barbara friedland

Ruth Madoff

OMG-   poor Ruth Madoff.

Stripped of everything and left with ony 2.5.  Million.  Dollars.

Cresting a life of excess and luxury.

Pity poor Ruth.  She is lonely.  

My mother told me to never interpret other people's relationships.  They are arcane

unions bound together with rituals generally unseen by others.

Often those involved can not articulate why their marriage or partnership works, or has failed.

Spectators can provide no true insight.

Having stated that, let me say this:  Ruth Madoff must have known, or at least suspected.

Period.

I am very sorry that she can't frequent her usual salon or florist.

And apparently she is lonely.  

So are millions of people.  Right here in the United States.

Many are in prison destined for unlimited detention. Never to be released.

They can't frequent chi chi eateries either.

She is tortured by the hell her husband and their company created.

The majority of the world is just in hell.

Bernie Madoff received a150 year sentence.  Symbolic really.  He is 72 years old.

A decade of incarceration probably guarantees he will die in jail.  Twenty years, certainly.

Why is Madoff the only person found guilty in this economic collapse and deregulation mess?

Seriously, is it possible that only one individual first of all, managed this elaborate Ponzi scheme by

himself.  And also, he is the only guilty party?

Look over at AIG-  surely there are dozens, nay hundred of people who broke the law.

Countrywide Mortgage.  As well as Bank of America that bought them.

But I digress.

Back to Ruth.

Only one real option left.  Her husband is gone and her sons are grown.

She has plenty of money if she lives like 99% of the world- not Hallliburton executives

or Exxon elite.

She has enjoyed an excess that was disgusting if honestly acquired.

Ruth, quite whining and find people who have real problems and help them.

No one in Darfur will snub you.

Indict Bush.

Nancy Reagan

I believe that the reason my mother did not hate George H. W. Bush so much is because she contrasted him with his predecessor.  His son is a different matter entirely.

She certainly recognized the banal evil of the Reagans.

When I was pregnant, she was concerned that I was very stressed and it would affect the baby.  

She wanted an easy going infant, Alfred E. Newman- What me worry?

I calmed her by saying that maybe I would give birth to a Thomas Hobbes- life is solitary, poor, nasty

brutish and short- and not a Ronald Reagan.

RR wasn't calm just unaware of what was going on.

She used to refer to him as happy little moron. Truly.

My mother would never have understood the level of idol he has become.

It would be interesting to ascertain when exactly the Alzheimers began, and who ran the country

subsequent.

In response to the Duchess of Wales famous dictum that one can never be too rich or too thin, my

mother always had the same rejoinder:  Nancy Reagan.

My mother did not live to see the fruition of the Reagan legacy.  Deregulation and massive shifts 

of wealth from the middle class to the already rich.

She did witness the progression of AIDS, a disease that could have been contained in its seminal stages.

She also saw a lack of integrity in regard to foreign policy.  Abuse of the environment.  And callous

professional as well as family relations.

My mother was very wise.  Apparently more insightful that the ragtag bunch called the Republican Party which still genuflects to his image or name.

Reagan was a man with parallel personal and public failures.

But the focus here is Nancy.

She has reinvented herself as an advocate of stem cell research.

The old joke is a conservative is a liberal who has just been mugged.

Another is the difference between a recession and depression:  for the former- your neighbor lost his job;

in regard to the second scenario, you are unemployed.

Of course life experiences color our viewpoints.  And personal tragedies can promote growth

and different beliefs.

But pull - ease.

The former first lady is now an advocate for stem cell research.

Thank you, I guess.

And if your husband had not been stricken with Alzheimer's? 

If only gay people were helped?

If the research focused on diseases found predominately in the lower classes? 

What if stem cell research only benefited afflictions predominately attacking blacks or Jews?

What role would she take?

People are afraid to call out bigots and snobs, especially those who fashion public policy.

Our nation will suffer for decades because of the condescending, illogical and narrow views of Ronald Reagan.

And the Bushes.

We must get out of our own lives and help others.  Even if we are not affected.

Indict Bush.

