Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts

13 February 2011

no, really, i ♡ you....

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There are spots in all these hours that are so deeply satisfying, it makes me want to go set rocks in a certain little ceremonial pattern. Do one of my little earth meditations. Maybe build one of my miniature bonfires with blades of dry grass and itsy twigs. Something that absorbing. In one or the other of the latter in the alchemy/social engineering section—actually, I think the latest, number seven—they are talking about education and saying things with which I so deeply, and necessarily secretly, identify, it sounds like karma petting me with dharma. It strikes me that it's the same old problem. I'm on another planet, or from one.

But there are CLUES in there that can mean the difference between life and death to you, so if you still won't listen, at least try to remember there have been clues laying around you did not pick up.

I'm gonna try not to post too much for a few days, but... well... we'll see how that goes....

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love, 99
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02 February 2011

spectacular

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I don't know when there's been a more deserving candidate.

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love, 99
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02 June 2010

my kind

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Gareth Porter interviews Flynt Leverett... and here's the PDF, the 2003 offer of peace and coöperation from Iran, mentioned in the interview.
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25 March 2010

he's only the face

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Obama is the current frontman for the real rulers of the world. So we can paint him any way that suits our mood. It can be anyone. It might as well be Sarah Palin. There is no power to the office at all, unless you count the power to deceive billions of people. If you do not shake off the conditioning to see things through a certain lens and look at what is actually there, you will continue to flail angrily in abjection for the rest of your life.

Herein directly below is Paul Craig Roberts saying good-bye for this very reason. He is not too hypnotized to fail to accept that things are as they are. He’s turning seventy-one in a few days and so is pretty unlikely to now turn to the streets with a pitchfork, and too much of a gentleman to demand it of you who are fitter for the task. He seems to be treating you as an adult who can decide for yourself if you will live in this tyranny whose major weapon against you is to keep the politics so psychedelic you can’t get up off the spinning floor. If you look at what they are generating it is like a scene from The Prisoner, and continuing to look at it through the filter of your upbringing, your whole life full of conditioning to be who you are and where you are, will be the time you do in that same prison.

How many times do I plead with you to step out of what you already think? What do you fear about that? Why do you cling to it as though it IS you? It isn’t. It’s only what you’ve been told, and what you’ve made of what you’ve been told, and how you think it is best to position yourself in relation to these things. None of it needs even to have been a lie, though certainly a lot of it has been exactly that. Even the most innocent bits of it are only approximations, thin slices of wholes too big to be usable for walking around inside a society. Being born in these times is entirely too much like being incarcerated for life. If you cannot learn to drop the conditioning—something that can take a spontaneous instant or decades of ceaseless practice and study—to look at actuality, you are in prison. There are cruel prison guards tormenting you from cradle to grave. There is an endless procession of wardens. And they are all invisible to you.

The only release is in nature, and you never know why, and it never lasts, and it grows more unbearably cruel as you age... not to mention the global steaming garbage patch we’ve made of it, and are not even slowing.

The single most pernicious manmade thing in the creation of this prison planet was the invention of monetary systems... all of them. I think I identified this when I was a teenager and first started really trying my hardest to articulate it when I was twenty-six—to my Yale MBA best friend—and being such a happiness-generating, love machine babe, never got anything for it but patronized. An IQ does not get recognized for its contributions when it’s packed that way.

Believe me.

And believe me about the monetary systems, too. What evil could ever make a human think it fitting to charge people for their existence? And those who have mastered the art of profiting off your birth, your incarceration, the incept date for which they condition you to celebrate with cake and candles every year, have also mastered the means to keep you making them richer and more powerful without bothering with things like bars and locks and razor wire. They broadcast it over the air and in the publications and down this intricate network of tubes.

You get to line up on your favorite side! You get to be a renegade! If you manage to make it to celebrity, you get to make money at being used to keep us so conditioned we never stop making our owners richer, even when we are penniless bumps under bridges! It’s gorgeous! It’s so elegant! It’s so simple! It’s so dirt simple and, at the same time, so intricately baroque no one can ever find their way out of it. No. Seriously. That’s elegance incarnate. No wonder they can think less of you than a used toothpick after a meal.

Think! What could make a creature who will throw itself into a roiling ocean to save a drowning stranger also make its living dropping bombs on sleeping civilians innocent men are tortured to perpetuate? That same human will do both.

The other, equally crucial, error in human civilization is the unwillingness of humans to die or to kill to keep peace. It is impossible to have world peace and plenty for all when there will ever be some who will exploit our love of these things for gain. Nothing will stop those people, as long as there is gain from it, except brute force. Short of that, the best ever accomplished was to detour them temporarily. They cannot be stopped short of your willingness to die to stop them, to kill to stop them, and your unwillingness to do either of these is WHY they exist, is WHY your life is this hard and WHY so many lives are blasted off the face of the earth, when they are lucky enough not to be maimed or tortured or starved to death. The true pacifist will kill—NOT, you pussy, each other: THEM—and will die willingly for peace.

