thosecrazygodaminternetpeople

2009-09-08T08:11:00.001-07:00

Many saw Barbara Boxer as she admonished a brigadier general because he addressed her as "ma'am" and not "Senator" before a Senate hearing. This letter is from a National Guard aviator and Captain for Alaska Airlines. I wonder what he would have said if he was really angry.

Dear Senator Boxer:

You were so right on when you scolded the general on TV for using the term, "ma'am," instead of "Senator". After all, in the military, "ma'am" is a term of respect when addressing a female of superior rank or position. The general was totally wrong. You are not a person of superior rank or position. You are a member of one of the world's most corrupt organizations, the U.S. Senate, equalled only by the US . House of Representatives.

Congress is a cesspool of liars, thieves, inside traders, traitors, drunks (one who killed a staffer, yet is still revered), criminals, and other low level swine who, as individuals (not all, but many), will do anything to enhance their lives, fortunes and power, all at the expense of the People of the United States and its Constitution, in order to be continually re-elected. Many democrats even want American troops killed by releasing photographs. How many of you could honestly say, "We pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor"? None? One? Two?

Your reaction to the general shows several things. First is your abysmal ignorance of all things military. Your treatment of the general shows you to be an elitist of the worst kind. When the general entered the military (as most of us who served) he wrote the government a blank check, offering his life to protect your derriere, now safely and comfortably ensconced in a 20 thousand dollar leather chair, paid for by the general's taxes. You repaid him for this by humiliating him in front of millions.

Second is your puerile character, lack of sophistication, and arrogance which borders on the hubristic. This display of brattish behavior shows you to be a virago, termagant, harridan, nag, scold or shrew, unfit for your position, regardless of the support of the unwashed, uneducated masses who have made California into the laughing stock of the nation.

What I am writing, Senator, are the same thoughts countless millions of Americans have toward Congress, but who lack the energy, ability or time to convey them. Under the democrats, some don't even have the 44 cents to buy the stamp. Regardless of their thoughts, most realize that politicians are pretty much the same, and will vote for the one who will bring home the most bacon, even if they do consider how corrupt that person is. Lord Acton (1834 - 1902) so aptly charged, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Unbeknownst to you and your colleagues, "Mr. Power" has had his way with all of you, and we are all the worse for it.

Finally Senator, I, too, have a title. It is "Right Wing Extremist Potential Terrorist Threat." It is not of my choosing, but was given to me by your Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. And you were offended by "ma'am"?

Have a fine day. Cheers!

Jim Hill

16808 - 103rd Avenue Court East

South Hill, WA 98374

Please circulate this to remind every voter that the "cesspools" MUST be pumped out when we go to the polls in November, 2010. Honoring and respecting the voters is a thing of the past for many of those in our congress and senate.We need to vote their arrogant, self serving folks out of office if America is to get on the long road back from the devastation that these self serving cowards have brought upon us!

Cash for codgers

2009-08-20T16:19:00.001-07:00

Democrats, realizing the success of the President's "Cash for Clunkers" rebate program, have revamped a major portion of their National Health Care Plan.

President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Sen. Reed are expected to make this major announcement at a joint news conference later this week. I have obtained an advanced copy of the proposal which is named....

"CASH FOR CODGERS" and it works like this... Couples wishing to access health care funds in order to pay for the delivery of a child will be required to turn in one old person. The amount the government grants them will be fixed according to a sliding scale. Older and more prescription dependent codgers will garner the highest amounts.

Special "Bonuses" will be paid for those submitting codgers in targeted groups, such as smokers, alcohol drinkers, persons 10 pounds over their government prescribed weight, and any member of the Republican Party.

Smaller bonuses will be given for codgers who consume beef, soda, fried foods, potato chips, lattes, whole milk, dairy products, bacon, Brussels sprouts, or Girl Scout Cookies.

All codgers will be rendered totally useless via toxic injection.. This will insure that they are not secretly resold or their body parts harvested to keep other codgers in repair.

545 People

2009-04-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don' t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don' t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes..

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red .

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ .

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of theOrlando Sentinel Newspaper.

Prepare for

2009-03-05T07:13:00.001-08:00

THE DAYS TO COME . . . .

We are now seeing much of the changing times. There are even more turbulent times ahead, however don't lose heart. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Remember that change and destruction has to take place in order for new constructions to appear.

I was told in early 1996:

We welcome you on this your New Year Day in your concept of time. We do not have time as you do, as everything exists in the now.

There are indeed changes happening in your world which have greater ramifications. The weather is a sign of these changes. Mankind is being made aware of these changes through the pattern of your weather. The earth herself is being altered and man's conception of his home planet is about to change. There is naught to fear. All change is for a wider purpose. Be prepared to change self as these changes happen around you. All is in accord with Divine Law. The seasons are only one sign of the great shift which is to occur. Be prepared to accept whatever comes in each new day. The time for taking anything for granted is over. Each new moment has a different thing to offer you. Be prepared to accept each change as it occurs. There is nothing frightening or fearful in this - it is just different from what you may have anticipated in times past. You must realise that you cannot live in your past any more.

Only by going within and accepting what is in your now time will you find peace. Past and future will no longer have the hold over you that they once did. Live in the moment and be joy-filled. There is naught to fear. Be happy . . .

The more enlightened we are about our future and what to expect, the more we will be able to be in harmony as these things happen. We are children of the one Creator and as such we have opportunities to witness one of the greatest changes this planet has seen. Remember we are eternal. Nothing can harm us. If we do leave our physical bodies we only make the transition, we do not die. Love is eternal. Only love can be taken with us. We can never lose that which we never had in the first place. We are literally "embodiments of love". If we become enlightened through understanding and compassion, before we make this transition, we have served our life's purpose. We will have begun to see the changes which will herald our new world!

Many of us, like my husband, for example are afraid to look into the future for fear of what they will see. When I asked Divine Guidance about this the answer was as follows:

Your man is afraid to look to the future. He has much fear still within him. The years will unfold in their own good time. If each moment is made to count, the outcome will not be important, for you will be living in your higher consciousness and time as you know it, will cease to be the same. One day you will emerge from your bed of sleep and say: "Has two years of time really passed? It seems like only yesterday!"

When you are fully immersed in your now moment there is no past or present. All is at that moment - and that, my child is how life was always meant to be. Your good man will see the future as a time for him to rest, but indeed he will not rest. His fear of the future will push him on to further activities and he will not get his chance to look back to the times past and say "Where has the time gone?" for indeed he will be living his past, present, and future in the one moment.

Life is an ongoing cycle and nothing that exists is permanent, yet at the same time, no lesson learned is ever lost. You will see self in the future and wonder if you ever were the being you see now. Your concept of time is changing so fast even those upon your plane called scientists, are indeed investigating this, your concept of time.

Live in the present moment and be joyful. The future will unfold as it is meant to be.

All of our reactions are caused by our past connection to something. If we live in the present, there is no guilt of the past, no fear for the future, there is just now! That is how this world will be in the days to come. We are coming into an Age when all will be now. So many people these days have 'instant amnesia'. They can't remember what they were going to do or say. They forget things that they did yesterday. The effect is throughout all generations. It is not just the old or middle-aged people who are having this problem. Even my young daughter is forgetting things that she never once would have forgotten. Our earth is moving into another dimension - literally! We are finding ourselves more and more, living only in the present. The past is slipping away, as memories are fading. We will have no need to carry extra baggage into the new Age. Our memories will be transmuted through love and will become part of our now. Because of the changes happening to us, we will be more open psychically to contacting those we have loved and lost through physical death. We will have moved our consciousness into a higher dimension.

Some of the changes are already happening. The earth herself is rebelling against the mistreatment over the last few centuries of abuse and rape by mankind. She is cracking as her belly is opened and earthquakes tremble, to rid her of the poisons mankind has treated her with. She is spewing forth her volcanoes, raging her seas and sending her winds to parch the earth and her rains to flood the plains, causing mudslides and creating much havoc.

We will see an increase in the fall of the economic markets world-wide. The banks will fall as will the stock market and the larger insurance companies. Many will be trying to survive as more and more people become jobless. It will be crucial times which will call for much strength from our inner sources. People who are not balanced will become further imbalanced as they begin to turn to crime in order to survive. Mechanical equipment will start to fail and there will be numerous accidents, both in the air and on the ground.

The earth, which has suffered so much abuse, will release some of the radioactive waste buried deep within her bowels. These leaks have already began to happen and worse could be waiting, if mankind does not wake up to the hurt he is causing from his nuclear wastes and weapons.

Our brothers from space will land among us and converse with many. They will be the saving grace for many, as people begin to become disheartened and angry with the governments, and question their long kept secrets, and their own religions. These beings will assist us by showing us how we can overcome our difficulties through brotherly love to each other. More people will find their psychic powers opened as they become more attuned with their higher sources.

Again I was advised to live in the moment:

Live in the now moment and do not let thoughts of past worry you. You are a multidimensional being, and the thoughts you have are not yours alone, but belong to the many who are also part of you. Your multidimensional selves are coming to the point where freedom is in sight for them all. You are about to embark on a wonderful journey to freedom. Be happy. This time is not far off. Let each day bring you more joy. Live in that joy and let not past worries intervene. There is much light about you. Let it shine for the world needs it now more than ever. Those things which are brought to the light are brought to be healed. Have no fear that harm will come to any. These things are necessary for healing of situations. Simply allow all things to come to the light. Be steady in your thoughts.

Send your loving thoughts to everyone you feel has need of them, for we can affect their arrival. Thoughts are REAL. Do not be deceived that they are not. Your loving thoughts WILL find their target. Pray often. There is hope for every situation. Believe that all is possible through the love of the Creator. These thoughts we leave with you. . .

The coming days, once the worst is over, will be a time of rejoicing. We will literally see the great prophecies fulfilled, as the "lamb lays down with the lion". Cattle will not be afraid of losing their lives any longer, as the new day dawns. Animals of all species will commune in families and live in peace again, as it was in the beginning. There will be a greater consciousness among mankind and man will be enlightened by the growing light within.

We are advised to face our ailments with understanding and acceptance as these changes occur.

Many are finding ailments today. Be of good cheer. Happier times are ahead. We know you are going through some trialing times at the moment but they won't last. Learn your lesson well and these times will pass more quickly. I Am your guiding light. Fear not.

These times are for your growth. Learn well and these lessons will become lessons of joy. Let not your heart be troubled. Take all things in your stride and one day they will be looked upon as the greatest treasures life could give you. These things are in themselves unpolished jewels to be transformed into the most dazzling beauty you could ever imagine. These lights of beauty are just waiting to be revealed to you. The promises of the future go with you.

Walk in light and be glad . . . We love you.

We, as mankind, are becoming fully consciousness beings, and will be able to communicate with others in higher dimensions. There will be no barriers to what we can do. We will learn to use antigravity as a means to transport ourselves. We will have laws but they will be good laws. They will be in alignment with the Higher Will.

Once we become aware enough of ourselves as Divine beings, and treat everyone else as if they were Divine also, we will find crime and greed disappear. There will be no need for insecurities and fears. The last vestiges of these are being played out in our world right now. Their time is short dear reader. Be hopeful and joyful. Our promised thousand years of peace IS coming! Our days will be longer upon this planet as peace envelopes the whole of humanity and lower life forms as well. We will raise our vibrations to a higher dimension and will live to see this transition of our beautiful planet within our lifetimes!

Take heart all who read. Peace is just around the corner. Those who are aware enough to understand these words will be the ones to be the leaders and the councillors in the days to come. Know that YOU are Divine Essence. You are LOVE. You are as much a part of God as anyone else. All have equal claim to that right.

Enlightenment comes through understanding. Enlightenment comes through non-judgement and unconditional Love. Enlightenment comes through "feeling the daily daggers of relentless steel and keeping on living". Enlightenment is raising our consciousness towards our Higher Self, or Greater Light. Enlightenment is reaching our arms out to our fellowman in compassion and concern. Enlightenment is expressing the living truth in each moment we walk the path of Light, in whatever our jobs are, or whatever course our lives take.

The promises for our future are embodied in the following song. It was sung to the tune of Amazing Grace by Silarra, one of the extraterrestrial walk-ins who have come to help our planet:

Amazing grace, compassion and truth
Aqua star - ship of blue light.
We have come to Earth to live its dream:
A heaven of pure delight!

We share our forces here with you
Of inside wisdom and love.
We live here upon this plane
As we do in the ships above.

There are more than twelve thousand groups of twelve
We have gathered from afar.
We have come to fill the Earth with light,
To fulfill her birth as a star.

We speak to you of Heaven on Earth;
It's within if you'll just allow.
Don't hesitate, your Spirit calls -
Wake up - the time is now!

I want to see this Speech

2008-04-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

I doubt Hillary or obama will give this speech..But maybe Mc Cain will.
Sorry..was getting too gushie in here.Orlee even took hootie off the list
again..your so nice..Giggles..and points at ruth..she did it..

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENT, DEMOCRAT OR
REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH?
'My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of the Iraq regime has been
completed.

Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in
Iraq is complete.

This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from
Iraq This action will be complete within 30 days. It is now time to begin the
reckoning.

Before me, I have two lists. One list contains the names of countries which have
stood by our side during the Iraq conflict. This list is short . The United
Kingdom , Spain , Bulgaria , Australia , and Poland are some of the countries
listed there.

The other list contains every one not on the first l ist. Most of the world's nations are on that list. My press secretary will be distributing
copies of both lists later this evening.

Let me start by saying that effective immediately, foreign aid to those nations
on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. The money saved during the first
year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war. THEN EVERY YEAR
THERE AFTER IT'll GO TO OUR SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM SO IT WONT GO BROKE IN 20
YEARS.

The American people are no longer going to pour money into third world Hell
holes and watch those government leaders grow fat on corruption.

Need help with a famine ? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France .

In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward
solving the vexing social problems we still have at home . On that note, a word
to terrorist organizations. Screw with us and we will hunt you down and
eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth.

Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France or maybe China .

I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France ,
Germany , and Russia . Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from
NATO as well. Bonne chance, mezamies.

I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing the many UN
diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan with more than two unpaid parking
tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed. I
don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this. You creeps have tens of
thousands of unpaid tickets. Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious
Benzes, Beamers and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the
world. I love New York

A special note to our neighbors. Canada is on List 2. Since we are likely to be
seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want to try not pissing us off
for a change.

Mexico is also on List 2 its president and his entire corrupt government really
need an attitude adjustment. I will have a couple extra thousand tanks and infantry divisions sitting around. Guess where I am going to put 'em? Yep,
border security.

Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty - starting now.

We are tired of the one-way highway. Immediately, we'll be drilling for oil in
Alaska- which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. If
you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision, I refer you to List 2
above: pick a country and move there.

It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens. Some
will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, 'darn tootin.'

Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has
only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. It is
time to eliminate hunger in America It is time to eliminate homelessness in
America . To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thank you guys. We owe you
and we won't forget.

To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.

God bless America .. Thank you and good night.'

If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a
soldier.

Have A Great Day

Buddhafractal

2008-04-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Message to Hong Kong

2008-04-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

muddy: After careful consideration,I wonder how your girlfriend would feel if Russia was destroying churches and trying to imprison the pope and invade Italy?This happened over a century ago.
muddy: Maybe it was germany
muddy: or how would she feel if America was bombing mosques in Iraq and trying to imprison ismoms..wait..nevermind
muddy: ok..how would she feel about Turkey attacking the Kurds in Northern Iraq?
muddy: can we see a pattern developing here?
muddy: she its attacking sunnis in Iraq
muddy: sheits
muddy: one religian attacking anothers beliefs and wanting to dominate and imprison

Obama and rezko

2008-04-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

“By The Beachwood Rezko Affairs Desk

The front page story in The New York Times this week probing the relationship between Barack Obama and Tony Rezko revealed a few new disturbing facts, though the article was short on explanation and analysis - and there is yet more to the story of Illinois’ favorite son and his dark patron.

Let’s take a look.

* * *

“Mr. Obama has portrayed Mr. Rezko as a one-time fund-raiser whom he had occasionally seen socially. But interviews with more than a dozen political and business associates suggest that the two men were closer than the senator has indicated,” the Times reports.

“Mr. Obama turned to Rezko for help at several important junctures. Records show that when Mr. Obama needed cash in the waning days of his losing 2000 Congressional campaign, Mr. Rezko rounded up thousands of dollars from business contacts. In 2003, Mr. Rezko helped Mr. Obama expand his fund-raising for the Senate primary by being host of a dinner in his Mediterranean-style home for 150 people, including some whose names have come up in the influence scandal.

“And when Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, bought a [$1.65 million] house in 2005, Mr. Rezko helped smooth the transaction. Even though his finances were deteriorating, Mr. Rezko arranged for his wife to buy an adjacent lot, and she later sold the Obamas a 10-foot-wide strip of land that expanded their yard.

“The land sale occurred after it had been reported that Mr. Rezko was under federal investigation. That awkward fact prompoted Mr. Obama, who has cast himself as largely free from the normal influences of politics, to express regret over what he called his own bad judgment.”

Why did Obama need Rezko’s help?

‘People familiar with the transaction said that the sellers did not want to close until that June 15, and that the sale would go through only if someone bought the adjacent lot from them on the same date,” the Times reports.

Obama needed a favor from Rezko. He needed someone to buy that adjacent lot on the same day so he and Michelle could get that house. Someone he knew, who would let the Obamas expand their property and keep the rest of the lot, which the Obamas tended, vacant. Far from Rezko slyly buying a home next to a rising star, it was Obama who called Rezko and brought him into the deal.

“Rita Rezko paid $625,000 to outbid others for the lot and later sold the Obama’s one-sixth of that land land, for $104,500,” the Times reports.

“After the Chicago Tribune reported the transactions last November, Mr. Obama said he had acted ethically, though it had been a mistake to let Mr. Rezko do anything that could be seen as a favor.

“The disclosure came four days before Michelle Obama was to appear as a special guest at a charity fashion show organized by Mrs. Rezko. Mrs. Obama attended, though others there said it seemed a bit awkward.”

* * *

“When Mr. Obama first fielded questions about Mr. Rezko last fall, he said they had had lunch once or twice a year and had socialized with their wives ‘two to four times.’”

Not so.

“In addition to enlisting his huge circle of donors, Mr. Rezko and Mr. Obama talked frequently about campaign developments during the Senate race, Mr. Rezko’s associates said.”

* * *

“In one instance, when he was running for the Senate, Mr. Obama stopped by to shake hands while Mr. Rezko, an immigrant from Syria, was entertaining Middle Eastern bankers considering an investment in one of his projects.”

* * *

“While Mr. Obama was running for the Senate, Mr. Rezko was also raising money for a huge development in the South Loop of Chicago, often playing host to dinners in a private room at the Four Seasons Hotel here.

“Former Rezko associates said that Governor Blagojevich attended one of the dinners, and that at Mr. Rezko’s request, Mr. Obama dropped in at one for Middle Eastern bankers in early 2004, just as he was starting to pull ahead in the Senate primary. The visits, Mr. Rezko’s partners said, helped impress foreign guests.

“‘I remember that he had been on the campaign trail, and he was completely wiped out and exhausted,’ said Anthony Licata, a lawyer who represented Mr. Rezko on real estate deals. ‘My recollection is that he drank ice tea, and he talked about how he was really making progress, and we were all excited to see him.’

