Both Beauty and War ...

Divine Love sustains Spirit through all casualties of war, past and present and to come.  We claim the accelerated evolution of Spirit Strength through suffrage endured daily but differently among us.  We claim full deliverance right here and right now from all remnants of experienced deprivation, traumatizing, wounding and death, both actual and perceived. 

Divine Intelligence uplifts each husband, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son, friend and relation, casualties of life stage losses incurred through circumstance and sacrifice. May all minds and hearts know Truth, forgiving freely and frequently both self and other for not being what we could not otherwise be to him or her, to you and me. 


May all grow steadfast and current in the flow of Good, giving thanks where thanks is due. Amen

Although the origin of this prayer was written this morning to honor national heroes on Memorial Day, war on a global scale exists within our minds learning to live in a world of perceived duality.  Good/Bad, empty/full, hate/love, etc. etc. Most human beings know what it is to become a casualty of thinking and behaving which knows not yet how to tolerate doubt, ambiguity, uncertainty,  significant differences.  Most know the experience of not belonging and persecution as well as popularity and acclaim.  We are all casualties of the warring mind that exists in the world we encounter daily. What we don't acknowledge consciously, endangers life. 

After parenting has completed its cycle...and its effects,  society expects individual himself/herself  assume the arduous process of enacting full  responsibility for stewardship of personal resources: body, heart, and mind.  Rather, that is the rhetoric we have been used to finding in our best-sellers, award-winning films, psychology classes, families and churches.  It still is the actual philosophy practiced in relatively successful individuals, families, schools, and marketplaces.  It is still how most prefer  to think of ourselves.  

People change, society changes, seasons change.  "Change" is a sign of life.  When we grow, we change seems inevitable.  The Little Prince (Saint.Exuberay) reminds us that what is most important is often invisible to the naked eye.  So let us consider a more fundamental understanding of "change":  living entities simply reveal more of  who and what to date has been dormant, unstimulated, underdeveloped.  Intelligence  is not static. Growth is developmental...development must be stimulated.  This is why the qualities inherent in our environment, parentage, peer group, and educational system is so important. Our minds, our affiliations, our habits, our inclinations are so shaped.

 Our esteem, our efficacy however evolves and is sustained by how we steward our personal resources across our adulthood -which is a long process of stage unfoldment.  So how do we respond to life's continual opportunities to be current? to integrate our conflicting parts? to be more of who we really are at our core? The wisdom of the Buddhist tradition advises against attachment for a very good reason.  Attachments cause blind spots.  Attachments keep us weighted down.  Attachments compromise  balance as we move freely through the world within and the world without.

When we  attach/identify too thoroughly with something outside ourselves we miss opportunities to grow, to become more of who we are designed to be.  Locked into position, we let true life pass by.  When we attach at the identity level we run the risk of missing the ships sent our way by an abundant universe offering only more good for all life.  When  we attach at the identity level to that which is outside ourselves, we react as personally offended to good expressed toward  that which  we don't identify.  We behave no longer  as a free and whole child of the universe but as a member of a tribe...our tribe-and tribes change as needs change.  Tribes reflect the flavor of the day, the month, the year, stage of life.  

Someone Else's good acclaimed, compliment given, affiliation supported does not need to prompt a personal attack,  as if we personally have been offended.  The type of offense we experience simply reflects what has been acquired, ready to react.   Reacting as if personally offended  is the essence of war in the human mind.  We do not need to react in this offended way.  Often offense perceived is not offence intended, but inherent in our very own projection.  Projection is putting on another that which belongs to ourselves.  More often than not it is a part of ourselves that offends us.  

When we project our personality, our life's experience,  our conceptualization of reality onto "other" we react to "them" as if they are us.  (Consciously or unconsciously it goes like: This is what I would be thinking, feeling, intending if I did that, said this, omitted here, asserted there.)  However comforting it is for us to conceptualize our relationships as "simpatico," unless we cultivate levels of "safe vulnerability" in our relationships and social groups, we never really experience true intimacy -and with such authenticity comes the universal experience of oneness.  


To allow safety for others, we must chip away at the reactions  (inability to tolerate ambiguity, intolerance, offendability, need for certainty, etc.)  we find in ourselves.  Such acquired reactions  crowd out our willingness to allow for differences in ourselves and others.  Extending our capacity to tolerate uncomfortable emotions  builds our capacity to tolerate ambiguity, uncertainty, discomfort, aloneness.  And when we short-circuit that developmental edge, we silence the differences that will ultimately set us all free. 


For as every snowflake differs, so do we.  As different as  we  look on the outside , we are also different on the inside -physically, historically, genetically, mentally.  We like to think we are exactly alike.  That's what tribe is all about...dressing, speaking, dancing, eating.  Hoping that if we do those things together it will make us one.  It's an easy identification, very gratifying thought.  However, learning that we can count on others  to allow us to be who we are EVEN WHEN WE DIFFER FROM THEM...THAT is what brings home the undaunting message of UNIVERSAL BELONGING.
.  
Pervasive self-esteem.  Authentic democracy.  Connection with Abiding Source.  Real Safety. Full Freedom.  Whole.


We short-circuit true intimacy and access to this universal sense of belonging when we project-then-reject.  "Know thyself," is a mission in a life committed to authentic intimacy with others.  Relationships always experience conflicts. We are internally conflicted beings -acquiring many of our projections from the different worlds we imbibe daily.  The habitual ones require vigilance.  How we encounter, and respond to conflicting thoughts, ideology, developmental differences, alternative spaces, etc. opens doors or closes doors to our greater good waiting beyond the door of open dialogue.  There is always more good ready and waiting in the wings...if we are willing to tolerate doubt, discomfort, disagreement. We cannot control other living beings, and not stimulate the mind of war within.  


