Aprilbaby's California Life

Groupthink on Parade

Sometimes you just know when you're on the right side of history.

Challenging the Modern Orthodoxy of Today's Environmentalism

David Bellamy, environmentalist PhD, dared to step out of line with the IPCC, and in doing so has been ignored by the establishment for 10 years. He shares his words of wisdom about the state of science, the benefits of CO2 and his thoughts about "global warming" and Al Gore.

People, like David Bellamy - who dare to speak the truth - never hide in mobs. Galileo wouldn't cower with other scientists just because there's a consensus (he would wonder how we'd know if scientists are being ignored). Galileo would NOT have listened today if Al Gore and scientists shouted, "The debate is closed!" He would wonder their motives. Groupthinkers follow, fail and are forgotten (though some should be sent to prison).

*PS More wise words from a critical thinker who was unafraid to step out of line: Michael Crichton. In this piece he writes -

As most of you have heard many times, the consensus of climate scientists believes in global warming. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.  Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

A Challenge to Everyone who Cares About the Planet!

 
If you REALLY care about the planet, and yet you believe Al Gore's fear-mongering, please answer my questions.

I'm just a person, like you, who wants a wonderful planet for future generations and for my daughter. Caring for the environment isn't a right vs. left thing; it's common sense. I'm an Independent and lifelong lover of the environment. I grew up with a dad who walked the walk - reusing, composting and conserving land. I recycle, used cloth diapers for my baby, drive a small car and do everything I can to not be wasteful.

I have an environmentalist friend so passionate he developed a "clean air" technology power plant which he wanted to bring it to California and would've provided clean air and jobs. But local government shot down the idea - lack of wisdom and lots of corruption. So I know there are many innovative ways to keep the earth healthy, and none of them are scams like Al Gore's cap and trade scheme, which will cripple the economy further AND allow polluters to keep spewing. Even one of the pro-anthroprogenic (man-made) warming scientists hopes this Copenhagen deal goes down in a thud, because he knows cap and trade won’t help the environment.

Unless you're an ideologue bent on doing anything (lying, spreading misleading information, scamming people out of money, etc) for your end gain – no matter what the cost – then, please, answer ALL of the questions. I will hit delete if you cannot answer all of them, simply because I won't know if you really looked at all the information.

If you haven’t looked and thoroughly read ALL of these links (below) and can’t answer ALL of these questions, I will assume two things: 1) You don’t care enough about the future to inform  yourself 2) You are being manipulated with your own compassion by government groups  and corporations who know EXACTLY how to convince you (through propaganda: movies, marketing, fear-mongering and groupthink, that if you dare to question or look closer you are akin to a “flat-earther”) that if you don’t listen to them YOU REALLY DON’T CARE ABOUT THE PLANET.

I admit, in this challenge I am manipulating you in the same way. But my goal? Simply to know why you believe what you believe.

So, if you REALLY care about the planet read/look at these links and then answer the questions at the bottom.

Al Gore and Enron’s Ken Lay, Goldman Sachs devise a carbon credit scheme (similar to derivative swaps that helped bring down the economy w/mortgage defaults)

Obama has his White House filled with former Goldman Sachs employees

From Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone article - Info about Goldman Sachs in the White House and Cap and Trade.

Gore (grilled in this C-SPAN video) has ties to Enron, Goldman Sachs & approves of the bill which Obama signed that’ll put the burden on American citizens of billions (and now people are saying trillions over the years) . At the very same time Al Gore, General Electric (owner of MSNBC and NBC, Goldman Sachs and many others will be raking in the dough)

Also, the head of that source of "solid science" - The IPCC - looks to have a lot to gain financially if the cap and trade tax goes through.

Question group#1: Profiteers - If Al Gore  the very person putting fear into people with his movie, books and speaking tours - and these other corporations will profit greatly while trillions of taxes get passed on to us, while corporations are still allowed to pollute (through carbon credit trading), why do you believe we should go through with cap and trade? Do you still trust the IPCC science knowing the head of the organization may also be a profiteer in man-made global warming?

WHAT'S THERE TO HIDE IN COPENHAGEN?

Then there's the hiding & Spinning from scientists and media -

NASA hiding climate data

A BBC weatherman has admitted he was sent the controversial emails about how to "spin" climate data – more than a month before they were made public.

Associated Press’s Seth Borenstein “in bed” with CRU scientists

Factcheck.org says everything’s fine, just misunderstanding with email. They use sources like CRU press release, IPCC, East Anglia, ABC- and more – who are all involved in the scandal.

Email shows connection to big oil

Why the false hype about glaciers, isn't science on their side? Don't they have the factual statistics? Please Read.

