Monopoly: Version 2012

If Monopoly Had Just Been Invented...

The Donald Makes an Ass of Himself, Yet Again

More from the 'Rape Babies are a Gift from God' Crowd

Hello friends, I know I haven’t been overly personal so far with this page, but that’s going to change right now! It’s one thing to read the things I write on politics, religion, and pop culture or what I post on other pages and how I craft an argument, it’s another to have a window into what drives me and my passion for all the things I'm passionate about.

What I would like to talk about right now is a wonderfully fantastic treatment I discovered, or at least started doing, just a few years ago and continue to do on a regular basis. Acupuncture! I’ve always been a proponent of Eastern approaches to medicine and healing, I’ve even done chiropractic for a long time and swear by that, too. However acupuncture has had the most profoundly noticeable benefits of any healthcare option I’ve ever tried or been treated with.

A little back-story seems appropriate…

So, in the past 5 years or so, I have been through massive upheaval, change, and personal growth in my life that began with my father being diagnosed with cancer that was immediately declared terminal. At the time of his diagnosis, my dad and I didn’t have the best relationship and we hadn't spoken in over 10 years. I didn't even hear it from him, one of my sisters told me. But I took the opportunity then to reach out and wrote him a letter.

My dad had been retired, living in Maine, which is an amazing place I hadn't been to since I was a kid. I live in San Diego and went to visit as soon as I could, which is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. I had a lot to say to him. And talk about surreal, I was completely outside my body watching myself walk up to the door. Keep in mind that I am 6'-4" and weigh about 210 lbs. My dad had always been about 6'-5" and weighed around 300 lbs. as long as I could remember. Big guy. But I hadn't seen him in a long time. All I remembered was that I always had to look up to him. When he came to the door, which was a short step up from the stoop I was standing on, he was a little shorter than me. His skin had no color, he had no hair, and he looked like he was dying. But he was smiling from ear to ear. He welcomed me with open arms and we went into the house and made small talk for a few minutes, but I'm not real good at that under normal circumstances, let alone this! My dad and I then sat down in the living room and talked for hours.

I forgot that he was a very intelligent and thoughtful man. I found myself wishing I had known him better as an adult. As we drew this first conversation to a close, we embraced for the first time since I was a kid and then went out to his favorite pub for a beer and dinner. He introduced me to everyone we saw in his small, beach community, still a proud father. The time, the history, everything. it didn't matter to him, he was just so happy that I was there. As if I had always been there.

So.. fast forward almost a year later, the cancer finally took him. When my phone rang, I knew before I answered, but it didn't hit me right away. My step-mom was crying, telling me what a great man he was. I consoled her and immediately made arrangements to fly out for the funeral. I also reflected on my last conversation with him just a week earlier, and actually smiled because the last words I ever said to him were, “I love you.” My oldest sister and I still get a little misty thinking about that. She will say, “That’s all he needed to hear, and then he was ready to go.”

As I prepared to fly back east again, I also began to think about how I also had not seen anyone on my dad’s side of my family since I was a kid. I knew before I got there that they were waiting to see me. I had no idea how I would be received mostly because I hadn't seen or spoken to most of them for so long, and like I said, my dad and I didn’t have a good relationship. When I got to my dad's house there were about a dozen people, all family, I hadn't seen since I was very young just waiting for me to get there. I was welcomed with open arms again, which was an incredibly humbling experience. I feel like I was treated the entire time as if I was the guest of honor. They were all so pleased to introduce me to everyone everywhere as my father's son. I could barely even talk the whole time, I was so utterly blown away.

My dad died the day before New Year’s Eve and apparently there are no burials in Maine during the winter months, don't ask me why. Just part of the charm! So there was no funeral on this trip, just a memorial. I went out for the funeral months later in the spring. At the funeral home where the memorial took place, a lot more of my family and my dad's friends were there. I kept catching people just staring at me, and I began to realize that they were staring at me, not just because they hadn't seen me since I was a toddler, but because I look just like him, and more than that, I also have many of his mannerisms, his gentle disposition, his smile, and his dry sense of humor and they were tripped out whenever I would say something that my father would have said.

