How Can Ron Paul Justify

his old newsletters, written in his name and published in a newsletter named after him as something "he didn't write and didn't read?"

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/272102/20111223/ron-paul-newsletter-ad-really-sign-matter.htm

Even a half-ass, mediocre, rarely published poet/writer like myself is very careful to always know where I'm publishing, who I'm publishing with and who else is routinely published in any given magazine or Internet site.

I spend time researching before I submit a poem or an article. I've been known to pull poems right before publication and to have poetry already published on Internet Sites removed if and when I suddenly find out that the media outlet in question has a reputation for also publishing racist, sexist or religiously bigoted poems or who has a habit of publishing work of artists who are racist, sexist or religiously bigoted people.

It's my name, yanno? It's what I have. It's who I am. Where I publish defines me almost as much as what I publish.

In the same vein, what an editor or a newsletter owner publishes also defines them.

Face it, Howard Hefner is not a chaste individual. Nor does anyone who's ever read Playboy expect him to be. "The Catholic Digest" is not going to publish articles promoting Judaism. The "Jewish Poetry Monthly" is not going to print a lot of poems praising Jesus.

If you read my blog you expect to read about me. Or about things I believe in. If my name is on an article posted here or elsewhere, you are going to expect that I've written it myself - or, at the very least, have taken the time to read and approve the content thoroughly enough that I fully support every idea that it contains.

Thus it is with a newsletter called, "The Ron Paul Newsletter."

I don't know what's worse - to think that he was aware of everything his newsletters contained or that he wasn't.

Happy Blogversary!!

Wow!! I just noticed that this blog is 6 years old today.

I wish I had something profound to say.

But I don't.

There have been some major changes in my life. My aunt died, my mother became unable to care for herself and had to be moved to a nursing home. I sold her house and became her Power of Attorney and guardian. My mother-in-law suffered a catastrophic stroke in July, 2010 and Dan and I moved her from her home in New Jersey to a near-by nursing home here in Virginia in March of 2011 when it became clear she was not going to have a good recovery.

I have learned many of the ways I do not want to get old.

I have learned that Medicare pays for almost nothing when it comes to nursing homes and that a "life savings" can and will disappear in less than 18 months.

I have learned about feeding tubes and obsessive/compulsive behaviours in dementia patients. I have also learned that "dementia" covers an extremely wide range of things and is used much too loosely in many instances.

I have learned that nursing homes are not well staffed and that the staff they do have is overworked and underpaid and that most of them work very hard and are extremely dedicated in spite of it. I have also learned that a few bad apples really DO spoil the whole bunch.

I have surmised, although I have no proof, that the new Medicare/Medicaid rules which state that they will no longer pay for nosocomial infections (infections acquired while a patient in a facility) such as Urinary Tract Infections or MRSA simply means that the nursing homes and hospitals will do their best to avoid testing for such infections in order to bypass the possibility of not being reimbursed for the treatment. Therefore, if you want your loved one treated for such infections you must take it upon yourself to watch them very carefully for signs and/symptoms of such infections and insist upon testing if and when you think it's a possibility.

I have learned that it's always a possibility that they've got either a UTI or MRSA or both and that, in the elderly, often the only sign of a UTI is confusion, increased confusion, combative behaviour, increased lethergy or a sudden mood change.

The rest of the family is well. All children and grandchildren are wonderful. Spouse is fantastic.

Gaining weight is hard for some people and the struggle is often dissed badly by people who do not have a problem gaining weight.

I no longer recognize even one name of anyone nominated for a music award.

Cats are crazy.

Poets are crazy.

I like cats better than I like poets.

Cockatiels live forever. They only get louder and more demanding as time passes.

Jeeps rock.

Winter sucks.

Oceans rule.

Someday I will touch a dolphin.

Herman Cain, Ginger White, OWS and WTF?

You gotta wonder --- how does this:

Herman Cain recently criticized the Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying, "Don't blame Wall Street. Don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself."At Tuesday night's CNN debate, Cain stood by his comments -- to loud cheers from the audience. "I still stand by my statement," he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/1...n_1018798.html

Square with his suddenly big-hearted sympathy and understanding for Ginger White's unemployment situation?"

Sean, unfortunately, I'm a softy, and I feel sorry for people when they get in deep financial trouble, especially given this economy and people being out of work. This isn't the only person I have helped. There are members of my church, members of my family, you know other friends that I have helped all the time in terms of trying to help them during these tough economic times."

