CLIMATE ARMAGEDDON

Is Climate Armageddon upon us? Well, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is yes, I believe that it is. The good news is that while we cannot stop it, we still have a little time to prepare for it. I am not trying to be an alarmist, that bell has been rung by others. And, while I am not a climatologist, you do not have to be one to read the message in the bottle. From all that I have read, the climate tipping point has been reached and we cannot stop the rising tide, pun intended, of major climate change impacts. The best we can do is to prepare and brace for impact, and, take immediate actions to try to lessen the duration of the climate event that has already begun.
By know, you have hopefully heard about the just released White House Report on Climate Change. I do not base my conclusions on the report but it does put it all into some level of perspective in terminology for the layman. The hi9ghlights of the report, and its website, are as follows:

“Climate Change Impacts
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States: Report Home Page, The most comprehensive, authoritative report on Global Climate Change (http://globalchange.gov/)
1. Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced.
2. Climate changes are underway in the United States and are projected to grow.
3. Widespread climate-related impacts are occurring now and are expected to increase.
4. Climate change will stress water resources.
5. Crop and livestock production will be increasingly challenged.
6. Coastal areas are at increasing risk from sea-level rise and storm surge.
7. Threats to human health will increase.
8. Climate change will interact with many social and environmental stresses.
9. Thresholds will be crossed, leading to large changes in climate and ecosystems.
10. Future climate change and its impacts depend on choices made today.”


The report details anticipated changes by regions of the United States and for many, it should be an eye opener. My only concern over the report is that it sets the timeline for these changes a bit far into the future. Even a decade is too far as these events are happening now and the severity of the events will soon grow exponentially. Keep in mind, every model that has predicted a climate change timeline has been proven wrong. It is all happening faster. Further, new factors emerge every day that speed up this timeline and unforeseen factors also pop up every day. The snowball effect has begun and reports will be unable to keep up with the downhill train. I would ask that you read some of the following stories that have hit various news and science sites. The key word is “some” as this is just a smattering of what is not always making headline news.

“UN humanitarian chief John Holmes speaks during a press conference in Khartoum in May 2009. Some of the world's biggest cities are at growing risk of "mega disasters", the UN's humanitarian chief said Tuesday, warning that climate change was behind a rising number of natural catastrophes.
The Red Cross joined the UN in urging more investment to ensure that cities, villages and small communities were better prepared for natural disasters that are being amplified by global warming.
Natural and man-made disasters killed nearly a quarter of a million people in 2008 and warnings about looming disasters, particularly climate change, are not being heeded, the Red Cross said.
At 242,662 people worldwide, this was the second biggest annual toll of the past decade, according to a report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Nine in 10 of those disasters were weather-related and they caused up to 200 billion dollars (145 billion Euros) worth of damage, Holmes said, calling it an "enormous concern".
"The effects of climate change are being felt now; they're not simply some future threat."

“Extreme weather, drought, heavy rainfall and increasing temperatures are a fact of life in many parts of the U.S. as a result of human-induced climate change, researchers report today in a new assessment. These and other changes will continue and likely increase in intensity into the future, the scientists found.
Researchers representing 13 U.S. government science agencies, major universities and research institutes produced the study, "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States." Commissioned in 2007, it is the most comprehensive report to date on national climate change, offering the latest information on rising temperatures, heavy downpours, extreme weather, sea level changes and other results of climate change in the U.S.”

“By mid-century, people may be fleeing rising seas, droughts, floods and other effects of changing climate, in migrations that could vastly exceed the scope of anything before, says a major new report. The document, authored by researchers at Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), the United Nations University and CARE International, was released at a news conference in Bonn.
While the report does not attempt to put numbers to those potentially uprooted, estimates from other reports it cites range from 25 million to 50 million by 2010, to almost 700 million by 2050.

