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 10 Jul 2006 @ 08:53, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
I fell in love with the wings of birds
The light of spring on them!
---Chora
In the light of flowers
I travel
Just for the sake of traveling.
---Soen Nakagawa
The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it.
---Sri Nisargadatta
The author in Providence last weekend among friends and a couple of generations too.
Some replies received to the post I put out yesterday, which was sort of about global warming but involved a sense of futility as well, have motivated me to get my act together. I didn't start out writing on the Internet about political things, but somehow or other during these Bush years, when concerns about the "mainstream media" in this country come from all sides, I started sending stuff to friends and contacts that I hoped would be helpful in keeping discussion going. I think that media problem may motivate much of the blogging revolution for people. Where do you find out what's really going on in the world? Ordinarily I sprinkle links and footnotes all over such pieces, which is how I learned to do research for social studies papers and debating. I'm not going to do that this time because I need to speak from my own history and experience. I see no other way to address those replies.
I know a couple guys online I've never met face-to-face who like to keep things jumping with really basic questions. I hesitate to summarize what they stand for...and they are very different people...but they share a sort of warrior mentality. They live in the US---I think---and seem ready to survive, if necessary, with a knife and some matches...or with nothing if those luxuries are not available. So whenever I post about a political solution to something, one or the other or both generally jump in with both feet.
One of the guys grew up in the inner city but now lives in the Arizona desert, very close to the recent fires. His nickname is Bushman, for a couple of reasons probably...but I think he is available to do landscape work and tend your bushes. He wrote back the following: "It's all right here. Cleansed by fire, again." And he included a link to some Hopi prophecies. He means he's ready to ride it out with things as they are, rather than muck about with government agencies trying to regulate everything.
The other fellow changes his nickname about once a month and currently is going by Darklander. Here's what he has to say: "Fear is a good tactic that all hierarchs love to use to keep the sheeple in line. Stop voting for these dingbats (sure doesn't do you any good!), disband the military, stop sending your sons and daughters to Moloch, quit the 501 3C 'Corporate' churches, find out who you really are... be free from the lot of the rot. Nah, easier to blame it on, ah, global warming..."
Now I like both these guys a great deal. For one thing, they have great wit and keep me laughing. Nothing is better in the midst of argument and struggle. I have a friend here in Athens something like Bushman and Darklander, who just retired from 3 decades of teaching industrial tech and intends to move into a cave and become a cannibal. What do I say to people like this...and why does it matter? More >
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26 Jun 2006 @ 01:09, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
I hear -- is dead. Yet... the beat goes on. Darfur, Somalia, and a dozen other 'hot spots' outside the immediate 'middle east.' Who invented all this consternation anyway? More >
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21 Jun 2006 @ 21:50, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
As the Corporate Fictions (color of law) of Amerika destroy our world under the tutelage of the international bankers I must rethink my position again and again and again.
I grew up in this nation (a ''legal fiction") and from the earliest I can remember all it did, parents, peers, etc., was make me ashamed and sick that I was being labelled an American, too, one of them.
I don't consider my self anything close to what this polyglot nation stands for. Murder, tyranny, death and genocide on a scale never dreamt of by the world societies' worst dictators.
I have no illusions that this will change. I have no illusions about there being any kind of freedom and/or justice in this sad country for anyone other than the most hardened plutocrat.
Nor do I feel that there is really anything that we can do about it. Maybe praying to some 'Cosmotyrannocrat-god' might help some... if you know the real meaning of the word 'pray.'
Revolting, hardcore, against the tyranny with any or all of their petty instruments of war, paper or otherwise, is to play into the hands of what I now consider to be worse than any insane and ravenous 'beast.'
The obvious answer, a real soul-u-tion, would be for the people (who the **** are they?) to wrest the power away from the scum in the Whitehouse that are prevailing in their deceit, lies and perfidy, but that won't change things one iota!
The ''people (human?)" that are there aren't in control at all. They are lackeys who jump at command regardless of all their pretense at championing fictions like 'demo-cracy!'
Ask the man or woman in the street about things like the difference between a re-public and a demo-cracy and you'll, nine out of ten times, get a blank stare (stare decisis?) and a mumble or two about... well, ah, I dunno or...
I'm totally fed up with all the charades, the pretense at being other than the criminals that the unwashed masses really are for supporting such mind games and charades.
A republic is a system of guidance based on the rule of law. A democracy is based on 'votes.' As anyone with an ounce of perception can see...
the so called 'vote' is fixed, always has been, in this country; as all the behind the scenes "players" buy up this and that Media mogel and or politico that their venemous and deceitful messages might be memetically printed on the minds and very spirits of the fools whom they portend to 'lead!' We the People (copyrighted by fedcorps)? Ha!
Is it any different elsewhere? Sure, more death, murder, enslavement, theft, carnage, of human beings (chattel), for profit. The fiends behind the facade are well known... their names are known! Why, then, is'nt anything concrete being done about them?