And the President of the United States is as UTTERLY helpless against this as YOU are. Until one will die or will kill to stop it, not an infinity of sophistry changes this.

We have right now a president every bit as ludicrous and dangerous as Sarah Palin.

It is a complete waste of life to even think about these people. Yes, you cannot be ignorant of what’s going on, but you can prevent it from keeping you prostrate with a kaleidoscope spinning in your head by just registering it and dropping your reactionary howling and puffing and videoing and snarking, so you can move about in a field clear of psychedelics and function as an ADULT, formulate the ways to bring this to a halt, and PERFORM on them. You can do that.

I started laughing when I saw the headlines about the death threats coming at Congress over this “healthcare reform”. I did. Pathetic. If they start getting killed by pissed-off Americans... GREAT. I don’t care why. I don’t care, because they are in the midst of prosecuting lethal harm on sentient beings in ANY case, and whatever it takes to stop that is DEFENSE OF LIFE. If it starts happening and you don’t get behind it, YOU are calling the police state down upon yourself.

And, I consider the current fad for painting the Joker’s face on these people a big step up from the Hitler mustaches of old.

It’s more fitting.
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18 March 2010

GREAT interview

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Antiwar is interviewing everyone they can get from the right/left sit-down against the war held a few weeks ago, and I am loving most of what I'm hearing. They're all talking about how much we have to agree on, how great it would be to come together to get this back to some semblance of normalcy—which we do ALL agree on—and THEN hash out our differences on policy once that is accomplished.

There ARE some sensible people left in America! I love how he mentions we lefties should be starting our own tea party chapters! I love how he mentions that Libertarians are pretty much a mix of lefties and righties. I love how he calls us "non-Euclidian". I love that I can find evidence at all of not-so-hypnotized humans applying themselves to the manifestation of SENSE, and lament all that time I wasted waiting for a thoroughly-hypnotized gossip-monger to have an epiphany.
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17 March 2010

i want you to listen to this very carefully

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And do what you can to support these beautiful kids.
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27 February 2010

disregard the part where they're fuckheads about truthers

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This SO rocks. OMG
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11 February 2010

iranians have more courage than americans

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Everything might depend on them NOT rising up right now, but even more than that, everything depends on us rising up right now, and look which population is up to the task. Whenever you feel yourself slipping into that comfy old fairytale of American exceptionalism, just remember that almost everyone else on earth has more courage than you do.

You can't argue with this. There ain't no way you can make a peep.
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10 October 2009

liberté, égalité, fraternité

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Somebody tell the president....

I mean, ordinarily, I'd assume this stuff to be so ridiculously obvious it wouldn't even be linkworthy on a lark, but, well, it's become clear that what I find dirt obvious is beyond the grasp, or beneath the notice, of many. So. Yes. Somebody tell the Nobel President.

14 July 2009

i want to learn to speak russian. do you think i'm too old and dim?

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Russia says no Iran sanctions for START deal: report
Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:44am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will not agree to tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program in exchange for a new nuclear arms cuts deal with Washington, Interfax news agency quoted a foreign ministry source as saying Tuesday.

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama's nuclear adviser suggested that progress on a U.S.-Russian nuclear arms pact could help persuade Moscow to be more cooperative on Iran.

"There are no reasons to link these issues or count on Russia being more cooperative in toughening sanctions against Iran if there is progress in talks with the United States on further cuts in strategic offensive weapons," the source said.

Russia is negotiating a new nuclear arms cuts deal with the United States to replace the 1991 START-1 pact, which expires in December. It is also involved in international efforts to persuade Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program.

The sharp tone of the Russian comments contrasted with the positive mood that dominated last week during Obama's visit to Moscow aimed at "resetting" thorny bilateral ties.

Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev committed themselves during the talks to working on the new START pact despite outstanding disagreements over U.S. plans to deploy elements of an anti-missile system in Europe.

Obama has said that the European elements of the missile shield will not be needed if Iran halts what the West argues is a military program to create its own nuclear bomb.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has been reluctant to allow strong sanctions against Iran and has praised Obama for promising to pursue direct dialogue with Iranian leaders.

Obama's special assistant for arms control, Gary Samore, made his comments about the potential for a change in Russia's stance at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies last week.

"If we make concessions on strategic nuclear issues the Russians are much more willing to be cooperative when it comes to Iran," Samore told experts.

A Kremlin source told Reuters that the exchange of remarks over START and Iran did not indicate any change in the overall atmosphere of Russia-U.S. contacts.

"It was nothing more than an exchange of remarks over a specific suggestion," the source said.

