Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.

Rumi

The National Security Agency

We're listening to every word,

we're reading every e-mail,

we know who you are,

we know where you live.

The Tsunami of Greed

Recently, Mr Pat Cox, former Irish President of The European Parliament, scholar and politician, diagnosed the root cause of the economic recession here in Ireland as being the tsunami of greed that had enveloped the mythical and legendary green isle. The land of mythical leprecauns had become the land of the mythical Celtic Tiger. Most Irish people swallowed whole this myth of inevitable progess and increasing wealth. With greed and selfishness the core values, there seemed to be no hindering the onward flight of the legendary Tiger. However, some few perspicacious souls like Eddie Hobbs (financial adviser) and David McWilliams (economist and journalist)saw through the myth and saw that the Celtic Tiger was but an inflated toy made of rather brittle plastic. Now the economic bubble has burst and the Tiger is a deflated, sad and lifeless mess.

Our national economic boom was a myth based upon a vastly over-priced housing market. The basic economic law of supply and demand brought the whole rotten mess collapsing down. Now we have an oversupply of houses and apartments and what has come to be termed "ghost housing estates" in many rural areas around the country. Bankers lent too much money to builders who in turn cannot sell the houses at vastly over-inflated prices. Added to this, we have been dealt the second blow of the international economic crisis.

However, this short post will not attempt too much analysis of the economic situation as its writer is poorly equipped to do so. However, it would seem to all and sundry that what has caused both our national crisis and indeed the international one has been nothing short of naked greed and selfishness. The world needs leaders at this moment in time. Barak Obama, the US President, is one such towering leader with principles and ideals. He is standing up to all those who have been sucked into headless and heartless capitalism. He is to be praised for capping the earnings of CEOs at $250,000. We need to follow his leadership here in Ireland. We need such leaders in the world today. Mr Obama can walk the walk as well as talking the talk.

"Disposable" plastic

"Disposable" plastic........

is trash that lasts forever.

The Magnificent Deception

...it's as worth to watch as John Zerzan's SURPLUS, Thomas Toivonen's DEAD SOCIETY, Peter Joseph's ZEITGEIST and ADDENDUM, etc... here's ThinkFree.ca and DivergentFilms' limited edition version of The Magnificent Deception, Rob Menard's newest video on the concepts of Freedom, Law, and Commerce, and how they relate to Persons, Humans, and Freesouls-On-Land. This is the preview version of the Sequel to Bursting Bubbles of Government Deception.

good matter for thinking!

The Girl Effect

GIRL

(click)

Your children

Don't cry for me.....

.....I'm already dead.


........The Simpsons........

Anti*dis*damn*capitalism

Gay marriage

If those gays want to get married,

I think we should let 'em,

they have the right

to be as miserable as the rest of us.

(hee hee)

Man of Peace

Be kind whenever possible.

It is always possible.


.....His Holiness The Dalai Lama.....

"If wishes were horses,

beggars would ride."

Soylent Green

Soylent Green......is people!

Hamas seizes food,medicine,and blankets

In Jerusalem hamas takes away supplies meant for people in Gaza, the hamas organization said they were taking the supplies because they may get to people not supportive of their terrorist organization, way to go shitheads you discovered another way for the world to hate you, i didn't think it was possible but you found a way. So how is this supposed to help your global image, and the people of Gaza's view of your organization, i mean come on we closed Guantanamo bay, can you wait at least a month before you piss us off again. Stop this inhumanity hamas and don't be such douche bags to people who don't support terrorism.

Big Brother

Big Brother...

...is watching you

Zeitgeist

When the power of love

overcomes the love of power

the world will know peace

.....Sri Chinmoy Ghose.....

patriot parasites

The paradox behavior of those trying to sell us the "Trickle Down Theory"
is how it turned into the "Suck It Up Parasite."

Money used to be building blocks now it is sand.
The foundation to build on is supportive credit for participation.

Getting healthy (and active) is the job that relates effort to contribution.
Filling forms is automatic credit to reverse tax needs
by integrated interviewing to practice understanding agreement.

Representation could be the evaluation exercise that qualifies advertising intent.
Supportive attitudes encourage, but discouragement makes victimizers critical.

We have become critical consumers (slaves) other than appreciative tribute givers (entitled patriots.)

I Like Ike

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. We must never let the
weight of this combination endanger our liberties or
democratic processes. We should take nothing for
granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable
citizenry can compel the proper meshing
of the huge industrial and military
machinery of defense with our
peaceful methods and goals,
so that
security
and liberty
may prosper
together.
Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation, 01.17.61

Baptism of Christ

Aert de Gelder (1645-1727)

Guernica

Post Guernica now!
plaster it on all the walls,
on freeway billboards, schools,
work spaces, churches, and restrooms.
it moves the bowels in a most agreeable manner,
the smell of shit brings one down to earth again.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

all about choices

Same new paper
the other side
of the page...

Collage by C.L.DeMedeiros

Bob Dobbs

Conspiracy theory?.......

....it's not a theory.

I told you so

Photo by C.L.DeMedeiros

The Changing Winds

I stood in the post office today and couldn't help but notice the change.

