This novel is diverse and it suits the needs of any reader. It contains adult situations and is a very easy read. The pages are in large print and the book dimensions are a comfortable size. The price is 10.95 suggested retail, however you may visit sites and possibly find the novel cheaper. This book is also available in e-book format for a small fee. You may download and share with clients.

You will be please with the exploding twist to this novel. The Gentle Rapist is not your everyday mundane novel with an expected end. You will not figure this out. If you are frustrated with reading a book and feeling as if you've read it before, then this book is for you. When you are done pass it on to a friend.

Visit www.erickacourtney.com visit www.bn.com www.booksamillion.com this novel is located where good books are sold. If not in stock, simply order and expect your novel in the mail.

Thank you

Empathy, Mutual Recognition and Feelings of Love

I truly hope that readers won't mind my writing this message that attempts to convey some sense of tranquility. One of the most wonderful opportunities made available and nurtured by writing on the internet is that there arise moments of inspiration which can beget an artistic container enclosing, and a liminal space that relates to, differing personal and public interests with a variety of perspectives. In my case, the art of blogging or writing on the internet evolved or transmuted into a focus upon creative blog composition. My earlier compositions were somewhat lengthy expressions of my understandings of and perspectives on contemporary psychoanalysis, clinical psychology, art, photography, diversity (including the rights of persons in the GLBTTQSA community and other ethnic/minority groups), politics, multimedia and music.

My current blog compositions tend to be short and condensed, but which at the same time embrace several layers of meaning. For example, this composition simply consists of a photograph, this descriptive and interpretive introductory text and a 60-second short-film. A later post might consist of just a single thoughtfully chosen photograph. Regarding this particular composition, in the midst of our current climate of heatedly divisive national political discourse, worrisome economic stressors, environmental and energy concerns and ongoing involvements in international crises, I thought that it might be helpful to offer readers a small oasis, a few moments of thoughtful calm and, perhaps, serenity.

Empathy is a one-minute short film that was a Regional Winner in the 2008 British Academy Film Awards. It is a film of elegant simplicity, which demonstrates how people of different generations can briefly be united by even small gestures of empathic mutual recognition. Empathy reveals how even very young children are capable of showing their passions from an early age. In this short film, the brilliant young actor is able to convey a deeply touching sense of truly heartfelt empathic compassion from which many of today's adults could well learn.

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Empathy: A Foundation for the Complexities of Love

Please Remember Me and Bookmark This:

Kitten has a mind, she has hopes dreams and desires, she has expectations and beliefs and those all stem from her mind, a tool she uses daily and it serves her well at times, but there is a part of kittens mind that she uses to store thing, a locked door if you like that she keeps things hidden, closed away from the rest of her so she cannot be hurt by them, cannot let them into her life and take from her, that part of kittens mind is somewhere she tries not to go but invariably there are times when the door gets opened and things crash into the rest of her mind, taking over, controlling her, kitten struggles to push them back, hurrying to slam the door on them, she can’t let them in, she needs to keep them closed off and not give them room inside her, to do this could and most likely would break her, something she fights not to let happen.

Kitten is a pain slut, she can take being tied and whipped, she loves the feel of the paddle on (and in) her pussy, the sweet sharp pain that excites her and pleases her, nipples pinched and clamped tight, ankles tied tight as her body is stretched open for His pleasure (and ultimately hers as well) This is physical pain, a wonderful feeling if it is something you enjoy, so why does emotional pain hurt her so bad? Why can she not deal with that as well? Why does she need to shut down that part of her and hide it away?

Kitten knows that the way she will deal with this is to ignore it, put it in that room in her mind and close the door hard on it , not mention it, not let it have any space in her active mind, There are still things that kitten has to do to take this to the conclusion that she knows must happen, and that will be hard, she doesn’t know if she is strong enough to do it, she knows it will hurt so many people not least of all her, can she do it ? Will she have the strength? kitten really wishes she had a time machine, she would turn the clock back and do things differently but that is not to be and so she locks her mind, closes it off and turns to the world and smiles, showing them what they expect to see, telling them what they expect to hear, supporting them as they expect her to, these things she can do as in doing them she doesn’t need to think about her own pain.

Don’t mention it, don’t talk about it, close it away, and then kitten will be fine, she is all singing all dancing and that is how the world will see her, nothing can touch her, nothing can hurt her anymore

Of course, it is easy enough to come up with an ideology that espouses the supremacy of one over the other.  But so many ideologies tend to be dysfunctional in practice.  Hell, perhaps all ideologies are dysfunctional in practice.  So, in striking a balance between the individual and the community, we are often left with nothing more farsighted than trial and error.

The Midwestern town I was raised in was back then a thriving little rural community of about 2,000 people who lived in the town, and perhaps another thousand or two who lived in the surrounding country.  In many respects, the basic unit of that community is not the individual, but the family.  By American standards, the families there are ancient.  That's to say, most families have roots in the community that go back at least a hundred years.

