P.U.M.A. PAC Action Center

P.U.M.A. PAC has set up an Action Center. The site lists our goals and the various ways people can be involved in the movement. Today was my first chance to check out the site, and I am impressed with what I found. There is even a handy link to allow visitors to easily make a donation to help pay off Senator Clinton's campaign debt! I immediately took advantage of it.

The other day I received a donation request from the DNC. I need to send them a little something. ;-)

I am always encouraged when I read the PUMA blog or The Confluence. The people who write on those sites are far more eloquent than I am about these matters, and the community is supportive to those of us who are protesting the way the DNC mishandled things. (And now the DNC wants us to wink at their lies and schemes and blindly follow behind them. Sure. And there are pigs flying outside my window right now!) It can be difficult to remain encouraged when all around you are people screaming your view is invalid or uneducated or wrong or emotional instead of factual. I don't have to worry about that sort of thing on those sites. I and other informed, intelligent people can share information without being harassed for our views. If we show emotion, we are not criticized for doing so, as though we ought to be automatons who do not feel emotional while dealing with reality. (Since when is feeling emotion mutually exclusive with being realistic?) When we share facts, we are not accused of spreading falsehoods just because they are facts certain people do not want to hear. Those sites are a breath of fresh air and rationality. I am glad they exist.

Various and Sundry

Moving Right Along

Rearden laughed. "Eddie, what do we care about people like him? We're driving an express, and they're riding on the roof, making a lot of noise about being leaders. Why should we care? We have enough power to carry them along--haven't we?"

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

When it comes to my life and my future, that quote addresses people who do dirty work behind the scenes to get rid of me due to their personal vendettas. I don't understand their issues, what they have against me, or what deals they cut to push me out of their way, but I need not waste time trying. I have a life to live, and they are not a part of that life. They cannot handle working with me the way I had tried to work with them, because they are too lowbrow, too petty. They would rather hide behind titles and act out their bad attitudes under cover of their authority, with the help of their stooges and those they have hoodwinked into believing they have done all they could do to fix the situation.

Let them. I have better things to do with my time than worry about them and the things they think about, do to, or say to me.

An Excuse for Nudity

Yesterday I attended the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island. I was expecting something far more creative than what I saw. The parade was little more than an excuse for a lot of people (primarily woman, to the great delight of the men in the crowd) to run around mostly naked. I was quickly bored and sorely disappointed.

Despite my sexually repressed religious upbringing, I admire the naked human body and enjoy the sight of it. I can look at paintings or photographs of nudes all day long. The female body is particularly appealing nude; there is nothing like the curves of a woman's body, no matter her size. What I do not like is a hyper-sexualized caricature of the beauty of the body, and that is what the parade exalted. It saddened me to see so much beauty presented so cheaply, to appeal to the lowest common denominator. There were a few exceptions of people who were artistic in their nudity; those will probably be the only photos I keep. There was one couple I would have loved to photograph in their green and blue body paint. They sashayed along the street in their one or two slips of clothing with as much grace and elegance as though they were wearing formal clothing. They may have been too far away for me to capture with my lens, but they are embedded in my brain.

I gladly escaped to the boardwalk with my friends before the parade ended. The view from there and the beach was far more interesting.

Water Baby
Facing the Waves	Wonder Wheel

Fear and Loathing

I am reading Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand, and the book is stirring anger and fear in me. I am about 1/4 through the book, and there is an overwhelming theme of mediocrity being rewarded, while those who do not walk in lockstep are pushed down until they surrender. When the person who is shining brighter than the rest does not quietly accept pleas from friends to step back, people in authority step in to create rules to force them to submit. The rules are created in back rooms and under tables, and the jealousy and hatred that fueled their creation are whitewashed...in this case with empty words about social responsibility and the need to even the playing field so everyone can achieve. Furthermore, those who do not fall in line are told they are selfish and wrong to fight the power.

Not only does this remind me of current political events in this country, it reminds me of some of my experiences in corporate America. I know it is just a book, but it is pushing all sorts of buttons.