BURNING THE KORAN

Florida Preacher, Terry Jones, burned a Koran in his church and caused huge protests in Afghanistan. Thousands of people waving Taliban flags rioted. More than 20 lost their lives. Seven were U.N. workers.

With pictures (like this one), of the Preacher being burned in effigy, a few weeks ago, the protest was mentioned a few times in our news. Right now, except for the families of the dead, it's more-or-less a forgotten fact that's filed away in the mind of Preacher Jones as a success.

Last year, before September 11, Jones promoted an International Burn A Koran Day. Threatening to burn a Koran every day, he sparked wild protests around the world. It was only after the intervention of both the President and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Jones withdrew the plans, claiming he did so because he had made his point, and vowing not to go through with it.

But ON March 20th, he changed his mind.

To me, this man's burning of the Koran is a misplaced, distorted passion for his own religion and his own beliefs in the Lord God.

I bow my head, and mourn the people who died. This post today is my plea -- don't disrespect Muslims -- don't make war with them -- don't let it become our bible versus theirs.

Please don't dismiss the fact that 20 died because a preacher burned a Koran.

I am hoping my voice is yours too.

IF THE SHOE FITS?

I was on 8th Street, in Greenwich Village, buying colored pencils at my art supply store. The weather was almost warm. My feet in my sneakers were sweating. I saw two girls wearing flip flops. (I don't like them. They make me feel sloppy. I never wear them!)

Falling in love with a pair of shoes is like falling in love with a car. Back in my car buying days, I cruised around the dealers on Santa Monica Boulevard, but didn't seriously consider any auto until I saw a blue-blue Acura Legend. The specs were similar to the specs on a red Lincoln Town Car that I liked, but pushed out of my mind -- I needed a small car. Ahh, but the blue-blue Legend -- its sleek shape -- I was in love.

(I drove it for four years when we lived in Malibu.)

I wasn't shopping for shoes. Noticing this shoe in a store window and thought: "Yuck -- how klutzy, excessive! Lacing them would take ten minutes! Never would I wear dumb, over-fancy wedgies like that!"

The sign said: "Flatform. $2,100."

Shoes prices are nuts, out of whack -- way, way over the top ever since the "Sex in the City" heroines and their pumps. Yes, ridiculously fancy, expensive cruel high-heels are IN, but I can't walk, mince, or inch-along in any slipper that has more than a two-inch heel.

Of course, I notice shoes. I laugh and shrug off the out-of-sight prices, like this beauty -- $994 ---------

But that flatform -- I love being taller. The outrageously over priced price on the silly, klutzy shoe was what our Chevy Station Wagon cost my father, umpteen years ago. Why was I wasting time, staring at a silly, klutzy, over-priced, ridiculous, high fashion summer sandal?

I have handmade yellow leather sandals I can wear with bare feet, and blend in with people who are wearing flip flops. I also have comfortable green flats that give my bare toes more than enough air.

Damn flatforms -- it's string laces will loosen! I'd be bending and retying them, and spending what Daddy spent so that he could take my family for a Sunday drive!

Okay, times have changed! Maybe it's time to change -- put away my winter outfits and get out and see and be in today's world! But ... but ... hey, in today's world people are starving --.that money for the shoes could go to needy, desperate Japanese. Or cancer research?

I'll think about this tomorrow. If I still want them tomorrow I'll buy them.

Wham! Here I am, with the shoes on, sitting in my office, writing "IF THE SHOE FITS" for my blog. I'm putting words together about being decisive, clear thinking about what's important, with my two feet under my desk, bedecked in flatforms.

Feeling wonderfully ridiculous, klutzy, marvelously tall, and stylish as I finish this shoe story, I'm aware that it's chilly outside, too chilly for my bare-foot flatforms.

Yes they're very comfortable. Yes, they're lovely. Yes. they are tricky to lace up.

Shall I kiss them goodbye, and pack them back in the shoe box? And return them tomorrow?

Hmm.

Should I? Shouldn't I?

ATTITUDE

A dear friend emailed me this. It's just what I needed to read today.

