december 2011

"Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart. Hope in this deep and powerful sense is ... an ability to work for something because it is good." -- VACLAV HAVEL (1936-2011 a real winner = kettle brand salt and ground pepper potato chips a suggestion to help further decimate voting rights: the no taxation without representation slogan needs to be no representation w/o showing a recent (time to be decided) pay stub verifying that said voter pays tax. perhaps we could hire companies to verify this; employees could check at the door before the photo id card is demanded by the precinct workers. no proof tax paid or no pay stub w/evidence = no vote. welcome to the new america glad to know that macbeth needs only 1 more task from the 18 item list of hazards in the home (objects) from the aspca. as far as i know he hasn't chewed wax--yet but balls, batteries, bread twists, buttons, coins (threw some up), cotton swabs (appear to be yummy), glass (i counted ceramic here), hair pins, jewelry, nylons, paper clips, plastic wrap, socks (a fav along w/underwear), rubber bands, sharp objects like scissors and nails, string yarn or dental floss, and towels (actually any material in sight or not). however all plastic is good too esp milk lids which he takes off before chewing the top. wait--list needs shoes (he takes the liner out) vicodin after cap removed (peroxide works fast), any tools, gloves, hats, carpet, wood pieces he thinks you need, tin cans and sharp lids, pop cans (carries them up stairs),silverware, plants, dirt, bird suet and seed, glasses, glasses cases, mouth appliance (bet he's waiting for dentures to be needed here), cameras, cell phones, actually anything you have, are using or thinking of using or have ever touched. shoprunner.com partselect.com for appliance parts gazelle.com = buys electronic games dvds and blurays ( 1$ and 5$) yardsellr.com for lunch pails glass cleaner = mix 1 tsp soap w/ 1/3 c vinegar and 3 c water furniture polish = 1/4 c olive oil, white vinegar and lemon juice. spray on cloth ginger, red bell peppers and pumpkin for arthritis beans, nuts, egg whites for diabetes cheese, pineapple, almonds for pms broccoli, skim milk, yogurt for osteoporosis quinoa, flaxseed, spinach for migraines seen on truck "i'll keep my guns, freedom, and money and you keep the change" same state that has the pro coal road sign. good old virginia melipona beecheii -- stingless endangered bees of mexico it's good to know that goo it's good to know that good ol' american common sense is alive and well...but ohio's rejection of the health-care mandate should be a warning to obama and the dems, too (progressive populist dec 1 2011) 17% unemployed in us under 25 over 20% in europe over 46% in spain in much of world unemployment is from 30 to 50%; yet austerity rules the day The Other South American Drug War = drug testing done out of us (the nation oct 10 2011) the food the drug ad is not able to keep up w/astounding surge of outsourcing in recent years. . .a 2010 report by inspector gen of the dept of hhs notes that 40 to 65 % of clinical trials on FDA regulated products in 2008 took place overseas. of nearly 6500 foreign trial sites that year, the fda inspected on 45 which is less than 1% peru had 13,000 participants in2008 and no inspector sent there 350.org seven deadly social sins politics without principle wealth without work commerce without morality pleasure without conscience education without character science without humanity worship without sacrifice gandhi gas price finder autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx cheap flights itasoftware.com and then farecompare.com yapta.com to reg confirmation # and see if cheaper price appears--maybe get a credit from airline (fee probably) orbitz.com has price assurance program and gives you refund if another orbitz customer get same itinerary at lower price

nov 2011

soquotes from my call to Rep Scott's office about the card we got today "For paul scott,fixing our schools is about putting our students first" yup. that's what it says.
here's what the british accent scott office worker told me: 1) this is the first year the schools have done any cutting or consolidating (yes she said this year is the 1st year) 2) the state has to reallocate money 3) schools have not trimmed overhead 4) schools need to do the best they can w/the money they get 5) they must consolidate 6) we can't hold schools harmless I got lost in her explanation about how the state did not give tax breaks to corporations--actually she jumped over my question about taking the surplus out of ed -- nearly 1 million -- and giving this 1.7 billion to corporations. scott's # 866 989 5151 if you are out of his district, direct your concerns to the ed committee where he is chairman. investigate all the new bills that committee has concocted to fix the state's schools. (nov 2 2011)

flea problems:i just came across a note i saved from a magazine about using salt. sprinkle on carpet. "it doesn't take a lot but even distribution is important. the critters start popping up and jumping out of the fibers as soon as the salt gets on them, and it will desiccate them just as salt does to slugs. leave it on as long as it takes to kill them all, including the unhatched ones, then vacuum the carpet and reapply as necessary." don't know if it works

scott recalled--great i think

wonderful fun site : amazingclubs.com variety of gift ideas

saw michael moore at the whiting tues night. very enjoyable and not what i expected. good stories about st john's and davison. read comments made to the trash flint journal--bunch of idiots as usual. most must be very unhappy people (main comment seemed to be moore is fat--they probably weren't at the event anyway). really think the quality of the journal is far below bad; that's what happens when you cut people/cut talent/cut delivery days. the dumbing of america

privatize libraries? newest discussion. money to be made no doubt

cleaners -- mix equal parts white vinegar and peroxide. add touch tea tree oil. cleans and disinfects all bathroom and kitchen surfaces except granite
scouring powder -- use baking soda
glass -- few drops of pure lemon juice to water
vinegar for soap scum
vinegar on sink, letting it sit for a while. add soda and water and let that sit if needed
drain: 1/2 c soda followed by 1 c vinegar. let bubble for 15 mins and follow w/hot water
toilet: cup borax and let sit overnight. scrub and flush. for extra strength, add 1/4 c vinegar to borax
floor: diluted vinegar followed by water rinse

new site for me = bargainist.com. use retailmenot.com/ebates.com/shopathome.com

outofprintclothing.com

ben set up a home air purifier following directions from the michigan alumnus fall 2011 magazine. 20 x 20 fan w/ 20 inch hepa filter w/merv rating of at least 13 attached on front. video www.uofmhealth.org/News/sinus-hepa-0630

outlawed lightbulbs? right wing claimed that the light bulb was banned, requiring incandescent ones be replaced by the fluorescent ones. REALITY check: no ban on incandescents--just a new standard for all bulbs to consume less energy. new standard set by 2007 law signed by bush. duh. only 4 yrs after the law, phillips, ge and sylvania are ready to market incandescents that meet the higher standards. maybe koch brothers need more $? connection?

