Thursday, January 26, 2012

In Which I Out Stubborn A Cat

This might be a stupid story, but I am telling it by special request, so don't criticize, OK?

************************************************************************

"Never try to out stubborn a cat"  Lazarus Long in R. A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

I did not follow the above advice.  I out stubborned a cat.  I'll follow my friend Harry's advice and leave out all the extra stuff.

Kitty was sitting where I wanted to sit.  I stared at her until she jumped down.  


That's the story without any unnecessary words, just getting down to business. 

That's what happened.   Not very interesting, I think, but if you are satisfied, go do something else while I tell the story.
 

When I was a kid, we used to have a cat named "Kitty."  I did not name that cat, obviously.  I love cats, but Kitty and I had issues, and neither of us liked the other.  In fact, to my eternal shame, I had been quite rough with her and was forbidden to touch her.  

Kitty, sort of


I went to the family room where she had taken up permanent residence in my favorite chair.  She looked up at me with that superior smirk seen only on cats' faces.  She knew I was not supposed to touch her, I'm sure she did.  Stupid cat!



I am not one to give up so I just stood and stared at her.  She stated back for a while.  Then she laid down and tucked her head between her front legs.

I stared.



She quit pretending to sleep and sat up.

We both stared.

She decided it was time to take a bath, a common displacement activity of cats.

 

I stared.


 

She continued bathing.

By this time, a couple of other family members had come in and were watching our duel.

She finished her bath and lay down, making one of those low-pitched mrow sound that cats make.  


I stared.





 




"Give it up!"  I was ordered.

I stared.

Kitty abruptly stood up, hissed at me menacingly and

 

 















...And jumped down.

And stalked off as cats do.

 That is how I out stubborned a cat.  I was about 10 or 11, I think.  I have no idea how old Kitty was.

Illustrations:  All adapted from Public Domain. 

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

My Saddest Blogpost Yet

IN THIS BLOG, i WILL NOT MAKE IT A HABIT OF REPRINTING OTHERS' ARTICLES.  THIS, HOWEVER IS SO IMPORTANT THAT IT MUST BE PRINTED.  EVERYONE IN THE USA NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF THE NDAA, AS SIGNED INTO LAW BY BARACK OBAMA ON THE LAST DAY OF 2011, THE DEATH DAY OF THE USA BILL OF RIGHTS.

Barack Obama has betrayed the American people.  I hope I am not picked up and detained indefinitely because I write that.  The days of our being able to speak freely and without fear of are of the past.  Now anybody can be detained indefinitely without being charged with anything.  I feel sick, but I will not shut up.   My political philosophy has not changed.  I remain a Progressive.  I am now a betrayed Progressive. 

I hold some controversial opinions.  I will continue to hold these openly.  A few of these are:

  1. I support the establishment of an independent Sikh homeland

  2. I oppose USA (and Canadian) military intervention in the affairs of other nations unless said nation is directly attacked by that other nation

  3. I support the right of private citizens to own and use firearms and ammunition.

  4. I support the right of any two consenting adults to marry.

  5.  I support the legalization of marijuana.

  6. I support the right of the people to rise up against an oppressive government and to change it by any means necessary. 

  7. I support the USA Bill of Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in their entirety.   I suggest the reader print out a copy of each and hide it away somewhere because they may soon be either completely ditched or altered beyond recognition.  I do not support the Constitution of the Republic of India which denies my existence as a Sikh.

  8. I support my right to write whatever I damned well please as long as it is neither fraudulent nor libelous, with truth being an absolute defense against libel.  

      I suppose that's enough jellybeans in the machinery for now. 

    *******************************************************************

    From now on … Our Biggest Mistake is Believing We Are Free


On December 17, 2007 Senator Christopher Dodd spoke on the Senate floor against George W. Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping and telecom company amnesty compromise, “Clear, first-hand whistleblower documentary evidence [states] that for year on end every e-mail, every text message, and every phone call … hundreds of millions of private, domestic communications … have been copied in their entirety by AT&T and knowingly diverted wholesale … into a secret room controlled exclusively by the NSA.

Then Senator Barack Obama announced he supported the amnesty "compromise" saying, “So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives -- and the liberty -- of the American people.