ATTITUDE

There once was a woman who woke up one morning,
looked in the mirror,
and noticed she had only three hairs on her head.
'Well,' she said, 'I think I'll braid my hair today.'
So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror
and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.
'Hmm,' she said, 'I think I'll part my hair down the middle today.'
So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed
that she had only one hair on her head.
'Well,' she said, 'today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail.'
So she did, and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and
noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head.'
Yeah!' she exclaimed. 'I don't have to fix my hair today!'

Attitude is everything..

Be kinder than necessary,
for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Live simply,
love generously,
care deeply,
speak kindly,
and pray continually.
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...

It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Life is too short to wake up with regrets!

WHAT HAPPENED TO CIVILITIES?

I like please and thank-you, and courtesies. I personally bend over backwards to avoid, in writing, all four- letter expletives.

I refuse to admit that I was ever a part of the IN world or involved in the super-expensively manufactured, tip-top echelon of cosmeticised, surgically improved, mantra-Kaballah-Yoga-Joe-Pilates educated entertainers, who were the exponents of godliness.

Who specificially?

Well, it was Norman-"advertisements for myself"-Mailer -- and of course Bob-the-poet-chronicler-"blowing in the wind"-Dylan. It included Andy-soup-can-Warhol -- boss Bruce-"born in the U.S.A" -Springsteen. Also, the young Robert Downey Jr. (in and out of jails and various nut houses, sort of like Charlie Sheen ) and the "'oh I'm not gay" Tom Cruise, and the coke-bottle-sucking "truth or dare" Madonna.

And others too -- they were civil, tasteful, quite elegant, mannerly, solemn, self righteous and fantastically Jet-Set CHIC.

Okay, I like please and thank-you, and gracious nods and hand-shakes, and an air-kiss or a bow is a wow; but ... well ... hey ... that's sort of slipping out of prime focus these days.

It's as if Charlie Sheen's public vomiting is a preview of where we are heading with "Jersey Shore's" sloppy nobodies, the various "Wives Shows" with under-scripted, over-dressed married babes, and holy cow -- have you heard rapper Cee Lo 's "Fuck You" hit, or Niki Minaj's "Check it out?" And seen/heard, and tried to sing along with Gaga's gargling her latest semi melodic truths?

And the Kardasians? My goodness, all that much ado about absolutely zero-nothing but stupefyingly boring ego, and, oh dear -- there's other aloof, raw, bulletproof personalities -- like Zuckerberg, with his childlike blank stare controlling how we say "hi."

I am not sure who I am, or where I am, or if I belong in this huge city, my hometown New York City with all these guys-ees, gals-ees dressed in the emperor's new clothes -- with their fleshy parts out there flopping, sagging, bouncing, poking pointing here and there, while they're insulting, attacking, offending, haha-amusing me by amusing themselves.

Should I join in? And do, say, chat about what? Good God, what should I wear?

I don't know what to wear!

Where can I hide. Maybe I shouldn't hide. I should stop, look, listen and make sure I'm not run over while I wend my way back inside my house and pull the shades.

CARVILLE MATALIN MARRIAGE

James Carville's Jack o lantern grin, shiny, teasing eyes, the fun in the guy -- he reminds me of me. And thinking along those lines, his wife Mary Matalin is sort of similar to my husband.

She's consistently, reliably a Republican, and James is thoroughly, unwaveringly, a Democrat.

I'd been reading an essay by James, that he wrote for Newsweek, about his "Favorite Mistake," a book he wrote in 2009. He explained that as he finished the book, Barack Obama was heading for the White House and his political party was riding high, so he called his book it "40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation." It was an interesting title, all right, but a big mistake. Though it was published by Amazon, the book bombed.

What fascinates me, whenever I hear about Carville and Matalin, is how they've managed to stay married, despite their totally opposite politics.

They married in 1993. He's her third husband, They have two daughters, one studying law, the other finishing high school. The Carvilles say they do not talk politics at home, though they have appeared together, on opposite sides of the fence, in talk shows..

Matalin wrote the best-selling, "All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President," with Carville and co-author Peter Knobler. Matalin and Carville published "Letters to My Daughters," in 2008. They now live in New Oreleans, and both teach at Tulane University.

James is nine years older than Mary but she seems older somehow. She has a stern, tough, farmer-like presence. I can picture her shoveling snow and moving furniture.

