*The following topic is posted in like a dozen installments. Each contributing cause to the topic is followed by a series of thought provoking quotations from a wide assortment of individuals, some Americans but many non-Americans too. Some alive but most dead. Like many aged souls, I cannot be sure my dissatisfaction with the priorities and behavior of my government is objective, or just the natural tendency of age to resent how the next generation handles about anything. But for me personally, never have I been so unhappy with my own country---to the point I am almost ashamed to be American these days. At the same time---again personally---never have I personally had it so good, sequestered away in a self constructed 'Garden of Eden', at least for now. Like in the bigger picture, Mother Nature bats last, and I too, will sooner rather than later, take that great leap in the dark, a meaningless footnote in the history of some Deistical evolutionary process.
(PART 2) WHY THE UNITED STATES, LIKE EVERY HISTORICAL EMPIRE, HAS REACHED THE EDGE OF THE PROVERBIAL CLIFF:
4. THE WAR ON DRUGS---Next to the foreign Wars, this War---equally ill-advised---has become one of the largest and most expensive domestic industries. Treating drug abuse as a criminal problem rather than a medical problem has destroyed large areas of our urban, suburban, and rural communities. It has created a large underworld of criminal activity and gang warfare that has exceeded anything seen during Alcohol Prohibition. The result has been Third World enclaves within our own country, a prison population that far exceeds, on a per capita basis, anything seen anywhere else in the world, all at a cost of $30,000 per year per inmate. Just like the global wars, this War on Drugs is driven by ignorance, political propaganda, prejudice, fear, and a means to get young poorly educated people with no access to jobs off the street. Sustaining this war on drugs requires criminalizing marijuana, the largest cash crop in our own country, let alone the amount imported. Without marijuana as the sustaining profit margin for drug dealing, the vast network of illegal drug sales would dwindle sharply. Without the vast expense (billions) to sustain this war on drugs, there could be money for drug treatment programs all over the country, available to all those in need. Like our foreign wars the results have been an unmitigated disaster in terms of human carnage and community wastelands. And the extent of recreational drug use in this country? No different than other industrialized countries across the globe---a slight dip in the use of marijuana and a rise in the use of alcohol, especially alcohol bingeing. If abuse of recreational drugs is a medical condition one wouldn't expect the prevalence to be altered much by treating it as a criminal offense and the prevalence indeed hasn't been lowered.
5. THE GROWING DISPARITY OF WEALTH BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR, THE FASTEST GROWING DISPARITY OF ANY INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRY---The wealthy are being aided to accumulate more and more of the wealth in this country from every angle. Inheritance taxes, the kind of which were used to breakup the massive fortunes of the early Rockafellers, Vanderbuilts, etc. have virtually been eliminated. This means vast amounts of earned wealth can now be dumped into the hands of the unearned rather than pumped back into the society from which the wealth was derived. Add to this an elaborate maze of tax loop holes. Then add tax breaks for the wealthy. Then add a justice system which barely punishes white collar crimes, even if others are bilked out of millions of dollars. Then add corporate CEO salaries and sport salaries of millions and millions of dollars. When the math is done one can better understand why 1% of the population in this country now own more of the wealth than the bottom 90%. The cliff is in sight now.
Associated Quotations:
"This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: First, to set an example of modest, unostentatious living......to provide moderately for the immediate wants of those dependent upon him, and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer....in the manner which, in his judgment, is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community----the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for the poorer brethren." (Andrew Carnegie) Do I hear Christ clapping?
"The greatest wealth is to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied." (Lucretius)
"Liberty produces wealth, and wealth destroys liberty." (Henry Demarest Lloyd)
"The most dreadful of all wars, the war of the poor against the rich, a war which, however long it may be delayed, will come and come with all its horrors. (Orestes A. Brownson)
"He mocks the people who proposes that the Government shall protect the rich and they in turn will care for the poor." (Grover Cleveland)
"The accumulation of wealth at the upper end of the pecuniary scale implies privation at the lower end of the scale." (Thorstein Veblen)
" So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent." (Henry George)
"When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exalted some of the most distasteful of human qualities into the position of highest virtues." John Maynard Keynes)
"But to be at once exceedingly wealthy and good is impossible. If we mean by the wealthy those who are accounted so by the vulgar, that is, the exceptional few who own property of great pecuniary value---the very thing a bad man would be likely to own. Now since this is so I can never concede to them that a rich man is truly happy unless he is also a good man, but that one who is exceptionally good should be exceptionally wealthy too is a mere impossibility" (Plato)
"This thing must be put bluntly; every man who has more than is necessary for his livelihood and that of his family, and for the normal development of his intelligence, is a thief and robber. If he has too much, it means that others have too little." (Romain Rolland)
"How unjust it is, that they who have but little should be always adding something to the wealth of the rich!" (Terence)
"No business which depends for existence by paying less than living wages to its workers had any right to continue in this country." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
"I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes and....a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate." (Theodore Roosevelt)
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
"Above all, a nation cannot last in a money-making job; it cannot with impunity,---it cannot with existence---go on despising literature, despising science, despising nature, despising compassion, and concentrate its soul on Pence." (John Ruskin) Remind you of any particular administration?
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of today." (Progressive Party of America)
"We consider capitalism as the exploration of man by capital and Communism the exploitation of the individual by the state." (Juan Peron)
"Property is not the sacred right. When a rich man becomes poor it is a misfortune, it is not a moral evil. When a poor man becomes destitute, it is a moral evil, teeming with consequences and injurious to society and morality." (Lord Acton)
"The alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and corporations, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the working masses. It is imperative if he desire to enjoy the full blessings of life, that a check be placed upon unjust accumulation and the power of evil of aggregate wealth." (Knights of Labor)
"Indeed, the religious bodies, as the almoners of the rich, become a sort of auxiliary police, taking off the insurrectionary edge of poverty with coals and blankets, bread and treacle, and soothing and cheering the victims with hopes of immense and inexpensive happiness in another world when the process of working them to premature death in the service of the rich is complete in this." (George Bernard Shaw)
Everywhere and at all times men of commerce have had neither heart nor soul; their cash-box is their God....They traffic in all things, even human flesh....their country? Foutre! Business men have no country." (Jacques Rene Hebert)
"In as much as great wealth is an instrument which is uniformly used to extort from others their property, it ought to be taken away from its possessors on the same principle that sword or a pistol may be wrested from a robber, who undertakes to accomplish the same efffect in a different manner." (Thomas Skidmore)
"One would have thought that it was even more necessary to limit population than property....the neglect of this subject, which in existing states is so common, is a never-failing cause of poverty among the citizens; and poverty is the parent of revolution and crime....the type of character produced by wealth lies on the surface for all to see. Wealthy men are insolent and arrogant; their possession of wealth affects their understanding; they feel as if they had every good thing that exists; wealth becomes a standard of value for everything else, and therefore they imagine there is nothing they cannot buy. They are luxurious and ostentatious; ostentatious and vulgar.....in a word, the type of character produced by wealth is that of a prosperous fool." (Aristotle)
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people." (Abraham Lincoln)
"And, inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that all such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced them. But it has so happened in all the ages of the world, that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits (large inheritances come to mind). This is wrong, and should not continue. To secure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy object of any good government." (Abraham Lincoln)
"This is a world of compensations, and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it." (Abraham Lincoln) This would likely apply to our current foreign slave labor force and the underground illegal immigrant slave labor force.
