Spreading to Egypt

At least three people have been killed during a day of rare anti-government protests in Egypt, reports say.
In Cairo, where the biggest rallies were held, state TV said a policeman had died in clashes. Two protesters died in Suez, doctors there said.
Thousands joined the protests after an internet campaign inspired by the uprising in Tunisia.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12272836

I don't think I was ever so dissatisfied with life as when I was looking for the "big happies" - the perfect job, ideal mate, a jewel box of a home, artless proficiency at several interests, an exquisite dress sense & taste - all the surface things. And... being surrounded by the 'right' people, a perfect family. This from someone who stumbles over her own shadow, can't keep clothes clean for 5 minutes & has the fashion sense of a wild boar.

What a hopeless set of expectations I set up for myself. No wonder I spent so much time being anxious & grumbly & miserable. Nothing ever seemed right, never mind close to good enough. I couldn't take any satisfaction or find joy in what I did have. I wasted a good many years like that.

Increasingly, I'm finding far greater happiness in slowing down & appreicating the little joys that surround each & every one of us - daily. It's a marvel how many can happen in a single day & be strung out in time close enough to keep you feeling content, peaceful & smiling internally.

I was up in time to catch the sunrise this morning - it was almost WARM out there - definitely balmier than any other morning this spring. The dawn chorus of bird song - robins, phoebes, cardinals in every big tree & the different chirps of various migratory sparrows. Some of those little puff balls have another 1500 miles to fly before they hit their breeding grounds - it doesn't seem possible they can make it that far.

I didn't get much chance to drink in the fresh morning air & listen to birds. A chitter made me look down to the other end of the back step. Iggy, (Igor), was sitting there impatiently - almost drumming her back foot with impatience. "WHERE'S MY BREAKFAST??? I've got babies to see to!" I hurried back upstairs, got the food & came back down to find her still waiting. Most mornings, she hops just ahead of me to the feeding platform, making sure every few hops that I haven't forgotten the way. She scurries up & waits - she'll almost let me place it in front of her. That's always a pleasant start to the day & if I back off & wait a few minutes, Sergei & the other squirrels show up, as do several birds.

Going back upstairs, I realize SO has been up most of the night - he's worried about me. He did the laundry, everything is hung up & folded. Not a dish is on the counter & he even polished the sink. He did a stunning job in the bathroom - the tiles look like they've been spitshined. Knowing I suck at remembering medications, he set out my morning dose with ice water - right in front of my keyboard.

It's thoughtful little gestures like that warm the cockles of your heart & it's just as rewarding to create them, to do them, as it is to be on the recieving end.

Walking by a freshly cut lawn in May - lawns here are at their best in May & they look stunning when they're cared for & freshly cut. The scent of a row of freshly opening lilacs when the humidity is up. Hearing a squeal of laughter from a small child in the park as he gets a kite up with dad's help.

Coming across a field of cows & new calves & watching calves daringly running 50 feet from mom, then freaking out at the gap & racing back for a comforting suckle. Two fields over, a majestic Black Angus bull in his prime & clearly lord of his domain, casts a disdainful eye at the puny humans cycling by. You can't not be awed by the sight of such a magnificent creature.

Migrating song birds parked for a rest & a snack in trees - dozens, hundreds, with songs I don't recognize & flashes of impossibly bright feathers. A cat stalking slowly down a country road, tail & head high & going at his own slow pace. Indignation that he might be expected to stray an inch off his path. YOU can move around HIM, thank you very much.

An old man lovingly planting the vegetable garden he's been preparing for weeks. His first peppers & tomatoes are tenderly planted into place, bean & other seeds carefully spaced & covered with soil before getting a drink to settle them in. He barely speaks a word of English but always has a big smile & wave when I walk by.

Kids bursting out of school doors on the first warm spring afternoon, glad it's the end of a frustrating day inside while the sun shone so enticingly outside - so much enthusiasm, so much energy.

Finding a clutter of sleeping cats on a sun patch on your bed - sleeping so soundly they look frozen in time. They hear you come in & chirrup as they stretch so hard they toes fan out & they vibrate with it.

Phone calls from the kids & loving the fact that they're having a good weekend - save for one just getting over a wicked hangover - but he had a good time getting to that state.

Early Saturday morning watching a bevy of older females excitedly descending on a small country church to decorate it for an afternoon wedding. Later in the day watching a very young, delieriously happy looking bride carefully getting out of a lovely classic car & preparing to sedately sail in to HER wedding.

Coming across an old hot rod built on a Model A chassis with a ton of original features - marvellous!

These & many, many more are all little things, little happies that add up to a big, sustaining happy.

