Monday, November 21, 2011

Everyone should be middle class

How can there even be a poor class. Everyone should be middle class, and if you make more than a million, pitch in your fair share. Right now there are millionaires in DC BEGGING to be taxed (literally). Why won't congress take them seriously? So G.E. Can pay NO (zero$) taxes again? It's gone too far. The Emporer has no clothes! Occupy CONGRESS!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: MERS Problems (Continued)

Bankruptcy & Foreclosure: MERS Problems (Continued): Let's say you make out a check to your friend, let's call him Oscar Originator, for $10,000.00. In return, Oscar will install in your back ...

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

GW comment on thread regarding deficit reduction discussion

GW comment on thread regarding deficit reduction discussion

by Gershon Wolf on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 10:00am
Comment regarding following discussion:

http://front.moveon.org/wow-the-one-chart-that-should-accompany-debt-ceiling-discussions/?rc=fb.fan


Everyone interested in this discussion and the future of America should listen to The President's speeches very carefully. If you like, I also have the transcripts, but you can just Google them also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWJL71CRMQg


The right wingnuts say that Obama has not put forth a plan. This is a lie. He is very specific about his plan to reduce the deficit, while at the same time not robbing the poor, elderly and handicapped, kids who can't pay for college, and important government departments such as the EPA and the people who inspect our food so we don't get poisoned.
The right wing, especially House Speaker Boner, just comes right out and lies. It's so transparent. here, President Obama speaks long and clear and honest about the deficit reduction plan:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF8khACkapA


he's the President. We elected him to apply his solutions to the problems facing the nation. The GOP and their on-the-take liar Party Of NO greedy hatemongers will not even give him a chance to trey his solutions, but yet they criticize him for "not doing anything".
The cat is out of the bag. The emperor has no clothes (Speaker Boner and the other talking points/ slogan/ lie robots who call themselves GOP congressional reps)
 We have The Internet now, but they don't know it, I guess. the exchange of this information is instant and viral. Please share. The servers and phone lines in Washington are jammed with calls from citizens supporting The president's  plea for rational compromise to avert disaster, just like we have done in the past. Not just No NO NO NO and pandering to the greedy pigs whop want tax breaks on their tax breaks so they can fly around in their private jets fro free while our grandparents cannot even pay for their medicine because  Boner wants to pick their pockets, and blame the poor for being poor.  
It makes me sick. Please consider what our President is saying. 
And admit that this proves that the GOP are lying and stalling.
Thank you.

the new logo
just seeing if any

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

bernie Sanders 90 minue speech on the Senate Floor 6-27-11 MUST SEE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcZ-msu27ew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FsVYqqyiP0


How can anyone even consider being a Republican or "fiscal conservative" or tea party asshole-shithead or a Bachman supporter or anything like all that ridiculousness after seeing this  speech, which is all true and well-researched, of sanders on the Senate Floor. He simply tells it like it is and appeals to the American people and The President to be non-ridiculous and have a heart. It's so simple to understand. Anyone subscribing to the GOP and GOP related bullshit is either brainwashed or a psycho-SCROOGE or both!

Monday, June 13, 2011

ragging about climate change and tornados

thank you. we just got squashed by a tornado here in Springfield. I am positive that it is because of global warming. So, finally, global warming almost murdered me.
Source: www.youtube.com
an op-ed by Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org, narrated and illustrated by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.com http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-link-between-climate-change-and-joplin-tornadoes-never/2011/05/23/AFrVC49G_story.htm...
8 minutes ago via YouTube · Privacy: ·  · 
    • Gershon Wolf Letter to the guy who posted this video: I just got hit by a giant tornado. It squashed Springfield, Mass. We haven't had one of those in about 65 years. This place looks like a bomb hit it. The weather in general , apart from the tornado and severe thunderstorms, has been erratic. I posted some videos, but they are all over the Net.
      A class action suit is in order from the damaged parties (us) against the government(s) that allowed and are allowing global warming and pollution to continue unhindered. If they are going to keep doing this stupid crap, they owe a lot of people new cars, new stores, new houses, etc. because theirs have been smashed to smithereens. Plus, in this case, 4 people dead and 200 injured last time I checked.
      a few seconds ago · 

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Comment on Rolling stone article about busting Goldman-Sachs

Deregulation is one of the things at the root of this mess. it's like letting bratty kids do whatever they want, and they burn your house down and take all your money, PLUS max out your credit cards. In the next election let's not talk "too much government"..let's talk REGULATE THESE PIGS NOW. And we all know who is the reform candidate. Obama 2012. He just talks plain sense. Listen to him speak. On Immigration, on financial reform, on anything. WE should give him the chance to put his plans, for reform on health care, budget, regulation, immigration, you name it - in effect, with a Dem congress to back him up this time. My GOD! I read this article in awe. It was a very well-written article I want to congratulate you. But the content..DAMN! These piggie investment bankers and suits on wall street, they are sucking money from social programs and costing REAL LIVES. The money we bail them out with could have gone to children's hospitals or to house homeless people. How about unboarding some of those boarded up houses and letting people live in them instead of pushing shopping carts around town? In my town thousands of houses are boarded up and people are living on the street. The wall street piggies have no right to be so (Holy Moly!) irresponsible with all of the money and housing. Couldn't the government handle housing loans and student loans? Why not? They have ruined it for everyone, these wall street piggies. it's time to give out loans for education, housing, cars, and even improving the life of our senior citizens and not try to make a huge profit off of it.
I was surprised when I found out that my student loan had been "sold" to Fannie Mae. No. I made a deal with my bank. I never said they were allowed to "sell" my loan. It should be illegal. Look what happened! Don;t get me started. Did you see the movie Zeitgeist - Moving Forward? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w let more articulate people talk to you, more articulate than me (I tend to babble) . Check it out.

