Dear Sister

Sarah Clary Martin, M.D. left this world gracefully at her home in Napa, October 24, 2010, surrounded by her loving family.

 

Sarah Clary Martin was born to George and Pat Martin in Los Angeles, California, February 15, 1943. She lived most of her childhood in the old family house at 629 S. Grand Avenue in Pasadena. She attended Arroyo Seco Elementary School.

 

 

Sarah graduated from UCLA in 1967. She graduated at the top of her class from the UCLA School of Medicine in 1971, where she delivered the keynote address. She completed residencies at Harbor General Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, California. To the benefit of countless children, she chose to specialize in Pediatrics.

 

Together with her beloved partner Kurt Stutzman (who preceded her in death), she gave birth to their dear daughter, Katherine Patricia Martin-Stutzman in 1985.

 

Dr. Martin had a long and interesting career as a physician. Before starting her own successful practice in Anchorage, Alaska, she worked in the Neonatology department at Oakland Children’s Hospital, and then took a position in the heart of Appalachia. In 1989, she moved to Napa, where she continued her career with Kaiser Permanente until her retirement in 2005. As a young woman, Sarah learned Spanish while living in Mexico. This allowed her to really connect with and serve the wide diversity of patients whom she cared for with expertise and love. Families would frequently run up to her with hugs, smiles, and updates when she was out in the community. Highlights from her Kaiser years involved the development of reading programs, childhood obesity awareness and prevention, and conducting workshops for Kaiser physicians on improving communication skills.

 

During her 34 years in Medicine, Dr. Martin was greatly inspired and moved to social action as she witnessed the difficulties of low-income families who often had to choose between buying medicine and food.

 

After she retired, she found a second calling as a facilitator for the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium, a part of the Pachamama Alliance.

Sarah was committed to “Bringing forth an Environmentally Sustainable, Spiritually Fulfilling, and Socially Just Human Presence on this Planet.”

She traveled all over the US, Canada, and Mexico to share her passion for this work with hundreds of people.

 

Sarah was a lover of life. Her favorite place to be was outdoors; hiking, or walking with her standard poodle, Ghandi. Her knowledge of birds and flowers was endless! She had a serious interest in photography and, always adventurous, was taking a digital imaging class at Napa Valley College. She loved to play music and sing in her beautiful, clear soprano voice.

 

Sarah Clary Martin, M.D. will be greatly missed by her daughter, Katie, her brothers and their wives; Bill and Susan Martin, George and Kerry Martin, her nieces and nephews, along with a huge web of wonderful friends.

 

All are invited to a Celebration of Sarah’s life, Saturday, November 27 at 131 Valley Club Circle in Napa from 1-4 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, gifts can be made to The Pachamama Alliance, Jungle Mamas program or wherever you feel it will do the most good.

 

 

 

From Robertreich.org
We’re falling into a double-dip recession.

In the longer term, we need a new New Deal that will bolster America's floundering middle class. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and extend it up through the middle class. Finance that extension through higher marginal income taxes on the wealthy, who have never had it so good.

Editorial: One more time: Vote no on Proposition 16

Why can this company use the profits they earn from selling us back our natural resources, to trick us into voting for a lying, thieving, Bull Shit initiative.  Are we a democracy, or are we just a Plutocracy, or oiligarchy, and we are serfs paying homage to our lords on the hill?

The Mercury News spells it out very clearly today:

http://www.mercurynews.com/editorials/ci_15189938

Some Serious Evil is going on with big oil:

This seems highly disturbing....we know the oil companies are bigger than big brother, here's a glimpse of what I'm sure is the tip of the iceburg:

Gulf Oil Spill: Media Access 'Slowly Being Strangled Off'

