Can Spring Be Far?

Tags

abortion rights, Ayn Rand, Egypt, GOP, Humor, libertarianism, Middle East, right wing, Sarah Palin, world politics

Spring? Is anyone talking about spring yet?

Things have been decent here for some days. We are getting more snow next week and colder temperatures again, but frankly, we aren’t sure how bad.

It’s nothing, compared to the East. I sure do feel sorry for those poor folks. Well, sorry, but glad too. Glad it’s them and not us. Them and us. Comparisons are inevitable.

I haven’t been off the property for nearly a month now. It will be by next Thursday, which I am hoping will be a shopping day. The Contrarian has gotten out a couple of times and is out now, buying a few things to tide us over. We got blown out yesterday, since he didn’t quite make it out the driveway at the road. So we were officially stuck  for the first time this year. Not bad all told, usually we have had at least 3 or 4 by now.

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One begins to wonder if we are on the cusp of something really big happening in the Middle East. Tunisia fell, and now Egypt is tottering. Not sure how that will play out, but it seems it’s either going to be a new government or a very ugly crackdown. Yemen is rumbling. No word yet if the Iranians have become emboldened again to try to break that regime.

Time will tell as they say. That’s a waste of words heh? Time doesn’t tell anything, and “they say” is just a cheap way of not researching to who actually said that. Anyway, the obvious is true. We will know more in the future. Like we would know less?

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Political Irony has your late night humor. Given that there is NO football, humor is a necessity here. Grumpy husband alert.

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Elizabeth Kaeton has a very important post on the proposed Rethug bill about non-funding of abortions. It re-writes what “rape” means, and thus seeks to limit abortions. It’s Machiavellian in its intent certainly. It hopefully will be opposed by all intelligent and compassionate persons.

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David Frum has a short piece on why the GOP, and its apologists need to let go of Palin. The new ERW (extreme right-wing) claims she would be a nobody without the Left. Frum disagrees and the comments are rather good on this one.

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Under the theory that everybody has a talent. Andrew Sullivan found a map of the US with notes on what each state excels at. Iowa is first in “sick days taken”. Go see what your state does best at.

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If I got this straight: We are sort of for people throwing off the chains of dictatorship and deciding their own fate. Some would argue that this is what is happening in Egypt. John Bolton was always a point man for Dubya’s “nation” building theories, always decrying “human rights violations”. But now Bolton backs Mubarak because he fears the Muslim Brotherhood may gain control in a democratic process. Sooo. What is this Muslim Brotherhood, and should we ignore our principles for expedience sake? The Brookings Institute explains the history of the Brotherhood and says the danger is not that great. One can see the predictable lines of debate on this one. Neo-cons versus rational people.

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Gosh, what would the world be without hypocrisy? I mean, irony is one thing, but hypocrisy, it fairly makes life worth living. To be able to point someone out and know with deep satisfaction, that the person at the end of your finger is someone who fails to live by any standard they themselves set. It’s purely delicious, enough to make you happy for the rest of an entire day.

Ayn Rand, beloved of the cockadoodle-do right-wing teabaggers, is one such person.  Now, first let me say, that no teabagger probably ever heard of Ayn Rand before Beck or a colledge ejucated right-winger happened to remember reading her utterly forgettable tomb, Atlas Shrugged.

Rand, as you may remember ranted against the poor and most of the middle class as undeserving rabble, sucking the well-earned funds from the real people, the rich, who got to be rich because they were, well, just better in every way. Well, it turns out Rand, sank to the level of the much maligned masses: she drew both social security and medicare under another name, “Ann O’Conner”.

Paul Ryan, the GOP budget czar, credits her with being his guru. Rand, with two other women started American libertarianism. The other two women refused social security on principle.

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What’s on the stove: burgers and fries and coleslaw. It’s Saturday! Drat, the spellchecker isn’t working so hope I spelt awflea gooder than useyul. 🙂

Related Articles

• Ayn Rand took government assistance while decrying others who did the same (politics.ie)
• Tea Party Patron Saint Ayn Rand Applied for Social Security, Medicare Benefits (firedoglake.com)
• Ayn Rand Fanboy Paul Ryan Used Social Security “Hammock” to Put Himself Through College (firedoglake.com)

Willing Love

Tags

God, peace, psychology, sociology, War, world politics

If you ask a peace advocate how they create peace in such a troubled world, most will state the obvious–be peaceful.