Who does the dishes? Who cleans the house and takes out the garbage? Which one of them fixes computers, and who does the shopping? I think after a couple has been married for a while (the Carvilles have been married 18 years), they're a seesaw -- one goes up as the other goes down, and then the one that goes down changes places and goes up, and the other is the low body on the board.

There doesn't have to be an "I do this -- You do that." In our family, I am the icon smasher. JC is the conservative. Politically, we mostly agree, but I jump to conclusions and get angry -- "throw so-and-so out the window," while JC rarely throws people, or ideas or things. out the window.

Yes, I'm the thrower-outer and he's mostly a keeper.

Do you have to fit neatly, compatibly with your partner? I think NOT fitting makes for a more interesting compatibility -- we are not pieces in a puzzle that have to fit, otherwise the puzzle can't make a picture.

Yep, Matalin and Carville make a nice picture -- colorful, and interesting,-- a fun picture like JC and me.

PRIORITIES

Since January 8 in Tucson, when a crazy guy with a gun, a 22-year-old with a history of mental instability, opened fire during Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford's meeting with her constituents and devastated so many lives, more than 3000 people have been shot dead by guns.

President Barack Obama called it "an unspeakable tragedy."

So what has been done -- has the White House done anything about gun control?

I don't know why some urgent issues are announced and immediately acted upon, and other major, urgent issues are not. But I cannot, will not, try to explain, or complain about the President's agenda.

I know that Obama works behind the scenes on the country's major issues, as he did for an entire year with Health Care. He didn't tell us, nor did the media announce, details about where he was heading with health care until he'd done a lot of phoning, discussing, preliminary conferences -- a great deal of thinking and researching. Only when he knew that he would win, did he and Nancy Pelosi force the historical vote in Congress that won us Health Care.

The fact is, the President has been working on gun control -- doing the phoning, discussing, preliminary conferences.

He's gotten two liberal Justices into the Supreme Court (Sotomayor and Kagan). He now has three of the most powerful men in his administration working on various gun control issues -- David Plouffe, Robert Gibbs, and David Axelrod. They are not saying what Obama plans to do, but they're dropping hints about the President’s intentions.

Obama has also enacted a ban on the importation of semiautomatic guns, which supports more extensive reporting requirements on sales of long guns. Also, he's nominated a very vocal anti-gun zealot, Andrew Traver, to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Traver has openly threatened to impose many new regulations. Asked for an update, officials at the White House told reporters that advisers are “exploring a variety of ways the President could weigh in."

Yes, it's vague talk, and promises from officials. The National Rifle Association is hugely powerful. It's one of Washington's richest lobbying groups. With advertising and promotion, the NRA has successfully been stopping local laws from being passed. Right now, approximately 70% of the country is against gun control.

Like the Health care issue, the White House's preliminary work -- weighing in, thinking, planning -- is essential.

We elected and hired a tactician. The President is handling crises in education, poverty, jobs, real-estate, banks, Wall Street, energy, the current hullabaloo about our own 104 nuclear energy plants, while Congress is threatening to shut down the government.

Is our water poisoned? No, the radioactivity in our water isn't hurting us but the media are promoting it as an urgent issue, while a more urgent issue is on the front burner -- people are being wantonly slaughtered in Libya.

We the people cannot create the priorities, or tell Congress or the President, whom we 'hired' for the job of running the country, what to do.

Obama announced that he will run for re-election -- he did it in a unique way, not selling himself, but talking to people about themselves and what they want and need. That's the tactician.

What can we do about guns? And all the other worrisome, horrendous issues? We can talk, learn, listen, talk back and forth -- push and keep pushing for more information and discussion, and be tacticians, same as President Barack Obama.

And vote wisely, when the time comes.

THROWING OUT STUFF (video)

"You are a keeper," Emily Frankel says. and John Cullum agrees, "I am definitely a keeper."

The subject is NOT about their marriage.

Emily is talking about junk in their closets, dressers, and shelves. She is definitely a thrower-outer. Her question is -- what's better -- hanging on and hoarding and develop piles of stuff that you haven't worn or used or touched years? Or organizing all the old stuff, and giving it away?

John absolutely agrees with the throwing out principle --"If I haven't worn it in a year, it's out of here!" And then surprises his wife, when he confesses how he's been handling the problem.