Days Like These

As war tears through Gaza once again, like so many other places throughout the world, I'm reminded of how thankful I am to live in a world of internet news. Where should one chose it, full coverage is available to people who would like to know the full extent and devastation of warfare and its costs. I've written before about Howard Zinn's famous statement that should every war be viewed as a war against our neighbor's children, we would have far fewer. Today's news that a UN school was attacked and several dozen children were killed or injured only reinforces that claim.

I was struck today when I turned on the television to images of Roland Burris being denied his Senate seat as the Blago debacle continued to play out on Capital Hill. How pathetic. It's a shame on multiple levels; the most obvious being why is this news? Why should we care about this lest we live in Illinois? Why are the lives of children in Gaza or Somalia or the Sudan or Zimbabwe worth so much less than the hubris of this 71 year old narcissist and his cadre of losers? Additionally, I suppose, why are we spared the horror of wars not only of our own making but those of others? Should we not be collectively forced to confront the massacres unleashed by brutal military force (and those of Hamas-led missle attacks and other forms of terrorism)?

It seems on days like these our priorities are horribly confused. And when images like these are blasted across our laptops but not our televisions, something is most definitely wrong.


For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

Anon

Hi Boys 'n Girls,
My name doesn't matter but I am hetrosexual.
I collect porcelain plates and works of great fiction.
Do you come here often?
Lately, I have been thinking about humanity.
The shortest lived animal species so far?
I think we may find that we are.
Still, time takes time to drag while fingers rake tacky chalk marks on the blackboard of life. White birds on a dark background. Smoke on a flat sky.
Its all gone to shit hasn't it?
But when?
And where?
And who do we blame?






Silly question really.





There is only one culprit.



























us.

Look for yourself

"When anyone shows himself overly confident in ability to understand and interpret the works of Chrysippus, say to yourself, " Unless Chrysippus had written obscurely, this person would have had no subject for his vanity. But what do I desire? To understand nature and follow her. I ask, then, who interprets her, and, finding Chrysippus does, I have recourse to him. I don't understand his writings. I seek, therefore, one to interpret them." So far there is nothing to value myself upon. And when I find an interpreter, what remains is to make use of his instructions. This alone is the valuable thing. But, if I admire nothing but merely the interpretation, what do I become more than a grammarian instead of a philosopher?" from "The Enchiridion" by Epictetus

Barely Philosophical Proposition

Dear God, I'm Gay. Do you still love me? They thought they'd ask
An idea struck during simple prayer, or a sermon preached but nigh forgotten,
One of the admired men, the widely acknowledged examples of faith embodied,
Must have thought it up some midweek day, and thought it out, and talked it out
And written his words and pondered his thoughts. I'll bet he practiced every day
From when the last well-intentioned word shone shiny black on righteously recycled white
To the end-week morning he awoke with shiny thoughts of Jesus tears streaming
Through his body like sorrow runs in wetness down denied lovers' cheeks. He looked
At his humbly proud face, virtuously smiling with politicians' prowess, directly in the
Self-imposed ignorance-filled eyes, and practiced his damning, hurtful words
One last time before he presented his fanatically supported, weakly founded barely
Philosophical proposition to his partially proud, partially desperate, partially confused
Pack of parishioners: Dear God, the projector read, I'm Gay. No one gasps here; they read
Last weeks informational pamphlet more thoroughly than they understood this weeks'
Motivational Message Memory Verse. Do You Still Love Me? Hmm, some of them
Would think to themselves, if they hadn't quieted their inner sinful voice to let in the
Deafening, fleeting, feeble voice of a newly impersonal, widely misunderstood God,
I wonder if He does.

Its time we overcome ourselves

"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? [...] All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood, and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be that to overman: a laughingstock or painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape...The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth...Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman--a rope over an abyss...what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end..." Friedrich Nietzsche "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"

Rodney King

Hamas

This is no way to make friends!

Dead Things: Thoughts on Going Home

It'd been years since I walked those streets.

I'd driven by hundreds of times since growing up and moving out, but somehow to drive is to go at warp speed; too fast and sheltered to feel and smell and see what's become of what used to be home. The artifacts that emerge from memoric haze are only momentarily revived beyond a car window. You can turn away and find something in the present to distract you within. That's not an option when you walk.

I park blocks away. The parking in Chinatown's always been disastrous (my father's words echoing through my brain) so I pull into a space across the decaying brown tenements I spent my first years in. This is the New York that's etched into my DNA, a jagged canyon of brick and iron; gray as the sky; hard and tough and cold. It looks nothing like the New York of myth - faux bright lights and arts events on every corner. No. I do not know that place: the haunt of trust fund babies and ivy school graduates mimicking their way into bohemia. I've never known that place.

It strikes me as I inhale the ghastly, poisoned chill air that home is a scattered thing. A dead thing. As life stretches out in front of us, pieces of it fall across the vast landscape of our experience. We revisit with excitement, eager to see what's changed; what's new. I'm struck by the sameness of the scene. The stasis of a place fortold as the forefront of the dynamic world.