It seems all the ancient families are to one extent or another connected.  My mother, who is an amateur genealogist, has spent years documenting their connections, and she has by no means exhausted the subject.  Perhaps more than in any other way, the community is welded together by those family connections; although to be sure, there are many ways people are connected.

People there "place" you by your family name.  Growing up, I was unaware of how much my family name protected me until a friend pointed it out one afternoon.   Terry said -- with a hint of resentment -- that had she gotten into the same troubles I'd gotten into, she'd be in jail; but with my name, I was still free.  At first, I argued with her.  But her words started me thinking, and in the end, I could see she was largely right.

Her family were newcomers to the town: They'd only been there a few years.  Her family was wealthier than mine, but family name trumped wealth.  I was protected. She wasn't.

We were friends because we were our class rebels.  And yet our rebellion was in almost all respects laughably slight.  At least any outsider would laugh at the poor extent of our youthful rebellion.   On the other hand, many in the community were threatened even by such a poor showing as ours.  For instance:  Terry and I once publicly criticized the quality of education we were getting and demanded better.  Consequently, we were called everything from ungrateful fools to dangerous radicals and idle troublemakers. I've sometimes thought: If that town were to put an honest motto on its city seal, the motto would need to be, "Don't rock the boat."

Yet, if you want to live in a stable environment with an organic social security net, get yourself born into a small community.  At least, the small community I grew up in excelled at providing stability and at looking out for each other.  The price paid for that stability and security was you could barely do anything without taking into account its repercussions on a dozen people.  Folks were so interconnected -- and not just by family alone -- that sneezing on Smith was sure to cause Jones to take cold a month later.   Hence, many innocent kinds of individual expression and accomplishment were -- to put it mildly -- frowned upon.

Most likely because of the community I was raised in, I am quite skeptical of ideologies that espouse the supremacy of community over individuals.  So far as I can see, anyone who puts such an ideology into practice is, at the very least, asking for a repressive mediocrity.

Yet, I've seen the other side too.  I've known "communities" where people do not know the name of their next door neighbor; where adults live in habitual suspicion of each other; and where kids have no support growing up from anyone outside of their immediate family and a few teachers.  Those "communities" produce their own set of problems. For one thing, they seem to encourage in us no important life goals other than to raise up the next generation and ourselves be good consumers.  Again and again, one hears from people living in those "communities" that life seems unfulfilling, aimless, even meaningless.  In the end, too little community is just as repressive of human well-being and excellence as too much community.

So, for me, it comes down to striking a functional balance between the community and the individual.  And I'm not even sure that's possible anymore.  But I sometimes ask myself how our species ever managed it before today's stifling developments.

Of course, we evolved as hunter/gatherers living for most of the year in small bands.  So, if you want to understand one likely way our ancestors struck a balance between the community and the individual, it is possible you can do no better than to read Ruth Beebe Hill's extraordinary work, Hanta Yo -- for Hanta Yo is about hunter/gatherers.

Hill was an anthropologist who lived among the Lakota -- the Native Americans more widely known as the Sioux -- and who wrote Hanta Yo in order to quite accurately depict how the people of that nation lived from shortly before the arrival of the Europeans until, as I recall, the mid-1800s.  The format is that of an historical novel, but the effort Hill put into the work is pure scholarship.

According to Hill, the Lakota of that period were radical individualists who nevertheless directed their energies predominantly towards the welfare and betterment of their nation.

As individualists, they put even John Wayne to shame.

Freedom of choice was so crucial to the Lakota, for instance, that they could not bring themselves to prevent an infant from crawling into a campfire.  They might try to distract an infant from crawling towards a fire, but if the infant did not choose to be distracted, the Lakota would not prevent it from exercising its freedom to do as it pleased -- so radical was their individualism.

Yet, as community minded folk, the Lakota rivaled Barak Obama.  That is, they had what we might today call "a highly developed sense of community service".  Often enough, the thing that mattered most to them was the well-being of the nation.  In our own day and age, we might be prone to cynically dismiss their extreme community mindedness as "idealism".  Yet, the Lakota managed to make a practice of it.   It was not idealism to them, but their way of life, and it made just as much common sense to them as their radical individualism.

The Lakota, then, achieved a functional, sustainable way of life that balanced the needs of the individual with the needs of the community.  No small accomplishment for our species of chimpanzee.  Yet, today, it seems rare to find an individual who pursues with equal passion both personal excellence and the greater well-being of his or her community.

Everyone of our ideologies claims it strikes the perfect balance between the individual and the community, while in practice, none of them actually do.  It seems our ideologies have either lost what it means to achieve personal excellence or they have lost what it means to achieve community.

It is arguable we cannot flourish without both.  If we do not appear to be a species that evolved to live alone like bears, neither do we appear to be a species that evolved to live in a collective like bees.  Our well being does not lie with the bears and the bees, but with recognizing the unique and peculiar nature of our own species.  So far as I can see, the Lakota -- although imperfect -- came closer to doing that than we have.