President Obama a conservative, not conservation, hero

Except for the black thing, and the Democrat thing, why hasn't the conservative right embraced Obama?

Any liberal paying attention is not happy.  With the President or the Congress.

In fact the only ray of sunshine is the constant thump of pious and hypocritical folks falling to the

floor.

Watch out, here comes another Bible toting married guy having an affair.  

Lock up the medicine cabinet, Rush Limbaugh is coming over.

And so it goes with every permutation of righteous versus wrong.

Back to my original premise.

Name one action or trait that President Obama has displayed or executed that would offend the 

audience of Fox News?

Don't tell me the stimulus.  That is just a Bush bailout on steroids.  

As for the so called recovery, it is being said it is a jobless one.

Really? 

At least the greedy bankers are okay.

Whew.

For the bible totin' voters, the Obamas have a pitch perfect family.

Marriage, fidelity, children.  No apparent vices except smoking.

Rush- may I call you that-  nicotine is not quite as bad as Oxycontin.

Right?

Plus adults, or those older than 16, can purchase cigarettes just about anywhere. 

No need to send the cleaning lady to cop some more.

President Obama has been very busy during his adult life.  But no loofahs or trips to

Thailand.

Back to the premise.  The first family declare themselves to be Christians.

In fact they sat in church pews for 20 years. 

I agree the Reverend is a problem.

But the President has distanced himself from the racists rants and Wright

doesn't seem much crazier than Glenn Beck.

Obama is clearly uncomfortable with extending gay rights. 

He is one of the many who believe that marriage is somehow owned by the straight community.

The inference is the no other group can have commitment and long term loving unions.

Also, Obama has not been an advocate for the environment. 

Imagine Al Gore as Chief Executive and what he would have done.

From the seminal days of his administration.

The idea of indefinite detention is a form of torture and clearly at odds with the liberties our nation is based upon.

I agree that most of the audience for the conservative screeds don't like education. 

 And the Obama family has sterling degrees from Ivy League Institutions.

But hey, Bush went to Yale and Harvard.  I guess he is so stupid, no one actually believes it.

President Obama, his lifestyle, his family and his political ideology is perfect 

for the right wing folks who unfortunately have microphones.

 And television cameras.

I understand an integral part of generating hate is finding an enemy.  

Some person or group that can be constantly derided, ridiculed and harassed.

What to do?  

How about the Congress?

And the Republican hopefuls for 2012?

Wow.  Premarital sex and teen pregnancy.  Infidelities galore.

Bobby Jindal hasn't committed any major faux pas, except that exorcism.

And a lack of knowledge about elemental policy issues.

Ineptitude.

But that would just endear him to this crowd.

Okay, he's the exception.  Thank goodness for middle aged white men.

So it is decided:

Republican leaders hoping to run for President and the United States Congress:  the new scapegoats.

President Obama- revealed as a conservative.

But then there are criminals.

Indict Bush.

Hillary nutcracker

Okay what does this do to my feminist credentials?  My own sense of fair play and

dislike of anyone who disrespects strong women?

I bought a Hillary Clinton nutcracker.  You can imagine how it looks.

I have my issues with Mrs. Clinton but it doesn't have anything to do with her marriage.

Or her chutzpa.

By the way, all couples struggle.  Infidelity is rampant.  Divorce is an almost inevitable end

to many unions.

I thought it the height of inanity that women, and men, were giving Hillary marital advice.

Well, Hill, you are married to one of the most powerful men in the world.  He has been unfaithful

but I suspect you knew that would be an issue during the courtship.  You have a child and built

a political legacy together.  But leave him.

And how is your marriage doing?  Anyone in the audience.  Mark Sandord-  what's up

with the missus?

As a United States Senator and now Secretary of State, I expect her, and all female representatives,

to acquit themselves with confidence, force of character and brio.

She was clearly wrong about Iraq- and allowed men hijack her Presidential campaign.

But do I regard her as a ball breaker?  A nutcracker?  NO.

I found this novelty item brand new in the thrift store, for a fraction of any retail price.