• Breakdown of ecosystem-based economies including subsistence herding, farming and fishing will be the dominant driver of forced migration.
• Climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of natural hazards such as cyclones, floods and droughts. Rains in parts of Mexico and Central America, for instance, are projected to drop as much as 50% by 2080. Farmers in parts of Mexico and North Africa's Sahel region may already be moving in part due to changing rains.
• Sea level rise directly threatens the existence of some 40 countries. Saltwater intrusion, flooding and erosion could destroy agriculture in the densely populated Mekong, Nile and Ganges deltas. A rise of two meters, or six feet--well within some projections for this century-- would inundate nearly half the Mekong's 3 million hectares (7.5 million acres) of farmland. Some Pacific island nations including the Maldives (pop. 300,000) are already considering prospects for total relocation.
• Ongoing melting of alpine glaciers in the Himalayas will devastate the heavily irrigated farmlands of Asia by increasing floods and decreasing long-term water supplies. The glacier-fed basins of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers now support over 1.4 billion people.
• Most migrants will probably move within their own countries, or to countries next door. Many will be poor, and many will be unable to move far enough to improve their lots. Ripples from resulting conflicts and collapses will hit richer countries.”

June 10th, 2009 by Les Blumenthal, McClatchy Newspapers
In Washington State, oysters in some areas haven't reproduced for four years, and preliminary evidence suggests that the increasing acidity of the ocean could be the cause. In the Gulf of Mexico, falling oxygen levels in the water have forced shrimp to migrate elsewhere.
Federal studies also found acidity levels in the North Pacific and off Alaska are unusually high compared to other ocean regions. The high acidity is already taking a toll of such tiny species as pteropods, which are an important food for salmon and other fish.
As greenhouse gas emissions increase, billions of tons of carbon dioxide from smokestacks and vehicle tailpipes are absorbed by the oceans. The result is carbonic acid, which dilutes the "rich soup" of calcium carbonate in the seawater that many species, especially on the low end of the food chain, thrive in, Warren said.
"If we lose it, it is gone forever," Warren said of the oceans' delicate chemical balance.”

Coral reefs throughout the Caribbean have been comprehensively 'flattened' over the last 40 years, according to a disturbing new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA).
This drastic loss of architectural complexity is clearly driving substantial declines in biodiversity, which will in turn affect coastal fishing communities.
"The loss of structure also vastly reduces the Caribbean's natural coastal defenses, significantly increasing the risk of coastal erosion and flooding."

More and more, scientists are getting a better grip on the nitrogen cycle. They are learning about sources of nitrogen and how this element changes as it loops from the nonliving, such as the atmosphere, soil or water, to the living, whether plants or animals. Scientists have determined that humans are disrupting the nitrogen cycle by altering the amount of nitrogen that is stored in the biosphere.
The study, in the June 19 issue of the journal Science, is the latest to rule out a drop in CO2 as the cause for earth's ice ages growing longer and more intense some 850,000 years ago. But it also confirms many researchers' suspicion that higher carbon dioxide levels coincided with warmer intervals during the study period.
The authors show that peak CO2 levels over the last 2.1 million years averaged only 280 parts per million; but today, CO2 is at 385 parts per million, or 38% higher.
"We know from looking at much older climate records that large and rapid increase in C02 in the past, (about 55 million years ago) caused large extinction in bottom-dwelling ocean creatures, and dissolved a lot of shells as the ocean became acidic," he said. "We're heading in that direction now."

“The current solar minimum has been so long and deep, it prompted some scientists to speculate that the sun might enter a long period with no sunspot activity at all, akin to the Maunder Minimum of the 17th century. This new result dispels those concerns. The sun's internal magnetic dynamo is still operating, and the sunspot cycle is not "broken."
Howe and Hill found that the stream associated with the next solar cycle has moved sluggishly, taking three years to cover a 10 degree range in latitude compared to only two years for the previous solar cycle.
The jet stream is now, finally, reaching the critical latitude, heralding a return of solar activity in the months and years ahead.” (NOTE: This is one of those events that could change everything in a very brief time span.)

“The world's ocean environment - and the fish in it - is facing catastrophe.
"These huge resources which we once believed to be renewable, that our whole human history has led us up until now to believe are renewable, are not renewable anymore because of what we are doing to them. And so our entire philosophical approach has to change. It is not going to be the same in the future as it was in the past." (FILM-The End of the Line)

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The first comprehensive report into the human cost of climate change warns the world is in the throes of a "silent crisis" that is killing 300,000 people each year.
More than 300 million people are already seriously affected by the gradual warming of the earth and that number is set to double by 2030, the report from the Global Humanitarian Forum warns.
"For the first time we are trying to get the world's attention to the fact that climate change is not something waiting to happen. It is impacting seriously the lives of many people around the world," the forum's president, former U.N.

