OUT IN THE COUNTRY!

One of my all-time favorite songs is "Out In The Country" by singer/songwriter Paul Williams. Released around 1970, it was soon covered by Three Dog Night, who had a huge hit with it.

But I'm an ardent purist and have always preferred Paul's version, just as I do Cole Porter and Johnny Mercer singing their own brilliant musical creations.

So, "out in the country" has always represented, for me, peace, quiet, and nature in all her majestic beauty.

I was born and raised in New York City and it has been a lifelong goal to get the hell out of here before I leave this planet for good. Oscar Brown, Jr. may have liked "city noises" but I most certainly do not. Screaming sirens, motorcycles from hell, obnoxious car-discos-on-wheels, the traffic, the congestion...certainly not my cup of tea. "Oh," I would say, "if I can only hear crickets at night, I'd be the happiest person in the world!"

So, as long as I'm stuck here, I grab every piece of nature I can find. And one of them has been playing with the many birds we have in the area. Fortunately, I'm close to an enormous park and Nature Preserve, providing the area with lots of our feathered friends, and I sometimes hear them at night, before they tuck themselves away into their nests, chirping their little hearts out. I try to mimic their pretty songs by whistling back, and they do answer in turn...back and forth we go until they fly away.

Well, it looks like I've made some friends because this morning, at the crack of dawn, I was awakened by SO many birds tweeting their heads off, I thought they were all gathered on my terrace and every single tree surrounding it below. And I think they were disappointed that I wasn't answering them, because they were absolutely insistent and refused to leave until they got an answer. (At that hour, I could only muster closing the windows...)

I remember my mother briefly living in rural New Hampshire and complaining about the screeching crickets and croaking frogs all night long, but I dismissed it as no big deal. Add early-morning tweeting birds to that nocturnal serenade, and that's not exactly the 'peace and quiet' I've always imagined the country to be.

But, as Paul Williams wisely observed,

"Whenever I need to leave it all behind, or feel the need to get away, I find a quiet place, far from the human race, out in the country..."

I can take the crickets, frogs and birds ~ it's being far from the human race that makes being "out in the country" so appealing.

For your listening pleasure, here is Paul Williams' version of this most beautiful song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMaXa8OisNE

WASPS ARE NOT JUST NASTY INSECTS...

...they are also the "Founding Fathers" (along with their multitude of pasty white descendants) of the decidedly peculiar country known as the United States of America.

What a noble thought, to create a brand-new country with such lofty ideals...while simultaneously committing mass genocide of the land's original inhabitants, owning people kidnapped from other countries (well, somebody had to take care of their mansions and grand plantations) and completely disregarding the rights of women and children! (Note the women in the illustration, barricaded and KEPT IN THEIR PLACE. They appear to be protesting. I'd have thrown a shoe or two myself.)

Wow, what a great start, huh? More like the United States of Hypocrisy, I'd say.

Why, you ask, this particular subject? Well, during a recent doctor visit, I happened to glance at *sniff* Westchester Magazine (for those who are wealthy enough to command their own publication) and a particular article jumped out at me: "Westchester in the Gilded Age" by Nathan Laliberte.

I love to study old black & white photographs of times gone by, but these photos reminded me of a visit to the 'summer home' of Cornelius Vanderbilt, now a museum and perfect example of why old Cornelius and his ilk came to be known as 'Robber Barons.'

From Wikipedia: Cornelius Vanderbilt's great-great-grandfather, Jan Aertson or Aertszoon, was a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht, Netherlands, who emigrated to New York as an indentured servant in 1650. The Dutch van der ("of the") was eventually added to Aertson's village name to create "van der Bilt" ("of De Bilt"), which was eventually condensed to Vanderbilt.  

In other words, WASP. And then it occurred to me that, the earlier your family got here, the better your chances are of being filthy rich...not hard to accomplish when there was no such thing as INCOME TAX, and you owned everything in sight, including corrupt government officials of the time.

Getting back to Cornelius' summer home, it was so opulent and ostentatious, I blurted out "Holy shit, this place could feed the WORLD for 5 years!" We were informed by the (disapproving) tour guide that Cornelius and his family only spent "two months" of the year at this home...with verdant rolling hills overlooking the Hudson River, his own private gardens to wander, what seemed like 500 over-sized rooms, gigantic brocade tapestries adorning the walls, and chandeliers so huge, baseball teams can use them for night games ~ all surrounded by acres and acres of immaculate landscaping.

And it was deemed worthy to inhabit for only two months, after which they repaired to their Manhattan mansions and world travel. Not bad for the descendant of an indentured servant who just happened to arrive here in 1650. Those Dutch, they were a wily and clairvoyant bunch, weren't they?

Well, all I can say is if this country ever burns itself out, locusts shouldn't be part of the wipe-out.  So it was begun, and so it may end...by WASPS!

  

AMERICAN JUSTICE? NOT FOR CLARENCE AARON.

If that picture at left doesn't tear at your heart, you may not be human. Know why it's so achingly honest? Because this is a man by the name of Clarence Aaron who was royally screwed by the 'American justice system' and does NOT deserve to be in jail at all.

The following was written by Dihon Seraaj. It, along with the link to Frontline (below) is all you need to know to make an informed decision yourself.