You'd think with people being told daily of the looming depression and the multiplying dangers overseas, they would at least be gloomy if not downright testy. They're being told that their retirements are in jepoardy, that their jobs are likely to be slashed, that income is stagnant and credit frozen, that their sons, daughters, husbands and wives may be shipped off to Afghanistan as soon as they get home from Iraq.

Yet in spite of all that, the joy was infectious at the post office as everyone celebrated an adorable 3-month old child sitting in a carriage wondering what all the fuss was about (and growing up in a politically colorblind world).

Permit this writer of empiricism the lyrics of postulation...

I, too, have been unable to grab hold of depression. Try as I might, there's just too much potential being articulated day in and day out. The headlines are grim, but they are always overcome by the can-do spirit of our government now, which daily seems to have a new shoe to throw at the problem. There's something inspiring and uplifting about that.

I keep thinking about this historic campaign built on community and it strikes me too that for the first time in my life, people are genuinely proud of one another. They have a stake in this President, in this future we've all now invested in, and they are bound to each other like never before. Unlike the Bush years, where the citizen (and her or his rights) was the subject of scoffing, we are reminded not of a White House, but of a People's House; not of the government, but of our government.

Who knows?

I may be reading far too much into the nice California weather today.

I listened intently to a disgruntled professor from Yale today on the radio stirring up worry that these modern tools of communication were actually serving to drive us farther apart. I couldn't help but muse that someone must've said that about the telephone too.

This is one of those times in history that we'll tell future generations about. The seeds of nostalgia are being planted excitedly and I'm rushing to change my Facebook status accordingly...

For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

Obstruction of Justice

A glimpse into the GOP playbook:

They can cram down a stimulus package without Republican support, but if that happens, then when, as we believe, in six months or so, when the American people say, 'Wait a minute, we're not better off. In fact, we're worse off than we were six months ago. Who is responsible for this and what can be done to fix it?' Republicans then are going to be in a position to say, 'We didn't have the input in this and that's why it didn't work.' - Sen. John Kyl (R - Arizona)

Get the game?

I'm never one to jump into partisan politics and as a general rule of thumb, the Democrats can be just as dumb as the Republicans when it comes to governing. We forget that the GOP wasn't alone in its acquiescence to much of the destruction wrought by the Bush years.

But the No Vote on the stimulus in the House does highlight what appears to be a strategy of sorts: the "I Told You So". While politically smart (if they win, they can wag their fingers, if they lose, no one will likely remember), it's also cowardly and they should be called out on it.

The Democrats (perhaps just President Obama) have shown a great deal of political courage in accepting concessions, parring down excess and controversy and extending a genuine hand of compromise. Should that hand get continually slapped by the GOP, the public will notice, weary as it is of bickering and ineptitude. This new age of responsibility might boomerang back around and whip the GOP where the sun don't shine...


For more, visit Rants, Raves and Rethoughts

Dr. Johnson

Patriotism

is the last refuge

of a scoundrel

........Samuel Johnson........

Change

Okay so how can Islamic people claim to want change but still punish people so brutally, take for instance, today Islamic militants chop off a theif's hand, he stole only 300$ dollars of fishing nets from a businesswomen, and on november 1st 2008 they stoned a 13 year old for adultery even through she was raped by 3 men. The group that did this atrocity is called al-Shabab and it is the
the group that controls Somalia. Come on people stop this almost "never ending spree of death and violence and hate" if you know your Offspring music you can name this song just post a comment if you know it sorry im kind of hyper. I think some people need to go over there and stop this fucking insanity come on we can't just sit around with our heads up our asses. In u.s. news john coleman left his marching band after he received a 6 month suspension after he nodded and waved at President Obama,come on people just because he broke a idiotic regulation
about breaking parade decorum whatever the hell that means. latters

The Female Eunuch

Germaine Greer argues that scaring women is

"big business and hugely profitable."

It is fear, she wrote, that "makes women comply

with schemes and policies that work against their interest".

Sexism is indeed creating a second class citizen,

and fear works equally well on men,

don't be a slave to either.

(art by John Holmes)

The most important thing

What is

the most

important thing?


The most

important thing...

is the "Family of Man"

Breeding War

Sri Lankan kids inside the jungle
Taking shelter from the bombs
Stand beside the rebel soldiers
And watch their daddies kill their moms

Haitian children live in huts
Don’t go to school, can’t read a book
Their parents cannot feed them - ever
But we can’t see if we don’t look

In Gaza, secret army soldiers die
For children shot, and killed, and terrified
So posters now display the losses
They’re peppering the countryside

Chinese teens have been detained
For remembering the fight
That failed to bring their honor back
That failed, again, to show what’s right

The Belgian painted killer who
Could hear the voices in his head
Rode his bike into a town
And left a score of toddlers dead

And when their lifeblood jobs were lost
A Californian man and wife
Knew desperation, thought long and hard
And then they took their children’s lives

These are the headlines – all today
Death, destruction, blood, and war
So when these kids grow up to hate
I’ll bet you’ll wish you had done more.

Gaza Real

Peaceful he lies not knowing the rest of his life, never knowing the rest of his life.
We cannot live with this; but outrage has its limits. What doesn't have its' limits.

How do we matter when nothing matters?