Still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t want to be a richer one
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Just gonna have to be a different one
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time

I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
So the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Don’t tell them to grow up and out of it
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Wheres your shame
You’ve left us up to our necks in it
Time may change me
But you can’t trace time

Strange fascination, fascinating me
Ah changes are taking the pace I’m going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Oh, look out you rock n rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
(turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-changes
Pretty soon now you’re gonna get a little older
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can’t trace time

The quality of the leader determines the quality of the organization.

A leader who lacks intelligence, virtue, and experience
Cannot hope for success.

In any conflict
The circumstances affect the outcome.
Good leaders can succeed in adverse conditions,
Bad leaders can lose in favorable conditions,
Therefore, good leaders constantly strive to perfect themselves,
Lest their shortcomings mar their endeavors.

When all other factors are equal,
It is the character of the leader that determines the outcome.

Deng Ming-Dao, Everyday Tao

___

A good thing to think about when deciding how you want to vote for our next president, and look at the results of the last seven years.

We face a coming time of upheaval and crisis. How we choose our leaders during this time is important, and will set the course of this country for the next century. What direction do we choose to move? Forward, with vision and strength, reaching out to the world to help through the coming difficult years, or inward, closing down, alienating our allies, hardening our enemies with weapons and strong words rather than weakening our enemies by being the shining city on the hill that reaches out to its neighbors, its friends and says, “Come, join us, live with us in peace and harmony. We will fight together with you to weaken the enemies that threaten us, but to all who come to us with peace, we are your friends and will support your efforts. Your religion is not our enemy, your nation is not our enemy, and we will not take your nation from you. We will let you make the choice to live in peace with us, and share our wealth with you. Tell those who fight us that we wish to make peace.”

That’s the America I want to live in. Not one that rewards its wealthiest, but supports its weakest. Not one that hoards the wealth of the world to those privileged few who use our armies to enrich themselves, but the America that shares its greatness and wealth and knowledge with the world.

We built this Internet. We use it to speak with everyone in the world we can reach. We shared it with everyone, without limits, without control.

We are the music-makers
And we are the dreamers of dreams
Wandering by lone sea-breakers
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world forever, it seems.
..
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

– Arthur O’Shaughnessy

Is our American dream dying, moving into fascism and repression, or are we going to reignite that wonderful, real American spirit, not the fake one that the rich and powerful use to try and manipulate and oppress us?

We are the ones who get to decide. Especially you, who are younger than me. My generation is polarized, divided between those who already have but want still more, and those of us who know we have far, far, more than we could ever possibly need, and want only to share our wealth, our knowledge, our experience and our riches with the entire world.

We built you this Internet, children. It is our last, best possible gift to you. Please, use it wisely, tell your friends that they can make this the next, greatest generation of Americans the world has ever seen. We want you to be loved, admired, looked up to and blessed for the rest of the your lives by the entire world. We do not want you to be scorned, sneered at, ruled by a smirking leader who says like “Who cares what you think?”. We want you to pick strong, courageous leaders who can make this country great in the eyes of the world again.

I am only one voice, I am only one small person here sharing my hopes and dreams for the two wonderful people I have helped to bring into this world and raise. I do not want them killed in a senseless war to lead to wealth for a group of rich people who think they own this earth. I want them to live in a free, happy, open, giving and renewed country. I want a society where everyone knows their basic health is assured and their needs met, where those who have are willing to share, and the “have mores” are not the “base” for a president that promises them even more riches, but are the endowers of great foundations again and the saviors of the world from its medical and societal problems.

I want my kids to be able to walk anywhere in this world and be surrounded by friends and strangers who smile and thank them for being Americans, for being the best hope and strength of this entire planet.

That is my small little dream.

What’s yours?

via Think Progress

Right-Wing Apoplectic Over Pixar’s WALL-E: ‘Malthusian Fear Mongering,’ ‘Fascistic Elements’
This weekend, Pixar’s latest film “WALL-E” debuted at No. 1, earning $65 million at the box office. The film has been hailed by critics, scoring a whopping 97 percent “Fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes.

The film portrays a lonely robot’s quest for love, as he is left to clean up a trashed earth. Meanwhile, the over-indulged humans wait it out aboard gigantic spaceships run by a monolithic corporation-turned-government that “resemble spas for the fat and lazy.”

Somehow, this touching love story has outraged the radical right:

Shannen Coffin: From the first moment of the film, my kids were bombarded with leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind. It’s a shame, too, because the robot had promise. The story was just awful, however.

Greg Pollowitz: It was like a 90-minute lecture on the dangers of over consumption, big corporations, and the destruction of the environment. … Much to Disney’s chagrin, I will do my part to avoid future environmental armageddon by boycotting any and all WALL-E merchandise and I hope others join my crusade.

Glenn Beck: I can’t wait to teach my kids how we’ve destroyed the Earth. … Pixar is teaching. I can’t wait. You know if your kid has ever come home and said, “Dad, how come we use so much styrofoam,” oh, this is the movie for you.

Dirty Harry: Have we lost Pixar? Have we lost the wonderful studio who brought us The Incredibles and Ratatouille to Bush Derangement Syndrome? Here you have a winning streak going back ten-years, enormous amounts of public goodwill, equal amounts of credibility as serious storytellers, and they stop things cold, yanking you out of the story with the liberal nonsense. Quite a disappointment.

Jonah Goldberg: I agree with the charges of hypocrisy. I agree that the Malthusian fear mongering was annoying

Goldberg posted a lengthy letter from a reader decrying the film’s “fascistic elements,” which apparently include the movie’s discussion of the environment, a character “getting in touch with her emotional, passionate inner self,” and the use of the color red.