"So long as people, being ill-governed, suffer from hunger, criminals will never disappear. It is extremely unkind to punish those who, being sufferers from hunger, are compelled to violate laws." (Kenko Hoshi)
"I know of no country indeed where the love of money has taken a stronger hold on the affections of men, and where a profounder contempt is expressed for the theory of the permanent equality of property". (Alexis Clerel De Tocqueville)
"Everything owned by those who have more than their individual due of society's goods, is theft and usurpation." (Francois-Noel Baveuf)
"Above all things, good policy is to be used that the treasure and monies in a state be not gathered into few hands....And money is like muck, not good except it be spread." (Francis Bacon)
"As political equality is the remedy for political tyranny, so is economic equality the only way of putting an end to the economic tyranny exercised by the few over the many through the superiority of wealth." (Edward Bellamy)
"Centralize property in the hands of a few and the millions are under bondage to property---a bondage as absolute and deplorable as if their limbs were covered with manacles. (Lewis Henry Morgan)
"Aristrocracy of Feudal Parchment has passed away with a mighty rushing; and now, by a natural course, we arrive at the Aristocracy of the Moneybag.....the basest yet known." (Thomas Carlyle)
"Luxury and avarice---these pests have been the ruin of every state." (Marcus Porcius Cato)
"Every economic system, whether Capitalist or Socialist, degenerates into a system of privilege and exploitation unless it is policed by a social morality, which can only reside in a minority of citizens....Every Church becomes a vested interest without its heretics....Freedom is always in danger, and the majority of mankind will always acquiesce in its loss, unless a minority is willing to challenge the privileges of its few and the apathy of the masses." (Richard Crossman)
"The Pleasures of the Rich are bought with the Tears of the Poor." (Thomas Fuller)
"I don't care how the poor live, my only regret is that they live at all". (George (no not Bush) Moore.
"Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of wealth; the tyranny of plutocracy. (J. P. Morgan)
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
(Part1) WHY THE U.S., LIKE EVERY HISTORICAL EMPIRE, HAS REACHED THE EDGE OF THE PROVERBIAL CLIFF
*The following topic is posted in like a dozen installments. Each contributing cause to the topic is followed by a series of thought provoking quotations from a wide assortment of individuals, some Americans but many non-Americans too. Some alive but most dead. Like many aged souls, I cannot be sure my dissatisfaction with the priorities and behavior of my government is objective, or just the natural tendency of age to resent how the next generation handles about anything. But for me personally, never have I been so unhappy with my own country---to the point I am almost ashamed to be American these days. At the same time---again personally---never have I personally had it so good, sequestered away in a self constructed 'Garden of Eden', at least for now. Like in the bigger picture, Mother Nature bats last, and I too, will sooner rather than later, take that great leap in the dark, a meaningless footnote in the history of some Deistical evolutionary process.
WHY THE UNITED STATES, LIKE EVERY HISTORICAL EMPIRE, HAS REACHED THE EDGE OF THE PROVERBIAL CLIFF:
1. EMPIRE BUILDING---The entanglement of the U.S. government in the affairs of sovereign nations, resulting in the current 750 military bases in 130 countries, at an exorbitant cost of money, has alienated population segments in those countries whose governments we prop up and protect---all of which directly generates the ever increasing formation of anti-American terrorist groups. This presence of a foreign influence and control which we would not tolerate in our own country should not be imposed on other countries. Period. It moves us one step closer to the cliff.
Associated quotations:
"Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation." (Charles Colton)
"To robbery, slaughter, plunder they give the lying name of empire; they make a desert and call it peace." (Cornelius Tacitus)
"Onward Christian Soldiers, rip and tear and smite!
Let the gentle Jesus bless your dynamite."(Joe Hill)
"A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader" (Plato) Remind you of any President or any Presidential candidate?
"Rule your desires lest your desires rule you" (Publilius Syrus)
"History is the propaganda of the victors" (Ernst Toller)
"The remedy in the United States is not less liberty but real liberty---and end to the brutal intolerance of churchly hooligans and flag waving corporations and all the rest of the small but bloody despots who have made the word Americanism a synonym for coercion and legal crime." (Archibald MacLeish)
"For de little stealin' dey gits you in jail soon or late. For the big stealin' dey makes you emperor and puts you in de Hall o' Fame when you croaks" (Eugene O'Neil)
2. THE VIETNAM AND IRAQ WARS----These senseless, counterproductive, ill-advised wars generated by an out of control military industrial complex/political cabals, the cabals now camouflaged as 'think tanks', are responsible for the most destruction of property and life since Hitler. Both provided (especially Iraq) a training ground for terrorists to hone their methods and skills to kill Americans some way some how---where ever Americans can be found. Take another step toward the cliff.
Associated quotations:
"I shall give a propangandist cause for starting the war. Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked, later on whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging a war, it is not Right that matters but Victory. Have no pity. Adopt a brutal attitude....Right is on the side of the Strongest." (Adolf Hitler)
"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason." (Ernst Hemingway.)
"You will kill ten of our men, and we will kill one of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it" (Ho Chi Minh)
"The enemy advances, we retreat
The enemy halts; we harass
The enemy tires, we attack
The enemy retreats, we pursue." (Mao Zedong)
"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come" (Carl Sandburg)
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets" (Voltaire)
"We are always making God our accomplice, that so we may legalize our own iniquities. Every successful massacre is consecrated by a Te Deum, and the clergy have never been wanting in benediction for any victorious enormity." (Henri Frederic Amiel)
"They create a desolation and call it peace" (Calgacus) I guess this means peace will come to Iraq and Afghanistan when the desolation is complete and the freedom imposed more a case of nothing left to lose.
"No nation is wise enough to rule another." (Helen Keller)
"The enthusiasm for war, and the predatory temper of which it is the index, prevail in the largest measure among the upper classes, especially among the hereditary leisure class." (Thorstein Veblen)
"A soldier is a Yahoo hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can." (Jonathan Swift) This would not apply to any soldier defending his own country against attack or defending another country from external attack.
