2011: End of year thoughts.

A thought or two from last year -

"But I still have my ideas. I still have my friends. I still have my goals and dreams. I still have my wits and the will to improve life for myself, my family, my friends."

So what do I have to build on that this year -

Well I did one thing for sure. I completed writing an album worth of new music. And not just taking existing ideas (words, music, or both) and completing them, but actually coming up with new songs.

Okay - so it wasn't 12 songs. It was more like 10.

Okay - so it wasn't completed by the end of summer. More like the end of the year.

But for me, it's still something. It has really opened myself to the actual reality that when I really focus, and really find the time, and really dedicate myself, I can actually do something useful.

Granted a part of me is going to continue into 2012 to complete 12 songs, but all-in-all, I'm happy about it. Once that's done, the next step will be to get back an begin completing writing all the remaining backlog of songs I already started on some level. This coupled with getting my recording process back on track, and with any luck, I should have turned a number of songs into a full reality.

Still .... there is still much to be wary about in 2012 - such that I don't expect it to be all rosy and bright.

Work continues on. While my boss is pretty good, and I to some extent enjoy what I do, I find myself in the similar position of anticipating another year doing the same work, at the same level, with no possibility for advancement. One key difference though, is that I'm in an environment where networking and partnering are encouraged; where strong working professional relationships are encouraged. And on a personal note, despite not being considered for a recent opportunity, I was recently uplifted by a recent revelation by someone I greatly respect, who's communicated that my work and my reputation are very strong, but that I need to build on that further by continuing the good work that I do.

And there is a handful of initiatives I need to continue on with both inside and outside work.

So that's work and music.

I know I have a couple of personal crises to weather in the coming year. What impact that'll have to me personally remains to be seen.

And I know there are many other parts of the world I should be worried about.

Like if the Keystone XL pipeline were to actually get kickstarted after its current delay - I fear it would be the point of no return in the losing battle to stop global warming.

But as Ned Landers said, "One thing at a time."

FAIR's 2011 P.U.-litzers.

Want to know one reason why American society is slowing slipping into non-oblivion?


It’s that the institutions that serve to inform society about events is deliberately mis-informing, and distributing false information.

Case in point – these people – and the corporate masters they work for -



--Wacky Conspiracy Award: CBS's Steve Kroft

--Paul's Not Newt Award: Washington Post's Sarah Kaufman

--Blind Faith in Precision Weapons Award: CNN's Chris Lawrence

--That's Our Newt Award: Washington Post's Dan Balz; New York Times' Trip Gabriel

--Exceptionally Clueless Columnist Award: Washington Post's Kathleen Parker

--The Bosses' Taxes Are None of Your Business Award: NBC News

--False Balance Award: ABC's Jonathan Karl

--SEALS: Superheroes, or Better!? Award: ABC's Chris Cuomo

--The Training Wheels of War Award: NBC's Richard Engel

--'Leeches on Society' Award: CNN's Carol Costello

--Newt Not Far Enough Award: Time's Joe Klein

--Ask a Billionaire About Class War Award: NBC's David Gregory

--Job-Creating Cowboy Award: USA Today's Susan Page; Time

--Tortured Headline Award: New York Times

-- Peculiar Foreign Culture Award: Wall Street Journal



Read more here - http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4449 

The things people do with the Internet

http://thepropden.aokforums.com/next-vt926.html?start=240

I liked the Darth Vader character too, and while I dig the pictures, even I would have to admit I would not want to devote enough blather to fill up 18 (count 'em 18) pages.

You have to wonder if anyone other than Google will remember this, much less care.

They may be so, but what can be done?

I ask you Robert Fisk (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/11-0) - what can be done?

Thoughts about Future Thinking.

So what about this?

Here's the problem as I see it -




Despite living in the 21th century, we are all actually constrained by a way of life that has developed and essentially stopped in the 20th century.



Our systems of governments, standards of business, our transportation systems, even our morals - they're all based and rooted in the past.



And now, we've reached a point where all of these things are now taken over by non-individual entities society has created supposedly to make it easier to function in life - entities whose primary interest in sustainability is solely in terms of profit.



So it's no wonder the human race is dooming itself to eventual extinction.



Even the Internet - something I have long held as one possible tool that could help humanity overcome its need to destroy and pillage for profit by using it's power to inform and empower by application of knowledge - is slowly being destroyed by the very non-entities mentioned above.



The simple fact is, unless there is a way to get pretty much every single fucking sane human being on the planet on the same page, understanding the same information, and thinking, talking, discussing, planning, developing, testing, and implementing long-lasting solutions - together - to all our global problems (number one IMO is global warming) - we as a species will be done for.

Walmart for President? The House of Halliburton? Sony Senate?

Courtesy of the folks at Walmart Watch -

http://candidatewalmart.org/

Priceless -

"Some might scoff at such a notion, since no major corporation has ever been elected to Congress, let alone the highest office in the land. But this is America-where corporations are considered people and any retail conglomerate can grow up to be President."

Why? It's all because of this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission

Think it's all so far fetched? We're at a point where corporations already decide such things as naming rights, just so for the opportunity to further market their products on consumers. Where else do you get such stupid things as this?

It won't be that far off. It's happening at an beneath the surface level anyways, so why not be more open I say!

Though there are some who (oddly enough) find this sort of thing, well, fucked up. You don't say.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/12/11186/color-change-targets-alec-corporations
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/12/11176/naacp-denounces-role-alec-jim-crow-esquire-voting-laws

All that effort ...

What do I mean?

The President of the Conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, stated at the end of the conference: "We came here with plan A, and we have concluded this meeting with plan A to save one planet for the future of our children and our grandchildren to come. We have made history."[3]

Really?

Scientists and environmental groups however warned that the deal is not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond 2°C as more urgent action is needed.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference

Read more here -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/11/durban-climate-change-deal?intcmp=239

The grim reminder of the cost of technological innovation supporting our beliefs.

Think nuclear power and the Cold War were a good idea?

Read this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanford_Site

A huge volume of water from the Columbia River was required to dissipate the heat produced by Hanford's nuclear reactors. From 1944 to 1971, pump systems drew cooling water from the river and, after treating this water for use by the reactors, returned it to the river. Before being released back into the river, the used water was held in large tanks known as retention basins for up to six hours. Longer-lived isotopes were not affected by this retention, and several terabecquerels entered the river every day. These releases were kept secret by the federal government.[4] Radiation was later measured downstream as far west as the Washington and Oregon coasts.[45]

The plutonium separation process also resulted in the release of radioactive isotopes into the air, which were carried by the wind throughout southeastern Washington and into parts of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and British Columbia.[4] Downwinders were exposed to radionuclides, particularly iodine-131, with the heaviest releases during the period from 1945 to 1951. These radionuclides filtered into the food chain via contaminated fields where dairy cows grazed; hazardous fallout was ingested by communities who consumed the radioactive food and drank the milk. Most of these airborne releases were a part of Hanford's routine operations, while a few of the larger releases occurred in isolated incidents. In 1949, an intentional release known as the "Green Run" released 8,000 curies of iodine-131 over two days.[46] Another source of contaminated food came from Columbia River fish, an impact felt disproportionately by Native American communities who depended on the river for their customary diets.[4] A U.S. government report released in 1992 estimated that 685,000 curies of radioactive iodine-131 had been released into the river and air from the Hanford site between 1944 and 1947.[47]

Top 10 heaviest metal albums ... recorded in standard tuning.

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/07/top-10-heaviest-albums-recorded-in-standard-tuning/

The interesting thing about it, is I haven't heard of some of these bands.

Something to check out during the holidays.

Not a bad list.

http://www.opensecrets.org/action/index.php

Can't say I disagree with any of that.

Courageous young lady -

And contrary to what that idiot said, yes people are listening.



Pretty sober message - http://sustainus.org/component/content/article/631-us-youth-say-q2020-its-too-late-to-waitq

(Thank you ThinkProgress)

The evil of ALEC continues unabated ...

http://www.thenation.com/blog/165077/koch-brothers-alec-and-savage-assault-democracy

Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch finally got their way in 2011. After their decades of funding the American Legislative Exchange Council, the collaboration between multinational corporations and conservative state legislators, the project began finally to yield the intended result.

For the first time in decades, the United States saw a steady dismantling of the laws, regulations, programs and practices put in place to make real the promise of American democracy.

