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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Advocacy

Martha Stewart is copying  Me By Delinda McCann

6/27/2016

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​One day sixteen years ago, my friend and I looked at each other and realized our special needs children were no longer living with us.  When we finished our happy-empty-nesters--dance, we stared into space and wondered what we would do with ourselves. Being in shock at not having needy adolescents underfoot, I had no idea what we might do. 

​I asked, “If you could do anything you want that is full of beauty and happiness, what would you do?”
 
Noni thought for a minute and said, “I’d like to grow flowers and sell them at a little roadside stand.”
 
I replied, “I know. We’ll grow flowers and sell them at a little roadside stand.  I have tons of blue sweet peas.”
 
Despite the fact that both of us had recently moved to un-landscaped properties, we started taking little bouquets to the corner and offering them for sale for $1. Our idea worked.
 
We studied about how to harvest and condition flowers and how to start seeds in the greenhouse.  We learned where to buy rosebushes and which roses thrive in our climate.  We had a few lucky finds in shrubs that would thrive and bloom.  Another friend gave me a carload of starts from her garden.

PictureArrangement for a wedding at the beach. Features grasses dahlias and artichoke flowers.
Since we didn’t have much planted in our new homes, we brilliantly said we’d specialize in the Northwest Natives growing in our yards.  Most florists would give their green thumbs to have the plethora of salal that invades everywhere in my yard.  The native huckleberries are gorgeous with pink flowers in the spring and red bark in winter.  They have tough dark green foliage year round.
 
Our business grew.  Selling on the honor system at a street corner posed some challenges for keeping the flowers fresh.  I built my vendors cart with a roof for shade.  Noni wanted to put individual bouquets in individual cups of water to help keep them fresh.  We talked and finally decided on what we call our To Go cups, using 16 ounce plastic cups with lids.  We cut a large X in the lid, fill the cup with water and flower food, snap the lid on, and arrange a bouquet in the cup.  Customers can slide the cup into the cup holder in their car and get their fresh flowers home without spilling.


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Table arrangements for a party in their TO Go cups.
Our other specialized draw is offering organically grown flowers.  We use bedding from the duck yard for fertilizer and various natural methods to keep down the bugs. In keeping with the organic theme, we wanted an organic flower food in the bouquets.  We finally developed a solution of water, sugar, bleach and vinegar.  We immediately discovered that this simple solution kept the flowers fresh so long some people didn’t need to buy from us every week. What the flowers want is the right level of acidity, some sugar, and something to prohibit molds and bacteria that cause rot.  My flowers are cut and the very fresh cut stems are plunged into a bucket of water containing the food solution. They are never out of the enriched water.
 
We’d been in the flower business about two years when I noticed flowers on the front of a Martha Stewart magazine.  They looked as if they could have come from my flower stand with natives mixed with English roses.   I told Noni and we both laughed it off.  When the new magazine came out the next month. Noni took a look and found something that looked just like the lily bouquets she put out earlier.  We started looking for hidden cameras when we put out flowers.  Would Martha copy us again?
 
Today Noni picked up a new book on flower arranging.  Yes.  Martha is thankfully still copying us to the point that more people are making bouquets with native plants including grasses.  We are seeing more old-fashioned flowers and even vegetables in bouquets.  Gone are the horrid, unnatural flower-bomb bouquets in favor of a more natural open style with plenty of variety in the bouquet.   Using natives started as a financial issue for us but has become our signature and a national trend, as it should be.
 
Is Martha Stewart really lurking at the intersection in Burton WA to spy on my flower stand? Or was the growing demand for more natural elements in floral arranging a movement she followed after much market research?  Nah, she has someone lurking to take pictures of my flowers.   
​​
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Large church arrangement for January features bright red rose hips for color & force tulips.
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How to Get Our Country Back By Mark A Goldman MBA

6/21/2016

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This week represents the second part of guest author Mark A Goldman’s essay on 9/11.  I’m offering Goldman a forum because I think responsible citizens must always ask questions and look at problems from different angles.  Too often in my lifetime, the conspiracy theorists have been correct and the official story given to the public has been a lie.  Is 9/11 another such case?  What do you think?
 
