Category Archives: community

Everything you (didn’t) want to know about Walmart practices

by

Here.

Note the blatant discrimination against women….paying them less than men in the same positions; pregnancy discrimination; not promoting them.

I try to avoid the place, but with limited access to other stores (that they elbowed out), it’s not easy.  They have destroyed the right to choose, basically, so that folks like myself that don’t agree with their labor practices have limited choices.

I have actually paid more for products at other stores in order to avoid them.  But I know that it is likely that those other options may be gone someday due to the Walmart octopus….but I’m not going down without a fight.  This is another part of doing unto others as you would wish done to you–I want to support stores that pay their workers fairly.

 

Scenes of Summer…

by

…another gorgeous weekend here.  (But I have to say that this summer has been dry.  Not on the scale of the drought a few years ago, but very dry.  As much as I love the gorgeous weather, we need the rain.)

I rode my bike this past week, to one of my favorite places around here…the bridge over the river.  More dead trees have fallen into it, and as I passed over it (a day earlier in the car), a crane was perched on them.  It flew off just as I stopped.

I saw the bright yellow birds again…I’m pretty sure they are finches.  There was one outside our door perched on a sunflower, singing its song.  Gorgeous.

Along the road, someone is building what looks like a huge barn.  I’m hoping it is not a commercial venture, but perhaps a boarding place for horses.  Time will tell.

As I was leaving home, the black and white dog that bit our dog comes running at me, barking.  I yell at him, and he stops…for now.  A couple of weeks ago, he and the boxer bit another dog.  These young girls were walking their dog past the house, and The Dogs came up and bit their dog, too.  My BIL saw it, and told the girls to go home and tell their Mom what happened and to call the animal control officer because they had bit our dog, too.

The animal control officer came out, and was talking to the owners of The Dogs.  Incredibly, the woman stated that those girls should not have been walking their dog past the house.  Seriously.  She actually said that these two little girls should not have been walking their dog on a leash on a public road….so she could let her dogs run all over the place, intimidating and biting other people/dogs.

And the incredible thing is that these people know they can get away with it because nobody will do anything…until a human being is bit.  The animal control officer told us that if we get bit, we need to take a picture of it.  Seriously.  He is going to wait until these dogs bite a human because biting two other dogs is apparently not enough evidence of their aggression.  And nothing is happening to the owners, either.   They couldn’t care less.  The black and white dog was out running around the next day.

And the cherry on top is that there is another dog owner just like them…and we’re in-between the two houses…so they let their dogs roam in-between houses at will, making us right in the center of it.

I really feel bad for the dogs, because they will probably end up going to the pound because of their idiot owners.  I just don’t understand why these people just don’t put up a fence.  They have plenty of yard to put a fence up so the dogs can run around to their hearts’ content and not bother anybody.  Nor will they get off their arses and take the dogs out on a leash so they can get some exercise….

Frustrating.

Anyway, back to the nice day….

I was admiring the scenic river, but it was time to go, and I hopped back on the bike to peddle home.

I no sooner did that, when I heard…the sound of the plane….

That plane.

That yellow plane that has been spraying chemicals in the air over the corn fields….

I have been buying my eggs from a farmer that believes in free range (not cage-free folks, which isn’t the same thing)…and we just happened on the topic of spraying the fields.  She’s young, and I told her that it had been outlawed in the 70s…so I don’t understand how the ban got lifted and now we have this idiot spraying chemicals (she said it was fungicides) which goes all over the place.

Just as I was leaving her place, I’m zipping down the country road, and just as I approach a corn field, the yellow plane sprays the chemicals clear up to the road….which I pass under just as he sprays. Sh*t.

I got my migraine the next day.

On the day that I was riding my bike, and again was near the stupid plane,  I peddled as fast as my tired legs could take me (not very fast), and tried to get inside.  I could hear the plane make several passes (it’s fairly loud).

All that day and the next, I was tired, achy, nauseated with a headache.  Yep.