* * *

Obama refused to talk to the Times for the story. His campaign office issued a content-free written statement. Obama has previously said he never did Rezko a favor. And, of course, he often says that his a different kind of campaign - a movement - for those who think politics is an insider’s game. But at every step of the way, Obama has played that game with utmost expediency. Far from carving out a niche as an independent reformer with clean hands, he has embraced the worst elements of the Machine - Rezko, Daley, Jones, Stroger, Tillman - to advance his own ambition. And I can tell you, Obama fans, that we haven’t heard it all yet. Particularly where Rezko is concerned.”

Something to ponder

2008-03-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a passage I found to be a great response to the question, What was he thinking? that the ’shocked’ people asked when they heard rev wright’s “sermon”.

Over the weekend members of our church and others have been subjected to the relentless airing of two or three brief video clips of sermons by the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ for thirty-six years and, for over half of those years, pastor of Senator Barack Obama and his family. These video clips, and news stories about them, have been served up with frenzied and heated commentary by media personalities expressing shock that such language and sentiments could be uttered from the pulpit.

One is tempted to ask whether these commentators ever listen to the overcharged rhetoric of their own opinion shows. Even more to the point is to wonder whether they have a working knowledge of the history of preaching in the United States from the unrelentingly grim language of New England election day sermons to the fiery rhetoric of the Black church prophetic tradition. Maybe they prefer the false prophets with their happy homilies in Jeremiah who say to the people: “You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.” To which God responds, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. . . . By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed,” (Jeremiah 14.14-15). The Biblical Jeremiah was coarse and provocative. Faithfulness, not respectability was the order of the day then. And now?

What’s really going on here? First, it may state the obvious to point out that these television and radio shows have very little interest in Trinity Church or Jeremiah Wright. Those who sifted through hours of sermons searching for a few lurid phrases and those who have aired them repeatedly have only one intention. It is to wound a presidential candidate. In the process a congregation that does exceptional ministry and a pastor who has given his life to shape those ministries is caricatured and demonized. You don’t have to be an Obama supporter to be alarmed at this. Will Clinton’s United Methodist Church be next? Or McCain’s Episcopal Church? Wouldn’t we have been just as alarmed had it been Huckabee’s Southern Baptist Church, or Romney’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?

Many of us would prefer to avoid the stark and startling language Pastor Wright used in these clips. But what was his real crime? He is condemned for using a mild “obscenity” in reference to the United States. This week we mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, a war conceived in deception and prosecuted in foolish arrogance. Nearly four thousand cherished Americans have been killed, countless more wounded, and tens of thousands of Iraqis slaughtered. Where is the real obscenity here? True patriotism requires a degree of self-criticism, even self-judgment that may not always be easy or genteel. Pastor Wright’s judgment may be starker and more sweeping than many of us are prepared to accept. But is the soul of our nation served any better by the polite prayers and gentle admonitions that have gone without a real hearing for these five years while the dying and destruction continues?

We might like to think that racism is a thing of the past, that Martin Luther King’s harmonious multi-racial vision, articulated in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and then struck down by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis in 1968, has somehow been resurrected and now reigns throughout the land. Significant progress has been made. A black man is a legitimate candidate for President of the United States. A black woman serves as Secretary of State. The accomplishments are profound. But on the gritty streets of Chicago’s south side where Trinity has planted itself, race continues to play favorites in failing urban school systems, unresponsive health care systems, crumbling infrastructure, and meager economic development. Are we to pretend all is well because much is, in fact, better than it used to be? Is it racist to name the racial divides that continue to afflict our nation, and to do so loudly? How ironic that a pastor and congregation which, for forty-five years, has cast its lot with a predominantly white denomination, participating fully in its wider church life and contributing generously to it, would be accused of racial exclusion and a failure to reach for racial reconciliation.

The gospel narrative of Palm Sunday’s entrance into Jerusalem concludes with the overturning of the money changers’ tables in the Temple courtyard. Here wealth and power and greed were challenged for the way the poor were oppressed to the point of exclusion from a share in the religious practices of the Temple. Today we watch as the gap between the obscenely wealthy and the obscenely poor widens. More and more of our neighbors are relegated to minimal health care or to no health care at all. Foreclosures destroy families while unscrupulous lenders seek bailouts from regulators who turned a blind eye to the impending crisis. Should the preacher today respond to this with only a whisper and a sigh?

Is Pastor Wright to be ridiculed and condemned for refusing to play the court prophet, blessing land and sovereign while pledging allegiance to our preoccupation with wealth and our fascination with weapons? In the United Church of Christ we honor diversity. For nearly four centuries we have respected dissent and have struggled to maintain the freedom of the pulpit. Not every pastor in the United Church of Christ will want to share Pastor Wright’s rhetoric or his politics. Not every member will rise to shout “Amen!” But I trust we will all struggle in our own way to resist the lure of respectable religion that seeks to displace evangelical faith. For what this nation needs is not so much polite piety as the rough and radical word of the prophet calling us to repentance. And, as we struggle with that ancient calling, I pray we will be shrewd enough to name the hypocrisy of those who decry the mixing of religion and politics in order to serve their own political ends.

The Rev. John H. Thomas speaking at Trinity UCC on March 2, 2008

We Have the Same Problem

2008-03-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

It appears we do have the same problem we have had since 1976..Both partys have
done nothing to change our consumpsion habits except tax the shit out of
us..Which you are in favor of more I seem to recall,as long as obama or hillary
suggests them!
Study up your global economics and you will see that china,and Russia,and
India,are all competing for the black gold now,this is what is driving prices up
globally.That and the instability over in the middle east region.Hang onto your
ass orlee,cause its goin up to 5 bucks a gallon..No shit..So the sooner we lock
in air fare to vegas the better..I say less blame,more solutions are called
for..Shit,lets invade Iran,that should drive the prices down..lol..I love Dick
Cheney  Mudd out

oil prices

2008-03-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

By Orlee;
it appears we have a huge problem again.. seems like going to the gas pumps is like going to the bank and just saying put me a account at the pumps.. today our prices here in ohio and the arounding states is $3.45 .. i know for a fact new york and pennsylvania are of the same priceing with $3.29 being a bargin.. i was in new york last night..
when george bush became president the price of a barrel of oil was $39 dollars a gallon.. when asked what he thought of the prices going to be as high as $5.00 a gallon by summer he said.. "who told you that" the new man then said it is common knowledge. his response was .. "I didnt know that" .. of course he didnt know that .. when the hell has he filled a car at a gas pump lately.. but he should of known since his daddy has a permanent smile from all the profits his family is makeing..

myself i look at it as to how much more it takes me to get from one place to the next.. doesnt seem like alot of money when you look at it and say .. well its going to take me 50 cent or so more .. to go from point a to point b. but when you look at the other cost which will be going up .. like food because of delivery costs and every other service we get delivered .. air line tickets and so. on i could go on forever..

one more lovely thought.. once they get us to pay these prices. there wont be any drops .. you can bet on that when like the tax cuts we supposibly have had we actually got a break in anything.. ...

they dont hate us

2008-03-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

Orlee,I have to congratulate you and the rest of the older ohio women voters who
came out and rescued Hillary from an early retirement from the contest.I dont
know how she did it .(Im still smellin something fishy in those contests by the
way)The way the youth came out to vote it's still makin me scratch my head in
bewilderment.as to how she stole the vote..Probably the same way Bush stole
Florida,huh?lol...So now it will come down to superdelegates,and again,I think
with the way the election is being followed this time globally,Your party is
about to have a pretty tough convention.You better order extra hookers for the
delegates..Cause its gonna be like south korea's parliment swinging on each
other and trying to land kicks and head butts.You and Willy have it right
though,it aint over till november..I didnt vote in my primary eather,so things
could look real different by the time the main election comes around.I'm still
pissed and boycotting washington state elections cause of th
e gov race that was stolen by a democrat after a republican won the vote and the recounts,but on the 3rd
recount bullshit prevailed and they declared the other person the winner all of
a sudden..Horseshit back door politics I call it.
 Also,My grandfather was a life member out of the painters union,and received a
union pension after he retired till he died..It wasnt much,but it was
something..And it did him good..But today my same painters union has sold my job
to illeagle mexicans and rotates 600 mexicans around for 200 jobs,in order that
nobody gets enough hours for benifits,and they get triple dues,and eliminated
vacation pay,and charge you twice for dues checkoff fee.I'm sorry,but this is
not the same union my grandfather helped build..In fact,his son,my uncle,quit
the union after 17 years service in disguest,along with his son my cousin.  Both
are ultra craftsmen,like none left today in the unions.In california,they asked
my dad why he didnt go out to the jobsites anymore to see how the product was
performing(mudd) He would calmly tell them " I dont speak spanish!"Oh,and last year I bought my first non

american car,my saab..but it was already here,and the sweeds are ok,they dont

hate us..Mudd out.

Willy's going Goofy

2008-03-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

 From Orlee
muddy if you and I were to be confidential advisors to the governement.. i would
> guess this country would be way different.. the reality of it is that we cant
> run the governement and we can hopefully get by with what is handed to us.. i
> have no problem with older people running our governement.. but i do think
with
> like every job in the united states at some point a, few really need to
retire..
> 
> look at some of the men like kennedy.. he can hardly walk and he expects
> everyone to think he can live forever and do what he does.. i respect the man
> but there is alot of good men out there who should be able to try . some of
our
> very brightest is learning from the world how to handle it.. i would hope that
> the younger generation would take part and build this country to the best it
was
> and can be again.. look at the supreme court someone looks like they have to
die
> before a new judge is appointed..
> cheney for instance has a bad heart.. i think if your health is in question..
> its time to go.. i am sure they have enough money to get by..
> 
> but if you look at the young now.. they live for the moment.. they try to plan
> for their own futures in a very different way than our fathers did..
> 
> i know you do not agree on unions.. but trust and believe it was men from
early
> on who took the notion that to band together as one and fight for the right of
> all that made this country a much better place.. it put forth the bargining
> commitees to help families and to make sure the workers got their fair share.
> 
> if you take the workers of the usa out of the formula.. because of prices then
> your taking the money out of the programs set up for our families.. in the
> 1970's way before anyone suggested we send our work outside the country..
willy
> and i took care into always trying to buy made in america products.. its not
> easy to do that now.. look on any clothing shelf or product label you wont
find
> too many union labels.. thats sad.. so what our products cost us a slight
higher
> price.. we had plenty of jobs and plenty of products to buy before we decided.
> to move thing out our country..
> they try to tell us that since we get things brought in were getting them
priced
> cheaper.. i sure cant find anything cheaper to buy at a store..
> 
> the everyday products we all use are way over priced..
> 
> so getting jobs back is a very big deal to me..
> 
> i guess i am rambling again.. but heres a funny thing happened to me and
willy..
> 
> 
>
>  muddy here i sit.. willy is going goofy on me.. yesterday after the vote i
> asked him who he voted for .. his answer was.. its a private ballot.. i aint
> telling.. lol.. ya know what that means to me.. the battle is on.. for someone
> to say i love you we can conquer the world.. and then say .. i am not telling
> you who i voted for.. well.. the game is on.. ..
>
> now he has tried to tell me like 40 times who he voted for and each time i
say..
> no no no.. i cant believe you now lol.. its driving him nuts.. when this all
> happened i told him he would be so proud to tell me the truth and tell me who
he
> voted for.. he says.. he voted for neither candidate.. that he wanted to just
> wait and see who would win.. his one lil vote wouldnt make a big difference..
he
> is actually very right.. had i thought of that i myself would of made that
> choice.. so i am unsure why he decided to not tell me this before we went to
> vote..
> 
> 
> oh by the way .. he will put a mark on the presidential vote ..

Vote for Ralph Nader

2008-03-05T17:24:00.000-08:00

I was proud of mike huckabee as he bowed out of the race.I was equally repulsed
by the McCain acceptance speech.What a cardboard cut out of a real person.All he
did was read poorly written cue cards and babble nonsense about you,and me,and
the end of useless govt spending and bla bla bla..The look in his eye told me he
was gettin some from his wifey as soon as he left the stage,probably missionary
position.I respectfully reserve my vote for president choice untill after the
democratic convention and who is running on their side..Shit,I might have to
vote for Ralph Nader,and I hate that fuckwad for outlawing the best car I ever
had (63 corvair)Wait,hes even older than McCain,nevermind.

Ohio is done

2008-03-05T17:22:00.001-08:00

 from orlee
> > after yestedays vote seems like ohio is done for the moment.. although the
> momentum here was good.. hillary is the winner from us in case some didnt
know..
> not sure how her delegates stack up at the moment but from all indications ..
> obama is still in the lead with delegates.. i am unsure which states still
have
> to vote.. muddy have you voted yet.. i was sorry to see your candidate
huckabee
> leave the running actually..whats that  mean in terms of your vote.. do you
> think you will sway to the democrat side? good question huh? or will you
remain
> a republican..
> 
> i have been watching mc cain close now.. to me he doesnt even seem to have
> anything of a good campain yet. maybe now that he is the only runner on the
> republican side. we will hear something about what his party stands for.. but
at
> the moment. i think hillary and obama will take the forefront on all news
> channels.. its going to be interesting to say the least..

Make our country safe

2008-03-04T18:18:00.000-08:00

 I dont want to try and influence your vote at all orlee.I want you to vote for
whoever you feel will
a.Not lie.
b.Keep our country safe
c.Challenge the job loss to overseas markets.
d.Someone who you wont feel you have to make excuses for.

Now,as far as your statement
". first off. the
> republicans lied about the extent of this war to everyone."  totally untrue.In
fact,I seem to recall a speech Gw made at the start of this when he said "This
is not going to be easy,or quick.It will take a long time,and our will as a
country will be tested.And it wont be cheap.."  I dont see how you can
misconstrue this as somebody said it would be over quickly.Nobody ever said
that.
If you ment that george lied about weapons of mass destruction,again,this is
still not proven one way or another,at least in my world.I have seen interviews
with people who sweare they know that the weapons were moved to Siria,and where
they are to this day..I firmly believe this,and do not trust
iran,siria,pakistan,or anyone else on the henchmen of the worlds bribery list.Its all coming to a head over
there,trust me.We just havent declared ww3 yet,but that what it really is.I am
disapointed that you never checked into John McCain more before you go
vote.Maybe during the time before the real election you can check into his
qualifications further.Voting along party lines only will not ever end gridlock
in Washington D.C.In fact,I antisapate the Democratic party to be split by this
election,especially after obama wins the nomination,hillary steals it with
superdelegates,then obama runs as a independent,and the real democrats like
yourself will be wondering how the far left screwed up
your party.The young people are coming out in droves for obama,So maybe it is
time for a change..I hope obama can learn on the job training style,cause
hillary already knows how to steal our money from day 1.  John McCain cannot win
against the young popular vote simply because of the age difference.To be
honest,I'm fucking tired of the assholes my dads age running everything..they are the ones who fucked the world up in my humble
opinion.They did defeate the natzis and japanese over 50 years ago,but I have to
agree with the arab world on this,that they devided up the world after ww2
unfairly,and dominated the global markets,which,I guess,is part of the "to to
victors come the spoils".Which brings us to another question..How long can we
keep doing it?This is what is driving the jobs lost to overseas competition.We
still need fair trade,not protectionism.In my humble opinion..Now go
vote..lol..Mudd out.

More orlee

2008-03-04T18:17:00.001-08:00

the vote for super tuesday is tomorrow.. boy every other commercial on t v is vote for hillary and obama.. i am torn by this vote for sure.. i want to mark my spot for hillary.. but i have to believe that she voted for the war from hell.. and that she was first lady when the jobs started to be sent from our country.. but i cant blame her for that one . or the war actually .. first off. the republicans lied about the extent of this war to everyone.. second.. it was a time when everyone was confused except george bush on what he was doing.. and third.. she must of had our country in the forfront of her mind to make the decision like alot of others who was lied to to vote in favor of it.lol plus she should of called me we would of done coffee and i would of changed her mind about fighting.. . myself i would of abstained from voting at all.. secondly the job losses.. it was not her real choice .. i would of hoped that she didn't actually have any part of that .. but bill did and i am sure as we all know.. in anything that comes before the president.. there is hidden adgendas and things added that are worded so no one understands it and makes huge loop holes .. so i guess i can excuse her for that too..

now obama.. here is a very very smart man.. who pertains to want to change our country for the best.. he wants to give tax breaks to companies who will stay here and make jobs here.. which is as it should be.. he says he wil help fix our health care system.. but they all say that one..
and that he will be a president for the middle class. whats left of us..
but that tiny little nudging in my brain says.. look if its too good to be true its probably something to be leary of..

so i guess i will be standing in a cloth booth tomorrow with the same questions in my head and hope for the best.. i do know this we cant take another 4 years of the republican reign.. sorry to those who may disagree with me..

i guess this is a disclaimer.. anything in this email is of my own oppionion.. not to be fought over and not to be lol a challenge from one side to the other.. lol.. so muddy if you have anything to say.. which might change my mind .. bring it on lol.. yea yea yea and huckabee.. but i dont get that choice on my ballot and i am not a switch hitter.. i stick with my democratic vote..

Only Part of the machine

2008-02-28T07:52:00.002-08:00

Your only a part of the machine orlee.I get it from all sides here in washington
state.And I'm glad you checked into your partys way of fixing an
election..Republicans do not have this feature in their primary..This will
explain how it came about
There has been a lot of confusion over delegates and super-delegates. And,
because of the close race between Obama and Clinton, understanding the role of
delegates and super-delegates is going to be more important than in past
elections. However, understanding may be the easy part...Getting over the
seemingly less than democratic process, may prove to be more difficult.
So, lets take a look at the super-delegates...
The Super-delegates are party leaders and lawmakers, including all
Democratic members of Congress and former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton, as well as ex-vice president Al Gore.
If no candidate has a lock on the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the
nomination before the party's convention in August, the 796 "super-delegates" would be decisive.
Unlike "pledged" delegates chosen through primaries and caucuses,
super-delegates are free to vote for whomever they chose. Many have already
promised to back one candidate or another, "and most of the others will at some
point before the convention," said Michael Tanner, a political analyst with the
Cato Institute.
Who are the super delegates? The following information is from the 2008
Democratic Convention Watch.
List of super delegates that have already endorsed a candidate.
List of super delegates that have NOT yet endorsed a candidate.
Why did the party adopt the 'super delegate' system?
Super-delegates were supposed to supply some Establishment stability to the
nominating process.
Before 1972, party elders, such as Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Charlie
Buckley, the boss of The Bronx who helped John Kennedy clinch the 1960
nomination, wielded inordinate power.
But in early 1970's, the party's rules were reformed to open the process to grass-roots activists, women, and ethnic minorities.
Sen. George McGovern, the leading anti-Vietnam war liberal, won the 1972
nomination. McGovern turned out to be a disaster as a presidential candidate,
winning only one state and the District of Columbia.
So without reverting to the days of party bosses like Buckley, the Democrats
decided to guarantee that elected officials would have a bigger voice in the
nomination.
Most people don't like the idea of our next presidential nominee being decided
by super delegates. And, if it comes down to that, I think there is going to be
some real trouble in the Democratic party. Personally, as a disenfranchised
voter in Florida, I would be furious if super delegates decided the nominee, but
Florida delegates did even get counted.
So now we all know how superdelegates came into being,and why.