Why does any of this matter?  I suspect it matters because ideologies are like road maps.  They are guides that predict if we take this road or another we will wind up either here or there.  But all our current ideologies -- both of the right and the of the left -- are so inadequate it seems none of them can in practice be implemented without leading to horrendous repression.  One might even be forgiven for cynically believing our current ideologies are each of them a mere guise to mask the exploitation of the many by the few.  So, even though the Lakota way of life is not one we can adopt today, we might still learn something valuable from it.  We might even learn enough to correct our maps.

How much more diplomacy with Iran before the Mad Mullahs slam Israel with a nuclear tipped missile? HUH?

Weston European nations including Great Britain, France, and Germany, are once again trying to “talk” Iran out of continuing to enrich uranium to weapons grade.  Once they have accomplished that, would anyone care to hazard a guess as to how long until they choose Israel as a target for a “test” fired missile?

The Mullahs are rather enjoying the “Jaw-Jaw” of the westerners.  It makes them feel important.  Much the same reason they feel it necessary to build nuclear weapons.  That have a gigantic inferiority complex and all the attention from the west strokes their HUGE egos into believing they are something more modern that a backwards 13^th century, third-world nation state.

I am beginning the think it is a “toss up” as to which nation is at the top of the hit list in the War on Terror.  Syria, or Iran. Surely we must hit one or the other, or both.  Both have a lot going for them as they vie for first place on that list. 

Syria, while a pain in the backside of the world, is not really threatening anybody outside of their immediate circle of Middle Eastern neighbors. 

Iran, on the other hand, is a different story.  Once they have mounted those nuclear warheads on the missiles they already have, they can strike far outside the Middle East and deep into Europe. I still feel their first target will be Israel, simply because they know the minute they light up the first nuclear missile, the US will blast them back into the Stone Age.  So they have to make that first shot count.  It may be their last.  Their deep-seated hatred for Israel will not allow them to chance losing an opportunity to visit death and destruction upon the Israelis.

Even more worrisome behavior, by Iran, is their rumored support of Hamas and Hezbollah in South America.  If true, that puts them clearly inside the US sphere of influence.  The presence of Hamas and Hezbollah in the “tri-border area” of South America (Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay) and, recently, in Venezuela have not gone unnoticed by US intelligence agencies.  The US may find it necessary to clean up around it’s own doorstep in the near future.  It is, indeed, an area that needs intense scrutiny.

Meanwhile, the Europeans seem to have learned nothing from two world wars, nothing.  They are still, to this day, attempting to placate their adversaries by bowing and scraping and diplomatically “kissing-up”.   They had better wake up and get a grasp on the situation.  You see, their perennial protector is sorta busy.  The US has its hands full, right now.  The US is, as they say, otherwise occupied. 

The point of all this rambling is to say simply, it’s time to stop talking with Iran and start doing.   Take out a few of their nuclear installations, their enrichment plants, and such.  That will get their attention.   They do not believe the West has “the stones” for it, so they simply disregard all the diplomatic blather and continue their menacing ways.  The quickest way to get them to the negotiating table is to slap them around a little.

It is trite to say, I know, but the Iranians understand power and the application of power.  Sad to say, our European cousins, apparently, do not.

We have said for a very long time now that the US is in Iraq to stay. They have constructed permanent military installations there and I do not see the US giving up this “forward” position for US ground troops in the Middle East. Besides, with our continued presence in Iraq, we have or friend (Israel) close… and our enemy (Iran) even closer!

J. D. Longstreet      

Are they law-offenders?

Is killing them a way of punishment?

If so, the government might as well just dissolve this course or discourage people pursuing this field, so as to avoid any element that could go against their way, to save as well the lives of those who wanted to practice objectivity. The way I see it, as long as there are journalist, whom I noticed whose work is only to whistleblow the irregularities they observed upon certain concern in a faction of a nation, a major percentage of those in authorities cannot have their goodnight sleeps.

I observed that this world is not as free as I thought it could be.

I happened to encounter this site of the National Union of the Journalist of the Philippines: http://www.nujp.org/media%20killings%202008.htm

On Tuesday, I schlepped to Minneapolis to attend Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic. Wow! What a shindig! The Target Center was bursting with the energy of over 10,000 passionate patriots. And these people weren't straight-down-the-line republicans. Anything but, in fact. I’ve never seen such an eclectic mix of politically active people gathered under one roof to support a common cause. You literally had everybody: down-to-earth farmers and spiffy, self-made entrepreneurs; the hardcore religious right and liberal, anti-war hippies; craggy, old seniors and young, counter-culture students; well-educated intellectuals and no-nonsense rural folk; bearded, tattoo-covered bikers and body-pierced bohemians; hunters, homemakers, republicans, democrats, independents, libertarians, whites, blacks, Asians, Arabs, Indians, Latinos—and everything in between. If I hadn't already been familiar with the “revolution” culture, I would've never guessed that everyone was there to support the same guy, a simple doctor and congressman that embodies a singular principle: liberty. For me, seeing the diversity of supporters reinforced Paul’s oft-repeated explanation of his following: freedom is popular and it brings people together.

