barbara friedland

Bail out the

auto industry and let the Wall Street crowd go to jail.

The United States rarely makes anything,  We, as a nation, have become

quite expert at shuffling paper.  The latter does nothing except make

certain people wealthy for no apparent reason.

And crashing world markets.

OK-  General Motors guessed incorrectly in thinking that SUV's

should be a large portion of the product line.  Gas prices rose, folks

lost their jobs and frankly, they are hard to park.

But didn't the financial gurus believe that reselling worthless debt would 

generate some value after churning it four or five times?

My first car was a Ford.  It was used and I brought it back to college 

for my final semester.  I learned how to maintain a vehicle during this time.

One day it stalled on the street in front of my house.  My father asked

when I changed the oil last.  As in never.

It took a lot of abuse, mostly stemming from my youth and ignorance.

It was a generally reliable car and I loved it.

My current car, a Toyota, is made of plastic.  If a canary breathes on the body,

a piece breaks.

I have replaced two door handles in that many years.  As if no one ever touches

that part.  You want to get in, imagine the door opening.

I foolishly bought an extended warranty for my Corolla.  There were a lot of problems,

in subsequent years,....

just none covered by the multi thousand dollar assurance add on.  

But this not a tale of good and bad cars.  But good and bad businesses.

Just because the American people can grasp what allegedly went wrong, does not

make said set of executives worse than those who stoked arcane and probably

illegal opportunities.

Let's face it, if Bernie Madoff had executed a ploy more complicated than a Ponzi

scheme, which folks understand in theory, he would still be asked to invest money.

Or at least be the recipient of a governmental bailout.

I don't care if banks and businesses are too big to fail.  Make these folks clean up

the financial chaos and then prosecute them.

Enact laws preventing too many mergers, leaving the public with reduced choices and the

nightmare of bolstering businesses who are holding a grenade and threatening to take us all

with them.

Without the Wall Street Mess, which has cost jobs, savings and the urge to spend,

people would probably still be buying cars.

By the way, if Spain can institute treason proceedings against the traitors of the last administration,

why can't we?  America.  Home of the brave and land of the free.

Spain needs to continue to cull evidence linking Bush and Cheney to the venal and nefarious

actions.

And we must initiate our own special prosecutor.

No one is above the law.  Not Wall Street bankers nor folks who steal elections.

Indict Bush/Cheney.  As well as Rumsfeld and the the six fiends identified by

Spain.

garbage

I throw out very little.  Really. It borders on pathological.

I recycle and compost.  I donate.  I am overjoyed to have discovered the Baltimore Free

Store which allows people to shop for.... well, free.  The group, headed by a wonderful woman

and ballasted by great volunteers, has a myriad of goals.  But mainly it offers stuff for no money, at a time

when thrift stores have begun to act, and charge, like boutiques.

I once left a beautiful brown silk pantsuit at Value Village- a misnomer to be certain- because the

price was 90.  Dollars.  It was a designer outfit with the price tags still attached.  But, jeez.

Who goes thrifting with almost a C note?

Recently, I have experienced better deals in such places, but prices remain high.  There is a Gucci Goodwill on the west side of town.  This store never has sales or half price merchandise. Thus, the

$200 quilts remain hanging next to the door.

But I digress. And from the outset.

It is easy to find deserving places to donate, and more difficult to maintain the process.

When my son was small, I discovered a day care for homeless children and

brought his toys and clothing there.  I even purchased items that I knew would be

loved by these children and needed by their families during the transition of finding

their own homes.

Point taken.  I donate.  Reuse.  Recycle.  I always linger over items that I should toss.

The orange juice has been in the refrigerator for how many weeks?  

The corollary is that I love to shop. Thus my house overfloweth.

But last month, I threw away a book.  In the garbage.  

Ironically, I had found it at a lending shelf at my pilates studio.  I should have 

brought it back but I did not want it my house, and subsequently, my car.