Question Group #2: Dishonest Media - Do you mind that the very people who are giving you news (MSNBC and NBC) are owned by General Electric who is going to get even wealthier in the Gore/Goldman Sach's cap and trade scheme, while we taxpayers pay the price? Do you mind AP journalists like Seth Borenstein give false information to help grant-paid (millions of dollars) scientists and that he discusses this with them in email? You don't mind that Factcheck.org uses CRU (the heart of the email scandal) scientists press releases as legit sources and other organizations, ie IPCC, East Anglia and ABC, who will either profit or have been working on the science of manmande global warming?

 Though you’ve been told there’s a consensus, these scientists beg (no, plead) to differ. And many have said what the CRU scientists have done with their data is an international scientific fraud and that it is helping to destroy science. Listen to their points not being heard about missing warming periods etc :

Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT

Who started a letter to fellow scientists this way: By now everyone has heard of what has come to be known as ClimateGate, which was and is an international scientific fraud, the worst any of us have seen in our cumulative 223 years of APS membership

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/post.aspx?bid=354&bpid=24483

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra6m5ZQbJ6M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsjRn5iQRZA

http://www.plantsneedco2.org/default.aspx/MenuItemID/103/MenuGroup/Home/CO2IsGreenAndGood.htm

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/monckton/goreerrors.html

Question Group #3 Scientists - So you’ve listened to what these (just a sampling of varied voices) have to say? Are they all evil, with malicious intentions and have absolutely no legitimate concerns or interesting hypothesis? If so, why and why not?

Question Group #4: Government - why is Obama refusing to investigate this scandal of the CRU science emails? Many of us, before our economy is hit with a nuclear bomb from cap and trade (which will only allow polluters to keep polluting) , deserve to have our government tell us why we should trust less-than-honest grant-paid scientists. Why is Obama refusing to look into this? Why does he need to go around congress straight to the EPA?

 

Question Group#5 Experts -  Do you realize that “climate experts” warned of a most certain peril of global cooling in the 1970s? Climate experts can very often be wrong. Especially, when they’re paid billions in government grant money to come to a specific conclusion.  But you do not question the scientists who tell you “The science is solid” and that “The debate is closed!” Why?

Last Question: Is this a man you can trust?

*A very wise description of Government Speak today. Please listen

 

Fake Heroes & Groupthink

Galileo wouldn't cower in with the other scientists just because there's a consensus (he would've wonder how we'd know if scientists are being ignored). Galileo would NOT have listened today if Al Gore and other scientists shout, "The debate is closed!" He would have wondered their motives.

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From science writer and speaker Joanne Nova's blog, she wrote something I've noticed for a while now, and it's this:

The most dangerous people in the world are the ones who pretend to have good intentions, and there’s a way to tell the fake heroes from the real ones.

Fake heroes like darkness. Real hero’s like the light.

Fakes don’t like debates, open discussions or other opinions, they don’t want their ideas exposed to the light of polite conversation, or the plasma arc glare of real evidence. To keep everyone in darkness, fake heroes throw names instead of talking politely. They try to intimidate people who disagree to keep them from speaking. Sometimes they even tell lies. (And they tell themselves it’s OK, because the ends justifies the means…)

Read the rest of the post here.

*Also very wise take on Groupthink and propaganda in government. Please listen.

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Long before any of the Climate Research Unit's email came in to question, I've always been suspicious of the over hysterical global warming hype. As I wrote on Joanne's blog:

Since way back when Al Gore and Tipper were grilling Frank Zappa and other rockers regarding censoring their musical content, I considered Gore a phony blowhard. Then he started sweating and screaming (in his dramatic Tennessee drawl) about our most certain peril and how the information he was shouting at us was so absolutely certain "The debate is closed!"

I watched and heard people afraid, yes, afraid to question the great Gore and all the grant  paid climate experts (please note: climate experts in the '70s spoke of our certain demise in a new global ice age. So, as a kid of the '70s, this fear-mongering's nothing new). Two men in Hollywood, standing in front of me in a movie theater line, a few years ago – had this conversation:

Man #1: Can you believe (fill in name here) questions global warming?

Man #2: Gasps and shakes his head in pity for the inhumanity of it all, and looks like he couldn’t imagine a person with so little soul could grace the earth.

That’s when I knew we’d all gone completely crazy.

I immediately thought about a psychological experiment I'd seen on TV, where a hidden camera observed a group of people, one of whom would be the unknowing subject. The leader of the group would stand up and ask: What is 2 + 2?, and then proceed to ask each person in the group. The first person (in on the experiment) would say 2 + 2 = 5. And then the unknowing subject answered afterward with certainty: 2 + 2 = 4, thinking once he answered the first person would realize his mistake. But when the others (in on the experiment) answered afterward: 2 + 2 = 5, just like the first person - the unknowing subject seemed confused... initially. Then, after the questions carried on in a similar way for a while, with the unknowing subject's answers never matching the group, the subject, looking completely defeated, would give up and start answering right along with the group. He caved.

VIDEO ON HOW GROUP THINK WORKS & WHY SOME FALL IN LINE & OTHERS DON'T

That's what I began seeing with these guys in the movie line.

