mermaidcamp
Keeping current in wellness, in and out of the water
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Bienvenidos a Tucson
December 30, 2012
— 1 Comment
Tradicionalmente en Tucson los negocios han servido el mercado de ambos lados de la frontera. Nogales, Sonora es la puerta de entrada por la mayoria de frutas y verduras que exporta el pais de Mexico. Hay bastante negocio y riqueza en Sta. Cruz County y en Sonora desde el tiempo de los Espanoles. Ranchos enormes y negocios viejos, acostumbrados de la cultura y los riesgos de la frontera sobreviven. Tucson, entre el diablo y la frontera, sufre poque los Maricopanos han parado comercio legitimo, pero no el crimen. Nos molesta, pero ellos tienen el poder político en el estado. Joe Arpayo no nos representa.
La gente de Sonora ya no tiene ganas visitar Arizona ya que SB1070 es la ley. Esto me parace muy natural. Tucson tiene una herida economica bien seria resultando de la clima politica. El nuevo alcalde de Tucson, Jonathan Rothschild, quiere renovar el comercio entre Sonora y Tucson. Si tiene éxito los Mexicanos, lindos y queridos, van a regresar con su efectivo a nuestra ciudad. Yo le brindo mucha suerte porque nos hacen mucha falta nuestros vecinos Mexicanos elegantes, distinguidos, y mas que todo, ricos, que antes nos visitaban. Aqui les esperamos, para servirles, sin pedo.
Disculpe el Espanol desnudo. No he encontrado el espellcheck en Espanol en mi WordPress.
Passive Agressive Cops Foster Crime
December 30, 2012
— 7 Comments
Joe Bonnano
I live in central Tucson, where we are surrounded with gun dealing, dope dealing, human dealing, and we are not sure what else. Here everyone knows that these illegal businesses are perhaps the strongest part of our economy. Tucson works on that trickle down theory…if we let lots of crime money circulate in the city, somebody will buy something from the legal merchants. We are well aware that cops do not make extra money enforcing laws, but rather by strategically ignoring them.
People in other parts of the country might be shocked by what is called the neighborhood watch program in this city.. Our neighbors have had three visits from the neighborhood watch cop. We had a functional handful of neighbors who regularly e mailed and gave information to each other about crime, safety, and suspicious activity. We met with her to find out how to enhance our skills and coordinate with the TPD. She came but told us we did not meet the requirements she had to follow, so she could not work with us. We went ahead the same way, just using our e mail list to contact each other.
The second meeting set up to form an official watch was a few days before a sales tax election that was of great importance to the officer. Although we had far fewer attendees at the second meeting, she decided that this time we could make it official. So she stayed for an hour and promoted the sales tax and told us we already had no hope of law enforcement, but if the sales tax did not pass she might loose her job. I remember thinking, she really should loose her job since she is out here not doing it at all right now. After the official status was granted I contacted her to help eliminate the extreme flaming crime that we had to tolerate full time in the form of a charity scam operating in our public areas. She refused to help or respond. She told me to call the parking authority to try to remove the log jam of cars that blocked us into our houses while they made donations to the criminals. The parking authority did arrive six months later and ticket a neighbor who had been illegally parked for a decade, but all the neighborhhod had to live with full time fully public crime by three of the thirty houses in our condo village. Since they were in the scam business for years, our property value has been reduced to almost nothing. Nobody would come to look at a property where the residents were fully parked in to their homes with crime traffic.
The third meeting with the officer was even more poorly attended, with only three other homes represented, other than the full time criminals. So, with the threashhold of a minimum of 16 participants, she went ahead with a brief meeting to sanction the tiny, close knit, and full time criminal group who sat before her as our official neighborhood watch. The other homeowners would just be able to watch while their quality of life is trashed by this group. I raised the issue that there were not close to a majority there, which was met with hostility by both the charity scammers and the cop. What they have in common that aligns them is a desire to be hostile rather than aware. I watched a functioning group of neighbors turn into a crime enhancing group of punks under the guidance of the TPD. No exchange of information has been done since she sanctioned the criminal group. They refuse to respond, just like the TPD. I want to recognize the important work being done by this branch of law enforcement, and I want to stop paying for it. It seems to damage society when cops pretend that crime is not their problem. We don’t need to pay tax dollars to extend willful blindness to crime. We already have that.
Double Down to Feed Our Neighbors
December 27, 2012
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- Tucson public art
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- art as border
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- Culture combination
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- SB1070
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- Hi E’rybody!
