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 14 Nov 2004 @ 12:06
Like a dream,
Whatever I enjoy
Will become a memory;
The past is not revisited.
---Shantideva
That moment you leap free of yourself, the wine of the friend, in all its brilliance and dazzle, is held out to you.
---Jalal Al-Din Rumi
Everything is true just as it is:
Why dislike it?
Why hate it?
---Zen saying
Painting by Paul Charles Chocarne-Moreau (1855-1931): The Cunning Thief
So where are we on this Sunday? How are the Ohio Boards of Election proceeding and did Kerry's lawyers find anything? Various blogs are on fire with incidents and speculation, but the media is quiet---except an occasional report about the blogs. JohnKerry.com is virtually retired, with his concession speech being the most recent item.
David Cobb and Michael Bednarik (learn those names!) of the Green and Libertarian parties respectively issued a joint statement calling for a recount in Ohio. [link] They're well on the way to getting the fee together ($113,000) and Cobb said before the election that a Bush victory will ensure the Greens a major voice in the restructuring of the Democratic party. You're probably aware that they and Ralph Nader, of course, are demanding recounts in other states as well. At this point, I have not heard the Democrats have done so anywhere. More >
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 19 Jul 2004 @ 03:46
It is the very energy of thought
Which keeps thee from thy God.
---John Henry Newman
The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it.
---Bayazid Bistami
Each man is in his Spectre's power
Until the arrival of that hour,
When his Humanity awake
And cast his Spectre into the Lake.
---William Blake
Clockwise from top left, Brit Hume, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Page Hopkins
I'm a neutral observer, of course, here to give you a fair and balanced report. But some people would say that Fox News Channel is nothing more than the private right-wing propaganda machine of a sneaky right-wing billionaire who is -- now these are just the facts, people -- not an American at all but some kind of Down Under, funny-accented, shrimp-on-the-barbie-eating, crocodile-hunting, profoundly un-American Australian, for goodness' sake.
And while I know Australia is not obviously very much like France -- treasonous, untrustworthy France -- let's look under the surface a little, OK? Do you know what one of Australia's top agricultural products is? That's right, it's wine. Draw your own conclusions, people, that's all I ask. And when you get right down to it, isn't there something French about Shep Smith, if you know what I mean? Isn't that "mousse" in his hair? Does that sound like an American word to you? Isn't there something about him that suggests the French government of, say, 1943? Something a little Vichy French? Nazi-collaborator French, possibly? I don't know, I'm only asking. You decide. More >
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 15 Apr 2004 @ 02:21
Cold geese calling in the sky.
Leaves tumbling over the empty hills.
Day is dwindling on the dark village road.
Alone, I carry my empty bowl home.
---Ryokan
Vast solitude
My thinning body
transparent autumn.
---Soen Nakagawa
Worldly acquisitions of wealth and the need of clinging to them, as well as the pursuit of the Eight Worldly Aims, I regard with as much loathing and disgust as a man who is suffering from billiousness regardeth the sight of rich food. Nay, I regard them as if they were the murderers of my father; therefore it is that I am assuming this beggarly and penurious mode of life.
---Milarepa
The picture is of Maureen Dowd receiving a Pulitzer for Commentary in 1999. Sometimes her columns in the New York Times are so insightful, precise, and brilliantly written that the reader actually is moved to take some responsibility for citizenship in this shaky republic. And in an age of Virtual Reality and It's All About Me, such an accomplishment is heroic.
I mean, I know a guy who recently spent $70,000 on a unique red Hummer. It gets 8 miles to the gallon. He spent $200 on gasoline just going to pick it up. He parks it where surveillance cameras provide an image of it at all times to his office---and remote screens at home. If anyone else drives it or fools around with it, computer codes let him know this has happened. He tells people he always wanted one, he had the extra money, so he bought it. Simple as that. I mean, there's a war on, so why not celebrate the advantages? I will not reveal what this man does for a living...unless you ask me privately.
But I digress: back to Ms. Dowd. To most conservatives she is among the most loathsome of individuals, and I must confess sometimes her work turns me off too. But not lately! She has been mightily up in arms about President Bush and his administration...and rarely more so than in her column this morning. More >
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 2 Feb 2004 @ 01:38
New Year's first snow---ah---
just barely enough to tilt
the daffodil
---Basho
I too when dead
want to be near this stone marker---
the withered pampas grass.
---Buson
After ecstasy,
the laundry.
---Zen Saying
Medicine Man of the Cheyenne
Howard Terpning
[American Painter, Born 1927]
The current issue of the New Yorker magazine features an investigative article entitled "MIRACLE IN A BOTTLE
by MICHAEL SPECTER
Dietary supplements are unregulated, some are unsafe—and Americans can’t get enough of them."
Mr. Specter's credentials are listed at the bottom---in case you want to check his ingredients first.
Issue of 2004-02-02
Posted 2004-01-26
One day last September, as Britney Spears was about to board a flight to Los Angeles from London, a rectangular blue bottle fell out of her purse. She quickly stuffed it back in, but not before the paparazzi recorded the event. Neither Spears nor her spokesman was willing to comment on the contents of the bottle, but the next morning London’s Daily Express published a page of pictures under the headline “exclusive: pop princess spotted at airport with pot of slimming tablets.” Spears was apparently carrying Zantrex-3, one of the most popular weight-loss supplements currently sold in the United States. The pill, which retails at about fifty dollars for a month’s supply, contains a huge dose of caffeine, some green tea, and three common South American herbs that also act as stimulants. It hit the U.S. market last March and has had a success that would be hard to overstate. Millions of bottles have been sold, and during the Christmas season it was displayed in the windows of the nation’s largest chain of vitamin shops, G.N.C. (It is so highly sought after that many of the stores keep it in locked cabinets.) Zantrex-3 is also sold at CVS, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart, and other chains, and over the telephone and on the Internet. If you type “Zantrex” into Google, more than a hundred thousand citations will appear. At any moment, there are scores of people auctioning the stuff on eBay. More >
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