Friday, December 31, 2004

Stories and Stingyness

My thoughts today..The world is so much smaller than it once was. And we are all connected. I know that people blow that statement off as a bunch of spiritual hoo-haa, but as I read all these news reports and see the news in the last several days, I see that maybe it is hitting home.

Money, wealth, privilege, skin color or race etc does not register on the scale when The Universe/Mother Nature is concerned.



I have thought of how we are constantly jamming metal drills into the Earth to suck oil out of her, spilling oil into their oceans, and over-fishing her seas. But we expect no repercussions. We treat the poor terribly and do not pay them what their service is worth, only enough to enable them to continue to live in poverty, claiming they can't handle having the standard of living for financial resources the rest of us have. We think things do not touch us because we are not in their shoes. We think it is God's will that there are have's and have nots. But this earthquake and tsunami disaster really brought it home. We are all connected.



I find myself in grievous tears at various times of the day, reading the articles on the tsunami disaster: The woman who had to rip off all her clothes except her bra and cling to a floating tree in the ocean in order to survive; and the mother who was left naked when the tsunami ripped the clothes from her body, and in that naked state she was forced to quickly decide which of her two children (ages 5 and 2) to save; and the heartwrenching innocent response of her mud-covered older child who managed to survive the deadly waters by doggy-paddling and clinging to a hotel door while waters rushed past him: "My hands are dirty. I need to wash my clothes".



And in the USA, it seems this helped to increase US donation ten-fold:



The New York Times Editorial: Are We Stingy? Yes

Monday, December 27, 2004

Re-ordering priorities in Indonesia

Hmmm, so what happens when all the soldiers in a war exist no more as in the Indonesian situation.



It makes you re-think your priorities when you are forcibly relieved of what you have been holding onto.

Friday, December 24, 2004

Invalidated Ballots, Recounts and Tainted Winners

Did you know that San Diego's voters are criminals? They are if you believe the statments of Republican Dick Murphy, who it appears is now mayor of San Diego, CA on a technicality. A recount shows invalidated ballots would have elected Donna Frye as Mayor of San Diego, CA, the sixth largest city in the United States of America.



Murphy has stated in several news conference that those who voted for Frye, a write-in candidate, by writing in her name but not by also filling in a circle next to her handwritten name, cast ILLEGAL votes. This was the first time the city was using these types of ballots, and it is clear that voter intent was for Frye. However they swore-in Murphy.



Have we become so "sophisticated" that we take one of the basic privileges in this country away from citizens. Clearly more than 5,000 Frye supporters voted for Frye than did Murphy supporters vote for Murphy. Hmmm it perhaps does not matter how you win, so long as you get pronounced the winner in politics.



I want to see how this ends since during the retrograde there was a recount and Murphy ws sworn in during a time period that does not make things "stick". Mercury reaches its pre-retrograde direct station on January 7, 2005 - which happens to be the last day she can file a legal challenge. Wouldn't that be interesting to see Frye given the position voters overwhelmigly wanted for her and Murphy be unseated?



San Diego voters are furious and rallying around her. The Councilwoman remains cool.



Farther north in Washington State three recounts have shown finally that a Democratic woman, Christine Gregoire, won the governorship of the state by less than 200 votes...but the Republican male who ran against her won't concede. The San Francisco Gate reports: Gregoire says it is over, but even those whose most fervent holiday wish was for a decided election don't really believe that. The Republicans are pushing hard for counties to reconsider ballots they believe were wrongly rejected. The whole mess will probably head back to court, and it is not at all clear whether Washington will have a governor by inauguration day, Jan. 12.



Invalid ballots, recounts, bitter partisanship. Voting is not just for breakfast anymore......



Saturn in Cancer energy - women expand and attain things and men try to limt, restirct and shut them down even if it means accomplishing it by theft...







Monday, December 20, 2004

Guinea Pig Kids

Who would want to be one of New York City's Guinea Pig Kids?



Certainly not the people at the city's child welfare department, the Administration for Children's Services (ACS)...where they are continuing to oversee and force these illegal AIDS drug experiments on the city's 23, 000 poor children in foster care.



Makes you think of Josef Mengele.



Again, Saturn in Cancer: women and the children from their wombs being limited, restricted, faced with death.







You may comment below

Social Security Changes Will Primarily Hurt Women

Kim Gandy of NOW spoke to the National Press Club about George Bush's proposed privatizing of Social Security. She had some good points including noting why women will be more affected than men:



  • Women are far less likely than men to have a pension from their jobs, so Social Security is likely to be their primary retirement income.



  • Even if they have supplemental savings, women live longer on average than men, so their savings run out sooner — and the majority of the very elderly are women whose only source of support is social security.



  • Most women earn less than $25,000 per year — so the administrative costs of such a small private account would eat up most, if not all, of the earnings each year. In Chile, where accounts are privatized, administrative costs consume not only the interest income but as much as one-half of the total contribution.



