The library was a smash hit, as far as people’s endeavors in societal institutions go.

Very basically, we took something we wanted to encourage – learning – subsidized it, & we thus then civilized for millennia.

Yes we took money from the rich, a lot of them were hard working; yes we gave it to the less fortunate in a certain form.

But that made learning a hallmark of our society, a staple we resoundingly support.

The result was, we civilized – we grew as a world community, because we made libraries; so THAT is what we should model further library analogs to.

The community center is a great start. We want Health (not to mention community) for our people not just because it makes business sense for our financial bottom line – we want it because IT’S GOOD FOR US. That is more important.

Let’s look at what we want to encourage. A lot like Elizabeth Warren’s proposal that we should make college affordable — if not free, really I think — consider the great goods of civilization we want to nurture, not just the ugly crimes we want to remove: Love — make socializing that happens to be fertile for courting *a community sanctioned institution*. I really am saying play matchmaker, because Love is Good for us.

Maybe say Usefulness – why not have a ‘community center’ institution that borrows useful tools, very many need but only half of us can afford? Tools make our homes more cozy, our equipment functional.

— Let those who’ve been given harder lots check out a blood pressure kit from the “library” — or a oximeter — Why not?

What about the arts – including files on the internet – that inspire us? Is it better one guy, no matter how ‘hard he worked’, have 16 yachts, or do we by birthright deserve to subsidize artists & have copious amounts of art works – mp3s, books, pictures & art — in as much that is feasible? (Some of that is done on the margins already, in libraries, but we should make it done by right – by law – in our society.)

& What about research – yes they deserve pay, but should medical & other knowledge really be commercially restricted to those who can pay say 35$ for each & every study they want to read – whether it contains the information they’re looking for or not?

Is that best for our civilization? You have to ask yourself that . . .

One more – what about Fun? We focus on “the economy” so much as adults, we prescribe 5 days of work on average every 7 day week, we forget that kids know Life better than us in some ways . . . Let me explain: I remember seeing how denatured my parents were at 13, 14, 15, 16 — & this whole childhood thing was just something to do in the margins — let’s fund Childhood. Let’s make it great for our kids; they love fun – give them fun. They love to play, let them play. They love hanging out, let’s help them hang out. How many small towns have too little for their kids to do when they’re home from school – I’m talking about roller skating, hang outs, skate parks. As weird as it sounds, let’s take Fun seriously – it’s no small coin in this realm.

Thanks for reading!
Joe

First conceived/expressed during the “aughts” (’00s); returned to, written down & discussed in 2013 – again. Written up here a 3rd. – Joe =D

Continued July 2015: 30 Ideas For Community, Fun, & Culture In America

First, I ask that you bear in mind I am 30 years young, & not a member of Congress . . . but I have some insight into our national situation, having read, listened, & thought on our national situation a decent share.

Second, I wanted to say I have improved on this, partially by taking into consideration what some geniuses in politics have said.

Bearing all that in mind, if I were in congress, this is the preliminary path (or “roadmap”) I would consider following, with all necessary & good legislative ‘waypoints’ being done in-between.

Congressional Rule Reform:

Fix congressional rules to prevent excess power by the minority.

This is systemic – & systemic means fix now.

Republicans learned this with the recent Democratic filibuster of the anti-abortion provision Republicans fought for.

Campaign Finance Reform:

In my view, freedom should be sweeping but freedom of speech is not freedom of spending — speaking is specifically an exchange for informational purposes whereas spending is specifically an exchange for goods &/or services.

We must distinguish speech & money.

This is a medium-term systemic problem we must fix shortly that is creating financial collapses & other problems associated with a literal oligarchy – this where the founding fathers intended & we present, living today still want a constitutional democratic republic, forbearing gradual progression to a genuinely, in-foresight, better system.

After these congressional legislation systemic-problems, we must at some point address this:

Economic Security Reform:

We de-regulated, I am told, & crashed the economy, millions losing jobs and/or homes. Re-regulation & further regulation – which you like regulation if you like your house to not fall on your head – thanks to building code standards – & your food to not degenerate you but improve your nutrition – thanks to food standards – & your car to not cause an accident with the 7 members of your family in the car –

therefore financial standards & other standards – “regulations” – are the most basic of idea in government: law to stem the tide of grievous death, injury, & the like.

Campaign Finance Reform especially should help us achieve economic protections for consumers —

if only Dodd-Frank could have a full set of teeth.