new dvd to view: the last mountain, a documentary about the mountaintop coal mining of
wv

oxymorons: gentlemen's club (lots of those seen in georgia area near tybee island)
quality rock (music)

Right to work laws -- only indiana has a law that applies only to teachers; 21 other states have right to work laws eliminating the law requiring school employees to belong to unions

book OCEANA our endangered oceans and what we can do to save them by ted danson and michael d'orso

cube w/photos 2 x 2 blocks. print digital photos on iron on transfer paper, iron on each side of cube, wait and peal. article suggests coat of varnish but my experience has been it turns dark

loving hands adult and senior care services on linden contact reagan for more info
810 820 6188

bcbsm.com = online health resources
1 800 775 2583 = 24 hr nurse

medicare regs prohibit enrollment in a medicare advantage plan and an individual D plan. if you purchase your own individual drug plan you will be dis enrolled from the retirement system's MA plan and your coverage will be original medicare

catalystrx.com / 1 866 288 5209

How terrorism ends: 43% politics, 40% policing, military force 7%, terrorists win 10% (rand corp study for 1968-2006) sojourners june 2011 p 20

"What a lot of people don't understand, says jeff spitzer-resnick managing attorney for disability rights wisconsin, is that disabled students who take advantage of special ed vouchers forfeit their rights under the fed individuals w/disabilities education act". p 16 sept 2011 progressive
The GOP attack on special ed--interesting way to reinstate segregation of disabled students

software - anti virus = grisoft's AVG
spyBot search and destroy www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
spy sweeper www.webroot.com
firefox as web browser www.mozilla.com/en-US/
getting rid of windows? experiment ubuntuguide.org/Dapper. download to cd and try that first

P15 michigan farmer oct 30 2011: "the APHIS (usda's animal and plant health inspection service) has preliminarily concluded that RR (round up ready) sugar beets pose no significant environmental impact. as a result, the agency has indicated its preference to grant non-regulated status."

picasa.google.com (free program that searches hard drive for all photo files finds them as thumbnails and you can upload them for free to picasa or other photo sharing sites like=), shutterfly.com, photobucket.com
picaboo.com, blurb.com, mypublisher.com

naughty not nice people from town and country dec 2011
crassus--maybe richest man ever, when killed in battle rumor that the parthians poured molten gold down his throat 53 BC
pamela churchill harriman--courtesan ed r. murrow, jock whitney,prince ali khan, gianni agnelli, stavros niarchos, elie de rothschild
pope leo X
john hancock, l ron hubbard, j p morgan, jacob from bible, lloyd blankfein (goldman sachs), thomas edison (tesla worked for him)
hancock has warehouses w/expensive dutch tea so works to get british tea thrown out
morgan buys obsolete guys from fed arsenal and resells to gen fremont making 17.5 on each gun/also pd 300 to get civil war sub for himself

October 2011

still can vote: StopCorporateAbuse.org/hallofshame

Italy rejects corporate water takeover; Paris ended 25 yrs of privatized water and gave public control back. According to Mayor Bertrand Delano, "Just in the first year of public operations, the utility saved over $30 million, allowing for significant reinvestment as well as the firsst price cut since the 1980's." from Corporate accountability international

Glad to see the wall street demonstrations continue. It's about time somebody does something to give a voice to the average working/nonworking person. Go get those CEO's!!

from Nature's Voice sept/oct '11:
article summarizes some of the bills introduced in congress w/riders that assault the environment. one bill has 40 anti-environmental riders--one prohibiting the epa from limiting carbon pollution emitted by power plants, another stopping gov officials from preventing coal mining companies from dumping waste in streams one would open up lands directly adjacent to the grand canyon to uranium mining. HR 1581 authored by house majority whip kevin mccarthy (R-CA) would remove wilderness protections for a staggering 70 million acres of federally managed wildlands and open them up to mining, drilling and other industrial uses. targed lands include more than half of alaska's tongass national forest, nearly all of the yellowstone/greater rockies biogem. i tried to verify this bill, but only could find a general outline


old sneakers? recycle w/ nike's reuse a shoe program. locate drop offs at nikereuseashoe.com

ps a playbook for the top 1%.

how odd to see that places we are staying close at 8 pm both here in tybee island and pigeon forge. at pf we called and got the on site office guy to come down; at ti we just made the time. ti is gated and that might have presented a challenge. sunday we walked out on the pier seeing a don't fish for sharks which seemed odd but once out there we watched a fisherman pull in a small sting ray. after a struggle with the hook he was able to throw the ray back in. another oddity was stopping at an antique shop near our place and talking with a woman whose grandkids live in caro. the one is going to delta and will be doing a 4 month internship in tybee with the police force--how coincidental and weirdly neat. lighthouse in the afternoon and the battery areas w/interesting history. the elevated homes are wonderful--who has money to afford them?