IF OBAMA LOSES
Predictions
1. Moveon.org will expand their organization and solicit funds from disgruntled and angry progressives. There will be boycotts, legal challenges and demonstrations that will bring this country to a standstill
2. African-American organizations will become active and will turn to the streets with demonstrations and boycotts There might be some violence but not as widespread as in the sixties after MLK was assassinated.
3. The Democratic congress will not cooperate with President McCain and will block all of his legislative and judicial decisions.
4. The Republicans will find some reason ( real or contrived) to cause Sarah Palin to resign the Vice Presidency
5. The recession will last until the next Presidential election.
NEXT: MY PREDICTIONS IF OBAMA WINS
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
AMDG
SPIRITUAL
Below is the transcript of a sermon delivered three years ago in Canada by an Anglican priest. I posted this now because of what he has to say about economics and the "distribution of wealth", an issue that has suddenly been branded as "Un-American" and socialistic" by McCain-Palin. It is important that those of us who claim to be Christians (especially those who claim to be more Christian than others) heed this advice.
JVP
Sermon - Fourth Sunday of Easter
Preached by the Very Reverend Peter Elliott April 17, 2005
Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly."
In the year 185, in Lyon France, the Bishop, Irenaeus wrote a treatise called Against Heresies. What is remembered from his essay is a phrase that continues to inspire people of faith to this very day. St. Irenaeus wrote these words, "The glory of God is humanity fully alive!" Fully alive--life to the full: this is the glory of God and the destination of all spiritual seeking.
Day after day I meet people who are seeking a fuller life. Weighed down by their responsibilities or anxious about their futures, many people do not so much live as exist in the expectation of living. To all of us, wherever we are in our spiritual journeys, Jesus' words in today's gospel bring us fresh hope, hope that life can be better, can be fuller, can be more abundant.
But what is it that causes life to be diminished? What is it that denies us the fullness of life? There are many things that diminish life: this morning let's look at just 3--religion, economics, and self regard.
1. Are you surprised that my #1 item that diminishes life is religion? Maybe it seems an unusual choice for a priest but I believe this to be true. I have seen too many lives diminished by the claims of religious leaders and their systems. People get burdened down by following systems of thought and belief that do not bring life. In a conversation a little while ago with our friend Archbishop David Somerville, he said to me something like this: "So many people use religion as a way to control people; I always saw religion as a way to free people to be who they are." I agree; but, sadly, in our time and even in our communion there are many who seek to keep people dependent on formulas and ideas that restrict and deny life. The history of our church even in my lifetime is illustrative of this: I can remember a time when only men were allowed to take up the collection, when children were forbidden from receiving the Holy Communion, where gay people were prohibited from participating in church life openly--and there are parts of the Christian world where these things continue to happen. Using religion to deny life is inhibiting the creative Spirit of God to move in our midst. It is denying the abundance of life that Jesus promises, and it denies the expression of the glory of God as humanity fully alive. Now understand me: I'm not saying that the church should sanction an "anything goes" philosophy: far from it. But I do believe that the church has a sacred obligation to usher people gently into becoming the persons that God has uniquely created them to be. Followers of Jesus seek this abundant life--this fullness of life that is promised in the gospel. In the passage from John read as today's gospel, Jesus contrasts the one who brings life from the one who comes only to steal life, to kill life and to destroy life. In this passage Jesus identifies himself as the gate, the way to fullness of life. The church, his Body then can and I believe should be a way that brings fullness of life to all who seek to be in relationship with Jesus Christ.
2. Of course, a second and important dynamic that diminishes life is economics. And I'm not referring here to those of us in the middle class who too often find ourselves a bit short of cash at the end of the month; I'm wanting us to think globally here. One of the things that disables people from expressing the glory of God by being fully alive is the unequal distribution of wealth globally. We know the facts and figures only too well, the inordinate concentration of wealth in the few and the abject poverty of the majority. Even those of us who feel stretched by our own financial obligations are amongst the wealthiest in the world, from a global perspective. And we need look no further than to a project that the HIV-AIDS Africa support group has identified--the Bochabelo project. Here's the story: in this township of Soweto in South Africa, a population of roughly the size of Vancouver, 2/3 of the people who live there are HIV positive. And the major centre for the provision of medical services for this whole community is a used shipping container. What we're seeking to do, in a very small way, is to help here, by raising funds to build a new medical centre. Our goal is $96,000 and we're working away at it. Why? Not just because it's a good thing to do, and it is that, nor just because we want to help, although we do; but because Jesus invites all of us into abundant life. You can't live life in its fullness when you are deprived the medicines that will enable you to survive. And this project is just one small example of the obscene distribution of wealth in our world. While we sit down to our lunches and suppers today, there will be children dying of starvation and malnutrition. Followers of Jesus care about economics because we believe that the glory of God is humanity fully alive, and because we have been called to continue the work of the one who came to bring life and life in abundance.
3. And the third thing that deprives us of living fully is one I found difficult to name, so let's call it self-regard. For some it's because of religion, for some it's because of their upbringing, for some, it's because of the way they were educated--but too many people walk around this world thinking of themselves as no good. It's all their fault--the bad things that have happened to them, the relationships that have gone sour, the lack of accomplishments, the lack of life. Bad religion has drummed this worthless message into folks, bad parenting, bad education--and what we end up with is a vast segment of the population self medicating with alcohol and drugs to feel better because deep down they feel so very empty. And to those of us who find ourselves with a diminished sense of self, I want us to look at Jesus words about being the gate to this abundant life. In this passage we find some hope to our troubled lives, if we read it symbolically. Because what this passage affirms is that within each one of us there is an irrational and instinctual capacity to know how to live fully. This is what the sheep symbolize. They may be not be the smartest animals, but they know the voice of their shepherd. Legend has it that the shepherds of Jesus time had affectionate names for their sheep, and called them by their names. This parable of Jesus isn't so much saying that people are sheep, as it is saying that within us, there is an instinctive capacity to know the voice of the true and living God, the shepherd, the caregiver of our souls. It is saying that the loving and compassionate power of the universe calls us by name, and invites us to fullness of life. It is saying that we can regard ourselves not so much as miserable sinners but as the beloved of God in whom the glory of God desires to be manifest. We are not destined to a life of depression, thank God; we are invited to a life of abundance and fullness. We, and all God's children have been adopted and cherished by God in Jesus Christ, and within us there is the capacity to know the one who guides us and draws us more and more into life's fullness.You are God's beloved daughters and sons, called to manifest the glory of the divine by being fully human, fully yourself, fully the person that God has created you to be. You are loved and called by name. And a table is spread for you here, even in the presence of all that threatens you. In baptism you have been anointed with oil, and each of us is given the promise of abundant life. We are invited to be fully alive--to be critical of the life stealing propensity of religion and economics, and self regard, and to be part of a community that seeks to bring us to life and to bring life to others.
Let us pray.
Glory to you, Jesus Christ, our good shepherd. In the waters of baptism you give us new birth, at your table you nourish us with heavenly food, and in your goodness and mercy you guide us daily and at the end of our days you will guide us to that eternal home where we will dwell in eternal light. Give us always the fullness of life that you have promised. Glory to you for ever and ever.
Amen
Citation
http://www.cathedral.vancouver.bc.ca/news_info/sermons/2005_0417.htm
Below is the transcript of a sermon delivered three years ago in Canada by an Anglican priest. I posted this now because of what he has to say about economics and the "distribution of wealth", an issue that has suddenly been branded as "Un-American" and socialistic" by McCain-Palin. It is important that those of us who claim to be Christians (especially those who claim to be more Christian than others) heed this advice.
JVP
Sermon - Fourth Sunday of Easter
Preached by the Very Reverend Peter Elliott April 17, 2005
Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly."
In the year 185, in Lyon France, the Bishop, Irenaeus wrote a treatise called Against Heresies. What is remembered from his essay is a phrase that continues to inspire people of faith to this very day. St. Irenaeus wrote these words, "The glory of God is humanity fully alive!" Fully alive--life to the full: this is the glory of God and the destination of all spiritual seeking.
Day after day I meet people who are seeking a fuller life. Weighed down by their responsibilities or anxious about their futures, many people do not so much live as exist in the expectation of living. To all of us, wherever we are in our spiritual journeys, Jesus' words in today's gospel bring us fresh hope, hope that life can be better, can be fuller, can be more abundant.
But what is it that causes life to be diminished? What is it that denies us the fullness of life? There are many things that diminish life: this morning let's look at just 3--religion, economics, and self regard.
