Gozarks, August 2005

KATRINA....
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POST YOUR OFFER OF HOUSING FOR KATRINA REFUGEES www.hurricanehousing.org

For Ozark-local actions, to provide meaningful, life-honoring, input and assistance, CLICK HERE.

To read GOZARKS NEW BLOG (on this subject, and more to come), CLICK HERE. (Note, when the page opens, you'll find a link to the blog in the upper-right quadrant of the page... also you can take a peek at my appointment calendar and post me a note if you wish!!!)

And if you're in my neck of the woods today, I'll see ya, 'round noon, at the Chuckwagon Races (see below). ~~~

Snyder to recognize Eoff
SPECIAL UPDATE: Congressman Vic Snyder to present Environmental Stewardship Award, Friday, September 2, during National Championship Chuckwagon Races. [FULL STORY]

CAMP CASEY IN LITTLE ROCK
Cindy Sheehan's "BRING THEM HOME NOW" tour, will launch three buses from Crawford, Texas, each carrying military and Gold Star families, veterans of the Iraq War and veterans of previous wars, with a stop scheduled for Little Rock on Thursday, September 1, from 6 to 7:30pm.

The gathering, being held at the First Presbyterian Church, 800 Scott Street, in Downtown Little Rock, feature a community potluck dinner and speakers associated with Sheehan's "Bring Them Home Now" campaign. The Camp Casey Tour is sponsored by Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans For Peace. The local event in Little Rock will be coordinated by the Arkansas Coalition for Peace and Justice. For more information call Katy Elliott at 837-7959.

Arkansas Dept of Tourism to serve as lodging clearinghouse for Katrina refuge seekers.....
Dear Arkansas Tourism Supporter:

Things are looking bad for New Orleans and the central Gulf Coast, and conditions may well worsen before getting better. As you know, tens of thousands of residents have fled from Hurricane Katrina and many have sought refuge in Arkansas. I have no doubt that you and your colleagues are extending our world-class hospitality to these unfortunate storm victims.

No one yet knows when these displaced citizens will be allowed to return to their homes. Given that Labor Day Weekend is rapidly approaching, I'm concerned that some guests may find themselves without a room at the end of this week. These folks have already faced a terrible disaster and we certainly don't want to make their situations more difficult.

For those of you in the lodging business, will you please work hard to ensure that all our visitors are accommodated during what may prove to be a frantic weekend? We'll serve as a clearinghouse, contacting the convention and visitor bureaus across the state about available rooms.

We'll then post the findings on our Web site - www.Arkansas.com - which you'll be able to use to help people find lodging. Information about emergency shelters and motel room availability is there now and will be continuously updated.

Thanks for being our best ambassadors. And please don't hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance.

Sincerely,
Joe David Rice
Arkansas Tourism Director
(501) 682-1088
E-Mail: joedavid.rice@arkansas.gov

Wanted: Andy of Mayberry.....
NORFORK, ARKANSAS, August 26, 2005 (excerpt): When Jane opened the shop yesterday morning she found that we had joined the list of area business that have been broken into. Patty's Touch of Class beauty shop was hit as well on the same night.... I would put out an appeal to the local commUnity to be on the look-out for kids flashing new silver rings (we had a LOT of those stolen), large amounts of change, bags with cannabis leaves on them, new hemp necklaces with glass mushroom pendants, little bottles of hemp massage oil, a cash REGISTER and other beauty supplies, crocheted medicine bags, wearing new rasta tams, gemstone jewelry... well, you get the idea. [FULL STORY]

EDITOR'S NOTE: For all those who may encounter experience with the Juvenile Justice System in Arkansas, a word to the wise may be found in the sidebar of the above referenced page.

National Championship Chuckwagon Races founder acknowledged for land and water stewardship.
It seems paradoxical somehow to have an environmental stewardship award tied to the ground-quaking glory of most festival-events. Yet in the instance of this year’s National Championship Chuckwagon Races, held annually in Clinton, Arkansas, the event’s producer, Dan Eoff, and the working “bar-Of” cattle ranch he owns and operates, will be recognized for having earned this meritorious claim to fame... [FULL STORY]

Gozarks Health Care
Show me a job that doesn't involve pillage, rape and prostitution. It's only by degree. Realistically, as I see it, the most any of us can hope to accomplish is to minimize the damage and, maybe, if we're really, really good, reverse the trend.

Which means, of course, that it is incumbent upon us to use every ounce of our innately unique personal wherewithal to "make things better," but then -- taking an honest look around us today -- isn't that were the REAL problems (ie: obsessive/compulsive "mothering" and "fathering") come in?

