a long dark teatime...

And with that reference I take a sabatos… that is a hiatus. I realize it seems like and inordinately short time that I have been bl0061|\| period to be able to take said sabbatical, but the situations of life present themselves anew and leave me with few other options.

I 54LL return so have fear of that.

An now we must certainly deal with the pressures of what topic to leave? With the distance of what is coming looming ahead the srews are to us to make this certainly at least something that can, or MAY be discussed at leangth… so then. Perhaps a favorite poem?

Each Note (--Jelaluddin Balkhi)

“Advice doesn’t help lovers!
They’re not the kind of mountain stream
you can build a damn across.

An intellectual doesn’t know what the drunk is feeling!

Don’t try to figure
what those lost inside love
will do next!

… life freezes if it doesn’t get a taste of this almond cake.

The stars come up spinning
every night, bewildered in love.
They’d grow tired with that revolving, if they weren’t
(They’d say, ‘How long do we have to do this?’)

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing pain.

Remember the lips
where the wind-breath originated,
and let you note be clear…”

How long and lasting do these words ring a thousands of years after they were written. How do our lives cry up and say “how long?” when we live, or try to live without that love of som3Thi|\|G?!?! Friends, romances, kittens… anything!

What then is purposeful without the wind sounding out our notes?

Gesundheidt

Oh Archway cookies!

Fantastic delight of taste--

Tomorrow we diet.

the weeping boy

"What weeping face is that looking from the window?
Why does it stream those sorrowful tears?
Is it for some burial place, vast and dry?
Is it to wet the soil of graves?"
--Walt Whitman


It's amazing. It's surreal. As if once wasn't enough. Like a movie-- just when you thought it wouldn't get worse, it suddenly does. I felt brought low when I first read this on the BBC news site. I imagined some huge panel being bought off with oil money, I thought, "How could someone conscientiously actually vote for this man to be man of the year?" I mean seriously folk whichever side of the line you stand on--MAN OF THE YEAR? That means that he stands in line with Martin Luther King! I was depressed. Could we still be so blind STILL? The "War" in Iraq stands at an all time low, yet this bungler still preaches that things are great. His staff has had a HUGE turnover, unprecedented in wartime for a secondterm president, and yet people insist on acting as if this is all business as usual, which only serves to make it just that.

Yes folks I was deeply saddened. Then I read what the line of award recipients really included... and then I laughed. Here's to the magazines ability to pick out the winners and great leaders of the past century!



Previous "Time" magazine "People of the Year" recipients include:

1938 - Mr. Adolf Hitler (this is one year before the start of WW II in Europe-Sept, 1939)

1939 and 1942 - Mr. Joseph Stalin (before he acquired Poland, Chechoslovakia, Hungary Romania and Bulgaria murdering millions; and encouraged Kim II to invade South Korea)

1979 - Mr. Ayotollah Khonmeini (published mere months before he declared the US to be a "Great Satan.")

1985 -Deng Xiaoping (three years before the massacre in Tianamen Square, helped create the Red Army)

skurd

You know what scares me? FEBREEZE. What the heck is it? At the risk of sounding like some old curmudgeon sitting on a porch somewhere, waving my cane at the neighborhood... —the stuff scares me.

I mean come on. They say in the add that this stuff EATS ODORS. What the crud? What kind of thing consumes odors and then disappears?! Odors are created when a certain element has become “atomized” (as in an atomizer, not as in deconstructed into a base particle) and can be picked up by the olfactory hairs, etc. Now, as far as I know, there is still nothing that can defeat the 'conservation of matter' “law.” In that, you can’t take something and make it into nothing... So what the heck is really going on here Febreeze?!? WHERE ARE MY SMELLS GOING!?!

See what I mean? I mean this is frightening Area 51/Bush Conspiracy type of stuff... I'’m telling you beware the Febreeze!

Besides, I like my smells. What kind of world is this when if there is a smell in the air we SPRAY something to eliminate the odor? I mean . . . things smell for a reason. If you smell something rank in your house you damn well better just go and find out WHAT THE HELL IS MAKING THAT SMELL. I mean this is how bodies are discovered in shallow graves and so forth. I mean come on... who in their right mind says, “"Woooo! It smells like poop in here. Spray some Febreeze."” I mean, wouldn’t you or I say, “"Uh… Where is the poop?"” I mean really. WHERE IS IT?! I NEED my smells. They tell me things. There was a study from Purdue University that was all about how smell can unlock memories and thoughts that we are UNABLE to unlock any other way. You’re smells are important people! Don’t send them to smell hell or some bizzare oblivion in which they are transmorgraphied into something that tells you nothing of its origin.

You know what else really scares me? Apparently NO ONE ELSE has had this thought. Which, if true, is a feat in an of itself... But I digress. But it is true! Try and Google “'evil”' and “'Febreeze'” and you get NOTHING! Well I mean there are a few sites with the words evil and Febreeze in them, but that is just coincidence (if you have a million monkeys creating a million blogs… you will get Shakespeare... or sites that mention Febreeze and evil). So I guess I will be the first. EVIL FEBREEZE. There. Well cats and kitts, now you know!

