Good News, my library book that I requested came in

The library book that I requested was "Twenty Letters To A Friend" by Svetlana Alliluyeva and translated by Priscilla Johnson McMillian. When Lana Peters, a.k.a. Svetlana Alliluyeva passed away November 22, 2011 at age 85 of cancer, it was also revealed that she wrote this book and 3 others. I remember being as amazed as some friends on the Mixxingbowl that Joseph Stalin had a daughter or that she lived in the United States. After all, for people like myself, who was born August of 1961, all Joseph Stalin is--is a name--an infamous name--from the history books we studied in school.

When I found out that she wrote books, the first thought I had was they must be fascinating. After all, she probably was right there during World War II, (especially from one,myself, whose mostly heard of the Second World War from my late-Father [1927-2010], who 14th Birthday was what we now call--Pearl Harbor Day--a.k.a. 70 years ago today.) when her father was the one of the big three leaders who met with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Not only that, but she imigrated to the U.S. in 1967, during the Cold War and during the aftermath of the McCarthy era and when the 'Baby Boomer's' were still just beginning to rebel against the Vietnam War.

I cannot say that I remember much about that time. After all, I was only a child, so for me it is fascinating to go back and study, with now the mature understanding mind, the things I vaguely remember, but was too young to understand as a child

As Mme. Svetlana Alliluyeva wrote in the book jacket-->

     Let the judging be done by those who come later, by men and women who didn't know the times and the people to whom these years in Russia will be as remote and inexplicable,as terrible and strange, as the reign of Ivan the Terrible. But I do not think they'll say it was all for the 'good of Russia.' Hardly . . . .
     They will have their say. And what they say will be something new and cogent. Instead of idle whining, they will give voice to a new sense of purpose. They will read through this page in their country's history with a feeling of pain,  contrition and bewilderment, and they'll be led by this feeling to live their lives differently.
     But I hope they won't forget that what is Good never dies--that it lived on in the hearts of men even in the darkest times and as hidden where no one thought to look for it, that it never died out or disappeared completely.
     Everything on our tormented earth that is alive and breathes, that blossoms and bears fruit, lives only by virtue of and in the name of Truth and Good.
     These are the concluding sentences of an extraordinary work. The author has used on the oldest and most flexible literary forms-the letter to an unidentified friend, who is, essentially, each reader of her book-to relate te harrowing journey of one soul, one consciousness, through three dark decades of a totalitarian tyranny which sowed terror throughout an entire notion and reached into every corner of her personal life.
     From the death of her father, Josef Stalin, in 1953, and her 'double' life in the decade that followed-outwardly fortunate, inwardly tormented--Mme Alliluyeva casts back to her unclouded childhood in the tranquil  household created by her mother, and to her mother's gifted and close knit family. She tells her mother's story, from her prerevolutionary girlhood, through the intensifying conflict with her husband over his political actions and intentions, to the terrible--and , the author feels, inevitable--outcome: her mother's suicide. Svetlana was six years old. Bleak changes followed. The secret police replaced her mother's presence in her family circle as Russia moved through the thirties into war. She saw less and less of her father, and her chronicles of their last meetings--in 1951 and 1952--is filled with pain.
     But remarkably, in this narrative of fear, torment, oppression, tragedy. two characters radiant with goodness convey, as in a great opera, the ultimately affirming theme. They are the author's mother, her nature candid, sunlit and life-giving, and the nurse who shielded Svetlana for thirty years--a woman of the people, full of gaiety and kindness, wisdom and quiet optimism, 'like a big Russian stove.' a peasant trained in the noble houses of prerevolu-tionary St. Petersburg whose life bridged two eras, and who symbolizes for author and reader alike the enduring vitality, generosity and beauty of the Russian land. The author's deeply religious patriotism, her inextinguishable love for her country--and passages in which she reflects on Nature, on her children, on peace and God. The exultant tons of these chapters acts as counterpoint to and commentary on the dark record of terrible events.
     Second only to the strong emotional identification the reader feels with the woman who tells her story here is the powerful--in truth, the astounding-revelation of an unknown and all but unimaginable way of life. One is set down among people whose attitudes, reactions and expectations, formed by social conditions and a history totally unlike our own, impress us on every page with their difference and thereby set us on the path to understanding. It may be that the most lasting value of Twenty Letters to a Friend will prove to be the light it throws on the necessities and motivations which have shaped today's Russia and which are so much more 'foreign' to our own experience than most of us have heretofore surmised.