1. Are you surprised that my #1 item that diminishes life is religion? Maybe it seems an unusual choice for a priest but I believe this to be true. I have seen too many lives diminished by the claims of religious leaders and their systems. People get burdened down by following systems of thought and belief that do not bring life. In a conversation a little while ago with our friend Archbishop David Somerville, he said to me something like this: "So many people use religion as a way to control people; I always saw religion as a way to free people to be who they are." I agree; but, sadly, in our time and even in our communion there are many who seek to keep people dependent on formulas and ideas that restrict and deny life. The history of our church even in my lifetime is illustrative of this: I can remember a time when only men were allowed to take up the collection, when children were forbidden from receiving the Holy Communion, where gay people were prohibited from participating in church life openly--and there are parts of the Christian world where these things continue to happen. Using religion to deny life is inhibiting the creative Spirit of God to move in our midst. It is denying the abundance of life that Jesus promises, and it denies the expression of the glory of God as humanity fully alive. Now understand me: I'm not saying that the church should sanction an "anything goes" philosophy: far from it. But I do believe that the church has a sacred obligation to usher people gently into becoming the persons that God has uniquely created them to be. Followers of Jesus seek this abundant life--this fullness of life that is promised in the gospel. In the passage from John read as today's gospel, Jesus contrasts the one who brings life from the one who comes only to steal life, to kill life and to destroy life. In this passage Jesus identifies himself as the gate, the way to fullness of life. The church, his Body then can and I believe should be a way that brings fullness of life to all who seek to be in relationship with Jesus Christ.
2. Of course, a second and important dynamic that diminishes life is economics. And I'm not referring here to those of us in the middle class who too often find ourselves a bit short of cash at the end of the month; I'm wanting us to think globally here. One of the things that disables people from expressing the glory of God by being fully alive is the unequal distribution of wealth globally. We know the facts and figures only too well, the inordinate concentration of wealth in the few and the abject poverty of the majority. Even those of us who feel stretched by our own financial obligations are amongst the wealthiest in the world, from a global perspective. And we need look no further than to a project that the HIV-AIDS Africa support group has identified--the Bochabelo project. Here's the story: in this township of Soweto in South Africa, a population of roughly the size of Vancouver, 2/3 of the people who live there are HIV positive. And the major centre for the provision of medical services for this whole community is a used shipping container. What we're seeking to do, in a very small way, is to help here, by raising funds to build a new medical centre. Our goal is $96,000 and we're working away at it. Why? Not just because it's a good thing to do, and it is that, nor just because we want to help, although we do; but because Jesus invites all of us into abundant life. You can't live life in its fullness when you are deprived the medicines that will enable you to survive. And this project is just one small example of the obscene distribution of wealth in our world. While we sit down to our lunches and suppers today, there will be children dying of starvation and malnutrition. Followers of Jesus care about economics because we believe that the glory of God is humanity fully alive, and because we have been called to continue the work of the one who came to bring life and life in abundance.
3. And the third thing that deprives us of living fully is one I found difficult to name, so let's call it self-regard. For some it's because of religion, for some it's because of their upbringing, for some, it's because of the way they were educated--but too many people walk around this world thinking of themselves as no good. It's all their fault--the bad things that have happened to them, the relationships that have gone sour, the lack of accomplishments, the lack of life. Bad religion has drummed this worthless message into folks, bad parenting, bad education--and what we end up with is a vast segment of the population self medicating with alcohol and drugs to feel better because deep down they feel so very empty. And to those of us who find ourselves with a diminished sense of self, I want us to look at Jesus words about being the gate to this abundant life. In this passage we find some hope to our troubled lives, if we read it symbolically. Because what this passage affirms is that within each one of us there is an irrational and instinctual capacity to know how to live fully. This is what the sheep symbolize. They may be not be the smartest animals, but they know the voice of their shepherd. Legend has it that the shepherds of Jesus time had affectionate names for their sheep, and called them by their names. This parable of Jesus isn't so much saying that people are sheep, as it is saying that within us, there is an instinctive capacity to know the voice of the true and living God, the shepherd, the caregiver of our souls. It is saying that the loving and compassionate power of the universe calls us by name, and invites us to fullness of life. It is saying that we can regard ourselves not so much as miserable sinners but as the beloved of God in whom the glory of God desires to be manifest. We are not destined to a life of depression, thank God; we are invited to a life of abundance and fullness. We, and all God's children have been adopted and cherished by God in Jesus Christ, and within us there is the capacity to know the one who guides us and draws us more and more into life's fullness.You are God's beloved daughters and sons, called to manifest the glory of the divine by being fully human, fully yourself, fully the person that God has created you to be. You are loved and called by name. And a table is spread for you here, even in the presence of all that threatens you. In baptism you have been anointed with oil, and each of us is given the promise of abundant life. We are invited to be fully alive--to be critical of the life stealing propensity of religion and economics, and self regard, and to be part of a community that seeks to bring us to life and to bring life to others.
Let us pray.
Glory to you, Jesus Christ, our good shepherd. In the waters of baptism you give us new birth, at your table you nourish us with heavenly food, and in your goodness and mercy you guide us daily and at the end of our days you will guide us to that eternal home where we will dwell in eternal light. Give us always the fullness of life that you have promised. Glory to you for ever and ever.
Amen
Citation
http://www.cathedral.vancouver.bc.ca/news_info/sermons/2005_0417.htm
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
AMDG
Satire
Jib Jab is back and puts this whole politcal season in some perspective.
View it for yourself
www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm
Jib Jab is back and puts this whole politcal season in some perspective.
View it for yourself
www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm
Friday, October 24, 2008
AMDG
Human Interest
For a change of pace from the political and the psychological, I offer this true story. I checked it out with Snopes.com and was shocked to learn that it was all true. The relationship between animals and men hasn't been fully examined.
A lovely story. Not many people get a picture of this proud bird snuggled up next to them.
Freedom and JeffFreedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places . She's my baby.
When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit an
d talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.
This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a w eek. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.
We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington . We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV . Miracle Pets even did a show about us.
In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.
Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.
So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.
On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power coarse through his body. I have so many stories like that.
I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedoms.
Hope you enjoy this.
Jeff Guidry
Freedom and JeffFreedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places . She's my baby.
When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit an
d talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a w eek. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.
We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington . We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV . Miracle Pets even did a show about us.
In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.
Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone.
So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.
On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power coarse through his body. I have so many stories like that.
I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedoms.
Hope you enjoy this.
Jeff Guidry
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
AMDG
History
"No Sense of Decency"
"No Sense of Decency"
"You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
That famous phrase was uttered by Joseph M. Welch, the attorney for the Army during the Army-McCarthy Hearings in 1954. It was directed at Senator Joseph M. McCarthy, a powerful Wisconsin Congressman who was infamous for his communist witchunting. It was an era of fears of a communist takeover, of smear tactics, paranoid suspicion and guilt by association in the United States . McCarthy and his cohort Roy Cohn were despised by many but feared by even more. Even the President (Ike), who hated him, feared him and refused to silence him. Besides, McCarthy was also was a close friend of old Joe Kennedy and so even JFK and RFK did not step in as he ruined the reputation and careers of countless numbers of innocent men and women in public life. If you didn't cooperate or agree with McCarthy, you were labeled "a Communist"
In the Army-McCarthy hearings, McCarthy claimed to have lists of countless numbers of "card-carrying" communists in the US Army --lists that he wouldn't show to anyone. I watched every minute of the Hearings, live, on Black and White Television, not knowing much about the current events and politics of the day. I was a Jesuit high school senior who had just read Bishop Sheen's "Communism and the Conscience of the West" and was a staunch anti-communist like most of my friends in school. But it didn't take me long to realize what vipers McCarthy and Cohn were.
In the famous encounter, presented in the video below, McCarthy , who was frustrated with his general lack of success began to accuse a young man in Welch's law firm. Frederick Fisher, of having ties with the National Law Guild in Harvard Law School, an organization that McCarthy considered a "communist front organization" Welch had had enough and finally challenged McCarthy. If you notice in the video, Welch gets a round of applause from the gallery. That one encounter marked the beginning of the end of McCarthy's power. He died a broken man with no friends who will go down in history as a despised American figure.
(please take the opportunity to view the actual 7 minute video of the incident before you move on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAur_I077NA
Now my point. It isn't quite that time yet but the smear campaign being directed against the character of Barack Obama compares very favorably to that terrible era in our history. He has been called anti-American, a terrorist sympathizer, a friend of terrorists, a secret Muslim and "what a a surprise!" a COMMUNIST. John McCain skirts around the issue tactfully but allows his pit bull VP to state it pretty openly to receptive crowds. She also does nothing to discourage those racist fanatics in the "base" from yelling "kill him". Surrogates in Storm trooper uniforms or in coats made from the American flag, highlight Obama's middle name --Hussein"--- from the same speakers' platform that Palin and McCain use to address the crowd. And now, those infamous "robo-calls" are programmed on a daily basis throughout the country, spreading hate and fear. Only General Colin Powell, on the Republican side has had the courage to speak out against this---and eloquently.
