“No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”
~P.J. O’Rourke

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
~Colossians 3:12

Joe Fox: Do you ever feel you've become the worst version of yourself? That a Pandora's box of all the secret, hateful parts - your arrogance, your spite, your condescension - has sprung open? Someone upsets you and instead of smiling and walking away, you zing them? "Hello, it's Mr Nasty." I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Kathleen Kelly: No, I know exactly what you mean, and I'm completely jealous. What happens to me when I'm provoked is that I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank. Then I spend all night tossing and turning trying to figure out what I should have said. What should I have said, for example, to a bottom dweller who recently belittled my existence? Nothing. Even now, days later, I can't figure it out.

Joe Fox: Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could pass all my zingers to you? And then I would never behave badly and you could behave badly all the time, and we'd both be happy. But then, on the other hand, I must warn you that when you finally have the pleasure of saying the thing you mean to say at the moment you mean to say it, remorse inevitably follows.

"Girls are taught a lot of stuff growing up: if a boy punches you he likes you, never try to trim your own bangs, and someday you will meet a wonderful guy and get your very own happy ending. every movie we see, every story we're told implores us to wait for it: the third act twist, the unexpected declaration of love, the exception to the rule. but sometimes we're so focused on finding our happy ending we don't learn how to read the signs. how to tell the ones who want us from the ones who don't, the ones who will stay and the ones who will leave. and maybe a happy ending doesn't include a guy, maybe it's you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over, freeing yourself up for something better in the future. maybe the happy ending is just moving on. or maybe the happy ending is this: knowing after all the unreturned phone calls and broken-hearts, through the blunders and misread signals, through all the pain and embarrassment... you never gave up hope. "

The best video of this song. Period.

I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work.

And it takes no time to fall in love

But it takes you years to know what love is

It takes some fears to make you trust

It takes those tears to make it rust

It takes the dust to have it polished

It takes some silence to make sound

It takes a loss before you found it

And it takes a road to go nowhere

It takes a toll to make you care

It takes a hole to make a mountain

~Life is Wonderful by Jason Mraz

Toby : You want the benefits of free trade? Food is cheaper.

Sachs : Yes.

Toby : Food is cheaper, clothes are cheaper, steel is cheaper, cars are cheaper, phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That's 'cause I'm a speechwriter and I know how to make a point... It lowers prices, it raises income. You see what I did with 'lowers' and 'raises' there?

Sachs : Yes.

Toby : It's called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites and now you end with the one that's not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars. And that's it. Free trade stops wars! And we figure out a way to fix the rest! One world, one peace. I'm sure I've seen that on a sign somewhere.

Sachs : God, Toby...Wouldn't it be great if there was someone around here with communication skills who could go in there and tell them that?

Peek inside a chick's mind. (Be afraid, be very afraid.)
I once dated a guy who was convinced I had the ability to make any man (or woman, for that matter) fall in love with me just by my looking at them. You read that right, his position was that this hypnotizing look in my eye triggered LOVE. I'd concede I do ogle quite impressively, but firmly held that this ogling couldn't affect everyone in the same manner; plus, we all possess free will and love's a choice. He'd counter that mine was a nondiscriminatory stare and he was undividedly sanguine that this love charm would work on any person of my choosing and if I chose them, they were left without one- they had to love me.
I'm not gonna lie, back then I thought it was sweet. He'd gush about my gaze and debate if twinkle was a more appropriate word than sparkle. I'd sigh and swoon.
Looking back I (gag and then) think it's actually kind of funny that he thought I could cast some sort of magical spell that causes any partner to fall in love with me without their consent.
Funny...and just a *tad* insulting.
Because, if you think about it, it could easily be interpreted that he felt he was only in love with me because of this twinkle...er sparkle or..uhh, man. Why don't I just start dating girls?
Anyway, I'm pretty sure his theory is sort of like if a guy were to say "If I would have been sober and had my wits about me, it's possible I never would have f*cked her."
Quite the compliment, don't you think? :)

And when you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun.

Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.

Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.

A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!

Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?

How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...or right-and-three-quarters?

Or, maybe, not quite?

Or go around back and sneak in from behind?

Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,

for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

~Oh, the Places You'll Go!
by Dr. Seuss

So we've all had those days. For me, today was one of 'em. But you know what? Fuck it. As Fiddy would say, things can always get better. I'm truly convinced that life is what ya make it and when life sucks, the suckage shall endeth with you. Smile. Find something to be grateful for. For pete's sake, we *could* be this chick, and we're not. So there's that.

In the century now dawning, spirituality, visionary consciousness, and the ability to build and mend human relationships will be more important for the fate and safety of this nation than our capacity to forcefully subdue an enemy. Creating the world we want is a much more subtle but more powerful mode of operation than destroying the one we don't want.

-Marianne Williamson

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness, in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"There are so many days here where you can't imagine that anything good will ever happen, you're buried under a black fog of partisanship and self-promotion and stupidity and a brand of politics that's just plain mean...but tonight I've seen a man with no legs stay standing. . . and a guy with no voice keep shouting. If politics brings out the worst in people, maybe people bring out the best."

You may all go to hell

And I will go to Texas.

-Davy Crockett

"I was watching a television program before, with a kind of roving moderator who spoke to a seated panel of young women who were having some sort of problem with their boyfriends - apparently, because the boyfriends had all slept with the girlfriends' mothers. And they brought the boyfriends out, and they fought, right there on television. Toby, tell me: these people don't vote, do they?"

The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.

~Dodie Smith

My uber liberal Uncle Barry wrote the following words...and after reading them I can't help but wonder how less defined my conservative views would be now had I not have had this Hollywood progressive guy do such a fine job of scaring any possibly dormant crazy right out of me since a wee young age. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy. Our relationship is a source of great inspiration for me, inspiration that consistently procures measurable results. I am ceaselessly left dumbstruck by not only how strikingly different our views are on just about everything, but also by the realization that upon each new uncovering of any disagreement my respect and love for him is only strengthened. He's a real gem, a true individual and the coolest uncle a chick could ever ask for.

With that said, prepare yourself for some crazy.

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

-John Adams

(signer of the Declaration of Independence and 2nd President of the United States - one of the founding fathers the Republicans love to claim they revere while ignoring their actual words, thoughts, policies and deeds.)

John Boehner, Republican House Minority Leader, lectures President Obama on economics.
The 8-year administration of George W. Bush created the economic crisis of 2008 that laid waste to the world economy.
Barack Obama, while campaigning for the presidency, ran not only against John McCain but against the failed Republican economic policies of the past eight years; the same policies that had gotten us into that mess by 2008 and the same policies John McCain was peddling as a way to get us out of them.
President Obama is right today in arguing that a return to those policies will finish us off.A recent poll shows that most Americans correctly blame Bush for our economic woes. But what exactly are we talking about when we speak of Republican and Democratic economic policies? Is one really preferable to the other?Over the past 59 years – as long as I’ve been alive – we have done better economically under Democratic administrations. This is not an opinion. This is a verifiable fact. And facts are stubborn things. Anyone who cares to be an informed citizen can easily find this information. Except, it seems, for the Republican leadership.

• From 1948-2007 the annual Gross Domestic Product (a measure of a country’s overall economic output) grew 2.78% under Democrats and 1.64% under the Republicans.


• Family income growth from 1948 to 2005 was 2.6% under Democrats versus 0.4% under Republicans for the bottom 20 percent;


• This growth was 2.1% vs. 1.9% for the top 5%.

Even the rich do better under Democratic administrations. The Democrats have given us solid economic growth, more money than the GOP’s desperate cries for tax cuts can provide; tax cuts that wouldn’t be an issue if the Republicans hadn’t destroyed our economy in the first place.

Over the 60-year period of 1948-2007, income inequality trended substantially upward under Republican presidents but slightly downward under Democrats, thus accounting for the widening income gaps over all. The bad news for America’s poor is that Republicans have won five of the seven elections going back to 1980. If we were to follow the fear-mongering Republicans and cut taxes and slash federal government spending, the people worst impacted would be the rugged individualists in the red counties – Sarah Palin’s so-called “real” Americans.

We do not have to look far for the reasons for America’s current economic condition.

