Quote of the week: ''From our own life experience, we know there's never a guarantee -- whether we're falling in love, or going into labor to birth a baby, or devoting ourselves to a piece of land, turning the soil and watching for rain. We don't ask for proof that we'll succeed and that everything will turn out as we want. We just go ahead, because life wants to live through us!'' --Joanna Macy, writer and Buddhist scholar.
Here's a marketing scheme for you drug dealers out there: Crack In The Box.
All things being equal, I have to admit Bill Clinton has been a major disappointment. He has been a far better moderate Republican than George W. Bush would ever hope to be. The rich have gotten considerably richer, and the poor have gotten forgotten. This is the very dream of most conservative Republicans. I had great hopes that the first president from my generation, fueled by many of the same ideals as myself, might lead us into a time when the down-and-out might at least see a glimmer of hope that life can actually get better, as educational opportunities, decent paying jobs, and adequate health care become more available to all, not just the chosen rich. I had hoped it would be a turning point, a time when we could renew our faith in government and step away from the grip that greed and hatred and stupidity have on our elected officials. But alas, it was not to be. I realize now I was hoping for way too much. No one person can help us realize these goals. Not even the President. We must each walk our own paths of goodness, and along the way meet and embrace one another for what it is we truly are -- human beings carrying the God seed within us. Then maybe things can get better for all.
Jean Houston, renowned philosopher, cultural historian, international consultant, on the possibilities of the Internet:
-- ''The Net's high tech communion is spaceless and not bound by the usual categories of time.''--
''The Internet promises to bring about as great an evolutionary change as occurred when people stopped depending on the meandering of the hunt and settled down to agriculture and civilization.''--
''It may seem to some heretical to view the Net as part of the continuum of the sacred, as well as the latest emergent construct of evolution in action. And yet, if the Divine Spirit is that force that through the green fuse drives the flower and my blood, then why not also the fruitful and fecund web?''
Let's have some fun with names:--
Larry and Louie you have to figure to be right-wing Christian names.--
George is one of those names you can't trust.--
Bill is definitely a heterosexual name.--
With the name Pate, you had better either be a politician or chopped liver.--
Rush is an interesting name. Probably belongs to someone who could use an enema.
The gun control argument rages on, with absolutely nothing being done about this tragic situation. At one extreme is the NRA, who want nothing done about the situation at all, claiming it's our constitutional right to own our own personal arsenal, and who continue to hold firmly to the notion that guns don't kill people, people kill people. On the other side of the coin, there are those who would have hand-guns banned completely and would prefer no one go hunting, at least with a gun. Between these two extremes, tens of millions of Americans stand silently by watching one tragic incident after another unfold because of careless gun owners and our stubborn refusal to use technology that is available to further gun safety. We need to get off our butts and make ourselves heard. Enough is enough. The NRA is not going to solve this problem for us, and neither are the politicians who are held firmly in their monetary control.
Reading material for the first dump of the day:--
''The History of Indoor Plumbing,'' by Backyard John--
''Reaching Your Greatest Potential,'' by All Stopped Up.--
''Be Careful What You Wish For,'' by Gone Too Much.--
''Pornography Is Dangerous,'' by Fun No More.--
''Don't Waste Time Wiping,'' by Skid Mark.