The Ballad Of The Harp-Weaver

by, Edna St. Vincent Millay.

It is a poem about the love a mother has for her child.
It is sweet and sad and it is one of my all-time favorites.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I.
~~Melody

I dedicate this to all mothers everywhere.



"Son," said my mother,

When I was knee-high,

"you've need of clothes to cover you,

and not a rag have I.



"There's nothing in the house

To make a boy breeches,

Nor shears to cut a cloth with,

Nor thread to take stitches.



"There's nothing in the house

But a loaf-end of rye,

And a harp with a woman's head

Nobody will buy,"

And she began to cry.



That was in the early fall.

When came the late fall,

"Son," she said, "the sight of you

Makes your mother's blood crawl,—



"Little skinny shoulder-blades

Sticking through your clothes!

And where you'll get a jacket from

God above knows.



"It's lucky for me, lad,

Your daddy's in the ground,

And can't see the way I let

His son go around!"

And she made a queer sound.



That was in the late fall.

When the winter came,

I'd not a pair of breeches

Nor a shirt to my name.



I couldn't go to school,

Or out of doors to play.

And all the other little boys

Passed our way.



"Son," said my mother,

"Come, climb into my lap,

And I'll chafe your little bones

While you take a nap."



And, oh, but we were silly

For half and hour or more,

Me with my long legs,

Dragging on the floor,



A-rock-rock-rocking

To a mother-goose rhyme!

Oh, but we were happy

For half an hour's time!



But there was I, a great boy,

And what would folks say

To hear my mother singing me

To sleep all day,

In such a daft way?



Men say the winter

Was bad that year;

Fuel was scarce,

And food was dear.



A wind with a wolf's head

Howled about our door,

And we burned up the chairs

And sat upon the floor.



All that was left us

Was a chair we couldn't break,

And the harp with a woman's head

Nobody would take,

For song or pity's sake.



The night before Christmas

I cried with cold,

I cried myself to sleep

Like a two-year old.



And in the deep night

I felt my mother rise,

And stare down upon me

With love in her eyes.



I saw my mother sitting

On the one good chair,

A light falling on her

From I couldn't tell where.



Looking nineteen,

And not a day older,

And the harp with a woman's head

Leaned against her shoulder.



Her thin fingers, moving

In the thin, tall strings,

Were weav-weav-weaving

Wonderful things.



Many bright threads,

From where I couldn't see,

Were running through the harp-strings

Rapidly,



And gold threads whistling

Through my mother's hand.

I saw the web grow,

And the pattern expand.



She wove a child's jacket,

And when it was done

She laid it on the floor

And wove another one.



She wove a red cloak

So regal to see,

"She's made it for a king's son,"

I said, "and not for me."

But I knew it was for me.



She wove a pair of breeches

Quicker than that!

She wove a pair of boots

And a little cocked hat.



She wove a pair of mittens,

Shw wove a little blouse,

She wove all night

In the still, cold house.



She sang as she worked,

And the harp-strings spoke;

Her voice never faltered,

And the thread never broke,

And when I awoke,—



There sat my mother

With the harp against her shoulder,

Looking nineteeen,

And not a day older,



A smile about her lips,

And a light about her head,

And her hands in the harp-strings

Frozen dead.



And piled beside her

And toppling to the skies,

Were the clothes of a king's son,

Just my size.



Edna St. Vincent Millay

Jeanie Hill Has a Pretty Mouth.

Well, she does.

                                                                                                                      

And what is wrong for saying this?

I am ashamed of myself right now at this moment. 1st > I am procrastinating from creating web content which my brother, Ross, is waiting for (and quite patiently, too).

Instead I am skipping around Facebook, ya know, seeing what's up. S'uuup?

And I see Jeanie's post and it kinda just hit me. Her mouth is pretty.

But there is more to her than that, Jeanie has a pretty soul. She is petite and bubbly. I can honestly say I have never seen her get angry even when she was at her limit. I wanted to compliment her, so I did.

Everyone should go out of their way to compliment a different person every day. And not an "obvious" compliment. I am talking about a compliment that the person is not aware of or maybe has not heard in a while. When was the last time someone told you that they like your mouth? Weird, right? Oh well, I also like to tell people when their butts look good in a pair of pants. I always tell the person to put a star on that pant's hanger. Makes 'em smile. I like making people smile. It is like a drug to me.