PRESCRIPTION FOR PERSONAL/GLOBAL GOOD HEALTH:

INGREDIENTS:

Doing things "for" is mothering.
Doing things "against" is fathering.
Doing things "with" is friendship.

INDICATIONS:

Listed ingredients derive all active properties from some intimate appreciation of love, no matter how poorly expressed. Friendship, however, involves rational thinking and a proclivity to remember warmly, for example, that appreciation is not equal to a knowledge or practice of love.

DOSAGE:

Ingest regularly, at minimum once each morning and night, preferably with good food.

CONTRAINDICATION:

If any action feels void of love, cease immediately, take two aspirin tablets or one glass of wine and call me in the morning.

CLINICAL NOTES:

Though it may be difficult to believe, this prescription has the potency to cure every affliction known and a few we ain't thought of yet but seem somehow bent to achieve.

And while we as a scientific community are just now beginning to gain fragments of understanding about the hows and the whys which quantify and clarify the reasons this prescription works, proof of its therapeutic usefulness as a "cure all" (silver bullet) elixir abounds in clinical trials.

Additionally, it is widely recognized from clinical studies that "trust" is the essential "carrier" ingredient of each capsule. Qualitative research has conclusively proven that in those instances where acts purported to be based in loving friendship were administered in mega-doses yet in the absence of the carrier-vehicle trust, the loving friendship passes through the system unabsorbed, thus "healthy friendship" is bio-chemically aborted and the (sometimes chronic) maturity deficiency persists.

To correct the deficiency, massage the affected area with patience and understanding.

PS: The aroma of the 8.5lb hunk of (poor little dismembered piggy) pork is wafting to my office/boudoir from our family kitchen, being roasted (via the excessive consumption of natural resources on an electric rotisserie) to perfection soon. Thus the conundrum to crack, re: sanity/integrity; the proverbial slippery slope, thin gray line, etc., etc., et al.