Tommy McCall, writing in the New York Times, illustrates the relative merits of Republican and Democratic economic policies. If you invested $10,000 in stock market and index securities during the 40 years that Democrats ran the country from 1929-2008, you’d have more than $300,000. The same money, if invested during Republican administrations, would yield you only $51,000 – a staggering one-sixth. If Hoover’s Administration is included, the Republican total shrinks to $11,733.

Boehner’s “Economic Plan” would increase the deficit by 3.781 trillion dollars over 10 years. This is the plan of the party of fiscal responsibility. Again, this is not opinion, this is verifiable fact. Look it up.

We can talk about globalization too, since it’s another favorite Republican rant. It turns out, though the Republicans will never tell you this, that global inequality ceased growing from 1980 to 2000 and in many respects began to shrink and that income inequalities are largest within the nations least touched by globalization. As Professor Timothy Ferris writes in his new book The Science of Liberty (2010), “Ideologues blame globalization for the world’s ills” but economists like Paul Collier know that “We need stronger and fairer globalization, not less of it.”

This may seem shocking but you have to consider that both George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan ran up huge deficits and increased the size of government, and that it was a reviled Democratic president. Clinton, who last balanced the budget and reduced the deficit. Clinton even reduced the size of government.

Reagan increased the nation’s debt from 23% to 69% of the GDP. Harry Truman shrank it 8.6% and Clinton 1.8%.

While we go into the final weeks of the pre-mid-term election cycle it is good to remember that when President Obama was elected Republicans cautioned America with regards to all the Clintonites in his administration and how following in Clinton’s footsteps would harm the country. History has proven that Clinton's policies resulted in a balanced budget and economic growth, while Bush's policies resulted in record deficits and world-wide economic collapse. We could do a lot worse than to emulate Clinton.

Boehner is apparently unaware of the irony in his words that “”Never before has the need for a fresh start in Washington been more pressing.”

We got that fresh start in 2008, Mr. Boehner. And we’re all better off for it. While things may not be great right now, they could be a lot worse. And if America listens to you, they will be.

J'adore KW. La fin.

"I want to be a comfort to my friends in tragedy, and I want to be able to celebrate with them in triumph. And for all the times in between, I just want to be able to look them in the eye. Leo, it's not for me. I want to be with my friends, my family, and these women."

I am so blessed to have the daughter, the family, the job and the faith that I do. Despite the blessings that are too plentiful to list, I sometimes end up beating myself up and focusing on all of the things I want to accomplish in my life and haven’t yet...and get a little bummed out. My mind wanders to the trips I want to take, the things I want to buy for my daughter. Then I spend time dwelling on the body I don’t yet have, the house I want to build. (A log cabin near Seattle, probably.) I want to learn a different language, cliff jump in Mexico and surf in Australia, just see the world! Driving a race car at 150mph is a must, but that probably won't come before I help run a political campaign or drive from California to New York (and stop at a hundred different places along the way). There’s a book that needs to become a best-seller and a blog that is lacking about a million hits a day that also comes to mind when actively participating in this mini pity-party.
There are even simpler things on the list, such as fall in love and preach a sermon.
In fact, I actually have a bucket list packed full of well over 200 hundred goals. Since formally constructing this list about two years ago, I’ve made maybe ten or eleven measly ticks off of it while adding more than fifty additional items to it. There are days when I fear I’ll not complete half of the goals I desire. That fear only grows when I consider the lack of time and resources I have and match it up against my dismal track record thus far.
And then, when this nearly overwhelming sense of defeat starts to seep in, I tell myself, “Lighten up, dude.” ....which seems to do the trick. It should also go without saying that with my beautiful daughter...well it is pretty darn hard to ever feel like a failure for too long.
Some days I need more encouragement, so I turn to the one thing that always has a way of uplifting my spirits: music.

Sara Bareilles’ “Many the Miles” is one of my favorites….

“I made up my mind when I was a young girl

I’ve been given this one world

I won’t worry it away

But now and again I lose sight of the good life

I get stuck in a low light

But then Love comes in”

There's real magic in music. One song can lead to one small positive action, which leads to another and another, until finally when that feeling of discouragement completely fades away. And that, at least to me, is nothing short of miraculous.

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.

-Confucius