But what scientific information had any of us average people seen that would be so unquestionable at that point. These dudes couldn't possibly be so bullied into not questioning because of Gore's "Inconvenient Truth", could they? The whole "green" marketing campaign by businesses wanting to profit on compassionate guilt hadn't made them feel as if they couldn't question our MOST CERTAIN PERIL OF DOOM FROM GLOBAL WARMING? That was a few years ago, before the inconvenient truth was slyly changed to "climate change". How ironically convenient - since the planet earth has existed it has changed climate, severely. Who can question that? Talk about a win/win situation - When we have cold summers we can be ASSURED it's because of our whacked out planet's spin into our ultimate demise, which we are not to question: IS CERTAINLY CAUSED BY HUMANS.

So, yeah, I long ago ignored Gore's meaty-fist pounding declarations of which "The debate is closed!"

Other than him seeming to be too weirdly certain and his want of propagandizing small children into fear with his movie, I had other reasons to not buy into it. Whenever I’d meet someone in the related sciences (geology, biology) I’d pick their brains (I’m curious like that) about all sorts of things: space, micro and macro physics… (I don’t know a lot, but I like to try and learn more), and in doing so I’d have honest conversations – about solar flares, the earth’s rotation, condensation, historic weather patterns- and how these all play into our climate. These scientists I spoke with didn’t pay much attention to anything the global alarmists had to say, because so many things play a role in climate – I got from them that it’s often hard to say definitely. Still Gore yells “The debate is closed!”

When I started hearing “The debate is closed!” from sweaty old, music-censoring wind-bag Gore, I didn’t stand in line and grovel: yes, sir!

My bullshit detector went BOING! And hit its limit.

So when the CRU email scandal occurred, it just seemed to fit perfectly into my suspicions. And those suspicions, based on many new things I've learned, has only grown. Al Gore and the goofy back-peddaling scientists only look like naked emperors in my eyes.

I have to wonder what critical thinker and musical genius Frank Zappa would think of all this. Somehow, I think he'd be questioning his music-censoring foe. Frank, wasn't a conformist, so the shouting of certainties would probably just make him look all the closer... and do it without giving a crap what people think of him.

Propaganda 101 - Climate Science Scandal

The propaganda I am seeing now, I could only once imagine in the pages George Orwell's "1984".

This "Fact"(myass)check.org piece is an insult to anyone with a working brain when it tells you as "fact", basically: "Walk away. Nothing to see here. No Problem". The way they toss aside the most incredible corruption - one involving governments, government grant paid scientists (paid millions, or is it billions?) and a complicit media - to rock science in recent history, is criminal in its intent.

Factcheck's piece is propaganda for useful idiots, meaning - they want the blind little group-thinkers (who don't question them) to carry their false information as fact. I don't have time to list ALL of the corrupt agencies, corporations, etc. included in their source list, but even someone post-lobotomy can see that a CRU press release can not be trusted. Factcheck's sources are a line up of the corrupt. While they may have some legit sources (I haven't looked closely yet at all of them), you can not include a CRU press release, for example. Are they kidding?!

The CRU, Climate Research Unit, is the very agency under investigation, as are many involved - ie ABC has a stake in making billions off carbon credit scheme.

This site can call themselves "FACT"check all they want. But look at their source list - East Anglia, IPCC, CRU - and more - are all INVOLVED in this historic and horrific scandal of truth in science, journalism and politics.They are the ones that are not being clear with the information involving email that had been manipulated and deleted. SO WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD FACTCHECK.ORG BE STUPID ENOUGH TO PUT THEM AS A SOURCE? 

I can only imagine, "fact"check.org thinks people are not savvy or alert enough to pick up on that.

But don't trust me - do your own research.

If you know anything about IPCC, ABC, East Anglia, CRU, etc., they should have no place in the source list in their own "factcheck". Of course these organizations will give Factcheck.org a PR answer and testify to their own honesty. Much like Al Gore told Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC (who in a corruption of journalism didn't follow up on his lie) that the emails in question are all ten years old. A blatant lie! Not a mistake. A lie! Some emails were only weeks old.

Who is standing up for truth anymore? A good journalist would have done her research and known info like the email dates - seeing as the emails are at the center of the scandal - before the interview. Or was she simply a mouth piece for Gore and his agenda?

Some of Factcheck.org's sources - NASA (who is hiding data), scientists at CRU, IPCC, East Anglia and many more - are the very organizations who have EVERYTHING to hide. For a clear explanation of how these organizations have been less than honest, here's a good video. Some of these companies are used as sources, too. Of course, one little video (like Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth) shouldn't convince you. Of course, you should check on the facts yourself.

See here for a real good break down of what went on in the emails, those emails Factcheck.org wants you to believe are nothing but a tizzy made up by confused fools who dare to question. Factcheck can only be believable to someone who would have no freaking info about this scandal. They're all working overtime to dismiss this scandal of science, government and truth.