By a strange irony while I have been typing this, by cause of one of this room’s other occupants, there has been an odorous interuptus fill the air... I think I’ll have to open a window...

Giving thanks the bird

oh turkey... delicious turkey... how we love you.

The holiday is all about comfort i think. There is not the stress of presents and gift wrapping, there is not the comercial push of the holiday buying insanity. Simple food, football and pie... oh the pie. It's a holiday of comfort found that connects us to the feeling of security and family. A tie. When you change the holiday traditions there are ruptures because our sense of stability is shifted, we suffer a tiny mental earthquake in that bridge to our pleasent momories of our childhood.

I wonder how many people do the "i'm thankful" ritual around the dinner table. How may in a week forget how lucky they counted themselves. It's the same with any holiday i guess. We create a pocket of emotion for that one day as oposed to creating a time within the day that will remind us of the feeling of the holiday the rest of the year. We have the full gamit of emotion in a year of we could be in touch with them all the whole year long. Patriotism, thankfullness, joy, awe, resurection celebration, new beginings, old memories, remembrances of those passed away, and on and on and on.

Do we create these holidays in our traditions so that we will continue to have a place for those emotions? Is it more convenient to have them tucked away on their own days, as opposed to dealing with the emotions daily and year round?

So much of our holidays are driven by commerce (for instance the posting of Thanksgiving by Roosevelt in order to give christmas it's proper shopping time) it's nice to just ignore that and concentrate on the emotions that sometimes go overlooked.

I think i'm going to celebrate Christmas on the 6th of Jan instead of the 25th... The presents would be cheaper...

Might as well get to know it

by Charlie Reese

Now that our president has embedded us in the Middle East for an indefinite future, you might as well start trying to educate yourself about the area and its conflicts. As one can say about so many problems in this world, it all began with the British Empire.

When you look at a map of the Middle East, you are looking at a map drawn by two Europeans by the names of Sykes and Picot. This map represents the betrayal of the Arabs and the Kurds. Before this map was drawn, the area had been part of the Ottoman Empire. (That's Turkey, for those of you who hate history and geography.)

The British, with their usual perfidy, had promised everything to everybody. Help us overthrow the Turks, they said to the Arabs, and you can have an independent Arab nation afterward. Help us overthrow the Turks, they said to the Kurds, and you will get an independent Kurdistan. And for some reason historians still argue about, they also promised European Zionists that they (the Brits) would establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. They betrayed them, too, because what they did was establish the Palestine mandate — or, in plain language, British occupation of Palestine.

Britain and France divided the Middle East between themselves, and this basic fact set off the conflicts we are still dealing with. The problem with establishing a Jewish state was that Arabs already occupied the area chosen. While they initially had no quarrel with Jews who wanted to immigrate to Palestine (the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has nothing to do with religion and never has), as soon as they figured out that European Jews were not coming to be Palestinians but to take their land away from them, the Arabs revolted. The British crushed this.

It wasn't too long, however, before Jews became impatient with British occupation and so, to drive out the British, did what Palestinians are doing today — used terror. Two of the premier Jewish terrorists — Menachem Begin, who led the Irgun, and Yitzhak Shamir, who led the Stern Gang — would later become prime ministers of Israel. It is the political parties these terrorists started that rule Israel today. Begin is famous for blowing up the King David Hotel, Shamir for reputedly ordering the assassination of Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte, who had been sent on a peace mission by the United Nations. Both of their groups joined forces to commit one of the most infamous massacres in history at the little village of Deir Yassin, where more than 200 men, women and children were slaughtered. Much of modern terrorist methods were pioneered by Begin. You should read his book "The Revolt."

Sometime in 1947, the British had had enough of Palestine and announced they were going to end the mandate the following year and dump the problem in the lap of the United Nations. The Zionists fiercely lobbied both Harry Truman and Joe Stalin. The deal was to get a vote to partition Palestine. The Jews would immediately proclaim the state of Israel, and, as preplanned, the United States and the Soviet Union would instantly recognize it. This was the first instance of the United States using a combination of threats and bribery to round up votes at the United Nations.

Jews and Palestinians were already fighting, and in the course of that fighting, the better-organized Zionists decided to expand beyond the boundaries set by the partition resolution and to do a little ethnic cleansing, since Arabs still outnumbered Jewish residents 2-1. Despite some volunteers coming in from other Arab countries, the Zionists had accomplished both goals by the cease-fire in 1948. In a 1967 war, the Zionists took the rest of Palestine, and Palestinians, who stubbornly insist on self-determination (once, but no longer, an American value), are fighting them the best way they can.

With the United States loading the Israelis down with both modern arms and billions of dollars, however, the Palestinians are having a hard time. This issue has made the United States hated in the region and the king of hypocrites because we have vetoed 35 U.N. resolutions to prevent the international community from giving any justice or help to the Palestinians.

