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Then Surely It Must Be Folly To Be Wise!"If ignorance is truly bliss, then why do so many Americans need Prozac?" I'm starting to blog again. However I will ruffle some feathers so if it pisses you off so be it, and if you have something constructive to add do so. If you just want to be bitchy then be forewarned. It's just a button push away from blogville to banville.
Now if you're wondering why so many posts on January 12, 2007, read just pissed off at Aff
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No, the surge was not a success.
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Posted:Feb 24, 2008 7:56 am
Last Updated:Mar 15, 2008 7:05 am
1988 Views
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Why was President Bush's decision more than a year ago to send another 30,000 troops to Iraq called "the surge"? I don't know who invented this label, but the word "surge" evokes images of the sea: a wave that sweeps in, and then sweeps back out again. The second part was crucial. What made the surge different from your ordinary troop deployment was that it was temporary. In fact, the surge was presented as part of a larger plan for troop withdrawal.
It was also, implicitly, part of a deal between Bush and the majority of Americans, who want out. The deal was: just let me have a few more soldiers to get Baghdad under control, and then everybody, or almost everybody, can pack up and come home.
In other words: you have to increase the troops in order to reduce them. This is so perverse on its face that it begins to sound zen-like and brilliant, like something out of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." And in General David Petraeus, the administration conjured up its own Sun Tzu, a brilliant military strategist.
It is now widely considered beyond dispute that Bush has won his gamble. The surge was a terrific success. Choose your metric: attacks on American soldiers, car bombs, civilian deaths, potholes. They're all down, down, down. Lattes sold by street vendors are up. Performances of Shakespeare by local repertory companies have tripled.
Skepticism seems like sour grapes. If you opposed the surge, you have two choices. One is to admit that you were wrong, wrong wrong. The other is to sound as if you resent all the good news and remain eager for disaster. Too many opponents of the war have chosen option two.
But we needn't quarrel about all this, or deny the reality of the good news, to say that at the very least, the surge has not worked yet. The test is simple, and built into the concept of a surge: Has it allowed us to reduce troop levels to below where they were when it started? And the answer is no.
In fact, President Bush laid down the standard of success when he announced the surge more than a year ago: "If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home." At the time, there were about 130,000 American soldiers in Iraq. Bush proposed to add up to 20,000 more troops. Although Bush never made any official promises about a timetable, the surge was generally described as lasting six to eight months.
By last summer the surge had actually added closer to 30,000 troops, making the total American troop count about 160,000. Today, there are still more than 150,000 American troops in Iraq. The official plan has been to get that number back down to 130,000 by July, and then to keep on going so that there would be about 100,000 American troops in Iraq by the time Bush leaves office.
Just lately, though, General Petraeus has come up with another zen-like idea: he calls it a "pause." And the administration has signed on, meaning that the total number of American troops in Iraq will remain at 130,000 for an undetermined period.
So the best that we can hope for, in terms of American troops risking their lives in Iraq, is that there will be just as many in July -- and probably in January, when Bush leaves office -- as there were a year ago. The surge will have surged in and surged out, leaving us back where we started. Maybe the situation in Baghdad, or all of Iraq, will have improved. But apparently it won't have improved enough to risk an actual reduction in the American troop commitment.
And consider how modest the administration's standard of success has become. Can there be any doubt that they would go for a reduction to 100,000 troops -- and claim victory -- if they had any confidence at all that the gains they brag about would hold at that level of support? The proper comparison isn't to the situation a year ago. It's to the situation before we got there. Imagine that you had been told in 2003 that when George W. Bush finished his second term, dozens of American soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis would be dying violently every month; that a major American goal would be getting the Iraqi government to temper its "debaathification" campaign so that Saddam Hussein's former henchmen could start running things again (because they know how); and that "only" 100,000 American troops would be needed to sustain this equilibrium.
You might have several words to describe this situation, but "success" would not be one of them.
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Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich and the Weight of Empire.
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Posted:Feb 12, 2008 3:20 pm
Last Updated:Mar 7, 2008 9:47 am
2210 Views
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To say that I was surprised would be an understatement; when I heard Ron Paul was scaling back his campaign and closed out any possibility of an independent run. WTF?
You see, I had assumed his candidacy was not his own but that it belonged to his supporters; that he was just the standard bearer. Suddenly just like that lights out. It sank under the radar the same way his campaign stayed off the radar and everything just kept going on the way it was going on.
Then I see that Dennis Kucinich backed off of his impeachment effort, shortly after a visit from AIPAC and sundry. Word has it they guaranteed his seat in the next round. Was his seat in danger? Does that matter? Did this visit influence his choice? I don't know that either. What I do know is that there is no honorable reason for him to have backed off. Either he had his price or someone told him they knew where his family lived. I don't buy the re-election support thing. It sounds like something they cooked up to hide the offer he couldn't refuse.
I was attracted to Ron Paul for two reasons; dismantling the so-called Federal Reserve and cutting off aid to Israel. I didn't think his Dr. No persona would be very effective in the White House but it was a good place to start from. I've read so many untruths about Ron Paul that I have to wonder if the people making these statements are reading the chronology that I have read or just pulling their opinions out of that place where the sun don't shine. One wag of a zealot actually said, "They keep making up excuses for his support of Apartheid Israel" As far as I know and I could be wrong that isn't true at all and I never saw hide nor hair of that sort of activity but I'm not omniscient.
One of the things I didn't care for about Ron Paul and don't care for was his timidity in the face of uncomfortable truth. Yes, he spoke out on the war and common issues like the economy and he had some positive, radical ideas but when it came to 9/11 he danced out of the way. I allowed for how that might be a good idea at the time because he was running in an election. I thought, maybe after he is elected he'll open the gate. One thing keeps disturbing me though. You would think as smart as he is and as smart as some of his supporters are that he should have addressed all of the issues from day one because it was always very unlikely that he was going to win so why not use the campaign to focus the world's attention on something that is the lever for all of the rising fascism of the day?
Dennis Kucinich presented himself as a knight in shining armor defending the honor of the American people. You can't just put on your metal suit and go out and have a few practice rounds with sword and mace and then say, "Man, I'm tired, I'm going back to the clubhouse." I was always leery of him and that's been cleared up now.
When Paleolithic Barbie Doll,, Nancy Pelosi slid into the speaker seat one of the first things she said was impeachment was off the table. Wouldn't you think that members of the Democratic leadership would know more about what's been going on the last seven years than I do? It appears not. I don't think in all of American history that there has ever been a more damning case for indictment than this. The crimes of this administration would make Stalin proud; given that it was visited upon a people considered the freest in the world and given that Stalin's weren't free to begin with.
So it goes without saying or it should go without saying that there is a mystery here when a tractor trailer load of skunks collides with a sewage tanker on Main Street and nobody smells anything.