The following is an article I hope will be of interest to any and all who want a better way... knowing that it will have to be created from within each and everyone of us who see through the sham scam illusion these wretches are peddling...
Be they frothy mouthed Demon-crat or mealy mouthed Republiscum... or a newly elected E-pis-co-pal-ian Bishopress who just happens to be a woe unto you man...
I guess the liars feel that they had better get the 'happy ones' on their side now to fill up their empty pews. P U! As if that will help them.
"Forgive them, El Elion, for they know not what they do?"--- A dupe
Baloney! For...
They know perfectly well what they do! The final solution? Maybe we should employ a few of their own on them? More >
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 20 Feb 2006 @ 08:21, by i2i. Government, Public Sector
Of the people, by the people, and for the people.
More >
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 17 Feb 2006 @ 11:55, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
The wonderful thing about Zen practice is that you get to do it whether you like it or not.
---Zen saying
When we are not sure, we are alive.
---Graham Greene
I lay on the bowsprit, with the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight towering above me. I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it, and for a moment lost myself---actually lost my life. I was set free...dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm and the high dim-starred sky....I belonged within a unity and joy to life itself.
---Eugene O'Neill
I do not want to talk about the hunting weekend. As Joel Achenbach says the incident already has had more coverage than the landing at Normandy. What interests me are the final moments of the Britt Hume interview Wednesday on SweetMother Fox:
Q On another subject, court filings have indicated that Scooter Libby has suggested that his superiors -- unidentified -- authorized the release of some classified information. What do you know about that?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's nothing I can talk about, Brit. This is an issue that's been under investigation for a couple of years. I've cooperated fully, including being interviewed, as well, by a special prosecutor. All of it is now going to trial. Scooter is entitled to the presumption of innocence. He's a great guy. I've worked with him for a long time, have enormous regard for him. I may well be called as a witness at some point in the case and it's, therefore, inappropriate for me to comment on any facet of the case.
Q Let me ask you another question. Is it your view that a Vice President has the authority to declassify information?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: There is an executive order to that effect.
Q There is.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q Have you done it?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I've certainly advocated declassification and participated in declassification decisions. The executive order --
Q You ever done it unilaterally?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't want to get into that. There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously focuses first and foremost on the President, but also includes the Vice President.
[link]
Fortunately Pete Yost, of the Associated Press, picked up on the comment yesterday...but I hardly notice the nation reeling from this announcement. Here's his account...but stick with me: I've got more questions about this~~~ [link] More >
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 29 Jan 2006 @ 10:28, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
To the right, books; to the left, a tea-cup. In front of me, the fireplace; behind me, the post. There is no greater happiness than this.
---Teiga
We are living in a historical period in which we understand that it is necessary for all of us to be conscious and active in our world. None of us can ignore this call to action. And yet, if we do not practice zazen, whether we call it zazen or whatever we call it and however we do it, we cannot act in any accurate way. There has been plenty of action---too much action. What we need is not more action, we need enlightened action. And this means letting go of action.
---Norman Fischer
Swallow the stars until you are one with the universe, with all-pervading universal life.
---Soen Nakagawa
Alabama artist Frank Bear illustrated support for George W. Bush as a follower of Jesus Christ by this work, titled "Our Christian President." The artist pieced together individual portraits of Jesus Christ to make the image of President Bush.
FOXNews has begun the drone repetition of the word "optimism" to prep its millions of viewers for what has become the annual crock in America known as The State Of The Union Address. Obviously I'm not responding well. And thus I place myself in my own concentration camp of negativists and boat-rockers. Such people are not well liked in America, which is why they must be put in detention. They're depressing and they slow us down. People who try to rock the boat are dangerous. Our tradition in these United States is optimism! Naysayers can go someplace else to live---like over to France for instance. More >
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4 Jan 2006 @ 20:48, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
THE VISION OF THE FRIENDLY SOCIETY
While the politicians of the republic think up new crimes to charge Americans with, the Nationalists are pushing ahead with a positive agenda. Americans are acculturated to being pitted against each other, so the idea of a united friendly society is a fundamentally alien notion. However, anyone who brings up the possibility that a less hostile social system is even possible is laughed out of the dialogue by a cynical press, under the influence of a cynical bureaucracy.
