This is a stick up

Bernard Madoff was arrested this week for ripping off untold numbers of investors in the amount of 50 billion dollars.

Wait now, let me repeat this: 50 BILLION dollars.

If a twenty year old with a drug habit and a hankerin for heroin holds up a liquor store for 50 bucks his ass lands in jail that VERY NIGHT. There is usually no one to pay his bond and he is not likely to have a well dressed attorney to reduce his bail terms. He gets no special treatment and can go to jail in a heartbeat.

So, if you are a white collared rich dude with an expensive attorney here is what you get for STEALING 50 BILLION dollars:

"Out on bail with a curfew, defendant must be remanded to his home between 7pm and 9 am. Passport is surrendered and defendant must wear anklet device".

Oh, wow, what a statement of the seriousness of the crime huh? What kind of a legal system do we have when someone can rob people, albeit rich people, of so much money and get some little lightweight slap on the hand?

I'm appalled, I'm just completely agog. It almost makes one want to go to law school just to level the playing field.

Okay now, I said almost.

But for real, 50 billion?

Of cigarettes and longing

It's Christmas time, and I want my mom. It's been over 18 years now, and the gut wrenching grief is long gone, but the ties that hold you to your mom never come undone, even in death. I was shopping last week, in a great mood, looking at some Christmas ribbons, when all of a sudden my mother's favorite Christmas song came on the store speakers. I instantly started sobbing in the middle of the aisle, I came completely unglued in the middle of the dollar store.

Christmas was cookie heaven at our house growing up. We didn't have money, but we had a lot of baked goods. We decorated cut out cookies so much my sister Nancy refers to that time as our "cookie sweat shop" period. We loved decorating them but there really can be too much of a good thing! After a few dozen ginger bread cookies made just so, we would just sprinkle on the glittering sparkles as fast as we could to get them done. But everyone loved my Mom's baking, and Christmas was the time when her talents really shined. Like making Hajji, everyone had to come at some point and taste my mother's baked goods.

What kind of solace is there for the deep, primal loss of your mother? What-that she's in heaven? Or that she's reached Nirvana? Or that she's in Purgatory working out her sins? Or that she's dust?

If I can take license for just a moment I would like to picture my mother in Heaven like this: She is wearing her turqoise polyester pant suit, letting her nails dry from just painting them cherry red. Her permed-up hair is sprayed up good and it has the artificial look of Clairol #5 Strawberry Blonde. She's sitting at a table with a cheap cigarette in one hand, and a beer in the other. Sitting next to her is her wild, untamed, chain-smoking, crazy ass sister Rosie who is borrowing a Vicodin and a beer from my mom and dealing out the cards for them to play KIngs in the Corner. They are in hog heaven, praising Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Halleluia and pass the ashtray! Both of them had childhood trauma's and a lifetime of addictions, but my mother had a heart of gold. I miss that heart.

That's it, that's all. Just that, although my heart is full and I am happier in my life than I have ever been, I still miss her. Always will I guess.

Purple Haze

Chicanery- I love the sound of this word, it sounds like a fun pink and black striped candy that you could buy at the candy counter in a movie theater, but the meaning is more like what you find on the floor of the theater after an all-day film fest.

This week we found out that Chicago politics are more corrupt than we even knew. The Governor was auctioning off the vacating senate seat of our president elect for payola, and wanted other perks as well. So many pundits are chiming in on this dung heap, it's hard to find anything else to say, but as I am rarely at a loss for words, I have some thoughts on the matter.

Why is it that so many times in various different settings, people lose themselves when they gain recognition and success? You see it in corporations, in school boards and especially in churches. The humble servant seeks to serve and before long he expects that all should serve him (or her). Are we destined to just have the most base and coniving of our species rise to places of power because the rest of us have no stomach for it? I'd like to think that there are those among us who, given the challenge, could overcome the temptation to morph into the egocentric goons that seem to occupy the highest seats.

I saw Ann Coulter on Fox News today. Her whole aura seems to be one of gloating, self righteousness. Her comments are snide and her world view is so negative, it's hard to imagine her being in any relationships with friends who would feel safe around her. I confess I would love to lock her in a room with Bill Mahr, the room would combust with their two egos in full throttle.

In the end I believe that Jimi Hendrix was right: "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."

I'm hoping with all my heart that Mr. Obama will raise the bar for our government, and our country as a whole. I want to aspire to be a better person for the higher good. I want to live in a country where we aren't all jaded about our leaders, where we feel that they are making decisions that will benefit the many, not just the few.

