Displaying 4,291 To 4,320 Of 5,146 Comments You know, Sarah is actually very pretty. Too bad she’s so ignorant. Shoulda stayed a beauty queen. It was the right fit. You know when beauty pageant contestants have to say what their dreams are and the joke is always “I want to be a neurosurgeon – or a model” ? Sarah really should have taken Door Two. » Posted By choicelady On May 24, 2010 @ 7:47 pm Thank you dear heart, and BT, too. It is insane that protecting religious freedom is a BAD thing to do! I always felt the worst thing about being a woman of my age was never, unless you were a nurse, understanding what men suffered in war. Now of course women do, too, but I’m too old. And not inclined anyway. So this IS the least I can do – the very least – protecting people’s right to pray as they choose or not pray at all. Non belief is as cherished by me and my organization as belief – all people are equal before the law, in our society, in decency and goodness. NO exceptions! Thanks for the good thoughts. That, I believe, is what creates energy in the world. Good thoughts. Since I wrote the first rant in response to you, dildenusa, more threats have come, but just saying it here and getting your and BT’s kindness REALLY makes me calm. Thank you both. » Posted By choicelady On May 24, 2010 @ 7:44 pm I need to thank you for reminding us that violence is everywhere. I ought to know. Since becoming public for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, I was tracked to my home (buried under layers of security – no records) and last week was sitting on my front porch, in the dark, when suddenly a round beam of light, about the size of a quarter, shined on my breastbone. I ran inside, reported it the next day to an FBI contact, and hoped it was just a trick of light. But the next night, about the same time, while looking to see if it had been something explicable, I saw instead two – not one but TWO – laser lights pointed at me from a tree half a block away. That totally panicked me – that is what you sight with on high-powered rifles. The FBI is taking it seriously. A couple of weeks earlier, I came home to find the power had been out, the first time for the whole house (clocks blinking) but the second time – HALF the house. That was possible from ONLY cutting power at the circuit breaker. Someone apparently figured they could get my alarm system off, but it has a back up power pack. I went through this years ago – these people mean business. If only to scare you, they are willing to do almost anything to get you to back down. It has not achieved that, but it HAS entirely altered the way I live – cooked dinner in the dark last night because there are no curtains in the kitchen, and I’ve not recovered from knowing my friend and ally, Dr. Bart Slepian, was shot through his kitchen window in 1998. I’ve HAD it. Enough! I don’t interfere with the Dominionists at all save to stop them from imposing their presence on secular, especially government, organizations. They can believe in the Rapture and End Times – but they cannot, even though they think we ‘bad people’ stand in the way of Jesus’ return, impose their presence and ideas on the rest of us. I want you to be right, Dildenusa. I think you are. But some of us are going to fall before these people are taken from power. I am not getting overt threats, but I AM the target of threats sent to my ally at MRFF, and I cannot discount them. I’ve lived in fear for decades, and I’m sick of it. I’ve had FIVE friends and allies assassinated by RW extremists, and this is MORE than enough! Somehow, somewhere, we have GOT to get politicians, religious leaders, lay people, ordinary citizens to understand – you may NOT murder people just because you don’t like them or what they believe. When did that get to be OK? Well, friends, I am NOT going gentle into that good night! And none of us should. It’s perversion of everything this nation stands for. NO religion was intended to stomp on the rest with jackboots, and damned if I will let it happen without resistance! NO group or race or ethnicity was intended to be corralled, rounded up, beaten, enslaved at least since we woke up to our nation’s horrible past. So I am taking due care, and I will survive this, but I HAVE HAD IT with these people! If the American public is too stupid to live and vote the RW BACK into power, we all may have to leave our beloved nation because it no longer will be what we cherish. It will be just one more tyrannical, imperialist banana republic country led by thugs, and that will be the death of democracy. I hear Vancouver is very nice. I hope I don’t have to find out if that’s true. » Posted By choicelady On May 24, 2010 @ 