2008 et finis

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues its march to nowhere, Blagojevich appoints a good man and former opponent to Senate seat just to piss people off, financial catastrophe, coal waste spill, food shortages, glacial melting, rise in idiot population, cat box malfunction, Time Warner cutting 18 channels, ex doing great, been foolish myself, the long and winding road is a dead end, some good friends pass, the use of fossil fuels continues, fossil fools continue, human rights in most areas of the world suck, Madoff made out, pirates on the high seas emboldened, Cholera epidemic, extinction quickens for many species, young Turks act like turkeys, civilization moves in reverse ratio to technology, thieves get taxpayer money with handshake and a blowgun with poisoned darts, self loving smart people believe in their own infallibility and dismiss such as me, self honest smart people give me a chance but I fail to make the grade, the only feet on this path are mine, I am forced to eat chocolate over and over to save the world, so it goes, on and on, same old same old.

Happy New Year, anyway.

And to those that know who they are, THANKS!

Oppression stinks

Oppression of girls that want to attend school under Taliban rule is reaching despicable new heights. While reading of this in a BBC ARTICLE ON-LINE, I was shocked to the core that any human can believe that the suppression of ANY human rights is a good thing, let alone the rights of half of the population. I'm not a revered or cited philosopher, but damn!

The Change Dilemma

The dilemma of change seems to be "you're damned if you do and damned if you don't." When someone brings up something someone said last year, or 5 years ago, or 15 years ago, and ignores what they are saying today, a fatal flaw is exposed. Not in the person being trashed for past missteps, rather in the person doing the trashing. When this happens to me (and for sure it does), all I can say is I have changed, evolved since then, have you?
Being of a fixed mind has mixed results as does being too pliable. I guess wisdom is knowing when to be which.

I have more than what I wanted, but less than I could have had if I had started long before I did

The blogosphere can be a great place to hang out, learn things, keep track, make friends, discuss all manner of things. It can also be the source of great evil. It can also be heartbreaking.
When I first entered The Sphere I felt sure I could handle the twists and turns that were sure to come. Now I'm not so sure. I find the loss of a friend on the internet to be more devastating to me than I could have imagined. More than in real life it seems. I may never know why someone chose to dismiss me, if it was me or them, or if it was just the result of circumstance.
In the real world I can investigate far more easily than I can online. Sure, there are ways to glean some things, but that assumes the gleanee has posted all the pertinent facts.
Without the benefit of face to face encounter, it is way more difficult for me to know what and who to miss...or for that matter, to love.

Kashmir

Kashmir has been a flash point since my junior high days. We were taught that the India-Pakistan dispute was religious in nature and that the mountainous land was of a secondary concern. The battle was for the souls of the people.
While talking to a friend from Pakistan, he brought up the subject. When I tried to show my impartiality on the religious front he started to laugh. "Not all of us want to kill you!" he said. He informed me that the powers at the top of the struggle were fighting over dominion, and thus control, of something much more important to humanity than religious belief or people or land. I thought for a minute then asked "What is so important?" WATER! It seems the industry and agriculture of the area is acutely dependent on the yearly runoff of the melting snow from the Himalayas. Who ever controls the water controls everything. Hmm, water for thought.

Mumbai, Walmart, Bagdad, Etc.

By now most of us have heard. The violence designed to get our attention has succeeded in doing so. Although I doubt it will change much in the scheme of things, I see an uptick in recruiting people willing to kill and/or be killed. Same old same old.

The Might Makes Right thought process is old school, has never brought lasting peace or enlightenment, yet many still cling to it. Unfortunately for those that do, the people that benefit from this failed mind-set sit protected and secure because they know the outcome will be the same old same old.

History is a chronicle of failure. To be sure there has been momentary times of what some would call victory, but it doesn't last because some one is getting screwed and will eventually fight back in some way. Same old same old.

Whether it is the oppression of people, animals, or the planet, we all lose in the long run. And it seems our run is just about up.

There has been people, signs, results, etc. that have warned us about where we will end up if we follow this path since the dawn of time. We either disbelieve, or become carelessly complacent, or act just plain stupid. At our own, or the future's, peril.

