Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Looking For Your Own Face


Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.

So you sigh in front of mirrors
and cloud the surface.



It's better to keep your breath cold.
Hold it, like a diver does in the ocean.
One slight movement, the mirror-image goes.

Don't be dead or asleep or awake.
Don't be anything.

What you most want,
what you travel around wishing to find,
lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,
and you'll be that.

--Attar
Persian Sufi poet, 12th Century
as translated by Coleman Barks



Pat Tillman was a man who believed in a cause, died for his country

Pat Tillman was a man who believed in a cause, died for his country

The cause in which his country was engaged mattered more to Pat than the dull emptiness of greed. It mattered more to Pat than life.

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

--ee cummings

from a wonderful Sports Illustrated article

I saw this line in an article today:

[Pat] Tillman has been lauded by many Americans, including President Bush, as a hero for walking away from a $3.6 million contract in the prime of his football career to join units serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.


How do we reconcile Bush's applause regarding one decent and honorable man's walking away from millions for a cause in which he felt so strongly that he gave all for country --- while nearly every policy of the Bush administration is filled with the motives of the greediest among us? It makes me so sad. I honor Pat's service. I honor the life he gave for this country. I honor every man and woman who died, was wounded, or is going through a non-stop hell because of the greed that brings people to the point of war. They all walked away from shelter, safety, beloved family, for their country. Those are the things our president should be applauding. During his State of the Union speech last January, he never gave tribute to the dead at all. I respect the office of the president, but I have to say, from what I've seen of his political face (which is the only way I could possibly be able to judge), that I don't think I like Mr. Bush very much as far as human beings are concerned. His values are so very different from my own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I saw a headline at World Net Daily: "Firm will give Tillman's jersey to family--Could have made up to $4 million selling pieces with trading cards"
A businessman is meant to look like a hero for not being a sleaze who'd cash in on the back of a dead American hero. I'm sorry, I think I'll refrain giving him any special pat on the back. Why do we glorify the greediest-worst of businesspeople when they finally do something ethical? What does that say about our society?

Sgt. Pat Tillman wore two uniforms that Americans will always remember: the Army fatigues in which he died, and the NFL jersey he sacrificed first..... Before his death, Pat Tillman's NFL jersey might have been lost in the 55,000-square-foot building near the Ballpark in Arlington, where Donruss Trading Cards assimilates iconic souvenirs, putting small pieces of history on collectors' cards. The pieces of a typical game-worn jersey will yield about 2,000 trading cards. In the case of Pat Tillman, the company estimates it could have made up to $4 million. "What Pat Tillman is going to mean to the United States of America is better left to his family and who they want to write that chapter ... not us," said Dully.



Coming Tomorrow to a 9-11 Commission Near You...

Coming Tomorrow to a 9-11 Commission Near You



No..it's not Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy...it's..

THE DICK CHENEY AND DUBYA MCBUSHY SHOW!

Frank Lautenberg sticks it to VP Cheney

Frank Lautenberg sticks it to VP Cheney

At ABC's Political Note, it says:


Sen. Lautenberg on "chicken hawks":

"The lead chicken hawk is the Vice President. He's been attacking Kerry. What nerve. Where was Dick Cheney during the Vietnam War?... Cheney said he had other priorities, he should tell that to others who served and died in Vietnam."

Lautenberg on Bush:

"Last July, he said bring 'em on, he wasn't brought on the field of Vietnam when there was a chance for him to do something."

McCain responds to Lautenberg "chicken hawk" charge, calls for peace, reasonableness, bipartisanship, ratcheting down of the rhetoric while sticking up for both Bush and Kerry, ABC News' Linda Douglass reports.


By the way, VP Cheney took in a cool $178,437 from Halliburton in 2003.

In another news story about Frank Lautenberg: He accused American companies this week of collecting "blood money" by doing business with terror sponsors and said he would push for legislation to stop it.

Jim McDermott is a godless Marxist and other assorted fables

Jim McDermott is a godless Marxist and other assorted fables

OH MY GOD!!
He didn't say GOD!
*I can't wait to see World Net Daily's headline on this one*

If Jim McDermott had left out the words "..one nation, indivisible.." out of his recital of the Pledge, we'd have a bona fide problem. Only the truest patriot understands that, in order to maintain the bonds of a strong nation, our common faith lies not in believing that God exists, but that we have an undying drive to survive as a united force in the cause of freedom for all.

Trivia: Yesterday, April 27 was the 50th anniversary of when the phrase "under God" was added to the original pledge (which never before contained it).

Congratulations go out to Arlen Specter

Congratulations go out to Arlen Specter

One thing the president has done as (begrudging) political necessity is to have backed Arlen Specter in this attempted coup by the extreme right wing Norquistian crowd. Toomey fooled some of the people in Pennsylvania with his faux-drumbeat about strict social and economic conservatism, but he couldn't fool all of them. Toomey will fully support Specter after this defeat. The Club for Growth claims it was Specter's "grit" and "money" that snared the win.
Just what we look for in our greatest leaders... grit...money....... (*whatever happened to character, accountability, respect for true freedom, respect for the rule of law and ethics, intelligence, trustworthiness and honesty, anyway?)

On the Drudge report, the headline reads: Specter ekes out win in Pennsylvania primary.
When you look at the results..Specter had 526,120 votes, or 51 percent, to Toomey's 509,507 votes, or 49 percent...you'll see there's a division in the Republican party mirroring today's national overall polarizing political numbers. Trouble in Republican paradise? It's no wonder the president felt he had to back Specter.

I honestly like Arlen Specter and I'm very happy for his victory.
Now it's on to face the Democratic candidate Joe Hoeffel this November.