2008-02-28T07:52:00.001-08:00

From: ARLENE R BUTCHER
>
> lol am i a democrat smear machine.. lol.. look you dont need to stand alone..
> you can sit down and take the stuff i smear its ok.. cause i have a long list
of
> things to smear lol.. god love your grandma for putting up with so many
> republicans and comeing out of it ok..
> i bet everynight the darling woman went to sleep and prayed you all would get
> smart.. lol. wheres your sister now.. did she ever date sammy? cause he wasn't
> so bad.. he had a good job at least..
>
> hey muddy clue here... if pete lived and was a citizen here.. he would be
a
> democrat.. havent ya noticed he is leaning toward my side in it all and he
never
> liked bush either.. but thats over.. with .. we only have a few months and
> numerous days till the big day when that moving van is heading for the white
> house.. and a big change will be taking place.. new blood new.. workers .. new
> menus on the white house dinner schedule. heck isn't it the first lady or
first
> man who chooses what we all eat .. when i go to dinner there lol..
>
> oh by the way i do disagree with the superdelegates.. hell i would like to
> become one though .. imagine the perks to really getting the good stuff from
> both sides to choose right.. so ok tell me this.. does the republicans have
> superdelegates or is that limited to the ones who actualy go out and find
votes
> or does mccain have a few superdelegates up his ass (i mean sleeve)...?
>
>
> back to ya mudd

celebrity Death Match

2008-02-28T07:50:00.001-08:00

I think the country is well aware of Ohios plight with that debate and your
emails.Ohio is not alone I'm afraid.I saw it coming with raising intrest rates
at the same time oil went to 80 bucks a barrel.
Now as far as being an undercover newscaster,funny you should mention
that..My longtime roomate jimmy is a democratic lead guitar player,and I play
the republican bass player/piano faker sometimes we make up songs to the news
shows (such as the ever popular 'pump an Iraqi) and end up making ourselves
laugh so hard we cant play anymore.All songs are politically incorrect,which
adds to their charm.I've been trying to get him to get with the program and
start makin ourselves a name on utube or cable radio as the Mudd and Jimmy
show,just for a laugh.But he would rather seek out homeless musicans and play
with them.Maybe someday he will go for it with me.Preferably during an election
cycle,as we seem to grind off each other well with our opposing views.By the
way,he's a Dennis Kucinich fan,which I am constantly teasing him about.I have a letter from George Bush hanging next to Jimmys door
with a picture of the white house I taped on it to make it look more
presidential.He still hasnt
commented on it,but he did like the 2008 calender I gave him for christmas of
george and Laura Bush closeups.
And as far as my ability to pick out the bad parts of any political
speech,thank my dad for this trait,as he was instrumental in grooming this
ability.
As far as why dont I like supporting the poor,we already do,I just have a
problem when I go work on section 8 housing projects and every one of them low
income people drive better cars than me and mine
do..Mercedes,bmw's,jags..etc..Because we pay their other bills,they get to buy
luxury vehicles.All I ask is somebody checks where the money goes someday.Which
wont happen cause thats more expensive than just giving it away,cause then you
got 2 groups stealing the money.The checkers and the checkees.
And lastly but not least,why dont I look for the good in the candidates?I'm still looking..The last I checked,the last 2 republican candidates have
run a totally muddslinging free campaign ,which I applaud.They even like and
admire each other,which I find a little discomforting,but not as scary as Mc
cains wifes eyes..Have you seen those light gray firey eyes?Pretty scary if you
ask me..I'm hoping it was the camera angle and glare..otherwize she might be the
antichrist..Mike,sue,hes your Senator,is she a good women,or a drill sargent
just waiting behind closed doors with a whip?Her "I'm proud of my America"
comment seemed like a challange to obamas wife..Is celebrity death match still
playing?Thats the fight I wanna see,maybe in the octagon on ultimate fighting.

Your hired

2008-02-28T07:48:00.000-08:00

By orlee:
ok your hired.. to be the next undercover news caster for election day.. lol.. actually i am glad you watched that.. myself i am sure you want a oppionion right lol... it was not a good debate.. nothing we all havn't heard before.. its the same stuff different day.. there was nothing new brought up except that they both want ohio votes.. we do know now that the whole country knows were in trouble in ohio with job losses and no end in sight for our smart young children to have a fighting chance to make a living here.. but besides that i think your good at picking out all the bad parts of any democrat conversation.. can ya just look at the good this might bring.. so what you think were going to have to pay for the poor.. why is that such a issue with you.. because you yourself pertain to be charitable.. any money spent on the poor goes right back into the economy.. its a win win situation for most of us. even in the position of your job.. and i know you wont say so but.. if by chance a grant come through from the governemt in your area alone to find and fix up housing for the people who need help.. you would benefit with job opportunities.. its not always about just food.. there is durable goods every family wether needy or rich might have.. the one thing though that i caught upon was the fact that both candidate hit on that the administration and i wont say you know who.. is a president for the weathy.. he has written tax cuts to help them.. how does that filter down to us.. ? dont take that as a question.. lol.. just that those of you who are middle class.. not many of us left.. were now the pre-poor.. why cant you see that .. that the rich have had the benefits you and i might never have with a hand in the pockets of the politicians and vice vera .. so when you say .. the democrats will do this and that on a negative thought.. why not look for the good these candidates will do.. not the negative..

Im glad

2008-02-28T07:47:00.001-08:00

I'm glad you are getting something out of orlee and my debates Pete.Thats
exzactly why I am writing all of these emails..To get others involved and so
people outside the usa learn a bit more of our system,which certinly isnt
perfict,and needs refining with our help.The system was set up before the
current media blitz,and has fallen into manipulators hands.It can be fixed
though.I do get kinda tired of standing alone against the democratic smear
machine..To be honest my dad started teasing his step-mother when I was growing
up about being a democrat,and they went round and round every election cycle.So
thank you to orlee for reminding me of those good times with dad and
grandma..and allowing the debates to continue.Ok,so they wernt such good times
with mom telling dad to change the subject and the tv!Then my sister would start
in teasing grandma that she would like to date sammy davis jr. and grandmas
mouth would drop open and then she would just shut up and grumble..Yes,this is
the
same one who hated reagon.So during the 80's it was real testy..And I learned to hold my own against the
democrats.

2008-02-28T07:46:00.001-08:00

From: Peter Wakeling > I learn more from reading your emails muddy than i do watching Fox news... ill
> say that much..

My take on the dems debate

2008-02-28T07:44:00.000-08:00

ok..heres my take from the debate..
Heathcare...obama wins..hillary would mandate we all buy insurance we cant
afford.
2.Hillary lies about nafta..she was all for it when bill clinton signed it into
law.now she claims she never liked it and it needs fixed//unfortunatly it cant
be fixed.They both are lieing on this issue..
3.jobs for ohio..Obama wants to invest,invest,invest..sounds like more spending
a comin..Clinton says shes gonna invest,invest,invest..sounds like more trash
talk.Both want to spend more of your money.
4.Clinton claims she went to china and stood up for human rights..I still see no
change in china so whatever she did didnt work..
5.Clinton claims obama wants to bomb pakistan..Clinton doesnt think this is
right..To be honest,we already are killing al quida member inside pakistan with
Predator remote control airplanes.
6.Iraq..Obama says we need to get out now no matter what.Clinton says we need to
leave,but keep a presence in the area but have an orderly withdrawl,beginning in
60 days,removing 1-2 bragades per month.
7.Afghanistan..Obama wants more troops in afghanstan.Clinton wouldnt shut up as
they went to commerical.Looks desperate.
8.they ran the wrong film clip..msnbc looks as hapless as usual.
9.More help for poor people.Hang onto your wallets again..more govt handouts
comin if eather of these people get in.
10.Obama says hillary cant claim her husbands experience as hers..I agree.she
cant pick and choose the good stuff she was for..the bad stuff she was
against..typical polititions positions.
11.Keeping their word.obama apparntly is flip flopping on public financing
money.All of em do this..no mystery here.
12.Clintons tax returns. they wont release it .sounds fishy to me..she claims
she will release the returns..I doubt it.maybe after the election she wont have
it ready before the primary unfortunatly.
13.lous farakaam.. obama denys any affiliation with this black man.will not
denounce his support though.tim ruppert is trying to get obama to say he will
support isreal..obama says he wont tolerate anti-semitisim.Clinton slaps obama with not denouncing
farakaan.
14.obamas voting record is more liberal than ted kennedys.National Review rated
obama this.
15.putins successor . Clinton claims putin is installing his successor.shes
probably right. Both will kiss his ass if they get in office..
16.Clinton gives concession speech..At least thats what it sounds like..History
making campaign..bla bla bla..Now the attack dogs are talking about hillary..her
attack dogs have turned on her,trying to make her look bad.god I hate msnbc news
people.
ok how'd I do?

I will watch it

2008-02-28T07:42:00.000-08:00

I will watch it..what channel is it on?And you should go hear John Mc cain
speak.Hes somewhere in a burger stand near you kissing babies.I'm glad I finally
got an answer out of you..You sheep make it hard to get a straight answer,I mean
you democrats..See,when I hear you say it doesnt matter who gets in as long as
they are democrats,that worries me.Says "follow the heard no matter who lies to
who" to me.Maybe I'm wrong..I hope to hell I am..And about that florida
thing..wasnt that 2000 election stuff?Hell gore is even over it..Now that he has
his nobel peace prize he has quit whinin so much..Now heres the truth about that
election..Bush stole it..yup..he did cheat better than Clinton that time.His
daddy learned those "go after the the big states delegates only' trick the hard
way.And Carl Rove refined it.Here's more "truths" as I see em..Your party is
still upset with the egg on its face from the clinton lieing to congress about
monica lewinski.Spent the last 8 years trying to pass
that along to gw bush with the "bush lied" sticker campain and everything.Maybe it worked,maybe it
didnt..All I know it gave me a target to aim for up here with my
bumper..lol...Now I gotta get the "vote for monica lewinskis ex boyfriends
wife" bumper sticker..Hell I might even vote for obama.

Tonights debate

2008-02-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

by orlee:
> i dont doubt your right you keep up on things.. it wont matter who gets the
> nomination of my party. they are both qualified to be president.. as far as
some
> men doing the picking thats ok by me to.. i didnt set up the rules. but they
> must of thought them out in great detail.. lol.. your forgeting your party
> declared victory before the total votes were even counted and how about
florida
> with is messed up system which put georgie in office.. before ohio was even
> counted.. its like you said .. we should have a super anyday where we all vote
> at once.. to pick our candidates..
>
> then all this stuff wouldnt happen to get everyone all worked up..
>
> by the way watch our debate tonight on t v.. it comes from cleveland ohio at
the
> cleveland state campus.. it should be very interesting and since your so open
> minded about this election lol.. you should want to hear my sides debate.. lol
> we will have a quiz on it tomorrow .

superdelegates

2008-02-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

ok,I guess you just dont understand the question..But first lets not compare
FLYING AND GAMBLING COSTS to the price of a ticket to a football game..They are
not 1000 dollars unless you buy them from a scalper on ebay or somewhere
else.The price of a ticket is still under 100 bucks,except a playoff game..So I
still dispute your vacation theory..That said,for the fourth time,How do you
feel when obama gets more delegates,has more of the popular vote,and yet still
might not get the partys nod for their candidate because of an old rule put in
place by fast talking men in back rooms?This rule could let these old croonies
decide who the candidate will be regardless of the voters.As if they know better
who should get the nomination.This act could be considered treason in my mind.If
I was a democrat I wouldnt put up with this crap..This is all I'm asking.how do
you feel about this situation?Not who your voting for.
If you still have no idea what I'm talking about,I suggest you pay a little more
attention to the details of whats going on in your party.Do a search for SUPERDELEGATES and you
should be able to find some info on the rules for superdelegates.Thats what I
would like answered.Waiting for the next novel..Mudd out.

Unsure of the question

2008-02-28T07:37:00.000-08:00

By orlee:
> i guess i am unsure of the questions.. if your asking me am i voting for
> hillary.. i am not going to sidestep it.. i will vote for hillary.. i always
> said i wouldnt vote for her ..i thought for the longest she is a caluclating
> bitch.. but if that is what it takes to make it in the world of political
humor
> and and honor.. to be elected as president to the united states . then i hope
> she a bigger bitch than i thought.. lol ..lets face it .. the presidental ring
> has new and strong players this time.. its a man oriented world .. my
candidates
> are both qualified.. both have law degrees and have put in their time to learn
> and do a great job if elected.. not saying that mc cain wont do a good job as
> president.. I was impressed with him before and thought he was a good man..
and
> still do.. i just fear he will stay on the same war path as bush and not
change
> much .for the middle class.. whom ever is elected will inherit the worst
> position and will be critized .. but guess what.. i wont be the one to do that
> lol.. i bet you find that funny.. i never actually critized a president till
lil
> georgie got into office. i have always been political but not to the point as
i
> am passionate as i am now.. there is a big stake in this election. and
hopefully
> were all on a win win situation..
>
> our country needs alot.. hell they should invite me to dinner with the next
> president.maybe you could come too... actually i might get kicked out of
dinner
> with bush .. you know protocal and all .. when i would stand up and say.. hey
> asshole what was you thinking.. lol i am sure those sunglassed guards would
boot
> me.. can you picture me at dinner with bush.. maybe i could go visit barbara
> bush and her cohorts.. lol wouldnt that be fun just a bunch of old ladies
> sitting back comparing notes on how well our children do.. imagine that
> conversation.. lol.. well ok lets not get carried away.. its a bad visual..
lol
> ..
>
> i asked once along time ago in a email..
>
> if you have one person you would want to sit down with and talk to one more
> time.. who would it be.?. if you could fill a table with people who are
> important to you to have a conversation with.. who would it be.?. i know my
> answer.. and guess what george bush wouldnt be at my table.
>
> whos at your tables..??
> its a tough question.. at my age.. i know the importance in my life. and i
know
> that all the bull shit that comes with life doesn't mean that much.. i will
tell
> you this .. the smartest man i ever met.. would be at the head of my table..
my
> dad.. now tell whos at your table..
>
> oh and by the way.. last year i checked on tickets to go see pittsburg steelers
> and clevelan browns.. they were upward of 1000 dollars for them.. if you could
> find some hacker to part with any.. to me thats a vacation.. i can fly to my
> sisters for 2 of us.. about 600 dollars.. i rent a car its about 30 to 40
> dollars a day.. i think most we ever paid with our coupon from the
entertainment
> book was like 250 dollars.. so now were up to 850 dollars.. food and gas for
the
> week well i will free load off them lol. not really wouldnt be that much for
me
> and willy. we might hit a casino hotel in reno driveing there.. and they will
> probably let us stay for free.alot comp. us for free food.. being gamblers
and
> all. when i gamble i normally allow 150 dollars a day.. now mind you that
doesnt
> count for my losses. i cant say i ever ran out .. ok i did a few times.. but
on
> a whole i am pretty lucky.i have taken vacations where the cost was out of
> pocket 2000 dollars .. maybe a little more.. but not much and had a hell of a
> good time.. and we stayed 10 days in california..
> so yes the cost of going to one football game could be a vacation for me..
>
> i am telling you i am the queen of cheap.. but i have to have alot of cheap
> thing..
>
>
> and by the way.. i saw on the news in california they now have marijauna
vending
> machines.. apparently you put in a perscription for pot and it dispenses it
like
> a bottle of soda.. aint this a wonderful world.. when you getting those in
> washington.. ??

You dont Piss me off

2008-02-28T07:35:00.001-08:00

And you dont piss me off as much as you think..I just like facts being bantered
about,not bullshit.Again,now you've changed your story from going to a football
game will cost you a vacation for a family,(check below if brain needs
refreshed)to tickets for a season will cost a vacation and superbowl tickets are
18,000 (ha,good luck selling those,most go for 2-5,000 bucks.)I guess if this
makes your point,go ahead and change..I know this is a womans right..And I have
an offer for the seattle thunderbirds aa hockey team 10 tickets for 50
bucks.Thats not bad,and you get to hang out with funny canadians who have
nothing better to do on a saturday night than watch hockey. Nice job ignoring my
question again on the super delegates issue with obama and hillary..I really
want to know what you think..about hillary if she goes to super delegates to
secure the democratic nomination..Dont dodge it..dont fill the page with babble
that doesnt pertain to dick..Answer me please!

2008-02-28T07:34:00.001-08:00

From: ARLENE R BUTCHER <
>
> checking on line for nfl superbowl tickets.. now mind you this is not your
> average football game as you know. its not unreasonable to pay up to 18
thousand
> dollars plus for 2 tickets..that i think includes your hotel stay within 10
> miles of the stadium.. now tell me again how cheap you can get tickets.. lets
> check regular games.. the baseball which is the cheapest for tickets in your
> area is from 35 to 120 dollars each ticket.. i am sure like here you can find
> discounted tickets. i cant really find regular season tickets for the football
> yet i think its too early for them to go on sale . i did see on ebay.. go
figure
> someone is selling half of their season tickets to the raiders. 2 tickets for
5
> games $999.00 thats 200 dollars a game. are you sure you can get tickets
really
> as cheap as you think? lol maybe your team is no good thats why tickets are so
> available and cheap.. lol.. utto actually i found a site has seattle seahawk
> season tickets for 1000 dollars each.. which includes sitting on the upper
> level.. and hey there is still some prices higher than that depending on where
> your going to sit.up to $2400 per season ticket.. so if 2 of you want to go..
> could cost a vacation amount.. if you want to take a family to a game i am
sure
> you will have pure sticker shock..
>
> here i can tell you willy and i go to atleast 3 or 4 baseball games downtown.
we
> have the akron aeros.. which is a AAA team the players go to the Indians or
> other professional teams.. its a great time and prices for us to go is under
10
> dollars a game each.. sometimes we end up with free tickets.. and the beer and
> food it cheaper too..
>
> but i am telling you i would maybe go to a football game but i cant see
sitting
> in the cold and paying a fortune for the tickets ..
>
>
> lol i figure i better change the color for this next stuff.. about the taxes.
> any speech george bush gave was to announce his tax breaks . not my idea. his..
> in his speech to the nation his he said and i am not just telling you this for
> the fun of it.. he wants to put inyo place a law so that anyone getting in
> office cant stop his tax cuts.he wants them permanent.. his rich buddies will
> love him for that. . ofcourse .we all know there so benfitting them poor
folk..
> lol thats a joke..
>
> as far as our money going to the poor for food.. you found the cheaters..
there
> is cheaters who take the money given to them and find a way to profit from
it..
> trust and believe there is truely poor out there who need that food and help..
> and i have no difficulty in taking care of the elderly and the poor.. your gf.
> son who bought that food card.. if its such a problem he should tell anyone
> trying to give him a deal on the card that you dont like when he does that and
> he has to stop.. any money that goes into the public from our government finds
> and filters its way back into the economy.. its a win win situation as far as i
> can tell..
> the best way to get people off aid from the government is through education..
if
> you give a man a fish he will eat for one day.. if you teach him to fish he
will
> eat forever..
>
> boy i would hope by the way.. cheney gets the boot too. so that will end his
> being the boss over anything...someone call rent a truck and make sure they
all
> have rides line up ..
>
> how much curiously is cigerettes in your state.? when we go to new york
> ciggerettes at the indian reservation are half of what the cost is here.. but
in
> ohio.there over 40 dollars a carton of 10 ... if you go outside your state and
> purchase anything cheaper.. on your tax form they want you to confess and pay
> them the tax dollars they missed out on.. i had a friend was ordering
cigeretts
> on line.. somehow he was told on by the seller or something. the first year
they
> called him on the tax.. was over 800 dollars.. they charged him 15 dollars a
> carton. in taxes..
>
> so now what.. do we complain about..
>
> you must see me as a whiner.. i see me as a strong american woman who is
> knowledgeable lol and it pisses ya off. i do know i am voting for obama or
> clinton.. your party can handle themselves. one of those losers will make it
to
> the ballot.. the next thing is learning who everyones running mate is..
>
> oh by the way.. here is a thought.. if you are getting ready to take a
airplane
> someplace and perchance the week or month before there was a plane wreck and
> some part was overlooked.. that caused the wreck. every plane now that you
might
> board will be looked at piece by piece. to make it safe as the day it was
made.
> right.. so here is the deal.. if per chance hillary should be voted in.. as
> madame president. guess what.. she is the first.. she will be put on a stool
for
> all the world to see. she will want to set the standards high for us. she will
> make sure in her history readings she was known for something other than filling
> a void for the seat. she is going to be strong and willing to take on a job
that
> maybe just maybe will be wrote about in the history books as one hell of a
great
> president. .. on that note i am hopefull. but either way both my candidates
will
> be first.. both are strong both have things they want to do to make our
country
> better. back to mc cain.. what did he say he would do for us? geesh i cant
think
> of a thing..

