A Photo Essay. Animal Families: Love Amongst God’s Beasts

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

Advertisement

14 November 2010. A Point to Ponder…

When you’re passionate… you have more than enough to share with others… when you’re “earnest”… there’s not only nothing in you to give to others, you suck whatever they have out of everyone around you…

______________________________

Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.

Julia Child

Firstly, let’s differentiate between “passionate” and “the passions”… they’re two antipodes to one another. “The passions”, in the theological sense, are one’s sensual or intellectual appetites, if you’re not vigilant, they can get the better of you, and your sensuality, or your intellect, or both, can rule you. “Passionate”, on the other hand is much more modest, even humble in its way. You become wrapped up in a particular “something”… yes, it can get out of hand… but in most cases, it’s innocent; after all, you’re usually involved with something that’s outside of you… it’s rather humbling, after all.

If you bake bread… bake the best bread that you’re capable of making. If you paint a picture… paint the best picture that your talent allows you to. If you work in the garden… grow the best bloody ‘taters and beets in the district.

If you do this, you get to share your work with others. However… do watch out for the terminally keen and earnest. I don’t know how to describe it, but most grounded people know instinctively the difference between the deadly earnest and the passionately committed. There’s really nothing to point to… it’s something that all mature people just “know”.

Remember… the “passionate” share what they have with you, the “earnest” take from you and don’t give back anything… I think that’s the best way of putting it. As for what you think of me and of my work… that’s your decision…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 14 November 2010

Albany NY

GOP Sucks Wind on Healthcare Reform Repeal… Boehner Lies About the “Best Healthcare System in the World”

Here’s what’s going to happen to Boehner and McConnell’s attempt to deep-six healthcare reform… they will scuttle the GOP… all because their corporate backers have no patience or wisdom…

______________________________

Read this. John Boehner cackles about “the best healthcare system in the world”… is it? Let’s examine some objective statistics… from the CIA! The USA was 55th in life expectancy out of 223 entities, whereas the UN found the USA 38th out of 194 entities… in both cases, the USA was far from the top… it wasn’t in the top 10, it wasn’t in the top 10 percent; according to the UN, it was in the top 20 percent, according to the CIA it was in the top 25 percent (both just barely, by the way). In short, John Boehner’s a contumacious and conscious liar… and he DOES know the truth, so, his statement’s objectively evil. Yes, such strong language IS justified. He knows that the US healthcare system doesn’t cover 15 percent of the population (ironically, the working poor). He knows that the US healthcare system is only 40 percent as efficient as its EU and Canadian counterparts are, based on dollars spent per covered patient. He knows that the USA is nowhere near the top in life expectancy or infant mortality. Mr Boehner doesn’t give a damn about your health care because he has coverage under the congressional health plan, which, by the way, is MORE generous than the Obama plan that he excoriates as “socialistic”. Ask Senator McConnell how much he paid for his bypass operation at Bethesda Naval Hospital… if he’s honest, he’ll say, “Nothing. The taxpayers of America footed the bill for me”. That’s to say, he’s a beneficiary of “socialised single-payer health care”.

Both of these Solons received big bucks from their HMO and insurance company sugar daddies, and their backers are pressing them for immediate action. Oddly enough, it’s foolish to try to repeal healthcare reform now, as the Senate would vote down any attempt at it. However, the corporate backers of Messrs Boehner and McConnell are pressing for an immediate attack on the law, and since Boehner and McConnell are their bought-and-paid-for shills, they have to engage in what is, essentially, a political kamikaze sortie. These two wingnut whacks are going to wish that a teabagger Supreme Court hadn’t overturned McCain-Feingold. Since the HMOs, insurance companies, and banks weren’t compelled by law to disclose their political contributions, they didn’t, but Boehner’s and McConnell’s statements make it clear that most of their money went to fanatic teabaggers, and it’s manifest that they’ve been ordered by their big money backers to do their best to repeal healthcare reform and financial regulation. I want this to happen! I want it to happen soon! Boehner and McConnell will commit political seppuku on the Capitol steps and Barack Obama will be their grinning and willing second. The Republican leadership’s statements are not lucid, they lack substantiality, and they lack a sense of reality. As long as the Senate remains in Democratic hands… Boehner and McConnell can accomplish nothing.

