It started out as a normal day, but by 4:00 PM it was threatening. Suddenly, like someone turning on a faucet, the rain came in sheets and buckets. Thunder and lightening. I was in my room looking down at the beach. Rivers of brown muddy water ran from the town streets down channels and into the ocean. In a short time there was a growing area of muddy colored water along the beach area from the rain and mud. The storm continued…
We have taken photos around Old Town of Puerto Vallarta, so yesterday we got a car and driver to explore nearby small villages. These are beach towns averaging 1500 to 3000 inhabitants not counting tourists in the tourist season. We drove to Sayulita, San Francisco, Playa lo de Marcos, Playa Venado Buccerias and Rincon de Guayabitos. The last one is about a one hour drive from Puerto Vallarta. On the way we stopped at a cemetery. It had many above…
I've complained many times about golden parachutes and obscene amounts paid to CEO's of corporations when, under their leadership, they have run the corporation into the ground. See for example https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2007/02/eddie_bauer_pay.html. Now we see Alan Fischman of Washington Mutual jumping the sinking ship with $19 Million. This is a man who has been on the job all of an entire three weeks. He signed on with a $7.5 signing bonus and got a $16.6 million severance payment. Not bad pay…
Our little Napoleon has been the constant friend and companion of Lita and me for fifteen years. He suddenly became sick on Thursday and progressively got worse over the next couple of days. We took him to the vet who felt it was serious so we transfered him to an emergency animal care clinic where tests were done. Blood work and ultra sounds plus other testing was done and repeated. It turned out to be a serious problem. Lita and…
My take regarding the debate, from the viewpoint of a supporter of Obama and Biden, was that both candidates surprised me regarding how well they did as to demeanor and overall impression. Biden did an excellent job. He was poised and not verbose, nor argumentative nor overbearing as some had feared. He had great demeanor and presence. Palin was no less impressive with her self confident, poise and articulate responses. I’m not talking about the content or accuracy nor even the responsiveness of her answers. I’m talking about…
I've read everything George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, writes. His website www.georgelakoff.com and his writings at www.rockridgeinstitute.org should be read by every thinking American. Of course, the fact he is a progressive who is against tort reform and dislikes the policies of George Bush only make him even more intelligent in my eyes. His latest book The Political Mind is outstanding. His description of how people think, why people vote against their…
I've been seeing more and more promoting of candidates for president as the election gets closer in religious circles including my Catholic church. I object to the religious right or the Catholic church promoting one candidate over another on the basis of the candidates moral beliefs to the exclusion of the candidates qualifications to deal with the problems facing America As far as I am concerned every church in the US should have it's tax exemption revoked if it advocates a political…
What do Barrack Obama and Ricardo "El Matador" Mayorga have in common? Mayorga is a boxer whose bravado in the ring used to involve allowing his opponent to take a free punch at his head – that’s what they have in common. I watched the so called debate while Obama invited McCain to take a free swing at Obama's chin and then drop his gloves instead of hitting back. My clear impression is that Obama is not an effective debater. He is too…
In her book The Loss That is Forever, the author, Maxine Harris, talks about an unlikely connection between two very different men, Abraham Lincoln and Adolph Hitler. They both shared fear of death as well as their mutual desire to be remembered in history. Both had suffered deaths in their family. Hitler was orphaned at seventeen and Lincoln’s mother died when he was nine. She says that throughout his life Hitler was obsessed with the idea that time was short and he…
The Huffington Blog points out the following language in the Bush administration’s proposal for a bail out of the failing corporations. It reads: “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” This means that $700 billion of taxpayer dollars to save several financial institutions will be totally at the discretion of the Executive branch without any…
