KOCH KILLS

   

I love this picture. This is how they make sure they are heard in Brussels!

 

This man is having too much fun squirting milk at the riot police in protest of falling milk prices. 

Now, the Koch Brothers. 

 Charles and David Koch have amassed one of the largest fortunes in the United States. 

I am going to tell this story mostly in pictures taken from the web. None of them are mine.

Koch Industries has annual revenues of $100 Billion. The Kochs own oil and gas companies, Dixie Cups, Stainmaster Carpets, and Lycra, to name a few.

Since 2008, the Kochs have spent over $38 million on lobbying alone.

Think tanks and political action groups founded and funded by the Kochs include 'The Cato Institute', the 'Heritage Foundation', the 'Federalist Society', and 'FreedomWorks'. These groups have opposed climate change science and heathcare reform, and support suppression of minority and student votes.

'Americans for Prosperity' worked to build opposition to cap and trade legislation that would have made Koch Industries pay for the air pollution that they create. It also waged a crusade against international climate talks.

'Citizens for a Sound Economy' spearheaded a $2 million tobacco industry campaign in opposition to tobacco regulations in the 1990's.

Need I say More?!

• Largest funders of climate change denial, spending $50 billion.

•  Spent $1 million for prop 23 to repeal California's global warming law
• were found guilty of negligence and malice in the deaths of 2 Texas teenagers in an explosion resulting from a leaky butane pipeline.
•  were fined $30 million in 2000 for illegally discharging petroleum products across 6 states.  
•  were fined millions more over the last decade for continuing pollution and violations.

Their subsidiary - Georgia Pacific has been lobbying to prevent the EPA from classifying formaldehyde, which the company produces in great quantities, as a 'known carcinogen' in humans.

Greenpeace considers them one of the biggest enemies to our Mother Earth.

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Koch Industries conducts twice yearly private "seminars" which include business executives, conservative commentators, political operatives and officeholders to plot strategies for the election of anti-heathcare, anti-climate control candidates.

Some known to have attended this year include House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Home Depot lead investor Ken Langone, former Attorney General Ed Meese, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, long-shot GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain and former Jack Abramoff associate and Bush appointee Patrick Pizzella. Other big donors, including retired Sysco chief John Woodhouse and Amway founder Rich DeVos.

Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Thomas have been confirmed to "drop by."

 What we can do?
Educate yourselves and everyone who will listen to you.
A few websites to get you started.
www.commoncause.org
www.banksterUSA.org
www.PRWATCH.org
www.SOURCEWATCH.org

Hot Desert Men

So, jumping from my fantasy of Justin to reality.

Leonard has been building Salvation Mountain, near the Salton Sea in California for many years. This picture was actually taken last year. I'll talk about him in a later post.

I just want you to see Naked Paul is not the only man in my desert life.

This second picture is me standing with the legendary, boogie woogie blues/adult comedy show star Paul Winer. In his own words he is "the original male pioneer exotic entertainer." Years ago he had a very unique bulesque act as naked 'Sweet Pie' while he fought for over 8 years in Federal Court for that right. 

He is now the owner of The Reader's Oasis, a used bookstore in Quartzsite and the background for

this picture.

I didn't like this picture so I walked all the way back to the bookstore today to get a different picture.  But, alas, Paul was out riding around on his bike. I did see him later in another part of town and he graciously stopped his shopping to pose with me. Not much better of me, and clearly not as good of him, but here it is.  (Of course, the camera adds 10 pounds.) 

His store is great with a huge selection, including a section of Westerns that he says are his best sellers. He also sells rare and antique books, cooking and craft books. Also many CD's, DVD's, VHS and cassette tapes. He has a huge section of children's books although he says he does not get many children visitors.

In the store is a small memorial to Celia. 

Who was Celia? In her mother, Joanne's (Paul's wife) words:

"Celia was a miracle baby. Having tried to have a child for many years and being told it would never happen, I had given up trying and made peace with it. Then, out of the clear blue, I found myself pregnant at 37 years old. It was quite a shock for both of us. I found out I was pregnant on Christmas Eve 1985, and before I had even had a chance to get into maternity clothes, Celia decided to make her entry on Good Friday, March 28, 1986.1 was only 23¼ weeks pregnant, so when she was born, the doctors said she would not make it. She came into this world weighing only 670 grams or 1 ¼ pounds, and was Canada’s smallest surviving baby in both weight and gestation at that time.Celia was 8 l/2 years old when she got a viral infection that hit her heart, and she died in my arms. It was a devastating time for us, and the support we got from the community was overwhelming. Over 200 people attended her memorial service, and some people took up a collection to help us with expenses. No wonder she loved it here. We just didn’t see Quartzsite through her eyes until then.

After her death on October 25, 1995, we needed to find a way to give back to the community some of the love they had shown us. We got permission from the town council to plant a botanical garden in her memory in the town park in October of 1996, a year after her death. What started out as a small nature trail has grown over the past 6 years into a mosaic of beauty, like a patchwork quilt made by many loving hands and hearts.

There is so much to see in the Gardens that it has amazed some people who have never seen it before. Those who have been there notice the changes every time they come back. It has become a labor of love for those of us who work there, and a tribute to everyone who is remembered. There is much more work to be done, and volunteers are always needed. When finished, this will be the largest, if not only, free botanical gardens in the state. It is one of the biggest volunteer projects in the area, and we love and appreciate everyone who has taken this project to their hearts."

Northeast of town on an 80 acre plot of land donated by the BLM is a 20 acre plot which is home to Celia's Rainbow Garden. It is a work in progress made possible by hours of volunteer work.

I will visit Celia's Garden tomorrow.

Dedication - for mature audiences only

Even though he will never read this, I would like to dedicate this blog entry to Justin. A "nice" 30 something ( at least he was under the norm, which is 60 around here.) gentlemanly sells man I met yesterday. He was so polite, cordial, and interested in me, my RV, and that I am solo.

Just saying.

If this had been, even 4 years ago, Justin, my man, you would be here, right now, as we speak, doing whatever, in my house van.

Just saying.

And this leads to Yoga. Not that I do it on any kind of routine basis but I do know what a downward dog is.

Hence the relation between Justin and this post. (Just kidding. I don't want to be offensive but I am thinking I need to do something to grab everyones attention.)

So, according to the book 'Beyond Birth and Death',  the very first step in self-realization is realizing one's identity as separate from the body.

It says the body is composed of senses, and the senses are always hungry after their objects.  The eyes see a beautiful person and tell us, "Oh, there is a beautiful person, let's go see." The ears are telling us, "Oh, there is very nice music. Let's go hear it." The tongue is saying,  "Oh, there is a very nice restaurant, let's go taste it." In a way our senses are dragging us from one place to another, and because of this we are perplexed.

"As a boat on the water is swept away by a strong wind, even one of the senses on which the mind focuses can carry away a man's intelligence."

It is imperative that we learn how to control the senses.

But, is it? Would we ever have any fun if we did? Would we really be making the most of this life?

The book also says: Bodily pleasure is flickering and intoxicating, and we can not actually enjoy it, because of it's momentary nature. Actual pleasure is of the soul, not the body. We have to mold our lives in such a way that we will not be diverted. It is possible for us to establish our consciousness in its true identity beyond the body.

Well, at least, according to this book, I am doing something right.

But, for now, I am going to look for Justin.

Quartzsite Crowds

Quartzsite, Arizona

• located in La Paz county, 68 miles N of Yuma and 125 miles W of Phoenix. 
• population is about 3,500.
• About 69% of adults are married
• Most of the citizens are male and most are senior citizens
• Most are republican. The sign right outside town on 95 has JOHN McCAIN something, something printed on it.