In Tucson we host a lot of transients, create crime/residual poverty, and our economy has depended on boom and bust construction. The present condition of our social safety net to protect our weakest is critical. Our Community Food Bank is now $400,000 underfunded for the year. The shelves are bare and the need increases daily. Last night on PBS Newshour I listed to philanthropy experts discuss the fiscal cliff fiasco and non profit businesses. Small donors are fewer this year because of both uncertainty and lack of extra funds for giving. The uncertainty is exacerbated by the fact that non profits also receive 30% of all funding from government programs. They know that falling off the cliff will eliminate many non profit agencies by simply removing the government support. I take a very dim view of congress in the steam room while non profits fold.
A glimmer of hope in Tucson: “Hi e’rybody, I’m Jim Click.” A well known cowboy car dealer hero has stepped up with Sandy Peebles to double all the contributions made to the Community Food Bank from now until the end of the year. I usually take mine to a local lawyer’s office for doubling, but she was not offering the matching funds this year, so I am late. I am thrilled to see our wealthy business owners ride up on the white horses in the white hats to do the right thing. I always ask friends and neighbors to support the Food Bank of Southern AZ because they get the most bang for the buck. When you give a dollar to the Food Bank they use their leverage to buy $9 worth of food for those in need in Tucson. Some non profits have heavy staff and administrative costs, but the Food Bank is lean and clean. They recently won a grant to put gardens in the schools. Please follow me to the website and donate now while the need is great and your donation will be doubled. Let’s all help Jim dig a little deeper into his car bucks.
I also ask everyone to help me end fraudulent philanthropy. Criminals take advantage of the public by seeking donations for bogus entities. Please have some scrutiny and some consideration when you donate. The experts on PBS taught me that small donors usually do not write off their gifting on Federal income tax. That was surprising to me. Wealthy people strategically use giving to pay less in taxes. If you do not have an extra million to give, please make sure your donation is going to a legitimate non profit with an ethical goal. The gifts are needed by the legitimate non profits more than ever, and it is important to know what happens to your hard earned donation.
Christmas Dog Party
December 26, 2012
— 3 Comments
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- Dogs’ Christmas
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- Dressed to party
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- Lodge on the Desert Dogs Party
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- Newly Rescued
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- Dogs rule the Patio
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- Poodle strikes Pose
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- Merry Christmas
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- We watch from inside
When we arrived for our Christmas party for two at the Lodge on the Desert we were greeted by a festive group of dogs and their owners who clearly came to be of good cheer. These jolly folks gather to eat outside at the Lodge on the Desert because the canine companions are welcome to join in the fun. The Retriever in the fancy dress was given an order of scrambled eggs, which we were able to observe from our seats just inside the doggie patio. A rip-roaring good time was had by all. We are more than pleased to have chosen Lodge on the Desert as our restaurant of the year for 2013. We don’t go out to eat very often, and look for a superior quality that sets a place apart from the rest. Tucson’s reigning Iron Chef is on the job there, and was willing to adapt for my vegetarian requests. He was personally riding the range on Christmas, and waved to us at our table as he walked across the patio. Our food was superb, as was the service. I will detail the gourmet delights for you at another time. For now, if you love your dog and want to party, this is my highest recommendation. My coon hound Artemisia was none the wiser that her parents celebrated Christmas dinner at a dog restaurant without her. I will appreciate it, gentle readers, if you keep this as our little secret. She howls at other dogs, and at food, therefore would be too loud and rowdy at a food centered event. We do love to see quiet well-behaved dogs enjoy the restaurant privileges the Euro dogs take for granted. I believe this hotel, with a recent remodel that has brought back the charm, will build a reputation for hospitality and gourmet dining among the human and the canine connoisseurs of elegance and good taste.
As Above, so Below-the Border
December 24, 2012
— 1 Comment
How irresistible is untaxed profit? So magnetic that a Border Patrol agent just was stupid enough to load a large shipment of dirt weed into to his migramobile for transport right next to the border recently. I live in Tucson, in the slipstream of untaxed profit provided by the border. It feels to me like the economy that transpires outside the law, under the table, is much greater than legal business in my state. We are so damn fast, furious, heavily armed, and racist that anything can and does happen. South of the border, down Mexico way, kingpins of crime created a much stronger economy than the local legal economy. They now have their own saint which is a sure sign that they are in control. The border itself offers them the risk reward system of illegal commerce that increases their power and wealth. Sure, they have guns (supplied by us), but they only enforce their special jurisdiction with guns. If they had no economy based on smuggling they would have no power in Mexico or the US, thus no need for a saint.