(I am open to any good ideas about securing our economy – including protections against micro-trading-caused crashes, & any other economic bubbles.)

After these systemic Rule & Campaign Finance fixes, & the Economic/Financial Security fixes, I then, with a more fully functioning legislative system & security of economy, next in legislative priority I with my understanding of things would turn to the next thing:

Climate Change: a mismanagement problem threatening our planet very much; one which we should practice the Father of Medicine’s – Hippocrates’ – advice &, in the case of planetary “disease”, First, Do No Harm – do not solve our so-called “safe”-chemicals-caused problem with more “safe” chemicals; & instead, like the best doctors, we should turn to removing the thorn of the cause, & cease wasteful contributions to climate change.

I would then too focus on this:

Income Inequality: which, from the point of view of growth of our civilization, is simply inefficient: the lion’s share of the population eats cheaply – so they eat poorly; the lion’s share use cheaper tools, giving a worse result & a worse, more-frustrating experience. Every good & service we pay toward has a level of quality, & when the lion’s share of the population consumes lower quality everything all the time, our civilization is cast astray. & That is not acceptable. Do we want 95% to have low quality necessities? No. Greed is a sin. Share The Wealth.

Thanks; Joe Valentyn.

a poem i just wrote, have a looksee:

the heart,
waterfalls in our blue lagoon
really hitting a stride –
i love you to the moon

& back

i’m ecstatic that
you love me
too

makes me think back,

to how in my slush puppy days
deadly hot girls asked for an orgy with me,
& when i was of age, it was the season opener of jailbait,
we smoked opium & cannabis, in the back of our hippie buses, too

wearing fake vampire fangs
girlfriends with cartoony imaginations
fooling around all day & all night in her room

playing just to play

might as well’ve had bunnyrabbit ears,
& a little puffy cottontail — oo

then in the days i laughed at businessmen,
it was flip flops,
across the u.s. southwest
Greyhounds,
& soundtracks,
holing up in
rabbitholes

yeah #philosophy was a stronghold
for the too cool for school

then subplots branched,
& bled, & hatched
the stork of Life
delivered me the romance,
that i
always dreamed of

yes as i’m riding a street cruiser
into my middle life

i’m happy to say i got my dream wife

some may think otherwise
but i know it’s all about happily marrying
the same person
living in a always honeymoon

blue lagoon waterfalls, are all i want to see now
i love you to the moon & back,
i captured my queen

& the lovebirds sing:

we live
in permanent
ecstasy
{backup singers: tell the truth! me: i do!}

we write
letters,
like teenage girls
write in their diary

– there’s the american
flag,
& a cross hanging in her cleavage . . . . .

talking sticks,
& presses of blueprints
strategy board soapboxing

& the quick & the dead –
crying from happiness
life’s easter eggs
& another umpteen zillion,
sublime groves,
& primes to rock & roll,
i got your message,
i’d die to play house with you

[ssba_hide]

the first birdchirp of the year has cracked
blooming in a week are thee lilacs —
everything Earthly in Spring is beginning anew

& so you again too (whyyyy)
well since it’s better to live than it is to die
thus then therefore it’s better to thrive than merely survive

so as thee poets become babbling brooks,
& the sprouts are shooting up from their roots
let me tell you, the birds & the bees are currently getting struck by Eros Cupid

yes, now, the squirrels frolick in their pairs,
lovebirds singing everywhere
lovebirds singing everywhere,
that precious song
that is Love
is in the air

so as you scrub your spring cleanin’
you have a reason to be beaming
mr right is right here or if he’s elsewhere, he has a clue

Some things bear repeating.

I wanted to add this time sharing this, that altho this is a brief list of words, each of these words are like a class unto themselves – a class you will probably learn & grow in the rest of your Life.

Thank You,
Joe

Thank you so much for the popular reception — I am astonished & infinitely & eternally grateful to all of yous.

Thank you again – Joe

After those threats to the quantity & quality of your Life, how about something else that affects how good your life is, besides in some part how long you live.

You can prossibly guess [sic] what I’m talking about: Money.

I independently stumbled on the phrase “equal pay for equal work” about 10 years ago, only to find it was already coined, back in about 1948. In public fora some would ask why I wanted us to intervene on women being paid less –

What people call the gender pay gap –

“They’re weaker,” someone would say – I would say what about a male typist & a female typist; if there were no discernible difference in the speed or result of their work, one produced a typed sheet in 9 minutes compared to the other producing the same typed sheet in 9 minutes – why were we paying them different? That’s equal work – why not equal pay?