My grandparents, still hunkered down in their studio apartment as they've been for decades, just got a laptop. My visit is a surprise and they beam with pride upon my smiling entrance. I take them across the universe; their first visit to this internet thing. I tell them enthusiastically: "this will change your life! You can connect with everyone...everything...you can connect with the world."

They feign wonder.

I feel silly; my technocratic optimism is exposed for the charade it's always been. I've been crouched in the backseat of a car all along. They've been far more connected than me.

The street is viscerally colder when I emerge again. I notice the tackiness of 90's archetechture for the first time. I notice the purple paint that went over street art. I notice the street art that went over the purple paint. I notice still, ancient faces in windows that have increased only in creases.

I get in the car and speed onto the highway.

My heart is heavy.


For More, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

"The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own."
Willa Cather


Do we truly know one another or each other?
I am apt to respond: probably not, based on history and experience. All we can hope for is a tenuous temporary connection based upon sex and looks or a passing comment, maybe a joke. Then its off to our own experience and a reshuffling of fate. Re-deal and let the cards fall as they may.

Try again, hopefully!

Happy New Year?

Terrorism is the war of the poor......

and war is the terrorism of the rich.

......Sir Peter Ustinov......

For 2009--Dance

Dance, when you're broken open
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off
Dance, in the middle of the fighting
Dance, in your blood
Dance, when you're perfectly free

Rumi

...2009, promise...

...be better! ...do better!

Betty and Bob

Bob: You know Betty, I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy!

Betty: Oh Bob, you're such a cunning linguist!

Send lawyers, guns, and money

The shit has hit the fan



(Warren Zevon)

Blackwater

Blackwater's owner and founder Erik Prince, was an intern in George H. W. Bush's White House. Prince is a major financial supporter of Republican Party causes and candidates. Cofer Black, the company's current vice chairman, was director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center (CTC) at the time of the September 11 attacks in 2001. After leaving public service, Black became chairman of the privately owned intelligence gathering company Total Intelligence Solutions, Inc., as well as vice chairman for Blackwater.

During his testimony before Congress, when the term
"mercenaries" was used to describe Blackwater employees, Prince objected, characterizing them as "loyal Americans".

A Committee on Oversight and Government Reform staff report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, describes Blackwater as "being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets."

A staff report compiled by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on behalf of Representative Waxman questioned the cost-effectiveness of using Blackwater forces instead of U.S. troops. Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day per guard, "equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier," the report alleged.

There are a variety of ongoing controversies involving Blackwater Worldwide. It has alternatively been referred to as a security contractor or a mercenary organization by numerous reports by the U.S. and international media. Critics consider Blackwater's self-description as a private military company to be a euphemism for mercenary activities. Jeremy Scahill points out that Chilean nationals, mostly former soldiers, whose country of origin does not participate in hostilities in Iraq, work for Blackwater in that country, thus those Chileans meet the definition of "mercenary." At least 60 Chilean Blackwater employees were trained during dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime. Author Chris Hedges wrote about the establishment of mercenary armies, referring to Blackwater as an example of such a force, asserting its existence as a threat to democracy and a step towards the creation of a modern day Praetorian Guard in a June 3, 2007 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Critics have suggested this may be going too far in putting political decisions in the hands of privately owned corporations.

In December 2006, an Iraqi politician, Ayham al-Samarie, escaped from a prison in Iraq, where he was awaiting trial for 12 criminal corruption cases. Blackwater, which he had hired for protection before his arrest, allegedly helped him escape. On September 22, 2007, U.S. federal prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations that Blackwater employees may have smuggled weapons into Iraq, and that these weapons may have been later transferred to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish nationalist group designated a terrorist organization by the United States, NATO and the EU. The U.S. government was investigating Blackwater for these alleged crimes. On October 4, 2007, the FBI took over the investigation.

In January 2008, Marshall Adame, a Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina's 3rd District, took part in a live question-and-answer forum where he was asked a question about Blackwater. Adame, who had served as a State Department official in Iraq recounted, "I saw them shoot people, I saw them crash into cars while I was their passenger. There was absolutely no reason, no provocation whatsoever." He then stated, "There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries, they are guns for hire; No more, no less."

This led Blackwater executive vice president Bill Mathews to send an internal corporate email to staff:
There is a man named Marshall Adame who is running for congress in our district. He just put a quote online which says he wants this company and all of us to cease to exist. Do you like your jobs? Are you sick and tired of the slanderous bullshit going on in DC? If so, would you all mind joining me in reminding Mr. Adame that he is running for office in our backyard. Tell all your friends and family too. We welcome their assistance in making this point very clear to Mr. Adame. Anyone who wants to send a letter may do so at the following address....His email is....He was too cowardly to put a phone number on the web. I ask that you keep your comments to Mr. Adame professional (well, mostly professional). We help him if our comments get threatening or too crass. Let’s run this goof out of Dodge...!

As a result of the letter writing campaign Adame stated, "I feel very strongly about how extensively organized Blackwater has become, and I will do everything I can as a congressman to look into that, to find out whether or not the things they're doing are even legal. Ultimately however, Adame was defeated in the 2008 Democratic primary by Craig Weber.