Enduring Questions

2008-02-28T07:31:00.000-08:00

ok..lets answer those enduring questions for you this morning..First question:
1.What the hell has mc cain promised he will do if elected?I think he has
promised to be president.Other than that,do you really expect these guys to
accomplish any of what they promise in the run for president??The truth is,none
of what they promise will be acted on..If you vote because of what they
promise,I doubt if you will get what you want.And as far as following in the
footsteps of his now boss...Who do you think his now boss is?He is a senator
from Arizona,so I guess his boss would be the people of Arizona.and when He's in
Washington,I guess you could consider Dick Cheiny his boss as he is the head of
the senate.George is not his boss so quit trying to smear bush again.I am glad
you finally started to look at other candidates though.I cant wait till you pass
the democratic nonsense and start smearing the current candidates.Should be any
day now we should see it start from your party.I tried to get a debate going
about the crooks trying to steal obamas thunder from your part
y,but that was ignored,I assume because you want hillary to win,but I might be
wrong on that.I still await a discourse on that subject..I still have copys of
that email if you need a refresher.

Everyone struggles

2008-02-19T15:36:00.001-08:00

muddy everyone struggles.. it doesnt matter how much money you have.. everyone wastes money.. from the very poor to the very rich.. if you gave a poor family .. i saw a show on t v.. a man who was homeless found a case.. was placed for a very poor person to find.. it had 100 grand inside.. a man pushing a shopping cart found it.. he first bought a car for a man who was in charge of where he would sell cans he collected each day.. he then bought himself a truck and flew to where his family was .. only to find when the money ran low so did the family love.. he didnt invest any .. was very generous with all his other homeless friends.he got married.. but lost that too when she found out there was no money.. . buying a bike for one and giveing money for food and alchol for most.. in the end.. he didnt plan the money he owned a new truck with no money for gas.. all his family had turned away again .. and he was homeless once more..
we all make our own destiny.. each one of us.. but there is forces which will not make it easy.. but then again .. struggle is good lf you remember where you came from and where your going .in the end .. we all get old.. we all lose our great looks and end up old .. but hopefully the dance was great..life can be good if you let it.. .. we all have those sad stories about someone near us who had a bad end.. hell i can tell you alot of those.. but to dwell is not a good idea.. i try to only remember the great times.. and guess what.. i took care of my parents and my brothers in their times of being sick and dieing.. and it was the hardest time of my life to lose them all. but i wouldnt of gave up any of the time.. i had to spend to take care of them..

Uncle Johnny

2008-02-19T15:35:00.001-08:00

Hold on while I finish my bongload..phhhhtttt..ahhhhhh..I'm glad you took that
email in the spirit it was written orlee..I'll only clear up 2 mistakes in your
last response..It was my grandma who was a democrat that hated reagon till the
day she died..Not my mom..My mom worked for General tire also when it was called
aerojet general out in southern calif.She is still alive and does not recieve a
pension..my dad doesnt eather..He was able to earn,save,and invest..And he even
helped my moms youngest brother with some money each month for meds he needed
till last week when he shot himself in the head and left a note saying he
couldnt even afford to wash his clothes anymore.My mom and dad found him when
they went by to see why he wasnt answering their letters anymore.So when someone
suggests that I dont know how fucking hard it is to be able to retire,or that I
am way over the line by suggesting we all help each other ,trust me,I know! .And
my sister called me crying that she felt guil
ty of not doing more to help Uncle Johnnie..I said well,maybe you should look at these feelings.You
see,she could have moved him onto their property and things would have been
easier for him,but more difficult for her.She instead choose to move my parents
way out there so it would be easier for her to take care of them in her and
their retirement.
O,and you are right about the stealing of the social security money orlee..I
know of 3 times in my life congress borrowed the "extra" money in the kitty to
pay russias wheat bill.  Thats a fact..they did it while reagon was in office
also..and clinton.and bush 1 But now the russians are are friends,right?them and
China..And pigs fly!

I must Piss you off

2008-02-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

@msn.com>
>
> ...lol hold on while i munch on a steak... so you have employees.. thats great
> you need them .. i didnt know you owned a company.. and you have set up
pensions
> and payrolls and all the things that go along with being employed.. do you
have
> workers comp and full benefits.. i know its difficult to set some of these
> things up but i am just curious.. how about unemployment? you must be doing
> well.. and oh by the way.. hold on munching on a potato and some salad lol..
> whats with me not sharing my pension.. why would i do that.. ofcouse i have
> money in the bank .. we were forunate enough to work for union labor.. which
set
> into motion the benefits we have.. hell i have benefited from my father being
a
> union man to moving on to willy whos father who was union and most of my
> brothers were union workers.. the wealth of most union workers is well known..
> my mother in law worked till she retired from goodyear.. they are still
> battleing for benefits for thier retired workers .. and themselves.. so yes we
> planned well or my husband employer did.. he went by all the rules in the
> process.. i bet your wages are based on what a union worker would get ..
> 
>     lol i must really piss you off lol...
> 
> oh by the way nixon was the first i think to dip into the social security fund
> to borrow or take some of the excess to fund god knows what.. we were at war
at
> the time.. and i bet if you look into it you will find as with most of the
> presidents after that, took from the fund on a regular basis.. where do you
> think george got the money for war.. wasnt from his back pocket.. ronald regan
> was a democrat till he turned republican to run for president.. which was a
big
> controversy back then.. alot thought he was still partial to the democrats
under
> his own party.. which is ok by me..
> 
> do you know how much of a social security check your mom got before they cut
her
> by 30 dollars you mention that she was bothered by that.. you need to remember
> that most older americans who got those benefits .most didnt have pensions
> either.. . your mom including used that money to live on.. they didnt do the
> things like we did.. with cable tv. vidio games.. going out to eat on a
regular
> basis.. going to the store was a big event and it wasnt a supermarket it was a
> store. most road buses.. cars were a luxury too.if they actually owned a car
it
> was one shared by 2 or more in the family. so if you think they lived a
> extravagant life style share it with us..
> my father went for the cheese the government gave out.. he stood in the line
and
> took cheese , butter and i think they gave rice and some other things here..
and
> yes he didnt need it but he lived during the depression and if the government
> gave it he excepted it.. so there was always a block of cheese in the fridge..
> along with planting a garden and haveing more vegetables to give an store away
> ..
> 
> did i mention that when i turn 62 i also will get a check from the government..
> my account is not worthy of alot but willy's is and i will recieve half of
> whatever he might get from our government.. some in my circle of friends think
i
> do not deserve a check since i was a stay at home mom.. and worked only from
my
> house and didn't pay into the system as their wives did.. i say oh well .. if
i
> marred another man or was married 6 times i could choose which husband makes
the
> most off of the system and then get my half check from that.. i am looking
> forward to my check.. for sure..
> 
> as far as me giving to charities.. i perfer to keep my contributions private..
> if i give its my business and i would guess the amount you give is private
too..
> working for mcdonald is not a bad job if you can stand it.. they do have some
> benefits from what i understand..  but i can tell you this i tell my children
..
> no matter what job you do .. do it with pride wether is garbage man or
president
> make your effort the best you can.. not everyone gets the cushy jobs in life..
> and make sure your educated enough to make sure you can walk and talk with the
> best ...
> 
> my family has had every kind of worker from minister to professors and a head
of
> a university , to fisherman and boat builders.. my brother was a artist and my
> father was a rubber worker.. who ran for a office in ohio till i was a teen
and
> won everytime.. my grandfather was a gambler on my dads side and was murdered
> when he won a big poker game.. as the story was told to me.. my other
> grandfather was a shrimp boat fisherman and then built boats for a living.. my
> cousin on my fathers side is a therapist and writes books and lectures all
over
> the world. her daughter works for the new york times.. i could go on but my
> family is as diverse as any you will ever meet..
> 
> i think you also mentioned my gambling.. geesh i am trying to spread all these
> subject out.. its like this.. we all have our vices.. you do a lil bong on the
> side i am unsure the cost of that and with drinking.. myself.. i have never
done
> drugs , i dont fault you for doing them, and i dont judge you for it..  but i
> would guess its as expensive or more so that the amount i use for my
> entertainment.. a addiction is just that something that you think will make
you
> feel better .. only to find out that in the end .. it was mostly a waste of
> time.i know you will tell me the drugs are medicinal to you.. both can be
> considered illegal . i have friends who dont gamble and they too make comments
> about it one in particular collects bicycles.. there called whizzer bikes.. he
> has probably 20 thousand dollars in 3 bicycles.. so wasting money is something
> everyone does..no matter what.. wether its smoking even cigeretts or
gambling..
> 
> me i am just a old fat grandma who works at home.. has a eye for makeing money
> sitting right here on ebay and enjoys my life.. i eat to much.. i watch t v.
to
> little and i piss you off big time i guess lol. we get our bills paid on time
> and help our children out when nessessary ..  god aint life grand...
> 
> i should put a disclaimer at the end of this..
> 
> this letter was formed from statements that i actually eat with this mouth
lol..
> why yes i do. in the process of writing this its ok he is mad at me for what
> happens here stays here .. and in the end hopefully after this lame election
> ..my party will win and it will be his turn to be upset with all the working
of
> the democratic office .. not to mention is pisses off most republicans on this
> list.. or maybe it will be better for our country we will have to wait and
see..
> anyhow in the process of this letter if it hit home a little to much and
pisses
> anyone else off. SOWWY..

We do sling mudd

2008-02-19T15:32:00.000-08:00

by orlee :
yea he is right about one thing.. we do sling mudd .. pardon the pun pretty good.. as for my stickin my had down your pants lol .. if its anything like putting my hand in your pocket.. i didnt find anything there either.. just a pocket nothing else.. not even a bump..lol.. so to compare that note lol.. it aint happening.. if that was a form of appology all is forgiven.. truth is as truth does.. we all see things differently.. its like memories everyone has some .. if 2 share the same memory its going to be different and little details will be added and forgotten.. its the same with politics.. and cleaning your house..when someone comes to your house.. they don't notice what you do .. the notice what you dont do.. never mind you worked hard to fix things up.. but hey then i have a saying.. if you arent paying my bills you have no oppionion on my life other than the amount i let you have.. that and free advice is what you pay for it nothing.. so inlight of that.. we can all say lets get on with the election and my party winning...

7 Issues

2008-02-19T15:30:00.000-08:00

Easy mikey..I did not get personal..If I'd wanted to,I could have..Even though
the smear job on republicans could be viewed as a personal attack also.Funny you
dont defend attacks both ways..Orlee and I can get pretty snappy at each other
without drawing blood.I still love her,and am sure she still would stick her
hand down my pants if she gets another chance.I even numbered my response's so
it would be clear Which false accusations towards the republican party I was
addressing.I still stand by every one of my answers towards that discussion.Nows
as to the pension stuff,I was replying to the accusation that every one of
orlees friends have no pension and now cannot rely on social security..Can we be
frank??You were never supposed to rely on social security..Even I knew this as a
teenager.And besides that,the democrates in congress say social security doesnt
need fixing..So when I suggested orlee and willy share their good fortune,it was
simply that..A suggestion..And I could have g
uessed both of your responses to that.You are both way too predictable.Cover the page with nonsense that
doesnt apply to what the discussion really is about.Like I need a lecture about
pensions..Not 1 word you wrote about pensions applys to what I wrote or was
refering to.

> So what gives you the right to judge Orlee's friends and their lack of
> pensions? You have NO CLUE as to the circumstances behind it. And then
> to suggest she throw some of her and Willie's pension funds over the fence
> to them .... that's out of line ... even for you.

Even for me huh? I guess I win the rerpublican asshole award for the month when
the truth is plain as day.As usual,shit thrown the republican way is ok,but
never type the stark cold truth,as you will be out of line..Same as your cnn
buddies..and msnbc buddies..and cbs croonies..and abc idiots..Add up everyone
who watches all those news channels and you will get about half the ratings of
my fox news channel,o so biased  as pete claimed..Its nice to get a bias the
right way sometimes..instead of the deck always being stacked to the left.So pick a number from 1-7 of
what I wrote and we can discuss real issues instead of making up tangents to get
upset about.In fact I dare you to discuss all 7 issues I wrote about..O thats
right,you all hate hearing the truth..I eagerly await the responses! Muddles
out.

Personal attack Tangent

2008-02-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

gmail.com>
> "omg  did I get going off on a right wing tangent.."
>
> Yes mudd ... you did ... and a personal attack tangent at that.
>
> First, lets talk about pensions ..... in this day and age there are really
> no more pensions ... unless you are a government employee or schoolteacher.
> Most companies that HAD a pension plan either converted it into an
> optional 401K program or dropped it altogether, only giving pensions to
> those that were grandfathered in when the change was made.
>
> Several companies have gone under because the cost of medical/dental
> benefits and pension is too overwhelming.
>
> Now lets look at a couple of names you may recognize ..... Enron, Arthur
> Anderson, WorldCom, Tyco (just to name a few). What if Orlee's friends
> worked for one of those companies ? Do you think they PLANNED to not have a
> pension ? Do you think they planned to work for 10, 20, 30, or more years
> for a company only to have it collapse around them and give them shit in
> return ? IDFTS !
>
> Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania are three of the industrial centers in
> America hardest hit by unemployment, hundreds of companies have gone out of
> business, downsized, or outsourced and left behind a ton of enemployed
> people that suddenly lost retirements, pensions, or practically everything
> they worked for.
>
> So what gives you the right to judge Orlee's friends and their lack of
> pensions? You have NO CLUE as to the circumstances behind it. And then
> to suggest she throw some of her and Willie's pension funds over the fence
> to them .... that's out of line ... even for you.
>
> Bottom line is this ... we all work now and do our best to set ourselves up
> to retire and be comfortable. We have a lot of friends we love, but our
> family comes first and we are about as willing to give up part of our
> retirement funds as much as our friends are willing to share some of theirs
> with us. I just don't see it happening.

Do you eat with that mouth?

2008-02-19T15:27:00.001-08:00

I'm not letting you get away with more crap out of your democratic mouth.Let me
make it perficly clear..
1.I work my own jobs,not any on the side..never sold 1 item on ebay.
2.The votes you are whining about in florida were sanctioned by the democratic
party for their own violations
this is out of the new york times :
Democrats in Florida and Michigan are increasingly concerned that their
primaries, held in January, will not factor into the nomination fight between
Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. The Democratic National
Committee stripped delegates from both states after they violated party rules by
moving up their primary dates.
So you cant blame george or his brother for that here anymore!
4.Republicans have alot fooled when it comes to money????? More bullshit.
democrates love to give money away..as long as its not theirs..
5.dont trust you will see alot of republicans own companies that they will make
it fair for the little
> guy that you should be a republican.. they like your vote they dont share their
> money.  Another swipe at republicans as a whole..And I take offence at that
statement.I bet I give more money than you do to charity and people in need
around the globe.And I take better care of people that work for me than the
union does.Just ask em.And to be honest,I cant always afford it..But I do it
anyway.And skip a lunch or two..As a fat american,that I can afford to skip.
6.most of my friends have no pensions.. now most cant rely on the social
> security..Well sir..I guess most of your friends should have planned a little
better,huh?Maybe you could share some of yours and willies retirement package
with them?I mean.since you have enough to gamble,and now some extra in the
bank.This seems only fair..Oh,and if they cant rely on social security
anymore,thank your democratic congress for not passing the bills they were asked
to when gw tried to save social security again and the congress said its fluid
till 2049 or something close to that year.Nice try,but you cant blame republicans for that eather.Tell your friends to get a job at burger king..My
girfriend did.
7.a chicken for every pot..Yeah I know a democrat said that..Thats why I said
some pot for every chicken
omg  did I get going off on a right wing tangent..I'm so sorry..Its just that
you remind me of my grandma who hated Ronald Reagon and claimed he cut her
social security check by 30 dollars a month.which was true,but the whole truth
of the matter was social security was bankrupt when ronnie took office..He
helped extend its benifits by cutting a little off each check..yes it was
smaller,but better than no check,which is what the other option was at that
time.And then my grandpa,grandma,and uncle went and got in line for the free
cheese loafs passed out by the govt at that time to poor people,which my
grandparents were not.

I aint blamin Georgie

2008-02-19T15:24:00.002-08:00

From: ARLENE R BUTCHER <prncessorlee2@msn.com>
>
> first off let me congratulate you on working.. you must be working or selling
> doing a lil sales work on the side.. to pay for all the stuff you have now..
> thats great.. and hey lets get down to what i have to say now.. first off i
dont
> blame george bush for everything wrong .. i only blame him for the things he
and
> his family are doing.which made out country his own lil workshop for his own
> wealth. aint it sweet the election for him to be in office his brothers state
> screwed up.. and now we cant count the votes in florida for our primary..
hmmmm
> dont think that is not on every democrats mine? some place back in all our
minds
> is .. was that a strategy to not let the winner have the votes.. ( hey you
> brought it up) and if you really want the little guy to have some rights you
> better get on board with the democrats..
>     republicans have alot fooled when it comes to money.. dont trust that you
> see alot of republicans own companies that they will make it fair for the
little
> guy that you should be a republican.. they like your vote they dont share their
> money. and those internet companies who you think were the only winners when
the
> stock market was high .. guess again.. that portion of the stocks was high and
> in most instances they have continued to be a success story.. you have to
> remember .. everyone at that time wanted the best in internet.. we all wanted
> bigger faster computers.. fast internet speed..and every probram possible ..
> what do you have now.. i would suggest that you got everything you ever wanted
> for internet.. check out googles stock market price... google is suppose to be
> the best company to work for.. they even offer their employees free gormet
> lunches and free massages .. and all kinds of free perks to work there.. and
> most got to be millionairs with stock market perks of free stocks.. dam we all
> could use a job there..
>      most of my friends have no pensions.. now most cant rely on the social
> security.. how long must americans work before they can retire.. so if you
want
> a chicken in every pot.. by the way that was a democrat who said that for the
> chicken in every pot.. i believe it was either roosevelt or truman.. not
sure..
> but i know it wasnt a republican.. better check your history..
>       anyhow i am getting off the subject.. i guess my thought were going
left..
> lol.. muddy.. i am only a big mouth here.. and so are you lol.. there is alot
on
> this list who sit back and just watch the sparks fly.. we both know that. we
can
> debate who did what and why forever in my heart.. i do blame bush.. and come
> hell or high water.. we both know his war tactics and is bad judgements are
what
> made a mess of alot of things in this country.. he could of taken on things
that
> have hurt us.. like the jobs going oversea.. and they unemployment here. the
> values of our houseing market..and the loss of money jobs and a new age of
> poor.. the middle class is near gone and have become a new poor class.. in our
> state alone we are ranked 12th for the most bankrupt... so sure there is plenty
> of houses out there to buy.. its a buyers market only thing.. no one has any
> jobs or money to buy things with..
>  oh and by the way. the poor sucker who follows bush is in a mess not only has
> he messed up the budget.... from what he said in his last speech to the nation
> he is going to put into effect that the budget should be balanced by 2012..
what
> a legacy to fix for his ass..
>  
> 
> 
> on a lighter note i am going to buy me a new  flat screen t v.. this week.. i
> bet the mega million ticket.. here in ohio.. there is extra game at the bottom
6
> numbrs.. in a row.. depending on if you hit a certain amount like all 6 pays
you
> 100 grand.. i hit 4 of the 6 for a thousand dollars.. so this democrat ass is
> going for door 2 and getting a new t v..

