doudscott589 Hello World!

Written by: Doud S on Nov 9, 2009 2:02 AM EST

Hi, I am a sports writer and an avid NASCAR enthusiast. I am looking forward to making a valuable contribution to this wonderful community now that I am here.

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hi everyone

Written by: WILLIAMSON B on Nov 9, 2009 1:11 AM EST

Hi! I am a professional writer with interests on a wide range of topics. Now that I'm here, I hope to be able to make valuable contributions to this community.

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Maintenance of notebook computer batteries

Written by: laptop b on Nov 9, 2009 1:09 AM EST

1. When no external power supply situation, if the working conditions at the time being less than PCMCIA card slot, it is recommended to remove the card first to extend battery life. 

2. At room temperature (20-30 degrees) for the battery of the most suitable working temperature, the temperature is too high or too low operating environment will reduce the battery life. 

3. Can provide a stable power supply in the environment using a laptop computer, remove the battery for extended battery life is affected by incorrect. On the Asus notebooks, when the battery fully charged, the battery charging circuit will automatically shut down, so the phenomenon of overcharging does not occur. 

4. Suggested an average of three months to conduct a Laptop Battery  power correction action. 

5. To minimize the number of battery 

The number of battery charge and discharge is directly related to life on one charge, the battery on a step forward to retirement. Suggest that you try to use an external power supply, 

6. Use an external power supply when the battery removed. 

Some users often several times a day Plug Power, and notebook computers equipped with a battery, to do so, even greater damage to the battery. Because each access to external power supply is equivalent to the battery charge time, Laptop Batteries  life shortened by a naturally. 

7. Power exhaustion after the charge and avoid charging time is too long 

Whether your notebook to use nickel-metal hydride or lithium-electric power, it must take charge after the exhaustion of power (capacity less than 1%), which is the best way to avoid the memory effect. Lithium-Ion battery memory effect will be the same, but it is the memory effect than nickel-metal hydride smaller Bale. 

8. Usually Caution 

When used in peacetime to prevent exposure to prevent damp to prevent the erosion of chemical liquids, avoid contact with the battery contacts with metal objects, etc. happen. 

On core laptop batteries 

Currently Laptop Battery  can be divided into 4 core, 6-cell, 9-pin, 12 cores. In short, four-cell battery life 2 hours, 6-core, compared with 3 hours, and so on. Of course, the greater the number of cores, the longer the life, of course, the higher the price. Ordinary home users recommend the use of four cores, since it is mainly in the home, have a stable power supply. Recommended 6-pin general office users. If there is a higher demand for mobile office, you can consider 9-pin and 12-cell battery.

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The House's Historic Vote on Health Care

Written by: Douglas M on Nov 8, 2009 10:53 PM EST

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I support the public option because for too long in this country, insurance companies have been allowed to provide poor care to working families, while driving up costs at the same time. That is about to change because with a public insurance option, insurance companies will have incentives to lower their costs and provide better care to working families. If you like your insurance you can keep it; however, there are many Americans who don’t like their insurance or cannot afford insurance all together, they will be provided with a choice.

The public option will not affect those who like their health insurance, it will only affect those who are being abused by insurance companies including the 47 million Americans uninsured. This will not hurt the insurance companies, it will keep them honest, give them healthy competition and a reason to lower their costs.  Once this is achieved, the insurance companies will operate just fine, and so will the public option.

With the House’s historic vote to approve health care reform, we are closer then we have ever been to passing real reform. Now, we must let the Senate know that we expect them to vote yes.

Contact Senator Judd Gregg at www.gregg.senate.gov and tell him that it is time for health care reform. 47 million uninsured is 47 million too many.