Of course, everyone subscribes in varying degrees to Paul’s strict constitutional philosophy. But he doesn’t care that you don’t believe 100% in some 30-point program. He just says it as he sees it and lets you buy into whatever you want. And precisely because of that, these people see him as a principled political leader, a maverick fighting for the freedom that America now largely takes for granted.

Now, I have to mention one little experience that I think says a lot about the phenomenon of the revolution movement. During Paul's speech, a young college girl, sporting a stud the size of a small marble pierced in between her chin and bottom lip, came and stood in the row in front of me. As Paul, a 73-year-old, baggy-eyed, white-haired man, humbly elaborated on things like the vices of the Patriot Act and the virtues of sound money, this slightly rebellious-looking girl was screaming at the top of her lungs “I love you, Ron Paul!” Crazy, eh? Just one more sign that this movement is for real. It’s not going away. The appeal of liberty is too broad and its momentum is too great. And this is just the beginning.

Scoopit!

Adam likes meat, but the UN would prefer you not to enjoy this :-

Or this:-

To give but two examples.

Adam is all steamed up about an article in the UK Observer dated 7 September and some of the implications.

UN says eat less meat to combat global warming.

People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world's leading authority on global warming has told The Observer

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.

His comments are the most controversial advice yet provided by the panel on how individuals can help tackle global warning.

Pachauri, who was re-elected the panel's chairman for a second six-year term last week, said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems - including habitat destruction - associated with rearing cattle and other animals. It was relatively easy to change eating habits compared to changing means of transport, he said.

Adam's emphasis.

Climate change is fast becoming an attack on many aspects of our daily life.

Dr Pachauri is a vegetarian. To be truly effective though we would have to cut back on dairy as well

Adam for one does not intend to let the UN, nor it's acolytes in NZ Labour and the Greens determine whether or not he should change his dietary habits in regard to meat, or dairy.

First it would be voluntary. Probably though that would not work, so then the control freaks would step in to regulate and compel - all to do good. If you think Adam is dreaming then read on. Along the way think about the economic damage - whole economies would be devastated. Then read this:-

In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,' said Pachauri. 'Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there,' said the Indian economist, who is a vegetarian.

Adam's emphasis above and in the following comment.

However, he also stressed other changes in lifestyle would help to combat climate change. 'That's what I want to emphasise: we really have to bring about reductions in every sector of the economy.'

So is to save the planet we destroy progress, economies and employment. Further see this comment here:-

Pachauri can expect some vociferous responses from the food industry to his advice, though last night he was given unexpected support by Masterchef presenter and restaurateur John Torode, who is about to publish a new book, John Torode's Beef. 'I have a little bit and enjoy it,' said Torode. 'Too much for any person becomes gluttony. But there's a bigger issue here: where [the meat] comes from. If we all bought British and stopped buying imported food we'd save a huge amount of carbon emissions.'

See the protectionists see this as a further way to promulgate the concept of food miles. In fact there should be wider spread protests as the impact of what is contemplated is better understood.

Why can people not see that the global alarmists would, if they get their way, stop many poor countries improving their lot and ruin the economies of others as NZ for one would go down the gurgler if some of the wilder flights of fancy of the alarmists are allowed to take hold, for example restrictions on flying putting an end to tourism, not buying imported food -shutting down the dairy and meat industries. Where these alarmists think they are going to get their industrial goods from God only knows and he/she is not telling.

Fewer or no cows - no leather for shoes or clothing or furniture amongst other examples. No by products for bio fuels amongst other things. Fewer or no sheep, no wool for clothing or carpets. Yet with the forecast decline in oil, will we not need wool to replace artificial fibres.

Tomorrow, Pachauri will speak at an event hosted by animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming, which has calculated that if the average UK household halved meat consumption that would cut emissions more than if car use was cut in half.

The group has called for governments to lead campaigns to reduce meat consumption by 60 per cent by 2020. Campaigners have also pointed out the health benefits of eating less meat. The average person in the UK eats 50g of protein from meat a day, equivalent to a chicken breast and a lamb chop - a relatively low level for rich nations but 25-50 per cent more than World Heath Organisation guidelines.

So the animal rights nutters also get in on the act. It would not stop at meat, probably dairy would then be attacked for as below:

Last year a major report into the environmental impact of meat eating by the Food Climate Research Network at Surrey University claimed livestock generated 8 per cent of UK emissions - but eating some meat was good for the planet because some habitats benefited from grazing. It also said vegetarian diets that included lots of milk, butter and cheese would probably not noticeably reduce emissions because dairy cows are a major source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas released through flatulence.

