Fun, Food and Performance Arts this Weekend!

We have an amazing community that is coming together to celebrate and support friends who have come up against difficult challenges recently. This is my kind of community insurance--people coming together in love to celebrate and benefit each other!

It will be held inside and outside. There will be music, massage, vendors, bake sale, plant sale, food, drinks, free to play! Proceeds to be split equally between all three causes:

Agent Red - one of Austin's favorite performers and sweetest friend - had an accident that is fresh on our minds, as she took a spill performing aeriel silks and broke both of her wrists.

The barn of Albert Deloach - old friend of many (no, he's not old!) - at our beloved Enchanted Forest burned down and still needs our help to get the Forest back to it's former glory.

Tonja Drymon - a great friend of the community as well - got into a horrible scooter accident that she has recovered from, but not after racking up hospital bills that are leaving her struggling as a single mom.

2 Day Event!!

Sat, 1/29 2-6pm Family Fun and

Sun 1/30 1-5pm with Kids Activities!!

Rene Geneva Design Eco Boutique

1405 West 6th Street

Austin, TX

More to be added daily!

DJ Neptune from SF

DJ el john Selector

DJ HappyHappyJames

Hauns Mill Massacre

Laura Scarborough

The Inheritance

Sick and Johnny

That Damned Band

Performance by:

Hoopsie Daisy

Sky Candy Aerial

Bellydancers

Henna by Hennakim

Massage, hoop workshops, body painting, crafts, food, drinks

& Fashion Show (if we have enough models give us a holler!)

Sponsors include:

Art Seen Alliance, Rene Geneva Design, Austin Wellness Clinic, Tin Bean Coffee

Suggested donation, raffle, and goodies. Free if need be.

What Forced Vaccinations?

I have numerous acquaintances and readers who believe there is no push for forced vaccinations. I would like to agree, but cannot. Below, I offer up two videos for your consideration and an ad for a health workers' protest in New York.

The first is Judge Andrew Napolitano commenting on the unconstitutional bill in Massachusetts that will allow the governor to declare an emergency and "allow" police to force their way into your homes to vaccinate you:

The second is of Charlie Crist who has filed a law suit regarding Florida's forced vaccination statute and has mentioned the Governor in that suit.

Here's a rally poster for Health Care Personnel who are opposed to mandatory vaccinations.

To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate? What Does History Tell Us?

The following videos are of a CBS "60 Minutes" documentary on the swine flu epidemic of 1976 regarding the government's propaganda program and response to the injuries that followed:

Come find me.

Neighbor Has the Wrong Idea? Turn Them In to the Whitehouse!

I have been making an effort to focus on and post primarily photography, music, poetry and the like lately. However, I read an article by Macon Phillips on the White House blog (Ironically titled "Facts are Stubborn Things") on Tuesday and have been stewing over it since. Macon is the White House Director of New Media.

(Photo:Zbigniew Bzdak/McClatchy News)

According to comrade Phillips:

"There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

Silly me. I had no idea it was the White House's responsibility to track all opposition to their programs. What if it is something other than fearing corporate health care designed by those we accuse of destroying the current system? Are there other addresses for other offenses? What if I disagree with bombing a country that our Congress and Senate never authorized? What if I ask about the destruction of the product life cycle? How many dissenters are being tracked? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

(photo:NiceDeb)

Since people opposing this plan are "spreading disinformation", we should turn them into the White House staff? Macon and his buddies can't keep up with everyone who is opposing it, so we need you to report your friends, relatives and neighbors to the White House so that we can knock down any dissent. The "New Media" policy appears to be to turn in fellow citizens who have dissenting political opinions from the White House.

Debates about health care, finance, defense, security and privacy will continue to rage. I just hope that our leaders find a way to participate in the discussion without spying on constituents or asking them to turn each other in for their beliefs. (My civics teacher in high school had called Russia's (1980s) government tyrannical and overreaching for instituting such policies.)

Mom and Joe Cocker

I found out, early this morning, that my Mother went into the hospital.  I was looking for a bit of music to lift us this morning and ended up at the quintessential Joe Cocker:  Woodstock '69. 

 8 minutes of "With A Little Help From My Friends".

Get well soon, Mom.

Socialize Starting with the Poor, Not the Rich

George Bush vetoed a bill to cover chilren's healthcare but insists to protect these same children he needs to give that and much more to (worst-case) criminals, (best-case)  poor business men. 

If we are going to socialize America, shouldn't we start with the poor rather than the rich?

New Documentary - Food Matters

This appears to be the next don't-miss documentary on food and health. "Food Matters" addresses health issues associated with food, genetic modifications and pesticides. You can visit the Food Matters site here.



They describe themselves as:

We are nutritionists turned filmmakers.

We discovered that what we are being told to eat by governments, food companies and mass media marketing is actually doing us considerable harm.

In a mission to uncover the truth we have tracked down several of the world’s leaders in nutrition and natural healing from around the globe in order to provide you with the most up to date information on nutrition and natural healing.

The focus of the film is in helping us rethink the belief systems fed to us by our modern medical and health care establishments. Our teachers point out that not every problem requires costly, major medical attention and reveal many alternative therapies that can be more effective, more economical, less harmful and less invasive.

Stan O'Neal's Retirement

This is the way to get fired!!!

There's this guy who lead a bank down a path that resulted in a $7.9 billion exposure to bad debt. He "retired" and is given $131,400,000 in retirement benefits and $5,400,000 in compensation.


If I remember correctly, one half of America makes less that 25K a year. Lets use the middle number of 25K, not the 50% of the people below it, as the number to put this in perspective.

For someone earning 25K a year, it would take 5,472 years to make the money this "person" was paid to leave the company and stop jeopardizing consumers and the world economy. Read more about Stan O'Neal's retirement from Merrill Lynch here.

A touch more perspective: On September 10, 2001 it was announced that the DoD was "missing" $2,300,000,000,000 (92,000 years at the same calculation) in just 365 days. That didn't get much play because of 9/11. Each year we find out about trillions more "missing" from our government. Why not hold our representatives and agents responsible? That would mean that Social Security would not be in jeopardy, everyone could have health care, and we could stop blaming immigrants and gays for the country's woes.



Don't believe any of the stuff I am telling you. Please look it up and do something!

What are your thoughts?

Kucinich Asks Himself a Question

After Dennis Kucinich received so little attention and airtime in the last debate, he apparently decided to take the bull by the horns and ask himself a question:

"Are you the only one sitting up here who advocates a universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care system which would result in all 46 million Americans who are not insured and another 50 million Americans who are under-insured for being covered."

Bill Mahr - Pharmaceutical Rant

I'm not the biggest fan of Bill Maher, but this clip made me smile. He puts forth a few interesting ideas. I'd love to hear what others think of it.

Update: Pete Stark Apology

As a follow up to the last Pete Stark post, here is his apology on October 23, 2007. I somewhat expected him to apologize for his tone or for letting his emotions get the better of him, but his apology took a much different form. With this apology, I expect his wish will be granted:

“I hope that with this apology, I’ll become as insignificant as I should be”.

(Thanks to TPM for the video)

Pete Stark's Remarks on Bush and SCHIP

Pete Stark (D-CA), lambastes the administration for being willing to spend $200 billion for an "illegal war" but not willing to help fund the SCHIP program to insure children who can't afford it.

"But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement."

I'd love to have your thoughts on his comments.