And we CAN control our response to inclinations to take offense, to engage our warring mind. We need only review the multitude of different responses from the general public when we ask a simple question, e.g. What's your dream career choice?  There are as many answers, available among individuals populating our various environments, as there are differences among snowflakes. We are very different stewards of our many different minds.  We have many different choices available:

• What's your favorite ice cream?
• Where would you live in the world if there were no borders or barriers?
• Who do you love (most often, more fully, unremittently, unconditionally, etc.)... and why? and how do you express your love? and who "gets" you? who doesn't? what gets in the way?
• When is it time to be so fully ourselves that our very being challenges the expectations of those we value deeply?
• Why do we  prefer to belong to the current version of "politically correct" rather than disclose where, how, and why we  actually deviate?
• How might we respond to ones who perceive and express a different portrait of reality than we currently do?

Rational Thought or Imagery and "Selling" Impressions

Men's Health (June 2012) reported "persuasive" BRAIN AND THINKING research from the field of advertising (Clay Warren, Ph.D. "Men's Wealth").  Parts of the brain triggered by type of information works beyond commercial enterprise.  We've seen it work the same way throughout worlds of media, politics, bureaucracies ...human dynamics in general. 

Bottom line: when we communicate information by giving facts, we stimulate the listeners' orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala (Centers of Rational Thought and Impulse Control).  We do this if we want to allow our listener, bystander the opportunity to think (not react from a primitive place). 

Brain researcher, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. (My Stroke of Insight, 2006) reminds us to wait just 90 seconds for strong emotion to course through us and complete its course.  We can breathe through any emotion to "clear" it. Then we can RESPOND, not react. 

On the contrary, we can cause an unsuspecting bystander to bypass rational thought processes  by showcasing attributes which foster a narrative (e.g. "you'll be sexy too if you buy this car" "fair share" "big business and the little guy").   IMAGERY stimulus triggers the non-rational, emotive part of our brain.

 To avoid reacting emotionally to Imagery-Narrative Stimulators, a person must be able to regulate emotional responses ... catch himself/herself emotionally before displaying reactivity.  Children grow in regulatory responsibility (when supported by language-mediated models).  Males, more than females, ON THE AVERAGE, reach responsible regulation later (in their twenties).  Intelligence development is correlated with regulatory capacity.  And unfortunately, age has little to do with this: not  all adults are developed sufficiently to catch themselves before reacting...before they have caused damage, started brush fires, committed to something they later wish they hadn't.

Comedians and gangsters (particularly intelligent sociopaths) instinctively know what Clay Warren uncovered...though perhaps not consciously.  Some politicians and bureaucrats deliberately use these tactics to inflame, enrage, urge followers to jump on their bandwagon.  We see this with entire groups dedicated to inflaming mob reactions (e.g. Black Panthers, Occupiers, Weathermen, etc.).  

We see strategic use of inflammatory language (narratives of victimization, images of old day civil rights marching, etc) among faux " leaders" like Al Sharpton (MSNBC) and Jesse Jackson.  As Daneen Borelli notes (Blacklash, 2011): instead of updating and redesigning themselves to match the reality of advancement, they must recreate the painbodies of the past ... over and over... to regenerate what they perceive as their usefulness (and generate $).  They keep themselves sourced through recreating images and the language of victimization. 

Who else prises himself on similar rhetoric, lowest common denominator rhetoric (LCDR) ? 

If we really want to stimulate higher intelligence and mindful decision-making, we talk about the economy with facts and figures.  When we can't do that, LCDR creates distractions geared to pull others into primitive reactionary states of being.  

If our audience has developed sufficient emotional self-regulation, they will pull back from the imagery, the narrative.  We are all subject to its power because we all have experienced what we know through social exchange as victimization. 

As long as individuals are born differently into not-perfect-for-me circumstances, we have opportunity to perceive the experience of victimization (Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, 2005) . As of now, it's unpleasantly part of being born into the human family on planet Earth. 

Why do some politicians recursively stimulate images and language of victimization, forced redistribution, persecution, classes, tribes, divisions? Go beyond reactivity to such words and images.  How do you moderate, step back, give yourself time to self-stimulate your rational centers? 


Brain researcher, Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. (My Stroke of Insight, 2006) reminds us to wait just 90 seconds for strong emotion to course through us and complete its course.  We can breathe through any emotion to "clear" it. Then we can RESPOND, not react.  
Regulate your emotional response to those words and the images they stimulate in your brain.  


THINK about it.  (Images and narratives of victimization, forced redistribution, persecution, classes, tribes, divisions) Precisely what is the gain? for whom? And what is the greater loss for all?  Activate your orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala. If we want to achieve A New Earth, we need to cultivate not reactivity, but responsiveness.  Mindfulness. Growing our awareness of the bigger picture towards panoramic.  We CAN DO .   

Mitt Romney cut taxes for those with greatest need for tax relief

Mitt Romney and taxes and fees
Read beyond this quote:
Although he did not succeed in cutting the income tax for everyone, like he wanted, he was able to get income tax cuts for many of those with the greatest need for tax relief. For example, in order to aid older homeowners and young families, he created an $800 tax deduction for home heating expenses for individuals with less than $50,000/year income or families making less than $75,000/year.


James 5:16 The earnest prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available.

