I've had a few days off in Madison, WI and it was just gorgeous. A few nice days before it starts getting cold. We've been wandering the streets checking out the laundromats. Dave is adding some pretty cool features to Arlo.Net and I think we're getting back to being on the cutting edge of things to come. I'm excited anyways. I'll let him introduce the additions as they come along. I love the iPhone stuff - really cool.

There's a lot of places on the web where our friends are gathered or flocked. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to add additional 'friends' to my FaceBook page because we've reached the limit of 5,000. FaceBook suggested I start a 'fan' page because there's no limit there. However, very few of my friends seem to want to be 'fans.' I'm with them. So there's like 3,000 people waiting to be added. There's also a whole lotta folks on our MySpace page, something like 25,000 friends there. In addition, I've been uploading lots of photographs on my Flickr page. You can go search out any of these and have some fun. If you actually go to Flickr and see something you like, add it as a favorite, which gives the pix more visibility in the Flickr world. We'll get some new victims here to play with as a result. Be nice. Don't scare 'em off.

But, the truth is Arlo.Net is where I reside. This is home. And thanks to all of you regular (not to be confused with normal) people out there it continues to feel like home. So this is my early Thanksgiving note to let you know I'm actually thankful - for all of us, that we have each other. And especially to our road crew - the family and friends we're traveling with as we move around the world. In spite of the troubles all around us, we keep on keeping on. That's all anyone can do - until you can't. Happy Before Thanksgiving! More later - adg

Okay, so 40 years ago, August we were at Woodstock. Then that September, Jackie and I bought the farm (as it were), and we're still here. Later, that October we got married on the farm, still married too. Then later in November, Alice's Restaurant (the movie) was released! There hasn't been a four month stretch like that since then! So we're celebrating a lot of 40th things this year.

We have to have a new health-care bill as soon as possible. The insurance companies are killing us the way it is. They are the ones pulling the plug on Grannies (and everyone else) all over the country, by rationing care for profit.

That said: I want to make sure that any new bill does not limit the definition of medical services to what the insurance companies, doctors and government (The FDA, AMA, WHO etc.) have defined as legitimate health care, and is not simply more or better access to the same old stuff. I want to remain free to use herbs, vitamins, minerals and other natural treatments now being outlawed by Codex Alimentarius and other organizations with ties to the World Health Organization and the USA.

I believe there are people of good will who have bad ideas, who would limit the freedoms we have to use or have access to natural medicines and healthy food. Federal and state organizations with connections to multinational corporations are trying to protect me from myself with no credible evidence that I need protection other than from them or their profits. I do not want to have to prove to some authority that my health care regimen is not harmful. This IS still the USA where you should not have to prove you are innocent. Let the science do the math. I do not want doctors acting on behalf of Big Pharma to be my only recourse to health care.

It's simply not enough for the president to say we can keep our insurance if we want to, or join some new public option, without the guarantee of freedom to become healthy in a way we are free to choose. As it is now, I pay for health insurance (by law) that I refuse to use. For example, the insurance companies will not pay for the kind of dental work I want (removing toxic metals, root canals etc. all of which has been proven to my satisfaction to cause catastrophic illness like cancer). Not only that, but the government has just recently determined that the use of mercury in fillings is safe! Anyone (with no vested interests) who investigates this will come to another conclusion.

The effect is that I have to pay twice for the kind of dental health care I want - once to insurance companies, and also to the doctors I actually want to use. If I had cancer, I would certainly not choose to be treated in the USA where the percentage of real recovery is far better in other countries. Will the health care of my kids and grand kids be in some way dependent upon their being vaccinated against diseases where the vaccinations have, in the past, killed more people than the disease they were vaccinating against?

Real reform requires a paradigm shift in our thinking. We must realize that the bottom of the health care reform food chain is FOOD. As long as big money (Monsanto, Big Agra, Big Pharma, Big Soy, Corn, Coke, and Pepsi etc.) keeps us from healthy, real food, natural medicines, and family farms growing organic foods, we will become sicker and sicker ourselves, and more profitable to others.

To sum it up: Will the new health care reform, do more than just recycle the same bad health care to more people for less money? Now is a chance to do more than what's being debated on TV. No one, politically on the right or left or anywhere near the middle has addressed my concerns.

Not only is the ’silent majority’ no longer silent, they’re no longer the majority either.

I haven't been home very much - yet. But that will change now that we're getting into the heart of summertime. I've been getting quite a few responses to the posts here at arlo.net concerning various subjects. I've been thinking it would be a good idea to further the conversation. There's controversy surrounding just about everything going on these days. And although I think discussing difficult subjects is good for the soul, I constantly have to remind myself that it ain't all there is.

For example, about 5 or 6 years ago I left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party. I did so because I believed that my voice (and others like mine) needed to be heard where it would be most useful. Frankly, I still don't believe there's a whole lot of difference between the two. But, a healthy democracy needs a loyal and healthy opposition. Without it we run the risk of a march toward totalitarianism that would be difficult to halt.

