sorry your stuck here in the snow:(

Frank Langella portrayed Nixon. When I heard that he was cast, I thought: "He's too tall, too regal!" But he is what you experienced, a great actor. I don't go to many movies anymore - The Bucket List was the last (Cried my eyes out), but I may go to this. I love to see great acting, in a great story.

Frank did not look much like Nixon, and that was hard to get used to for just a moment. It was like when I went to see the Off-Broadway cast of "Beatlemania" and the Paul was a mexican guy.

Things never change in politics because the controllers behind the scene don't change. Like how the Queen’s Governor General dissolved Canada’s Parliament. That shows who’s in charge! The CEO for the oligarchs has taken the velvet glove off the iron fist. Her next step is to expel elected members if they refuse to go along with her PM. Most Canadians are just waking up to the fact their elected officials are only in an advisory capacity to the nobles. Not much has changed since Runnemede.

Reuters Article

Have you heard the rumor that Bush and Cheney have made plans to live outside the US? Cheney somewhere in the middle east and Bush is supposed to have purchased a large tract of land in South America. Wonder if they took Vincent Bugliosi serious with his book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

I appreciate your review Gary.  Frost/Nixon has been on my list.  I look forward to seeing the movie in the next few days.

Too bad that the murderous Bush will not see the justice he claims to support.

this is ironic you saw this movie now – we were just talking about Washington, DC and the Nixon area the other day. I was a kid when all of this happened – lived Andrews Air Force Base. I remember our trips to DC like they were yesterday. This movie is our list to see too.

My first political memory is driving somewhere with my 7 brothers and sisters and us holding up signs that said "Honk if you want to impeach Nixon"... lots of honks down there in Santa Barbara in the 70's. :)

I was in Santa Barbara late 1969 thru early 1973, joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Had been a combat medic 67-68. Yeah, you could make a case against Richard Nixon but I a weary of this anti-Christ frenzy the last few years, whoever you don't like is the anti-Christ from the dark side: Nixon, Bush, Obama, Reid, Paulson, name your pantheon of demons. Drop a CSI soundtrack behind any film clip for authenticity. Charm bracelets of hateful icons weighing you down? Time to grow up.

Cambodia was a sanctuary for North Vietnamese troops, pure and simple. They could attack US troops and slip back over the border at will. Nixon said he was going to end the war. Surprise: he was going to bomb it out of existence was what he meant. Cambodia had its own version of the Holocaust eventually. Remember? Sorry Gary, I was in the Vietnam War, not the Vietnam Movie. In fact a friend of mine was pretty badly wounded during those border excursions. Cambodia was another leg of the Ho Chi Minh trail. Regardless of how you feel about the war, our present cultural interpretation of that terrible piece of American history is largely in Wilkepedia mode now. Whatever the latest blogger enters into the ledger is truth.

Everybody's out of the house so I logged on. Being that it's Christmas, you're a pretty lucky guy Gary: you got stranded long enough to spend extra time with your dad. I'd love to be able to voice that complaint but my pop is no longer alive. I hope that you and your dad have had a good time together, these times are priceless, original, and nothing can substitute. Hey, not even an electronics sale comes close. With your pop you can talk about things no sane person would ever understand and it's really great. LIttle treasures in your mind, yep, pop's got 'em too. Surprised?

George Eliot once said:

‘Tis God gives skill, but not without men’s hands: He could not make Antonio Stradivarius violins without Antonio…

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything--George Bernard Shaw

Systems of belief can be extremely powerful and dangerous. Living at the beginning of the 21th century, with the realities of terrorism all around us, it is not difficult to see how true that is. Some of those systems are scular and are often fairly recent ideologies--like communism. Others are religious and are the latest movement in what may be extremely long and acient histories; others are mostly new like that from the kkk (Ku Klux Klan) with founder and pastors such as: Don Black - founder of Stormfront and Paul Fromm - Canadian White rights spokesman
Pastor Thomas Robb - nat'l director of The Knights
Rachel Pendergraft - nat'l white rights spokeswoman
Pastor Mark Downey - Kinsman Redeemer Ministries
Pastor Ralph Forbes - Sword of Truth Ministries


by Vickie M. Worsham: it you want true wealth...Remember what is most importantI t's not having everything go right; it's facing whatever goes wrong. It's not being without fear; it's having the determination to go in spite of it. It is not where you stand but the direction you're going in. It's more than never having bad moments; it's knowing you are always bigger than the moment. It's believing you had already been given everything you need to handle life. It's not being able to rid the world of all its injustices; it's being able to rise above them It's the belief in your heart that there will always be more good than bad in the world. Remember to live just this one day and not add tomorrow's troubles to today's load. Remember that every day ends and brings a new tomorrow full of exciting new things. Love what you do, do the best you can, and always remember how much you are loved.

TOP 20 RELIGIONS IN THE USA

Christianity 151,225,000 159,030,000 224,437,959 76.5% +5%
Nonreligious/Secular 13,116,000 27,539,000 38,865,604 13.2% +110%
Judaism 3,137,000 2,831,000 3,995,371 1.3% -10%
Islam 527,000 1,104,000 1,558,068 0.5% +109%
Buddhism 401,000 1,082,000 1,527,019 0.5% +170%
Agnostic 1,186,000 991,000 1,398,592 0.5% -16%
Atheist   902,000 1,272,986 0.4%  
Hinduism 227,000 766,000 1,081,051 0.4% +237%
Unitarian Universalist 502,000 629,000 887,703 0.3% +25%
Wiccan/Pagan/Druid   307,000 433,267 0.1%  
Spiritualist   116,000 163,710 0.05%  
Native American Religion 47,000 103,000 145,363 0.05% +119%
Baha'i 28,000 84,000 118,549 0.04% +200%
New Age 20,000 68,000 95,968 0.03% +240%
Sikhism 13,000 57,000 80,444 0.03% +338%
Scientology 45,000 55,000 77,621 0.02% +22%
Humanist 29,000 49,000 69,153 0.02% +69%
Deity (Deist) 6,000 49,000 69,153 0.02% +717%
Taoist 23,000 40,000 56,452 0.02% +74%
Eckankar 18,000 26,000 36,694 0.01% +44%


Marie Curie wrote:

I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy…

Some of our goals are easily attained. Others demand stamina and resourcefulness. And still others require a commitment of long standing, a willingness to postpone gratification, but most of all, an acceptance of possible failure. We can never be certain of a final outcome. We can only be sure of our effort. However, we can be assured that honest effort will allow us to make measurable progress.

Life is a process. We learn and grow and move toward our goals little by little. The choice to quit moving is also available to us. In fact, a breather from the path we are on is occasionally in order. Recommitment is necessary, however, to begin the growth process again.

Charging ahead takes energy--emotional, mental, spiritual, even physical energy. The whole person is involved in the process of growth; our progress is in direct correlation to the process.

Wishart once wrote: To live in dialogue with another is to live twice. Joys are doubled by exchange and burdens are cut in half.


Like Albert Einstein said:

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry, for this delicate little plan, aside from stimulation, stands most in need of freedom, without this it goes to wreck and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.

When higher education results in the rule-oriented rigidity, the primary goal becomes not-to-be-wrong. The fear of being wrong is the prime inhibitor of the CREATIVE PROCESS. Ninety percent of all so-called writer’s blocks come from a FEAR of SELF-EXPOSURE, and most people instinctively know that all writing is a form of self-exposure. Even well defended academic writing exposes that the author is well-defended and academic

Confucianism:
LOVE IS THE FRUIT OF SACRIFICE
WEALTH IS THE FRUIT OF GENEROSITY

Watch your Thoughts. . . . . . .they become Words
Watch your Words . . . . . . . . they become Actions
Watch your Actions  . . . . .  . .they become Habits
Watch your Habits  . . . . . . . .they become Character
Watch your Character . . . . . for it becomes your ‘Destiny’
Frank Outlaw

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong.