  • Women, no matter how clever, will need a lot more than what this administration offers to make them part of an "ownership society." Instead, we're heading toward a society where we're owned by brokerage firms and the vagaries of the stock market.



  • Women have always been the guardians of their families' interests, and we won't stop now. Across the country, women will be standing up against this effort to privatize Social Security. We are determined to strengthen this important family security insurance program to make sure it will be here for our children and grandchildren.




Something more to think about in these Saturn in Cancer times...........



Abstinence-Only Education Teaches Blatant Lies

Oh you have got to download and read Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif 's report on George W. Bush's federal funded Abstinence Only Education Programs.



The noose is getting tighter around the necks of women.







You can leave your comments below

Pharmacist Knows Best? Women Beg to Differ

What are women to do if they are refused oral contraceptives or the EC "morning after pill" - not by their physician, but by their pharmacist?



Connecting again with transiting Saturn in Cancer energy, the rights and bodies of women are being subjected to restrictions designed to control and dominate women by controlling their access, privacy, and healthcare decisions regarding their bodies.



It is reaching farther down the age chain too as the "Parent's Right to Know" advocates are trying to get enough signatures to force a law that would effectively prevent teenaged girls from getting any reproductive services without first receiving parental permission. That would put organizations such as Planned Parenthood in line for federal prosecution.



How many young girls will be forced to carry and give birth to children they cannot care for?



A (Caucasian) friend in the Midwest speculates that original advocates and most supporters of this are Caucasian are thinking this will provide them with the healthy Caucasian babies that are in short supply for adoption in the USA. Of course there already are plenty of children, particularly children of color, who need adoptive parents....

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Children Left Behind While Teachers Cheat?

Well it appears that George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program is based on lies. According to the Associated Press: Dozens of Texas schools appear to have cheated on the state's redesigned academic achievement test, casting doubt on whether the accountability system can reliably measure how schools are performing, a newspaper found. An analysis uncovered strong evidence of organized, educator-led cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills at schools in Houston and Dallas, along with suspicious scores in hundreds of other schools, The Dallas Morning News reported. Texas education policies on student accountability became the model for the federal No Child Left Behind law enacted after President Bush's election in 2000. "



Seems accountability and honesty was left behind in the formulation of Bush's plan.





Have a comment? You can write it below:



American Epidemic: Mother Murder

Saturn in Cancer energy is rearing its head again. Saturn is about restrictions, limitations and endings; Cancer is about women, mothers and nurturing. Ironically, the myth of Saturn and the symbol of Saturn in Cancer is Cronos. Cronos castrated his volatile father Uranus at the behest of his mother Gaea, who was tired of having children as a result of rapes by Uranus. Cronus was later warned that he would be overthrown by one of his own children, and so to prevent this, he swallowed his first five children as soon as they were born.



But onto my discovery.........



Journeying across the USA the other day I came across a sad but interesting story in the Washington Post about the epidemic of American pregnant and post-partum women being murdered - over 1,000 in the last decade.



Most states do not have reliable systems to track the number of pregnant or post-partum women slain; 13 do not have any systems in place at all.



Why is it happening? There seems to be no rhyme or reason racially, ethically, economically, or age-wise. Most were slain at home, and 67 percent were killed by firearms. Most were killed by men they knew — boyfriends, husbands and lovers. More than 100 of the victims were teens. Many already had children.



The little light shed on it, according the WP: "If the woman doesn't want the baby, she can get an abortion," said Pat Brown, a criminal profiler based in Minneapolis. "If the guy doesn't want it, he can't do a damn thing about it. He is stuck with a child for the rest of his life. "If she goes away, the problem goes away."



The problem goes away?



What is American society communicating to men that makes it acceptable to devalue the human lives of pregnant women and mothers? Why is the feminine of so little value that there is no fear about destroying it? How outrageous!



My three-part solution is 1) to make it CLEAR federal law that when any pregnant woman or mother is murdered, the person who helped create the fetus/father of the child will be the primary suspect and investigated to no end within legal boundaries; 2) to make the criminal penalty, without negotiation, life imprisonment with no parole; and 3)to fine the person a minimum of $1 million, to be taken from any and all assets and benefits the person has and would ever inherit or collect, as that money would have gone to help pay for the cost of parenting. That would be payable to the murdered woman's family or if she has no family, donated to the domestic violence shelters within 50-100 miles of the murdered woman's residence.



You can post your comments below.

Spotlight on Scott Peterson

The jury in the Scott Peterson case has sentenced him to death by lethal injection, so he now sits on death row in California's San Quentin prison. It may be many years before he is executed for the murder of his pregnant wife Laci Peterson and the fetus she was carrying.



One thing that has stuck in people's mind is his stonefaced resolve throughout the entire trial. An astrological perspective gives some insight about him.





You can post your comments below.