Tuesday February 9th 2010

Today i will begin my post with a little family related update regarding Matthews new social skills class.He is really enjoying it and making great progress on the goals that we hope will continue.They are helping him build important skills like working as a team and co-operation.He enjoys the other children and the facilitator very much and so far looks forward with anticipation to the next class.The parental componant is helpful as well,and this week we discussed a favorite author and activist of mine that works in the feild,her name is Temple Grandin.My older sister introduced me to her work,and my sis is usually behind any new literary finds that i expound on or recommend.She is brilliant and very inspiring to me,and i appreciate her tremendously.Anyways,Temple Grandin has unusual insight into autism as she is autistic herself.Some of her works include The Way I See It:A Personal Look At Autism and Aspergers,Emergance:Labeled Autistic,Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships,and Animals In Translation,all of which i reccommend.
I am going to comment a little now on some stories in the news beginning with New York,my home state.Apparently besides being the most incapable state government in the country,the new label seems to be the cheating Governor State.A newsoutlet has reported that our Governor,who replaced disgraced Governor Spitzer,has been involved in some seedy sex as well.The government of our great state has been dragged through the mud by enough party officials in the last few years to qualify for the most inept public officials award.These people have shown corruption and corporate lobbyists the keys to the kingdom,leaving the people to twist in the wind.The attempted coup presided over by billionaire Tom Golisano and orchestrated by Republicans was an embarrassment and a glaring reminder to the electorate that ALL incumbants need to be removed from office.These officials have long since abandoned their constituancy for big money,campaign donations and corporate perks lavished on them by every lobby imaginable.I for one am going to be actively joining any candidates that are new to the political arena and will try to help elect new officials to represent us in Albany.
The national news is still focused on the gridlock in Washington,the shakey state of the Economy and the need for millions of new jobs in America.Not only are Americans suffering,the whole world is still in the middle of a very slow crawl to recovery from the brink of the next great depression which we came so close to.It still remains to be seen if the economic recovery that we see is just an upswing in what is called a"double dip" recession.I believe this is the case as i have commented on in past posts.There are too many lagging indicators that are still going to shock the markets and keep job growth from happening.These things include commercial real estate losses and the fact that any "green economy"jobs that are projected will take at least a decade to materialise.With all the empty plants in our nation that could be retrofitted to manufacture wind turbines,solar arrays,and bio-fuel,huge amounts of time and investment are required for these things to actually happen.With the cheap labor and manufacturing ability of countries like China and India it is no guarentee that companies will chose the U.S. to make such investments either.
The motivation for cooperation or "bi-partisanship"in Washington has long since evaporated,and the talk of such things are just a diversionary tactic on the part of Parties that want to distract from the real problems faced by the people of our nation.Weather they are Politicians or Corporate Executives,the real issues we face will be left to collect dust while they use divisive issues like religeon and national security to try to retain or regain power.With small movements like the "Tea Party"movement gaining attention because of the small gap between Democrats and Republicans that has the ability to change the results of local and national election results,playing to fringe groups to gain thier support will continue.The look of our next election cycle will give a window into the new normal of corporate financing of political campaigns.The rediculous nature of the back and forth was in full force this past week when republican and conservative darling Sarah Palin was criticising the president for using a teleprompter while reading from obvious cribnotes on her hand.this in my opinion is the perfect visual to show the real disconnect these people have from the rest of us.It is all about soundbytes and getting one up on your rivals,doing the business of the people is not on the real agenda.Anyways,i am going to end here,but before i do i am gonna mention my oldest son Jeromy.He and i have seen a few concerts together,and Jer was lucky enough to meet Warren Haynes,one of our favorite Guitarists.He signed the handbill from the show for him,and even reached in his pocket and gave my son a guitar pick.This was a great moment and i thoght i could share it.until next time,thanx for reading.
spacewalker