I didn’t want George W. Bush, Barack Obama, or any future president of the United States to “carefully monitor the program.” I wanted a president who would stop the wiretapping program, restore the Fourth Amendment, and protect the Constitution of the United States. That’s his goddamned job. But that’s not the president I got for Christmas in 2008. The eavesdropping on every call, text, fax or email hasn’t stopped. It’s just being “carefully monitored.”

Fast forward to December 31, 2011 when Reader Supported News editor Marc Ash wrote, “President Obama today signed the highly controversial Defense Spending Bill. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with its so-called Homeland Battlefield provisions, allows, according to many legal scholars, the indefinite detention of US citizens by the US military. What is most striking is a lengthy signing statement by Obama, in which he maintains his reservations about the Homeland Battlefield provisions, saying, 'I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.' His defense of civil liberties in the signing statement was passionate. Nonetheless, at the same moment, he signed the bill into law.

So as of now … anyone … anywhere … can be detained indefinitely by order of the President of the United States. Obama said. “I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.” But what he just signed says he can. We just have to trust him … and all future presidents from now on. Florida Democratic representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz says she’ll be working with other Democrats to repeal the Homeland Battlefield provisions as soon as Congress reconvenes. Good luck with that one. What are the chances a Republican controlled house will repeal provisions it had already passed in a 283 to 136 vote?

If the provisions are not repealed, or if the president changes his mind and decides to use the law he signed … then any of us could end up like Al-Jazeera journalist Sami Al-Hajj. He was arrested in Pakistan on December 15, 2001 and detained at Guantánamo for over 6 years. According to documents published by Wikileaks, the government wanted Al-Hajj “to provide information on the al-Jazeera News Network's training program, telecommunications equipment, and newsgathering operations.” He was beaten, sexually assaulted… and released without charge on May 1, 2008.

We are all now officially … small prey animals. We have the same rights a field mouse has against a hawk. Prey animals can’t get a lawyer or a trial. Prey animals get eaten.

So let’s kick off The New Year with what we know about Late Great The United States.

War criminals are immune from prosecution.

The president can declare martial law by declaring a public emergency and this public emergency can be anything he says it is.

The president can scoop up U.S. citizens and detain them forever if he wants to because Habeas Corpus is now a memory.

This government doesn’t mind backsliding into slavery. One of Project Censored’s top stories from 2008 was about how our government used slave labor to build the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. “Thousands of citizens from countries that banned travel or work in Iraq were tricked and smuggled into brutal and inhumane labor camps and subjected to months of forced servitude ... all in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone.”

The borders of closing … or in some cases … closed.

From the CODEPINK website, “In October 2007 Ann Wright, retired U.S. army colonel and former diplomat who quit in opposition to the Iraq war, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK were on their way to Toronto at the invitation of the Toronto Stop the War Coalition but were denied entry into Canada.”  The border was closed to them.

Our email and phone conversations are monitored by the government.

Is my phone tapped? Is yours? We don’t know. Was this email read by some government stooge? We don’t know. How many U.S. citizens will disappear? We don’t know. Somebody goes out for a loaf of bread and a pack of cigarettes some night and  then … poof … vanishes. Did he run away from his life; or is she in a secret prison somewhere? We’ll never know.

How bad is it? How bad could it get? When is it too late?

What exactly are we waiting for? What incident, what sign, what great shocking event has to happen to make us realize The American Dream is over, dead, and done with?

Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America, has said that she will stop speaking out when someone she knows has disappeared. I suppose it is a natural delusion to think that someone else will be disappeared first. I guess Ms. Wolf believes that people are renditioned in alphabetical order.

I did not expect Barack Obama to be this nation’s savior. But I did not think he could turn out to be as bad, or worse, than George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. In 2008 Obama gave us the Audacity of Hope. Less than four years later the only hope we have is the desperate hope that it’s not as bad as it seems.

The President wants us to believe what he says … not what he signed into law.