More Proof of blatant propaganda. Writer Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press is cozy with the CRU scientists! He's not a writer. He's a propagandist!! Wake up, folks! They're trying to play us like fools. Here's more proof of propaganda.

Here's some truth:

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has a good article about the corporate connections in the White House, which are the same companies that started the carbon trading scheme with Al Gore and Enron's Ken Lay.

This C-SPAN video addresses Gore's corporate connections, which, when asked about, make him squirm.

Emails here with connections to big (oops!) oil, and these emails talk about media spin. Despite the media's propaganda spew, The UK Telegraph has some heroic writers who have balls not to lie for the govt. and the CBC has a hero. And there are some really good scientific websites, where they break down the data.

So the information is out there - not that the mainstream media (General Electric - a big profiteer in cap and trade - owns NBC and MSNBC) will be giving you the truth, or even both sides, but if you know know how to be discerning, you can find good info. You can see some of the links I have re: this scandal, here.

Sadly, more people care about Tiger Woods' sex life - hence our problem. That's why Factcheck.org can put out idiotic sources (CRU press release - holy shit, only an imbecile would nod their head w/ assurance of that "solid" information.)

Factcheck.org, like the majority of media sources, depends on people to be apathetic. They must believe people know and care more about Lady Ga Ga and Adam Lambert than the scandal that's going on around the world.When you hear the same pathetic sound bites: "The emails were cherry picked" "The science is solid" "There's a consensus amongst scientists" (These scientists beg to differ as do these scientists and these scientists all with a variety of very good reasons) and "The debate is closed!"

No, for anyone with working brain matter those sound bites won't cut it. We proudly use our brains and wonder what is there to hide? Why is Obama refusing to investigate? And why in the world is Obama bypassing congress to go straight to the EPA? Are we only subjects who are supposed to take in propaganda from hysterical and fear-mongering movies about our peril and grant paid scientific agency press releases? Are we really supposed to listen when told don't look behind the curtain? Are we children who are simply supposed to behave? Are we only cogs in the system who are to listen when told to shut up and sit down?

I won't.

I think there's enough reason and it's too important to let White House spokesman Robert Gibbs tell us our questions about all this are "silly". Times are changing too fast for us to get our information from blogs that tell us some dumb ass "wingnuts" are morons for questioning "the solid science". Please, don't simply believe information that sits on top of pop culture like sewage scum. Wake up.

Signed,

Your average California mom-turned Guerrilla journalist.

*Sorry, with all the money that will be had with a carbon tax scheme that will be passed on to us in taxes, and could likely cripple us and not really help the environment, I'm hardly convinced it was all: Nothing to look at here, folks! Move along.

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This video's a classic, as in "What did that Green Peace dude just say?!"

But, seriously, Please do not ignore what's going on. This a massacre of not only journalism, but truth and science. So please keep informed.

Don't Worry! Al Gore Will Save the world!

I started to read this article, but couldn't get by the opening:

"With Al Gore’s Oscar and Nobel Prize, shared with a U.N. panel that declared climate change a reality, I had thought the debate over the science of climate change was essentially over and that even laypersons (non-scientists) understood..."

Gee, I can't understand why we thick-headed plebeians didn't just sop up what Gore, a  wealthy-mansion-living-private-jet-flying politician (oh, did I forget he owns a zinc mine that pollutes?) told us. I mean, he did make a movie about global warming and said it was the truth - complete with animated drowning polar bears... so, HELLO! That must mean it's reality. How stupid can we be? Not only did his propaganda (I mean) very factual and heart-wrenching film make it very clear we all can forget going to New York in twenty years because it's going be under the sea, but - damn - the man received an actual Nobel prize, just like Arafat and Barack (I'm sending young people off to war, but let me swing by and pick up my Peace Prize) Obama did.

With all this solid, factual, non-questionable info, how in the world could we question this stuff-Gore-just-made-up-to-scare-people-into-his-carbon-scheme... er, I mean solid scientific data? Even if those CRU scientists have been paid millions/maybe billions by taxpayers and did "accidentally lose" some goofy ol' data & say odd things about hiding declines, that's just what really good scientists do all the time! So, hey, let's just wing it... call it Global Warming (what? Right. I forgot it's been changed because, I don't know, our planet's constantly warming and cooling - like it did from the ice age and warmed during the Medieval period.. doesn't matter), I'll do whatever the world leaders want - call it "climate change".

I'm so goofy. I have to start behaving and listen to my politicians. Yes, sir, Mr. Gore! I won't ever debate this again.You're right - it's closed! I'll tell those physicists and other scientists who care about science to just stop being so silly (you know, like White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs said the other day) and to not take science so seriously.