The time has long since come to act as one people for the benefit of all people. Do I think we will? Not if we continue our insanity. Ben Franklin described insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

Current reads

Sigmund Freud-On Dreams
Haunted Inns of Britain and Ireland...Richard Jones
The Evil Men and Women in History...Miranda Twiss
Egypt- Past and Present
Pharaohs...Aude Gros de Beler

Brave New World

Well, BO WON. The American people have given the chance for a much needed change to bloom. The next few months will show how that change will manifest or if change will elude us once again. Remember, HE WORKS FOR US, not the other way around.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

At places on the Web such as listed to your right, one finds the most extraordinary folks. I don't mean that there are not fine people in many places or that those connected to the few places I have mentioned are perfect.
The people involved at most of these sites and others have definite views on the election in the US. The economy, health care, human rights, the global community, and more that have been front page in most evryone's mind. Think before you vote. And don't just think of yourself.

Zoom-Zoom-ZOOMA-Zoom!

I have spent the last year zooming around the blogosphere and the Netz learning my way around so to speak. Much of what I found is the same old-same old chatter you find at any card game, corner bar, or family picnic. There are the same people online as one finds in any neighborhood.
Now that my love affair with TIBU is ending, and my relationships with other sites grows, solidifies, or just comes into being, I hope to discuss more things of interest and provide more links. Of course I could go down low to increase page loads, but for now I'll just sit in my corner and play with myself.
The immense size of the Internets brought me to a mistaken conclusion about readership. I thought that because so many people were online, it was a forgone conclusion that SOMEONE would come here. I missed the obvious fact that many people meant many sites. Since people, including me, have limited time to surf, many sites go unnoticed because of logistics not content. Readership seems to develop when content overpowers logistics over time. That is of course unless your content is totally RAD to some in the first place.
Oh yeah, using tags and key-words is a neat trick too. We'll get to that in due course.

good-bye TIBU

TIBU will cease operations in Feb, 2009. It's been REAL!

Miles to go before we sleep

The shaky promises from our so-called leaders bring on nightmares anyway, so maybe sleep's not a good thing right now. Bush, Paulson, Obama. McCain, Pelosi, Reid et al are giving us all Agata. The light at the end of the tunnel seems to be moving farther away, not getting closer.
The chaos of direction is of a particular concern being at the confluence of time, resources, and patience. After 230 plus years, America is poised to go down in flames if we can't move beyond tantrums, self-denial, selfish adherence to a perceived privilege decreed by God, and other such divisive views.
America must act like a leader. This does not mean believing we always know what's right, rather that we are not adverse to identifying a mistake and correcting it. Even, or especiialy, when it's our own.
Preaching to an empty room may be an exercise in futility in some respects, but it helps me work out my focus so, in the rest of my life, I can see a little clearer.

Putting All the Eggs in One Basket

Everyone is weighing in on the bailout of the financial system. $700 billion worth of eggs. The systemic meltdown exposes a basic flaw in the practice of capitalism. The pursuit of market share has put at risk the very thing that gives us true resilience. The spreading of wealth's future to a multitude of minds and interests. The mantra of big business, "free enterprise", is used to disguise the real focus of conglomerate business. "MARKET SHARE". Dominance mentality along with self-serving actions of the controlling boards have subverted the American Dream for most Americans. Sure those that own stock feel that they own something. They do, the risk. Our governments, as well as our minds, have been blinded by so-called experts and pretty rhetoric. While economic power has been consolidating, we, the people, have been kept mesmerized. The carrot of "you too, can be a captain of industry" belies the fact that the powers that be are reluctant to give up market share or confine themselves to a place that gives everyone a place in the sun. The citing of providing jobs as a reason to allow the consolidation of wealth is predicated on the notion that those jobs would not exist or be created by the people whose effort and money support the system. Does anyone truly belive that out of a population of 6 1/2 billion souls only a thousand or so know what's what, or have any talent beyond being sheep.
The meltdown of the financial markets, the decline in the housing market, the need for a huge govt. bailout should serve a a warning. Inter-conectivity is not the same thing as the consolidation of wealth.
The remnents of the American Dream rot away with the corner store that has been closed because the cost of that dream is set by those interested in dominating market share and thereby people's lives. They want us all to give up our independance and work for them so they can do whatever they deem in THEIR best interest.
Go Walmart!

Is the U.N. our last hope?

Maybe it should be!
here

The New War for the future

The future is at stake. The sides have little interest in anything but control and power. Somalia is but one example of how the (our) future is being determined.
future games here

Shootings in Finland

Sad, sad, sad! While reporting this, the news also informed us that Finland was third in per capita number of guns behind the US. and Yemen. Finland said new gun control measures are forthcoming. This is the second mass shooting in Finland schools recently.

We are paying, why aren't we included

I find it hard to digest the Bush need for power. Now his Secretary of the Treasury wants to use the failing financial policies he himself helped create to force the people to grant more, invisible, unquestionable, dictatorial type powers than anyone since Alexander Hamilton has had. Why should we think he will fix things? Because he says so? Maybe if he gives back some of the millions he has reaped, while the little people have lost, the last 8 years.