On December 31st 2011 the “Lesser of Two Evils” argument finally, completely, and utterly collapsed. Any liberal who tries to put a positive spin on this steaming pile is as delusional or corrupt as the  rightwing lunatic gasbags on Fox. By signing this perversion, Constitutional professor Barack Obama has put himself above the Constitution. From now on the President of the United States is a king. We have to depend upon his noblesse oblige to keep us out of the gulag. Jesus Christ I’m starting to agree with Sarah “I’ve Lost My Goddamned Mind” Palin. This hopey, changey thing turned into a Dick Cheney wet dream.

The next time some liberal zombie tells me to vote Democratic because these freakin’ Republicans are out to destroy the country I’ll subtly disagree by throwing up on his shoes.
Published under under the GNU/GPL License.

PHOTOSHOP CS 5.1 and the HIPPIES

I really was having trouble describing what I was doing, so I put it in this video.  The techniques really have nothing to do with hippies or Scott Mackenzie or even 1968, but the brushes fit well into that very strange era.

I was not a hippie.  My life at that time was filled with weightier matters and I was far too political to be a hippie.  Nonetheless, I really liked the hippies.  I didn't much like their drugs and the refusal of some of them to bathe, and their sexual antics frankly embarrassed me, but they seemed to be the embodiment of a kind of freedom that has always attracted me, a sort of benevolent anarchy overflowing with chardi kala.  (OK, I know the reality was not quite that pretty, but it was 44 years ago and time has blurred the edges, as time should.) 


hippie anarchy.jpg

And the music!  I may have turned away from the sex and drugs (at least in the literal sense), but the rock 'n' roll was irresistible.  Even today, decades later, the music remains.  


Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Not A Word of English

A few years ago, I became good friends with a pretty typical North American Sikh family.  You know them.  A husband and wife, a couple of kids and the husband's widowed mother brought over from Punjab.  A nice family, nothing unusual.

A nice Sikh family,
although NOT the one in this story


I was friendly with the wife, a woman of my generation who had run a small in-home daycare for quite a few years.  Her husband was a hard-working businessman, sort of successful, but not getting rich.  The kids, a girl and her younger brother, were in high school and middle school respectively.  They did well in school, even though the young son was almost totally deaf.

Now we get to Dadi ji, the one this post is really about.

Like the rest of the family, there was nothing unusual about her.  She was amritdhari and quite vocal in her opposition to her son's monaness, which she blamed on the wife, who had cropped hair and shaved legs.  Strangely enough the two kids kept kesh of their own accord.  She really was quite a pain in the behind.  She was constantly complaining about something, most often about her bad back.  I don't think she meant to be malicious, but she had a negative effect on the whole household.

She was a typical old lady from a tiny village that no one had ever heard of, unsophisticated, unschooled, ignorant and somewhat uncouth..   A pendu that the whole family was just a bit ashamed of, not too bright.  She spent her days helping the mother with her daycare.  While with the young kids, she was a very different person, laughing, playing, happily jabbering with them.  Every day she relaxed with a magazine while they watched Sesame Street.  The magazine, of course, was one with lots of pictures because she was completely illiterate.  Of course, although she had been in the USA for many years, she spoke not one word of English.

One day, I noticed something rather strange.  Her eyes as she looked at the magazine, supposedly studying a picture of something, were moving back and forth in a very regular manner.  She appeared to be reading except, of course, she couldn't read and even if she could, the magazine was in English, a language she didn't understand at all.

Several times more I noticed this phenomena.  I said nothing and waited for one of those rare moments when she and I were alone in the house.  I approached her and said without warning in English, "Dadi ji, you understand English perfectly well and you can read it, too."

Startled, she looked up with a sly smile.  "Haanji (Yes.)"  She went on in Punjabi.  "Please don't tell them, though.  I learn so much when think think I'm just a stupid, silly, old woman that has no idea what they're saying."  It was true.  Whenever they wanted to talk about something that they didn't want her to hear, they would speak English.  It never occurred to them that she might be able to understand.    I suggested that since she knew English, she should speak to me in that language.  She couldn't though very well because, although she could understand, she had no idea how to actually make the correct sounds and anyway, she didn't want to risk being heard.  Likewise, although she could read English perfectly well, she couldn't write it because she had never had the opportunity to learn writing.

So how was this miracle accomplished?  Sesame Street, of course.

