December 12, 2012

It's not the Tax Rates that are killing the budget....

It's the make-up of how we tax money.

It is the preferential tax treatment of Capital Gains that is blowing holes in the amount of taxes collected.

Most of the revenue earned by those at the top of the Income Tax Rate have neatly and quietly changed their income from salary to capital gains.

December 8, 2012

Over the decades, I have had the pleasure to have met so many people from so many religions...

many ethnicities, people from bikers to bankers,exotic dancers to environmentalist, very wealthy and dirt poor. It's my joy, most of the time, to have shared a moment in life with so much different people.

I bring this up now because this is the time of year when most of us start to think about family and friends we have lost through death and those we have lost because that moment we had filled with that person was over when you parted.

I had a lot of discussions about religion over that time and I have to say that after a while when people tried to convert me or persuade me this is what I returned.

I live my life the way all modern takes on religion, at their core, practice. I say that I always treat people the way I would want to be treated. I lend a hand when I can and offer the shoulder to cry on when someone is in need.

I then explain I do not need to fear the wrath of god in order to practice what I profess. If there is a heaven, I ask them, why would a loving god deny me entrance because I did not follow your religious practice but practice what is most religions say would be a good and moral life.

Too many people think about Jesus or god or Krishna or Mohamed as a real prick to nit pick about how he/they are celebrated.

From what I understand, the best way to achieve Nirvana is to do your best as a person while living on earth.

I have to confess I was quick to retort about all that is bad about religion but now that is all I say.

I usually get a few nods as I, more often than not, kill that part of the evenings entertainment and we can all get back to backslapping, remembering what crazy things we did when young and, the ultimate conversation, politics.

December 5, 2012

The shameful vote on ratifying the UN Treaty on the rights of the disabled...

My message to my repulican senator...

Sen. Portman,

As a lifelong democrat, I just wanted to make that clear from the start, I never once wrote to the many Ohio GOP senators over the years because frankly, I do not believe I can realistically have an influence on Republicans who vote in DC.

But in this case, I feel I have to make an exception. But first, I want to tell you I was not all that concerned when you trounced Lee Fisher back in 2010 because I remembered how you had voted as a Congressperson and how well you served the country as the director of the OMB. I came to believe that you were a reasonable man. I even went so far to defend you on democratic websites more than a few times over the years.

But, for the life of me, I cannot see how you would buy in to all the crap that was flung around about today’s vote to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Seriously. Was it the fear of black helicopter brigades that made you vote no? Were you listening to the paranoid imaginations of far right citizens who believe that we are stepping closer to World Government with Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon at the helm and secret internment camps set up all over the western part of the US? Or was it because of histrionics of Right Wing Catholic who see every vote in Washington DC as one-step closer to Abortion Mills on every corner.

As a person with a disability, I see this vote as a positive way to bring the world together on a benign matter that should have been a no brainer. Who could possibly be against extending the example we, as a country set by making it easier for those of us who are disabled travel around the world?

And what about all the disabled veterans who wish to travel overseas? Does your concern for the rights of our heroes stop at the Ocean or Borders end?

Even though I know that a lot of your more right leaning constituents would never think of traveling to such a place like France or anywhere else beside England, which I understand, has yet to be condemned by the far right wing.

The point is, I thought that you were a reasonable man. But this vote shows me that you are nothing more than a craven politician who is concerned more about placating the right wing of your party than the rest of the country.

How dare you sir. Have you no shame?

December 1, 2012

What song(s) that you hear and immediately are flooded with memories or feelings…

Some special song that takes you back to an important part of your life.

Pat Methane’s Last Train Home is mine.

Now I have been listening and playing music since I turned on my tiny sounding, static full little AM radio and heard The Beatles singing I Want to Hold Your Hand. I was around 5 years old and nothing ever reached out and grabbed me like that.

Until I first heard this song.

Laurie and I had just come home from seeing my mother in FLA. She was dying of cancer. I left to come back to Cleveland and I knew in my heart that I would not be seeing her again. But my brain said otherwise.

