| LIFESTYLE/ ARTS/ CULTURE/ ETC: Waihi Bush Festival, Feb 2-5 South Island New Zealand LUMINATE '08 Canaan Downs, Takaka Hill, 7th–11th February 2008. Mystic Garden Party, Maui Jan 25-27 ""BEYOND 2008" EUROPEAN CONSULTATION FORUM.Alfa Arts Hotel, Budapest, 24-25 January 2008. April 11, 12, 13 A wonderful festival of music and beautiful New Zealand setting. Bob Weir and RatDog "Drug Czar: Just Say No to Toad Licking" "Everyone's cool with it, say dope smokers" "UK: Web: Drugs 'Legal In 10 Years' Claim" "The Top Ten Drug War Stories of 2007, According to Drug War Chronicle" Gallery of arts unique. We recently purchased a beautiful mushroom pendant from the
artist, Woody A beautiful setting in Nelson, New Zealand for hosting and enjoying workshops, mediative walks and life in general "Let's Toast to Ten Good Things About 2007" Localizing sustainability resources in the US "World’s Biggest Building Coming to Moscow: Crystal Island" "Drilling OK'd for Alaskan polar-bear
habitat" "Deep-Sea Species' Loss Could Lead To Oceans' Collapse" "Floating Garbage" "Seeds of Destruction, The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" "Why You Simply Can't Believe That Cell Phones Are Safe" Led Zeppelin world tour info "The Managers": another great New Zealand band to find our more about and see if you have the opportunity.Say hi to our friend Nick on bass Friend Grant and his drums and drummaking information http://web.mac.com/mjsafran My friend Mike's website that is a wonderful mix of philosophy, art, music and fun Panda is a musician with great talent, heart and soul. He is touring the south island of New Zealand with his wonderful "soul acoustic" music "Get Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork (Coffee Table Paperback)" "Sex, drugs and second thoughts" for the Netherlands "THE PRINCE OF POT DESERVES B.C. SUPPORT " Four Winds Society-integrating ancient knowledge with today "Society for the Scientific Study of Religion"
Thom Hartmann's Monthly BuzzFlash Book Review: "The Trial" "Ancient lives uncensored" "Havana, a Vast Archeological Site" http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=5686886
"Interesting video on a raw food Hallelujah diet promoted by a fundamentalist preacher" Phoenix all organic drinks "World's cheapest car debuts" " Solar Energy Panel Breakthrough Brings Green Power Closer" "U.S. Supreme
Court refuses appeal in pollution suit," "Study says coral reefs suffer from proximity to humans, and more" "Australia hits back over pro-Japan whaling video" "Cloned Livestock Poised To Receive FDA Clearance" http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/04/6161/ Justice for Aboriginal
Canadians RECLAIMING NEW YORK FOR LOCAL ARTS by Kevin Erickson, WireTap Turn the Beat Around: How ABC No Rio artists bought a building for one dollar in one of the world's most expensive cities. http://www.wiretapmag.org/movement/43369/ GLOBAL: "Russia struggles to stay
warm in deepening winter freeze" Kenya: Social disintegration in country touted as African "success" story http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/keny-j08.shtml "Everest hero Edmund Hillary
dies " Kenya: Violence spreads following presidential elections http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/keny-j03.shtml
NATIONAL: The new edition of "Issues & Alibis!" http://www.issuesandalibis.org "Stories the Media Missed in 2007"
"US Federal Reserve chairman warns of recession danger, promises more rate cuts" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/econ-j12.shtml "US carries out massive bombing on outskirts of Baghdad" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/bomb-j12.shtml "Bush's vision of a Palestinian state: Subservient to Israel and policed by the major powers" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/isra-j12.shtml Marc Ash | Provocation in the Strait of Hormuz http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010808J.shtml "Death toll continues to rise as US military launches new offensive in Iraq" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/mili-j10.shtml "Blackwater Gassed US Soldiers" "Pentagon Wants to Drug Troops" http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/267/ "Is This The Big One? Global Financial Tsunami About To Hit" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19036.htm "France is healthcare leader, US comes dead last: study" "New Hampshire debates:
Democrats and Republicans embrace US militarism" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jan2008/deba-j07.shtml "Is Kucinich walking into a trap, asking for a NH Recount?" "The Real Truth About the Clinton Era" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19011.htm "Why I Believe Bush Must Go Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse" by George McGovern "Impeachment for the
Crime of TORTURE? Yes!" "Jackboot SWAT Thugs Abduct 11-Year Old Boy at Gunpoint" "Here Comes the Homeland Security Campus"
"Bush Prepares to Pass Baton to Hillary " "The New Math of American Elections (DVD), Just Released" "From Hyperpower To New World Disorder" By David Olive For the first time since the end of the Cold War, America isn't alone on top. What's replacing the unipolar world of the 1990s? A gang of five superpowers: China, Russia, India, the Eurozone and the U.S. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18985.htm === "Welcome to Third World, U.S.A." By Arthur Donner & Doug Peters The United Nations publishes a Human Development Index that ranks countries in terms of life expectancy, literacy, education and standard of living. The latest published data were based on 2005 statistics. The U.S., despite its vast wealth and power, placed only in the 12th position among industrial countries. The top four countries were Iceland, Norway, Australia and Canada. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18982.htm "US mayors' report: Hunger and homelessness intensify in US cities" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/dec2007/mayo-d29.shtml "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves" "US poor and uninsured suffer substantially worse health outcomes " "Immigration Hardliners Try to Unhinge America" === "National Assembly
Address" By Fidel Castro Nearly 50 years since the triumph of the Revolution, we can justifiably feel proud of ourselves, as we have held our ground, for almost half a century, in the struggle against the most powerful empire ever to exist in history. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18984.htm "EPA Sued for Denying States' Right to Curb Emissions" http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010208R.shtml "World Developments That America is Missing" "Dark Side of Bush Era" "God Men" Want to Toughen Up Jesus" "Tomgram: How Bush Took Us to the Dark Side" Kennedy assasination "History of Bushonomics - From FDR to Bush I & II " ""You Don't Understand Our Audience" What I learned about network television at Dateline NBC." by John Hockinberry Charlie Wilson’s War, the Culture of Imperialism and the Distortion of History by Jeremy Kuzmarov Viewers are left with the image of Afghans as being a helpless people, whose fate is dependent on political actions in the United States. The message is that Americans should intervene more in foreign countries to alleviate their miseries – notwithstanding the reality that U.S. policy is usually based on underlying geo-hegemonic and economic agendas and frequently contributes to mass human-rights violations and suffering, as in Afghanistan and Iraq today. By sanitizing and distorting history, and presenting Western militarism as a force for good, films like Charlie Wilson’s War ultimately help to perpetuate the ideological mindset shaping continued foreign policy blunders and crimes of historic dimensions, which the American public has yet to fully come to terms with. " America’s Murderous
Celebrity Culture" by Michael Goodspeed But that’s the thing about the Media Age we live in — little or no demarcation exists of “good” or “bad” notoriety. Many of the biggest celebrities in America are famous for exactly one reason — they look good. Others like Paris Hilton or the Osbourne kids or Jenna and Barbara Bush are only famous because their parents are famous. Many have achieved fame by doing totally meaningless things like slam-dunking basketballs or running a football up and down a field. Still others have remote talents like singing and acting, but often these gifts produce only inane “entertainment” completely devoid of artistic merit. It’s clear that fame is rarely a product of valid achievement, and even more rarely does it result in true happiness. It’s
basically vampirism, feeding on the admiration of others, “being loved without the risk of loving anyone in return.” . "Fromm’s sane society"(timeless analysis by Paul Mattick) For “man,” Fromm says, is “fascinated by the possibility of buying more, better, and especially, new things. He is consumption hungry. The act of buying and consuming has become a compulsive, irrational aim,
because it is an end itself, with little relation to the use of, or pleasure in the things bought and consumed.” And it is this alienated attitude toward consumption which determines the employment of leisure time and the character of the industries devoted to it. A large part of Fromm’s book describes the emptiness and shallowness of popular culture at the expense of real art and human sensitivity — a popular culture which finds its reflection in the desire for conformity and the denial of real human relationships. QUOTES: "The only limit to the oppression of government is the power with which the people show themselves capable of opposing it." -- Enrico Malatesta = "Place me not with those who are weak of mind and willingly give up the rights of others, for these poor ignorant souls know not that the rights they give up are their own!" -- Warren Friton = "DO NOT KEEP SILENT when your own ideas and values are being attacked. ...If a dictatorship ever comes to this country, it will be by the default of those who keep silent. We are still free enough to speak. Do we have time? No one can tell." -- Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It = "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by thegrace of God, I will do." -- Edward Everett Hale "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule" - H. L. Mencken = "It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost." -- Murray N. Rothbard = "We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. " -- Ayn Rand in "The Nature of Government" = "The American government creates 50,000 new laws each year, and over 2 million new regulations. Then we are told by the courts that 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse!'" -- Lorne Strider "Whenever the legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience." -- John Locke, 1690 = "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." -- John Bradshaw (1602-1659) = "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." -- Edward Abbey = "O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!" -- Thomas Paine, Common Sense "We've witnessed a fire sale of American liberties at bargain basement prices, in return for the false promise of more security... The America being designed right now won't resemble the America we've been defending... The danger isn't that Big Brother may storm the castle gates. The danger is that Americans don't realize that he is already inside the castle walls." -- Wayne LaPierre = "I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air - that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave." -- H. L. Mencken, "Why Liberty?" January 30, 1927 = "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791. = "Tolerating imperfections is the price of freedom." -- Dr. Thomas Sowell "Socialism is the abolition of human self-alienation, the return of man as a real human being." ---Erich Fromm DALAI LAMA QUOTES: With love that is simply attachment, the slightest change in the object, such as a tiny change of attitude, immediately causes you to change. This is because your emotion is based on something very superficial. Take, for example, a new marriage. Often after a few weeks, months, or years the couple becomes enemies and finish up getting divorced. They married deeply in love - nobody marries with hatred - but after a short time everything changed. Why? If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it. When we look at the happiness we seek and the suffering we wish to avoid, most evident are the pleasant and unpleasant feelings we have as a result of our sensory experience of the tastes, smells, textures, sounds, and forms that we perceive around us. There is, however, another level of experience. True happiness must be pursued on the mental level as well. Anger and hatred cannot bring harmony. The noble task of arms control and disarmament cannot be accomplished by confrontation and condemnation. Hostile attitudes only serve to heat up the situation, whereas a true sense of respect gradually cools down what otherwise could become explosive. We must recognize the frequent contradictions between short-term benefit and long term harm. As students, you should first watch and investigate thoroughly. Do not consider someone as a teacher or guru until you have certain confidence in the person's integrity. This is very important. Even after that, if some unhealthy things happen, you have the liberty to reject them. Students should make sure that they don't spoil the guru. According to Buddhist philosophy, every sentient being who has a mind
and consciousness has the potential to become a Buddha. We have genuine friendship when it is based on true human feeling, a feeling of closeness in which there is a sense of sharing and connectedness. I would call this type of friendship genuine because it is not affected by the increase or decrease of the individual's wealth, status, or power. The factor that sustains that friendship is whether or not the two people have mutual feelings of love and affection. Cooperation is imperative for a healthy family, body, society, and nation. How does one develop cooperation? By force? Impossible! So what is the alternative? Voluntary action, altruism, and showing concern for the welfare and rights of others. Feelings of anger, bitterness, and hate are negative. If I kept those inside me they would spoil my body and my health. They are of no use. The impermanence of this present life will force you to leave all wealth behind, but by giving it way. You can take it with you as good karma. When we die nothing can be taken with us but the seeds of our life's work and our spiritual knowledge. If in the midst of your enjoyment of the world you have a moment, try to help in however small a way those who are downtrodden and those who, for whatever reason, cannot or do not help themselves. Try not to turn away from those whose appearance is disturbing, from the ragged and unwell. Try never to think of them as inferior to yourself. If you can, try not even to think of yourself as better than the humblest beggar. You will look the same in your grave. Insight from the Dalai Lama VIDEOS: Neil is a friend and the band he plays with is Pagan Love Cult. Check a few of their many wonderful videos Bob Dylan getting distracted on stage in a distubing and disrespectful way Groucho Marx " You Bet Your Life" 55 Groucho and Lord Buckley Marx Bros "Montage" Marx Bros "I'll Say She Is" Marx Bros "Duck Soup" | ||||