Does that mean all the sacred cows in India would go, plus water buffalo herds in Asia?

Every day this whole climate change business gets more and more out of control.

In New Zealand if the IPCC gets it's way we will not need an ETS as the majority will have left and the rest will be eking a living from subsistence farming and regressing over time to the stone age as the economy goes backwards.

No doubt what remains of a government, travelling by canoe to say Australia, will claim world leadership in combating climate change. But who will care.

Ok, somewhat fantastical , but daily more and more nonsense is promulgated and scenarios where everything is regulated in order to save the planet become more prevalent, so that one is forced to ask why bother? Sometimes ridicule may be the only thing that causes sense to break through.

Truly we are succumbing to the tyranny of those who to save us would first enslave us - the climate change jihadists.

     When a government controls some of the biggest investment and lending organizations in the country, what is that but socialism?  Call it progressive if you want, or call it liberal, but it is practically the definition of socialism.

     At least this article makes it clear that taxpayers are really the ones who are providing the money to bail out these mismanaged companies.  Honest, decent working people who did not choose to provide risky loans to people who could not pay them back will be  forced to pay for those mistakes.  It is a clear case of redistribution of capital and of the socialist principle that we all share equally in each other's success or failure.  No thanks.

     Our controlled economy has not worked very well.  From the time of our Founding, America has prospered and grown economically.  But as it has done so, those in high office have gotten greedy.  In the name of "helping" people they have gradually increased taxes, created a gargantuan bureaucracy, and stifled economic growth and the formation of new businesses.  Couldn't we at least try a free market system?

     If you look at the potential for growth that our country has had since the beginning, can you even imagine where we would be today if the government had let the economy grow unhindered?  It's too bad that it is an unrealized dream.

Breaking News Saturday  9-6-08 7:40pm PST:  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is poised to announce that he is Taking Over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and placing them under government conservatorship.  This means they are going to make you pay for other peoples criminal activities.  More analysis will be added to this post as news is released - So Keep Coming Back!  YourMortgageOrYourLife.com

They got rich, you get the bill.  And your kids.  And their kids.  And their kids, etc.... 

From Feed Reports: 

Paulson met with Fannie Mae Chief Executive Officer Daniel Mudd and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron yesterday to tell them of the decision to put the companies into a conservatorship, where they would be removed from their jobs, according to a person briefed on the discussions. A public announcement is expected this weekend, the person said.

The decision follows the Treasury chief's repeated comments to lawmakers in July that he wasn't likely to use taxpayer funds to prop up the federally chartered, shareholder-owned firms hit by $14.9 billion in losses the past year. The shares of both companies slid since Paulson won powers to inject unlimited funds in the companies, and their borrowing costs rose.

Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world's biggest bond fund, and other large investors may put in their own money once the Treasury decides to inject government funds, Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer at Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, saidyesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview.

``They have to open their wallet,'' Gross said, predicting that the Treasury will act this weekend before the Federal Housing Finance Agency releases an assessment of Fannie's and Freddie's capital.

About 61 percent of Gross's holdings were mortgage-backed securities as of June 30, mostly debt guaranteed by Fannie, Freddie or government agency Ginnie Mae, according to data on Pimco's Web site.

So here are these rich assholes salivating at the chance to rip us off again.  They ripped us off when they screwed us on our mortgages.  They ripped us off when they told us to pull our equity out of our homes and spend it.  They ripped us off when they set up the government to bail out their risky investments with our money.

Now they are going to get rich off of the bailout - investing money they stole from us, taking advantage of their access and influence over the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the SEC, the Commerce Department, and on and on.  Thos same people who like to watch my website, and others (We have have the records if you want to see them...).

They are stealing from us and all of our descendants for as long as you or I can expect to matter to anybody - hundreds of years or more. 

You and I, our names and our lives will long be forgotten before the American People will pay off these debts they are foisting upon us today.  They are laughing at us and counting their money, they laugh because they know we are lazy, complacent fools who will not lift a finger to defend ourselves from their thievery.

They know we are all more captivated by the prospects of electing the first Black President - even though Barack Obamais not experienced enough. They need to flip that ticket and put Joe Biden on top, or it's all just a show.  Experience needs to be the requirement, not camera appeal.

They know we are all too preoccupied with the pretty, bombastic Redneck babe who unexpectedly emerged from the woods of Alaska to burst on to the national political scene - who could be one (very old) heartbeat from the most powerful posts in the world?  Are we that stupid?  

Are purely superficial qualities like speechifying and good looks more important than knowledge tempered by experience?  Are we that ripe for fascism? 

They laugh at us because they know they stripped our education system it's effectiveness, and left us all full of factoids, but no ability to string them together into a coherent argument, or coherent thought.

They laugh and count their money because they know we will take it in the ass with a smile - just give us a good fall TV schedule.  We'll vote if it's not too inconvenient.  We'll vote for the guys who are screwing us blind.

