glad i don't get paid to blog

i have writer's block these days. i find it increasingly difficult to even attempt my once or twice weekly offerings because i really don't know what to say. i manage though :) now that the euphoria of the november election is over- i think it's pretty safe to say that most americans have gone back to doing what it was that they were doing before the election. nothing has changed. we sit and high five when obama announces his transition team- but the same cabal is in charge in the white house and we are powerless to stop it. and ordinary people have gone back to sucking.

my books on buddhism tell me that i need to accept that the universe is transient and ever changing and that nothing is permanent and all moves whether we want it to or not. to deny that is to suffer. boy, buddha sure wasn't kidding. my book also tells me that everything is illusion and that nothing is what it seems to be because everything is filtered through the unpure mind and unpure senses and unpure universe. i believe that too after having witnessed how folks' perceptions of reality differ as much as witnesses at a crime scene.

and president obama wants to unify people to work together in order to save what's left of the planet. and i think that it is a lofty goal and an admirable one because my books on buddhism tell me that folks should work for the greater good and help all sentient beings on their path to enlightenment. i'll settle for inner peace right now because nothing in the history of humankind says that folks will join together and work for the greater good. there are always groups fighting each other for ultimate power and always the underlings who are trodden down and left to survive as best they can.

so, i don't have any answers and i only have slight hope that we will make it. but my buddhism book also tells me that folks often focus on change as a bad thing and that good things can come out of change- so anything is possible. hence, that spark of hope....

I sat on a bench observing it...

...I came home and googled "the matrix". Look what I found...

The "Pax" Amerikkkana...

One of the readers over at my place commented this week that he hopes amerikkka (he spelled it differently) gets this election "right" because the world counts on amerikkka to offer guidance all over the globe...the horrified giggles and the quotations are mine. :)

I was sort of speechless...flabbergasted. I haven't responded to what he wrote. Now I can send him here to this post.

This is an excerpt from a longer interview titled "Bush Clears the Way for Corporate Domination" where Joshua Holland interviews Antonia Juhasz author of the book The Bush Agenda for www.alternet.org, May 5, 2006.

JH: What is Pax Americana -- the "American Peace" -- and what is it about the original Roman version, Pax Romana, that makes it a poor model to emulate?

AJ: I talk about Pax Americana because that's what members of the administration talk about -- Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Khalilzad, Perle, Zoellick, Bolton. In fact, there are 16 members of the Bush administration that were also participants in the Project for the New American Century, which was very clear that the U.S. not only has a Pax Americana but should seek to maintain it.

This is problematic because it seeks to achieve the Roman model, with an all-powerful emperor who ran his kingdom on 50 percent slave labor, who eliminated all guarantees of civil liberties and eliminated all civic participation, but maintained the fallacy of public institutions and participatory government to keep the elites at bay -- to make elites feel like they had the presence and prestige of serving in government.

So there were senators and there were "representatives of the people," but of course the emperor appointed those he wanted to sit in the senate, and he chose those who would serve his interests. And then he appointed regional overlords to oversee the rest of the empire. In addition, the idea that Rome generated peace -- that it really was in fact a Pax Romana that guaranteed peace for the rest of the world -- is false. To create the empire, there was an enormous amount of war and bloodshed, and also to maintain the empire there was continued fighting as nations and peoples were forced to acquiesce.

However, there was a period of about 200 years where there was relatively less struggle within Rome over who would rule. But one key reason Rome was able to maintain that internal peace was all the money that the empire poured into public services -- building aqueducts, providing services, supporting intellectual thought and -- as I say in the book -- creating the Western Canon.

The Bush administration has chosen all the worst elements of the Roman Empire: the lack of civil liberties and the movement towards a nonrepresentative government run by a dictator. Even the most conservative Republican columnist will admit that Bush has consolidated more and more power in the executive branch than any president in modern history. And he's increased the proportion of people in the United States in the lower income sphere, people who have to work day in and day out in order to meet basic needs like health care, and who often aren't able to meet those needs. I argue that that is a modern form of slavery.

And while the administration is explicitly imperial -- it is trying to annex other nations through its military and its economic policy -- its not putting any of that attention to public education, public resources and public services. So we are getting the worst of the worst. And just as it was a myth that the Pax Romana created world peace, the Pax Americana clearly generates more global insecurity. Acts of deadly terror have increased every year of the Bush administration; they increased more than three-fold between 2003 and 2004.

JH: So he's not just the worst president ever, he's also the worst

AJ: Yes, he's also the worst emperor ever.