But hey, it’s okay, because the chemicals stay right where he sprays them.  /snark

I don’t know how this got started again.

~~~~~~~~~

Today, I went for a nice walk at one of our great state parks.

You know, when I was in New Jersey, my son took me for a drive around Atlantic City.  We traveled through one of their parks, and I just have to say they ain’t got nothin’ on Indiana.  We have the most beautiful, stirring parks.

New Jersey trees were tall…but they were skinny things about ten inches in circumference.  Most of their trees were like that.

Our trees, however, are big and thick…old growth trees with character.  They bend gracefully over the road, giving us a leafy canopy.  The forests here look like forests…not telephone poles with leaves.  (Sorry, New Jersey, not trying to pick on you…but you know….)

I had taken my kids to this park when they were still at home, and I knew that I had taken them to an area with a large pond.  My son and I had been there a couple of times, recently, but I could not find the area I had taken them to previously.

To my delight, I found it today.  Looks a lot different than it did twenty years ago.  The dry summer is showing…pond was nearly dried up.  And there is much, much more growth of bushes than before.

It was mostly water with lilypads on it before, so I was surprised at the growth of the rooted bushes.

The walkway was looking its age, too.  It is leaning a bit and looks like it needs shoring up or replaced.

As I walked along a grass path, toads were leaping in front of me.  Heh.

(It’s getting to be quite a habit now–as I play “frogger” at night when I’m coming home from work–I accidentally hit one the other night, but most nights I can see them in time to avoid them in the roadway.  I also saw a baby deer next to the road–luckily, he/she was good and stayed put, looking at the car, while flipping its tail back and forth.  )

A curious thing at another area of the park–they put up an information sign telling folks that the river had moved 50 feet in the last twenty years, so they were shoring up the bank and putting down landscape materials to keep the erosion down.  And I’m thinking….why don’t they let the river take its own course and work with it, instead of trying to thwart nature?

It was a wonderful summer day.  It even rained a bit–a soft rain–but I didn’t mind at all.  We need the rain…and I’m not going to melt.

And I couldn’t help but think of Climate Change and how all of the beauty and beneficial aspects of nature could be gone in coming years…perhaps even in my lifetime.  Gave me chills….

Hope you all were able to enjoy some beauty somewhere today.

 

 

A Jewish voice on Gaza

by

DN! interviewed Henry Siegman, a rabbi that represents strong Jewish organizations and what he had to say regarding the bombing of Gaza will blow you away.

For one thing, he doesn’t believe Hamas is any more a terrorist organization than Israeli fighters were when they fought to take the land away from the Palestinians to form their own state.  They killed innocents to take the land away.

And now they want to deny the Palestinians that same right to a land they can call their own without interference by Israel.

While I’m watching this segment, I’m thinking of my continuing studies on religions–just for the record–every single major religion:  Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, has blood on their hands for killing innocents.

“Kill them all, and let God sort them out…”  seems to be a common theme throughout history.

Only, “do unto others as you wish to be done to you” doesn’t quite fit into that thinking.

Self-defense, in my view, is the only legitimate excuse for killing another.  And that is only after all other avenues have been taken–such as diplomacy.  Or poking the stick to keep one at arm’s length.   Trying self-defense without intent to kill (like martial arts).

But diplomacy is becoming a lost art.  It’s easy to just drop a bomb and believe that will end it, but in reality, it just creates more problems.  Peace isn’t easy–compromise and humility are key factors in creating and sustaining Peace.  Being humble isn’t valued in this society–it’s seen as weakness or worse–low self-esteem, when in reality, it is a recognition that we are part of Creation, and even though we are all important in that we bring our own uniqueness to the world, we are also a small part of that world and it takes all of us to make the world go ’round.

 

More on ALEC

by

Reading the post from Diane Ravitch the other day, this caught my eye:

The “Property Insurance Claims Act,” on which both the Civil Justice and Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Forces will vote, tilts the playing field in favor of property insurance companies. It would benefit those companies that are represented by the ALEC member Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCIAA). The bill would restrict the time frame for the insured to bring a claim, require the insured to submit to mandatory appraisal, and cut back existing law protecting property owners in many states. PCIAA’s vice president of state government relations, Joe Woods, is the private sector co-chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee of the Commerce task force, which will vote on the bill first. – See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/07/187796/alec-agenda-dallas-evisceration-medicaid-school-privatization-and-expansion-gas#sthash.yQQZCEtA.dpuf
~~~~~~~~~~
The thing is…they are already doing this.  Like everyone else (that is greedy), they want to up your premiums…and then not pay when there is a claim.
When I still had my house, there was an issue with brand new eaves troughs I had installed by a so-called professional.  They ended up putting water into the house instead of taking it away.  But it was so gradual (and being mercury poisoned, not as “with it” as I would normally be), the damage wasn’t discovered until I noticed mold on several pairs of shoes, a book bag I used in college, and other stuff in a dark closet.
The insurance company refused to pay for the damage, even though the whole house had spots of mold, along with the attic.  The “inspector” they sent used a penlight…read that again: a penlight…to “inspect” the attic.  After which he proclaimed that he “didn’t see anything”.  Lied through his mossy green teeth…
I knew they were lying, but like I said, I was pretty toxic at the time and didn’t have the wherewithal to even think about how to fight back.  Nor could I trust any lawyer in my town, which my ex’s family owned.
I had been with this insurance company for decades, so I trusted them.  They had an A-1 rating by the insurance rating company…
None of that mattered when the fit hit the shan.
So…yeah…this may be news to y’all, but isn’t to me.
It’s a different world, folks.  They take your money and then refuse to pay a legitimate claim….after years of paying premiums.
Now ALEC will make sure they pay even fewer claims.
…because they want it all.
The Koch brothers and their ilk want it all.