Mitt Romney ...a principled public servant

Mitt Romney and taxes and fees
Read more above regarding this quote:
Governor Romney held firm and balanced the budget every year without raising taxes. ^[3] He fought to roll back the state income tax from 5.3% to 5.0% and created budgets based on a 5% income tax rate. ^[4]The legislature refused to reduce the tax rate, and by the end of his term, he had taken "Massachusetts from billions in deficit to billions in surplus".


James 5:16 The earnest prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available.

There is a season when individuals' nerves need to become irritated sufficiently to prompt the tipping point throughout society ... to wake up, to begin to pay closer attention to current facts:

• not "tribe" interpretation of facts, 
• nor regurgitation of past facts as if they are still current facts, 
• nor holding onto how we thought is was when we stopped paying close attention.

We need to remain irritated long enough to expand our field of attention, generate  an internally mobilized energy geared to reconsider, listen between the lines (i.e. connect the dots). 

Making our living in a complex society, we look for ways to simplify the number of decisions, people, and ideas we encounter in a day.  In this process, we HABITUATE.  While some habituation is necessary to conserve sanity, habituating to many subtle but progressive changes that ultimately wreck havoc with viability itself is a risk best not calculated unconsciously.

WHEN WE KNOW our lives are at stake, we wake up fast. We function according to the truth we are made of, instantly.  Once that's happened, we tend to remind ourselves periodically to make the time and space to renew and regather our old-fashioned hard-earned common sensibilities ... the likes of with which we are born.  

Sometimes though, through the normal process of habituating, we "learn" to transfer our responsibility for tracking where we are in the "woulds of life" to others (who apparently or professionally) claim to make "our making it" their life's purpose (author, authorize, authority).  We do this with our parents (as children), so we own a longstanding (and mostly successful) internal framework for extrapolating "authorship" later ... down the road.  Perhaps, we shouldn't go quite that far without regular check points (like we do in our healthy relationships).  We always retain the copyright -aka "responsibility" for our life choices and how we made them (...or "let" our many different tribal  affiliations lead the way, and have to restrict or restructure affiliations down the road).

Our nation's unique melting pot culture is really quite young relatively speaking.  And we have unwittingly cultivated over the past sixty years - through our post-WWII family systems headed by Great Depression parents, "Progressive-Gone Permissive TV & educational systems, and Advertising-Dominated Consumer mentalities a wild bunch of unruly perspectives and expectations.

I am very grateful that I can afford time and talents to illuminate patterns that bubble and brew both behind the scenes and around the rhetoric of the White House, Congress, Bundling Corporations, and Wall Street.  Discerning whose in bed with whom ...and when...and why -is not an easy task for most Americans earning their daily bread.  I understand that fully -and lived that level of reality.  When I was out in the world of work  I trusted that my labor union's interpretation and presentation of political positioning matched principles I espoused.  I didn't think there was need to deeply question their underlying motivations, ethics, portrayals.  I allowed rhetoric well crafted and carefully delivered to move me...like I did before knowing better with Proctor & Gamble.

I was wrong to trust the appearance of reliable information put forth by "machinery."  Institutions, and labels for institutions, morph.  They develop, reconstitute, become more essentially what constitutes them at their core.  When flaws are accrued during development (of both individuals and institutions) those FLAWS ultimately reveal themselves through PATTERNS OF THINKING, PATTERNS OF RELATING, PATTERNS OF PROBLEMS ACHIEVING PROMISES.  These patterns reveal themselves -when we are willing to look through "what if" lenses.

So I have compassion for all those who come after me thinking similar thoughts, expecting the same authenticity, trusting claims of altruistic "fair play, fair share, transparency." Patterns detected? Crocks of Mayor Daley-style Obama-speak.    My intention in using electronic writing avenues is much like what we advocate for muscles when they suffer on-going inflammation:

1. break the cycle of idolatry (Commandments 1 and 2) 
2. disturb the steady flow of "money-changing and money-laundering"  within temples of consciousness among many forms of those who have in the past voted Democrat (Commandments 3 and 4)
3. pull back curtains hung to hide machinations of Mayor Daley's Chicago-dirty politics  (Commandments 8, 9, 10)

If just a few good and ready minds and hearts wake up before it's too late to conserve and preserve America, I have met my call.  This shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me...it's how I felt and why I worked altruistically in the schools of Harlem, Commerce City, and  Brownsville.  I still hear from the many of the teachers I steadied, kept sane, and encouraged to survive then grow beyond machinations known to breed slow, insidious, but certain discouragement and depression of potentially powerful human spirits.  Unhealthy family systems promote victimization, discord, and dependency.  Bureaucracies smother, separate, and discourage enterprising industry, self efficacy, and contirubtions of creative intelligence.  The only race we have is the human race  meant for good, designed for truth, activated by an entirely different set of principles than I see in Washington and the White House now.

Let's talk about the "rewiring" needed.  Here's a venue of intentional design ...

Letter to Ann

Thank you, Ann -for sharing the poignancy of your family growing...the clips of family movies so readily reminded me of my own.  I posted your card on my Facebook page. I pray for the enlightenment of America daily. Please pass this on so that others will join in such needed prayer for the future safety, needed reforms, and real restoration of our constitution-based America.

I blog, twitter, and email research I review re choices and principles of both "parties" to 

1. develop issue conversation among family and friends who are conscious of being conservative, but mostly to 
2. enlighten many of my family and friends who think they are "liberal" (sounds like a positive word...like liberty: but "liberal" has morphed to become a misnomer).   In fact,  the way they live their lives, balance their budgets, allocate money, cultivate self-directed and responsible kids, ... and teach their students in school,  indicate they are at heart true conservatives ( desperate to be perceived as "nice" people - quick to display "politically correct" ways.  