Muppets of Sesame Street

She had been watching it with the kids for years and had learned the alphabet and the numbers and simple words and concepts from that. As time went on, she learned more from other television programs, both for children and for adults.  She said her favorite English channel was PBS which aired Sesame Street, but she liked Spike quite a lot, too.  Go figure.  She really liked watching with her grandson best because he always had to have the closed-captioning (subtitles) turned on.

One thing really bothered her.  Although her literacy skills in English were good, she was still illiterate in Punjabi.  There was really no surreptitious way she could learn that.

I had an idea.

All the kids were from Sikh families and perhaps the parents would like them to learn their Gurmukhi letters.    Maybe the daughter, who really enjoyed sewa, would be willing to teach them as she had been taught.  The parents were quite enthusiastic.  It took some time to put together, but finally, when they were ready to begin, I had a suggestion, "Since you're going to be teaching it, maybe Dadi ji would like to learn, too."

The idea was immediately nixed by them all, when the old lady piped up, "Haanji.  I want to learn."  The strength and determination in her voice startled them all.  "I have always wanted to learn to read Guru ji Maharaj and also the Punjabi newspaper."  They all looked at her in disbelief.

Her son, a bit shame-faced, said, "You could have learned along with our kids years ago.  Why didn't you say anything?"

"You never asked me."

So she learned to read and write Gurmukhi and I am happy to report that her disposition brightened as the family's respect for her increased.  She had, however, extracted a promise from me that I would never tell them about her English.  I have kept my promise even today, which is why there are no names in this story.



************************************************************************
Words.  I am told that some people are mystified by some of my words, so I will explain.

A keshdhari Sikh is a Sikh who keeps all hairs on the body intact without shaving or cutting any of them.  The unshorn hair, especially that on the head is called kes(h).

A mona Sikh is one who does not keep kesh.  Occasionally, the term moni is used for such a woman, but this is rare.

An Amritdhari Sikh is one who has been initiated into the Khalsa Brotherhood by partaking of Amrit, a sacred beverage.  Sometimes called a baptised Sikh.


Gurmukhi is the alphabet that Punjabi and Sikh religious writings are written in.

Sewa is selfless service.

Dadi means paternal grandmother.  Ji at the end is an honourific indicating respect.

I sincerely hope I am never called on to write a dictionary.
**********************************************************************

About the family picture:  This is NOT the family in this story.  I got it off the "Net and think they look like really nice people and there is not a mona among them. The Dadi ji was added from another picture.  Oh, the wonders of Photoshop.


The First Amendment

Somebody somewhere has declared Thursday, 15. December 2011 as First Amendment Day.  The refers to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the USA.  I often rightfully bash the US of A.  That country has become a big bully, the biggest bully in the world.  I can go on and on about what is wrong in the USA. This is about what the USA has gotten right.  These are arguably the most powerful 45 words ever written.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I live in and write from the USA.  Respect for these words is what permits me to freely express my sometimes unusual and/or radical beliefs, so I give due where due is merited.  I pray that I will be able to write the same next year at this time.

  

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

RADICAL FREE SPEECH


Radical free speech

WHAT did she say?
I believe in the concept of radical free speech. 

I am in favour of minimal control,  only disallowing overt threats to life and limb and certain types of slander, with truth being an absolute defence against charges of slander.  I am opposed to any curb on people expressing themselves on issues, however obnoxious I consider their opinions. Yes, I would allow hate speech, as long as it did not contain threats to life and limb. I have a strong belief in radical free speech that is not shared even by my Canadian compatriots. I do not believe that suppressing ideas stops them; it only makes them invisible, underground, hard to spot and even more dangerous.

This non-control pertains only to governmental control. Individual sites and groups have the right to set their own TOS (Terms of Service). For example FB has the right to ban porn and hate speech if they choose. I will continue - as an individual - to report sites I find hateful to the FB administration, but I will not report them to any government. This dovetails with the law (USA), which mandates the government not to infringe on free speech, but I am still free to control what is said in my home. A religious house is free to kick out a proselytizer from another religion. An atheist group has the right to ban proreligion speech within their own group.; they are not free to silence me in the public arena.  Voltaire summed up my stand perfectly:

"Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire."

[I do not agree with what you are saying, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."]

-- 
[Note: I had earlier listed child pornography in the exceptions because, while I completely 100% believe it should be outlawed, it is a different issue, not speech.]