• Medium family income in 2000 was $26,382
• There is very low property crime and low violent crime rate compared to the rest of the state. (I am not sure how hard it is to claim that. This is Arizona) 

Roughly 500,000 winter visitors come to Quartzsite every year. RV's cover the desert 10 miles in every direction.  Strangely, it does not feel crowded, as long as you are not driving.

The world's largest swap meet is held in Quartzsite during the winter months. 

I found the longest lines on Highway 95. The carbon footprint of this swap meet has to be huge!! 

The longest lines inside the swap meet were at
the ice cream booth and at the Adult Care Beer Garden. No, I did not step inside either one of them.

One vendor said he once sold gold but now sells only lower dollar items like key chains and earrings because of the economy.  Looking around I believe it. How can people, who I think live in their RV's, buy so much STUFF?!

None the less, I was dressed up and I was "Going to the show!!" One of these is possibly The Real Me!

                                                         Whatever.

I really couldn't find much I was interested in. I plan on researching adding another solar panel while I am here. There are several businesses in town and one at the show.

I gathered info on The American Association for Nude Recreation and on seasonal camping and working for Amazon.com, and for www.journalinabox.com, a mother and daughter team selling ready made journals with check lists and fill in the blanks.

I did find a pair of gorgeous earrings at the gem show made out of jade, shaped like long leaves with little veins carved in them. You could see the light through them. I may go back for those.

I also found a group called Harvest Hosts where for a $30.00 yearly membership fee you can park free at  numerous host vintners and farmers and visit their vineyards, farms and orchards. The web site is www.HarvestHosts.com in case you are interested. 

I did buy something from Earth Friendly Products for your RV, Home and Boat - Nature Zyme. They are a one tablet waste water treatment that is 100% biodegradeable and non-toxic. $30.00 for a years supply. I really feel great about this because for 2 years I have been using chemicals, not much but some, and I would really rather not.

I will go back for toilet paper and a sewer hose and maybe some barbacue but that is about all that interests me.

I would rather stay 'home' with Luney and my books and watch the world, or at least Highway 95(which is bumper to bumper traffic until noon, even a mile from city center), pass me by.

It's Show Time in Quartzsite

Almost.

I ventured out today thinking the 'Main Event' is happening, but I guess not until tomorrow.

In spite of many headliners like:

• The World's Largest Belt buckle
• 45th Annual Pow Wow and 
• The World-Famous Gem & Mineral Show

It just couldn't hold my attention.

So, even though I have not been doing much of it lately, I want to talk about kissing.

Ummm. A kiss. Our lips are packed with nerve endings that are sensitive to pressure, warmth, cold, and every other kind of stimulus. A light brush lights up a very large part of the brain.

Who knew there are this many chemicals/hormones involved in one little tiny, itsy bitsy, innocent  kiss?? 

• Dopamine - allows us to recognize interesting situations, remember pleasant ones, and seek new ones. Dopamine stimulates the same part of our brain as cocaine. We may feel we are on "cloud nine" or "walking on air." Although, alas, these levels decrease as we get to know whoever owns the other lips our lips are kissing. 
• Oxytocin - fosters feelings of attachment and affection.
• Serotonin - can cause obsessive feelings and thoughts about another person. Thus one kiss and we have "fallen in love."
• Norepinephrine - a stress hormone may bring that feeling of being 'weak in the knees.'
• Adrenaline - boosts our heart rate, can make us sweat, reduces stress and primes us for more physical contact. It can also distort our perception of that kiss. (That explains a lot.)

Just a light brush and our blood vessels and pupils dilate. We receive extra surges of oxygen to the part of the brain that is associated with love, passion, and lust. 

I am thinking, once we know all the downsides, puckering up is something we should all be doing a lot more of!

Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

I arrived in Quartsite last night. The moon was orange and full. There were RV's parked willy nilly every where but if doesn't feel crowded. It was late but my windows were open. It was warm and smelled of dry desert. I felt welcome.

I have done nothing today except read, work on the computer, sleep and wonder.

Wondering about the meaning of life.