Since he knew he was going to die, he made all arrangements ahead of time so no one would have to deal with it. He had an open casket, which is not my thing, but nevertheless, I do appreciate seeing him one last time. After the memorial was over and people were filtering out, I found myself alone with him in the parlor. I stared at him for a while and I could feel it coming.. Everyone was meeting at a lodge for lunch, so I went outside to go, and as I was walking up to my oldest sister, I broke down. We both sat there and just cried. It was quite an overwhelming experience that I continue to be amazed at the impact on my life it had and has.

I should introduce the other factor of this story, that I used to be married. My ex-wife and I were together for about 14 years when we separated, 8 ½ of which we were legally married and 12 years we lived together. 13 of those 14 years I would say are good ones, even with the usual ups and downs people experience as everything seems to be cyclical. She didn’t come to the memorial for good reasons, but came to the burial later in the spring.

The issues that I had with my dad and his terminal condition triggered a bout of severe depression inside me and I grew distant from everyone, including my ex. She was also struggling with her own stuff and so we grew apart in the last year we were together, despite having had a long and wonderful relationship I cherish up to that point. Even though I could see that things were deteriorating, I was in a deep hole with no energy, motivation, or perspective to do anything about it and just assumed that we would work it out. We weren't fighting until the very end, just uncommunicative and both in our own little bubbles.

It wasn’t long after my dad died that she decided to leave. I was devastated and almost completely unable to function. I took a leave of absence from my job, but ended up not going back because it was a miserable place to work. I decided immediately when I stopped working that I was going to take that opportunity to focus on me, get through the crippling depression, and learn how to live a healthier and more balanced lifestyle.

My original intention was to go back to work within 6 months, however market forces dictated that I was to be out of work just over a year, which ended up being a really good thing because the universe then rewarded me with a great job at a great little firm doing what I love to do! While I was “on sabbatical,” I decided to treat myself as often as I could afford, so I had a couple of massages and was referred to an amazing acupuncturist I just had another amazing treatment from this morning!

The first time I went to see her, I arrived 30 minutes early to go over my medical history and what I was seeking treatment for plus all the liability stuff she’s required to inform me of. At that time, I went into the little room with a massage table and laid down on the table wearing only shorts. I was pretty depressed, so laying on a massage table for an hour and not moving was not a problem! She stood over me with her eyes closed and her hands just an inch or so above my torso. She began to put needles in me. All over. My torso, my neck, my arms, hands, legs, and feet. When she left, I looked and saw all these little needles all over my body. Then I just closed my eyes and let my mind wander with the soft, meditation music in the background.

At the end of the treatment, I laid on the table for another 15 or 20 minutes after the needles were out before getting up. Something was different. I felt different. I was so relaxed and had no tension anywhere from head to toe. I walked out to the reception area to pay and set up the next appointment. I felt so different, I was distracted by it! And it was good!

I went home and was just walking around with a smile on my face! I wasn’t even stoned!! A little while later my mom called randomly just to say, “Hi,” and chat, and she almost immediately asked me what I had been doing before she called. I told her that I had just had acupuncture. And she said that she noticed that my voice was relaxed and that I sounded so good. Much better than she had heard me sound in well over a year and she advised me to continue with acupuncture. I’m tearing up a little as I type this part.. :)

For the first 6 months or so, I got acupuncture every week, but have gradually whittled that down to once a month. Given the choice between an hour long massage and an hour of acupuncture, I will choose the latter every time. Or both! So as I wrap up, I really want everyone still reading this to know that I am extremely grateful for acupuncture and how much it has benefited me. Because of my experience, I am a very strong advocate of this healthcare practice, not just for what I was treated for, but for just about everything. I recommend for anyone to look into it for chronic pain, depression, anxiety, recovery from injuries, or anything else that might be troubling them, and keep in mind that it is not necessarily designed to be performed instead of other treatments, but also in conjunction with whatever else you may be doing to improve your health either specifically or generally.