- The closer to the border, the higher the risk/reward.
- The closer to the border, the more violent the scene
- The closer to the border, the higher the pay for crime
- The closer to the border, the higher the bribes
At the border everything is exponentially magnified and all the cops are criminals, all the sinners saints. Stakes are high and the dominant criminal precedent has been set in place forever. Smuggling pays well, and pays law enforcement the highest salaries, one would imagine. The fence that was built to solve our bizzillion border issues has magnetized them. The pay is now higher to break laws at the border, and the violence much greater. Every pendejo who loves lawlessness is attracted to the Arizona/Sonora border. Why? It is simple. The pinche-punk criminals flock to both sides of the border because the border itself is pura pendejada. The migra doesn’t even have a saint. How pathetic is that?
Drugs, Guns, and Risk
December 22, 2012
— 2 Comments
If Mr. McMurphy doesn’t want to take his medication orally, I’m sure we can arrange that he can have it some other way. But I don’t think that he would like it.-Nurse Ratched
The shadow America does not want to face is our mental health system. Mental health treatment has been a barbaric system of emergency drug administration with no hope for cure. My parents could afford the best available when they needed help in their last years. The problem was finding any ethical and effective treatment for them. Everyone was ready to charge big bucks, but nobody had any real therapy (or even care) for the patient. They had unlimited access to all drugs, but no access to careful diagnosis or medical ethics. When I volunteered for the VA my Vet was long-term suicidal, and there was no available help for him either. I am sure there are some quality programs somewhere, but before going out and spending twice as much money giving people twice as many drugs, why not evaluate the efficacy of the treatments used now? I am going out on a limb and say our neighborhood system of mental health treatment is damaging to all concerned. Random pharmaceutical drug use is not healthy, mentally or physically.
In my neighborhood, here in central Tucson, where you can virtually buy drugs in the middle of the street and there is probably a weapons concierge who will bring a selection of guns to your house for purchase, a 6-year-old was found with a loaded gun in has backpack at school. His dad was arrested for an old felony charge so the kid who said he did not know how the gun got into his backpack is now probably a foster kid while his father serves time. This is the reality for the youth here, and they may or may not know how the gun got there, but they know it will not be the last gun they will see. This deep, sociological, complex problem will be resolved by government programs with an arsenal of pills. Is that, in any way, believable?
We also have a very large mental health center available to the public and funded by Medicare. It is close to a public bus stop with a convenience store on the corner. People from all over the city can come, buy enough alcohol to be over the limit, and be admitted for the night to the mental health clinic. If they are not at the limit, they simply walk back to the store and buy another pint of liquor. They will be given prescription drugs as a result of the entry to the clinic which they can sell right there in my neighborhood. The clinic is supposed to make sure that the patients leave the area, but of course there is no way to enforce that rule. So the patients are released to repeat the cycle. Spending twice as much money on this will create at least twice the insanity and grow creepy petty crime around here. It is a risk to continue to pretend we are treating mental illness or Vet suicide. Money spent on this denial while asking for more funding is running from the reality that systems profit from status quo, and not from change. We need fundamental change, comprehensive. Stopping the madness will involve stopping the flow of drugs as a substitute for therapy. This is a war on drugs worth fighting and well within our power.
Super Sandra Day O’Satya, Defender of the Highest Law
December 16, 2012
— 2 Comments
Supreme Daily Show
I idealize and adore Sandra Day O’Connor, so it was not really a surprise to find her as a super hero in my dream last night. She was a super judge, which of course she is, but her super powers had expanded beyond the regular earthy ones. My visual recall of my dreams is still pretty crumby, but the ability to hold on the the basic story and characters is improving. She could swoop in like Mighty Mouse or Batman. She wore fashionable street clothes, not the robe, but did have one of the little collar thingys they wear. She had those same piercing baby blue eyes that had a spectrum of vision that showed her where the rule of law was being abused by the cranky pants people.