Rolling Stone (online) article busting Goldman-Sachs

Go to this webaddress and check out this awaesome story. When you get to the bottom of the webpage, clcik the numbers for more pages. It is a long long article. And don't forget to check out the photo gallery

Gershon Wolf GW: It's like I want to dip the whole article in highlighter. This is a MUST READ article.
a few seconds ago · Like


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511?link=mostpopular4&page=1


The People vs. Goldman SachsMatt Taibbi: A Senate committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein tesifies before the Senate in April 2010
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
238 Comments
By MATT TAIBBI
MAY 11, 2011 9:30 AM ET
They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.

Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.

This article appears in the May 26, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive May 13.

The great and powerful Oz of Wall Street was not the only target of Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse, the 650-page report just released by the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, alongside Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Their unusually scathing bipartisan report also includes case studies of Washington Mutual and Deutsche Bank, providing a panoramic portrait of a bubble era that produced the most destructive crime spree in our history — "a million fraud cases a year" is how one former regulator puts it. But the mountain of evidence collected against Goldman by Levin's small, 15-desk office of investigators — details of gross, baldfaced fraud delivered up in such quantities as to almost serve as a kind of sarcastic challenge to the curiously impassive Justice Department — stands as the most important symbol of Wall Street's aristocratic impunity and prosecutorial immunity produced since the crash of 2008.

Photo Gallery: How Goldman top dogs defrauded their clients and lied to Congress

To date, there has been only one successful prosecution of a financial big fish from the mortgage bubble, and that was Lee Farkas, a Florida lender who was just convicted on a smorgasbord of fraud charges and now faces life in prison. But Farkas, sadly, is just an exception proving the rule: Like Bernie Madoff, his comically excessive crime spree (which involved such lunacies as kiting checks to his own bank and selling loans that didn't exist) was almost completely unconnected to the systematic corruption that led to the crisis. What's more, many of the earlier criminals in the chain of corruption — from subprime lenders like Countrywide, who herded old ladies and ghetto families into bad loans, to rapacious banks like Washington Mutual, who pawned off fraudulent mortgages on investors — wound up going belly up, sunk by their own greed.

Read Matt Taibbi on Goldman Sachs, the 'great vampire squid'

But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them — and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.

Read Taibbi's 2010 piece on how bailed-out banks are recreating the conditions for a crash

Defenders of Goldman have been quick to insist that while the bank may have had a few ethical slips here and there, its only real offense was being too good at making money. We now know, unequivocally, that this is bullshit. Goldman isn't a pudgy housewife who broke her diet with a few Nilla Wafers between meals — it's an advanced-stage, 1,100-pound medical emergency who hasn't left his apartment in six years, and is found by paramedics buried up to his eyes in cupcake wrappers and pizza boxes. If the evidence in the Levin report is ignored, then Goldman will have achieved a kind of corrupt-enterprise nirvana. Caught, but still free: above the law.

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Sunday, May 8, 2011

Vermont passes healthcare


First Universal Health Care Bill in U.S. Marks Success of Vermont's Human Rights Movement
Posted: 05/ 7/11 01:29 PM ET

Important


On May 5 the Vermont House followed the Senate in passing the final version of a health reform bill that creates a path for a universal, publicly financed health care system in Vermont. Governor Peter Shumlin has confirmed he will sign the bill into law.

This makes Vermont the first state in the country to move toward a universal health care system that will provide health care as a public good for everyone. Legislators and advocates alike have compared Vermont's role to that of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, which half a century ago spearheaded the establishment of universal health care in Canada.

The bill states that Vermont will create a publicly financed health care system, Green Mountain Care, to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage as a public good for all Vermont residents, regardless of income, health status, or employment. Green Mountain Care will be implemented once the requirements of the federal health reform law have been fulfilled, along with several other conditions imposed by the bill. Some key decisions have been postponed to future legislative sessions, including the development of a financing mechanism for the system and the design of a health benefits package.

The pioneering nature of Vermont's health reform has its roots in a people's movement, which caused reform efforts to be driven by principles, rather than political calculation, industry interests, or professional advocates and lobbyists. While strong attempts were mounted to divert and hijack the reform process, especially by large corporations and the insurance industry, it was the growing vision of health care as a human right that captured the public imagination and created the political space for action by the administration and legislature. Observers largely credit this achievement to the grassroots organizing by the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign, led by the Vermont Workers' Center, which engaged many thousands of ordinary Vermonters in demanding their human right to health care.

The Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign has built a broad-based people's movement guided by principles, such as universality and equity, rather than by specific policy or legislative proposals, such as single-payer. By shifting the focus from cost containment (which has dominated debates on health care and other public goods) to people's collective needs and rights, the campaign placed people at the center of policy and practice, challenging the powers that be. When viewed as a human right, health care becomes a unifying concern for everyone, not just for the uninsured, or for individual "consumers" struggling to pay their bills, or for workers seeking to hold on to benefits. This unity the campaign achieved at an organizing level has helped to embed human rights principles in public and political discourse, which in turn has advanced the goal of treating health care (and potentially other human needs) as a public good, financed through taxation, rather than a market commodity.



The success of this emerging grassroots organizing model -- led by the people, inclusive, based on human rights principles -- became particularly clear when pressure from the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign prompted legislators to drop a last-minute amendment that would have excluded undocumented people from universal health care. The Campaign mobilized hundreds of Vermonters to stand up for the human rights principle of universality, and after days of constituents' phone calls, protests, and a large rally on May 1st, the exclusionary amendment was struck.

Vermonters clearly set an example with their steadfastness and unflinching readiness to take a moral stance and reject the effort to divide the community along lines of race, ethnicity or national origin. Their stance raises the bar for people elsewhere when confronted with the use of immigration as a wedge issue.