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Discerning the Meaning of the 2009 Elections

Written by: Steve G on Nov 8, 2009 10:14 PM EST

It will be weeks, if not months, before the analysis of 2009’s off year election results fade from the forefront of political commentary, particularly among conservatives. While the White House spin machine is content with downplaying the results as purely a function of local issues, conservatives have attempted to paint these contests as a referendum on the Obama Administration, or more bizarrely, the next step in “the American people taking back their country”. Most seasoned political observers know that off year, special and mid-term elections are characterized by low voter turnout and that party activists play a much greater role in determining the outcome. Viewed through that prism, the 2009 contests fall clearly into the pattern of typical off year elections. Thus, the primary question is this: If the 2009 elections exhibit all of the characteristics of other off year elections, how can they logically be seen as a referendum on the Obama presidency or the opening volley in some great populist uprising. After all, if the American people are so disgusted with the Obama Administration, would the rising chorus of conservative opposition not propel them to action and would we not observe a significant up tick in voter turnout?

Analyzing the Gubernatorial races first, it is impossible to deny that local issues dominated. Democratic strategist Steve McMahon pointed out that property taxes and the increase in insurance rates, both of which are state level issues, are a big part of why Jon Corzine was not re-elected. While not directly involved, scandals played a role in Corzine’s demise as well, culminating in last summer’s roundup of a cast of characters from politicians to rabbis. Corzine’s affiliation with the investment firm Goldman Sachs and his aloof political style did nothing to endear him to the people of New Jersey. As one NPR reporter put it: “Corzine never mastered the art of retail politics.” Political columnist A.P. Stoddard pointed on November the 3^rd that if Corzine lost it would not be Barack Obama’s fault as in New Jersey; Obama had an approval rating in the vicinity of sixty percent in contrast to Corzine’s thirty nine percent. In the end, Corzine wound up losing by four percentage points to Chris Christie.

In Virginia, the issues that Republican Bob McDonnell focused on were improving the state’s economy, job creation and solving longstanding statewide transportation problems. Of these, only job creation could conceivably be linked back to the Obama Administration. While many voters are skeptical as to just how many jobs the Administration’s stimulus has created, most people still believe that Obama inherited a difficult situation, the blame for which cannot be laid at the door of his White House. In contrast to McDonnell, the Democratic challenger, Creigh Deeds was a relative unknown who struggled with name recognition till the very end.

What is notable about both races is that the Republican winners eschewed the currently fashionable conservative think tank groupthink, which prescribes a political philosophy that hews to the hard right. As you will recall, following the defeat in the 2008 election cycle, most of the outspoken conservative commentators and theorists claimed that when the G.O.P. moved to the center it lost elections and that future electoral victory could only come by moving further to the right, the further, the better. Neither of the winners in New Jersey or Virginia dwelled on aspects of the “Culture Wars” nor did they resort to the now hackneyed rant about “a slide toward European Socialism.” Moreover, both Christie and McDonnell ran upbeat, politically moderate campaigns, devoid of the shrill histrionics that have come to dominate rightwing talk radio or the “political commentators” currently practicing their craft on Fox News. In contrast both Corzine and Deeds ran very negative campaigns to which the voting public now turns an increasingly deaf ear.

Another big issue that can’t be ignored is voter turnout. Political writer Paul Loeb summarizes voter turnout as follows: “In exit polls, Virginia voters under 30 dropped from 21% of the 2008 electorate to 10% this year and from 17% to 9% in New Jersey. Minority voting saw a similar decline. In both states, over half the Obama voters of a year ago simply stayed home, more than a million people in both Virginia and New Jersey. With this collapse of the Democratic base, even relatively modest Republican turnout could carry the day, and did.” That said if this off year election is characterized by such low turn out levels, how could conservatives make an argument that there is such a dramatic rejection of the Obama agenda?  Were the races in New Jersey and Virginia truly a referendum on Obama? If exit polls are any indication, they apparently were not. Edison Research provided a view as to whether or not Obama was a factor in people’s decision to vote by way of these exit poll results: 

New Jersey: 

Support for Obama - 19%

Oppose Obama      - 20%

Obama not a factor - 60%

 Virginia:  

Support for Obama - 18%

Oppose Obama      - 24%

Obama not a factor - 55% 

Thus in both races over 70% of those who answered exit polls said that Barack Obama did not play a role in their getting out to vote in what were essentially local elections. So much for the idea that the results of this past election constitute a rejection of Barack Obama, whose approval ratings have only moved up since the August Town Hall Follies. Meanwhile, the G.O.P. is polling its lowest approval rating since polling began and only twenty percent of Americans identify with the Republican Party.

