There is No Comparision Between a Plane Crash and the BP Disaster

I keep hearing people compare the catastrophe in the Gulf Coast with a plane crash. Such as, when we have a plane crash we don't shut down the airlines........



Hello! A PLANE CRASH IS NOT A LARGE SCALE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER! Oil doesn't fill up the ocean for miles and miles after a plane crash. We don't throw chemicals on a plane crash with no idea of what the long term effects of those chemicals are. Plane crashes don't put millions of peoples' health in jeopardy, and wipe out a myraid of industries and livelihoods for an indefinite period of time. Plane crashes don't competely dessimate miles of coast and marshes. People can't smell a plane crash for miles and miles. Plane crashes don't have disasterous long term effects on humans, plants, marine life, and vegetation for centuries. I could go easily go on and on and on. THERE IS NO COMPARISON!




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Handmade in the USA

Here is one more example of how out of whack things are in this world. And it really says it all.

British Pertoleum and their corporate practices killed eleven people last month, and are in the "no end in sight" process of killing marine and wildlife, killing vegetation, polluting the air, basically destroying the ocean, the earth and all living things therein. Why, because money makes their world go around and they didn't want to spend it on safety.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is breathing down the necks of hundreds of small businesses that lovingly handcraft beautiful things for babies and children, attempting to lump them in with the big corporations, such as the ones who imported mass produced lead laden plastic crap from CHINA.

CPSC has legislation on the table that may be forcing ridiculous testing and other regulations that will put talented and caring American artisans and craftspeople out of business. At a time when unemployment is a real issue for many families.

Please join the Handmade Toy Alliance and get this legislation amended. There will be a segment on 60 minutes tomorrow night about it.

Love for One Another as a Foundation for Government

Are Democrats and Republicans really parties of the people? No, they are actually slumber parties. Both staying up all night talking, not getting anything done.

The world is changing at such a rapid pace, innovation is everywhere, so why not in the government? We're running around in circles. Everybody is down on the government, and that's a good thing. Because we clearly need a new system for how to live together on this planet. I really see something dramatically different in our future. How about a system based on love for one another? Why not? It's really age (the one we live in now) appropriate.

The seesaw is way off on one side. The extremes of poverty and wealth are more extreme than ever. The world is owned by corporations! So is the media. It's so hard to find out what the truth is and make an informed decision about anything these days. Infomation has been replaced by agendas.

Celebrity judges deciding small claims cases make millions of dollars a year, way, way, way more than our Supreme Court judges who make major decisions that affect the course of our nation. (Judge Judy 25 million per year, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court $223,500 per year.)

I don't qualify for a traditional small business loan because, well the not so funny but true answer is that I can't afford it. This follows the same wierd logic that makes poor people pay higher interest rates, and keeps many people from being able to buy a house just because they don't have a large down payment. These same people work just as hard as anybody else, and make monthly rent payments in the same amount as mortgage payments!

What would have happened if all that money given for corporate bail outs was given to citizens!

Bail us out of credit card debt, college loans, fuel bills, etc. Give me a bonus for being a good parent and citizen.

I wish the government had done nothing and let the whole economy crash, land on it's face then get up again, wipe off the giant nose bleed, and start from scratch, minus the swagger.

Something major has got to shift. The answers may be simplistic, but as an artist I know that the simpler the design, generally speaking, the better quality. When things are simple there is nothing to hide behind or within.

So simply put, if each person recognized the FACT of our interconnectedness, and internalized the concept of the oneness of humankind we would at least be pointing ourselves in a forward facing direction. This whole us against them gridlock in the world is really getting old. Wake up and smell today's coffee!

We're all in this together, aren't we?

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WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!

Heading out to vote this morning, I’m wondering about this whole “Take Back America” movement. It seems to be people who basically want everything to be the way it "used to be", whatever that means…….On the other hand, many people say they want change, but I’ve learned that people actually resist change, no matter what they say.

The fact is we simply can’t go back, just as we can’t bring back our breath after we exhale. We have to take a new breath.

Life is a movement, a spiral that just keeps on going. Part of this movement is America and the rest of the world, moving forward, as into the future. There is just a natural unstoppable force that pushes and pulls us forward, even though many are ranting, raving and hanging onto the status quo for dear life all the way.

The American Dream that everyone is grieving the loss of is imploding. The concept of every man for himself is over. Wake up and smell today's coffee. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER! The you can do anything you want in America and make a lot of money, and spend it on yourself via an extravagant lifestyle is really the most boring, useless, immature concept ever. It’s so yesterday! The measure of success has changed dramatically. Things do not make people happy, plain and simple.

I’d love to see America lead by example. Just as individuals need to look inward and improve their own conduct and character instead of complaining about everyone else, so should our country focus on becoming, among other things - socially, educationally and economically just and demonstrating true respect for the natural world. That is the updated and forward thinking American Dream.

http://www.artypantz.blogspot.com/

Bombing the Moon

Bombing the moon for any reason is just so violent and awful. It's insane and should be illegal. If we don't know enough about the moon to have to bomb it to find out, that in itself is enough of a contraindication.

