"I can't do this any more": Homeless people in America are dying

As I was walking down Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley yesterday, I passed a homeless man huddled against the cold at a bus stop bench near the corner of Shattuck and Channing -- and the man was talking to himself. "I just can't do this any more," he was saying. "I just can't."

I felt so bad for this poor guy that I gave him a few dollars -- yeah, like a measly two bucks might even begin to help stop his hunger, chill, weariness and desperation.

A week from now -- or perhaps a month from now or, hopefully, maybe even a year -- that man will most probably be dead.

Living out in the cold, having very little food to eat, having no healthcare or dental care options, having no warm place to stay, lacking even a toilet or a shower, having nothing but rags to wear, and having no place to feel safe? That level of deprivation can actually kill people. Under these bleak circumstances, I myself would probably be dead within days. And what about you? How long could you survive that kind of merciless gauntlet, that kind of ordeal?

"I can't do this any more."

And recently the mayor of Oakland has actually had the chutzpah to accuse OWS of committing "economic violence". That really takes some nerve -- when you consider that, for the past 30 years, 99% of America has had to suffer endless and brutal economic violence under the jackboot of Wall Street and banksters and their lapdogs in Congress, on the Supreme Court and in the White House. "Economic violence"? Us? You gotta be kidding, Mayor Quan!

And also here's a belated Christmas carol video, coming to us from the deep and dreamless streets of Bethlehem -- where people still optimistically celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, even after having suffered over 60 years of occupation under corporatist Israel's brutal and merciless jackboots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtSTLWLpSD0&feature=share

I wonder if Americans will be holding up even half as well as the Palestinians have done after we too have spent 60-plus years under corporatist domination.

Probably, if American corporatists have their way by then, most of the rest of America will be homeless too -- and, like the man on the corner of Shattuck and Channing, muttering desperately to ourselves, "I can't do this any more."

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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

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"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

Please help: Zakaria Zubeidi of the Jenin Freedom Theater is in trouble!

The freaking Israeli corporatists have done it again and gone back on their word once more. No wonder Republicans love them. Liars and bullies always seek their own level. But I digress.

Zakaria Zubeidi is a co-founder and mentor of the Jenin Freedom Theater in the West Bank -- and after the blankity-blank Israeli corporatists attempted to destroy Jenin back in 2002, Zakaria was an important component in the group of freedom fighters who fought back to save their loved ones and their homes from corporatist occupation. And after the dust had settled, Zakaria was given amnesty by the occupiers.

Zakaria then kept his part of the bargain to stay cool and went to work designing and shaping Jenin's non-violent Freedom Theater. But now Israeli corporatist punks are all threatening to break their part of the bargain and either assassinate Zakaria or throw him in jail and throw away the key. Good grief, how Israeli corporatists hate non-violent action! Almost as much as they hate keeping their word (remember Oslo, Camp David, etc? I rest my case!)

So how about performing a little non-violent action of our own in Zakaria's defense? Call your Israeli MP or ambassador or whatever. And also donate to the Freedom Theater's defense as well. Or even go to Jenin yourself and bring OWS with you! http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/news.php?id=213

It's time for Israeli corporatists to stop trying to take over the Middle East -- just like it's time for their corporatist buddies in America to stop trying to take over the world. Humph.

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Here is some contact information:
The Israeli district commanding officer: +972 42433046
PA security safety office: +972 42436752

Israeli Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, 202 364 5500
infor@washington.mfa.gov.il

Saul's Jewish Delicatessen, Berkeley's secret Christmas tradition?

For the past several years, my family and I have eaten our annual Christmas dinner at Saul's Jewish and Middle Eastern Restaurant and Delicatessen http://www.saulsdeli.com/ in north Berkeley. One of the few local restaurants open on December 25, Saul's was the perfect holiday alternative for us all: Good food, fast seating, the children liked it and, best of all, I didn't have to cook anything. Dining at Saul's on Christmas Day used to be our own personal family secret tradition.

But not any more!

When we arrived at Saul's on December 25th of this year, it was mobbed. There was a Klezmer band playing out on the sidewalk, a taco-truck in the parking lot selling latkes, and a whole bunch of happy people enthusiastically dancing the hora. It was wonderful. I loved it. But the waiting list to get in to eat at the restaurant proper was half a block long, and it would have been at least another hour before we could eat.

Our little holiday secret hideaway had definitely been discovered.

What to do next?

By this time, we were really really hungry -- so we all packed off to Skates by the Bay and ate our Christmas dinner with a magnificent view of the San Francisco bay instead.

