Blessed Interplanetary Functions

Mars

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter thatwill culminate in the closest approach between the two planets inrecorded history. The next time Mars may come this close isin 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only becertain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as60,000 years before it happens again.The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth andwill be (next to the moon) the brightest object inthe night sky. Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m.and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m. By the end of August when the two planets areclosest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share this with your children and grandchildren.

stay on the path

The Roads to Peace

The roads to peace are paths of war
The gentle dove will leave her scar.The moral men to say the least,
Will kill us all to get their peace.
The roads that lead to victories gained,
Are filled with people full of pain.
Only our Creator knew,
We’d kill so many to save so few.


The recent terrorist tragedy in London is disheartening. Once again some nefarious force has seen fit to totally disregard innocent human life in pursuit of a vile agenda that few of us know and even fewer could understand. The response of the worldleaders assembled in Edinburgh for the G-8 Summit is perhaps more disheartening, as it promises more of the misguided policies that have proven so ineffective in prosecuting the war on terror. The leaders of the Western powers continue to imply that they will fight violence with more violence of their own. If current events are any indicator of future developments, such a policy will only serve to beget yet more terrorism. This is a war being guided on both sides by self-righteous murderers whose motives and proclamations mirror each other. Each side sees God as being exclusively with them. That being the case, the restraint and judiciousness urged by Christian and Islamic theology to guide the execution of war is cast aside with wanton impunity. Each side manipulates a vulnerable public to create a climate that allows for the perpetuation and the inevitable escalation of the ongoing slaughter. Each side reserves the right to use the spectacle of indiscriminate violence to “Shock and Awe” the opposition, yet will deny that its tactics can be described as terrorism. Each side sees their civilian population as hapless, innocent victims, while the suffering innocent civilians on the other side are acceptable collateral damage. There will never be any real progress in ending this terror war, until we realize that we have all become collateral damage, unacceptable collateral damage. That being the case, there is no they or we in this affair. We are they and they are we. When a child in New York never sees his mother again because she was crushed in a collapsed tower at the World Trade Center, we all have suffered an irreplaceable loss. When an impoverished family in Afghanistan is bombed from the face of the Earth by a misguided missile, something of our collective humanity is destroyed by the blast. When a child in Iraq is born with gross birth defects due to his mother’s exposure to depleted uranium, we have all been deformed. When London commuters fear ever again entering the underground, because of the ill-advised actions of a handful of desperate fanatics, their insecurity touches us all. We, the collaterally damaged, will continue to exist in a state of dehumanizing loss, deformity, and insecurity until we rise up, unite, and refuse to support at any level the policies of leaders who continually fail to heed one of the surest of all political lessons: killing innocent civilians will never lead to a positive outcome for the transgressing party. This realization is the first meaningful salvo anyone could fire in a real war on terror. However, as long as we are not as moved by the suffering of innocent civilians anywhere as we are by the suffering of those close to us, it will be a salvo that remains unfired.

Imam Zaid Shakir

bless

inspiration to traverse these murky waters of nescience, only bodhisattvic compassion could muster this spirit to linger. two poles around which we dance like titty bar vixens - one pleasure, the other pain. nihilism, surely life is meaningless if thats where you are at. the only purpose it can have is the one which you decide to lovingly bring forth.

HE WHO ANGERS YOU CONTROLS YOU

GodLove is like the sun, it shines on all and does not discriminate rich from poor, just from wicked. Unconditional Love (redundant) means no matter what. No matter. Love remains. Its always there ready, willing and able to fill your life with infinite joy. But only if you let it. Love is a choice. We choose to give of ourselves. Our 'selves' are ours to give (how much "more" does your self really need? who would we be if we were to embrace "less"). You determine the conditionality of your self-gift. Bondage is selfishness. Freedom is Self-fullness. Open your heart to unleash the ever-flowing stream of life and be full in your Self. Close it and suffer.

Surrounded by all this stuff. Matter makes for dull conversation.

the real getting is in the giving.

MY COUNTRY 'TIS A WHAT?

Thank you for this, Melodie.

