Author: Anne Leonard
False Independence
Have you ever been on the verge of an intellectual epiphany, only to be interrupted by the philosophical revelation that we are all just One. Big. Fucking. Experiment?
Look around. Take a long, hard look, and tell me that you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about.
Perhaps next time to avoid the paranoid looks from the less cerebral members, I should qualify the revelation as one occurring in a the deeply philosophical, slightly stoned way. Indeed.
We are all puppets. Marionettes held hostage by the master manipulators, the grand puppeteers.
We are all neighbors in a HUGE, Petri dish.
A colony of fools in a BERNAYS-IAN case study of the Freudian marketing gods-Nothing but a fucking sadistic focus group.
Think about it.
They are the Experimenters. We are the subjects.
They tell us what to eat, what to wear, what to think-
What to buy, what to sell, what to use, and what to drink-
They tell us we’re too fat, too short, too skinny, too flat-chested-
Too bald, too gray, too old, too limp–too unmolested –
They poison the air, the water, the food-
They poison our minds and alter our moods.
They genetically modify, inject, and manipulate
The salaciously sadistic business of manufacturing fate.
No one is immune, few things remain pure.
They keep all of us sick… just to sell us a cure-
They own the satellites, the towers, the drones-
They target the schools, churches, businesses, and homes.
They encourage us to observe others who ‘star’ in reality shows, playing a role, playing themselves, playing themselves, playing the roles; while programming us to share the most intimate details of our lives with perfect strangers in our own, personal, seemingly secure- sometimes obscure, virtual reality game.
And, there they are…
Waiting, watching-
Listening and learning-
Target. Observe. Report.
Record. Revise. Replay.
Hypnotize us, mesmerize us. Exploit us.
Be Aware.
Get out of the cloud, and into your life – Annie
EQUAL PAY DAY
April 8, 2014 is Equal Pay Day. It is the symbolic day when women’s earnings finally catch up to men’s earnings from the previous year. Thanks to the gender pay gap, it takes women an extra three months of wages to make up that 23-percent difference.
The National Committee on Pay Equity supports two bills in Congress aimed at curbing wage discrimination. The bills work on different aspects of wage discrimination, and both are needed to fully close the wage gap.
The Fair Pay Act (S.168, H.R.438) is sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). It seeks to end wage discrimination against those who work in female-dominated or minority-dominated jobs by establishing equal pay for equivalent work. For example, within individual companies, employers could not pay jobs that are held predominately by women less than jobs held predominately by men if those jobs are equivalent in value to the employer. The bill also protects workers on the basis of race or national origin. The Fair Pay Act makes exceptions for different wage rates based on seniority, merit, or quantity or quality of work. It also contains a small business exemption. and The Paycheck Fairness Act (S.84, H.R.377)
The Paycheck Fairness Act (S.84, H.R.377), sponsored by Senator Barbara Milkuski (D-MD) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), strengthens and updates the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The bill expands damages under the Equal Pay Act and amends its very broad fourth affirmative defense. In addition, the Paycheck Fairness Act calls for a study of data collected by the EEOC and proposes voluntary guidelines to show employers how to evaluate jobs with the goal of eliminating unfair disparities. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives on January 9, 2009. It was defeated in the Senate on a 58-41 procedural vote on Nov. 17, 2010 and again on June 5, 2012 on another 52-47 procedural vote that was strictly along party lines.
Why Congress MUST ACT to close the wage gap for WOMEN.
The-Simple-Truth About the Gender Pay Group.
CHRISTIANS: STOP WHINING
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
PISSED OFF RANT ALERT (motivated by a recent browse-by of the Conservative Tribune Face Book page):
A simple Google search of the phrase “Banned from praying” produces roughly 75 million results. Most of the complainers are Christian. And yet most Christians do not even know what the Bible says about praying in public.
Christians, allow me to clear this up for you.
[A-hem] Ladies and Gentlemen, please open your bibles and kindly turn to Matthew 6:5-6…
READ THIS PASSAGE ALOUD WITH ME: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
What this means folks, is that you don’t have to make a public display of your secret conversations with the imaginary sky fairy.
What Would Jesus Do? Well, I think I just cleared that up for you. 
Mad As Hell?
Almost half a century has gone by since the passage of the Equal Pay Act and yet a sizable gap remains between the compensation women and men receive for comparable jobs.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014, is EQUAL PAY DAY. RAISE your voice. Make some NOISE. GET.IT.DONE.
If FAIR PAY isn’t important to you, then sit there and DO NOTHING!
Kinky Dems, Elitists, and Big Money Politics
Being FUNNY does NOT disqualify someone from running for State Office. Some folks in the Democratic party say Kinky doesn’t deserve your vote because he’s funny. (Wait…what?).