I needed such a tool and purchased it, with not insignificant reserve.

Usually, my house is free of cutesy or brand laden merchandise.

I try not to buy things that are mass produced or of poor quality.

I collect beautifully crafted art, that can be either utile or just for enjoyment.

So no NASCAR clocks or Countrywide Mortgage- RIP-pillow covers.

I do have another item that bears a resemblance to an elected official.

George W. Bush toilet bowl brush. 

I needed one for the third bathroom, adjacent to Jonathan's section

of the house.

Do I believe that he is only fit for such work?

Absolutely.

Let me clarify, I am not demeaning hardworking people who make their livings cleaning houses.

Or offices.

My intent is that he should be utilized to actually clean the bowl.  

And tiles.

To expect him to actually undertake a job, like building maintenance, would hope for

some level of success and completion that we have yet to witness.

In other words, he has neither the smarts nor the disciple to clean. 

Merry Maids, he is not your guy.

Indict him.

Maybe Rush is right but he would love Obama if there were an R after his name

Maybe Rush is right.  Mark Sanford's problems are all President Obama's fault.

Apparently, according to the 350 pound logistician-  Sanford was so fatigued from fighting the stimulus money- he needed to get away.

Poor man.  In charge of a state with high unemployment and low marks in education.  Here is the government forcing money on him for teachers and jobs.

The inhumanity.

Anyway, according to Rush, Sanford realizes that the country is going to hell, because Obama is President so why not fly down to Argentina and break up with his mistress?

On whose dime by the way?

Apparently, the President is clearly not a liberal, more on that later, but he can build a time machine.

Because before Obama was even elected, Sanford was having an affair.  It has been going on for a year.

The adultery. 

Maybe I should say this adultery.

Obama has been President for less than six months.  Hmmmm.

I am having trouble understanding why the conservative press and others of that ilk are up in arms about Obama.

He is one of them.

I am not saying stupid and racist and illogical.

But nothing he has done indicates a visionary and liberal perspective.

Yes, I know.  He followed the most destructive and evil Chief Executive this nation has ever suffered through.

Bush managed to ruin every aspect of life, the planet and public policy.  Not bad for an otiose slacker.

Obama has a lot to do.

Unfortunately, he seems to be using the Bush mindset.

I am not saying Obama is like his predecessor.  He would have to lose 100 IQ points to even

begin such a comparison.

But he continues to throw money at Wall Street with no attempt at prosecution or change.  

So called terrorist prisoners, some taxi cab drivers, are treated the same.

The timid steps toward health care reform are being done under the watchful eye of the AMA.

Gays.  The environment.  Going after the torturers.

Nothing. 

Take that polar bears.

Hope none of these ursine creatures are in a same sex relationship and drive a cab outside of Baghdad.

Oh well.

Sorry and see ya.

If stupid,angry Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News, Charles Krauthammer and his evil twin George Will would

stop and reflect for just a moment...

they would discover that President Obama is not liberal at all.

But he did not cause Governor Sanford to break countless laws, marital promises and religious tenets.

Indict Bush. 

How to bring down the war criminals

I have a modest suggestion.

Many folks are saying that we can't prosecute Cheney, Bush and the other war criminals and traitors

of the previous administration.

Such wonderful reasons.

Nothing else would get done. 

It would comfort our enemies.

What if we were attacked during one of the trials.

The information disseminated during judicial proceedings would outrage the world

Not just the Muslims but any moral person.

So, here is my idea.

Have AG Holder or a special prosecutor- not Fitzgerald for mercy's sake-

organize some classified documents. 

Perhaps include the pictures that the Obama

administration refuses to release.

A coterie of tough legal representatives will meet with Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Wolfowitz, Rice, Gonzalez and yes Powell.

Don't stop- plenty of evil doers.

In a private room, the information is splayed on a table.  

Horrifying.

The choice is simple.  Accept a plea bargain which includes financial reparations and jail time

or there is a trail.

I believe it is clear that the information is so evil and contrary to universal legal and moral conventions,

that each will concede.

As for Bush, the poor, dumb frontman- all that is needed is an old police trick.