At the time the Republicans were in power everywhere and they were seemingly taken over by ideas that ran counter to traditional Republican positions. They used to be for less big government intrusion into our lives. To me that's usually always a good idea.

So what was up with interfering in matters of who can marry who? That's a big invasion into personal freedoms and liberties. Those who try to control our personal lives are not only not for traditional Republican values, they're not even really for American values. The way I view it, the state has no business in the house let alone the bedroom. The way I would resolve the current controversy would be to insure that secular marriage be open to anyone. And that religious marriage not be infringed upon by the state - to marry or not as their traditions permit. Both religious and secular marriages would be acknowledged as it is now. That, to me, should be the Republican position.

What's up with the bail outs etc? I hate to say it but the arguments in Congress and on TV miss the more important points. Talking heads and political animals arguing about how much to spend and where are not talking about the basic truth - that when more dollars get printed, the less each dollar is worth. With trillions of dollars being manufactured to pay for bail outs and other tasks, each dollar buys less stuff. Not only have we given gazillionaires our tax dollars, we've made each dollar we still posses just about worthless. Saving and creating jobs may be an appropriate government intrusion in extraordinary times, but to do so in a way that makes our money worthless benefits no one in the long and endangers the nation. A return to real money - where the value is not up for discussion is the only protection a wage earner really has. That, to me, should be the Republican position.

What's up with rebuilding infrastructure? The best way to insure we'll have a 20th century transportation system in the 21st century is to rebuild the existing infrastructure. I thought by now we'd be flying around in personal (automobile-size) vehicles. There's no reason we can't be building vehicles that use magnetic fields for flight and navigation... okay maybe I'm getting ahead of things. The point is that it seems easier to get to the freaking moon than it does to get from coast to coast. Who's thinking about that stuff? Constantly widening roads and bridges that devour the land with all the intersecting attributes of the same chains of crappola shops and fast (nutritionally worthless genetically modified and just plain bad) food restaurants can't be the next best hope for our nation's infrastructure. That, to me, should be a Republican concern.

What's up with health care? In a world where even the good guys (National Public Radio, Farm Aid etc.) are sponsored and funded by organizations more powerful than any nation, it's hard to imagine that the bottom line will not be what's profitable, instead of what is beneficial. Can the two co-exist? Sure. Do they? No. The sad truth looks to be that it's more profitable to have a nation filled with people who are in bad health, than a nation of healthy people. The current administration and the Congress has been talking about how to make health care accessible to everyone, because they all know that these multinational organizations will be more than happy to provide long term drugs and services to a nation that permits and even encourages bad health whether or not a new health care plan comes into being. It's a win - win for government, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors, lawyers and agriculture. Only you lose.

The march has already begun around the world to outlaw the use of natural medicines - vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other plants so that you will become a criminal and a law breaker when you try to care for your own family in your own way. You are no longer responsible for yourself or your family, as the state has in no uncertain terms made it clear that you belong to the nation, and the nation has every right to protect you and your family from yourselves. The child in the midwest with cancer forced to undergo chemo and radiation being only the latest example. Is this not a cause for some loyal opposition? Where the hell are these guys when you need them? It's not a matter of being right or wrong. I've been both many times. It's a matter of having a real contest of ideas between different opinions. Sadly the Republican voice has drifted off to Neverland while the larger issues of what health care actually is gets run over by arguments of how and who will pay for it.

I want government and big business out of my garden. I want insurance companies out of my way when I go visit my doc. I want to pilot my cool 21st century flying electro-magnetic car. I want real money. And I want to get out of the business of being in politics in either party. But, someone has to say something. And these are just a few of the things I think need to be said. There's more... Wars, interventions, useless government agencies, education policies, privacy issues, an end to criminalization of personal choice things... all kinds of stuff.

Granted I've had two cups of coffee this morning, so I've gone on longer than I should have. And like i noted above, I don't expect to be right on anything. I'm perfectly capable of listening to a good argument and changing my mind. I'm not a piece of stone. Please feel free to take issue with me on anything - I enjoy changing my mind. I just wouldn't expect anything beyond a good friendly listen. There's more to this world than getting involved but there's times you just feel like you have to do something, say something or be somebody - however uncalled for. There is, in my view a larger bigger picture where we are all stuck on some little tiny world in a very big universe of unimaginable largeness. Like ants figuring out which way back to the ant hill, our journeys however big they may seem to us, are small in the big picture of things.

That's no excuse not to get back to the hill... An ant's gotta do what an ant's gotta do. Keeping the big picture in mind, knowing there's more to life than arguing about everything, but maintaining the basic nature of a free and democratic nation, taking care of each other in ways that encourage security, prosperity and tranquility - Freedom, Liberty, Justice - You know, all the good stuff, these are worth talking about. I'll go on talking and thinking about these things wherever I think they need to be heard, even though I know full well, they won't be inviting me to any clambakes or anything. Good thing I got my own clams... adg