BP accuses Halliburton over Gulf of Mexico oil spill

US contractor destroyed evidence about possible problems with cementing of Macondo well before disaster, allege court papers

The Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers, led to the biggest oil spill in US history, which affected wildlife such as pelicans. Photograph: Sean Gardner/Reuters

BP has accused Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence relating to last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
In a court filing, BP has alleged that the US oil services firm of intentionally destroying evidence about possible problems with its cement slurry poured into the deep-sea Macondo well about 100 miles (160 km) off the Louisiana coast. An oil well must be cemented properly to avoid blowouts.
Also in the documents filed in a New Orleans federal court, BP accuses Halliburton of failing to produce incriminating computer modelling evidence.
BP asked a US judge to penalise Halliburton and order a court-sponsored computer forensic team to recover the modelling results.
Halliburton has told media outlets that the accusations are untrue.
The allegations in the 310-page motion add to a showdown among BP and the contractors Halliburton and Transocean over blame in the Deepwater Horizon blast in April 2010, which killed 11 workers and led to 206m US gallons (780m litres) of crude oil escaping into the Gulf of Mexico. So far, BP, the majority owner of the Macondo well, has footed the bill for the emergency response and cleanup.
Also involved are Anadarko Petroleum and Cameron International.  The first trial over the disaster is scheduled to start 27 February in New Orleans. It is expected to last three months and determine the liability of each company involved in drilling the Macondo well. There will be other phases over cleanup costs, punitive damages and other claims.
US federal and independent investigations into the disaster have found fault in Halliburton's cementing because it failed to properly plug the well. The firm used a foamy cement slurry.
In Monday's court filing, BP alleges that Halliburton employees discarded and destroyed early test results they performed on the same batch of cement slurry used in the Macondo well during an internal investigation into the disaster.
BP said Halliburton's chief cement mixer for Gulf projects testified in depositions that the cement slurry seemed "thin" to him but that he chose not to write about his findings to his bosses out of fear he would be misinterpreted.
"I didn't want to put anything on an email that could be twisted, and turned," Rickey Morgan, the Halliburton cement expert, said in depositions. He worked at a laboratory in Duncan, Oklahoma.
"Upon reviewing these latest testing results, Halliburton employees destroyed records of the testing as well as the physical cement samples used in the testing," BP alleged.

Halliburton--> The very same Halliburton as in Cheney Wikipedia listing.

Between 1987 and 1989, during his last term in Congress, Cheney was a director of the Council on Foreign Relationans foreign policy organization.^[53]
With the new Democratic administration under President Bill Clinton in January 1993, Cheney left the Department of Defense and joined the American Enterprise Institute. He also served a second term as a Council on Foreign Relations director from 1993 to 1995.^[53] From 1995 until 2000, he served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton, a Fortune 500 company and market leader in the energy sector.
Cheney's record as CEO was subject to some dispute among Wall Street analysts; a 1998 merger between Halliburton and Dresser Industries attracted the criticism of some Dresser executives for Halliburton's lack of accounting transparency.^[54] Although Cheney is not named as an individual defendant in the suit, Halliburton shareholders are pursuing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the corporation artificially inflated its stock price during this period; the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on whether the case can continue to be litigated.^[55] Cheney was named in a December 2010 corruption complaint filed by the Nigerian government against Halliburton, which the company settled for $250 million.^[56]
During Cheney's tenure, Halliburton changed its accounting practices regarding revenue realization of disputed costs on major construction projects.^[57] Cheney resigned as CEO of Halliburton on July 25, 2000. As vice president, he argued that this step removed any conflict of interest. Cheney's net worth, estimated to be between $30 million and $100 million, is largely derived from his post at Halliburton, as well as the Cheneys' gross income of nearly $8.82 million.^{[58][not in citation given]}
He was also a member of the board of advisors of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) before becoming vice president.^[42]

Dear God, Have Mercy, If we Americans have to either bail them out of this mess that they got themselves into because They are an American Company and IT would be the Patriotic thing to do OR If we have to Forgive them of their err for some so called Patriotic Reasoning, such as They were so eager to create job or create energy independence: they . . . . I am going to scream!!!!!