I am sharing this with you because I think Mitt can awaken a substantial segment of the population who are dreaming the sounds-nice "liberal" dream 

1. not knowing that what they support with words, taking sides, and votes is completely out of alignment with how they live their day to day lives, and
2. out of alignment with what many low income and middle class will want in place for their children in the future  
3. but don't connect the dots: Socialism isn't working in Europe 
4. and don't read Obama signs accurately... And he has been setting up a failing socialist infrastructure here.
5. As a retired educator and psychologist, I look back and see that our social studies curriculum N-12 (designed for unifying multicultural American citizens) has been wildly extrapolated to include Islamic terrorists,  illegal aliens, and the political correctness of redistributing wealth from those who work to those who'd rather not.  
6. are brainwashed by consumer mentality (which grown up becomes entitlement)
7. have been shaped by commercial advertising's push to be popular - socially desirable, politically correct.
8. which trades independent thinking for "belonging"(tribal affiliation), and forfeits use of common sense.

Please pray with me for the coming of age -enlightenment- of each NICE, but politically asleep American dreaming politically correct dreams about how we all will truly prosper in the world -such as it is, without looking closely at 

1. the nature of our differences in creed and practice (from the motivations of congressional lobbyists to tyrants in the Middle East)
2. and what real and present differences require in dynamics to bring about balance and better possibilities both economically and in foreign relations and regard for energy resources

I believe in the power of images -and your card reveals the benevolent care and attention present in your family.  Your family's integrity comes across as authentic. It provides a palpable  backdrop for understanding and sensing how Mitt conducts his life in the marketplace, public office.  More of these...and more of Mitt in all his engagements... can only generate more palpable presence.

Your courage to share publicly that which is truly personal of your family serves as a solid counter-balance to the fabrications, false intimations, intended distractions and distortions published and promulgated by too many unethical "liberal" educated hooligans -masquerading under the guise of news reporters, political analysts,  journalists.  Indeed, "...they know not what they do" because many forty and under are mesmerized by the new theology of political correctness.   

If many who claim identification with "liberal" actually opened their minds to pure information instead of interpretations, they would begin to think more deeply than superficial, peer behind the "staged, " listen beneath the disguise.  They would learn how the meaning and practice of the word "liberal" has changed, what was long ago "progressive" has gone beyond its shelf life and is now regressive.   Instead of gulping down the propaganda pablum Unions provide on a regular basis, they might research issues and connect the dots.  Eventually, from exercising independent thought, they would encounter  missing-the-mark nature of thinking and practices which precipitated our current state of economy and world affairs. 

So Ann and Mitt, I think you are wise to continue to walk the high road bringing attention -like patient parents of adolescent thinkers - repeatedly back to real and substantial issues of philosophy and principles currently on the American table.  Congratulations for behaving as the real adults during smear campaign tactics.  It's dirty, but it's the best Obama's got. I pray for your growing capacity to

1. pull back the curtain of Oz, revealing how Obama does without a teleprompter and the nature of America he would prefer to institute
2. call all groups of Americans to a Dr Phil session where each can judge for themselves how Obama's redistributed and reconstituted America has worked for them, and when played out fully will work for them as he pulls out the stoppers and releases his restraint ( only just begun laying the foundation folks...)

I am glad I tithed financially this quarter to your campaign, but I am even better prepared and resourced to use my words to shed light on the dark spots and the blind spots through electronic communications with everyone I know.  As you generate additional electronic ways of bringing Mitt home, I will be happy to do my part - sharing them widely.  


"Wanna-be-liberals," have been protected from bumping up against the real world through a NICE curriculum and NICE colleges.  They need to be and deserve to be awakened from what they would eventually come  to know as a nightmare...for living Obama's disguised dream would indeed become a heart-pounding nightmare for everyone but him and his elitist cronies.  Wanna-be-liberals need to learn there are truer, fuller and more just ways of being good and compassionate citizens, that no one need conceptualize himself/herself as a victim in America.  They need to learn that  being politically correct is ideologically dangerous...it censors and constricts ability to think independently.  It's clear we must be more careful about what and how we teach our children! Protection from reality after the age of twelve (brain development) is overprotection.

I look forward to a wealth of opportunities to share Mitt's wisdom, strength, political philosophy and principles.  I will do my best to bring truth "home," ...into the forefront, into families, into the individual electronic settings of the forty-somethings and younger. 

Best,

Heidi Bach, PhD

Common Sense...Time to "Get it."

While capitalism is imperfect its imperfections depend on the integrity of the individuals using that process.  While imperfect, it allows individuals and families freedom to prosper, create and recreate.  Socialism, all grown up, economically looks like Greece, Portugal, Italy, France, etc.  Europe, not including Germany -who doesn't overspend, which is why they  have the money to offer to bail out bankrupt Greece (with conditions to stop overspending on their socialist programs) is currently on the verge of economic collapse.  So do we (US) really choose to continue on a path to socialism?

Communism looks like the starving and mafia-controlled Russian Federation ... and the one-child China (preferably male children).  

Tyrannical Dictatorships look like Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.( and Sharia Law -which among other deadly women-hating ways, includes death for blasphemy).  

Please do your own investigating, pay attention day after day for at least one month.  Compare and contrast five different TV networks in their coverage and presentation of events.  