Now, our president has included Palestinian organizations that are not international terrorists (Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah) on our list of enemies. Originally, they were just aiming their attacks at Israel, but I suppose this might change since George Bush has become the puppet of the Israeli government.

Hang on to your hats, folks. You're in for a violent next 50 years or so.

© 2004 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

seriously

no one has left a note about the guac recipe at the bottom?
You have to try it... no i mean it... try it.

the rantless rant

It's easy to be angry. It' s easy to be angry and loud and belligerent and hop up and down and be filled with emotion...
You know what's hard? Being peaceful.Dang, I know that must sound like a pretty big wad of pap to everyone, but honestly. The easy road is being angry. The cowards way out is stamp and pout. The heros forgive. The strong surrender...

It's such a simple to thing to be angry. The world at large doesn't insist I give people second and third and fourth chances. It asks only that I buy, consume, watch, worship... There is no "Haters Anonymous," no support group that I can attended to help amend and mend my ways. We depend only on one another as understanding Christian brothers and sisters to say, "yeah that sucks. Forgiveness is hard. How can I help?"

Yet, what do we do when we don't get that? So often our turn to the church turns into a finger pointing fest, or we smacked down with the scriptures...

Brother Christ can usually find us in the end of our aggression. When our rage is spent and our hearts are still empty and we turn and ask, "Is that all there is?" What does vindication get us? What if our rage were fulfilled? The one we hate crashes and burns their life in ruin, their spirit in agony--what is there for us there? We watch at first with glee... and then?

Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy... Ole JC hits us with a list of 9 paradoxs once of which is this little gem. How can we receive mercy if we have no idea what it is, or what it means to receive it. It's like giving a vegan grill prime rib. They just won't know what to do with it. In theory it's painfully obvious and simple, in practice it is the hardest of God's instructions.

Even the disciples, man and women who followed Jesus for three years, struggled with the practice... "how many times? Seven? Seven times Seven?" The reply comes that there is no set number or order the we have in forgiveness. We cannot say to each other you have 4 more, 3 more, 2 more chances and then you are stricken from my record. Christ knew the price that was about to be paid, he knew that in the face of that deficit our sins to one another could never again be counted in the black.

So what i am i doin? The conscious daily desicion i guess. I force my heart to forgive. I instruct my mind and mouth to pray good things for my enemies. I purposefully count them as friends in my heart. I still burn with the hurt and rejection, but i allow that to evaporate under the knowing of the greater debt that was paid. . .

The last voice of sanitly departs...

The disengagement of Colin Powell

BY Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent, BBC News website

Colin Powell never quite found his place in a Bush administration dominated by neo-conservatives.

Powell and Bush: opposite directions

Nor did he make the transition from general to statesman.

His weakness was that he lacked the vision of the world held by his rivals. Colin Powell was no dove. He too believed in US power and influence but where others saw certainty, he saw complexity. This slowed him down and gave them the edge.

He seemed to find it more natural to follow an order than to give one.

And in the end, he lacked the ear of the president, without which a secretary of state is powerless.

The result was disengagement.

Marginalised

The confident figure who led the United States military in the war against Iraq in 1991 became something of a marginalised figure in the war against Iraq in 2003.

The one internal battle he won over Iraq - that the US should go to the UN - was soon overtaken by events as the United States went to war anyway.

He was all but humiliated when the aggressive briefing he gave in February 2003 to the Security Council about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction turned out to be based on wrong intelligence.

It has also emerged that he was told of President George W Bush's decision to go to war after the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

wow. Iraq declared a state of emergency today. I'm sure looking forward to four more years of this.

Democracy at its finest hour

2 Peter-- 2:1-3

"1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep...

14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way they have gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Be'or, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. 17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved. 18 For, uttering loud boasts of folly, they entice with licentious passions of the flesh men who have barely escaped from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, The dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to wallow in the mire."

... hail to the cheif...

People in cars that get less than 25 MPG suck

In response to an article in the ‘Smithsonian,’ April 2001

You think you have a right to drive your big fat stinking car around here? You think that just because you have put yourself thousands of dollars into debt you have the total right to drive alone along the congested highways to your workplace? Well you do. But you shouldn’t. Every year Americans waste billions of gallons of gas, just sitting in traffic. Is that the traffic’s fault? Yes. Of course you ARE the traffic you know. So it’s your fault. Right now more American parents spend more time in their commute daily than they spend with their own children. Hello? Does that even make sense?