Am I naive? Perhaps, but I love the idea that we can all evolve, that life is an ever changing ball of wonder, and that the impossible can come still come true.

Now where did I put that screw driver?

This week in the news we heard that Heidi Stefanyshyn-Piper, one of the astronauts on the International Space Station, accidentally let her tool bag slip away while she was making a repair on the outside of the space station. I hate when that happens! The photo of this is priceless, actually pretty unreal. I kept thinking about this incident all week and now I'm just going to jot down some thoughts for your ponderation.

1). How can we manage to send people into space for months at a time and plan out each and every element, from oxygen delivery to waste mangaement, food and temperature control, and yet someone couldn't think to attach some velcro to the tool kit?

2) Why is it that the first time a tool kit goes missing it's the girl's fault? I hope she isn't blonde.

3) I think it's hilarious that at the moment the astronaut saw that the tool kit was floating away the NASA ground crew overheard her say "Oh Great!" If you drop your cell phone in a mud puddle it's "Oh Great" if you drop your bagel on the floor it's "Oh Great!" but come on people, if you drop a $100,000 tool kit in space in front of the entire world via satellite? There would have to be a seven second delay for what I would be saying.

Somehow this whole incident serves to make me step back and realize that we can plan our lives, we can set it up and have every detail lined up a certain way, but then life can just come along and BOOM, your tool kit is floating away. I feel that way sometimes when my stress level gets up to DEFCON 5. I feel my coping skills just floating away in space and as I try to slo-mo my way over to get them, they just slip further away. At that point I have learned that the best thing to do is hunker down and wait. Call the cavalry and let them know that there's been an incident and then make a new plan. Usually the waiting brings about renewed ideas and the stamina to implement them. Or, like the astronauts on the International Space Station, someone with their own tool kit can come along and help you.

Now all we have to do is be watchful. If you are walking a beautiful beach some night at sunset and you look up to see something hurling at you at the speed of light, I would say DUCK because a wrench coming full tilt from space is gonna leave a mark.

Time's up!

Rootin Tootin Vladimir Putin and Mayor Michael Boom Boom Bloomberg have lots in common. Both have delusions of grandeur that convince them that the world as we know it will collapse into ruin if they are not in power-again. To that end both are seeking to change the term limits laws in their prospective communities. Mayor Bloomberg succeeded last week, along with the city council, but it remains to be seen whether or not this will withstand the challenge it will certainly recieve.

What is interesting in both instances is what we see often in corporate America. People claw their way to the top and once they get a sip of the power, become addicted to the high and will do anything to keep it.

It is as ridiculous as it is narcisstic to think that they alone can lead their people. Term limits were enacted for very good reasons. Cronyism and corruption are the two that come to mind. I remember working for a company where I watched as the most ruthless and corrupt persons rose up in the ranks, feared by most and respected by none. They wielded their power like bludgeons and had no sense of the collective good.

Term limits are our way of saying that we know that power can corrupt, and that no one person is ever the only person who can lead. We need people in leadership positions both in and out of government who are going to lead with a sense of the collective good. This will only happen when competent people step forward and agree to serve. Good people who will not let the stench of the good ole boy network turn them away. Dedicated people who cannot be bought, and will not sell out.

Bloomberg and Putin, get a grip. You had your fiftteen minutes and your time's up. If you are so concerned about the future of your people, then stick around in an advisory position and continue to serve. Emphasis on serve.

I'm just saying . . .

Priceless!

Yes Virginia, there really is a Barack Obama!

Christmas came early last night and the celebration could be heard around the world. I'm usually not lost for words, but today I just want to say that I feel so hopeful for our future because of Barack Obama. There will be those who will be looking for his every mistake, and those who will be gloating at the enormity of his challenge. Let them simmer in their hate. Those of us who voted for this man have dared to dream of a time when our country can move beyond racial divides and rise to be the kind of nation where our similarities are celebrated and our differences mended. Today I am so grateful to live in a country where the people can decide who leads them, and we have chosen.

John McCain stepped down last night in a gracious and very dignified manner. He will no doubt be sought out in the new cabinet for his advice, as he so generously offered last night.

I pray that all those who so vehemently opposed our candidate will, in time come to respect him and embrace the him as our new president of the United States-Barack Obama. As Obama stated last night, it's not about him, it's about US.

Dear Stem, we hardly knew ye.

