Judy's Homegrown Blog

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 18, 2011

The political theater that is the Republican race for the primaries is so bad, that it’s a set up for a joke:

How bad is it?

The Republican field is so bad that Bill Clinton came out to endorse Newt Gingrich!

It’s so bad that the people who are bailing on Cain because he’s an alleged adulterer are now lining up behind Gingrich, who is a known adulterer.

It’s so bad that Donald Trump is glad he dropped out before anyone else.

It’s so bad that the Republicans are considering running a Democrat as their “alternate”.

No, really now, this is how bad it is: Republicans are sucking up to big oil by fighting for a gas tax that would raise subsidies for the oil and gas industry, so that they can raise 9 billion dollars to “address global warming” with natural gas vehicles. Who wins? T. Boone Pickens. Incidentally, the folks who are fighting these subsidies most are the ones who want to line their pockets (instead) with subsidies: the Koch Bros. Let them fight it out, as the politicians posture for their handouts.

Meanwhile the “code” for promoting gas and keeping away their competitors are statements like these:

“…uncomfortable with the level in which the U.S. government would be dictating winners and losers in energy development” and “…oppose all government mandates and subsidies because they artificially skew economic signals about price and demand, thereby creating inefficiencies that divert resources from productive activities to politically favored ones”… In other words, let’s not look at any other sources of energy, and keep government out of our business.

How much should government dictate energy policies? Should government subsidize energy innovation? I want to hear from you.

On giving his daughter Nabby advice about choosing a man for marriage:

“Daughter! Get you an honest man for a husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the honor and moral character of the man more than all other circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart. An honest, sensible, humane man, above all the littleness of vanity and extravagances of imagination, laboring to do good rather than to be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity clearly within his means and free from debts and obligations, is really the most respectable man in society, makes himself and all about him most happy.” – John Adams

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 16, 2011

“The big problem in politics always is excessive concentration of power and wealth in too few hands. We’ve seen that in Wall Street where the first principle of capitalism was detonated by the bosses of the banks, investment banks and brokerage houses, and insurance companies. Namely, the shareholders who own their company do not control their company. And under the first principle of capitalism is that if you own something, you should have reasonable control over it. It’s the lack of control by the mutual funds, pension funds, and other investors of their bosses, that allowed their bosses to engage in what the Federal Reserve chief in Dallas TX, Richard Fisher called the other day “a sustained orgy of excess and [reckless] behavior.”

“The second principle of capitalism which is apparently only reserved for small business these days is that you sink or swim, based on your merits. But if you’re a big enough corporation, you can say ‘we’re too big’ to be allowed to fail, AIG for example, and they go to Washington for a bail out. This not only concentrates more and more power, because you see all the acquisitions of the big fish by the bigger fish: Bank of America acquires a big company, and JP Morgan Chase acquires another failing company. But it concentrates power.

“And the concentration of power strips the American people and their various roles of deciding anything in public life, unless they’re part of the power structure. So we have the taxpayer dollar, devastated, misused, and wasted in Washington, we know plenty of that. [We] have consumers being ripped off by high energy prices, high drug prices, credit card gouging etc. We have the workers, 47 million of them, one out of three, not making a living wage, they make Wall Street wages, 7, 8, 9 10 under 11 dollars an hour.

“So what we need here in politics is parties that break the grip of the two-party system which is basically indentured to the corporate supremacists who’ve taken over our government.”

–Ralph Nader, 2008

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 14, 2011

Now that I’m divorced and have to Make a Living all by myself, I place a premium on those services which I had provided someone else in my marriage.

What I’m really saying is: I need someone to cook for me, keep an impeccable house, fully organized, fully stocked with food, to launder the sheets and towels, handle the mail and make the bed, and the million other little things that keep a house going.

I have no doubt that if I had that kind of help around the house, I could devote more time to business. It’s a great system: having a “wife” because both partners benefit. But just because I don’t have a partner who does all these things (and more!) doesn’t mean I’m going to stop from doing it all myself. It just means I’m more incredible.

The un-incredible thing is: I don’t make a living yet. I’m spending my savings to go out on a limb and do this website, not knowing if it will succeed or fail, if I will be scraping along once the savings is all used up, or if I will do fabulously well, or any permutation in between.

The question is: do people need a website like this? If it fulfills a need, then it should do well. The difference between success and failure is your support. Funny how that works out: I pay it forward, and see what happens. Wish us all good fortune!

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 13, 2011

I post a blog item every day. It is not an easy task to do; try it sometime.

I need my weekends “off” so when I find a tidbit that looks especially inspirational, I will post it on Saturday or Sunday.

This is such a day. Look at the wonderment of this: http://vimeo.com/31158841

Enjoy!

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 12, 2011

Suicide Jumper

I was on the phone with a friend who was complaining about the traffic. She got stuck on the bridge which spans from San Diego to Coronado, waiting for over 20 minutes.

“Why was the traffic stopped?” I asked.

“The police came up to my window and said ‘Jumper’,” she replied.

“Someone wants to commit suicide and you’re complaining about waiting in traffic?” I asked her. “How bad can someone’s life be that they want to kill themselves?”

My friend insisted it happened quite often.

“Do they write about it in the news?” I asked.

“You think they would, but they’re afraid it will encourage other people to do it, and that would tie up traffic even more often,” she replied.

I told her that my father committed suicide, and that I was especially sensitive about the kind of despair that would make a person do such a thing. She apologized when she realized how she sounded to me.

Maybe that is another reason I fight so hard against depression: because it has touched my family so deeply. Among the many reasons for depression is the thought that there are no other options. No person should have to struggle alone, feeling ineffectual and thinking there is no one who cares.

Even the most difficult circumstance offers a way up, if we reach out to one another.

People often say “I don’t like politics,” as though they weren’t involved in their community. I say that life is politics, and you can’t ignore it because it sweeps you up into its milieu. It is part of life. To say you don’t like politics is to say you don’t like life; you can’t escape it.

It’s time to turn it around; instead of feeling like life is dishing out punishment after insult, let’s mobilize our efforts and show Washington who’s boss!

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on November 11, 2011

The whole purpose of this website is to give people a sense of hope. Before I started this project, I felt like everyone was complaining, but nobody was doing anything constructive. And since the media seems to regurgitate what everyone else is doing, they repeated the laments ad nauseum.

What I wanted to do was simple: by nurturing our strengths as a country, and believing in the best of people, I could find those creative energies that can turn the tide. We have some of the best most educated minds, we have a long tradition in this country of strong-willed individuals rising up against great odds to get here and then pave a new life, no matter how difficult. We can draw from the strength and depth of our communities, much the same way we prepare for the Olympics or make a multi-million dollar movie, or rally our generous souls to come to the aid of a devastated city or country, like New York, New Orleans or Haiti.

We have what it takes to move in a new direction. What we sorely need is the leadership to guide us. If we want to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps, we need tools to do so. This website is my “gift” to America, the tool chest that will rebuild our country in the way that we envision it.

This is your website, and my only hope is that you find expression through it. Even the smallest spark of an idea can fuel some great thinker to take it and run with it. Together, our minds are greater than the greatest genius working alone. Please tell us what you are thinking. Please, for all our sakes, don’t be quiet anymore.