatoes were a nice change from usual restaurant offerings. Everyone raved about the meals. They were very good and the only criticism I would have is that the lamb was very thinly sliced and a little dry.
The service was excellent. Our waitress was very well informed and attentive. The owners were gracious and came to the table to speak with us. I hope word of this restaurant gets around and that it becomes very popular. I would give it four stars and encourage any readers of this blog to try it out.

Tony Boffa is one of the regular performers and once a month they have Greek Night with Greek music and dancing and that is very popular.

Transition Towns

Transition Towns Meeting
Last Friday evening (Jan. 9, 2009) there was a meeting at the Windham, Maine Public Library. There was a presentation on Transition Towns. This is a movement that began in Kinsale, Ireland and then spread to Totnes, England. It has now become a world wide movement. The purpose of this movement is raise awareness and help communities prepare for climate change and peak oil. Information on peak oil can be found at this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

The concept of Transition Towns is to introduce sustainability and to reduce energy usage. There is an excellent article on Transition Towns at this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_Towns. Also Transition Towns has its own website.

http://www.transitiontowns.org

All of the above sites are worth visiting. One of the questions asked at the meeting was “When was your peak oil moment?” Mine was in 1973 when there was a shortage of oil and gasoline. I remember the lines at the gas stations and having to get gas on alternate days. I have been frustrated ever since because we never learned our lesson and began to make alternative energies affordable and accessible.

In the 1980’s my husband and I built an envelope house and heated with wood. We did have a backup system that consisted of a monitor heater that used K1 (Kerosene). This saved us a great deal of money both on heating costs and electricity. We also grew some of our food using the theory of square foot gardening. This allowed us to grow quite a few things in a relatively small space. We had deciduous trees on the south facing side of the house which allowed for cooling in the summer and more sunlight in the winter which helped with heating. On the North side of the house we were bordered by White pines which blocked the wind and cold in the winter. While this may seem to be irrelevant to the basis of this article, it is an example of how we tried to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and to try to become somwhat self sufficient and that is what Transition Towns tries to do also.

We as a people must now come together to find ways to reduce our energy consumption and find ways to support local agriculture. It costs an enormous amount of money and uses a great deal of fuel to ship lettuce , fruit and other produce 3000 miles or more.

Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book titled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. In this book she chronicles her family’s return to a farm where they grew most of their own food and bought the rest locally. In order to do this the family had to change the way the ate. They ate seasonal foods and preserved the produce they grew by the old fashioned methods of canning and of freezing. This is an excellent read and for those of us who care about the environment and understand the consequences of excessive use of fossil fuels this is a must read. It is available on audio as well as in print format. Kingsolver’s website is very informative.
http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/

The result of the meeting last Friday was to get a small group of people who could learn more about Transition Towns and see if we can generate enough interest in the community to get people to make some changes.
This is just an introduction to the concept of peak oil and Transition Towns. As I become more familiar with it I will be writing more on the topics. I hope any readers of this blog will explore the articles cited and read Barbara Kingsolver’s book.

Senator Harry Reid and Others

I don't know whether to laugh, cry or beat my chest in frustration. Today Senator Harry Reid made the statement that he does not work for Obama but works with him. This was, of course, in relation to the seating of Roland Burris from Illinois. Of course this is true according to the Constitution. We do need checks and balances.
What I find so frustrating is if Reid had this attitude with George W. Bush we might not be in the position that we are in now. Reid and other Democrats rolled over and played dead for Bush. They were too scared to take a stand against Bush and the country suffered for it and continues to suffer. Now when they have a president in their own party they become belligerent.
I can't believe it! Politicians make me sick at times. They take their sense of personal power to the extreme. If anything positive is going to happen this is not the time to take a stand like that!
Wake Up, Harry Reid and realize that the people of this country want action, not grandstanding.

The other thing that has me laughing is that Joe the plumber, who really isn't a plumber at all, is going to be a war correspondent in the Israeli, Hamas confrontation. A person who was probably a plant and made famous by John McCain and Sarah Palin is certainly going strong.

The Lies and Half-Truths of Ann Coulter

This morning NBC retracted its original decision and invited Ann Coulter to appear on the Today Show to promote her latest book “Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America.” For a long period of time Ann Coulter has been proven to spew forth lie after lie. I am totally disgusted that NBC gave in and allowed her to discuss her book on air. I will say that Matt Lauer was a not a push over as he interviewed her. I do think that NBC made a mistake in reversing their decision and the interview infuriated me.
In this book she has a chapter entitled “Victim of a Crime? Thank A Single Mother.” She calls children of single mothers “future strippers.” She also writes that “Single motherhood is like a farm team for future criminals and social outcasts.”
Now I don’t know about you but I happen to know several single mothers who have done an excellent job of raising children on their own and the children have now completed college and are very successful. That type of generalization is a disgrace to all of us. I believe that a two person family is great and advantageous for children but there are many circumstances that put women in the position of being the only parent. Are there proven examples of children of single mothers turning to a life of crime or having other issues? Of course, there are. There are also many examples of children from two parent families who also become criminals, have teen pregnancies, and drug and alcohol problems.
Not only does she slam single mothers but she attacks Michelle Obama for being a “media-designated saint” and “Mother Teresa.” She insists on calling President Elect Obama, B. Hussein Obama in order to foster the misinformed opinion that he is a Muslim. She uses very colorful and inappropriate language to describe the democratic primaries and in the end even John McCain.
What I have an issue with is the generalization and tarring one group in our society with being the source of all of our problems. I also think the media is at fault for promoting a book so filled with lies, racial slurs and indecent language. In my opinion to give Ann Coulter air time is an insult to people of this country. It is obvious from listening to her that she is one biased and uninformed woman. Whoever unwired her jaw should be taken to court!