Racing the clock: Rapid climate change forces scientists to evaluate extreme conservation strategies
May 25th, 2009
Scientists are, for the first time, objectively evaluating ways to help species adapt to rapid climate change and other environmental threats via strategies that were considered too radical for serious consideration as recently as five or 10 years ago. Among these radical strategies currently being considered is so-called "managed relocation." Managed relocation, which is also known as "assisted migration," involves manually moving species into more accommodating habitats where they are not currently found.
"…it is becomingly overwhelmingly evident that climate change is a reality; and it is fast and large. Consequences will arise within decades, not centuries."
"We have previously been able to say, 'let nature run its course.' But because humans have already changed the world, there is no letting nature run its course anymore.

There are many other stories in various science journals that tell of eco-system collapses; species extinctions; habitat loss; storm severity; ocean rise refugees; droughts; floods and more. These are current events, not future events. Add to this the disease issues caused by current climate change and the picture looks bleak. The point is that with all of the talk of carbon caps and new technologies, people are being lulled into believing that we still have plenty of time to deal with the issue. There is an attitude that we must first deal with the economy and then tackle tough climate change problems. Sorry, we do not have that luxury. Want to boost the construction industry? Start now by building housing for climate refugees. Begin now to move infrastructure away for coastal areas. Relocate people now away from devastating storm zones. Relocate people away from areas of looming water shortages. Start de-centralizing power grids to prevent total power supply chaos. Lots of jobs to be had from the pending disasters. Will anyone really listen to this warning? Probably not. Nothing much will happen until a major catastrophe hits a major Western country. Of course, by that time, it will be a bit late. It would seem that the forces are gathering to bring about a major 2102 event. The sad part is that it did not have to happen. No one HEARS a prophet until after the prophesied event actually happens. Nostradamus left some warnings along with the Hopi, Mayans and many more. Just an aside, when Brian Doe and I wrote the first two books of the “Waking God” trilogy we thought we were speaking of events that would be a bit further into the future. Funny how form can so closely follow thought. I will never forget the quote that greeted students in my old junior high school, “A word to the wise is sufficient.”

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IN DEPTH INTERVIEW: The Heart of Marketing

Questions for Judith and Jim from Philip Harris – All Things That Matter Blog and Press

Q. ARE THERE ANY BUSINESSES TO WHICH YOUR SOFT SELL/ROE DOES NOT APPLY?

Yes, any business or business intention that seeks to dominate and control, because that leads to a need to control not just competition but the buying public as well.

We are all interdependent in this life. We co-create it together, consciously or not. So any business that operates from a top-down, only-number-one-wins mindset must be intolerant, at the least, to the idea of mutual need, and must find repulsive the idea that a successful business is a co-creation of seller and buyer.

Q. IS THIS MORE OF A SERVICE INDUSTRY APPROACH, OR DOES IT ALSO APPLY TO MANUFACTURING?

Understanding the ROI-ROE distinction illuminates the fact that even automotive manufacturers, as an example, engage, for the most part, in ROE transactions. Only a rarified few buy a car with a genuine, thought-through premise of turning that purchase into an ROI outcome.

The manufacturers operate, as a business, on an ROI premise, but the transactions they are ultimately engaged in (an individual’s or couple’s purchase of a new car) are almost exclusively ROE. There are very few transactions that any of us engage in that are strict dollar-for-dollar exchanges. That’s why our new book The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back (Morgan James Publishing) will appeal to most everyone who wants to grow their business with integrity and with joy.

Q. WHAT MOTTO WOULD YOU USE INSTEAD OF “LET THE BUYER BEWARE’?

Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware) emerges out of a dog-eat-dog mindset which, de facto, shreds the fact and experience of our interdependence. Using the Lone Ranger as a metaphor, he didn’t reside in a community, except for his horse and his Indian companion, Tonto. When anyone internalizes that model of identity they are dangerous because they become pathologically narcissistic, with only self-centered awareness and rarely any conscience.