The view from Skates always takes my breath away and the ambiance was full of holiday cheer and the server was excellent and the soup, salad and desserts were all totally delicious and we were all really glad that we had come belatedly to Skates. But the salmon was far too dry for me to finish and definitely not as good as the lox and bagels served at Saul's on Christmas Day -- and after all, long before Jesus's beliefs had been adopted by Christians and Muslims, Christ himself had been Jewish.

And Christ's main teaching was that we human beings should at least all TRY to get along.

PS: My mother, who was raised poor as a church-mouse, used to have a saying that she would trot out whenever anything good happened to her: "Wonder what the poor people are doing." Well, this Christmas I was lucky enough to be able to use this saying a lot.

Not only did I get to dance the hora at Saul's and eat dried salmon within view of the San Francisco Bay, a place that is sacred to the Ohlone First Americans, but later in the day I also had Chinese dim sum at Mena's mom's house.

And on Christmas Eve, I also ate Muslim food at La Mediterranee restaurant (glutton-free tabuli made with quinoa!) and also a wonderful Greek salad at Pizza Rustica in tribute to Orthodox Christmas liturgies at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem -- after it had been bombed by the blasphemously corporatist IDF. And then I ate posole and tamales with our extended Mexican-American family in Richmond.

Hey, now I'm stuffed.

But I bet you anything that Jesus would have approved -- but only if all the poor of the world could have joined me as well.

Living in Interesting Times: Why our grandchildren are gonna hate us

I just started work at a part-time telecommute job that involves writing text for various online websites. And since my new gig only pays approximately one-fourth of a penny per word, I'm obviously not in this for the money -- but I do enjoy its challenge. The boss sends me a subject to write about knowledgeably and I do it.

Here's a hot topic to write about: "Why we live in interesting times." In 500 words or less? I can do that.

We live in interesting times because World War I was a mistake and it killed off millions of people and polluted the air and gave us Stalin and Hitler as a result.

We live in interesting times because after the Great Depression finally made Americans thrifty for a change, we once again began wildly spending money on war, pollution and other useless junk. World War II was another big mistake. From Nanking, Tokyo and Berlin to London, Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima -- hundreds of millions more useless dead bodies, hundreds of millions of tons of more polluted air.

Then came the 1950s and the rise of suburbs, the Cold War and the corporate hit-man. More death abroad and more pollution at home. More interesting times.

Have I reached my 500-word requirement yet?

We live in interesting times because the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the various recent Middle East wars -- Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc. -- have brought us even more senseless death and irreversible air pollution. And now the Pentagon, Congress and the White House have started beating their war drums against Iran, Syria and China. World War III? Seriously? http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28254

We live in interesting times because now we are going to have to explain to our grandchildren how we willingly squandered their patrimony on a century of brutal destruction, death, repression, and planet-wide pollution -- when we could have been building an earthly paradise for them to inherit instead.

We live in interesting times because we are handing off to our grandchildren the mere shell of a planet that used to be rich in resources beyond anyone's wildest dreams and a sentient world that is apparently facing extinction http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/05-8

And we also live in interesting times because, even as we speak, the military-industrial complex that now owns our government is still happily destroying what is left of our grandchildren's patrimony while even more happily entertaining itself with fond dreams of more and more violent death and rank pollution to come.

But I've clearly written more than 500 words on this subject. Sorry about that.

PS: These photos are from some of my granddaughter Mena's several recent "Movable Feast" birthday parties. Mena is four years old already -- and doesn't hate me so far!

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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

World-wide, women are in trouble: "First they came for our daughters, then they..."

I was just told by my dentist that I need three cavities filled, two teeth crowned and two root canals. We're talking at least $10,000 here, probably more. But who has that kind of money these days? Looks like pretty soon I'm going to have to go toothless. But I won't be alone. 99% of the rest of America may be facing toothlessness too. What an ugly country we will become -- nothing but gums.

Also, I pretty much can't afford to travel any more, but that's okay. Scottish journalist David Pratt now does most of my traveling for me -- and sends his reports from all corners of the world back to the Glasgow Sunday Herald, which then forwards them to me.

Pratt's latest report is from the slums of Nairobi, Kenya, where women and children live in such unbelievable poverty that even I can't believe it. As part of a series entitled "Women of the World's Worst Slums," Pratt spells it all out for us. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/the-women-of-the-worlds-worst-slums.16118795

"I wanted to find out for myself what it's like for the women here who lead a life of fear, unremitting toil, and who worry constantly over the disease and hunger that stalks their children. In the back alleyways of [Nairobi's two largest] slums I was to meet four such women, young and not so young. What follows is a glimpse into their hopes, fears and above all fight for survival in the heart of this human abyss."