For years the problem of traffic has continued to decline and get worse. We’ve got some of our top computer and human resources, like Los Alamos (the lab best known for creating the atom bomb), committed to trying to solve the traffic problem. They’ve come up with TRANSIMS a massive program that helps in their research to find a solution to our problem. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t there still a couple of diseases hanging around that they could work on? Or how about peace? Isn’t that a priority anymore? What I’m saying here is that we have billions and billions of dollars in waste and resources going into OUR TRAFFIC COMMUTE. Hey, I’ve got a good idea—how about you fucking carpool every once in a while? How about that? How about you do a little bit to help us all out as far as pollution and gas? Look at this: 3 and some odd million people ego into the city of Atlanta every day. Out of those people 2.4 million of them ride ONE to a vehicle. Why the hell are we making our cars bigger and bigger to seat ONE PERSON for the majority of the car life? WHY? Does this not make any sense to anyone else?

What we need to do is make the roads smaller, not wider. I want to force every mother fucker in a Suburban taking their one lonely ass to work every day to take the stinking train. I want them to start petitioning the city to put in better mass transit so that people actually have a viable option that is as cheap as driving and nearly as fast. I mean come on when the average commute is upwards of 40 minutes there has got to be a train that can beat that. Also in this article it stated that 45% of people use this time in the commute to think and have some alone time. And at first glance this may seem all sorts of warm and fuzzy, until you realize that these people are busy listening to their bull shit books on tape and meditation CDs and NOT DRIVING THE FUCKING CARS!!!

Wow that makes me feel loads safer. In NY City in 1900 horses were dropping 2.5 million pounds of manure on the streets every day. Automotive vehicles were seen as a cleaner alternative. Of course this was back in the day when they could not have foreseen the dense smog clouds that would hover over ever Major City world wide largely due to vehicular emissions.

What else is a waste of feal? Hey gues what gym enthusiasts. You're numero uno on my list. Never in my life have I heard of a greater incongruency of logic than in the person who drives and hour to work out and spend an hour on the stationary bike. Here's a thought. Buy a real bike and save yourself an hour every day.

Well you heard it here--now get busy!

The Religious Wrong

As a “religious person,” I would like to make an assertion to Mr. Eagle and his ilk: Sometimes when you are being ridiculed it’s because you are just wrong.

John the Baptist basically invented the idea of the theological editorials and made it his business to ridicule the Pharisees who I’m sure had every assurance that they were following the will of God. The truth does hurt, but it never divides. Whole Truth as brought by Christ unifies people; not once did he use his power to drive people apart. Instead, it was only those who were unwilling to accept Truth who simply could not grasp the full message (please see, ‘ears but do not hear’). As a side note, wasn’t part of Christ’s message to those “religious people” a condemnation and a warning for making “lengthy and showy prayers?”

I actually did contact Operation Save America via the internet (http://www.operationsaveamerica.org/) and got copies of the pamphlets and must say—I was offended! One in particular drew on the similarities between Islam, Homosexuality, and Abortion (i.e. all who are a part of those beliefs are doomed). Great! Now what about Judaism? What about Confucianism? Are these not equally godless religions that fail to recognize the sovereignty of Christ? In a time in which we are trying to come together and befriend our Muslim brothers and sisters, why post a pamphlet that does nothing but draw on fear and half-truths? If we really do love all the peoples of earth and wish to “bring them the light” wouldn’t you think that following Christ’s example of a loving hand and not the bludgeon of religion would be the best way?

Don’t get me started on the Thanksgiving brochure. It told of how the first and glorious Pilgrims thank God for sending Squanto to teach them how to survive in the new world, with out mentioning the criminal injustice that was then performed on Squanto’s tribe only a few decades later, and how that has completely escaped the notice of mainstream America and the Thanksgiving tradition.

My point is this. The ‘Devout Duo’ might have had their hearts in the right place, but their methods couldn’t be further from the example that Christ set for his Disciples and subsequent apostles. Standing outside a public school isn’t exactly eating with the sinners. What about volunteering at a local abortion clinic, talking gently with mothers trying to make a tough decision? Pregnancy Support Services or the Raleigh chapter of the National Women’s Health Organization could also use volunteer counselors I’m sure. Showing patience—showing care about their well being—that is the heart and model of Christ. If you are seriously worried about aborted children, why address the schools? Only 19% of mothers getting abortions are under the age of 18. This seems like a waste of your efforts if you were truly committed to making a difference. Or would that not get your names in the paper fast enough? In addition, why not address the real issue of abortion which is the poverty that plagues the states; 21% of mothers site “inability to afford” as the reason for the abortion. Why not work to get mothers on their feet in a living wage job so they won’t be forced to even consider the decision? (Statistics from ‘The Alan Guttmacher Institute’)

You tout that you address homosexuality, yet you fail to “build bridges” and admonish those pastors like Reverend Falwell who do just that claiming that it “muddies the waters of the Gospel.” See, herein lies the inherit problem with not reading the entire Gospel. What was Christ if not a bridge builder?! He allowed a “sinful” woman to not only be with him—but to anoint him! An honor reserved only for the prophets in the Old Testament. In fact he NEVER told sinners to not be near him, but instead invited them to follow, and visited their homes. Tell me then, who is following more closely the teachings of Christ?