The cranky group was diverse and included cops and judges along with regular angry bird citizens (the one’s we think might shoot somebody). The judge archetype seeks to balance justice and compassion. The shadow judge manifests as destructive criticism, judging without compassion, as misuse of legal authority, or threatening others through association with the law. Sandra Day was angelic and gave darshan and peace to the cranky panted ones. She had a clarity about her, as one might expect from cross between a real life Supreme and my dream judge/ justice avenger. She restored order like Jesus healed the sick. She had no props, no wand, no sleigh, just the truth. She was so brilliant that she enlightened the darkness in all the hearts she touched. What she did have in common with Santa was a need to keep moving because there was so much clarity, justice, and compassion to be distributed to all the good little girls and boys. By applying exactly the same fair and equal treatment to all the bad little girls and boys she proved that she was so beyond Supreme.
In real life Sandra Day and I are both Arizona hotties, although she is a Phoenician. She is co chair of an institute to foster civility in Tucson at the U of A. Her reputation for civility is epic, not that unlike my dream Super Supreme Sandra. Her favorite poem in real life tells her secret to Supremehood ( and SuperSupremehood):
Sometime when you’re feeling important;
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is a measure of how you will be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you’ll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There’s no indispensable man.
[Saxon N. White Kessinger, There is No Indispensable Man (1959).]
How simple. These instructions, followed regularly can easily lead to civil discourse. This Supreme’s got SOUL. Let us all wish her luck on her nocturnal flights through the universe. Hi- Ho, SuperSandra, away. Let’s assume that this poem is the gift she wants us all to use while she is busy fighting injustice.
You better not
Tucson’s Butterfly Jungle
December 3, 2012
— 8 Comments
In Tucson we keep a small power packed tropical jungle full of exotic butterflies. We live in a draught filled desert, so besides the regular showing of of our local flora, our Tucson Botanical Gardens provides a little slice of steamy tropical heaven for visitors.
Visiting the tropics
I support the gardens and enjoy visiting at all times of year. The contribution to our botanical heritage is important. This oasis provides a luscious environment in the heart of the city for those who treasure gardens.
strike a pose
The collection of butterflies is seasonal. They arrive in the fall and stay until spring.
Butterfly on stone
We do not mind hanging out for a while in the mist. They even play jungle sounds, Here I am with an antler fern coming out of my head.
sitting in the butterfly jungle
The star attractions are born and die constantly. The butterfly tenders bring out new boxes of babies, born right next door in the nursery every day.
twice as lovely
They are whimsical, friendly, and short lived. They are kind of like a living sand mandala. They brighten the world for a brief time. They invite you to come on down to their jungle for a break from everyday cares. They know the secrets to getting it while you can.
on my head
Hip Shopping and Sugar Plums
November 23, 2012
— 3 Comments
By definition, a purchase at a small business is an act of individuation. The effort to save small business, slow food, craft quality, and organic farming is valid from an economic standpoint. The local business keeps currency flowing in the local stream. Home Depot takes as much profit as possible home to the stockholders, as is their mandate. This does not make Home Depot evil, but it does mean that it is impossible to purchase anything hip at that Depot. The interaction with the customer is done to scale, as in, ‘What do we need to order from China for next season?”, or “How do we create a new line of seasonal treats our customers have requested?” The hip gift giver looks for the unique match, which is not to be found in the massive crush of deep discount mall shopping.
My mom just loved being swept away by merchandise. She shopped all over the world and stocked up on gifts for unknown future receivers. These ghost recipients were just taking up some of the slack in her giant shopping disorder. She was good anywhere, from the street market in Asia to Wal-Mart. She loved acquisition for no apparent reason. I spent way too much time in my childhood shopping for my taste. I believe this experience shaped me into the psychic speed shopper that I am today. First of all, like many traits we reverse (only to end at the same place), my goal is always to spend as little time as possible. Exactly like my mother I start with no need to shop, owning already more stuff than I could ever possibly use in this lifetime. If I buy something I need to feel that I have been guided, like the Star of Bethlehem, to that object. I want to feel like shopping commando, in and out without even being detected in the marketplace. Ruby (my mom) wanted to hang out and try on everything, being stimulated and thrilled by dressing rooms and the hollow compliments of commissioned sales people. She burned me out long before I was 9 on that situation. I never go to malls, and would simply die if I had to go to one on Black Friday.
