noah

But here’s the problem, here’s the rub:
they make a tremendous fuss
about everything, these Reformers.
(What a relief it would be
if they were never needed.) They probe everywhere,
question the smallest detail,
and right away think up radical changes
that demand immediate execution.

Also, they have a liking for sacrifice:
Get rid of that property;
your owning it is risky:
properties like those are what ruin colonies.
Get rid of that income,
and the other connected with it,
and this third, as a natural consequence:
they are substantial, but it can’t be helped-
the responsibility they create is damaging.

And as they proceed with their investigation,
they find an endless number of useless things to eliminate-
things that are, however, difficult to get rid of.

And when, all being well, they finish the job,
every detail now diagnosed and sliced away,
and they retire (also taking the wages due to them),
it’s a wonder anything’s left at all
after such surgical efficiency.

Maybe the moment hasn’t arrived yet.
Let’s not be too hasty: haste is a dangerous thing.
Untimely measures bring repentance.
Certainly, and unhappily, many things in the Colony are absurd.
But is there anything human without some fault?
And after all, you see, we do move forward.

Why Vote Third-Party?

Posted on January 7, 2008 by John Uebersax
Source: http://satyagraha.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/why-vote-third-party/

My goal here is to convince you to vote for a third-party candidate — ANY third-party candidate — in the 2008 presidential election.

The reasoning is simple:

First, it should be evident to all that the Democratic and Republican parties are ‘in cahoots’. There’s not much real difference between them. Together they form aduopoly with absolute political and economic power. They distract public attention by arguing about superficial differences, obscuring the fact that they agree on the major issues like:

• the BIG GOVERNMENT model is the only option
• America needs a huge military budget
• war is not insane
• no term limits
• the ‘war on drugs‘
  

Then why not just vote third-party? Here’s the reason many people give: “If I vote for a third party, wouldn’t that throw my vote away?“.

Let’s dispel that myth once and for all. First, if one thing is plain, it’s that you have thrown your vote away if you vote for the Democrat or Republican candidate. The two parties are basically the same, and regardless of which party is in power, things don’t improve. Recall that it was both the Democrats and the Republicans who rushed into the Iraq war, waving the flag, without a plan.

The truth is, the Republicrat duopoly has arranged so that we have a Democrat for one or two terms, then a Republican, and then back again. It’s a sweet system where both parties win. Neither is out of power for very long.

Consider also how both parties together have succeeded in making you feel you have to vote against someone. In 2000, for example, you may not have liked Bush much, but felt you needed to vote against Al Gore, or vice versa. That, I propose, is precisely what the two parties want. They have, by picking the right issues, managed to completely polarize the American public into two camps, split almost 50/50. Further, they’ve set the tone of American politics as one of constant acrimony and argument. Far too much attention is spent criticizing the other camp, and not enough on presenting new, positive ideas. It’s a divide and conquer strategy. By polarizing the American public, the Republicrat power coalition has kept people too busy fighting with each other to see what the real problem is. It’s the old case of ‘let’s you and him fight’.

This makes each person think, “My vote is essential to prevent the other party from winning; I can’t afford to vote for a third-party candidate, or someone with original ideas.” But considering the dearth of good ideas among the current Republican and Democrat candidates, it’s evident that, whichever wins, we’ll be stuck with another bad president for at least another four years.

This November, then, you’ll have two choices:

1. Vote for the Democrat or Republican candidate, in which case you truly will throw your vote away, or

2. Vote for a third party candidate.

In the second case, it’s true your candidate will not likely win. But you haven’t thrown your vote away. If enough people do this, then the Democrats and Republicans will get the message. By the time the next elections come around, they will be thinking about adopting some of the ideas from the third parties. Further, any vote for a third party encourages the founding of new third parties, with valuable new ideas.

The potential for positive change in America exists. What we must do is create a climate in which these ideas will come to the fore in public discussion, and find implementation as social policy. Third parties can meet this vital need.