Expect the unexpected in the markets this week - there may be some big winners, depending on Paulson's plan.  There are definitely some big losers - You and Me.  Read on...

Briefing Campaigns

Paulson gathered with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, FHFA director James Lockhart, Syron and Mudd in Washington. The Treasury plans to brief Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign team today and has contacted Republican contender John McCain's staff about its intentions.

The meetings come a month after Paulson hired Morgan Stanley to advise on any use of taxpayer funds to recapitalize Fannie and Freddie, which account for almost half of the $12 trillion mortgage market. A government takeover would be the latest attempt to blunt the impact of the yearlong credit crisis, after the Fed provided financing for Bear Stearns Cos.'s takeover by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Earlier in the year, I was at a weekend in NY with Marcia Wieder - America's Dream Coach, and she signed this lovely little book that she had just published, for me.   I found a wonderful quote which is so in alignment with our discussion around conserviing energy.  I hope you enjoy it as much I did....

Quote from Marcia Wieder – America’s Dream Coach

Book: Dreams Are Whispers From The Soul

No More, Now What?

When asked to do something, do you open up a jam packed calendar to squeeze one more thing in to an already over scheduled life? Before we can create new dreams we need to make room for them.

Is it time to give up something you have outgrown? Are you ready to quit something that is no longer ture for you and that no longer nurtures or fulfills you?

When your kids need you or you are under a deadline at work, you don’t always have a choice. But when offered a choice, if you are invited to do something that you don’t have to do or don’t want to do, consider saying, ‘No, thank you.’

Clear away some clutter to make room for new dreams.  As you say, ‘no more’ to what’s no longer true for you , to those activities, habits, even relationships that are not aligned with how you want to live your life, you make room to ask, ‘Now what?’

With new found friends, energy and time, what would you say ‘yes’ to? What would you say ‘more’ to?  What dreams would you schedule into your life?

While helping people create or discover new dreams, two of my favourite words are, ‘What else?’  What else would bring you more joy and fulfillment, what else would bring you more passion and energy, what else would have you feel aligned with your purpose?

With a little breathing space, you can add things to your life that matter to you, make you happy and are aligned with your purpose.  Imagine how your life will change when some day soon, you open your calendar to find inspiring projects that progress your most heartfelt goals.

That would be a dream come true life.

letting go, to make more room

Coach Louise Crooks

Country Music performer, Eric Church, still celebrates that spirit in his first hit, How 'Bout You.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiWGk4Ejup4. The video's lyrics, music and production are inspiring.

Your depression is a self-defense of your organism and your psyche against the mistakes you make, following the absurd suggestions of the wild side of your conscience or the absurd tendencies of the under-developed human side of your conscience. In any case you have two enemies, pushing you towards craziness, since even the human side of your conscience is absurd.

There is too much craziness accumulated in the anti-conscience, the wild part of your conscience, and this is why it is schizophrenic.

The human part of your conscience was only partially developed. You have to help your brain reach a stage of total development that will increase your intelligence, if you want to use all its potential.

Translating your dreams according to the scientific method, you can prevent depression, craziness and suicidal tendencies before losing your mental health, and completely develop your personality, becoming a real genius.

Craziness prevention is depression and suicide prevention as well, since craziness is responsible for the existence of depression and all mental illnesses. The craziness accumulated in the wild side of the human brain and psyche is responsible for the appearance of all mental illnesses in the human being.

Therefore, craziness prevention is in fact more than indispensable for everyone, especially for depressed people, for people that belong to introverted psychological types and for people ready to commit suicide.

Depression is a self protection of your organism and your psyche, because you may insist on making mistakes, but you have to be stopped somehow.

Depression is a warning that doesn’t let you continue making the same mistakes and insisting on finding happiness this way.

If you live with the wrong person, work in the wrong job and live in the wrong place, you cannot be happy, even taking anti-depressants daily…  

Yesterday I wrote an article about the case of a young man that has a girlfriend without loving her, only because she loves him and he decided to “try her out”.

He was terrified with a nightmare he saw, where he was violently attacking a person that “he should love”.

In other words, he was exploding and hitting the girlfriend that doesn’t let him find the right person for him. This nightmare was a warning and a prevision.

You cannot make absurd decisions and expect to live “normally”, without being depressed like the dreamer of our example, who already has neurotic behavior.

Your depression will make you pay attention to all the mistakes you are making, exactly because you live influenced by your anti-conscience, that pushes you towards craziness all the time and that obliges you to decide living with the wrong person, doing work that you dislike, and live in a place where you feel lost, so that you may easily become completely crazy with all the deceptions of your life.

You may believe that your decisions are really the result of your own thoughts and preferences, however, you have an enemy inside you influencing your behavior and suggesting wrong decisions to you without letting you think seriously about anything.

You have to get rid of this enemy, before it completely destroys the human side of your brain and psyche through craziness.

You have also another enemy: your own under-developed, ignorant and selfish human conscience, that has to learn too much until it may be able to help you in life, instead of provoking you so many problems.

