ZEN and the Art of St. Valentine's Day.

Confusing lead off, sorry. I will try to 'splain.

At first, like a couple days ago, my thought was to post something on the order of "Is it Too Early to start HATING ON VD yet? Seems like time is ripe to me."

And as anyone who has been following this blog for the past two three years (all seven of you) know, I have had major sucking, makes me think that the planet is full of garbage faced douchebags, awful Valentine's Days for the past (what is it four or five years?)


DON'T TELL ME THERE IS NO ONE TO BLAME. I will not accept that shit. That shit could lead to the start of WW III. Well . . . . here is where the ZEN kicks in.

Now I do not take/make formal New Year's resolutions, but I sorta said sorta to myself at first (and to the nice lady at work today) that I have sorta thought I should try to get/be more ZEN this year, so here is the way I am going to try it this year.

I am going to, keeping in mind the goals and traditions and sensibility of ZEN, try NOT to bug out and try to NOT rage at a world that does not love me.

Failure is highly probable. LOL!

Mittens to Old Man John. You accused me of agreeing with two-thirds of Americans. TAKE THAT BACK!

Talk about MIND-BLOWING Weirdness!

McCain accuses Romney of having once been in favor of a withdrawl timetable, and Mitt just looses it. Now accordng to the most recent data, still fully two-thirds of Americans ain't down with the way Plastic Turkey Man is handling things in Iraq.

But hey. How many self identifying GOPers are still willing to stick with PTM here? Apparently twice as many as not. Oh well. This is a primary, and if the GOP candidates want to spend their time arguing their way deeper and deeper into a hole of a position, that the rest of the nation thinks is evidence of being too insane to lead the nation, so be it.

Carry on dudes.

See you in November.

Thoughts on MLK Day, 2008

Reverend Dr . King . . . we ain't really free at last. We have been not necessarily back-sliding, but we as a Nation have taken a perverse side track, I think . . .

Here in 2008 we still have a sad lack of appreciation of the basics.

Too many folk only seem to get the core and obvious fact that to use the "N. Word," is very bad. But they could not, if their lives depended on it, explain even minimally why it is bad. (That is because, to my mind, the fact that too many people believe that dehumanizing people who merely think or behave differently than themselves is an acceptable thing. Racism is only one possible form of bigotry, as many of us do know.)

Too many people do not even understand the meaning of the word racism.

Too many people do not even understand the true meaning of the word, "Oppression," and that likely helps explain why so many people do not get the break-down:

When one powerless person discriminates or pre-judges people harshly, because they are racially-bigoted, meaning . . . are a racist, that is a damn shame.

When people with that sort of racially-bigoted beliefs are in positions of power over others, and they discriminate, that is a whole different (and more serious) matter.


When sub groups with power, or otherwise within powerful institutions act that way, and provide cover and support for other like-minded racist bigots, that is even worse a problem.

When institutions of power are dominated by such racist bigots, that is many times worse.



It is a matter of scale, get it?


The sad, warped, frustrated hermit, who bitches and moans at his TV, or the four walls around him, does no harm (save to his own twisted self.)

The millionaire TV commentator who, in a ham-fisted mostly-thoughtless way attempts to compliment African Americans and, instead manages to insult most of them with his thoughtless remark? He is the more dangerous one. He has an audience. That means he has some measure of power.

Oh, and one last thing. (I say this after watching some vid on YouTube about the Bill O'Reilly foot-in-mouth incident, that Dinner at Sylvia's, screw up?) It is NOT a matter that intent does not matter. However, the lack of intent to insult is not a pass. It is itself, a grievous foul.

Lack of Intent = thoughtlessness, kids. Very bad, that.

Remember that.

I know (a lot of you out there) don't really want to waste your time being considerate of others, but ya know . . . .? If you want to avoid being (deservedly) labeled a racist, you got to think before you speak.

Ok.

I will stop there, before I get all worked up. I do not need to get all worked up, here.

Edited to add:

(And before I say anything else, thanks to the fine freaky folk at www.crooksandliars.com for the tip.)

A likey good vid for this day. Sort of a hip-hop, post civil rights era take on the things near and dear to Dr. King's heart (and mine too.)

Muslims Got Bin Laden, and Christians Got Huck.

"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards," Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. "

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/15/579265.aspx


Screw him with an elephant's prick, I say. Screw him for forty days and forty nights, that way.

What a pathetic douchebag, but more to the point, I have never heard (of) a candidate for the U.S. Presidency express such contempt for the Constitution as it is, and by extension, the very government he bizzarely feels qualified to run.

He obviously has more in common with Osama Bin Laden than any American President, even including Plastic Turkey Man. We all know that PTM is a fake Christian. I mean really . . . .

Not That I Have Had Any Doubts, for Years . . .Bush is . . .

a paranoid! And schizo!


"Bush Chooses What to Believe

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, January 14, 2008; 2:06 PM

President Bush has apparently found a way to reconcile his bellicose views of Iran with the recent National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iran shelved its nuclear weapons program four years ago.
Michael Hirsh writes for Newsweek that "in private conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, the president all but disowned the document, said a senior administration official who accompanied Bush on his six-nation trip to the Mideast. 'He told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says, but that [the NIE's] conclusions don't reflect his own views' about Iran's nuclear-weapons program, said the official, who would discuss intelligence matters only on the condition of anonymity. . . ."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/01/14/BL2008011401233.html


How is that any different than saying he lives in his own little world?

And WTF about this? He said:

"[h]e can't control what the intelligence community says."

Why would he want to? Isn't it his damn job to listen to what his experts say, not tell them what to say?

Fawkin' Nuts!!

I'm Looking for Someone With "New Car Smell."

And Obama has "New Car Smell."

Funny, how now, on the eve of the Granite State Primary, it seems that all them others are trying to position themselves as agents of change, or the candidate of change.

Almost makes me wish that Obama won Iowa running on the fact he is a tall, light-skinned African American.

It would be funny to see how many of the others would be trying to wrap themselves up in that fabric.

Anyway . . . . Run Obama run. Run Obama run.

Survived Another One. More Than Just Barely.

Hello 2008. Glad to meet you. No, it is not that 2007 sucked all that much. It is more like . . . . as they say regarding Washington Politics . . . it was business as usual.

(I have already tired of using that 'voice.' Let me go back to straight blogging voice here.)

Let me just cut to the chase. Here is what I want out of 2008.

(And even if you are only an infrequent reader here, you can well guess.)

LESS BULLSHIT. More candor.

LESS STUPIDITY. More thoughtfulness.

LESS HATE. More peace and understanding.

LESS DOUCHEBAGGYNESS. More respect for others' dignity and as well, respect for the standards of mindfully-polite social conduct.

and

LESS CRAZINESS. More sanity and reasonableness, PLEASE?