Most people think that globalization is perhaps an economic trend,where corporations float around the world,finding the cheapest labor,the lowest taxes and the least restrictions.Some think the term means the encroaching of "western" civilization on traditional mores. For others it has religious connotations,or maybe it means it globalization of communications.(Timbuktu has cell phone service,Oriskany,Virginia does not,LOL) Globalization is all those things, but there is one more consideration.
I just found out today that a good friend passed on. I hadn't heard from in a two months and decided to search Google and found the obituary. He died in November. There was little information other than the date of death. Gerry and I became good friends thru a powder horn website I had. We shared a love for 18th century American history and spent long hours on the phone discussing longrifles,gunsmiths,trekking,hunting and the like. Gerry also was in recovery. He had well over 25 years of recover
If you read the American press,you'd think Iran was as evil as Nazi Germany. Unfortunately Americans don't get the truth too often. There are powerful interests that would like to see a war with Iran. Certain foreign lobbies and some corporate lobbies would have much to gain. The expense to the American people would be great. But what I want to discuss today is what is going on with Iran. Internally there are many problems. The economy is suffering under the sanctions. And you have a power strSP
The wise ones explain life's journey to be, "the human soul in search of,and in progress toward,final harmony and intergration with all creation." ( Idries Shah). Religion,which was created to help mankind achieve this goal,has turned into dogma and mind control. Both Christianity and Islam have succumbed to this failure. Christ preached a message of love, but his followers deified him and changed his words until what was left of his teachings became the state religion of the Roman Empire.Dogma
OK for those of you salivating here's the recipe:
2 lbs Goat, boned and cubed
1 bag dried mango or 2 fresh in seasom
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup large golden raisins
1 red bell peMFer diced
1 anaheim chile diced
1 tablespoon garlic paste
1 tablespoon ginger paste
1 tablespoon DD Bell madras curry paste(or other Vietnamese brand)
1 tablespoon Badshah kitchen king masala
1 tablespoon badshah madras sambar masala
1 teaspooon palm sugar
1 large onion diced
2 cans Rotel tomatoes wit
I guess we have all noticed the rise in food prices. Today I went to the supermarket to pick a few necessities and spent over 60 bucks. Back in the late 60's 60 bucks represented the total expenditure on food for a week. Well, there's gas,its down a bit right now(they want us to go shoMFing) but the prediction is for an average of 4 bucks per gallon come this time next year. Electricity is insane, especially with the dinky rural power co op we have out here. Then there are the ever rising techno
They fight,they bluster,they stall. They play chicken with our nation.This year has numerous occasions where the government almost stoMFed. Their antics with the debt ceiling caused Moody's to lower our credit rating, sending stocks tumbling and devouring middle-income investments again. It's a sad story, Partisanship is rife. They can't agree on anything. But yesterday they found something they could agree upon. Extended payroll tax cuts? Extended Unemployment benefits? No such luck.
The Hous
It was back in 1956,cars were just getting fins,Elvis was the rage,Leave it to Beaver was on TV. America's golden years'it has been said. But not for this kid. I had just turned 11,my Dad passed away earlier that year when I was in 5th grade. My Mom was a 1950's housewife who may have dreamed about being on the TV show "Queen for a Day", where you got a tacky crown and lots of new aMFliances. Mom quit working back in 1944, when she was pregnant with me,Dad didn't leave much and she had to try to
Today is Veteran’s day and I am a veteran. More specifically a Marine Corps vet,a Vietnam vet, a disabled vet. I did two tours in Vietnam, was wounded and returned home to demonstrations and catcalls. I put Vietnam and the coming home experience in the back of my head, locked away. Now I am dealing with the subsequent PTSD. So it was my mental wounds rather than my shrapnel wounds that define my disabled status. Up on the flight deck(psych ward) of my local VA hospital there vets from every conf
The Corps is 236 years old! Semper Fi,Oorah! The marines have survived another year.Numerous times in the past,people have lobbied for ending the Corps and delegating its mission to Army and Navy units. After Joe Rosenthal's famous Iwo Jima flag raising photo, someone was reputed to have said something to the effect of,this will insure the Corps existence. So far,thank God,with all the budget cutting frenzies going on,no one has raised the idea of abolishing the Marines. Marines have proven them
As a retired person who depends on investment income,the past few years have been like a financial roller coaster.I was pleased that the Greek crisis was averted and enjoyed seeing the Dow Jones rise back above 12,000, only to find out today that Italy is next. Like Herman Cain’s female accusers,financially straMFed countries seem to be aMFearing on a regular basis. Ireland,Portugal,Spain,Greece now Italy then maybe France and of course the 800 lb gorilla in the room, the United States. What’s g
God has already revealed all, in fact it was never hidden and needs no revelation.So when come to say that they have God’s revelation, what they have is a current understanding within their capacity of God’s ‘word’. So what was ‘revealed’ to Moses,Buddha.Jesus, Muhammad and others was an understanding of God’s ‘law’ within the cultural and scientific parameters of the age. So you have the Christian church denouncing Galileo because the Bible’s level of astronomical knowledge was 2000 years behi
The Coroner’s Court in London released information saying that Amy Winehouse died from alcohol poisoning.
Winehouse’s blood-alcohol levels were 416 milligrams per 100 milliliters of blood, the inquest was told. The legal limit to drive in Britain is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
Wow,thats a lot of booze and it shows how dangerous alcohol can be. While the Fed’s drug war seemingly spends billions combating Reefer Madness,hardly a word is said about booze. Booze lobbies
Wow, this one puzzles me. All of a sudden there are calls for the investigation of Gaddafi’s purported execution(bullet in the head),while Bin Laden’s death is covered by that wonderful phrase,”the fog of war” Albeit that the world is better off with both of these monsters gone,but why the hypocracy? Does this mean assassination by Americans is covered,but executions by Libyans not? OK,one can say the mission was to capture Bin Laden and during the shootout he was shot,or something like that. G
Sometimes i am amazed that I am still alive,given the abuse I have subjected to my body. The drinking,the drugs,the war, the wounds,years of poor eating habits,physically pushing my limits without training or forethought, and a litany of other abuses. In the first ten years of sobriety,I had gained 70 lbs, substituting eating for drinking. I lost most of that wieght in 2007 only to regain it while watching DVD’s of the whole Soprano’s series over a period of one month while eating tons of lasag
The sabers are rattling,again. The US government claims agents of Iran were involved in an attempt to assassinate Adel al Jubeir, the Saudi Ambassador. Iran calls it ridiculous lies. Who do you believe. Well Iran certainly has lied before and aMFears to lie continually about her plans to build nuclear weapons. And the American government? I hardly believe anything that comes from their lips,its all lies and spin. Even the Obama administration , who promised us transparency,has become as adept wi
Heading out to my morning walk in the woods,I put on the news station. I heard that that the Catholic Church in India is going to pay bonuses to Catholics who produce more babies. India, the worlds second most populous nation, soon to be first, who can’t properly feed many of its own countrymen. India, where vast tin and cardboard slums exist in every major city, India,where people scrounge garbage dumps for food, and the Catholic Church is calling for more babies! Why? More children to abuse? M
Why i it that we observe the threads and not the whole tapestry? While sitting still in the woods,mindfully meditating,my mind took notice of objects, a tree(what kind?) a rock(how old?),a bird(what species?), etc. I noticed them and moved on to the next wave of electricity in my head. Sounds,sights,smells,touch, all these faculties of observation. So we identify,catagorize,classify, and further break things down to understand them. But what we tend to lose is the whole. After about a half hour
Been away from the blog for a bit to enjoy long walks in the fall woods with fine dogs,but I have been meaning to comment on this for awhile. Finally,it seems, some people are waking up and coming to realize that this country is being stolen from under them. And the right is worried,oh boy are they worried. Conservative talk show hosts and candidates have been been on this the past few days,especially since the media has decided to cover it. They fume over spoiled kids,people who don't work and
We hear this phrase alot these days,both in religion and politics. Evangelical Christians tell us that the Bible is the word of God,Jews say that Mosaic law is the word of God. Islamists tell us that the Quran is the word of God. Glenn Beck tells us that he follows God's word as it is spoken to him. George Bush answered to a higher Father. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad speaks to the Hidden Imam,who I imagine is in direct contact with God. Of course all these voices aMFear to hear some very different thing
First off,let me state at the outset that I believe that the gods of mankind are usually cultural inventions to explain what we cannot usually fathom. Some people break thru this veil and “see god”. They try to explain it as best they know how in cultural terms. Surely the concept of god has included polytheists,monotheists,animists and a host of others. All describe god or gods as having various forms or attributes. Classical faiths counted numerous gods, shamanists and animists counted spirit
Alright, we are faced with yet another threat of government shut down. Didn’t we just finish playing this game? Oh,yes its all politics. Speaker John Boehner assures us that there will be no government shutdown. The issue seems to hinge on monies for federal disaster relief,which times seems to be a disaster itself and rarely a relief. Granted that in my humble opinion, there should be such a thing as disaster relief,but it should work,too. So once again the GOP holds us hostage for political ga
When Obama was running for president in 2008, I thought,here is man standing at the crossroads of greatness,a junction history doesn’t often offer. I bought Obama’ change rhetoric,only to find it was business as usual. Nothing was done to address the crimes of the Bush era,our military adventures increased,big oil spoke and everyone listened,green environmental issues were given lip service until the recession gave cause to side with those who exploit the planet. More of the same,more pandering
When will we as a species learn to accept the views of our fellow man as valid? For me it was travel,it was living in other cultures,not as tourist but as close to a native as possible. Trying to live their life as they lived it. They had different solutions for the same problems of life and those solutions worked as well as ours and were just as valid. Their vision of a higher power was one I could always live with. The names we call God matter very little,really. The laws we ascribe to God ar
Becca looked like Shiva in a hoop of flame doing the dance of bliss.Bliss reigned on Magic Mountain in West by God Virginia. My dear friend K invited us and proceeded to teach me how to stretch muscles that haven’t stretched since retirement. I want more Yoga. Doug taught us how to meditate thru our pain,how mindful meditation is the goal, not mental aviation( do I have to get rid of my flying carpet?) Aaron, the Rastaman,a few tents down was an artistic wave of beauty and creation. My yellow,r
