Messages

Dear Shadow....

Keep most of the money.  

Send a single, yellow rose with a lavender candle, a sorry card with a handwritten letter in it.

In the letter, express your feelings and your regret at getting high and doing whatever you did.  Tell her you are going to go to a stop getting high group and want another chance to be a true gentleman and her true love.  

Tell her how much you want to be a blessing on her life because she is the treasure of yours.  

If she cares for you, she will give you another chance.  If she has sworn you off, then no gift or amount of flowers will change her mind or heart.  Sometimes, only time will do that.  If she refuses to see you, accept that and show up with some flowers in a month or so to see if she has mellowed some.  If not, move on and consider it a lesson learned.

If you are meant for each other, you will find your way to each other again.  

Jena

Turn an empty closet into a meditation room.

Or build one under the stairs - a la Harry Potter. []

Hi, it does happen periodically throughout life.  The when different for everyone, but it is a time of what do I do know?  Is this all there is?  

I call it taking an emotional/spiritual rest while you let your subconcious work out a new perception or path in life.  

These are the times in life when just getting out of bed and putting one foot in front of the other is a personal victory.  Every thing seems to turn "sour" and one just wallows in it for a while.

Between 18 and 25 it is just growing up - a realization that what you thought life would be like at 16 isn't the way life is.  

Most people come out of it with a better sense of themselves and find a direction in life.  You will too.  Just accept that there will be other times in life when the same feelings arise when life makes you feel numb but a lot is going on inside.  

So, in a sense, Maven, just "park it" for a while and listen to the hints your inner self is giving you.  It is not a time for major decision making - save that for when you start to come out of it.  

In the meantime, good advice to meditate, take a walk in the woods or somewhere that is peaceful, talk to a dog or cat - they always listen - and surround your inner self with a healing blue light.  Or picture yourself just floating in a calm lake or ocean and really "feel" it.  There are many techniques to use that will give you, at least, some momentary relief from it all.  

JD

Unfortunately, it is very effective even if only from a fear factor.  Those who protest anything know they are risking their lives or may spend years in an "insane" hospital, reeducation camp or prison.  

As in the former Soviet Union, those who disagree with the official party line are viewed as "mentally ill".  They do seem to have cut down on outright killing them as they are concerned with what the rest of the world thinks.

The "party" officials know very well they can't really kill an idea whose time has come so they rule by the fear of consequences.  

Also, consider that culturally, it is a population with a 5000 year of history of Confuscian obedience.  Any sort of civil disobedience has always been seen as disruptive rather than as a right.  

Evidence?

Even if all the non-felons voted, if they voted as the rest of their state, it still would have been 49-51 and Bush still would have won.  

Also, one must include the absentee, overseas ballots and the military ballots which the Democrats had thrown out.  it was assumed that most of those votes were for Bush which is why they were contested so heatedly.

The real problem was that Gore did not want a recount of the entire state.  Had he asked for that, he would have gotten it and it would not have ended up in the courts.  He didn't want that because he knows that the northern half of the state is far more conservative in its voting pattern than the southern end.  

His mistake, but it would not have changed the outcome.  If anything, the winning margin would have been larger for Bush if the whole state had been recounted.  Bush did ask for a recount of the whole state and all the absentee ballots that had been thrown out.  Gore didn't.

And there were at least a few other states where either one of them could have asked for a recount, but neither did.  Why?  Who knows?

The real problem here is that only half of the eligible voters actually put one foot in front of the other and go to the voting booth.  Then, too many of them loudly whine about the outcome.

New York Times found no evidence of fraud, period.  And they tried hard to find it in any and all areas.  It is one of the most anti-Bush newspapers in the country.  They went crazy when they had to publish their findings.  They would have looked like real fools if they didn't publish.

Yea and Yippee....women dancing in the streets.  A shot of something to make husbands faithful.  

And just when they all got Viagra![]

One of the little bits of trivia I have picked up along the ways is that it was against church policy for the torturers to actually "kill" the people they were questioning.  Wasn't Christian.

Of course, they could, and did, committ all manner of horrendous torture to people.  Many of whom died from their extreme injuries like having all their bones pulled out of their sockets or their blood drained out.  In the church records, these are listed as death due to natural causes.  