1. Are the range of issues covered, followed the next day of dropped?  
2. Followed by partisan debate? Or does the network itself present a single political position/interpretation?
3. To what extent has the network predigested issues, simply and summarily prounced as facts by the newscaster?
4.  Does the network (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN) offer simple or complex interpretations/debates/dialogues of political events?
5. How much time is allocated to local, national, global news?  Many focus much or more time on murders and natural disasters compared to time on the task of informing a vote-capable citizenship (- allocated to national news that we can actually do something about through our right to inform ourselves and vote on November 6, 2012).
6. How do you feel after witnessing individual networks --hungry for more detail and dots to connect? Or sick to your stomach stuffed with views of violent episodes you cannot control? Or kept happily sheltered from ugliness in the world needing transformation through our sharing, our efforts, our contributions?
7. After watching a network do you feel like you ate a can of Chef Boyardee prefabricated ravioli drenched in additives to make eating it smoother, faster, taste-bud stunned, and seductively addictive (like loosing ourselves in tabloid celebrity drama) 
8. Or do you feel quizzical, stimulated, nourished ...even  invigorated by some healthy conflict of interests that makes you want to learn more... as if you devoured a healthy nutrient-rich salad.

Check out  YouTube recordings of Barry's progression since 2007.  Check out the GOP candidate, Mitt Romney.  Investigate top talking points/issues through Google searches.  Cross check email "Forwards" through a check point listed below.  My brother has used all three, recommending them.   It's good to have an alternative.

Snopes.com

Factcheck.org

Politifact.com

Just notice...and spend significant time questioning with a friend what you both thought you knew when you didn't know much, but felt OK about that.  As  Antoine St. Exuperay expresses through the WWII novella entitled, The Little Prince: "One sees clearly only with the heart."  

And as we mature as adults, we learn to see with our fuller and higher, deeper and richer heart-mind.  While we will always detect the ways of thinking and the primal affiliations of childhood, adolescence, and very early adulthood, mature adults are called to use all our senses, including common sense.  We bring to bear on our adult issues a wealth of global and local knowledge and know-how. We organize and update and revise our primal perceptions in the context of higher order concepts from which we can draw more accurate inferences.  

In the end, adults contribute to our greater good as informed citizens,  able to navigate diverse territories, responding to both the panorama and each tree in the forest in which we live and love, work and play, participate and contribute, make the world a truly better place by being the best we can be.

Please leave behind the fear of being politically correct.  Keep your good manners, use your words, don't worry about spelling ... just respond, share thoughts, ask questions...substantive questions, not rhetorical questions meant to stop real inquiry and conversation.  Let us leave behind lower order social behavior that makes people jump on bandwagons, stick with the tribe we thought we came from regardless of new information, new questions, new problems and the need for new direction.  

Please call yourself and your friends to a higher level of political functioning.  At least require opinions to be backed up with facts -like we do Mob mentality tends to seduce and hypnotize even the brightest among us when the media blares.  Instead, take a deep breath,  release what they want you to infer, hear, see.  Meditate - then check three very different sources before drawing a conclusion.  Move beyond the middle school morality of needing to belong so much you go "tribal" on an issue  -rather than being open to exploring it fully and independently.  

In conversation, require "claims" and "interpretations"  to be backed up with facts and examples -especially if the comment is a negative allegation.  When a few immoral news reporters (e.g. The Washington Post, 5/11) go on dirt-digging witch hunts (as witnessed with select media re Herman Cane) -or invent some dirt to publish regardless of verity (like they just did on Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney from high school 47 years ago), please make a commitment to yourself to be open to unlocking the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  

Especially, if and when we allow our mind to take in something negative, we owe it to our evolving integrity to check it out ... keep on, keep on until our whole being lets us know we finally got to the bottom of it.  Let's engage important and substantial political conversations  (not popularity contests, not he say/she say distractions from the essential issues on our American table ) ... now.  Our now is not a rehearsal.  Now is the real time to get it right. 


Getting to the bottom of it is a process...don't be tempted to short-circuit your process by discounting FOX News programs because you've heard it's extreme.  Once you watch all the networks listed above, you'll notice that Fox is the only one who reports all the issues on a daily basis...and presents issues/updates both favorable and unfavorable to ALL candidates...AND includes analysts presenting views left, right, and in between. No other network presents it all.  I believe this is why America rates FOX NEWS #1 (Neilson Ratings)...consistently.

If your partner changed his/her mind for MONEY...

Folks...as the esteemed and ethics-rich journalist Mike Wallace would say, "C'mon?!!"

I also, as Barrack Obama claimed for years, think this is an individual and states rights issue (a very personal, a clearly social issue).   But suddenly during campaign season, Barry claims he's "evolving?"   And then he evolves virtually overnight...

What other areas of national and global significance fall prey to his "evolve" style ... his decision-making process -easily moved by popularity and money ...or personal ideology.

This functional level is insufficient when "serving" in a leadership position (and he's been in  our TOP position now for three and one-half years).  It matters in a friend...it matters in a lifetime partner...it matters in our representatives -both nationally and globally.  We give people in representative positions some of our power to change our world...and their instituted changes can compromise -even endanger-everyone's truly essential well-being.  The more voracious the government ideology, the more power they assume, the more essential that we pay close attention.

A decision-making process -driven by popularity and money - brings related concepts to mind:
ADOLESCENT

Given Barry's chronologically an adult, then these words also fit his overnight evolution:
SHALLOW
PSYCHOLOGICALLY UNDER DEVELOPED
EASILY, EXTERNALLY INFLUENCED
SCHMOOZE
LACKING SUBSTANCE
WEAKENED CHARACTER
COERCIBLE
EXTRINSICALLY MOTIVATED
CALCULATING
LACKING SUFFICIENT  INTEGRITY
A PUPPET (... and then whose?)
HIDDEN AGENDA...himself and personal goals (...and just what are these?)


