Random thoughts

Hmm... It has been a while since I last posted here hasn't it?? The last time, we were still watching that crazy thing called the American Elections, watching breathlessly as we hoped that hope might actually triumph over a tired old jaundiced view of the world, that seemed to offer more of the same. We were wondering what the world was coming to, as the dreaded GFC continued to wend its way through the financial centres of the world, wreaking havoc on the importance that people felt they had, and generally making good old fashioned virtues like thrift, and living within your means, suddenly become sensible again, and debt suddenly becoming this toxic thing that no one wanted to touch with a 20 foot pole, or even a 30 foot Litvak ;-)

These days.. Well, some of those things have changed. We now have the unlikely situation of a coloured man elected to the role of the "Leader of the Free World" as some people still breathlessly refer to the US President. We have a Govt in Australia that seems to be doing its best to back pedal on all its good green policies. We have sports stars getting caught up in sex scandals again. We still have a GFC wreaking havoc in the world....

Hmm.. OK, maybe somethings have not changed that much..

So, what can we do?? Well, to be honest, one of the reasons I have not posted much here, is sometimes I wonder, what can we do? I mean, I am just one voice, not a particularly well known one, just one more crying out in the wilderness for something to change, for people to learn to treat each other with a bit of respect a basic human decency. For the media organisations of the world to realise that reporting is about more than just jumping on the latset band wagon and flogging it till it falls over dead like the proverbial horse, then move onto the next thing. And for Governments to realise that governing is about more than just winning the news cycle, that we elect them to do something for us as a nation (hopefully) or at least, to try to make a difference in the world for good or bad (and depending on which side of the political fence you sit, my good may be your bad). And for sport stars to realise, that just because they are adored by millions, given more money than they deserve, simply because they do something well most of us struggle to even do at all, and usually look good doing it, does not give then the right to treat other people as if they were trash, just because they can. Yes, women (and more than a few men) are going to throw themselves at you, but that does not give you the right to treat them as if they were trash, then hand them over to your mates for them to do the same. When that sort of thing happens, there is no way that anyone can honestly say that consent was obtained by all those involved. It does not matter if consent was obtained by one or 2, when you are dealing with a group situation tag teaming on one woman, every man needs to make sure that woman gives consent to them. I still do not understand why some people do not get this...

The Sarah Pain Email....

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/kilkenny.asp

Is Sarah Palin a fraud???

Daily Kos thinks so...

Sarah Palin Is NOT The Mother [Photos+Video]

by ArcXIX

Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 01:12:31 PM PDT

Yesterday, with the news of Sarah Louise Heath Palin inexplicably being chosen as a Vice-Presidential nominee, the attentive American public was also introduced to her character. Unfortunately for all of us, it was filled with multiple instances of backtracking and outright lies. While Alaskans had been giving her an 80% approval rating, recently 87% of Alaskans polled on the subject of TrooperGate believed she was lying.

Now, I've known liars in my life. Their single core problem is not with themselves, but those around them. If they're never called out on their twisting of truths and fabrications, they simply continue to make larger lies.

Well, Sarah, I'm calling you a liar. And not even a good one. Trig Paxson Van Palin is not your son. He is your grandson. The sooner you come forward with this revelation to the public, the better.

• ArcXIX's diary :: ::
• 
  

The story begins on March 6th, when Sarah decided to come forward and announce to the world that she was pregnant, a monumental occasion for an acting Governor. Republican Governor Jane Maria Swift of Massachusetts was the first sitting Governor in United States history to give birth in office just seven years before, and now here we were once again. Yet, no one could believe the news:

JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin shocked and awed just about everybody around the Capitol on Wednesday when she announced she's expecting her fifth child.

...

Palin said she's already about seven months along, with the baby due to arrive in mid-May.

That the pregnancy is so advanced astonished all who heard the news. The governor, a runner who's always been trim, simply doesn't look pregnant.

Even close members of her staff said they only learned this week their boss was expecting.

"I thought it was becoming obvious," Palin said. "You know, clothes getting snugger and snugger."

But people just couldn't believe the news.

"Really? No!" said Bethel state Rep. Mary Nelson, who is close to giving birth herself.

"It's wonderful. She's very well-disguised," said Senate President Lyda Green, a mother of three who has sometimes sparred with Palin politically. "When I was five months pregnant, there was absolutely no question that I was with child."

...

Palin said she's not aiming to take any time off from her job as governor, assuming all goes well with the pregnancy.

...