No doubt, many had heart attacks and strokes from the extreme torture and beatings.  But officially, they would just say they died while in prison.  Others were sent back to their relatives injured beyond healing and close to death.  They too would have just been said to have died at home in their sleep.

The other issue I am sure they didn't address is that there really was no difference between civil and religious laws in the countries where the Inquisition was the most powerful.  Every crime was also a sin.  Every civil court had a church person as one, if not the only one, of the justices.  

The burnings, especially of women who they claimed were witches were so prevelant that some villages had no women left.  While these may not have been official executions, the church certainly did nothing to stop the killing.  

It is a fascinating time in history.  But of course the Church is going to claim it wasn't so bad.  It was.  They even brought it to Central and South America.  Convert or die was the order of the day when the Spanish conquered Mexico and Peru.  

I suppose they just don't want to admit the extent of it for the same reasons they are having a problem admitting the sexual abuse problems in some of the USA parishes.  

They don't seem to understand that they would have more credibility if they just said how bad it really was and "confess" the sin of the Church at that time.....and in this one.  

The New York Times newspaper claims he did.  They did their own, independent recount - it was the third recount.  

And that paper is about as liberal as a newspaper gets in the USA.
Their editorial board would have been dancing in the streets if they could have found otherwise...but they reported that he did win the Florida vote.  I forgot what the actual numbers were, but they found no basis for contesting the outcome.  And they would have loved a scandal.  

I wonder what will happen this year.  There are already problems with the new computerized voting machines that have no paper receipts.  In Illinois, one of the more notorious places for vote fraud, we use the punch card method.  We just have a lot of dead people voting.[] I am sure Florida and a few other states will be monitored very closely.  

It will likely be another very close election and another bitter one with charges of fraud all over the place.

PS -- I didn't believe the conspiracy theories about Clinton and all the people who suddenly died during his administration either.  

Vince Foster died.  That happens.  I don't think Hillary & Bill did it.
 
Tho, there were plenty of conspiracy theories about it at the time and many still do believe they did.

Again, lots of theories and speculations but no proof.

Of course, If I were Kerry, I doubt I would be giving any thought to Hillary as the Vice-President - just in case the "theories" are right.[]

Nope.  I just don't happen to believe conspriacy theories - because they are just that....theoretical nonsense, political agendas, and figments of imagination.  Good stories, but low on facts or very selective and manipulative of facts.  

None of them have proved to be true.  Of course, you may happen to believe that President Johnson killed Kennedy, the aliens from planet X are running the government, and Elvis is still alive because he faked his own death.  

Why everybody knows Kennedy didn't die - he is in disguise in a rest home, Marilyn Monroe was the one who faked her own death, the real rulers of the earth are the reptilians from below the surface, and Elvis isn't dead, that was just his twin that died. []

Not to mention the crazy pills in our water put there by the CIA, the end of the world any minute now, and the intelligent computers the government is hiding are about to kill us all off so they can rule the world.  

Until then, if you have any real proof, get your senator to try Bush
for treason.  Forget impeachment -- just go right to the big one, a senate trial, hangin, and all.  If there was any real proof of it, don't you think assorted senators would be doing this?

Gee, I wonder what his family thinks.  HE IS DEAD, PEOPLE!

He was beheaded.  So was a reporter earlier in the year.  And now there is another captive in Saudi Arabia who might be the next one.

Just because some pinheads seem to want to equate some stupid soldiers pointing and laughing and putting panties on prisoners heads and dragging them around on a leash with beheading - does not make the two acts equivalent.  ONE KEY DIFFERENCE - THOSE PRISONERS STILL HAVE THEIR HEADS.  It is hardly the same.

And if the President and pals conspired to behead this man, then try him for treason.  If there is no proof of that - and there is no proof of it, then give it a rest.

So there were inconsistencies in an amateur video.  So what?  It means nothing other than the people who set it up did not know what to do with it.  If it had been done by the people you think are so clever as to think up all these things, don't you think they would know how to do it a-la-Hollywood production?  You are giving them too much credit.

The terrorists may be determined, but they are not the brightest crayons in the box or they would be questioning the motives of their leaders and much of the brainwashing that is done to them.