"Man is a very strange animal. In much of the world half the children go to bed hungry and we spend a trillion on rubbish---steel, iron, tanks. We are all criminals. There is an old Hungarian poem, 'If you are among brigands and you are silent, your are a brigand yourself." (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi)
"It is sad that man is not intelligent enough to solve problems without killing.....The present world crisis can be solved only by a general human revolution against outdated concepts---Man is not a blood thirsty animal, and war is only due to the greed and lust for power of relatively small groups, the conspiracy of the few against the many." (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi)
"The sectaries of a religion, which preaches in appearance, nothing but charity, concord, and peace, have proved themselves more ferocious than cannibals or savages, whenever their divines excited them to destroy their brethren. There is no crime which men have not committed under the idea of pleasing the Divinity or appeasing his wrath." (Paul Henri Thiry)
"O lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle---be Thou near them!....O lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells, help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead: help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief....For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage , make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it in the spirit of love, of Him who is the Source of Love, and who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all who are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen." (No, not George Bush speaking from his heart, this is by Mark Twain, tongue in cheek)
"You believe you are dying for the fatherland---you die for some industrialists." (Antole France)
"I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation has a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that every one had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves; and that if this country could, consistently with its engagements, maintain a strict neutrality and thereby preserve peace, it was bound to do so by motives of policy, interest, and every other consideration" (George Washington)
"Compromise does not mean cowardice" (John Kennedy)
"We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders, but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?" (Lucius Annaelus Seneca)
"But what is war? What is needed for success in warfare? What are the habits of the military? The aim of war is murder; the methods of war are spying, treachery, and their encouragement, the ruin of a country's inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army, and fraud and falsehood termed military craft. The habits of the military class are absence of treedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all this, it is the highest class, respected by everyone---and he who kills the most people receives the highest awards." (Count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy)
"Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in." (Michel Montaigne)
"If there is another war there will be no victors, only losers." (Richard Nixon after the Vietnam War)
"We must repudiate one of the two, either Christianity with its love of God and one's neighbor, or the State with its armies and wars." (Leo Tolstoy)
"If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject, because doctrines get inside a man's reason and betray him against himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines." (William Graham Sumner)
"Morality will conquer war, even as it has conquered human sacrifices, slavery, feuds, head-hunting and cannibalism."
"These solid people of capital, the press, the pulpit----where have they ever fought? They are accustomed to find out by telegraph and telephone the results of the battles which settle their fate." (Leon Trotsky)
"All through history it's the nations that have given the most to the generals and the least to the people that have been the first to fall." (Harry Truman)
3. ALL VOLUNTARY ARMY---This shift ensures war will be an ongoing operation for Americans as part of our foreign policy. Those whose career is to fight and win battles will find battles to be fought and won all over the globe. The Vietnam War was forced to end because of the draft. It was the draft which produced the street riots and massive demonstrations. The Iraq War continues in large part because there is no draft. Those doing the killing and destruction signed up to do the killing and destruction wherever asked to do so. Military adventures are by far our biggest industry now---the economic engine which drives our prosperity.
Associated quotations:
"An army is a nation within a nation; it is one of the vices of our age" (Alfred Victor)
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience.....In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." (Dwight Eisenhower)
"The Master said: 'To lead an uninstructed people to war, is to throw them away". (Confucius)
"The increase of armaments that is intended in each nation to produce consciousness of strength, and a sense of security, does not produce these effects. On the contrary, it produces a consciousness of the strength of other nations and a sense of fear. Fear begets suspicion and distrust and evil imaginings of all sorts." (Sir Edward Grey)
WHY THE UNITED STATES, LIKE EVERY HISTORICAL EMPIRE, HAS REACHED THE EDGE OF THE PROVERBIAL CLIFF:
1. EMPIRE BUILDING---The entanglement of the U.S. government in the affairs of sovereign nations, resulting in the current 750 military bases in 130 countries, at an exorbitant cost of money, has alienated population segments in those countries whose governments we prop up and protect---all of which directly generates the ever increasing formation of anti-American terrorist groups. This presence of a foreign influence and control which we would not tolerate in our own country should not be imposed on other countries. Period. It moves us one step closer to the cliff.
Associated quotations:
"Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation." (Charles Colton)
"To robbery, slaughter, plunder they give the lying name of empire; they make a desert and call it peace." (Cornelius Tacitus)
"Onward Christian Soldiers, rip and tear and smite!
Let the gentle Jesus bless your dynamite."(Joe Hill)
"A tyrant is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader" (Plato) Remind you of any President or any Presidential candidate?
"Rule your desires lest your desires rule you" (Publilius Syrus)
"History is the propaganda of the victors" (Ernst Toller)
"The remedy in the United States is not less liberty but real liberty---and end to the brutal intolerance of churchly hooligans and flag waving corporations and all the rest of the small but bloody despots who have made the word Americanism a synonym for coercion and legal crime." (Archibald MacLeish)
"For de little stealin' dey gits you in jail soon or late. For the big stealin' dey makes you emperor and puts you in de Hall o' Fame when you croaks" (Eugene O'Neil)
2. THE VIETNAM AND IRAQ WARS----These senseless, counterproductive, ill-advised wars generated by an out of control military industrial complex/political cabals, the cabals now camouflaged as 'think tanks', are responsible for the most destruction of property and life since Hitler. Both provided (especially Iraq) a training ground for terrorists to hone their methods and skills to kill Americans some way some how---where ever Americans can be found. Take another step toward the cliff.
Associated quotations:
"I shall give a propangandist cause for starting the war. Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked, later on whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging a war, it is not Right that matters but Victory. Have no pity. Adopt a brutal attitude....Right is on the side of the Strongest." (Adolf Hitler)
"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet or fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason." (Ernst Hemingway.)
"You will kill ten of our men, and we will kill one of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it" (Ho Chi Minh)
"The enemy advances, we retreat
The enemy halts; we harass
The enemy tires, we attack
The enemy retreats, we pursue." (Mao Zedong)
"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come" (Carl Sandburg)
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets" (Voltaire)
"We are always making God our accomplice, that so we may legalize our own iniquities. Every successful massacre is consecrated by a Te Deum, and the clergy have never been wanting in benediction for any victorious enormity." (Henri Frederic Amiel)
"They create a desolation and call it peace" (Calgacus) I guess this means peace will come to Iraq and Afghanistan when the desolation is complete and the freedom imposed more a case of nothing left to lose.
"No nation is wise enough to rule another." (Helen Keller)
"The enthusiasm for war, and the predatory temper of which it is the index, prevail in the largest measure among the upper classes, especially among the hereditary leisure class." (Thorstein Veblen)
"A soldier is a Yahoo hired to kill in cold blood as many of his own species, who have never offended him, as possibly he can." (Jonathan Swift) This would not apply to any soldier defending his own country against attack or defending another country from external attack.
"Man is a very strange animal. In much of the world half the children go to bed hungry and we spend a trillion on rubbish---steel, iron, tanks. We are all criminals. There is an old Hungarian poem, 'If you are among brigands and you are silent, your are a brigand yourself." (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi)
"It is sad that man is not intelligent enough to solve problems without killing.....The present world crisis can be solved only by a general human revolution against outdated concepts---Man is not a blood thirsty animal, and war is only due to the greed and lust for power of relatively small groups, the conspiracy of the few against the many." (Albert Szent-Gyorgyi)
"The sectaries of a religion, which preaches in appearance, nothing but charity, concord, and peace, have proved themselves more ferocious than cannibals or savages, whenever their divines excited them to destroy their brethren. There is no crime which men have not committed under the idea of pleasing the Divinity or appeasing his wrath." (Paul Henri Thiry)
"O lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle---be Thou near them!....O lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells, help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead: help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief....For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage , make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it in the spirit of love, of Him who is the Source of Love, and who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all who are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen." (No, not George Bush speaking from his heart, this is by Mark Twain, tongue in cheek)
"You believe you are dying for the fatherland---you die for some industrialists." (Antole France)
"I have always given it as my decided opinion that no nation has a right to intermeddle in the internal concerns of another; that every one had a right to form and adopt whatever government they liked best to live under themselves; and that if this country could, consistently with its engagements, maintain a strict neutrality and thereby preserve peace, it was bound to do so by motives of policy, interest, and every other consideration" (George Washington)
"Compromise does not mean cowardice" (John Kennedy)
"We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders, but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?" (Lucius Annaelus Seneca)
"But what is war? What is needed for success in warfare? What are the habits of the military? The aim of war is murder; the methods of war are spying, treachery, and their encouragement, the ruin of a country's inhabitants, robbing them or stealing to provision the army, and fraud and falsehood termed military craft. The habits of the military class are absence of treedom, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all this, it is the highest class, respected by everyone---and he who kills the most people receives the highest awards." (Count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy)
"Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in." (Michel Montaigne)
"If there is another war there will be no victors, only losers." (Richard Nixon after the Vietnam War)
"We must repudiate one of the two, either Christianity with its love of God and one's neighbor, or the State with its armies and wars." (Leo Tolstoy)
"If you want war, nourish a doctrine. Doctrines are the most frightful tyrants to which men ever are subject, because doctrines get inside a man's reason and betray him against himself. Civilized men have done their fiercest fighting for doctrines." (William Graham Sumner)
"Morality will conquer war, even as it has conquered human sacrifices, slavery, feuds, head-hunting and cannibalism."