Now we can add a critically-acclaimed and universally-beloved cartoon character to Goldberg’s enormous list of evidence of “liberal facism,” which already includes vegetarianism, love of animals, and Captain Planet.

Via boing boing….

Gummi Lighthouses: When Candy Design Goes Terribly, Hilariously Wrong

We’re comin’ down to the ground….

Jesse Kornbluth: WALL-E: Why Pixar is More Valuable Than General Motors - Entertainment on The Huffington Post

I have seen — time after time — how marketing departments and senior executives can’t stop themselves from “improving” programming. They smooth the edges, make the message general, find the inoffensive middle. In the process, they remove surprise and originality.

And not just in Hollywood.

So it strikes me as no accident that the best commercial I’ve seen this year is will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” video for Barack Obama, which was made on no budget by a passionate amateur. Or that the best film is WALL-E, created by a cadre of fiercely independent filmmakers at a studio that values independence.

And I don’t think it’s coincidental that Disney paid $7.4 billion for Pixar in 2006 and that the stock-market value of General Motors is now about $6.5 billion. Pixar challenges and delights, and those ingredients, plus a bit of luck, are the recipe for creating value. General Motors plays it safe and bets on old formulas — and erodes its value. Perhaps a pundit might like to chew on that.

At the end of WALL-E, I didn’t want to leave. The Peter Gabriel song was part of it, and maybe the tears of joy streaming down my cheeks had something to do with me staying in my seat. And then there’s the fact that the creativity didn’t end when the credits began— there was a lot to watch after the movie was over.

Because I stayed, I saw something many may have missed — the film’s dedication to Justin Wright (1981-2007).

I googled Wright as soon I got home. I learned that he was born with a badly defective heart, and, at 12, got a transplant. His doctor saw he loved to draw and took him to visit Pixar. And there, he saw his destiny. After college, he got in as an intern. Later, he scored his dream job: storyboard artist. “People might get mad at me if they knew how good we have it here,” he wrote on his blog. Sadly, not for long: In March, he had a heart attack and died.

I thought it was sweet of Stanton and Pixar chief John Lasseter to dedicate the film to Justin Wright. Then I saw it another way — that this 27-year-old kid was much like WALL-E. Resourceful. Imaginative. Courageous. And totally fulfilled when he could express himself.

Lot of kids like that out there. Lot of grown-ups like that too. In a dark time, Pixar has given all of them a shaft of light.

McCain takes us to depression, Obama might keep us going and get us moving again. That’s the choice, people. This time, it truly IS the economy, stupid….

Bloomberg.com:
Worldwide

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called for a second round of stimulus checks to spur consumer spending and give the Federal Reserve more leeway to fight inflation amid skyrocketing oil prices.

“The Fed is in a tough situation because it wants to control the inflation being caused by energy while at the same time trying to restore the economy,” Obama said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today in Pittsburgh.

Obama, who is wrapping up a three-week campaign tour focused on economic issues, said consumers are in need of financial relief. He is proposing another set of tax rebates from the government and a permanent tax cut for most middle-income Americans. His comments come a day after the Fed left its benchmark interest rate at 2 percent while sounding an alarm about the risk of inflation picking up.

The Fed’s Open Market Committee stopped short of specifying that inflation was a greater concern than growth. It reiterated language from its April meeting that the Fed will “act as needed” to promote both economic expansion and stable prices.

“If Congress and the presidency are implementing smart plans, that will take some pressure off the Fed so they can focus on fighting inflation and they aren’t carrying the entire burden in terms of stimulating the economy,” said Obama, who declined to comment directly on the Fed’s decision.

Higher Costs

Obama said the U.S. will continue dealing with “short-term pain” from an economic slowdown. “We have to give people some sense that they could absorb the rising costs in gas, food and medical care,” he said.

The economy is the issue most cited by voters as their top concern before the November election. A Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll found that by 49 percent to 28 percent, registered voters say they favor Obama over presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, 71, when it comes to handling the economy.

Earlier today, the Illinois senator, 46, held a summit with research and business leaders including General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Office Richard Wagoner and U.S. Steel Corp. CEO John Surma. He told the panel that he will be an advocate for a permanent research and development tax credit, lower energy and health-care costs, more educational opportunities and investments in infrastructure.

`Building Blocks’

An overhaul of energy policy, the health system and schools will be “the building blocks” of long-term U.S. competitiveness, Obama said in the interview.

Along with business leaders, Obama has been wooing labor groups and working-class voters. Today he won the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s biggest labor organization. In a statement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Obama is “a champion for working families.”

I give up.

TIME GOES BY | Quarterstaff Revolution

Imagine a scene: an older woman using a bent-top walking cane crosses a building lobby, trying to reach the elevator before the doors roll closed. Now imagine the same scene with the older woman striding across the lobby with the aid of a seven-foot, oak quarterstaff. People hold the door open not because of chivalry, not out of a desire to help little old ladies, but rather because she just looks so damned cool.

Elders are obligated to give younger people clues about how deep and mysterious elderhood can be.

Stubbed my little toe this morning, at least sprained and maybe a hairline fracture. So not much going on today except lots of Intertubing.

Sigh.

107.2 °F / 41.8 °C
Clear

Record temps today for sure. Our backyard thermometer reads 110 right now…..

Stay cool, kids…..

My kids are gaming here with friends today. They have water in the fridge, fans, air set at 80, and will set up coolers with ice for their drinks. Hubby and I are off to the Fair, which will still be hot, but at least by the coast. Geez, what a day!