Let’s now turn to New York’s 23^rd Election District, where a Republican has held the Congressional seat since 1871. It is in the 23^rd, a district that has all of the demographics that favor Republicans, that the newly energized national Conservative movement chose to show just how effective it can be in both defeating a Democrat, upending a moderate Republican and turning the tide on Barack Obama. Prior to the election the district was besieged with conservatives from all over the country including volunteers from prominent conservative grass roots organizations like, The National Organization for Marriage, FreedomWorks, of Tea Party fame, and the Club For Growth, which spent one million dollars backing the conservative candidate Doug Hoffman. Such conservative luminaries like Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Dick Armey, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, who predicted a conservative victory, tried in vain to nationalize the election. The cause of Mr. Hoffman was championed by both the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and by the NeoConservative organ, the Weekly Standard. In the face of this unprecedented conservative effort, Bill Owens won by endorsing the Obama Agenda, in an economically depressed region where unemployment has been north of ten percent for some time. This is the second time since the election of Barack Obama, that a Democrat endorsing Obama’s agenda has beaten a Republican with national conservative support in a district that demographically favored the G.O.P. The other instance is the special election for Kirsten Gillibrand’s vacated Congressional seat earlier this year.  

What the outcome of the election in New York’s 23^rd Congressional District shows is that beyond the world of right wing talk shows, the blogosphere, tea parties and grass roots activism, the appeal of the radical right may be much more limited than had been previously assumed. Could it be that the “August Town Hall Follies” with their tenor of rejection, vitriol and political dramatics have convinced few that conservatives have anything meaningful to offer an electorate that is essentially moderate, but that has been trending to the left over the previous two election cycles? It certainly leaves one to wonder just how effective Sarah Palin can be as a national political figure, seeing as she has yet to have any significant outcome on any race in which she has been involved. After all, isn’t she the darling of the base, the one individual that can really turn out a crowd?  

Don’t get me wrong; there is a wake up call for the Democrats in the results of the 2009 elections and in 2010 there is no guarantee that they won’t lose more seats, the incumbent party usually does. If it happened to Ronald Reagan, it can certainly happen to Barack Obama. Obama has clearly lost support among independents and people are rightly concerned about the upward growth in federal spending. At the same time, Americans know that this is no ordinary time and that the situation we currently find ourselves in is not the work of the Obama Administration. But those jumping to the conclusion that 2009 is all that meaningful should heed the words of Purdue University Professor of Political Science, Bert Rockman: “I see no particular harbingers for 2010. While people are deeply unhappy about current conditions, they are also keenly suspicious of Republicans.” But the bigger takeaway from all of this is that as far as 2009 is concerned, rumors of Barack Obama’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Based on the facts cited above, claims that a great anti-Obama populist revolution is underway cannot be substantiated. More to the point, the great citizen’s revolt to “take back their country” seems only to be alive and well in the delusional fantasyland of tea parties, birthers and far right conservatives who can’t seem to abide a climate of much needed political change.

Steven J. Gulitti

New York City

11/6/2009

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Kudos to Howard Dean

Written by: Nannette C on Nov 8, 2009 9:39 AM EST

I watched the House debate all day yesterday until the final vote. The only time Howard Dean's name was mentioned was on the Republican side. If this gets through the Senate with the Public Option intact, I doubt Dr. Dean's name will ever come up in the laudatory comments. The true hero is the man who works behind the scenes and is willing to forgo the limelight and praise for the greater good. 

We here know how much you've done to move this legislation along Dr. Dean, and I for one will mention it every chance I get.

