Baby Boomers: Four funerals and a wedding...

     A good friend of mine just passed away -- and he was a Baby Boomer.  Plus I know of at least three other Baby Boomers who have died during the last few months. 

     This whole Baby Boomer generation may be historically unique.  They were all born at the same time, got jobs at the same time, had kids at the same time and retired at the same time.  And will they now also be dying at the same time too?  And what does all this mean?  That now might be a good time to open a funeral home?  (Sorry, sick joke, couldn't resist)

     Someone on the radio just mentioned that, at this point in time, there are approximately 75,000 people who are now 100 years old or older -- and that many of them are still in excellent health.  So maybe our Baby Boomers won't be all dying off together after all.

      And according to Dr. Mario Martinez, author of "The Mind-Body Code," one thing that most of these 75,000 centenarians have in common is that they rarely, if ever, go see a doctor http://www.amazon.com/The-Mind-Body-Code-Wounds-Heals/dp/1591797101.  So much for giving Big Pharma kudos for keeping all these old guys alive!  But I digress.

     I myself had always planned to die at the age of 88 -- 5,743 days from now (but who's counting).  However, given all this new information, I may even end up living forever.  So.  Then my next big question would be, "With all those years left to live, how can I possibly keep from being totally bored?"

     Watching cable television 24/7 and taking endless trips to the mall aren't gonna fill up my days for the next 30 or 40 years.  Been there, done that already.  Boring.

     And I can't just up and join the Army and go fight in the latest stupid corporate war either.  The military is looking for young guys who they can brainwash into becoming trained killers, not little old pacifist me.  Nor can I become an Olympic athlete or jungle explorer because I gots bad knees.  But I could learn to play the violin or become the next Grandma Moses.  Given 40 more years, I could do that.  Or I could always write another book http://tinyurl.com/a8dt9ac -- or write a whole library-full for that matter.

     If America is going to have millions of new 100-year-old men and women running around loose very soon, then we all need to start thinking about all the things we might be doing during all those extra years -- things that will be useful, interesting and productive.  We can't just sit around in rest homes and/or bemoan the theft of our Social Security benefits for the next 30 or 40 years -- or just spend all our time planning funerals.   

     I'm just saying.   

     This issue really needs to be addressed.  We clearly need to start re-thinking what it means to be old.

PS:  I still wanna be a war correspondent when I grow up.  And, fortunately for me, the idiots who run this country are always abundantly happy to keep me supplied with an endless array of stupid wars to report on.

PPS:  A 104-year-old woman just got kicked off of FaceBook for being too old!  Just you wait, FB.  She's gonna be joined by a hecka lot more of us -- very soon.  But even then, spending 40 years updating our FaceBook pages is still no kind of life.  http://rt.com/usa/facebook-woman-104-age-195/

 PPPS:  Enclosed is a photo of the view out my bedroom window -- as Hurricane Re-Hab gets closer and closer to the shores of my housing co-operative.  On March 11, 2013, they are gonna re-hab my entire apartment -- and then me and Ashley and sometimes Hugo and Mena are going to have to go live somewhere else for three weeks.  DOES ANYONE IN BERKELEY NEED US TO HOUSE-SIT?!?  Where's a FEMA trailer when you need one?

PPPPS:  Do we even care whether or not the current pope is gay?  Except for the blatant hypocrisy of it all -- all that holier-than-thou crap the Vatican issues about how women can't be priests?  Because they would foul up the "old-boys" network?  No problem!  Female priests could be lesbians if that would make the pope feel better. 

     Or has all this happened because priests aren't allowed to get married?  Perhaps if the pope had been happily united in a same-sex marriage (lavishly performed in St. Peter's basilica with cardinals, altar boys and everyone dressed in their best), this whole weird scandal would never have happened.

     Not only that but a gay pope (or even a married one) would then have additional resources to fall back on in old age, like in the movie "Amour" -- yet another way to keep him (or her) from getting bored?

PPPPPS:  Here's a trailer for Jordan Rader's new short film, "Crimson's Kiss" -- with a brief glimpse of me in it, playing a little old lady http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B22xnLcGlFM

*********************************************************
********************************************************* 
 
Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
******

 What next?  I'm still trying to get to Haiti ASAP but unfortunately my investigative-reporting trip has had to be postponed until the end of March.  Please donate toward my trip's expenses here if you can: 
https://www.wepay.com/donations/going-to-a-vodou-cave-in-haiti  And if this link doesn't work, please just cut and paste.  Thanks.