With Palin riding extraordinarily high popularity ratings, pundits have mentioned her as a potential vice presidential candidate. But she said Wednesday night she's "not pursuing or perpetuating it," adding, "I have no desire to leave my job at all as governor."

...

She's known as a fashion plate, but said she hasn't been dressing differently to cover her barely perceptible bulge.

Funny quote on her having no desire for the Vice-Presidency aside, the article is direly clear. No one knew she was pregnant, not even her own staff. Quite a feat. Why the secrecy? Sarah has never given an answer, and upon further reading, no one has bothered to ask.

Seven months into a pregnancy, and no one noticed.

Even Harry Houdini would be impressed.

And how could anyone tell? Sarah's waistline never changed. Her wardrobe still remained tight and professional. In a video posted in February (nearing five months of pregnancy at the time), Sarah is seen trim, and walking around all of Juneau, Alaska.

@5:50

..."I like running the hills, it kills me, that's why I like it, I mean it thrashes your guts..."

Not exactly terminology said by a pregnant mother. Six months into pregnancy, she attended the National Governor's Association at the White House:

After previous pregnancies (in this case, four), and at later ages, the female body is meant to adjust and show changes earlier, not later as in Sarah's unprecedented case.

On Friday, April 18th, 2008, Sarah and her husband Todd were in Dallas, Texas for a Republican Governor's Convention. They had been in town for three days already, but Sarah had yet to give her keynote speaker address on energy policy. Then early Friday morning at 4:00am, Sarah began leaking amniotic fluid. Instead of checking into a hospital, she instead made a call to her doctor, and delivered the keynote speech.

"I was not going to miss that speech," she says.

She rushed so quickly from the podium afterwards that Texas Gov. Rick Perry nervously asked if she was about to deliver the baby then.

The oddities only grow from here on, as instead of rushing to a Dallas medical facility that could treat a mother who's amniotic fluid has been draining for hours on end (made even more crucial due to the fact that this is occurring a full month prematurely), Sarah & Todd instead opted to... Fly all the way back from Texas to Alaska. A dangerous choice, as with each pregnancy (once again, in this case after four previous), a mother's window of labor to delivery grows shorter and shorter.

Aboard Alaska Airlines, the flight lasted for eight hours, with an additional landing in Seattle. The majority of commercial airlines require mothers seven months pregnant to provide a doctor's letter to fly, but Sarah did not inform the airline of her condition. Alaska Airlines is one of the few airlines that do not require such a notice, despite the possibility of an emergency landings being required in such scenarios. That said, no one on board noticed that Sarah was going into labor:

"We leave the decision to fly up to our customers and their medical advisers," according to Alaska Airlines representative Caroline Boren.

...

"Governor Palin was extremely pleasant to flight attendants and her stage of pregnancy was not apparent by observation as she didn’t show any signs of distress," Boren said.

Eight months pregnant. A 6.2 pound fetus. No one notices a visible trace. By the third trimester, a perfectly fit woman not wearing anything less than a space suit should be easily spotted as pregnant. Not in Sarah's case.

The plane then made a landing in Anchorage, Alaska. Does Sarah then visit a medical facility that can accommodate a premature birth in Alaska's most equipped city? No. She drives 45 minutes away, to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, right outside the small village she used to govern as Mayor, Wasilla. Trig Palin is then delivered one month premature, Friday night. Sarah returned to work after three days.

The inherent need to absolutely have Trig delivered in a remote and possibly ill-equipped facility for premature deliveries, where Sarah would likely have numerous contacts and pull, does not sit well. The doctor, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, approving of all of these actions borders on malpractice. Not treating leaking amniotic fluid causes infections, and time is of the essence after water breaks. Husband Todd Palin simply delivers this winner of a line:

"You can't have a fish picker from Texas," said Todd.

A poor motivation, to be sure. Another motivation began making its rounds in the Alaskan legislature, where everyone was initially shocked to hear the news.

Sarah Palin was not pregnant with child.

Her sixteen year-old daughter was.

Checking with the Anchorage High School that Bristol Palin attended, reporters were given word that her family had taken Bristol out of school due to contracting infectious mononucleosis. The amount of time Bristol was absent shifts from five to eight months.

Mono can last anywhere from two weeks to three months, but an eight month infection is a freak oddity. Yet it remains a common excuse given by girls in private & Catholic schools around the nation when pregnancy comes into play. Not the first time, not the last time.

The following photograph of Bristol has been dated late 2007:

Bristol is pregnant in these pictures. She is not carrying belly fat, which grows outwardly wide, and does not become dome-shaped. That's because fat is generally evenly distributed around the abdomen and a fetus is not. Bristol's chest is sticking out, a normal body reaction when sucking in stomach muscles.

