Verkaufen Sie den Vatican…. Ein was für Konzept!

This, just passed on to me, HAS to be the most brilliant bit in recent history. It's a slice of what passes for pure Art in the school of Clear Thinking. Next to allowing Heath Insurance procurement across state-lines as a cure all for our Health Insurance woes, this bon-mot is nothing short of delicious in it's simplicity.



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Tragödie gegen Wirklichkeit

Working in a library brings a lot of odd/bizarre/touching experiences. One never knows, from day to day, what one will encounter. F'instance: 1) the isolated patron who comes in and delivers an excuse for her overdue items: "I RENEWED THESE ONLINE . . . . . WHY DO I HAVE LATE CHARGES? " Well, of course, they were renewed AFTER the grace period and so they have late/overdue charges. 2)" I HAD NO IDEA WHEN THEY WERE DUE: HOW ON EARTH COULD I KNOW WHEN THEY WERE DUE? . . . . . . " Well, we gave you a receipt that indicated when each item would be due. Did you look at it? ? ? ? ? ? 3) "I NEVER, EVER, CHECKED THAT ITEM OUT . . . . WHY WOULD A WOMAN/MAN SUCH AS ME CHECK OUT HARRY POTTER AND THE GARDEN OF LOST BOOKS? . . . . ." Never mind the mindless patrons out there in LibraryLand . . . . . I have another story . . . a bit more sensitive . . . .

A woman two days ago came up to the desk. She indicated that she hadn't her library card with her but needed to use the computer. I asked her if she had lost her card [SOP] and she said, with little emotion or emphasis, " my son was killed in Afghanistan yesterday and I need to use the computer. Can you find my card number? " I said: "I'm so very, very sorry. Just give me a moment." The woman was as cool as cucumber and soooooooooo focused. I found her number and gave it to her. She went to the computer and proceeded to do her business.

This event has haunted me from the start. I've related it to fellow workers, some of which have been ex-military, and all of them, to a man, have explained that this abrupt, matter-of-fact demeanor is de riguer. I wouldn't have thought it.

I wanted to come round the counter and hug the mother and help her but, apparently, this is not done. Casualties of war are treated differently than your garden-variety Chicago clubbing-to-death.
Guy goes to Afghanistan, gets killed = to be expected. 14 year old in Chicago gets clubbed to death: No Prob.

Die einfachen Freuden an einem landwirtschaftlichen vegetabe Standplatz kommen SCHLIESSLICH nach Washington….

Zu markt, zu markt, um ein fettes Schwein zu kaufen….


Ah, the simple, unfettered joy of a breezy stop by your local fruit stand. This, just in, from the Washington Post . . . . of all places . . .

Hi-Ho, the Derry-O

By Dana Milbank
Friday, September 18, 2009

Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"

Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.

There's nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.

The first lady had encouraged Freshfarm Markets, the group that runs popular farmers markets in Dupont Circle and elsewhere, to set up near the White House, and she helped get the approvals to shut down Vermont Avenue during rush hour on Thursdays. But the result was quite the opposite of a quaint farmers market. Considering all the logistics, each tomato she purchased had a carbon footprint of several tons.

The promotion of organic and locally grown food, though an admirable cause, is a risky one for the Obamas, because there's a fine line between promoting healthful eating and sounding like a snob. The president, when he was a candidate in 2007, got in trouble in Iowa when he asked a crowd, "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Iowans didn't have a Whole Foods.

For that reason, it's probably just as well that the first lady didn't stop by the Endless Summer Harvest tent yesterday. The Virginia farm had a sign offering "tender baby arugula" -- hydroponically grown, pesticide free -- and $5 for four ounces, which is $20 a pound.

Obama, in her brief speech to the vendors and patrons, handled the affordability issue by pointing out that people who pay with food stamps would get double the coupon value at the market. Even then, though, it's hard to imagine somebody using food stamps to buy what the market offered: $19 bison steak from Gunpowder Bison, organic dandelion greens for $12 per pound from Blueberry Hill Vegetables, the Piedmont Reserve cheese from Everson Dairy at $29 a pound. Rounding out the potential shopping cart: $4 for a piece of "walnut dacquoise" from the Praline Bakery, $9 for a jumbo crab cake at Chris's Marketplace, $8 for a loaf of cranberry-walnut bread and $32 for a bolt of yarn.

The first lady said the market would particularly appeal to federal employees in nearby buildings to "pick up some good stuff for dinner." Yet even they might think twice about spending $3 for a pint of potatoes when potatoes are on sale for 40 cents a pound at Giant. They could get nearly five dozen eggs at Giant for the $5 Obama spent for her dozen.

But whatever the socioeconomics, there can be no doubt that Obama brought some serious attention to her cause. Hundreds of people crowded the market entrance on I Street as police directed pedestrians to alternative subway entrances. Hundreds braved a light rain and gave a hearty cheer when Obama and her entourage took the stage. "I can't imagine there's been a day in the history of our country when people have been more excited about farmers markets," Mayor Adrian Fenty, Obama's warm-up act, told the crowd.

The first lady, in gray slacks and blue sweater, marveled that the people were "so pumped up" despite the rain. "I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables!" she said. (Must be the tender baby arugula.)