About two weeks after we landed in Cleveland, my stepfather called my sister to say that mom had taken a turn for the worst and she had been transferred out of the cancer ward and into the area where Terminal patients live out their last few days. This was back in 1990 and the word Hospice was really used.

My step father asked if I wanted to talk to my mother and I said no, I will speak with her when I get there, trying hard to wish my mother alive.

Laurie and I drove down from Cleveland to Ft Myers and made in 23 hours. The eight ball I bought along helped a lot, a slip and the last time I tangoed with the coke.

As we pulled into Punta Gorda that night, this song came on the radio, first time I heard it. I had to pull over. I was sobbing so hard and long that Laurie was really worried about me.

I knew I had given up the last chance to tell my mother I loved her because of some macho bullshit that I was still carrying around with me and I was full of regret..

The song touched something primal in me, setting off a whole bunch of emotions that I had suppressed for the last ten years or so. I had thrown off all my addictions and bad crap and was, in that moment, at the best place in my life up until then. I was strong, sure of myself and confident about our future.

Thinking back, the last time I saw my Mom she must have seen how life had fallen together for me. Out of the three of us, I was the one who was on shaky ground due to my troubles with booze, drugs and stuffing myself with unhealthy food.

When she drove with us to the airport just two weeks before I got that call, she just smiled and waved at me, all bundled up because the drugs she was taking made her cold even in the Florida summer.

Sorry I am going on about this but that thread about guitar solos brought back just how powerful a song can be...

BTW, Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow reminds me of the feelings I had when Bill Clinton was elected. That was their theme song.

November 27, 2012

I want to thank each and every person who wish me well in my thread about my Lung Transplant...

I got some good news, some sobering news and also clarified a whole bunch of what will be happening in the next few years.

I'm still trying to get my head around all that happened today and I don't want to set it out for everyone before I have it all clear in my own mind.

I guess what I wanted to say is that before I left to head over to the Cleveland Clinic I took a peek at my post from the night before and I was overwhelmed by all the support.

I felt as if I had a village behind me because that is what it takes to help people through life changing moments.

I have to admit that I was a cynic until I found DU. And I have to admit that I thought the notes of good wishes that make DU so human to so many of us were just toss away notions, ephemeral nothings, if you will.

But after all the support I have received from people here and the friends I have made off the board who are connected to DU makes my life richer.

I promise I will be laying out what is going to happen in the next few months in greater detail when i put a day or two between today and how I tell everybody what happened. I have a lot of Friends who read my blog for so many posts that I feel explaining everything on a post would satisfy people here and in all the other parts of my life that have converged on my blog.

I am exhausted both physically and emotionally and I need to take a breath and try to fall asleep.

Again, thank you all for being there for me....

Christopher Green

November 26, 2012

Tomorrow I head off to the Cleveland Clinic for a full day of testing about my Lung Transplant

This is a big one because this is the first one I have a sit-down (lay-down?) with the shrink.

Anyway, we will get there at 7:30 and have a ton of tests and meetings. by the end of the day I will have some idea of how the process proceeds from here on end.

DU has been a godsend to me, a place where I could escape from the troubles of the day and jump into a world that is far removed from my day to day hum drum.

So know this, I will be thinking about DU all day long. Thank you all for being there for me over these last 8 years. I don't think I would have been able to deal with all of this if I didn't have this place to prop me up...

November 24, 2012

One BIG thing most people forget....

Is that the eradication of lead from pipes and paints and gasoline has reduced the violent tendencies of people and so we have a drop off of violent crime.

Lead poisoning is what many believe made the Romans so aggressive and so brutal. They used lead, because it was a metal they could work with, because it was pliable in almost every aspect of their lives.

Here in this country, one could look a NYC, which was undoubtedly shown as one of the most violent city in the USA. Most sociologists claimed that the crime rate was due to poverty and loss of hope while being surrounded by the riches of a capitalistic society. Of course that is one major part of the puzzle. But it was the removal of lead from so many things we used on a daily basis that scientist now look as a major cause for that drop in crime.

And then there was Giuliano who just happened to be there at the right time as the age of people who are most likely to turn to violent crime, men between te ages of 15-25, was the first generation to have most of the lead taken out of their environment.