Someone goes to Dallas and tells the former President- stolen- that everyone turned on

him.

Even Gonzalez. 

In fact, Harried Miers volunteered to testify against him.

And Laura.

He has to come clean.  

Here have a drink and think about it.

What is the term that I am searching for?  

Oh yes:  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Just do it already.  Show the world that our country has a moral ethos, a conscience and

respects the judicial process.  

Even with some shortcuts.

Michael Jackson

Of course, he was a brilliantly talented and tormented soul.

It is stunning to be reminded by the montages displaying his career and see the boy versus the man.

It is impossible to crawl into the mind of someone else. 

Why so many surgeries and physical alterations?

Any insight is gone with his death yesterday.

But the effect was to radically alter who he was- race, gender and family.

Or at least that appeared to be the reasons.

I have thought about plastic surgery every once in a while, but the goal is to return to how I once was.

A little tighter or firmer.  In fact more of me as I remember myself to be.

All through my life, I have been indifferent to most beauty regimes.

 Exercise provides health and fitness plus endorphins.  

However, getting your hair dyed means that you surround your scalp and cranium which houses the brain, with ammonia and other chemicals.

My mother used to say that whatever hair color you were born with was more attractive than

what a bottle could provide.  

The hue naturally matched and enhanced skin tone.

It would never have occurred to her to alter one's complexion.

As a child, Michael Jackson was a beautiful boy.  He was clearly black, male

and related to the others performing with him on stage.

As he aged, emancipated himself- either emotionally or financially- from his family, he used

surgery to change who was.  At least externally.

Pose the ten year old next to a picture of the man who just died and no thread of resemblance

remains.  Except the talent.  

Here is a man who used medical expertise to lighten his skin color and change his appearance to

appear to a woman, a man in drag or an androgynous being.

He no longer resembled his brothers and probably more importantly, his parents.

If we can not stand looking at ourselves, then there is deep rooted unhappiness.

Maybe one is ashamed of their actions.  I hope that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

wince each morning as they shave.

Hopefully, some part of humanity, which must exist in their cells, sees the death and

destruction they have rendered.

Or perhaps hating how one looks just denotes unhappiness too deep to see or cure.

Michael Jackson was a musical genius and a brilliant performer.

Maybe now he has found peace.

None for the war criminals.

Indict them all starting with Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Powell.

MS Found in a Bottle

Or South America.

On the surface Mark Sanford is everything that I avoid, hate and fear.

He is a conservative Republican elected official of a southern state.

He is a bad father. 

Adulterer and

liar.  

He is a hypocrite and frankly his trying to refuse the stimulus money was both stupid

and a setback for his constituents. 

The people of South Carolina and in fact, his boss writ large.

But I loved his confession. 

It was real.

Honest. 

Messy.

I am so tired of reality being bent, rusted and turned inside out.

Ignored

Most visible or elected folks will not do or say anything until 

thirteen polls have been executed.

They have image consultants, marketers and style consultants

buzzing around like gnats.

Reality television often times has less connection with truth than

scripted sitcoms.

Images are manicured and carefully crafted.

But most of the time, people lie.

Jon and Kate plus 8 plus their lawyers.

Ten months ago the pair renewed their marital vows.

Now the wife is saying that they have been separated for two years.

24 months. 

730 days. 

How about that ceremony in Hawaii, that was validating a marriage that may or

may not have already failed?

And then there is just pure, Cheney like obfuscation.

Refusal to cooperate and denial.

What really went on during the stolen Bush Administration?

We might never know.

When asked, during his tenure as Vice President, Cheney refused to answer.

To:

Congress.  The Press.  Citizens.

It is difficult to find anything genuine, be it emotion or beliefs.

Does any really believe that Bush the younger was a Christian?

If so, he misread the dictums of that faith.

Bush lied constantly. 

As in every time he spoke.

We know expect our elected officials to be untruthful.

It was innovative for Bush/Cheney to steal two elections.  That was a bit

of a surprise.

But their ongoing political verbiage; standard stuff.