ObamaCare's Hidden Time Bomb That Benefits Every Insured American--by Rmuse

There are times that the title of legislation does not adequately describe the nature and purpose of a law that leads to confusion and uncertainty in the population. In March 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law and over this past weekend, one specific provision of the law went into effect and it epitomizes the meaning of the law irrespective of all the other benefits to Americans. All at once, the law’s detractors on the professional left and wary Americans will see immediate benefits that will change the nature of health care insurance for the better and it has the potential to push health care in America toward a single-payer, universal care system.
The provision that seemed to be buried in the extensive law, the medical loss ratio, requires health insurance companies to spend 80-85% of consumer’s premiums on real medical care and not overhead, profits, or marketing expenses. If insurers fail to meet the requirement, they are bound by the law to send rebate checks to consumers “representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.” Now, before any conservative or naysayer claims the provision is not workable or true, California school teachers began receiving their rebate checks on Friday for premiums they paid that were not used for medical care. According to a report in Forbes, “This is the true ‘bomb’ contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything we’ve seen in quite some time.”
On Friday, the Department of Health & Human Services issued new rules concerning what expenditures insurers can and cannot use to qualify as medical expenses. HHS has shown they intend to make sure insurance providers spend what they should to take care of consumers. One example of medical expenses HHS decided was not really a medical expense was commissions that health insurance brokers and salespeople earn for selling programs and policies to individuals or large groups. It is inappropriate to consider the cost of selling a policy as providing medical care that consumers pay for. In every other industry, sales is considered cost of overhead and HHS’s rules clearly delineate commissions and overhead from actual medical care consumers pay for and expect to receive.
Based on the signs that insurance companies’ parent companies are moving into other types of investments, it is obvious that private, for profit insurance providers realize they cannot compete against a single-payer system or spend 80-85% of their profits on actual medical care. The criticism from certain professional left pundits that President Obama wimped out on pushing for universal healthcare should finally admit they did not have a clue about the ACA or its potential for providing affordable healthcare to most Americans.


The ACA provides many protections to consumers such as no refusal of coverage for pre-existing conditions, no lifetime limits on coverage, parents keeping their children on the policy till age 26, and many other provisions that disallow insurance companies from refusing to cover illnesses consumers pay for. The medical loss ratio provision single-handedly gives consumers what they pay for; medical coverage and it defines the “affordable” in the Affordable Health Act. There are some Americans who are terrified of a single-payer, universal health care system, and for them, for profit health insurance providers will still exist if one can afford high premiums. But for tens-of-millions of Americans who cannot afford private coverage, a single-payer system will allow them to purchase affordable health care insurance for their families.
The outgoing official who was in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, Dr. Donald M. Berwick, made parting shots at the “extremely high level of waste” in the healthcare industry that is responsible for soaring costs of health insurance. Berwick gave a detailed list of reasons for the waste in the healthcare industry that causes needless spending and his comments are analyzed here by Sarah Jones of PoliticusUSA. The medical loss ratio will force insurance providers to streamline their practices and cost of doing business and if they will not, the consumer will get a rebate for the money they spent for healthcare that went to wasteful practices, profits, or administrative costs.
The medical loss ratio was opposed by the insurance lobby because it protected patients and ensured that they get the care they paid for. Streamlining health insurance coverage benefits patients, doctors, and everyone except for-profit health insurance companies and one begins to understand the fierce opposition to the health law regardless that it potentially gives insurance providers 30-40 million new customers. There are few fans of health insurance providers because before the ACA, there were myriad ways they could overcharge consumers and avoid providing care whether it was declining coverage for a pre-existing condition or exceeding hidden lifetime coverage limits. As full implementation of the ACA takes place, Americans who were ignorant of the law or those who are opposed because Republicans spread lies and misinformation about the law will begin seeing benefits they could never have imagined.
The key to success of the medical loss ratio is HHS and their intention to hold insurance providers accountable for providing medical care consumers paid for and not charging them for costs not related to real health care. On Friday, the first rebate checks went out to consumers who paid hard-earned dollars for health care that was used to profit insurance companies and either the insurance industry will change drastically to provide patients with the care they paid for, pay out rebates, or the population will migrate to a single-payer system as insurance companies flee to more profitable endeavors.
The healthcare insurance industry is seeing the end of being able to avoid paying benefits consumers pay for and if they will not spend at least 80-85% of their profits providing that healthcare, they will repay consumers. It is time for Americans to show some gratitude to the Obama Administration for giving them affordable health care and protecting patients from being cheated out of what they did pay for. The professional left that demonized President Obama for not pushing for a single-payer, universal healthcare system needs to reevaluate their position and apologize for being dolts. There is one thing for certain, the health insurance industry will run for the hills if they cannot make easy money for not providing health coverage and as the Forbes article articulated, “we are now on an inescapable path to a single-payer system for most Americans and thank goodness for it.” Yes, and also thank President Obama for doing the right thing; even if it meant putting a hidden, beneficial time bomb inside the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

This I hope exposes the attack ads--a.k.a--the Right Wing Propaganda that they are. Propaganda sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which began running them right after the Nov 8th elections. When by all rights, in the tradition of privious years, would be the Blessed Time-out from campaign ads. But, No, they had to go straight into Right Wing Propaganda ads that attack our Sen. Sherrod Brown and President Barack Obaoma,.