In the final analysis, McCarthy's historical legacy was permanently marred by his behavior. This will and should happen to McCain.
In the concentration camps, Victor Frankl, the brilliant Austrian psychiatrist, broke down the people there into "decent people" and people with no sense of decency. He said even some of the German Guards were decent to the prisoners as much as they could under the conditions. While some of the Jewish prisoners, out of utter fear, identified with their aggressors and became sadistic capos who tortured their own friends.
Decent and indecent---a good way to characterize people. I think I'll try it.
JVP
AMDG
HUMOR
A friend sent me this in an email. I traced it down to the following blog but I don’t know the original source
http://cfruelectionradio.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/a-light-relief-the-egg-business/
Hens & Roosters
John was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers(hens) also called pullets and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. He keptrecords and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.
This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance,which rooster was performing. Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.
John's favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this
morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate,he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but thepullets, hearing the roosters coming, could run for cover. To John'samazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.
John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair andhe became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judgesnot only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded himthe Pulletsurprise as well.
Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician
could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planetby being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when theyweren't paying attention.
Vote carefully this year, the bells are not always audible.
A friend sent me this in an email. I traced it down to the following blog but I don’t know the original source
http://cfruelectionradio.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/a-light-relief-the-egg-business/
Hens & Roosters
John was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers(hens) also called pullets and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. He keptrecords and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.
This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance,which rooster was performing. Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.
John's favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this
morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate,he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but thepullets, hearing the roosters coming, could run for cover. To John'samazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.
John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair andhe became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judgesnot only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded himthe Pulletsurprise as well.
Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician
could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planetby being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when theyweren't paying attention.
Vote carefully this year, the bells are not always audible.
AMDG
Spiritual
Because I have real doubts about the existence of a providential God who monitors life on earth each second of each day, praying is not a frequent exercise for me. One has only to focus on the history of mankind right up until the modern day to question the presence of a caring, loving God who will intercede in times of trial and tribulation only if you pray to Him. (Although I am beginning to wonder about the fortuitous series of events that have occurred to ensure the election of an African-American to the Presidency of a country that enslaved African-Americans over 300 years ago. Either John McCain must have infuriated God pretty badly or Oprah Winfrey does have a direct conduit to God).
I pray for strength only. Strength-----to endure whatever hardships life holds in store for me and my loved ones. But there is one prayer that has really made an impression on me because it delivers a basic message that characterizes the Christian faith as it is or should be. So forgive me for praying on a blog but I'm sure that St. Paul wont mind and besides I believe that the copyright on it has run out. Read it to yourself or out loud several times to internalize its message.
Because I have real doubts about the existence of a providential God who monitors life on earth each second of each day, praying is not a frequent exercise for me. One has only to focus on the history of mankind right up until the modern day to question the presence of a caring, loving God who will intercede in times of trial and tribulation only if you pray to Him. (Although I am beginning to wonder about the fortuitous series of events that have occurred to ensure the election of an African-American to the Presidency of a country that enslaved African-Americans over 300 years ago. Either John McCain must have infuriated God pretty badly or Oprah Winfrey does have a direct conduit to God).
I pray for strength only. Strength-----to endure whatever hardships life holds in store for me and my loved ones. But there is one prayer that has really made an impression on me because it delivers a basic message that characterizes the Christian faith as it is or should be. So forgive me for praying on a blog but I'm sure that St. Paul wont mind and besides I believe that the copyright on it has run out. Read it to yourself or out loud several times to internalize its message.
If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,but have not love, I am nothing.
And if I dole out all my goods, and if I deliver my body that I may boast but have not love, nothing I am profited.
Love is long suffering, love is kind, it is not jealous, love does not boast, it is not inflated. It is not discourteous, it is not selfish, it is not irritable, it does not enumerate the evil. It does not rejoice over the wrong,but rejoices in the truth It covers all things, it has faith for all things,it hopes in all things, it endures in all things.Love never falls in ruins;but whether prophecies, they will be abolished; or tongues, they will cease; or knowledge, it will be superseded.For we know in part and we prophecy in part. But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.
When I was an infant,I spoke as an infant, I reckoned as an infant; when I became [an adult], I abolished the things of the infant. For now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face.Now I know in part, but then I shall know as also I was fully known. But now remains faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
1 corinthians 13:1-13
Monday, October 20, 2008
AMDG
PSYCHOLOGY/THEOLOGY
A MEANING IN LIFE
“He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."
Frederick Nietzsche
One of the ten most influential books ever written was a 1946 account of Victor Frankl’s life in a Nazi Concentration camp. The book was entitled ‘Man’s Search for Meaning”. Frankl recounts the horrors and the trials of trying to survive, physically and psychologically, Theresienstadt concentration camp. Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist who was imprisoned with his entire family. At first, he worked as a general physician in the camp’s clinic but when the Nazi’s discovered that he was a psychiatrist, they forced him to work with the suicidal prisoners to prevent them from killing themselves. In the pathologically twisted minds of the Nazis, they wanted to prevent the suicides of the Jews so that they could recover and go to their prescribed deaths in the gas chambers.
Frank did his job conscientiously by supporting and comforting the prisoners who couldn’t adapt to life in the camp, In the midst of this climate of horror, Frankl concluded that even under the most horror filled and depressing of conditions, the prisoners could rely on the firm belief that life, any life, has meaning and that even suffering has meaning. No matter how devastating and cruel their lives were, any prisoner at any time could turn inward to their spiritual core, an area that even the Nazis couldn’t destroy.
Victor Frankl did survive Theresienstadt and even Auschwitz and Turkheim to go on to a successful career as the founder of Logotherapy, an existential therapy that focuses on values and purpose in life.
The same phenomenon was observed in the American prisoners of war in the Korean conflict. Although not nearly as cruel as the Nazis, the Red Chinese semi-starved their prisoners, placed them in overcrowded barracks and constantly tried to get them to collaborate by signing insignificant confessions of wrongdoing. This approach met with great success among most of the prisoners and alarmed the American military. Some of the prisoners could not adapt at all and turned into “blanket cases”. They just crawled under their blankets and died. Psychologists after the war were interested the resistors rather than the collaborators and came up with interesting findings. Those who resisted and did not collaborate were made up of three groups---The Officers, those prisoners with a life history of resisting any authority and those men raised in religions that focused on inner spiritual values. In language almost identical to Frankl’s, these men reported that they were able to turn to their spiritual cores for strength.
Hans Kung, a student of Pope Benedict and one of the most brilliant theologians in the Catholic Church came to the same conclusion in one of his many books about the existence of God. After hundreds of pages of very complex philosophical arguments, Kung states that it all “boils” down to this-----“either your life has meaning or it doesn’t”. If you believe that it does have meaning, then God exists within you to give it meaning.
JVP
A MEANING IN LIFE
“He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how."
Frederick Nietzsche
One of the ten most influential books ever written was a 1946 account of Victor Frankl’s life in a Nazi Concentration camp. The book was entitled ‘Man’s Search for Meaning”. Frankl recounts the horrors and the trials of trying to survive, physically and psychologically, Theresienstadt concentration camp. Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist who was imprisoned with his entire family. At first, he worked as a general physician in the camp’s clinic but when the Nazi’s discovered that he was a psychiatrist, they forced him to work with the suicidal prisoners to prevent them from killing themselves. In the pathologically twisted minds of the Nazis, they wanted to prevent the suicides of the Jews so that they could recover and go to their prescribed deaths in the gas chambers.
Frank did his job conscientiously by supporting and comforting the prisoners who couldn’t adapt to life in the camp, In the midst of this climate of horror, Frankl concluded that even under the most horror filled and depressing of conditions, the prisoners could rely on the firm belief that life, any life, has meaning and that even suffering has meaning. No matter how devastating and cruel their lives were, any prisoner at any time could turn inward to their spiritual core, an area that even the Nazis couldn’t destroy.
Victor Frankl did survive Theresienstadt and even Auschwitz and Turkheim to go on to a successful career as the founder of Logotherapy, an existential therapy that focuses on values and purpose in life.