Add to that the legalization of abortion and the pill both allowed women to make a choice concerning how and when they would become mothers made for a lot less kids who where shunned because they were not wanted.

It's fascinating to me all the different tangible reasons for the drop in crime rates. To me, this proves that we are all a product of our environment.

This is a link about what caused the steady drop n crime that started in the late 1990's and continues till this day...


In the 1990s, after decades of relatively steady increase, crime rates in the United States
began a sharp and surprising decline. Researchers have investigated many possible explanations
for this decline. Most recently, Levitt [2004] argues that the decline in crime in the 1990s is
primarily explained by increases in the number of police, the size of the prison population, the
waning crack epidemic, and the legalization of abortion in the 1970s. This paper argues that the
removal of lead from gasoline in the late 1970s under the Clean Air Act is an additional important
factor in explaining the decline in crime in the 1990s. The main result of the paper is that changes
in childhood lead exposure are responsible for a 56% drop in violent crime in the 1990s.

http://www3.amherst.edu/~jwreyes/papers/LeadCrimeNBERWP13097.pdf

There was a NYT article that I posted some time back in the 00's that first brought this to my attention.

Anyway, it just gives us another way how environment can really have profound effects on us all in ways we never see.

November 23, 2012

You know what I am thankful for...

I know this may sound petty and all considering all the stuff that is going on around the world and such, but I am thankful that most of the big networks are embracing the redefinition of what a family is in the 21st century...

Look at all the openly gay couples and the bi-racial couples and the extended families that are portrayed as normal.

To me that shows that the future is now as far as the acceptability of the new normal that all the crazy people on the right are railing against.

Change is here and it's not going to go back no matter what the bigots and haters and deniers say.

Things have changed so much since I was a child that I kinda almost don't care that I am NOT flying around in my air-car.

The opening up of our country in such a way that still shines a beacon for the worlds repressed is the best thing we have going today.

It's as if suddenly racism and homophobia and all the other constructs built on hate and fear and loathing that have stood in the way of America going to the future are almost not relevant. Sure there are a lot of people out there who still hate just because that is all they know, but I think that is all crumpling faster than a sandcastle meeting high tide.

We still have a lot to do but the big stuff that has divided us as a nation for most of our history is falling away so rapidly, so clearly that I can only say I am glad to be alive and happy to be thankful for what is going on...

November 21, 2012

"We ate so poorly that the Hobo's wouldn't come to our house..."

This one quote, from an older gentleman talking about his childhood, sums up the desperation that was his while living through the the Dust Bowl years.

Ken Burns has done it again, turning his talents, cameras and his sense of empathy on one of the greatest ecological disasters in recorded history.

10 years the dry winds ripped down from Canada and scoured all the top soil that was exposed by the indiscriminate practices of the farmers who flocked to get at the cheap land. They ripped up the deep rooted natural grasses and so set the table for their own destruction.

It's heartbreaking and also sobering in the sense that we are never that far from natures wraith. Especially when we jump into action putting profits first and everything else can just go to hell.

Only thing is, the only going to hell is those who are stuck to deal with the consequences.

To me, this is an answer to all those climate change deniers who say how can man change something as awesome as nature. Well Sparky, watch the four hour film about the Dust bowl and you will see first hand how man can gin up Mother Natures furry by ignoring the consequences of those actions.

November 20, 2012

there is no oil there....

Whats he doing over there?

Seriously, that is what we would expect from Bush. President Obama is reaching out to the new democracies around the world to show them what is possible.

Seriously, having a African American as president in the US is a big deal. It shows that anything is possible if you set the rules so that anyone can aspire to leadership. It's the best example of what the US represents; anything can happen if you let freedom flourish.

I know, I know, I sound like some dewey eyed kid who has never tasted the reality of our country. But I have and so I know that the Obama election came exactly at the same time.

Think about it, we could have had one term of Bush, two of Clinton, two of Bush and then two of Clinton. It really could have happened.

I think that having Senator Obama reach out and take the reigns of power from media proclaimed dynasties will bode very well with our future.