Kinky Friedman is running for Texas AG Commissioner. He has drawn two opponents in the Democratic Primary; Jim Hogan and Hugh Ftizsimons. Hogan is a dairy man/cattle rancher from Cleburne, Texas. Hogan has done little to openly campaign and is not considered a viable player. Fitzsimons is a Professor/Bison Rancher/Honey producer. According to some circles, Fitzsimons has been endorsed by God, and has 4 times as much campaign money as Kinky Friedman. So, I see it as the classic David v. Goliath saga: Big Money Establishment vs. the Kinkster.
Fitzsimons posted this about Kinky:
If you are voting in the Democratic Party primary, you may be tempted to vote for Kinky Friedman for agriculture commissioner. He’s a clever self-promoter running on marijuana legalization, and his name is next to a position that you probably don’t know much about. It makes for a good chuckle in the voting booth, while he laughs all the way to the bank and this year’s election becomes just another one of his jokes. http://hughfortexas.com/blog/
I call BULLSHIT.
So, having a sense of humor limits your effectiveness, eh? I know many funny, successful people.
What about Al Franken, funny man turned Senator;
What about Governor Ann Richards?
Being funny never hurt Molly Ivin’s credibility;
(DISCLAIMER: Shit’s about to get real)
I support Kinky Friedman and I don’t give a DAMN who knows it.
Kinky’s political views do not fit neatly in a box bearing the label of a particular party. He is not a manufactured Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, or Independent for that matter. Yet the restrictive nature of our two party system forces candidates to align with the party that most resembles their own political views, and everybody knows Kinky leans to the left.
I don’t apologize to people who try to intimidate. I don’t apologize to people with an agenda. I never apologize for the truth….Texas is my country,truth is my religion – and fuck ’em, fuck ’em if they can’t take a Joke- Kinky Friedman
Put that in your pipe and smoke it. -Annie
The Eleventh Hour: “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace”
Veteran’s Day, was originally commemorated as Armistice Day, “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace.”
Armistice Day–“The eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month”, in 1918, the major conflicts of World War I ended when the allies signed an armistice with Germany.
‘November 11, 1919, President Wilson proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory… and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”
On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a resolution “requesting that President Coolidge issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies” (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) the act was approved May 13, 1938, making November 11, a legal holiday with the appropriate ceremonies “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”
Veteran’s Day–Armistice Day morphed into Veteran’s Day- In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, who wanted Armistice Day to include all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day and signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954.
Remembrance Day/Poppy Day–is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries. Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities of World War I on that date in 1918. Hostilities formally ended “at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem “In Flanders Fields“. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red color an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war.
References:
Front page NYT: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/NYTimes-Page1-11-11-1918.jpg/474px-NYTimes-Page1-11-11-1918.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day
Women’s Equality: The Battle Continues, The War Rages On.
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” –Amendment XIX
The observance of Women’s Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as “Women’s Equality Day.” The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York (NWHP)
Ninety-three years after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, and women are still fighting for equality. Examples of the recent attacks have been spotlighted in ATD’s War on Women Series. Make no mistake about it, the WAR on WOMEN is REAL, despite the GOP’s claim that it is merely trumped up media hype.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, RNC chairman Reince Priebus claimed the so-called “war on women” is a fiction created as the media is on par with claiming there is a “war on caterpillars.”
“Now if the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars,” Priebus told Hunt, “then every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, so then we’d have a problem with caterpillars. I mean, the fact of the matter is it’s a fiction.” (Mediaite)
Move On complied the Top 10 MOST SHOCKING attacks from the GOP’s War on Women:
1) Republicans not only want to reduce women’s access to abortion care, they’re actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven’t yet. Shocker.
2) A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to “accuser.” But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain “victims.”
3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)
4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids.
5) In Congress, Republicans have a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life.
6) Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids’ preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working.
7) And at the federal level, Republicans want to cut that same program, Head Start, by $1 billion. That means over 200,000 kids could lose their spots in preschool.
8) Two-thirds of the elderly poor are women, and Republicans are taking aim at them too. A spending bill would cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens.
9) Congress just voted for a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country.
10) And if that wasn’t enough, Republicans are pushing to eliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans. But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. You can’t make this stuff up).
I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts. J.Locke
The battles continues as the war rages on.
The voices of WOMEN must be heard.
Speak out.
Dear Canada
Dear Canada,
You have so graciously shared your talented citizens with us. We have truly enjoyed many of them, even proud to claim them as our own. Educators, humanitarians, actors, musicians, and comedians.
Canada we salute you.
And, Canada….
ONE LAST THING….
Please keep Ted Cruz for yourself.
<——–He’s yours.
HERE’S YOUR RECEIPT——> 
Sincerely,
America
Define. Don't Defend. 