The first woman that Pratt interviewed was 21-year-old Purity Atieno, who lives in little more than a wooden crate, in a neighborhood flooded with human feces, sewage and rats. Hardly out of her teens, Purity is already the mother of three sons. Pratt didn't actually comment on whether or not Purity's babies were a result of her having to sell her body in order to buy food, or of the constant rapes perpetrated against women here night and day -- but he did state that she constantly had to deal with the rapists who prowled through her community each night.

Next, Juan Gonzalez of "Democracy Now" interviewed Yanar Mohammed from Baghdad, who informed us that Iraq is currently one big hot mess as a result of Junior's stupid and unnecessary war. "And the biggest loser out of all of this are the women.... At a women’s organization, we daily meet women who are vulnerable to being bought and sold in the flesh market. We see widows who have no source of income, and nobody to get them IDs for themselves and their children, because they have been internally displaced. So poverty and discrimination against women has become the norm."

She then goes on to state that there is now a whole generation of women in Iraq who are totally illiterate -- as compared to all the many female college graduates there under Saddam Hussein. http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/16/iraqi_womens_activist_rebuffs_us_claims

And then there's the good old USA. I don't have to travel widely here at all -- because I can see what is happening to women in America just by traveling to nearby homeless encampments. And a lot of women at the encampments are toothless too, just like I'm going to be soon.

And if Republicans have their way, American women will also be hungry, illiterate, jobless, barefoot and pregnant as well.

But as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." Isn't it time that freedom's arc started bending toward justice for women too?

No, ladies, that arc is never gonna bend toward us voluntarily. If we ever want that to happen, we alone are gonna have to stop the killing, stop the raping, stop the war machine and stop the war-on-women all by ourselves.

And to paraphrase a famous cautionary quote about Nazis, "First they came for our daughters -- and I did nothing. Then they came for the crones and then they came for all women. And I did nothing. And now there is no one left to reproduce the human race." Too bad for you.

PS: So how, exactly, will we women -- never outnumbered but always out-gunned -- still manage to fight back? Perhaps by copying guerrilla tactics used recently by Occupy Portland: Retreat and advance like the wind, don't ever let them pin us down -- and do it all to music, especially rock and roll. http://www.portlandoccupier.org/2011/12/15/occupy-portland-outsmarts-police-creating-blueprint-for-other-occupations/

PPS: Forget what I just said. If we women ever do start to fight back against injustice, then every woman on the planet will be instantly labeled a terrorist -- not to mention being charged with committing "economic violence," whatever that is.

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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

Addicted again: Going cold-turkey from dairy, sugar, wheat & Wall Street

I used to be addicted to love. But now I'm just addicted to food. How pathetic is that.

But actually, it really does turn out that wheat and dairy really can cause actual addictive symptoms -- plus we already know that sugar and sugar substitutes are addictive. If you have any doubts about that one, just try convincing your kids to give up their daily sugar fix. You might have to put them on methadone first!

The other evening I went to hear a prominent nutritionist give a lecture on how to eat healthy and she told us, "Gluten-containing foods such as wheat, barley, rye, spelt and most forms of oats can actually produce an addictive reaction. And dairy products can trigger an addictive response too." That certainly explains why I'm addicted to pumpkin pie smothered with whipped cream on top.

"Gluten-containing foods are not only addictive but they can also destroy the delicate villi that line our small intestines. The negative effect caused by depleted villi is that nutrients in your food can no longer be absorbed, resulting in dizziness, asthma, depression, fatigue, foggy brain syndrome and even cancer." Yikes! I gots foggy brain syndrome! I'm doomed.

So yesterday morning I decided to go cold-turkey and stop eating wheat and sugar and dairy. "And how's that been going for you?" you might ask. Not so good. Aside from suffering from intense withdrawal symptoms such as headaches and hunger DTs, I also soon discovered that, aside from sugar, dairy and gluten, there's pretty much nothing else that's exciting to eat. But I'm hanging in there -- and desperately trying to convince MediCare to send me to some posh sugar-dairy-gluten re-hab clinic in SoCal. Yeah right.

PS: There has been one small benefit from going cold turkey from SDG -- I've lost five whole pounds in just the last week.

PPS: Americans such as myself also seem to be addicted to television too. Well, here's a word of advice for those of us with a channel-surfing addiction: Don't believe everything you see on TV.

For instance, don't ever believe that war is a good thing.

And also stop believing that Occupy Wall Street is just a passing phase filled with crazies, or that anything that's good for the rich who now own our country is also good for the rest of us too -- because America's current addiction to the One Percent's attitude of "Let them eat cake" is clearly one hecka dangerous gluten addiction.

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*********************************************************

I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

****

Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters