JENGOFET'S BLOGOSPEW

Our Endorsement for President,

I suppose as a sort of public forum whcih sounds off occassionally (note: I never claimed an type of rationality whether in or out side of the blog entries which are usually written in the middle of the night by someone, usually me, me --- severely sleep deprived), I guess I realize that even a blog getting read by NOONE, not even a friend, deserves or rather owes it to itself as a freedom of speech thing or whatever...anyway, I guess even a non-essential blog owes to the one in a million people who might read  or it (or skim it even), it choise for US PRESIDENT.

I don't know right this second who I am endorsing however, writing being a sort of problem solving technique for me, (most are high or under the influence of something fame related when they make these choices so there method of shoosing needs to remain hidden....but me?  Nobody gives a rats ass really what I think, for the most part, including me, my own self.  But sometimes I like to think I say something relevent that gets heard, even by only one person, amongst the absolutely gaudy and self-aggrandizing type of commercialism surrounding and regarding fame at this juncture in our semi (at best) - civilized society is a hard nut to friggin crack let me tell you.

I can kind of write anything I want to write and post it in the great vaccuum of the time space continuum called the "Internet" and it can just hang there, none reading it again after that quick spellcheck after writing it...or maybe it gets to one then two, than TEN people...well, then it the 15 minutes of fame.....how long can you take to count to fifteen.  I write nothing hurtful or mean...other than a few of my jabs at the President, but he has the whole entire secret service...so who should really be afraid here?

That is kind of the way I have felt about this government for the last 6 and a half years.  Afraid and out of control.  Is that how a person who is one of the People, one who cares about being by, for and, OF the People....Is that how such a person should feel about the government giving them the very power to be in power??  Or is the snore factor that they count on that we will be so busy with how we look when we shake hands with people....That whole Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein, picture thing really did not inspire in me a feeling of love and/or  "warm and fuzzies" for the issue of civil rights and certain politicians with their beliefs in our rights to have them. 

And i think that this ignorance factor was something that this particular government has counted upon as seen in its wanton actions in Iraq and lack of care about who was "with us or against us"...and some heavy hitters in the world kind of took a large stand against us.  Though their action in doing so has really never been too much of a thing for us.  It has never been something we have wanted to be a part of.

We figured I think during most of Clinton's presidency, that the government had to be watched because of questions of immorality of intrigue, dishonesty at the story's heart...dishonesty from the highest office of the land.

THing is that Bill Clinton was at the heart of the movement for politicians to start getting honest wth the people.  We realized there was no standard for "goodness in [White] America.".  There was not epitome as we had once thought, calling at one point in our history, the White House and its resident family at that time, "Camelot".  King Artuhur Had pulled a sword out of the rock and we all thought that finally we were finding out that there was way to ensure a noble life, but if one admitted wrongdoing, especially in a very public and "real" sort of way, then they were given a new lease on FAME.....

So When Bush and Cheney and the rest of the (Nixon and the White House to The Justice Department and the LONGEST YARD) "All-Star" team blew through D.C. on the heels of Monica Lewinsky and everybody suspecting that they were being taped in phone conversations by their best friends as she had been, Americans felt isolated.  They no longer felt that their government was a trustworthy entity.  Add to the fact that through the nineties the fact that certain congressmen such as Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond, had been in Office for nearly a hundred years between them, and had ALSO been Dixiecrats with Thurmond being one of its first and perhaps even its only presidential candidate at one point.  Then Trent Lott after years of promoting Family Values and patenting the right way to live so the rest of us could follow suit, became quite truculent with the media and with his "fans"/supporters (supporters is a paid for term for an individual when they give the right large amount of money to the right large paid people.).  He sort of withdrew from any serious advancement in legitimate, if there is even a real "legitimate government" left intact anymore.

Hopefully though a new candidate, one who is truly in touch with the X-Generation....the ones who were told early one in their twenties that they were basically an embarassing, non-trendsetting, in fact, in almost every way except for our physical existence, we were non-EXISTENT.  And I think it is our legacy that will tell the truth about how ingnorant we were when it came to world affairs and issues.  All they will have to do is play one or two episodes of Jay Leno asking political questions or Genography questions to people randomly stopped and questioned on the streets of New York.  Conan O'Brien has done those episodes, Arsenio Hall did them and Ellen would probably do it as well but I do not think she is one to point out the faults of people, so I doubt she would actually enjoy or even would ever want to  do one of those types of gigs.

I would venture a guess that when you have a successful comedy on prime time television and you decide to use that show as a venue for how it feels to come out to ones friends, ones own family, well...then I would imagine you know very well that words do hurt and that being made fun of for being ignorant is not a fun thing to go through.

Again, that is something that those of us who came of age in the late 80's and early to mid-nineties, will remember as being more of a personall revelation, some of us "getting it", or understanding it, right away and some of us getting it after a few kids and a divorce...some of us becoming a champion of being dishonest...campaiging for total slimebag campiagns both repubican and democrat, and once or twice being able to elect a "new" party candidate (like a Independent in Minnnesota, or a green party candidate in some small town in the wonderful wilderness of Oregon), here and there.

But we never erally changed or paid attention to what seemed to us to be a total loser system and deciding that as long as we paid pur taxes and did not overtly let people know how different from the system we actually were, then the government should naturally know that we had no desire to ever go to war again...and I suppose many of us actually thought we were beloved throughout the world...for bring the Berlin Wall Down...how many civil wars have hit countries like the former Yugoslavia, where just a few years earlier, they had so well entertained the rest of the world as hosts of the Olympics in Sarajevo.  Now yugoslavia was a ghost town and its one tiny market that tried to get food to the rest of the public was a regular target for suicide bombers.  Suddenly kids who had taken all the history classes in High School, I mean, even I had taken Advanced Placement US History in my Senior Year, and no one had even mentioned a group of people called the Serbs, the Bosnians or the Kosovars who found themselves caught up in civil war after going to bed one night as a bosom buddy friend of the Soviet Union and waking up being told there was only a tiny part of the USSR called Russia and it would be independent.  Most of the Russian Republics decided to remain in the newly minted Russian Federation.  I mean it was pretty obvious that Russia would tolerate having a far away republic like Georgia go free, but it figures it will eventually hold Georgia in its palm, or use its palm to crush the tiny republic which has barely kept its head above water since leaving the USSR.  Eventually it will be decided.

But at the time it seemed as if freedom had finally come.  It had, of course, not come, but it had caused the world to literally come to where it currently is....delicately interwoven peaces sown between countries which once had counted war to be profitable but perhaps not growing as popular as it had probably been hoped.  It decided instead that it would sell the illusion of peace.  We were probably involved in more wars during this "great change in the world, and after it, then we had ever really been in our history.  Our military was being cut to the bone, and yet, more was being asked of a soldier than had ever been asked before.  The standard of becomiong a hero even would be commercialized and continues to be modified even at this time.  Maybe that is why I do not care about syntax or errors in my writing...perhaps I secretly believe that someone will see the hidden genius of my words and theyw ill discover and all I will ever have to do again is sit down and write something corny, but REAL, and it will make a few hundred thousand before it quickly becomes passe, making way for the next "Big Thing".

****Will continue this thread later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baba Noel Made it through Baghdad this year!!!!!

READ THE ARTCLE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW FIRST BEFORE READING WHAT I WROTE!!!

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/checkpointbaghdad/archive/2007/12/26/ho-ho-ho-it-s-santa-qusay.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

If you click the link above, you will find a very inspiring story.  It should be inspiring to anyone, whether they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Agnostic, Atheist, etc...and on and on. 

I find it inspiring because it proves that even in the face of potential death, many can and choose to practice their religion freely and without fear. 

Living in the "West", or in my case the USA, we hardly ever think about religion; however, it is one of the United States' TRUEST "national treasures" as it gives each of us a chance to enjoy and explore any religion we wish.  However most people it seems do not value this right we have been given by our forefathers. 

Really, I doubt many of us even take a moment out of the day to even think of the word "God", much less to discern for ourselves what that word actually means to us as individuals.  I find it sad that we, as Americans, and as citizens of one of the most liberated, if not THE most liberated (and that does not mean "liberal"....although I am a liberal) nations in the world, choose to forget about God, or spirituality and we ignore it. 

After all, since 9-11, we have all these scary words that we use for people who we believe carry their religions tenets too far....words like extremists, hard-liners, god-squads...etc...and on and on and on.  These words and these attitudes have in effect driven many people I know farther away from God as opposed to drawing god closer.  They are afraid they will get labeled and so they just do not even talk about God, because of the reasons stated already, but also because we have become such an intolerant society where religion is concerned that it is damn near impossible to hold a conversation about God, Spirituality, etc...without it turning into an argument or an outright fight even.  So, people, just tend to push any thoughts of God out of their minds.  As well, with all the talk (some of it very clear talk and some of it is just insinuated--which is the kind of talk I hate) about this war on terror being a sort of a religious battle, people are getting to the point that they simply want nothing to do with a God whom approves of all this killing and greed and gluttony.

After all, this war cannot be, not overtly anyway, about the OIL because that is simply distasteful among the blue-bloods who would have to admit that a large part of their income is derived from actions that kill other Americans, cause other Americans to kill, and quite simply causes other people to be basically horrible to one another.

I dont know the name of the man who said the following nor do I remember the quote exactly but it is something like this "Nothing corrupts a person so thoroughly as Power"....it was something to that effect an I must say, after seeing the world change the way it has over the last few years, I think that type of thinking is dead on target....there is no doubt in my mind that Power is as addictive and, ultimately, just as destructive as any drug or drink you can find.

We should be extreme (Yes, we SHOULD be Extremists.....ooooo scaaarrryy) in our beliefs once we have decided what they are....yet, we need to also allow other people a chance to breathe and decide what they truly beleive in for their own selves as well.  I mean, Baba Noel pretty much has to be extreme in his views to have the guts to get on a bicycle and ride in a parade in Iraq right now.  BUT HE WAS NOT KILLING ANYONE.  He was simply exercising his religious freedom in a place where I know it is damn near a death sentence to associate with anyone who is not a Muslim. 

As well, you have Benazir Bhutto murdered just a few days ago when she stuck her head up out of a sunroof to wave to supporters, a graceful women who always wore her headscarf and was, perhaps, liberal politically, but I think she was also a true Muslim and a Good Muslim woman, and she died.....FOR WHAT???? Because someone thought she should take her place as a Male/Son infant factory crank out as many children as possible.

Yet, we see this man, the Iraqi Baba Noel, who survived a trip down the road in Iraq dressed up as Santa Clause.  I have a feeling that a lot of extremists or insurgents or whatevahs in Iraq had the flu or some other pre-planned Let's go and blow up of something" appointment that they just could not get out of that day. I, personally, would just rather think God (my type) was certainly watching over him that day and I am hopeful that this is one of those small signs we often see in the world, but tend to forget them because they are so small.  Yet, these small signs are the ones that give the optimistic person something to hope for....For Example, a real END to this war in Iraq.  Before any of us can have a chance to contemplate God or any of his Handywork, we need to realize that we need to STOP KILLING EACH OTHER!!!! 

So much bloodshed since 9-11 and people are still getting blown up, shot, murdered in some of the most heinous ways imaginable, blowing other people up, shooting others, and murdering them in some of the most heinous ways imaginable, and it will continue to go on until someone wakes up one morning and they decide that they had absolutely no clue what they were doing or what they were trying to accomplish.  At that point, the power players, will grow bored....but rest assured, these tpe of people will gain interest again in the future and war will happen again....but no one should blame it on God.  It is not god's plan, thoughts, requirements, rules, or even punishment for imperfect human beings. People are still talking other people into blowing other people up and killing indiscriminately.  My questions are these ....if all of these people, those who are propagandists for their various religions, believe that God wants us to kill so much, or that God will honor us better than anyone in heaven if we go out and kill ourselves and take whoever is close to us along, then why are they NOT strapping on that simple little grenade jacket and blowing their own selves up...Why do they not shove a M-16 A2 into their own 17+ years old child's hands and tell them they will be taken care of forever if they just go to this war and honor their country?? 

Or if they believe that this is some noble crusade and we must defeat the "evil-doer's" (I mean, c'mon, if that label does not have overtly Christian connotations than I don't know what to think) then why are they not telling their sons daughters, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, and on and on --why are they not telling them it is their "duty" to go and kill for God?  Why are the young relatives of all the powerful Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill not lined up at the recruiters office by the hundreds each day to put their life on the line?   Why are the children of those who are hiding out in caves "to fight for their religion" not blowing themselves up?  Bin Laden has some ridiculous number of children but how many of them have been told by dear ole'pops that they must become a homocidal/suicidal bomber?? We should be hearing about this stuff on CNN......IF (yeah, right)it ever actually happens.... or reading it in the papers everyday that "Such and Such Bin Laden blew himself up in a fruit market today taking along with him 10 innocent women and children......oh and they were fellow Muslims too." or "Iforgothisfirstname Lott, grandson of Senator Trent Lott, a fighter pilot in the war on terror was killed today shortly after strafing a tiny village just South Of Baghdad.  At least 40 people will killed with close to 60 injured, the majority of which were women walking from the market along with their children.  When President Bush heard the news, he sent out immediate condolences to the family while also pledging to remain steadfast and continue the honorable duty of fighting terrorists where they are on their own streets, etc...etc...blah blah blah."

This decade, I am suspecting, will continue to be filled with the ridiculously stupid actions of completely ego-maniacal people who care nothing for God, at all, really and forget about actually thinking about god at all...there are too many other things that require our attention, like our iPods, or Plasma TV's, our Hummers that we drive down the highwa, has never seen a speck of dirt on it....but dang it looks sooooo coooool.  God, in whatever form we decide works for ourselves, simply is not a real priority.  People might go to church, but are they really listening...are they really HEARING???  Church has become a place to go to so you maintain a good standing in the community or it is a good place to show off the new diamonds your hubby gave you, or to plan to go golfing after church with the new clubs your wife bought you....if only this DAGGONE church Service would ever end!!!!! 

God is not dead.  It is the hearts and minds of men and women that are dead.  God is simply used as a shadow that we use to hide behind.  To Justify our war-making.  But these leaders who are fighting each other through the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers because they are too cowardly to fight their own battles -- all these guys want is money, Power, and it seems (considering it costs me nearly 40 bucks a week to fill up my 1.7L Honda Civic....Used to only cost 14 dollars) they want all the oil in the whole world too. Heck, they are even arguing about aeas of the world where no wells have even been built at all......they argue over oil that has not even been found yet.  What a bunch of goofballs.  I can say all this because I honorably served my country.  I earned the right to cast suspicion on anyone who will send a person they dont even know to die in war, when they will not send their own kids.  One thing you have to say about Price Charles of England and his youngest son Harry....harry joined the military and is supposed to be going to Iraq.....That is one blue-blood kid out of how many in the world....I guess we could figure out how many there are by counting how many diamonds it took to create the ANCHOR jewelry they wear. 

Look at Putin in Russia for a minute.  His country was basically bankrupt because of the privatization of the oil industry after the break-up of the Soviet union, and just like here in America, the people who moved into that market quickly and efficiently made A TON of money and a ton is a definite understatement.  Yet, Putin took office and, being an ex-KGB/FSB man, he decided that he could do what he wanted; so, many of these Russian Big Oil men ended up dead, in jail or they fled the country.  Now the Russian government controls basically all oil companies in Russia with the exception of 2 commpanies, I think.  He might own those two by now as well.  And now his country is prospering and yaddah yaddah yaddah. But not even he could walk down a street in iraq dressed as Baba Noel.  First of all, like others in his profession (Politics), he is a spineless weasel who is going to end up making Russia a communist country again...and not to help the people, but it will be like the good old days when most Russians, and soviet citizens from other soviet states were slaves to the grind, know what I mean? 

Yes, money, power in this world, and Oil have become the Gods of those who are already either sitting pretty close to those seats of power, or they are already in those seats.

Yet, this wonderful Iraqi "baba Noel" truly knows who God is (for himself of course as it is a personal decision for everyone) and all he wanted to do that day was borrow a Santa outfit, hand out some cool CD's and just celebrate a holiday that is in line with his own beliefs.  Is he not a happy man?  I would say H**L YEAH he is.....If for no other reason, he must at leasst be happy to have made it down that street without being unfairly blown up by some 14-year-old who has been brainwashed into believing that blowing himself up will get him seated higher and closer to God in heaven if he does the thing.  Oh and to a 14 year old....If he thinks he is getting ONE virgin he will chew through steel and bite his own leg off to get at her....If he thinks he is getting 72 VIRGINS....well, by the time that sentence is out of the recruiters mouth (or my own pet nickname for the man talking a child into such behavior...."i-am- a-cool-guy-and-like-seeing-little-kids-blow-themselves-up") he is long gone and suited up for martyrdom after hearing about that promise from "God" (the guy telling him all this crap)  I know the koran does not teach this and the idea of Jihad as a holy War really means that type of internal struggle we all must, at some point, face when we are deciding what God means to us.

In the west, we better wake up and start thinking about this for OUR OWN SELVES.  We should stop trying to tell others how to live and pray and start taking a look at the way we, as individuals live and pray.......we live and think about how we live (however, I think most of that is in material terms--how much money we have, what car we drive, etc...) but I would venture a guess that most people do not worry about praying too much unless they are in a really tight spot or scared out of their wits.  Like my platoon sergeant told me when I first went in the Army:  "When you are dug in and in a foxhole getting shot at, that is when many people become Christian (or whatever)...how long it lasts is usually until the shooting stops and then they forget all about it."  That had a real impact on me and I never wanted any faith of my own to be so shallow.

This Iraqi Baba Noel has given me a renewed sense of clarity as I continue to search for God in my own life and in my own heart.  And, THAT, friends is exactly why it pays to look at the fine print, or the obscure news stories such as this very one. 

I commend newsweek for publishing this article.

Finally ROCK ON In the NEW YEAR or as we say in Hawaii:  Mele Kalikimaka and a Haou'oli Makahiki Hou!  (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

NO DISRESPECT TO THE MEN WE ALL LOVE BUT THIS IS HILARIOUS AND WAS SENT TO ME BY A FRIEND!!!! JUST SOMETHING TO MAKE THE WOMEN WHO READ IT LAUGH!

Further to the credo "Better Living Through Chemistry" ...
NEW DRUGS FOR WOMEN

DAMNITOL
Take 2 and the rest of the world can go to hell for up to 8 full hours.


EMPTYNESTROGEN
Suppository that eliminates melancholy and loneliness by reminding you
of how awful they were as teenagers and how you couldn't wait till
they moved out!


ST. MOMMA'S WORT
Plant extract that treats mom's depression by rendering preschoolers
unconscious for up to two days.


PEPTOBIMBO
Liquid silicone drink for single women. Two full cups swallowed before
an evening out increases breast size, decreases intelligence, and
prevents conception.


DUMBEROL
When taken with Peptobimbo, can cause dangerously low IQ, resulting in
enjoyment of country music and pickup trucks.


FLIPITOR
Increases life expectancy of commuters by controlling road rage and
the urge to flip off other drivers.


MENICILLIN
Potent anti-boy-otic for older women. Increases resistance to such
lethal lines as, "You make me want to be a better person. "


BUYAGRA
Injectable stimulant taken prior to shopping. Increases potency,
duration, and credit limit of spending spree.


JACKASSPIRIN
Relieves headache caused by a man who can't remember your birthday, anniversary, phone number, or to lift the toilet seat.


ANTI-TALKSIDENT
A spray carried in a purse or wallet to be used on anyone too eager to share their life stories with total strangers in elevators.


NAGAMENT
When administered to a boyfriend or husband, provides the same
irritation level as nagging him, without opening your mouth.

******Sent to me by my friend "Judy" and remember any of you who would like to see something posted on the Blog which you either wrote or found somwhere that might be of interest, or simply might make some of us laugh....you are more than welcome to hit the "EMAIL ME" tab down the page and I will review it and post it as long as it is in good taste and is not sexually explicit in nature or simply too vulgar for even me to stomach.  I know people who might want to have their children read some things on this blog and I definitely do not want the content to take a dive headfirst into the gutter, knowwhaddameanya'll?

Have a great and wonderful and blessed day to any of you who read this!

IMPORTANT INFO REGARDING "TAMIFLU" FLU SHOT!!!!!!!

updated 6:24 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2007

WASHINGTON - The most widely used flu drug in the world should carry a stronger warning label about psychiatric problems seen in a handful of patients, government advisers said Tuesday.

A panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration recommended drug maker Roche change the warning label for Tamiflu, which has been used by 48 million patients since its launch in 1999.

The drug’s label already mentions reports of delirium and self-injury, primarily among children in Japan, but some FDA’s experts suggested the language should mention several patients died as a result of these abnormal behaviors. The panel was discussing specifics of the language late Tuesday.

While FDA’s advisers agreed stronger warnings were needed, they said that it is unclear whether the psychiatric problems are a side effect of the drug or the flu itself. Some panelists said labeling should point out that similar deaths have also occurred in flu patients not on medication.

Nearly 600 cases of psychiatric problems have been reported in Tamiflu patients, with 75 percent of them coming from Japan. Five children there have died after “falling from windows or balconies or running into traffic,” according to FDA.

Japan accounts for two thirds of the $2.4 billion global market for Tamiflu because doctors there almost always prescribe drugs to treat flu symptoms.

Japanese health authorities are scheduled to hold their own meeting on Tamiflu’s safety next month.

Basel, Switzerland-based Roche on Tuesday presented its own analysis of more than 150,000 patients that showed no connection between Tamiflu and increased risk of psychiatric problems.

“Over the last year we’ve been looking at a variety of data and undertaken additional studies that so far have shown no causality between Tamiflu and these events,” Glaxo product director David Reddy said in an interview Tuesday. “In fact, the data increasingly points to the role of influenza in these events.”

© 2007 The Associated Press.

About the TIP JAR and some other issues

A few issues I want to address about the TIP JAR and the UNIVERSAL giving link:

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD THEN CHECK OUT THIS SITE -- HTTP://WWW.HEIFER.ORG  There, you can check out what this charitable organization is about and you can also donate straight through that site as well.  They have a catalogue of animals that you can buy which, in turn, they donate to needy people all over the world to use to practice "sustainable farming".  They do not slaughter the animals but rather use them to help grow crops, use the chickens for the eggs which they then sell at market and all sorts of other endeavors meant to better these people's lives.  They can afford better housing, their kids are able to go to school and their health is vastly improved by their ability to afford to eat a better diet.  As well, other villagers are trained as Veternarian Technicians and are then able to earn a living by taking care of the animals in the community.  So, in my mind I think this is one of the most practical charities I have ever come across as far as the way they have thought "outside the box" for a way to help those people in the world who are far less fortunate than you or I.

AND YOU CAN ALSO DONATE TO HEIFER INTERNATIONAL THROUGH MY TIP JAR (all the down the webpage where the other ads are BUT DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH THE BRIGHT-RED-COLORED "ABOUT" Tab) AND SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO DONATE THIS WAY, I PEDGE TO DONATE EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR COLLECTED TO HEIFER INTERNATIONAL.  My Paypal Address to accept donations is jengofet71@msn.com  Also, you have to have a paypal account in order to donate to the tip jar.   As well, if you wish to donate to me through the email I use for paypal (jengofet71@msn.com), as opposed to donating through the tip jar, then you can.  do not click on the blue email link though unless you intend to email me, which is AWESOME as I would love to hear from any of you who are reading this, but instead you have to go to paypal and send the money to that email address.   If you do not have a paypal account it is really secure (I have been using paypal to buy things and make bill payments, etc... for nearly 5 years now) and I would highly recommend that you think abotu opening one even if you do not wish to donate to the tip jar.

****I would like to make a challenge that those of us who read this blog band together and suggest that we attempt to donate enough money to Heifer International; so, that we can buy an entire water buffalo, or a Milk Cow, (those are about the largest animals you can purchase to donate to a needy family but they are able to produce income and food in a variety of ways for the family that recieves the gift) for a needy family somewhere in the world.  It really is not as much as you might think as a water buffalo runs about 300 USD if I remember correctly.  Therefore, if you decide to take me up on my challenge then just donate through the Tip Jar.  Also, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, you should send me your email addresses so I can send you the verification of the purchase of the water buffalo once we have raised enough money!  This way you know the money you have donated has been used in the appropriate way.  I have never, nor do I ever intend to defraud anyone in anyway.  I will not even address that issue again because it is simply NOT in my nature to do such things. 

***Everyone will get a receipt for their donation.  Of course, if you donate enough to claim a tax break, I will  definitely provide you with a reciept for the IRS showing where the money was donated. Heifer Int'l always sends me a year end accounting of what I have donated so that I can claim it on my taxes if I need to.  Unfortunately with only myself donating, I never donate enough to claim anything on my taxes.

***As well, if Heifer international is not where you would like to donate then help your fellow human being out by using the "UNIVERSAL GIVING" Link just below the tip jar.  It allows you to input your interests etc, and then it gives you a list of organizations to which you can donate that falls more in line with you interests/issues/concerns.

A GREAT WEBSITE TO GET EDUCATED ABOUT THE IRAQ WAR, THE PRESIDENCY, AND A WHOLE HOST OF OTHER ISSUES

I wanted to give a "shout out" to my friends over at the Americans for Shared Sacrifice message board.  They are really great people, who, since the beginning of the Iraq war, have been educating anyone who wants to keep an open mind, about the real facts behind the starting of this war, its illegality, and especially the idea that we CAN support troops while being against the war itself.  Many people believe if you are against the war, then you must hate the troops as well.  That is not the case with myself or my friends on this particular message board.  They are very concerned about Veterans Issues, especially the issues confronting our nation's newest combat veterans, who are coming home from war after being promised the world as far as help from their government; yet, now, they are forgotten by the very government that promised them all the help in the universe if they fought their hearts out for their country.  They all did fight their hearts and souls out, but they are forgotten, not by those of us in the anti-war movement, but they are forgoten by those in our government who are the Hawks, those politicians who sent them off to get maimed and/or die and who promised them all this help when they came home in the first place.

So, if you want to check out their site and ask any questions, then just post a message and they will certainly help you find an answer.  Many of the folks there are Veterans, many of them are Combat Veterans, themselves and they are proud of their service but they are not proud of a government that lies to its people to garner support for a useless war that had nothing to do with the war on terrorism in the first place.

Check out Americans for Shared Sacrifice at:

http://americansforsharedsacrifice.org/phpBB1/index.php

They are sure a bunch of fun, intelligent and interesting people whose only hope is to find a solution to our nation's ills, peacefully, and without anymore bloodshed.  Please do not go to this site if your only intent is to ARGUE, CAUSE TROUBLE, OR CREATE ANY OTHER KIND OF MISCHIEF.  These are people who, many of them, have fought for this country and they deserve their due respect as they have rightly earned it.  However, if you are curious or want to be better educated about what is really happening behind the doors of our government, then keep an open mind and just read through some of the topics there.  You might find something you are interested in knowing more about, or you might be able to further educate the people there with any information you have that has not already been discussed.  One thing I know for sure, if you go there simply to argue or make trouble, then they will ban you and your time visiting there will be very short.  However, rational and respectful discussion of differing ideas is always welcome.  Just remain respectful -- that is all anybody reasonably, can ask for on a internet message board after all.  We can all agree to disagree when it is necessary.

THE DAY I SHOOK HANDS WITH THE DALAI LAMA

Back in April 2007, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Maui to see the Dalai Lama speak for two hours.  I have always been into Buddhism but I would not call myself a "practicing" Buddhist.  I do not chant everyday, nor do I take part in any of the other rituals in which other buddhists from various sects take part. 

However, for the last ten years, since moving to Hawaii, I suppose, I have become more interested in Buddhism for a few reasons.  First of all, there is the idea of peace.  In Buddhism, there are many devout believers who are able to remain at peace with themselves and with the world, no matter what horrible events they have happening in their lives, or whatever is happening in the rest of the world for that matter.

I have always wanted to feel that calm, reassuring sense of peace that comes with the knowledge that despite what might be occuring in the here and now, things will ultimately work out for the greater and/or lesser good.  Using the words greater and lesser is not really even appropriate as most buddhists would not characterize good as being anything but essentially Good.  There does not seem to be degrees of good and evil.  Both exist simply as they are.  I have never felt that sense of calm, cool reassurance in the way it seems a truly devout Buddhist feels.  I guess I am more of the classic Obsessive/Compulsive personality, one who is always trying to see around the corner before I even get anywhere near it, the one trying to see what awaits me before I ever get close to making the turn. 