Speech! Speech!

Good evening,
Please allow me to extend a warm Thank you to family, friends and faculty who have come here tonight to celebrate the Graduating Class of 2010.

It has been quite a journey that has spanned almost ¾’s of a year. A year of juggling family’s schedules, kid’s soccer games, finances, missed dinners, long days at work or school followed by longer nights at work or school. And everyone that is here that has felt the brunt of this journey, again I say ‘Thank You.”

When I found out I was named Salutatorian, I was honored. And when I was told I was required to make a speech, well…
I thought to myself, now that’s not going to be easy. I mean you all know I am certainly not one to stand at the center of attention and speak my mind… Ahem, But since I must….

Dr. Drew explained to me that a Salutatorian’s speech is meant to Welcome Everyone to the new life for which they have spent these long months preparing. It is my honor to do so right now. Feel free to give yourselves a round of applause. And let me say, Welcome Therapists! Welcome to the first day of the rest of your new life!

Tonight I would like to speak out on what I feel is the most valuable element that will become the foundation for success within this new life, and that element is PERSEVERANCE.

The great Madame Curie once said,

“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”

So, our “Thing” is massage therapy.

But I don’t like the word “Thing”, I prefer the term “Super Power.”

For example, think of John Smith sitting at his computer suffering from headaches and sharp pains in his shoulders. He makes an appointment to go to the doctor where he is shuffled about before obtaining his prescription. Then he must fill out the prescription (hopefully not at Wal-Mart or this speech may never end), at last he takes the prescribed pain pill, and once again, he must wait…. wait for the pain to go away. Whereas you or I can place our hands where the pain begins, and faster than a flexoril the pain subsides.

And what about Sally Brown, the typical single mother struggling to make ends meet, feeling frustrated and weary. Within the hour, we can ease that stress with smooth therapeutic strokes until she begins to feel lighter, less burdened, and centered. I think that is an amazing power, a power that each and every one of us now possess, a power that requires knowledge and skill, and luckily for us, we were able to learn and hone our skills at one of the top schools in Texas… Parker. Let’s hear it for Parker!

So, we have a Super Power. Now what?

Now we must use this power. We must persevere in our quest for clients, job opportunities and furthering our education in a specific field. Do not procrastinate. Do not let this power sit dusty upon a shelf only to be taken down between shifts of other jobs. We have been struggling for 8 long months. What are a few months more? Do not fall back on the easier means. We are no longer a cog in the corporate wheel. No more cubicles and fluorescent lighting for us. No more long shifts filled with “What can I get ya?” and 10% tips.
So tonight I ask that you take this excited energy and enthusiasm and channel it as the fuel to your own perseverance. Network, stay in touch with each other, pass along opportunities that for you may not work, but for a fellow classmate could be the job of a lifetime. Create a social circle and stay current within it.

I learned perseverance from my Grandfather. He started as a shoe salesman at JC Penney. He retired as a Vice President; I wish he could be here. But I know he would agree with me when I say:
Submerge yourself within this new life and it will blossom before you.

I will leave you with a final quote from our former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, that reads,

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did. “

Thank you everyone,

and goodnight.

                                                                            

Tax Day Cometh!

Tax Law Was Cited in Software Engineer’s Suicide Note





By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

Published: February 18, 2010

In his suicide note, the computer software engineer who flew a small plane into a building with Internal Revenue Service offices in Texas on Thursday cited a 1986 tax law as a major motivation for his action.
The law, known as Section 1706 of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, made it extremely difficult for information technology professionals to work as self-employed individuals, forcing most to become company employees.

Many software engineers and other such professionals say that the law denies them the opportunity to become wealthy entrepreneurs and that it makes it harder to increase and refine their skills, eventually diminishing their income.

Harvey J. Shulman, a Washington lawyer who represented companies that supported the desires of software engineers to be independent contractors, estimated that the law currently affects at least 100,000 such people.

“This law has ruined many people’s lives, hurt the technology industry, and discouraged the creation of small, independent businesses critical to a thriving domestic economy,” Mr. Shulman said in an interview Thursday. “That the law still exists — even after its original sponsors called for its repeal and unbiased studies proved it unfairly targeted a tax-compliant industry — shows just how dysfunctional and unresponsive Democratic and Republican Congresses and our political system have been, even on relatively simple issues.”