Looking at Patriotism by Melodie Davis

Why isn’t it patriotic to love your country so much that you want it to become
an even better place? "

Why don’t you write about patriotism sometime?” a local man asked me recently. Inside I knew: probably because I won’t write the column that you want me to write. And I don’t like to make people mad at me. Loving one’s country of origin or naturalization is as natural as loving your mother and father—the place and people that birthed you, nurtured you, and gave you the resources to grow and become who you are. But just as we love our parents and don’t always agree with them or what they do, just so we can love our country and not always agree with it and what it does. Love of country should be kept separate in our minds from our love of God. I love God and believe in the Christian faith, and I believe the Christian faith has done a lot to help some persons in the U.S. become good, loyal and law-abiding citizens, but danger lurks when love for country and God become synonymous. Think about the many Christians in Germany who believed what Hitler was doing was good and followed him uncritically. Love of country doesn’t mean we should be uncritical. Someone else has put it this way: Why isn’t it patriotic to love your country so much that you want it to become an even better place? Why is it lack of patriotism to serve your country in a way other than fighting? Why is it called yellow or chicken to believe in something so much you would die for your beliefs—but not kill for them? Doesn’t it take more real guts to face enemies totally unarmed than with a gun in your hand? These are the thoughts that are on my mind as the fighting and killing in Iraq drags on and on and as the countries of Canada and the U.S. celebrate their traditional patriotic days of July 1 and July 4. When we think of July 4, we think, of course, about the Revolutionary War and it begs the question, why, if we celebrate Independence Day, do we consider it disloyal to question authority? What did the founders of our country do but question authority—and look for what they thought would be a better way to be governed?

In mid-June of this year, a bipartisan group of members of the U.S. Congress, led by Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), introduced a “Withdrawal of United States Armed Forces from Iraq Resolution” calling for the administration to announce a plan by the end of the year for troop withdrawal and to initiate the plan as soon as possible. A small but growing majority of persons in the U.S. support an end to the war (and I’ve just made the other 42-48 percent mad). The man who asked me to write about patriotism had a step-son serving in Iraq. I ran into a group of kids in an airport coming home from a tour of duty in Iraq, and they were talking freely with other passengers about their experiences. They actually impressed me with their maturity and levelheadness—not all gung ho and unthinkingly macho. They talked about liking the food in the local restaurants in Iraq better than the packaged army food. We not only want more of those young men and women to come home alive, I’m sure we agree we want to create a world where there is more security and safety, not less. There are many people who believe that, unfortunately, the world has been destabilized by the war in Iraq, rather than made more secure. There are differing opinions—and tactics, for achieving this mutual goal. In the end, loving one’s country is a good thing: it produces persons who unselfishly give of themselves, even their lives, for a greater cause. I respect that and grant them that right. However, love of country also produces persons who have been brought up to believe that there is a higher cause than country, and that is God’s cause. Many persons of faith believe they cannot kill another human being, no matter what. Do not the U.S. and Canada stand for freedom of choice? Thus some work to find other ways to serve humanity, push for higher goals for their beloved country, and new ways to work for and defend freedom.

Would you like a Purithenol/Zocor cocktail with that?

the Western medical establishment is not immune to the greed and malice of a competitive, consumption-driven model of corporate led capitalism.

you, the patient, are a customer. physicians are not trained primarily to be healers, but rather professional class (elite, and all the egoist underpinnings) administrators and perpetuators of a corporate escapade to create and sustain physical and psychological dependence. the efficacy and trajectory of medical achievement, especially here in the U.S.A., cannot be examined outside the stringent corporate framework within which physicans must operate.

here is a pill for your heart, that should make you feel better. Side effects? Here is another pill. Oh wait. This one we need to monitor. Weekly bloodtests. What's wrong? It's only another pill. Depressed? I know just what the doctor will order. More material paliatives for a vacuum of comprehensive human understanding.