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this Sunday selection

Written by: Gerry Lykins on Nov 8, 2009 7:17 AM EST

Sunday~

***************round of articles about our domestic ‘issues’ ~ November 8th, 2009

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(One Republican, Joseph Cao of Louisiana, voted for the bill; 39 Democrats voted against).

House OKs historic health care overhaul, with one GOP vote

By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers

The final 220-215 vote came after a day of rancorous debate and a personal push from President Barack Obama. The bill, if ulitmately adopted into law, would bring about the most sweeping health care revamp since Medicare was approved 44 years ago. Critical to the bill's success was a last-minute deal to ban government-subsidized health insurance policies from covering elective abortions. » read more

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/78517.html

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A good analysis

House of Representatives Passes Health-Care Reform Bill in Historic Vote

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/anti-woman_amendment_to_health_care_passes_house/#143811

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10 ways the House bill would change health care

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/78519.html

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House Passes 'Historic' Health Reform

John Nichols: Speaker Nancy Pelosi secures necessary votes, but only after accepting unsettling limits on abortion rights demanded by anti-choice Democrats.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/493913/house_is_poised_to_pass_health_reform_bill

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The Night They Drove the Tea Partiers Down

By Frank Rich

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/opinion/08rich.html?_r=1&hp

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RACHEL on MEET THE PRESS today…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3898804/

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**************Closer to ‘home’ items…(Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky area)

Please find an item in your local paper’s online opinion page which could use a progressive comment or ‘recommendation’..your progressive voice is needed!

At our Enquirer – these are some of the recent letters:

Driehaus, listen to your constituents
Dear Mr. Steve?Driehaus, your only objection to the House version of the health care bill is government-paid...

On Veterans Day, thank our troops
At?18, I was thrust into the military by choice in response to 9/11. Veterans Day to me as a kid growing...

Deters' efforts for veteran deserve recognition
Your article “Patriot goes to his grave without fanfare” (Nov. 4) tells the stories of two...

Medicare should be open to all
It does not make any sense to me that we can guarantee health care to all the citizens of Iraq but cannot...

http://news.cincinnati.com/opinion

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One that particularly caught my eye…

Time to consider internment camps

Posted by Letters Editor November 6th, 2009, 4:47 pm Read Comments(59)Recommend(3)

Regarding the article “Questions remain about shooting” (Nov. 6): In light of the events in Texas, perhaps it is time to examine the benefits of the World War II internment camps to US society of that era. While politically incorrect, maybe now it is time to think about the benefits of similar internment camps to protect today’s society.

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/letters/2009/11/06/time-to-consider-internment-camps/

========================Kentucky

Ben Chandler just voted to end private coverage of abortion in America

Thanks Ben.
Btw, sometimes you have to break a few eggs, and I don't really give a shit if you get beat next year. In fact, I think I'd really get a kick out of that.  Love, Joe.

http://barefootandprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/11/ben-chandler-just-voted-to-end-private.html

========================Indiana

Brave Votes from Indiana’s Democratic Congressmen

http://aloyalopposition.wordpress.com/

**************

=======================

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Obama leaning toward 34,000 more troops for Afghanistan

Jonathan S. Landay

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/78516.html

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Hasan's Story Won't Be Easy To Sort Out

by Tom Gjelten

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120183526&ps=cprs

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Islam and Fort Hood

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/steve_chapman/2009/11/islam-and-fort-hood.html

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Watch "What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire"

http://www.letmewatchthis.com/movie-12208-What-a-Way-to-Go-Life-at-the-End-of-Empire

~~~

a review…

http://declineusa.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/what-a-way-to-go-life-at-the-end-of-empire/

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from and about ‘over there’

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Obama Administration Tries Limit Warlords in Karzai's Inner Circle

Cabinet of Warlords

By GARETH PORTER

http://www.counterpunch.org/porter11062009.html

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An Alternative History of the US Role in Afghanistan

http://www.motherjones.com/riff/2009/07/alternative-history-us-involvement-afghanistan

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A Line in the Sand

MAHMOUD ABBAS is fed up. The day before yesterday he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority.

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1257655700/

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Juan Cole:  Informed Comment

Ibish: "Against a One-State Solution"

Hussein Ibish writes in a guest commentary for Informed Comment

http://www.juancole.com/

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Peace and Solidarity

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"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."

- Mark Twain, humorist and author (1835 - 1910)