The biggest fear of the bureaucracy of the republic is that the American people will find a common cause, in which they will find the strength to retire the republic. To postpone that inevitable impulse towards a genuine national unity, the bureaucracy constantly seeds the various ethnic groups that collectively constitute the "American people," with suspicions of each other. Often the very programs that are designed to create rivalries and jealousies carry such lofty sounding names as Affirmative Action and Desegregation. This is not an attack on the noble ideals underlying Affirmative Action or Desegregation, it is rather an acknowledgment that the programs of the republic are named in a misleading fashion, so as to distract the illiterate masses from the underlying strategy of divide and rule. More >
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21 Nov 2005 @ 07:44, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
TOTAL POLICE STATE TAKEOVER
"All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."-- (Schoepenhouer)
-----
Socio-Political Report
Patriot Act 2: TOTAL POLICE STATE TAKEOVER
The Secret Patriot Act 2 Destroys What Is Left of American Liberty * Bush seizing dictatorial control
"The second Patriot Act is a mirror image of powers that Julius Caesar and Adolf Hitler gave themselves. Whereas the First Patriot Act only gutted the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and seriously damaged the Seventh and the Tenth, the Second Patriot Act reorganizes the entire Federal government as well as many areas of state government under the dictatorial control of the Justice Department, the Office of Homeland Security and the FEMA NORTHCOM military command. The Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, also known as the Second Patriot Act is by its very structure the definition of dictatorship. ....
Usually, corrupt governments allow their citizens lots of wonderful rights on paper, while carrying out their jackbooted oppression covertly. From snatch and grab operations to warrantless searches, Patriot Act 2 is an Adolf Hitler wish list." More >
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 28 Oct 2005 @ 09:24, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
We must be able to let things happen in the psyche. For us, this actually is an art of which few people know anything. Consciousness is forever interfering, helping, correcting, and negating, and never leaving the simple growth of the psychic processes in peace. It would be simple enough, if only simplicity were not the most difficult of things.
---Carl Gustav Jung
To know that you do not know is the best.
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.
---Lao Tzu
Give me, kind Heaven, a private station,
A mind serene for contemplation.
---John Gay
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald (L), who says he doesn't photograph well, arrives at his Washington office October 27, 2005. (REUTERS/Micah Walter)
I like to maintain dialogue with people of conservative philosophies, and several get these dispatches I send to cyberspace from time to time. Apparently a few even read them and sometimes lash back when they get mad. This is OK because usually there are other things at the heart of our friendship...and we just go back to those topics. I'm not being demeaning because there are elements of the conservative view, including the basic tenets of Hobbes, that are very convincing to me. I like best to talk with conservatives because I may be wrong about things and they help me be the first to know when I am.
There are two things I know about conservatives that come to mind this morning. One is they allow more secrecy in planning and government than I like or agree with. They respect the sanctity of the huddle. I must admit the intrusion of television technology onto the playing field can spoil the fun. I do not want to learn what the next pitch is going to be, or what the manager just whispered into the coach's ear. But politics is not a game to me, and if Cheney's energy cronies have carved up the world for their financial gain, using the public office of the Vice Presidency to do it, I want to know!
But the second conservative conviction that I think of today I do agree with and respect tremendously. Conservatives believe in playing by the rules. Fascists don't. They believe in making up rules by "necessity" as they go along. And so conservatives I've been talking to are anticipating the announcements by Fitzgerald today as much as I am. When Miers withdrew yesterday one such associate said to me, "Now we'll get a nominee to replace her so far to the right there won't be a confirmation before Christmas!" His remark helped temper my excitement. More >
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 18 Oct 2005 @ 09:49, by jazzolog. Government, Public Sector
You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
and I smile, and am silent,
and even my soul remains quiet:
it lives in the other world
which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom.
The water flows.
---Li Po
Within the waters is the entire world;
There is nothing in its depths but reflections of mountains and rivers.
A fish breaks the surface and then disappears again ---
What need is there to borrow the wind and thunder?
---Ingen
The longest journey is the journey inward....
The road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.
---Dag Hammarskjold
I'm not asking for sympathy, but I have to tell you I'm practically crazy after spending an hour and a half chasing the major newspapers around in their anticipation of Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's announcement of possible indictments as early as tomorrow. So I complain if they don't cover these kinds of stories and now I complain if they all do. Google News is showing nearly 1100 entries at this hour, and nearly every one goes after a different angle. However this turns out, it has got to be among the most complicated cases the world ever has seen. Central to the complication, of course, is who's lying, who's mistaken, and who just can't remember. Having gone blank myself sometimes, either in a test or under scrutiny from a superior, I'm trying to empathize. What precisely did I intend with that behavior of mine, so casually performed, nearly 3 years ago? At what point does someone realize he has to shape up his act so that any moment of his life can withstand the public spotlight? My father always advised me to "live above suspicion," words that I've remembered but rebelliously rarely lived by.
It would be most simple to imagine Bush, Cheney and the Iraq Group huddled in a corner planning covert revenge upon Joe Wilson for blasting their WMD plot out of the water. "Of course we can get Karl and Scooter to do the job. Their specialty." Those guys are in the oil business, which clearly is a more comfortable life in these Final Days than any sort of "elected" public service job. (How well we in Ohio understand Iraqis currently wondering where all those Yes votes came from!) But who is there to testify to such a scenario? More and more Americans are finding it easy to imagine, but a case in court it does not make. Let me point out a few sites I thought were significant this morning. I think probably the best summary of where we are appears in today's Washington Post, written by Jim VandeHei and Walter Pincus. More >
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