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June 2009 archive
Jun 03 2009
To free the sun
The eagle soars into turquoise and indigo
catching gold on white tipped feathers
in cadence of wind and stillnesses
singing and swooping with currents and storms
alone, the far-seer, sky dancer.
sun fire dips down to serpentine underworld
and eagle descends on rose and mauve and amber light
to an eyrie for night’s long dream
head curved under wings
eagle encircled in sleep
reflecting early kinship
with those scaled and coiled beings
who swallow the sun in their tangled trap
while the lost world waits in darkness and dream;
and in dreamworlds gods and goddesses
beat the pulse of prayer
dancing near smaller fires
drumming toward greater light
creating song from cries of loss
fanning the glowing ember of the heart
praising color:
green of growth, gold of maize
soft rich browns of deer and earth
rainbow prisms of mist and sun
and riotous spring anemonies
tangerine and sienna of autumn’s burnt lemon death
after summer’s blue heat
and the white quiet in the center
of winter’s stillness
and as hope begins to flicker
in the endless dark tunnel of night
eagle dreams stir
and in sleep awaken shadow-winged predator spirits
who dive for us all
into alien elements
fathomless seas of cobalt and black
dive through the surface
along watery crescents of moon’s mirrored image
downward liquid spiral journey
and now is the need for eagle’s sharp vision:
glimpse of turbulence below
dark shapes massing and twisting
in volcanic force the sun is caught
by serpents jealous and frenzied in battle
surrounding the light;
beak and talons curve
wings pull against the tidal vortex
moving with but not surrendering
to that power
and they strike
for an endless moment hearts stop in their sleep
drums do not beat
as feathers, coils, silver fangs and claws
embrace in the death of our dreams;
and in that moment the sun is freed
and begins to float luminous
toward that thin membrane where sea and sky meet
leaving an image of frozen fury far below
and finally, bursting through
with the fragile sound of silence and color
dawn is borne up on wings of light
life stirs
light stirs us all
and an eagle soars toward the sun
on the sighs of our awakening
Poem by Josie Tamarin
Published in “The Way Of The Shaman” by Michael Harner
Jun 03 2009
Healthcare on Demand
Part 2 of our ongoing “If you build it” new coalition activism series. (WWL version)
In our effort to make a list of DEMANDS rather than suggestions, that can be brushed aside as “not feasible at this time” today we will address Health Care.
Let me repeat the Mantra:
A person and their doctor walk into a room. They decide what avenue will best keep that person healthy and alive. No bean counters. No multiple referrals. No putting it up for review with a bunch of multiple churches. They GET the care necessary.
The term “single-payer” confuses most Americans anyway. It makes it sound like THEY, a single individual must pay, a term probably chosen as a way to create a Pavlovian rejection, even while it is in people’s best interests.
Gottlieb suggested, “While single payer is the goal, I suggest we start with something achievable and that is “the public option” plan. The Public Option is the vehicle which can grow into single payer.” but I don’t agree. Any compromise we make will be used to stall and to thwart the process in the interests of the Healthcare Profit Industry to continue to make profits as “insurance” companies. (Sorry darlin, but we must commit to this)
If we could turn factories overnight into tank and bomber factories with 1940’s technologies, this too can and SHALL be done.
Our commitment must be in stone.
Jun 03 2009
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live,
giving up victory and defeat.
–The Dhammapada, 201
Phenomena XIII: hurting
 Ice
|
Jun 03 2009
$10.5 Trillion Committed to Financial Industry, $2.6 Trillion Spent So Far
(Crossposted from The Free Speech Zone)
Check this shit out.
That’s where your tax money went and a nice estimate of how much the government is willing to fork over of it if it needs to (a.k.a. when it’s told to).
No! Don’t riot America(LMFAO!), it’s ok, there’s a “Recovery Act” under way to help all you “Hardworking Americans”
Check out this “absolute disgusting display of socialism on steroids”….
Married couple with 2 children.
Income: $120,000Tax Cut Under Recovery Act: $800
($800 from Making Work Pay Credit)Married couple eligible for first time Homebuyer’s Credit with 2 children
Income: $60,000Tax Cut Under Recovery Act: $8,800
($800 from Making Work Pay Credit and $8,000 from Homebuyer’s Credit)Married couple with 3 children, all eligible for the Child Tax Credit and EITC.
Income: $30,000Tax Cut Under Recovery Act: $2,172
($800 from Making Work Pay Credit, $1,025 from EITC increase, and $347 from Child Tax Credit increase)Married Couple with a Child who is a Full Time Student with $4,000 in Education Expenses
Income: $90,000Tax Cut Under Recovery Act: $1,500
($800 from Making Work Pay Credit, $700 from increased American Opportunity Tax Credit)
That report is referenced from here in.
So ok.
First sample family? Not bad, whatevs, they’re doin at least ok anyways.
Now let’s cut that income in half, keep the same family, and show the $8000 dollars they’d be eligible for from the government if they would ever get approved for a home-loan in the first place so let’s just act as if that’s not even there. Oh, and don’t forget the $800 tax cut that covers maybe a month of gas, some bills, and…well that’s it. Thanks Uncle Sam!