Somebody is putting on the long arm. Something is pressing closer and closer to some Big Kahuna of an event that's connected to a row of dominoes. In the Rand Corporation they've bio-engineered an Archduke Ferdinand and as we speak stage hands are guiding him to the podium. Because look at the progression. Look at the quiet bowing out and the careful stepping back from every opportunity to speak truth to power.
Scan if you will the ranks of entertainers of every stripe with name recognition; scan the religious world, scan the scientific world, scan the political world, scan all the worlds and what do you find? Sometimes you find silence. Sometimes you find smirking contempt. Sometimes you find that evasiveness usually born of fear. Sometimes you find indifference and sometimes hostility but seldom do you find the natural indignation that should be the first response of any human being at the evils practiced upon a nation from 9/11 until the present day.
It falls to the bloggers and independent news sites alone to carry the standard. Is anyone, anywhere else saying anything at all? Maybe I'm just not seeing it. I want to.
Is my reasoning faulty? You see, I'm drawing the evidence upon which I base my conclusions from actual recorded events. I look at the PNAC manifesto and then I see 9/11. Then I see major inconsistencies in the 9/11 story. Then I look at cui bono. Then I look at the likely suspects who also have left enormous pecker tracks across the crime scene. I've tracked Bin Laden's history and associates. I know he's dead. I've looked at the increasingly draconian measures taken against the ordinary citizen and the blatant manipulation of fear for profit. I've looked at the wars and the lies and the "step by step, inch by inch" all the way to "Niagara Falls!"
Meanwhile I have studied our leaders in every field and what they have said and done in these years. I've compared that against events and I've compared events against their words and deeds and lack of words and deeds. It's like I went to sleep one night and much of the worlds people were replaced by Stepford Wives. This fear of standing forth and speaking the truth isn't anyone going to come forward and tell us what they were threatened with?
By now there can no longer be any question that there is a group of temporally powerful people who fancy themselves a global elite who are, in reality blood sucking weasels that hide from the light. See, I'm not afraid to say it. Why should people far better placed than me be afraid? Is it because of the placement? Do they fear the loss of their job or their income? Is this more important than their integrity and honor? Did they have none to begin with? I don't know about you but I wouldn't sell my ass to a master who held me in contempt just so I could continue working for him. And by the way a lot of us see this you sad fools. You can prance around in your appearances of fame and power and wealth but we know you are bought and sold like cattle. It must be a bitter pill to trade all that makes you human for a cruise through the wreckage. We may not have much but we are richer than you will ever be. We still have our souls and our humanity.
I wish someone could explain to me what it is that made being a a job market plus and a social climbing accessory. Sometimes I am thinking that this is the very generation of vipers spoken about in that book that's utilized as a baseball bat with nails studding the head.
I wouldn't be much surprised by anything now. The one thing I do know is that no matter how bad it gets these blood sucking weasels will fail and when they go down so will all of their ticks and fleas and sycophants. You can't kill the human spirit. It will come back. There is something unquenchable within it. Call it what you will. These are quite simply dark times, but we carry our light with us.
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A Parent's Guide to Satanic Cult Ritual Abuse
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Posted:Feb 8, 2008 12:17 pm
Last Updated:Feb 25, 2008 8:44 pm
2134 Views
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Your comes home late every night. It has developed a curious habit lately of listening to heavy metal rock music. It no longer pays you any attention. It seems preoccupied. It spends more and more of its time away from home. You suspect that your is experimenting with drugs. What can a parent do?
Like millions of other American youths, your has most likely joined a Satanic cult. Though you may be shocked when you realize the truth, it is important to bear in mind that all teenagers at one time or another join cults. It's something that most parents don't want to face or deal with, so they try to ignore it. Discussing Devil worship with your can be almost as awkward as trying to talk about sex.
Now that you run the risk of losing your to a cult, how do you go about turning its interest back to the home and family? The answer is simple. tend to look elsewhere for things that are lacking in their own lives. If your youngster is attending rituals with strangers, it is because you are not providing what your needs.
Satanic cult ritual abuse should begin at home, with the family. While you and your spouse have been secretly worshipping Satan in the privacy of your bedroom, you should have been sharing this intimate ritual with your . want and need to be involved in abusive rituals to create bonds between other family members that are strong and lasting.
Now that you know what you need to do, where do you begin?
WHY FORM A CULT?
By and large, the main reason your should worship the Devil is to help them develop Multiple Personality Disorders (MPDs). These are very special traits that most need and most likely will not receive in school. The more you tear away at a 's self image, the stronger it becomes. A can only develop healthy MPDs after experiencing years and years of cult abuse. Remember the first time your parents abused you during a Satanic ritual? Remember how good it felt?
THE DISCUSSION
Choosing the right time to speak with your is very important. Probably the best time for a discussion is when your urgently needs to use the restroom. Sit it down and tell it that it can take care of its needs after you have a little chat. Abruptly slap the in the face and tell it that it will not be allowed to leave the house at night anymore. If the puts up a fight, slap it harder. Do not allow the to go to the bathroom until it agrees to your demands.
When it returns from the restroom, tell your that it will be required to attend Satanic cult rituals with the family beginning the following day after supper. Slap the again and send it to bed.
WHY PRACTICE RITUALS?
Torture and pain release energy into the family circle and increase the spiritual power of the individuals. Rituals must be precisely completed as prescribed to prevent the wrath of Satan and his demons. The main reason for participation in rituals is to destroy self esteem and self confidence. Therefore, if anyone complains that the rituals make them feel bad, tell them that this is exactly how they are supposed to feel.
Ritual #1: Testing the Feces
On the first night, the family sits in a circle around a fire in the living room. One by one, each person stands and defecates onto a paper plate. After each family member has done their "duty", the plates are passed around the circle for inspection and testing. Testing is accomplished by placing a tablespoon of the feces on the back of the tongue. Explain to your that they are eating pieces of Satan's body and that this is an honor. Should they be hesitant to taste the "food", threaten them by telling them they will be forced to go to church the following Sunday. This will prompt most to immediately obey any command.
During this ritual, the family should openly discuss their feelings. Ask your to express any visual imagery they might be experiencing. After all the feces have been tested, throw them on the fire. The family should then say goodnight and retire for the evening.
Ritual #2: Mommy Gets Tubed
Begin the second night's ritual by saying a short prayer to the Devil. The mother's body is then suspended naked from the ceiling. The other family members take turns inserting tubes into the ears, nose, mouth, barnhole, and mystery hole of the mother. Once the tubes have been inserted, each person takes turns pouring liquids into the tubes to see what effect they have. Try using bleach, paint remover, insecticide, weed killer, or battery acid. Be creative. Mom will be sure to let you know how she feels by making funny faces and by creating some intriguing sounds.
After she has been sufficiently tested, the remaining family members take turns lashing at Mom with a metal rod. After she has been properly beaten, put Mom to bed so that she may recover for the next night's ritual.
