Blog Maintenance, a rambling Rant, and a little Rosie O...

Today the sun is shining and it's a good day.  Though it is still pretty cold for March in SoCal, the day temps are in the 70's.  The overnight temp was 52 and those of you who know that Lizards need the morning sun to warm up, also know that it has been raining.

I've added security to this blog.  You will no longer see a warning about it, but should see the Secure lock.  I'm truly sorry if that means you are unable to leave a comment because I like hearing from you.  But I do understand.  Thank you for reading here all the same.

 I just went looking for the weather and ended up hearing Rosie O'Donnell's pre-state of the Union call to arms about Trump.



This Bigot, whom we didn't elect, is nothing but a fringe player, and is not really a Republican but part of an un-indicted shady network that is, apparently intent on forcing Armageddon.
Have they not heard? It's coming will be sudden?  And, it cannot be forced.

"For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night."

Frankly, we still have a chance to save our environment, but with this Cross-purposed elite empire in the foyer of Power,  I'm losing hope that it can be done.  But then, the resistance movement IS growing.  Politics should never be yet misconstrued as Human Rights.  Nor should it ever be seen as a friend to Mother Earth unless those in power are visionaries, like Teddy Roosevelt.

The Old healthcare system, conceived in the Nixon presidency as "good for business" is not good for people, and never came into being because it was good for patients. And, yes, I heard these words right out of that Errant Republican's mouth.

This "Good For Business" system let my daughter die, along with thousands of other people, and it cannot be allowed to come roaring back.  We'll see you in Court!

Like President Obama, I also believe that the contorted system we do have now would have been a lot better if Bernie Sanders had not been so hyper resistant.  The Insurance companies are still stuck, right in the middle, between the doctor and the patient and raking in money for nothing.  Our money should be spent on US!  It's our money!  It shouldn't be enriching fat cats!  Nor should it serve as grease for the military/industrial revolving door!

Don't let anyone fool you with their yammering about Mandatory Spending vs Discretionary Spending.  That's nothing but a ploy by those who are well positioned to pig out at the public trough.

Other blog related moves:

I'm working on the "Some of My Favorite Blogs" blog, and will soon re-link it in the side bar.
here is one that is on it:

The Textile Traveler Blog is from My Favorite Blogs page.

There is a new blog, too, and the Trumpy Dumpty page link will go to it.  Anything about Trump will go on a new blog.  He doesn't deserve the time of day, but I don't want to lose the news, or have it junking up this blog, either.

TTFN

Charity Navigator Rating - American Cancer Society

Charity Navigator Rating - American Cancer Society

Read it and weep.  So sad.  45 point what?

Now you know why they are relentlessly calling you for donations.   Sad, isn't it?

"Obamacare" (aka The ACA), The "Incidental Economist" Blog, and Bonehead Boehner's crisis of truth....

Firstly, I want to say a Big Thank You to the Founding Fathers, especially to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, for their fight to establish the Bill of Rights!

I'm putting all this here mainly  because it's my blog and I don't want to lose track of it. 
But, also, it's all here just in case you didn't see the whole melodrama unfold so you, if you wish, can enjoy it, too. 

New blog on the favorites page, Under the Day Lily button in the side bar.

And, since I've thought this all along:

"I would still like to see how much of the problem on Healthcare.gov was a result of DDOS attacks*, since there is now some clear evidence that happened, fomented by right-wing web sites. "

{from and Article HERE}  so that in years to come, I can read it and laugh out loud.

*DDOS  Distributed Denial of Service

I love this country!

Sunday School and Sunday Matinee

Sunday Matinee this week is the documentary called "Happy".  It chronicles a 30 +  year study of "happiness";  It is about why people are happy instead of depressed even when, by all measures, they shouldn't be happy.

The findings are very informative, especially since Americans are generally an unhappy people, according to most measures of true happiness.  I think it's VERY worth watching. 

 The Linkie  to "Happy".  Watching it made me, well, Happier!

 Sunday School:

On the other side of the coin, we have money grubbing.

Herein lies a little lesson in why we can't make it unless everyone pays their fair share?

LINKIE to Nation of Change article on just how much money the super rich have avoided paying, and why it makes a big freaking difference.

This might be to radical for a some of you but maybe this is right?

Oh, and the Global Banking System just keeps raking it in, too.  We are about to enter a very shady Brave New World.  We can beat them at this game, but it will take local trading of goods.  A village, you know?

Now, to fight back!  We have heated water with solar since 1984, but there is lots more to do.

I grabbed a badge from 350BrighterPlanet.com  after having seen it at Elephant's Eye Blog, which is a fabulous place!  Mosey on over and have a gander at the flowers and stuff of South Africa.

