Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashcle (D - SC), clearly states the issue about the quality of care in this country due to the insurance companies' unethical business practices in this roundtable discussion on Meet the Press which aired on August 16th, 2009.

Here we are now, about to do… Read full post »

I wonder how many people answered ‘yes’?  I wonder if that will be your answer by the end of this…

Do not move a muscle.  Do not throw up.  Do not show pain.  Do not come back into your body.  You are special.  You are different.  You are like them.  You will make it. 

They told you so.

∞

“Are you… Read full post »

MARK HARRISON / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Officer Timothy Brenton was shot assassination style on Halloween night when an assailant pulled up to his parked police unit and began unloading his rifle into it, hitting him and just grazing the rookie Officer Britt Sweeney who he was… Read full post »

The city of Seattle is hosting thousands of people from around the state to honor Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton who was shot in cold blood on the evening of Halloween. On routine patrol, he was the passenger in a parked unit, with rookie officer Britt Sweeney in the driver’s seat,… Read full post »

 ...and even dance the Macarena, yes, all without one sniglet of alcohol entering our bodies.  Amazing isn't it?

After living in Alaska for eleven years, do you want to know what the most common question I am still asked?  Can you believe it's whether I lived… Read full post »

This is my twenty-fifth post on Open Salon.  I’m hoping this is the one which creates the magic numbers “1   2” at the bottom of the page so I can say I am an official blogger with two pages worth of material.  Yes, simple things like this make me feel giddy.&nbs… Read full post »

Lurking in the sunny corners of every afternoon is the vile carnivore, death.  Whether soldiering in the dream of Vietnam’s jungle, playing the harmonica under the lamp of the night sky before driving into asphalt Hell, or making the lonely visit down the same long sterile hallway of the o… Read full post »

Her face has turned white; the kind of white contemporary designers no longer allow plaster to remain while designing the interior of suburban homes.  I stare intently at my seven-year-old daughter, the Rook, with a knot made by a sailor in my stomach.  My teeth are chattering although the… Read full post »

 A Photo Journey of Washington's Fall

  Skyward Gazing 1

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Washington is known for a lot of things, but when it comes to weather most people think "rain."  The truth is, we do not accumulate as much rain as most peop… Read full post »

When my husband, the Knight, suggested getting chicks as an Easter surprise for our daughter, I had a nightmarish flash of being fully inoculated into country life.  Would I ever recognize the urban sophisticate I always viewed myself as?  I was sure something had been slipped into the wate… Read full post »

During the Seeds of Compassion Gathering®, in April 2008, many educators, businesspeople, parents, and community members descended on downtown Seattle to hear His Holiness the Dalai Lama address the idea of compassion and its powerful impact, especially on our children.  It is my habi… Read full post »

Racing at over seventy miles per hour last week, I suddenly wanted to put my car in park and stop time in the middle of the Interstate.  This particular stretch of road winds people out of the last vestiges of bark and grind held in the suburban sprawls east of Seattle. … Read full post »

I have spent the last few weeks trying to get to know Dr. Amy.  What I gathered, as a pretty new contributor here, is her reappearance was disturbing to the OS community at large.  While I read people being upset about Editor Picks and Front Pages, I sensed a deeper frustration… Read full post »

We are down to the wire.  President Obama came out once again yesterday supporting the public option despite disappointing voting results on both the Rockefeller and Schumer’s public option amendments.  It was another embarrassing display of the dysfunction that has become the mainsta… Read full post »

Over the weekend, the self-proclaimed “idiot avenger” himself came to my home state to collect the keys to the city of Mount Vernon, Washington, where he grew up.  As nothing Mr. Beck does is without contention, this too was another instance where the public displayed their disillusi… Read full post »

Linas Phillips directed a documentary in which he familiarized, and in some cases befriended twelve homeless people in my hometown of Seattle, Washington.  While he remained objective in portraying their personal stories, he was willing to inject his emotional… Read full post »

With as much charisma as Zeus might render when shaking the sky with a thunderbolt of electricity, I have mustered up the courage to face another year of celebrating my virginal status.  If upon reading my bio, you notice I have a daughter, you may marvel at how I claim vestal… Read full post »

Who are these Praying Mantises?

(http://orudorumagi11.deviantart.com/art/One-Dollar-Praying-Mantis-57473412)

1.  Democrats & Republicans

 2.  Bobbie Brown & Whitney Houston (Hapless Victim)

 3.  Perez Hilton & Paris Hilton

 4.&n… Read full post »

I am angry.  Now, as a writer, this is probably one of the lamest opening lines I could write.  However, in this instance, it is the most fitting.  Why?  It is the lowest denominator of truth I know regarding politics right now.  While I could wax poetic and write creatively/… Read full post »

I Am Still Vibrating…

The Rook (my seven-year-old daughter) is engrossed in a website involving puppies or ponies or something age-appropriate so I am going to catch some low-grade shut-eye.  As I edge toward the fuzzy state of in-between consciousness, a roaring crowd comes flowing out o… Read full post »

I have often thought this would make a gutsy book title, although, I knew it would assure me a seat at the kiddies table when visiting the in-laws in the Deep South Bible belt for holidays.  Or, if my writing had any audience, it might be the rage for all… Read full post »

::A Call to Arms!::

If this resonates with you, visit the link at the bottom and follow directions; pretty please!

I was gently snoozing away during my Saturday mid-afternoon nap when the stream of consciousness parsing all the important data while I slumbered began toying… Read full post »

Reflecting upon one of my beautiful daily meditation books the other morning, by Melody Beattie, I ran across the following line causing me great pause:

“Resentments are tricky little things, devious little devils of energy that… Read full post »