Depression Bank Run?...I'm just showing the photos...

July 14, 2008
August 5, 1931

Ah so.....

The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.
— Václav Havel

Tourism

Tourism

______________________________________________________

Utah is so many stacked saltines; this state is

overcooked. Hopefully this road is already

nameless; I am sure that the wind behind your

car will suck it down into the tire-strewn

canyon with the snakes and sage. Heat

bends the road, browns the stones,

burns the clouds.

The already wide open valley opens up

and we are incomprehensibly small together,

both from the lush Southern hills,

you pause your thoughts of God to ask me

in genuine interest if I am writing poetry

when I see these things and I can’t reply

precisely, but I know that a poem would

crush the scenery in a way that prayer

wouldn’t. Later, you won’t see the dime-sized

lizard hatchlings, these serious jewels, but

I will. Crossing my path, darting under rocks,

frantically alive, all over, and already at home

....Andy Trebing

Palin Panic for the Dems...

The "Not My Job" Award:

Real (not photoshopped)

This was taken at the intersection of US27 & I-471 (SE of Cincinnati) by a friend of mine.

Let the meltdown begin....

Tuesday the Cubs lost for the eighth time in nine games, leaving them 41/2 games ahead of second-place Milwaukee in the National League Central with 18 games to play.

Is this the famous cubbies September meltdown?

Mzungu will eviserate you!

The whole damn lot of 'em....

Vernon Howard's
SECRETS OF LIFE (R)

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


"Watch television, watch all those...officials who...stand
up and talk about bringing peace to the world and they talk
about curing inflation and they talk about new energy programs
that we're going to have. And they're well-dressed in suits
and ties, and they don't appear scared behind the microphone.

I wonder if there's one of you, I'm serious, I wonder if there's
one of you in this room who really sees that that man and that
woman are talking in their sleep. They don't know anything.

The last thing they know is how to cure inflation, because that's
a spiritual problem. The last thing they know is how to save
energy - that's a spiritual problem. The last thing they know is
how to make other people happy - that's a spiritual problem.
Therefore, they are lying, they're deceiving you because they've
first deceived themselves. Is there one of you here who sees
deeply into that, who understands it? I'll guarantee you the
first time you see it you will collapse in horror at what is
going on on this earth.

If you don't see it, you're still a part of it."

Teachings DVD 36, Talk # 1

U. S. of Obesity

Mediocrity Mask

Then and Now or the ravages of time...

Mick today.

Thats Mick Jaggar on the far right looking at the camera ca. 1968

Steampunk Tree House

As the night comes alive, the Steampunk Tree House can also come alive with soft plumes of steam. Working in collaboration with The Kinetic Steam Works, KSW can drive up to and hook into the Tree via a steam hose, releasing endless curls of steam into the Tree, and making Tender fleeting dumplings of its lucky inhabitants!

The steam is provided via a series of semi-visible steam pipes and outlets installed throughout the Tree’s branches and trunk. In addition, the House component has its own independent steam ports, enabling it to occasionally function as a nocturnal steam sauna. The base of the Tree has a series of independent steam ports that, when opened, gives the impression that the House is floating on a cloud.

Why I'm A Happy Guy:

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

…..Kahlil Gibran

I'm just saying......

Pause a moment, reflect back.

These events are actual events from history.

They really happened!!!

Do you remember?

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by Muslim male extremist
between the ages of 17 and 40.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred
by Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim male
extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by
Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male
extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achilles Laura was hijacked and a 70 year old
American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair
by Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver
trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim male extremists
between the ages of 17 and 40.

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim male extremists
between the ages of 17 and 40.

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim
male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by
Muslim male extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles
to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one
crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by
the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim male
extremists between the ages of 17 and 40.

Twenty Seven Strikes The Perfect Game

Author:

Robert Arthur Miller, USA

Poem

Twenty Seven Strikes The Perfect Game, a poem by Robert Arthur Miller from USA

Baseball diamond
pitchers mound,
catcher squatting
to the ground.
Throws the signs
for next pitch,
ball released
with every stitch.
Approaches batter
at a high speed rate,
swings his hardest
but much too late.
Umpire calls
the pitch strike one,
then the pitcher sets
and reloads his gun.
He stares into home
just below the hitter,
to read his next sign
and he throws a sweet splitter.
Never making contact
with the pitch that he threw,
The ump turns to his side
and calls it strike two.
The count is 0-2
and the next pitch would be,
a high fastball
that made it strike three.
Two more outs
to strike out the side,
the feat was repeated
when he pitched them inside.
On nine straight pitches
this feat was done,
he repeated it eight times
and with a no hitter,he won.
Unpredictable historic events
theres nothing like it at all,
you never know what will happen
in a good game of ball.