The cream shall rise

2008-02-19T15:24:00.001-08:00

Mike,we do agree after all..politics and religion should be kept seperate..And
just so you can understand my email better,I was simply stating to orlee that
all our ills are not georges fault.And again we agree.the system is broken..Now
the question should be...how can we fix it?One man (or woman) cannot fix all the
problems of our country,let alone the world.So I for one do not expect them to.
Its is up to us..each of us,and together we will do whats right.
Now I would like to debate the democrats elite trying to steal obamas
nomination..So floridas votes and Michigans were not supposed to count because
of activities that were not legal.Now we see the old party hacks trying to get
these delegates for hillary when they were not supposed to count..I say every
democrat trying this is a crook,and should be voted out of office as soon as
possible.Some are not even in office anymore (like geraldene ferraro)
This is not a coronation of mrs clinton simply because some on the left would
like to return to the "days of bill" because so many people got rich on the internet bubble.Trust me,all
was not rosey in the 90s despite what some would have us believe.I worked on
alot of those internet rich companys buildings,and I can tell you that alot of
money was wasted.Most are not even in business anymore,after spending so much
capital on fancy smancy door systems i've never even seen in rich peoples
buildings.Ok,back to politics..I hereby declare we start a new political
party..The left,right,and middle are taken..That leaves the top,and the
bottom..I suggest we start the bottom party,as we will work our way to the
top.Normally,I would start at the top,and work my way down,using gravity..But in
this case,the bottom means the little guys..us..The working (and retired) poor.I
hereby nominate all of you as superdelegates in the bottom party.Equal rights
will rein in the power sharing arrangement.An
d pot for every chicken..lol..I think I'm on to something here..I better
copyright the Bottom Party before some gay group protests..
And the cream shall rise to the top!

Cant wrap his head around

2008-02-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

From: MnS <emmness@gmail.com>
> OK ... so I gotta give you props when props are due ... you got all the
> stuff you wanted to get
>  or did the stuff you wanted to do.
> But, unfortunately, I can't wrap my head around what that has to do with
> whoever is in office Bush (now) or Clinton (before Bush). No president has a
> direct influence over how you make your money, spend your money or use your
> time, and hopefully they never will.
> It would seem to me that you were determined to do whatever was necessary to
> get/do the things you wanted and you completely suceeded and this speaks a
> lot for you and your character. Especially after you were told to get ready
> for a wheelchair .... that's preserverance and I respect that !
>
> Bottom line is .... our political system is broken .... as each year the
> politicians seem to make subtle changes to the rules or laws that regulate
> how government operates. I still firmly believe that we need to keep
> religion AWAY from politics ..... it's like gas and matches .... you don't
> give them to children to play with ... especially TOGETHER.

we will differ from time to time

2008-02-19T15:19:00.000-08:00

Everyone has their opinion,and we will differ from time to time,but Heres
another fact..I am a Buddhist,and do not feel mike huckabee has offended me or
wants to infringe on my constitutional rights..Maybe  the people in this country
who dont want any reference to god in anything could get over their
paranoia.Mike Huckabee is not in power,or has he promised to change the
constitution if he gets in..He merely pointed out its "easier to change the
constitution than the living word of the Bible"  This is a fact,but he isnt
promising to do this.What he does promise is that he is a believer in god..But
when asked in a cnn debate if he believes in evolution or creationism,he claimed
not to know,but continued to try and be tripped up by the asshole question asker
from cnn when asked if he believed god made the world in 7 days,he again replied
calmly  I wasnt there,so I dont know"But what he does promise is not to change
his beliefs for an opinion poll,or a political contest,or a vote for
or against him.What he is,is a believer,and he stands proud on that fact!And I applaud his character.I
feel you should be a little more worried about being forced to adopt the koran
to pacify the muslims..Fuck that.. Pay a little more attention to the shit
happening in the world instead of being blinded by american politics.Lets debate
the assholes rioting in denmark.,the full on war about to begin in palistiene
with isreal
This is all related to your Im afraid mike huckabee will force god  down our
throughts statement...Totally untrue,and unfair.The fact of the matter is WE ARE
AT WAR WITH THE FANATICS OF ISLAM and the quicker you realize this,the better
our response will be.These are the assholes trying to force their shit on the
world..come on,cartoons more dangerous than cutting peoples heads off with
swords???I am glad John McCain might be the leader against this fight.I know
what his response will be..I dont think O'bama or hillary knows what to do about
Pakistan.Maybe I'm wrong,maybe by leaving the fight in Iraq as obama wants we can
hide our heads in the sand again and they will go away and leave us
alone....Maybe..

regarding your candidate

2008-02-19T15:18:00.000-08:00

From: MnS <emmness@gmail.com>
> Muddy,
>
> I have not said much regarding your obvious favorite canditate ... Huckabee,
> although you seem to be enamored by him for some reason or another.
> He was interesting for a while ...... until he went to michigan and said
> something that scared me .... and should really scare a lot of people. As
> everyone probably knows by now ... I firmly and truly am a believer in the
> separation of church and state. The two things that cause more wars and
> problems on this planet (politics and religion) should NEVER be allowed to
> work in concert with each other. This is really the main reason America is
> even here today.... religious persecution. Agreed ?
> So here is what he said in a speech in Michigan ....
>
> "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be
> to change the word of the living god. *And that's what we need to do -- to
> amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards* rather than try to change
> God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."
>
> Now THAT is scary .... Read the constitution .... it makes no mention of god
> .... it's about the PEOPLE ! And along comes someone like Huckabee ... that
> wants to change our constitution and inject religion into it.
>
> Where does that leave the aetheists ? Or people from other religions ?
> To me ... that seems like, once again, someone trying to cram their
> religious beliefs down my throat ... but now with the power of the
> presidency behind it trying to force it on EVERYONE !
>
> I'm sorry ..... but, I don't freakin' think so.

lets compare

2008-02-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

ok,lets compare...on a personal note while bush has been in office..I have 
1.bought a home I thought I'd never be able to afford..
2.Bought a truck and car,paid both off in less than half the time alloted,
3. Paid cash for my dream 57 inch tv,also got the surround sound sony to add to
the system.
4.Started a business without much capitol or help from anyone,including the
govt.
5.bought almost every musical instrument I have ever wanted,including a studio
in my basement,9 keyboards off ebay,3 drum sets,2 bass guitars,3 electric
guitars,amplifiers,mics,cords,mixers,smoke show,light shows,1 desktop and 2
laptops to add to my system and network.
6.I bought a jet ski
 I'm not trying to brag,I just want you all to know that I did all of this
after being told I had 2 incureable deaseses and that I should get ready for a
wheelchair and not much of a life!So I have to disagree with my friends that
there is anything wrong with this administration and that it doesnt encourage
growth and success.and by the way,if you want the list of what I lost while Clinton was in office,just ask..That
list is way longer than the one i just did for bush.So I respectfully disagree
with your premise that the govt is to blame for your situation!YOU are in
control of YOU,and if I can do this,everyone else can too.Be positive,not
negative,and you will be far further in your life.Muddhaa out.

since republican leaders took office

2008-02-19T15:16:00.000-08:00

From: ARLENE R BUTCHER <prncessorlee2@msn.com>
>
> 
>      hey i am busy too.. but i am retired so only job i have is housewife..
> grandmother of 2 one is with me all the time.. ebay seller.. and a few other
> things that keep me way busy.. heres a good thought.. maybe after we get a
> democrat in office.. you will be able to not work one of the jobs.. things
just
> might get better..
> 
>     here is what happened to us since the republicans became our leaders..
> 
>     and this is on a personal note..
> 
>      willy retired... immediately we had to pay from 350 a month for
> hospitalzation.. to 750 a month .. gas prices were half of what they are now..
> food costs are up probably 40 percent.. our property taxes just went up over
50
> dollars a half year.. heating cost is up . and everything else.
>       willy does some odd jobs working at a bowling alley owned by a friend
and
> fixes trucks for another friend who has a business..and like most americans
were
> on a fixed income.. thank god we planned for your retirement.. .but we all
know
> how the stock market is going at the moment.. too.

smear tactics

2008-02-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

.As usual,the head democrat in the bunch feels
the need to respond by dishing the Bush clan..Nice try,but your smear tactics
wont work anymore..This is a new election,again,pick a new candidate to
smear,ok?I think John mcain is the guy you need to be smearing,but you keep on
lambasting the Bush's while we gear up to attack obama.By the way,whats gonna
happen when obama wins the popular vote,but the crooks in the superdeligates
suits annoint hillary as your partys champian???I will personally send anyone a
new hankie to wipe away their tears.Just so you know,when this happens,and it
will,I already thought out what the democrats should do..Are you ready??Just
write in Mike huckabees name on your presidential ballot.lol..This is the only
way denocrats will have to get  an honest candidate!! I cant wait to see the
dems find out their party is just as crooked as ours..lol..Mudd out

sorry for georgie

2008-02-19T15:14:00.000-08:00

From: ARLENE R BUTCHER <prncessorlee2@msn.com>
>
> I guess we should feel sorry for georgie .. he is only getting one check.. oh
> whats the rest of the family milkin off the government?
>   lets see daddy is in texas counting his pennies.. from his oil profits.and
> trying to live on a government pension.. . and brother bubba is in florida
> adding up is meager pay from being gov.. and then that other brother is trying
> to find money still to pay for his divorce.. and his court costs from that
> savings and loan scandal..   they are so poor we might as well sign the whole
> lot of them up for welfare.. lol    
> 
>   one more thing. i hear cheney is going to become a professional hunter..
seems
> he has some extra guns and bullets left.. anyone want to go hunting for bear
> with him?

Hillary isnt a done deal

2008-02-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

Apparently Hillary isnt a done deal,cause John Mcain's people called me on the
phone yesterday and invited me to the westin hotel today at 6 pm to hear John
speak.as he wants to address us influential republicans in this area the day
before our caucus..lol..right..I think I will actually go and listen to him in
person,just to say I heard the president speak before he was elected.sticks
tongue out at orlee..Maybe I can talk John into a huckabee vice presidency.I
mean yell above the crowd noise.Look for me on the newsreels..live at 5  film at
11  Maybe I should wear the "there's a fucking asshole lookin at me "
sweatshirt..On the back it says "still lookin at me"   thats the one you will
probably see as they escort me into the paddy wagon..I'll be screaming about the
cases of "w" brand ketchup I bought last election holding up a sign that says
"Al Gore started global warming with the internet "
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: ARLENE R BUTCHER <prncessorlee2@msn.com>
>
> dont blame me as one of those who gets to decide lol .. because it would be a
> done deal.. sorry your out in another time zone.. but truely it was florida
> fault were in the mess were in now.. ohio had the deciding factor but hell
> florida declared the winner last time before we even shut down our polls.. and
i
> agree it would be nice if we all voted at once.. but think of this.. with
> everything else .. its about the money.. its about who can spend the most on
> getting the votes.. and trust and believe we in ohio hope them their
candidates
> come here and spend spend.. spend.. although hillary is already the winner
> here.. lol ok.. why bother with a primary.. we forgot to tell you muddy we
dont
> need that either.. lol  hillary is president already the vote is a formality..

side track

2008-02-19T15:09:00.000-08:00

ok,this sucks..My man huckabee is still in the race now that Romney has
conceded.My state has a weird get together this saturday.I dont know what the
fuck it is..but for all tends and purposes,its already over..Why cant all the
states vote the same dam day?And even further,the election day coverage sucks
cause by the time we get to vote on the west coast,a winner is already being
declared by the media.So not only is it an all east coast super bowl (which
chaps my hide)They get to decide who the next idiot,I mean president will be.We
need to get rid of them (the polititions)and vote online.Quit cheatin and
wasting millions.OMG not that..Some judge will explain how that is
unconstitutional.Hey I spelt sompin right.
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: ARLENE R BUTCHER <http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=prncessorlee2%40msn%2Ecom&sid=c0>
>
> ruth ruth ruth.. this is america.. we dont let our celebs go on tv to be
> questioned without them foreseeing what they will be asked and approve of
every
> questions.. letterman is no different from the rest... he is not a journalist ..
> he is a talk show host he only asks what they want him to or they wont show up
> for the show...
>
>
> From: http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=rufusus%40mike%2Dmac%2Egen%2EnzTo&sid=c0: http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=emmness%40gmail%2Ecom&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=muddnet%40comcast%2EnetCC&sid=c0:
> http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=prncessorlee2%40msn%2Ecom&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=sparkles4u%40inbox%2Ecom&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=groovy%40flatrate%2Enet%2Eau&sid=c0;
> http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=emmness%40cox%2Enet&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=mellow1%5F%40hotmail%2Ecom&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=pete%5Fwakeling%40yahoo%2Eco%2Enz&sid=c0;
> http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=chattycathy222%40yahoo%2Ecom&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=kindashy%5Fd%40yahoo%2Ecom&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=chippy%5Fcookie%40yahoo%2Ecom&sid=c0;
> http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=rapowers%40flinthills%2Ecom&sid=c0; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=angeleyes759%40yahoo%2Ecom&sid=c0;
> http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=paul%2Ebasher%40paradise%2Enet%2EnzSubject&sid=c0: Re: Super TuesdayDate: Thu, 7 Feb 2008
> 17:57:59 +1300
>
>
>
> I watched Hilary on the  Letterman Show, which showed here last night but was
> obviously taped there on Monday night. I have to say she made a lot of good
> points and seemed to have a policy for everything, but the cynical part of me
> began wondering if he was being paid to ask her the questions she wanted to
> answer. He also brought up the point of the millions of dollars of campaign
> contributions for all candidates that would be better spent on feeding the
> hungry in the US....and her answer was something like "Blame the system!"
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: MnS
> To: http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=muddnet%40comcast%2Enet&sid=c0
> Cc: ARLENE R BUTCHER ; Ruth Hyland ; Jo Beth ; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=groovy%40flatrate%2Enet%2Eau&sid=c0 ; Sue &
> Mike Collins ; Michael Collins ; Peter Wakeling ; Chattycathy ; Deb.... D ;
> Nancy Hackney ; http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=rapowers%40flinthills%2Ecom&sid=c0 ; Tinkerbelle ;
> http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=paul%2Ebasher%40paradise%2Enet%2Enz&sid=c0
> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 5:12 PM
> Subject: Re: Super Tuesday
>
> I would tend to agree with you Muddy ..... things will get uglier the closer
we
> get to the November conventions. but not only on the Democrats side .... Romny
> is not going to lay down and go away ... and, I'm sorry, but he is a weasely
> little fukker.
>
> Where is Ross Perot when we need him ?
>
> We have completely gotten away from the original intent of our government and
> elected officials. Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg address "that
> government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from
> the earth."
>
> There are far too many special interest groups and lobbyists with far too much
> money in this country and they are destroying the way government works and no
> longer works for the people.
>
> Makes you wish we could go back to the days of the Roman Empire .... where
> elected officials that didn't do their job right were put into the colliseum
in
> front of the people and the people voted with their thumbs. Thumbs UP and you
> lived a while longer .... thumbs DOWN and they released the lions. Guess that
> was motivation enough to make you perform the functions of public office
> correctly.
>
> Our government is far to top heavy and clumsy .... nothing gets done quickly
...
> and like you said ... they make far too much money and get way too many
> vacations and time off. I read a report not too long ago where they did a
survey
> of the house and the senate and determined that most of our elected officials in
> DC only work about three days a week. they fly in on Monday afternoons or
> evenings .... start work on Tuesday and fly back home on Thursday afternoon.
> Work three days and have four days off ... and an @$$ full of pay, benefits,
an
> office and pension all paid for by us.
>
> What a fukkin' life !
>
> This is the same on BOTH sides of the isle .... Dems and Reps alike .... so I
am
> actually slamming both parties.
>
> Just my two cents worth.
>
> Mike
>
> On Feb 6, 2008 8:47 PM, <http://mailcenter2.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/47BB61D0000533100000383422070216339B0A020B0B9A03?cmd=ComposeTo&adr=muddnet%40comcast%2Enet&sid=c0> wrote:
>By Mudd

 Keep confusing Ruth. Orlee.Nothing is decided yet,except maybe John mcain is
way
> out in front of the republican primarys and will probably be one candidate for
> president.On the democratic side its gettin dirty.The mudd will start flinging
> soon.Too much money is at stake.See,whoever controls the white house,controls
> the special interest groups that donate to their campaigns,so it gets ugly.Same
> way with whoever controls congress,they control more budget money than we can
> keep track of,or so they think.They take money out of our checks,say it isnt
> enough,and vote themselves a nice retirement package.After careful
exzamination
> of the big oil companys record profits,I humbly apoligize for the republicans
> hoodwink job on us again..we got fooled again.Or at least I did.Hopefully
> huckabee will run as an independent and stay in the race.Or maybe even get the
> vice presidencey job with mcain as commander in chief (whoever is president is
> in charge of all our military Ruth)I just cant see general hillary ordering
the
> generals about.They cant eather.they hated her husband.I dont see hillary
> calming the situation down in pakistan.
>
>
> >>By orlee:

 to answer your question ruth about super tuesday... it was a good
success..>
> seems hilly and obama are neck in neck for the race to the white house.. the>
> republicans are still bashing it out but seems as muddy candidate is wiping up>
> the rear.. of the other 2 candidates.. with a few success stories of his own.
> to> win the right to run for the democrats a candidate must win a number of>
> delegates from each state to mount up to 2025 hillary has 4 less than obama
at>
> this point in time.. but there is alot of states hasn't had a primary as of>
> yet.. out vote wont happen till march 4th next month..>> then the national
> conventions will take place so that the candidates who ran can> join forces to
> make sure each party is at its best..>> i am not sure when muddy's state
votes..
> he might know and let us know .. i sure> want to see which direction his state
> goes in for hillary or obama..>> i figure it this way.. either of my
candidates
> is more than qualified to be> president.. and truthfully the other party has a
> couple worth watching.. but the> policies of the republicans are not what i
> agree on. i can tell you this.. this> election will bring out country back
> together. if both parties.. do as they say> and make nessessary changes in
> everything from war to home land potential ..> which we lost someplace.. we
need
> our country put first.. i dont mind when they> scratch the backs of other
> countries.. but this ass kissin needs to stop.. we> need to bring home jobs..
> and goods. made right here in the good ole. usa.. it> will make us a stronger
> nation and end all the non working bad paying jobs we> have..>> it used to be
> most of us didnt mind paying for quality products.. made here or> actually
> anyplace.. there is no real quality anymore with jobs going to places> where
the
> labor is not up to standards and we are getting cheap items which the> only
one
> winning on is the owner of the sweat shops..>>> this is way off the beaten
path
> here but let me tell you something that i saw> today..>> my mother in law had
a
> lil wreck.. broke her right side mirror on her car.. so> we took her to get it
> fixed.. took probably 10 minutes or less to replace the> mirror at the
> dealership.. it needed 2 clips which she in her hast to not let us> know she
had
> a wreck.. threw away.. the mirror and the clips .. plus the 10> minutes
install
> time.. $173.00... imagine.. thats terrible for a few plastic> parts.. but here
> is worse.. a man came in to get his car checked seems he didnt> pass the
> emissions check we have.. they did a check on the car.. found out his> gas cap
> was not securely working.. so they put on a new gas cap..>> this will shock
> you.. $69.00... how crazy is that one.. makes me wonder if he> called a junk
> yard what might the price be? i wold guess a gas cap should only> be about 20
> dollars but go figure.. i am not a rocket scientist..>

Republican Manifesto

2008-02-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

Actually orlee,I think your the only one who watched it..lol..I admit,I missed
it..But I probably would have been teary eyed and stood up too when everybody
else in our party was paid too.Its in the manifest..You know,the republican
manifesto that we all have to sign before they give us our gun licences.Poor
Georgie..You'ed pick off his scabs if he fell out of a plane,wouldnt you?The guy
has a hard enough time trying to talk in public,let alone please you.Pick a new
fight with a current opponent,k?And get some estroven pills to calm those night
sweats where you lay awake thinking how else you can hate gw..At least my
girlfriend says they work,and I hope so cause shes got a concealed weapons
permit and an additude and a snub nosed 38 caliber..And your worried about pella
grants...lmfao..Mudd out..