There is no doubt that strong solidarity and a principled stance will be needed as the struggle for universal health care continues, in Vermont and beyond. If the deliberate exclusion of undocumented people presented a clear line in the sand, the maneuvering of private insurance companies has been harder to detect and defeat. The industry and its corporate allies are a formidable opponent, with deep pockets and well-trained patience. In Vermont's bill, private insurance companies, whose business model depends on restricting our access to care, managed to keep a foot in the door. This means that the development of the new system's financing mechanism may well be the most important struggle yet to come. Unless Green Mountain Care will be funded as a public good, through equitable contributions from all of Vermont's people and businesses, the system could be downgraded to a "public option", torn apart by opt-outs before it even starts.

Well aware of these challenges, human rights campaigners are prepared to take on corporate forces. While the Healthcare Is a Human Right Campaign does not rely on legislative actions to boost its organizing, it has grown with each legislative success. As people across the country look closer at Vermont's most recent achievement, it may inspire them to help build the movement for health care as a human right. Such an impact would rival the significance of the universal health care bill itself.

Photo of rally on May 1, 2011, by Dylan Kelley, Vermont Workers' Center

Thursday, May 5, 2011

more hamas/fatah bullshit

‎"Our first and true battle is with the Israeli enemy and not with Palestinian factions or among sons of one homeland," stated Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal after the pact was signed.

Palestinians consolidate as Fatah and Hamas sign peace agreement — RT
rt.com
The two major Palestinian political forces have clinched a historic deal, agreeing to form a unified government.
19 hours ago · · Like · · Share
Gershon Wolf if they can also stop fighting Israel, and not just each other AND stop fighting human rights (i.e) shooting people at a wedding for having music there), then maybe then they would actually have right to have a country of their own. Until then, they are just the same oppressive pig warlords cut from the same cloth as the late Bin laden, may he rot in hell. And as usual, while they take forever to decide to stop being dickheads, the little guy always loses, not to mention the little ladies, who have no rights at all in so called "Palestine". They finally got a chance to have an election a few years ago and they elected Hamas, a terrorist organization (In Gaza). Things that make you go "hmmmm.". So they voted so have a government that would oppress them. Not good. or was it rigged? Hmmm. And now they are voting to unite, fatah and Hamas. Against Israel. Gee, isn't that newsworthy. let's party.
2 seconds ago · Like

Monday, April 11, 2011

Trash Bags for Boehner

Gershon Wolf
This should be a lesson that EVERYONE should vote in the midterms no matter what. This is the dickhead we end up with. A weeping wussie puppet who argues with Obama about healthcare and everything else. Man! he has real blood on his hands now.
Friday at 11:21am · Like ·
Linda BlueEyes, Jeff Curtis and 4 others like this.
Jeff Curtis I'm feeling a national uprising coming...we need to take to the streets all across American like in Madison. Great musicians like you could write some good new tunes like we had in the 70's to energize the masses as we take our country back from the Republicans and corporate greed.
Friday at 11:38am · Like · 2 people
Bob Coulton LOL! Blood - yeah right. What a fricken drama queen. Grow up will you?
Friday at 11:38am · Like
Sally Padilione Burns There is an uprising coming...one to get rid of all this liberal and socialist touchy-feely crap out of our country once and for all. We did turn out and vote in the mid-term election and what we got was a good start toward change that really matters. But as the old saying goes; you ain't seen nothing yet!
Friday at 11:50am · Like · 1 person
Linda BlueEyes What liberal touchy-feely crap would that be, Sally?
Friday at 12:06pm · Like
Mark Bigelow So the Democrats, who controlled both the Congress and the Whitehouse, didn't even propose a budget last year when they could have passed anything they wanted get no blame? This budget should have been passed before the election as this fiscal year started Oct 1st 2010. Uninformed morons like you are what's wrong with the electoral process, talk about being a puppet!
Friday at 12:57pm · Like
Linda BlueEyes Too bad for the constant rabble rousing and distractions from the far right that made focusing on the budget almost impossible. Too bad about all the money the country has had to spend to fix old problems. By the way, last year's budget is...
See More
Friday at 5:36pm · Like
Richie Griswold Mr. Wolf, the bottom-line isn't about who we are defending, it's about what we are defending. If we gave the reins to uninformed, detached-from-reality liberals like yourself we'd end up like one of the euro states that spent themselves int...
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Saturday at 12:33pm · Like
Gershon Wolf Nonsense, Ritchie. people like you talk that way, until you have a bad day, and the shoe is on the other foot. First off, doing business in America is a PRIVILEGE, not a right - to-do-whatever-you-want- in the name of "freedom". There is a responsibility to do good honest business. Ethics in business are as old as the hills, and predate the constitution. Piggies broke all the rules and got greedy, you know who I'm talking about, the CEOs from the insurance companies and misers like them. They have no right to do business until they can do it responsibly, and that is that. They only HIDE behind "too much government" and "freedom". They are pigs, and everyone, including them, know it. And Speaker BONER is a fake. A puppet. He and McCain and the rest of them are bought and owned mouthpieces for industries whose only concern is to 1. make money and 2. not pay taxes. They don't care about YOU Richie, but Barak Obama, and his supporters, like me DO care about YOU, even as misinformed and brainwashed as you are, you are entitled, yes, entitled to have the US government, help you out when you fall, and protect you from Boner and the insurance companies, and the tea party Nazis who only want to lie to you and tell you, like you told me: "no free lunch". Well, yes, there is free lunch. When your grandmother breaks her leg, G-d Forbid, we feed her with taxes, and she shouldn't have to go through hell and humiliation to get covered. And guess what, dude. yes, now it is time for the corporations to pay their fair share so Boner doesn't have to pretend his piggies friends are broke (they're NOT) and shut down the government every five minutes because G-d forbid, someone wants to spend a tax dollar on REAL health care, and not just beurocracy. Dude, wake up. You've been had. Don't go cold on us, man. You're an AMERIVAN. Not a corperate stooge. Life liberty and the purcuit of happiness for EVERYONE, not just your pull yourtself up by your bootstraps greedy excuse-making redneck "get off my lawn" fartenheimers.
2 seconds ago · Like
Linda BlueEyes Dumbasses can't acknowledge that while we are liberal "elitists" and many of us are patriotic and work hard just like they do, we somehow still manage to care about others. It makes them feel guilty because they don't give a shit. So they turn their guilt into hate. I can see right through them, having taken many child psychology courses!
25 minutes ago · Unlike · 1 person