In short, your methods are wholly without a Biblical precedent, your material is abrasive and afflicted and your Epistle quotations are riddled with errors (I found 2 just perusing your brochures—I’ll send them to you if you like for correction)! It is such an easy way out for you to simply stand and yell as students file in for classes. I challenge you to start getting dirty and analyze the self-righteousness with which you have inflated yourselves. I can train a monkey to use a bullhorn, but the ministry of God takes true devotion and hard work—caring and empathy not pamphlets and misquotes from the Almighty to spread human interpretation.

As a last word and warning, be careful as you continue making your rounds to the other area schools. Watch what you say and how you say it; someone, somewhere, may be warming up the millstones and looking for a deep sea.

Your World is Crackers

(The following article is something I recieved from the website posted at the end. The information was so good, i couldn't help putting it up here...)

Fact: The occupation is killing children and innocent civilians

Israelis possess overwhelming military superiority over the Palestinians. Israeli soldiers are shooting individuals with missiles, using American made F-16s and Apache helicopters. Tanks roll into refugee camps, supposedly to root out terrorists. But so many of these so-called terrorists are young children.

According to B'Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories, 1059 of the Palestinians killed from September 29, 2000 though July 20, 2002 were civilians. In comparison, 360 Israeli civilians were killed during this period, in Israel and the Occupied Territories combined (see box below). There were also over 108 extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinians during this period -- a war crime according to the Hague Convention of 1907.

How many Palestinian and Israeli civilians have been killed in Israel and the Occupied Territories during the current Intifada? Click HERE for a graphical representation.

Fact: Israeli Settlements Are Illegal and Provocative

One of Israel's most egregious violations of the 4th Geneva Convention is the construction of massive settlements in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. The terms of the Convention couldn't be clearer: "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." The Israeli government is essentially colonizing the Occupied Territories.

More than 350,000 settlers have built approximately 150 illegal settlements on confiscated Palestinian land. And the number is growing. Since 2001 forty-four new settlements have been established, according to an aerial survey by Peace Now. Jewish-only bypass roads that connect settlements to each other and to Israel have carved up Palestine into disconnected Palestinian islands, making establishment of a viable Palestinian state impossible. The army and settlers also confiscate scarce natural resources from the region. Israeli Jewish settlers are allocated 4.5 times more water, per capita, for agricultural and personal use than the occupied Palestinians themselves.

Fact: The Israeli government demolishes homes, uproots crops, and confiscates land.

As stated in this press release by Amnesty International, Israel has demolished over 3,000 homes since October 2000, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians homeless. These demolitions are frequently used as a form of collective punishment, or to facilitate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements. In East Jerusalem, Palestinian homes are demolished and land confiscated in order to ensure Jews have a majority in the city (the “Silent Transfer”).

Fact: Palestinians suffer a severe water shortage due to the Occupation

The Israeli government pursues a grossly discriminatory water policy. Since 1967, the Israeli government has been stealing up to 80% of the gro undwater from the"Mountain Reservoir," a group of groundwater aquifers located underneath the mountains of the Occupied West Bank of Palestine, lincluding the Occupied Jerusalem. The Palestinian people are allowed no control of these extensive water resources.

Fact: US Aid to Israel Harms Israelis

For every dollar the US sends to the Israeli military, Israeli taxpayers end up spending two to three extra dollars supporting their military. By strengthening the Israeli military establishment, US aid to Israel makes it even harder for progressive Israelis to create a civil society committed to a just peace in the region. Israel has one of the most powerful militaries in the world, with a large portion of the country's budget allocated for the military. The country's massive military expenditures, promoted in part by the US, mean that less money is spent on social programs. The increasing US aid to Israel only serves to cement Israeli dependence on the US and turns the country into a militarized "client state."

Fact: Over 1,000 Israelis have refused military service due to the Occupation.

"We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people," declares a petition signed by the reservists.

Fact: YOU fund the Occupation.

Israel, whose population is 0.1% of the total world population, gets roughly one-third of all US foreign aid. Annually this amounts to more than $3 billion in US taxpayer dollars going to Israel. $2.04 billion of that is military aid.

Fact: Peace is possible.

It is a myth that Palestinians need to be subjugated to keep Jews safe. The occupation is only worsening the position of Jews in the Middle East. True safety only comes with justice and equality. History teaches us that when people come together around a common vision for peace, they can change even the most oppressive conditions.

http://stop-us-military-aid-to-israel.net/5reasons.htm

Holy Guacamole

3 avocados
¼ cup of onion
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cilantro
1 can of tomatoes (drained)
½ tsp of salt

USE NO STAINLESS STEEL to mix (in a glass or wood bowl) to a chunky texture.

Preparations

is the process of being in perpetual readiness for the collapse of civilization a bad thing? Or is the honest horror in that our society (US that is) seems geared to creating people who's function is to consume items and produce garbage.
Throw away toilet cleaners. Have you seen these? Yes please, fill up the landfill with more stuff because your precious bathroom is not clean enough for you. Please. There are more microbial forms of bacteria on a sandwich from Subway than there are in that linger in the average toilet bowl brush. Niggah please.
What makes people what such sterile environments in the first place? Raise your kids in the perfect germ free house so that they have no natural immunities and on their first excursion to the local park they mysteriously contract hepatitis F... a brand new strain discovered by our FDA.
Give me germs... not too many, but a couple at least...