     And if anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer (or war correspondent), "Have laptop, will travel!"

******
Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

 
****
Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come!
****
 Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
****

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=cm_rdp_product
****
"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 

AIPAC: Israel's Santa Claus or just another wing-nut fringe group?

     Have you ever found yourself in the following awkward situation?  There you are, hanging out at a peace rally or something, chit-chatting with some perfectly sane left-wing progressive who hates war and loves democracy -- and you both are happily nodding your heads in agreement regarding how mega-corporations, greedy neo-cons, avaricious war mongers and all of their sleazy congressional lobbyists are currently stealing your very own government right out from under your very own feet? 

     But then you make that one big mistake!  You happen to mention that perhaps Israeli neo-cons might be killing too many Palestinian children on the West Bank.  And then all hell breaks loose.  And suddenly your sane and rational left-wing progressive friend is suddenly all in your face and screaming at you that you are being anti-semitic, while he himself has now become a freaking hero for gleefully cheering on greedy neo-cons, avaricious warmongers and sleazy lobbyists -- solely because they are Israelis instead of Americans. 

     And suddenly YOU have become the bad guy for criticizing Israeli neo-cons who are using the exact same techniques that American neo-cons use, and that both of you are now protesting when they're used in the good old USA -- such as corporate election-buying, NRA-style fear-mongering, Fox-News-style propaganda lies, "preemptive" war, genocide, theocratic manipulation, indefinite detention, outrageous land grabs, racism, fudging public records, shady banksters http://www.roitov.com/articles/yareah.htm, corrupt government officials, false-flag spying http://www.roitov.com/articles/x.htm, corporate welfare for the 1%, nepotism, housing scams, insider trading and all kinds of other things that progressives normally hate.

     And the next thing you know, your friend isn't even SPEAKING to you any more.  Or, worse still, he isn't even reading your blog!

     And if you should also happen to mention AIPAC and all the right-wing dirty tricks that it does here in America too, and all the wing-nut conservatives that it sends to Congress, your normally-sane progressive friend suddenly gets this hurt look on his face like he was a four-year-old and you had just told him that THERE WAS NO SANTA CLAUS!

      But seriously, guys.  Just tell me one single thing -- just one little thing -- that the America-Israel Political Action Committee has ever done that was even remotely progressive.  Er, I'm waiting.  What have you got?

     On the other hand, I'm sure that you could tell me a whole bunch of things that AIPAC has accomplished that would make any right-wing fanatic proud and happy and supportive.  Fox News seems to love AIPAC.  So does the NRA.  Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, even Rush Limbaugh get all googly-eyed over AIPAC.  GWB loves AIPAC.  And so does Dick Cheney.  Can't get much more wing-nut than that!

     And who, exactly, do you think orchestrated that recent crazy filibuster against Chuck Hagel?  The most sturdy crop of wing-nuts in the Senate this year were obviously behind that one.  And who do you think was responsible for planting this year's crop of wing-nuts and neo-cons in Washington?  Why, it was Farmer AIPAC of course -- using a Citizens United tractor.  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33981.htm 

      To quote the Huffington Post, "According to at least one former Israeli diplomat, Alon Pinkas, [the recent Senate filibuster against Hagel has] risked introducing dangerous politicization into the U.S.-Israel alliance -- exactly what the senators claimed they were trying to avoid.  'When Israel is mentioned 166 times and China 5, you know something is distorted and wrong and cannot seriously reflect serious foreign policy priorities.'" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/chuck-hagel-israel_n_2600367.html 

     The politicization of America's foreign policy by 40 senators whose campaigns were funded by AIPAC?  Has a neo-con wing-nut fringe group taken over our Senate or what!

    Would Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxemburg, Albert Einstein, Howard Zinn or even Noam Chomsky condone AIPAC's obviously shady right-wing and neo-con tactics and goals?  Or would even Hillel the Elder or the Baal Shem Tov, Master of the Good Name approve?  What do you think? 

     Face it guys, AIPAC isn't Santa Claus for Israel or even for America.  AIPAC is Santa Claus for neo-cons, right-wingers and fringe-group right-wing fanatics.