A Little On Desire....

"Have you ever noticed how your life, how your day is dominated
by desires? Take a look at it. You can do that, right now while
you're seated here. Take a look and see how much of your time and
energy, your thoughts are wrapped all around trying to get some-
thing, trying to achieve something, wanting to go somewhere,
wanting to do something, wanting to attract someone. If you were
to do this fully you might be shocked to see how your whole life
is indeed, one grand desire, one want after another, all pain and
anxiety, all going in different directions, none of it making any
sense at all. More than that you don't know what to do about it,
do you?"

A New Kind of Help DVD 2, Talk # 1…Vernon Howard

It was 39 years ago today....

Some real solid advice...not

Only us old farts remember the decline our nation suffered under Jimmy Carter's mis-administration. The Iran Hostage debacle, sky high interest rates ( in the 20's %),
inflation, and the energy crisis caused by the gasoline shortage.
Jimmy Carter's cure for the energy crisis was: "put on sweaters when you're at home" and be sure to "turn off unnecessary lights".
Obama's cure for the current gasoline price crunch is to "be sure your car tire's air pressure is correct".

Obama could have added that waxing your car allows it to glide through the air with less resistance thereby increasing gasoline milage.

Don't like McCain either. Wonder whatever happened to Ross Perot?....maybe draft T. Boone Pickens?

Bush's reign has turned me into a solid Independent voter.

An Open Mind

Consider your problem, whatever it might be. Perhaps it involves
marriage or finances or health. Or perhaps you fear losing your
security, or maybe you cannot obtain what you feel you must have.

Next, remember that there is a great difference between thinking
about a problem and having a completely open mind towards it.
Thinking about a difficulty cannot end it because the thought
and the difficulty reside on the same psychological level.
Conditioned thought is the very cause of the problem, therefore
it cannot save itself. Something higher is needed. This some-
thing higher exists within a truly open mind, a mind which
neither attacks nor defends a problem. An open mind ends the
illusion of an individual self, which ends the illusion of a
problem-burdened person, which ends the illusory existence of
the problem.

Have an open mind towards the preceding paragraph."

Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge, p. 152

…..Vernon Howard

Big Dog

Go here and watch the video. You will also want to read about this machine. Amazing.

Happy Birthday Uncle Sam!

Fireworks over Nashville.

Sunday Affirmation:

I shall recognize all disease as the result of my transgressions against health laws and I shall try to undo the evil by right eating, by less eating, by fasting, by more exercise, and by right thinking.
....Paramahansa Yogananda


(...the last ravages of a bbq dinner have convinced me to give up beef and pork, which I seldom eat anymore anyway. That bbq was memorable in its revenge on my body. My last meal out was a Thai noodle dish with Tofu and veggies. Very satisfying with no ill after effects.)

My candidate :

Tee shirt of the day.....

Heres Al......(again)

In the year since Al Gore took steps to make his home more energy-efficient, the former Vice President’s home energy use surged more than 10%, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

“A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.”

In the past year, Gore’s home burned through 213,210 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity, enough to power 232 average American households for a month.

From Bill Cosby....

Article from Wall Street Journal:

Rev. Wright epitomizes the thoughts and actions that have prevented and continue to prevent black America from moving ahead and achieving their potential as a people. He suggests that this United States of America made up of sons and daughters of immigrants (I'm talking of the millions of 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation immigrants in this country) of every race, creed, color and religion, each and everyone of them who had nothing to do with slavery, somehow owe something to a group of people who have never been slaves?

It's amazing. It seems everyone is to blame for the shambles black society is in with its violence, drugs, and high school drop out rates, misogyny, and a host of other real and virulent problems, except for the very people who engage in such behavior.

Enough. As a society, culture or people, they should look within themselves and fix their problems. When did this man become the spokesman for the black church? And of course his church is different, but that doesn't mean his message and philosophy is acceptable, or productive or non-offensive or not-racist or indicative or our greater cultural behaviors, values and norms as Americans.

