I see!

"Epiphany" ~ by LV Letalu

I see confusion.
I see peace. I see war.
I see order. I see chaos.
I see smiles. I see scowls.

I see harmony. I see contention.

I see strength. I see weakness.

I see light. I see darkness

I see pleasure. I see pain.

I see wealth. I see poverty.

I see health. I see sickness.

I see cold.

I see warmth.

I see pride; I see humility.

I see hostility; I see friendship.

I see loneliness; I see companionship

I see wrong; I see right.

I see bad; I see good.

I see tears; I see laughter.

I see strife; I see unity.

I see sadness; I see happiness.

I see hate; I see love.

I see death and I see ...
Life.

I see them all with my eyes
and with my mind,
then with my heart;
and I say:
"I see!"

GOP Presidential Debate

I did watch the GOP Presidential Debate last night.  After the debate, it's practically a two-man race now between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

Romney and Perry - GOP Debate Sept 7, 2011.

Okay, I'm not going to comment on the rest of the candidates, but only on the two heavyweights who will battle it out to the end in defeating Obama next year in November. The rest of the GOP field will eventually melt into the "also ran" conduit.

Mitt Romney

This was the first debate that included Rick Perry; he joined the race only a few weeks ago and so he missed the previous debate. Perry jumped right to the front in the polls bypassing Romney who has been the frontrunner. So everyone was anticipating a clash between Romney and Perry. The post debate consensus among the pundits, however, is that Romney won this one handily. Stromberg of the Washington Post said:

"Winner of the Debate: Romney, hands down. He got a lot of face time, made no big mistakes and was more self-assured behind the lectern even than the uber-confident Perry."

The duel is promoted by the media and MSNBC and Politico, the sponsors of the debate, played along by placing Romney and Perry next to each other and dead center (fourth and fifth) on stage. The other six candidates flanked the leading duo.

The host/moderator - Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News - started with a question directed to - you guessed it - Romney and Perry on their gubernatorial records (Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and Perry the present governor of Texas). The ensuing exchange which took up about the first ten minutes was witty and funny. Romney came out on top in that brief but compendious exchange.  Here:

Perry: We created more jobs in the last three months in Texas than [Romney] created in four years in Massachusetts.

ROMNEY: States are different. Texas is a great state. Texas has zero income tax. Texas has a right to work state, a Republican legislature, a Republican Supreme Court. Texas has a lot of oil and gas in the ground. Those are wonderful things, but Governor Perry [shouldn't] believe that he created those things. If he tried to say that, well, it would be like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet.

PERRY: I know back and forth -- Michael Dukakis (governor of Mass. before Romney) created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt.

ROMNEY: Well, as a matter of fact, George Bush and his predecessor created jobs at a faster rate than you did, Governor.

PERRY: That's not correct.
ROMNEY: Yes, that is correct.

Fact checks reveal that Romney was indeed correct about that last retort.

During the debate Perry reiterated his belief/position that Social Security is a big lie and a Ponzi Scheme.

Amazingly some Republicans are supporting Perry in using such "provocative" language and even agreeing with him about Social Security.
Now here's a warning to the Republicans - and Tea Party supporters of Perry:  Perry may be able to get away with that provocative language in the Primary Election, but in the General Election, if he's the GOP nominee, Obama will have a field day with him and all his extreme right positions, and as a result, the Republicans will lose AGAIN!

Rick Perry

In his defense of the criticism of the executive order he signed as a mandate to have all teenage girls be given the drug/vaccine (Gardasil) to prevent cervical cancer (HPV), Perry said he would always "err on the side of saving lives" ... Really? (Perry's link to the company (Merck) the makes the drug (here) has now surfaced. Cronyism, aye?)

As for "erring on the side of saving lives", Perry again, in defending his record for the most death penalty executions, and when asked if he is bothered by them, he said he does not lose any sleep over any decision to execute an inmate.

So much for "saving lives" especially when there's new evidence that supports the fact that Perry may have executed an innocent man in 2004. 

The two-man race is getting more interesting by the day.  Anyway, may the better, smarter, more qualified and more experienced man (Ahem!) win the GOP nomination.

Weekeeeeeeeeeeend

How about that brain teaser? It's not just a weekend. It's a week with a long end, in other words, long weekend.  LOL!

Labor Day 2011 weekend traffic - Deseret News photo

Long weekend means looooong lines of traffic (as in this picture - not far from our place) from today's (Friday's) gridlock from people traveling on this Labor Day weekend. This particular stretch of freeway is undergoing construction for two additional lanes being added to both directions - 12 lanes altogether.... timely of course.

Now, for me, I'm staying put - at home. I do not want to deal with this kind of traffic; it's bedlam and it's the same with any long weekend.

I do love long weekends however especially when I'm not traveling - and driving. Staying home makes long weekends longer and more enjoyable. It makes Friday longer, Saturday too but especially Sunday. That's the feeling I get of these days. It essentially means I get to stay up late Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

So here's what I've penciled in for the Labor Day weekend schedule

Friday night - Eat out ! ...meaning we're taking our food, sit and eat outside in the yard! ....LOL!




Taleni & Tahi

 Saturday - It's All Football Day - "eat, drink and sleep football" - Will attend/watch grandsons'  games, (need pics of you Kalobe and Jamison!!) then watch BYU's first game on ESPN ... exciting season for my Cougars! ...will try to squeeze in mowing the lawn!...haha ...stay up late play pool and games.