4:49 pm The Power of Intermittent Fanning I got a new badge!!!! I have no idea why or what it means, but I can claim it if I want it! My day is MADE!!!! Snark. » Posted By choicelady On May 25, 2010 @ 11:19 am Kes, Q, and KQ (is this a cabal? Cute!) I have to come back up to reply. I DID know about Millie and loved the idea she WAS ND. It made the whole experience of reading those books even more meaningful. I know my feminist inclinations started with Nancy as an independent girl/woman. I don’t think you’re too artsy fartsy – anyone who can use natural items to create interpreted beauty is just fine. I have no such talents, so I respect those who do. KQ – I know you’re not into this stuff, but I bet you REALLY don’t pass judgment either! You’re very kind. Thanks Kes – I’ll be over soon to see the leaf book. » Posted By choicelady On May 24, 2010 @ 7:59 am Oh Q and kes – how funny we all had such similar experiences! Kes – I had totally forgotten the carbon paper thing, though that was for biology class, not Girl Scouts. For the GS merit badge, we put tracing paper OVER the leaf and went back and forth with pencils. Then we named them and yes, kept them in a book. When I was a freshman in college, my mother called one day to say she had given away my piano, all my books (complete set of pristene Nancy Drew included), and yes – MY LEAF BOOK. That she threw away. All because “you don’t need these anymore.” I’m in therapy for this. Especially the leaf book. I am so in awe you have yours! Can I come over and look at it sometime? Fanned, faved, badged to both of you! » Posted By choicelady On May 23, 2010 @ 9:20 am Oh Rarest – you are right! (As in correct, of course.) A Skinner Box for grown ups – or approximations thereof. My problem with HP is that outside of KQuark, I never actually knew who I had fanned or who were mine. After the first four or five, they stopped being people unfortunately. Sure I like the numbers, because I take it as a testament to the fact I’d said something people found useful. Period. I think I never went back to look at a single reply because scrolling through the pages just was not worth it. I don’t understand the badges – I don’t have mine plastered to the post even though some pop up cheery huzzah once occurred telling me I had reached some milestone in something that I also did not understand. Was I supposed to claim it? It never got attached, then or now. I think I’m not a good HuffPostian – I don’t think I know how to play the game. Back to my tree leaf merit badge – that I understood. These things? Not. » Posted By choicelady On May 23, 2010 @ 9:12 am When I first joined during the presidential jousting, I loved it and hardly could wait to read what people said. It was fun and fascinating then. After the election it went to hell, with the paid trolls I gather, but also with the immediately disaffected left (of which I thought I was a part.) The first person I fanned was KQ – such intelligent commentary! He later disappeared, and I thought he’d UNfanned himself from my list over something or other. I still don’t know how that works, but when I saw him refer to the Planet, I came on board here. I am another who finds a lot about HP creepy and weird, and I also don’t go much to the religion page. I collect fans (but never look to see who they are) but really don’t care. Honest dialogue and commentary just are too often missing. Yawn. I’m happy on the Planet. So be it. » Posted By choicelady On May 22, 2010 @ 10:14 am LOL!!! » Posted By choicelady On May 22, 2010 @ 10:08 am THREE badges, Kes? You are GOOD. I have only one but never claimed it, and it was never added. A point I find in my favor. Either that or I pissed someone off and they took it away. Since you never claimed yours but have them, how DOES this work? I’m still without my putative badge, and that’s fine, but I’m puzzled by it all. I was very proud of my leaf identification badge in Girl Scouts. Think I did another but forget what. Since then badges, gold stars, and other honorifics have meant very little. I know the tree leaf badge was honorable since about 30 years later I instantly identified the Horse Chestnut without a twinge of doubt. Can’t do better than having your childhood knowledge stand you in good stead. Being able to ID trees – $0. It’s all in what you value. » Posted By choicelady On May 22, 2010 @ 10:06 am Patsy – isn’t that picking on the frail? The people who write “opinions” on the Sacbee electronic mail are really too stupid to live, and it seems very unsporting to overwhelm them with reality, facts, and insights. We are picking on the 98-pound weaklings of the old Charles Atlas ads. You could mop the floor with ’em, and