The Wheel

*clipart off the web*








"All my life's a circle, sunrise and sundown."
-Harry Chapin

When I look back along my life, I am struck by the many times I have been between the worlds waiting for the precise moment to jump.

When I look back along my life, I am struck by the many times I have been between the worlds waiting for the precise moment to jump and I was alone in my waiting.

When I look back along my life, I am struck by the many times I have been between the worlds waiting for the precise moment to jump and I was alone in my waiting and then I jumped.

When I look back along my life, I am struck by the many times I have jumped.

-sapphoq

We shoulda stuck with horses!

*from http://www.gifanimations.com *


The price of gas is so high,
we shoulda stuck with the horses!

The more I know progress,
the more progress frightens me.

Now the president says he will release
oil from the reserve
however, others say that we lack the refineries.

Once again, in the untied states,
demand exceeds production.

Progress keeps us all alive longer
but we've all forgotten
how to live.

-sapphoq

John Hinckley

*picture NOT taken by me. see description below picture.*




John Hinckley was found "not guilty by reason of insanity" for trying to shoot then president Ronald Reagan and three other people in (I think it was) 1986.

After carefully considering expert testimony from both sides, the jury decided that the state failed to prove its case. John Hinckley was taken to St. Elizabeths Hospital which has a forensic mental health unit for people referred to by the courts. He has been living there ever since.

Mr. Hinckley has been off -grounds for one heavily supervised visit with his parents, to an amusement park, and to a space center.
After the visit with his parents, photographs of Jodi Foster which Mr. Hinckley had obtained while at St. Elizabeths were found in his room. That was in 1987 (I think). Mr. Hinckley had claimed prior to the room search that he was over his obsession with Jodi Foster. Clearly, he wasn't at that time. Mr. Hinckley has now reportedly improved according to recent testimony by one of the psychiatrists employed by St. Elizabeths. His parents are requesting that Mr. Hinckley be permitted visits home.

The jury had made an unpopular decision. They made this decision based on the available evidence. Because of this verdict, insanity plea laws all over the nation were modified. Mr. Hinckley was not held accountable for his crime by reason of insanity.

I did not like Ronald Reagan, nor do I care for Mr. Hinckley. I do not want him to become a free man and I certainly would not marry him. And yet, I remind myself that the jury has spoken. The request of Mr. Hinckley's parents has once again put him in the public eye.

We the public and the media are going to re-try Mr. Hinckley in the court of
opinion. Mr. Hinckley had a jury. Regardless of what we think of the man, he is not in prison. A judge will soon decide what Mr. Hinckley is allowed or not allowed to do. I have a strong opinion, yet I am forced to acknowledge that I do not and should not have any say in this man's life.

-sapphoq

Blondie

Today I took Blondie to the veterinarian for a re-check of her infected paw pads.

Her pads are still infected.



Ten more days of Clavamox and a re-check next Friday.





As for her "mild" never before noticed heart murmur which has not changed in loudness since last week, I have two choices.

I can get her a C-T scan of her heart NOW for my "piece of mind."

Or, I can wait until April for a re-check [unless she becomes symptomatic before then].



The question I keep asking myself is, "Which piece of my mind do they want to give back to me???"

-sapphoq

DANCING WITH MYSELF

*clip-art off the web. remember this cartoon anyone? it's little lulu!*






Anyone who wishes they had "better" self-esteem might consider reading Nathaniel Branden's many books out on the subject and actually doing the fill-in-the-blank sentence programs in the back of most of the books.
Nathaniel Branden is considered the Father of the modern-day self-esteem 'movement.'
In his book, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden speaks about the six practices of self-esteem.
Those six practices are:
living consciously,
self-acceptance,
self-responsibility,
self-assertiveness,
living purposefully,
and
personal integrity.

Nathaniel Branden ROCKS!!!

-sapphoq

It's the Poorest who Suffer the Most

*APPhoto taken by Ric Francis on 9/14/05.
Floodwaters leave muck in Ninth District*
*Reuters. Photographer Unidentified. Taken 9/15/05.
National Guard clearing debris off of road*
*APPhoto. Taken by Ann Heisenfelt on 9/13/05.
Home in Ninth District getting bulldozed.*
*APPhoto by Steve Senne taken 9/14/05.
Debris in front of nursing home*













Sure, it's "great news" that the downtown business district and that the French Quarter in New Orleans will soon be back to their usual swing.
They didn't get hit by the hurricane nearly as hard as the Ninth District did-- where New Orleans most impoverished citizens lived in shotgun houses.
Do most of us even know what a "shotgun shack" is?
Thirty-four bodies were found in a nursing home which the staff had abandoned. The two owners are currently under charges.
Staff also abandoned their patients in a hospital.
The pictures tell a story.