Ritual #3: Sacrificing the Dog
As you and your should already know, any that is truly loyal is a that must be sacrificed. Begin by petting your furry trusting friend and giving him some treats. Then have the youngest family member nail the dog's feet to the floor. Do not bind the snout of the dog. The must be allowed to sing about its pain. Each person then takes part in removing the dog's skin, taking care not to burst any main arteries. The must remain alive during the skinning. Once the has been skinned, twenty thick needles are inserted through its muscle tissue. The dog's urgent, strained cries are heavenly music to Satan's delicate ears.
After it has been Tortured for a minimum of 90 minutes, throw the on the fire and do some serious chanting. When it stops breathing, the ritual is over. The family can now begin discussing what kind of they want next.
Ritual #4: Sister Has a "Baby"
Your has made a serious error in judgment and tonight she must pay. She allowed herself to be impregnated by a black man, and this mistake must now be corrected. Have your tie his sister securely to the dining room table with heavy rope. Each family member then lights a black candle and drips hot wax onto the 's breasts and eyelids. In this particular ritual, the 's mouth should be taped so that she cannot make any sound. This is her punishment for making such a bad mistake. The mock abortion then begins.
The mother lifts the 's skirt and pretends to remove a large lizard from her barnhole. As soon as the lizard has been "born", it is sliced in half and eaten. Next, the father pulls slugs from underneath the 's dress as if she were "having" them. The then pulls live pig embryos from the 's mystery hole that were inserted prior to the ritual. If all goes according to plan, the embryos will now float in a circle over the 's head chanting familiar nursery rhymes.
All the family members then ridicule the by telling her how ugly her barnhole is. They take turns making lacerations in her abdomen. The is then untied and told that she is now healthy.
Ritual #5: Like Father, Like
Women can never worship Satan properly until they understand what makes men tick. This ritual begins with the mother and showing homosexual porn videos to the father and brother. As the men become aroused, they remove their clothing and stand naked before the women. The father and then perform mutually until they reach orgasm. As their seed falls to the floor, the women must catch it in little glass vials.
The vials are then heated over an open fire. As soon as the semen boils, LSD is added to it. Each family member then ingests a small amount of the mixture. Once everyone is tripping, the family takes turns branding each other with a hot cattle prod. Remember...any pain that may be experienced is imaginary. The ritual ends with the family playing "Jingle Jangle" on kazoos.
Ritual #6: Beating the Hell Out of Each Other
The sixth ritual is relatively simple. After donning black gowns and meditating for a few moments, the family simply tries to kill one another. In this ritual, anything is game. Individuals may use knives, sticks, bats, or anything they deem will be useful to them to adequately injure other family members. The only stipulation during this ritual is that each individual must yell "Satan is Lord" prior to delivering any cuts or blows.
After everyone has been cut up and beaten, any and all blood must be drained into a large aluminum bucket. Once the bucket is full, each person urinates into it. Thus endeth ritual number six.
Ritual #7: Having Friends Over to Play
At this point, your may complain that they are never allowed to have friends over. This is a good time to tell them that they can have a female friend over to join in tonight's ritual. Have your tell the friend to arrive after dark. Prior to the girl's arrival, a small isolation pit should be dug in the back yard, out of the sight of neighbors. When the friend arrives, her tongue is severed and she is thrown into the pit. This ritual is ongoing, as the girl is slowly and methodically starved and Tortured. Urine and blood saved from the prior ritual should be lightly sprinkled onto the girl each morning. All family members are invited to creatively abuse the girl at least once daily. Some families claim that after they get used to the new pet, they never even want another dog.
DETERMINING THE RESULTS
If you've performed these rituals correctly, your will be permanently affected. The things your should have learned are: (1) obedience, (2) the importance of listening to others, (3) respect for parents, (4) how to play a kazoo, and (5) the difference between right and wrong.
The next time you think about going out for dinner or to a movie, perform a Satanic ritual instead. You'll not only save your family money...you'll save their souls as well.
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When the Law makes you an Outlaw.
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Posted:Feb 8, 2008 11:35 am
Last Updated:Feb 8, 2008 3:10 pm
1960 Views
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We've got a lot of things in the windshield these days; the 2008 'funny money' election, the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Palestinian genocide, the Washington/Tel Aviv fife and drum clubs rendition of "Bomb Iran"each day's avalanche of the same old lies collapsing downhill like one of the flaming dumps giving way outside of Manila, the endless spatter of revelations raining down which are ignored by everyone with any power to do anything about them. The information and events bleed through the side vents of the ride to nowhere. The gas gauge reads empty but the porcine clowns jammed into the vehicle are passing around the whiskey bottle and giving the nation the finger and the crowd? The crowd loves it.
The news of every day could be the news of any day. Whats happening and what gets reported are on separate planets. It's as if we are looking at a simulated ocean and watching the waves of collective emotion rise and fall according to the whim of whoever is controlling the oscillations; as in the present electoral circus. The ocean isn't real, the feelings aren't real. It's just another distraction to pass the time as the real world gets shaped by unseen hands behind the fabricated scenery. At some point the curtains part and you finally see what all the mis-direction was about but you can't do anything now.
It makes me think about the advice you get from your parents and your teachers and how that corresponds to your parent's actual behavior and what you actually encountered on the streets in real time. It's no wonder everyone is schizophrenic. It's no wonder ambivalence is the norm or that not knowing whether to shit or go blind has resulted in both. It's no wonder everyone is guilty and impotent and looking for a dark place to hide. Is this how it ends? with everyone disappearing up their own assholes?
One thing makes your world sane and safe; if we look at it in a strictly temporal way. One thing sets order and continuity and provides for common themes of understanding and well being. One thing is responsible for whether you can pursue your dreams or live in fear of them never coming true. That thing is your laws. Unless you are living in the wilderness with the rare capacity for self sufficiency,as I do, you are living in a society among your fellows and subject to the patterns that regulate the flow of manifest existence.
At the highest point of metaphysical awareness there are laws. In the operation of the forces of nature there are laws. All religions have their purported laws of the divine that are set forth to regulate human conduct with the intention of enforcing and maintaining harmony among those who are the living representations of their time.
What made America a fantastic experiment was her laws. It wasn't just the laws themselves but also the ideas that the laws were constructed to protect. Individual rights were of paramount concern and within the parameters of what the laws permit it was possible for the individual to have the opportunity to enjoy and express freely, to achieve whatever the imagination could envision and thereby was a nation made great.
They had a good system. It was supposed to provide 'checks and balances' that was the idea. If those entrusted with the administration of this system had been honest men and women then all would have been and still would be, well. Alas human nature is a fickle thing and that is why there are laws to circumscribe its weaknesses and excesses. Round and round it goes a good system flawed administrators lawyers lobbyists corporations and banks.