The law was sponsored by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, as a favor to I.B.M., which wanted a $60 million tax break on its overseas business.

Under budget rules in effect at the time, any tax breaks had to be paid for with new revenues. By requiring software engineers to be employees, a Congressional report estimated, income and payroll taxes would rise by $60 million a year because employees had few opportunities to cheat on their taxes.

One year later, convinced that the law was not bringing in the expected revenue, Senator Moynihan proposed that it be repealed, but his bill died. Over the next eight years or so, Congress held at least six hearings on the law. In 1996, the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, which prepares official tax revenue estimates for Congress, calculated that repeal of the law would cause an insignificant revenue loss. Mr. Shulman testified at the time that it would actually increase revenues as engineers, job brokers and others built successful businesses.


Seventy senators, ranging from Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, then signed a letter calling for repeal.


In 1998 Senator William V. Roth Jr., the Delaware Republican who was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said through an aide that he believed the law should be repealed, but that he would not take any action because it would “open a Pandora’s box of other independent contractor issues.”



On Wednesday, the day before Andrew Joseph Stack III left his suicide note and crashed the plane into the building in Austin, the Obama administration proposed a widespread crackdown on all types of independent contractors in an effort to raise $7 billion in tax revenue over 10 years

Dearest Onion, I love you so much it brings a tear to my eye.

Diabetics... Calling ALL Diabetics....                                                  

                                      

This week we celebrate onions while they are in the peak of their season. Onions not only add extra flavor to your dish but are also a source of many health-promoting nutrients, including their unique sulfur-containing compounds, which help lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels and reduce blood pressure.

Health Benefits

Onions, like garlic, are members of the Allium family, and both are rich in powerful sulfur-containing compounds that are responsible for their pungent odors and for many of their health-promoting effects. Onions contain allyl propyl disulphide, while garlic is rich in allicin, diallyl disulphide, diallyl trisulfide and others. In addition, onions are very rich in chromium, a trace mineral that helps cells respond to insulin, plus vitamin C, and numerous flavonoids, most notably, quercitin.

Blood Sugar-Lowering Effects

The higher the intake of onion, the lower the level of glucose found during oral or intravenous glucose tolerance tests. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that allyl propyl disulfide is responsible for this effect and lowers blood sugar levels by increasing the amount of free insulin available. Allyl propyl disulfide does this by competing with insulin, which is also a disulphide, to occupy the sites in the liver where insulin is inactivated. This results is an increase in the amount of insulin available to usher glucose into cells causing a lowering of blood sugar.

In addition, onions are a very good source of chromium, the mineral component in glucose tolerance factor, a molecule that helps cells respond appropriately to insulin. Clinical studies of diabetics have shown that chromium can decrease fasting blood glucose levels, improve glucose tolerance, lower insulin levels, and decrease total cholesterol and triglyceride levels, while increasing good HDL-cholesterol levels. Marginal chromium deficiency is common in the United States, not surprising since chromium levels are depleted by the consumption refined sugars and white flour products as well as the lack of exercise. One cup of raw onion contains over 20% of the Daily Value for this important trace mineral.

Source:
http://whfoods.org/

A DAY of SADNESS...

IRVING, Texas (AP) — More than 20,000 people gathered at tailgate parties and other spots Sunday to watch fireworks go off one last time over Texas Stadium before a ton of dynamite lit up the Dallas Cowboys' longtime home and brought it to the ground.


The building known for the giant hole in its roof — "so God can watch his team," according to local lore — was demolished in a planned implosion set off by the 11-year-old winner of an essay contest.

The Cowboys played 38 seasons in Texas Stadium, winning five Super Bowls during that time. The local landmark also was home for the world famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
"It was much more emotional than I expected," said Pam Seal, a cheerleader in 1975. She decided only Saturday to drive from the suburb of North Mesquite to watch. "I'm so glad that I had my family out there to hold my hand through it. I didn't think I would be that much of a basket case about it. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend."

Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys and the stadium lease for $160 million in 1989. The night he agreed to the deal, he went to the stadium, laid on the 50-yard-line and looked up through the roof. Driving by before dawn Sunday, he said he got a lump in his throat. The blast itself turned out to be emotional, "more so than I thought it would be."
His daughter and granddaughter both cried.

