Discovering New Books

Robert Jordan

I love going to Barnes and Nobles and going to the section that I like and randomly picking up books and starting to read a few pages or chapters, since I normally gravitate towards the sic-fi/fantasy section, I zoom in on fantasy series so I am assured of meeting and getting to know a handful of new characters and traveling with them through their amazing adventures and challenges.

Food and its place in all things

Tags

car accident, good stuff, pineapple, postaday2012, time heals all wounds, unbearable grief, wonderful mother

This morning I woke up thinking of my next door neighbor and her unbearable grief over losing her daughter to a senseless car accident. My mind was going from what can I make for her to eat, that took a bit of time, going through what I had available in my mind and what would good to offer at a time like this, I settled on a pineapple flan,light and easy to digest. During the time that I was figuring out what to make, my mind kept flitting to; what was I going to say to my neighbor?

I was getting distressed because death is sad enough when it is a colleague’s, a friend or a parent, but when it is a child, it goes beyond sadness, there aren’t words that can console or even make sense of the tragedy of a child’s death. My first instinct is always to want to make someone’s pain to go away, whether it be physical or emotional. This morning I didn’t know what to say except for the standard, I’m so sorry and whatever you need just call.

When I knocked on the door, my words deserted me for a moment, my neighbor looked at the dessert and asked what is it? I mumbled it’s pineapple and sugar and good stuff. She took it and put it on the counter. I went to her and said I’m so sorry and we hugged, she cried. She said all she wanted was for her daughter to come back to her. I could only say I know. She then said what she needed to know was that her daughter’s passing had to have a greater meaning. That, her being the only one killed in the car accident, wasn’t for nothing, that God had a higher purpose. She really needed to know this. I did my best to reassure her that her daughter was a bright light and that she was a wonderful mother and that her daughter had been called for something infinitely more special. I’m sure that my words were small comfort, in these circumstances there is nothing to ease the pain.

They say that time heals all wounds but this one I don’t know. I can’t imagine ever recovering from a pain such as my neighbor is feeling right now. This is a nightmare that she can’t wake up from, I did tell her that during these days, that she needed to reach out and accept all the support offered to her from her family and friends. She really needs to lean on others for the immediate future.

Death makes its power known bluntly. It has the power to make you feel small, devastated and alone. It also has the power to make people come together in memory of the person lost. The people who cared for this young girl are coming together to give each other comfort and support.

Republicans: Obama’s Budget Proposal Will Put America On ‘A Roadmap To Greece’

Of course the GOP is reacting with panicked frenzy, the policies that have been pursued and supported by the Obama administra­tion have paid off with a recovering economy. The private sector has been steadily adding jobs for over a year each month, unfortunat­ely government jobs have been steadily slashed but that is a result of compromisi­ng with the republican­s, for every step forward Obama gets, the GOP force a step backwards by demanding job slashing for government employees and pay freezes. If it wasn’t for that, the unemployme­nt rate would be lower. Moreover, anyone who says that we are be driven towards the same fate as Greece clearly hasn’t any understand­ing of economics whatsoever­. Greece is not in control of its own currency, in a way Greece is much like the state of Texas, forced to live within a budget because it cannot print its own currency and decide to devaluate it to help its trade balance so Greece is dependent on the greater union to help deal with Greece’s debt. The United States who is master of the dollar which is the trading standard is not in the same boat as Greece and won’t be especially if we ever decide to embrace a Medicare or single payer delivery system to bring down our long term health care costs, that will address our long term deficits and that being done, we are golden.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Payroll Tax Fight Leads Congressional Republicans To Turn To Offensive Strategies

The GOP’s transporta­tion bill is a horrendous piece of legislatio­n, I think that it was written by big oil, the coal industry and the natural gas industry lobbyists and delivered directly to the GOP leadership to be presented as is on the House floor. It has those three industries profit margins practicall­y written in red throughout the whole bill, where in the world is there any modicum of real beneficial goals in the bill? It keeps the country dependent on fossil fuel, a finite dirty resource, all it does is call for more drilling, it divorces the gasoline tax from funding anything substantia­l. This is a bill that anchors us to old dirty technology instead of propelling us to the future and the new wave of technology which would be the new jobs frontier. Oh wait, green technology­, that doesn’t hold the same profit margin today as does the oil drilling, fracking and mountain top removal, that is why the GOP isn’t interested in moving our generation into the 21st century, it is not as profitable for their corporate masters.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Harry Reid Will Ask Obama To Recess Appoint All Nominees If GOP Delays Continue

I think that Senator Reid is speaking to the pent up frustratio­n that most assuredly permeates D.C when crucial government daily business is thwarted because of the lack in personnel due to Republican intransige­nce on the nomination and confirmati­on process.I think that his recommenda­tion to the President would set a controvers­ial precedent for future senate leaders that might be unappealin­g for the democrats later on down the line. He already did it before when Bush was in office and it came back to bite him just recently when the republican­s took a page out of his playbook. Reid certainly knows the rules of the Senate and is quite masterful in interpreti­ng the rules and procedures to maximize his preferred outcome in the game of governing. He must be quite a chess player. The issue at hand is how do you cheer for these manipulati­ons when it brings you the result that you want, yet when the opposition takes the same manipulati­ons when they have the upper hand how can you criticize? Does this mean that you stop pushing at trying everything in order to achieve what you think would be best, or do you play strictly by the rules for fear that anything else would give the other side ideas?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost