Good reading????????

I was just browsing Amazon's Kindle books under the topic Political Ideology.  I must admit I was looking for some interesting books to read on liberalism and liberal politics.  How many did I find?  Not many at all.  Just a few books that might be of interest.  However,  I must report that for every book that may in fact be pro liberal, there are at least 15 anti liberal right wing books.  What does this tell me????  It tells me that liberalism is hard to defeat.   It tells me that right wing ideologists are busy creating work after work to convince the public that liberal political theory and liberal philosophy are "evil, wrong and backwards".  Does this convince anyone?  Give me a break.  It seems that if you want to be a good right wing conservative, you better invest in a lot of reading.... you're going to need it!!!!!!!  
On the flip side, political cartoons are 80% liberal.  A simple message.  A drawing and a little bit of commentary.  Simple.  Easy to get the liberal philosophy.... A Ph.D. like project to try to fight liberalism.
Ok, I have not yet found the great liberal thinkers book.  But I do have 4 of Anne Coulters books that I plan to visit to discover the great conservative arguments.   Where do I lie?  I must admit that my thoughts are that liberalism is the way our society progresses and that our future is based. 

Mental Health Awareness Message

http://www.bringchange2mind.com/

MSNBC

Often, I hear people complain about the MSNBC news service... Too liberal they say...
I say that MSNBC hits the animal in the pulp.
They do a great job exposing indignities of the modern era.  Keep up the good work!

Revising the American Educational Scoring System

Increasingly, we are aware of the pathological anxiety which permeates our younger generations as they traverse their years of schooling in our school systems.   Competition for post secondary education as well as perceived threats to future employment opportunities starve our children as they concern themselves with their place in their future during a period of time when their focus would better be spend on completing a necessary educational process.   News stories of children who have committed suicide, succumed to depression, lost necessary sleep and broken down their emotional, social, professional, orderly and useful aptitudes mark our news these days.
I would suggest that the idea that we "grade" our children during their educational experience needs to be revamped as to provide a healthier and more constructive educational enviornment and lead to healthier more productive and wiser future citizens.
The idea that one receives an A, B, C, D and F rating in their schooling creates an atmosphere where by certain grades are "not good enough".  Pressures mount to earn the highest marks.  Futures are considered to be at stake.
When I went to medical school, we were given a pass fail system.  In a few highly remarkable situations, a student could acheive a rating of Honors.  The atmosphere was challenging but there was no segregation of students based on minor acheivement differences.
Secondary education and college education should be no different.
Our children deserve a system by which they can take pride in their accomplishments, ratify their success and proove to the world  that they are competant.  
Take away the A,B,C,D,F rating system and replace it with an "excellent, diligent, near poverty and poverty" system.  The rating of diligent should be an indicator that the student is capable and should replace B and C ratings.   Students who had received a D rating would be considered "near poverty". An F rating rather than denoting failure would be described as poverty.
Students would be rewarded for superior acheivement with an "excellent rating".  Students would feel their deficiencies with the idea of poverty rather than failure. 

On the passing of Elizabeth Edwards......

Elizabeth Edwards reminds us that propriety is relevant and that honor is glorious.  May she be remembered.

Igloos make me laugh

Bullets of Chagrin and Disapointment

I was on an interview in Charlottesville, VA at the University of Virginia once in January of 2001.  The day afterwards, I drove north to Washington D.C. and arrived late in the evening around perhaps 11 pm.  I had the urge to tour but as you can imagine this is not a touring hour.  However, I did find one quite enjoyable activity.  I walked through the inaugeration grounds and setting that was set up for the next days inaugeration of George W. Bush to become our 43rd president. It was pretty exciting knowing that this was the exact location that a major historical event would soon take place. :).  I must say that I was not confronted by anyone and strolled the entire location unrestriced.  I was greeted by perhaps one security officer.  Would this fly today in the Age of Terror?  I don't think so.  But I can say I was near by in time to a part of history. 

One other place I strolled by was the 9/11 site of the World Trade Center probably in 2002 or 2003. I was in New Jersey/ Jersey City for an interview.  After the interview, I hopped on the train and subway and found my way to Lower Manhattan. 

Editing the New York Times

I must say that I am infinitesimally happy to be a reader of the NY Times.  It really is the best newspaper news source around.   I get a copy each day on my kindle and its easy to read, a pleasure to enjoy and a merit to view.   It is always an earnest accomplishment to tell people that you read the Times, especially with the amount of hatred that the Conservative Right Wingers have for this amiable, professional and worthy news source.  I must say that I have tried a good number of papers on my kindle including the Washington Post, Miami Herald, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Boston Globe.  The NY Times is by far my favorite.
So thanks to this amazing publication, I am informed of coming and goings of the USA and the rest of the world.

Cheetos in paradise

My Impression of Mrs. Palin?  Palin has the character of a hot dog salesperson sitting in the balcony of a cheetos convention.  Palin has the reading skills of a trapeze artist smoking marijuana in a thunderstorm on mars.   Palin has the wisdom of a baracuda eating an easter egg for breakfast.  Palin has the diligence of a grateful dead fan sitting on his mothers bed eating rice crispies and smoking a stogie.  Mrs. Palin has the deference of a violin player conducting a symphony in E minor while eating chocolate bars as she dances a hula dance with a waist band that reads "remarkable" around her ear.   I think that Mrs. Palin is about as industrious as a fleetmouse sitting on the balcony of the price is right's show on environmental maladies.   If Mrs. Palin is elected to another higher office, I am going to eat oranges with my nose plugged.  I think that Sarah Palin is about as free of outside influences as a bait store is free from the fish population.  If Sarah Palin dove into a lake that was filled with carp and blue gills, I think that she might break a leg dancing on the bottom of the sea bed as she sips candy apple juice from the front pages of the paper. Why the fish? Becuase she is about that sincere about our future as she is about dancing in a pool of water filled with bait eating blue gills and carp.  I think that Sarah Palin is about as remoreseful about the McCain loss as she is about a refridgerator falling on the blessed age of reason.  Sarah Palin finds pennies in a can of eggdrop soup when she eats cotton candy with a tooth pick at the bottom of the Empire State Building.  If Sarah Palin went to the races she might be able to pick the winner with a safety pin in her nose.   If Sarah Palin went to a horse race, she would pick the winner by sneezing into the crowd and asking for a smile from the announcer of the last days events.   I think that its time to say goodbye from the Top of the Deck to Mrs. Palin's card of presidential eligibility.  Not now. Not forever.  Go cook a moose Sarah. Its time we cook your goose. 

Cut to the chase

Explanation why I have 4 main active blogs and 2 others that to date I am yet to blog upon: 
I realize that many might view my conscription of 4 major blogs as peculiar and in fact, perhaps unwise.  I decided that at the beginning of my blogging experience, I would not be served well by posting all of my content in one single blog.   I have a medical blog (CraigJasonBrennerMD.blogspot.com) that I may in fact use to some capacity for medical endeavors.   I regard the Sir Henry's blog as my side door... the Sir Walter's Backgammon Table as my back door... The Heresy and Good Fortune blog as my attic and the Tulip Patrol Blog as my front yard.  By visiting each of these, you may glimmer a better look upon the house that I have constructed here in cyberspace.  Thanks for being interested and willing to visit more than one venue of interest.  Of course, you can always find links to the various blogs on the right side of the blog under the "About me" column.   

Making Tea in a Better Burger King Store

I bought a good 6 cigars today. I must say that in the last year since I have started smoking these, I am now up to about 4-5 a week.   I am slighlty concerned with Laryngeal CA and marginally concerned with Oral CA.   ASCAD does cause me much consideration.  That said, I am not addicted, but enjoying the great pleasure of a smoke.  I did smoke cigarettes for a few years in college and it was easy to quit smoking.   I did not smoke for a good 16 years until now.  I do however have a small cough that surfaces once a day and I have noticed that my chest feels slightly irritated a bit.  So in that interest, I am predicting a slow down on the smoking which is about once every day or other day during the weekdays.

Shrugging Atlas Shrugged

War and Peace. A good read some have said. I got about 100 pages in, didn't know or understand any of the characters and put the book down.  Perhaps for good? I don't know.  Maybe I'll resurrect it someday. But it wont be any time soon.   I've got more to read than War and Peace.

As for Atlas Shrugged, I read enthusiactically the first 350 to 400 pages of what I remember was about700 pages.  Enthusiactically... But then I put the book down and never picked it up again.  It sat in our house for over 7-9 years.  I eventually picked up the tattered paperback and tossed it in the trash. Thats it. I shrugged Altas Shrugged. Ha Ha Ha.

Planting 60 daffodils on my property.  Lets see how they look in 5 more months!

Taxation

To those of you who are weary becuase of the taxes you pay to the United States of America.
Go home and get out a check and write it to the United States of America for 10,000,000,000. For that is how much you owe to have the priviledge of being an American. For all that was done before you were born by unknown and known people for centuries. For all the bloodshed that has given you the right to live in freedom. Put that check in your desk drawer and then don't feel so bad when you pay a small portion of that sum in taxes each year. It is a priviledge to be an American and have the freedoms you have enjoyed your entire lifetime.

Blunderbuss and eggnog shakes

I was just breifed by Mr. Glenn Beck that Mr. Obama has devised a number of new organizations to oversee many more oversights than even Mr. Roosevelt implemented for the New Deal. My impression- ok. No Problem. Start the shovel rolling and take a look in a few months and see which ones we should hold onto. The republicans have a good eye for overkill, but the Democrats are unified in their ideas of what is useful to our society. I was actually very impressed that Mr. Obama had so many ideas to bring forth. Very impressed indeed.

Wish you were here, explained.

This song echos from Classic Rock Stations around the globe.
Have you ever considered the power behind these lyrics? Here it is:
So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
...A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
And cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war,
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

What does this say in English?
Do you think you know the difference between living well and living easy? Do you know where the money comes from that you want to live your life smelling in the back rooms of your mind? Do you like to eat cheese or would you rather buy a dime of "maybe I can". Did you leave your dreams of wisdom for a pretend film about people you'll never meet? Do you like your friends who are dedicated to your betterment or did you forget who you were really in love with who is really your Creator! From where did you get your satisfaction? A friendship or a final word? When you lost your way in life, did you ask for help from your inner voice or did you let yourself be dazzled by the microscopic rain in your head?
If you are two souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, did you realize that you were not with your own dreams but with the dreams of yesterdays plans conceived by fools and fiends?
This was a great song and I am glad that I think I know its meaning more now than I had considered in the past.

Military Readiness

Support the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (MREA). It will bring peace to our troops and lessen the defense budget!

New Blog

Setting up Shop in Paradise
Don't ask a rigid thinker for peace. They think you want war.