How to Get Our Country Back By Mark A Goldman MBA
 
9/11 is the Big Lie that allowed the Neocons to suspend the Constitution, invade various countries and murder, displace, or otherwise destroy the lives of millions of people.  They planned it.  They executed it.  They used it.  They defended it.  Mow they are stuck with it.
 
Now, after all these years we have proof positive that 9/11 was an inside job…the big lie.  9/11 is their Achilles heel.  All we need to do is expose that lie and the emperor has no clothes.  So why are we not doing that?  The truth will set us free if we honor it – if we educate ourselves, and then stand up and tell the truth about what we’ve learned. 
 
Below is a list of ten videos, which in total take about fourteen and a half hours to watch.  If you watch all ten from beginning to end, you will have your proof that 9/11 was an inside job, and it was not the airplanes that killed more than three thousand Americans, brought down three buildings in NYC, and damaged the Pentagon. There are many more such videos if you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole and satisfy yourself about any other questions you might have.
 
Debunking 9/11 Debunking – Let’s get empirical
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbY5_qtz83M
 
9/11 Commission Report bars 503 1st responder eyewitnesses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwQa5eokieY
 
9/11 Veritas @ Harvard University “The Fictional Basis for the War on Terror”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE_LZVuEqVc
 
The Toronto Hearings on 9/11 Uncut – Graeme McQueen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7caDWzYi1E
 
Foreknowledge of Building 7 collapse: Dr. Graeme McQueen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McF4flr2dYs
 
9/11 Explosive Evidence- Experts Speak Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddz2mw2vaEg
 
Behind the Smoke Curtain – The 9/11 Pentagon Attack By Barbara Honegger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvJ8nFa5Qk
9/11 Decade of Deception (Full Film New 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqelDq4P48
 
9/11 Anatomy of a Great Deception – Complete Version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Q5eZhCPuc
 
David Ray Griffen 2011 “911 Miracles”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3caIG0SMHXE
 
 

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Separating Fact from Fiction By Mark A Goldman

6/13/2016

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​Vashon Island has its own candidate for president of the United States.  Mark A Goldman is an investment counselor with an MS in Economics.  He is an avid researcher and has drawn some conclusions that may sound outlandish to some, but we learn when we ask questions and entertain other perspectives.  Mark is my guest for this week’s blog.
 
Separating Fact from Fiction By Mark A Goldman
 
My writings prior to this date express many of my conclusions concerning what has happened to our country since George W. Bush took office as president in the year 2000. Here is a brief overview:
 
The United States of America is no longer the constitutional republic envisioned by its Framers.  I don’t simply mean that we have evolved and changed over time but rather that our once constitutional republic has been overthrown in a series of affronts to the body politic. The government of the United States, which managed to survive for about 200 years, more or less as the Framers intended, no longer conforms, or tries to conform to the Constitution. Our politicians no longer behave as loyal public servants, but rather as rulers who, when it’s convenient, still speak of the Constitution and their duty to preserve it.  But those words have lost all meaning other than as propaganda and systemic and ubiquitous lies to keep the public ignorant, docile, and vulnerable to this new ‘government’ that is already transforming itself into a despotic tyranny. For this, there is a growing body of evidence.
 
The signature event that marks the end of the former republic in favor of the current regime is what we now refer to as 9/11. The government blamed this attack on so-called foreign terrorists who, as it turns out, had nothing whatsoever to do with the event.  They claimed terrorists, using hijacked airplanes, destroyed three buildings in NYC, damaged a fourth in Washington DC, and killed several thousand American citizens, all of which constituted an act of war.  I’ve concluded that the purpose for this false flag attacks was to provide a pretext for war, which for years had long been contemplated.  And their scheme worked. Those who were, or now are aware of this treason, allowed or allow it to proceed with broad support…some because they were destined to profit from it, others because they fear the consequences of opposing it.
 
