Streaming music

Investigators have uncovered a subconscious ‘stream of music’ running through my head. It contains mostly fragments of old songs I heard while I was growing up. Songs like “..doze eat oats and mares eat oats and little lambs eat ivy”. But it also plays some contemporary pieces like “..help I’m alive” or “gimmie a break, gimmie a break.” Some investigators tell me it’s purpose is to keep my brain entertained so I stay alert. Others tell me it was set in motion to supply my ego with a stream of self-images ..keeping me anchored in the culture and generation where I live. I notice that it pops into hearing range from time to time for no apparent reason. When it does, I can tell that the songs I grew up with are more prevalent ..I don’t hear too many Moroccan tunes ..although sometimes I’d prefer it. There is one thing investigators agree on however: they say if it pops up to often ..or stays on the surface too long ..it could become pathological. I ask them if that’s because of all the disturbing memories it might bring up. No, they say it’s because of all the disruption it would cause my ordinary stream of consciousness. It would sound like I had Tourettes or something. Either that, they say ..or it would become stagnant and block me from learning any new tunes. I tell them I’m not sure which is worse.

Image by ~> Luana Silense
Based on notes taken during a lecture by ~> Oliver Sacks
If you get a chance, listen to the audio at the bottom. It will be worth it.

The Delicacy of Light

Dispatched from our generous star,
light gives texture to the most ordinary
and the most sublime,
it bears no prejudice,
it reserves no judgment.

Light gives meaning to the darkness
by dispelling it.

Light brings life to all
without respite,
a gift freely given,
sweet song of the ages.

Light exposes the
majesty and delicacy of the planet.

Dispatched from our generous star,
light is the keeper of all we possess.

Here's Your Wake Up Call

The "Phoenix Lights"

were a deliberately planned display

by alien visitors,

they want us to know they are here.



(watch movie)

The Latest economic news is that the gap between the rich and the rest of us is growing. This is further proof of the continued decline of the middle class in America. Those responsible for the current economic situation, due in large measure to unregulated speculation, may have seen their wealth diminish somewhat (they remain wealthy) while millions of Americans of lesser means have been catapulted into an exceedingly precarious economic situation. In a society that prides itself in punishing those who commit crimes, most of those who have propelled many of us into the economic abyss remain essentially unscathed. Not only have they escaped justice, they seem to be thriving.

While the President attempts to address the pressing issues that pursue and perplex the society at large, millions upon millions of corporate dollars flow into the hands of members of the Congress and the Senate from the bountiful pockets of a veritable sea of lobbyists. These monies have one primary purpose and that is to create obstacles to the reform that the majority of the people desire. Money and power have effectively corrupted democracy in this country to the point that real and substantial reform has become near impossible.

The purported values of the wider culture have been supplanted by the lure of money and power. There is no escaping this conclusion; the evidence for it is too overwhelming. Is this the nature of our politics?

Destroy Your Credit Cards

DESTROY

YOUR

CREDIT CARDS

NOW!

Fly

I used to think there was
A monster underneath my bed
Haunting while I slept
Spinning nightmares in my head

Every night before lights out
I’d search, crawling on my knees
Look, listen, and look again
I found no sign of this disease

But soon as my eyes closed
My thoughts began to race
His jagged breathing rattled me
My feeble heart began to race

Toss and turn and flail around
Weep and sigh; lament the day
Chaotic sounds filled up my ears
Help! I cannot get away!

One night, in fact, I saw this beast
Gnashing, hating, bleeding lies
Wicked decaying spindly wings
“Oh fuck,” I thought, “he flies.”

Some time later I decided
To steal his evil wings
“Ah ha!” I cried; it’s time to fight
“Victory for human beings!”

Bloody battle did ensue
His advantages were clear
But I had heart, and I would win
My sanity was dear!

So up, up, up he flew
As I straggled far behind
But I won, as heroes do;
I caught him with my mind.

I tore those ugly wings of his
Ripped them off his skin
I looked at them in awe and thought,
“I didn’t think I’d win.”

And, so, to ensure that I was safe
I took the wings upon my back,
Wrote a reminder to myself:
Fly, fly, fly away upon attack.

Pigs At The Trough

Provocative political commentator Arianna Huffington yanks back the curtain on the unholy alliance of CEOs, politicians, lobbyists, and Wall Street bankers who have shown a brutal disregard for those in the office cubicles and on the factory floors. As she puts it:

"The economic game is not supposed to be rigged like some shady ring toss on a carnival midway." Yet it has been, allowing corporate crooks to bilk the public out of trillions of dollars, magically making our pensions and 401(k)s disappear and walking away with astronomical payouts and absurdly lavish perks-for-life.