“They work less days a year, taking care of kids.” Shouldn’t we pay people to make & raise people, especially at one of their most vulnerable stages of Life — not the opposite – discourage & punish them for creating & raising our most valuable asset: people?

This went on & on, & it seemed clear women need equal pay for equal work, stereotypes be damned.

But the thing is, as I’ve talked about in this site previously, equal pay is only part of economic security. equal pay without a job to keep is poverty – we need a strong economy so there’s plenty of work – & moola – to go around.

& What about income inequality – the fact that CEO’s & people like them took 89/90ths of the fruits of everybody’s labor since 1979, I figured – taking 89/90ths of the wealth generated by everyone working?

The rest of us had 1/90th to fight over, & more accurately, to suffer with. That’s money to raise a family. to get a safe car. to get a respectable home. Spread the word about income inequality . . . it is a very serious problem.

A 4th issue is economic security in the larger sense: the protection from crashes in the economy. As best I can tell, de-regulation & lack of regulation in financial markets has led to our last crash – millions of people lost their jobs & homes as a result of that.

That’s not financial security. Your home is where you live most everyday. Your job too is essential . . . We can’t let financial finaglers’ greed shyst millions out of these basic needs, & then bail them out. That isn’t how it’s going to be. Nah unh.

. . . So, equal pay for equal work . . . job availability . . . a fair share of the income . . . & protection from things like unfair mortgages, costing you your home or job, are some things I think of when I think of a better Life for women, after recognizing the actual threats to your Life that are overwhelmingly Health-related – (not military or other violence. (The one other case that ranks somewhat high is car accidents.))

What do you think of?
♡ J.V.

I do not admire the happening of the co-occurrence of my women’s statement  & the gov “No More” campaign, of which mine was drafted on my website a month or two earlier. I had written of my life’s dream that women would rise & rule for the next millennium – moving from toil to communication —

What came out to me as a high school like campaign against a much villainous, something i have long despised, but not nearly whole proposal of the government’s tending of women’s needs in the next duration, did not do justice to the original vision I was pregnant with myself. I repeat my respect for the tragic suffering of the vicious bravado of deflowering in that way – but I say loudly women’s needs extend far beyond sexual well-being.

Is that right or is that right?

1. Life — Health security threats are the number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then 7, 8, 9 AND 10 threats to a woman’s life – statistically – they are the real concerns in a time of capitalism’s excesses leading to some corruption of health care & the average person affording health care. (the #6 threat to your life is unintentional injuries, like car accidents & falls.)

How often were you taught to have traditionally fermented foods – as a pregnant woman, moreover – in these times, despite preventing allergies & boosting the immune system, a very very important part of health?

— Corporate health – the biggest key to education & treatment of the threats that are realest to your Life – has very simply lost its way.

(After health threats, that next threat, car accidents, is something we must work on all aspects of – from drowsy driving, to drunk driving, to safer cars, to better designed roads — I even at this moment favor researching & doing experimental roll-outs of automated driving, to correct this threat to both our lives.)

You also hear the 81% male government — of course I am one of these lowly creatures — talk and act endlessly on behalf of “national security” – military preponderance, they mean – they make a constant reference to the much bolstered “threats” we face. (to be fair, you could argue this is because we have “secured the homeland” so well . . . but.)

After the large majority of threats to your Life – Health threats – only then does war show up – at #74 in the list of threats to your life.

Is it any surprise men are overly occupied by power grabs, prioritizing it to the point we spend 20 times as much on military as medical research & development, despite health threats being, by my count, 67 of the top 78 threats to women’s & also men’s lives?

I have more fight in me for women’s needs, but at this time I will provide it in pieces, so we can process this information thoroughly.

Thank you —
Joe Valentyn

[update:] p.s. Some final thoughts: Women are 51% of the world, a larger majority than any ethnic group by quite a bit. It’s time to meet their needs first.

There is a follow-up to this article: Re Women’s Actual Needs: Economic Security, As Well

here’s a song i’ve had as a draft on my computer for a couple weeks:

posting cutie pictures
up on the social meed’ . . .
tell me bunny, is that ineffable allure,
actually fishing for a captain like me?

i stop & ask myself,
did that sign say heaven’s now hirin’?
tell the suavest & the handsomer,
please apply within . . . . . .