Remember, it's good science to "lose" important data, hide stuff, bully your peers, say that "Heck, this all played out in scientific peer reviews" and pretend that a lot of human biases, pay offs by governments and other goofy stuff like politics doesn't taint science AT ALL. Duh!

AND NOW A BRIEF INTERMISSION (FROM MY RANT):

*That program was brought to you by: See, I lived through the hysterical '70s. What's there to fear? And by Andrew Halperin, who posted it on Facebook.

AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING:

So that writer of the above article is right! The debate is caput, finis, skee-daddled, Hasta la Vista, Baby (as the great Ahnold -I'm-going-to-save-the-world-from-melting-just-like-I-saved-Caleefornia- Schwartz..whatever-his-name-is said) - it's closed, that debate.

Okay, I won't think. I'll just bend over and take it while those all powerful fancypants are planning my financial demise in Copenhagen; a place they flew to in private jets, arrived in limos... and are now dining on caviar, sipping Champagne, rubbing green elbows with Leo Di Caprio and other notable environmental geniuses, and some may possibly be taking advantage of the FREE prostitutes. So, hey, it is still a free world! Good to know.

Just screw me and my stupid ol' trying to scrape by self - and my dumb ol' family, community, businesses, industries who innovate, hire (or have been trying)...

But it's all worth it, right? In order to deplete the world of carbon dioxide (CO2). Should I forget plants and life thrive on that, too, and just pretend it's all evil, nasty, tarry, disgusting stuff that coats the planet like an acidy syrup? Okay, I will. 'Cuz Gore's Carbon swaps will work like magic erasers and clean the air of all things bad and only do good will come to the world...

Little African children will never lose parents from murderous thugs in the Sudan and the Congo. Iranian women will never again be stoned and gay Iranian men won't be hanged. People all over the world will glow under the glorious light of Gore, Obama, the UN ...

Okay, I feel good. That's what matters, right?

NOW STAY TUNED FOR OUR NEXT PROGRAM - REALITY CHECK FROM GEORGE CARLIN:

Climate Science Scandal: Corruption of Science, Journalism & Government

“Our lives begin to die the day we become silent about things that matter” - Martin Luther King

In my lifetime, I've never seen a more horrifying breech of trust in science, government and journalism than this climate science scandal. So I can't just sit here and watch the lies, lies coming from our government, the media and the scientific community. I care too much about the future of this world. What's going on in this climate science scandal shouldn't be about left vs. right; I'm an Independent. Our parties shouldn't matter. It's about us (the people) vs. them (the powerful government agencies and corporations). I wish we'd all stop bickering and let the real enemy know we're on to them and that we're not going to take it anymore.

The other victims in this science scandal - besides us citizens - are truth in science and journalism. Both are experiencing a moment of corruption I - just a California mom, wife, business owner and writer - never imagined could occur. I'm completely aware that I risk the chance of sounding conspiratorial and loony, which - until you do your own research - I may sound. You can see from my previous posts on this blog, I'm pretty normal, maybe a little klutzy and goofy... just an average person. But if I were to stay silent and apathetic, I couldn't live with myself. Honestly.

And, of course, I care about the planet and our environment. I have since I was a kid, a daughter of a man who composted, put a bucket in the shower to reuse the water and all kinds of other inconveniences of living with a tree hugger. I'm passionate about the environment, I just wonder how allowing corporations to continue to spew pollution (due to trading carbon credits) is supposed to help the planet. I've heard about environmentalists with all sorts of innovations and technologies that have nothing to do with allowing polluters to keep polluting, and will benefit the economy rather than putting the burden on the citizens with trillions of dollars in taxes.

I have a friend who invented a clean air technology power plant, which would not only provide clean energy, but jobs. Unfortunately, that made too much sense. He's had to fight California local government for years to get it going. There's too much corruption and not enough wisdom in government. It never happened.

I hear people who are gung-ho on sending Obama off to Copenhagen to talk about the carbon cap and trade tax - a scheme cooked up by Al Gore, Enron's Ken Lay and Goldman Sachs. These Hopenhagen boosters say things like "Well I love the planet and I will do whatever it takes to save us from our certain peril." As soon as I hear this I wanna punch Al Gore for planting this idea of our ultimate peril. Next, I wonder if these people realize this: The carbon tax scheme will still allow polluters to polute, and in the meantime corporations are drooling for their share of the jackpot. But us? We're going to get screwed, stuck with billions, some say trillions in debt. And our economy is already suffering. There are many better ways to help the environment than filling the pockets of corporations.

I'm Coming Out... Politically Speaking

“Our lives begin to die the day we become silent about things that matter” - Martin Luther King Jr.

I've kept my political opinions to myself for a long time now, simply because it's easier. It's been extremely hard because I am passionate about my philosophies. Fact is, people tell me their opinions about politics, economics, etc. on a daily basis and I might make a vague comment, but - in the name of "let's all get along", I keep my mouth shut. I can't any longer.

