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Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Booze, Women, and Movies

Senator Chuck Grassley (R - Iowa) said a couple of days ago that a tax cut for the uber-wealthy is not unfair, since so many in the working- and middle-classes spend most of their $$ on - wait for it - booze, women, and movies.

His Republican colleague Orrin Hatch of Utah implied that workers were at fault for being what Hatch called layabouts.

Shame on them both; email them  ...

Budding Buddhist, Serial Blogger

15104 was born when I realized that an educated, well-informed working class is archetypical to progress for the community and for the world.

My mini-epiphany dates back to 2012, when I started blogging in earnest, first with my own website;  then through a collection of essays on politics based upon my growing involvement with Buddhism as a destination for my personal spiritual journey; and finally with a small collection of those essays titled Donkey Dharma.

For the past several years, my blogging has continued, on a number of forums, including the United Steel Workers Union as well as two sites of my own - Thoughts4Change and I Owe It All to J. Thaddeus Toad.  The thread that runs through all these is my to-the-bone conviction of the importance of individual thoughts, speech, actions, and work to accomplish real, significant, non-violent social change.  (Noble eightfold path, or Edmund Pettis Bridge,anyone?)

Cue a reference to Robert Kennedy; he made the case for the impact of individual integrity far more eloquently than I could ever hope to.  Read it and remember it whenever you feel hopelessness creep in ...