So instead of ‘Buyer Beware” to take our lead from the sub-title of our book – The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back – we propose the best new motto is “Buyer Be Loved or Take Your Business Someplace Else.”


Q. RELIGIOUS DOGMA WOULD LEAD PEOPLE TO BELIEVE THAT SERVICES OF A SPIRITUAL NATURE, E.G., HEALING, COACHING, SELF-HELP ASSISTANCE, SEMINARS, BOOKS ON SELF-IMPROVEMENT, ETC., SHOULD BE FREE. AND YET, ALL ARE ASKED TO PUT THE MONEY IN THE PLATE ON SUNDAY. WHY DO YOU THINK SERVICE PROVIDERS HAVE SUCH AN AVERSION TO ASKING FOR MONEY?

Basically, care-givers are we-oriented. When placed in a me-first environment they experience a discomfort that leads to, at the extreme, a renunciation of the self.

Also, their sense of achievement and well-being are tied to the results they inspire and foster in their clients, and asking for money creates discomfort because it returns the focus back to them. Whatever reason they give—filthy lucre, it’s beneath me, it breaks my connection with the person I’m helping, whatever—psychologically it creates an internal tension, a conflict of intentions, and a disturbing dissonance that often they do not understand. We address this in several sections of our book The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back (Morgan James Publising, May 2009).

Re: asking for money to be put in the Sunday plate—that’s just a down-to-earth need for funding spun into a spiritual principle of giving and therefore relegated to a hypocrisy.

Q. DO YOU FEEL PROFIT MARGINS SHOULD BE LESS FOR THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE IDEAS OF ROE/SOFT SELL?

Quite the contrary. While there is no need for gouging, the products and services soft sell marketers bring to the marketplace are sorely needed by the peoples of the world.

Devising and selling another series of mortgage-backed derivatives hardly creates real value, and whatever monetary value it conjures has no more purpose than to conjure more and more profit in an unending circle of purposelessness. Such concoctions are deeply incestuous, severely limited, and, unfortunately, have a wide and destructive reach when such merely cognitive, sleights-of-accounting go bad.

And yet, in the face of what we all know to be true, that many strictly ROI transactions generate no real value—except as a good poker hand “creates value” for the winner—what ROE providers provide in their life-enhancing, experience-changing roles are still characterized as “soft” (in the sense of weak) and therefore do not warrant substantial incomes based on substantial pricing and certainly not high margins.

We repudiate that notion unambiguously.


Q. THE LARGE CORPORATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN IN THE NEWS LATELY HAVE OBVIOUSLY BEEN HARD SELL/ROI ORIENTED. DESPITE ALL OF THE NEGATIVE PUBLICITY, THEY STILL SEEM UNWILLING TO CHANGE THEIR USUROUS WAYS. DO YOU FEEL THAT THE OLD ECONOMIC DINOSAURS ARE SOON TO BE CAUGHT IN THE TAR PITS AND BECOME EXTINCT?

Yes. We believe humanity is undergoing a significant shift in consciousness. This shift has been largely supported by instant worldwide communication which has pulled the shroud from what has, in the past, been the ability to manipulate in the dark. Light is now shown into the darkness and unconscious impulses, which have historically been buttressed by the brutality of the so-called ruling class, are being exposed and come up wanting.

Even without enlightenment as a goal, transparency and serious scrutiny are now not only possible, they have engendered in the public a respect and even gratitude such that there’s no going back. That’s not to say that a different kind of concealment is not possible. But that which has in the past been veiled is now revealed.


Q. CAN THE IDEAS YOU ADVOCATE EVEN WORK ON A CORPORATE/INTERNATIONAL LEVEL?

The notions of “corporate” and”international” represent structures. Soft Sell marketing is not yet a structure (although it can be turned into one). Instead, at this point, it is an attitude, an intention, a commitment grounded in the interconnectedness of all life on this planet. Is that intention applicable and efficacious in corporations? Certainly, but only in as much as those who are involved accept it as such and then practice it. Can this approach work internationally? Except for the limitation that consciousness and conscience are distributed across the globe in various degrees and qualities, the answer is the same—dependent only on how much we all want more human-to-human respectful exchanges and how deep our desire to make that happen.