Here's the information.  Read and digest the contents for yourself:


http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/timeline-of-obamas-evolving-on-same-sex-marriage/


http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Gay-marriage-campaign-fundraising/2012/05/08/id/438368


http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/222685-gay-campaign-bundlers-pressure-obama-to-publicly-support-same-sex-marriage.html

Why does Obama policy support high gas prices? Another "Connect-the-Dots lesson.

As a lifetime psychologist and educator, my work has been to support all individuals in connecting REAL dots for himself/herself.  Why?  So each may have solid information to empower self in order to align knowing with behaving on this planet.

Gas prices rediculously high? 

Federal Deficit too large (gap between taxes in and spending out)?

Same cars we sell to Europe enjoy better mileage there than in US...so why? 

See this YouTube, then verify his "connect-the-dots" for yourself below:

http://www.artba.org/about/faqs-transportation-general-public/faqs/#3

I've included this link to ARTBA so you can learn how things really work "behind the scenes."  Instead of business as is, I will vote to align federal verbiage with sound business reform and generative changes in:  tax structures, federal spending, federal expansion, federal rhetoric with practice, prosperity consciousness with prosperity thinking(about both people and natural resources).

  Subject: Gasoline

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBnlXGvA1Wk&feature=youtube_gdata_player 

Read the letter Congress wrote to Barack Obama.  
(A link to this letter follows the article from Huffington Post.)


As you read, please consider these questions:  
What would YOU do if you were in the top seat and chose 
... to improve our American economy? 
... Favor American markets?  
... Bring jobs back home?  
... Keep jobs home? 
... Promote American families, workers, and products? 
... the vitality of America?


Charity begins at home, Barry.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/obama-trade-congress-buy-american_n_1475277.html#es_share_ended

Learning from HOMES
... Her Organic Man Eating Sustainably

Writer's Note: This introduces the learning and practice of my organic man, Tim: a New York State Registered Nurse (-and lifelong athlete learning to adjust to life changes.)

Since living with Tim, I have enjoyed even greater health and vitality.  I call him my "Organic Man" because of the way his day unfolds, the style in which he lives his life,  the way he thinks about his life, and sustaining all of this -the way he eats.

Since September, I've learned to increase and decrease certain dietary elements (thus nutrients) in my daily diet.  I have increased my protein and fiber.  I have decreased my fat content AND portion size.  Recently, I realized I am ready to share this stylistic change with those I care about.  Rewiring isn't something we should keep to ourselves!

Tim and I have shared pictures of our meals via cell phone and email with each other since our first encounter last June.  It's become one way of being together when we were apart -a delicious way of simply sharing a meal, a glass of wine, during my travels across country.  Recently, I realized that sharing pictures of foods we prepare daily is helpful to family and friends who also want to enjoy the results of Our HOMES Way!

For the past two weeks, I've snapped casual shots of our daily dishes, then I email them (+recipe) to both Tim and I.  We're "gathering."  Our HOMES Way Online cookbook is growing.   Yesterday, I was Skyping with my daughter, a vegetarian recovering from the flu.  Tim handed me a glass of his Blueberry  Shake ... rich in protein and bioflavinoids, low in calories.  I shared some information about daily protein requirements for via Tim's nutritional coaching.  This morning, after taking a pic of our breakfast, I decided blogging serves as viable avenue for little lessons that make sense to readers ready to rewire.  Here's Lesson One gleaned from my resident RN:

Protein is the body's building block.  Our body's cells replace themselves every four months (or sooner).  Without sufficient protein intake daily, our bodies do not have what they need to grow stronger tissues: blood, muscles, organs, and bones (the latter is also heavily mineral...more on minerals in another lesson). Stem cells reproduce the tissue in their locality as old ones die off and new must be generated.


A rule of thumb to determine how much protein an individual needs daily: body weight divided by 2.  Given my activity level and weight (110 pounds), I need to take in 55 grams of protein daily to replace and restore my current body.  Activity level? I exercise 6/7 days each week, alternating "demanding" days with lighter yoga days.  I have included use of light weights since September ... they make a noticeable difference. (Activity is another focus we will save for  future lessons.) 


Incorporating sufficient protein daily, without unnecessary fat, is not hard but does require reading labels, planning ahead,  and tracking intake.  After a week of this, recognition becomes automatic:

1. Egg whites offer  easy and excellent protein.  One egg white is approximately 6 grams of protein.  Keep hard-boiled eggs stocked in the fridge.  If making a salad chop three (saving only one or two yolks depending on your cholesterol concerns).   If making an omelet, we can use just one egg yolk (or two) and refrigerate the rest to thicken soup later. (18 grams).  It's the EGG WHITE  that provides your protein.
2. Turkey breast offers us the leanest meat.  Google how many ounces of lean turkey gives you 15-20 grams of protein. You will be pleasantly surprised.
3. One 14 and three quarter ounce (418 grams) can of Wild Alaska Red Salmon offers 13 grams of protein per quarter cup serving (just 2 oz., or 63 grams).  This means the entire can offers 7 (13 gram) servings of protein, totalling 91 grams of protein.  Half the can is close to my daily need for protein.  
4. After reading the labels on her vegetarian lunch items, daughter noticed her can of pea soup (nuts and legumes offer mild doses of protein, but remember nuts are loaded with fat) gave her 14 grams of protein ... and the package of tofu ( soup enhancer)  offered a whopping 45 grams.
5. Whey protein shakes offer a quick way to gather sufficient protein and make an easy, refreshing snack. One scoop provides 18 grams of protein.