I have no doubt you’re leaving ’em in the dust, but you are SO outclassing them. Just doesn’t seem fair. There really has to be a medium for the sheer stupid among us. Oh wait – it’s here. They have it. It’s FOX. Never mind, Patsy. Carry on. » Posted By choicelady On May 21, 2010 @ 11:34 pm Masters of Illusion and Intolerance Hi Kes – then I will re-read it since I took it as a bit of snobbery, not experience. See? Even the C.Lady learns from the Planeteers! Thank you! » Posted By choicelady On May 20, 2010 @ 8:43 pm Kes and BT – I agree that the part about no starry nights has always irked me. Good enough for the shepherds who hailed your birth, good enough for you, JC. The reason I take nothing from the Bible literally is that in “Misquoting Jesus” biblical scholar Bart Ehrman notes that over the ages mis-transcriptions and deliberate alterations have produced 400,000 versions – not copies but versions – of The Word. Well, who can take it literally then? But knowing something of history (though this era is not my area of specialty) and tradition, I think I’m learning the “feel” of what Christian belief is meant to do for us. And I truly believe that Jesus would have like a good party, and not just the somber Last Supper. I do have to wonder how much of that joy was deliberately cut out of any manuscripts because we are so shocked by a “laughing Jesus” even now. While I’m fairly sure that “party down,dude” was not quite the flavor, enjoyment and savoring of what the world offers – the paradise on earth – and the people around him is where he was headed. He was a callow youth, and it’s the growth that fascinates me. That is attainable by us mere mortals. Wow. BT – I’m so glad you had that topic! » Posted By choicelady On May 19, 2010 @ 7:31 am Hey BT – ( admit I’ve never thought of this before. So I looked up the traditions of hospitality, and here is why Jesus would NEVER ask one of the poor or someone with leprosy to house him and his disciples. Early issues of hospitality are pretty clearly laid out in the Bible and what we know is scholarship. If someone, even a stranger, comes to your home, you MUST take them in and feed them, give them a place to sleep, and otherwise tend to their needs. The person receiving the hospitality did not pay for it – it was given, open handedly, by the host. Those with leprosy had no homes – they were cast out (not having a clue about germs and certainly not antibiotics, they were very feared.) The poor, who may indeed have had a hovel, would have been rendered nearly destitute by such hospitality, for even one man, one night. Jesus would always have sought the right of hospitality bequest from someone who could support it. He’d never have put that burden on those in need. Since it would not do to have your guest, bidden or unbidden, share the least of what you, the host, had but would be given the most, the request was asked carefully. Jesus fully understood that, and bypassed those for whom hospitality was a hardship. I know that in the days of the ‘moral economy’ principles of Europe and the colonies, the same strictures applied. Of course if someone was injured, the person was obligated to take in the ill, the infirm, as they were REQUIRED TO DO FOR THE NEEDY. But those in NEED themselves, were not the first level of request for a night’s loding and meals. It would have been cruel. Does that help? I base this on both scripture AND history, so I believe I’m giving you “righteous information”. In the non religious sense, of course! » Posted By choicelady On May 18, 2010 @ 4:19 pm I agree it’s likely he was a person of some financial stability, but he did hang with those who were the most poor and, more important, advocated for them. He consistently broke the existing laws – he healed on the Sabbath, spoke with the Samaritan woman, and the Sermon on the Mount was with those who had nothing to eat. His advocacy was far superior to his class origins which were not rich but what we’d think of as middle class. It’s his refusal to be comfortable, to take without giving, that makes him so different from those of his time. » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 8:24 pm Christianity has a wide variety of proponents, IMHO, most with very historical lineage. Certainly Roman Catholics, then Protestants of many stripes, then Eastern Orthodox and Copts and Marinites, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists – Christians in many and wonderful varieties. Only in the last 100-200 years come the most recent versions: the fundies. But it is these newest ultra conservatives who declare that while there are Catholics and Protestants, THEY are the only ones who are Christian!!!!! Since