There's way too much corruption. I've seen too many people affected in the last years by what goes on in local, state, federal and world govts. to sit by with my mouth shut listening to everyone else. If people don't like me for my politics, so what.

I've posted some of my views here, the others I sometimes bare on my Facebook account.

I'm a registered Independent, because I never want to have to claim a party and become defensive of the individual politicians. I don't care about the politicians, I care about the philosophies. I am an anti-collectivist, small-government business owner who understands how business (when unhampered by mandates & taxes) benefits people, communities and the country... heck, the world - even. I believe I would be a "classical" Liberal, in the JFK ideal if that were the case today.

With California and the country in a financial mess - while trying to run a few businesses in this cesspool of useless, money-grubbing California legislators and minions and threats of Federal mandates - I am only hurting myself and my country by staying silent. An almost tangible result of my inaction is the house full of child-rapists three doors down from me, as but one example.

If we all stood up and fought back, would the government dare put our families in jeopardy this way? I think not.

The other thing that's eating me up inside is that I'm a writer, and it's driving me mad that the media can cover Tiger Woods and other celebrity types, while missing all the real stories that affect us directly.  The media is NOT on our side. That's no conspiracy; it's just a fact. They let the big crooks run amok while as they gossip about celebs and report on small time crooks.

Mainstream journalism is dead. If you want to find out information, do your own research. While your at it, check out the Meagan's Law website, because no government official is going to let you know when a house full of perverts moves in nextdoor. Believe me, I found out the hard way.

Rant - Useless California & LA Government & Child Rapists!

I pay business taxes, city taxes, property taxes, Franchise board taxes, state taxes, some of the highest (9.75%) state sales taxes in the country, hidden taxes (that were supposed to keep us safe w/ more police. Not!) embedded in my electrical/water/trash bill, amongst outrageous cost of living and no incentives for my businesses.

And what do I get from governments? A house full (about 6 to 8) pedophile rapists living three doors away from me.

Dennis Zine, Mayor Villaraigosa, useless LA city council you've messed with the wrong person.

I'm enraged.

And yes I did just (upon hearing this news & seeng photos of the perverts (most of whom I see milling around, but didn't realize...) just yell to my neighbor toward the rapists' government leased house:

"Those rapists even look at my daughter and I'll cut off their f***en balls!"

Los Angeles government has messed with the wrong person.

*Just spent two hours talking to police, deputies, city council assistance... "Look, I'm sick of talking to people who just pass the buck. Who's the big cheese, the one has some power?" I told Deputy Martinez in Dennis Zine's office.

It's Alex Padilla and Bob Blumenfeld. I'd give them a huge chunk of my firey mind - if they'd just answer their phones.

California's basically bankrupt. Run the state into the ground, they house pedophile sex offenders in single family homes with children without informing us.

Arrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Stuffed with Turkey & Awkward Family Photos

I hope everyone had a really nice and un-awkward thanksgiving! My only cringe-inducing moment came while my husband sliced my perfectly bronzed, brandy-basted turkey and discovered that I had accidentally left the little baggy of gizzards inside the turkey as it roasted. He then pulled the bagging from my bronzed turkey in front of my horrified family. Oh well... at least this year there weren't any kitchen fires!

After sitting around with family, I did a little surfing on the internet and discovered my new favorite site: Awkward Family Photos. I looked through the photos for nearly a half hour laughing out loud, maybe because I could relate. What is it they say about tragedy mixed with comedy?

I sent the link to my sister, knowing she could relate. She then wrote back mentioning some of our own family photos that would qualify for the site. But my first thought went to this photo below of my just-out-of-the-navy father spending a little quality time with me.

Recently, I did a little Photoshop work (below) on the photo and emailed it to my dad. He still has a twisted sense of humor.

 

Meet my Alter Ego: Billboard Betty!

I know, I know! I haven't been blogging much. My excuse? Running our family business and going to school. But now I've started a whole new exciting business - one I can't yet reveal. But if you want to join Betty's Facebook Fan Page. You'll be the first to know what I'm Betty's got up her sleeve.

Billboard Betty - Marketing Maven and Promo Queen

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This LA Girl Loves (No... Lurves!) NYC - It's So Obvious!!

Here's a slideshow of photos from only our first evening and the following day in NYC. I kept them in the same order as I took them. So click on the link, sit back and spend a little time in New York City with me.

In the movie “Annie Hall”, Woody Allen's character Alvy said to Annie about his feelings for her: “Love is, is too weak a word for what I feel - I lurve you, you know, I loave you, I luff you…”

That’s how I feel about New York City: I lurve it! 

My husband and his partner Steve Firlotte were nominated for a Tec Award in NYC for the recording console they designed and built: the Tree Audio 500. So off we went to New York to attend the awards. He didn’t win.  But we devoured New York City every day, every minute that we were there…  I can’t believe I’ve lived my whole life without really experiencing the city (one visit as a child and once as a parent on a 5th grade field trip don't count) until now.