PS:  Here's what Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem University has to say about the AIPAC-funded Israeli neo-con wing-nuts who have taken over Palestine (and Israel too, shame on them):  "Rhetoric about democracy and liberty in Syria and Iran is stripped naked when people see Western-supported colonialism, racism and subjugation in Palestine.  Here is where billions in Western taxpayer money is used to destroy life while enriching land thieves and war criminals."  http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2013/02/here-facing-immorality.html

PPS:  Have you seen the new music video "Gangnam Gaza Style"?  It's hilarious!  A handful of brave Gaza guys soon discover that, in their home town now under neo-con occupation, gas is mostly unavailable, ATMs don't work, kids can only safely play soccer if they simultaneously watch out for IDF aerial bombardments, that they face chronic unemployment and have to sneak food in through tunnels from Egypt and that they live in the world's largest prison -- and they do all this Gangnam Style!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7PN9fn9PQ&feature=share

   And here's a video from my FaceBook friend Saeed Amireh (from Ni'lin) that we could easily call "Gangnam East-Jerusalem-Style" -- if only someone would set it to music, and if only it weren't so tragically sad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxCX9j230x8

    And most of these heartless killings and bombardments and war crimes in Palestine are paid for with monies that have been approved by our Congress -- under the financial influence of neo-con right-wing fringe groups such as AIPAC. 

     And then it is we progressives who get yelled at for not supporting cold-blooded murder.  Sigh.

*********************************************************
********************************************************* 
 
Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
******

 What next?  I'm still trying to get to Haiti ASAP but unfortunately my investigative-reporting trip has had to be postponed until the end of March.  Please donate toward my trip's expenses here if you can: 
https://www.wepay.com/donations/going-to-a-vodou-cave-in-haiti  And if this link doesn't work, please just cut and paste.  Thanks.

     And if anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer (or war correspondent), "Have laptop, will travel!"

******
Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

 
****
Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come!
****
 Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
****

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=cm_rdp_product
****
"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 

Wall Street & War Street: Why we have trouble liking Obama 

     What's not to like about Barack Obama?  He's educated, erudite -- and even cute.  He gave a dynamite State of the Union speech. His family is perfect.  Michelle is intelligent, suave, beautiful and compassionate and Sasha and Malia look like an African-American version of the Brady Bunch.  Plus every racist, wing-nut, fanatic, truther, birther and pond-scum in America hates Obama -- so I should like him just for that reason alone.

     Plus Obama is tall and thin like my father.  How Oedipal is that? 

     And Obama is also trying to give us healthcare and to appoint judges on the Supreme Court who aren't complete corporate shills and/or wannabe neanderthals.  And the Prez is also trying really hard to drag America up from being ranked 33rd among modern first-world nations with regard to education.

     Obama also represents all of that stuff that I fought for so valiantly back in the 1960s -- racial equality, a Black man being able to achieve everything a White man can achieve, and like Ginger Rodgers used to say, "Doing it backwards and in high heels."  Except, of course, for the part about high heels.

     So why are we progressives having so much trouble liking Barack Obama right now?  Five little words.  "Wall Street and War Street".  Too many of our young men and women in the military are dying needlessly and being used like Kleenex so that large corporations and weapons manufacturers can make a killing.  Literally.

     Plus Obama has allowed -- and perhaps even welcomed -- the militarization of America's local police forces.  The friendly cop on the corner is now wearing Kevlar and carrying super-heat. 

     And that's not all.  According to MSNBC, "Despite President Obama’s stated objections to American indefinite detention policy, his Justice Department has forcefully advocated for it in court."  http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/03/obama-signs-2013-defense-authorization-minus-indefinite-detention-ban/ 

     And apparently this policy also means that if you and I object too much to the corporate takeover of our country, you and I can be detained indefinitely in Guantanamo too -- not exactly the Caribbean cruise we were hoping for.  And Obama is fine with that.  And War Street is too.

     According to journalist David Sirota, "Obama, let’s remember, is the president who escalated the Afghanistan War and whose spokesman recently reiterated that U.S. troops are not necessarily leaving that country anytime soon.  He is the president who has initiated undeclared wars in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya.  He is also the president who, according to data from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, has launched more than 20,000 air strikes -- and those assaults show no sign of stopping" http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_president_of_perpetual_war_20130125/ 

     Not only that, but Obama has apparently been in cahoots with all kinds of sleazy Islamic fundamentalist wing-nuts trying to stir up big trouble in Syria as well -- to the point that even those Syrians who truly hate Assad's guts are beginning to prefer Assad over the foreign 'rebels' who are currently destroying their country with the help of the U.S. 

      And according to both CLG News and Haaretz, the Obama administration has also been giving War Street neo-cons in Israel a green light for further air strikes on Syria.  "...'At least one to two additional targets were hit [there recently],' a Western intelligence official indicated to Time, adding that Israel received a 'green light' from the United States to carry out further attacks in the future."  http://www.legitgov.org/US-official-says-White-House-gave-Israel-green-light-carry-out-more-attacks-Syria

     That's totally scary.

     But the most important reason we have for not liking Obama's constant flirtation with War Street is his increasing authorization of continuous drone strikes and "targeted" assassinations -- both here and abroad.  And do you know what this drone mess ultimately means for you and me too?  At this current time, THERE IS NO PLACE IN THE WORLD WHERE ANYONE IS SAFE -- not even in our own homes here in heartland America.

     At any moment, today, right now, a War Street-owned hellfire missile could suddenly eliminate your home without warning -- and you too.  That's even more scary than when I was a kid and we thought that at any moment an atomic bomb might do us in.  But at least back then it would have been the enemy that was doing it.

     In addition, on Obama's watch, all too many Americans here at home have also been sold down the river into economic slavery by Wall Street -- in its never-ending lust to gut the American economy, feather its nests in the Caymans and kill the golden goose that has been laying golden eggs for Wall Street all these years.

     According to journalist Mark Karlin, "Obama, Geithner, Holder and others in the executive branch are sending a message that if you got enough dough and run banks too big too fail, you can break the law and hurt the economy for the average American, but you won't be held accountable -- and they will allow you to be rewarded to boot." 
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17776-treasury-approved-bonuses-and-raises-for-wall-street-bankers-who-tanked-economy

     I would love to be able to like Barack Obama.  But for these two reasons, I just can't.  Why has Obama never stood up to Wall Street and War Street?  Not even once?  If he had, if he did, then his legacy as President would be AWESOME!

     But as it stands now, Obama is just managing to stand only a couple of rungs higher on the presidential-accomplishment ladder than even George W. Bush -- who wasn't even legally elected!    

PS:  In 2003, Time magazine published a letter from me regarding Bush's upcoming war on Iraq.  It read, simply, "Is it possible that Iraq will be to America what Afghanistan was to the U.S.S.R.?  The similarities are chilling." 

      Well, it turned out that Iraq (and Afghanistan too) actually is to America what Afghanistan was to the USSR.  And if you are looking for any further proof of that statement, just go look in your mailbox on the first Saturday in August.  A whole lot of the money that might have gone to saving our post office is now going to pay for the Bush/Obama wars. http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/thom-hartmann/48068/the-usps-media-fail

     And also it seems that RepubliDems in Congress have come up with various poison pills that will force the USPS to sell off thousands of our post offices to private corporations.  http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2012-11-09/article/40488?headline=Berkeley-s-Historic-Post-Office-is-NOT-FOR-SALE---Margot-Smith  How post-Soviet-Union Russian oligarch is that! 

     And let's not forget the poor buggers out in Rockaway who are currently dying in the snow because so much of our money went off to Wall Street and War Street instead of to them -- just like all the old people who froze to death on the mean streets of Moscow after the USSR fell or else died when the equivalent of Russian Social Security disappeared.  Oh well.  http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/02/us-cancels-regular-drone-strikes-on-saturdays.html

*********************************************************
********************************************************* 
 
Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
******

 What next?  I'm still trying to get to Haiti ASAP but unfortunately my investigative-reporting trip has had to be postponed until the end of March.  Please donate toward my trip's expenses here if you can: 
https://www.wepay.com/donations/going-to-a-vodou-cave-in-haiti  And if this link doesn't work, please just cut and paste.  Thanks.

     And if anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer (or war correspondent), "Have laptop, will travel!"

******
Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

 
****
Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come!
****
 Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
****

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=cm_rdp_product
****
"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