Then I am reminded:

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." Albert Camus

But: Am I wasting what is left of my life?

I do not do this every day, by any means. But even a few times a week, is it a waste?

Could I be doing something constructive?  Could I be doing something helpful, productive and meaningful?

Or is this just my past indoctrinations talking? If I am enjoying myself, feeling relaxed and content how can it be a waste?

As Stephen King said,  "You discarded most of the lies along the way but held onto the one that said life mattered."

Plato believed the meaning of life is in attaining knowledge.

Epicurus believed the meaning of life is found in seeking modest pleasures. He said freedom from pain and freedom from fear are happiness in its highest form.

Stoicism teaches the meaning of life is freedom from suffering, through having clear judgement, not through indifference.

Pragmatism says that a practical, useful understanding of life is more important then an impractical abstract belief about life.

Natural pantheism says the meaning of life is to care for and look after nature and the environment.

So, The meaning of life is that life is meaningless. 

Unless, of course, you are attaining knowledge, seeking modest pleasures, not being indifferent, don't care about what is or what is not happening, stay practical, and you are looking after nature and the environment.

I LOVE THIS MEANINGLESS LIFE!

Memories of Gaza

I will be on the road again in a few days.

Then my mind will be filled with other things.

So now, in these easier times, I am going to post the talk I gave at the citizen hearings after I returned from Gaza 2 years ago in March.

This journey stays close to my heart.

What follows is long. It was a 10 - 15  minute talk. Please read it through to the end.

 It is the least you can do.

GAZA

When I first decided to go to Gaza with the Code Pink/Global Exchange delegation I knew very little about Gaza.

What I saw there was beyond my imagination.

At home, in my perfect little world, I have been a registered nurse for 30 years. I have 2 grandchildren. They are the joy of my life, and I expect for them the basic necessities of life.

 A good education, a chance to experience happiness and the opportunities of the world around them.

These are the things every parent and grandparent in the world wants. These are the things the moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas in Gaza want for their families:

Clean water, shelter, an education, security, a future, and hope.

By contrast this is what I saw in Gaza.

•   I saw children who have had their childhoods stolen from them.
•   I saw closed and bombed out schools - no books or writing paper.
•   I saw curfews, abuse and intimidation by Israeli soldiers.
•   I saw fear - children refusing to go to the schools that are open because they are to afraid to leave     their parents.
•  I saw post traumatic stress disorder. Although as one clinician in Gaza pointed out - it is not post - because they are living it every day.
•  I saw malnutrition and unsafe drinking water - over 150,000 Palestinians are still  without tap water.
•  I saw a severely damaged sewer system. On the bus one afternoon driving toward KhanYounis we began to smell a terrible odor. Our driver said it was because the waste water system to our left had been bombed during the last attack discharging raw sewage for over 20 days, contaminating the ground water. The system has yet to be repaired.
•   I saw where the only playgrounds were on filthy demolished concrete streets.

•  I saw people trapped, often not being able to leave their own neighborhoods.
•  I saw homes with only a few hours of electricity a day.
•  I saw closed borders with nothing going in or out for days and weeks at a  time, not even those dangerous, specially banned items like: jam, biscuits, tomatoes, tea, and dates.

                 498 boxes of US aid cargo and 2,488 boxes of World
                 Vision cargo were  denied entrance into Gaza in ONE week.

                Also on the banned list was livestock, industrial/electrical appliances,
                vehicles, packing applications and construction materials.

• I saw children who had watched as their family members were lying wounded or dead, sometimes trapped beside them for days.
• I saw adults who had watched the children they love suffer or die without being able to help or protect them.
• I saw many families with family members in prison. Most had extended families living in small overcrowded conditions, with unemployment and extreme poverty as the norm.

The Palestinians do not have a land or a country they can call their home. A place where they live and belong. They must function day to day in hostile conditions, in fear and insecurity, and this has resulted in a general state of helplessness and dependency.

