23 sept 06

Greetings,

Here is a recent comment posted on alternet.org by an astute citizen regarding the Machiavellian Bush administration.

Peace.

"Eighty per cent of all stock market shares are owned by the richest ten per cent of Americans. Some people call those ten per cent the “elite,” but I call them plutocrats.

"Consider for a moment what that means in terms of their power to control and manipulate all aspects of government. They own at least eighty percent of the Military Industrial Complex, our largest industry, making them also our largest employer. Which in turn generates a powerful and loyal political base, because nobody votes themselves out of a well paid job.

"Plutocrats have concentrated their investments in specific industries like the Military Industrial Complex because they are guaranteed humongous profits. They have also invested heavily in media corporations, banks, insurance companies, medical, drug and health care industries, power companies, telephone companies, and of course gas and oil corporations.

"Our system of government is based on legalized bribery. Plutocrats have the gold and use it to bribe politicians to legislate in their favor exclusively. In a comically perverse way though, the bribes are really just loans, because politicians use those bribes/loans to buy media ads to get reelected so they can collect more bribes/loans. The money goes round and round, but always ends up in the plutocrats pockets."

The Disastrous Rule of the Mayberry Machiavelli

16 sept 06

Greetings,

voice is content

where is voice?
it is resting
does voice dream?

yes
does voice know this?
yes

does voice respect feelings more than understanding?
yes

voice senses imagination is more important than knowledge.
how does voice sense this?
it's a long inarticulate voice of the heart.

peace.

15 sept 06

Greetings,

We know what part of the 3,000 year old pre-Columbian Olmec pictograph writing says on the 26 pound slab of rock recently discovered near Cascajal and Veracruz along the Gulf of Mexico.

"The text conforms to all expectations of writing."

The researchers wrote that the sequences of signs reflected “patterns of language, with the probable presence of syntax and language-dependant word orders.”

Several paired sequences of signs, scholars said, have prompted speculation that the text may contain couplets of poetry.

Scientists "detected regular patterns and order, suggesting a text segmented into what almost look like sentences, with clear beginnings and clear endings."

A rough partial translation of the 62 signs says:

"Everything passes. We hunt, fish, forage, celebrate, dance and sing. We practice love and kindness. We teach our children to respect nature and all living things. We celebrate diversity with tolerance. We scratch on hard..."

The NYT story and image of the signs by John Noble Wilford is b-linked.

Peace.

Writing On Stone

14 sept 06

Greetings,

Here, on a little spinning rock called Earth early morning risers gather way down below. They are on a red track.

Groups of elderly women teachers preparing for Tai Chi movements stand on cement and gab their hearts out. Old men walk in circles while listening to small portable radio news.

Students run. They pursue education. Education is illusive and slippery.

A father and his adolescent son jog at a slow pace. The kid is overweight and a whiner. We heard him crying the other day as his father, in the best tradition of a hard-line ideology, exhorted him to perform, to keep up, to get with the program. The kid was having a traumatic breakdown.

This morning, as his father with head bowed and hands tightly clasped behind his bent back waited for his son to jog, to move, to do something worthwhile you could easily see and sense his unrelenting authoritarian nature. Being a parent is a tough assignment.

"Try easier," someone whispered.

Sounds drift on wind as the national anthem begins blasting from speakers at the Middle School across the lake. Kids scramble to get dressed and out the door to formation before breakfast. Before resuming their educational chase.

An orange sunrise dances over green forested mountains.
Peace.

12 sept 06

Greetings,

Let's wake up and cut through the illusion.

"Put up with as much pain as you can to overcome the problem of pain," said the ascetic lying on their bed of nails.

Here's a link and video for the book "The Best War Ever."
Peace.