Saturday, December 3, 2011

Lt. Pike


My participation in the "Pepper-Spraying-Cop meme.  Lt. John Pike...Well, take a look:


That is the short version of what actually happened.Lest I am acused of bias, here is one report of the long vision:



Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis from Mary K. Johnson on Vimeo.

OK. The meme consists of Lt. Pike




pepper spraying unlikely people and other living things and sometimes inanimate objects.  My contributions: 


Pike Sprays Pike

Lt. Pike sprays my profile guy
Even Happy Cat isn't safe!
I often go off on a tangent, but I don't expect a faceful of pepper spray


  

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

(Robert A.) HALL vs. (Inderjeet) KAUR




ORIGINALLY, I ATTRIBUTED THIS PIECE TO MR. BIILL COSBY. I WAS WRONG. HE DID NOT WRITE IT AND I APOLOGISE PROFUSELY. I SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CAREFUL HERE IS WHAT SNOPES SAYS ABOUT IT ALONG WITH MR. COSBY'S DENIAL.


Since August 2011 this opinion piece has been widely circulated on the Internet in a version that presents it as the work of comedian Bill Cosby. Dr. Cosby (who is actually 75 years old) had nothing to do with writing it, and his own site features a denial of any association with it:
There’s an email floating around — entitled “I’m 76 and tired” — purportedly sent by me. I did not write the email, I did not send the email, I’m not 76, and I don’t subscribe to the ugly views expressed in the email. We are coming up to an important anniversary on Sunday [the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks], which is a day when we should all come together. Whoever wrote this email is not thinking about our country, or what is important. If you get the email, it’s time to hit DELETE.

Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/imtired.asp#6kTQm2y1lX30c244.99
 HERE IS THE CORRECT ATTRIBUTION, AGAIN FROM SNOPES: this article...


was penned by Robert A. Hall, a former Massachusetts state senator and U.S. Marine Corps veteran who is also the author of the 2005 book The Good Bits (The Marines, the Massachusetts Senate and Managing Associations). Robert Hall blogs as The Old Jarhead at tartanmarine.blogspot.com, and the piece quoted here, titled "I'm Tired," was his blog entry for 19 February 2009.
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/imtired.asp#6kTQm2y1lX30c244.99

"I'm 83 and Tired" 

Worth reading
This should be required reading for every man, woman and child in
Jamaica,
The UK , United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and
To all the world...
 

"I'm 83 and I'm Tired"


I'm 83
. Except for brief period in the 50's when I was doing my National
Service, I've worked hard since I was 17. Except for some some serious
Health challenges, I put in 50-hour weeks, and didn't call in sick in nearly
40 years. I made a reasonable salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my
Income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, it looks as
Though retirement was a bad idea, and I'm tired. Very tired.  
 

I'm tired
of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who
Don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take
The money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy
To earn it.      
   

I'm tired
of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I
Can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and
Daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight
Offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't
"believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning
Teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the
Genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and
Shari'a law tells them to.  
   

I'm tired
of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques
And madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in Australia, New Zealand,
UK, America and Canada, while no one from these countries are allowed to
Fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia or any other
Arab country to teach love and tolerance..  
 

I'm tired
of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global
Warming, which no one is allowed to debate.

I'm tired
of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help
Support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ
Rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses
Or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to fight it off?
 

I'm tired
of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all
Parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful
Mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting
Caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.  
 

I'm really tired
of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and
Actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination
Or big-whatever for their problems.

I'm also tired
and fed up with seeing young men and women in their teens and
Early 20's be-deck them selves in tattoos and face studs, thereby making
Themselves un-employable and claiming money from the Government.

Yes, I'm damn tired.
But I'm also glad to be 83.. Because, mostly, I'm not
Going to have to see the world these people are making.I'm just sorry for
My granddaughter and her children.   Thank God I'm on the way out and not
On the way in.


There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us
Sends it on!

This is your chance to make a difference.

" I'm 83 and I'm tired.    If you don't forward this you
are part of  the problem".
 
************************************************





This is my response:

Worth Reading

 This should be required reading for every man, woman and child who read Mr Hall's presentation.