The Founding Fathers were a wise group insofar as their admonitions and efforts show at the birth of the nation. One has only to read Jefferson and Adams and Franklin among others to see that they were aware of the scams past, present and pending. Their commentaries on a central banking system; the potential for tyranny, corruption, the annotation of laws to the advantage of the predators tell us much of what was in their minds. They knew all about it and they warned the citizenry in many ways. They saw to the protection of individual rights and the system itself. They saw to the process of perpetuation and reminded us of the necessity for eternal vigilance.
The idea of the Federal Reserve is anathema to any true patriot or anyone desiring to live in a free nation. What happens when private banks- masquerading by title as a federal agency- are given the right to print money out of thin air and then lend it out at their whim for interest? Do I have to detail the obvious here? I don't think so.
What happens when the laws which are the cornerstone of your freedom and security are treated like Leggo blocks by those empowered to do so through the machinations of lawyers? Why were there anti-trust laws; laws about monopolies and a free press? These laws 'were' in place to protect against the dark side of human nature. Without the power of inflexible law representative of basic ideals you are a victim and a food source.
The power to force a nation's people into debt is tantamount to legalizing slavery. We have seen this at work in Third World debt which is the medium by which resources are stolen and always by the agency of corrupt leaders who bypass their own laws.
This is why this present administration has been so busy in the area of changing the laws. The law is your protection until until it becomes your persecutor and slave master. Round and round it goes. It is one of life's ironies that whatever something is founded on it will eventually turn into it's opposite unless militated against; freedom into tyranny.
Debt compels those in debt to turn the wheel of industry which fills the coffers of those who put you into debt by lending you money that they created like a product placed on a shelf which you purchase at further profit to them. There are other methods applied as well but this is the heart of it. Debt has the power to still one's conscience and one's tongue. No one wants to be living beneath a highway underpass.
The tactics used are not new tactics. The most certain way to enslave a nation's people is to convince them they are in danger of a fabricated external threat and that their laws must be changed to grant the government the power to protect them from something that doesn't exist. It's the government that they need protection from. The banking games, the control of news and information, the trivialization of human dignity are all ancient devices. There's nothing new here and there is nothing new in what happens to you when you go along with the program.
Bad things have been happening in America for a long time. Yet, always there was the constitution and the laws which could be used to correct the nation's course. You may not want to see what is and has been happening. You may think it's all just going to fix itself when the tables are turned and the same people are still sitting there. You may wish in one hand and shit in the other. The result is a product of simple math.
You must resist by stepping away from the smoke machine and ceasing to contribute to the process that keeps the goblins in power. Without your participation there is no product. Until the people realize what is happening it will go on happening. Sooner or later conditions will become so bad that you will have no choice. It is far better to act before that time.
Everything that happens is due to what the laws permit. Corporations must be restrained. It is their nature to evolve into huge devouring beasts. Foreign interests, lobbyists and lawyers must all be restrained by the force of law. They will not restrain themselves. When a handful of people want control over the whole world and an even greater percentage of wealth than they have already, who do you think that control is over and from whom is that wealth to be taken? Think about it.
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Now it's Time to Hang the Rest of Them.
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Posted:Feb 7, 2008 1:12 pm
Last Updated:Feb 8, 2008 7:43 am
2121 Views
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Well, we didn't do much about Pol Pot, except to support his admission into the U.N. as the legitimate representative of the Cambodian people. We didn't do much about Idi Amin as he wandered the Saudi Arabian desert in his exile, no doubt his slippers and his pipe awaited him each evening as the sun went down.
We didn't do anything about Rwanda. We haven't done anything about the Janjaweed in the Sudan. We don't much give a shit about the Falun Gong or Tibet. Something happened in Armenia or maybe it didn't according to the Turks. There's a weird irony in that given their cozy buddy-up with the Israelis but that goes way back to the time when the Turks were Khazars. Still, history has no meaning except in terms of the versions accepted to justify the acts that follow.
Saddam was one of the good guys until he wasn't and then he became one of the bad guys. In terms of behavior and intent he is indistinguishable from the rulers of most Arab countries. Unfortunately for him his profile was too high in the way that John Gotti's profile was too high. Both of these men had an undesirable maverick streak which put them at odds with the Pirate kings at the great table of international swag. Really, when you think about it, it was just another gangland slaying. The Bush Crime family couldn't get him to 'come to the table for a sit down'.
So they hung Saddam and you got to admit he went like a man. You could imagine g.w.b. being led to the gallows with a full body trembling and a wet stain at the crotch. The whole gang of them; the mass murders that comprise the administration of the Bush Crime Family and their puppet-master neo-cons and their overlords in Israel. Could you imagine these going to their much deserved fate with half the sand of Saddam? Not likely.
In the scheme of things this group of gangsters deserves the gallows more than Saddam. He only did what rulers in that area always do. Strongman rule requires the pacification of various elements at one time or another in whatever scorpion infested wilderness they reign over. It's how it is done. It doesn't 'get done' any other way. It's being done the same way in Arab nations across the board. You'd be justified in charging a store owner for having loss leaders to get you into their place by the same token. It's how it is done. This is known as business as usual.
Saddam shouldn't have been hanged. He should have gone into exile which is what all of them do. Where's that guy from Zaire now? Where are all the others from their African nations? Where is Baby Doc? On the Riviera last I heard. He and his wife murdered an unbaptized infant on their bed before they left to put bad mojo on whoever was going to be the new occupant. Nobody cared. Few of us even heard about it.
How about Pinochet? What about Kissinger? No, life isn't fair. But according to the rules in play Saddam should not have been hanged. Elsewise they all should and the sooner the better.
I'm against capital punishment for reasons too numerous to get into. I'm against war for that matter because it is always drummed up by an interested party of business folk who want to profit from both sides of the conflict. It's in London, Washington D.C. and Tel Aviv where these decisions are made. War seldom has anything to do with the reasons given. They are about the advancement of commercial interests. Sometimes they are about wiping people out but the commercial interests are still there.
It's really about people being stupid. The process of dumbing down over the last two decades has been very effective. Making borderline intellects even stupider than they were ensures a pool of canon fodder and election supporters for any venture, no matter how crass, no mater how venal, no matter what. It can be analyzed and justified, easiest thing in the world.
You take the entertainment industries and you make the performers as trivial and empty as possible. You pump cotton candy into the vacant attics of their minds like your present day pop stars. You filter in the necessary drugs and alcohol. You reduce language comprehension in the schools and you encourage a materialistic commonality in the people. Conversely you manifest religious fundamentalism in opposition to the apparent hedonism of the youth and the entertainment industries output as you pander to the fear of the parents and you get what you get; what you got now and both of these seemingly disparate entities are created and manipulated by the same interests. Fools can't see it and you got plenty of those.