How many of you could I get to go out on a suicide mission just because I can convince you someone - or a group of someones -- need killing?  How about hacking off someone's head?

It is no wonder more and more of these kinds of murders are happening.  They know they have an audience in too many places that will somehow excuse it as justifiable rage, or righting some wrong, or with some crazy conspiracy theory that the US government or Bush himself did it.  

The conspiracy crazies would rather believe that than the sad, simple fact that there are brutal people in that part of the world who will go to any extreme of real torture and murder - as much for shock value as for anything else.  We could give them everything they claim they want and it would not stop the murders of anyone who presents them with an easy target.  They are addicted to the sense of power it gives them in a world where they basically have had no power.  

Their leaders - terrorist ones and some clerics - are not about to give them any real power.  Nor are these oil rich countries about to share the wealth with them.  

Their only source of feeling powerful is in holding the power of life and death over an unarmed man.  Let us not glorify it or try to make it into something it isn't.

It is awful enough without all this nonsense.

Hi, everyone.  Yes, I do recall some past lives.  Had some recurring dreams as a child about a train wreck.  As zzan adult I did do some hypnotic regressions.  Interesting to say the least.  Now I often have moments of spontaneous recall, mostly brought on by places I travel to or places I see on TV.

Your dreams can give you clues.  ALso, places you are drawn to or seem fascinated by.  Same is true of time periods you find interesting.  Sometimes reading historical fiction can open a gateway to a place and time period.  

Through guided hypnosis you can get an overview of past lives that may be affecting you now.  In other ways, you might just get a sense of it.  I don't know of many people that have experienced total recall
from beginning to the end of a life.  The Buddha is said to have been enlightened enough to do that.  

It is an interesting exploration into one's self and changes your perspective on quite a few things such as being a man or a woman or of a particular race.  You definitely begin to see that we are all more alike than we are different.  

It has also changed some of my more traditional beliefs and leaves me with many questions as to why we come back over and over.  

Some of the lives I get snippets of were quite wonderful and some were quite awful.  Most are like this one, with a bit of both ends of that spectrum and everything in between.  

I am now trying to reach out into parallel lives, parallel selves.  

But past lives are worth exploring.  Just don't expect the lives you do discover to be Cleopatra or King of anything.  Most will be just ordinary folks experiencing the life of the times and the culture.  

Find a good hypnotist and remember they don't have to be licensed so word of mouth is probably the best way to find someone to guide you through a great adventure.

Hi, Nagual.  No one wants the world to be run by one country and most poople in the USA do not us to be the world's overseer or whatever you want to call it.  

But the  UN as it exists is ineffective when it comes to crisis situations.  For example, it hasn't been able to stop the trade in sex slaves, many of whom are children.  It hasn't been able to stop the slaughter in the Sudan or the practice of slavery there.  It just barely criticizes these things.  It is totally ineffective against terrorists of all sorts.  Oh, they collectively give lip service against all these things, but unless or until they become a world government - the proverbial hated One World Government, how much can they do?  

Do we really want this bunch in charge of the world?  Some of them are from countries where they are letting their own people starve - the North Koreans for example.  Food Aid workers can't get into some African countries beause of all the warring factions and slaughter some of it being done by the "official" governments who have a place in the UN.

About the only thing uniting the "United Nations" right now is their collective hatred of the USA.  We are an easy target for their criticism.  We all know they don't want to criticize the countries where war, starvation, slavery, and brutality might be considered the national code of conduct.  In the meantime, more millions suffer in unspeakable ways.  They are very vocal in talking about an imperialistic agenda in the USA but relatively silent on the brutality that goes on in the countries of too many of its members.  

And I am not one that believes those countries should be "westernized".  They shouldn't follow in the path of other countries, they should follow their own paths or make new ones.  

But plain and simple human decency is possible in every culture.  And maybe it is time they started speaking up for that.

It is a much needed body of leaders in need of better leadership from every country and also in need of reform and enforcement of its code of ethics.  When was the last time any country's ambassador was tossed out for unethical conduct?  

Most Americans would gladly bring all our troops home and put them on our own borders.  All the polls show this to be true.  However, we have yet to have any presidential candidate willing to listen to the will of the people on this.  