yeah. Exactly. well said, Linda!That's what I am saying, but you said it in a much simpler way. maybe he will understand it that way. They don't give a shit.It's all just excuses. I worked my ass off all my life. I'm not going to cut healthy programs now because I'm greedy. Lots of people are greedy. The trick is not to let it get you starting to bullshit yourself into thinking that there is an ethical political philosophy in America that embraces cold hearted greed and stupidity. (And Boner is th speaker of this philosophy. remember? this thread started with Mr. Boner and his trash bags. hahahaha!)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Yeah. It was a bad day,

Yeah. It was a bad day, but at least I practiced all day with my lea player and I baked a cake.
I'm just venting, and warning people about these "ball and chain" guys.
I have also showed up and did my best unprepared many times. It is what makes us good. The experience. Actually, that's how I got into Country music in the first place. I filled in at the last minute, and got hired on the spot. I had never played country before that moment.

Wolfman

Sorry I didn't get back to you,had I known I would have tried to make your practice but I read Craigslist too late.I saw all the flack about your ads.unbelievable,I've gone to play jobs and rehearsals cold without any preparation out of necessity just because the drummer bailed last minute.It's obvious these individuals lack the confidence to undertake the task.I will try to call tomorrow.




Let's talk. Maybe you can listen to the tunes for 2 months, and then jump in. I am training understudies for ALL instruments. In fact, my drummer just FLAKED out (his wifey-poo wouldn't let him commit) and wasted my time. He Never made it to the first practice!
Please call me or give me your number. Thanks


As you know drummers are unreliable.That's where I come in.I'm currently not in the position to assume the responsibilities of being the drummer in your band yet as I have carpal tunnel and a cervical(neck) disc issue.So I must be honest I will have to stop playing for 2 months.You ask "Why is he answering this ad" Back to the start "drummers are unreliable" At some point whoever you get might get a blister on a finger,
or have a favourite aunt die,fall in love or a multitude of excuses on an important date for you to play.I have seen them all get used as I have been playing for 45 years.Don't let my age scare you as some of the best drummers around are even older than me.Needless to say I played in coverbands in the 60's till disco.I then switched over to country rock and country and played in a successful band named Broken Spoke.
I can help you,I'm somewhat of a human metronome.you start a song at one speed it will end at the same speed.I have no work commitments,I don't drink or drug.If you provide me with the music and give me a few practice sessions I could be available in the future as a backup .I sing although it sounds like you have that covered,I know basic guitar chords and piano scales.I know my way around a soldering iron,I built a guitar amp from scratch.I will provide phone numbers if you are interested.


m

Monday, March 21, 2011

big love final episode





There's a lot to say about the HBO 5 -season award-winning series, “Big Love” about a family of Polygamists in Utah. I'll keep it short for this purpose today. (Don't believe me!) This show was interesting enough for Tom Hanks to sign on as one of the executive producers.

My ex-wife is on another continent, and never quite figured out what love, devotion and loyalty, endurance and commitment were all about, but I hear she's improving in leaps and bounds.
My ex-girlfriend is closer but still far away. The house here is full of reminders of our failures, and things we won't compromise. So she can't even step foot in here without becoming nervous. She hates this show, and last time she was here we had an argument about it, which is part of the reason I am writing this. (Plus I cried my eyes out, like thousands of other fans, at the end of the series.)
But I hear she's improving in leaps and bounds. She is without Cable because of the low quality of her hosts' facilities.(At least she can get online at least once a day).
My real family, my Mom and Dad and extended relatives are also far away and I never see them. They don't have HBO or Starz or anything, by choice.
Either way, it left me here alone. Alone with Enterprise and Spartacus... and Big Love.
I spent a lot of time alone at home this winter. I watched mostly movies this series, and Star Trek Enterprise, a spin-off from the original Star Trek series that I grew up with, first run.

Noticing that I was jumping in in the middle of both of these shows, I ordered the box sets of the earlier seasons and watched them. And then caught up in real time.

Although it was all fiction, I started to get involved emotionally with all of the characters' trials and tribulations. I feel silly about like I'm some sort of old housewife watching soap operas and talking to the TV, and even getting involved in discussion blogs and such. Everyone is praying that there will be some kind of reunion or extension or spin-off, like with The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, Terminator (The Chronicles of Sarah Conner), All In The Family (The Jefferson), etc, yeah, you get the idea.