We religious controllers control in the name of Jesus and it is really painful to people.
Keith Miller

Why don't the names of Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius offend people? The reason is that these others didn't claim to be God, but Jesus did.
Josh McDowell


Writing about Tao are purposefully obscure. Why? Because writers cherish Tao. The path is difficult to ensure worthiness. The lazy look elsewhere, the persevering find riches.

There was once an eccentric calligrapher who said, “When the ordinary person likes my work, I shudder. If they find me obscure, then I am delighted.”

Writings about Tao are not always easy to understand, Many times in the past, even monks in long training were still helpless to properly interpret the scriptures. Some have therefore accused followers of Tao of being coldly elitist. In fact, those who write about Tao are obscure only because they cherish Tao so much. They only want knowledge of Tao to go to those who will appreciate it. They do not want to pollute Tao by exposing it to the idly curious. If everyone in the world could appreciate Tao, then the knowledge of Tao would be given FREELY!!!

Actually, the masters have already babble away all the secrets. In their compassionate determination to pass on their insights, they have worn themselves out trying to get messages across to us. The secrets of life are already written repeatedly in all the HOLLY BOOKS…
They are only SECRETS because we do not take the time to truly read.
CAN YOU SEE THE JEWELS IN THE MUD?
Deng Mind-Dao


The voice emerges literally from the body as a
representation of our inner world. It carries our
experience from the past, our hopes and fears for the
future, and the emotional resonance of the moment. If
it carries none of these, it must be a masked voice,
and having muted the voice, anyone listening knows
intuitively we are not all there.
David Whyte, The Heart Aroused

people of earth . . .
"Your choice is simple. Join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you."
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951

"The satirist is prevented by repulsion
from gaining a better knowledge of the world
he is attracted to, yet he is forced by attraction
to concern himself with the world that repels him."
Italo Calvino

GOD…He is father. Even more, God is Mother, who does not want to harm us.
---Pope John Paul

Who gives us permission to explore our world? The question implies that the world in fact belongs to someone else. Who gives us permission to communicate what we've experienced, what we believe, what we've discovered of that world for ourselves? The question betokens a history of voice suppressed, of whole cultures that have come to believe only power is sanctioned to speak. Because the ability to speak does involve power. It entails ownership and the control conferred by ownership. As the saying has it: "Money talks, bullshit walks." Most of humanity still lives in this type of scenario, where to ask is illogical, improper and unlawful…God’s gives us permission to be curious, to learn, to speak, to write; we humans have and are still trying to suppress this given birth authority; but it is not working; all human knowledge is more powerful than just quadrillions of possessions and/or money!!!

Freedom of expression may be called out loftily in the U.S. Constitution, but even after two centuries of democracy, it's still a far cry from second nature. Communication is a powerful tool. And like any other powerful tool, it has been pressed into the service of business-as-usual.

A lot of the powerful religious leaders, from Jesus to Buddha to Tibetan monks, they're really talking about the same things: love and acceptable, and the value of friendship, and respecting yourself so you can respect others.
Jena Malone

" What is the most important for democracy
is not that great fortunes should not exist,
but that great fortunes should not
remain in the same hands."
Alexis de Tocqueville


TELEVISION = “TELL A VISION“…THE OLD FASHIONED WAY WAS VIA THE TV…TODAY VISIONS CAN BE TOLD VIA THE INTERNET!!! BUT BEST IF THE VISION OR STORY IS TOLD IN PERSON…

HOW MANY OUT THERE ARE PROMOTING INCORRECT INFORMATION?


We are each other’s business
We are each other’s harvest
We are each other’s magnitude and bond

I am learning that, whatever I decide to do with my life; making money cannot be my intention!!! However, I just learned from a Villanova Priest that, the Catholic Churches are a business and that their profits are much more than that of Wall Mart!!!

The kkk is saying:
Bringing a Message of Hope and Deliverance to White Christian America!
From: www.kkk.bz
We must make our voice heard and get behind National Director Thomas Robb's dream of providing a future for our children and our white brothers and sisters everywhere.
We must take back control of OUR U.S. government. We intend to put Klansmen and Klanswomen in office all the way from the local school board to the White House!
WHAT IS OUR GOAL ?
POLITICAL POWER
We emphasize ONE requirement for every person who decides to associate with The Knights, and that is that they conduct themselves with Christian character. We want our Klansmen and Klanswomen to live their lives as honorable, decent, dignified white people.
That is the ONLY requirement we have. Everything else is of a voluntary nature.

Become the leader of the White racialist movement
You can continue to read more on their website!!!

The administration of the vast colonies was placed in the hands of nationals of the European empires. These administrators were rewarded estates for their efforts, and naturally inheritance rights became a significant issue. As a male may have multiple children with multiple women, the rights of these apparent heirs have to be defined, particularly when some of the mothers were not pure Europeans. Under Spanish rule, the following detailed caste system was instituted in Mexico at one time.

Mestizo: Spanish father and Indian mother
Castizo: Spanish father and Mestizo mother
Espomolo: Spanish mother and Castizo father
Mulatto: Spanish and black African
Moor: Spanish and Mulatto
Albino: Spanish father and Moor mother
Throwback: Spanish father and Albino mother
Wolf: Throwback father and Indian mother
Zambiago: Wolf father and Indian mother
Cambujo: Zambiago father and Indian mother
Alvarazado: Cambujo father and Mulatto mother
Borquino: Alvarazado father and Mulatto mother
Coyote: Borquino father and Mulatto mother
Chamizo: Coyote father and Mulatto mother
Coyote-Mestizo: Cahmizo father and Mestizo mother
Ahi Tan Estas: Coyote-Mestizo father and Mulatto mother

To us, this does seem to be a obsessive-compulsive behavior of an extreme sort. Today, the overt caste systems have been overturned by legislation, but that does not mean that social prejudices and economic exploitation are not present. Even though overt racial oppression is no longer permissible by law, people may still hold personal opinions about members of other races based upon preconceived notions.

Now much of this is premised upon one's ability to classify people into the appropriate racial categories based upon physical appearances. Unfortunately, this is difficult as there is not a clear-cut situation when any individual can be unambiguously classified into one (and only one) of a short list of racial classes. A simple classification scheme based upon color --- white, black, brown and yellow --- ignores the various shades.

One way to derive a classification system is through self-definition, which presumably applies to others too.