"These solid people of capital, the press, the pulpit----where have they ever fought? They are accustomed to find out by telegraph and telephone the results of the battles which settle their fate." (Leon Trotsky)
"All through history it's the nations that have given the most to the generals and the least to the people that have been the first to fall." (Harry Truman)
3. ALL VOLUNTARY ARMY---This shift ensures war will be an ongoing operation for Americans as part of our foreign policy. Those whose career is to fight and win battles will find battles to be fought and won all over the globe. The Vietnam War was forced to end because of the draft. It was the draft which produced the street riots and massive demonstrations. The Iraq War continues in large part because there is no draft. Those doing the killing and destruction signed up to do the killing and destruction wherever asked to do so. Military adventures are by far our biggest industry now---the economic engine which drives our prosperity.
Associated quotations:
"An army is a nation within a nation; it is one of the vices of our age" (Alfred Victor)
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience.....In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." (Dwight Eisenhower)
"The Master said: 'To lead an uninstructed people to war, is to throw them away". (Confucius)
"The increase of armaments that is intended in each nation to produce consciousness of strength, and a sense of security, does not produce these effects. On the contrary, it produces a consciousness of the strength of other nations and a sense of fear. Fear begets suspicion and distrust and evil imaginings of all sorts." (Sir Edward Grey)
Monday, December 17, 2007
EACH TO HIS OWN
Each to His Own
Each month I struggle through this catalog from this discount book dealer to select books to read for the month. While I always find books to interest me, there are always a few which strike me with their absurdity---like who reads these books? The most ludicrous seem to be on what topic? You can certainly guess this.
Of course the answer is sex. Sex is always a sure source for humor. For all the importance of sex in our lives, there are precious few serious discussions about sex acts themselves in social conversations. No one asks another, "what kind of sex acts are your favorite? Tee Hee. See, the question itself is reduced to humor. It isn't just many sex acts themselves which are non discussable outside the context of laughter, but sexual attitudes themselves are pretty much isolated components of each person's life. Then when the word sin is thrown in, the whole topic becomes totally beyond reason. For a so called 'natural part of human nature' it reeks individually with a whole lot of unnaturalness. Whatever normal sexual practices and attitudes are, they are certainly undefinable by any logical means. How often, in what form, where, with whom, for what purpose are all shrouded in confusion, shame, ego, sin, legalities, secrecy, and ambivalence. For some, sex is no major part of their lives. For others, sex seems a major driving force in their lives. For those with the the most unusual sexual fetishes, the drive seems to be magnified---magnified to the extent they pursue these fetishes despite the reputation they risk if caught. Many a person has lost a career or marriage or friends over their sexual fetishes. We say sex is a private matter, but we hardly mean it. We may not be able to define exactly what impact a particular sexual behavior has on anybody else, but someone who likes to be tied up and hung from the ceiling during sex is not someone who should be President or School Principal or a Minister, etc. I mean enough is enough. But then what is enough and when is enough? Beats me. Nothing is logical about sex. Nothing. Despite the insistence of some, sex is not equate-able with reproduction. We understand reproduction, we understand almost nothing about sex. Some women engage in sex with strangers as a profession, just another day at the 'office', so to speak. Other women, forced to have sex with a stranger, are irreparably damaged psychologically. Some sell sex, not for money per act, but for a marriage license into wealth. Oh what a tangled web sex weaves.
But I have strayed badly here, like I often do with musings. Back to the list of books I select from each month. This month I made a note of some books which I really wonder why anyone would write the book and who buys the book? It tweaks my curiosity. It also makes me laugh. Maybe someone next door is buying one of these books. Maybe one of you. See, that is funny too. Real funny. You can tell me, I won't tell anyone----at least not right away, minus getting juiced up on something at a social gathering. Here are the books this month which caught my eye:
"A MIND OF ITS OWN: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE PENIS." This book is 358 pages long and "charts the vicissitudes of the relationship between a man and his penis". Why would anyone ever think of writing such a book and just from whom do they collect data to write 358 pages on the topic?
"THE BEDSIDE ORGASM BOOK: 365 DAYS OF SEXUAL ECSTASY." "Offers a mix of hot sexual techniques, spicy suggestions, and tips and tricks for solo and partner play in a day-by-day format". What? no 'spicy suggestions for those into bestiality? Well, all this is well and good, but I would like to tape the scene when a person springs this on their spouse. And for those used to sex twice a month, this sounds exhausting. Since I now live in a condo, maybe I could post the day's 'spicy suggestion' in the elevator along with my unit number.
"DEVIANT DESIRES: INCREDIBLY STRANGE SEX" "Lavishly illustrated guide to the most fascinating and obscure outposts of the erotic frontier". I guess after the 365 days from the last book, one might need to buy this one lest your sex life dwindle to the mundane. But I am puzzled? Where do you find a partner for all this? I guess the internet, but how scary is that? "Looking for someone willing to have sex in the park dumpster during the 4th of July fireworks extravaganza." But what do I know, that might not be strange enough.
"GETTING OFF: A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO MASTURBATION." "Masturbation is, hands down, the safest, most satisfying sex with someone you love". Maybe that is why the marriage rate is falling across the globe. Let's be positive about this: this is the first good news relating to population control. You could be innovative and open up the first chain store titled "Masturbation R' Us". Just don't import any 'toys' from China for health reasons.
"FILTHY SHAKESPEARE: SHAKESPEARE'S MOST OUTRAGEOUS SEXUAL PUNS" " an insightful look into the down-and-dirty sexual puns lurking in Shakespeare's body of work." Now this is more like it, Shakespeare is certainly an appropriate required topic for any high school class. "Hey mom, do you know what Shakespeare meant when he wrote...........? Hee hee, ha, ha."
"GET THIS PARTY STARTED: 50 NAUGHTY GAMES." "Adults Only".
I don't know, this sounds like something which would appeal to some adolescent crowd to me. I wonder, when the evenings' games are over, are there playoffs? Wouldn't this make a good reality series? Instead of a DJ for this party, is there an announcer?: "Score! "It's Over! Lily of the Valley Wins! The Assist by Honschnivel Puts Her Over the Top! Incredible!. Here's the RePlay! OK, good night everyone, from the home of ...........another wild and exciting finish to a game filled with surprises throughout."