Overall, Blackwater has received over $1 billion USD in government contracts, of which two-thirds are no-bid contracts.

Enchanté

.a thank you to Oberon for inviting me here.

.this finds me at a time where i feel i am on the edge of understanding.
since i was very young, in my crib, i have had an inner sense and connection
with nature and i've held a most tender heart.
i would hear the crickets chirping while i lay in my crib and i would think...
"this is how night sounds"

i am unfulfilled. there is something i have to do for humanity
and it isn't coming to me. i've known about it and told certain people
about it...but it evades me.
the little things i do, i hold to myself
i do these things on my own but it's not enough.

i don't know if i am supposed to wait for it to come to me
or if i am to seek it out.
i'm happy to be here, because i was found
and perhaps more inspiration will point me in the direction i need to be.

i have a fair vocabulary but i often find it difficult to express
feelings for which i can find no words
if some things i say make no sense, then i apologize.

love, amber

Addiction

for a few weeks in the fall i went along to a local church - their speciality is addicts, they have "programs," people introduce themselves to the congregation by announcing their addiction - but when it came to my turn i said nothing

because if i stood up i would have had to say that it is money i am addicted to - and i think they would have thought i was putting on airs

the joke's on us all eh?

The neverending hatred

The Truth

Even if you are a minority of one......the truth is the truth.

..........Mahatma Gandhi..........

Happy Xmas

(WAR IS OVER)

Money Money Money Money

Got to have it.....really need it.

..........O'Jays..........

Take (all) the capital

Lose the capitalism!
Those untrustworthy with money,
deserve no access to resources!

Merry Christmas 2008!

So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over and a new one just begun. And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun; the near and the dear one, the old and the young.

A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Let's hope it's a good one without any fear.

(click)

The Art of Peace

As soon as you concern yourself
with the good and bad of your
fellows you create an opening in
your heart for maliciousness to
enter. Testing, competing with and
criticizing others weaken and defeat you.

The Art of Peace that I practice
has room for each of the world's
eight million gods, and I cooperate
with them all. The God of Peace
is very great and enjoins all that
is divine and enlightened in every land.

The Path is exceedingly vast.
From ancient times to the present day
even the greatest sages were unable
to perceive and comprehend the entire truth.
The explanations and teachings of
masters and saints express only part
of the whole. It is not possible for
anyone to speak of such things
in their entirety. Just head for the
light and heat, learn from the Holy Books
and through the virtue of devoted
practice of the Art of Peace
become one with the Divine.

..........Morihei Ueshiba..........

Romans 12

Remember Romans 12:19-21........where we are admonished not to seek vengeance........retribution is beyond the purview of Man.

19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

God made Man in His image.......but then.......Man made God in his image.

Merry Christmas

No advertising today for my blog.

So have a good one!

The Day My God Died

According to the United Nations, thousands of women and children throughout the world disappear each day to be sold into sexual slavery.

In Bombay alone, 90 new cases of HIV infection are reported every hour, and the victims are getting younger: two decades ago, most women in India’s brothels were in their twenties or thirties. Today, the average age is 14.

The child sex trade is a highly organized syndicate that rivals the drug trade in profitability. Recruiters capture them, smugglers transport them, brothel owners enslave them, corrupt police betray them and men rape and infect them. Every person in the chain profits except for the girls, who pay the price with their lives: 80 percent become infected with HIV.

Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins, THE DAY MY GOD DIED puts a human face on these abstract numbers as it recounts the stories of several Nepalese girls who were forced into the international child sex trade.

This heart-wrenching documentary provides a glimpse into the corruption and evil behind the curtain of the global sex industry, a world seldom seen by outsiders. But it is also a reminder that of the over one million women and girls who are sold, transported and forced into sexual slavery each year, 50,000 are in the United States. THE DAY MY GOD DIED exposes crimes that not only occur far away, but also far closer to home than we may have imagined.

Why?????????????????

Why are a million young girls being sold into sexual slavery every year?
Why do immigrants want to come here?
Why aren't their own countries as well off?
Why are 18,000 innocent children dying each and every day from starvation?
Why is our water full of poisons and phamaceuticals?
Why is plastic the bane of our age?
Why do they cut fins off of sharks and throw them back?
Why are young girls subjected to genital mutilation?
Why do they fly airplanes into buildings?
Why are all the ice caps and glaciers melting?
Why do they stone girls who've been raped by their brothers?
Why are all the rainforests being destroyed?
Why is one religion the "real" one and another is not?
Why are Jews and Arabs fighting when they are brothers?
Why are priests molesting children?
Why are corporations being allowed to buy our government?
Why is my penis a pornographic thing?

Forgiving the Unforgiveable

Could you forgive someone who killed your family and contributed to making your life and the lives of thousands a living hell? I don't know if I could but this lady did. She's one of my new heroes. (The list gets longer every day.) Get to know Immaculée Ilibagiza and discover that forgiveness has the power to change not only the person who forgives, it has the power to change the world.

Be a better person

What's the difference

between an asshole and a real asshole?

The asshole knows he's an asshole,

the real asshole has no idea.