MooPig Report from the Middle :: "The Almost Dog"

Robert David Darnell
by Pat Darnell  |  Dec 27, 2013  |  Bryan TX

[Picture by Desiree Darnell] Christmas Day, Dad with our dog Foos, "Where's the new puppy, Grandpaw?"

It has been cool this month. That is how we describe the weather when it is 70 highs and 45 lows, in Houston.

"I don't think we are going to get any freeze this year," says Robert Darnell, my 91 year old Dad.

Since Mom passed away last April, Dad is alone much of the day. He has a home health care helper, Treena, come in from 1 PM to 6 PM every day to help him in his routine. We dropped in on him for Christmas Day. Dropped in as in brought the kids, the dog, and lots of food. Dad eats like a bird.
[Picture LINK]

He said he lost 20 pounds since his last year's physical, now weighing in at 145. He goes to the VA Hospital on 2002 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, in the Michael DeBakey VA Medical Center. Dad wears hearing aids in both ears since his hearing faltered. It was determined he lost much of his hearing ability during WWII when he was on a Destroyer in the Pacific. "Our guns pounding the Japanese during Okinawa, pop, pop, when Kamikazers were trying to sink us ..." Dad says.

Two days before Christmas Dad's home health helper drove him down to Pet Rescue. He thought he might try a small dog to keep him company. So he and Treena mulled over the group of pups in the shelter, and settled on a terrier. Another family thought they might like this pup too. But Dad did the paper work, and adoption process and took his new puppy home.

Treena and Dad showed her the back yard where she would do her business. They played with her in the house.

For the rest of the day the puppy sat calmly in his lap, and followed Dad around the house. Dad uses a rolling walker to get around. He has had a bum knee since he wrenched it a few years back. The VA told him it would take a knee replacement to fix it. But he decided after watching Mom go through that, that he would forego that surgery, "because he is too ole," and has settled for monthly shots that ease his knee.

"What kind of dog is she?" I asked Dad on the phone when I called to tell him we would be there
Christmas Day.

"She's a mixture Terrier," said Dad.

Everything went okay, Treena left for the day, leaving Dad with his new Pup. Around dusk the puppy followed her instincts, and got very riled and boisterous as she heard someone walking outside in the street. Dad puttered over to the front door and opened it. His new puppy tore out of the house and got on the heels of one of Dad's neighbors. It was a nightmare for Dad, because of his impaired hearing, and he has to go pretty slow with his walker on the uneven ground outside.

Dad had to go all the way out to in the street and try to get the puppy back in the house. With his neighbor's help some how they meticulously got the puppy to calm down and go back in Dad's house.

Dad continued his evening routine and eventually went to bed.

When he woke up he discovered several piles of doggy doo around the house. Things were looking bad for Dad's new companion. Dad of course, can't stoop like he used to, and he can't clean like he used to. So, when Treena returned in the afternoon, they took the puppy back to the shelter for the other family who also wanted her.

That's our Report from the Middle; where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average.

________________________Reference
http://www.houston.va.gov/

MooPig's Tech Coroner :: "Farmers' Demise"

5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion: "The practice of using renewal seeds dates back to ancient times, but Monsanto seeks to collect massive royalties and put an end to the practice. Why? Because Monsanto owns the very patent to the genetically modified seed, and is charging the farmers not only for the original crops, but the later harvests as well. Eventually, the royalties compound and many farmers begin to struggle with even keeping their farm afloat. It is for this reason that India slammed Monsanto with groundbreaking ‘biopiracy’ charges in an effort to stop Monsanto from ‘patenting life’."

'via Blog this'

“Monsanto gets paid when it sell the seeds. The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again). Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production.”

It means Monsanto is trying to catch a tithe from every corn kernel grown in the world, applied to its sanctimonious halls of unscrupulous worship. It is a double tap for the giant GM seed maker ... only this time there is a blood trail on that grain that won't go away.

Back in 2008, the Daily Mail covered what is known as the ‘GM Genocide’, which is responsible for taking the lives of over 17,683 Indian farmers in 2009 alone. After finding that their harvests were failing and they started to enter economic turmoil, the farmers began ending their own lives — oftentimes drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto provided them with. (ANDREW MALONE. 2 November 2008. HERE)

Yes, farmers offing themselves with the very insecticides that Monsanto provides! YIKES!