~~~~~~~~~~

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Attributed to George Orwell

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surf-wetsuits

Written by: love o on Nov 8, 2009 1:53 AM EST

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]-->This site help you find your wet suite fits for you http://surf-wetsuits.com/

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Thank you DFA and DFHMR

Written by: Linda Underwood on Nov 7, 2009 12:03 PM EST

While I lost my bid for Rensselaer County Legislature, I am thankful for having had the opportunity to run.  I am particularly thankfor for the support and help I have received from my friends, family and DFA.

My own loss will no dampen my spirt or my committment to help bring health care reform and other progressive ideal to our government, either through another run myself or supporting progressive candidates.

Thanks again, DFA!

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CHAPTER FIFTY TWO. WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN?

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Nov 7, 2009 10:15 AM EST

This essay is dedicated to Blackhawk Walters, a Native American storyteller, singer, writer and kickbox champion, who like me idolizes the real Billie Jack, a true champion of justice. We had a wonderful conversation about the Great Circle of Life and he shared with me the Native American story of creation. I cannot attempt to repeat it here, because it is understood that the story is to be told only by recognized keepers of the oral tradition. This seems to me to add to its validity. Let me just say that the Native Americans recognize that life arose in Africa, spread to Asia, then to North America and finally to Northern Europe, where the white man was fashioned out of the cold snow and could not tolerate exposure to the sacred sun as long as the other races. Perhaps this explains why it has taken so long for those who identify with the granfaloon of the “white” man are taking so long to begin to become enlightened as a people.

I came to church last week expecting as usual to be enlightened and to share our congregation’s joy at what our pastor had learned from others and wanted to share with us. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a member offering us strings of green and white yarn, the colors of my High School in Portland, Woodrow Wilson. Since the theme running through our sermons has been that we are all one, connected through the Holy Spirit, I took one of each, expecting that the lesson would be to join them in some way.

When our pastor told us to tie them in knots, I looked at my strings and began to tie them together to honor my mother, who brought me in to this world in pain, despite having given birth to six children before me and knowing full well what she would have to endure. I tied a second knot in the joined strings to honor my father, who gave her the seed of my paternal lineage.

Next I made a knot for the older sister who took me in, knowing that my mother was already overwhelmed with the five children she was raising, along with caring for the needs of my father. Then I tied a knot for her daughter, a constant source of delight for me, as I helped raise her when her father deserted her and my sister.

Next came a knot for the brother who died of an overdose for which I feel responsible, having abandoned my duty to always let him know of my love for him. Instead, I had judged him for failing to live up to my expectations. I had forgotten that he had already told me how much it hurt him that I always focused on his failings and never gave him credit for trying, in part because of his respect and love for me. I thought that I had been trying to make him a better person, when the truth was that I was judgmental because I was jealous that he was one of those easy talking boys so full of false bravado and charm that girls naturally gravitated toward him when he was younger. It took me a long time to live down my shame and forgive myself. I never forget this when I am tempted to judge another man for his anger, and it has helped me in my work as a psychiatrist.

Next came my other sister, who had danced a jig and laughed when she told me that “the nigger is dead,” after Martin Luther King was murdered. She was an unhappy and rebellious girl then, but has since forgotten how ignorant she was and how she had rejected my mother’s teaching to love and respect all men and women. I tied a knot for her son, who I babysat almost every week, trying to teach him not to give in to anger as a toddler and young boy. I then tied a knot for his father, a loving alcoholic like his own father.

