Travel Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Weather forecast

Never assume that just because it is 95 degrees and 100 percent pure suffocating humidity, it will be that lethally hot everywhere else, especially in London. I was very chilled for a few days that summer in London. I check forecasts everywhere I go. Seems obvious but many fail to do so.

Tax Cuts For Wealthy Americans Cost Treasury $11.6 Million Every Hour: Report

I would love to see how the GOP can spin this number into something positive. 11.6 million every hour, it costs us taxpayers. I would argue that the majority of us are subsidizin­g the wealthy few. Since the government is essentiall­y “of the people, for the people and by the people” except certain people count more than others. I still don’t understand the outrage, when you are a millionair­e or a billionair­e, over reverting tax rates back to Clinton era rates. It is only 4 percentage point difference­. When you are living from paycheck to paycheck, 4% is a lot. However when we are talking about wealth, there isn’t any true pain involved when 4% is in the balance. Aren’t they embarrasse­d, I know that Warren Buffet and a few of his friends are but they are a tiny group, the level of inequality in this country has returned to that of the late 1880’s and early 1900’s. It wasn’t good for the country back then, it is not good for the country now.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Friday Talking Points — I Am A 99 Percenter

Dear Chris, on point as always. Your analysis of the branding issue is really key here. I find that the GOP has an almost insanely genius with branding. We have got to get some of that mojo. When you wrote that “We are the 99 percenters­” and how can anyone stand up and say “we are the 1 percent” with any moral authority, you made me think to Ken Burns brilliant documentar­y on Prohibitio­n. At one point a historian said that after WW1, the protesters for the cause of prohibitio­n had so successful­ly captured the slogans of the time, how could anyone protest against prohibitio­n? We are for alcohol, doesn’t work. Same for the 1 percent. Their slogans would be, We are for pollution, We are for socializin­g our risk and privatizin­g our wins. We are for bleeding you dry. We are the parasites and you are our host. The last one has become true, Ayn Rand got it wrong when she said the wealthy were the producers and the rest of us, the parasites. Big Banks and Wall Street have acted like parasites since the 1980’s, not producing anything of value, just sucking all our productivi­ty and giving us pain in return. They are the parasites and we as the host need to figure out how to redress the balance and get ourselves healthy again.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Do this experiment to see if it generates a post.

Tags

experiment, eyes closed, postaday2011

So, I have to keep my eyes closed for as long as possible while keeping my mind empty and see if I can do it, how long I think that I can do it for, if I guessed correctly and if my mind stayed a blank and if it didn’t, than what did I think of and was it post worthy.

I’ve done this topic before, as many of you probably have as well. I find it hard to stay awake, all I need to do to sleep is to close my eyes and clear my mind. I have been chronically exhausted for a few years now so me thinks that a better strategy for finding a post subject is appropriate in this case.

I’m a good daydreamer, I often muse about my favorite t.v shows and I try to write episodes or imagine different scenarios for my favorite characters on t.v. The t.v. shows like “Bones” and “House” are frequent subjects of my daydreams. Sometimes, I play a guest star, either as a suspect or they are investigating my disappearance. I never die, I’m always wandering around suffering from amnesia. These are my little stories that amuse me when I’m walking in the morning, or I’m bored waiting somewhere, a good harmless way to pass the time.

I think that this experiment generated a post, whether it’s a good one, now that is another issue. It could lead to a short story about my flights of fancy in the world of “Bones” or “House”. This is an idea that I’ll file away for future exploration.

A New Book Recommendation

Zombie

My brother in law lent me his copy of World War Z. I would call it a journalistic record of the war. Essentially, it's a series of interviews of a varied nature from survivors all over the globe. It makes for fascinating reading because it happens not to far away in the future, so you get the impression that we as a country right now are extremely I'll equipped to even deal with a crisis of that magnitude. It also highlights what really matters and what skill sets are the most useful in a global armegeddeon situation. I really enjoyed it.