All the more reason, one might say, to "fight the good fight" -- which of course metaphorically speaking translates to declining to fight at all... ie: no more mothering or fathering -- only friendships wealthy with love built on reverent trust.
~~~ editor@gozarks.com

American Insurgents?
No, but I play one on TV.
GOT EMPATHY? YAHOO! News

By Ted Rall

Wed Aug 3,10:40 AM ET

Americans Cheer Fictional Insurgents, Real-Life Invaders

Sounds like a movie, huh? "Red Dawn" is a classic document of Reagan-era jingoism filtered through Cold War paranoia. Audiences cheered American nationalist insurgents as they blew holes through onscreen Soviet conscripts in 1984. Rent it today and you will too.

The mid-'80s were good for fictional American resistance movements. The miniseries "V," which premiered in 1983, was followed by a 1985 sequel and eventually a full-fledged weekly TV series, focused on a cell of underground resistance fighters who bombed police stations, government offices and important infrastructure--including an oil refinery!--in the course of a long, brutal and desperate war against reptilian invaders from outer space. (The clever creatures disguise themselves in human form to get the locals to cooperate.) The series' writers kept things interesting by writing lots of moral ambiguity into their scripts. Some aliens form a "fifth column" allied with the human resistance movement while some earthlings sell out their neighbors and relatives, but none of that matters in the end. You still root for the men and women the government and official media call "terrorists."

1985 saw the widescreen release of a remake of the '50s Red Scare flick "Invasion, U.S.A.," this time with mullet-tressed action hero Chuck Norris deploying heavy weaponry against fiendish commie saboteurs wreaking havoc in the streets of, inexplicably, south Florida.

The more stuff Chuck blows up, the louder we applaud. After all, he ain't no terrorist--he's a freedom fighter, albeit a poorly-directed one clumsily reading incredibly stupid lines.

Cheering for the underdog is as American as fatty food. In the movies we love heroes who simply want to be left alone--but are willing, like Charles Bronson in "Death Wish," to dish out double-sized portions of blazing revenge when the baddies cross the line. Why, then, don't we pull for the Iraqi insurgents? They are, like Clint Eastwood in his '70s and '80s action flicks, fighting back against overwhelming odds. And most, like Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen in "Red Dawn," are high school kids who, at first resigned to the U.S. invasion, take up arms in disgust at an increasingly abusive and hostile army of occupation. Americans play opposite roles in the two scenarios, yet we identify with Americans in both. Where the heck is our sense of empathy? Why can't we see ourselves in the faces of those kids firing RPGs at convoys of Halliburton trucks stealing Iraqi oil?

Here's the rub: Iraq's resistance fighters are breaking a lot of eggs to cook their omelet of liberation. They kill other Iraqis. They kidnap and execute foreign aid workers, truck drivers, businessmen, even diplomats and children. Americans, we tell ourselves, would never resort to that kind of terrorism--not even to free ourselves from occupation.

Wouldn't we?

Imagine America under the jackboot of, say, Icelandic occupation. At first many Americans are happy to see Bush arrested and put on trial, but it doesn't take long before we start to miss him. Promises of rapid rebuilding evaporate. Two years after saturation bombing has leveled Washington, Los Angeles, New York and other major cities, the rubble is overrun with rats and wild dogs. America's natural resources--coal, lumber, oil--are shipped back to Iceland without recompense. Unmarked checkpoints spring up everywhere, transforming a drive to the 7-11 to get water--faucets are dry--into a potentially lethal exercise. Icelandic troops conduct house raids to take away Americans' guns. Since there's no electricity for streetlights, the night belongs to gangs, who rape and hold women for ransom. There are no jobs, unless you count working for the hated police force of the puppet regime, the Unified Nordic Republic of Icelanderica. UNRI lackeys ride alongside Icelandic storm troopers to point out the homes of "terrorists," who are bagged, beaten and dragged off into the night, never to be seen again. Most of the victims are innocent civilians, of course, but the Icelandics don't speak English. They mistakenly trust their toadies, who use their authority to act on personal grudges.

These collaborators, as Karl Rove would point out, are fair game--for attacks by American resistance fighters. As in "V." And "Red Dawn."

A few years pass. The Icelandic government turns over nominal "sovereignty" to its puppet American regime, but nothing changes on the ground. The checkpoint shootings, mass arrests and chaos continue unabated. Almost everyone has lost a friend or family member to the war. There's an "election," but members of the prewar Democratic and Republican parties are barred from participating. America as we know it has been rubbed out.

The humiliation is total. Icelandic forces pass out decks of cards depicting the faces of former senators, governors and generals. They shoot deposed leader George W. Bush's twin daughters and air images of their bloody, mutilated faces on state television. They print photos of Bush, haggard and obviously abused in his secret prison, wearing nothing but underwear.

Adding to the anger of patriotic Americans is the willingness of the rest of the world to forget what has happened. Other nations, including former prewar allies like Great Britain and Italy, reopen their embassies and post ambassadors to the "new America." The United Nations recognizes the collaborationist regime as legitimate and meets with its appointed leader, a man unknown in America because he spent his entire life in exile in Iceland. Carpetbaggers (the collaborationist press calls them "entrepreneurs") pour in from abroad, scheming to line their pockets by prolonging Americans' misery and poverty. Aid groups and other NGOs seeking to help hungry and homeless Americans mean well, but their presence reinforces a sense that things are back to normal--and the collaborationist media points to their presence as tacit endorsement of the occupation.