It's about being open to what's around you, your own little joys & an appreciation for those of other people.

They're like small seed pearls. Over time you can collect enough to make a beautiful & personally designed necklace - each part a unique memory.

Try it!

Had to take care of something at the federal govt. services center today & having arrived around noon, had to wait a while. I was settled into my seat with a dozen or so other people when the front door opened & a couple in their late 50s walked in. The lady looked pale & pretty emotional. The man did as well but the little girl between them who had a death grip on their hands... she looked to be about 8 years old, skinny & sickly looking with the hunted/haunted expression of little eyes that have seen too much.

The greeter smiled & asked if what she could help them with. They had an appointment, the man answered; were here to set up their grand aughter with a social insurance number, child tax credit & a few other things. Their grandchaild - did they have custody? Yes answered the man firmly, holding out an envelop - they'd just come from family court & the little girl was now theirs. Grandmom held her grand daughter close & hugged the child. The greeter helped them to seats - hard to do when grand daughter refused to let go of their hands. We all slid over to clear 3 seats for them.

The grandparents finally coaxed their hands free from the little girl's - she sat head down, body hunched over & drawn into her center, hands clenched tightly on her lap... she was so shook: "Don't notice me!" her posture screamed. But she shook, oh how she shook. Her grand dad put his arm gently around her for a few minutes - no reaction, just more shaking. He got off his seat & bent down in front of her & waited. She finally looked up at him. He pulled a small set of papers out from the envelop & turned them to her.

"It's okay", he said. "You belong to us now, for good, bunny rabbit. You don't have to go back, ever again. That's what the judge said this morning, remember?" He read her the crucial lines that indicated grandma & grampa had Full & irrevokable custody. You could have heard a pin drop in that waiting room. He stopped after reading her those few lines & waited. She said: "Does that mean I'm real now?"

I thought my heart was going to break. One simple question with staggering implications.

"You ARE real, you're always going to be real." A simple anwer but reflecting the fierce love & ferocious protectiveness we could all see these grnadparents felt for that little girl.

They were, shortly after that, ushered into an office to take care of what they had to do. The rest of us sat silent, more than a few gulping & some suspicious sniffs audible. I could make out swimming eyes through my own swimming eyes. It made whatever any of us were there to do seem so very minor; inconsequential.

Today it seems, a little girl was taken from an unspecified, (to us), horrible situation & given over to the safe & loving hands of loving grandparents. Maybe she'll quickly gain the 10 - 15 pounds she desperately needs. I'm sure this weekend, they'll but her clothes that aren't threadbare & far too small, boots with no crack in the heel. The hollows under her eyes will fade & in time, the look of hard desperation in her eyes may fade.

I sure hope so & wish them all luck & joy in each other. Sometimes, CAS gets it right & so do the family courts.

We've been watching events in the US, Europe & throughout much of the world with more than a little apprehension. Unfortunately, we've also collectively, (Joe Public), been a bit smug & self righteous. "Can't/won't happen here!"

It may be about to happen here. Thankfully, we didn't see the same mortgage shenanigans with subprime you folks experienced although there was a small amount of that. But while bank regulators were keeping a close eye on mortgages, they dropped the ball on personal debt of all sorts. Our family is close to the bottom of the income totem pole. BUT - we have available to us, an amount of credit that I KNOW would sink us into bankruptcy within a few months if we used even half of it. Until a few days ago, we were carrying a debt burden we've been struggling with for years. We'd reduced it by almost half but it was still onerous. Thanks to an unexpected legacy, we are now in a position to be completely debt free by summer. Carrying that debt taught us a lot about money management - the hard way. To be honest, maybe we needed to learn the hard way. We'll never forget the struggle & how it prevented us from enjoying so much life has to offer. Worse, there's an unspoken 'interest' on high debt levels... the constant stress knowing you're one emergency away from disaster.

I thought we were part of a small, exceptionally stupid minority, (much of the debt was stupid debt), but it seems that's not the case. Canadians to my horror are saddled with an average debt ratio of 153%:

***Canada’s soaring household debt ‘is going to end in tears’***


http://www.moneyville.ca/article/112...ebt-cliff?bn=1

People are struggling now & this against a background of almost record LOW interest rates. The central bank can't hold rates that low forever & when rates start to rise, no matter how incrementally, people are going to go down. It's bad enough that consumer prices are galloping upwards. Grocery shopping is starting to feel like walking into a store along Rodeo Drive. Gas prices - groan. There are deals out there - good deals as people have put the brakes on shopping but man, you have got to be careful.