New Agenda post

politics in action

Slate-cartoons

Not all of these cartoons express my feelings, but it is good to see what's what with people of influence!catoons,SarahPalin

Bailing a sinking ship

here we go

NEW WAY, NEW DAY

The owners of the X-FILES may come after me. This little hole in the wall blog has no readers but me, so I don't see how I can damage their brand. If they insist, I will change the subtitle and comply. The fights over intellectual property are beyond any strength I may have.

Change

Well, by now I have written enough about me. I will be blogging and linking to things more important.

SIVACRACY

As SIVACRACY closes it's doors, a great feeling of loss and change floods into me. It seems the next step in the evolution of THE NET is here. What is next? One can feel Siva and the rest of the team in every digital breath that is taken by the rest of us. No amount of thanks can express the debt to or depth of the influence of Sivacracy. The next steps were made possible by such as this forward thinking, pioneering, fun, serious, wonderful place. THANKS SIVA! Although the link to SIVACRACY has been removed from this site, I hope the archives there will survive.

Olympic poitics

It is half-way through and already I'm tired of the endless commentary and speculation. Would it be too hard to just let the atheletes do their thing?

Below the suface

I suppose there are some things we should get straight first. I am suffering from MS so I have nothing to lose or gain in writing this. This means outside bias holds no sway over over the opinion or conclusions I reach. Second, it is up to the rest of the world to decide, or recognize, if any value resides it the thoughts expressed. Third, any use, change, aggregation or any use whatsoever of the words or thoughts in this writing piece is not only given permission, but encouraged. Let me state that again so no ambiguity exists. Anyone may use any part of anything I write in anyway with or without citation. And fourth, since few if any will read this, there is no fourth.
The political climate in the US. is heating up as the November election looms in the worlds mind. The world is also focusing on the global economy. Some are concerned with protecting, at any cost, the system that provides them privilege. Some are trying to wrest this privilege for themselves at any cost. There seems to be little difference in the feelings of superiority of anyone's entitlement, no matter the geographic, religious, or cultural landscape. The only difference seems to be the way in which this selfishness takes it's form, how it hides, and how much depravity the privileged are willing to visit upon the unequally privileged. How much revenge is involved from both sides of the privilege coin is also a big factor in global venom.
Watching the news tonight there were some vivid examples of our willingness to believe in our own entitlement..

Dr. Randy Pausch

A loss that keeps on giving. Dr. Randy Pausch Died

PUMA

Party unity my ass! This election cycle is shaping up to be one of the wildest in recent memory. This has energized the electorate to vote in record numbers. Too bad it's not about picking the better of two goods!

Cartoons and stuff

Slate...cartoons about Barrack
Wired...story on Hawking's children's book
I now know I can not write for others to read. So I'll write here, if at all.

Water on Mars

The expedition to find water seems to have succeeded

Tim Russert

The sudden loss echoes our own mortality. The loss of anyone is to be seen in the context of life.

Blowing in the wind

Well, the blogging world has not been a good place for me. Some of my experiences with it have been great to be sure. But even the good cannot fill the void. I have met some of the finest people I have known, others show no interest. I don't think I can handle the world of non-commitment that exists in a purely virtual engagement. At least as far as a participatory role for me.
There will be few personal posts from this point on. The concentration will be more on current events and links. But since there are no views but mine, who knows.

Writing as therapy

For me the words heal what ails me. Sort of like talking to oneself, without the stigma.

Big Bang

With the successful shoot-down of an ailing spy in the sky, the U.S. has demonstrated to the world that we can get where ever you are. The reasons given for this action are varied. The reason that concerns me most is the effort to conceal the contents from the world. Some say we need to keep our surveillance methods a secret. Secret from who? In this day and age most countries that we keep track of can already tell if we are keeping track of them. Unless you fear a military invasion and occupation, this is a farce. And anyone with that fear is living in the last century. Does anyone really think a foreign power is going to attack us that way. And even if they did, does anyone think the people will just surrender and cooperate? Good luck with that! Iraq has shown us that force cannot bring victory in these times.

Sad but true

"I've done every thing I know to try and make you mine...and I think I'm going to love you for a long, long time."
Back to the shadows for me. The writing I have been doing has been a great learning experience in more ways than one.

Back home

Been trying my hand writing for the world. Not much interest in what I have to say or how I say it. The world has spoken and I hear them loud and clear.