And yes, the link between this man and Obama really does matter. At a very minimum, it provides insight into the political and philosophical strain that Obama adheres to.

Comment by Bill Cosby - April 28, 2008

Semi-nomadic Indian shepherds...

Ok....I just had to post this.....in 2008, I found this really strange. I guess a lot of the world's folks have such totally different lives from what we have here in the USA.

A little Gibran...

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

…..Kahlil Gibran

"You are goodness and mercy and compassion and understanding. You are peace and joy and light. You are forgiveness and patience, strength and courage, a helper in time of need, a comforter in time of sorrow, a healer in time of injury, a teacher in times of confusion. You are the deepest wisdom and the highest truth; the greatest peace and the greatest love. You are these things. And in moments of your life you have known yourself as these things.
Choose now to know yourself as these things always".....Kahlil Gibran

Sunday's Lesson on Monday...

"JIGSAW PUZZLE

Suppose a child is given a jigsaw puzzle and told, 'Set the
pieces together rightly and you will have an attractive picture.'
The interested child works on the puzzle but cannot get the pieces
to fit. But trusting the person who gave him the puzzle he struggles
to create the picture. But frustration builds pressure.

Suspend the child's story for a moment to see the similarity between
his problem and man's baffling condition. Human beings have a life-
problem. Authorities have assured them of success in working it out.
But nothing works. Frustration builds tension and hostility.

Persisting carefully with the puzzle, the child makes an astounding
discovery. The pieces belong to two entirely different puzzles! The
difficulty itself was false. The authority he trusted was both wrong
and careless.

That is what man must see. The problem itself is false. There is
no need for fame and fortune. There is only a need to be a real
person. We are not required to be young or attractive or desirable.
We are invited to flow in casual harmony with our own true nature."

Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge, p. 106
Vernon Howard

Boo's chickens...

Whatever happened to....?

As lead singer of the Seventies punk band the Sex Pistols, he was nicknamed Johnny Rotten – a reference to his decaying, tombstone teeth. However, in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph the rock icon, who has travelled under the name John Lydon for the past 30 years, admitted he can no longer use his former sobriquet.

"I've just spent $22,000 on them," he said. "But it wasn't vanity that sent me to the dentist after all those years. It was necessity. Ill health. All those rotten teeth were seriously beginning to corrupt my system."

Now 50, Lydon also revealed his eye sight was failing, and that he'd brought his first pair of glasses. "My distance vision is fine but, up close, hmm, a bit dodgy now. Age I suppose. I keep falling off the edge of the stage because I can't see it. I can't see my wrinkles in the mirror either, though." He also admitted his hair would be grey if he didn’t dye it.

And the waistline too has expanded, so much so that on the Sex Pistols’s new live concert DVD, We’ll Always Have The DVD, he announces to the audience: "I'm fat, I'm fifty and I'm back."

In the interview, Lydon also reflected on the Catholic church – his school had wanted him to be an altar boy, but he refused not wanting be a part of the "molestation brigade" - and one particular priest's treatment of his mother when she was dying of cancer. "The priest was in no rush to come over from Ireland to give her the last rites in hospital. The opposite in fact. He took his time and missed the boat. My mum was dying and she was clinging to any straw. But it was all, 'Oh, and by the way, is there any money in it?' He never arrived."

But lest anyone be mistaken that age has softened him – he's still an "an-ar-chist", as he sneered at the beginning of the Pistol’s first single Anarchy in the UK - he offered this warning to Buckingham Palace. "They're bound to offer me a knighthood. They can stuff it - those institutions are the Devil incarnate."
....from The First Post

A Sunday lesson...

Peace is found in surrender to good thought devotion. People who are loving, who practice stillness, who delight in meditation and good actions, are really peaceful. Peace is the alter of God, the condition in which happiness exists.
...Paramahansa Yogananda, SRF Lessons

Memorial Day Rememberance....Carl Felker

This is my good friend, Carl Felker, now deceased. Carl was a combat infantryman in WWII, serving in the 76th. Division, 385th Infantry Regiment.
Carl shared a lot of his combat experiences in Europe with me and not many of them were good. He was drafted at 18 in Savannah, Tn. Carl was 76 when he died and for all his life after the war, he suffered from what is now know as Post Traumatic Disorder. Despite this handicap, he went on to college and became a school teacher and a Methodist minister. He was also married to the same woman all his life and raised three children.
All his life Carl was a knowledge seeker with an open mind. His sharing with me of some of his knowledge changed my life for the better. Carl's life was one of love, service and devotion to his fellow man and his country.
I'm proud to have known him and been his friend.