In 1976, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) conducted a study to ask people to identify their own skin color. Here are the 134 terms, listed in alphabetical order:
Acastanhada (cashewlike tint; caramel colored)
Agalegada
Alva (pure white)
Alva-escura (dark or off-white)
Alverenta (or aliviero, "shadow in the water")
Alvarinta (tinted or bleached white)
Alva-rosada (or jamote, roseate, white with pink highlights)
Alvinha (bleached; white-washed)
Amarela (yellow)
Amarelada (yellowish)
Amarela-quemada (burnt yellow or ochre)
Amarelosa (yellowed)
Amorenada (tannish)
Avermelhada (reddish, with blood vessels showing through the skin)
Azul (bluish)
Azul-marinho (deep bluish)
Baiano (ebony)
Bem-branca (very white)
Bem-clara (translucent)
Bem-morena (very dusky)
Branca (white)
Branca-avermelhada (peach white)
Branca-melada (honey toned)
Branca-morena (darkish white)
Branca-pálida (pallid)
Branca-queimada (sunburned white)
Branca-sardenta (white with brown spots)
Branca-suja (dirty white)
Branquiça (a white variation)
Branquinha (whitish)
Bronze (bronze)
Bronzeada (bronzed tan)
Bugrezinha-escura (Indian characteristics)
Burro-quanto-foge ("burro running away," implying racial mixture of unknown origin)
Cabocla (mixture of white, Negro and Indian)
Cabo-Verde (black; Cape Verdean)
Café (coffee)
Café-com-leite (coffee with milk)
Canela (cinnamon)
Canelada (tawny)
Castão (thistle colored)
Castanha (cashew)
Castanha-clara (clear, cashewlike)
Castanha-escura (dark, cashewlike)
Chocolate (chocolate brown)
Clara (light)
Clarinha (very light)
Cobre (copper hued)
Corado (ruddy)
Cor-de-café (tint of coffee)
Cor-de-canela (tint of cinnamon)
Cor-de-cuia (tea colored)
Cor-de-leite (milky)
Cor-de-oro (golden)
Cor-de-rosa (pink)
Cor-firma ("no doubt about it")
Crioula (little servant or slave; African)
Encerada (waxy)
Enxofrada (pallid yellow; jaundiced)
Esbranquecimento (mostly white)
Escura (dark)
Escurinha (semidark)
Fogoio (florid; flushed)
Galega (see agalegada above)
Galegada (see agalegada above)
Jambo (like a fruit the deep-red color of a blood orange)
Laranja (orange)
Lilás (lily)
Loira (blond hair and white skin)
Loira-clara (pale blond)
Loura (blond)
Lourinha (flaxen)
Malaia (from Malabar)
Marinheira (dark greyish)
Marrom (brown)
Meio-amerela (mid-yellow)
Meio-branca (mid-white)
Meio-morena (mid-tan)
Meio-preta (mid-Negro)
Melada (honey colored)
Mestiça (mixture of white and Indian)
Miscigenação (mixed --- literally "miscegenated")
Mista (mixed)
Morena (tan)
Morena-bem-chegada (very tan)
Morena-bronzeada (bronzed tan)
Morena-canelada (cinnamonlike brunette)
Morena-castanha (cashewlike tan)
Morena clara (light tan)
Morena-cor-de-canela (cinnamon-hued brunette)
Morena-jambo (dark red)
Morenada (mocha)
Morena-escura (dark tan)
Morena-fechada (very dark, almost mulatta)
Morenão (very dusky tan)
Morena-parda (brown-hued tan)
Morena-roxa (purplish-tan)
Morena-ruiva (reddish-tan)
Morena-trigueira (wheat colored)
Moreninha (toffeelike)
Mulatta (mixture of white and Negro)
Mulatinha (lighter-skinned white-Negro)
Negra (negro)
Negrota (Negro with a corpulent vody)
Pálida (pale)
Paraíba (like the color of marupa wood)
Parda (dark brown)
Parda-clara (lighter-skinned person of mixed race)
Polaca (Polish features; prostitute)
Pouco-clara (not very clear)
Pouco-morena (dusky)
Preta (black)
Pretinha (black of a lighter hue)
Puxa-para-branca (more like a white than a mulatta)
Quase-negra (almost Negro)
Queimada (burnt)
Queimada-de-praia (suntanned)
Queimada-de-sol (sunburned)
Regular (regular; nondescript)
Retinta ("layered" dark skin)
Rosa (roseate)
Rosada (high pink)
Rosa-queimada (burnished rose)
Roxa (purplish)
Ruiva (strawberry blond)
Russo (Russian; see also polaca)
Sapecada (burnished red)
Sarará (mulatta with reddish kinky hair, aquiline nose)
Saraúba (or saraiva: like a white meringue)
Tostada (toasted)
Trigueira (wheat colored)
Turva (opaque)
Verde (greenish)
Vermelha (reddish)

Those who follow Tao declare that there in no evidence that god created our world…(I sometimes say that the word God was created by us humans--the name itself, perhaps is a deritive of Good; but like you know, many have given thousands of names in order to describe a creator of the Universe, yet, none of us, know for sure the proper name), They have not found any empirical proof, and they cannot accept the idea philosophically. They reason that god mus be ABSOLUTE and this means ONENESS, OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, AND OMNIPRESENCE. Naturally, anything separate and distinct would not satisfy this criteria. If there was a god and a world god created, then there would be two things--and god could not then be considered absolute. If there were and absolute god, there could not be anything separate from god.

EVERYTHING IS GOD…(we don’t have to separate the entire Universe and ourselves--why should we? Are we more special than the stars, the moon and the sun? Are we more important than the element of Planet Earth such as O2 and the rest? Are we more special than other animal forms, the cloulds, the water, the cosmos? We are really very insignificant when it comes down to the capacity of the earth to keep us alive via photosynthesis and the like!!! Not that the planet and the Universe are more important and special than us but it is all equally important!!! Without O2 we all die…without other animal forms, we die…without trees we could not make paper or money!!! And the list is indefinite!!! We are also god (god does not want to be more powerful than us--we don’t need to be more powerful than him or others, including the Universe)

However, we fail to realize this. Why? Because we look for god outside of ourselves. We make te mistake of taking ourselves as the viewer and then seek god as the object of our examinations. Unfortunatelly, everything that we define as god “out there” cannot be god because it is not absolute. All you’ve found is something that exists in relation to your perception.

You are god. The only way to confirm this is to remove the barrier of subjectivity that prevents you from realizing your essential oneness with all things…

We call him, her, it God because we need a word in order to describe it in human terms but it‘s true name in nothing or oneness or universality or perhaps we just don‘t know the name as of yet; maybe, Buddha or Tao or again just nothing since he is the entire Universe, you and me and all that exists…white is just another word…

Many different factors have been cited to explain why poverty occurs. However, no single explanation has gained universal acceptance.

Poverty is deprivation of those things that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, but also such "intangibles" as the opportunity to learn, to engage in meaningful employment, and to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. Ongoing debates over causes, effects and best ways to measure poverty, directly influence the design and implementation of poverty reduction programs and are therefore relevant to the fields of international development and public administration.
Although poverty is generally considered to be undesirable due to the pain and suffering it may cause, in certain spiritual contexts "voluntary poverty," involving the renunciation of material goods, is seen by some as virtuous.
Poverty may affect individuals or groups, and is not confined to the developing nations Poverty in developed countries is manifest in a set of social problems including homelessness and the persistence of "ghetto" housing clusters.

My vision is that perhaps or maybe for sure, God’s divine plan is good…what we see as evil is not really evil. Rather, it’s part of a divine design that is actually good. Our limitations prevents us from seeing the larger picture--and when we think we know the real picture; then, we start fighting and killing one another because of our different beliefs--but we don’t truly know exactly what God’s plans are…certainly God envisions more than we do!!!

Whenever one speaks with ABSOLUTE authority about something that one cannot prove, the decision to speak with such authority means that one is ready to live as a liar. It seems that Christianity, because of its determination to be wholly authorities, was able ultimately to create huge societies. Now, these huge societies work by half, and by half they fail. Certaintly, for centuries they functioned well enough to limp along philosophically full of unanswerable questions, hideous inequalities, and clouds of mendacity, ready to sweep all unanswerable questions under a rug of ABSOLUTE FAITH--

And, I am still using my personal faith to my own advantage knowing that all in the end will be fine…that we, humans will be able to unite the entire world so that we can all find the prosperity many humans have talked about in the past and are talking in today’s present!!!

My faith in humanity is very powerful--my faith in the Universe as powerful--my faith in the existence of a divine and holy creator is even more powerful!!!

Humanity is just to young to handle all that it is required in order to all become true brothers and sisters, thus, a real FAMILY!!! But, at least we all now know what to do in order to get that destination!!!

The beauty of Christ--what Christ was saying to all of us--is that the POOR HAVE MUCH REASON TO EXIST AS THE WEALTHY.

As you know, once there were Gnostics yet since the people of that time thought of this as been an inferior religions many opt to go with Christianity and should there be a debate, it was to be resolved by the SUPREME leaders of the Church!!!

So, who is White America--Aren’t we all a melting pot--did the Africans wanted to be here in America or were they were forced to come here and become slaves? It was not their fault!!! There are blacks here because they came to serve the very first white people that came here from Europe years ago!!!

Barack Obama recently said:
There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. ...I say, we are the HUMAN RACE OF THE WORLD…

What kind of political, economic, social, environmental, global system would God like us to have?
"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human
beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.
Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages
the tormentor, never the tormented."

Elie Wiesel

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

Mahatma Gandhi

"You are a human being. You have rights inherent in that
reality. You have dignity and worth that exists prior to law."

Lyn Beth Neylon, Human Rights USA director

"In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant."

"Then they came for me --- and by that time no one was left to speak up."
German Pastor Martin Niemoller

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am not for others, what am I?
And if not now, when?"