The same phenomenon was observed in the American prisoners of war in the Korean conflict. Although not nearly as cruel as the Nazis, the Red Chinese semi-starved their prisoners, placed them in overcrowded barracks and constantly tried to get them to collaborate by signing insignificant confessions of wrongdoing. This approach met with great success among most of the prisoners and alarmed the American military. Some of the prisoners could not adapt at all and turned into “blanket cases”. They just crawled under their blankets and died. Psychologists after the war were interested the resistors rather than the collaborators and came up with interesting findings. Those who resisted and did not collaborate were made up of three groups---The Officers, those prisoners with a life history of resisting any authority and those men raised in religions that focused on inner spiritual values. In language almost identical to Frankl’s, these men reported that they were able to turn to their spiritual cores for strength.
Hans Kung, a student of Pope Benedict and one of the most brilliant theologians in the Catholic Church came to the same conclusion in one of his many books about the existence of God. After hundreds of pages of very complex philosophical arguments, Kung states that it all “boils” down to this-----“either your life has meaning or it doesn’t”. If you believe that it does have meaning, then God exists within you to give it meaning.
JVP
AMDG
Political
This is reprinted from the St. Louis Post Dispatch. It speaks for itself.
Sunday editorial: Barack Obama for presidentBy: Editorial Board
The St. Louis Post-DispatchNine Days before the Feb. 5 presidential primaries in Missouri and Illinois, this editorial page endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain in their respective races.
We did so enthusiastically. We wrote that either Mr. Obama's message of hope or Mr. McCain's independence and integrity offered America 'the chance to turn the page on 28 years of contentious, greed-driven politics and move into a new era of possibility.'
Over the past nine months, Mr. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, has emerged as the only truly transformative candidate in the race. In the crucible that is a presidential campaign, his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure consistently have been impressive. He has surrounded himself with smart, capable advisers who have helped him refine thorough, nuanced policy positions.
In a word, Mr. Obama has been presidential.
Meanwhile, Mr. McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, became the incredible shrinking man. He shrank from his principled stands in favor of a humane immigration policy. He shrank from his universal condemnation of torture and his condemnation of the politics of smear.
He even shrank from his own campaign slogan, 'Country First,' by selecting the least qualified running mate since the Swedenborgian shipbuilder Arthur Sewall ran as William Jennings Bryan's No. 2 in 1896.
In making political endorsements, this editorial page is guided first by the principles espoused by Joseph Pulitzer in The Post-Dispatch Platform printed daily at the top of this page. Then we consider questions of character, life experience and intellect, as well as specific policy and issue positions. Each member of the editorial board weighs in.
On all counts, the consensus was clear: Barack Obama of Illinois should be the next president of the United States.We didn't know nine months ago that before Election Day, America would face its greatest economic challenge since the Great Depression. The crisis on Wall Street is devastating, but it has offered voters a useful preview of how the two presidential candidates would respond to a crisis.
Very early on, Mr. Obama reached out to his impressive corps of economic advisers and developed a comprehensive set of recommendations for addressing the problems. He set them forth calmly and explained them carefully.
Mr. McCain, a longtime critic of government regulation, was late to recognize the threat. The chief economic adviser of his campaign initially was former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who had been one of the architects of banking deregulation. When the credit markets imploded, Mr. McCain lurched from one ineffectual grandstand play to another. He squandered the one clear advantage he had over Mr. Obama: experience.
Mr. McCain first was elected to Congress in 1982 when Mr. Obama was in his senior year at Columbia University. Yet the younger man's intellectual curiosity and capacity -- and, yes, also the skills he developed as a community organizer and his instincts as a political conciliator -- more than compensate for his lack of more traditional Washington experience.
A presidency is defined less by what happens in the Oval Office than by what is done by the more than 3,000 men and women the president appoints to government office. Only 600 of them are subject to Senate approval. The rest serve at the pleasure of the president.
We have little doubt that Mr. Obama's appointees would bring a level of competence, compassion and intellectual achievement to the executive branch that hasn't been seen since the New Frontier. He has energized a new generation of Americans who would put the concept of service back in 'public service.'
Consider that while Mr. McCain selected as his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a callow and shrill partisan, Mr. Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. Mr. Biden's 35-year Senate career has given him encyclopedic expertise on legislative and judicial issues, as well as foreign affairs.
The idea that 3,000 bright, dedicated and accomplished Americans would be joining the Obama administration to serve the public -- as opposed to padding their resumés or shilling for the corporate interests they're sworn to oversee -- is reassuring. That they would be serving a president who actually would listen to them is staggering.
And the fact that Mr. Obama can explain his thoughts and policies in language that can instruct and inspire is exciting. Eloquence isn't everything in a president, but it is not nothing, either.
Experience aside, the 25-year difference in the ages of Mr. McCain, 72, and Mr. Obama, 47, is important largely because Mr. Obama's election would represent a generational shift. He would be the first chief executive in more than six decades whose worldview was not formed, at least in part, by the Cold War or Vietnam.
He sees the complicated world as it is today, not as a binary division between us and them, but as a kaleidoscope of shifting alliances and interests. As he often notes, he is the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, an internationalist who yet acknowledges that America is the only nation in the world in which someone of his distinctly modest background could rise as far as his talent, intellect and hard work would take him.
Given the damage that has been done to America's moral standing in the world in the last eight years -- by a preemptory war, a unilateralist foreign policy and by policies that have treated both the Geneva Conventions and our own Bill of Rights as optional -- Mr. Obama's election would help America reclaim the moral high ground.
It also must be said that Mr. Obama is right on the issues. He was right on the war in Iraq. He is right that all Americans deserve access to health care and right in his pragmatic approach to meeting that goal. He is right on tax policy, infrastructure investment, energy policy and environmental issues. He is right on American ideals.
He was right when he said in his remarkable speech in March in Philadelphia that 'In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.'
John McCain has served his country well, but in the end, he may have wanted the presidency a little too much, so much that he has sacrificed some of the principles that made him a heroic figure in war and in peace. In every way possible, he has earned the right to retire.
Finally, only at this late point do we note that Barack Obama is an African-American. Because of who he is and how he has run his campaign, that fact has become almost incidental to most Americans. Instead, his countrymen are weighing his talents, his values and his beliefs, judging him not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character.
That says something profound and good -- about him as a candidate and about us as a nation.
This is reprinted from the St. Louis Post Dispatch. It speaks for itself.
Sunday editorial: Barack Obama for presidentBy: Editorial Board
The St. Louis Post-DispatchNine Days before the Feb. 5 presidential primaries in Missouri and Illinois, this editorial page endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain in their respective races.
We did so enthusiastically. We wrote that either Mr. Obama's message of hope or Mr. McCain's independence and integrity offered America 'the chance to turn the page on 28 years of contentious, greed-driven politics and move into a new era of possibility.'
Over the past nine months, Mr. Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, has emerged as the only truly transformative candidate in the race. In the crucible that is a presidential campaign, his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure consistently have been impressive. He has surrounded himself with smart, capable advisers who have helped him refine thorough, nuanced policy positions.
In a word, Mr. Obama has been presidential.
Meanwhile, Mr. McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, became the incredible shrinking man. He shrank from his principled stands in favor of a humane immigration policy. He shrank from his universal condemnation of torture and his condemnation of the politics of smear.
He even shrank from his own campaign slogan, 'Country First,' by selecting the least qualified running mate since the Swedenborgian shipbuilder Arthur Sewall ran as William Jennings Bryan's No. 2 in 1896.
In making political endorsements, this editorial page is guided first by the principles espoused by Joseph Pulitzer in The Post-Dispatch Platform printed daily at the top of this page. Then we consider questions of character, life experience and intellect, as well as specific policy and issue positions. Each member of the editorial board weighs in.
On all counts, the consensus was clear: Barack Obama of Illinois should be the next president of the United States.We didn't know nine months ago that before Election Day, America would face its greatest economic challenge since the Great Depression. The crisis on Wall Street is devastating, but it has offered voters a useful preview of how the two presidential candidates would respond to a crisis.
Very early on, Mr. Obama reached out to his impressive corps of economic advisers and developed a comprehensive set of recommendations for addressing the problems. He set them forth calmly and explained them carefully.
Mr. McCain, a longtime critic of government regulation, was late to recognize the threat. The chief economic adviser of his campaign initially was former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, who had been one of the architects of banking deregulation. When the credit markets imploded, Mr. McCain lurched from one ineffectual grandstand play to another. He squandered the one clear advantage he had over Mr. Obama: experience.
Mr. McCain first was elected to Congress in 1982 when Mr. Obama was in his senior year at Columbia University. Yet the younger man's intellectual curiosity and capacity -- and, yes, also the skills he developed as a community organizer and his instincts as a political conciliator -- more than compensate for his lack of more traditional Washington experience.