My email

2008-02-19T15:00:00.000-08:00

Its election time and all is well with my democratic opponents.I love sparing with them. What follows is a week of world wide shared email some of us from a chat room keep in touch.These are the people I started this blog for 3 years ago.Hence the name "Those crazy god dam internet people"

From: ARLENE R BUTCHER <prncessorlee2@msn.com>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  not sure who watched georgie last night in the speech to the nation.. the
whole
> time the cabinet and others were standing my only thought was the song by jo lo
> i think she is the artist.. whch says. to the left , to the left., and lol
that
> the left is the unemployment office.. get in line..
> 
>   I am sorry i cant wait for those who have been appointed to offices by bush
to
> pack up and get.. the u-haul can park at each office.. lol.. ok on with what i
> am ticked about..
> 
> seems old georgie wants to give pell grants to kids now.. dam can you
imagine..
> to give them a chance to get out of bad inner city schools and go to religous
> based schools.. where the hell did he come up with this brillant idea.. if i
was
> a teacher today i would be fuming at the bit.. see why not fix those terrible
> school he is talking about instead of getting rid of the students they have..
> and when the smoke clears and those who were able to obtain a pell grant to go
> elsewhere .. what is left.. a school who gets paid by the amount of students
> they teach with no children to teach.. which in turn undermines the money they
> now recieve and try to educate those who are left..
> oh by the way.. in higher education one of the things bush cut was some of the
> pell grants .. college students will tell you its much harder to recieve one..
> so where is he getting the money for this idea?
> 
> what a ass..
> 
> i gotta tell you i was so bored with his shit i actually feel asleep in the
> chair.. but i hope you republicans were glued to the set. how about how he
wants
> to set up .. now that he has put us in terrible debt that he will pass
> legislation for us to balance the budgets by 2012.. geesh.. nothing like
putting
> the budget on the next presidents shoulders.. after he has blew the socks off
> the budget.. and how is he going to do that .. buy cutting spending which
means
> it will filter down to jobs.. which if anyone has a government job .. they
> better hope there on the war monger list.. the other stuff will be cut
> drastically..
> and then there is the tax raiseing issue.. he fears so badly all his tax cuts
> will be undone.. oh dear me.. which one of you actually fear higher taxes.. do
> you really think our tax base will go up alot.. not me i.. know for a fact
only
> ones higher taxes will hurt is the rich buddies and his daddy who he protected
> from taxes for 8 years..
> 
> if those tax cuts meant alot to me.. i want to know where my extra money is..
> cause i sure didnt benefit from no tax cuts.. which one of you republicans now
> has a saving account??
> 
> i live from day to day so bring on the taxes.. lol..
> 
> 
> I am sure you republicans stood and applauded as the idiots in the room who
got
> paid to stand and hoop and holler.. but me i snored loudly for the rest of
it..
> 
> SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK THIS MAN HAS DONE TO HELP OUR COUNTRY...
> AND DO NOT TELL ME HE SAVED US FROM TERRIORIST !!
> 
> oh one more thing.. as i watched the phone rang.. satalite solutions.. .. a
> woman from india on the other line trying to sell me her system..
> 
> i said hello she said.. this is like kim from satalite solutions.. i said
where
> are you at.. she said .. my company is based in california.. i said ok where
are
> you at.. she said .. i am from satilite solutions out of california.. i said..
> no listen.. what country are you in.. she said my company is in california.. i
> said.. look i understand where your company is.. what country are you calling
me
> from.. she said i am in India.. i said thank you and hung up ..... now lets
talk
> tax cuts and money..

2008-01-23T19:25:00.000-08:00

I AM THANKFUL:

FOR THE WIFE
WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT,
BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME,
AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

FOR THE HUSBAND
WHO IS ON THE SOFA
BEING A COUCH POTATO,
BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME
AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.

FOR THE TEENAGER
WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES
BECAUSE IT MEANS SHE IS AT HOME,
NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES I PAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM EMPLOYED .

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE
BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING,
WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING,
AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING
I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT
BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING
AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I AM WARM.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH
WHO SINGS OFF KEY
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I CAN HEAR.

FOR THE PILE OF
LAUNDRY AND IRONING
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES
AT THE END OF THE DAY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN
CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF
IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.

AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME.

Help Mike Huckabee save America

2008-01-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Contribute.Home&r=6984

The best kind of friend

2007-08-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

The best kind of friend
Is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with,
Never say a word, and then walk away
Feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

Purple Virgin Mary

2007-07-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

Its Fractal friday

god is eternal

2007-07-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Thus the purpose of each experience is that the entity may magnify and glorify that which is good. For, good is of the one source, God, and is eternal.
Then as an individual entity magnifies that which is good, and minimizes that which is false, it grows in grace, in knowledge, in understanding.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2599-1

Kathrine Lawes

2007-06-27T17:55:00.001-07:00

TO HONOR THEIR SOULS
Perhaps you have never heard of Katherine Lawes. Katherine was the
wife of Lewis Lawes, warden at Sing Sing Prison from 1920-1941.
Sing Sing had the reputation of destroying wardens. The average
warden's tenure before Lewis Lawes was two years. "The easiest way to
get out of Sing Sing," he once quipped, "is to go in as warden." In
his 21 years he instituted numerous reforms - and an important part of
his success was due to his wife Katherine.
Katherine took seriously the idea that the prisoners are human beings,
worthy of attention and respect. She regularly visited inside the
walls of Sing Sing. She encouraged the prisoners, ran errands for them
and spent time listening to them. Most importantly, she cared about
them. And as a result, they cared deeply about her.
Then one night in October of 1937, news was "telegraphed" between the
prison cells that Katherine was killed in an accident. The prisoners
petitioned the warden to allow them to attend her funeral bier. He
granted their strange request and a few days later the south gate of
Sing Sing swung slowly open. Hundreds of men - felons, lifers,
murderers, thieves - men convicted of almost every crime conceivable,
marched slowly from the prison gate to the bier, reassembled at the
house and returned to their cells. There were so many that they
proceeded unguarded. But not one tried to escape. If he had, the
others may have killed him on the spot, so devoted were they to
Katherine Lawes, the woman who daily walked into Hell to show the men
a piece of Heaven.
Katherine's strength was to see the men less as prisoners and more as
individuals. Thomas Moore has said, "We can only treat badly those
things or people whose souls we disregard."
To treat people well is to honor their souls. To honor their souls is
to understand what it means to love your neighbor.
-- Steve Goodier

Muddhist ramblings 2.2

2007-05-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

I am happy I'm depressed..

Moonage daydream

2007-04-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm an alligator, I'm a mama-papa coming for youI'm the space invader, I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for youKeep your mouth shut, you're squawking like a pink monkey birdAnd I'm busting up my brains for the words
Keep your 'lectric eye on me babePut your ray gun to my headPress your space face close to mine, loveFreak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah!
Don't fake it baby, lay the real thing on meThe church of man, love, is such a holy place to beMake me baby, make me know you really careMake me jump into the air
Keep your 'lectric eye on me babePut your ray gun to my headPress your space face close to mine, loveFreak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah!(repeat x3)
Freak out, far out, in out

David Bowie Ziggy Stardust cd

2007-04-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

This is my best buddy!He greets me everyday without fail.He has more heart than most people will ever know.He is still trying to convince my cats that he is part rotwiller,but they aren't buying it anymore.He is getting older like me,but still has a big dog attitude.

The Cosmic Purpose

2007-04-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

The cosmic evoloutionary purpose
By engaging the Cosmic Evolutionary Purpose together, (so as to improve ourselves and each other at will) the course of history will be transformed for the better. In doing this we become active participants in Creation, not just creative persons. In such an undertaking, individual persons could be likened to atoms and communities to molecules, whereby the first cells, (cities) of a new human culture would find their highest expression. When our community is dedicated to the Cosmic Purpose, it then takes on much the same role as DNA does in the creation of new, fresh life for our kind, one which could replicate itself worldwide in a relatively short period of time. This truly revolutionary basis for living together could sweep real vision and wisdom into the stagnant pools of modern society. But to crystallize this ideal basis for community requires a great deal of intelligence, based upon knowledge of how the universe really is, not necessarily how we imagine or want it to be. To begin, we can use the principles of nature as a basic template. Then, through self realization of the consciousness we are, truly See how we can interact with each other as SOULS in a higher, superior way. This will be a way of interaction and understanding, that is far beyond what has ever before been known in the history of mankind. Let us keep ever in mind that there exists cosmic purposes far higher than those currently employed by mainstream society. It is to these we must strive, so as to create something truly great together. Through such a basic vision of ideal community as a starting point, this crystallization can then evolve further into a highly profound social movement the world over. http://www.eoni.com/~visionquest/library/universalideal.html

Get Understanding

2007-03-29T17:11:00.001-07:00

And as He has given, "In all thy getting, my Son, get understanding." This is putting proper emphasis in the proper places, and do not become sidetracked by things that would pertain to material or spiritual alone, or things of the body or things of the heavenly force. For you grow to heaven, you don't go to heaven. It is within thine own conscience that ye grow there. For there first must come peace and harmony within thy purpose, thy ideal, thy hopes, thy desires. Thy wishes even must be in harmony with thy ideal if you would make the experience in the earth of value to thee.Edgar Cayce Reading 3409-1

Trying Times

2007-03-05T07:49:00.001-08:00

For these are trying times. And know that there is no one in authority that has not been raised to same by the grace of Creative Forces. Each then is being given (that is an authority) the opportunity for expressing those purposes in his relationships and dealings with the fellow man--for the very reason of his abilities as a leader.Then do thou that thou knowest to be the constructive experience in thy field, and trouble not thy mind or heart as to others. For the very thought of there becoming turmoil is opening the way for turmoil.Edgar Cayce Reading 816-10

Taoism

2007-02-06T18:22:00.000-08:00

Taoism states that all life forces tend to move toward harmony and balance because it is in their nature to do so. From the Taoist viewpoint we, as humans, have the choice of consciously aligning ourselves with the Way, or remaining in ignorance and resisting the natural order of the Tao. To choose the latter means to remain disconnected from our own personal processes, our own Tao, as well as life's grand flow. Taoist teachings are intended to be utilized as a guide to daily living. Their greatest value lies in their ability to direct us toward our own process of self-exploration, growth, and transformation which connects us deeply to ourselves and to the world around us.

love outside oneself

2007-01-29T05:51:00.000-08:00

. . happiness is love of something outside of self! It may never be obtained, may never be known by loving only things within self or self's own domain!

Edgar Cayce Reading 281-30

Muddhist thoughts and ramblings

2007-01-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

Its a new year,a new congress here in america,and a whole new set of problems to deal with.This is what makes us great.We care about what we do,and who we are as a nation.As we lay President Ford to rest,we are faced with conflicting images of the pomp and cerimoney of a 6 day long wake,which was just so the rest of Washington could finish there holiday vacations,we also see images of saddam Hussains body being deposited back to his family in a wooden box in the back of a pickup truck.I realize that there is no comparison of the charicter of these two men,one a bully,one an ivy league athlete,two ex leaders of two powerfull nations.But there just seems something wrong with this picture,especially when you see it posted on the web filmed with a cell phone.Maybe the democrates will get it right..god knows the republicans had there chances.Take a bow Dennis Haster,you,foley,and the other crook from texas proved to all of us your all thieves,you had your chances to stop this petofile,yet you did nothing.and attorney general albert gonzoles,you consuled the President on getmo,and how you could get around human rights.Shame on you.yeah yeah,I know..plausable deniability..Reagon taught us that during iran contra..but heres the difference..They were trying to get hostages home.Your doing it to circumvent exsisting basic human rights we believe everyone should have,and is born with them,even if they arent born in the usa!

The Soldier

2006-12-21T13:54:00.000-08:00

A Different Kind of Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night." "It's my duty to stand at
the front of the line, That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

2006-11-21T19:02:00.000-08:00

Understanding

2006-11-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

Understanding
Enlightenment comes through understanding. Enlightenment comes through non-judgement and unconditional Love. Enlightenment comes through "feeling the daily daggers of relentless steel and keeping on living". Enlightenment is raising our consciousness towards our Higher Self, or Greater Light. Enlightenment is reaching our arms out to our fellowman in compassion and concern. Enlightenment is expressing the living truth in each moment we walk the path of Light, in whatever our jobs are, or whatever course our lives take.

http://www.gla.ac.uk/~gbza22/ench13.html

A period of Testing

2006-11-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Know that ye are going through a period of testing. Remain true to all that has been committed to thee, and know that each day is an opportunity, and an experience. Speak a word for thy ideal. Not as to force an issue but ever constructive. Sow the seed of truth, the seed of the spirit. God will give the increase.

Edgar Cayce Reading 3245-1

Passion

2006-11-13T02:03:00.000-08:00

Passion becomes compassion when we bring it into the path, when we recognize every moment in life as a possibility of awakening. Human love and sexual consummation can be like the tip of the iceberg of divine love, an ecstatic intimation of eternity, a portal to infinite depths of the groundlessness and boundarylessness that transports us beyond our limited, ego selves. People often ask me how to find their Soul Mate, or even if I believe in such a concept. I think that rather than focusing on past lives or on finding the perfect mate in this world, we would generally do better to work on improving and developing ourselves. Make yourself the "perfect" mate, without being too perfectionistic about it, and you will be a good mate with almost anyone. When your heart is pure, your life and the entire world is pure.

The believing mind

2006-11-09T13:50:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from Inscribed on the Believing Mind:

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no
preferences.
When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear
and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth
are set infinitely apart.
If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or
against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike is the
disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood the mind's
essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
The Way is perfect like vast space when nothing is lacking
and nothing is in excess.
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that
we do not see the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things nor in
inner feelings of emptiness.
Be serene in the oneness of things and such erroneous views
will disappear by themselves.

Work it out

2006-11-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

Work It Out

"Anger blows out the lamp of the mind," said Robert Ingersoll.

It may be true! I heard a story about one woman who seemed to have no reason behind her anger. The story goes like this:

A man read, in the want ads, of a sports car for sale. It had only 3,000 miles. "Like new," the ad boasted. "Mint condition. $75.00."

He laughed to himself, and he said, "There goes the newspaper, making another mistake." But he decided to call the number anyway and he asked the woman who answered about the car.

"Is it really brand new?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Three thousand miles?"

"Yes."

"The price?"

"Seventy-five dollars," she answered.

"Lady, what's wrong with it?" he asked.

"Nothing is wrong with it. You're the first to call. I supposed nobody else believes the ad."

He decided to look at it. She let him take a test drive. The car looked exquisite and ran perfectly. He just couldn't believe his luck!

"The car is yours for $75.00," the woman said emphatically, "on one condition. I want the money now and I want you to drive it away so I never have to see it again."

He paid her and took the keys. "Please tell me, lady," he persisted. "You could have sold this car for thirty thousand dollars. What is going on?"

She told her story: "I bought this car for my husband on our fortieth wedding anniversary. Two weeks later he ran off with somebody else. Last week I got a card from him. They are in a resort in Miami Beach, Florida. The card said, 'Need money, sell car, send cash.' I did."

You may smile at her way of expressing anger. But what do you do when you are angry?

Some people "act it out." They break something. Or they say something they later regret. They strike back.

Other people "take it out." They kick the dog or scream at the kids. They lash out at the next unlucky person they come across.

Still others "talk it out." They find someone who will listen. They know they have to bring it up if they want to get it out. And after they've talked it out they usually know what to do and generally feel better.

ACT IT OUT and your actions will become a block to good communication.

TAKE IT OUT and you cause more hurt and anger.

TALK IT OUT and you can GET IT OUT.

Once you GET IT OUT you can WORK IT OUT and your relationship will work for you!
_____

By Steve Goodier

my Iq test at tickle

2006-11-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

Your IQ score is:
127127 You scored 127 on Tickle's IQ test. This means that based on your answers, your IQ score is between 117 and 127. Most people's IQs are between 70 and 130.
In fact, 95% of all people have IQs within that range. 68% of people score between 80 and 120. The following chart to your right, shows these percentages and where your IQ score is on that scale.

Print your Certificate of Intellectual Achievement.

There's more to intelligence than a single number, a single score or a single label. Tickle uses four distinguishable Intelligence Scales in the Ultimate IQ Test. By analyzing your individual scores on those four scales, we are able to look beyond the raw IQ score into how you process information and thereby determine your Intellectual Type.
How do you relate to other IQ test takers?

Your Intellectual Type Is:
Word Warrior You are equipped with a verbal arsenal that enables you to understand complex issues and communicate on a particularly high level. These talents make you a Word Warrior.