BTW, we are already talking with several corporations about providing trainings based on our book The Heart of Marketing.

Q. IN A WAY, SMALL TOWN BANKS OPERATED MORE ON THE ROE MODEL. CAN BANKING MONOLITHS DO THE SAME? DO YOU FEEL THAT THIS COULD HAPPEN VOLUNTARILY OR WOULD IT HAVE TO BE FORCED?

ROE can’t be forced in the same way that we cannot compel your love. But we also believe that we must grow into a consciousness that advances past the idea of “enlightened self-interest” without abandoning the idea of the self. We must evolve into a sense of self that is deeply and palpably grounded in community—an I within the We. Then we take care of ourselves as well as one another and live from a purpose that extends beyond the rabid individuality that has been exalted in our culture. Our new book The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back is dedicated to create that change.

To live without a sense that self is only a true Self as it understand itself within a community and community is only community when it realizes itself as a mosaic of individuals is what leads to the social madness that we are experiencing today.


Q. FOR A PERSON TO OPERATE ON THE SOFT SELL LEVEL, IT SEEMS THAT A LOT OF TIME WOULD HAVE TO BE SPENT NURTURING POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS. THIS WOULD MEAN A LOT OF TIME ON THE COMPUTER. WILL THIS BE THE MODEL FOR THE NEW ENTREPRENEUR?

First, long-term customers are always nurtured. A proven marketing rule is—it takes between 3 to 9 contacts before a prospective customer becomes a paying customer. So time is and has always been an element the computer notwithstanding.

The computer and the commerce it has spawned will be the centerpiece for many many new entrepreneurs because an online business has the lowest start-up cost and the highest profit margins. It also works 24/7 unlike a brick and mortar store that usually closes for some part of the 24 hour cycle. That’s why several of the answers in our new book The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back (Morgan James Publishing, May 2009) are in response to questions that come from marketers on the Internet.

The key here is not the computer itself but the entrepreneurial mindset which thrives on extending oneself and also tolerating risk. Nurturing customers is a particular marketing mindset which is also a particular way of being in the world. The computer is just the medium through which these necessary personal traits have vast opportunity to be expressed.

Q. THIS ALL REMINDS ME OF THE SLOGAN, ‘SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL.’ DO YOU SEE A NEW ECONOMIC PARADIGM AS THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE AND WHAT WOULD THIS PARADIGM LOOK LIKE?

The notion of “small” is quantitative, and no fundamentally quantitative metaphor will serve as a paradigm sufficient to inject into the global commercial system the necessary and essential changes required for transformation. Instead there must be a paradigm shift that assists humanity in overcoming the dominant and dominating, value free, largely mathematical world view that underpins current understanding and beliefs about what commerce should be.

Our book, The Heart of Marketing: Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back, is composed of answers to 45 questions we received during a survey we took promoting our second Bridging Heart and Marketing conference, the only marketing conference for the online or offline soft sell marketer. What follows is the 45th answer in the book and it addresses your question.

#45 Do you see soft sell marketing as the future trend in developing customer relationships?

Soft sell marketing shows every indication that it is the future trend in developing good, long lasting customer relations.

In fact we recently received a promotional email sent out by internationally recognized copywriter, Bob Bly. He’s been writing for years and is very well known in the direct marketing as well as Internet marketing industries.

His many clients include: AARP, CBS Market Watch, Forbes, Harvard Business School, Kiplinger, McGraw-Hill, Nature, Nightingale-Conant, New York Times Syndicate, Prentice Hall, and Scientific American.

Here’s what he wrote:

“The teaching of how to make money marketing information on the Internet has gone from an honorable, honest profession to a hype-filled, slime-infested jungle. Each day, the claims get more and more outrageous.

‘I made $1 million in 17 seconds on the Internet!’ one promoter screams.

‘Join my Delta Mega Force Team today and get a Rolls Royce with your first affiliate commission check,’ another shouts even more loudly.

“Does brag-and-boast advertising like this - especially from so-called marketing gurus you never heard of before make you skeptical?

“To me, these outrageous promotions … sorely lacking in credibility … make me want to toss my cookies!”