One of the characters (Wife #3) had a blog where people interact with her, both written and video, as if she were a real person blogging and making comments on her life with a laptop and a web-cam.“She” just put out her final blog entry, supposedly. It's amazing how many thousands of people showed support and gave advice to this fictional character over the Internet. Even though she was a polygamist.
What does this mean?
Well it means that the issue of polygamy in America isn't as black and white as some people might think. It means that people took the characters' struggles and points of view to heart. Enough to interact at length with a fictional creation.
It seems that in the show, and in reality - just as in any religion - there were different kinds of congregants. There were the congregants on the “compounds”, which have, as a claim to fame, all the bad stuff - statutory rape, kidnapping, and oppression of women, etc., and have earned the reputation of being a cult.
Then, as in any other religion, there emerged a reform movement. In the series, this reform movement wasn't formed as a solid sect on it's own, but more as a developing sect, searching itself for a leader or “prophet”, and deciding what it's new traditions and rules and guidelines would be, in an informal way.
To make things more complicated, there are the regular LDS (Christian Church of Latter Day Saints AKA Mormons Church) which had endured the prohibition of polygamy by US and State law, and were disassociating themselves with any Mormons who still had more than 1 wife.
The Mormons who had more than 1 wife still considered themselves Mormons and resented being called non-Mormons and a cult by the regular “mainstream” LDS congregants.
Also, the mainstream Mormons had a HUGE amount of pull in the state legislature, and in the whole city.
Sometime during the series, our hero, Bill, the main character, who had 3 wives, ended up being a Senator.
Through watching Bill's struggles in the State Government and Washington DC, we begin to find out a little of the history of just how polygamy became illegal in Utah, and the families of polygamists instantly found themselves set apart, branded as criminals, set apart and ostracized. Again, it wasn't a black and white situation, and there was more to it than meets the eye. Whatever one might think of the practice of Polygamy in America, someone got the crappy end of the stick, and all the justifications were not in possession of, let's say, 100% integrity? That should be no surprise. The U.S. government is never short on interfering with citizens' lives – especially the ones that bitch and moan about “too much government”... - but that's another story.
Some of the characters had their roots in both worlds – the “compounds” (old-style polygamists on these separated neighborhood/settlements) and also the more modern , reformed polygamists who lived in town and interacted with regular society on an everyday basis. (And then there was the sub-plot of a “reform on the reform” on the part of the 1st wife, which, in the end, became a heart-wrenching cathartic epiphany and an omen for the future...but I'm getting ahead of myself.) Anyway...their houses were on a street that had all different types of people on it. During the course of the series, Bill's family “came out of the closet” and declared themselves the true followers of the original Mormon prophet (actually it was Joeseph Smith, in real life, and in the story). They said, among other things, that family, or in their case larger families, were the keys to the Celestial Kingdom, as well as the usual positive behavior generally (optimally) associated with followers of Jesus Christ.
It is also notable that one of Bill's wives was the daughter of the Patriarch leader of the “compounds”, who declared himself “The Prophet” because of a bloodline.
Bill did not declare himself “The Prophet” of his generation, but there were hints at one point in the series that he might be a candidate. However, he made a point of declaring that the so-called prophet of the compounds was a fake, a false prophet and a criminal. There was an ongoing full-blown feud.
He set about securing recognition for the polygamists who set themselves apart (“reformed”) from the compound’s (old-style) polygamist families and whom interacted with Utah's mainstream society, ran big businesses, worked at fast-food places, went to school there, shopped at the supermarkets,etc.
He argued his case and endured the corruption that kept all of his efforts from often seeing the light of day, until the last episode where he manged to bring the issue out into the light and present a bill for discussion and, it would seem, an eventual vote. (That's the simple version of a long and complicated journey he made as a fresh government official, a little fish in a pond of bigger , meaner fishes, struggling to facilitate change and reform, and improve lives, and positively adjust the doling out of justice, fairness and compassion).
His opponents (The usual suspects) went as far as to throw him in jail and destroy his business and harass his children in order to keep him down. You see, as an audience member we start to see how the opponents of polygamy begin to behave like the criminals that they made the anti-polygamy laws to control in the first place. They threw thew baby out with the bath water, so to speak, by breaking every Christian standard they had in order to squash Bill and his family, keep the “compound” polygamists “in their place” (In poverty and obscurity, and unable to attain social services or decent education and protection under law, etc.) even though they were US citizens and were entitled to equal protection and freedom under the Constitution. Someone’s (Constitutional rights are not forfeited just because someone breaks a law, especially when they have not even been convicted.)
The law against polygamy was made to keep certain power hungry and fanatical individuals from committing crimes like kidnapping, statutory rape, etc. What that did was leave regular polygamists, who wanted to marry each other, out in the cold and branded as criminals and fanatics, even though they never committed any of those crimes themselves. They suffered as individuals because of a negative stereotype. Their rights to practice their religion as they saw fit was removed and they constantly found themselves unprotected by the law, and by the Constitution which guarantees them freedom of religion and the freedom to pursue life , liberty and happiness.
It's certainly an issue that is not black and white. Many questions and issues were handled in the series, or come to mind as a result of the personal, religious, social and political dramas contained therein......
Does the government have a right to tell you who to marry?
Does the church have a right to throw you out of the congregation when you are keeping an older version of the congregation’s statutes?
Does the State legislature have a right to shut you up and shut you down if you are an elected official because they don't like your brand of religion?
What is loyalty?
What is integrity?
Priorities?
How important is family?
How important is loyalty?
When does a person give up?
How does it effect the children?
Does everyone have the right, really, to go to any church or temple they wish? Even the kids?
In the Church of Mormon, does a woman have the right to give a blessing?
In the Church of Mormon, does a woman have the right to become a priest?
In a polygamist sect, if the marriage is u recognized by the state, how does a woman secure a divorce and the rights that go along with it?
Is it right for a person to be forced to remain at any location? What if they are 12, 16, 18, 21 and want to try something different, like new school or a new job?
What is the tax exempt status for Churches, and how far does it go? What qualifies for a legitimate Church?
Can someone be excommunicated for homosexuality? (The “false” prophet's son, who later became leader, was a closet homosexual in the series.)
Can a polygamist man have an “affair” with one of his own wives?!!
Are polygamists oppressed by the US government and by the Utah (and other) state government(s) and by the local citizens? And if so, is it wrong/illegal/unconstitutional?
If homosexuals' rights are being examined and reformed, why not polygamists? Aren't they entitled to behave as they wish, in private or public, between two (or more) consenting adults? Aren't they entitled to religions freedom under the US Constitution? And if the supreme court decides they are not entitled, then what is the proper punishment? Can people be dragged away and caged, their lives, records and reputations ruined, like they have been in recent American history as they were for interracial marriage/relationships or heterosexual marriage/relationships? Can police raid their weddings, like Nazi stormtroopers or Hamas/Al- Qaeda Sharia enforcers did/do, with a controversial at best US law as their mandate?
What's next? Internment camps?
Can one man keep multiple women happy, supported and satisfied, along with all their children?
How many children should they have?
And what about a wife having multiple husbands? What's wrong with that? It's only fair, right?
(And the biggest of all the 800 pound gorillas in the room) …..
Is it strange that the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Sarah and the rest, (even Moses, the humblest of all men in history, and many Kings, like Solomon the Wise, who had 1000 wives) were all involved in polygamy as a way of life, and even had mistresses and concubines – yet the people who evoke these figures (most Christians and most Jews, etc) as role models have made that same culture illegal and tossed adherents out of the Church, and in some cases into jail?

