Thursday, August 20, 2009

Star Trek


I believe in a Star Trek world

I believe that food and housing and education

would seem to be better weapons against

extremism and violence

than murder, mayhem and war

I believe that when we put profit above human life

we are feeding on our young

Open your eyes to the new galactic perspective

we are not alone in the universe

human beings are but one race among many

I believe it is time to reject our

culture of scarcity and corruption

the drive for profit alone is self destructive

The New Age of Enlightenment is upon us

and Gene Roddenberry had a perfect vision of it in Star Trek

I believe it is time to change the world......

......we are feeding on our young

press sure

"You can ask any question,
as long as this* is the answer..*"
~ RE: Public CAN!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Elon Musk

Elon Musk (born 1971) is an American engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla.

He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity.

The White Zombie



The oil industry doesn't want you to know about the electric car...
with an electric car and a small solar panel you could drive for free.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Zippy the Pinhead


"All life is a blur of Republicans and meat!"

...Zippy the Pinhead...

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Message in a Bottle

Roz Savage, Ocean Rower

Roz Savage is a British ocean rower, author, motivational speaker and environmental campaigner. She has rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean and is now rowing across the Pacific Ocean.

Roz Savage rows near Diamond Head in Hawaii. You can see where Roz is at any time using "RozTracker." (Roz & "Junk" meet...video.)

Roz Savage is my new hero. You can visit her website if you click on this post title. Godspeed and good luck to Roz. Wish I was there.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Do you share...?

I saw the mistakes of society and thought it was the governments fault.

Well, I believe I was wrong.
The world's condition can't be blamed on a few individuals.
The world's condition is solely dependent on all of humanity.
We all contribute to the world's state

Now that fact stumps me.
If the world's state depends on everyone,
well then how do we go about changing the world?
How does one boy's ambition matter at all?

Do you share my ambition?
If you don't, then mine doesn't matter.

Where did this ambition come from?
Haha, I laugh now at what I had once thought possible.
But I still won't give up.
I'm just stubborn like that.

Trouble in Paradise

In Reflection

(a response to Carlos Castaneda's A Separate Reality)


I do not wish to understand;

Only to learn.

I do not need to comprehend;

Only to experience.

I do not want to document,

But to live.


Don Juan says to live

Like a warrior.

He does not mention

“Think” or “talk;”

But only to live.


Don Genero leaped

Into impossibility -

But only if you do not See.

It was a wildly fantastic leap

Of will.

Not willfullness,

Nor resilience, nor

Stubbornness compounded;

His magic comedy

Simply is.


Indulgence in stupidity

Is, “I must understand,

Explain to me the ‘hows,’

A discussion must be had.”

Sorrowful tragedy of loss

This blinding

“Comprehension.”


Friday, August 14, 2009

District 9


Race-ism is prejudice

prejudice is blind

blind-ness is ignorance

ignorance is dangerous

Thursday, August 13, 2009

End Of The Line

90 percent

of the big fish

in the oceans are

gone...

we ate them.


Island Lessons

A turtle is wise
and takes time with life.
Sturdy and steady,
Loyal and steadfast,
Armoured but vulnerable.
Finds her way in the dark
And knows intuition
leads the way.

Pirate ship sails
In moonlight and under the sun
Into the sunset
And the storms.
Demands a bountiful life
Embraces adventure
Follows the stars.

Anchor in love
Hold fast to soul
Reflect in morning coffee:
Intellectual self absorption.

Dance
Swirl and sing and sway
Explore cultures
Unlike your own
Remember that you are
A lovely woman
And to be proud
And garb yourself with love.

Treasure Maps prove
Magic exists
Follow your dreams
Literally.
“Impossible”
Does not exist
for pirates.

Rum to imbibe
From time to time
Next day’s headache will
Tell you when
You’ve gone too far.

Listen to the playlist
Of your life
Your melody is
What holds it all together.