"I'm 59 and handicapped and I'm tired."

I'm 59. Except for a brief time in the 1980s, I worked all my life until my physical disabilities made that impossible. I paid my taxes without too much grumbling and didn't expect anyone to take care of me. 

 I'm tired of hearing people, young and old, complaining about giving something back to the society that enabled them to accomplish what they are doing or have done. 

I'm tired of reading those who are lumping groups of people together and labeling the individuals in those groups as bad because they have severe problems coping with life.  There but for fortune go you and I, Bud.

I'm tired of Islam being demonised because of the cultural - not Qur'anic - teachings of some adherents.

 I'm tired of those who regard non-incoming producing adults as parasites without regard to why they are not producing income or what other useful services they may be performing.  I'm tired of feeling like a parasite personally, although I know my feelings about myself are mine to handle and don't really belong in this public forum.

I'm really tired of listening to uncalled-for condemnation of people who take responsibility for their lives by attempting to change injustices in society.   I'm tired of  them being disrespected, beaten by police, pepper-sprayed in the face, and called ugly names.  I'm tired of those who ignore the facts about discrimination and act as if they rest of us should simply accept these inequities and pretend they don't exist.    

I'm tired of social Darwinism which condemns the less fit, by society's definition, to lives of unproductive despair with the only possible escapes being drugs or death.  I'm really tired of hearing those who have given up written off as subhuman.  There but for fortune...  

I'm tired of hearing older people mouthing platitudes about "What has become of the younger generation?"  Every generation has said that about the generation following since the beginning of human history.  It's both old and pointless. 


Most of all, I'm tired of Robert A. Hall ranting and raving and holding himself above everybody else.  I will, however, defend to the death his right to do so. 

Yes, I'm damned tired and really sorry I won't be around to see how our current societal problems will be coped with by the coming generations who will have the benefit of a wider vision and a better education provided by the Internet.  I see a glorious and difficult future ahead, as there has always been a glorious and difficult future ahead for our species.

Mr. Hall I disagree with your pessimistic assessment;  if you're ever in my neighborhood, please drop by and I'll teach you about something called chardi kala.

BTW,  I am not part of the problem.  I AM THE PROBLEM!  I disagree with you and I won't shut up.  Sure, I will cheerfully send your gloomy, hateful diatribe to others - along with my  much more optimistic predictions.

Send this on if you wish.  It's totally up to you.

I won't promise it'll save the world or bring you good luck or make God to smile upon you.  

I ask only that you include both presentations.  They balance each other. 

Saturday, November 19, 2011

THE CREATION CONTINUED

Please shield this post from the snoopy eyes of all Christian fundamentalists.  I don't carry to have the Rev. Huzzit issuing fatwas against me.
******************



THE EIGHTH DAY


"On the eighth day, Yahweh fully rested, resumed creating. He created the PC and the MacIntosh and the Internet and Photoshop and Facebook and a host of other cybercreations, and, lo, He saw that it was very good. And it was evening and it was morning, the eighth day." 

Chapter 9
THE INTERNET
http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/telecomm_handbook/chapter9.htm
 






ASHA RAP






LYRICS
Asha, my friend
is a wonderful gurl
Sharp as a tack, 
Sweet as a pearl.
Open the window
And her flag unfurled
Will throw peace upon
The unwary world
Hair laughingly curled
Goodwill wil be hurled
Jade Buddha will smile
We'll laugh all the while...
'Cause Asha, my friend, 
Is a wonderful gurl.

Pearls are sweet
But not good to eat , 
Like a turnip or beet
Or pickled pig's feet.
(But I don't eat meat.)
So sit on a seat
And don't try to cheat
Enjoy the heat
At Jade Buddha's feet
'Cause Asha my friend
Is wonderfully neat
And believes in World Peat.
(OK World Peace, but that doesn't rhyme.)
And peat is good stuff, too.)

Out of ideas but not out of rhyme
Chardi kala means
Let's have a good time
And we won't even have
To eat that darned pearl
And Asha my friend's
Still a wonderful gurl.. 

From "The Kitteh Loleth Productions."


THAT ONE WORD YOU CAN'T QUITE GET IS "BODHISATTVA."  LOOK IT UP.