It was a mystery penned by Patricia Cornwall, apparently a very popular writer.

I love this genre.  My mother raised me on it, exposing me to American detectives

as well as English drawing room murders.  My favorite author is Poe, the person

credited with creating this type of story.

The book by Cornwall was disgusting.  The murderer or maybe there were more than one.

was misogynist and sadistic.  He just couldn't kill women; he had to mutilate them.

I did not finish the book.

I hate censorship.  But there is no reason why we have to be subjected to such

hideous images.  Read how Poe describes the victims of an ape attack, and thus

illustrates the difference between art and talent versus..... I don't know what.

We, as a culture, do not need Patricia Cornwall or the various renditions of the movie

Saw.  

Such constant exposure hardens us against evil and hurting others.  Which allows venal

leaders to start unnecessary wars and torture a panoply of suspects.

Indict Bush.

The earth has stopped rotating on its axis.

And life as we know it is over.  I agree with Rush Limbaugh.  Only on one matter, but is enough for

me to question the validity of the universe.

Let the AIG guys have their bonuses.

And Barney Frank, please be quiet.  As in stop talking.  Go away.

I have always hated the Congress writ large.  In graduate school I wrote a paper 

positing the idea of eliminating these costly idiots.

There were two compelling arguments against such action.

First of all, the Constitution, of which I am a great fan.  It was disheartening

to watch Dick Cheney gnaw on it for exercise, and then spit out crucial parts.

Also, a major role of the federal legislature is to function as a check and balance

for the other two branches of government.  Not such a great job during the last 

eight years.

I have disliked Nancy Pelosi since before she was elevated to Speaker.

Taking impeachment- in regard to old George W.- out of consideration

prior to even touring her new offices.  And acting like a foil to Bush and Cheney

for their entire second term.  

Don't get me started on Harry Reid. 

I don't blame Wall Street for the recent greed and incompetence.

That is their mission.  It is the purpose of government to keep 

such in check by regulation.

Yes, Reagan Bush and Bush.   

One of the myriad of the tasks that government must perform is

watching the private sector.

And Congress.  You screwed up.  Don't whine about the bailout, what is and

isn't happening as well as some bonuses, if you allowed this to take place.

Barney Frank- you and other members have to take responsibility for 

the rush to throw trillions at banks and other financial institutions.

I spend more time mulling over my monthly budget than the Congress did

when taking taxpayer money and lobbing it to horribly run banks and investment houses.

Barney Frank is demanding a list of all AIG executives who received or were slated to 

get bonuses.  Shut up.  Your fault.

If you light my house on fire, don't complain about smoke in your eyes.

If the Congress wants to make itself useful, indict Bush and his merry band

of evil.

Do not create some edentulous truth commission, to simply investigate before

issuing a report.

Bush is beyond not being able to handle the truth.  He could not recognize it if it bite

him on the nose and settled into his new home in Dallas on the lanai.

Indict him.

Kindle me not

Really, I am not a Luddite. Nor am I thinking about joining the Amish community.

I like technical advances.  As I struggle to write, I imagine authors before me who used

quill pens.  As in QUILL PENS.

My hero, Edgar Allan Poe died before the invention of the typewriter and the ballpoint pen.

I imagine him, cold, hungry and alone, dipping his writing instrument continually into the ink.

Having to stop to trim the pen or clear any smudges.  And still, the work is breathtaking

in its scope and talent.  His opus is imaginative and of course, brilliantly crafted.

Geniuses don't need laptops.

I do. Need computers.  And spell check.  Not to mention being sober while writing.

But I digress.  Apparently there is a Kindle second iteration.

Why?

I understand the need for phones.  Screaming at the top of one's lungs probably isn't

efficient.  Electricity which generates lights and heat and a panoply of entertainment

options is a mainstay of modern life.

I love turning a switch and having the room illuminated.  Pressing a button to either

heat or cool my home.  Being able to keep foods refrigerated and then cook up victuals.

