Thank God for YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-yRI_HJoM

Why is it a good day?

Why? Because I found some old Abbott & Costello gags today. Who's on First?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPrm6luPmME and then learned about a classic I'd never heard before called the Susquehanna Hat Company. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSp0sMHVEpQ

It is a good day

I could write about how the US will invade Iran before the 2008 elections. But with luck many others will wake up before then. There is no sense in this nonsense we call the United States anymore. None. But the good news is that it is a lovely spring day outside. Robins are nesting. Cats are catty. And through the miracle of immune supplements, I am finally feeling human -- instead of the scum on top of ponds. It is a good day

B-Stuff

Sometimes I am the fly, sometimes I am the swatter.

Then again, more from the CBC

Ah, that's right. CBC=Crazy Bitches Club. My score today is 45%. So stress level? Issues? Get your bitch on here.

Clear light

Remember the clear light, the pure clear white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns; the original nature of your own mind. The natural state of the universe unmanifest.Let go into the clear light, trust it, merge with it. It is your own true nature, it is home.-Tibetan Book of the Dead//From "Teachings of the Buddha," edited by Jack Kornfield, 1993. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.

There are echoes of Emerson in this...'simplify, simply.' But unmaking a life...especially these days when everything is interwoven...is a daunting task for me. Releasing an old pattern of behavior that, chamelion-like, lurks in plain view but remains unseen requires special vision. And remaining Still enough to catch the littlest movement so I can realize what it is I am doing. But really very rewarding once I have deciphered the movement and connected it to the behavior. On that score, realizing that my not eating had more to do with not having time to cook and not wanting to stand one second more, finally made me realize that local groceries have just the place for people like me....deli stands which actually serve what I consider food. Pot roast, chicken, potatoes, even waldorf salad. That just goes to show that when the blinders are on my nose, even the (gasp) obvious answers escape me.

namaste for now

Swimming

"It is easy to keep things at a distance. It is harder to be aloof of them."-Bunan
From "The Pocket Zen Reader," edited by Thomas Cleary, 1999. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, http://www.shambhala.com/.

Today's quote reminds me of the ancient Jewish list of what parents are obligated to teach their children. It is a long list. One of the most important things on that list is swimming. Now considering the list was written when the Jews lived in the desert, it may seem strange that swimming was so important. I believe it was a practice of how to teach faith when events start to crowd and drown the spirit. Swimming is all about trusting the water to hold you up. Life is all about trusting the almighty to hold you up even though the Red Sea threatens to crash around you as you walk through tremendous tribution and fear. Aloof-ness is a tough quality to learn and impossible to achieve without trust and faith.

That being said, May all beings know peace today.
Namaste

Thought for the Day

Arguing with a fool proves there are two.
- Doris M. Smith

This is a handy reminder for those who live and work near D.C. Around here it is impossible to avoid the folks who have strong opinions and incessantly share them with you. The trick is to seem to agree with them without agreeing one way or the other. If you tell them that they are nuts, you are doomed to a 2 hour conversation about why they are right and you are wrong. A fate akin to the Prometheus legend where the hero gets his liver torn out every single day because he brought fire to folks who didn't live on Mt. Olympus. Go figure and then make peace with the fact that you don't have to prove yourself to these people.

Must be Channelling My Inner ...

Today's score on the bitch quiz was significantly higher than last time.

I am 32% Asshole/Bitch.
http://www.fuali.com/test.aspx?id=dd4c0ca6-a554-4cbe-b0e7-bc17462a412e"> src="http://www.fuali.com/testimage.aspx?img=f8828b94-f1d9-424a-b2d8-9b47d093da27.gif" alt="Part Time Asshole/Bitch." border="0" style="margin-top:5px">
I may think I am an asshole or a bitch, but the truth is I am a good person at heart. Yeah sure, I can have a mean streak in me, but most of the people I meet like me.

Take'>http://www.fuali.com/test.aspx?id=dd4c0ca6-a554-4cbe-b0e7-bc17462a412e">Take the
Asshole/Bitch Test
@ FualiDotCom

I must have been channelling my inner hippie last time.

Be Water -- Bruce Lee Quotes

http://www.fightingmaster.com/masters/brucelee/quotes.htm

Above is a link to quotes from Bruce Lee. They help me get through the week when it is tough to let go of anger. He is a balancing point and shames me to write better.

Life in the Pale at Passover

Passover brings out the best and the worst in people. If you need a pound of chopped chicken livers, you immediately are in competition with everyone else who needs a pound of chopped chicken livers. And if you think life got ugly for that chicken, it gets uglier for the hapless fellow who promises to bring chicken livers but fails to deliver because he was beat to the head of the line. I put my reservation in early but stay tuned. I'll keep you posted on how getting said chicken liver works out. (Chicken liver update--Whoo Hooo. I got the goods for the second seder. Look out, heartburn, here I come!!!)