So calculate how much protein you need daily and read labels to measure your meals.  I like to consider 4 flexibly sized,moderate meals per day: 15-20 grams per meals.  If I grab protein rich snacks, such as a scant handful (not fistful), I have taken in approximately 6 grams of protein ... then I adjust my meal intake accordingly. If I engage strenuous exercise that day (which I generally do three out of six days per week) I move toward 60 grams of protein. If I just do yoga, I lean toward 50 grams.  

This kind of intake attention and flexible self-regulation amounts to a mindfulness practice, a way of stewarding the greatest physical resource we have ...our body. 

How do you offer your body protein to grow your body stronger and last longer?

Sample Response to Reading Question #1

What if our current federal government had an energy policy permitting industry to develop our wealth of natural resources?

If our current federal government had an energy policy permitting industry to develop our wealth of natural resources

• we would be paying $2.50/gal (or less) at the gas pump
• hundreds of thousands of skilled workers would be actively engaged in steady, progressive, and productive  work
• those families would be actively participating in our economy, thus allowing thousands of other industries to rise from the ashes
• the US would actively pursue the American Dream of solid work, appreciating our resources and our resourcefulness
• the US would no longer be financially supporting nations that wish US dead
• we would need to borrow less and less from China ...as we grew more independent, nationally prosperous in body, mind, and spirit... and financially secure as families, communities, cities, states, and finally as a nation
• as we grew stronger we would be able to further our already generous contributions without going bankrupt like our Socialist global neighbors across the Atlantic.* 

* Teacher's Reflection:

The United States of America is number one among free nations in sharing our EARNED wealth.  We have traditionally been so generous that EVEN NOW UNDER Barack's outrageous spending habits: 

• He has acquired an additional 5 trillion dollar debt for US ... in just 3 years!  
• He has US borrowing-to-give (to Egypt, etc, etc, etc.) from China ... you know that name... it's stamped on so many items we purchase from our stores now.) 
• If we developed and generated our own natural resources (and we have wealth right here, right now), we would also be able to progressively reduce our debt (and This is an authentic application of the recently misapplied term "progressive")
• Piggy-backing on Point Three: we could  extend such prosperity by bringing back industry that has increasingly emigrated to foreign shores due to the extraordinary corporate tax imposed on industry in the US. 
• We wouldn't be tempted to further "poach" the already substantially taxed earned resources of those who are achieving and have achieved the American Dream (many of whom are by the way immigrants from Asian countries who are willing to work hard and smart to build wealth because the US offers them (and everyone) a free country in which to do just that!)
• We would ultimately afford to ensure decent and workable health insurance to just those with pre-existing conditions denied by insurance companies without changing everyone else's already workable insurance plans (as the populace voted to do in Mitt Romney's State of Massachusetts...this amounted to 6% of the state's population, by the way).

Teacher's Extension:

I listened to a a call-in news program last week.  A "regular" called in saying how well he liked, Barry. The Host questioned the caller's reference to "Barry."

"You know, Barry, my man!" 

He was referring to Barack Obama, or as Fallon called him, "Prezi of the United Stezi."

Since our current prezi actively seeks this level of intimacy or in these times of Extreme TV we could say Mr. Obama seeks our Extreme Casualness with potential voters.  

Throughout my 45 year practice in the varied arenas of Educational Psychology, I have been concerned about the "intimacy and belonging" needs reflected by parents and teachers who encouraged being on a first name basis with their younger, dependent charges.  Besides the race card, our current "Prezi" insists more recently on playing the celebrity card! Thus, I will pace this master of rhetoric and "ceremony"...we will also call him, "Barry." Barry -seems he clearly wants us to think of him as our man! So let's give the man what he really wants.

It's hard not to notice how Barry has assumed the bounce and stride of an NBA player, the toothy smile of a nominee racing toward his trophy at the Academy Awards, the stealthy glance-and-sidetalk with the likes of Biden, even more foreboding with Russia's President-to-Putin exchange.  Barry thought his microphone was off.  He misjudged. It was on. Stunned by his ease with stealth, I heard him assure the Russians he could be more "flexible" in the future (anticipating his post-election flexibility re defense missile negotiations).  OOOOOOOOweeeeee, scarey.   But real, folks.   

Barry was very comfortable setting up shop for future private business ... out of our sight and range of listening.  What "deal" would eventually become worth Barry's while to sell some of us  (or all of US) down the Volga?  In the beginning (2007-8), Barry publicly claimed Presidential TRANSPARENCY his high priority.  In 2008, I voted for Barack Obama...I thought that what I saw and heard was what we'd get. 

What I've learned since  2008, is that Barry is a practiced showman.  It's easy enough for anyone to assess his "master of ceremonies" persona from college on YouTube.  His experience as a community organizer only galvanized what was already his greatest talent: delivering convincing rhetoric.  

From his presidential track record, three years down the road, I clearly see that what we heard during his first campaign differs from what he actually does  "off-stage." All career educators have witnessed the bravado and rhetoric of star bullies at school when they draw an audience!   More importantly, what we've heard from Barry significantly differs from what he believes.  Again, experienced professionals and diagnosticians know the value of working backwards to more accurately discern authentic elements of a grand  design.  Working backwards, we temporarily set aside what Barry wants us to hear him say.  Instead, we observe what he does and how he does it. 

What Barry believes is reflected not only his legislative actions, e.g. his premier package: Obamacare.  It is also reflected in the trajectory of his actions, most recently through executive order forbidding protests when he is presenting, verbally daring the Supreme Court to declare Obamacare unconstitutional, and before this coercing congress to vote-before-reading his over 2000 page proposal pocked with thousands of earmarks (kickbacks and special deals).  He is growing more offend able and more offending; his extreme narcissism is showing (and the Emperor's clothes are becoming more translucent).