when????? Evangelical Christianity began only about 1830 with the Great Awakening. If they and the Pentacostals (c.1901) are the ONLY Christians – how did humanity go for over 1800 years without one single Christian on the face of the earth? Who carried the torch if there were NO Christians until this very recent lumpy lot? When I get a civilized, intelligent answer, I will let you know. Don’t be holding your breath. » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 8:11 pm Hey javaz – I don’t know a lot about him, but at one point he actually had the strength to say that there were many routes to God. OMG! What OUTRAGE was directed at him! He did not precisely recant, but he has scaled that back. He is vilified on several web sites for his “heresy”. I think he’s pretty conservative, but he is like Jim Wallis and David Gushey who work for human rights and to end torture, poverty, and other evils in the world – and get excoriated by the Uber right for doing so. An effort to reform the tax laws of Alabama to be moral and fair (it’s all on the poor now!) was opposed by the Christian Coalition even though it had huge support from the evangelical community in AL. So the moral of the story is that when you work for a better world, you’re in league with the divvil. If you point fingers at people and show you’re vastly superior to them, you are on your way to Heaven. Osteen and Wallis and Gushey however, are changing the face of conservative Christianity, and they are growing by leaps and bounds, especially among the youth, so in another decade or so, they MAY be in the lead. One freaking lives in hope. » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 5:11 pm javaz – it’s not at all off topic. It’s a focus on the wide variety of humanity. It’s your life that is testimony to how hard it is to pigeonhole people. The End Times believers are quite recent. Only question I ever ask them is – what if you’re wrong? What if human error has led to the imposition of a date, a vision, that is just wrong? Prophecy has so often failed, and to cling to it as if it were the sole truth is a very fragile place to be since, if it fails, where are you? Adolph Hitler (family name Schicklegruber) accepted his father’s fall back on a remote relative’s name, “Hitler” because it “fulfilled” Nostradamus’s prophecy that a man named “Hissler” would lead Germany to the 1000-year Reich. Instead we had 13 horrific years of war, death, destruction, and no Reich, no triumph, no dominance of the Teutonic culture. My word of advice – if you believe in prophecy, trust it and DON’T MIX IN! (NB – I do NOT believe in prophecy, so this is advice to True Believers, not to y’all.) If you don’t think it’s coming true, don’t meddle – you’ll screw it up. If you believe God wants us to end all the world in 2020 or whatever, WAIT. Don’t try to force it. God does not appreciate it. Now – the reason this advice to the True Believer is so important is that every time a TB decides to give their prophetic vision a little nudge, they do GREAT HARM. If you believe in God, have a lot of faith. For the rest of us – avoid TBs because there is no reasoning with them. In 1956 Leon Festinger wrote a book, “When Prophecy Fails” about UFO cults. Turns out that the more it failed, the STRONGER the belief became. Go figure. So don’t try to talk sense to them – they NEED this prophecy for some reason. The Rapture is now officially 13 years overdue according to the “approved” timeline. Does that slow ’em down? Nope. They can’t actually move the date – it has Biblical links – but they can blame all of us for keeping it from happening. So removing us – sinners all – becomes essential. Therefore, stay OUT of their way. But don’t try to talk sense. It ain’t gonna happen. » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 5:04 pm If you really want to puke, Google “Jesus with Guns”. Mind blowing and utterly disgusting. And Sarah’s kind of guy. » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 2:14 pm Hi BT – Christ grows and matures over time, a point hugely overlooked by those who do pick and choose. It’s precisely the imperfection of his youth coupled with the amazing transformation that makes this work for me. And “fulfilling the law” is carefully delineated since he tells the Pharisees that obeying the picky stuff but NOT changing where your heart and head are, leads to a kind of fundamentalism that is no different from the fundies of today. Legalisms (selectively picked at that) do not lead one to grace. Only to pomposity and self pride. Does that sound familiar? He made clear that one cannot decide to stone people, and his utter silence on sexual issues makes pretty clear that “love they neighbor” and all that other open heartedness is supposed to transcend the icky parts of God’s law. He was also pretty clear about riches being a drag on your humanity. Wish he’d been a little less opaque about some of that. Think what a better world we’d have. Or, conversely, how many fewer Christians. People DO love to hate, don’t they? » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 2:13 pm Yes, KQ – if someone could prove beyond doubt that there is no god, I’d not be shattered or change anything. The absence of fear of God-with-white-beard sitting in eternal judgment of every move we make is very liberating! It gives the freedom to BE GOOD and DO GOOD for its sake alone. How awful to think you are a moral person BECAUSE YOU’RE BEING WATCHED. That is not morality. That’s tyranny. And that is not faith. It’s merely fear. If God did exist as Sarah sees him, he is a God of such pettiness that it does not bear belief. If we can imagine (and Lennon got this right) a world of no hate and war and hurt and violence, then surely God has to be either bigger than we mere mortals can perceive, or it’s entirely up to us to do the imagining. It really ought to make no difference in the outcome. Good is good whether someone or something is watching or not. I am a Christian because it’s my cultural heritage with which I am familiar. I have a friend who converted to Islam, and she is more comfortable there, but I would not be however much I love the Muslims whom I know. I find Christian teachings inspiring, but they are not impossible standards many religious people would impose. Christianity is the only religion that holds up role models whom we CANNOT emulate – no woman will ever give virgin birth, no human will ever have a life without blemish. Who can aspire to that? And be healthy? And why would you follow any of the saints who were penitents and abusers of the flesh? Ick! If God demands self abuse, that’s a nasty standard I reject. Living a moral life of kindness towards others and in pursuit of truth and seeking justice for all – with or without God – is a beautiful life, well lived. » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 12:08 pm Oh, Marion – thank you! Thank you for your kindness and devotion to honoring diversity! I work for a very progressive faith organization, despite or maybe because of my own very shaky sense of “what is” – definitely an agnostic on most issues. I am supported in that lack of clarity and dogma BY my organization that represents 21 mainstream, progressive Protestant denominations. The quest for truth is all encompassing. The ownership of truth is utterly repudiated. NO one can “know” without question what truth is, if there is a God, and even if there is, how God is made manifest. We are people who follow the teachings trying to bring about “paradise on earth” not waiting for that sweet bye and bye. Because, among other things, there may not be one. But for all that we are pro choice, pro GLBTQ equality, anti=war, anti-poverty, for building a sustainable economy – we are looked at with horror by people who are atheist or even agnostic. Why? Because we MIGHT believe in something supernatural. And then want to covert the others to that belief. Which we decidedly do not. I detest Maher and his slimy dismissal. I once got into a back and forth with Sam Harris who asserted that no one who was religious believed in science. Absurd! Of course they do! He claimed he did not have “enough time” to prove his point, but I continued to press on (blogging on TruthDigg) with others who assumed, without evidence, that I believed in creationism, end times, was a bigot against (fill in the blank) until I simply wore them down. Polls prove nothing since all but Pew cast “religious” and “unreligious” people by one narrow focus – do you go to church weekly. If not – pop, you go into the “unreligious” category and from that all wise decisions are attributed to the unreligious. I work for a large faith organization. I do NOT go to church or belong to one. I believe in equality, science, and rationality, as I also am deeply moved by Christ’s teachings and wisdom, right along with Native America, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and many other teachings. I also LOVE Bertrand Russell, an atheist. So that makes me an “unreligious” person who is rational. So I have started lying on polls and saying I go to church every week but am also rational just to confound expectations of polls. Faint rebellion but mine own. Most of my allies – once they stop fearing me – are non-religious in ANY sense of the word, but they finally “get” who I am, who we are. We are the majority – those who are