Isn't NASA funded by the government? As in something else we're paying for that maybe everybody isn't in agreement that we should be doing? Some people are calling it probing the moon. Probing is just to gentle of a word for this. Raping and pillaging the moon is more like it.


On a lighter, brighter note here are two cute moon stories.......one of my daughters was looking into the night sky when she was about three and remarked "the moon is folded in half" and another daughter, at about the same age, once described the shape of the moon as "banana".



Future moon stories might be "I looked up at the man in the moon and he had a big scar on his face."







http://www.artypantz.blogspot.com/

Universal Healthcare is Just All Right By Me

Some people spit the word Socialism as if it were a four letter word in rejection of the idea of universal healthcare. People think socialism is a form of government. Socialism is really not a political term, it’s actually an economic system, the essence of which is that the common good takes precedence over corporate profits. Capitalism is pretty much every man/woman for himself….. Both systems have their plusses and minuses.

People seem to feel that democracy is at odds with socialism, but I’m not so sure. President Lincoln defined democracy as government of the people, by the people and for the people. So if we’re the people why can’t we be for the people having universal healthcare?

Winston Churchill once said that “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise, indeed it has been said the democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other governments that have been tried from time to time.”

With that in mind, and in keeping with all the other innovations in the past century, how about coming up with a new system? One that actually reflects the current stage of human development and awareness.

How about a system based on the idea that no one person, race, culture, nationality etc. is more deserving than another, that we are all in this together, that we are interconnected and interdependent because that‘s a fact! We certainly could look out for one another without giving up our individual rights, couldn't we?

Who cares where someone was born, how much money they have or have not, who they work for, what nationality they are, whether they have a green card, pin stripes, pink nail polish or a purple hat. Everyone on this planet should have access to healthcare!

And I’m really sick of hearing that we can’t afford it. If you look at a pie chart of where the most amount of money is spent in this country alone, the biggest piece by far is on war.

It’s time for a big change.







www.artypantz.blogspot.com

Happy Fourth of July

Hello Government Officicals: Pay Your Taxes Just Like We Do!

I can assure you that if my husband and I owed back taxes to the federal government, THEY WOULD BE GARNISHING OUR PAYCHECKS!

Tom Daschle just withdrew from consideration for the post of Secretary of Human Services, over his belated payment of $128,000 in federal taxes. Huh?

This issue just keeps coming up with government officials. What are these people thinking? And why aren't THEIR wages garnished?

This is just so annoying, disheartening, discouraging, and disgusting!

Healthy Food Choices for Kids

Every now and then I work in the public school system, and am always shocked at how alarmingly crappy the average diet of most of the attendees is, and you can't just blame it on the school.

Last Thursday I was at an elementary school. The snacks most of these kids bring in from home are non food items, usually boxes, pouches or bags teeming with chemicals, dyes and sugar. In a classroom of 25 first graders one had a bag of grapes and one had an apple but the rest had pure junk food. And then there was a lot of trash afterwards because it was all packaged.

I witnessed one kid who had a bag of Doritos for a snack at 10:00. For lunch, a couple of hours later, that same kid ate another bag of Doritos, a sandwich that consisted of 2 pieces of cinnamon bread with nothing in between them, a container of grape juice, and a container of pudding. I was told that he eats that same lunch EVERY DAY.

They did have a salad bar in the cafeteria, but I did not see one salad made. It was hot dog day so most of the kids had a hot dog on a white bun, juice, pudding and an ice cream bar.

I see this over and over, and whenever I mention my concern to teachers and other staff, the answer is the same and I am dead serious. “It’s all they will eat.”

There is such a simple solution to this insanity. If the choices were salad bar, some fruit, water, homemade soup, etc then THAT is all they would eat………!

btw, the photo above is a painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo who was born in Milan in 1527 He is famous for his portraits of human heads made up of vegetables, fruits, tree roots, books or other elements.
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There's Only One Race - The Human Race

Yesterday two of my teenagers and I went to a Martin Luther King/World Religion Day celebration.
The event was hosted by a Baptist Church and the content of the program included Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Baha’i scripture and music from around the world. There were people attending and presenting from each of those denominations. Ages ranged from about four years old to senior citizens.
The gathering looked like an event at the United Nations.
Groups of children sang songs and teenagers danced. A Puerto Rican poet read a moving poem in Spanish, then his young daughter read it in English.

At one point in the program, people were invited to share their thoughts about Martin Luther King. Several people responded eloquently, passionately and personally, all sharing the same underlying feeling that racial and religious prejudice in America is improving. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
It was absolutely wonderful to see this group of what could seem as completely unrelated people come together with such love, in the name of Martin Luther King - a visionary with divine guidance who offered spiritual solutions to the challenges of humanity. We have 99% in common. Simply put, there is only one race, The Human Race.

Yes We Did

I found this cool button in a shop on Etsy called Portable Grafitti.