Herman Cain 'Hannity' Interview: GOP Presidential Candidate Says 'I Am Going To Reestablish My Character' (VIDEO)

Hypertexts

Ugh. The poetry world sucks.

It recently came to my attention that a blog post of mine from 2007 has been taken out of context and reprinted in The Hypertexts in at least two different places.

I've written the following letter to Michael Burch, the editor there and hopefully he will remove the posts as well as take down my page there.

There are people, places and things I do not care to be associated with - The Hypertexts is all three.

Dear Mr. Burch,

It has come to my attention that you've reprinted a blog post of mine from 2007 at least twice in The Hypertexts. Neither time have you bothered to link to the post in question, thus denying people the opportunity to read my post in surrounding context or have you asked my permission to use my name or quote my words.

I did not ask to nor do I not wish to be involved in your petty little war with Eratosphere or the people there.

If you had bothered to ask me why I left Eratosphere for a short time in 2007 I would have been happy to tell you that it was most due to a difference of opinion with several posters there at the time - only one of whom remains today. I've been a member in good standing there for many years and my leave-taking was quite temporary.

In fact, the interview in which you most recently used my blog post for as "evidence" of discontent with Eratosphere was an interview with one of the people I most had problems with and who was one of the posters who was most instrumental in my decision to leave temporarily.

There was a time when I would have expected more of you - but not now and not any longer.

Your site has consistently been turning into a political/religious arena and remains little more than a vanity site and a place for you and those of like opinion to air their petty grievances against a poetry world which should be big enough for all of us but somehow is not.

If you would, at the very least, care enough to be honest in your hatred you will remove my blog posts from these two pages Interview with Janet Kenny.
Eratosphere & The Response.

and while you are at it, please remove my page from you list of contemporary poets.
Laura Heidy, Poet,Poetry, Picture

I do not like the company which surrounds me and I do not wish to be associated with such mean-spirited and petty people and practices.

Thank you,

Laura Heidy

UPDATE:

Mr. Burch has agreed to remove anything with my name on it from his site. He replied prompty and politely - for which I am grateful.

Rosenthal Crysler Jeep Dealer, Arlington, Va.

Chuck Singleton
General Manager
Rosenthal Jeep
Arlington, Va.

Dear Mr. Singleton,

Thank you for your email of 6/14/11 in which you thank me for the opportunity to serve me, assure me that my satisfaction is your Number 1 Priority and inform me that if I am not satisfied, you are not satisfied.

Just to let you know - I filled out an Internet form for a rough quote on the value of my trade in on Sunday. Since then I have received 4 emails and 7 phone calls. I've asked, politely, with each successive phone call after the first one, that I not be contacted any more. I even went so far on Monday phone calls # 4, 5 and 6 to say that if I got another phone call or email contact that I would take my business elsewhere. I am ashamed to say that I simply yelled at Caller # 7 earlier this morning.

I've explained from phone call #2 on that I was not going to be able to bring my car in for a quote or to look at any other new car until the weekend. I asked, quite articulately and specifically, for people not to pressure me into coming in sooner. I made it quite clear that I was not interested in phone conversation or email advertisements between now and then.

Buying a car, like anything else, is something done at the buyer's convenience - not at the dealer's insistence. In fact, the more you insist, the more determined I become not to fall prey to high pressured sales tactics.

I don't know how well you all communicate at Rosenthal but to all appearances it is not at all. I asked the woman who called me from the concierge office yesterday to, yes, please, remove my name from your contact list when she asked. She apologized profusely, assured me she would - and here I am two phone calls and one email later - still asking.

In other words, I've been contacted 11 times in less than 48 hours and it's moved beyond frustrating and right into totally irritated.

So please, if you really want me to be "satisfied," if you really want me to be "confidant" that my satisfaction is your "Number 1 priority," start pay attention to me.

Do not, I beg of you, continue to ignore my very clearly stated wishes unless it is to give me the phone numbers and addresses of other Jeep dealers in the area.

Thank you,

Laura Heidy-Halberstein

Estate Sale

Estate Sale

Although you’re not yet dead we rifle through
your closets and your drawers. We creep into
the crawl, we climb the attic stairs, we brush
ghost dust from books; find camisoles once lush
with lace and latched secure with eye and hook.

We spy a braid of faded blonde, and look!
A half-full flask is stashed beneath your wedding gown.
Whose masks are these? Whose ivory circus clown?
Who wrote the letters never sent or signed?
And why are we, your daughters, so resigned

to never knowing who you were or why
you left this task to us? We do not try
to suss you out. We sniff the flask and drain
it dry. We sell your treasures in the rain.