Yesterday, the State of Alaska has also moved Sarah's photo page three different times from

http://gov.state.ak.us/...

to

http://www1.gov.state.ak.us/...

to

http://gov.state.ak.us/...

... With losses of photos from January & April.

The final point of interest is that Trig Palin has been diagnosed with Down's syndrome (aka trisomy 21). This is an interesting point, as chances of having offspring with Down's Syndrome increases from under 1% to 3% after a mother reaches the age of 40. However, 80% of the cases of Down's Syndrome are in mother's under the age of 35, through sheer quantities of births in this age group.

People like to think the vetting process is secure, and completed months ahead of time, but ABC News has reported otherwise, painting a picture of a quick vetting process for Sarah by a small, but secretive group of McCain's legal staff. A proper vetting process under those circumstances would only go so far, and the true media vetting process has just begun.

It doesn't come as a surprise that this story was never properly researched. Palin was never on the National scene for more than a few minutes at a time, and local reporting only goes so far on a governor with an 80% approval rating. However, the motivation to cover daughter's pregnancy aligns with her political standings. She valiantly did not perform an abortion, but fell into the fundamentalist way of thinking, and covered up for the illicit (but natural) action's of her daughter.

There could be calls below to delete this information. Calls that this type of information is muckraking and 'below us'. The truth is not below any progressive, nor any citizen of the world that is one heartbeat away from having Palin as leader of the free world. We simply ask that she be forthright, honest, and not waste our time with such juvenile games that anyone with eyes can see as fabrication.

Bristol Palin rightfully should be able to embrace her child in public as her own, with no shame, and no quarter. And a mother should be just as accepting.

(I did not post the pictorial evidence, but it is all available on DailyKos in the link below. It looks pretty damning to me...)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/30/121350/137

And just because people do not seem to know about it...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/health/research/30aids.html

This is an absolute scandal!!!

Because I cant really be arsed...

So, it is waaaaaaay overdue for me to write another post. But it would seem that I am totally out of the habit. So, here I am, back trying to motivate myself to post some more. Let's see what I can come up with..

First of all, in case you don't know (and you are therefore living on the moon or something!) I am working for a well known computer company. I am not allowed to say its name, but they make their own software as well as hardware, so that limits it quite dramatically. They also focus on the consumer market, not the commercial. So, as a result I spend my days teaching people how to use their computers.

Now, you do have to wonder. A company who works to make sure its computers are easy to use having to teach people how to use them... What does that say about some of my customers? Well, yes, you guessed it. Think of all those terrible but funny emails people send out about tech support. I have had most if not all of those calls. The only ones I have not had, are those that specifically only refer to windoze...

What else have I been up to?

Well, there is the Gorgeous One. I have been busy being a loving and caring partner to him.

And of course, my other crazy regular postings on various online locations, including www.bravuravox.com

Now, this is just plain nuts...

Where does this guy get off???

http://www.mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/CPAC_Address

I mean, does he seriously believe half of what he wrote? And this is the guy that CPAC wanted to get elected? Man, and we wonder why there are so many social ills in the USA????

I am not even going to bother to correct his errors in logic/whatever one by one, because it would just make me madder!!!!

And now for something tacky AND a bit funny...

Well, it seems that one of The Gorgeous One's friends is hosting a bit of an experiment on his blog. He is trying to see if creating a page of Heath Ledger jokes increases the hits he gets on his website. So far, it seems to be working. Why don't you go check them out too? All in the name of scientific research of course!!!!!

http://stilgherrian.com/internet/heath_ledger_dead_jokes/#respond

Having said that, I have to say that I find the feeding frenzy around his death more than a little disturbing. What does it say about us as a society that when a famous actor (who, when it comes down to it, is famous for pretending to be other people!) causes meltdowns on various sites across the world as people seek out the latest information on what really happened, the majority of which is pure hearsay and speculation. I think it says a lot about how shallow we are as a society and how obsessed we are with living lives vicariously through the lives of others. Not to mention, of course, that we all love a pretty face ;-)

All I can say after typing the above paragraph, is "GROW UP PEOPLE AND GET A REAL LIFE OF YOUR OWN!!!!! Life is for the living, not for the watching." And quite frankly, I think it is incredibly unhealthy for us as a society. What more really, needs to be said?

Well, so much for that!!!