I think they are carefully taking away our ability to come up with the money for our military adventures and protecting Iran from an attack by us. I think they are taking the path of international friendship and coöperation to put out this flame of fascism. Maybe I'm only hoping there are impeccable men shaping the means to a decent future on earth, but I am comforted that there are powerful people elsewhere who are not as dirt stupid with greed as the jackasses in our government and, no matter what other failings they may or may not have, are showing themselves to be immovably anti-fascist.

And, just for extra credit, you might meditate on why this fact isn't all over our media.

30 May 2009

reminder

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31 January 2009

europe rising

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It may be scary, but it is well. It needs to happen here, too, FEMA camps notwithstanding....

GLOBALIZATION IS HERE.

No one but the 1% likes it.

26 January 2009

17 January 2009

somebody call aslan

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I took Butchy the schnauzer for a nice long walk on Mt. Tamalpias today, and I went shopping with Trishie all afternoon and early evening, and I got some new Ugg boots... that are really Emus... gray... and a beautiful sweater. We tromped around that fancy mall so many times it's amazing. It was the most gorgeous early summer day and evening of my life. I stuck to my diet -- 20 pounds by the doctor's mean old scales -- against inhuman odds. My size tens now go on easily and I'm well on my way back to eights... maybe even sixes again. For sure. Now if Aslan would show up and kick the war pigs' butts, we could all live happily and healthily ever after.

News flash: A major portion of my problem is that I'm deathly allergic to my house. It ain't the whole thing, and the tests for lupus are all happening, with results we hope this coming week, but my doctor said, "Move."

I said, "Have you found my wealthy socialist gentleman?"

She said, "No. Move anyway."

Aslan. Calling Aslan. I don't care how dire it is or might be. I feel fabulous today. You can't even believe what a beautiful day it was, and what a gorgeous night it is out there. It's a beautiful world. Stop killing things!!!!!!

24 December 2008

and merry christmas to you too sir


From Times Online
December 24, 2008
In full: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 'alternative' Christmas message
Full text of Iranian President's Christmas message to be broadcast on Channel 4
(Seth Wenig)
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Upon the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, Son of Mary, the Word of God, the Messenger of mercy, I would like to congratulate the followers of Abrahamic faiths, especially the followers of Jesus Christ, and the people of Britain.

The Almighty created the universe for human beings and human beings for Himself.

He created every human being with the ability to reach the heights of perfection. He called on man to make every effort to live a good life in this world and to work to achieve his everlasting life.

On this difficult and challenging journey of man from dust to the divine, He did not leave humanity to its own devices. He chose from those He created the most excellent as His Prophets to guide humanity.

All Prophets called for the worship of God, for love and brotherhood, for the establishment of justice and for love in human society. Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the standard-bearer of justice, of love for our fellow human beings, of the fight against tyranny, discrimination and injustice.

All the problems that have bedevilled humanity throughout the ages came about because humanity followed an evil path and disregarded the message of the Prophets.

Now as human society faces a myriad of problems and a succession of complex crises, the root causes can be found in humanity's rejection of that message, in particular the indifference of some governments and powers towards the teachings of the divine Prophets, especially those of Jesus Christ.

The crises in society, the family, morality, politics, security and the economy which have made life hard for humanity and continue to put great pressure on all nations have come about because the Prophets have been forgotten, the Almighty has been forgotten and some leaders are estranged from God.

If Christ were on Earth today, undoubtedly He would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers.

If Christ were on Earth today, undoubtedly He would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose warmongers, occupiers, terrorists and bullies the world over.

If Christ were on Earth today, undoubtedly He would fight against the tyrannical policies of prevailing global economic and political systems, as He did in His lifetime. The solution to today's problems is a return to the call of the divine Prophets. The solution to these crises is to follow the Prophets - they were sent by the Almighty for the good of humanity.

Today, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change. This is now taking place. Demands for change, demands for transformation, demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of the nations of the world. The response to these demands must be real and true. The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions. If tyrannical goals are repackaged in an attractive and deceptive package and imposed on nations again, the people, awakened, will stand up against them.

Fortunately, today, as crises and despair multiply, a wave of hope is gathering momentum. Hope for a brighter future and hope for the establishment of justice, hope for real peace, hope for finding virtuous and pious rulers who love the people and want to serve them – and this is what the Almighty has promised.

We believe, Jesus Christ will return, together with one of the children of the revered Messenger of Islam and will lead the world to love, brotherhood and justice. The responsibility of all followers of Christ and Abrahamic faiths is to prepare the way for the fulfilment of this divine promise and the arrival of that joyful, shining and wonderful age. I hope that the collective will of nations will unite in the not too distant future and with the grace of the Almighty Lord, that shining age will come to rule the earth.