We want good foreign relationships with other countries.  The UN may be the best we have right now as an international body of representatives.  That doesn't mean that once in a while they don't all need to be told to go to hell.  

Could be the best conversation of the day.

Dogs are the best people I know.[]

People are people.  Be it politicians or truck drivers or anything else.  We all look after our own interests.  That is human nature.  Best we can do is to try to keep them honest.  

We all know that too many of the people in government don't give a hoot about what the rest of us want or think on a daily basis.  We see how fast they vote themselves raises and how slow they vote for other things.  It is a political game and too often in the USA the biggest smile and best hair wins as opposed to the best thinkers and doers.  That too is human nature.

And because governments are run by people, there are going to be problems.  The alternative is wait for intelligent computers to do it. But who wants that?  Might be more efficient for some things but I only want people - warts and all - making decisions.  

I am always leery of people who want a political office too badly, or feel entitled to it, or think it is their destiny.  I have to wonder why.  The problem is there is too much to gain from these offices.  
And then there is the love of power, the love of control.  

I have no doubt that most of our elected officials started out wanting to do something good for the rest of us.  And it is probably very hard to keep that thought uppermost in one's mind while surrounded by an atmosphere of power and influence peddling.  Just the experience changes them.

I don't know if anyone could be unaffected by it all.  The people in the government are all too human in that regard and you are right - they do not seem to spend much time listening to the ordinary folks outside that circle of power and influence.  

And they all make everything so complicated.  These people couldn't simplify taking a walk in the park so it is no wonder that our tax codes and laws are in 10 pound books that fill whole buildings.  

And they wonder why most of us seem to ignore them as much as they ignore us.

Happy Friday everyone.  

When the terrorists kill my American brothers and sisters, they are not killing a government -- they are killing you and me, any of us who happen to be where the killing takes place.  So hating one and loving the other doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  

The problem with separating a government from its people is the problem of dictatorships and theocracies.  In a democracy, we are the government as we vote for it -- at least in theory.  And most of us in the USA do feel a sense of responsibility for what our government leaders do and do not do within our own country and in other places. That is why our debates and elections get so down and dirty.  Just the way we like them.  At least we do air our "dirty linen" in public

No one will ever be 100% satisfied with our government or its political leaders.  The beauty of a democracy is we can say so without risking out lives to do it.  Sometimes the people in other countries take the snippets of political rhetoric they see and think we are much more divided than we are.  We are not all that divided as a people, not in our values.  Most of us want our country to do good things in the world.  Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.
And sometimes, it is impossible to do and sometimes even trying to do something good can have an unexpected outcome.  That's just life.  

As for the UN -- it is corrupt.  As Jeane Kirkpatrick, one of our former ambassadors to the UN once told that assembly -- any time you want to leave New York, she would stand on our shores and wave them all a fond farewell.

I do not recall just what that tiff -- or difference of opinion was about but she certainly was one of our more credible ambassadors and is a noted author and professor of foreign policy in the USA.  If she has a problem with the way the UN is run and structured, I would say she is worth listening to.

Not that the USA is always right.  But I do wonder just how many of them were against any action in Iraq because they were lining their pockets - and the pockets of some relatives -- with the Oil For Food money?  Most of that money was provided by the working taxpayers of the USA and the food obviously did not get to the Iraqi people.  We know millions of it ended up with Saddam and Sons -- but millions of it also ended up in some very public UN pockets.  

So to say we told the UN to go "F" itself, perhaps we should say it is about time.  

I only wish I could save the world...but I am having a hard enough time just saving myself.  So I guess the best approach is to save the world one person at a time, starting with whomever you see every day.  No one here is a saint, but even something as simple as an encouraging word can make someone else's day better.  

It is June and everything here in the midwest is lush and green and I have geese to feed and a beautiful place to just sit and watch the moon rise.  Hope your evening is as pleasant.  []

In what speech did Bush call say he had to rid the world of "heathens"?  

And corruption -- this administration isn't any more or less corrupt than the last one -- or the next one.  DC is DC - deals are made and a whole lot of money gets spread around on all sides of the political fence.  The big company and organizational lobbists give a lot of money to both political parties so they will be "covered" no matter who is in office.  

