US Rep. Patrick Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy is not my rep here in RI but our state is tiny and everything is more intimate. Patrick has been very forthcoming about his periodic battles with substances. And he has been very direct about the fact that he is bi-polar.

Patrick was devoted to his Dad, Senator Ted Kennedy, but did not always support the same causes or candidates. It would be very interesting to me to imagine was his Dad would have said about Patrick's public ideological skirmish with Catholic Bishop Tobin over abortion rights. The Bishop has refused to serve Patrick communion and is suggesting he may need to look elsehwere to find a religion more in line with his abortion rights beliefs.

Patrick also took on some House Republicans in DC last week accusing them of racism, bias and homophobia.

His controversial beliefs have caused plenty of chatter because his language has been so aggressive and fearless. I say his actions are not theatrical but rather based in strong convictions and impatience with bullshit.

Thanks Patrick, long may you bruise and confront those who are out-of -step, unaware, smug, self-serving, disingenuous, lacking in leadership and not representative of the better nature of our angels.

Americans In Love With Murder

How is it possible that as a "superpower" heavy hitter on planet Earth the United States has more people in prison than any other country AND, whenever possible, we get all excited about killing some of them.

Capital Punishment is nothing if not the most obvious manifestation of devolution. There can be no logical/ethical/rational argument for state-sponsored extermination as some call it.

A country that supports capital punishment and apparently is proud of the fact, is a country that has lost any genuine compassion. We've got technology up the ying yang but we behave like depraved, moronic, small-minded /losers filled with hate.

Whatever crap we dish out, we get back. Heard of karma?

Must Be The Season of The Witch

If you haven't heard this song for awhile, or if you've never heard it, I recommend a little trip to itunes. I find it satisfying to listen to YEAR ROUND.

And speaking of Halloween, it is my favorite time of the year. Which I think has more to do with the celebration of self-expression than it does with anything pagan but you can't go wrong with a few dedicated pagans. Perhaps it should be pagans with a BIG P.

Halloween gives us the opportunity to be creative at a high level. Think of the lighting possibilities alone! And we get to adopt a persona that may have primal roots or at least something Jung would appreciate. That Jung, quite the wild one, eh?

I not only like manifesting an environment that represents something about my issues or past lives. I LOVE experiencing what others have created as well. I love most haunted houses even if they charge admission. I love looking at the spectacle of hundreds of trick or treaters. Maybe this has something to do with the theory that our intrinsic chi (I don't know if there is another kind) always has been and always will be. We adopt this particular paradigm of human life when we choose to learn some lessons relevant to our evolution. And Halloween might be custom, or it might be cultural idiosyncrasy or it might be a mass halogram. Different from mass hallucination.

So we have Halloween as a perennial fave but now we are all about vampires and aliens judging by our cultural products. I love both. I am very curious about what we can deduce about their current popularity. Political commentary? District 9. Cutural AND political commentary? True Blood. Aliens but all the above? Flashforward. Attractive but potentially spooky alien? V.

Does this mean we are preparing for an opening in our unconscious or just tired of greed and forclosures? Or are aliens already among us infiltrating our cultural process? Likely?

The fullness of the moment

I was staring out my kitchen window as it got dark today. Facing East I saw the harvest moon. It really looked like it had a face. And it looked perfect. I was thinking about the Neil Young song about the harvest moon.

I kept staring at it. I was imagining what it would take to make the moment ideal, a real stellar memory. But then I had to ask myself why I needed anything else to make the experience anymore intense or special.

Staring at the Moon. Trying to fathom how far away it really is. Hard to imagine people traveled there and stood on the surface and looked back at the Earth. And the color is more like a feeling.

So I let the image bore through my eyes into my brain as well as the feeling that it's perfect right now. Just me in my kitchen. No musical interlude necessary. A perfect moment and a perfect memory.

White Guys Only Need Apply

It was fairly surreal watching the comedy writing nominees at the Emmys. I thought maybe the abundance of white guys was a joke. Apparently not.

Can it possibly be true that gals can't write funny stuff? Is Tina Fey a freak of nature (or nurture)? And what about guys who aren't white?

I am TOTALLY curious about this. Have these shows hired writers other than white guys and had fighteningly lame results in terms of product? Or is this simply another example of the WHITE MAN'S BURDEN? Oh what a drag, we have to write all the funny TV because no one else can. Is that accurate?

Please help me to develop some understanding and tolerance (if possible) about this. Isn't it Odd to be talking about this in (almost) 2010?

WHAT IS THE DEAL?

The Truman Show

1. Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?

2. Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?

3. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know?

4. If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?

5. Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?

6. Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?

7. Why does "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing?

8. Why do "tug" boats push their barges?

9. Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game"
when we are already there?

10. Why are they called " stands" when they are made for sitting?

11. Why is it called "after dark" when it really is "after light"?

12. Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

13. Why are a "wise man" and a "wise guy" opposites?

14. Why do "overlook" and "oversee" mean opposite things?

15. Why is "phonics" not spelled the way it sounds?

16. If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?

17. If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

18. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

19. If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right?

20. Why is bra singular and panties plural?

21. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control
when you know the batteries are dead?

22. Why do we put suits in garment bags and garments in a suitcase?

23. How come abbreviated is such a long word?

24. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them?

25. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

26. Why do they call it a TV set when you only have one?

27.Christmas - What other time of the year do you sit in front of a dead tree and eat candy out of your socks?

28. Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway ?

29. Why is toilet paper tiny squares and tissues big squares ?

Yes, I took a long hiatus. But I'm back and we'll see what happens. Here is my question: Is it me or are we experiencing a loss of civility as a culture? Granted, there is plenty of crap going around to combust peevishness but I think it's a dangerous stew.

Will we be able to remember how to let a car merge ahead of us? What are we all neurosurgeons on our way to diagnose some brain conumdrum? We can't stop for 30 seconds? I had no idea that everyone I share the road with is so powerful and busy and important that they simply can't be polite as well. It is really asking TOO much. God forbid they have to pee or vomit. The whole "stick up my butt" culture of a-hole behavior will smack itself down like some old school domino trick.