I fell in love the moment we stepped out of JFK Airport when a cab dispatcher barked at us. My husband got into the JFK airport cab line the wrong way - "That's the wrong way. The line is over there! It's so obvious!" the cab dispatcher yelled in a nasal New York accent, sounding like this: It's so awwwwb-veeeeeuhhsss!

Seconds later, as we stood in the cab line, a Russian-sounding cab driver argued with his passengers as they tried to squeeze large packages into his taxi trunk. The large Russian cab driver yelled, "No! Packages not fit.. I can not" But he was interrupted by a female cab driver who heard the commotion and yelled to him out of her taxi window, "What the hell you talkin' 'bout?! Just put the damn packages in!"

"Welcome to New York!" The out-of-towners behind us said in unison.

I loved the place from that moment on.

And my love only multiplied from there, like a multi-sensory kaleidoscope effect with colors, shapes, sounds, smells, flavors compounded into a dizzying array in my head. One sensation layered upon another. I think I blurted out one night in Greenwich Village "I want to lick the sidewalks!"

Don't worry, I didn't.

I love how the city smells so thick of food (lamb kabobs, sauteing garlic, pizza, Indian food...) it almost makes the air seem edible, as if I could bite into it. The entire city - the people, the racing cabs, the subways, the street musicians, the colorful corner vegetable stands - invigorated me. I loved stepping out our door and into the middle of life, life moving so fast if you stop in the midst of it you'll be plowed down. In NYC I felt like I was in some sort of time warp, super-humanly capable of experiencing more in four and a half days than I have in a normal month. Yet we were never tired.

Here's a video from our first day in NY. Ian and I entered Central Park, heard music and singing... Beatles' songs. Then we stumbled upon a group of people celebrating John Lennon's birthday.

Stay tuned! Many more photos of our NYC week to follow.

Get In the Car and Drive

Get in the car and drive. That’s what my husband, Ian, and I like to do when Friday night rolls around and we’d forgotten to make plans. Usually we won’t have a destination in mind, only vague ideas – Let’s drive over Topanga toward the ocean, drive along Wilshire, head over to Santa Monica, maybe downtown…

One recent Friday night, we hopped on Wilshire near Beverly Hills and just kept going toward downtown. We stopped to pay our respects to the desolate and nearly empty lot where the Ambassador Hotel once stood. With just the sound of cars wooshing by now, I stared at the haunting space and thought I could almost hear a big band blaring from the Cocoanut Grove.  But the Ambassador is but a memory; meanwhile across the street, an old neighbor, the Gaylord apartment building still stands lit up and full of life.

Back in our car, we continued down Wilshire, and turned down a street beside Macarthur Park. There, we stumbled upon a whole new universe for us. Out of the dark, with downtown LA skyscrapers glowing in the background, a bandstand lit up in pink  and purple lights, seeming to float in the dark. We rolled down the window and could hear a band playing - conga drums, quick and energetic. We could see silhouettes of people dancing.  Latin music filled the air.  We got out, listened to the band and then walked near the park’s lake.

There was a festival – parents and children rode on tiny roller-coasters and whirling rides; the smell of roasted meats and corn floated by. A Mexican man and woman tried to tame an angry miniature horse that seemed to finally have enough of begin humiliated for the public’s humor.

 

Only a half-hour car ride from home and yet we’d felt like we were miles from home.

 

So last Friday night, we headed to Santa Monica with the idea of stopping in a café or a pub… or whatever we’d stumble upon along the way.

 

It was just after 8pm, when got to Main Street.  The cool little bead shop, the eclectic toy store, the collectible store and California bohemian clothing stores were already closed. But the pubs, cantinas and outdoor cafes swarmed with people. Each time we walked by one happening spot we’d hear the sounds of chatter and laughter, and even caught snatches of conversation. One long-haired surfer dude to another guy:  ”Dude, he’s totally  involved, dude, in organized crime… dude.” One dude per every three words, I figured. My husband nodded. We passed a night time painting and wine drinking class taking place on a patio. Students painted and studied their easels while sipping glasses of wine.

 

Then we came to Jadis, a shop we’d peeked into many times before but had never seen opened. This night it was. In the window stands a replica of the robot, Maria, from the film “Metropolis”. It’s surrounded by a crowd of whirling and flapping gadgets, whose-its, what’s-its and whatcha-ma-callits that look like they came from a Dr. Seuss story. With the store lit up, my electronic engineer husband gaped at the floor to ceiling collection of antiquey-looking electronics with dials, coils, meters and knobs. I think I saw him drool.

 

While Ian ogled the gadgetry through the window, I walked to the front door and studied the posted signs: “Knowledge ain’t nothin’” and “Disorganize what you don’t know.” And then I saw a sign that said we could knock on the door and enter for $2 per person. But no cameras or laughing are allowed, one sign warned.