Next, I tied a knot for my brother who represented our family in the Hell of the Vietnam War and was almost destroyed by it. He went because of his love and respect for our father, who had rescued him after his birth father abandoned my five oldest brothers and sisters. I followed this with a knot for my wonderful sister-in-law, who saved him by staying by his side after he shot himself in an attempt to escape the Hell he lived through after his experience of watching his comrades die and killing for a country and a cause for which he did not believe in, and to protect the others who shared in his misery and fear. I followed this with a knot for his beautiful daughter, another for his mildly mentally challenged son who nevertheless constantly shares in the happiness of his beautiful mother, and their brother, who seemed to me to suffer worst from the emotional neglect of his depressed and tormented father. Then came knots for the children the younger son had rescued from his alcoholic, abused wife, the women who bore these beautiful girls, and for the twin daughters they produced together and who finally released his father from the prison that Vietnam had created within him.

Next, I tied a knot for the brother who was rejected by my father in anger for reasons I have never understood, despite this brother’s pride in having taken over his business when my father was felled by a stroke at the young age of 49. That had led to much pain in my family. I followed this by tying knots for his loving wife and for his two loving daughters, his son, and their spouses and children, each of whom had touched my life and enriched it in wonderful ways.

Next came a knot for my paternal grandfather, who abused my father because of the anger from which he suffered as the result of suffering much worse abuse by his own father. My great-grandfather was a product of the German society of that time, who raised their children through the authoritarian methods that in part later led tin part to two world wars.

I am ashamed that I left out my maternal grandmother, who had lived with us for several years after she became old and alone, having been abandoned by one husband and then widowed when her loving Irish husband died suddenly when my mother was six years old, causing my mother immense pain, which helped breed the compassion that she passed on to me and my siblings. I did not know my grandmother well enough to describe her role in the family dance, but I know that she loved me, my mother and our whole family.

I was running out of string at his point, and considered leaving out my paternal grandmother, who I had only met once. Then I remembered that she was a nurse who had helped many others through their pain and sometimes comforted them as they lay dying, as does my own wife. Even though she was absent for much of my father’s life, she had given him the strength and love to endure the abuse and neglect that he suffered from his father. He had then used the love that he had received from his mother, the church in which he was raised by men who so loved God that they had foresworn the comfort of women because of their love of the Christ that they believed had done the same for the sake of mankind, saving them from Roman slavery and giving them the strength to endure persecution and preserving his message of love and compassion. I then tied the ends of the string together, completing the circle of our family’s lives.

My father went on to become a hero, saving my family from destruction, healing them from the wounds inflicted upon them, teaching them to love and respect themselves and others and giving them the strength of character to grow up to be men and women who spread their love to each other and to the people they met on their life’s journey. I aspire to continue his family’s tradition of each becoming stronger than their parents, closer to God and his son Christ. I placed the ring on my finger so that I would not forget the experience that Mary Sue had gifted me out of her love for us, Christ, God and mankind.  I silently thanked them all, and promised God that I would not forget the vow I then made to pass on this gift.

I sat as the sermon ended and reflected that I would need two whole balls of yarn to represent all the men and women, girls and boys who had touched my life personally and made me the better for it. I thought about all my ancestors, reaching back to the origins of humans in Africa, and their descendants. All had influenced my life in some way, some more than others. All helped me lead to the point in the path of my life that that I found myself. At each step, I found had myself at a crossroads of many paths, leading somewhere toward an infinity of possible futures. At times I chose my path unwisely, and once I nearly became lost when I lost my map in the midst of the pain and confusion of severe depression. But when I remembered that I always carried the map my loving family, friends and ancestors had provided me, I knew that I would never be lost and stumble down that road again.