For some of the sheep it caters to vague ideals and aspirations that they have imperfectly formulated in their minds. For some it comes after their strong appetites. For some it plays on their fear. There are a few common denominators that always come into play, whether it is 'bread and circuses', or the boogeyman, or the girl in the bathing suit next to the bottle of beer or in the black cocktail dress next to the bottle of scotch. It's a time tested formula.
Following this it is necessary to marginalize those who see what is happening and to label them in a negative light as if the truth tellers were agents of the opposition. When I say opposition I mean that which appears to oppose our common opportunity for the good life. The good life wanders further and further away as the few are enriched at the expense of the many and all along the way, those who have had their dreams and opportunities stolen from them applaud the efforts of their slave-masters. It's hard to imagine but you have to remember, a lot of people have little imagination at all and really are not very bright. You can see this if you have the capacity. How many of us would that be?
And for those who can see there remains the threat of being perceived as an enemy of the state. There are a lot of checks and balances for all manner of protest and palpable outrage. There are always the police and the airport checkpoints. It wasn't a bad idea for them to dummy up the 9/11 attacks and the London bombings and blame them on the Scarlet Pimpernel. The minor distraction of terrorism has become much larger than life. Bin Laden might be under the bed or in the closet after all.
If they can hang Saddam they can hang anyone, including you. They make it up as they go along. They got a stable full of whores in the governments of the world and thousands of bully boys with guns and clubs. What are you going to do about it, punk?
Well, even if we never get anywhere. If we cannot turn the tide or reach the common heart it needs to be said. Some are saying it and maybe that will bring some good and maybe it won't. It won't always be this dark and maybe it will get darker but sooner or later the sun is going to come out and each of us has a destiny that is married to our behavior and intentions. Just you go on doing what you do and you will see that, indeed, character may well be fate after all.
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We're In This Together
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Posted:Jan 22, 2008 9:02 am
Last Updated:Feb 8, 2008 11:40 am
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Certain friends believe I'm - well, they seem to believe I'm deranged.
"Animals talk to you?" said one of them recently. "Trees? Coffee makers? Swallow., you're certifiable!"
Hey, for all I know, I am. But if this is crazy, it's a terrific kind of crazy.
Warm.
Fulfilling.
Connected.
Because when you get right down to it, if the world talks to you, and you respond, whatever else may happen in life, the one feeling you're not going to feel is loneliness. Ain't no way Ole Certifiable Swallow. can be alone.Ever.
My most meaningful conversations, other than those with the creatures I love, are with the Wind. When it wants to talk, it blows in from the southeast, sweeping along the valley, through the corral and across the Pembina river to wherever I happen to be standing or sitting, or walking or working, at the time.
And no matter what I'm doing, when I hear the Wind coming I stop and turn to face it. Ever try to make eye contact with the Wind? It's not easy. At times it can sting. But one thing I've learned during my years on this planet is that nothing worth doing is easy. And another thing I've learned is the fact that something's difficult often makes it more fun.
So, when I hear the trees rustling like running water, I smile at my good friend the Wind and say, in the best hermits way, "eh." (If I lived in Toronto I'd probably say, "Yo." Who says I'm not adaptable?)
Yesterday, as I was filling a five-gallon bucket with scratch to take to the chickens, the Wind came up slowly. Kind of wafted over in greeting, bringing with it just the slightest scent of cedar.
"Hey," I said.
"Hey," said the Wind. "I'm bringing some snow. Enough, I think, for the school to enjoy."
"Then I'll enjoy it, too." Then I thought of something else. "Is this an alert? A warning? We going to have a bad storm?"
"Nothing you can't handle." said the wind.
"You always say that."
"Because I know you can handle a lot."
I closed up the big bag of chicken scratch. Set a rock on it to keep it closed. "What else do you know?" I said.
"What do you want to know?" said the Wind.
I considered. Drew myself up bravely. "How about we go for the big one?" I said. "What's the meaning of life?"
The Wind laughed in a flurry. "I've been waiting for you to bring that one up for years. What took you so long My Friend?" said the wind
"I was afraid."
"Of the answer?"
"Of the question," I said, realizing it for the first time. "I was afraid that if I asked, and you couldn't answer, it would prove I was nuts. That I wasn't really talking to the Wind, just to myself. And I couldn't give myself an answer I didn't already know."
"But you ARE talking to yourself," said the Wind. "All of existence is one. Everything's an aspect of that wholeness. It's just that the parts don't necessarily communicate all that well all the time. Talking helps bridge the gulf."
"I didn't know that," I said. "At least, I think I didn't know that."
"Ah, then you must feel a little saner right now."
"Hmm. Guess so. Except that feels kind of crazy, too."
The Wind laughed again. A sudden gust that rattled the door of the shed as I closed it behind me. I started toward the chicken yard. McNugget, the banty rooster, saw me and started crowing. The rest of the brood rushed to the fence, cackling and singing.
"So?" I said to the Wind. "What's the answer? What's the meaning of life?"
I opened the gate carefully, waving the bucket in front of me to keep the pushiest of the chickens from running out. The two youngsters in the crowd, little silkies born last August, pushed right up with the others. "You're pretty brave," I said to them, "now that you don't peep anymore."
"The song is the singer," said the Wind.
"Is that it?" I said. "The meaning of life?"
"Could be," said the Wind.
I went into the henhouse. Dumped the contents of the bucket into the feeder, except for a few handfuls that I scattered before my hungry friends on my way out.
The brood silky cackled a question.
"Could be," I replied.
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I Cannot Yet Skin A Deer
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Posted:Jan 16, 2008 12:43 pm
Last Updated:Feb 27, 2008 2:30 pm
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Are you prepared for the Big Collapse? Peak Oil? Rural life? Can you pickle meat and eat bark?
Rare is the opportunity to use authentic, down 'n' dirty rural survival skills in the city. It's true.
You don't need to know, for example, how to skin a deer or pickle your own asparagus or nurture an understanding of which kind of deadwood is best for cookin' pig snouts over the fire pit, or how to shingle your roof with rocks and clay, or how to dig really large holes in the backyard for long-term storage of winter wheat and dead chickens and hoary annoying relatives.
City-bred skills and intuitions are, to be sure, unique. But there will apparently be very little call, after the Bush-branded apocalypse rains down, for knowledge of which seat in the cafe gets the best Wi-Fi signal or where to find the finest burrito after midnight in the Mission when you are post-coitally blissed and in need of refueling.
Very little call, after the Big Ungodly Crash, for knowledge of where to get the most amazing cheap dim sum, how much the large bottle of Astroglide costs at the local Good Vibrations, or which tiny parking spaces in my girlfriend's neighborhood I can sneak into for emergency booty calls without her uptight neighbors calling Bob's Towing.
This all comes to mind as I realize, with increasing sense of dread and alarm and a weird sense of fatalistic ennui, that if any of the dire prognostications for the world soon comes to pass, if the oil crisis strikes as violently as predicted and/or if the eviscerated U.S. economy spirals us into a new and violent Great Depression 2.0 and/or if BushCo does indeed succeed in bringing the wrath of an angry spiteful homophobic God down upon the swarming gay-lovin' tofu-sucking heathen masses, I might not be as well prepared as I'd like.