{facebook pop}
howdy there bunniest,
would you care to grab coffee, this week’nd?
{facebook pop} ha, maybe, maybe not, loverboy
who is askin’ =)

{facebook pop}
you got me: i’m a lover not a fighter,
& i believe this world was built for two . . .
i also so happen to believe,
that i might like you . . .

& so if my company happened to be,
a mutual desire . . .
all i can say is my love is free,
& this gun is for hire . . .

{facebook pop}
ok, fine.
meet me at the coffeehouse,
up on North & Vine
i’ll bring my girlfriend with me,
i’m guessing you shouldn’t mind.

{facebook pop}
There is a God — great,
then it’s a date —
how about 7’o’clock,
on Friday?

{facebook pop}
sure. {facebook pop} k bye
{(pause?) then revelrous happy harmonica solo}
{ ” }
{ ” }

looking for the girl in the photograph
i hike up my boxers of silk,
from somewhere there’s intoxicating vanilla fragrant, &
she arrives all dressed to kill

i say hey, & hug her
somewhat hangingly
she smiles with her affection,
whilst i notice her friend just standing

who’s this you brought with you
is she your bestest friend?
yup – her name is
ms. eliza ‘lizabeth

(hello)

i light up with a bright idea,
hey, let’s play a game:
i call this one Favorites,
name all your favorite things you can name.

(ok)

i say here i’ll start,
i Love Love more than anything,
she smiles, but it’s awkward
so i say & i also like to sing.

she says that’s way cool
maybe i can hear you sometime (yeah)
— my favorite thing’s my best friend,
i’ve known her all of my life

{spoken:}
aww that is sweet –
hey do you want anything to drink?
no i can pay my own,
but yeah i guess let’s go get a cup of coffee

we go up the spiral staircase
to the coffee barista
i order up a depth charge,
she says i’ll get tea,

& we go back downstairs,
there’s a good song blasting thru the air
she says i love it in the autumn,
it’s too beautiful, everywhere

i smile – i like your outfit
i can tell you’re way classe
she says thank you darling,
& moves with a bit of uncontrollable sassy

ok i think my favorite thing is motown
she says watch me do an arm wave
i joke with a she-bop she-bop,
she says oh man, no way

ok one of my favorite things is hair dye,
blueblack looks egyptian,
she says you should do rainbow,
yeah if i could find the beautician

read any good books this year?
oh i don’t know, i guess i read a lot on the webz
there’s some sites i really like
let me guess one is reddit?

yeah … ok a favorite thing is the stars,
– yeah me too, the starlit canopy
hey i think it was clear,
we could go out to the patio if you please

we go out to the breeze,
we’re into each other, we agree
i hum ‘when the moon hits your eye . . .’,
she looks happy.

ok my favorite thing is leonard cohen,
he’s just like a crow . . .
she says yeah jeff buckley used to date liz frazer but now he’s just a ghost

we talk on & on
tubin’ on the river of Life
her friend says maybe they should leave
but she says you can go if you like

*harmonica blow (single)*

hey should we catch a motion pic’?
she says actually i have netflix . . .
a long pregnant silence ends
with let’s

we go back to her apartment
& we watch a favorite pick of hers
& the night is beautiful
it was itself a motion picture

{*outro*:}

{guitar:} doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bee {2 or 3 female voices:} sheh-bah! sheh-bah!
{guitar:} doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bee – {voices:} sheh-bah! sheh-bah!
{guitar:} doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bee – {voices:} sheh-bah! sheh-bah!
{guitar:} doo-bee-doo-bee-doo- {song begins to noticeably fade out:} bee – (voices:) sheh-bah! sheh-bah! {(possibly cool “so_nice*.flp” or *** ******** type frissiony chimerun)}

{Edited March 16, 2015.}

We are all fundamentally human, whether we are strong or sensitive – whether we are dark or light – whether we call “a rose” by any other name – we are all fundamentally the same, & we’re in this together, & we need to work together to get what we all want out of Life.

Think of quarreling with your brother or sister – or your good friend – what time is more wasted? what wars of attrition & fruitlessness come of that?

Now is exactly the time to work together, because we’ve been quarreling —

We need to put animosity aside, because it’s not fruitful.

We need to find consensus, come to our senses, & forge a path forward we as a group can agree to.