I reflected on the strangers throughout history who had influenced my destiny. Those heroes and villains had all led me to that perfect day when I realized that I would never be alone again. All had played a role in bringing us collectively to this point in history, where we are on the verge of collectively awakening and saving ourselves from self-destruction. In that moment, I said a silent prayer for the weakness of Cheney’s black heart and faithless, frightened and angry soul. Had he not become almost hopelessly lost and led this nation to the brink of soul death, we might never have awakened to our responsibility to ourselves, our children, and all those whom we love and who love us. My heart is open to forgiving Cheney, should he miraculously realize the error of his ways and become a force for good, not evil. I pray that he will become an ally in the War to Take Back America for the People, if only to save his own soul.

I am a realist, however. I know that he has made so many poor choices that he is unlikely to find his way back to the true path to enlightenment. Thank God that there were such stubborn, misanthropic and self-deceiving people in power in the world in the world. Since most of us are more honest with ourselves and generally want to respect and love others, we will learn to work together for the brighter future at which we now find ourselves on the brink.

After I said my prayer for Cheney, I took communion and rejoined myself with the figurative and literal body of Christ. Walking away from the communion table, I left a five dollar bill on the shrine to honor the ancestors who had passed before us. I did not want the sacrifice of Lincoln to be unacknowledged. He freed the slaves from Africa. Now we must understand how he attempted to teach us to save ourselves from the dark angels of our own nature.

As I left church, I continued to reflect on this lesson. The string kept slipping from my finger, so I twisted it and made two circles, a Mobius strip that I placed on my finger. It came to me that this resembled the double helix of the DNA that enabled life to continue through the generations, joining us to our ancestors all the way back to the beginnings of humanity in Africa, where the Garden of Eden had existed before climate change caused desertification. This had forced men and women to wander throughout the world, separating by scarcity and the war. They became isolated from each other, dividing into tribes and beginning to consider themselves separate from each other. They had misunderstood the clues that God’s messengers, the angels who watch over us, had told us in the days that all men listened. We must learn to consider the revealed knowledge that God has given to the prophets of all the great religions throughout time and distance that we are all one people with a common ancestry and a connection to God. When all of us understand that, we will again become a family of man and save ourselves from the Armageddon we were warned of in Revelation.

I believe that that by trying to teach us that, Jesus has saved us from that fate, if we all go out into the world and spread His message of love and compassion for all.

In the immortal words of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band:

I was standing by my window,
On one cold and cloudy day
when I saw that hearse come rolling
for to carry my mother away.

Will the circle be unbroken
by and by, Lord, by and by?
There’s a better home a-waiting
in the sky, Lord, in the sky.

I said to that undertaker:
“Undertaker, please drive slow,
for this lady you are carrying,
Lord, I hate to see her go.”

Will the circle be unbroken
by and by, Lord, by and by?
There’s a better home a-waiting
in the sky, Lord, in the sky.

Oh, I followed close behind her.
Tried to hold up and be brave,
but I could not hide my sorrow
when they laid her in the grave.

Will the circle be unbroken
by and by, Lord, by and by?
There’s a better home a-waiting
in the sky, Lord, in the sky

I went back home, my home was lonesome.
Missed my mother, she was gone.
All of my brothers, sisters crying,
what a home so sad and lone.

Will the circle be unbroken
by and by, Lord, by and by?
There’s a better home a-waiting
in the sky, Lord, in the sky.

We sang the songs of childhood.
Hymns of faith that made us strong.
Ones that mother Maybelle taught us.
Hear the angels sing along.

Will the circle be unbroken
by and by, lord, by and by?
There’s a better home a-waiting
in the sky, lord, in the sky.

Will the circle be unbroken
by and by, Lord, by and by?
There’s a better home a-waiting
in the sky, lord, in the sky.

If you don’t believe that you are going to Heaven, then work with us to bring Heaven to Earth. If you don’t believe, you cannot see how. Believing is seeing, believe you me.

From the land of Lincoln and Barak Obama, where the winds of change blew forcefully on the anniversary of the Haymarket massacre.

Rick Staggenborg, MD

Chicago, Illinois

NEXT:  BREAKING OUR CHAINS

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