So the things to take away from this long-winded, personal story are:

1. Quit smoking tobacco now,
2. Don’t take relationship advice from me,
3. Don’t pass up an opportunity to reach out to someone from your past, and
4. Get acupuncture!

Thank you,
‘Sean’

Paul Ryan Tells Another Whopper

Mitt Throws Big Bird Under the Bus

My Two Cents on the 'Public v. Private' Debate

"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all." -John Maynard Keynes

Deregulation and privatizing what used to be public is only a benefit to those with the power and resources to monopolize the industry and it typically comes at the expense of everyone else. Argue what you will, but performance is the only true measurement of policy. And the policies promoted by the Republican Party simply do not work, no matter how good they look on paper or sound when a pundit is regurgitating them.

In regard to performance, here in California we deregulated and privatized our energy utilities in the mid 90s. Even I was for it at the time because we were all led to believe that we would be able to pick our electrical provider, like we do with our cell phones and internet providers, and that competition would raise the quality while lowering the price. Well, 16 years later, my electricity is no better. It also isn't cheaper, in fact, it is quite a bit more expensive, and since deregulating, we have had numerous periods of rolling blackouts, something that never occurred when regulated. So the result is that the price has continued to go up while the quality has gone down.

Essentially what happened was that once regulations were removed, energy providers monopolized territories and were no longer required to keep ahead of the demand. They quit building new power plants, they quit improving existing ones so their operating costs went down, and as the demand steadily increased, the supply remained the same. That sent the prices through the roof. And as the demand surpassed the supply, we began to experience rolling blackouts where entire grids were shut down and millions went without power for hours and even days at a time.

So now, a couple of people have gotten extremely wealthy, the cost of electricity is significantly higher, and during peak power usage periods, electricity is an unaffordable luxury for most. Great! Let's privatize everything! Just don’t ‘slippery slope’ my opinion, I'm all for people working hard and making a great and prosperous living, I am just against manipulating the market through illegal and unethical channels that allow individuals to get extremely wealthy very quickly, and at the expense of everyone else.

The oil companies basically do the same thing. Remember when gas prices first hit 4.00/ gallon during the Bush years and the Saudis offered to increase production to flood the market and bring the price down, and Bush said no thanks? Keeping the supply closer to the demand allows those with the supply to charge more because there is seemingly less. Allowing manipulation of the market like this all the while providing tax breaks and subsidies to those companies who have also reported recod high profits ever since the government invaded an oil rich country sounds criminal when you say it out loud.

Another example is how privatizing prisons has both affected the freedom of private citizens and cost the taxpayers more than having a publicly run prison system. Occupancy quotas in the contracts owners of private prisons have with state governments require 90% or more of the prison cells to be filled at all times, or at least paid for. The state is then obligated to keep prisons full, even if crime rates are down and people get arrested and incarcerated for less and less. And if the prisons are always full, it might seem like we always need more.

People who think deregulating and privatizing everything seem to be living in a fantasyland where everyone is out for fair competition like they’re saying, "May the best man win!" And that no one in this fairy tale would ever manipulate the system from behind the scenes or cheat their way to the top. Performance shows that leaving some people to their own ethical discipline is harmful to over 90% of the population and that is simply unacceptable. I’m sorry but those greedy, money-grubbing, corrupt, unethical, opportunistic vultures ruined it for everyone.

When it comes to utilities and services that everyone needs for day to day living, allowing that market to be manipulated by a few extremely wealthy people who stand to get significantly wealthier while the masses of people suffer is dangerous and it is precisely what makes third world countries third world countries. Undeveloped countries don’t have public infrastructure, and companies and wealthy individuals who have no interest in the culture or the general welfare of the people largely dominate the markets. Utilities are completely private and are unaffordable luxuries for the masses. Just a handful of people own everything and those same people control the political process, and while that may be good for them, it is not good at all for anyone else. Because of that, I am left to conclude there are some things that just shouldn’t be left in the hands of private, profit-driven interests. That’s not the USA I want.