One Palestinian woman said  "There is no peace or security for us. There is no guarantee that they will not take more of our land. If I build or plant something on my small piece of land, Israel can come and take it away any time they want."

•   15,000 homes were damaged or destroyed
•   50,000 MORE Palestinians were left homeless
•   160 schools were destroyed
•   1500 factories and workshops, and 80% of agricultural crops were destroyed.

The shelling in all of Gaza was 24 hours a day, every day. We were told by one person that even when 2 bombs would be enough to destroy everything, the Israelis would come back 6 times just to terrorize the people. They would drop leaflets and make phone calls day and night telling people to leave their homes. "We are bombing." they would say. Sometimes it was true, sometimes it wasn't.

As we visited one severely damaged, completely flattened neighborhood we could look out over the pile of rubble and debris and see Israel. We could see the perfect little house tops, the swimming pools and the greenness of the country side. We could trace the path the tanks took as they came closer and closer and destroyed the neighborhood we stood in. I could imagine the noise, the bombs exploding, the sound of the tanks, the screams and the crying. I could FEEL the fear.

We saw several hospitals which were targeted and hit.

 The World Council of Churches was targeted and hit.

The UN headquarters sheltering 700 civilians was targeted and hit-all weapons containing deadly white phosphorus.

The Parliament, schools - including the American International School, the United Nations Refugee  School, the Islamic University of Gaza were targeted and hit.

 All police stations and all fire stations were targeted and hit.

 Medical crews and ambulances were targeted and hit.

We saw the evidence of this everywhere we went. If Israel's claims are true - that it is using precision intelligence and weaponry - then it looks to me like the massive destruction must have been intentional.

When I first started reading about Palestine and Israel, I would look at the publication date of the book or article. I soon realized that the dates were not important. The date might  say 2002, but what I was reading was the exact same scenerio that I had seen or heard about in March of 2009.

The Palestinian people have been living like this for years and years and years and years.

How do we talk about the effects of war and occupation on generations of children? Children now are being raised by young parents that were traumatized children of an occupied and war torn Palestine just a few years ago.

 How can a parent watch their child be killed and buried beneath the rubble and
                   not be outraged?

 How can a parent be ridiculed and intimidated in front
                   of his children and family and not be outraged?

 How can a parent live with a spouse and 10 children in a 2 room house with no
                   running water and not be outraged?

How can a person work hard every day of his life and have everything he's
                  worked for be bulldozed down and not be outraged?

I think of how I would feel and how I would react if someone just took away my grandchildren's right to an education.

The Palestinian people are loosing SO much more than that every day.

But outrage was not what I saw. I saw just the opposite.

The Palestinian father who had lost everything - his home, 2 of his children, his business, and several other relatives did not say "I want to kill these people who have done this to us."

He just said.."Why?" Why do they want to destroy us? Why can't they just let us live?

I want to add a few more why's of my own.

• Why is the world standing idly by while 1.5 million Palestinians are being held prisoners in their own country?

• Why is the United States - the richest, most developed country in the world, with claims of such a good human rights record - enabling this outrage with our own American tax dollars?

• Why are truck loads of aid being stopped at the Israeli and Egyptian borders and left to rot?

• Why is Israel being allowed to continue bombing and shelling every night?

• Why don't we speak up and say STOP! Open the borders. Give these people back their sovereignty and their dignity. Give them back what is rightfully theirs.

• Why doesn't someone end the Israeli occupation??

I only knew these people for a few days but I care about them.

From now on no matter who says what to me.  I KNOW. I SAW

I heard the bombs which continue to be dropped every night, all night.

I saw the rows and rows of Palestinian refugee camp tents.

And I saw the bombs and the shells stamped...... 'MADE IN THE USA'

• I want my government to support an immediate ceasefire.
• I want my government to help end the international siege of Gaza.
• I want my government to stop weapon sales to Israel.
• I want my government to work quickly to prevent further illegal offensive military use of taxpayer funded weapons.

And I want it NOW!!!