Today we honor all those brave young souls who died alone, in the bottom of a red biohazard bag, incinerated at the end of the month with legions of soiled utility towels and latex gloves. We honor their sacrifice, their bravery in the fight for the opportunity to become one single precious life whose sole purpose is to grow in the womb of a fertile, waiting, hopeful mother. So intent on bearing a child is she, that in the absence of God's actions, she takes it on herself to extract her own eggs and place them in the hands of a scientist. This medical shaman then impregnates that egg with spilled sperm from the potential mother's husband, whom she deeply loves and is committed to in the holy state of matrimony. After approximately three thousand dollars, a fertilized embryo may occur and we call this occurance "life". Make no mistake, these fertilized embryo's are not just some random tissue, replicating willy nilly in a dark, lonely laboratory. These embryo's are actual tiny children, with all the exact same cells and hallmarks as you or I, except that it can fit in a tiny petri dish. These children then are replicated in multiples, as it takes many attempts to finally get a firm implantation in the mother's hormonally enhanced uterus. Yes, God doesn't see fit to give her the proper hormones, so she seeks wisdom from her physician who pumps her full of chemicals in order to better her chances of having one of these multiple children decide to stay for a while.

What then remains of all the mulitples that have no purpose once the mother has finally reached her goal and becomes pregnant? These embryos are not some science experiment that can be discarded as so much trash, these cell groupings are living souls with the imprint of God himself.

If we truly believe this, then each and every embryo that is not implanted into the mother ought to have a proper funeral and a Christian burial. A respectful graveside service is the least that should be offered for these poor souls that have died, waiting for the mother who, in her hurry to run ahead and play God, has changed the rules once she has recieved the coveted prize, and then lo and behold-these embryos are now expendable. She goes home, flush with the knowledge that she is with child, and leaves the rest of the messy decisions about the disposal of the potential cell groupings to the doctors. Isn't that tidy?

What if, in the absence of finding a uterus to have them, these same embryos could find a home not in a uterus, but perhaps in the body of a seven year old boy with osteosarcoma? What kind of higher calling would that lend to an embryo who is otherwise slated for the trash bin? Would not a soul, with all the potential to become a human being, not then be offered the opportunity to become part of the healing of another young soul? This sacred symetry would be so life-giving that each embryo would know it has reached it's full potential in it's tiny lifespan.

John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends."

I challenge anyone who is against the use of stem cells for the healing of another human soul to sit in the hospital room with a child with cancer. Not for an hour, or a day. Sit there day in and day out for a month. Watch that child being poked and prodded, bloated from steroids, bald from the medications and fighting to stay alive.

We have the opportunity to take what has already been created for other reasons, and grant life to an innocent victim of childhood illness. Shame on those who will not share the bounty of their fertile richness to save a dying child. Playing God is fine when you hit the jackpot yourself, owning up to the fact that you've denied that same life to others may be a bit harder to answer for when the roll is called up yonder.

We deserve better

I saw this ad posted on the Drudge Report today, and it immediately made me feel both sad and angry. Sad because this is the state of politics in the McCain campaign, and angry because there are many Americans who don't have the ability to process complex information and will derive their opinion of Barack Obama through these types of smear ads.

This ad shows that there is no depths too deep for Mr. McCain to go. Karl Rove must be so proud. Our country is so thirsty right now for a positive voice, so anxious about our financial crisis and downright eager to have someone lead with a steady hand, and this is all the McCain/Palin group can muster? It's disgraceful and nauseating to me that McCain can stand up with that big grin on his face, calling us all his 'friends" and then blatantly lie to us about the facts. It reminds me of the ice skater Nancy Kerrigan and the incident that occured in 1994. Ms. Kerrigan was ahead in competition and Tonya Harding saw her chances of a win waning. Because she couldn't win on her own merit, she had her husband club Nancy Kerrigan in the knee, causing a serious injury.

Barack Obama has been a tough competitor but he has never questioned John McCain's patriotism, and has never put John McCain's life in danger with rhetoric. The McCain/Palin team seems to have no shame in ramping up their crowds with hate and misinformation. If anything were to happen to Barack Obama from here till the election, hundreds of thousands of American citizens will hold John McCain personally responsible.

I hope with all my heart that on election day American's will choose the candidate who has the dignity and compassion to lead us in the coming four years. My choice will be Barack Obama.

Just an observation

Okay, I was listening to Governor Palin recently and her rabid list of frightening reasons we should be very afraid of Barack Obama. I'm sorry, but it seems so obvious to me that Sarah Palin is a vampire and electing her will insure that our country will all be in jeopardy of being attacked by this blood sucking beast. She is scary and besides, don't you see her doing that DOUBLE terrorist fist jab? See for yourself.

Shucks ya'll, I'm just sayin.