Obviously the U.S. nationalist insurgents don't want to kill civilians. They prefer that foreigners stay out of occupied America so they can focus on driving out the Icelandics, but naive and greedy intruders ignore their warning not to associate with the puppet regime. Leaders of the resistance are forced to make a brutal choice. They can kill a few diplomats here, a few aid workers there, but since executions serve no purpose as warnings unless their horror is publicized, the American patriots choose to distribute videotapes of the killings. Similarly, they warn their countrymen not to join the collaborationist police forces. But there's only one way to ensure that the jobless won't sell out their country in order to feed their families: suicide bombers who take out as many traitors as possible.

Yes, there would be an alternative to these brutal tactics. The conquered Americans could simply accept that there will never, ever again be a land of the free and home of the brave where the United States used to be. But that would hardly be a Hollywood ending.

<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20050803/cm_ucru/gotempathy

"War: First one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to loose, then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost." Karl Kraus

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

BRIAN DICKERSON:
A question of appearances
BY BRIAN DICKERSON, DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST, August 12, 2005

A trial judge I like and respect put it to me straight: Did I really believe, she wanted to know, that four members of Michigan's highest court are on the take?

If not, what did I mean when I wrote that the state Supreme Court justices in question "belong" to the insurance industry?

These are fair questions. None of the justices mentioned in my Monday column -- Maura Corrigan, Stephen Markman, Clifford Taylor and Robert Young Jr. -- has been charged with a crime. No prosecutor I know of is investigating any of them for official corruption.

But since late 1999, when Markman's appointment gave then-Gov. John Engler's handpicked justices control of the seven-member court, the four have been on an almost messianic crusade to recast the rules of engagement between insurance companies and consumers.

In case after case, they've made it easier for insurers to deny coverage and harder for aggrieved policyholders to do anything about it. In dozens of instances, the same justices have discarded precedents and common-law customs that had protected consumers for decades.

A retreat from precedent

The case I wrote about earlier this week -- in which the Engler majority abandoned a long-established rule that time limitations established in an insurance policy must be reasonable -- is but the most recent example.

In another case, the justices held that auto insurers may shirk liability for some accident-related expenses simply by waiting until the statutory time limit has passed before denying coverage.

In a third case, the Republican majority upheld a clause barring claims made more than 30 days after an accident, even when no one was appointed to represent the fatally injured policyholder's estate until the 30-day limit had elapsed.

In each instance, the majority insisted the plain meaning of the relevant statute left the court no choice but to rule as it did, however unjust the result. But the same justices have not hesitated to apply a more flexible standard in other types of
cases, especially when a more literal reading of the law would benefit criminal defendants.

Quacking like a duck

Motives are always difficult to divine, and I do not lightly question the sincerity of those whose views I contest. I know how much I resent it when a reader dismisses anything I've written as a payoff to the plaintiffs' bar or some other interest group to whom they imagine me beholden.

But I don't take money from lawyers, and they didn't help me get my job. The Engler justices have a different relationship with the insurance industry, which has invested untold tens of thousands in the current majority's ascent to power.

So far, insurers are getting exactly what they paid for: a radically altered legal landscape in which it's increasingly difficult for policyholders to get their day in court.

From the insurers' point of view, the justices' motives hardly matter. Results are what count, and the Engler majority continues to deliver.

Contact BRIAN DICKERSON at 248-351-3697 or
dicker@freepress.com Copyright © 2005 Detroit Free Press Inc.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

SPECIAL REPORT: It's OUR $$$

Researched and written collaboratively by:
<<< Michael C. Kelley editor/publisher ACH
Christine L. Weiss editor/publisher Gozarks

< Photos: Curt Kelley

In reply to Louise Tempelmeirer, re: How much the big 78 plant pot bust in Baxter County, Arkansas, cost us taxpayers, we at ArmchairHoodlum.com and Gozarks.com went to Shirley High School early in 2004 to interview Lt. Col. Moore, head of the Arkansas National Guard Drug Interdiction Team, to ask that very question. [READ MORE....]

All about me.....
Christine L. Weiss editor/publisher Gozarks
August 3, 2005: I woke up feeling great this morning!!! Probably because, in my post-dreamland haze, I imagined myself to be waking-up in my new house <snicker.

Also I was thinking about the last 5 years of my life. Looking back to what circumstances were when Gozarks made its official debut online (April 19, 2000), contrasting same alongside where things are today.

As regular readers already know, there have been some major changes in my life over the course of these several years. Most significant, perhaps, is that I have now, for nearly a year, been a single woman. In context of this I've been doing a lot of "evaluating." Taking stock of not so much "what I have" but more of "who I am." Because I believe that, above all else, if we -- any of us -- are ever to be capable to be "true to another" we must first and foremost be "true to self." And of course, to be true to anyone, we must absolutely "know" who they are... especially when the "they" is "me."

