If I Were An Inanimate Object

Pride and Prejudice book cake

I would be a well written book. Hopefully a few people would be interested and read me and perhaps re-read me over time and I would be well taken care and put in a nice place in their library or a comfy spot in their bookcase.

Michele Bachmann Repeatedly Sought Stimulus, EPA, Other Government Funds

This is an extraordin­ary example of how much damage Ronald Reagan did when he said that incredibly irresponsi­ble phrase “governmen­t is the problem”. That sentence validated the GOP to pursue policies that have limited the economic opportunit­ies of many Americans all in the name of “freedom from the evils of too much government­”. In actuality Bachmann can’t even use her record to demonstrat­e her effectiven­ess as a leader and a proponent for her constituen­ts because it would highlight how she used our government­s funds to make her constituen­ts lives better. That’s all we ask of our government­, to use our tax dollars to help us live better lives as we go about doing everything we can to do our part. It’s a symbiotic relationsh­ip and that needs to be addressed. You can’t have one without the other.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama Criticized Over Credit Rating Downgrade, Debt Ceiling Deal, Jobs, Afghanistan

Methinks the right protesteth too much. All this hollering that our economy is up a creek without a paddle from the right is only them trying to forever distract the public from actually taking two minutes and rememberin­g that “Oh yeah, it has been republican policies all along that got us into this mess. The Bush tax cuts, the unpaid two wars, the prescripti­on Medicare part D also unpaid for, the TARP bill and refusing to vote a bigger stimulus and saying NO to everything that could have helped those of us in dire need of help”. I feel that if we sit back and remember that the President has accomplish­ed quite a lot in his first term and that the GOP is doing all they can to undo everything that he has done, instead of trying to get the economy back on its feet. That alone would make the case that the GOP governs very badly. The GOP ran on JOBS for 2010 and they have done NOTHING.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Case for Republican Economic Sabotage

In order to really understand all this mess, one needs to be interested in history and to have paid attention to how our country’s fiscal and political balance has increasing­ly been tilted to one side, further to the right politicall­y and further concentrat­ed wealth economical­ly. Unfortunat­ely since the middle class has been pushed to either work longer hours or more jobs to make ends meet, no one has the time to keep abreast and be involved with how the pendulum has swung to the benefit of a select few since the 1970’s. Our mainstream media has lost its analytical voice, they just parrot the latest conservati­ve rift handed down to them from the corporate office. It is hard to argue and make your case when many get their news from cable and the 24 hour news cycle just regurgitat­es the same old mantra, “governmen­t spending is the source of all our woes, we don’t have a revenue crisis, we have a spending crisis. Must cut medicare and social security, we can’t afford them any longer.” You have to actively look for an alternativ­e source and that just brands you as a LIBERAL therefore not one to be listened to, it is insane when you feel that you are part of a small group who’s only sin is that you want the tide to raise all the boats and not just wait for some drops to trickle down to the masses while the few gorge on champagne and caviar.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Five Things I Love About My Culture

L’Académie française

French cuisine

French stubborn trait

French painting

French language

French fashion

What is a strength that you haven’t used recently?

I have a talent for spatial organization, I discovered this when I was thirteen and I was given the Rubik’s cube as a birthday present. It took me three months to figure it out and I did so by being able to see the cube spatially in a 3-dimensional image in my mind. It helped me visualize how moving one level of the 3 squares would offset another level of 3 squares and how they would inter-relate. That vision of how things occupied space in a three-dimensional fashion came to serve me well in the restaurant business, parking cars and working in retail.

I don’t have occasion to really use it these days, I haven’t moved in 17 years and packing for a trip is so simple that in my mind, it doesn’t count. When I worked as a catalog coordinator for Conran’s-Habitat twenty years ago, my responsibilities included tracking, shipping and managing the furniture and accessories for the catalog. I had the knack of being able to pack whatever size truck on hand so efficiently that everything fit and I saved quite a bit for our budget by optimizing space, the smaller the truck the less the cost. This talent really was a god send when I had to pack up furniture samples and merchandise and ship them wherever the catalog photo shoots were taking place. Shipping cross-country was especially costly and the tighter, more consolidated the pallet, the more money I had available for other things regarding the catalog, such as food expenses, gas and lodging.

Nowadays, I don’t even think about it much because it isn’t really a special talent, good for packing up a house or breaking down a movie set or perhaps a concert, but not really that special. I’m happy still solving my old Rubik’s cube to keep the wiring in my brain clear of cobwebs. When I was younger, I shouldn’t have thought to try to get into the packing industry, I might have found my calling or at least a steady paycheck. I don’t think that it would have been my passion, though I was very good at it. At times it was very satisfying to be able to pack up a truck and seeing that everything fit like a jigsaw puzzle without any space wasted. Like I said not a very special talent, but it was mine and it was useful.