SPOILER ALERT:

In conclusion, I was sad because..... and if you do not want the spoiler for the series finale', please stop reading here.



In conclusion I was sad (Shpritzing like a fountain!) because Bill, our hero was murdered in the final scenes of the series. He had put fresh sod on someone's lawn as a Good Deed, and that man shot him twice in the chest, declaring “I am not a failure.”
As with all great men, Bill learned the hard way that you can't please all of the people all of the time. No matter what you do, no matter how honorably intentioned it was, someone will see it negatively. Or be jealous. Or misinterpret it. Only at the end Bill realized that. I cried and had a very sad night, all for these fictional characters. Why? I was crying for all the people who stand up for what they believe in and get killed for it. Or jailed. Or beaten. Or both. And crying for the loved one's they leave behind. Bill and his family, and Christians and orthodox Jews in general, have a lot to learn about tolerance, especially for homosexuals, and they are not perfect because of that failure. They are, of course , victims of their own doctrine. While they cry out for fair treatment and understanding, they shun homosexuals, and the like. Bill was likable and we rooted for him, but the writers of Big Love never portrayed him as perfect.
He went through life learning from his mistakes, and struggling through the manifestations of others' mistakes, just like any other US citizen, a mother's son, a husband, a father, a businessman, a Church congregant, a passionate lover of love - and lover of life and enjoyment. A hard worker who started from the streets (literally) and worked himself up from absolutely nothing to a proud Patriarch and large family business owner - to live the American Dream, but was stopped daily along the way by tyrants and fools, stopped by small people with narrow minds.
The bullets that killed Bill Hendrickson – and left his family without a leader, left his children without a father, and his wives without a husband, were not real because the story is just that, a story. But with Bill's last breath he requests and accepts his wife's blessing, where before he had tried to hold her back from reforming the reform traditions even more by becoming a Priestess.
Just before that, he had asked his 2nd wife to be more accepting of his 3rd wife's plan to go on rescue missions to South America because that is what she felt in her heat she needed to do – that was her calling.
And his first wife confronted his 2nd wife and said she knew how mean and hypocritical she was (twice) and forced her to accept a warm hug, like that of a mother to a child. The strong bond of “sister -wives” for all to see. Love, love for family trumped ALL. (Not that I didn't like her character, I did, very much, but she did admit she was a bitch)
But how many real men have been killed before their time because they had a good idea for reform and recognized it before anyone else? M.L. King, Christ, Rabbi Akivah, Ghandi, Harvey Milk, John Lennon, JFK, Sadat, Joan of Arc, Indira Ghandi, and the Bahai's Perpetua... (and (almost) Olya Roohizadegan , but she escaped. But that's another story.)
I think the writers wanted Bill to represent them. In fact, they said pretty much as much in the writers' commentary. In the end, Bills family and close friends came around. That was part of the message. Maybe it took his death/martyrdom, or maybe they would have came around eventually on their own. We don't know. His daughter cam back into the fold and was married. The last scene takes place just before the surviving characters, reunited, are going to the Christening of the late Bill Hendrickson's grandchild, who would have been born under a “different flag” in another city, had it not been for the final episode.
One wife stops in mid-baptism at a competing even more reformed church, and rushes to hear Bills' Easter blessing, a hint of his upcoming martyring. Bill tells his best fiend and his son his conclusion. “Family is everything”. In saying that he implied that loyalty was also everything. At that moment, in his backyard, I almost expected to see the congregants file in one by one and declare Bill The Prophet. But they don't. His best friend had shared in his vision. He said he “felt” something, and plus they had had a record turnout at Church. But Bill had the (coolest!) vision at that time where the congregants of the previous generations showed up. He could actually see them in their 1800's style outfits right in front of his eyes, along with an archetypical woman, that he dreamed of in previous episodes. Was it his mother? Or his grandmother? It was all of those. It was the continuity of The Family. At that point he finally stopped worrying, because he knew everything was going to be all right.
And as his three wives gathered at his daughter's child's Christening, you could see Bill sitting at the table in the background. Watching over his (celestial) family.
Barbara, his 1st wife, says:
We are strong. We have been forged. We endure.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

drummer from the us army in Iraq? COOL!