Anyway, I realized this morning -- as I was imagining myself stepping through the sliding-glass doorwall of my would-be bedroom in the home I am looking to own, out onto the spacious wood deck (where the hot tub will be), overlooking the expansive yard (which my raised-bed gardens and decorative pond shall someday adorn), and sipping my morning coffee as I listen to Billy Joel on my (fabulous) "surround sound" system while doing my morning exercises -- that I have a lot of unfulfilled images floating around in my head.

I remember thinking very similar thoughts about the quality of life I desire when my former husband and I purchased the house where I now reside, here in Shirley, but it seemed like for the 15 years we lived here together that "something" always seemed to "get in the way" of making this (rather simple and some would say banal) dream come true. And I think I realize now that the main thing that got in the way of this "happening" was a complete absence of "mutual craving" for this particular version of reality to be made manifest.

That is, this lovely (to me) scenario was and is my personal vision of "how life should be" -- and no one else in my life, my husband specifically, ever really *wanted* this particular version of reality for "self."

Essentially, my former husband was generally (superficially) happy to "go along" with whatever I came up with... but that is NOT "mutual" desire. It is, more accurately, lackadaisical; requiring no "initiative," taking no responsibility... just sort of (covertly) passing the buck to whomsoever happens to be handy and self-motivated enough to actually "do something" about the circumstances of their own life.

And, though you will likely scoff, a new dimension of this self-awareness kind-of crystallized for me as a result of an online "personality profile" I did recently. It was a good "reality check" for me, confirming to me that I am -- to very great measure -- exactly who I think and believe I am, which is (imho) pretty darn good.

And "meant" (as we all are) to live my own dreams.

So now I have my work cut out for me, giving my very best effort to having what I want. Thus I am busy organizing the $$$ to buy the house I want to own and making this (quantum) life-style move.

FYI: I have until August 15 to secure financing and set a closing date set. And if any among you reading this happen to be lenders looking for a reliable borrower, well... my phone number is 501-723-4322 and I'd be happy to chat with you.

Essentially, I'm wanting a $165,000 mortgage with no money down, 5.5% fixed per annum, and a monthly payment of roughly $800 based on a 30-year payoff but with a balloon at the end of 15. How about stepping up to the plate and enabling me to make my own dreams come true...

PS: If you want to know more about me (including the results of my "personality profile"), have a look here (and scroll down). Also, a glance at the column below will give you a good idea of where Gozarks and I are headed. And, if you're so inclined, take a photo tour of my dream home by clicking here.

Gozarks goes to the IMAX.....
On Sunday, July 24, 2005, we Great Gozarkians enjoyed the special pleasure of an evening's entertainment, including a private screening of a classic IMAX film featuring the Rolling Stones, a spectacular buffet of gourmet munchies, and lots of casual elbow-rubbing with folks like Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

Governor and Mrs. Huckabee (left and right) pose with Award Winning Cinematographer, James Neihouse (center). Neihouse, a native Arkansan, was the videographer of the classic IMAX film "Stones at the Max" which was the feature presentation of the evening.

Bill Howard (on the left), one of several technical consultants who put the evening together, chats with one of the evening's featured performers, guitarist/musician Nick Devlin of the Salty Dogs (on the right).

Gozarks videographer Adam Weiss (far left), documented the event on behalf of the sponsoring organization. Above, Governor Huckabee chats amicably with other attendees. Among them, Christine Weiss, editor/publisher of Gozarks, is on the far right.

L-R: Actress Ali Nunley, one of the evening's featured performers, and Shalom Weiss, one member of our Great Gozarkian team.

Clustered groups of guests munched and chatted in the lobby of the Aero Space Education Center at the Little Rock National Airport after the IMAX movie screening concluded.

Youngsters and adults alike enjoyed the casual celebration.

L-R: Staging assistant Michael Cohen, Ron Kelley, Events & Marketing Director of the Aero Space Center, and the evening's featured musician, guitarist Nick Devlin, did some jamming during the social gathering after the movie.

Note that all the fun and games were not limited to the screen and stage! On the bottom of this happy pile-up is Gozarks own Josh Weiss.

Joyce Campbell of the Governor's Office and Jason Pruzin of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.

Michael Cohen takes time from his technical duties to give his grandma a big hug.

Christine Weiss, editor/publisher of Gozarks.com, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and artisan Patti Allen of Quilt In Time, shared a good natured chuckle.

Gozarks youngest team player, Shawna Weiss, age 12, took a break from being a gofer to indulge a plate full of scrumptdelicious taste treats.

The main course included shrimp cocktail, lox, fresh salad, roast beef, sliced turkey, baked ham, a selection of cheeses and grain bread.

The dessert buffet included petit fours cheesecake and hand-dipped-in-chocolate black raspberries, prepared fresh for the event that day.

Guests enjoyed a casual, relaxed and sociable good time.

James Neihouse emceed the program.

Pre-production rehearsals, sound set-up, and staging cues consumed the entire day preliminary to the event.

World-class guitarist Nick Devlin.

Imagine this IMAX screen shot of the Rolling Stones in concert projected at 40' tall.

The evening was a marvelous good time. Wish we could have invited all of you to come along. Maybe next time? Until then, wishing for each of us only and exactly what we have earned and deserve, and hoping this proves to be something we richly enjoy.

Christine Weiss
editor@gozarks.com

Hey! Come visit us at SassafrasWilds!!!

With Special Thanks & Much Appreciation to Our Website Development & Internet Marketing Clients, most especially for their toleration of our sometimes extraordinary and routinely unique editorial point of view... with which they may not always agree and yet, being true to the spirit of mutual respect, honor our differences amicably.