Stories and poems
Tell us about ourselves
Read forever
Not to replace imagination;
To spark, instead.

You are the key.
Unlock your life.

(and when you get
really, really, really
scared . . .
just turn on your light)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Dr. Strangelove


Waaaaaaaaa-Hooooooooo!

(We'll meet again some sunny day)

(click title)

The Terrible Power of Fear and Ignorance

It has become disturbingly clear in the behavior of a significant portion of the American population since the election of an African-American to the Presidency of the United States that the fear that the results of this election has engendered needs to be taken seriously and thoroughly examined.

The irrational actions and comments made by participants of Town Hall meetings throughout the nation in recent days demonstrates a profound level of ignorance regarding the actual content of the health care reform legislation that is being considered by Congress in particular and a total lack of understanding of what constitutes the philosophical basis for the political systems embodied in Fascism, Socialism and Communism in general.

On closer examination of these events, it becomes clear that this ignorance and the underlying racism that seems to propel it forward is being exploited and manipulated by those who have an economic and social agenda that is seriously challenged by the current administration. The health insurance industry is promoting and financing the alleged grassroots opposition for obvious reasons: the creation of a meaningful public option for providing access to health care for the tens of millions of Americans who either have no health insurance or who have inadequate coverage would severely impact their profits. Within such a reality, they would be forced to provide a far more humane service than is currently available.

It is quite disturbing that much of the conservative media has been filling the airwaves with hateful speech and fabricated testimonials presented as truth with the blatantly-stated intention of undermining the Obama Presidency. Unfortunately, they fail to grasp the extent of the damage they are inflicting on the social order. They may not comprehend that they could be opening a Pandora’s Box of repressed and deep-seated feelings of fear, anger and discontent. Racism is very much with us and the focus of hatred and mistrust heaped upon an African American President, who also demonstrates extreme intelligence, may prove to be a convenient scapegoat, but highly injurious to the nation’s future.

The Disclosure Project

Our Collective Sickness

The American brand of capitalism is, in my judgment, the source of our collective malaise. The profit motive has become the essential driving force of our culture; it informs almost all aspects of our cultural life and does not seem to recognize or accept any ethical boundaries. It appears that those who live in the rarefied atmosphere of wealth and power feel that they are somehow exempted from the fundamental concepts of ethics and social responsibility that are essential for a society to be truly harmonious. There are many examples that adequately demonstrate this point -
• The financial debacle that has driven so many individuals and small businesses to ruination was powered primarily by the greed and unprincipled and arrogant behavior of the manipulators of capital. In spite of the horrendous damage that their behavior has visited on the financial well-being of the nation, the prime movers of this debacle have remained essentially unscathed. The corrupt Congress helped facilitate this catastrophe in many subtle and not so subtle ways.
• The abuse of the public trust perpetrated Corporate America as exemplified by Enron – the energy company that shamelessly boasted about the extent to which they screwed over California rate payers.
• The CEOs of major corporations who fashion golden parachutes for themselves while simultaneously disregarding the conditions of the very workers who are responsible for the actual productivity of their organizations. This includes the reprehensible behavior of the CEOs of the for-profit health insurance companies who put in place business practices whose primary function is to purposefully deny as much coverage as possible to their clients who fall seriously ill. The purpose of this draconian way of doing business is to ensure good returns to their stockholders and riches beyond the imagination to those in charge (estimates are that William W McGuire of United Health Group received 1.7 billion dollars worth of compensation, a value that represents one dollar out of every 700 dollars spent on health insurance in the entire nation).
• The many substantial corporations that have taken advantage of loop holes in the Federal Tax Law that result in avoiding entirely the payment of income taxes. There is apparently a complete lack of any sense of personal and social responsibility.
• The tobacco companies who continue to produce addictive products that are known to kill those who use them. It is estimated that approximately forty thousand people die each year from pulmonary diseases caused by tobacco. It seems that life is apparently not that sacred after all, especially when juxtaposed against the prospect of making huge profits.
• The military-industrial complex that in many ways coerces the nation into choosing armed conflict as the essential means to achieve political ends.
• The many corporations whose practices have burdened the planet with an array of dangerous chemical compounds, including, of course, greenhouse gases without any regard for the resulting damage to the public health and the global environment.
• The extent to which corporate money has corrupted local, state and federal governments and significantly eroded the public trust.