Finally, here is the kicker: All of the above books are written by women with the exception of the Cultural History of the Penis. I think I live a sheltered life.
Each month I struggle through this catalog from this discount book dealer to select books to read for the month. While I always find books to interest me, there are always a few which strike me with their absurdity---like who reads these books? The most ludicrous seem to be on what topic? You can certainly guess this.
Of course the answer is sex. Sex is always a sure source for humor. For all the importance of sex in our lives, there are precious few serious discussions about sex acts themselves in social conversations. No one asks another, "what kind of sex acts are your favorite? Tee Hee. See, the question itself is reduced to humor. It isn't just many sex acts themselves which are non discussable outside the context of laughter, but sexual attitudes themselves are pretty much isolated components of each person's life. Then when the word sin is thrown in, the whole topic becomes totally beyond reason. For a so called 'natural part of human nature' it reeks individually with a whole lot of unnaturalness. Whatever normal sexual practices and attitudes are, they are certainly undefinable by any logical means. How often, in what form, where, with whom, for what purpose are all shrouded in confusion, shame, ego, sin, legalities, secrecy, and ambivalence. For some, sex is no major part of their lives. For others, sex seems a major driving force in their lives. For those with the the most unusual sexual fetishes, the drive seems to be magnified---magnified to the extent they pursue these fetishes despite the reputation they risk if caught. Many a person has lost a career or marriage or friends over their sexual fetishes. We say sex is a private matter, but we hardly mean it. We may not be able to define exactly what impact a particular sexual behavior has on anybody else, but someone who likes to be tied up and hung from the ceiling during sex is not someone who should be President or School Principal or a Minister, etc. I mean enough is enough. But then what is enough and when is enough? Beats me. Nothing is logical about sex. Nothing. Despite the insistence of some, sex is not equate-able with reproduction. We understand reproduction, we understand almost nothing about sex. Some women engage in sex with strangers as a profession, just another day at the 'office', so to speak. Other women, forced to have sex with a stranger, are irreparably damaged psychologically. Some sell sex, not for money per act, but for a marriage license into wealth. Oh what a tangled web sex weaves.
But I have strayed badly here, like I often do with musings. Back to the list of books I select from each month. This month I made a note of some books which I really wonder why anyone would write the book and who buys the book? It tweaks my curiosity. It also makes me laugh. Maybe someone next door is buying one of these books. Maybe one of you. See, that is funny too. Real funny. You can tell me, I won't tell anyone----at least not right away, minus getting juiced up on something at a social gathering. Here are the books this month which caught my eye:
"A MIND OF ITS OWN: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE PENIS." This book is 358 pages long and "charts the vicissitudes of the relationship between a man and his penis". Why would anyone ever think of writing such a book and just from whom do they collect data to write 358 pages on the topic?
"THE BEDSIDE ORGASM BOOK: 365 DAYS OF SEXUAL ECSTASY." "Offers a mix of hot sexual techniques, spicy suggestions, and tips and tricks for solo and partner play in a day-by-day format". What? no 'spicy suggestions for those into bestiality? Well, all this is well and good, but I would like to tape the scene when a person springs this on their spouse. And for those used to sex twice a month, this sounds exhausting. Since I now live in a condo, maybe I could post the day's 'spicy suggestion' in the elevator along with my unit number.
"DEVIANT DESIRES: INCREDIBLY STRANGE SEX" "Lavishly illustrated guide to the most fascinating and obscure outposts of the erotic frontier". I guess after the 365 days from the last book, one might need to buy this one lest your sex life dwindle to the mundane. But I am puzzled? Where do you find a partner for all this? I guess the internet, but how scary is that? "Looking for someone willing to have sex in the park dumpster during the 4th of July fireworks extravaganza." But what do I know, that might not be strange enough.
"GETTING OFF: A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO MASTURBATION." "Masturbation is, hands down, the safest, most satisfying sex with someone you love". Maybe that is why the marriage rate is falling across the globe. Let's be positive about this: this is the first good news relating to population control. You could be innovative and open up the first chain store titled "Masturbation R' Us". Just don't import any 'toys' from China for health reasons.
"FILTHY SHAKESPEARE: SHAKESPEARE'S MOST OUTRAGEOUS SEXUAL PUNS" " an insightful look into the down-and-dirty sexual puns lurking in Shakespeare's body of work." Now this is more like it, Shakespeare is certainly an appropriate required topic for any high school class. "Hey mom, do you know what Shakespeare meant when he wrote...........? Hee hee, ha, ha."
"GET THIS PARTY STARTED: 50 NAUGHTY GAMES." "Adults Only".
I don't know, this sounds like something which would appeal to some adolescent crowd to me. I wonder, when the evenings' games are over, are there playoffs? Wouldn't this make a good reality series? Instead of a DJ for this party, is there an announcer?: "Score! "It's Over! Lily of the Valley Wins! The Assist by Honschnivel Puts Her Over the Top! Incredible!. Here's the RePlay! OK, good night everyone, from the home of ...........another wild and exciting finish to a game filled with surprises throughout."
Finally, here is the kicker: All of the above books are written by women with the exception of the Cultural History of the Penis. I think I live a sheltered life.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Dec. T.O. articles (1)
Calvin Watkins
Celebs, Dallas Cowboys out in force for T.O.'s birthday bash
12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, December 5, 2007
The night started on the red carpet.
You're waiting ...
That's what reporters do more than anything – wait.
And we're waiting inside the Glass Cactus at the Gaylord Texan Resort as celebrities are rolling in for Terrell Owens' birthday party Monday night.
More Cowboys
There's my man, Kevin Frazier of Entertainment Tonight.
He attended Owens' birthday party last year in Hollywood.
"Hey, man, whatever you need, let me know," he says.
Thanks.
There's Serena Williams, the tennis star, with two assistants behind her.
A television reporter asked Williams what she thought of North Texas.
"Well, uh, it's nice from what I saw," she says.
Here's Kenya Moore, a former Miss USA. Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child starts to sign Happy Birthday to the camera.
Melyssa Ford, the video model, is here, too.
Ford is posing for pictures and taking her time during an interview with a Cowboys' TV personality.
Bradie James and Kyle Kosier – no blazer, mind you – Jason Witten with his wife Michelle, and DeMarcus Ware and his wife, who is pregnant, walk in. Anthony Fasano and Sam Hurd, who's wearing a red scarf, along with Roy Williams, Jason Hatcher and Ken Hamlin walk in.
Then, Tony Romo.
Where's your date?
"No date for me."
What about you dating Jessica Simpson?
"I'm not going to talk about my personal life tonight."
Actor/singer Jamie Foxx and Owens stroll in.
Owens is with Felisha Terrell, who used to be his fiancé.
Foxx is with model Claudia Jordan.
Owens' mom, Marilyn Heard, is here.
As the media talks to Owens and Foxx, two of the Cowboys' special-teamers, Mat McBriar and Nick Folk, walk in.
Marcus Spears is here, too.
Folk, wearing a white blazer, gives me the head nod.
Inside the Glass Cactus, Foxx is going crazy.
He jumps on the stage and pulls his white shirt out during a charity auction and takes over.
He's trying to get Romo to cough up $10,000 for a weekend at the Palms in Las Vegas.
