SPORTS

For A Dancer

"Keep a fire for the human race
  Let your prayers go drifting into space
  You never know what will be coming down
  Perhaps a better world is drawing near
  And just as easily it could all disappear
  Along with whatever meaning you might have found
  Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
  (the world keeps turning around and around)
  Go on and make a joyful sound."            


Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you'll never know.                                     For A Dancer- Jackson Browne

SPORTS


I live in one of the most sports-mad areas of the country, Philadelphia. I've been hooked on professional sports since I was about 8 years old. We did not have a TV until I was around that age and one of my earliest memories was when my father put the Notre Dame game on one Saturday afternoon. That was back when ND was IT for Catholics. If you were Catholic, not rooting for ND was tantamount to not worshiping your mother. Not only were we not Catholic, but my father carried a hatred strong dislike for the Irish. Although he was born in England, he was raised just outside of Boston where the influx of Irish invoked the same feelings, I suppose, as the influx of blacks in Detroit. They were "The Other"...we always have to have "The Other" to take the focus off what we are lacking. I married an Irish girl but he never mentioned or indicated to me if he still felt the same way about the Irish.


My brother and I would take a couple of trolleys to go to Shibe Park to watch the Philadelphia Athletics play. Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and other stars were on the field, and Connie Mack, who owned the A's was in a business suit managing the team on the bench. The Phillies also played in Shibe Park. Although we were A's fans, we also followed the Phils. I remember my sister taking me to a Phils-Brooklyn Dodgers game and there were a lot of black people in the stands, there to see one of the few teams with Negro stars. I wanted to root for the Dodgers but my sister convinced me that I should root for my home team. That sure wasn't true of the black folks. I


My brother and I saw a Chicago White Sox player hit 4 home runs in a double header (we loved double headers), a no hitter and home town hero Bobby Shantz win a lot of games for the A's. And then the team was sold and moved to Kansas City. I think I was 14 and It was my introduction to sports as a business. 


When the A's left town I was forced to shift my rooting to the Phils. I did get to see Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and a lot of terrific National League players, but it wasn't until the 80's that   I felt like the Phils were really my team.


There is a lot to like about sports, both playing and spectating. I won't present any arguments  to justify my love of sports. You either have a love for sports or you don't. Sports is both a passion and a diversion for lots of Philadelphians. I get the passion part, but I don't understand the diversion. In that regard, sports is really no different than the arts. You can be passionate about music or fine art, or ballet, but it isn't considered a diversion by most people. I guess passion/diversion is in the eye of the beholder.

FRIDAY THOUGHTS

For A Dancer

"Keep a fire for the human race
  Let your prayers go drifting into space
  You never know what will be coming down
  Perhaps a better world is drawing near
  And just as easily it could all disappear
  Along with whatever meaning you might have found
  Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
  (the world keeps turning around and around)
  Go on and make a joyful sound."            


Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you'll never know.                                     For A Dancer- Jackson Browne

HOPE THIS SPREADS TO MORE RELIGIONS

http://tinyurl.com/823m96c

THE SCOTUS HEALTHCARE DECISION

As I'm 72 and I am covered by Medicare and some supplemental insurance, I am not directly affected by yesterday's decision. I've read several takes on it and as I'm not a lawyer and not a politician, I'll give my plebeian view...my long range view if you will.

The current US healthcare system is an unsustainable disgrace. I won't bother with the disgrace part, the libertarian philosophy that would leave those without coverage to "get sick and die", but rather I will consider the business model. This is capitalist America so it is always about the business model, right?

There is not going to be enough healthy and wealthy people to sustain a for-profit healthcare system...one where 20% of every dollar goes to the administrators (contrasted to government Medicare's 2%).  Especially when you factor in the loss of the middle class. After all, it is the middle class that has been bearing the brunt of paying for most things in the US. When you have a job-based healthcare system it depends on: a) people having jobs, and b) employers who offer (and subsidize) healthcare plans. The IRS has virtually given employers the right to treat employees as contractors regardless of how tax laws interpret "independent contractors". And even when the IRS does  come down on a large corporation, they simply pay the fine and continue on with some type of variation to get around the problem-other than making contractors employees.

So like so much of the challenges facing this Country and the world, the can is being kicked down the road. This Supreme Court's majority could well be called the Commerce Court. The current system had to be adjusted in order for the healthcare companies to survive...that is they need the expansion of healthy paying customers.That is why I expected the ACA to go forward in some form. In essence, I think Roberts' vote was to avoid the chaos that would ensue from throwing the ACA out.

The shit will hit the fan with the recognition that what may be good for the healthcare companies, in this case, is not good for other large corporations. It will be a corporate Jurassic Park, where the corporate dinosaurs battle each other for the kill (that would be us). And frankly, I've wondered why this hasn't already happened. Universal healthcare is a good thing for employers as well as individuals.