People really ARE sheep

"... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same in any country." -Hermann Goering (1893 - 1946)Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia and Hitler's designated successor.

Jedaluddin Balkhi

This is one of his....

"WATER FROM YOUR SRPING

What was in that candle's light
that opened and consumed me so quickly?

Come back my friend! The form of our love
is not a created form.

Nothing can help me but that beauty.
There was a dawn i remember

when my soul heard something
from your soul. I drank water

from your spring and felt
the current take me."

Retribution

So we’re all going to die. Is it pessimism to believe that? Or Realistic. I don’t mean personally or eventually either. I mean, as in humanity will perish.. soon. How can it not?! Or only hope I guess is that the earth is so much more resilient and amazing than we can fathom. I’m not trying to be all nuttsy fruitcake here either. I’m not really into the all Mother Earth, vegan, yogi fasting bull. I’m just saying any rational being of intelligence and worth wants to keep their living environment in such a state as it will continue to support life.
There are countries all over the world with waste problems. Nuclear, pesticides, miscellaneous garbage… I mean if you think this country has waste problems think of a third world country. What the hell do we expect?! In some sense I wish I will be here when the earth finally does stop supporting life. I just want to be here when the colonization of planets ahs failed, we finally realize this is all we got, and I will laugh. I will laugh and laugh, and I will say “What did you expect Jerks!”
You can’t eat money.
Which is admittedly a flawed statement if you catch it in the light of “yes but I can buy food with it.” Which is a misunderstanding of the phrase. It’s really, after the economy collapses, you can’t eat money. Ask Germany after WW I when it took an armful of deutschemarks to buy bread. We think that in this country we are invincible and isolated but we aren’t. Someday the reckoning will come and we’ll be caught with our pants around our ankles reading Vogue on the toilet. It happened before…

Bethlehem, before it was ground under the Zionist heel... www.jewsagainstzionism.com

Just Us...

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” I usually refer to this quotation by
Martin Luther King, Jr. whenever people ask me about how the “issue with the Arabs” first arose,
or “why they hate us.”
I feel it terribly necessary to respond to another reader’s editorial that was recently printed in the local paper. In it, she wrongly suggests that the crises in the Middle East began in 1979 (this was in an attempt to absolve President Bush from blame for the current debacle there). Unfortunately, it did not start with the Iranian students’ attack on the American Embassy, because that was a reactionary measure to decades of US support of a corrupt and oppressive Shah (please read “All the Shah’s Men” by Stephen Kinzer for a complete and stunning retelling). Let me sketch out a little scenario for you: 1) US supports an oppressive leader in order to combat a “greater evil.” 2) The US supported leader uses US weapons and money to oppress the people of that country. 3) The oppressed people of that country retaliate in the only way they can (technically the taking of the Bastille—the start of the French Revolution—was a “terrorist act”). 4) The uniformed and largely ignorant populace of America responds with righteous outrage. 5) The US responds by either withdrawing support or diving into war in order to “smoke out” this new threat. 6) A new and worse threat steps in and says “SEE, I told you Americans are the devil!” (i.e., Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Osama Bin Laden, etc, take your pick) The truly brilliant thing is that because the populace at large in our country seems continually ready to take the egocentric worldview, this strategy is used over and over and over, yielding the same results.
The author of said article had a laundry list of terrorist attacks that killed possibly 1500 Americans. You can also go with the more recent State Departments figures that there are about 700 in 2003 that were killed due to terrorist attacks (about 200 attacks). In previous years it was much less (roughly 100-275). Compare this however with the more than 2000 civilians killed in Palestine alone in the past three years. Look also at the 4,300 civilian deaths in Iraq during the war last year. Consider too that with the exception of 9-11 and the previous attack on the Trade Center, nearly all of terrorist related deaths are of our service people.
The truth is that the Arab world sees that the United States time and time again supports their enemies in the face of humanitarian pleas and cries for mercy (please see the recent International Court of Justice decision concerning “The Wall” that has been erected in Israel. The US judge –Thomas Buergenthal—was the ONLY ONE out of 15 to rule in favor of Israel) I could site hundreds of such examples in which the US, of late, has painted itself as the moral judge in the world and then, in turn, acted out the exact immoral thing. How can we not expect retribution?
The author is correct in one, and only one, statement. This war didn’t just start. It was begun decades ago by ‘cowboy politicians’ who thought they could tame the dessert savages and get their hands on pieces of prime oil real estate. In whatever light we would like to cast the history of the Middle East, America and Western Europe are solely responsible for it. Every day that dawns the powers of the West resist the confession that is on our souls for what our fathers, and fathers’ fathers did to every person in those countries.
Can we seriously expect them to see us as liberators when in the first months of the “War of Liberation” we kill more than 2000 of their civilians? Could we, after the terrible attack in September of 2001 have accepted a “peace keeping force?” Of course not. Our fathers and sisters and bothers and mothers had died, and our anger was tangible and terrible—as is the anger of the people of Iraq.
The problem truly is that our readers may be as horrified as “every other American” when
lives are lost, but the painful truth is that we are not nearly horrified enough. Our actions prove to the world that American lives are worth inherently more than the lives of other nations.
The argument she uses is one that is born out of an ignorance of the issues. It pains me because as long as the issue of the Middle East has been raging (since 1948 or the Crusades, depending on how you like your history), mass America is just now touching the edges of the subject. Also, as far back as this historic reason goes, it does directly affect the upcoming election. The name America is stained with the smarmy smile of greed. Lady Liberty is tarnished, and her proud torch is all but extinguished in the face of a war that has gone grossly sour. We have hit the heart of the Arab world by demolishing their mother Bagdad, and our attitude is indignation for not being hailed in the streets with flowers meant for her funeral. We are shamed, because in our righteous anger, we lashed out in blind fury and have yet to make amends.
Until we do, we will never be at peace. Even if peace comes in name alone our souls will stir in the night with the shattered tears of a thousand Arab mothers crying out for their lost sons and daughters. And joined with them will be the wail of every American father and mother who questions the death of their son or daughter who went to fight for freedom and guarded oil wells instead.
America is a country of ideals. The American Spirit is one that strives and acts in hope and honor. The country is not divided. We all wish for hope. We all desire peace and a safe return for our troops. We are united in common wish: that help is on the way and that things will get better. Ignorance is America’s enemy. Laziness and blind faith block the true roadway to peace and prosperity. I will reiterate what has been said already: in November it is our responsibility to make informed, rational, educated decisions about who will lead this nation into peace in the next four years or who will drive us into a state of continued war and fear with no visible end in sight.