We are fundamentally the same, it is time to brother up across the aisle & accept reasonability. It is time to look into your animus’ eyes, & see he is meaning well just like you – he has good ideas, too, & you ARE working for a common cause. We are in this together, & it is time to lay your money down for the common good.

Thanks.
– Joe

Oh, no big deal: according to National Geographic, 93% of fruit & vegetable varieties have gone extinct in the years 1903 to 1983. Loss after that is not estimated.

Couple this with 52% slaughter/loss of wildlife in the last 40 years,^{1 2 3} & you should understand why I am an environmental warrior. Human mismanagement is a drastically serious concern.

Combine losing virtually all our fruit & vegetable heirlooms, with over half of the living, breathing wildlife in 40 years, with climate change, something as many as 98% of geological/climate scientists signed onto being “real” & “man-made,” & it seems like we are not going to live for long on this planet, everybody, without taking environmentalism seriously – more seriously than war, more seriously than economics.

Congressmen who are not for massive overhaul of our environmental protection are against it – & against humanity.

we will not live long on this planet if we kill 93% of our vegetables & fruits, further drink Monsanto’s newest “mystery concoction” that are GMO’s on a widespread basis, kill half of the world’s needed animals in 40 years, & pollute & desertify the place where we are living to the point of changing the climate.

Geezus God.

I do not have all the answers but these are upending problems that we need to get a handle on.

We need to sit back & not plan how to live the next 100 years, but the next 10,000, in a sustainable way. An environmental bender is not a long-term survival strategy. I’m sorry.

That is all. Thank you.
— Joe Valentyn

this was written about one week ago, hopefully I’m not too far behind the curve with this . .

Let’s recap.

Bush II came to power.

We were attacked.

The U.S. gov responded to this isolated act of terrorism by choosing to start the unjust Iraq War.

Thruout this time, Bush was suboptimal in the highest office of a “superpower” nation.

For our unjust war & a suboptimal president, America’s reputation around the world suffered.

Then the economy crashed. A lack of regulation & also government de-regulation created a housing bubble of bad loans/mortgages, as well as more complicated financing. many say stagnating wages & accruing debt in the average person’s finances were meaningful factors, too.

Barack Obama becomes president.

Under the admin’, the U.S. responds to the subprime mortgage crisis by carrying out bail outs of the big money institutions (as well as select industries) who by most accounts were in multiply ways the cause of the problem, thru lobbying/advising de-regulation / subprime lending, & as i say, more complicated financial shystering.

Meanwhile, millions of American people lost their jobs & their homes, & were not anywhere near adequately “bailed out.”

The de-regulation that caused this was so far not pursued with seriousness by those for whom it mattered that they do. the financial secretaries were straight out of the revolving door from the very groups of people who lobbied to de-regulate & caused the crash, & for so-far unexplainable reasons, regulatory capture was the norm for treasury secretaries under Barack Obama.

Republicans holding office denied responsibility for the de-regulation, much distress abounded, & we grew angry at each other: liberals & conservatives, Democrats & Republicans.

( . . . I don’t want to remind us how that already cost us a credit downgrading, in 2011, because of our quarreling.)

This quarreling is what I wanted to talk about. We need to come together as Americans, & work for America. We need to remedy these problematic situations we have created for ourselves, & work for all of our good. We need to work together as One. We need to heal our animosities & get past our bones to pick, with our fellow Americans, & work as a unified America for America.

Let’s do just that.

I personally was greatly inspired by Rand Paul & Corey Booker working together on their (semi-)recent co-authored bill for more humane drug sentences.

I myself have seen the wisdom in Freedom to do what you want — as long as you have good intentions, & things like that — & real instances of “Big Government” — Republican ‘bells’ they’ve been ringing for a long time.

Let’s continue to heal from this adverse event at the Party of Life as a unit, as a collective, as people having a good time who had something unfortunate happen & just have to do our best to insure it does not happen again & move forward.

Thanks for the attention . . .
Joe

Update: April 4th, 2015, about 6pm.

I just wanted to praise the great teachers I have had, I have heard, & all the other teachers who are making a real difference in the lives of the people they teach; I also want to praise the personable, knowledgeable doctors I have had, the ones I have read & listened to, & all the ones providing healthier, longer lives & probably ones with healthier, longer-lived children.