Rabbi Hillel

"All [we are] trying to do is tell America we are not mascots.
We are people of dignity, we are people of character,
we are people of pride."

Billy Mills (Oglala Lakota Sioux), Olympic gold medalist, author, mentor, youth teacher,
speaking about the use of Native-American characterizations as sports team mascots

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean;
if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Where there is love there is life."

Mahatma Gandhi


"Racism is a learned affliction and anything that is learned can be unlearned"

Jane Elliott

According to a person named Deng Ming-Dao

Movement, objects, speech, and words: we communicate through gross symbols. (I added--the way I am writing to you, with this type of Alphabet is not the only form of written communication…it is the way we use our symbols, the same way symbols are used in China, Japan, and other parts of the world we can read and understand this symbols, I cannot understand those of other countries which use different symbols). We call them “objective,” but we cannot escape our point of view.

We cannot communicate directly from mind to mind, and so misinterpretations is a perennial problem. Motions, signs, talking, and the written word are all encumbered by miscommunications. A dozen eyewitnesses to the same event cannot agree on a single account. We may each see something different in cards set up by a circus magician. Therefore, we are forever imprisoned by our subjectivity.

Followers of Tao assert that we know no absolute TRUTH in the world, only varying degrees of AMBIGUITY. Some call this poetry; some call this art. The fact remains that all communication is relative. Those who follow Tao are practical. They know that words are imperfect and therefore give them limited importance. The symbol is not the same as the REALITY.

Gold dawns disk edges purple cliffs. Old woman bends to sweep temple steps. She bathes each stone with loving care. How many worshipers think of her work?

I went at dawn to a magnificent temple. Its architecture was such a supreme expression of the human spirit that it was a treasure. Generations of worshipers had left offerings at the shrines, hundreds of monks had reached their enlightenment on the consecrated grounds, and thousands had been blessed in life and in death in the venerable halls.

Yet my most moving observation was an old woman silently sweeping the steps. Her concentration was perfect. Her devotion was palpable. Her thoroughness was complete. Her uncelebrated act showed a true HOLY SPIRIT.

Later in the day, WEALTHY PEOPLE CAME TO WORSHIP. Children with brightly colored toys ran over the gray stones. The abbot walked to his ceremonies. Monks passed by in silent prayer. Of all who passed, how many were AWARE of the SAINTLY SERVICE that had made their OWN DEVOTION POSSIBLE?

When THE WAY IS ALL WE HAVE TO WALK, THOSE WHO PREPARE THE WAY SHOULD BE TRULY HONORED.

Magic does not work in this new place.  Native poetry has lost rhythm and rhyme, familiar food is labeled a curiosity, and hostile stares replace familiar love.  To be an immigrant is to be solitary in the midst of millions.

Immigrants travel from their native lands for many reasons, but in general, they all involve expectations for a better life.  For this, they risk uncertainty, EXPLOITATION, DISCRIMINATION, HOSTILITY, POVERTY, AND SOMETIMES EVEN SEPARATION FROM FAMILY.

Those who survive develop an inner fortitude and determination that sees them through their suffering.

The preservation of spirituality is as much a concern as anything else.  Spirituality, except in its highest stages, has a definite cultural context.  (There is spirituality that takes its power from the land, culture, and time--that is why most types of magic will not work outside their native lands; there is spirituality that one carries within oneself, and there is a rare spirituality which transcends all time and place.)  Immigrants try either to maintain their native belief or to adopt the beliefs of their host country.  The first option is difficult: They are in a culture incompatible with their native beliefs and will sustain their spirituality only if it was already strongly established.  In the second case, where immigrants adopt the host country's spirituality, they must learn an entirely new system.  In either case, immigrants must cope with the problems of conflict between two cultures, until they reach a spiritual stage where cultural references become meaningless.

According to Nestor Diaz:
"They" are humans too, just like you and me...whether they are German, Jewish, Chinese, African, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Australian, Yellow, Black, White, Caucasian or whatever word one wants to invent in order to describe THE HUMAN RACE!!!  Not too long ago, Indians, where the only humans, here in what we describe as America--a continent composed of SOUTH AMERICA AND NORTH AMERICA...many came, then, and killed tons of Indians; how many Indians do we see today?  Many of the humans that came back then, were not born here in North America, yet, now, all of US are trying to live in this piece of land...therefore, in my opinion, there is no pure American or 100% Caucasian, White, Black, African, Puerto Rican, Italian...THE HUMAN RACE IS BUT A BLEND OF MANY HUMAN RACES FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD!!!

Immigration, is a natural process--just look at the birds of the world and follow their natural destinies, traveling the north, the south, west and east of the entire planet earth, without having to worry that other birds will discriminate against them--and, true, it happens, in some instances, but, they are birsds, we are HUMANS...our brains are a bit more advanced than those of other animals!!!


Weapons are tools of ill omen.  Wielded by the IGNORANT.  If their use is unavoidable, the wise act with restraint.  The greatest sorrow is to be a veteran.  Witness to the ATROCITIES OF HUMANITY...

If you hold a real weapon if your hand, you will feel its character strongly.  It begs to be used.  It is FEARSOME.  Its only purpose is DEATH, and its POWER is not just in the material from which it is made but also from the INTENTIONS OF ITS MAKERS.

It is regrettable that WEAPONS must sometimes be used, but occasionally, SURVIVAL DEMANDS IT.  The wise go forth with weapons, only as a lst resort.  They never REJOICE in THE SKILL OF WEAPONS, nor they GLORIFY WAR.

When DEATH, PAIN, AND DESTRUCTION are visited upon what you HOLD MOST SACRED, the spiritual price IS DEVASTATING.  What hurts more than one's OWN SUFFERING IS BEARING WITNESS TO THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS.  The regret of SEEING HUMAN BEINGS AT THEIR WORST AND THE SHEER PAIN OF NOT BEING ABLE TO HELP THE VICTIMS CAN NEVER BE REDEEMED.   If you go personally to war, you cross the line yourself.  You sacrifice IDEALS FOR SURVIVAL AND THE FURY OF KILLING.  THAT ALTERS YOU FOREVER.  That is why no one rushes to be a VETERAN.  Think before you want to CHANGE SO UNALTERABLY.  The stakes are not merely ONE'S LIFE, BUT ONE'S VERY HUMANITY.

According to Nestor Diaz:

And, we are leaving Iraq to enter Afghanistan, then, what...Russia, Cuba, Korea, Japan...any other countries which do not "THINK" like us--they deserve to die and be KILLED, like humans did years ago to those Indians that were here in America...or the Africans, Vietnamese, Japanese, and others...

Disagreements, conflicts cannot be resolved with weapons by destroying enemies--other human beings...right now, all the Republicans have accomplished with Irak is perhaps a bit of conflict management--things continue to be very chaotic in that region...it is time for a new way of dealing with conflict to emerge--CHANGE--but drastic change--conflict resolution is not the same as conflict management--when one is trying to manage a problem one is allowed under the current circumstances to use force, violence, torture, killing-under conflict resolution--one TALKS--ONE USES LANGUAGE/S ONE USES COMMUNICATION INSTEAD OF WEAPONS...the only way, "they" whomever they are, that they will learn to use words instead of weapons and violence is if we have leaders that use their communication skills in order to resolve problems--I know many out there do not know how to use communication, but that is why one becomes a leader of a Nation, so, one can show others better ways of living, better methods of dealing with one another.

Imagine if some one comes to your house and tells you that you need to convert from been a Christian to a Catholic and if you don't do it, all you family, including you will be killed?  The real causes of terrorism or revolutions are not related to any particular race or culture...humans revolt or use terrorist tactics because that is what they have learned from others...is it like smoking cigarettes or drinking alcoholic beverages; yes, one can make them oneself and use it, but because it is so proliferated; how many use it?  tons...

I have never been so fascinated with non-violence and peace in my life!!!  I am 41 years old...in Puerto Rico I saw in the News how many use weapons in order to solve their rivalries; I never though a Nation was capable of producing and proliferating so many Weapons...it is incredible!!!  A nation that depends on spying other, lying, manipulating, producing weapons, destroying, enslaving others, educating some but not all, having some with tons of money while others have nothing...it is not a Nation but a place without Leadership!!!