America's Foreign Policy 

i am rude when flying in the face of ignorance

one of my old students IMed me and i just had to post it. I've taken out our IM handles and placed paragraph spaces instead. I wasn't going to do anothe rentry tonight, but this is for anyone who might think along the same lines....

(her) hey
so

(me) hey goil!
sooo
soo what?

we're in here 'discussing' whether or not women can/should be preachers

Hell yes
what moron says otherwise?

what?

Heck yeah they can be preachers! why not?

BOB (made up name) says 1timothy 3:2
he said that since men are the head of the household that they should be heads of the vchurch
but i guess its all just how u were raised & stuff

oh it's on.

haha
this is great
i mean, why does it matter as long as his word's being spread, right?

ok FIRST off... NRSV trasnlation 1 Tim3:2 -- "Now a BISHOP must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher..."

yea

so what exactly was his premise right before he got owned?

lol
he says read the king james version
(still her account) hey buddy...this is BOB
the guy that believes that

King James is NOT an acurate translation of the Greek text
so you need to get over that.

how is it not accurate?

thier interpretations of the greek were translated into english as it was used in that time period. In actually ENGLISH has changed not so much the greek... So QED: translations must be made from the origional greek into contemporary english for us to be able to understand the meaning of the text.

but your version is translated from the KJV

UNLESS you speak 17th century english fluently you have no idea what was in the KJV
no
no it wasn't
NRSV is a retrasnlation form the greek and hebrew
or if youd like i'll go get my CEV trans
which is even more up to date and retranslated.
KJV was written in 1611.

thats ok...Im not going to sit here and argue with you....your not going to change my mind and Im not going to change your mind

since then over 30 k of words have been added to the english language
that's fine cause you're wrong
you go and talk to some of the profs there at (School they Attened)

go see Little Bussy
AKA Dr. ****

I'm really not worried about it

Dr. *********
ANYONE
Sigh....You have eyes but do not see......

(her again) lol hi big brother

hey

i support u, but don't worry about him
he shouldn't have brought it up in a room full of girls

well... he's lucky i'm not there in person or he would really have gotten hi s*** ruined.

lol

he shouldn't have brought it up in a room full of people with half a brain

lol true

see the thing is unless you can speak 1611 version english

but he's a hypocrite sometimes, so whatever

you don't need to be reading that bible except for scholarly purposes...
ha

yeah,i read the one i had for bible study

well you have really good bible profs there

k

Dr ****
Dr ********
they are excellent
they know it backward and forward

k

just remind him that Mary M was a disciple

he says he wants lines & proof
I said a disciple is a follower of christ

yes
by definition

they don't get ur point

my point?
is that god made men and women to function together as a unit

yea

we are whole in one another
in faith in body and in mind

women are preachers preist, bishops
some of the most brilliant pastors i know are women...
Your Dean of the Chapel is an EXCELLNT pastor

but whatever, he's kinda hypocritical

he's kinda wrong too.
i dunno what brought this up?