It’s the kind of over-the-top hype Bly writes about that prompted us to start speaking out about soft sell marketing, because traditional hard sell Internet marketing has become, in many cases, ever more outrageous. Hype-filled. Not credible.

When genuine, heartfelt emotion is absent, copywriters are compelled to use hype which pushes their sales message over the top. They’re forced to try to generate a feeling response from their readers, but they only have their own brain-space to work with.

We welcome Bly’s acknowledgment of the problem for which soft sell marketing is the solution.



The Future of Marketing

And as for the future of marketing, Jim came across an article about a new book The Way We’ll Be, written by conservative pollster John Zogby. He’s a political right of center opinion taker and we point that out, not for political reasons, but to highlight the fact that what he writes about in his book would not automatically be expected from a man of his political leanings.

Zogby is a very credible and honest pollster and that’s what makes his findings so remarkable—and so relevant to the continued rise of soft sell marketing, online and off.

The generation now coming of age Zogby calls the “New Globals.” Quoting Zogby, he defines them as “that group of Americans, between ages 18 and 29, who:

● Focus on relationships;
● Are the first color-blind Americans;
● Possess a global perspective;
● Want honesty and fairness;
● Appeal to the best in humanity, not the worst;
● Consider themselves citizens of the planet;
and
● Demand authenticity and not spin. They yearn for authenticity like no generation before. They’ve had it up to here with marketing, whether political or commercial, that’s all hype and a payoff that falls far short.”

The Promise of Soft Sell Marketing

Soft sell marketing is all about authenticity. The seller has authentic care and passion for the product or service being sold. And the buyer sincerely values being cared for through the solution to their need. It is much like a beautiful dance.

When done well, soft sell marketing is the dance of life lived out on the stage of commercial exchange. The giving and the taking are equally fine expressions of all that it means to be human. And the needs on both sides of the exchange never end. They remain with us, each and every day. Year after year.

So as we continue to open our relationship with you, dear committed reader, we thank you for your authentic interest in what we’ve had to say. Because it is true that soft sell marketing is the future trend in marketing and sales, and in developing long lasting customer relations.

By reading this book, you are our customer. And we look forward to when we may meet again, and developing a very long lasting relationship with you.

As we say: Soft Sell Is Not a Revolution. It’s an Evolution.

Ah, what a lovely dance!

THE HEART OF MARKETING-A NEW BUSINESS PARADIGM

SL - This Book Can Change the World...

PLEASE READ MY IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHORS ON MY BLOG TOMORROW!!

As you know I’m very careful about what I recommend to you.

But this book . . .

The Heart of Marketing Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back
(Morgan James Publishing)

. . . is a MUST read for the future of your marketing and the growth of your business.

And no surprise it’s already a best-seller at Amazon - so if you already know you want to get the book and maybe some extras to give to friends since there is a serious discount at Amazon - just go to:

http://theheartofmarketing.com

The authors, husband and wife psychology team and Internet marketers Judith Sherven and Jim Sniechowski are respected friends of mine — and they are the voice for what is known as Soft Sell Marketing.

Now an international movement, Soft Sell Marketing is creating a heart-based change in commerce — to one of consciousness and conscience, caring and community.

And their latest book The Heart of Marketing is now the published voice for this change!

http://theheartofmarketing.com

Answering 45 questions out of 772 that they received during an Ask Campaign for their “Bridging Heart and Marketing II” conference this book is a soul-inspiring, heart-warming turn-around in how you’ll approach your business from now on.

AND when you purchase the book today you receive Judith & Jim’s invitation to get thousands of dollars in Bonus Gifts from their Gift Sponsors — including David Riklan, Mark Joyner, Christine Kloser, Gregg Braden, Hay House, and of course Yours Truly!

You’ll even have the possibility to win 2 Tickets to Judith & Jim’s October 9-11 “Bridging Heart and Marketing III” conference (a $997 Value).

So get The Heart of Marketing today!

http://theheartofmarketing.com

AND please pass this message on to all your friends inviting them to get The Most Important
Marketing Book of 2009.