PG& E Busted on Baloney Proposition 16

PG&E’s Prop 16 campaign tactics declared illegal

May 4, 2010 3:34 am

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was warned on Monday to stop using illegal telephone and direct mail tactics in their $35 million campaign to pass Proposition 16. (Los Angeles Times]
The warning letter came from the  California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as PG&E continued to press for passage of the voters initiative on the June 8 primary ballot. Passage of Proposition 16 would make it harder for local governments and citizens to form nonprofits to provide electricity by requiring approval from two-thirds of the voters in an election.
The official warning stems from alleged PG&E behavior in Marin County, which is set to launch a public power service. PUC Executive Director Paul Clanon advised top PG&E executives that they were in violation of state law with such “aggressive moves.”
Clanon said that PG&E may not use its own phone banks to call customers and then transfer them to customer service after convincing them not to affiliate with the Marin project.
The PUC head also called recent PG&E mailers “misleading” and said that the utility must refrain “from sending any mailers of this nature in the future.”
PG&E officials said they were reviewing the letter and would respond this week.

From:  http://calcoastnews.com/2010/05/pges-prop-16-campaign-tactics-declared-illegal/

Life Changing Film

Not a great movie,
Not a great cast,
But this is a Great Movie

http://www.dirtthemovie.org/

Yeah!  Avatar

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1004/camerons_climate_of_denial.html

and the state of U.S. denial

Garbage

We are burying ourselves in plastic.  Must switch to things that will degrade.  A must watch:  Charles Moore at the end of David Letterman...The best interview I've seen, this is what media is supposed to do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfNSeSPCA8&feature=player_embedded

Sunset Planet Alert


March 31, 2010: The solar system's innermost planets are about to put on a beautiful show.
This week, Mercury is emerging from the glare of the sun and making a beeline for Venus. By week's end, the two planets will be just 3^o apart, an eye-catching pair in the deep-blue twilight of sunset.
The best nights to look are April 3rd and 4th. Go outside at the end of the day and face west. Venus pops out of the twilight first, so bright it actually shines through thin clouds. Mercury follows, just below and to the right: sky map.
Right: Venus and Mercury converging over Saitama, Japan, on March 30th.

more at 

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2010/31mar_sunsetplanets.htm?list1350340

Why is there a debate...AP Article

Disputed isle in Bay of Bengal

disappears into sea

 

By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press Writer Nirmala George, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 24, 9:29 am ET

NEW DELHI – For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island's gone. New Moore Island in the Sunderbans has been completely submerged, said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. Its disappearance has been confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols, he said. "What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming," said Hazra. Scientists at the School of Oceanographic Studies at the university have noted an alarming increase in the rate at which sea levels have risen over the past decade in the Bay of Bengal. Until 2000, the sea levels rose about 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) a year, but over the last decade they have been rising about 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) annually, he said. Another nearby island, Lohachara, was submerged in 1996, forcing its inhabitants to move to the mainland, while almost half the land of Ghoramara island was underwater, he said. At least 10 other islands in the area were at risk as well, Hazra said. "We will have ever larger numbers of people displaced from the Sunderbans as more island areas come under water," he said. Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 150 million people, is one of the countries worst-affected by global warming. Officials estimate 18 percent of Bangladesh's coastal area will be underwater and 20 million people will be displaced if sea levels rise 1 meter (3.3 feet) by 2050 as projected by some climate models. India and Bangladesh both claimed the empty New Moore Island, which is about 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) long and 3 kilometers (1.5 miles) wide. Bangladesh referred to the island as South Talpatti. There were no permanent structures on New Moore, but India sent some paramilitary soldiers to its rocky shores in 1981 to hoist its national flag.
The demarcation of the maritime boundary — and who
controls the remaining islands — remains an open issue between the two
South Asian neighbors, despite the disappearance of New Moore, said an
official in India's foreign ministry, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on international
disputes.
Bangladesh officials were not available for comment Wednesday.

Okay, I got my blog back, but how did they get into it in the first place

History of the Past, by George Martin

Back in the past, there was history.  All sorts of things happened back then.  Yes, that was then, and here we are now.  Back then, well, it was happening, but only for awhile.

 

Now that is all behind us now.

From george

There are plenty of good five-cent cigars in the country. The trouble is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
  - Franklin P. Adams

 

Some Healthy Things for the Brain and Soul

 

http://www.chalquist.com/unplugging.html

From george

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
  - Abraham Lincoln