do not define me.

Life is not business, it’s personal.

I am not an entry in a spreadsheet.

You cannot build an algorithm to define me or predict my behavior.

My love of oil paint or yellow roses or green rocks is not important marketing information.

You cannot make predictions about my quality of life based on my age, BMI and current use of government assistance programs.

You can not pigeon hole my vote because of my age or my sex or even my registered party.

Statistics may tell you a lot about a population, but they tell you nothing about an individual.

The average American was born in the same state they live now.  They are white.  They are slightly more likely to be female.  They are middle-aged.  They have a year or 2 of college education but no degree.  They are buying their home. They live with 1 or 2 other people,  and have 2 pets.  They speak English.  They are protestant.   They work in retail sales.  They have an IQ of 100.  They make $38,000/year.  They are overweight.  They are heterosexual.  They have been married at least once, but may or may not be single now (50/50 split)

While all of that is statistically true, I don't know a single person that all of those are true for.

Statistics are for describing populations not individuals.

Yet we are faced with stereotypes, assumptions, classifications about ourselves, about who we are, about how we choose to live or not to live, about what we are interested in, should be interested in, should want to buy, to read, to listen to and the silly corporations that are leading this drive to define, are trying to make choices for me, trying to lead me by the nose to buy their product--they have no idea who I am.

So,  here you go.  I am a white, middle-aged female.  I have way to much college and have several paid off student loans to prove it.  I have never been in retail sales.  I do own my own home.  I don't live with 1-2 other people, but do live with more than 2 beasties.  I'm not protestant.  I have never even met anyone that actually had an IQ of 100 (a stat for sure, but not a person), and do not make $38,000/year.  I do live in the same state I was born in.

I'm as average as the next person.

Don't send me republican donation invites just because I'm from a red state.  Over 40% of my state is blue or independent.  Don't keep trying to sign me up for a web-based college degree in marketing, business, or medical assisting and please don't begin the conversation with "you requested information about our school".  I didn't.  Don't keep inviting me to follow and like Walmart.  Don't try to buy my house fast for cash.  Don't offer me a deal on the latest diet book or plan.

I also don't want to reorganize my closet, purge to simplicity, shop with coupons to save big money, or receive the beer of the month or the rose of the month or the plate of the month.  I know what I need to purchase.  I know were to find it.  And if, by some chance I decide I need something I have never had or needed before---I understand the Google search pretty well.

My life is not your business, it's personal.

THE KARMA OF WAR

CALLING OURSELVES THE GOOD GUYS, THE HEROES, THE WHITE HATS, WHEN DO WE RECOGNIZE OUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DEATH TOLLS, THE REBELLIONS, AND THE PAIN AND SUFFERING THAT OUR TACTICS HAVE BROUGHT TO THE CIVILIANS OF OTHER NATIONS AND TO OUR OWN PEOPLE.

The United States currently has military personnel on 800 military bases in other countries.  No other country has bases in as many foreign lands as the United States.

World armies, in order of number of personnel is: (*rounded to the nearest thousand)
     China--2,333,000  (this is the bear that our president elect is currently poking)
      USA--1,492,000
      India--1,325,000  (apparently we should stop acting like they are just workers at call centers)
      North Korea--1,190,000  (most likely to do something unexpected)
      Russia--845,000  (Our new ally?--oops--was our ally in the previous world war, also)
      Pakistan--643,000  (I had no idea, I thought they were little and disorganized)
      Turkey--510,000  (I thought they were tribal)
      Vietnam--482,000 (a familiar name here, both halves now apparently on the same side)
      Egypt--438,000 (do they like us?)
      Burma--406,000 (What?)
      Thailand--360,000
       Brazil--318,000
       Taiwan--290,000
       Iraq--271,000
       Mexico--270,000
       Ukraine--250,000
       Japan--247,000
       Saudi Arabia--233,000
       France--222,000
       Germany--186,000
       Afghanistan--185,000
       Israel--176,000
       United Kingdom--169,000
       Bangladesh--157,000
       Greece--143,000
        Phillipines--125,000
        Syria--125,000
        Jordan--100,000

Of those countries, nine have nuclear capability:
Russia, USA, Israel, France, China, the UK, Pakistan, India, and North Korea.  We don't know that anyone else has the ability to not just blow us all up but ruin it for everyone's future.  Our intelligence doesn't say they do.   But you know, what we don't know, we don't know.

We do know that when it comes to spending on defense--that strangely incestuous military-industrial complex born of world wars and the industrial age has made the USA a winner.  Spending by nation, in order of most money spent:
USA--596 billion
China--215 billion
Saudi Arabia--87 billion
Russia--66 billion
UK--55 billion
India--51 billion
France--50 billion
Japan--40 billion
Germany--39 billion
Brazil--24 billion
Iraq--21 billion
Israel--18 billion

Hopefully, we weren't buying $1250 hammers and $50,000 toilets.

There is a lot of money in WAR.  Eleven Fortune 500 companies are in defense/aerospace industry. Many of them got there during WWII. Lockheed/Martin, general Dynamics, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, L-3 Communications, Precisions Cast Parts, Huntington Ingalls, Spirit Aerosystems Holdings, United Technologies, Textron.  And these don't include those smaller companies--making uniforms, making boots, making MRE's, making all the little pieces and parts that it takes to keep an army (or air force or navy or marine) outfitted, trained, housed, and equipped).
Amazingly small amounts of that money are paid to the men and women that are serving.  At least 2,000 of our lower ranked families qualify for SNAP benefits.  Shades of Walmart business Methods.

