WITH GREAT POWER

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Peter Parker was talking about his newly found super powers as Spiderman when he said these words, but when I hear them I think of the power we all now have through our postings on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

I’ve read too many posts that twist facts or even state falsehoods as if they were facts. Unfortunately , many people believe whatever they see in print and are purposely misled by such tactics. It’s certainly common practice in political posts, as noted in a You Tube video called “.Alternate Reality”

The system has gone mad, everyday newspapers and TV carry more and more stories of brazen politicians and executives who have no fear and act as though they are above the law. Even when their own words (at times on tape) confirm their scheming, they continue to treat the public like we're stupid.

It seems the government also wants in on the social media propaganda bandwagon. According to radio celebrity Alex Jones, the Defense Department unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media.This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. The Defense Department wants to deeply grok social media dynamics. So SMISC will be aimed at discovering and tracking the “formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes)” on social media. http://www.prisonplanet.com/pentagon-wants-a-social-media-propaganda-machine.html

  DRL takes our responsibility seriously, using social media to educate, inform, inspire and enlighten as well as give our readers the opportunity to voice their own opinions, whether they agree with ours or not. We also use this forum to encourage positive action, as in The Generosity Game Meme http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/06/generosity-game-meme.html ) or Meet Pongo and Join DRL’s Team to Help Him and The Center For Great Apes (http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/06/meet-pongo-and-join-drls-team-to-help.html)

Barbara’s Soul Food attempts to lighten the soul and encourage our readers to “keep the promises you make to yourself ”                                                                ( http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/07/soul-food_24.html) and Patty’s Sticky Sweet (http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/07/sticky-sweet_24.html)  just makes you feel good! Tony has shared his stories with us to help us understand issues that we might not have considered, such as For Me It’s My Little Girl (http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/03/tony-walker-almost-everyone-has.html). Dawn gives us a wake up call as to what’s happening to our daughters’ childhoods with In Vogue (http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-vogue.html)

I’m proud to be a writer for Delayed Reaction Lounge. It’s a place where every effort is made to present truthful, enlightening information as well as entertaining, funny, even spooky reading as well! I hope you enjoy reading as much as we all enjoy writing for you.

Let us know how you feel. What are your favorite features? Is there something you would like to read about that we haven’t covered yet? If there’s something you really like, let us know and we’ll keep it coming. If there’s something you think needs to be said, tell us and we’ll try to say it for you! The Lounge is for everyone and everyone is welcome! Thanks for stopping in!

WICKED AFTERMATH...

Dawn Boyle
It has been a few days since we felt the wrath of Irene here in the Northeast. It was a hectic few days leading up to her arrival, a horrible day on Saturday waiting for her to rear her ugly face and then Sunday dealing with the flooding, downed trees and power outages.

I have lived through a few hurricanes in my day, a number of tropical storms and since the 80's dozens of Nor'easter. Over a year ago we had a surprise storm on March 13. We were upstate celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday on the water in Croton On Hudson and braved the traffic to get home. We drove through some of the worst weather I have ever seen in my life. Very similar to what Irene brought to us, only without notice. There were no days and days of prep, it just hit. Amazingly we were back to normal within 24 hours.

I try not to be a complainer, but it seems that we had better "cleanup" after that surprise storm than the bitch that just rattled us this past weekend. Irene was talked about for a week and I am not sure why we (and I mean the local power authority) were not better prepared. I heard that about 400,000 people were without power after the storm. Seems that a number of those are still without. Why is this? I understand that there is a priority of work. I understand that there are only so many people to fix the problem, but with this being a natural disaster where is the out of state help?

We stayed closer to the main road at a friends house who is directly on a river. She luckily didn't have interior damage, we kept lights during the entire storm. It wasn't until 11:00am that a tree fell and took the power out. They responded immediately, took the tree away, but there was no LIPA to fix the power, and still hasn't shown up! My friend's next-door neighbor is on Oxygen. Shouldn't this be a priority?

For the past two nights, I have driven around my neighborhood as a silent vigilante making sure all was secure on the completely dark streets of my neighborhood. Not one truck fixing anything. No sign of promise that my neighbors will be with light anytime soon. It makes me wonder why we still have overhead wires...the amount of money we pay to live here you would think that would actually be something they could do to make life a little easier here as the taxes have us in a choke hold on Long Island.

I hope that everyone gets power soon, know my door is always open to you and fingers crossed for an uneventful weather pattern for the upcoming fall/winter seasons. STAY SAFE!!

WICKED HIGH TAXES

Dawn Boyle

A recent study has revealed that Nassau County, New York has the highest taxes in the nation. The study done by the Tax Foundation found that the median Nassau taxpayer shells out about $8,400 a year in property taxes. Suffolk County, New York is 12th on the list with the average taxpayer shelling out about $7,000. Officials say the amount is so high because the biggest factor is school taxes.

Are they trying to drive us off the Island?

My monthly mortgage payment is $3,200.00 for a 1,200 square foot 3 bedroom 2 bath split. I sit on a postage stamp of parcel at 80'x100'. It costs my family of four on average $170. a week in groceries, $160 a month for cable/internet, $200 for four cell phones, $200 a month for car insurance on our two vehicles, $100 for water every three months, $38 a month for garbage pick up, $360 a month for LIPA (Long Island Power Authority) and National Grid. Our extras are $135 for life insurance, $300 for a car lease, $170 a month for drama $200 for miscellaneous credit cards. That totals over $5,800 and we have not left the house yet.

How are people going to survive with tax increases, the price of gas sky rocketing and job layoffs? The amount of taxes we pay each year for the school is insane, but for some reason our teachers have to request classroom necessities 3 times a year for both my children. Programs are getting cut left and right but there is some idiot we all voted into office working three days a month and getting paid $100,000 a year.

It's time to wake up! We need to do something and do it fast! Stop helping foreign countries and help our own NOW! I have at least two friends who's homes are in foreclosure, they are hard working families who can not catch a break. Oh and by the way...my taxes are higher then $8,400 by about $2,000. If you think about how many people are paying $10,000 a year in property taxes it is mind blowing!  I should be living in a ocean front mansion...not the closet I call home.

Check out today's blog wherein our tax paying dollars were hard at work!
http://delayedreactionlounge.blogspot.com/2011/04/lunch-time-poll_27.html