The media have put their fingers on pieces of the sordid puzzle, but Pigs at the Trough presents the whole ugly picture of what’s really going on for the first time—a blistering, wickedly witty portrait of exactly how and why the worst and the greediest are running American business and government into the ground.

From 1997 to 1999, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the number of registered lobbyists in Washington grew by 37 percent, to more than 20,000, while the amount of money they spent reached $1.42 billion. Crunch the numbers: That's roughly 38 lobbyists for each member of Congress. Like a swarm of ravenous termites reducing a house to sawdust, they are making a meal out of the foundations of our democracy.

And what are we ordinary Americans doing about it? Not much-- at least not yet.

(excerpts from Powell's Books)

The Fearless Vampire Killers

"The Fearless Vampire Killers"

starring Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski,

written and directed by Roman Polanski,

is one of the funniest vampire movies ever made.

Fast forward to present day,

Roman Polanski got arrested today,

I'm sure he'll remember, never, never, never

drug and rape a thirteen year old girl.

Victimizers bailout victimizers in

The Weaponization Of Space

The stated goal of the United States Air Force

is to "control the high ground",

in other words, space.

Space is the ultimate high ground.


The U.S. Space Command Long Range Plan is committed to

"the control and exploitation of space".

The Air Force Space Command motto: "Master of Space".

If you have a good telescope you can see

what all your hard earned tax money is buying.

Morihei Ueshiba

Economy is the basis of society.

When the economy is stable, society develops.

The ideal economy combines the spiritual and the material,

and the best commodities to trade in are sincerity and love.

...Morihei Ueshiba...

The Love Of Money

(movie trailer)

Stamp act

The states that banned marijuana were primarily in the south and southwest, where economics and prejudice played a major role. During the great depression, migrant workers from Mexico were no longer needed nor welcome. People feared that Mexican immigrants were undercutting American workers for jobs so they were trying to get them to go back to Mexico. Since many of these immigrants smoked marijuana, it was thought that banning marijuana would help. So, in 1937 Congress passed The Marijuana Tax Stamp Act. The Act itself did not actually criminalize possession or use of marijuana, but required anyone doing so to pay roughly one dollar to receive the stamp. In the 1930’s, this would have been prohibitively expense to migrant farm workers, however, it didn’t matter ..the government was only issuing them to doctors and dentists. This created a catch-22 for recreational users ..the penalty for not having the stamp was a fine of up to $2000 and five years’ imprisonment. This put recreational users at great risk, and for the Mexican immigrant, it meant certain deportation.

Why people in olden times were happier

OPIUM FOR NEW BORNS-I'm sure this would make them sleep well (not only the Opium, but 46% alcohol!)

Very popular for children in 1885. Not only did they relieve the pain, they made the children happy! COCAINE DROPS FOR TOOTH ACHE


COCAINE TABLETS-1900-All stage actors, singers teachers andpreachers had to have them for a maximum performance. Great to "smooth" the voice.


OPIUM FOR ASTHMA

A paper weight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne ( Mannheim , Germany ).. They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world of products containing Quinine and Cocaine.


Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of it's time. Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time. He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.



Coca Wine, anyone? Metcalf Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market. Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.



Produced by Maltine Manufacturing Company of NewYork. It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal... Children should take half a glass.






Bayers Heroin


A bottle of Bayer's heroin. Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. It was also used to treat children with strong cough.

No wonder they were called The Good Old Days!!
BRING THEM BACK, BY ALL MEANS!

Zeitgeist, The Movie

A matter of perspective

Has it ever occurred to you

that you might be wrong?

...Charles M. Schulz...


(link)

Sphere of Consciousness

E x p a n d

your sphere of consciousness

expand\ik-'spand\ vb 1 : to open up : UNFOLD 2 : ENLARGE 3 : to develop in detail syn amplify, swell, distend, inflate, dilate--

American Beauty

There is no "hope"

only "choices"

If you look real close

you can see it

Look real close

Alien portal

I wake up feeling like I hadn't slept ..I go downstairs and drink lots of coffee while surfing the Internet. Web pages go streaking by like a NASCAR race ..disappearing down avenues of cyber space ~ click ~ a pipeline of light takes me to a satellite connection ~ click ~ ultra violet rays hurl me into the infinite ether ~ click ~ fractal patterns go spinning by ..unraveling out of sight ~ click ~ a metallic orb looms ahead ..flashing letters that form the words: cosmic connection click here ~ click~ a portal door blows wide open revealing a brilliantly colored, luminescent universe ..I pass through going ..how did I get here? On the other side an alien's face appears ..Its words bypass my auditory system and go directly into my center for word recognition: "zzzipperishhh .. gibberishhh ..licorisshh ..carnivorishh ..ahhh haaa, English ..! Greetings Earthling ..how may I be of assistance ?”

