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So I am in love with little metal sew-on purse frames, they work wonderfully with my fine gauge crochet. Here is my first owl purse, I am working on a green one right now. I am hooked.

Sarah Palin?? pafiffle! I am sad that 1) she is the best that the republicans can come up with and 2) that it seems that her only credentials are that she is female. Good for you McCain, keep running your campaign into the ground!

Tendency to invest additional resources in an apparently losing proposition, influenced by effort, money, and time already invested.

I watched this past week, probably one of the most encouraging pieces I have seen in a long time – Moyers on America – “Is God Green?” When I saw that title, I thought maybe, finally, this is what I have been waiting for. Some support from the religious right for the environment. I have never quite understood how Christians could vote for a party that believes the planet is here for our consumption (to make money) when according to Christian belief, the planet is God’s creation, and perhaps even an embodiment of God himself. I do understand however, that in our dysfunctional political system, in order for Christians to vote for other issues that they believe in such as Pro-Life, they have to vote republican.

This leads to the grayness that is in every issue, every belief, every idea, that political parties and the media try to force into being black or white. I have never registered to vote. The reason for this, is that I do not believe that my vote will truly count for exactly what I believe in. Only if we are given the ability to vote on each specific issue, rather than for a party that represents a basket of issues (some we may like, some we may not like), will I let my vote be counted. I have never been one to ascribe to the notion of the “lesser of two evils”. If those are my choices – I choose none and I choose not to participate. I love it when people say that if you do not vote, you therefore should not voice your opinion on politics. Bullshit. I think it is the people that can step out of the paradigm and take a truly objective view, that have the most valuable things to say.

Watch this piece – http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/green/index.html it is pretty amazing to see these people have a revelation about the environment and it is encouraging. It does also scare me in that it is only when their pastor starts preaching pro-environment sermons on the pulpit, that they come to see what the “tree-huggers” have been seeing all along. Why can’t people think for themselves?

Empathy is one’s ability to recognize and understand the emotion of another. As the states of mind, beliefs, and desires of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to more effectively divine another’s modes of thought and mood. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to “put oneself into another’s shoes”, or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself, a sort of emotional resonance.

Empathy is a characteristic that is believed to be uniquely human

Therefore all humans must have empathy

Bush has no empathy

Therefore Bush is not human

If empathy existed in the people that are in our current government, I suspect that we would be living in a very different world. I ask Bush this question, if another country invaded the US, or tried to push the US around – would we not defend ourselves? Why is it then that we are surprised and outraged when another country that is stomped upon by the US reacts in just this way? Why is it that our current administration seems to lack this fundamental human characteristic of empathy? Because – I say – they are aliens.

We should be spending our R&D resources on developing the special “alien-detecting” sunglasses as portrayed in the movie THEY LIVE. Then maybe more people would be able to see through the bullshit.

In viewing Mike Wallace’s interview with Ahmadinejad this evening, I am appalled at the righteous tone and cranky handling of the leader of another country by Mike Wallace. Wallace comes off as if nothing that the president of Iran has to say is valid. If this is the case, why interview him in the first place. Wallace’s derision of Ahmadinejad is disrespectful and typifies the lack of willingness to understand other peoples that President Bush and many Americans seem to have.

I am very disappointed that all I have come away with from this exchange, is that yet again Americans look like a bunch of puffed up buffoons to other countries. We like to think that we are morally superior, yet in this example, Wallace falls very short and only looks like a foolish, cranky old man that is badly in need of a nap.

This was a hugely wasted opportunity by CBS, 60 Minutes and Mike Wallace in getting some valid and pertinent information to the US viewers. Thanks for the crappy and sensational reporting – I will happily go back to only listening to NPR for real journalistic reporting.

Lost viewer in Austin, TX – Carrie