Judith & Jim received 43 incredible endorsements including Mark Joyner and David Riklan

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This title may sound a little ‘hoofy-poofy’ but don’t let it fool you. Even if you’re a hard-nosed skeptic who shudders at words like ‘love’ and ‘heart’ this book will radically boost your sales. Feeling good about yourself afterwards will just be a nice side effect.
Mark Joyner - #1 Bestselling Author of “Simpleology” www.SIMPLEology.com

I really like the message embodied in "The Heart of Marketing." Part marketing, part self growth, part spiritual expansion, this book opens the way for your much larger future while changing the way we've all thought about business and making money.
David Riklan - Founder, SelfGrowth.com

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That’s how important this book is to the future of commerce!

So get your copy today - and copies for friends you care about -

http://theheartofmarketing.com

By the way, a percentage of book sales will always be donated to Habitat for Humanity!

Because, as Judith & Jim say,

It’s ALL in the Connection,

WHEN DEATH COMES HOME

I am no stranger to death. I have lost a brother, father, aunts and uncles. Having done farmsteading, I have lost many wonderful animal friends: horses, goats, dogs, cows, chickens, cats, ducks and more. But, it is a little different when death comes home. This story is about Irene, my mother-in-law. She is not dead, yet.

Irene has lived with us for over two years. We moved back to Maine from upstate New York in 2005 and she moved in with us in 2006. She is 77 years old, had COPD and emphysema. In the spring of ’06 she was hospitalized for pneumonia. We discovered at that time that she was anemic, dehydrated, suffered weight loss and was not actively taking her medication. This, to our embarrassment was not at all obvious in our weekend visits. Basically, she could no longer care for herself. She had been living alone in a senior apartment, her husband having died many years earlier.

Irene is on oxygen 24/7 and she needed constant care and she could no longer self medicate. Being the only one in the family with someone home all day, my wife works as a legal transcriptionist over the internet, we decided that she would live with us. Since that time she has gone from being hospitalized several times a year for pneumonia to only once. About six months ago she had a bad cold and into the hospital she went. She almost never came out. It was very close. But, she did recover and back home she came. All has been well for some time.

A few weeks back she had a sudden problem with breathing. At 3:30am the ambulance came. Tests showed that one lung, which was operating at minimal capacity, had collapsed, for good. It was also discovered that she had two shadows on her lung, mesothelioma. Treatment for this would either kill her, or make her hospital bound for the rest of her life. There was no more that could really be done at the hospital. She qualified for hospice, meaning her life expectancy was less than six months. She is now back home with us. Hospice has given us an array of drugs to keep her pain free and they call and visit at least once a week. They are really great and very supportive. Irene will die here, at home.

But you know, this woman is tough. She does not know that she is under Hospice care; she does not want to know. She is comfortable, alert and still a joy to have around. Her day is spent mostly in bed, but she does sit at her table at meal time. The drugs we give her are minimal because she is not in constant pain. Occasionally, she gets real short of breath and will take medication that helps. However, we know that death is here, waiting. Irene has not given up. She is planning her 80th birthday party. Despite the prognosis, she may just make it. We can hope, eh? So, death may have to bide its time.

I will keep you posted on Irene. Not so much for you, but for me. After all, she is the mother of my wife, and that makes her special!

RELIGIONS SHOULD STAY OUT OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LAWS

On May 6th, Governor Baldacci of Maine signed into law a bill allowing same sex marriage. The Governor said, “I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.” He went on to say, “This new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of its beliefs, it does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees. Instead, it reaffirms the separation of church and state.”

Does this put the matter to rest in the State of Maine? Unfortunately, no. “We feel he kind of shortchanged us all,” said The Rev. Bob Emrich, pastor of Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in Plymouth and a founder of the Maine Marriage Alliance, which opposes the law. “But that’s his prerogative. He’s the governor.” According to AP writer Glenn Adams, Marc Mutty of the Roman Catholic Diocese said challengers expect to get the go-ahead by May 21 to begin collecting signatures to get a referendum on the bill, which was signed Wednesday by Gov. John Baldacci. The Maine Jeremiah Project, a church based public policy group and The National Association of Marriage Enhancement are starting a petition drive to get the issue on the November ballot as a referendum question.