Bunch of Random Stuff.... How to make a Header, Catch of the day sort of thing

Having PT yesterday with weight, I'm resting up.  Let me tell you about PT.  I went three times a week but it's coming to an end.  I will miss my therapists but I won't miss being sore the next day.

Level Tangerine Rant Alert!:

Yesterday, I did bring home a magazine, a big mistake,  the latest editon of Time, which added to the post PT pain because in it was an article about how letting inflation rise would help settle the economy by letting it grow.
 
This was so obviously stupid that I took note of the author's picture, something of a kid really.  I surmised that she had not lived through the hyper-inflation of the 70's, of which she spoke so glibly.  It is beyond me how something as unsettling as inflation, which we are already experiencing without benefit of pay raises, AGAIN, could help our faltering economy.

All these theoretical "fixes" being proposed are just more experimentation that will hurt everyone below the hyper insulated upper earners. To support these experiments, because they should just be described as, "Let's try this and see if it works",  are worker bees just supposed to run up 70K $$$'s  on credit cards to float the economist's boat which is currently in favor?   I mean, really, all the happy crowing about the populous going on a buying binge at this time is maudelin.
 
Back to reality: Wage earners were not the cause of the original inflationary bubble because real wages never rose after 1973 ( this is sometimes forgotten) during a time when prices were rapidly accelerating.  I know, because I was buying groceries, and paying for everything else essential to life, and that bill went up with every other one, including utilities, housing, clothing, fuel, etc.   That last mini depression was also blamed on the Oil Producing nations, which had gotten thoroughly sick of being forced to take payment in devalued U.S  dollars.

{end Rant-Return to Apple Green Alert Level}

Something nicer.... We watched A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott last night, but two nights ago we watched this one:

We've been watching Christmas fliks for me to calm down.  A new one popped up in Netflix and it's a beautiful film.   "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey".  So I grabbed one at Amazon from whom I grabbed the piccy, too. This calming, well acted, visually beautiful, and perfectly paced film about the healing power of human love will be a favorite for those nights after a hectic day when you want some relief from the "Santa Claus Syndrome".  I really want to read the book now, too.

The knee ...I must tell you, if you are getting this done, the recovery curve varies for each person, and it fluctuates, sort of like an ailing economy.  One day you are elated; the next day you can start to think, " God, why didn't you stop me from doing this!!?"

Moving around helps.  If you aren't allowed into the garden (like I'm not), go look at it anyway and enjoy the exuberance of the young weeds which you know will draw a ton of small birds this winter. O, if it's snowy, just gaze out at anything beautiful that is available, and tell yourself that you are getting better every day, because -in truth- you are.  The body is healing and at a pace that is unbelievable considering what it as been through.  Something else that helps is to remember the horrible pain that brought you to the decision to have the surgery.  I have no trouble with my now minimally cranky knee and twitchy scar.

Header Ways:

Paula has asked about how I did this new header.  So, here we go...

Firstly,  I have a program called Picasa, which is free, stable and great.  That's what I use, mainly, for a photo wrangling program.  It has a feature called "Create a Collage".   The header was created from photos that I ran through Picasa first to clean up so that they looked fabulous on a monitor.  And after doing that, the next thing is to SAVE each element (photo) with the save feature under the file tab at the top of the browser window while you are still in Picasa.

With the photos I wanted, I used "Create a Collage" and saved it with white space around it.   After reselecting the  collage just made, I wrote in the title using Picasa's handy dandy little ABC tab. Using white space lets the collage float on my white blog background.  You don't have to use white.

Then I chose SAVE again and made sure all my hard work showed up when I uploaded the thing!  This is lots easier than it sounds.

In Blogger, you just go to your Design tab, choose "Layout", then edit your Title Bar.  Viola!

Any photo handling program you have that makes collages and let's you write on the pictures will work.

That's all folks except that I continue to read the half dozen non fiction books with increasing dread that anyone responsible for making this mess will ever be called out.  That is,  unless they commit suicide after sending a detailed note of their sins, and they make sure it's been printed in the Daily Mirror before they "86" themselves.

Oh, dear God, go look at some beauty now to recover from reading this.  I have too much time on my hands.  I have been banned from killing Frost dragons, too!  Mon Dieu!

"They Don't have Guns, How Do You sleep at night?"

He's got some very good questions. America better start listening to it's veterans, especially it's jobless and sometimes homeless ones, and those for whom the veteran's benefits are running short of promised educational expectations. It's happening.

We better pay attention to where they are coming from or even greater damage will be done to our social fabric. All of us are not to blame, but those who are had better rethink their priorities.

Occupy Wall Street is for ALL of us who are in "the Other 99%".


"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

Henry Ford

The Other 99% Speak out!