If you don’t pay attention to the warning given by your depression, you may simply accept the crazy behavior imposed by the anti-conscience, without criticizing it in order to verify its absurdity, or the behavior imposed by your psychological type, which is also totally absurd.

If you are not depressed yet, care about the meaning of your dreams without delay, so that you may easily prevent depression, craziness and suicidal tendencies now that you can.

Depending on the seriousness of your psychical problem, you may delay too much to recuperate your mental health or you may lose it for good.

Don’t let things arrive at this point!

Be prudent and prevent the worst, especially now that you have learned how dangerous, violent and evil the absurd content accumulated in the wild part of your brain and psyche is and how absurd the human side of your conscience is too, even though you believe that the known part of your human conscience is balanced and “normal”.

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Beating Depression and Craziness

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Last days!

Submit your dreams while you can because I really am not going to do it for too much longer!

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Breaking News 9-6-08 7:40pm PST:

Treasury Department's Henry Paulson Taking Over Fannie and Freddie...

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By Anthony M. Freed

In a conscious effort to produce a website that has useful and poignant content that is open and available to readers of any and all points of view, I try to keep my personal slant to a tolerable level and not interject any of my paranoid delusions into the articles.  I will offer them up to some extent, but I try not to profess too much.

But, when my paranoid delusions start becoming terrifying realities, I feel I have an obligation to point them out and make a plea for your concern and attention.

Case in point,  my YourMortgageOrYourLife.com article from August 25, 2008:

Here is more proof they going full speed in their efforts to Fatten Up the GSE Portfolios before they IMPLODE them!

So as More Banks Teeter on the edge and Fannie and Freddie Stock turns to Junk , the Democrats look like they are going to go ahead and try to Implode the GSE’s soon, and draw attention away from security issues, and make the economy the central issue in an effort to win the election.

The only thing worse than that is that the Republicans are determined to Get Us Into Another War or two in their equally Machiavellian scheme to win your vote. 
 And the Republicans plan kills people.

They knew all along!  

And now they are going to make you  PAY for THEIR MALPRACTICE!

 
Bastards.

Now I would like to amend the sentiments expressed in that post to read: 

They are Killing You - the Republicans and the Democrats - and yet You Vote for Them...

They are Destroying your Country - and yet You Vote for Them...

They Only Want Power, not Peace or Prosperity for You and Me - and yet You Vote for Them...

They are Sending Our Kids to War - and yet You Vote for Them...

They are Robbing You Blind - and yet You Vote for Them...

They are Stealing Your Freedom Through Fear and Debt - and yet You Vote for Them...

 

They are Putting Your Great Grandchildren in Debt to Foreign Powers - and yet You Vote for Them...

 

They are Bankrupting the United States of America - and yet You Vote for Them...

 

Freedom is not a right inherent in your being.  You are neither born free, nor do you live free.

 

Freedom is a privilege you have to earn. everyday.

Freedom is a privilege you earn by educating yourself, and contributing to the education of others.

 

Freedom is a privilege you earn by participating in your Democracy as a Citizen Exercising your Right to a Vote on the course of your future.

 

Freedom is a privilege you earn by being an independent thinker, and a collective agent for change.

 

Freedom was wraught from the Blood Sweat and Tears of Patriots who ripped it from the clutches of Tyrants, and now they have a hold of our Freedom again.

I am not advocating any particular party, movement or philosophy.  I don't like any of them.  I am urging you to seek out knowledge for yourself and stop being a sheep - stop being an armchair citizen - start acting like a genuine American.

They give away your jobs so They can make more profits.  They take away you health insurance so They can make more profits.  They send our kids to war so They can make more more profits.  They make risky investments and then pass legislation to make you bail them out so They can make more profits.  When Their investments do make money, They pass legislation to cut Their own taxes so They can make more profits.  They deny you affordable medicine so They make more profits.  They deny you a decent education so They make more profits.  They let your bridges and highways fall into disrepair so They can make more profits. 

I have had multiple government entities monitoring my website since I started it only weeks ago.  If enough people want to see them, I will post the records of their surveillance for you.  Why is your government spending your money monitoring stuff I freely post for everyone to read?  I am about as dangerous as a rug-burn, but it is happening anyway.  The Constitution also protects us from having our land taken by the government and given to another private party, but it is happening anyway.  Who is policing the government?  Or is it a free-for-all, get yours and to hell with everyone else?

What initially began as light-hearted informative reading became worrying. Frauenfelder relates the story of Zouhair Yahyaoui who was arrested, tortured and died in prison because of a post on a blog (26). I decided to investigate and what I found was troubling and interesting on two levels.