One day, Soon-Very Soon, it will be Thank God for President Barack Obama and Thank God we had Sen. Sherrod Brown in the Senate when and where we Needed him.

Haiti's Infant Care Unit In Danger of Closing. Chime.In to Help!

Hi Friends:

In partnership with Project Medishare for Haiti and Chime.in, I have organized an urgent charity effort to help save the only pediatric/neonatal intensive care unit for critically ill/injured children and infants in the country of Haiti.

All I ask is that you register on Chime.in, a new Interest network. One click ((or minute of your time)) could save a life in Haiti. Registration is very simple, and for each registered user, Chime.in will donate $1 to Project Medishare for Haiti which urgently needs our help.

By joining Chime.in, not only will you help save the only pediatric/neonatal ICU in Haiti, you will also help save the only trauma/critical care hospital which has treated over 90,000 people this year, and over 180,000 people since the devastating earthquake almost two years ago.

Every dollar raised by this campaign will make a major impact towards keeping this hospital open and saving lives everyday! 

Every dollar raised by this campaign will make a major impact towards keeping this hospital open and saving lives everyday!

Please share this Chime with friends and encourage them to register on Chime.in for the cause.

Many thanks on behalf of those still in need of urgent help in Haiti.

~Sean Gardner
2morrowknight

To share this chime with your followers, and to enable tracking so that the dollars count, please use this URL and share it with your friends: http://bit.ly/t4ZP6B

Interests: ChimeForCharity, ProjectMedishare, Haiti, Charity

  Thank you,

     With any luck and a wing and a prayer, we can raise more than enough money for Haiti to do good for not only for the babies and children, but also for all. For the people of Haiti have been in need a long long time. It is way past time for their suffering to end, but since none of us can change history, we will have to be content to help change their present so they can change their future.

     The way, I see it, especially my family, since we carry on my late husband's French name and France's history in Haiti is a long and dark one, which I will not go into here, since it would make this blog way too long; which is one that my family has an Holy Obligation to Atone for.

    Holy Obligations to Atone for, is something I understand, since my late Mother's late Aunt Ruth taught us (my older sister and me) about it, since her side of the family was the German side of the family, we had/have an Holy Obligation to Atone for the Holocaust by being on the side of Israel and seeing that it never happens again.

The Good News, The Bad News and My Rant

First, the good news-->

On Nov 30, 2011, you signed the petition, Big Banks: Back Off 103-Year-Old Woman!. The petition author, Care2 Consumer Issues, has now closed the petition and sent this message to all its signers:

---------------------------------

Thank you all for signing the petition asking Vinia Hall's bank to leave her alone. Because of your voice and other outside pressures, JPMorgan Chase has announced it has "no plans" to remove Hall and her daughter. However, another elderly victim needs your help on the West Coast.

Warm Regards,
Katrina Krantz from Care2

Praise the Lord, they look like they are going to keep their home, especially over the Christmas Holiday.
Now for the bad news. That was only one skirmish in the Battle on the War against Greed and Corruption

• Target: True Compass LLC
• Sponsored by:Bay Area Resident

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Josephine Tolbert, 75, dropped off her great-granddaughter at school and returned to find the locks changed on her Bay Area home, which she bought in 1973. True Compass LLC sold her house to profit real estate speculators and then posted San Francisco police officers at the entrance to prevent Tolbert from returning. 
Tolbert, who fell behind on payments because of an illness, must now abandon her childcare services (and the 2 families dependentTolbert was denied from retrieving her basic belongings,including diapers. "This isn't how seniors should be treated over the holidays," Tolbert stated. Tragically, kicking old people out of their homes has become a national trend on her)
.Protestors are already confronting the officers at the Tolbert residence. Join them in telling these real estate moguls to give Tolbert her house back!

