Eight Years Later

No, I'm not a "conspiracy theory" person. But today, the eighth anniversary of 9/11, I remain confused.

I watched in horror eight years ago as two airplanes in NYC hit two buildings - and inexplicably three buildings fell down!

I didn't understand then then and I don't understand it now.

When the 9/11 Commission Report finally came out, I read the entire thing.

Frustratingly there wasn't even one mention of why Building #7 also collapsed that day.

I'd guess that 9/11 was the most poorly investigated crime and yet the most highly censored story in American history - and I just don't get it.

My friend Dr. John Wyndham has a PhD in Physics and he says that the science just doesn't add up.

I have included a copy of his letter to the editor of our local newspaper where John sums it up nicely:

That explosive residue (nanothermite) in has been found to be in abundance in WTC dust samples chills me to the bone.

I'm not sure why, but most people's eyes glaze over on this subject and they seem to want to dismiss all legitimate questions despite the fact that many of the "official answers" just don't add up.

Shouldn't the "who" and "how" have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt before our Government blundered into two wars as "revenge for 9/11?"

If we knew that a planned demolition of these three buildings happened, would it change any of our ideas about who we think planned and carried out the attack?

Even now I am struggling to wrap my mind around this.

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth was founded in 2006 by Richard Gage, a San Francisco Bay area based architect.

This is a trailer for a stunning movie called "Blueprint for Truth - The Architecture of Destruction" - and the science presented is clear.

You can buy the DVD or watch it free online.

It is an organization of architectural and engineering professionals who are calling for a new investigation into the cause of the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building #7 (also known as the Solomon building).

Gage criticized the government agency NIST for not having investigated the complete sequence of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and claims that "the official explanation of the total destruction of the World Trade Center skyscrapers has explicitly failed to address the massive evidence for explosive demolition."

The Movie: Séraphine

"Prepare to be lured into an idiosyncratic artist's world."

Yolande Moreau portrays the title character in "Séraphine."

A sleeper hit in France last fall, Séraphine went on to a surprise win of the Best Picture and Best Actress for Yolande Moreau along with five other awards at the Césars - the French Academy Awards.

"In 1914, Wilhelm Uhde, a famous German art collector, rents an apartment in the town of Senlis, forty kilometers away from Paris, in order to write and to take a rest from the hectic life he has been living in the capitol.

The cleaning lady is a rather rough-and-ready forty-year-old woman who is the laughing stock of others.

One day, Wilhelm notices a small painting lying about in her living room. He is stunned to learn that the artist is no other than Séraphine..."

I haven seen it yet (I do, after all, live in New Hampshire) but it's coming to town tomorrow. If this movie is good, I'll leave this post up - if not, I'll take it down.

Meanwhile, I'm excited to be seeing it.

Can a Starving Artist Afford to Wait?

America has not only the worst but the dumbest health care system in the developed world.

The system doesn't work for anyone.

It cheats patients and leaves them to die.

It denies insurance to 47 million Americans and forces hospitals to spend billions haggling over claims.

And it systematically bleeds and harasses doctors with the specter of catastrophic litigation.

I put my brush down this morning, rolled up my smock sleeves and took on the deranged right-wing. I spent all of 10 minutes making phone calls to my CongressCritters.

House and Senate

(202) 224-3121

The White House

(202) 456-1111

It's a piece o' cake to make a positive investment in the future of our country.

You can tell them your story or just keep it simple and say something like:

"Please consider supporting a strong public option because I am sure you would like to please me and many of your other constituents."

If they don't give you what you want - be sure to express your displeasure with your precious vote in the next election.

After all, that's the American way.

Bill Moyers: It's a Matter of Life & Death

On Friday's episode of "Bill Moyers Journal," Moyers succinctly described the current state of the health care debate: "here we are, wallowing in our dysfunction."

This is a delicious little video clip and I think Bill Moyers is an art form.

Call:

House and Senate

(202) 224-3121

The White House

(202) 456-1111

And demand that public option before it is too late.

Tearing Down the Wall of Ignorance

I've always believed that although people can have different points of view, we can listen to each other and treat each other with respect...at least until now.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont shows us what our town halls should have looked like this Summer.



The truth of the matter is that there are virtually no Republicans in the Senate who are serious about health care reform.

Even worse, they are not only opposing serious health care reform but they are grossly distorting what is in the current bills being considered.

Now is the time for action!

Please call your Congresscritters and the White House to demand a Public Option:

House and Senate

(202) 224-3121

The White House

(202) 456-1111

The system is disintegrating. We spend almost twice as much on health care as any other country. Our health outcomes are worse. The vast majority of people want a public option - among other reforms.

Please don't give this up without a fight.