In the first case, I was concerned that this could be happening frequently. Worse yet, it may also be under-reported. Researching at Human Rights Watch I found a few more troubling stories. Such as that of Abd al-Raziq al-Mansuri. Mansuri had been detained and then convicted on October 19, 2005 for illegally possessing a handgun. Apparently, over the previous year he had written approximately 50 articles as a journalist for a UK based web site, which were unflattering to the Libyan government. (I can’t confirm as it is written in Arabic.) Mansuri’s story is just one among others at HRW, such as the plights of Huang Qi, Liu Di, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, Le Chi Quang, Nguyen Khac Toan, and Pham Hong Son.

Also troubling, was the story I initially read about Zouhair Yahyaoui in Rule the Web. Frauenfelder, without citing a source, wrote that Yahyaoui was arrested in 2004 and died in prison in 2005 (26). Reporters Without Borders claims that Yahyaoui was jailed on 4 June 2002 and released from prison on November 18, 2003. HRW confirms Yahyaoui’s release from prison in 2003 and also reports that Yahyaoui died of a heart attack on March 13, 2005 at age 36.

It seems that the free flow of information can cause difficulties on, at the very least, two fronts. It can be a problem for those using “mashed” up information, which has been drawn from multiple resources, as a final reliable source. This leaves me with more questions. For example, what sources can I truly trust? Printed or Digital? Or does it matter?

More importantly, speaking freely can result in fines, arrest, torture and imprisonment for those very individuals who are fighting to keep that right. Will I always have that right? How important is it for me to consider the rights of my society as a whole? How hard will I have to fight to keep it?

"The only two things you have to do is die and pay taxes" is something I heard a lot growing up. I didn't realize the depth of that statement until much later. In fact, it wasn't until the second half of life that I realized not only do I not 'have to' go to school, keep this awful job, pull the weeds or shave my legs, etc, but I also am at choice about what kind of a day I will have and how I'm going to see things, what color my lenses. I get to choose if I'm going to be afraid of a challenge or go fearlessly forward, if, that is, I choose to accept the challenge at all. I get to choose whether to carry a grudge or do my self the favor of forgiving and forgetting. And again, I don't 'have to' have a grudge in the first place. Oh, sweet freedom!

With this depth of choice comes the understanding that I'm in the driver's seat, like it or not, acknowledge it or not. The great part about picking up this responsibility is knowing I can change something I don't like. I can choose a new path, a new color or flavor. I can get a new attitude.

Stay with me now... really groking this eliminates the victum feeling of "have to". Truly! Reality is, I choose to pay taxes rather than choosing the consequences. I don't 'have to' anything. And even dying has become a non-issue since I've learned of my connectedness to everything and knowing there simply is no beginning or end. (yes, this body will end, but only as a small part of the bigger picture, which does not).

So I've talked about this before. I've celebrated the freedom it brings. Where I'm going is to what happens when we don't choose. When we are stuck like glue in paralysis by analysis; thinking too hard, unable to choose this ________ because it would mean letting go of ________ that. Dance around flapping your wings for too long and you often loose both. Ut oh! No more choice. No more of that freedom.

There are also some magical moments when, if we let go of the fear of choosing/loosing and step into broader thinking, we see that yes! It is indeed possible to have both. A friend can be a lover, chocolate is nice with vanilla, lights dimmed instead of off or on. If I actively choose it and find a way to create a win/win, I can have both. I can choose to be afraid and go fearlessly forward anyway. I can choose to accept the possibility of something bigger and better headed straight for me.

Don't trust me, try it. Choose this or that, or muster the gumption to choose both. But please, grab onto one (or two) rather than let them all float away.

Let me set one thing straight, going into Iraq was not something I supported. It happened because the multilateral group imposing sanctions were too interested in their oil contracts. The French and the Russians had a lot to lose if Saddam Hussein was taken from power. They refused to act, as they will when Iran spirals out of control.  This forced the USA and Britain to act unilaterally. The damage done by subverting the will of the international community is now being played out in Sudan. The blood of 300,000 dead rest on the hands of the same people that call President Bush a war criminal. If free people do nothing to subvert blind aggression and racial hatred, they bear the shame of the consequences. Yes, I am talking to you peace loving ideologues, who stand by while the undefended are slaughtered. You have neutered the only countries that are willing to do anything about it. The African Union can't control anything on their contenient. The Americans still remember Somolia, another attrocity caused by the left wing ideologies you hold dear. Lets face it here. Africa is on nobodys top list of places to protect. No place on earth are borders as fluid as the cradel of mans conception. The trap has been set for those willing to protect the unprotected. Genocide still happens, and peace protesters do nothing but throw empty talk while hundreds of thousands die. To ignore your part in these henious acts is to ignore reality. Talking stops when you have a gun to your head. Only an hippy would bring a pen to a gun fight.  Human rights extend far beyond the effects of a few American bullwhips, or a carribean island most would pay to visit on holiday. Some times you have to fight. The world will not change to fit your ideas of peace and love. John Lennon asked us to "give peace a chance", and was paid back with a bullet.

Here's a good quote that relates well to our current election between McCain and Obama.... I think, therefore I am Libertarian.