Van Jones speaks for those of us who consider ourselves deep patriots; those who stand for Liberty and Justice for ALL, not just the rich, the poor or those in between!   He represents a movement where we must all find the courage to protect our government from global corporate control.

Van is a representative of the “Rebuild the Dream Movement.”

Mitt Romney Romney started out his career in the management consulting business, which led to a position at Bain & Company, where he eventually served as CEO and brought the company out of crisis.   He was co-founder and head of the spin-off company Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation.

In other words Mitt is a good capitalist.  He makes 23 million a year and only pays 15% on his taxes!  It’s working for him…

Now Newt and other candidates have begun criticizing him for being, I guess, too good of a capitalist.   Mitt did what capitalist do best, take advantage of whomever they must to make more money.  And the rest of the Republican leadership is telling them to cool it because word may get out how good Republican capitalists take advantage of the rest of us to promote their own profit margin.

Capitalism is the slippery slope which has led to most of our economic problems in the U.S. today.   At first in U.S. history, it was the simple problem of moving industries around the state or country to find the lowest labor costs and the easiest regulations to get around so that production would be competitive, in other words, as inexpensive as possible.   Today businesses look worldwide for the cheapest labor markets with little worker protection, and generally this is not found in our country.   It’s in China, Malaysia, and India.  Globalization and capitalism has quickly led to the “outsourcing” of millions of previously American jobs.

So is capitalism only good when it takes advantage of American workers?   Capitalists are smart.  They know how to find the cheapest labor markets.   And the minute production is cheaper elsewhere, they move their factories to some other country.   Most of us know this if we have worked in manufacturing.   Many have lost jobs for this exact reason.

The word is out.  Mitt was raised in the management class.   He was also raised Mormon, a religion that promotes good old American capitalism.   I wonder why drawing attention to these facts is making the Republican leadership uncomfortable.

To them I would quote the follow statistics from the Labor Department:  “The number of working US residents age 55 and up expanded by 2 million, or nearly 8 percent, between December 2007 and December 2010, while the number of younger workers, ages 16 to 24, fell by nearly 3 million, or about 13 percent.  Employment among 25- to 54-year-old workers also fell by 6.5 million, or about 6.5 percent.”

It seems we Boomer slobs are actually keeping the country going while the youngsters play with their electronic devices.   Why?  Because the Boomers are those with a strong work ethic, math and technical skills and a willingness to work long and hard to make a living.  Have you heard about the Baby Boomer Brain Drain yet?    What happens when those of us with the skills and experience all quit?  We will soon find out.

Would you like some real life proof?   A colleague is the CEO of a small company who hired those in their thirties at first.   Then she ran into a few problems with younger employees.   First of all they literally cried when they learned they would have to “actually come to work at 8AM!”   Then they tried to take over the company on the company e-mail service.   Yes, they were quite a brilliant bunch.   She finally decided to fire them all and start hiring older workers, because they had an actual honest work ethic.   They wanted to come to work, and believed in the work they were doing.  They wanted to do a great job.

There is no question in my mind that there are huge differences between the various generations in the U.S. workforce today.   When I last worked at a university library, we had to fire a number of student workers because they simply would not call in if they were not coming to work that day.

I told my last boss to call the police department if I didn’t arrive at work and had not called in explaining my absence.   I would have to be dead or greatly incapacitated to NOT call in, when I needed to miss work.

There’s your generational differences in a nutshell…

I have been an avid walker for decades.  I like to get out in my neighborhood and see what’s growing, changing and happening.  I enjoy getting out to meet people and see how they are doing.   I remember when those I met on my long walks were genuinely friendly, especially young people.   But that was long before “stranger danger” scared the kids out of saying, “Hello, how are you?”  Did you know that if you never again speak to a stranger, you will never make a new friend?

I am also finally old enough to have personally experienced a number of important technological changes.   Television was just getting big when I was small, but there were still only three channels with limited hours, and all in black and white.