Makes you wonder how people healed themselves before pharmaceuticals, just 50 years ago. Now, some of us can't imagine life without those translucent orange vials of chemical concoction. Many are quick to site technological progress as progress, but when science is hijacked by corporate profiteering and capacity is not commesurate with intention , we all find ourselves in the dingy 'waiting rooms' of chronic illness. Some say that we heal more sicknesses now, but do our lifestyles and consumer-based culture lead to more diseases that could have otherwise been prevented? If I create more cancer, do the pills I give you to 'ease' the cancer make me a revolutionary healer? Modern medicine is chasing its tail. The more material minded, the more material dependent. Our dependence on pharamecuticals is but a mere symptom of our pathogenic materialism and our lack of a holistic understanding of the human being. We don't know where to turn for healing at the root. The majority of prescription medication on the market is there on the market because what better niche is there than sick people? BigPharma
is control. Control a person's sickness, regulate, monitor a person's sickness. Control them, make them dependent on you and you will have a customer for life. Let the gastroenterologist, the nutritionist and the oncologist remain in separate wings of the hospital. Let our knowledge of the human body remain compartmentalized in the minds of those seeking to apply it. Arthritis, isle 10. Thyroid problems, isle 14. Liver, isle 18. Magic pills of all colors for you and for me. Whats in them, dunno. How concerned is your physician with your wellbeing? Eventhough plentiful are good-intentioned practitioners, one must keep in mind the stringent rules of the game they are playing (capitalism) and the governing interests of those higher up on the corporate hierarchy. Dr. Yee may be a swell guy, but he's getting shafted back and forth by forces beyond his control so what's to say that in order to just stay afloat, he gives Little Ms. Dunsworth a little something extra she really doesn't need, or maybe she gets an 'extended treatment program.' Its risky business, but it is business without a doubt. Enter at your own risk. Consumer beware or be a patient forever.


Long-term care = investment, continous, dependable source of income.

daily prescrption medication - alleviate your symptoms, don't cure. a cured patient is no longer a patient. make sure he/she comes back.

insurance -access granted only if you can afford it. if not, you are on your own. healing is a commodity dominated by those with means to procure and market it. Did Jesus have Blue Cross Blueshield? Neither did those that knew or followed him. Why do people in the mountains of Peru live to be more than 100 yrs. old? Why is my 85 year old friend in Congo still smiling and walking? They don't have health insurance and they don't take prescription medication but I'm sure they've gotten sick once or twice in their lifetimes. All this just to show that a life without pharma is possible (perhaps that may be obvious to some but to many here it is not.)

its easy to convince someone that they don't feel well. desperate sufferers of pain will turn to almost anything to get some relief. i'm sure that your physician has the perfect place for you to turn, over and over and over again, with easy rapid refill options for your convenience. settle into this brand of dependence and health is wealth we shall never know.

be alert, ask questions, its your body and health and without them we aren't much of anything.

THE 4TH ON THE 2ND

crackers fire firecrackers
crackers fire crackers that fire firecrackers.
fireworks work when fired by crackified fireworkers.
fire the crack to freedom and let it ring.

(p.s. five crackers fired crack from previously fired crackerfiers. i know, its a crazy world we live in)

on the 4th:

freedom is found not in the doing of whatever it is you like to do, but in the inability to succumb to any dictate other than that of Love.

freedom is liberation from the myth of our separation from God

freedom is the ability to sacrifice "me" for "you" at will.

freedom is knowing the Self

freedom is not being dependent on any-thing or any-body for happiness

freedom is praying for one's perceived enemy

freedom is who you are when your laughing

freedom is your hearts desire to fly and the strength to withstand the world's attempts to bury you

SPOTLIGHT ON HAITI

special thanks to Haitian connection.

Dear Peacemaker,

Last March, I issued a statement on behalf of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), distancing it from its offspring NCHR-Haiti. At the time I explained that NCHR-Haiti was not a field office of NCHR and had long been functioning independently. Since then, NCHR-Haiti has rechristened itself the Reseau National de Defense des Droits Humains (RNDDH). This additional step makes it further possible to distinguish the positions expressed by NCHR from the stands taken by the RNDDH. I welcome this development and look forward to a lively debate on protecting and promoting human rights in Haiti, even as overall political, social and economic conditions worsen. Some of you have asked for further clarification on NCHR, its mission and its objectives. NCHR has been active since 1982, therefore it is no small task to boil its history down to a few lines. Nonetheless we have attempted to do so. Please copy and paste the following link in your browser http://www.nchr.org/mnd/nchr-mission.htm . On this page we provide answers to the following: * What is NCHR's Mission? * When was NCHR established? * What have you achieved over the years in fulfillment of that mission? * What are NCHR's program objectives today? Should you feel the need for more clarification, please feel free to send us an email at info@nchr.org. Please bear in mind that influencing US policy towards Haitian>refugees and immigrants, building social, economic and political capacity among Haitians, and promoting meaningful human rights policies and praxis is not easy. But it's eminently possible if you step forward together with us, support our campaigns and we keep marching in lockstep. To invest in NCHR, please consider donating online now. For instructions on how to do so, please visit http://www.nchr.org/mnd/giving.htm . Thank you in advance for your generosity,

Jocelyn McCalla
Executive Director