Romo is shaking his head yes.
Foxx wants more.
Roy Williams says he'll give more.
The price is now $50,000.
"You got an extension," Foxx says to Romo, alluding to the $67.5 million deal the quarterback signed a few weeks ago.
"Sold," Romo says into the microphone, "To Roy Williams."
The crowd loves it.
Foxx is trying to get more items auctioned off for Owens' charity, designed to help 81 needy families in the Dallas area.
"Where are the millionaires?" Foxx yells.
James, a millionaire, grabs a few reporters' arms and tries to push them up.
As the night goes on, there's this potato vodka that you can get for free in your drinks.
Dirty martini is a favorite.
Next to one of the many bars inside, there's a guy selling Swiss watches.
This one is nice.
"Yeah," says the salesman. "I'll give it to you for about 74."
Not a bad price, $74.00.
"No, $74,000."
Upstairs, the party continues. Some woman says she paid $740 to get in. The party is a mixture of styles and personalities.
Brandy, the singer, is walking by.
Bobby Carpenter, the Cowboys' second-year linebacker, is wearing a black hat. Special teams ace Keith Davis makes an appearance wearing a hat and dark shades.
Linebacker Akin Ayodele shows up and gets some hugs from the ladies.
He poses for pictures with Ware and his wife, Taniqua.
Tank Johnson is in the house. So is Patrick Crayton, Nate Jones, Anthony Henry, Stephen Bowen and Cory Procter.
Actress Jill Marie Jones from the television show Girlfriends is here.
Wait, did we just say Cory Procter was here?
"Yeah, needed to get out of the house," joked the backup offensive lineman.
Being a pro athlete isn't always easy. There's pressures to perform, plus many of them have every little thing they do criticized.
But for one night, it looked like fun, especially if just you needed to get out of the house.
Celebs, Dallas Cowboys out in force for T.O.'s birthday bash
12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, December 5, 2007
The night started on the red carpet.
You're waiting ...
That's what reporters do more than anything – wait.
And we're waiting inside the Glass Cactus at the Gaylord Texan Resort as celebrities are rolling in for Terrell Owens' birthday party Monday night.
More Cowboys
There's my man, Kevin Frazier of Entertainment Tonight.
He attended Owens' birthday party last year in Hollywood.
"Hey, man, whatever you need, let me know," he says.
Thanks.
There's Serena Williams, the tennis star, with two assistants behind her.
A television reporter asked Williams what she thought of North Texas.
"Well, uh, it's nice from what I saw," she says.
Here's Kenya Moore, a former Miss USA. Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child starts to sign Happy Birthday to the camera.
Melyssa Ford, the video model, is here, too.
Ford is posing for pictures and taking her time during an interview with a Cowboys' TV personality.
Bradie James and Kyle Kosier – no blazer, mind you – Jason Witten with his wife Michelle, and DeMarcus Ware and his wife, who is pregnant, walk in. Anthony Fasano and Sam Hurd, who's wearing a red scarf, along with Roy Williams, Jason Hatcher and Ken Hamlin walk in.
Then, Tony Romo.
Where's your date?
"No date for me."
What about you dating Jessica Simpson?
"I'm not going to talk about my personal life tonight."
Actor/singer Jamie Foxx and Owens stroll in.
Owens is with Felisha Terrell, who used to be his fiancé.
Foxx is with model Claudia Jordan.
Owens' mom, Marilyn Heard, is here.
As the media talks to Owens and Foxx, two of the Cowboys' special-teamers, Mat McBriar and Nick Folk, walk in.
Marcus Spears is here, too.
Folk, wearing a white blazer, gives me the head nod.
Inside the Glass Cactus, Foxx is going crazy.
He jumps on the stage and pulls his white shirt out during a charity auction and takes over.
He's trying to get Romo to cough up $10,000 for a weekend at the Palms in Las Vegas.
Romo is shaking his head yes.
Foxx wants more.
Roy Williams says he'll give more.
The price is now $50,000.
"You got an extension," Foxx says to Romo, alluding to the $67.5 million deal the quarterback signed a few weeks ago.
"Sold," Romo says into the microphone, "To Roy Williams."
The crowd loves it.
Foxx is trying to get more items auctioned off for Owens' charity, designed to help 81 needy families in the Dallas area.
"Where are the millionaires?" Foxx yells.
James, a millionaire, grabs a few reporters' arms and tries to push them up.
As the night goes on, there's this potato vodka that you can get for free in your drinks.
Dirty martini is a favorite.
Next to one of the many bars inside, there's a guy selling Swiss watches.
This one is nice.
"Yeah," says the salesman. "I'll give it to you for about 74."
Not a bad price, $74.00.
"No, $74,000."
Upstairs, the party continues. Some woman says she paid $740 to get in. The party is a mixture of styles and personalities.
Brandy, the singer, is walking by.
Bobby Carpenter, the Cowboys' second-year linebacker, is wearing a black hat. Special teams ace Keith Davis makes an appearance wearing a hat and dark shades.
Linebacker Akin Ayodele shows up and gets some hugs from the ladies.
He poses for pictures with Ware and his wife, Taniqua.
Tank Johnson is in the house. So is Patrick Crayton, Nate Jones, Anthony Henry, Stephen Bowen and Cory Procter.
Actress Jill Marie Jones from the television show Girlfriends is here.
Wait, did we just say Cory Procter was here?
"Yeah, needed to get out of the house," joked the backup offensive lineman.
Being a pro athlete isn't always easy. There's pressures to perform, plus many of them have every little thing they do criticized.
But for one night, it looked like fun, especially if just you needed to get out of the house.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA
The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA
This was the title of an old upbeat song by Donna Fargo. It kind of stuck in my mind with it's "zippy doo da, zippidy A, I'm the happiest girl in the whole USA". There have been moments in my life when I felt I was the happiest guy in the whole USA. I guess most have had those moments. You get a good exam score, you win a race, your team wins a sandlot ball game of some sort, you buy a new car, you purchase a new home, you find true love, you attend a concert that enthralls your senses, you get a scholarship, you win a battle at work, and on it goes with different strokes of happiness for different folks.
I think only a fool would attempt to define happiness. It is more like a personal invention at a personal moment in time. None of these moments last. What goes up must come down. Damn Mother Nature. The original Manager of my condo used to refer to me as the happiest owner in the building. More than one owner has commented that I never seem to be upset about anything. Perhaps they confuse such absence with 'why bother'? I was never a good dancer. Not on the dance floor and not dancing to the tune of others in the rest of life either. But the terminational years are different. I have learned to dance. I call it the 'Get Out of the Way Waltz'---a "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick' sort of reflexive reaction to contests, confrontations, challenges of any sort. With a little savvy you can see it coming and just when they reach out to put the squeeze on you----poof, you are gone leaving them to wrap their arms around themselves. I consider this the cornerstone of contentment in the terminational years. Like the Charmin toilet paper ad--- please don't squeeze RSJ. It works well---I don't get squeezed, and you can bet the squeezer is not going to squeeze themselves too hard. Everybody wins.