Therefore, here are two suggestions for you to consider:

1. Investigate the current third party candidates. Read their platforms and identify any promising ideas they have. In just doing this you will have broken free from the mind-conditioning of the two-party system. You will be actively contributing to making American a true democracy. Then, just consider voting for the candidate whom you would like to be president, not worrying about the issue of ‘throwing your vote away.’

2. Most of all — though this is really a separate issue — approach the election with a positive attitude. This shouldn’t be about whom you dislike or disagree with. It should be about developing positive vision of the future. Pay particular attention to noticing how the big-party candidates (and their buddies, the news media) try to manipulate public consciousness by eliciting anger and hatred — and then don’t oblige them.

Be the change you want see in the world!

http://satyagraha.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/why-vote-third-party/

Little  Firefighter

A  firefighter was working on the engine outside  the Station, when he noticed a little girl  nearby in a little red wagon with little ladders  hung off the sides and a garden hose tightly  coiled in the middle.

 The  girl was wearing a firefighter’s helmet.

The  wagon was being pulled by her dog and her cat. The  firefighter walked over to take a closer look.  ‘That sure is a nice fire truck,’ the  firefighter said with  admiration.

‘Thanks,’  the girl  replied.

The  firefighter looked a little closer. The girl had  tied the wagon to her dog’s collar and to the  cat’s testicles.

‘Little  partner,’ the firefighter said, ‘I don’t want to tell you how to run your rig, but if you were to  tie that rope around the cat’s collar, I think  you could go  faster.  ‘

The  little girl replied thoughtfully, ‘You’re  probably right, but then I wouldn’t have a  siren.’

.

.

My Own Grandpa – very funny

Ahab the Arab – weird and funny

Big John – Jimmy Dean (1961) – not weird or funny, just AWESOME!

Questions, doubt, ambiguity, and dissent

have somehow become very unmasculine.

Authoritarian maniacs are

premiers, czars, and presidents.

Each one is more righteous than the next.

Each town they bomb

each human they kill

is done for “humanitarian” purposes.

People don’t own the water in their own village

and they certainly don’t own the diamonds and gold.

Millions are forced to make dinner out of garbage and dust

while Russian businessmen and movie stars

are buying 500-million-euro villas on Côte Sud.

Bees have stopped making honey.

People are drilling in all the wrong places.

The U.S., Russia, Canada, Denmark, and Norway all claim the Arctic

but none of them seem to care that the polar bears are drowning.

They are fingerprinting, photographing our licenses and teeth.

Big Brother is now in our phones, our pods, our PCs.

Not one of us feels even a little safer.

New Age mental health providers turn

out to be former war torturers with beards.

And the pope in a dress showing off his

ermine trim and cuffs

is telling everyone that

people kissing people they love is the greatest evil.

A woman running for U.S. vice president

believes in creationism

but not global warming.

Why is everyone so much more afraid of sex

than SCUD missiles?

And who decided God wasn’t into pleasure?

And if the hetero nuclear family is so great

how come everyone is fleeing it

or paying their life savings just

to sit in a room with a stranger and cry about it?

The Iraq war cost nearly $3 trillion.

I can’t even count that high

but I know

that money could have

would have

ended poverty in general

which would have canceled terrorism.

How come we have money to kill

but no money to feed or heal?

How come we have money to destroy

but no money for art and schools?

The fundamentalists now have

billion-dollar private armies.

The Taliban is back

but never went away.

Women are burned, raped, bludgeoned, sold,

starved, and buried alive

and still don’t know they are the majority.

Water is clearly nearly running out

but even in the desert where there’s serious drought

the golf courses are green and lush

and the swimming pools are full of water

for the twelve rich people who might decide to come.

Special people adopt hand-picked babies in faraway lands.

Their flights there cost more

than the babies’ parents made

this year.

Why don’t they just give it to them?

Slavery is back

but never went away.

Just ask anyone who’s been whipped

how deep the legacy.

Six million dead in the Congo

and they never made the news,

and don’t tell me it doesn’t have

to do with color

and minerals.

Poor folks are dying first

From hurricanes

Shame

Tsunamis

Radiation

Pollution

Floods

And neglect.

Rich folks

just put up fancier super-electrified gates

on their private perfect cities.

