Hopeful but realistic

Image from Africawithin.com

Image by Scout Tufankjian

Now is the time

Now is the time for all good men
To get together with one another
Iron out our problems
And iron out our quarrels
And try to live as brothers
And try to find a piece within
Without stepping on one another
And do respect the women of the world
Just remember you all have mothers
Make this land a better land
Than the world in which we live
And help each man be a better man
With the kindness that you give
I know we can make it
I know darn well we can work it out
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
Yes we can can, why can't we
If we wanna get yes we can can
I know we can make it a world
I know we can make it if we try
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
Yes we can can, great, got your money
Yes we can, I know we can can

Take care of the children
The children of the world
They're our strongest hope for the future
The little bitty boys and girls

Make this land a better land
Than the world in which we live
And help each man be a better man
With the kindness that you give
I know we can make it (I know that we can)
I know darn well we can work it out
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
Yes we can can, why can't we
If we wanna get yes we can can
I know we can make it a world
I know we can make it if we try
Oh yes we can, I know we can can
Yes we can can, great, got your money
Yes we can, I know we can can
(Allen Toussaint)

Food for thought

Politics ruins friendships but here's something my friend sent me that basically confirms my views on them. Essentially we are fucked. I'm not posting this to spark a heated debate but it's nice to see that someone shares our views amidst all the leg-humping.

I recently started looking at the world of politics and our present economic situation. Shit's freaky. I mean this thing that happened last week was a hell of a thing, but it's just an indicator that something's amiss. I found out that all of our money is printed by a private corporation and that our federal tax dollars do not pay for services of any kind - those tax dollars go to the Federal Reserve. So effectively we work 20% of the year to give money to a private corporation so that we can use their money. That's been on my mind a lot these days. That and the whole Obama / McCain farce. Turns out Obama's wife is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations of which Dick Cheney was on the board of directors. Really our political structure is currently little more than puppet theater. That's on my mind a lot as well. So I make stickers about this stuff and put them on banks, Starbuck's, grocery stores, gas stations and whatever else will hold adhesives. It's not a lot, but it's something to do.

[...]

For the sake of relating the story (I think it's kinda funny):

Today I was helping a friend by running sound for him. We went and filmed this volunteer Christian legal aid clinic. It was mostly a bunch of middle aged Christian women with children (the'll probably vote for McCain). They prayed after their legal help. Kinda cool. Kinda creepy. The organizer said she would have sandwiches brought in for everyone to eat and that her assistant would get it ready. Her assistant's name was Michelle. She was very hot (probably warrants two "T"s). Michelle was African. Her family was killed by two fighting factions in a civil war. Her mother's friend tried to get her citizenship in Germany, but it didn't work. So she bought a ticket to Los Angeles. She got here when she was 15 years old (she just turned 18). She knew no one, had no job and no home. Somehow she got into some kind of foster program and got into a school. She now has a high school diploma and is attending college. My understanding is that she's been hired as a paid assistant to the legal aid people. I over heard her speaking to one of the lawyers who asked if she lost weight. She said yes. After 6 hours of filming with one ten minute break my buddy and I were dying of hunger and a little delirious. Since I ride my bicycle a lot I decided that it would be good to tell Michelle about how if you starve your body you get short term weight loss, but it's always muscle loss and that will actually hurt you in the long run in that you'll just get fatter because your body won't be processing as many calories as when it had the muscle to burn the calories. So at the end of the whole thing it occurred to me that I was in the middle of a bunch of over paid housewives who in all seriousness pray to Christ and they were watching me hit on a civil war refugee.

"So, I hear you work out . . ."


I left that last part in because I thought it was funny and totally something my friend would do.