Looking backward over the nature of this trajectory, my studied inference is that Barry indeed shares strong sentiments about America's legitimacy to exist with Farrakhan, Sharpton, the Black Panthers, and his spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright (The definition of "reverend" makes it impossible to apply to this  inflammatory man). 

How did the revolution in France and Russia progress?... Inflammatory class divisiveness, economic collapse, and ultimate takeover by a small but autocratic elite to whom everyone else was subservient.   

How did the evil of genocide come to fruition? Through good people standing by doing nothing, saying nothing - being politically correct! "Civilized" people seem to live in fear of being "offensive."  From antiquity, genocide has been unleashed on different ideologies, religions, cultures: Carthage and Melos, European Jews ("Holocaust"), the Romas (Gypsies), the Poles, the Tutsis in Rwanda by the Hutus, Armenians in the Anatolian Provinces, Arab Bedouins who destroyed those of Black Ethnicity in Darfur, Chinese by Japanese, Native Americans by the U.S. Calvary, The Tibetans by the Chinese, and most recently the Bosnians by the Serbs (just a little scan of human transgressions against "different" and "hated" neighbors. 

UNITED STATES 

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM 

CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES, most data gathered from the Report by Professor Emeritus Yehuda Bauer, Israel and a survey of genocides since antiquity on most continents: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199232116.do

Infusing the federal government dead center in control of every nook and cranny of what was once a uniquely states'-and-individuals' rights-American life is a certain way to change America (but not the way we hoped for, voted for in 2008).  As an educator, psychologist, developer of empowered human beings, I came to understand deeply, the power inherent in human beings ... and in our processes for BECOMING more of who we choose to be.  Informed parents (and highly experienced educators) raise children to become SELF-STARTERS, lifelong learners, and generative contributors to the world within and around.  Centralizing, as a social process,  is at the opposite end of LOCALIZING.  We've seen how badly "centralizing" school decision-making worked across the last generation -not only in our cities, but across the nation. Five decades of integral connection with public education -as one political football of government- reveals the way processes work. 

While capitalism is imperfect its imperfections depend on the integrity of the individuals using that process.  While imperfect, it allows individuals and families freedom to prosper, create and recreate.  Socialism, all grown up, economically looks like Greece, Portugal, Italy, France, etc.  Europe, not including Germany -who doesn't overspend, which is why they  have the money to offer to bail out bankrupt Greece (with conditions to stop overspending on their socialist programs) is currently on the verge of economic collapse.  So do we (US) really choose to continue on a path to socialism?

Communism looks like the starving and mafia-controlled Russian Federation ... and the one-child China (preferably male children).  

Tyrannical Dictatorships look like Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.( and Sharia Law -which among other deadly women-hating ways, includes death for blasphemy).  

Please do your own investigating, pay attention day after day for at least one month.  Compare and contrast five different TV networks in their coverage and presentation of events.  

1. Are the range of issues covered, followed the next day of dropped?  
2. Followed by partisan debate? Or does the network itself present a single political position/interpretation?
3. To what extent has the network predigested issues, simply and summarily prounced as facts by the newscaster?
4.  Does the network (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN) offer simple or complex interpretations/debates/dialogues of political events?
5. How much time is allocated to local, national, global news?  Many focus much or more time on murders and natural disasters compared to time on the task of informing a vote-capable citizenship (- allocated to national news that we can actually do something about through our right to inform ourselves and vote on November 6, 2012).
6. How do you feel after witnessing individual networks --hungry for more detail and dots to connect? Or sick to your stomach stuffed with views of violent episodes you cannot control? Or kept happily sheltered from ugliness in the world needing transformation through our sharing, our efforts, our contributions?
7. After watching a network do you feel like you ate a can of Chef Boyardee prefabricated ravioli drenched in additives to make eating it smoother, faster, taste-bud stunned, and seductively addictive (like loosing ourselves in tabloid celebrity drama) 
8. Or do you feel quizzical, stimulated, nourished ...even  invigorated by some healthy conflict of interests that makes you want to learn more... as if you devoured a healthy nutrient-rich salad.

Check out  YouTube recordings of Barry's progression since 2007.  Check out the GOP candidate, Mitt Romney.  Investigate top talking points/issues through Google searches.  Cross check email "Forwards" through a check point listed below.  My brother has used all three, recommending them.   It's good to have an alternative.

Snopes.com

Factcheck.org

Politifact.com

Just notice...and spend significant time questioning with a friend what you both thought you knew when you didn't know much, but felt OK about that.  As  Antoine St. Exuperay expresses through the WWII novella entitled, The Little Prince: "One sees clearly only with the heart."  

And as we mature as adults, we learn to see with our fuller and higher, deeper and richer heart-mind.  While we will always detect the ways of thinking and the primal affiliations of childhood, adolescence, and very early adulthood, mature adults are called to use all our senses, including common sense.  We bring to bear on our adult issues a wealth of global and local knowledge and know-how. We organize and update and revise our primal perceptions in the context of higher order concepts from which we can draw more accurate inferences.  

In the end, adults contribute to our greater good as informed citizens,  able to navigate diverse territories, responding to both the panorama and each tree in the forest in which we live and love, work and play, participate and contribute, make the world a truly better place by being the best we can be.

Please leave behind the fear of being politically correct.  Keep your good manners, use your words, don't worry about spelling ... just respond, share thoughts, ask questions. Let's have important political conversations...now.