Dancing rabbits

— Bumper sticker of the week: Feel safer

now?

— Undermining local, existing businesses

is bad economic development.

— HereÕs what I canÕt figure out — How

can so many people be wrong so much of

the time?

— It must be cultural imperatives, that our

God is bigger than theirs, and our ideology

better than any other.

— If I commanded the most powerful

military force in all the world, theyÕd have

to call me Uncle Bruce.

— This whole Òblowing up airplanes with

liquid explosivesÓ might just as well be made

up by the terrorists. The effect would still

be the same: It scares us to death. Is it the

death weÕre so scared about, or the fact that

we know in our hearts we canÕt beat them.

Because the them is us.

— Before you embark on a journey of

revenge, dig two graves. Confucius

— I saw Mike WallaceÕs interview with the

Iranian President. Two observations: Mike

Wallace needs to retire, and the Iranian

President is a whole lot smarter than ours.

If it comes down to a war of words, were

screwed.

— Talk radio: You turn on the radio in the

morning, and all you hear is talk. And none

of it of any redeeming quality. I turn on the

radio, I want to hear music. I donÕt want to

hear some lame-brain complaining about

his wife not being able to have an orgasm.

If I wanted to listen to bullshit, IÕd turn on

the TV.

— Health care: The United States stands

alone as the only industrialized nation

without universal health care.

¥ Health care should be a right, not a

consumer good.

¥ Everyone should have access to

affordable health care.

¥ High-quality health care should be

available to everyone.

¥ Costs to individuals could be based on

ability to pay.

¥ Health care should be affordable for

employers and employees.

¥ People need to take per sonal

responsibility for their health.

¥ Health care should include prescription,

mental health, and substance abuse

coverage.

— Whoever the presidential candidates

turn out to be in 2008, he or she had better

have universal health care as one of their

top three priorities, or they donÕt deserve

our vote.

— Estimated number of people who die

each year due to lack of health insurance:

18,000. Number of people who died on

9/11: 2,819.

— The Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage: I

recently visited a commune in Missouri. I

have to admit, if I were 30 years younger,

IÕd probably be trying to drag me wife off

to live there. ItÕs definitely not a glamorous

life, but it is a fairly honest one. The residents,

numbering somewhere around 30, I would

guess have an average age of about 26. One

must agree to the following terms in order

to apply for membership:

¥ I am committed to pioneering a lifestyle

that will serve as an example of ecological

sustainability. I will weigh the implications

of my actions, continually striving to

minimize my negative impact and increase

my positive impact on the earth. I will

participate in the creation of a physical and

social structure and culture that will move

us towards long term sustainability.

¥ I am committed to the vision of diverse

membership of dancing rabbit and will not

discriminate against any person on the

basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual

orientation, creed, age, ability, educational

level, or economic background. I will

attempt to minimize barriers to members

of minority groups wishing to participate.

There are a few other terms, but this gives

you some idea of the vision. We could all

use a little bit of this hope, this spirit, this

idealism. If onlyÉÉ.