"It’s been nearly 20 years since Clarence Aaron was put in jail for conspiring to distribute crack cocaine, and unless President Obama steps in, the 19-year veteran of the American prison system is expected to stay there for a while. A long while.

Aaron wasn’t buying, selling or even touching coke when cops busted the then 23-year-old college student in 1993. Instead Aaron was simply a witness of a plotted crack transaction and associate of the buyer and seller, who, unlike him, pled guilty and gave law enforcement their full cooperation. But despite lacking any criminal record at all, however, Aaron was sentenced to serve three life sentences behind bars for his role in a would-be drug deal. Neither President Clinton nor George W. Bush offered a commutation to kill the lengthy sentence during their combined 16 years in office, and new evidence reveals that there may have been a reason for that.

An investigation launched by the website ProPublica reveals that the Bush White House was never informed of the facts of the case accounted for in a confidential Justice Department review, and that only now are America’s leaders being brought up to snuff as far as what needs to be known in the case of Clarence Aaron

Does that mean President Obama will finally free him, though?

Mandatory minimum for convicted drug felons were imposed under former President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs and remain today. Long-term prisoner Seth Ferranti writes for TheFix.com that President Obama “was critical of the mandatory minimum drug penalties, and talked about second chances” while campaigning for office, “Yet he is on track to be the least forgiving President in US history. He has pardoned just 23 people, including one commuted sentence,” writes Ferranti, who was also convicted for his involvement in a separate drug deal. “His current pace puts him firmly among the most conservative American Presidents to use these powers. So much for second chances.”

Although it’s been almost two decades since Aaron was sentence to spend the rest of his life (and two more) behind bars, his story has recently resurfaced thanks to pleas being published by prisoners such as Ferranti and other journalists who have jumped on ProPublica’s recent report. Last month, the Washington Post profiled the inmate and added some insight into how his release might someday become a reality.

When the US Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney last sent the White House Aaron’s application for commutation, the George W. Bush administration refused his plea. Now, reports the Post, it’s been revealed that crucial information was disregarded in the documentation that could have otherwise helped release Aaron. Kenneth Lee, the layer who had worked under the White House when the case was first brought to them, tells the Post that had he been privy to the information available now he would have urged President Bush to pardon the convict.

In particular, Lee says things could have been a lot different if Ronald Rodgers, the current pardon attorney, had actually provided Lee and the rest of the White House with the correct facts of the case. The attorney was supposed to provide President Bush with details about Aaron’s sentence, but as the Post reports:

“Instead, Rodgers offered no new recommendation to the White House and did not revise the old one. He did not pass on years of favorable prisoner reports describing Aaron’s successful rehabilitation. He also made no mention of an affidavit Aaron filed with the pardons office in 2007 in which he expressed further 

remorse and asked “for a second chance to be a productive citizen.”


“Maybe Obama will do an about-face and charge his Pardon Attorney with the responsibility of taking these clemency requests seriously, instead of denying them summarily, as has been reported,” prisoner Seth Ferranti tells The Fix. After all, the facts are now on the table and the final decision could be made at any moment by the current commander-in-chief.

Given Obama’s track record, however, neither Aaron nor Ferranti might want to hold their breath.

President Obama, it is TIME to commute the sentence of this man!


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/cases/aaron.html

IF YOU SHOULD HAPPEN UPON A NARCISSIST...

...RUN!! 

Run as fast and as far as you can, run like Forrest Gump, just keep putting as much distance as possible between yourself and these craziest of all people to inhabit the earth. Move to another continent if you can, that's how serious it is for your peace of mind and general well-being to avoid those afflicted with the brain-and-soul-eating disorder known as 'Narcissism.'

I am not a psychologist nor do I possess any degrees for this particular personality disorder. But I DID grow up with a card-carrying Narcissist, and personally experienced/witnessed the unbelievable devastation they can wreak on a person's life. So that, and decades of dealing with it, should make me 'expert' enough to weigh in on the matter.

The scariest thing about these strange, afflicted people is how "normal" they appear...on the surface. They can charm the fangs out of a snake, be successful, sociable, funny, great friends, great hosts/hostesses, etc. ~ until you accidentally knock against one of the cards holding up their flimsy inner house. Then grab something to protect your skull, DUCK and RUN because they will come after you with a vengeance worthy of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

If there is one thing they cannot deal with, it's their house of cards being threatened because if those cards all come tumbling down, the residents would be exposed to the world...to them, a fate worse than death itself.

Among other things, Narcissists are compulsive liars; they have to be, in order to cover their twisted tales and trails. And they live to manipulate others. Life, to them, is just one big chess board and you are nothing but a pawn, if that. Once they are finished with you (or whatever service you provide) you are cast off like a used Kleenex, never to hear from them again. Until, of course, they require your help, assistance, expertise...that's when the lies really pick up speed and technicolor.

If you are a a decent person with a good heart, but naive as the day you were born, a Narcissist can fool you not once, not twice, but for a lifetime. Unless you finally wake up, see the pattern, confront the painful truth, and lose the naivete (and the Narcissist) STAT. Forget the sentimental bullshit of 'family ties' and/or old friends, dump the rose-colored glasses and R-U-N.

Most important of all, as baseball great Satchel Paige observed:

"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."

And if that "something" is a Narcissist, you can kiss your life (and ass) goodbye.