Whether or not you recognize it, your vocabulary is your strongest suit—use it whenever you can. Since your command of words is so great, you are also a terrific communicator — able to articulate big ideas to just about anyone. Your wordsmithing prowess will also help in artistic and creative pursuits. The power of words translates to fresh ideas off paper too. Since you have so many words at your disposal, you are in a unique position to describe things in an original way, as well as see the future in your mind's eye.
In short, your strengths allow you to be a visionary — able to extrapolate and come up with a multitude of fresh ideas. And you are in good company — bask in the brilliance of Word Warriors who have walked before you. William Shakespeare let loose the power of his pen. His ability to articulate the most subtle nuances of human nature and to create colorful characters are why his stories still have a major impact — even 400 years after he first wrote them. Whether you put pen to paper or use your understanding of the words around you to come up with creative approaches to problems, your potential as a Word Warrior is terrific.
Great Jobs For You
Because of the way you process information, these are just some of the many careers in which you could excel:

* Writer
* Translator
* Publisher
* Attorney
* Poet
* Politician
* Journalist
* Lecturer

Some of Your Greatest Talents
You've got tons of strengths. It wouldn't surprise us if you:

* Can clarify complex issues
* Can articulate commonly understood truths
* Can foster understanding
* Can creatively solve problems

* Your Tickle IQ Score
* Your Intelligence Type
* Your Intelligence Scales
* IQ Answer Key
* What is an IQ?
* Average Tickle IQ Scores By State
* IQ Test Development
* Additional Reading
* Certificate of Intellectual Achievement

Your 4 Intelligence Scales

Now let's look at the factors that contribute to you being a Word Warrior with a 127 IQ score.

Based on the results of your test, Tickle divided your scores into four distinguishable dimensions — mathematical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, linguistic intelligence and logic intelligence.

Here's how each of your intelligence scores break down:

Mathematical Intelligence
Your Mathematical Percentile

80th percentile

You scored in the 80th percentile on the mathematical intelligence scale.This means that you scored higher than 70% - 80% of people who took the test and that 20% - 30% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.

Your mathematical intelligence score represents your combined ability to reason and calculate. You scored relatively high, which means you're probably the one your friends look to when splitting the lunch bill or calculating your waitresses' tip. You may or may not be known as a math whiz, but number crunching might come a little easier to you than it does others.

This is the kind of question that helped to determine your mathematical intelligence score:

A boy is 4 years old and his sister is three times as old as he is. When the boy is 12 years old, how old will his sister be? 16, 20, 24, 28, 32.

answer: 20.
The sister is (3 )three times older than her (4) four-year-old brother. Three times 4 is 12, in other words, when he is four, she is 12. Twelve years old is 8 years older than 4 years old, which makes her 8 years older than him. This never changes. Therefore, when he is 12, she is still 8 years older, or 12+8=20.

Flexing Your Math Muscles
Like anything, keeping or improving your math talents requires practice. Here are some everyday mental exercises that could be particularly helpful to you:

* Balancing your checkbook
* Figuring out your monthly budget
* Predicting what the change will be the next time you buy something
* Calculating your waitperson's tip in your head

Visual-Spatial Intelligence
Your Visual-Spatial Percentile

60th percentile

You scored in the 60th percentile on the visual-spatial intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 50% - 60% of people who took the test and that 40% - 50% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.

The visual-spatial component of intelligence measures your ability to extract a visual pattern and from that envision what should come next in a sequence. Your score was relatively high, which could mean that you're the one navigating the map when you're on an outing with friends. You have, in some capacity, an ability to think in pictures. Maybe this strength comes out in subtle ways, like how you play chess or form metaphors.

Here's the type of question that contributed to your visual-spatial intelligence score:

1 is to 2 as 3 is to

Answer: b

The answer lies in recognizing not only the visual sequence of a square and then a line, but in the recognizing the solidity of the line in the first example and the broken quality of the line in the second example.

Vision Quest
Like anything, keeping or improving visual-spatial talents requires some practice. Here are some everyday mental exercises that will be particularly helpful to you:

* Playing chess, or video games like Tetris
* Studying maps and become the navigator on your next trip
* Sculpting or photography

Linguistic Intelligence
Your Linguistic Percentile

100th percentile

You scored in the 100th percentile on the linguistic intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.

Linguistic abilities include reading, writing and communicating with words. Tickle's test measures knowledge of vocabulary, ease in completing word analogies and the ability to think critically about a statement based on its semantic structure. Your score was relatively high, which could mean you know your way around a bookstore and maybe like to bandy about the occasional 25-cent word to impress friends.

Here's the type of question that contributed to your linguistic intelligence scale score:

Inept is the opposite of:

Answer: Skillful.

The answer is derived by prior knowledge that "inept" means "unskillful" (Oxford Concise Dictionary).

Word Power
Like anything, keeping or improving linguistic talents requires some practice. Here are some everyday mental exercises that will be particularly helpful to you:

* Doing crossword puzzles
* Start reading just for fun
* Befriending your dictionary
* The next time something breaks, try reading the instruction book first

Logical Intelligence
Your Logical Percentile

80th percentile

You scored in the 80th percentile on the logical intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 70% - 80% of people who took the test and that 20% - 30% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.

Tickle's logical intelligence questions assess your ability to think things through. The questions determine the extent to which you use reasoning and logic to determine the best solution to a problem. Your logic score was relatively high, which could mean that when the car breaks down, your friends look to you to help figure out not only what's wrong, but how to fix it and how you're going to get to the next gas station.

Ship of Mindfulness

2006-10-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

Our Path is a Waterway

Water is an element that we are all quite familiar with. Especially for us in the hot climate, it brings a thrill even when we touch it. When it comes in a pure form in nature, it’s even more exciting. This element has a strong similarity to the universal processes in Nature, in that it ‘flows’. In Nature, it flows from the future to the present and into the past. Each event is like a wave, and these waves can be strong. Whether we sink or swim will depend very much on a number of things. Beings who are infatuated and intoxicated by sensual pleasures are described as those swept away by floods. They may think how blissful it is at first but the wise, with far-sightedness, will think otherwise.

To remain afloat we must have mindfulness. It keeps our head above the waters and, with energy, works towards safer shores. If mindfulness is well developed, we are as if on a boat, riding along the waves to Nibbana, which is described as the Safe Island.

Insight Meditation is itself a process of processes. At first we try to keep ourselves afloat with strong continuous mindfulness. After that, the practice becomes a journey of discoveries. Every experience we come across undergoes minute scrutiny. Our mind is like a microscope of ever-increasing powers of magnification; we discover the secrets of existence which we have misunderstood for so long. With each realization we move closer and closer to where the waves break and cease altogether – that is, absolute reality, the utter end of all Suffering. Is that not the noblest aim for which man may live? Wonderful knowledge like this should not be postponed. Hop on board the Ship of Mindfulness!

your not running things

2006-10-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

You learn sooner or later that you are not running the show and that if you relax, the show runs better, Things will happen better if you just relax; many things are under control in many respects. You quit and things happen, you let the door open, you stop the obstructin, you eliminate the ego. The ego is one of the biggest obstructions to the achievement of anything." - Richard Rose

Kettle falls

2006-10-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

I flew to eastern Washington for a visit..its worth the wait to load..please be patient

Live your Life

2006-09-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

With all these people dying(like Steve Irwin yesterday,the crocadile hunter)I said fuck it and went out and bought a jet ski for me and my daughters to have fun with!You never know when your time is up,so I decided a long time ago not to fret about the little stuff,and then decided its all little stuff,so just live like you might not be here tomorrow,to say nice things to friends instead of hurtfull things,and just enjoy the little things in life..like a sunset!Or going out all weekend with my kids and friends and providing a little fun for everyone..Was a really special weekend,as I have wanted a boat most of my adult like,but spent the money on work equiptment before..This time,I spent the money I had extra on me,and my kids.Shit,you never know if a bom b is gonna explode in a container in the harbor near me.Or mt reineer might blow its stack finally.Or if..or if..or if...there's always something to worry about ,but theres also somethings to be thankfull for at the same time.Jody,I'm enjoying the rest of my life,and I hope you do the same!

Jainism

2006-09-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Earth is afflicted and wretched, it is hard to teach, it has no discrimination. Unenlightened men, who suffer from the effects of past deeds, cause great pain in a world full of pain already, for in earth souls are individually embodied. If, thinking to gain praise, honour, or respect ... or to achieve a good rebirth . . . or to win salvation, or to escape pain, a man sins against earth or causes or permits others to do so. . . . he will not gain joy or wisdom. . . . Injury to the earth is like striking, cutting, maiming, or killing a blind man . . . Knowing this man should not sin against earth or cause or permit others to do so. He who understands the nature of sin against earth is called a true sage who understands karma. . .

quote(s) / poem(s) n° 3942: Acaranga Sutra, Jainism

Free Yourself

2006-09-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

If you would free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death, you must learn the direct way to become a Buddha. This way is no other than the realization of your own Mind … If you want to realize your own Mind, you must first of all look into the source from which thoughts flow. Sleeping and working, standing and sitting, profoundly ask yourself, 'What is my own Mind," with an intense yearning to resolve this question. This searching of one's own Mind leads ultimately to enlightenment.
Bassui

The Wisdom of Uncertainty

2006-09-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty... in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.
Deepak Chopra

Learn to Listen to that Still Small Voice

2006-08-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

Depend more upon the intuitive forces from within and not harken so much to that of outside influences--but learn to listen to that still small voice from within, remembering as the lesson as was given, not in the storm, the lightning, nor in any of the loud noises as are made to attract man, but rather in the still small voice from within does the impelling influence come to life in an individual that gives for that which must be the basis of human endeavor; for without the ability to constantly hold before self the ideal as is attempted to be accomplished, man becomes one as adrift, pulled hither and yon by the various calls and cries of those who would give of this world's pleasure in fame, fortune, or what not. Let these be the outcome of a life spent in listening to the divine from within, and not the purpose of the life.

Edgar Cayce Reading 239-1

An Arab viewpoint

2006-08-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

VIEW OF THE ARAB WORLD

By Haim Harari, Chair Davidson Institute of Science Education and himself an Arab

"A View from the Eye of the Storm" -- Haim Harari, Chair, Davidson Institute of Science Education, delivered the talk at a
meeting of the International Advisory Board of a large multi-national corporation, April, 2004:

"As you know, I usually provide the scientific and technological entertainment" in our meetings, but, on this occasion, our Chairman suggested that I present my own personal view on events in the part of the world from which I come.

I have never been and I will never be a Government official and I have no privileged information. My perspective is entirely based on what I see, on what I read and on the fact that my family has lived in this region for almost 200 years. You may regard my views as those of the proverbial taxi driver, which you are supposed to question, when you visit a country.

I could have shared with you some fascinating facts and some personal thoughts about the Israeli-Arab conflict. However, I will touch upon it only in passing. I prefer to devote most of my remarks to the broader picture of the region and its place in world events. I refer to the entire area between Pakistan and Morocco, which is predominantly Arab, predominantly Moslem, but includes many non-Arab and also significant non-Moslem minorities.

Why do I put aside Israel and its own immediate neighborhood? Because Israel and any problems related to it, in spite of what you might read or hear in the world media, is not the central issue, and has never been the central issue in the upheaval in the region.

Yes, there is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict, but it is not where the main show is. The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilians in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam Hussein did not invade Kuwait, endanger Saudi Arabia and butcher his own people because of Israel. Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60's because of Israel. Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own citizens in one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel. The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. The Libyan blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do with Israel, and I could go on and on and on. But enough on Israel. It's a red herring to the root causes I wish to discuss.

The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if Israel had joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine had existed for 100 years.

The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 million, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion. They have a land area larger than either the US or all of Europe. These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone. Within this meager GDP, the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief and too many of the rich made their money not by succeeding in business, but by being corrupt rulers.

The social status of women is far below what it was in the Western World 150 years ago. Human rights are below any reasonable standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights commission.

According to a report prepared by a committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much smaller than what little Greece alone translates.

Birth rates in the region are very high, increasing the poverty, the social gaps and the cultural decline. And all of this is happening in a region, which only 30 years ago, was believed to be the next wealthy part of the world, and in a Moslem area, which developed, at some point in history, one of the most advanced cultures in the world.

It is fair to say that this creates an unprecedented breeding ground for cruel dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide murders and general decline. It is also a fact that almost everybody in the region blames this situation on the United States, on Israel, on Western Civilization, on Judaism and Christianity, on anyone and anything, except themselves.

A word about the millions of decent, honest, good people who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew up in Moslem families:

They are double victims of an outside world, which now has Islamophobia, and of their own environment, which breaks their heart by being totally dysfunctional. The problem is that the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror and of the incitement, but they also do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others. Many of them can certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express their views.

The events of the last few years have amplified four issues, which have always existed, but have never been as rampant as in the present upheaval in the region. A few more years may pass before everybody acknowledges that it is a World War, but we are already well into it.

These are the four main pillars of the current World Conflict, or perhaps we should already refer to it as "the undeclared World War III":

1. The first element is the suicide murder.

Suicide murders are not a new invention but they have been made popular, if I may use this expression, only lately. Even after September 11, it seems that most of the Western World does not yet understand this weapon. It is a very potent psychological weapon. Its real direct impact is relatively minor. The total number of casualties from hundreds of suicide murders within Israel in the last three years is much smaller than those due to car accidents. September 11 was quantitatively much less lethal than many earthquakes. More people die from AIDS in one day in Africa than all the Russians who died in the hands of Chechnya-based Moslem suicide murderers since that conflict started. Saddam killed every month more people than all those who died from suicide murders since the Coalition occupation of Iraq.

So what is all the fuss about suicide killings?

It creates headlines. It is spectacular. It is frightening. It is a very cruel death with bodies dismembered and horrible severe lifelong injuries to many of the wounded. It is always shown on television in great detail. One such murder, with the help of hysterical media coverage, can destroy the tourism industry of a country for quite a while, as it did in Bali and in Turkey. But the real fear comes from the undisputed fact that no defense and no preventive measures can succeed against a determined suicide murderer. This has not yet penetrated the thinking of the Western World. The U.S. and Europe are constantly improving their defense against the last murder, not the next one. We may arrange for the best airport security in the world. But if you want to murder by suicide, you do not have to board a plane in order to explode yourself and kill many people. Who could stop a suicide murder in the midst of the crowded line waiting to be checked by the airport metal detector? How about the lines to the check-in counters in a busy travel period? Put a metal detector in front of every train station in Spain and the terrorists will get the buses. Protect the buses and they will explode in movie theaters, concert halls, supermarkets, shopping malls, schools and hospitals. Put guards in front of every concert hall and there will always be a line of people to be checked by the guards and this line will be the target, not to speak of killing the guards themselves. You can somewhat reduce your vulnerability by preventive and defensive measures and by strict border controls but not eliminate it and definitely not win the war in a defensive way. And it is a war!

What is behind the suicide murders?

Money, power and cold-blooded murderous incitement, nothing else. It has nothing to do with true fanatic religious beliefs. No Moslem preacher has ever blown himself up. No son of an Arab politician or religious leader has ever blown himself.

No relative of anyone influential has done it. Wouldn't you expect some of the religious leaders to do it themselves, or to talk their sons into doing it, if this is truly a supreme act of religious fervor? Aren't they interested in the benefits of going to Heaven? Instead, they send outcast women, naive children, retarded people and young incited hotheads. They promise them the delights, mostly sexual, of the next world, and pay their families handsomely after the supreme act is performed and enough innocent people are dead.

Suicide murders also have nothing to do with poverty and despair. The poorest region in the world, by far, is Africa. It never happens there. There are numerous desperate people in the world, in different cultures, countries and continents. Desperation does not provide anyone with explosives, reconnaissance and transportation. There was certainly more despair in Saddam's Iraq then in Paul Bremmer's Iraq, and no one exploded himself. A suicide murder is simply a horrible, vicious weapon of cruel, inhuman, cynical, well-funded terrorists, with no regard to human life, including the life of their fellow countrymen, but with very high regard to their own affluent well-being and their hunger for power.

The only way to fight this new "popular" weapon is identical to the only way in which you fight organized crime or pirates on the high seas: the offensive way.

Like in the case of organized crime, it is crucial that the forces on the offensive be united and it is crucial to reach the top of the crime pyramid. You cannot eliminate organized crime by arresting the little drug dealer in the street corner. You must go after the head of the "Family." If part of the public supports it, others tolerate it, many are afraid of it and some try to explain it away by poverty or by a miserable childhood, organized crime will thrive and so will terrorism.

The United States understands this now, after September 11. Russia is beginning to understand it. Turkey understands it well. I am very much afraid that most of Europe still does not understand it. Unfortunately, it seems that Europe will understand it only after suicide murders arrive in Europe in a big way. In my humble opinion, this will definitely happen. The Spanish trains and the Istanbul bombings are only the beginning. The unity of the Civilized World in fighting this horror is absolutely indispensable. Until Europe wakes up, this unity will not be achieved.

2. The second ingredient is words, more precisely lies.

Words can be lethal. They kill people. It is often said that politicians, diplomats and perhaps also lawyers and business people must sometimes lie, as part of their professional life. But the norms of politics and diplomacy are childish, in comparison with the level of incitement and total absolute deliberate fabrications, which have reached new heights in the region we are talking about. An incredible number of people in the Arab world believe that September 11 never happened, or was an American provocation or, even better, a Jewish plot.

You all remember the Iraqi Minister of Information, Mr. Mouhamad Said al-Sahaf and his press conferences when the US forces were already inside Baghdad. Disinformation at time of war is an accepted tactic.

But to stand, day after day, and to make such preposterous statements, known to everybody to be lies, without even being ridiculed in your own milieu can only happen in this region. Mr. Sahaf eventually became a popular icon as a court jester, but this did not stop some allegedly respectable newspapers from giving him equal time. It also does not prevent the Western press from giving credence, every day, even now, to similar liars.

After all, if you want to be an anti-Semite, there are subtle ways of doing it. You do not have to claim that the holocaust never happened, and that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem never existed. But millions of Moslems are told by their leaders that this is the case. When these same leaders make other statements, the Western media report them as if they could be true.

It is a daily occurrence that the same people, who finance, arm and dispatch suicide murderers, condemn the act in English in front of western TV cameras, talking to a world audience, which even partly believes them. It is a daily routine to hear the same leader making opposite statements in Arabic to his people and in English to the rest of the world. Incitement by Arab TV, accompanied by horror pictures of mutilated bodies, has become a powerful weapon of those who lie, distort and want to destroy everything.

Little children are raised on deep hatred and on admiration of so-called martyrs, and the Western World does not notice it because its own TV sets are mostly tuned to soap operas and game shows. I recommend to you, even though most of you do not understand Arabic, to watch Al Jazeera, from time to time. You will not believe your own eyes.

But words also work in other ways, more subtle. A demonstration in Berlin, carrying banners supporting Saddam's regime and featuring three-year old babies dressed as suicide murderers, is defined by the press and by political leaders as a "peace demonstration". You may support or oppose the Iraq war, but to refer to fans of Saddam, Arafat or Bin Laden as peace activists is a bit much. A woman walks into an Israeli restaurant in mid-day, eats, observes families with old people and children eating their lunch in the adjacent tables and pays the bill. She then blows herself up, killing 20 people, including many children, with heads and arms rolling around in the restaurant. She is called "martyr" by several Arab leaders and "activist" by the European press. Dignitaries condemn the act but visit her bereaved family and the money flows.

There is a new game in town: The actual murderer is called "the military wing", the one who pays him, equips him and sends him is now called "the political wing" and the head of the operation is called the "spiritual leader". There are numerous other examples of such Orwellian nomenclature, used every day not only by terror chiefs but also by Western media. These words are much more dangerous than many people realize. They provide an emotional infrastructure for atrocities. It was Joseph Goebels who said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. He is now being outperformed by his successors.