A presidency is defined less by what happens in the Oval Office than by what is done by the more than 3,000 men and women the president appoints to government office. Only 600 of them are subject to Senate approval. The rest serve at the pleasure of the president.
We have little doubt that Mr. Obama's appointees would bring a level of competence, compassion and intellectual achievement to the executive branch that hasn't been seen since the New Frontier. He has energized a new generation of Americans who would put the concept of service back in 'public service.'
Consider that while Mr. McCain selected as his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a callow and shrill partisan, Mr. Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. Mr. Biden's 35-year Senate career has given him encyclopedic expertise on legislative and judicial issues, as well as foreign affairs.
The idea that 3,000 bright, dedicated and accomplished Americans would be joining the Obama administration to serve the public -- as opposed to padding their resumés or shilling for the corporate interests they're sworn to oversee -- is reassuring. That they would be serving a president who actually would listen to them is staggering.
And the fact that Mr. Obama can explain his thoughts and policies in language that can instruct and inspire is exciting. Eloquence isn't everything in a president, but it is not nothing, either.
Experience aside, the 25-year difference in the ages of Mr. McCain, 72, and Mr. Obama, 47, is important largely because Mr. Obama's election would represent a generational shift. He would be the first chief executive in more than six decades whose worldview was not formed, at least in part, by the Cold War or Vietnam.
He sees the complicated world as it is today, not as a binary division between us and them, but as a kaleidoscope of shifting alliances and interests. As he often notes, he is the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, an internationalist who yet acknowledges that America is the only nation in the world in which someone of his distinctly modest background could rise as far as his talent, intellect and hard work would take him.
Given the damage that has been done to America's moral standing in the world in the last eight years -- by a preemptory war, a unilateralist foreign policy and by policies that have treated both the Geneva Conventions and our own Bill of Rights as optional -- Mr. Obama's election would help America reclaim the moral high ground.
It also must be said that Mr. Obama is right on the issues. He was right on the war in Iraq. He is right that all Americans deserve access to health care and right in his pragmatic approach to meeting that goal. He is right on tax policy, infrastructure investment, energy policy and environmental issues. He is right on American ideals.
He was right when he said in his remarkable speech in March in Philadelphia that 'In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.'
John McCain has served his country well, but in the end, he may have wanted the presidency a little too much, so much that he has sacrificed some of the principles that made him a heroic figure in war and in peace. In every way possible, he has earned the right to retire.
Finally, only at this late point do we note that Barack Obama is an African-American. Because of who he is and how he has run his campaign, that fact has become almost incidental to most Americans. Instead, his countrymen are weighing his talents, his values and his beliefs, judging him not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character.
That says something profound and good -- about him as a candidate and about us as a nation.
Friday, October 17, 2008
AMDG
DUELING QUOTATIONS
"GOD IS DEAD"
Nietzsche
"NIETZSCHE IS DEAD"
God
"GOD IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN RUSSIA. I CAN SEE HIM FROM MY HOUSE"
Sarah Palin
JVP
Thursday, October 16, 2008
AMDG
POLITICAL HUMOR
While walking down the street one day a US senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
'Welcome to heaven,' says St. Peter. 'Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you.'
'No problem, just let me in,' says the man.
'Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll dois have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then youcan choose where to spend eternity.'
'Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,' says thesenator.
'I'm sorry, but we have our rules.'
And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes<>down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himselfin the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouseand standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicianswho had worked with him.
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him,shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had whilegetting rich at the expense of the people.
They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviarand champagne.
Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy whohas a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such agood time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevatorrises...
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
'Now it's time to visit heaven.'
So, 24 hours pass with the senator joining a group of contented soulsmoving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
'Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Nowchoose your eternity.'
The senator reflects for a minute, then he answers: 'Well, I wouldnever have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.'
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down,down to hell.
Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.
He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash andputting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.
The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.'I don't understand,' stammers the senator. 'Yesterday I was hereand there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster andcaviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Nowthere's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable.What happened?'
The devil looks at him, smiles and says, 'Yesterday we were campaigning..
Today you voted.'
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
AMDG
POLITICAL
I thought I would post this email that I was sent today.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY God! I hope every one is listening, before it is too late. Perhaps there are SOME out there who are beginning to get 'the picture'.
The following is a narrative taken from Sunday Morning's televised "Meet The Press'. and the author is employed by none other than the Washington Post!!Yeah......the Washington Post of New York and Los Angeles Times fame!! Must say that I'm dually impressed.................. From Sunday's Televised "Meet the Press" Senator Obama was asked about his stance on the American Flag. Obama Explains the National Anthem Stance Sun, 07 Sept. 2008 11:48:04 EST, General Bill Ginn' USAF(ret.) asked Obama to explain why he doesn't follow protocol when the National Anthem is played. The General also stated to the Senator that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171...
During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.At the very least, "Stand and Face It" Senator Obama Live on Sunday states, "As I've said before about the flag pin, I don't want to be perceived as taking sides, Obama said. 'There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song 'I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing.' If that were our anthem, then I might salute it." We should consider to reinvent our National Anthem as well as to redesign our Flag to better offer our enemies hope and love. It's my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we as a Nation of warring people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails perhaps a state or period of mutual concord would exist between our governments. When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts. We as a Nation have placed upon the nations of Islam an unfair injustice. My wife disrespects the Flag for many personal reasons. Together she and I have attended several flag burning ceremonies in the past, many years ago. She has her views and I have mine. Of course now, I have found my self about to become the President of the United States and I have put aside my hatred. I will use my power to bring CHANGE to this Nation, and offer the people a new path of hope. My wife and I look forward to becoming our country's First Family. Indeed, CHANGE is about to overwhelm the United States of America.
" WHAAAAAAAT the Hell !!!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it right. This could possibly be our next President.
I, for one, am speechless. Dale Lindsborg, Washington Post
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scary stuff. Not one word or phrase of this has any truth. Obama did not say this on Meet the Press on that day or any day. He was not even on the show on September 7. Check Snopes.com. Actually it was from a satirical piece written by Bill Semmens, a political columnist on the Arizona Conservative website
This is one more example of the kind of garbage that the racist forces in this country are trying to use to smear Barack Obama. Why anyone would believe any of this is beyond me. These forces are really desperate now because these unconscionable tactics are falling on deaf ears. As my old Uncle Willy would say" if you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick"
What shameless consciences these people must have to spread this propaganda about this decent man? Moreover, what kind of ignorance do people, who read it and believe it, display? The problem is that they really want to believe it. Why are they so afraid of this intelligent man? He belies their schema of what they have always believed about African-Americans. They are dumb, lazy and shiftless. And they hate white people. The fact that infuriates them is that he is none of these things, which they feel diminishes them in some way.
I suspect this racism will finally die with my generation. Certainly, the young people I have encountered will have none of it.
I thought I would post this email that I was sent today.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MY God! I hope every one is listening, before it is too late. Perhaps there are SOME out there who are beginning to get 'the picture'.
The following is a narrative taken from Sunday Morning's televised "Meet The Press'. and the author is employed by none other than the Washington Post!!Yeah......the Washington Post of New York and Los Angeles Times fame!! Must say that I'm dually impressed.................. From Sunday's Televised "Meet the Press" Senator Obama was asked about his stance on the American Flag. Obama Explains the National Anthem Stance Sun, 07 Sept. 2008 11:48:04 EST, General Bill Ginn' USAF(ret.) asked Obama to explain why he doesn't follow protocol when the National Anthem is played. The General also stated to the Senator that according to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171...
During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.At the very least, "Stand and Face It" Senator Obama Live on Sunday states, "As I've said before about the flag pin, I don't want to be perceived as taking sides, Obama said. 'There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song 'I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing.' If that were our anthem, then I might salute it." We should consider to reinvent our National Anthem as well as to redesign our Flag to better offer our enemies hope and love. It's my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we as a Nation of warring people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails perhaps a state or period of mutual concord would exist between our governments. When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts. We as a Nation have placed upon the nations of Islam an unfair injustice. My wife disrespects the Flag for many personal reasons. Together she and I have attended several flag burning ceremonies in the past, many years ago. She has her views and I have mine. Of course now, I have found my self about to become the President of the United States and I have put aside my hatred. I will use my power to bring CHANGE to this Nation, and offer the people a new path of hope. My wife and I look forward to becoming our country's First Family. Indeed, CHANGE is about to overwhelm the United States of America.
" WHAAAAAAAT the Hell !!!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you heard it right. This could possibly be our next President.