Daily thought from the Buddhist Beliefnet email I get...very timely in this sad anniversary of Virginia Tech.....

Take heed that when effort is too strenuous it leads to strain and when too slack to laziness. So make a firm determination that you will adopt the middle way, not allowing yourself to struggle or to slacken, but recognizing that faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom are the fruits of a calm and equable way.-Theragatha


From "The Pocket Buddha Reader," edited by Anne Bancroft, 2001. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.

When It Rains, It Pours (Pre-Passover Thoughts)

http://www.buddhanet.net/d_cermon.htm

When it rains it pours wisdom. The link above says a mouthful. It is about death practices (if you've been reading my blog regularly you know I have this thing about death). In particular, the death practices of the Buddhists in Japan. This is a link to a story in the Zen Sect tradition.

Like I said, when you read it, you'll know why I posted to it.

Namaste.

Suicide Seeds

http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=635

Welcome to Earth Day, folks...from the land of the terminator genetic seeds that overwhelm farmers' crops everywhere. Puts new meaning in the line, "I'll be back."

Passover Reading Material

As we head into the Passover period, this link, http://www.ahealedplanet.net/war.htm#sweden is extraordinarily interesting. It is an essay on pogroms and the holocaust. The author obviously has several axes to grind but all-in-all, it is an extremely well written and informative piece of work. And with the season of survival upon us, a valuable read.

Technology....and the plus side of eMail filters.

I used to dread checking my email address. All the junk mail in the world seemed to hit it. I am too soft hearted to filter emails from folks or businesses I'd contacted before. No more, though. I have become a thoroughly modern email user -- junking all unsolicited emails as they arrive. The wonder of it is that now my email box is easier to go through and the emails in there are more or less relevant to what I am planning to do. Technology can be my friend, instead of my fiend.

Reasons to Rescue (aka volunteer)

An even better reason for why I volunteer for rescue.

http://by119w.bay119.mail.live.com/mail/mail.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0&n=1226001797

Why?

I am looking for a sign that I can operate from the steering wheel to tell tailgaters they are dangerously close to hitting me. I suspect all the ones that spring to my mind are probably too crude. But perhaps just a large red neon sign asking "Why?" might slow down the super-charged motorists on the highway around here. Perhaps not. But it would certainly ease my anger at not being able to do anything when the steamrollers (disguised as BMWs and Cargo Vans) start sitting on my bumper. (Sign update: I have hand printed a sign saying "drive safe." It is a complete rip-off of a hand printed sign I saw last week saying the same thing that was on a car from Michigan. Being an Ohioan at heart, I growl when I see most Michigan-der cars because of the grudge between the states dating back to the Toledo War. But when I see a good idea I don't care where it is from ... I use it too. Besides, us Ohio/Michigan types have to stick together here on the east-coast. And the driver had dog rescue stickers on the car as well as peace now bumper stickers. So a kindred soul.)

Watery Thoughts who how to live

In that marvelous movie about two guys escaping from Chicago mobsters, they went to Florida and played in a girls' band. "Some Like It Hot" is one of the classics. I think about it now as I think about the watery waiting to engulf the Gulf. One of the songs, "By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea..." The thought I have is for NASA to have a submarine city in addition to the space station. If we are going to be engulfed, we need to have another avenue of living.....

Post Glacial Rebound Cheasapeake Bay Region

Variations in Sea Level
Tide gauges around the Chesapeake Bay indicate that the relative sea level in the ... The sinking of the land from postglacial rebound is still going on, ...www.ngs.noaa.gov/GRD/GPS/Projects/CB/SEALEVEL/sealevel.html - 12k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

This is something I have seen around Lake Erie. We are told up here by Huron, Ohio, that the bottom of the Lake tilts. I used to think the folks who told me that were the same who believed in Big Foot. Now, I know better. Here is a far better explanation about this issue. And because I now live in Virginia, it becomes far more important. The heck with the tuvalus islanders or the other folks escaping the wrath of the sea. What are we going to do with the folks from Ocean City or New York or Baltimore? Fairfax County is big but can't begin to absorb these in-country refugees. And Homeland Security will likely be the ones who will declare the county as a place for everyone to move into to weather the storm. We are all going to have to learn to live together -- not a pleasant thought with resources here from the road systems to the housing as stretched as they are now. Warming heats up.... Let's try to figure out before hand how to cool down the tempers of the 21st century. Peace now!