Art I Appreciate

Van Gogh

My favorite type is painting, especially by the great Impressionists such as Van Gogh, Monet and Gaugain. I also appreciate the other great painters such as Manet, Gainsborough, Reubens and Turner.

Obama Millionaire’s Tax: President To Seek New Tax Rate For Wealthy

Hasn’t anyone in the GOP bothered to look at the polls recently? Most Americans feel the rich should be taxed at more equitable rates, so what is the problem? Going back to the Clinton tax rates is not onerous by any measure, we are talking 3% increase. Calling these rates an increase when they were acceptable during the Clinton days is fairly ridiculous in my opinion. We have so much to do to get our country back in competitiv­e form, I’m starting to feel that the general feeling of malaise we feel now is reminiscen­t of the Ford/Carte­r years and we need to do something big to get us out of this funk and listening to the GOP austerity tune is not doing us any good economical­ly, politicall­y or even for our country’s morale.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Paul Ryan, Herman Cain Push For Tax Increases On Middle Class

I know that Paul Ryan is considered to be a sort of wunderkid for the GOP but his economic plan stinks for the middle class and he is throwing his hat in with Hansarling where according to both of them, “not all tax cuts are created equal” those tax cuts for the wealthy are good economic sense and those for the middle class are not, they are a waste of money. We have empirical evidence that the opposite holds true, the Bush tax cuts inflicted economic pain onto our country and the only reason that President Obama is suggesting payroll tax cuts is to provide some much needed stimulus for the middle class since we as a huge buying power sustain and grow the economy, not the wealthy, they drain the economy because they don’t put stimulativ­e activity back into the economy.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Palestine Statehood Bid: Obama’s U.N. Visit Could Bring Another Troubled Middle East Moment

I think that this may offend some, but I think that the Israeli’s who have been protesting within Israel for weeks living in tents because they are sick and tired of Israel’s domestic policy that has been neglected by the hawks within their government are also seeking a solution and I believe that the Palestinia­ns should be recognized as a state and that the borders should be respected as the 1967 borders were determined­. I know that there are settlement­s that would be then in Palestinia­n territory but at this point so what. I think that Israel would have greater legitimacy within the Arab world and Iran doesn’t count as the Arab world. Israel and Palestine as a conflict has poisoned the world scene since 1967. It is time and I think that the youth of Israel would be in agreement that Palestine be recognized­.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Carville Advises Obama To ‘Panic,’ Fire People And Make A Bunch Of Politically Motivated Indictments To Win In 2012

I would also love to see all the C.E.O’s of the big banks be investigat­ed by the F.B.I. white collar division (which by the way needs to be restocked because it has been severely neglected)­, indicted and then sent to prison. Would make my day, I want there to be campaign financing reform where the grotesquel­y criminal Citizens United ruling is thrown out and Clarence Thomas is retired from his services on the bench, I’d love Scalia to join him as well. Then Wall Street and the Koch brothers can be eliminated as political donors and it would get back to the basics. The revolving door between congress, the military and Wall Street and Defense contractor­s has to be stopped, terminated­. Is it too much to ask that a public servant be happy with 174K, health care insurance, pension, I mean it is a good paying job. Finally the news media has to go back to doing its duty as laid out in the constituti­on. Since it has become as everything else beholden to corporate masters, it has not been doing the public any service whatsoever in asking the in depth questions, inciting real debate between opponents, asking a question such as who do you really serve, your campaign donors or your constituen­ts and then give them examples as to why you are asking the question. That is my wish list for today, somebody please get cracking, time’s a wasting.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

What is my favorite way to procrastinate?

Tags

postaday2011, Reading, Science fiction

At this stage in my life, I don’t procrastinate the way I used to during my college years and even up until my mid thirties. I have finally understood that no amount of procrastination will make any difference in how unpleasant a task will be. It took quite a long time in coming, I have always been pushed to procrastinate because of fear. Fear of dealing with bill collectors, fear of dealing with unpleasant things, fear of doing things that I might fail at. I have written fairly often that a lot of my decisions, to do things or not to do things, were for the most part motivated by fear. It is amazing that fear can have had such a hold on me. It’s only in the last four years that I have been able to realize that it doesn’t have to be this way. I now understand that I had given fear too much power in my life and gradually I have become more confident in myself and slowly fear has lost its grip on me. I realize what the phrase “what’s the worst thing that can happen, I’ll die?” really means since as some of you know, four years ago I almost died in the hospital due to some very poor choices that I had made with my life. Tropical virus, eating disorder, drinking beer all the time and smoking way too much will do that to you. Four years later after a lot of thinking, healing, therapy and writing, I am learning more about myself and how much courage I actually have, it helps to learn good things about yourself. It reinforces all the positive things that you do for yourself, you see that it is worth it when you treat yourself with the respect and the love that you deserve. How did I get on this tangent? Oh yes, I was speaking about fear and the damage it can do when you give it too much power in your life.

And now that I got all that off my chest, when I do find myself wanting to procrastinate because I’m really not feeling it, doing whatever dreary task is at hand. I jump into my latest science fiction/fantasy book and lose myself for a while until the nagging voice gets the best of me and I put the book down and jump into the task to do it and get it over with.