This dress was a standout.
Superhero dress by D&G.
Comic style with the pow and bam!
I don’t get the pig superhero logo on the ugly green jacket and other similar merchandise next to it.
Uh, who wants to wear and look like a pig?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
D&G is off the deep end. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Just wanted to share some of my new fun socks.
You don’t always have to take yourself so serious.
It’s okay to let go and just be you.
From Dragon Ball Z to Super Mario, I feel so empowered!
Hope you do too. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Superman and all the American heroes have been so great because they represented the fight of good over evil.
And…with the principles always of “Truth and Justice.”
We were proud to be Americans because we were a free democracy and we fought for freedom and human rights everywhere.
Truth and justice in the world meant something; it meant everything to us.
It was part of our Judeo-Christian faith and who were were as people and as a nation.
We defeated colonial rule, slavery, Hitler, Communism, and even put a man on the moon while heralding in suffrage and equal rights irrespective of color, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and more.
The truth was sought out no matter where it was to be found, and justice needed be done to satisfy the courts below and the Heaven above.
But it seems that a lot has changed, hasn’t it?
Right is no longer right, but rather politics makes right.
From smear campaigns, secret dossiers, exaggerations and fairy tales to name-calling, hate speech, cyber attacks, and marketing and branding to undo the opposition.
From secret email servers, foundation pay-to-play, and pizzagate to claims of Russian campaign ties.
From a Snowden surveillance state to stolen questions from election debates.
From abstention at hateful, bigoted UN resolutions to deals with terrorist Iranian mullahs.
From honors at the White House for Army deserter Bergdahl to injustices meted out against the opposition party by unscrupulous political appointees.
From fake news to the abandonment of investigative journalism with now one-sided bias and trash talking journalists and even SNL “comedians.”
From the reversal of dry-foot wet-foot immigration for Cubans (what ever happened to helping refugees in need and danger?) to watching 500,000 dead in Syria from the sidelines of violated red lines.
From a purge of 36,000 after a Turkey coup to the rise of competing ISIS and Iranian terror caliphates across Asia and the Middle East.
From nukes on NATO’s borders to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and invasion of Georgia and from China’s buildout in the South China Sea and threatening of its neighbors and freedom of navigation of the seas to North Korea developing and tests ballistic missiles and nukes.
From shootings of African Americans to “revenge killings” against police officers and the demise of inner-city America with skyrocketing crime and the long misery of poverty and homelessness.
From decrepit U.S. infrastructure, jobs going overseas, a widening trade deficit, and an overwhelming national debt.
From rose-colored glasses, half-baked statistics, and selling bogus ideas to the “media echo chamber.”
From abandonment of allies and friends to embracing terrorist murders and the inability to say “radical Islamist.”
From campaigning from within the White House on the taxpayer dime to attacking Bernie Sanders for his faith to steer the primary to Hillary.
From secret meetings on airplanes with the Attorney General while in the middle of an investigation to lies about videos being the cause of an attack on our Benghazi mission and the murder of an American Ambassador.
From prosecuting some for mishandling government classified information to letting others go who were “grossly negligent” endangering national security.
From divisiveness and “resistance” to creating an inability to get anything done.
From sit-ins and walk-outs and from disrespectful “peaceful” demonstrations to violent protests, and from loose-mouths to paid operatives to disrupt lawful campaign rallies.
From “Not my president” to how dare anyone question the legitimacy of our elections.
From breaking glass ceilings to creating new barriers between peoples and races across the spectrum.
From broken healthcare to bankrupt social security, and from failing education to trailing life expectancy.
From a decrepit nuclear triad “deterrent” to a weakening of the global order, including Brexit.
From terrorism and war to genocide, refugees, and human rights violations.
So as lies and corruption run rampant and we are aghast with mouths open wide at how far things can fall…we recognize when power itself becomes the end rather than the means, and wielding it becomes more important than any truth and any justice, and that is fundamentally how totally unAmerican things have become, indeed.
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So this is a very cool sweat jacket with the Superman and all look.
We all like to think of ourselves as possible superheroes.
Whether we dress the role or not, the most important thing is acting it.
Every day, we face circumstances and decisions and we have to decide whether we rise up to the occasion as the superhero or we acquiesce to what’s easy or lucrative and do the villain thing.
From the time we are kids, we glorify the superheros not just for the awesome cool powers they have, but for doing something amazing to help people and the world with it.
Somewhere from being a kid to a grown-up, many people end up letting go of that superhero dream as they face the harsh realities of life everyday.
But deep down inside all of us is that superhero!
Good over evil is not just a story for children’s bedtime or imagination, but it is our battle to be fought and won–that’s what a good life is for those that never lose their fundamental beliefs. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I liked this Linux Cat Superhero sticker that someone put on the back of the street sign in Washington, D.C.
There is something great about the promise of technology (with G-d’s help of course) to make our lives better.
When we get excited about technology, envision it, invest in it, and bring it to market–we are superheros making the world a better place.
