Quote of the Day: “If there isn't deep integrity and fundamental character strength, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will replace short-term success." —Stephen R. Covey
One of the most inspiring stories of 2008: 'Good Samaritan' saves crying woman's foreclosed home (from CNN.com)... But first some infuriating things my husband said that weren't so funny while they were happening...
Spiritual architecture
My husband and I went to a sports bar to watch the last Packer game of the season on Sunday. We had so much fun — but we have the goofiest relationship. Paul hates it when I use big words; he always wants me to act like a dumb blonde. So when the waitress came over to take our order I happened to be telling him an idea for a chapter in my book called "Spiritual Architecture" he got really embarrassed and told me to please not use intelligent words like that. "It might make the waitress uncomfortable," he said.
WTF?? Was he implying the waitress was stupid? No. What he meant was that he wanted me to fit into the Neanderthal crowd. Usually I have to use very pornographic language just to get his attention.
When we fight, we are talking to each other's wounds...not to each other. We fight over who’s being nicer. We strangle each other over who is doing the Golden Rule better. This reminds me of my favorite line from Dr. Strangelove: “You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!”
By the way, when I first met my husband I was shocked at how much TV he watched. And it was always some celebrity tabloid show featuring the flavor of the month. I asked him, “Don’t you think we’re too obsessed with celebrities in this culture? He just stared at the TV and said, “No, it’s educational.”
My big question is, why am I experiencing life with this particular person? Oh yeah, according to Bob Lancer -- the purpose of marriage is to learn compassion!
So I asked him, “Tell me how, how is it educational to learn how many belly-button rings or mansions Britney Spears has? I think this is making us a nation of covetous, jealous, greedy, panicky zombies.”
He wouldn't answer. He was zoned out staring at the TV, and didn't hear me.
Over Christmas, my sister and I were going through all our old record albums, LPs. I have all the original Beatles, Jethro Tull ('Benefit' is the best, especially the song 'Sossity!') Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues, ELP, The Band, Zephyr, Fleetwood Mac ('Mystery to Me' - my favorite before Buckingham-Nicks came along...) We were reminiscing about how much fun it was to put the needle into the groove of the record, even if it would scratch the record. There was something so solid about “playing a record” on an actual turntable.
I began to think about the way we are becoming less material and more digital. Doing away with cumbersome record players, cassettes, and even CDs. We are becoming "thought" -- one mind. We are able to communicate and almost think directly to each other over computer signals and “text” messages – which is like grabbing words out of thin air.
Think of the invisible notes of music or the invisible numbers of mathematics. There is a divine harmony underlying everything. Everything is beauty and harmony. The physical picture is not the real story. Kind of like the inner software in a computer — the substance, the meat. Everything else is just temporary packaging. What's real is what's inside. The invisible.
Speaking of music, our kids blew our minds on New Years Eve. We took them to a party and they sat down at the piano and played the entire night. Each separately - Kevin, 13 played Cold Play and Muse. Jack, who is 14, played songs from the new Jack's Mannequin album (his favorite band) plus The Pink Panther, Sting and lots of other stuff. Jack wants guitar lessons too. A couple of years ago, I couldn't get them to even consider piano lessons. Now they each have a Yamaha in their rooms and they compose music everyday! You can plug in your laptop and compose as it creates sheet music.
My father was a violinist, my sister is a composer who wrote a new theme song for Extreme Home Makeover (and a major Gospel Choir is singing her composition!!) and my younger brother, who died a few years ago, was a prodigy with perfect pitch.
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New Year's Resolutions
In 2009 I am going to try to be less sensitive. I am so sensitive I feel sorry for that little depressed egg bobbing around in the “Depression” commercial…
I am so sensitive, I cried at the violence in the James Bond movie and then jumped out of the car when my husband said I had “too much compassion." My son Kevin was upset that I reminded him to have a conscience after the movie – that I made him less numb to violence. In other words, I ruined his high... and therefore it’s a bad thing! …???