Sunday - Go to church and then hang out with family in the evening - Stay up late have some games, and spend time with family!

Monday - early morning run, then do yard work, water lawn and garden, set up backyard for family BBQ then movie night with the whole clan in backyard, and get the braziers (firepits) going ....

...til Tuesday, so loooong ..................

GO COUGARS!!

Obama Joke(s)

The first part is the original one sent by a family member and then followed by my own modification/version.


President Obama walks into the Bank of America to cash a check. As he approaches the cashier he says "Good morning Ma'am, could you please cash this check for me"?

Cashier: "It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID"?

Obama: "Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn't think there was any need to. I am President Barack Obama, the president of the United States of America !!!!"

Cashier: "Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the new regulations, monitoring, of the banks because of impostors and forgers, etc I must insist on seeing ID"

Obama: "Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am"

Cashier: "I am sorry Mr. President but these are the bank rules and I must follow them."

Obama: "I am urging you please to cash this check"

Cashier: "Look Mr.. President this is what we can do: One day Tiger Woods came into the bank without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putting iron and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his check. Another time, Andre Agassi came in without ID. He pulled out his tennis racquet and made a fabulous shot whereas the tennis ball landed in my cup. With that shot we cashed his check. So, Mr. President, what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you, as the President of the United States ?"

Obama stood there thinking, and thinking and finally said: "Honestly, there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can't think of a single thing."

Cashier: "Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
And now my very own version of the ending (I need to copyright this ..haha)...

Obama stood there thinking, and thinking and finally said sarcastically and arrogantly:
“Ok, I’m  the  Black President! ...uhmmmm.... with a white house by the way!”

Cashier: "Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?"

Obama (jokingly): Sorry, I don’t like bills, I’ve seen and signed enough of them ...give me that in change!

Cashier (bemused): Change? ... CHAAAANGE?

Obama (giggles): Are you crazy? ... I was just kidding!!

Cashier:  Of course you were!!!!

LOL!!!.........Avagudweekendoevuione!!

The Day Samoa Lost Her Innocence

It was just a matter of time before Samoa had its initiation in today’s rites of fast-and-instant-do-it-yourself-homemade sex videos. With the ready availability of mobiles, cell phones and other gadgets, loaded with ubiquitous and often predatory apps and services, all at nanosecond speeds, the limits and possibilities of what one can do with them within the privacy of his/her own home, are endless - and boundless. Obviously.

And though the initiation has been loathed by many - at least publicly - it seemed to have been feted by the young and the restless as they circulated and shared the clip, which then slithered onto the Internet.

Subsequently, the panic and shame started rippling through paradise - and beyond. The Catholic Church school - at which the culprit was a student - dived into damage control mode trying to stop the spread of the stigma virus.  The moral psyche of the people was nudged from napping, while the vehicle of government shifted to overdrive in revising existing laws to allow for the indictment of pimps and distributors. Rumors circulated of the girl’s family being banished from their village and letters to a local newspaper (with an online circulation and readership) urged forgiveness, while some issued reprimands and denouncements and still others injected sarcasm suggesting that the video was an effective antidote for some perennial discomforts the girl may have been suffering.

Samoa needs to learn quickly to come to terms with the influx of changes - good and bad - especially those spawned by technology. From a basic and often distorted outside perspective, Samoa is eons behind the rest of the world - if not still very much in Margaret Mead’s sextopia. Reality, however, is that distance, in all its imaginable connotations, is dead - killed by technology - and Samoa is therefore hobnobbing with the most technologically advanced countries in the world. That can be good and commendable for a remote island nation to stay abreast with today’s developments and innovation in technology.

However, the same tenacious approach of staying current with global trends, along with enthusiasm for the latest and greatest innovation, are sometimes spurned and viewed with suspicion, skepticism and paranoia - if not evil - by the older and more conservative generations. As a result, the generation gap seems to be made even wider by today’s fast changing world. And though many young people still espouse the traditional and Christian values of their parents, even in the face of riotous and egregious modern influxes, dilemmas and confusion have become real problems among Samoan youth of today. In some cases these young people resort to rebellion and eventually suicide in coping with resulting despair.

To echo Dickens, I guess these can be the best of times and the worst of times. I still remember when the song “Rosalia” (70's) was shunned and even banned from the airwaves of 2AP (Samoa’s then only radio station) because of its sexually suggestive lyrics. Today it is freely played and distributed. And though the song is definitely not on a par with the sex video, it certainly shows how times have changed. Samoa’s innocence has been on a diminishing path until the coinage broadband revives the feminine/sex connotation, and the godless is found on the wireless, the vile on the mobile, and hell on the cell...and thus Samoa’s eyes were finally opened. Literally and otherwise!

>>>>>>>>
“We each begin in innocence. We all become guilty.” ~ Leonard F. Peltier

A rocky relationship

A mayor in a small town in Quebec gave this rock to his wife - make that ex-wife - as a birthday present complete with a bow and “Happy Birthday” written on it.


The mayor said that his wife had been harassing him and complained that he had never given her a rock. So the mayor delivered to her house a rock (boulder) - not a diamond, as the ex-wife had wanted.

Moral of the story:  “If you want to be prolific and terrific, be specific!” Some men can be quite horrific! If you want a diamond, say diamond - not rock! .....LOL!

The name/word “Isa” reminds me of something that only Filemoni would do! ..Hahaaa!! 
Koeikiki fo’i salalau pagikeke i lou ulu! .........................Isa!