Well, I did intend to work my way through "The Artist's Way" - and I will get back into it sometime soon. But, for some reason, I just did not get into it at the time. I guess I just was not ready for it then. Something about too much else to think about I guess, what with learning a new job, learning how to do said new job, learning how to deal with computers running OS from iconic computer firm that I had never used before so that I could actually help others work them, that sort of thing. So, yeah, it probably was not a good thing at the time. Having said that, I did get through the first 2 chapters so that is something. Not a lot, but it is something. What, I am not sure yet, but probably just a sign of a lack of discipline (moi? Never!!!!!) or simply that there is only so much change that you can take at the one time, and my brain had past that point. Well, that is my story and I think I should stick to it, someone might believe me. I don't know who, but someone might so I should see what happens!!!!

So, I have survived Christmas, and now we have hit the new year. If you went to watch the Sydney fireworks at midnight, they went off with a bang, huh? The Gorgeous One and I got to view them from the top of an almost harbour frontage apartment building in Potts Point. A friend of ours used to live there (the one whose glasses got held to ransom on ebay, if you know him!), over a number of years, in about 6 different apartments over that time. As a result, he was quite the popular boy, and got invited to several parties there, so we got to tag along! We got home about 4am and I promptly crashed. The Gorgeous One stayed up talking to a neighbour for a while who was walking up the street as we got home. He was asleep on the couch when I got up about 9am (sleeping in? Moi??)

So any way. Here is hoping that all of you reading this have a truly wonderful 2008! I hope that most of your dreams get to come true. We can't expect them all to, besides that would leave us with nothing to hope for, and a life without hope is pretty worthless I think!!!!

Also, if you do not know, I have also become quite active with a website on singing called BravuraVox (http://www.bravuravox.com if you want the addy). I am not entirely sure why at the moment seeing as I am not singing, but I feel it is something that is worth supporting. Not to mention, it is another spot that I get to ramble on about all and sundry. Sometimes I even have something to say!!!!! If you are interested in performing, or especially classical singing, it is worth popping in from time to time to have a read. And, best of all in our budget conscious times, it is free!!!!!! Hey, that has to be a good thing!!!!

So, having read all this, I have realised that I get quite verbose when I am recovering from the night before! I won't bother to edit it and make it shorter and tighter, because, well, frankly, I am not exactly short myself, so why should my random mumblings be either????

A couple of pics from my trip to the Botanic Gardens

Believe it or not, this was the sign promoting a display of Orchids and carniverous plants. Sex and Death, I mean, how could I avoid going in to look at it????


This was a spectacular Dendrobium, covered in flowers - it was stunningly beautiful and the pic barely does it justice....

Time for an update....

I had been meaning to post for a while now...

For a start, there is my job at "that iconic and secretive American computer co", where I get to help people fix up their computers, and generally tell people how to use programs, about half of which I have never actually used myself, apart from in training exercises. Fun hey?

Then there was the experience with my singing teacher. He told me to go away and not come back to him until I found what it was that made me want to sing, and regain my love of singing. That HURT!!! But it was also true. I had lost my love of singing. I was only going through the motions, and now that I am not singing at the moment, I am doing some fairly heavy soul searching, trying to work out why it matters so much to me. I almost feel like I have hit that "in love with the idea" stage, rather than actually loving doing. Does that make sense? It sort of does to me at the moment, but I am not sure if it will in a couple of weeks time.

In the mean time I am trying to work my way through an amazing book called "The Artist's Way", by Julia Cameron. If you ever find yourself wanting to do something creative, but not able to take that next step, pick it up. I first picked it up about five years ago, when I was in a very dark place in my life. I actually think it was one of the reasons I got through that time. Those of you that know me may guess what that is all about. I have to admit though, I did not finish all of it then, and I did not complete all the exercises, but I was well aware of the influence it had on my life and how it lifted me out of the hole I was in and helped me to get my life back into gear.

This time round I am determined to make my way through it. I want to rediscover my creative self, to refind my love of singing, to rediscover how to be the best me I can be. Which ultimately, is all that any of us can ever hope to be.

Now, one of the things that "TAW" instructs you to do, which kind of sounds silly till you actually do it, is to take "artist's dates". That is, you take your inner artist out on a date and go and do something that you want to do, on your own, just you and your sense of awe and wonder. It is part of the process, sort of a refinding a sense of self, of who you are, so that you can then find that creative side of you that has gone missing.

Last week I went to look at the Botanic Gardens. I will aim to post some of the pictures online once I set up some room for them, and edit them to an appropriate size. I also plan to do quite a bit of documenting of the artist dates I take, to try to share my sense of the world as it is, and as it could be, as I work to regain what I have lost...