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Jim Bullock put his face on my body when we were signing autographs. Fans actually bought this one: (Jimmy: Sorry you missed our Christmas party and we couldn't make it to your play in KC!)
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Epiphany: I woke up on December 1, 2008 out of the ether and realized I was depressed. Usually I light a candle on this sad day, but I had even forgotten to call my mother — as it is the anniversary of my brother's death. I picked up Eckhardt Tolle's bestseller "A New Earth: Awakening to your Life's Purpose" and randomly turned to a page at the back, which said that the only times we are unhappy are when we are looking backward or forward — in other words, when we are not living in the present moment: RIGHT NOW. Right now, nothing bad is happening. It is only when we live in the past and future that we feel pain.
The book said that we must wake up and fully enjoy the present moment - be fully conscious and look at the joy we can create by being grateful for the tiniest thing. We must also see what we can do for others, for "Only a life lived for others is worth living." I realized I had two kids in the house who needed me -- and one in particular was in a lot of pain, hobbling around after his bone surgery, with his foot bent in a crooked position. He needed me to be in good spirits, to really care about him (which I always do, but sometimes I am focused on my own deadlines and projects and fear -- that I forget to "feel his pain." So I got up and made his breakfast with so much love. Then I made his lunch and put a note in it. Then I got his shoes and rubbed his feet with Tiger Balm. Then I offered to drive him to school. He was so grateful that I lifted his burdens for the morning. My whole world changed from this simple committtment to "stay in the present moment" and stay out of my head (it's a bad neighborhood.) Stay out of worry and fear -- for they are not real and do not exist. Only the GOOD is real.
M*A*S*H Star Mike Farrell was live on our show Thursday. Listen in the audio archives at Basham and Cornell Radio Show
Mike is best known for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the popular television series M*A*S*H (1975–83). He is also a prominent progressive, political activist.
Mike narrates the new film, "The Life Penalty," which will screened at the British Film Festival Los Angeles, which takes place May 3rd thru' May 8th in Redondo Beach, California. Why does the United States rank with China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Vietnam in executions?
Support for ‘death’ centers in the former slave states, and “who must die” is not a question of justice, but of politics. Casting a revelatory and often uncomfortable light on the US justice system, The Life Penalty shakes the ethical and moral foundations of capital punishment.
Basham and Cornell Radio Show airs at 8 am Pacific Time on AM 1230 KLAV in Las Vegas and worldwide on the web.
The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 am Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern) on KLAV 1230 AM Radio live in Las Vegas. Again, all shows are simulcast worldwide on the Internet (and archived) and can be listened to at Basham and Cornell Radio
FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION * HOW WE CAN HELP OUR NEIGHBORS... read below
Listen to our recent interview with legendary White House Press Correspondent HELEN THOMAS in the archives on our radio website. THIS IS AN AMAZING INTERVIEW. Helen Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. Barack is her 10th. She flew on Air Force One with JFK and has been in the front row of the White House press room with ten U.S. presidents. She served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent and, later, White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI) for 25 years.Thomas was the first female officer of the National Press Club, the first female member and president of the White House Correspondents Association, and, in 1975, the first female member of the Gridiron Club. She has written four books; her latest is Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public.
The Basham and Cornell Show broadcasts weekday mornings at 8 am Pacific (11 a.m. Eastern) on KLAV 1230 AM Radio live in Las Vegas. Again, all shows are simulcast worldwide on the Internet (and archived) and can be listened to at Basham and Cornell Radio
If you've missed our show, check out the audio archives for MP3 podcasts. Recent Guests: Obama Cabinet, Obama Transistion team MikeLux, founder of American Center for Progress; Tom Daschle, former Senate Majority Leader; Presidential candidates, Pulitzer Prize winner Charlie Savage; MSNBC's Pat Buchanan, former Reagan advisor; CNN's Paul Begala, former Clinton advisor; Bill Press, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Sen. John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, Dennis & Elizabeth Kucinich, John Dean, NBC Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv Martin Fletcher, Congressman Charlie Rangel,Valerie Plame, Vincent Bugliosi, Christine Pelosi, Dahr Jamail, Senator Mike Gravel; Senator Byron Dorgan; bestselling authors Naomi Klein, Paul Krugman.... and many more.