The world recently saw Saddam Hussein hanged for his crimes against humanity. Should Bush and Blair be brought to justice for theirs?

We’re nearing four years of death and destruction in Iraq, and it seems that no end is in sight. As the death toll rises and there is no sign of pulling US and UK troops out of Iraq, a few strong voices of the relatively conscious have dared to suggest that Bush and Blair pay for their crimes. Supporters of the war and proponents of the President and Prime Minister have scoffed at the mere suggestion. But what violations constitute bringing a world leader to justice?

The Nuremberg Principles define three types of crimes punishable under international law: Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity. Let’s take a look at the break-down, shall we?

A Crime Against Peace is defined as, “(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances,” or “(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i).”

Not only was the 2003 invasion of Iraq illegal, but the governments of the United States and United Kingdom deceived the world and lied in an effort to justify their aggression. Citing “Weapons of Mass Destruction” as the initial justification for the invasion, Bush and Blair sent tanks rolling across the Iraqi desert, irrespective of the United Nations’ refusal to support the attack and regardless of international law. But how quickly objectives can change! When US military intelligence failed to uncover any such weapons, the war was conveniently re-branded as “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” No longer was the world being fed lies about WMD; now the war was being fought for a more noble cause: the emancipation of the Iraqi people from the rule of a brutal dictator!

Yet this so-called “freedom” has come at a great price for the Iraqi people. As of this writing, the “official” Iraqi civilian death toll is over 600,000, with some reports citing numbers even higher. The mass destruction of property is in excess of billions, and Iraqis who once knew how to survive under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein now live in constant fear and uncertainty. More than three years on and it seems that Saddam’s iron fist was no match for Bush and Blair’s bombs.

War Crimes are defined by the Nuremberg Principles as, “Violations of the laws or customs of war which include, but are not limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation of slave labor or for any other purpose of the civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the Seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity.”

Whether or not Bush and Blair are guilty of any or all of these violations remains to be tested. However, there are some crimes therein of which both men are undeniably guilty. “Wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages,” can be proven by looking at the video reports of CNN, Sky, BBC, Al Jazeera, or many of the independent journalists who recorded material on the ground. The destruction of Fallujah and the use of “White Phosphorous” is but one case worthy of a closer look through the microscope of international law. The civilian death toll in this one city alone warrants both men the label of mass murderers.

As of 2004, the “official” Iraqi death toll was estimated at around 100,000. Yet the civilian death toll post-war has grown to insurmountable figures. George W. Bush set the civilian death toll at 30,000 in a speech in December of 2005. The real toll, according to a team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists, is in excess of 655,000. According to a Washington Post report on October 11, 2006, the survey was completed by Iraqi physicians and overseen by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health and the results were published the same day as the Post report by The Lancet, a British medical journal. According to the survey, 601,000 of these unnecessary civilian deaths occurred through acts of violence; the rest were the results of disease and other causes. Naturally, Bush and Blair have denied the accuracy of the report.

Crimes against Humanity are defined by the Nuremberg Principles as, “Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation and other inhumane acts done against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds, when such acts are done or such persecutions are carried on in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime.”

The explosions upon civilian villages, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and the complete destruction of an entire nation have been committed in absolute violation of international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the principles established by the United Nations. Children have been mutilated by US bombs. Iraqi prisoners have been tortured in POW prisons. Civilians of Middle Eastern, Asian, and African descent have been indefinitely detained, without trial, at Guantanamo Bay. If these crimes are not in violation of the aforementioned principles, then what is?

In the aftermath of World War II, hundreds of Nazi and German officials hanged for Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity. Today, we are in the face of two world leaders who are guilty of all three. If we are to use the Nuremberg Trials as the yardstick for international crime, the truth is clearly evident: Bush and Blair should be brought to justice.

While the Nuremberg Trials did not try Heads of State, the principles established thereafter explicitly state that one’s title does not create exceptions. Irrespective of Bush and Blair’s leadership responsibilities, they both, under international law, are liable for their actions. According to Principle III of the Nuremberg Principles, “The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law.”

Saddam Hussein was executed after a showcase prosecution that has been condemned by international legal observers as unfair and lacking impartiality. Yet hundreds of thousands of the people for whom he has supposedly been brought to “justice” were living a more peaceful life prior to his removal from power. More civilian Iraqi deaths have occurred since 2003 than throughout the entirety of Hussein’s reign. So if Saddam has hanged for crimes against humanity perpetrated against his own people, what punishment awaits the foreign perpetrators of crimes against those same people?

Bush’s lies and Blair’s cowardly compliance have resulted in the slaughter of an entire nation. Not to mention the thousands of US and UK soldiers who have died in this false crusade for freedom. Their lies have sent thousands of sons and daughters to die in vain. The loss of life, the destruction of property, and the uprooting of an entire culture have all been committed to satisfy the resource needs of the United States, aspirations and false goals that are not too dissimilar from those of Nazi Germany.

Realistically speaking, it is almost entirely improbable that Bush and Blair will ever be brought to justice for their horrific crimes against humanity. The US is too powerful; the UN is too weak. The debate almost seems pointless. Yet history always seems to keep a ledger, a ledger that, dependent upon future public opinion, tends to hound suspected war criminals.

Bush and Blair have the blood of millions upon their hands. They have the deaths of children upon their conscience. They have torture, imprisonment, and murder to answer for, and they too are “terrorists” in their so-called “War on Terror.”

Saddam paid for his crimes with his life; Bush and Blair need to be brought to justice for theirs.

1st January 2007
by Jill A. Bolstridge

From Ancient Markets to Global Networks
By Christopher Locke

This may seem rabidly antibusiness. It's not. Business is just a word for buying and selling things. In one way or another, we all rely on this commerce, both to get the things we want or need, and to afford them. We are alternately the workers who create products and services, and the customers who purchase them. There is nothing inherently wrong with this setup. Except when it becomes all of life. Except when life becomes secondary and subordinate. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, business so dominates all other aspects of our existence that it's hard to imagine it was ever otherwise. But it was. Imagine it.

Markets are conversations. Trade routes pave the storylines. Across the millennia in between, the human voice is the music we have always listened for, and still best understand.
So what went wrong? From the perspective of corporations, many of which by the twentieth century had become bigger and far more powerful than ancient city-states, nothing went wrong. But things did change.
Commerce is a natural part of human life, but it has become increasingly unnatural over the intervening centuries, incrementally divorcing itself from the people on whom it most depends, whether workers or customers.

Once an intrinsic part of the local community, commerce has evolved to become the primary force shaping the community of nations on a global scale. But because of its increasing divorce from the day-to-day concerns of real people, commerce has come to ignore the natural conversation that defines communities as human.

The slow pace of this historic change has made it seem unsurprising to many that people are now valued primarily for their capacity to consume, as targets for product pitches, as demographic abstractions. Few living in the so-called civilized world today can envision commerce as ever having been anything different. But much of the change happened in the century just passed.

Given the high cost of entry into such enterprises, and without appreciable foreign competition, manufacturers cared little about product differentiation. Thus Henry Ford's attitude toward customer choice: "They can have any color they want as long as it's black." More than for his wit, Ford is remembered for designing the first high-volume automotive assembly lines. The more cars Ford could make, the lower the unit cost and the greater the margin of profit. These economies of scale led to enormous profits because they enabled selling a far cheaper product to a far wider market.
Ford was strongly influenced by Frederick Taylor and his theory of "scientific management." Taylor's time-and-motion metrics sought to bring regularity and predictability to bear on the increasingly detailed division of labor. Under such a regimen, previously holistic craft expertise rapidly degraded into the mindless execution of single repetitive tasks, with each worker performing only one operation in the overall process. Because of its effect on workers' knowledge, de-skilling is a term strongly associated with mass production. And as skill disappeared, so did the unique voice of the craftsman.