Homely, ordinary interactions are often tinged or tainted with

posturing, pretension and lies.

I suspect that is why so many people seek out pets. Usually animals are honest.

Which brings us full circle to Mark Sanford. Dog and tomcat.

Governor and mortal man.

He is in love or infatuated or aroused.

But whatever he is feeling, it appears to be real.

Indict Bush.

Great Sex

Okay I want great sex. 

Far beyond the earth moving. 

 Which it already does.  Rotates on its axis.

Once, when I was watching an earnest Barbra Streisand movie, I was afraid that

our planet had slipped off the gravitational orbit pull and time had stopped.

But I digress.

Apparently people are having physical relationships that are more powerful than...

power.

Right John Edwards?

It appears that the skanky looking woman also hijacked Edwards' innate decency and loyalty.

Governor Sandford is having an affair.  Which draws him to get on a plane to go to Argentina.

As in South American.

Buh bye 2012 Presidential campaign.

Senator Ensign is a devout Christian.  Not only pious but chatty about how pious

he is. 

Wow.

Found some loving better than God.

There are countless, and generally unknown folks who have jettisoned their

careers or families in order to indulge.

Sometimes criminally.

I can't even count the number of teachers, male and female, who have had sex with a

student.

Or as the law call it, rape.

There is a very famous quotation attributed to LBJ: a man of many voracious appetites.

One time after giving a speech, he listened to the applause, turned to an aide and proclaimed

that it-  power, adulation?- was better than f..king.

He was no slouch in the extramarital relations department. 

Just more discreet than say Governor Sanford.

Still,  it is harder to image anyone more politically tone deaf than him.

(Except maybe Bill Clinton.  Or Larry Craig.  Mark Foley.)

Anyway, he wanders off for 5 days and is surprised that folks are looking for him.

Apparently with Sanford it was love.  Except waxing poetic about tan lines makes it about the physical relationship as well.

I'm jealous.

I demand the orgasm worth 4 grand a night, the Governor's chair and tossing out the possibility of being the first Jewish President.

Indict Bush.

Beauty

I love beautiful things. 

Art and elegant design.  

Wonderfully crafted items that are either utile or simply suited for display.

 

In fact, I have made it my goal to insure that everything in my home is gorgeous. 

Except the white cat.  No luck there.

 

Ah you cry, doesn't everyone want to be surrounded by beauty?

 

Actually, no.

 

Folks shop at Wal-Mart, vote Republican and someone married Mitch McConnell.  

As well as Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani.

 

Repeatedly.

 

It is hard to regulate that the entire spectrum of life be exquisite.

 

In fact, our world is replete with scarcity, sorrow and tragic.

 

People are and execute ugly actions. 

There exists Dick Cheney.

 

And the list is endless.

 

It is hard to even articulate appeal or loveliness.

 

Kittens are adorable but small furry rats are not.  

Lizards are creepy but the Geico gecko is both charming and engaging.

 

As people age, their looks change, many believe, worsen. 

Of course alcohol restores any luster. To anyone or thing.

 

But I digress.

 

In view of all the ugliness of the world, I want only beautiful.  

Thus any chore can be performance art.

 

I rinse blueberries every morning.  I use a small, squat porcelain bowl with sieve like holes on the sides.

 

As I run water over the fruit and drain the excess, I enjoy holding the pottery in my hand.

 

I grab a pure linen dishtowel, muted in ecru and burgundy.

 

As I rinse the bowl, I enjoy the texture of the cloth as it dries.

 

My kitchen tiles, although not expensive are subtlety colored with splashes of bronze and blue on white.   Raised surfaces, erose and random, further enhances the swirl of tones.

I delight in my sheets; silk, linen or 1000 TC and the beautiful wool floral carpeting.

We can chose to invite beauty and health into our lives.  To eat fresh and nutritious foods while reading well crafted books and listening to brilliantly composed music.

Americans, and others, should eschew the ordinary and tired.  Even for those economically pressed, thrift stores provide a bounty of unique and beautiful potential purchases.

We must also expose the ills of our society.

Indict Bush.