More on Gaza and what it’s like to be Palestinian

by

DN! has another good piece on life in Gaza….if you can call it that. Existence is more apt a word…

Israel targeted yet another hospital…and yet another playground with children.

I just can’t wrap my brain around anyone justifying this–only a mentally ill person would rationalize killing children and innocent people whom have nothing to do with Hamas.

And the cruel mind games Israel is playing—calling people and telling them to leave because they are about to be bombed…when there is clearly nowhere else to go.  As the piece illustrates–a man who left to go to “safety” was bombed there, too.  Where are they to go?

Another segment the other day said that Israel is also playing mind games by calling people up and telling them they are in their crosshairs.  And there are drones overhead all the time….even when there was supposedly a cease-fire that Israel claimed to uphold.  Who would trust someone like that?

DN also had this up yesterday of a Palestinian’s account of his own personal tragedy.  It’s hard to watch–he clearly is heartbroken over losing so many members of his family.

Again, Israel has a lot of fire power because of the United States giving them billions every single year.  I do not support my tax dollars going towards killing innocent people…innocent children playing on a playground…people in hospitals that have already been greatly harmed…

~~~More of this segment also explores the overreach of the NSA, CIA, et al, and how the Fourth Amendment is ignored.  Brian Ross has stated that he now begins telephone conversations with “I’m an American citizen, are you?”  because he says they are not supposed to be listening in on American citizens’ conversations.  This is a protective measure.  It is incredible how paranoia has become so extreme that journalists now feel like criminals and have to act like they’re mafia or something in order to develop contacts and be able to investigate the very people who are trying to usurp the press’ ability to investigate them.

Meanwhile, the petition for Freedom of the Press and Whistleblowers has now reached over 100,000 like-minded folks who believe in the First Amendment and Fourth Amendment which a healthy democracy needs to survive.

First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – See more at: http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment1/amendment.html#sthash.8k4V7g5s.dpuf
~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. – See more at: http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment4/amendment.html#sthash.Ihw0OGGC.dpuf
~~~~~~~~

Spirituality and Rationality

by

(This blog is on spirituality, so if it’s not your thing…)

Dr. Carol Hand has one of the most stirring blogs on spirituality I’ve ever read.

I love, love, love, the Native American approach to spirituality–they don’t dictate to each other or complete strangers what they should believe or how they should worship. They worry more about their own spiritual path than others’.

When I was growing up, my belief was that the world could only know Peace if we were all Christians–hence the reason for missionaries and witnessing to others our beliefs.

It took my taking a class on religion in college to realize that despite what you might hear in the press or religious leaders, we aren’t that far apart in our beliefs.  As I’ve written about before, all religions have the eerily similar belief in treating others as you wish to be treated.  This was such a powerful discovery for me–as at this time, after my divorce and the turmoil that followed, I was questioning God’s existence.

Two things happened that brought me “back”–one is a dream I’ll keep private, and the other is my daughter going through a terrible time.  She made it through, although she still has “days” that I think are more related to the poison in her mouth (amalgams) than to anything else.