But reading needs to be between paper and person.  

Okay, I am constantly online, intellectually imbibing.  I peruse sites of newspapers,

except for the one from my hometown.  That I subscribe to:  finding it in my backyard each

morning and finally recycling it all every fortnight. With all New York Times

crossword puzzles filled in.

For poetry, fiction and memoir, I must hold something.  See the words on the page.

Linger over certain paragraphs.  Go back and analyze an earlier chapter.

How can heart pounding fiction be enjoyed without turning the pages?

Poetry especially owes some of its art to how the words are displayed.

It is about omission and blank spaces as well as what is being stated.

I do watch television on my computer.  Movies as well.  But that was simply migrating

from one cold and impersonal box to the other.  Not much of a transition.

I have an anthology of Poe's work, published in the early part of last century.

It was given as a literary prize to a promising student.  As I hold the book, I imagine

the author, either in torment or momentary respite, putting together the stories.

I can also picture the young man, a promising writer, thrilled to have won

an award and recognition.

Top that Kindle.

Indict Bush.

Mutual Possession

I believe that intimacy is best reserved for intimates.  Often both the touching and toxic spill over to public life.

I hardly think of myself as a prude but many couples need to get a room.  Transcending species for a moment, a lot of folks must train their dogs and cannot regard any type of pet as a surrogate child.  Or mate.

Your friends won't tell you and your cat can't, but the baby talk is unsettling.

What is more embarrassing is when people fight.  Couples, different configurations of families, friends.

Again, something has transpired that is not anyone else's business nor concern.  When such spills over,

others are subject to pieces and fragments of an unpleasant situation.

Parents and young children are especially problematic.  Terrifying mothers and fathers scare me too.

I have often tried to dial 911 as a youngster is being hauled out of a store, with threats and curses raining

down on him.

Proud parents are bad, in a totally different way.  I don't care that your son is gifted.  I agree.  After

all how many 2- year olds can disassemble a water cooler?  However, I am just trying to

read my magazine and hope that the doctor sees me within the next hour.

This is not to say I have not enjoyed a juicy screed being shouted into a cellphone by

someone who clearly believes that the rest of the world is deaf.

Which brings me to Michelle Obama.  Barack is her husband and father of her children.

But for the next four, maybe eight years, she must share him with us.  

He is our hero/employee and we are Nell on the train tracks.

Our concerns jump from the economy to the environment back to our failed war on terror.

Thus, President Obama belongs to all of us.  Even Rush Limbaugh who uses him for ratings.

Most of the persona that our current Chief Executive projects is positive.  Still, he is too soft.  

Even SNL has discerned that.  Go to hulu.com and watch the hilarious sketch:

The Rock Obama.

But I digress.  President Obama is calm, soft spoken and even keeled.

We don't need his wife dissing him or lobbing sarcastic jabs in public.

Lionel Trilling once wrote that Nancy Reagan required surgery to have the

adoring look removed.  Of course the spouse, two steps behind and smiling

is a dated concept.  But too much reality is frankly more than most of us can deal with

right now.

If President Obama starts throwing the White House china in response to what Bush has

done- by all means, let us know.

Otherwise keep family business discreet.

And, indict Bush.

The h word

Don't get me wrong, I like President Obama.  Compared to his predecessor, it's as if the wise Solomon from

biblical fame was delivered to us in our time of need.

He is smart and reasoned and fair.  We, as a nation, have gone from a stolen Presidency by

a coddled failure to a man who has used guts and brains to gain entry to this office.

I used to be afraid that Obama was too nice.  But let's face it, he's henpecked.

He wanted a team of rivals in his cabinet, guess what....there is competition right in

the marriage.

Obama wed an intelligent and accomplished woman. But even I am scared to cross her

and I don't come within 30 miles of her orbit.

I don't know if women want sensitive men or nurture a fantasy of being rescued.  However, when

the building is ablaze, no one expects the fire folks to ask about our feelings.