AMERICAN WAR DEATHS,
The American Revolution had about 4,435 deaths, 217,000 fighting, or about 113deaths per100,000  total population.
The War of 1812 had about 2,260 deaths, 286,730 fighting, or about 31  deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Mexican War had about 13,283 deaths, 78,718 fighting, or about 78 deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Civil War had about 618,0020 deaths (we were both sides of this war), about 3,263,363 fighting or 1,965 deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Spanish American War had 2,449 deaths, 306,760 fighting, or about 4  deaths per 100,000 total population.
WWI had 116,516 deaths, 4,734,991 fighting or about 126 deaths per 100,000 total population
WWII had 405,399 death, 16,112,566 fighting or 307 deaths per 100,000 total population.
The Korean War had 36,574 deaths, 1,789,000 fighting or 24 deaths per 100,000 total population
The Vietnam War (?) had 58,220 deaths, 3,403,000 or 32 deaths per total population.
The Gulf War had 383 deaths, 694,550 fighting or 0 deaths per total population. (the number is too small for the total to actually equal 1, we all no that 383 people are not 0 people)
The Iraq/Afghanistan War (still going on--maybe forever) has had 6,607 deaths--so far, 2,500,000+ fighting or 2 deaths per 100,000 total population

There are lots of numbers out there (but not matching numbers) for the number of civilian noncombatants killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  The smallest combined those 2 with Pakistan and they listed 210,000 (this is less than 1/2 of the largest estimates).  This is not military personnel or rebels or terrorists.  It's children, sick people, old people, women--and doesn't include the people that die of malnutrition due to destroyed supply lines or chronic illness deaths due to no more healthcare system or deaths of people that are injured or poisoned by infrastructure damage.  It should also be considered that when there is war, the government is destabilized, crime goes up and human services are disrupted.  We mourn our less than 7,000 soldier deaths, but can't figure out why ISIS is gathering up converts so successfully.

We went to this war over civilian deaths from terrorist acts.

We have lost 3,158 civilians to terrorism on US soil since 1995.  We are terrified, horrified, and angry about terrorism.

They have lost at least 210,000 from 3 countries--at least.
At Least!
Since 2001!
We should all worry about the Karma of that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR and PEACE OUT.




















 http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/4/#version:static

Ephemeral life

Stray cats, dead babies, mayfly poems, dead young warriors, dying--life goes on.

I am currently feeding a momma cat and supplementing a multitude of kittens, now grown and of various ages.

She is a tiny little calico, and when she is not hiding in her baby kitten place, she comes to visit.  She is both friendly and brave and when the kittens can walk well enough to follow, they too will come to my porch to supplement their food supply and take a drink when it is dry--all the time these days.

Right now, she comes once a day for food and drink, teats hanging, wrapping around my ankle.  The 2 from her previous litter that survived to self-sufficiency have a little temporary house my daughter built.  The permanent one is not quite done.  Call it a safe house or a refuge from the harshness of nature.

I have never been able to get close to any of her offspring.  She is like the momma killdeer that drags her wing to lead the danger away from her nest.  Red squirrels also distract, but considering how fast her kittens run from me, she must truly feel she is bearding a monster in its den.

I also put out my scraps for the passing possums and raccoons, occasional an armadilla or skunk and when there were strays and coyotes--instead we now hear frequent gunfire in the spring instead of the multi-pitched yodelling of new coyote pups--I would periodically see one of them eating or drinking also.

When she first starts bringing them over, there are frequently 3 or 4.  I never know how many she gave birth to.  But eventually the number will decrease  first to 2-3 then 1-2.  The first ones, grown now, still come by, not as often but certainly as skittish when they arrive.

She always seems a little lost when one is missing.  But she herds those still present with an increased vigor.

I buy food because I can't imagine how hard her life is, and how she is always attentive to babies and always brave about getting between them and me or a dog, or a raccoon, or another cat.

I don't know that I could continue to be that brave.

I remember a poem about the mayfly when I was a child.  I google it and am buried in mayfly poems.  Mayflies are archetypal to humans, apparently.  I must admit, the poems are all good, just as thought-provoking.  Making me feel as ephemeral as a--mayfly.

If you ever go to a cemetery and see the grave of a baby or small child, and feel sad, sad even though the grave has been there over 100 years and the child, if it hadn't died would still be dead, and realized--its not just death.  We want everyone to have a chance to live.  I think that is what makes the mayfly so thought-provoking--3 years in the ground, then one day to awaken, fly, mate, and die.  ONE DAY!

What expectations would I have if I knew it must all occur in one day?

I expect years.  I'm getting old and still expect years.  I still have things to do, goals to reach, experiences to experience.

And yet our young ones, the ones that expect to live forever and ever unending, sign up to go fight for our country, or their country or some ideal or some cause without once thinking--"am I ready to die".  "Why am I risking such an early death?"  "Why am I risking never knowing my children or grandchildren."

I like to think they are trying to be like the brave momma cat. (I wish I believed those ideals were as important as babies)

I hope someone is trying to protect them from the harshness of human nature.