I remember life before computers and, of course, cellphones.  Remember FTP and Gophers on the pre-Internet?   When it was new you had to practically be a programmer to use it!   Yes, I know all the mundane tasks computers have helped us with.   After all, I was a librarian for 25 years!   Writing picture perfect card catalog cards was certainly not my cup of tea, but storing vast quantities of information for future access was.  Computers have been perfect for that, but it sure is a lot tougher to go incommunicado these days!

I also remember what being a friend used to mean.   No, it wasn’t about how many “friends” you have on Facebook.   We may feel more “connected” these days, but are we really?   Are your friends those virtual people you interact with online everyday, or those who care enough to come by and spend time with you when you need some genuine human contact and concern?

I find it fascinating how many movies and shows there are about life in the 1950′s, 60′s, 70′s and 80′s today.   I was watching an old episode of “Life on Mars” the other day.   It is a TV show set in 1973, and I thought, if I hadn’t been born in the mid-50s I wouldn’t know so much about so many things that we Baby Boomers take for granted.

So the next time you’re feeling bad about how old you are, think again!   There is a whole world of history, information, and knowledge just floating around in your head.   You have wisdom only decades of experience can bring.   BE SURE AND USE IT TO YOUR BEST ADVANTAGE!

Use it to mentor those younger than you who need reassurances that aging is a GOOD thing!   You are finally an elder in your own tribe.

On the cover is a photo of Meredith Vieira and her husband with the catchy title: “Stronger Together: How they find joy while coping with chronic illness.”

My response to Meredith: “Being a millionaire a few times over must be awfully helpful while finding joy OR coping with chronic illness.”

I have always enjoyed the TV personality Meredith Vieira, but my immediate gut reaction to seeing her there, telling ME how to “find joy while coping with chronic illness” is something along the lines of F*** YOU!

Here’s some background:  My husband suffers with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and has off and on for over twenty years now, since his service in the Navy back in the 1980s.   He lost his job in October while on disability, but his disability insurance company now refuses to pay, because they don’t believe he’s disabled.   Since he cannot apply for unemployment either, we are now living on thin air, plus my modest income from my writing.

This is what drives me NUTS about the mainstream media.  Much like that show OPRAH had a few years ago which supposedly dealt with midlife crisis, these celebrities live in their billionaire bubbles without a clue about what is happening in the world around them.   Chances are Meredith and my own experience of living with a husband with a chronic illness is not comparable.  I would trade with her any day!   But she is being paid big bucks to share with us how difficult her life is.

It looks to me like this next election will focus on class differences in the U.S.  

To that I say, “BRING IT ON!”

For example, if she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features.   However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire.

No further studies are expected.

I am writing to say what an excellent product you have!   I’ve used it all of my married life, as my mom always told me it was the best. Now that I am in my fifties I find it even better!   In fact, about a month ago, I spilled some red wine on my new white blouse.

My inconsiderate and uncaring husband started to belittle me about how clumsy I was and generally started becoming a pain in the neck.   One thing led to another and somehow I ended up with his blood on my nice white blouse!

I grabbed my bottle of Tide with bleach, and to my surprise and satisfaction, all the stains came out!   In fact, the stains came out so well the detectives who came by yesterday told me that the DNA tests on my blouse were negative, and then my attorney called to say that I was no longer considered a suspect in the disappearance of my husband.

What a relief!   Going through menopause is bad enough without being a murder suspect!   I thank you, once again, for having such a great product.

Well, gotta go, have to write to the Hefty bag people.

The real question is, why do evangelicals find his philandering so attractive? Perhaps the truth among evangelicals is they like men who take charge and decide to collect a harem around them, but I thought that was a centuries-old Mormon tradition.

BUT, I digress.   I would like to be the first ex-wife on the Internet to propose that we all start a political movement called:  EX-WIVES AGAINST NEWT!

Do any of you have a tiny bit of anger and bitterness left over from the day your husband traded you in on the new and improved model?   You know, a trophy wife like Callista, who worships his every move?  Only in this case, Callista’s smile and hair is as stiff as a trophy too!

If there truly is anything to karma, I figure just the combined anger of all of the ex-wives in America could blow Newt right off the planet!

Come on!  Get politically active finally and buy my soon to be produced bumper sticker:

“NO NEWTS ARE GOOD NEWTS!”