Some type of universal healthcare will eventually happen. You have to wonder what the business models look like when the millions of Boomers change from private to public healthcare insurance. The change to some type of universal care, when and if it happens, will be because it makes too much financial sense to have it. 

In a representative democracy, the US would have passed a single-payer healthcare bill. We do not have one of those. Not that the people do not have the ability to force a political issue like this, but between the State propaganda that passes for main stream media, and bought and paid for politicians, it will take a lot to get people actively seeking to change things. 

Change will happen sooner rather than later. The increases in healthcare costs as a percentage of GDP will force it. 

THE REAL REASON FOR THE WAR ON DRUGS:

http://tinyurl.com/7ejrhkm

Who knows, mass legal marijuana use could lead to "Make Love Not War" for real.

POVERTY AND RACE


Race is so ingrained in Americans that most of us see the world through a prism that is blurred because of it. That is not to say that we are all racists, but that how we perceive things is colored (pun intended) by our ideas developed constant propaganda rather than through personal experience with race. If you have a pre-conceived idea of something, you 


If you have not visited small town USA recently, especially in the Rust Belt, you will not understand how pervasive the trend that sees the former middle class (which is subject to how one sees oneself in America) reduced to poverty. It is the living and breathing example of how the deliberate decision by the political elites to send manufacturing jobs to places where wages were at the absolute minimum. 


NAFTA along with very favorable tax treatment has almost forced corporations to export the manufacture of goods and products. No need to worry about unions in China or India. And when wages in those countries are under pressure to be increased, export manufacturing to Indonesia and Vietnam.


The result can be seen in small town America. Small manufacturing, which provided core jobs for people living within a 30 mile radius is removed. Add local schools being folded into regional schools, and large box-store retailers like WalMart , and you have virtually strangled small towns. 


So how does this slow crawl to the poorhouse relate to race?


I would suggest that when most people in this Country (and most likely any Country), regardless of their race, think of poverty-of the poor, they immediately think of people of color., even when they themselves are living below the poverty level. Part of this is due to the inculcated feelings about people of color, and part is due to lottery factor. (The lottery factor is that no matter how little I have, I can pull out of my situation with luck. Everyone has the opportunity to get rich in the US, right?)


What brought me to thinking of this was this Guardian article:


http://tinyurl.com/86fxmay

ANTICIPATION

For A Dancer

"Keep a fire for the human race
  Let your prayers go drifting into space
  You never know what will be coming down
  Perhaps a better world is drawing near
  And just as easily it could all disappear
  Along with whatever meaning you might have found
  Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
  (the world keeps turning around and around)
  Go on and make a joyful sound."            


Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you'll never know.                                     For A Dancer- Jackson Browne

 ANTICIPATION 


SCOTUS is about to release their findings on ACA, or Obamacare if you will. Most bloggers and pundits are pretty sure that the ruling will be a setback for Obama. The real question is how bad the ruling and how much it affects Obama. The underlying, well not so underlying, more like overlying issue is the complete politicalization of the judicial system in the US starting with the highest court. 


As I see it, the ACA was intended to help save the healthcare insurers while adding some positive things for the public in order to sell it. Along the way Obama gave big Pharma another 10 years to rape the US citizens. I have difficulty in believing Obama was shocked when they went against their half of the deal to secretly campaign against ACA. Regardless of what SCOTUS decides, that Pharma deal stands.


I have zero doubt that big money is able to reach out to the Supremes, at least the Scalia branch, to signal big money's desires. It must be a frustrating decision when screwing Obama has to be measured against the benefits that large corporations and HC corporations get in the bill. 


But then ACA is like everything else that the elites have to decide...better to kick it down the road until there's a better chance of either killing it or at least, allowing for more extraction in the interim...not unlike the banking mess.

Favorite Albums

A favorite quote: Ray Charles when asked why his music varied in genre responded, I'm paraphrasing: There are only 2 kinds of music...good music and bad music.

I've been listening to and collecting music...vinyl, cassettes, CDs and now digital since I was around 16 years old. I confess to having rather eclectic musical tastes, but that kind of falls in line with my overall persona. There are those who are devoted to a specific musical genre, people who have  in-depth knowledge and who can name specific artists who back up specific artists, and then there is the other kind, like moi, who have a wide range of interests. One type of listener is not superior to the other, they just have different approaches to music.

I'm also not one to listen to an entire album, start to finish. Since I converted (and sold) my extensive CD collection to iTunes, and added even more, I now have some 60,000 songs. ITunes says I have 176 days of music...24/7. So I clearly have never listened to every cut. I generally find the few cuts I like and then put them into eclectic playlists, that is if I don't get lazy and use "Genius".