The high strung happiness moments of yesteryear are never lost and become the cornerstone of pleasant memories. Without past pleasant memories I don't know how one generates contentment in their terminational years. When you feel lucky and fortunate about your past it is not hard to find contentment in your terminational years. The bad moments of time fade and the good moments sustain a positive mental state. Really now, what should a survivor with good memories complain about? With the passage of time everything changes---your own priorities, your interests. your energy level, your ambitions, your political or religious inclinations, your expectations, your tolerance, oh just about everything. The days of striving to be a winner, to best anyone about anything, either are gone or the terminational years will be endless hell to pay. When I wander hither and thither these days like some sort of stray dog nosing around, I see the frenzied harried looks of the productive years crowd seeking those momentary points of happiness and I feel like a retired winner. If I wanted to, I could not---definitely not--- re-engage myself in that mode.
When the manager would tell me how cheerful I always am and unlike others, never come by to complain----well, I smiled and felt a bit guilty because some of those who bothered her, bothered her because I know which owners, given a nudge, will grab the ball and run with it. I can then head out for a peaceful walk and think of all this stuff I write about, which seems to fill any need I have to accomplish something. To think you understand things about the world you exist in can be the sustenance of your satisfaction in life. Of course I will be dead no longer in the long run anymore but the short run now, so all this perceived understanding about all sorts of matters is a farce, but the kind of farce which sustains me at this stage in my life. If some others want to view me as the happiest owner in the building so be it. I guess it is better than being known as the biggest grouch in the building. No one, who remotely thinks they understand the realities of our world, can be labeled the happiest person around. You look around, and if you remove the blinders, layers of them put in place over the years, you see the pain, the suffering, the injustices crushing an ever increasing mass of humanity---pitiful lives of quiet desperation. You see it and you are helpless. And you begin to understand from where so many terrorists are coming. They are the ones who refuse to suffer in silence. They are coming, millions strong and ever growing, ever honing more efficient and destructive ways to attack all the perceived enablers of their fate. The days of the poor and destitute living off the land in peaceful little remote villages across the globe are gone. The environment can no longer sustain an overpopulated globe. The game is up now. Of course the God created process of evolution continues on, as it has for millions of years, and all those who think God is personally walking along side them with His/Her arm around them protecting them from the Natural processes of His evolutionary process---well, to me this seems hopelessly and selfishly illusionary. A real stretch. To believe God would put his arm around me personally and not some parent-less starving kid in a wretched refugee camp is a self serving preposterous absurdity.
Anyway, if some want to consider me the happiest owner in the building, so be it. But the reality is that I am just waltzing around, fine tuning my Get Out of the Way Waltz. That is, after all is said and done, kind of the best move for the aged. It is fine with me, I kind of enjoy being out of the way. It beats fussing a good deal of the time about this and that and whatever---being a nuisance, a burden, a pest, somebody's obligation, a frustrated control freak, some sort of dead weight for others to drag around. I prefer to go gently down the stream, on good terms with those who are kind to me, and the more gently I go the kinder people are. I am never really alone but surrounded by a good array of mentors, some alive but mostly dead, whose wisdom and example provide the sustenance for contentment. And no, contentment does not make anyone the happiest person in the whole USA. That is Terrell Owens when he scores a touchdown. Or a politician when they win an election, or me when I won a race, or someone in the middle of their best orgasm ever, or a kid learning he is getting a scholarship to college, or a worker getting a promotion, or a refugee getting a piece of bread, or Bush on a successful bombing spree. I always hate to see Bush smile. It seems to always mean some people have been slaughtered or some injustice to some group has been upheld, or assistance to those in need been blocked, or his own religious beliefs been made the law of the land, or the wealthy are getting another tax break, etc. He has certainly smiled a lot over the last 7 years. Bush cannot, by any measure, match Hitler, but at least Hitler had the decency not to smile.
This was the title of an old upbeat song by Donna Fargo. It kind of stuck in my mind with it's "zippy doo da, zippidy A, I'm the happiest girl in the whole USA". There have been moments in my life when I felt I was the happiest guy in the whole USA. I guess most have had those moments. You get a good exam score, you win a race, your team wins a sandlot ball game of some sort, you buy a new car, you purchase a new home, you find true love, you attend a concert that enthralls your senses, you get a scholarship, you win a battle at work, and on it goes with different strokes of happiness for different folks.
I think only a fool would attempt to define happiness. It is more like a personal invention at a personal moment in time. None of these moments last. What goes up must come down. Damn Mother Nature. The original Manager of my condo used to refer to me as the happiest owner in the building. More than one owner has commented that I never seem to be upset about anything. Perhaps they confuse such absence with 'why bother'? I was never a good dancer. Not on the dance floor and not dancing to the tune of others in the rest of life either. But the terminational years are different. I have learned to dance. I call it the 'Get Out of the Way Waltz'---a "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick' sort of reflexive reaction to contests, confrontations, challenges of any sort. With a little savvy you can see it coming and just when they reach out to put the squeeze on you----poof, you are gone leaving them to wrap their arms around themselves. I consider this the cornerstone of contentment in the terminational years. Like the Charmin toilet paper ad--- please don't squeeze RSJ. It works well---I don't get squeezed, and you can bet the squeezer is not going to squeeze themselves too hard. Everybody wins.
The high strung happiness moments of yesteryear are never lost and become the cornerstone of pleasant memories. Without past pleasant memories I don't know how one generates contentment in their terminational years. When you feel lucky and fortunate about your past it is not hard to find contentment in your terminational years. The bad moments of time fade and the good moments sustain a positive mental state. Really now, what should a survivor with good memories complain about? With the passage of time everything changes---your own priorities, your interests. your energy level, your ambitions, your political or religious inclinations, your expectations, your tolerance, oh just about everything. The days of striving to be a winner, to best anyone about anything, either are gone or the terminational years will be endless hell to pay. When I wander hither and thither these days like some sort of stray dog nosing around, I see the frenzied harried looks of the productive years crowd seeking those momentary points of happiness and I feel like a retired winner. If I wanted to, I could not---definitely not--- re-engage myself in that mode.
When the manager would tell me how cheerful I always am and unlike others, never come by to complain----well, I smiled and felt a bit guilty because some of those who bothered her, bothered her because I know which owners, given a nudge, will grab the ball and run with it. I can then head out for a peaceful walk and think of all this stuff I write about, which seems to fill any need I have to accomplish something. To think you understand things about the world you exist in can be the sustenance of your satisfaction in life. Of course I will be dead no longer in the long run anymore but the short run now, so all this perceived understanding about all sorts of matters is a farce, but the kind of farce which sustains me at this stage in my life. If some others want to view me as the happiest owner in the building so be it. I guess it is better than being known as the biggest grouch in the building. No one, who remotely thinks they understand the realities of our world, can be labeled the happiest person around. You look around, and if you remove the blinders, layers of them put in place over the years, you see the pain, the suffering, the injustices crushing an ever increasing mass of humanity---pitiful lives of quiet desperation. You see it and you are helpless. And you begin to understand from where so many terrorists are coming. They are the ones who refuse to suffer in silence. They are coming, millions strong and ever growing, ever honing more efficient and destructive ways to attack all the perceived enablers of their fate. The days of the poor and destitute living off the land in peaceful little remote villages across the globe are gone. The environment can no longer sustain an overpopulated globe. The game is up now. Of course the God created process of evolution continues on, as it has for millions of years, and all those who think God is personally walking along side them with His/Her arm around them protecting them from the Natural processes of His evolutionary process---well, to me this seems hopelessly and selfishly illusionary. A real stretch. To believe God would put his arm around me personally and not some parent-less starving kid in a wretched refugee camp is a self serving preposterous absurdity.