questing for the truth, are Christians by heritage and understanding, but who are not devoted to rules, dogma, narrow thinking. We ARE the majority! I am so tired of the hate from the Left as well as the Right. You are so correct to note how nasty and dogmatic that has become! We are one of the most present forces for good in the world, and we have no “home” even though we were the people who fought slavery, stood with labor, ended children’s abuses, moved on to the suffrage movement and later abortion rights, and of course were in the forefront of the Civil Rights and anti-war work. We weren’t scary then – where would this nation BE without William Sloane Coffin’s amazing moral leadership against the war? – but after 30 years of religious right, people who damned well ought to know better think everyone who wonders about God or embraces Christianity (or anything else) are just all the same. Hate even against Sarah’s version of Christianity just makes us miss one another has human beings. I’m not at all comfortable with evangelicals for the most part, but WOW – some of them ROCK! We won’t agree on a lot of things, often vehemently, but when we DO agree, as with Jim Wallis and his war on poverty – we should definitely do that! We on the Planet are all so very different in this and many other aspects of life, but so what? We share a common respect for humanity and individual value, and for a better world, a more just and sustainable way of life, that it’s clear our MORAL values are identical. We come from different places in many ways. We are all headed with gusto and good will TO the same place. That’s the bond that matters. As a person of faith – and I am, just not of religion – I suspect your view of the universe is correct. I also know there is something bigger than any one person, and it may just be the collective knowledge and energy of humans, but – is that not a “supreme being” in its way? What all people who hate other people reduce everything to, whether it’s Sarah or Bill, is that there is only one thing that matters – themselves. Even declaring an utterly secular world, one still has to stand back and make way for the common good. And that is something the narcissistic salvation pursuers on the Right cannot tolerate, and it is equally what the narcissitic self-aggrandizers cannot tolerate. You are quite right that it comes out the same – browbeating and absolutism. Bill would have been more honest if he’d declined the Bright Shiny Thing in the award and stayed true to his quest – no one knows. But he’s now a fundamentalist, too. And the world is more sad because of it. Thank you again for the amazing beauty of your insights. I needed to read this today. You have uplifted me in many ways! » Posted By choicelady On May 17, 2010 @ 11:16 am Rude, Crude, and Dangerous To Know Kinda like the hair and nylons. I’m thinking of asking if they want the pounds of cat hair my two cats are shedding. I happen to know it does work – they used to use Chinese women’s hair as a filter for linseed oil (don’t ask how I know this – it’s a very long and very tedious story.) I suspect, though, that the volume of spill will outstrip the amount of hair and pantyhose that can be put to work. But if the solution lies in the “crimp” of the pipe, the government has GOT to mandate that and fast. The rest is ridiculous and will cost the environment and everyone depending on the coastal economy too much to wait. I’m outraged that no one has demanded this! » Posted By choicelady On May 16, 2010 @ 11:10 am NTL – this was VERY helpful as are the comments about the priorities that BP has. It also answered my biggest question – why not use duct tape? Works for everything else. But now I see the difficulties. Too bad. » Posted By choicelady On May 15, 2010 @ 4:37 pm Oh, my, AdLib – yes. I am lucky to have a membership who largely gets it, and it spoils me. But I fear overall you are correct, and it’s fearful to think we could put the bad drivers back on the road to drive us this time over the cliff. How is it that this nation will endure season after season of Republican theft of democracy and economy, but we can’t tolerate 18 months of Dem progress at the clean up? People used to laugh at the line in “Postcards from the Edge” – “Instant gratification takes too long!” but that IS the American psyche! Time will tell, but if voters elect teabaggers and mainstream Reeps who are not any better than baggers, then the nation will dissolve as a functioning unit, and we will be WORSE off than in 2008. If we don’t have Elizabeth Warren and all the progressives who are looking to break up the banks and financial institutions, then we might as well pack it in. It will be Greed Unlimited. Period. I am wearing out. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years – even as a kid – and I’m sick of Americans. This is the nation I want to live in, but it keeps moving away from its own best purposes. Wanting more and more services for less and less tax contributions is all anyone thinks about – unless it’s keepin’ yer gun. Bah. I fear you are entirely correct, and I hate it that you are. And I’m running out of energy to do anything about it. Lemmings will head over the cliff no matter how much you tell them the consequences. I’m tired of putting up the warning signs and having the little rodents run past my feet. » Posted By choicelady On May 15, 2010 @ 1:00 pm Capitalism: A Good Kid Gone Bad The loans allow a variety of ownership opportunities. It is far better, IMHO, to have low=cost loans than to give over ownership to absentee investors. We in the US of A have succumbed to a kind of “borrow and pay later” for NON productive goods, and that suckered us into borrowing for a phantom inflation of value in home loans. Tomorrow is another day, said Scarlett – and tomorrow prooved to be an illusion. These loans are highly monitored for the development of wealth, not the consumption of riches which, IMHO also, is a kind of cannibalism of self. I am OK with them because they are grounded in the community well being, not just throwing money at someone without a business plan or any kind of ability. They produce wealth, not just personal riches, tend to lead to small but steady growth, and the default rate is minscule. Far better to owe a finite amount than to give over control of your life dream to…??? who could not care less about your dream, you, anything but their gain. » Posted By choicelady On May 14, 2010 @ 7:39 pm Hi all – Something happened today that may – MAY – be amazing. I have worked with the Center for Responsible Lending that fights foreclosures, payday loans, and other aspects of rip off of ordinary people. In catching up with an ally I’d not talked to in about 2 years, I started mentioning some financial alternatives that interest me – and discovered it WOWed him! The Center is powerful, has led a lot of financial reform at state and federal levels, so linking them with some lesser known alternative credit practices was exciting. Over the past four or so years, I’ve worked closely with the Muslim community, and learned that in CA the Bank of Whittier has programs that are Sharia compliant, meaning they conform with Islamic religious laws, that forbid the charging of interest, or “riba”. They have developed “rent to own” mortgage programs that do not charge interest. Oh yeah – “rent to own” in the US conjurs up fat sweaty slimeballs in mismatched plaid jackets and pants, white shoes, and chomping on a stogie. But at Whitter, that is NOT the case. Another system is LARIBA, a nationwide finance operation offering similar benefits and open to everyone. Then there is Oikocredit started decades ago by the World Council of Churches, that lets you invest your money that is then lent to developing nations and projects in the US at low interest to those that would otherwise be shut out of lending. Business capital is its main feature. First Dr. Jetti Oliver, former head of Oikocredit in India called me, and I led this Hindu to the Muslim banking world. And he’s delighted to go! Then the head of Oikocredit San Francisco called FIVE MINUTES LATER, and I did the same and will continue the conversation with her anbd their New York office in two weeks. Many of you have probably heard of the Grameen Bank, started in Bangladesh by Muhammed Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize some years ago. Again – loans to small microenterprise, sometimes at rates higher than we’d like but within the cultural norms of their society, and it has a default rate of less than 10% but has created millions and millions of self sufficient small – tiny – businesses. The loans are given primarily to women (sorry menfolk – women tend to be better at this) who do everything from raising chickens to producing small goods. In the US the microenterprise work in CA is found best handled by the Women’s Initiative. I put the Oikocredit folks in San Francisco in touch with the Women’s Initiative also in the Bay ARea. They did NOT know each other. I have a friend who sneers at some of this – “You can’t work your way out of poverty weaving baskets” but of course not everyone does that. The microenterprises are small but highly diverse, often complex, and have grown to the point where they are hiring staff and ususally above minimum wage. Now almost none of these organizatins – Center for Responsible Lending, Oikocredit, Whittier