Two in a series.....

Sartre apparently was a big ingester of mescaline to get him, er, up to speed. He also took downers to let him sleep. These facts create a big question for the history of philosophy, don't they?

Now, many readers have felt that despite his fame as the inventor of existentialism and despite his importance in many fields of literature, thought, and politics, he's completely unreadable.

Being and Nothingness, is supposed to be Sartre's great investigation of the experience of the absurdity and lack of intrinsic meaning in existence. When you discover nothingness, it's like a huge turning point, and there's no turning back.

Sure wish the book was better. This thing is a twisty-turny, pompous, sloppy, contradictory mess, written in a celebratedly bad prose, whether French or English. It may be a brilliant book, but it's not a good one. Maybe, applying the Li Po principle above, Sartre should have taken more drugs.

Bet they had one hell of a wave to ride out...

Today in history...

One in a series....

One of the best of the T'ang dynasty poets in seventh-century China, Li Po wrote many poems about drinking. In his poems and in many poems of the classic era of Chinese poetry, alcohol has two functions. First of all, it brings friends together to sing, to reminisce, to have great little parties at which everyone gets tight and starts having poetry contests. Well, great!

Second, it acts as a muse, a way to relax and release the poet into fantasies and meditations that are good for the creation of poetry. See? Nothing new. Artists have been saying for centuries that if you take drugs, you make better art. They've often felt that the perceptual expansion offered by drugs lets them have better, more suprising insights. Or at least they think they do!

Li Po and his pals obviously felt that wine helped you be a better poet. Of course, being continuously sozzled comes with its own problems. Legend has it that Li died when, in a drunken state, he tried to embrace the reflection of the moon in a lake and fell in.

Ahhhhh .....Family Fun

Michel Houellebecq's mother, who as reported on The First Post has written a memoir rebutting the alleged portrayal of her as an "old slut of a mother" in her son's best-selling novel Atomised, is back on the warpath.

In an interview in today's Guardian, Lucie Ceccaldi (pictured), 83, calls her son an "evil, stupid little bastard", saying that it would be in his best interests to stay out of her way. "If he is unfortunate enough to use my name in something again, I'll cane him round the face, that'll knock his teeth out, that's for sure. And [his publishers] won't stop me."

The Frenchman, who now lives in Ireland, is refusing to respond to her attacks, which he sees as part of a cynical campaign to publicise her book, L'innocente. In the past, he said of his mother: "She is too egocentric to produce a significant account of anything other than herself."

When asked about her abandonment of her son - he claims she left him with grandparents so she could live on a commune and enjoy young male lovers - Ceccaldi says: "I never left anybody. My son is my son. It was more him that left me. I had a relationship with him until he decided he had been abandoned. I saw him every year. Maybe I should have sent him to an English boarding school so he could have gone horse-riding and become a gentleman and everyone would have praised me."

In her memoir's postscript, she says that she will only talk to her estranged son “if he goes to a public square with Atomised in his hand and says: ‘I am a liar, I am an imposter’.” However, she has little hope of this happening. “He's too proud. And also, he's famous because he's a terrible victim. If he apologised to me, his sales would disappear."

(thanks to TheFirstPostUK)

Selective memory...

Say its your birthday....

Yesterday was Iggy's 61 birthday.

Wonder why?

Hehheh.....

Even in Kiev.......

The man is in serious need of an image change.

Steampunk PC

Guess I am really not with it anymore. I just learned about Steampunk yesterday. Watched this goofy vid then did the Wiki thing on steampunk. Hmmmm.

Tech Support

Ever talked to him?

Let the Bashing Begin!

Anybody got a cig?.....

Hmmmmm.....

Bag salesman.....

As one blogger put it, "If you're selling leather bags, why not hire one, too?"
Keith Richards as pitchman for Louis Vuitton

Today's vanity plate (Virginia)

Saint Patrick's Day

“A man's errors are his portals of discovery.”

James Joyce quotes (Irish novelist, 1882-1941)

Gore's big ones...