While many technologies may be “pie the sky” invoking more hype than higher purpose, if we can discern the doers from the duds then we can achieve the progress for ourselves and our children that we desperately want.
Technology should be a superhero and not a villian–when its about the mission and doing what we do better, faster, and cheaper.
While Washington DC is a long way from entreprenurial and innovative Silicon Valley, the nexus between IT and public service has never been greater or more important.
For example, when it comes to ideological clashes between (the iPhone’s) security/surveillance and privacy or between the proliferation of robots vs. jobs for real human beings, balancing the competing interests is the soul of technology and public policy.
Every truly useful technology should have it’s superhero to represent and advocate for it, while us mere mortals sort out the implications and make sense of it all for the real world. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Today, Iran warns a U.S. Navy ship and fighter jet to stay away from military exercises they were conducting.
And what did we, the Superpower, do?
We hightailed it out of there.
Yet, presumably we were in international waters this time, so it’s curious why the U.S. military would take it’s orders from Iran if we were legitimately there.
This is just…
– A little more than 2 weeks after Iran seized 2 U.S. Navy ships and 10 sailors and put them execution style on their knees and broadcast this to world.
– And less than a month after Iran fired missiles within 1.3 km of the U.S. aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman.
Wonder why did Iran warn us this time and not last month with the aircraft carrier–should we be “thankful” again to them, this time for warning us.
– And just less than 2 weeks ago, Iraq-based Shiite terror militias (alleged proxies for Iran) abducted 3 more Americans (almost simultaneously with their prisoner swap with us–refilling their human cache).
– All this, plus the 2 ballistic missile tests (those capable of carrying nukes) that Iran conducted in October and again in December in violation of U.N. resolutions, and what do we have?
A new “Iran Man” (not Iron Man) in town–with over $100+ billion to spend on global terrorism while chanting “Death To America”–and he most certainly isn’t a superhero. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So when we’re young, we think we’re Superman, Batman, or whatever superhero comes to mind.
Our bodies are beautiful, supple, strong, and heal quickly.
We are taught by our helicopter parents and philosophic teachers that “You can do anything you set your mind to!“
In our fantasies, we surely can do amazing things–we lift unbelievable weight, fly around at the speed of light, do karate better than Bruce Lee, outthink Einstein, save the world, and then make off with the beautiful damsel to boot.
Kryptonite is no problem–we are (seemingly) invincible.
Then we hit middle age–40 something–and all of a sudden what do you know?
Oh, this doesn’t work right and that doesn’t feel right.
The Yiddish expression, “Oy vey” seems about it.
And off to the doctors we go.
After the exam and tests, doc says, “Mr. (or Ms.) [whatever], you have [fill in the blank].”
You respond, “Is that normal–at my age–already?”
Doc says, “Absolutely, this is what happens as you get older.”
I say, “Doc, does anything good happen when we get older.”
“Of course not”–we both laugh.
This reminds me of when my dad used to sing this song in this funny mock Irish accent, “You’re not as young as you used to be you’re getting old and gray!”
This week, a colleague was coming down with something–possibly something not good.
I told him how I hoped this turns out well for him and how sorry I was for what he was going through.
Writing off the illness, he says to me, “We all end the same anyway” (i.e. we all end up dead!)–ah, another unhappy notion that is.
I joked back, “But we all don’t end up in the same place.”
I got a few laughs at that too (some of my father in me).
Well anyway, I thought about this after–about some of the special subhuman beings out there–and the very special place that I am certain G-d has in store for them:
– Serial murders and other violent criminals
– Rapists and child abusers
– Terrorists and their sponsors
– Megalomaniacs, bullies, and corrupt officials
– Thieves, cheats, and liars.
And guess what about these schmendricks–they get old too, they go to the doctor too, and then they are going somewhere warm, very warm, and it’s not to the Caribbean. 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Here’s a photo I snapped of one of the Fantastic Four (superheroes).
He’s telling the evil Galactus, who drains planets of their life’s energy, to “Stop!”
He yells at Galactus, “You have facilitated the Corporate Fascist Agenda long enough.”
I think we all know a Galactus (or two)!
In every company and agency…there are individuals that seem to literally suck the creativity, problem solving, and life force from the bowels of the organization.
They complain incessantly, make excuses for their lack of support and contribution, erect obstacles to progress, and needlessly put down other people’s ideas and contributions.
These Galactuses facilitate their own or a corporate agenda–to raise their stature, power, and purse.
They can be–almost G-d like figures in the organization that are feared and cowed to–but in the long term it’s counterproductive to enslave humanity to them.
You can be like the Fantastic Four, who recognizes problem people and calls them out for bad behavior–you can be part of changing the culture from a BIG VILIAN negative to a SUPERHERO positive.
It starts, like in the comic–by identifying their personal agendas and bad behaviors and telling them to stop as well as by working with or around them to facilitate progress.
Galactus, you are finished! 😉
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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