 

My husband knocked. I stood behind him. A skinny man with a long white-haired ponytail opened the door.  We put our dollars in a dish and entered. The skinny man began to tell us what the store was all about. First he asked if we knew anything about Ray and Charles Eames. Ian and I nodded, we were both big collectors of mid-century furniture back in the 1980s. We were so into our mid-century furniture that on our first date when Ian entered my apartment and saw my amoeba shaped coffee table (I’d bought at a garage sale), he knew we were a match. That and the way I devoured my Moroccan food later that evening. So, yeah, we knew all about the Eames' designs, have been to some of their art exhibits, have books about them and have their films on DVD. We love the Eames.

 

Well, the man told us, then we’d appreciate what the shop’s all about since the owner Parke Meek - a man with only a sixth-grade education and an inquisitive and imaginative mind - who worked with Ray and Charles Eames, designed props for Hollywood and collected his shop-full of curiosities along the way. Since Ian also designs and engineers recording consoles (and is real into vintage electronics) it was an extra bonus, considering our tour guide once worked in some capacity for the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra. So Ian and our tour-guide hit it off. They stopped at every techno, electro sort of meter-type of object and discussed them in detail, nodding and shaking their heads in mutual amazement.

 

While they talked, I roamed the room. As I ogled the collectible curiosities, I thought about the shop’s owner Parke Meek - his work, his imagination, his curiosity and his lack of schooling. I thought about the quote that’s been attributed to Mark Twain: “I never let schooling get in the way of my education". And realized some of the most amazing people I’ve met and know, have never stopped asking questions – Why? What? How? Why not? They’ve never forgotten to be childlike and curious.

 

Ian and the pony-tailed man shook hands, and we thanked him for his tour.

Then we went across the street to the Irish pub, Finn McCools, for a plate of garlic fries and two black and tans. As an extra bonus, the baseball game between Colorado and LA Dodgers was playing on a TV screen just above our heads. Curiosities, garlicky-fries, black and tans and baseball, too. 

 

Sometimes there's nothing better than just getting in the car and driving - like when I was a kid, and I'd get on my bike and ride. I'd explore and wonder what else is out there. I never want to stop doing that.

 

My Slideshow of the San Fernando Valley

As I wrote in my Daily News piece, "Valley State of Mind":

The Valley is constantly portrayed in the media, and by those who dwell on “the other side of the hill,” as nothing more than a sun-baked wasteland of mini-mall strewn streets under a tangle of wires and smog, where only illiterate meth addicts, porn stars, and frosted-haired simpletons would choose to live; where cuisine no more exotic than canned ravioli can be found, and where the suburban sprawl is consuming us Valley-dwellers under its mass, oozing over us until we suffocate beneath it, rendering our brains (what little brain matter we have) useless.  The Valley, the critics repeatedly tell us, is making us all fat, dull, stupid and soulless.

But we Valleyites know the Valley is home to more than mini-malls. Here's my San Fernando Valley Slideshow.

Like some music to accompany the San Fernando Valley slideshow?

LA Will Miss You, Julius Shulman!!

*I wrote this last month, the day I found out Julius Shulman died. But I just found some photos I took of the day I met Julius on his 95th birthday, and wanted to add them. They show how alive and exuberant he was, even at 95. 1) Julius and Me 2) Julius hoisting a beer -

 

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(Julius Shulman photo of Stahl House, Case Study #22)

Julius Shulman died 7/15/2009. This post, below, was originally written 7/16/2009

I just learned Julius Shulman, iconic LA photographer, died Wednesday at the age of 98. As a writer, I was incredibly fortunate to attend his 95th Birthday at the Getty Museum, which coincided with his Modernity and the Metropolis photography exhibit.

Just two days ago, I told someone how inspirational Julius is to me. The day of his 95th birthday at the Getty, after his lecture, people mingled, sipped cocktails - a rather stiff and stuffy affair. Then Julius wheeled into the room. With a huge smile on his face and eyes so alive they seemed to radiate electricity, the entire space buzzed with new energy. Eventually, he got up to talk about the book he was workING on. Yes," ing", not past tense - but at the moment and in the future. The man was 95 and still excited about his work!

And what a lifetime of work he already had accumulated. His stunning photographs conveyed the best of LA: creativity, innovation, sleek style, landmark-worthy architecture. From his lecture, he seemed to say his life in photography all began in a mystical fluke of events. As for mystical, His decades of photographs helped to make LA seem that way, mystical, nearly mythical, a city that stands out as unique from anywhere else, a place where a person can do anything, even build (earthquakes be damned!) a home that seems to float in the air, jutting out from the Hollywood Hills, above the sparkling lights and palm trees of Los Angeles. Julius' photographs captured these midcentury modern architectural masterpieces in such a way that LA looks like a fantasy of possibilities.

Now gone, Julius will live on in his photos and within this city. He made a difference and will be greatly missed.