Put Down Your Brush, Spread the Truth

Sometimes I think that all of the portrait artists I know are "the canaries in the coal mine." Maybe it's because we basically like and care about people?

My artsy friends are getting involved in this issue as it worries us all.

VP Biden busts the myth that our health insurance system doesn't need reform.

You think we can’t afford health insurance reform? To the contrary, not only has the President demanded that reform not add to the deficit in the short term, but reform is the only way to get skyrocketing health care costs under control.

See the Reality Check Website. Lots of people have uploaded their video responses and it is pretty interesting.

More info:

President Barack Obama will deliver a major prime-time address to Congress next Wednesday (September 9) on his plans to overhaul the nation's health care system.

And finally, some Good News!

If you pick up any newspaper today (September 2, 09), you'll see reports that the economy is beginning to turn around and go in a positive direction.

Fighting Denial and Deceit

Watch Rep. Dennis Kucinich confront an MD who claimed that "the Canadian health care system is worse than the US's."

Way to go Dennis!

Too bad the Media cannot hold these guys accountable like Kucinich did in the video above.

Instead our American media likes to present itself as an "umpire" between "the rival sides" - as if they both had "truthful evidence" behind them. That is a BAD policy and does not serve us.

C-Span's Washington Journal interviewed Dr. Robert Ouelett, Former President of The Canadian Medical Association.

His discussion of the Canadian health care system reveals the current lies being spread to frighten people here and kill health care reform.

The US is the only major industrialised country that does not provide regular healthcare to all its citizens. Instead, we are required to provide for ourselves - and 50 million of us can't afford the insurance.

As a result, 18,000 US citizens die every year needlessly, because they can't access the care they require.

The Republicans want to defend the existing system. Politicians and fringe "grassroots protest groups" are given massive sums of money by the private medical firms who benefit from the deadly status quo.

But they can't kill health care reform honestly so they have to invent lies to make any life-saving extension of health care sound depraved.

Maybe it's because I know more "starving artists" than most, this issue is keeping me awake nights. I see and hear the suffering around me and it is heartbreaking.

Drat.

If I could think of a way to paint this subject I wouldn't have to talk about it so much.

“The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

- Senator Paul Wellstone

Please call your CongressCritters & Obama now (and at least once a week) to demand a strong public healthcare option!

House and Senate

(202) 224-3121

The White House

(202) 456-1111

And tell them your story. Pressure from the people is the only way to make it happen.

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

Translation from Latin: "To the Stars Through Adversity."

If you could sum up Teddy's life in a nutshell, that motto would do it.

I lived in Massachusetts from 1961 until 1990. Like many of his constituents I knew Senator Ted Kennedy.

He was a man who had no limits to his compassion. And he often spoke from his great big heart.

We could always count on him and his staff to deal with our problems when we had no place else to turn. He really cared about the "little guy" and worked hard for us.

I lost my hero today and I'm crying.

"...the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

- Senator Edward Kennedy, 1932-2009

So let's re-commit ourselves to achieving the thing that mattered most to him: Quality, affordable health care for every single American.

And...

...did you know that Ted Kennedy loved to paint?

The times when I've met him, he was always smiling. I'd like to remember him in this happy way with his wife Vicki.

He took up painting in earnest after his Nephew John died.

The oil painting above depicts the Cape Cod home of his parents, Joseph and Rose Kennedy.

For the cover of Cape Cod Life, he painted this picture of himself and and his wife aboard their yacht "Mya."

As a wedding present, Kennedy painted a still life of daffodils in oil.

"We were reading the William Wordsworth poem "Daffodils' and the last two lines are: "And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils,' and it was so wonderful and romantic and Ted said that he wanted to paint me a picture of daffodils and he did."

- Victoria Reggie Kennedy

I'd love to take a peek at that one.

The Idiosyncrasies of English

It's been a long hot Summer, my paint is still acting "funny" and I am finding that I need frequent laugh breaks to maintain my sanity.

So just in case that you do too....

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "where's the self- help section?" she said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

If a deaf child signs swear words, does his mother wash his hands with soap?

If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?

Is there another word for synonym?

Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?"

What do you do when you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?

If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?

Would a fly without wings be called a walk?

Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?

If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?

Why do they put braille on the drive-through bank machines?

How do they get deer to cross the road only at those yellow road signs?

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.

Does the little mermaid wear an algebra?

Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?

How is it possible to have a civil war?

If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do the rest drown too?

If you ate both pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry?

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

Whose cruel idea was it for the word 'lisp' to have 's' in it?

Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot at them?

Why is there an expiration date on sour cream?

If you spin an oriental person in a circle three times, do they become disoriented?

And my personal favorite:

Can an atheist get insurance against acts of god?