Mass production, mass marketing, and mass media have constituted the Holy Trinity of American business for at least a hundred years. The payoffs were so huge that the mindset became an addiction, a drug blinding its users to changes that began to erode the old axioms attaching to economies of scale.
These changes were gradual at first. Even early on, "economies of scope" began to be perceived. General Motors broke Ford's run on the Model-T — an impossibly long product cycle by today's standards — by offering cars that were not black, and even came in different styles to suit different tastes and pocketbooks. Heinz discovered it could make not just, say, mustard, but
"57 Varieties" of condiments in the same factory. Consumers began to have a wider range of choice, and they warmed quickly to their new options.

But things got more complicated on the management side. As more products were launched, organizations became increasingly bureaucratic and business functions more isolated from each other. This was de-skilling of a higher order: design, production, and marketing knowledge began to fractionate, and in some cases, to atrophy.
The real watershed came when offshore producers, finally recovered from the Second World War, began to penetrate U.S. markets. With the oil embargo of the early 1970s, small, fuel-efficient cars began looking highly attractive to people stalled in long gas lines. Companies like Honda, Toyota, and Volkswagen exploded into the North American market like a tsunami. The challenge to U.S. manufacturers was not to offer just trivial feature alternatives, but whole new designs. In a classic reversal, what was suddenly good for America was anything but good for General Motors. The auto industry didn't see these changes coming, and as a result lost enormous market share to offshore competitors.
Overnight, global competition turned mass markets into thousands of micro markets. Nike now makes hundreds of different styles of shoes. The Wall Street Journal coined the term sneakerization to describe a phenomenon affecting nearly every industry.

Competition is healthy, we'd been told from birth, because it breeds greater choice. But now competition was out of control and old-guard notions of brand allegiance evaporated like mist in the rising-sun onslaught from Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Choice and quality ruled the day, and consumer enthusiasm for the resulting array of new product options forever undermined the foundations of yesterday's mass-market economy.

Money and the Meaning of Life” 

It is one of the substantial ironies of our adult lives that we spend the first half of it worrying about making enough money and, if we are relatively successful, worrying the second half of our adult lives what we should do with it. Money is not, as it turns out, juxtaposed to spirituality. It is an instrument that expresses our Spiritual selves.
Now it is possible to ignore the question of the spiritual dimension of money but we do it at our peril. Walker Percy has a character in one of his novels that has reached middle age, a successful Wall Street lawyer, who has managed to retire early, and has been living outside of Asheville, North Carolina. His beautiful and spacious second home is now his primary home and now he doesn't have to work any more so he has plenty of time to pursue his avocation golf. He has a 5 handicap and a very interesting group of friends that regularly play together and enjoy one another's company.

But Will Barrett gets odder and odder, to himself and to his friends. He first notices this when he is laying in a sand trap, looking at the world upside down, just over the rim of the trap itself. He is laying there smelling something burnt in the air and he doesn't get up right away because his mind goes back to High School and the same burnt smell that he remembered one afternoon Senior year when he was talking in a field with Marcy Bernstein. They sat next to one another in honors Math and honors English all throughout High School and probably never exchanged more than 20 words directly. All those years he had watched her as the curve in her hip had grown more inviting and here they were Senior year with High School almost over and she was finally speaking to him and he wanted to speak back and ask her to do something… anything… She was asking him what he was doing that summer and describing her plans… and he wanted to go where she was going… but he couldn't find the words and suddenly she was gone… and that was that.

He is lying in the sand trap, completely enrapt in the past when his foursome help him to his feet and ask what is wrong. He can't answer them because he doesn't really know, except that it seems to him that everything around him is a farce. The cocktail hour after golf is a farce, listening to his friends and their wives is a farce. He keeps going through the motions of his life, caught away on this things from the past, and all of them are visions of things that got away, of missed opportunities.

His daughter is about to be married soon and that seems like a farce to, the plans leading up to the day, all of the etiquette that attends weddings, all the social detail that one has to think about. He is not depressed, he is having a spiritual crisis of meaning, and he finds himself one Saturday afternoon, sitting in the front seat of his Mercedes smelling the leather on the front seat and then smelling the gun oil from the barrel of his luger, going back and forth between the two, wondering what the point of living really is.

How did he get to this impasse? After a successful career, at the time when he should be enjoying his personal time, he feels like his life and perhaps all of life is just a farce? How did he get to this place where he finally has time for an internal conversation and he finds that no one is home, there is nothing significant happening there?

I could suggest that our wider business culture not only tolerates obsessive and compulsive behavior, it actually encourages and rewards it but that is actually a different sermon. What is significant about the Donald is how many of us have so much in common with him.

In the career phase of our life, we work hard at being occupied and the more successful we become we become more and more occupied with bigger issues, more important people, wider ranging power. As a generation, we have chosen to structure our children's lives with sports activities and enrichment opportunities so that our weekend's become exercises in Air Traffic Control with cell phones replacing Pilot head sets. An enormous amount of cell phone conversation is geographically logistical. "I'm walking up to Penn Station." People everywhere are checking in with their spouses, describing their location, coordinating the next destination. "I'll get Billy while you're with Emma and the baby." During the academic year, we hear the same cry over and over that there is no time.

Inadvertently, we make sure that we do not have significant internal conversations about the meaning of our lives. We are not likely to reflect on 'why we are doing what we are doing'. It is enough to just keep doing it, hopefully better and more successfully. Over a number of years, we can actually experience the irony of an atrophied sense of self and fulfillment as we are becoming more involved and committed on the upwardly mobile path. We find ourselves using money as a way of compensating for this. One day, I'll have time. One day I will be present. It has a way of taking over more and more of our spiritual energy becoming an end in itself in order to support an ever rising standard of living. Like the energizer bunny, it just keeps going and going.

We have to stop every once in a while and assess. At Christ Church, we do this annually by asking you for money. In one sense, we are like National Public Radio interrupting our normal broadcasting so that you can reflect on how important this is to your life and put a dollar amount on that- only we don't have a tote bag or coffee cup.

But I'm thinking about this also on a more central spiritual level. We need to stop every so often and talk with our spouse, talk with our families, talk with ourselves about what is really important in our lives. We need to stop and reflect on how our money is an expression of our spiritual selves. Our wider social world does not encourage this kind of reflection but it is important. Despite our busyness and involvement with succeeding, our lives are fundamentally a spiritual quest, and we need to bring that into focus and remind ourselves of that and talk to each other about that, so that we can keep our priorities in proper line. We need to take notice that they are getting out of line and to reflect on what this is happening.
I give you the figure of Solomon. Solomon was the King after David. It was during his reign that Israel reached the height of their political influence and economic development. By any standard, Solomon was a successful man, certainly he was exposed to the same challenges that we are exposed to with the Donald, and he too had to work out his spirituality in the marketplace, the political counsel, the boardroom.

It is interesting that his pursuit as a young man was not worldly success as such. What he asked God for was wisdom, discernment. He was known for being particularly wise and that was the reputation that followed him after he died. You may recall the story attributed to him that two women came to his court in a dispute over the custody of a child. Both of them claimed to be the boys mother and there was insufficient evidence to determine who was telling the truth, so the case was kicked upstairs to the King. Solomon ordered the child to be cut in half, whereupon one woman fell on the ground and relinquished her claim to the child that it might live.

Solomon awarded her custody of the child for demonstrating by her love and concern for the life of the child that she was indeed her mother.

Solomon constructed not only the Temple which is no more but the Bible records as simply magnificent. He also had a Royal Hall where matters of state were decided and in it were steps that led up to the Royal throne which we also have no more. The Bible says nothing about this throne, but Jewish legend contains a description of it that preserves the legacy of Solomon's wisdom.

As Solomon ascended the stair to take his seat in the throne each day he passed between several pairs of animals, which had symbolic significance. Wisdom is being able to hold both of these pairs of items in dialectical balance. First he passed between a lion that was paired with an Ox. In the ancient world, the lion was a symbol of the Sun and the Ox was a symbol of the moon. The Sun was used to express those active forces of the universe and the Moon was used to express the passive forces of the universe.

