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Aging Hippies, Part III"NOTHING IS LIKE IT SEEMS BUT EVERYTHING IS EXACTLY LIKE IT IS"
July 15 Digging InFor those of you who think that the '60's was the most turbulent, dangerous time in American history I have one suggestion: review GWB's two terms. If you don't have time for that, just listen to the press conference he held today.
The '60's had the SDS, the Black Panthers, controversy, Vietnam, Nixon, and hope. Today we have the War Without End, fear, the "My Country Right or Wrong" mentality, and the choice of either Obama or McCain.
You choose.
My music choice for the day is probably not suitable, either: Killing the Blues by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
July 06 Another Faith Based Initiative"Both revelation and delusion are attempts at the solution of problems. Artists and scientists realize that no solution is ever final, but that each new creative step points the way to the next artistic or scientific problem. In contrast, those who embrace religious revelation and delusional systems tend to see them as unshakeable and permanent...
The majority of mankind... are not necessarily dismayed by the discovery that their (religious) belief system, which they proclaim as "the truth" is incompatible with the beliefs of other people. One man's faith is another man's delusion..."
Anthony Stone, Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners and Madmen: A Study of Gurus
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"The monkey sat on a pile of stones
And he stared at the broken bone in his hand And the strains Viennese quartet Rang out across the land The monkey looked up at the stars And he thought to himself Memory is a stranger History is for fools... And the Germans killed the Jews
And the Jews killed the Arabs And Arabs killed the hostages And that is the news And is it any wonder That the monkey's confused" Roger Waters, "Perfect Sense, Part I"
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Baudelaire opened
up a hamburger stand in San Francisco, but he put flowers between the buns. People would come in and say, “Give me a hamburger with plenty of onions on it.” Baudelaire would give them a flowerburger instead and the people would say, “What kind of a hamburger stand is this?” by Richard Brautigan
July 01 Nuclear FireYesterday I glowed with a radioactive isotope shot into my vein at 9am. At 1pm pictures were taken of my bones. It was hot in the scan room and the 45 minutes seemed to take 2 hours. I saw the pictures on a computer terminal, so I know they were real, right? When I got up after the scan my back hurt. I pissed radioactive for the next 24 hours. I was aglow with nuclear fire. I was starshine. As insignificant as I am in the universe, I was on fire for a time with elementary particles, like a minor sun, and wishing I had purchased that 1950's era geiger counter when I had the chance at a radio swap meet in Rochester in 1993 to measure the intensity a vial of my piss... Today I purged myself of all radioactivity with wine and milk thistle capsules as I made spaghetti sauce and mowed the lawn. Life is strange, for sure. It's also good. June 27 Mistakes ReduxGuilty, as individuals and as a culture. We should know better.
The media is full of 40th anniversary flashbacks to 1968: the "Summer of Love," Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, the Tet Offensive.... the media is full of lots of stuff. Our news sources feed us exactly what we want to hear even if it isn't true and we eat it up. 40 years ago we were fighting an unpopular, unilateral, unjustified war in SE Asia. Today we're repeating the same actions in the Mideast. We are displaying mental and moral illness: repeating the same faulty actions over and over again but expecting a different, positive outcome this time around. If a naive child intentionally puts his hand on a hot stove we write it off the first time. If he does it again a 2nd, 3rd and 4th time, we wonder if he's a bit slow. We do that as parents. We don't seem to have the same concern as citizens, do we?
Change was what 1968 was all about. Some proposals were valid and universal. Some were hedonistic and unrealistic. Here's a line from a song by a dead guy that reflects 1968, his era, and today:
"We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes. Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other. You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive." June 18 America, AmericaNow they want a bone scan. Wonderful. What a way to start the summer.
Made me think a little: what are the advantages that the US offers in 2008 compared to the rest of the world?
Stable economy? Look at the stock market, the relative value of the dollar, the unemployment rate, the price of energy, the housing market, the balance of payments.
Beacon of democratic values? Remember rendition, our record of torture, our domestic incarceration rate, the Justice Department scandals, our unilateral military record in the past 5 years.
Domestic accomplishments? Google our international standings on elementary & High School achievement, mortality, and poverty rates.
We excel in a few areas:
Highest per-capita energy use of any nation on earth.
The world's best testing and major medical system. If you are a Saudi Prince, an elected federal official, independently wealthy, or one of the lucky ones with good medical coverage, and in need of surgery for cancer, a transplant, or heart surgery, the US is the place to visit. Otherwise you get to go to the local emergency room.
The most prestigious university degrees. If you are a Saudi prince, your dad is an elected federal official, or you are independently wealthy, a Harvard or Yale PhD is well within your grasp. If you are an average US citizen.... here's a clue: After a tour during the Vietnam era and 20 years of total military service I was eligible for enough funding to finish the last 2 years of a B.S. through a NYS external degree program (mail order credentials, yes?) I couldn't afford the room and board to complete it in residence at a NYS campus. My daughter financed herself through a Masters degree and is now facing $100,000 in student loan repayments. My son is on active duty in the Army and will get out with enough to pay for an Associates degree from a nonresident state community college.
What's the point you say? Because I have medical insurance I will get an expensive test based on "inconclusive blood work results." I have no symptoms or problems but I DO have insurance through my spouse's employer. Luck of the draw. If I didn't have it, there would be no bone scan. Meanwhile my next door neighbor's kid with asthma and no health insurance coughs and gasps for air when the ragweed blooms. They live across the road. Might as well live in another country. Chances are she won't go to Harvard, either.
If I were a NY Senator or the President I would ask myself, "what kind of a hamburger stand is this?"
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