I, for one, am speechless. Dale Lindsborg, Washington Post
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scary stuff. Not one word or phrase of this has any truth. Obama did not say this on Meet the Press on that day or any day. He was not even on the show on September 7. Check Snopes.com. Actually it was from a satirical piece written by Bill Semmens, a political columnist on the Arizona Conservative website
This is one more example of the kind of garbage that the racist forces in this country are trying to use to smear Barack Obama. Why anyone would believe any of this is beyond me. These forces are really desperate now because these unconscionable tactics are falling on deaf ears. As my old Uncle Willy would say" if you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick"
What shameless consciences these people must have to spread this propaganda about this decent man? Moreover, what kind of ignorance do people, who read it and believe it, display? The problem is that they really want to believe it. Why are they so afraid of this intelligent man? He belies their schema of what they have always believed about African-Americans. They are dumb, lazy and shiftless. And they hate white people. The fact that infuriates them is that he is none of these things, which they feel diminishes them in some way.
I suspect this racism will finally die with my generation. Certainly, the young people I have encountered will have none of it.
JVP
AMDG
HELPFUL INFORMATION
One of my trustworthy contacts sent this to me. I checked it out on Snopes.com and they have no record of it at all. I , also, personally called the phone numbers listed at the bottom and they all check out as legitimate. It seems like good solid advice. If you have any proof that it is bogus advice for some reason, please comment on this article at the bottom
ATTORNEY'S ADVICE - NO CHARGE A corporate Attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.
1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED.'
2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card Accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.
3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to Call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a Photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.
(Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.) But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card Numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
6. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an Investigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)
7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc., has been stolen: 1.) Equifax: 800-525-6285 2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 888-397-3742 3.) Trans Union : 800-6807 289 4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line):800-269-0271
One of my trustworthy contacts sent this to me. I checked it out on Snopes.com and they have no record of it at all. I , also, personally called the phone numbers listed at the bottom and they all check out as legitimate. It seems like good solid advice. If you have any proof that it is bogus advice for some reason, please comment on this article at the bottom
ATTORNEY'S ADVICE - NO CHARGE A corporate Attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.
1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED.'
2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card Accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.
3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.
4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to Call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a Photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.
(Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have firsthand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.) But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card Numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
6. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an Investigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)
7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc., has been stolen: 1.) Equifax: 800-525-6285 2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 888-397-3742 3.) Trans Union : 800-6807 289 4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line):800-269-0271
Monday, October 13, 2008
AMDG
HUMOR
If you love pets, you will love this brief video.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=goldfish+funeral&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#
If you love pets, you will love this brief video.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=goldfish+funeral&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#
AMDG
QUOTATIONS
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
AMDG
POLITICAL
Campaigning for Obama
This weekend I travelled out to Pike County, PA to work on the Obama campaign in a "Battleground State". Connecticut and New York are pretty much confirmed for Obama. The headquarters to which I was assigned was in the middle of a very pretty town named Milford. The actual headquarters was a basement office clearly marked with large posters and pictures.
The line of volunteers waiting to sign in was out of the door---about 30 in number. Almost all of the volunteers were men and women ranging from ages 40 to 70. I would say that most of them were seniors. They were from adjacent towns in Pennsylvania and New York. There were a few from Connecticut. A full time worker, a fiftyish woman from Eastchester, NY was my contact. Ironically, almost all of the workers that managed the operation were all in their twenties or in their teens. There was coffee and plenty of cake and bagels for all and everyone was very pleasant and congenial but dedicated in their support of the Obama-Biden Ticket.
We all had to go through a training session which was conducted by 2 high school students! One of them was even too young to vote. They briefed us on how to canvas especially in the rural areas and advised us of some of the problems we might encounter in the process. When one of them warned us about signs like "beware of dogs" and "trespassers" will be shot, that twas the cue for this city boy to volunteer to work on the phone banks.
Campaigning for Obama
This weekend I travelled out to Pike County, PA to work on the Obama campaign in a "Battleground State". Connecticut and New York are pretty much confirmed for Obama. The headquarters to which I was assigned was in the middle of a very pretty town named Milford. The actual headquarters was a basement office clearly marked with large posters and pictures.
The line of volunteers waiting to sign in was out of the door---about 30 in number. Almost all of the volunteers were men and women ranging from ages 40 to 70. I would say that most of them were seniors. They were from adjacent towns in Pennsylvania and New York. There were a few from Connecticut. A full time worker, a fiftyish woman from Eastchester, NY was my contact. Ironically, almost all of the workers that managed the operation were all in their twenties or in their teens. There was coffee and plenty of cake and bagels for all and everyone was very pleasant and congenial but dedicated in their support of the Obama-Biden Ticket.
We all had to go through a training session which was conducted by 2 high school students! One of them was even too young to vote. They briefed us on how to canvas especially in the rural areas and advised us of some of the problems we might encounter in the process. When one of them warned us about signs like "beware of dogs" and "trespassers" will be shot, that twas the cue for this city boy to volunteer to work on the phone banks.
Perhaps the most interesting volunteer I talked to was a Vietnam vet who rode up to the office in his motorcycle. He was a very distinguished man in his late forties or fifties who fought in the Vietnam war. He readily admitted that he was a Republican but became soured on the party during George Bush's administration. I asked why he wasn't supporting John McCain, a fellow veteran. He said that he was convinced that Obama was the only man who could bring this country together to get us out of the mess that we were in. He worked with me on the phones for the entire day.
In general, what impressed me most was the smooth, efficient management of the operation. It occured to me that there were hundreds of Obama campaign offices like this one scattered throughout the battleground states of the country. I was surprised to hear that there were 70 offices in Pennsylvania alone. Now I know why the Republicans were so upset about Obama's experience as a community organizer.
JVP
Sunday, October 12, 2008
AMDG
PSYCHOLOGY
NOT ALL EARMARKS ARE BAD
What is an “earmark”? Earmark.com defines it as “those spending measures inserted by members of Congress into bills that direct taxpayer dollars to their pet projects”
http://earmarkwatch.org/?gclid=CKGJqsjWopYCFQOjFQodNA2R5w .
Anyone who has been following the financial news lately knows that The US Senate tacked on some special goodies to the “Bail out the Banks” bill in order to make it more palatable to some members of the House of Representatives. They did this to sway their votes in favor of the bill. The “sweeteners” were extensions of tax bills that added approximate another 10 billion dollars to the original cost of the bailout. One of the more obscure earmarks had to do with providing more wooden arrows to children. Another had to do with more aid to rural schools. All of these earmarks were soundly criticized by fiscal conservatives.
But the one that attracted me was a new bill that provided for better insurance coverage for mental health and substance abuse problems. It was estimated that this would affect some 13 million Americans by mandating that medical insurance companies treat mental and physical health disorders equally. Since the beginning of the managed care system in this country, people with psychological disorders often had to pay for expensive psychiatric or psychological treatment out of their own pockets. These costs are so prohibitive that they simply could not pay for them. Even this new bill has some limitations but it was a long awaited step in the right direction for mental health advocates. Read more about it your self:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100902873.html
The state of the art in psychiatry and clinical psychology has come a very long way since doctors were drilling holes in the forebrains of psychotic patients. Advances in psychopharmacology now arm psychiatrists with a wide variety of medications to relieve the disabling symptoms of complex mental disorders like Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Panic Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder. Drugs once considered “dirty drugs” because of their many side effects have given way to scientifically designed drugs that narrowly target only the intended neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) without spreading like shotgun pellets to other chemicals and structures.
In similar manner, talking therapy is no longer restricted only to Freud’s couch. Several other fully validated approaches are available that take less time and are less expensive to achieve the same goals. The most widely accepted is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Then, there are also complex therapeutic systems like Dialectical Behavior Therapy that have been developed to treat only certain disorders like Borderline Personality Disorders that were once very difficult to treat. There is short term and long term therapy; group and individual therapy; family therapy; play therapy; Applied Behavioral Analysis ( for children with autism) and recreational therapy---to name a few.
The major problem, however, with all of these new and sophisticated treatment approaches is that they are not accessible to large portions of the American population---e.g. the homeless poor, the working poor and even the working middle class who have some managed care medical coverage. Medicaid and Medicare does provide some coverage for mental health care but it is sub par. HMO and PPO plans severely restrict the nature and the extent of proper mental health treatment. As it is with so many services and essential products in American society, socio-economic class determines their availability. In simple terms “the poor and much of the middle class do not have access to them.” They are often treated in a “hit or miss” fashion in hospital clinics without proper monitoring and follow up. They don’t get to see “the best doctors or therapists”. They languish away in the back rooms of their homes or worse yet in the streets of big cities.
NB. In my undergraduate courses in clinical psychology, I, of course, teach the state of the art in my discipline and brag about all of the advances the profession has made since mental patients were locked in wooden cages in asylums. In my first class, however, I make it clear to my students that mental health care in this country is not available to all. Some of them already know this personally.
NOT ALL EARMARKS ARE BAD
What is an “earmark”? Earmark.com defines it as “those spending measures inserted by members of Congress into bills that direct taxpayer dollars to their pet projects”
http://earmarkwatch.org/?gclid=CKGJqsjWopYCFQOjFQodNA2R5w .
Anyone who has been following the financial news lately knows that The US Senate tacked on some special goodies to the “Bail out the Banks” bill in order to make it more palatable to some members of the House of Representatives. They did this to sway their votes in favor of the bill. The “sweeteners” were extensions of tax bills that added approximate another 10 billion dollars to the original cost of the bailout. One of the more obscure earmarks had to do with providing more wooden arrows to children. Another had to do with more aid to rural schools. All of these earmarks were soundly criticized by fiscal conservatives.
But the one that attracted me was a new bill that provided for better insurance coverage for mental health and substance abuse problems. It was estimated that this would affect some 13 million Americans by mandating that medical insurance companies treat mental and physical health disorders equally. Since the beginning of the managed care system in this country, people with psychological disorders often had to pay for expensive psychiatric or psychological treatment out of their own pockets. These costs are so prohibitive that they simply could not pay for them. Even this new bill has some limitations but it was a long awaited step in the right direction for mental health advocates. Read more about it your self:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100902873.html
The state of the art in psychiatry and clinical psychology has come a very long way since doctors were drilling holes in the forebrains of psychotic patients. Advances in psychopharmacology now arm psychiatrists with a wide variety of medications to relieve the disabling symptoms of complex mental disorders like Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Panic Disorder and Attention Deficit Disorder. Drugs once considered “dirty drugs” because of their many side effects have given way to scientifically designed drugs that narrowly target only the intended neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) without spreading like shotgun pellets to other chemicals and structures.
In similar manner, talking therapy is no longer restricted only to Freud’s couch. Several other fully validated approaches are available that take less time and are less expensive to achieve the same goals. The most widely accepted is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Then, there are also complex therapeutic systems like Dialectical Behavior Therapy that have been developed to treat only certain disorders like Borderline Personality Disorders that were once very difficult to treat. There is short term and long term therapy; group and individual therapy; family therapy; play therapy; Applied Behavioral Analysis ( for children with autism) and recreational therapy---to name a few.
The major problem, however, with all of these new and sophisticated treatment approaches is that they are not accessible to large portions of the American population---e.g. the homeless poor, the working poor and even the working middle class who have some managed care medical coverage. Medicaid and Medicare does provide some coverage for mental health care but it is sub par. HMO and PPO plans severely restrict the nature and the extent of proper mental health treatment. As it is with so many services and essential products in American society, socio-economic class determines their availability. In simple terms “the poor and much of the middle class do not have access to them.” They are often treated in a “hit or miss” fashion in hospital clinics without proper monitoring and follow up. They don’t get to see “the best doctors or therapists”. They languish away in the back rooms of their homes or worse yet in the streets of big cities.
NB. In my undergraduate courses in clinical psychology, I, of course, teach the state of the art in my discipline and brag about all of the advances the profession has made since mental patients were locked in wooden cages in asylums. In my first class, however, I make it clear to my students that mental health care in this country is not available to all. Some of them already know this personally.
Friday, October 10, 2008
AMDG
DUELING QUOTATIONS
"They also serve who only stand and wait"
John Milton from "On His Blindness"
"Hit the road, Jack"
Ray Charles from "His Greatest Hits,Vol 2"
Thursday, October 9, 2008
AMDG
The barracuda is a small shark known for its fearsome appearance found in only some regions of the world. They are elongated creatures with large powerful mouths and strong, cutting teeth. They are voracious predators and hunt using a strategy of “lie-in-wait and ambush” The larger adult barracudas are more or less solitary in their habits and often do not stick around to care for their young. The only difference between barracudas and “hockey moms” is lipstick.
This rather strained definition of “barracudas” is loosely paraphrased from Wikipedia, the internet bible for surfers. It is also the self-proclaimed “aka” of Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for Vice President. This is the candidate who potentially sits only a ventricular hearbeat away from the Presidency. For a long time she only roamed the environs of a region once called “Seward’s Folly”. But recently, she was given a passport to the mainland and empowered by John McCain, who lost his judgment along with his campaign for the Presidency in 2000.
Of course, she has been the butt of the humor of every comedian in the media with the possibe exceptions of Dennis Miller and Sean Hannity. And what liberal did not double over with laughter at the satirical lifelike imitation of her by the clever, talented comedy actress and writer, Tina Fey.
The problem with all of this fun and laughter is that barracudas are not funny. They are dangerous creatures. So is Sarah Palin. Her recent vicious, calumnous attacks on Barack Obama are designed to rile up the the paranoid base of the Republican Party. The Washington Post and other media have reported the random utterances from her audience like “treason” and “kill him” that leaked into the TV audio receivers. It has also been reported that the Secret Service has seen fit to investigate the origins of these threats. The same kind of threatening audience responses were also overheard at a McCain rally, apparently startling even the Senator. Perhaps it is one of the reasons that McCain didn’t have the courage to face his rival with these ad hominem attacks during their second debate in Tennessee. Listen for the “kill him” in this video :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIxRKjcbbBY
Scary stuff!!
What is even more “scary” is the very large number of American citizens that are attracted to Palin events and agree with her characterization of Obama as a dangerous terrorist. Then you begin to wonder how many potential assassins may arm themselves and lie in wait somewhere for the candidate from Illinois. This is a dangerous time in this country. Fear is the prominent emotion in the nation right now. After 911, it was the fear of terrorist attacks. I have a personal first hand sense memory of the fear engendered by that event. Now it is fear of a complete breakdown of our economic system and maybe even a Depression. Echoes of “Buddy Can You Spare a Dime” haunt our psyches. Americans don’t do well when they are afraid. They are not use to it like the Israeli’s and the Iraqi’s.
Now this kind of fear mongering and smear campaigning is not new to political campaigns in this country, even in Presidential contests. Huey Long made an art out of it in Louisiana. Few people today can recall the Richard Nixon smear campaign against Helen Gahagan Douglas, in which he accused her of being a Communist sympathizer. And who can forget that cute little girl picking daisies, who was destined to be nuked by Barry Goldwater in 1964. This was a Democratic smear job. More recently, there was the George H. W. Bush ad accusing Michael Dukakis of releasing African-American rapists from prison to strike again in the famous “Willy Horton” ad. But this is different. The climate of the nation is Post 911 and the target of the smears is an African-American male.
Now, imagine, if you will, a scenario that is not all that improbable, i.e. one of those volatile angrophiles successfully puts a bullet into the first serious African-American candidate for the Presidency in US history. The Secret Service are highly competent, well trained POTUS guardians but you can’t protect threatened political figures all the time in an open country like ours. Think of the addle-brained assassins who managed to get to JFK, RFK, MLK, Gerald Ford, George Wallace and Ronald Reagan, to name a few. If you think that this country is unsettled and chaotic by this economic tsunami, try to imagine what the aftermath of the assassination of this charismatic figure would look like.
John McCain appeared in the second debate as if he wanted nothing to do with this character assassination of his rival but he cannot wash his hands and walk away from his ultimate responsibility for all of this. Why isn’t the rational wing of the Conservative and Republican Party speaking out against this. Where is Richard Lugar, Colin Powell, Olympia Snow, Arnold Schwarzenegger and their like in all of this. Does anyone have the courage to speak out? It doesn’t take much courage in this country. It just takes integrity.
JVP
AMDG
QUOTATIONS
PEOPLE DON’T CHANGE
YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE THEM
Nalia
This is one of several quotations prominently posted on the bulletin board outside my Counseling Office at UCONN.. This one of those pithy quotations that says a lot in so few words. The above very insightful phrase was uttered by a San Francisco food pantry volunteer named Nalia and can be found in Sara Miles inspirational book Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (http://www.amazon.com/Take-This-Bread-Radical-Conversion/dp/0345486927)
The message is profound. It means that some of the people that we care for are seldom capable of change. To disturb ourselves over their faults especially the ones that have caused us pain in our life is a waste of our time and theirs. But if we love them and want to go on with our life without the anger and resentment eating away at our psyches, the only option we have is simply to forgive them ---- and move on. One of my very perceptive students supplied an addendum. “But you don’t have to live with them”.