There are four major lessons from the late midterm election. Firstly, the voters are evenly split on healthcare reform, with half of the voters wanting the Obama reforms continued or strengthened. Secondly, only 16 percent of voters were concerned about tax cuts, per exit polls. These two factors alone make it clear that the GOP crowing of the past week is premature, juvenile, and unfounded. Thirdly, on top of that, the Spanish-speaking rejected the GOP decisively; by a margin of three to one, 75 percent voted Democratic, 25 percent voted for the GOP. Fourthly, the Alaska Natives gutted Joe Miller (don’t forget, he was Sarah Palin’s darling fair-haired boy and received her unstinting support) and hung him out to dry for the entire world to see. This means that in the 2012 election, the GOP has to face the fact that non-white voters have overwhelmingly rejected them. In short, Barack Obama will not need to win a majority amongst “white” voters… and the only solid voting bloc in the GOP camp is Southern Nativist Sectarian Whites. Make no mistake upon it… the GOP could nominate Satan, and he’d sweep the southeast, due to the GOP’s stranglehold on this segment of the electorate. They’ve no such lock on any other segment of the US population. This is, perhaps, the greatest lesson of the 2010 Midterm Election. The Republicans have become the party of a shrinking white Nativist bloc… it’s become the party of Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck. Barry Goldwater’s words have become true… Don’t associate my name with anything you do. You’re extremists, and you’ve hurt the Republican Party much more than the Democrats have. I’m warning them today… I’ll fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of “conservatism”. We’re the new liberals of the Republican Party. Can you imagine that?

This election was not a realignment… it was a cry of pain from a country ruined by the feckless and insane financial policies of the Bush Administration (don’t forget how GWB did his best to protect those responsible for the shenanigans at WorldCom and Enron). The country wants both parties to work together, but the GOP’s corporate sugar daddies won’t let them… ergo, 2012 bids fair to be a replay of 1996, as a farce rather than a drama, though. It will make for great political theatre; it will create much Sturm und Drang from such pinheads as Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin; it will result in a deadlocked Congress, just as Newt’s boys did in the 90s. Yes sir, Newt’s still with us… can you believe that the people of his district keep electing him, even though he served divorce papers on his wife when she was sick with cancer? It speaks volumes about the actual level of morality existing amongst American Sectarians, doesn’t it? It’ll be an “interesting” two years… and we know what the Chinese say about “interesting times”. God, do help us…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 14 November 2010

Albany NY

A Photo Essay. Another Peek Backstage at the Ermitazh in Piter…

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

******

Even in the worst days of the American-imposed economic chaos in the 90s, the work at the Ermitazh continued… as did the dancing at the Bolshoi and the music at the Gniessen. Russians believe that culture is important… and they’re right. That’s why the Tea Party is so evil… they’re money-grubbing bezkulturniki of the worst sort, they want to strip all funding from the arts and cultural enterprises. They want America to be a dreary and soulless suburban sprawl, complete with Cadillac Escalade SUVs (which bishop owns one of those flashy runabouts?), neatly-trimmed lawns, and “nice” people. God be thanked… they were defeated on 2 November. Please God, let them continue to lose or America shall descend into a Know Nothing Sectarian Consumerist Inferno. Let’s learn from the Russians… not from Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin.

“Why so many images lately”, you ask. I’ve discovered a new source of images on the Russian web, and I want them to share it with you guys… I’ll be back to translating later today, actually, I enjoy the task immensely, and there’s a feeling of ACCOMPLISHMENT when it’s done. Translation is an art form, much as painting is… to “English” another language well requires much more than a dictionary, it requires a great deal more, besides. Indeed, it requires a thorough knowledge of not only the two languages, but of the two cultures, of their civilisation, their ethos, their thought-world, and their historical path. Then, and only then, can you do the job… being a Russian Orthodox Christian of Russian background living in the USA makes me (and those like me) an “ideal” translator from Russian, as I thoroughly understand the most important pillars of the Russian cultural matrix (and eating kasha and shchi doesn’t hurt either!). Only when the translation makes as much sense in the recipient culture as much as it does in the donor culture can you say that you’ve succeeded.

God willing, I’ve met the challenge… my readership figures tend to bear that out. Yet… without you guys, I’m NOTHING. A messenger is only as good as their audience… and that keeps me to the mark. Thank you for being my listeners… you’re more important than I am in this equation… and if I forget that… I’M SCROD.

BMD