I am not at all ready for the big return to the agrarian life, as predicted by the most dire Peak Oil prognosticators. I am not at all ready to have the devastated cities plowed under, so that we may plant crops in the ravaged landscape in a desperate attempt to survive the onslaught of a world without home pizza delivery and without drive-thru dry cleaning and without instant and immediate access to supermarkets with their 47 kinds of pasta and 138 different brands of vodka, not to mention the meaty edible flesh of nearly any animal I wish to custom order from the Williams-Sonoma catalog and have FedExed to me within 24 hours in pretty decorated tins. Mmm, prosciutto.
I have no immediate escape route. I do not have land nearby, in the woods, protected by razor wire and laser fencing and large angry dogs. I do not have some place that has enormous underground tanks of propane and oil and grains and canned tomatoes and frozen elk meat and mountains of small-gauge ammunition and stores of camouflage underwear.
I do not know how to dig a water well. I do not know how to install a septic pump. I know not the best month in which to plant potatoes and corn and peas and opium poppies. I cannot knit blankets or sweaters, much less some nice handmade cozies to protect my Pyrex-glass dildo collection.
I currently own no power tools, save for a single small Black & Decker rechargeable drill which I use, of course, not for building a family shelter out of rusty car hoods and not for remodeling my nonexistent garage so it can support a family of 10 and not for cobbling together a chicken coop from scrap wood and baling wire and mesh, but rather, for hanging bitchin' shelving cubes from West Elm.
Oh, make no mistake, the city offers its own dangers and there are plenty of urban survival skills mandatory for navigating the urban jungle, such as learning how to deftly avoid eye contact with ranting homeless people and how to appear tough and muscular when you walk by those small gangs of slouchy angry hooded dudes who look at you like you're the fish and they're the dynamite.
I know how to calmly pray for a parking space a mile before arrival and which sushi joint has the freshest uni and which coffee shop makes the finest soy mocha. I know when Macy's designer stuff goes on double-markdown and who you have to know to get wholesale designer furniture and which yoga teacher has the best kirtan, and how to get a large leather chair up two flights of narrow Victorian stairs and the best place to have sex in Golden Gate Park.
But alas, this is not nearly enough.
I will, when the devolution comes and oil is $200 a barrel and we are at war with China and the dollar is worth about three cents on the euro, be relying on the talents and largesse of others. I have, for example, a wonderful brother-in-law with his own ranch-compound up near Spokane, well stocked with guns and canned goods and copious hiding spaces, and it is remote and rural and ready to be turned into a guarded inbreeding complex just after BushCo finally mistakes his electric toothbrush for the "nukular" button and hastens the end of the world as we know it, just as the evangelicals are right now pleading.
I have a girlfriend whose sister is a well-trained organic farmer, able to grow an entire meal for 25 in a shoebox, well versed in mulch and compost toilets and soil types and what sort of mushrooms you can and cannot eat when you're out scavenging for scraps among the torched babies and the smoking carcasses and the giant robotic cockroaches.
But I am merely a hanger-on. I am not trained. This much must be admitted: When it comes to Armageddon prep, the red states have us city folk beat. Sure-sure, cities are the cultural and social and economic engines of the nation; sure we have all the Ph.D.s and all the artistic talents and all the book-learnin' and progressive ideas and cool European cars and the good wine and the better sex and the polysyllabic words.
But when the economy collapses and the End is Nigh, well, most of us shall fall by the roadside, begging for scraps from the angry evangelical Idaho potato farmer in the beat-up pickup with the little flags stuck on the bumper, and he shall chortle and spit tobacco through his nine teeth and turn up the James Dobson Christian Family Hour on the AM and drive off toward the mushroom cloud, whistling.
The red states will finally rule the world. They will survive. They know how. They can eat squirrel brains. They can pickle things, including various animal parts. They have been known to marry each other. They can subsist on bad beer and cow pies and stuff they find growing in the rusty tailpipes of old farm equipment. They know how to perform home surgery using only a rusty butter knife and bathroom caulk. They eat mice.
But then again, should this all come to pass and the oil crisis strikes and the economy nose-dives and the cities crumble and our iPod batteries fail and international commerce implodes and we're all rushing back to the farmland to hump hay and steal each others' wives and ogle sheep and rediscover a life that is, all over again, nasty, brutish, and short, well, maybe I will no longer care.
Maybe then it will finally be time to throw in the karmic towel, drink the special Kool-Aid, and let the meek inherit the Earth while the rest of us go to the stars. After all, while I'd actually love to learn to work an organic farm or build a cabin from scratch or learn to distinguish species of trees by examining their leaves and then having sex under their branches, it's just not much fun anymore when we're all out of music and wine and coffee and the entire nation becomes, well, Oklahoma. I mean, what kind of joy is that? And where will I park my Audi?
If this is you? Then all I can say is Lotsaluck
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In Harm's Way
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Posted:Jan 15, 2008 9:09 pm
Last Updated:Feb 2, 2008 1:00 pm
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Everyone in the ordinary world of everyday life in America now, is at extreme risk of very suddenly finding themselves directly "In Harm's Way."
If that sounds over-the-top, then you have not been following what's really going on in the fantastic world of the paranoid United States Congress.
Lately Ron Paul has come under fire for his casual dismissal of "the 911-truthers." His defenders in this case, seem to believe that all that's really at issue is whether or not the Congressman- candidate for president really believes or disbelieves in the government line regarding the events of 911.
However, that is NOT the most dangerous thing that all of us must face in this perhaps overtly-political season. This is about yet another of Mr. Paul's statements: 'I think all Americans should be free to speak their minds,' he said. And therein lies the rub. H.R. 1955 passed the US House of Representatives by a margin of 404 to 6: This is now waiting for the Senate to breeze through their own rubber-stamping of this same legislation.
This Bill has identified and defined "Thought Crimes," and as such will put additional restrictions upon the minds of every citizen and will become the single most damning change in the lives of Americans, since before we became a nation. This goes beyond the stuff of Orwell and his novel "1984." In fact this exceeds anything that any other developed nation has ever thought about imposing on its own people.
So while the events of 911 remain incorrectly investigated: this "new wrinkle" that flies directly in the face of the Bill of Rights, will soon begin to convert the minds of all our citizens into mini-prisons. The effect of all this upon the population cannot be overstated.
Imagine being imprisoned within the confines, not of a physical place from which you might escape; but inside your own mind. This goes beyond nightmare and borders on a surreal experience that could easily destroy the basis for all sanity.
This gentle reader is what we are about to tolerate, if we don't begin to act against this government.