WE MUST TAKE CARE OF THE 'LEAST AMONG US'
Ways we can all help: I was devastated by the news that California is cutting hot lunches from schools, firing teachers, closing down arts and music programs and closing several public schools. I started Googling Food Banks and supplemental programs to see which non-profits can pick up the slack. Some churches in under-privileged communities offer after-school snacks and places to hang out. Think about ways in your community in which you can mentor a young person who is having a hard time in school, or doesn't have enough to eat. Join the Boys' Club or your neighborhood YMCA.
Found this on Mashable.com
This just sounds funny: “This week, Yahoo announced a deal with Bebo that will help it compete with Google. I had to wiki Bebo to find out it’s kind of like Friendster and Woofie. Gosh, I hope they can all band together to save Fuzzelton village from the evil Snords. Grow up. If I want to see uncaring, money-making machines with cutesy names, I go to a strip club.”
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Dick Cheney: Through the Cracked Moral Compass, Darkly
by Brian Ross HuffPo
Should it be surprising that Dick Cheney, the guy who is the chief architect of the morally and ethically bankrupt Bush Administration policies on everything from the Iraq War to torture to padding Halliburton's pockets to shipping jobs overseas to the gelding of the media now wants to use his Fox News mouthpiece to try and spin a positive light on his misdeeds in office? It is as if he is daring the Obama Administration to put him on trial. The question is, why?
Read more at: HuffingtonPost.com
Flashback: CHENEY'S HALLIBURTON/KBR WAR PROFITEERS: Dick Cheney's Haliburton influence during the Bush administration: Apparently, no-bid contracts awarded to Halliburton skyrocketed, enriching the oil giant by billions."Halliburton's CEO also enjoyed an incredible personal gain from Iraq and the commensurate rise in gasoline prices. A HalliburtonWatch analysis reveals that CEO David Lesar's stock holdings in Halliburton increased by a stunning $78 million since the Iraq invasion."
Now, a bribery conviction spurs call to terminate KBR contracts.
BREAKING: Could former Bush administration cabinet members like Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Alberto Gonzales face charges that could result in prison terms or worse? A new report from the Senate Armed Services Committee — of which John McCain is a member — says there is growing proof that Bush Senior officials ordered torture, inhumane treatment of prisoners, and other criminal abuses...
Trickle-Down Torture: Rumsfeld Memo Used to Justify Torture in Gitmo, Afghanistan and Iraq
By Susie Madrak crooksandliars.com
WASHINGTON — A newly declassified Congressional report released Tuesday outlined the most detailed evidence yet that the military’s use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects was approved at high levels of the Bush administration.
The report focused solely on interrogations carried out by the military, not those conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency at its secret prisons overseas. It rejected claims by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others that Pentagon policies played no role in harsh treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or other military facilities.
The 232-page report, the product of an 18-month inquiry, was approved on Nov. 20 by the Senate Armed Services Committee, but has since been under Pentagon review for declassification. Some of the findings were made public in a Dec. 12 article in The New York Times; a spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld dismissed the report at the time as “unfounded allegations against those who have served our nation.”
The Senate report documented how some of the techniques used by the military at prisons in Afghanistan and at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Iraq — stripping detainees, placing them in “stress positions” or depriving them of sleep — originated in a military program known as Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape, or SERE, intended to train American troops to resist abusive enemy interrogations.