Those in power in the United States were able to successfully plan, orchestrate and execute the attacks offering lies as to who did it and why. Since then they’ve planned and successfully destroyed a number of foreign governments, killed and otherwise shattered the lives of millions of innocent people overseas, destroyed their societies and apparently intend to subjugate any country or people in the world who will not now voluntarily bend to their will.  All of these treasonous acts took place outside the accumulated body of law, national and international, that has evolved after centuries of progress in jurisprudence, going back to the Magna Carta.
 
Fortunately, their strategy was somewhat inept, leaving a trail of evidence that allows us now to expose their plan, hopefully giving us a window of opportunity to recapture our sovereignty and restore the Constitution to its rightful place.  Whether or not we take advantage of that opportunity remains to be seen.  Let’s look carefully at what happened on September 11, 2001…carefully enough to expose the lies we’ve had to live with since that fateful day.
 
Many people around the world are waking up to what’s happened, and those who committed these crimes know it.  With the government now able to record and/or review every phone call, email, or text message we make or send, recovering our rights and freedoms is not going to be easy… but surely we must.
 
To be continued with references next week…
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Thoughts from the Garden: Balance   By Delinda McCann

6/7/2016

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I took a walk through my garden early this morning.  I noted who had new leaves and found a slug headed for the dahlia patch.  I examined the asters and saw some snapdragons had dried out after the cat used their bed for a litter box.  I saw weeds that needed pulling and weeds that needed mowing. I admired some weeds that can stay where they are. 
 
I find it almost impossible to wander my gardens without learning something.  This morning as I examined my flowers, vegetables, and weeds, I found a lesson in the weeds.  Some weeds are important. They provide food for the birds. They shade the soil.  They attract insects away from my roses.  The rose bed is a mess of weeds I keep. I haven’t seen aphids on my roses for years.  Perhaps they can’t find them because of the weeds. Some weeds I pull, and some I leave.  The garden works.
 
Some people talk about organic gardening or sustainable gardening.  I like to think of my style of gardening as having balance.  I usually add dirt I buy delivered from the garden store because my native soil is toxic from the outflow of a smelter nearby. I’m not sustainable because of the toxic soil. I do have balance.  My gardens produce enough flowers and food to make paying for dirt acceptable.
 
We have our own well, so we don’t pay for water.  Water from the well comes into the house then back out through the septic system.  If irrigation water falls on the pathways, it eventually finds its way to the aquifer.  Water lost to evaporation returns in the form of rain.  My watering system has balance.
 
Balance on my farm means I don’t grow masses of one thing.  I do garden year round. I harvest dozens of varieties flowers from February 14 to November 15.  January is for starting seeds, so I don’t harvest much in January, but the kale is at its best in the middle of winter.  We store some winter squash. By the time the kale starts to lose its sweetness, the asparagus is up, then the peas come on followed by artichokes, broccoli, and summer veggies.  We always have something to eat.  We seldom have too much of one thing except summer squash, but that is what food banks are for, to get rid of extra summer squash.  The system works to feed us with enough left over to share.
 
When the costs of gardening are in balance with the benefits, the whole system works with very little input from me.  I garden on about a half acre.  I grow all our fruits and vegetables. I earn enough from the sale of flowers to pay for any other groceries I might buy.  I feed three people with my tiny farm with food left over to share.  This is what balance can accomplish.
 
I think I’ve mastered balance in the garden.  Now, I need to learn to master balance in the rest of my life.  I’d like to worry less.  I’d like to be more creative.  I’d like to be a better writer and a better musician.  I need to learn what to get rid of, what to cut back, and what to keep in running my household.  I need to learn how to balance my work with play.  I’d like to cook less and have my cooking turn out tastier.  I hope my garden can teach me its secret for balance.
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    Delinda McCann is a social psychologist, author, avid organic gardener and amateur musician.

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