COMETA

COMETA

COMETA REPORT

(read more)

High Flight

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark nor even eagle flew—

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Out Of The Blue

Google H. G. Wells

Google has again, and to the delight of many, given us yet another UFO logo for its homepage today.

Finally giving away their intention, today is the birthday of H. G. Wells.

This is the third time this month Google has stirred our minds to ponder the eternal question.....are we alone in the universe?

The goggle story

The same forces that bind the atomic particles of my eyes also hold together the planets and stars in outer space. A slight shift in balance would turn those forces into photo-energy ~ and the universe would dissolve into light. Now, as awesome as that might sound ~ you can bet that any extraterrestrials, who are watching, will be knocking on the door the instant they see us tipping that scale. I look out my backdoor ~ there’s a creek and a small wooded area ~ and so many waves of energy bombarding me; I can’t catch them all ~ only the ones that my senses are programmed to receive ~ and even those get filtered ~ sent to neuro-clusters ~ and filtered some more ~ discarding what I haven’t got sense enough to understand ~ and preserving the rest as ‘conscious experience’. Scientists tell me that space is not a vacuum ~ it’s a fabric ~ when I step outside and walk down the street ~ it clings to me and starts to build up ~ like mud on my boots after a rainy day. I explain this to my friends and they get me a pair of goggles. But even those don't help much when I'm trying to see through the debris that, psychologists say, builds up on the lenses of my mind everyday.

The Banana Dance

Rule The World

Control the food


control the sky


control the world

Racism Still Lives Boldly and is Apparently Well Nourished

The irrational and horrific assaults on the character of President Obama, the first African American President in the nation’s history, seem ill conceived and apparently inexplicable. President Obama, the man, has repeatedly demonstrated his intelligence, tenacity and integrity. He has also shown that he has the welfare and well being of the American people very much in mind in crafting his approach to governance. This is in marked contrast to his predecessor who demonstrated his complete lack of compassion in regards to the actual plight of so many Americans. As a matter of fact, his policies had effectively worsened the living conditions of those already facing severe economic hardship.

The extreme fear and threats of violence and armed confrontation made by those who would benefit the most by the kinds of reforms Obama is proposing can be readily explained if the origin of these intense feelings is racism. For many whites, battered by the new economic reality, poorly educated and enveloped in a homogeneous social environment in which extremist Christian fundamentalist ideology thrives, the rapidly changing world of the twenty-first century is extremely daunting. They are collectively fearful. These fears are compounded and fueled by ignorance. What makes the situation apparently unbearable to those susceptible to the crazed references to socialism, communism and even fascism is that their President is an extremely intelligent and highly articulate black man. This unavoidable fact is unconscionable, for the black man is supposed to be beneath them and intrinsically inferior to them. This reality turns their essential perception of reality on its head and is very frightening.

The lynch mob mentality is apparently not dead. The nation has cause for concern, since powerful interests, who are threatened by the Obama presidency for obvious and understandable reasons, are unabashedly exploiting this fear that often seems to approach mass hysteria. The nation, polarized in this way, may continue to stagnate and may ultimately regress to a time when violence dominated the political landscape. National policies must be guided by reason and compassion if we ever hope to progress as a humane society. The President is only one man, but the national destiny is in the hands of all of us.

Culture of Fear

The Right's Fringe Festival
The racist, antigay, pro-gun, antichoice, Christian nationalist march on Washington
By Sebastian Jones

September 16, 2009

This Saturday, some 70,000 people marched through downtown Washington, DC. Organizers of the "Taxpayer March on DC" crowed on their website that "thousands of local organizers and grassroots Americans" took to the streets because they've had "enough of the out of control spending, the bailouts, the growth of big government and soaring deficits." Pretty straightforward, bread-and-butter economic conservatism, right?