Commerce permeates nearly every aspect of modern living, and the will to profit inundates us all. In the long term, this worldview will bring the peoples of this nation and, presumably, the world to grief, for it is unsustainable.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Sunday, August 9, 2009

What Do You Know?


My mommy always said

there were no monsters...

no real ones...

but there are

Fascism Lite


EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF
FASCISM

Powerful and Continuing
NATIONALISM

DISTAIN FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

IDENTIFICATION OF ENEMIES/SCAPEGOATS
as a Unifying Cause

SUPREMACY OF THE MILITARY

RAMPANT SEXISM & RACISM

CONTROLLED MASS MEDIA

OBSESSION WITH NATIONAL SECURITY

RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT
are Intertwined

CORPORATE POWER IS PROTECTED

LABOR POWER IS SUPPRESSED

DISTAIN FOR INTELLECTUALS & THE ARTS

OBSESSION WITH CRIME & PUNISHMENT

RAMPANT CRONYISM & CORRUPTION

FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The Rose


The Rosette Nebula

NGC 2237 is a "long stem rose"

a stellar nursery 5000 light years away

with a central core of young hot stars

Examined Life



"You just have to be able to drill in very hard wood ... and keep on thinking beyond the point at which thinking begins to hurt"
Werner Heisenberg

“Deep, persistent problems are never solved by accident; they are solved only by people who are obsessed with them and set out to solve them directly”
Lee Smolin

"Newly acquired insights are at first only half understood by the one who begets them, and appear as complete nonsense to all others... Any new idea which does not appear very strange at the outset, does not have a chance of being a vital discovery"
Niels Bohr

"Only the descent into the hell of self-knowledge can pave the way to godliness" Immanuel Kant

"Nobody can have the consolations of religion or philosophy unless he has first experienced their desolations" Huxley

Friday, August 7, 2009

Kindergarteners with Guns


Give a classroom

of kindergarten children a bag full of guns

then perhaps you'll see

what you earthlings really look like

Population Of Sheep

"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."


Hermann Goering, Hitler's Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII

we want to get lost into the mountains of uncertainty


we sail into the mountains of uncertainty

off to that far off deserted, silent valley

off to Shimshal, off to Simshaal

into the oceans of uncertainty

far from this irrational world full of crazy men

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Fool the I

Ironic paradox that
the politicians that
sold-out most
to the private sector
have RE:PUBLIC in
their self description

What are you doing?


The universe is going on...

what are you doing?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS-THE VICTIMS OF HALF LAW IN GOJRA

PAKISTANI CHRISTIANS-THE VICTIMS OF HALF LAW IN GOJRA


by


Brigadier Samson Simon Sharaf (Retired)

The recent incidents in Gojra are a grim reminder of how existing half laws can be manipulated for personal and political ends. Besides loss of life, property or the reputation of the country, it also reflects an opportunist political system in which strange bedfellows can be espoused for political expediency and where rule of law can be applied selectively. Worse, it exposes false claims of the provincial and federal governments over constant surveillance of banned militant outfits in Punjab.

The entire trail from Jhang to Gojra, Mian Channu and Shantinagar is littered with similar incidents of religiously fanned hatred spearheaded by banned militant outfits. Time and again such incidents take place with impunity and remarkable alacrity. It is to question why the local administration is caught sleeping and why no preventive measures manifest themselves in pre emptive actions.