While everyone has been quoting the amerikkkan constitution and hoping that congress will do something, the idiotic texan anti-christ (you know things are bad when a goddess worshipper is making christian references to absolute evil) has managed to further amerikkka's domination of the world (a project that has been in full swing since the first settlers set foot on these shores and started killing off the people who welcomed them) and has hastened what might be referred to as an economic armaggeddon of sorts. How sweet.

it's our world- but we need to share

i wondered what i would post about my first real day back online after summertime company. i have managed to squeeze a few moments here and there to read 'mindful politics' and various blogs and sundry online while my outlaws were here- and friends- and the combination of all of these things has been swirling about in my brain. i am reading news headlines that highlight the greed, violence, fear, hatred, etc. of the human race at large- the wars, famines, prejudices that grace our planet and i have been reading ideas on how to counteract those forces in order to bring peace to myself and hopefully, transfer some to the world around me. i have been reading about forgiveness versus reconciliation and how to reconnect (or perhaps first time connect) with myself and my feelings and how to work through them. and i have been thinking about the world as a whole and how people treat others who are different- and how self righteous and puritanical and full of fear and loathing we are as a species. and then, i read other bloggers and i am amazed at myself for having the good luck to come into contact with actual thinking beings in a world ruled by base emotions.

the free slave is an especial favorite of mine because he puts out real thinking posts. i can't do that consistently- and i really admire someone who can. i have some back reading over there to do- as i have been offline- but the latest post is a follow up to a previous one written about whether or not animals should have basic rights. so, of course that got me thinking about all of the other reading i have done about buddhism- and how buddhists believe that other living beings have basic rights that we need to honor. maxjulian makes the point:

"Animals are not exactly like humans, but humans are animals. We are more alike than different. And if you truly look at the nature of so-called human atrocities, their root is in the human atrocities we have visited on animals. And first, in our brains, the divisions we’ve created between ourselves and each other. And animals."

and, i think that point is essential. animals communicate with each other- and with human beings. we are the ones who are unable to understand. we do that with anyone or anything that is different than we are- whether the break down is language, religion, skin color, culture, etc.,- it makes no difference. 'english only' that is reverberating around america comes to mind- or the whole debacle that is the 'obama is muslim' campaign strategy also comes to mind. that particular one 'kills two birds with one stone' so to speak because it slurs people of color and muslims.

anyhoo- please do check out his post. it is my belief that we need to wipe away the veil from our eyes and really see things as they are- and not as we want them to be. human beings are not the superior species. there are many species out there that take in orphans and most don't go to war with each other. they respect each other's territories and communicate that quite well. we could learn much from other species. and the reality is- humans do eat each other up- we also spit each other back out. what a waste.



Children are called the future of an adult world
They are born with spirits so innocent
Til we teach them how to hate
Add to the world's confusion
We teach our kids rules
That we don't adhere to ourselves
Right or wrong
What example can they take
The people we learn from
Forge the ideas we become

Living in a world they didn't make
Living in a world that's filled with hate
Living in a world where grown-ups break the rules
Living in a world they didn't make
Paying for a lot of adult mistakes
How much of this madness can they take
Our children

Children grow to become our young adults
Problems of the world
They must learn how to confront
Doing drugs and joining gangs to rebel
Colors show they belong
To the social override
Cause they're living in a space
They feel out of place

Living in a world they didn't make
Living in a world that's filled with hate
Living in a world where grown-ups break the rules
Living in a world they didn't make
Paying for a lot of adult mistakes
How much of this madness can they take
Our children

Drill this!

~Oil Running Out~

In 1956, a geologist with Shell Oil, M. King Hubbert, used a bell-shaped curve to correctly predict that oil from the lower 48 states in the US would peak around 1969, to be followed by irreversible decline. The term ‘peak oil’ has since been used to identify the point at which roughly half of all the oil in the region has been extracted, and production would decline, driving up the price of oil and eventually failing to meet demand.

Dr. Colin J. Campbell, who spent decades working as an international exploration geologist for major oil companies, assembled what has become widely recognized as the world’s leading hydrocarbon database. He is now a trustee of the Oil Depletion Analysis Center (ODAC), a London-based charitable organization. In his book, The Coming Oil Crisis published in 1999 and later writings, Campbell used the same ‘Hubbert’ curve to predict that worldwide oil production would peak between 2005-10. (More...)

~Running Out of Oil -- and Time~

March 6, 2004-- The news last month that the vast Saudi oil fields are in decline is a far bigger story than most in the media, or the United States, seem to realize. We may begrudge the Saudis their 30-year stranglehold on the world economy. But even the possibility that the lords of oil have less of the stuff than advertised raises troubling questions. How long will the world's long-term oil supplies last? As important, what will the big importing nations, like the U.S., do the day world oil production hits its inevitable peak?