According to the Senate investigation, a military behavioral scientist and a colleague who had witnessed SERE training proposed its use at Guantánamo in October 2002, as pressure was rising “to get ‘tougher’ with detainee interrogations.” Officers there sought authorization, and Mr. Rumsfeld approved 15 interrogation techniques.
The report showed that Mr. Rumsfeld’s authorization was cited by a United States military special-operations lawyer in Afghanistan as “an analogy and basis for use of these techniques,” and that, in February 2003, a special-operations unit in Iraq obtained a copy of the policy from Afghanistan “that included aggressive techniques, changed the letterhead, and adopted the policy verbatim.”
Months later, the report said, the interrogation officer in charge at Abu Ghraib obtained a copy of that policy “and submitted it, virtually unchanged, through her chain of command.” This ultimately led to authorization by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez of the use of stress positions, “sleep management” and military dogs to exploit detainees’ fears, the report said.
“The paper trail on abuse leads to top civilian leaders, and our report connects the dots,” Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. “This report, in great detail, shows a paper trail going from that authorization” by Mr. Rumsfeld “to Guantánamo to Afghanistan and to Iraq,” Mr. Levin said.
Dave N.: Suzanne Ito reports reaction from the Senate, including Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich:
In my judgment, the report represents a condemnation of both the Bush administration’s interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse — such as that seen at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan — to low ranking soldiers. Claims, such as that made by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a “few bad apples,” were simply false.
....The abuses and the dangers do not end with the torture memos. Americans still know far too little about President Bush’s decision to illegally eavesdrop on Americans — a program that has since been given legal cover by the Congress.
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Harman begins to backtrack denials of wiretap story
John Byrne -- Wednesday April 22, 2009
Raw Story.com
The California Democrat who was allegedly caught on an FBI wiretap promising to aid accused Israeli spies in 2005 has begun walking back her original denials after requesting the transcript of the wiretapped conversation be released.
Pelosi tipped off to wiretap after intelligence mutiny
John Byrne -- Thursday April 23, 2009
Raw Story.com
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was told that a fellow Democratic congresswoman had been wiretapped because intelligence officials were irate that then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had blocked a probe into the congresswoman's involvement related to an Israeli espionage case, CQ's Jeff Stein revealed late Wednesday.
Holder says 'no one is above the law' as calls for special prosecutor mount
Jeremy Gantz -- Wednesday April 22, 2009
Raw Story.com
Hours after being presented with more than a quarter million signatures demanding that he appoint a special independent prosecutor to investigate Bush-era torture practices, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that "no one is above the law" and that his department would "follow the evidence."
Fox anchor: 'This is America! We do not f---ing torture'
David Edwards and John Byrne -- Thursday April 23, 2009
Fox News' Online Webcast
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Quote of the Day: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter. We won the midterms, this is our due." - Dick Cheney
So why, Mr. Cheney, are you attacking Obama for a the deficit you helped create that you are now blaming on Obama?
From TPM: "I mean...long before 9-11, Cheney laid out the plans to invade Iraq, detailing the locations of Iraq's oil fields in the infamous Energy Task Force memos. A founding member of PNAC. The CEO of Halliburton, who, during his tenure, not only sold Saddam $26 million worth of illegal oil drilling equipment, but oversaw their Enron-style hiding of $100 million worth of debt from the books, their auditors and their stockholders. He bought Grace, CO, which was then under siege by dozens of lawsuits for asbestos poisoning of entire Montana cities, and then as VP, conveniently muscled through legislation limiting said asbestos lawsuit claims. All aside the obvious no-bid contracts to his former company while his stock was held in a so-called 'blind trust'.
Finally, this is the man who directed George W. Bush's Vice President search team, and found the one man who could satisfy his discerning viewpoints perfectly - himself.
BOMBSHELL #2: from Senate Armed Services Committee report: Bush torture team ordered the abuse of detainees to manufacture a link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks. But despite their failure to do so, President Bush and his water carriers continue to perpetuate that myth to this day.
