Beautiful Morning on Lick Run Greenway

I'm lucky enough to be able to ride a bicycle to work and this morning was one of the best ever to ride. How very lucky indeed!

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Fool me once..

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Sarah's Sweetgum Gone

Alas, it had to come down, but we miss it and mourn it.

Off to Hit the Streets!

My Saturday routine - out the door with my walking shoes on, trash bag and picker-upper in hand. Off to tame the wild streets of Greater Raleigh Court, picking up trash and heading for Cups for my rendez-vous avec ma femme! Pour cafe et conversation avec notre amis!

Au revoir!

Friday Playing with the MacBook Air

Trying to get the hang of this wonderful new toy and tool. Lots of confusing and bizarre things to learn - how to play a video; how to use the mouse; how to use the trackpad;

Happy hour about to begin - a wee bit late, but better late than tomorrow.

Spectacularly beautiful day! And more beautiful weather expected Saturday and Sunday.

Leaves too.

just another day

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Here's What OWS is about...

This statement is ours, and for anyone who will get behind it. Representing ourselves (not the movement as a whole), we bring this call for revolution.

We want freedom for all, without regards for identity, because we are all people, and because no other reason should be needed. However, this freedom has been largely taken from the people, and slowly made to trickle down, whenever we get angry.

Money, it has been said, has taken over politics. In truth, we say, money has always been part of the capitalist political system. A system based on the existence of have and have nots, where inequality is inherent to the system, will inevitably lead to a situation where the haves find a way to rule, whether by the sword or by the dollar.

We agree that we need to see election reform. However, the election reform proposed ignores the causes which allowed such a system to happen. Some will readily blame the federal reserve, but the political system has been beholden to political machinations of the wealthy well before its founding.

We need to address the core facts: these corporations, even if they were unable to compete in the electoral arena, would still remain control of society. They would retain economic control, which would allow them to retain political control. Term limits would, again, not solve this, as many in the political class already leave politics to find themselves as part of the corporate elites.

We need to retake the freedom that has been stolen from the people, altogether.

1. 
   

   If you agree that freedom is the right to communicate, to live, to be, to go, to love, to do what you will without the impositions of others, then you might be one of us.

   
   



2. 
   

   If you agree that a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows, that being talented at management should not entitle others to act like overseers and overlords, that all workers should have the right to engage in decisions, democratically, then you might be one of us.

   
   



3. 
   

   If you agree that freedom for some is not the same as freedom for all, and that freedom for all is the only true freedom, then you might be one of us.

   
   



4. 
   

   If you agree that power is not right, that life trumps property, then you might be one of us.

   
   



5. 
   

   If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us.


   
   
   

   And so we call on people to act.

   
   

1. 
   

   We call for protests to remain active in the cities. Those already there, to grow, to organize, to raise consciousnesses, for those cities where there are no protests, for protests to organize and disrupt the system.

   
   



2. 
   

   We call for workers to not only strike, but seize their workplaces collectively, and to organize them democratically. We call for students and teachers to act together, to teach democracy, not merely the teachers to the students, but the students to the teachers. To seize the classrooms and free minds together.

   
   



3. 
   

   We call for the unemployed to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to use what skills they have to support themselves as part of the revolting people as a community.

   
   



4. 
   

   We call for the organization of people's assemblies in every city, every public square, every township.

   
   



5. 
   

   We call for the seizure and use of abandoned buildings, of abandoned land, of every property seized and abandoned by speculators, for the people, for every group that will organize them.

   
   

We call for a revolution of the mind as well as the body politic.

Here's to Matt Taibbi

Taibbi - the best financial observer and writer for my money, and at Rolling Stone no less - has a great piece on bank bailouts on October 5.

"If the Obama administration was serious about helping actual human beings through this settlement, then it would be fighting for homeowners to get the same bailout the banks would get. If the banks are getting a trillion or more dollars of legal immunity, why shouldn’t homeowners get that much debt forgiveness? Or, half that much? A quarter?"

Check out the entire story at Taibblog: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/attorneys-general-settlement-the-next-big-bank-bailout-20111005

Occupy Wall Street

Let's hear it for the movement. Maybe things will get better. Maybe not. Who knows. Why not give it a try.