For more than a century, Western governments have been relentlessly upbeat about the long-term outlook for oil. Whenever pessimists claimed that supplies were running low — as they have many times — oil companies always seemed to discover huge new fields. It's now an article of faith among oil optimists, including those in the U.S. government, that global oil reserves won't run out for at least four decades, which seems like enough time to devise a whole suite of alternative energy technologies to smoothly and seamlessly replace oil.

But such oil optimism, always questionable, is now more suspect than ever. True, we won't "run out" of oil tomorrow, or even 10 years from now. But the long-term picture is grim. In the first place, it's not a matter of running out of oil but of hitting a production peak. Since 1900, world oil production — that is, the number of barrels we can pump from the ground — has risen in near-perfect step with world oil demand. Today, demand stands at about 29 billion barrels of oil a year, and so does production. By 2020, demand may well be 45 billion barrels a year, by which time, we hope, oil companies will have upped production accordingly.

At some point, however, production simply won't be able to match demand. Oil is an exhaustible resource: The more you produce, the less remains in the ground, and the harder it is to bring up that remainder. We won't be "out of oil"; a vast amount will still be flowing — just not quickly enough to satisfy demand. And as any economist can tell you, when supply falls behind demand, bad things happen. (More...)


McCain's Oil Spillage

State of the Eco-nomy

Available

Driving to work, I've noticed quite a large number of 'Available' -oh baby, I am so available - signs posted on the streets - I don't work on the street honey - and they seem to be everywhere.

So, not only are people being thrown out of their homes - you can come to my house ANY time baby - but also their businesses. Some who have owned them since, well forever.

What happened to their grand scheme of an economic stimulus - NOW you're talking baby, let's go get stimulated! - that would help out these small mom and pop businesses? Oh yea, those checks were for WalMart and the other large American corporations.

Here’s the list, with 2007 gross revenues in millions:

1. Wal-Mart Stores: $378,799

2. Exxon Mobil: $372,824

3. Chevron: $210,783

4. General Motors: $182,347

5. ConocoPhillips: $178,558

6. General Electric: $176,656

7. Ford Motor: $172,468

8. Citigroup: $159,229

9. Bank of America: $119,190

10. AT&T: $118,928

Got me to thinking, dangerous I know - think on me baby ~ ooooh - about where else our so-called American corporations are out there on our pretty blue planet creating havoc. Multi-national, which means they are screwing the whole world and not just us - wow, now you're getting me HOT.

Problem is, when they screw the world, they are pissing off a lot of people who don't understand what we, as Americans, understand about greed and consumerism and emptying our pockets, minds and souls for the almighty dollar - oh no baby, just think about me.

They don't have televisions to amuse them all night and day - hey, i got some great porn, wanna watch ? - and from what we've been allowed to read from our corporation media - no baby, read ME - they don't even have enough food or drinkable water to be the good corporate slaves - I'll be your love slave baby.

SO what possible purpose could they have for their world domination - dominate me baby? Yea, I know people from the beginning of time have been trying to take over the world and dominate all of people-kind - no baby, just you and me - and they had their reasons. But I'm wondering what are the now-a-day reasons at this stage in the game of our world development? - oh baby, I'm losing you... Is it the last grasp with an antiquated idea for the men behind the screen to get the ultimate ego stroke?

peace my friend, peace
~~

The Face of the Internet...

BBC News...
Amnesty International has warned that the internet "could change beyond all recognition" unless action is taken against the erosion of online freedoms.

"The Chinese model of an internet that allow economic growth but not free speech or privacy is growing in popularity, from a handful of countries five years ago to dozens of governments today who block sites and arrest bloggers," said Tim Hancock, Amnesty's campaign director. "Unless we act on this issue, the internet could change beyond all recognition in the years to come.

More and more governments are realizing the utility of controlling what people see online and major internet companies, in an attempt to expand their markets, are colluding in these attempts," he said.

Twenty-two-year-old Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman was imprisoned for four years in February for insulting Islam and defaming the President of Egypt.

Fellow Egyptian blogger Amr Gharbeia told the BBC that the internet was allowing people to express themselves: "The web is creating a more open society, it is allowing more people to speak out. It's only natural that upsets some people."

We are in for it my friends...they just cannot stand for us to have a free hand on the internet...not only do they want to censor us...they also want to get paid for it too.

(end of post)