Generally the public has remained on the sidelines throughout this battle between the administration and its critics- but please hear this - this law shall apply to every American, without exception. It is this pending law that is currently awaiting the Senate's vote and that will place every one of us directly, In Harm's Way!
We've already lost our freedom of speech politically: now we're about to lose the freedom to think-critically about any topic that might offend one of the Outlaws, or any division of this Rogue government-and all of this is being done in the name of National SECURITY.
Of course the truth is; this is the latest salvo in the end of our way of life-unless we act to stop this Draconian violation of the most basic right of all people: Namely to be able to think for ourselves, in the privacy of our own minds!
So if you're waiting for Ron Paul or anyone else "to save you" then you are in for a very rude awakening. This political fight, in this election is about whether or not we shall have any right to even think our own private thoughts or to pursue things like the truth behind the events of 911. Once this set of mental shackles are locked in-place, then everything the Outlaws have done to this point, will become irrefutably SECRET.
Is this the kind of country you want to live or die in-because nothing less than that, is riding on how much you do to stop this Senate Bill from being passed. This ought to also be a litmus test for anyone in the presidential campaigns-not just a simple yes or no either. Make them spell out their reasoning, in detail: Because this is truly obscene and the vitality of your life actually does depend upon the specifics of how this issue is finally resolved!
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Stress
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Posted:Jan 15, 2008 10:01 am
Last Updated:May 15, 2024 4:43 pm
1909 Views
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The following was sent to me by a Dear Friend who now lives in Lebanon, she sent it to me on monday just before she posted it in her blog on a slightly more liberal site than this one. It's so nice to share so I thought that I would share the thoughts of One Iraqi woman's view and resolve, however her view reflects the view and resolve of ALL Iraqi's, and why they hate America so much, and also why America will never defeat the Iraqi people without killing each and every last one of them. What a hollow victory.
Westerners and Americans in particular, keep complaining that their lives are so stressful...
They carry their long faces along with their dead end weights, and say " Oh man, the stress..."
They uphold and constantly re-create the same system that makes them stressful...
And if you listen to them close enough,you will realize they are nothing but a bunch of spoiled brats...They are stressed because they have valued "work", above everything else...
They are stressed because they complicate their lives with stupidities and more things to manage...
They are stressed because they have been led to believe that Life owes it to them, that they are entitled simply because they are who they are...
They are stressed because they produce and eat junk. Stop producing the shit and stop eating it and you will not be stressed...
They are stressed because stress becomes their raison d'être, gives them meaning in life...for their lives are so fucking empty of anything substantial...
They RUSH to yoga and meditation classes to de-stress....They work out like addicts at the gym to keep fit so they don't have to be stressed. They run into lousy relationships because they are stressed from being alone...They acquire 20'000 things they do not need, because they are stressed...They work like donkeys so they can make more and buy more so they can become less stressed....
Yet they see none of that....They are just a bunch of whining jerks.
Well I will tell you what real stress is all about you motherfuckers.
Stress is when you have been no with water and no electricity for over 5 years. That is stress.
Stress is when you have no job because some fucking backward retard came and occupied your country, pillaged it and stripped you of your livelihood. That is stress.
Stress is when you run from hospital ward to hospital ward, from prison to prison, from militia to militia looking for your loved one only to recognize them from their teeth fillings in some morgue...That is stress alright.
Stress is when you pack your bags quickly and run to the nearest border only to be asked to return and in the meantime some american western motherfucker has bombed your house into a pile of stones... Yeah, that is stress.
Stress is when you see your family and loved ones dying in front of your eyes and you can't afford to buy them the basic medication to ease their pain...That is stress.
Stress is when your baby girl or baby boy is born looking like fucking Frankenstein, because some american motherfucker who is stressed out bombed your country with D.U.
Stress is when they walk into the middle of the night and you sleep with your clothes on, because you don't want them to see you half naked just in case, when they smash your door down, pull you from your hair or shirt out into the cold and place a sand bang over your fucking head. That is stress.
Stress is when you are a prisoner in your own country by some smelly shit faced, pimpled stinking american who has not even finished high school, and stress is when that same motherfucker you and sodomizes you, tortures you and calls you a dirty Iraqi in your own fucking country...That is stress.
You want to know about stress you pieces of dung, I just gave it to you what stress is all about.
Now, tonight or tomorrow if you collapse from a heart attack because of your stress...you earned it you bunch of criminal bastards.
May you be stressed until you fucking croak, croak once and for all.
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Do you really believe, and why?
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Posted:Jan 10, 2008 6:32 pm
Last Updated:Jan 22, 2008 10:10 am
2023 Views
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Last december a friend sat down with me and he asked me some questions.
he asked me a real stumper: "If you had your way, would there be a god?"
My first thoughts were, Which god? Certainly none I have ever heard of. Also, this likely would be a different world if there was a god. Wanting to avoid those discussions, I told him, "I don't know."
I had never wondered this before. I was raised a Wiccan and trained into magical thinking. However magical thinking is nowhere the same as believing in a Great God. Since then, I have thought about what I might have said, had I the time to think about it.
Of course, at times I think it might be nice to have a benevolent god watching over us. It seems it would be cool if there were no evil in this world (this being the obvious result of it having been created). Sometimes I think it would be great to be able to live forever and to never grow old.
I like to think the soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect his comrades will live again some day. But where, then, would be the glory of his sacrifice? Also, whom would he be saving if we all live again, or live forever?
If there were a benevolent god, would some have special favor in the eyes of the god, and would others be disadvantaged?
Ditto for supernatural powers: would some have them and others not? How would we protect ourselves against forces that were not natural?
We don't get something for nothing today: would that differ if a god existed? If so, where would be accomplishment and ability, and for what would we strive?
No. I cannot think of any advantage involving a god that would not nullify something even more precious to me. This involves, primarily, the fact that in this world, I am an individual organism.
In order to be what I have become, I had to experience years of growing and learning. At times it was painful. In this sense, the mythical Adam and Eve could never have been fully human since they skipped birth and childhood.
No god or psychic can invade or read my thoughts; what goes on in the privacy of my mind is entirely and exclusively mine. Though no doctor can come in and help me, neither can an agent invade me for information I choose not to indulge.
When I do good work, I have a sense of accomplishment. If I do great work, perhaps I will go down in history. Then again, if I do wrong, I am accountable for my misdeeds, and could become infamous. However, I'd never exchange the victory of accomplishment for any forgiveness.
Without gravity* pulling us to earth, mobility would be difficult or impossible. As Immanuel Kant said, "The light dove, cleaving the air in her free flight, and feeling its resistance, might imagine that its flight would be still easier in empty space."
The limitations of our bodies and minds striving against the elements empower us. Fallibility is the very basis for knowledge.
I cannot see it being this way if this were a paradise. The collective organisms of earth have striven against the elements for a few billion years. Only the best have survived to procreate. Like it or not, the real world is the best of all possible worlds.