Some politicizing needs to be done here, because it is a renowned fact that teachers-especially are – even while being essential players in the development of civilization – underpaid severely in our country. It makes little to no sense at all to have a system where MLB (Major League Baseball) players make $3,440,000 on average yearly, & the teachers who are 2nd only to parents in importance in a child’s upbringing, make $56,400.^{1 2}.

Are you guys saying playing a game of bat & ball – even for other people – is 60 times more important than giving a kid a life education? Education is very important – again 2nd only to what parents do.

(For that matter we should pay parents to be good parents – I’m sure you could arrange a meritocratic system – something I’ve talked about for many years.)

But why pay teachers 1/60th of sports entertainers, then? – As much as I like baseball, American football, football – properly figuring medical quantities, understanding historical trends in governments are much much more important, not 1/60th as important!

Let’s straighten out this teacher’s wages thing.

I’m not talking about a $1 an hour rise. I’m talking about making it a classe, best-of-the-best profession.

It would make sense to have doctors be the same way: well-paid for a high importance job.

Thank You.

– Joe Valentyn

i have a suggestion to make, a rather gigantic one… one that will require contemplation, & discussion, but one that in the end is right, i feel.

see, we are coming from cells, & as this unfolds we are coming from a more draconian (meaning strict & severe) sense of Justice to a more enlightened, broader circle-of-compassion’d, civilized sense, advocacy for, & exaction of Justice. we simply put punish people less vengefully as time & civilizing occasion us.

“the (criminal) justice system” – both Retributive Justice, meaning punishment & Restorative Justice, which has to do with compensating, focus on how to deal with the illegal.

what is legal, in the eyes of the Justice system, is by & large considered all equal – when you look at how the government treats citizens’ legal doings. to split a rock is equally valuable as volunteering your help to someone in need . . . they are both merely ‘legal,’ in the eyes of the law – both are merely ‘allowed’.

what, then, about formalizing the reward half of Justice? as it stands, if you do wrong you will suffer punishment or find yourself on the losing end of restoration; if you do neutral, it is treated indifferently . . . but what about those doing Good? shouldn’t we reward Good deeds even more than we beat back with a stick crimes against each other?

as i understand it, subsidizing say The Good Will’s enterprise is something done ‘wthout policy’ – by that i mean we have policy & law against crimes, but we have no legislative policy for rewarding, thru financial subsidies as well as other forms of human payment, like public recognition, good deeds.

What I’m Saying Is, Let’s Start Nourishing Our Peoples. Let’s Praise The Children That Are Our Body Politic.

Let’s Make Up For Our Neglect Of The Reward Half Of Justice, & Have A Community Of People Who Feel Good For Doing Good.

Thank You.

=) Joe

2023 September 26th: I have since titled this Positive Justice (the reward half for Justice)!

this is a what-i-felt-was new form of writing that at the very least i have not seen before. i have written a lot more than i have read, probably, so it may well have been sparked times before.

without further ado, a piece titled “Impressionism”:

A Dream.

Naked.

Ecstasy.

The wind roared around a maniac hotel. Snowballs were thrown, & cold air breath was faked to be from a non-existent cigarette.

Snowballs were thrown. Snowmen smiled. Lightning veined the air. The sky was blue. A kid laughed.

Snowballs were thrown.

The belly laughs of beerbellies. Old St. Nick rapped on the windows. Snowballs were thrown. A snowglobe glittered down.

Slushpuppies. The air around a fireplace. The teddybears of understandings of lovers. The shy eyes. People in striped coats. Plagiarism.

The wind roared around the maniac hotel, & the bedsprings shrieked. Her panties hung off the bed.

Ecstasy. Sleds. An old crow.

Rollerskates make marks.

The icicles were like candycanes.

Her shoes were like iceskates.

The car ride was so filled with fumes we got lightheaded. Dizzyspells. Earthquakes. Jupiter. Nam.

Election results. Red, white, & blue. Sparklers. The wind roared around the maniac hotel. Mashes of berries.

Mashes of berries. Creativity his or herself. The seeds.

John Milton. Chris Matthews. Isaac Hayes.

The ghost ship. Ennui reaching out from The Muses. The hand in the puppets. Mannequin with a scarf.

Elvis.

The wind roared around the maniac hotel; snowballs were thrown.

I opened the door. Elvis. Parades of people. The low shelf.

Bookshelf. Elvis. Mashes of berries. Election results.