Hundreds of people arrived Saturday and stayed up all night for "final tailgate" parties before the implosion scheduled for 7 a.m. Along with the more than 20,000 assembled at official locations, people watched from hotels and office buildings as far as 10 miles away in downtown Dallas. Many former Cowboys players were among those taking a last look.

The event was surrounded by hoopla befitting the glitzy image of a club that bills itself as "America's Team." Local television stations carried the implosion live, and ESPN's Chris Berman served as the master of ceremonies.

When Casey Rogers pushed the button, white light flashed in the stadium's interior and there was a rumbling that sounded like a drumbeat. Then the ground shook and a cloud of smoke went up as the building dropped within seconds.
"Awesome!" said Casey, who was still wearing his blue construction helmet a few minutes later. "It was better than I thought it would be."

The only glitch created a cool image: Three buttressing pillars leaned but didn't fall.

"Now we've got Stonehenge," joked Irving mayor Herbert Gears.

The Cowboys moved to the new $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium in nearby Arlington after the 2008 season. With the new stadium and others in the area — including the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, where the Cowboys played from 1960 to October 1971 — Irving officials decided they needed the land more than the building and opted to demolish the stadium.The state already has a 10-year lease to use the property as a staging area for a highway construction project.

Over 38 seasons, the Cowboys won 213 of the 313 regular-season and postseason games they played at Texas Stadium. Many Americans can't remember a Thanksgiving that didn't include watching the Cowboys play there. Hall of Famers Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman played there, and Emmitt Smith (FSY) established himself as the NFL's career rushing leader. Coach Tom Landry set such a high standard a statue of him was erected outside the building.

The stadium also played a role in popular culture. It was the setting for "Mean" Joe Greene's memorable commercial in which he throws his Pittsburgh Steelers jersey to a fan who gives him a Coke ("Hey kid, catch") and the movie "Any Given Sunday." Billy Graham opened the place with a 10-day Crusade, and country music star Garth Brooks held three nights of sold-out shows during which he flew over the crowd. There also were wrestling events, monster truck shows and motocross races.

The Cowboys and their stadium also led changes in the business side of sports, introducing personal seat licenses and making luxury suites popular. In the 1990s, Jones exploited an NFL revenue-sharing loophole by signing sponsorships for the stadium instead of the team.

Still, the enduring image of Texas Stadium will be an overhead image of a Cowboys game, shot through the hole in the roof and showing the men in the shiny silver helmets with the blue star cheered on by beautiful cheerleaders.

"Texas Stadium will never become tarnished, neglected or dishonored, but always remembered, revered and respected, a memory that will be cherished, a place forever honored by all of us who were there," said Alicia Landry, the coach's widow, at a Friday farewell event. "It was a special time and a special place, for the team and for the fans, to be part of our memories forever."

Strong Evidence on the Vaccine-Autism Link Shows Up in Survey of West Coast Children

Good parents who are having their children vaccinated are being misled, thinking that vaccinations are safe and effective, when in fact, no such assurances can be given. We have to ask if the small size of our infants is being taken into account when we inject their systems with large doses of foreign materials, including live attenuated viruses.
The vaccine industry likes to maintain that people are living longer because of vaccines. Yet, the real reason that people are living longer and healthier lives has little to do with vaccines. Sanitation, the development of antibiotics, pasteurization, and the understanding of the role that bacteria plays in disease causation have all played major roles in the reduction of illness in the 20th century.

Powerful lobbying interests represent vaccine manufacturers, and they give money to both parties in congress. The vaccine regulatory committees at the CDC and the FDA are stacked heavily with ‘experts’ who have strong ties to the vaccine industry, and have had or will have employment in that industry.
Children receive upwards of 20 vaccinations by the time they turn 18. The question then becomes, with all the learning disabilities, autism, and other problems due to vaccines, “Who is protecting our children?”

The answer is no one. Vaccination is just another way of sacrificing public health for the profitability of a powerful special interest group. Here, it is the well-financed and deeply entrenched vaccine industry that has everything to gain from vaccinating your children. America is at a crossroads: we have to decide whether the politics, economic incentives, and conflicts of interest of a few are worth the health and lives of the many, in this case our children. Our very future is at stake. Listen carefully to this original, investigative report, and you will learn that vaccines are neither as safe nor effective as you were once led to believe. To the contrary, they are often ineffective, plagued with side effects, and simply not worth the risk to either public or private health.