I wonder what the 'Social Conservative' Republican have to say now. After all, they are the ones who claim to be 'Pro-Life', 'Pro-Family Values' and 'Pro-Jobs' by supporting businesses and business growth.  After all, they are the ones who are attempting to rename the rich from millionaires and billionaires to 'the job creators'.
Ooops, I have forgotten when it comes to battling business that becomes the job of us 'Bleeding heart-Anti-business-Tree hugging Liberals. After all, when money talks it is suppose to drown out the needs of the poor at all costs, even if the cost is the quality of the air, water and/or soil. And yet, we Liberals are called 'Anti-Family' because we also 'Pro-Choice'.
Personally, my stand with abortion is--Ideally the demand will become so low that it will not matter whether it is legal or not. After all,  Adoption is better than abortion, but between legal and illegal abortion--legal abortions are better. After all, those who did the illegal abortion literally operated out of pure greed, without a care for anything but maximizing the profits. Unfortunately, many Conservatives are pushing to change the laws instead of the 'hearts of the people', which means if it simply becomes illegal, then illegal abortion factories are almost garrenteed, and all the deaths that will result. But then, that would probably make them very happy, then they can shout the victory that "the wages of sin is indeed death!"

No Fracking in Ohio

Fracking Debate Continues to Grow

With nearly 4,000 permits for new deep-shale drilling in Ohio on the horizon, the debate about horizontal hydrofracking continues to grow on both sides of the issue. The gas and oil industry is spending millions of dollars on advertising to promote the benefits of fracking while environmental, conservation, and social justice groups around the country are calling for moratoriums until the potential risks have been studied and evaluated. Legislation proposed by State Sen. Skindell and State Rep. Denise Driehaus says, slow down, get the best available science, and adopt the most protective safeguards to protect Ohio's priceless air, land and water resources.

What is Fracking?

Relatively new drilling technology, high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, now makes it possible to reach natural gas reserves that underlie much of the state of Ohio.
Commonly referred to as "horizontal hydrofracking" or just "fracking," deep-shale natural gas drilling uses high-pressure injection of water, sand, and chemicals to release the trapped gas.
The environmental and health impacts from high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing in other states are shocking and well documented, with a significant number of spills, blowouts, leaking wells, and other accidents and releases of contaminants.

 Dispite the fact that unemployment is slowly, but surely getting better--lesser. Yes, Ohio still needs job, BUT we need fresh air, clean water even more, because once these are gone they are gone.
After all, finding a new job may vary from difficult to near impossible, but compare that to finding a new source of water or air, when Earth's becomes too polluted.
No matter what the ads say, there truly are more questions to ask.
After all, there are other sources of jobs, most especially 'Green Jobs', such as building and installing and maintaining solar panels, and the like.
 Now for the ultimate questions--How do I, who live in a Condominium Development, go about in getting a windmill built? How do I do it, so that it gets built on a common area, I am thinking of a roof of the gazebo that is on the side of the road, so that not only we all share in the cost of building it as well as in the money it will generate by generating electricity?

Harness the Power of Frustration

YOUR DAILY FIT TIP

By Jorge Cruise

There comes a point when you have to say “Enough is enough!” Frustration can create a powerful desire for change – in fact, it’s one of the most valuable motivational tools there is. Think about how being unfit has cost you, whether in your career, intimate relationship or your family. How many activities have you missed out on because you physically couldn’t partake in them? How often have you stayed home because you felt too ashamed or embarrassed about your body?

Be honest with yourself. Explore each and every aspect of your life in which inactivity and overeating has held you back. Then pick up a pen and let your dissatisfaction tumble out onto the pages of your journal. (If you don’t already write in a journal, start one!) Once you’re done, you’ll have the genesis of your success right in front of you. These are the reasons you need to change your life for good. Use it to propel you toward your goals. When you experience moments of doubt or start to question whether you really need to work out, go directly to this page in your journal and read it. Make the dissatisfaction work for you!

Actually, I believe this should be the Daily Life Tip. After all, it seems with me nothing new starts until I have gotten totally frustrated with the old, So Frustrated that I make changes in my life, which without an occasional frustration would be a series of habits.  After all, I am one creature of habit, once I get into a routine it is near impossible to change it.  I know it is me, but some how there is a comfort that is beyond words or reason about the familiar, not matter how good, bad or indifferent it is. Well, bad to a point, the point where it becomes more terrifying than making the change that would get rid of it.
But then again, change is growth. Here's to Growing. After all, God's not finished with me yet. I am still learning and growing.
The proof of this is when my 'old job' got so unbearable that I even began to blog about it. After all, I was (am still) so invisible that there was no one to complain to, so I came here to rant. But, now I work at a 'new job' where I am seen and heard, so there is no point to blogging about it. I'll keep both jobs for a while. After all, after so long of only having a part-time dead end job ate up so much of my savings that I need to replace.
Now this is bearable, since now I have the freedom of choice on whether to stay or go.