Anyway, there are some albums that almost demand full play. To name a few:

• Astral Weeks- Van Morrison 
• Astral Weeks Live- Van Morrison
• Dark Side of The Moon-Pink Floyd
• Moodance- Van Morrison
• The Circle Game- Tom Rush
• Abbey Road- The Beatles
• Revolver- The Beatles
• Rubber Soul- The Beatles
• Sgt Pepper- The Beatles
• Kind of Blue- Miles Davis
• Blinded By The Light- Bruce Springsteen
• Blue- Joni Mitchell
• Thunderclap Newman- Thunderclap Newman
• John Barleycorn-Traffic
• Red Headed Stranger- Willie Nelson
• Amadeus- Soundtrack
• Little Girl Blue- Nina Simone
• Sigh No More- Mumford & Sons
• Decade- Neil Young
• In Search of The Lost Chord- The Moody Blues
• The Band- The Band
• Music From Big Pink- The Band
• Night And Day- Joe Jackson

I know, this is almost all old stuff. And if I were to carefully go through the list of artists I would no doubt come up with a couple more.

I'm not anti new music, although I'd say the main reason why all the old and REALLY old guys are touring and doing well is that most music has reached a stasis. 

Note: I do not listen to rap, other than Gil Scott Heron. Most of what I hear, which comes gratis from passing cars that play it so loud that not only are the drivers on their way to hearing aids, but whatever is being said rapped is all but unintelligible. Unless it is done with some jazz or blues infused, it ain't music imo.

If you have full album play suggestions, send them along.

For A Dancer

"Keep a fire for the human race
  Let your prayers go drifting into space
  You never know what will be coming down
  Perhaps a better world is drawing near
  And just as easily it could all disappear
  Along with whatever meaning you might have found
  Don't let the uncertainty turn you around
  (the world keeps turning around and around)
  Go on and make a joyful sound."            


Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But you'll never know.                                     For A Dancer- Jackson Browne

This is the first day of my 72nd year and my first attempt at blogging. I know, you're thinking that's just what the world needs, another blogger. I agree. But if for no other reason, I intend to put my thoughts, jumbled as they may be, on record. My wonderful 3 daughters and beautiful 10 grandchildren will likely never have any meaningful conversations with me where I expound on life...at least ones where they will actually listen. But this is not about me...directly that is. It's more my observations of things, particularly my interests: politics, sports, music, and just general stream of consciousness, or semi consciousness if you will. I'm throwing some seeds of my own.

MIRRORING

Have you ever walked past a mirror or perhaps a store window and caught your reflection and said to yourself, what a fat, bald old man? Well not that exactly, but were you ever kind of stunned by seeing yourself in a way that you normally don't get to see? Or heard yourself on tape and were shocked at how you sound nothing like you thought you sound? Me neither.

Actually I have. I mention this because I wonder what things would be like if Americans were to consider the actions of the US as if they were on the outside looking in. Would we be ok with unmanned drones dropping missels on our family functions, or with, say the president of Pakistan deciding that Rush Limbaugh was an enemy of Pakistan and thus giving an order to have him "terminated"? Or perhaps having China station aircraft carriers off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts? I know, it'll never happen you say. But just think of this: At one time, Rome controlled much of the known world with their military. It took centuries, but Rome fell because of rot within, unconstrained corruption. It may be that the US is mirroring ancient Rome. How long will even the most docile public in the world accept broken roads, bridges, schools, sewage systems, and a dangerously old electric grid in order to feed the military beast?

Of course if you look at it from afar (at least mentally) you can form the opinion that we have had a soft coup and we now have a series of dictators who can order up murder, including of Americans, as a unilateral decision. God is in the White House. I would suggest that this is just a natural extension of having phone and internet conversations wiretapped without judicial input or installing a White House Marketing Team to lie sell us into war...WMD,WMD,WMD.

If a sane person, an objective person were to look at the Middle East (and the world) pre-Iraq invasion and then now, the conclusion to be drawn would have to be that Iran is stronger, Pakistan-nuclear armed Pakistan is a failed state, and Israel is moving towards a disaster should they attack Iran. Of course that same person would reasonably decide that almost all pretense of the US being a democracy would be shattered. If you don't agree, ask yourself why the only choice Republicans had was between a plutocrat and the 7 dwarves. Why not Buddy Roemer? Why was he iced out of the discussion? If you don't think we are in a soft dictatorship, please explain how the government bailed out the gamblers and cheaters on Wall Street, with our money I might add, while using 3rd world police tactics on peacefully demonstrating #OWS people.

Well, enough happy talk. What happens next? How do we save what we perhaps mistakenly thought America was and what it stood for? How do we get rid of the corrupt people in power, and can it be done peacefully?

My answer: I'm glad I'm 72.