Everyone’s having “benefits”

and throwing fancy parties

with lots of swag

so the rich people feel good about giving

away the tiny little bit of the whole lot they have.

But no one really wants to change anything.

If you really want it

you have to give something up

like everything

and then those that have, wouldn’t,

and then who would they be?

And that’s too complicated

so they write checks

and keep doing the same old things.

Selling change.

Making revolution profitable.

Corporations own everything anyway

even our hippie jeans, memory cells, and rain.

Why do so many women leaders look like Margaret Thatcher

and act even meaner?

Why doesn’t anyone remember anything?

And how come rich bad people

get paid lots of money to give speeches

and poor bad people are tortured

and in prisons?

Is there anyone in charge?

Or is this whole thing spinning out until it explodes

or dissolves?

And if there is something we can do

why aren’t we doing it?

What happened to fury?

What happened to accuracy

or accountability?

What happened to not showing off your wealth?

What happened to kindness?

What happened to teenagers rebelling

instead of buying and selling?

What happened to teenagers kissing

instead of blogging and dissing?

What happened to teenagers marching

and refusing

instead of exploiting and using?

I want to touch you in real time

not find you on YouTube,

I want to walk next to you in the mountains

not friend you on Facebook.

Give me one thing I can believe in

that isn’t a brand name.

I’m lonely.

I’m scared.

Girls younger than me are giving blowjobs

in homeroom

and they don’t even know it’s sex.

They just want to be popular

and get some respect.

Most girls my age are taking pills

or not getting out of bed

or eating or starving

or getting nose jobs or implants

or getting cut

or twittering away

or covering themselves

or desperate for a way

to be awake without faking

to be alive without freaking

to be serious

to be true

to even think of loving someone

when we’re already doomed.

You tell me how to be a girl in 2010

I say let’s go for it

if it’s all coming down.

I say let’s speak it

let’s fight it

let’s right it

there’s nothing to hold on to

if it’s already gone.

They left it to us.

It sucks but it’s true.

It’s you and me baby.

Source:  I Am an Emotional Creature

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Am-Emotional-Creature-Secret-Around/dp/1400061040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278678167&sr=8-1

Greg Cryns

Scentsy Wickless Candles

Thank goodness there’s a name for this disorder:
Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my check book off the table and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Pepsi I’d been drinking. I’m going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Pepsi aside so that I don’t accidentally knock it over.

The Pepsi is getting warm, and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Pepsi, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye – they need water.

I put the Pepsi on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the car isn’t washed, the bills aren’t paid, there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on the counter, the flowers don’t have enough water, there is still only one check in my check book, I can’t find the remote, I can’t find my glasses and I don’t remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I’m really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my e-mail.

Do me a favor. Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don’t remember who I’ve sent it to.

Don’t laugh! If this isn’t you yet, your day is coming!

Greg Cryns

Scentsy Flameless Candles

Only one clergyman signed the Declaration of Independence–John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian. How did a pastor, born and educated in Scotland, became one of America’s “founding fathers”? In 1768, Witherspoon was called from his church near Glasgow to be president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton. Then in 1774 Witherspoon became involved in the growing dispute between the American colonies and the Mother Country, joining in the protest against British policies throughout the colonies.

A strict Calvinist, Witherspoon was known for his sermons on providence, not politics. But that changed on May 17, 1776. Preaching to the college and community, Witherspoon came out forthrightly for the patriot cause:

You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature….

“The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely, confirmed to those parts of the earth, where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen…. [In truth] there is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.”

On June 22, 1776, Witherspoon was chosen as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and he proceeded to Philadelphia where he joined in the debate over independence. There was no time to delay, he insisted, because the people “had been for some time past loud in its demand for the proposed declaration.” Less than a month later, he signed it.

Today, as we celebrate the 234th anniversary of American independence, and listen as a pastor perhaps introduces a “political subject into the pulpit,” let us remember with thanksgiving that it is nothing new.

Source: United Church of Christ sunday Bulletin Service

Greg Cryns

Scentsy Flameless Candles

The Hostess with the Mostess

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