Something to consider while out Christmas shopping..

If you have never experienced the
danger of war or the solitude of
imprisonment, the agony of torture
and hunger, you are much ahead of
the 500 million people who live in
this world.

Thought of the day

There are moments in life when the presence of another makes it worth for us to go on living

Thought of the day

Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
Chinese proverb

Thought of the day

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goals, it lies in having no goals to reach - Benjamin Mays

Thought of the day

Your interpretation of what you see and hear is just that - your interpretation

Thought of the day

Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level.

Cruel Irony..

Bobby Fischer died on Thursday, January 17, at his home in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 64 years old.

Bobby Fischer was a bright kind of guy. By the age of 14, he was US Chess Champion and he brought the World Chess Championship title to the US during 1972 after beating Boris Spassky in one of the more peaceful Cold War face offs.

He was also an outspoken critic of his native country to the point where he denounced his US citizenship, becoming a citizen of Iceland instead. When the US administration talked of the 'Axis of Evil', he talked of the 'Allies of Evil', those being the countries which fully supported the present troubles in the Middle East. Was he wrong in what he said? Well, if you look at some facts, you may find yourself agreeing with him.

Allegedly, Bush and his playmates had a plan in the making to invade Iraq BEFORE the events of September 11, 2001. Bearing in mind that it is hardly de rigueur to invade a sovereign country with no pretext, it must have been seen as the biggest stroke of luck that the Twin Tower attack took place. If ever there was a reason to wage war on a country, this had to be it. Of course, Iraq and Saddam Hussein were not responsible for September 11, but hey, who cares! Bush and Co didn't like the guy anyway.

So Bush commands the US military to charge into Iraq, using 'Shock an Awe' tactics. This is similar to Hitler's Blitzkrieg except that the only shock and awe about it all is the way in which Iraqi civilians and US/Allied military personnel were and still are dying like flies.

Having brought down Saddam Hussein and his evil government, it became clearly obvious to all that Bush and Co had no follow up strategy in Iraq other than to instruct Hallliburton, a company in which some members of the US administration may or may not have a vested interest, to safeguard and maintain oil supplies out of Iraq.

What of finding the real culprits behind September 11? We were told that the Al Qaeda leader was hanging out in Afghanistan, but the US needed soldiers for the Iraq invasion so, Canada and one or two other countries were left holding the Afghan baby. It must be noted that in past years, the Canadian military has been a non-aggressive peace keeping force. The change in function has not impressed Canadians a whole bunch.

The Middle East crisis predates anything that ever happened to the Twin Towers. The biggest problem was the way the state of Israel was created. Many Jews had migrated to Palestine because of persecution by the people of other nations. After World War II, the major Western powers elected to form a Jewish state but shuffled the responsibility onto the United Nations who gotten it all wrong by allocating more land to the new state than would be left for the Arabs whose homeland Palestine was.

Needless to say, the United Nations forced the plan through with the promise of aid and full military backing from the US, Britain and France. And here lies the overriding problem. In order that we can preserve our economic interests abroad, we feel that it is our duty to enforce our ways on people who neither understand or want them. One has to note that any country lacking in resources wanted by the West, or that doesn't pose a threat by the spreading of communism, is left completely alone.

The US is not alone in acts of International vandalism. Britain has left messes behind it after pulling out of territory previously governed as part of the British Empire. Pakistan is a good case in point, where the British supported one faction until such time as they were ready to pull out. At this point, they changed allegiances. leaving Pakistan in political turmoil, a state from which the country has never really fully recovered.

We have seen the same after the fall of the Soviet Union, none more so than in the former state of Yugoslavia which completely fell apart, former hostilities between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia rising like the blast from Krakatoa.

Until we stop forcing our ways onto others, there will always be problems.

It is said that Bobby Fischer had his fair share of idiosyncrasies, and it is true that his chosen lifestyle was somewhat reclusive, but he was a man who had his eyes open, and he looked beyond the 'national' emotion that seems to grab some.

The West is looking for ways to bring peace to the Middle East, but Bush and Co will not be the ones to do it, especially as they are trying their level best to get the world and his dog to turn on Iran. Why Iran? Well, busting Iraq apart did no good at all, Iran is close by and it would be relatively easy to move troops there.

Here is a quote from somebody famous...

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it".

The author of the quote was none other than the great problem solver himself, Albert Einstein.

Thought of the Day

Time and words cannot be recalled even if it was only yesterday

Good words to live by

The only people with whom you should try to get even are the people who have helped you.

Always remember

Life is not about waiting for the rain to pass on, it's about learning to dance in the rain.

Thought of the day

Being happy does not mean everything is perfect, it means you have decided to see beyond imperfections.

Thought of the day

When you don't know what you want, you may end up where you don't want to be.

Thought of the day

Even if I have pains, I don't have to be one.

Thought of the day

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.

William James (1842 - 1910)

If..

.. you were CEO of a company, and you made some totally dumb statement not just once but multiple times, or pursued policies that appeared to be flawed even in the minds of the criminally stupid, you would lose your job. You would suffer public humiliation to the point where crawling under an inconspicuous rock would be heaven.

Public figures, those high up on pedestals for whatever reason, seem to believe that they have immunity, that they deserve special treatment. The public can be a tough audience, and a performer of any kind is judged only on the last performance.

Lindsay Lohan has recently been busted on a DUI charge. Ms Lohan has only just finished treatment at a 'rehab' clinic, a short period of time where she appears to have taken nothing too seriously. She would do well to learn from Paris Hilton's recent experiences, but not to follow in exactly the same footsteps.

Paris did end up doing here time, but what did she really learn from it. Her attempt at being 'religious' fell somewhat flat during an interview with Larry King. She claimed that she read her Bible when incarcerated. She claimed to be religious, having attended a Catholic school. She couldn't remember her favorite passage from the Bible. She hasn't learned how to be truthful yet, to others or herself.

Onward and upward. Butch Bush and Sundance Cheney are both having fun in the sun, and more so since their overall popularity is so low that it doesn't matter what they do anymore. These two guys are so above the law as to defy belief. Nobody can tell me that there were not warning signs of what was to come. Take a good look at this statement, made during Butch's first presidential debate.

"The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war!"

For more like this, click on the 'How to create an angry American" video in this blogs basement.

I have just one question. Why are Butch and his sidekick still gainfully employed as leaders of the most powerful nation on earth?

Thought of the day

The American Indian found out what happens when you don't control immigration.

Time on the beach

While I waked along the beach today, a few words of Longfellow came to my mind:

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind

Thought of the day

Of all acts of man, repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

Thomas Carlyle

Blog Writer's thought of the day

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven; a Yiddish proverb

Words of a Wise Man..

"We did not ask White Men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. We do not interfere with you, and again you say, why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization. We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them."

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"A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky. I was hostile to the white man. We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers came and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came. They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape but we were so hemmed in we had to fight."

These are just a few words from the man known as Tashunkewitko to his people, the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, and Crazy Horse to the rest of the world. Born circa 1842, he was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in 1877.