Then they keep the couple, add an extra kid and cut the income in half again! Now you got a couple, 3 kids, at $30K. Oh boy oh boy! a one time yearly gift of $2200! What a great lift out of poverty for them!
The last family is a couple with one kid who’s a full-time student with $4k in college expenses (on what planet does a full-time student at a 4 year school only have $4k in expense?!) an their income is $90k. Oh boy, $1500. The kid will get a laptop.
Ok, so what about these “plans” they have to get the people back on their feet?
Jun 03 2009
Science Entails Practice; Likewise Religion
Religion and science are both practiced by humans, therefore they are not as unlike as many argue. There is much overlap in the skills of emotions and of understanding required to practice either productively. Both fall disappointingly short of realizing their ideals in practice. Both are corrupted by the common human flaws.
Faith is one foundation of most religions. All religions also involve practice. It’s not so obvious how to master one’s anger and violent tendencies. Selfishness is a persistent human trait. And greed, and so on. But practice tends toward perfection. Not being a good person for some future reward, no. I am talking about practicing behavior which will bring happiness to oneself and to others. Christianity is in alignment with every major religion in placing the golden rule at it’s center. Treat others as you yourself would be treated. This simple guide defines a human technology which could actually prevent warfare and end torture. It is a much more effective approach than simply being right-which is where science, or being reality-based, rears it arrogant head.
I stress arrogant, as opposed to confident in oneself as a result of disciplined practice of rationality. For science entails practice as well. No matter how deep one’s knowledge of the heuristic methods of science, acquiring the skills of a practicing scientist requires years of practice-as in religion, the acquired skills are never fully mastered.
Oops, did I call science arrogant? And I was so wanting to be nice. Sigh. If it makes you rational ones feel better, pretending to have co-powers with god is rather breathtaking in its audacity, not to mention claiming to know the unknowable. So let’s call it a tie. Okay, go ahead, give religion the black mark on this one. The over-riding point is that humans tend to be arrogant. Add that one to the list of human afflictions.
Jun 03 2009
$10.5 Trillion Committed to Financial Industry, $2.6 Trillion Spent So Far
Check this shit out.
That’s where your tax money went and a nice estimate of how much the government is willing to fork over of it if it needs to (a.k.a. when it’s told to).
No! Don’t riot America(LMFAO!), it’s ok, there’s a “Recovery Act” under way to help all you “Hardworking Americans”
Check out this “absolute disgusting display of socialism on steroids”….
Jun 03 2009
Albert Gray Eagle, Flute Maker, Needs An Author
My friend and spirit brother, Albert Gray Eagle, needs an author.
Jun 03 2009
We have either become Nazis or Zombies.
There are two truths in the world of video gaming:
1) You will always have to save the princess again
2) The only two acceptable enemies to slaughter in games of war are zombies and Nazis.
Not even during the height of the Cold War were Russians placed in a gamescape to be gunned mercilessly by 14 year old boys. This was always reserved for the most foul and unholiest of creatures, Nazis and zombies.
Zombies were a no brainer, and yes I meant that pun. But Nazis were always rendered as human beings fighting for the horror show that was Nazi Germany. The very first popular first person shooter would lead to decades of war against digital Nazis, with no other human foes ever inserted, not even people we fought like the Koreans or Vietnamese:
Sure, there was an oddball terrorist to kill here and there, but they would always answer to some higher power, which would always turn out to be a freaking Nazi.
Always.
This is why this new game is a bit of a teller, and how the world might add Americans to the list of evils:
Congrats America! Let’s hope the world thinks we zombies, at least then we can claim to just be mindless torturers.
Jun 03 2009
Dude, You’re an Imperialist
I was talking to a friend the other day and we got into some war talk. I was spreading my usual hate for the imperialistic adventures of the U.S. and my friend, he of the less well read, challenged me about the Global War on Terror (GWOT). I think that’s a much better name than the “Long War” because the “Long War” seems like something that should be given after the fact. The war lasted fifty fucking years, i.e., the Long War. Could be just a social engineering ploy by those in power to get the populace accustomed to a long war, but I’m not a Conspiracy Theorist. No way, not me.
Anyway, I tried to explain to him what the real purpose of the GWOT was and he still didn’t get it. I mean, I gave him my best anti-imperialist speech. Everything I’ve got. Oil, natural gas, American interests, CIA, torture, fucking with Russia and China, everything. Still, those fucking Arabs who are going to come over here and plant a nuclear bomb in downtown L.A., were too powerful a force to overcome. I had only one chance.
I told him Obama is going to be worse than Bush on foreign policy. That seemed to perk him up abit. Not because he was an Obama supporter, but he knew how much I hated Bush. I told him that Bush went after a couple of defenseless countries who were no danger to the continental U.S. That would be small stuff compared to what Obama is planning, or what those behind Obama are planning, and already carrying out. That plan is to secure American supremacy for the next one hundred years by going after China and Russia, effectively playing each off the other. “The Grand Chessgame” as a dude named Zbignew wrote.
He didn’t really have much to say about that. He still thinks the U.S. military is used for all that is good in the world, and we are right in our actions to take down viscious dictators and cruel rulers. We are right in our quest to get them before they get us.
I like my friend, particularly when we don’t talk politics. This time, all I could say is “Dude, you’re an Imperialist”!
Cross posted at Daily Kos