3. The third aspect is money.

Huge amounts of money, which could have solved many social problems in this dysfunctional part of the world, are channeled into three concentric spheres supporting death and murder.

In the inner circle are the terrorists themselves. The money funds their travel, explosives, hideouts and permanent search for soft vulnerable targets. The inner circles are primarily financed by terrorist states like Iran and Syria, until recently also by Iraq and Libya and earlier also by some of the Communist regimes. These states, as well as the Palestinian Authority, are the safe havens of the wholesale murder vendors.

They are surrounded by a second wider circle of direct supporters, planners, commanders, preachers, all of whom make a living, usually a very comfortable living, by serving as terror infrastructure.

Finally, we find the third circle of so-called religious, educational and welfare organizations, which actually do some good, feed the hungry and provide some schooling, but brainwash a new generation with hatred, lies and ignorance. This circle operates mostly through mosques, madrasas and other religious establishments but also through inciting electronic and printed media. It is this circle that makes sure that women remain inferior, that democracy is unthinkable and that exposure to the outside world is minimal. It is also that circle that leads the way in blaming everybody outside the Moslem world for the miseries of the region. The outer circle is largely financed by Saudi Arabia, but also by donations from certain Moslem communities in the United States and Europe and, to a smaller extent, by donations of European Governments to various NGOs and by certain United Nations organizations, whose goals may be noble, but they are infested and exploited by agents of the outer circle. The Saudi regime, of course, will be the next victim of major terror, when the inner circle will explode into the outer circle. The Saudis are beginning to understand it, but they fight the inner circles, while still financing the infrastructure at the outer circle.

Figuratively speaking, this outer circle is the guardian, which makes sure that the people look and listen inwards to the inner circle of terror and incitement, rather than to the world outside. Some parts of this same outer circle actually operate as a result of fear from, or blackmail by, the inner circles. The horrifying added factor is the high birth rate. Half of the population of the Arab world is under the age of 20, the most receptive age to incitement, guaranteeing two more generations of blind hatred.

Some of the leaders of these various circles live very comfortably on their loot. You meet their children in the best private schools in Europe, not in the training camps of suicide murderers. The Jihad "soldiers" join packaged death tours to Iraq and other hotspots, while some of their leaders ski in Switzerland. Mrs. Arafat, who lives in Paris with her daughter, receives tens of thousands of dollars per month from the allegedly bankrupt Palestinian Authority, while a typical local ringleader of the Al-Aksa brigade, reporting to Arafat, receives only a cash payment of a couple of hundred dollars, for performing murders at the retail level.

4. The fourth element of the current world conflict is the total breaking of all laws.

The civilized world believes in democracy, the rule of law, including international law, human rights, free speech and free press, among other liberties. There are naive old-fashioned habits such as respecting religious sites and symbols, not using ambulances and hospitals for acts of war, avoiding the mutilation of dead bodies and not using children as human shields or human bombs. Never in history, not even in the Nazi period, was there such total disregard of all of the above as we observe now. Every student of political science debates how you prevent an anti-democratic force from winning a democratic election and abolishing democracy.

Other aspects of a civilized society must also have limitations. Can a policeman open fire on someone trying to kill him? Can a government listen to phone conversations of terrorists and drug, dealers? Does free speech protect you when you shout "fire" in a crowded theater? Should there be death penalty, for deliberate multiple murders? These are the old-fashioned dilemmas. But now we have an entire new set. Do you raid a mosque, which serves as a terrorist ammunition storage? Do you return fire, if you are attacked from a hospital? Do you storm a church taken over by terrorists who took the priests hostages? Do you search every ambulance after a few suicide murderers use ambulances to reach their targets? Do you strip every woman because one pretended to be pregnant and carried a suicide bomb on her belly? Do you shoot back at someone trying to kill you, standing deliberately behind a group of children? Do you raid terrorist headquarters, hidden in a mental hospital?

Do you shoot an arch-murderer who deliberately moves from one location to another, always surrounded by children? All of these happen daily in Iraq and in the Palestinian areas. What do you do? Well, you do not want to face the dilemma. But it cannot be avoided. Suppose, for the sake of discussion, that someone would openly stay in a well-known address in Teheran, hosted by the Iranian Government and financed by it, executing one atrocity after another in Spain or in France, killing hundreds of innocent people, accepting responsibility for the crimes, promising in public TV interviews to do more of the same, while the Government of Iran issues public condemnations of his acts but continues to host him, invite him to official functions and treat him as a great dignitary. I leave it to you as homework to figure out what Spain or France would have done, in such a situation.

The problem is that the civilized world is still having illusions about the rule of law in a totally lawless environment. It is trying to play ice hockey by sending a ballerina ice-skater into the rink or to knock out a heavyweight boxer by a chess player. In the same way that no country has a law against cannibals eating its prime minister, because such an act is unthinkable, international law does not address killers shooting from hospitals, mosques and ambulances, while being protected by their Government or society. International law does not know how to handle someone who sends children to throw stones, stands behind them and shoots with immunity and cannot be arrested because he is sheltered by a Government. International law does not know how to deal with a leader of murderers who is royally and comfortably hosted by a country, which pretends to condemn his acts or just claims to be too weak to arrest him.

The amazing thing is that all of these crooks demand protection under international law, and define all those who attack them as "war criminals," with some Western media repeating the allegations.

The good news is that all of this is temporary, because the evolution of international law has always adapted itself to reality. The punishment for suicide murder should be death or arrest before the murder, not during and not after. After every world war, the rules of international law have changed, and the same will happen after the present one. But during the twilight zone, a lot of harm can be done.

The picture I described here is not pretty. What can we do about it? In the short run, only fight and win. In the long run - only educate the next generation and open it to the world. The inner circles can and must be destroyed by force.

The outer circle cannot be eliminated by force. Here we need financial starvation of the organizing elite, more power to women, more education, counter propaganda, boycott whenever feasible and access to Western media, internet and the international scene.

Above all, we need a total absolute unity and determination of the civilized world against all three circles of evil. Allow me, for a moment, to depart from my alleged role as a taxi driver and return to science. When you have a malignant tumor, you may remove the tumor itself surgically. You may also starve it by preventing new blood from reaching it from other parts of the body, thereby preventing new "supplies" from expanding the tumor. If you want to be sure, it is best to do both.

But before you fight and win, by force or otherwise, you have to realize that you are in a war, and this may take Europe a few more years. In order to win, it is necessary to first eliminate the terrorist regimes, so that no Government in the world will serve as a safe haven for these people.

I do not want to comment here on whether the American led attack on Iraq was justified from the point of view of weapons of mass destruction or any other pre-war argument, but I can look at the post-war map of Western Asia. Now that Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are out, two and a half terrorist states remain: Iran, Syria and Lebanon, the latter being a Syrian colony. Perhaps Sudan should be added to the list. As a result of the conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq, both Iran and Syria are now totally surrounded by territories unfriendly to them. Iran is encircled by Afghanistan, by the Gulf States, Iraq and the Moslem republics of the former Soviet Union. Syria is surrounded by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. This is a significant strategic change and it applies strong pressure on the terrorist countries. It is not surprising that Iran is so active in trying to incite a Shiite uprising in Iraq. I do not know if the American plan was actually to encircle both Iran and Syria, but that is the resulting situation.

In my humble opinion, the number one danger to the world today is Iran and its regime. It definitely has ambitions to rule vast areas and to expand in all directions.

It has an ideology, which claims supremacy over Western culture. It is ruthless. It has proven that it can execute elaborate terrorist acts without leaving too many traces, using Iranian Embassies. It is clearly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Its so-called moderates and conservatives play their own virtuoso version of the "good-cop versus bad-cop" game. Iran sponsors Syrian terrorism, it is certainly behind much of the action in Iraq, it is fully funding the Hezbollah and, through it, the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it performed acts of terror at least in Europe and in South America and probably also in Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia and it truly leads a multi-national terror consortium, which includes, as minor players, Syria, Lebanon and certain Shiite elements in Iraq. Nevertheless, most European countries still trade with Iran, try to appease it and refuse to read the clear signals.

In order to win the war it is also necessary to dry up the financial resources of the terror conglomerate. It is pointless to try to understand the subtle differences between the Sunni terror of Al Qaeda and Hamas and the Shiite terror of Hezbollah, Sadr and other Iranian-inspired enterprises. When it serves their business needs, all of them collaborate beautifully.

It is crucial to stop Saudi and other financial support of the outer circle, which is the fertile breeding ground of terror. It is important to monitor all donations from the Western World to Islamic organizations, to monitor the finances of international relief organizations and to react with forceful economic measures to any small sign of financial aid to any of the three circles of terrorism.

It is also important to act decisively against the campaign of lies and fabrications and to monitor those Western media who collaborate with it out of naivety, financial interests or ignorance.

Above all, never surrender to terror. No one will ever know whether the recent elections in Spain would have yielded a different result, if not for the train bombings a few days earlier. But it really does not matter. What matters is that the terrorists believe that they caused the result and that they won by driving Spain out of Iraq. The Spanish story will surely end up being extremely costly to other European countries, including France, who is now expelling inciting preachers and forbidding veils and including others who sent troops to Iraq. In the long run, Spain itself will pay even more.

Is the solution a democratic Arab world?

If by democracy we mean free elections but also free press, free speech, a functioning judicial system, civil liberties, equality to women, free international travel, exposure to international media and ideas, laws against racial incitement and against defamation, and avoidance of lawless behavior regarding hospitals, places of worship and children, then yes, democracy is the solution.

If democracy is just free elections, it is likely that the most fanatic regime will be elected, the one whose incitement and fabrications are the most inflammatory. We have seen it already in Algeria and, to a certain extent, in Turkey. It will happen again, if the ground is not prepared very carefully. On the other hand, a certain transition democracy, as in Jordan, may be a better temporary solution, paving the way for the real thing, perhaps in the same way that an immediate sudden democracy did not work in Russia and would not have worked in China.

I have no doubt that the civilized world will prevail. But the longer it takes us to understand the new landscape of this war, the more costly and painful the victory will be. Europe, more than any other region, is the key. Its understandable recoil from wars, following the horrors of World War II, may cost thousands of additional innocent lives, before the tide will turn." #

compare

2006-08-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

We have the world on our hands...
In the Interest of fairest.........................
Another view point.

For the record. Compare the Jews to Muslims and decide which is the more productive. Blm

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000, or 20% of the world population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1988 - Najib Mahfooz.

Peace:
1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1994 - Yaser Arafat

Physics:
1990 - Elias James Corey
1999 - Ahmed Zewail

Medicine:
1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000, or about 0.02% of the world population. They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:
1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:
1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1972 - William Howard Stein
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Arno Allan Penzias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 - Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1979 - Herbert Charle S Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1989 - Sidney Altman
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
1995 - Martin Perl
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:
1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:
1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 - Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abra ham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 - Richard J. Roberts
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis

The Jews are not demonstrating with their dead on the streets, yelling and chanting and asking for revenge; the Jews are not promoting brain washing the children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non-Muslims.

The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics; the Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.

The Jews don't have the economic strength of petroleum, nor the possibilities to force the world's media to see "their side" of the question.

Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Who is hearing?

2006-07-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

Who is hearing?
Your physical being doesn’t hear,
Nor does the void.
Then what does?
Strive to find out.
Put aside your rational Intellect,
Give up all techniques.
Just get rid of the notion of self.

Bassui

I am a Point of Light

2006-07-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

AFFIRMATION OF A DISCIPLE

I am a point of light within a greater light.
I am a strand of living energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial fire, focused within the fiery Will of God.
And Thus I stand.

I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.

And standing thus revolve
And tread this way, the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And Thus I stand.

Give away

2006-06-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Is there really the desire to know love, or to know the experience of someone having an emotion over self? Is it a desire to be itself expended in doing that which may be helpful or constructive? This can be done, but it will require the losing of self, as has been indicated, in service for others.
. . . But arise to that consciousness that if ye would have life, if ye would have friends, if ye would have love, these things ye must expend. For only that ye give away do ye possess.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1786-2

Remember the Sunset

2006-05-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

Then, to be able to remember the sunset, to be able to remember a beautiful conversation, a beautiful deed done where hope and faith were created, to remember the smile of a babe, the blush of a rose, the harmony of a song--a bird's call; these are creative. For if they are a part of thyself, they bring you closer and closer to God.

Regret

2006-05-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

"Regret for the things we did can
be tempered by time," he says, "It is regret for the things we did
not do that is inconsolable."
sydney harris

2006-05-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

All Healing

2006-05-08T09:38:00.000-07:00

Think on This ...
For all healing, mental or material, is attuning each atom of the body, each reflex of the brain forces, to the awareness of the divine that lies within each atom, each cell of the body.

perfect love

2006-04-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

For perfect love casteth out fear, and fear can only be from the material things that soon must fade away.
And thus hold to the higher thought of eternity. For life is a continual experience.

Edgar Cayce Reading 1175-1

Be My People

2006-04-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

. . for he that seeks the Lord must believe that He is, would they find Him; for one doubting has already builded that barrier that prevents the proper understanding, whether as to physical, mental or spiritual attributes, or spiritual aid, or mental aid, or physical aid; for that in faith sought for shall be thine, even as was given, "Be my people and I will be your God."

Edgar Cayce Reading 459-1

Mind is the builder

2006-04-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

For mind is the builder and that which we think upon may become crimes or miracles. For thoughts are things and as their currents run through the environs of an entity's experience these become barriers or steppingstones, dependent upon the manner in which these are laid as it were. For as the mental dwells upon these thoughts, so does it give strength, power to things that do not appear. And thus does indeed there become that as is so oft given, that faith is the evidence of things not seen.

Edgar Cayce Reading 906-3

In "his" name

2006-04-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

For as the heaven is His throne, the earth is His footstool, so may we at His feet learn, know, become aware of, the knowledge of His ways. For He is not past finding out. For is God, the Father, so far away that He answers our pleas, our prayers, as from afar? Rather is His presence felt when we become aware of His force, His power, His love; the knowledge of His presence in our lives, our experiences, our undertakings in His name.

Edgar Cayce Reading 262-95

Do Not Condemn Another

2006-03-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

Know that only in Him, who may bring peace and harmony by or through the contacts--the thoughts of self as in relationship to the whole, may there be brought about those better relationships.
To continue to condemn only brings condemnation, then, for self. This does not mean that self's activity should be passive, but rather being constant in prayer--knowing and taking, knowing and understanding that he that is faithful is not given a burden beyond that he is able to bear, if he will put the burden upon Him that has given the promise, "I will be with thee; there shall not come that which shall harm thee, if thou will but put thy trust, thy faith in me."
. . . First make an analysis of self, of self's relationships, of the impelling influences that cause others to act in their manners in the present.
Do not condemn self, do not condemn another; but leave the activities that would bring about condemnation rather in His hands, who requireth at the hands of all that there be meted, "As ye would that should be done to thee, do ye even so to thy fellow man!"

Edgar Cayce Reading 290-1

the ego

2006-02-28T19:07:00.000-08:00

Chuan Zhi Shakya
Undeniable Self, Deniable self
by Chuan Zhi Shakya, OHY
Presented October 4, 2005

"Daruma" by Kogaku Soen (1859-1917). Kogaku Soen was one of the first monks to bring Zen to the United States. He is well known for his brush paintings of Boddhidharma (known in Japan as Daruma).
"Self is the lord of self; what higher Lord could there be? When a man subdues well his self, he gains a mastery which is hard to obtain."

-- The Buddha
(Dhammapada, XII.4)

Those seeking to understand Chan often misunderstand the nature of ego transcendence, which is, itself, the Chan experience. While it's impossible to understand it from a purely intellectual vantage, a glimpse into its nature is possible, and with the right Chan practice, anyone can come to fully realize it.

To distinguish between the concept of ego-self and Buddha Self (the True Self - or ego-transcended Self), I will use the conventional lower case "s" when referring to the ego-self, and a capital "S" when referring to Buddha Self.

What is the nature of Self? In Chan, the answer is a spiritual one, dependent on self-reflection, and one that cannot come fully until we achieve a degree of spiritual awareness. In the secular domain, we can investigate Self in terms of what it is not - it is not the self we identify as our ego.

We all recognize the characteristics of ego - they manifest as arrogance, pride and conceit. While it's easy to see these characteristics in others, it's often difficult to see them within ourselves: when we look inward it's too painful to confront so we turn the other way and return to our usual ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. This is the immense power the ego has over us. The danger of succumbing to it is obvious: we, too, act in the way of an ego-dominated individual, convinced that our opinions are the right ones, that our experiences are more valid than another's, that our knowledge is more "correct." Turning away from self-reflection we become like those we admonish.

When we lose the ability, or courage, to self-reflect, our ego steps in for us; and the more we entrust to our ego, the stronger it becomes and the more distant we become from our Self. The result is all varieties of ego-centered convictions and behaviors, but most grievous is the loss of knowledge of who we are as human beings. And therein lies all the pain and suffering that comes when a spiritual life is neglected. Recognizing the ego for what it is, we can begin to let go of it.

The ego is first and foremost concerned about itself - it wants to be strong and dominant, and will manipulate us accordingly by engaging in deception to bend our Will to identify with it. When we identify ourselves with our thoughts and actions and beliefs (all ego-elements), in our minds we become that with which we identify. We are "a republican" or "a democrat" or a "religious person" or "a vegetarian" or "a nice person" or a "victimized person" or a "strong person" or a "spiritual person" or a "smart person" or a "sensitive person" …. We become the center of our known universe. And a very small universe it is. What we fail to recognize is how limiting this state of being really is.

The ego will present numerous roadblocks on our spiritual journey. The Buddha warned about this in the numerous stories he told (the Jataka tales are often attributed to him but may have much more ancient origins) and in his sayings, collectively referred to as the Dhammapada.

The challenge for the spiritual traveler is to detach from the notion that we are what we think we are. In reality, we are everything except what we think we are, and if we take this viewpoint we can begin to undermine our attachment to ego and its influence over us and begin to learn about the nature of our Real Self. Depending on the amount of effort we put into it, ego-transcendence will come fast or slow, but once it does, we will truly be followers of the Chan path.

Deny yourself your opinions. Deny yourself your beliefs. Neti! Neti! Not this! Not This! Negate all those things that you have formed attachments to, one-at-a-time. Do this during every waking moment, unrelentingly, and enlightenment will come quickly. The Buddha Self -- which is you -- will pierce the veils of that slippery autonomous phantasm we call ego.

2006-02-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

Nothing to gain

2006-02-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

Poems by Than Nguyen

Nothing there to gain.
Nothing there to lose.
No center nor vastness.
Accepting existence and non existence
Is the same as harmonizing within and without;
The same as rejecting no evilness and no goodness.
Leaving behind the terminology, one enters the true-self.
Where is the universe?
What is there to say?

Leave it be

2006-02-08T15:53:00.000-08:00

The past is already past.
Don’t try to regain it.
The present does not stay.
Don’t try to touch it.

From moment to moment.
The future has not come;
Don’t think about it
Beforehand.

Whatever comes to the eye,
Leave it be.
There are no commandments
To be kept;
There’s no filth to be cleansed.

With empty mind really
Penetrated, the dharmas
Have no life.

When you can be like this,
You’ve completed
The ultimate attainment.
Layman P’ang (740-808)