In my opinion, these church groups should really mind their own business! If church and state are to be separate, as provided by our Constitution, then they should stick to their own concerns rather than trying to foist their ‘worn out dogma’ on others. Nothing in this bill requires them to conduct same sex marriages. They can continue to do practice their faith as they so choose. The fact that they are trying to force their values on others is just another example of the evils of organized religion. Why must everyone live the way they want people to live? Why must they insist that they are right and everyone else is wrong? There are other religions belief systems and that is why separation is guaranteed. One could easily argue that the state should not accept religious marriage ceremonies as legal unless it is accompanied by a civil union as well. Why should marriage be only what these religious leaders claim it should be?

Yes, we are one nation under God, but we are not one nation under the Baptist or Catholic version of God. Christians need to get off this ‘everyone must believe as we do’ train. This attitude has caused the world way too much suffering and strife and division. Christianity is perhaps the only religion that purposely sets out to force others to act in its own image. Maybe if religions practiced the true meaning of their teachings and acted with tolerance, love and compassion towards others, the world just might be a safer place.

SWINE FLU: CRY WOLF, COVER UP, DIVERSION, HOAX?

Is the swine flu another case of health officials ‘crying wolf,’ a test of their emergency system in preparation for something else, a cover-up or even a hoax? According to the World Health Organization, “Influenza is a highly infectious disease caused by a very unstable virus…annual epidemics are thought to result in 3-5 million cases of severe illness and from 250,000 to 500,000 deaths…The greatest public health concern lies in the tendency of Influenzavirus A to change suddenly and markedly, either through mutation or through the exchange of influenza virus genes or through the transfer of whole virus between host species into novel, genetically distinct subtypes…The result is the sudden appearance of a new virus strain to which populations may have no immunity and against which no existing vaccine may confer protection” (WHO 11/26/02, 111th Session, item 5.8).
The WHO notes that the 1918 pandemic killed some 40-50 million people and that a “likely” new pandemic would kill around a half-million people in industrial nations alone. Now, let’s take a look at the following numbers regarding the current swine flu, H1N1. Keep in mind, that by the time you read this, the numbers will surely have changed.
-- THE UNITED STATES: The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States rose to 111 spread across 13 states, health officials said (THE NUMBER OF STATES IS NOW 22).
-- CONFIRMED INFECTIONS: Thirteen countries have been affected in addition to Mexico. According to the World Health Organization: The United States 91, Mexico 26, Canada 13, Germany 3, Britain 5, Israel 2, New Zealand 3, Spain 4, Austria 1.
The following countries have also announced confirmed cases: Costa Rica 2, Netherlands 1, Peru 1, and Switzerland 1.
- NATIONS WITH SUSPECTED INFECTIONS: Argentina 3, Australia 114, Chile 24, Colombia 59, Denmark 5, Finland 1, France 41, Ireland 3, Italy 20, Japan 1, Poland 2, Portugal 1, South Africa 1, South Korea 4, Sweden 5. (c) 2009 AFP

Everyone knows that WHO alert level has been raised to a level 5, 6 being the highest. But in looking at the history and the numbers, is this justified? We are looking at only a few hundred cases on a worldwide basis. In the United States alone, the annual seasonal flu kills 36,000 according to the CDC. Why all the fuss over the politically incorrect ‘swine flu?’ Is it possible that the high alert is just a test of our emergency systems? If so, why now and why over a flu? Is it possible that we are not being told the entire story and if not, what is really going on? Is it possible that Vice president Joe Biden actually meant what he said but that he was not supposed to let the ‘pig out of the bag?’ What does he possibly know that we do not? Or, as some have suggested who are really into conspiracy theories, is this just a ploy to get more money for the pharmaceutical industry or a way of diverting attention away from issues like the economy and climate change?

The numbers do not match the response. Either we are being kept in the dark about what is really going on, or someone is playing a very expensive and dangerous game. I am not a big fan of wasting taxpayers’ money on often wasteful and usually fruitless Congressional investigations. But in this instance, someone needs to look into this and let the public know the truth about what is really going on. Cry wolf, a cover-up, a test, a diversion? You be the judge, but it is time to ask the questions.

BY THE WAY, THE SLAUGHTER OF PIGS SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED BY ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS!