» by flahute in: Word Play on August 30th, 2008 at 19:14:56 UTC |
Kind of wish I had received this before posting recent reactionary blog posts … but will be something to keep in mind going forward.
THE POWER OF AN AUTUMN LEAF
In working with the setting sun or confused world, the attitude of the warrior is like an autumn leaf floating down a river. It doesn’t change its color, and it doesn’t struggle with the river. It goes along with it. This has a natural effect, because the brook or the river has never carried such an autumn leaf before. The setting sun world will be uncertain what to do with this leaf. So by simply being there, you make people think twice, automatically.
It puts people on the spot when you don’t react to them. You don’t fight back when they attack you, but you just remain as an autumn leaf, whatever they do. This is the gentle way of working. If there are hundreds of thousands of autumn leaves coming down a small brook, then the appearance of the brook will be changed by them altogether. The joke is on the setting sun people, and they have to think twice. They might smile and pretend to laugh, but really they will be crying, weeping. So you see, an autumn leaf has a great deal of power over the world of the setting sun. Such little leaves could stop the flow of water altogether. If there are enough powerful autumn leaves, that is possible. It has been done in the past.
From CONQUERING FEAR: THE HEART OF WARRIORSHIP, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications in 2009.
To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world–and at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.
— Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, p. 15.
To be modern, I said, is to experience personal and social life as a maelstrom, to find one’s world and oneself in perpetual disintegration and renewal, trouble and anguish, ambiguity and contradiction: to be part of a universe in which all that is solid melts into air. To be a modernist is to make oneself somehow at home in the maelstrom, to make its rhythms one’s own, to move within its currents in search of the forms of reality, of beauty, of freedom, of justice, that its fervid and perilous flow allows.
In Feltre, Italy, this week, just 15km away from the memorial to Tullio Campagnolo at the summit of the Croce d’Aune pass, Campagnolo reintroduced its Super Record racing group.
Super Record was Campagnolo’s mystical racing group, but it has been decommissioned for more than 20 years. For 2009, it, along with new Record and Chorus groups, will help celebrate the brand’s 75th anniversary. In addition to the groups, Campagnolo will offer new versions of its four top wheelsets: Hyperon Ultra Two, Bora Ultra Two, Shamal 2-Way Fit and Eurus 2-Way Fit.
The technologies and the range of products presented are nothing short of truly impressive. With SRAM’s Red, the new Shimano 7900 Dura-Ace group and now Campagnolo’s three new groups, 2009 will offer more choice and technology than ever before for those in the market for a new set of components.
But this is about Campagnolo. Its new products highlight the brand’s willingness to approach its competitors head on with its own innovation and new technology. On another hand, Campagnolo hasn’t lost its passion or respect for its own heritage; the new groups are as artful and stylish as any it has ever produced. And the new components are all still produced in Campagnolo’s factory in Vicenza, Italy. The three groups are based on and share technologies surrounding two key features: the third edition of Ergopower, which is called Ergopower Ultra-Shift, and an 11-speed cassette.
I know, I know … I should actually ride more before I start drooling over more bike parts; but you have to admit this group is absolutely gorgeous!!!
» by flahute in: Word Play on April 14th, 2008 at 22:43:14 UTC |
BAD RELIGION - AMERICAN JESUS
I don’t need to be a global citizen
‘Cuz I’m blessed by nationality
I’m a member of a growing populace
We enforce our popularity
There are things that seem to pull us under and
There are things that drag us down
But there’s a power and a vital presence
It’s lurking all around
We’ve got the American Jesus
See him on the interstate
We’ve got the American Jesus
He helped build the President’s estate
I feel sorry for the Earth’s population
‘Cuz so few live in the U.S.A.
At least the foreigners can copy our morality
They can visit but they cannot stay
Only precious few can garner our prosperity
It makes us walk with renewed confidence
We got a place to go when we die
And the architect resides right here
We’ve got the American Jesus
Bolstering national faith
We’ve got the American Jesus
Overwhelming millions every day
He’s the farmer’s barren fields (In God)
The force the army wields (we trust)
Expressions on the faces of the starving millions (Because he’s one of us)
The power of the man (Break down)
He’s the fuel that drives the Klan (Cave in)
He’s the motive and the conscience of the murderer (He can redeem your sin)
He’s the preacher on T.V. (Strong heart)
The false sincerity (Clear mind)
The form letter that’s written by the big computers (And infinitely kind)
The nuclear bombs (You lose)
The kids with no moms (We win)
And I’m fearful that he’s inside me… (He is our champion)
Yeah!
We’ve got the American Jesus
See him on the interstate
We’ve got the American Jesus
Exercising his authority
We’ve got the American Jesus
Bolstering national faith
We’ve got the American Jesus
Overwhelming millions every day, yeah!
My mother sent me more mom-spam yesterday, this one being a purported re-write of the Preamble of the Constitution, accompanied by a series of articles. Some of the articles are basic pleas to common sense. But one in particular really got my goat.
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country’s history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!!!! GET OVER IT!!!
The problem is that this nation was NOT founded on the belief in one true God. Far from it; when asked about it, Alexander Hamilton once flippantly responded that the United States was not in need of “foreign aid.”
Please show me, in the original Constitution, where it makes mention of God. Please!
Unfortunately, you can’t, because the word does not appear once in the entire document.
The word God did not appear on US money until the Civil War, and did not appear in the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, as a reaction to the McCarthy-driven hysteria.
Oh, sure, there are two brief mentions in the Declaration of Independence (cf. the phrases, “Laws of Nature, and Nature’s God” and “endowed by their Creator”), but the Declaration of Independence is not the document on which our nation is based … the Constitution, which was drafted 11 years later, holds that estimable position.
Heck … most people think that George Washington was the first President, too … but he wasn’t.
There were several Presidents of the United States prior to George Washington. Under the Articles of Confederation (drafted in 1777 and ratified in 1781), the following men served as President of the United States in Congress Assembled:
Samuel Huntington (March 1, 1781 – July 9, 1781)
Thomas McKean (July 10, 1781 – November 4, 1781)
John Hanson (November 5, 1781 – November 3, 1782) — the first to serve a full one-year term, and the first selected after the surrender of the British Army … but not the first.
Elias Boudinot (November 4, 1782 – November 2, 1783)
Thomas Mifflin (November 3, 1783 – October 31, 1784)
Richard Henry Lee (November 30, 1784 – November 6, 1785)
John Hancock (November 23, 1785 – June 5, 1786)
Nathaniel Gorham (June 6, 1786 – November 5, 1786)
Arthur St. Clair (February 2, 1787 – November 4, 1787)
Cyrus Griffin (January 22, 1788 – March 4, 1789)
By the way … the word “God” isn’t mentioned in the Articles of Confederation, either.
And because some people weren’t clear on the concept, the first 10 words of the First Amendment to the Constitution specifically state: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
If God isn’t an establishment of religion, I don’t know what is.
Furthermore, in the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified in 1797 in one of the Senate’s only unanimous votes, Article 11 famously states:
As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
In 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.
Note that Jefferson did not even capitalize the name of God in his letter. He, along with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine were not Christian, although they were Deists … they believed in one Supreme Being, however, but rejected many elements of the Christian church. James Madison, primary author of the Constitution once wrote on Christianity:
What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.
For what it’s worth, I do believe in God, or rather that there is a higher power within all of us, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist alike … even in the fuckwit currently inhabiting the White House. I guess that makes me a Deist, like Jefferson, et al.
But God, in whatever form, has NO place in official government.
On the bike, however, is a different story all together … when I’m on the bike, I’m constantly praying … if only to make it to the top of the next rise without my lungs exploding. And I wear my Madonna del Ghisallo … now without a rash, since I finally got a nickel-free chain.
Last week, an important Clinton adviser told Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (also of Politico) that Clinton had no more than a 10 percent chance of getting the nomination. Now, she’s probably down to a 5 percent chance.
Five percent.
Let’s take a look at what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance: The Democratic Party is probably going to have to endure another three months of daily sniping. For another three months, we’ll have the Carvilles likening the Obamaites to Judas and former generals accusing Clintonites of McCarthyism. For three months, we’ll have the daily round of résumé padding and sulfurous conference calls. We’ll have campaign aides blurting “blue dress” and only-because-he’s-black references as they let slip their private contempt.
At this point, with only a 5% chance of taking the nomination, isn’t it time for Hillary to step-down so that the party can focus on defeating McCain, rather than causing an implosion within the party itself?
Elsewhere within the article quoted above, it also states:
About a fifth of Clinton and Obama supporters now say they wouldn’t vote for the other candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, on the other side, voters get an unobstructed view of the Republican nominee. John McCain’s approval ratings have soared 11 points. He is now viewed positively by 67 percent of Americans. A month ago, McCain was losing to Obama among independents by double digits in a general election matchup. Now McCain has a lead among this group.
Great … and what some people may find surprising is that I am one of 20% that would flip parties in the general election. I don’t agree with a lot of McCain’s policies, but I have always admired his penchant for straight-talk.
And while I loved Bill Clinton as a President, I’ve always had a certain amount of distaste for Hillary, and the actions of her campaign currently are doing less than nothing to improve this situation.
I would much rather have someone in office with whose policies I disagree, but whom I feel I can trust to truly act in what he feels is best for the country (and not for his cronies, like the current fuckwit), than a duplicitous, power-hungry, narcissistic hag. This has nothing to do with Hillary’s gender; there are only two women in the Democratic party for whom I harbor feelings this strong … the other being Dianne Feinstein (the senior Senator from California).
It’s time for Hillary to step-back and withdraw from the race before she drives a wedge further between members of her own Party …
By the way … I’m planning on voting for Jon Huntsman’s re-election as governor of Utah. That I can see, he has done a more than adequate job of running the state, even urging the legislature to pass a bill RAISING the amount of alcohol in a drink to a full shot (1.5 oz), instead of the current 1 ounce, in order to get alco-pops out of the grocery stores and into the liquor stores … a more than acceptable trade-off as far as I’m concerned.
Unless there’s a Democratic Party candidate that just wows me, then I see no reason to vote out an effective governor.
Super Record was Campagnolo’s mystical racing group, but it has been decommissioned for more than 20 years. For 2009, it, along with new Record and Chorus groups, will help celebrate the brand’s 75th anniversary. In addition to the groups, Campagnolo will offer new versions of its four top wheelsets: Hyperon Ultra Two, Bora Ultra Two, Shamal 2-Way Fit and Eurus 2-Way Fit.