Unfortunately, because it takes a huge amount of money to run for any office, the rest of us get ignored except at voting time.  Then it is promise us anything, but it is business as usual once in office.

Of course, when the next terrorist attack hits in the USA - there will be more people saying Nuke-em in whatever country they come from and no one will be worried about prisoners having a pair of panties on their heads.

I read the Robin Williams Peace Plan - which is of unknown origin.  It is funny but has some element of truth in it.  I would also add that any country or leader that panders in Hate America rhetoric be told to get their grubby little hands out of our collective wallets and stop taking the foreign aid money.  Just say no - it is dirty money, evil money, bad bad money[].  That would be a real change.

If the European Union wants to run the world, a la The French and The German leaders -- they are welcome to it.  They don't want to do the fighting and the dying, but they certainly seem to want in on the money end of things.  They want the rebuilding contracts which are financed by the USA's taxpayers.  I am tired of hearing how the US "shouldn't have done that" but now that you did, we want a piece of it.  Spoken like true, former colonialists.

Money makes the world go around.  I can understand why some people think the USA is set on an Empire course.  It has been the most pervasive spread of culture and language since the Roman or Chinese Empires.  English is the language everyone in the world wants to learn, except, of course, some of the bi-lingual crowd in the USA and the French in Canada.  

But it really is all about the money - they want to do business with us & have our tourists.  All well and good.  But there definitely is a hate-America sentiment out there right now.  Maybe it is just the biggest kid on the block type of thing.  Doesn't really have anything to do with policy.  We are just the people some love to hate right now.  

In 50 years it will probably be somebody else who the rest of the world decries as wanting an Empire.  50 years ago it was the Germans and the Japanese.  Now it is us.  I wonder who is next? Most people in the USA would be happy to let them have a turn.  It would also have the benefit of giving us somebody we love to hate instead of hating and snipping and sniping at each other.

Hi, Nay.  Glad I am not the only person who sees how scary Kerry is.

He has already said he will not withdraw the troops from Iraq so I don't understand why he is such the darling of some of his supporters.  If Kerry wins, they will instantly become pro-Iraqi war and publicly admit they favor a draft.  They will find some reason to say that tho it was a bad under for Bush, it is OK for Kerry.  

Drafting everyone is really about control - control a whole generation. It is supposed to become the great equalizer amongst the kids.

There is definitely an agenda there, but nobody really wants to talk about it except Charles Rangel.  The rest of the democrats are just ignoring it, pretending it isn't really there and are amazingly silent about it.  Silence, of course, implies consent and agreement.

As a teacher of that generation, I think their training sarges might be in for a few surprises.  Of course, nothing compared to the shock the kids would get.  Those of us past the draft age really wouldn't know who to feel sorrier for.  []

Training is all well and good, but it would break my heart to see another generation decimated by whatever war they believe is coming.

Once again, it is the Democratic New York Congressman Charles Rengal who is pushing for this.  He is all over the media, wanting it.  And won't that be the price Kerry will have to pay for his support in New York if he is elected?  Just a thought.  

The Congressman from New York will get a draft bill pushed through Congress somehow.   He has been in Congress a long, long time and has a lot of "favors" to call in to get support for it.  And he doesn't want just some 18 to 20 year olds, he wants all of you.  

He has a whole lot of reasons why.  Just catch him sometime on one of the news talk shows.  You will get an earful. He is very convincing and very avid about it. Am I just being skeptical by thinking it is already a "done deal"?  He is like a bulldog -- once he's got his teeth in something, he doesn't give it up.  

In other words, happy basic training to all my newly graduated friends.[]  I wonder who they will get to do the training or where they will buy enough uniforms from?

Oh, well....it does seem to be on the way regardless of who wins the election.  If the bill gets to the Congress floor, it just might pass.

In a word -- No.  

No...lucky students.  I teach them to think, read, research, question, analyze...entirely Socratic Method.

They now know that much of what is presented as fact is mere speculation, manipulations of half-truths and statistics, opinions based on erroneous and faulty logic.  

They are free to say and write anything as long as they prove it including addressing conflicting evidence, expert opinion, facts and contradictions.

92% will go on to some sort of college and they do quite well.  The others go to work or the military.  

So pity them not.  They have learned to read a lot, question all sources of information, and they have learned to think and research before accepting anyone else's version of anything.