Secondly, there is the Buddhist's treatment of their fellow human and all other sentient beings on earth.  They believe that no person, nor any other living thing, should be harmed for really any reason.  It goes way beyond their practice of being vegetarian though, believe me.  The Buddhists I have talked to tell me that they feel that much of the world's ills could be cured by people regaining their inate sensibility, and once that happens, then they can find themselves remaining calm and able to constructively talk through their issues with those with whom they might feel they are in conflict.  A lot of people might read this and think it sounds easy enough, but have you ever tried to sit down and reason with someone who is SUPER PISSED at you?  It is damn near impossible.  Here in the West, most of us are conditioned to believe that conflict is not only a by-product of clashing civilizations, but is in fact, a necessary part of life.  We are even told by our government that war is a "necessary evil".  Most people would even say that having an argumentative nature is somehow genetic and cannot be helped.  Therefore, the idea of putting much of this Buddhist thought about letting go of fear and anger into practice is certainly a challenge for those of us who grew up in the Western way of thought.   After all most of us grew up hearing all the stories with our crusading Christian ancestors cutting down the non-believers and claiming to be the sole group who will inherit the Earth AND Heaven whenever God decides we are fit enough to run it.  For example, look at the Bible, in particular most of the Old Testament, and it is clear -- In the Judeo-Christian tradition, there is battle after battle along with incest and other depravity, Fathers being driven to the brink of killing their own children by a jealous God who needs a human's love for Him to be "proven" (Abraham),  Kings, supposedly chosen by God to do His "work" on earth, having the husbands of the women they want to sleep with murdered so that they can be with those women (David), along with all kinds of other lewdness happening mostly by the hands of those who are supposed to be the "authors" of the early Jewish, and then eventually the Christian, faith.  Then, when God finally gets mad, he then crushes all of mankind (because somehow the sin of a few is the sin of all, I guess), by flood or the collapse of cities like Sodom and Gomorrah, creating enough destruction to show his omnipotent wrath so that people, those left over after the destruction, can start over again and try to make a go of it.  Does not seem like many of us have gotten the message yet, because each time the world ends, the world that takes its place seems to grow progressively worse.

  However, living under that sort of history has made us a bit nonchalant about things like wars, famines, and all the other things that befall humankind.  We are not moved by genocides in Rwanda or the Sudan, nor are we moved by the child soldiers who are packed with so much dope they fight like animals and never get the chance to simply play as children should play.  Yet, people just see it happening and say, "It is God's Will.", or some other profoundly STUPID statement like that. 

Oh, but do we ever get upset about the conflicts in which we have a "vested interest" and often, we send out our own Crusaders to crush the "evil-doer's".  If we do not send out our own Crusaders then we certainly are not above hiring them from somewhere else to do our dirty work. 

I know it is all not as simple as this but it is damn near that simple. 

People talk constantly of Operation Iraqi Freedom being a new kind of war, but, really, is it all that new?  Or were we just pissed off after the actions of the terrorists of 9-11 and did we decide that this angry state of mind was the only Rule we needed in order to conduct a "Just" War??  After all, it seems to me we have thrown out the whole rulebook concerning just what does constitute a just and fair war...we have thrown in straight out the window.....at least those in power who ever had the rulebook and bothered to read it in the first place.  Due to our refusal to acknowledge any other way of thinking, the world has now become a place where if someone steps on your toe the wrong way, then we feel we have a right to admonish them in whatever heinous way we find suitable.  It is also a place where, especially if you are American, you cannot even go and travel to certain parts of the world without the serious threat of becoming the target of the hatred and anger of other people....anger and hatred, I am afraid, inspired by our own hate-filled activity.

Buddhism on the other hand teaches that life IS suffering and there is nothing you can do to get rid of it.  It teaches that before we can let go of suffering or even fight it off, we must recognize that it exists and know that there is no way to fight it off.  However, we can learn to live with suffering by letting it go. This does not mean it is going to go somewhere else...letting suffering go means we simply do not let it worry us into a frenzied anger or depression or any of the other million states of mind that focusing on suffering can bring on to a fragile human mind.The only thing any of us can do, after all, is learn to live with suffering while keeping a tight grasp upon the happiness that IS NATURALLY ours (unlike Anger mentioned above) and keep it protected from the ills brought on by holding onto suffering much too tightly.  There is no God who wants us to suffer or go to hell for any reason; yet, the buddhist believes that God lives within each and every single one of us.  However, I think that the god inside of us gets covered up with the muck of the world, and all its pain and suffering, and that is how we lose sight of what is beautiful and good.  And once we lose sight of these important ideals, that is when we feel we have to physically fight to regain the happiness that comes from knowing that the world:

A) is full of beautiful and good things, and

B)we can be happy about knowing this without having to OWN everything that is beautiful and good. 

Why?  Because all that is in the world belongs to all of us.  Yet none of us own it nor can it be possessed.  It is ironic, isn't it, that we feel we have a right to fight for something that is not ours to begin with?  That is why, to regain the happiness and acknowledge the holiness that lives in all of us, we must learn to talk to each other and work our problems out peacefully. 

People say it is hard to go into combat and I agree.  It is a scary thing and you do not know if you will be dead or alive from minute to minute.  The first time I ever heard a real explosion in the military, not the kind they use in training exercises but a REAL BOMB...I nearly had a heart attack.  So, no, combat is not easy......but fighting a war is a damn sight easier for those in power than it would be for them to sit down and resolve their differences in a productive and peaceful way.  So, that is why they send people like me, a mere pawn, out to do the dirty work they do not want to do.  Yet, they do not want to do the clean work either because it is waaaaaaaay toooooooo hard.  What a bunch of COWARDLY PRICKS we have in Washington, DC...

I never really figured any of this out until the day I heard the Dalai Lama speak, but you know something else impacted me more than anything else I heard him say that day.  And it goes like this......

A friend of mine who was there suggested that we go stand by the fence at the stadium where the Dalai Lama was to speak and, if we stood there, he thought we would have a good shot of shaking the Dalai Lama's hand as he walked by to take his place on stage.  My friend had gone to the first appearance the day before so he had seen all these other people down at the fence getting to meet the Dalai Lama, and so he thought it would be a kick for both of us to go down there and see if we could get close enough for a handshake.  Now I have never met anyone "famous" in my life.  However, my image, at that time, of meeting a "famous" person was that he/she would speed along the fence sort of slapping everyone's hands and then that would be it.  Man was I ever wrong. 

This man, with a few thousand people waiting for him to start speaking and with another couple hundred waiting along the fenceline to shake his hand, had the CLASS to actually shake everyone's hand who had come down from the stadium stands to greet him.  He did not do that slap-on-the-hand thing you see when those boy bands go on MTV and they just slap whatever hand happens to be sticking out in front of them.  They probably do that more to get the hand out of their way as they pass by, rather than understanding that there are human beings attached to those hands. 

The Dalai Lama, however, took the time to shake each person's hand and spend a few seconds as he would listen to the people greet him and then he would greet them back before moving on. 

When he got to me, I must admit I was about to pass out.  I did not know what to expect although I knew that this man had taken his time going from person to person as he made his way down the fenceline.  Plus, he is supposed to be the 14th reincarnation of the original leader of Tibetan Budddhism which, I suppose, in Tibetan tradition makes Him a truly and living Holy man; so, I did not know if maybe I would burst into flames for all the bad things I have done in my life or what.  Therefore, I was truly about to pass out. 

However, when he did get to me, I stuck my hand out and said "Aloha" to him, which is the appropriate greeting since I live in Hawaii.  I realized that I had my head sort of bowed downward, and so I looked up, and my eyes locked with his for an instant and this little, smiling man in monk's robes and with glasses on was looking straight in to my eyes and he took my hand into BOTH of his hands and said "Aloha" back to me.  He paused a moment, still looking me directly in the eye, and then he moved on to my friend and repeated the same behavior.  And as I watched him continue on down the line he did the same thing over and over.  He was not going to be rushed by anybody, not even the handlers who were there to make sure he got on stage on time.  I doubt that any of them even tried to rush him because a classy guy like that does not need to rush for ANYBODY.  As well, I doubt that "hurrying up" is a concept he even is aware of.  I think the best way to describe it is that he seems to move at the pace of nature and we all know how long it takes certain flowers to bloom and trees to grow.  And this is the pace he has taken his whole life; yet, he managed to escape from Tibet when the Chinese were about to take it over and while they were killing monks all over the place.  He has also managed to escape being murdered more than a few time which I am sure is a bane in the People's Republic Of China's Government officials ASSES.  I also got that feeling after seeing all the sharpshooters, with weapons at the ready, who had taken position on the high ground at the stadium on Maui where I went to hear him speak.  I doubt they were there to protect US.  All I could think is that it takes one sick bastard of a person to want to kill, or hurt in ANY sort of way, a man such as Him.

I guess the point of me sitting down tonight and writing about this is to slow things down a bit for my own self and to get that moment back -- that moment when things seemed to slow down enough that I could comprehend, at least somewhat, the event that was unfolding before me.  I could barely listen to what he spoke about because I was so enthralled after that handshake.  After all, we have all our commercialized Holidays coming up and, even if you are like me and do not take part in the celebration and rampant, bloodsucking commercialism of the season, it still seems that things move way too fast this time of year.  I always feel like I am in a hurry to do something, but I cannot figure out what it is since I have no family to worry about spending the holidays with or people to buy presents for, and still I feel so rushed and pressured.  I think these feelings are spread like a virus from other people who do have all these committments during this time of the year.  So I needed to sit down and remember the day I shook the Dalai Lama's hand, write about it for the first time, and really examine how it has impacted me.

And even now, when the day is not going well, or when I hear of more of our soldiers being killed in a needless war into which we were led based upon a bunch of hideous lies, or when I just cannot seem to slow my own mind down enough to think one single thought at a time, I know all I need to do is to simply remember my handshake with the Dalai Lama.

And for some reason, remembering that one event, comprising only a few seconds of my life, out of all the rest of my 36 years on this earth,well....it is the only event I can think about that automatically calms me down and, for an instant, I feel that calm, reassurance that everything will one day be all right again in the world.  It is funny how a few short seconds can so dramatically impact a person's life forever. I figure if I can start thinking like that, and if I can let others know about how this event impacted me, maybe they can learn from it vicariously and maybe they can slow down and start thinking a little more slowly themselves.  Then perhaps, I hope with all my heart, we can all begin to look each other in the eye, grasp each others hands, hold them in our own, and truly listen to one another

...even if it is only to say "Aloha".

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