The wind howled creativity. A spine. Two people, loving inbed. ((The bed springs shriek creativity.))

City skyline. Elvis. Tambourines. The table romance-band.

People in tanktops. Elvis. Mashes of berries. Election results. The sky was blue.

The Sun burned angry. (People in tanktops. Mashes of berries.)

Countless fingers. The hand that controls the steering wheel. Betting wheels. Mashes of berries. Cleopatra.

Countless fingers. The wind roared around the maniac hotel.

Fingers weaved. The crush of ecstasy. Pursuit. Happiness.

Mashes of berries.

Our eyes held in Love.

(The End.)

i said this on my Twitter account a couple days ago… but i wanted to say here, Journalists like Chris Matthews, EJ Dionne… Programmers like Richard Stallman & the free and open source software community, have been shooting stars in our time, for their hard work & navigating  – creating the things we navigate, & the things we use to navigate – much if not all in the spirit of Community. i am thoroughly impressed at this work . . . like the individual honors i have handed out… i award my honor to Journalists & Programmers. Thank You & I Wish Good Things In Your Personal Lives.

Thank You.

=) Joe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yY4bNCx9TY

http://vimeo.com/91993930

as i’ve been saying for awhile, aren’t co-ops & employee-owned business models – where profits from all employees’ labors are distributed back to the employees themselves – or for co-ops, the owners – a etiological, surgical way to stem the on-going income inequality caused by a board of wealthy CEOs ending up with the majority of the profits from all labors?

isn’t that what eating the fruits of your labor is – as opposed to someone taking most or nearly all the profits of all employees’ work?

we could subsidize this more sustainable form of capitalism economically; cultivate it culturally — say it is a more ethical/sustainable choice, because it is; & also blend the two by governmentally advocating it – in PSA’s, speeches, & other forms.

shouldn’t we give co-op/employee-owned business models their place in The Sun – so we can temper the excesses of capitalism?

let’s do that & all the other good ideas we have for income inequality everybody has.

Thanks.
– Joe

have you ever noticed television — a welcome addition to our toolbox — seems to have created a sort of fascination with culture since about the 1950s — meaning video-recorded culture?

everything before video-recordings didn’t really happen – we sort of think — or things that did are just ‘old:’ obsolete; irrelevant.

all that matters is what was captured in motion picture.

well, i am here today to say that 6000 years worth of traditions has the tried & true, time-tested ‘way’ for our lives to be lived, much more than the “new & improved”, “latest & greatest” novelties in our little sliver of history.

tradition just makes sense, when it comes to a new communications medium ((the computer/internet)): weigh the meaningfulness of the cream of the cream from the last 6000 years of written work, with a recent decade’s cultural works — say the 1980’s — there’s little comparison: the cream of the cream coming out of the last 6000 years of cultural works hangs huge in its meaningfulness, juxtaposed with 50 years or so of admittedly fun, american elation & celebration — as fun as it is . . .

now don’t get me wrong – i was just dancing to a ’60s pop hit this morning — & i hope  you’re doing all that too, because it’s fun.

but it’s simply a numbers game. 6000 years of cultural works will have more superstars, more actual bearers of cultural mantles, than 50 or 60 years.

we need to learn from the whole of the past, what traditions we should guide the seeds of this current culture toward — the Information Age’s culture — & use these ideals like navigational stars — especially with the seminal role it is shaping up to play;

we need to build our culture on the tried & true foundations of all-time; timeless, time-tested, proven ideas.

go out there & find some classics. read The Bible, read Plato, sit at the feet of Ralph Waldo Emerson for a spell.

& still get those Hippy Hippy Shakes tho =)

*insert hippy hippy shakes*

– joe

July 2015: The continuation of this is Follow-Up To “Re: Computers”: Cultural Subsidization Helps Our Civilization Grow, Culturally – Let’s.

i am not a medical professional, but i came across a stat that puts me in the eye of a perfect storm for a possibly major national health job.

i was carousing PubMed studies one day, when i came across a study on turmeric that happened to mention that of the approximately 400,000 species of plants on Earth, only 7,000 – or not even 2% – have been studied for use as medicine, food, or textile.

that was astonishing in itself . . .