Just put out the flames. 

 Arrest the criminals.

In this case, on this level, the legal miscreants belong to the Bush Administration and

the elites of Wall Street.

Men cowed by their wives tend to congregate with similar types.  The Daschles and Geithners.

There is more of a connection than just a blase attitude about taxes.  Both men are wimps.

I am not saying we need another drunk, moronic cowboy who believes that facts are for sissies

and his gut has a straight line to God.

This country must have leadership that is prepared and visionary.  Add some courage.

President Obama:

Inform the First Lady that whatever dictates she is throwing down in regard to the

family, must stay within the confines of said family.  I don't have to hear her complain

that you smoke or will be out pulling weeds in the new Washington garden.

Also, during the debates, the humble chuckle with the aside that Michelle could inform

the voters of your many shortcomings, was gratuitous.

If the President of the United States is not unloading the dishwasher every Sunday evening,

please spare me the details.

Back to the current mess.  President Obama- you must get tough. 

Don't take responsibility if the previous administration allowed failure bonuses.  But you must stop the mess.

Put some starch in your advisers and stopped being pushed around.  By everyone.

I know that you did not mean to insult the Special Olympics.  Quit apologizing,

Oh and when you mentioned Nancy Reagan and seances, it was time someone took her to task.

Again no need for mea culpa.

Bring out the big guns.  Not on innocents swept up in a disorganized assault on terror.

But only directed toward the truly guilty.

Take back our money. Or make this trillion dollar effort work.

And show the world the true America.  Indict war criminals, even ones who stole the Presidency.

Especially those who stole the Presidency.

Bonuses for failure

The anger being directed toward the financial community, specifically executives getting bonuses

in full view of planet shattering failure, is hard and intense.

Of course the money involved is insignificant, a couple hundred million dollars.

A mere pittance in the blackhole that will cost trillions.

But the fury transcends the specifics of the scenario.  People screwed up.

Greed and incompetence cost and will continue to cost millions of people untold losses

and precipitated a world wide economic collapse.  Self same folks want to be rewarded.

That set of circumstances in itself would warrant outrage.  But I believe something

more profound is occurring.

People are finally dispensing the Republican fairy tale that anyone can become rich.

The brilliance of the Bush/Cheney years- an oxymoron I know- was the overriding ability

to convince poor and middle class taxpayers to support the rich.  The tacit, wink wink,

sentiment was that someday, Mr. Welder or Ms. Waitress, you too will be fabulously

wealthy.  At that time, shouldn't the tax system, abetted by the government, help you?

The wish by many, unrealistic and laughable, gave Bush the ability to create the huge

income disparities that made our nation now approach a small banana republic or emerging

third world country in terms of financial contrast.

Simultaneously, while making certain specific sectors become rich or well funded,

without any apparent oversight, Bush and company was furiously dismantling government

programs for the rest of us.

At the beginning of his second hijacked term, the criminal W. wanted to privatize 

Social Security.  The geniuses at AIG and Lehman Brothers would have been handling the money

of this program.  Whew.  Thank God for term limits.

Not that anyone was sorry to see Bush go.  As the world figuratively- and literally- melts around

us, even the most obtuse citizen realized we had been taken.  

The only time that folks like Bush and Cheney care about the rest of America is when they need

their car serviced or people to fight their wars.

Many have finally realized that the game is fixed, just like the Presidential elections in

2000 and 2004.  Evil and venal men- together with Condi and Karen- used obvious diversions

to distract the citizenry while stealing the gold.  

Quick, look, gay marriage.  And Wall Street melts.  Wait, a woman lays in an irreversible coma.

We will fight the war we want.

The game is fixed.  Thank you AIG and Merrill Lynch for showing us.

I already knew.  Next time, people, vote your pocketbooks.

Indict Bush and Cheney as well as begin culling defendants from our financial elite.