The battle has been raging back and forth for decades: Is there or isn’t there a link between childhood vaccines and autism? If you ask a parent who has a child who developed autism directly after a vaccination, you get one story. But if you ask a pharmaceutical representative for one of the companies that make vaccines, you get the opposite story. Where’s the truth?

There’s been plenty of research and many authorities – some with suspect ties to pharmaceutical companies – have weighed in on the matter. But whether the reason is incomplete research or something more sinister, there is not yet a consensus in the healthcare field as to the connection.

Now a survey of children in Oregon and California provides a strong piece of evidence to support the connection. The group Generation Rescue surveyed more than 9,000 boys between the ages of 4 and 17 in 9 counties in Oregon and California to find out how many were vaccinated and how many suffered from conditions such as autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or another neurological condition.
The Results: Those who had received their childhood vaccinations were two and a half times more likely to suffer from neurological disorders compared to their vaccinated peers. Vaccinated boys were also 224 percent more likely to have ADHD and 61 percent more likely to have autism than the unvaccinated group.

Just looking at older boys, the results were even more pronounced. It turned out that vaccinated boys experienced neurological disorders at a rate 158 percent higher than the unvaccinated group. Taking autism and ADHD alone, they were 317 percent more likely to have ADHD and 112 percent more likely to experience autism.

Generation Rescue notes that over time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have massively increased their recommendations for vaccinations. In 1983, they recommended only 10 vaccinations. Now, the vaccination schedule is up to 36 doses. And while thimerosal, the mercury-containing preservative, has been removed from pediatric vaccines, there are other additives that are highly suspect, such as aluminum. Plus, some other vaccinations a child may receive, such as some flu shots, still do contain thimerosal. It is noted that between 1983 and 2007, autism rates climbed from 1 in 10,000 children to 1 in 150 children, a growth rate of 6,000 percent.

While this kind of survey may not be the last word in research, it clearly points out the need to make a national study without bias or vested interest involvement – for the health of all our children. Such a study was proposed by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Maurice Hinchley and Rep. Ron Paul. The bill, H.R. 2832, was introduced on June 22, 2007. The bill failed to be enacted as law at that time and was re-introduced in 2009.

If you would like to read the complete survey results, you can go to http://www.generationrescue.org/.



Source: Generation Rescue Press Release, Vaccinated Children Two and a Half Times More Likely to Have Neurological Disorders Like ADHD and Autism, September 25, 2007, http://www.generationrescue.org/survey_pr.html



Source: GovTrack.us index of Congressional Actions, H.R. 3069: Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2009, http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3069



Source: Gary Null, Ph.D., is a New York Times best-selling author, the host of the talk radio program,
“The Gary Null Show,” and a producer of documentary films, PBS television programs, and health and personal development videos

BUMBLEBEES CAN’T FLY

Earlier in this century, a scientific researcher “proved” that bumblebees could not fly and they were a freak of nature. Then thirty or forty years later, another scientific researcher proved that bumblebees could fly. Most individuals with common sense have long since agreed that bumblebees fly.

Some foods, such as garlic and ginseng cause an enhanced feeling of physical well-being in many individuals and have been used for hundreds of years. But because researchers cannot find how or why garlic and ginseng cause an enhanced feeling of physical well-being, the “Bumblebees Can’t Fly” mentality overrules reason and logic.

The UC Berkeley Wellness Letter reports in two studies that garlic has no effect on people with elevated cholesterol levels. The test lasted 12 weeks. The Berkeley Letter goes on to report that “There’s no clear evidence that garlic supplements have any health benefits.”

Of course, there is another reason to try to downplay or dismiss the benefits of a natural food. A study done on a cholesterol drug (funded by the drug–maker) concluded that hundreds of thousands of deaths and repeat heart attacks could be avoided if patients with normal cholesterol levels were given the drug “Pravachol.”

Researchers admitted it would take at least two years of treatment to experience any benefit. Treatment with Pravachol costs an estimated $750-900 annually. Treatment of 200,000 people would mean an estimated annual revenue of about $165 million for the drug company, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Now, notice that the test with garlic lasted 12 weeks. Users of the drug Pravachol would not notice any benefit for at least two years. Simply another case of “Bumblebees can’t fly.”



SOURCE: Cholesterol 2, Garlic 0. UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, September 1998. Rondberg, D.C. Terry A. Under the Influence of Modern Medicine, p. 140