but then it came to me that we might have created what i would call an artificial market in synthetic medications via the patent system. the pharmaceutical patent system artificially inflates the profitability of production, the demand via advertising (etc), & therefore the use of synthetic chemicals as medicines, which are statistically 7,750 times more dangerous than herbal supplements, & 62,000 times more dangerous than nutritional supplements, according to a study of all the relevant available data in Europe.¹²3

so… one thing i would say is, i would put as an idea to ethical, intelligent entrepreneurs – people like Dr. Joseph Mercola  or maybe (Sir haha) Richard Branson – to what-i-termed ‘genetically experiment’ on these unresearched plants – as an example, give 50 volunteers with one medical condition each a their own unresearched plant, & study them. if one shows hope for safe effective & perhaps accessible medicine, (that is, affordable & available), do controlled experiments on it to make certain it truly is.

creating artificial demand for substances that are thousands of times more dangerous, & at by the same turn of the hand choosing to neglect the cornucopia of safer, effective  medicines, makes no sense.

we also need to investigate fixing this artificial inflation of production/demand of exceedingly dangerous “medications” legislatively.

are patents really the right thing for civilizational growth? or do they more concentrate wealth at the expense, in this case, of our health.

let’s get down to it.

Thanks,
Joe

don’t we want security in our national economy, too? the Depression era lack of regulation upended our economy – regulation secured it.

let’s not throw our fate to the wind, & ‘let the chips fall where they may’ when it comes to supplying everyone’s much-needed resources —

think of what a livable income, respectable shelter, healthy food & drink, safe & respectable transportation, high-quality education, safe & effective medical care, & good work mean to you —

what would you do without the money to pay for a home, or the openings to get employment?

should those be left to completely unmoderated, “free market forces”? — in our own time, millions of people lost their homes & their jobs, due to a handful of powerful corporate lobbyists de-regulating recklessly, eliminating key consumer protections that were like keystones for our economy;

we got greedy, & things gave out.

that’s why i’m saying we should insure economic security in our own time — as real a security as homelessness or not being able to put food on the table — & give up the ghost on “trickle down” economics, & hang back on “free market” economics — ‘let the chips fall where they may’ is a horrible, horrible strategy when it comes to supplying everyone’s much-needed resources – turn us all into beggars for our money, shelter, food & drink, transportation, education, healthcare, & work . . .

& anyway: why are we all living on a budget, anyway, when the top 1% & those securing the almost infinitely secure 1% are directing 95% of the gains to those who need it least?

#TemperCapitalism’sExcesses.

#RegulationOrRecessionTakeYourPick.

#WeNeedEconomicSecurityToo

Thank You For Reading. Truly.

– joe

according to a Center On Budget & Policy Priorities report, the top earning 1% – those already making the disproportionate average income of $346,600  – saw their average incomes go up by $973,100, from 1979 to 2007 —

in stark contrast, sort of “everybody else:” the bottom earning 80% of America, went from the low average income of $37,025 per household, up a paltry $10,150.

once you understand this, it goes beyond question that we must temper the excesses of capitalism; be it put on a pedestal by some or not —

that is because it makes absolutely a dime worth of sense to have a community system in place – a government run economic system – which awards 89/90ths of precious resources to those already walking bowlegged from their overstuffed pockets, while those suffering the myriad effects of poverty – loss of life, reduction in quality of life thru health & education deficiencies — get the richman’s dime in their cup to ease their suffering —

screw this.

screw you fat cats’ greed.

America will not tolerate Greed sucking the lifeblood from the majority of its citizens like vampires;

America will not tolerate the top 1% taking 89/90ths the fruits of all of our labors, & telling us you earned it.

senators & congressmen, presidents: please correct this gross excess of capitalism legislatively, decisively; actually.

those taking the fruits of the working man’s labors for yourselves: you’ll be hearing from me. in fact, you’ll be hearing from the whole lot of us.

i consider this the start of a fairer America, Day 1.

everybody else: spread the word on income inequality, read to your heart’s content; let’s make this gross injustice right.

Thanks For Reading.

– joe

just thought i’d man my little internet outpost to say Happy New Year =)

i wanted to pick a song for ringing in the new year, this year – with this being one of my all time favorite party songs (PLAY IT LOUD haha =)) & also Lou Reed leaving us in just 2013, i duly elect this song to ring in 2015 =)

I hope your New Year’s is a blast & your new year is ecstatic; Happy New Year To One & All =)

joe =)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2duFNff_ArY

Love to You & Your Loved Ones, & Here’s Wishing You A Merry Christmastime & New Year ‘Round =)

=) Joe