Secondly, he passed between the lamb and the wolf. In the ancient world, the lamb was a symbol of a pure heart, so often used in scripture. The wolf was a symbol of our avaricious passions, always hungry, always on the hunt.

Third, he passed between a goat and a leopard. The goat was a symbol of self-sacrifice; you may recall that on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement the ancient Israelites would pin their sins on a goat and drive it into the wilderness. A leopard was a symbol of aggression, running down the weak and separated from the herd.

Fourth, he passed between an eagle and a peacock. The eagle was a symbol of our quest for majestic transcendence. Eagles were thought to be near the gods and seeing one meant that God was going to bless you. The peacock, then as now, is a symbol of vanity and preening ego.

Fifth, he passed between a falcon and a rooster. In the ancient world, the falcon was a symbol of the spiritually ethereal reasons for which we live, flying so high and elegantly above us. The Rooster viewed as one part aggression and the other part sexual mount, was a symbol of our lust.

Finally, he passed between a hawk and a sparrow. The hawk was a symbol of courage and the sparrow was the embodiment of timidity.

At the top of the throne mount was a gold carving of a Dove sitting atop a Hawk. The Dove, then as now, represented the force of reconciliation, the symbol of the things that make for peace.

Every day, as Solomon ascended to assume the authority of being King, every day as he prepared himself for the responsibility of exercising power, he reminded himself that spiritually, his inner challenge was to reconcile passive and active, a pure heart and appetitive passion, self-sacrifice and aggression, transcendence and vanity, our higher selves and our lust, courage and timidity. These are fundamentally spiritual issues that we daily exercise out of the Throne, the very seat of our self-expression and creativity.
Someone once said to me that you could tell all you essentially needed to know about a person if you could ask them how they handled sex, free time, and money. I'm not going to ask you about your sex life or your free time today so breathe easy. But money is a real mirror that tells us where we really are on the scale between transcendence and vanity, self-sacrifice and aggression, a pure heart and our appetites.

Jesus once said, look to your money for there you shall find your heart also. How we spend, how we invest describes for us who we really are, not who we would like to be, or who we project to the rest of the world.
It is a significant metaphor of our age that the new confessional is the law office and the financial planning room and those who hear our confessions are estate planners, accountants, and financial advisors. They know our hopes, fears, our vanities. Unfortunately, they are not trained spiritually. They are only expert at understanding the complexity of mechanisms. They cannot help us reorient our priorities which is why there are so many awkward silences at these conferences. We are coming clean with who we are and what we are about… and they can only receive this but not do anything with it that would help us spiritually mature.

What does your spending say about you?

The great Jewish philosopher Maimonedes once said that most of humanity's deep suffering comes from our desiring things that are unnecessary spiritually. We come away not fulfilled, bored, cynical, contemptuous, and we see our life as a farce and we read these same debilitating affects into the lives of those around us.

Wal-Mart’s only Sin--CREATING WEALTH
By John Stossel

Is Wal-Mart a problem?

The food and Commercial Workers Union has hired Paul Blank, who was political director for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, to lead a comapaign to persuade people not to shop at Wal-Mart until Wal-Mart pays workers more. “The average associate at Wal-Mart makes $8.23 and hour,”Blank told me. “That’s not a job that can support a family.”
Wal-Mart says its average pay is higher than that, but Wal-Mart workers do make a lot less money than Wal-Mart’s owners.
“They have taken the VALUES, THE MORALS, THE ETHICS, FAIRNESS THAT ARE THE FABRIC OF OUR SOCIETY AND PUT THEM ASIDE AND…PUT THEIR OWN PROFITS BEFORE THEIR PEOPLE,” said Blank.
That’s foolish ECONOMICS, and not very good MORALITY. He is as wrong as the tycon Michael Douglas played in the movie “Wall Street,” who said: “It’s a zero-sum game. Somebody WINS. Somebody LOSES. MONEY ITSELF ISEN’T LOST OR MADE, IT’S SIMPLY TRANSFERRED.”
That’s a MYTH. Business creates WEALTH.
Take the simplest example: I buy a quart of milk. I hand the storekeeper money, she gives me the milk. We both benefit, because she wanted the money more than the milk, and I wanted the milk more than the money. And when you have MILLIONS OF SUCCESSFUL TRANSACTIONS, you end up VERY WELL OFF--like the owner of Wal-Mart.
Their becoming rich does not mean there is less for the rest of us. Sam Walton’s innovations created thousands of new jobs and allowed millions of Americans to SAVE MONEY.
In earlier eras, John D, Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt were depicted as EVIL “ROBBER BARONS.”
“You could not find a more inaccurate term for these men than “robber barons,” said philosopher David Kelley.
“They were not barons. All of them started penniless. And they were not robbers, because they did not take it from anyone else.”
Wal-Mart’s critics act as if economic competition were a “zero-sum game”--if one person gets richer, someone else must be GETTING POORER. If Wal-Mart’s owners PROFIT, WE LOSE.
The reality is that Wal-Mart created wealth. It started with jus one discount store. Then, Walton invented new ways to STREAMLINE THE SUPPLY CHAIN, so he ws able to sell things for less and still make a profit. By keeping prices low, Wal-Mart effectively gives everyone who shops there a RAISE--its own employees included.
Not all Wal-Mart workers support families. Some are retired. Others are part-timers, students or people looking for a second income.
“None of them was drafted. None of them was forced to work at Wal-Mart,” said Brink Lindsey, a senior scholar at the Cato Institute. “That means that if they are working there, presumably, that was the best job they could GET.”
Before Sharon Reese was hired at Wal-Mart, she was on welfare. She would lost custody of her kids and was homeless, living in a car. A California store manager, W.C. Morrison, took a risk to hired her. “She had no references,” he said. “She had no work experience.”
In her own words, she was “raw.” But Morrison took a chance on her. That changed her life.
Today, Reese has two people working for her. She’s got her own aparment. She’s regained custody of two of her kids.
And she’s a Wal-Mart customer.
Everything, just about, that’s in my house,” she said, Wal-Mart sells.”

By Charles Reese:
True Christians don’t advocate assassination…

Pat Robertson, host “The 700 Club”, is not a christian…No man who publicly advocates coldblooded murder for political reasons can claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Robertson did that on his television show, saying it would cheaper to murder the president of Venezuela than to overthrow him with a war.
The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, is a frequent critic of President George Bush and the United States. He is also democratically elected. It’s funny how many people in the American elite who confess who profess to advocate democracy tend to change their minds when the results of DEMOCRACY don’t suit them.
Nowhere is it written that a FREE and DEMOCRATIC election will produce a LEADER whom we like. That should be obvious from outcomes of our elections. Sometimes we like the winner, and sometimes we don’t. the essense of a democratic society, however, is that when we don’t like the winner, we put up with him until the next election.
For a long time, I’ve not believed that Robertson is a Christian. I have this old-fashioned idea that RICH PREACHERS are incompatible with CHRISTIANITY. If you don’t already know this, most of the televangelists spend and inordinate amount of their time and efforts fund raising and living in the lap of LUXURY. I assume darn few of them will squeeze through that eye fo the needle that Christ spoke of in regard to a rich man getting into heaven.
Robertson is a politician who uses Christianity as a source fo income and as a cover for his political goals. What business is it of Robertson who the the president of Venezuela is or what he thinks of our president? Lots of world leaders don’t like George Bush. It doesn’t seem to bother Bush; why shout it bother Robertson?
Venuzuela, despite of its oil wealth, is a veay poor country. The bane of most Latin American countries is that the wealth is held by a few families while the bulk of the population is POOR. Chavez seems to want to do a better job of redistribution of the country’s income. That’s such a tough job that he doesn’t need any grief from us.
I suspect the CIA was slyly involved in the move to oust Chavez a year or so ago, and if true, he has a right to be irked. One of the SINS of IMPERIAL AMERICA is that we are always meddling in the internal affairs of other countries, usually with bad results.
If you think the CIA has a bad record in finding weapons of mass destruction, let me tell you, it has and even worse record of picking leaders of foreign countries. Some of the murderers the CIA helped put into power are easily candidates for the Hall of INFAMY.
But to get back to Mr, Robertson, his followers now have a clear choice: Are they going to follow the teachings of CHRIST OR THE TEACHINGS OF ROBERTSON?
Some people are skillful at READING THE BIBLE out of context, but you won’t find one WORD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, which is the CHRISTIAN BIBLE, that ADVOCATES MURDER FOR ANY REASON. NO ONE CAN BE A CHRISTIAN AND A BOOSTER OF POLITICAL ASSASSINATION, TOO.
Nevertheless, Christians should publicly DISOVOW people like Robertson who bring THE RELIGION INTO DISREPUTE. CHRIST LIVED IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND NEVER ADVOCATED ITS REFORM OR OVERTHROW. HIS MESSAGE WAS “SEE TO YOUR OWN SOUL.”
CHRISTIANITY IS ABOUT THE NEXT WORLD, NOT THIS ONE…

There have been about 350 wars of all kinds since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, which once and for all defeated Napoleon's lust for power. If this number fairly well represents the frequency of war in history, there have been nearly 13,600 wars since 3,600 B.C.