Anyway, Carol’s post highlights the Native American tradition of seeing women as connected directly to God by our ability to give life.  I love this.  The European tradition as seeing menstruation as “dirty” –something to be ashamed of, others see it as the blood that gives life to the growing baby.  As I wrote that, The Red Tent popped into my head.  Even though women were banished to the tent for menstruating, they had a wonderful camaraderie that is absent in our society today.    (Not only that, Big Pharma has developed a Pill to stop women from menstruating for three months (or more)…someone I knew was getting married and didn’t want to have her period on her wedding day….unbelievable.  God, how Big Pharma must hate women and their icky periods….)

Back on subject—

It does make sense to keep one’s visions to oneself–lest it create jealousy or judgment.  Wise.

This passage was powerful and reflected my own conclusions:

When I realize that the temptation to judge and compete with others is becoming too strong to resist, I look at the context and forces around me. Often I find that it’s time for me to change course, to be honest about what is my responsibility to do, and to simplify and refocus my life on what really matters on my path. I have a responsibility to do what I can in my thoughts and actions to end and prevent harm.  I have a responsibility to judge actions and their consequences, but I cannot judge or demonize others whose paths I can never know.

~~~~~~~~~

It is hard to resist those powerful urge to judge and compete with others…but if one truly follows the “do unto others..” it helps keep one on the right path.  After all, we can only control our own actions and reactions, not those of others.

Peace to you all.

 

Changes….

by

…I know that nothing stays the same, and yet…

I went to Fort Wayne Sunday.  I had the thought of giving some food to the food pantry that our building had.  It was there to help with the gaps between what the gov’t thinks people need in order to eat and what they actually had at the end of the month.

So…I bought about $80 worth of food and called the manager to see if she was available to get in the building and chat awhile.  She didn’t pick up her cell, and I found out why when I arrived at the building–

I had tried the disabled gal that used to run the food pantry.  She would have had the key to get in.  I couldn’t for the life of me remember her apartment number, so I guessed.   A man answered, so yeah, no luck.  He didn’t even know the name so either he was new, or the gal has moved to another place.  She had been there quite a few years, so I was surprised that she wasn’t there.

I tried a few more apartments, but no one was home.  On a final try, I got one of the residents.  Ironically, he was the same one that gave me such grief over there by setting off the fire alarms all the time.  Heh.

He let me in and then said they didn’t have the food pantry anymore.  I was shocked.

He said that everything had changed and that the manager was no longer there.  There had been a big shake up, I guess.  No wonder she didn’t reply to my call.

So…I ended up just putting the food on a table in the main lobby for people to pick up.

It was just surreal.  There used to be folks outside chatting on the benches. No one.  No one inside where a couch and tables are located.

It just felt like the world got a little colder.  Makes me sad.  Really sad leaving the building. What once was a small community, where we looked out for one another, has become a place to exist.

Once our former manager left, it just seemed to take the warmth and light out of the place.  The new maintenance guy did not like the “free” table we had in our rec room…he was somewhat anal and didn’t like the clutter of it…but that table was a life saver for us with little money to buy things.  If someone didn’t want something, but another resident could use it, that just saved it from ending up in the landfill, didn’t it?  But the maintenance guy insisted there were fights over the stuff…and I can say that I never witnessed it nor heard about any such fights.  He just didn’t like it, is my guess….and if there were any fights, he probably blew them out of proportion.

Anyway, what should have been a happy day of giving back was one of sadness.

March on Detroit: the right to water

by

Story here.

It is outrageous that General Motors and two sports arenas have not paid their bills…and yet, their water has not been turned off.

It is outrageous that children are being taken away from their parents when their water is shut off.

As a response to this–what about drilling for wells?  There are probably laws against that, but I say go for it.  It will be hard, but at least one has access to water.

Meanwhile, General Motors and the city’s two sports arenas, which owe millions in unpaid water bills, have not had their water turned off. – See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/07/187784/water-rights-march-detroit#sthash.87CJMFVo.dpuf
Meanwhile, General Motors and the city’s two sports arenas, which owe millions in unpaid water bills, have not had their water turned off. – See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/07/187784/water-rights-march-detroit#sthash.87CJMFVo.dpuf

Not only do hedge fund managers want to profit off of schools…

by

…they also want to profit off of the misery they caused by the housing collapse…to rent out single family homes, at astronomical prices, no doubt.

Does anybody else smell a rat??

Did these scumbags create the crisis of credit default swaps so that people would lose their homes, and then the Wall Street banksters could snap up properties at bargain basement prices…?

It certainly looks that way to me.