-- 

Who knew that hate is a luxury?

And stupidity.  Whew.  

I understand yachts and summer homes.  But apparently the entire Republican agenda is like Imelda Marcus buying more shoes

Or a more relevant culture reference; AIG executives getting bonuses from bailout money.

And if folks want to focus their antipathy and disgust, let's deal with the criminals who just peeled out of the White House.

For all the despots and bigots in the making, just shut up.  No one wants to hear yammering about nothing when the planet, our economy and the future is in peril.

Just an aside, often small businesses and cottage industries help jump start a stalled economic environment. Let's stimulate lawyers and prosecute Bush, Cheney and the entire convey of miscreants.

Torturers and traitors.

Sometimes I wonder how Bush got absolutely everything wrong,  Aced the idiocy and venal spectrum.

How, referring back the law of large numbers, could he not engender one positive affect?

Oh don't go waving the Aids in Africa program- if combined with contraceptives it would have been geometrically more effective.

George Wrong on Everything Bush.  Just by accident or while drunk, he should have

blundered into a correct or compassionate decision.

But sadly, no.

I understand that we can not worry about gays, and folks in comas right now because people are losing their homes, jobs and too many of our citizens remain without health coverage, and thus care.

Stupidity and prejudice are too during times of crisis.  However, that does not mean that we can ignore pure evil.

What the Bush justice department put together after 9/11 was the blueprint for a police state.  Pure and simple.

So, while same sex marriage is not a relevant issue, the unconstitutional travesties that transpired during

the past eight years, are.

Look at all the idiotic and moronic policies, not to mention criminal and immoral practices of Bush/Cheney.

It turns out that stem cell research is not the first step into the abyss, but forward thinking science.

What conservative supports such measures?  Now, most folks.  During the dark ages of George Wrong on Everything.....

only families who could benefit....like the Reagans.

The former President was cruelly silent on the subject of AIDS, but his wife and children understand what stem cell research can do to fight Alzheimer's and other diseases.

I used to have a friend who would say if you wanted to solve your problem, get a bigger one.

Flat tire? Not an issue since your car was stolen.  That sort of thing.

Your hair is falling out- well you have cancer and chemo destroys follicle growth.

You get the picture.

So now, even the most idiotic bigots and narrow thinking folks are concentrating on what is important.

Like their families, jobs and homes.  And the struggle for survival.  

As soon as it becomes more evident that environmentally concerned industries are important to our

economy- more of our citizens will start caring about our planet.

Let this be a lesson.  If we can't afford hate and small thinking when things are bad, do we really

need such anti values when circumstances improve?

Indict Bush.  And Gonzalez.  Of course, Dick Cheney.

For starters.

Twitter me George

The famous fourth wall is the separation between actors and their audience.  Many productions have employed sequences where it has been broken through, deliberately.  Of course, some thespians stop in mid speech to chide late comers or mewl about other audience infractions.

It seems to me that walls of privacy are falling down every day.  And I am not just referring to conservatives peering into folks' bedrooms.  

For the celebrity set, the paparazzi help to provide a visual montage of their lives.  Thus fans, and others, are treated to a wide spectrum of pictures, not just the posed and air brushed ones once and still provided by studios.

Tabloid magazines, and their evil spawn on television, continue to loosen the bricks on the moat separating

us and them.

For all citizens, famous and otherwise, the Internet has helped to further eradicate any hold on privacy.

In addition to cell phones that now all contain cameras.  No one is imperious to the constant 

array of would be photographers recording at random.  And then putting said on the Internet.

Which brings us to people who brand themselves, folks who, either sober or drunk, thought it

was appropriate to put images of themselves barely clothed.  Or flaunting illegal activities.

On-line.

Facebook, one of the receptacles of such pictures also has a following that clearly believes

email is too impersonal.  Why write to another about a subject effecting only them when one can

post it on their wall.

Also, some of the most sane and level headed people now feel obliged to let their friends know

of each daily activity, no matter how banal.