The toll of human misery measures around 30,000,000 direct battle deaths since Waterloo and 1,000,000,000 since 3,600 B.C. Then there are the uncountable deaths, the broken bodies and lives from the ravages and effects of these wars.

Nor has war abated. Not with civilization. Not with education and literacy. Not with burgeoning international organizations and communications. Not with the swelling library of peace plans and antiwar literature. Not with the mushrooming antiwar movements and demonstrations. In the 25 years after World War II, for so many the war to create and insure peace for generations, some 97 internal and international wars occurred. Total deaths about equal those killed in World War II. On any single day during these 25 years slightly more than 10 internal or international wars were being fought somewhere.

Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation; they will fill the vacuum by creating a new focus of meaning. The “IDOLS” of FUNDAMENTALISM ARE NOT GOOD SUBSTITUTES FOR GOD; if we are to create a vibrant new faith for the 21st century, perhaps, ponder the HISTORY OF GOD for some lessons and warnings.

Numbers are very important, yet in many societies is commonly yoked to the service of finance and engineering, there are those who reserve numbers with the cheap version of mysticism--superstition. Numbers form a closed world with mysteries to explore and exploit if our understanding is deep enough.

Numbers are only symbols, a way for human beings to project order upon the universe. They are a language more precise than words. As you well know, numbers are important to master, but one should take care to look beyond language and numbers to the true reality that they foreshadow.

Monique Wittig once wrote: I refuse to pronounce the names of possession and no possession…

New relationships require new names. If we want to stop behaving in a customary way--as an adversary, as a victim, as a bully, as a martyr--then we need new words to describe our new behavior.

Perhaps we glimpse the possibility of a new relationship to power--than one might use power, yet not subjugate others. Perhaps we glimpse the possibility of SHARING, of lateral extensions rather than HIERARCHIES.

It is clear that if we are to change the world, we must begin by changing our relations with others. Perhaps we don’t want such a grand project as changing the world, but we might want to change old ways of using our skills. Let us be fearless and trust in the knowledge of our hearts…

Then, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said--make yourself necessary to someone…

We are each positioned, not by chance but by design, within the context of home, job, friends, and acquaintances. Our involvement with life around us, the myriad experiences that confront us, guide our GROWTH…the gift of life obligates us to contribute our best efforts, our talents to the situations involving us. From them, we’ll gain exactly those lessons we are ready to handle.

Creation is interdependent. Every element, every human, every organism is necessary to the completion of the whole. How comforting to know that our existence is not mere chance. The space we take here, now, is advancing the development of all aspects of life. We never need to doubt our value, our importance to others. Being alive is the ULTIMATE PROOF that each of us is necessary to the many persons IN OUR LIVES. Gratitude for them, and for us, will strengthen our understanding…

wow, I thought I was prolific.

@fjblau - 

What was the question?

@edgerson - 

How much spam could a spambot spam if a spambot could spout spam?

all I saw was blah blah blah blah blah blah

Frank Longella is sure to get an academy award for this movie.  and Ron Howard.. 

@fjblau - 

Where is David Frost now? He was one of my favorite interviewers.

As far as I know he is is still out there doing interviews:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Frost

@fjblau - 

Do you still live in Santa Barbara? I used to live at 403 W. Padre, an elementary school was catty corner (sp?); beyond that was Cottage Hospital.

Gary,

You are so funny! You say you are not going to mention Christmas then go on to mention it 5 times!  LOL!

Best in '09.

Terry Thomas...
the photographer
Atlanta, Georgia USA
www.TerryThomasPhotos.com

@edgerson - 

Ahhh Santa Barbara, the home of the newly wed and the nearly dead, as my dad says...

No, but my parents do still live there... We initially lived on Pintura Dr, out in Goleta by Foothill School, and then we moved over by La Colina Jr. High, off of Cathedral Oaks. We moved from there around 75-76, but I have a brother and a sister that went to UCSB back in the 80's, so I spent a lot of time bumming around in IV too (I was living in Hermosa Beach). My mother was actually the receptionist at St. Marks Catholic Church out there for almost 20 years.

I miss riding motorcycles up San Marcos Pass to Cold Springs Tavern and seeing Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan play their amazing blues on the weekends up there! I think they still do it in the summer... definitely worth seeing!

I haven't been to Cold Springs Tavern in so long - I love that place. I'm sure it hasn't changed much.

The bikers there are a little less hardcore up there, but they still make amazing tri-tip sandwiches, and of course, Tom and Kenny still rule.

Tom and Kenny

I live in Seattle too. Rather unusual weather, certainly. Yuck.

I just locally bought the last Lightsphere that would fit my flash (shipping delays due to weather!) and was poking around the main site looking for tips and such and came across a "Gary's Blog" link, so I clicked. Randomly picked this post, read "Seattle" and kept going. Comments are oldest first, I guess. Scrolling down I came across... Good Gracious!!

Spambot, somebody suggested? Cut and Paste? Whatever, SOMEbody has far too much time on their hands! I can imagine some poor soul trawling the Internet searching for particular words or phrases.... Click, click, click, PASTE! [Maybe I should have written "trolling" the Internet? ;) ]

Yesh... 629 lines, 11,470 characters, TWENTY printed pages (10 point Times).

After scanning the first few paragraphs, then realizing that I was still only on the first PAGE, I grabbed hold of the scroll bar elevator and yanked on it.

Not somebody you'd want to be trapped at a bus-stop with, is it?

eo

@fjblau - 

@fjblau - 

I only lived in SB for three years but had a lot of fun. Speaking of IV, you remember when they burned the B of A? I was an ambulance drive for Coast Ambulance, I wasn't in IV that night. A buddy of mine, Rudy, was; they responded to a call and drove through the mob. Riding on the hood of the ambulance was a woman carrying a shotgun. Go figure.

After that the California Highway decided they'd post a guy out there to normalize their presence. He started going unarmed, then barefoot, then hopped a busload of hippies going somewhere but IV. I loved camping at Fish Creek at Los Padres National Forest. Amazing thick moss on the dry river bed, gnarly burned out trees with new leaves growing on them. Mosquitoes thick then the bats would come out and feed on them. Fabulous place.

Do you remember the Cinca de Maya restaurant? A very well known photographer moved into that building several years ago, don't know if she's still there. She lived out on the foothills side of Hollister out in Goleta, said the real estate was cheaper. But anyway, I still have slides of IV. Bought many vinyl LP's out there for $2.99, double disk albums $3.50ish. Amazing times. Are you familiar with "Henry Stork's Last Erection"?

I bet you bought those LPs at Morninglory Music!!

I was a little young for too much of the bank burning, but I do recall seeing tanks in the streets on the way to church.

I love that national forest too... something about those solitary oak trees against the brown chapparal that just captivates me.

And no, I am not familiar with Henry Stork's Last Erection.... do tell!!

Frank

Morninglory Music! Harry Gorilla's Cafe! IV Fuud COOP! Perry's Pizza! And the first KINKO's ever!