Anyway, if some want to consider me the happiest owner in the building, so be it. But the reality is that I am just waltzing around, fine tuning my Get Out of the Way Waltz. That is, after all is said and done, kind of the best move for the aged. It is fine with me, I kind of enjoy being out of the way. It beats fussing a good deal of the time about this and that and whatever---being a nuisance, a burden, a pest, somebody's obligation, a frustrated control freak, some sort of dead weight for others to drag around. I prefer to go gently down the stream, on good terms with those who are kind to me, and the more gently I go the kinder people are. I am never really alone but surrounded by a good array of mentors, some alive but mostly dead, whose wisdom and example provide the sustenance for contentment. And no, contentment does not make anyone the happiest person in the whole USA. That is Terrell Owens when he scores a touchdown. Or a politician when they win an election, or me when I won a race, or someone in the middle of their best orgasm ever, or a kid learning he is getting a scholarship to college, or a worker getting a promotion, or a refugee getting a piece of bread, or Bush on a successful bombing spree. I always hate to see Bush smile. It seems to always mean some people have been slaughtered or some injustice to some group has been upheld, or assistance to those in need been blocked, or his own religious beliefs been made the law of the land, or the wealthy are getting another tax break, etc. He has certainly smiled a lot over the last 7 years. Bush cannot, by any measure, match Hitler, but at least Hitler had the decency not to smile.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Muddled Messages
Muddled Messages:
Perhaps if I had known Sean Taylor I would have liked him. Who and why anyone likes anyone is not exactly any reasoned rational exercise. More often a marriage made enigmanated in mystery.
“It’s times like this that all of us struggle to find meaning in life,” NFL Commissioner Goodell told the mourners. “The NFL was proud of Sean Taylor. He loved football and football loved him back. But more importantly, it was what he was as a man and what he was becoming as a man.”
Maybe so but their are certain facts that remain:
Taylor was raised by his chief-of-police father in a middle class home and attended private school.
He was fined seven times for viscious late hits
He spat in the face of an opponent during a playoff game
DUI arrest in 2004 but charges thrown out
In 2005 arrested for aggravated assault and faced 46 years in jail for waving a gun and beating up alleged thieves of his ATV's. Was sentenced to 18 months probation.
His SUV was shot 15 times in a drive-by shooting in 2006
There is ample evidence that Good Commissioner Goodell is also proud of Coach 'Billicheat' who drew not a minute of suspension for cheating in football games. It was left up to some wimpy righteous Coach Dungy to express any real disapproval: During an interview on HBO's "Costas Now" that will air Tuesday night, Dungy was asked whether "frosty" was the proper characterization of their brief handshake.
"Well, it probably was," Dungy said. "But that's Bill. Bill has always been that way with me."
Dungy told host Bob Costas that he had not heard from Belichick about his comments in September that the Patriots being caught spying was a "really sad day for the NFL."
"But what I meant was you had so many people looking at this team and this organization," Dungy said. "They've won three Super Bowls. We're talking about them as maybe the best team ever. ... And to have something like that happen, it just lets people say, 'Oh, you know, this is how you win.' Or, 'This is OK, as long as you win.' And I didn't think it was good for the NFL."
This is not to say that Good Commissioner Goodell, the puppet and mouthpiece of the NFL Owners, is proud of just every player in the NFL. There is Ricky Williams for example. He has been suspended for seasons for smoking pot. No DUI for Ricky, no assaults, no cheating, no waving guns around, but the NFL has to draw the line in the sand somewhere and smoking that well established performance enhancing drug marijuana is of course the logical place to draw the line. The other stuff is just good ole American boys will be boys stuff.
What the NFL seems to be least proud of is any player who dares to be different, more precisely---to be indifferent to the carefully managed tune the league writes for the players to publicly dance. The best of citizens, with the best of noble personal principles, with clean as a whistle living, with a self made determination and training regimen for success---is targeted with unrelentless verbal and legal assault. You wonder what the Good Mr. Goodell would say if Terrell Owens had been murdered in a home invasion. To tell the truth he probably would give the same God damned speech.
But all this aside. When are Americans going to ever understand that violence begets violence? Are we really going to ride this arrogant ignorance into a chaotic disintegration of everything we have built up over the past 200 years?
Perhaps if I had known Sean Taylor I would have liked him. Who and why anyone likes anyone is not exactly any reasoned rational exercise. More often a marriage made enigmanated in mystery.
“It’s times like this that all of us struggle to find meaning in life,” NFL Commissioner Goodell told the mourners. “The NFL was proud of Sean Taylor. He loved football and football loved him back. But more importantly, it was what he was as a man and what he was becoming as a man.”
Maybe so but their are certain facts that remain:
Taylor was raised by his chief-of-police father in a middle class home and attended private school.
He was fined seven times for viscious late hits
He spat in the face of an opponent during a playoff game
DUI arrest in 2004 but charges thrown out
In 2005 arrested for aggravated assault and faced 46 years in jail for waving a gun and beating up alleged thieves of his ATV's. Was sentenced to 18 months probation.
His SUV was shot 15 times in a drive-by shooting in 2006
There is ample evidence that Good Commissioner Goodell is also proud of Coach 'Billicheat' who drew not a minute of suspension for cheating in football games. It was left up to some wimpy righteous Coach Dungy to express any real disapproval: During an interview on HBO's "Costas Now" that will air Tuesday night, Dungy was asked whether "frosty" was the proper characterization of their brief handshake.
"Well, it probably was," Dungy said. "But that's Bill. Bill has always been that way with me."
Dungy told host Bob Costas that he had not heard from Belichick about his comments in September that the Patriots being caught spying was a "really sad day for the NFL."
"But what I meant was you had so many people looking at this team and this organization," Dungy said. "They've won three Super Bowls. We're talking about them as maybe the best team ever. ... And to have something like that happen, it just lets people say, 'Oh, you know, this is how you win.' Or, 'This is OK, as long as you win.' And I didn't think it was good for the NFL."
This is not to say that Good Commissioner Goodell, the puppet and mouthpiece of the NFL Owners, is proud of just every player in the NFL. There is Ricky Williams for example. He has been suspended for seasons for smoking pot. No DUI for Ricky, no assaults, no cheating, no waving guns around, but the NFL has to draw the line in the sand somewhere and smoking that well established performance enhancing drug marijuana is of course the logical place to draw the line. The other stuff is just good ole American boys will be boys stuff.
What the NFL seems to be least proud of is any player who dares to be different, more precisely---to be indifferent to the carefully managed tune the league writes for the players to publicly dance. The best of citizens, with the best of noble personal principles, with clean as a whistle living, with a self made determination and training regimen for success---is targeted with unrelentless verbal and legal assault. You wonder what the Good Mr. Goodell would say if Terrell Owens had been murdered in a home invasion. To tell the truth he probably would give the same God damned speech.
But all this aside. When are Americans going to ever understand that violence begets violence? Are we really going to ride this arrogant ignorance into a chaotic disintegration of everything we have built up over the past 200 years?
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