Which leads to Twitter.  Banality as IM-  mundane thoughts instantaneously

transmitted.  And no, it doesn't matter if the progenitor is Brian Williams or

Lance Armstrong- having a bagel is not noteworthy.

Makes me think about Cheney or Bush keeping the dozens of folks who still support them,

aware of their every move.

Cheney could tweet that it is time to drink more puppy blood and try to start another war.

Freelance.

George W. would probably continue to hone his ultimate legacy.  There was liquor, he would

write, that he did not drink.  And animals that he did not torture.

I often think of my blog, and how folks from the Bush gang could have seen me as the enemy somehow.

People who not only ignore but disassemble the Constitution are usually not supporters of our liberties.

Such as freedom of speech.  From what has been learned about the police state set forth from the

previous Justice Department, I could have been arrested and denied any access to judicial

protection.  Just locked away indefinitely.

The Bush folks also eavesdropped on telephone conversations, abetted by a majority of 

the telecoms.  And sought to create a chilling effect on anyone who disagreed with

the President and his polices.

Maybe we need to get Facebook and Twitter into our dark prisons so we are all witness to

what America has become.

Indict Bush and Cheney.

Things that I don't understand

Marshmallow peeps and Donald Trump.  P. Diddy or whatever his latest alias may be.

Voting Republican. Caring about the non-criminal aspects of other people's lives.

The obsession about what other folks are doing.

Two consulting adults- none of my business.  Sexual activity with under aged, which 

would make them children participants- illegal.  And immoral.

Back to ideas and people beyond my ken of understanding.

Fried and greasy foods.  They don't even taste good and folks are risking

all types of physical ailments by ingesting them.

Gorging on brownies, however, makes perfect sense.

But I digress.  Why do people shop at Wal-Mart and the like, only to purchase

junk?  

What draw does NasCar possess? It is basically traffic.  Or at best, cars going

in circles.

I don't get polyester, formulaic novels and the color purple.  The actual royal hue

not the book.

Why does anyone hurt their children, pets or any living thing?  

Two topical items that I don't understand include villains for the ages:  Dick Cheney and AIG.

In no particular order, former President, I mean Vice-President Cheney is bellyaching all over

the television that George W. should have pardoned his aide Scooter LIbby.  

I am a little surprised that Dick displays any loyalty at all, even though LIbby took the rap for

many folks who abetted in this exercise of treason. (For the unaware, several people in the Bush 

administration took part in the outing of a covert CIA agent, but only one person was ever

charged.)

But it does seem out of character for Cheney to continue to care that Libby, who never went to prison but has a fine, probation and disbarment as punishment.

The truly amazing aspect of the sordid tale is that Bush, number 43, would not

be cowed into doing what Cheney wanted.  Considering that old George W.

basically handed over the peculated Presidency to the number two guy for nigh on

eight years.

Why did Bush stop capitulating to Cheney?  Was it concern about his legacy-

as hideous as the picture of Dorian Grey.  I am referring to the imagined portrait

not the brilliant novel.

In other words, Bush's legacy is so sordid, evil and ridiculous, that a pardon hither or yon,

would not make a hair's difference.

After the treason, war crimes, ineptitude, and pure evil of the Bush/Cheney years, what

is the affect of another injustice or transgression? 

In regard to AIG- how in any language can they justify retention or performance bonuses?

The argument is posited that the money was agreed upon before the bailout begun.

Really?   Too bad, the scenario has obviously changed.  Contracts can be held null

and void due to exigent circumstances. 

Which brings the focus to the word merit or performance to justify paying these at best incompetents,

and at worst criminals, any more money.

And in terms of retaining their services, where are these folks going to land?  I understand

the Lehman Brother and Bear Stearns have stopped hiring.

Indict Bush and Cheney.

By the way, after reading the police state that the previous Justice Department created,

why haven't these men been arrested already?