That is both a practical and a spiritual directive. Peaceful people are quiet in their speech, conciliatory, not prone to loudness or demands. They are solicitous of others, courteous, and kind.

They are clear about what they believe, never waivering in their commitment, stoic in the face of adversity, and always seeing the positive. They are firm.

One cannot be these things outwardly, it seems to me without feeling them inwardly. And since so many of us who yearn for peace are a cauldron of anger and frustration inside, we neither are peaceful ourselves nor do we accomplish much toward changing the hearts of others.

So peace does start with each of us. This is true whether we are actively spiritual or not. Whether we believe in a God or not. For, God, I believe uses all his children who exhibit a willingness to do his will, whether they are in active partnership or not. God takes what he can get, as long as it is offered willingly. The atheist who works for peace is as welcomed as the practicing Hindu who does the same.

And it is God’s will that there be peace. If we believe either on the basis of some scripture or because nature is a beautiful  harmony the result of evolution only, it is good. It deserves our attention and care. That should be whether we speak of people or animals or plants, or our oceans.

Words that signify peace are tranquility, repose, quietude and concord, order. There is a rightness that exudes from these words. A sense that they reflect goodness, that which should be. They are the “absence of mental strain or anxiety.” There is a congruity of parts. All work for the betterment of the whole.

Whether directly from God or through the agency of evolution, life clearly works together. We cannot evolve without being in some kind of symbiosis with our surroundings. We cannot continue without relational quietude among ourselves.

War with its attendant greeds, jealousies, fears, and anxieties is the antithesis of harmonious living. It solves nothing but the briefest of issues, and sets into motion inexorably, the series of issues that will erupt again in violence.

Not even the most hardened biblical literalist, can believe that God wills the polluting of stream and river and ocean, the fouling of our air. The most cruel arms dealer knows in his heart that he does evil for filthy lucre that will not serve him when he breathes his last.

Common sense leads us all to the only clear conclusion–that peace makes for a better life for all of us. Short term gains are eaten in the vast maw of history. We are plunging head long over the cliff collectively. The rich sit upon their estates, but the weight of the billions of humanity will drag them off too. They will just be the last to go. Or not. For those billions may rise up and destroy their torturers.

But this will solve little. For if we don’t evolve from violence, from within the billions will arise a new ruling class who will do it all again.

I can but cite the obvious. Those who “protest” not with signs and shouting, but with silent witness are the most powerful advocates we have. Gandhi and King were our models, along with brilliant martyrs for the faith in many and various religions. Men and women who chose to simple be peaceful in the face of hate and aggression.

It is better to be for rather than against. That is why “war’s on drugs” don’t work. We must be for healthy people who have lives that give meaning without resort to destroying agents. We were, I believe, meant to be happy, meant to be joyful, meant for laughter. We were meant to enjoy good food and drink, good music and art, good conversation.

We are meant for loving and friendship. We seek it, and we mourn its loss. We are naturally empathetic and compassionate. It has just been pushed down in some of us so far that we no longer feel it. We are so awash in the need to be here and there, doing, making, counting. We have lost our way.

But in moments of quiet, we remember. We remember who and what we are, whether we conclude ourselves to be spiritual beings or an amazing evolutionary creation, we are so much better than we let ourselves be.

 We know who we are.

Let us be it today.

Peace starts with one step, one choice, one issue. Be peace. And then, be peace again.

Related Articles

• Dona Nobis Pacem (daisythecurlycat.blogspot.com)
• When People are Most at Peace (socyberty.com)
• Anne Naylor: Nourishment for a Peaceful Mind and Body (huffingtonpost.com)
• Peaceful Easy Feeling added 2 discussions to the group Raising Your Vibration and Ascension Symptoms Support (humanityhealing.ning.com)