Housing is another issue. As this article:

***Rental markets: Canadian mayors warn Ottawa of drastic rental housing shortage***

http://www.thestar.com/business/arti...?bn=1#comments

points out, rental housing in becoming increasingly scarce. It's easy to understand why. There's little incentive to be a landlord or remain one & as a result, we're using more units every year & few new ones are being built. We're lucky. This province benefits from a variety of rent control - increases are controlled in older buildings although for new tenents, the landlord can charge whatever the market will bear. The longer you remain in a unit, the less you end up paying compared to new tenents, year over year. I was stunned to find out my small city, because it has a less than 1% vacancy rate - 0.9%, iirc, has the 3rd highest rental costs in the province. Damned good incentive for us to stay where we are.

With interest rates at near or genuinely historic lows, you'd think potential hoe owners would be leaping into the market. Many would love to but the feeling among housing market pros is that our housig market is currently overvalued to the tune of 10% on average. There are always hot market but overall... And, with people holding record levels of personal debt & a fear that low interest rates won't hold, many are remaining in rental housing.

All the dominoes are in place for trouble here. Our economy contracted in Novemeber - not hugely but just before Christmas? Worrisome.

Buckle up & hold on...

"Iran Revolutionary Guard prepare for war"

"An order from Gen Mohammed Ali Jaafari, the commander of the guards, raised the operational readiness status of the country’s forces, initiating preparations for potential external strikes and covert attacks.

Western intelligence officials said the Islamic Republic had initiated plans to disperse long-range missiles, high explosives, artillery and guards units to key defensive positions. "


It's time. IF this is true, the timing of the "leaked" announcement goes along quite nicely with the missile drill/test fire that Syria held over the weekend.

( Couldn't fit all the possible enemies of Iran into the thread title, so I settled for this one. )

Does our constitution mean anything anymore?



.

This video is just getting publicity. It happened in 2004. His daughter (the victim) is just publishing it now, inspired by a Facebook movement to get the Family Law judge removed from the bench.

Caution, this is a very disturbing video.

The fact that this man presided over other families, and used his (clear lack of) judgment to rule over other children as well as his own, is sickening. We wish them luck in removing this monster from any position of authority. He should be cleaning toilets in a subway, not sitting on the bench in a courthouse.

New sunspot 1302 has already produced two X-flares, an X1.4 on Sept. 22nd and X1.9 on Sept. 24th, quickly followed by a strong M7. All three produced CMEs, none of which were Earth directed, but do involved glancing blows, at least. In a few days any CMEs it produces WILL be earth directed.

1302 is huge, with an active region stretching more than 100,000 km end to end. It has multiple dark cores, each of which is larger than earth. It is growing

According to Spaceweather.com:
"The sunspot's magnetic field is crackling with sub-X-class flares that could grow into a larger eruption as the sunspot continues to turn toward Earth."



Follow spaceweather.com for regular reports on solar activity. They also send out regular email alerts re: interesting important activity.

Ever scratch your head and wonder why ugly abstract art is so popular, while beautiful paintings and the artists who make them are disdained by museums and upper crust galleries? One of the most accomplished representational artists alive today, takes them on. Worth watching just to see the beautiful works of true art...

A 4 part YouTube series by Scott Burdick.

Heavy fighting reported in Tripoli

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/wo...a.html?_r=1&hp

For the first time in months, witnesses in Tripoli reported heavy fighting in multiple neighborhoods in the capital late Saturday night, even as rebel forces claimed to have encircled the city by taking major towns to its east, west and south.

Robin W. Tong summarizes Project Gunrunner and Operation Castaway, which were ordered by President Obama, operated through several government agencies, and funded by the Stimulus Bill. The purpose was to deliver military grade weapons to MS13 and other drug gangs and cartels in Puerto Rico, South America, and Central America, including Mexico, which is now making excursions through the border into the US.

This absolutely needs more publicity and media attention to insure swift and absolute punishment of all responsible.

http://thepatriotcode.com/Articles20...10castaway.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...-years/242810/

I have been predicting this for years now, but I had hoped it would happen in America and bring manufacturing back here. Foxconn, the largest consumer electronics manufacturer in China and makers of Apple products, will be installing one million new robots in its factories in the next three years. Since they are the big boys in manufacturing in China, other companies will follow their lead. This is going to lead to a serious unemployment crisis in China among factory workers.

This is the beginning of another historic economic shift in our global society. IMO, this new automation boom will quickly go worldwide, and unemployment among the working poor is going to skyrocket. This will, of course, also negatively effect demand for basic goods.. The drop in demand for goods due to widespread global unemployment could trigger a planet-wide depression in our already weakened global economy, leading to severe social unrest.

This move away from semiskilled human labor to automation was always inevitable. It is not going to be pretty as workers and the business sector across the globe try to adapt to this new reality