Celebrity Tragedies

Let me begin by stating my sincere sympathies to the Travolta family on the death of their son. This is a tragedy for any family and they deserve all the privacy they can get so they can deal with their grief.
What really annoys me in these situations is the way the media dwells on it and tries to make something almost sinister out of it. There are implications made of a possible wrong doing, whether anything really exists.
I, personally, get infuriated with the emphasis on celebrities and their lives and missteps. Do you know how many families in this country lose children every day? How many women get murdered through domestic violence every day? How many families deal with teenage pregnancy and suicide every day? They all do this in their own quiet way with no fanfare or publicity.
I certainly am sick and tired of hearing about all of the missteps and tragedies of celebrities. The media needs to get real and address “real” issues. They need to be telling the stories of people who are losing their jobs or who cannot heat their homes instead of trying to make the death of a child or the murder of a woman into the news story of the day.
If they used those stories to accomplish legislation to prevent domestic violence or to make sure that children are protected it might be a little more acceptable. However, this does not seem to be the motivation for these stories.
As I write this there is yet another story that tries to raise questions surrounding the tragic death of this young man. I say enough is enough!

One Night For Love by Mary Balogh

If you aren’t a romance reader, you will want to skip this post or maybe it will convince you to become a romance reader! I used to hide this addiction but I came out of the closet about five years ago! I found that it was very freeing to admit that I love happily ever after and I found many friends who are also into that genre. Unfortunately many folks think this is trashy literature but I can vouch for some very good writing in this genre. Many of the authors develop very strong plots and characters.
Now on to one of my all time favorites. Mary Balogh is one of my favorite authors. She writes excellent stories with strong plots and very strong characters. She knows how to address issues that one does not often see in romance fiction. She has used disabilities such as facial disfigurement, lameness, and others. She can also write tender and exquisite love stories. That brings us to One Night For Love.
Neville Wyatt, Earl of Kilbourne is about to be married. In fact his bride has just arrived at the chapel when a young woman comes into the church and announces that she is his wife. Lily and Neville were married after a battle in Portugal and shortly after another attack came and Lily is shot and Neville thought her dead. He was also shot and taken away to England.
Lily is a wonderful, magical woman whose connection with the natural world is almost spiritual. Neville is a just the type of strong man who is logical but is also a caring and compassionate person who takes Lily in and then begins the story of their adjusting to new circumstances and a totally new world for Lily.
Balogh has written one of her best stories in One Night For Love. It is tender with a touch of intrigue. The relationships that Lily and Neville have with secondary characters seem realistic and the plot does not seem contrived. This is a book that I consider to be a DIK (Desert Isle Keeper) and I reread it at least once a year! If I were rating this book I would give it 5 stars!

Wrapping up the Bush Presidency

As the Bush presidency comes to an end there are numerous articles being writen examining the last eight years. Even Alberto Gonzales says he is writing a book that will tell all and he believes he is a casualty of the administration. So it will be difficult to weed out all of the articles and decide which have real meaning.

An article from Consortium News has been brought to my attention. The article discusses the torture of Iraqi prisoners and the effect it has had on information, deaths of American soldiers and on the world's opinion of the United States. The article is titled "Torture and the Surge".

The link to the is article is http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/122608.html

The article uses an interview by one of a team of Air Force criminal investigators who discusses the impact of the torture on the lives of the American soldiers and how it actually increased the number of US and Iraqi deaths.

The article also uses, surprisingly enough, an interview with ex defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

What I found interesting is that from two very different men their conclusions were not so different.



The article is worth a read just to see what the future impact to our country could be as a result of the way we treated prisoners.

Happy New Year's Day

It is very cold today. At 5 am it was 1 degree. The best thing is the sun is out. That gives a real lift to the spirit. Right now with the sun directly on the thermomenter it is 24. It is still very windy so the wind chill factor is very low. The snow yesterday did not amount to much. We got less than an inch. Just enough to have to scrape the driveway so we don't end up with ice!

The birds are very busy at the feeder this morning. So far I have seen numerous gold finches, two titmice, chickadees, a lone junco and a smart red squirrel who is getting a good meal from the seeds that get dropped. One little chickadee came right up on my porch as if asking for a handout.

For the first time this winter I have seen deer tracks in the snow. So the wildlife is alive and well here in Windham!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, peaceful, prosperous New Year!