-spike q

Still Looking for Survivors on 9/14/05

*APPhoto taken by Janie Dringhaus on 9/14/05*

Let Us Not Forget

*taken 9/13/05 by Janie Dringhaus of APPhotos. *








-sapphoq

Morris Cerullo and my aunt

*Morris Cerullo, televangelist, "miracle-worker," and thief from MCWE website*



One of my aunts had multiple sclerosis. She was a very dynamic woman when she was alive in spite of being homebound. She was taking courses at a local community college with the long-term goal of counseling teens in her home. She had a two-way hook-up with her classrooms. She was able to attend lectures in real-time while sitting in her living room. She could also participate in discussions via her link. This was back in the early seventies.

My aunt had the use of three fingers. With her three fingers, she was typing an historical novel--faction, she called it-- of how she had discovered that she had MS and her life afterwards.
The pages I read were full of descriptive imagery. In my mind's eye, I could see the nursing school that my aunt had attended. She was the one who volunteered for a demonstration spinal tap. Her proteins came back elevated. That was how she found out.

I remember my aunt watching Morris Cerullo on television. "Expect a miracle today!" he would proclaim to his audiences. His audiences were mostly made up of people desperate to be rid of their physical ailments. He would exhort them to send him money with the words, "Give me your pocketbooks." My aunt bought the whole story.
In the end, my aunt died still expecting a miracle from Morris Cerullo. Morris "when you are looking at me, you are looking at god" Cerullo did not deliver. My aunt died from severe heart arrhymthia-- the second leading cause of death associated with multiple sclerosis [the first is respiratory failure] in her fifties [average age of death in someone with MS].
In the year 2000, Morris Cerullo was expected to deliver other things. For that story, go to the link below and then to its' internal search engine. Typing in the name Morris Cerullo will lead you to two articles in their archives. Of special note are the pictures of his mansion and his gold-plated interior air limo.

http://www.christian-witness.org/index.html

-sapphoq

Flying

*clipart off the web*

Where are we going? Some birds "fly south" for the winter. They don't spend long summer evenings debating the question. As summer leaves like a fickle friend, the migrators pack up and leave too. They KNOW where they are going. Oh to be more like a bird! Part of a flock with a destination.

Some people claim that humans are a higher beast for a variety of reasons. I hasten to point out that birds are better at being birds that we would be at being birds. In fact, they are better at being birds than we are at being people. We have forgotten how to fly.

-sapphoq

September 11, 2001

photo credits to be added later.











The Smithsonian is collecting and archiving memories of 9/11/01.
Link to http://www.911digitalarchive.org
and record your own memories.

-sapphoq

Hurricanes and Wetlands 9/9/05

* photograph by Gary Coronado of Associated Press appearing in the Vancover Times*


I have recently heard several literalistic fundamentalist christians declare that New Orleans was a place of great sin; therefore, their god "sent the hurricane."

A hurricane is a natural event. Building a city on wetlands and marshes is NOT. The French were the original settlers and engineers of the Crescent City.
And forcing the Mississippi River to straighten out and to move faster for the sake of commercial boat traffic also is NOT a natural act.

I submit that people are at least partly responsible for what happened to this jewel of a city.

I also submit that Osama Bin Laden also fervently believes that his god sent the hurricane because New Orleans was a place of great sin.

The question remains: why would anyone living in the Untied States of America want to be on the same side as Bin Laden.

Something to think about.

-sapphoq

Happy Anniversary to me!

*from Center for Disease Control Campaign "Anyone can get an ulcer"

On September 8, 1980 at 10:18 a.m. I realized that I could not drink or drug safely and I quit my old life.

Please celebrate this very special day with me. Blessed be!

-sapphoq

Quotes from the godly...or?

* by cartoonist gaspirtz*

Quotes by people in good standing with their god.

Taken from:

A Treasury of Deception, by Michael Farquhar. Penguin Books, New York, 2005.

part seven, #5, "What in the Name of god?" pp. 190-195.

"By the grace of Auramazda [God] I am king; Auramazda gave me the kingdom."

--Darius the Great of Persia (reigned 522-486 bc)

"Are you the god-haters who do not believe me to be a god, a god acknowledged by all the other nations but not to be named by you?"

--Caligula (reigned ad 37-41, roman empire)

"Piles of heads, hands, and feet were to be seen in the streets. . . . Men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgement of God that this place should be filled with the blood of unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies."

--Report from the French cleric Raymond d'Aguilers on the slaughter of Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem during the First Crusade in 1099

"Alfonso--God curse him!--pulled out of this place after he and his men had taken their fill of the chattels and possessions of the Muslims. . . ."

--Muslim account of the same battle

"Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?"

--Protestant reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) on the Copernican theory that the earth revolves around the sun

"We recognize the negro as God and God's Book and God's Laws, in nature, tell us to recognize him--our inferior, fitted expressly for servitude."

--Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, 1861

"God is with us."

--Motto on the belt buckles of Kaiser Wilhem's soldiers during the Great War

JERRY FALWELL: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way--of of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

Christian evangelist Jerry Falwell [to] Pat Robertson during a 2001 broadcast on the Christian Boradcasting Network [re: the attack of 9/11].

* * *

Those so inclined might be interested in reading more of this fine book. --sapphoq

Why Frogs Are Better Than Politicians

*frogs by Victoria Kinza*

Why Frogs Are Better Than Politicians

• frogs are slimey only when wet. politicians are slimey all the time and they aren't supposed to be.
• every word from a politician's mouth is a lie. every word from a frog's mouth is a croak.
• frogs are cute.
• frogs eat what pisses them off. politicians ignore or lambast anyone who pisses them off.
• frogs spend sundays the same as every other day. politicians have to go to church.
• frogs hang out with froggie friends. politicians hang out with whoever can benefit them most.
• no one has ever burned an effigy of a frog on the front lawn of the state capital building in albany new york.
• frogs have fan clubs. politicians club their fans.
• frogs don't care what you look like. politicians don't care.
• when their watery homes dry up, frogs burrow under or leave. when peoples' cities are flooded, politicians burrow under and pretend they didn't know for as long as possible.
• frogs are content. politicians are malcontents.
• kiss a frog and he may turn into a prince. kiss a politician and you may get trenchmouth.

-spike q 9/5/05

Where is Home?

*by Linda Warren*

When I was escaping from my mother's house, she must have known that something was up. I was gradually moving my stuff out over a period of three days, traumatized and scared out of my mind.
She said to me, "Once you leave, you can never go home again." I thought to my self--that is not a threat. Who would want to come back to living HERE?
As I recovered from my experiences under her roof, her statement took on a new meaning for me. Perhaps it was unintended on her part, I don't know. I came to know that nothing is ever the same after leaving it.
Leaving my mother's house gave me unexpected power. I was no longer subject to her rages. I could choose when to communicate with her and when not to. I could keep myself safe.
Many years have passed since that time. Many years ago, I lived in Baton Rouge Louisiana for about eight or nine months. Gas was cheap then. My stomping grounds ranged from eastern Texas through Mobile Alabama to Picayune and Biloxi Mississippi. Friends and I visited New Orleans practically weekly.
Now the hurricane has leveled the city. New Orleans will remain in my memory golden bright and shining like the sun.
The places I have known that I have called home have all changed. It is true. I can never go home again. It is not just the places that have changed. I have changed too.
So just where is home? Home is where I am now. Home, like safety, comes from within.

-sapphoq

Falling off the tree 9/2/05

When I was working, I too spent alot of time trying to prevent myself from falling off of the tree. Now that I am not working, I have been thinking about these things and re-evaluating my life.
To me, it appears that many companies want fewer workers to do more and more things with less and less time and resources. There is a gross lack of balance in this way of thinking.
The bottom line for business is profit. When I do return to work, I intend to keep my priorities up front in spite of the mad rush around me. Profit will not be had at my expense. I can no longer afford to prioritize my health and well-being somewhere below the idea of working far more hours than is good for me. I will have balance in my life. I deserve no less.
I used to be one of those people rushing around madly, working far more than thirty-five hours a week on a salaried job. There was way too much to do. Working was like juggling plates. I never knew how many of those plates would crash.
After my car wreck, I was no longer useful to my company. During the time when I was sleeping twenty hours a day, someone kept calling me from the office to argue about completing a company accident report. I was unable to fill out any forms. I was suffering from altered consciousness and sent all paperwork to my attorney.
I had hit a house. I was very fortunate to be alive. I had a serious brain injury. I had spinal injuries. I didn't know what was going on. I felt like I no longer understood the world and someone wanted me to fill out paperwork. BUSINESS IS BUSINESS. I know now that she was "just doing her job" but that does not make the company's non-response to my accident any easier for me to take.

-sapphoq

Witch Hunts

*crystallogy web of human genome-from the human genome project*

No more witch hunts.
We resist.

From "La Cage aux Folles"

I am what I am and what I am needs no excuses.

I deal my own deck.

Sometimes the ace. Sometimes the deuces.

It's my world that I want to have a little pride in.

My world that I want to have no need to hide in.

Life's not worth a damn

Til you can say, "Hey world, I am what I am."

Why is it that we are so afraid of who we are? We are all human beings trying to live together on this one battered planet--hopefully without killing each other off.

-sapphoq

hurricane katrina

*Jeff Schwartz MODIS Land Rapid Response Team. NASA. Hurricane Katrina*

I grieve for the people of New Orleans and surrounding areas.

-sapphoq