Hello,

Sounds like you're putting together a solid line up. I am interested but am currently in Iraq with the Army. I'll be back State side in September. I know that's a long time to wait for someone and if you're still looking then get in touch with me in September.
About me. I'm 48 years old and have been playing for almost 40 years. I use all Ludwig drums and Zildjian cymbals. I have been playing on and off with various bands in Berkshire county and Albany NY. I am a professional pilot with the National guard in Mass. I do have an occasional drink but never get trashed, I'm a little old for that crap. I take playing in bands very seriously and have quit bands due to pot smoking and partying when we're supposed to be practicing. I have a dedicated room in my house for practice with drums, amps, guitars and small PA system. Just show up and practice.

Email me if you'd like more information.

Tom

more of the bad day ongoing discussion

Yeah. It was a bad day, but at least I practiced all day with my lea player and I baked a cake.
I'm just venting, and warning people about these "ball and chain" guys.
I have also showed up and did my best unprepared many times. It is what makes us good. The experience. Actually, that's how I got into Country music in the first place. I filled in at the last minute, and got hired on the spot. I had never played country before that moment.

Wolfman

Sorry I didn't get back to you,had I known I would have tried to make your practice but I read Craigslist too late.I saw all the flack about your ads.unbelievable,I've gone to play jobs and rehearsals cold without any preparation out of necessity just because the drummer bailed last minute.It's obvious these individuals lack the confidence to undertake the task.I will try to call tomorrow.




Let's talk. Maybe you can listen to the tunes for 2 months, and then jump in. I am training understudies for ALL instruments. In fact, my drummer just FLAKED out (his wifey-poo wouldn't let him commit) and wasted my time. He Never made it to the first practice!
Please call me or give me your number. Thanks


As you know drummers are unreliable.That's where I come in.I'm currently not in the position to assume the responsibilities of being the drummer in your band yet as I have carpal tunnel and a cervical(neck) disc issue.So I must be honest I will have to stop playing for 2 months.You ask "Why is he answering this ad" Back to the start "drummers are unreliable" At some point whoever you get might get a blister on a finger,
or have a favourite aunt die,fall in love or a multitude of excuses on an important date for you to play.I have seen them all get used as I have been playing for 45 years.Don't let my age scare you as some of the best drummers around are even older than me.Needless to say I played in coverbands in the 60's till disco.I then switched over to country rock and country and played in a successful band named Broken Spoke.
I can help you,I'm somewhat of a human metronome.you start a song at one speed it will end at the same speed.I have no work commitments,I don't drink or drug.If you provide me with the music and give me a few practice sessions I could be available in the future as a backup .I sing although it sounds like you have that covered,I know basic guitar chords and piano scales.I know my way around a soldering iron,I built a guitar amp from scratch.I will provide phone numbers if you are interested.

another CL asshole

I don't understand why everyone is all upset about covers or originals. It was just supposed to be a practice to see if everyone was a fit. I could have paid the drummer to just cover a few basic beats for me for a couple of hours so we could practice until we managed to audition the other 7 drummers I hasve scheduled.  What is wrong with that?
You don't know me,. Am I reading you right? You would assault me with your drums, physically, because I want to play some originals?

Honestly. I do not get it. I am not being sarcastic.
Initially I referred everyone immediately to our my space page where the originals are posted.
Personally, I learned the "originals" and really liked them. Now they are part of my repertoire. (That's a "set list,"for you non-grads out there)
I would put these songs up against anything out there in the mainstream. If I couldn't, I wouldn't bother with the project. I work hard at this. Other people can't even show up, and they cancel at the last minute. I am so sad about it and left flat that I am arguing with a stranger on The Internet. Now THAT is dumb. I admit it.
But maybe YOU are the one with a chip on your shoulder, what's wrong? Girlfriend dump you?

I don't think I'm better than anyone else, but at least I show up.  I'm not stupid, I wouldn't  give a drummer or any musicians hard time by giving him difficult stuff to play without practiced.
I'll have you know, just FYI, what I do is I email the person I am auditioning a bunch of songs and let him pick. It just so happens that the last drummer picked 3 covers and 3 originals out of a choice of 20 songs, 10 each. OMG! Maybe my shit DOES smaell pretty good. They are not my originals, they are someone else's, btw, so I'm not stuck on that.



On 3/17/2011 6:50 PM, David Bacon wrote:
** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html




Hey,tell you what. You are in one hell of a jam and in part it sounds like because you have a really bad chip
on your shoulders! I will consider trying to help you tonight but you are going to have to play all covers unless
you think drummers should be mind readers as well? Give me a list of COVERS ONLY and I will email you back right away.
You should just cancell by all means. If I say yes, there had best be a guy on the other end that is not stuck up on himself
who thinks that your shit doesn't stink any more then the next person. If you are that f%#*&d in the head,you could find yourself
wearing my drum set on stage. That wouldn't be too cool now!
Dave Bacon

warning "No show" musicians

warning "No show" musicians


Date: 2011-03-17, 8:23PM EDT
Reply to: comm-3kfsc-2271462905@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]