and LARIBA, and Women’s Initiative – knew one another! For various reasons known only to Whoever, they all talked to me this week, and I talked to each of them about the others. And now, this afternoon, the Center is taking the lead on bringing these groups together to examine how they can building an alternative financial system that works for people. They will add past experiences about using pension funds as development capital for inner city projects (highly successful in Boston); community banking and its strengths for local control, and some novel approaches they are using to reach out to people; credit unions that they already know but that don’t know them. Wow. Mark this date – May 13, 2010 because this week something “happened”, and there is electricity in the air as people well positioned to DO SOMETHING NEW saw new possibilities and new ideas. Over the past three days, they found new allies around building a sustainable, self sufficient financial base from which to build an equally sustainable economic base grounded in worker and community self empowerment. This may be the start of something GREAT! Let’s keep an eye on it because it may be a great place for GROW to be involved. On one hand we can curtail the corporate power in our election system. On the other hand, we can help build a new and separate system of finance that is geared exclusively to helping REAL people. Wow. Best week I’ve had in years! I am SO excited! » Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2010 @ 8:28 pm WTS – I so agree! Where are the media pieces challenging the way things are? Would anyone abide that – the “in your face”, even with laughter, that marked “All in the Family” etc.? We are all scared. We may be frightened of very different things, but we are all scared. This morning’s Sacramento Bee noted that many of the jobs lost in the Great Recession will NEVER return. I see very little on the horizon that can mark full employment. The Green Revolution is not yet even started, and many things, such as administrative assistant positions they discussed, may be out the window forever. Who can laugh when that happens? Perhaps social critique is possible ONLY with a full belly and a roof over your head. On the other hand, the Golden Age of comedy WAS the 1930s. Will Rogers was very popular – only Jim Hightower has that kind of insight, and he’s marginal. Stewart and Colbert are our closest comparison, and they approach it all with, yes, snark. I am glad, like javaz, that I am growing older and may not have to be TOTALLY responsible for solving the chaos that may be coming. I have enough to get by, and that gives me the freedom to keep working for things getting better. But like javaz and her husband, I want to retire in a few years, grow tomatoes, and not have to think about it all. And that ain’t gonna happen. » Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2010 @ 7:51 am I hope you’re right, that she’d be dismayed. Of course no one can psychoanalyze the dead! Perhaps she’d be horrified. But you noted above that we’re actually all possessed of envy (well, not ALL of us!) for the Jags and Rolexes and the trappings of wealth. If that’s the society in which you dwell, would you even NOTICE the suffering of those not of that class? Robert Coles wrote several books on the plight of children – Children of War, etc. – including Children of Privilege. What he observed was pretty awful – children of wealth really looked down on others. It was NOT born of their low self esteem as we’d like to believe but of their inculcation that somehow they were “better” than their servants, the middle class, working people. And they believed it. I fear Ayn Rand would see today’s excessive class accumulation as a vindication of her theories, not a critique. » Posted By choicelady On May 13, 2010 @ 7:39 am dilden – It took about seven seconds for would-be capitalists to undo all that Adam Smith taught. The “partnership” was written OUT of the law from the start. I rather like Smith, but apparently the early capitalists only saw the ‘unfettered’ part about their own riches, and they stopped immediately with accountability to government and the workers since that was the yoke they thought they were discarding from the Moral Economy of the colonial days. We started our form of capitalism more in keeping with freebooting privateers and pirates than with Smith. Ah America. Always looking for the main chance and never at the consequences! » Posted By choicelady On May 12, 2010 @ 10:06 pmComments Posted By choicelady
Owning a bird book – $15.
HP badges – worthless.
Childhood memories – priceless
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