i dunno
he was reading my bible

Luke 8:1-3: Afterward [Jesus] journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.
buh BAM

Mark 15:40: There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome.

k
he's going to read them tonight

there are about twenty others i coudl give him

he want those too?

he says sure

John 20:1: Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.
Mark 16:9: Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.
John 20:18: Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her.

just give me line #s

Christ apears as the risen God head to the WOMEN FIRST
how does this tell us they are to be second class in the workings of the church?
that should be good

see the problem is that if he reads out of the KJV, he's reading the wrong stuff..
ok

i will BUY AND MAIL him a CEV

haha

if he tells me he will compare the verses whenever he reads

he'll compare

give me his address.
and in the meantime: Acts 9:36: Paul refers to a woman (Tabitha in Aramaic, Dorcas in Greek, Gazelle in English) as a Christian disciple.
BAH BAM...
it can't get plainer than that
SHE WAS A DISCIPLE
DEAL WITH IT.

he says he doesn't see ur point. he understands that women were disciples, but he says they aren't preaching

Acts 18:24-26
Buh Bam
describes the ministry of a Husband and wife
Acts 21:9
Bud DANG.. that verse talke about 4 prophetesses.
and last but not least.. this is that last one...

ok

Romans 16:1
Phoebe
A MINISTER
in your face

ok

the greek work that is key
is
diakonos
which is prob something the KJV gets wrong
or states in such a way that we intupret it differently cause we're 200 years different in our language.
there are MORE
i could go on
but i will stop

ok

********

we went on to talk from there, but come on people... this ain't the dark ages...

tenuous grasp

as of yet i have still to see if the spell check works on this thing. My hope is that my occasional funetik spelling will not completely loose readers...

2 Corinthians 9:

Basically Elle and I decided that if you own a Hummer you fail. Worship this morning was good. The synopsis based mostly on the above verse had to do with giving and tithing. Or more acurately coming into the enlightened realization of those words.

I guess the first big schoker actually was a few weeks ago when the pastor explained tithing (from the Jewish tradition of giving to the temple a tenth of their livestock, grain, earnings, etc) as giving back to God's what is God's already. But more specifically--if you loaned me thirty dollars and then the next day for your birthday i gave you a tenspot. It's not exactly a gift is it?
The same way in the old parable of the talents the last servant who gave back th eone talent after burying it wasn't only being chastise for poor investment skills--it's also the matter of ONLY returning to God what is Gods. IE: if all we ever do is tithe, we are that last servant. We should be prepared and willing not only to tithe but to also give extra for the things God places on our hearts.

Hey, bein' Christian ain't easy.

So today was a continuation on the theme (that respecting what is God's and obeying what he commands us to do with his things lead to closer relationship, which leads to blessings...) was that you reap what you sow. Of course we've heard that, but we jotted down to verse 6:

(this is Paul speaking) "The point is this:the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (7) Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Which is pretty awesome becuase not only does God work out with you personally what is going to be your tithe (or as Elle and I work it, the cream not the crumbs) and what is going to be your giving, but if we can manage in our hearts to be cheerful and at peace with it we know that we can count on God to provide for us and still even bless us with abundance.

It hit pretty close to home really as there was a point in my time durring which i felt the Lord asking me to loan like 500 bucks to someone who was at the end of thier rope. And i felt good about doing it and i did it even thought at the time i was like a fitty away from being broke myself after the loan. But i went ahead with it, know it was the right thing to do.
Shortly thereafter the guy was buying sound equipment, and those ass-in-nine little diffuser pumps for fountains that make smoke, etc. And i was like, what the hell, I gave him that money to live off of and get food, pay bills, etc... But see that's not the point. The point is God asks us to do it and we do it. And he is the one who will bless us for that. We don't need to expect our compensation to some from earthly means when our command came from heavenly ones. And the Lord was true to his promise and blessed me with a wonderful job and the ability to save a thousand fold what i origionally loaned out. so talk about failing tests! But... one step closer to the outside of the cave...

I believe in what god CAN do. Because what God HAS done is evidence of what God WILL do again. (paraphrase)

Last thing

Thoughts are best when they are fostered by lack of sleep... so... a poem:

midnight cat on the high pitched roof
with tears for a birthday present
what makes love?
the mutual fear?
the togethernessed souls...
twinned, twined, ever falling faster after one another
the most idiotic anger that comes gushing rushing out.
Another cycle done
only once a year will i tell you the deeper feeling
of the timid passion.
You make.

Getting Blogged Down...

What the poop?
has the internet really made making my insignificant thoughts known to the general world this easy? Wow... can i have fries with this too?

Does this thing have Spell Czek?

**************>>>>>><<<<<**************
Day one of the encampment:

It's funny the things you can do whilst unemployed... Suddenly i have LOADS of time... Yet, there is internet access. The search this fine evening has led me here in which i began searching for a place to host a full website, before stumbling into the wonderment that is a BLOG... sounds so.... mirey.