Warning:
There are 2 musicians (and I use the term loosely) who are really bad "No-shows" and left me hanging.
Their names are Ed and Al. Al is 61, looks older and plays Bass. You'll know it's him because he NEVER shuts up. Interrupts constantly and claims he was fired from a band for passing out a gig from vertigo.
His "partner", Ed got fired from the same band, I don't know why, nut I can imagine.
The name of the band was The Tuckstop Troubidors"
Al offered his basement , which is packed with PA equipotent and 2 sets of drums, not set up. All he did was complain.
He wants cassette, not CD. He wants covers not originals. Refuses to practice without a drummer, and when I lined up a drummer, his old partner Ed, first Ed quit and then Al quit. We went to Als' house to teach him the songs and he whined and wouldn't smile all night, didn't even offer us water, and made further offers of loaning us more amplifiers, bragging about his 80 pound amp upstairs. he also says his computer didn't work, he doesn't have Internet, first offered to let me use his printer, since mine was down, and then tonight , get this... He said he can't lend me the printer, can't do originals, can't let us practice there, and this is one hour before a scheduled practice.
So beware of these guys. They left us flat.
Our own core group works very hard and has fantastic songs, both covers and originals. Obviously we are looking for serious musicians.
Both of these morns knew that we were seriously counting on them, and quit without notice. Ed refused to even cover for us one night until we could find a new drummer (8 drummers applied today for his job, once they heard our songs.). Al is basically what is wrong with this country. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a Republican.
(I shouldn't have said that. Some Republican is going to flag me. So, I take it back. I wouldn't even want to insult the Republicans by associating them with this creepy guy.
I'm so pissed off. I could use some good news. If anyone worked half as hard as I do on this project they would be welcome, even if they weren't the best musicians in the world. Anyone who has a love for good music and a willingness to work (a labor of love) on tunes will go far in this business as long as he isn't surrounded with turds.
My lead guitarist read my ad and said "I responded to your ad because it looked like I wrote it myself." Yeah. Kindred spirits welcome.

Want to hear more? A drummer named Matt (His email begins with Tolman or something) was going to audition tonight after Ed quit at the last minute.
He left me a message on my phone that said he read my ad again and realized that he was gigging a lot and that he wasn't a beginner. I finally called him back and said that, no, the ad actually said "NO beginners, please." and he was so embarrassed that he quit anyway and hung up. Another no show. beware of Mat. he gave me an attitude. What did I do to him? I spent an hour emailing him MP3s, that's all. Some thanks I get.
Other drummers told me something like, "No, I don't want to do originals." And I respect that. They didn't make a commitment and leave fellow craftsmen hanging.
We are all sitting here , all of us in this Western Mass area, with no bread and butter. Meanwhile there are IDIOTS out there making tons of money in the music industry because they know how to keep a schedule, follow a little direction, and manage their time, and be nice to people. If you treat people the way you would like people to treat you, and put a little energy into it, you will go far I promise.
I will send each of those fools a CD and a "Non-Invitation" to our opening gig. They will be watching TV with their gear gathering dust in a corner, or bullshitting some other poor guy.
I don't want to start any trouble, but I feel it's only fair to warn the public about these No Shows.





  • Location: Springfield
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Monday, March 7, 2011

another gay senator

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8556852.stm

Gershon Wolf OMG, another one! I'm so glad I'm not gay. I might wake up one morning and find out I'm a Republican!




do not drink and drive, you might spill your drink on your gerbil.




Act II 

SCENE TEN 
STICK IT OUT 


JOE: 
Fick mich, du miserabler hurensohn 
Fick mich, du miserabler hurensohn 
Streck ihn aus 
Streck aus deinen heifien gelockten. 
Streck ihn aus 
Streck aus deinen' heinen gelockten 
Streck ihn aus 
Streck aus deinen heiften gelockten schwanz 
Ah-ee-ahee-ahhhhh! 
Mach es sehr schnell 
Rein und raus 
Magisches Schwein 
Mach es sehr schnell 
Rein und raus 
Magisches Schwein 
Bis es spritzt, spritzt, spritzt Feuer! 
Bis es spritzt, spritzt, spritzt Feuer! 
Aber beklecker nicht das Sofa, Sofa! 
Aber beklecker nicht das Sofa, Sofa! 
Aber beklecker nicht das Sofa, Sofa! 
Aber beklecker nicht das Sofa, Sofa! 

Stunned by JOE's command of its native tongue, a gleaming model 
XQJ-37 nuclear powered Pan-Sexual Roto-Plooker named SY BORG 
(previously thought to be the son of the lady who called the Police on cut 
two, side I), spindles over to JOE and says.. 

SY BORG: 
Pick me...I'm clean... 
I am also programmed for conversational English. 

This stuns JOE, who stands there speechless for a moment. Smitten by 
JOE's animal magnetism, SY continues... 

SY BORG: 
May I have this dance? 
And JOE, looking sharp in his housewife costume with the napkin on 
his head and the yellow chiffon apron, responds boldly by repeating the 
entreaty originally delivered in Deutsch in its conversational English form, 
so that his intentions regarding the Appliance will be made perfectly clear... 

JOE: 
I've got a better idea... 
Fuck me, you ugly son of a bitch 
You ugly son of a bitch 
Fuck me, you ugly son of a bitch 
Stick it out 
Stick out yer hot curly weenie 
Stick it out 
Stick out yer hot curly weenie 
Stick it out 
Stick out yer hot curly weenie 
Weenie.. .weenie, weenie, weenie! 
Make it go fast 
In and out, 
Magical Pig 
Make it go fast 
In and out, 
Magical Pig 
Till it squirts, squirts, squirts, squirts 
Fire 
Till it squirts, squirts, squirts, squirts 
Fire 
Don't get no jizz upon that sofa, sofa 
Don't get no jizz upon that sofa, sofa 
Don't get no jizz upon that sofa, sofa 
Don't get no jizz upon that sofa, sofa 

Whereupon, in order to prove to JOE that he is no ordinary Appliance, 
SY quotes a few lines of traditional American Love Poetry... 

SY BORG: 
What s a girl like you 
Doing in a place like this? 
Do you come here often? 
Wail a minute... 
I ve got it... 
You're an Italian... 
What? 
You're Jewish? 
Lore your nails.. 
Yon must be a Libra.... 
Your place or mine? 
Your place or mine? 
Your place or mine? 
Your place or mine. 
See the chrome 
Feel the chrome 
Touch the chrome 
Heal the chrome 
See the screaming 
Hot black steaming 
Iridescent naugahyde python screaming 
Steam Roller! 

CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER: 
This is the CENTRAL SCRU

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/frank+zappa/#share