Now however we are destroying our planet, which is also our only way out of this mess, but do we care? Hell no as we have a God that will bail us out at the last possible moment, well listen up, no free ride no free lunch, it's just all a big shit sandwich and your all going to have to take a bite.
Don't worry about your grandchildren thanks to us there won't be anything left for them except misery and grief, makes yuh feel kinda good now don't it knowing that our greed and disrespect for planet earth has cost so many so damn much.
So sit down stay fat, eat another piece of pie and do fuck all, because thats what we are all really good at, doing NOTHING.
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NH Fails America And it
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Posted:Jan 10, 2008 10:05 am
Last Updated:Jan 16, 2008 8:17 am
2320 Views
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That's just perfect. As the United States careens wildly over the edge of the cliff into national bankruptcy and economic depression by declaring war on its own citizens and their evaporating savings, the people of the state whose motto is "live free or die" have chosen a pair of fascist warmongers to be their ideal presidential candidates. Public education has again delivered the poisoned harvest we were promised.
On this very day we verified from declassified documents that--like the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq--the undeclared Vietnam war was also based on a pack of lies, lies delivered to an easily deceived Congress by a corrupt secretary of defense, Robert McNamara. As a consequence, occupants of the White House, past and present, are responsible for the deaths of millions of innocents in the Far East and the Middle East, including more than 64,000 American soldiers. The elective killing continues even now.
On this very day we learn that the federal government won't investigate an alleged by the military. We are also reminded of five American soldiers who wouldn't stop beating an Iraqi woman until an Iraqi man shot two of the soldiers to death and wounded three. But these are no longer unusual events. This is the nature of your government.
And now, to keep the criminal enterprise known as Israel happy, Americans are asked to believe that three little Iranian speedboats threatened the US Navy and were on the verge of provoking World War III.
We can mark this massive government corruption with soaring costs as $100 per barrel crude oil replaces the recent memory of $10 crude.
Then to meet these emergencies, Americans go to the polls and vote to escalate war and inflation. That's just perfect. Well, they bought the phony stories of 9/11, and reelected criminals to Congress to continue violating their sacred oaths of office; why wouldn't they buy the lies of phony political candidates and the lickspittle media who serve them?
Live free or die. The right decision proved too tough for New Hampshire.
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And Days Of Auld Lang Syne
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Posted:Dec 24, 2007 6:02 am
Last Updated:Jan 11, 2008 10:01 pm
2317 Views
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Soon people will be poised on the edge of 2007 awaiting the "fall of the ball" to mark the beginning of 2008. "Happy New Year" will be shouted from gatherings all over the United States as people hug and kiss friends and strangers alike. The strains of the curious song Auld Lang Syne will echo across the country. Hats and horns and scotch and soda will dot the landscape, as the train of holiday festivities races towards its destination - the New Year.
What all this noise is about? What's the history of the tradition?
Interestingly enough, the first New Year seems to have made its appearance in ancient Babylon and not on January 1st. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (the first day of spring). Celebrating the New Year at springtime seems logical to me. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. The choice of January 1st was purely arbitrary, having no astronomical nor agricultural significance.
Baby New Year as a symbol, was born in Greece around 600 BC. To celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, the Greeks paraded a baby in a basket. It represented the annual rebirth of the god as the spirit of fertility.
The early Catholic Church condemned the holiday as paganism and remained in opposition through the Middle Ages. Ultimately, the popularity of the "birth of the New Year" forced the Church to re-evaluate its position and it succumbed to the pagan influence as Baby New Year was born.
We can thank Robert Burns for the song "Auld Lang Syne" Though early variations were sung prior to 1700, it was Burns who produced the modern rendition. The old tune literally means "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days."
What does the New Year mean to us? Is it merely a time to turn the calendar, have one too many and party hearty? Or, can we find a deeper significance in this ancient ritual. Some would say that this is a time to reflect back upon the past year and make resolutions for the coming one. Interestingly, this tradition too dates back to the early Babylonians. However, their most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.
"Sorry about the tractor. I meant to return it sooner."
Now, there's a resolution I could have kept. It sounds a lot easier than resolving to quit smoking or losing those pesky five pounds.
And so, as 2008 looms on the horizon, and "What Are You Doing New Years?" plays on your radio, what are your plans? Are you going to eat, drink and be merry or are you going to have an introspective relationship with the new birth ?
For me, the choice is obvious. I cannot look at the current world situation apart from myself. I cannot merely hope for a better tomorrow for myself and my loved ones. I will drink from the "cup of kindness" as I contemplate ways to make this world, or at least my corner of it, a better place. The New Year whispers promises of new beginnings; resolutions to extend my boundaries beyond personal comfort into a world that is suffering; a world that is in dire need of rebirth. I invite you to join me. Perhaps we can make a real difference in the year 2008.
Happy New Year.
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America; Decending to 3rd World Status?
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Posted:Dec 21, 2007 11:31 am
Last Updated:Dec 29, 2007 5:53 am
2215 Views
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Good Morning Middle America
This is one of those mornings that I wish I were blissfully ignorant. I find myself understanding far too much about America's precarious condition.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, an Arab investment group, bought a stake in Citibank yesterday. The Chinese, Arabs, East Indians, Japanese et al, loan the US approximately $3 Billion per day in an attempt to keep the US treading water. More than 3 Million jobs have been lost in industry and farming continues it's slide to corporate ownership.
There are between 12 and 15 million known illegals in the U.S.. Medicare is slated to fail within 10 years. Personal savings remain negative for the third consecutive year (never before seen in Amerika's history). The first of 78,000,000 baby boomers become eligible for social security in about a month.
The national debt has increased by 1000% in the last 25 years to $9 Trillion and the US has become the largest debtor nation on earth. Middle America is being selectively wiped out by it's own countries trade policies, and it appears that Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are the candidates Amerika will have to choose from for President. What have they done?
Some how, some way, we have to awaken Middle America; life as we know it for this class of Americans is in the balance. If either of the candidates mentioned above are elected, I truly believe that the US is finished. Neither of them have any intention or any viable plan for saving Middle America. They are totally and completely beholden to special interests…rich special interests.
Many, many years ago a good friend who is very bright and very realistic, explained to me that the U.S. could become a third world economy in the blink of an eye. I wanted to believe that he was crazy; but I knew better.
He explained that once a person loses his or her job, it's a short trip to 3rd world status. That being said, employment then, is all that separates the US from that unfortunate state. That, and the social safety net that currently exists to supposedly create a floor for the level that one could sink.
But wait…who supports that safety net? The remaining job holders; so with no jobs is there a safety net? The short answer is no.
I want you to do something for me. Come on, pacify me for just a moment. I want you to pretend that you are unemployed. Not only unemployed, but unemployable, as in there are no jobs available. How long would it be before you reached third world status?
Don't just dismiss this as,
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