Once again, I congratulate one and all on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. I pray for the New Year to be a year of happiness, prosperity, peace and brotherhood for humanity. I wish you every success and happiness.

13 December 2008

arundhati

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As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn't act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India's 9/11.
[Somebody please muzzle that dangerous boob. Please.]

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In much the same way as it did after the 2001 parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the government of India announced that it has "incontrovertible" evidence that the Lashkar-e-Taiba backed by Pakistan's ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. The Lashkar has denied involvement, but remains the prime accused. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a Special Police Officer working for the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata in West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, they reveal a complicated global network of foot soldiers, trainers, recruiters, middlemen and undercover intelligence and counter-intelligence operatives working not just on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, but in several countries simultaneously. In today's world, trying to pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state is very much like trying to pin down the provenance of corporate money. It's almost impossible.

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Thanks largely to the part it was forced to play as America's ally first in its war in support of the Afghan Islamists and then in its war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is reeling under these contradictions, is careening towards civil war. As recruiting agents for America's jihad against the Soviet Union, it was the job of the Pakistan army and the ISI to nurture and channel funds to Islamic fundamentalist organizations. Having wired up these Frankensteins and released them into the world, the US expected it could rein them in like pet mastiffs whenever it wanted to.

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If at this point India decides to go to war perhaps the descent of the whole region into chaos will be complete. The debris of a bankrupt, destroyed Pakistan will wash up on India's shores, endangering us as never before. If Pakistan collapses, we can look forward to having millions of "non-state actors" with an arsenal of nuclear weapons at their disposal as neighbours. It's hard to understand why those who steer India's ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan's mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.

...Over three days and three nights we watched in disbelief as a small group of very young men armed with guns and gadgets exposed the powerlessness of the police, the elite National Security Guard and the marine commandos of this supposedly mighty, nuclear-powered nation.

While they did this they indiscriminately massacred unarmed people, in railway stations, hospitals and luxury hotels, unmindful of their class, caste, religion or nationality. (Part of the helplessness of the security forces had to do with having to worry about hostages. In other situations, in Kashmir for example, their tactics are not so sensitive. Whole buildings are blown up. Human shields are used. The U.S and Israeli armies don't hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and drop daisy cutters on wedding parties in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.) But this was different. And it was on TV.

The boy-terrorists' nonchalant willingness to kill – and be killed – mesmerised their international audience. They delivered something different from the usual diet of suicide bombings and missile attacks that people have grown inured to on the news. Here was something new. Die Hard 25. The gruesome performance went on and on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate or corporate advertiser who measures broadcast time in seconds, not minutes, what that's worth.

Eventually the killers died and died hard, all but one. (Perhaps, in the chaos, some escaped. We may never know.) Throughout the standoff the terrorists made no demands and expressed no desire to negotiate. ...

..."You're surrounded," the anchor told him. "You are definitely going to die. Why don't you surrender?"

"We die every day," he replied in a strange, mechanical way. "It's better to live one day as a lion and then die this way." He didn't seem to want to change the world. He just seemed to want to take it down with him.

If the men were indeed members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, why didn't it matter to them that a large number of their victims were Muslim, or that their action was likely to result in a severe backlash against the Muslim community in India whose rights they claim to be fighting for? ... Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.

Through the endless hours of analysis and the endless op-ed essays, in India at least there has been very little mention of the elephants in the room: Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Instead we had retired diplomats and strategic experts debate the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We had the rich threatening not to pay their taxes unless their security was guaranteed (is it alright for the poor to remain unprotected?). We had people suggest that the government step down and each state in India be handed over to a separate corporation. We had the death of former prime minster VP Singh, the hero of Dalits and lower castes and villain of Upper caste Hindus pass without a mention.

...Day after day, a powerful, vociferous section of the Indian elite, goaded by marauding TV anchors who make Fox News look almost radical and leftwing, have taken to mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, glorifying the police and the army and virtually asking for a police state. It isn't surprising that those who have grown plump on the pickings of democracy (such as it is) should now be calling for a police state. The era of "pickings" is long gone. We're now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.

Dangerous, stupid television flashcards like the Police are Good Politicians are Bad/Chief Executives are Good Chief Ministers are Bad/Army is Good Government is Bad/ India is Good Pakistan is Bad are being bandied about by TV channels that have already whipped their viewers into a state of almost uncontrollable hysteria. ...

Are you getting the picture? That this incessant "globalization" blather we've been getting from our presidents for the last couple decades is NOT an idealistic and peaceful plan? They are all talking Global Fascism, as, supposedly, was Hitler in his day. I mean all. Bill Clinton, not the least of them. The Clinton Global Initiative is not just a bunch of billionaires coming together every year to be cuddly.

You honestly should go read the whole piece. I know she's a notorious peacenik, but you skip reading her stuff at your own peril.

11 December 2008