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.