So imagine my surprise when, having just arrived at the march, I saw a thin, tall, bearded fellow with a boonie cap jogging up Pennsylvania Avenue shouting "White Power!" A few people looked around awkwardly, not sure how to react, but mostly the crowd just moved along. Why wouldn't they, after all, when just a few paces down the road an elderly man was showing off his "McCarthy Was Right!" sign, or when numerous placards compared the president to various genocidal tyrants, or when the most common mass-produced poster (courtesy of an antiabortion group) demanded that we "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy"?


This was only a sampling of the hateful language on display at the rally, which was only tangentially about taxation. More accurately, the event was a FreedomWorks-organized, corporate-funded, Fox News-fueled celebration of every conservative political and cultural cause of the past fifty years. Milling around the crowd, it was impossible to miss the references to issues as disparate as blocking investigations of CIA torture, promoting assault weapons and God "judging" America for homosexuality. Confederate flags were flown, Obama was told to "go back to Kenya," and so forth and so on. The crowd itself was almost exclusively white--and its members had come to get their country back.

(read more)

I Love English!

While lying awake last night, I got to thinking about my love affair with the English language. Growing up in Montreal, I was equally at home in English and French and our family's private language, Frengjabi. I could sorta, kinda communicate in Punjabi, but never really comfortably.

Most people think that French is a beautiful language and it is! Truly it is the language of love and all you women out there who have never had a man make verbal love to you in French, you are missing a treat. And, no, it doesn't seem to work the other way around.

For sublime poetry, Punjabi is unequaled. Although my Punjabi fails me this day, still the sound and the cadence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib pierces straight into the soul, elevating one's being to the sublime.

All that said, for communication, I love English. I love its devil-may-care attitude toward itself, the way it never takes itself too seriously. ( [English teachers] take it seriously, but that's another matter. No Henry Higgins I, I am pure 'Enry 'Iggins.) This is a robust tongue in need of no language police to protect its purity, for it has no purity to protect.

For those of you learning English as a second language or those still learning the fundamentals, nothing takes the place of knowing the proper use of the language and, certainly, it is absolutely necessary to have full mastery of standard English, its grammar and structure.

(Now that I have partially placated any English teachers who may be reading this. I proceed to the important stuff.)

But once that mastery is achieved, the fun begins. English should come with instructions saying, " Please fold, spindle and mutilate; I can take it and come out the better for it." I love to try new things with English. One of my favourites - English teachers, get out those red pens - is to verb nouns. These two people flanking me as I write now turban every day.

Amrit always has, but Suni just started after they got married. (See how smoothly that flows and how perfectly understandable it is?)

It is one thing however to do this on purpose and another to do it out of carelessness or ignorance. There are a couple of mistakes that really grate on me. People, hear me! 'It's' means it is. 'It's' always means it is. 'It's' is not a possessive. The possessive form is its (no apostrophe). Its possessive form is 'its.' Clear? Likewise 'you're' means you are, a contraction. 'Your' is the possessive form. 'Your' never means you are. Of course, in nonstandard English ur can mean either. I'm not sure this is an improvement, as some meaning is lost.

I think my least favourite word is 'enthused.' It makes me cringe right from my cramping toes to the crown of my head. It sounds ugly, rhymes with ooooooooozed. I am not opposed to back formations, but I am opposed to gratuitous ugliness.

I can also dangle participles and modifiers like a champ, but I usually edit them out, unless I find them amusing. (While running to the store to shoplift some more Sudafed, my boiling pot of meth exploded, contaminating the whole neighbourhood.)

Here, as I close, I mention a new favourite piece of nonstandard English I came across a couple days ago. Eleanor Bloom, listen up! I CAN HAS MORR COKE PLZ, follow the link; you won't be sorry!

And now, for those of you who have actually gotten this far, some real fun with English:

Metaphors

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. Here are some examples:

1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a
pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of e-coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 P.M. Instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just likemaggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 P.M. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 P.M., at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two humming-birds, which had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap; only it was one that had been left out so long and it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a day.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up

Coming of Age

A shift of consciousness
The definition of oneself
From looking glass self
To introspective self-realization

Your opinion of me
Has nothing to do
With who I am.

Integrity is what we do
When no one is looking;
It is also what is found
Upon looking at ourselves –
But only when honesty is employed.

Happiness is smiling
When no one is around.
Generosity is giving
What you didn’t think you had.
Love is loving the one
Who doesn’t love you back
Simply because you love.

A shocking realization:
That I need no one
But want them just the same.
It means I no longer hurt
For lack of company,
But revel in community
And in humanity
And in myself.