Today for Green Friday I have no particular need to buy anything. It is the perfect day, however to take the public bus to Fourth Avenue to buy pecans and pistachios at the Food Conspiracy. There is a local party with live music, discount shopping and dining, and a chance to see the streetcar tracks they have been building for what seems like forever. By taking the bus right in front of home I will avoid all traffic/parking/road construction issues. I like to create gifts I decide to give, to make it a personal deal. The recipient will never be thrilled as in wow the expensive brand name thingy everyone else has!!!!!!!, but maybe years later will be able to remember how the sugar plums tasted. I freestyle my own sugar plums from nuts and fruit I find or have. This year I dried some awesome pears in September that are delicious. I want to try mixing them with pistachios and pecans, both of which are grown in Arizona. I encourage you to do your own, since it is almost impossible to make them taste bad. I think Alton is way off base with the fennel seed, and would never do that in mine, but that is why the creation is an individual gift. The ones in The Night Before Christmas were sugar-coated coriander …..drastic flavor if you ask me. I goes to show that your flavor will be savored by individuals, so take some time to do something tailored to them. Thoughtful and personal is the new mindless overconsumption.
Apathy, the Mother of All Crime
November 15, 2012
— 5 Comments
fledgling hawk at the condo village
We know there is fraud and corruption all around us. We are aware that we pay these highly disputed tax dollars to government employees less than interested in serving the public. We know laws are broken all the time because there is not even a tiny itsy bitsy effort to enforce them. I am not sure why we have so many (but that is another subject) if they are all just recorded somewhere in case lawyers need to use them. The public believes that somehow having cops is having law enforcement, but this highly simplistic notion is every criminal’s best friend. People allow bold and disgusting crime to happen before their very eyes without trying to stop it just because apathy is so strong that they are basically controlled by it. There is no expectation that our surroundings can be kept crime free, but rather a new normal of home security and paranoid, anti social collection of weaponry. Full disclosure, I live in Arizona, so I am speaking about my own ‘hood.
I live in a condo village that looks like a fake Taos Pueblo in central Tucson. There are only 30 homes, a pool, a jacuzzi and a small guest parking area. For the last 10 years the HOA board has had the same two members every year. They return to office, even though they are not even known to most residents or owners by keeping completely out of touch. They meet without any interaction with the other homeowners, send a paper newsletter with vague and meaningless report of the meeting in the mail, and continue to survive in this isolated way because they discovered apathy. When one of them celebrated the death of her father by stealing $50 from our dues money and making a donation to a hospice in her father’s name, I called to inform her stealing dues money is both disgusting and illegal. She hung up on me. I learned by asking for neighbors to help get them out of office that the most important element of life for them is denial and ignorance about what is happening in the real estate market and in their surroundings. I reported the theft of the $50 to the attorney general of AZ who responded that they did not handle such cases. I inquired at the city council office to locate the office that could handle this crime. The real estate department no longer helps HOAs with crime infested boards, and the fire department is now in some way attached, but there is no resolution other than to get the homeowners to get the stolen money returned. The homeowners’ prime goal was continued apathy, so that was not workable.
They continued in office and started running a charity scam in our public areas. They solicit food, money , and any kind of junk to their keep the homeless outside campaign. They do not believe in supporting the existing shelters and non profits that serve the homeless community. They believe in trashing the environment of their neighborhood, and some other neighborhood with a public park, in order to feed the homeless outside like animals. They think they are entitled to run a charity scam blocking our driveways and driving down the price of our real estate value because they know that apathy will protect them. They have run this operation for years in broad daylight begging on the internet for donations. I have reported the crime to the IRS, AZ revenue, the County Health Dept, the Ward 3 council office, and of course the TPD. None of these entities cares if we have a charity scam operating in our neighborhood. Neither do the owners of the homes that have lost more than half of their value while these board members made this special jurisdiction for themselves in our public areas. The neighborhood watch cop tells a story of neighbors watching a house be cleared out by thieves, but never report it because nobody knows their neighbors. Here, the homeowners sat silently inside their own homes while their very own property value and quality of life was willfully destroyed and decided that it must be fate. I own a lot across the street from the HOA property with a rising value, while these home values have sunk like rocks. Foreclosure has come and stayed.
I do not believe in competing unfairly with legitimate non profits that need all the help they can get today. It is easy to pitch in, volunteer, or donate to many worthy and wholesome programs that assist the homeless, rather than demean them ( and possibly give them food poisoning) in a public park. I would think that most people would be grossed out by this, but strangers drive through and donate junk without thinking, “What am I doing in a residential condo village blocking the fire lane to do my charity work ?” But then, those people are just dropping off a few old socks they no longer want. The homeowners have been willing to loose their socks just to stay apathetic.
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