She spoke of the global reach of her cause: "The first thing world leaders, prime ministers, kings, queens ask me about is the White House garden. And then they ask about Bo."

She spoke of the fuel fed to the world's most powerful man: "I've learned that when my family eats fresh food, healthy food, that it really affects how we feel, how we get through the day . . . whether there's a Cabinet meeting or whether we're just walking the dog."

And she spoke of her own culinary efforts: "There are times when putting together a healthy meal is harder than you might imagine."

Particularly when it involves a soundstage, an interpreter for the deaf, three TV satellite trucks and the closing of part of downtown Washington.

Welcher Patrick Swayze wirklich ganz ungefähr war:

From one of my favorite Artists who recently [and too soon] Translated, I offer you this Gem. ( Thanks to my beautiful sister for the heads up) Watch and be moved. A wonderful and gifted aspect of God visited us and gave us such a gift.

Etwas Furchtsame Warnungen von der Vergangenheit

From 1961, a short clip from former President Reagan before he was president. Back in those days, when we needed a doctor we just got in the car and went to his office, saw him and then were either billed or paid it then and there. When I was a very young child back in the '50s, I became seriously ill and wasn't expected to live. The doctor would come over to the house [whenever mom or dad called] to check up on me.

Those were also the days when the milkman would come into the house and put the milk in the fridge; the bakery truck would come 'round with all sorts of bread, including little lemon tarts for us kids.

I thought it instructive to hear that what is transpiring today isn't anything new to the United States - It's been tried before and addressed before, as you will hear in this clip. I'm posting it as another part of the national discussion we're having on what is being presented as "Reform".

Dieses Gerade Innen von Pravda

The following, published on 27 April, 2009, is from our friends at Pravda over in Mother Russia . . .

American Capitalism Gone With a Whimper . . .

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, . . . . and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

-Stanislav Mishin

Eine Schwingungsrückkehr

Große Göttin!

Wie lang ist er gewesen, da ich geschrieben habe?

It's been 3 months since my last entry. Well, never mind. Things have been a-poppin' around here, some good, some bad. We're still a one-income household but hopefully that will change with the upturn in the economy. We're holding our own but it is, after all, a matter of time. The last time this happened it happened to both of us and we did the only sensible thing given the circumstances: we went to the Swiss Alps to salve our wounds. Bernese Catharsis is highly underrated . . .

June will be a very busy month for me and partly for Himself: On the 18th we set out for Houston to see Cousin Deb and her family to celebrate her mom's 80th with a huge family reunion. Everyone is flying in from hither and yon, mostly yon, and we're driving there from Tampa. We'll stay with our dear friends in Santa Rosa, FL the first night and then ZOOM into Houston the next day. I booked us a room in Conroe, TX [where Jesus lost his other sandal] and we'll stay there through the following Sunday night. Drive back to Tampa via Santa Rosa, arriving home on the 23rd. I'll race to do laundry and then early on the morning of the 24th, I'm off, off, off to Kansas City and Parkville to attend Alumni Weekend - an event I've NEVER gone to before. Should be a hoot. I'm staying with a dear, dear friend who's the college archivist and she is just toooooo much fun. We have been best buds since college - 1968 - 1971 and off an on since then. Volumns could be writen about her and p'rolly will . . .

I'll stay there from Wednesday through Monday morning, flying back on the 30th.

I've begun composing again due to a request of another schoolmate of mine whose taken up the fiddle. I've missed writing and think it providential that she asked me to do it. There are many programs out there that provide ease and instant gratification for composition so it's been a fun and rewarding re-work of old whiles.

After a long period of personal threats to myself, longing to massage the Muse of Gardening, I broke down and bought a Brown Turkey Fig which has been duly planted in a beautiful "art" pot and, as I type, is just knocking itself out. It gets about 11 hours of sun a day out on our pool lanai and apparently is a happy little soldier. It was but a two-brancher baby when I bought it this Spring, but it's now going nuts. Can't wait for it to bear. My grandmother Tovey [mom's mother] had a fig tree in her backyard and I remember just standing there gorging myself on those lucious figs. And . . . . . the endless hours on the throne as payback for gluttony!

Favorite Bon Mot gleaned recently is this extracted and deleted scene from "The Secret", a film about the law of Attraction (Mentioned earlier in this blog). It's a sequence featuring Esther Hicks and it just blew me away. I've just never thought of putting the Universe in this sort of order before but it certainly does even the playing field and raise the expectation level of our own individual beings . . . . Paraphrased, here it is:

'We are vibrational translators. When we hear, we are translating vibrations. When we see, we are translating vibrations. When we taste, we are translating vibrations. When we touch, we are translating vibrations. When we smell, we are translating vibrations. When we 'feel emotions' as a result of intercourse with others or with a situation, we are translating vibrations.

We are amazing translating entities who need to realize that if we can do these miraculous translations, why can we not attract to us other vibrations {those which we desire/want/need} of which we can translate?'

That is astoundingly important. We are so good at attracting and translating (positively AND negatively) what is going on around us that we forget that we are masters of the Art of Translating and we can simply and easily attract the vibrations that we desire if only we request them, expect them and wait in anticipation of them.

Alles beste!