There is no doubt that the working relationship between the Federal Government and PMLN Government is dysfunctional. It took the Government of Punjab three days to move into a belated action despite warnings given by Mr. Shahbaz Bhatti, the Federal Minister of Minorities Affairs. The provincial government dismissed the factual reporting of the federal minister for over two days and moved reluctantly after all the damage had been done and Faisalabad-Karachi Railway traffic blocked for two days. The Chief Minister has repeatedly postponed his visit to the city citing security reasons. Meanwhile the frustrations continue to grow resulting in resignations of one federal and one provincial minister.

Reportedly, around 18th of July, intelligence agencies had issued a warning to the Government of Punjab of likely incidents of terrorism in which some enclaves of minority Pakistanis could be targeted. Rather than take this information seriously, the provincial government deemed it fit to act as it did, allowing free access to militant outfits for arson and murder. Perhaps they were too engrossed in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling sparing no moments for the welfare of its citizens.

The entire incident belying the fragility of our system began at a wedding party in Korrian, a Christian village 6 Kms from Gojra on 29 July. A local guest was escorted out of the celebrations for being drunk. He took revenge by leveraging the Blasphemy slogan in cahoots with some local clerics and sleepers of the banned outfits. The Federal Minister Mr. Bhatti moved into action but all his cautions fell on deaf and defiant ears in Lahore.

The Christian enclave in Gojra is located close to Awan Town named after a local property tycoon Mr. Qadeer Awan. Qadeer also runs and controls many local businesses like CNG and Petrol Pumps. He is reputed to be a very influential PMLN member and financier of the party and sleeper militants. He is known to hold the neighbouring Christian enclave in contempt with a long record of confrontation. He saw the incident at Korrian as an opportunity to settle issues and extract advantage. He is the prime suspect in the FIR, registered after 48 hours of delay. Christians allege that he with his team of sons and relatives master minded the entire operation including movement of militants from Jhang and surrounding areas.

These militants moved on public transport with automatic weapons, explosives and incendiaries with complete impunity despite many Police Check Posts en route. Rather than risk confronting heavily armed militants, the baton wielding local police chose to by stand. A nearby sizable Christian Village Chak 424 was put on hold through an expected militant attack. This was done through messages by militants, clerics and local administration. The village was never attacked but the warnings served to block reinforcements to the besieged people of Gojra. The militants were seen taking orders on cell phones as also pass on information. If all calls on cell phones from the area were to be checked during the arson, it would reveal a long trail of connections leading to militant leaders, politicians and handlers residing outside Pakistan.

But there is a positive side too. Neighbouring Muslim communities gave shelter to men, women and children, escorted them out of the area on their own transport and provided food. Some Pakistani NGOs have also established camps and MQM relief has arrived in trucks from as far away as Sindh. Pathetically, the only missing group is the Government of Punjab.

Standing next to seven caskets on the railway crossing at Gojra, I was questioning myself why seven females were burnt alive with incendiaries and why innocent people shot in the head at point blank. As I write this, two more men have succumbed to burn injuries in the local hospital. The Punjab Government made no efforts to evacuate them to a Burn Hospital in Lahore. I ask myself, did they deserve this treatment. Do Pakistani Christians who put the opportunist Unionist of Punjab to shame by aligning with Jinnah deserve this?

Local Christians allege that PMLN Government is reluctant to act because it fears losing its vote bank in the area. The incident has become a political battle ground between PMLN and PPP in which justice, rule of law and criminal accountability would ultimately be eclipsed. I remain in awe of the political system to move beyond its petty politics.

In an environment where the legal community is charged and Supreme Court taking landmark decisions, it is incumbent to take a look at half laws that provide a pretext for mob justice. The Supreme Court needs to re evaluate Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code and direct the Parliament to frame it in a manner, wherein it cannot be exploited or manipulated.

Brigadier Samson Simon Sharaf is a retired officer of Pakistan Army and a political economist.
E mail: nicco1988@hotmail.com