That is why, on Saturday, civil rights groups and their allies will rally outside the New York headquarters of the Koch brothers to begin a march for the renewal of voting rights in America.

Read more here - http://www.stand4freedom.org/

Something to look forward to in 2012.

Red Dwarf - coming next year ...



Thanks to SFX for the link!

What - US trying to start another war?

Yep - first the staged embassy invasion (yeah staged is the term; I wouldn't be suprised if the 'some' in the sentence ' The rally began quietly, but some participants stormed the building, breaking down the door, throwing around papers and replacing the British flag with an Iranian one.' were MI6 or CIA operatives. I personally thought the American version some 30-odd years ago was designed to ensure Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 US Presidential Election, but that's perhaps a different post.)

Now this - BREAKING NEWS: Downed CIA Stealth Drone Marks Another Step Towards America's War On Iran

More here - US-NATO-ISRAEL WAR PLANS TO ATTACK IRAN

Sigh - when the human race finally evolve past the need to kill each other?

Slippery slope to a police state - rule by fear?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Defense_Authorization_Act_for_Fiscal_Year_2012
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s1867/comments

"Senate Bill 1867, Section 1032(b)


(b) Applicability to United States Citizens and Lawful Resident Aliens-

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.

(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS- The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to the extent permitted by the Constitution of the United States"

While I admit I'm not a US law expert, nor an attorney, it's very hard to ignore the implications of what's written there.

Looking at the word 'requirement' and the contextural placement in the sentences seem imply that it doesn't exist for US Citizens (and resident aliens). So ... to then say it doesn't exist, means there is not justification needed.



It's like the US Patriot Act all over again ... wait .. speaking of that ...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111010/04043716279/nytimes-sues-federal-government-refusing-to-reveal-its-secret-interpretation-patriot-act.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110525/15411414434/senators-reveal-that-feds-have-secretly-reinterpreted-patriot-act.shtml

So we have a the US Federal Government concocting an alternate legal system. Seems like all this is the next step in implementing this en masse to its own citizens.

The Trial is slowly coming to life in America.

Commenter toray99 sums it up best -

The difference is that the danger of American citizens being detained without trial as terrorists on frivolous pretexts is an even greater danger now given that the Department of Homeland Security has characterized behavior such as buying gold, owning guns, using a watch or binoculars, donating to charity, using the telephone or email to find information, using cash, and all manner of mundane behaviors as potential indicators of domestic terrorism.

Talk about a silent next step from democracy to police state. And what's the most painful part about it?

Funny how you don't hear about that in the corporate media?

I do see it in the New York Times, and the BI, but really no where else.

Probably because the establishment has learned long ago, the best way to take away people's collective rights, is to distract them so much to make the forget they even had them; to the point where they simply stop paying attention.

UPDATE - http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/the-real-reason-for-obamas-threat-to-veto-the-indefinite-detention-bill-hint-its-not-to-protect-liberty.html


Here's a gem set of statements -

I noted Friday:



The police state started in 2001.


Specifically, on 9/11, Vice President Dick Cheney initiated Continuity of Government Plans that ended America’s constitutional form of government (at least for some undetermined period of time.)


On that same day, a national state of emergency was declared … and that state of emergency has continuously been in effect up to today.



 

Quote of the day - 12-03-2011

Ann Davidow -

One of the most daunting tasks this country faces isn't the deficit or tax policy or how big the government is. Rather it is convincing ourselves and the world that we are a serious people.

...

For many the answer is whoever wins the fast-talking prize or attacks in the meanest terms anyone who disagrees with them. For others religion takes the place of problem-solving in a 'this-world' context. Lately there has been a flurry of what I would call the Stepford-Christian approach. There are probably many other examples but three come to mind, troubling in their hollow repetitious cadence. A golf pro after winning an important tournament thanks "his lord and savior Jesus Christ," a quarterback uses the same exact words after a victorious performance. And, in the course of condemning the president for omitting any mention of God in his Thanksgiving address a critic was asked how he would have spoken and uses the same precise lord-and-savior message too. It's as if a little recording plays endlessly in these people's heads. Who, after all speaks in such an almost gleeful manner not only in professing a particular religious observance but in the exclusionary nature of it?



Read it all here - http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13189