_________________________Reference
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/11795-5-million-farmers-sue-monsanto-for-77-billion
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html




___________________Reference

Half the world's richest 1% live in the United States - PART TWO

How have we Organized our Production System?
Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  Jan 28, 2012  |  Bryan TX

MooPig "Brain Industries Department" suggests spending an hour and a half to watch this one... it will help shake out cobwebs that are hurting your brain, concerning our current economic collapse. "To roll back our current Raw Deal we need to congregate and demand another New Deal." What shape that new deal forms is up to the people. Well, it is Democracy in the workplace; what a new, peculiar, concept!

Wages in the USA do not rise starting in 1978. Thirty years of no wage increase causes Middle Class borrowing binge. The system collapses in 2007. George "W" Bush's government throws trillions of dollars at the lenders, with no deliberations. Obama continues throwing money down the pit, as "incentives to private sectors to create jobs here." The fear of the lender, mostly banks, is not whether the politicians will pay them back -- "lenders own the politicians" -- but rather the fear that the people will not permit the government to pay back its debt.

That is the lender-borrower relationship that made the USA economy collapse in 2008, thirty years after wages were frozen. The gambit failed, what do we do now?

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PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 27, 2012
Professor Richard Wolff details the problems of capitalism and urges our recognizing its obsolescence and replacing it with institutions that truly serve the people.
Talk at Church of All Souls in New York City, January 24, 2012. Camera, audio: Joe Friendly

by Richard Wolff.

"W" Bush and Obama have proposed "incentives for the private sectors so that they will provide jobs." But that fails. Professor Wolff says the status quo is "absurd." He says American can do better than Capitalism.

Using parallels comparing now with Roosevelt's days, the professor tells us that "there is money now" ... don't listen to surly mouthed politicians who declare today there is "no money." There is enough money now to pay for the Middle-class to get back a foot hold. The corporations have to pay the bulk of the money needed. The politician has to mediate between the Middle Class and the employer-lenders. The people must act. [pd]

___________________Reference
http://rdwolff.com/content/costs-capitalisms-crisis-who-will-pay

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You have to be Rich to be Insane: Report from the Middle

Do you have any Good Junk?
By Pat Darnell

Someday Son, all this will be Yours
03.27.2009
Losing one's mind is not a luxury for the Middle Class. I realize that is "so not fair." Getting help makes you vulnerable if you are already snapping every eight weeks. Generally the stay in the Psyche Ward is six weeks for mental instability. That leaves two weeks in limbo for mid-range earners. like me, since I cannot pay for the extra stay, I end up where I started. I live off the rubbish of others...

Middle Class like me will never actually be able to use Dodo Physics to obtain a Rhino Tank. I will never be on a secret mission nor wake up in a hospital with amnesia. I'll most likely never have a three week vacation. I will babysit the rich, and pay for the poor.

I will never garage rare cars or exotic transports, nor stable sleek horses. That is because dishonesty is not a luxury for the Middle Class; as is neither stealing cars or bicycles. I probably will never Morph, nor ever be able to shoot the moon to change its size. (TransformingSociety)

Writing a silly blog is the only dishonesty a Middle American can get away with... The reason I write a public accessible blog like MooPig Wisdom is to entertain myself. Yes, that is the real reason. Someone, correction, all who call me a close friend, or a father, or a husband, have asked me "do you make money doing all that?"

I feel abhorrence in my gut when asked that... but I reply "no, not yet." As if I really think MooPig Parody could demand regular income...? So not in my plan.

What I am doing is trying to establish a Publishing Clearinghouse Company out of IT attrition. You see, as nations move through the conflagration of the internet microcosm, more and more junk is left behind in mounting piles.

Some of the trash falls back into the atmosphere and burns up... but like any flea market worth its fleas, there is lots of stuff, good, almost new stuff, left behind. (DumpsterDiving withDee)

Dumpster Diving has been my intention the whole time; it is a low tech technique to support my high tech craving family. Kapish? Resources for tomorrow's garage-bench enterprise starts in today's man made mountains of left-overs. (Tao of Dumpster Diving)

That's today's Report from the Middle -- Here where the public schools are social gathering places, women are strong, and men are all good looking. Its empirical knowledge, it is fact, not brag! pd

See Also:
[Ryan Beiler is Web editor for Sojourners. He’s been dumpster diving regularly since June 2005. SOURCE]