Unlike most classes in the USA, there is no memorization or parroting back anything in my classes.  I am merely their instructional guide who shows them the how-to's of research writing and in-depth reading.  The rest is up to them and the depth of their intellectual curiousity.

Hi, everyone.  The way I see it, we are all spirtual beings but we inhabit what are basically animal/mammal bodies with all the instincts, fears, and reactions that go with it.  

The veneer of civiliztion has always been rather thin as it doesn't take much for us to react from that fear basis.  An author once said we are just one generation away from the caves.  The Mad Max scenario sometimes seems just around the corner and all too possible.

I like to think we are less brutal than our ancestors or at least shocked by brutality, but we do seem to relish violence and have become almost immune to it.  We see so much of it in our mass media culture that I wonder if anything shocks us.  

The other problem with it is that because we see so much of it, both fictional and real, when we do really see it, for some it seems like a
movie.  

In some ways, our thinking has evolved in that most of us do not live the brutal life of our ancestors although there are still many places on earth where the majority of the people are living with fear, starvation, wars, slavery, and other horrors.  That used to be the way for most people.  Only a few lived better lives.

Does that mean we have evolved?  I don't know.  It does seem that more of us as a species are aware of the sufferings of others and genuinely want to ease that suffering.  We just don't seem to know how.  Nor do we seem to know what to do about the dominators or more violent of us.  We secretly know that anyone of us, if pushed to a certain extreme, could become violent.  Fortunately, at least for the present, most of us do not live lives that push us to that extreme.

We all have our inner rages.  How many of us have never thought they wish someone else would suffer or just fall off a cliff and die?  

Maybe a part of evolving is accepting that animalistic side of ourselves and learning how to control it. We can't really ignore our instincts, both good and bad. Perhaps by learning how to let our higher self, our more rational and spiritual self rule our lives we can at least not act on every impulse or instinctive response that flows through us.  

I don't know that any of us can change others.  We can only hope to change ourselves one minute at a time.  

I also think there is such a thing as a collective consciousness and that does seem to be changing.  Will that bring "peace on earth"?  Who knows?  

Likely a hundred or a thousand years from now, people will still be much as they are today.  Some will be wonderful and some will be awful and most will be a little bit of both at various times in their lives.

Runlola - you just proved the point about superficiality with the Brad Pitt for President comment.  

We do not need anymore Hollywood actors in the White House, please. They may look good and be fancy talkers and they sure know how to pretend being something.  But running the country?  No thanks.

Afghanistan has no oil...that is why it is, and has been a relatively poor country.  

Selling oil is what the oil rich countries do.  It is how the few who run those countries got so rich.  As much as they hate "us", is as much as they love being rich.  If the Europeans, the USA, China and Japan stopped buying oil, they wouldn't be rich.  So they want to sell it.  

And until the UFO's land, there aren't a whole lot of other buyers.

And Saddam was left in power because your friendly UN did not want the US military to continue into Bagdad.  The UN decided that getting him out of Kuwait was enough.  It wasn't, but most of the members of the security council said they would not support a move on Bagdad and Saddam at that time.  They were quite clear on that point.  Hence all the problems that followed.

Well, at least a chimpanzee is real. []

May not be as pretty or as cute as a fictional, talking tree but reality usually isn't.

So who will win?  Think about the best hair theory...in our superficial, TV-Hollywood era of politics, the guy with the best hair usually wins.  Bush has better hair than Gore.  If he let it grow a little, he probably has better hair than Kerry.  Clinton certainly had better hair than George Bush Sr.  Jimmy Carter had the best hair as did Reagan when they ran and won.  Kennedy started it all - his hair was way better than Nixon's not to mention all the dead people who usually vote in Chicago.  

You have to go way back to Eisenhower to find a bald or balding guy winning the election.  But he had the sentimental support of all his former GI's and was a real hero.  And no hair seemed better than the snippets of hair on Stevenson's head.  

But in our time -- the best hair theory makes as much sense as anything else and certainly more sense than all the political pundits who claim to know which candidate has the edge.  

It will be close and we do have to look at changes in haircuts, and in Kerry's case, hairspray - his hair doesn't seem to move when he does.