Forgiveness is very difficult for most people especially when it involves someone they have loved and trusted. Anger and resentment directed against loved ones can be internalized and reside in our subconscious like a parasite, eating away at our egos like a cancer. Children and parents are sometimes alienated from each other for decades. Siblings can hold grudges against each other and never engage each other for an entire lifetime. Married couples can live together in an atmosphere of silent hatred and passive aggressive taunts for the entirety of their marriage.
Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we have to forgive our loved ones so that we can move on with our lives. It is downright therapeutic. As my student added, we don’t have to approve of their behavior but we have to forgive them. You know the saying “ hate the sin but love the sinner”
JVP
YOU HAVE TO FORGIVE THEM
Nalia
This is one of several quotations prominently posted on the bulletin board outside my Counseling Office at UCONN.. This one of those pithy quotations that says a lot in so few words. The above very insightful phrase was uttered by a San Francisco food pantry volunteer named Nalia and can be found in Sara Miles inspirational book Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (http://www.amazon.com/Take-This-Bread-Radical-Conversion/dp/0345486927)
The message is profound. It means that some of the people that we care for are seldom capable of change. To disturb ourselves over their faults especially the ones that have caused us pain in our life is a waste of our time and theirs. But if we love them and want to go on with our life without the anger and resentment eating away at our psyches, the only option we have is simply to forgive them ---- and move on. One of my very perceptive students supplied an addendum. “But you don’t have to live with them”.
Forgiveness is very difficult for most people especially when it involves someone they have loved and trusted. Anger and resentment directed against loved ones can be internalized and reside in our subconscious like a parasite, eating away at our egos like a cancer. Children and parents are sometimes alienated from each other for decades. Siblings can hold grudges against each other and never engage each other for an entire lifetime. Married couples can live together in an atmosphere of silent hatred and passive aggressive taunts for the entirety of their marriage.
Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we have to forgive our loved ones so that we can move on with our lives. It is downright therapeutic. As my student added, we don’t have to approve of their behavior but we have to forgive them. You know the saying “ hate the sin but love the sinner”
JVP
AMDG
HUMOR
Got this from a friend (no attribution)
With all the turmoil in the market today, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, this might be some good advice. For all of you with any money left, be aware of the next expected mergers so that you can get in on the ground floor and make some BIG bucks. Take note:
1.) Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W R. Grace Co. will merge and become:
Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.
2.) Polygram Records, Warner Bros., and Zesta Crackers join forces and become:
Poly, Warner Cracker.
3.) 3M will merge with Goodyear and become:MMMGood.
4.) Zippo Manufacturing, Audi Motors, Dofasco, and Dakota Mining will merge and become:
ZipAudiDoDa .
5.) FedEx is expected to join its competitor, UPS, and become:FedUP.
6) Fairchild Electronics and Honeywell Computers will become:
Fairwell Honeychild.
7.) Grey Poupon and Docker Pants are expected to become:
PouponPants.
8.) Knotts Berry Farm and the National Organization of Women will become:
Knott NOW!
And finally...
9.) Victoria 's Secret and Smith &Wesson will merge under the new name:TittyTittyBangBang
Ifyou can think of any more, post them
Got this from a friend (no attribution)
With all the turmoil in the market today, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, this might be some good advice. For all of you with any money left, be aware of the next expected mergers so that you can get in on the ground floor and make some BIG bucks. Take note:
1.) Hale Business Systems, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Fuller Brush, and W R. Grace Co. will merge and become:
Hale, Mary, Fuller, Grace.
2.) Polygram Records, Warner Bros., and Zesta Crackers join forces and become:
Poly, Warner Cracker.
3.) 3M will merge with Goodyear and become:MMMGood.
4.) Zippo Manufacturing, Audi Motors, Dofasco, and Dakota Mining will merge and become:
ZipAudiDoDa .
5.) FedEx is expected to join its competitor, UPS, and become:FedUP.
6) Fairchild Electronics and Honeywell Computers will become:
Fairwell Honeychild.
7.) Grey Poupon and Docker Pants are expected to become:
PouponPants.
8.) Knotts Berry Farm and the National Organization of Women will become:
Knott NOW!
And finally...
9.) Victoria 's Secret and Smith &Wesson will merge under the new name:TittyTittyBangBang
Ifyou can think of any more, post them
AMDG
THE NEWS IN PERSPECTIVE
Article #1: 8 out of 10 Americans stressed because of economy
In a recent The Amercian Psychological Association study of 7000 US citizens, 80 % of them reported being stressed out about by the state of the US economy. Woman are taking it the hardest. Remember when the most you had to worry about was getting along with your family?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/07/economic.stress/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Article #2 - Playboy's Hugh Hefner, girlfriend call it quits
82 year old. Hugh Hefner reports being depressed over his breakup with 28 year old Holly Madison, one of his live-in girlfriends at the Playboy Mansion
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/09/playboy.breakup.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Article #1: 8 out of 10 Americans stressed because of economy
In a recent The Amercian Psychological Association study of 7000 US citizens, 80 % of them reported being stressed out about by the state of the US economy. Woman are taking it the hardest. Remember when the most you had to worry about was getting along with your family?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/07/economic.stress/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Article #2 - Playboy's Hugh Hefner, girlfriend call it quits
82 year old. Hugh Hefner reports being depressed over his breakup with 28 year old Holly Madison, one of his live-in girlfriends at the Playboy Mansion
http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/09/playboy.breakup.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
DEDICATION
La Bianca Rosa in Italian translates into English as The White Rose. I have borrowed the logo of the White Rose from the souls of a group of courageous teenagers, led by Sophie and Jacob Scholl, who lost their lives speaking out for the cause of freedom in Nazi Germany. They saw the need to speak to power in a murderous, fascist society when it was not only not fashionable but outright dangerous to do so. One really appreciates the value of a free society like ours that gives every citizen a voice not only in the voting booth but through the technology of the internet.
I do not intend my miscellaneous ramblings in this blog to be anywhere as controversial or courageous as the political essays generated by these brave young people. This is a different time and definitely a different country. I wanted to recognize the courage of these young people because I firmly believe that it will be the young people who will change the moral and political compass of this country.
“Do not forget that every people
deserves the regime it is willing
to endure”
The above quotation is from the First Leaflet they surreptitiously distributed in 1942. There are several links and books that will tell their story in greater detail. Here are a few:
LINKS
http://www.holocaust-history.org/short-essays/white-rose.shtml
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose
BOOKS
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Jud Newborn and Annette Dumbach (Paperback - Jun 2, 2007)
The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943 by Inge Scholl, Dorothee Soelle, and Arthur R. Schultz (Paperback - Jun 15, 1983)
Journey to the White Rose in Germany (Paperback)
by Ruth Bernadette Melon (Author)
I do not intend my miscellaneous ramblings in this blog to be anywhere as controversial or courageous as the political essays generated by these brave young people. This is a different time and definitely a different country. I wanted to recognize the courage of these young people because I firmly believe that it will be the young people who will change the moral and political compass of this country.
“Do not forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing
to endure”
The above quotation is from the First Leaflet they surreptitiously distributed in 1942. There are several links and books that will tell their story in greater detail. Here are a few:
LINKS
http://www.holocaust-history.org/short-essays/white-rose.shtml
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/rose.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose
BOOKS
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose by Jud Newborn and Annette Dumbach (Paperback - Jun 2, 2007)
The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943 by Inge Scholl, Dorothee Soelle, and Arthur R. Schultz (Paperback - Jun 15, 1983)
Journey to the White Rose in Germany (Paperback)
by Ruth Bernadette Melon (Author)
TO:MY READERS
This is my first humble attempt at sharing my ideas and opinions on a variety of topics and issues. My interests are pretty broad and varied. My original entries will fall in the categories of Psychology, Politics, Spirituality, Sports, Cooking, Education and Current Events. (How is that for broad!) I will try to post something new daily even if it is a stray comment on the news or a quotation from literature
When I come across something I think you should know, read or even purchase I will refer you to it or even link you to it. I hope to recruit some guest contributors that will certainly include my son, Daniel, who surpasses me in literacy, articulation and insight. I enthusiastically welcome feedback, positive or negative. You can respond to whiterose1936@gmail.com.
AMDG
JVP
When I come across something I think you should know, read or even purchase I will refer you to it or even link you to it. I hope to recruit some guest contributors that will certainly include my son, Daniel, who surpasses me in literacy, articulation and insight. I enthusiastically welcome feedback, positive or negative. You can respond to whiterose1936@gmail.com.
AMDG
JVP
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